Projects On The Go

Plenty on the go at the moment.  Just a quick summing up.

Dreadfleet
Progressing quite nicely.  Having completed all but three of the ships (Heldenhammer, Bloody Reaver and Flaming Scimitar) I decided to take a break and start on the scenery pieces.  Have currently finished all the rock work and now need to paint up the details and the water on them.  Quite happy with the results.

Mighty Fortress
I managed to get this item immediately prior to the latest price hike, and thought it would complement the new Blood in the Badlands Siege rules I purchased.  Finally finished assembling it last night, along with a bit of custom battle damage on one of the towers.  Just need to undercoat it, base coat and drybrush - should be a quick process with the new airbrush and hoping to finish it tonight.

Mighty Empires
Bagged two sets from ebay for next to nothing and currently contemplating how to paint them.  Got a few ideas but this project is currently on the back burner.

Wood Elves
The missus has asked me to help her finally complete the painting of her Wood Elves army - I think she was embarrassed because even the kids had managed to complete theirs.  I'm working this weekend so won't get to start them until the next weekend but everything has been under coated so should be able to zip through the few units she has left.

Warriors of Chaos
Still got a few models to finish painting - A sorcerer (2 actually), Lord, and a bunch of marauders (who are half done).

Scenery
Also inspired by a picture in the new Battle in the Badlands book I am planing to scratch build a watch/bell tower.  Got some plans in my head which I hope to put on paper.  Just ordered some materials for it - notably brick effect plasticard, from a new on-line shop I discovered - www.anticsonline.co.uk.  Great place with loads of cheap materials and even discounted Games Workshop items.  Added to my favourites!

Miscellaneous
I spent most of last weekend clearing out the garage and when complete I ended up with a massive space - thinking of maybe building a hobby station and war game table in there - still undecided.  Can't decide whether to build a set of legs for my current base board or just to order a couple of folding tables to sit it on.

This post was just intended to be a quick update - as well as a place for me to keep track of what I have on the go.  Will post some more specific details - with pics - later.

Ghostly ship sighted on horizon

Just finished the Shadewraith.  Love this ship and enjoyed painting it.  Very simple process - grey base, green wash, grey highlight - couldn't be easier, and the airbrush made the basecoating even easier.

Ahoy!

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.

Meet Asharah

My new Chaos Sorcerer.  Fantastic sculpt from Raging Heroes.  Better than any of the GW models – can’t wait to get this one assembled and painted.


She’s very much daintier than the GW models, but the detail is incredible.  Very reasonably priced too – with a couple of assembly options – the above picture shows her in vampire mode but she also has a Chaos Sorcerer option.  Will post more pictures once I have her painted.

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.

Failcast, FineCrap and other names…

You’ve probably heard them all and I have too but I was trying to avoid them until the reported problems went away.  However, on a recent trip the rest of the clan bought me one as a gift and so I was off on a rollercoaster ride.

Took three attempts to get a model that was usable – not good for the price – but I can’t fault GW for the customer service.  In each instance they unquestioningly replaced the faulty model.  I say replaced – they actually just sent me a new one so I now have a few spares!

The detail is great (difficult to judge in the dreamy picture above – must clean camera) when you finally get one that isn’t full of holes or just badly miscast.  Looking forward to painting it.