The Road To Birmingham: Part 1

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

This year's miniature for the Golden Demon Master's Category has been announced and it is the Primaris Captain in Phobos Armour.

The choice was always going to be controversial (frankly, no matter what it was, that was always going to be the case, no matter the choice of miniature) but I approve of the choice. I like the Primaris miniatures on the whole, and this is one of the better ones. The Phobos armour is far more interesting than standard Primaris armour, without the huge blank pauldrons and grieves dominating the shape. There's cloth, an expressive face and and a nice mix of details and empty spaces. I like painting Space Marines (at least individually) and I'm looking forward to this one.

While I'm here, though, I thought it might be a good time to look back on my previous record in the Masters. Since the category was created, in 2017, I've entered them all, to ever diminishing levels of success! The miniature for 2017 was the Aeldari Farseer.

That year I was lucky enough to win a bronze demon trophy, to my eternal surprise. Unfortunately I couldn't really enjoy the moment. I had a really bad attack of gout that morning and I didn't have any meds on me. I thought I could tough it out but it got progressively worse during the day and, by the time I was invited up to the stage to collect my trophy, I was having trouble keeping vertical. It kind of took the shine off the day but, hell, I won bronze and I was over the moon!
In 2018, the miniature was a Stormcast Eternal Knight-Questor.

Unlike with the Farseer, I had no clear plan for a colour scheme for this miniature and I had a couple of goes to work out what I wanted. I think my work suffered for this lack of a clear vision and that is why the end result wasn't a complete success. I wasn't able to experiment with the look that I finally settled on, so had to carry develop the method of painting as I went along, which lead to a lot of going back over finished work as the process evolved during the painting. It also meant that the end result was a little rushed and nothing is really finished to the level I would have liked. In the end I was pleased enough to get a finalists pin for my efforts and I learnt a valuable lesson: don't try to experiment with new techniques for a competition piece like this- it's always best to use techniques or styles that you've practiced and become familiar with.
In 2019, the miniature chosen was the Idoneth Isharann Tidecaster.

This is a miniature that I really liked. An animated pose, with lots of details and interesting textured base. This time, also, I had a plan for a colour scheme. I'd looked at a lot of early 20th century sculpture in bronze and copper (what was obviously an influence on the design of the Idoneth miniatures) and wanted to recreate some of the colours from those sculptures. I wanted the cloak to look like ancient, faded silk and the armour to look like copper. I tackled the cloak early on and it took me way longer than I expected it to. There's many, many layers of nearly totally transparent layers of wash used to give the colours, and each of those has a highlight layer in between, to give the required sheen to the silk. And the placement of those highlights was a challenge as well, because I wanted to get the reflections as realistic as possible. All of this took time to get right meaning that, when it came time to do the copper armour I was running out of time. And, if getting the cloak right had been a challenge, he copper was much more so. Forgetting the lesson I'd learned last year, I tried to work it out as I went along, requiring numerous repaints. In the end I never did get it quite right and so the end result is not what I wanted. I was, however, very happy with other aspects of the miniature, the coral effect on some of her jewellery, the base, and her skintones. I was a little disappointed not to place at all in the competition (she didn't get so much as a single sticker on her card) but, never mind, them's the breaks.

So, here we are again. Now, I should point out that it's by no means certain that I'm going to make it to Warhammer Fest this year but I'm going to paint the miniature for the competition anyway, just in case I can make it. My target is to work my way back up the way I've come down and see if I can get myself a finalist pin (I'm hoping there's a new design of pin to go with the new trophy...) And this time I will pay heed to the lessons learned from before. Luckily, I know my way around painting Space Marines and I don't need to mess around with new techniques. It's simply a case of applying techniques I've used for many years and applying them in the best way I can. All I need to do is decide which chapter to do it...

Thanks for reading!
-Stu

*Anyone who has experienced gout will know I'm not exaggerating. That day has left me with a permanent limp and constant pain in my right foot that varies from feeling like I've just stubbed my toe to "Excuse me, sir, would you mind moving your aircraft carrier, you seem to have parked it on my foot."

REBBL: Painting The Trophies

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

For the last couple of years, I've been responsible for painting the trophies for the winners of the Reddit Eternal Blood Bowl League (REBBL). As I've just finished the latest one, I thought it would be the perfect time to have a look back at them. I just have to thank the great Darren Latham for getting me the gig. It's been fun having a go at some very different miniatures over the last few years.

