Dreadfleet: And now for something a little different...

So MBG asked me to write up an article as to how I painted up my Dreadfleet ship, The Shadewraith, for the Halloween costume contest. Mumbling about how easy it was, just washes and drybrushing, I was conned into eventually writing it up, mentioning the internet fame I would stumble upon. So here I sit, in the theoretical man cave I call my loft, typing up this painting article. Sorry, as I don't have any work in progress photos, as I was rush painting this and decided against wasting time taking pictures.

My initial inspiration for how to paint the ship came from a old aquarium terrain piece I had in a fishtank from a lifetime ago. From there, I decided that it would be a eerie ghostly color, similar to the old disney pictures I had lying around in the house. With my source material handy, and a gleam of hope in my heart, I began the process of turning a chunk of plastic into something that looks half decent in time for a contest.

Priming the mini the night before, the model was ready for painting the next day, which was good because the speed painting I would need to do for the ship to be ready for the contest, in 4 hours. Welp.

Starting with a basecoat of Astronomican Grey, i hit everything on the ship with it. Everything, not a single detail was spared from the wrath of my brush. With the ship drying, I worked on the base, deciding I wanted it to have a roiling and turbulent sea, after all, the name of the game is dreadfleet, not ships in calm seas. I basecoated with Regal Blue, and applied a heavy drybrush of Vallejo Enchanted Blue. a further, more deliberate drybrush of Steel Grey was applied, and I washed it all with Badab black, to darken it to storm sea colors. Once the wash dried, Ihit it with Dead White, just barely, on the crests to simulate sea foam.

Now that the base was ready, i began working with washes. Already deciding on Thraka Green to give it the ghostly look from cartoons made in the 90's. (Scooby Doo, you where such a inspiration..) Washing the entire hull with it (sails and all), and then when it dried it was drybrushed with Astronomican Grey. It was then washed, again, with Thraka Green - but with a hint of Scorpion Green, to make it look like it was under water for a long time. This was not my idea, but one of my friends who suggested it to me on the fly, as I hit the two and a half our mark. When that dried, I proceeded with another drybrush of Astronomican Grey, and then a super light drybrush of Dead White.

Painting the entire ship took me approximately 4 hours, and apparently was well recieved by the bayying wolves at the store, hungry for pizza and magic cards. Thats how I painted this, and I hope that you enjoyed reading this, now I have to work on more ships. Ships that will one day, hopefully soon, see the table top.

TerranRaida~~

Also, a big thank you to MBG for taking the picture, otherwise I am sure it would have turned out like a pile of garbabe (I am not all that great at taking pictures of minis...yet...)

Change of Pace

No new pictures up yet, still working out the kinks with my camera. But, there is some small news. The other day at my local game store, I picked up 20 Pink Horrors and a box of flamers. Nothing major, except upon opening the box of flamers I casually noticed that one was missing half his face. Everything from the bottom of the teeth was just gone. I asked my buddy to take a picture of, for the purpose of hilarity.

Since these guys would be replaced by Games Workshop(and where, got the package yesterday.) I tested some washing techniques impressed upon me by my friend. So far, they turned out alright. rather dark and not bright enough for how i wish my flamers to be, good thing i had a box to spare.

But I digress, updates will be forthcoming - slowly making progress on the 60 man mob of horrors (I swear I might just buy a air brush, hand painting these guys is killing my will to live.) and on the Herald of Tzeentch. It will be nice when that brick gets finished, as I love how they are turning out but that is not motivating me enough to paint them.

I doubt if anyone reads this except for a few people, but its probably just me. Am I slowly going crazy? Everyone I talk to has great things to say about my Daemon Prince, but when I ask them about the rest they walk away. Have I lavished too much detail upon him that he simply overshadows the rest of the army? I know thats the point, but not so much so that everyone ignores the rest. I end my ranting, for hopes that one day that someone will compliment my flamers, or one of the (few) painted pink horrors.

Liquid Green Stuff - Not How It Sounds...

Liquid Green Stuff.

Two days ago, bloodshot eyes at 2AM, listening to Dr. Know and debating about what video to game to keep me awake. I ultimately decide on Space Marine, because smashing face with a Thunder Hammer is incredibly gratifying. I get a text message from MBG asking me to write a article. Christ, on what? Liquid Green Stuff. The most recent contraption from the minds at Games Workshop. With no source material I head to my local game store and pick up two things, the liquid green stuff and a finecast mini to be my test subject. It was the Exalted Hero of Chaos on Daemonic Mount, for those interested.

Now, here I sit, with a pot of glorified gap filler and a mini that needs some serious repair. Luckily, thats just what this liquid Green Stuff is designed for. for the price of a paint pot(3.70 before taxes) you get enough liquid green stuff to fill tons of gaps (hopefully this will not be needed...but the quality of Games Workshop's finecast has been varying..). With that said, I proceed to dive into it. Opening the pot, my first impression is that its like a ultra thick foundation paint. It smells like somewhat old bubble gum, and and looks like it, too. After carefully getting a solid paintbrush full (its a small one, to fill small gaps) and suprisingly, it does a good job. Several layers are required as the gap filler with sink into the gap, leaving a dented impression. Unfortunately, the mini i bought had a whole horse full of gaps, and required a whole mess of this stuff. Luckily, when you prime over it you can not even notice that you used the product.

Satisfied, I began to move onto more of my finecast purchases. Gaps in my Chaos Daemon Flamers of Tzeentch? Filled. the Changeling that had a gouge in his cloak? Filled. Warriors of Chaos cloaks? evened out. I couldn't stop myself until I realized that it was a quarter past 2, and I had to get up at 7AM. Welp. So now, here I sit, bloodshot eyes at 2AM and listeningto Dr. Know, with a desk filled with minis that have at least some of this liquid green stuff. With my gaps filled, I boot up Space Marine for a well deserved kill session.

