Work in Progress Wednesday - Skaventide Assortment

I've still got a few Skaven lined up to get painted. I still need to get on to some actual units, but there's a good variety of characters to get done.

The classic Deathmaster came from the Made to Order that Games Workshop put out a while back. He's made it to the Shelf of Shame as I've had him a bit too long.

The Arch-Warlock was the other Made to Order item. I've left his back piece separate for easy of painting.

This is a Games Day Clawlord from years back. I absolutely adore the pose they've managed to get with this sculpt and am really excited to get him painted.

I also picked up a Ratling Gun with some other bits and pieces to get the value up to the free postage amount. I've heard they're currently really rather good!

Good things in small packages

My week off was excellent and rather relaxing. A lot of it ended up being assembly and other prep work, but I'm happy to say that both Queek and the Amazon Berserker got finished. I'm saving the Amazon for next Monday's post to try and get a little head on the blog posts, though.

Sadly, this week wasn't quite as relaxing to many of my friends who saw attacks on their rights in both the UK and the US. If you can, please consider making a donation to an organisation like Mermaids, Gendered Intelligence or The Trevor Project. Alternatively, write to your local political representative, stating your commitment to trans rights and asking them to do what they can.

Thank you.

Stalling out

Having run out of scheduled posts of painted miniatures, I've had to come to the distinct conclusion that I'm in a slump. The flat was getting into a bit of a state as well, so I spent the Saturday catching up some housework, mixed with playing some Skyrim. You don't get photos of either of those, but you do get to see some of my Sunday.

Once I'd had Sunday Morning Coffee with Annie, I settled down to getting some hobby done. I mixed in Something New And Exciting with clearing up some old projects. I had four different things that I'd finished assembly that had been waiting for undercoat for ages, so I got those all sprayed. Then I settled down to assemble my Skaven Gnawholes.

These are part of my Skaven army project, and are a free terrain piece you get any time you play an all Skaven army in Age of Sigmar. As the milestone around my neck was a Skaven infantry (see below) I thought maybe a slightly larger kit would be a nice self contained thing that could be a success.

It was both successful and not successful. These are super, super precise kits that fit together incredibly precisely, so I need to be extra careful when gluing each bit together, because any slack nonsense will result in the entire thing having massive gaps all over the place. This also means I have to be super careful with mould lines and sprue connections on every single piece. Fortunately, hardly any mould lines. Unfortunately, loads of places it connects with the sprue.

So, they aren't done.

But oh my goodness, sprue connection clean up was the most restful thing. Just slowly working away with a scalpel blade. Is it perfect? No? Well, keep going.

Meanwhile, over here is the culprit for the slow down. The 90s Queek from the Made to Order a while ago has been on my paint desk for ages. He's being painted in contrast to match the rest of the army. But it turns out that the 90s character models are full of tiny fiddly details, so there's a ton to do. I had to pull his trophy rack off as well to get to bits to paint.

That said, he's nearly done. The model is basically there - I just need to finish up the base drybrush and edge, then get the trophy rack finished up. But it's become a bit of a millstone, so I just couldn't bring myself to do those small simple jobs. Maybe I'll get to it during the week?

Definite lesson from today. If one bit of hobby is proving a drag, change lanes, do something else and you'll get progress and feel invigorated for it.

Oh, also, cheeky sneak preview WiP of another Bad Squiddo Amazon. I should definitely get her finished up.

I'd have shown you the Fenris Games scenery I undercoated, but I undercoated it black and it's currently just a cheerful void. I'll just have to show you them when I've painted them.

Work in Progress Wednesday: All Sorts

The HATE club Battlemasters project chaos archers are now all undercoated and ready for paint.

I still have three of the Shasvastii from Operation Wildfire to get painted. They're the more elite, detailed models, and I think I'm a little intimidated.

I have the Mordheim Pit Fighter to do at some point as a little quick paint job when something else is making me want a change.

I also have a classic Skaven Warlord all undercoated and ready to go, and will probably paint him as I start getting into the Skaven line infantry assembly...

