# The suspense is killing me



## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

So, as my avatar suggests, I live in the land of poles. Normally this is great as it's cheap to live and I have a steady income well over the national average as a native teacher of English. However, this also sucks donkey testicles because all of my wargames stuff is back in England and during a recent visit there I somehow got dragged back into the hobby after a 5 year hiatus.

Now, I've been selling old stuff on the wonderful world of ebay (mostly my old LOTR models and some blood bowl stuff) to fund a fresh start over here. So last week I put in an order with my local (local in England anyway) games store and am now eagerly anticipating the arrival of:

View attachment 959931534


As well as this small order to start my paint collection, I also have a few Vallejo paints on order from another store and have bought a few still in blister models from ebay including a Mordheim Vampire, one of the old eldar avatars and the elf mage from IoB. Oh - and resin bases 

The idea is to model and paint these guys up trying out new techniques along the way and then maybe start an army of something I like the look of, or just get my Ogre's, Nids or BA's sent over to finish off and get a few games in.

If I'm missing anything from my shopping list let me know 

Edit: Apologies for not having any pics of actual figures, the waiting is akin to christmas as a 5 year old and I need to feel like I'm doing something proactive. I'll update with pics of the unboxing and cleaning up of the finecast models - It'll be my first foray into the world of finecast and I'm hoping it doesn't all go tits-up on me. In fact speaking of finecast problems, I haven't ordered any greenstuff... bollocks.

Edit 2: My figures actually had an attempted delivery on Tuesday, BUT the Polish post is a bit shit and they never even take packages with them on rounds and then claim that you didn't answer the door when they tried to deliver so you have to go and pick it up. Work appears to have gotten in the way of that so far but finally. Finally tomorrow morning I'll be able to pick them up


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## Brother Emund (Apr 17, 2009)

*"The Galaxy is the Emperor's, and anyone or anything who challenges that claim is an enemy who must be destroyed"*​
However 'nid players from Poland are most welcome!


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## Rafu (Oct 15, 2011)

Pretty sure you already know this, but just in case you don't, you'll want some superglue for the resin. It's always annoying when you get new stuff and realise you can't do anything with it due to lack of tools etc.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Rafu said:


> Pretty sure you already know this, but just in case you don't, you'll want some superglue for the resin. It's always annoying when you get new stuff and realise you can't do anything with it due to lack of tools etc.


Luckily I have that covered, I actually know where to buy superglue here where as plastic glue, among other things, has been hard to track down but thanks for the tip  

Thinking back I've actually missed being accidentally superglued to various items.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Right, so all my stuff is here and has been for a few days. I've just had a busy couple of weeks and haven't really had chance to look at the stuff let alone put anything together or paint.

So here's a nice picture of a box:








Now a couple of the resin bases I bought, they're volcanic but I think they look pretty good as worn flagstones too. I was testing out some different techniques and tried my hand at stippling for the first time. The lava isn't great on the other base, I somehow forgot to order any yellow paint and had to resort to mixing from orange.








Last pic is the hammer from the Empire Captain. It's supposed to have the initials KF but thanks to copious amount of flash it actually read '[]E' took me some time to make it readable. This is actually my first experience with finecast and while the model itself was in good order with no holes or cracks, the flash and mould lines were aweful. It took me ages to clean up completely but at least I didn't have to green stuff anything once it had been removed. 








Anyway, not much of an update but it's a start. Feedback welcome and encouraged. Next update will be some finished mantic ghouls (pic below) - the free ones from the paint set - that I'll be testing myself on. I haven't properly painted miniatures for a long time (3 colour nids while I was back in the UK in the summer don't count) and getting back into isn't as easy as I thought.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Ok, so after a hectic month I've finally got down to painting some stuff. 

I made a bit of a mess trying out new techniques on the mantic ghouls so wont post up pics of them but they did give me some much needed practice. 

Christmas was pretty good and I ended up with a package from home containing a second empire captain, some shiny new paintbrushes and a box of empire pistoliers which were all completely unexpected but now I guess I can turn this into more of an Empire plog 

Anyway, here's some pics of the first empire captain in progress. I'd rather get critiqued at this stage where it's easier to change things so bring on the pain.

Here's the front - Boots aren't finished yet and I haven't decided on a colour scheme for the cloth parts yet although purple and white is what I'm leaning towards at the moment.









Aaaaand the back. I'm pretty happy with how the cloak came out and the embroidery part will likely be gold









Anyway, small update but I have to start somewhere


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## TheReverend (Dec 2, 2007)

A great start back into the hobby! 

I like the purple cloak, and well done with the gold armour, what was your technique? I hate painting gold but have just been pointed in the direction of Vellejo Liquid Gold, which apparently covers really well. 

The freehand is really shaping up too, well done for being brave with that so soon back into the hobby


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Cheers  Just so you know if by freehand you mean the comet on the cloak, that's just part of the model 

The gold was vallejo's tinny tin - or just tin bitz - over a black undercoat. Thin coat of army painter gold. Badab Black wash then highlight with the gold again. Pretty simple overall but I'm happy with how it came out


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

So, finally got this guy finished. 










The left shoulder looks really messy here, I went back to it after I looked at the pic for the first time and it turns out the camera does lie! It really doesn't look like that 









Next up is Castellan Crowe


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

OK, so last time I said Castellan Crowe was up next but I changed my mind and instead started building my pistoliers/outriders.

I couldn't choose which of the two units I wanted to make so decided to do both and hopefully have them interchangable. Now, as I said in the OP, I don't have much in the way of tools and I definitely don't have any magnet (yet) so I started by pinning the horses. This is quite painful when you don't have a drill small enough BUT I improvised with my penknife and a rather pointy screw. 

I literally screwed an outrider in the ass.

Next was the weapons. The outriders have cloaks that are attached to the arm that steadies the repeater handgun while pistoliers just have 2 normal arms with no cloak so I'm going to have to replace everything but the body and legs when I change units. The heads also need to be changed, pistoliers are young and outriders are mostly older bearded guys so more pinning/magnetising ahead.

Small update really, just to show I'm getting there slowly but surely.











The arms aren't actually pinned yet so they won't be so loose once I'm done.









Edit: I've been busy today and pinned the whole unit. I'm not sure how I'm going to fix the arms, I'm thinking pins in the pistol arms and holes in body join and just leave the repeater arms as they are because they seem a fairly tight fit and they'll obviously cover any holes in the body.

Here's the unit as a whole with repeater handguns









And here's how they look unassembled


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Right, more updates.

Firstly Castellan Crowe is started. I need to finish off stuff like the scrolls and extras but he's mostly done.










And the back:









Aaaaaand here's ANOTHER empire captain. This one I plan on keeping for my army and I decided to make him into a BSB so I made a green stuff banner using a cocktail stick for the pole. I also had to chop his arms off to reposition for the banner to not go over his shoulder like the hammer normally does. I also decided I didn't want a pistol on this one so chopped off the gun, green stuffed the handle to make it look like the hammer grip (had to bulk it out quite a bit) and now have the hammer to try and attach.










This guy will be my entry for both of the march painting comps so I ditched Crowe for a few days in order to get this conversion done 

Feedback welcome, I've taken the lack of feedback so far to mean one of two things; either I'm at that 'perfectly acceptable' stage where no one feels they need to point out mistakes OR no one cares  I like to think it's the first reason


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## Red Corsairs (Jun 8, 2008)

Nice painting on Crowe, the metallics look good and the cloak looks nicely done also. I look forward to seeing the Captain in next months challenges.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Cheers for the feedback RC,

The captain is pretty much ready to be primed, however I thought I'd post up a pick of him almost finished in order to get feedback on whether there's anything I've missed.

