Astorath the Grim w.i.p.

Alright, just a Quickie before I go out into certain doom up on the dark slopes of wisconsin (sledding).

Following the suggestion of brother John I repainted this guy black. His armor at this point is 100% air brushed with the exception of applying a 50/50 mix of badab black and asurmen blue. Hopefully I'll be posting finished pictures of Astorath and a barbarian by reaper tomorrow :)

2 posts in one day! I'm thinking soon I'll try to do one every day of the week for one week just to see if I can. Wish me luck!

Winter reference photos

Over the weekend brother John and I ventured out on lake winnebago. I brought out my camera and snapped some really cool reference photos (pun intended!). Here I am being totally awesome among the ice shoves. Ice shoves are caused by the lake thawing and freezing throughout the winter months. I couldn't believe how beautiful it all was, so many cool tones, the perfect area for a model to strike static pose.

I also grabbed some shots of the surrounding foliage in the dead of winter.

A very inspiring outing indeed. We had so much fun over the weekend, the next day we attached a toboggan to the back of brother John's 4 wheeler and I rode it for 6 miles! My ass is still sore, I think falling off at 20 mph, which happened a lot because I felt the need to surf, and being engulfed in a cloud of ice as your momentum pulls you across the snow was the best part. Or maybe haging on to the rear an "water skiing" with nothing but you boots! I inhaled a large dose of exhaust doing my trademark man of steel, you do this being dragged on your stomach and then letting go and taking flight across the snow.

The 41st millenium of christmas

In my last post I couldn't show all the work I had done prior to Christmas for risk of spoiling the surprise. Here's the Librarian that will be leading brother john's crimson fists.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/267665

I had a lot of fun modelling and painting this guy, I know I say that just about every time but this time was special as it was for my brother and I worked on him while I was drunk, which made my nerves much calmer and that is actually when I did most of the detail work. Brother John also got me a little something, a 12 pack of pabst blue ribbon 40oz's. Excelsior!

That's all for now :) have a happy holiday and try to do something different this year!  

My week off

So christmas is this weekend and because everyone else is on vacation I've decided to take the week and paint for myself. Before I share those projects I'm happy to say I finished the armageddon diorama from my last post. I'm happy it is over, this model was a nightmare to assemble. Once I had all the seperate pieces painted I very patiently watched them turn into a bunch of leporous glue nubbed space marines (calling something a spacemarine is an insult in my book) but all was not lost and I patched up the work I had undone and smashed this piece of junk with a hammer. Here's the end result :)

So with that out of the way and the pre-christmas week ahead of me I decided to do some painting for daddy. There's a tournament at my local store on jan 15th which gives me plenty of time to finish off my army. I got a start on these kommandos on sunday, they'll be rolling in behind enemy lines with Snikrot.

There's also a little showdown with a barbarian happening this week, I got him for my birthday (nov. 29) and have slowly worked him up to his present state. I have to admit the skin tone was inspired by street fighter 4. next week I'll be painting up snikrot followed by 6 slugga boyz the next week and finally a display board just in time for the tournament. That'll give me a fully painted 1500 point ork army and a fine dish to serve up the pain. 

I've also decided on most of my adepticon crystal brush entries, not much painting done yet but they're coming along

The chaplain is the closest to the finish line at this point and I did manage to finish a piece but I can't share it because I'd be spoiling someone's christmas gift so more on that after the holiday.

Happy holidays!

19 Lamentors terminators finished!

I finally got around to photographing those lamentor terminators. It was pretty daunting to face down 19 freehanded lamentors symbols but once that was over with I was in the clear and able to finish them in a rapid succession. I've noticed once a newer style of painting is applied to these older models they don't look quite as funny. The bright and clean style of the past has given way to a more realistic style for now with all the light sourcing and weathering going on but who know where miniature painting will go?

I've also shot a quick photo of a project that's been sitting for a little while. Now that I have these 19 guys out of my way I'll have more time for some of the single miniature projects I have coming up.

It's a table making Sunday

 I think sundays to nerds is like 4:20 to stoners. It seems to me that a majority of gaming circles meet on sundays, I haven't done any research but since I'm typing it on the internet, count it as a fact. In my last post I noted that we're finishing armies and scenery but there was still a problem, a problem in the form of an over textured chunk of plywood apparently painted with grey and khaki enemas but I can't remember for sure.

