Silver Tower: Grot Scuttlings of Tzeentch

For today I bring the Grots.

I have chosen a very simple technique to paint them, keeping the skin green but mixed with plenty of yellow and the coat is just grey with a wash on top. Fast an effective.

Painted in 2019

Siver Tower: Skavens

After having completed my Space Hulk and the Genestealer Cult Kill Team, I am going to push hard to meet the third milestone of my year objectives before the end of June!

The first two figures from Silver Tower that I decided to tackle are the Skavens. I made two big mistakes with them and as a result, I am extremely unsatisfied with how they look like. In any case, I am not repainting them, they are now on the painted pile and there is no coming back from there!

The first issue is the base. I wanted to try something different for the Silver Tower bases, to use some stone texture on them. I bought a plasticard sheet with stone texture and used a bit of it to try to simulate stones partially covered with sand and cracked earth. The result is not good and I won't be repeating it. I have decided to use the same technique for the base as with my chaos warband, so that I can mix the figures with them.

The second mistake was the choice of technique to paint the skin. These skavens are not covered by fur, like the classic ones that I use to paint, therefore, I tried to use the same style and it simply did not work out. I should have just painted the whole skin in a different way. But by the time I realized the mistake, I was already 1h into it and as my limit for this year is 1h per miniature, I decided I would leave them like that, and learn from the mistake for the future.

Without more preamble, here are the two Skavens.

Painted in 2019

Classic Orks

Back when I started the blog, I mentioned I used to have a Space Marine Army that I sold many years ago, in 1999 approximately.

I also used to have an Orc Army for Warhammer Fantasy, also sold.

But what I did not mention, I believe, was that at the same time that I collected an Ultramarines Army, I collected an Ork Army using the Goffs from the second edition box.

The other day, rustling around in my bits box, I stumbled upon a few Orks that I did not sell back in the day, so I have decided to share them here so everybody can feast their eyes upon them.

Remember, they were painted some time around 1995 and 1996. Back in that time, there was no Internet available full of tutorials, articles and videos explaining how to paint. Materials were not so easily available, especially for someone living in a small town like me, and the only chance to get news was once per month when the White Dwarf was coming. In fact, I clearly remember that I only had 3 or 4 pots of Citadel paints and I was mainly using humbrol paints and regular brushes that you could get in any art shop, intended to be used in much bigger objects, and not suitable for miniatures. The results of all of this mixed together speak for itself.

Here are the four Orks and one Gretchin that I still have from that time in all their glory.

Classic Plastic Goff from 2nd ed. 40k Box

This one was painted years after the first one, I remember I had improved a lot, the colours are much better laid off.

I was trying to go for a variant of the classic 'Eavy Metal Scheme for the Plastic Goffs, shown here:

This one is a tin one, quite nice model in fact.

Another nice classic Sculpt

Plastic Gretchin with so much paint on its upper body that it is a single blob.

After finding these, a wave of nostalgia swept me and I decided to put aside 1 hour of my painting time to give a Plastic Goff Ork a go following a similar scheme to the one I used back in 1996. Here it is, painted in 2019.

We can consider this my taken on the 10 year challenge, although in this case it's the 23 year challenge... Of course it is a bit unfair, as the one of the left was painted to the best of my skills and the one of the right just limited to one hour in between painting red Terminators :)

It has been great to paint Orks again, I must admit, maybe I should look into making a Kill Team...

Space Hulk: Librarian

With the Librarian I have completed the whole set of Space Hulk. I have to admit that painting this figure was a relief, as I was a bit sick of painting so much red armour. This one was painted mainly using Ultramarines Blue and a few highlights with Enchanted Blue. The Power Axe has been left mostly flat, just after a quick wash to bring up some shadows. Still, the model is so good that even my poor paintjob makes it look nice.

I am extremely happy to share that with this one I have closed a chapter by painting a game that has been sitting in my lead pile since 2009! It only took me 10 years!

This is also the second milestone of the whole year, and it is only April! This is really good news, I have already started to prepare the Silver Tower box to paint it, which is my third milestone. So, unless things go really south from here, I should be able to meet the three milestones before June, leaving plenty of time to work on a few projects that have piled up in the meantime... a few more skavens to complete my Army for T9A or a few more Genestealer Cult members for a 40k Army or a few Kill Teams that I have collected. I will try to tackle as many as I can following the fast-painting techniques! This must be the year in which I manage to eat up the unpainted pile!

Painted in 2019

Space Hulk: Captain

Today is the turn of the Captain. One of the three models without helmet.

The sword and flesh are mostly flat, just base colour and a wash to bring up a few shadows, but nothing more. I really did not have enough time. The cloak is also mostly flat, although a rough highlight is present, it really would require much more work.

In any case, meeting the deadline and ready for battle, here it comes!

Painted in 2019

Space Hulk: Terminators (VI)

Perhaps I should not have named this post as Terminators, although one is there, but it is mostly used as an objective.

In any case, I used the same techniques as for the living ones.

Only two left, the Librarian and the Captain!

Painted in 2019

Space Hulk: Terminators (V)

Today is the turn of the two Heavy Weapons specialists.

One with a Heavy Flamer and the other with an Assault Cannon.

Painted in 2019

Space Hulk: Terminators (IV)

Nothing much to say about these two, save for the fact that the Chainfist was painted using the usual yellow-black stripe that I use for most of my chainsaws in 40k.

Painted in 2019

Space Hulk: Terminators (III)

Today, the two combat specialists. One with Power Hammer and shield and the other with a pair of Lightning Claws.

The shield of the one with Power Hammer was really asking for more time to spend on the details and doing some nice freehands, but I was already reaching the maximum time so I left it as you can see in the picture. With the basic colours done, but nothing extra.

Painted in 2019