The first one I did was back in 2017 and it was the plastic Troll from Games Workshop. this is a great miniature, posed in mid draw-back, as he prepares to hurl a goblin down the field. It's got loads of little details, like the bones hanging from its belt and the human player's helmet used as a kneepad, but is really difficult to photograph, due to the pose of the figure.

Next up was the Minotaur from Forge World. This is a huge miniature, and is another excellent sculpt. Posed like it's clawing at the ground, ready for charging forwards, it's enough to put the fear of Nuffle into any player foolish enough to get in his way! What makes this sculpt so good is the sheer bulk of it, it's a huge slab of muscle. And I like the fact that it has hooves. To me, minotaurs always look better with hooves.

For the next couple of trophies I was tasked with painting a couple of third-party miniatures, both from Greebo Games, an Italian miniatures company. First up was the Werewolf Star Player, Vinci's Wolf (which appears to be no longer available on their website). This was a metal miniature, so had a fair bit of flash that needed to be dealt with, but it was a nice, clean and well-defined sculpt, in a dynamic pose.

Next up was Greebo's Burning Treeman which came with a couple of little mini-me markers. This is a very unusual sculpt, because, as the name implies, the unfortunate wooden warrior is burning from the inside. This particular feature made it a lot of fun to paint. Again, this is a metal casting so there was a fair bit of mould line and flash to deal with, but nothing that affected the details on the miniature, and it went together really well. There is even the option of different flame effects for the back.

On the basis of these two miniatures, I have no hesitation in recommending Greebo Games. They've got a great range of miniatures with loads of character, at reasonable prices and I'm hoping to have a go at more of their miniatures in the future.

After the two Greebo miniatures, it was back to Forge World with Griff Obervald. There's not a huge amount I can say about this sculpt, really. Like a lot of the new Blood Bowl miniatures, it's a perfectly fine reworking of a classic character and, as it's FW resin, the casting is as crisp as you'd want, with a nice, dynamic pose. It comes with two different heads meaning you can show him with or without his helmet. Unfortunately the helmeted head was requested for this piece, meaning I didn't get to paint those famous handsome features...

Finally, we come up to date with the latest one. This is from Willy Miniatures, from Spain, (Tritex Games stock some of their line) and is called Ramtut, a star player from their Egyptian Undead team. Now, I did have a couple of problems with this miniature. Don't get me wrong, it's a great sculpt- good posing, nice details and it's a big, solid lump that will stand head and shoulders over most players. The problems were with the casting. There was a lot of mould lines to remove, and a couple of lumps of flash meant there was some detail lost. I had to do a little bit of green stuff gap-filling to get all the pieces to go together properly. These are sometimes the issues you get with metal miniatures, unfortunately and please don't let it put you off. there's some really cool miniatures in the range, with a real Middlehammer aesthetic to a lot of them, and I would  be more than happy to try more of their range. Please do check them out.

One more thing, seeing as we're on the subject of Blood Bowl, I thought I'd give a mention to this Vermin Team from Black Scorpion Miniatures I painted a while back. There was a fair amount of clean up to do with these guys (particularly with some blocking behind the hands on the crouching figures) but, being resin, this was easy to do. I recommend checking out the rest of the range, too, as they've made some really nice players. I particularly like the Halfling team. Nice hats.

Please keep an eye on my Facebook page, as I'll try to upload some full galleries of these miniatures soon. Okay, that's all from me today.
Thanks for reading!
-Stu

Warhammer Quest Pit Fighter Tutorial

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

My apologies for today's post being a little late. I had a few technical issues, but I promise it will be worth the wait!
Last week I reviewed the latest issue of Miniature Wargames and I may have mentioned that one of my miniatures was featured in there: a Warhammer Quest Pit Fighter. I thought that you, my faithful readers, may be interested in seeing how I did it.

After the model was cleaned of all mould lines (I use a 10a scalpel blade, dragging the flat of the blade across the mould line) and undercoated with a spray of Wraithbone, which provides a lovely smooth surface for the first stage of painting.

