Don't Know What I Expected Really

 

I sent a few Inquisition models to Squiggle's Studio to complete a while back, and I haven't shown them off on the blog yet. First up is Eisenhorn, from the Inquisitor novels released around the same time as the Inquisitor 54mm game.

Next up is Kyria Draxus, a radical Ordo Xenos Inquisitor armed with a Shuriken Catapult and accompanied by some weird little Xenos beastie.

Finally, there's the Daemonifuge, Ephrael Stern, and her Harlequin companion. I remember reading the Ephrael Stern comics at school and grabbed the model straight away when she came out.

Once I get back to gaming in person again, I'll likely try out each in turn and see what they can do before deciding which ones I'll be bringing along regularly or not...

Commission Painted Inquisitor Greyfax

 

A while back I sent off Inquisitor Greyfax to Blightforge, a commission painter on Instagram. I'd picked her up when she came out because I really wanted to support GW putting out more badass female characters, but never quite managed to find the time to paint her myself. I still want to use her in games of 40K, though, so decided to get her commission painted. Now she's back and ready for some games!

A burst of productivity

 

I've finally finished the oldest "overdue" model I had in my paint queue. This is the wonderful undead centaur by Diehard Miniatures. I picked it up from their Kickstarter, but he's now available from their webstore.

This was an experiment in drybrushing and contrast. The whole model was heavily washed and drybrushed before I started using contrasts. Sometimes I'd then drybrush again and contrast again to build up depth of colour.

I'm really quite pleased with how he turned out, and I'll be doing some more experiments with that sort of thing.

This Daemonhost was also well overdue for painting. Having finished the centaur by this stage, I experimented with a purple wash to give a really weird tone to the model I was expecting him to be a paint to paint, but by keeping the paint scheme simple, the contrast was able to work with the fiddly detail without taking forever.

I was pretty pleased with being able to drop in the colours on the two syringes stuck into the daemonhost's leg. I managed to get a weird green liquid and the blue of the glass painted in by hand first time.

I also painted up this Otherworld Miniatures Wererat. I hadn't realised when I picked her up that she was definitely female, but looking at her chest, that's definitely not in doubt! This was a lightning fast contrast job, with a quick couple of pupils dropped into the eyes.

I basically got her done over two evenings with drying time, so doing more paint jobs like this on a week night will be a good way to get through the backlog.

I'm really pleased with how much I got done over the course of a week, so here's hoping it keeps up.

Work in Progress Wednesday - 40K Inquisition

I've got quite a few bits and pieces of 40K stuff in the paint queue - Inquisitors and other Imperial agents.

I'm not hugely enthused by 40K at the moment. I'm liking the look of what Games Workshop is doing with the rules in general, and am kind of keen to try out some smaller patrol games when I can get out again. But the new edition launch not having a digital version has been really rather disappointing for me, meaning I've still not picked up a copy of the new edition. I moved over to digital books to save space at home and have less to carry to games, and I'm less than happy that they seem to have moved away from that again.

I'll not be giving up 40K or anything like that. It's just been a bit disheartening. I'm sure I'll get into it in time.

I've got a couple of priests to do, either for my Guard or for the Sisters I'm planning to do.

I have a few Inquisitors to do, mostly from an old Made to Order Games Workshop ran a while back.

I'm not sure all the wargear these models are armed with are available in the current rules. I'm not too worried, though, as the models are pretty awesome looking.

I also have a Death Cultist I picked up cheaply at some point. That said, roll on plastic miniatures for the Death Cultists!

Also, not included in the group shot, I also found this Inquisitor on the "to do" tray after I'd done the group shot. I've left the book off to get the painting done separately.

A Lazy Combat Patrol Hack

I'm still not going out yet because I think everything is down to risk management and I'm not risking my life to play toy soldiers.

I've also not yet got a copy of the new Warhammer 40,000 because I have no interest in either a subscription app or a dead tree copy, and for some reason Games Workshop haven't released the e-book copy yet for civilised people.

