Happy Birthday to my Clean Slate Challenge

It was exactly a year ago last Friday that I started work on this project. Unfortuneatly with work, social and family commitments this is the first chance I’ve had to get on a computer and write a post.

Firstly thanks to everyone who has come on and had a look around my blog over the year, because it’s really encouraging for me to see that someone has taken the time to look at my articles and pictures. So again thank you to everyone who has visited, helped, advised or given me words of encouragement over the year.

I was really wanting to get everything painted before the end of the year, and I’m sorry but that didn’t happen. Instead I pushed myself to get as much done as I could, and I managed to get another eleven models completed off the list. This has left me tantalisingly close to completion, with just nine models left to paint.

In the big scheme of things that’s really not so bad.

  

Over the last few days I’ve managed to get my five Drakkarim models painted (and yes they are pink as requested by Dan, who kindly gave them to me for my Birthday on the understanding that they would be painted pink), an Imperial Priest, the last two Hasselfree miniatures, who bear an uncanny resemblance to the guys from Shaun of the Dead, and I painted and converted two of the three Space Marine Sergeants into Plasmagunner Space Marines for my Dark Angles army (one of the three sergeants  was so badly damaged after stripping I had to throw him away, as he was unsalvageable) .

All in all it was a pretty good attempt at getting as many models finished before the year was up.

lets have a look at how the list currently shapes up:

Things Left To Paint:

3x Ravenwing Bikes

1x Dark Angel Captain

1x Space Marine Captain

1x Librarian

1x Converted Marine Standard Bearer

1x Chaplain on a Bike

1x Cthulhu

This is a total of 9 models left to paint from an original list of 378, meaning I’ve painted a total of 369 models so far.

That means I’m 97.6% complete.

Now I agree that’s not the 100% we were looking for, but what’s 2.4% between friends.

So what happens now?

I plan to finish these last 9 models in the next month and then I can start looking at the future. I’ve lots of fantasy models to paint from Mantic, as I did their Kings of War Kickstarter, I have few 15mm models that need finishing off too.

What I think I will most likely be doing is ‘project based’ work for 40K; so for example I want to do a Veteran Squad with Combi-Weapons for my Dark Angels, and I can now plan and execute that project in one go, without being held back by being distracted by all other things that need to be finished off first.

Yes I will still keep updating the blog as I get these ‘projects’ completed, as I know the reality is that any 40K army is never really finished, you are just pausing between the painting new units.

Thanks again for reading

Andrew   

Grymn in Powered Armour

Some of you will know that I have a Mantic Forge Fathers army, that I play as proxy Space Wolves.

I have been trying to find the right models to use as proxy models for Lone Wolves in Terminator Armour, and I found these wonderful models from Hasselfree Miniatures:

http://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?category=miniatures~grymn-powered-armour

Well I picked these chaps up at Salute and after painting and pining them to some new larger bases, they are ready for battle.

I was pleased with the simplicity of the colour scheme; orange armour, with blue for the visor and leadbelcher for the weapons it’s really simple but great.

I’m so pleased with these models.

It’s great when you find just the right model to fill a particular role in your amry, and they are a great sculpt and then your paint job works out well too, it’s awesome

I’m really happy with these guys, and I would recommend buying some of these for anyone with a Forge Fathers army, or who just like great models.

I would recommend checking out Hasselfree Miniatures range as they have some great stuff.

Salute 2013

 

Those of you who have read my blog before will know that the one exception to my spending rule is Salute.

Salute is the biggest tabletop wargaming event in Europe, and a must attend event for everyone interested in any aspect of this hobby.

Go and check out there site, and start planning your purchases and which games you will try out on the day:

http://www.salute.co.uk/salute/salute-2013/

See you there April 20th.  🙂

Marauder Warlord

After my mate James dumped those models on me last week I had a look at them, and I spotted this lovely model which I picked up at the Warpath launch day.

As you probably know Mantic Games have a sci-fi miniature game called Warpath, and have a great range of models to go along with it, including this Marauder Warlord.

http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Warpath.html

Well I’ve used him as a test model in preparation for painting the rest of my Orcs, as I’m going to be taking part in the 40KUK  Age of Armies (AOA), where I will track my progress painting a new army from scratch. 

With the Orcs turning up this seemed perfect timing, so keep looking out for posts that will appear on the 40KUK  site:

http://40kuk.com/

I will still put pictures of what I have painted on this site but for the full low down go and visit the lads at 40kUK.

Forge Father Stormrage Veterans with Hailstorm Cannons

As you can see I’ve learnt from my previous post, and I’ve changed the colours slightly from those I used on the Heat Cannon Vet’s.

I’ve still used the same yellow and grey, but this time I dropped the gold out for a dark gunmetal, and I feel it makes a world of difference.

The dark gunmetal provides much better contrast on these models, making the colours ‘pop’ and stand out against each other.

I’m much happier with these guys.

Forge Father Stormrage Veterans with Heat Cannons

 

 

Some of you will know from previous posts that I have a Forge Fathers army for Warpath by Mantic Games.

The Stormrage Veterans are resin models rather than plastic, but they are still good models just harder to convert, and with less modelling options than the plastic models Mantic produce, but I like them.

I used orange, and grey, and gun-metal as the colours for my standard troops so I wanted to tweak this to make the colour scheme for this elite group.

I changed the orange to yellow, kept the grey and changed the gun-metal to gold. When I was finished I was surprised to see that yellow and gold don’t go together very well. The gold and yellow are too similar and they get lost in each other because there isn’t the sharp contrast I had hoped for.

Still the yellow turned out well, and I learnt my lesson for the next set of Stormrage veterans (I’m always learning!).

Overall pleased with the paint job, but unhappy about the colour choice BUT it doesn’t upset me enough to repaint the gold.

Scibor Space dwarves

 

 

 

These guys are some excellent resin models available from Scibor.

http://sciborminiatures.com/en_,shop.php?group=70

I use them in my Forge Fathers army; I wish I could remember how I painted them, but it was a late night and they turned out pretty cool. I was really pleased with the blue coat.

If you have any questions then do message me and I will be happy to tell you more.

Forge Fathers Squad Leaders

 

Mantic do a range of ‘Dwarvessss in SPACCCCCCEEEEEE’ army call Forge Fathers

http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Warpath/Forge-Fathers.html

I have an army of the stoical bearded chaps, which I use in Warpath (and as a proxy Space Wolves army in 40K).

Given the high level of shallow details on these resin models, I used consecutive washes to build up the detail because it’s easier than trying to paint the levels of fine detail on (and I’m lazy).

I used Codex Grey and Shining Gold as base, with several layers of brown wash. The guns and hammers are our old friends Lead Belcher with a black wash. And the cloaks are Macharite Orange with a brown wash, and a highlight or Macharite orange again.

Nice, quick and easy to do, one thing is the washes left them a little shiny, so I may give them a spray of mat varnish but it’s too cold to spray at the moment and the varnish may go white and cloudy. So for the moment I will leave the as is.

They are OK, I could have spent more time on them but I churned them out in a few hours. So I may go back to them and improve them in the future, but they are painted and ready for the table top.

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!