Tau: Ethereal

In an earlier post I reported that I purchased some new models for my Tau army on the net. Of course I couldn't resist starting work on them and today I finished the first of these models.

I painted this Tau Ethereal in a week or so. But I didn't take any wip picture of him.
I tried to practice my shading and highlighting skills on him. It was also the first time for me to paint Tau skin. I also gave the gems some special attention to create a good lighting effect on them.

Here are the results:






Seeing that today is also the last day of the month I'm going to reflect on the work done. I'm very pleased with the amount of work I completed this month. In the past I haven't been a very productive painter and I'm happy to see myself making progress on my army.

I think the main thing that has helped me accomplish this is by dividing my work in small sub-projects and to not get distracted by other projects. Finishing the models I'm working on before I start on something new does the trick for me.

All in all I completed the following this month:
- Finished my Witchhunter Warband for Mordheim, 15 models in total
- Assembled all the infantry + drones for my Tau army, 35 models
- Painted 11 Firewarriors + 1 Drone for my Tau Army
- Painted 6 Tau Stealth suits
- And last but not least the Tau Ethereal

Today I also recieved a package containing 100 small rare earth magnets for a future project: Magnetised Crisis Suits.

At this point i don't want to set any targets for next month. Currently there is only a lone Kroot Ox on my workbench that is 33% painted. Once I finish him a next sub-project will be started.

See you in April!

Tau: Stealthsuits

This week I completed work on the Stealthsuits. I they allready had paint on them and I must say that the paintwork progressed very fast on them. Seeing that they are cast in once piece except for their backpack they are easy models to paint and work on hem goes faster then plastic Firewarriors.

I'll start with showing the old state they were in before I did anything to them. Back then I tried painting some camo / disruptive pattern on the barrel of their weapons. However I wasn't that happy with it so I decided to repaint it with Camo Green.

Here is the before picture:


After 4 to 6 hours in total I completed work on them and this is how the finished models look:



Squadmarkings will be painted on later on, but for now I'll continue working on the bulk of my army.

On my workbench at the moment are a Tau Ethereal and a Kroot Ox. I expect to post pictures of them within two weeks.

Varnish: Testors Dullcote

When I unpacked all my wargaming materials I came across an old can of GW Matt Varnish. I don't know if this one is still useable but seeing that is more then 5 years old I'm at least going to test it first on a testmodel before I start coating my new paintwork with it.

On dakkadakka.com I've the tip to coat my models with Testors Dullcote. It's seems to be one of the best matt varnishes out there. And most serious modellers that have used it says that there is no better matt varnish.

So I set out to find it in a Dutch / European webshop and the only shops I easily found were in the UK and wouldn't ship outside of the UK. After doing some extra research I came across the following information:

Testors Dullcote (spray) contains Toluene; which is now banned within the EU. As such the "traditional" Testors Dullcote Aerosol can not be legally sold anywhere within the EU.

Testors have today informed us that they are working on a new formulation of Dullcote (spray) but it may be another couple of months before it is done and able to be shipped out to the EU.

We will announce when we have the new formulation in stock and do some testing to see if it maintains is excellent matte abilities, until then it seems sensible to avoid buying the aerosol from any other sources, as anybody selling it will be breaking the law. However, given that it has taken us almost two months to find out why though it seems likely that other retailers are not aware of the situation.

Source

The information above is a year old now, I checked the material safety datasheet on the Testors site and the spray still contains Toluene. So I'm going to stop the search for Testors Dullcote for now and going to look for alternatives. Of course I'm open to any tips but I'm also going to make use of the following information I found on a German painting site:

Varnish list

First Firewarriors done

As stated before I completed work on my first batch of Firewarriors. I added some detail work to the Firewarriors and single drone I allready had painted up. Here is the result of the touched up models.



I also completed work on the first batch of seven Firewarriors. The paintwork is a bit different then that of the old ones. But it wont look strange when placed on the tabletop. And I personally think that the new paintwork looks better.

I'll start with posting pictures of how the model progressed through the painting proces.

The fatigues were basecoated with a mix of Chaos Black and Dark Angels Green. Afterwards they were drybushed with Dark Angels Green followed by a light drybrush of Snot Green.
The body armour was painted with Camo Green taking care to not paint the lines between the armour panels.



After this the weapons were painted with Camo Green as well and details were picked out. I didn't want to go overboard on the detailwork cause I don't want to spend ages on these models and want to have a finished army.



I painted the shoulder guards seperatly so they wouldn't make it to hard for me the paint the model. I glued them on and proceeded with cleaning up the paintwork.



Models were then based with sand which was painted black and drybrshed with grey and white. Afterwards small clumps of static grass were applied as well.

The finished result:





Now that I finsihed work on these models it's time for something new. I'm currently working on two sub projects.

First I'm assembling the Kroot Ox that I bought last week. I'm surprised by the amount of work cause it doesn't fit very nice and requires a lot of filing, fitting and putty work.

The second project I'll be working on is finshing the paintwork on my old metal stealthsuits. I like the new plastic models a lot but for now I'm not spending money on them.

Bargain spotted

Last weekend I was browsing the web and I came across an advertisement on a Dutch Ebay alternative in which a guy had the following for sale:

- 1x Krootox
- 1x Tau Ethereal
- 2x Kroot Shaper

Allthough I wasn't planning on buying new miniatures before the bulk of my current models were finished the price was to good to resist. The items were still in their blisters and I was able to buy them for less then a 1/3 of what they would have cost me in a shop. Today they arrived by mail and everything looked well.

Today I also finished of the Tau Firewarriors I was working on, I also did some small tough up work on the old Firewarriors. I'll post pictures of them later this week.

A new project: Tau

As stated in my prist post on this blog, I've also been involved in a bit of Warhammer 40K before I quit. I started out collecting the first bits of a Tau army. I purchased the following items back then:

- Tau codex
- A box of Firewarriors
- An old Tau battleforce
- 6x metal stealthsuits

Back then the battleforce box contained the following items:

- 3x Crisis suit
- 12x Firewarriors
- 12x Kroot
- 10x Drone

Of those items I worked on a load of stuff but only a handfull items were completely finished before I quit the hobby.

Below are foto's of what I've completed prior to quiting.

Firewarriors:



A lone Drone:



Kroot:





Now since then I've assembled all the models I had laying around so my current project is painting all the stuff I've assembled of the last days which sums up to:

- 20x Firewarriors
- 4x Kroot
- 11x Drones

Which looks like this when put together:







All in all a lot of work that will keep me occupied for the the coming weeks / months. Espescialy because it will be mixed with finishing the other models of my starting Tau army.

Witchhunters: part 3

Here's the last update for the Witchhunters so far. I've allready started work on my next projects. Photo's of them will follow soon.

However now it's time to take a look at the members of my Witchhunter warband that were modelled, converted and painted recently by me.

I'll start of with two Hounds, I've got 4 of them in total but I don't think they are that special.





Next are two Witchhunters, the first one is a stock metal model. The second one is made with plastic components from the Mordheim Mercenaries sprue.









Now come the first conversions I've done since I've started work on my miniatures again.
First is a metal model which comes from the Witchhunters boxed set as a Zealot. However I gave him a flail / morning star that is made from the pole of plastic lantern and a bell from another GW sprue. I'll use him as a Flagellant ingame, allthough I know that these Henchmen can't use shields the people I play aren't that strict regarding WYSIWYG.





The second conversion I want to show is a model that will be used as a Zealot. I like the mad setting of Mordheim and for this conversion I was inspired by some models in 40K who carry a banner in their backpack. The parts I used were the pole from a Lantern, a plastic skull and the book from the Mordheim mercenaries sprue. I also created a torch by chopping of the top of a club and making a flame with some greenstuff.





Last is my first serious attempt to adding some bigger parts on a model with greenstuff. The idea was to create a Henchman who has a wicker basket on his back as a backpack which will be filled with Wyrdstone shards. The left arm was also created from various parts as there was no shooting left hand with a pistol. I also added a walking cane that has a heavy metal head which can be wielded as a mellee weapon. Last I added a plastic sword with a purity seal.







Overall I'm pleased with the results and in my opinion my paintwork hasn't gone back in quality. I hope I'll see my paintwork improve soon but what I really want to focus on is my sculpting.