Return of the Fists

What started off as a few days break from painting yellow ended up being two months long. However finally after much delay I've started back on adding additional units to my pre-heresy Imperial Fists army. First on the list of things to do is building a ten astartes strong Volkite Tactical Support squad. So far I've completed three (including the Sergeant) with another two part painted on my desk.

Low Standards....

The sudden arrival of weather vaguely resembling a UK spring has curtailed the amount of time I have had to paint things. Unusually for me, I found I couldn't sit indoors during the evening while the sun was still up. No doubt this won't last and I'll soon be back to my usual, bunker dweller demeanour soon.

Normally two miniatures would take a couple of evenings work maximum, however these two have been knocking about for several weeks now. As previously mentioned, the fact that one is a Standard Bearer didn't exactly help.

Death Guard Cerberus Completed

If anyone was wondering why I hadn't posted much in the last week it was for a number of reasons, one of which was I was trying to complete the Death Guard Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer I'd built a few weeks back.

Having finally completed the weathering this evening, here's the finished model.

The limits of multi-tasking

As I've previously posted, I have a low boredom threshold and historically have suffered from painting army fatigue (better known as oh-good-grief-not-another-one syndrome). In order to make much progress I have to paint more than one thing at a time, else I grow bored of the latest paint-scheme and get distracted by the TV, latest video game or other stuff.

However there comes a time where painting multiple different armies at once becomes counter-productive. This happened to me last week.

Random update is.... Random

I'm not sure if it's the side-effects of too much chocolate but my latest batch of miniatures has taken a bit of a random turn.

Death Guard Contemptor Dreadnought

I find public holidays are great for getting things done and yesterday was no exception. In-between buying chocolate eggs for the Lord-of-Terror I found the time to complete a couple of projects that have been cluttering up my work-desk for the last few weeks.

Death Guard Praetor and Command

A quick update today. Due to a number of non-painting related issues I've hardly had anytime in the last week to put brush to model. I finally found enough time tonight to complete my Death Guard Praetor and another Command Squad Astartes.

Death Korps of Krieg Superheavy Reinforcements

I've been meaning to post this for a while but somehow have always ended up being distracted. The curse of a very limited attention span I guess. I bought this kit about four years ago, soon after it was released by Forgeworld. It sat, resplendent, in it's grey undercoat for almost four years until this Christmas when I finally decided to start painting it. Somewhere along the line it lost one of the mudguards and suffered a bit of damage to a few details. However I'm glad I finished painting it eventually.

Death Guard Mark II Tactical Squad Finished

After a rather busy weekend visiting relatives I managed to find time last night to paint the remaining members of my first Mark II Tactical Squad. I also made a start on a small Mark IV Command Squad to accompany a Death Guard Praetor that I'd made.

More pictures can be found after the break...

When Death Guard Go Bad

I've been toying with the idea of collecting a post-heresy, Death Guard gone bad army to mirror my pre-heresy loyalist Death Guard. There are a number of potential benefits, one being that I think I have come across a way of painting Chaos Death Guard which is a nice balance of Nurgle 'Ickky' and the more worn pre-heresy Death Guard colour-scheme.

Death Guard Progress

One of the reasons I've been nervous in the past about collecting a Death Guard Heresy Era force has been the somewhat daunting prospect of painting one or more vehicles. White on an individual miniature is fairly easy to achieve reasonably well but I wasn't sure how I would tackle a larger model.

Therefore before I went mad on the Forgeworld site with next month's mortgage (I joke - just in case my Lord-of-Terror is reading this), I 'borrowed' an unpainted Diemos Pattern Rhino and tried out an experimental paint scheme.

Legion Apothecary Part Two

After finishing my Imperial Fists Apothecary I have managed to find the time to complete a Death Guard one.

Legion Apothecary Part One

In between all the Death Guard, Daemons and other random models I've painted this week I managed to complete a Mark IV Apothecary I'd had on my desk since Christmas. Here are a few shots of the finished model.

Painting Pre-Heresy Death Guard

As previously requested by a few readers, here is my method for painting Pre-Heresy Death Guard. After a few test models I've been pleasantly surprised how quick it is to execute.

Krieg Update

I'm sure I'm developing an allergy to the colour yellow. Luckily I've no end of other miniatures to paint including the rest of my first squad of Death Korps of Krieg Grenadiers. In between painting yet more Daemons and a seemingly endless procession of power armour variants, I've completed another three Death Korps Grenadiers.

