Monster March - Classic Ogres - Week 4

It's been a bit of a disjointed week on the painting front, so much so that I've sort of forgotten about these ogres I managed to finish off!

Fresh from their raid on the local brewery.

Don't panic, I haven't painted all of these within the week. In fact after last week's update, I only had the banner bearer left to paint. Of course I had to go to the trouble of making him a banner out of green stuff! I've been putting this unit together as part of a goblin army I'm making for Warhammer fantasy fifth edition and I'm pleased to report that this brings them up to the 1000 point mark.

You can see a couple of Golgfag's ogres lurking in the back.

The majority of the unit are models from the early 90's back in the herohammer days. I've supplemented these with three of Golgfag's ogres which were part of the regiment of renown released later on. I think they match pretty well but I must admit I prefer the older models. I've had these models hanging around unpainted for over twenty years, so it's quite delightful to have them all painted up.

Sorry the photos are all a bit samey.

So what's next for Monster March? Well, I have a Kings of War giant which I would love to include in this growing goblin army. However it's a huge model and I'm not sure I'll be able to get it done in time. Still, I'm determined to make the effort, tune in next time to see how far I get!

Monster March - Golgfag's Ogres - Week 3

Monster March marches on and I have kept up the pace this week. Last time I pledged to paint some classic ogres to join my growing goblin army and I'm pleased to say I've finished two more.

Hideous? Or full of character?

I've had these models for decades and never painted them (or even fielded them) so it's been really nice to pick them up and get them finished off. Honestly I'd kind of written them off as ugly old sculpts that I would never want to paint, but they have proved to be incredibly enjoyable. These old metal hand sculpts have lots of nice details and respond really well to simple techniques like washes and drybrushing. I've enjoyed them so much that I've now painted seven of them!

The drummer is wandering off to the right for some reason.

Those of you who are long in the tooth (like me) may recognise these models as some of Golgfag's Ogres which were released as part of the fifth edition fantasy Dogs of War army. Honestly the only reason I have them is because my local store was doing a promotion at the time where they gave them away for free if you spent a certain amount. I guess they weren't selling well! 

I'm really enjoying Monster March this year; as always it's being superbly run by Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast. Loads of people have joined the challenge and seeing the work they are producing is very motivating. Keep up the good work everyone!

Right, I've got another ugly old ogre to paint so I'll see you next time for more Monster March!

Monster March - Warhammer Hydra - Week 2

We're back with another installment of Monster March. Last week I pledged to paint a hydra to join my old school goblin army and I've raced ahead with the painting. Behold the result below!

Somehow, it's finished.

Yep that's right, I went and got all excited and finished my pledge in the first week. It wasn't all plain sailing though and I'm still not one hundred percent sure about the finished model. If you like it, leave some positive reinforcement in the comments to stop me from repainting the damn thing!

As I said last time, I really wasn't sure which colours to use on this beastie. I knew I wanted to use green so that it tied in with the goblins. So I started with a Vallejo yellow-green basecoat, but that really didn't look right.

Yeah, I hate it.

After doing this basecoat on Wednesday night, I slept on it and then covered all the green areas with a layer of contrast terradon turquoise the next day. That made me feel a little better about things.

I chose the orange because a hydra strikes me as a semi-aquatic creature and I thought something like a fire bellied newt might look cool. Plus in Warhammer 5th edition they can breathe fire so I wanted something that would tie in with that. I basecoated it with Vallejo game air orange over a white undercoat which looked quite nice but was a bit wishy-washy.

Basecoats looking better.

So I painted on a sort of striped pattern with Citadel blazing orange which gave it a bit more life. It still needed some depth though, so I put on a coat of Reikland fleshshade. I tried doing the claws in purple but that looked dreadful as well, how frustrating! In the end, I settled on a nice neutral colour.

That's a lot of heads to paint.

By comparison, the shaman rider was very easy to paint. I already have an established scheme for my night goblins so I just used that. Even perched up there behind the head crest he wasn't too tricky.

The finished article.

Anyway, after what felt like a rather arduous week of painting I'm pleased to have it done. I like the final colour scheme, but I'm worried that it clashes horribly with the rest of the army! At the moment it's sitting in the cabinet next to the goblins and we'll see if I go nuts and try for a repaint.

