Days 30 & 31: Necron Lord & Autarch

Here are the last two minis I intended to complete in July.

The first is a limited edition Necron Lord that was only available by buying the original large army box from Games Workshop. I've had it for years, and I know it originally belonged to my old Navy roommate, but I don't really know how it ended up in my bits box. We often bought minis off one another, or swapped minis, or painted for one another, so I don't know if my current ownership of this guy is an accident, or he result of a trade.

Oh well. as long as I have him, he might as well be painted.

I painted him in the same scheme as the Pariah above, which is my take on the Nekthyst Dynasty. I was a lot less generous with the gold this time around. I wanted to the shroud to look like a faded old garment that it was buried with, but it looks a bit more like an old rag to me.

 Finally, a Saim-Hann Autarch. I've had this mini since the 2006 codex came out, but I never had a plan for him. A while back another Navy friend & I decided to do a mini exchange. I was originally going to paint up a Phoenix Lord for him, but it turned out he already had one. I knew he played Saim-Hann, and they're a fast army, so I slapped Swooping Hawks wings on this guy & got to painting. 

It's overall a nice figure, but there are a few spots I'm not thrilled about. You can't tell from the photo, but there are a few lumpy white area of the helmet. I had to replace my white paint as I was completing this guy & the new one wasn't really smooth. It's not too bad though, and still a good way to finish the project.

So there it is, the end of my Month-o-Minis challenge. I didn't quite finish in time this year, but there's always next year. I hope you enjoyed the result.

~Muninn

Days 27-29: Mega Nob, Warp Spider, and Vespid

So July is over, and I didn't make my goal of completing 31 minis in 31 days. I did manage to finish 30 minis, if you include the extra SoB & Seeker, but it wasn't what I was trying to do.

So what happened?

There were a few things I hadn't anticipated. My wife went to a teaching conference in another state for 5 days, leaving me with the kids. That wasn't an insurmountable challenge, but it did mean I had to be a lot more active at night, during my usual painting time. Then, when she was home, she was home. In May our work hours line up in such a way that we have relatively few waking hours together, so I use that time to paint as well. With her home I spent a lot less of my daytime painting as well. Add to that the fact I was taking a few surprisingly tough 5-week classes, & 5 days of family vacation, and you lose a ton of hobby time.

I imagine it didn't help that I also had more large minis, and HQ/Lord characters than I've had in past years, and those are a lot more detailed/time consuming.

Oh well, there's always next year.

In the meantime I slowed my pace a bit, and I've been completing the minis I'd been intending to paint in July. The "27th's" mini was a commission I took on a while back as part of a deal from splitting the Stormclaw box. We couldn't decide who would get the rulebook, and I offered to paint a mini of his choice in exchange for the book. He gave me this Meganob and asked that I paint him red & orange.

This guy is really scratch-built. I don't know where the bits come from, what the weapons are, or how it should look at the end of the day, so I figured I'd just ork it up, then add battle damage. I think it turned out pretty well, but I haven't gotten any feedback from the owner yet.

A long long time ago when I first learned about 40k, I wanted to build an Eldar army. One my my friends, Abusepuppy (who now writes for Frontline), was keen to help me, and I was immediately drawn to Warp Spiders. For me, they were like the poster-boys of the Eldar. I bought a few blisters, but it never went far past that. They have a sleek look, but I've never had a lot of luck painting them. I always try to paint them using a real spider as inspiration, but it never really worked out. To date though, this is probably my most successful stab at it.

Warp Spiders can get really busy really fast, so I wanted to keep it as uncomplicated as possible. All the cloth/underarmor was light grey, all body armor was green (except for the shins where I felt it needed a little black to balance it out), metal was silver, gun/shell black, & energy/gems were purple. Ideally, this kept it simpler, and cohesive. I feel like the green & light grey work well together, so it's pretty successful. I never know what to do with the gun barrel, so I was pretty content with my purple energy dots solution as well. 

While trying to find another Xeno race I remembered the oft-maligned Vespid. I had a plan for this guy, but I really didn't have the time. I intended to paint it up like a wasp. Yellow armor with black sections where the plates meet to give it a really insectoid vibe, but that was going to take way too long, so I played around with grey with a few organic speckles. It wasn't my original vision, but it was awfully fast.

