Necromunda Escher Gang - The Build

I'd like to say that I've had these sitting around for the last 20 years waiting for the new edition of Necromunda. Unfortunately, that dubious honour goes to some guy that I bought them off of on eBay. I was fortunate enough to get a decent deal though, as with the announcement of the new version of what most people had assumed was a long dead game the prices have skyrocketed.

I was involved in the hobby in the 90s when Necromunda was a thing, but as a penniless kidd, I couldn't afford to play more than one game, which at the time was Warhammer Fantasy. Still, I've always had fond memories of Necromunda, so I was excited to hear about the new version of the game. I do have a few Necromunda figures in my collection, but no actual gangs as they were mostly bitts I bought from the old mail order system because I liked them - like the old Ash Wastes gang sniper. Good times.

Rather than my usual backing, I'm using an old video cassette. I wanted to use something as old as the miniatures!

Anyway, I got to talking to my brother (Ed from the BERSERKERBLADE blog) and we talked about splitting the new box game for Christmas; which should be cool. To add an extra level of fun, we thought we would try and get a head start by scrounging together a few old models, or building a few new ones, so that hopefully we'll have a small force ready to deploy on the day.

I know that Ed will be converting some Goliaths using some chunky Bloodbound warriors (I've given him some cool bits to work with, so I'll be excited to see what he comes up with). Unfortunately, finding modern analogues for Escher gangers was a lot harder, and after a bit of searching I decided to stick with the originals.

Today, I'm presenting the first wave of posts about this project. I've got the miniatures together and ready for paint. In the end, I had to do a few conversions in order to repair some damage; such as the chainsword that I added in place of a missing sword blade or the shotgun ganger that I had 2 of, so I've swapped it for a lasgun and modified the head.. It still seems strange that in the original game they used to encourage conversion as your characters developed. With fully metal models and separate sprues of guns, you have to wonder what kind of maniac would even attempt it!

Paint-wise, I'm looking to combine some modern and traditional techniques; with plenty of hazard stripes, cheques, black flames and patterns. We'll see how that goes, but if I can, I'll try to put some tutorials together to help people with their own projects. If I'm feeling brave, I might even try my hand at some tattoos. After all, it isn't really Necromunda without a few bright colours and some throwback styling!

Guijia TAG and Pilot - Almost Finished!

This might be my finest work yet. Occasionally, when painting a miniature I have a jump forward in technique. This time, it came when I was painting the grey NMM steel on this Guijia (don't ask me how you pronounce that). Handily, I took a few pictures during the process, so I should be able to talk a bit more about it later. 

One of the things that I really progressed in was actually not what you'd expect. Oddly, I improved my technique when masking the model, which in turn allowed me to go further with the airbrush and push the application to 3 separate blended colors - namely, the orange armour, steel, and blue sword. I still haven't finished the base, but I was so excited that I couldn't wait to take a few pictures. 

The pilot is cool too. I'm not sure how often I'll actually get to see her in the game, but I like the mini. She reminds me of Evangellion or something. I struggled a bit with her face though. I might have to go back and make some corrections to her later. Faces can still feel a bit like a gamble; you never quite now how it'll turn out!

The orange is even more saturated this time too, thanks to an additional shade of red that I added to make it pop even more. I love the design on this thing too. It really screams Gundam, which is always a good thing in a sci-if robot.

I was particularly happy with the calf parts as the gave me a nice big space to work up the NMM. The surprising part about this thing is  that even now, I've probably only spent 5 hours on it over one weekend, which for the quality of the job is pretty damn good. Unfortunately, my speed  is also sort of a curse, as I lack the patience when it comes to actual competitions. I guess I'll live with it, as the trade-off is having a lot of really nice minis!

The other side. I didn't want to put too many layers into the airbrush for the steel looking NMM as I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I might layer the highlights more next time I use this technique to push the contrast.

Like I said earlier, I'll post more about the painting techniques later. For now, I'm just gonna take a break; painting this intensely sure is tiring!

Dark Eldar Raider WIP

Swoosh! Zoom! Wattango .... ok maybe not that last one. I built this Raider over the weekend (my boys need transports and lots of them). After years of playing against Dark Eldar, one thing I know is that the transports are key - it's all about manoeuvrability and the army's ability to engage on their own terms. Nothing like a Raider or two then. It helps that I absolutely love the model too.

Build-wise it's a pretty complicated kit and it took me some time to get all the bits together and cleaned up. I haven't glued on the flight stand (obviously as I want it to be clear, not sprayed black!). In addition to that, the Dark Lance on the prow still comes off, and so does the central sail assembly. I'm hoping that it'll make it easier to paint, but I'm not holding my breath as this is one complicated figure. It'll be worth the effort though when I finish it (if...)