After brother John sanded it down a bit I started by wet blending a few layers of greens and browns, some tonal variety counts for a lot so I made sure to use as many different colors I could get my hands on. I wanted it to have some dimesion instead of just stippling on the same combination across the board. here are some shots of how it began. This was very fun and I'd recommend it to anyone, especially the guy who hates his miniature paint jobs. "Looks buddy, you can be as messy as you want!"

As I went on I discovered it's easiest just to squirt the paint right on the table. I set a fan blowing on the surface and let everything dry. Then I tore up some paper, laid it down so it was leading away from the darker pits I left in the table and with the airbrush fanned paint away from the torn edge. once the base design was intact I sprayed on more texture but made sure to intersect the previous lines to create more of a cracked mud look. Then I lined out some of the edges and insides of craters.

It looks good for now but I want to try painting some grass on with some flick of the wrist drybrushing. I'm pleased with it so far though and I can't wait to play some games on it. We laid down some scenery and models and chittered away like little kids about making battlereports, a backdrop, and so on :)

Those are brother Johns crimson fists, keep it up! I also snapped a picture of the cooling unit I semi posted last time.

Well it's time to shoot some Lamentors which will compose my next post. I leave you with a familiar image of many sunday nights.

( identity has been witheld for comedic value )

Lamentors wip and winter madness!

Here's a Lamentors dreadnought was commissioned to paint a few months ago, recently the same guy handed off 20 out of print terminators to be painted up as Lamentors as well. These old models remind me of the days of yore, when I was young enough to not only have no idea about the rules but also would play "warhammer" in a sand box. It was bass ass one guy had tyranids and we'd dig labyrinths in the sand...

 So it's been fun painting them up over the last few days, I wanted to post a few in progress shots before I finish off the project. Right now they're just about ready for some battle damage. I think first I'll wash the lower half of the checker patterns with some thinned down badab black. It worked well on the helmets which were painted with 2 thin layers of white and then some codex grey was brushed into the shadows followed by a wash of badab black. They still need highlighting but I save that for after the batteldamage.

The colors are a little muted because I simply auto leveled the picture, I'll take decent ones once they're all finished. here's a picture of the whole group I took while going about the task of freehanding the Lamentors symbol on all 20 of their shoulder pads.

and while we're at it let's look at the myriad of distractions that lie just inches away.

There's a unit of wyches hanging around that I finished assembling last night along with plenty more naked plasitc and metal. We'll see if I keep my tiny men can protect sanity through this winter, which just hit by the way, I do live in Wisconsin after all. Here's what it looks like around 4:00 when it starts getting dark.

Yes I'm thinking it too, time to mow the lawn...

Scenery party part 1

So sure you can have a great army inside and out but what about your battlefield? Lately most of us in my gaming group have been painting our armies with a renewed dedication to having a completely painted army. It's great, I'd best describe it as going full nerd! We also scoff at the amount of money some of this pre-made scenery costs and the quality as well. When the tedium of painting tiny models saps your spirit try making something abstract to jive up your painting mojo. A change of scenery is what you need :)

Over the weekend I went to my brother's house with my girlfriend to have a sunday night scenery party. I brought a big box of junk I've been collecting as well as some handy tools and my airbrush. Our friend Mike joined up with us, contributing a 12 pack, and we set to it.

First up is a building my brother was pulling together. It's made from some empty staple boxes he grabbed form work, some pvc, bendy straws, granny grating and one deceased tape deck.

It's all rusted up and ready for some masking and a paintjob, hopefully john finishes this during the week, I really want see it completed.

Mike threw together a classic statue piece that you can do with any model, I think it looks great especially for his first piece. I helped him fill the gap at the bottom and plan to paint it up real soon. 

My girlfriend Brittny also had a go at her first piece of scenery and some airbrushing. I'm really thrilled about the piece she made, unfortunately I don't have any decent shots of where it wound up but I'll be including finished pictures in part 2 when everyone gets their stuff done. In the meantime here are some in progress pictures.

