Waagh if you wanna go faster!!

The Christmas season is looming fast. My cans of primer are too cold in the garage and it is already dark when i finish work. Luckily working at home means i can nip out at lunch and prime the odd model for painting. Spray cans have to have a good warming hug for a bit as well as the traditional rattle before using. It hasnt stopped me painting, but i have slowed down a bit. Mainly because my leadpile is running pretty low. So low in fact that i have decided not to take part in the Analogue Hobbies challenge this year. I just don't feel I have enough models to paint and post about weekly for a full three months. (I mean I'm not saying i have nothing, the day I have my entire collection painted will be a miracle day.

Gaming wise though it's been pretty busy. We have been playing Heroquest at the club, tried the new Dragon Rampant 2nd edition rules and we are starting a Bloodbowl league. It has been like we are tabletop gaming in the 90's again. Using my Bloodbowl models I did realise they are looking a bit battered and the painted quality is not up to todays standard. I'd like to maybe give them a Biostrip bath and repaint, but I'm not sure I would get them turned around before their next match. It is very tempting to buy a new team though! 

The youngest has done his Warhammer wish list. It's a completely confusing list with models from about four different armies. Trying to explain to the staff member that our kid just wants the models so he can put together his own amalgamated army for Xenos Rampant rather than playing 40K just generated a befuddled reaction. I did try gently pushing the choices towards models i would prefer to paint as it is muggins here that will do the task. I must admit to being bored now of painting Ultramarine Space Marines. 

My own wish list has some more bits to go with my new Ork army i have been having fun painting. The army does now fill the storage currently assigned to it, maybe that is a sign to stop, or buy a bigger box. I wouldn't say no to a Battlewagon. I have already added this beast though:

It had to be painted red as we all know, say with me, 'paint it red and it goes faster!'

I did enjoy the following in the instructions of the 'Snazzwagon':

Turns out it isn't 'quite difficult' it's downright impossible. I ended up snapping his wrist on the arm holding the rollbar. Some extra Tamiya and a pair tweezers solved the issue though.

 The whole project involved building it, pausing midway through, painting details that no-one would see, then continuing the build. I can assure you there is realistic leather super tiny cracking detail on the seat rest of the driver that noone will ever see. All the effort went on the interior and the outer shell you can see was a rush job as I began to tire...

I never thought I'd do it again

Meet Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. I've painted him

 before (the guy on the right). That is the model from

 the 90's, but why did I feel the need to supplement 

with buying the brand new version? Yep, they are the

 same Ork. Something to do with Orks getting a lot 

bigger if they survive long enough to live a long life. 

Well, no I am not taking up 40K again after a many year hiatus. I still think the new modern game is no longer in the spirit of what I discovered back in the 90's. I kind of accidently made this army.

It all started with finding a bargain, a handful of modern Orks were looking like a bargain in one of those bit part magazines. So, I bought a few just for the painting exercise. Instead of painting in a classic Goblin Green, I thought I would try a modern colour scheme. 

It was fun, so I bought a few more, until I had four squads of ten.

After all, I had to try the other options out for combinations of weapons.

They were super fun to paint. A base coat of Orruk Flesh (Orruk? I mean really? Orks people, Orks. It's bad enough they changed it to a K rather than a C) With a wash over of Plaguebearer Flesh on top makes a great looking modern Ork flesh look. The rest was just colouring in the details of their clothes and weapons. Finding and painting all those teeth (some not in the mouth) was the tricky bit.

Well, I had made a start now, next I got some Deffkopta's as they looked fun too. It gave me a chance to try out some free hand checker pattern work.

So now I practically had the beginning of a small army, I felt like I had to continue. The Dreadnought was a bit tricky as it was split between two issues of the magazine. I don't subscribe so it was a risk buying part one as there was no guarantee I would get part two. Luckily, the super helpful staff at my local WHSmiths put the issue to one side for me and I could finish the dread.

