And I Beheld A Pale Horse...

...And his name that sat on him was... Roderick... and the Death Korps followed after.

Yup, it's yet more Death Korps o'clock! This time it is the blue, sorta WWI Belgian variants and include one of my very favourite DKK models. The Death Riders always looked good on the website but getting one in my hands? Let me tell you all, Forgeworld knocked it out of the park on this one. Fantastic. Let's jump straight in:

I dithered a lot over the colour of the horse. I figured I had a couple of options, either a strong contrast or a colour that would compliment the regimental scheme. In the end the decision was made on two counts: One, the overall scheme would suffer by too much of a totally different colour being added (and I was worried a dark horse would diminish the impact of the creepy tack) and two, I had called to mind that "I beheld a pale horse" Revealations quote and figured that was perfect for the Death Korps. I didn't trust my ability to get a nice "champagne" colour - really tough with painted horses as much of the tone is the skin showing through the fur - so a pale grey was the best option. Plus it felt like the sort of colour that might be bred en masse for a consistent regimental appearance.

The horse of course (of course, of course) was not the only animal on the base. The officers little dog was a plastic part from another kit added on to give even more character to the piece. I joked with the client that the lack of gas mask meant it must be an Eastern Krieg Gashound bred for hardy doggy lungs. It's shape though was much more spaniel in form so spaniel it got!

The rest of the painting (including his two buddies) was the familiar Fenris Grey with assorted mid greys, rubber mask and brass fittings. Not terribly tricky and discussed in prior DKK posts so I won't bore you with it. Suffice to say, a fun project and was I to be doing a DKK army any time soon? It would have a shedload of the riders in it as they. are. awesome.

TTFN

Servants of the Omnissiah: Part 1: Sicarian Ruststalkers

"We are the iron fist of the Imperium,

what possible use is there for the velvet glove?"

- Magos Explorator Cynia Breazeal, Cetus Cluster 4.160.834.M41.

Yes folks, today starts a new project just for me. A somewhat shiny, metallic project: A large Skitarii warband designed with Inq28 in mind. All glory to the Omnissiah!

Today's offerings are two Sicarian Ruststalkers. Let me tell ya folks, some of the Adeptus Mechanicus models are the best things GW has made since the Dark Eldar. Much like the Dark Eldar there are some slightly "ho hum" examples among the range (the electro priests having the most Warmachine/Warcraft ugliness for example) but the bits that I like? They are lovely. These Sicarians are delicate, elegant, have gorgeous pierced components giving lots of easy to paint visual interest. In short: Fantastic.

Ruststalker 985.Rho.14

Now, I shall level with you guys, I find some of the fluff for the Skitarii forces a little... silly. Very overblown and emphasising the ultra fanatical end of the Mechanicus spectrum. Thus I am choosing to ignore certain elements. The Ruststalkers though? They make sense, assassin cyborgs, what's not to like huh? I see these two as being infiltrating killers. Thin and agile, able to crawl through tight spaces and leap about. Anyone who has seen the Clone Wars cartoon series: I'm imagining the way the commando droids move in that. The kits have more variety than they first appear to have. The the extent that I could represent one Ruststalker favouring an Okinawan-style two sword technique (985.Rho.14) and the other (656.Rho.14) preferring a blade and main gauche dagger duelling style.

Ruststalker 656.Rho.14

Finally, lets actually talk painting! These two chaps were very much test models for the rest of the Skitarii warband so I was paying more attention to the overall impact than I was to what exact colours I was using, but, what I remember is: All of the Mechanicus models will almost certainly start with sequential drybrushes of steel colours all the way up to silver. In this case I also used a dark brown and german grey before I washed the whole thing in black ink to get nice black fatigues and dark brown leather. I wanted a very different vibe to the studio scheme, so no bright reds - only Tech priests are getting red robes - and no shining lights because, well, assassins right? I used bronze as the contrast for the armour and decided that I quite liked the dark glass-like blades the studio did. Dark Reaper shaded with black and highlighted through Thunderhawk Blue to almost white then glazed blue-green did the job. I finished it off by greasing and oiling the joints with Ammo Oil enamel paint. Exposed oily joints don't make a lot of sense in this context as it would just pick up sand and dirt but it looks cool and we'll assume the Mechanicus has solutions to that issue... totes.

