When the Paint Flows Freely...

 

Over the years I have spoken about unfinishable figures. The miniature Moriarty! Those models that no matter how hard you try, you just cannot get them finished. You persevere of course, even struggle to block in those base-colours and apply layers of highlights but it is all to no avail. Frustrated by your efforts, the model is abandoned and cast aside.

Well this post is not about one of those figures but its exact opposite. The perfect paintjob without a suitable buzzword to describe it. One of those figures that just paints itself. The paint flows freely and completing the model is just a joy. Every brushstroke lands perfectly and your colour mixes slide like silk across the surface of age old white metal.

This wonderful 1987 Daemonette of Slaanesh is just such a figure. Completed in just under two hours of glorious work and based this afternoon. My first figure back after my Summer of Citadel. A summer derailed by dental woes, asbestos discoveries and the inevitable return to school. I've forked out over a thousand pounds getting my wisdom teeth sorted (it turned out a great deal of bone was detached during the extraction and I've been left with a void in my maxilla) and determining the amount of asbestos my artex ceilings contain. 

Just imagine if that money had been invested in classic Citadel miniatures from the mid to late '80s?? 

I could have bought at least five models on eBay!!

Long term readers will know I was long a fan of Slaves to Darkness and the miniature ranges released alongside it. Despite this love I've never actually painted many of the daemon figures with much of my collecting and output invested into the mortal forces of Chaos. I had at one stage two sizable armies (one for Slaanesh and the other for Khorne) and a well painted Nurgle Warband to boot. As a youth, I loved the plaguebearer and nurgling figures and endlessly painted those in the tail end of the 1980s. I found this single lady amongst my big bag of warriors recently returned to me and decided a few days back to throw caution to the wind and just paint her. 

Obviously, pink was the base colour. I think it is Bronzed Flesh with a wash over the top of 50:50 Bronze Flesh and Red Ink. Her skin was highlighted by adding increasing amounts of flesh to that initial base. I gave her Bilious Green eyes, highlighted with Sunburst Yellow, over a Woodland Green base and Green Ink shade. Her thong (how often are those words typed on a Grognard's blog I wonder?) was Terracotta shaded with Brown Ink and the Gold was highlighted with Mythril Silver after a Chestnut Wash. 

No wanting the traditional 'pink and black' look (these models can tend to look like a liquorice allsort if you aren't careful) I gave her orange claws, inspired by the super imaginative and varied schemes I'd spied at Foundry last month. Now she's finished and looks suitably decadent I'm very pleased. Yes I know I used my crap camera again, MFM is away with her mother visiting family today and I wanted to get blogging again after so long away suffering. I'm not sure what hurt the most... the teeth or the wallet!

As I stated a few posts back, I was rather pedestrian with my miniature choices over the summer. But it was a journey that I feel I had to go on. I was finding it hard to paint to the standard I reached during the high tide of this blog, say ten years ago. Sight has been a clear factor (and I've now been to SpecSavers and am wearing my new glasses as I type - more money!!) but so was technique.

I had simply forgotten how to do it.

With this figure, I feel that I have finally reached my old style after all those years away. But do you, dear readers agree with me? 

Here's hoping that the paint is flowing freely for you all wherever you are in the world. 

Orlygg

A Summer of Citadel: F2 Fighter and Dwarf Engineer

Here are the final models from last week. It was too hot to do much today so I did a little prepping and basing inside. Time is running out for my Summer of Citadel and I must say I've enjoyed the process of learning to paint reasonably well again. MFM took me to the opticians after putting up with my moaning ( I really should listen to her more often!) for so long. Turns out that I do need my vision corrected. Should have gone to SpecSavers, Orlygg! My new glasses arrive later on this week so I'll be trying then out over the last few days of the holidays. 

This first model is from the F2 Fighters range and was titled Imperial Guard on release. I found him tricky to paint at first, though that was largely down to the colour scheme. He was originally all blue but the finished model didn't look sound on the battlefield. Something was missing... so I repainted the crest and matched the colour with the skirt leaving the blue on his helmet decoration. I kept the shield simple with a basic heraldry and a small tower motif. 

I've started toying with using black for weapons. With some much metal on the model already I decided to just paint the warhammer Chaos Black and highlight as normal with Mithril. With so much shadow created by the crest its hard to see in the photo above. Hope you dear readers think it works. 