Putting the hydra aside for a moment, I've somehow finished my Monster March pledge. Time to go for some stretch goals then! I've been working on a unit of old metal ogres as part of the goblin horde and I have a few more to paint, so it seems like a good time to break them out and see if I can finish them as well!

Here's two I made earlier.

I love these classic ogre models and it would be great to finish the unit. Come back next week to see how I'm getting on!

Monster March - Warhammer Hydra - Week 1

Somehow it's time for Monster March again. That seemed to come around quickly!

For those who are unaware, Monster March is a community painting event hosted by Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast. I have participated for the last four years and am very much looking forward to getting involved again this year with the hydra pictured below.

White undercoat for that old school look.

It's been quite a while since I updated the blog, but I felt like making the effort to support my favourite community painting event. Over the past couple of months I have been delving back into Warhammer Fantasy 5th edition and returning to my early wargaming roots. I've updated my ancient Dwarf army and begun building a horde of Night Goblins as well. The hydra which I will be painting for Monster March will form part of this force.

For anyone who doesn't remember the old orc and goblin rules from 5th edition fantasy (probably everyone?) they have a huge selection of monsters which can be ridden by various characters. I've chosen to add a hydra ridden by a Night Goblin shaman mostly because they're uncommon and I like the model.

The hydra itself is part of the Start Collecting: Anvilgard box set which I split with Blazmo over at Tabletop Apocalypse. He's working on a Dark Elf force, so it worked out nicely. For the shaman rider, I mostly used parts from the Night Goblin boss model along with a couple of chains from the Drukhari range.

So far, I've built the model along with the rider and primed it white. Next up is basing and then I'll start slapping on some basecoats. I'm not really sure what colour I want to paint it yet, so tune in next time to find out!

Monster March - Adeptus Custodes Contemptor Achillus Dreadnought - Week 3

Sorry for the slightly delayed update, I wasn't able to post over the weekend, so this is going up on Monday. Still, it was a weekend of excellent progress as I'm sure you will agree!

Behold! The finished Dreadnought.

Somehow, I've managed to finish painting this beast in about two weeks. That's got to be some kind of personal best. Not only that, but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out!

I particularly like the eye lenses.

As you can see, I've followed the same colour scheme as my Vertus Praetors, using purple for some of the armour panels and green for the weapons etc. The sculpted base allowed me to get a bit more green into the model with the small elements of foliage.

Got a bit freehandy with the shoulder pad.

I tried to push myself with the freehand on the shoulder pad. It was only after I had painted it that I realised Voldus is a Grey Knights character. Doh! Oh well, it's probably am pretty common Imperial name right?? Anyway, I was so happy with the way it looked that I didn't want to go back and change it.

Shows the raised areas of the base a bit better.

Thus my Monster March challenge is concluded. But wait, there's two weeks left to go! Perhaps it's time for a little stretch goal.

How about another Dreadnought??

Inspired by my own work on the Contemptor Achillus, I decided to dig out this Telemon Dreadnought and get it built. It still needs a touch of green stuff and undercoat before I can begin painting. Also, trying to do something this big in two weeks is certainly a challenge; but even if I just get a few basecoats on it I'll still be happy.

I'm finding Monster March this year to be particularly inspiring. The other participants are putting in some amazing work and Swordmaster is doing a brilliant job showcasing it over at Path of an Outcast. Keep the momentum going everyone!

That's all for now, come back next week to see if I've managed to make a dent in my second entry this month.

Monster March - Adeptus Custodes Contemptor Achillus Dreadnought - Week 2

Here we are approaching the end of the first week of Monster March. I've been working steadily on my Contemptor Achillus and it's coming along really well.

A bit messy at this stage, but plenty of colours on there.

As you can see from the above, I've got a lot of the basecoats down and started highlighting and detailing the lower half of the model. I managed a bit of work on the left arm last night too and I think things are looking good for only one week in to the challenge.

I'm reasonably happy with the pose.

As far as the model itself is concerned, I was tempted to go for a more complex pose than the one I eventually chose. However, when I considered that this will be a gaming piece, I decided that a simpler pose will be less prone to breakages along the way. Perhaps if I ever get a second Achillus I will be more adventurous with it.

