So here’s something weird.

This project started with the pumpkins. I found them at a model train shop a few years ago, and have been meaning to use them for something. When I happened to find them in a drawer the other day, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to make something fun in time for Halloween.

I’ve also wanted to use a mug for a base for some time… don’t ask me why. It’s just something I wanted to try.
For the actual miniature I chose the Necromancer, since he fit the spooky theme. With all these things in mind I sat down to plan this out.

A simple black mug seemed like the best and least distracting choice, and I tend to use black display bases anyway.
I filled it with polystyrene and covered that with a sheet of plasticard, at the center of which I glued a hollow display “donut" where the Necromancer’s base would go.
I then built up the rest of the base with green stuff, even letting it spill over the edges of the mug, and added some gravestones and a fence from the Garden of Morr kit.
I also added some leaves, found at the same model train shop as the pumpkins. In hindsight I think the pumpkins look alright, but the stalks and leaves are awful and I won’t be using them again. Oh well, I tried it.
To tie the Necromancer to the base I added a couple of pumpkins to his staff and painted part of his robes orange, keeping the rest of him neutral and warm. To contrast with that, the stones were painted a cold, blueish grey.

All in all, this was a fun and quirky project to make. At least I got some use out of those pumpkins.

Happy Halloween.

Roger

Golden Demon 2016 – Ulrik The Slayer

Here’s my take on the iconic Space Wolves Wolf Priest Ulrik The Slayer, which won a Silver demon at Golden Demon Classic in May, an award I’m incredibly happy about!

Ulrik has always been one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite Space Marine chapters. Brooding, noble and wise, and nicknamed “The Slayer” – what’s not to like? When I read the rumours online that there might be a new plastic model coming out I knew I had to paint it, and when I finally saw it I was completely blown away. This is absolutely one of my favorite Space Marine miniatures ever. Everything from the commanding pose to the detailing – scars, eyepatch, totems, cape, furs and a frowny face – makes for an amazing figure to paint.

Like a lot of painters, I tend to start work on a model like this with the face which, again, is just phenomenal. 

The rest of the paint job was fairly straight-forward. I wanted to use quite saturated colours, and I decided to make the armour a very cold-looking black (cold tones I mean, but I imagine Space Wolves keep their suits chilled as well) to contrast better with all the red, yellow, gold and bone. 

For the base I wanted something clean and fairly monochrome that worked with his aged and battle-hardened character, and found that the annulus stone from Logan Grimnar’s Stormrider was just the right size to use as a base. 

I cleaned it up with some green stuff and fashioned a second tier from a piece of polyurethane modeling board (look it up if you’re not using it, great stuff.) I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

This guy was fantastic to paint, hope you like it!

Fore more images, check us out on Facebook!
And if you have any questions or comments, don’t be a stranger.  

Martin

Imps vs. Nids diorama WIP part 11 - Left flank done

Part 1 - Concept
Part 2 - Imperial forces
Part 3 - Base
Part 4 - Ammo crates
Part 5 - Guards then tyranids
Part 6 - Finished build
Part 7 - Painting the nids
Part 8 - Transportation box
Part 9 - Painting the first guards
Part 10 - Left flank WIP

Last time I showed you a preview of the left flank. In this part it is pretty much finished. There’s not much to add that hasn’t been said already. The colour schemes are the same and I’ve done my best to try out new skin tones to make the guards as individual as possible.

Observant readers might notice that there is a lack of blood in the scene. While I choose to define these models as “finished” I will eventually add blood, mud, and weathering once all models on the diorama are painted to this level. A project of this size runs a high risk of inconsistency in levels of painting standards as my skills improve over the course of the project. This is already very noticeable when comparing the first and latest gaunts. One way to tackle this is to leave some final details for last so that I do them at the same time to get a finish as uniform as possible.

It took me a while to get this posted so more work on other side projects and the base is well underway. Stay around for more updates.

Filip

MONTE SAN SAVINO SHOW - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Since pictures say a thousand words we’ll keep this short. We were lucky enough to make it to the 2015 Monte San Savino Model Show.

This year happened to be the MSS 10 year anniversary and proved to be bigger and better than ever, with too many jaw-dropping entries to count and probably the highest standard across the board to date!

The high level became abundantly clear during the award ceremony where many of the biggest names in miniature painting walked away with no more than a bronze or silver for projects that would have easily taken home a “best of show award” at other competitions!

