Painting Table Update: Plans Afoot!

So, this time last year I was still dabbling with by Assault on Black Reach chaps and I feel I've moved on a lot, painting wise, in the last year. I've settled on a couple of core armies and themes, my standards have improved, and I've even got a little bit adventurous here and there. I've also read a colossal amount of helpful guides on the internet and even set this blog up to both seek help and to offer what little advice I can back out again.

So, with the end of the year upon us, whats is next?

Well currently I'm finishing up on the pair of Sorylian Cruisers (for Firestorm Armada) that I got a while back, and they're nearly done. Hopefully I'll get some time this weekend.

After that my Sternguard's Taxi - a Razorback - is assembled but needs starting on next. I also got a Leman Russ for xmas (yay!) so I need to decide on what I'm building it as, build it, and then paint that up in a variant of the Urban Camo I've used for my existing Guardsmen.

After that I'm a bit more divided. I've got some cash to spend (from selling some old Lego sets on Ebay) and my original plan was to spend it on some more Tau. But consistent rumours seem to place new (and probably better) Tau boxes out in the middle of the year, and I'd be inclined to wait for them. And I'm also still very taken with painting Blood Ravens, with a vague, yet growing ambition to paint up a force representative of all units that appear in Dawn of War.

So at the very least I'm going to pick up a Librarian and possibly some Terminators to escort him around. After that, I guess we'll see.

Blood Raven Sternguard - COMPLETED

So the rest of my Sternguard are complete, and the full squad is assembled. To mark the occasion I've build myself an improvised lightbox and taken some pictures using that - they're not all perfect and there is the odd focus problem i didn't have before, but the general presentation is a lot better! So, here they are:

More individual pictures after the jump.

WIP Sternguard - now with better photos!

So, a day off work means more painting, more progress and, shockingly, some better pictures. Think how much progress I'd make without that pesky work to do!.

I now have three of the squad (mostly) finished - by which i mean they're at the stage where i periodically pick them up, touch up a tiny area of paint and put them down again, and of course they need properly basing, which i'll do at the end. As a group, they look like this:

The armour is what I've used before, mechandrite red base with a thinned blood red layer over the top, and orange dry brushing for the highlights. I've seen the tip to use Thraka Green to wash direct into the recesses and i like how that's turned out. Shoulders are Bleached Bone with a Devlan Mud lining to deepen the edges, with black trim where appropriate, and the purity seals are the usual bleached bone/sepia combination with either brown or black squiggles for effect. More close ups under the cut!

Blood Ravens Sternguard WIP: Wombles!

So, the next project (before I go back to my Sorylian Cruisers) is the Finecast Sternguard I picked up for my expanding Marine force. Even after a bit of cleaning up, I keep discovering small, messed up areas on them - in fairness you get this on metal figures too, and I suspect the finer detail versus plastics mean there is more to go wrong, but it's faintly annoying and occasionally beyond my meager fixing skills. Anyway, the squad is progressing, with heads and armour mostly done.

Whatever else I say, I love the design and poses of these guys. 

This feels like the end of the "production line" stage, so now we are at the detail it's a matter for picking one up and just going around and around him till it'm satisfied. The only one I've put a lot of work into is one of the "womble-nose" chaps, so here he is:

Underground, Overground, DEATH TO LITTER DROPPING HERETICS! 

He's mostly finished - with the odd bit of touching up around the place to do, and the gun detailing which you can't see (because I didn't photograph that angle). You don't get a decent shot of his shoulder pads either, which are of course creamey coloured as he's a Blood Raven. That said the more I look at these figures the more I've come to realise that there is very little space for the Blood Raven iconography to go on them, due to the very "busy" shoulders that they have. Maybe I could use a knee pad for that, or try my shakey hands at a bit more freehand work...

Shocking non-40k Post!

Yes its true, I've again lapsed from the True Path of the Emperor and painted a non-40k piece. I expect the Brutal Door-Smashing of the Inquisition any moment.

I can across Firestorm Armada whilst looking for ships to supplement the Full Thrust rules i have, and used to play quite a bit. And their ships are pretty cool - so whilst I'm unlikely to ever play the game I picked up a couple for the sheer joy of painting them, and because collecting figures for games I'm never going to play is my current favorite hobby. The Sorylian Battleship is the only one so far painted, so here he is:

The Stripes and markings are free-hand, which still needs a little practice

I've tried to stick to "simple, bold colours" rather than anything fidly

Engines - may take another pass at them, I think they're reasonable
but not totally right. 