So please comment if you notice anything that looks out of place or needs green stuffing or any mold lines I've managed to miss. Extra pairs if eyes are most welcome 










I will say I know the pose looks a little weird and something he wouldn't be able to hold for long, you just have to assume it timmy mallets mallet and not a steel warhammer


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## Carna (Mar 13, 2008)

I could imagine him holding it further up the handle but throwing it up and letting his hand grip it further down as he points with it. Nohomo. The only critic I could give, and believe me when I say no matter what it's better than anything I've ever done, but the banner looks a little too thick around the pole.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

I agree I probably should have shortened the hammer grip, I think I miscalculated (read; didn't really do any measuring) before I attached it 

As for the banner, I have actually been trimming it down but if it still looks too fat then I'll have another crack at it. I just need to wait for the 2 bands either side of the banner grip to dry before I touch it.

Cheers for the feedback, keep it coming


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Update of progress on the captain. Had a bit of an issue with the primer when I sprayed him. I'm using some random company spray paint - it's pretty good especially for the price and I've used it before on a feew test figures (and crowe) and it's been fine. However when I went to spray the captain I shook for a minute or two, sprayed on some paper for a second to check the consistancy and then sprayed the figure only for the nozzle to eff up and splatter the paint a bit thick on the front side of the captain. Some warm water and a toothbrush later and I cleaned most of it out (spray paint is damn sticky and refuses to budge) let it dry and tried again with success!

Anyway, these pics are very basic base coats only although the banner in the second and third pics is pretty much the final colour - it's just hard to see but it's layered from 1/1 black/purple mix up to 2/1 purple/bone. I'll take some better pics so you can see it before I ruin it with some free hand empire designs. 










Front View









Arse view









One thing I've been thinking about is the colour scheme of my army. I know this is something to do BEFORE you start painting but I was planning on purple and white for the main colours with any trims or frills etc being red. However, I'm now starting to lean towards purple and yellow as the main colours but going for al three of the difficult colours to paint in one army seems like it might be stretching my abilities and I'm not really sure it would look better than purple/white anyway.

Any thoughts on this baffling conundrum or just critique or general suggestions of things to add, or ideas for the banner are all welcome.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

These are looking awesome Mr Turnip. i always think that purple and red don't fit together very nicely, they have a habbit of being too similar unless you are planning on making the purple very pale compared to the red. Your fading and shading on these guys is great, much nicer than my own so i will have to take a tripp to Polesville and steal your brain....sorry that's the way it is.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

GrimzagGorwazza said:


> These are looking awesome Mr Turnip. i always think that purple and red don't fit together very nicely, they have a habbit of being too similar unless you are planning on making the purple very pale compared to the red. Your fading and shading on these guys is great, much nicer than my own so i will have to take a tripp to Polesville and steal your brain....sorry that's the way it is.



Cheers, thinking on it I am actually leaning towards a dark green cape now just for some contrast. That and I'm bored of red 

You can take a trip to Polesville but can you let me know when you find my brain, it's been missing for a while 


Right, so this isn't an update. That much is clear (although I did use the few hours I had spare today to remove all the mold lines on the pistoliers/outriders and stick them together with white tack in preparation for making them interchangable - yay). 



This is, however, a request. 

I need a design that I can free hand onto the banner of the captain. Any ideas are welcome - or designs if people are willing to bother. My free hand skills aren't up to scratch as it's been a while since my last attempts which even back when I was at my best I still couldn't quite get things exactly how I wanted them, so something fairly simple would be best. The banner is purple and I'm thinking the bulk of the design should be bone or similar.

As for pointers on what the design could be; I've not decided on the fluff of my army BUT I will have a slight undead undertone going on. I have some zombie pirates I made ages ago back in the UK which I'll probably add in as free company to the army to get it off the ground. Also I always liked VC fluff so I could go for something like a border kingdom that has been infiltrated by vampires and the peasantry are becoming gradually corpsified. We'll see where it goes as I build the army 

So, any help welcome and thanks in advance


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Cancelled one of my lessons this morning because I couldn't be arsed to go teach a small child English and I used the time to get some more paint slopped on to the captain. Win win situation.

The cloak is now green and I'm happy with how it came out, it's also the only part of the figure that's finished bar any touch ups that may occur from unsteady hands.










Extreme closeup...whoooooaaaahhh /Waynesworld


Aaaaand the cloak.









Apologies if it's getting boring seeing updates on the same figures all the time but I'm trying to motivate myself to get through them quicker. Once this guy is finished I'll finish off crowe and undercoat the various parts of the pistoliers/outriders and then I have mr Krell Lord of Undeath to get started on  Should be a busy couple of months especially with a trip back the UK planned for May.

Also, still after suggestions for the banner. I'm kind of at a loss with what to do with it

Edit: I'm probably going to attempt a dumbed-down version of this:








On one side of the banner with a twin tailed comet on the reverse side. 

Any thoughts? Am I in over my head? Or is it a good idea? 

Edit 2:

Having trawled through some basic lore stuff and the uniforms and heraldry book I've decided on an Ostermark army - mostly because the colours fit but the close proximity to what was once sylvania and the fact mordheim is there too makes perfect sense for what I had planned for the army  Seems I lucked out, I always seem to do that when it comes to army backgrounds. 

I'll write up some fluff I think when I get round to it - probably when I run out of stuff to paint after the outriders a finished.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Update on the banner. Went with the pic from the previous post. It's actually from WAR but looks pretty awesome. 

I'm really happy with it so far, all i need to do is tidy it up a little and go over the brown border with either bone or gold, haven't decided yet and probably put a border on the gold cross with a little shading as it looks a bit plain.









The reverse side only has a border at the moment. I was thinking of the twin tailed comet but after seeing how this side came out I'm thinkning of trying something else as the comet idea seems like it might look a bit shite. Any thoughts?


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## Saulot (May 25, 2011)

Great job on the freehand banner, man!! And I love your colour scheme in general, save for the green which I'm not too sure of yet. 

Please continue to post regular updates! I'm enjoying your Fantasy plog!


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## cirs85 (Nov 9, 2011)

the free hand on your banner is very well done!


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Thanks for the kind words about the banner 

Right, small update. 

STILL NO SUPER GLUE - massive sad/angry face >:C

So I can't stick either the captain or crowe together and I can't really make too much of a start on my mini project either.

This month for the army painting and monthly painting challenge I'll be doing my pisoliers/outriders - these are pretty much ready to be primed with everything glued that needs to be glued and I'll just wait until I get magnets before attacking them with a pin vice/screw again meaning the all powerful white tack shall be making an appearance on the pics again when I get them painted 

On another note I prepped Krell, Lord of undeath and he's ready to be stuck together but that takes us back to the lack of superglue part again so I really need to get down to the shops and pick some up.

Aaaaand yet another note. This is my mystery project.









There will be a prize of +3 rep (all I can give) to the person that correctly identifies wha this will be. There are clues;

1 - It's a comedy piece (there's always something amusing in most of my armies)
2 - It's for my empire army
3 - There is no third clue.