The left leg has had the most work so far.

So that's where things stand at the end of the first week. If I can carry on at this rate then I should have no trouble completing the challenge. That of course, opens up the possibility of a stretch goal.......but we'll see how things progress over the coming days. As usual you can check out my first post of the challenge here.

Tune in next week to see if I've maintained progress, who knows, I might have a second model to announce!

Monster March - Adeptus Custodes Contemptor Achillus Dreadnought - Week 1

With Squaduary just finished it's time to dive headfirst into Monster March! If you're unaware, Monster March is an annual painting challenge hosted by Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast. The purpose being for participants to build and paint a suitably large model in the month of March.

I've participated in Monster March since 2017 and it's probably my favourite of the blogger painting challenges. It really gives me the incentive to turn out a big impressive model for one of my armies. You can read my previous posts here.

This year I'll be continuing the theme of Squaduary by growing my Adeptus Custodes army still further with the addition of a Contemptor Achillus Dreadnought.

The Forgeworld example. Isn't it pretty?

The Achillus isn't as large as some models I've attempted in previous years but it's still an imposing and gorgeous centrepiece for the army. If I somehow manage to make excellent progress and finish early, then perhaps I'll attempt a second model within the month.

I've made a rough start building the model.

I started building the model last night and have managed to get the legs and body together so far. The rear requires a tiny bit of green stuff where a couple of the panels don't align perfectly, but otherwise the model is delightful. I'm really looking forward to having a go at posing the arms as they appear to be superbly articulated.

I've also exchanged the standard 60mm base out for a scenic base from Scibor miniatures. Hopefully it will remain in keeping with the rest of my Custodes whilst being suitably grandiose as befits such an amazing model.

Check back next week to see if painting has commenced!

Skitarii Onager Dunecrawler - Fully painted

Well, I'm back from a couple of weeks away from work, away from the blog and away from pretty much everything else! I managed to fins plenty of painting time, so things have moved on well. First off, I finished an Onager Dunecrawler for my Adeptus Mechanicus army:

Crawl those dunes baby!

This is actually the Onager from my first Start Collecting: Skitarii set bought way back when. Some of you may know that this is the second Dunecrawler I have painted, the reason for this is that I excitedly started building and painting this model when I first bought it, only to realise quickly that I had made a mistake! I should have built it in sub-assembles for painting and it would have been far easier. After a few shoddy brushstrokes, it was shelved fro a later date.

Neutron Laserrrrrr!!

As a result, the half painted model has been part of my army for years. As the rest of the force has grown around it, it began to look more and more of an eyesore. But, with the Mechanicus points drops from chapter approved I was hard pressed to make an army that didn't include it. Thankfully, I managed to push through and get it finished.

Aren't transfers fun?

I also tried something a bit different with the base on this one. I attempted to build a kind of toxic waste outflow next to a bunker hatch. I used some clear pouring medium for a water effect and I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. I think I will attempt something similar on future projects. The base design was inspired by my friend Anna over at The Ashen Pair. We had some conversations about my sandy bases and she gave me a gentle shove to try something a bit more adventurous.

The base itself.

Waste outflow detail.

Anyway, another model added to the army and another fun project. More than anything I'm just really pleased to have this one done and to be able to use it on the tabletop.

Check in next week to see my next project which is also Mechanicus themed!

Monster March - Hierophant Bio-titan week 2

First off, sorry for the delayed post. This really should have gone up last week as part of Monster March but some things got in the way. Namely, finding the right space to take some half decent photos of this massive beast!

Now that's a big bug!

Eventually I managed to find a couple of huge pieces of paper to make a background and got a few shots of the finished article. That's right, she's officially finished! (No comments of 'you missed a spot' please.)

The Hierophant has actually been quite a relaxed project to work on. Partially because it is such a simple paint scheme (see my previous post) but also because it was part way finished when I kicked off this month; so it has felt easier than having to start from scratch.

She's so pretty!

Profile shot.