Well, we are nearly there at this point. So I had a delve through my other boxes and found a reasonably modern Ork with a big gun that I had picked up in a job lot of older Orks recently. I just needed to repaint the base as it was a lovely Goblin Green.

Of course, no Ork army is complete without some Grots to be bullied, so we needed a couple of Orks to encourage them forward. The kit has two different build options, so I had to do them both. I love the pet Squig.

Grots are one of the best inventions in the GW lore. I feel for the poor little underdogs. I highly recommend reading the Mike Brooks Ork trilogy of novels, it gives you an insight into just how poorly treated they are, those poor Grots.

The variety in the models isn't huge, some are monopose and the rest only have one choice of arms, but you do get to choose which heads go on some bodies. 

So, I had an army. As I said I'm not intending on playing 40k any time soon, I'm going to use something like Xenos Rampant, or possibly One Page Rules (someone at the club wants to give it a go.) But an army needs a leader, so that is why I felt the definite and compulsory need to get the new Ghazghkull. His little friend Makari has not grown much in stature over the years, but the rumour is it isn't actually the same guy (they just keep the same name to avoid upsetting the Boss.)

I've worked out I have around 2000 points worth for One Page Rules so I think that will be plenty for now. This has been a fun exercise in modern style but I do miss the Goblin Green bases. (I will not miss building kits that have over 40 parts for one model!)

Tidying up the Old World

 

We have been playing Old World at the club recently. Readers may remember I finished off a Night Goblin army recently. (Well, wargaming recently, so like a year ago probably.) I have been enjoying the game, learning not to just charge forward with everything and trying some tactics. Now I have the Old World bug I thought I would fish out my Warriors of Chaos army, an army that you do just charge everything forward. Back in the nineties I had great fun with these models, but I hadn't really painted them well. They were all just painted brown and dry-brushed red. The need to get them on the table quickly meant little regard was made to making them look nice.

The Chaos Champion just needed a bit of tidying up. I had neglected to paint some of the details. It is amazing what I thought I could get away with if I undercoated in black. The belt, skull and horns were all still black. There was no highlighting and the chestplate was still black too. The helmet and the knees had some nice crisp red paint on them though.

These Bloodletters really were just sprayed black and dry-brushed red, that was it. In fact the banner bearer, musician and champion didn't even have painted bases. Its quite a small unit and I have some other Bloodletters rescued from the bits box, but they are all the plastic skinny ones. I would like to expand this unit, although they aren't listed in the Chaos army list anymore and the original metal models seem as rare as hens teeth.

This heavy lump of lead is called Archaon. Difficult to hold without spiking yourself, this model is another that I feel privileged to own. At the time of release it was considered a very dynamic model and I think it still holds up against some modern sculpts. I didn't need to do much to this model, having already paid some attention to it. I did rebase it and tidy up some of the paint where it had got chipped. I also added some red demonic eyes to the steed.  

The biggest job was the recovery of a chariot. I have two of these, both were completely broken up into their component parts, the horses were in a completely different box as well. I have found all the components apart from one whip arm and for now just made one of them up. I may fix up the other at a later date, possibly putting a character on the back instead of one of the crew. One of the reasons they had broken apart was because I never put them on a base back in my youth. The horses were on cavalry bases, but that was it. The chariot itself was therefore at the mercy of neglect. A quick order to warbases ( I needed some converting movement trays anyway to adjust the base sizes of some of the models, I'm not rebasing, no sir.) and I now have some nice 3mm thick 100mm by 60mm bases I have mounted one on.

The rest of the army will get some tidying up and I can easily field a couple of thousand points for a game. 

For anyone wondering about the WW2 challenge I have been set by the Illustrious Opponent, it does still continue. I am a little behind as I spent a month doing some commission painting for a paying customer. So, that had to take priority. I am up to date with April and I have started my May's allocation. I might make next month's post a full update. In the meantime, I give you an image of my converted demo charge team. A simple green stuff sculpt for the satchel and a mortar team without the mortar tube for the rest.