Anyway, its a lovely model and I hope I've done it justice. May need some pictures against a white background as well, but this was late last night and I wanted to go to bed!

Finally, in order to appease His Imperial Might, the next project is these guys:

Painting Table Update!

So, I've got my exams out of the way so I get some free time again! Hooray! I mean, there is still Arkham City to play, but more importantly I've got some painting time, and some new things to paint.

First off I picked up some Sternguard to go with my expanding Blood Ravens army. They're Finecast, of course, so they came like this:

Flash! Ahhh-Aaaaaaa! 

At first I thought they'd be like the Lord Commissar I bought, where the flash just rubbed off cleanly and I wondered what all the whining was about. And in some sprues that was the case. But on others, the flash (not the sprue attachment points!) was thicker than the element caught up in it, and being a cack-handed fool I've managed to damage a couple of the figures whilst snipping and cutting the little buggers free. Most of it I've been able to repair, but the guy in the bottom left, with the gun held out in front of him, has lost his weapon strap. I've left the front part on so I can paint it up a parchment roll, and hopefully this will salvage some character.

Finecast models have the natural reflective index of Moondust. I
think that's the "Secret Ingredient"

I also discovered that the resin doesn't drill the same way as plastic (yes, i know that should be obvious) so theres a couple of hashed up gun barrels as well. But I'll spend some time with little bits of greenstuff and a bit more cutting and filing and hopefully once they're based up no-one will notice.

For a total change change of pace I've also got some spaceships from Firestorm Armada, presumably because I am constantly drawn to shiny things for games I'll never get to play.

I think the Captain of the second cruiser is drunk again. 

Power Swords, Redux

Right, so with a bit of time on my hands last night I've had another play with some power swords.

First up, the Imperial Guard officer:

I wanted to see what a green sword would look like, and a many of the "sabre" like swords i've seen done well have a sort of secondary glow around the curved areas, which is what i'm going for here. It's a little inelegant, and works better if you squint, but i think it gets the shape and general effect.

After that, I went back to Captain Firey-Sword and, inspired by some work over at Smurfs in Space, redid him.

This turned out a little better, i think, and certainly more elegant than the previous effort. I've tried to maintain a bit of fluidity to the effect by "feathering" the colours along the leading and trailing edges of the blade.

Overall i think i may be getting past my fear of Power Sword effects, don't you think?

Fun with Power Swords

One of the techniques I see around the place that makes me most intimidated by other peoples abilities is the effects on Power Weapons. Loads of models use them, and there seems to be lots of ways of doing them, but they're such a striking effect when done well that at the same time "feels" very hard to get right. I've had a few stabs at it (so it to speak) so in lieu of any actual painting content I thought I'd share. 

My first attempt was my Imperial Guard officer. Well, I say "first attempt" but i mean "first attempt that still exists on a model". Its pretty basic, just some layered colour moving up to the edge of the blade.

This is actually the third of fourth covering of paint on this guy's sword, which can't do it's edge any favours in a fight. Anyway, heartened by this I got confident for the Lord Commissar, read some online tutorials, and managed what I think is a pretty good Lightning Effect. 

But the general look of a full blade still eludes me. When I finally bullet and redid my AoBR Marine Captain, I wanted to do something interesting on his sword, and after some mucking about ended up with a firey effect like this: 

I think its a pretty good blended fire effect, but I'm still not sure it's wholly appropriate for a Power Sword effect, which should be more "glowey" and less like it's actually just on fire. So this weekend I've been messing about with the Termies consigned to the paint test bin, and the best effort so far is this guy: 

Which I rather like. Not sure about the colour; it's a little cold but the technique may not be at the level of a lot of work you see around the place but I'm confident enough in it to stick up a picture on the internet, so that's progress! 

The blue arm, by the way, is me practicing to get a blue-grey colour for a Librarian - more in line with the scheme used in Dawn of War over the brighter blue you often see. 

Something a Bit Different

I'm having a bit of a major dither about what to paint up next - largely torn between expanding the Blood Ravens force a bit more and a desire to do something in "not red". In the meantime, a mate sent me a link to Mongoose Publishing's Judge Dredd Minatures Games, which do some great figures based the 2000ad stories.  And I've always particularly remembered the Kleggs from when I was a kid - you'll notice my profile uses a picture of one - and I really couldn't resist.

