Long overdue Update

Well, 8 months seem to go by quickly when life gets in the way. As alluded to in my previous post, there have been lots of things in the background that have taken a lot of my focus away from the hobby. Some good (I am now a new dad) and some not so good (My father's ongoing struggle with cancer). The end result is much less time to devote to hobby-related activities. Unfortunately, my blog has been hardest hit, with me preferring to spend my precious time mainly on painting.

Now that I am up at all hours hanging out with my wife as she feeds baby, I figure I can get some blogging done. Therefore, I have some completed work to show! 

The first project I completed since getting back into things has been the rest of my Inquisiton models. I had picked these up years ago as part of my Grey Knights army, only to have them stripped away from the Codex, along with my Assassin. 

I don't have a good picture of them unfortunately, but enough to get a good idea:

The job was 2 Servitors, 2 Crusaders and Coteaz.

Next I went back to my Dreadknight, which I had started back in the fall. I am quite happy with how he turned out, and found out I much prefer painting the large centrepiece models, if only because they tend to have less tiny little details that have to be picked out over and over again (like on a 5-man Strike Squad box).

I took pics of him in my ghetto light box, making them slightly better than the one above:

I am quite happy with how he turned out. I played with some newer formulas for the golds in particular, and feel they look a bit more natural than my previous method.

From my original batch of GKs, I still have to finish my Rhino and 5 Paladins. My goal for the year is to get, at a minimum, those two completed. Of course, what did I do after I finished my Dreadknight? Buy 15 more Strike Squad GKs, 10 Terminators, a Storm Raven, and the Betrayal of Calth box to eventually start my Alpha Legion 30k. Then, instead of opening any of those kits, or start on the two projects listed above, I tackled 10 more Hormagaunts, which are currently a work in progress. Ahh well as long as I am doing something... (Doesn't make it better knowing I also want to pick up a IK Renegades box, along with a Shrine of the Aquila terrain and a set of the new Armoured Containers to round out my terrain collection once and for all...)

My next post will outline the paint formulas for my Nids, and then I will update some other posts with paint formulas that I have been meaning to put on here for posterity.

This may take another 8 months, but hey, if it does I should have a few more models completed to showcase. Until then!

It's never too late for an update?

Well, life has kind of gotten away from me since my last update. A lot has happened since then, some family issues, a new job and issues with that, some more family issues, and here we are in October.

That said, I had a fair amount of hobby time, which I tried to use pretty wisely, I have not had any motivation to post. However, now I am on vacation and my wife is watching last year's Nigella's Christmas Special with her friend, so I have some time to kill.

(I am posting this via the Blogger app on my phone, so I have no access to fancy editing).

Another longer-than-anticipated absence...

Well, after a month and a half, I have finally come crawling back to my blog.

While life was particularly busy in May, I have since have had plenty of opportunity to update, yet decided to spend my time on other aspects of the hobby. Specifically, I finished painting my 5 converted Unsanctioned Psykers from the Grey KnightsInquisiton Codex. While the likelihood of me actually fielding these models is low, I feel I must still complete them as penance for my hobby sins (I.e. Buying a crap-tonne of models without painting any).

It was my first real foray into flesh tones and hair, and overall I am pretty happy with the look. Of course, the job took me double my estimated completion time to actually finish, but that's not new for me.

Pictures after the break.

Two more Models Done! (Post updated with actual content!)

Hey Everyone!

This will be an extremely short post. I will elaborate later in the week, but to prove I am not just dilly-dallying around, here are some pictures of my Vindicare Assassin and Jokaero Weaponsmith. Enjoy!

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.10) - COMPLETED!

Well, after almost 16 months (on and off, clearly) of work, I *finally* have my 5 Grey Knights painted. This brings my count up to a whopping 10 fully painted figures for my GK army.

The final step was the Nemesis Force Weapons. I had squirreled away my ratios somewhere, over a year ago, and managed to find them, which gave me at least some base to work with.

