Back from the Dead…

The title reflects both the state of my computer and the undead I painted during October, while mostly not online.

It was a remarkable month for many reasons: my PC died, I had a Covid test & a day of working from home when one of the guys at work might have been exposed to Covid, the last of our three chickens got sick and died, and we had a windstorm that left lots of people in Melbourne without electricity, including us for 30 hours. Since we don’t have a gas connection, this meant no lights, hot water or cooking. Thankfully, the end of lock-down the week before meant we could go over to my Mum’s for dinner and a hot shower.

Being able to travel and visit people again is great, and with the fantastic assistance of a mate I now have my computer working (upgraded MB, CPU and RAM!) and everything on it working normally.

While I had no PC, I did a lot of reading and got back into some painting. Now I’ve got blogs to catch up on, and pictures to take and post myself. I was lucky enough to be able to bring a work laptop home to keep up on some of the forums I read. I’m determined to make more regular backups of stuff on my system, and not just to a secondary hard drive, but to a USB. An up-to-date printed page with logins, passwords and site references, etc is also a must.

The three undead today all came from the UK in a miniatures swap with Subedai of the Lost and the Damned. One had been painted before and needed a clean up first. All are metal.

The first is a Prince August figure (1984, SK6, Skeleton) This one is history revisited for me: There are seven figures in this range (SK1-7) and I bought a blister pack of three (SK5-7) in the late 80’s. I dug them out to make sure this guy was painted in the same style. I first thought I had a slightly different figure, then realized that he’s actually missing his right arm. After painting, he looks like he has an arm there. (Only a humerus, not a radius & ulna.) The last picture shows him on the far right with my original three.

The next two figures are Citadel (I think) – I did look at the slotta base before filing it down to fit a plastic base and all I recall about them now is that each said “Skeleton”. The internet suggests these two are both from GW Citadel: UN2 (20) Agog Deathblow (Skeleton Infantry) and C17 (CJ-07) Skeleton Gunner, both 1987.

These three figures were all fun to paint. I particularly enjoyed the “gunner”. I’m saving him for my Gamma World game, though he might fit into a fantasy game in the right circumstances. He has hints of fluoro green that the phone camera hasn’t really picked up. I’m particularly pleased with his left eye – I got a dot of fluoro green in that eye socket with one attempt that I couldn’t replicate in the other. (The right eye has some green, but its not a fine point, nor as bright.)

 

Painting Skaven #6: Warlock (Final)

Finally, the last skaven – unless there’s a figure or two in the wrong storage box! That’s a group of 24 all done.

This is a metal slotta-based Citadel (Games Workshop) figure from 1995 – #74472/2 “Skaven Warlock with skull”.

I’d considered doing his robes in purple, and when I got started on Friday night realised that there’s a separate jacket over the robes. The jacket was done in fushia with the lower robes in the same but lightened with white. Then I red inked the jacket, and purple inked the robes. Everything went smoothly from there, with colours suggesting themselves as I went along. A final bit of black ink over everything make the holes and folds were distinct, then highlighting. When taking the photographs this morning I noticed I hadn’t coloured the chaos symbol on the belt buckle. That’s now been fixed.

I’ve really enjoyed these last two skaven, and I like the warlock more than the plague monk. I’m very pleased to have got through the whole group, and they make a very nice force.

Last of all, a group shot. I had a lot of fun setting this up, which is a sure sign that it’s been way too long since I’ve done any table-top gaming. I already had planned to write these guys into my mega-dungeon. Now I want to set up something like this seen to play out a really big battle. You should be able to click on the pictures for a bigger image.

Painting Skaven #5: Plague Monk

I was determined to get another skaven painted this weekend and I’m very happy to have succeeded!

This is a metal slotta-based Citadel (Games Workshop) figure from 1993 – Clan Pestilens 74451/5 “Plague Monk”. I’d been planning red-brown robes, but saw some newer plague monks with yellow robes and black hoods. The yellow got my attention, but being plaguey, I wanted a dirty yellow. Once I got going other things fell into place.