Death Guard Incoming

I posted a few pictures of a Death Guard test miniature I'd painted. I was happy enough with the outcome to add a block of Mark II Plate Astartes to my latest order from Forgeworld. Luckily I've found time this weekend to start painting a tactical squads worth of Death Guard astartes.

Armoured Proteus Redux

I realised that while I had finished this a while back, the previous set of photographs of the completed model didn't (in my opinion) do it justice. So while awaiting something drying, I've taken some new photographs. Hopefully they're a bit better and show off the finished model.

Deimos Predator Executioner

The last week has been more hectic than I would have liked. Unfortunately as a result the time available for painting random things yellow or green has been severely curtailed. It has taken considerably longer for me to finish my first Predator Executioner than I hoped (or expected).

However it is now pretty much complete.

Progress, if a bit random....

Has to avoid low bridges...

One side effect of trying to keep a level of momentum up by painting multiple armies at once is that I don't make much progress on any single army that quickly. Especially when they're yellow... However I have completed the Vexilla Astartes for my 20 legionnaire strong tactical squad and have made a good start on four more Astartes.

Tutorial: Painting Nurgle Demons With Washes

Finished Nurgle Plaguebearer

A couple of people have requested information on how I painted a few previously posted Nurgle Plaguebearers and Chaos Space Marines.

So here's a short tutorial on how I do this.

Mark IV Sergeant and Vox Astartes

Imperial Fists; The Dancing Legion

I finally have got bored of taking photo's with my Camera Phone and resolved to dig out my old camera (which at least could pretend to have a variable depth-of-field). What I had forgotten was how complex even the most simple of dedicated digital cameras feels compared to the simplicity of a camera phone. I've spent much of this evening, which I'd ear-marked for painting, muttering darkly and clicking at random buttons in a photo editing tool.

Another short deviation...

Break out the disinfectant...

Okay, I admit it. At times I have the attention span of a goldfish... a very easily distracted goldfish. I realise this and have over the years come up with fairly elaborate coping mechanisms. Of which, some have even been successful.

Breacher Squad Part 4

Another two Astartes completed

During the odd moments I managed to drag myself away from Dead Space 3 I managed to complete a few more Breacher Astartes. I must admit, I'm getting bored with painting shields (and I'm rethinking whether I'll include another squad) but overall, I'm pleased with these two.

Death Guard Test Model

Grubby

While waiting for various shades of yellow paint to dry, I spotted a set of sorry looking Mark III astartes I'd painted at the beginning of last year (when GW brought out the new paint range). They looked like I'd hit them with a paint roller and I immediately hit them with a large dose of Fairy Oven Cleaner (cuts through acrylic paints pretty quickly). However the intricate nature of Forgeworld's armour designs meant I struggled to get all the pain out of the crevices and ridge lines.

Given the cost per miniature of Forgeworld is considerably higher than GW's plastic range, I resolved to find a purpose for these 'not-quite-pristine' miniatures.

I've always wanted a Pre-Heresy Death Guard army, all the way back to when I read the original 6 line fluff in Space Marine around the seizure of the frigate Eisenstein (the was about may 1990.......). However previous attempts have never really met my expectations (and certainly won't be posted here).

Standard Bearer

Finished... at last

I may have previously mentioned that I dislike painting Standard Bearers. I dislike it... a lot. However this particular miniature has been knocking about on my painting desk for several weeks and no amount how much I pretended otherwise, I needed to finish him.

So I gritted my teeth and got on with it.

Fellblade Completed

Bet it doesn't do many miles to the gallon

The Fellblade has been a project I've been working on since before Christmas. I finished the basic construction pretty quickly, even though some of the resin components were unfortunately fairly warped (hot water and a hairdryer worked wonders). However the completion of the paintwork took a lot longer.

I'll be honest, I was pretty intimidated by the prospect of so much yellow paint.

More Death Korps....

As I've previously posted about, I'm trying to work my way through the vast backlog of Forgeworld and GW miniatures that I've managed to create. During the week I finished my first Death Korps of Krieg HQ Squad using a quick wash method I'm trying to use.

I'm not sure I'd want to carry that in a high wind....

Breacher Squad Part 3

My brief detour into anything-but-yellow has ended... probably. With the extra painting hours a weekend brings, I've managed to finish a number of additional miniatures which have been staring at me sullenly from the edge of my desk, incluing two more of the Mark III Breacher Squad.