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.9)

So here we are, the second-last part of my first Step-by-Step. Almost 2 years in the making, we are at the final countdown. This one will be a big one, as it encompasses pretty much all the remaining "fine-detail" work aside from the Nemesis Force Weapons. I have been trying to find the time to get this part written up for a while, but haven't been able to until now.

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.8)

Unlike the spectacle of my previous post, I will *really* try and keep this one short and sweet. Here we go. THIS IS A PICTURE OF GOLD SHADING AND MID-TONES:

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.7)

 A bit of a delay getting this one up, but as usual I got distracted with other things and that spread out my painting time dramatically.

With this post, I have officially started on the highlighting (mid-toning, I guess, but still! Progress!). As mentioned in the previous post, I have done all my washes for shading purposes, and now I am at the point of bringing out the colours one by one. Without further ado (and because I have so many bloody formulas to copy down), here are some pics:

These two highlight the shading for the reds (mainly 1st pic), and the beige/parchment (lower pic). They will look much better with further highlighting.

With the reds in particular, I went pretty random with the way the light hits the stormbolter. When doing shading, I try to pick a "virtual light source," generally coming from above, and try to stick to it, but after about 30 seconds I just throw any principles out the window and go somewhat random. At this point in the game, my skills are simply not that good to replicate realistic light physics.

Maybe, after I paint 50 of these buggers, I will have a better grasp of light physics. For now I just tried to make it look *somewhat* plausible, and hope that I don't end up associating with superior painters down the road, so I am not secretly mocked at my impossible light sources.

More pics & everything else after the break.

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.6)

While Thursday was Thankgiving for our southern neighbours, it was just another day off for me. The result? Another productive day of painting. I managed to get the blue mid-tones completed, and I feel the momentum building to finally finishing this project. I used a new paint colour - VGC Magic Blue - and while I initially thought it was still too bright, I am happy with the result. I still need to do some selective washes for shading, and then a lighter highlight for some edging. The results are shown below.

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.5)

Well, yesterday was a productive day on the painting front!

I managed to get the base layer done for all the purity seals/books, so, aside from the NFW and other glow-y bits, my models are now fully base coated.

It's amazing what a little beige does for the look of a model, I remember getting to this point with my last batch of GKs and feeling the first real sense of accomplishment. Of course, I still have a ways to go, but hopefully now that I am done the uphill scramble it will be smooth sailing from here on in.

Here is another shoddy group shot of the WIPs:

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.4)

AKA, I hate painting white.

Well, after struggling through 4 painting sessions, I finally have finished with the white layers on the Purifier helmets and shoulder pads. What a bloody pain.

I am not sure if VGC Bone White is just crap, or if my bottle specifically is crap, or if I am crap, but the amount of layers I put down to get a decent white coverage is obscene. The sad thing is, if I really wanted to, I could keep going, since there are still some imperfections. I just can't be bothered..

Check out the shoddy progress pic below:

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.3)

For the third part of my Step-by-Step, I am focusing on completing the basecoat colours for the remaining sections of the models. As we are getting into the finer detail on the miniatures, this starts to make sense as you want to minimize the damage done from errant brushstrokes.

The first colour to go on was VGC Heavy Red. I use this for my purity seals, as well as the main accent colour for my Strike Squad and Terminator troops. At first I was applying a 1 : 1 ratio of Heavy Red and Magic Wash. However, the Heavy Red I own is one of my least viscous paints, and diluting it further made it act more like a wash than a base paint. As such, I applied it "uncut" and it seemed to work quite well. Even so, I still needed to go over a few coats on some areas to get good coverage.

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.2)

Finally!

For part 2 of the step by step, I will be focusing on the golds and main colour (in this case red for generic Strike Squad, blue for Purifiers). As I have not touched a paintbrush in almost a year, my skills need a bit of de-rusting, and my paint times will likely be much longer for each step. Hopefully this is the last time I take such a ridiculously long break from painting.

