Why do now what you can do later? - 40k chaos part 6

My participation in this month's painting challenge on the oldhammer forum becomes more and more messy.
I started with all the best intentions and had planned to paint :

- 1 Chaos terminator lord
- 10 traitor marines
- 5 traitor squats in power armour
- 1 Chaos Dreadnought

This was going well when I decided I would have time to add this guy :

Nothing hard here, the same colour scheme, should do it, yeah but some little creapy voice inside my head told me : "why not paint him Blanchitsu style?, you've never done it before! come on!" So there I was starting to paint the cloak red and starting with chessboard on the edges... (I had to do it on one mini at least)

 

And then I got my hands on the last parts of the confrontation rules I'd been missing for soooooo long. I HAD to make some gangs to play the thing. But why only play skirmish when one can link them with roleplay. There I was starting to write a campaign for 6 bands roaming through the wastes and underground parts of the hive, with senseis, illuminatis, scavvies, pirates and crazy arbitrators judges.

So now I had the rules and scenario frame...

OK let's spend some lurking  time on the bay and try to get my hands on some adventurers and pirates. Let's take the time to see if anyone has some to trade .

Rules - check

Scenario - check

Minis - half checked

Well next step is preparing and basing them hence so time taken from my renegades


Those who have roamed through the issues of White Dwarf containing confrontation pieces remember n°137 with plans to build houses (and great skaven article), you know, these :

Well, tell me one good reason not to try them to have nice scenery to put with my beloved models on the table or for photos. => more time stolen form the renegades...

At this point I realised it was going to be a hard and I decided to halt on the side projects.

I focused back on the renagdes, just to find myself wanting to explore the joys of OSL on the plasma cannon of the dread and decided I would add this lad  to the crew :

OK now it's over, I have got to make this end.

I have now :

- 1 Chaos terminator lord
- 10 traitor marines
- 5 traitor squats in power armour
- 1 Chaos Dreadnought
- 1 jezzail champion
- 1 flying sorceror marine
- about 20 Rogue Trader adventurers on the line
- A scenario to finish

And I'm not taking into account the fact I'm building a RPG video game with friends and I've recently felt the need to do once more all the Sorcery fighting books in a perfect way (i.e. killing all 7 snakes, yeah the 7 of them).


But if all of this in mind, I realise though I'm not finishing what I 'd want to, I am doing things and I am taking pleasure doing them. Wether I have too much enthusiasm or too little time, one thing is for sure, I can consider myself lucky to have such problems...


On a side note, I didn't want to advertise the poor article which started a recent debate but I found an extremely brilliant answer on Laughing Ferret's blog to the prejudices, bias which target us hobbyists and even more generaly, all the ones who don't fit in the mold.

Promise, I'll soon post about real stuff and painted minis (with new pictures and everything)...
 

Behind the wall of sleep - Part 1

Those of you who have read the novel form H.P. Lovecraft will understand this title at the end of the post and those who haven't could  read it and find themselves enjoying one of the best novels form the author (to my taste at least).

Having engaged myself in the oldhammer community a deep further recently and in my hobby since the beginning of this blog, I've come to the point I spend 2-3 hours a day on painting/modelling and not much on watching TV/video games. With the Monthly painting challenge on the oldhammer forum, I've also been slowing down a lot on photos and I've even halted on the khorne champions I was about to finish :

 My way of painting is simple and can be summed up in 1 word:TAYLORISM (prime everything, base colours on everything, shades on everything, highlightson everyting, metals on everythngs and so on...)

I only paint batches or groups, The only mini I've ever painted alone was the Brettonian Hypogriff. Apart from this one, whenever I want to paint a mini I always pick up a few I'll do alongside. Until a month ago I was even still imagining painting my whole chaos 40K army in one go (100+ marines and  5 vehicles...)

For this reason I always pushed the beginning of this army to later. This time I started painting only the Rogue trader part of it and starting a bit gave me the will to paint the rest but splitting it into more reasonable groups. When these are finished, there will be the 2nd edition part and so on...

The other drawback of painting huge batches like I do is that you never finish anything until you reach the final touch on every mini at the same time and you end up with loads of finished minis in little time.

I don't mean to change my way of painting much. I can't paint a mini after another, I like efficient techniques on rank and file minis to save time for more time consumming ones. That apart, I do want to get out of the confort zone to try new techniques and new colours to progress  bit.

Now where am I going if I keep my title in mind? (remember the Lovecraft theme...)

Well, as I was roaming through the lead treasure chest digging for trade fodder, I came across some special minis. I know you all have some like these, it's the ones you made for no reason, ones you had not planned or which were not designed for any particular army you owned.

