And done, two months late but done.

So finally finished month two of GIMPS and yay! This will get upgraded to ten man squad the other four with thunder hammers. Painting these has been a real slog for no good reason, but has made me try a few new things and return to some old technics, namely drybrushing.
When you first start you dry brush because its the easy way to blend and highlight, then you learn how to blend and highlight in other ways that leave a more realistic finish and you sneer at your dry brushed work and if your a bit of a cock patronise those who still use it. Then you have one of those little lightbulb moments and realise that this is still a valid technique at any skill level for instance mine today was whilst doing the crux terminatus on terminators, for me they are always stone because thats what the original lore said. They where made of stone, containing a piece of the emporers throne so grey. Well I'm faffing around highlighting and blending and not getting the look and texture I want and "bing" drybrushing that will give me what I want in a fraction of the time and actually look like stone at the end.
So what do you think?

Still away

So night two, got quite a bit done this evening, all the basic colours are on and ink washed, last night I got the blue upto all but finished so tomorrow will be highlighting and detail. Also limiting my colours because there's only so much impractical to bring, does kind of make you paint better I feel. I've just got lazy because I have so many shades to hand. I haven't untouched the helmets yet, so I'll probably basecoat those tomorrow.

Painting away

Well I'm working away at the moment, so I thought I'd take some toys to paint. I've got 6 termites to paint and 2 techmarines let's see how this goes.

Only 3 days late

Well month 1 of the GIMPS challenge complete.

So with them being scouts i thought this would be a perfect chance to try out some weathering powders, i have generally ignored these before on the basis of can't be arsed and some general sneering about deliberately throwing dust at my models.

But now it's time to eat my words, it looks cool, there are just some things you can't do with paint but less is definitely more.

They'll be making there debut at showdown along with the original 5 man scout squad for my bike army, the colours are not quite the same but they work together the skin is probably the biggest difference, dueto my discovery of the circle P3 flesh tones.

FAIL!

So month 1 of the GIMPS challenge close but not finished

librarian finished and scouts are a scruffy tabletop but not remotely finished that will happen this evening.  So i continue with models needed for Autumn showdown at the North West Gaming Centre (Shameless plug) both of these are possible additions to the list.

But something else is lurking on the table today(which is probably why these scouts haven't been finished)

all i'm saying is dum de de dum dum, Dum De De Dum Dum, DUM DE DE DUM DUM, dum de de dum!

The progress so far

This was 10 this morning

based and undercoated

now at 12 they looked like this

based coated and washed

 lets see if i make it for tonight.

I've picked up a brush again yay!

So Curis has set up a monthly painting challenge on GIMPS.
 http://www.facebook.com/events/409181712463755/

So here we go plus i need to get some stuff painted for October 14th for Autumn showdownhttp://warhammer.org.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=104835 to make my 1500 bike army up to 1750.

First up the librarian gets finished finally not my best work the green stuff robes on the legs aren't great and the yellow just refused to play nice so for now it's done but may get redone in the future(way in the future)

Overall i'm quite happy with the pose although i appear to have picked a weapon type not covered in sixth edition(hope that doesn't mean my Repentia mistress loses her power whips come new codex time) so we'll see what people think it should be i'm leaning towards maul at the moment. Tomorrow scouts(on foot) people will put objectives on upper floors.

Death from the sky

Well throne of skulls draws closer and it has become apparent that we'll be playing 6th ed 40k so all this smurf painting might be a waste of time but that doesn't mean that I'm not still giddy about my sky talons the first of which is now complete.

I do like these and I can't get rude of the valkeries out of my head every time I look at them.

better pictures

There we go clearer pictures had to redo the robes on the librarians legs since the last picture still not completely happy but my greenstuffing skills are a bit rusty.

Woodies get bumped again

Well the woodies once again find themselves victim of the throne of skulls, not Brets this time 40k and my smurf bikes need a librarian and 2 more scout bikes. Being a biker these are something that has to look right to me. So here he is built my librarian, just got to decide which member of the Tuttle family he is.

Showdown game 3

Final game table 1 against Paul yet another club member this should have just been a North West Warriors Club Challenge

Paul is loving the novelty of table 1 but a little shocked at the speed of my knights

Showdown. Game 1

So Sunday morning  stood  in North West Gaming Centre  wondering if my toes are still attached. First game is a grudge against my mate Darren Duguid a great painter without any painted armies (seriously I've known Darren for years yet to see a completed army ) skaven versus my Brets  dawn attack mission.