Very nice ; )

So maybe you guessed that I didn't take much of my own stuff because I was too busy tracking everyone else's progress. I did manage to get one off at the very start.

not much, just a melted smoke detector and a fanblade for now, later it will become a cooling system for some sort of underground complex ; )

I also had a piece laying around all primed and ready for paint for a while now and I was happy to get a start on it.

The plan for next weekend is to paint a new table with some zazz, we'll see how far we can get. There are always real life disasters that can happen at any moment. If you see this creature, detain it at all costs.

What is it? An inside out pidgeon? No doubt the most recent crime against nature to walk off of plum island.

Finished Dark Eldar and Deathwing army!

Three days of constant labor and five kids. I've been diligently working on a small Dark eldar squad for a competition on spiky bits and I'm happy to say they're finished. Now to paint 50 more...

Thanks to massive voodoo for the background ;) I sat down with a friend and he showed me some more photoshop techniques and I'm very happy with the results, thanks buddy!

Here's an army I finished a couple of months ago, I have to say it was difficult to fit all the pictures together and I'm not too pleased with the end result but hey if only I knew then what I know now...

Dark Eldar work in progress

I've been busy painting a squad of dark eldar for a competition on spiky bits, the prize is a 500 point dark eldar detachment, which would be perfect for me because I only own one box of these guys so far...

After some trial and error they're coming along nicely, the one on the right is further along. So far so good but I need to keep at it, the deadling is tuesday the 22nd so back to work slave!

Sanguinary guard take flight and Harthrod takes the warp

Here are the completed sanguinary guard units along with and extra banner and an auxillary model. I have to say I'm quite pleased with the way they came out. I've also painted some more backgrounds for my photos, here's unit 1.

I took a little more time on the second unit so I could add some close ups and some better views :)

and just in case you want a plasma gun there's this guy, the banner is for an honor guard unit.

I'm not sure why these came out so red...

So I also wanted to re-shoot an older model of mine that I felt wasn't living up to his potential. So I sank an hour or so of painting into him to spruce him up, mainly the eye on his axe, and while I was working on him I thought of a fitting back story.

"Harthrod has long ago lost the battle of will between himself and the gift bestowed upon him by his patron god. His body and lifeless eyes are nothing more than a physical extension of the demon bound in his axe, wading in and out of the warp and through time, from one blood bath to the next"

http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/samson

Gold Man 60k and sci fi bases

Well it's been a busy week and not pertaining to 40k. I was hoping to have the sanguinary guard done by now but what can you do :) I did manage some progress on them and they're shaping up nicely, there are just some final highlights to do on everything but this is the fun part of painting as you get to see the model come together. I have to add that these photos don't quite do these guys justice and I can see I'm going to have to work on photographing subjects with a large amount of true metallics.

It is nice seeing them assembled though and I think after the power weapons are done they'll really kick ass. I have some time this weekend so the next photos of these guys will be the finished gaggle, or maybe it's called a flock, either way there are 11 of them total.

I've also put together some industrial ruins on 10 bases that I intend on molding so I have some themed bases for my dark eldar. More to come on them. 

-sam

Gold Man 40k

I went to the hardware store today in search of and attachment that would let me adjust the pressure of my air compressor. I know, I'll only bring $30 in case I go to the nearby hobby store afterwards and blow all the money in my wallet. A mere $31.99 and I could have the final piece I need. So back home I went to grab the twenty I had second thoughts about earlier and bought the attachment, Finally! I went home and experimented on a Khorne lord mounted on a juggernaut I've been commissioned to do. 

I painted some silver to break up the red and he still has a long way to go but I'm happy with him so far. I also haven't decided to go more orange or pink with the highlights. Between coats I kept plugging away on the sanguinary guard which are coming around the bend. The bases are almost complete and everything has a base color with the exception of the black which I've already started to highlight.

I've also been working on a model for myself, I thought he was almost done but inspiration hit and I couldn't leave him on a regular base milling about with everyone else at ground level. So I grabbed the base from another project, although it's a step back I think this base adds a lot more to the model, I'll  be able to do something with water draining off the base now as well which I've wanted to try for a while now : )

Still a lot of work to do on him and the new dark eldar are just around the corner...

