Devilfish

This time, I've tackled a Tau Devilfish. The Devilfish is the inevitable troop transport model, the equivalent of a Wave Serpent or a Rhino. It is a really sleek, mean-looking vehicle and has a good profile.

I didn't think it fitted particularly well with the theme of my Tau force (surely they'd fly around in a saucer), but it does fit the mythology of little green men, shady government operatives and unmarked helicopters. So I painted it black, largely.

Painting things black, especially large things, is hard, especially if you haven't got an airbrush. Most of the upper hull is actually a very dark grey, a 50-50 mix of black and Vallejo Dark Grey (this is one of the most useful colours that I've ever had, along with Vallejo English Uniform). I added some purple and red elements for variety, and to draw the eye to the cockpit. The main army colour, a bluish-white, was added to the doors and hatches. It's hard to see, but they're shaded into darker blue.

Weathering was kept to a minimum: it doesn't really fit the theme, and as I get older, I find that I don't like excessive weathering. It often doesn't make a lot of visual sense. So, here it is.

And here are some entirely legit operatives disembarking. Nothing to see here, citizen. 

C'au Empire Battlesuit

 I've spent much of the last week tidying up some of my old Tau models. In some cases, they're looking pretty good and, in others, the concept was better than the execution. Anyhow, it's funny how, since about 1950, an entire mythology has evolved for flying saucers. I mean, think of all the secret warehouses, little green/grey aliens, men in black, theramin noises and bizarre fascination with large probes. It's a sort of weird mythos of its own.

(Just as an aside, I used to know a guy who did pretty serious research into UFOs. He didn't believe a word of it, basically. For one thing, the technology and look of the aliens described was often suspiciously similar to humans and would be considered dull by science fiction standards. However, he also pointed out that stories of alien contact look like a high-tech retelling of medieval stories about fairies and changelings. Which makes me suspect that either aliens have been abducting farmers for a long time or, much more likely, there are just some stories that humans are fundamentally wired to tell.)

I've tried to give each of my Tau battlesuits a stereotypical "space invader" theme. This particular guy is stealing a cow - for some reason, little green men seem to like raiding farms. Perhaps the Tau feel some sort of kinship with other hooved animals and are trying to rescue them. Anyway, this model was an old plastic/metal Broadside kit (hence the missile pods for arms). His back-mounted death rays and his head came from an old Imperial mounted gun, and his cow is from a Warlord Games set of farm animals.

Prepare to be assimilated, puny humans!

Tau In Black

 This week, I've gone back to some old miniatures and given then another look. A while ago, I made some Tau with a 1950s space invader look. I returned to these guys, repainted some of them and made them some new friends.

Here is the infiltration unit, headed by their leader, the Smoking Tau. They're all conversions, using bits of human kits. Their guns and arms come from the Pathfinder kit, which is far better than the rather ropey old fire warriors. They are perfectly disguised to fit in with puny humans.

And here are some human helpers. These guys are based on the Wargames Atlantic Agents kit. The two agents with their hands clasped in front of them were made straight off the sprue. The other three use Pathfinder arms and guns. I sculpted them new little fingers where it was visible, to counter the weird three-fingered hands of the Tau. I expect these guys show up to have words with the enemies of the Tau, before the green chaps arrive.

The agent miniatures are really nice sculpts, and are very slightly cartoony - but not too much. I think they could be used for loads of purposes. I'd forgotten how difficult it is to highlight black.

And here are some fire warriors. They were made with the really old models, which are basically awful. Their helmets were scraped ans sanded smooth, and then large "eyes" were added for an old-fashioned little green man look. The shoulder pads were left off, to make them sleeker. I think they work pretty well now, despite the ropey sculpts.

More next time - of what, I'm not sure. Keep watching the skies.

Violins and Vampires

 Back to the charming land of Blognia this week, for a few more miniatures. First of all is a violin player, made by West Wind Productions for their Victorian gothic range. I've had this chap on my desk for months now, and I've never thought he was a very good model. Eventually, I compelled myself to get on with it and paint the guy. I'm actually really pleased by how he came out!

Music plays an important part in distracting the citizens of Blognia from their drab, miserable lives, and it is considered a poor wedding that doesn't last for several days and fails to include either a good band or a knife-fight. Here we seem a travelling player, ready to serenade his employer of the day, and keeping careful watch in case a blood feud breaks out.

