Painting Tutorial: Tabletop Workshop Stable 28mm

This is the latest video I have uploaded to YouTube, at the request of a subscriber, showing how I paint my medieval buildings. I hope that viewers might find it helpful.

Genestealer Done, Getting Back To Painting

My wife and I returned from our Highland adventure on Monday. It was a colossal drive from Inverness to Oxford, consuming most of our day just sitting in the car. Hardly how one chooses to spend a bank holiday, but frankly Scotland is worth it. While the West was celebrating Easter last Sunday, we were only on Palm Sunday, so this coming Sunday is our Pascha (Easter) and I cannot wait! It probably trumps Christmas as our family's biggest celebration of the year.

In the meantime, in the dark depths of the underhive, another wretched forerunner of Hive Fleet Leviathan stirs. I managed to knock out the genestealer below in a single evening, and I rather enjoyed it. I didn't spend an inordinate amount of time on this monster, but the results are pleasing. Sorry for the poor pictures, I just grabbed these on my camera when it was done. 

For my painting recipe I followed some of the YouTube videos from Warhammer TV, again, I cannot emphasise enough what a great resource that channel has been.

I've moved on to some other miniatures now, a couple of English Civil War test figures, a fighting Greek Priest from the Greek War of Independence, and the Primaris Ultramarines are on the table. I've recaptured my painting mojo recently, and am really enjoying being back, brush in hand.

Dreadball Marauder Jack Complete

The other night I finally completed another of these blighters. I am not going to sugar coat it, these miniatures are awful. The detail is poor and the pose is dreadful. 

So, it is no surprise that I haven't put the usual effort into this "playing piece," I simply didn't enjoy painting it.

Anyway, another miniature done, so there is at least some satisfaction. My wife and I are up in Scotland for the Easter weekend, so there will be no painting for me this weekend. 

Space Hulk Blood Angel Terminator

As part of my painting meanderings, I decided to paint a Blood Angel terminator from the Space Hulk board game. I have yet to play the game, but my notion is that any miniature painted for the board game can be used in Warhammer 40,000 anyway. 

To that end, I will be basing these once I have done the lot. Having done a dry fit, I know that they will fit on 40mm terminator bases with a little minor surgery. I followed a handy painting tutorial from Warhammer TV for the power armour. 

The recess shading is something I am a big fan of. The rest of the miniature was painted using, with some minor adjustments, the older Blood Angel painting tutorial from Warhammer TV.

This YouTube channel is one of my absolute favourites, and I have added loads of handy tricks to my painting repertoire by just watching these videos. Most of the tutorials will teach you how to get the most out of a triad and wash combination, and the hosts are very good. So even if a video title isn't necessarily something you are interested in, go ahead and watch it any way, you might learn something useful.

I tried my hand at some freehand for the text on the scrolling, this marine is festooned with the word "IRA" Latin for wrath or anger. His greave scroll has "BAAL" on it, for the home planet of the Blood Angels, but I will likely need to fix this as I am not 100% happy with it at the moment. The surface isn't flat, so that complicates the freehand. I don't normally try and do freehand text, so this is new territory.

At the moment this terminator looks very bright, I think the addition of a base will really help tone it down by contrast. I'll be looking to do an industrial style basing with steel flooring of a sort. 

Primaris Ultramarine Test Figure

I have been getting a lot more painting done over the last few weeks, my Twitter account has been evidence of this. I suppose that the reason has been that I have simply painted what I have felt like painting. 

Several weeks ago my wife and I were enjoying a day out in Oxford when we dropped in to the Games Workshop store there. Now, as a rule I avoid Games Workshop stores. I find the sales manner of the staff off-putting, and knowing that I can buy the same products from my local gaming store for a small discount, leaves very little reason to shop there. Still, it was an opportunity to catch up on the changes to the ranges, as I haven't been keeping up on what has been happening in the Games Workshop-sphere.

I spotted a £25 starter kit called "First Strike" and had to have it. My wife/chancellor of the exchequer agreed I could splash out, since I haven't spent much on wargaming recently, and a few days later I stopped by an independent stockist and picked the box up for 15% less than the Games Workshop store. 

I will express my thoughts on the boxed set in another post/video, but I thought I would share the first completed Primaris Marine. Excellent miniature, and finally a Space Marine in "True Scale". Suffice to say, I am looking forward to painting the rest of the miniatures from the box. 

I decided to paint the Space Marines as Ultramarines because I figure that if I were ever to add to the Primaris Marines I would likely get Roboute Guilliman. It also gives me an opportunity to try a slightly different scheme from the one I have employed with my Horus Heresy Ultramarines. I want there to be a tonal difference between the 30th and 40th Millennia. 

As you can see from the side-by-side photos, the 40k Marine is darker in tone, whereas the 30k Marine is brighter. I like to think of the 30th Millennium as a more hopeful epoch, humanity is at its zenith after Ullanor, the Great Crusade is drawing to a close, the Imperium triumphant. By contrast, the grim-dark 40th Millennium is more desperate and humanity on the knife edge of extinction. These colours hopefully reflect that difference, or perhaps it is all in my mind. 

Oh, and I must add that of course the Primaries Marine is missing his transfers and basing. This will be done once I have done the lot and have decided on what sort of basing scheme I want to employ.

Redarg Bloodfane, Exalted Deathbringer of Khorne WIP

I've recently started painting again, and I spent some time on repainting this figure. I began painting him several months ago as part of the Gorechosen boxed game. However, as some point I applied Reikland Fleshade to all of the miniatures, and to my horror, it dried glossy. It seems that I, in a fit of genius, had bought the gloss version of the shade, because I didn't know Games Workshop manufactured gloss shades. I felt quite foolish and somewhat crestfallen by the experience and so the models have been left untouched since. 

I've started by repainting the skin on Redarg, and I tried tinkering to get the scars just right. Almost there I think, perhaps just a final touch of Pallid Wych Flesh to a few spots required. 

Genestealer Neophyte Hybrid Test

I managed to knock this miniature out over the course of the evening. Looking to mix a penal-mining-colony orange with the purple carapace colour of Hive Fleet Leviathan. The aim will be to do a Genestealer Cult detachment that is twinned with a Leviathan Tyranid force set on a penal mining colony. Opposition would be Deathwatch, primarily, as I already have the requisite miniatures. In terms of basing I am going to do this faction in an urban-industrial style to match my Deathwatch.

 

The final result look pretty decent, zoomed in pictures ruin the look a little. The orange looks a little brighter in person, and the highlights less ludicrous. Nice figure to work on. At the moment I am painting a little of everything as I am aiming for painted kill teams for various factions. I'd like to play very small scale narrative adventures, akin to Inquisitor.

2017 Painting Tally

Talk about a fail-year...

1 Dreadball Ork Blocker

2-man Polish Light Mortar Team

2-man Polish Sniper Team

1 Genestealer

That's the lot. Nothing to see here, move along citizen.