With the end of the year looming, let’s see what projects the team has been up to before taking a break for the holidays.
SRM
Despite painting fewer models than any month this year, I’ve painted the most model, if that makes any sense. We’ll get to that in a moment though, as we start this month from a simpler place:
Monument Hobbies sent along some Pro Acryl paints, and I wanted to give them a go. However, as most of my schemes are dialed in, I thought I’d utilize them them on something totally new. I have mountains of lead older than I am, so I dug out Brother Fielding, an old Rogue Trader Space Marine with a shuriken catapult from 1988. I did him up in the Mentor Legion scheme, and even wrote a tutorial about it! I’d spent last month painting a load of detailed character models, so this chunky lead boi was a pleasant departure. I also painted him more in the style of Mike McVey’s old ‘Eavy Metal painting guides than the modern “wash and edge highlight” approach, which was liberating.
When I said I painted the “most model” earlier, this is what I was talking about. I consider myself a fast painter, but it took me 3 weeks of 2-6 hour days to knock out Tahlia Vedra and Infernadine. I primed her with some Pro Acryl Black Brown primer from my airbrush, then got to work.
I started with Tahlia herself, as she’s just a character model with a big chair. She wasn’t tough, but working around the branches on her chair was kind of a pain. There’s also a secret compartment in the back of the chair with a scroll and a spider in it, but it’s forever sealed away behind plastic glue. She’s a wonderfully characterful model, and her face absolutely oozes scorn. Great bit of storytelling on the heads in her throne too.
With Tahlia done in just a few days, I moved on to her mount, Infernadine. This cat was a lot. I’d go to paint one coat on the feathers, and it would take me an hour and a half. I’d mix up the next color, and repeat the process at least twice more. I could not tell you what ratios or mixes I used for anything aside from the elements that show up on the rest of my Cities army – all that fur, feather, and scorpion chitin is off the dome. Once I was done, I just had to decorate the base with the full gamut of my basing materials. Seeing this model come together was hugely satisfying, and represents likely the most effort I’ve ever put into a miniature. I aim for one big centerpiece model a year, and I’m glad this year’s could be Tahlia.
Lastly, I knocked out a couple Black Templars with Power Fists. I’ve been running a Crusader squad with Pyreblasters since 9th and said Pyreblasters usually die first since they don’t support the squad’s role of “hitting shit really hard.” These too were for a painting tutorial, bookending my month and encasing its contents in a power armored shell. Rank and file infantry are my absolute favorite thing to paint, and I enjoyed closing out the month with this easy breezy pair.
Next month is going to be heavy on Age of Sigmar, as I just started my new ongoing review of Stormbringer magazine. I’ll be getting a load of stuff over the next 80 weeks, and will be covering it in exhaustive detail here on Goonhammer.
Bair
After a couple very slow months I’ve gotten some of my hobby mojo back! Some. I managed 35 models this month bringing me up to a total 462 minis finished in 2023 so far! I’m even just counting these as 1 base = 1 model. So a dwarf or grot? Counts as 1. An Ice Jotnar that stands almost as tall as a Mega-Gargant? That sill only counts as 1!
I reviewed Trugg a little while back and was so fun to do I’ve dived head first into an entire Gloomspite Gitz army. “But Bair, you’re the dwarf guy!” I hear none of you cry because you’re not reading this. That’s ok, I also just look at the pretty pictures and scroll past text on many articles, especially Warhammer Community or Content We Liked; also these posts. I am the dwarf guy, but this way I can set up glorious battles in my cabinet right? Right….?
This Gitz army is in planning for a 6 person teams event I’m going to in Cardiff at the end of January. It’s called Brotherhood at Firestorm games, maybe you’ll be there, maybe you’ll also have Gitz. I’ll be the one repping Goonhammer with tshirts and/or jersey so say hi or something.
Anyway, here’s the Gitz I painted so far. As always I’m going for quick and easy schemes that look striking on a table. So dryrbrushes, light colours, all straight out the pot; no palette, no problem. These aren’t even using contrast much!
