BfSP box, Dark Elves, Warmaster and various other stuff - by sigur

[Gargobot]

Sexy Fanatics, please inform us when you put them on ebay .

[sigur]

@Rhaivaen: Sure, they're both by Reaper. Dwarf Thief and Dwarf Pathfinders. Hmm, now that I see the pictures on their website, I think that I'll try sending them pictures of these dwarfs I painted and ask them if they want to put them on their site. Maybe it works.

@Dino: Thanks. I think I will paint them in a rather basic way though so they blend in with the rest of the army. Also, the miniatures aren't really spectacular so I won't invest too much into them.

@orlanth1000: Thanks, hope to hurt you some more. (yes, that's meant to come across really weird )

@Crube: Thanks for commenting! I've also never been a big fan of these red noses on Goblins as well. This is where being a painting whore helps. In the past few months, I started trying out techniques and looks that people seem to like, no matter if I really like the look or not. Just to try it out. Just imagine the moment of grim enjoyment when you work out how it's done (not saying that I mastered the red goblin nose or anything) and you can be all smug about it and think to yourself "that's it? This is SO basic and cheap.". Just kidding of course. I'm no big fan of red-nosed gobbos or Gnoblars but I see why people like it. It's a very Reckham-ish thing really. It makes no sense, usually only works when you use very light, pastel-looking colours but it is crafty.It draws the attention to the face and makes it look more spectacular.

@Breazer: Thank you. As I said, the Dark Elves won't be too jaw-dropping, I'll paint them to a level that matches the DE warriors I painted in 2007/8 (i think it was 2007/8).

@Gargobot: Sure will do.

Uhm. Nothing much to say really, I just wanted to reply to your comments. Erm...have I told you I bought some Witch Elves? Yes, yes, I think I have. Last night I had a chat with a friend about how 8th edition changes tactics and stuff and what units got a boost and what units got a little nerf. That talk got me into the mood of playing some WHFB again. It really looks like 8th edition shaked the game up a whole deal. I still haven't read a lot of the new rules but I dug into the magic a little last night and I like that Winds of Magic roll. Makes magic a bit more chaotic and reminds me a lot of the card decks from 5th edition.

I think I'll go update my Blarg now that I'm just babbling random stuff anyway. Oh, you surely are eager to hear about the weather conditions here: It's getting hot again.

[npow34]

yeah more druchii!!! I think I might have some shields. PM me if you still need them.

[Asp]

Paint up more NG!

[sigur]

@npow34: Thanks, that's nice, but I'll try to get some of these shields somewhere in Europe for now due to shipping and stuff.

@Asp: Problem is, I don't have many more NG. Well, I do have two squig herders I think, one Fanatic Catapult with crew and three or four Netterz. But I won't paint them for now.


Little update on the Dark Elves:


Not much more to report. It's hot again and I'll be off for an evening of Dominion playing at my LGS soon. See you later!

[Meraklis]

looking nice there! What exactly are you using to highlight your purple?

[mrtn]

Not much more to report. It's hot again and I'll be off for an evening of Dominion playing at my LGS soon. See you later!

That's a great game. Sweden is hot as well, believe it or not.

[Crazy Harborc]

Well being a money wasting Yank.......I paint in my air conditioned house.

Getting ready to work on my re-discovered box of Empire Free company. Going to be 10 crossbows...THEN I'll decide on the other 10.

By the by, our local forecast calls for 96F for tomorrow(Friday) Bring it one...The 100F days haven't started yet...Keep cool over there.

[sigur]

Thanks for the comments.

@Meraklis: For highlighting purple I use ....more purple. Seriously, The purple I'm currently using is VMC Royal Purple which is a very cool purple, quite a bit on the blue side rather than being an irritating pink. This is the only purple I really use. First, I mix it with black, then with white, use a little Leviathan purple to blend the layers together, do some final highlighting, that's it.

@mrtn: Dominion is awesome. I'm traditionally bad at finding good combos of stuff but it works out from time to time. Last night, we tried out "Intrigue", that second add-on, and there's some mighty nasty cards in there. It was fun times. Well, even Sweden is hot these days? What is this world coming to. The end is nigh, i say!

@Crazy Harborc: Air condition doesn't sound too bad but money-wasting yank sounds better. So Free Company, eh? Sounds cool. You got a full Empire army? 96F isn't too nice as well, glad it's a little cooler around here and forcast just told me about upcoming rainstorms. Still: money-wasing yank!

[Crazy Harborc]

Ohhhh...I still have a "few" Empire troops....enough for 3500 or more points without magic or monsters...OR without a steamtank. Then there's my Orcs, Lizardmen, Dwarves, Brittonians, TKs, VC, Chaos, High and Dark Elves, Wood Elves....Um, I think that's it.

Our heat indices (whatever it's called) is the equivalent of 105F. Gee, I guess that means it feels hot outside today.

[orlanth1000]

Excellent Dark elves mate, once again a tutorial for all us mortal painters please

Your armor is always a highlight for me, excuse the pun.

[sigur]

@Crazy Harborc: Sounds cool. Hey, the Tale of Fantasy Painters is starting anew soon. Why don't you sign up and get stuff painted?

@orlanth1000: Hurhurhur. Uhm. Sorry, I might have not understood that, do you want to have a tutorial on something or was that just a figure of speech?


Update on the RxB-Elves:


The purple needs finishing highlights, the bolts need painting and some metallic detailing has to be done on belt buckets, charms, etc.

It's gotten WAY cooler again and rainy. Temperatures dropped from way above 30°C to 15°C-20°C. A wild joy-ride of warmth and cold.

[orlanth1000]

That poast of mine is going to end up in the wastes somehow isn't it ?