We had a blast meeting up with old (and new) friends from all over the world, spending a fantastic weekend in sunny Italy, with good food, lots of laughter and awesome miniatures!

To top it all off, Max was lucky enough to bring home a bronze medal in the Master Level of the Fantasy/Sci-fi Painting Category along with a lot of our friends who ended up on stage winning well deserved awards throughout the evening’s prize ceremony.

There are loads of miniature painters and blogs out there that have covered this event already, big thanks goes out to John Harrison for taking tons of great pictures (and letting us borrow some) as well as Volomir’s massive MSS facebook album (check it out here!) and although we didn’t get a chance to photograph all of the entries we thought we’d share a chunk of mixed pics in no specific order… and hopefully we’ll see you all at Monte next year! 

Stockholm Warpaint

Morko bust – Puddy edition

Everyone knows pirates also exist in the world of fantasy, and there’s nothing better than an Orc pirate!
I painted this amazing bust for a competition that LeBeN Miniatures ran through their Facebook page last year.
It’s the first time I’ve painted a bust, and indeed something of this size. It was a really fun challenge and a step up for me.
I spent a lot of time on the skin. The inspiration for the colder tones comes from various concept sketches of yetis. The skin is full of marks and scars from different battles and raids Morko and his crew have been through.
To add some more character and personality I resculpted his ears and added stretched lobes. I have stretched lobes myself, so I thought it would be a fun detail.
The golden tooth came to be because I actually lost the original tooth, so I gave him a gold replacement, and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. A very piratey conversion.
I hope you like it!

YAAAR!!

Patric

Imps vs. Nids diorama WIP part 10 - Left flank almost done

Part 1 - Concept
Part 2 - Imperial forces
Part 3 - Base
Part 4 - Ammo crates
Part 5 - Guards then tyranids
Part 6 - Finished build
Part 7 - Painting the nids
Part 8 - Transportation box
Part 9 - Painting the first guards

Sometimes it’s just nice to see how the project you’re working on looks during the building process. With one model it’s one thing to put the arms and body together, but with a 50-model diorama it’s a whole other level…

As you read this I’m already well underway painting the three remaining guardsmen (including the two unfinished ones in the pics) on this side of the trench. Once they’re finished it will definitely feel like I’ve reached a first milestone. I will then take a break from the models and finish the trench and perhaps parts of the base.

Filip

The Cult of the Dying Sun - part 4

My idea and theme for this army is that they were based in a system with an old sun. Most of the planets in the system are barren and deserted, all but stripped of any valuable resources.
In desperate need of fresh supplies, and beset by warp storms, the army eventually abandoned the system, keeping only their name as a reminder of their former home.

The Succubus, Thenhina, Queen of Pain, set course for a nearby system, searching for any sign of life. They finally landed on a jungle world, rich in resources but swarming with Catachan Imperial Guardsmen. The humans were garrisoned there to protect something…

The idea for the army list was a fast, light, mobile army, with as many vehicles as possible. And with the new Maelstorm missions in the game, this army just became even better!

The Wych Cult is based around this:    
10  Wyches
6 Bikes                                                                                                        
1 Raider
1 Venom
1 Succubus                                                          

To which I added:
10 Kabalites
5 Kabalite Trueborn
1 Raider
1 Bomber    

                                                                                                                          Since the Cult comes from a desert planet I already had my colour scheme – a cold, beige tone.

I always use three primary colours for my painting projects: a base, a complementary colour and a contrast colour. So for the desert beige base, I went for black as a complement with turquoise as a contrast.
I also used a dark purple on the Wyches’ hair to make them stand out even more. 

I hope you guys will get some inspiration out of this, and feel free to ask any questions you might have. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook!

Patric

It’s been quite a while since I posted anything here so I thought I’d show you a thing I did recently – a quick paint job of the new gryph-hound from Age of Sigmar, painted in a more exotic colour scheme than the studio version.
I like the sculpt, it really gives you the opportunity to go to town with freehand and different patterns on the skin, and I knew I wanted to do something that resembled a real animal but with a touch of fantasy to it. Hope you like it.

Sten

After working on my diorama for what seemed like forever I felt that I needed a side project. One night Max as was finishing up his Knight Pilot converted from an Officer of the Fleet model. It’s always been one of those “I’ve got to paint that one day”-models. The moment I mentioned it Martin said that I should convert a Rogue Trader out of one and threw all manner of ideas at me. As much as I’d like to take credit for it, Martin was really the one that came up with this idea.

