# From the desk of The Alleycat



## the.alleycat.uk (Jun 11, 2009)

So; i’ve got a few project logs on the go and decided that rather than start a new thread each time i have a project in development, I’d combine everything else into a single log of various projects, random minis i’m working on or have completed. I will keep the separate Warhound thread going since they have the previous work in but will probably dovetail the orks into this one at some point.

This also means that when I am invariably distracted part way through a project, I can still keep this thread updated with whatever has distracted me.

Part of the reason is also that I am now able to upload reasonable sized pictures thanks to Red Corsair [seriously, anyone who suffered through the HUGE pictures that were in my previous logs should give him rep lol.]

Oh, and the fact that others have done this and i’m always happy to steal a good idea :angel:

Who knows, if the reaction is good or a number of people have comments, questions or suggestions; i may be able to develop those into a quick tutorial or something.

To start, here are a few minis I finished a little while ago and had pictures of on my hard-drive.

Druschi Anointed - for the Storm of Chaos campaign... I’ve since redeveloped the colour scheme in my mind so will eventually re-paint the rider to go with my slowly [very, very, very slowly] developing WoC and Dark Elf armies.








Dwarf Lord – My attempt at non metallic metallics. Overall i’m fairly pleased but i find the ultimate white highlights a bitch to do.








Female Daemon Prince – or mutant Celestine. I am unlikely to repaint but my chaos colour scheme has changed from purple though i’m still happy with this paint job. Honestly she has now seen better days, despite pinning the wings have snapped off a few times so this is now obvious on the mini itself.








And my most recent random completion – a female elf bard. I painted this for my missus at her request. Started around three years ago and finished last month.... there was a significant gap while I was distracted with other things lol


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

I love the druchi. I've been meaning to get a hold of a carnosuar to count as a thunder wolf. You have convinced me to finally get it done.


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## Red Corsairs (Jun 8, 2008)

Lovely minis! I especially like the female deamon prince and the Dwarf.

I've always loved that Dwarf mini. Some great painting here


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## Primarch Lorgar (Jul 11, 2009)

:biggrin:I love 'em, especially the chaos stuff, you should take commisions!


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## Rob1981 (Jul 13, 2010)

The Cold one looks fantastic!


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## dark angel (Jun 11, 2008)

Really, _really_ cool work mate! I love the first model and the others are pretty nifty, but that is simply superb. Have some rep, I wanna see more


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## Varakir (Sep 2, 2009)

Awesome stuff, especially the carnosaur paint job.

Where did you get the bard from? I've been looking for a decent scoundrel-ish bard mini for a long while.


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## edd_thereaper (Oct 21, 2008)

I love the druchii on the carnosaur, the painting is abasolutely stunning

keep up the good work

cheers

edd


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## the.alleycat.uk (Jun 11, 2009)

Thanks for the kind words folks, the Carnosaur was one of those things where everything just came together. I think in part that it's such an awesome sculpt that it's easy to paint.

Varakir, i'm pretty sure the bard is Dark Sword but could be reaper. I'm pretty sure it's a Werner Klock sculpt.


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## the.alleycat.uk (Jun 11, 2009)

So here's my main stuff atm, which is my Avatars of Vengeance Space Marine Chapter.

They were intended as originally a Dark Angel successor chapter with prmarily bone white armour so I knocked up a test squad and dreadnought:

































But then I remembered what a pain in the arse bone white is to paint so decided to reverse the scheme for rank and file minis to this:









With the intention to keep the veteran stuff and vehicles in bone white.

However, I somehow ended up with around 20 Terminators which was presenting a serious hill to climb. Having played with the airbrush I thought I could maybe use it to lay down a good base colour so ran a test piece that has come out well.

















So I'm going to play around some more and will upload the results.


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## Varakir (Sep 2, 2009)

the.alleycat.uk said:


> Thanks for the kind words folks, the Carnosaur was one of those things where everything just came together. I think in part that it's such an awesome sculpt that it's easy to paint.
> 
> Varakir, i'm pretty sure the bard is Dark Sword but could be reaper. I'm pretty sure it's a Werner Klock sculpt.


Cheers mate, Lorgar actually messaged me and pointed me to reaper - i found the model and some other awesome Bard sculpts so i'm a happy camper now.

I really like the SM scheme you've got going there - dreadnought especially is very eyecatching.


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## Skartooth (Jun 4, 2010)

Fantastic painting. But sadly I think the basing lets you down, not to say that it's bad. Just not as good as the rest of the miniaturesk:

Skar


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## the.alleycat.uk (Jun 11, 2009)

Skartooth said:


> Fantastic painting. But sadly I think the basing lets you down, not to say that it's bad. Just not as good as the rest of the miniaturesk:
> 
> Skar


No you're right and no offence taken.

There are two factors in play here:
i) I've never really learned to base well, I may poke a friend till he gives me some tips.
ii) I really dislike the process of basing things, but as above this may be due to never having learned to do it well/in a fun way.


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## Varakir (Sep 2, 2009)

the.alleycat.uk said:


> No you're right and no offence taken.
> 
> There are two factors in play here:
> i) I've never really learned to base well, I may poke a friend till he gives me some tips.
> ii) I really dislike the process of basing things, but as above this may be due to never having learned to do it well/in a fun way.


