40k on a budget? Fact or Fiction? Part 1

is it possible?

i think so...

i guess it is a matter of choosing your army carefully and knowing what to look for miniature wise.

So what i have done is chose Eldar (again), as they are rather an elite army. very specialist in what options are available to them, making them pretty much as small or large as you want. im going for a small army obviously, dont want to be spending to much cash.

the beauty of the eldar miniature range as well is they they have changed so many times over the 20ish years they have been circulating that there is plenty of  models out there for any bargain hunter to grab their hands on.
car boot sales, gumtree, eBay even old friends clearning out their garages.

i chose a nice 1500 point list to have a play with to see what i could get my hands on over the course of a couple of weeks.
it was open to change as i could obviously not guarantee what i was able to get hold of cheap.

the list was as follows. (please note this is not a serious army but in games it is actually considerably annoying!! for your opponent anyway, i found it quite comical).

Illic - 140
Autarch - 165
Uldanorethi Long Rifle, Mantle of the Laughing God. Warp Jump Generator & Power Sword

6 Pathfinders - 150
6 Pathfinders - 150
6 Pathfinders - 150
6 Pathfinders - 150
6 Pathfinders - 150
6 Pathfinders - 150

3 Dark Reapers - 146
Starswarm & Starshot Missiles. Exarch - Fast shot & Marksmans Eye
3 Dark Reapers - 146
Starswarm & Starshot Missiles. Exarch - Fast shot & Marksmans Eye

Total 1497



So now with the plan underway its time to grab some models.

first stop is my bits boxes to see what i could find lying around. and in luck i found my first 3 Dark readers and 4 rangers. Win!!

Ebay was my next bet as usually alot of old eldar models have been replaced with plastics now which is great as these are easy to strip of old paint jobs.

does it matter if the models are current? No not really. the model still reprisents what it reprisents so whether it is 20 years old or 2 years old as long as they are still in the codex we are game.
in my case though i would rather them be the older ranger/scout models as these can make way for the newer models being my HQ choices.

after a good few hours trawling ebay i found 2 auctions for eldar rangers. the first was a whole 22 rangers. 16 old and 6 new. and the second was for a further 9 old rangers.
£16 posted spent on the 2 auctions. Baragin!!

so thats 25 older minis to fit in the ranks nicely giving me 29 now and from the 6 newer models i have the 2 i need for my HQ choices.

I didnt intend to buy the Illic model especially for this little project as i think one of the current ranger models is similar enough to pass off as "counts as".




so 7 more rangers to go and 3 dark reapers...




i found my final 3 reapers on ebay again but with a few days to go on the auction. and with the weekend in sight i hit the local car boot sales to see if i could get my reapers and rangers.
in luck i came home with 10 more rangers. £5 spent and beautifully painted in Dulux?????
no reapers though so back to ebay it was...

eventually winning the 3 reapers for £4.50 posted.

£25.50 and i have my army. can you believe it?




so with some care and a little paint stripper heres what this pest of an army looks like...

So my Pathfinder Army in all its glory. with a few close ups of some Pathfinder units

 

Heavy Fire support from the Dark reapers

 

my "counts as" Illic.

Bald head, sniper rifle, cloak and mesh armour, with a cool base. about sums it up really ;)

 

And last but not least the Autarch. simply made from a current Ranger model and a modified Warp Spider Exarch generator. just looking for a suitable power sword for him and he's complete.

It just needs painting now but i have lots of other things to get on with so these guys may just have to wait....

... or maybe not, who knows?

So there you have it, 40k on a budget
hope you have enjoyed the very long read!!





 

The Goodwin Project vol.3 the sketchbook reference

As I start to prep the army I do a little bit of research here and there to help create the character of the army.

I borrowed a white dwarf off a good friend some 8 years ago, number 127 from 1990. Sadly I had to give it back, but managed to acquire a copy off eBay so all is not lost.
This is a fab issue as it has a nice in depth article about the eldar as a race. And best of all it is filled with drawings from Jes Goodwins sketchbook!

Ill be using these sketches to visually improve the appearance of the army and add a bit more character by adding war banners and armour detailing.

Death Guard Legion Standard Bearer. Warhammer Nurgle Lord Conversion

Remember that chap I photographed the other day, well this is about him...

Another Facebook painting competition to paint the warhammer Nurgle Lord, the rule simply states he just had to start as that figure.

So I was having a think, and thought, space marine, deathguard!!
I'm on it like a car bonnet!!

The standard bearer bit came later...

After a bits box rummage I found a helmet for him, and well, that was it...
So a helmet is all I've got, that will be all I use!!

After filing down a lot of his armour to make it more one piece sections rather than the plating it was I started to cut back the legs and left arm to thin them down ready for some green stuffing.
I sculpted in the soft armour around the back of his legs and a broken chest plate, then added the shoulder pad and helmet.
I then realised no backpack, but luckily bring nurgle you can usually get away with plenty of things. The nurgle daemon prince being the inspiration for this. Bone exhausts perturbing from his back, then I though a hose running from his helmet to this monstrosity was next. Out comes the guitar strings.






The weapon was next... A scythe just gotta be a scythe!! Then after looking at his helmet, something as dramatic as a scythe wouldn't fit his less dramatic look. So I sat thinking. A banner maybe?
So a banner bearer he became.