I also painted some 10mm Long Drong Slayer Pirates as a Dogs of War unit to add to my dwarf army. So even during Gitz month I still did some dwarfs.
Pendulin
What we got here is a characterful month. In that I painted five characters. Do you get it? Do you get my pun? I’m very clever. I also painted a bonus set of models, though it was a small project (and yes, that’s a Legions Imperialis pun. I’m on fire today).
Starting off we got Imotekh the Stormlord. Favorite part on this guy is the staff, as that was a ton of fun to paint. I’m not really sold on the cloak, though.
It’s fine, I suppose. I could certainly make it better, but I really don’t want to spend hour upon hour individually blending each of the cells.
But despite the cloak being a bridge too far for me, I think overall the model is great. I even love the little piece of terrain he’s standing on.
Next up we have Orikan the Diviner. This was actually my first attempt at the blue blending, and I think it turns out pretty great.
The cloak on the back here is killer. Small enough footprint that I could go all-out on it, but visible enough to have a massive impact on the overall feel of the model.
In the future I might go back and touch up the staff. I kind of wish I did the blue blending up there, as I think it would stand out in a great way. But that’s a project for Future Me to tackle.
I’m mixed on this model. Surprisingly easy to build, being made of only 5 pieces of plastic, and quick to paint too. However, I found it difficult to really get the swirling bits to a state I’m happy with.
I eventually settled on a simple white base with fluorescent orange airbrush. I don’t think it has enough contrast though. Mixing a bit of red in there, or leaving some white in untouched, would have gone a long way.
Absolutely eye-catching though, with an incredibly cool, active design that not many other 40k models have.
Stiltboy himself, the Sydonian Skatros. I had reservations when I saw the initial photos of him, but having built and painted him, I gotta say this model is actually pretty great.
Yes, he’s incredibly tall. And will snap into a dozen pieces in his first game. But for now, he looks right at home standing next to all the other Admech oddballs in my army. I’m genuinely considering building and painting a full trio of them to run the triple-Skatros gambit. You can only break so many models, and by running three of them, I have decent odds of at least one of the models staying intact for more than a game.
This guy, and the entire Space Hulk 3rd Edition box, has been kicking around in my backlog for a couple years now. Finally buckled down and painted him for a sweet How To Paint Everything: Blood Angels.
My only complaint about this model is that I bought the box second-hand, and his little skull trophy on top was broken off and missing. Had to make-do with a replacement bit that was roughly equivalent, but not exactly the same. Oh well, still rules.
One funny thing of note is how much shorter this guy is than modern Terminators. Like I know, small marines gonna small. But it’s outright comical how squat this guy is in comparison to 10th edition Terminators. And speaking of short models …
Bonus models! I painted up some Legions Imperialis and it’s hard to state just how incredibly tiny these models are. I designed and printed a little display base for them to stand in for this photo. Entirely unnecessary, but also really cool.
In case you think I’m exaggerating the size of these models, here they are next to some regular D6 dice. Quick aside, GH dice and Gregbot dice available at Baron of Dice right now, if you want to support Goonhammer!
I’m not in love with the infantry, but the teeny tiny Sentinels are pretty dang cool. And the tanks, oh man. The tanks.
These little bite-sized tanks are fantastic. Easily build in a quick sitting, paint up in no time flat, and are detailed enough that everything looks great. Tank you very much.
DYLON
I started off this month with refreshing my Captain Lysander. I painted him over a decade ago and he didn’t match up with the marines I’ve painted in the past couple years. I focus on his face and adding freehand.
Next up, I painted up some Imperial Fists for Legions Imperialis, which immediately made me feel old as I found them to be fiddly and very, very small.
Following that has been a string of Necromunda Scummers and weirdos off my desk. These things have been primed for at least a year, so it’s been feeling great to get them finished up. Turns out I’ve painted a lot of yellow things this month…
Keewa
First things first, I kicked off the month’s hobby by finishing up the Ogor Gorgers from the WarCry box, these guys are pretty neat, and they really suit a little dirtiness from a dark brown oil wash.
