# Shifting Sands of Time: Tomb Kings PLog



## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

At the moment I am currently partaking in a Tale of Four Gamers article that can be found here: http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=108132

I have decided that I will set up my own PLog rather then taking over the Tale of Four Gamers article with my WIP shots and hopefully discussions as my army progresses.

We are collecting, gaming and painting in blocks of 250 points and after a little bit of a spending spree (I actually went in for a couple of Boxes of River Trolls for my Orcs and Goblins) I ended up picking out a Sphinx kit and a Casket of Souls to go with the Sphinx kit, Liche Priests and Tomb Princes/Kings that I seem to have obtained at some point in the past.

So then Month 1. - Warshinx

I'm the first to admit that I am a serial butterfly gamer, happily flitting from project to project (at the moment Da' Blue Squig Gobbo's and Tomb Kings, my Bretonnians have been retired until I have the patience to repaint cavalry again- I f#cking hate painting horses) so with any joy my participation in this series will help curb my roving eye.

I decided that rather then simply building the Warshinx as this seems to be the internet's favourite option for the kit I would magnetise so that I can swap the Sphinx's around and not be stuck with just the one model sighing at myself that I should have done this differently, I don't like that hood colouration ect ect.

Assembly Completed and Undercoated in Army Painter Platemail Metal.

The Interwebs favourite: The Warsphinx










The Options (didn't take pictures of magnets or how to install - might do this on the second Sphinx Kit. Also looking back on it I didn't magnetise the option for the envenomed sting so may have to redo that in the future) 



















also fairly useless pictures of the magnetised parts










I picked up the model today intending to start the jade/marble effect that I wanted on my Sphinx when I noticed that the primer had given the Sphinx a rough almost sandy texture, just as I was about to throw the thing in a pot of Dettol to cleanse the filth and start again a thought struck me. I'll paint it as sandstone.

So basecoat - Khremi Brown (don't know new name sorry I got given the Mega paint set for xmas) and decided that a nice rich blue would be a nice colour for my Tomb King army so have used Enchanted Blue.



















I know that there are some strange angled shots here but wanted to show the blue against the brown

C&C very much appreciated


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## khrone forever (Dec 13, 2010)

looks good so far, good idea about the sandstone.

i will be joining you with a plog, once i get some minis 

khrone


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

Ta, what you got ordered?


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## khrone forever (Dec 13, 2010)

nothing yet, im going to pop over to GW on sunday to see whats up


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## cirs85 (Nov 9, 2011)

nice job magnetizing, I would be interested in how you did that, as I someday I am going to buy a second sphinx kit.


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

It looks like you're not using primer. Priming your models is absolutely essential-- while the paint does "grip" bare plastic, you'll find your results in general will be better on a primed miniature, and you'll have far less chipping. Paint on an unprimed model will rub off with use, and there's nothing worse than picking up a miniature and having the paint slough off just from touching it!


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

@ Horus. Thanks for that, although in actual fact I am using primer. Its the Platemail Metal primer from Army Painter which is a similar silver to GW chainmail. I do have to admit that it does look unprimed in the photos above.


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

Ah! Well, ignore me then! I'm a huge fan of the Army Painter sprays... since I haven't invested in an airbrush (yet...) they do make life a lot easier for painting large areas, vehicles, and the like that need a color other than black or white from the get-go.


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

@Cirs85 - I'll see if I can write up a tutorial of how I magnetised the kit and post it up in here or at least put a link up in here, failing that I'll have to assemble the sphinx kit and do stage by stage photos and comments at some point

@Horus - No worries dude, have you found that they leave a sandy like texture on your models?

Also I use the Silver because I struggle seeing depth and detail when using black or white primer so will be interesting painting up the skeletal legions


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Spraypaints can leave a "sandy" grit on your models if you leave them to dry in a too humid enviorment. 

If you have a hairdrying available to you, try blasting it with some hot air during the early stages of drying before you leave it to cure. I find that helped when I was still using spraycans on damp, cloudy days. 

Are you going to leave the metal bits silver, or cover them in washes to go for a gold effect? I know the guys of our local GW did some wonderfull golds using 2-3 coats of sepia wash over silver paint. 