And finally, I have spent the last couple of weeks on some grim dark reading. As you may know I am fan of Dan Abnett's work, especially his Gaunts Ghosts saga. I have been re-reading them from the beginning and romping through them, I have got as far as book eleven:

Whilst back in book 8 - Traitor General, I was inspired by the descriptions of the Chaos Daemon Engines, the Wirewolves.  Daemonic entities trapped inside animated wire cages. The wirewolves are made into various forms, humanoid or animalistic. Hanging from gibbets, they come to life when the daemon that inhabits them is summoned from the warp at the slightest hint of a disturbance on the occupied world of Gereon.

I thought I would have a go at making one and took the name literally and decided to make mine in the shape of a wolf. (Although it could be said it looks more rat like). In a spot of recycling, most of the model is made from offcuts of sprue with just a couple of chains added I found in my bits box. I then added some painted wire wool to the interior to represent the daemon. I'm not sure it quite works, but I could always remove it and add something else later. I'm not sure the photo shows it well, but I used some texture paint to try and give it a rusted look. For very little cost, I'm quite pleased with the result.

To paint or not to paint, that is the question

 This is technically March's post although I am publishing in April. March has been super busy. Well, hobby busy. I have been finishing up on the Analogue hobbies challenge, painting some more Australians for the Illustrious Opponents WW2 challenge and also finishing a couple of entries for the painting competition at Salute. I even have had to interrupt precious painting time by going out and socialising twice this week, yep twice! Yesterday I was lunching with the Distinguished Opponent (Brother in Law) and a couple of other friends and the topic of how much painting we had done recently came up. I of course then had to show them the full result of my efforts for this years Analogue challenge, one friend commented that I had painted more than he had in the last decade! 

This reminded me that not everyone in the hobby is a dedicated painter. I was recently browsing YouTube and ended up watching a video from Siege Studios. As a business they will paint your models for you at various levels of quality depending on how much you pay. I have always completely ignored their stand at shows declaring there is nothing they could do for me, why pay someone else to paint my models? But after chatting to my friend I thought again, maybe some people don't actually find the same enjoyment I do in painting. My friend commented he loves restoring and converting models and really enjoys gaming, but finds painting a chore. I personally went through a period where I really didn't actually enjoy the gaming side of things. (That's another story involving too much meta-gaming.) So I guess everyone's hobby experience is different and if someone wants someone else to paint their models, so be it. 

In my extensive research (watching lots of different chat show style wargaming channels on YouTube) it has also become apparent that some players don't even paint their models before a game. Grey plastic models on the table, how very dare they? I have also learnt to accept that too. I can understand if they don't want to paint them, in the past I have put together a great looking kit then not wanted to paint it in case my paintwork somehow ruins the model. A feeling I have less these days, but there is still the odd occasion. My copies of Space Crusade and Space Hulk don't have a lick of paint on them. I could use the excuse that they are board games and don't warrant it, but really I just don't want to ruin the models. Although my recent foray into painting second edition style 40K has given me some confidence that I probably could do it.

Yep during the Analogue challenge I had great fun painting Orks and Space Marines, I think I may have removed my fingerprints with all the Biostrip I have been using to clean up old models, but I am proud of the results.

It's a bit of a photo dump, so I might save the Orks for another post. I embraced the use of another hobby product for these, Micro-Set and Micro-Sol. They really do help with adding transfers (and keeping them on the model) and a layer of clear acrylic paint on top helps too. 

April I will be attending Salute again this year. I have been trying to persuade Illustrious Opponent he wants to come but we will see, I will however be attending with Distinguished Opponent and possibly a couple of chaps from the club.  The necessities will be of course, speed painting and seeing if any of the other bloggers are getting together for a chinwag. I am once again braving the painting competition, not expecting to win any awards, but its fun putting stuff in the glass cabinets.