But that doesn't stop me reading internet sites and writing an elegant and balanced game mod for Combat Patrol games to give the Inquisition a bit more flexibility.

Inquisitorial Clash

• Select a force using the Patrol Detachment as usual for a Combat Patrol game. Your Warlord must be an Inquisitor.

• Units with the SISTERS OF SILENCE Faction keyword can be included in a INQUISITION detachment, without preventing that detachment from being an INQUISITION detachment. Note that this does not prevent INQUISITION models in that detachment from gaining any detachment abilities, however SISTERS OF SILENCE units cannot themselves gain any detachment abilities. Similarly, those SISTERS OF SILENCE units are ignored for any rules that state all units from that Detachment must have at least one Faction keyword in common (e.g. in a matched play game) and when documenting your army's Faction.

• Units with the ASTRA MILITARUM Faction keyword can be included in a INQUISITION detachment, without preventing that detachment from being an INQUISITION detachment. Note that this does not prevent INQUISITION models in that detachment from gaining any detachment abilities, however ASTRA MILITARUM units cannot themselves gain any detachment abilities. Similarly, those ASTRA MILITARUM units are ignored for any rules that state all units from that Detachment must have at least one Faction keyword in common (e.g. in a matched play game) and when documenting your army's Faction.

• Units with the GREY KNIGHTS Faction keyword can be included in a ORDO MALLEUS detachment, without preventing that detachment from being an ORDO MALLEUS detachment. Note that this does not prevent ORDO MALLEUS models in that detachment from gaining any detachment abilities, however GREY KNIGHTS units cannot themselves gain any detachment abilities. Similarly, those GREY KNIGHTS units are ignored for any rules that state all units from that Detachment must have at least one Faction keyword in common (e.g. in a matched play game) and when documenting your army's Faction.

• Units with the ADEPTUS MINISTORUM Faction keyword can be included in ORDO HERETICUS detachment, without preventing that detachment from being an ORDO HERETICUS detachment. Note that this does not prevent INQUISITION models in that detachment from gaining any detachment abilities, however ADEPTUS MINISTORUM units cannot themselves gain any detachment abilities. Similarly, those ADEPTUS MINISTORUM units are ignored for any rules that state all units from that Detachment must have at least one Faction keyword in common (e.g. in a matched play game) and when documenting your army's Faction.

• Units with the DEATHWATCH Faction keyword can be included in ORDO XENOS detachment, without preventing that detachment from being an ORDO XENOS detachment. Note that this does not prevent ORDO XENOS models in that detachment from gaining any detachment abilities, however DEATHWATCH units cannot themselves gain any detachment abilities. Similarly, those DEATHWATCH units are ignored for any rules that state all units from that Detachment must have at least one Faction keyword in common (e.g. in a matched play game) and when documenting your army's Faction.

• Your Warlord does not count as an AGENT OF THE IMPERIUM for the purposes of limiting the number of AGENT OF THE IMPERIUM models you may take in your detachment. (This does not supercede the rule that only one Inquisitor may be taken in an Inquisition Detachment, but does mean that you could use an Assassin's AGENT OF THE IMPERIUM rule to add it to your Inquisition detachment.)

This "writing rules" lark isn't all that hard, is it? I haven't managed to get any games of 9th edition 40K in, sadly, so please do let me know if you decide to use my weird house rules, and how you got on?

Fancy Photos and a New Plan

I spent a bit of the weekend tidying the hobby area rather than painting, so I only managed to get the Shasvastii Mentor finished up. Various new projects have been undercoated and prepped, but I'm not showing all of those just yet.

I also found my light box, so took some slightly fancier photos than you'll have seen before. Unfortunately, I haven't yet found the cable to my light box, so the photos had to rely on natural sunlight, and are thus varied in quality.

The Mentor, I photographed with the Nox Troopers I've already done, and the look of them all together has made me very happy that the look of the force is coming together.

The Inquisition Cherub got a coat of varnish before he goes away, as I remain cautious about Contrast paint's durability without it.