Very quick paint this, actually, as it's mostly strong, bold colours in big blocks, as you'd expect for a comic character. And a bit of a reminder of how much I dislike painting metal compared to plastics or resin. And the base is just greenstuff pushed around to look give a muddy texture, then painted up. Anyhow, pictures!

Its a really nice pose, in my opinion, and a nice rendition
of the character - a little simple but that's how they're drawn. 

From the Front, with his snaggly teeth!

And the jet-pack. All the reference drawings I can find do
them silver, but there are few enough colours on him as it is!

Blood Ravens Landspeeder Storm: COMPLETED

So, after turning into a bit of a nightmare, I've salvaged what I can. Turns out I was right insomuch as you can hardly see the interior at all once you cram 6 scouts into this thing, so I guess that's a bullet (or Bolter Shell) dodged. And the overall colour scheme has turned out pretty well. It's been weathered down the same as the Predator, with of a bit of extra mud-spatter on the nose and the legs of the scouts, to (try to) simulate the sort of effect you'd get from skimming along the ground quickly.

Anyway, here it is. As ever, comments and criticism appreciated.

There's a quirk of the lighting that makes this look darker than it actually
is, but I think it's still looking OK. 

The driver is a nightmare to get into position. He had to be broken down
and reassembled in place, poor bugger. 

Look! You can hardly see the crummy interior! 

An Exercise in Frustration

When does the Taxi get here? 

The last of my reclaimed Ultramarine sets that I'm repainting into Blood Raven colours is a Landspeeder Storm, and it's turning into a bit of nightmare. I started this blog to be a record of my painting, so i guess the frustrating things that don't turn out belong here too, so here's a "Works in Progress" Update on it.

So this was assembled and originally painted up blue, and stripped down pretty well. I'd clearly not undercoated it properly when I first did so some of the paint refused to be removed, and there are some areas that whilst aren't obvious at distance, really look rough close up. But that's not the main problem. The main problem is that painting it's interior is a horrorshow.

Gah! Scruffy Cockpit Interior

I was able to get the crew out of the set without problem but the rest of the speeder remained steadfastly intact. The open cabin has a fair bit of molding, including gun racks, screens and controls, and assembled you can't get a brush at them other than in fairly broad strokes, and clean, straight dividing lines are nearly impossible, at least at my skill level. Given that I wanted to do the interior in a light cream/white colour to contrast it with the red hull, it just looks scruffy - which will be fine, to an extent, when the interior gets aged and worn but ideally I'd have liked it to look clean in the first place.

I've less excuse with the scouts themselves but my old nemesis - white cloth - has risen to defeat me again. I've had fun with it before, in small areas, but always managed to make sure it was on a small enough part of a model to not make much of a difference, visually. But these buggers are evading me - I seem to be able to get a decent cloth effect in any other colour. Currently painted light grey, dark wash and then a white highlight, and i suspect that'll have to do. Ho Hum.

Is there good news? Well white leggings aside, the scouts are looking OK. The main colour is done on the speeder now and it looks pretty solid, and once the white wings/tail are on I think it'll look pretty good. And then hopefully the busy, cramped nature of the passenger bay, combined with dirt and wear along the base line and forward edges, will cover up a lot of the "scruff". Fingers crossed, eh?

White wings and tail to be added! 

Five Things I've Learned in the Last Year

One of the first, and one of the most recent, Space
Marines I've painted. Hopefully there's a qualitive difference!

So, it's been about a year since I decided to take advantage of being stuck in the house more often to pick up the old painting hobby again. I'm still not terribly time-rich, and but I think I've learned a lot and shown some improvement in a most areas that matter. One of my big motivations for starting this blog was that when I started out I learned a lot from the painting/gaming community online and whilst I've no illusions about either my own skills or the worth of my opinions, if even one person reads these posts and comes away with some inspiration or insight then in some way I've given back.

So, in lieu of any real progress on my current project, here is the 5 things I think I've learnt this past year.

Painting Table Update October 2011

So, with most of the outstanding painting mentioned last time I did one of these round-ups done, I guess I need to put my thoughts in order again. Most of what I've painting is Blood Ravens, completeing a Predator, Dread, Force Commander and Tac Squad in fairly close order, so much so I feel like this has been turning into a "Blood Ravens Blog".

Not a Blood Ravens Blog, appearances to the contrary

Next up is a stripped, repaired and re-basecoated Landspeeder Storm for my Marines, but after that I'm in a world of conflict.

