Hrm ...

Hi folks,

I think 2019 was the year when my interest in updating my blog reached a low point.

It won't be closed, but it won't be updated in the foreseeable future. A combination of real life getting in the way, and not feeling the same pleasure in writing long-format updates as in previous years. Painting is very much my stress relief, and my mental pressure valve - and the blog's felt like a chore rather than a pleasure to update. So time to put it on hiatus.

As for me, I'm still painting, and still active. You can find my work on Twitter (https://twitter.com/nerodine) or Instgram (https://www.instagram.com/nerodine/), if you'd like to keep an eye on what I'm working on.

Take care of yourselves.

Dave

Frozenfang

Phew. So much to cover.

Firstly, I think the mojo is returning. This was an enormous amount of fun to paint and really fired my brain to get the brushes going on a regular basis again. Firstly, I think we can agree it's a futuristic warrior with a viking feel, but obviously not a Space Wolf - as that would be an IP infringement.

This is also my first proper competition piece. I'm not talking about putting something in my local GW window to try and improve the number of entries, but an honest to goodness painting competition - Scale Model Challenge, or simply SMC as it's better known. I left it late to stop dawdling and pick a modelto paint, but the power of fear and a looming deadline appears to have inspired me to get my act together.

I picked up a highly commended in the Fantasy standard category for this piece.Which is more than I expected, and a cherry on top of a brilliant weekend at SMC.

I tried to use a little blue in most of the colour choices to convey the sense of cold. The only item that isn't done that way is the wolf pelt, which is a little warmer grey than other parts of the model.

The sculpt from Joaquin Palacio is just gorgeous. Honestly. Painting this was joyful.  The only frustration I had was the fragility of his extra-long braids and top knot. "Where?" you ask, well they're on my workbench because the top knot snapped off and I couldn't get the braids to fit well - so worked around their absence. Hopefully that isn't noticable.

There are lots of areas where I can improve and, from talking with other painters, I already know what to do better/differently on the next piece. So back to the workbench!

Bad Squiddo: War Peegs

This must be the smallest set of figures I've painted outside of Epic scale marines. To give a better idea of scale, here's a WIP shot of the peegs alongside a Lego lady.

 

 Despite the size, these were surprisingly fun to paint.

I backed these a couple of years ago when Bad Squiddo were starting Kickstarters, and wasn't disappointed with the quality of sculpt or casts. Who doesn't want a guinea pig with dynamite ...

Or tubes of poison ...

 Or a subtly rear mounted cannon ...

Or even an armoured captain with an eyepatch.

Very silly. Ridiculous idea. Lots of fun.

Meridian: Black Crab priests

My painting's taken a hit of late, in terms of my mojo running out at the same time I finished up my job. This is my "reboot" to reinvigorate my interest. Moreso with SMC next month and my current plan is to paint something to compete there. Argh!

Three creepy grimdark priests sculpted by Meridian Miniatures based on drawings by Black Crab Art. It was originally a Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2004599158/black-crab-miniatures) but I missed that - happily Andrew@Meridian still had stock afterwards and dispatched them promptly.

The resin casts are lovely, with minimal cleanup required. Highly recommended.

Total time is only around four or five hours for the lot, but getting my head back into painting made it a worthwhile endeavour - even if I haven't truly done the sculpts justice.

Tabletop World: Stone Bridge

Disclaimer. There is no easy way to photograph this model in my current setup. It really is the centrepiece of a board, which ... doesn't fit so well into a lightbox.

I have so many more ideas for this piece. Long-term it'll be put onto a board and I'll build out a shallow riverbed. But for the moment it's finished and I'm very pleased with the results.

Tabletop World: Merchant's House

I love these sculpts. It's also enormously pleasing to see them finished up.

Tabletop World: Town House (again)

Oh July. What a tricky month you were.

I've had a hankering to complete some fantasy scenery that's sat primed but unloved on the shelf, and before painting it up, I updated the colour scheme of an old friend first. There's a lot more depth and colour itnerest to the roof now, which is a critical element of the piece due to the sheer volume of the model it represents.

The windows were also repainted to better reflect inner light shining out. It's also a lot closer to the original colour scheme in Warcraft. Addition of a little leaf debris around the base helps to lift everything too, and then we're done.

Roman Lappat Beginner Course

Two and a half days in a sweaty scout hut with 29 other painters doesn't sound like a brilliant way to spend a weekend, but it was. Under the watchful eye of Zen master Roman Lappat (https://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com) on his Beginner's Course, I came away with a better understanding of scene composition, application of my colour theory knowledge.

If you attend the course, you paint a demonette of Slaanesh. No ifs, no buts. However it's up to you where you take the figure, and I took mine on a rampage through a military facility. It's a limited palette with, for me, really high contrast and a sneaky dimmed light source giving a little yellow glow back onto the top.

I could wax lyrical about this course, and the people on the course with me, for hours. It may be the best painting experience I've had, and my soul feels all the better for it.

Space Wolves: Primaris Redemptor Dreadnought #2

Fifth and final dreadnought of my little adventure in painting large robots.

This is probably my favourite of the lot. The addition of a wolf standard gives him a little extra height and character. Quite a journey to get all five of these beauties finished up in the last month, alongside everything real life throws at you. Delighted to have them on the table though!

Space Wolves: Primaris Redemptor Dreadnought #1

I love the new Primaris Redemptor dreads and actually started this before all the others posted up. They're significantly larger than the oldschool dreads, with all these enormous flat surfaces. After painting it up in a pretty flat grey scale with dark up to light, I realised more colour was needed to make it visually interesting. So it's here I started playing with glazing reds and then glazing blues over the top of that.

Painting freehand remains a challenge to me, so I used transfers as my "outline" and then painted over the top. Keeping the transfers as they come off the sheet wasn't viable, as my yellows are a little darker than the default. Other areas are my attempted freehand, riffing on the spiky theme present elsewhere on the model.

Adding weathering to guns is enormous fun. It's over-emphasised because on this scale of miniature I felt it needed that. Then after that, it's just a case of keeping the painting neat and tidy on the rear, which has so much pleasing detail.

And there he is! He's big and angry, and all mine. I bloody love dreadnoughts.