Sanguinary Guard in progress

I got to work today on the unit of Sanguinary Guard, gold as fuck. There's still more work to be done, I'm thinking another highlight or two, on the metal but I'm pleased with the result so far. I also went back and added some shadows with a dilluted black. I'm thinking I'll have to paint a deeper shadow towards the inside of the wings too so the backpack is casting a deeper shadow on them to add more depth. Tomorrow I'll tackle the bases and hopefully have a little something I've been painting for myself finished off to post.

The end and the beginning

Well I finally got around to photographing Njal and he's standing in front of one of the new backgrounds I painted up. I made some with warm colors and one with cool colors to start and I plan on doing more of the spectrum of the respected temperatures. I also wanted something darker as the white on blue has gotten old to me. So brace yourself for new backgrounds in the upcoming photos on this blog. Here we see a cool Njal on a warm background to create a little more pop.

I also threw him up on coolminiornot for some merciless judgement, you can vote here if you dare, http://coolminiornot.com/263487.I've also managed to finish a unit of dryads I intend to auction off on ebay. I'm pleased with the way they came out considering how much time I spent on them, having no idea how popular wood elves are right now I'm curious to see how they do, I'd probably be better off painting a blood angels or space wolf hq but I did just have the dryads laying around and that fantasy project has been long abandoned so I figured I'd liquidate them into hard silver pocket change. Note that new background!

These were a fun change from all the power armor I've been doing lately, having deviated from the usual grey and brown I see dryads done in they remind me of swamp thing in the end, which is better than vegetable monster which I was thinking halfway through. Well back to the grind, next up more power armor but of the artificer kind, 11 sanguinary guard. I also have a load of work in progress pictures I should have up sooner than later.

In progress shots

    I've managed to get a little further on njal as well as another project that is nearing completion, which I think I'll just wait until it's finished to unveil, and start on a model I'm painting as a gift for a friend. First up is Njal Stormcaller, a very fun model to paint and I have high hopes for him as he has many small runes etched into his armor and will come out very striking if I can pull off the details right, as well as a cool expression on his face which is always fun to work with, I like the way people in the 41st millennium either yell or keep their face as straight as possible.

So I'd say his armor has a good basecoat to work with and next I plan to finish the furs and do some airbrush experimenting with his base and try to work some subtle purple, blue, and green in to the rock. I'm also looking forward to experimenting with different green and blue hues with the model I'm painting for my friend Adam. I asked him to throw me a single mini he'd like painted up, I was hoping it would be something non games workshop and something I wouldn't normally pick out to paint myself. I was happy to see what he had picked when he handed this guy to me.

A reaper sculpt of kind of a reaper, very metal indeed! It's really old school, I can remember being a kid and not even having enough money to buy minis like this because I was a kid with a 2 dollar allowance that I never got but it's kind of funny now because I'm grown up but I still feel like that little broke ass kid when a new games workshop kit come out...Adam intends to use him as his general for a game called song of blades and heroes, it's a game made by the guys who do flying lead (which I played once and can say it's fun). The game doesn't have it's own model range so players are encouraged to collect from all sorts of ranges.This is also cool for someone like me who is only looking for an excuse to buy more models from a wider variety of manufacturers. Well I'm done with minis for today but tomorrow I'm going to do some finishing of current projects which I can hopefully have up within the week. Later John -sam 

                                                                        

Long fangs ready

I just finished off an add on to a space wolves army I'd painted before, the client wants to add the Logan fangs drop pod unit along with some cyclone missle launcher toting wolfguard. His list has nothing but double combi weapon wolfguard and long fangs. So here are the long fangs, tabletop ready.

and the 3 wolfguard to attach on each of the 3 long fang squads

This commission isn't over yet though, I also have to paint up Njal Stomcaller which I've been saving for last as I get to pour some detail into this one and I don't want the deadline bearing down on me while I struggle to paint multiple models. The joy of doing a single mini is that once you've painted something you don't have to repeat it 10 times, any way here's a preview of him.

Hopefully I'll have time to finish him over the next couple of days so I can share the next project. I took a load of in progress shots while painting these guys too and I plan on putting that up as well. I also have some non space wolf  photos of a complete army I painted last week which I'll be posting in the near future.