See, I've really enjoyed doing all the Marine stuff and part of my would like to expand the force a bit more. I've got the AoBR Termies still, but they're exceptionally dull figures compared to the boxed ones, so the temptation to spring for some of them is quite strong. I also like the look of the Finecast Sternguard or a Venerable Dread.

On the other hand, I'm running the risk of getting bored of all that red pretty soon, and I'd still like to expand my IG and Tau displays; fitting the blue/white electic scheme to a Tau vehicle will be a fun challenge, and I'd still like to expand my IG troops up to at least a full Platoon.

So the conclusion of this ramble is that there isn't one. But at least now i've been conflicted in public!

Blood Ravens Predator: "Furious" COMPLETED!

So, after some more free time this weekend with the kids asleep, I got it finished and photographed. Full shots, and commentary, below.

WiP Blood Ravens Predator (Part II)

Well I knew this would be a big job, and it's still ongoing. Still, the hull is now painted up, and a large chunk of the detailing is finished, enough at least to do a bit of assembly.

As you can probably make out i've done a bit of "scuffing" on the lower hull, whilst trying to keep the top nice and clean and all he's really missing apart from some more touch-ups (which seem never-ending) is his chapter markings. Assembly revealed that the right-hand-side Heavy Bolter is a bit loose in it's mounting, which i can't really do much about, and what you can't see on these pics is that the Aquila on the rear door is slightly (but noticably) wonky. grrr. 

He even has a name now...

Originally I was going to put White Flashing on the engine vents, but with the
sponsoons added it felt unneccesary.

 Hopefully this weekend should see him finished, and i'll get some decent photos done then.

WiP: Blood Ravens Predator

After a lot of drilling, filing and assembling, I've finally got some paint on my Predator. So far I've completed the Heavy Bolter Sponsoons and the Turret, which isn't bad for the best part of a week's work. I'm using the same technique I used on the Dreadnaught - Black Primer, then Mech Red Base, followed by successive coats of Scab Red and thinned Blood Red over the top. The turret has taken 3 of the Blood Red coats and i'm pretty happy with the effect; it looks sort of worn but clean, and the orange line-highlights pick out the shape nicely.

At least thats what I think; comments are always appreciated.

Heavy Bolter Sponsoons

Completed Turret - the Hatch will have a Blood Raven Symbol on it

The hull only has the Mech red base and Scab Red coat on it.
Thats a big job comming up!

Finally, my research into other Blood Raven designs turned up this thread on dakkadakka.com. I am officially intimidated, as this guys stuff is awesome!

On trying to create the right look

After reshuffling of the bookcases, my figures now have a home up on some display shelves - the ones worthy of display, at least - and its let me take stock of the three small yet increasing forces I'm building up. One of the things that I'm keen to do is to keep a separate "look" for each of these armies, other then simply a colour scheme choice. This is probably best emphasised by looking at the three "walker" platforms I have so far got finished.

Left to Right: Blood Raven Dreadnought, IG Sentinel, Tau XV8

One of the advantages of being a short-attention-span afflicted dabbler is that you end up trying different things as I'm not frantically trying to paint an army for tabletop use. So each of these three guys has a slightly different effect on them, which I think is moderately successful. The XV8 was painted to be ultra "clean" - I spend pass after pass on him smoothing out the colours as best I can and whilst his legs are dirtied up to put him the base, the rest of him has no wearing or chips or scoring to maintain that high-tech look I always picture the Tau having.

The Sentinel is pretty much the opposite - I don't see IG machines getting a lot of time in the body shop and much like their crews I think they get kept in the field pretty much until they fall apart. So the Sentinel is chipped and worn and streaked with dirt and oil; quite by chance I found that dry-brushing back over the unit stripe on it's "cheek" makes it look like the paint is wearing off back to the basecoat, and generally the poor bugger looks like he needs a rest.

Finally the Dread is sort of half-way between the two - the colour is built up of multiple thin layers from the edge inwards, so the flat sections of the hull are noticably darker in the middle even before I added the edge highlights. Its left him looking slightly worn and old without being covered in chips and scratches, as broadly speaking I suspect Marine gear is much better looked after than its IG equivalents.

And these chaps are the equivalent Infantry, with the same general principles in mind. Note the Guardian's Lasgun being the "wrong" colour for his urban camo, as fluff-wise I'm not sure the Munitorium is up to reissuing a whole regiment's weapons on re-deployment, whereas again the Fire Warrior is all nicely colour co-ordinated.

It does make me think that the next big skill I need is better photography though...

