Every Archon Needs Their Comforts

There's an artist - JetBlackRaider - who does wonderful Dark Eldar art, focussing primarily on the character Archon Malyss, and I have been inspired by her work an awful lot. 

Art by JetBlackRaider

 That said, I picked up the minis that I've been working on over the last couple of days a long time before I ever came across her artwork, so I think it's quite cool that a lot of how she envisages the Dark Eldar gels very nicely with how I do too. Anyway, here's some more Pain Tokens, in this instance being represented by servants for the Archon:

I think these are Wargames Foundry miniatures but might be from somewhere else. A terrible photo regardless

A better photo

There's one last pain token to go, which is made up of a few bits of fantasy skeleton and a Dire Avenger icon (I think). Then I'll get back to work on those Cawdor miniatures, surely.

Painting Points:
Today: 2
This Week: 12
2024: 242 (393)

Oh yes - and, of course: HAPPY NEW YEAR! May your 2025 be fruitful and pleasant!

Power From Pain

I got sidetracked. The Cawdor miniatures remain in the state they were in yesterday. Instead, I picked up my Dark Eldar Pain Tokens, which are now five editions out of date and not used in the edition I mostly aim to play (4th); however I do own the 5th Edition Dark Eldar codex and enough bits and units to field either a 4th Edition army or a 5th Edition one. And I do like the 5th Edition things, like the Archon's Court and the Venom, so who knows, maybe I'll play some 5th Edition some day. Anyway, some of them were already painted and just needed rebasing, but others needed finishing in their entirety:

Some of these are Ral Partha, some are Games Workshop, some are random bits, some are (I think) Wargames Foundry Roman servant-women

As is traditional, after I took the photos I noticed some bits that need touching up...

Pain Tokens were put next to units that had done certain things, like killed a unit or taken a certain amount of casualties, and the more tokens that unit had, the more cool things it could do. I took the opportunity to use some random figures I had kicking around, and they'll make interesting additions to the Dark Eldar army when it's eventually tackled.

One last day in the year, and I wonder what - if anything - I'll get done.

Painting Points: 
Today: 10
This Week: 10
2024: 240 (391)

The Sheen Of Feathers

Yesterday I talked about how I just had the Cawdor Headsman and Stig-Shambler to do, and then I mentioned the Sheen Birds too. Well, today I painted the Sheen Birds and made a start on the Headsman and Stig-Shambler, so I'm quite chuffed with that. A couple of days' left in the year and I might even get the people done as well as the cybernetic bird-zombies!

I really like these dark reflections of wildlife and what they say about the Imperium

The Cawdor gangers see them as sent from the Emperor as manifestations of His will, so I named them appropriately

And with the Sheen Birds done my pile of mini-critters has, for the moment, run out. I have some giant spiders somewhere though...

I'm very glad I wrote down how I painted my Cawdor gangers though. 

Painting Points:
Today: 3
This Week: 31
2024: 230 (381)

Rats With Hats

If you can call candles hats, that is.

I spent today's painting time finishing off all the various rats and bits and pieces that were on my painting tray - most notably the explosives objective marker and a toolbox that I found lying around which was a nice quick paintjob:

Bomb rats! My favourite is the one presenting the petrol bomb with the pin in its mouth

I didn't bother naming them because I figured the Cawdor gangers probably wouldn't either

Generic giant rats painted to look like old pet rats P and I used to have

And their names!

These both painted up very quickly and will make a nice objective marker and bit of scatter terrain

The toolbox is red because my Dad has one just like that which is red

And that was it for today! I'm probably going to make a start on the Cawdor Headsman and Stig-Shambler next, which, once done, will mean I only need to do the Sheen Birds and then all the House Cawdor stuff I have will be complete.

Painting Points:
Today: 10
This Week: 28
2024: 227 (378)

More Small Creatures...

...and one's blue!

A while ago I went looking for all the various Escher miniatures I had so that I could work out what I could put into my gang for the campaign I played in a while back. Whilst doing that, I realised I couldn't find the Caryatid I knew I had - and eventually decided it must have fallen on the floor and vanished at some point. Then, yesterday, when I began a mad plan to catalogue all of my Pile of Opportunity (more on this in another post) I found the Caryatid!

They're so grumpy!

Drybrushing really helped the sculpted details become visible

This was a super quick paint job, mostly a wash and drybrushing with some painted details like the bangles, collar, feathers and hair. But now there's a Caryatid that may or may not see the table at some point. 