Good luck everyone! :biggrin:


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Well, 12 hours and no one's attempted a guess so here's the next clue in the form of a picture. This isn't subtle and if no one bothers to guess from this I'm going to assume everyone is dead because seriously how could you NOT try and guess? 










Extra points go to the person that identifies the base model too (there's a pic on the first page)

The cloak (well really it's a trench coat) needs a lot of work and I've done 4 green stuffing sessions on it so far because I've found i end up squishing the un cured green stuff with fingers by accident if i try to cover too much at once so I'm gradually building it up. Plus I'm crap at doing cloaks with green stuff. This is pretty much my first attempt and I'm struggling to get the folds natural-looking but after last nights work I think it's looking better and I'm kind of seeing where I should be modelling the recesses


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## jonileth (Feb 1, 2012)

Are you going for ZZ Top here? Looks a lot like them.


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## Inari82 (Dec 6, 2011)

Slash from G&R?


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## VixusKragov (Feb 21, 2012)

Very cool models so far, great job on the freehand banner. Looking forward to more from you!

+rep


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

VixusKragov said:


> Very cool models so far, great job on the freehand banner. Looking forward to more from you!
> 
> +rep


Cheers 



> Slash from G&R?


Narrp



> Are you going for ZZ Top here?


Narrp

Good guesses though and I may take inspiration from them.

It's actually going to be a wizard. 

Not a guitar wizard, although he probably is, but a Lore of Metal wizard!


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## cirs85 (Nov 9, 2011)

The first picture I was like wtf is going on... looking back now you can make out the guitar sitting down there. But this model is going to be sick, cant wait to see the finished green and then with some paint!


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## Saulot (May 25, 2011)

Turnip86 said:


> It's actually going to be a wizard.
> Not a guitar wizard, although he probably is, but a Lore of Metal wizard!


HAHAHA AMAZING!!! Rock on!! \m/


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

cirs85 said:


> The first picture I was like wtf is going on... looking back now you can make out the guitar sitting down there. But this model is going to be sick, cant wait to see the finished green and then with some paint!


Yeah the first pic was supposed to be cryptic yet have something in it that could be made out. To be fair at that stage it was mostly just a blob of green stuff attached to a mantic ghoul. It still is but hopefully a more defined blob of green stuff 

I realise now that my brain really doesnt work in the same way as most people so only someone with an obscure view such as myself would have got the correct answer, then again I already knew so maybe not 

Anyway, I'm working all day today and tomorrow so won't make much, if any, progress for a few days so look out for updates on Friday 

Edit: Change of plans, I have a pretty clear schedule tomorrow morning and afternoon thanks to cancelled lessons because of Easter (students trying to blag longer weekends) so I actually might get something done. I'll probably base coat the pistoliers and finally get pics up for the monthly painting challenges and while they're drying green stuff more of the trench coat and get the wizard's head glued on

Edit 2: Here's the monthly challenge unit dry-built


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Update time. It's been a couple of weeks so here's a lot of pics 

The horses basecoated and armour of the pistoliers/outriders









The captain finally glued, I'm going to have to magnetise the base at some point as he's a bit rear-heavy.

























Castellan Crowe glued and stuff, needs touching up here and there but 95% complete

















And this is the Lore of Metal wizard. I'm getting there with him but the cloak needs a lot of bulking out and I need to make him some new rocks or something too. At least the guitar staff is pretty much done. Those frets were a pain in the ass 

















Parting question. In the old world would they use whammy bars on a flying V?


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

More WIP pics of the outriders/pistoliers. The pistolier arms are done as are the arms of the outriders but the outrider cloaks need a final green highlight and I'm not completely happy with the purple highlight on the pistoliers.

The horses are pretty much at the same stage as last time although the two darker brown ones have been both washed and highlighted back up with the mane and tail made darker to make them more natural. In fact does anyone know of any good resources for horses? Apart from googling various keywords and reading up on medieval horses on wikipedia I don't really know much about their markings etc so any info would be helpful in making them look natural. I also need to paint all of the saddles, reins and all of the little straps that seem to be everywhere.

Heads are all started too (as you can see) with the armour base coated (needs washing and highlighting back up) and the faces have a base coat and a wash and the eyes whited out so I need a mid highlight, wash and extreme highlight on them then dot the pupils. 

Guns and feathers havent even been touched yet. That's pretty much the last thing I'm going to do and I'm dreading the feathers. Hated doing them on both of the captains and I discovered drybrushing really doesnt look very good on them so it'll be the long process of individually highlighting each strand. 

Well, here are the pics anyway 


















Critical eyes are welcome as are people who want to tell me how awesome I am, but critisism is probably more helpful :wink:


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## Farseer Darvaleth (Nov 15, 2009)

I can't wait to see that Metal Wizard painted up; he looks hilarious. :laugh:

Also loving Crowe and the Captain, nice jobs all round.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Farseer Darvaleth said:


> I can't wait to see that Metal Wizard painted up; he looks hilarious. :laugh:
> 
> Also loving Crowe and the Captain, nice jobs all round.


Cheers  The wizard is on the back burner at the moment unfortunately. Once I'm back from my trip to the UK I'll start him up again along with all the models I pick up when I'm back so stay tuned 

Update time! Pistoliers/Outriders are finished! Well, I say finished but I'll probably go back to them at some point but for now I think I need a change to something else - namely painting up Krell, Lord of Undeath 

Well anyway here's the pics, as always feedback is very welcome.


























































Bases are plain because I'm going to mount them on resin scenic bases once I remember to get some from the same supplier as the base from the captain. I just need cash in my English account first 

And lastly, here's a game of thrones inspired pic as they seem to mount people's heads on spikes rather frequently.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Well, on my Triumphant return to the UK I ebayed some stuff and will be buying resin bases with part of the proceeds once a few things I'm bidding on have finished - Basically I don't want to over do it on spending 

As for progress: 

There is some!


But there aren't any pictures... yet.

While I was back I had a rummage through my old stuff and came across some Empire sprues from back when I was building my Vampire Counts army and using things like militia for zombie parts and Empire Knights as the base for my Black Knights. Not only that but for some reason in one of my bits boxes I found the barrel and small frame for a mortar. I've never bought a cannon/mortar kit. Ever. 

It's amazing what turns up in your bits box.

So at the moment I have a mortar on the go, I'm aware they're sub-par now but it was free which pretty much cancels out any argument against having it. I'll be green stuffing the frame to lengthen it and then attaching some of the decorative handles from the kit (although I think I left them in the UK  ) to make it into an old style 'break your back as you redeploy' mortar from early gunpowder times. Imagine this:








But bigger, better looking and probably shitter rules.

Next thing on the go is the front 2 ranks of a unit of Spearmen. Now, I've decided that after painting feathers in the helmets of 2 captains and a unit of pistoliers that I hate feathers. As such my rank and file troops will now have 60% LESS feathers in their helmets. One problem is that the Empire State Troops box has a whopping 11... yes 11 heads for the 10 bodies. This provides a hell of a lot of varie... wait, no it doesn't. All my guys will look the same! In order to help with this I've used some of the left over pistolier/ outrider heads (their box had like 15 heads for 5 guys!) and removed the feathers! For more customization I've also used a couple of Knight shields as for rank and file I'd rather just have the detail already on the shield to paint rather than have to freehand or anything.

