Warmaster: High Elf Spearmen

I still haven't cracked a way of painting wargaming models that is really efficient.

After a burst of activity over summer I thought that I was onto something and so laid out pretty much 2000 points of Warmaster High Elves factory style.  I undercoated them and based them and put spares on lolly sticks to paint more easily.  I glued some spares and gave them the same treatment.

Then I began painting some base colours on them but... This factory style didn't inspire, rather I looked at the line up of lead and sighed!

Nevertheless I found my way back to finishing off one or two, and here's the first of what I hope is a batch over the next few weeks, my first rank and file High Elf unit!

Yes all the elf glyphs are hand painted, and yes I am not a smart man...

Warmaster: Undead Skeletons

  A while back I piggy backed on another person's project in order to help make a suitable Skeleton horde proxy for Warmaster.  The original creator had made 8 skeleton sculpts in 10mm scale, and I paid to have 3 more made to add some variety to the unit.  I did some concept sketches for the kind of thing I was hoping for:

And now I finally have the finished product!

There are 11 sculpts in total, but a unit has 31 models in total, enough to cram three bases with dusty bones!

Warmaster: High Elf Chariots

A misguided attempt to begin batch painting bogged me down.  But now I have the fruits of my labours, two High Elf chariot units for Warmaster, about 195 points worth.

Unit 1:

Unit 2:

Both together, a dangerous battleline to be facing!

Hawk Walk - Feathers & Fur

  My family discovered the wonderful Feathers and Fur on the way to Reading and we have visited them several times to experience some really beautiful birds of prey that have been rescued.

  You can look around at the birds in their aviaries at the garden centre it's attached to on most days.  There are event days when they encourage children to learn about the birds, the owls especially. 

  On these days the volunteers bring out a couple of the better socialised birds and only charge a couple of pounds to handle them.

  Just today, I went out with my Dad and the experienced handler, Sadie, on a hawk walk.  We took a Harris Hawk called "Echo" out with us.  It's more the case that we have the privilege of witnessing him chase things in the fields and have to lure him back with bits of chicken, than that we are engaging in falconry!

   The above shot shows Echo sizing my arm to clamber up...

  And here I feel rather complimented that he's decided that my shoulder is an OK lookout to try and see a pheasant that escaped him earlier in the day!  We were blessed with some beautiful weather, a low autumn sun that seemed blinding to us but not to Echo as we went on his usual circuit around the fields.

  My Dad took some excellent photos but the one above is definitely my favourite!

First steps in EPIC: Armageddon

Whilst I love Warmaster and am prioritising that for painting, I have been giving myself a "break" to do modelling and painting for other scales and systems.

The smaller lead mountain I have for EPIC contains Space Wolf, Eldar and Grey Knight forces.  My aim for Epic is the same for Warmaster in that I want to be able to put out good looking and unobtrusive terrain and markers.

These are 5 official resin Forge World markers that are now OOP, and a scratch objective made from 3 Warhammer 40k Terminator squad teleport beacons.  They are based on 40mm steel washers for transportation and weighting.

I got distracted by the idea of a Grey Knight army and am using the provisional fan list on the Tactical Command forum.  These are Inquisitorial Chimeras, for transporting retinues; hodge podge mixtures of highly disciplined shock troops... And insane fanatics!

These are the first real Grey Knight unit group I completed, rhinos painted in the GK scheme.  Might have to make more depending on how the fan list evolves.  Really proud of these.

Warmaster: High Elves

I finally find myself in a groove for painting Warmaster, and have had a productive month!

First off, High Elf Bolt Throwers.

Then, a General riding a mighty Dragon!

And finally, a proper core unit, Silver Helms cavalry, an important hitter unit for the Elves.

I have all sorts on my table still to do. I want to keep this pace up and have a proper army fully painted very soon!

Nature Break!

As I went onto the patio after lunch, I heard a sound like a flutter of wings.  But it wasn't a bird, it was this beautiful green dragonfly.

