Lead Figures:
Newer figures:
I have been painting Games Workshop miniatures for about 15 years, albeit often very sporadically due to motivational difficulties. In 2004 and 2005 I was rather productive, partly due to being re-inspired, and partly due to injuries that prevented me climbing. Here's a selection of my favourites. Scroll down for more images and click on thumbnails to pop-up a larger image.
2007:
Khador Warjack. Painted for a TWF contest with the theme "Warmachine" - this is a Warmachine warmachine :). My aims were to get a really strong copper colour, to do some subtle weathering, to evoke a good brutal war machine style, and to paint a fairly big and complex figure reasonably quickly by keeping the painting relatively simple and relying on the colour scheme and details for effect. I think it worked pretty well and I am rather chuffed with it!!
Rackham Thermopriest. Painted for a TWF contest with the theme "Magic user". Whilst painting I realised that this really was a very cool model. I tried to accentuate the magical aspects of the figure by keeping the main colours fairly subdued and the magical items much more vivid (it's worth noting the weapon blade is actually turquoise in real life). And I had to include the obligatory sourced lighting - this was my first proper attempt and I tried to keep it subtle, I think it was okay, the purple perhaps being the neatest effect in real life. Overall I think the eyes are the nicest part though!
Hasslefree Zombie. First figure I've painted from the home-grown Hasslefree line. At the time of painting I was playing a PC game with some zombies in, and reading the excellent new zombie genre classic World War Z. So painting this figure was highly appropriate! I was trying a bit of a different style with this, a bit grittier. I'm very pleased with the trousers which were easy to paint and turned out exactly the right colour - very similar to Doom3's zombies' trousers. The metals were pretty interesting for me, I think they worked okay too! And I liked the blood round the mouth, a very simple effect that looks nice and gory in reality.
Rackham Inquisitor. First figure I've painted from the flamboyant Rackham line. As well as distinctive designs, Rackham, in their catalogue, have a strong painting style. To see how the figures stand on their own merits, I'm aiming for a quite different style - a simple and clear colour scheme and I think that worked well. I also tried some more natural highlighting too. Some people have pointed out that the cloak is rather plain and could do with some freehand designs - they are right, I had considered that but was too lazy to do it!
2006:
Damsel. Painted, once again, for a Warhammer.org.uk contest, with the theme "Bright, smooth and clean" (my theme and revenge for those who highlight this as my style!). It does pander to my painting style somewhat, and I had intended it to be an honourary entry, preferring to see what other painters did with the theme. However the message didn't get through and I was entered and won, hmmm. Regardless, I was quite happy with the figure as it was exactly the effect I intended, particularly the skin which is rather pale, and the dress which really glows (more so in real life than the photos).
Mordheim Drillsaw Massacre. Named by bananaman off the TWF forum - I like the name :). As usual, painted for another Warhammer.org.uk contest with the theme "Doom and Darkness". This is a conversion of a figure with the bizarre drill weapon, and various details added. The drill was originally going to be more hi-tech, but in the end I kept it crude and ominously ambiguous - just how *does* he use it?? In keeping with the contest I tried to paint with with a duller, more natural pallete, which I think worked quite well - people on the forum certainly liked the new style and I won the contest. I'm also trying a new photo set-up, better for this figure, but obviously still needs work.
Goblin Shamen. This pre-release figure was commissioned by bananaman off the Warhammer.org.uk forum to be auctioned as part of a selection of models, for charity. I had no brief other than to paint it well, naturally being me I had to come up with some vaguely experimental concept for the painting. In this case, every part of the figure was painted using just one basecoat colour for each part, shading solely by mixing black in, and highlighting solely by mixing white in. Two techniques that are generally not recommended as black is supposed to dull the base colour, and white is supposed to make it chalky. It was a fun thing to try....and does it look dull or chalky? Hmmm...!
Edit: The photos don't quite do it justice, especially the cloak. Need to try harder to get a new camera...
Dark Elf Warrior. Painted for another Warhammer.org.uk contest, and another figure that I'd been planning for a while and was spurred into doing. Obviously the focus is on "green" ;). The idea was to make the figure as consistently green as possible whilst retaining enough different shades to give it some definition. Only the face and decorative mini-blades don't have any shades of green in. I'm pretty happy with the result - particularly the shield logo which I was wary of tackling but in the end was good fun to paint and very effective. It all took a fairly long time, though.
Snotling attacking a Mushling. Painted for Warhammer.org.uk "duel" contest - just a fun entry and extra motivation to follow up an idea I've had for ages: A true heroic battle of the titans, a primeval conflict of near-unstoppable forces of nature. Well, forces of fungus maybe ;). To accompany it's entry into the contest I wrote a little explanation:
As one can appreciate, this piece is focused on irony, with sub-aspects of the follies of warfare and the philosophy of intelligence.
The primary irony comes from being attacked by what is essentially, one of your genetic relatives. It's like getting beaten to death with a baby. Except slightly less disturbing and slightly more ironic.
This also highlights the folly of leaving yourself open to attack by things you don't normally consider as weapons. As you can see the Mushling hasn't considered the possible impacts of hanging around with it's (almost-)fellow mushrooms, and how they may be used against it.
