A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Warhammer 40,000 – Gaunt’s Ghosts hold a spot near and dear to many people’s hearts so when they came out in plastic I assumed I’d be seeing them on my table. These were really fun to paint up and the camo was way less complicated than I assumed it would be. By using contrast paint over the green base it was pretty simple to add the patterns.
Warhammer 40,000 – 3D printing continues to impress me, while I don’t think I can find the time to devote to learning to do it and the patience to tweak design files, I am impressed when others do it. This giant missile launching tank is a filament print that looks very similar to the Praetor resin kit.
I painted this to match the Death Korp force I’ve painted components for. The simple camo scheme looks great on this large model and helps to hide the fine lines from the filament print.
Warhammer 40,000 – Objective markers have never been more important than they are in 9th Edition Warhammer 40K. The new mission structure actually defines how big they need to be as well as where they should be placed.
In my first few games I just used some 40mm circles to denote the objectives but in practice it looked a little boring. Having nicely painted models and terrain on a nifty mat looks so great that it’s a shame to mess up the immersive experience with blank bases.
I decided to make some Imperial Supply Drops using some crates mounted to the same style base I use with all my Imperial Armies. Having themed matching objectives to fight over really adds something to the game.
Warhammer 40,000 – Earlier in the year I painted up some Death Korp models. Imperial Guard can get to be a bit boring to paint with the more common kits, however these fringe kits are way more fun and interesting to paint.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – The Kreig Rough Riders have long been a favorite model of mine. I never followed through with building the force because having a mostly infantry force made up completely of Forge World models was cost prohibitive.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Last year I painted up a snow themed Scion force. My client realized he didn’t have all the options needed to field the force as he wanted. So this small batch is mostly special weapons and a few characters.
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Warhammer 40,000 – Recently I watched a show on Netflix called Slobby’s World. It’s about a “vintage” clothing store in Arizona that makes mint tracking down clothes and accessories from the 1980’s-1990’s, the whole premise is pretty interesting and although the people in the show are obnoxious, annoying and just down-right weird it’s a train wreck I just couldn’t turn off. Part of what I found so interesting was how much people were willing to pay for stuff that I owned as a kid and donated to Good Will when it went out of style. Where is this rambling going you ask? Well the show reminded me of how strong nostalgia is and how in some circles having “vintage” things is a status symbol, which leads to my latest project. Yeah you guessed it … more Old hammer stuff.
Warhammer 40,000 – My painting queue is incredibly full at the moment. One of the projects I’ll be working on is a Tempestus Scion force with a Knight detachment. This client had another painter start work on the force and wasn’t happy with how they turned out. White models are typically really hard to make look good especially for something that’s meant to be viewed at arms length. Arctic Camo tends to be completely white which is also incredibly hard to paint well. Typically you’d start with a blue or a gray and work you way up to pure white. For a single model this is pretty reasonable, but for a larger force that much blending would take more time than most people would be willing to pay for.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – So command points are super important in most codex armies in 8th edition 40K. Mixing armies seems to also be pretty important to build the most effective fighting force. I've never been a huge fan of Imperial Guard but I recently read the Rogue Trader Omnibus and found the Guard unit that the main character joined up with to fight the Tau interesting. I really enjoyed how the novels paired Space Marines, Guard, Knights/Titans, Inquisitors, Priests and Rogue traders together in a Crusade force. Seeing how they worked together inspired me to make an Imperial force. Now since soup is dead mixing armies with only 3 detachments is tricky. Particularly if you want to include Agents of the Imperium (it's pretty sad that the cool fluffy Imperium keyword got beat down for competitive play, but whatever) so I won't be able to include everything I want in a single force but perhaps I can make several elements so I can pull from the various factions taking part in my Crusade.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I'm really happy with how my escalation league/campaign is going. For most of the last session I was play-testing a list I wanted to take to an event. Something came up however that means I won't be able to attend the event. That being the case I decided for this portion of the campaign to go another direction.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Life finds a way ... to change your plans. This week due to unforeseen events what was going to be a full house gaming session turned into a 2v1 battle. I had to had my group for the next session of this league to fight against a combined Imperial Guard/Space Marine force.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I'm not going to lie, 8th edition has got me swamped. With the balancing of the rules and crappy units becoming useful or even good ALL of my clients have stuff they need painted up for their existing forces.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 - Not all the commission work I do falls within the level two table top or higher end display quality. Quite often a client will come to me with a model that has been previously painted and need me to match the quality and style as close as possible. Most of the time this falls into the three color or economy levels of painting.
