A Change will do you good

Chaos Warrior of Tzeentch
28 mm

 

This figure is actually a conversion I did... ten years ago?!  It's based on a Heroquest chaos warrior, with some added greenstuff and a Tyranid arm.  It's been sitting around for all that time, waiting to be painted.

I'm very happy with how the Thousand-Sons-like colour scheme worked out, and kind of wish I'd extended it to more of the armour.  But maybe it stands out more this way.  The skeleton on the base is, I think, an atmospheric touch.

Chaos brothers from another mother...

 

And another small project I finished recently:

Three Witches
15mm

You've got to pick up every stitch...
Must be the season of the witch

These CP models classic-style witch figures are admittedly not my best paint jobs ever... But I like their poses, which together rather remind me of Charlie's Angels 🙂

Award Ceremony

This is an idea I've had for a while.  Looking back (8 years!) on my blog, I've had a number of visitors over the years, as usual coming and going over time.  But I have to say, there's one guy who just keeps coming back , since March 2006 in fact.

So, javi, this award is for you, my most loyal reader :)

It's easy to forget that the things we do online do have impact, positive or negative, on actual people in the real world.  So to everyone who visits here, thanks for reading!  And for those who leave comments, they're always appreciated.

In honour of Change

Champion of Tzeentch
28mm

Change... it can be good or bad for us. Too little change and we become inert, dull creatures of habit. Too much, and life descends into chaos, a swirling maelstrom with no direction or control. Tzeentch is the Chaos god of Change, the seducer of those who seek knowledge or power, to change the world to their advantage.

This guy is obviously based on a Heroquest warrior figure.  Plastic, easy to cut up :)  I didn't have any GW "Tzeentch horrors" to saw up for parts, so the mutated limb is based on a Genestealer arm.  The headdress, of course, is a tribute to Tzeentch's most tragic of followers, the Thousand Sons, who I have always found to be one of the more compelling stories of Warhammer 40,000.

I can't be sure when this guy will get painted... our baby is due any day now so I doubt I'll have a ton of painting time in the near future :O Change indeed!

Grr Argh!

HeroQuest Zombie
25 mm



Well he's done, nothing special but I'm reasonably happy with how he turned out. Once again, GW Snakebite Leather looks rich and wonderful when it's basecoated and washed with a dark brown, but looks dull and lame once you start highlighting... Clearly a colour meant for "dippers" :)

Odd Couple

HeroQuest Zombie
28 mm

CSD Mk1 Security Robot
28 mm scale



Despite my wife getting sick this week... followed by me getting sick :( I actually managed to get some painting done. Not much, but I worked a bit on my gunbot and started another HQ mini. So, a clean and tidy guy, and a grungy one.

The robot's blue is just GW "Hawk Turquoise" diluted with a lot of white. It's exactly what I was looking for :) It's hard to see but I added some small wheels stowed on the inside of his legs, similar to Tachikomas...

My inspiration for the zombie is this recent CMON post... but if mine looks half as good I'll be happy. That skin really looks great.

By the power of Greyskull...

HeroQuest Barbarian ("He-Man")
28 mm



Ok, so he's not exactly as exciting as "Skeletor", as I've said the villain usually gets the coolest outfit :) But I am pleased with the way the skin turned out, which is good considering how little he's wearing. The only real modification I did is the belt design, which I tried to make similar in style to He-Man's chest plate (while not clashing with the rest of the figure). Since I was messing with greenstuff after I started painting, I didn't try to make it too elaborate.

As you can see I gave him a companion; maybe a little small, but perhaps Battle Cat is young in this photo :) The cat is from Mega Miniatures.



I'll probably try to paint up a few more of these HeroQuest figures in the coming months: Chaos Warriors, orcs/goblins, maybe a zombie (But not the Fimir because, frankly, they're lousy minis even by HQ standards).

Works in progress - barbarian and tank

HeroQuest Barbarian
28 mm




Of course, I'm painting him up to go with "Skeletor", but I don't think he'll be as engaging. The villain is so often cooler than the hero... (also this figure is not nearly as interesting a sculpt, nor does his pose work as well with the plastic casting). But that's no reason not to paint him!