All the different areas of the model are underpainted with a slightly thinned coat of the appropriate Contrast paint. For years, I've been using an underpaint stage (usually with Athonian Camoshade) to give an indication of the areas of shade and highlight, then applying a basecoat of thinned coloured acrylic over the top of that. Using Citadel Contrast paints, slightly thinned with Contrast Medium, enables me to combine both stages, giving a strong underpaint, and giving me an idea of how the colours are going to look in the end, before putting too much work in, almost like a colour sketch. That effect isn't really important on a simple miniature such as this, with a simple, naturalistic colour scheme, but it's really useful on more elaborate miniatures.
On this miniature, the colours used were:
Flesh: Darkoath Flesh
Leather: Snakebite Leather
Metal: Basilicanum Grey
Wood: Cygor Brown
Brass: Gore-Grunta Fur

The next stage is to apply the highlights for each area separately.
For the skin, this was done using slightly thinned layers of the colour, allowing the pre-shading to show through and define the shapes. It's important to keep these layers slightly thinned, as this keeps the slight translucency and also makes it easier to blend each layer with the previous one. Unfortunately, I use the "brush-licker method", which I really shouldn't recommend, but it's the way I've always done it. Basically I apply a small area of paint, then moisten the brush slightly with my lip, then use it to blend out the edge of the paint to make a smooth transition. I used Cadian Fleshtone, followed by Kislev Flesh with a final highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh. Finally, the skin was finished off with a glaze of thinned Darkoath Flesh. This final glaze enriches the colours and gives them a bit more life, and helps to tie them all together, smoothing out the blends. To add to the finishing touch, a wash of slightly thinned Basilicanum Grey around the chin and head, to give the impression of stubble.


Next up were the leather and wood areas. I approached these differently, giving them a stark highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh to pick out the texture. This was then given a couple of washes of Seraphim Sepia to knock back the highlight before another highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh, just on the highest points. Then another Seraphim Sepia wash was applied, followed by an edging of Agrax Earthshade to give a final deep shade and to define the area.
The wood was also given two washes of Athonian Camoshade. This is my go-to colour for so many things. it goes well over brown, green, red...You'll see me use it a lot. Anyhow, it's really good for wood. After that, this area too was given an edge wash of Agrax Earthshade.


The brass was next. I started with Castellax Bronze and this was highlighted with Runelord Brass and then given a couple of washes of Athonian Camoshade.* This is a really good shade to use over brass or bronze as it dulls the shine and gives an almost imperceptible patina to the metal. A final dark shade of Agrax Earthshade, mixed with a touch of Abaddon Black, gives a deep shade and outlines the area, before small highlights of Runelord Brass and Stormhost Silver finish the brass areas off.


The metal areas were fairly straightforward. A basecoat of Leadbelcher, with a highlight of Ironbreaker. This was then given a wash of Agrax Earthshade then an edging of Agrax Earthshade/Abaddon Black.


The hair was left until last, as it's the topmost point on the figure and it was all too easy to rub the paint off. The black was highlighted by carefully drawing the flat of the brush along the length of the hair, allowing the raises texture to pick up the lighter colour. I used Eshin Grey, Grey Seer and Pallid Wych Flesh before giving the hair a wash of Nuln Oil to tie all the shades nicely together.


Finally, the base was done. Before anyone asks, I can't remember where the base is from. It's a resin one, green resin, but that's all I know. If anyone can enlighten me, please feel free. Anyway, the stone was painted in Stormvermin Fur, then highlighted with Grey Seer and then White Scar. This was done wet in wet, to give a more natural look to the colours. The mud was basecoated with Morghast Bone, then highlighted with Wraithbone. The whole base was then washed with Athonian Camoshade, then Agrax Earthshade and then Nuln Oil. Again , these were used wet in wet and laid on quite heavily to give a strong coverage. a cotton bud was used to pull off any excess on the stone areas Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the wash stage, but you should get the idea from the picture of the finished miniature.).

The edge of the base was painted Abaddon Black. To finish off, some splatters of Blood For The Blood God gave our grizzled Pit Fighter a bit of character, and we're done!

I'm quite pleased with the result. It came out pretty much as I'd hoped, which is always nice. I wanted to keep the paint scheme nice and simple with natural colours. Roughly 8 hours well spent, and on to the next job!


Thanks for reading!
-Stu


*told you

Painting Guide: Imperial Fists Space Marine

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

A few weeks ago I produced a quick painting guide to help out my friend Ollie, after he announced he was going to do a Cadian army for 40k. Since then, Die Rolling's DM and guiding light, Jack, has said he's going to do an Imperial Fists army so I thought I'd do a quick guide to help him on his way too.
So, this one's for you, Jack!

IMPERIAL FISTS PRIMARIS INTERCESSOR

With the Cadian guide, I stuck pretty close to the Citadel Paint App's recommended colours and method, using mostly Contrast paints. However, for the Imperial Fist I'm going to do something completely different from either the Classic or Contrast versions on the app, and use a simplified version of the way I used to paint yellow back in the day. The first time I painted an Imperial Fist using this method was for the 3rd Edition Space Marines Codex. I can't remember exactly how the method came about but it was as a way of getting a smooth, strong yellow that would photograph well. The method that was developed was to do a basecoat of Hobgoblin Orange, which as highlighted with multiple layers, adding white each time, to a layer of pure white, which was then glazed with yellow ink. It was a time-consuming process but it made for a better finish than using yellow paint. To save lots of time, I'll be using a much-simplified version, and just use yellow washes over an off-white basecoat.

