Need for speed (part two, also first impressions on the new CSM codex)

Hey folks, lots going on this week so lets jump right into the skaven painting tutorial I got set up, I will reference a couple of things I did with the goblins so take a look at that if you haven't already.

So first things first I wanted to give our vermin lord here a green flame atop his banner, I always liked the imagery of the Warpfire that the skaven use on a bunch of stuff and try to mimic it every time I can get away with it, As with last time I started with a white basecoat, and to achive the almost neon greel glow of that fire I added 4 drops of P3's yellow ink to 3 drops of P3's green ink and Applied. it was that simple.

The next couple of steps came vary quickly and naturally, Some watered down liche purple for the robes, and I decided on a 1/1/1 of menoth base+ vallejo's light brown and a drop of water to create the skin, which is a creamy light brown, the fur would later be a reddish brown of dark flesh to give a bit of contrast.
I must confess I also added a drybrush of scorpion green to the flame as I though it would make it pop more but only proceeded to muck up the nice ink I had applied.

I started on the banner and rusted armor next, the banner would be simple as I wanted to make it look like bloody skin, I went for menoth white base instead of rotting flesh to avoid the greenish tint, I would later add a purpleish red wash named "drying blood" from the secret weapons line to make it look like strips of flesh. Now for the Rust walkthrough, which is what I wanted to show off most, You start with a watered base of black over the sections of armor or blades that you want to make rusty.

Then you take a light brown and water it down to wash consistency and apply it to the black sections. (You'll note I added the yellow brown wood color for later as well as added the wash for the banner as well)

After this Brown wash has dried you will notice it looks like a thin layer of dirt in the cevasse and areas where the wash has pooled. Now it is time for the rust. This can be tricky and ultimately depends on what look you like better, you can make the orange a wash and over the parts, or you can attempt to drybrush it over certain areas. I recommend different styles for the different paints you will be using, Vallejos orange is always runny so it doesn't take much to make it a wash, but GWs is so thick it doesn't take much to drybrush with that, experiment see what you like best.  I went with both though I think the wash worked better on this model.
 After all this rust I began painting metals in order to make the lord here look like he had a mismatched or looted armor.

 Shortly after this is done I begin to add washes to the wood and metal, adding a light flesh to the tail followed with a flesh wash, little leather straps being touched up with dark brown as well, and finally adding the reddish brown color to the fur.

Finally, I added some blood spatter on the cleaver, and on the arm holding it as well as painting the pillar he is standing on, with a light grey, and covering it with a black wash before adding white to the stone and then covering it with the green wash from earlier.

So with the Vermin lord completed, I figure it's time to discuss the new CSM codex a little bit.

Now let me start off by saying I am by no means an expert and have no doubt people will like other things that I don't and hate things that like,and that's fine but I'm a firm believer of "play what you want to play" and I'm going to talk about stuff that I liked and stuff I want to play.

-Things I am excited about-

-First off cultists being back is awesome. I plan on getting about 60-70 of my traitor guard painted up specifically so I can run nice looking cultists. 
-Noise marines are back and pretty freakin' cool this time around, they can't really assault but don't lie to yourself you weren't going to use them for that anyway. You now HAVE to take a champ now which I'm not a fan of but the sonic weapons are cheaper so I'll deal with it, Blastmasters and doom sirens are still good so be prepared to see them get used quite a bit.
-Dirge casters on vehicles are awesome, every CSM army is going to use them, they kill overwatch within 6" so get ready for Khorne armies especially to abuse the shit out of them.
-Forgefiends are good, and I'll pardon the dinosaur attached to the guns because the guns and pipes look so good. but I might find myself hiring some sculpting help for a slaaneshi top.
-Lords are cheap as hell.
-Eye of the gods is awesome
-All slaaneshi troops can get Feel no pain for cheap.