There is our first figure for today. A rather dull name today but quite serviceable. I've just noticed that Basil the Good is a variant of yesterday's paladin. I've also got Dieter Muller in my Fighters Bag so expect to see him on this blog shortly, I fancy another go at a crest.

Hammer 2 isn't the most dynamic of names but here he is just the same. This figure confused me for a while as his tab said Town Crier. Obviously, the villager model was used to create this engineer variant and the tab went unchanged. He was a characterful and fun model to paint. For reasons best known to the dwarf community this chap is wandering around with his bulging belly sticking out. He was quick and easy to paint, though I struggled to interpret just what is dangling from his staff. Despite my best efforts, the only other model I could find of this chap was an eBay sale. Nothing painted I could steal ideas from. 

So I went for it being a carrot.

Quite why an engineer would need one. As I was working on him a backstory formed to explain my choice. He is obviously the engineer whose job it is to move the donkeys. Hence the old carrot and stick thing. 

Anyway, what do you think? 

Is it a carrot?

Orlygg

PS: Mike asked a while back how the Skeleton Legion models rank up alongside other C series skellies. Here's the answer. 

A Summer of Citadel: Gunner 2, F2 Paladin and Armoured Skeleton

Three figures today. Part of the models I have been working on this week. It is harder to post updates as we are stripping wallpaper and the computer has been sidelined in favour of scrappers and steamers. 

I took all the photographs for this post in my Workshop without using any natural light (or MFM's decent camera) so apologies if things look a little processed. In a way, I'm quietly enamored with these shots as they look like some of the images for mid-80s publications (also probably taken inside a dingy room). Later on, I'll do a retrospective of all the figures I painted during the summer and use the fancy iPhone camera for more detail. 

My first figure is from the same range as the Labourer model from July. This chap is called Gunner 2 and was amongst the fighters I got back from my collection recently. This fig really had seen better days. It was kicked about, dented and his face had been smashed well in. I can see now why connoisseurs like Stuart spend hours checking the castings and checking the detail around the face. He was a bit tricky to produce a decent mug on but I feel I did okay, not that you can tell of my struggles in this first photograph. 

His plate armour and bascinet are an improvement on my earlier work and I have started using a Chaos Black and Mithril Silver 50:50 base tone to all armour when working up from the undercoat. Edge highlights in Mithril predominate and I think things are improving with more depth and clunk to my armour now. I mimicked a similar colour scheme from the hose as the Labourer figure in true KCD style. If you recall, I bought the Foundry versions of some of these figures a few months back (and a couple of cannons) so will be continuing with the colour scheme in future. 

One final note, and one that is hard to reference here. But I've started to use Terracotta as a base shade for leather. I mix in Brown Ink to shade and add Hobgoblin Orange to highlight, finishing up with a little Bleached Bone super highlight. It certainly gives a more vibrant result than the drudgey browns I was mixing before.

This second figure is a dynamic looking chap and comes from the mid '80s Paladin range. He has an amusing name too; Sir Presson De La Masse no other. I wonder if people actually used these names when gaming back in the day? I alas come from a few years in the future where figures were given names like 'Sword 2' and certainly never thought of doing so. I gave many of my own figures names once games began.

I still do. 

This little range is unfamiliar to me largely because these figures seldom turn up painted. I'm sure many of them are stored in leadpiles around the globe but I'm note even sure what all of them actually look like. Unfamiliar figures make excellent painting material though and I had lots of fun with this one. The face turned out very well, though it is hard to judge on this photograph, and I am pleased with the highlighting and colour mix I've been working on. Hawk Turquoise was used to painted up his surcoat and I loved using the colour some much I used it again on later figures. 

Here though, it is the armour I am most pleased with. Black basecoat, 50/50 Chaos Black and Mithril basecoat, adding further amounts of Silver to highlight. Pure Mithril Silver on the very edges. I have already prepped a few other heavy armour types to keep working on this skill, so expect to see some more clanking characters soon. 

This figure was a donation (SleepySod I think?) and I had trouble finding it in the catalogues so any illuminations about what range this figure is part of would be very welcome. A very straight forward paint up... I used my well honed bone recipe as normal. However, the armour was given a rather nifty (if I do say so myself) method to create a proper graveyard level of rust. I started with a black base. Drybrushed over with Mithril Silver. Then, once that was all dry I used a black, then a brown ink wash, waiting for each shade to dry properly before adding the next. Finally, I dabbed orange ink on rather liberally around the figure too for the most oxidised areas of rust. 

