Star Wars Legion AT-ST and Storm Trooper Squad (Byron)

 

There are some models that just speak to you, crying out to be painted.  This is one of those for me.  I have always loved the Star Wars AT-ST affectionately known as the "chicken walker" by many, and last year my mom got me one for Star Wars Legion.  She picked it as it was one of her favourite Star Wars models as well, having loved watching one get smashed by the Ewoks as we watched the movies over and over again when I was a kid.

Even though I got it last year, and promptly got it assembled, it has sat since then. Mainly due to covid hitting and not being able to get together with friends to play, but also since I knew it would be an awesome show piece model for the challenge.  Since I wasn't playing games, there was no rush to get it done, so it sat until now, waiting....

Honestly, I was also a bit intimidated by it.  It is well know that I hate painting flesh, but I also hate painting vehicles (even though I feel I am ok at it).  I just am never sure where to start or end with weathering, and either always feel I under do it or over do it.  So, I had a bit of trepidation starting on this model.

I started by priming black and then airbrushing in white primer where all the highlights would be, and then into the center of the panels where it would be lighter.  Next I applied a few thin layers of a neutral grey over the entire model, and with that the base layer should have been done. As usual though, I applied it a bit to thick and it lacked a bit of contrast and shadow, so I had to go back and airbrush in some dark grey into shadow areas and around panels, and a bit of light blue grey as a filter onto the panels to make it look right to me.

Next I clear coated the whole thing with a few layers of gloss to prep for the next step, oil paint washes and rust effects.  I first used super thin (1 part paint, 8 parts thinner) black to pin wash all the panel line edges and details.  Then pulled out a nice dark red brown rust coloured "oil brusher" from AK (think of a mascara tube but full of oil paint) and put dots of it around all areas I wanted a rust colour to appear.  I then used white spirits to pull the colour where I wanted, around details, or as faded runs where I thought it might reasonably go.  Now, I don't know what an AT-ST would be made of, and it probably wouldn't be anything that rusts (most likely some kind of ceramic type armour), but screw it, I like the rust look!

Once that was done, I went back with another oil brusher called space ship filth that looked like oily grim and an oil wash from AK called exhaust. I used them to apply oil type marks around the joints on the legs and exhaust marks around the vents on the back. Again, no idea if they are exhaust vents or intakes, but I went with what I thought looked good.  I played around with all the oil effect adding more, taking them away, or thinning the effect until it looked right, using a clean brush and white spirits.

After all that was done I clear coated it again, and then started applying the sand coloured oil wash that I normally use on my Storm Troopers.  I applied several thin layers on the feet and worked it up to about half way up the legs.  I probably could have applied a few more layers as it still looks a bit too little, but I didn't want to over do it.  It was then just basing and a final clear coat left, and it was done.

Last up was another unit of Storm Troopers, but I already described how I did the Snow Troopers earlier this challenge so will not waste time again.

Not sure what to call it for points though.  SWL is 36mm scale so I am assuming it counts as 40mm as that is than 28mm, but this thing is huge at 8" tall so I am claiming 30 points for him rather than the allocated 25.  If Curt or the minions feel differently, they are welcome change it.  So that should make this submission worth 65 points.

Overall, I am super happy with how this model came out, which is rare for me as I am always very critical of my own work.  While there are some minor things that I could touch again, maybe a bit more or less weathering, a bit more sand look, I am honestly very happy with it as is, so am calling it done. 

The Chamber of Darkness (Byron)

 

 Today I venture into the chamber of darkness to explore painting in grey scale.  However, since this is supposed to be an actual challenge, and since I have already done hordes of zombies in greyscale in past challenges, I thought I should challenge myself in some other way...  yeah, I know, I am a glutton for punishment.  So, in addition to doing this figure in grey scale, I also did it with oil paints for the first time ever! 

I know, I know, oil paints on a 28mm miniature?  Madness you say, and you are not far off.  To be fair...

Sorry, I couldn't resist...  I love Letterkenny :-)

Anyway, to be fair, I have used oil paints in the past but only as super thinned down pin washes for vehicles, so using only oil paints on a figure is now to me (and maybe a new normal? more on that later). So, here is all I used when painting this figure....

I started by priming the figure black then a white zenithal highlight, and then mixed some black and white together to make a mid grey tone and applied it over the whole model.

After that it was simply putting dots of black or white where I wanted shadow or highlight and using a clean brush to blend it with the grey already in place.  It was an amazing experience, as it was so much easier to get smooth blends compared to acrylics where you need to wet blend with incredible speed to avoid drying or super thin layers.

While the images are ok, they really don't capture the tones of the model in real life, try as I might I just could not get them to show in images.  At first I thought it was due to the white background, but I tried black, blue, and green and they all did the same thing, so I think it's more about my lighting washing it out. Trust that in real life the tones are better than they show, sorry guys.

