I never T.R.E.A.D

The Armoured column rolls on. 3 more Chimeras done, so the majority of the models are finished.

Next up is a pair of manitcores, and 2 forgeworld vendettas

After I've finished this job I'm going to need a week or two off painting! Though now I'm planning my own Word Bearers army in this colour scheme...

Gonders

Heavy Metal

More tanks, more tanks.... The second installment of the Windor 414th continental deployment Armoured divison, Two mighty Russ.

I was utterly astounded to find the latest leman russs kit DOESN'T come with a 'dozer blade. That was the best part of the old kit.

These tanks, along with the chimeras in the previous blog, are part of a commission I'm painting at the moment for a tournament playing guard general. I think this is why to wanted a fully plasma'd executioner and fully heavy boltered punisher! You wouldn't get me fielding that!

He wanted the Lightning stike through the scroll work embelm on each vehicle, after spotting it on my previous Windor 414th army's Valkryies.

Keep watching for more red armoured goodness.

Gonders

Rollin' out

Well, here's the result of my modeling time this week so far. These are the first chimeras of a commissioned tournament force I'm painting up. Eventually there will be 6, plus a host of other tanks to make up the armoured side of the army.

Well loads to do yet, deadline is the start of april. Watch this space...

Gonders

This Raider...

So another commission update. Almost there with this raider now. Once again, for the guy to have a look at how far I've got. Quite happy with the contarsting sail this time, so the first raider I did in this scheme was abit of a block of orange.

Just got the crew to finish and a few touch ups and we're done I think.

Gonders

Wych Raider??

I've made a start on a commissioned raider for the same guy who's got my orange dark eldar. This raider is for his wych unit, so he's asked for plenty of combat upgrades, hence the chain-snares on the rear and the many skulls as grisly trophies on the prow of the skiff. Also, the warrior hanging on I've filled down his armour on the right hand side , as wyches are only armoured on one side, and given her the distinctive wych helmet, so his opponents know exactly whats coming to get them!

Once again, this post is really a 'checking over' post, before I begin painting later today. The crew have been left off for painting at this stage too.

Thanks Gonders

Lost in the blinding whiteness of the Tundra!

Project completed, with 2 hours to go! Really quite happy with how this have turned out. I think I'm going to add some smaller bits of terrain, barricades and the like, or I feel I'll get 'Armies hiding in the bunkers' syndrome, with there being a lack of other cover.

Credit must go to AMERA for their cracking buildings. Only a lick of paint and these are the results.

Enjoy!

Gonders 

Ice, Flow, No where to go...

So one of many projects I've got coming up is a 4'x4' goaming board I'm working on. I've got around £120 to spend, to get a board together designed for small games of 40k. around 500-1000 points.

I decided to do a winter themed board, mainly to fit in with my dark eldar's pallette and bases, but also because i'd be something different.

I'm going to make an imperial fortified position, using buildings from AMERA's future zone range. If you've never heard of these guys, google the name. They do really cheap big terrain. I bought the bunkers on you see here and it cost me only around the £25 mark. and already thats plenty of line of sight blocking terrain to hide behind.

I painted the buildings with winsor and newtons 'sand texture gel', which is basically sand in paint. I'd reccomend just buying some sand and paint tbh. It'd be a few quid saved. I added some details from imperial kits from my bits box, and hey presto.

Now, the next terrain issue I need to address. If you've ever been to a GW shop to play games, you'd be aware that the citadel gaming wood box contains one base, one shrivelled tree(stood up) and one shrivelled tree(doesn't fit in the base) right?

If you, like me, have ever wondered how your troops manage to hide under those two rocks on the base to claim their 4+ cover save, then wonder no more. The box set actually contains 3 trees, and bundles and bundles on leaves and foliage to put on them. Once contruction is completed, you actually get a fine respectable set of trees!

I bagged myself 4 boxes of these from gamingfigures.com, for a tidy saving. £12.60 a box.

So now, as I type this, it's 9.21 on saturday morning and the board currently looks like this:

As i've got many other projects to start work on, I'm challenging myself to complete this board by 6pm this evening.

