McDeath, part 4: first dress rehearsal

 It's late, I'm bored, I can't watch anything on streaming because my mobile data speed is utter shite. 

So here we have a field rehearsal on a piece of wood from my bro's workshop. I was prevaricating between 10 or 12 inches, in the end my dad just pulled a sheet of offcut and oh look it's 11 inches wide. Choice made and it split the difference. 

What now. An electric drill so I can pin together the Dart mini. Buggered if I ever do that unpowered ever again. I need an alternate Chaos Hound so I can perform a head swap. I need to fashion a Quicksure. I've been studying late 80's multi-part knights, and I think they will do. I need more fighters for the good guys. I have some dwarfs to add, but matching the Goodwin style is challenging, and I might include some Asgard barbarians. Just a few more running orcs, but lots of orc casualties to litter the foreground.

There is no suggestion that Banquo is a'reddy deed going by the scenario book. I have a mind to have him as a ghost in the background.

~J~

McDeath, part 3: Klinty, or how we got Treebeard all wrong

Project diary... 

Before I settle on a base size, first I need to map out the positions of the central protagonists. I am deconstructing a 2-D painting, so I need to have a sweet spot, a perfect viewing angle that most closely reassembles the John Blanche painting with the miniatures. My chosen angle is 30°, seen roughly by the line of sight of my phone lens below...

Now I have a rough map of positions, the next step in planning is deciding just how much battle is going on behind the cast. That is for the next post.

Now I want to talk about this fellow below. Klinty, aka Treebeard from Citadel's original foray into Lord of the Rings licensing, has always been put together wrong in every image I've seen in print. I had this before but sold it years ago, and I had assembled it as per the original catalog pic. I think pretty much everyone did the same. After stripping the paint and breaking up this new one, I looked at it with new eyes. 

I didn't notice anything until I had cleared away some residual milliput from the recessess of his feet. Then it was crystal clear that Treebeard is walking, the foot of his left leg is planting a step. The arms have some leeway (i.e. rotation), but it looked correct to have his right arm reaching out, the head lines up with the direction of the step. With this pose I have much less work to do to match the painting. 

~J~

McDeath, part 2

Project Diary...

So ten years after I stated an intention to do a recreation of the McDeath rulebook cover art, it may finally come to pass when I acquired a treeman this month. I only lack a Quicksure for the horse, and decided the best answer is to do a conversion of a cheap knight miniature. Having studied the 'official' miniature, it needed too much work to look right. 

Other things that need fixing: Harkness needs total dismemberment for reposing; Lady McDeath needs a new face; tricky job reposing McEwmans arms; scratchbuild a tail for Spot; source a dozen orcs/goblins just for the foreground, and they have to be Perry sculpts, nothing else will do; Treebeard can be readily heightened five mm, that allows a bend to his waist and make him more looming; and two fingers have to go, sorry Treebeard; then there is the battle in the background. In this respect I have lots of flex, and it's just a matter of how big. 

~J~

Space Marine Chaplain

From the Indomitus set. I only bought the box because I wanted a bunch of Necrons at an economical price, but I confess I quite enjoyed painting one of these new-fangled Space Marines. 

~J~

Stormcast Sequitor

3rd from the partwork issue #1 set. One year on from my unlapse. There are aspects that need revision but the overall result I am very happy with. My signature style is dirty and weathered it seems. 

~J~

Necron tests

One took months to finish off, the other 4 days. Yes I paint slow as I sporadically dab away 10 minutes at a time. A Praetorian omitted from the shot was my first go at a Necron, a colour test. The Royal Warden was my first foray into dry-brushing a metallic base coat (over black primer) after watching an Artis Opus video. The result is very lush and I highly recommend trying it at least once. 

Very pleased with the ancient look of the metal I achieved, particularly on the Warden, but no way of telling from a crappy phone camera image. 

~J~

Painting 2021

Before the year ticks over, this is everything painted as I un-lapsed for a while. In reverse chronological order then, most recent first...

Taban Miniatures (limited edition) - an experiment with 'en grisaille', an approach learned from Marco Frissoni's channel that I like very much. Black prime, not zenithal but grey scale tones built up with brush then tinted with glazes. Continues the anti-colour trend started with the Chaos Warrior below. 

Gideon Lorr - already primed white, nuln wash. Then lots of fiddly fun making him look weathered. 

Grace is Gone - Brown Bunny Miniatures (limited ed.) - already primed white, then applied a nuln oil wash. I have never painted black skin before, so experimented with a pink base tone with choc brown/burnt sienna homemade contrast wash, which went a bit funny. Happy accident, it dried in a blotchy way that suits the post-apocalyptic vibe of a struggling post-human with no access to creature comforts.

