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!

Dreadnought in a Chris Foss style (hopefully)

 Happy Christmas everyone! I've been painting another Eldar dreadnought. 

When I was young, I used to read a lot of Isaac Asimov books. They almost all had covers drawn by the same artist: Chris Foss. He drew massive, brightly-coloured industrial spaceships, often with stripes. They were cool to look at and very distinctive.

Foss also drew some concept artwork for a 1970s film of Dune, which was never made. Here's a pirate ship:

I thought it looked very sleek and Eldarish. Because you get quite a lot of blank space on the dreadnought's head/carapace, I decided to see if I could copy this pattern on its head. The first thing was to shade the head from red to yellow. Here's a WIP.

This sort of dreadnought is the second variety, released in the late 1990s. The legs, head and body are the same as the original dreadnought, as seen in the blue Citadel catalogue. The arms are new (but also made of metal): bulkier and less sleek-looking, with more tubes. The back engine part is heftier too, and has a mounting-point for a heavy weapon. 

To be honest, I don't really like the tendency of later Eldar to get increasingly chunky: I'm not sure that the original models have ever been bested. But I do like this guy. I think his head has come out pretty well: it's very dramatic-looking! I might go on to use this colour scheme on a big vehicle at some point. 

Incidentally, I'm using a different lighting setup for these pictures, after being bought a lamp at Christmas (thanks Ruth!). Hopefully this might improve my dodgy photography...

"Napoleonic" Warband

 In my continuing search for wild thrills, I bought a copy of The Silver Bayonet, the latest offering from Osprey and Joseph McCullough, the people behind the excellent Frostgrave and related games. It's basically a skirmish game set in a supernatural version of the Napoleonic Wars, and looks like a mash-up of Sharpe, Hammer films, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and various bits of folklore. If you ever wanted to wargame Jane Austen's lost novel Night and Nightmarish Spawn Of The Crypt, there you go.

Anyhow, I wasn't blown away with the models released for the game. They're fine, but I don't find them terribly inspiring. However, I did find some fantasy-Napoleonic miniatures made by an Italian company called Durgin Paint Forge, and they're great. They've got a slightly cartoony, caricatured quality, like the people in the old computer game Fable 3.

I ended up buying a load of them. They're very much 32mm scale, so really big and slightly spindly. I painted a standard bearer, who has a vaguely British look. His banner got a rather goofy-looking freehand lion (it dates back to the Medieval times, you see, before anyone had seen a lion). I added an "Albion" as a nod to Fable. For some reason there is a piglet on his shoulder.

I also painted a scout from the same range. According to Durgin Paint Forge's website, she's supposed to have a blue coat, but I wanted them to look coherent, so that got changed. Again, I think she's an excellent model: slightly cartoony, but full of good details.

Once again, my camera has let me down here. You're just going to have to take my word that they look good!

Carnevale Noble Lady

The Christmas holiday is approaching, and I've been thinking about a new, small project to go alongside the ongoing Eldar repaint. I dug out some of my unpainted Carnevale figures, and chose an impoverished noble lady (a barnabotti, apparently).

I got this figure free with a copy of Miniature Wargames. She was really enjoyable to paint and much easier than I'd expected: the cloth was actually quite easy to shade. Some of the casting around her gun hand was a bit "soft" but I think I figured it out eventually. I'm not sure if she's pulling her skirt up to make it easier to move, or whether she's just whipped a pistol out from under there, but the fabric is really nicely sculpted and the whole thing was a pleasure to paint. Nice one TT Combat!

Dire Avengers

 Back to the Eldar! Here are the first five of a ten-elf squad of Dire Avengers. Dire Avengers are the most boring of the aspect warriors: they're essentially guardians who have better armour and can shoot straight (and don't get support weapons). They've also got impressive hats, but really compared to being a teleporting spider or the Grim Reaper with a missile launcher, that doesn't count for much.

These are Jes Goodwin sculpts from the good old days. They're cool. It's usual to put black stripes on the helmet crests, but to be honest I was so pleased at having painted yellow that didn't look like mud, I decided to leave the stripes off. Remind me not to shade white into grey again.

The Clock Tower in the City

 Just a few pictures of the clock tower with my other buildings.

And an alleyway in the city.

Clock Tower Terrain

 I've been working on various projects for a while now, but it was inevitable that, sooner or later, I'd be drawn back to my fantasy town. It's like the village from The Prisoner: nobody leaves for long. 

I saw that TT Combat were selling off some old MDF buildings. One was a clock tower, which was going for the king's ransom of £4. I bought one and got to work putting it together - and making a few changes, of course. It's meant to look like this:

First of all, I added a plastic Mantic door. Then I gave the tower a roof made of cardboard tiles, instead of MDF. For texture, I cut a few brick shapes out of thin plasticard and stuck them over some of the original laser-etched bricks, so they'd stand out more. 

The rear got a plant made from a random metal part that I got in a job lot of bits a while ago. I added gargoyle-type things to the top of the lower layer, taken from two Lord of the Rings Rohan houses. They're fish-shaped, which by chance, is the symbol of Mordheim. The roof got some spikes that I found in a craft shop. I'm not sure what they're for.

I smoothed out some of the more obvious MDF elements with DAS clay. The MDF hands on the clock face were replaced with bits from some kind of plastic Empire machine - a cannon, perhaps - to make them look more gothic and detailed. Two large crosses were added to the front and back, along with a bit of chain from a Chaos vehicle sprue.

The painting emphasised dirt!

I don't think it's a masterpiece, but it's not bad for £4!