Tales of a hobby butterfly

These chaps were mostly painted over a weekend once again with the superb army painter speed paint, strong tone wash and some drybrushing.

Bam 💥 painted up the dragon using army painter speed paint and strong tone wash.

Kept the colours to a minimum to get the dragon painted quickly.

Once the base colours were dry the whole model had a dry brush with bone paint followed by a watered down strong tone wash.

Once that all dried I had some fun with flock leaves and tufts

Was sifting through my bitz box and found the body of an old warhammer chaos dragon.

It still has its legs but one of the heads (the chaos dragon had 2) had gone missing or been given away as had the wings.

It just so happens that I need a dragon for a wood elf army so this was a good starting point.

Time to see what else I can find in the bitz box of doom.

I kind of wanted a wiggly dragon rather than the gw lump, so cut up the tail and drilled some holes to attach some gardening wire to create the shape and did the same for the neck.

I can now bend the dragon to shape and use greenstuff to fill in the gaps

1. The wings were going to be tricky gw wings are crazy expensive.

I decided to try building my own.

I drew the shape I was after making a template from some card then using the metal from a tomato puree packet I made the basic shape that could be bent to the shape I needed.

For the outside edge I rolled the edge of the metal over some gardening wire leaving a bit of wire sticking out to attach to the dragon.

Details were then added to the wings with milliput.

Once the wings were attached green  stuff was used to build up the body where they attach.

Once the wings were set they were coated in modge podge for two reasons, the paint should be less likely to scratch off the modge podge and it will provide a less even surface so hopefully the wings should look more organic.

Bult up some chaps to defend the objectives.

They are a mix of German parts from bolt action with some gw and mantic heads

I have not had a chance to read the 0200 hours rules yet so am not sure exactly what I need so just made a mix of figures

Thought it would be cool to give the. Different hats to tell the different troop types from a distance.

The sentries have plain helmets and the regular infantry have covers.

For the unusual infantry types like the dog handlers I am using bodies with cammo smocks

I suppose I’m going to need some cool scenery to help make the scenarios more interesting.

Found some ork fighter bombers in the pike of shame, perfect for scenarios based  around airfields.

The models are cool but will need landing gear so they can be sitting around rather than flying.

I had tried my best not to start another game system but the 0200 hours bug has bitten me.

I had seen it, tempting me at salute but I managed to stay strong, but then the let’s play between John and Gerry got me thinking maybe I should give it a go.

Bam With some cutting  gluing and greenstuff I came up with these dapper chaps.

I have some ork bombers that will be perfect for these chaps to destroy under the cover of darkness, so will have to knock up some terrain

But I suppose the next step is to make some enemies, I’m thinking squigs would be cool instead of guard dogs.

I have loads of bolt action german bits so I guess I’m gonna have to find some more goblin heads.

Love it when a plan comes together.

I suppose I should probably read the rulebook now and create a plan of what I need to build before I get waylaid by an other shiny project

After watching the weekender with Ben talking about the new age of sigmar .my hobby brain started thinking you know what you should do,you should leave your warhamner quest project half finished and start something else….

Having 3d printed most of the new things I paint lately I found it quite nice and relaxing to sit down with a big box of toys, pop some music on crack open a beer and spent a relaxed afternoon and evening building these chaps ready to march to battle on the tabletop.

They were painted with army painter speedpaints which as advertised are definatly speedy.

Undercoated corax white then painted the block red yellow and black and skin with speedpaint.

Once this had dried they got a tickling with the drybrush with a bone paint followed by a wash of army painter strong tone.

A quick splash of ultra matt varnish followed by the mettalic bits painted with quick paint job done.

I came back a bit later and added some transfers and some mud effects using ak starship wash on there legs and the base of the sheild kind of want the effect of the poor humans struggling and  trudging on  through the mud to there  doom or maybe glory.

Warhammer quest is one of my favourite games, whilst waiting for grotty marines to dry I had some fun with some old models.

Managed to get most of the lair of the orc lord models painted as well as some squigs and goblins I printed up to fill out some of the monster charts.

Speed paint and army painter strong tone wash is great for getting toys on the table top quickly. The orc lord models have been sitting around unpainted for longer than I can remember and in the space of a few hours they are ready for a game.

