2015 - the year of the Rat? (and a look back...)

...officially of course, it is the year of the Sheep (at least here in Asia!), but there are good signs that it could be quite a year for the Skaven too! 

First, take a look at this forthcoming new Skaven Model (courtesy of SpikeyBIts) from a forthcoming White Dwarf:

The full line-up can be found on the GW website and it certainly is a major one for the Skaven. The return of Thanquol, "End Times" stuff, and lots of new models. I like the look of these Verminlord models (although this close to Christmas, the bells on his horns remind me of tree ornaments...) and would think about picking one up IF the rules make the Verminlord competitive this time around. The previous rules meant that most people never took one (overpriced and under-powered). 

I might still take my "Counts as" Verminlord, Skar-Scath, to see how the rules perform.

My Skaven and other animals:

2014 was a slow year for painting, as I lost my painting mojo every so often but I still got a variety of units done. Here are some highlights from last year.

The Skaven horde of Squeek Vermintide as it is now is shown below (as of Jan 1st 2015). I didn't paint all of these last year, but I thought it would be interesting to see the horde laid out.

2014 Painting list:

December:

Stormvermin Reinforcements (20) 

Magnet Madness! 

I decided to magnetize more units, so went for Goblin Skaven Slaves, Stormvermin, and Clanrats Bunker Unit (110 models). I used "dime store" sticky magnetic sheet for a total cost of around 4 US dollars. 

I also marked all my movement trays so I know which units go on them securely (I aligned the magnets on the troops before sticking them to the unit bases so they would give a good magnetic grip):

"G.S" is for "Goblin Slaves"

Yes, I cut out a couple of hundred of these 20mm x20mm magnetic bases.

November:

Scratch-built Warlitter: Great fun to build!

October

Tealight explosions and Vehicle Markers for 40K.

See "How to Make Tealight Explosions and Smoke" for more details.

September:

Warhammer Fantasy Empire Watchtower:

Warhammer 40K Black Templars Stormtalon:

Black Templars Armoured column (reinforcements):

x2 Whirlwinds and x1 Landraider

July

Although I still haven't got an actual game in, I keep coming back to Dust Tactics models, slowly putting them in order.

Dust Tactics Allied Reinforcements:

"The Boss" and his command unit...

June

 The Axis infantry made it off the shelf and onto the painting table.
Dust Tactics Axis Units - The Axis are coming!:

April

Black Templars Sternguard.

I loved painting these guys. Not only did I really like the models, but assembling them was fun (as well as challenging, as I was using scavenged parts) and I think they came out as my best Black Templars to date. Photo extravaganza here.

February

Excited by a haul of Black Templars, I slowly went to work on individual models, rather than whole units. I find this much more interesting than working on whole units of Space Marines, which can feel like a bit of a slog. Individual models tend to have more flavor and detail (both real and imagined)

Black Templars Dreadnought - Brother Luthor, a Drop-pod and a Chaplain.

The outlook for 2015?

-Painting High Elves (I have some models that could be painted to expand my current High Elf army)

- Expanding Squeek's Skaven Horde (Plague Censer Bearers, Globadiers and more core just to name a few that still need to be painted.)

- Playing more Warhammer (Skaven and High Elves)

- Playing some 40K. Will I ever get to use the Black Templars on the battlefield.

- Getting in some games of Dust Warfare.

- Expanding on my X-Wing starter set and getting some games in.

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2015!

Cheers,

Squeek.

Being the Boss! Dust Tactics Allies finished.

I've been using Google+ for a while now, and like how easy it is for me to share updates on my painting, but it makes it easier not to bother with a blog update (of course, Blogger posts are uploaded to Google+, but I always feel that a blog post should have a bit more meat to it than a simple G+ post)

So here is an update. Some photos of an the allied HQ unit, called "The Boss". For these models, I decided to differentiate them from regular troops by giving them leather greatcoats/ overcoats.

The Boss himself. Officers always have different headgear/ pose

Radioman

Engineer/ mechanic (I forget the name)

Heavy weapon

Medic

Like all Dust Tactics/ Warfare models, getting these painted is straightforward and not too time consuming.  One reason for this is that all the models come undercoated, and a few basecoats and some washes and drybrushing will see the models looking more than nice enough for the battlefield.
  
This isn't a painting guide, so just a bit of info below on colours.

