There goes the painting schedule...

Greetings all.

Well firstly, some fantastic news: the wife and I are expecting our first baby! It's early days yet (what you might call "WIP"), but we're looking at a summer baby. Both mum and baby are healthy, so I'm happy! I'm sure I'll share some pictures of my greatest miniature as it develops... But that's enough of being grown up for today, back to toy soldiers!

I reckon I can squeeze in one or two more posts before the end of the year, and as I sit here watching the new series of Time Commanders (seriously, watch it!), it seems like the right time to crank out a little post.

I've managed to get a fair bit of painting done recently, just trying to round off the year, and clear my current backlog a little. First up, I painted a pair of old school plastic beastmen:

These two are basically "understudies", fulfilling a variety of roles. Mostly fighting in the frozen city, they'll be serving as rangifers, foulhorns, or possibly even gnolls, depending on where they're needed. Despite being a pretty simple sculpt, they were a pleasure to paint, and actually turned out rather nicely.

Another beastie painted up for Frostgrave was this rather lovely Minotaur:

Pretty simple to paint up, nothing too fancy going on. I kind of like his whole expression and demeanour though. He looks like he's been given a simple job to do ("stand here and guard this chest"), and that's now the most important thing in his world.

Next up, and also for Frostgrave, are another bunch of vile daemons (or demons, if you prefer):

These two rotten bastards will serve as an imp and a minor demon. Yet another Chaos familiar added to my collection, along with a harpy/fury.

Lastly, but by no means leastly, a major demon. Well, sort of...

I was planning to use this old Citadel Chaos demon as a major demon for Frostgrave, but even mounted on a big scenic base, he just didn't seem imposing enough. Part of this is due to the pose (he is sitting down after all), but I just wasn't happy when I compared him to my other major demon (classic Keeper of Secrets). I decided to paint him up anyway, because he's a fantastic model, and incredibly sinister looking. He'll probably still find his way onto the battlefield, either as a wandering monster, or possibly something scenario specific. Not sure yet, but he certainly is cool, and that's what matters right?

That's all from me for now, but I've still got a few more bits on the go that I want to get finished before the end of the year. In the meantime, comments are very welcome!

He who makes a beast of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man

Greetings all.

Two posts from me in under a week is surely a personal best, but as you loyal lot deserve only the best, it's happening!

Kind of a milestone for me this one, as it represents the completion of a project I've been working on for a little while. I'm overjoyed to say that I have now finished off the last of "The Chargers", the mutant beastmen in the service of the ever-shifty Inquisitor Emeric. The last of that barbaric bunch is the cyber Minotaur, Moloch:

Another model that was a pain to acquire, but a sheer delight to paint. I love the over the top craziness going on here, just pure RT goodness. Even more so than his brother Knossos in fact. I mean, this guy literally has guns in place of his horns, as well as no organic eyes and an exposed brain! He now joins the crew to add some more muscle and firepower:

I do actually have plans to expand this lot in the future, but for the meantime at least, they are finished. 

I'm aiming to paint eleventy-one models before the end of the year (currently at 108), so I'll probably go back to my roots for a bit and paint up a few of the many (many, many) old school daemons that are sitting around awaiting my attentions.

Comments welcome of course!

He who makes a beast of himself...

Greetings all.

This post will be a lot quicker than it probably should be, as it represents a bit of a milestone in terms of painting output. I have just finished my 100th model of the year! He's quite a beast too... 

You may recall that at the start of the year I made the resolution to paint at least 100 models before the year was out. Well it's only part way through September and I've already achieved that goal! Pretty pleased with myself right now, I must say. I'll list out everything that I've painted so far at the end of this post. Before that though, I should probably show off one of the rarest models in my collection: Space Minotaur, Knossos.

Though not the sharpest tool in the box, Knossos has the brute strength to solve a great many problems. Part of Emeric's abhuman mercenaries, he can always be found where the fighting is thickest. Usually he'll be pointed in that direction by someone else, just so he doesn't end up wandering off when he sees bright colours. Knossos and his brethren aren't  exactly the sort of creatures employed by most Inquisitors, but their sheer savagery and low upkeep suits Emeric perfectly.

Knossos has quickly become one of my favourite models in my entire collection. Partly due to his rarity, and partly due to the ridiculousness of a Minotaur, IN SPACE. I gather that the two space Minotaur models (yup, the other one will be joining the gang soon) were released for a very short time through mail order, back in the late 80s, and are pretty hard to get hold of these days.

Now I mentioned that I've painted 100 models this year... They are:

4 plaguebearers 

Misfortune familiar 

6 Nurgling bases

4 screamers

4 Flesh hounds 

10 pink horrors 

3 plague drones

30 daemonettes 

Count luthor

Ramtut 

Wilhelm Chaney

Chaos assassin

9 cultists 

Beastman cultist

Flamer cultist 

2 cultist demagogues

Prescience marker

8 bloodletters 

Tzeentch daemon prince

Ambull 

Inquisitor 

Jokaero 

Beast trooper

Unreleased scavvy 

Assassin 

Tech priest 

Adeptus Arbite

Astropath 

Ventolin pirate 

Space Minotaur 1

Phew! Hope that list makes sense; it was just copied from the list on my phone. Pics of everything are all over the blog though!

I need to go now, to wolf down some dinner and prepare Emeric's crew for some investigation work in the lower levels of the hive. Rumours of some potent archaeotech hidden in an abandoned facility have been whispered. Unfortunately those rumours have also reached the ear of Rogue Trader Arturo Lamina, so recovering the tech might not be as straightforward as originally expected...