On Hiatus

For the last 8 or 9 years I've had a habit of never painting in winter, and I've no idea why that is. It could be the extra workload that comes with working in retail, or it could be the lack of natural light in the evenings. Regardless, this blog will be empty throughout November, December and most of January.


I've got some cool things coming up though, so don't despair [/sarcasm]. I've convinced my next-door neighbour to collect Orks, and his painting is coming along really well. I'll be posting some of his models on here when he's happy with them, and I'll whip my armies into shape to do battle once more come new year.


In the meantime, if you want a fix of my incoherent ramblings, check out my other blog - The Greater Manchester Skeptics. This is the blog dedicated to rational thinking, scientific skepticism and debunking nonsense, so if that sounds interesting click here.


I'll be back in the new year,


- Gavin Schofield

Burnt Face Devastator Completed

Here he is, finished just the other day. Click on the images to enlarge. Next up : a Terminator and some Ork Boys.

- Gavin

Finished Ork Boy

I've finished the test model for my Ork army, completed in a short time using basic colours and Army Painter quickshade. I've gone for a muted look for my scheme, but with lighter colours than usual on an Ork. A lot of Ork armies I see on the table are very, very dark, and I think this detracts from the army as a whole - but on the same hand, I don't want to have incredibly bright and clean Orks.

Here's the Ork next to one of my Blood Angel scouts, for comparison.

Expect to see more of my Orks posted here soon.

- Gavin

Waagghh! - A quick update.

This is what I've been working on over the weekend, thanks to the Assault on Black Reach boxset. Tonight I should get hold of two more lots of AoBR in exchange for an old MP3 player. I'll be using the army painter dip on these orks, or I'll never finish them. Pictures of the completed models to come soon, this snap was taken on an old phone.

- Gavin

Amazing New Forgeworld Tau

This is from the Forgeworld mailing list, and it's pretty cool. They've got a hefty heavy Tau Battle Suit coming out soon. Not sure how much it costs, but I may pick one (or two) up for my Tau army. I've already got a Forgeworld suit, and they truly are steps ahead of the plastic suits.

- Gavin

40K in 50 Minutes - Part 1

I've set myself a small challenge - to assemble and fully paint and base five 500pt armies, for use in quick games of 40K. I've written the lists, and want to get this done by christmas. Many of the models I need are in my bits box, and the rest I can piece together quite cheaply. Without any further ado, here are my first list, the Blood Angels and Black Templars - I've ignored some requirements to make lists that I feel are more effective / characterful:

Blood Angels

Chaplain w/ Jump Pack - 120pts

Tactical Squad w/ 5 Men & Plasma Cannon - 130pts

Assault Squad w/ 5 Men & Power Sword - 155pts

3 Death Company w/ Jump Packs - 45pts

Assault Bike w/ Multi Melta - 50pts

Black Templars

Emperor's Champion w/ suffer not the unclean to live - 125pts

4 Terminators w/ Assault Cannon - 180pts

6 Initiates w/ Power Fist - 106pts

5 Initiates w/ Plasma Gun - 81pts

- Gavin

Speed-Painted Black Templar

To stop my brain imploding from the sheer amount of red I have to paint, I sometimes decide to paint a single stand alone model just to break it up. I recently set myself the task of painting a Black Templar in under 2 hours, and here it is. Click on the image for a close up view.

Also, here's an update on my Burnt Face Devastator, alongside my Templar for comparison.

The highlighting on the Black Templar is a bit rough around the edges (mainly because of the time limit I set myself), but I'm pretty pleased with it. The model was salvaged from a friends sprue where the spray paint was far too thick, so the details are a bit obscured as well. What do you think?


- Gavin

Blood Angels Combat Squad

Here's a quick update on my Blood Angels. I've almost finished painting five of the Tactical Marines from the AoBR box which only need basing to complete them. These are actually the five marines I started painting in my aborted Blood Angels painting guide, which shows how slow I paint!

Here's some close-ups of the individual marines.

I've converted one of the marines to hold a Melta Gun, and applied the yellow/black hazard striping that I used on my Assault Captain.

These were pretty quick and dirty for me, my third combat squad on the table are looking a lot better than these - I'll post them as soon as they're painted (and based!).