Me, last year at Salute, my entry circled. (I swear I do own other hoodies!)

One of my entries this year is a bit delicate, a 3D print that already I have had to sculpt a part of myself to replace some damage. I shall have to pack it delicately and hope nothing happens in transit. 

Shopping wise, there are already a couple of items various companies are teasing on the internet that may be limited in number too that I think my first half hour of the show will be running around grabbing those items. I'm not planning any new projects though, so any other purchases will just be whims I'm sure.  I have a copy of the show guide already, so I might do a little research beforehand to see anything worth investigating. Watch this space...

Happy Christmas from the Leadpile

Well, where has this year gone? It seems like five minutes ago I was last wishing you all a Merry Christmas. This will be my thirteenth post this year, so once again I just about keep up the average of at least one post a month. I do always endeavour to post more, but I am too busy painting! This month I have been spending all my time building and priming ready for the Analogue Hobby Challenge, which as you read this has now already started. So, nothing new to show here, but things are afoot. 

I think in the new year I am going to have to do a hobby audit. It's always good to periodically have a check and see what you actually have, sometimes I get inspired to do a project with something I had forgotten I owned, like my Epic Chaos army or my Warhammer Goblins (although, yes I did buy extra bits for both of those projects too.) Sometimes old miniatures can be given a new lease of life and be used in a new project. My old Gorkamorka Digganobs got a repaint this year to be added to an Ork and Grot army I am planning on using in Xenos Rampant. (teenage me originally did a terrible rush paint job on them just to get them on the table.) I'm also considering stripping some of my old Space Marines and giving them a repaint, other wise they will just sit in the box for another year.

We have been quite organised here at Chez Lead, so all presents are wrapped, just a few food prep things to do today and then Christmas pjs and hot chocolates are in order later. This morning I joined the live stream from Bad Squiddo as per a normal Sunday. All the painting gubbins are packed away for a few days, (yes, dining tables do get used for something other than painting/playing wargames, apparently people sit round them and eat dinner.) so a little light Osprey reading might be in order later too. The Illustrious Opponent is organising a "Tale of Four Gamers" type WW2 campaign and I have elected to paint up Australians. I am very thinly read on what I need to start painting, so some research is required. I am a little concerned by the lack of tanks available, but I am sure it will be fine. (In true historical style I can just steal everyone else's.)

All it remains for me to say is may you and yours have a lovely festival period. Whether you spend it with family, found family, friends or happily by yourself, I hope you get to spend it well. 

Happy Hogswatch, Yulemas, Christmas, whichever you choose (maybe one of these?)

Stay safe, 

Peter

Painting toy soldiers is a young man's game

Whenever a friend or relative that has no prior knowledge of my hobby sees my efforts for the first time, the most common thing they say is "How do you paint so small?" I of course then explain that there are techniques like drybrushing, washes and contrast paints that do a lot of the work for you. I explain that there are definitely better painters out there than me, some that even paint eyes. 

I have been painting Roboute Guilliman for my son as he decided the model is too special and detailed to have a go himself. He always wants his models to look like the box art, I don't tend to stray too far from the GW paint scheme but within the limitations of my skill. So, I've been having a go. I am perplexed though, by the level of detail required. I will admit to having aging eyes and so glasses and another pair of glasses on top have had to be deployed for certain parts. What has stumped me though is the scrolling on his left leg. 

Photo from GW website (definitely not my painting)

He has a scroll on his left shoulder that has been etched with his surname, so some inking sorted that out, it's now readable. However on his leg the scroll is blank. That's fine I have a steady hand, I can do a bit of text. The text however is a bit more complicated.