Starting the year as I don't intend to go on

I spent a good deal of time last week day dreaming about how much painting I was going to get done last weekend. My wife is away at a wedding all weekend so I was confident that without having to worry about being inconsidering I could knuckle down and blitz ahead with the painting. Especially as I'm away for the next two weekends at various LARP events.

As it was, I wasn't hugely in the mood, I really needed to catch up on a bunch of housework and chores, and also managed to catch a bug that knocked me out for most of a day.

Still, Sunday mid afternoon I dragged myself to the painting desk, determined to get something done.

In between other jobs, I assembled Bishop for my Outcasts Viktoria crew. He's got a really weird gap on his arm that will need a little Green Stuff, and I wanted to be certain the glue was dry before messing about with that. So one little job for the the future.

Two previously assembled metal miniatures I hadn't undercoated got their relevant undercoats. The Shasvastii Caliban is the last of my Operation Wildfire Shasvastii. Meanwhile, the Queek Headtaker model is going to be a Claw Lord in my Skaven army. He was picked up when the Skaven book came out as a Made to Order.

I promise I'll move on to the rank and file once I've finished faffing about with the Malifaux crew and I've done a quick mould line removal job on those overdue scatter terrain crates...

In an effort to put some paint on something, I grabbed the Diehard Miniatures Space Skeleton. He's 2 of 3 of the models from their Undead Kickstarter on my Shelf of Shame, so I thought it worth getting him done.

The red on his overalls was an attempt to play around with possible Nomad colour schemes for Infinity. Broadly - green washes are excellent for desaturating colour and I really like the effect, but Vallejo paints seem to really not agree with dry brushing at all.

So . . . no models painted, but no models bought, either. Sadly, another item has crept onto the Shelf of Shame. However, I have managed to get through a week without buying any models, so I'm at least on track, six days into the New Year, on that resolution to not buy more minis than I've painted.

Feel free, future reader, to laugh at how badly I failed at this. But I'm at least optimistic right now...

Painting progress and musing on how brains work

Saturday was mostly chores and tidying, but I finished up the Grey Seer I picked up from the Made to Order service a while back. This makes him the first Skaven for my actual AoS force I've finished, which I'm quite happy with.

On Sunday, I wandered down to HATE to get some metal assembly done away from people who are allergic to nickel. I got three Infinity repairs done, as well as getting Queek Headtaker assembled as my next Skaven character. Two of the three Diehard Miniatures Undead also got made up - I discovered I didn't have a suitable base for the third, so I've got that ordered. Finally, I got the Caliban from Wildfire done, so that's all the Shasvastii from the starter assembled.

I had a couple of revelations about the hobby from the weekend. I've been playing "Chaos and Conquest" on my phone a bunch. It's an OK game with plenty of achievements to keep me interested. This weekend there was a timed "achieve a bunch of stuff and get a fancy champion" event. I decided to go for it and sunk a bunch of time into it . . . but it got quite stressful. It's reminded me that hobby stuff should be fun and not a chore. (And maybe extended runs of trying to achieve a thing over a timescale, as opposed to trying a hard thing and failing / succeeding has too similar a stress pattern to my work and I shouldn't do it.)

The other was over assembling the Caliban. He's got a very simple to fix gap in an obvious spot - but I'd not taken the liquid green stuff down to the club. Having a tiny part of one thing "not finished" almost completely countered the sense of achievement I'd got from getting eight significant things done (between painting, repairs and assembly).

I think it's about expectation. I've had very restful weekends where I got a bunch done because I got "more" than the target done, while another weekend where I did the exact same amount of stuff but I'd planned to do more - absolute misery.

So yeah - definite learning point. While I can't stop unexpected failings, I can try and set non specific goals "do this number of things" and set a low 'target' that I can then over-achieve and feel good, while still doing the same amount of stuff.

My brain is stupid and irrational, but at least I can game it!

October painting and hobby review

With October down and into November, lets check how I'm doing with my quarterly hobby targets. I finished up the Dreadmere Mercenaries for Reaper Bones as one of my palette cleanser quick paints.