I also painted a minor vampire and a couple more minions, to make a small squad. The vampire (he might be a fancy Captain of Guards instead) is a Privateer Press model called Valachev. Privateer Press models vary hugely in quality, but this is one of the newer, better ones, and I really like all the detail on him.

For some reason, it was almost impossible to get a decent picture of this guy. Strange (and really irritating) how some models just won't show up. I added a bird to his base from a GW model, and put him on a slightly raised bit of plasticard stone to show his higher rank.

I also made a few more minions for this chap. these were based on the Perry Miniatures Afghan models, using the guys with boots instead of sandals and the non-turban-wearing heads. The kneeling guy has a head from a Frostgrave soldier.

The many vampires of Blognia are powerful, but they have weaknesses. Almost any revenant of note will employ minions to guard his property, track down his enemies and carry out business that he cannot deal with in the daylight hours. While many of these men are little more than hired bandits, some clans and families have a tradition of helping the undead. The vampire acquires useful assistants who can freely travel in the world of the living, and its helpers get to loot, plunder and look glamorous compared to the other peasants.

The Bretonnian Army So Far

 Following the last post, I finished off the last couple of knights for my foot knight unit. So now there's 20 of them, and they've got their own movement tray. Almost all of the models are from the early 90s, although there are a couple from 1996 or so, and the standard bearer is a modern conversion.

Here is the unit of 20 men at arms, in their own movement tray:

This is a small unit of 10 archers:

And here are the knights that I've painted. There's more of them to follow.

The army continues! I've done a lot of the infantry now, although there are a lot of archers still to go and (surprisingly) some crossbowmen. I think this is going to look quite nice!

The Baron D'Angon and his friends

 A fairly quick post here. I did do a longer post about some other miniatures, but I couldn't get a good photo of them and I threw a strop and deleted it.

Anyhow, I've nearly finished my unit of 20 oldhammer foot knights. I have completed a command group for them. These models are painted in the colours of the Baron D'Angon, as featured in White Dwarf 137. Slightly oddly, the knights wear yellow surcoats, but the baron himself and his banner have completely different heraldry. I've copied that look here, and tried to add some yellow to all the models to tie them into the other knights.

The baron himself is exactly the same model as featured in that White Dwarf back in 1991. He's been in a box for about thirty years! The WD 137 unit doesn't have a musician, and I've used a model from the first Bretonnian codex to represent him. By the way, the herald reminds me a lot of the rabbit herald in John Tenniel's illustrations for Alice in Wonderland.

The standard bearer himself is a modern plastic man at arms, with a new shield and a new head. I've copied the baron's colours onto the banner.

As you might have guessed, WD 137 has been a major influence on me. It was one of the first White Dwarfs that I ever saw, and it contained two really striking armies: not just the almost-totally-unshaded Bretonnians, but Andy Chambers' filthy skaven horde. These days, it's quite common to see "impressionistic" models (frankly, some of the Trench Crusade miniatures that pop up on Instagram look like the poo of an animal that needs to see the vet), but Chambers' skaven were really quite unusual. Oh, and it had Bretonnian crossbowmen, but more of that later.

So two of the big blocks of infantry are getting near to completion, which is cool! I reckon I'm about halfway through this project. It's turning into a bigger thing than I'd originally planned, but I'm enjoying it all. We'll get there.

Shock Attack Gun!

 This week, I've painted a few more old space orks. 

First up, we've got a model that I've had for ages and have never quite dared paint: the shock attack gun. (Or shokk atak gun, or shok attak gun - there seem to be a lot of spellings.) To my mind, this thing is one of the holy grails of Oldhammer space orkness. It's a sort of shoulder-mounted heavy weapon, but that  doesn't do it justice. That's like saying that an elephant is shaped like a dog.

The shock attack gun is, in the 40,000 background, a bizarre heavy weapon invented by ork techs in order to fire snotlings (small, goblin-like creatures) at their enemies. The gun teleports the snotlings into position (roughly), with a variety of interesting potential effects. Depending on how you rolled on a table, the gun could cause frenzied snotlings to attack the enemy, or appear inside them, causing a vast explosion, or just blow things up. Alternatively, the gun could malfunction and teleport its wielder to who-knows-where.