What you are about to see is no level to be proud of but I loved them at the time and still do now. Amongst all this I found these :

 This one is quite special since it's the first one I ever painted. It's obviously the "battle master" ogre standing on its regular base (sawed like I could at the time). At the time (some 22 years ago) I was already collecting chaos champions and eldars but I couldn't get myself to painting them for I was terrified at the idea of ruining such beauties. One day though, my father told me he still had his Humbrol paint pots he used to paint his warship models with and got them from a closet.

I decided to use these on the ogre since I was less reluctant to ruin a plastic figure first. I got my hands on painting with enamels and using the solvents needed. This mini sealed my fate and my unlimited dedication to chaos... (that and the fact my mother decided that day she hated miniatures and RPG's because it had made her son a depraved and violent kid painting blood on his toys...)

This other one came out.I had completely forgotten it and how I had loved doing it, sculpting a world eater symbol on th ekneepad while listening to metal. (you can notice the blood is still present on the weapon). If I remember right, it must date back the release of the first ogre kingdom amry book for this was the weapon I had been waiting for at the time.

This last one is the best to me. It's a pile of junk and bits which were not meant to fit together and turned great (to me though). Sharp eyes will have spotted a tarentula and legs froms a spacecrusade dreadnought, heavy bolters from the 2nd predator version, guitar string and ork guns. It was not intended to be part of any army nor any game, just for the fun of using pieces.

Lost in so many projects and so much silly deadlines, I found very refreshing to see what had been hiding behind the wall of sleep and which I had long forgotten.

It reminds the progress I've made (though it's not spectacular given the time I've been into this...) and what made me love this. It's why in a close future I will let myself have hobby vacations in the form of small bands or single minis, just for the fun, just to have that special hero or special monster ready for a game I'll never play, just for the pleasure to have done it. I've found a lot of these and many more half finished. I'll pick them as they come and may finish some or let some be.

Anyway, my mind rigt now is centred on finishing this rogue trader renegade army and I'm having a very good time with the dread actually, whenever I finish a part of it, another idea pops into my mind. Let's hope everything will be to your liking and then I really want to turn my attention back to the Khornish and the doomed one...

That, and to the many rogue trader adventurers I've laid my hands on lately...

I still have got some Nurgle fellas to show but the pics are no good and I'm working on a better photo strategy, so pics of good stuff should come in a near future.

Looking in the rearview mirror and saying thank you.

It's been a little more than 6 months now since I started this blog and I've recently had the occasion of stoping to take a look back on what had happened.

This little thinking was initiated by Sean on his blog. He organised a lottery for his followers to celebrate his 2nd year of blogging and I got  the chance to win a copy of the rulebook "and for a bottle of rum"

I'm a recent follower of his blog but I've always appreciated the mature and interesting view in his articles and the fact the subject are treated in order to lead to true discussion. Now wonder how he made it 2 years after and I'm confident for the future of his blog.

More than the quality of the blog, there's something that puzzles me which is how on earth would someone take time and money just to offer a gift to someone reading his tsuff on the net?

Well, my belief is that because it's what a real community is. Sean is a very good exemple of the type of bloggers who take the time to answer comments and welcome new followers, who also takes the time to advertise for their blog if they happen to have one and to dig a bit to know them.

 A lot of blogs have bloomed in the past year and a lot have found their particular way to develop a understanding of our hobby.

From Fuljason's blog

A few months back, I hardly had a couple views per day on this blog, but a sparkle in the form of a post on Orlygg's excellent realmofchaos80s gave me more views in a day than I had on 3 months! I'll be frank about this, I'm not after numbers of views or followers here, but being given the opportunity to show my vision and way through the hobby and getting feedback from more people was a true blessing. Once again, there's no secret behind Orlygg's blog success. Like others he takes time to advertise, to share and to offer to the community the archives and interviews that are most valuable to us. Another example being the oldhammer community gathering organised to share with the more people possible. This community deserves a post on it sown but let's say there are lots of people like Zhu, Thantsants, Orlygg, Harry (and so many more) who contribute to making this very lonely or competitive activity that is collecting and painting miniatures, a very friendly and enojyable experience.

Because all of this is just gaming and fun at the beginning, we've sometimes forgot in the way, what matters the most. I bet most of you will have undergone a hyatus in the hobby and spent more time with beer and representatives of the other gender than with your leadfriends. Lots of us have lost time, energy and money to a desperate run after very single new release or competitivity. And a lot of us have blamed others than ourselves for this loss of fun.