Next on my 'on the go' list is a unit of 40 (yes 40) zombie pirates. These were made from the aforementioned militia I bought and... err... zombies. I'll be modelling these a lot probably over a long period of time as they're really not a priority (started them 7 or 8 years ago, a few months won't do any more harm) and I plan on toning down the obvious zombie parts and then I might use them as free company for the empire army, they will probably also make it into my Mordheim warband too either as zombie henchmen for undead or zealots for Witch Hunters (ironic I know) as my local (850 miles away but still local) store will be doing a continuous drop in/out campaign over the foreseeable future which should be fun.

Last couple of things! Speaking of mordheim I have a mordheim vampire (the one with the billowing cape and sword) to paint which looks like it might be fun. 

Aaaand I also have an Eldar Avatar to paint along with the High Elf mage from IoB.

So that's my long list of projects at the moment. Most of the individual painting stuff will be to do in between other things when I want a break from rank an file. They will also likely get sold off once they're done and I next visit the UK. My last lot went pretty well with Castellan Crowe selling for £17 and the Empire Captain (purple caped one from 1st page, not my BSB) sold for £25 meaning I funded my hobby while doing something I enjoyed! win win!

Well, on that note I shall bid you all GOOD DAY! and I'll probably update with a couple of pics tomorrow when there's actually light outside (and once I've glued the heads on my spearmen  )


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Not the greatest pictures in the world but these are my entry for the May army painting challenge. 


















10 Spearmen with command. I've also been writing some fluff up for my various units so once they're painted up I'll share it with you 

Current status of painting is flesh is base coated graveyard earth (a habit of mine doing that. I find I can get more natural colours mixing in brown with a light flesh colour) and the purple is base coated too. With the purple, rather than layering from a 50/50 black/purple mix that I did on the outriders and the captain I've gone straight for a purple base and will be using a light badab black wash instead.

Other than that, nothing to report. Just glad Wednesday is over! Shame Thursday is my 2nd busiest day of the week


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Another iPod pic so apologies for the crap quality. I just can't be bothered to find my camera and upload them from that 

This is just showing my progress which is basically just base coating the areas of block colour. So purple, light grey and flesh. It all looks a bit messy at the moment but it is only the first coat of paint after all.










Worst thing about these guys is trying to rank them up. They're not stuck to the bases - only blue tacked - so I can position them easier to rank up and because I'll be putting them on resin bases when I'm finished. Hopefully they'll be done by the end of the month, thing is then I'm at a loss with what to enter as next months entry  I guess I'll have to finish off my metal wizard or possibly some free company.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

The Blackwater Regiment 

A renown regiment named after Black Water lake high in the World Edge Mountains where, aiding their Dwarvern allies, they held back a wave after wave of green skins despite overwhelming odds. Outnumbered by the barbaric orcs they held the line for an entire day never taking a step back and, helped by the single-minded ferocity of the warrior priest Eckhardt Augenstein, slaughtered hundreds of the onrushing savages. Their bravery and mettle allowed the dwarf Runesmith Krazek Groth time to muster a devastating counter charge deep into the flanks of the green horde and break the spine of the orc army. With his remaining troops fleeing the field the orc warlord and his bodyguard of huge black orcs were cut down by the combined might of the Blackwater Regiment and Krazek Groth's Hammerer's temporarily ending the threat of a green skin invasion of the empire.


Nowadays the regiment is one of the few kept at full numbers and recruits are proud to be inducted into their ranks. They are known for holding their ground even in the direst circumstances and are usually found at the forefront of the fighting anchoring the battle lines. They are also regularly joined in battle by the descendants of the Augenstein blood line, the current warrior priest is Eckhardt Augenstein IV. 










Well, here's the start of my state troops. The Blackwater Regiment. To be honest they're not 100% complete but I really need a break from painting them so will probably do some modelling work on one of my other projects for a change. Things that need finishing are the drum, a few trinkets which I skipped over, a couple of ribbons and the banner needs some freehand on it that shows the fluff of the regiment 

Also, the bases will be resin so that's why they're not done. Oh, and they do have the option of shields, they're just primed and I didn't bother painting them


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

This evening I've been doing some green stuff work on the various bits and pieces I have in my to-do pile and this time I actually took pics!

First off, the mortar. I had originally thought to attach it facing the opposite way and in the grooves that I made in the green stuff part but after seeing a few more examples of early mortars I changed my mind, dug out some grooves in the plastic part of the frame and have it pointing the way it is now.









It obviously needs those other holes filling and generally more fleshing out of the carriage. I'll be decorating the sides with 2 shields, one on either side. They're from the empire knights box set, the rectangular ones with a griffon design. They fit pretty well so I may as well use them and it means that there's one less thing to worry about with getting the green stuff perfectly smooth 


Next up are my Free Company. As I mentioned in previous posts they started life (or undeath) as zombie pirates that I made a long long time ago. I've started to sort through them and picked out a couple that were less zombiefied than the rest. I pulled a couple of arms off and replaced them with some spare swordsmen arms from the state troops box and also head-swapped a couple too. At the moment I have 5 done as I was only doing them in between mixing the green stuff and allowing it to cure a bit before I used it 









Back to the metal wizard! I finally found time to renew my efforts on this mini project and today I added some more to his robes and gave him some nice new combat-style boots! Also I realised after taking the picture how funny is looks hanging there attached to the lamp that has a sticker with the crucifix on it xD









I actually got really pissed off with this at one point as I sculpted the boots and I was really happy with them, I then blue tacked him to some cocktail sticks to cure and the sticks went and fell over sticking one of the boots to the table. Needless to say I wasn't happy and I'm not 100% happy with his left boot now either and I'll definitely have to go back to it.

Next pics are of the rest of my future free company and also a couple of other to-do's in my carry case. 
















So top pic is mostly zombie pirates and accessories for the mortar but there's also my converted slaaneshi champion/lord that really needs to be paint stripped. It's not bad but no where near as good as I know I can do so I bought him back with me from the UK in order to do him justice with a repaint.
Bottom pic is a lot of zombie pirates along with Krell, Lord of Undeath who has been sat ready to be primed for about 2 months now - I'm slacking.

And last of all is my Mordheim vampire that I need to stick together, prime and paint. Looking forward to this one as it seems like a really nice model to paint.









Well, that's it for now! Next couple of days I plan to have the mortar finished and ready to be painted. Then hopefully at some point next week the cannon and Helstorm Rocket Battery I bought on eBay will turn up and I'll have my entire war machine battery up and running barring an engineer and a Helblaster


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

More pictures! (sorry :grin 

The metal wizard's feet are dry so here he his propped up. Next on the to-do list for him is to model a hand onto the guitar/staff which I can then glue onto the arm. I'm pretty sure this is going to be the worst part as I've always been terrible at drawing hands, let alone building them from greenstuff. I'll then need to take a proper look at the cloak which still needs quite a lot of work doing to it before it's ready. Looking at how much modelling I'll be doing on this guy I can safely say he wont be my entry for the army painting challenge 










And pics of the free company complete with second rank. 3 still have zombie heads, but only one needs to be changes in my opinion (back rank middle). The other two can just look like grizzled veterans.









There's quite a few wooden legs in the unit, they used to be pirates after all 

















Guy in the middle needs to be literally fleshed out as he has a zombie torso but other than that I think the unit as it is look alive enough to be free company. 

Comments welcome.

