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.

September Oath Complete - Part Two

Because this month was a Quarterly Prize month on the Something Awful Oath Thread, extra prizes were up for grabs if we painted markers of some kind.  Turn markers, objective markers, wreck markers, camo markers, whatever. 

This ain't no place for no hero...

Because I already had a fine set of camo tokens from Warmill, I decided to paint up some objective markers for my Haq forces*.  And since I'd been playing a lot of Borderlands 2, what better objectives than these lootable crates from Fenris Games?

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.

September Oath in progress

A quick rundown on what I'm painting this month for the Something Awful Oath thread.  First up is Nemesor Zahndrekh, the Necron HQ choice.  I picked him up on a whim, mainly as a way to play with some more Verdigris techniques.

Unlike most of the painting I've been doing recently, I started with a black undercoat.  I then gave the entire figure a Mithril Silver drybrush, both to bring out the detail to make it easier to paint, and to act as a kind of under-highlighting. 

Diorama-rama part 2

With the build complete, it was time to get painting!  The miniatures would be attached to the scenic base via the miracle of magnets, but I also left the trees off to paint separately, making sure to mask their position with lumps of blu-tac.

Once all the glue was completely dry, the board was given a coat of black spray undercoat.  The ruined bridge, Genestealers, and sides of the display base, were then masked out with tape, paper and blu-tac as the diorama was given a brown spray basecoat.

Chaos Lord Complete

With only hours to spare, I've completed and photographed my August Oath!

Chaos Lord WIP2

Got a bit of painting done on the weekend, in between a trip to the museum to see inside-out animals, and attempting to survive a heatwave in a top-floor flat with no air conditioning or airflow to speak of.

Increasing layers of highlights from left to right.

Starting with the Screaming Skull basecoat, I liberally applied extremely watered-down Balor Brown to the recesses and shadowed areas, not worrying much about overspill.  To bring out the detail further, I applied a more careful Devlan Mud wash to armour seams and carvings.

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!

May Oath Complete

I had far less painting time than usual this month, so it was a bit of a struggle getting everything done.

But they're finished, and just in time.

More May Oath work in progress

It's like a George Lucas movie in here!

 Haven't had much time to paint or write this week, this is just a minor update of the figures I'm working on, as well as something different I'm working on. 

May Oath and basic painting tips

No in depth discussion today, just work in progress pictures for my May Oath.  I also promised a friend I would take step by step pictures, but I kinda forgot (sorry Ari!), so I'll settle for talking about painting process. Again.

What a terrible picture

April Oath - Complete

I'll make the follow-up to the "Sexism in Miniature" on Wednesday.  Today I'm going back to basics and posting what I've been working on - finishing the figures for this month's Oath Challenge on the Something Awful Forums.

STOP. Hacker Time.

Oath of the moment

Over on the Something Awful Forums they've begun another of the yearly "Oath" threads, where members pledge to paint a certain amount of miniatures every month for a chance to win regular spot prizes and a selection of impressive grand prizes.

Triple threat triad territory

This year they've opened it up to submissions from all game/miniature lines (previously it was limited to Games Workshop figures), so I have thrown my hat into the ring and pledged to paint the bare minimum of three figures per month.  This month, it's another Ghulam trooper, a Ghulam hacker, and a cute little Nasmat remote.