Maintaining the pace

 

So, my main focus at the moment is still on getting ten Shasvastii painted for the "Organised Play at Home" event by Corvus Belli. It's going to be super tight to get them all done in time for 14 July, but it's not impossible yet!

These two jesters are another Bad Squiddo sculpt. They were on the "shelf of shame" so I grabbed them and threw on a little contrast paint to get them done.

I also had this "Sheriff Drumfasser" model which is a Reaper Bones Black model. I found that contrast didn't stick to it very well, so just dropped a base coat and Agrax wash on him to get him finished up.

Not sure if I'm going to keep him long term or not. I threw paint on him because he was on the desk. The clean up wasn't great either.

Still, the focus for now is Infinity models. Onward!

Being much more productive

 

To start off with, I'm plugging away at Corvus Belli's "Organised play at home" painting competition. I'm a little behind where I wanted to be, but all the models now have paint on.

As part of making space to complete the challenge, I managed to finish up the "Combined Army Pneumarch" HVT model I've had sitting as work in progress for a while.

I do want to practice "muddy cloak hems" in future, as I think I could do better. But I'm really pleased with the texture on the cloak itself.

HTVs, or "High Value Targets" are important models that help provide random secondary objectives (or "Classifieds" to your army during games of Infinity. Some missions also need you to have a number of civilian models to be either rescued or assassinated.

I also knocked out a "quick tabletop job" on Brath the Stag, who I picked up at random from Fenris Games a while back. He's one of the ranges that Fenris import from the US, in this case, from "Barbaric Splendor" games. They seem to use a wide variety of sculptors with different styles, but I really liked this one, and it took paint really easily.

As I first took photos, I felt that his cloak was a little too dull and needed a bit more work.

So I spent a quick minute dropping in some extra brighter red highlights with a Citadel Air paint. My blending was a little off and it wasn't as smooth as it could have been, but it looks much better from further away now. I'm declaring him "done", as otherwise I'll just end up going back again to do some feathering and blending to get the cloak better and he'll stop being a "quick tabletop job" and start being a time sink.

He's done. Varnish him and put him away, Self. You don't need to do anything more on this one, there's more models to paint.

Sisters of Battle Saturday - The last of this batch

Once again, all miniatures painted by Squiggle's Studio. First up is the third of the Canonesses I sent off. In this case, it's the old metal one that I'd grabbed just before they went out of stock to give me a bit more variety in model options.

Also from the "last bits and bobs of metal" we have the Imagifier, or "Lady with a Banner". I really love the squiggles that Squiggle did . . .

Also present and pretty darned awesome is the Sister Dialogus. I've always loved this model, with her weird speaker staff and loads of scrolls. Again, excellent squiggle work.

I had one metal squad of old Sisters, and it was a unit of Repentia. Mostly because I loved the idea of angry ladies with massive chainswords charging at people screaming. A little bit because Imperial Guard are bad at combat and I wanted something that is. But mostly because I've always thought they're awesome.

The old metal models are a bit limited compared to the new plastic sculpts, but they hold up OK, I guess.

 

Squiggle did a good job with alternating basing, poses and skin tones to cope with the limited poses of the metal sculpts.

I particularly like the pillar on this base helping break things up a bit.

There is no doubt, even with the old sculpts, that these ladies can and will absolutely wreck you.

The upside of the new plastics is that they allow the sculptors to do this sort of thing.

The downside, of course, is that they're not the easiest to transport.

And with these four Repentia from the army box, that's everything from this commission batch. I'd definitely recommend Squiggle's Studio if you are looking to get an army on the table. While I definitely want to get a few more Sisters to bring the size of the force up, there's going to be a few other things getting painted before I buy anything new...

Work in Progress Wednesday: Runewars Reanimates (Skeletons)

 

These fine individuals are Reanimates from the now defunct Runewars range. I got them from the Bad Squiddo Bargain Bin - it's a dangerous place for my wallet!

You get eight in a box, with two of each sculpt. I'm not a big fan of pose duplicates, so I'm selling off the other half.

These are for use in D&D, Frostgrave and the like. They were super cheap but still pretty nice quality. They'll get a quick tabletop quality job and get added to the case...

Error: Blog Author has Melted

Due to cancelled LARP, I had a few days booked off for a long weekend. I had some grand plans to get loads of painting done.

I had not counted on the heat.

I've done a whole bunch of tidying around the hobby area, finished GTA:V and a few other jobs around the flat, but there aren't any painted models by blog writing deadline time.

Still, it's cooling down as we hit the evening now, and I'm not back at work until Wednesday, so lets see if I can get something done in time for next week!

Future Friday: Upcoming Bad Squiddo Fantasy Kickstarter

 

A couple of weeks ago, I put in an order to Bad Squiddo to get some more tufts. I'd tried a new earth recipe I quite liked for the Unicorn I'd painted, but wanted some lighter tufts to go with it. When the package arrived, I was surprised to find a miniature there as well - and one I didn't recognise.

