Connie and Blyde - Adventurers on the run

After getting Kaleb and the chaos androids done, I've kept on ending those half finished paintjobs that have been giving me weird looks for some time...

The 2 adventurers above were first meant to join the crew of Lucas Stern my sensei hero but for some reason they didn't make it into the final list.

They could still be added to the group as you  can notice their colours are the same. I actually left them aside only after I had painted the base colours and skin which makes them really close style wise. The models didn't fit in though for some reason.

Chaos Androids - There is no future

"01100101 01111000 01110100 01100101 01110010 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110100 01100101 "

I'm on a roll. I've set myself a task : clear all those half painted models waiting miserably in the table. Kaleb Daark the other day was the first to take advantage of that new mindset but now it was those chaos androids' turn. Funny thing is that they were started (and forgotten) at about the same time!

The Death Knights - Ode to my youth...

Warning : What you're about to see is a selection of poorly painted models from between 1996 to 2006...

I don't know why but seeing those models I painted in my early years got me to dig in the boxes to let some old friends get some fresh air and light.

Between 15 and 26 years old I had this monomaniac obsession to build a chaos army for 40k. This was greatly due to the release of the Chaos codex for the 2nd edition and my previous intoxication with the Realm of Chaos books. Chaos was al I wanted to buy and paint, the eldars and fantasy models from the beginnings were gone (well just in boxes), 40k, chaos final point.

I remember thinking a lot about what colour scheme to use to get the best group effect... For some reason, I thought Khorne and Nurgle were the cool gods and therefore I wanted to give them a good place in my army. Oh and I wanted them to have white helmets to make them look like skulls. Oh and  they had to have snakebite leather gloves as well because gloves are made of leather right, so they have to be leather brown or something ?

Kaleb Daark the doomed one, he is back. !

Kaleb Daark has always been a fascinating character for me (and for many people I guess), I won't go and tell his tale again as some have done it far better than I could do but I did paint his model a while back. Malal has alway been a fascinating God too since he was mentionned in warhammer RPG and a few publications but got erased for some sordid IP reasons.

The appeal of both is still very strong and from time to time, small details can ignite a barrel of renegade god fuel. For me, it started all long ago with this tiny bit :

Rings a bell ?

Dirt from a holy place - Age of Sigmarines

OK, once again I'm getting a little away from what the usual content here is but just like any other self respecting hobby geek, I just coudl'nt get past through that whole Age of Sigmar storm. 

I am not going to do a review of the rules (I haven't tried them yet but I fully intend to... at some point...in the future... probably) nor a review of the models but just like many people, I just bought the WD that gave the free rules and free model aaaand just like any good butterfly, I immediately stopped doing what I was doing at the time and started building my Eternal Stormcast to play with it.

Then Summer happened and with it a wedding, moving house, BOYL and many other things...

Now things are a little more settled I found it would be the time to finish all the WIPs I still have (some dating from almost 2 years ago).

Behind the wall of Sleep - Part 4

Another plast from the past it is today !

Since many of the models I paint are at least 20 years (or more) old, how could I be more oldschool ? Well with paintjobs that are 20 years old of course !

Just as a reminder those you're about to see are not the first I unearth from the treasure chests :

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

These are a little different though as they're some of the very first metal models I ever painted. Bought in 1991 along some tzeentch champions and all sorts of eldars. I was absolutely delighted to see them again after forgetting them for about 18 years. These bear my "touch" from back them with all the things that are wrong.

Just look at those splendid shadings in the skin, those eyes full of life and those big fat veins painted in blue ! Oh and look at the blending on the tail !

It seems I must have learnt about blacklining at that time, you can see how I subtly used that to help define contrasts. Oh and look, the veins have become pink now the skin is blue !

Dean Viesel - Imperial Clerk - Previously unreleased Rogue trader model

Hey there, after posting you some plastic non sense I though you guys would expect some good ol' lead. Well that's just the kind of guy I am : I deliver.

As you can see the model above is quite an old one. In fact it dates back from the old days of Rogue trader and it's part of a series of models that the Wargames Foundry has had the brilliant idea to unearth. Go check around all the other wonders from the golden age you can get from them without getting your paypal red hot on ebay.

