Khainite Blood Sorcerer

So I've got my second video up on You Tube. Hope you like, please comment, share, like and what have you.

Forgeworld Basilisk on Video

So I'm trying to start doing my blogs via video. Nothing too special at the moment, I'm just using my mobile-phone and simple video editing software. But you never know, if things take off I may end up investing in some better equipment.

Hope you enjoy, comment, share, subscribe and all that jazz.

Hmm

So I had a request today, a rather strange one that I really have no idea as to why, but then again do I really need to. Tzarinchilla sent me a message over asking if I could put some pictures (front and back) of one of my Corsairs. Now I really don't know why but here they are :

Hope that's what you were wanting.

Quick update before work

Been a while since I got anything updated in my plog. I suppose I should add an update or two.

Lets see what have I been up to in my absence. Well I had a big game of Fantasy a couple of weeks ago (report and photos to come) 7000pts of my Dark Elves against a 10000pts unholy alliance protecting an Empire Monetary. 

In game shot of my Dark Elf battle line

My army also made an appearance at the GW Warhammer Doubles Tournament, sadly I was unable to go myself, so a couple of the lads from my local GW borrowed 2000pts of my Elves and took them down. With a little coaching and help with the lists, and after only a week of test games they managed to come 39th which is not bad all things considered (best out of all from GW Carlisle, and best they have ever done). I also made them up a piece of scenery for the game (photos to come).

WIP shot of the Corrupted Waystone

At the moment I'm working on a few bits and pieces, a Throne of Everblight to use as a SoM fulcrum or Khainite Throne (from a campaign pack I picked up). Still working on the Cauldron painting guide. Making up a couple of Khainite Priests and a unit of the new Blood Vassals from Raging Heroes to add to my Witch Elf army. 

I'll try and add something new later on tonight, once I get home from work. Till then happy gaming :)

Warhammer Doubles

Well today I was hoping to be heading down to the Doubles Tournament at GW in Nottingham, but sadly work has played it's part and I'm stuck here in Carlisle. My army is still winging it's way though, being used by two of the lads from GW Carlisle. And best of luck to them...

Now one of the things from the Tournie was that you had to take a terrain piece, themed with your army. As the lads were using two 1000pts of my Dark Elves I thought it would be an idea to make a piece to go with.

Above is a WIP shot of what I came up with.

I'll hopefully be getting filled in with progress reports throughout the games tomorrow, and will post on here anything fun that happens.

Dwarf Video Test, big game and BattleBrush Miniatures

Well it has been a while since I added a post on here, so thought it was time for an update. I have another big(ish) game planned for this Saturday where I will be taking a 7000pts Cult of Khaine Dark Elf list to the local GW for a bring and battle. These are the types of game I love to play, bring whatever you want and as long as it's painted you can pop it on the table and play. I'll hopefully have a few photos taken on the day and put them on here as well as on some other places.

One reason I'm updating here also is to do a little test on adding a video to my blogs. Now the camera I've used for the video is, well to be honest quite pants, but it will give me a good idea as to whether this is going to work and be viable. Also note, the base on the mini isn't actually finished yet, it was just a handy thing to use for the test.

Have a wee look and let me know what you think.

Now another little update for you is news of a friends painting service, which I may be helping out at from time to time. Adding a few bits to his guides, battle reports and doing some painting for him. So take a look :

BattleBrush on Facebook

BattleBrush on Blogger

Don't forget to like or follow, as I'm sure a fair few of my posts will be heading over there from now on.

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 8 Paint it Purple

So I thought it was time for another bit of the painting guide. Nothing too extensive today, just painting a bit of purple on the cloth areas.

First off I give the areas a smooth coat of GW's Liche Purple. I really like this colour and use it on the majority of my elves to tie them together as an army, it goes on nice and can be mixed with a few things to give some nice contrasts.

Next is a highlight of Liche Purple and Skull White, I add just a small spot of white as it makes quite a difference to the purple. I then paint the more raised areas of the cloth.
Finally I add a little more white to the mix and add another highlight to the raised ares. I try to make the final highlight quite thin along the very edges of the areas as to not take the attention away from the original colour. If you do too much it will make the cloth look more pink than purple and I really don't think pink Dark Elves will look that terrifying on the tabletop.
So I'm now getting pretty close to finishing off the Cauldrons attendants, only have the black areas to highlight, the blood and gore to add, and the basing to be done (Which I will do once the actual Cauldron is painted).

This week I will be doing some extra work on my Dark Eldar Commission and I'll be finishing off the attendants before moving onto the Cauldron itself.

A little bit of Dark Eldar

So a little break from my guide to show whats in the process at the moment. This is a prototype Dark Eldar I've painted. I'm currently painting up an army as a commission for a friend. I was given free range with the scheme, so opted for a red/black look, which will be reversed on the vehicles in the force.