Showdown game 2

Game 2 another club member , Adam Turner  a man who can sneak a win out of any situation......

Unless of course your own army chases itself off the board. Beastmen

Drafted in some help

This is Blaise  my 2 year old son, what do you think

New Citadel Paints a review

Okay so i had a play with the new paints yesterday here's what i think of them

bases, basically a pre watered down foundation paint that does not taste of suck. tried a couple of these good coverage don't have to worry about quick drying or brush death.
shades, a cross between old inks and washes again does not taste of stagnant water, a bit to shiny for my liking not as shiny as old inks think satin instead of gloss but again good coverage red is much more user friendly.
layers, basic paints, really nice coverage with these without the gloopiness of the last range.
Dry, gel paint, this was my favourite i can't express how good they are and they mix with the other paints as well if you want to shade with that colour
Glaze, what it says on the tin, really nice consistency the green i used was very good
texture. for their intended purpose Shit  you cannot base your figures with this crap, however for painting terrain i can see a use
Technical, none there so i can't comment
Metallics in general far superior and nix for far easier, htye are without doubt the best metallic paints out there
In general the paints are much improved in flow and consistency and although the pots are the same all the ones i used stayed open at angle where i could access the paint and at no point did i want to fling it across the room

Slave labour

So Robyn wanted bases and movement trays for her zombies, whips were cracked, threats were made so work commenced. Here is the completed but unpainted result.

Hill

See

Progress in the far future

So no woodies done but I have painted this wave serpent for decimation this weekend. Also stripped my wraithguard and basecoated them so they need to be complete for weekend (biostrip 20 is the greatest thing in the world) and painted and based a hill.

Bleargh

I have a cold, Robyn has a cold and the child has a cold, painting will resume when we all stop leaking.

A return to normal service?

So christmas is done, work continues and i have finally built nearly all my figures.
So now the construction is all but done and today i have magnetised all my models andi have completed a test minature which is on my free wood( that has become my oh fuck not like that area ) so onto some figures.

After some wise advicefrom the forums i have decided to paint the cloaks separately, there are acouple of figures were i had already stuck the cloaks on but i'll just have to struggle with them.
And while i waited for the wash to dry i attacked the movement tray

now with pictures

gamezone eagles

So here's the latest bit i've started some Eagle/Warhawk riders and i've gone with gamezone windriders because they are the most anatomically correct for eagles unlike everyone else's GW really need to update theirs it's showing its age.
The only problem is gamezones apparent lack of quality control, if you've ever built one you'll know what i mean.
[IMG]http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx27/sixxaholic_88/wood%20elves/004.jpg[/IMG]
the black paint covers a lot of green stuff on the right hand eagle which was the worst to do but none went together well but i knew this going in.
This is them based and inked.
[IMG]http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx27/sixxaholic_88/wood%20elves/006.jpg[/IMG]
and here is the based and inked test glade guard, it will be going on the free wood tree.
[IMG]http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx27/sixxaholic_88/wood%20elves/007.jpg[/IMG]
Oh look mold line @#*%ing ARSE

So a bit of a slow month with christmas, i can't really slope off and hide in the corner when so much needs doing but it has let me get on with the mind numbing tasks that i need for an army. mainly the creation of skirmish bases as shown here.

They're a 20mm square surrounded by a 1/4 inch strip so when you put them together they are 1/2 an inch apart like so.

i've also started on the free wood here it is base coated  and inked.

You may have noticed it's a bit smaller that's because when i measured it diagonally i was somewhat over the maximum allowed(due to me being a bit shit) anyway i have now painted and flocked it and it loooks like this.

I think there is probably too much snow on here but i'll see toady when it's dried fully. I've used two different snow flocks for the effect. Treemendus snow which is a ground cork for the base and bulk and it settles nicely in the grass flock and Games Workshop snow which is a fibre flock on the top to give a fluffy look. It's come out quite well neither where what i wanted alone but the mixture has given a realistic snow effect.
The only issue now is that the water i mixed the pva with wasn't clean enough and it's coloured the snow so i'll have to redo the top layer again.
So any thoughts?