7/13/14: Finished: Khorne/Slaanesh Word Bearers Daemons Detachment

Hey guys!

Been a lot of daemonic forces crossing the paint table over the last couple of weeks, both commission and personal! I'll share my new Nurgle guys soon but, for now, this post is for the commissioned group! This group consisted of:

• Skarbrand (Made from the FW Bloodthirster)
• Skull Cannon of Khorne (WHFB Hellcannon conversion)
• 28 Daemonettes (The old Juan Diaz ones!)
• Daemon Prince of Slaaneshi/Keeper of Secrets (Raging Heroes Asharah model)
• 2 FW Renegade Psykers

Enough chit chat though, pictures!

Skarbrand! I received the model with an average paintjob. My client had me clean him up, rebase him, tarnish the wings, and sculpt a new axe.

I tarnished the brass with Nihlakh Oxide; it really compliments the red skintone and the green eyes.

The axe was built with cardstock, plasticard, and greenstuff. Not my best sculpting job, but it works!

The wings were tarnished with a dremel tool, and the edges were greenstuffed to show the old torn leather hanging off. The wings weren't totally destroyed so my client can run him as Skarbrand, a stock Bloodthirster, or Angraath.

The Juan Diaz Daemonettes. These were all secondhand models; they were stripped, rebased, and cleaned up rather nicely!

Just wonderful models!

That's a lot of death right there....

The first renegade psyker. Really creepy model, he painted up really quickly and to good effect!

Even threw a little script on the back for extra detail!

This is the second time I've gotten to paint this model, so it was really nice to come back and play with it again.

Even went for a skull tearing effect to really make the psyker look desperate.

The Skull Cannon of Khorne! Really interesting conversion, the hounds are Barghests from Puppets War, the cannon is a Hellcannon from Fantasy, and the rider is from the Chaos Warshrine!

Wanted to go for a glowing blood look, complimented with the greens of the rest of the army.

TO WAR!

The Slaaneshi Daemon Prince! I'm sure she'd double nicely as a Keeper of Secrets too! The model is the limited edition Asharah model from Raging Heroes with the Terminator Lord familiar on the base.

The reds tie her back into the Word Bearers, as does the green on the book. Even opted for some tattoos and streaks in the hair to add to the Slaaneshi feel.

The pictures don't show it, but the Daemonettes also got flames on their loinclothes. I feel this really added needed detail to the model, and looks great too!

And the little familiar! The client had wanted to use the hand holding the book on the Daemon Prince, but preferred the sword and lash, so I still tried to work the book into the model!

And the finished group!

The Daemons of Slaanesh clash with Nurgle's chosen! 

Alrighty! Next up are a trio of Wraithknights, more Imperial Knights, some Necrons, and another addition to the first Legio Titanicus commission I completed back in May! Will have some pictures of my new Nurgle daemons too! Whew! 

Stay tuned and keep painting!

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

1/30/14: Review: Puppets War Barghest Fiends Pack

Howdy folks!

Sorry for the spacey lack of updates this month! Its not that I haven't been busy working on projects, a couple of setbacks and things in my personal life have just pushed everything here to the end of the month and beginning of the next. My Tau order finally came in, so I was able to jump into that, and the Necrons will be done early next week, so its coming full circle soon!

I have, however, had a little time to continue on my review of Puppets War's miniatures. This time, I jumped to the models I was most excited to assemble and get rocking: The Barghest Pack! Lets do this, shall we?

Disclaimer: Although I received these models through a promotional offer to promote both myself and Puppets War, I have no obligation to give a biased or favorable view because of the the circumstances. If I don't like a kit or piece, you better believe I'll speak my mind about it! Same goes if I love it!

Puppets War's Barghest Fiends Unit Review
Cost: $35 (approx USD)
Contains: 5 Complete models minus bases

The models come in four pieces: the torso and right legs, two left legs, and a head. Again, like the Rippers, they didn't include bases, so if you're going to pick them up, you'll wanna order some bases for these bad boys! I opted for some GW ones, but I'll touch on that later...

The models had a couple of vents on them, but nothing a pair of clippers and a file couldn't take care of! I was also surprised by the lack of air bubbles! There's a couple on the pads of their feet, but nothing in areas that would affect painting. Bravo Puppets War!

The left legs, as you can see, are all letter-matched to ensure everything lines up. You'll want to dry fit everything together, just to ensure everything lines up though.

As I said, the lack of air bubbles and miscasts in these guys was incredible! I was certain the chains were going to have errors and imperfections, but lo! There weren't any!

The holes where the heads attach was my only negative: The mold lines and flashing inside them made clean up very finicky and difficult on them, especially if you're trying not to damage the collar. I ended up clipping the nub off the backs of the heads and just gluing them in that way. They're still plenty sturdy though!

And the fully assembled beasts! You can see they fill up a full 40mm base with little room to spare! I would have thrown them on a 60mm or even a bike base, but I didn't have any to spare, unfortunately. I remedied the sizing issue by making some sculpy rocks for them to run over ala James Wappel style. I haven't had any time to throw some paint on them, but following Genghis Con, that should change!

These models have excellent uses for Warhammer 40k! My first thought, of course, was Hounds of Khorne: you get the same number, better sculpts, and still save $15! How can you go wrong?! They'd work as Dark Eldar Khymerae and Clawed Fiends and, again, save you money in the end! With a little conversion work, they could work as Kroot Hounds or even a replacement for a Krootox! Like Space Wolves and Chaos, but don't like the Chaos codex? Bam! Chaotic Fenrisian Wolves! You'll be able to find a use for these models in many MANY armies!

