Back cataloogue - Undead Champion in snowy scene

It's about as Christmassy as I can do for the festive period, an Undead champion in a wintery wonderland!

It's a current GW plastic kit and I've deliberately gone for a range of pale blues and whites to create the cold ambience in the scene. Painting the miniature was the easy bit, creating the base was a whole different proposition!

It's also very difficult to photograph, but I hope you can see that i've used a range of different modelling materials and techniques here (gathered from various craft shops and the internet).

The base was built up with several chunks of cork tile and then the bottom layer of the base was created by applying a fine crackle paste (when it dries it forms small cracks) and that was painted pale blue and highlighted white.

I then added the shield and horse skeleton which were painted before a couple of layers of Woodlands Scenic Water effect were poured on top. For this to be successful I experimented with several techniques (sorry no photos) but basically consisted of making a raised container around the edge of the base and I found very flexible plasticard to work best for this, however there was still some leakage.

The top layer is then a thicker crackle paste which when dries creates bigger cracks which actually separate and lift, which gives the effect of a broken ice surface.

After applying some foliage (my usual selection of mosses, tufts and paint brush bristles for the reeds) I then added a touch of sceneic water at the top of these and on his sword to create the illusion of icicles. The final touch is a pva glue and baking soda mix for the snow effect.

In other news I've managed to complete a few ongoing conversions and slapped a bit more paint on some of my wips, but progress is slow at this time of year, as I don't seem to get any quality hobby time. Hopefully I'll be able to show you all some more completed current work in the new year...

Happy New Year to you, dear reader and I hope you get to see some of your wild hobby imaginings come to life in 2015!

Back catalogue - Beastman Shaman

Over on papanurgle.com a while ago there was a fun Realms of Chaos build your own warband project. Most of the models I constructed for it have been incorporated into this blog already (including some beastmen), but I also rolled up this beastman shaman with a flaming skull head and Nurgle's rot. 

So the basis for the model is a metal plaguebearer, with the addiction of beastmen legs and a selection of bits from the empire wizard spruce. I draped a very thin greenstuff robe over his body and created a swamp base with slate and some silicon bubbles as I've described in a previous blog entry. I wanted to create the idea that he was casting a spell from the book where the hourglass is actually rising from the tome. 

Below is the final painted version:

I wanted the roses and the flaming skull to contrast against the drab browns and dark bloody reds of his gut and scythe and I followed a tutorial regarding painting the hourglass. Enjoy!

Back catalogue - Chaos Champion of Nurgle

I love to convert, but sometimes GW release a figure that needs little if no converting and I can just enjoy the painting experience and so I think it is with this Nurgle Champion. (I suspect one of the best sellers and most painted recent releases  - and due to it's success, I believe, a huge inspiration for all the new Nurgle Glottkin output):

A multitude of washes (with a dash of washing up liquid) were applied over a white basecoat to get the skin effect and then my usual rust recipe of boltgun metal worked up to chainmail, washed with chestnut/brown ink and then completed with some red oxide pigment mixed with a touch of matt medium.

And for a bit of fun I created a larger "dispay" base:

Back catalogue - converted Chaos Warriors

These are some Chaos Warriors that I converted and painted at the beginning of my return to the hobby, or perhaps what I could call the start of my involvement in Oldhammer. I wanted to create some Realms of Chaos style warriors that were based on illustrations, stories and how my imgaination put them all together. The only other constraint was the bitz that I had available:

Have a go at recognising the bitz from these if you can! They were a lot of fun to make and to paint:

 Lots of pictures for you to look through today, more (hopefully) tomorrow!

Back catalogue - a swamp troll

A little while back I got my hands on a sole plastic troll, it looked kinda cool from what I'd seen on the Internet, however the heads always looked a bit strange. So a quick conversion by adding the plastic Giant head and then removing the weapon and replacing it with a branch. To add some character there's a bit of greenstuff in his mouth to mimic some troll vomit:

To help with the illusion of him standing in a shallow swamp I didn't apply the feet and I then added some mushrooms, a rat and a floating body, all filed flat to sit flush on the base.

