Welcome all! I thought I would add a painting blog to the multitude here, in hopes that I may actually finish. Now before you read any further, I am a gamer before a hobbyist, so at the moment my painting/modeling/basing techniques are very subpar (in my opinion). I also have limited materials and colours, so bear with me. If you want to see some amazing pictures of fantastic models, sorry to break it to you, but you will probably not find them here. So onto the two armies. To start with, I will be mainly painting and modeling Empire models, and it may be a while before I get to Lizardmen models, but hopefully I will be getting there this summer. The reason for this: I would like to improve all my skills on an army that I do not intend to play with in tournaments or the like. That being said, the current Empire models I have fallen into disrepair and may take a fair amount of work before I get them into tip-top shape. This Empire are is going to be a very fluffy army because of the model limitations, so here goes. Mathias Gelt's Ragtag Troupe of Ruffians Lords Mathias Gelt (Wizard Lord) Imperial Pegasus Armour of Tarnus Ring of Volans Channelling Staff Heroes Conan the Loyal (Captain of the Empire) Full Plate Armour Barded Warhorse Lance Battle Standard Bearer Standard of Arcane Warding Alfric (Warrior Priest) Warhorse Hammer of Judgement Armour of Meteoric Iron Theodor the Accurate (Master Engineer) Light Armour Grenade Launching Blunderbuss Core The Averland Band (10 Swordsmen and 5 Crossbowmen) Full Command The Stirland Loyalists (18 Spearmen) Shields Full Command The Talabheim Handgunners (10 Handgunners) Musician The Helmeted Ghosts (8 Knights of the White Wolf) Full Command Special Theodor’s Wyrmslayer (Great Cannon) The Skavenslayer (Mortar) Rare The Temperamental Bringer of Doom (Helblaster Volley Gun) The current model count I have is: 1 Balthasar Gelt 2 Wizards (one mounted) 1 Mounted Warrior Priest 1 Captain of the Empire 16 Handgunners 18 Spearmen 20 Free Company 1 Cannon 1 Helblaster Volley Gun 1 Mortar 8 Crewmen 8 Knights All of these are fairly broken, so there will be arm and leg replacement, rebasing, converting, etc. So it will definitely improve my skills as a hobbyist. I hope to finish this army by the end of the month, so if I have not posted anything in a couple of days, give me a little prodding. Here is the beginning of the army fluff: Mathias Gelt was the younger brother of Balthasar Gelt and was never judged to be anywhere near his power. When Balthasar became the Supreme Patriarch, all the family could do was talk about how powerful Balthasar had become. Mathias eventually grew sick of being looked down upon and decided to take action. When he received the Ring of Volans for his sixteenth birthday, he decided to leave his family and make his way into the world. With his loyal Pegasus at his side, Mathias took off and decided to gather an army to show his brother that he too was influential and powerful. His first stop was Averland and that is where his adventures began.
As Mathias' Pegasus, Goldstreak, touched down in the outskirts of the town, he immediately noticed an item on the ground giving off a gold hue. He ran towards it hoping to examine the gold item. The reason: Mathias loved gold. (After all, he was a Gold Wizard.) As he ran, five crossbow darts came flying out of the surrounding woodland, aiming straight for Mathias. Casting a Glittering Robe quickly, he blocked all the missiles and looked around for his attackers. They were charging straight at him! Again invoking his magic, he cast a Final Transmutation and the ten swordsmen attacking him were turned almost completely to gold. He heard a rustling and turned, seeing five crossbowmen stepping out of the bush. "We surrender. Turn our comrades back and we will let you go peacefully," pleaded the leader of the crossbowmen. "I would speak to the leader of this merry band first," replied Mathias. One of the crossbowmen pointed to a gold figure, and Mathias returned the human to flesh. "I am Josef, the leader of the Stirland Band," boomed the man. "Why did you attack me?" queried Mathias. "We hoped to gather another magic relic, like the one here," Josef said, pulling out a staff that reeked of magical power. "Well, I will cut you a deal. I will turn your comrades back to flesh and bone humans, if you give me that staff and join my forces. I will pay you hansomely," finalized Mathias. The leader nodded his head once, and Mathias released the spell. This marked the beginning of Mathias' army and of a group of friends. The Stirland Band are still a WIP, but I have repaired and assembled them. Before After For the Crossbowmen, I only replace their arms and filled in a couple gaps with "gray" stuff. Note: I currently do not have any green stuff, so I use a Testor's Contour Putty for the same effect. Will this work or is green stuff hugely better? For the Swordsmen, I reattached arms and heads, cut off the daggers so I could use them for hands for shields, and made the command. The Musician's triangle is from an O&G set, the Champions greatsword is from the militia set, but I filed off the extra hand, and the Standard Bearer's army and banner are from another O&G set. All the shields are from an O&G set. Finally, here is one of my finished painting works, and although I can probably paint a little better now, it is essentially the level I am currently at. By the way, it is a Lizardmen figure. Skink Brave Comments and criticism are very much welcome and encouraged, especially on painting or photography. The pictures are not too good, so advice on how to make them better is probably needed the most at the moment. Oh, and be as harsh as you want, I am my own worst critic, so your honest thoughts are the best. Thanks in advance.
I think your Skink brave actually looks pretty good. I think that if you give him a couple of washes, he'd look great! I particularly like what you did with the crest. Looking forward to seeing more.
Well I don't really have some painting tips, but I do have some tips to taking pics of your models. Once they are painted, put them on top and in front of a white paper. This way, no background colors disturb the pic, and we can see how the model really looks
Just an update. I will be taking a hiatus from most internet related activities for about a week. But when I come back expect to see some more painting! The Stirland Band are basecoated and are ready to begin full painting, though because of the malfunctioning of a light, I am unable to paint at the moment. They will be done when I come back though!