Friday 30 April 2010

Salamander Apothecary - Complete

OK, well he's done.  Overall I am really liking him.  I happy with most of the painting, especially the chapter icon.  Its one of my better pieces of freehand so far.  I did however HATE painting his base, and so I am not fully happy with how it looks.  My first attempt at lava bases and its OK, but I think I should have used another rock of something to give it something to flow around.  But that wasn't the main problem.  That was indeed Vallejo paints.  Or more specifically the Game Colour range of reds.  There are [u]terrible[/u]!  The "Red Gore" dried PINK!  The "Blood Red" is about two tones higher than it should be and is really bright.  So, I struggled.  Overall I am not that happy with the base, its OK but not good.  Luckily he's only pinned on, so I can try again another time.





Thursday 29 April 2010

Salamander Apothecary

OK.  Time to show you what I've been doing.  I decided that for once I need to put my money where my mouth is, and have a crack at one of the monthly painting contests Librarium-Online runs.  The current theme, for those who don't know, is MEDIC!  With this in mind, and recently having come across a great looking mini and piece of old Salamander fluff I dived in.  The mini itself has little conversion work done to it - the main thing being I gave him a straight aiming right arm (why does GW not produce these?  Its annoying... ), the rest is just basics.

Overall I am really happy with the way he looks.  He has lost some of the more subtle shades and highlights in transference to a photo, but it happens.  The only thing I am really not happy with is the "glass" vials.  I just couldn't get it right, something I need to work on.  My favourite part is the red.  Its a really nice, deep tone.  I love it! 

And now... pictures!











Tuesday 27 April 2010

A 40k n00b - Wound Allocation... eh?

Now, please forgive but I am not much of a gamer.  In general I have a decent grasp of the rules, but some stuff slips through my fingers.  Wound Allocation is such one rule.  I was hoping you kind folk of the interwebs could enlighten my mind.  And to help me, lets use an example...

I have a ten man generic space marine tactical squad.  It includes one sergeant with a power weapon, one marine with a flamer, another with a missile launcher and the rest are all armed with boltguns.

The unit suffers 12 wounds.

How would you allocate these?

Does everyone have to take one wound each, then the two remaining placed one any you choose?  Or can you pile them all onto a couple of guys?  What is the advantage of arming them all different ways?  Is it the owning player that allocates wounds, or does your opponent have a say in who he'd like to attack?  Is it done the same in combat as well as view shooting?

Thanks guys!

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Empire Warrior Priest - Part II

So.  Between dissertation work (ONE MONTH LEFT!!) and other stuff, I have managed to get a small amount of painting done.  Yesterday I picked the Warrior Priest up once more and I worked on his armour.  I think it looked good.  It was multiple washes which was then layered over with lots of really thin layers of metallics.  It gave it a really good aged look to it.  I liked it.  Then, today I decided to give it another look.  I wanted to give the impression of dents and cracks in the armour - that is what those black lines are.  Or were suppose to be.  I might have to repaint the armour, as I think they spoil it. :S 

The other thing I noticed is that I really need to get better at blending.  I just can't get it quite right a lot of the time.  My layers are too far apart to blend well. So that is something else I really need to work on, especially if I want to get better.

Oh yeah, the leather on him is just basecoated and washed.  Plenty more work to do on them.








Thoughts>

Friday 9 April 2010

Review - Salamander

This is a first book in the series labelled as "The Tome of Fire" written by Black Library author Nick Kyme (see his blog here).  As you might have gathered the novel follows the Salamander space marine chapter.  Or to be more specific it follows the 3rd Company of the Salamander's chapter.  There are a number of characters the novel follows, these being two sergeants of tactical squads - who bear a not so friendly rivalry - a librarian attached to the company, and the company's commander(s), along with other members of the chapter and company.. 

It begins with the death of the previous company's captain at the hands of an insidious, and mysterious traitor marines, the Dragon Warriors.  The company is then thrown into turmoil, with the selection of a new captain and are given a mission of utmost importance.  I will keep the spoilers to a minimum here, so I will not go into the rest of the story.  You'll have to read the novel, yourselves to find out what happens.

I will admit to being a bit biased towards Nick Kyme, I am an avid reader of his blog (though, he doesn't post as often) and love his previous novels.  That aside I thoroughly believe he has written a great novel.  The Salamanders are an unusual marine chapter, in their care for humanity, and this is something I think Nick got across in most of the main characters.  You truly feel at times that they genuinely care.  I found the momentum and the action to be well paced, especially as the action at times was split over a number of different characters - sometimes all in the same conflict.  Other novels I have read from Black Library have struggled sometimes, the characters seeming forced and quite cookie cutter.  Not so with the Salamander's Nick has brought to life.  Each one has their own curious personalities, and in some agendas.  All of which work alongside of each other to produce some well written characters.  I also enjoyed Nick's work on bringing out more detailed information on the inner workings of the Salamanders, their homeworld Nocturne and the 'Promethean Cult' they hold close.

I myself am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.

Saturday 3 April 2010

Empire Warrior Priest - Part I

A new mini has begun!  I have had this warrior priest sat in a box for a long time, and I wanted to paint a mini to be sold on ebay.  This guy fits the bill.  I started off with some fixing of the hands, I have pinned them and green stuffed the join.  The shield is made from plasticard, carved to look like a shield - I think I'll try freehanding something chaotic on it.

The priest himself, I am painting his main robes red along with the generic priest of Sigmar look.  The face is finished, and I am relatively happy with the look of his face.  However, I found his left eye a pain to paint and thus is looks odd.  I also went for the 'stubbled' look on the head/crown.  I am not fully happy with the stubble on the head, it bugs me it doesn't look that good.

The other parts of the mini are just blocked in.  The metal is basecoated and washed with Badab Black.  The red is just basecoated; mechrite red and dark flesh.  This is all I have done so far.

I am wondering what colour to do the cloak.  I have considered red, but I didn't want to do too much red.  And I most likely going to attempt some freehand on the back of it, perhaps a large hammer but I am unsure.

Front View

 Rear View
Close up on the face

The Base


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