The base itself was then sanded smooth to remove the texture you get on them and when the miniature was completed I applied several coats of gloss varnish to get the final swamp appearance. For the branch I also added small bits of moss and I also used a Tamiya Mud weathering stick, which is basically a brown oil pastel.

Anyway I'm really happy with this figure and would like to make two more to create a unit of them.

Back catalogue - Plaguebearers

So my hobby output is very slow at the moment, the usual combination of work and general life stuff pre-Christmas getting in the way of what I would like to be doing!

Therefore to fill the void I was looking back through my Photobucket account and found loads of old pictures that I uploaded (or didn't) onto various forums and I thought that for completeness and to share them with you, my new audience, I would post them here too.

So I start off with some plaguebearers from a range of different GW eras, all of which have been slightly converted with new weapons or in the case of the last one, wings:

I've used my tried and tested pastel palette for these and tried to add some contrast too.

I've also converted this banner bearer from a Forgeworld Herald of Nurgle by giving him a tentacle with which to hold the banner triptych. I've tried to combine the image with the skull head atop the banner and gone for old-school Nurglings within the Nurgle symbol (the images are based loosely on illustrations from the Lost and the Damned itself:

Over the next few days I'll be posting lots more of my previous work to try and complete my oeuvre of work over the past few years. Be nice to have it all together, even if only digitally.

Conversion corner

When I'm left alone with my hobby I often have this internal monologue going on about a variety of subjects, for example I might ask myself "do I really need to apply a third highlight to this leather pouch?" or "shall I paint stripes or checkers on his trousers?" and I'm sure you all have similar thoughts whilst painting or converting.

One of my most pressing concerns though is my current fascination with GW of the past, or Oldhammer and the "to convert or not convert" question regarding miniatures from which I believe is the golden era of GW models. If you're a regular reader you will have noted that most of my current completed miniatures are from the era of the 80's when I first encountered GW and Warhammer and began a long relationship with the hobby, but I do also own many more current or more recent plastics. I don't mind cutting up plastic.

I love converting miniatures yet my internal monolgue (ehtical?) often prevents me from cutting up an old favourite piece of lead, "it's heresy!": "it's oop and a piece of history!", or "if I ever want to resell it the value would diminish if it was converted - both monetary and aesthetically". However the flip side is that they are my miniatures and that I don't have to take it upon myself to preserve the history of GW 80's miniatures. This is a good example of the cyclical internal monologue to which my answers often fluctuate between the two opinions.

So here are some conversions I have been doing in between painting (some of these conversions were started some time ago) and the majority of which are using new plastics and some old metal. I try not to do too much chopping and instead make a few alterations to make the models unique (this is afterall, I believe, why we convert - to make a unique, characterful model):

A centaur from a plastic cold one and a more recent beastman character. The old nurgle palanquin banner is also visible on it's back. I remember reading somewere that Centaurs like ale, so I've added a barrel and mug to his flank.

Some sort of Deamon Prince, with bits of Ogre, Forgeworld Herald, LotR troll, zombie and Typhus bits. The flying cherubs will be made to look more nurgling in appearance.

Based upon an illustration in the Lost and the Damned on the page about Spawn and Chaos steeds. I intend to add scales to this to complete it.

I think this was intended to be a Chaos Hound based upon a coldone and a wolf's head. Not sure I like it that much...

A small conversion of a Chaos Warrior with the addition of a Nurgle Lord's head and a shield with some greenstuffed/bead Nurgle symbol.

This guy's going to be added to a Thug unit and is simply a stone troll with a chaos warrior's head plus horn.

A Spawn. It started off as a cork with plastic spider legs attached and tyranid arms to the side. I think the head is a 40k squig with a skull in it's mouth. You can't see on this picture, but the skin sections will be stitched together with bits of very fine wire.

A plague cart to add to my eventual Lost and the Damned Nurgle army - it will accompany my plague zombies and skeletons (from Mantic) and just has the addition of a new rider (I hated the original one's proportions) and a plague doctor apprentice where the mask has been greenstuffed over the face.

So basically all these are quite "tame" conversions where I've added or changed without having to cut or chop any old lead. These are now in my "conversion box" which is next to my "to paint" box but basically the unpainted stuff still equates to the same!

I'll show less completed conversions another time. Cheers!