Bit more Blood Bowl

I've got 2 Blood Bowl teams to get painted up at the moment. One is for a friend, and the other is for my son, which I'm going to help him paint. But with this mass of cleaning models and washing resin (bloody pain that is) I'd slightly lost my painting mojo. That was until this little 'ooligan chap was added to my own Goblin Blood Bowl team:

I've decided to call him 'Shiv Shady', as he seemed to remind me of him a bit. This might well be in my head, but now that I've varnished him, I'm really thinking he needs some tattoos. So there might be some futher doodling on the cards for him. While I was painting him, I also decided to expand my cheer-leading squad. Just the one Goblin Cheerleader in the squad is just not enough, so here are the girls...

The 3 on the right are what I painted only yesterday, the red/pinkish cheerleader on the left I did last year. So you can see significant improvement in my methods and look. Yes that is a 2 pence in the photos.

This is the base design that I started with, as here you can see the miliput on the bases, as they are old slotta tab models. Along with the colour choices and Shiv's starting stripey trousers.

Primaris Space Marines

I've moved a little away from the painting of my Imperial Guard now that the tanks and riders are complete. I do have plenty more to do, but I wanted to try and get another Marine squad finished for a tournament I had coming up with Salisbury Legion Wargames. I was running 2 battalions for the day, one Guard and one Marines Errant, this meant a minimum of 3 squads. So a good reason to add some more Primaris Marines to the lonely one I had already painted. As I had got these second hand, some of the finish wasn't 100%, but that in turn meant I wasn't under pressure to get them all to the same quality. With a week left till I was joining the chaps in Salisbury, bam! I knocked this little lot out. The one on the far right was missing a finger, so I made that out of Milliput, a fiddly job. Then the others a light undercoat, with a Coat D'arms white and an original blue from the old Citadel Colour range. I might be the first Ultramarine blue they did, as I have the original Space Marine set still, but I never labelled them. This is shaded with a more recent Asurman Blue on the white and then a very dark blue from the original 'Citadel Expert Inks' range. Highlighting is just on the blue, which I suspect is known as Lightning Bolt Blue, but I'm not sure. All the marking and shoulder insignia is hand painted, no stencils here.

 One squad of Primaris Marines complete, with the original guy in the back on the right. 

 You can see that I've painted up the Primaris Lieutenant with a old Rogue Trader Sergeant Marking on his head. This is just for this weekend's play, as I wanted a dramatic looking chap leading the group. I'm going to add the correct Sergeant at some point and update his marking so that he's a Lieutenant as expected.

 This is them with their base colours and shading, the highlights and detail comes a bit later.

Mortars, APC's and Jet Bikes (Rough Riders)

Well its been a busy month for me and my old miniatures, at the moment, all my personal time seems to be taken up with painting. Which is nice, those odd hours here and there do seem to add up. With me planning my the time better, so ensuring I varnish on a 'short' period to allow them to dry, means it works well. The last couple of projects have been around a mix of things. First was a mortar crew, but knowing I need to fit them into my case I also looked at magnetising them too.

 This was a little test run, posing the models and seeing how it looks. The guy on the left needed adjusting as he had way to much waist.

After some modification and painting the group looks like this now, with the mortars and crew on magnets.

Which you can see with this little video of me swapping them about.

After these I moved onto some old Bullock and Guard Jet Bikes. These are not usable in 8th Edition 40k, but are still lovely models, so the plan is proxy them as Rough Riders. The Sergeant I was using is a old converted 'Worldburner' Imperial Army figure I'd acquired, someone had already removed his legs and given him a naff looking axe. It seemed like a good idea to upgrade him to a chain-sword, then clean up the fill lines other bits. They have also all been magnatised, though it would seem no all strong enough. This means I'm going to need to go back to some of the bikes and swap them for larger ones. The weight of the metal figures makes them a bit unstable compared to plastics I've done before. Fortunately I'd tested with one larger version with seems to have worked very well.

 Starting bikes.

 The painted riders.

 Bikes together.

 While the crew are the same, I've tried to paint them up different.

 Worldburner modification.

Bit of lean on this chap, not sure I like the look now.

