Marneus Calgar & Tomb King Skin & Gold

Slight design change on the blog, I really like the tag cloud :) which didn't show on the old magazine type design.

I have done some work on Marneus today, and put together my tomb king.

His face has been base coated, I think ratskin flesh basecoat looks amazing. The snakebite leather has been covered with shining gold, this will then be washed with sepia and highlighted with a combination of burnished gold and mythril silver.

So far: happy :) and the tomb king was only £3.50!

...loving my new palette!!

My miniature display case | iPhone 5 panorama

I have taken a couple of pictures trying to get a panorama view of my miniature display case...

It hasn't turned out all that great if I am honest... I need more practice at holding my hand steady!! Yeah I know my reflection is in it as well, also please ignore the bedclothes, random bit of driftwood, crap PC games and RJ45 cable.....

A depressing view of my lack of painting.

New purchases and the White Dwarf 30th Anniversary miniature

Another little update.

I have been up late tonight getting through my backlog of miniature assembly (probably procrastinating from painting again...)

Anyway I think I have assembled everything I have so far except the tyranid, which I am going to have to convert using the plastic hive tyrant legs pictured below.  The seller sent a metal OOP set instead but once I brought it to their attention they sent out the correct legs free of charge, so now I have both!

Some other purchases have arrived... namely a couple of snazzy new plastic palettes, a rather nice finecast dwarf standard bearer (look at how crisp that finecast is and a set of five corks.

I plan to either use the corks to mount miniatures on when priming/painting or to break up for scenery or maybe dig chunks out once a completed mini is attached for a rocky base... or to give a cutaway effect...

... all eBay specials!

When it comes to some actual work... I have already mentioned putting together a lot of stuff.  I completed both Kingdom Death miniatures and they are pictured below.  Also put the giant on his base and completed the 30th anniversary model.  I now remember why I bought it, so damn cool!!

Some new purchases

Went a bit eBay happy recently... not had any time for painting so I thought I'd fire this up.

Picked up the Dwarfs of Legend set for 30 quid which I thought was an OK deal. Eight nice miniatures and a wee wooden base for them!

It's quite a rare set as well by all accounts as I think it was top prize for redeeming "skullz" points around the millennium.

Also got myself some of these funky neodymium magnets to see what the fuss is all about.  I got a set of 50 tiny ones (pictured) they are really quite strong, not sure what to use them for at the minute but I will think of something. If I was more of a gamer I could use them to swap weapon fits!

Also got a massive bag of assorted Games Workshop bases for 99p :)

Decided to go a bit crazy and get a winged hive tyrant (the forgeworld one) someone was selling it for 30 quid and I'm not sure if that is a bargain or not but I imagine so... there is some damage on the model though... he is missing a leg!  I have bought a hive tyrant leg from eBay and will try and stick it on... I dont think it will look exactly the same but will be a close match.  I also thought as a last ditch effort I could just model it as a missing leg.

Kingdom Death Miniatures - King's Hand & Flower Knight

If you ever find yourself wondering if you should buy something from Kingdom Death... don't hesitate and do it.

Didn't have much time tonight so thought I'd work on my assembly backlog... It's funny assembly used to take me 5 minutes but nowadays I spend ages on the preparation of the model.

Finally putting together these two minis which I bought many months ago.  The flower knight is dauntingly detailed, just look at the picture below to see how tiny some of the bits are, I don't think my painting is of a standard that would look good on these beasts.

Casting is ridiculously good as well, just google some reviews, literally no prep, just snip and glue together (admittedly a bit fiddly)..... massive contrast will be ages of filing and sanding and clipping on the White Dwarf Dwarves I will be assembling next!

http://kingdomdeath.com and they are running a Kickstarter campaign to get a full game (Monster) off the ground here.  I would encourage anyone who's into the Kickstarter thang to give it a look.

Also if you are into collecting, a lot of the miniatures they sell are very limited run and you see them on Ebay for silly prices which I don't agree with... but meh... supply and demand...

Marneus Calgar basecoats

Hello again,

Another update tonight - Some basecoat work on Marneus.  I think I have linked this before but you can find some background on this character here: http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Marneus_Calgar

I used a scab red and black mix for the cloak and snakebite leather for the gold details (usual stuff) Oh I also added a dark blue wash (drakenhof nightshade they call it these days) on the blue power armour.

I reckon a quick dab with basecoat then a bit more ink should sort out any imperfections where the snakebite meets the armour.  I also need another layer of snakebite, I think my latest paint thinner mix is a tad heavy on drying retarder.... but no matter...

I also erm... bought a couple of new things.... still celebrating my new job [insert excuse here]

A new tyranid model.... and more dwarves, Super excited about the dwarves and I just got a despatch notice for them a short while ago!

This mac rocks.... take pictures with iPhone.... wait a few secs, go on to the mac.... import pictures from photo stream on the mac and then upload to blogger.... ace! can also share the pictures to the chat app so I can imessage my girlfriend my progress and pretend she cares!!

Warhammer Giant, desk tidy up and Big Boris Mk3

Hello again.

Today I have scraped the thick layer of dust from my work desk and cracked open a couple of minis.

The Warhammer giant was really fun to put together and I went for the vanilla version.  The kit really has bolstered my bits box beyond belief.  Games workshop could maybe chop a tenner off it and not include the massive amount of extra bits...

Some pictures included of the usual clipping, filing, sanding and modelling knife scraping.  I also used a bit of milliput to fill the gaps.  I much prefer this to the traditional green stuff, it's much easier to work with and fits in small gaps much better as eel as reacting well with water.

Secondly I put together Big Boris Mk III from Heresy Miniatures www.heresyminiatures.com it really is probably the nicest metal cast mini i've ever had. Barely needed any prep work.  Just a bit of buffing with fine steel wool. Oh and he is big, Marneus Augustus Calgar in space marine armour for reference.

You can also follow the owner of Heresy Miniatures on twitter (he's quite entertaining!) check the contact us page on his website.

I have also decided that whenever I remember I will update twitter to point to this blog. Oh I'm @samwross :)

On holiday for a bit

Hello everyone, with the new job and the time of year i'm not finding time to do anything at the minute so I'm suspending updates for a while. Not really sure how long but it will probably be in the new year.

cheers.!!!