On The Table - Lord of Change

This mini has been on the the table for years now. This has been the longest running in progress project I think I have ever had. I think the reason is that I did not have the skills to pull off the concept in my head. I had to paint lots of icy blue minis to get my techniques refined and increase my skills to the point of making my ideas manifest.

I changed the robes from dark blue to purple to provide some more contrast. I re-drybrushed Celestra Grey to even things out and then painted on highlights of my new best friend Ulthan Grey. It is basically white that is tinted blue. Over darker colors it looks white but still gives you the option of picking out highlights in pure white later.

Finished - Daemon Prince of Khorne

Finished this bad boy tonight. He started out as a Reaper Bones mini called "Minotaur Demon Lord" that sold for a pittance. For conversions, I added a Khorne symbol to his knees, right shoulder and forearms. I had those left over in my bits box and count not think of a better use of them. My only regret is that I could not use eight of them. I also swapped out whatever this dummy was using for a flaccid weapon for a GIANT AX OF KHORNE! I planned to assemble my Bloodthirster of Khorne in one form and proxy it for the other forms so I didn't need to mag the other hands like a jabroni. That left some bits over. While it is wildly out of scale with the mini, I feel that it is still on point.

Speaking of scale, The mini is a little large for a Daemon Prince. The bottom the head is about where the top of the GW Daemon Prince stands. I put it on a Dreadnought base which is the same as a Daemon Prince. I also feel that the "out of scale" is on point for Khorne. He is more a god of excess than the Lord of Excess. Dude loves some big weapons so I feel good about the ridiculous size of that ax. Also it has teeth and I loved painting it.

I painted the Deamon flesh the same way that I painted the Bloodletters of Khorne. Like all the times that I have painted this before, I regretted not having more purple show through. The overall tone of the skin is red and I wanted more purple in the recesses. I knew this while I was painting this mini but somehow it still came out red.

To replace the mini would cost about $10 including shipping. The ax and wings become problematic. They run for about $10 and $16 respectively. The paint job took some time and I value it at about $60 making the total replacement value about $100. Doubt I would sell or trade it for less. 

On The Table - Daemon Prince of Khorne

Putting the final touches on the converted Daemon Prince of Khorne. The body is basically done and clear coated. I am mostly satisfied with it. I wish the purple base had shown through more but the red highlights turned out ok.

Super happy with how the ax swap turned out. I was worried that it would be oversized and it is. But I like the overt Khorniness that it adds to the mini. The Khorne symbold that I put on the knees, forearms and shoulder were ok but are lost somehow in the model. A giant ax with half of Khorne symbol on it is somewhat less subtle.

The top photo is to demonstrate what difference a little effort makes. I see so many people do a base coat, wash and call it good. A little hard hedge highlighting (or for Emperor-sake, drybrushing) goes a long way to add depth to a mini. The bottom left is just based and washed and the top right is a little broke-edge highlighting. A world of difference.

It doesn't take much time, effort or skill to create depth in a mini which leaves me confused as to why so many people walk away from minis that are barely started with no effort put in. What is worse is that it is painfully evident to anyone with skill that they are phoned in. I feel the same about half-ass air brushing.

On The Table - Two Daemonettes

I dug through my bits box and found enough bits to make two more Daemonettes and I decided to paint them up as a side project. This will make for a unit of 10 Daemonettes not including my Herald. 

Finished - Thousand Sons Sorcerer

I put the final touched on this mini. I was scared for a bit because it was not turning out very well when we started. The Sepia wash really helped and the new way of doing blue really pops. 

I am using Gulliman Blue over white or Runefang Steel with a little touch up to do my glowing bits. I had to make this change after they axed the old blue wash and I like the new way. It took forever to figure this out. 

I had asked on Bartertown about replacing Asurmen Blue and got the predictable smart ass reply of "there is a conversion chart." It bugs me when people assume that people don't Google something before they ask a question but then again so many people ask before they Google. I had not gotten much help from that (or really from any post that I make on BT) and none of my painting friends had any input either. It was through experimentation and fortuitous mistakes that I was able to come up with this new technique. 

On the table - Thousand Sons Sorcerer

I got most of the base colors down. Just need to do some highlighting and then we can wash the whole mini sepia. That is a magical step and really ties the room together, Dude. 

