January's Painting

I'm pleased with my progress this month. Two mini projects and two palate cleansers.

Admittedly I'd done quite a bit of the Clone Troopers in December, but if Sharpe can count three bullets a minute with one already loaded, I think I can get away with it. 

So that's 15 minis in a month, and, of course, I've already started on the next project.

Keeping focused on one thing at once is hard for me, but I'm finding the results mean it's worth it, for now at least. 

I'm aiming to get each thing finished before moving on, and in that spirit, some of my projects will be finishing off things already started. I wonder how I'll do in February?

Reaper Bones 77512 Flesh Golem - Palette Cleanser 2

As my next Palette Cleanser I randomly chose a Reaper Bones Flesh Golem. 

I removed any mould lines and the 'broccoli' base and inserted wire into the legs. I then gave it a good wash. 

I gave the whole mini a coat of Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Skintone, then I picked out various metal details in Vallejo Game Colour Gunmetal Metal.

Once this was dry I gave the metal areas a wash of VGC Black Wash. 

I then gave the pants a base coat of VEO Heavy Charcoal followed by a black wash. I reset the charcoal, then highlighted by mixing increasing amounts of VGC Cold Grey.

The Patchwork Man

I painted different patches of flesh with VGC Dwarf Flesh, VGC Pale Flesh and VGC Rotting Flesh, leaving some parts in the base colour. Then I gave all the flesh a wash of Army Painter Flesh Wash (while I prefer Vallejo for most colours, the Army Painter Flesh Wash is much better).

Once dry I reset the different skin shades with the relevant base colours, then highlighted by mixing in the next lighter colour. For both the Rotting Flesh and the Pale Flesh I used VGC Elfic Flesh (I got this paint from one of the Vallejo Special sets, I'm sure VGC Off White would work).

I highlighted the metal bits with either VGC Chainmail Silver or VGC Beaten Copper, I was thinking of electrical contacts in true horror movie style.

The tubes and flasks I painted either red or blue, I was thinking vaguely of blood here, though why a construct would have blood, I'm not sure. I later realised that some of these were supposed to be guts poking out of a hole in the stomach, so I painted them accordingly.

Then it was simply a case of varnishing and basing, and another Reaper Bones mini finished.

Incidentally I've realised that I've used three different varnish finishes recently. Straight gloss for the Dreadball Robots here, silk on top of gloss for the Clone Troopers here and a more traditional matt on top of gloss for others.

This was another fun mini to do.  It may come in useful in games of Fistful of Lead's Gothic Horror supplement. I'm sure it would make a good companion/bodyguard for a mad doctor.  And, of course, it's an ideal Flesh Golem in D&D, a monster, I now realise, I've never used.

Painting 40K Orks and a Bit of History

Like many gamers I played a lot of GW games. I'm old enough that they weren't my introduction to gaming though. I first played Wargames with Airfix plastic soldiers and using an old Donald Featherstone book. Not very successfully I might add.

As soon as I heard about the Minifigs Mythical Earth range I bought lots of them, along with a set of rules called Wizards and Warfare, essentially a fantasised version of Wargames Research Group Ancients rules. 

D&D came along a couple of years later, and that soon took up all my hobby time and budget.

Years later GW brought out Warhammer, followed by Warhammer 40K, both of which I played a lot of. But over the years, for various reasons, I've sold off or given away most of my GW collection. 

Recent attempts to excavate the lead and plastic pile in the loft of shame have revealed more WH40K than I thought I had. I've no interest in actually playing the game again, but some of orks were a long ago gift from my son, specifically an army set with a big vehicle (battlewagon) and some warbikes. They are generally nice kits and have a lot of sentimental value to me. What they don't have is a decent paint job, so I decided it was time to paint up a few and sell or give away the rest. 

The eight ork troops, sadly not enough for a unit in WH40K, but never mind.

So here are the first few orks. I thought I'd found 10, but once I started there were only 9. Closer inspection showed one was so badly built with caked on layers of paint that he was rejected, so just 8, which seems to be a good number of minis for me to paint.

All the orks were already built and had a black base coat. Some had some flesh painted on in a heavy overbrush and a few details, but I started afresh. I used the same techniques as my Kings of War Orcs, as seen starting here. I chose slightly different colours. I've no intention of sticking to the official schemes of clans with associated colours, I wanted my orks to look a bit more generic. That said, given that there will be some vehicles in the force eventually, I made sure each ork has some red on it somewhere.