In truth, these layers given a deep hue but can leave the figure looking rather shiny. I washed over with a Chaos Black glaze to matte things down a little. Again, once this was dry, I used straight Mithril Silver to highlight the armour and do edge work. Hawk Turquoise helped give the haft of the sword some definition and as I love the colour so much at the moment, I used it as part of the shield. 

I fancied doing something away from my usual 'Citadelesque' style and went for something more modern. I doubt this style shield will fit all that well with my other undead models, but who cares right? I do like the half-skull motif though and plan to use it again. 

More tomorrow.

Orlygg

 

A Summer of Citadel: Restoring a Nightmare Legionnaire and Arcane Armorial Shield

I had my daughter staying with us this weekend and among other things made the journey up to the National History Museum. The heat has returned and I was sweltering in my new hobby room within minutes of entry. Despite these factors, I managed to restore this old boney. The Leadhead Who Cannot Be Named sent me a fistful of minis a while back that were in an appalling state of affairs. Lead rot, dried enamels, dust and grease. Most of them are soaking in a bucket out of the way at the moment as the smell of them is beyond the pale. Dettol will be incoming for the lot later in the year.

My original painted Nightmare Legion in the early days of Oldhammer. 

I pulled this figure out of the top of the mess as it still had it's base on and wasn't as filthy as others. Long term readers of this blog may well remember I painted up the entire Nightmare Legion set years back. I used a black and white scheme, so these figures are well known to me. I didn't want to go the same route again and had a couple of old shields with some transfers on kicking about, again donated by you wonderful readers.

I'm quite pleased with the restoration. It was quick and easy. These figures are quite primitive even by '80s standard and the casting was rather battered. I used my normal bone mix. Normal chainmail mix too, with a little blue/black ink for shading and age. The shield was more interesting to work on as it was partially damaged. Only around the edges mind you. If you squint carefully you can see I just blocked out the damage in black and painted on the suggestion of bare wood. 

Not bad at all for a speedpaint. Though posting this figure up tonight made me realise that I have been rather conservative with my painting choices. Nothing fantastical really. Luckily I have a few more interesting pieces to hand that I have on the painting table once the cooler weather arrives next week. I also have based and prepped a couple of nice old fighters too. 

Last post a couple of you mentioned storage in my embryonic workshop. I have rescued these two wooden shelving units for just that purpose. The top one was used by the previous owner of the house to store nails, screws and bolts of different sizes in jam jars. This will need as thorough scrub down and clean before it sees use. Below you can see the second unit which is in a much better state of affairs. To the right, you can see the old 1970s classroom storage cabinets which will be used to pack away the bulk of my re-established collection. 

See you all soon,

Orlygg

 

A Summer of Citadel: Lune and a retro den...

Plenty of house sorting work has kept us busy over the last few days. Mostly stripping seven layers of painted wallpaper from the walls of one of the bedrooms. We borrowed a steamer from a neighbour which sped things up but there is still a great deal of work to go. On top of this, I have been given particularly strong antibiotics for the dry-socket which have left me feeling rather unpleasant - though it is preferable to the nuclear throbbing in my head.

Today, I finished off my final familiar. This one is called Lune and his is perhaps the most famous of the tiny range. You may well be aware of the famous painting by John Blanche called Mona and the Moonman which is still part of the Ansell family collection as far as I know. The character in the painting looks far more sympathetic that the sculpted miniature, though they share many similarities. 

Have a look... 

My colour scheme followed as closely as I could with a luminous yellow head, red scarfy thing and trousers, green doublet and black shiny boots. His face is far more mean and evil than the figure in the painting and his 'tin opener' has been considerably enlarged. 

I am far more satisfied by my highlighting this time too. Though I used my not very good Samsung camera to capture this figure, rather than the posh natural light filter on MFM's smartphone. So I guess you might not be able to notice. 

In other news... Now that the rewiring is complete and new doors have been fitted on the outbuildings I have a new retro den all at my disposal. See this door? It leads into what has been over the last thirty years or so a carpentry workshop. It is pretty grimy and dusty and was full of junk. I spent today clearing out rickety workbenches and associated grot. A private firm will dispose of a chunk of this debris and the council are coming for the larger parts. Once this is complete, I shall thoroughly sweep out and clean this space and begin to use it to rebuild my Citadel collection. 