[sigur]

@orlanth1000: It probably will but I won't allow you pulling this fine log o'log into teh wastes! (NOT a challenge )


RxB Elves finished:




....well, apart from the Shields and the snow on the bases but both I have yet to acquire. Overall a paintjob I wanted to finish as quickly as possible I have to admit.

[Dino]

Very nice. Can't wait to see the sheilds.

[orlanth1000]

I would never my good Sir, this log is far to awesome for that pit of Hades......

A tutorial on you painted the Dark elves is what I meant please

[Meraklis]

fantastic work! I particularly like the metal and the purple. What do you use for the metal? Boltgun metal +badab black + chainmail highlights?

[Lord Azoth]

a classic colour schema, but a neat and skilled painting...congratz mate!

[sigur]

@Dino: Just trying to acquire them. The problem is that my army all uses the serpent bits on the shields so far so it would be good if I got more shields with these icons rather than bitz-ordering some other shields.

@orlanth1000: Oh, that was a real request. Sorry, wasn't sure as I posted a guide to my purple like three posts ago. Damn, I could do a step-by-step if only I had one more DE Warrior. No, wait, I'll just do a step-by-step using some other DE mini. Stay tuned.

@Meraklis: This is a terrible secret, I'll post a step by step thing during this day.

@Lord Azoth: Thanks. I always liked the classic colourscheme of Dark Elves. You get to paint purple and that's mucho funo.


Oh, on a different note: I got Star Craft2 today. One day before release. I was pleasantly surprised until I tried to install the thing because the first thing the installation told me that I can not install it before tomorrow when the game is officially released. It's linked to the Blizzard servers so changing system time doesn't help either. They're pulling a Dawn of War2 on me.

[sigur]

Alright you guys, here's

Sigur's first and very spontaneous step-by-step painting session, pt.1

Some people asked me how I paint Dark Elves so I got some blank DE mini (a Blackguard Musician) from an old boxm, painted it up and documented the procedure as closely as possible.

Step 1 - Building, Basing:
Clean the miniature with soapy water and a toothbrush, clean of ANY soap residue. For the most of you, this is old stuff but I still want to mention it. Clean the miniature of any "flash", mold lines etc. with a modelling knife. In this example, I primed the miniature before glueing it to the base and sanding the base. I usually don't do that but this thing was rather unplanned and so was I. ;-)



As you can see, the primed miniature is put onto the slotta base (I had to cut the base a little to fit the metal tab into the slot. No big deal.), applied a little drop of superglue and a pebble, then applied PVA glue (mixed with water. Not too thin because I prefer the stuff not to be runny so I go for a mix of about 70%glue 30% water) and sand. Watch out for that superglue. Even your unglamorous PVA-applying brush will take damage when the bristles are clogged up with super glue so wait until the superglue underneath the pebble is totally dry.

I basecoated the face with Foundation Dheneb Stone while the PVA glue dried. This takes a while and you don't want to paint or prime the base while the PVA is still wet.


[B]Step 2 - Basecoats:
It looks like quite a lot happened here but it's all pretty basic stuff. The base was primed. I prefer to have bases primed as well after applying rubble/sand/etc. because it makes the sandy surface much harder and you need that when you drybrush it. Nothing worse than drybrushing over the base and having 50% of all the sand on your brush. So prime the base, wait until it's dry.

Then I applied the basecoat for the base. For grey bases, I like using VMC German Grey mixed with a little black. The basecoat on the base usually takes quite a while to dry. Again, you have to wait until it's really dry because the moisture of the new paint tends to weaken the PVA layer again. Next thing I did was drybrushing the base in two layers, both mixes of German Grey and White.



The silvery armour parts were basecoated with Boltgun Metal, chainmail parts were drybrushed with Boltgun Metal and the skull-on-a-stick and the skin on the drum were basecoated with Dheneb Stone again.


Step 3 - Washes:
Now we're applying shadows to these relatively flat surfaces and give the lighter parts their base colour.



The metal parts got a wash of black. I made this wash myself using black paint, water and some dishwashing liquid. Main reason: I was out of Badab Black and my LGS didn't have any left. Secondary reason: It's a bit stronger a wash and doesn't take the shine away from metallics as much as Badab Black does.

The Skull was washed with a mix of Devlan Mud and Black Wash, the skin on the Drum was washed with pure Devlan mud, watered down of course. I water down everything I paint with so if I forget to mention it, just imagine that I added "(watered down)".

The face was washed with a mix of Devlan Mud, Gryphonne Sepia and Leviathan Purple. It gives the face a very nice, not quite healthy colour with a purple tint that makes it go better with the rest of this rather purple miniature later on.


Step 4 - Gold:

Now it's time to apply the basecoat for another prominent colour on this guy - gold. Rather often, people ask how to paint Gold and of course there's not one proper way to paint gold but there is the one golden (hurhur) rule: It's all about the basecoat. GW Gold of what ever shade doesn't cover awefully well so you should always use something as a basecoat underneath the gold.



Some like to use brown or even red, I prefer to use metallics to make the gold more shiny. Because if there's gold, it better be shiny. So for a Gold I want to have look darker and maybe worn in the end, I usually use Tin Bitz for the base and just highlight it with gold which gets you a very stark contrast. I did that on that big Warriors of Chaos army I did earlier this year. On my Dark Elves, I prefer the gold to be more red and more shiny so I use VGC Brassy Brass. It covers very well and overally is a neat brass colour to use.


And with this cliffhanger I have to end part one of this step-by-step painting ...thing because I have to go now. I'll upload part 2 later tonight. Leave some comments if you enjoy reading this.