On Starting Out and Making Progress

So, I was sat there last night, cheerily drilling out the gun-barrels and exhausts for the Predator Destructor I've just started, and I had an odd moment of "what the hell am I doing?". Not in a "oh this is a waste of time" sort of way, more a realisation that it's been less than a year (about 10 months) since I started painting again and and I'm sat here with a hobby drill and a selection of bits cleaning up a model, pre-assembly, surrounded by paints and brushes of all sizes and a load of other paraphenalia. And I've pondering on it a little ever since.

I was moved to start painting again after we did a big clear out of the loft and came across a large amount of figures and ships from my during-and-after university days. I was a decent painter, if not spectacular, and in a burst of nostalgia I ordered the GW Marines "starter pack" which comes with 5 Ultramarines and 8 paints and a brush, just for a bit of a dabble. Seeing as they didn't turn out too terrible, I've just sort of carried on picking up and painting whatever takes my fancy and really a lot of blog sites for tips and tricks. The latter I've found especially helpful, and one of the motivations of setting up this blog was that if I somehow manage to help or inspire even a single other hobbyist I'll have felt like I've given something back.

The point I want to share is this: 10 months ago I was slapping on paint to an Ultramarine and now I'm doing detailed prep on unassembled kits. My last Blood Raven Tac marine figure uses (I counted) 18 different paint or ink colours. Thats not a lot of time for a big improvement in both the quality of the work I'm going and the confidence with which I'm doing it. And I'm not that great - not compared to some of the work you'll see with a quick google or on many of the blogroll links on this site or others.

It's daunting starting out - it costs a lot just to get a fairly basic set of gear, before you've got a single figures - but there are a lot of basic tricks that make a huge difference and you can make that first wave of improvement in a short period of time and a good amount of reading... 

AoBR Blood Raven Dreadnaught COMPLETED

So now I've settled on the Blood Ravens as a scheme, I popped over to Forgeworld to pick up the Blood Raven Transfer sheet to save myself any more embarrasing free-handed chapter badges, at least till I get a little better at them. I've also gone back to my box of stripped and re-based Assault on Black Reach figures and pulled out the Dreadnaught. And here he is:

Better image updated 20-12-2011 with base!

Crisis, What Crisis?

After a lot of fiddling with colour schemes I finished the Electric Tau scheme XV8. The original plan had a lot of Dark Blue, with the Electic-and-White only used for things like the shoulders and bits of the chest plate. Big problem - it looked rubbish. So back to the drawing board I decided to stick with a Ice Blue Base and improvise around it. And you know, I rather like it.

Signs of Progress

So this is the first post since I was welcomed onto the "From the Warp" Blogroll. So "Hi" folks,hope some of this painting isn't too dissapointing!

I mention a week or so ago that I was playing with Space Marines, trying to find a scheme that works for me, and I think I've now settled for the Blood Ravens, because I like red for Space Marines, and I like the Dawn of War series. So I spent some time going back to my re-stripped Assault on Black Reach Marines to get some practice, and with a heavy heart I retuned to the Force Commander figure.

Squad Morale Restored!

My other main achievement over the weekend was to fish out the camera and take some more pics of some of the finished Imperial Guard Miniatures. My photograhy is not unlike my painting - improving, yet still not without it's flaws. First up, my Squad Commander and some of his Special Weapons troopers.

 

Aside from the shame of un-drilled gun barrels I'm quite pleased with it, and the power-sword turned out well enough that with the next figure I got a little ambitious...

"To Do" list!

Right, I've spent a good part of my free painting time this weekend basically mucking about on different things, so I need to get my brain in order. So this is me, trying to get my Brain In Order.

Painting Table
(or, stuff I own that my attention span won't let me finish)
- 3 Firewarriors from the Electric Tau need finishing (detail work, mainly) and basing up
- Electric Tau XV8 and Drones need, well everything
- Having settled on Blood Ravens I need to finish up a 5-man combat squad for them
- Strip my AoBR Dread and any paint test marines to swell the combat squad up to a full tac squad

Wish List 
(or, stuff i want to buy)
- Tau Piranha, mainly to see how the Electric Scheme looks on a vehicle
- Imperial Guard Infantry Squad and Heavy Weapons Team to round out a full Platoon.
- Imperial Guard Hellhound
- Marine Terminator Squad (the AoBR one is rubbish and un-fun, sadly)
- Marine Sternguard Veteran Squad and Razorback
- Some Firestorm Armada ships, because they're lovely designs and it'll make a change.

