Chaos Dwarf Sorceror on Lammisu complete

Well here he is!
Now I know from some of my friends opinions that the model is a bit like marmite....either you love it or you hate it...I love it personally.
It's been an interesting departure from Marines, and as such I have totally enjoyed the challenge it presented.

I wish that GW would pick up with this race once more as they are quirky and quite humourous too.
But that said I must look forward to my own future, there have been secret plans in motion for a good few months now and they are nearing fruition!

Ha ha I feel like an evil boss now gloating over my cunning plan..........all will be revealed in the coming months, stay tuned for little sneak peeks along the way.

Making my own banners.

I have had to make some banners for the Chaos Dwarf commission and I did not have a clue how to do it.

That is until I found this awesome series of articles by Ron.
making cardstock banners for 40k
making cardstock banners advanced
beyond cardstock

They have really helped me and I now feel confident to try making some for my personal armies, Ron you are the man once again!

I Thought I'd show this picture to show how I painted the detail over the pencil lines and then went back and blacklined with a brush to edge the detail and neaten up the banner.

Alternatives to GW

I was browsing the interweb-o-sphere today and stumbled across this amazing article at Hephesto's Forge about lesser known model companies.

The list is huge and took me by surprise as to the number of these little business' working away in the back ground.

I can't wait to find out what goodies lie in wait in this little gold mine!
It's nice to see that there is still a healthy cottage industry out there for the hobbyist.

Cheers Willem-jan

TUTORIAL - Tyranid Carapace

Hi everyone,
I have been getting a few emails about how I painted my Tyranid commission especially the Carapace.
I thought I would share my technique for doing it.

Now the thing with Tyranids is there is usually a bucket load of them and you don't really want to spend a huge amount of time detailing them, this technique is pretty fast and looks great when the Hive Swarm is all together on the table.

You will need:
A fine brush (I use a W&N 00)
A range of colours going from dark to light (Hormagaunt Purple, Liche Purple, Warlock Purple, Tentacle Pink)
A suitable dark wash (Bhadab Black)

After basecoating the carapace in Hormagaunt Purple I apply a wash of Bhadab Black and make sure it is pooled in the reccesses, you can drag the wash into the nooks and crannies to be sure, this is done quite heavily.

Next paint a layer of Liche Purple from about 3/4 of the way on each ridge to the edge of the ridge, This is the actual Purple colour which will stand out, the Hormagaunt Purple was just a quick basecolour.

Next with Warlock Purple apply streaks starting about 1/2 of the way down each ridge to the edge of the ridge, make these line thin and different lengths (sounds hard but you will get the hang of it very fast, there are tonnes to do!)

Next apply Tentacle Pink in the same fashion but do it from around 1/3 to 1/4 of the ridge to the tip, once again vary the length of your brush strokes, this is what gives the "perceived" texture.

One thing I must add is I thin my paints about 1 drop of water to 2 drops of paint to help get a smooth line.

Chaos Dwarf Sorceror on Lammisu

Well Munky fans there it is, the secrets out this is what I've been secretly getting ready to paint!

It is a fantastic OOP model and I am quite chuffed to be painting it, as I would never have thought to buy let alone collect a Chaos Dwarf army!

I have filled the joins with GS and added magnets into the wing joints so there is less chance of them being damaged and he should be  a doddle to store safely.

The only progress other than primer is below, I have painted the Sorceror to match the customers army colours, I haven't tried painting models in component parts before and I am definately seeing the benefits on this figure. (the red plastic bit you can see in the photos is a small repair I had to do to the banner poles)

I decided to try for purple gems on the staff to add that mystical touch to the figure as he is fairly plain, I also thought to try out some verdigris on the brass bits, which came out well I think.

Anywho stay tuned for more as the week goes on.

Munky out.

Space Wolves

Hello again,
I have some personal models for you this time, I have been beavering away over Christmas finishing off the last few guys for my Space Wolf force.
I am aiming to get 750points worth painted up by February so I can take part in a local doubles tournament, and then progress onto getting the full 1500points list complete.

This Grey hunter squad is the most commonly used squad so I have maxed it out with 8 Grey Hunters, a Meltagun, a Flamer, A Wolf Standard and my interpretation of the Mark of the Wulfen (a guy with a huge axe!) also thrown in the mix is the first of two Rune Priests (the second will be converted).

