Still doing minor updates

Ok, since i touched two of my armies, time to split my update into two categories for ease of reading etc etc.

Space Wolves

Did more work on the two minis that were previously bearing only their black undercoat (pic of thse two from AGES ago). So the base coating is going ok, more is getting done on a daily basis, so at this point in time, i have FOUR models actually in the proper painting process, and one base. Although, for future notice, im definitely going to be hesitant about glueing torsos to legs, especially if there are dangly parts in front of the crotch eg necklaces, wolf tails. Another lil "concern" that has come up is how i am going to proceed with the next paint later on the bases. Since im trying to go a light blue-grey color to complement the white snow, im thinking either a heavy dry brush on the bases in Wolf Grey OR a heavy wash of Wolf Grey. Obviously, in the end it probably doesnt matter as a good part of the base will be covered in snow, but obviously for the sake of painting i still want it to look good. Im leaning towards heavy washes, as i can build up some tone from that, so i can keep a faint Sombre grey coming up in areas of shadow, whilst higher peaks will be more of a pure Wolf Grey. However any ideas/suggestions would be great. Hoping to do a lil bit more work tonight and then i will take pictures, as im sure Tobias is just dying to see what im doing. So there is a SLIGHT hope that ill get some of these hunters soon prior to the middle of the year.

Sisters of Battle

As i DONT want to sacrifice any of my existing models to test schemes (despite the fact i know i COULD strip the paint) ive gone ahead and used two old space marine models as test paint dummies. I know it isnt the best, but 1) i wont be using the marines against, as they didnt go through the paint stripping all too well 2) i only really wanted their missle launchers and 3) i dont lose any of my precious SoB models. Both have been undercoated black, although a second thin wash will do them good. After that, it will be onto the base coats, one being Light Grey and one will be Light Blue. What colors am i going to use you ask? For the Light Grey, it will be VERY similar to painting my Wolves, in that i will use a basecoat of Sombre Grey, followed by Wolf Grey and lastly by Ghostly Grey. Yeah, i know its very Space Wolves like, but its still different enough in my books. Since i am doing THREE paint coats, i actually WONT be black lining these models, and will rely on the sombre grey and wolf grey coats as my form of shading. So i can be a bit more "sloppy" with these models. Although black lining would be nice, i dont see the point if im going to have a total of four layers of paint on the actual mini itself. So that will actually be a welcome change. However, we'll see how it goes, as i may be able to annhilate one of the steps in there, who knows.

As for the Light Blue, i am wanting to work up to an Enchanted Blue color, so im thinking ill have a base coat of Ultramarines blue and then move to Enchanted blue. In this case, i MAY black line, unless i can find a third paint color, so i can annhilate the need to black line. However, this will need a quick visit to the Vallejo AND GW paint wheels to see. Unfortunately, the light grey scheme will be tested in pure vallejo paints, whilst the blue will be back to the GW paints, as i havent got an extensive range of blues.

For the red robes, im thinking of using a "freebie" model from a WD from ages past. Some random Mordheim figure that was with the issue and since it has a cloak, it will work well as a test mini for the robes. Havent decided if the robes will be pure red inside and out, or if ill have an inside color and an outside color. Any thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated. I may have to pull in a small favor from Vash to give some assistance in the SoB area, as he seems quite knowledgable in the army given his work on the B&C.

Keep watchin this space and dont hesitate to post a comment or two. My goodness you people, SOO SOO LAZY!! How do you expect me to improve as a painter without advice/suggestions :P



-TAS

Another Minor Update

Did another few hours of painting today (didnt do any yesterday). Getting close to having a Hunter completed, as he now has BOTH his arms attached!! He is looking pretty ok actually, doesnt look too "wolfie" to me though, but im still far from finished, and he IS minus his head, shoulder pads and backpack, so that may add some extra flavor. Started undercoating a few more random parts here and there, but so far things are going ok. Didnt touch the test Thousand Sons mini again (sorry Avoghai) but we'll see how things go. It's a few more days til the end of March and i am still determined in finishing SOMETHING, just not sure what yet. In saying that, the new April Goals will be published in a few days time, although i suspect it will (yet again) revolve around my Grey Hunters, but i am making progress on them. Tomorrow might be a bit more of a putty day for me to sort out pack markings and fill in some gaps here and there so i can make more progress on these Hunters. Ill also take the time to remove any unwanted purity seals! Since ive never seen a purity seal on a Space Wolf before, and i believe there is some fluff justification for this as well. Which aint bad, the remains of the seals can go to my Sisters army. Might do a lil bit more work later on, but we'll see how things go, as i am expected to do some work AT work today since ive been lazy the past two days. I will probably get pics of what i have done tomorrow, just to see what easter break work i actually did. Otherwise, thats about it, although i may try and find some spare mini's (of the Space Marine variety) to test out my two sisters schemes, as i dont want to go wasting my own Sisters miniatures to test two different schemes. I know im sticking to dark red robes, so all i need to do is sort out the armor color (light grey vs light blue). Thank goodness Ultramarines are now a dark blue, as it wont seem too Ultramarine like to use a light blue. Although since its Enchanted Blue im looking at, it shouldnt be too bad. Keep watching this space as always.



