6/17/14: Finished: Alpha Legion Heldrake

Hey guys!

So after finishing the Warhound Titan, I figured I could spend a little time getting a project of my own finished. I got my Heldrake about two years ago, soon after the release of the codex and, after magnetizing and building the monster, it sat on my shelf!

Over time, I got a base built for it and got the torso partially painted. Then it went back on the shelf, occasionally melting Dark Eldar Incubi and Marine Devastators before going back to its sad state. No more I say! So I got the wings primed and colored, glued the Baleflamer in (who runs the Hades Autocannon?!), and replaced his base with one from Dragon Forge Designs, to match the other Chaos Marines rocking his bases!

The beast in all his glory! I decided to glue the wings instead of magnetize them, as I'm sick of watching this monstrous beast drag his wings on the ground!

The fleshy areas were painted Sybarite Green and highlighted with a mix of Sybarite Green and Pallid Wych Flesh, and matches the daemonic skintone on the Warp Talons and Helbrutes. The cabling was painted Moot Green and glazed with Waywatcher Green to give it an evil glow.

A little bone for his tale, and the trailing cables continued the Moot Green. 

The underside was airbrushed with VGC Livery Green to give it an eerie, ghastly glow.

Trim, trim, and more trim! If I was a Chaos Lord, I'd sacrifice the Warpsmith responsible! The trim was painted Leadbelcher, washed Nuln Oil, then carefully lined with VGC Silver (I prefer the dropper bottle for my metals), leaving the washed metallic around the rivets and in areas to add depth to the metal.

Lots of freehanding too! That's done like the rest of my Alpha Legion; blocked in with Warpstone Glow, then highlighted with Moot Green. I try to keep the symbols to the Hydra, the XX, and the 'A' with chains motif.

The Dragon Forge Base! The Newspapers were taken from a Massive Voodoo tutorial found HERE; if you don't follow these guys, you're missing out, as their work is inspirational and their tutorials are some of the best on the internet. Its basic newsprint, glued together with matte varnish, touched with some paint to mimic type, and washed. Its a great effect, and I'll be doing it across the rest of my bases before the army is finished!

With this finished project, I'm one step closer to finishing my Alpha Legion! I'd love to see GW make a plastic Chosen kit, but with this, I've got some cultists and my Burning Brand Sorcerer to finish! Dunno if I'll hold onto the army when its finished, but we'll see!

Next up is terrain and Slaanesh/Khorne Daemons! Here's a sneak peek at a 54mm Raging Heroes Asharah being used as a Slaanesh Daemon Prince!

Stay tuned folks!

Granesh

4/14/14: Tzeentch's Trap Good Games Terrain Set

Hey guys!

Been super busy as I start to to pack for my big move! For those of you who don't know, I'm moving from Durango at the end of the month; will be in Gunnison for the summer, then moving up to Denver! Hoping to meet some new gamers and build Smells Like Wargaming up there, so I'll have more information as the time gets closer.

Doesn't mean I'm not busy though! This is the 4th table I've done for Good Games down in Farmington, and we've got one more to do before the 24th...time to break out the hardcore caffeine! This table was a lot of fun to do, I wanted to opt for a more chaotic table on a moonscape; the thought was that a warp portal, leading to Tzeentch's labyrinthine domain, had begun to destroy an old Mechanicum mining facility, which had revealed the Chaotic relics. Enough chatter, pictures!

The hills are made from pink foam solidified with wood glue, covered in playground sand, and sprayed black, grey, then dusted white. I'll be hitting the undersides with purple, to add to the Tzeentchian theme.

The portal was airbrushed to give a better transition between the purple, blue, and reds.

I opted for a rusty orange (I know, rust doesn't exist in a non-oxygen rich environment), it compliments the purple nicely.

The most interesting part is the size of the hills. They count as buildings to climb (4+ you get to the top), and grant cover to lots of bigger models, like the Lord of Skulls here or the new Knight Titans.

Cultists swarm the floating asteroids...

...as Arkos and the Faithless swarm out from the Chaotic portal!

The last thing the AdMech Explorator team saw before being destroyed by the forces of Chaos!

Next up is a quick Dark Angels assembly commission, a C'Tan of galactic proportions, and the fifth table for Good Games! Should be a busy finish to the month, so stay tuned!

