High Elf Phoenixes with better flight stands!

Games Workshop's new phoenix models are plenty impressive in their sheer scale and flair. The kits are versatile and easily magnetised for removable riders and even comes with an additional Lord on foot which I was not expecting. 

I had the opportunity to paint two of these models as part of a commission: one as a Flamespyre and the other as Frostheart. The only glaring problem with the kits are the provided ball and socket acrylic flight stands. After painting had been completed it proved difficult to take any decent photos of the final models. In this specific case I could not use glue to permanently fix the ball of the flight stand to the model (the models needed to be shipped to the client) and as we all know GW fixed flight stands are prone to breaking due to their brittle nature. The design of the flight stand, without any sort of permanent fixative, is fundamentally flawed given the weight of the model and the positioning of the socket, this is without even adding on top the rider at the head.

So, I was not happy to complete the commission without providing a suitable solution. And so this is where Corsec Engineering came into play as they produce a wide range of robust and versatile flight stand solutions for a variety of game systems; I first discovered this awesome company for Dystopian Wars for their big heavy flying machines. 

For the phoenixes I used the Omni-Stand Rods, with small mounts in the existing flight base with a moutning peg in the actual body of the birds. (You can choose from many different fittings depending on your needs.) The rods are screwed into these pegs making it easy to put together and dismantle for transit and storage purposes, while still providing a solid and secure gaming piece.

You can probably fix the pegs numerous different ways, but my method for the attaching the regular peg to the body of bird simply involved using a 3mm drill bit to drill through the exisiting socket allowing the peg to fit inside the tail of the bird and securing it with superglue and greenstuff. For the base, to avoid drilling, I used a small mount (no peg) that simple sat in the indent of the hole and glued it and greenstuffed it in and added a bit of texture to the surface. 

And without further ado, here are some photos of them all completed with their new stands. :)

Loremaster of Hoeth

Just a quick post from me to showcase the latest Loremaster I have painted and to let you know he is now available on eBay - auction style! :)

I went with the traditional blue and grey/white colours, but decided to go with purple gems this time around... you know just to spice it up a little! I also spent a good deal of time on his cape, smooth blending up to highlights and not to mention his nice little decorative gold stitching.

His globe thingy, which I like to refer to as his magic squidy is a mix of blue and purple swirls with an iridescent glaze to give it a more magic feel.

I'm also pretty proud of his face, especially his eyeballs - managed to get a eyeliner effect to go with his icy stare.

Anyhoo I hope you all like him!

Dust Tactics - Commission

Time for Dust Tactics! Another great opportunity to get my paws on a host of new and interesting models. I am certainly partial to anything WWII related so it was cool to get a look at these models first hand.

I will say that despite the medium consistency of the plastic used on the infantry (and a few slightly flaccid weapons) the detail on them is pretty good. The plastic for the vehicles, by comparison, is solid.

The goal for this paint scheme was leaning towards more historically accurate colours and weathered realism. For the axis uniforms and weapons I incorporated a number of Vallejo's German specific paints I had, namely German Fieldgrey WWII, and German Camo Dark Green. The Foundry palette Drab was used for the Allied uniforms. The Axis vehicles were base coated Vallejo Black Grey, with Foundry Phlegm Green Shade for the allies. These were weathered up in many stages with a combination of dry-brushing and inks.

The basing for all the models involves Vallejo Dark Earth Paste and a little ink plus water effect applied. The final touches were squad markings for the Allied troops and all the markings for the vehicles which are from the official Dust transfer sheets (available from Dust Game - super quick delivery from the US! Or alternatively if you were just after the stars and crosses, and none of the vehicle designation or extras, you could use the Bolt Action decals available from Warlord Games).

Plenty of impressive models are still being released for Dust Tactics/Warfare following its switch from Fantasy Flight to Battlefront/Gale Force 9. It will be interesting to see where they take things. We shall also see if I get the chance to paint any further Dust stuff. If I do, you will be sure to see it here!

The Walkers: Axis

Ludwig

Luther

Hans

The Walkers: Allies

Pounder

Hot Dog

Steel Rain

Black Hawk

Wild Fire

Troops: Axis

Troops: Allies

40k Chaos Characters - commission

Following an inexcusable delay (we've been insanely busy!) it's time for some regular posts. Starting with a quick short post about a recently completed commission of two 40K Chaos characters.

Khârn and Typhus were painted to a High-Gaming standard on landscaped bases. Typhus also features Dark Angel remains at the clients request. 

Though I still consider "Finecast" to be a nightmare to work with, these two models were enjoyable to paint. Perhaps because of their bulk - they were certainly less fragile than the High Elf models Emma worked on and highlighted in the previous post. The rocks used for the bases lend weight and stability to the models which otherwise would be uncomfortably light for gaming.