Edit: Quick question. I'm thinking of buying a war of the roses infantry box set or two from warlord games to use as halberdiers and archers. At £18 a box for 40 plastic figures that I can possibly use in my empire army it's a really good deal. So, have any of you encountered warlords products and could you recommend them to me or would I be better off with workshop stuff? I doubt I'll play in any tournaments and the store I play in stocks warlord anyway so if they're any good, finding games won't be an issue. Cheers in advance, Turnip


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## pchandler43 (Nov 28, 2008)

Just a heads up, your most recent pics aren't showing up, at least not on my end. Could be bandwidth issue with the hosting site maybe?

edit: nvm now they are. Looks great!


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

looking great turnip, i'm really looking forwards to seeing how the pirates come put when you are done with them. I wouldn't even bother fleshing out the middle guy, maybe they picked him up after he was shipwrecked on a desert island and he's still not put the weight back on.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

pchandler43 said:


> edit: nvm now they are. Looks great!


Cheers 



GrimzagGorwazza said:


> looking great turnip, i'm really looking forwards to seeing how the pirates come put when you are done with them. I wouldn't even bother fleshing out the middle guy, maybe they picked him up after he was shipwrecked on a desert island and he's still not put the weight back on.


Would definitely make life easier to leave him like that  Good idea  

Hopefully I'll get them primed and ready for my entry for the July painting challenge if I have time with moving flats.

Speaking of the painting challenge, here's my June entry finished.

A great cannon and my first war machine of the army! I have a good idea for some back story for it but I haven't really had chance to write it up yet in the same way as the spearmen but the gist of it is the cannon was on load from Nuln (hence black instead of white on the cannon) but was thought lost in battle, however it was salvaged by the engineers of Ostermark and restored to battle readiness - it's just no one bothered to tell the engineering school of Nuln  /yoink

I'll also be passing off the 2 crew members with the same head as twins, one deaf in the left ear and one deaf in the right ear from standing on opposite sides of the cannon.














































Having seen a few other people's cannons I decided they were too clean so I've gone for a look of a cannon that has been fired a few times. I'm happy with the cannon itself but I might go back to the crew at some point and dirty them up properly. 

Again bases are yet to be ordered/made but once I'm done with the militia I think I'll have a go at making a green stuff 'stamp' to make bases. I already have an outline done on some suitable material I just need to green stuff the pattern and let it set then I can production line my own bases 

Let me know what you think I can take bad as well as good.


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

love the paint scheme and the finish, if you are going to dirty them up i would leave it at the bits that would naturally get dirty, for example hands, faces, thighs 

+ rep


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Hellados said:


> love the paint scheme and the finish, if you are going to dirty them up i would leave it at the bits that would naturally get dirty, for example hands, faces, thighs
> 
> + rep


Thanks  Looking back at them I think they're probably dirtied up enough and like you said it should be mainly hands and faces.


Well, bit of a random update today with some nice new pics. I've gone over my now living zombie pirates which makes them just ordinary boring pirates... wait... pirates are AWESOME and lets face it, who doesn't like pirates. I ended up giving the malnourished guy a shirt to cover himself up with and I've also 'fleshed out' the parrot on the one guy's shoulder so it actually looks like a parrot now and not just a blob of green stuff on a shoulder. The guy with the parrot also now has hair which to be honest makes him look like a young Dave Mustaine but unfortunately I don't have any pics of him to post up just yet.

Before clothing:









And after:

















And now for the reason I called the update slightly random. Two things I've been working on today to do with my army, one is super-secret project x and the other is not. The 'is not' thing is something I decided to do after stumbling across a forum post that someone made regarding base 'stamps'. There's a company that makes ready to use stamps for bases so you basically smooth some green stuff (or miliput which is probably cheaper but I have no idea where to get any in Poland) over a base and press the stamp onto it to get your desired pattern. I immediately set out upon finding this information to do absolutely nothing for 3 weeks. 3 weeks later and I got round to making my own stamp. It's made from one of the GW finecast clamshell packs, a piece of paper that I drew the outline on and green stuff. And here's a before and after.


















I'll be testing it over the weekend once it's completely cured. I made it so big so there's plenty of variety as that seemed to be the biggest problem with the one I saw for sale as it was pretty small. I just hope it works now 

Let me know what you think about anything


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Tested my new base stamp today and I'm actually quite happy with the results. Here are some pics. Second pic is taken with a base I made without the stamp for comparison (the non stamped base is on the middle left).


















I like the stamped bases as they look more rugged than the sculpted one which makes them more realistic... well, in my opinion 

I'll post up some painted pics when I get them done and then obviously update with my newly based spearmen. The only problem is that I have to come face to face with that age old question. How the fuck do you rank up spearmen.


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## Iron Angel (Aug 2, 2009)

Base stamp, that is an amazing idea. Great work!


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Iron Angel said:


> Base stamp, that is an amazing idea. Great work!


Cheers, I can't take all the credit for the idea of the stamp though 

Here's a few pics of all the units I've done so far with their new shiny bases. I've painted them in the same style as the BSB's base which is basically;

Heavy drybrush dark grey > Light drybrush light grey > Wash black > Stipple mud coloured brown > Stipple 50/50 mix of mud coloured brown and bone > Stipple pure bone. 

Apologies for the picture quality, my other half stole the camera today for work and it ran out of battery and we have no idea where the charger is after moving house a couple of weeks ago  I'll even throw in a whole army pic at the end. I always like seeing other people's full army shots in their plogs so why not encourage the practice in my own plog


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Oh, that's coming together quite nicely. Are you planning on doing the sides of the bases in any particular colour? Also, Enjoy some rep for the effort and the nice conversion and GS work!


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

elmir said:


> Oh, that's coming together quite nicely. Are you planning on doing the sides of the bases in any particular colour? Also, Enjoy some rep for the effort and the nice conversion and GS work!


Slooooooooow reply, sorry  The bases will be/are already in some cases light grey. Basically the highlight colour of the stone without the weathering. I'm not a fan of contrasting base colours and anything other than stone wouldn't really go in my opinion. Plus they'll all have movement trays anyway so you wont see too much of the edges 

Small update with the 'finished' pirate-militia. I'll update with their fluff over the next couple of days as it's an ongoing thing that I've been thinking about while painting them. I cam up with each characters' back story while I was painting them, thinking of ways they joined the crew and how then ended up looking like they do so the next updates will be all about that with a 'meet the crew' kind of thing  There's a couple I haven't done and all of the bits I have done need re-writing from first draft form but keep checking back for updates 


























Feedback welcome, some of the parts I messed up I'm aware of but please point out any you see just incase I missed it. I will be going back to these at a later date but I feel like moving on to something completely different.

So next up for painting is either my helstorm rocket battery or, if I can sculpt the cloak in a way I like, the metal wizard.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

So, quick update on what I'll be doing for the painting challenge. I decided to do my second war machine so here's some pics of the Helstorm Rocket Battery. 

























The crew are an amalgamation of different kits. The loader is the one from the Helstorm kit, the fuse lighter guy is from the cannon/mortar kit and the one-armed commander is one of the famed pirate militia 

I wanted the commander to be a kind of grizzled veteran and the fact he has a zombie head hopefully shows that. I green-stuffed the right side of his head to look like he actually has skin and the left side is fairly skeletal. I'll be painting him with Two-Face from Batman in mind, serves me right for playing Arkham Asylum over the last few weeks 

Also, the next lot of militia are set aside ready to do. I've already started with the green stuff to make them more alive as you can probably see from the picture. They also need the odd new arm here. Overall they need more work done on them than the last 10 I did but shouldn't be a problem to get them done.

