-TAS

Did 2 Hours worth of painting this morning.

First off, i DIDNT get any pics, so dont ask :P However, if i do more work later today, i may get a new Paint in Progress shot of the minis. I didnt touch my Thousand Sons test mini (may do that later today), but i did focus more on my wolves. So what did i do today you ask? I went over those ruins on the bases again with a heavy dry brushing of Cold Grey and its looking alot better. Need to do a light dry brush with Stonewall Grey and that should be those ruins all sorted out. Started up on the metal areas on bits and pieces here and there with a nice dry brushing. Need to run over with a black wash to reduce some of the brightness and do a light dry brush of either Mithril Silver (GW) or Chainmail (GW). Otherwise, back to the Sombre Grey again. Finished up an arm for one of the Hunters, worked on a torso and started up on the two Hunters who were previously undercoated. At this stage i found out my standard brush (from GW) was starting to lose its ability to be of any painting use, so im going to have to try and get some new brushes tomorrow since places SHOULD be open on saturday. I thought it was relatively productive, especially for two hours. I'll see what i can do about pics later on, as im sure ill want to undercoat some new parts here and there and MAYBE ill get a hunter done by the end of the easter break. Then again, now that i think about it, ill get CLOSE to finishing a single hunter, as i know i want to do some quick GS work on the shoulder pad for pack markings, as i KNOW i dont have a steady enough hand to be painting markings on by free hand.

Keep watching this space, as im sure there will be a few updates for this easter break.


-TAS

As promised, here is a pic for the current work i have done on my Hunters. Not much work really, although i did touch up the bases a bit so the ruins arent so grey grey looking, although they look pretty darn black again. In the future, ill just use dry brush techniques to pick out the colors etc. The torso and the right arm havent been thrown in, sure they are undercoated, but i didnt feel like adding them in. The Wolf Pelt, i dunno, its ok i guess, but i think my technique needs some more work for future pelts and furs.

Since i took a few pics, im only showing one pic here (and im not adding it to my photobucket), however i did take two additional pics (one for Duregar and one for Avoghai), so you can probably guess what they are!

Here they are (as links):

PiP of my Thousand Son Marine

Digicam pic of my SW test Miniatures

Any imput would be nice on the PiP Thousand Sons and the Grey Hunters.


Latest PiP Shot of my Grey Hunters. Didn't include the Torso on the left Hunter, or the other arm for the Left Hunter. Further spiel, read above the pic.


-TAS

Ooops!

I believe i was supposed to have put up some new images, namely of the PiP for my Thousand Sons mini (now that i know how to go about it) and a new image for Duregar of my Space Wolves Test minis. However today was kinda all over the place, so it will have to wait til tomorrow when i suspect everything will be actually normal, i hope. Im also thinking ill do a new PiP shot of my current Grey Hunters as well, otherwise, thats about it really.

A short update, nothing too major.



-TAS

Random Comments...

After chatting with Tobias on MSN about some really random things... Here are two of the bigger highlights of the Conversation....

The truth of the two missing Legions
One of the two missing legions were very corrupt, to the point of CHEESE! Their Cheesy Primarch, Pete Haines attempted a up-rising against the Emperor, however due to the cheese his legion possessed, it took the combined power of the remaining 19 loyal legions to exterminate the Cheese Legion. As a result, one of the Legions in turn was eradticated, leaving the currently known 18 Space Marine 1st founding Legions. The incident was forever expunged and the two destroyed legions were to be forever held in secret, their disappearance to always be pondered about.

"Cheese for the Pete God, Blocks of Cheddar for his Throne"
- Chant of a Cheese Marine



-TAS

Urgh, horrible mini to paint!!

Im going to seperate things into armies for ease of writing stuff!

Space Wolves
Did some MINOR work here and there. Worked on the pelt for one Hunter, and ehh, it is so-so i guess. I guess i'm far from used to painting a pelt over a robe. Sure, it still looks ok, but at first glance, one could almost swear it was chainmail. So, its possible my sculpting of the pelt wasnt so crash hot to begin with. Alas, alot of my pelt work was PRIOR to the discovery of a short and quick sculpting guide for fur. Didn't do any of the metal work, as i dislike painting with metallic paints, but i guess ill do that within the next day or so. I also did a bit of a black wash over the ruins on the bases and it DID help. I think i might do a secondary black wash over that and then just dry brush with cold grey and a very light quick dry brush of stone wall grey. I did start undercoating some new parts, namely the arm of the Hunter whose body is actually done (well semi done) and the torso for the pair of legs. I'll probably try a different color for the pelt this time around, as i did go for a grey lookin pelt already. Im thinking if i do grey pelts again in the future, im just going to basecoat it completely with cold grey, do a black ink/wash and then dry brush with stonewall grey and ghost grey. Otherwise, that being said, the hunters are getting there.