Initial Grey Knights Impressions - Alladin's Afternoon Pilsner Musings #1

Hello All,

I finally had a chance to pick up Codex: Grey Knights and do a quick read-through (that, and some blogs and articles from gamers much wiser than me).

Ta-Da!! ... ... ... (crickets)

The Great Devourer...

...of my precious time.

When facing a seemingly insurmountable horde of grey sprues, my motivation to keep up on this blog is drastically diminished. That said, I am officially done assembly with my gribblies* and can ramp up work finishing my bigger bugs.

I really want to get my force assembled, so I can actually start learning to play. If I muster up the courage I may sign up for a 40K escalation league  at my FLGS that starts this week. I don't have all of my army built-up but it may give me the motivation to power through the remainder!

Either way, completing my Tyranid assembly frees me up to go back to painting my GK's (who are now pseudo-obsolete thanks to the Codex drop next week).

Once we get the Codex in our hands I will hopefully have more to add!

It he light at the end of the tunnel is at least visible now, if not more than a speck...

____________________

*This does not include the basing, which I will worry about closer to when I am ready to paint. Unlike the big bugs, the gribblies won't have complex bases.

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.1)

Hello again!

After completing my first 5 Knights, I am moving onto the next batch of 5. These ones will be painted a bit differently: 4 of them will be painted up as Purifiers, with the 5th painted in my general Strike Squad colours. The focus will be on the Strike Knight, but will include WIPS of the entire 5-man process for posterity's sake, as well as colour combos and tips that may be unique to the Purifiers for anyone who is interested.

Additionally, I am a notoriously slow painter so part of my process will be to time my work and keep a tally of how much time I spend painting each section. This is more for my own use than for my readers' sake; a way for me to keep track of my progress as I (hopefully) improve both my quality and painting speed.

Grey Knights 5-man Strike Squad COMPLETE!

Well, after another long hiatus from here I am back with some completed work (FINALLY!)

I present to you, a trio of semi-poor quality pics of my first 5-man strike squad. This is a big accomplishment for me, considering I have never completed painting a full "box" of anything prior to this.

Even so, they are still not technically complete as I have to varnish them for safety, plus put some static grass on the bases and decide what I want to write on their shoulder plates and banner icons.

I would feel an even bigger sense of accomplishment if I didn't go out and buy another box of 5 a few weeks back, meaning I am still left with the same amount of models left to finish painting.

Without further ado, the pics (More pics after the jump):

The Productive Hiatus

It's been quite a while since I've written anything, but that is not to say I have been neglecting the hobby - quite the opposite, in fact.

In the last 3 or so months, I have purchased and assembled a Dark Vengeance box (I needed templates and wanted a portable rulebook, plus the models are quite nice as well so I figured it was a great value).

Also, I was lucky enough to find an Imperial Sector box online (with 20% off of GW price, no less) and so I am now the proud owner of some ruined city terrain! (WIP pics in another post)

Current Work #3 (Rhino)

After a productive day of painting I can comfortably say that the interior of my Rhino is done!

Of course, after I say this, I can UN-comfortably clarify that it is done to the point where I can glue it together so as to start the exterior. I still have the 2 top hatches to finish up, which is not more than a bit of shading and highlighting the boltgun metal. Also, I will likely add a few decorations from my blitz kit to make the interior a bit more Grey Knights-y. (More pics after the jump)

Current Work #2

Base painting can get pretty repetitive after a while, so I decided to take a break from that and get working on my actual Grey Knight army. I had my Strike Squad, Dreadknight and Rhino interior primed and so I decided to do a test run on my old metal Grey Knight Marines that I purchased prior to my last hiatus. I managed to finish one (except for the Nemesis Force Weapon) and, although I am pretty happy with the result, there is a lot of improvement that can be done on future models. I also decided on a darker metallic for the armour going forward, as I found the Mithril Silver a bit too shiny for my liking (Pics after the break).