Granesh 

3/30/14: Finished: Armageddon Prime Good Games Terrain Set

Hey guys!

Its been a busy week! Wrapped up those Fire Wasps, the Transcendent C'tan, and I've been working on a TON of terrain for Good Games again! There's going to be another two tables and, I promise, you WON'T want to miss them!

This table was themed on Armageddon Prime, so lots of Ork glyphs and colors, with traces of Imperial vehicles. This was a very quick set, they needed it for today, actually, so the buildings and vehicles were painted quick, as was the board. Enough chatter, the pictures!

The table was done with Army Painter's Desert Yellow, while the rocks were sprayed grey and overbrushed white. Some touches of brown break up the yellow, just to add some variety.

And with the terrain! There are, as you can see, 4 buildings, 4 wrecked vehicles, and a set of Aegis Defense Lines. The lines were sprayed red and weathered to give them a pure orky look and to contrast hard from the table. 

The quad gun (its a little blurry, I know) was glued in to keep it a terrain piece and an objective! I removed the lower guns and replaced the barrels with the exhausts from an Ork Trukk. Some Ork glyphs, and BOOM! 

The buildings were primed with a textured black, then dusted with an orange spray. I let this spit a little too to add more texture and rust. Components were dusted grey and red to give it a rusted ork feel, and waterslides and freehand add character to each piece.

My favorite wrecked vehicle, beating up an Ork trukk was just too much fun! This one looks like it too one too many blast templates before rattling itself apart!

"Oh, that's friendly..." The glyphs were made from a sheet of plasticard; I sprayed it red, then drew in the glyph. I then cut, cleaned up, weathered, and glued it to the terrain. 

A destroyed Leman Russ, a forlorn sight, begins to crawl with Legion agents....

While Chosen man the Quad-Gun! Haven't shown you guys them yet, maybe I'll do another post tomorrow....

Alrighty! Today's a personal day, so I'm going to finish assembling my Knight Titan and try and work on my second squad of cultists. Easier said than done...

This month is going to be very busy, with 2 more tables of terrain, more Necrons, and hopefully a Knight Titan! I can dream big, can't I?

Granesh

3/27/14: Tutorial: Making Zone Mortalis Fire Wasps

Howdy folks!

Sorry to keep you all without any major updates for a bit! Hawaii was incredible, it was nice to get out and sit on the beach for a while! A couple of the waterfall hikes on Oahu kicked my butt though! I'm a painter, not a mountain man!

But I digress! I've got a fun little project for all of you this time, something I've wanted to do for a while, and am just now getting around to! For those of you who haven't played Zone Mortalis yet: WHATS WRONG WITH YOU?! Its incredibly fun, and you can obtain the rules for free on Forge World's site (LINK). The games play incredibly quick, allow you to run units you'd never run in a normal game of 40k, and you can create a Zone Mortalis board with some wooden blocks, pink foam, or even draw it out on a big whiteboard!

After playing a couple games, though, I wanted to check out the stratagems, which no one ever seems to run! I was immediately hooked by the Fire Wasp entry; A T5, W2 Flamer with Scout on a 40mm base is AMAZING for the game. It can shut down corridors, block hallways, prevent charges, and throw wounds on both hordes and elite units alike! I'm sure Forge World will make a model for them eventually, but I saw a couple bits off Puppets War's website and just knew I had to make these bad boys!

Tutorial: Making Fire Wasps, the Easy Way!

Materials

Puppets War Flamethrower Left Palm: HERE

Puppets War Rotor Type Wing-Pack: HERE

40mm Base and Flying Stand (any height will work)

Spare bits (Tau Heads, IG Binoculars, Chaos Spikes, etc.)

Step 1: Wash the pieces and clean up any mold lines, flashing, sprue, etc. (Do I even need to say this?)

Step 2: Remove the hand from the Flamethrower Left Palm

Step 3: Flip the Flamer upside down, and glue it to the Rotor Wing Pack. The flamer pack (the part with the little "X" should meet up just about where the magnet hole is on the Wing Pack.

Step 4: Carefully drill a little hole in the underside of the flamer to mount the flight stand. Use a hobby knife to widen the hole if need be.