I really like how these turned out. The basing was an experiment too, I wanted a scheme that would work in both urban and rural settings so went for "long collapsed overgrown rubble" with Baneblade Brown edging as the pale brown looks like the thin, sick soil you see in urban waste-grounds. I've got the next five - Skitarii Vanguard - on the workbench for evening and weekend sessions so there'll be more very soon. Until then

TTFN

Krieg Troops and Catalogue Models

Hiya folks, more shinies this week for ya!

Long time readers will definately recognise the colour scheme at work here. I dread to think how many of these brown Krieg I've done over the years but these are amongst the last. However, it's rather clear that three of these things are not like the others... let's check them out.

These three lovely ladies are more of the "Toughest Girls of the Galaxy" range, yep same as the Vostroya Today cover model. While these are still posed in rather a "catalogue model" attitude I quite like them. The middle one has a too large head but the sculpting is actually really nice and they were a ton of fun to paint. Not least because the client wanted darker skin than the usual Caucasian. Picking which exact shade you can paint a model generally depends on the sculpt. These girls are very European in sculpt, but that means you can choose anything from the far North of Norway down all the way to bits of Turkey. Lots of choice. This skin tone started with Val Beige Brown, shaded with a mix of Reikland Fleshtone and Agrax Earthshade, highlighted by adding increasing amounts of Kislev Flesh to the Beige Brown and then glazed with Seraphim Sepia. I think it came out quite nicely and is definitely being added to my repertoire of skin tones I'm happy with.

The rest of the paint scheme was rather informed by their attachment to the brown Krieg forces. Camo greens, khaki and a saturated dark green was the order of the day and led to quite a quick, enjoyable session bashing them out. Fun models. No idea what I'd ever do with them myself, but fun nonetheless. One of those times where its nice to be a commission painter as you do things that you wouldn't have chosen to try yourself.

Heading back to the gasmask lads, well, there isn't a lot to say that I haven't said dozens of times before. So we'll just check out the pretty pictures and not worry about my blathering so much.

Really like this tank commander. Such contempt for the kind of weapons normally flicked at an armoured vehicle that not only is he out of his turret, but in a pose of absolute, casual calm.

And that's all for today. Hope you've liked them and more next week!

TTFN

Rocketgirl and friends

Hi folks, I'm back and I brought shinies!

These are a quartet of Inq28 operatives - probably not related in the client's own backstory but mashed together to prevent endless one-model-painted-posts (if people would prefer more regular but limited or sometimes repetitive posts let me know in the comments). The gang is a pair of - I think - Toughest Girls in the Galaxy, a kitbashed crusader from GW components and a nautical chap the origin of which I have no idea! an Aether Pirate from Miniatures of the North. As usual assembly all client, only colours are mine.

still struggling with colour fidelity, imagine this more crimson.

First up - as she looks most "in charge" of these four is the model I was thinking of as The Exorcist all through painting. The brief was for crimson robes, OSL staff and some sort of banishment scroll. So that is what we went with! I decided that I would pair the crimson with deep gold and mid brown leather. The colours worked nicely but needed some black lining to push the boundaries as there wasn't enough contrast in the scheme. Black lining is something we need to bring back more, especially those of us who like naturalistic schemes. The internet's obsession with "pushing contrast" makes great photographs but leaves us with that very cartoony, unrealistic look. I understand why studios do it. Trouble is, as photo sharing online is the way our community primarily interacts on painting it has become an unwelcome truism that high contrast is the only way as we're not judging the painting, we're judging the photos of the painting. A thin black-brown line is enough to break up the areas of detail and give us clean delineation of detail without that high contrast push. It may be old school, but it ain't useless.

There are bonus points available for anyone who recognises the banishment sigil on the scroll ;)

The crusader had an even simpler brief, red and white with lots of leather. I decided on a darker, more threatening red on this one with the white used very sparingly on the sleeve slashes. Initially, thinking of the lots of leather brief, I had the trousers in leather, but they were so clearly sculpted as fabric that it just looked wrong. I wound up deciding that the red was a uniform and the balance of the whole piece was improved. Speaking of which, the little spot colours of brass also help the balance. Before the helmet was brass with steel details it looked a bit plain and there was a weird stripe of brass across the midriff of the model with the sword hilt, belt and pouch aquillae all brass. Picking out the inner helmet in brass shifted the contrast colour back to the head and also had the side effect of making the helmet look much, much fancier.