In addition to Li'l Blue, I did some work on my Cawdor Bomb Rats:

They're cute, they're silly, they'll blow you up

 These critters are very much being painted as Generic Rats because, well, they are. I've also started to paint up the Genestealer Cult Saboteur's bomb marker, which will probably end up being a generic objective marker in Necromunda games. The three Giant Rats at the back are going to be painted like more of my old pet rats, although which ones I haven't yet decided.

Still, a pretty successful day of painting, and sets me up nicely to get the Bomb Rats all done tomorrow.

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 18
2024: 217 (368)

Some Small Creatures

Nothing particularly major today, but I did take the time to immortalise some pets in miniature form:

Kiki and Binx (the cats that currently live with my partner P and I):

Kiki (l) is from Bad Squiddo Games and Binx (r) is from Troublemaker Games

The poses quite nicely reflect their personalities, although both are very cuddly in reality

Cookie, Mushi and Nimh (the first three rats we ever had):

Cookie was the most keen to explore and escape which is why she is the mutant with six legs - to get around faster!

Nimh actually had darker ears, so after this photo was taken I gave them a black wash

The cats are based for my 40K stuff, and can be familiars or even objective markers, while the rats are absolutely destined for Necromunda.

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 17
2024: 216 (367) - I have now done more than one PP per day for the whole year and it's not even over yet!

The Lex Never Rests

Merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, cheerful holidays and generally have a good day to all! And, for the particularly 40K-brained among you, lo Sanguinalia!

I have had a very pleasant morning and early afternoon, with presents, good company, and a nice walk, plus I managed to finish the Arbites. They've got quite a basic paintjob really, all things considered, but they're done and I like them and that's what matters. I ended up not bothering with transfers because not only could I not find my decal sheet for them, but it turns out that all the decals are white, which wouldn't look very good on the yellow pauldron anyway. 

But here they are:

Arbites with riot shotguns and grenade launcher, led by a Proctor, and including a cyber-mastiff and nuncio-Aquila to fly around broadcasting messages like REMAIN IN PLACE and THIS IS A SANCTIONED ACTION, that sort of thing

There may not be a Judge Dredd but there is a Proctor Bleak

Arbites riot control squad with suppression shields and shock mauls, led by an Under-Proctor

Again with the amusing names. Arbite Dire is good, but Arbite Crool was absolutely a stretch

They add a bit of serious aggression and fear to the House Helmawr Hive Primary Enforcers and can be attached to my 40K Inquisition forces in a pinch despite the decidedly non-sandy bases. I'm definitely going to get at least another box, to bulk up Under-Proctor Vex's squad to ten and add a squad of bolter-armed Arbites for when the riot really needs putting down. Eventually I'll probably 3d-print some Repressor parts and mount them all in Repressors.

Painting Points:
Today: 12
This Week: 12
2024: 211 (362)

Christmas Eve - So Close To Completion!

Well, I nearly managed to get the Arbites done today. I just have some decals, the bases, and the names to go:

I opted, in the end, to slap some dark blue highlights on their cloth uniforms and leave all the armour the flat black (except on the cyber mastiff, which got a coat of gloss). That provides enough of a distinction between the materials and is easier to paint, too.

The decals will be something from the Arbites decal sheet on their right shoulder pauldron, either a number or the Arbites emblem. Whatever I think is going to look coolest, honestly.

In other news, I got an early Christmas present today:

This boosts my Clan Jade Falcon force up to, essentially, a very small Cluster of two Binaries. Or it will do once I get hold of the Mercenaries Kickstarter (and the Alpha Strike box will add more Clan mechs too). Essentially I now have a Star each of light, medium, heavy and assault 'mechs. That said, I'm not entirely sure that Dire Wolf will be getting a Falcon Guards paint job, because...

On the left, the Iron Wind Metals Dire Wolf, on the right, the new Catalyst Game Labs version

 The game that got me into the Battletech universe was Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries, and in that I almost always ended up piloting a Daishi (Dire Wolf) with three clan LBX-AC-20s and an LRM system. As your call sign in that game is Spectre, I named the Dire Wolf Death and gave it a white paintjob. That mini on the left in the picture is the version I painted up when I was at university, probably some time around 2005-6. The dragonfly on the left leg is a copy of one of my then best friend's tattoos. So there's some temptation to create a new, modern version of Spectre's ride, Death. On the other hand, maybe I'll give in and paint it in the three-tone camouflage of the Falcon Guards, and put it into the Assault Star... who knows.