Now old Roboute is a big chunky model, from head to toe he is approximately 55mm tall and doing a lunge on his tactical rock, so probably more like 60mm. This scroll however is 7mm wide and 3mm tall, plus those Eagle feet take a chunk of space up. There is no way I am fitting that text on that scroll, never mind having a steady enough hand and enough magnification to actually do it. I get it, people can paint small, hell,  people paint on grains of rice. You know what they use to do that? A microscope and a single human hair for a brush!  This lettering has detail within the letters. I am sure that it actually was painted by a human at Warhammer World and not some sophisticated AI painting bot, but I would love to see footage of it actually happening on a model that is actually that scale, just to see how they did it. What brush did they use and can I buy that brush in my local GW?

 

There was also the matter of two flaming braziers poking up from the base. These while lovely for some extra detail on the base are tiny and the poles are the thinnest plastic parts I have ever seen on a GW model. I knew they would snap off the second anyone breaths on them, so they are staying off.

In all seriousness though my eyesight isn't actually too bad, a very minor prescription.  I think in reality trying to paint a model that looks that good in close up photographs isn't necessary for me. I have full respect for those that do, however they do it. I just can't achieve that myself. So I finished my attempt and took a photo.

I can see issues with it now that I could go back and fix, but those flaws are really only visible in the photo. On the table,  I'm pretty happy with it. So what am I saying? Well, if you can paint to competition standard, crack on ( I don't have the time to spend a week on each model, my leadpile is big enough as it is!), if not don't worry too much. Just have fun. It's a hobby after all.

Generic Hobby Update Number 83

 I haven't posted since December on this blog, but I have been regularly posting on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge! It has been hard to motivate myself to contribute to both blogs for this period as well as paint with fervour to have something completed once a week to blog about. I am therefore giving myself a week off the Analogue Blog and putting the brushes down. (Well carefully sliding them into the multi-slotted plastic brush holder from The Works. For non UK folk, The Works is a remainders book chain that also does a great range of cheap art products.)

  So, I am sure you are all following my progress on the blog. I don't need to tell you that right now as I type I am 24th in the table with a points total of 865. My original target being 500 points. I knew this year I would paint a lot less (I can't remember my total last year but I think it was around 1200) so I set myself the same conservative target as my first year. I still have plenty to paint, but I won't feel pressure to get it all done for the rest of the challenge.

So, for those few of you who have not followed the blog, here are some highlights of the photo dump from entries:

Squigs, need I say more.

This is the way. (Today is two days away from series three, eek!)

Dum Dum Duggan. (I would watch his spin off series on Disney Plus)

Generic Space Dude in Fancy Pants armour from some toy shop I popped in to for the youngest. (Honestly I cannot remember what they call Space Marines these days, I feel so old)

A second attempt at the bust I blogged about here. I assure you it is a separate piece, not an over paint.

Frostgrave Barbarians

Zeus, chucking his thunderbolts. The entire time I was painting this I was hearing Russell Crowe's crazy accent in Thor - Love and Thunder in my head.

A new snazzy version of Gaunt and his Ghosts.

They are nice sculpts I admit of some of the key characters.

There was a missed opportunity here though as the Ghosts are a mixed Gender regiment, I would have loved to see a model of Tona Criid maybe?

Home Guard from Bad Squiddo

Shaka Zulu

Batman Animated Series Green Arrow

Coming up in the wargaming world we have Salute in April. As I am sure you know it is one of the highlights of my hobby year. I am sure Illustrious Opponent and others will be joining me for the day out where we see if we can shave off a chunk of journey time using the new Elizabeth Line. Yes it is over a month away, but it will soon be here. As I have said on many an occasion, half the fun is the prep beforehand for the day. This year I have a new train route to plan.

Oldhammer is the besthammer

How have you been? It's been an age right? Well, after the Analogue Hobby painting challenge I took a mini break from the hobby and didn't get the paints out much at all. There was a lot of great TV to watch for starters plus sometimes life just gets busy.

Anyway, these days owning an LED lamp rather than a furnace level heat producing daylight bulb means painting is not stopped by the heat of summer. So, I got the brushes out and painted this week. I also did some undercoating and building with the youngest offspring of his choices from GW. They are some bizarre new Space Marine kits that I have no idea what they are. A very funky looking bunker and a hover(?) tank. (Did they get jealous of the Eldar?) I must admit these new kits fit together very nicely even if they have a horrendous number of parts. 