I finished the Skaven test paints, so that's one of my additional goals done. This also took me over the target number of models for the month complete, so I've hit my quarterly goal in the first month! Everything now is a bonus.

James from Gonzo History Gaming painted this psyker for me, though I have not counted him in my own painting totals.

I also complete the first of my Purge the Pit models, although I really should have got about five done to have a steady rate of painting between starting the Purge the Pit project and the event itself. Whoops! I guess I'll be painting quite a bit more Inquisition over November.

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 - IN PROGRESS
• Order Organiser
• Infinity MDF Case

The main priority for November is obviously Purge the Pit so I can take an all new force painted for the event. Any painting outside that is likely to be to break up the painting - but they're all pretty different figures so I'm not too worried about getting fed up with painting the same thing over and over.

In a slight change of direction, the Games Workshop Christmas previews showed a Skaven Battleforce that's basically everything I wanted to get next . . . but I really can't justify that without getting the existing Skaven I have painted. So maybe around Purge the Pit I can get some Skaven assembled? But I'm going to be strict with myself and not abandon assembling the Malifaux models first.

So, next month I need to paint more than I managed this month to be ready for Purge the Pit. It's time to really up my game!

Skaven Test Paints Finished - and what comes next

Sunday was a bit of a late one finishing off a few projects, and it was bed time by the time I'd finished uploading all my blog photos. So my Monday blog post is a little late, but in my eyes it's absolutely worth it because I finished off the Skaven test paints, and I'm pretty settled on what I want to do with the army.

(Should you want some of these miniatures yourself, they are Oakbound Studios Gnawlochs.)

As I finished up the last three, I experimented with basing a little bit. From left to right - just Aggaros Dunes, Aggaros Dunes and Warpstone Glow, and Aggaros Dunes and Plaguebearer Flesh. I felt that the Warpstone Glow effect was OK, but drew away from the miniature too much. I really liked the Plaguebearer Flesh one, as it gave the ground an unhealthy feel.

Once the contrast on the bases was dry, I washed it with Agrax Earthshade and drybrushed it with Wraithbone. At this point, I start liking the plain Aggaros one a lot more. I still don't like the Warpstone Glow base for this project, but I might use it elsewhere. I actually like the Plaguebearer Flesh base a little less in the finished version, as it loses some of the unhealthiness to the shade and highlight. I suspect I could improve on that, but at the expense of painting efficiency, which I will desperately need working with Skaven.

Skeleton Horde cloth is going to be the unifying factor across all my Skaven. I most like the effect from the fancy undercoating method with Wraithseer, which is the one in the middle.

"Use the fancy undercoat method" bears across with the colours I want to use for the Eshin, too. I much prefer the one on the right, although due to needing to do some tidy up, he also got two passes of Gryph-Charger Grey, and I think that darker hue really works - so likely two coats for the Eshin!

So, I need to sit down and write down my finalised recipes for my Skaven into a book this week so I don't forget them, and move on to my next projects.

Malifaux assembly proceeds slowly. They're fiddly models at the best of times. The second Viktoria is now done, but her sword draw behind her back involved lining up the head, the sheathed second sword, and then the two arms - with the final join being along the sword blade, so everything had to line up perfectly. It's done now, but I was pretty sweary!

So, with two models done, I'm going to get another three of the first ten done and then treat them as a smaller, more manageable batch. I'll need ten to play but trying to paint and assemble ten all in one go is not going to be good for my motivation!

I've grabbed another one of the Reaper figures off the shelf if I need a break. Having something I'm not emotionally invested in to hand is a useful thing to have. I had a couple of brain frazzles in the past fortnight where I nearly had a meltdown because I couldn't find anything low effort to paint at that exact moment. There's still a lot of boxes to go through and it's not all sorted.

I have, however, managed to find a bunch of models for Purge the Pit. I've decided to go Inquisitorial (it seems to make sense to do so) with a definite trend towards the Radical end of things.

The original plan had been to write a list and paint only the exact models I need, but this month's White Dwarf teased something Inquisitorial next month - so the new plan is to paint as much as possible between now and then and then bodge it into a force closer to the time.

