A Gooey Mess and Two More Anointed

Having used the old Citadel paints for close to two years now, I find the paints are still in good condition. It helps that I am very careful with them in usage and storage so as to prolong their useful shelf life. Currently, I only have three paints from the new Citadel paint range namely, Runelord Brass, Sycorax Bronze and Brass Scorpion. Unfortunately, less than a year after using these new paints, the first two colours have gone bad and turned into a gooey texture that renders it unusable.

Gooey sticky texture that has rendered the paint unsuable

I am still at a loss as to why this happened as it can't be a coincidence that two colours went bad so quickly. It seems as if the medium on which the pigments rest have dried up. I am sure I was very careful when using the new paints so I am left scratching my head as to why this happened. Sigh.

More Word Bearers Anointed joins the ranks
With the recent lunar new year holidays, I managed to complete two more Word Bearers Anointed. Trying to get as much painting done as I possibly can seeing that I am way behind schedule on my first W40K army. Am thinking of painting the Black Legion portion next to break the monotony.

Two more Anointed join the ranks

Same two Anointed from a different angle

This Anointed's left arm reminds me of the classic movie Evil Dead for some reason

The green sack actually holds some Gulliman warrior's kahoonas

Well that's it for this post. Hope to make more progress on the Word Bearers this coming weeks.

Word Bearers Army - First Anointed

It feels good to be back on the hobby bandwagon. Painting my first Anointed with my favourite blues tunes playing in the background ... it almost doesn't get better than that. For the Word Bearers Terminator, I tried to find a balance between a dirty grimy chaos theme, and clean clear lines of the False Emperor-loving Space Marines. It will take some work but I hope to eventually pull it off.

My first Word Bearers Anointed

The Anointed's tusks were a difficult challenge for a noob like me

Side view of the Anointed

Highlights on the shoulder skull icon was a bit tough to do

Back looks a bit too clean but I couldn't bring myself to splash more wash on it

Different colour mixtures with Boltgun Metal gave depth to the Reaper Autocannon

A wash of Devlan Mud kept the decal from being too shiny

Can you spot the Eye of Horus?

That's one down and four more Word Bearers Anointed to go. I took a lot of step-by-step pictures during the painting of the above Anointed, and it will all eventually be put up in a later How-To post. Still mostly using the old Citadel paints so it will be an old skool painting guide. 

Obstacles in my way?
Just reached my 100-hour mark in Skyrim and I am still hooked. Moreover, I am not even halfway through the main quest yet ... this game is massive. Trying to pull the arrow from my knee but it's a half-hearted attempt at most.

Saved up for two years for this beauty with a single coil pickup

Worse still, a software called Rocksmith has me picking up my guitar again after more than a year (took lessons for a year but never really practised as much as I should have). Other than painting up my Word Bearers army, my lunar new year resolution also includes finally learning to play a blues tune on an electric guitar. 

Building a Word Bearers Anointed Terminator Squad

After nearly two months of inactivity, getting back on the proverbial hobby horse was a challenge but a welcome one. Taking a break from the hobby kinda recharged me and I was psyched up to resume work on my Word Bearers army. So much so that I finished assembling a whole terminator squad in just half-a-day which is a record for me. So now, despite the Skyrim arrow still being firmly lodged in my knee, I am now at least back to hobbying again.

Why did the Anointed cross the road? To wipe the smirk off a warrior of Guilliman. What up!

Word Bearers Anointed - ready for paint work to start

A more detailed look at the Anointed

Termie (right) has a mutated arm cause I haven't figured what weapon to choose ... so it's a proxy for something or other

Other Word Bearers stuff
Other Word Bearers army related work that I manage to work on was to paint on the Scab Red basecoat for parts of the cultists. I tried to vary the placing of the red colour scheme so as to not overwhelm the minis with too much red as well as to imbue them with some variety.

Word Bearers Cultists with autoguns

Meanwhile, work on Cyrene Valantion has stalled a bit as I am a bit scared to embark on the next stage of the painting i.e. the mid-tones. Thus far, Cyrene has only been basecoated and given a wash. Still working up the courage to attempt the mid-tones for fear of messing up.

Work in progress for the Blessed Lady

Hopefully I will have more progress pictures in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading!

My First W40K Army List

With the arrow still firmly lodged in my knee ... to date I have played 72 hours of Skyrim ... I felt I had to do something to jump start my hobby progress. So with that in mind, I decided to compile my first ever Warhammer 40K army list. The list comes in at a whopping 2000 points. O_O

Main army comprises the Black Legion ...

... which is supported by a Word Bearers army

Legio Malaysia's ongoing Army Throwdown also served as a motivation to get off my lazy arse and compile the list. Due to logistic reasons I am currently unable to attend Legio's throwdown event. But at least I will try to assemble and paint my stuff as if I were taking part. Well, that's the plan anyway.

With just a cursory reading of the W40K gaming manual and Chaos Space Marine Codex thus far, I am sure the list is bound to contain noob mistakes but at least it's  a start. Being new, the list took me a couple of days to finalise. Not sure if this list is considered practical but they comprise most (if not all) of the models that I own. Other misc chaos minis that might see the light of day later include some daemon princes and a Nurgle-inclined army. However, that's a story for another day.

Again, not much hobbying was attempted over the last few weeks. Took out my word bearer shoulder pads and stared at them a bit. Does that count? Heh heh ... =(

Word Bearers metal shoulder pads for a Chaos Space Marines 10-man squad

Anyway, please feel free to comment on the list. Any advice would be welcome.

An Arrow to the Knee

I know I know, this Skyrim joke is so last year. But it was only recently that I had managed to replace my old broken down PC with one that could play Skyrim and do the game justice. The rest, as they say, is history. Since I installed the game, I have been hooked and have plonked in about 35 hours so far (so says Steam) and I still feel that I have barely touched the surface of what the game has to offer. Sadly this means I have neglected my hobbying for a record time now, and my Word Bearer minis have remained untouched since I last worked on them one month ago.

I used to paint miniatures until ...

Hopefully I can tear myself away from the game soon and start working on my poor Dark Apostle. (That's actually easier said than done because I recently went bonkers during the Steam Holiday Sale Extravaganza and purchased a fair number of games at discounts of up to 75%) Below is a picture of what I have managed to do so far.

Early progress on the Word Bearer Dark Apostle

All these distractions just when I was starting to gather momentum painting miniatures, even to the extent of managing to paint a record number of minis in a 2-week period. Now, my progress seems to have hit a brick wall. Damn that arrow!