Grabbing some styrene rod I cut away chip pings from it to match the existing theme of the axe that lived before it. Pinned it too his hands and voila!!

The flag itself was a bent piece of plasticard simply cut to shape.

Day 1 over!!


Day 2 meant the green stuff was dry. I can now glue the hose in place as it pulled on the wet green a little too much and ruined its shape, and I can remove the exhausts to cut their shape also. Luckily green stuffs hold on the subject it's attached too isn't great so these easily break free. Then simply super glue in place after.

The last sculpting is now taking place, the rest of the armour to bulk him back out and the trim of the power armour.
A last minute rummage found me a couple of skulls and a pistol in holster so these were added to the base and thigh, and top of banner pole.
Glue the banner in place and done!

Now to spray him up and paint!

Now I wanted to see if I can stand the test of time and evolve my painting skill to all the cool shading and non metallic metals people are producing today. So a lot of research was done before I started. Not on colour but on technique. So if anything this chap is a beta project.

The shading around the armour seemed simple enough simply progressive layers, though that's what I did. Whether there's a better technique out there I dunno!
The skin was done the same I wanted it greeny so a base of green was applied, then simply mixed the colour I wanted it to be more and more each layer.
The non metallic metals were fun, on the trim of his armour and his chain mail. Again similar to shading the amour, just pick where a static light source would come from and layer lighter colours to the closest point of the light source. And a thin line of white to give it some life!
I found some 3d shapes on the net that helped a lot too!

Whether I created the effect or not correctly I learnt a lot through painting this guy and I will continue to use what I've learnt.
So watch out for my eldar in the Goodwin project as I will be using what I learnt on them.

The Goodwin Project vol.1 the spirit warrior

Ok so heres the first instalment of the Goodwin project. As the models start rolling in from all my different sources I take hold of the old eldar dreadnought or now known as a wraithlord and get him ready before I strip him down of paint.

Remember this classic pose?

All these models to me are amazing and really reflect my early hobby years and my childhood so I really want them to be all they can be!
Hopefully as this army progresses we can see how they still stand the test of time against the more modern sculpts.

This wraithlord just needs a little bit of conversion work to bring it to life, make it more graceful, more eldar like!
I remembered an old picture by mark gibbons from the old second edition codex. This would be my starting point.

Now not to copy directly, but loosely base the wraithlord on this pose as it reflects enough character to not be a static bore. This guy will stand out as a centre piece to the army so needs to look better than the original sculpt.

The cutting starts...

got my tools and reference pic ready

 

i didnt have any metal bright lances at the time of this so a plastic one will suffice for now.

 

the bodys spine is cut in 2 to help the turn of his head and using 2mm brass rod pinned together.

 

the leg has its soft armour removed and a small cut behind the kneecap to allow the bend. i didnt fancy pinning this, i wanted it to be still connected so slowly bent the leg in stages, little bit at a time.

 

as you can see heavy pinning through and through.

 

here he lays in his complete pose as i wait for the base to dry.

kindly held up by me here he is in his final pose. not as dramatic as the picture but gives the wraitlord a nice sense of movement i think. just what it needed.

 

now ive got to pull him apart again ready to be stripped of paint. he will then be green stuffed around the joints to finish him off then have banners and a loin cloth added.

Some of the models I already had with some of the ones I managed to get on eBay luckily for a few quid.

Just waiting on the rest now before I start the mass stripping.
Some of these are going to need a little bit of extra time in the stripper it seems!

until next time...

a picture shows a thousand brush strokes!

if you dont know where to start with taking pictures of your miniature or army or already know how and fancy a new idea, then read on!

this is a bit of a budget set up when it comes to set ups. you may not think it if you went out there and did some shopping around, but in the way of still photography this is mega budget!

this set up is using a Nikon D90 DSLR, Nikon 50mm f1.8 lense, Nikon sb-400 speedlight, manfrotto modo tripod and a couple of bits of 2x4 with some card and bluetac.

the 2x4 is simply nailed to each other at the end to create an "l" shape. then the card is bent in the middle and fastened by bluetac. the stand is a bit of drain pipe cut and sprayed specifically for the job of raising the miniature. but obviously this doesnt really matter.

setting the tripod up with carmera at the closest focal point, basically if on auto focus, the point before the camera wont focus anymore.

the flash is usually a bit harsh so its been diffused by a piece of paper elastic banded on. ghetto style!!

then the exposure on the camera dropped by 0.7.

put the camera on manual and the shutter speed at 60 with an f-stop of 6.3 for a room using an artificial lightbulb of 60 watts.

just try these settings and play with the exposure a bit to get the colouring your happy with.

personally i like things a little moody so they will come across slightly darker than what most will like.

so this is the end result. Simply cropped using a basic editor. No colour enhancements etc as this takes away the true feel of the miniature in my opinion. If your showing off a paint job it's immoral to enhance its colouring in any way!

more on the guy in the picture coming very soon...

Chaos Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch

Painted for a little fun painting competition on Facebook. The first display standard model I've painted in about 6 years. It's interesting that my painting style hasn't evolved with the times, so hopefully as I see the other competition this chap is up against my painting style will start to evolve and improve!

what ya think?



The last thing i painted was a lizardman bloodbowl team so all the colours i currently owned were for them, hence the blue ;-). "note to self i need to buy more colours ha ha"