Lock and Load, Steamroller 2012 and Golden Guardsmen

 Well it's been a while since my last post. I'm still here, just haven't finished anything in the paint department. I've started quite a few painting projects that either never get finished or get finished much later. I seem to loose interest in finishing a model about half way through. Not sure why but I'll look over at my pile of stuff and think "damn that would look awesome finished" and move on... But hey, I've been a painfully slow painter since the beginning. I'm ok with it. On my table right now: Nightmare, Machine Wraith, Scaverous, pSkarre, eSkarre, Cankerworm, Gorman, Pistol Wraith and a Harrower. All are about half way right now. I just need to start finishing them.

Lock and Load

So what have I been up to? Well I went to my first ever CON, Lock and Load. I had registered for the masters and hardcore tournaments but when the time came I found myself not looking forward to the added stress. I decided to just take it easy and enjoy my first major miniature event. It helps that Friday morning was crazy busy at work too, which caused me to miss the masters preliminaries.
I was able to play a handful of games over the course of the weekend. All the people I played with were very nice and respectful which helped me ease into the whole thing. I checked out the PP store which was fully stocked with goodness. I was able to get some caber throwers for my trolls finally, and the sons of bragg too. I snuck into a sculpting seminar that was pretty neat. All in all it was a fun experience. I would go again. Maybe next time I'll take part in the tournaments though.

 This big blue 'Jack was stationed right outside the main gaming hall.

 Deploying my army on one of the scenic tables.

 A hard fought battle for the bridge.

The MOUNTAIN KING! And Sons of Bragg.

Steamroller 2012
 
So it turns out that the following weekend after Lock and Load my local game store was holding a steam roller 2012 tourney. Being amped up from the con I decided to attend for better or worse. I spent quite a while trying to come up with strong lists to bring but in the end I just took whatever was painted. The only model that didn't have a finished coat of paint was Nightmare who will be done someday soon. I was only able to assemble one list as a result of only using painted models too. But I wasn't going to win it, I was going to look good. Anyway, my first round was a bye (I was the odd man out, but it was considered a win). Second round I went up against an epic Caine Cygnar list. I was using pDeneghra and most of the painted models in my Cryx archive here. It was a hard fought battle swinging the favor back and forth until my opponent ran out of time on the deathclock. I won by time however, if the game had gone on it could have gone either way. Very fun game that was though. So, on to round three. With two 'technical' wins under my belt I now faced the reigning champion in these parts with his Bethayne Legion of Everblight list. It was ugly for me, my soldiers were getting killed like it was going out of style. At one point my opponent edged Belphegore up to the killbox limit, later in the game he popped Bethayne out the back of the Belphegore but opted not to move her. Whilst allocating my focus it dawned on me that she was out of the killbox. So somehow I managed to win and move on to the final round. I felt a little silly at this point especially considering how much my ass was being handed to me. But hey whatever. Final round was against a Kaelyssa Retribution of Scyrah list. It was a hard fought battle that my opponent was dominating. In the end I just barely managed to squeeze Nightmare through a hole and walk up to his caster and kill her. On the final roll of my attacks I needed an 8 to hit and needed to do only a few more damage. One dramatic pause later and pDeneghra was washing Kaelyssa bits off of Nightmare's claws.
Yeah, so after all of that, I won the tournament. Pretty silly.

Golden Guardsmen Forge World Fail
 
On the 40k side of things I have been pretty unproductive. I was going to enter into the Golden Guardsmen painting competition hosted by the Imperial Guard message board. The theme was big guns. I had just the thing in mind. A while back I ordered a Medusa siege tank and a Death Korps of Krieg artillery crew from Forge World. I had all the time in the world to paint it up to match my Leman Russes. It just arrived two weeks ago, right about the time when the competition finished. Damn them, that's the longest I've ever had to wait for a Forge World order. On the up side, the next Golden Guardsmen will be command models. I have my command squad assembled and waiting for a touch of green stuff. Maybe I'll paint them up and enter.

Leman Russ Executioner

My Leman Russ Executioner is finally complete. Not much different from the Demolisher, I was able to paint these both at the same time. This one just had a few more details and extra bits to paint. I may try to clean the plasma coils up a bit still but not really sure what to do with them. The only other thing I have planned for these Leman Russes is to sink a magnet down in the hatch and paint up some gunners and tank commanders. I have one of each from the Death Korps of Krieg line but I would like to have two gunners as I think it would look better. Well that's it for now. 

Leman Russ Demolisher

Well I've finally finished my Leman Russ Demolisher! Not a whole lot of difference from the last post just a lot of dirt and a few details. The lenses are proving to be quite a challenge for me, I think I need to look up a few good methods for painting them and try something new. The dirt was a pain to do this time and I suspect as soon as I spray some varnish on it the light parts will darken quite a bit. It's too bad, I like the dried dirt/dust look.
Pretty soon I'll finish the Leman Russ Executioner to go with this one. That will make three finished models for my Death Korps of Krieg army! For a slow painter such as myself, that is something to celebrate.

Leman Russ Demolisher WIP

Here is my Leman Russ Demolisher tank for my Death Korps of Krieg army. I am almost done with it, just need some finishing touches and some weathering powder 'dirt'. Shortly after this photo I realized the decals were too clean and fresh looking so I weathered them up a bit. I will need to do the lenses on the peep-holes and lights too. Other than that it's just about there. Well hopefully I can finish before the weekend.

Leman Russes WIP

I'm about at the half-point on these tanks so I figured it would be a nice time for some pictures! To continue my Death Korps of Krieg army I have started painting a Leman Russ Executioner and a Leman Russ Demolisher. These will be the only two heavy tanks for my army mainly because they are the only two I own. For my third heavy allocation as per the FOC I will be adding a Medusa artillery tank.
I am pretty excited about these tanks because Leman Russes are known to be really tough tanks that pack a serious punch in 40k. They also look really awesome. After the success of weathering my Hellhound I decided to jump to these next. I know I said I was going to paint more Cryx... I will, just not right now. I've had these sitting in a bag on a shelf for far too long and just couldn't hold back anymore. As far as finishing them, it will have to be one at a time, the oil paint phase takes so long that I can only bear to do one at a time. So hopefully my next post will be of one of these babies finished. Now, on to the decals....

Imperial Guard Hellhound Finished

Here it is, finally done. I wound up airbrushing some "soot" over the exhaust vents on the sides. Then I finished painting the barrels of the flamers. I chipped them up a bit then finished with some Forge World Black Soot weathering powder.
For the dirt I used Forge World Light Earth weathering powder which I made into a wash with some rubbing alcohol. I tried to get it into the tracks as much as possible and then along the tops of some areas to look like dried dirt or dust. I also flicked some mud around the track areas and front of the tank. When the dirt dried I shaved a pencil down and coated my finger in graphite. I rubbed my finger along the tracks and some other raised areas to bring the metal color out from under the dirt. I chose to do this instead of drybrushing because it lets you sort of rub the dirt off in areas where you want the metal underneath to show through.
Overall the model looks nice but a bit sloppy, and a little too dark. From arms distance it looks pretty sweet though ;)

Imperial Guard Hellhound Part 2

I got some more work done on the Hellhound. In the above photos you can see I've added decals all around, sponged on some more chipped paint and rust, and washed some rust into the tracks. For the rust I mixed up some Citadel Scorched Brown and Forge World Orange Rust weathering powder with some water to thin it down a bit. I started by dipping a piece of foam into the mixture and dabbing it on here and there. I then took my brush and flicked some rust spots over the top and into the tracks. Finally I thinned my mixture a bit more and washed it into the cracks of the track.
The decals are from the Death Korps of Krieg decal sheet. They work like any other decal sheet except that the whole sheet is a decal and you must cut them to the size you want. I ran into a bit of trouble getting them to stick flush to the model's surface. Long story short I wound up painting on some Citadel Gloss Varnish over the decals and stabbed them a few times with my exacto knife so the varnish could settle under them. This took most of the bubble look away from them and should hold them in really well. After I was satisfied I sponged on some  greys to make the decals look worn. Next I sprayed some varnish on to prepare for the oil paint phase.

And here we are with a current photo. For this stage I mixed up some Ivory Black and Burnt Umber oil paints with white spirits to thin them down to the consistency of a wash. I then applied this wash to all of the rivets and cracks on the model being careful not to be too sloppy. By the time I finished the whole model, the part I started with was dry enough to start manipulating. I cleaned my brush off and dampened it with white spirits only. Then I softened up the paint on the rivets and started dragging it downward to look like rain streaks over time. Some of it turned out pretty damn good while other parts are lacking. The best part about using oil paints is that I can go back and fix any of it at any time (until it completely dries). So I will go back and clean up some of the streaks to make them look better. I might try to airbrush white spirits over certain parts of it to see what effect it has. At any rate when I finish the oil paint I'll spray another coat of varnish over it so I don't rub the paint off.

Imperial Guard Hellhound

That's right, it's not a Cryx mini for once, hehe. I've been drooling over the Forge World Model Masterclass vol 1 for quite a while now. I have a small Death Korps of Krieg army that I have collected over the last year simply because of how cool the models look. I haven't played Warhammer 40k in many years, but I am still a fan. Anyway I've decided to jump in and start painting some of my tanks. These are just the beginning stages here so don't expect to see anything too fancy. Also, I got an airbrush for Christmas last year and the weather is finally starting to warm up enough to go out on the patio and use it.

When I first got my airbrush I took this tank outside and sprayed it Codex Grey, then took some masking tape and created a striped camo pattern. I mixed up some Codex Grey with Adeptus Battlegrey and sprayed the stripes. Shortly after that I began work on the tracks, just Chaos Black with some Boltgun Metal lightly brushed over it. The black marks on the lighter grey parts were from the tape when I removed it. I didn't feel the need to clean it up since I will be taking a sponge to it next and adding some 'chipped paint' effects.

In these last three pics you can see that I've chipped up the paint a bit. I've also sprayed a few colors on; Fortress Grey over some of the Codex Grey areas to diffuse it a bit, Kommando Khaki around some panels and tracks to filth it up a bit, and finally some Chaos Black to add some more shading/depth. This is where it's at right now, I still have to go back to base coating and finish up some of the extras; guns, eagles, skullwing things. After I finish base coating all of the parts I am going to spray it with varnish and put some decals on it, then it's all about shading with oil paints. It's a pretty exciting piece for me since I am using a lot of new techniques and tools.
I'm still focusing on my Cryx army until Lock and Load comes but maybe I can sneak this guy in during the next few months. More to come.