Mini-anniversary ... progress so far and a future project

Mini-anniversary

Exactly four months ago, to the day, I began my journey into the world of miniature painting. In this mini-anniversary of sorts, I find myself looking back at that fateful day which has resulted in me spending many long hours hunched over a table with a paint brush in hand, miniature models up close to my eyes (thanks to a bummer combination of short-sightedness and middle-age), paint all over my hands as well as aching shoulders. BUT it has been absolutely worth it! 

It started innocently enough. Having been a long-time fan of Black Library’s Warhammer 40K publications, I decided to find out more about the lore and background story of the sci-fi novels I had been reading. That brings me back to July 27, the day I bought a copy of the Warhammer 40K Rulebook. Flipping through the pages, I found my eyes invariably drawn to the beautifully painted models instead of reading the lore that I had initially sought. I was hooked … the rest is history.

Painting miniatures is a great stress-reliever. After a hectic day at work, it’s always nice to lose oneself for awhile in the hobby. Moreover, I am very lucky in that some fellow hobbyists have been very helpful and supportive of my attempts at miniature painting. That has inspired me to work at becoming a better and faster painter.

So after four months and only 12 fully painted miniatures, I decided to take stock of my situation and see what the future holds for me in the coming months.

Progress so far ...

Firstly, my main priority is to complete the Chaos Space Marine and Ork armies. On that front, progress has been slow over the past three weeks. Using watered-down Chaos Black, I finally managed to fully undercoat my Khorne Berzerkers.

Following this, I applied a basecoat of Scab Red on the armour of one the ‘zerkers using a ‘Eavy Metal technique I read about. For the benefit of fellow noobs that may be reading my blog – the ‘Eavy Metal team is a group of expert painters from Games Workshop.

 

In this case, the basecoat comprised up to five or more, very thin coats of Scab Red. The reason I did this, instead of using just one thick coat of paint, was to ensure an even and smoothly-coloured basecoat. It worked but was rather time consuming process. One ‘zerker’s armour basecoat finished … just seven to go. O_O 
Anyway, when I am done, I will be compiling it into a step-by-step how-to-paint guide.

Future project ... Citadel Finecast

For future projects, I got a great idea for a blog topic from Alvin of HobbyForge. He suggested I do a blog on a Finecast model project. So far, I have only worked with plastic models so it will definitely be a challenge to work on Finecast’s resin models.

Over the past four months, I have managed to amass a collection of Finecast models, all of which I have yet to do any work on.

But a recent acquisition from Hobby Forge i.e. Ghazghkull Thraka has given me the confidence to finally assemble and paint a Finecast model. It’s the biggest model of all the Finecast models that I have, so it should be the easiest one for a beginner to work with … I think. 

So coming soon are blog entries on the trial and tribulations of a noob’s work on a Finecast model … warts and all. Should be good for a laugh =)

Well, that concludes my lengthiest blog entry yet. Hopefully my future blogs will have more pictures and less blah blah blah ...  

Primed and ready for painting

It has been an unproductive two weeks, painting-wise. I did, however, manage to semi-assemble and prime the following miniatures:

Five chaos space marines and (including an aspiring champions with power fist and plasma gun; one marine with a melta gun and another with a plasma gun).

Eight Khorne Berzerkers (including a skull champion with a plasma pistol and power sword).

Ten ork boyz (armed with just sluggas and choppas).

Unfortunately, the can of spray paint already feels so much lighter. I hope I will have enough to paint up the Chaos Rhino, Land Raider AND Defiler before the can runs dry (fingers crossed). The spray paint gives a more even coat of paint which always a good thing for vehicles.

All thats left to do with these miniatures is to paint on a coat of watered-down chaos black from the pot to cover the spots that I did not manage to hit with the spray can. After that ... its time to countinue painting. =)

Main focus of my painting over the coming weeks will be on the chaos army with some orks to break up the monotony. Might even try to finally assemble the Rhino transport in between the painting sessions.

Must phsych myself up ..... Gambatte! (Do your best) Jiayu! (Be stronger) 

Oh well, you know what they say about the best laid plans ....

Getting organised

The more I paint, the more I realise just how much this hobby rocks. With that realisation also comes an epiphany, if you will, of what this hobby will entail. For one, my current workstation is a temp one located in the master bedroom (I don't know how my missus puts up with me but she does, bless her) and I will need to eventually find a proper place in the house to paint and work on the hobby.

For now, I am going about getting things organised first.

Paint pots have finally been placed in a small plastic drawer/shelf thingy. It's also a great mood setter cause looking at all the paint pots just makes me want to paint.

Previously, I was also haphazardly working on some models without a proper plan. Now thanks to an inspiring discussion about the hobby with a fellow hobbyist who blogs at thewildhost.blogspot.com I have decided to organise my assembling process into little 'manufactorums'.

However, manufactorum output is still unsatisfactory with the chaos marines and orks being produced at 37.5% and 31.25% capacity respectively. If only both armies had commissars ... the factory manager needs to be made an example of ... heh heh.

I haven't done much painting lately but I did get to play with the liquid green stuff.

It was fairly easy to use. By using a small brush, I managed to fill up a huge gap in this ork boyz's left shoulder. It's funny how GW gets to sell products to cover up manufacturing defects whereas lets say in the case of a Japanese/Korean factory, such defects may end up in a reject pile. Oh well ... gotta hand it to GW ... they sure know how to make more moolah!

Squad anhrefn du lleng un

After some frustrating moments with the highlights and decals, the first five-man team in a future 10- to 15-marines chaos black legion squad is finally done.

I decided to go with Games Workshop's Chaos Wastelands base and added a mixture of Citadel Green Grass and GaleForce9's static grass. Was looking for a combination of green grasslands under initial corruption by chaos. Highlights not really noticeable from afar because the mixture of codex grey and chaos black had too much of the latter. 

Decals gave me a tough time ... tried using Mr.Mark Softer ... something I got for building my "One Piece Ship Model" (Its a Japanese Anime model), but the decals did not smooth down well. It kinda creased a little bit which was a real bummer. I also toned it down a little with some gryphonne sepia wash. The Alpha Legion shoulder decal markings look a bit muted but I suppose it would be preferable to it being to bright and yellow.

 

Well, its a start ... barely. I am currently assembling another five-man team, this time including the aspiring champion, icon bearer and two marines carrying speacial weapons. I have never played a game of W40K table top gaming before so am not sure which weapons would be good. For now I will likely go for a plasma gun and melta gun. They seem like safe bets ... at least I hope they are.