More grubby yellow models ahoy

Painting a Diemos Pattern Rhino - Step by Step (ish)

Back before Christmas I foolishly purchased a number of Diemos Rhinos to complement my planned Imperial Fists legion. For a while they just sat in the part opened box while I worked up the courage to tackle the large expanses of yellow necessary.

Finshed Rhino

Excuse me, I think the blood bank is that way

My sudden alergy to all things yellow continues and while I still want to keep the momemtum that I've built up in the last month. So... I started painting Pre-Heresy armour different colours including Blood Angels, Emperor's Children and lurking half finished on my desk, a couple of Sons of Horus.

Here's the Blood Angel.

Not a yellow in sight

A short break from painting yellow...

I admit it. If I see much more yellow paint I'm likely to go insane (or more insane for those who already know me). In a desperate and probably futile attempt to stave off madness, I've taken a short break from painting more yellow. I've also been exploring the wonders of washes...

It goes THUDD....supposedly

How I paint yellow - part 2

Following on from my previous post on painting yellow here's the second part.

Here's some I finished earlier

Mark IV Tactical Squad Part 2

I'm always surprised when I manage to get more than half a miniature done in a day. Given that the whole world outside seems to have succumbed to snowmagedon I've had the chance to get my head down and paint. As a result, I've have completed the next three of my Mark IV tactical squad.

Mark IV Vexilla and two Tactical Marines

Land Raider Armoured Proteus

It has been snowing heavily all morning which has granted me the chance to complete a couple of additional projects. The main one being the Land Raider Armoured Proteus I've had knocking about in a part-finished state since Christmas.

How I paint yellow part 1

I've been meaning to post a tutorial on how I paint my marines for a while. According to the general perception of more painting forums, my friends and my own bitter experience, yellow is possibly the most difficult colour to bring off sucessfully. For years I'd avoided as my previous adventures had all ended up with much swearing like a sailor and the unfortunate model being consigned to the bin.

So what changed my mind?

Mark II Tactical Squad Part 3

While waiting on some possibly overly-enthusiastically washed Mark IV marines, I took the time to take photographs of the completed Mark II Tactical Squad.

Aren't you a bit hairy to be an Imperial Fist?

Too much yellow was threatening to drive me insane, combined with the discovery of an annoying mis-match in shades between batches of marines. Normally I would have slouched off to watch TV or played a random shoot-em-up on one of the consoles cluttering up my desk. However with a brief, no doubt not-to-be-repeated, flash of inspiration I instead decided to paint something else.

I've probably got enough un-opened boxes of GW miniatures to start up my own shop. Almost at random I selected a set of Wolf-Guard 40k terminators. Seeking inspiration I remembered a White Dwarf article from just before Christmas where a much more talented painter had completed a set of Space Wolf sucessor chapter models. The post can be found here.

I have shamelessly (and considerabley more ineptly) copied his excellent paint scheme.

Still I'm pretty happy with how it turned out - the picture above really doesn't do it justice unfortunately.

Random Reinforcements

Inspired by the recent release of the Dark Angels codex, I've actually spent some more time painting. I've complete a Sergeant and Nuncio-Vox Marine for my Mark IV tactical squad and finished off the Sergeant for the first Heavy Weapons Squad. Finally, as I seemed on a bit of a roll (perhaps it was just down hill) I started the weathering of my latest Landraider. Now I'm off to look for a packet of quavers... rock n'roll!

Cataphractii Terminator Squad Part 2

I've finally found the time to complete the remaining two Cataphractii marines necessary to finsh my first Cataphractii squad. As mentioned in a previous post it took too many tweaks to arrive at a result I was happy with and consequentialy some of the paintwork isn't as crisp as I wanted. However I've now finalised how I want to paint the next squad.

Command Squad - Part 1

As usual my plans to keep to a regular painting schedule don't last long. A combination of work and general apathy conspired to stop me from finishing any miniatures for the last week and a half. Today I managed to find a couple of hours to at least take photos of the starts of my first command squad based around the Legion Champion and Communications Marines.

Contemptor Dreadnought - Finished

I finished my first Contemptor pattern Dreadnought over the holidays but I didn't get round to posting the pictures until today. This model was my first attempt at a large coverage of yellow and frankly I made a bit of a mess of it the first time round.

It took scrubbing down with oven cleaner and much swearing before I was happy with the second attempt.

Mark IV Squad and Rhino Part I

Unfortunately Christmas festivities seemed to disrupt my painting schedule more than I was anticipating and I didn't manage to paint nearly as much infantry as I hoped to. However I did complete the first marines of a planned 20 strong tactical squad.