First I went to town with the scalpel and clippers on the poor metal model. I simply removed any imperial looking details and replaced them with more pirately looking ones. I also needed a base that would tell a story. This was a bad guy, so I thought an indication on that he had just boarded an imperial ship was the way to do it. Aquilas and a computer screen would do the trick and provide a chance for some freehand painting. A candle added some 40k feel to it, then the arm of a murdered crew member, and viola!

The painting was a pretty straight forward fun few weeks. I tried a rather limited palette with the dark blue, red and yellow. The facial hair was a first for me and the freehand on the sword and screen turned out pretty good. As a final touch I added smoke to the candle as if it had just been blown out together with the poor crew.

The model made the first cut in the 40k Single category at Golden Demon Warhammer Fest 2014 and bronze at the Fang Stockholm Painting Competition.

Make sure to check it out and vote over at CMON here: http://www.coolminiornot.com/384457

Filip

Imps vs. Nids diorama WIP part 9 - Painting the first guards

Part 1 - Concept
Part 2 - Imperial forces
Part 3 - Base
Part 4 - Ammo crates
Part 5 - Guards then tyranids
Part 6 - Finished build
Part 7 - Painting the nids
Part 8 - Transportation box

After painting 9 gaunts I took a break with some Imperial Guard.
As a contrast to the Tyranids I chose to paint the guards in warmer tones. Since there is no background that I can find on the guard regiments fighting hive fleet Kraken I have no thoughts about this regiment except for the markings. I made up my own regimental symbol since they’re not fighting for Cadia. This is a little homage to my own space marine chapter The Doom Bringers that also has a scythe as chapter badge. I created and painted the Space Marines for GW’s Chapter Master competition back in 2004!

It was nice to have a break from the never ending tide of ‘nids, since they all just look the same. These guys were a lot quicker to paint, they gave me the chance to practice some freehand, experiment with blood effects and also play around with their facial expressions. I’ve already started another 3 gaunts and am only halfway through with the skin after 8 hours of painting…ugh.
The feeling that I’m finally getting somewhere is the only thing keeping me going.

Filip

Imps vs. Nids diorama WIP part 8 - Transportation box

Part 1 - Concept
Part 2 - Imperial forces
Part 3 - Base
Part 4 - Ammo crates
Part 5 - Guards then tyranids
Part 6 - Finished build
Part 7 - Painting the nids

Even though safely transporting even a single miniature sometimes can a bit of a challenge I knew transporting a piece like this diorama would be difficult and require its own solution.

Normally I would drill a hole and attach a bolt nut underneath the base of a miniature to safely be able to fasten it on the lid of a jar. This diorama however would need to build a customized box.

Fortunately I had this in mind and drilled holes for two nuts when I first made the base. Later when I had finished building the models I could take the minimum required measurements and spend a night in my dad’s workshop to build the box.

Filip

The Cult of the Dying Sun - Part 3

The last couple of days I’ve tried to finish the vehicles for my army, and here are some pictures of the progress I’ve made. Next week I’ll post better pictures of all the finished vehicles, and some sneak peeks of the rest of the army!

Also, as I promised I’ll share the method I’m using to paint the armour. These steps are all done with an airbrush.
I start by basecoating the whole miniature with Camouflage Medium Brown, followed by a highlight of Khaki Brown applied at a 45 degree downward angle.
Finally I spray a thin coat of Light Brown from directly above the miniature.
Once that’s done and dry, I use a brush too add shades in the recesses with Camo M Brown, followed by a line highlight using Light Brown. To finish everything off I use Sand on the outmost edges. And that’s it!

Patric

Marco Colombo

Here’s a couple of pictures of the finished Marco Colombo I painted about a year ago. I originally started working on this guy just to have something to show people at the 2013 GDUK Winner’s day last year.

Although hardly noticeable in these pics, his slotta-base is removable from the display plinth.

The part I enjoyed the most on this project was all the little jungle reptiles that came with the miniature – the chameleon, the frog and the salamander! They are so tiny that they’re easily overlooked. I made sure to study pictures of blue poisonous dart frogs and fire salamanders for reference. 

Another fun part was the Lustria themed display base. If you haven’t seen the two WIP posts for this project check them out here:

WIP Post - Part One

WIP Post - Part Two

Sten