Quality: 4.5/5

Clean sculpts with little to no air bubbles or flashing, but the minor issue with the neck drops my rating to a 4.5. 

Price: 5/5

Cavalry rocks in 6th Edition, it shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg to run them! Puppets War delivers on price here easily!

Value: 5/5

Whether you're a gamer or a painter, these models have everything! Lots of detail for painting, but still look great if you haven't had the time to paint them. A basecoat and a heavy wash would do most of the work for you anyways! Lots of army applications, very distinct models! 

Overall: 5/5

These models are definitely the go-to for you Khorne Daemons and Beastmaster Dark Eldar players out there! Even if you don't have an army that can run them, the amount of details, clean sculpts, and poses will make for a fun painting project if nothing else. 

You can find these models and many other excellent ones on Puppets War; they just released some barricade terrain pieces that look pretty sweet!

Now I'm itching to paint these guys up! Hoping to do a ruined Imperial Cathedral look on the bases so they still match my Chaos Marines, but are still different and distinct if I decide to do Daemons at some point. Gotta hold off though, I've got a ton to do before Genghis Con! Tau, Necrons, Eldar, and Chaos Marines are all coming down the pipeline very soon! Stay tuned!

Granesh

12/11/13: Review: Puppets War Mankind Rippers Unit

Howdy folks!

So I was recently approached by Nick over at Blood of Kittens about a little 40k proposition he was throwing together to combine 3rd Party suppliers and commission artists. Personally, I love the idea, and not long after, I was paired with Puppet's War, a bits supplier based out of Poland. I dove right into the box of goodies, and the first project that caught my eye was the Mankind Rippers Unit. Lets jump right in, shall we?

Disclaimer: Although I received these models through a promotional offer to promote both myself and Puppet's War, I have no obligation to give a biased or favorable view because of the circumstances. If I don't like a kit or piece, you better believe I'll speak my mind about it! Same goes if I love it! Now, without further adieu...

Puppets War's Mankind Rippers Unit Review

Cost: $40 (approx USD)

Contains: 5 Complete models minus bases

The kit consists of 5 bodies (torso and legs are a single piece), 5 heads, and 5 sets of arms. Personally, I would have liked to receive some bases for these bad boys, but I had a set of 40mm round bases lying around, so it wasn't a big deal for me, but just keep that in mind when ordering. 

As you can see, I received a 6th set of arms; I can't imagine it was intentional, just a packer's mistake, but I'm not complaining! I gave the models a good bath to release any release agent, though the models seemed to be fairly devoid of it, thankfully.

The biggest question I'm sure you all have is, "How is the casting quality?". Impeccable, my dear sirs and madams! There are virtually no airbubbles on the models, as well as flashing. The only places I found them were on the tips of the fingers and the bottom of the feet, which is no problem whatsoever.

As you can see, the pieces scale very well to Warhammer 40k bits and pieces. While I opted to go with minimal additions, you could very easily throw Space Marine or Imperial Guard heads on them, or cover the shoulders with a Terminator Shoulderpad. The standard Marine ones are too small. You can also see the detail on these pieces; CAD design and casting has come a long way! 

One of the biggest selling points of the kit is the holes for magnetizing the arms. This makes these badboys very versatile, as you can use the arms supplied with the kit, or opt for Terminator arms. I only magnetized the sergeant, as I'm still playing around with army choices for the unit, but in reality, you can easily magnetize all five models.

The arms take standard 1mm rare earth magnets; be sure you mark one side with a sharpie to keep your polarities straight! 

My magnets stick out just a touch; I prefer the extra girth they add to the shoulders, but you can easily drill the sockets a touch deeper if you so chose. Ahh, the beauty of resin!

My first Ripper WIP; I've opted for a more neutral style to allow me to play with the 40k allies chart. I've been playing around with doing a small Adeptus Mechanicus force as Necrons, but with the armaments included with the Rippers, they'll work just fine as Mega-Armored Nobz, Shooty Terminators, Necrons, or even Tyranid Warriors (Instinctive Behavior represents their control over the skitarii). 

And, an overall assessment of the product as a whole:

Quality: 5/5; 

Clean casts and well designed models ensure you'll be able to paint every detail without problem!

Price: 4/5;

Cheaper than a box of Space Marine Terminators, but with less pieces and weapons. At $8/model though, you can't go wrong!

Value: 4/5;

The casts are clean, and the detail is there, but some extra weapons and bases would have been a nice inclusion. Hell, I'd pay another $10 to get some extra arms and even a plain black base! 

Overall: 4.5/5

Puppets War has done an excellent job on these models; they're very striking on the tabletop, and with the sharp edges and little details, lend themselves very well to both beginner and advanced painters. As I said, some extra weapons would be nice, but you can pick those up on their website, as well as sculpted resin bases. 

Expect more reviews in the coming month or so as I slowly work my way through the box of goodies I was sent. Thanks to the guys at Puppets War, as well as TastyTaste over at Blood of Kittens, for giving me this opportunity. I've got a couple of tutorials coming as well from the group of models I received, so stay tuned for some strange, fun projects coming your way!

I was working on that first WIP guy during the Broncos/Titans game this weekend, so I was almost too tense to finish him up! I should have more pictures of these badboys painted up towards the end of the week, so stay tuned! Should, as well, have another blogpost up tomorrow showing you all what I've been working on this week. Realizing its only been a week, the amount of stuff I've painted is kinda scary, even to myself. Anyways, stay tuned!

Granesh

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