Multipass...

Quick hit this morning - Been on a hobby bender but haven't organized all the pics yet! Plenty of post fodder on the way though!

Every so often I'll pull a model or two off the RPG minis shelf as a little palate cleanser, and a totally-not-LeeLoo-and-Korben set from Heresy Miniatures fit the bill nicely! They were a really fun little duo to paint up even though the sculpts are a little wonky. Mulllllti-pass!

Retrospective - Hobby Year In Review 2017

A very happy holidays to all the readers out there, and a merry Feast of The Emperor's Ascension to one and all! With the year drawing to a close I thought it would be nice to take a look back over 2017 and see how things went. It was definitely a whirlwind of hobby activity!
 

January - Filled with feverish painting as the deadline for Adepticon looms. Imperial Fists ahoy!

February - Finished painting the Imperial Fists army for Adepticon, sold the Thousand Sons from the previous year (NOVA 2016) and immediately embarked on the (checks notes) fourth iteration of the force.

 

March - Adepticon 2017! The Imperial Fists are sold on-site, it's always nice to sell a force to someone and be able to tell them thanks in person. The Khamasiin takes shape, and the forges of Zhao Arkkad begin disgorging new Cybernetica cohorts!
 

 April through July - Thousand Sons overload, seriously I just wouldn't stop banging on about the scions of Magnus, but to be fair the army needed to be complete by the end of July in order to be ready for NOVA!

August - A little breather with Gencon and NOVA taking up almost all the free time. Only work of note was the Freeblade Knight Khenti-Amentiu. Fun month though!

September - 8th edition happened and I caught the NuMarine bug and built a small Blood Ravens force. Couldn't face painting more red after four straight months of it, and instead dove in on a Sons of Horus force. Of course. It's a totally understandable reaction that couldn't possibly get out of hand, right?

October - Dreadtober! More Emperor-be-damned crimson! And a whole mess of seafoam green, too!
 

November - The hobby ADHD kicks into high gear as the year draws to a close. More Sons of Horus, the Genestealer Cult is completed and Necromunda is released!

 
December - Capping the year is possibly my best work to date on Horus, and the hobby butterfly continues to flitter about with a mess of terrain, more Necromunda and out of the blue, some Harlequins!

Models completed in 2017
Imperial Fists: 47 infantry, 4 vehicles
Thousand Sons: 93 infantry, 4 vehicles
Mechanicum: 15 killer robots
Blood Ravens: 9 NuMarines
Sons of Horus: 53 infantry, 5 vehicles
Genestealer Cult: 46 infantry
Necromunda: 34 gangers
Harlequins: 6 infantry, 1 vehicle
Terrain: 8 vehicles

Total: 303 infantry, 22 vehicles - A tidy pile of completed miniatures in 2017, if I do say so myself!

Next up, looking ahead to 2018!

Necromunda - Bull Gorg modernized!

One of my favorite Necromunda special characters from back in the day was Bull Gorg, pit fighter hero extraordinaire - We ran many a fun scenario with him either staging a revolt, or doing king of the hill style pit fights. Figured I ought to get him cleaned up and modernized for the new version!

I will cop to some youthful exuberance in this build (to be fair, it was nearly 20 years ago), as technically Bull Gorg is just a big human, and not a full-blown Ogryn (he's standing on a 60mm base). Still, can't deny he's an imposing model on the table!

The model is based on an old metal fantasy Ogre, an old rhino hatch in place of the usual belly plate and some techno-gubbins bodged on in the rear. With the addition of a pair of big-ass metal chainswords from the 54mm Inquisitor range it's got some serious heft to it - Let's just say the model can double as a paperweight! Touched up the paint scheme a bit here and there, mostly getting some more highlights in and updating the base color scheme. He's ready for his next fight!

40k Harlequins - Troupe complete!

Continuing on with the "pulling random old stuff off the shelf" plan I've been working with, There's been a small troupe of Harlequins quietly gathering dust for well over a year. But no longer!

 

Originally intended to be part of a Dark Eldar army I started and eventually shelved ages ago, these clowns got the Mardi Gras scheme of purple, yellow and green - always an eye-catching combo! Freehanding a zillion little triangles and polka dots was an exhausting exercise!

 

The troupe's Skyweaver got the same scheme to tie them together, and I am considering adding some further triangles or polka dots along the front of the fuselage - I think it could stand a little more flair!

Overall however I'm fairly happy with 'em, definitely was fun to break out some eye-twisting colors!

Necromunda - Klovis the Redeemer, Deacon Malakev, and Spyre Hunters complete!

