Realm of Chaos, the Abode of Ravens

Continued from previous...

I decided to test some colors for my upcoming zombie horde, since the fluff for the army is figured out it made the color choices much more straight forward: the bulk of my undead were raised at Praag after Asavar Kul's siege. Meaning these guys are largely wearing the colors of Kislev. As for the zombie flesh, I used white base coat with a liberal wash of Secret Weapon Miniatures Sewer Water followed by a very light drybrush of Nurgling Green and Army Painter Dark Tone in the shadows.

There will be snow added to the base, I'll also of course be adding a bit more gore before it's done. But so far, I'm very happy with the way this one has turned out.









Anyhow, that's it for now. There's some big news coming in the next week or so, so stay tuned...

Meanwhile, I'm going to be taking a little hiatus from the painting & modeling. I'm working on a major overhaul on the cave, when we first moved in the plan was to share the office space with my wife. However, we quickly learned that she wasn't going to use the space at all. She has her own computer lab, office, etc at the school which is a 3 minute drive from home... so, she's not hurting for work space.

The office here was set up sort of ad hoc, now as I've gotten more serious about my hobby it's become increasingly obvious I need to rethink my work space. Especially where lighting is concerned. The room where I work has no natural light at all, there are no windows. The room is actually surrounded on all sides by other rooms. Which means it gets toasty pretty quick with the 100w incandescent bulbs I've been using.

So, I'm moving my old work desk into the room along with some new toys. The end result should be a tidier work area, much easier to clean. And much more comfortable and efficient to work in.

I'll have more details once I'm finished, I'm sure the revamped Fortress of Solitude should be worth the price of admission.

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I got a surprise today, my new lamp arrived a week early! I have a lot of cleaning to do, and I still have to move the big desk into the office before I can set it up but I wanted to get it out to get an idea of the size of the thing and HOLY CRAP!

Thing is huge!

And heavy... and after a cursory test the light is absolutely beautiful. It's going to make painting so much easier in my dark room. For scale, I put the box near a unit of Warriors (an 18 man unit btw). The box itself almost covers my folding table.



There's not much wasted space in the box, thing's huge...



And again, heavy. There's an optional wall mount bracket for the lamp, which is great for anyone doing design on a drafting table. Either way, the lamp is heavy enough that you need to be sure of a secure location to set it up.

Summer is quickly approaching and I have some friends on their way for some periodic weekend gaming at my place, so it's time for something completely different. It's time for Super Dungeon Explore...

This is the second edition of the game, there's still a fair amount of assembly required but it's nowhere near as fiddly as the first. Bonus: my wife is getting involved, she wants to help paint and assemble the models so huzzah!











Continued below...

Continued from above...









The chests will be finished today, and I've already started on my first character (should also be finished today). So, expect more updates soon. My wife's already telling me she wants me to get the expansions, so good sign...

I have decided to alter my army's color scheme slightly, I'm basing it off of the Alpha Legion from 40k basically. And it definitely makes the models stand out considerably. The green I'm using GW Sybarite Green, I decided to add it and a few more daemonic touches to my Skullcrushers.





Let me know what you think, I'm in the market for a new camera now. Mine is officially dead, but the light box setup seems to be working pretty good so far.

As part of my ongoing upgrade and cleaning project I picked up an Ultrasonic Cleaner for my airbrushes, so far it seems to be working beautifully. I put in one that was stiff with caked on primer.



After a few minutes bathing in a solution of water and Dawn Power Clean (1 drop Dawn per oz of water) and it looks infinitely better.



I also put my palettes and water pots in to soak in a similar solution.



Then I turned my attention to a little test for an upcoming project, I'm trying some Crackle Paint for basing my Chaos Dwarf army.



I also got a set of Warriors cleaned up and ready for prime, paint, and assembly.



Yeah, things are about to get busy. I'm still deciding if I want to use Scibor Moscals for Chaos Dwarfs or the Forgeworld ones, I'm seriously considering using the bear cavalry in place of Bull Centaur Renders, but we'll see.