Step 5: Prep your base. Mine is a 40mm with textured plasticard and an old pair of FW IG binoculars to add variety to the base. Paint as desired (I prefer rust and industrial-looking numbers). 

Step 6: Customize your Fire Wasp to match your army! For the Imperial one, I simply added a set of purity seals to the side and the IG binoculars to the top to create a vision port/searchlights. For the Nurgle one, I moved the eyes to both sides, rather than on top. Chaos spikes adorn the wings, a skull with a chain adds a flesh-hook look, and the drill is from the finecast Warpsmith (his little servo-arms break too easily!)

Step 7: Prime and paint to your heart's content! For the Imperial one, I opted for a military grey with splashes of color. I get a feel of the Terran from Starcraft looking at the flash of colors on it, which is what I wanted! The Nurgle one was rusted out and sponged like the other one. Purple was used to compliment the orangish hue, and the green slime trail was made using hotglue, gloss varnish, and Moot Green. 

I added a little marking to the front of this Wasp to continue the military feel.

Not the pus spray! Anything but the pus spray!

These would be very easy to make for any other army as well. A winged Ripper with a bio-acid spray, a Tau drone with lights and antennae, and even a group of gretchin goading each other around corners and corridors with a comically large flamer, the possibilities are endless! 

40k's theme is Forge the Narrative, so why not build some fun, characterful models to match your army for that one off game of Zone Mortalis? You could even get ambitious and build a sentry gun or even your own Space Hulk for your army to defend from boarding parties!

I hope this tutorial inspired some of you to get out there and make your own Fire Wasps! I'm planning on making a couple more and sending them to some good friends, especially Carl at The Independent Characters, since I know he's got a Zone Mortalis board these would fit beautifully into! 

Alrighty folks! I'm about a month out from moving, and I'll be moving again in July, but that doesn't mean we don't have some awesome projects coming down the pipeline! Be ready for 3 tables worth of terrain! More C'tan than you can shake a Staff of Light at! An army consisting of 3 Knights and a Warhound! I might be able to sneak some Alpha Legion in there too....

Stay tuned!

Granesh

2/19/14: Genghis Con XXXV: 4 Entries, 4 Awards!

Hey folks!

So just a quick post today, I got back from Denver/Boulder yesterday, and just now have time to throw a blogpost up about how Genghis Con XXXV's painting competition went!

I entered four pieces and won four awards! I was honestly expecting 'Serenity' to do well, and the rest would be nice. So when my other three pieces showed up on the awards, I was ecstatic!  

My Alpha Legion Helbrute, 'Laernae' won a Second Place award in the Single Miniature Large category!

Arkos, his Familiar, and his Warp Talons won Third Place in the Unit category.

My late-night Baneblade, 'Dominator', won a third place in Vehicle.

And lastly, 'Serenity', won a third place in Single Miniature Small! I'll have a full post on him tomorrow, I just realized I never got that post out! 

I'm very happy with how Genghis Con went this year! Thanks to all my supporters, followers, friends, and family for supporting me through my endeavours and projects, I couldn't do it without all of you! Next year, I'll be ready to throw my hat into the Masterclass ring; with Masterclass, its either all or nothing, so its gonna be an all-year endeavour to get a piece ready for that! 

Now that I'm back in the studio, I'm rolling through projects again! Here's a sneak peek at High Chaplain Erebus!

Goal this week is to wrap up Erebus and the Wraithknight, then jump into Tyranids and some Starship Troopers pieces!

Granesh

2/13/14: Competition Time: Genghis Con XXXV!

Hey guys!

Just a quick post before I leave for the weekend! I'm going to be in Boulder for Valentine's Day with my girlfriend, and Saturday is Genghis Con! I'll be there Saturday and part of Sunday, so if you see me, don't be afraid to say howdy! I don't bite! Check out the painting competition as well! I'm submitting:

Single Miniature Small: 'Serenity';

Single Miniature Large: 'Helbrute "Laernae"'

Unit: "The Faithless"

Vehicle: "Dominator"

Wish me luck guys! I'll be back in the studio on Tuesday, ready to jump back into the Lugganath Wraithknight, as well as some Tyranids and some Horus Heresy!

Granesh

12/31/13: SLW: A Most Odoriferous Look at 2013

Howdy folks!

