Hobby Management part 1- killing your darlings

So, a tough article to write, the subject this time, the natural hoarding tendencies of the collector and ways to manage it. I think it’s fair to say that most of us are “collectors”, it’s called plastic crack for a reason and we’ve all bought a model that’s never been assembled/painted/seen again.

How much is too much?

A few years ago when I moved in with my now fiancée, I was forced to rationalise my collection, it felt tough at the time, but a watershed moment like this is useful in the long term. We just didn’t have the space and it made me realise how much of my stuff was just boxed and sitting on shelves. There were “dead games” that weren’t in production anymore, unassmbled figures, old armies in severe need of repair, paints that had turned, you name it and I have at least one of it. 

I turned to eBay, a few of my friends had some success and I was a decent enough painter, so after a few difficult sales I got better at it and it’s rare that I don’t make some form of profit, so I came up with my golden rules for managing my collection through sales, without further ado:

1. Paint all your stuff if you can, painted models sell better if you have some talent.

2. Store your figures well, there’s nothing more frustrating that having to repair or repaint figures just to sell them.

3. Take good pics, I’ll do an article on the little I’ve learnt on this at some point.

4. Sell the right stuff at the right time. GW price rises help, sell stuff when an army is re-released.

5. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to kill your darlings. Selling or getting rid of armies is sometimes necessary. Realising the signs is important, if you’re not using them, feel you could’ve done a better job or are just keeping them for nostalgia purposes, then maybe it’s time...

But how can you make it feel better? You put a lot of effort into that army, in a perfect world you’d keep them all right?

But should you catch ‘em all? 

Well my rules are that I photograph everything I sell and keep images for prosperity. I have pics of all my old armies, even though some are now in the Philippines, Germany, Australia, USA, Yemen and more. I’m pretty proud of that, my figures are more travelled than I am! The other thing I do if I can is sell to a friend, that way I can actually see someone enjoying the army, it doesn’t happen often though as most of my friend are holistic hobbyists and Base and paint their own stuff.

My recently sold Kaptain Flashgit Badruk, a nice figure to paint

So, don’t be afraid to slay your darlings. After all, plastic crack isn’t free and I know where my proceeds go! Next time I’ll talk about storing it all.

Last but not least if you want to expand your collection and really like my stuff, check out my auctions:

https://ebay.co.uk/usr/stoned_rose

Shadespire- painting the Orruks

Hello again, onto the latest shadespire releases, t9 be honest these were the ones I wanted. I love the new Orruks (Orcs). They’re chunky and powerful looking figures, less the jokey Orcs, more the “eat your face as soon as look at you” Orcs.

I wanted these to be black and yellow so I used the citadel paint app and went completely for the same colour scheme, the original plan was to go for more black checks, but I liked the yellow and stuck with it. I also liked the flesh tone they used, it was very organic, the 40k Orcs are a bit too grass green for me.

I’m going to go through painting the yellow, using the app has made me use brighter colours with more extreme edge highlights, I think this is a good thing and draws the eye more to the figure. Onto the yellow-

1. Basecoat of Averland Sunset

2. Shade the whole yellow surface with Casandora Yellow, I don’t use this often but maybe I should, it really warmed the basecoat up to create a contrast for the later layers

3. Yriel yellow to the raised surfaces

4. Edge highlights with Flashgitz Yellow

5. I added this stage myself, an extreme edge highlight of Dorn Yellow

Now you have a good depth of colour to the yellow, I’d also advise the paint app for the “clean black” method, I really like it and will definitely use it in future. Now, here’s some more Orruks!

Shadespire- painting the Bloodborne

With the liberators all finished it’s time to sort out some opponents. I like the bloodborne models, they don’t make me as bitter as sigmarines did. They also have a lot of flesh on them, which I now see as a challenge to make it look good, in the last I think flesh was a scary thing to paint, colours were not ideal, coverage wasn’t great and washes didn’t lie as well. Now it’s much easier. So without further ado, here are my Bloodborne.

The method for the flesh was taken straight from the citadel paint app, I wanted these guys to be super pale, this would create a good contrast with the red and black. So the method was as follows:

1. Basecoat of Rakarth Flesh.

2. Wash with Reikland Fleshshade.

3. Layer the raised surfaces with Flayed One Flesh

4. Slight edge highlights with Palid Wych Flesh

Then you should have a seriously pale blood spilling, khorne worshipping hombre!

I enjoyed painting this guy and the next most, lots of animation in the sculpt

The citadel paint app really helped with these, I did each group in a week, chipping away at stages for an hour or two every other night. Pretty happy with the results, next onto the Orruks!

Shadespire- painting the liberators

Well I had a 15 minute trial run of this and was impressed so ordered the starter set. The game was quick, solid rules wise and pretty competitive. I also saw an opportunity for a project with this game that I'll talk about it I ever start it... 

The figures are spot on, so good I was gutted when my spray went funny on Severins Sword, so if anyone doesn't want him and fancy being charitable I'd love to paint a new one! I'd even swap my old one if you can handle the sword being a bit off, the rest of him looks good! 