I'll have room for everything I could wish. I used it today and the sense of space was inspiring, even at this embryonic stage. I plan a photography area, painting station, scenery store, Dettol clean up space and so on. I've even retained a large piece of wood to build a decent sized skirmish table. And who would have thought it all possible this time last year!? Before you panic, no lead will be stored here and everything else is sealed inside plastic boxes. So any possible damp (not that I've seen any sign of that over the last 18 months) will not be a threat. 

I'm hoping to sneak out here tomorrow at some point to get another figure finished. MFM will be very happy to know that all the 'toot' will be safely out of the way now and not cluttering up the house. 

Until then, 

Orlygg

A Summer of Citadel: C26 Feudal Man-At-Arms Sterben/Casualty

Just a quick paint today. We had a tradesman round to replace the battered garage door and make a couple of our outbuildings more secure. and working with him took most of the morning. The afternoon was spent at the dentist getting my dry socket cleaned out and repacked. New antibiotics too.

Still, it was fun to work on this injured, or even dead, chap. As with the Feudal Dwarf, I got to play around with painting chainmail. I used a black basecoat as before and drybrushed over in layers of brighter silver. Proper medieval fans can no doubt name all of the different parts of the armour and having played a little Kingdom Come Deliverance I may be able to do the same. The gambeson was Bleached Bone with a little Snakebite Leather mixed in, highlighted up by adding white. His surcoat I kept a simple green as I'm still not ready for complex pattern work.

I am pleased with the gold colours on the hilt of the blade and his great helm. Brown and orange inks help a far bit when shading gold and I'm still experimenting with this. Thanks to WD of the early 2000s, I know to give any gold a tiny silver highlight here and there. 

Mixing PVA glue, scarlet ink and Red Gore together, I created a glossy blood tone and dabbed it painfully around poor Sterben's wounds. He is now ready for a battlefield which needs a few extra touches.  

Most of the C26 range is available from the Wargames Foundry in various packs, though not all of the figures have made the light of day yet. It seems that this chap has long been one of the them. You can pick him up alongside another very early Citadel model from their website now. 

A Summer of Citadel: Bloodbowl Halfling

I started today's figure a while back when my teeth were really bugging me and finished him this afternoon. He is, of course, one of the classic old Citadel Bloodbowl halflings - just like in my title. I've always loved the character and style of 2nd edition Bloodbowl and that is largely due to my boyhood memories of friends who also loved the system. One of my mates, a clever but troublesome boy who we all called Moley (because his dad said he looked like one) loved this system. I have a few happy memories of visiting his home (which always smelt of washing powder, funny how recollections can be so acute) and watching him painting and collecting these models in the late '80s. 

We also played a fair few games of Bloodbowl but he was a little bit of a cheat and twisted the rules to suit his side. I was aware that this was common, even then, but let him have his way just so I could admired that old astrogranite board and his numerable figures. I can recall the Deathroller, Dungeonbowl, a dark elf team and lots and lots of dwarfs. 

He didn't have any halflings though. 

The other friend I had was a chap called Robin who had a fair bit of cash if I remember correctly and we bought a copy of Bloodbowl together and I painted the set up. I also bought loads of the old metal figures but our interests waned and I sold the lot. Not the first time I made that mistake. 

He didn't have any halflings either...

As I said earlier, the situation with my former life has changed somewhat recently and I am more hopeful of retrieving my old collection. This isn't the place to talk about the why and the wherefores but I'm positive about finding much of it. Two bulging bags were recently returned to me and they were stuffed full of old Citadel fighters, Wizards and a bag of Bloodbowl bits. Nothing as nice as this figure but a few other choice candidates for this project. 

The colour scheme came from my memory of these models in White Dwarf. I was really pleased to see those original figures in Bryan's old collection at the Foundry on Friday. Here look, I snapped a image on my naff phone camera.

My scheme is close enough but my face is poorly executed. Something else to work on in the not to distant future there. Though in all fairness, this model was not in the best condition and had had a rough old time of things. Obviously he'd been thrown too many times by the trolls and minotaurs who are said to enjoy such antics. 

But I am pleased with him. Additionally, I love the simple execution of the lettering. A white base with a thinner black coat on top. I have a couple more of these figures still to finish so I might see if I can copy that style to practise the old freehand. 

After yesterday's Daemonette, I feel I'm getting better with the fleshtones. I'll try and find a few figures with interesting faces to work on shortly. Perhaps even that ogre I started a while back. 

Until tomorrow,

Orlygg