Cool stuff!
Rocco Gest
I’ve been hobby and posting dormant for the majority of the summer and fall this year, but I’ve had some time to work on dudes. The last time I contributed to one of these was March of this year, and I have a lot to share.
First off, I have to share my 2nd Edition Mantis Warrior again. I have to thank Masterslowpoke for sending me the model for Darren Latham’s challenge back in August. I had a blast painting him and the effort I put into him really pushed my hobby skills to a new level. You can check out more angles in the article covering all of our marines we painted for the challenge.
Next is another older set of models that I painted in preparation for the release of Star Wars: Shatterpoint. I was lucky enough to share the core box with a friend and got to paint the Mandalorians (my favorite characters and designs in Star Wars) and learn the game with him. I tried to paint them as show accurate as I could, specifically with Gar Saxon and Bo Katan. I love Shatterpoint and the models scratch a better itch for me than Legion.
Next we have Obi-Wan, another Shatterpoint model that I painted for a previous article. Getting his robe to a clean and smooth coat was a bastard for me. Like many people, Obi-Wan is one of my favorite Jedi and I love how he plays on the tabletop.
Shifting to a different Atomic Mass Games property, we have The Invincible Iron Man the new Earth’s Mightiest Core Set. I reviewed the contents of the box here, and I love all of the new sculpts for the characters in there. I’m really excited to paint more of them and write up HTPE’s for each.
I love Spider-Man characters and all of their designs. When I was getting into MCP I looked at all the Web Warriors and thought they were scratched a type of elf bullshit itch, but didn’t seem as oppressive so I pulled the trigger. Ghost Spider is the third character I had to paint mostly white and unlocked my love for using Ulthuan Grey as a basecoat for my whites.
Miles was a lot of fun to paint, but his webbing texture was kind of a pain. It took a lot of clean up to make those lines sharp. I really like how the newspaper vending machine came out and I love his pose in general.
I had a pretty specific vision with Venom and I think I pulled it off. I was specifically aiming for Spider-Man: The Animated Series Venom with the blue and red highlights quartered on his skin. It was kind of awkward to do in three dimensions, but I ended up with something I’m really happy with.
Black Cat was super easy what with all the black leather. getting the fur and hair really clean was a challenge and her skin was my first time painting a somewhat realistic complexion without using a contrast paint.
Blood Bowl is my second Games Workshop love, so when Amazons were revealed I was excited to add another cool team to my collection. I decided on a red and blue scheme and named them The Amazonia Rangers as a hockey reference and a placeholder that ended up sticking after I named each player as a gender-bent version of existing hockey stars.
Last but not least I have Glotl Stop who I painted in preparation for GHO Maryland 2023. He may have died in all 3 of my games, but I had a lot of fun using him with my Amazons.
Porble
Time for some 6mm sci-fi!
I’ve finally gotten around to painting some of The Lazy Forger’s new medina buildings. I’m slapping on some vibrant, Morocco-inspired blue paint on them. There’s gonna be lots more Lazy Forger stuff in the near future, as they’re launching the second wave of their game, Full Spectrum Dominance.
I also painted some tiny cars and a building from Iliada Games Studio. (check out their Patreon!) Right now they’re just fodder for Battletech or Full Spectrum Dominance, but someone suggested I use them for tiny games of Gaslands. What a wonderful idea!
I just think they’re neat.
Lastly, I’ve been practicing OSL on a pirate battle mech. I’ve also been practicing opossums on that same battle mech. Stay small, ya’ll.
Rockfish
As usual, I have a small mound of random things, starting with the preview models I recently finished!
Our spindly friend is the first of these mostly because he is alone as the only Ad-Mech model I have painted in a while, unlike all these necrons…
Admittedly Da Red Gobbo was also a lonely preview model, but he has enough going on in that base to make up for it.