Here's a few of the miscreants and trouble makers I'm looking to get painted up for the event. It may not be all of them, as I've seen some Arco-Flagellants and a Jokaero recently. I'd really like to find one of my Terminator Inquisitors too, if I can! There's also an Inquisitorial Transport or two sculling around somewhere.

And finally, aware I'm running low on my Reaper figures that are assembled and ready to go, I've washed a couple of resin models ahead of assembly for future casual paints. One is a creepy mimic, I think from a sculpting Facebook group that was a competition winner. The other is a scarecrow that was sold by JoeK Minis. I'm pretty sure it's out of print now. And I think it was something he got from an Oz inspired range in turn...

Still, a good couple of models for Halloween casual painting, I thought...

Weekly painting progress

I finished painting the Dreadmere Mercenaries by Reaper Bones Black. Sadly, I haven't managed to get a good photo of them, and this is as good as I've managed. They're in the colours of Anvilgard, The Living City and The Phoenicium.

Skaven test paints are continuing well. Here we can compare a Wraithbone undercoated model on the left and a Grey Seer undercoated model on the right. You can see the difference in the tone of the model despite the same contrast paint being used. I've also tried green or yellow eyes, and am really liking the green eye.

Here are the two undercoated in plain Grey Seer. I think that the one painted in Skeleton Horde on the left is nice, but I will probably leave that colour for contrasting with the main colour - like painting the hood of one or the robe of another in the plainer light brown. The Gryph-Charger Grey on the right is interesting, and I'm tempted to use it for Clan Eshin models when I get to them.

Now we get onto the super interesting stuff. Here's two models that had the Convertorum undercoat method I borrowed. Both colours look good, but I think the yellow model would have looked better if some of it had been painted with Skeleton Horde. Also, it doesn't look as good on the skin areas because of the mottling from the sponge effect. So, when I repeat it, I'll avoid doing it on the skin.

Also, I was playing around with blending contrast paints on the base. On the one on the right, I also did a wash of Agrax Earthshade once it was dry and drybrushed Wraithbone. I think I like that one better and I've found what the base of my models will be looking like.

I definitely prefer the weathered model to his smoother companion. Definitely pushes me down that route.

And here's a comparison between the yellows. There's less obvious sponging on the yellow one, and I think it suffers for it. Definitely prefer the fancy undercoat method, though.

I'm pretty sure what I'm going with, now. Yellow on clanrats, orange on Skryre, light green on Pestilens, blue-grey on Clan Eshin. But what colour should I paint Clan Moulder? Maybe off white? And Masterclan get purple spot colour...

On Sunday, I went down to HATE to drop off various bits I've been clearing out and selling. While I was there, I decided to assemble a few metal miniatures, which is hard to do at home due to my wife being allergic to nickel.

I started working through Operation: Wildfire, and got the three Nox Troopers and Mentor painted for the Shasvastii side of the starter box. I'm using the bases from the box as they now come with line of fire markings on them. I was super impressed with how well they went together - although some of the parts were tiny and fiddly, the contact points were snug and wide.

I also got the first Actual Model for my Skaven army painted. This Made to Order Grey Seer was actually a right pain to assemble. The base tab was tiny and wobbly in the base, and the head fell off more times than I bear to think about. If it had fallen off one more time I would have pinned it.

So, checking in on my quarterly goals, I've got three models finished out of a target of six (I'm not counting the test paints until all the test paints are finished). I'm well on the way to getting the Skaven test paint stretch goal done.

The Wildfire box getting started isn't on the stretch goal list, but it seemed barmy not to take advantage of an opportunity to get some metal models assembled when I had the opportunity.

I also got in a 1,000 point game of 40K at HATE's Wednesday club night - I'll report back on that later!

Nurgle sabotages getting things finished

Saturday was super productive and I really started getting through the painting quickly. Sunday at the same pace and I'd have finished the Skaven test paints and the Dreadmere Mercenaries . . .

Then I woke up on Sunday with a horrible head cold. I've been knocked out for Sunday and Monday too. Still, there's definitely plenty of progress, and you can see another three of the Skaven nearly done.