Four of the Orks, if I need a leader form this lot, I'll choose the guy with the bright yellow topknot 

I've left the back plates blank.  I may eventually paint a symbol on them, but I haven't yet decided what

The black cloth started with VEO Charcoal, washed with black and then highlighted with a Charcoal VGC Cold Grey mix. I also tried a darker red, basecoated with VGC Terracotta and highlighted with VGC Gory Red. I wasn't sure about this while I was painting, but now it's finished I really like the result. 

For the various straps I tried something a bit different.  I read this technique somewhere, so I can't claim any originality, but I think it works pretty well.  Firstly I painted all the straps with VGC Scorched Brown, this gives a good dark shade to the sides of each strap. Then I painted the upper surface of each strap with VGC Leather Brown.  Finally I painted a broad stripe of the Scorched Brown in the centre of each strap, much easier than trying to edge highlight with the Leather Brown.  Once the minis have been given a wash of 50:50 Soft and Strong Tone Army Painter Wash I think it looks fine.  I'll probably be using this technique again in future.

The other four orks

After the usual varnishing I used Patchy Plains Base Ready mix from Luke's APS. I've used this stuff before, but couldn't find my bottle of the recommended glue. I used Mod Podge instead, and it seems to have done the job. I felt the result was a bit monotone, so I gave it a thin wash of VGC Sepia wash, then after gluing on some grass tufts, a wash of thinned down Mod Podge to seal everything in. A final touch up of the base rim with VGC Burnt Umber and done.

This is another mini project that I really enjoyed. I've already sorted out another 8 Orks, this time the ones with pistol and close combat weapon. 

I said at the start that I've no intention of actually playing WH40K, but these will work with Galactic Heroes. I've also been looking at Grimdark Future, one of the One Page Rules sets. I've heard good things about it, but I'm not sure I really want to paint two armies of the size required. 

Kings of War Ogres (an revision of an original post from 2018)

Just a quick note to say that this post is a rewrite of the original.

I have (as of January 2021) tried to update some of the photos on the blog, but unfortunately using my phone to edit I have managed to delete the original post, though not the comments oddly.

Anyway, here are the first batch of ogres I painted for my 15mm Kings of War army. 

I talked about how I chose them here, along with some of them part painted. 

First up is a regiment of ogres, or half a horde, should I choose to field them that way. 

I wanted something to add to the bases to emphasise the scale. I thought about some animals, or perhaps some sort of human sized equipment, but then I remembered the old Warhammer ogres with their accompanying goblin helpers (noblars?). I had some of the very nice Ral Partha Demonworld goblins, and I thought they would do nicely, especially since Kings of War Ogres are accompanied by Red Goblins (named for their clothing rather than skin colour or politics). 

Ogre Warriors regiment, complete with Red Goblin helper/mascot/emergency rations.

And here's another regiment of ogre warriors, together they will make one horde. 

These chaps have a braver Red Goblin

To lead them I have this excellent hero. I like his commanding pose. He has his little Red Goblin helper as well. 

War Chief Brak-na-Hak

Some magical support in the form of a Warlock.

Wise Old Kafiri. 

And the heavy hitter, Guthrum Mane the Rock Giant. Yes, he is straight from the Orc's Drift forces, as seen here, I've simply finished off his base. 

I actually had quite a few of the Demonworld goblins, and since they worked so well on the ogre bases, I painted up a regiment of spitters. These were simple to do. I used three different skin tones to add variety, all the cloth was red (so the ogres can quickly identify 'their' goblins in the heat of battle) and the whole lot based together, since a regiment is the smallest sized unit of them. 

I think sixteen goblins look fine as a regiment

I painted this chap up to go on an ogre base, but then I realised that Red Goblins can have 'Biggits' as heroes. 

When I say goblin hero, don't expect too much

And finally, a group shot of everything so far. 

I can't use it all at once as a legal army, I need some more ogre units to unlock that many heroes, but I can certainly get a small force on the table now.  I'm very pleased with how these look, and I'm already planning some reinforcements. 

Reaper Bones 77351 Cultist: Palette Cleanser 1

This is the first of my Palette Cleansers. I dipped into a box of unpainted minis and grabbed this cultist. 

Picture taken from the Reaper Miniatures website. 

I painted some of the more recent cultists last year for the DnD campaign (they still need properly basing, another job for the near future). Those had a specific colour scheme to match their role in the campaign and originally I'd planned for this mini to be part of them.