Now moving onto a mix of preview and not models, I got a couple of units for my salamanders done – a captain and a predator.
Beyond that I also knocked out a few more mechs from my Battletech backlog…
Then after that I just have a scattershot of random stuff, like this Branchwych…
In another exercise in killing off backlog, I pulled out this command squad and worked on them over the last few days.
Then last and smallest I did a Puma that I should be getting to writing a review on soon…
Musterkrux
Turns out airbrushing tanks and weathering them is a really easy way to have a productive month…
Leman Russ Executioner: This tank yearns for death. Let’s get Hazardous.
Hydra: Probably not the best use of points in the current meta-game but who can deny the appeal of four Autocannons?
Tank Commander: Built back when a Relic for Tank Commanders was ‘A honking great gun’ (protip: Just a Baneblade main cannon barrell).
Chimeras (Chimerae?): Who has two thumbs and spends 70 points transporting a unit worth 55-65 points? This guy.
Banehammer: It’s got a Marine-killer gun and can transport up to 26 infantry. The real question is who gets to ride in the back? 6x Ogryn for pseudo-Heavy Bolter support fire?
The astute amongst you might note that the weapon placement and layout isn’t 100% correct. Keen eyes. I built this as a multi-kit that I can swap out the case-mate weapon with a turret and make it a Hellhammer.
With ITS-15 coming out in Infinity, there’s an emphasis on Quantum Anomalies. I’ve been putting together some kooky terrain, some of which could even be used in 40k.
Every Quantum Anomaly needs to start somewhere, and here it is: The Cosmic Egg. Take a Kinder Surprise Egg (the most dangerous thing you could import into the US), slop some various horrid textures on it, drop a few screaming heads in the goo and you’ve got a reality-bending monstrocity on your hands. Contrast paints are amazing for adding depth and visual interest to terrain pieces quickly and easily.
An abandoned Objective Room. I cut some MDF to specs, used cork and spakfilla to build up some volume/depth, gave it some texture with some sand and then weathered the crap outta it with paint. Imperial Priest for scale (didn’t have a banana on hand).
Blood Stalkers. What do they stalk, you ask? Blood. It took a long time to build up the enthusiasm to paint this unit. Even with an airbrush and using Contrast Paints to shade them quickly these sneks took longer than I would have liked. The upside to committing to painting these models is that if I put literally any other model on my hobby table it got painted almost immediately while I procrastinated on these. Downside is that I’ve got to go paint the rest of the army now…
Charlie B
As work on Goonhammer’s 40K co-op mode Fury of the Swarm wound down, my hobby progress bounced right up, spurred on by the promise of taking my marines on campaign in early December.
First, a Ballistus Dreadnought. I wrote up poor Brother Demeias’ interment as a horror story, so if you enjoy Night Lords upsetting people, that’s here. Imagine my delight when the new Marines codex dropped at the same time, and also featured a short story where a dude gets messed up by Night Lords and ends up in a dreadnought.
Next is a converted Phobos lieutenant and five more intercessors, since my 2019 goal of making a “small showcase force of no more than 30 minis” is now over 3,500 points and needs more battleline stuff to keep it balanced.
If you too would like a less Tyranid-infested lonely ninja boy, here’s some notes on the conversion process.
After that I filled out my Aggressor squad from 3 to 5. In my gaming group we ignore 10th edition’s stupid “pay for 3 or 6, but nowhere in between” thing, and just do a bit of extra maths.
After that came a rustic palette cleanser in the form of a half-painted pub that had sat on the shelf for a decade, and whose incompleteness could be countenanced no more.
Finally, TANK. Tank big. Tank not have too much glued to it, since the 10th edition rules have mercifully consolidated the Repulsor’s five million weapon systems. Me like tank.
Skails
I painted three Citadel C17 skeletons for a Necropolis 28 gathering. These little dudes are lead miniatures from the early 80’s.
Here is a shot of the final crew, led by Finrum the Liche.