I contacted Annie, and she said that it was a miniature for her upcoming Fantasy Kickstarter. She also confirmed that I was OK to show it to people...

Obviously, it wouldn't be OK to just show people the bare metal - Annie is perfectly capable of showing people that herself. So, this mysterious archer jumped to the top of my painting queue.

If you've not painted Bad Squiddo models before, they're not super detailed, but very much hand sculpted models that are designed to take washes (and thus Contrast Paint) very well. I went with an assortment of greens for this archer, making her a bit of a ranger type.

I am really keen about her. So keen, in fact, that this last photo is not the same as the top photo, but one taken from an ever so slightly different angle, and I couldn't decide which one I liked more!

Annie hasn't announced when the next Bad Squiddo Kickstarter is yet. If you're super keen to be in on this one, probably the best way of making sure you know about it is to sign up to the Bad Squiddo Newsletter. 

Work in Progress Wednesday: Stormcast Lord Relictor

I finally managed to finish up this Lord Relictor I got with the Warhammer Mortal Realms magazines. He is more of a faff to assemble than I first thought. That big heavy banner has two connection points - the wrist, as you'd expect, and one of the curling bits of parchment at the bottom.

This is a good idea from a stability / strength point of view, but an absolute pain to line up perfectly. He spent quite a lot of time sitting on my desk with that last bit to do. Still, I finally sorted it on the [redacted] attempt, and he's ready for paint now.

There's a new edition of Age of Sigmar coming now, and I'm keen to blitz out a small playable force in time for the new edition. I've had entire armies in boxes for the whole of the first two editions without ever playing it, so I really, really should fix that.

A productive weekend - taking up a challenge and finishing the Lantern Bearer

This week, Corvus Belli announced a painting competition. The idea is that you have until 14 July to paint up a playable list for Infinity. While I had a bunch of half finished stuff on my desk, I decided that this could be good motivation to try and get some stuff done - especially with a long weekend booked off work for a now cancelled LARP. You can see the models I've picked above, and even read the list if you fancy it. It's not a particularly competitive list and was mostly selected on the basis of finding ten models I had assembled but without having started painting.

I took the opportunity to finish up the Otherworld Lantern Bearer this weekend, so I've got less work in progress. I do still have three half finished Shasvastii on the desk, but as they'll need the same colours as the painting competition models, it shouldn't be too hard to get them finished up as I go.

I also have another model finished which will have it's own dedicated post on Friday. Another company has seen fit to send me a model that hasn't been released yet - and I got it finished over the weekend as well. I felt that it deserved its own dedicated post, though!

Sisters of Battle Saturday - Mostly Not Sisters

With the new Sisters of Battle Codex going up for pre-order today, I thought it would be worth putting up a few more of the models I had Squiggle's Studio paint. First up, we have the Canoness model based on the old John Blanche illustration. I've ended up with a few different Canoness models, so I have the option of swapping different ones in for different load outs if I need to.

The Sister Hospitaller is the old metal model. As the new one comes on a massive scenic base I asked for her to be put on a larger base so I wouldn't have any problems at tournaments or anything like that. Adding the street lamp was an excellent touch and I think it stops the model looking drowned on the base.

The underhive of Terra is a dangerous place, but the Word of the Emperor needs to be brought to all the dark places.

Arco-flagellants are one of the nastier bits of the 40K background. Criminals and heretics are turned into cybernetic berserkers to charge at the enemies of the faith. I'd ended up with a whole bunch of these - I had three old Finecast ones I'd picked up when the Inquisition could take them, the three monopose ones from the Sisters army box, and another box of ten I'd got in the "Supply Drop" box.

The sculpts are all all super dynamic and varied. I've got them all in KR foam now, but I am a little nervous for them . . . 

Here you can see the three older Finecast models alongside one of the new plastic models. The better material allows for much more dynamic and detailed poses, and I'm a huge fan.

I understand Arco-flagellants are pretty good in the current book, so I'll be curious how they turn out in the new one. 

I've got a nice little horde of them, so it should be fun to have them run around the table and charge into things.

Finally, I've got the Penitent Engine from the Sisters Army Box. It's basically "what if Arco-flagellant, but strap them into a big walker?" Getting a couple more is almost certainly on the cards when I expand the force a little beyond the thousand points or so I have at the moment.

Work in Progress Wednesday: Infamy Sci Fi Taras

 

With Stargrave threatening to be the New Hotness, I dug around for random sci fi suitable miniatures I might have lying about.

I came across these great models by Infamy Miniatures. Sadly, they're no longer available as they were clearing out old stock. But they'll look great muddled in with other models for Stargrave.