Tomorrow is Christmas, so I may or may not get time to do the finishing touches to the Arbites. Depends how much of a food coma Christmas dinner leaves me in, really!

Stomm, Drokk, And Other Such Words

Work continues on the Arbites. I've done their gold elements, based and washed the metals, finished the webbing, boots and gloves, and highlighted the red bits. There's still a fair few things to do, but the biggest task left is going to be painting over all the green, gold, red and metallic bits on the black areas! Then it'll be a case of applying some highlights, differentiating their black armoured sections from their black cloth sections, skin, and basing. So not too far to go. I might even be able to get them done tomorrow (maybe).

The robo-dog (ok, cyber-mastiff) in the bottom left is mostly done I think, I just need to work out how to paint the bits of dog that aren't cybernetic or armoured. I might just go for a sand and black colour like a German Shepherd, although it looks more like it's meant to be a Rottweiler. The floating megaphone-drone is also basically done - just a few details and then the ruined building part, which I'm probably going to paint in much the same way as the rest of the base I think.

Which means that (as they say): Grud! They're nearly ready to dispense JUSTICE!

We Are The Lex

I have done a bit of work on the Arbites, drybrushing the boots and gloves and painting the webbing, both in preparation for some washes - Biel-Tan Green on the boots and gloves, and Athonian Camoshade on the webbing. The different colours will give a reasonable facsimile of different material types, and, of course, are thoroughly based on...

 

 

...Judges from 2000AD, of course! After all, the Arbites are in and of themselves essentially just a straight steal of the Judge aesthetic in the first place, so why not?

No IP infringement here no sirree

I also did a bit of work on the giant rats, touching up the undercoat with a coat of black and then blocking in the tails, paws, ears and noses, all in preparation for painting them up like some of the pet rats my partner P and I have had in the past.

Tomorrow is the dreaded Christmas Food Shop, so if I survive that I'll unwind with some more painting and see how much I can get done on the Arbites - who knows, if I get the chance I might get them done before Christmas Day!

Some Thoughts

The end of the year is rapidly approaching, and I'm sitting contemplating what I've managed to achieve hobby wise in 2024. I've undoubtedly painted the most minis in a single year that I've ever done, sitting at 350 Painting Points as of time of writing and not that far off getting to 368 before New Years, which would be more than one Painting Point per day! I also managed to get in a lot more wargames, partly as a result of going to the local club for a few weeks - this has lapsed due to life reasons but I do want to reattend more regularly next year - and also because I got to play some Kill Team and Battletech with my good friends C, D, and H. And, of course, I met S in Warhammer World for some games as well.

I've also picked up some new games, like This Quar's War and Lo! Thy Dread Empire and have my eyes on some solo stuff like Five Parsecs From Home and, once my Battletech Kickstarter eventually arrives, Alpha Strike: Aces solo Battletech. And there's the Trench Crusade bug too. But above it all this year has been a very Games Workshop-y one, from the Tomb Kings that I cranked out at a rate of knots in the first few weeks of 2024 to the Adeptus Arbites and metal giant rats sat on my workstation right now.

That's unlikely to change really; the bulk of my pile of opportunity is made up of GW stuff - 40K, Warhammer, and Specialist Games like Mordheim, Necromunda, and Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower. Things of that nature. So what's the general idea for 2025 then? 

In large part I suspect it'll be "whatever takes my fancy". I have lots of stuff waiting to be painted, some of it having languished for a long time, and some of it brand new (or even yet to arrive). That said, I would love to finish the High Elf force I've been on-and-off working on for nearly a decade. I want to try and get the Quar Royalists sorted. I'd really like to make a dent in my Dark Eldar, too. But then there's my Space Wolves, and the Imperial Guard, and my Argent Shroud Sisters of Battle, and...

It is, after all, a pile of opportunity. So let's see what 2025 brings - and in the waning days of 2024, I'll see how close to 365 Painting Points I can get!

Lest I forget, I also have a bunch of Blood Bowl teams to do...

The Last Raptor

(Maybe.)

I've done it - every Primaris Marine I own that sensibly fits into the Raptor army is finished. Technically I have a random Sergeant and a single Scout on sprue, but neither of them make sense in the context of the army, so they can go somewhere else eventually. 

5th Company standard, with honour marks and campaign shields.

Ancient rank badge

Chapter badge

I'm proud of the banner in particular!

Next up will be some Necromunda Giant Rats, because they're nice and quick, and then I'll do some work on the Arbites as planned.

