Normandy

Flames of War - German Hitlerjugend from Normandy

Recently i had the honour to be commissioned to paint a vast army of Germans from Flames of War, i've posted previously about these fellows but now the second half of the commission is completed they are even more impressive!

I find it quite funny that you could put a Space Marine (which doesn't exist in the "real" world) and i could tell you it's affiliation, probably home planet and preferred method of warfare and yet, place a World War 2 unit or tank in front of me (which, you know, actually existed) and i haven't the foggiest what it does or it's strengths and weaknesses.  Having said that i quite enjoyed painting these models, the tanks in particular were a joy to paint, all the years spent practicing on Space Marine Rhinos really pays off once you make the switch to painting something and attempt to make it look realistic!

Painting the infantry presents their own unique challenges, i like to lavish detail onto infantry models and they are normally a strong point for me, but in 15mm, even the casting is fighting against you for fine detail, and the overall look of an army is much more important than the tiny details (but they are still fun to sneak in here and there.)

When it came to assembling the infantry in the first wave, i had the daunting task of being faced with 50+ models that looked identical, and at that time not knowing the difference between a Panzerschreck and a Panzerfaust.

But i learn quickly when i can and learned to love the little fellas for the unique challenge they presented, the second batch were far easier to paint once i had the experience with the colour scheme under my belt and a predetermined plan instead of sitting around chewing paintbrushes and looking confused, i put in a couple of days solid work and managed to polish off the tanks and remaining infantry at a pretty good pace, i even went back and added some extra detail to the infantry i had painted previously to bring them all into line with each other in terms of quality, which isn't something i was paid to do, but i'm a perfectionist till the end!

The addition of a "Special Character" in the second wave of models was quite interesting as well, riding in a Panther tank he isn't readily distinguishable from those of his squadron, so i made sure during assembly that i fitted the front mudguards to his tank prominently and made sure he was poking out the top hatch, as well as painting up the numbered insignia on the side of his turret from the box, i think he came out pretty well, and his mobile Tank workshop piece was great fun to paint, a little diorama in it's own right!  Hopefully the client will like them!

Scourge the Daemon!

Grey Knight Terminator Librarian.

A while back i painted up these Grey Knights and sold them on Ebay, originally i purchased them pretty soon after the codex came out, but after looking through the book i couldn't make head nor tail of the list at the time, so i thought i would give it some time to let some cheaky tricks emerge (let other people do the homework for me!)

I started off by making this Grey Knight Librarian from a metal Space Marine Terminator Librarian i'd had kicking around, i quite like the Terminator Librarian model, but i'd got bored of the same face bossing around my Space Marines so i thought it would be cool to fit a helmet over the top, i took a while boring out the back of the head with a modelling knife, i snipped the back half of the head off first.

And filed down the original face until he looked like he'd dipped his head in a bucket of Acid.

Stuck on a shield for the Heraldry and a Nemesis Force Sword as well as a book icon on the back, worked out quite well for a conversion i think!  I will be repeating it in future and refining it slightly for my own Grey Knight army.

Grey Knight Strike Squad.

I also painted up this Grey Knight Strike Squad, i actually swapped the Justicar and the Psycannon's legs for those in the Sanguinary Guard kit for a bit of variation amongst the squad, i quite like how the Justicar worked out.

I also added a few bits and pieces to the base as nice additional features, a Spawn arm underfoot, a Chaos Marine Helmet and a Khornate Vehicle icon all add detail nicely to the squad as well as Gale Force 9's Autumn Foliage to spice up the colour palette a bit.

Grey Knight Terminator Squad.

And finally i painted up this Terminator Squad, i was really happy with how they came out, Games Workshop did an amazing job with this kit, you can really create endless combinations for your models, and the poses are quite realistic compared to some models, i like the metallic look of the traditional colour scheme, but i'm awkward so i decided for my own to do them white to make them stand out, sometimes it's good to paint a whole squad in a traditional scheme just to make sure you want to go that way with your army, i did these guys over the space of two evenings and was quite happy to let them go, but found the experience i got painting them to be quite useful to my own Grey Knights once i started them!

The Germans are coming!

 

So recently i painted a large number of Flames of War Germans for a lovely fellow, it was quite an interesting experience.

It took me ages.

