Knight Armiger (and an angry farmer)

 It's been both really busy and pretty quiet here, what with Christmas and the surrounding chaos. I've had chunks of rushing out to do stuff followed by bouts of free time. I've been using that free time to finally make and paint an imperial knight armiger that I've had lying around for about three years.

Back in 2022, I made this:

While the first model was converted to fit into my Chaos marine army, I thought it would be nice to build the other armiger in the style of my knightly space marines. That would involve lots of heraldry in jolly colours. The large base meant that I'd be able to make a little diorama, to give the impression that something is going on down there.

I used foamboard and clay to put some different heights on the base. I found a Frostgrave plastic soldier and a metal dog from Warlord Games, and stuck them on. The dog is chasing the titan, clearly annoyed by it, and the yokel chap is either saying hello or shouting at the titan to get off his land. 

Otherwise, the titan is pretty much as it came out of the box. I sculpted a little banner over its head, with the pilot's name on it - this is Sir Ewain - but that's it. This took a lot of time, and there are elements that I'm not all that happy about, but overall I really like it. 

It's quite silly but I like the idea of having something interesting going on around the machine. I'm tempted to get some more of these knight models - probably a bad idea, as I've got a lot of other things to get on with. Still, at lease I've finally found a use for that axe and tree stump!

2022 Round Up

 So, the year is ending, and I thought I'd attempt some kind of summary of this year's painting. It's actually been quite a good year in painting terms: I started this blog to get better at model-making, and in 2022 I attempted quite a lot of new stuff and tried things that I normally wouldn't have attempted - in particular, fine detail and colour blending. Overall, I'm pleased with the results. These are the (comparative) highlights.

Chaos

I made a few Chaos marines this year, but my favourite Chaos thing has to be this converted armiger.

Terrain

I made some more fantasy terrain, although I've probably got quite enough by now. Tableton got a new blacksmith's forge:

And this sinister chap holding up a banner:

A big tall house:

And a clock tower:

Durgin Paint Forge

I only made a couple of models from this manufacturer, but I'm really pleased with them. Hopefully they'll join a Napoleonic-fantasy warband (at some point).

Oldhammer Eldar

The big project this year has been to paint up a force of old-school Eldar, using a lot of 1990s Jes Goodwin models. I went in at the deep end for some reason, with a squad of harlequins:

Other squads followed, including these guys:

And some very old dreadnoughts. I'm particularly fond of these models.

I also did a pair of converted skimmers. They were originally Dark Eldar models, but they've clearly repented their evil ways and joined the good guys again.

So that's it! Who knows what the new year will yield? Actually, I've got quite a good idea as one of my ever-growing list of New Year's Resolutions is to buy less miniatures and to paint the stuff that I've got. Wish me luck with that.

Happy New Year everyone!

Chaos Armiger, Pt 2

Having done the conversion work, it was time to paint the chaos armiger. It was inevitably going to be in the not-quite-Black Legion scheme that I've used before, with a lot of dust and weathering. The base still looked rather large and empty, even with two bits of broken stone (from the basing kit), so I needed to add some more details.

First up, the base got a couple of bits of cork rock, a tuft of static grass and a skull. All fairly standard, but it needed a bit more.

I added a piece of manky old tree, left over from that Nurgle tree kit. I actually cut and turned part of the tree, so that the metal ring attached to it would hang down instead of up, which looked more realistic. It was painted to look pretty much dead. I don't know if it makes any difference, but I attached it to the base to be pointing in the same direction that the armiger was walking.

Next up I added a weird snake thing that I'd had in my bits box for years. It was actually made out of two mutated arms from an ancient "conversion bits" sprue, which I stuck together many years ago for reasons now unknown. The metal brace on the snake (who put it there?) somehow reinforces its unwholesomeness. I gave it a nasty fleshy paint job.

[Pretentious diversion: it reminds me of a picture called "Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion" by Francis Bacon, which apparently inspired the chestburster from Alien. Pure coincidence.]

I imagine that this thing is snapping at the armiger's ankles. The chaos wastes are probably full of such delightful, friendly creatures.

So, now for the whole thing. Time to break out the weathering powder! I attempted a bit of a glow on the guns, but I don't enjoy painting object source lighting and it usually goes wrong, so I went pretty easy on that. I gave the machine red "flesh", rather than manky pink because (a) I didn't want it to look weak and (b) it's a demonic robot dinosaur.

Well, I'm happy with that! Onto the next project!

Chaos Armiger, Pt 1

I bought the box of Games Workshop Armigers, which are small Imperial Knights - but are still a fair bit bigger than a dreadnought. You get two armigers to a box, and I thought I'd make a bad armiger for my chaos army, and a good one for my knightly space marines. I had a lot of chaos bits and pieces that I'd got off ebay, mainly from dreadnought and maulerfiend kits, and I decided to go all-out on this thing.

First, I added a head from the maulerfiend. I cut the tongue off - I find those protruding tongues look a bit silly - and filled the gap. I needed a neck to attach it to the body. For bits like this, you just need some random tech, and I found that part of a chaos backpack would do. The attached head looked like a dinosaur's, and that was the style I'd follow.

I decided to replace the autocannons on the original kit with two ectoplasma cannons from the maulerfiend. The cannons have teeth or claws around the barrels, like pincers, and would make good arms. I'd keep the upper part of the arms, which form mountings for the guns. Connecting the cannons wasn't easy, as they attach from the side, not the top like the autocannons. I found two headlamps in the bits box - from a batmobile, I think! - and used them to connect the cannons to the upper arms. 

