Days 24 & 25: Bloodletter & Bloodcrusher

Alright. I'm in the home stretch. I'd better be at least. At this point I've completed 28 minis: 26 "day" minis, and 2 extras (the SoB & the extra Seeker). For me to feel satisfied in completing my challenge I need to complete 3 more minis today. It'll be close, but I think I'll make it.

The minis for last Friday and Saturday are a pair of Khorne daemons. A Bloodletter & Bloodcrusher. I didn't mean for it to happen this way, but that means for Daemon week I painted up two minis for each Chaos power. Not too shabby. Either way here they are.

The 'Letters & Crusher use the same basic technique, although I used Krylon to basecoat the letter. After the base coat (Red Gore for the Crusher), I layered up to Blood Red, gave it a wash of Baal Red, then mixed highlight layers with "Leprous Brown." My old Leprous Brown dried up years ago, but I've been able to recrete it with a mix of Fiery Orange & Balor Brown. The dark crest & shoulders are just a wash of Leviathan Purple with the spikes picked out in Bleached Bone. The crusher is the biggest minis I've completed in the last 4 years of this challenge, so I'm pretty happy with that, but it did take a bit longer than I'd hoped.

In my personal life I've been asked to come back to work at the newspaper for a month as a temp, & I notice just how poorly balanced my photos are. I might have to go back & re-edit my shots.

More later today.

~Muninn

Days 22 & 23: Nurglings & Herald of Nurgle

I've always had a soft spot for Nurgle's daemons. I was particularly excited when they got their own plastic plague bearers back in 2012. They're great looking sculpts, & paint really easily. Usually my painting style lends itself to clean lines, like Eldar, but I really like how my Nurgle minis turn out. I thank Athonian Camoshade wash for that. 

The first mini is the Herald mini I converted a few years ago using a Plague Bearer champion head and a plastic Nurgle Chaos Lord. It's half the price of the generic Herald of Nurgle and really effective.

The nurglings are just an assortment if the extra bits from the Plague Bearer box. I think they were meant as decorations, or fun extras, but I figured I could just make a base for a future unit. That way, if I buy a few more units of bearers I'd also end up with a full unit of nurglings.

I used a few different color schemes here, since I didn't want them to all blend together.

The dark ones use my usual plague bearer scheme (Catachan Green through Nurgling Green with an Athonian Camoshade wash), The light ones are Nurgling Green through White Scar with an Athonian Camoshade wash), and one in the center is Dheneb Stone through White Scar with an Athonian Camoshade wash. Like I said earlier, it's a lot of Athonian Camoshade. 

More tomorrow. I have a few more days, so we'll see what I can complete.

~Muninn

Days 20 & 21 Pink Horror & Herald of Tzeentch

I was really interested in the Khorne Daemonkin codex when it came out. It fixed a few things, added a few useful units for daemon players, & made me consider branching out a bit. As I evaluated my mini inventory it occurred to me that I have a lot more Tzeentch units then any other Chaos faction, so I decided then to start building toward a Tzeentch Daemonkin codex.

These are two more additions to that goal:

My Daemons have all been painted with a color scheme in mind. All Slaanesh are grey & pink, Khorne is red, Nurgle is green, & Tzeentch is blue. That's why all my "pink" horrors share a similar blue skintone. It fits thematically, since all pink horrors are actually two blue horrors, but honestly, I just like the look a lot better.

A few years back, in December, I remember reading a message board where folks attempted to judge the worst-looking miniature of the year. There had been a few contenders, but this miniature was consistently rated in the top 5.

Sure, he's goofy-looking, and none too intimidating, but he's got some nice detail. I've painted a lot of fire in my day, so I decided to switch it up & paint a bit of green flame for fun. The sculpt was a bit busy, especially the feathers on the back, but it's fine in my book.

Nurgle later today.

~Muninn

Day 19: Seekers of Slaanesh

Alright. I'm catching up. I have several finished & several more close to complete.

Today's mini are the start of Daemon Week, so I opted for a pair of Seekers of Slaanesh. I started painting them about this time last year for OFCC. I only needed them to be up to three-colors, so I didn't complete them to my personal standard, but now I have.