Assembly alone was hilarious, opening an infantry platoon box to work on seems like a great idea, everything is pretty easy to differentiate, but when you open up the box and see piles and piles of little white metal men staring back at you, it's very difficult to work out who is who, either way i made it through, painting 15mm infantry is a bizarre experience and when the colour scheme for them is the Hitlerjugend from Normandy (basically tiny dots of varying neutral colours all over the uniform) it's very difficult to make them look flash.   But i approached it with zeal and i was happy with the results, i foolishly forgot to snap the models before i handed them over (i was working on them till 4AM one night... i'm a bit nocturnal) but i did snap this Tank, i really enjoyed painting Flames of War Tanks and i hope to get some more in the future as they are a really different experience, i love my weathering in all different forms and these really give you a chance to go hog wild.

There is talk of some more coming my way so i will make sure i get the next ones photographed for the future!

Warmachine: Storm Strider

Cygnar Storm Strider

Recently i had the pleasure of painting a Cygnar Stormstrider from Warmachine up as a commission, when i first looked at the model i thought it would be a complete nightmare, but the collection of techniques involved in painting it was actually quite refreshing, a nice mix of weathering and painting interesting textures onto the different parts of the model kept it fun to paint throughout, and it was a lot quicker to paint than i expected also.

There are normally crew to go with the model but i only received one to paint which i duly left at home when dropping the model off (when this picture was taken) so he is having to undertake and arduous quest of his own to be reunited with his Warmachine through the streets of London currently.

I was quite pleased in particular with the subtle gradient of the blue on the legs, going from darker at the bottom to lighter at the top, i'd been itching to have another go at this technique, but i think it looks better on rounded surfaces than flat, and i've been painting a lot of Imperial Vehicles for 40k which everyone knows are all about the Right angles.

I thought it would be a good time to talk about one of my favourite techniques at the moment for creating false perspective on a model, and how easy it is to achieve, The gashes and strikes on the legs of the Storm Strider are done using this method, i call it "Gouging" but i'm sure that there is another more accepted name for it in the painting community, but so what, right?

the Privateer Press Studio version of the Storm Strider has an amazing extension of this "Gouging" effect where by paint is chipped off to reveal rusted and pitted metal underneath, but i thought i would have a go at this on one of my own models first, other people's models aren't always the best place to begin experimenting!

Anyway, it goes a little like this,

Step One:  Take your surface that requires roughing up, in this example it's the unfinished leg plate of the Storm Strider, i'd got the basic colours of the leg down by this point so i figured it was a good time to chuck in this particular detail, paint fine lines over the armour plating with a colour that is just a darkened version of your main colour, the swipes in this picture are Enchanted Blue with Chaos Black 50/50 (they just look a bit darker in the picture).

The swipes tend to look better if they taper off at the ends to smaller points at each end but as you can see here i was happy just to have the basic line down, you can always go back and add the tapered ends later.

Step Two:  Go back and extreme highlight the lower of the two sides with a lighter version of your base colour (base colour of the armour, not the darkened impression), this gives the impression that the light is catching a raised edge, really deep cuts could be highlighted both edges (to simulate say an axe becoming embedded in an armour plate and the wielder really having to struggle to pull it free)

As you can see in the picture this instantly adds perspective compared to the line below it, and these are close ups, quite unforgiving, down on a gaming table it looks awesome.

So uh, yeah, that's it really.  Pretty easy, and a technique i would recommend everyone to try, these are quite large cuts obviously and i didn't want to rough the model up with too much weathering as Cygnar models tend to have quite a "Pristine" image, more industrial models like Khador i'd just say go nuts, this technique extrapolates quite well onto infantry as well, i've used it a lot on Space marines in the past with great results, when you combine it with weathering powders and little extra paint chips here and there it really looks beastly,

to take it to the next level and increase the quality even further i'd recommend a further highligh towards the edges of the first in a lighter colour adding more White or bone to whatever colour you are working with.

So if you haven't tried it already give it a shot, it's well fun.

Goings on..

I've been busy lately on the 'ole Grey Knights, but i recently picked up a Cygnar Storm Strider (? the Battle Engine), and a monstrous Flames of War German army as commissions so i will be photographing them as they get done and putting them up here, hope they go well!

I also picked up a Malifaux Crew recently!  After much deliberating, i decided there was only one crew for me, Kirai Ankoku and her Vengeful Spirits just screamed out for me to paint them, I've always had a love for the stylings of the Orient and these models are no exception, so as i get them done i will photograph them up as well!

Time to fire up the Paintbrushes!

Memory Lane - The Iron Lords

Librarian Furioso Dreadnought

Honour Guard Standard Bearer

The Iron Lords were a long-time project of mine, i played with them as my main 40k army for about 3 years, going through a combination of guises, from 5th Edition marines through to Blood Angels, i had a lot of success with them and won several Best Painted army trophies with them as well as a 2nd Place Generalship trophy.

The last 40k tournament i visited i used them in their Blood Angels Incarnation, and i had been painting them up until the night before the tournament (believe it or not, a first for me!)  and i didn't really get many practice games in with them, the weird thing was, i realised i didn't really like the army much.



I tend to be a fan of shooty armies, more specifically, i like an army that packs a bit of a punch at range, and then delivers a killing blow in close combat.

With Blood Angels i just never really found my feet, i know they are a great army, i've played against them enough times to fret whenever i see them over the other side of the table, but i decided, for now, they are not for me. 

I tried an army centered around priests as, at the time, i found the whole Feel no Pain thing pretty exciting, but i think i went too gimmicky, i sold out.

my counts-as Gabriel Seth

I went with what people told me was good and not what i really wanted to see on the table, not entirely, the lynchpin of the army was my version of Gabriel Seth, a monster wearing a Hockey Mask with an Eviscerator (shown left) everyone said Gabriel Seth was rubbish, yet when i played games with him, i thought he was awesome, and i had several games where he somehow managed to trash 500 points worth of stuff on his own.

But after taking them to the tournament and performing hideously i thought it was time to chuck them in, i put them up on Ebay and they now belong to a very nice chap in Germany i believe, i enjoyed painting them a lot, and when i started the project the main idea for me was to take an "Official" Chapter (The Iron Lords are one of the featured colour schemes in the Space Marine Codex) and build upon the theme ,

My counts-as Corbulo

I took snippets of information and fleshed them out to whatever was in my liking at the time, It was quite refreshing, not a bog standard "Oh a new codex is out, better try and use it" thing, when Blood Angels came out, i painted up new and obvious models for anything exclusively from the codex, and it was fun to try and think up what they might look like in my colour scheme and what possible background reason i would include them from, My Gabriel Seth for example was "Captain Elderon" of the Assault Company, a grim beast of a marine who's tactical acumen fell second to his martial skill, his combat detachments constantly followed by an extra allocation of Apothecaries to oversee the Assault Marines under his control who followed his blood thirsty lead.

A custom Devastator marine

I have a terrible feeling i will always be a Marine player for 40k, if it doesn't at least have "And They Shall Know no Fear", a 3+ save and a Boltgun, i don't see much use for it in an army.

I also converted up some Oversized Field Mortars for a squad of Devastators (See pic on right) on the battlefield they counted as a squad with 4 missile launchers, but that way i wasn't just taking a squad of 4 missile launchers because they are cheap in a Blood Angels army, i thought of some unique quirk of character i could give the Squad to make them more interesting.  And i worked a treat

Veteran Sergeant

Also, i would be entirely remiss not to mention the fact that i had an Iron Lords thread over on Warseer that i attempted to update regularly, a lot of people would comment and give me feedback (Astraeos wherever you are, your steadfast advice was always appreciated, as well as many others.)

I think online in the gaming community there is a lot of potential to be either a "Watcher" sifting through threads and articles to gain inspiration but that is all and "Trolls" (well we all know what those are, in both senses of the word) but those people that commented on my progress were very helpful, so if you are looking to gain an extra bit of "oomph" with some painting i would definitely recommend taking pictures of your models, no matter how horrible you might think you paint (or good for that matter), the feedback i've received in the past has improved my skills tenfold in addition to my practice with the brush.

The Sons of Mortarion

Forge World Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought

I have a client that has commissioned me to paint various models for his Forge World Death Guard army here and there, he's a lovely chap and he's one of these folks that loves him some 40k, but breaks out in hives whenever he goes near a paintbrush. 