I even painted the clump of static grass with thinned oil paint as I only had coloured tufts.  You can not imagine how hard it is to paint static grass until you try it.... OMG, not my best idea, but at least it turned out ok.

I always take this challenge as an opportunity to try something new each year, either a new era, a new scale, a new painting technique or tool, just something new.  After all experimentation leads to learning and growth (even if the experiment fails you learn something, sometimes you even learn more!). This year the plan was a new era (coming soon) and playing with oils, and I have to say that so far, I loved the process of painting with oils so much that I will be trying a few more full colour oil painted figures over the course of the challenge, so watch for more to come.  

I am assuming that working with colours is going to complicate the process vastly compared to just black and white, but it's a new chance to learn.  Also due to the drying times involved, it is not something I would consider for everything, but for characters or special models or even just for effects, I think I may just have a new tool in the toolbox!

Oh, and this is a 28mm French Great War infantry model, I am sorry I do not remember the company though.  It might be a Renegade figure as it is pretty chunky.

Necron Reanimator for the Golem's Haunt (Byron)

As I venture deeper into the chamber of challenge, I came across the Golem's Haunt.  This location requires something that is re-animated, stitched-together, bolted-together, re-created from steel, clay, earth, etc. 

Hmm, what to do.... Dig's through pile-o-shame looking for something.... Ah! How about painting something that is both a golem itself and a reanimator as well!

May I present to you the Necron Canoptek Reanimator.

This model is a relatively new one to the Necrons.  It is a huge model based on a 65mm base and standing over 125mm tall.  Being a Necron it is animated metal so fits the requirement of the room, but is also used by the Necrons to reanimate other models that die, keeping the endless tide of Necrons flowing over their enemies.

Shown with a normal Marine for scale

I once had a Necron army years ago when they first came out.  However it was all the old metal models and were painted back when I didn't even know that you NEVER EVER use paint straight out of the bottle.  So as I got to be a better painter I sold off the old army thinking that I would paint up a new one at some point...  

Fast forward probably 10-12 years and I am finally getting back to that project, with this first model for my replacement Necron force.  There will be more to come throughout the challenge.

I did not want the standard all silver and black for my force, nor did I want the standard green glows on the models, so I started looking for something else, something I liked painting and would look good.  I glanced over, saw my Spartans in their glorious bronze and crimson and a colour scheme was born.

I am going to keep all the under armour and mechanical parts the simple metal and black that necrons are known for, and to keep painting fast and simple.  However, I am going to paint all of the upper layers of armour in bronze and all the glows in crimson red and yellow highlights. 

The painting method is to get all the metal work done (both bronze and gunmetal) then wash it all with Agrax Earthshade (I put that shit on everything!) to tone down the shine of the metal and give it a worn / dirty look.  After that I start off at a deep crimson on all the gem type areas and then shade them up through 4 different reds and 3 different yellows, adding glow effects around them to bring some warmth to the otherwise cold pallet. I then added a few alien coloured plants to the base, to both add some colour and to allow me to distinguish units later on (one unit can have purple flowers, another blue, etc).

Overall, I am really happy with how the model came out and can not wait to paint up some more Necrons to go with it.  The effort vs reward on this scheme is very high (at least in my mind) as it is both quick and attractive looking.  Many more Necron's to come over the course of the challenge!

Oh and since this is a cross post from the painting challenge blog, its probably best I link an image of the map that we have to work through...

 

Return of the Greenskin Packers - Ork Bloodbowl Team (Byron)

 

As mentioned in a few previous posts, part of what I want to accomplish is finishing up past projects that have been sitting around in various states of incompleteness.  This post returns to my Bloodbowl team that I started painting back in 2017, the Greenskin Packers!  I started them by posting a single test figure and then a few more to go along with the QB, but then as is usual I got sidetracked, but at least it was due to two very good reasons....

- No one was playing locally
- Yellow and White uniforms SUCK to paint

Anyway, the team is now complete!

While I wanted to include a team shot of them all done, this submission is only for 8 of them as shown below, the other 7 were already submitted 3 years ago in the challenge.

While I am really happy with how they came out, and am glad to finally have a complete Bloodbowl team, they were a pain in the ass!  Painting white to not look all white (armour and cloth is actually 2 separate shades of white, each with several different whites and off-whites to make them up) and then getting yellow to look nice against it, was a lot of trouble!!!  As I am sure anyone who has worked a lot with either colour is well aware of.  People like MikeF (who does amazing yellows) must be masochists to actually want to paint full armies in yellows!

Here is a close up of one of the normal linebackers to show the details close up.