I, however am stubbornly sticking to what I know and have been adding to one of my good old fashioned square based warhammer armies. I explained here how I accidently painted a night goblin army and recently I have been wondering what I can add to it. It really needed a proper character to lead the army and so I trawled ebay until a

I found a reasonably priced set of Skarsnik and Gobbla. What better character to lead the army? I also prefer this version to the newer silly looking one. 

I'm super happy with how they came out. I painted Gobbla first, the entire time lamenting the fact that any squigs I previously owned were sold in a clearout of old models that I sometimes regret. I really want some more old school squigs now, they are so fun to paint. Skarsnik was a bit trickier as he has a lot of details, some of which I genuinely couldn't see unless I took a photo and zoomed to check what I had painted! I tried something new for the green skin, GW Plaguebearer flesh contrast over Coat D'arms goblin green. (I know, right? Finally success with contrast paints!) It's taken about thirty years, but I think I've finally found a way of painting greenskins I am gonna stick with. (Cue GW discontinuing the contrast paints range...)

So, what should I add to the army next? 

Let me know in the comments.

Another Space Marine, Dagnammit.

As I stated in my last post, I used to be a lazy painter. My days of playing warhammer was all about the game rather than the painting, so my armies didn't look that amazing on the table. I had a Skaven Army that included a massive slave unit of sixty models. All I had done to paint them was spray them brown, paint each nose black and the end of their spears silver. Oh and flock the bases, jobs a good'un. My first 40k army was actually Blood Angels. They were so badly painted I have actually overpainted or sold most of them, so apart from a terrible Mephiston Librarian on a Bike conversion I still have I technically don't have any Blood Angels.

I recently ventured into the town centre for a visit for the first time in a long while for my first Covid Vaccination (Yay!!) Whilst there I decided to get some hobby supplies. I still haven't touched my Stargrave plastics as I don't want to waste them, I am saving them as a treat. We have a small independent store in town that mostly sells airfix type kits so I picked up some Tamiya plastic cement from there. I have good memories of that brush on poly that GW had back in the nineties that just bonded the two surfaces together without getting any gloopiness everywhere. Apparently this stuff is just like that, so my Stargrave plastics will get the same VIP treatment. I really want to get these plastics right, almost to the point where I am scared to actually build them. Not having definitely decided on what any particular rule system I am using them for (I didn't actually buy the Stargrave book) I'm not sure what I'm going to arm each model with. Do I go for lots of variety for a skirmish type games or do I make whole units of models armed with similar weaponry? I also grabbed a few new texture paints to try out.

I also thought I would pop into my local GW store to get some paints and another painting handle. When I first saw these painting handles I thought they were a waste of money, but then I got one for my youngest as he was struggling when painting to hold the models. Then I'd actually started borrowing it myself and found it really useful so now we have one each. (Never too long in the beard to pick up new techniques.)

Whilst in there I showed the store manager a picture of my latest Space Marine paint job and he was impressed (I know, I know, it's his job to be nice.) and he asked what I was going to paint next. Well the store is having it's anniversary soon and they are having a couple of competitions including a conversion competition. GW only bits or green stuff allowed. So, I decided to go right back to the beginning and have a play with some green stuff. Could I make a new style Primaris Marine look like an old school Blood Angel. Well, I don't think it's gonna win the competition, but I had fun making him.

Oh and of course it had to have an old school green trim on the base, nothing else would do.

Paints used:

Coat D'arms. Blood Red, Bone, White, Grass Green, Ink Wash Armour

Citadel. Abaddon Black, Caliban Green, Eshin Grey, Retributor Armour, Grey Knights Steel, Steel Legion Drab, Flash Fitz Yellow, Baal Red Wash, Brown Ink