Sisters of Battle
I had some more thought go into the color scheme and im thinking if i do the grey, it will definitely be a light grey of sorts. On the blue side of things, im thinking i might do a light blue, something along the lines of enchanted blue, assuming im not heavily using it for my Emperor's Children army, which i doubt i am. Of course, in saying that, its going to be difficult to do a paint test, as i dont want to waste models trying two schemes out, however doing the painting in say paint shop pro, isnt as reliable.

Thousand Sons
OH MY GOODNESS!!! So i started painting up the test mini and urgh, it has been the worst model i have painted in heck knows how long. The extreme "detail" of the mini makes it difficult to paint it, and even then, im confused on some areas. A note to Avoghai if you read this, the current Thousand Sons i know have a set of 'ridged' arms, how do you go about painting these? Do you just paint the high ridge areas with the standard blue and leave the deep trench areas in shadow? Or something else entirely??

Black lining this particular model hasnt been good, so it will probably be of a lower standard of painting for me, especially when compared to my new Wolves. However, i did get alot done, the only sad thing is, i think i am using the wrong blue, as it looks like it could be Night Lords marine than a Thousand Sons. However, IF that is the case, i can buy a new lighter blue and use that, and use the current base coat as a shading coat for some areas, since the black lining isnt working very well for me on this mini.

I didnt get a pic of the Thousand Sons mini (Sorry Avoghai) or the work i did on the Wolves (sorry Tobias) but i will get a new pic within the next day or two. I'll probably post them as links rather than actual images in my blog, as i can only seem to be able to load a single image per entry (although i have yet to confirm this concept). I think the next painting session i have, ill just focus more on my wolves and let that Thousand Son get coated in a few days worth of dust (bad pun) as im not ready to start working on him again. With the easter break coming up (although sadly enough, i WILL be at work for most of it, but fortunately not full on days) ill try and get some more work done and maybe attempt to finish a single Hunter.




-TAS

New Update (Just for Tobias)

Here you go Tobias, an update JUST for you :P The only stuff that has changed in this pic from the last pic is that i have completed the base coating on the left marine. Doesnt look too bad actually. Next stages are to work on his torso area and his wolf pelt. The marine on the right only has his torso blu tac'd on, as it would have been a pain to paint the pelt given how close it is to parts of the base without screwing it up completely. So my Hunters are FINALLY taking shape and form. The black lining isnt too bad, although the arm for the marine on the left has some really poor black lining here and there. The bases (ruins) need more work. After discussing with Tobias, im probably going to go over them with a black ink and then dry brush cold grey (vallejo) followed by stonewall grey (vallejo). Hopefully that will make it look alot more pleasing. Alas, i need to purchase a bottle of black ink (GW) as im not up for making an ink out of my own black paint. I cant think of anything else to add at this point in time.

As for the sisters front, still in thought about that, although im thinking i might do a light grey for the armour (not lavender as my photobucket test images may show). There were a few other colors i thought about, like turquoise, but i think the light grey might be nice. It's a shame i dont have any spare sisters models to use for test purposes, so the first one has to be dead perfect *groans*.

Before i forget, the concept of blogging has caught on, and Tobias now has one, here is the link (assuming i can link it right):

Tobias's Blog

If it doesnt work, ill just edit or put it in again at a later date with the actual address.


New pic of my Grey Hunters (just for Tobias). Here you can see the finished stages of the base coat of the marine on the left. The marine on the right has his torso blu-tac'd on for the image. You can also see the work done on the bases, but that needs to be redone with some black inking and dry brushing. For more details, read the stuff BEFORE this pic! This will also be placed on my photobucket account as well.



-TAS

Did some more Touching Up

I did a bit more work on that Grey Hunter from the previous image, so it doesnt look as black in some areas as it did before. I think i have done as much as i can on my fine detail brush and need to move into the finer detail brush. Then from that, i can start painting up the pelt and torso area. I also started painting up the 'rubble' parts on some bases, however im a bit lost on how to paint it so it looks 'realistic' and rubble like. It was originally undercoated in Black and i just painted over it in Cold Grey (Vallejo). I'm thinking i might try a black ink over the rubble, to pick out some of the details (if any) and then perhaps dry brush from there on. There was a technique in the How to Paint Citadel Miniatures, and if i recall correctly was detailing a dabbing? technique and that may help me give the rubble some form of texture, particularly on the small flat parts. I didnt take a pic (sorry Duregar) but i'll see how things go. It's a shame i dont have a proper bottle of black ink.

