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Been busy. Space hulk is time consuming! I stopped painting Brother Valencio for a bit and gave myself a break from red. (I'll need it, only 11 more termies to go) Started painting the librarian. As the only marine in the box not stark red, it gives me oppertunities to try other things) Started first building up layers of flat blues on the armour, before adding any shading or highlites. Then started work on the force axe, working in a blended shine point, trying to give the impression the axe was giving off its own light - which I then began to blend into the armour, reflecting that source. I was careful to try and keep those highlites only where the axe's light would hit them, and the effect has worked pretty well in contrast to the "dark side". I've also done the same thing with a differing technique on the Librarian's face. Highlites as usual, but mixed into the final highlite of bleached bone/elf flesh was a touch of ice blue. I did this a couple of times,...

Started Space Hulk almost as soon as I got the box open. Spent a good day (see previous post,) clipping and shaving all models including the dead terminator, relic and C.A.T. unit. Undercoated all the marines in black and got underway. I decided to make these special. I could just paint them as gaming peices, just enough to get by and an acceptable standard, but owing to the special edition nature of the game I've decided to paint them to a high standard including non metallic metals, and to make a sort of display stand for them too - more details on that as the project goes on. This is Brother Valencio, as I'm sticking to the background specified in the books provided. I've painted the red armour pretty much as I would normally, although I started with a dark flesh mix as shown by Anja in this months 'eavy metal masterclass article in white dwarf. I've gone for the non metal metals, which im pleased with - but they dont show up so well in this pic for whatever reas...

EEEE! I imagine these pictures are gracing blogs all over the place. I can't overstate how excited I have been since GW annouced they were re-releasing Space Hulk. So the "limeted" status of the release might be a little controversial, and the GW hating nerds out there seem to have latched on to this as another reason to disect their multinational business plans from thier bedroom computers instead of getting some sunlight. Anyway. The quality is amazing. The weight of the box alone made me excited, this thing weighs a ton. I've spent the best part of 5 hours clipping and cleaning components from the sprue, and I still have roughly 15 genestealers still on the frames. I can't wait to start painting these guys, especially the termies. These are the nicest space marine models I've seen in ages, and its about time they did some up to date blood angels. More as I paint it!

Fancied starting something new tonight, so I picked up this little gem. Its a half drow female called Shimmer from Hasslefree. I think I picked it up at Kelham hall in 2007 - Shes been in my bits box ever since. I really enjoy the detail on the hasslefree stuff - Sometimes not always as clean as Citadel, hasslefree and heresy always seem to cram more little details in for it. You can clean them up, but they're twice as creative. I find that this is particulary true of their female models. They might have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with sculpting nudity but they're nice models for it. So yeah, anyway - just a practice peice for me, not a competition or comission or anything. Trying out painting bluesteel with the sword, and more shiney gold trinkets instead of the shiny brass I've been doing in NMM until now. Not sure what to do with the face, being hidden it'll be hard to detail it. Maybe try something with shading.

Just thought you might like to see that. I have two gracing my miniature cabinet! This cluttered mass of paint, glue, cut up models and dried green stuff is my "workspace." I thought I'd share it with everyone. I need some background noise when I'm painting, so I often have the computer on playing music, (right,) or the telly (left.) Does anyone else, or is this just me? I've heard of people needing complete silence, but I am more distracted by the lack of noise, wierdly. Above, you can see my daylight lamp. Generously donated by my dear old mum, this lamp has become indispensible in my painting - It also has a magnifying lense, as mum used it for lacemaking, which can be useful. My winning certificates from the weekend there! Going to frame those I think.Got a Forge World Vraks poster there obviously, and some other crap. This is basically my "corner" where I'm allowed to hang posters, pictures or whatever - rest of the house is a diplomatic no fly...

Well, I'm shocked! I entered the painting competition at GW Burton this weekend, as I mentioned in my first post. I've been looking forward to this for a while, I was always fairly hopeful but wow! Both of my entries won the title, 40k single mini for the Comissar and Fantasy single mini for the wharf captain. Furthermore, the Captain won overall best fantasy model too. Not only that, but my wood elves won best fantasy army for the summer of war army painting competition too! If ever I needed a confidence boost, I couldn't have hoped for a better one. I have a couple of tips on how i could improve my peices before GD, and I can turn up at the NEC next month happy with my efforts, I think.

More things I'm currently working on or finished, before I go do some work. Games Day model 2009: Aspiring champion. Like many, I used this model as an oppertunity to follow the wonderful NMM guide in a recent White Dwarf. Probably one of the most useful articles (including the face shading one) I've seen in there in ages. I changed certain parts of the makeup, because I didnt want an identical miniature (not that I could paint it that well anyway,) and..well, it wouldn't be mine would it? It'd be a lesser imitation of Keith's. I went for a white inner cloak, washed with purples and reds, and a blue helmet. Going for a Tzeentch theme. I also decided on a lighter wood for the axe handles, giving me oppertunity to practice wood graining. Not really sure how its going right now, I'm pleased with it but sure I can improve on what I've already done. My wet blending could certainly improve. Overall, I'm using it to test out new methods for me, more high skill,...