With the cold blue, the cold white metals and the sand brown, the model looks a bit... well cold... for something that can be found in a dessert. I'm not 100% sold on it yet. I think hawk turkoise (sp?) might be a good choice for the main colour if you want a blue-ish tint that goes really well with both white and yellow metallics.

PS: This is a picture of a necron model that uses hawk turkoise to combine both cold white metallics with bronze/gold metallics:










Sandstone should be a good combo with this as well!


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

Elmir ah good I'm glad you looked in as I love the painting you done on your skaven.

The model is far from complete, I have about 2 hours of work done to it at the moment and have until the end of April to 'complete' the model so plenty of time still. 

The metals I am going for either a Greeny Copper using Thraka Green washes and Burnished Gold or the Sepia wash technique. Not really decided which yet. 

Also the sandstone needs a lot of work doing, at the moment its just a (very) rough basecoat the same with the blue, I'll be going towards a more Ice Blue with the army as I like strong bright colours although I am considering some yellow colouring and maybe some terracotta reds knocking about.

I ment to ask you in your thread, the dipping with Army Painters shades how does that work with larger models such as the Doomwheel and lightning cannon as I am thinking on using this technique when it comes to painting my skeletal legions, horsemen and chariots?

I'll have a look at the photo when I get home, work computer I can access this site but cannot see any images which sucks.


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## khrone forever (Dec 13, 2010)

i dont know about dipping, but me and a friend painted all of his VC army in the base colours, then just washed the whole thing with devlan mud. and it actually won the painting section of the schools league in Nottingham. link here  to his blog.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Ratvan said:


> I ment to ask you in your thread, the dipping with Army Painters shades how does that work with larger models such as the Doomwheel and lightning cannon as I am thinking on using this technique when it comes to painting my skeletal legions, horsemen and chariots?
> 
> I'll have a look at the photo when I get home, work computer I can access this site but cannot see any images which sucks.


It worked well on the doomwheel and the skaven warengines. Then again, those surfaces have the woodgrain sculpted into it, so the dip has somewhere to run. I know it doesn't work that well on completely FLAT surfaces, like warmachine warjacks etc. 

You can get it to work by removing exces dip with a damp brush and white spirit, but that's fiddly at best. 

Dipping does have it's advantages, but there are also big disadvantages that you need to take into account compared to regular washes (wich are also a perfectly viable tool, like khrone forever already mentioned):

Pro: 

- Less afterwork needed, dipping truely is the final stage, no highlights are needed... I find the finish of regular wash a bit too "messy" to really qualify as a final layer.

- Very good results on organic material like skin, fur and bone. 

- Protective layer. When the quickshade is dry, your models really are "gaming proof". Nothing will damage it again, even on metal models. 

Con:

- Thinning and cleaning brushes have to be done with toxic thinner (white spirit is what I use). Turpentine also works fine for this.

- Poor results on large, flat surfaces.

- A good matt varnish is needed, because the finish really couldn't be any glossier... 

I use handpainted varnish for one reason: Spraycans (especially varnish) can fog up in humid conditions. Seeing how both England and Belgium are very similar in climate, you'll have an "accident" with sprayed on varnish sooner rather then later... I'd put money on that if I were a betting man! Especially if you are already running into issues with a spray primer.


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

Well it shouldn't be an issue with the dipping then as all of the Tomb Kings stuff is fairly detailed and there is not too much flat surfaces on the models (with the exception of the Sphinx's "flesh" for want of a better word)

My issue with the washes is as you say Elmir that I see it as an intermediatry stage of painting to add depth where I then need the drybrush or highlight up until I am happy with the overall effect. Its actually the next stage on the Sphinx's plan to coat the thing in Sepia to darken the recesses of the model a bit. 

I've long since given up on can varnish since the last 2 cans I used the propellant went and I ended up with the varnish pissing down the can and all over my hand, clothes, painting surface, desk, can and Local GW (they didn't believe me until they tried it) 

Also since I live in an old house in Leeds most of the time it's fairly moist inside the house so do have issues with canned sprays, at least I know whats causing the sanding effect now.

That monolith is pretty much dead on the colours that I want for my army, although I'll be using Enchanted Blue and Ice Blue and washes to try and achieve the effect as my Turquoise has gone AWOL and I don't fancy buying individual pots when I have the rest of the Mega Paint set lying around.