But now we're back, we still have that desire for fantasy and dream, some incredible stories to quench our imagination and to have good time. We still have that desire and we're grown-ups (at least I feel closer to an adult than when I started some 22 years ago). I found Warlord Paul's mission statement to be the exact summary of what is the core of this community with the oldhammer contract and Gaj's.

I believe that it's when we play, live in fantasy worlds and build new world from imagination alone with the will to share that magic with others that this hobby become a bit more and gets so enjoyable.

From Don Hans' blog

I've written a lot today and will shortly be sending photos of miniatures or terrain, modelling things or anything you would expect from this page but I had to let everyone of you know how greatful I am to those who've helped by advertising , reading and commenting not only this one but all the blogs and bloggers who try to build something.

From Private W's blog

At last, I also would like to thank all the people who add little gifts in their trades or ebay sales (you won't find this sort of thing in "buy it now"'s) or  give you the link to a sale that might interest you because they remember what you're after.

I would also like you to read as much as you can from the people on the right column, people like Goblin Lee whos is painting armies in such an enjoyable manner and with such speed it makes anyone cry with awe and jealousy,  Dave King who lots of you know for his very inspirational blog and very useful tips, Nico whos is a true inspiration on both painting, collecting and gaming, Private W whose blog is refreshing like no other with his battle reports and sense of humour, Dale Milward, who allies great collection and painting ability, Fuljason for both collection, painting and nice contributions on blogs or forums, Don Hans who has the ability of painting perfectly retro/oldschhol miniatures with his very personnal touch and finally Mattias Darrow. who should be read by so many more since he's trying to develop every way in his hobby, always pushing his confort zone further.

I've forgotten so many more and hope you'll excuse me, let yourself explore what everyone has to offer and click on links yous don't when you see some, it's always good to have a fresh point of voew to grow in this hobby (or any other subject).

Cheers everyone.

Work in progress and things to come - Fantasy adventurers part 1

There have been much things lately but nothing incredible since nothing is finished yet. I'm starting to get distracted by all the things I see and want to do.


First of all, the rogue trader renegade army is advancing at the pace of a sick koala but it's advancing nonetheless, next step is a personnal dip recipe of black, matt medium and a bit of water to darken everything down. Then will come the fun part of details and metals which will give life to the minis :

Then, I still have some guys who get attention when I have some green stuff left :
This one still needs to have some mould lines removed when I look at the picture.

And then comes Kaleb Daark, the doomed one, you can see him in his most doomed version :

And here in a more glorious pose

While romaing through the leadpile, I came across someone I had forgotten. This is actually my second version of the mini and I know the first is somewhere to be found in that mess of mine.
I find the new arms fit quite well on this antic daemon hunter :

And on top of everything comes a will to get back to my first rpg love.
I got my hands on these for a very reasonable price. I never owned these before, always playing with other's versions. At the time I could only spend my hard earned money on anything chaos. But now I want to give these the treatment I should have back then. (if you ever know where the painted mule comes from, I'd be glad to know since it was kindly offered by the seller). The monster set is missing the chaos warrior and the ogre like it could be expected but I guess in time I shall find these lost on ebay.

And these :

 The Moorcock's eternal champions are my "madeleines de Proust" or the ones I've always been looking for without realising that everything That they had been in front of me this all time.

And then I've got :
- a Battle choas army which will never be truly finished
- a chaos 40k army to finish
- a complete undead army to finish
- a confrontation campaign to build
- roleplay to play and adventurers to paint
- a Roleplay videogame to finish (I'll have to whip the developers and graphists)

Dare tell me that time is not the most precious thing that is...

PS : The contest for the best Khorne champion is still running till the end of the WEEK, go vote for the best for at this rate there won't be a 3rd round! Send links to help !

Cheers

Rogue trader army WIP - 40k Chaos Part 5

I'm currently participating in a painting challenge with other members of the oldhammer forum :

I've decided to enter the challenge with the RT core of my chaos army :

So far, I've only managed to spray them all grey after the black prime to give a first zenithal lighting and give some of them some highlights :

First step : black prime

 2nd step : Zenithal grey spray (I may have been heavy handed on these) :

 3rd step : highlights (11 minis out of 18)

The result is a bit bluish which gives a sort of surreal vibe about them. I hope the black wash will be enough to get them from the "grey" zone to the "light black" one. What I was told to use is a mix of black with matt medium (50% of each) thined with water. This proved to work great for him so I'm keeping the same recipe here.

