PAINTING: Abad-done

Despite my manflu I have managed to complete Abaddon this week.

This is a major achievement for me as I have been in a painting funk lately and just as I seemed to be getting back into it I fell ill. Unfortunately I had a lot of important stuff to do at work so I couldn't go off sick. I was dog tired every night but I stuck at it and continued to work on the model and it payed off.

Since my last post I had to paint the face, trophy poles and base. The photos don't really show this as they are poor quality but the face is the part I am most proud of; it's the best detail work I've done in ages.

The trophy poles were very fiddly to complete. In retrospect I wish I had painted them separately and then glued them in place because it was very difficult to get to the bits on the 'inside.'

The red I achieved on the Space Marine helmet was closer to the red I wanted for Abaddon's topknot and tabard but hey ho - at least it's on the model somewhere. I also painted his shoulderpad Eye of Horus symbol and orangey-red with a black 'cats-eye' pupil.

I overbrushed the base Calthan Brown then Tau Sept Ochre then added some Dheneb Stone for a light drybrush. A bit of static grass and a Goblin Green rim finished it off.

If I was scoring myself I'd give this model a six out of ten. Although it is technically okay - the paint is on the bit of the model I wanted it to be on -I think that being ill did affect my painting. I'm not entirely happy with the red, as I've said, nor the detail on the sword. I could have added more detail around the trophy rack and the skulls aren't perfect. However, this model is not destined for a painting competition or display, it is mainly going to be used for Apocalypse battles. In that context his paintjob is perfectly acceptable. I've used more of the Foundation paints, tried out a couple of new techniques and completed a model in under a week. Result!

So I only have two more projects on the 'to do' list; the Brass Scorpion and Khorne Berzerkers.

For those of you following such things I've posted up another battle report here. This game was my Daemonhunters against Jamie's Tau on a heavy terrain board.

PAINTING: Skulls for the Despoiler

I've managed to snatch a few minutes painting time on Abaddon.

As you can see I have painted his hair and tabard red. It's a Mechrite Red basecoat with Chaos Black and Mechrite Red shading and Dheneb Stone and Mechrite Red highlights. The red wasn't quite as vivid as I wanted so I washed it twice with Magenta Ink. It helped but the colour still isn't exactly as I wanted it. I'll leave it for now and see if it grows on me.

The other part of the model I painted was the skulls. I tried something different from my usual recipe. I got this from the latest White Dwarf (UK 342) in the Skulltaker masterclass. I worked the colours up from Charadon Granite, Bleached Bone and Skull White. My skulls look nothing like the ones on Skulltaker so I think they may have left a few steps out in the magazine!

So the last few bits I have to finish are the face, trophy poles, and the base. I'm hopeful I'll get Abaddon done by the end of this week despite a six day working week.

As promised I've dug up another Daemonhunters battle report for your delectation. This was a memorable game against Steve who was commanding his own radical Daemonhunters.

PAINTING: Metal Abs

Just a quick blog entry to show you my progress with Abaddon. Apologies for the quality of the pictures as they seem a bit dark and some bits are out of focus. Ah well - at least they're just work in progress shots. One day I will get a proper photography set up.

Anyhoo - as usual with virtually all of my models I started painting the metallics first.

I used my tried and tested gold recipe which I've described several times already; Tin Bitz followed by Brazen Brass then Burnished Gold and finally Mithril Silver. I then washed it with a mix of Brown*, Chestnut and a little Purple Ink.

For the silvery metallics I went with Boltgun Metal with a Mithril Silver highlight and a wash of Black Ink.

There were a couple of different washes I mixed up for different metal areas. I watered down some Vermin Brown to represent rust on the coil of barbed wire and I gave the sword a couple of Purple washes to bring out the detail. I'm still not sure if I like the effect or not.

Once I had all the metallics completed I went round the whole model with Chaos Black and tidied up my mistakes. Then I broke out the Boltgun Metal again and dabbed the armour edges to show battle damage.

So just two hours work has half finished Abaddon. The largest areas are all done with just the face and hair, tabard and trophy rack to complete. Oh, and the base.

I'm hoping to get more done over the weekend, so I'll check back in with another progress report later

MODELLING: Aba-daba-doo-don...

Ahem.

This is just a quick update to bring you all the latest model on my painting production line: Abaddon.

He took about half an hour to construct as he is only made of six pieces and the mold lines were minimal.

I wanted to liven his base up without going too over the top so I glued on some slate and a pile of resin skulls. I also added a coil of barbed wire.

I've undercoated him with Chaos Black tonight and I plan to start painting him tomorrow night when my other half is out and about.

In other news, I got in a game of blood bowl last night and I've already written up the game report here. I played the Skaven Gutter Runners versus Gary's Hells Teef Rippa Orcs. That game was the last in week 1 of the league so you can check out the tables here.

And in yet other news I've started reading Brothers of the Snake by Dan Abnett.