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 8
2024: 199 (350)

Flying The Flag

I have a spare Primaris Ancient that I have decided to paint up as a Raptor and add to the army (which is, incidentally, for sale: if you'd like to buy 2,000+ points of Space Marines for £500 - a nearly £200 discount from the RRP - leave a comment). And once she's done, I'm going to finish off the Arbites that I picked up earlier this year, I think.

I'm going to try to finish the Ancient tomorrow, but it might drag a bit. I've done half of the tedious bit of the camouflage to be fair!

Praise Be To The Burny Fellows

I finally, finally finished them. They took days longer than I expected, and they're done. Hurrah! 

A bad photo sadly but they look great all finished up

Slightly better photo showing how lovely the fire motif looks on both red and yellow

The whole lot is a gang in and of itself, but can also be mixed into my Unworthy Servants Cawdor gang as well if I fancied it. I am particularly pleased with the way the robes ended up and how the burning hats ended up through a mix of contrast, washes, and paint.

I also took the time today to finish making the free minis I got from Wargames Illustrated and Miniature Wargames:

German late-war paratroopers in winter gear that have been turned into Trench Crusade Heretic Naval Infantry Legionnaires and Troopers

I think that the paint scheme on these minis will really make them fit into the Trench Crusade aesthetic more - as it stands they are, after all, just Fallschirmjager!

Then, on the front of Miniature Wargames, there was a sprue of Wargames Atlantic's Sneakfeet - these are Ratling Snipers with the serial numbers filed off, who are in turn of course Hobbits (in space) with the serial numbers filed off...

Haven't decided how to base them yet

I deliberately picked the smaller guns on the sprue because I think they'll probably end up being Generic Sci-Fi sorts for something like Five Parsecs From Home or Space Station Zero.

Having knocked out the Redemptionists, I'm a bit unsure as to what to work on next - I might actually have a break from painting for a bit! Who knows. 

Painting Points:
Today: 7
This Week: 7
2024: 198 (349)

Oops, A Distraction

I don't know if you've noticed but Tuomas Pirinen, him of Mordheim and Warhammer Fantasy 6th Edition fame, along with some other creative types has made a ridiculously successful Kickstarter for a new skirmish wargame called TRENCH CRUSADE. Trench Crusade is an alternate universe / alt-history 1914 where the First Crusade accidentally released Hell onto Earth, and so the next thousand years or so have been a long war against Satan's Legions and their various human auxiliaries and soldiers. There's a lot more information out there, I recommend this Goonhammer article for starters.

Anyway, I did some painting on my Redemptionists - blocked out the skin, did the flames apart from the gloss varnish, and started the hair - and then, after picking up a copy of Wargames Illustrated with a sprue of Warlord Games' winter-uniformed Fallschirmjager stuck to the front, decided to rummage in my bits box and make some Heretic Naval Raiders...

They're so close to done. So close. It's painful now

You can see some bits and pieces in the bottom left corner of that photo from the Warlord Games' frame. I opened up the playtest Trench Crusade rules (available on the Facebook group, here) and had a look at what a Heretic Trooper actually has available. As I'm doing Naval Raiders, they get access to sub-machine guns, which is quite nice, so I'm going to do three with SMGs, one with an automatic shotgun, and then two Legionaries with a machine gun and a semi-auto rifle (later to be upgraded to an automatic rifle).

They might look like Germans from the late war, but if you look at their belts you can see some hearts dangling from straps... uh oh! These guys are Heretic Legionaries, with better accuracy than the regular Troopers, and funky padded trousers to help differentiate them. I think that the paint scheme is going to do a lot of work making it clear what they are - strange, deathly pale skin, esoteric runes on their helmets, dark blue naval infantry type uniforms...

Not entirely sure what sort of conversions I could do to make things like an Artillery Witch, or a Heretic Priest, but we'll see. Part of the problem I'm having is that the scale of the Warlord Games' minis is not really compatible with the bulk of my bits box, which is almost entirely Games Workshop's heroic scale stuff. Anyway, that's for another day. Who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll finally have finished those Redemptionists.

Only In Basing Does Duty End

And I haven't quite got to that stage yet but I am now tantalisingly close to it. I actually sat down for a couple of hours this evening and did the belts, pouches, grenades, books, highlighted the gold trim and masks, washed the nooses so that they look done, and did the first step on the flame-hats (which actually look really good as is, if very different to the way I usually do flames). They're definitely looking a lot closer to how I imagined them when I first picked them up to do:

I just wish it hadn't taken me seven days (!) to get this far! Oh well. Nearly there, and all that.