However, we're only about half way through March, so I feel like I should add another model to the Monster March challenge run by Path of an Outcast. Unfortunately I don't have another suitable monster (and let's be honest, what could follow the Hierophant?) so I'm following the theme of getting things finished off.

Without asking permission, I'm going to chuck in an Onager Dunecrawler that I started painting about two years ago but never finished. It's in a bit of a sorry state and will need some TLC to bring it up to scratch. Here's the current state of things.

Why oh why didn't I part assemble it??

So, it needs a lot of work. The painting is shambolic and it needs a base, feet, a gun and lots of hugs and kisses. I have done a bit of work on it to even get it to this stage. The legs have been cleaned up and I'm fairly happy with how they're progressing. That upper hull though........ugh.

Anyway, tune in next time to see if I've manage to make a beauty out of this beast!

Monster March - Hierophant Bio-Titan week 1

It's March once again and that means time for Monster March! This is an annual painting challenge run by Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast. Once again I'm thrilled to participate with another huge model; this time, trying to finish off a Hierophant Bio-Titan for my Tyranid army. If you read my previous post, you will know that I had made a start on this beast a couple of years ago; but had never gotten around to completing the model. Well, it's time to change all that!

So terrifying!

As you can see from the above, I've made great progress this week; getting a lot of the base colours finished off and starting to add detail. It's been interesting to go back to a Tyranid after painting so many Adeptus Mechanicus models recently. My Tyranid colour scheme was created over a decade ago and was designed for a novice painter (me) to get reasonable looking models on the field quickly. I haven't been able to change the scheme much over the years because it would create disparity within the army. So, what you see on the Hierophant is a pretty basic paint scheme. 

On the one hand it's nice to paint something so simply and be able to make lots of quick progress. On the other, it's frustrating not to be able to apply skills that I've learned over the last ten years. Nevertheless, it's a bold, bright scheme and looks good on the tabletop. So I'm not too miserable about it.

I'm always amazed at the size of this thing.

In terms of progress, there's not too much left to do. Basically details to paint, a few areas to touch up and that big old base to deal with. If I have a good week next week it might even be finished by my next post! Then I will have to deal with the problem of trying to properly photograph a model this size!

Tune in next week to see how I'm getting on and if I decide to add a second model to the Monster March pledge.

Monster March - Return of the Hierophant Bio-titan

If you've been hanging around here long enough (you poor souls), you may recall my ill advised foray into the world of titanic units. Specifically the Hierophant Bio-Titan. Basically I made a start painting the thing about two years ago but it never got finished; you can read more about that escapade here.

Basically the state of things right now.

As you can see from the photo, I banged a few basecoats on it (no mean feat with a beast this size) and that was as far as it got.

Well, it's March and that means Monster March! Run by Path of an Outcast, this event is meant for participants to build and paint (or otherwise finish off) a suitable monster within the month. So, my intention is clear, I will finish painting the biggest of all monsters for this month's pledge!

Tune in next week for an update and to see if my paintbrush has been worn down to a nub.

Monster March - Cerastus Knight Castigator: Complete

Just in the nick of time! I'm pleased to announce that the Cerastus Knight Castigator is finished! (pause for rapturous applause, accept bouquet of flowers etc.)

Check out those decals!

This thing has definitely been a labour of love. There were times this month when I honestly didn't know if I would make the deadline and it even caused me a few sleepless nights! I'm really happy with the final result though and thrilled to be able to add such a spectacular centerpiece to my Adeptus Mechanicus forces.

Pretty happy with the head.

Half way through the challenge, I decided I would enter this in a local painting competition, which really forced me to up my game and try some new techniques. The blending on the sword blade (seen here) was particularly time consuming and pushed my painting skills to the max. I wasn't very happy with it at the time, but seeing it in the context of the finished model makes me feel much better.

The sword in question.

Transfers are fairly new territory for me as well and caused a few moments of doubt. I tried to plan them out carefully rather than just slapping them on haphazardly and I think the final result is ok. I used a mix of transfers from the Skitarii box and the new Knight Armiger kit. I have to say that Micro Sol and Micro Set were a godsend here, and I would recommend them to anybody looking to work with transfers.

Standing guard over a Mechanicus facility.

