GWs 25th Anniversary Marine

As I posted on Saturday, I trekked into town to pick up the limited edition Space Marine to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Warhammer 40,000. I've mentioned my concerns about finecast before, and have had some issues with it in the past, so thought i'd post about my experiences this time and give you a little review of the kit.

First off is the presentation box it comes in - nice packaging with the old school Rogue Trader front cover artwork by John Sibbick. I look at it and I am immediately 11 again - back in the days with no grown-up concerns, no exams and just a passion for painting toy soldiers and playing games with my Dad... Good times!

And as if my nauseating nostalgia wasn't enough, the front of the box pops open to reveal some more photos of the painted model. Quite a nice touch for a commemorative piece. (This is magnetised to prevent unwanted flopping)

Getting the colours down

So I have really started to get some colours down on the scene itself now.

Ignore the mess, I made the schoolboy error of painting the pipework (as they were metallic) BEFORE painting the wall behind. The pipes will be totally redone :P The following photos should give you an idea of my colour scheme. I am hoping it will contrast nicely with the pinky yellow of the strain as well as the orange accents on Sharro.

The yellow stripe on the corner will be yellow and black hazard stripes, and these will feature in a number of other areas too. The red stripe will follow through all the way round the scene. I am currently thinking about using a mid grey for the door.

In other news, we have actually hit 40 followers! Thanks for your interest guys :)

25 years of Warhammer 40,000

Its 40Ks 25th anniversary this year, and I started playing in the Rogue Trader (1st edition) days! Far too long...!

To celebrate this GW have released a new space marine - the crimson fist from the rogue trader cover art! Whilst it's not the prettiest model GW have released, I am grabbed by nostalgia and will have to buy one!!

Actually I am geeking it out and am currently outside the Exeter store waiting for it to open... Oh the shame...! But mail order have sold out and Exeter have just 15 ;-)

I'll post pics later - hopefully the finecast doesn't let me down!

A messy WIP

Layers and layers of green over a black undercoat.... why do i do it to myself? I reckon it would have been much easier with an airbrush, but ho-hum!

It's going through the 'messy' stage at the moment... Its going to have a two-toned wall with green at the bottom (nowhere near this saturated by the time I am finished) and a light coloured two-thirds at the top.

At the moment this is a neutral grey but I am more and more tempted to change it to a light khaki brown. I will weather the green in one area  to help me decide.

Studio McVey competition over at Platoon Britannica

As part of the ongoing 'Best of British' event that we are running over at Platoon Britannica, we have just announced the second painting competition in the series - the McVey McLovin'. In essence, anything by Studio McVey (Sedition Wars or Collectors Series or a mix of the two) is game, and we are pleased to announce that we have managed to get hold of the increasingly rare and now out of production Kara Black models as top prize (the original one with the big gun)!

It would be really great to see what you come up with!

The diorama sprayed black

Ok, I think I'm at a point where I can start to paint the base!

It feels like a real milestone, and I am looking forward to tackling it. I think I will do it next, even though Sharro and the revenants aren't 100% complete as I can then make sure all of the components come together cohesively.

Sharro gets a lick of paint

Good evening campers!

Started painting Sharro today... lovely little mini, and very different from the other two models I have painted for this scene. To contrast with the gribbliness of the Strain I have tried to keep this girl really clean and sharp, and also gone for orange as the accent colour rather than the blue of the boys.

New design

Just had a bit of a tweak with the blog 'look and feel'. What do you think?

Whilst this is mainly cosmetic, it also gives me the functionality to use drop-down menus across the top (see the Gallery section). I have high hopes to set up some more 'permanent' pages on the blog in addition to what we normally post.

I'll let you know when I add more content.

New pages:

Science Fiction

Fantasy

Busts

Dioramas/Vignettes

A little progress

So, the weekend brought more progress on my diorama. The scene itself is pretty much done (more about that in a moment), and the two Revenants are coming along nicely. I have spent a fair bit of time on the flesh tones of the first one I painted to make it match the other one more closely, and the trousers of the second one to  match those of the first!

Strain Revenant - flesh done!

Blimey.... February already??

Flesh is done! Made a bit of a faux pas with the trouser colour, but that can be changed... I am thinking of making it blue and yellow like the first revenant I painted. The grey here seems too desaturated for the rest of the model throwing it out of balance. It almost makes it look like I just haven't painted the trousers at all...