Playing around on Sunday morning

Just a short update on early Sunday morning. I am just testing (fooling?) around with my new camera a bit. And I wanted to quickly show you some of the pictures I shot (and had an IMO nice effect by chance). After posting that I will return to priming the first miniatures from Shadows of Brimstone but I had to take a break because it really stressed me out that my airbrush was totally clogged  although I gave it a thorough cleaning after the latest usage. Nearly killed my motivation to continue at all....

Blood Red & Sunburst Yellow: My two arch enemies

Motivation is somehow back and I am starting to paint again. And having to face my two arch enemies: The (very) old paints from Games Workshop, Blood Red and Sunburst Yellow. Those two paints just will not create some reasonable layers, the pigments in them just flow around and give a uneven, semi-transparent, blotchy layer. Even doing multiple coats will not work with them. And painting them on anything else than a white (or light gray) primer gives you headaches. With the airbrush the colors work OK but I can't use my airbrush on all those small parts of the miniatures.
Either I am too stupid do use those correctly or these colors are really a pain.

The problem is, that I still have to use them, because my Chaos Dwarves will use the red, and my Skaven Slaves have yellow clothing...

So if anyone of you has a good tip how I can get those two colors to work I would be happy... Or is there a nice basecoat red and yellow color from other manufacturers like Vallejo? So that I can only use the GW ones for highlighting. I know that there are some basecoat colors from GW but I switched all new colors I own to the Vallejo ones and I am more than happy with them.

And to complete this post, a bad shot WIP picture of the thingy I am working atm: The Ramshackle Drill I got a looooong time ago as present from Labschi. The brown parts will later be covered with a brass/gold paint and the metal parts will be weathered and be more metal (its just the first drybrushed coat). The red parts will stay, I like the dirty look of that, the first time that its OK that the red didn't cover so good :)

This thingy will either be a proxy for a Skaven Doomwheel (if I ever need a third on in a game) or most likely be used as a Chaos Dwarf war machine. I am thinking of the Iron Daemon since I don't want to buy the Forgeworld one and all my Chaos Dwarf models so far are the Mantic Abyssal Breeds or proxy models from other companies.


So long,
Paradox0n

WIP - Chaos Dwarf

Hope you all had a nice Christmas and didn't explode from all the delicious food you got :) Since here the weather is really bad (rain instead of snow and most of the time pretty windy) I couldn't prime my harpies (I have black as spray can primer) so I loaded up my airbrush and searched for a victim for my painting madness :)
But before starting to paint I had to pimp my working space since I got some really nice presents from the "Christkind" and additionally did some shopping in a big swedish furniture store. But more of that later.

Perhaps some of you remember that I had won a Scibor Chaos Dwarf some time ago. Since I have some days off at the moment I started painting this one. While basecoating two of my brushes died a miraculous death (the points just bended and the hairs feathered out) although I had always treated them well (even cleaned them with brush soap). But these where old ones so I don't have to mourn about them, I just switched to the more expensive ones

Nonetheless here are the first WIP shots from the chaos dwarf (I really have to adjust to my new painting setup especially for WIP pictures).
Everything seems a bit blotchy at the moment but the idea behind this massive brown basecoat is to give my bronze a nice base. And on black/white or pure grey the color just doesn't "shine" enough.
The fur I want do shade down a bit and give it some drybrushing and the coat should be a dark red. The washing didn't tune it down enough, so I think I will start shading it manually.

Before starting to basecoat the armor in brown, I did a short test with the shield of this chaos dwarf. And I really really liked the result. It was just a basecoat in brown, one layer of Vallejo Glorious Gold, a heavy wash of Gryphone Sepia, some highlights with a  mixture of the gold and Vallejo Gunmetal Metal, a final highlight with nearly pure Gunmetal and a final wash with sepia.

For me this gave exactly the look of a used but well-kept shield I wanted.

Stay tuned for more WIP of him. I really like the details of this miniature and are happy that I got it from Mr. Lee (even if I had some nightmares while preparing it for painting).


So long,
Paradox0n

Nightmares coming true

I really hate it when my nightmares are coming true. Perhaps you can remember my worries with the Scibor Moscal Boyar Lord I received from Mr. Lee this week. I feared that cutting the axe head and shield from the sprue may cause some problems... I really shouldn't have said that because exactly this happened. While carefully trying to cut of the stuff (with a new blade for my scalpel and everything) there was a short snap and the axe head broke in two halves. Maybe you can think of all those curses on my lips...
Apart from that I also have some problems with the casting quality of some of the parts. You can clearly see some miscasts and the problems the stamp technique brings (sharp details on the surface but on the melting areas you can see the different layers). The miniature itself is great, the additional stuff so lala. Overall I hope I can fix all the stuff and make this a beautiful figure.


