Tag Archives: hobby

It Came from the Lightbox: Sons of Behemat

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This is possibly the most precipitous one of these I’ve done. Orcs? Done and sat around for months before photographing. Giants: like only a third done but in the lightbox.

I’m blaming the fact that life kept me from really focusing on the Kraken-Eater, which made finishing him take forever, so I’m eager to just take a break from the project. I’ve got another two Mega-Gargants and four regular Gargants to work on. They’ll be getting different skin tones, so I’ll work on them in a different batch or batches.

Also, these guys were especially frustrating to paint, as they were some of the last models I built before getting new glasses so: so many gaps, so many poorly smoothed/rough spots.

There’s some stuff I’m very pleased with here: I think I did a great job doing volumes on the skin and cloth, and I think I did a good job of adding textures to the surfaces.

The first Gargant I’d painted was specifically intended to go with my Ogres. So I figured I’d paint one to go with my Orcs (I don’t know if that’s actually an option, but whatever). So this guy’s pale and has some LotR Troll bits that make him look a bit more like an Ardboy.

It Came from the Lightbox: Kryptboyz

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I started working on these guys back in January, and mostly finished them back in May… (just in time for the list I’d painted to be made wholly invalid in AoS 3E).

When I picked up the Soul Wars box, when AoS 2E came out, the setting started to click a little for me. (I still don’t know that it’s really there for me, but at least there was something.) One of the things that had lodged in my brain was that every faction was kind of in every Realm, and that those Realms would theme those factions. For whatever reason, the idea of Shyshian (Death Realm) Orcs* stuck. (Later, I learned that this was definitely a thing, called Kryptboyz.)

Didn’t do anything with it, of course: I assembled, then sold off, the contents of the box and maybe played a demo game of AoS 2E in between.

But, stuck at home during the Quarantimes, I got the bug and did the thing.

I wanted to go for a pale, albino orcish flesh, and settled on bluish black to contrast it. Because the point of the thing is that flesh, I had to track down some extra heads so my Ardboyz could be helmet-less (and my champions helmeted) instead of the other way around. I also commissioned someone to design an orc-y scythe head I could print to use on champions and heroes.

I’m pretty happy with them.

This list won’t go in 3E, should I ever get the chance to play it, but I’ll likely fill it out with a Mawkrusha or two (one of which will be lightly converted with a Terrorgheist) and some Brutes.

* None of this “Orruk” nonsense. Ugh

It Came from the Lightbox: Bushido Minimoto

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I finally got around to painting the second wave of Minimoto models (and a couple of ronin available to them). Most of them have been assembled for, uh, most of a year and boy were they frustrating in a really surprising way.

I got some new glasses a few weeks ago and it is very clear that I really needed them when I built these models. Every time I looked, I found a new mold line that I’d completely failed to notice and address when I put them together.

Hopefully the new specs keep there from being a repeat.

Unrelated to Bushido: I printed off some Chronomantic Cogs and painted them up in a minute.

It Came from the Lightbox: Monsters

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Kragnos painted up in like a day or two. Very satisfied with him.

These Skaven bastards are what had me jammed up for, like, a month. I bought and built them ages ago when the kits were first released (during WHFB 8E) and never got around to painting them. Decided to do them on a lark, to go with the Saga Skaven I’d painted last year and boy was that a mistake: I had to paint an army of Morats to find momentum on them again.

It Came from the Lightbox: Heavy Gear CNCS

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These guys got pretty frustrating to me pretty quickly. The kits are pretty straightforward and modular, but I kept running into places where I just had to trust that plastic cement would hold a weapon in place… only to be let down. Even worse, as I painted them, I was constantly reminded that I built these models before getting my new glasses: there was an upsetting amount of flash and burrs that I should have and could have removed but for whatever reason was still present after being primed and basecoated.

But, they’re done, and with a simple scheme: basecoat, highlight, then everything got oil washed. I’d have liked to do decals but the CNCS decals just didn’t work for me and I wanted to get these guys done.

It Came from the Lightbox: Morats / OP@Home Painting Challenge

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Two weeks/three weekends back I decided to do the Infinity OP@Home Painting Challenge to break a couple of slumps (Infinity models, getting anything finished) and here I am: done.

I don’t know that I chose well in choosing the list to paint: constraints here were models I had in-hand, fully assembled but unpainted that I could but into a list. It’s likely I could have chosen a list with fewer models. It’s certain I could have chosen a more viable list. The list I chose met the criteria, though, and seemed worth taking for a spin, at least.

