Wyndon's Workshop

[WyndonCalling]

So, I've recently managed to become more disciplined when it comes to painting my miniatures and, inspired by @Beth Pavell's thread, thought a photography log would be an excellent way of both recording my progress and keeping me to a rough schedule for the completion of new models. At best, I hope to be able to upload a new finished miniature every week; if not, I can at least show some models I've built, some WIPs, or ones I've painted previously.

First up is a Lord of the Rings Cave Troll which I finished in the last couple of days. This sculpt must be getting on around 15 years old now, and it was a beast I desperately wanted to add to my collection of goblins growing up (I did eventually get my mitts on one, and did an atrocious job painting it). The model has been out of production for the best part of a decade, until Games Workshop decided to produce a limited run of OOP sculpts, and I picked a pair up quicker than Sam eats potatoes.

Spoiler: They have a cave troll

A big, uncomplex model with lots of natural textures is a joy to paint; the only challenge here was with the distressed texture of the belly skin, which required some pretty light brushwork so as to only catch the raised flesh folds and avoid the extremely shallow recesses. Otherwise, this was 90% drybrushing over a flat basecoat and then applying a shade to harmonise the colours a bit. This was loads of fun and a fitting tribute to my childhood collection.

Next up is something unrelated to Warhammer, but very fitting here. A few years back, I managed to acquire one of the very few pieces of merchandise portraying my all-time favourite Pokémon, Pinsir. It's just a cheap and nasty rubber finger puppet with no depth, so I decided to change this early this year with a new coat of shiny paint and a detailed base.

Spoiler: Glam up

The main trick here was just a line of shade and a similar line of edge highlight just above to give the impression of layered shell plates. Otherwise, the only technique that was a little interesting was a heavy, focused drybrush towards the top of the horns, while keeping the base of the horns darker. The purple basecoat could have done with a little more blue, but it's close enough to Pinsir's modern shiny colouration that I'm pleased with it (in older Gens, the shiny form is unquestioningly blue).

Next week, I hope to be able to show off some finished Lannister Guardsmen from the Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures Game.

 

[Beth Pavell]

The model has been out of production for the best part of a decade, until Games Workshop decided to produce a limited run of OOP sculpts

Good lord. I remember when that was released - I think I still have the White Dwarf that featured the Moria release somewhere

 

[LadyC]

I actually really love the "cheap and nasty" finger puppets! They brought much joy to my life
But good job on pinsir

 

[Welkamo]

Ooooh I like the Pinsir

 

[WyndonCalling]

Transpires that I can provide an update a little earlier than anticipated - I've finished a unit of CMON's Lannister Guardsmen, for the Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures Game, along with their movement tray. These aren't the most spectacular troops in the Lannister roster but they're well-armoured and bear the terrible sigil of the Lord Paramount of the Westerlands, cowing those who remember the fate of the Reynes of Castamere.

Spoiler: For Casterly Rock!

I'm used to painting models with a lot of esoteric details and trinkets, so it was pleasant to be back to painting relatively mundane surfaces, even though there's still more detail on one of these guys than the earlier Cave Troll. It was relatively difficult applying highlights to the fabric, as much of it is quite flat without the large, deep folds that you'll often find on cloaks and the like. I've probably not perfectly captured where the light would exactly fall on the tabards and banner, but it's certainly good enough for a casual observation.

I'll likely be away from my brushes and kit for a good chunk of next week, so another painting update might not be forthcoming for a little while - instead, I'll be able to share models I'm building or ones I've previously painted.

 

[WyndonCalling]

So, I managed to get a little bit done before I headed off this past week, and made some good progress on a model that will take quite a while to finish anyway. Having built up some recent momentum, I made a start on perhaps the most ambitious miniature I've ever set out to paint, both in terms of physical detail and the importance of the character to the Warhammer 40,000 setting, as one of two beings responsible for the galaxy being as dystopian and GrimDark as it is.

He is the ultimate antagonist; the Breaker of Worlds, the Slayer of Angels and the End of Empire. He is the Prodigal Son whose return is the overture to the Apocalypse; the pinnacle and nadir of Man. He is the Warmaster, Horus Lupercal.

Spoiler

But for now, he's just a head.

