Finished skeletons with leader and on 3 x 2 base

 Base made from plastic card.

A quick dip and ready for matt varnish

Blood Angels - Space marine 90% ready

Blood Angels, base colours and ready for dipping.

More realistic paintjob, work in progress

I decided to try out some different painting techniques and shades. I used colour tones made from black and white and then applied a thinned out black wash to leave some texture on the bones. As the wash dries you are left with tiny fracture type marks on the skull and legs. I discovered this effect just by chance and it really gives a nice effect. I then applied a thinned out brown wash to change the overall tone. Water was added to the highlight areas to remove the wash.

Just the glowing eyes and base to do and then he's done.

80% complete

I decided to add two new skeletons to the group (back) so they are at the dipping phase.

Sand base painted

Base textured and painted red scorched desert

Basing and final highlights

All that is left to do is paint the sand, light drybrush and varnish.

Dipped and ready for basing

Shield's up !

Shields attached and ready for dipping.

What is best in life ?

Skeleton shield design completed, does Conan the barbarian ring a bell ?

Alternative paint palettes

I found these in my local Pound shop, 24 plastic plates for £1. A much cheaper alternative to overpriced artists palettes, (you can clean and reuse them too). The base is raised so you can remove paint off the brush easily. I'm sure they would be good for acrylics, water colours etc.

Dipping Skeletal Warriors - side project

I thought I'd try the Army Painter 'Dipping' quickshade method with some of my old mini's.

Step 1 - Attaching to bases and selecting parts

Step 2 - Attaching the weapons and other parts.

Step 3 - Undercoat

Step 4 - First layer, weapons and eye sockets.

The undead paint

I eventually found my old (15 year old) games workshop paints in the garage, most of them had dried out but some of the inks and washes survived. I did some research on the web and found you can resurrect them by using a mixture of water, Tamiya acrylic thinners and shaking the hell out of the pots. I can also recommend thinning them down until they can be poured into squeezable bottles. (20 bottles = £7 inc delivery - eBay)
The bottles are so much better for two reasons, 1) You can squeeze out exactly how much paint you require without using a brush,  2) mixing colours is now much easier. i.e. 2 drops + 1 drop  = required colour, no more trying to mix and match.

Renate Richter ?

Just found some possible Renate Richter contenders

Renate Richter  

Iron Sky Inspired 28mm Nazi officers

PHASE 1

So after working as a Digital Artist on the 'Iron Sky' movie I thought it might be nice to make some 28mm Nazi trooper conversions.

I'm a big fan of movie props and environments in general but this film has such a nice style to it. I've been hunting around the internet  for some basic troopers and officers and found these guys, they arrived yesterday.

The troopers are missing the gas mask, back packs, weapons and various other parts but I've found a few places that supply these items for me to cannibalise and mount on the base miniatures.

< Here is one example of some mini's with gas masks, notice the filter is on the side of the mask :o)
I'll probably go for something like this, file down the nose area and make the stylish trooper helmet out of plastic card.

This is the style of painting I'm going
for, (from left to right). The rest of the mini's can be generic troopers and scouts.

(1) Officer - Wolfgang Kortzfleisch 

(4) Officer - Wolfgang Kortzfleisch  

< Some other generic troopers with longer coats and  potential space dog
















Check out the Renate Richter lookalikes.