However, I've plenty Kraken Cultists, so I think I'll go traditional black and red for this chap.

I removed the integral 'brocoli' base and glued a bent wire into a hole drilled in the body. Robed minis with a large contact point with the ground are great for this. The wire helps pin the mini to a clear base and also gives something to hold on to. 

After washing I painted the bulk of the robes with Vallejo Extra Opaque Charcoal. The sash was VGC Gory Red, the sleeves and under robe was VGC Cold Grey, the flesh, VGC Dwarf Flesh, any leather was VGC Charred Brown and the wide belt was VGC Tinny Tin (Vallejo must have been running out of names at this point). 

I then washed the charcoal and the red with VGC Black Wash and left it all to dry. 

Next session I gave the outer robe a drybrush first of the charcoal, then adding in some VGC Stonewall Grey. The sash was highlighted with the Gory Red then with increasing amounts of VGC Blood Red. This didn't work out as well as I hoped, but it looks OK from a distance and the dark red suits his evil look. 

The under robe was given highlights by mixing the base colour with increasing amounts of VGC Ghost Grey. The leather was first painted VGC Beasty Brown, then with VGC Leather Brown, And a final highlight of VGC Khaki. 

The belt was highlighted with VGC Brazen Bronze with VGC Glorious Gold on extreme highlights. When dry I gave it a wash with VGC Black Green Ink to give it an aged look. He's clearly stolen it from some tomb. I've used this technique for old bronze before, notably on the wraiths here. Various details on the belt were painted VGC Gunmetal with VGC Chainmail Silver, I originally painted the plaques with skulls on like this, but changed them to black to give more contrast. 

The flesh was washed with VGC Flesh Wash, then highlighted with the base colour, with VGC Pale Flesh mixed in for the final highlights. 

The cultist was then given a coat of gloss varnish, then matt varnish, and finally based. 

I'm very pleased with how this has turned out. I've no idea when or where he will get used, but that's not the point of the Palette Cleansers. 

Now I have to decide what project to paint next. I'll probably take something I've started and finish it off. 

Palette Cleanser

I mentioned in my goals for this year that I'm planning to paint random Reaper Bones minis between other projects. I had planned on calling these The Random Reaper Bones Initiative, but since its past time I cleaned my palette, and hopefully it'll refresh me for other projects, I'm going with Palette Cleanser (and apologies for the bad pun).

The reason for this little diversion is partly to help me get back into painting things other than the next project/game/RPG session; I'm painting something for the joy of painting, not for any other purpose. 

Also partly to reduce the huge amount of unpainted or part painted stuff I have. 

I'll take the opportunity to practice new painting techniques as well from time to time. I will be painting just one mini in each 'Palette Cleanser' hopefully between each larger project. The minis will be drawn pretty much at random, though if they are part of a grouping I may put the mini to one side, or perhaps the rest of the group could be the next project, the palette cleanser then becomes a test paint, (though this is very much an incidental bonus rather than the plan). 

 Its probably not all going to be Reaper Bones, but that seems a good place to start, especially as Bones V should be delivering later this year, and there are rumours of Bones VI launching before the year is out. I've already begun the first of these, I'll use the blog to log the paints used and I post the results once finished.

EDIT: Looking back from April I'll slightly revise the goals.  I'm including small groups of minis in this if they are part painted and need finishing.

Clone Troopers for Fistful of Lead Galactic Heroes

Here are the opposition for the villains I painted in December.  Again they are old Wizards of the Coast pre-painted Star Wars minis.  Between us, my son and I seem to have a lot of Clone Troopers, including some rather nice vehicles, so I can see quite a few turning up in games of Galactic Heroes.  Who knows, maybe even in the 'Bigger Battles' rules?

After cleaning up the minis and removing the integral bases I gave them all a good wash.  I glue wire into the feet to make it easy to hold the minis during painting and to pin them into the base once finished.

I followed a paint scheme by Sonic Sledgehammer (check out his stuff, its good),  he's painting Stormtroopers, but the principle is the same.  Rather than using one of the recommended spray undercoats I mixed VGC Dead White with a little VGC Glacier blue and some VMC Satin Varnish.  The varnish helps to give a smooth surface for the Contrast paints.  