In short, it was very random and orky. There have been three miniatures of the shock attack gun, as far as I can tell, and I managed to find the earliest version on ebay, going at a not-too-awful price. I think it looks very silly and is an absolutely superb miniature. The detailing is remarkable, especially when you reflect that it's hand-sculpted. The gun has a very Heath-Robinson look, with all sorts of cogs, belts, tanks, rotors, wires, vents and pipes. It seems to have a tap on the back and an egg-timer on the side - because, if you're an ork, why not?

Anyhow, it was a real pleasure to paint and will be a nice addition to my small force of old-school orks.

I also painted an ork in heavy armour. Someone had removed his original gun, which I replaced with a plastic bolter. He's a nice model. It's always weird to realise how very small these guys are. I do have some more recent plastic black orcs, from Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I reckon they could quite easily be painted and converted as friends for this guy.

And finally, here's a Gorkamorka boy (or maybe a yoof). These plastic miniatures are largely forgotten now, and they occupy an odd niche between the goofy orks of 2nd edition 40k and the hulking monsters of post-2000. Taking that into account, they're quite reasonable plastic miniatures for the time, but I doubt they're loved that much these days. Anyhow, this chap has quite a cool pose.

So that's the orks for now. I've absolutely no idea what I'll paint next. There's quite a queue. 

Painting Skin and a Couple of Scavvies

 Last post, Lasgunpacker asked for any tips on painting skin. To be honest, I find this quite hard, and it's not something I enjoy much, especially where you've got big open expanses of skin, as with ogres or trolls. So, here's what I know about painting Caucasian, ie white, ie pink skin.

I start with a layer or two of Army Painter Tanned Flesh, which is a dark flesh, not-quite-terracotta colour. Then I'd put a wash of shade of (usually) Strong Tone, or much-thinned chestnut ink. I think the chestnut looks slightly more wholesome, but both are basically suitable for healthy flesh. For iller flesh, or big expanses, I might also wash with a bit of very thinned down purple. Occasionally, I might even put little washes of a thinned-down drab military green on raised points of the flesh, partly to "calm down" the highlights and partly to suggest unhealthiness. I'd use something like Model Color Russian Uniform Green for this. As with all these things, approach cautiously and don't go nuts. 

Then, as per standard with these things, I'd re-paint Tanned Flesh over the bits of the skin that aren't especially shadowed. I would then add increasing amounts of Model Color Rosa Salmon for highlights.  You could use a bone colour to highlight, but I don't think it works quite as well. Obviously, you have to be more careful with large, smooth areas than you would with small faces with a lot of ridges, so that the change in colours remains fairly smooth. Eventually, you're working up to a pretty light pink (but not an electric one, obviously). You can use this to represent knuckles and joints on the model's hands as well as lines on the face.

I never used to paint lips on male models, and used to see it as a sort of stylised way of showing that a model was female. These days I think it depends on the miniature. I would mix a tiny bit of red into a 50/50 mixture of Tanned Flesh and Rosa Salmon, and put it on the lower lip (but not the upper) of the miniature. Occasionally, I've used a similar mix to suggest age and/or drunkenness on models' noses and cheeks. You can also use a very thin glaze of watered-down Carroburg Crimson for this. 

Anyhow, I painted a couple more weirdos for my gang of horrible Necromunda scavvies. I thought it would be fun to make one of each of the mutations in the Outlanders army list. 

The tall guy on his own represents the "spikes" mutation, which makes sense as he's got a lot of spikes. He is a Mantic plague zombie model, with a Mantic zombie head. The body was made out of that awful plastic-resin stuff that Mantic have used in the past, which somehow manages to hold sharp detail but not look very good. It took a while to scrape off the mold lines, and I'm sure I missed some bits.

The second model represents the "three arms" mutation, or possibly "two heads". I find some of the old metal scavvy miniatures a bit too cartoony, and thought that it would be better to split this model into two guys. I went for the classic combo of a small devious guy being carried by a big dim one.

The lower chap is a Mantic ork, with 40k ork arms and a Stargrave head. The upper chap is a Perry Miniatures Afghan, still on his little plastic base, with a Stargrave head and Frostgrave arms. I think they work quite well together, although it was hard to get a picture that actually shows what they are.

So, there we go. I've not painted much, but I'm working on a few things. Hopefully I'll have some full Bretonnian knights soon. 

Random Space Weirdos

 Just a few weird space randos this week.

The crocodile man is a Mantic orc body with Frostgrave demon arms and a Stargrave head. The base model isn't great and I'm not sure why I've got it, but as ever, removing the head helps a lot.