I should hopefully have the first squad all done (except the basing which I will do when I have more done) by the end of this week. As well as some more for the guide.

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 7 - A bit Hairy

Well it's time to get back to some work on the guide, sorry it's taken so long.

The next step I do is work on the hair. I generally paint my Dark Elves hair white. People have come up with so many reasons as to why I do this, but to be honest, I just like the way it looks.

The first thing I do is give the hair a coat of Space Wolves Gray. Make sure this layer has a good covering, nice and smooth and doesn't have any black patches showing through.

This may take a few thin coats to get a good finish.

Next lightly brush over the raised areas with a 50/50 mix of Space Wolves Gray and Skull White.

Once dry add a final highlight to the raised areas with Skull White.

Tomorrow I'll be working on the cloth areas

Welcome 2012

So 2012 is here and I know it's been a damn long time since I updated my Blog. Christmas and New Year is a real hectic time for me, and to be honest, I have no energy to do anything when I get home from work, so painting has been on a bit of a back-burner.

But I will hopefully be getting back to work this week. And here's some news on whats coming...

I have a commission coming up painting some Dark Eldar for a friend, I've been thinking about painting some up for a while, and this will give me a chance to paint some. I have full licence on how to paint them and have a rather cool scheme in mind. So keep an eye out for those.
I've also been given a date for the next big Fantasy game. Now I don't know how much of my army will be taking part in the game this time as we are going to tie it into a 'Battle Brothers' scheme the store has been running. So it will involve some armies from the younger members of our gaming community. If we do run short on minis though My Dark Elves and Louis's Empire will be making a timely entry to the field. Now you may be asking 'Why the Cygor picture?' Well over Christmas I've picked up a couple of these and a few Chaos hound. I'm hoping to get these painted up in time for the game. (Which for anyone wanting to turn up will be Friday April 6th at GW Carlisle) Now I should have plenty of time for this.

I'll also be continuing my step-by-step guide and finishing off my Cauldron of Blood for those of you that have been following that.
I'm also wanting to add one or two of these to my army. I think they would fit in almost perfectly as a mobile Nexus in a Storm of Magic game. Of course it will need some minor conversion here and there but I think it will look cool. (So if anyone is looking for a Birthday gift for me - Hint dropped)

So now I'm going to make a move and find some minis for a friend to borrow and some Marines for GW Carlisle's cabinet. Be back again soon.

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 6 - Gold

Next step is to add some Shining Gold to the minis.

A coat of Shining Gold is added to the appropriate parts. This can be quite a tricky colour to get a smooth coat with so it may require a few thin coats. Don't be worried if your first coat is quite patchy, this is normal, just wait until it's dry and add another, and repeat until you're happy.

Once the gold is dry I add a wash of Gryphone Sepia. Now a lot of people would use Devlan Mud here, but I prefer the Sepia. It adds a more subtle shading to the recesses, which to me is much more pleasant.

Finally when the wash is completely dry (don't be tempted to do this too early) I add a highlight of Shining Gold with a small touch of Skull White. This gives the paint an almost creamy look, and when applied to the edges of the gold areas dulls them slightly, just like with the other metal areas.

Step-by-Step Cauldron of Blood : Part 5 The Armour

Well it's been a while, but I'm finally back. Computers all working, although the nice guys at the cybercafe have lent me a power lead till payday at the end of the month.

So without further ado here's the next installment of my Step-by-Step guide.

For the armour I first give the selected areas a coat of Boltgun Metal.

Next I painted the areas I want to have a brown leathery feel with Bestial Brown. Yes I know I'm supposed to be doing the armour, but there is a reason for this.

Which is because I now give all the metal and leather areas a coat of Badab Black, this adds some shading to the areas and dulls down some of the shininess on the metal.

Finally I add a higlight to the edges of the metal with a mix of Boltgun Metal and Skull White. This mix further dulls down the shininess of the metal. If you want the metal to have more of a shine to it you can use Mithril Silver. But for Dark Elves I feel the dullness adds to the overall effect.

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 :)

Cold One Riders

Tonight's offering are some of my older characters. Now I have loads of characters on foot, and these are what tends to get used in most games (when I ever play them), and I have a whole host of Dragon and monster riders, but there are also the more mundane mounted Elves in the army.

The Malus Darkblade miniature is a nice miniature, even if a little awkwardly posed. As I'm not really a fan of using special characters, only really on special occasions, I tend to use him as a generic Dark Elf Hero.

This Sorceress is from last editions releases, and even though the miniature looks a little fat to be an elf, it's still pretty nice.

Now this is one of my really old models. I've mounted her on a last edition Cold One (I have loads spare) . Again all the Cold Ones are in the same scheme as the other editions in an attempt to tie them all together and make units match up.