So on the to do list is:

1. Take a shopping trip to get, some brown/umber spray paint. Some GW white spray. Some terracotta acrylic, and a set of dice and templates. Oh, and dark angels green.
2. Paint the bunkers terracotta, pick out details.
3. Spray trees brown, pick out leaves and rocks.
4. Dust trees, Buildings and the boards with Grey, then White spray for a frost effect.
5. If I've got time and feeling upto it, pull some snow effect on everything.

After this, it should be looking something like. Wish me luck!

Gonders

Like a proud parent...

One of the greatest things about this hobby, is that there's always scope for improvement. From the newest beginner on Sunday morning, to the greatest golden daemon winner, your painting skill always improve.

Every so often, we paint a model that we know, will stand out from the rest of the army. Whether you've managed to perfect a new technique, of if you've managed to get your head around a different style, sometimes you've just got to be proud of what you managed to pull off last night.

You know when you have this feeling, because as you go into the next games night after completing such a model, you don't care about games, you just want to go in there and ask everyone, 'Have you seen my new model, by the way??' In fact we probably do just that. It's not being big headed, its knowing you've got better, and here's the proof.

This time its me who's managed to do just that.

Last night I finished this incubi, of which I am very proud. I think its a combination of the purpley grey glaze that I've managed to blend back into white on his helmet, with the muted grey palette, and some highlights I found particularly fine to pull off.

Hope you enjoy as much as I do! Now I just have to get the rest of the squad the same. These models really are a joy to paint though, I'd reccomend them to any dark eldar player.

Til next time

Gonders

Orange Tron Wyches

Hey all,

Here's a pic of some really orange wyches I've painted recently for a comission. Orignally I was going to do this colour scheme for my army, but changed my mind and sold that stuff on. The guy who bought them then asked my to add some extra units.

This post is really for him to check 'em over. Though any C&C is welcome.

Gonders

Purple Swirl step by step

So a few people on various forums and in my gaming group have been asking how I do my purple and the free hand bits on my dark eldar. I'm trying to repeat this pattern on most of the units for this army, to create a strong theme.

Hopefully, some of these pictures should help.

Step One: Give it a good base coat with a mix of 3 parts liche purple and one part chaos black, get in al the cracks, make sure your paint is thinned down.

Step 2: Add an equal part codex grey, so now you've got 2 parts purple, 1 part black, and one part grey, to the same mix. Roughly paint about 3 mm of each plate edge, in a fairly liberal first highlight.

Step 3: Take the mix you had, and add a splash of white to it. Just enough to make a lilac kind of colour, which with be the first defining highlight. At this point, add an extra layer of free handed curls with a steady hand.

Step 4: Add more white, til you have basically grey, but with a hint of 'off purple' in it. Hard to describe this, but the best way to judge it, is if it looks like it will be just a bit to bright to match the purple already on the model, its about right. Pick out the very edges, in what GW call 'extreme highlights' Add yet other layer of tiny curls.

Step 5: Add one more splash of white, and with a steady hand, catch the very edges. Make sure your camera doesn't go yellow at this point...

Step 6: Finally, take skull white, and put a tiny drop of the previous mix into it. Dot this on to the end of every curve and spike on the armour, and every little curl.

Repeat on every plate...

Hope people find this useful, or at least interesting. I'm going to try get finished pictures of this thing up before the end of the week.

Thanks for checking this out.

Gonders

A little gem

I've been trying to improve my gem painting technique recently. As I slog through dark eldar, I'm encountering many to do.

I've always had a fear of painting eldar armies, I've never managed to finish one yet, despite numerous attempts over the years, and I think the two reasons were trying to get a good finish on eldar skin, and on the gems(same goes for elves in fantasy). I think the dark side is where it's at, as I'm happy with both the skin and the gems on my dark eldar, and once I actually finished 1000pts of dark elves...

Anyway, here's the latest effort.

Dark Eldar Hellions

The first offering of miniatures to look at, a squad of Dark Eldar Hellions. Arguable that it was these models that made me start a Dark Eldar army, I've tried to get more movement into them than the GW studio versions.

I've chosen to stick to a small pallet of colours, they were painted with just 6 different paints, combined with the snow bases I'd like to think they look fairly wintery.

Gonders