Khârn the Betrayer

Typhus 

The Dark Vengeance Chaos forces are currently prepped and on my desk as a follow up to this commission, and should be featured soon. :)

Trulytrulytruly Outrageous GEMS! (New High Elf Characters)

Don't worry you haven't click on the wrong link or stumbled onto a Jem and the Holograms fansite (the High Elf post is below) this was just my theme song for most of the time I was painting these models. XD

Anyhoo... *cough*

Finally, here's the post on the three recently completed High Elf characters.

I was really looking forward to painting the two female models, Handmaiden of the Everqueen and  Alarielle the Radiant, but and it's a pretty big but... they're GW's Finecast. BIG SIGH! Now, I'm no expert and granted have only recently started painting properly alongside Jay but even I had heard of the horror stories about this material and have to agree that "Finecast" is big pile of crap... and I never want to touch it AGAIN!

I got Jay to do all the prep work on these brittle fragile models, and he did his normal thang but, of course, it took at least double the amount of time than a "normal" model to get them into a workable state.

Once I got started I quickly realised these were going to take a long long time to get done to good standard, as for whatever reason it took a gazmilion layers to get a good base layer on them, and yes they were properly sprayed with a base coat. :P

The other thing that I was very wary of , especially with Alarielle who is standing on her tippy toes with only a couple millimeters of failcast material connecting her to her base, was SNAPPING HER LIKE A TWIG! Thankfully, I was gently and she survived the many hours of handling. :)


The Handmaiden is a lot more sturdier and looks awesome, but I really wish they'd made her in plastic like the Loremaster. Mr Hoeth was a dream to paint, so much so I'm currently working on another one!

As you can see from the photos I even took the plunge and managed to paint a couple of fine decorative lines on their cloaks - once they were complete it was like I had progressed to a new level and unlocked a special Miniature Painter's Achievement.


Yay for steady hands!

...there should also be an achievement for painting gems! Seriously how many do they need?! Mind, at least they're not skulls lol!







The birds will be up in the next post, but we're waiting on some new flight stands for them all since, well, the weird plastic stands that GW provide quite frankly suck and will only hold the weight of the birds once they're glued. Which is a little bit of a problem for storage and not to mention sending this commission through the post. But not to worry the new fancy flight mechanism will solve all these problems! :)

New High Elves - Sisters of Avelorn

With a great new client on board who wanted to add to his existing High Elf army this commission provided us a great opportunity to see and paint all the cool new high elf models recently released.

First up is the Sister of Avelorn - x20 (2 boxes).

High elves have always had a good looking aesthetic with lots of flowing robes, ornate armour and gems out the wazoo and these latest models are of course no exception.

Before seeing the components, I had envisioned a magnetising trick for this expensive duel unit box set: my master-plan was to magnetise the sister and shadow warrior torsos to the same legs, which would have been awesome allowing the buyer to duel purpose the models from the box. Alas my plan was thwarted as unfortunately the models share the same components with regards to the cloak and the attached rear half of their torsos. -.-

A definite word of warning, since these models were not originally intended to rank up initially, they are a tricky puzzle to get them all in line. I suggest attaching them to their bases only when the models are fully constructed to ensure you can position them on their bases in conjuction with and without any interference from the neighbouring models.

Anyway on with the painting. The client wanted the traditional scheme for the Sisters and also went for the standard painting option we offer and so we stuck with the dark greens and browns with a golden colour (Foundry Ochre iirc) for the hair as our base colours.

The Foundry Forest Green shade on the inside of the cloaks, I think, helps frame and contrast the body of the model. I also got Emma to do some of her crazy detail work on their eyeballs, so they don't look so manly. We probably should've also added a bit of lipstick too to help with that lol! (When will GW learn that female figures are more than just hair and shaped boobs? The face is what counts! And unfortunately these have very angular faces, which granted is the look of High Elves, but come off as being too extreme and ultimately male imho.)

All in all, a nice set of models - the quality of the plastic is good and theres a lot of detail you can pick out plus with them being plastic they are relatively easy to put together however problems do arise when it comes to ranking. Lastly they are expensive for what you get. If GW had any sense, they would sell extra leg bits so people can use up all the leftover components to get the most out of this product...

For the movement trays we used the Mag-Flex range from Back2Base. This range gives you everything you need for a magnetised base - the magnets for the bases, the self-adhesive magnetic plastic strip, and the mdf pieces that make up the bulk of the movement tray. They are very easy to put together, a reasonable price and come out looking great.

In our next post Emma will be featuring the character models she did as part of this commission.

Sisters of Avelorn - set 1

Sisters of Avelorn - set 2

Latest wave of Zombies

We've been painting and blogging a lot about boardgame related miniatures lately, and we will be getting back to normal soon - a High Elf commission will be featuring once it's completed - but for now a quick, picture heavy, update on the latest exclusive Zombicide models from Season 1 that recently arrived.

And OMG Season 2 is just around the corner! O.o

From set #1 Survivors and Zombivors

 Kickstarter optionals:

A client of ours also made a video of the Zombicide models we painted up for him, he also posts gameplay videos too - check his channel out Lycan oftheunderworld:

Back to painting I go! Till next time. :)