Downtime

sadly folks i'm having a few problems with my computer, a gremlin in the power supply means i can't charge it, and so i'm actually having to update from my mobile. which for some reason won't let my add capital letters in the text. bah technology. anyhow my good friends at my local cybercafe are working on fixing my laptop, but its going to take a while for the part to arrive from germany. so i won't have any real updates untiil then. but don't worry. i will keep painting and taking photos and hopefully have them up next weekend.

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 4 - Just Face It

On with the painting...

The next layer I add to the flesh is a mix of Elf Flesh and Space Wolves Grey, and again I go over the same areas leaving some of the previous layers showing.

The final layer on the Flesh is pure Space Wolves Grey, I use this as an extreme highlight on the minis, only touching on the most raised areas and using it to define muscles.
To add a little colour to the face I now add some lipstick, you'll notice that I have only added the colour (Mercherite Red) to the lower lip. I've found that if you add the paint onto the top lip it makes the models look like it has clown makeup on.
I the add a highlight of Blood Red to the lip.
And finally I pick out the Hags teeth with a little Skull White.
Next onto the armour...

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 3 - Fleshing Things Out

Welcome to part 3 of my step-by-step guide. Today I'm going to be doing some real painting.

Now before I start on the flesh, I always paint in the eyes of a model. The reason for this is twofold. First, if you try to paint the eyes once the face is done, you will be trying to be really careful you don't mess up the skin, this way it doesn't matter. So you can concentrate on getting your eye right. Secondly if you do make a mistake, all you have to do is give it a once over with some black and you can try again. Believe me and have a go, it is a lot easier to paint around the eyes than to add them afterwards.

Now I keep my eyes very simple, and the Fitzpatrick Dark Elf sculpts have great faces to make this much easier. Just paint a white line across where the eye is. And then add a black line downwards across it to make the pupil.
Once I've done the eyes I start on the flesh, with a base coat of either Dwarf Flesh or Tallarn Flesh. This time I've used Dwarf Flesh. The Base coat adds the colour to the deeper recesses on the mini.

Next I add a layer of Dwarf Flesh and Elf Flesh in a 50/50 mix. I do this by painting onto the more raised areas of the mini, leaving some of the darker paint showing.
Next layer is a coat of pure Elf Flesh, again onto the raised areas, leaving a little of the previous two layers showing.
Tomorrow I'll finish off the flesh and add some more details to the face...

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 2 - More Basics

More basics for you today, but don't worry the real painting is coming...

So I got up today and went to undercoat the Cauldron, well the weather isn't great here so it was just a quick job. In fact chances are more undercoat ended up on the cat, which came to watch than on the Cauldron. Hence you'll notice that there is still some silver showing. Don't worry.

Just give everything a quick going over with some thinned down Chaos Black. Now you will probably have to do this anyways, unless you spend ages spraying. I find it much simpler to do a quick spray, let it dry then give everything a once over to find all the bits that the spray missed.
Now things are ready to start the real painting...

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 1-The Basics

So I've been asked by a friend of mine to give him a hand with his painting by doing an on-line tutorial for him (Hey Owen). So I thought, why not do a step-by-step guide to what I'm painting up next. This just happened to be a Cauldron of Blood (Well another for my ever growing Dark Elves).

So here we are with Part 1-The Basics, and they are at that.

First thing to do is get all the parts of the models together and assemble them, remove the flash (the excess bits left after the casting process) and glue them to the bases. I didn't have a spare chariot base around so I made a one up out of spares I had. A little poly-cement along the sides will stick them together, just make sure you leave them to dry for a good while.

For step 2 I added sand to the bases. Now I don't always do this, I wanted to cover up all the holes from the misfit looking chariot base and adding sand at this stage also means that when you undercoat the sand also gets a coat of it as well. You may notice that I have gotten sand onto the sides of some of the bases. This was actually intentional, I find that having a little bit of texture here and there on the base sides adds that little bit more to the feel of the model. You'll see this later on when things start coming together a bit more.
Step 3, I gave the sand a quick coat of Chaos Black. This will work as a base colour to work from and also helps to keep the sand on the base that little bit more. (Especially after the undercoat)
Well that's the basics done and ready for the spray can. Next I just need a good day to get out in the garden and spray everything black.

Here's another mini for you all to peruse, I'll be using her as leader for my Khainite force 'Matron Malida'. Hope you like her

I've also been thinking about the World Eaters and re-basing them to a snowy theme. Now I do like the lava effect on them, but changing them to snow would allow me to use them with the Daemons and have a close match base wise. What do you guys think?

So GW Carlisle manager has suggested that in our next big game we include Sigvald, but Tzeentchify him. I thought wow, good idea, we will have him leading the battle and general of the Tzeentch contingent attacking the city. I had a model of Sigvald at home so set about doing a little bit of converting and painting last week. This is what I came up with.

I really like how the shield has came out on the model, and I tried a different way of basing to make him stand out a little. I think its came out really well (although maybe not so well in this photo). I know Tzarichilla is also working on a Tzargvald model for the game, so we may end up with this guy being used as something else in the game. Hope you like him.

For today's post here's one of the characters for our next big Warhammer game, Karak the Bloodbringer. He/It will be leading the Daemon forces during our battle, I've matched him up colour and style wise to the other Bloodletters in the army, but with the armour and gold bits matching the Dark Elves.

This next picture show his hapless victim, I've painted him up with the remains of uniform from the Empire force we will be facing.

I'm not entirely sure whether we will just use rules for Skulltaker to represent Karak, or whether we will make up our own special rules to represent him. But there's plenty of time to figure all that out.

Fluffy

Cheers guys, only got two arms I'm afraid, but I am working on getting a few clones made so I have more time to paint.

Heading back to the fantasy side of things now with 'Fluffy'

I started painting this lil fella up when he was first released, I saw the pictures, and thought 'I must have some of them in my Dark Elves' now I didn't know at the time that there was even going to be SoM rules for them, and I'm so glad there is now. I'm hoping to get another couple in the future and have three of the things for our next big game.

The Beastmasters are converted Wyches, I shaved off fome of the tech bits on them and covered up the vents on the back with some Green-Stuffed fur. Still not sure on how much I like them, but they'll be easy to change if I feel the urge later on.

I've also been working on some characters to take part in our next big battle. These should be along later this week, so keep tuned :)