Basecoats:

• Catachan Green (armour plates)
• Snakebite Leather (Greatcoats, gloves etc.)
• Vermin Brown (Rifle stocks)
• Chaos Black (Gloves, boots)
• Codex Grey (Drybrushing on soil)
• Chainmail (bolts around the base)
• Macharius Solar Orange (watered down and used as rust)
• Leadbelcher (metal surfaces, weapons)
• Mordian Blue (goggles)
• Ice Blue (goggles)
• Skull White (goggles)

Washes:

• Nuln Oil - weapons, metals
• Agrax Earthshade - clothes
• Gryphonne Sepia (Seraphim Sepia)
• Ogryn Flesh (Reikland Fleshshade) - face/ skin

Colours used are all GW (you can find a conversion chart here for the old GW paints and the new ones)

Dust Allies progress...quick and easy!

Just a quick update.

Yesterday I noted that the Dust Tactics models are pretty easy to paint because they come undercoated. I started work on a a unit called "The Boss" this evening by adding some basecoats (I had added modeling sand and painted the base before this.)

Before: you can see the green colour in which the unit arrives (there are 5 models in the unit).

After just a couple of layers of GW Snakebite Leather, some Chaos Black (on boots and gloves) and Ironbreaker on the weapon and you have your basic "3 basecoats" approach done. I could probably move onto washes at this point.

I think I will add some brown to the the stocks and handgrips throughout the unit before that though!

The key point is, with another hour, I could have a unit done with washes and a highlight or two. Time is saved by the model being pre-undercoated, all models swiveling at the waist (much easier to paint hard to reach bits!) and the general lack of ornate bits and pieces. In fact, significant time was added by having to do two layers of Snakebite Leather.

Won't have too much time to finish these the next few days, but with another hour or two, this final unit of Allied infantry should be done and my Allied footsloggers will be complete- and then I will give a Walker a try.

*Squeek*

Dust Warfare: The Axis are coming...

...at least to my collection of Dust warfare models.

I bought the Dust Tactics box set and the Dust Warfare rules a year or so ago (was it that long?) and immediately got into painting the allies. What I had read about the Dust models was true.
Already undercoated.
Easy to paint.
Generally good sculpts.
Sure, there were a few problems, like poorly fitted upper torsos, bendy weapons and so on (I'd heard about these too), but man, those issues couldn't take away from the joy of having some "weird" world war II (the designs are great.)

After finishing some allied infantry (which you can see here and here) I got distracted by other projects, and didn't think about them until last Saturday, when I noticed the Axis troops in my cupboard, still in their original grey. On a whim I grabbed them and set to work, and a few days later, here we are, with a few units of Axis ready for the tabletop.

Here are a few photos:

Kommandotrupp

Sturmpioniere

Heavy Laser Grenadiers

Heavy Flak Grenadiers

Next up?

Light walkers!

:-)

THE HAMMERS! Dust Warfare Allies Update #3

*Squeek*

It has been a while since my last post. In the background I have been working on and off on my Dust Warfare Allies, so here is another completed unit:
THE HAMMERS!
...and my first Allied hero: RHINO!

These guys duke it out with the Axis in their aerial assault armour and have the "Jump" special ability and the "Rocket Punch" attack.

Some pics below, followed by more information about the painting.

The Hammers

So what did I do with these guys. 

Firstly, I just went straight to a full GW Badab Black wash. This was slapped straight on top of the green primer that covers the model straight out of the box (one of the great things about Dust models). 
Here is a comparison image that shows these models with and without that black wash:

Washed with Badab Black (L) and unwashed (R)
Notice that face/head was not washed.

After that, some standard paints on key areas:

• Face: Tallarn Flesh (Followed by an Ogryn Flesh wash)
• Gloves: Blazing Orange (Hammers) and Red Gore (Rhino) Be careful to leave the wash in the gaps of the gloves.
• Helmet/ Cap (Hammers): Bleached Bone and Calthan Brown
• Hair (Rhino): Sunburst Yellow
• Jetpack parts: Boltgun Metal
• Rockets: Fortress Grey, with Blood Red and Skull White tips

Then layers:

• Face: Tallarn Flesh/ Dwarf Flesh (50:50)
• Gloves (Rhino): Red Gore/ Blood Red (50:50), then pure Blood Red, then Blazing Orange/ Blood Red (20/80)

A bit of aging...

• Chainmail (or Boltgun Metal) on armour edges or areas where there would be wear (joints, places where armour would scrape etc.) Also some small nicks and scratches on flat surfaces.

This was all capped-off with some simple basing using a drybrush of Calthan Brown/ Skull White and GW grass.

That would be the last Allied infantry unit that was in the Dust Tactics Core set. Next comes a bigger challenge, my first walker!

Thanks for stopping by. All C&C welcome.

Cheers,

Squeek.