Finished - Three Chaos Spawn

These are some of the last minis that I finished before getting married and moving 3,000 miles (hold your applause). I got the in a trade on Bartertown and was screwed. This is the reason that I value not-new minis at less than 50%. It is clear that someone just got crazy with the super glue and stuck some bits on a Spawn torso.  They were a mess when I got them. 

I am particularly paroud of the red one in the middle. I turned his two main arms around backward and glues chainswords to the elbows. Really makes for a messed up-looking mini. 

I tried to paint all three in subtly different ways but the two flesh ones came out very similar. Overall I am pretty proud of how they turned out. 

Finished - Winged Daemon Prince

I fixed the monochromatic mistakes from earlier by adding color (gasp). I used a liberal application of Seraphim Sepia to the recesses to give the illusion of shadow and tie the skin into the armor. I also added armor plates on the hips, knees and shoulders to make it look less like a gargoyle and more like a 40k Daemon Prince. I also added a loin cloth to cover up his naughty bits. 

In the end, I think it turned out well. I am happy enough to field it but it is not likely to be a first string model. It will likely ride the bench except for Apocalypse games and if I field a CSM flying circus. 

I especially like the negative space created by the raised base and the wings. I also like how I bent the wings rather than leave them flat. 

I dislike the overall blackness and obvious pieced-together look of the mini. The armor bits stand out in a bad way from the rest of the mini. Overall, it looks like a conversion and no conversion should be that obvious if done well. 

Finished - Tau Etherial Conversion

I made this Tau Ethereal from an Island of Blood High Elf Mage. I traded for the base mini on Bartertown for a song ($5 if I remember right) and uses a Fire Warrior head. Carving the Elf head out was harder than expected and if I was going to convert the mini properly, I would have shaved off a finger of each hand to make it a real Tau. Unfortunately, that idea did not occur until I was already painting. 

As a conversion it works great. The only mistep that is not correctable is the magic smoke that the Mage is standing on. Tau don't cast any magic and him standing on that crap only make him a better target. 

I had some problems deciding on how it wanted to paint the ice blue that I painted the rest of the Tau army in on this Ethereal. I did not know how white or how blue I wanted the fabric and went back and forth several times. I think the end result does not look unduly out of place next to the other finished Tau though. 

Finished - Ork Warboss

I have a couple of these AoBR Warbosses laying around so I decided to bang one out. I am unsure as to how I wanted to paint him in terms of what Ork Clan he belongs or does not belong in. I painted him in a very generic color scheme. All or most of the metal areas are in a silver or bronze color scheme. I used a little red and an accent color but tried to keep it to a minimum so that he could fit in with any Clan. 

I feel like this mini turned out. The metals are understated but well done. I could have put more detail into it but that would have made it take much longer to paint. Three things that turned out well are the skin, the conversion and the weathering. 

I think I have a pretty good system for painting Ork skin and it is unique as far as I know. It starts with a base of Hormagaunt Purple. I can hear the gasps now. Using purple as a the base for green skin gives kind of a contrast and makes the recesses look black without being black. After that you climb the typical green ladder. Snot Green to Goblin Green, wash Thraka Green and touch up with Goblin Green.

On the table now - Disappointment

This is Reaper mini that I picked up on a trip to a CLGS in Seattle in 2009 for a song. I think he is simply called Gargoyle. He sat in my bits box for 5 years before I got around to painting him. I don't know if that speaks more to the depths of the backlog of the things that need to be painted for my expertise in procrastination.

When I primed this mini, either it still had some wicked-persistent mold release agent on it or the humidity was too high. either way, the primer wanted to rub off at every turn and just getting paint to stick without chipping off was a challenge. 

Finished - Plasma-bearer

I banged this little fracker out in a hour or two. My plan is to use him as a counter for Combi-weapons. It is easy enough to know that he stands for a combi-plasma weapon when using it for a lone IC but you may ask, "How will you know which model carries the Combi-weapon in a mixed unit?" I will tell you that I'll keep him in base to base with that model. That way he will not only denote which model has the combi-weapon, but which if he still has the one-shot use left in him.

The only difficult part will be remembering to roll for a bolter rather than a storm bolter after the combi-weapon has been used. That is really only applicable in a unit composed of Storm Bolters and units composed mostly Bolters will not have any change in their utility regardless of how many combi-weapons are involved.

In the end, I am avery happy with how this mini turned out. I like that I will not have to convert and model a combi-plasma for every mini I own and that I now have a counter for the minis that do have combi-weapons.

I think this is the first mini that is not only painted to a table-top quality but is designed to be viewed from arms length. Up close, this mini does not look so great. But put it at arms-length and it looks awesome. This is a new thing for me as I usually paint minis that look good up close but just ok on the table. I am not sure how I feel about this.

It is hard to value this mini. The Watcher In The Dark mini is kind of hard to get a hold of as the only way to get it was with Azriel who is discontinued in metal. Granted, he was around for ages so there is a fair number of these loose minis floating around in the secondary market. A quick search for completed auctions on eBay says these minis go for $2-$8 with the plastic ones going for $2-$4. The paint job is a 5 of 10 for me so it is hard to charge more than $10 for it. What took forever is the conversion and getting the bits. The conversion work took some lengthy and delicate Dremel work that I value at about $10 because it took 2 solid hours. The bit is hard to value because it is not readily available. with some luck, it might cost $2-$8 to replace it.

Final total using averages, this mini comes in at about $30 which is about what I would let it go for in trade. That would get me a small box of infantry which I feel is fair considering how many times I ripped my thumb open with the Dremel. 

Finished - Daemon Prince of Nurgle

Finally finished this Daemon Prince of Nurgle and I could not be happier. He came a long way from my last post about him. Let's take a closer look.

Modeling

As for conversions to the base mini there are just a few. A hook broke off the chains of his sword. I could have replaced it, but experience with small, fiddly bits like that falling off has taught me that gluing things like that back on usually just leads to them falling off again. Best to just Let It Go.

I also gave him an extra pauldron on his left shoulder from the plastic Daemon Prince kit. Because I liked the exposed muscle on his left arm, I cut out the center of the Chaos circle to let it show through. You can't see it from the pictures, but I think it turned out pretty well.