Here's another two parter, I got to work on the base for my K'dai Destroyer. I'm experimenting with something new for the Chaos Dwarfs, I've got my first batch of bases drying right now, so I'll have those posted a bit later (probably tomorrow). For now, let's take a look at the K'dai base.







These detail shots should give you an idea of how the Chaos Dwarf bases will look, though these haven't been inked yet...




Continued in the following post...

Continued from previous...

This is the paint I use for my bases, love this stuff. It's cheap (75 center per bottle), so perfect for terrain and bases.



I added some ink and a bit of grass, then started painting the fallen tree.









Still need some snow, but I've got the holes drilled for the pins and this thing's just about ready to go.

Bases for the first unit of Dwarfs are just about ready, here's how they turned out...

Before:


After:


And added some ink...


Did this with PVA glue and Crackle Paint, need the PVA glue to keep the Crackle Paint on the base. I think these will look great on the new Realm of Battle Board, and I can't wait to use this stuff on some terrain. Let me know what you think.

Today I received a surprise in the mail.



I found 10 Infernal Guard on eBay last weekend, so today I'm giving them a bath then I'll get to work assembling them. I've got a big order on the way from the Warstore, once it gets here I can actually get a test model painted.



I've been asked about this, I use Dawn Power Clean (sorry the pic is a bit dark). It's basically my general purpose cleaner for minis; it's great for getting the junk out of airbrushes, for taking paint off of used minis, palettes, etc. Also, it's perfect for getting the release agent off of resin models like those from Forgeworld. Without the bath primer will not coat evenly, even glue can have issues sticking to the figure. But a little warm (not hot) water and the soap makes the job a ton easier. No scrubbing needed. Just give them a soak for a bit, then rinse and set them out to dry on a towel.



I have several of these bins, I picked them up for $1 each at the Dollar Store. I keep them on the desk to sort bits while I work, they have a clean on lid so if you knock them over your bits won't fly all over the room. They're not airtight though, so don't make a mess when soaking resins.

While I get this going, I'm preparing an order for the remainder of my Chaos Dwarf army. I picked up a few things last night to use for a display board and some basing. Here's how the order looks right now:

6 Bull Centaur Renders
10 Goblin Wolf Riders (Khans and Hobgoblin Wolf Riders)
40 Night Goblins (Hobgoblin Cutthroats with Bows)
40 Infernal Guard with HW/Sh (including the 10 I already have)
40 Infernal Guard with Fireglaives
2 IG Commands
2 Dreadquake Mortars
2 Hellcannons
3 Magma Cannons
3 Death Shrieker Rockets
3 Iron Daemons

And of course Tamurkhan the Throne of Chaos

So yeah, I've got to clear some space on the shelf...

Meanwhile, I think I'm going to focus on painting up the remaining Ogres and probably knock out the current Warriors list. There's about 40 models total for the two armies combined.

After the Infernal Guard had their bath and had time to dry I got to work assembling two of them, I got them primed and started playing around with some colors. Here's how the test model turned out, already on one of the bases I made earlier this week.















I've only got 10 Infernal Guard until my FW order arrives, but I do have plenty of bits for the unit filler so the unit itself should actually look pretty decent when my FW order arrives. I'm hoping to have the Ogres finished (or pretty close) when the order gets here.

I knocked together a movement tray for my first unit of Infernal Guard, also I now have 4 painted. The copper ended up looking MUCH better than the gold imo. There's a few final touches I'll be putting on the unit a bit later, but they're starting to come together. Definitely really fiddly when trying to rank them up (I've decided to number them so I'll be able to place them in the proper spot later). Let me know what you think so far.

Chim chim cheroo!

There's a few things more I want to do to this guy, but I think he's coming along nicely. Here's some shots of the progress so far.















Let me know what you think.

