Painting guide: or, at least, how I'm painting skaven these days...

Right, so I'll be turning this 15-man regiment into something like...

...this.  Except with two hand weapons instead of a shield.  And fifteen instead of twenty.

Right, so obviously we have to start with a white undercoat, being me and everything.

Stormvermin fur gets splotched on with a big brush; we're not going for neat here, not yet we aren't.

Next is the red.  This could be for metal or cloth; the metal would then get an extra step-- I'll let you know when-- for weathering.  Again, just splotched all over the place, just try not to get it on the grey.

Mournfang brown next, for leathery bits or bronze.  We're getting into smaller brushes now.
Note I'm not giving exact brush sizes-- one, I find it easier to estimate; two, I don't even know what size brushes I'm using... hee hee, you don't even know if I'm just using sticks.

Agrax earthshade goes on next, along with a bit of nuln oil for deeper shadows.  Make sure to wash the base too, it'll make it easier when you get to it.
Oh, listen to me, instantly assuming my entire audience paints the figure first...

Black goes on next for where bare metal will be.  Also, drop a dot into the little chap's eye socket, it'll help them stand out later.  The eyes, I mean.

Next up is bronze and silver.  Apply the bronze first, because here's were the extra step for red metal comes in.  Once you've painted bare metal blades and armour and whatever, take your smallest drybrush, get some silver off the other brush and go over the red metal.  Also the bronze.

Now with your finest brush,  go over the teeth and pick out the eyes with bright yellow.  If they look a bit too disgusting, you might want to use a bit of nuln oil before the next step.

The next bit is to add highlights to where the fur is less... furry, I suppose.  I use stark white, but you could use something like reikland fleshtone or even a blue?  One thing I've seen a bit on skaven is the skin colour is usually done quite skin-coloured and they end up looking like monkeys, particularly the older sculpts.

My recipie for rust is pretty simple at the moment.  Nuln oil, a watered-down layer of mournfang brown, and a jolly good drybrushing of ryza rust over the top.

Nikhala oxide is the second to last step.  Not much to see here, carry on guardsman.

Blood FTBG is the last step.  It'd help a lot if you had a dry, frayed old brush for this; thin, stiff bristles make it a lot easier to generate random splatter.

So just make sure you included all your other skaven into the steps and you should be set!
Now, using the following technique, you ought to have a regiment of table-ready skaven out of the box in a Saturday-- if you get up at seven and neglect your family until 5 in the evening.  The two longest steps would be the undercoat and the washes drying, but in which time you could just as easily work on your inquisitor kitbashes.
So, what's next, I wonder?  Some rat-ogres, I reckon.  They'll be getting a few more steps, seeing as there's only three of them and (I really don't play skaven!) they look quite useful, so they deserve a decent bit of work.

***

... And as always, in other news:
The scenery bits are finished!  We've got all sorts here, mostly intestines out of the body with some unfortunate Cadians thrown in and a pile of pig offal just for giggles.

And the pool at Bethesda is looking a lot more finished now.  Still wondering about how to achieve a decent, visceral, purpley-red colour for the... whatever it is... in the pit.  Been playing a lot of Dante's Inferno for insparation.
Oh God help me, I made a pun...

So, that's that!  How to paint skaven nice and quick.  Next time, we'll be assembling/converting the avatar of Ynnead into a hive crone*.

Bye bye for now.



*spoilers, we won't.

So I'm painting a Skaven army now.

Thank Heaven for clean hobby spaces!  Spent most of my free time today cleaning up and tidying away half-finished projects and empty glue pottles and brushes too cruddy for the "cruddy brush" category, now I can really kick back and spread my projects far and wide, and let my creativity run riot.  Well, not really.

 

Before you ask-- the green thing has been super-glued to the bench for years and no, it isn't LEGO, it's a cheap ripoff.
While the bench was tidy, I thought it'd be a good time to showcase my audiobook collection.

OKAY-- time to calm down...  I'm way too wound up right now.  Why, might you ask?

So, all you lovely disciples who follow me on G+ might be aware of a big commission looming on the horizon; the client recently acquired a Skaven army and wanted me to paint it along with is two IK kitbashes.  It arrived yesterday, much to my surprise, after only about a week in transit.

So when I say "Skaven army", I may or may not mean a force big enough to take over Altdorf with.  Oh, that's right, the Old World is done away with now.

Right, let's have a swift look at what I've got to do, shall we?  I meant to take more photos, but didn't in the end.

12 heavy weapon teams; I don't know my Skaven too well, but they look like three jezzails, a ratling gun and a whole swag of warpstone spitty things.

54 old skool clanrats, at least a mix of clanrats and night runner bits.  That'll want tidying up.

An unassembled grey seer and a doomwheel; you know what, I ought to pick one up myself one day, the bits are all so COOL!

I think a grand total of 40 odd stormvermin, half of which being metal!

Some I recognise as night runners...

and three rat ogres (?), one needing a bit of back surgery.

Now, among the units I didn't photograph, there were three metal gutter runners, two metal standard bearers, a super-classic metal verminlord (this chap here)  a warp lightning cannon and a plagueclaw, Throne knows how many ordinary clanrats and a host of characters besides a million extra bits!