I warmly welcome you to read more (and better) about this particular series on Jason's blog HERE.

The excellent thing about this model is that it is directly connected to the Rogue Trader Rulebook, though I have to admit I have no clue if in this case the model inspired the illustration or if it's the other way round...

EDIT : Thanks to Brian Roe on the Oldhammer FB page, I've actually learnt that the illustration is from Pete Knifton and it seems Pete never saw a miniature of that fellow which would tend to say the illustration was first.

Illustration by Pete Knifton

Morikun, the space Ashigaru

Alright folks, let's get something painted at last !

The model today is a little special as it is an entry for a painting challenge run by Morikun over his temple. Not only is Morikun a very fine fellow (for me at least but we'll talk about that later) but he's also organising this very impressive competition with prizes that left me speechless. Check out HERE to see what I'm talking about (the first 3 lots are especially grabbing my attention ^^)

So let me first borrow some suiting music to get along (watch and listen, this is fascinating)

The only rule for this competition (apart from it ending at the end of August) is that the model has to 'somehow' portray the blogger himself... "how arrogant" I hear you say ? Well it could be but there are actually no other rules and Morikun insisted on us using all our freedom of thought to try and depict him in the most original ways... that's a deal for me ! On top of that I think the prizes really show that he is generous before anything.

Always look on the bright side of life... (and give-aways)

(...Says the guy who adds a header full of hung corpses and pillaging skellies)

Some of you might have seen that this place has slightly changed its look and those who have are right.

For a time it sort of annoyed me to have a header composed of a stolen picture from the net, poorly cropped to fix my lack of talent and ideas to have anything else instead.

There's a point where one has to make the right call and ask to those possess those talent and ideas and it's why I asked Zhu to make me a header for this blog.

It's far much better than the older one isn't it ?

I can only say that Zhu's design exceeded my expectations and that he managed to both get the very blurry ideas I had given him and his own touch to form that excellent result. Just have a look at the little details here and there, it's those kind of things that make illustrations evocative for me. It's the kind of details that do not make you think "ok, it's that way" but which make you think "wow, what's behind that ? and why's this?", the kind of details that ignite imagination...

Check out Zhu's post on this piece of artwork HERE.

Another Oldhammer WE Debriefing by a bloody french...

So here we are, it's been a month since I last blogged and a tad longer since I painted anything...

Why is that ? Well just throw moving house, holidays, business journeys and the fact I still don't have internet at home and you rapidly come to that sort of results.

Does that mean I haven't been doing anything hobby wise all this time, noooope ! I certainly haven't been painting much (but that's going to end soon) but I've had the occasion to make myslef anothr hobby place (probably the only upside of moving home) PLUS I've had the occasion of attending BOYL 2015 (aka Bring Out Your Lead, the Oldhammer event in Newark) this year.

This year, I made myself a little present by staying 3 whole days there and I can tell I never got a minute spare or got the chance to get bored.

As usual, it seems the only games I have are abroad, last one was in Montréal in Febuary with the most Excellent Iannick. This year, just like last year, I managed to get 5 games in the WE and all were very different and yet very fun.

Let's have a look at those games :

GAMES I PLAYED :

Inquisimunda : The quest for the Golden Phrogg

This game was a spin-off for the Campaign organised by Andy Hoare from Tales from the Maelstrom, and it was the occasion for no less than 9 players to gather around a table for a huge Royal Rumble.

The Game took place at the Warhammer World which I had never visited before and was organised by Job from Magpie and Old Lead and it was extremely nice to game on such a lovely table with vintage lead (you could see some people being very intrigued).

Players were divided into 2 groups : Graham (Greater Harlequin) and his genestealer cult, John (or Just John if you want) with Space Santa and Chris (Antipixi) with his ash waste nomads. Facing them were Gadge with his rogue trader, Colin (Whiskey Priest) with an inquisitor, Paul (Cheetor/Sho3box) with another inquisitor and Myself with my trusted Sensei warband.

Great table, great guys in a great venu, what could go wrong ?