NGL at this point I'm getting these vibes:

I generally enjoy painting faces as they're relatively easy to achieve (broadly speaking for white faces, this means applying a dark base, then a layer of mid-tone everywhere except the recesses, giving the whole thing a ruddy flesh wash to harmonise it a little and really darken the recesses, and then slowly building up to almost pure white on the pronounced details) and mistakes are quite simple to identify and correct given the human eye's natural understanding of how faces are supposed to look. Furthermore, the eye is immediately drawn to the face when looking at the human form, so pulling it off well gives a favourable first impression of a model.

Last time I mentioned how it's difficult to gauge where the light falls on flat pieces of fabric and clothing, and why cloaks are generally easier to paint for this reason - hopefully the pic below gives a good demonstration of this:

Spoiler

It's still a little crude (the gradient between the dark red and the black is particular is too stark and needs to be gently blended more), but the wide raised areas = lighter, and the folds and recesses = darker.

Over the course of the next week, I hope to be able to get the cloak to a point that I'm happy with it (the back of it needs painting, too) and to have at the very least made a start on the rubble decorating his base.

 

[WyndonCalling]

Bad Wyndon, bad! Get back on track, or to the hobbling wheel with you!

Through a combination of fresh commitments as lockdown begins to lift in the UK, and good, old-fashioned laziness, I've not made as much progress as I'd hoped. Most of the base is now done, but I've not touched the cloak since. This really is one of my biggest flaws as a painter - I'll paint up around half of a model or part of a model and really enjoy getting a feel for the textures and necessary techniques, then once I've gotten the hang of it I'll grow bored and move onto the next challenge. I have a depressing number of quite-good-looking-but-only-80%-finished models lying around.

Spoiler

He's not glued into the base yet, but it demonstrates how the model stands. It's quite easy to achieve a good effect with rock and stone by simply applying multiple drybrushes - that is, working only a small amount of paint deep into the bristles and making fast 'dusting' motions rather than deliberate strokes. It provides quite a natural, inconsistent appearance that's suited to both organic materials and unpainted or rusty metal.

To bulk out this update a little further, I'll share one of my better paintjobs from my collection. This chap is an Ogre Tyrant riding a Stonehorn, who I worked up for a doubles tournament deadline.The brutality of the name is well-matched by the tabletop rules for this beastie:

Spoiler

I'm really pleased with him, but the truth is that this was mostly basic techniques applied at scale. If I were to congratulate myself on a couple of strokes of genius, it'd be a) applying the tufts of foliage to the horns to really give an impression of aged stone (yes, the Stonehorn literally has a skeleton made of granite) and b) the scheme for the Ogre's battered armour. It actually started in life as a coat of orange, which was then darkened and muddied through repeated black and brown washes, before the edges were picked out with a metallic colour to show where flecks of rust might have peeled away.

At some point in the future, I may find myself slightly tempted to revisit his base. It's fine, but I was using some outdated materials to decorate it and I know I can do much better, as per the Lannisters above. As for the next update, I still need to finish the Warmaster's base and cloak!

 

[skywaffles]

These are awesome!

 

[WyndonCalling]

A month later, I owe a bumper crop, so I'll attempt to deliver on it.

Progress on Horus continues slowly but surely, and though I'm still nipping and tucking I'm really pleased with the current state of the cape, which I've temporarily attached to the main body with blue tac to see how it all comes together. As you'll see, I've also made a very tentative start on the armour itself.

Spoiler

But wait, there's more! Having recently met up with my friends for the first time in over a year, and having fully completed a DnD campaign set on the Magic: The Gathering plane of Ravnica, I motivated myself to complete my custom-ordered sculpt of my cleric character. Konstantin Yeltsin is arrogant, scheming, unpleasant, treacherous and greedy; in other words, a devoted practitioner of the creed of the Orzhov Church.

Spoiler

I have a few niggles with how he turned out - the consistency of my white paint isn't great and some of it appears a little blotchy, and I'd rather the detail towards the bottom of his robes wasn't quite so thick, but the model is quite small and so these issues will only ever be noticeable to a very critical eye at close distance. I love how his smoky skull-spell turned out, as well as his smug grin.

