Even More Harlequins

 And another two harlequins! I've been slightly more daring on these guys, with more elaborate checks and diamonds on their outfits. They really are great sculpts, especially given the limitations of the time when they were made.

And here is the group so far. Bit of a crazy jumble, but then that's the point, I suppose!

Two More Harlequins

Here are two more harlequins. One of the hardest things about these models is getting the diamond patterns to line up - which is why the chap on the left only has them down to his knee. Not that it matters greatly: so long as it looks sufficiently gaudy and complicated, I'm happy. 

I've got three or four "normal" soldiers to do, a commander, and (my favourites) three death jesters. It's proving to be a fun, if rather challenging, project!

Space Marines and Harlequins!

Does everyone have models that sit half-painted on their desk for months? I've had three space marines sitting there since November, and I thought it was time that I got the damn things finished.

First up is a very old (and small!) metal marine, probably dating back to the 90s. He doesn't have any skulls on him at all (What?!) and he has a large gem in his chestplate, which strikes me as surprisingly eldar-esque. I decided to capitalise on this and give him open arms. He's holding a very old boltgun which was, for some reason, lacking its magazine. I found a newer magazine lying around and added it to the old gun. A simple model, but a nice one.

Then there's a couple of marines with heavy bolters. They're entirely plastic: I think the arms and bolters are newer than the bodies. I used helmets from Grey Knights and Space Wolves for an archaic look. I cut the big skulls off their bolters and gave them little heraldic shields cut out of plasticard instead. I don't especially like the design of their enormous lumpy guns, but they'll do the job.

 And this is the point where I got "ideas". After the comparative success of the purple inquisitor a few posts back, I thought I'd try some other fiddly painting. So I stripped some very old metal harlequins, and had a try at painting them. Probably a terrible plan...

There have been three sets of models for harlequins: the recent plastics, a set of metal models released about ten years ago (I really like those ones) and these tiny models, which date back to the days of the blue catalogue. They're very nice sculpts (hats off to Jes Goodwin) but wow, they're little. Painting checks and diamonds on these things is enough to drive anyone half-crazy. I may have bitten off more than I can chew!

The Imposters - Out Now!

 The new book is out now! I wrote this and it's jolly good. You should definitely get a copy. Get several, in fact, just in case!

Buy Copies HERE!

Helen Frampton is one of a kind: built for childcare, refitted for sabotage and assassination, she’s one of the Secret Service’s greatest assets. But androids cost a lot to maintain, especially now that the Galactic War is over. Helen needs to prove her worth or die by a thousand budget cuts.

Richard Cleaver has problems of his own: shot, blown up and left for dead after his last mission went wrong, he’s now being hunted by deadly gangsters and a renegade artificial intelligence. Worst of all, he can’t remember past last Thursday.

Together, Richard and Helen must travel to the edge of known space. Only there can they find the keys to unlock Cleaver’s memory and the vault where the galaxy’s most vicious criminal stashed his loot. But their enemies are close behind…

Some Kind of Inquisitor

Inquisitor Tiberian Lazarus - Bob to his friends - has fought many battles in the Emperor's name. On New Dunstable, he lost his left leg to the dreaded Bone Pirates. On Pelvus IV, his arms were removed by the Slaanesh lord Thrustus the Discomforter, shortly before Lazarus headbutted him to death. Finally, during a skirmish with Tyranids, the inquisitor lost all sense of taste, which is probably why he then painted his armour purple and blue.

I didn't manage to get much done this week, but I picked up a model that I bought off the internet very cheaply a while ago, with a view to converting. It's an old metal techmarine, and the reason I got it so cheaply is that it was missing its backpack, right hand and, er, a leg. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to make a new leg for the model.

I got on with doing that, using various bits and pieces for the new leg. The end of the boot came from a Warlord Games Roman shoulder pad: it had a good plated, ridged effect that fitted the rest of the model quite well. Most of the rest of the leg was Chaos bits and bobs: one of those ball-shaped backpack vents became the knee joint, and the handles of some old weapons worked as the "bones" of the leg. 

After that, I realised that the proportions weren't quite right, so I made this guy a tabard/loincloth out of a flat piece of Green Stuff. I'd originally thought of him as just some random, if rather bionic, marine, but he was starting to seem more important. Perhaps he was a psyker. I gave him a mechanical right hand from, oddly, a Mantic ghoul, and put a burning (or maybe gassy) globe into it, which I think might have snapped off a plague marine long ago. Hmm. A combi-weapon seemed more impressive than his bolt pistol.