I've been in 'small project' mode and have been going through the un-/partially-painted shelves looking for fun stuff to knock out, and today it's a couple blasts from the past - Leading off with Klovis the Redeemer and Deacon Malakev!

These two have been sitting on the shelf for nearly twenty years and with the release of the new Necromunda it's high time they got their time in the sun. Tried to stick with the classic paint scheme for him, and I'm really looking forward to seeing when/whether they get to the Redemptionists!

In a similar vein, the Spyre Hunter Matriarch was a model I picked up waaaaay back in the day but never got around to painting. It's about time! I've unfortunately never owned the associated Patriarch model. I really ought to track one down...

Last but not least I thought I'd try and modernize some of my old models - Led off with my old Spyre Hunter team. I didn't want to give them a full "dip and strip" as I sort of like having the history. I did clean them up a little though, some washes and touch-ups for the most part. Again, hoping that we'll see GW doing the equivalent of the Outlanders supplement in the future!

Necromunda - Gor Halfhorn complete!

Figured it was time to dive back in to painting some actual miniatures after my digression into terrain, but wasn't feeling quite up to jumping right back into a full batch-painting project. So, a little speed painting session was the plan for the evening!

Pulled out the model for bounty hunter Gor Halfhorn and got cracking! I knew that I wanted to do a somewhat militaristic scheme on him as a callback to the model on which it was based so settled on some camo/olive drab armour, and fairly subdued leather and metal to contrast with the more flamboyant ganger models.

Of course it ain't Necromunda without hazard stripes and the model did need some spot color, so the housing of the chainsword and the various lenses got the yellow treatment, as did the front 90 of the base (as facing is important in the new edition).

Lots of different brown tones on the model - the skin, the fur and the leather all needed to be distinct from one another or it'd just end up being one big smear of brown. More or less worked out! All in all I'm quite happy with him and I'm looking forward to getting my mitts on the other hired guns Forge World has previewed, as well as the new Orlocks. Really happy to have Necromunda back!

Terrain - Combat Cars complete!

Alliteration! The painting servitor had a fairly productive session yesterday and managed to get the five combat cars to the 'off the factory floor' state, which for now I'm calling done!

By far the most ostentatious of the cars, this one deserved to be done up in imperial purple. Or is that Emperor's Children purple?

The most militaristic of them got a grimy green scheme. This one is the least inspired of the sculpts in my opinion but I do appreciate how different in aesthetic it is to the others. Variety is good!

I'm unclear on how the driver actually sees where he's going in this one, guess that's why they make autosensors! The red turned a little chalky on me with this one, not sure what happened there...

Really happy with how the gold sets off against the blue on this one, though my choice to do blue windows as well meant they sort of fade together.

By far my favorite of the cars, it's got a great mix of Mad Max and Batman about it, so obviously needed to be done up in basic bad-ass black!

All in all a fun little project and it feels good to get them off the unpainted shelf after well over a year. Feeling recharged and ready to press on - Next up on deck is Gor Halfhorn, underhive bounty hunter!

Terrain - Combat Cars painting continues...

Quick hit this morning - Got a little more brush time in over the last couple days and laid down the main body colors and the gold trim on the combat cars from Wargame Exclusive - since I've picked these up it seems they've come out with another half dozen or so further variants. I must have them!

Rather happy with how they're coming along so far - Similar to the servohaulers I'm not going to go super overboard on detailing them as they're just intended to be scatter terrain. Some base metals, some bone-colored skulls and a smattering of weathering and they'll be good to go!

Terrain - Galvanic Servohaulers complete!

Finished up the Galvanic Servohaulers over the last couple days, providing some more tasty scatter terrain to the table!

Picked out a fair bit of extra detail and added some spot colors but didn't go too crazy, they're just going to be terrain after all. Don't want 'em upstaging the actual armies!

Added some rust effects using Typhus Corrosion as a base and then stippling in Ryza Rust on top of it, after which a little boltgun metal was lightly drybrushed over it to pick out a little of the texture where it would have rubbed away to bare metal. First time I'd really used the two technical paints in conjunction with each other, and really dug how they turned out. Definitely warrants further experimentation!

The crane is a beast! I was tempted initially to do a lot more yellow on it, but in the end like the darker iron tone overall, keeps it from dominating the playing space in color - dominating in size is enough!

Overall I'm quite happy with how they turned out and it was a nice little palate cleanser after the time and effort that went into Horus. Sort of on a scatter terrain jag, so next up I'm planning on finishing off the combat cars from Wargame Exclusive. Finally!