The Wizard has moved in

As soon as the first rumours of Skullvane Manse appeared I knew I wanted one.  It’s a fantastic looking item and looked like a great addition to the tabletop.  Ordered mine as soon as it was available on the Games Workshop site.  It arrived a while back and I immediately set about assembling it.  The kit itself is massive, but offers little in the way of customisation out of the box as it is mainly made up of several large pieces that just fit together.  I say fit, but even with lots of glue and hard work the fit is still quite poor and results in a number of large gaps.

After the application of some greenstuff (I need to practice with this stuff as it is currently difficult for me to use) I undercoated it and put it to one side.  My intention was to follow the painting guide in the December ‘11 issue of White Dwarf but the first step suggested spraying it with Charadon Granite.  I’d been contemplating buying an airbrush for a while now but thought this would be a good excuse to buy one and use it.  The choices, however, were vast and being a complete beginner I had no idea what to look out for.  I did some reading up on finally decided on a model that was on ebay.  A few days later I had it in my hands

Good or Bad?  Who knows? I love it though!

It was time to give it a try.  I thinned some Charadon Granite, got the manse out and got down to it.  Wow – wish Ihad bought one sooner – what a great way to quickly paint.  If I’d done this with a brush it would have taken me ages, but in no time I had a thin even coat on the entire model – I’m converted!

Anyhow, with the main basecoat on I could get down to the rest of the paint job.  Didn’t take too long – completed the entire thing over two sessions and I’m happy with the results.  Not as stunning as the version in the marketing materials (pfft! my paint jobs never are!) but looks good.

A worthy lair for any astromancer

Plan to get the airbrush out again this weekend and use it for my Dreadfleet Shadewraith ship.

As you can probably tell, I’ve finally cleaned the camera lens!

Welcome to my abode

Finally got my hands on the Fortified Manor House and have to say I was even more impressed with this kit than I was with the chapel on its own.

Lots of sprue fluff and a whizz to assemble.  I’ve painted everything up now apart from the fences and dry stone walls.

Terrible photograph of it – but I’m really pleased with the paintjob – especially the brickwork effect which I got from a very good blog that detailed a more realistic method of painting them than that detailed in the GW guide.

Next in my sights is the recently announced Skullvane Manse, Lair of the Astromancer – as well as something a bit older, but more on that later.

Do you feel inferior?

Another bits of scenery added to the collection.  Scenery is my great love, and I prefer building and painting it doing anything else.

An elf way stone and a Chaos warp stone – and a girly wood elf betwixt them.

A lakeside view

A quick and easy pond!  Made to shut up the Gobbo with the frogs – who was pestering for one ever since he found out about the skinks special rules.

I experimented with PVA glue for the water effect – turned out great the day after I made it, but then went this strange milky colour a day after that and has stayed that way ever since.  Still looks good enough though – and the Frog Gobbo loves it.