-Not so excited-

-Deamon weapons mysteriously missing, except for two upgrades and two HQ's they have mysteriously vanished, and granted it's not a bad thing but I miss having the option to have a slaaneshi lord w/ jumppack and a daemon weapon menace the opposing side.
-We all knew Lash was going to disappear, but to replace it with nothing else that messed with movement? Seems a bit harsh. Spells are still pretty good, but all in all not looking like something I'm gonna take often.
-Not excited about the maulerfiend, or the Heldrake. Seems like there are things that do these two new toys jobs better (except for maybe the heldrake which can chase flyers). Others may like them but I'm not a fan.
-Daemon princes are probably gonna be what you see mostly as the Hq's again. Though having to take a  humanoid to take the cult troops as troop choices instead of elites.

-Things that need errata already-

-Only thing that currently comes to mind, although I'm sure there are going to be more....is the nurgle zombie cultists. If you haven't heard when taking typhus you are allowed to take cultists as zombies, and they gain some good abilities such as feel no pain, but here is the rub, you are not allowed to take options, adding extra dudes to the unit is under the section called options, so reading the rules as written you are only allowed to take ten zombies with each unit of cultists which pretty much mean many people won't (although you could just take plague marines in the elite choice after filling all your troop choices with the zombies.) Point is it needs an errata already.

Hope you enjoyed the post, I won't have another up until monday at the earliest as I'm going to a concert tomorrow and work the rest of the weekend.

~SWL

Watch the skies! (The parasite returns)

Hey there folks, This week I decided to work on the parasite after chatting with a few folk I know IRL and not having enough time to paint a tank this week. 

So time to show off the completed parasite, and the color scheme I have chosen for my 'nid army.

 Well it may be a bit of a cop out, but results from those that I hear from were so varied on the two color schemes that I decided to do them both, the medium to big sized bugs getting the darker color scheme, and the small ones getting the bright green with blue shell.

 

 It's worth noting that I tried out the secret weapon purple ink over vallejo pink for the membranes of the wings as well as a few other spots, which I think gives it a distinct contrast, though I think some butterfly type symbols wouldn't be amiss if I ever decide to touch it up.

 So all in all that is my Parasite of mortrex, hopefully I have some gargoyles completed soon to keep him company.

In other news while trying to finish the parasite I wanted to redo my company commander for my Traitor guard. As my army is fluffed as house guard gone cult, I thought it only fitting that their company commander should be the lady of the house.

 Yes I do realize there are better whips around now, but I really didn't feel like remaking or tearing the piece offso even though it looks kinda bad I still kinda like it.

 For those of you wondering the model is from anima tactics, and she's a 32mm scale, so if you decide to get some for any of your armies he will look taller and thinner than most but I feel that kinda fits for this army so I let it slide.

 Her hair was done simply with the P3 brown ink over white paint, which I was astonished looked so good when done. again the pinks were done with a light coat of purple wash over them.

If I can't get around to another tank this week You will probably see these gals next update.

As always leave any comments you may have below, and have a great week.

~SWL

Let the games begin...

Hey folks, sorry about no update friday as normal, however having been working on the new Exalted chariot of slaanesh which took much much much more time that I assumed it would.  I actually thought I would hate this model when I saw it, being overly large and looking like it was pulling a tractor. All of that being said, I still picked it up because I thought the rules were quite excellent (who doesn't like getting 4d6 attacks in one charge?) so after a couple days assembling, 4 days painting, and one of getting the water-effects on the base to behave I finally have the entire thing painted I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do.

I decided to change out one of the claws on the daemonettes for the banner, so I might use this one as a herald-bearing chariot.  

I have to say I also really love the Whips on the model, I'm also quite glad that it comes two sets so that I can add them to other models later like my seekers.

 I have to say Intense blue from Vallejo along with the blue glaze from GW makes an amazing blue, I find myself wanting to use it quite a bit lately. Both much of the hair and the skin on the mounts used it, I'm considering making an entire unit using these colors. 

Coming up this week another large Creature feature, and most likely another giveaway.

 See you folks then have a great week 

~SWL