Hormagaunts

Last year, I bought a super cheap set of Tyranids at a second-hand shop for 20€. Some of them were in pretty bad shape, but it did not matter too much as I just needed a few to kitbash and the Genestealers for my Genestealer Cult Army.

Later on, I decided to use them for Kill Team so I started to play with them more and enjoyed them quite a bit.

Lately, I have started to play more One Page Rules and I realized that if I would use all the figure I bought back in the day plus a Hive Tyrant I could have easily over 2,000 points so it was settled.

At the same time I needed to paint ultra fast some figures to rest from the effort of painting the ones I have done earlier this year.

As a result, here is the first unit of the army: 10 Hormagaunts. They are basically cannon fodder but if played at the right time they can deliver some damage.

I painted them in about 3 or 4 hours, which is super fast for me. The painting scheme I chose for them is the same I chose for my Genestealer Cult. I used the same necromunda bases.That way, I can mix them easily and have a bigger army by adding a few units of Genestealers or by using some of the Tyranids as allies for my Cult.

Painting schema

For the base I use these colours.

1. Paint the whole base Gunmetal.
2. Paint some pipes and other details with Tinny Tin.
3. Optional add some additional details with other colours like grey or bone.
4. Cover everything with Strong Tone Wash.
5. Highlight with silver and bronze the different areas adding some texture and scratches.
6. Add spots of oxyde with Orange and Turquoise for the bronze areas.
7. Optional add some more washes or pigments to make it even more rusty.

For the body, I use the following.

1. Mix 60/40 of black and magic blue for the body and paint everything including caparace.
2. Dry-brush a mix of 50/50 of black and magic blue for caparace.
3. Very light dry-brush pure magic blue on caparace, optionally adding some splashes of pure magic blue on the borders.
4. Hexed Lichen for the lila parts, which is mostly the "skin".
5. Wash the lila parts with dark tone.
6. Repaint the lila parts with Hexed leaving darker areas for deep shadows.
7. Paint teeth with bone.
8. Paint tongue with squid pink and optional add some highlights mixing pink and lila to the skin.
9. Paint eyes with orange.
10. Paint all claws in black.
11. Edge highlight claws with wolf grey.

Painted in 2022

Dreadwarden

Back in 2020 I painted the Chainrasps, I forgot to include a Dreadwarden and I could not field them for Warcry.

With this speed paint job in roughly 1h 30min it is now solved.

Painted exactly using the same techniques described here.

Painted in 2022 

Perturabo

I originally started this blog to showcase my collection of Primarchs, although it has grown into a full-blown hobby blog.

The last Primarch I painted for my collection was way back in 2015, when I shared Konrad Curze, primarch of the Night Lords. I am not counting the second Angron I painted in 2020 for a friend.

Well, finally, the wait is over, and today I am happy to share the next one: Perturabo, primarch of the Iron Warriors!

I have had him for quite a few years, but never got the time to paint him as I was busy going over my pile of shame.

I chose to paint him in the same way I have painted other primarchs, NMM for the primarch itself and TMM for base and other marines.

The base of Perturabo is quite imposing as it shows a destroyed Knight. I painted this one with lots of drybrush, washes and stippling to achieve this faded, destroyed look.

Perturabo is the first primarch I have painted using a wet palette to take advantage of easier wet blending, which lets me do better NMM and glazing. Still, in my case, this means a poor attempt at NMM where I think I have managed to achieve what I wanted to do in like one or two places, everything else is just wrong :) Additionally I have tried OSL on the face using an orange fluor paint and also failed at that. Just means that I need to keep on practicing...

I hope you like him as much as I had fun painting him!

Next I will do some batch speed painting to take it easy...

Painted in 2022

Eddie

For today I have something special. A limited edition of Eddie from Iron Maiden, used in the cover of the Somewhere in Time album. It was sculpted by Diego Serrate and as far as I know it was a one-off and no longer available.

I think this was released as a way to get extra funds to start printing some miniatures, but I forgot the original reason. I anyway decided to support Diego as he sculpts and provides always excellent service and miniatures. I bought and painted his first Kickstarter, the Pantheon of Chaos, a while back. At the same time painting a figure for one of my favourite bands was something I could not pass on!

The miniature is quite small, see the pictures below for a comparison with a 2-cent coin. Some of the details are roughly sculpted although there were no mold lines or other errors that needed to be fixed with green stuff.