But wait, there's more! These are just a couple of miscellaneous decorative pieces I had lying around that I'm quite pleased with, having worked them up a couple of years ago now - I've not had chance to yet, but I'd likely use these as game markers or perhaps attach them to the base of a large, impressive model.

Spoiler

The plan is to continue working on Horus, and hopefully be able to share pictures of his completed main body in the coming weeks. Besides my own, utterly intransigent attention span, the one thing that could see me diverted is the potential announcement of any tournaments I'm interested in, now that restrictions are set to imminently end in the UK!

 

[WyndonCalling]

Cough

Yeah, I've had a bit of a dry spell recently but after picking up another unit for a planned army build featuring Horus, I've built a small head of steam this past week.

Constructed using technology now lost to the 'modern' Imperium, the jetbikes used by the Legiones Astartes allow for the rapid deployment of heavy weaponry directly to the enemy's vulnerabilities - a quality highly-valued by the inherently aggressive Sons of Horus. Under the direction of the Warmaster himself, a so-called Sky Slayer squadron will always arrive on the battlefield at the absolute optimum time to wreak carnage on even the heaviest armour.

Spoiler: Zoom zoom zoom

That deep sea-green is a delight to paint, even though I think the photo does a slight disservice to the edge highlighting on the bike closest to the camera. It's very slightly frustrating that the Sons of Horus have that dark gold/brassy trim because it means that the model is presently dominated by metallics, but I'm very confident that once the riders are sat in there it'll bring even more sea-green to the overall palette and balance it all out.

It's begun to dawn on me that I actually have rather few finished models that warrant showing off, so for the next few updates I'll be featuring some of those eternally-80% done projects that may someday reach completion if I can remember which paints I used.

Of all of the traitorous Space Marine legions in 40k, none are as unique as the esoteric Thousand Sons. While a vaunted few of the legion's members are obscenely powerful sorcerers, most are Rubricae - ghost warriors trapped inside shells of armour, little more than automatons unless given direction by their scheming masters. This hollow half-state extends even to the Dreadnoughts of the Thousand Sons, towering sarcophagi that once enabled grievously-wounded heroes to fight on.

Spoiler: ALL IS DUST

Still too much black undercoat on him, but I've used him in games before and not felt too embarrassed. The edge highlighting is pretty sweet on this one, and those are the best eye lenses I've painted to date.

 

[Beth Pavell]

That deep sea-green is a delight to paint,

Remember Scaly Green? Now there's a colour I miss dearly

 

[WyndonCalling]

Snot Green is where it's at.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Snot Green is where it's at.

Beg to differ:

Spoiler: Scaly Green in action

 

[WyndonCalling]

"I'm not dead yet!"

Despite the time gap, I don't have a huge amount of finished painting projects to share - I've missed some of the events and tournaments that usually give me a deadline to work to, so I've been an absolute butterfly when it comes to building and finishing models.

However, one long-term plan I've always had is to create some kind of scenic diorama for a handful of my favourite Pokémon. I've always been taken with scenic team shots, but I'm not quite enough of a pencil-n-pen artist to draw one myself, and while I've commissioned pieces in the past it's good to be able to have more control over the scene. While I can't draw (well, beyond half-decent doodles) I can craft.

Spoiler: WELCOME TO THE GARDEN, WE GOT FUN AND GAMES

I was surprised by how little I needed to buy for this set-up; my suite of basing materials is apparently fairly huge. All I needed was the cheap wooden tray, a basic scenics kit (containing the trees, clump foliage, those tall 'reeds' and the grass mat) and a model railway pond which I blended into the set using some static grass. The slopes are florists' foam I found lying around, and the stones and lichen-encrusted twigs are both from our IRL garden. Those 'reeds' were fun to make - they're just strands of hair/bristles rolled together and dabbed in PVA, and the effect is great. In fact, the whole thing was surprisingly easy to put together with bog-standard PVA and a spot of patience doing the bulk of the legwork.

You'll recognise the Pinsir from further up the thread, and I'm in two minds over whether or not to try and rebase him after I removed it. The models (well, toys) are easier to pose without them, but the additional height and base detail would likely make them 'pop' out of the scene far more. The others could also do with a coat of paint to diguise that cheap plastic-iness, especially Exeggutor - more to think about for another day.