As a result he's not too fussy about the paintjobs (which seems nuts to me spending £20 on every five marines, but hey, not my army not my business!) so he asked for me to do just "Tabletop Standard" Paintjobs on them, which is just as well, because the first commission from him consisted of over 100 models!

One of the really great things about painting a lot is that every once in a while you get something across your desk that you really wanted to paint or try out, but you don't necessarily have a place in your gaming army for right now, this army is full of little gems like the Contemptor Dreadnought on the right and various bits of Forge World Crusader armour that i will probably get around to picking up some of once the new Marine Codex rolls around (whenever that may be, i'm a staunch Imperial Player to the end.)

He tends to use the army as Space Wolves on the tabletop, which in turn leads to odd things cropping up to paint that you wouldn't normally see in a "regular" marine army (like Terminators with crazy wargear, representing Wolf Guard Terminators)

This army gave me a real headache when i started painting them, "Over 100 white marines?!" i was thinking to myself, but as ever, a bit of browsing the 'ole google for some white marines generated some interesting models from different painters that had started with White as the main colour, and then proceeded to just "dirty it up" with weathering powders, which is actually quite effective in the flesh even if it translates badly in photographs.

Strangely enough, around the same time my Mother was throwing out some old eyeshadows/mascaras (i'm a dude, i don't know the difference!) and in typical Mom fashion she asked me "Can you use these for your little men?" and for once i replied "why yes, yes i can!  Thanks!" 

So with a spare brush with good quality bristles that was quite unsullied by the grime of ages, i had a go at stippling it onto the models and it didn't work so well at first, but i quickly cottoned on that if you breathe heavily on a model (bear with me here) the condensation of your breath clings to the model and subsequently holds the powder in place, this can only be done once it's fully painted of course but it works a treat!  And i've seen his army months after i painted the first batch and the powder has held on just fine!  It's weird the little things you come across eh?

He also commissioned me to paint this Rhino, which i absolutely love, based on the old Rogue Trader/2nd Edition Chassis, it's actually built off a modern day rhino with the addition of Plasticard, the result is so effective i think i'll be giving it a go myself some time!

I'm a complete sucker for anything harking back to the older days of 40k as i first developed an interest in it when i was about 12 in 2nd Edition so i have fond memories of lots of different models.

My first model ever was actually an Eldar War Robot though woefully, throughout the years it has disappeared entirely.

And as you can see from the Rhino, the weathering effect of Powder even works brilliantly on Large surfaces of vehicles (much to my relief.)

I'll no doubt have more Death Guard goodies to post in future!

Bitterness, and then some..

Imotekh the Stormlord

I've been working on the full clutch of new Necron characters lately, applying the early, long-drying stages between other projects this week and finally sitting down tonight and bashing through all 5 in about 6 hours.

They are a commission for a very nice chap who wasn't as fussed about having them amazingly done as he was getting them done full stop, so hopefully he will be pleased with them!

The bases have been left unfinished as he is yet to decide on a scheme for them, less work for me! hoho!

First up is Imotekh the Stormlord, a gorgeous, if fiddly model, the extra detail from it being a finecast model shows quite nicely in the final product i think, and i am still undecided as to what i think of finecast as a medium, i think i prefer it just for the ease of assembly, but conversely for models like the Necron characters i think it is a little too flimsy in the long run, i can see a lot of breakages happening.

A nice detail of the Imotekh model is that he doesn't actually have one giant hand like i thought he did, but a regular sized one inside a larger housing a la the Dreadknight, a nice little detail, the cloak was quite interesting to paint as well,

Trazyn the Infinite

Next up is Trazyn the infinite, i don't know why, but i absolutely love this model.  The Background is awesome for him, his rules are really unique and interesting, and the model really fits the character perfectly, he isn't big and imposing, or even that scary looking, but you look at it and think "what tricks is he up to?".

The model is gorgeous, start to finish to paint, only complaint being that the staff is ridiculously thin and stands pretty much zero chance of coming out of the deal perfectly straight, but details like that don't fuss me too much.

I'm already having ideas about getting around to doing a Necron force of my own (probably the third army in my painting queue if i'm right) with a few nice conversions here and there to give them a unique look, all off the back of this one model, that's what this hobby is about for me!