I decided to paint it following the same colours as in the picture shown above. Again, I wanted to maximize contrast to achieve a striking effect. So, I settled on using NMM for the metals and a high contrast between dark/light muscles for the exposed skin. The whole miniature was painted in roughly 2 hours which is a very good time for me.

For the base, I chose the same style as for my Walking Dead miniatures, adding a few leaves, a newspaper and an empty beer bottle. I might end up using it to fight off zombie hordes.

This is just the third miniature painted this year, I really need to pick up my pace if I am to achieve my year-end goals!

Painted in 2022

Goku

Back in 2016, at the Hispania Wargames, with each ticket they were giving out a limited edition Son Goku sculpted by RN Estudio. I did not go there, but DarthBLU managed to get a couple of them and gifted one to me.

The miniature is based on the following famous image of Goku reaching Super Saiyan in Namek after Frieza having killed Krillin.

DarthBLU painted his in 2020, and challenged me to paint mine back. It took me a couple of years but I finally sat down to it!

I was very inspired by his version as I think he captured quite well both the colours and the landscape from Namek, so I tried to use the same ones on mine.

The miniature is brilliant, although quite tiny (you can see a picture below next to a 2-cent coin). I did not need to fill up any problem with green stuff or to remove any extra resin leftover, like with Citadel Finecast, it was simply put, perfectly printed. You cannot buy this miniature anymore, as far as I know, which is a pity, because I'd love to have more of them!

I had only two things in my head when painting him: light & contrast!

I wanted to use very bright colours to make sure the miniature would not be as bland or matt as my miniatures usually look like. So I chose very bright blues, bright reds and pale yellows. At the same time, I knew that the key to make the miniature look great is having the right contrast level achieved, so I tried to go to maximum lights in all areas that I could think of, with a zenital approach.

I am quite satisfied with the end result. I could have done a smoother transition on the skin, but I am still fine with it. Unfortunately, my skills as painter are better as my skills as photographer so the pictures are not really good, they show much more abrupt transitions than what one would see when holding the miniature in hand.

Lastly I ask DarthBLU to apply the energy aura for a very cool looking last picture.

Painted in 2022

Valten - Exalted of Sigmar

Finally I am happy to post the first miniature painted in 2022!

I have not been painting much lately, and when I did, progress was extremely slow. I really do not know why, but the mojo was not flowing as it used to.

Only lately I have been inclined to paint again, so I am hoping I will get a nice streak the next few months.

This miniature was released in 2003 so it can already be considered oldhammer I think, although for me it will always be "quite new". This one is the old metal version and not the slightly new Finecast model, it is out of print for a while and I believe it is still quite sought after.

It has been sitting on my pile of shame for years, but not since 2003, I believe I got him somewhere around 2016 or so.

For this miniature I wanted to push my limits and spend as much time as I felt I needed for each component. That is why I chose NMM and not TMM for the metals, since I know using NMM is way out of my comfort zone and the only way to get better at it is practice.

I have spent countless hours watching videos on how to paint, streaming sessions and reading tutorials and one thing became clear about my own technique, aside from the fact that I am not a very good painter: I do not have enough contrast on my miniatures. As a result, they usually end up looking quite bland and are rarely an eye-catcher. Therefore, I decided to go for more contrast, use zenital lighting, and in general paint with lighter, brighter colours.

In the end I am quite happy with the result, it really stands out next to my other Fantasy Characters which are way darker. Still, the transitions are not as smooth as they should be, the NMM is poorly executed and I chose wrong colours for the red/brown leather. I am quite happy on the other hand with the work on the horse's skin and eyes, which is something I usually do not enjoy much.

Here are the final pictures, which vary wildly in quality, as I am a very poor photographer. A few with black and a few with white backdrop, as it really changes the colours of the miniature.

Painted in 2022

Proyectos para 2022

Revisión anual

Este ha sido un año muy flojo en cuanto a hobby. Creo que ese es el mejor resumen que puedo dar.

Si miramos el número de posts en el blog se puede comprobar que en 2021 hay la mitad o menos de posts (24) que en los años 2018-2020 (entre 50 y 60 cada año).

Eso se traduce automáticamente en una drástica reducción en la cantidad de miniaturas pintadas y en el tiempo dedicado al hobby, tanto en pintar, como en jugar, leer libros, atender a eventos, etc... esto se debe a una mezcla de factores como aumento de carga en la vida familiar, laboral y por supuesto la pandemia que aun sigue coleando (y lo que te rondaré).

