For The Khan! - January

Okay Ladies and Gents,

here it is, the fruits of my labour for January, may I present to you the first Tactical Squad, their Razorback Transport and an Attack Bike from the White Scars chapter. As I have previously mentioned, painting white for this army has been a steep learning curve and next months painting shall be undertaken with the lessons I have learnt in mind, I plan on trying to paint the models as much on the sprue as possible, this leads to it's own issues but, we shall see how this turns out and then take it from there... anyway, less rambling more photos right?

The Attack Bike, armed with a multi-melta, there will be several of these in the final army, and end result on the next one will be an improvement, that is after all what we're after...

The first Razorback, again there will be multiple examples of these in the army, the next one I may even be as bold as to try some tribal markings on it, we shall see

the complete tactical squad, they may at some point get filled in to a ten man squad, still contemplating this...

Obligatory Group Shot... It was also decided that an initial 1500 point army list should be submitted with this entry so as follows is the roster for the Dothraki Brotherhood:

Captain Drogo Khan
     - Bike, Auspex, Melta Bombs, Teeth of Terra

155 pts

Sternguard Veterans (10)

    - 5 Combi-Meltas, 2 Heavy Flamers

    - Drop Pod

335 pts

Tactical Squad (5)
    - Veteran Sergeant with Power Sword, Flamer
    -  Razorback

155 pts

Tactical Squad (5)
    - Veteran Sergeant with Power Sword, Flamer
    -  Razorback

155 pts

Bike Squad (5)
     - Veteran Sergeant with Thunder Hammer, 2 Grav Guns

175 pts

Bike Squad (5)
     - Veteran Sergeant with Power Fist, 2 Melta Guns

160 pts

Attack Bike Squad (2)
     - 2 Multi-Meltas

110 pts

Attack Bike Squad (2)
     - 2 Multi-Meltas

110 pts

Storm Talon Gunship

     - Typhoon Missile Launcher

145 pts

We're implemented a scoring system for our tale of four gamers, just for a little bit of friendly rivalry, this revolves around making sure you paint the quota each month, and in time, there are also bonus challenges, the first of which was to submit a 1500 point army list... so this month i've racked up 3 points, completing all three tasks... just have to wait for the others now...

so what's next? well I wont be able to resist tinkering with what I've painted, but the aside, next months painting quota is...

A space marine Bike Squad with a veteran sergeant with a Power Fist and 2 Melta Guns as well as a second Attack Bike, this comes in at 236 points, and if I get time, I might have a look at building and painting Drogo Khan to lead this host...

anyway until next time...

3... 2... 1... FIGHT!

Evening All, first off the White Scars are coming along nicely but wont be featured in today's blog, it's always good to vary things up a little right? and We all know my feelings about the VIII so, today's post, that's right you guessed it features:

We Have Come For You All!

First off however, a little background, my local Games Workshop, like many host a painting competition each month, it's run by the manager Craig, whose always good to have a chat with and throw some hobby ideas at. Each month has a different category, January is either a Vehicle or Monstrous creature, but i'm realistically I wont get round to entering that one now (was lazy, with this months idea) February however is duel, and what better seen is there to try and re-create than the showdown in Void Stalker where Xarl goes head to head with Tolemion a Company Champion from the Genesis chapter, still very much in a WIP stage but here is where I am at:

As always, work continues on both this and the scars...

Stay Tuned!

A Tutorial... Red Desert Bases on the Cheap...

Okay so, something new and a bit different today, a tutorial on home made bases, these are cheap, quick and easy. I think they look pretty good when done, so I thought I would share my technique with you all

what you need:

Bases (that's a given)
Slate
Sand
Polyfilla


The polyfilla is the trick to this technique, you don't really need to worry about the quality of the stuff, generally, we're not looking for a nice smooth finish, and that can be achieved with a bit of water... I got a tube from Homebase, of their own brand, for under three quid...

so first things first, spread a layer of polyfilla onto the top of the base. Now, depending on what look you are going for, you can either smooth this down, or leave it un-natural and uneven. after a short period (5 to 10 minutes, you can then take a piece of wire, or a sculpting tool and draw some cracks into the polyfilla

This is what you should be looking for, try to make the lines look as natural as possible, don't have them all going in one direction, have them change angels and converge with one another, have them fade out in the middle of the base...

This 60mm base shows a combination of polyfilla, slate and sand, I glued the slate in place, then added the Polyfilla, then the sand, this gives a little variation, almost like the cracked uneven ground, blends into the normal desert once more...

As we're doing our armies on a Martian setting (or similar, I'm sure Mars isn't the only red planet in the universe) the next step was to paint the bases with Khorne red, I didn't actually bother to undercoat these first, the only step I would advise is to use a second layer of PVA glue on top of the sand to seal it place...

the next step was to drybrush the bases using Wazzadakka Red, a medium drybrush should suffice so that the bases pick up a decent amount of the second colour without becoming too heavy handed with it... 

once this has dried using a liberal amount of red wash (I used Baal Wash because I had a pot left over) coat the entire base, the wash shall flow into the cracks, shading them and the unnatural leveling of the base, giving a nice varied appearance for very little effort, as the photos show below

The natural grooves in the Slate will lend themselves to the drybrush, and will be brought out further by the wash, there is no real work involved making these look decent... The last step is to give a final light drybrush of Wazzadakka Red over the top of the base just to give a further easy highlight

The possibilities with this type of basing are not just limited to the red planet, this would work for any desert based army, or using the polyfilla (without the cracks) to build up a mud base, add some thin balsa wood and some barbed wire and you would have a decent, simple trench base... that give me an idea... brb...

