Asmodai

This guy is Asmodai  the best Interrogator Chaplain ever, so he gets to wear the biggest bathrobe from the Dark Angels ‘sauna wear’ range.

Rumours are that a new Asmodai model will be coming out next year, perhaps in terminator armour, which I hope is true. I feel the model has not aged well as some others, he is still good but there are some really fine sculpts out there these day.

I play Dark Angels, and the rumours are we are going to get a new codex early next year.  I’m already getting excited about a new Asmodai, and all the other rumours flying around, but I will have to wait and see what comes out.

If you read my post on Chaplain Cassius you will know how I painted this guy, so I wont repeat myself here. I feel this is probably the worst paint job I’ve done for this challenge so far, and that’s my fault. I could have done more with the robes, but I was lazy so the figure didn’t reach its full potential.

Still I look forward to using him in some games, and he is finished and off the list.

MANTIC CHRISTMAS CRAZY BOX

 

Sometimes I am really glad I’m doing my Clean Slate Challenge, and other times…

if you were not aware of Mantic Games you should be! These guys produce a great range of games and miniatures at fantastic prices. Mantic provide you with a cost-effective alternative to other miniature ranges, and allow you to filed much larger armies for your budget.

I’m glad to say I have a large Forgefathers force (one day I will post some pictures of theses guys), and have some Mantic  models on ‘The List’.

I took part in their Kickstarter project for Kings of War, their fantasy tabletop game, so I have loads of Fantasy models to paint as well. I went for an Undead army as I already have an Undead warband for Mordheim, so it felt natural to build on these existing models, even if they were small in number.

In fact it was the arrival of the massive box of Kickstarter models for Kings of War that made me start this challenge in the first place. I really want to start painting these models, but I had so many models already waiting to be blessed by my paint brush I needed to finish my list. Then I could spend the time to paint this new army properly, and not rush them, which is what they deserve.

Any hoo! The reason I’m posting this is that they have another amazing deal at Mantic, their  Crazy Christmas Box which costs £25 for a mass of stuff. This is the equivalent of a 70% saving on the RRP, not something you see very often on miniatures.

http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Special-Offers/Product/Mantic-Christmas-Crazy-Box.html

If you are looking to get some one started in the hobby, looking for a Christmas gift, boost your bits box, collect some interesting models, add to an existing force, get some allies or whatever this is an amazing deal.

But I can’t buy it 😦

Sometimes I hate this Clean Slate Challenge!

Chaplain Cassius

 

OK here we are with another model, this time it’s veteran of the Tyranid Wars Chaplain Cassius, everyone’s favourite Xenophobic cyborg genetic super-soldier zealot .

I have never been very happy with this model, it’s quite busy but without adding anything to the model. Now I’m not saying he is the worst model ever, I’m just saying there is a lot going on in the detail and that can be hard to pull off in a paint scheme that is mostly black.

Obviously a black base coat was the way to begin this model, then I highlighted the black at the edges with Abbadon Black and Bleached Bone, and then added even finer edging, and even lighter highlight.

Now with most highlighting you start by covering a lot of the model surface with your first highlight, and I don’t do that with black. I find the first highlight should be right on the edges and very fine even with the first highlight. Then I give the whole lot a black wash, and it looks pretty good. Its very easy to end up with a grey model, instead of a black one, if you’re not careful.

For those who have red my blog before you will know how I painted the rest of the model. Metal is Leadbelcher with a black wash. Gold is Bestial Brown, then gold, then chestnut wash. Bone and scrolls are brown, Bleached Bone, chestnut ink, Bleached Bone. Skin in brown, Tallarn Flesh, Elf Flesh, chestnut ink. Red is scab red highlighted with Mephiston Red. His hair was Iyanden Deadsun, Sunburst Yellow, chestnut ink.

I guess this model is OK, it was not my favourite to begin with, but I’m happy with the job I’ve done, and i can use him as a Chaplain in Dangles with a combi-flamer.

Most importantly he is off the list.

The Return of 40K UK

 

A while ago I wrote a article on the Pod-casts I listen to, and I didn’t mention 40K UK.

I cant tell you enough that 40K UK is a really excellent way to learn about the tournament scene in the UK, and the current ‘meta’, as well as having a few laughs too. The hosts are regular tournament players and experienced enough to play in the respective teams at the ETC.

The show had been running for well over a year, and I had always made it a priority on my play list. They have a really good pedigree having started as a segment on the 11th Company; in fact I believe Dave Symcox, one of the hosts of 40K UK, still does the occasional spot on the 11th Company.

Well earlier this year they made the choice to go from weekly to monthly, and then disappeared….

Well now  their back!

I was worried they had gone for good, so I hadn’t listed them on my favourites list, however I would recommend everyone to go and listen to the pod-cast, and if you are based here in the UK then its a ‘must listen’ pod-cast! they even have a website:

http://40kintheuk.wordpress.com/

So go check them out

And a long, long, long time ago a certain someone wrote a few articles called The Home Guard for them; now who was that again…?