On the table - Something Old, Something New

One of the first posts on this blog (and for some reason, one of the most visited posts) is a post about Thousand Sons. I am in the long long process of adding to the squad with some new bits. I am starting with the Sorcerer before I start with the assembly line of the other 8 or 9 Marines.

I wish I had taken pictures of how the metal Marine started. I got the mini in a lot purchace and it was a piece of garbage. It was missing all the extra bits. No backpack or left arm and the head was deformed. Clearly, someone wanted to do a head swap and gave up. I don't blame them as t is hard to Dremel off a metal head. Fortunately, I have powerful Dremel 4000 with fancy attachments and the most important attachment... Skill. 

I finished the decapitation of the mini and carved out a space for the head. It was hard to make a space without ruining the cowl on the back of the neck of the mini. The pose is a little awkward but only at certain angles. 

Completely Finished - Khorne Cultists 30 of 30

Finished at long last! Greg's little men will be seeing him again after almost a year apart. For the most part I am pleased with how they turned out. They make a nice big red blob, but each mini is unique in how they are painted. Even there are several of the monopose Cultists, I tried not to paint any two minis precisely the same. 

This was a giant project and it reminds me of why I don't take giant bits of my own work anymore. I used to buy two boxes of minis and get them all ready for painting at the same time only to get bored after 40 hours of work on them and they are not half finished. I get disheartened and bored with the project. I have learned to take smaller bites of no more than 5 minis. This way I can make progress in a week or so and feel accomplished. 

Slaanesh Chaos Lord Revisited

I felt like the Slaanesh Chaos Lord from earlier was missing something so I added a Possessed back pack to the mini. While it does not quite fit because of the angle of the back and the slenderness of the Dark Eldar frame, it does add a CSM feel to the mini and round it out a bit. 

Finished - Khorne Cultists 26 of 30

The penultimate lot of Cultists are finished and the final four are on the table. This is a rather appropriate time of year for the Final four but I don't follow football much. This project has been on my table for almost a year. I did not paint much from June of 2015 through Jan of 2016 and that accounts for most of it. It is still an unreasonable amount of time. 

Almost done though...

Finished - Slaanesh Lord

I have wanted a Slaanesh Chaos Lord with a snake body ever since I saw the WFB Slaanesh Lord on mount model. I could not find one for a reasonable price (dudes on BT and eBay wanted $40 plus for it), so I decided to add a Dark Eldar Sslynth to my recasting order with the idea of converting my own Slaanesh Lord. 

The mini retails for $16 but only comes in resin. The recaster sold for $9.50 including shipping which is just over retail and also comes in resin. The quality is not great with lots of air bubbles. The tiny arms were also poorly cast and misshapen. My "buyer protection" through Aliexpress (the Chinese version of Paypal), has expired so I decided not to pitch a fit over it. I would likely have replaced them anyway.

For the large arms I used a regular CSM arm and a Possessed arm. The shoulder guards also came from the Possessed box. The smaller right arm with the knuckles is part of the kit and the other smaller arm is a Dark Eldar Wytch arm. It is difficult to see, but I also added a Bolt Pistol in a holster on the left side. The sword is from the Dark range. I picked it because it fit the theme of the model better than a CSM sword. I also usually color my Power Weapons green on CSM but chose to just do silver on this one. I thought the green would be too distracting. 

On the table - Thousand Sons

I am super-excited about a new painting project that I am getting ready to start. It is fitting that since one of the first posts on this blog (and still one of the most popular) was about Thousand sons, that this post is about them too. I just hope it is not also the last.

I have been enamored with these third party Thousand Son bits since I first saw them. I thought there were Russian but mine are coming from somewhere in South America. I feel like they may be recasts as well. If they are anything like the pictures, then I'll be happy.

There should be enough bits there to make a full squad of Thousand Son Marines (8 plus a Sorcerer) with one or two left over. I plan to rehab an old mini into a pre-Heresy Sorcerer like in my other squad so that will help to bulk up my numbers.

I also ordered some Khopesh bits to give them that little bit of extra Egyptian flavor they need. I am really looking forward to converting them all up.