Then a basecoat of GWC Apothacarian White followed with a white drybrush.  The WotC minis are smaller than modern day minis, especially the newer Star Wars Legion stuff, and the relief is less, but the Contrast paint seems to work. I used GWC Black Templar for the bits of the black undersuit that shows ath knees, shoulders, gloves etc, as well as weapons and equipment. As suggested by Sonic Sledgehammer, I gave the guns a further coat of GWC Basilicanum Grey. A bit of research on Wookieepedia suggested that sergeants may at some point have had green detailing, and heavy weapons troops may have had blue. I used more traditional methods and various Vallejo paints, for these. They were then gloss varnished, and a final coat of satin varnish gives the right look to the finished armour.  

I'm very pleased with how well these came out. Using Contrast paints seems to do the job, though they do need the drybrush for the highlights. I may try some more Clone Troopers using a more traditional white with grey wash, as I did with the Star Saga lab technicians here, to compare the two methods.

Fingers Crossed for 2021

With the understanding that these are difficult and unpredictable times, here are my goals for 2021.

My first target is to finish a crew of Clone Troopers to go up against the various aliens I painted here. That will give me two crews to try the rules out. I've already begun them, and I'm experimenting with Citadel's Contrast paints, I'm waiting to get some Black Templar to finish them off.  I may eventually build some terrain, possibly desert planet themed, but for now my existing terrain will be fine, I've certainly got plenty of useable stuff from Deadzone.

I got Armada for Christmas, so I'll try and get a couple of ships built and painted to try out the rules. I'll probably go for something close to the colour schemes in the book. I've seen some nice effects using Contrast paints for the timbers, so I may experiment with that.

Since I've gone to all the trouble of actually painting an orc army, I should really get them based, and I have a unit of dwarf cavalry that need finishing so I can get some opposition for the orcs in my demo set. I may eventually paint the whole dwarf force anew, but for now I think I'll just raid my existing dwarf army. Whilst I'm starting the year doing very small projects with no larger goal, I'd like to get this demo set finished, I know several people who would like to borrow it.

As part of the sorting out exercise I found a box of Deadzone orcs. I'd like to replace the orcs I did here with a new and more complete team. I gave the painted ones away to encourage a friend to play Deadzone, I hope he uses them. I'll use the same colour scheme, but I'll use the techniques I used for the orc demo army (basecoat, extreme highlight and wash). Once I've got a team I'm happy with I'll see about finding the rest a new home; its a very full box, containing pretty much every Mantic Marauder model bar some of the newest ones. There are vague rumours about a revamp of Warpath, or at least of Firefight, but any playtesting has been put on hold for this year, so there won't be any need for a horde of orcs any time soon.

I'll also get some paint on the ASoIaF Wildlings and Night's Watch I built last year.  I have enough for two teams for FfoL, though as we await the fantasy version there may be some slight changes in team building.  I'd also like to look at building and painting some Riverlands troops.  It's an interesting area in the history of Westeros, being the the scene of many skirmishes during the reign of Rob, the Young King in the North, there's also the potential for action during Robert's Rebellion, as the Tully's had to quell dissent among some of their bannermen before supporting Robert.  There's also the fact that the blue and red of the Tullys looks a lot like some of the Yorkist forces in the Wars of the Roses, though I won't be playing any historical games with them.

The idea is that eventually I will have enough minis to play larger games using Dragon Rampant or even Never Mind the Billhooks.  That seems like a long term goal though.

I've also decided that between each mini project I'll grab a random Reaper Bones mini and paint it. I've boxes of part and unpainted Bones and this will go a small way towards reducing the number. It'll also give me a chance to practice finer techniques that I might not use on groups of minis, where appropriate, and I hope it will help me regain that sense of achievement from painting just for the sake of painting, rather than for a target.

I'm also going to redo some of the pictures on the blog. Whenever I have a particular mini or group of minis to hand, I'll re photograph them where possible (obviously I won't be able to redo step-by-step guides), so there isn't a plan to this. I'll post a mention along with a link, whenever I do this.

I think that's ambitious enough for the current times.  I hope I'll eventually get some face-to-face games in, which will inevitably give me a purpose to my hobby time, but when that will be, who knows?

If and when we do get some games in, I'm looking forward to trying some of the Fistful of Lead games and it would be great to finish the Eiras Contract for Star Saga, which should get me finishing the furniture.  Once we can get back to the D&D I'm sure there will be more minis and terrain to prepare. I'd like to get some games of Armada in, so I suppose I'll need to get all the ships painted. I'm telling myself that I don't need to collect any more fleets as and when they become available, though if something really great comes sailing by...

Finally, I really should get at least a 750 point Trident Realm force painted, its getting embarrassing by now.