Chaos Warrior - terrific old-school Jes Goodwin sculpt, had loads of fun doing this one. It was already primed white so first added a nuln wash and got going. I wanted something filmic from this, the antithesis of the day-glo colour most mini painting presents. The base requires some modification, since it is tonally indestinguishable from the figure, but then I wanted it standing in dark, chaos landscape. 

Caelia Dicqor from Rackham's plastic line before they went bust first time round. Nice character mini, if only the eyes weren't so HUGE. I painted this without much of a plan, white primer with a wash of nuln to edge the detail, then applied colour. I half like it. Like everything else in this post, left unvarnised so I can always make adjustments. 

Clawed Fiend - half painted when I last lapsed, forgot what colours I used and had to improvise when finishing off. Frustrated with the hair, but a fairly decent result in the end, adequate tabletop standard. 

Stormcast Sequitors - My impatience to use my only contrast paint at the time massively prejudiced the paint scheme from the get-go, but I'm moderately pleased with the outcome after such a long lapse. First time trying zenithal highlight over black primer. 

Other cr@p... Twilight Knight by Kingdom Death. This is the very first iteration of the character that was never released for sale and was bundled in with the first Gift of Death set (about 2010). I slapped on some colour years ago, and never felt any enthusiasm when I resumed because the sculpt is so inadequate. The sword was a banana when I first got it, replaced it with a metal spare from a Confrontation mini, but now replaced again with a spare from a plastic TK. 

I hope my followers and causal visitors enjoy this break from my temporarily dormant anti-plastic waste crusading. Next year there be will something very different from my long-gestating lockdown project.

~J~

Freaky Cast

A filler post while I get a proper one ready.

I've seen mercifully few ropey casts, always examining the goods before purchase, but it wasn't until I undercoated this Marauder that I fully realised what was wrong with this mini. It had been bare metal since the 80's, and I had noticed there was something not quite right, but couldn't put my finger on it. But here it is, plain as day, all one piece, just a bit skew-whiff. I imagine that the halberd of an intermediate cast used for the production moulds broke off during the press stage. Needless to say I corrected it.

First post since Xmas ;p 

Bear with me, haven't given up on this thing.

~J~

Skaven Heroes & Chaos Champion

Two more recently completed PJ's. Thanquol gets a second airing as it was lurking in the early history of my blog, largely unseen, and I wanted to see how it looked alongside Deathmaster Snikch.

Thanquol is destined for a diorama, facing off with Boneripper against Felix and Gotrek. Boneripper is fairly advanced in its painting. White Dwarf readers with long memories might remember a story (by William King I think) about F & G and their venture into a sewer, wherein Boneripper's career as a living monster came to an end.

Chaos Champion, 'Bartok'... umm, had been mostly but not quite unfinished since 1994 (how badly I lapsed) Seen here with a stand-in, slightly overlarge Marauder shield.


~J~

Booo!

A Halloween follow-up. Another Night Horror! Make that two - I'm on a roll...

Ghost (I love the fact that the tag reads 'Booo'...)

 Pleased with how this turned out, although it took a different direction than I intended. It has a strong old school feel I think. Painted just this weekend, so an uncommonly quick PJ. In the process of doing deep shading I experienced for myself something Mr Blanche describes about the way he uses inks (lets them thicken first). I have a very very old bottle of W&N burnt sienna, it had mostly set hard but I put some water in to see if I could rehydrate it. Sort of worked, The ink was very thick and very intense.

Vampire

Had to wrestle with this one towards the end. An oversight meant I had to trim some metal from the fingertips and repaint them, and I'm not satisfied with the hands even after that. Also caught between two stools as I wanted a much more graphic look (i.e. comic style), but ended up with an a slightly uneasy compromise. Still, he looks good from a foot away, and its also kinda weird as I have only ever seen it in white undercoat (and bare metal in catalog) before this month. And now there he is, all painted and slightly shiny with (Vallejo Satin) varnish.

And here's a group shot.

Bases can wait  ;p

~J~


P.S.
Something very mysterious happened to my blog after I posted 'Unintentional Halloween'. This small corner has a modest (but very appreciated and slowly growing) following. The most views up to now were for my Chaos Marauders entry at 250+ (the one with all the Blanche art, so unsurprising). Yet, the Halloween post has now gone through 300 views in a fraction of the time, and I have to wonder why that is.

P.P.S
Was glad to see the Great Arena getting a lot of views. Must be doing some things right.