- Gavin

Over ten years of rubbish - my old models.

I have now been painting 40K and Fantasy models for over 10 years, and posting pictures of them online for nearly 7. I missed my 10th anniversary by 2 months, but here's a belated selection of pictures from the last 10 years. I painted most of these models years ago and as such, they are painted and photographed awfully. You have been warned!

Here's an example : not particularly good!

Click on the images for a closer look, if you dare...

Salamanders 

These were the first ever models that I posted pictures of online! They were painted in May 2003 for a friends army (most of which are in my bitz box now!), and as they were the first pictures we ever took they were terrible! I have no idea what happened to these two models in particular. The Epic Salamanders were painted 2 years after this, for my own army.

 

LoTR

I really enjoy the LoTR game, although I rarely get to play it. These models were painted between 2003 and 2007, and some of them are almost competent.

Chaos

I've collected Chaos in both 40K and fantasy, and I do like the army. I did really well in games with my Chaos Marines army, but eventually sold them because they were painted terribly. I still have the fantasy models somewhere wrapped up in a box, and may use them one day.

 

 

Other Space Marines

I've collected several different chapters before setting on Blood Angels again, and here's a collection of the different marines I've painted and fielded.

 
 

 

 

Tau

This is one of the only armies in this post where I'm still pleased with the paint job I did, and will one day big them out of the loft and finish the army. I got very close to a completely painted army with these.

Misc 40K

Here's some other odds and ends that I've painted for 40K over the years.

 

Misc Fantasy

Here's several different photographs of various other Fantasy models over the years.

 

 

 

Other Misc

Here's some odds and ends, pictures of old painting desks and other such things.

That's all for now, I'll go back to painting newly painted models shortly. To close, here's the army lists I took to the two tournaments I competed in (one of which I jointly won!):

1,000pt Tau Army - Golden Throne 2006 Tourney

HQ

-Shas'O - Cyclic Ion Blaster, Missile Pod, Shield Generator, Bonded, HW Multi-Tracker

-1 Shas'vre Bodyguard - Burst Cannon, Missile Pod, Shield Generator, HW Multi-Tracker

Elite

-6 Man Stealth Team, Bonded, 2 Fusion Blasters, Shas'vre

-2 Man Fire-Knife Crisis Team, Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-Tracker
Bonded w/ Shas'vre

Troops

-12 Fire Warriors, Bonded w/
Shas'ui w/ Target Lock / Markerlight

-12 Fire Warriors, Bonded w/
Shas'ui w/ Target Lock / Markerlight

-12 Fire Warriors, Bonded w/
Shas'ui w/ Target Lock / Markerlight

Result - Halfway up the board!

600pt Space Marine Army - Golden Throne 2005 Doubles Tourney

HQ

- Commander with Storm Bolter and Power Sword

Troops

- 9 Man Tactical squad in Rhino (with Extra Armour)

- 5 Man Tactical squad with Missile Launcher

- 5 Man Tactical squad with Missile Launcher

- 10 Man Tactical squad with Heavy Bolter 

Result - Victory!

- Gavin

Blood Angels Assault Captain

Another one of my Blood Angels characters has finally been completed - this time it is my 8th Company Captain, currently nameless. This guy is equipped with a Jump Pack, Combi-Melta and Power Fist, making him my most expensive character, which means he'll probably only see action in larger games. Click on the pictures for larger versions.

This model was converted way back in August 2007, appearing in my 18th Club Workshed post. As I'm one of the "fastest painters in the world" it only took 2 years and a month to finish it! To mark this model out as a captain I used a larger base and a lot of gold detailing, and I used grey paint on his heraldry to represent the 8th Company.

I'm quite chuffed with the combi-weapon, I think it turned out quite well! I'm going to use the yellow/black hazard marking on all my hand-held melta weapons.

If anyone has any good ideas for this characters name, please post them in the comments section!


- Gavin

Blood Angels Devastator - aka Burnt Face Man

We've all made mistakes when modelling or painting our miniatures, both small and large. Even the largest mistakes can be covered up by sheer ingenuity, as this Land Speeder and Land Raider from the Drunken Samurai aptly show. I have never had to cope with that, the nearest I've been is 3 coats of paint on a Rhino - although there is a mistake recently that I've had to cover.