Finally, I feel this diorama also raises the time old issue of blissful ignorance vs tormented intelligence - look at the idiot expressions on both of the protagonists faces - are they really concerned about the conflict, the violence, the brutality? Not really. In the abscence of intelligence, and thus morality, can this conflict be considered "wrong"?
Indeed.
...Quite clearly I put more effort into the accompanying bullshit than into the figure, and I think it paid off ;).
2005:
Ultramarine Captain. This was a specific and deliberate attempt to push my painting standard further. I chose a typical style of figure (Space Marine), and a very typical colour scheme - neither of which I'm that fond of - and focused purely on painting quality rather than colour schemes or what-have-you. I put a lot of effort into every aspect of the painting and didn't cut any corners. It took a long, long time, maybe 40 - 50 hours? I am very pleased with the result but I'm not sure it justifies the effort. However I did learn some useful techniques and ideas.
Emperor's Champion. Painted for yet another Warhammer.org.uk contest (Theme: "Metallics"), which I wasn't eligible to win as I'd won too many recently! I had to paint an honourary entry anyway, just to join in the fun. This was inspired by two good Vallejo metallic colours - Hammered Copper and Gunmetal Blue, and I tried to get it as metallic as possible. I'm pleased with the result (apart from the mistake near the sword tip, grrr), and with doing something a bit different with this classic figure.
Harlequin Shadowseer. Painted for a RelicNews forums contest. Not quite sure why it didn't win but I guess that's peoples' tastes. Someone did mention that the colours weren't as crazily chaotic as he expected for a Harlequin. That is a fair point, but it was a deliberate decision to go for a more subtle scheme that was bright and colourful without being gaudy or confusing. I put a lot of thought into all the painting - for example, the quartered scheme accentuates the pose, the "same colour" gems avoid having too many colours or a too-obvious colour swap, the gold is supposed to look both rich and fragile, and the black is kept neutral to evoke an "executioner" look - the base has a similar purpose, to highlight the Harlequin dichotomy of beauty and brutality, of elegance and killing expertise.
Dark Elf Warrior. Painted for another Warhammer.org.uk contest (Theme: "Basic Foot Solider") which it just won, though the contest was a bit marred by online politics. This figure was painted to follow a strong theme and accentuate the bleak and pitiless side of the Dark Elf mentality. I actually don't like Dark Elves and combined with the crude moulding of this figure, I didn't enjoy painting it initially - until I painted the cruel sneer which worked just right and inspired me to keep going.
Zoat Standard Bearer. Painted for a Warhammer.org.uk contest (Theme: "Standard Bearer"), which it won. I'd had this somewhat historical Zoat for ages, and the contest inspired me to convert it into a standard bearer (the banner was made from wood dowel, wire, green stuff, micro-ply and wine bottle foil...oh and the fungi on the base are peppercorns!). I can't remember exactly what Zoats were supposed to be in GW mythology, but I view them as highly intelligent but elusive monsters who are more concerned with maintaining their solitude than with conflict but also quick to defend sacred places of the world when it's stability is threatened - perhaps they would ally themselves most closely with Lizardmen or Wood Elves. The symbol on the banner is a tower grown from a tree on a island, under both the sun and the moon. It symbolises that Zoats have a fortress-like strength grown from nature both in land and in water, and will use that strength to defend themselves at any time.
Painting tutorial series: These are a series of four figures I painted as work-in-progress tutorials for the Relicnews forums and have saved here for reference. Warning, all pages are image heavy.
Tutorial 1: Eldar Wraithguard.
Tutorial 2: Escher Ganger.
Tutorial 3: Nurgle Marine.
Tutorial 4: Space Marine Land Speeder.
Orc Boss. Tried to do a "definitive" Orc with this, although it is more of an old-skool style with brighter colours and stuff. There's some minor converting to make it extra primitive looking, and I tried to make the skin as vivid as possible, I think it worked =).
Imperial Guard mini-scene. A couple of old figures I got a while ago as I like their style, and I planned this little scene and colour scheme - both aspects turned out well I think. During painting I noticed their similarity to Half-Life 2 characters, so painted a little Lambda symbol as tribute.
2004:
Dawn Of War Big Mek. This is a heavily converted figure to represent the Big Mek 0rk from the WH40K: Dawn Of War game. Very much an inspired concept thing, and probably the most involved figure project I've done - a lot of work but I'm well chuffed with the result, not least doing it when the game is current and relevant. For more information and general ramblings, I've got a conversion diary showing how I made it.
Mounted Daemonette. My birthday present to my now-ex-partner. After being together for 3 years, it was about time, really. I chose the figure because it's a spitting image of her....well apart from the tentacle hair and daemonic foot claws....hmmm....actually that's not that much different . Also I like the figure, the steed is cute and the pose is unusually relaxed and confident. It was painted in a more natural and traditional fantasy style - one of the most difficult aspects of painting was keeping it hidden from my ex...
Chaos Minotaur. First figure I've painted for 2 years. I got this figure on a whim because I like the pose. The colour scheme was supposed to match a solitary Beastman I painted ages ago, but turned out a bit darker and more natural. I'm quite proud of the metals and the bestial sneer on this.