My Diehard Miniatures skeleton also gets a nice photo rather than something weird taken on my parents' kitchen work bench.

The skeletal satyr, I sadly realised had taken a spilled wash to the base rim, hence the slightly weird angle. I've since patched it up, and I might keep him out to take another photo with the next batch of finished models.

The creepy scarecrow remains creepy.

I'm plugging through the Wargames Atlantic Halflings. They're not the most detailed of sculpts, but are fine for line troops. I'm really hoping to get these finished up this week.

My local wargaming club, HATE (Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts) has decided on a lock down project of painting up a copy of the old Battlemasters game. I enthusiastically volunteered to paint a unit of the Chaos Archers, because I've always liked them.

What I'm not loving is the 90s mould line that's very close to being an out and out mould slip. The line runs right down the face and over several key details, so it's pretty annoying to deal with. I'm currently at 3 down, with 2 to go.

In a fit of enthusiasm, the goal is to try and get these all assembled and ready to undercoat by next week...

In a second fit of enthusiasm (uh oh) I put in a small order to Bad Squiddo Games, run by my friend Annie Norman. The idea is I'm going to put in little orders for models to various small miniature companies that might be struggling in the current climate, then immediately assemble and paint whatever I bought.

I mean, it doesn't help that getting little parcels also helps boost my morale at the same time.

Here's what I picked up. Other than the amazing free colouring sheets that were a "must add" to the order as a present for my wife.

I've picked up the new "Amazons" as well as the more generic fantasy civilian types. Sadly, I put in the order before the amazing Dwarf shield-maidens came out, or I "might" have started stretching the definition of a 'small' order.

But what's this, a free gift?

Annie also sent me an early sculpt of "SOE Annie" from her Women of WWII Kickstarter. I think I've already ordered her in the Kickstarter itself, but I'm not complaining. She's cool and getting painted up!

So, the goal here is that these also get assembled this week ready to finish painting by the end of next week.

Have I succumbed to hubris?

Tune in next week to find out...

End of March Hobby Progress

While March isn't quite over, I've got a blog post to write this evening and have signed up to a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game over the internet on Tuesday nights, so I may as well cover off my painting progress for the month now.

I've finished an Inquisitorial cherub I'd been planning on taking to Purge the Pit before I cancelled out that I'd decided was a shame not to get painted. It's a mix of contrast and more traditional paints, an I really like how it came out. I'm trying to experiment a bit with my side projects, and that's paid off here.

The Shasvastii mentor is nearly done. I didn't wipe off quite enough Typhus Corrosion on the legs, but he'll live. The base rim just needs finishing up and he'll be properly finished. I can then get onto the rest of Operation Wildfire. Once he's done I'm more than halfway through the Shasvastii!

I've also started getting the base coats down on the Wargames Atlantic Halflings. I'm trying to paint in some lighter colours due to mis-hearing some advice from my wife about painting lighter. (She was actually trying to get me to put more light to dark contrast in, and thinks too much of what I do is close to the mid-tone.)

They're lovely, relatively simple sculpts who'll look fine in large numbers. I used Fyreslayer Flesh on the skin and I'm . . . not sure what it's supposed to do? I can't find a skin tutorial that uses it (ironically, the one on the Citadel Paint App for Fyreslayers suggests Guilliman Flesh). It behaves and looks very different when painted on thinly and thickly.

I've also nearly finished the mould line cleaning for the scatter terrain for HATE. There's only two left to go. So close!

My "light" breaking of the "don't buy more than you paint" rule last month was shattered by a combination of a "damaged box" Infinity sale and picking up the Skaven army box before it went out of stock. Now it's about to trying to catch back up.

So, 7 models painted, and 99 is my new target.

I don't mess up by halves, do I?

November Painting and Hobby Review

As November drew to a close, I managed to finish up my first Shasvastii. This is one of the Nox Troopers from Operation Wildfire, who basically serve as line  troopers. I'm really pleased with how the paint job has come out, and a special thanks to Joel Traveller who suggested adding a second colour to the gun to stop it looking too unrealistic.

