WIP #2: DV Chaplain, The FLU. Xmas & A Giveaway!.

I was struck down by the flu this past week. It got nasty and I am on some heavy prescription drugs to keep me from another bout of walking pneumonia.  Enough about my weakness, on to the fun stuff!

WIP: Dark Vengeance Chaplain

Welcome back to another exciting WIP! So having finished priming my DV set I am diving into the painting.  First up is the "limited edition" Chaplain. I wanted to start with him because it will give me a chance to shake the dust off the old skills and maybe give him a bit more attention. Besides, I can try a few things on him that might not carry over to the rest of the army and it's okay if he stands out a bit since he is a character.

WIP: DV Bases & Vallejo Primer

 Let's jump right into the basing of our, um bases. Above is my basic set up once I have super glued any details to said bases. I use a mix of white glue and carpenters glue. Why? White glue doesn't adhere as well as carpenters glue and carpenters glue doesn't saturate the basing material enough, but use them together, add a few drops of water and you get a nice strong bond that soaks right into the sand and gravel :)

On Display, A Contest & An Auction

Here is "Alpharius" in all his finished glory.  He's my entry for the STC Champions of Chaos contest. So head on over there and vote for him if you like him. Of course, there are a ton of other really nice entries that you may like to vote for once you see them. So lead with your heart - that's what he would do; he'd lead with your still beating heart (having ripped it from you chest), but hey - that's chaos for ya  o_0

WIP: More DV Cultist Conversions

Remember how I hate duplicate sculpts? Well, my quiet rage drove me to convert every other cultist in my DV starter set.

I really had no choice with all the great cultist conversions I had seen recently. So let's dive in and see what I ended up with after dipping into the 'ol bitz boxes...

Run Down & WIP: Alpha Legion and DV Duplicate Minis

He needs a name...Oh! I know - Alpharius  ;)

Here is my entry for the STC contest assembled. At this point the base still needs to be finished and he needs a matte coat and some water effects on his eye lenses, but for now this gives you a good idea of the conversion and painting. Now after my last post I had a few requests for a run down of how this mini was painted so I thought I would do that today to balance out all the bare plastic later in the post...

WIP: STC Contest Entry Continued

The inspiration .

Welcome back. Lets jump right in shall we? Above is a really close idea of what I wanted my Alpha Legion to look like. Well, maybe a bit more corrupted since they are traitors.  Guess what? I got really close!

WIP: Standard Template Construct Contest Entry

Image/IP Copyright to Games Workshop PLC.

So I needed a break from all the GS and conversion work I put into making my Dark Vengeance Dark Angels into Angels of Redemption. Then I saw that the guys over at Standard Template Construct are running a contest during the month of November. The prize is a chance at one of two $50 gift certificates to Secret Weapon Miniatures. I should mention there is also another contest happening related to the aforementioned contest over at The Chaos Manifesto. Contest contest contest contest, contest :) Anyway, the plan was to buy the mini above and build it straight out of the box and paint it up.  Then I saw this in November's White Dwarf...

Same copyright as above.

Hey now! That could make a great Alpha Legion paint scheme with a little tweaking because I really do like them and I'm still smarting from how my Alpha Legion test model turned out. Another side note; From The Warp has a great Alpha Legion Tutorial up right now, so check that out too (Ron, get out of my head man - you are seriously freaking me out!). I already had my bitz box out and I hadn't put away my sculpting supplies yet so I thought: Let's follow the rabbit down the rabbit hole here...

WIP: DV Angels Of Redemption GS work, ugh.

Before we get into the WIPs I promised a brief review of Vallejo Matte varnish that I never got around to last post. Sorry about that. Above you can see the before and after images side by side for a few of the test minis I did for my DV paint schemes. Krylon Matte is out due to inconsistent frosting issues and Vallejo Acrylic Matte is in. I applied the Vallejo with a brush and diluted it at a ratio of 5:2 varnish to water.  I applied 2 thin coats with about 45 minutes of dry time between each coat. The reason is that if you apply it too thick it can get a bit cloudy because the main ingredient in matte is talc; so thinning it and doing multiple coats keeps it from getting cloudy, drying with brush strokes and gives you more control. I may try air brushing it on in the future, but for now I like the full control brushing it on gives me.  Verdict: I highly recommend Vallejo Matte.

Now onto the WIP...

On Display: Paint The City Pink & DV Test Models

Just a quick post today, but TONS of pics.  Here are my two entries for the Paint the City Pink event over at Tales of a Tabletop Skirmisher.  Great cause and great fun to try something outside my normal painting genre.

On to the pics with Kitty up first...

WIP: Paint the City Pink Minis

I know I said I'd have DV test models for you but I'm putting those off until next post.  This post is the WIP shots of the minis I am sending off for the Paint The City Pink contest/auction/great thing in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month happening over at Tales of a Tabletop Skirmisher. The good news is that the contest/auction/great thing has been extended !

Onto the WIPs...

The madness began last Thursday...

WIP: DV Test Models #3 & BETRAYAL!