Once the uniforms were painted, I then went around the model and added chips and scratches to make them look used and abused (as any Ork belonging would be).  I keep thinking about maybe muddying them up as well, but like the crisp colours and worry that it would darken then too much and I would loose the overall bright cartoon look that I love about them.

These 8 new Orks should net me a very time consuming and frustration inducing 40 points!

15mm 30 years war Holy Roman Empire (Byron)

One of the goals I set for myself for this years challenge was to try and reduce the pile-o-shame (models that have not yet been painted) that has accumulated over the years at my place.  So I created a large list of projects that have started over the years, but never finished.  Once such project was last years foray into the 30 years war in 15mm.  While I finished quite a few bases of figures during last years challenge, I barely touched the stock pile of them that I bought, and have yet to play a game with them due to not having enough completed.  Therefore I thought it would be a good thing to get cracking on them over the Christmas holiday.

Here is the batch that I got done over the last week: 18 cavalry, 18 musketeers, and 14 pikemen.

All of these were painted using a very quick and messy method.  Essentially, all I did was apply base coats of the basic colours, then washed everything with the one GW paint I use (Agrax Earthshade), and then highlighted them with the base colours again, and in some cases 1 shade higher to get some highlights.

While this basic method produces tabletop ready miniatures quickly, they are nothing special.  Which means I get frustrated painting them quickly as well, as it feels like cheating to not put your best effort into something you are painting, BUT with something like 500+ more models to do to complete them all, I simply can not put much more effort into each model than this or I will never finish them!

Overall though, at tabletop level they look ok, and that's all that counts for these.  My plan is to use the "By Fire and Sword" rule set with them for small skirmish games (a great rule set that's super detailed and in depth) and then to use "By Pike & Shot" for bigger games (another great rule set, essentially GW's old Warmaster rules).  I look forward to getting them on Curt's table for a game with the Regina crew sometime this year.

Star Wars Legion: Snow Troopers and Pit and Pendulum room submission (Byron)

Painting has been slow over the holidays, with lots to do, but little getting done...  I have been assembling and priming more than painting over the last few days, but I have managed to get a few really quick things painted.

First up is a unit of Stormtrooper Snow Troopers for Star Wars Legion.  While they are relatively plain, that is how they are supposed to be, as you can not do a whole ton with white before it doesn't look white.

These were painted up grey then highlighted white. The black painted in, and then clear coated.  I then used a light tan oil paint to put all over them, then wiped it off with mineral spirits to leave it only in the crevasses.  While it may be odd to put a sand colour onto snow troopers, this was done as they are actually going to be used with my normal stormtroopers as part of my desert force.  Not traditional, I know, but I did not want them standing out against the rest of the force.

Next up is a submission for the Pit and the Pendulum room.  I had no idea what to do for this room, so I went off to thingiverse and grabbed a guillotine to go along with my French Napoleonic forces.  I am sure I can find a use for it as terrain in a game or two in the future.

Again, just a very simple paint job, mainly to play with my new "Instant Colours" from Scale 75 that showed up just before the holidays.

Overall, two very simple and basic submissions, but at least it is a few things complete! 

Analogue Hobbies Painting challenge 2020 - Entry 1

Once again winter is here, and with it, my friend Curt's annual painting challenge! 

The first figure I painted this year was something I picked up from a patreon that I immediately fell in love with and had to have.  It is from Great Grimoire and supplies monthly fairy tale themed STL files for 3d printing at home, and this was from a few months ago and I have been itching to get to work on it.

I painted this up with what is in real life a brighter green glow (but it kept getting washed out in the images) to show as an eerie eldritch magic allowing the hands to come through the cabinet.

While I had planned on having the green glow reflect onto the floor and the girls back, the figure is for my wife, and she didn't want it "ruined", so I left it out.

The girl was very tiny when printed the first time (as was the cabinet) with the base being less than 40mm.  At that scale it was correct for 28mm, but just seemed too small, so I reprinted it scaled up to a 55mm base, so the girl is actually 30mm tall just to get enough size to deal with the details that were there, since it is not for any game, and just for a display piece, scaling up really didn't affect anything.

It is amazing how many great Patreons and Kickstarters there have been for STL files over the last year, so this is the first of many 3d prints that I will be painting up this year.

Byron

Who are we?

 This blog has been a long time in the making.  We are a group of friends that have gamed together for many years (some of us probably 20+ years) and have talked over the last few years about getting a blog up, if for no other reason than to document our many awesome games of Kingdom Death.

This winter with the Covid lock down in full effect, I (Byron) am participating in my friend Curt's annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and Steve and Mike both wanted to shadow that challenge and kind of participate but not officially.  So it seemed the perfect time to get off our lazy asses and actually start the blog, so they had someplace to post as well.  Then once we can start getting together again for KD we can start posting our stories up here as well.

So, who are we?