I've decided to run a unit of 18 Infernal Guard as a bunker, I'll have a Castaelan and Sorcerer in the unit. So the first rank is just for command and the two characters. I decided to use some spare Ogres I had laying around as unit filler, these should make suitable slaves.




Here's a couple of (admittedly blurry) shots of the head I'm sculpting for the second Ogre unit filler. I wanted to give him a helmet that looked more like that of the FW Chaos Dwarfs.



And here's the beginning of the display board, I need the room underneath for wiring and a few other surprises.


More coming soon...

Painted the Hobgoblin Khan and his Wolf today, these are currently pinned together but not glued. I'm waiting on a few bits to finish him off, most notably the head. I wanted something that looks obviously different from the regular Goblin Wolf Riders so I used a 40k Wolf and some bits from the Grethin, and of course a Marauder Horsemen shield.






More coming soon!

Woke up to a nice surprise, first another UPS order had arrived. This time with some paint and other supplies I wanted to finish the army with. Secondly, the Crackle paint I'd added to the Hellcannon base seemed to have set perfectly. So, I got to work painting the thing, I'll be adding some weathering pigments, snow and a bit of OSL before I can call this one officially finished - but it's looking pretty good already.

















Let me know what you think.

Note: I've had a couple of people ask me about this already, all six of my armies revolve around the fall of Praag and the gigantic warhost of Chaos that arose to attack the Empire. So there will be empire and more specifically Kislevite details throughout all of the armies. I'm working on some substantial fluff that supports all of the armies, which will be released when I have time to focus on it.

This morning I started laying down some initial layers on the main Hellcannon substructures, I'll have pictures of that once there's something more significant to show. But, I'm working on them both simultaneously so they'll both be finished in about a week.

I also decided to test out some colors for my Hobgoblins, I've decided to include a torch bearer for each unit (Standard Bearer) to tie in with my fire and ice theme that's running throughout the army. This offered an excellent opportunity to try out my painting method on the flames before I get more involved with the bigger models. Let me know what you think...









I'm pretty happy with the results, I'm going to go back and finish the remaining Infernal Guard and the second torch bearer before moving on to finish the Hellcannons and remaining Hobgoblins. I just placed an order for 100 new corks and a few things for some terrain/display board for the army.

Today was a day of surprises, first I got the Gretchin heads I've been waiting on. And I picked the one I wanted to represent my Khan with the Terrifying Mask. I got it painted quickly and attached to the body, now I'm just waiting on the base to arrive... from Texas. And I ordered it a week ago.





Meanwhile, I turned my attention back to the first Hellcannon. I decided to paint the first one by itself to be sure I liked the colors. I also decided to give the back end more of a fleshy feel by bloodying up some of the components that looks like flesh fused with metal. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way this has turned out. Now I'm actually pretty anxious to paint up the Magma Cannons.








And look what Brown did for me today! Yeah, I received my entire Forgeworld order in a week... That must be some kind of record. Anyhow, I'll be cataloging everything tomorrow and packing it in my project bin. My current plan is as follows: Hellcannons, Hobgoblins, Infernal Guard, Castealen, Sorcerer-Prophet, and Daemonsmiths, then we'll see.





So yeah, I might not have an update for a day or two while I get this stuff wrangled but the updates should be coming steadily afterward. And yes, the Texan is getting some negative rep for taking longer to ship a pair of Scibor bases than it took for me to get a gigantic Forgeworld order delivered from the UK.

I spent most of the morning getting the office back in order. After the big shipment arrived yesterday I needed some room to catalog my latest acquisitions, then I sorted them into bins and gave them a bath.



Then I moved on to the bases, I had the second Hellcannon to consider, the bases for the Renders, and the newly textured 20mm bases for the rest of the army to consider. So, I got to work on those. I'm going to get the basic texture down for the Render bases then set those aside until I can start getting them assembled and pinned. The rest though, these will be painted assembly line style (the 20mm ones are already drying in fact). I'll be adding some more details to the Hellcannon base too, but the general outline is there already.