It kept patrolling a very narrow space around some ferns, flitting loudly from place to place, and flew into my face and landed on my eyebrow, then on my chest!  It stayed so close that I had time to get a little macro photo of it!

And a toad that tried to make it's home in the compost!

Warmaster: Chaos Knights

Finally got into the groove for painting my Warmaster!

I blitzed a unit of Chaos Knights and I think they came out looking spot on!

The past few days I've been working on Chaos Warriors and some High Elves.  I faffed about with different ideas but seem to have settled on this as a paint scheme.

My aim for this month is to either round out the Chaos Army or get a small High Elf force painted for this wonderful game.

Stag Beetles!

 It's the time of year when beetles are abroad!

These beautiful and harmless creatures are Britain's largest insect but sadly they are in decline.  We keep chopped up logs in the garden which are a haven for wildlife and attract creatures like beetles to feed on.  They also attract interesting animals like woodpeckers who come to feed on them.

http://ptes.org/campaigns/stag-beetles/stag-beetle-facts/

There is a campaign at the above link to report stag beetles if you find them.  I just sent them a report for a few in our garden.  Including the very shy female below.

 

This male was from last year but he posed so handsomely for the photo I felt I should include him here!

Dad's Day Drawings

Since it's Father's Day, I thought I'd share a funny little tradition that I started years ago for my Dad.  I love finding and choosing cards because nowadays the noisy, tiresome "U R <age> WELL DUN" ones are not the only option.  Local artists make their own you can pick up at craft fairs and even chain stores have artsy unique cards that offer variety.

Even with that choice, I felt like I should be putting a bit of originality into my well wishing for my parents, considering how much they do for me, so I decided to draw little cartoons of my father's favourite animal; the hare.

Above are two from a few years ago - and below one I drew last night, I hope showing how I've developed to sketch things a bit more organically and characterfully.

 Happy Father's Day, everyone!

Warmaster: Scenery & Terrain

 My initial plan for this year was to paint / do / make a lot more than last year.  2014 was a year where I got very little done.  Whilst I've not quite done the "10 figures a week" or the "1 blister a week" challenge, I have been chipping away at various dormant projects.

Here I have some terrain for the excellent but now sadly defunct GW game "Warmaster".  Some resin rocks from eBay that were absolutely ridden with holes and took a long time to fix up.

 And in addition, two lots of stone walls from http://www.totalbattleminiatures.com/ which are metal, not resin.  Metal chips easily so I gave them a triple coat of matt varnish, put steel paper on the bases and lashings of green static grass around the edges to give them some protection.  Warmaster is 10mm scale so these could represent a literal, small stone wall or the defences at the edge of a large town in a more abstract sense.

Ponies!

I’ve been rather aimless in terms of finding good imaginative things to draw without objectives.  But seeing how easily even a little 10 second doodle can cheer people up has put me in the mind to try and draw things for people around me.

I have a couple of very sweet girls in my life who are fans of My Little Pony.  I thought it would be fun to draw them each a character in the style of the show.  It turns out there’s an excellent spin off comic of the cartoon with an excellent and characterful illustrator called Andy Price:

http://comicsalliance.com/artist-andy-price-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-comics/

I attempted to mimic his style for these pictures.  The scans aren’t very good but I feel I managed to imbue the original pictures with a degree of character.

 The first is a "cutie mark crusader", meaning she does not have a "cutie mark" (the flank symbolthat denotes a pony's talent) but I had her making friends with a butterfly to suggest that her talent will be to do with animals, the same as the girl I drew her for.

The latter I named "Inkwell" and gave her a pen-nib as a "cutie mark" to suggest her love of reading and writing, as that felt appropriate for it's intended!

"Greetings, Traveller!"

This is my first foray into blogging – a record of explorations in wargaming, illustration and weird fiction!


I will mostly be posting pictures of modelling and wargames – along with attempts to self improve in illustrating characters and stories.