The tutorial for painting these guys can be found on the other blog I contribute to Space Wolves Grey please feel free to have a look around the site it's an amazing resource for new and old Space Wolf players.

To keep the momentum up on these I have signed up for the Heresy online army painting competition which should force me to get stuff done.

I also have some more juicy Salamanders commissions coming in as well, and a surprise Warhammer Fantasy model from ages past...........

Painting Recipes : Gold

Hi Munky fans, this post is a little something I've been working on over Xmas.
I was thoroughly impressed with Ron's post on Black got me thinking about Gold, now me and Gold don't get on! We can never agree with each other on what looks best, so I got to googling and found 5 recipes I thought I'd test, along with my own method.

Each of the following Gold recipes has to follow some rules, it must be simple and quick to apply, this is intended for tabletop quality models or where speed is required to get a good result.

So sit back grab some cold Turkey and enjoy the ride, but be sure to comment which one you like the best at the bottom along with your own recipes too!

GOLD A
Basecoat - Tin Bitz
Drybrush - Brazen Brass
Drybrush - Shining Gold
Drybrush - Burnished Gold
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
Drybrush - Burnished Gold

Speed - 5/5
Notes - This gold is very Brassy in colour and I found the dark base colour overpowers the gold.
It is fantastically easy to apply at every stage, and I will certainly use this on Brass pipes etc.

GOLD B
Basecoat - Mithril Silver
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia

Speed - 2/5
Notes - This recipe may only use two paints but it takes ages to do, the combination of the Silver basecoat which I had to do two coats of along with the 3 washes, meant that the overall time on this was way too long.
Interestingly though my wife and her friends liked this colour due to its brightness!

GOLD C
Basecoat - Brazen Brass
Wash - 50/50 Devlan Mud / Bhadab Black
Drybrush - Shining Gold
Drybrush - Burnished Gold
Wash - Chesnut Ink with Magic Wash
Drybrush - Burnished Gold

Speed - 1/5
Notes - Aside from the time needed to mix up the wash and wait for it to dry, the range of colours on this piece are really nice.
The ink really does add a nice Red/Brown, but over all the colour is still too dark for Gold.

GOLD D
Basecoat - Calthan Brown / Shining Gold
Wash - Devlan Mud
Drybrush - Shining Gold
Drybrush - Burnished Gold
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
Drybrush - Burnished Gold

Speed - 3/5
Notes - This recipe is once again too dark for me, though it is getting closer to the right colour and is very quick to do.

GOLD E
Basecoat - Snakebite Leather
Drybrush - Shining Gold
Drybrush - Burnished Gold
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
Wash - Ogryn Flesh (in the recesses only)
Drybrush - Burnished Gold

Speed - 4/5
Notes - This is an interesting one, it uses a yellowish base to start with and this means the gold is very bright, and the linited use of washes works well too.
Only snag is the Snakebite Leather took two coats to go on smooth.

GOLD F
Basecoat - Tau Sept Ochre
Drybrush - Glorious Gold
Drybrush - Polished Gold
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
Wash - Ogryn Flesh (in the recesses only)
Drybrush - Polished Gold

Speed - 5/5
Notes - On this one I used Tau Sept Ochre to eliminate the need for two basecoats, and I thought I'd try the Vallejo range of Golds.
The Vallejo paints are almost exactly the same colour as the Games Workshop ones, though I felt they went on better (possibly because they are new paints, I've had my Golds for years) and the colour is still bright and easy to apply.

As always the pictures may look different on your monitor and through your eyes, and heck you may like dark Gold! good for you.
If you can learn something from this post that's great, and if you can teach me something new that's even better!

I personally like the last 2 Gold recipes E and F and my wife and her friends liked Gold B, an interesting result due to ladies being quite used to looking at the shiney stuff in the shops!

A lot of these recipes followed the theme of paint one or two colours apply a wash or two and then drybrush to finish, whilst drybrushing is sometimes regarded as a beginners technique I feel it has a place here in that it give texture to the piece and speed of finish.

I would love to hear your feelings on this and your own recipes for fast Gold so please feel free to add comments.