Had some plage marines soaking in dettol for a long time now trying to remove the snot green paint they were coated in from younger me.

Also found a load for a great price  in a cool shop in norwich. they had been painted with a thick gold paint so added them to the pot of nurgle men.

The dreadnaught is a 3d print and the champion dude is a plastic plage marine with the gribbley bits removed and so.e parts from the mighty bits box added.

I wanted to paint them as quickly as possible so I could finish them before I got distracted by something else. Im looking at you warhammer quest …. and empire halberdiers

So I undercoated in corax white which I think is an awesome colour. Then blobbed on the block colours of red green and black with good old speed paint.

Covered them all in very dilute army painter strong tone followed by a satin varnish.

Once this had all dried the metals were added using speed paint mettalics

Waited for this to dry then slopped on ak acrylic starship wash all over the model and bases before removing the excess with damp cotton buds.

Last but not least they got a good coat of matt varnish

Job done finaly a project finished 8n a couple of evenings.

Bam 777 points of heresy death guard or second edition 40k plague marines.

Picked up a larger resin printer in last years black Friday sale. Decided to fire it up for the first time.

It’s a creality halot mage printer the build plate is much bigger than my creality ld002h so should be able to print full units for games or even larger vehicles always fancied a 28mm laat

The heads that came with these models were cool but I have always had a soft spot for John Blanche and Paul Bonner style heads.

So I decided to try to recreate some heads using a 3d art program on my tablet called nomad sculpt to try to print some of my own

One of them needed a top not that I could not work out how to print so left a hole in the head and stuck the bristles of an old paintbrush on

Been really enjoying the old world having played a few games with my good old Dwarf army and a newer wood elf army.

So have decided to give my orcs a dust off. Rather than use spaced movement trays I fancied a rebase of the army to the newer larger bases as I think they look cool on bigger bases also the old basing was not great so needed some care and attention after years sitting in a box

Been painting a moonstone chap today,whilst waiting for bits to dry I messed about with these chaps.

The orcs were a bit chipped and broken so stuck them back together on the new bases then gave them a bone drybrush and a good coat of army painter strong tone. Once that dried they got a matt varnish. Last but not least the bases had a good splodge of soil works autumn ground.

These chaps are now ready to join waaagh Guff Nuggets

Converted up a couple of platoon commanders from the bits box of doom

Over the past 6 months I have been painting a unit a month for the crown of command challenge to complete a 1500 point force.

I hope to expand this force to about double the size and maybe adapt it to the old world using spaced movement trays.

I think a vampire would be a cool addition and maybe more smelly zombies to roam the table looking for brains.

Wanted to paint up some terrain for upcoming epic games, I have had the card buildings for a long time so thought they deserved a nice coat of paint on the roofs and some fresh glue on the card.

The plastic buildings are from the titanicus box.

To paint them I used a sponge and blobbed on brown followed by blue grey then light grey.

To pick out the finer details they were then drybrushed with deck tan and bleached bone.

It was a lot faster than I thought now I have to find something else to do whilst I wait for the old world.

I have not played epic 40k for a long time but have signed up to a campaign a the local club as part of my new year’s resolution to play more games.

These chaps are from the 6mm vanguard miniatures range and now form the 69th hamfists regiment of the death korps of krieg

Even though they are teeny tiny they are full of detail that shows up nicely when painted.

I mounted them on washers to help with storage on magnetic sheet

Having enjoyed epic from asaptus titanicus in the late 80s through all its other editions the excitement of impeialis was too much for this old dude to miss out on.

Then I saw the price!!!, after Trying to work out which body part to sell I decided that 3d printing is the way forward so I ordered the new rule book and tokens from ebay, also hunted through my bits box for a bag of marines I purchased from vanguard miniatures a few years ago, turns out they are pretty much the perfect scale.

I found enough to form 2 demi companies with special weapon squads and some assault marines in support.

Luckily I also have a stash of 25mm metal washers that are perfect for bases with the added bonus of giving heft and magnetise for easy storage.

Next I need to break out the 3d printer for some teeny tiny tanks