Hope you all had an excellent holiday! I walked away with a new lightbox, some Broncos gear, and the new Stronghold Assault book, as well as the time spent with my loved ones! I'm still out of the studio til the 2nd, but expect some hardcore painting to start out the new year!

So 2013 has come and gone and, I don't know about you all, but its been quite a year! Tons to paint, lots going on with both the business and my personal life, and some big plans for 2014! Lets just jump right in, shall we?

January

School was kicking my butt early this year as I was starting my final semester of school! I was still wrapping up pieces for my local Ogre Kingdoms player.

February

February was one of my biggest months I'd had in quite some time! I got and finished my first Blood Bowl commission; a Necromantic team called the All-Madden 2045, and every player was a pun from an actual NFL player. 

I also traveled to Denver for Genghis Con 2013, where my Giant Chaos Spawn won my first award for SLW; plan is to go again this year and bring home a first place award this time!

March

Finished two good-sized armies this month; an IG Allied Detachment, and an all-female Henchmen force.

March was also Lost Souls 2013, run by my buddy RTGamer. We're hoping to turn this bad boy into a full-on convention in Pagosa Springs this year, so stay tuned for more information on that!

April

Crunch time! With my final semester wrapping up, focus jumped back to school for the month. I had some pieces entered into my Senior Art Show!

I also finished my first Heldrake commission, a stock Nurgle monstrosity! I still need to paint mine...

May

May went by in a blur! I wrapped up two commissions; a Valkyrie for a client on the East Coast, and a Realms of Battle Board. Those Battleboards paint up super fast, and would be the first of two I'd paint this year!

I also took a little trip to the land of the Nile. Its a beautiful country, even if its in perpetual revolt right now. We got lucky and were there between uprisings. You can see my goofy mug rocking the Arafat Headwrap in the back there!

June

The summer was incredibly busy, as I was traveling to see my girlfriend, working at the shop, and trying to keep up on painting. Unfortunately, painting took a little bit of a blow here, and would cost me later on (That's a story for another time though!)

Started doing some High Elves for the guy I was doing Ogres for earlier this year also!

July

Completed the biggest commission I've ever painted! Nearly 200 Armageddon Steel Legionnaires, all pewter! While my brain was really fried at the end of this one, I paint to see awe-inspiring groups like this!

More High Elves too! 

August

Two commissions I should have finished earlier, but that's neither here nor there. Thunderwolf-Heavy SW, and the Dreamer Malifaux Crew!

September

September was nuts! Not only did I do a ton for my client's High Elves, but also completed an entire set of terrain for the hobby shop in Farmington (I painted their battleboard in May).

October

Lots of charitywork this month! Extra Life 2013 consisted of so much Super Smash Bros I needed an icepack at the end of the night! The Cygnar Group raised about $400 for Magilla's charity in SoCal, so I'm extremely happy about that! I found some time to finished Arkos' bodyguard squad of Warp Talons for my own Alpha Legion, which I'm extremely happy with! I also started painting Skaven for the same client I've done Ogres and High Elves for all year, starting with the Screaming Bell!

November

November was crazy busy! Lots of commission work and a little personal work. I repainted and finished my Baneblade, just in time for Escalation! Gotta say, love that expansion, I've actually gotten to play with my Baneblade with it! This guy was originally for sale, but I might hold onto it now...

As for commissions, I had some Defense Lines (so many stretchy guardsmen!), an all pewter Khador Cavalry group, and a Forge World Vulture! Lots of fun projects in November!

December

December has been almost as busy as November! I've done a little work for my Alpha Legion by getting my Helbrute finished up (Thank god for the Iron Man movies for saving my sanity painting that skintone!). I also completed another full set of terrain for Good Games down in Farmington; that's a table and a half worth of terrain in under two weeks! I also started on a Necron commission that I'll wrap up this weekend!

2013 brought a lot of changes, both good and bad, for Smells Like Wargaming and myself. Every year is a new learning experience, and I'd like to think I've learned a lot about myself and the business this year. 2014 already has some grand designs and expansions planned, so stay tuned this next year my dear readers, and enjoy the roller-coaster ride with me!

Have an excellent New Years folks, and I'll see you all in 2014!

Granesh