Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Wot's all dis, den?

We was lootin deez 'umies we krumped and found dis 'ere... erm... "blob?"  That wot ye call it?  Anyway, weez da new bosses around 'ere.  Dis 'ere blob NOW BELONGS TO DA ORKS!!


Well, it looks like that small group of orks was accompanied by some killa kans...  Let's just say it didn't go well for the Adeptus Astartes.  The Ultramarines dropped in a dreadnaught to help, but, well.  See for yourself:

Wow... Looks like I'll be chronicling the rise of this new hoard of orks.  I'll keep you posted.  More painting to come.  I promise.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

First contact

My small squad of marines had barely emerged from the drop pod when they spotted their first enemy: a mob of orks!


That's right, after painting my first marine I just had to go buy some Orks!


But I don't want to get ahead of myself...
Here he is, my first Marine:



I am extremely pleased with my first 40k mini ever!  Of course, I have yet to do the backpack, but that will come shortly.
My basic technique is one I picked up from the Games-Workshop painting articles: prime, basecoat with color A, ink wash, highlight with A, highlight with 1/1 A/white.

Here's a blow-by-blow:

I brushed on black primer let it dry for 24+ hours and then painted the majority of it Moradin Blue.  I tried to not get blue on the details that would be highlighted with gold (trim, chest eagle, shin skull).  After that dried I washed it with black ink.  I have to admit I was not exactly pleased with the initial outcome (maybe I didn't do it right?), but after I painted the rest I was happy with the effect the wash had given the crevices.  After leaving him for a few days I went back and painted the trim with Shining Gold.  At that point I regretted having gotten even just a little blue on the parts to be painted gold, but with a few coats it came out okay.  ALSO, I did the white on his shoulder pads; white is hard to work with!  It takes a lot of coats and can sort of look clumpy.  I went over the icons a few times before moving on to the main blue highlight.  I repainted every flat surface of the model, being careful not to cover up the darker wash in the crevices.  I touched up where I had strayed with the gold and white too.  I pushed some Chainmail paint into his mouth piece thing and painted the eyes red.  Then I took the plunge, mixed 1/1 blue/white and started highlighting!  It wasn't as hard as I thought, I just kept in mind 3 things:
  1. I copied effects I like from the "official" GW paint jobs
  2. I picked a "direction" for the light I was imitating and stuck with it (coming down from above his right shoulder)
  3. Keep a steady hand
I am very pleased with how the highlighting came out and I think that really made this mini look as good as it does!

A few comments:
  • First of all, this is a lot of fun (even though it did take longer than I thought)!
  • The black inkwash over Chainmail looks great
  • Somehow my brand new brushes ended up frayed and don't hold a tip anymore...  that's a bummer, but I didn't see any other way to get paint into the little places... hmm...
Well, that's it from me for now!  I've got an Ork work in progress that you can see on my Flickr.  I'll post more after this weekend when I get some more Orks done (and hopefully Marine or two)

Here's a teaser:

    Thursday, February 24, 2011

    UPDATE: Drop Pod inbound!

    I just ordered the Warhammer 40k Paint Set, two extra more bottles of paint (goblin green and hormagaunt purple) and some plastic glue.  It'll be here in a week!  Can't wait to get started! :D

    In the meantime I've been looking around online and I have the say that Orks iz aw'sum!  I really want to try my hand at them...  hmmm...

    Here are a couple great examples of Orky goodness:
    The Warforge
    Scarpia

    Tuesday, February 15, 2011

    T minus- um...

    Although I'm not sure exactly when I'll get started, I'm really excited about painting 40k miniatures.  I want to record my progress, ups, downs, victories and horrible horrible messes so that aspiring forty-k-ers (or whatever they call themselves) will have either an example of how to begin a multi-million dollar miniature painting business from scratch or a dire warning to spend their money on something less time-consuming (or something in between).

    NOTE:  I have read up on a few different forums as well as the Games Workshop site, and I know a few basics.  The title of this blog is the first question I ever dove into the forums to have answered, and I liked what I found.  I am really excited about painting and "converting" the miniatures to make them personal and cool.

    OK, so.  For starters, here's my plan:
    • Start with some Space Marines (because I like the way they look, they are customizable, and are hopefully easy to paint).  I want to get a good little force for as little money as possible.  And at least one Dreadnought.
    • I've considered getting Black Reach for myself and trying to paint both the Orks and the SM just to see which I like better... hmmm...
    • Get some paint (and brushes and ink washes, of course).  Just the basics for the color schemes I have in mind.
    • Hopefully get into the Tau.  I really like how they look, but not being very customizable is sort of a turn off...  We'll see.
    As soon as I finally buy something I'll post some pictures!