Helbrute and Astorath the Grim WIP

Just a quick progress update today on what I have been up to since finishing the Clawed Fiend.

To start things off with, I have begun painting the fleshy parts of the Helbrute from the Dark Vengeance boxset. I have been following the tutorial over on Tale of Painters. I want to make the fleshy parts a bit lighter than how Garfy has it on there, so will use a touch more white to make it all a bit paler.

So far, I am enjoying painting this guy, just seems to take forever to get anywhere. On the plus side though, once the flesh is done there isn't really that much of him left to do!

Another project ongoing at the moment is the very first Blood Angel to be painted by me. Astorath the Grim, as can be seen in the picture, has not got a huge amount of paint on him yet.

However, this belies the amount of time I have spent refixing the head of axe to the handle after snapping it off accidentally (sorry Ian).

He is also the first model I am painting having used the Vallejo Surface Primer to base the model. It goes on incredibly smoothly and covers up very little of the detail, which is something I have struggled with while using the spray on primers recently.

So far all Astorath has is a coat of Mephiston Red followed by a wash of Carroburg Crimson over his armour only.

And finally, the lastest model I have built, Interrogator-Chaplain Seraphicus of the Dark Angels.

Again based with the Vallejo Surface Primer, the model detail is incredible and I cannot wait to get stuck into painting my first Dark Angel.

So, that is all for the moment folks, hopefully will get another post or two up in the coming days.

Done, Done, On to the Next One

The blog has been a little slow recently and for that I wholeheartedly apologise. However I am now through the busy period of autumn and looking forward to events that I can chart through the blog.

First up is the completion of the mini-challenge I set myself to get some of my Dark Eldar completed by the end of October. The Clawed Fiend (pic to the right) marks the end of the challenge and the start of the painting up of some of the Chaos models I have in my collection at the moment.

So, enjoy a few more pictures of the Clawed Fiend who will accompany the Beastmaster whenever my Dark Eldar take to the field of battle.

 

And here is a shot of the completed group, with the Beastmaster, Clawed Fiend, Talos Pain Engine, Grotesques and Lelith Hesperax all complete:

Finally, where will we travel next in the Immaterium? I have the Chaos Helbrute sat on my painting table as I write, with Interrogator-Chaplain Seraphicus and Astorath the Grim waiting in the wings for a session with the paintbrush. With the blog I will also start looking at what painting and modelling techniques need to be improved for my entry into the Golden Demon 2013, and my search for hints and tips around the internet and other blogs to help me on my way. Exciting times lay ahead, I cannot wait to get started!

Lelith Hesperax

Another of the Dark Eldar completed now, with Lelith Hesperax the latest citizen of Commorragh to be completed.

Not much else to say, but I will be revisiting this model in the series of posts I am going to do that will look at areas I need to invest practice time for next years Golden Demon. Feel free to throw up any thoughts you guys have in relation to things that should really have been done better on her.

Anyway, here are the rest of the pictures:

Thanks for looking, hopefully the Clawed Fiend will be complete very shortly and shots of it will be up on here for anyone looking to see!

Golden Demon 2012 and Beyond

It may have happened a few weeks ago, but I have been enjoying the pictures of all the entries for this years Golden Demon UK. I did not go to the event myself, but the pictures of the entrants I have seen look fantastic. I have included in this post some of my favourite pictures from GD, which I found over at From the Fang where there are a lot more pictures than I have here.

The quality of the entrants I have seen in some of the pictures was truly breath taking. The Slayer Sword winner (pic below, on the right) is a phenomenal piece, which I would love to reach the quality of. Others such as the Space Marine Librarian vs Eldar Farseer (left) shows some wonderful imagination from the creator to make such an amazing duel.

Which brings me on to the cryptic challenge I left at the end of my completed Grotesques post. I am going to enter the UK Golden Demon in 2013. I like the idea of the challenge I face. There are certain areas I will definitely need to improve upon and I will be investigating each of these through a series of posts as I work my way toward the Games Day of 2013.

The first step I have taken is trying to find out some tips on preparation people suggest for the event and found some useful info over at Bestienmeister .

First step that is needed to be taken is a critical evaluation of my painting style, looking at what I can do well and what I am not so good at. From there, I get on with practicing, pulling together the techniques I need and then to begin sorting out entries in the categories I will look to enter.

I will be using the blog to chart the progress I make toward the Golden Demon competition, as well as getting the thoughts and feedback (hopefully) from you guys that will push me to improve even further and have at least one decent model sat on the judging tables in about a years time.

It is a long term plan, I do not doubt it will take up a fair bit of time if I am going to make a decent attempt at it, but I am quite excited about giving it a go and pushing myself to try and have some models entered in to the competition.

All pictures in this post are from this years Games Day, taken by Alex over at From the Fang. Many thanks to him for letting me use them for this post. 

If Only Hoverboards Were Real...

Remember Back to the Future? All those hoverboards and how cool they were, how much you wanted them to really exist? I certainly do and I am still bitterly disappointed that time seems to be running out on that dream.

But fear not, I have finished the Beastmaster who gets to travel around on this flying board. Admittedly the board is more Green Goblin than Michael J Fox, but I am still dreaming of that damn board even at nearly 30 years of age.

There were points during the painting of this guy that I really felt like scrapping him. Not even strip him and start again, but chuck him in the bin and forget he even existed. The spray primer went on far to thick in certain areas (feet, engine, the cylinders on his leg, chain/board connector thing in his crotch) which I felt was overly ruining the model. However I pushed him on to see what result I could get from that point, and here are the results:

All comments welcome, so let me know any thoughts you have about this guy.