Next on my purchase list will be a box of wars of the roses infantry from Perry Miniatures. In the box are 40 bodies which can be made up as either archers (which my army list uses a shit load of) or billmen (halberdiers or back rank of spearmen). So from a box I'll have 30 archers and 10 halberdiers. Apparently the heavily armoured bodies, i.e. the command figures make good greatsword bodies but greatswords are a unit I'm staying away from considering I can make my huge block of troops & detachments stubborn for 35 points anyway 


Final note, the fluff I promised is written! I just work better on paper rather than on the laptop so I need to type it all up. Stay tuned for pics and fluff of some of the characters from the Town Militia of Remer


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Some WIP pics of the Helstorm:











The master of ballistics - Herman Delle. Also known as Two-Face Herman behind his back.









Still lots to be done but the basic colours are there (barring Herman's shirt and various gloves and boots of the other 2 crewmen) 

Should just about get it done before the Monday deadline of the painting challenge.


Gief me critique!


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Aaaaand finished.




























Herman Delle - Master of Ballistics. Herman had the honour of working with Balthasar Gelt when he was training at the Nuln gunnery school. Gelt was working on improved gunpowder mixtures using his alchemical and magic skills. One such experiment saw a Helblaster some of his experimental gunpowder was loaded in backfire catastrophically. The powder has been crushed too fine and when the fuse was lit a great jet of liquid fire spurted out of the back and onto the left side of Herman's face and body. The Helblaster then exploded, obliterating everything within 100 yards. When the smoke cleared only the Engineers, Delle and Gelt were left after the latter used his potent magery to shield the helpless crew from certain destruction.
Known as "Two-Face" behind his back, Delle has something of a deathwish after the psychological trauma of his disfigurement and takes command of the most experimental and destructive war machines hoping that one will eventually finish him off.






















































Again like with the cannon crew I wanted them to look as if they've fired a few salvoes hence the dirty look. Also in the same style as the cannon I used black rather than the white of Ostermark on the actual war machine to show it's on loan from the Nuln gunnery school.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Time for a progress update.

I'll probably be doing 10 more militia for the monthly painting challenge so I'm busy making them look more alive than they currently do. This batch of 10 is more of a problem than the last lot because more of them have legs from the zombie sprues meaning they're rather thin and wonky. I'll be using this to my advantage in some cases but mostly I'm green stuffing the legs to bulk them out. There will be a couple of exceptions which I'll show you in the pics 

So I started with ripping off the bases and using my sexy base stamp to flagstonify them








Next up is one guy with some new trousers and another with a wooden leg and a new monk-style haircut








Here's another guy with some new threads. He's almost identical to the guy in the previous pic so I'll be ripping one of their left arms off and replacing it with a state trooper shield arm and maybe replacing the sword arm too but I'm undecided on that point.








Lastly the exceptions to the trouser rule. The one on the left will have a knee-length chain-mail hauberk and the one on the right will be wearing a kilt showing off his knobbly knees.









With the plog to keep me motivated I'll hopefully have them ready to paint by the end of the week. I also feel it's time to place another order online soon so I'll probably be getting the avatars of war warrior priest kit and some more state troops. also, money permitting, I'd like to get some demigryphs which I really can't wait to buy as I have some ideas for fluff and know exactly how I want them painted already so it's just a case of actually buying them 

Lastly, if anyone has any bright ideas about how I could model some more members of the militia then this is your chance to influence the building of a part of my army


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

It's been ages since I've updated, thanks Russians!

Finished the 10 militia. It was a slow process with the start of the school year being so hectic - planning lessons at the start of the year is so much harder than 2 months in 

Here's pics of the extra pirates anyway, sorry for the blurriness. They were taken on my iPod thanks to my camera being missing. 

































I've also got loads of knights ready to paint - 13 at the moment with another 12 back in the UK. There's also another bunch of pistoliers and lots of fun Tyranid stuff waiting for me next time I'm home 


















And then my extra entry for the month painting challenge - a halfling pirate which'll double up as either the champion for the pirate militia or a captain of the empire.









Let me know what you think


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Finished my Captain/Unit Champion for the Militia.

Let me know what you think


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Started my knights finally and they're my entry for December's Painting Challenge - well, the first 5 or 6 anyway, so say hello to The Knights Harlequin! 

Here's a few WIP shots of the horses


























I then black-lined the pattern to define it more - I'm very happy with the results I just need to highlight the turquoise a little and shade the white slightly at the bottom of each square/diamond


























The riders will have black/grey armour to offset the brightness although I might change my mind about that once I actually see them painted on the horses.

Feedback welcome


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## Dorns Legacy (Nov 9, 2012)

Nice work , really liking the harlequin patterning on the horses and love how you made your own base stamps, after they are painted they give as you said a much more natural feel to the paving.
Kudos


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

That looks like a lot of effort right there and the results look good, I'll be very interested to see them with the knights in place. Do you pencil the border lines in first or just go at it?


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Dorns Legacy said:


> Nice work , really liking the harlequin patterning on the horses and love how you made your own base stamps, after they are painted they give as you said a much more natural feel to the paving.
> Kudos





Jacobite said:


> That looks like a lot of effort right there and the results look good, I'll be very interested to see them with the knights in place. Do you pencil the border lines in first or just go at it?


Cheers  I don't bother pencilling in the lines, I tried it on my original test model but found it was actually much easier to mark a pattern by just sticking a thin layer of coloured (purple) squarish blobs and build it up from there. 

The knights need a few repairs before I start on them, I have a bag of bits on the way from the UK but it's taking its time getting here so I haven't even looked at testing out a scheme on them yet. Like I mentioned I've been considering black/grey but also a really dull iron might work - like a gunmetal colour with a heavy black wash. Any suggestions on armour colour for the knights is welcome - I don't want to go too over the top with colour so a harlequin pattern is out of the question really


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## Dorns Legacy (Nov 9, 2012)

I like worn brass colourations on knights, 1:1 dwarf bronze and tin bitz, then a light mith silver on most raised edges, water down a 1:1 dark angel green and hawk turquoise to make a wash for the recesses and then apply another layer of mith silver on the most raised parts but this is just my preference have a go see what you think even if you only try it on weapon.

The metal shaft of the apothecaries power axe was done with this method for my black templars in this post....
http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=118992


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Quick WiP update. A few iPod pics (GF stole the camera today so can't take decent quality pics) of the knights. 4 horses done and one test knight - comments welcome


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

So the knights are pretty much finished barring a couple of unpainted parts - helmets and the banner mostly. I'm green stuffing a jester's hat onto a skull for the banner top and until that's finished I don't really want to paint the banner just in case I wanted any part of the top draping over the banner. The helmets are unpainted purely because I don't know what colour to paint them 

Here's some pics anyway - comments and critique welcome:


















































The champion will probably double up as a captain if I ever need a mounted one and the banner will eventually be the same harlequin pattern with some sort of design in the middle portion. The spare helmet is for the champion in case I don't want a massively plumed hat and would rather have a slightly less big helmet instead. 

Next on the agenda is putting my Demigryphs together and then I might move on to WoC for a while.


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

stunning models mate, how are the Demis coming along? do you ever use them in battles less then 1500 points?

I love the chequers but have you thought about putting a bigger highlight on the purple? may make it pop more


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Hellados said:


> stunning models mate, how are the Demis coming along? do you ever use them in battles less then 1500 points?
> 
> I love the chequers but have you thought about putting a bigger highlight on the purple? may make it pop more


Cheers, the purple will probably get a heavier wash at a later date but for now I'm leaving these guys for a while. 