I also had a the weird thoughts of actually (sadly) making up pre-mixed paint pots. Not sure if i'd use my Vallejo paints or Citadel ones, but we shall see. The main thought that brought this about was the fact highlighting Sombre Grey (Vallejo) with Wolf Grey (Vallejo) isnt a good idea, as Wolf Grey is ALOT brighter.

Any ideas on either above points be great, as well as a few ideas for my Sisters army be terrific too. And yes, i am aware that only ONE person is currently reading this blog, but ill get around to that eventually.

Keep watchin this space, as i suspect there will be an update tomorrow.



-TAS

Just to make Duregar Happy!!

Here you go Duregar, a pic of what i am currently working on. As you can tell, im a horribly slow painter!! However, if you look carefully at the far left legs, you may see WHY im taking so long. The marine second from the left is still in progress, as i need to use my fine detail brush to get at some of the areas. That marine is also sportin' one of the pelts i made from putty, so it will be interesting to see how that turns out. You can also see the beginnings of my snow bases, but they are far from completed. I did do about 30mins worth of work tonight (ok, maybe saying it was "30 mins worth" is a bit of an overstatement). None the less, some work WAS made tonight. I think i might start picking out some of the rubble with more traditional grey colors within the next few days. And keep painting up the patches on the guy who is semi base coated. The two on the far right can wait a bit, but they will get their turn eventually. Im actually surprised that i managed to get the pic to look alot better in Paint Shop Pro by playing with the Brightness/Contrast to really brighten up the pic. I'll also give whoever guesses the owner of the stray legs right, 5 points :P (Hint: Check my Photobucket account).

Im also in the process of rethinking my Sisters of Battle colors. Although i was thinking grey armor, with the new Wolves army, im less convinced that is the right way to go. The only down side is that it doesnt leave me with much options. With my Dark Angels, Thousand Sons, Emperor's Children and Space Wolves armies, ive already used 95% of the available color palettes available. I think i havent touched yellow, but i dont think i will, not for my Sisters. Im trying to avoid the standard schemes used in the more commonly known Sisters Orders, thus no black, silver, red or white. Sure, im using red robes, but that works with my Sisters Order, plus i rarely paint red robes. I could try a light blue shade, but im not sure. I just wish there was an easy flash painting guide for sisters available like the Space Marines one, as it would make life so much more easier. Currently, i just go painting a Sisters pic image to test color schemes. In the end, i dont think im anywhere near closer to determining a final color scheme for my sisters.

However, i will end my rant there and pick it up next time.



A Paint in Progress pic of my Space Wolves. You'll see that im trying to do the whole black lining thing again (Far Left Legs). Im sure ill add some stuff by editing the post through blogger!




-TAS

Did a WEE bit of work.

I managed to do about maybe 45 minutes worth of painting tonight. Just touched up some harder to paint areas on a set of legs and did some painting on another Grey Hunter. At this point in time, black lining is a HUGE pain in the backside, but im slowly motoring i guess. I would take pictures, but i dont think its really necessary at this point in time. Might be able to get the random set of legs done within the next few days if i really put some effort into it, that way i can blue-tac the model together and take a picture of it for the whole world to see.

Im also still trying to figure out how im going to handle the test Thousand Sons mini. Since its an old skool mini, its a bit tricky in some areas, so i think a bit of a study of the minis in the Chaos codex is in order at least. However, it is only a test mini so it doesnt need to be exactly how i paint it. This is case with my Space wolves, as the detail on the current minis has been a pain to deal with, compared to the simple marines of the paint set.

Hopefully ill have another mini update tomorrow.



-TAS

Pre-Paint pic of my Thousand Sons Test Mini

So here we go, as i promised, a pic of the test mini being used for my Thousand Sons. I wont be going too outlandish with the scheme and it will actually be the nice traditional colors (thought i'd paint one army in tradiational colors). The pic of the mini with its undercoat was rather dark, so i didnt put it to the blog, but i will post the address of my Thousand Sons gallery at photobucket. On the note of photobucket, whoa, i finally come back and now its got the new function of being able to link back to a blogging program, so im rather impressed to be honest.

Goals for March, umm, from what i can think of, here they are:

March Goals

- Paint up Test Thousand Sons Mini
- Continue painting/converting Space Wolves Grey Hunters

Thats about it really. I suspect ill do other things, but those are the ones i want to aim for this month!

Keep watching this space!!!




-TAS





*EDIT*

Doh, had to edit the post cos Photobucket made it look REAL weird with the formatting. I also forgot to put the link to my photobucket (Thousand Sons Section)

http://photobucket.com/albums/v299/Angelus01/Thousand%20Sons/