The banner proved tricky as well. Lining up the transfers was hard and the connection points were so fine that I had to reinforce them with green stuff; it's still not the best connection in the world, so I will be very wary when handling it.

The banner in question.

I'm pretty happy with the way the colour scheme scaled up to a larger model. Getting the beige right was a bit of a headache in the early stages but a bit of advice from Blazmo at Tabletop Apocalypse soon put me on the right path. The brass and green colours I was already fairly confident with because I had previously completed an Onager Dunecrawler in the same scheme.

An unusual angle.

I want to give huge thanks to Swordmaster at Path of an Outcast for running Monster March again this year. Without the motivation of Monster March, it's likely that I would have faltered somewhere along the way and this gigantic model would never have made it to completion. I also want to say thanks to my brother, Blazmo, at Tabletop Apocalypse. A well timed painting day and a heap of useful advice really turned this project around for me; without him, the Cerastus could well be languishing in the pile of shame.

The sword of the Imperium is ever vigilant.

Finally, I want to say thanks to all of those who took part in Monster March this year. Seeing your progress towards your ambitious projects really gave me a push to keep going to the finish line.


As always, you can check out the rest of my Monster March journey here, here, here and here. Phew! I think I need a lie down!

Monster March - Cerastus Knight Castigator: Part 4

Welcome to part four of my Monster March pledge his year. I must say, trying to paint a super heavy in a month is starting to take its toll. Still, progress has been good and I was brave enough to tackle the Tempest Warblade over the weekend.

Shiny!

I went for a purple/pink fade roughly following a tutorial from a copy of White Dwarf from 2017. I'm fairly happy with how it came out but I also feel like I could have done better. There comes a point however where you just have to call something done and move on to the next phase. Speaking of which.

The current state of the model

In the photo above you can see that I've managed to finish up the left leg and that I got all giddy and glued on a bunch of armour panels that probably would have been best left until later. The top carapace armour isn't finished yet, nor is it glued in place but I was just posing for the camera.

Because shoulders need guarding too.

I also glued on the right shoulder guards which was really enjoyable and added a lot to the miniature. So, what do I have left to do? Well, my Excel spreadsheet tells me (because I am a sad bastard) that I have to finish painting the Bolt Cannon; highlight the head and the carapace armour; highlight the back of the torso; glue the remaining armour in place and sort out some transfers and the banner which hangs between its legs. There's still plenty to do but I'm pleased with my progress so far. Hopefully I can keep ploughing on and get this thing finished in the next ten days.


As always, a huge thanks to Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast for running the event. If you want to see my journey so far, you can check it out here, here and here.


Tune in next time for the final installment of Monster March. Will I succeed in my Knightly quest or will my dream fall in tatters. Only time, and this blog, will tell.

Monster March - Cerastus Knight Castigator: Part 3

So we're almost half way through March and, theoretically, I'm about half way through my Monster March pledge. For those that don't know, Monster March is a painting challenge run by Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast. The basic gist is to paint something large and monstrous in the month of March. I have chosen my Cerastus Knight Castigator which has been hanging about for a few months.


So, what's the current state of play? Well, I think that's best described as, work in progress.

Definitely in progress.

As you can see from the above, I've finished a lot of the colour blocking and applied some basic washes. I often find that it's best to finish a portion of a large model before moving on to the next part. In this case, I've divided the Castiagtor up into six parts (both legs, both arms, torso and head) and I intend to finish them out one at a time working roughly from the ground up. So far I've completed the right leg and glued the armoured greave in place (and boy did that feel good!)

The completed leg!

The next job is to complete the left leg and then the entire lower half of the model will be finished (except for the base.......and the transfers....oh dear) Hopefully you can see that the left leg is progressing reasonably well too and should be finished before too long.

Sort of getting there.

I was fortunate enough to have a bit of a painting day with Blazmo over at Tabletop Apocalypse last weekend which really gave me a boost on the progress front. Conversely, I have been a bit under the weather and have a busy week of gaming this week so my daily progress has been slow. Still, my Excel spreadsheet (because I am just that sad) tells me I'm about 50% through painting this beast, so I'm still on track for the end of the month. Here's hoping that next weekend brings another good shot of painting power.