The demi's are coming along slowly, one is fully built with the other 2 still on sprues - I haven't had chance to do much work on them. 

About using them in games - I haven't used my empire in a game yet, living over here doesn't lend well to getting games in (I don't know anyone here that plays) so I'm focussing on building up a (hopefully) characterful army that I like the look of and that I can eventually take home when I visit and get some games in. I actually put together a list last night that's 1500 points that includes everything I own plus what I want to expand next and it includes Demi's. They're fairly awesome and for 178 points for 3 - what you get is well worth it.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Small update of what I'm currently working on. I decided for the monthly painting challenge that there was no way I could get my Demigryphs put together and painted in time so I'm just focussing on building them this month. For the challenge I'll be painting up the 'new' (well, it's been out for nearly a year but w/e) plastic captain. Here's where he is at the moment;










I magnetised both heads making sure I used the same polarity as that of the heads on my knights so I can swap them out on a whim  I also pinned the cloak so I can paint it before permanently attaching it. When it's put together it looks like:










My Demigryphs are at this stage:








With more work planned on them for today so all the Demi's should be put together and then I just need to do the knights. One thing with the knights themselves is I want them with lances BUT I'd also like to have the option of halberds too. The only problem is the hand joint is way too small for a magnet and pinning won't work thanks to gravity. Any suggestions?

And one last pic. This is the state of my paint station at the moment... so many knights...


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## Charandris (Nov 27, 2012)

I love your work so far, especially the harlequin-esque knightly order! Will be watching here i think, its good to see another active fantasy log!  
Be cool to see how your khorne knights go aswell if your still working on them?


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## alasdair (Jun 11, 2009)

Hi there! Im loving your work so far, great colour scheme and innovative and well painted knights!

Just an idea, I also have a force based with stone pavings, and I realised they look much better if you edge the bases in black. This might be personal preference.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Charandris said:


> I love your work so far, especially the harlequin-esque knightly order! Will be watching here i think, its good to see another active fantasy log!
> Be cool to see how your khorne knights go aswell if your still working on them?


Cheers, yeah the knights are coming along - I'm testing some colours on one of them at the moment. They were already sprayed when I got them (forum trading) so I'm darkening down the red to start with with mechrite red watered down then washing it with drucchi violet and bringing it back up with wazdakka red - that's how far I am with the scheme at the moment. I want contrasting edge highlight on them as well so need to decide which colours to use and whether to go with orange or just skip straight up to yellow.




alasdair said:


> Hi there! Im loving your work so far, great colour scheme and innovative and well painted knights!
> 
> Just an idea, I also have a force based with stone pavings, and I realised they look much better if you edge the bases in black. This might be personal preference.


I tried them with black bases, decided I preferred grey. They'll be magnetised into movement trays eventually anyway so it'll be hard to see the base edges anyway.



As for progress, no pics today  I'm too lazy to find the camera but I've been working a bit more on the banner for the knights and come up with a design I like and the banner top is nearly finished - I just need to file the green stuff to smooth it out and make a few edges crisper.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Small banner update, here's how I went about making the banner top.

I started with this banner top from the State Troop sprue:









I cut the laurel in the middle then cut both halves off, rotated them 180 degrees and glued them back on, I then filed the corners of the ribbon down then applied a healthy dose of green stuff including 4 more ... umm... appendages? 

It currently looks like:

















I need to smooth out the green stuff a bit more but it's mostly done. Then once it's attached to the banner I'll begin painting it up.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Finished the banner! Too much time on my hands this weekend when I should be preparing end of semester tests for my students. Feedback welcome!


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Finished off my captain with greatsword today for the monthly painting challenge and managed to almost finish sticking the demi's together. I also have a couple of other things on the go with an eldar avatar ready to be sprayed and 50 odd Chaos Marauders (which I'm sure will get nerfed in the new book  ) ranked up on my desk ready to be cleaned up and re-primed. They were bought 2nd hand (along with the nights and khorne lord) and they all have mold-lines all over them so i need to take some time out to do that.

Anyway, pictures!

Flash! Aaaaaa Aaaaaaahhhh









No flash! Awwwwwww 









Cloak









No Cloak









Edit: Just realised I didn't actually paint the hands - as in no wash or highlighting... d'oh

To the paintstation! I'll explain on the way


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## dutchy1982 (Apr 28, 2008)

Some beautiful models in there!


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## KjellThorngaard (Oct 4, 2010)

Great stuff Turnip. You have the makings of a very characterful army. Keep it up!


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## Charandris (Nov 27, 2012)

The puffy sleeve on your captain is spot on! The yellow has come out very nicely too, notably on his leg! Love the face of him aswell, all very nicely done there!


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Cheers for all the kind words  

Yesterday I finally received the stuff I ordered at the end of November (Christmas present for myself - 6 weeks late  ) So here's more stuff to add to the 'to do' list.


















Bit of a move away from fantasy but they'll be something to paint up when I feel like a change. I might do the Joker as part of the Feb painting deathmatch - he obviously needs to be done first


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

It's been way too long since I updated but that's because I was back in the UK for 2 weeks and while I painted loads (about 800 points) of nids, I didn't feel it was plog-worthy  So now for an empire update! The army painting challenge is about to come to a close so here's my final entry - an Avatars of War war(rior) priest.

Before:









After:

















I have no idea why I didn't take a picture of the back, I'll do that another time ^^

And now, because it's the end of the challenge I thought I'd post up pics of my whole empire army. This comes in at around 800 points and I still have lots ready to be painted which should easily get me up to a 1500 point force.

Whole army:









Slightly closer with multiple units:

































Extreme close-up (whoooooaaaaaoooooaaaaa)

































So to summarise what I did for the challenge (in no particular order):
10 spearmen with command
5 pistoliers/outriders
6 Knights Harlequin
1 Great Cannon
1 Helstorm Rocket Battery
20 Pirate Militia
1 Pirate halfling captain
1 Great weapon Captain
BSB Captain
Warrior Priest

For the 2013 challenge I think I'll be doing Chaos Marines as a bit of a change from my Empire. Alpha Legion to be precise of which I'll be starting today by sticking some chaos marines together!

This doesn't mean I'll be neglecting my Empire (well, hopefully). I still have my demigryphs to paint and another 10odd knights, 4 more pistoliers, a mounted warrior priest and a mounted general. The problem is, after being back in the UK I found it's MUCH easier to get a game of 40k than fantasy and I'd like a change from playing my out of date nids 


Anyway - comments welcome and stay tuned for more updates!


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Good day all! It's been a while since my last update mostly because life's been hectic since I got back from the UK so haven't had chance to paint much. I have, however, been buying xD

First up here's a couple of things I've got on the go. This is the eldar avatar I bought ages ago with the view to test my painting progress but as you can see I still haven't gotten round to undercoating it - maybe today!








The sword arm is pinned and will be glued after painting, the left arm is magnetised for ease of transport as it sticks out at an odd angle 

Here's my mordheim vampire I was painting for the monthly competition while I was in England but never got round to putting the finishing touches on - mainly the face

















Annnnd here's the Clown Prince of Crime ready to be painted!

















And lastly, here's the sorry state of my paint station at the moment!









