When everything goes wrong - November Oath Complete

I've had a hell of a month.  Between working late hours and weekends doing repetitive physical tasks, running, and attending an after-work training course, I've had little time to paint.  When I do snatch a few hours, I'm rushed and stressed.

Ugh. Awful. Look at that mould line.

 So it's little wonder that this month's Oaths are some of my worst paint jobs ever submitted.

A budget lightbox and a birthday haul

This weekend I discovered that you can make a more that serviceable lightbox out of a white plastic bowl and a single swing-arm lamp

Simplicity!

Not only is it super easy to set up and use, but it appears to work better than my (probably over-large) "proper" light-tent.

Plastic bowl on the left, light-tent on the right.

Much less glare, and much less photoshop needed to make the colors true-to-life.  I may have to buy another bowl just for photography.

November Oath WIP

Well, my Dark Vengeance Chaos Lord finally arrived, just in time for me to Oath something completely different for November.  The winner of the Infinity quarterly prize decided that it should probably go to someone that actually plays the game, so a special challenge was added for November. 

Anyone that paints an Infinity model goes into the draw to win October's unwanted prize.  Something I had to take advantage of.  Rummaging through my collection, I decided on an eclectic mix for this month - The Guild of Harmony Yi Ling I won with my Fire Imp, a totally-not-Nick-Frost-in-Hot-Fuzz "PC Sam Ford" from Hasslefree, and a Hassassin Mujib to qualify for the Infinity prize.

October odds and ends

So much for October.  The Dark Vengeance Chaos Lord I won on ebay is still in the post, but since it's already half way though October, I won't have time to Oath it.

Mine isn't going to look half as good as this.

It's a shame, I was really looking forward to getting a Nurgle color scheme on what is frankly a gorgeous miniature. 

September Oath Complete - Part One

Oath complete! And as usual I was painting right up to the deadline.

Like a less murderous Charlton Heston

The final product isn't too dissimilar to the last WIP I posted , but everything has been pushed a little further. Final orange highlighters were added to the top edge of each cloak plate, and black ink was carefully brushed into the grooves.

More September WIP

Painting continues at my usual torturous pace, I can't seem to find the motivation to paint after or before work, then weekends are spent being social and/or being lazy.  But I'm confident I'll be able to finish this guy up on time, he's turning out to be quite a joy to paint.

Last time I'd given Nemesor Zahndrehk an all-over silver drybrush to bring out the details.  The next step was to bring out his golden armour, which was a simple matter of drybrushing with Dwarf Bronze, Burnished Gold, then finally Golden Griffon..  A Gryffonne Sepia wash smoothed out the highlighting and added more shading and depth.

Chaos Lord WIP

Just a few quick WIP pictures of the Chaos Lord.  The photos are grainy and the paint job looks like ass, but hey, progress!

The gold is done, as is the loincloth and armour joints.  I've gone over the drybrush-splatter with white, then given the armour a base coat of Screaming Skull.  Still deciding exactly how I'm going to shade it, as I don't want it to blend in with the gold too much.

Back from the burnout

Ever few months I go through an alternating cycle of being really excited about painting tiny spacemen and not wanting to ever touch a paintbrush ever again.  After failing June's oath, I took July off to do things that didn't involve being hunched over a desk.

He's coming right at us!

But now I've got the itch to paint again! So I'm starting off with the lovely individual above, a Chaos Marine Lord, one a member of the Emperor's Children but now the leader of his own warband.

I am the god of hellfire, and I bring you...

Fire in the disco! Fire in the disco! Fire in the... Taco Bell!

Back in this post, I had some work-in-progress shots on a Tzeench Horror that I had converted into something I called a Lava Imp.  There was no sign of it in the May Oath Complete post, but I did finish the little devil, and ended up winning a prize for it!

And now for something completely different - Verdigris

Due to a completely different but equally nerdy hobby, I had no time to paint over the Easter weekend.  So instead of yet another work-in-progress post, I thought I'd talk about something completely different.

Terrifying horses! No, wait... (photo by Alice Palace)

Verdigris!  Like rust, it's caused by the oxidisation of metal - iron for rust, and copper, brass or bronze for verdigris.  While they're very different in terms of color, the same techniques can be used to paint them.