As usual, you can check out my previous Monster March posts here and here. Good luck to all my fellow participants, your work is an inspiration as always!

Monster March - Cerastus Knight Castigator - Part 2

Where did that week go? I can't believe we are one week into Monster March already. This Cerastus knight is looking like a steeper challenge by the day! Still, I have made some progress this week by painting the armour panels that cover the body of the Castigator.


For those that missed out, Monster March is a painting challenge run by Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast. The basic gist is to paint a large monster, or other suitably large model within the month of March. I have chosen to pledge my Cerastus Knight Castigator; quite a challenge for my usual glacial painting pace. 

Hopefully some transfers will help them out a bit.

Annoyingly, while taking this photo, I noticed that the beige parts of the leg armour don't match one another. So I will have to go back in and balance the colours until they look right. This is one of the perils of working on a model in parts, you don't notice how heavily you've highlighted some bits until you get it all together.


Despite that minor setback, I'm pleased with the colour saturation on these panels. The brass and green colours have lent themselves well to this scale and I think they will be nicely off set by the beige once the model is complete.


I've also begun putting down some basecoats on the main body of the knight, but no pictures yet as it looks like a patchwork quilt!


Join me next time when hopefully I'll have a bit more progress to share. You can check out my previous post here.

Monster March - Cerastus Knight Castigator: Part 1

It's that time of year again! Time to dust off those old projects and bang out some painting challenges! This time it's Monster March run by Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast. The challenge is to paint a monster, or other suitably large model, in March. I took part last year with a pair of Kastelan Robots for my Adeptus Mechanicus and this time I'm looking to up the ante by painting a Cerastus Knight Castigator that I bought some time ago because it was disgustingly cheap on Ebay. Here's the seller's photos from Ebay:

Part constructed, hmmmm...

Feet and legs.

So, what could I glean from these? Well, judging by the price and the fact that none of the components have gates attached it was possible that this would turn out to be a recast and not an original Forgeworld product. Upon inspection of the build instructions (sourced somewhere online) I could also tell that a couple of components were missing but I figured that I could replace them with some parts from my bits box. I could also tell that part of it had been assembled with questionable skill and that the remaining components looked to be in good shape. In the end, I resolved to bid on it but not to go too high. These things retail at £185 from Forgeworld so I would be looking for a substantial discount. In the end, I put in a maximum bid of £60 and was thrilled when the auction ended and I had won at a little over £50. Not bad at all!


When it turned up, I discovered that it is indeed, a recast (at least judging from my limited experience with such things) and that the neck joint was missing along with one of the exhausts. The main body had been fairly badly assembled using some sort of two part epoxy that was caked into the joints and had set rock hard. It seemed that I would have my work cut out for me, but it was far from unsalvageable.


As a brief aside, I am a bit of a fan of salvage projects when it comes to hobbying. I love restoring a miniature that has had a hard life and adding it to one of my armies. I wouldn't want to do it for every model, but once in a while it can be very rewarding.


Anyway, having laid out the components and inspected them I cracked on with the build. The legs were fairly straightforward, all the components were there and I was able to follow the Forgeworld instructions easily. Other than some minor greenstuff work to repair some casting flaws they came together easily. The main body had already been constructed and I couldn't find an easy way to disassemble it without damaging the components. I trimmed off the worst of the epoxy glue and repaired a few more casting flaws before gluing it to the legs.


Replacing the neck joint proved tricky, but I was able to make something out of a rhino cupola and the rear part of a searchlight along with a bit of a Deff dread. I also discovered that the kit had two left shoulder assemblies rather than one left and one right. This was a bit of a head-scratcher, but once I decided what to do, making the components work turned out to be relatively simple.


I pinned the right arm in place and attached the head to the torso assembly. I decided to leave all of the armour panels off to make painting easier. The photos below show the Castigator in its current state.

Looks kind of skeletal without the armour.

My reconstructed neck joint

That all brings us up to the state of play with the Castigator. It will certainly be a challenge for me to paint this thing in a month; it's by far the largest model I have ever attempted to paint to completion and it's a pretty detailed kit to boot. Here's hoping the motivation of Monster March will push me through.


Tune in next week to see how I'm getting along.