Now, to the fun part. I got some work in on the first Hellcannon, actually it's pretty close to where I want it now. I'll be saving the crew for last (need to add magnets to their feet, etc makes more since to do all of the crew for all of the war machines at once). But here's how it's looking right now:






I decided to only use the large wheels and continue the gore trails from the posessed portions of the Cannon, I also decided to leave off the horned skull on the tip. I'll be using this for a BSB conversion a bit later. Anyhow, that's probably all of the updates for today, so enjoy!

I try not to be one of those guys constantly linking to his own blog, however I do have one and I've just added some information that's quite relevant going forward. The recent acquisition of the Tamurkhan book has had a positive effect on my hobby, I've decided to settle down and focus. I've outlined my thoughts and goals for my armies in the latest post which can be found here: http://srsbusiness.org/q2-2013/

A quick update, some of the items for my Chaos Dwarf Display and Terrain showed up today!



My plan is to make a sort of foundry with various platforms with guns raised above the field while the Infernal Guard hold the line out front. There will also be LEDs and possibly even smoke.

Meanwhile, I got to work on the remaining Magma Cannons. They're already about halfway painted. I've got them prepped for the fun part (the magma) and then I get to do the tedious detail and ink work. These two will definitely be finished tomorrow though, then I'll start working on the remaining big guns (Deathshriekers and Dreadquakes) the Hellcannons are being shelved for the moment as I really want to try the Mortars.





Enjoy!

First, let me introduce my friends. I've been getting the same question over and over, how do I do my magma? I use an airbrush and these three paints. I start light then work my way to the darker colors. Afterward, I go back with a very light dusting of the yellow again to even things back out a bit. I painted the remaining two Magma Cannons today, so I guess that means the Deathshrieker Rocket Launchers are next...











I then started detail work, adding the copper and steel touches before washing with ink. The Magma Cannons are now sitting on a rack to dry, later I'll add some weathering pigments. I'm still waiting on the 100 Corks I ordered, so until then the crew are set aside for the moment. Meanwhile, I turned my attention back to my Hobgoblin Khan. I received the two cavalry bases from Scibor this morning so it was a perfect opportunity to get him off the cork and on a proper base. The other base will be used for a Hobgoblin Khan with Ruby Ring that I have planned for the future. Anyhow, the first Khan is also drying before some final touches. But I'm pleased with him.









I apologize for the horrible pictures, with so many models drying all around the office there's no where to set up the lightbox just now. So, I'm stuck with iPhone pics and sub optimal lighting conditions until there's some room to get some good photos. I'm currently looking for a good backdrop for the Chaos Dwarfs, so we'll see how that turns out. At any rate, hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think.

Having spent a great weekend visiting with my mother who's in from Arizona, I decided to get back to work this morning. I found the Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher to be much less complex than the Magma Cannons I put together last week, I've also gotten some practice in with my lighting effects so I painting this thing quickly. I've got some detail work left, but I'm going to assemble the other two Deathshriekers before I go forward. I fully expect to be finished with the three either tomorrow or Wednesday. I'll then move on to the Dreadquake Mortars, in fact I'll probably set those out to dry from their bath this afternoon.













I've also decided to carry over the hot metal theme to my Infernal Guard, so the entire army is going to be red hot. Best of all, the color scheme I'm using is incredibly fast. I'm painting these guys in about 30 minutes each, so I'm looking at having a finished army in a few weeks. Then I'll be off to work on my Warriors and Ogres again. Anyhow, let me know what you think of the progress so far and enjoy!

From the look of things, the new setup in the office has paid dividends in terms of productivity. I'm spending less time looking for crap and cleaning brushes, etc. Today I painted three Deathshrieker Rocket Launchers from beginning to end. They are currently on the drying rack, in the morning I'll get the weathering added and start on the next phase: 2 Dreadquake Mortars. That puts me a week ahead of schedule on this army, I'm going to keep pushing it - at this rate I might have a three week army on my hands. Here's the three Deathshriekers after a date with the airbrush, but before details and ink.









