Wednesday 23 July 2014

Bezhukk the Immortal

Well, lately I decided to paint up this model, just to vary the palette a little, and to give my friends something else to face other than a daemon prince. I'm nice like that.

This model I got awhile ago, simply as it looked cool. Not really any plans to make a Chaos Dwarf force, but it does stand in as a cool model for my Chaos.

Here he is.


 Hope you like it. Attempted some OSL on the bull head. I also added some purple under his eyes to add a menacing look to him.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers!



Friday 18 July 2014

Dead Drunk

Small update here. Quite prolific today to get two posts in 1 day! Anyways, tomorrow night a few friends of mine having a gaming night planned for Warhammer Fantasy. We will be playing the scenario Loot and Pillage (or Oi! Get away from my Beer!) from the main rulebook, in the non standard section. Basically its a game to claim barrels of Bugman's XXXXXX.

So considering that I have already painted up a Bugman Beer cart, I thought I'd paint up a unit filler with some barrels on it to represent the beer at the Inn, that is in the centre of the board.
The barrels are from the Bugman limited model. The drunk dwarf is an old citadel one which I had spare. The spilt beer I think is a nice touch.


I added a pipe, mug and axe from the old 6th Ed Dwarf plastics. Still got a lot of those pieces in my bits box.

The main Dwarf himself, Bugman. Thought that the Dwarf force I planned to take would include him and some of his rangers. I had to put him on a rock to look heroic and actually fit in the unit as well.



Not bad for a days effort.

I'm looking forward to the games tomorrow night. I'll definately (even though I say it everytime) will bring my good camera for photo's.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Chaos Lord Couringard

I thought I would share this model I painted around 4 years ago. As you may know I am making my Skullcrushers, and I would really like one model to have this weapon. This model I painted originally for my Iron Warriors army. However as I was painting up Imperial Fists at the same time, and essentially the same kind of things (Rhino, troops, terminators etc), it meant that it was the same force, only different colours, and I like to collect armies that have different play styles.

So cue one regret, I sold them. Except this model and the only troop choice I fully painted.

I love this model. I put a lot of time in it, and knew when I was selling the rest, I couldn't sell this. I knew one day I may return to Chaos, so I kept it in the shed.

Essentially what I remember of this model, is that at its core, its just a plastic Chaos Terminator Lord. I have him a simple wrist mounted combi-bolter, though I remember cutting it down a little. The ammo was also fiddly if I recall.

Of course the real noticeable part of the model is the Daemonic weapon itself. I took inspiration from the character Nightmare from the Soul Caliber series of games. The haft is made from the sorcerers staff from the sprue, the blade itself is made up from 2 Dark elf shields, cut so they curve correctly. The rest is green stuff. The eye, I think I also cut off a shoulder pad from the Chaos Lord sprue.

Anyways, I will recreate this for one skullcrusher, but though I'd post the original with a little background. Hope you like it.






Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Monday 14 July 2014

Riders on the Storm

Thought I'd flick a quick update of what I have been doing on my hols. Working on some Skullcrushers. They have been sitting there for awhile, as I assembled 3 stock standard out of the box, and hated that I didn't have any imagination to add to these awesome models. Evetually inspiration has struck, so I am now modelling my unit up to be more interesting. Here is the beginning.

 A champion and 2 'plebs',  if you can call them that.
 Guy with massive morning star. The chain is from 2 Marauder flails, the haft is from the Skullcrusher lances, and the big spikey thing from a mace from the Chaos Knights sprue.
 I wanted the champion to stand out a little more, plus I like the freehand banners I have done for chaos. The intention here is to give it a Sashimono, which is a Samurai back banner.
Guy with big axe. The axe itself is from the Chaos Chosen model. Just seemed to fit.

Well there you have it. I'm currently trying to do a big sword for one (perhaps the banner guy), and make a musician as well. I'll upload them when they are done.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers!

Sunday 13 July 2014

Review: Orangemonkie foldio

It certainly has been awhile since I have posted anything, but I tell you I have been painting....honestly!

I thought I might do something a little different and give a review of a product that I purchased recently and thought it would be cool to share. I'm not been paid for this or given anything for this review, I just thought it is a handy tool and perhaps others who are in the same boat as me might find this useful. Or not. Or whatever.

Orangemonkie: folio

I came across this product while going through some hobby blogs. It looked like something I could use so I bought it to give it a try. Basically it is a fold away photo studio, with lights and backdrops included. I thought this would suit my needs as I have two young boys running around, and they love to get into 'Daddy's' stuff. So something that can be set up easily and put away would be ideal.
Here is my old set up. White paper for the backdrop, lamp shining in. Very basic, so I was looking for an upgrade.

The box in all its glory.

It comes with 3 foam inserts for the backdrop. White, grey and black. They seem okay, though I do have a concern they may be a bit fragile. However, I have since discovered Hangar18 Miniatures do some awesome backdrops, so these will do for now.
The fold away studio itself.
Its made of a plastic sheet material, and also has magnets which you can see as the round circle dots there.
Very easy and quick to assemble. Seems okay for sturdiness, as in it won't collapse when taking pictures and such. Though I do notice it loose its structural integrity when I adjust that top flap to direct the light.

There are 2 versions to get. You can get them with 1 or 2 strips of daylight LED's. I thought I would try the 2 strips, to see what it was like.
The batteries simply 'stick' to the magnets in the side of the foldio.

All it up.

 
Here is a picture of my current Hammerers. Very crisp.
For comparison, here is a picture of the same unit, under the old conditions. You can definitely see that the second picture has more of a yellow tint on it, being the lamps globe. There is also a slight gradient on the backdrop, which frames the unit nicely. Something to keep in mind for the foldio. Might have to grab some backdrops after all.







So from the photo's, you can see that it pumps out a lot of light, and is easy to set up and take down. I do have concerns about the backdrops, though I may address that with some Hangar18 Miniatures backdrops. Perhaps though for the short term I may make a basic backdrop to put in there.

My other concern is that it is quite small, and that it may be restrictive in taking shots of a bigger model. But for the majority of the things I paint and take photo's of, it does the job nicely, and I don't have to worry about doing it during the day, which is an added plus when there are 2 curious boys around.

Overall, I would say its a 4 out of 5 stars for my purposes. I like its compactability, and the LED's are nice and bright. I figure I can tone the light down by not attaching one of the LED's. Cost was not too much, around $50 to $60, so certainly not too prohibitive to get a more professional finish. Overall not a bad product.

Again, here is the link to Orangemonkie. Hope this might be of use to some people, who are after an upgrade for their own 'photoemporiumlab'.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers!