Ramblings of a schizophrenic paint-addict

[bulldoglopez]

Hey all,

This is my second attempt at a project log. The first log fell victim to my unfortuitous habit of getting distracted by new and shiny miniatures. Maybe someday i'll get back to it. That being said; instead of attempting to document a structured project in a logical manner, i'm just going to post whatever random garbage I crank out every week or so.

You may have to be patient with me posting updates as real life has a way of interrupting my hobby time.

Without further ado... here we go!



My demolisher. She was orginally painted codex grey with some inking and drybrushing, but a few months ago I decided to jazz it up with some light weathering and some battle damage. I am SLOWLY updating all the tanks in my army to match this sucker. My old roommate took this picture with his super-jazzy camera. I can't reproduce this kind of photo without buying a new camera.... we'll just have to see about that.



A random Joe in my Crimson Fist army. I deliberately kept the paint scheme simple so I could crank out a ton of models realtively quickly. I currently have about fifty models painted to this standard, plus about four or five vehicles/walkers.



An EEEEvil Chaos warrior I painted up for Baltimore GD. It ended up as a finalist. I had a lot of fun painting this model and it was the first model i'd completed specifically for a painting competition. The mohawk and beard are greenstuff. I learned a lot about painting metal and about basing. I'll try and get some pics of the back of his cape because i'm pretty happy with the dusty/muddy look I painted on to it. I took this pic with my camera which, as you can see is far far crappier than the super jazzy camera used by my old roommate.



Finally, this is my DA command squad that I won bronze with (through a random act of god, not through superior painting skills) at Baltimore. For the record I won because someone else got disqualified (hence the random act of god comment). Next time i'll get a trophy fair and square. BUT... I am quite proud of this squad as it was my first time entering anything in the golden demons and I got a trophy. To me there are a lot of things wrong with this squad. First.. THE BASE SUCKS! Everytime I look at it, I want to throw it in a fire. Next time, I promise to give myself more time to prepare my entries. I literally put the finishing touches on the squad about an hour before the doors opened.

Ok, now that i've (hopefully) gotten this thread off to an auspicious start. Look forward to some more pics of my crimson fist army, some of the new Space Hulk minis and a few of the new Space Wolves.

[kobalt1974]

Loving the demolisher.. really characterful

and those dark angels....... sweet :)

[danjones87]

Again, I really like the demolisher, the freehand chipping is nice. Id like to see some chipped details (the skull etc.) though to.

Awaiting more pics!

Dan

[Dead Dude Walking]

Very nice painting! Congrats on the demon... More pics please!

-DDW

[Deadstar_MRC]

Some great models in there! Nothing better than a random project log, you never know what's going to turn up next.

Thanks for posting these; I look forward to seeing what else you come up with!

[redarmy27]

Beautiful work with your stuff here; I especially love the Chaos lord. May I ask what color primer you used on him? His colors are so rich, but dark at the same time. Also, your vehicle weathering is superb!


Jake

[King Ulrik Flamebeard]

I agree with everyone else, some nice stuff there. Well done on winning the daemon, even if it wasn't the first choice for bronze, you won and so they much have liked your stuff.

Look forward to more. Any chance of more detailed pictures of the dark angels?

Kuffy

[bulldoglopez]

Thanks everyone for the comments!

@ redarmy27: The Chaos lord was primed black. I use both citadel and valejo model color (VMC) ranges depending on the look i'm trying to achieve. The metal parts of the model were bascoated with a steel color and was then given several washes of carmine red, burnt umber, and I believe dark prussian blue and then highlighted up to silver.

I tried to wash the metal with colors that complement the rest of the colors on the model. Burnt umber was used on the boots (which were given a baal red wash to give the color a warmer look) The face was washed with purple and red during various phases of painting.

As far as the demolisher goes, it was actually pretty easy to achieve the weathered look. The model was basecoated codex grey, given a black ink wash, then druybrushed codex grey and a 50/50 codex grey skull white mix. I then lined the panels with thinned down dark flesh (vallejo game color). Once dry, I washed the entire model with woodland scenics earth colors burnt umber. It's a tricky product to work with because it's a pigment. It takes a few practice runs to get it down - give it a day to dry. Once all that was done, the entire model was given a light codex grey drybrush. The chips were painted using a fine brush and a mix of VMC Smoke and VMC burnt umber and were lined using sky gry.

[MrDee]

Love that chaos lord mate, and the dark angels, although in my opinion if the person that was supposed to get bronze was disqualified they were only in 3rd spot cause they were naughty :)

Damien

[bulldoglopez]

@ King Ulrik: Here are some more detailed pics of the Dark Angels. You can really start to pick out the flaws in the painting in these pics. Also note that when you enter anything in a painting competition, bad modeling can really ruin a good paint job. You really want to make sure you clean off all the flash before you put any paint on a model. One other thing I have been working on is narrowing and smoothing out my highlights. In a few pics, you can really see some of the flaws in the highlighting. Like I said earlier, I learned a lot about how to improve my painting skills by forcing myself to paint to a higher standard than I normally would.



The company champion. The left side (of the model, not the pic) of the chest could have been highlighted a bit smoother and the arm joint is a little rough. I was happy with the way the white on the model turned out. The photo doesn't really to justice to the richness of the white.

Stay tuned for further updates. I have a few more of the squad, but i'm having some photobucket upload problems. For now, here's the coolmini link:

CoolMiniOrNot - Dark Angels Command Squad by BulldogLopez (http://www.coolminiornot.com/223129)

Happy painting!:beer:

[bulldoglopez]

Here's some stuff i've been working on lately. The first is one of the Space Hulk terminators. I'm taking my time with the Space Hulk minis, but painting them up for gameplay. The next two are made from the new Space Wolves kit painted up to go on display at my local game store.



Blood angels terminator Brother Noctics. More or less painted using the GW scheme with a few variations here and there.




These two are almost finished. Just need to base the one with the power sword. The one with the wolf helmet needs afew finishing touches here and there and needs to be based. Both need chapter insignia. They were fun to paint and painted up relatively quickly. The new sprues really have a ton of nice bits on them.

[Kelter Skelter]

now those are some space wolves i can actually get behind

[Deadstar_MRC]

The Space Hulk termi looks wonderful. You've pulled off a really nice red, and the lenses and gems are done really well too!

The space wolves look good, but for some reason I just can't get very enthused about them. It's not your paint job, it's just... I guess I'm not a fan of space wolves.

But some great painting, none-the-less!

[Thunder God]

The Space Hulk terminator is beautiful and is just amazing.

I agree with Dreadstar_MRC that the SWs are well painted but for some reason don't feel right and seem kind of awkward to me it's more so on the second one and i think it's the red that make it seem weird but they are well painted.

Great stuff on here keep it up.

[Lani Guy]

i think it's the red that make it seem weird but they are well painted.


Totally agree. The Terminator is A+ but the red takes away form the last model

[bulldoglopez]

Hey all,

Thanks for all the comments! I'm relly happy with the way the terminator turned out and i'm slowly painting up all the other Space Hulk termies. Stay tuned for another one very soon. I think the wolf with the power fist (paw?) is and awkward looking model, but the color scheme I used was easy and quick and I think the end result was ok. I think maybe if the whole power paw was red and only the fingers were black, the end result may have been a bit more striking.

Lately my local gaming group has been getting ready to do a modified combat patrol campaign. We adapted the 4th ed. combat patrol rules to 5th ed. and we all decided that the idea was to use the campaign as a reason to start new armies. That being said, i'm gonna finally do orkses.

I've had a O&G army for fantasy, but i've never done a 40k army, although i painted up th Stompa for my local store and a few orks here and there. So, combat patrol allows 400 points, no 2+ armor save, no ordnance, no named characters, and no 3+ wound models. I think i'm just going to take a mek with a kuston force field and as many boyz as I can fit!

I started last week and i'm just about done with the first ten. I had to dial down the quality of the paint job because i'm eventually going to have to paint 100 of the suckers.



The Nob's shoulder pad checks haven't been cleaned up yet. It took me about 8 hours to aint up ten of these guys to this standard, so I could probably get 20 done to this standard a week if I could muster the discipline to do it.

[xbanditsx]

I think I remember those Dark Angels from Baltimore - congrats on the trophy! There is some great looking stuff in here and I'm really looking forward to seeing some more Crimson Fists.

[MrDee]

Really good looking stuff, with just two minor mute points, the white on the termi's shoulderpad is a little streaky and the chest eagle on space wolf with the wolf helm is a little flat detail wise mate

Damien

[Tekore]

Love the Space Hulk Terminator and the Space Wolves. Your lining for the highlighting is particularly good!

Tekore

[bulldoglopez]

@MrDee. Yeah, the white on the shoulder pad is a bit streaky, I will have to go back and fix it sometime. The chest eagle on the Wolf Mini hasn't been highlighted yet. That was just a WIP pic. I should have some updated pics at the end of the week.

Meanwhile, I worked on my Big Mek today. I didn't want to go buy one of the models because no proper ork player fields unconverted models. Because my boyz are all stock out of the box, I decided I would dive through my Bitz box and see what I could come up with.




The base of this model is the free Ork Nob that came with a White Dwarf before AoBR was released. His cranium is a terminator shoulder with some suitable lenses glued in place. I have to fill in some of the gaps with green stuff. The kustom megablasta uses bits from a heavy stubber, multi-melta and an assault cannon. The backpack was made from a vox-caster, parts of a land speeder, a teleport homer, dozerblade supports, and a multi-melta ammunition cell, and a heavy stubber barrel. I might slap some glyph plates on him before he gets painted. I have yet to name this crazy hombre.

[Deadstar_MRC]

Ha! I like the conversion! Done in true Ork style, too, with bits and pieces from everywhere. Good work, I look forward to seeing more of him!

[bulldoglopez]

Ok, here's the latest Space Hulk Termie:



The yellow was inspired by a certain 2nd edition Blood Angel, as was the heraldry and skull on the knee pads. I'm more or less happy with the way the yellow turned out, but the highights look a bit fat on the Storm Bolter. I think the sloppy highlighting has more to do with my own laziness. I'm still driving on with the orks and now I have to start a new terminator. At this rate, i'll be done painting all the Space Hulk minis sometime in 2012 (hopefully before the world ends... but maybe John Cusak will save me and my miniatures)

Anyways, I hope to fill this week with hobby goodness because next week I get to travel to exciting Gary, Indiana!! WOOOO!! Awesome. Happy painting!

[MrDee]

The yellow on that is top notch, rest of it aint half bad either :)

all in all a cracking mini

One question.........when the hell did the germans bomb pearl harbour I thought that was the japanese?

Damien

[bulldoglopez]

One question.........when the hell did the germans bomb pearl harbour I thought that was the japanese?

@Mr Dee. It's a quote from the movie "Animal House" John Belushi plays a fat drunken slob of a frat boy named Bluto. It's classic.

[Deadstar_MRC]

... but maybe John Cusak will save me and my miniaturesLet's face it, they're miniatures worth saving! Very nice yellow, I think you have a different definition of sloppy than most!

Enjoy your travels!

[bulldoglopez]

'Ere we go! 'ere we go!

I love orks. I don't know why I didn't start an ork army sooner. Worked on my Mek today. I think the red is a bit flat, I might have to do some work to liven it up. I'm going to end up painting some proper goff lookin' checks onto his dome and some very orky paint chips and zappy know-wot light effects on his crazy looking mek boy gadgets.



I have about half a mob of boyz done. I have to base them tomorrow. The picture is a bit dark and it makes the highlights look a little more extreme than they really are. My next WIP pic of this dude will (hopefully) be better.

[kobalt1974]

The highlights dont look over extreeme from here, they look stand out fantastic :)

as you say the red in comparison to the skin looks bit flat ... especially for a character model

[King Ulrik Flamebeard]

He's looking good. I agree on the red, I think it looks fine - the highlights are bright enough but not too bright. I like the purple lip you gave him, nice touch there.

Kuffy

[Deadstar_MRC]

The green looks very nice, very well done - and the purple lip, as Kuffy said, is a nice touch! He's coming along nicely.

[bulldoglopez]

Hey everyone!

I was away at a seminar for a week and when I came back I got pretty sick, so I didn't have any updates for you. So, sorry about that. I hate real life. I finished the Big Mek. I had to mount him on a larger base because he kept tipping over on the small base. I also started work on the Games Day 2009 Chaos Lord, i'll post some WIP shots of him later. For now, you'll just have to make do with the Big Mek.





I added smoke from his smokestack to make him look more fun. It's just some cotton covered in glue and pinned in place and painted. I still have to add some fun bits to the base before he is totaly done, but he's all ready for the tabletop. I also finished a Killa Kan for the Ork army. I'll take a family photo later and post that sucker too. Happy Painting!

[Deadstar_MRC]

Love the blue glow you've got going! He looks pretty tops.

You've possibly already noticed but maybe not... anyway, the yellow lens on his helmet just looks a bit... not as good as the rest. To my eyes at least. But I have no idea how it could be improved, so maybe I shouldn't have brought it up.

[bulldoglopez]

Yeah the yellow wasn't everything I hoped it would be but oh well! I have other minis to paint that will make me feel better about my inability to paint yellow...

[Allonairre]

That is a very cool ork, quite Unique and extremely clean.

With the yellow, I am not an expert or anything remotely approaching but I think that part of the problem is with the highlight being in the centre of the lense, for some reason this always looks a bit wrong.

Anyway Great job on everything on here all of the miniatures "reek of awesomeness" if you don't mind the weird expression.

[Thunder God]

I think Allonairre is right about it being that the highlight is in the center you should look at some of the gems people paint would probably be a good way to paint shiny things. The rest of it looks great i really like how you paint the skin it looks top notch.

[bulldoglopez]

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a safe halloween. So, I completed the first 400 points of my new ork army yesterday, just in time for the combat patrol event our local group had planned. A few people dropped out because of work/laziness/excuses. Combat patrol rules state that you cannot field a model with more than 2 wounds, no 2+ armour saves, no special characters, and any vehicles taken cannot have a total AV of 33 (taken by adding front, side, and rear armor...side is only counted once). Remember that everything had to be painted and based and the idea was that we all had to start new armies. My 400 point list comes out as follows:

HQ:
Big Mek, Kustom Force Field
Troops:
13 Slugga Boyz, Big Shoota, Nob w/ power klaw
13 Slugga Boyz, Big Shoota, Nob w/ power klaw
Heavy Support:
Killa Kan w/ skorcha
Killa Kan w/ big shoota.

I had to paint this stuff pretty fast, as I lost two weeks of the last month to travelling associated with my real-life jobby-job. Here are the results:





I played a few games and won most! Turns out Killa Kans in combat patrol are like Land Raiders in a regular game of 40k! I was worried about a local Imperial guard payer field hydras, so I figured that if I had to fight him, it would take me 3 turns to get across the board, so I built the list so that even if he killed 1 unit a turn, I could still get across the board with enough boyz to finish the job. The Big Mek with KFF would help. Fortunately for me, the IG player dropped out at the last minute.

The next goal is to expand the force to 750 points by Nov 14th. I have to paint 24 models in two weeks! Here's what I plan on adding:

Killa Kan w/ big shoota
10 Boyz to EACH Mob (total of 20!)
2 Deffkoptas w/ TL Big shootas
Warboss w/TL Big shoota and Power Klaw

Here's my parting shot:



The boyz in an annihilation game using dawn of war setup. I ended up winning because the Killa Kanz were unstoppabe once I killed the blood crushers. Man of the match goes to the Kan with the Big Shoota who killed all 3 of my opponent's flamers in one round of shooting. I had three shots, all hit, all wounded, AND he failed all of his 4+ invulnerable saves DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA!! Combat patrol is actually a really fun way to play and seems like a good way to get a feel for a new army.

[xbanditsx]

Nice looking army and congrats on the wins. I used to love playing combat patrol games in 4th edition but I haven't had a chance to play any in 5th.

[Deadstar_MRC]

Good to hear you got the army finished. And found it to be successful! Sounds like you had a lot of fun, too.

Here's hoping the additions to the army proceed just as well.