Sunday 17 March 2024

Meanwhile, in Barovia...

I'm getting close to painting up all of the old metal Eldar harlequins. I've got all the miniatures now: I just need to finish them off. At last I have a project that combines the artistic aspect of painting and the middle-aged man aspect of collecting all of something pointless.

In the meantime, I've been working on a sort of side-project. For a while, I've been playing the most recent version of "The Curse of Strahd", a classic Dungeons and Dragons adventure set in a sort of gothic horror fantasy world called Barovia. I happened to find a bunch of models that reminded me of Strahd on ebay, going for a very low price. 

They're from a line called Vampire Wars, made by West Wind Miniatures. They look vaguely Napoleonic/Eastern European in style, the sort of people who crop up in Hammer films working for or against Dracula, perhaps in a gypsy caravan. Here are four of them.







They're not very detailed models and feel quite cartoony and "old school". When they first arrived, I felt a bit disappointed, but they've grown on me since.

The chap in the green coat had a very flimsy knife in his right hand, which I replaced with a sword from a Frostgrave soldier. It looked better and was much more robust. I considered painting some object source lighting coming from the torch he's holding up, but it was too difficult, and I just added a small effect. I suspect that he's outdoors, and there wouldn't be much light on his clothing.

I also painted two dogs from a Celt model from Warlord Games. They look a bit like Irish Wolfhounds and would be useful for chasing peasants, vampires and/or witches.



Last of all, I painted up a vampire model from North Star Miniatures, from their Napoleonic game The Silver Bayonet. I liked the model, but I wasn't that keen on her hands, which were raised in an odd, limp-wristed sort of way. I replaced them with hands holding a sword and a fancy knife, from plastic Frostgrave soldiers. I reckon she's broken into the family armoury in order to deal with some irritating vampire hunters.

I painted her up to have cold-looking, undead skin. It's grey shaded up with pink, with very thinned down purple glazes. I really like this miniature. North Star have some really cool models. 







Monday 11 March 2024

Great Big Tyranid Bug (and bonus eggs)

 Hello again! I've been painting some more tyranids this week. It's interesting to paint a brand new tyranid model in my oldhammer colour scheme.

This is a psychophage, apparently. As one of the interchangeable idiots in Starship Troopers puts it, it's some kind of big smart bug. I reckon half the world must own one of these kits by now, as ebay is full of them going cheaply. 

It was a push-together GW kit, which is another way of saying that it didn't push together. It was also a right pain to paint, as simply getting at most of the model was really hard. I'm glad that I painted a lot of it on the sprue. 

The painting was fairly simple - Flesh Tearers Red contrast paint over a white undercoat, and a thin wash of Leviathan Purple in the recesses. Good as contrast paints can be, I don't think that's enough for the skin of a big monster, and so I added red and highlighted in the normal way as well.

I really like the way that he's got a severed arm in his tentacles. There are some really nice details on this chap, but they're not excessive.






I also dug out these eggs that I made from DAS clay and green stuff about 15 years ago. I gave them a repaint and put them on flatter bases. Goodness knows what function they'd have in a game, but they're nice enough.


I also painted some tyranid rippers, but for some reason I just can't get a decent photo of the damned things. So you'll just have to imagine them. Sorry!



Sunday 3 March 2024

Another Bunch of Harlequins

 I've been painting some more harlequins. I find that they take quite a lot of concentration, both to actually paint on the fiddly checks and to figure out the colour schemes. Obviously they're supposed to be chaotic and jarring, but choosing quite how to do that is interesting. It's standard process to try to draw the eye to a model's head, but I don't think you can do that with models like this. I reckon that their outfits are a kind of dazzle camouflage, too bewildering to focus on.

Anyhow, they're a lot of fun to paint, and the models have loads of nice details even before you start adding your own. 

This guy - actually, I think this harlequin is female, although it's always hard to tell - has a plasma pistol (unusually, for these models) and a harlequin's kiss, a sort of punch-dagger-meets-food-blender weapon. 




This chap has a shuriken pistol, a chainsword and an outfit that a 1990s raver might consider a little excessive. Blow your whistles, craftworld!



This model is a Death Jester, a heavy weapons specialist. He's the third of a team of three. It was quite difficult to give him bits of colour while keeping to the sinister Venetian carnevale/Baron Samedi look of the Death Jesters.




And here's a picture of a whole bunch of harlequins, being bewildering. They're moving faster than the eye can see, which is why the picture is so blurry.




Sunday 25 February 2024

Another Harlequin and a Genestealer Patriarch

 

This week, I painted another harlequin. I've not done one for a while, and it was a real pleasure to be painting checks and doing bright colours again.



It occurs to me that I've collected most of the old metal harlequins from the original metal boxed set. Perhaps I should try to get the whole lot. I think that would be quite cool, and they're all excellent models.


*


I decided to have a go at bulk-painting some old plastic Space Hulk genestealers. I seem to have absolutely loads of these miniatures. Like the old plastic termagants, they're monopose models. They're really good sculpts, with lots of detail, even if they are sticking their tongues out like so many of the goofier tyranids.

I used contrast paint for the purple and blue, over a standard white undercoat. I found it quite annoying, as the damn stuff refused to cover properly. I ended up highlighting the armour and skin (somewhat roughly). I'm not sure that the contrast paint did much that a heavy wash wouldn't have done.




