Celestial Lions Boxnaught (Part 5)

 Alright, this guy is now done! He is glued together and his iconography is completed. The only thing I haven't done is a sealer to protect the model from chipping, but the weather is too icky right now to attempt it. 

Done and ready to kill.

He might seem a tad bit plain, but I didn't want to go crazy with decals and icons, so I went with a "less is more" mindset, and just stuck a skull in a triangle on his leg. I suppose it's a campaign badge? 

Check out that sexy badge. 

I was unable to locate the Lion decals I bought ages ago, so I just went with a  crude hand drawn badge. This matches the rest of my Celestial Lions force who have similar iconography. My head-canon for this is that these are hand painted by the individual Trooper, and artists they are not. 

Honor thy chapter.

And that's it, another Dreadtober is wrapped up and done.  I am already thinking about next year,  and I have a lot of options to mull over. But as a final parting shot, here is Shiney compared to my pledge from last year, who is double the size of this relic from the '90s. 

"Stand back squirt, I've got this!"

Celestial Lions Boxnaught (Part 4)

 

Mostly done.

And now we enter the final stretch. I have made considerable progress since Part 3 was posted, to the point that all I have left to do is the iconography. I didn't take WIP shots as most of the progress was pretty much clean-up and detailing. I did add blue to the sarcophagus help punch out the details better (thanks to comments on Part 3 for the suggestions). 

Human Flesh Wash on metal. Feels wrong huh?

The most important thing I should note is the use of Flesh Wash (the old '90s version) which used as a way to apply so low-lights to gold armor. This turned out  enter than I had hoped and really made me a lot happier with how this has turned out. Although the gleaming nature of all this metallic paint has .ade capturing that effect in a photo a bit challenging. 

Some of the details of this thing are practically subtle compared to the modern Dreadnoughts and vehicles, so I had to reference a photo from way back in the day when this miniature was first released to get a sense of what the heck I was looking at. The colored lights on the lower part of the sarcophagus was the most obvious thing I adapted. As far as all the details on the tubes and wire, I just don't hate myself enough to copy that! 

Our spiritual successor.

And of course, no banner on mine! 

Blackorctober (Part 3)

 Moving on from where I left things in Part 2, you can see that I have finally achieved total surface coverage with my painting on these guys. All the armor, weapons and flesh was covered, tether liberally, with Black Templar Contrast paint. 

Red ones go faster yes?

I had to go back and paint Corax White on the red areas that accidentally got black paint on them   before repainting Baal Red back onto the armor. I was really sloppy with the Black Templar paint so this was a bit of a process, but the models already look better for it.  A few of these models have skulls, and Skeleton Horde was painted on them. The model with the most skulls is the standard bearer who has a whole collection of them dangling from his banner. Speaking of which, the banner has a classic evil sun totem which I used Blood Angel Red Contrast Paint on. 

Banner guy.

From here on out, I decided to focus on the leader of the pack, who is an older miniature from the '90s and was sculpted by a different sculpter than the other guys. I think these differences help him stand out from the others and I think I like that a lot. If you got this model when it first came all, he was leading a rabble of black orcs who were all in the same pose, making it a little more challenging to pick him out of the mob. 

Black Templar coat.

On top of the Black Templar Contrast Paint I added a layer of Caliban Green. 

Caliban Green layer.

Next I added Snot Green. The last time I painted a black orc I used Bilious Green at this step but I found it to be too intense, and I really had to work at bringing it back down to a darker tone. Snot Green, although intense, is a darker color so I hope this will be easier to work with. 

Snot Green.

You got to admit, he just screams "90s red era at this point doesn't he? I really like the way the red just pops visually, so I reinforced that with an edge highlight of Evil Suns Scarlet. 

Nuln oil wash.

A wash of Nuln Oil took the edge off of the flesh, and I think I am good with this at this point. I was impressed with the way the Black Templar low/highlighted the axes, so in an effort to preserve that effect I used my trusty old Aleenes Gleams Pewter to basically trace over the natural highlights caused by the Black Templar paint. I think this met my expectation rather nicely. The metal of the chain mail was painted also using Pewter but with a coat of Nuln Oil Gloss applied over that. 

And we are at the finale now:  the most important part here, subtle though it is, was adding Agrax Earthshade to the recesses of the red armor. This gave it a bit of depth and grit that the armor seems to be lacking otherwise. 

Finished.