I experimented with muddling up orange and brown contrast paints on the bases. I'm not sure if I like it or not. I think I've got to the point of having a good idea of what I want to do for the Skaven army, but I'll finish up the test paints to be sure.

The Dreadmere mercenaries are coming along. They've ended up not quite how the tutorial showed, but I think I know where I went wrong. I still like the look they've ended up with. I should finish up the detailing in time for next week's post.

I'm also having a bit of a clear out on my eBay account. There's going to be a variety of stuff going up over the next few weeks and I'll be aiming to list everything for 99p starting prices. Feel free to have a look!

A Wizard and a couple of Skaven test paints

So, I've finished the Reaper Bones "Darius the Blue". He's almost all Contrast Paints, but I did a little bit of hand squiggling for the writing in the book, and drybrushed a couple of areas where the pooling was too much of a problem - particularly on his hat. Some of the blues definitely have a green look to them, but I like how he's turned out, so I'm not too concerned.

There are a couple of areas I'd tidy up if I was using him in an army - the 3D printing failed clean up pre-moulding is still super visible on the cloak, and there's a mould line on his finger I missed. I'd like to do more with the mouse fur too. But he's reached "that'll do" and has achieved his goal of letting me learn a bit more about contrast paint and reminding me how this painting lark works.

Looking forward in the hobby week, I've got a game of 40K lined up at the end of the week to try out the "new" edition. (I know, I know!). I've then got my very last League game of last season's Infinity League on the Sunday. They'll probably make it up on the blog eventually - I've still got my previous league game and a practice game with Dahshat company to write up.

I've got the last Empire LRP of the season coming up the weekend after, so I'll try and schedule some posts while I recover from that. I've then got two whole weeks booked off work where it's likely to mostly be a stay at home holiday, and I'll hopefully get a bunch of hobby done. My bases for Malifaux have finally turned up so I've got a crew to assemble along with the Skaven army. So much plastic glue!

The first two of the Skaven army test paints are getting to the point where I can start thinking about what I like about them. Both of these have been base coated with plain Wraithbone.

Recipe:
Skin: Fyreslayer Flesh
Fur: Gore-grunta Fur
Metal: Boltgun Metal
Inside of ears: Volupus Pink
Eyes: Iyanden Yellow
Wood: Wyldwood
Base: Aggaros Dunes, some Seraphim Sepia where it didn't go into the recesses

The Skaven on the left had his tail done in Volupus Pink and the one on the right thinned down Darkoath Flesh. Left has his clothes done in Skeleton Horde, the right in Iyanden Yellow.

My initial thoughts are that I'm broadly happy with the skin recipe. I don't like the pink tail so I'll likely switch over to just using the skin recipe on that for ease of painting. Gore-grunta fur is OK for the fur, but I might consider a drybrush with a lighter colour or trying some other fur colours later on.

I rather like the yellow eyes, but if I choose the yellow cloth I'll probably move away from that as it'll look too similar. I don't like the Skeleton Horde for all the cloth - I think it will end up looking too dull and fade into the background. I might use it among the cloth on the hordes as long as everyone has the chosen colour somewhere on them.

I really like the yellow cloth effect, but would want to dirty it up. I'm curious to see how the yellow on the pre-dirtied Skaven will look, as that might end up being my Verminus look...

Actual Paint and a little bit of Bruckner

For the first time in months - and, in fact, this year - I've put some paint on a model. It's been so long I did find it a bit tough, slow going as I remembered how this Painting Lark works. The model is a Reaper Anniversary figure of "Elanter, the Lost Prince". I experimented a bit with contrast paints on the robe, cloak and hood.

They were excellent at setting up the shadows and highlights after just one coat, but it definitely felt like "not enough" to me an I wanted to do more. Unfortunately on the cloak I was impatient and tried to start a drybrush on it before it was fully dried, so the rescue on that took a whole while.

Once it is properly dry, though, a light drybrush or edge highlight with very little else is amazing and really brings out the contrast on the model. I did that on the green hood with nothing else and you can see how well it works even on my blurry WIP pic.

I hope to be getting back to him over the evenings this week and to have him finished in time for next week's progress update.