Sons of Chigoris

Hello all,

so it's the fifteenth today, halfway through the month (thereabouts) so I thought I would post an update showing y'all how i'm getting on, work continues, frantically trying to get that bloody white right...

first up, some obligatory Group Shots, I really should put that marines head back on at some point...

Here are some close ups of the Free Hand I have been working on, I always feel with these kinds of things that less is more, and the only one I'm really not sure about is the Beakie Marine's helmet, I kinda feel that may be too much. Some of it is a bit wonky but that'll come with practice and patience (something you clearly need spades off with White Scars...

One of the things I've already grown to love about painting these however is the stark contrast of the colours, the combination of red, white and black really does stand out...

As you can see work has continued at a furious rate on the Attack Bike, still far from finished, needs much time spent on that tidy up process... 

Lastly the Razorback, who is still coming on, but all in good time right?

Month 1 WIP...

So here is the first 'proper' update of the new White Scars army that I am building and safe to say, it is not a smooth road to success just yet. Having never painted such a bright army before, this has been a steep learning curve, and no doubt it shall continue to be so for a while.

So here is the tactical squad with the first stages of paint on them, what have I learnt so far?

1. painting white is hard, you need patience
2. water those paints down, white needs lots of water to stop it from being blotchy or streaky
3. a nice decent priming is essential

next batch of models I'm going to try painting on the sprue, to see if I notice any significant difference, eventually it will most likely be a mixture of both, but time will tell, anyway some more photos yes?

my first attempts at some free hand, again this is a little tricky but in time, I pray i'll get better at those straight lines (I also did one on the attack bike, but it looks terrible)

a very WIP shot of the Attack bike, this was done this evening before the photos were taken and has had no touching up as of yet...

the Razorback, I'm not convinced about the red, part of me feels its too much, part of me feels its too basic, time will tell (six months down the line, I know I'll still be tinkering with this)

obligatory group shot, lets hope I improve on this by the end of the month haha

lastly, a couple of links, to the other armies that are being built for this, we've still got to get Dan to sort out his Blog so that you can see his renegade guard, but all in good time I guess:

Adam's Eldar: http://1partof4.blogspot.co.uk/

Ian's Orks: http://amaelofthepainter.blogspot.co.uk/

anyway, laters ;)

And so it begins...

spent the best part of the afternoon gluing my fingers to the table, the lamp, the chair, the models and together... but alas, the assembly line is now closed for today and these are the fruits of the labour

The Dothraki Brotherhood begins!

Just the one photo for the moment, will post a proper update when these Mongolian Mother fu... have some paint on them

A New Year... A New Project...

...cause you know I've finished ALL my other ones...

So it’s been a long time since I updated this blog, a combination of gigs, work and a simple lack of motivation got in the way of doing any work on the Orks, or the Night Lords, or seemingly one hundred other projects that are always on the go. So with that in mind, what better time to get together with some friends and decide that we are going to start a completely new project?

Towards the end of November I got in contact with a couple of mates and broached the subject of doing a Tale of Four Painters/Gamers project. We spoke at some length and laid out some aims for this project as well as those pesky obligatory ground rules. Firstly we wanted to make sure that all the armies fitted to a theme, and as such we decided that they would have to be based on a red desert, in the style of the board that was made earlier in the year.

Secondly we decided that the army we chose would have to be an army which you don’t currently collect, with our group and in particular some of the participants there are barely any armies that we haven’t collected at some point, so it was important not to make this too restrictive. However this decision put both Orks and Chaos off the table for me, which was a shame as I was really tempted to start an Iron Warriors force using Imperial Guard to field a Dark Mechanicus Ally, alas it wasn’t to be and that project will have to be for another time

It was then put forward that the army you choose should challenge your skills and both a painter, and a gamer. As soon as this was agreed upon, there was one army that just kept on nagging at me to be attempted. This particular force, I have had affection for, for years, I love their background, the theme and the way they would play on the table top. The idea of an incredibly fast, hard hitting army appeals to me greatly, however, there is one problem, painting white...

The reason I have never collected a brotherhood of White Scars before is the fact that painting white scares the hell out of me. We all know this isn’t a cheap hobby and I was not convinced that I would be able to do the army justice, but sod it right? It’s time to bite the bullet and put those fears behind me, for the time of the khan is upon us. 

So each month we have to paint up a minimum of 200 points for our new army... so this month I pledge:

A 6 man tactical squad w/ Vet Sarg armed with a Power Sword, Flamer and Razorback

Attack Bike with Multimelta

This gives me 224 pts...

stay tuned ;)