I also dug out a very old Genestealer Patriarch model. The patriarch is a weirdly-coloured, bloated monstrosity worshipped by deranged cultists and hell-bent on dictatorial power who, whilst foul, is merely the slave of a much greater threat to humanity. So purely a fictional creation.

While some might have made the leader of the genestealers into a bigger, meaner genestealer (as GW did later with the broodlord), the patriarch is a fat, saggy-looking creature wearing the sort of gold chain favoured by town mayors and 1980s rappers. I have no idea why, but it works in a bizarre way. To emphasise his size, I put him on a slightly raised base. 







Here's the patriarch with his identical spawn:




Sunday 18 February 2024

A few Mordheim loonies

Here are some more random people for Mordheim. 

Our first weirdo was made from part of a plastic skaven, which I got in a job lot of models. It was missing some bits, so I added some of my own.

He got a head from an Empire wizard and a right arm from an Empire pistolier. His bag was made from a kroot part, as were the grenades on his belt. I painted them to look like glass bombs, full of some noxious potion. I extended the strap on the belt and finished off the model's armour with green stuff.




I considered painting the model with a sooty face, as if his guns had backfired, but I didn't think that I could do this convincingly. He was painted to fit in with the Middenheimer unit that I've been making. 

This is Gustav, a former clockmaker who survives in the ruins of Mordheim with his customised guns.

 








*

 I like beastmen: they look like something from a medieval picture of Hell, rather than the Doom-meets-Buffy feel of some of Warhammer's demons. They used to have their own army book, which contained a lot of different sorts of goat-people and even a reference to a centaur trying to roger a unicorn.

These models have taken a break from unicorn-bothering and are looking for someone to smash. They're converted from plastic Blackstone Fortress models, which largely involved removing their guns and chainswords and giving them swords and shields instead. The shields are old skeleton shields, and have a nice decrepit look. I also removed some grenades and holsters from their belts and covered them with armour and pouches.





I reckon these guys would be called something like Grutt Manbasher or Krub Meatbeater, and would spend a lot of time grunting and bellowing.

*

I also painted a ghoul, who is an old metal model. He's much more cartoony than the other ghouls that I've made for Mordheim, but I like his nosferatu-type look. He's got purple pants, to fit in with the rest of the undead.




Sunday 11 February 2024

The Last Exodite Dragon Knight - And The Whole Squad



Having made four Eldar Exodite dragon knights, I decided to make their leader. While most of the squad are riding small dinosaurs, like Jurassic Park's velociraptors, this chap would have something weirder and larger, perhaps a bit like oviraptor and other strudithomimids.

Some models are a pleasure to make and paint, and others... aren't. For some reason, this miniature just seemed to go on and on. By the time that I was trying to get his torso to stick to his legs for the fourth bloody time, I began to suspect that I was cursed: doomed, like the Ancient Mariner or one of those guys, to assemble the same bloody miniature forever.

Anyhow, at long last the wretched thing got finished. And, actually, I'm really pleased with him (for now, before he falls apart again). 

As with all the dragon riders, this chap was based on bits - mainly metal - that I bought from GW Mail Order many years ago. I stripped it all, dismantled it, and started again. 





The dragon's body comes from a steed of Slaanesh. The head is from an old Dark Elf hydra. The arms are from plastic genestealers, with a lot of the tyranid detail sanded off. They were drilled into place and I sculpted shoulders and scales from green stuff. 

I'm not sure where the rider's upper legs came from - some kind of plastic knight, perhaps. I sculpted some thigh pads out of green stuff. His lower legs were cut from an old swooping hawk. The upper body is all new to this miniature. 





The head and chest come from an Eldar jetbike pilot. The right arm and rifle are from the first (and awful) plastic Dark Eldar, trimmed and green stuffed to look more like an Eldar weapon. The left arm is from a modern Dark Eldar wytch. I made his sabre from a filed-down Grey Knight sword, which looked surprisingly like some of the older Eldar swords.

A pistol on the rider's thigh was from (surprisingly) a 40k beastman that I turned into a Mordheim fighter. I added some little bags from the bits box to help hold his wobbly body together. The base was decorated with an old High Elf doodah and some steps made from plasticard and blended in with DAS clay. I don't know why these guys are riding around steps, but there you go - the Eldar are mysterious.

*

Phew! I'd forgotten what a slog it is to convert metal models. All that hacking and pinning! Still, I'm pleased with the results. The Eldar project has been a challenge, and my painting has improved because of it. This particular unit has been one of the highlights for me: partly because I'm pleased with the results, partly because the dragon riders unit is so characteristic of 2nd Edition 40k, but mainly because elves riding dinosaurs in space is cool. 

Here's the finished leader.







And here is the entire unit.


Right then, what next?!

Tuesday 6 February 2024

Chequered Knight

 Progress on the last, and most complicated, of the Exodite Dragon Riders has been slow, partly because I've had trouble finding all the bits that I need. It's getting there, though.

Anyhow, for a bit of light relief I repainted this guy, who is a conversion I made a while ago. He's got a body from a very old metal Chaos chariot driver, an arm from a plastic Chaos warrior, and a hammer from a Sigmarine. I'm not sure where the shield comes from, originally, but it's very old. 

Originally, his armour was black, but I decided to liven it up with a chequered pattern.