He needed a backpack. For one thing, I've never much liked the techmarine backpacks, but I wanted to give him something unusual. So, I looked about and found the faceplate from a Knight Armiger. It fitted perfectly! I added that and got to painting.

I wanted to do something different, and not to paint him in colours that marked him out as tied to any particular job or side. So I ended up with a weird mixture of blue and purple, with red bits. It's impressive, but it does make him look like a 1970s gangster chose his outfit.

I wondered about putting grass on his base, but that seemed a bit dull after all that, so I sculpted some small flagstones. I'm actually not sure I like these very much, but it was the best thing I could think of, and it just wouldn't be practical to remove him from his existing base and put him onto a scenic one.

So there he is! One of my better models, although I'm still not sure what I've made. Perhaps he's an Inquisitor. Let's settle for that.

Chaos Marine Conversions (Yet Again!)

I've been running low on Chaos Marine bits, which means that I've had to improvise with pieces from the bits box. I thought I'd put some marines together with whatever I had to hand.

The first chap had a pair of loyalist marine legs, and a body which, I think, comes from a fantasy Khorne knight. His head was from a plastic cultist, and his arms were from a very old GW zombie. The zombie had rather odd proportions, and so the model has rather huge fists. But that's chaos for you.

In order to make the legs a bit more detailed, I found an old bit from the Kroot warriors boxed set. It's a set of blades held together with string (I think) and it fitted the butcher/executioner feel of the rest of the model. I had to trim it down a bit, but it went together quite well.

The second chaos marine had the upper body and left arm from an old metal champion, from the havoc set. I liked the look of the head, with its wires and lenses. I gave him plastic legs and a right arm. Every unit needs a bloke pointing out the location of the enemy, after all.

 Now, it's well-known that girls are not allowed in the Space Marine treehouse. However, it's interesting that some of the new Warhammer Chaos warriors are female. Also, it's established Oldhammer that "face of a daemonette" was one of the gifts dished out by the chaos gods: there are old metal marines with heads like that.

Of course, I don't give a toss about most of the fluff, especially the bits that people get angry about on the internet, so I stuck a daemonette head onto a marine body. I used the metal legs from the havoc spotter above. I placed a bit of cork under one of the feet for a suitably dramatic pose. The arms, shoulder pads and gun came from the new plastic chaos marines. They're really well-sculpted.

I like this model particularly: the small head works well with the big shoulder pads. Some of the shading on her face has been lost in the photo, and I realise that I forgot to paint the strap on her magazine, but I like her.

Elf Heavy Weapon and Standard Bearer

 Here are a few of the vaguely cyberpunk-ish eldar. This week, I painted a heavy weapon team, a couple more troopers, and a standard bearer. They're all Privateer Press, and unconverted.

The gun team is (are?) a cool model, but unfortunately I lost one of the spotter's legs, and had to sculpt a new one from plastic and green stuff. It's not perfect but it will do. 

And here are the soldiers. As ever, the photos are very washed out, and the shading has hardly come up at all. 

Here's a group photo. By complete chance, I think this is the best picture of the lot.

My New Book Is Almost Ready!

 So, the proof of the new book has come through from Amazon. Exciting times!

If anyone's wondering what actually happens in this story, here's the back:

Not long before it's live on Amazon. Tell your friends! Buy many copies! That kind of thing!

A Chaos Marine Standing Around

This week's been fairly quiet, but for some reason I thought it would be interesting to make a chaos space marine standing around doing nothing. That would mean cutting his legs so that he'd be standing upright, instead of bracing for recoil and/or close combat.

I found some very old marine legs and cut and repositioned them. They were tidied up with green stuff.

I added a plasticard "washer" on top of the legs to make the marine a little bit taller.

Then I found a torso, also from a loyalist marine. The left arm was from a chaos marauder, and the right was a random piece that was in the bits box, probably from a fantasy model. It had a suitably barbaric fur trim, which I tidied up with more green stuff. The backpack and head were both chaos bits (I turned the vents on the backpack, for variety).

The axe-head on the right arm is from a Privateer Press model. I hacked the model up years ago for Necromunda, and kept the blade of its axe. It looked just right for this kind of guy.

The extra plate on his thigh came from a Kroot warrior, and was needed to widen his slightly spindly waist. The symbol dangling over his groin came from the chaos cultist with flamer model that I cut up last year. I knew it would come in useful! 

And now for paint.

So there he is, a chaos warrior taking a break from ripping and tearing to consider who to rip and tear next. I like this guy.

I wonder if my camera is starting to break. I know that my painting isn't getting worse, but it seems harder and harder to get a half-tolerable photo of anything I make. It's quite annoying.