I used some thinned Hobgrot Flesh on his knuckles and prominent facial features  for a final highlight of the flesh. I think I like how that turned out. Next I added a few vertical lines of Hobgrot Flesh to his big bottom lip. Then I applied two coats of Carroburg Crimson on that lip. And I think that's turned out alright. 

3/4 shot.

I edge highlighted the two axes with Stormhost Silver. This really gave these weapons a gleaming vibe I like. Normally I try to make my orc (and ork) weapons a bit more browned, rusty and used looking, but these guys are coming straight oughta Zufbar and I imagine that their diminutive hosts hook them with some finer kit than their Badlands brethren. Never-the-less I wanted to rough up their armor a bit, so Stormhost Silver was used (randomly) on the armor edges 

Backside details.

And that's prety much it really. Next week I  will be applying these same techniques to the remaining Black Orc mob. 

Celestial Lions Boxnaught (Part 3)

 This week I have made a bit more progress from were we left things last week. 

I used Leadbelcher over all the components that are painted black. Then I used classic Shining Gold as an edge highlight. 

After that, I paint the left should blue. This is where the chapter icons will go.  I used Stormhost Silver to highlight all the rivets and bolts. I so used is as a subtle edge highlight. 

I used Stormhost Silver to highlight the skulls and a acquilla icons that are scattered across the model. 

I am not too sure I like that result, so I might try some ideas to see if I can't visually punch some of those icons out. 

Blackorctober (Part 2)

 Continuing on from Part One, I was finally able to get some paint onto these guys. 

By "some" I mean just Baal Red Contrast Paint all over their armor. And brown paint and washes on the base. I really stlopped on that red and I have spent a good bit of time just touching up some of the areas where I was a bit too sloppy. 

The Baal Red is a very intense color. To the point that these guys remind me of a Blood Bowl team. It doesn't hurt that the Black Orc  Blockers from the 3rd edition of Blood Bowl were clearly patterned off of the Black Orcs from that time, right down to the pose!

My favorite miniature of this unit is easily the standard bearer. It's such an imposing banner and so well sculpted. It's got a good weight to it also, which is something you rarely get in a modern miniature. I am looking forward to making more progress on this guy and the rest of his red armored companions. 

Celestial Lions Boxnaught (Part 2)

 Welcome to the second part of this year's Dreadtober challenge. In Part 1 I spelled out the plan, and now I'm plowing ahead with it.  To start, I shook up a can of Krylon 18kt Gold Plate spray paint and took it and this hunk of metal outside and blasted away. Afterwards I used classic Chestnut ink (I am so glad I still have some of this!) and used it to darken all the joints and recesses. 

A 41st Millennium solid gold dancer. 

And then I used Abaddon Black to basecoat the areas that are going to end up a silvery metal as opposed to gold. 

Black basecoats. 

That's all the progress I made on the miniature itself, but I did almost finish his base. Just a few minor things to finish on it (the skull and bullet casings specifically) and it's done. 

The base. 

We'll see how much further I get with this next week, but so far this is rolling along well. 

Black Orctober (Part 1)

 Orctober* is here! 

Metal Black Orcs.

I don't usually get a chance to do both Orctober and Dreadtober (although I have combined them in the past), but this year I am going to go for it. I recently found some classic metal Black Orcks from the turn of this century, plus one guy, the leader, who is from the mid '90s. 

Mid-'90s Big Boss.

The set I had included a single plastic guy converted to be a rear rank stand-in.  That model just wasn't going to work for me however, so I tracked down this muscian guy to add to the unit, since this collection was lacking one. He currently stands out due to the shiney and clean appearance versus the guys who have been stripped of their previous paint coatings. 

The command group.

Here are some of the rank and file guys. They're oddly posed but that's more of a production choice I think than anything else. Regardless, I really like these models and have always wanted them, so I am glad to have finally achieved that goal. 

They rank up so much better on 30mm bases. 

Ok, so yes, these are rescues. They spent about a month soaking in diluted Superclean to get their previous painting efforts removed. Speaking of which here are some examples of what they looked like prior to being stripped. 

At least he had a great dental plan.

Metallic Green skin. 

Yell loudly and beat 'em with a big stick. 

Ok, so that's my stated goal for my fantasy regiment in Orctober. 

'ere, we, go!!!

* or Orktober,  as those who are  going to set a 40k hobby goal this month. 

Celestial Lions Boxnaught (Part 1)

 Ah, Dreadtober! My favorite reoccurring project of the year returns! 

"I'm pretty sure I'm a Blood Angel."