For the Rocketgirl and her ageing retainer the brief was French Napoleonic voltigeurs. This means a rich blue with black leather, white trousers and white piping along with a yellow collar detail and red cuffs if available. Given that I was basically painting the Rocketeer I couldn't resist copper and brass as the mask and wing details. The blue flashes on the wings were another of those balancing considerations. It's hard to explain sometimes what I mean when I talk balance as I rarely photograph the times where it doesn't work. Might work up something tutorial flavoured at some point.

I'll level with you, I found this model to be quite crudely sculpted, the piping is massive and the epaulettes are chunky and irregular in size. I've clearly been spoiled rotten by the quality of modern miniatures. The ageing retainer was handled in the same way as the rocketgirl. The exception is the coat which I chose to paint the same grey as the voltigeurs of old. Initially I had it blue as well, but it just looked wrong. The grey works much nicer and also gave me the "industrial" colour of the middle of the wing on rocketgirl. My usual "add light grey instead of bone" method for the final highlights on the skin gave the aged look to the ageing retainer and all was good.

That's all for today folks, I know it's been a while between posts but these things happen right? Should have more shinies very soon.

TTFN

Combat Servitors Multipass

Hi folks, more shinies! Well... rusty and oilies today:

Yup, today's offerings are a pair of crude combat servitors, the one on the left is a conversion of a Mantic ghoul (one of the few Mantic sculpts I like) and the one on the right is a resin figure from I know not where. I just did the painting so can't say too much about assembly so we'll skip straight over that and into painting!

First up we have zombie-cyborg-Leeloo (yes, I saw what you did there sculptor, I got the reference with the "thermal bandages"). By the way, if you've no idea what the hell I am going on about or what the title references then you need to see the Fifth Element at your earliest convenience. Now would do, go watch it, I'll wait...

...Fun wasn't it? Anyway, the brief for these included that the skin should be not the usual death-pale servitor pallor but instead ill and waxy. Now this is a tricky thing to hit as it is mostly a quality of how the light reflects from it but colour wise it is usually yellowish, jaundiced, so I went with that. Now it is pretty much impossible for me to give you a recipe as I was fiddling with colour mixes back and forth but I know that Ungor Flesh and Rakarth Flesh were involved and mixes of washes and glazes made of blends of Flesh, Sepia and Yellow washes. It's more yellow in the flesh (badum-tish) but I'm still trying to get colour fidelity right. Miiiight need a greycard (photo nerding on your own time Jeff).

The one I was thinking of as the Arco-flagellant was simpler, less straps and things. I'd decided that the chainsword needed some classic 40k bling so broke out the hazard stripes. Both lenses were my usual Thunderhawk Blue shaded with black. Not a huge amount to talk about with him. Oh, the clothing is a very handy colour, Vallejo Stone Grey. A decent "shabby rags" colour.

That's all folks, more shinies inbound soon.

TTFN

Vostroya Today Cover Shoot

Greetings people (never have figured out a satisfactory clever collective noun for readers of PVP), today we have a rather more glamorous guardsman than usual:

I'm fairly sure that she is one of Raging Heroes sculpts and one of the better ones in my opinion. Less obviously sexualised (note "less", as opposed to "not"), more a soldier. However the pose did strike me from the get go as, well, a pose, she looked like she was striking a suitable heroic pose for a cameraman somewhere behind the fourth wall. So in my head, that's what she became, a trooper pulled out for the commissariat's civilian propaganda and recruitment wing, more on that later.

The sculpt is nice enough, technically very nice, lots of crisply cast details and equipment, nice. There are two minor quibbles I have, one is her hair which is filling a big undercut for the one piece casting of the body and head and thus only looks good from one angle. Fair enough, it's a technical rather than an aesthetic one but I might have tried to find a less obvious place to sacrifice. Hey ho, I am neither a sculptor, nor a caster so I know nothing, no-thing. The second is more of a subjective thing, it's the face. There is a tendency for female faces to be impassive masks devoid of expression. I know the problem stems from trying to get an attractive sculpt at 28mm scale where the slightest twitch of the sculpting tool radically alters the end result but I believe these were digitally sculpted so... Ah, I guess it's a personal thing, I think character comes from expression, displaying an emotion - determination, trepardation, fury, concentration... something. Anyway, on with the painting!