Byron

I have been a gamer as far back as I can remember, both video games and board games.  I grew up playing games with a ton of people, I remember as early as grade school getting together with friends and spending all night playing Talisman, D&D, Axis & Allies, Car Wars, Ogre, and many more!  I tried painting things back then, but sucked horribly.

As I got older, I got into miniatures more and more.  Initially Legions of Steel and then into the GW product lines.  I got into miniatures to the point that I started running tournaments with various friends and my wife in the city for Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy.  I then started running events with Games Workshop themselves as an Outrider, travelling to help run Games Days and Grand Tournaments.

About 6 or 7 years ago, I started my own business (Northern Lights Terrain) to create and sell laser cut MDF terrain for wargames, and am now branching out into 3D printing for people as well.

Having played for so long, I have a huge collection that spans many eras and themes, and have the attention span of a squirrel when it comes to gaming, so expect to see drastic changes in focus all the time!  Just a brief listing of games that regularly get played would fill a page at least!  

I started out years ago as a horrible painter, I literally cringe when I see some of the stuff I painted when I was young.  Then I got better, through time, practice, and experimentation, to the point that I was a decent painter (not great like some of the masters you see posting online that make you want to cry figuring out how the hell they are showing stitch work on a 28mm tapestry) probably high middle level in skill.  But now as I get older and the eyes are starting to go, I find I need to relearn how to do things to deal with lack of visual focus, which is surprisingly common as I talk to other friends my age and older, but still not fun to deal with as you are so used to seeing everything clearly.

Mike

I have been interested in miniatures since I was about 10, about the same time I saw the animated Lord Of The Rings film. My grandmother bought me my first lead minis, a couple of Orcs, Skeletons and, for some reason, a single American Civil War soldier. I painted them with Testors paints, and made a bloody mess of them. At around age 12, I discovered Dungeons and Dragons. With that game, came even more minis. By age 15 I started playing guitar, convinced that I would be a rockstar. I was still interested in minis, buying Rogue Trader and the first Space Marine boxset. I didn't do much with them for a few years. When I was going to college, my interest was peaked again. I went to the local gaming store, Campaign Outfitters and was immediately blown away with all the ranges. I was especially drawn to Kryomek, because of my love of the Aliens franchise, and 40k. I also bought some of the Mithril line of LOTR minis. It was truly then that I discovered tabletop wargaming and I haven't really looked back. I spent a small fortune on GW stuff since. I met Steve and Byron shortly after that and we have gamed together, off and on, over the years. 

 These days I am mostly working on Infinity models, along with some 15mm Sci Fi stuff. And, of course, 40k stuff. I want to point out that Byron is an extremely bad influence, talking me into trying out new game after new game. The latest endeavor is Darklands from Mierce Miniatures. While he is a bad influence, it is offset by the inspiration he creates by getting so much stuff painted.

Steve

I have been a gamer since grade school. I recall my fascination with miniatures and dioramas began when my age was still a single digit, and I first saw model trains and displays in museums.  In middle school, the first 'miniatures" I attempted to paint were a cheap bag of plastic knights from a box store, using Testors oil paints and cheap plastic hobby water paint brushes,  rough efforts which did see action for a few old basic D&D games before being retired and lost to spring cleanings. 

 After high school I was exposed to 40K and  Warhammer and met Mike at a hobby store, (back in the years when I still had hair on my head).  I also resumed playing RPGs like D&D and WFRP supported by miniatures.  Both due to my own interest in the hobby and Mike's ever contagious enthusiasm for new toys, I amassed a fair sized miniature collection. Through painting for games and sheer interest I had painted a couple display shelves worth of miniatures by my mid 20s.  Then after some life change distractions my gaming time shifted into video and board games long enough for all my paint pots to dry up and were not replaced.  So the dedicated hobby desk was cleared and disposed of, and the boxes of unpainted shame were stored away for a couple of decades -- but always, my couple of shelves worth of painted minis were on proud display.

During my early years of online gaming and metal concert wanderings, thru Mike I met Adrian.  Adrian and I, often with Mike, had many an online world adventure and wrought metal show mayhem across some 20 fun years...we each made some mention of our appreciation of miniatures painting, both thinking it was something we'd never find time to do again...... though Mike would raise our interest in minis from time to time.

A couple years ago, thru Mike I met Byron, and in playing excellent games like Kingdom Death within the colorful glow of Byron's magnificent painted miniature collection, my love of minis was reignited, more miniature were bought, paints were purchased. The old box of unpainted shame has been dug up and unpacked, and a new hobby desk was established.  

So now I find myself to embarking on a new arc of painting, notions in my head of filling new display shelves with fresh painted minis and plans for fielding painted teams/armies atop table top fields of battle....  dice will roll, paint will flow.....