 

Mephiston Lord of Death

Here we have Mephi’ everyone’s favourite killing machine from the Blood Angels Chapter.

Yes I play Dark Angels, but also never happy to pass up a bargain on eBay. I saw this guy going for £0.99, but he was missing and arm. Well with a simple conversion I put on a Ravenwing sergeants sword arm, and ‘hey presto’ he is ready to drink your blood, and fly round the board causing you a massive headache!

Just one problem to legal ally him to my force I need some troops for him to accompany, but I haven’t got any Blood Angels, and of course I can’t buy any till I have completed my ‘Clean Slate Challenge’!  Curses!

Still he is a very nice model, and he was great fun to paint.

I started with Bestial Brown basecoat all over, then I highlighted his armour up to (“SURPRISE”) Mephiston Red. I like to use a brown as my base for red. The ‘skirt’ was bestial highlighted up with Iyanden Darksun and Bleached Bone, finally washed with a brown ink.

One advantage of using brown as my base coat is that gold, and bone work really well from a brown base as well. So a quick coat of gold on the metal, and a brown wash to antique it finishes the gold bits. while the bone is a coat of Bleached Bone, a brown ink and finally  a Bleached Bone highlight.

The sword is Ledbelcher with a black wash, whilst the hair was Iyanden Darksun, highlighted with a bright yellow.

The skin was a base of Tallarn Flesh, highlighted up with Elf Flesh, and a pale brown ink wash.

The plasma gun was the gold, but the green ‘plasma chamber’ was a bright green, with a Thakka Green wash.

For the base I used the dark brown basing paint again with a few grains of grit sprinkled on for interest.

I feel this model has turned out really well, I’m very pleased with the final look. He is probably the best one I have done from this challenge so far.

Conqueror Turrets and War Mammoth!

 

 

 

 

It’s been awhile since I have posted any of my figs up but rest assured I have been hard at work, so for this post I will put up two of the models I finished last week.

First we have the Forgeworld Conqueror turret that I picked up some time around 2000, and sadly has been languishing around the bottom of my bits box just waiting to be painted up, and stuck on a Leman Russ. Well now she has been painted up a treat, and I will be using her for sure in my next IG game.

Very simple pant job Scab Red, highlighted with the new Mephiston Red, and the metal was Leadbelcher washed with black ink. Very easy and looks good too.

I also decided to paint up a 15 mm War Mammoth; everyone should get to paint a War Mammoth at least once in their life.

Again nothing complicated; the hide/fur was simply Scorched Brown, highlighted up with Bestial Brown and then with a bit of Bleached Bone,  finished off with a brown wash. Tusks are bleached bone with a wash, then bleached bone again The yellow was Iyanden Dark Sun, highlighted with a bright yellow. Finally the metal tusk bits, and the red cloth are done in the same as the turret above (because I was painting them at the same time so it was easier that way).

I used the dark brown texture paint from Citadel I think it was called Sturland Mud, and sprinkled a little grit over it. When it was dry I washed around the grit with a brown ink just at the edges to finish the base.

Again I’m happy with these guys I didn’t work very hard on them and they cam out looking a lot better than I imagined they would.

Phew!

 

 

Well my Clean Slate Challenge has already paid off, you may recall my previous post about the sale going on at Maelstrom Games.

Well unfortunately I have bad news as Maelstrom went under, and was bought by Wayland Games. Which is good news for me as I would definitely have bought something in the sales, and who knows if I would have got them in the end.

So it’s like I’ve already saved myself £50, kind of, as I would have spent that much if I hadn’t started my challenge.

So at least it’s good news for me.

The Dreadnought

 

Well I have been away in Scotland, but I had this little beauty in the bag since last week, knowing I would be away.

He is my Dredd, I have owned him for about half my life (that’s 18 years for those who are good at maths) and I had stripped the model with some FPS, so I was ready to do him some justice finally. I painted him really badly 18 years ago (I used to love to drybrush) and he has been languishing in a box for several years, due in part to my embarrassment at the horrible paint job he had.

I wanted him to look all battered and weathered, and I achieved this with washes and thin layers of Bleached Bone paint. I simply under-coated with skeleton bone spray, then a brown wash.

Then I painted patches in Lead Belcher to represent scratched and bashed parts, where the paint can come off, then I highlighted round these in thin layers of bleached bone, before finally I gave the metal a black wash.

I picked out the blue lenses, targeting systems etc… with a light blue, and gave them a dark blue wash, really easy.

The model looks really good, and was quite easy to paint because I planned ahead and did all the battle damage metal bits before I highlighted the bone areas.

I think he’s ready to battle again and I’m very pleased with how he turned out.