I used the citadel pain app to do the Sigmarines. They were quite fun to paint actually and I reckon the Reavers are going to be more of a challenge. My only criticism is that the snap fit wasn't pefect, I plastic glued mine and I think the opposition of the mould lines could be better on these figures but detail wise they're great.

Castellax Achea Battle Automata- Magic Robots

Ok, I loved these when they came out, I first saw them at the Heresy Weekender and I knew one day, they would be mine...

Maybe not a babe....but they will be mine

So, setting down to paint them, well by now the red is a pretty robotic process, using the airbrush: 1. Airbrush Iron Hands Steel with some shading on lower recesses 2. Vallejo steel/GW runefang steel air as a highlight on raised surfaces 3. Three coats of thinned angron red (FW air) 4. One thinned coat of Tamiya clear red This leaves a finish a little darker than some, but it is nice and consistent. 

Four seems a good number.... to kick ass!

 These bad lads have had a few outings now and they're amazing, not much good at dealing with heaving armour (unless they get close and can smash) but they're top dogs against most legion infantry squads. I've found them to be a great combination as a flanking force in an army with Magistus Amon (more on him another time). The Etherfire cannon is a bit of an acquired taste, I use it as it's cool, but it often doesn't do much, I find the mauler bolter cannons and bolter with asphix shells absolutely murder infatry though. However, I always forget soulfire and it will not die!

On to Heresy: Part 2

On to Heresy Part II:

Building and Converting a VIII Legion Terror Squad.

Last time I shared some thoughts about the Nightlords and spoke about the reasons I like them. This time I will be walking you through how I build my newest addition to the Army.

1 Preparation.

Ok this sounds obvious but making sure you have all the tools, bits and glues needed. For this project I need some things that are not included in a normal GW set.

• ·         Clippers
• ·         Model Knife
• ·         Razor Saw
• ·         Super Glue
• ·         Plastic glue
• ·         Green Stuff (Kneadatite putty)

Kits I will need

• ·         X10 MkIII Power Armoured Marines (the rest of my Nightlords are in MkIII where possible, I think it just looks scarier)
• ·         MkIII Power Weapons Upgrade pack (Forge World)
• ·         Volkite Charger Pack (Forge World)
• ·         MkIII VIII Legion Shoulder Pads (Forge World)
• ·         Chain-Glaive Set (Forge World)
• ·         Skulls… Lots of Skulls (Luckily GW do a box with 300+ skulls in)
• .     And some extra bits from my bits box

Yes, I know this is going to be an expensive unit with all those Forge World goodies, but other than the Shoulder pads I won’t be using all the bits. They will be used on future projects.

Thanks to GW for plastic heresy kits, they really save the wallet

2 Get to it.

Now I have all my stuff ready, time to do the building… Cue imagination. I love Terror squads, formed from the ruthless and brutal legionaries in the VIII. Terror Squads are a unit of murderers and tyrants without rival. I am going to try to represent this with my conversions, trying to make each miniature look a little different form the others.

MkIII Armour just looks much more brutal

The Headsman (Sgt.) has the much-feared Chain-glaive, a grisly trio of skull trophies and with an ironically worn honour crest. He is a striking figure within the Claw, most likely he killed his way to that position and now leads his Claw until he is killed. Other members of the Squad carry a mix of weapons, Bolt Pistols/guns, Volkite Chargers and combat blades. I wanted them to look as individual as possible. I don’t want to overdo the skulls, just the right amount is in order. When painted the bone colour will make a good contrast to the dark armour.

'Honour' crest worn ironically

MkIV chain sword from my bits box

Volkite fun!

 3 Prep and Primer

OK, as I have used resin components I will have to do a little prep-work before using the primer.

I have already washed the resin before assembly but sometimes it is tricky for primers to get a good layer over the resin. So I use Army Painter Anti-shine, it is great for putting a coat over resin that the primer can stick to.

Once that is done its time for the old favourate – UPOL black car Spray. It gives great coverage, is cheap and easy to get.

UPOL - its great!

In midnight clad? Not quite yet.

4 Base Coat

These guys have to fit in with the rest of my army, unfortunately GW have discontinued my Nightlords colour (Necron Abyss) After a good year of searching the closest I can find is Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue, so that’s what I use. Here is our Terror Legionary in this lovely blue.

That's better

Next Time…

I will be finishing the paint on the squad, taking it step by step and showing you how I get a good table top standard with the minimum of fuss.

TTFN

Daveco

More World Eaters

Hi Folks, slow week on the hobby front for me, work getting in the way of life and all that. That said, thought I'd try and show off the newest addition to Angron's army.
A Leviathan Siege Dreadnought.

So there he is, the big lad himself.

Only used him once so far and he seems pretty good at just mulching Infantry and chinning Tanks in melee, that said he was killed by Eidolon in combat (on the turn I charged him). Hey ho, seems like a solid unit and can really rack up a tally with the storm cannon.

Thanks guys