Next up for assembly are some Oakbound rat men who have been volunteered for test paints for my upcoming Skaven army. These ones are called Gnawlochs, and I picked up a few in the Kickstarter because I liked the look of them before I decided I was going to do a Skaven army. As I'm not planning to use any non GW models in this upcoming army project, some random schemes while I try and decide how the army will get painted will give a nice rag tag look to them.

Unfortunately, I am an idiot and had not put the lid on the super glue properly. So, I've ordered new glue and paused the assembly having cleaned up the (very few) mould lines on the Gnawlochs. I'll also need to do a bit of a shopping trip to find some paint options for them. I'm definitely planning on using Contrast paints on them, but I'm just not quite sure what yet.

Once the Gnawlochs are assembled, the next thing I'll be working on is my Heroquest tribute models. I'm pretty excited to get to them and get them all done. In fact, I'm almost as excited to get to show you them on the blog, because I think they're pretty awesome.

My newly retired parents took me to see the Proms at the weekend. It was Prom 31, for those who find it relevant. We also went to the recording of the interval talk beforehand. Now, I'm not really a classical music expert - I like listening to it but I don't know much about it. And I unintentionally got a bunch of knowledge which I got excited about and am now going to impart to you. Because I like art. Like that time I ended up rambling on a whole bunch about the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer. Sorry. Not sorry.

Bear with me there may be a lot of simplification here because I am not a classical music nerd. My knowledge comes from Wikipedia, the Proms programme and a 45 minute recording by two classical music professors who assumed their audience knew the subject.

So, it turns out that lots of famous classical musicians you've heard of were all active at the same time, in the nineteenth century Vienna. This includes all the composers featured in this Prom - Brahms, Strauss and Bruckner.

Brahms was a traditionalist, looking back to historical composers. The piece played at the Prom was "Variations on the St Anthony Chorale". Brahms thought the piece was by Haydn, although modern analysis makes it apparent it almost certainly isn't.

It got me thinking about how the piece stands on it's own accord, despite being a "variation" on an earlier piece of work. Tying back to painting, we have so many people copying existing styles at present (particularly John Blanche's). That has more gotten to the point of a small, niche artistic movement of a sort, for all that it has one name attached to it. As I get back into painting, I'm going to be doing a few "studies" of painting styles I want to emulate, but I also want to find my own style and way of doing things once I've gotten confident. Variations, not copies.

The second piece was four songs by Richard Strauss (Op. 27). They were a wedding present for his wife. Two of the songs were based on poems by John Henry Mackey - a gay Scottish anarchist living in Germany. Mackey outlived Strauss, and in fact died shortly after one of the famous Nazi book burnings. That a contemporary of Brahms was inspired by a poem by someone who lived to see the rise of the Nazis made me start thinking more about timescales in history, and where people from various eras would overlap in ways we wouldn't realise, despite the different periods being very familiar.

(Also, LGBT* have always been there, just usually over-looked by history. None of this is new.)

There's no painting  revelation on that one - just a musing on time, and our ability to understand time periods by assigning them into arbitrary eras that don't necessarily draw the connections we might otherwise.

The final piece was Bruckner's 4th Symphony. This was the piece that was discussed in the talk we heard recorded beforehand. Bruckner was a perfectionist who massively planned out his work beforehand, and then repeatedly revised them over and over once they were 'done'. I'm sure none of that sounds at all familiar to anyone reading this...

But through this talk, inspirations were constantly mentioned - Bruckner modelled after Beethoven and was a fan of his contemporary Wagner. Mahler in turn was inspired by Bruckner . . . one artist inspiring another, who in turn inspires another. With the growth of the internet, and our own hobby, the transmission of inspiration is quicker and more global than ever.

What we seem to end up with, though, is less of a geographical limit on styles. You can still see the differences between British miniature painters and Spanish, and the Northern and Eastern Europe have a different style again. But you get more exchanges of ideas - you're more likely to have styles proliferate in one internet community or another rather than a local town.

But this has happened before, with classical music composers in 19th century Vienna, and I have no doubt it will happen again.