I have to confess that first time I painted those some 17 years ago, I didn't enjoy the experience much. Details were not clear enough for me and since we were in the midle of the "red era" they appeared weak to me.
This time I actually took the time to outline the details by highlighting everything and though I still hate edgelining, I hav eto confess it's a real pleasure to give them a more subtle approach. I understand now why these looked great in the photos and not in my hand, they are demanding minis but the time spent is well worth it for they have this really stange and dark feeling. one of the best examples came out yesterday, check out Don Hans' version, it looks like Giger himself bent over Hans to guide him...

I apologise for the new backpacks but the old ones I have are coverd in paint and varnish and I still can't get my hands on Dettol in France (I may have a way of getting some from canada though). Chloroxylenol is hard to find here...

Anyway, progression so far :

- basing and priming : 100%
- Zenithal grey spray : 100%
- First highlights : 61 %

What to do next (until end of July):

- finish highlights on everyone
- dip everyone in black+ matt medium + water mix to darken everything
- special parts (flesh, bone, fur,...)
- metals
- details
- varnish


PS : oh and don't forget Round 2 is out for the selection of the best Khorne champion : http://bestminiever.blogspot.fr/

Cheers everyone

More Nurgle followers and the ultimate fun painting challenge - Battle chaos part 20

Here are some more Nurgle champions.

This one is special to me since he is one of the 3 first I got (back when they were packed in lots of 3 for a ridiculously low price). It's the 3rd time I paint this one after making him a chaos marine and then repainting him with a PJ that did'nt suit me.

When I started to paint the other folks, I felt I had to clean him up too and so he went straight in an acetone bath. This time his the most pleasant version (for me at least) and I finally managed to paint him without using any drop of green. I believe the result is good enough to prove Nurgle doesn't always need green (OK the static grass IS green, I 'll give you that).

Nurgle champion with Sword

 The second one is not my favourite of the lot but I do like his dark aura. I believe the snaketongue is what turns me down but I didn't have the courage to alter this mini. Colours on the photos don't show up as bright as they are so I'll need to sort out a new photography method.

Apart from the chaos champion that have had most of my love until now, I've felt it was time to pay attenton to my Rogue trader chaos army as well. It's just at this moment I heard about the fun painting challenge of the oldhammer forum. It was just the perfect occasion to get my fingers moving. Though I was tempted to enter the challenge with my Kaleb Daark, I wanted to give these guys some time and I wanted to present something "Old" enough for an "oldhammer" project.

So here are the primed participants to the project :

- 1 Chaos Dreadnought
- 5 squats with power armour
- 10 traitor marines
- 1 chaos lord in terminator armour

I've only primed and given them a quick highlight with a zenithal grey spray to give more depth to my black, but I still have got plenty of black shades and multiple highlight before it looks good.

The end of the challenge is at the end of July, I'll keep you updated on this one.

Oh and concerning the Khorne champion competition, don't forget to vote if you still haven't : http://bestminiever.blogspot.fr/

We're only 4 days to the end and 2 champions have a comfortable advance on the others but it's not too late to make your favorite  go to the semi finals !

The doomed one rising from the bits box - Battle chaos part 19

Last time I showed you Kaleb's new embodiment he was just a pile of bits roughly assembled with blutak and some magnets.

This time I'm going to show you a little more.

The next step after drilling and placing the magnets was to create a joint of both receiving parts (the legs) so that the chest fits nicely on them. I started from this :

I added a big putty roll around each receiving part and pressed the chest part on them the way it would be when assembled (I also used saliva to be sure the fresh Duro wouldn't stick to the wrong part). This gavec me the print of the chest part. Once dry I only had to cut off all teh exceding material and do a nice putty blending to reach this state :

The very same was done with the heads.

Once this part was done, I could go on with the actual building process !

The building process happened yesterday night and nothing nor anybody was there to stop me so I guess I overdid it a little... I found so many bits I wanted to try I may have used too much.

(I had to use the wolf cloak, giving a mini something sculpted by Jes always reassures me since it can't be a total failure with JG parts)

 You can see on the picture above I've started to alter the axe to give it teeth, the next step being the lower jaw.

Another great interest in using magnets to assemble parts is that you can paint less parts (the chest goes for both mounted and on foot versions) but you can also give the mini different attitudes :

Dreadaxe, you're my weapon and I will always love you, you know that?

Morning everyone, my name is Kaleb and this is Dreadaxe, my daemonic axe aiming right at your skull.

 This magnet strategy also allows me to give an alternate head to represent Kaleb after a long time romaing in the wastes, his vital energy being drained from him by his powers (needs hair but you get the idea) :

 And at the end of his journey, I can even assemble him as a chaos fiend in a "Pete Taylor way"

Next time I'll do the base and show him aside his oldschool version just to have a laugh.

Cheers