P.P.P.S.
Another 2 paint-jobs to show off soon.

'twas brillig...

I spotted this Jabberwock in a GW store in Brighton, must have been during the late 80's. I had never seen it in flyers or advertised in White Dwarf. I knew immediately I had to buy it. There is only one problem (I have) with it - the silly little wings it was given, originally made for the range of Young Dragons. The rest of it, though, is superb stuff by Bob Olley.

A couple of years ago, when I had spare cash and going through a spate of classic Citadel collecting, I took another good look at it and decided it needed a decent pair of wings. Most wings of that time were sculpted by Nick Bibby, but the difference in the style of fine detail made them aesthetically unsuitable. Then during an eBay search I spotted these...

Perfect, and only a couple of quid. The scale is just right, the fine detailing has the right 'feel', even the tattiness works as well. Great big dark leathery wings...

~J~

P.S.
I keep a half an eye on eBay to see what models are fetching price-wise. A mint boxed Jabberwock went for over £120 recently. Gobsmacking.

The Shelf, aka The Lead Pile

Picture post today. A pan and scan view of the shelf next to my desk, recently laden with as many undercoated figures as I can muster, and a couple of trays for good measure.

Here I had a resin model assembly blitz. Its not just classic citadel I like...

Looks familiar...

More on the Jabberwock later...

No shortage of things to paint! As I said in the last, the more I have ready to paint, the more likely I am to pick up a brush... 

~J~

Unintentional Halloween Post

This pair of Night Horrors just happened to get painted this month - no other reason. But, at least the theme is apposite. First, a Jes Goodwin Wight. Only took three days from first application of paint to varnish :-/

I confess to be very pleased at how well and how easily the Wight came out. I think my style is well suited to undead subjects. I would happily paint a whole army. Am annoyed that I sold nearly all the skellies I had.

Next, an Elizabethan Ghost from the Perry's. I was going to use an airbrush on the base. I cut out a rough mask to spray through for the glow area. Came unstuck when the white ink I had suitable for airbrushing turned out to be very thick and gloopy, even after some thinning with distilled water. Had to make do with dry brushing.

The painting was simples. It already had a 20 year old base coat of Citadel Electric Blue. I went over that with Horizon Blue to bring down the intensity (and garishness), followed by washes of blue with increasing amounts of white. This created a shading inversion to promote an ethereal effect. White shading, in other words. Slightly concerned that the head doesn't draw any focus, but that would do more to detract than add.

My basic lighting set up doesn't do anything to help bring the paintwork to life - they look so much better with the unaided eye. The Ghost needs a proper lighting tent to eliminate all that self-shadowing.

And. Earlier in the month I chalked up my 16th finished and varnished mini - a classic Nick Bibby Minotaur.

When budget allows I'll get some of those nice resin bases rather than muck about with milliput, though I have used some of that putty on my renovation of Nurgle's Palanquin. Hate using it.

There was a time I would paint like a demon. I would go three months straight doing nothing but paint and would do a hundred figures. Then something or other would come along and break the rhythm, and it would take weeks to get back into it. Weeks turning into months and then years.

The fact I had suddenly got three figs done, the Wight done over a couple of nights, is a good sign that my recent 'more is more' rationale is working. I've dug out every miniature that already has a coat of primer, primed a whole bunch more, assembled and primed even more, on the basis that the more things lying around begging to be painted, the more likely I am to get a sudden bout of inspiration and start chucking the paint on. The Wight was done like that.

To future productivity.

(and a happy All Hallows Eve)

~J~

An Audience with the Patriarch, Part One

Quick post to keep this blog ticking over. I have actually completed three paint jobs this month, but more on those another time, when I've finished the bases.

I think with a diorama like this, some story telling needs to be done. Who is having an audience, and why? Where is the Cult located? Setting will inform how the chamber is constructed, and decorated. Is it an industrial hiveworld or desert backwater? This is a the kind of research I ask of myself. The Patriarch throne is wood. Why anything else? Even in the far future, humans and aliens would use whatever is available. Wood with animal horns. A simple colour scheme will also let Bob Olley's detailed sculpting show itself beautifully. Chamber decorated with wood carving? Already decided on a stone floor, with steps at the front, a pair of thick columns at the back, behind which skulk purestrain genestealers. I would like to find a couple more hybrids. But, who is having an audience?

Going to have a good go at some scratch building and bespoke sculpting and casting. It's going to be an interesting challenge creating a claustrophobic and threatening atmosphere within an area only 5 inches square.

Next time - Night Horrors!

~J~

The Hordes of Khorne...