So that's that... Looks like my hands will be tied for some time, so if I don't post in a while, this will be the reason.  With any luck I'll get my squaduary pledge done shortly, and the loose ends of my previous commission tidied into the mail.  Between layers and washes I might be able to squash in a little something here and there, but right now there's a grey tide on my desk that needs some severe attention.

Bye bye for now.

Hobby update: yeah, still going...

Firstly, sorry for the sporadic posting.  It's all rather busy and hot down on this little island--Throne, but has it been hot!  Being New Zealand, the weather shouldn't be that much to complain about, but at the end of the day 30 is still 30 and paint still dries on the bristles and I've known no different.  I've been getting up earlier to get some commission work in before the heat drops.

Random pictures of six-thirty-in-the-morning traffic in my neighborhood...  Even the roadsigns are still asleep...

Right!  You're here for the update, not my complaining!  So, not much has changed since last time.  Here we are:

Firstly, my squaduary project looks a little more respectable, what with everyone basecoated and washed now.

 The statue of Konrad Curze, after getting some more sensible weapons swapped in, is nearing completion.

  The menagerie of spawn are getting painted by inches too.  Everyone's a different colour, how charming.  I'm still scratching my head over what colours exactly to use on the chap in the middle with dreadlocks...

Here's six out of the ten scenery effects I'm obliged to make at the failure of coming up with a sound idea for a "skinning pit"; I hope Jimmy will like them; these little dioramas are rather too much fun to plan out and put together!

The pool at Bethesda is getting there.  So much greenstuff...  intestines are particularily fun to sculpt, and I'm very glad for my experience in slaughtering.   I've pulled out enough guts to know how they deflate when punctured etc, and what a fresh skin looks like on the inside.

Throne, I'm talking about goats and sheep, sorry.

In other news, I'm putting together an Alpha Legion dark apostle to go with the biker lord and the cultists I put together not long ago AND FORGOT TO PHOTOGRAPH WHENFINISHED,TWETNYCULTISTSALLPAINTEDLOOKEDAMAZINGONTHEBENCH (Breathe in)  The client's given me the fullest range possible, requesting only that he be given a power maul, so yeah, world's my oyster once again.  I like my Alpha Legionnaires to be cloaked and hooded.

Let's dance, traitors!

And on a less serious note, a fellow G+ 40K/Bayonetta enthusiast mentioned something about making an Inquisitor based on our favorite Umbran witch.  how could I turn that idea down, busy as I am?
She'll be getting ammo feeds from her boots to hoppers either side of the jump pack.  Magick or not, if there's one thing I dislike about Platinum-- it's their cosmo guns!

So that's that, for the time being.  More paint got slapped around and I began more projects, fool that I am.  Again, sorry for the sporadic posting.

Bye bye for now.

painting continues outside the realm of 40K...

Hobby update: speeders, spawn and Squaduary

Hee hee, I knew my rate of starting new projects would come back and bite me one day.  Even though I've only got three imperative ones going at the moment, they're all quite work-intensive and I've regrettably found less hobby time as Summer draws to its abrupt close.

To begin with, my Squaduary pledge.  Oh, the shame!  I reckon I'm the only one behind in my work-- and I've only got FOUR chaps to do!  It's great to see everyone else's, though.
The fellow I was going to make a company champion has sort of turned into a musician, and the company banner might be the last thing painted, but we're getting there.  By inches.

As for Jimmy's commission, that's creeping along too.  Here's the first of the five chaos spawn; the encroaching darkness and the ghost of the Night Lord. 

And the other three; the headless centaur, the assassin, and the possessed cultist.  I reckon the centaur is closest to completion, and I'm very happy with how he's looking so far.  That shield won't amount to anything rule-wise, but it looks good.
For the possessed chap, I was initially thinking of just having one single daemon hanging out the top, but that would have looked silly.

I opted for the three/four ghouls instead, much more satisfactory.  A swirling vortex of madness as opposed to one solid-looking fellow with what would have looked like silly little legs...

 Ah, and this is a rather mad idea I had for a terrain piece.  Those who are familiar with your Apocrypha Terra will know the story in John 5 of the pool at Bethesda, where the angel descended once in a while to stir the waters and the first ailing mortal to touch the pool afterwards was healed.

 Now imagine that story, produced by Burg, Koules and Hoffman.  With a Night Lord as the angel and a slaughterhouse as the setting.

...Moving on to brighter things, I'm also fiddling around with my first landspeeder.  Not sure if I've already posted about it yet, but here we are.  It's not on the imperative list, but it's being seen to every once in a while.

 You can hardly see the driver's legs, but I wanted to change them anyway-- 'cause I could.

 

 As interesting as the weapon options were, I'm going with plain old missiles and a heavy bolter.  This is my only fast attack, and I don't really want it constantly having to jink with all the fire it'd draw.  Anyway, I like bolt weapons, 'specially as being VIIIth sons, they've all got Bolter drill!

 He'll be reaching down to clock some poor sod in the chin as he goes by.

I made the mistake of deciding to have the engine housing made out of hurricane mesh, so I'm now having to come up with a way of making the engines interesting!

So here's where I'm up to at the moment, sorry for the rotten photos.  Copious amounts of barbed wire, some greenstuff hair and an Astartes with a bare chest.  Yup, definitely says "D Power" right there.

And that's that!  Maybe next time there'll be a bit of paint to speak of.  I certainly hope so.

Bye bye for now.