IMPERIAL FISTS PRIMARIS

Paints used:
Wraithbone spray
Wraithbone
Casandora Yellow
Mephiston Red
Carroburg Crimson
Abaddon Black
The Fang
Eshin Grey
Guilliman Flesh
Reikland Flesh
Cygor Brown
Mournfang Brown
Agrax Earthshade
Leadbelcher
Stormhost Silver
Nuln Oil
Retributor Armour
Liberator Gold
Skeleton Horde
Warpstone Glow
White Scar
Biel-Tan Green
Warplock Bronze
Runelord Brass
Athonian Camoshade
Astrogranite

1. The single most important aspect of this method is that the undercoat must be really smooth and, luckily, Wraithbone spray goes on really, really smoothly and provides the perfect undercoat.  You'll notice I've kept the arms, head and backpack off for the sake of convenience, and this is something I always do with Space Marines.

2. So, the main focus and first stage is the armour and this is done with three layers of Casandora Yellow, directly over the undercoat. In the photos below, you can see how the colour is built up over the multiple layers, and how they strengthen and deepen the colours, while providing the variation of colour necessary to provide the shading and highlights required. These layers should be applied as full washes, and allowed to flow well all over the miniature, but care must be taken not to allow them to pool to heavily, and a dry brush can be used to pull any excess away. Each layer must be allowed to dry fully before applying the next and I recommend allowing them to dry naturally instead of using a hair-dryer, as this can cause tide-marks.


3. With the yellow finished, I recommend giving it a spray of varnish to protect the finish. The washes can rub off easily and the varnish will also protect the colour and make it easier to correct any errors that are caused by later colours.
Next up the red areas are painted. The helmet (as this is a sergeant) is painted Mephiston Red, as is the chest eagle and the purity seal on the leg. They are then given a wash of Carroburg Crimson. The eagle and seal are then given a further wash of a mix of Carroburg Crimson and Nuln Oil to darken them and the same mix is used just in the recesses of the helmet. The helmet is then lightened with a re-application of Mephiston Red.

4. At this point, I've stuck the limbs back on for the sake of this article, but normally I'd leave them off. All the areas that are going to be black or metal are undercoated with Abaddon Black. 

5. Unfortunately, this stage has not come over very well in the photographs, but there's two different shades of grey here. The undersuit, holsters and areas that are meant to be sort of soft rubber are highlighted with a mix of Abaddon Black and Eshin Grey, then with pure Eshin Grey. The areas of hard black, like the gun casing, are highlighted with a mix of Abaddon Black and The Fang, then with pure The Fang.

6. Next up is the skin and hair. Before painting these I re-undercoated them with the Wraithbone base paint, to give a decent flat base. The face was given a layer of Guilliman Flesh and then a wash of Reikland Fleshshade. A touch of Agrax Earthshade was applied around the eyes and under the chin to give a bit of extra definition. The hair was painted with Cygor Brown then, while this was still wet and slightly sticky, Mournfang Brown was stippled on to give a bit of texture to it. 

7. The metal areas are painted next. They are basecoated with Leadbelcher, leaving the Abaddon Black to show through in the recesses. This is then highlighted with Stormhost Silver before being given an all-over wash of Nuln Oil.

8. Next up are the small details. These aren't hugely essential for tabletop miniatures, but the do add a nice finishing touch. Gold areas are painted with Retributor Armour, then highlighted with Liberator Gold before being given a wash of Agrax Earthshade. The scroll on the purity seal is given a touch of Skeleton Horde. The bullet casings in the magazine are painted with Warplock Bronze then Runelord Brass, before being given a wash of Athonian Camoshade. The bionic eye and helmet lenses are painted with Warpstone Glow and a tiny spot of White Scar is applied in the top corner, before a wash of Biel-Tan Green is applied.

9. Finally, the base can be done to finish off the miniature. In this case, a coat of Astrogranite was applied and, when it's dried, a wash of Nuln Oil was applied before the edge of the base was painted with Abaddon Black.

And there you have it. All done! I hope you've found this little tutorial useful. If there's a tutorial you'd like to see me do, please drop me a line.
Next Sunday, all being well, I'll be doing a few reviews so I hope you'll join me then.

Thanks for reading!
-Stu