 ...sort of. A very small horde (of six models). Or it was small until I dug out my painted foot-soldiers of chaos and added another Bloodthirster. Now I have quite a nice little warband I guess. I had never thought of them in that way.

So, some lovely, classic, true Realm of Chaos miniatures. These old Bloodletters still hold their own. Spindly but utterly lethal. I was seriously considering putting them up for sale, along with the two Juggers and the 'thirster on the left. But now I have changed my mind. And I can treble the numbers by including this little lot - dug out for the hell of it - and making a real army:

I stopped buying rulebooks decades ago, but I would always look at White Dwarf whenever possible. I kind of kept track at how Chaos has been developed and I dislike what has been done with the chaos powers. The original rulebooks were a great vision, backed up with unsettling art (Ian Miller in particular) and story (haunting bleak fatalism). It made - still makes - sense for each god to have antipathies and allies. Khorne versus Slaanesh, Nurgle versus Tzeentch. Now anything goes in a chaos army these days.

~J~

Aspect Warrior Strike Force

This is my undefeated Eldar Army. Well, almost an army (its a bit small, hence the demotion). Undefeated 'cos they have never fought a battle in earnest. Been that way for twenty years now. For shame. Dug out a bit of old green beize to get an idea of how they would look on a gaming table. Which is like this:

I think they look alright.

Incidentally, this lot is available for sale.

Back to the backlog...

~J~

Stone Troll

Somewhat late, this post, seeing as I finished this only a couple of days after the Apostate. I took some inspiration from a paintjob by Ali McVey (Kifaro at Studio McVey), the result is the dark scales. Nowadays I apply a somewhat scientific thought process to my use of colour. No more 'Eavy Metal styled rubbish (bit of red here, bit of green there). If this monster was really real, what would look plausible? For the Apostate below, I took into consideration the colour of its blood, which I decided to make blue. From that starting point, all else follows naturally, with half a nod to fantasy, half a nod to realism.

Yes I know the base hasn't been done - my excuse is that I have two more of these to do now. These will be the first figures painted with the gaming market in mind. I think this job compares very favourably to those I looked at on eBay recently. 

Still painting... barely.

~J~ 

More old stuff

Painting lapse now into third month. Can't be arsed. Easier to just stare at the half painted minis on my desk.

Until my lethargy ends, here is a big pile of old stuff... not resized, big image warning

Save the image, then zoom 100% for closer look. 

McDeath's Last Stand (Part One)

Mentioned this project a while ago. I have no inclination to paint for wargames, but I still love the miniatures. So what to do with them? When the mood has taken hold (about 3 times), I have let my mind wander to imagine all sorts of dioramas. The list is definitely worth a future blog.

For some miniatures though, something else is required, and in this instance, how to present something worthy of Lord and Lady McDeath. Answer was obvious - recreate the cover of the Tragedy of McDeath guidebook, a Tableau Vivante made of miniatures.

Some background info: The Tragedy of McDeath was a box set campaign for Warhammer 2nd Ed. It was based on Shakespeare's play McBeth Macbeth. You will have undoubtedly guessed this very early. Citadel released miniatures that were specific to this campaign and only sold by mail order, 60p each. Oh how I wish I ordered more. And Sandra Prangle. Nowadays, the Lord and Lady sell for up to £100. Each.

So anyway, I am very fortunate to not only have the McDeaths but a good number of appropriate figures to fill out the battle scene above. There are, though, some glaring holes to be filled. Klinty the Treeman is the most glaring, the hardest to find (cheaply) is Sir John Quicksure (the mounted knight behind Dart with the flaming sword). And there are figures not shown but would be nice to include, like the wizards Een McWrecker and Chalconer.

Stage one is planning. Composition is absolutely key to making the scene work in 3 dimensions. It will not get done quickly.

TBC...

~J~

Gnarly Dragons

Dragon Ogre (1989)

A venerable member of my collection, as well as a (personal) all time favourite paint job. In those early years I was inspired much more by John Blanche's paintings than by his own miniatures (apart from his Minotaur, which is still and always will be amazing). I took my visual cues from the cover art from some Warhammer roleplay supplement, which featured a lone fighter crossing a causeway through rough seas to a decrepit old keep. The colours in it were an inspiration; I wanted to give my Ogre a similar feel, with deep, rich contrasts. Paint job is very much 'of its time' and very personal.

Mordax, Great Imperial Dragon (1993)

Very old, very gnarly, very not quite dead. Another one from my Bright period. I just wish I hadn't used purple on the wings. Does. Not. Work! Can't bring myself round to overpaint it, even though I want to.

Must get some NEW stuff done...

~J~