What Happens When The Mojo Slips

I'm not sure quite what it is, but I'd hoped to do a lot more painting this weekend than I actually have. I didn't do any yesterday - hence no update on the ol' blog - and today I only did a little bit. I painted almost all the books a dark green, went over the pipes, gloves and boots with black, and painted the belts and pouches in a dark brown (which, incidentally, I also drybrushed over the ends of all the flame weapons). It's just blocking things out for highlights, and in theory it shouldn't take too long to finish the details and move onto the bigger things like the flame-hats and the like, but I just... haven't felt like it. A bit disappointing but there you go.

The flame patterns on the robes look great though!

I have however named them - this little lot comes to 1,000 creds pretty much exactly and can be found with the extremely uninspiring name of "Red Redemption" over at YakTribe. So I know what to paint on their bases when they get to that point. Whenever that is.

Detail Time Starts Now

Having finished the process of highlighting the robes and armour, I have now begun to work on the details. By which I mean I've painted the nooses they wear on their belts in Ushabti Bone, which, if I'd been thinking, I'd've done before I painted the robes with Agrax Earthshade. Ah well. Live and learn.

I think the colour scheme of red, black, and yellow is both really striking and really sinister, as well as giving a good link to the obsession they have with fire. I'm not sure how long they'll take to finish, hopefully I'll be able to get them done this weekend.

Starting The Highlighting

Not a great deal of progress today, although it did feel like it. Slapped some Cryptek Armourshade onto the gold and bronze sections, applied the first highlight of Khorne Red to the robes, and that was it - took longer than expected for some odd reason. 

Next up - Mephiston Red highlights on the robes and the armour, then some work on the yellow and maybe some Wild Rider Red on the armour to pick some bits out. After that it's detail work really.

The Miracles Of Saint Agrax

I remember, many years ago now - and I do mean that, it must be coming up to two decades ago or so - when the hot new thing in painterly circles was floor polish dip. You paint your minis in block colours, then dip them into a tin of floor stain et voila magic skill, your miniature was shaded, highlighted, and varnished all in one. 

Nowadays we just use Agrax Earthshade, Nuln Oil, and contrasts, I suppose.

You can see why, really - these minis have just had block colours and washes applied (well, and the base metals on the trims of their hoods and their masks) and they look rather Blanchitsu, don't they? I'm in half a mind to lean into it, but I don't think I will. 

The next step is to highlight the robes and shoulder armour, then do the various belts, nooses, books, and other random little bits on their belts before I start working up the weapons. The gloves'll end up black, I think, to keep the palette simple. 

So far, they've been quite good fun to work on, which is a nice surprise. I think it's the colour scheme and the relatively open poses allowing me to get my brush into the detail quite easily.

"If It Doesn't Hurt... It Doesn't Count!"

Thus spoke Klovis the Redeemer, a great man of action and faith, etc etc.

The Red Redemption are a funny old lot, a bunch of ultra-zealots even by the standards of the Imperium's unhinged religious fanaticism, the Ecclesiarchy's equivalent of the sort of fundamentalists that we see in groups like Islamic State, the Taliban, the Westboro Baptist Church or Scientologists' Sea Org slave-personnel. But, of course, this is 40K, and the Red Redemption are seen through a skewed mirror, with skulls and fire and cackling incompetence as well as unthinking devotion to their faith and its tenets of burning everything and everyone that doesn't meet their exacting standards of belief (essentially, everyone who isn't in the Redemption or, at the very least, House Cawdor. Those priests of the Ecclesiarchy are on thin ice, honestly). 

Damn fun to paint, though:

Averland Sunset is a brilliant base for yellow

I've blocked out the base colours mostly and am now in the phase of doing the base details - yellow flames on red, black flames on yellow - before hitting everything with Agrax Earthshade, Nuln Oil or Carroburg Crimson and then working back up from there. I think there's going to be some "fun" moments trying to paint the face of the Deacon with the flamethrower, but other than that these goons should be a good laugh to paint up.

The Ten Thousand

Of Xerxes, the Shahanshah, are not, in fact, what I'm painting at the moment. But they are Immortals - Necron Immortals. I managed to get them done today, which was nice, and means that all the undercoated Necrons I own are done. Hurrah! 

Shinier than the Warriors, because they're more important

And now I can make a start on the Red Redemption lot, I think. Lots of red, yellow, and metal (as well as flames) so that should be quite a striking look when finished. 

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 5
2024: 191 (342)