Anyway, I’m done. Hopefully back to wrapping up these dang Skaven models and then on to the next project.

It Came from the Lightbox: Aeronautica Imperialis

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I love/hate these. I love how the aircraft came out: I think the results are excellent, particularly considering how little effort went into them. I hate how the bases came out: I feel like every decision I made around them was wrong and I ended up spending more time on the damn bases than the aircraft, if that’s believable.

When I say “little effort,” I mean it. These are all basecoated, a few details picked out with solid colors, and weathered with oils (burnt umber). That’s it. The Tau got the tiniest bit more effort, with the top being different colors from the bottom and with a second color being airbrushed on for “camo.”

Really the key is going light so you can go nuts with the oils. I started trying to just pin wash, and got lazy. That’s fine: it’s way to remove oil paint and that’s kind of the point. By brushing it away from nose to tail, I can clean up my mess and add texture & depth.

Bases aside, all of this was the work of maybe two afternoons.

These were my first batch. I skipped decals on these, and I feel like that was a huge mistake: just the tiniest bit more effort and they’d have come out quite a bit better.

Necroumnda - Enforcer Ogryns

It Came from the Lightbox: More Genestealer Cults & Necromunda

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Early last year, I painted up a few kits of Genestealer Cults because I felt like it. I told myself maybe I’d play Kill Team with them, but really: they’re neat models and I felt like painting them. In the end, I picked up a few more Genestealer Cult models than I ended up painting and they’ve been rattling around the shame pile since.

No longer!

They’ve all gotten LoF arcs in the off-chance I actually play Necromunda with them at some point.

Actolyte Hybrids

Can I just say: Genestealers on 25mm bases are tall, unbalanced and weird. Genestealers on 32mm bases are unimpeachable. They’re flawless. I love them.

Iconward & Genestealers

I also banged out the box of Slave Ogryn models in pretty speedy time: I did 2 each for my Goliaths and Enforcers and then 2 more just in their own scheme. I also painted up the Enforcer Null & robo dog.

Goliath Necromunda Ogryns
Enforcer Necromunda Ogryns
Unaligned Necromunda Ogryns
Scrutinator-Primus Servalen

Oh and hey somehow I never put the Ambots on the lightbox.

Skaven Mounted Spiteclaw

It Came from the Lightbox: More Saga Skaven

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Back in October I got a weird motivation to return to the Saga: Age of Magic Skaven I painted in June. There were some options I hadn’t covered in the first wave, so I padded those out, and then things got a little out of control.

I painted/converted/printed:

  • Ratling Guns as Destruction Teams
  • Plague Monks with Empire Archer arms as Levies with Bows
  • Stormfiend as a Monster (more impressive than the Doomflayer)
  • A second Doomflayer (they’re War Machines now)
  • Ikit Claw as a my Warlord (I’d already painted a Warlord, but decided he was more impressive)
  • Jezzails as Warriors with Firearms (sure, they’re multi-based)
  • Wolf-rats from Thingiverse as Mounted Hearthguard
  • Spiteclaw on an upsized Wolf-rat as a Mounted Warlord
  • Padded out my Warriors (rounding out to a full point of Warriors accounting for 4 models being used by Destruction Teams)
  • Padded out my Hearthguard (rounding out to a full unit of 12)

I did break my rule of keeping the army $0 as a result of all of this, though. Most everything came from my Skaven drawer/bitz box, but I did have to buy the Plague Monks, Ikit Claw, Spiteclaw, and a few extra Stormvermin halberds. The Ikit Claw thing is especially frustrating because I’d gotten into my head that I had one and just needed to paint it up but I must have imagined it… so I had to buy one. All told, the 18-ish points of a Saga army cost me about $80.

Oh, also I knocked together 50mm x 25mm pill-shaped cavalry bases for the Ratling Guns and Wolf Rats. I’ve posted it on Thingiverse: 50mm x 25mm Pill Cavalry Base.

It Came from the Lightbox: More Crimson Fists

I guess I’m posting these in reverse order.

During my staycation, I painted up some more Crimson Fists: the Hellblasters from Dark Imperium/Know No Fear, and power-sword’d models from Indomitus.

I want to take a moment to shit on the Judicar. This is the dumbest GW model I’ve put together in memory. This dummy has a mask over his mask? And a coat over his armor? But also armor over his coat? Ugh, I just hate this model.