For this year's dreadnought I have decided to repaint this old classic. This is a 30 year old boxnaught. He may be small compared to the toys you kids have today, but this thing has the weight and heft to truly harm someone if employed in a violent manner. To be clear, this came to me second-hand and I was not the original painter of this thing. After-all, I don't play Blood Angels and I don't think I have painted one since around 1993 (for Space Crusade). And back then, they were a bit more orange.  Anyway, this guy is going to get stripped all the way down to the bare metal.... 

"...well, I was anyway."

...well, mostly. 

Next week, painting! 

Miners Report! (Part 1)

 This is the final unit of painted dwarfs from the collection I bought last summer. The models in the collection were all from the Battle for Skull Pass WFB 7th ed starter box and they were all painted.  And painted kind of strangely.  Clearly their original owner was a big fan of metallic paints as all of these models were coated in them. But this unit of Miners is probably the strangest unit as they're painted in a metallic purple color. 

Miners painted by an unknown person. 

I doubt there is any part of these models I won't paint over.  In fact I am looking forward to doing away with that attempt at blood that has been painted onto their pick-axes. At least, I think that is what it's supposed to be...?

Pickaxe for the Blood God!

While I was prepping those models for their inevitable revamp, I picked up a box of the current TOW edition of the miners and built most of the box in about a day.  This was because I was stuck in a hotel room and assembling these guys was a fine way to pass the time. That was back in the Spring, and now at the start of Fall, I tinkered with them again, finishing them off with extra bits such as backpacks, blasting charges, and additional equipment. Those guys are now primed and waiting for me to get started on their paint jobs. 

Lighting the way, like a champion. 

I had the idea to make a marker to indicate whether or not I have purchased blasting charges for a unit of Miners. This is represented by a wheelbarrow loaded up with TNT and a stack of blasting charges. I think I will make a few more of these for the Miner units I will likely end up with. 

The runes translate to 'acme'.

Then came time to construct the mine markers (as described in the Dwarf Mountin Hold Arcane Journal).  This first one was made from the current miners kit. 

It's tall and loaded with details. 

Contrasting that we have the markers from the Blood Pass 7th ed starter which  work nicely as well. 

This last one I made from  bits left over from the dwarf cannons I built recently. 

I also bought this 3-D printed terrain piece to go with these guys. It's a mine entrance. I thought it was perfectly suited and will look good when painted up and set up on the table. When it's paint job is done that is.

A shaft to protect. 

This thread will chroncile my work on these dwarf miners over time. Hopefully not a long time, but we'll see. 

My Minotaur Maze Adventure (Part 1)

 

"Mooo-baaaah!"

Ok, "adventure" maybe trying to sell this thread a bit strong, but it has been a long year of occasional tinkering since I first posted my intentions  regarding this army.  I finally found a bag of random Beasts of Chaos metal bits, that I had been trying to find for a few years, and one of the things I found was an almost complete minotaur.  He was just missing his horns and lower jaw. 

"I'm not the MAN I used to be,"

After scouring the usual online sources, any bitz I did find were extortionately priced. Too high for my meager hobby budget! So I brainstormed  for alternative solutions and came up with one that I thought might just do the trick. I was looking at the Skulls boxed set and noticed all those beastmen skulls. Most of which are too long or ornate to stick on a random dude's base. Curiously, there are no bull horns in that set. I know of a few Goff Ork and fantasy orc  players that wouldn't have minded to have those in this set, but I thought II would try out the skull with the long goat horns any way.  After all, these guys are Beasts of CHAOS and should have a diverse range of mutations and horn styles. 

Horns again.

I drilled and pinned the horns onto the metal minotaur head. On the same sprue there was also a jaw that fit very well onto this guy so I went ahead and attached it also. 

Jaw restored.

Next I sculpted some green stuff over and into the gaps on the minotaur's head. 

"It's not a toupee!"

I did likewise for the jaw bone as well. 

Green stuffed jaw.

Next I used a sculpting tool to try to replicate the fur on the minotaur's head and neck. This turned out OK I think, but the real test will happen when I finally paint him. 

Greenstuff in the gaps.

With the left over greenstuff I tried to fill a gap in his weapon arm and I put the rest on the back of the base to try create a small burrow of some sort. 

Greenstuff done.

Now I am waiting for the green stuff to set before I attempt to do anything else to this model. It will be a while  before you see Part 2 to this series, but I assure you that it will happen before the decade ends. Maybe.