My most recent Imperial Guard project is one of these match it projects. My client had about a dozen heavy weapons teams and a few special characters that needed to match the sample model he had.
Overall it's a simple scheme castellan green, raw sienna and an earthshade wash for the uniform. Gunmetal and sterling silver for the guns with a Nuln Oil wash. An a simple flock base.
Warhammer 40,000 – My marine client has started an Imperial Guard allied contingent to go with his Space Marines. He asked that they be painted up just like the rest of the army and will be using them like my other client that had me do a custom verision of the Tyrant's Legion.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I suck. Plain and simple I've been sitting on this job for far to long. Part of the problem is the client has provided no deadline and has most of his other stuff that is playable so this is really just a bunch of stuff he got a good deal on and wants to match his other models. This is great for me as it means I just paint when I have a chance between other jobs but it also sucks because I feel guilty for having this for so long.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Tanks are big and take a lot of paint for good coverage. This is what my latest commission has taught me. Super Heavy Tanks take about 3X as much paint as a regular one. Sentinels while they appear much smaller have a ton of little nooks a crannies that require paint.
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Warhammer 40,000 – My client the previously had me paint up a Tyrant's Legion Army in his own custom color scheme has recently come across a great deal on a Catchatan Jungle Fighter army. This included not only a boatload of troops but several tanks, sentinels and a Baneblade. The amount he paid for them is pretty ridiculously low (let's just say only double digits).
So he has asked me to paint these up to match his existing force so he can mix and match the models creating a very ramshackle look and feel to his army when he needs to. It also will give his two unique forces that can be paired together for Apocalypse games.
The first batch he's given me is a unit of Ogrun and command elements. These are pretty fun models to paint. I'm happy with how I've worked his existing color scheme into the jungle fighter uniform. I think if he mixes these models in with the great coat models he'll have a force that looks uniform enough to be a cohesive force but varied enough to play up the chaotic bent that the Tyrants Legion has.
Once these are finished I have several tanks that need to get a fresh coat of paint.
Warhammer 40,000 – The Imperial Guard/Tyrant's Legion project is finished. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out and my client is thrilled. He was amazed at how fast I was able to do this quality of a paint job and is happy to have his force in hand. I'm happy with the system I came up with to do a three color paint job and look forward to applying it to large army jobs in the future. My client mentioned that he will have a Baneblade and some aircraft on the way at some point so I can see this growing over time in smaller batches.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Finally I'm into the interesting models that make up this Tyrant's Legion commission. The character models and command squad all have a unique look which means I don't feel like a factory worker cranking out the same part every hour.
Of course that being said most of the basic paint is exactly the same as the line troopers. Being character models I do spend a little extra time on the highlights and detail work since they should theoretically be on the table for longer than the basic troopers. (That being said they are still guardsmen so a massed volley of bolter fire still turns them into red mist ...)
Warhammer 40,000 – I can understand why you see so few fully painted guard armies on the tabletop. With this commission I'm seeing how it can get to be overwhelming. With the kits my client used for this infantry there are only two or three variations in the sculpts which means each "squad" looks essentially the same. I feel that it's important to point this out as otherwise it looks like I'm just picking up the same post from the last few squads.
So yes these might look like the same models but I assure you this is a new group and I'm nearing completion on this army. I'm hoping to be able to snag the completed army from him to take some group shots when it's all said and done.