I also need to work out if i'm brave enough to submit this to one of the many blog-roll sites around the painting/40k hobby world. 

I think that'll keep me busy for a while...

Space Marine Paint Tests

So, the "stars" of the 40k universe are clearly the Space Marines. They're big, they're shouty, they have ridiculously big guns and even bigger shoulderpads, and from a painters point of view probaby get the lions share of "love" in terms of variety and fun figures. When I was restarting I forked out for the Assault on Black Reach set, because it comes with a load of (uncustomisable) figures that I could practice with. And indeed I did; some were OK, some i made a right hash of. More importantly they were all Ultramarines, who are terribly, terribly dull.

So if I want to paint up some more SM stuff, I need to settle on a chapter, or more importantly, settle on a colour scheme that it fun to work on and looks good, as it's not like these guys are going to see a lot of action, and even if they are, I play for fun, not min-maxing whatever rule is broken at the moment. So all the Ultras went in a big bath of paint stripper (Fairy Power Spray, to be precise) and came out clean and new, ready for me to repaint in some novelty colours.

I should emphasis that as paint tests, these are a little rough around the edges.

Forever with Electric Tau

I'm still a little unsure of the Tau's placement in the 40k fluff - clean, superadvanced Anime aliens don't quite gel into the Grand Gothic Insanity of 40k, although at least they aren't the Necrons. On the other hand, clean superadvanced Anime Aliens do make for some lovely models, and I couldn't resist some Fire Warriors. I was going to paint them with white armour but the Electric Blue seems to work a lot better.

This guy is supposed to be chucking some sort of Grenade, but it really, really looks like he's just playing Air Guitar on his Rifle...

  

No squad would be complete without a Shas'Ui, who at least makes the effort to fit in with the traditions of the 40k universe by refusing to wear a hat, so that you know he's harder than everyone else

And finally, this is the whole happy squad.

The Hammer of the Emperor!

Lore-wise my first love is the Imperial Guard. I mean, they're normal people in a universe populated by ravening monsters, fantatical supermen, twisted abomination and sent out to fight them with a Las Rifle and Flak Vest. What's not to love? For a whole host of reason, not least of which playing too much of the Dawn of War series, my mental image of the IG is the Cadians, although their khaki colour scheme is pretty dull, with the only redeeming feature being that it is probably really easy to paint. So my IG may be Cadians, but I decided to have a crack at an Urban Warfare Scheme. This chap is a good example of how they turned out.

Sadly none of my pictures of the rest of his squad are much cop, and he's not based here either, which I guess is an incentive to take some more. Still, it gives a good idea of the colour set.

And it wouldn't be the Imperial Guard without Armour, would it? This was my first shot at a vehicle since re-starting painting and I think it turned out pretty well. Because I am, if nothing else, a gigantic nerd, the markings were inspired by the Classic Lego Space flash colours from when i was a kid. Another reason I like IG is that scuffing up the vehicles is fun, and this Chimera has a nice "on campaign" look to him

Wow, a picture of something with a finished base. I am so proud of that Plasma Gun. Mostly I look at other hobby sites in awe when I see something I can't even imagine how they did it, but the Plasma effect here is a credit to the number of well written guides out there.

I've actually got a fair few more IG guys, most notably a Lord Commissar I finished recently. What I don't have is any decent pictures, but I'll get to that....

Here We Go Again...

As well as posting long winded geek ramblings, my main hobby at the moment that doesn't involve either the kids or a computer screen and gamepad, is painting "Tiny Mens", usually, although not exclusively, of the 40k variety. I've been a wargamer (and roleplayer, and computer gamer) pretty much as long as i can remember, and whilst my 40k playtime has been limited i've a huge affection for the "fluff" and the availabilty, design and variety of the minatures they've produced over the years. After a long hiatus from both painting and wargaming I picked up my brushes again late last year after our second child was born and I felt I needed a new hobby to keep my brain fresh when I was largely stuck in the house again. So naturally I picked an old one.

As you might expect I'm pretty rusty, and as someone who doesn't play - or stand much chance of playing - much in the way of tabletop games these days I tend to flit around between several forces. I'm also too much the roleplayer so I get a kick out of making my own force backgrounds and colour schemes up. But I've improved quite a bit this year, and as i tend to take a lot of photos for "work in progress" reference, as well as to show off, I thought I'd find a home for them all in one place.

Which is here.