I'm going to have to revisit this guy in the next few days, since I noticed the Tau symbol in incomplete. I might fix that next time I bring my paints down.

I have the last two finished as well. but I thought I'd do it in two posts to keep it from getting too wordy.

Day 26: Necron Pariah

This is another mini that has been in my bits box for ages. I have no idea why it was there or where it came from. They don't even exist in the codex any more. Either way, I managed to collect all the bits for this mini just before the start of my challenge. I modified a Necron scheme I'd tried a while back, although it ended up a bit too gold for my liking. I might strip him & start from scratch at a later date. We'll see.

Looking at it now, I think the entire chest, and groin-plate should be black with gold trim. Maybe the shoulder portion of the arms as well. Eh, you live & you learn.

~Muninn

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

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

Day 15: Swordmaster of Hoeth

I liked the Island of Blood box when it came out, but I didn't have much reason to buy it since I didn't collect Elves or Skaven, and I didn't really play WFB. I picked up a few minis here & there from bits websites, like the Elf Mage & Skaven Warlord. They look great & are cheap on bits orders ($2-3 usually), but the units, like the Swordmasters & Seaguard, have to be bought as entire blocks ($18 & $20 respectively), so I don't want to make that kind of investment on minis I don't have any need for.
Although it turns out that a local guy went to my FLGS & turned in a group of elves on consignment, so was able to pick up a few minis for fun. Here's the scheme I came up with.

My idea for a High Elf force would be a sea-green scheme with green-shaded silver armor. The hair and cloth were done by basing with Orkhide Flesh, a wash of Biel Tan Green, then layering up to Warpstone Green, Sybarite Green, and then a final highlight of Sybarite with White Scar. I like the color a great deal. I wasn't sure what to do for the gems & sash, but I knew I wanted it to pop, so I gave orange a shot, and I think it works well.

I'm on vacation until Sunday, but I brought all of my painting & photo gear with me, so I hope to be able to keep updating while I'm abroad (across the state really). I hope to have more tomorrow.

~Muninn

Day 14: Ghoul King

During my last term of college I was struggling through some of my classes, I was going to be late, and waking up early, sometimes 3-4 hours a night. I had to do what I could to keep awake during class, and mini hunting helped keep me alert. Long story short, I spent a fair amount of time trolling eBay for bits.

One of my finds was this guy, the Ghoul King from the Terrorgheist model, although I went a slightly different direction with him.

I wanted it lo look particularly unnatural, so I started with a white prime, then a base coat of Palid Witchflesh, followed by a wash of mix of Lich Purple, Palid Witchflesh with Lahmian Medium to make it spread properly. Then I layered it back up to Palid Witchflesh/White Scar mix. The damaged areas are just given a little Baal Red wash. I might've gone a little heavy with it in areas like the right thigh.

This was mostly an experiment, and I'm not sure how successful it was, but hey, it's another mini down.

~Muninn

Day 12 & 13: Beastman Gor & Bretonnian Archer

Today is the start of Fantasy week. I've never really played the game, but I've collected plenty of minis over the years, so there'll be a variety this week.

Ever since I saw a fully painted army of beastmen in the Perth Australia GW I've had a soft spot for the bray herd. I snagged this mini from a Navy roommate about a decade ago, and he'd been sitting unbuilt, & unpainted ever since.

He's painted almost entirely with two colors. The skin and fur only use Stormvermin Fur & Palid Witchflesh, but they differed with washes (Nuln Oil for the skin & Agrax Earthshade for the fur). I kept it very earthy to emphasize the bestiality. I picked up a Bestigor mini a little while ago, and I look forward to working on him in the future.

Tuesday's mini is an Bretonnian* bowman from the old 5th edition Brettonaisn vs Lizardmen* box set. Old, one-piece minis like this usually have difficulties in the faces. With this mini the left eye didn't look right at all, so I modeled a little eyepatch for him.




















 I gave him a quartered white & blue outfit since it's a nice clean scheme. He's probably too clean, actually. Any peasant that clean would be pretty suspicious. More tomorrow.

~Muninn

*Corrected because I originally thought it was an Empire archer from the 6th ed Orcs vs Empire box