Finished Space Hulk Nids

So they are finally done!

It took me about a month to get these guys done. Working in dribs and drabs, but in the end I'm fairly happy with how they turned out.

I'm quite happy with the pink of the skin. The grey is unusual but I like it none the less. The army painter soft tone really helped me finish these guys off. I might hold off on space marines for a while.

First ever attempt at Army Painter Dipping!

As I posted previously I picked up the army painter strong tone quickshade. I am in the middle of building up the ratmen, put I really wanted to give this quickshade a go, ahh............really quickly!.

So my nid's from Space Hulk are still to be finished and it came to me, that the quickshade would be perfect! This of course would mean that the the purple shade would have to be cancelled, but if I could quickly get these nids done it would be all good. So back to my good old test nid and quickly finished off the base.

I have to have a pre-dip picture don't I?

Then I dipped. In my stupidity I decided to try and video this! So video'ing in my left hand, dipping with my right hand. So excuse the shaking and weird camera angles.

So despite me losing my grip on the mini, half way through I think it has worked out fairly ok. I've given him a couple of more sturdy shakes when I had both hands free to get rid of the excess shade. I have now placed him still to one side until this time tomorrow, and we'll see how he turns out. 

Army Painter and Skaven Gutter Runners

So I caved in today and bought my first ever box of Skaven. I picked up a box of Gutter Runners from my FLGS. (Gamersworld in Dublin). I am fairly sure these guys are not being changed or replaced in anyway in the new army book. (fingers crossed!)

 

I had a quick look at the sprue, and they seem like nice models. A box of twenty for €25 is fairly good in my book. Good knows for a skaven army I get the impression that I need a lot more than twenty!

And speaking of lots of models, I have been looking at some way to paint all these rats up in a quick and simple way. I know of the army painter range of products just by seeing them in my FLGS but have not talked to or read of anyone who has used them. So I took it on myself to have an experiment.

So today I also picked up two Army Painter Colour Primers and the Army Painter Matt Varnish.

I picked up the primer matt black as a general basecoat spray, which can also be used as an actual black colour. As I was going with the ratmen, I did pick up a brown colour too, ideally I would have liked a darker brown, but this colour might not be too bad with the shade. The matt varnish is vital for the Army Painter process, to remove the glossiness of the shade. I hope to also use it to finish off all my other painted projects.

The most important step in all of this of course the Army Painter Shade.

I bought the standard middle of the road shade, (Strong Tone). This smells and looks exactly like furniture varnish, but at first look it seems slightly more "runny".

I think it will be interesting to see how quickly I can get these twenty ratmen painted up using the Army Painting method.

New Legion of the Damned!

Fresh into my inbox from GW, new metal legion of the Damned marines. I know there was green's of these guys previously shown at a games day somewhere, but seemingly they were offically unveiled at Games Day Italy.

This guy is looking good. They do look like a slightly updated old school Legion of the Damned. I'm looking foward to seeing the rest of the squad. 

I won't be buying this squad though. Why? Because I already have an old-school squad which I painted up during the year.

Skaven Awesome Sauce

Thats it, i'm done. Games workshop have left me a broken man. I cannot resist these models anymore. There was some grainy scan's before of the Screaming Bell and Plague Furnace, but GW have new clear ones on their blog today. These two mini's are the icing on the top of the skaven cake. The level of detail on these two mini's is amazing, but its the just general weirdness of them that appeal to me.

Skaven Seer riding a screaming bell hung from a door arch (and foundations!) , being rung by a Rat Orge sitting on top a giant platform? Check!

A giant censor, also hanging from a door arch, being swung by a tide of plague riddled and hooded man size rats? Check!

I see for us euro users, its priced at €45.50, which I think is a good price point. I for one can't wait.

Painting with Mates

Hi all,

I spent a very enjoyable evening yesterday doing some painting at a friends house. After doing nothing much hobby wise for the last week, it was great to get at least a little bit done. In saying that I managed to completely destroy the broodlord by not obeying the first rule off painting mini's! I used a thick layer of ink, and as such caused weird pooling effects, as well as darkening the mini too much. Nothing for it but to repaint the basecoat and start again.

The major point I wanted to make was how nice it was to have someone to paint with. I had not painted with anyone for about six or seven years, since my brothers lost interest in the hobby. So for me painting has been a solitary hobby for a long time.

So as you can see in a quick snap I took, we had paint, mini's, beer and music. We sat around had a good chat and painted some mini's. The evening flew, and four hours passed really quickly. My mate, was painting GW's witch hunter Inquistor. I got stuck into the Hockland Elector count for the first time in about a month and a half, painted up an eldar guardian in a colour scheme I am thinking about. (I should post this in the future and see what people think!) and of course got through basecoating about seven Space Hulk nids. It really is a great way to paint, and I could not reccommend it highly enough.

In my last post I talked about Skaven, and how the DoomWheel was the first mini, I ever saw. The more of the mini's from the new range I have seen, the more I am thinking of starting a small skaven army! Their weirdness and the quality of the models really appeal to me. Incase you have not seen the made DoomWheel and the charater models, here they are. Taken from other blogs that I follow mind!

 

 

 

Look at them! Amazing stuff GW. After only average stuff for Space Wolves (IMO) they really have hit some major highs. I haven't been this impressed with a new range of models since the Vampire Counts were released.

So expect some new Skaven from me in the future, I fear.

On introduction miniatures and Plastic Doomwheels!

I don't know about you guys, but I can remember clearly the first mini I ever saw. It might not sound that important, but if you think about it, this mini is probably the most important model you'll ever see.

Now I would imagine for the vast majority of people the first miniature they would be introduced to is a Space marine. No problem there at all, and indeed a kick-ass space marine miniature, is probably  the 'perfect storm mini' to entice prepubescent/teenage males into the hobby. (No offence to prepubescent/teenage males intended I was one too!) Space marines are consisently the largest selling model range GW have, and this is down to a very strong imaginary, which is easy to explain and understand. Superhuman warrior monks in space sums their background up and its an image which appeals to pretty much everyone. God knows I've enough of them around to know that they appeal to me! 

But my first mini was completely different. It was not a superhuman soldier, it was not even a normalhuman soldier. In fact it was not human at all! You may have guessed by the title of the blog it was a humonid rat ontop of a giant wheel with spikes. This is a classic mini in my book, and one of the weirdest mini's in an army that always throws up weird mini's!

My friend brought this mini into to school unpainted. With heavy old metal mini in my hands, the weighty feel of it was perfect. The little details like all the rats running in the wheel to provide the power, the unusual seat on top, and the questionable ability of the seer to actually control the thing. It all sucked me in and I was hooked. Hooked on everything about mini's, and I fear now after 13 years I'm going to be hooked for ever. What it says about me that the doomwheel burst my mini cherry, I do not know.

Unfortuanately newer people to the hobby may have never even heard of this old classic. as it was not in the previous army book. Browsing the GW site this morning I see that they are releasing a plastic version of the doomwheel for the new army book!

 

Despite all my eulogising of the old school mini, I never actually owned a version. So here we go again, the old mini collectors guilt. Even though I have no intention of collecting skaven, (even though I do have soft spot for them) I intend to pick up a Doomwheel. Games Workshop reach into my pocket and take my money because of nostiliga. The worst thing? I love them for it.

So? Can you guys remember the first mini that you ever saw? What effect did it have on you?