There's lots to get through on there including Chaos Knights, Demigryph Knights, a Slaanesh Champion that needs stripping (pun intended) and a Ltd ed Chaos Sorcerer that needs paint stripping too. There's other bits too like the remainder of the Joker's crew and other odds and ends. Unfortunately it'll all probably take a back seat for my new project which I'll be starting a new plog to keep track of progress! 

This log will still be for my fantasy and other bits but I'm taking the plunge back into 40k with a new army - not that I haven't played 40k for a while (last game was 3 weeks ago after all) but my last 40k army was made 8 or 9 years ago so it's time to have a go at something new for me which is why I'm going with the weird and wonderful CSM!


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Update time!

The Clown Prince of Crime is done. I say done, but really I'll be going back to him soon to redo a couple of parts I'm not completely happy with - the pinstripes need touching up and the yellow could do with a final highlight too. Comments on other improvements I could make are welcome.

















And here's the Eldar Avatar I'm working on. It's a WiP but it gives you an idea of where it's going.

















That's it for now, hopefully more soon


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

It's been a while since the last update. I've been busy with my chaos marines and real life so haven't had much to report on the fantasy and random bits and pieces front.

I'm hopefully painting my Demigryph Knights for the army painting challenge this month but before I started them I wanted the bases sorted. 

The bases for Demigryphs are way too big for the model imo so I'm trying to make them look more interesting. My army is based on a kind of flagstone effect because I eventually wanted to build a display for them which would be the docks area of a town. So with that in mind I've been coming up with ideas. 

One such idea was simply to have a sewer cover so here's a step by step of my attempt!

Starting with the plain base I mixed up a bunch of greenstuff and rolled out enough to make a circle to mark out the area.









Next, I didn't just want a sewer entrance, I wanted something dark and malevolent staring out of it and the obvious choice would be skaven. Unfortunately I didn't have any skaven heads in my bits box so I went through until I found something suitable. It turned out to be:









A Banner top from the Empire Knights sprue. I chopped off its head leaving me with:









Next thing to do was make a drainage channel that would run into the sewer.









Which once smoothed down looks like:









When I was happy with that I took some paper clips and cut them to size in order to make the grille that covers the sewer. The first 2 are in place here:









More paper clips and then greenstuff on the outer edge:









Then finally the finished article. Well, I say finished, there's a lot still to be done but that's the hard part. 









More pics incoming when I finished the others


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## Deneris (Jul 23, 2008)

Are you going to use a touch of Water Effects on the sewer/gutter?

And I assume the "grate" is still loose so you can paint the critter?

In any case, great-looking work so far- wish I had the patience to do something like that... :so_happy:


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

That looks good mate, simple yet effective, I echo Den's thought about the water effects, I think it'd look great.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Cheers for the kind words 

I've never actually used water effects before but might consider investing in some at least for the drainage channel but maybe not the whole thing. I was thinking more of a deep, dark pit with inky blackness. Also with that in mind the critter I was going to keep fairly muted colour-wise but use OLS on the eyes for a glowing effect. The grate is actually glued in place but there's more than enough room for a paintbrush at most angles so shouldn't be a problem with painting. 

I do have one more blank base, the other is already flagstoned up and will have barrels and crates etc on it. So, if anyone has any bright ideas about the final one nows your chance to have your say


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

It's been a while since I've posted anything let alone an update on my project logs. I haven't had much chance to get stuff painted to be honest - I've had a crazy couple of months to say the least and real life was keeping me far too busy to escape into the world of eternal war.

As such this is only a small update - I'll hopefully be getting my Demigryphs started soon although I'm still not set on a colour scheme. However their bases are nearly finished which is at least something 

Some WiP shots:

















And the pretty much finished articles:

















Due to part of that whole real life thing I mentioned, I no longer own a camera so these are taken on my iPod which as previously stated in the thread is terrible for taking pics xD

Still, feedback welcome.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Another long break between updates! I've been a little bit out of the hobby over summer - not even because I didn't have the time, more like didn't have the desire although whenever I did I was working on my Alpha Legion (see other plog for updates on them) 

I've actually started painting the demigryphs although I don't have any pics yet but I'm happy with where the actual demi's are going although the one knight I painted didn't turn out as well as I hoped. 

I've been working on some older projects though including the Khorne lord which currently looks like this:










Basically I was thinking how best to make it stand up because all the weight is on one hoof and being a solid lump of metal it's hardly going to last long with just super glue. 

I then had an idea which I now kinda regret purely because it took so damn long. I drilled a hole through the pin part that slots into the base and then searched the apartment for something that the model could stand on and yet was fairly thin and yet sturdy... I ended up with a bottle cap. So I then drilled a hole in the bottle cap and widened it so it was big enough for the leg pin to go through then with the 1mm drill bit put 2 holes in the cap on opposite sides. Then (and this was the bit that took efing forever and also destroyed my fingers - thank fuck I play bass and my finger tips are slightly calloused otherwise the damage would have been worse xD) I pushed a paperclip through the hole in the leg pin and pulled it through the hole in the cap then pushed one end through each side of the cap and pulled tight. It's now not going anywhere.

Hope that explanation was easy enough to follow - I neglected to take pictures as going along but the whole process worked and also elevated the model which is something I wanted to do all along anyway just because the pose kinda suits leaping off something.

I then broke out the greenstuff and went to town making a rock - it's not actually a solid block of GS, there's a few random bits from my bits box to give it some bulk.


Speaking of solid lumps of greenstuff if you've seen the plog from the beginning you may be wondering whatever happened to the lore of metal wizard. Well, that's the other project I'm trying to finish right now and I'm nearly there although I'm not 100% happy with the guitar holding hand but I might just paint it and just angle the model so no one will ever see the hand.... ever...



















I took those pics right after giving the cloak a coat of liquid green stuff to smooth the whole thing out hence the shininess. 

Anyway, comments welcome and encouraged - again, sorry for the iPod pics, I'm aware they suck but it's all I have for the time being.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Small update but I'm trying to do more regular updates to keep myself motivated in the hope that I'll actually have more things finished than in progress.

The Khorne lord is coming along nicely and unless I find anything wrong with it in the morning is ready to be undercoated! I'm just waiting to finish the 3 chaos bikers I'm building so I can get them all done at the same time.



















I really like the epicness of the pose which I really think only comes through when the model is elevated like that so I'm looking forward to getting him painted.


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

Oh I do like that Khorne Lord. You're totally right, his epic pose does come more to fruition when he is elevated - Great job!

Is there a chance you could get some less grainy photos though? A lot of the details gets mushed because of it


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Unfortunately I'm still using my iPod touch for photos and the camera on it sucks regardless of lighting, position or any other factors. But once I have a better solution I might retake and update some of the pics.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Update time again. Been busy with various projects - chaos bikers and raptors are built and have a little paint on the raptors so far which can be seen on my other plog. Apart from those, I've done a little work on my Demigryphs and also an Eldar farseer I bought just to paint. 

So here's the farseer so...err... far...

















Pics are a bit blurry I know, iPod camera doesn't do well with artificial light and I played around with different methods but no improvement I'm afraid. Hopefully you get the idea with the farseer though anyway 

And now for the demigryphs. Points to anyone that can name the inspiration behind these:

































The white one is far from done, that's taken after the washes phase - I started with a base of admin grey and then white highlights then a wash of badab and one of drakenhof nightshade for a blueish hue. Now I just need to go over the white again - I just need to be patient with it and not rush through so it actually turns out ok. 

Anyway, that's it for now - suggestions and other comments welcome


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