Speed wash painting success!

Hey Loyal citizens, here's an update on my hormagaunt squad!

They aren't winning a golden demon or anything, but they only took 2 hours from priming to basing.  I just used white primer and three of GW's Shades line of washes.  Since I didn't plan ahead I didn't take pictures of the process unfortunately.  To rectify that I'll either buy another box of gaunts tonight or  use a carnifex to give you the photo step by step.  If anyone has any suggestions on what color I can use as an accent for bits like the tongues and the tubes on the larger bugs weapons and such, please leave a comment and let me know.

In other Warhammer 40k related news, I'm struggling to decide how to assemble the carnifex.  The optimal build for tyranids is definitely a dakkafex (2 sets of twin-linked devourers), but it just seems so sad to see this monster go the way of the rifleman dread and become a glorified gun platform.  I'm either going to build him as a Screamer Killer(2 sets of scything talons) or whatever it is the kids call a scything talon/Crushing claw carnifex, as those feel so much more flavorful.  I already had to go down this road with my flying tyrant, and went with the two sets of devourers, but rather than model him with those puny arms, I used the fleshborer hive bits from the Tyranofex kit as a counts as conversion. Pic Below:

 I'm waiting till I paint a few less significant big bugs before I take a crack at this model, not sure how my scheme will come across on bigger models.

New Year, New Army!

I had intended to update this blog regularly, and should have had a fully painted vampire army on my shelf by now.  It's depressingly obvious that I didn't even finish a box of skeletons.  the paint methods I used were just never going to get me through the amount of undead I had in front of me, and my regular life is just too busy for laborious paint methods.    I basically abandoned warhammer after that failed experiment.

  Recently, however, there was a boom at my Local gaming store for all things Games Workshop.  With this gain in popularity,  I decided that if I could find a way to paint faster and not hate my models, I could put an attractive army on the table before I get distracted by the Animaniacs.  Add to that the fact I recently purchased a new home that has a wonderful garage for my project, and I'm very excited for gaming in the old world and the 41st millenium.

 I have a teaser image of my first painted model for my new army..

This model took me (minus drying time, which there is a fair amount of during the method I used) about 10 minutes of mindlessly easy paint time.  I can live with 10 minutes or better per model.  in the next post, I'll go through my process of speed painting these, and I'll post a picture of my finished hormagaunt box!  Stay tuned kiddos.

The Slog Continues

Progress has been slow but steady on the skeletons, and hope to have some updated pictures of them by this weekend.  In the meantime, I have receieved the latest Vampire Counts Army book, and it really is well produced.  Granted, the new price point is high, but you are getting a glossy full color HARD COVER book.
As far as the unit entries, of which there are very many, I have to say I'm somewhat stumped on which way to go with an army list.  I really don't think I can use the zombies, not because of playability, but because the models are so ugly still.  Unless I use Mantic Games Zombies, I'll be sticking to skeletons, and spears as I don't have alot of luck with the parry save.
Beyond that I'd love to hear some input on what units are no brainers, which aren't worth their points, etc.  Leave some comments!

Getting down to the nitty gritty

Not a huge update today, I spent most of the evening watching Paranormal Activity 3 (research for custom spirit hosts ;) ).  I did get a chance to apply some sand to the bases of the skeleton warriors.  I like getting this texture down before priming, as the primer will hold the sand in place, and this will allow me to use the texture with whatever color I choose. It's not really a complicated process.

         Things you'll need:
             PVA (School) Glue
             An old paintbrush
             Some textured material. (sand, ballast, etc.)         

1. Water down some PVA (school) glue to a consistency close to hand lotion. (Come on guys, don't act like you don't know what that is...)
2. Grab an old paintbrush and paint a thorough but thin layer of the glue to the top part of the figure base, taking care to avoid the sides of the base or the figure itself.
3. As for textured material, sand works in a pinch, I prefer to use a product by Woodland Scenics called "Fine Ballast."  You can usually find this stuff in the Railroad section of your local hobby store:

  4. Pour some texturing material about an inch or two deep in a dish.
  5.  Dip the painted model base deep into the material, then pull out, and sift the excess back into your dish.
  6. Once you have a coating about a grain deep,  make sure you don't have any clinging pieces on the model or the edges of the base.  Let the models dry for an hour or two before you apply primer.  Here are my skeletons fully based:

Well, that's that.  Pretty simple, but there may be some wargamers that aren't familiar with this process.  Tomorrow, weather permitting, I plan to prime and maybe base coat the models.  Until then!

Tune in next time for the exciting conclusion!

 Andre

A Tale of a Lazy Painter

 A Tale of a Lazy Painter

    I have always loved building and painting the great models Games Workshop produces.  Hours spent in careful attention to style and detail to get each model perfect.  Unfortunately, this careful attentiveness has often led me down the path of burnout and many a half finished plastic army has been sold off never to hit the tabletop. 

This blog is hopefully a tool to motivate me into finishing a full army without allowing myself the chance to be burned out or scared off by mounting model kits on my desk.  I have set a very strict rules system in the building of this army.  The rules for this are as follows:

• At the beginning of the month, I will purchase ~$50 worth of miniatures for this army.
• Throughout the month I will work on  assembling and painting the models purchased this month, with the generous one month time table.
• At the end of the month, I will post the finished models on this blog to log my progress.

• If I am unfinished by the end of a month I haven't finished this task, I will skip the next month's purchase until I get these done.

I considered carefully which game I'd build an army for, and being that my last failed project was Warhammer 40k, I decided I'd throw another bone to the Fantasy battles.  I knew I wanted an army that had a current army book, as this project could take a bit of time, and I'd hate to get an outdated army before it hit the table.  I would feel like a cheater if I chose Ogre kingdoms and  abused their low model count to finish the job. That left Vampire Counts and Orcs and Goblins, the latter of which was just too uncivilized for someone of my taste and sophistication (lol..no, seriously).  I am much more a classy Lord of some dark and dreary manor, who by moonlight feasts on the poor peasants of my lands.  With my decision made, I absconded to the Nearest plastic crack shop and grabbed these Beauties:

This is my progress as of day 1.  20 skeletons assembled (the shields are left off for painting.)  They are armed with spears.  I haven't made an army list yet, but I am sure I want these models in it.  total expenditure so far: ~$44.00.  Tomorrow I plan on adding sand to the bases and tuesday I hope to have these primed and ready to dig in on painting.

Tune in next time for the exciting conclusion!

Andre