Whilst painting my latest batch of Blood Angels, I slipped with the brush and covered a portion of a face with a black streak of paint - no big deal really, as I could just re coat it. There was also one more thing nagging me about that models head though, while I was assembling it I was really sloppy with the mould lines on that side of his face. This was my Plasma Cannon marine for a tactical squad, so I decided that at some point in the past his cannon had misfired on him, leaving him horribly scarred....

Behold, burnt face man! A bit of stippling with dark browns and blacks, coupled with some ink use, has made me less embarrassed to have missed such an obvious mould line. I just have to finish the rest of the model, and then I can rest easy.


UPDATE - I've also decided to enter the Jawaballs Painting Competition, so I've started work on a Blood Angels terminator a little early. Here's the start of the model, an ex-salamander and an AoBR arm that will hopefully work well with normal Termie arms. Apologies for the poor picture.

- Gavin

Old Models- Better Camera

I've borrowed a decent Sony camera from a neighbour, and played around in photoshop. Before I upload pictures of my latest models, here's some of my older models reposted with better pictures.

Eldar Guardian - Painted this year, this was a very quick and simple paintjob, followed by a dip in the quickshade. Turned out quite well, and I want to one day paint an army in this scheme.

Chaplain Grimmauld - This model was painted this year, and is one of my better painted Blood Angels. This model was the first Blood Angel of the army, in fact it inspired me to collect the Blood Angels again!

Sniper Scout - Painted around 2 years ago, you can see white specks on this model from poor varnishing. I'll get rid of them eventually, but they're not noticeable in the 'flesh'.

A new Blood Angels combat squad and an Assault Marine Captain are coming soon, and maybe some more old models.

- Gavin

Blood Angels Whole Army (so far)

I have borrowed a much better camera for the time being, but I'll need to get hold of a card reader before I can use it - until then, here's my current complete Blood Angels list, alongside some blurry photographs! I've picked up a bit of pace in the last few days, but It'll be a while until they are finished.

HQ

7th Company Captain

Power Sword, Storm Shield

120pts

8th Company Captain

Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Jump Pack

155pts

Chaplain Grimmauld

Jump Pack

120pts

Librarian Novella

120pts

Elites

5 Death Company

Jump Packs

25pts

5 Terminators

Assault Cannon

Chain Fist

235pts

5 Terminators

200pts

5 Sniper Scouts

Missile Launcher

120pts

Dreadnought

Multi Melta

125pts

Troops

10 Tactical Marines

Power Sword, Heavy Bolter, Flamer

230pts

10 Tactical Marines

Plasma Cannon, Melta Gun

225pts

5 Assault Marines

Power Sword

155pts

Fast Attack

Attack Bike

Multi-Melta

50pts

Heavy Support

Whirlwind

Storm Bolter

90pts

10 Devastators

3 Missile Launchers, 1 Heavy Bolter

275pts

10 Devastators

2 Lascannons, 1 Multi Melta, 1 Plasma Cannon

310pts

Allies

5 Deathwatch

Librarian, Power Fist, Kraken Bolts

235pts

Roughly 2800 points so far assembled, with a further 2 Dreads, Baal Predator and Tactical Squad in boxes under the bed.... hopefuly next year I'll have a post showing my fully painted army!

- Gavin

WiP - Blood Angels Faces

I've been doing some more work on my tactical marines, and this time I've been working on a section at a time. Here are my latest faces, my third combat squad so far...

Since I never completed my painting guide, heres how I paint red:

- Black Undercoat

- Flat coat of Mecherite Red

- Drybrush of Blood Red

- Wash of Red Ink/Magneta Ink Mix

- Flat coat of Blood Red

- Baal Red Wash

- Blood Red Highlight

- Blood Red / Blazing Orange Highlight

- Blazing Orange Highlight (characters only)

I've got 6 or 7 more models completed so far, but I'm not going to post them till I get hold of a better camera!

- Gavin

The Blood Angels return...

Apologies for the hiatus, I've recently moved into a new house and I've had very little time for painting. The good news is that I now have much more room to paint, and my Blood Angels are back on the painting table, going at a much faster rate than before. Expect some updates and pictures in a few days.

..on a side note, how awesome are the Blood Angels terminators in Space Hulk?

- Gavin