Painting took longer than it should have, but I’ve interspersed that with some computer gaming, reading, housework and preparing another batch of figures.If the weather report is correct he can go out for a varnish spray tomorrow.

A number of years back I got some Mantic Dwarfs from Azazel, and last year (I think last year) I got some figures from Subadai (Lost & the Damned) and decided it’s a good time to get some of these done too. There are nine dwarfs, three skeletons and my last skaven ready to work on. (Only two skellies in the picture, the third didn’t need cleaning and undercoat like all these did.)

Yes, that’s a skeleton with a blunderbuss!

Painting Skaven #4: Grey Seer

I finished painting this guy yesterday, making this about four months since I started preparing all my skaven for painting. (Maybe two months since I did any figure painting… not encouraging.) He’s been sitting on my desk for way too long, but he’s not the last. There’s still two more to go!

This figure is a metal Games Workshop (Citadel) figure from 1993, 74464 “Grey Seer Thanquol”. I could have been a little fussier with some of the detail, but I reached the point where I’m happy and just wanted to say “done”.

My main problem with these last three skaven has been colors. I’ve learned that I do really well when I’m copying a card/comic/movie or whatever – an established color scheme – but struggle with individual figures where I have to choose everything myself. It doesn’t always happen, but it’s certainly why I haven’t gotten anywhere with these last few skaven.

It’s too cold for spray varnish this weekend. He can go back on the tray until probably Tuesday, when we are meant to reach 17 degrees and sunny! The next figure I’m hoping to start today is a plague monk, and I’ve decided on red/browns for his robe. The last, a skaven warlock (engineer) might get some type of purple.

Painting Skaven #3: Assassins and Warlord

Three more skaven. These are all metal single-piece figures produced in 1995 by Citadel (Games Workshop) for Warhammer: #74471/1 Skaven Assassin 1, #74471/3 Skaven Assassin 3 and #74465 “Warlord Queek”.

Assassin #1 (L), Assassin #3 (R)

The poses and detail are good. Assassin #3 has poison or something along the end of his blade which I’m not a fan of simply because its over-the-top. I trimmed it a little. I probably could have removed it entirely, but didn’t want to chance taking a chunk out of his leg or tail. In the end I’ve painted it up and had fun with it. Assassin #1 with his two blades makes for a nice rogue or warrior depending on what my game calls for.

Warlord Queek came with a large skull-topped “banner” that was to be attached to his back, which I found rather cumbersome. I filled down the stud it fitted on. It could be easily made into a hand-held banner, or a marker, so I might yet find a use for it. (I have a second, smaller banner too. I don’t know what figure it was associated with originally)

“Queek” is also quite detailed and took some time making sure I was getting everything done without mucking up something else. There’s all the chainmail, the plate/banded armour and assorted decorations! He has a belt with a satchel, 4 pouches, and horned rat belt buckle, a second rope belt with pouch and skull, gloves, necklace, and decorated weapons! I’d almost finished painting when I wondered about what supported all these pouches, and found that what I thought was part of his armour is a wide belt.

This is another submission to Anne’s April Painting Challenge.

 

Painting Skaven #2: Clanrats

A dozen plastic skaven. I believe I bought these as a box of 12 in the early 1990’s, but a mate who was also collecting citadel figures at the time thought these came as 6’s, They are single-piece slotta-base figures, all identical. These should be Warhammer 4th edition clanrats, and I have seen some of these with shields. I certainly have a bunch of “skaven” shields that could have been part of this set, but I have neither used them in the past, nor feel like painting them up and gluing them on now. I like them the way they are.

The pose is good, and there is quite a bit of detail with armour, fur, armbands, cap, earring, etc. The clothing detail tends to soften a bit under the cloak/hood, with what I presume to be a belt only being defined along its lower edge. It’s nothing you’d notice unless holding the figure up, and now that its painted, its even less obvious.