So long,
Paradox0n

Battered airbag from Turkey

Yesterday I had an unexpected information leaflet from our "Deutsche Post" in my letterbox. A registered letter has been delivered to me and waits for pickup at my local post office. So I went there today at 8 o'clock and was disappointed that the office opens at 9 ... I asked myself WHY they write on the leaflet "Pick it up from 8 o'clock tomorrow" but OK... So I went there again just some minutes ago and TADA there was a battered airbag from Turkey waiting for me :) And perhaps you can already guess it, it is my price from Mr. Lee's 100k views contest, the Scibor Moscal Boyar Lord.

If you compare the two pictures (the one on Mr. Lee's blog and mine) you can only guess what airmail, customs and transport did do this poor airbag. But happy me the miniature itself wasn't harmed at all.
Its the first time I have one of those Scibor miniatures in my hands and to be honest: On the first look I am rather impressed. I've read lots of how bad those stamp techniques are and stuff like this. But the miniature has clear details and nearly no molding lines. Clear details and a stout and resolute posture give this miniature the perfect look for such a stubborn Chaos Dwarf Moscal Boyar Lord. The only thing which DOES worry me are the additional parts like the axe head and the shield which are cast on an extra sprue and seem to be rather heavily attached to it. I hope I can cleanly cut them off the sprue, especially the axe head which really seems to be a problem. The miniature is delivered with a small scenic base which looks pretty good. Again I am impressed how clean the casting is. I slowly understand why these miniatures are so expensive (in Germany at least).

The Lord will be a nice addition to my still secret army :) Ok ok you can guess it: I have some Chaos Dwarves (to be honest some Abyssal Dwarves from Mantic) flying around which wait for assembly and paint. Since I think I got all those miniatures from the KS (have lost the overview) I think I finally can start to put everything together with this lovely Lord as start. I hope I can give it the love needed, especially since it is such a nice price from the contest.

Stay tuned for more sumpy, grumbly, evil madness :)

So long,
Paradox0n

Chaos Dwarfs Battle Report from MiniWargaming

Since I know that some of you are Chaos Dwarf fans (like me) I thought I should post this battle report from MiniWargaming in case you missed it:

Cya,
Paradox0n

WIP - Lava bases

Finally having the time to try out my 0.2mm needle in my airbrush I did a quick test for the lava bases I plan to do for my Chaos Dwarf army. I cut out an appropriate piece of cardboard, glued some cork onto it and primed everything. Then I loaded the airbrush, beginning with red, mixing in more and more yellow and finally some white. Then (big error!) I painted the cork black.

Test for a lava base

Since it was only a quick test for working with the 0,2mm needle and how much pressure I need for the different layers, it is OK. I now know how to do things for my Chaos Dwarves. First I have to use real bases or some MDF or some plastic card as base, then I'll have to prime everything black and drybrush the stones and THEN the airbrush comes into use. Think this will work much better.

And I'm really scared by the amount of work this will be *looks in fear to his Skaven, Dark Elves and Chaos Dwarves* :) 

Heavy WIP - Bullcentaurs?!

Hidiho, with the new Bullcentaur Renders from Forgeworld and my Abyssal Dwarf Halfbreeds from Mantic Games, I'm in the situation where the models aren't really fitting together now. The Halfbreeds of Mantic are way too small for the bigger bases needed for the new Bullcentaurs. Therefore I tried to fit them together on a base to represent the "multiple wound model" and perhaps give them the appearance of something bigger.

Count as Bullrender

It is really heavy WIP. The models are held together by bluetack and the base will made into a scenic base. But what do you think, could they represent the bigger Bullcentaur Renders in this setup?


So long,
Paradox0n

Package from Mantic Games - Abyssal Dwarves

As I told you at my review of the Kings of War Rulebook, the package from Mantic Games contained not only the rulebook but also a whole bunch of sprues and sachets with the Abyssal Dwarves. This is only the first delivery, the bonus sprues and the new Immortal Guard still wait for production and the other new bonus miniatures will be shipped next spring I hope. Can't wait to get them :)

My first "backer" package from Mantic Games

Rather chaotic and many many things I have to build in the future. And my Dark Elves and Skaven aren't even completly build together. Damn hobby addiction. If I want to paint them all, I'll have to quit my job and lock me up in my painting room for a year or two :)
So yes, I have many things to do and hopefully I won't fill my "Desk of Shame" even more. But motivation returned, I hope I can finish my tower soon and convince Labschi to do some more hobby sessions in the near future (the coming winter* will help to do so I think).


So long,
Paradox0n

*"Winter is coming!" was the first thing I wanted to write. Damn I'm also too addicted to good fantasy novels/movies/series :)