I'm really glad GW went with some named Necrons for this book, i still remember how mindblown i was with the old 4th Ed. Tyranid codex when Old One Eye and the Red Terror appeared, little character quirks and background add a lot to another army that runs a similar threat of being devoid of both those very things.

Necron Overlord with Resurrection Orb

And onto the Necron Overlord miniature, i remember seeing the previews of this mini and assuming it was going to be the most badass special character in the codex, i'm still a bit confused as to how a model for a generic HQ came out so big. 

The pose is so dynamic he doesn't photograph well unfortunately (or fit into a figure case particularly well.) but there is something about the added beefiness of this model that i love, Imotekh is a cool dude but this chap looks like he can bench press him no problem when you stand them side by side.

Still, i'm interested to play against some Necron forces and see if people plump for anything besides Imotekh and writhing worldscape C'tan shards.  They sound nice and all but they don't really do it for me personally!

Necron Cryptek

Next up the Cryptek, new boys on the block for the Necrons, these guys act as nice little force multipliers you can purchase and have either in royal courts or as squad upgrades, my only worry with these guys is i've heard that the Chronometron allows you a dice re-roll a phase or something similar and people seem to be raving about it, i'm not a big fan of model rules that present a vast array of choices but have one that is clearly better than the others for the points, i guess i am going to have to familiarise myself with the codex a bit more! 

I thought this model was kind of ugly when i saw pictures of it first time round, but i have to say it looks a lot nicer in the flesh (though a lot of GW sculpts really have that effect nowadays which is great!) it really has this cool vibe that he was probably quite an old man by the time he was entombed in his Necron form, and that it still retain this hunched posture, another nice little character adding feature of one of the new models, also i am a huge fan of the Cyclopian heads this guy and the Deathmarks got, really characterful and cool.

Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb

And lastly, this plastic Necron (under?)Lord with resurrection Orb, from one of the new vehicle kits, the detail is really nice on this model, nicer than on the older metal models definitely, a shame about his static pose in terms of legs and body, but with the right tweaking in the assembly stage this could actually be a good thing, i really like the way Games Workshop is adding little detachable usable models to some of their larger kits, and the multi-use nature of vehicles and big warhammer beast boxes now, always tons of conversion/trophy bits coming out of every new thing you buy which is good! 

The Models were painted Scab Red and then highlighted up through blood red to Blazing orange and finally to Golden Yellow on the final spot highlights, the capes were drybrushed with a mix of Mithril silver and enchanter blue before being re-highlighted with mithril silver, i hand them over tomorrow,

and unfortunately i think i am being tempted to a newer, weirder 40k army before i even finish my Grey Knights.....

Guardians of the Tomb..

The last couple of commission units i have done lately have all been for the same Tomb Kings army, first it started with a unit of 6 Carrion, and then 30 (what a long slog they were!) Tomb Guard, and now i have just finished 6 of the Necropolis Knights.

The interesting thing about this is that the gentleman that has commissioned me to paint all these units has provided exhaustive cue cards, detailing each colour and which stage it should be applied, at first i thought this would make the process easier, i but i found in the long run it made things a bit trickier.

When someone commissions you to paint models for them, you obviously have no problem with what colours you will paint the final product (unless perhaps they are requesting pink necrons!) but i found that having to paint certain colours using enforced techniques to be an interesting challenge, i've been painting for a good few years now and to not be able to use my full array of tricks was painful!

The models themselves are gorgeous, particularly the faces of the Snake-beasts themselves, they have a real otherworldly-ness about them that left me pondering whether i could convert them into Canoptic Wraiths or not (for future reference!)

They came out pretty well, and apparantly i have some Ushabti to paint next!

Introducing...

Hello there!  Animatronica here!

I am a Gentleman from London, England and i have been wargaming and painting for the best part of 14 years, i try to attend at least one tournament per annum (usually for Warhammer 40k) and i have won a whole shelf full of trophies for my painting skills, which i am quite proud of.

More recently, i have begun painting commissioned models for friends, acquaintances and complete strangers, and this has come with its own unique challenges and benefits, many of which i would never have thought of before engaging in, as it is quite different to painting models for yourself,

I aim to use this blog as a platform to show off anything i might be working on, Commission work as well as personal, as well as musing on the subject of new releases, tournament visits and anything else wargame-related, hopefully it will prove to be useful and provide inspiration to other people like myself,  thankyou for reading!