On the table now - Khorne Cultists 26 of 30

The finish line is in sight! I have these 4 that need details and 4 more that need touching up. I should have the 30 Cultists done in time for Greg at Cranky Old Gamer to take them a tournament. I hope they do well for him. 

I have been able to dedicate more time than normal to painting because my computer has crashed and needed to be shipped out to be fixed. That means that there has been no video games. So many Raiders, Gunners and Super Mutants have gone unshot in the head. 

Finished - Khorne Cultists 22 of 30

I am a man of my word. I got up early (8 AM is early for a Saturday) and went right to the painting table. It took about 4 hours but all the detail work got done on these 6 Cultists today. 

Yesterday, I had all my base colors down and washed them in Agrax Earthshade before going to be and leaving them to dry overnight. Today, I retouched the areas that were washed too heavily and performed the highlighting. 

Only 8 more left and those are being basecoated now. I should have this massive project done way ahead of time for Greg at Cranky Old Gamer. 

On The Table Now - Korn Cultists 22 of 30

Tomorrow is a painting day. I am going to get up early on my only day off this week and paint like it is my job. I have a lot of projects on the table and it is time to start clearing them. Or at the very least, make some progress on them. 

The plan will be to finish, these 6 Cultists tomorrow and do some work on the previously pictured Lord of Change and the unpictured Tau Tetras. I also have the Jango Firespray, Tau Remora Fighters and Genestealers. Clearly, there are lots of projects out there and we need to finish some before we take on new ones. 

By "we" I mean me and not you, dear reader. You cool. 

On the table now - Greater Daemon of Tzeentch

Greg over at Crank Old Gamer did a rehab on this old metal Lord of Change for me and incorporated some fantasy wings. The transformation was epic. I base coated this mini before the Fallout hiatus and have not touched it in months. 

It started spray painted white and then basecoated it Celestra Grey. I washed it in Guilliman Blue and then drybrushed it again in Celestra Grey and that is where I left it for almost half a year. 

I did not have a good direction for this mini much like my Horrors. I liked the technique that I used on my Tau repaint and wanted to incorporate that into a more organic model. 

My main stumbling block is the cloth. After much thought, I have decided to paint it royal blue to try and tie it into the Horrors and 1k Sons Marines. I really wanted to do blue and green but I have failed to pull off that color scheme in the past. Guess it is good that I don't play Alpha Legion. 

Finished - Khorne Cultists 16 of 30

I finished the minis that I basecoated last week. The detail work felt like it took forever but they are turning out well. Today I basecoated another 6 that I hope to have done by the end of the week. That is not likely though and it will likely take me two weeks to finish them. 

Finished - Khorne Cultists 10 of 30

One third of the way there, boys. I photographed these minis in a new way and it looks awful when it is posted. Fortunately, that does not affect the way they are painted. 

I felt bad about taking such a long break from painting when I had a commission on the table. I was sick this past week and didn't feel up to painting. Now I am a week behind. I just had detail to do on these three but wanted to wait until my head was clear. 

Finished - Sonic Dreadnought

Glorious! I finished the Sonic Dreadnought and I am pretty pleased with the end results. 

I decided on gold trim rather than black and that necessitated alternating pink and black armor plates. I have already talked about some of the things that I dislike about the model in my previous post and the large armor plates was one of them. I could have broken up the armor plates more with some freehand, but I stink at freehand. It would have also not fit in with the established pattern of my Noise Marines. 

I think that the mini turned out as well as it could have and still fit in with the themes of the army. 

I am very proud of the base. I decided on Ultramarines as the Dead Dread on a whim. The Emperor's Children and the Ultramarines never had any beef or direct conflicts that I know of. I kind of just wanted to paint dead Smurf. 

On the table - Sonic Dreadnought

I have finished my base colors for the Sonic Dreadnought and it is coming along well. The pink has dried p but I remember the formula. It was 1 part Mechrite Red to 2 parts Bleached Bone. That gets painted over a Mechrite base then washed Carroburg Crimson then touched up with the pink mix. 

The goal was to make the Dreadnought match my Noise Marines and the Daemonettes. I am sad that there are so few armor plates to paint. The plan was to alternate plates pink and black with gold trim to match the Champions but with so few plates, I had to alternate more than I wanted. I needed more black on the model. 

I am liking how it is turning out so far.