"Come on you apes! You want to live forever?!"

Right, time for another project me thinks!

I haven't got a great track record of actually getting projects finished I have to say but I'm going to take this one slow. I'm going to be building, over the next few months a Tyranid Horde. I've wanted to start playing 40k again for some time now and I figure that I have to start out with an army right? I wanted something that I could paint relatively quickly and easily but that would also have an impact on the table. It's all well and good painting something easy but you've got to have fun with it too! Tyranids just seemed to fit the bill in every regard. I suppose the only difference is that I chose a horde army.....lot's of models......they'll look cool though, right?!

The first thing I had to decide on was a paint scheme. My first inkling was to go for a corrupted look. Almost as if the hive world had been infected by a Nurgle plague. This would have given me the opportunity to right some interesting fluff too. However I did away with this idea once I saw these guys...

I loved the way this guy used inks to get a very 'raw' look to the exposed areas and the mouths. As well as his use of nature inspired camo schemes for the carapace. As luck had it he also posted up a tutorial. I didn't have the same colours so I used his tutorial as a basis and this is what I came up with...

I wanted a darker, contrasting carapace than the Necro Tales Nids. I used the age old 3 highlight feather which actually turned out OK. It;s a little less convincing up close but as a unit it looks wicked.

I added some subtle variation to the tan skin tone using Carroburg Crimson, severely watered down. Multiple layers allowed me to blend this in with the main skin tone pretty effectively.

I decided to use a really bright spot colour for them as well. bright green will allow me to do some quite cool OSL effects down the line and also adds a little more of an 'alien' feel to a paint scheme that is quite grounded in nature for the most part.

I used Agrax Earthshade to add dots on the skin to make it a little more interesting. It also helped mask any areas where the red shading didn't properly blend. I love little tricks that hide the fact that I can't  actually paint that neatly!

Allin all these guys probably took about 8 hours or so. Which for me is super fast for 12 models. If I could keep up that pace for the entire army I would be happy!

So how did I do. Is this paint scheme a keeper? I suppose I'll have to do some of the bigger models in the same vein to get a proper representation but if I'm honest, I'm really happy with how the y turned out. Some Genestealers next I think....

Cheers!

Phil

The Last Heroes (WIP)

It's been another miserly week on the painting and modelling front I'm afraid. Real life does have a nasty of habit of getting in the way of me painting the Post Apocalypse! Oh well....

Here's how far I've got with the Last Heroes....

From Left to Right in order of finished, WIP and ready to paint.

Not far huh?! These are a set of miniatures from Lead Adventures that are representations of some of the great characters in post apocalyptic films. I've really coveted this box set for a long time and I finally took the plunge and bought them. I was not disappointed. The sculpts are incredibly clean, hardly any clean up and they practically paint themselves. I'll post them on here one by one as I get them finished.

So here's the first one that I actually got painted.

So who is this strapping fellow you ask? It is none other than the Omega Man himself, Dr Robert Neville of I Am Legend fame. Here is a picture of him for the purpose of comparison.

I realise that he is still sans one alsatian but that will be fixed relatively soon. I tried to match the colour scheme as close as I possibly could and think I've done a pretty good job so far, he's just a little lighter in tone to add a little more contrast. The main thing I notice with these photos is that my matt varnish is really not doing a very good job! I'm currently using citadel 'Ard Coat but doesn't seem to do a lot to give me a matt finish, even after 3 coats! I'm going to try out some Vallejo matt varnish and see how that looks. Any other suggestions?

I went for a more blasted wasteland, fallout-esque feel to the bases as I'm going to use these guys for both zombie and post apoc gaming. Should be a lot of fun.

The next in the group is just awaiting highlighting, all the base coat is done. Any ideas who this young lady is? Comment and let me now any guesses! As always CC is more than welcome.

Cheers

Phil

For the Emperor!

So I haven't been up to a whole lot on the modelling from over the last few days as I've been solidly in work since the last post! I know right?!

I have however been ordering away; new miniatures, new bases, new tools etc etc ;P

Whilst on one of my journeys through the inter webs I stumbled upon the quite frankly amazing Scibor's Monstrous Miniatures. Now i know there are some great sculptors out there but this guys models really stuck out to me. As a result I have purchased some of his fancy posh bases!

I do really enjoy making my own bases but I think sometimes its quite luxurious for someone to do all the hard work for you. I have a few of these already ear marked for current projects to add a little display quality to some of my painted models!

The real meat of this website however are the actual miniatures. A few in particular. Now which  well known (in our circles anyway) fictional characters do these guys remind you of........?

If these aren't the best damn Primarch miniatures out there then somebody has to show me better! The emperor and Sanguinius models are absolutely exceptional and the price point isn't all that bad. Probably about £25 all told (which is actually a little steep) with the base and all. I think the only draw back I could see to them is that they are 28mm scale which considering the Primarchs are meant to be taller than regular marines could be an issue for purists. If you just want a cool collection of miniatures though, these are the boys!

What do you guys think? Any awesome finds you would like to share?

Hopefully have some more actual progress pics of my own work in the next few days as I've been busy modelling stuff all day to be painted on Thursday! Until then!

Cheers

Phil

I Will Survive!

Hi All!

So as much as I don't want real life interfering on my blog I'm having a tough time with my mobile phone network provider! Honestly, incompetence doesn't even cover it! So over this stressful and tough time I've been expending my angst ridden energy into imagining all the zombies I am painting and modelling at the minute were former employees of said company! GGGRRRR!!

Rant Over.

Onto the painting front. Following on from my experimentation into non GW miniatures (which I am Thoroughly enjoying btw!) I painted up some survivor miniatures for the impending zombie apocalypse! Again, not really sure where these guys came from because I got them off of a friend. I believe the recruit is from a Copplestone set of survivors but the other guy I have literally no idea.

Here's some pics...

So first up is the aforementioned 'Recruit'. I decided that each of the survivors that I have will have a little bit of back story to flesh them out a little and make them even more interesting to paint. So this guy I decided used to be an army recruit (you can see his private stripes in the last pic of him). The only member of my survivor group that has any form of military experience. His experience however is purely theoretical. He has never been on campaign or in combat but his theoretical knowledge has allowed him to survive....so far.

He will also be the member of the group that represents me.....despite looking nothing like me, or having any of the same back story as me, I don't have a gun.......I have got blonde hair.......oh shut up!

I really enjoyed painting him actually. Lots of clean lines and just enough detail on him to add areas of interest whilst keeping the sculpt really tidy. I painted him relatively bright to be in direct contrast with the really dark tone of my zombie models. All in all, pretty happy!

The second survivor I've painted up I wanted to look completely different. For one reason to have the fun of variety and a second to make my survivor bunch look really eclectic. So, the fluff for this one is that I see him as working in a garage, airbrushing the paintwork on cars before Z day hit. This is represented by his dark blue/grey overalls and the bright coloured breathing apparatus re-appropriated as a gas mask. 

 I could very easily have painted the mask a rubber colour but I think the bright colour adds a point of focus and helps with the back story. Again, very happy with how he turned out. Really can't wait to get my hands on the next set of survivor models I have on order!

 Hide! Let them pass...

As I am typing this my Wargames Factory Zombies just arrived. Guess what I'll be doing for the rest of the day!!!

Cheers

Phil