9/6/14: Finished: Volcanic Themed Necron Army

Howdy folks!

Been chugging away on commissions and projects, and this time, we've got a huge Necron army to show off! Over 2500 points of Necron goodness, the project consisted of:

• Trazyn the Infinite
• Necron Lord/Overlord with Warscythe and Resurrection Orb
• 40 Necron Warriors
• 20 Lychguard; 10 with Warscythes, 10 with Hyperphase Sword/Dispersion Shield
• 10 Immortals
• 2 Ghost Arks
• 3 Canoptek Spyders
• 6 Canoptek Wraiths
• 12 Canoptek Scarab Swarms
• C'Tan Shard
• Command/Annihilation Barge

Enough talk though, lets show these bad boys off!

Trazyn the Infinite; my favorite model in the Necron range!

Can't go wrong with a stock Lord/Overlord either!

Two blocks of 20 Necron Warriors! Good luck getting them off the tabletop!

20 Lychguard, had a lot of fun doing both variants!

10 Immortals!

Two Ghost Arks, ready to ferry their Warrior cargo to war!

Three Canoptek Spyders; had a lot of fun with these models, and added some variety by mixing pieces with the Wraith kit!

Speaking of Wraiths! The group of 3 Wraiths; again, heads mixed with the Spyders to allow for extra variation and menace!

And the other three Wraiths! Lots of fun with these models, especially the back carapace!

You can't have Spyders without Scarabs! 

The spyders are already working away!

And the Barge! The Gun mount and the plinth are interchangable to allow for both variants! 

Go go Necron Lord!

I had a lot of fun with this army, and the client is adding more to it next month, so this isn't the last you'll see of this army! Next up are more Imperial Knights, lots of Horus Heresy models, more Necrons, and, last but not least, everyone's favorite lord of the undead....

Stay tuned!

Granesh

4/16/14: Finished: Galactic Transcendent C'tan

Hey folks!

Three blogposts in under a week?! What the hell happened to Granesh?! Well, good sirs and madams, I've been hard at work, that's what! I received this commission while I was out in Hawaii last month; a previous client, looking to get some work done on his Necrons, approached me with an interesting idea: Turn a six inch action figure of Dr. Manhattan into a Transcendent C'tan. We all know Dr. Manhattan is the ultimate C'tan, so I gladly obliged. He gave me some specs, and we were off. I'm incredibly happy with how he turned out, so enough chit-chat, more star god!

The client wanted him to appear as a mass of space; galaxies, nebulas, the occasional planet or two, and lots of stars! The Nebulas are airbrushed, gradually mixing up to white. 

The muscles were lightly highlighted with Midnight Blue, and the stars were done by putting white paint on an old toothbrush and gently running my thumb down the bristles, flicking the paint onto the model. I had to repeat that a couple times, as working on other areas would cover them up. I did some stars with blue as well, to add variation to the model.

The client wanted him on an early spring base, so I based it like normal, then lightly airbrushed white onto the flock and the rocks. Then it was a matter of carefully applying the snow!

The galaxy was a quickly airbrushed blob, which was then handpainted to include the swirling arms and the internal glowing mass.

And a scale shot of him next to one of my cultists! You better run stupid, he's gonna turn you into cosmic matter!

 Alrighty! The next week and a half is devoted to the fifth terrain commission for Good Games, so expect updates on that constantly on Facebook and Twitter! It sounds like they're going to be needing Fantasy terrain next, so it should be exciting to see some Fantasy terrain come across the painting desk! Might work on another Knight too, so stay tuned!

Granesh

3/27/14: Finished: Molten Transcendent C'tan

Hey guys!

Told you I was back in the swing of things! This project arrived today, something I was planning to work on next week, but thanks to Colorado's wonderfully unpredictable weather, its been snowing all day, so I had to put the terrain on hold for the day. However, that meant I could start on this bad boy!

My client wanted him to appear molten, glowing white from the center out to red, like a flame (well a painted flame, at least). I started by priming him white. I then broke out three colors: Lamenters Yellow, Fuegan Orange, and Baal Red; thats right, all glazes or washes, and set to work. I started with the yellow over the entire model. Once that dried, I mixed in some Fuegan Orange, and began working out. 

Dat ass! I went for black at the tips after referencing heated metals; the edges were black, while the core remained a glowing white/yellow.

His apparatus was done in a similar effect, though painted in, rather than washed. I wanted it to look like that, even despite the Necron's restraints, that the molten heat of the star god was still heating their equipment. The eyes were highlighted, and a glow effect added, with white, as was the Necron symbol on the device! The base is just for pictures; it belongs to the Imperial Fire Wasp from my latest tutorial. This bad boy is going back to live within his Tesseract Vault where he belongs!

Always fun, I love painting C'tan. There's just so much you can do with them! The next one will be the polar opposite of this guy, you won't want to miss him. Alrighty, back to the grindstone!

Granesh

1/3/14: Finished: Necrons on Ice, Wave One

I prefer my Necrons shaken, not stirred, of course.

Howdy folks!

First off, hope you all had an incredible New Years, I know I did! Its nice to be back in the studio; I got back last night and, of course, jumped right back into painting! Nearly wrapped up my first Cultist Squad; I know I've said it before, but I'm slowing moving my little gob-cultists out, they'll need to be their own unit. Expect pictures of that soon. For now, though, I've wrapped up the first group of Necrons! Client wanted a blue scheme, so I opted for the beautiful contrast of black and ice-blue. They're Carolina Panthers fans, of course...

As you can see, wave one was a C'Tan, a Destroyer Lord, 3 Heavy Destroyers, and 5 Triarch Praetorians. The Praetorians are the Lord's bodyguard unit, the Destroyers provide long range, and the C'Tan makes a dreadful mess of things.

Had a lot of good feedback on this model! This is the only kit I've ever had problems with involving Finecast, as you can see by the face. The robes easily make up for it though. As a Star God, I wanted him to appear as if he was rematerializing into the physical realm. Would love to paint him again sometime!

The Praetorians. The trim on the black looks good, but got tedious fast. The ice blue really draws the eye around the piece, and they'll look good making sure Mr. Grumpy Lord doesn't take a stray round or two. 

Speaking of Mr. Grumpy Lord! The resin pieces needed some straightening, of course, and there's minor conversion work on the Resurrection Orb arm, but he came out rather nicely! 

Had to do the transfers on the back, the gold compliments the blue rather nicely.

I wanted the Resurrection Orb to have the same ethereal look as the robes of the C'tan, so he's now got a little galaxy in his hand (cue Men in Black references...)

Boy howdy, don't even get me started on them! Those long barrels were bent to hell when I got them, and even with straightening, they're still a little curved. The green rods helped a bit. I did some conversion work on these; the front one has an Immortal's head, the arm from a Cryptek, and his gun traded to the other side, just to add variety. 

These are also my first pictures taken with my new lightbox! Huzzah! Expect this format from here on out! These will be delivered to the client tomorrow, and I should be picking up the next wave of Necrons then. That group will be 10 Immortals and some Cryptek stand-ins, should be a fun group of models! Stay tuned folks!

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