I'll test it out on a sacrificial goblin or two (I have literally hundreds of the Skull Pass Gobbo's) and see which effect I like the best.


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## jondoe297 (Jan 6, 2010)

ratvan, i know this is your paintimg blog, but concerning your list, i really cannot advocate necropolis knights more highly, i have been running a small unit of 3 for the last few games and they have peformed admirably, infact the best unit in two of the games.
Any way i know this is your 'inbetween' army so i'll leave it there. Looking forward to see some more painting. Nearly finished my first test gk!


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## shiftystylin (Mar 24, 2012)

Ratvan, looks good! I thought there was a bit of a sheen on that model...
I find I have the same issue as you with being able to pick up detail so I use Army Painter grey primer spray and give it a thin coat of badab black wash. You have a relatively neutral base to work from and the paint sticks! :biggrin:

As for dipping, I used the medium shade Army Painter and I have to say, I was very disappointed. Elmir has some great examples of dipping and *clearly a lot more experience than myself* although, Elmir is definitely right about the protective layer, I found the model became over-saturated with what was essentially floor varnish and was untouchable after a coat. This led to an issue though because after I dipped a high elf model in it, I accidentally touched the model in a few places and immediately ruined the finish. Trying to achieve the same consistency with quickshade is difficult if you make mistakes.

Probably doesn't help that the quickshade was far too thick and, being a bit of a noob, I rushed into just dipping the whole model in pure quickshade which was probably its demise in the first place! Once I'd read it was more effective to apply it with a brush, I though *why bother with it at all?* Why not just use a wash and then you can correct mistakes more easily and don't have to wash a brush so thoroughly with a cleaning agent. 
I'm not trying to dissuade you, just telling you where I went wrong! Good luck and I'll be watching! :biggrin:


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

@Jon your advice is taken on board I almost at a stage where I'm happy with my 1250 point list and will be exploring the other options soon.

@shifty yeah I tested out a mates quickshade and hated it so will be sticking to traditional painting techniques for the time being. Although I hve foung myself falling for the Necrospinx option a lot more then the planned warsphinx. Hoping to update with more wip pic tommorow


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

Ok so I think its time to Introduce myself to a shopping list for the Tale of Four Gamers articles so that I can attempt to better control my spending. These aren't lists in the typical sense, just a reminder to myself 

Month 2 - 500 Points

Liche Priest
10 Archers, Mus
10 Archers, Mus
Sphinx

Month 3 - 750 Points

Liche Priest
15 Archers, Mus (additional 5)
15 Archers, Mus (additional 5)
Sphinx
Screaming Skull Catapult
Screaming Skull Catapult

Month 4 - 1000 Points

Liche Priest
20 Archers, Mus, Std (additional 5 + Std)
20 Archers, Mus, Std (additional 5 + Std)
Sphinx
Tomb Scorpion
Tomb Scorpion
SSC
SSC

Month 5 - 1250 Points

Liche Priest
Liche Priest
20 Archers, Mus, Std 
20 Archers, Mus, Std
3 Chariots, Std 
Sphinx
Tomb Scorpion
Tomb Scorpion
SSC
SSC


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## khrone forever (Dec 13, 2010)

this is a very good idea Ratvan  also, do you find that your painting is going quite fast? compared to the length of the month?


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

Not really I only get in 1-2 hours painting a week so its not really progressing as much as I'd like. Not even considered basing yet. Its not something I usually do to be honest jist slap some colour on and stick it on the table.


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

Right then I have managed to do a bit of work on the 'flesh' of the Sphinx which was a Sepia wash. The gold was a wash of Thraka Green with Burnished Gold Highlighted over the top. The have used Sunburst Yellow and more Enchanted blue to pick out the diagonal and alternating pattern that will be repeated throughout the force.

Enjoy and comments welcome



















Still have a bit to do, but hopefully will have the time to do so.


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

Unfortunately I dropped my kitty just before I was about to take these photos.





































The blue needs inking/washing/shading (what ever the fuck we call it now) as well as highlights ect.


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

I have been experimenting with this new-fangled idea of basing and have also come up with a bone tone that I am happy with

Basing Attempt









Bone Tone









Issue is I forgot which colours I used on the base, so might have an issue replicating


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