I also built the crew for it too. I used a few more masks and bits on them as well as the Wrack torso from the Venom Pilot (what a jip those Wrack pilot bits are - you'd have to use legs and torsos from the actual kit if you did it their way which would be half a box per transport!). The Venom Pilot is a spare though, so I took his torso and merged it into the armoured legs of the gunner; job done!

This picture really highlights my custom Raider stand - get yours today from only £29.95...

 

I know that a lot of people leave the crew off, but I'd feel like it was somehow a cop-out. They look so nice on there that even if it takes ages, I'm determined to paint them all up. They're still detachable too, so I'll mount them on a board for painting to make it a bit less painful!

 

Dark Eldar Wracks

I'm literally wracked with guilt over this latest purchase .... (pauses of laughter.... no, ok). With that chronic joke out of the way, welcome to another bizarre side project.

I'd always loved the look of some of the Dark Eldar units, but particularly the Haemonculus related miniatures (these days we have the supplement Haemonculus Covens too for real fanatics!). Wracks have a really nice evil air about them and I'd be remiss in not mentioning that this is one of the best crafted and most detailed plastic kits I've ever seen. They're not cheap though at £22 for 5, but I really feel that the expense is worth it for miniatures of this quality.

The kit comes with a range of different options; plenty of fearsomely jagged cutting blades for the blood crazed masses to enjoy. You also get a full range of kit for the leader with Scissor Hands and Whips; plus a rather nice Venom Blade that I went with because it looked so cool. The only downside is that they all have their heads locked in a frontal position that didn't make them look too dynamic when I was posing them. To counter that, I cut two of them right at the top of the neck so I could turn their heads a bit. A little greenstuff in the gaps and hey presto; new poses.

I've started these as a bit of a fun modelling and painting challenge. I wracked my brain for inspiration (did you see what I did there?) and came up with a few ideas for the colour scheme and as I'm always looking to expand my horizons, I'll also be trying out a new technique or two,  so fingers crossed they work out (although if you look a bit lower down, you'll see an early first look at the scheme).

After getting the rest of the box built and suitably greenstuffed, I had a go at painting the first model up. He's still a work in progress and I'm trying to get a feel for the colours. At the moment, the only finished part is the high gloss red armour; although now that it's done I just hope the rest of the miniature can live up to it (well worth the 8 coats of paint it took to get that finish! ... unless we're counting undercoat in which case it's probably 11 or 12, what with the unintentional airbrush overspray)

Whether or not there'll be a whole army in a minute? I guess only time will tell. For the moment I'm just going to paint these up, and if that goes well maybe I'll add a Haemonculus or a few more bits to build a little kill team with.

Oh, and if you were expecting an update on Squaduary; I can only say that I've been distracted (luckily I was ahead of the game! but if this continues I'll be wracked with guilt for a second time!)

Squaduary Challenge - Week 1 Goal Complete

The Desert Dogs ride again!

For those who might be wondering, Squaduary is all about building and painting a squad in February and is an event being run by the blog Stepping Between Games. The goal for the first week is to build your miniatures, so in this post I'm presenting the fruits of my labor; namely the recently reincarnated Desert Dogs (back due to popular demand after their 10 year hiatus). Gaming wise, I'm planning to use them as a faction in some games of Inquisitor (28mm scale) as a Planetary Defence Force turned police unit. We'll see if the can stem the waiting tides of mutants, heretics, plague zombies and ermm.... Mechanicus?

Parts wise they're almost entirely Anvil Indistry bits with the addition of some extra helms and odd parts from the bits box. Interestingly, the plastic helmets come from some Bot Handlers from a game called Malestrom's Edge that I got for free in my goodie bag at Salute! (I'd love to say it was because I'm so famous, or silver tongued and handsome, but everyone got them...)

Get to the Choppahh...

Space Marine Flamer? Seems to fit ok.

I'm trying out some texture paint for the bases too, but more on that later.

Until next time; party on dudes.

Anvil Industry Regiments - Squaduary Challenge Begins

I'm planning a full review of these parts in the near future, but I wanted to share the first few miniatures I created last night. I've been building them as a reimagining of a classic unit from my gaming past (Del'Ragio's Desert Dogs), and I'm hoping to put them to work in some games of Inquisitor (28mm scale) as a unique Planetary Defence Force unit (hence the different armaments).

They're made mostly with Anvil parts and I have to say that so far I'm loving it. The details are great and they've been fun to work on; for more info than that, you'll have to read the full review (planned to be up in a few days).