Possessed Panzer
15 mm scale



A bit of work on my "possessed" Panzer III. Cutting the tracks up (with the world's #$^@ing dullest razor saw) to make room for the emerging tentacles was a pretty ghastly chore, especially since I wanted to save some of the road wheels and leave some track remaining to dangle convincingly at the ends. But I think once it's done it'll look okay, and I can just plaster some demonic goo over any rough spots ;)

HeroQuest Hellion

HeroQuest Necromancer ("Skeletor")
28 mm



Finally done. I wasn't sure what that sphere on his helmet is supposed to be, so I painted it as a Palantir-type black orb with point reflections.

I suppose an alternate name for him could be Lord Zuthulu ;D

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Some Christmas swag from my brother:



A Reaper "Reptus Sergeant" and Confrontation "Orhain the Erudite". I believe I asked him not to buy me minis... so he compromised and dug these out of the FLGS's bargain bin for a few bucks each. I especially like the turtle guy.

And i just picked up some RAFM Call of Cthulhu Deep Ones. ♫ ♫ It's beginning to look a lot like fish men ♫ ♫...

Screaming, screaming for vengeance

Some work on the Necromancer, much-delayed by Christmas stuff. It turns out that if my wife goes out for a few hours and I can blare 80's metal through the house, I actually don't mind fussy layering on smooth surfaces:



OK, so the music didn't improve my ability any. I think the Skeletor look will actually turn out okay, maybe a bit cartoony but I don't mind that. His green skull face actually looks genuinely sinister.

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Also, a very geeky paper Xmas ornament I came up with, using some internet papercraft and clipart designs printed off and hand-coloured:



Yeah, that's a Stargate :D

Basing, with candles

Some basework for my Necromancer:



Cork isn't very imaginative, but it is pretty easy, and I like the way it looks.

And... Bonus content! NSA's totally amazing simple method for sculpting candles!

Now, I'm neither skilled at nor enthusiastic about sculpting, but we often have to do it to get the miniatures we want. In this case, I wanted a skull with a drippy wax candle on it; something that says "sinister ritual" without taking up too much space. Anyway, this method isn't Golden Demon quality, but it does produce credible-looking drippy candles in only a couple of minutes.



Obviously, before you start this process, you can just fix the wire into the surface on the mini that the candle will be sitting on, or you can hold it in a pin vice or forceps.

End Zone Interception!

HeroQuest Necromancer
32 mm



I've wanted to paint one of these for a long time... I never figured I'd get my hands on one. (And yeah, he does look like he's waiting for a football to fly out of the sky)



I'm not sure what to do with the base now that I've extracted his feet from it... Pentagram? Some Chaos-y torn cork rocks? Skulls and bones? I'm a little short on ideas.

Sick Day(s) Project

HeroQuest Mummy
28 mm



I did most of the work on this guy while laid up with a cold, and then (unrelatedly) recovering from having a long skinny medical instrument jammed through my body via some of my larger blood vessels. Not optimal painting conditions, but this wasn't exactly a groundbreaking paint job either. Still, I like the results.

Size comparison with an old Citadel mummy from "Curse of the Mummy's Tomb". HeroQuest figures are a lot closer to modern "heroic 25/28mm":

Motley Things

Chick Challenge* Entry
28 mm



OK, I can't actually show this, at least not before the Dec. 5 closing date for contest entries. But I will say it's a lovely sculpt by Victoria Lamb, and it's not at all like a lot of the things I have painted lately. Also, it's very purple.

* The Chick Challenge, in brief, is a female miniature painting contest. It was run for years by Jason Moses, but is now ably managed by Legio Pictorum, a group of Italian painters.

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I recently managed to acquire ($2, church bazaar) a battered copy of Heroquest! This was a Milton Bradley fantasy board game from the 80's, with game pieces produced by Citadel/Games Workshop. Essentially a canned version of a RPG dungeon crawl, complete with treasure to collect and orcs and other nasties to fight.

It came with a large number of "game pieces":




Hmm, yeah. They remind me of the figures from Battlemasters, or the old Bloodbowl box set. While they're not exactly high-quality even by the standards of modern plastic figures, I have done decent paint jobs on such things in the past.

I feel like these have... potential. We'll see.