The brief was a delightfully Inception-like thing. I was to paint a Vostroyan-esque figure in the beige Death Korps scheme that was itself based on an old Vostroyan figure! Thus the scheme will be a familiar one to long term readers. Most of the choices thus made for me by Past Jeff I was able to just relax and enjoy the process. Really, the only choices I had to agonise over were the hair - I ended up going for platinum blonde to make the face pop from all the beige and to reinforce the already catwalk model physique - and things like the fur trim on the coat and hat. One big section that had me scratching my head was the flag. She's holding a large piece of fabric in her right hand, clearly a flag of some sort but not held with any respect, more a trophy. I figured I wanted a little bit of red and gold on the flag as, well, I'm painting a Vostroyan and I have something of a Soviet bent to my Bolt Action collection. Trouble was, that was going to be a very, very bright spot and would draw attention away from the face. Not ideal.

The solution came to me by first painting the flag as a captured arch-enemy banner. I would drag the flag through the dirt of the battlefield, thus dulling the colours and keeping the focus where it ought to be. My normal dirt weathering sequence wasn't going to work too well with my client's preferred urban basing. Mud doesn't work well with rubble. Thus I started by stippling a drybrush of Val German Camo Black-Brown - it's got to be a very dry brush - building up layers of dirt. Then Stormvermin Fur and finally a little light grey (can't remember which) mixed with the Stormvermin fur. I used a clean wet brush to do a little blending of the final layers that hadn't fully cured and finished the whole thing off with some spots of black for soot. Perfect. A point of interest but not a distraction from the rest of the model.

With the shoot finished (the camera and I are gradually reaching an accord) I couldn't resist a five minute photoshop job and create a trashy supermarket tabloid cover for her. I think Vostroya Today works ;)

TTFN

The Toffs of Colony 87

Hiya folks, guess what... we got shinys to look at!

Yup, not only are the last three Colony 87 residents finished but I am finally, finally wrangling the new camera into shape. Thus... content for the blog for the first time in too long. Lets get straight to it: These chaps are - like all the other colony 87 residents - nice, slightly cartoony resins with bags of character. While the cartoonishness has never been quite to my liking I really love that this range exists. More roleplay-esque characters need to exist for sci-fi in particular but heck, just more in general please! Speaking of these characters, let's meet these:

First up we have the corpulent governor. Over-fed and indulged this peacock struts about the Colony armed discretely with a tiny digital weapon (seriously, the ring on his left hand is a digi-weapon). I actually ended up painting both this chap and his missus below twice as I started off reaching for the purple. Heck, purple is rich and I wanted these two oozing money, trouble was, it looked terrible. For some reason the purple just did not work. So I ditched it and went instead for a dark but vibrant red (that the camera completely failed to capture due to the layers of ink that went in to it) and a bottle green tunic. The combination seemed to work fine and the greying blonde - ridiculous - hair carried the yellow accents up into the head.

His missus shares hubbies colour scheme but with more brass armour plating. While painting her I was trying to figure her story (helps with the colour selection and effects), eventually I got to the point where some seriously dodgy science had been brought to bear in order to allow the tiny be-ruffed heir to the dynasty to be born. I painted her skin as pale and drawn, made the tubes that enter her nose (if they were supposed to be jewellery - nose chains - then they are waaaay to thick) be supplying cleaned blood and nutrients and assumed that the armour was actually an augmetic suit to help her walk. Yup, happy stories provided free folks, sheesh.

Finally we have their hapless bearer toting their purchases from colony stores. I think he's actually a general labourer in the original intent but I had three figures to showcase and it made sense to link them. While painting him I got the impression of "employee", he didn't seem to be acting for himself as the scavengers were or have a lot of agency. Thus when choosing his colours I went with recollections of some of the downright weird corporate uniforms I or friends have had to wear in our early years. Petrol blue was from my old Woolworths uniform as a young 'un and it paired rather nicely (in some colony exec's eyes) with a salmon pink shirt. The Amphibon style jackets they all seem to wear got the usual XV-88.

And that's all folks. Obviously there will be more shinys in coming weeks, hopefully with increasing quality of photographs as I figure out what tricks I need to get the best fidelity and reproduction of my work. Until then

TTFN