I’ve stuck to three colours for clothing, varied to break the set up into three smaller groups. I used antique copper & gold for armbands, silver & bright bronze for ear-rings, mostly just grabbing a figure at random each time. I haven’t really done any highlighting except for some silver on the edge of the blades. (Which I wanted dark – gunmetal, then a good coat of green ink; which isn’t that noticeable in the second image.) My initial ‘wash’ of brown over skin and fur has left the raised portions lighter in colour, and I gave most of them a light dry-brush of flesh over the face and tail. Cloaks and kilts were done with very fluid paint, leaving places (that I would normally highlight) a bit lighter, and then brown/black used to shade depressions and creases in the clothing.

These are also a submission to Anne’s April Painting Challenge, and won’t be the last I’ll have.

My next six skaven are all individual figures. I’ve decided fur colours, but I’m still thinking about cloaks and robes, etc. Since these are all leaders (heroes doesn’t seem the right word, but neither does anti-heroes) I’ll take a bit more time with each.

Painting Skaven #1: Stormvermin

Here’s my first set of skaven finished. Six stormvermin from Citadel 1993 and 1995. I started with these rather than the clanrats. There were less of them, they aren’t all the same and I had a good idea of how I wanted to paint them.

These are all metal figures. While there are two main “poses” here, each of the six is unique. They all have a slightly different weapon, variations in armour, equipment, and heads. Some have chainmail, others small armour plates hanging from their belt. One has a ‘stud’ on his left arm (front far-right) where he should have a shield. I would think that having a shield would make wielding your 8 1/2 foot-long fauchard somewhat awkward, unless it was merely a buckler. (In my game scale, these guys are 5′ high.) I do have some skaven shields, but they look too large. Given some more time I may paint a smaller shield I have to add to the figure.

For D&D/Pathfinder purposes I’m planning to consider all of these to be wielding glaives or glaive-guisarmes. Nomenclature of polearms is a crazy thing, and I’ve spent more than enough time this week trying to get an idea of what each is wielding, but for gaming purposes I need to be able to lump them all together.

If you want a fun look at polearms, watch this video by Lindybeige. Here’s a game from the end of that video: Try to get someone to express an opinion on a historical pole-arm that you made up. Extra points if it has a very silly name.

Painting: Space Marines (Space Crusade)

Here’s my three squads of Space Marines from the Space Crusade board game finally completed. Blood Angels (red), Imperial Fist (yellow) and Ultramarines (blue). I started painting figures from the game about two years ago, getting onto the space marines in October last year.

Each squad has three marines with bolters, one marine with a heavy weapon and a commander. The heavy weapons (assault cannon, missile launcher or plasma gun) and commanders weapons (heavy bolter, bolt pistol & power axe, or power glove & power sword) are interchangeable and I’ve had to do some careful filing to make sure they are less likely to get stuck together and break. (The ones that aren’t already broken that is.) For the images, I’ve made sure that I picked something different for each squad.

The plasma gun is meant to have a bright coppery-gold muzzle, but it looks quite yellow in the image, so I’ll go over it again tomorrow with bright bronze.

The special weapons were very fiddly to paint, and I wasn’t as concerned with spending as much time on them as I did with the marines themselves. As board game pieces, they will all go back into the game box soon. Everything in the box except for the orcs and gretchen have now been painted, and I have no intention of painting them. I started this because some of the pieces I could use in my Gamma World game (and have) and the marines deserve to be done if my friends and I ever decide to play again.

Last, but not least, here’s an orc who should have been painted back in Sept 2018 when I did orcs and goblins. He’s a bit paler than his brethren because he’s apparently been hiding with my skaven for at least a decade. The marines and the orc all qualify for Ann’s March painting challenge – Neglected but not forgotten!

Here’s a group shot of all the Space Crusade pieces that I’ve now painted.

Painting: W.I.P. and preparations

This week I’ve finally gotten back to painting my Space Marines from the Space Crusade board game, about 5 months after I nearly finished the other two squads. Once I do the main painting, which is pretty simple (part of the reason I got bored 5 months ago) I’ll finish off all the heavy weapons, and commander’s weapons. These weapons are all interchangeable, and I’ll need to do a little bit of mucking around to allow them to be swapped without any problems. A few have broken in the past because they fitted together too firmly and didn’t separate happily.