I also dropped some Contrast paint onto "Trista the Loremistress", another one of the Reaper Silver Anniversary models I picked up to help me get back into painting. I'm definitely building up a good head of steam now, so pretty happy with how that went!

As I previously mentioned, I got three Inquisitorial figures done for "Purge the Pit" - which I'm now not going to. A bit sad to be missing it, but it was definitely the right choice.

So, how are the "quarterly goals" going?

Q4 Goal

• Paint 6 models

Q4 Stretch Goals

• Finish Skaven test paints
• Assemble 10 Malifaux models - IN PROGRESS
• Paint 10 Malifaux Models
• Clean and paint club terrain crates
• Assemble and Paint Diehard Miniatures Undead
• Paint Purge the Pit force - CANCELLED
• Order Organiser
• Infinity MDF Case

It's not too bad, all told. I've now got five of the Malifaux figures assembled, and I've started on my Shasvastii, which weren't on the goals list. I've also noticed that as I go, more stuff is ticking up a warning on my Kanban Board that I've owned it for a year and not painted it.

To make sure I don't lose track of stuff I still want to paint and assemble, I've set up a Shelf of Shame page to keep track. The list currently isn't too bad. Of the five items on there, I still need to find the Diehard Undead in the Big Pile of Boxes. Then I'll need to assemble them at the club. Similarly, the Warhounds have only just ticked over, and should probably be added to the club hobby go bag.

Meanwhile, the Tsyklon and the Libertos are for my Nomads force and I need to do some test paints for those to determine how on earth I'm actually going to paint them. Once that's done, they're both lined up in my "first painted Nomads list" I've drafted up.

That leaves the club terrain crates, which are a bit of a "boring" project. Still, they're plastic, so I can dig them out and work on scraping the mould lines on them in between work that needs a bit more concentration.

The good news is that the one year mark is doing it's job. I reviewed the stuff that is "ticking over" in December and have already added a couple of things to the eBay pile on the grounds that I can't really justify holding on to them.

In other news, while I'm trying not to buy new stuff as I paint the existing stuff . . . I really couldn't say no to this. So, queued up after the Skaven are Sisters of Battle.

On that subject, I've at least started getting some base layers onto the Grey Seer. He's going to get a little more attention lavished on him than clanrats will, but I'm still not going to go too hyper detailed. I do have an army to paint, after all!

All in all, a pretty good month. I'm diverging a bit from the "planned" stretch goals for the quarter because things have changed, but that's not the end of the world. I'm still getting stuff painted and having fun.

A gentle Monday of painting

My dearly beloved pointed out my painting area had become a bit of a mess and stepping back a moment, I realised she was completely right! Rather than just put everything away, I decided to use my post LARP recovery Monday afternoon finishing off small bits and pieces and putting them away as I completed each in turn.

Given how worn out I am, I've decided to give Purge the Pit a miss. This makes me sad, but wiping myself out isn't really the smartest of moves.

This Kum biker was commission painted, but unfortunately took a little knock in the post and lost his right arm. His paint job still needs a little touch up, but that can be a future job as he's now usable on the table.

This Yuan Yuan was a model I forgot should only be air dropped in the narrative of the games, not in real life. She's now been reattached to her base and her drop wings put back on. I'm not planning on playing more Ikari any time in the immediate future, but she can go into a case and be ready to play.

I finished up the Jokaero. All that really needed doing was finishing up the base and fixing the eyes.

Inquisition flamey minion is done - again, another one just waiting for a base that was an easy win.

And the other flamey boi was also just waiting for a base. Now I have a bunch of Inquisitorial trouble I should try them out in a game of 40K at some point. Not sure when I'll fit it in, though - I need to remember not to over-commit again!

I also finished up assembling Miss Deed for my Malifaux crew. Not super exciting, but its another step towards being able to play Malifaux!