On a side note, I'm planning to build and paint all of these miniatures in February as part of the Squaduary (#Squaduary) challenge started by Rory at Stepping Between Games (http://steppingbetweengames.com/). The challenge is to build and paint a unit in a month; so it just seemed like the perfect challenge to combine with these guys, especially as they arrived on my doormat on 01th Feb!

I'll have more info on Squaduary later, but for now I'm just showing last night's progress:

Inquisitor Greyfax - Non Metallic Metals Pt 1

fresh from my painting table, I'm bringing you the first WIP images of Greyfax in gloriously gold NMM (non metallic metal). This is still a fairly new technique to me, but I consulted with the divine angels themselves for a slice of godly wisdom (also known as reading Angel Giraldez's Painting Miniatures from A-Z Masterclass Part 2, and trawling the Internet for inspiration).

I started with a few layers of airbrushed Browns, yellows and finally white, before switching to the ordinary brush and using a series of glazes and highlights to try and push the contrast as much as possible. I'm not finished yet, and I've been using her left leg as a sort of proving ground for the technique, but I thought I'd bring you all the initial results of my hard labour.

Once I've finished the gold to a standard I'm happy with, I'll discuss the technique in more detail. For the minute though I'm just really enjoying building up the effect slowly. I think the telling thing was when someone saw it in progress and said "nice gold" not nice yellow, so I think it's working. I'm still trying to push the contrast further though, and will be darkening the Browns to amplify the effect as I go.

I've also started planning out the other colours with black for the corset type armour (which should make her waist look smaller and therefore extenuate the femininity of the armour) and a dark regal blue for the cloak. I'm still not sure what to so with the inside of the cloak (red maybe?). The smaller pipes/details will be silver, but again it will be NMM, so that'll be another stretch. Well, I guess I can only blame myself.

What you're looking at is probably the fruits of about 4-5 hours work.

Check back later for the next instalment, where I'll hopefully be talking about how to paint NMM gold with a finished example of the technique!

On a side note, am I the only one thinking Gray Fox every time I see Greyfax.

"Only a fool trusts his life to a weapon!"

"Snaaaaakeeeeee!"

Resin Anime Figure Part 4 - Assembly

How's that for an update!

Thankfully, I finally got to the stage where I could start putting her together. I did a bit more airbrush work over the Christmas Holiday - mainly painting up the hair, the base, and the capes/flames. It was a big batch of stuff to do that took a lot of coats of paint in the end. I was a bit undecided whether to start sticking her together, but after a bit of indecision I decided to just go for it - with the thought that either way it was going to be hard to paint up the remaining details. The one part that was a real struggle was the shoulder armour, as I had to paint the whole thing assembled and she is getting rather spindly and difficult to handle at this point. It was pretty funny to work on though as I was painting her at the same time as my brother was working on his Bio Titan (see my Christmas Post for more on that one) and we were both at weird angles trying to paint round corners. It was like a lesson in how to paint unsteadily with bad posture.

I really like the cape/flames thing going on here. It was a lot of individual bits to do, but the effect is quite cool.

Oddly, one of the other things I had difficulty with was the base. Not because of the detail so much as it was that the thing is so smooth and large that the colour had to be applied really evenly as any uneven bits looked absolutely terrible. I tried to varnish the thing at first, but it didn't work and came out really blotchy. I ended up going over it with a few coats of dark grey with the airbrush to even things out again. It seems strange, but it really was unlike painting anything I've ever had the need to do for 40k or any game system.

At the moment, I'm thinking that the Red looks a little too strong, but I think a lot of it will be blocked when I get her weapons on. They'll also be a source of a lot of black and marble colours, so it'll reinforce the look of the whole thing and strengthen up the scheme a bit. Likewise, I was a bit unsure of what colour to do her hair when I started working on it, but after about a dozen coats of various browns, I settled on something that had a bit of red to it as well as some lighter tones. I didn't want to make it too stark and risk overshadowing the whole piece.

The other thing I need to work on is the gap between her two hair sections. At this stage, I think the best thing to do will probably be to fill it and then paint it in by hand. I have no idea how I'll get a colour match though! I think it'll be a job for a lot of layers of thin paint to get a smooth blend, although maybe I'll be able to sculpt some detail into the gap that'll help it mesh. I guess we'll see. I also need to finish painting the horns.

Well, that about sums up the progress for the minute. I'm happy so far, but this is turning into a real project and there's still a long way to go till the finish line. I reckon one or two more posts to go till the end (like maybe one per lance, and a final roundup). It's a strange thing though - I feel like I'm looking at someone else's hobby from the outside and it can be surprising what a steep learning curve it causes. Then again, that was kind of the point at the outset; so I'm calling it mission accomplished so far.