TerranRaida

Come Into My Nightmare

With the recent acquiring of 2 soul grinders, 20 pink horrors, 3 flamers, and a lovely new finecast herald (with some issues, but more on that later,) I decided it was time for a update. So now let's get down to nails and brass tacks, or however that little bit goes.

The Finecast Flamers

Side View

These guys where super fun to paint, and i tested alot of new techniques on them, some worked better than others, and there is still a little bit of work to do on the flames and some minor touch ups on the white part of them.

Soul Grinder

Leg Armor and Runes

Daemon Sword

Fateweaver

Fateweavers Book

It was fun painting the first half of the book, not entirely sure what to do with the other page. Chances are, however, it will be something insanely intricate that i will fail horribly at doing and he will end up thrown at the wall. But let's hope it doesn't quite come to that.

Now lets move onto my most recent purchase, shall we?

Herald of Tzeentch on Disc

Now this guy, much to my chagrin, has A LOT of detail, so much detail, that i am not sure if what I am scraping off is flash or a necklace or whatever. The disc also had several bubbles where the eyes where (goddamnit, this is already killing my will to live and i haven't even primed yet!) but I imagine some minor greenstuffing (which I am garbage at, welp) will fix. That said, the pink horror mob is almost ready, only 10 more guys (or 20, if I choose to replace the old school guys I got in the trade) left for the even 60. 

The real difficulty, as it may seem, is the question of do I wait for finecast Screamers of Tzeentch, or do I go ahead and roll with metal ones. This is a tough question, as I have no idea when they will be released. I might go ahead and buy 10 for now and just upgrade whenever, and turn the ones I have into display base fun(A word on that later)

It seems I have my hands full right now, so I guess i better get back to painting...

Finecast: The Review

Finecast. The latest and greatest from the boys over at Games Workshop, a resin/plastic hybrid that has a slight "bounce" to it, if you have one of those "OH GOD NO!" moments as its falling off the table, thinking that your precious mini will break...and it doesn't. Finecast has its flaws though, with inconsistent quality, ranging from "This mini is so perfect it doesnt even have feed lines!" to "Look at this, its almost like different mini". I myself have had only ONE issue with my finecast purchasing. And that is a almost 90 degree bend in the shining spear of a Warlock, which I will post pictures at a later time (the little guy isn't here with me)

(Note, this is a old photo and the guy actually warped more, how, I have no idea)

However, the flip side to this is that the rest of the Warlocks and the Farseer, Death Jester, Shadowseer, and Flamers of Tzeench I purchased have only had, at worst, too many mold lines. People on the internet, however, seem to be getting the more extreme of the case. Are these people games workshop doom criers, or actual customers. We may never know.

This stuff is soft, very soft. a hobby knife will easily cut through the sprue, so do take care of your mini prepping. The idea of prepping this with soapy water still applies, but otherwise the paint will then stick to it.

One issue I do have, however, is that these guys apparently have a tendency to melt if you leave them in light, which worries me that i may melt and ruin a 60 dollar mini (damn it Fateweaver, why are you not released yet?!)

Overall, I can say I am impressed with it, it takes models that used to be heavy, and makes it as light as a guardsman - and making the detail on the mini that much better.

I'm Blue (da ba dee da bee da)

A update, The lack of internets at my new place is not very fun, but it does give me time to paint and read, instead of posting on forums...

Flamer

"Feed us, Seymour!"

Pink Horror 

(go ahead, laugh like everyone else.)

The Changeling

I still have more work to do, debating about my 2500 list, but its going to be something like this:

Fateweaver
Blue Scribes/Herad of Tzeentch on Chariot

2x Flamers of Tzeentch, squads of 3

2x Screamers of Tzeentch, squads of 5

3x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch, squads of 20

1x Daemon Prince

2x Soul Grinders

Again, this is very subject to change (see what i did there?) and will probably change slightly. I recently picked up Fateweaver from a buddy, and i hope that it will be fun to paint, because stripping him and making him repaintable, was not fun at all.

And I'll have fun fun fun until Tzeench takes my paint away

I've been a busy little bee, painting pink horrors, looking up basing techniques, and hammering out my list. But between here and there, I've had time to do some work for my friend's Grey Knights as well as other side projects. Mainly because I rain out of 5 of the paints needed for my army. Welp.

Paladin Banner Bearer

I know for a fact that I need to work on my freehand skills, or buy a micron pen, as while the intent was good, the delivery turned out ok. 

I also did some work on my Imperial Fists, deciding to do a Multi-Melta gunner

Space Marine Heavy Weapon Specialist

With my ADD sated, for now, I can now move back onto the Daemons and focus on the lovely finecast Flamers of Tzeench I picked up from FTW Games today. They will hopefully prove to be a fun project.

The start of something that changes

So with this post, i introduce you all to my blog, about the new Daemon army i am collecting, as well as what i am working on in between waiting for finecast releases and cashflows. Everything from commissions to personal collections. Lets get dis bitch started - before, however, it is wise to mention that these are all works in progress and the final mini pictures will be much more smooth.

The Vrock(Daemon Prince)

The Changeling

Banner

Pink Horror

Blue Horror

Spawn of Chaos

The crew so far:

I have 20 pink/blue horrors, Vrock, Changeling and a trade with a buddy for some pink horrors and a Soul grinder pending. That means i need to buy 2 boxes of Flamers, and i am going to wait for Fateweaver and Screamers to become available in finecast. Would also like it if Games Workshop released a model of The Blue Scribes, so i dont have to convert one up.