Enjoy!

I spent the morning cleaning up the Dreadquake Mortars, they're assembled and ready for paint. I found a couple of issues on one, so unfortunately the mortar on that one is going to be stationary as a result. I'm more than a little surprised by how beefy these things are, so I got a pic of the assembled mortars next to the other Dwarfish artillery, friggin huge!



I'll be prime these and get to work painting them this afternoon.

I got my initial layers down on the Dreadquaker Mortars, there's a lot of little details though so I'm going to wait until tomorrow to finish these up. Either way, that leaves me with nothing but infantry and cavalry to go before this army is ready to hit the table.











I've got the Bull Centaurs out of their bath and drying now, tomorrow I'll get them started. Or finished. I don't know, things are moving quicker than I ever expected. Enjoy!

The first Dreadquake Mortar is finished save for some weathering pigments I plan to add later. The second is drying while I have lunch and tend the little ogre. My plan today is finish the second Mortar and assemble the Renders. I've included some detail shots of the first Dreadquake, pretty happy with it.

Range Finder, I added a bit of a reflective highlight on the glass but it doesn't show up too well in these pictures.


The boiler includes a steam whistle, one that's pointed directly at the nearby boiler. I've seen plenty of this type of industrial equipment before, it's rarely clean. And the whistles themselves have a tendancy to be a little messy in their immediate area. I added some VGC Verdigris, normally I add some other colors to make armor look appropriately weathered but I thought it would be perfect for the stains left by the steam whistle.


I wanted to go with a different color scheme for the mortars themselves, and chose a Model Color paint I picked up recently (don't recall the name off the top of my head) but it's a nice metallic for a fresh bronze, makes the ammo stand out a bit from the rest of the model.


As usual, I picked out several features with VGC Brassy Brass, which really ends up looking more like Copper to me. With the fluff that I'm writing for my army, the Chaos Dwarfs see the copper as a holy thing, something that reminds them of the hot fury of Hashut as it is such a good conductor of heat. I added some other touches, like the red wheels and the diagonal black and yellow bars on the bumpers. These are pretty standard colors used for safety purposes in the real world, and make the model stand out more.


This army is my first honest attempt at OSL and I'm pleased with the results, I've also been working on blending which has come in very handy on these hot metal parts.


A closer look at the stains from the steam whistle.


Firing platform and loading deck.


Safety First: Slaves don't come cheap. I will need to go back and touch up a bit here, I plan on weathering this a bit since it's probably been butted up against other pieces of a munitions train.


Enjoy, next pictures will be of the Renders.

Here's a two part update, I got the first batch of the Renders ready and gave them a couple of coats with the airbrush. I'm trying to get a diverse, natural look with their hides. Here's how they looked before lunch.







More in the next post...

Continued from previous...

I've called it a day, and the first Render is pretty much finished. I can't say I'm over the moon about the flesh, but eventually you just have to move on. Tomorrow, I will try something a little different for the flesh (shouldn't take that long) and move on to the unit Champion. He was missing a horn, so I sculpted a broken one with GS to make him stand out a bit. I also added a little extra to his base. I used Vallejo Weathering pigments to add snow to the base, and of course my fire effect for the weapon. The blades of Hashut hunger...








Enjoy, more coming soon!

This morning I spent some time on the flesh of my Bull Centaurs, I decided to go back to my normal method for a paler look. I then spent a while detailing shadows with some ink, I'm letting those dry before I go back for more. I'll have the flesh about where I want it today, then I can finish the details (armor, leather, etc). Monday I'll get started on the remaining three Renders and hopefully my corks will be here so I can get to work on the Hobgoblins and remaining Infernal Guard.







Enjoy, more coming soon!