There are 3 others that need to be completed, but I'm already behind, & didn't want to push the envelope too much.

The Seekers were primed white, then the upper portions were washed with Tentacle Pink mixed with Lahmian Medium to make it more transparent & textural. The darker areas like the spines & sides were Emperor's Children. The white areas were simply primed, then lined with Tentacle Pink.

Tomorrow and the next day should have a pair of Tzeentchy minis. More then.

~Muninn

Days 17 & 18: Skink & Amber Mage

I'm about a week behind at this point, which is the furthest in the hole I've ever been during this challenge. Long story short, I'd forgotten my Summer college finals were this week & I had to concentrate on the last week of classes. I've made some ground though, & I hope to be able to paint 2+ minis a day from this point forward.

Last Friday's mini is an oooold Skink mini I bought when I first started painting. My sophomore year of high school a buddy & I paid for a miniature painting seminar at a local game store (which has since closed) & I walked out with a lizard men painting starter box. After that I picked up a few more blisters, including some metal skinks.




















This guy always stood out because of the weird head frill. I've never seen any other skinks with that. When I originally started painting the minis almost 15 years ago I slathered it in yellow, so I stripped it & decided to stay true to the original. I added a few purple spots on the head and back for character as well. He isn't my favorite for the month, but I've done worse.

Next, I previewed this guy earlier, so I figured I should make sure I finished it before the end of the month. He's probably my favorite mini of the month, so far.

I figured a bald eagle would be too stereotypical, so I opted for a Golden Eagle instead. Now that he's all completed I'm really pleased with how the conversion worked out. When I fist blue tacked the bits in place I was skeptical wince the legs looked so plain, but with the hip cloth you can hardly tell they come from a generic chaos troop. It's a good way to finish Fantasy Week.

Tomorrow I'll start posting minis from Daemon Week, and try to catch up as quickly as possible.

More later,

~Muninn

Leaked 30k Plastic Marine sprues

I just came across this & had to share. It looks like the sprues of Heresy Era marines that've been rumored. They look pretty great & should make some great armies. 

The special characters

The chests & packs

The arms & bolters

Shoulder Pads & Special Weapons

~Muninn

Day 16: Ogre Bull

I'm behind in my painting duties.

It turns out vacation with my wife's family isn't necessarily a time to relax, rather, it is an occasion where everyone spends most of their waking hours with members of the family, cooking, riding, shopping, eating, etc. That isn't a complaint at all, it's just an observation. There isn't much time alone, and given that her family doesn't understand my enjoyment of painting, or nerd culture, I only broke out my painting stuff after everyone had gone to sleep. That really didn't give me a lot of time.

One of the minis I managed to finish while traveling was this guy.

A few years back I won a local painting competition and walked away with an Ogre Kingdoms battalion box. I had a buddy who played OK, so I figured I'd give him a chance to buy it. He passed on the box, and it was pushed to the back of my closet. I like Ogres thematically, and because they're an elite army, which means it'd take less time to paint a whole army. If I remember correctly a whole army took about 20-25 ogres, which isn't too daunting

While coming up with a color scheme I liked the idea of an Ogre clan that had lived in Araby, and had interbred with Djinn there. I'm not sure if that's possible, but I couldn't find anything that could refute that idea. Either way these Djinn-Ogres would have ruddy red skin and white hair, bronze armor, and dessert-esque clothing. I decided to stick to browns and khaki for the clothes.

The skin itself took about 6 steps.
1. Basecoat of Mechrite Red
2. Wash of Reikland Fleshshade
3 & 4. Progressively lighter layers of Mechrite Red and Dwarf Flesh (about 3:1 & 1:1 respectively)
5. a final highlight of Dwarf Flesh
6. a wash of Baal Red

I feel like it's a nice reddish skin, which stands out without being too cartoonish. Most of these paints are outdated, so if I do stick with this scheme I'll probably have to find some substitutions moving forward.

This is finals week for my Summer term, so I'll probably update one more time tonight or tomorrow, and then I'll concentrate of catching up on my painting. More later.

~Muninn