The thug next to him is based on a Wargames Atlantic Boxer Rebellion body, with Games Workshop arms and a Ghost Archipelago head. Getting the arms and head to sit properly with the body was quite difficult. 

Then we've got a lady and robot, vaguely inspired by Jayne Cobb from Firefly and K2SO from Star Wars. "James" has a Bolt Action US marine body, with arms and head from Stargrave.

The robot is based on a model from the Warlord Games Terminator Genysis game. I know nothing about this game, except that the film was apparently awful, and that Warlord were virtually giving the game away. I've got a few sprues of these T-100 models, and they're pretty darn ropey. I gave it new arms, including one from a Perry armoured knight, and a GW Skitarri head. It's come out alright, really.

Nothing much else to report for now. I've got a couple of smaller projects on the go, and progress continues on the Bretonnians. They're looking quite decent so far!

Peasant Progress:

Men at Arms: 20

Archers: 18

Foot Knights: 15

Squirty Bottle Moon Buggy Conversion

 So, new year, new picture, or something like that. The photo at the top of the blog is actually the Stanley knife (or box cutter, if you're in the US) that I use for most of my cutting and conversion work. I gather that you're meant to use a craft knife, and maybe I'd get better results if I did, but I've found the Stanley knife to be very reliable and robust over the years. And I've wiped my brush on it so many times that it's starting to look like a work of abstract art in itself. I'm sure the Tate Gallery would love it...

When converting (and writing, for that matter) I often find that I have an idea kicking around in my head for ages, and it just takes the right moment for it to come out and take form. To be more precise, you know those trigger-activated, squirty bottles that you get for shower cleaner, disinfectant spray and the like? Ages back I thought that the head of one of those would make a good cockpit and I've been trying to work out how to do it ever since. 

I saved one, cut it down a lot, and wondered how to make it work as some kind of vehicle. My first thought was as the front of a flyer, but I lacked parts to really make that work. I also had a bit of plastic tube that had probably been to top of a pot of glue, which fitted nicely behind the "cockpit" and could be some sort of engine...

After that, I rubbed the whole thing down with fine sandpaper, so that glue and paint would take to it more easily, and added wheels. Two were old Ramshackle tyres, and I've no idea where the smaller pair came from. It began to have a smooth, slightly retro moon-buggy look.

I added lots of details from thin plasticard bent to shape, and leftover model tank bits. GW provided an aerial for the roof, from a Tau part. 

Then it was time for painting. I went with a basic off-white, with red panels and a black front canopy that is presumably made of some kind of two-way glass. This helped break up the shape of the squirter a bit more. I don't often wish that I had an airbrush, but getting a half-even coverage and some kind of shading was really hard. I ended up using a mixture of glazing, conventional painting and sponging, and it's still far from perfect.

That said, I do rather like the end result. I kept the weathering fairly minor, but added a few chips to suggest use. Here is the end product.

And here's a picture with a couple of space adventurers for scale. Broom!

A Champion for the Knights

When I stated the Bretonnian project, I thought that painting knights would be much like painting harlequins or space marines: doing one would prepare me for the other. Actually, that's not the case. The Bretonnian knights are bigger, of course, and use large blocks of colour (and, supposedly, transfers, which I've not got and have never used). My own feeling is that Bretonnian knights look better when they are painted in very bright, simple colours. I've used red, blue, green, black and the two "metals", white and yellow. Blue/white and red/yellow make for very strong contrasts.

The newer plastic knights have shield-shapes on their horses' barding, which break up the models but do add a new level of fiddly details (likewise the strips of chainmail sticking out from under the cloth). Personally, I like the cleanliness of the older models. In fact, I feel that when painting knights, the less grimdark, the better. No wonder that GW didn't know what to do with the Bretonnians for so long.

A further point about painting knights: once they're in a unit, and because they'll be viewed from above, generally, the colour on the back of the horse's head and its upper body is the colour that they'll be seen to be by an observer. So, if you want a varied unit, that's worth considering. 

Anyhow, I painted a leader for the Battlemasters unit. He's also a Battlemasters model, although he's from a slightly different knightly unit than the other knights. I had quite a job getting him to sit on his horse and some trimming and bending of his legs was required.

The "weaved" pattern on his barding is done by first painting a grid, as I would do for harlequins, then painting in the blue diamonds. Then I delete some of the lines to give an "over and under" look before painting yellow. The shading strengthens the effect that some of the lines are going underneath others.

And here is the whole unit. Charge!