En realidad no es el único motivo. En el post de Junio pensaba que me daría tiempo a alcanzar todas las metas, pero de Agosto a Noviembre he estado muy ocupado preparando el lanzamiento de la LABB. Ahora mismo, aunque no está totalmente terminada, está ya en marcha y la carga de trabajo se ha reducido considerablemente, por lo que puedo dedicarme de nuevo en mis ratos de ocio a pintar.

Si repasamos los objetivos del año pasado, podemos ver que dije lo siguiente:

Gracias al buen impulso de estos años, en estos momentos me encuentro muy muy cerca de conseguir el objetivo que me marqué allá por el 2018 de reducir a cero* (<10) miniaturas la montaña gris.

Como no puede ser de otra forma, el objetivo de este año será terminar con la montaña (ver mas abajo la lista completa).

Es decir, el objetivo era reducir a menos de 10 las miniaturas que tengo pendientes de pintar. Por lo tanto puedo decir que he cumplido los objetivos por la mínima, ya que tengo ahora mismo nueve miniaturas pendientes de pintar. 😅

Objetivos 2022

¿Qué objetivos me marco para 2022?

1. Pintar las nueve miniaturas que tengo pendientes 🖌
2. encontrar tiempo para jugar. 🎲

Quiero apuntarme a una liga de Blood Bowl y participar en algún evento en el que pueda usar alguno de mis ejércitos de 40K o Fantasy. Bien sea usando reglas OPR o bien sea usando otras. Al participar mas activamente en el club de Berlín creo que acabaré encontrando el tiempo y los contrincantes. De hecho he participado en dos eventos a finales de año a través del club. Me planteo incluso jugar/organizar un torneo de DBA.

Quiero evitar quemarme ante todo y centrarme en divertirme y disfrutar o bien jugando o bien pintando. Lo poco que me queda por pintar son todo miniaturas a las que quiero dedicar tiempo y cariño, salvo un par que son cosas sueltas, no quiero sentir la presión de tener que pintar rápido para acabarlo cuanto antes.

Montaña de pintado

¿Cual es la evolución de lo pintado vs lo acumulado?

Llevo un par de años comprando o bien nada o lo mínimo, y este año no ha sido una excepción. No he comprado absolutamente nada, sólo hay dos miniaturas añadidas a la montaña, y ha sido porque me las han regalado.

Se puede ver que este año 2021 he pintado mucho menos que otros años, pero aun así la montaña ha caído espectacularmente hasta ser casi cero, que era el objetivo original marcado en 2018.

Lista pendiente de pintado

Colección Héroes y Villanos Señor de los Anillos (2)

• Balrog
• Nazgul en bestia alada

30K (2)

• Perturabo
• Legion Falchion Super Heavy Tank ** lo cuento como una miniatura

Miniaturas Sueltas (3)

• Goku
• Eddie de Diego Serrate
• Sumothay en 54mm

Colección Héroes y Villanos de Fantasy (1)

• Exalted Valten

Nighthaunt (1)

• Dreadwarden

Posibles futuros proyectos

Además de pintar estas nueve miniaturas, tengo varias ideas en mente y me encantaría tener tiempo para poner hacer alguna de ellas:

• añadir personalidad a las minis de The Walking Dead, compré hojas, botellas y otros pequeños elementos de resina para poner en las peanas pero nunca tuve tiempo de hacerlo.
• comprar (y pintar) algún Primarca mas (que era el objetivo original de este blog)
• hacerme con alguno de los nuevos Praetors para los Hijos de Horus
• pintar cada uno de los (nuevos) Grandes Demonios del Caos
• hacerme con un aerógrafo y pintar la escenografía que tengo
• revisar mi ejército de Khorne y rebasear una unidad de Desangradores que mi hermano compró para usar con ese ejército pero que nunca fue adaptada. Seguramente cambiar el maletín que uso para almacenar porque la solución actual era temporal (y lleva siendo usada mas de 10 años).
• revisar mi ejército de Caballeros Grises y adaptarlo a las reglas actuales, seguramente para OPR (requiere rebasear todos los marines, además están en peanas con césped y tierra y les quedaría mejor alguna pintura técnica texturizada).
• pintar el Kill Team tiránido que tengo con el mismo esquema que el Culto Genestealer asi puedo jugar Tiránidos y Genestealer
• pintar un busto a gran escala