Goodwin Project Vol.5 A long time waiting

I'M BAAAAAAAAACK!!!

it has been a long time in the waiting. approx 8 months away from the hobby but now im back.

at first i picked up some Tau to get them ready for a challenge, kinda half finished them before the game but ran out of time. that was my first dose of being back in the chair.

now im back in full swing with the Goodwin Project! many things have changed since ive been away. Eldar got a new codex for starters!!! and for me it meant a whole new project direction!
the aim of the goodwin project is to produce a fighting force as well as a display piece so it was back to the drawing board with the army selection.

almost everything in the army got better, so it was too much choice to handle. so i kept to the same concept as before and tried to select a unit from each of the aspects. kept the rangers and wraithlord. in fact all i think i did was add a falcon and avatar to the list dropping the farseer and a squad of dire avnegers but making one of them larger!!
alls cool with that as i have plenty sitting about, and it just meant fitting it in 1500pts.

after about a week of hobby (the joys of being unemployed at the moment) the army has dramatically shifted in presentation.

 the Falcon, with classic weaponry, plus imho the best. few bits on order at the mo for vehicle upgrades

 the dark reaper exarch  now complete with eldar missle launcher, had to sculpt a hand as i didnt have one available (do now so may change) few tassles to hide a bad sculpt ;)

even the wraithlord has had a change in image, the loin cloth has been added with banner attatched to his pointy things. a couple of further robes added to his back also. of and a lonely chaos marine head to the base.

 

i chose against the smaller avatar model in the end. after playing a couple of games with them using the little guy it was a tad unfair as something so small with so much power was a tad overkill. am i sporting or what??

he had his mane resculpted due to not liking the one he comes with, and obviously a few body reposes

 and finally i started to actually paint them. im looking to have the same scheme throughout the army, not fussed with aspect colours i want to keep biel tans iconic green and white colours.

hope you like...

until next time!!


 

My NMM Internet lesson...

As I mentioned in my last blog about my chaos lords plate metal not looking like it should i was approached on Flickr by a fellow painter in a group I run about how to go about improving my effect and getting it to look like plate/sheet metal.

 

It turns out I was on the right lines in the first place which is great. But I just hadn't executed the shading and highlights enough to give it the nmm feel.

So the other painter took my photo and ran it through photo shop to show me how to improve it.

Step 1 the shadow contrast

Step 2 the white highlights

Step 1&2 together

Obviously it's just rough to show me the idea but I totally get it now!

A Bit more Competition Fun!

Every month now the hobby group I participate in on Facebook throws a little painting competition. As you've seen on here my other entries.
So it's been around 2 competitions since I posted up my last mini so I thought I would give a buy one get one free special on my entries. That's right, not 1, but 2!

The month before lasts competition was the Warhammer goblin shaman. My entry is of a grot Rigga sitting upon the tank he's fixing. A simple conversion of the model but an entirely scratch built tank using the ork track as a basis.

Hope you like!

And last months was the new warriors of chaos lord. Now with this chap I went for no conversion at all. In fact I was kind of enticed to paint him with a limited pallet also. So much in fact it turned into me not painting him with anything more than 5 colours!
This was my most successful attempt at non metallic metals, especially around the gold. But as I was pointed out on Flickr the plate metal just simply looked nothing like plate metal. Still was a nice effect I thought ha ha!

More on this guy in my next blog...

Making Magic!

It's been a few weeks since my last update so here's a quick one, but there's plenty more to come really soon...

I don't consider myself a painter or hobbyist that has a fan base or group of followers for one second but I regularly update on here, post some pics on Facebook, Flickr and Coolminiornot etc and have started to get some regular feedback.
It's all just for a bit of fun really.

I had a question recently asked about my painting set up, how I create what I do. It must be impressive etc.

Well here's the surprise. It's not.

As I am now only at home in the UK less than 6 months of the year, and overseas working the rest, I still rent a room at my parents house. So as its not my house to do what I wish with it I simply have to make do.
Money is a little non existent to spend on the luxuries of my hobby, so all I have to my name is just short of 30 paints, mainly primary colours so I can just mix away and 5 quite past there time brushes. But as long as I can still apply paint I crack on!
No fancy lamps or wet pallets, just an old lamp with a normal bulb and a piece of mdf with some plasticard glued to it.
I have no desk I simply paint on the floor in the foetus position! And I store everything on 2 coffee tables I got for £1 each at Tesco.

So there you have it... My painting studio, ghetto style!

The Goodwin Project vol.4 strippers!

So with the majority of the miniatures are here with the odd few still to come, Dark reapers and swooping hawks, I thought I would get a head start with stripping some of them down.

Now this isn't going to be tutorial on how to strip miniatures as from experience, other bloggers have got alot of stick from readers about the stuff used to strip thier minis of paint.
So this is simply just an update on how the army is going and some of the products you can use to strip miniatures.

Nitromors "green" the supermarket available version. Less toxic but I would still use a face mask and rubber gloves! dont use this on plastic minis or in a plastic tub. and obviously do your best not to get anything on your hands despite wearing gloves!!

Dettol, my school used to use this when you cut your leg in the playground to clean it up. Now I use it to strip paint. This stuff stinks but is a lot more safe than nitromors, plus it's cheaper and more readily available! also a great benefit of this is it doesnt melt plastic like nitromors.

i usually leave them in soak for a couple of hours, then give them a scrub with a tooth brush. Then pop back into soak. Remember to still use gloves and a mask though. It's safe but stinks in large quantities.

Sealing the top keeps the whiff in!

Karandras all cleaned up and converted into a challenging pose. The step down from the emblem to engage his victim! May their gods protect them!

the wraithlord in all his glory, cleaned and ready for spraying.

some of the aspect warriors. just need to order some more bases as i cant find anymore lying around.

 

 

 

 

i managed to aquire the older avatar miniature for the army. look at him all cute next to the current version. still think its an epic mini though and will take centre place when i choose not to use the farseer.

the mini i managed to get was missing his cloak but not to worry, a bit of plasticard later for create the basic shape before green stuffing the folds onto it.

 

more to come very soon