I left off the usual shoulder pads and used a pair of random dreadnought plates, which were much more spiky and chaotic. Attaching the arms to the body, they looked like this:

The larger body was going to make the legs look a bit spindly, and the new head stuck out quite a way, overbalancing the model a bit. I couldn't let my giant robot dinosaur look unrealistic! It needed a tail. I also wanted to echo the spiky look of the upper body in the legs.

The tail came from the random dreadnought bits. It was one of three lashes on a dreadnought whip-type weapon, and looked like a mechanical tentacle. It fitted fairly well onto the back of the groin section.

There were some large gaps between the tail and the groin section, which had to be filled with green stuff and DAS clay. It was missing the tip, so I stuck a plastic blade from an old skaven sword on there instead. Useful for jabbing the mewling lapdogs of the false emperor!

There is a shield piece that goes on the front of the groin. I left it off and replaced it with a very old fantasy chaos shield, which looked much more, well, chaotic.

I had a few organic spikes left over from and old tyranid carnifex kit. There were several small metal hoops on the armiger's legs - clearly where ropes or chains might be attached - but they didn't look chaotic enough. So, I carefully sliced the hoops off and replaced them with the carnifex spikes, which made nice dewclaws on the back of the monster's legs.

The original kit has extra plates to protect its ankles. They look cool, but slightly too heraldic and "clean" for a chaos machine. So, I took them off and gave the robot spiky new ankle protectors made from the shoulder plates of some old fantasy chaos knights. Handy for punting the minions of the corpse-god! The original ankle protectors were raised to brace the legs just under the knee, so that it would look a bit more bulky.

The bits on the base were from the old large basing kit. 

So that's where we are! Here are some finished pictures. It's just time to stick this thing together and paint it. 

Glottkin Titan: Jam for the Jam Gods

I've always been interested by Warhammer's Glottkin model. It's a fantasy miniature, made for the End Times campaign, and features a massive Nurgle chap being ridden by two Nurgle champions, a wizard and a fighter. As with a lot of Nurgle models, I'm not that sold on it. However, it's always seemed to have a lot of conversion potential.

In particular, the left arm seems too big and the right arm feels too small, even for a gun. And it's always been much too expensive for me. However, when I saw a rather battered Glottkin on Ebay for a reasonable amount, I bought it and got to work.

I hacked off the weird mouth-lamprey-thing from his right arm, which I intended to use as the mount for a thermal cannon left over from my knight titan. Then, having made a good start, I chopped off his left arm and shoved it up his bum. The join was covered with DAS clay and green stuff, and the big tentacle made a nice tail. And by nice, I mean revolting.

Then it was time for a bit of an experiment. I'd seen the new GW contrast paints as a good way of covering large areas. The Glottkin is big and very warty, which would hopefully be good for the paint to take hold. So I sprayed him white and got to work with a pot of Blood Angel Red.

Hmm, not bad, if a bit like strawberry jam. Obviously, it'll need some extra work, but the basic effect is quite "nice", by which I mean that he looks like the rotting love-child of an Imperial Knight and a randy squig.

He then got a gun emplacement on his back, again courtesy of the knight kit. This bit is an icarus autocannon.

Here's a rather washed-out picture of current progress, together with a delightful pink stomach. This is what happens when the chaos gods make jelly!

Reaver Titan

One of my earliest memories of wargaming - or rather, of not wargaming - is seeing a picture of some Imperial titans in a games room at school, and then being told to piss off by an older boy called Robert, who had a very square head.

But the memory of the titans stayed with me: huge robots in unfeasibly jolly colour schemes, lumbering across the horizon while tiny space marines tried not to get stepped on far below. Like this:

I never got into Epic, but the release of a new version of Adeptus Titanicus reminded me that I had one of these things lying around. In fact, I had a few old Epic vehicles, and so I decided to give one of my Reaver titans a paint.

I tried not to add anything to the bases that would make the titan look as if it belonged to any particular scale, just in case I decided to use it as a robot in 40k or something like that. I did quite a bit of shading on the armour plates and tried a glowing effect on its top-mounted plasma gun. It was missing the feet, so I cast a couple of new ones using putty.

Because it was a nice day, I took a picture of it outside, standing near some ants taking the war to the tyranids.

It was quite enjoyable to paint, although shading all those flat areas was a little tedious. I might have a go at another epic robot sometime, though. All in all, a success.


So up yours, Robert.

Now get back to work!

Introspective Retrospective

Well, it's the right colour scheme for Father Christmas...

It's nearly Christmas and the year is almost done. The planet is just about still here and, given the current circumstances, I'd call that a success.

From my own point of view, it's been alright. My main achievement was to get the sixth Space Captain Smith book, The Pincers of Death, into print. People seem to like it so far, so that's good. I'm still not a multi-millionaire from my writing, which is less good.

 For no valid reason, I thought it would be interesting (for me) to look back at some of the better stuff I've made this year.

In January, I made the first entirely scratch-built model that I've ever done. It resembled a sort of mobile teacup, which was nearly what I intended.

Terrain piece of the year was the bar I made out of a GW ruin and some plasticard. Just the sort of place where everyone knows your name, assuming your name is "Oi, you".

In Summer, at long last, I got around to building the titan that I'd had knocking around for ages. It's probably not my best painting work, but I'm going to put it here solely because I'm impressed that I got around to finishing the bloody thing!

Sir Vaylance The Vigilant

In terms of individual miniatures, my favourites were the Carnivale nobles:

And this big green monster from Privateer Press:

But I think my favourite of all is the guy below. He's not all that exciting, but he was one of those rare moments where the conversion and the painting both go the way I wanted them to. I don't think I could improve him much and there's not much I'd change. So, beer-drinking cyborg guy, you are miniature of the year - at least by the standards of this blog.

Merry Christmas, and if I don't return to bother you before then, Happy New Year!