Your marine bases look perfect modelling wise, they just need a few drybrushes to bring out the definition properly.

I usually use stones similar to yours and then drybrush charred brown, snakebite leather, bleached bone and then a tiny bit of white.


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## the.alleycat.uk (Jun 11, 2009)

Yeah, they're fine as they go, they're just pretty simple and i'm guessing that Skar means it in the sense that they let the mini down, ie aren't kept to the same standard.

Interestingly a friend of mine who's a Golden Daemon winner said something similar last saturday.

My issue is that I don't know how to make a 'good' base, and as you say i'm happy with simple for gaming pieces. I guess what i'm thinking is that i'd like to find a happy middle ground where I can do a good base when needed.


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## shaantitus (Aug 3, 2009)

I rekon they are fantastic minis, i will not comment on the bases as mine are rudimentary at best.


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## the.alleycat.uk (Jun 11, 2009)

SO, breezing past the absence of *cough*twoyears*cough* :shok:

Thought i'd post some pics of 90& complete minis that i've done over the last few months [World of Warcraft Downtime ;p]

Will try and post some finished pics of things, been trying out some new materials and ways of doing things... including a bit more effort in the basing. Just need to add decals to a couple of dozen minis :headbutt:


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

I really like the white, where's the stormbolter from?


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## the.alleycat.uk (Jun 11, 2009)

The drum mag storm bolter is from the Spacewolf terminator box. Though you can probably get one from bitsnkits


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## the.alleycat.uk (Jun 11, 2009)

May do an individual project log for the space marine chapter i've been working on, undecided as at the moment i am being filled with RAGE by decals, i bloody hate decals...

Anyway, here's my magnetised captain so he can work as either Logan or Lysander.

Also, some time and attention [only some mind] has been paid to the base. Have to say i have fallen in love with 'tufts' as a great way to add level to a base's effect.


























And the start of the other project i'm planning to run concurrently










Again with the magnets ^^


















Though now i'm having my usual nutty over colour schemes, kinda torn between two so may require some experamentation.


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## Old Man78 (Nov 3, 2011)

Love it, especially the marines on page one, how did shade the white? Loved the dread, you have joined the long list of people on this forum who's talent I 'm violently jealous of +rep


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## DeathKlokk (Jun 9, 2008)

Love the DA successor color scheme. Although there is something very naughty about SW bits on DA models. lol

I must get my hands on some of those drummed SBs though!

Looking forward to mooooaaaare!


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## the.alleycat.uk (Jun 11, 2009)

Oldman78 said:


> Love it, especially the marines on page one, how did shade the white? Loved the dread, you have joined the long list of people on this forum who's talent I 'm violently jealous of +rep


WEll thanks, i can assure you that it's not natural talent, it's practice and asking lots of questions of better painters than me 

The white in those intial test shots ultimately changed, but those were done Khemri - Dheneb -Dheneb and Bleached bone - Bleached Bone - White, With some careful shadiong in the deep recesses with devlan mud after the dheneb stone stage [you'l have to check new names, i still don't have them stored in my memory]

Ultimately i wasn't a fan of how they looked in the flesh which is why i now use Dheneb as the main colour.



DeathKlokk said:


> Love the DA successor color scheme. Although there is something very naughty about SW bits on DA models. lol
> 
> I must get my hands on some of those drummed SBs though!
> 
> Looking forward to mooooaaaare!


Well, when it comes to planning things i have a habit of going a bit overboard so initially a DA sucessor Chapter they've diverged pretty significantly from the Codex astartes, the Wolves are a veteran core within the chapter. [because i liked the bits and wanted an excuse ;p] Currently in progress are a 'Crusade Company' using some bits and pieces i liked. Handily enough they were based on some Blood Angel stuff and then along came allies 

Oh and since you both kinda asked, have two dreads now in the modified colours:


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## the.alleycat.uk (Jun 11, 2009)

So today i started work on my Death Company allies. This was a particularly cool thing to happen in sixth ed because i like flyers and had already bought and painted this:


















Because of the original decision that mine was a previously unknown DA sucessor chaptor, i decided to use some robed marines [i had some metal ones kicking around from my original DA army and bought a box of vets] and represent them as a crusade company.

To represent DC Tycho i converted up helbrecht since he has a cool mechanical hand and combi bolter. It's also an awesome model by Dave Andrews that it's great to be able to use.

My first experience using finecast actually and i'm torn on my feelings about it... i will say though that it is super fragile 

Oh, and i've always wanted a furioso, so what a great excuse 


















































Since these guys are going to be 90% black, i decided to see how much of the work i could do using my airbrush. They're overhighlighted but i should be able to sull this down with a translucent go round of black. IRL they are a lot more blue/turquoise than they look in the pics as my preferred way to highlight black is with Hawk Turquoise.

Will experament with dampening them down and post an update.


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## the.alleycat.uk (Jun 11, 2009)

Ok another update as i managed to get decals done on it.

For some reason i really like this mini, it may be that it's a bit of an unusual mini with the passengers actually modelled onto what is basically just a transport. And such varied and dynamic poses.


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