Finally APC's, I'm just acquiring vehicles for my old Guard battalion, with a couple of Leman Russ's and this Chimera. Its a bit naff that I can't use my old Rhinos and Predator with this troops, but that is the way of things. 

I've tried to paint this at rather a bit of speed, using Coat D'Arms Shadow Grey, which is a nice light blue. Fitting in well with my squads uban uniform scheme. The gold tracks seem to contrast well with the base colour of the system. Its all shaded with a quick wash of Nuln Oil and little Highlight of a light blue, boom, all done. One fancy looking APC, the weapons are just base black, with a silver dry brush. Then a little bit of detail on the sides with a 'card' and 'dice' for the 'Lucky Sevens'.

It's Like Watching Paint Strip

The only problem with collecting old miniatures from my youth (80/90s) is that sometimes they come covered in loads of paint. Occasionally that paint job is pretty awesome and worth saving, but most of the time its not to my taste. Even to the point that I'm stripping stuff I painted when I was 15. I've made plans and style choices about the miniatures and it just doesn't fit with my current ideas. So over the last 18 months, I've used a few different things to strip them, each without damaging the metal or plastic. First was Fairy Power Spray, then metholated spirits, and more recently BioStrip 20 and BioStrip Basic. Both of these recent additions strip paint and glue from metal miniatures, but more importantly they also work on plastics. So far I've tried a mixture of different plastic types, some old 89/90 Rogue Trader Imperial Guard, metal Eldar with plastic arms, and more recent GW plastics.

Between the BioStrip 20 and BioStrip Basic the main difference is the price. But while 20 is more expensive, in my experience I would say is does a much better job. You need less scrubbing of the details and recesses, while it seems to shift those stubborn bits of paint without additional soaking.

 Before, using BioStrip.

 After, and a little scrubbing in hot soapy water.

My jet bikes.

Original Blacked Bullock Jetbike now all shiney.

Pretty much everything I have painted up till recently I have been using BioStrip 20 to sort my minis, its only within the last month that I've move to just BioStrip. As long as you don't mind the little bit extra effort, its well worth using.

Rogue Trader Imperial Army.

Over the last 3 weeks I've done a fair bit of painting. Well I would say its more of a obsession at the moment, with me painting something almost every night. Which is good, as I only really like to paint when the mood takes me. This does mean that I seem to have a number of jobs that I on going, as I drop one thing and start another. But in this case I managed to persist and come through the other side, the urge to just slap a coat on came to me a few times. Meaning the 'searchlight' and Sentinel legs are not awesome in their paint jobs, but overall everything has had some dedication. As I work with a Matt acrylic varnish, it means I can easily add more detail later and re-varnish that bit. I just need to be careful not to repeat that process to much as it will build up layers on the model.
With this effort I have build up a small themed force of original Imperial Army troops, so of which you might have seen before in earlier posts. So I will be just adding photo of those that are new. The theme of these being called Imperial Army 7th Regiment, 2nd Platoon, N Company 'Necromunda', Necromunda is a massive hive world, think Mega City One from Judge Dread, but a whole planet. These massive hives police themselves with 'sanctioned' gangs controlling the streets and walk ways. Then in turn the troops are recruited from these 'hive world' gangs, as they make excellent urban fighters.

 First a nice group photo, which includes some of the other models I've painted.

 'Luck Seven' banner, cards

 Or dice.(1989)

 Trooper Peart (1987)

 Trooper Mosley (1987)

 Orginal metal Storm Trooper

 Trooper Bruce

Medic

 Trooper Kelly

Commissar

 

 Imperial Assasin (Snake Eyes)

  Sgt Howard

With a fine tash.

Imperial Heavy Trooper, one of the earliest models I own. March 87.

 

 another version of the Imperial Heavy Infantry.

Same design, different model.

And another.

 

Trooper Pank

 

 Ratlings/Halflings Hobbits, though I think this one looks like a Larry.

Ratling Sergeant 

Sneaky.

This one reminds me of Dustin Hoffman.

 With a fat eye. 

Rapier Cannon.

 

 You can see the camo scheme better from the side.

 Original Guard 'eggs on legs' Sentinels.

This version has the other crew variant.