Today I dug through my figure boxes to locate all my skaven. I can clean them up in between painting, and the weather this week is good to take them all out and spray them with undercoat. Oddly enough, there a single orc who must have been abducted a decade or more ago. He can get painted too, and finally returned to his brethren.

The last squad of space marines is the Ultramarines, if the image hasn’t already given that away.

My skaven are: 12 Clanrats, 6 Stormvermin, 2 Assassins, 1 Lord, 1 Priest, 1 Seer, 1 Warlock. That isn’t an army by any stretch, but it was enough to keep my group occupied when we played Warhammer Quest.

I’m tempted to sell the Stormvermin. They don’t interest me greatly, whereas the rest can easily fit into D&D games as were-rats. Then again, I could introduce a variant of were-rats into my mega-dungeon. If I do that, the stormvermin will work as a heavier armoured support to the clanrats.

Hmm.. I think I’ve just decided to keep them all in the last minute of typing. I’ll now find myself stating out all the different figures using Pathfinder rules!

I’m enjoying a week’s leave from work, and painting and D&D planning are the two of the main things I aim to spend time on. Reading would be nice too, if I can find a couple of good books!

 

Late addition: I started cleaning the plastic clanrats and was very pleased at how little there is to do – almost no mold lines. Then I noticed the plastic bit underneath… How long have I had these figures? (Don’t answer that!)

I can’t believe I’ve never noticed this bit before. If I had surely I would have cut it off? Lol.

Painting – Hero Quest “Gargoyle”

This is the last of my Hero Quest figures to see paint, having taken about 30 years. This is the “Gargoyle”, who I’d say was second-rate Balrog given the pose, whip and sword. I think in Warhammer he’s now considered a Bloodthirster.

He hasn’t been touched for perhaps a decade, and now that he’s painted he might actually see use, but not as he was originally meant for. Being completely unlike any fantasy gargoyle, I decided he’d make a good statue. Now that he’s done, he’ll fit right in as a Stone Golem. He’s also an entrant to Ann’s “Neglected but not forgotten” Painting Challenge for March.

As a statue, he’d be a nice terrain piece, and potentially a construct (animated statue). I wanted the look of an old painted statue that hadn’t seen care for a long time, and I feel I’ve right sort of look. (Particularly with the thought that it just might step off the base and attack.)

I’d previously cut away the whip and undercoated the figure when spraying something else. Yesterday I started with a base coat of grey, then painted parts with gold, silver, red and black. After a light coat of brown ink, I stuck him together – breaking the wings in the process. (The head and wings were separate pieces.) I cleaned up the wings, and stuck them on, then took some time to chip, mark and scrape at the figure. Then some more grey to colour the exposed plastic, and fade the coloured detail. The weather has been quite cool this weekend, so there was plenty of time to make sure the paint dried at each step.

Today I’ve done highlighting and basing. Just after I’d sprayed the first coat of varnish, I had the thought that when I’d broken the wings, it would have been best if I’d cut/broken a large chuck of one wing, and positioned that on the base like it had fallen down. I could still do that, but now I’m happy to have it done and want to move on to something else. I could have ‘chipped’ and ‘cracked’ the statue further, and marked the base like stone blocks too, but it’s not a show-piece and I rarely spend that much time and effort on the figures that I really like!

I did try something new with the base today. Yesterday I’d been cutting out the foam insert for a small figure case to properly put away my DungeonQuest heroes, and had read an article on painting statue minis. They’d used bits of the foam as moss. I salvaged some of mine, and tore off a couple of tiny bits. Painted green they make great foliage/moss.

The finished mini is on a 40mm square base, and is 70mm high to the sword tip.

I’m determined to finish my Space Marines next. I’d like to clear the tray before I start filling it up with skaven.