Time for some sponge weathering!

Okay, above we see what I use to sponge weather my minis. Less is more but I go nuts on test models just to try a few things. Below is what i used for basing the test models. Again, I think the Citadel textures have their uses and one is for quick basing of test models:)

I have a bunch of old brushes for dirty jobs like texture painting and terrain.

Toothpicks are great for pushing basing materials around to where you need them and not getting the stuff on your nicely painted minis. So how have they come together? Let's take a look...

WIP: DV Test Models #2 & The Last Few Old Conversions

Picking up where we left off last time, the base coats have now been completed on the armor. Already they look better and give an impression of where we are heading.

Highlights, glazes and shades were next. At this point you could slap on a few decals, base them and they're ready for gaming but I want to play some more...

On Display: More simple conversions & WIP: Dark Vengeance Test Models

Ah, the madness begins...

Welcome back everyone. Above is the a look into my fractured mind.  It's the color palette for my Dark Vengeance test minis. I am doing some test minis to help me decide how I want to paint the boxed set. You can help me too by clicking on that poll over to the side there if you like...I primed the pre-heresy Dark Angel and Night Lord in Black as their colors are predominantly darker, and the Alpha Legionnaire and Angel of Redemption in grey so that the lighter colors would cover with less coats. Now onto the WIPs...

Eye lenses and piping are first with small batches of minis.

On Display: Completed 40K Anniversary Marine & Some Simple Conversions

This post is mainly eye candy so enough blah, blah, blah...

WIP: Crimson Fist Anniversary Model Assembly

Picking up where we left off last week.  Here's the banner, ready for the next step.  Time to start assembly...
First up: The tools of the trade.

Tin o' glue, box o' tools.  Bits n' tools & Tooth picks n' glue.

So In the pics above you can see what I'll be using to prep the model.  If you've painted your model in  bits and pieces you should scrape the m clean where they will eventually be glued together. Never glue paint to paint or paint to plastic/resin as eventually the paint will let go. Plastic to plastic use plastic glue super glue is okay but will eventually weaken. Resin to resin use super glue as most resin is fairly porous and will "absorb" a bit of the glue.

WIP: Crimson Fist Anniversary Model & Terminal Stupidity

Terminal Stupidity. Sadly, there is no cure.

Yep, that's what I did this week. Let me elaborate before I get into the WIP....I took lots of pretty pictures for this weeks post. Then I proceeded to work on them directly from the memory card. The card crashed and took what I had not worked on with it. Now I know better, but I still did it. I won't tell you that I fainted from the shock because only a sissy would faint. At any rate, when I regained consciousness several hours later the pics were still gone.  A victim of my own terminal stupidity.  On to the WIP!

Wow, bare resin. I might leave these out in future posts.

That brown stuff on the base? The new texture paint from Citadel. It's not as useless as the internet claims.  It's actually great for blending into the GW figures that have a texture sculpted on their bases and is far less work than trying to match said sculpted texture with Green Stuff. As for the Finecast... this kit was one of the really top notch examples of how good Finecast can be.  Hell, there were barely even mold lines for me to clean up! Oh, my Dark Eldar were terrible but that made for a few nice conversions and increased my skill with Green Stuff. My Necrons were a fair sight better too and only required a few fixes and hot/cold water treatments to correct the limited warping.  Finecast is getting better in my experience. I still loath anything other than plastic but resin is better than metal - or will be once they get the hang of it;)

Again, bland but you can start to see that texture blending.

Welcome

Hi and welcome to my Blog. I'm ZAB. I am an avid 40K hobbist with a full time job at a place I can only describe as The Creativity Factory. I have a wife (known here as The Lady Inquisitor and little one (known here as The Agent Of Chaos). On top of that I do quite bit of 40K hobby and thought I would share it with the interwebz (Yes, I want my five clicks of fame too, but I just can't bring myself to make a sex tape - too shy I guess).

I used to play 40K too but truthfully the hobby and fluff side of the game has completely overtaken that aspect.  What I'll be covering here is WIPS of things I am working on and whatever tips and tricks I know along the way. I'll be posting about once a week because I think it's enough for me to keep up and stay interested with blogging. Besides, any more and I won't have any hobby content to blog about;) This blogging thing is a pretty big time sink - knowing that now I have even more respect for the bloggers that follow!

I currently have over 8000pts of Dark Angels and their successors, over 2000pts of Necrons, over 1500pts of Dark Eldar and 3 different tables worth of terrain.  Over the last six months I have been snapping pics of these things so that even if I am laid low by illness (a distinct possibility with some of the germ warfare launched by The Agent Of Chaos) or swept away to some far off location for a week of "vacation" by The Lady Inquisitor I can throw up pretty pictures for readers to scroll through.

So what's up first?  Next week I'll be bringing you WIP shots of the 40k 25th Anniversary Marine I'm working on.

Yes, I opened mine. Not a collector - hobbyist.

Now, about those pretty pictures I mentioned? Here's a few to tide you over...