Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Mordheim Update 8/26/14 - Zealots Almost Done

Zealots
It's been more than a week since I last posted on here.  The fact that I did little-to-no work on my warband is a little disappointing but I got stuff done around the house.  In all this time I didn't get to work on my table idea or terrain either.  Last week was a blur.  Oh well back to some hobby time.

I was able to get an outstanding hour and a half in last night.  The majority of the work actually went into doing the final touches on the green-stuff cloaks for my Witch Hunters and their captain.  I'll put some pics up on that probably tomorrow.  I also finished up the cloaks on the three flagellants.  But this post is dedicated to the almost-done zealots.

I wanted to try a few things on these guys and all-in-all I'm pretty happy with them.  The story goes that they were former soldiers turned, well, zealous.  This meant I wanted their uniform and armor to appear broken down and dirty but to hint at former glory.  Not ambitious at all, I know.  Here's what I did.  Before I primed them I went crazy on them with my hobby knife.  With the base coats I painted them up pretty bright with yellow and blue uniforms and metallic silver armor.  Then I used multiple brown washes to "dirty" them up.  I wanted to give a sky-earth feel to the metal but wasn't sure enough of myself to do NMM.  Instead I used brown washes to give the earth feel and mixed up some blue, white, and tan colors with allot of medium to make up my own "sky-wash."  Here are some pictures.

The sky earth feel is a little heavy but it works for a first try.

I think they are sufficiently dirty.

I just need to finish up their bases and do some small touch-ups and they're good enough for me.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Mordheim Update 8/15/14 - Flagellant Accent Colors

Alright!   I made a whole 25 minutes for painting last night.  I decided to glaze the other two flagellants.  Until I get them finished they won't be giveen their proper names so I'll refer to them as red, yellow, and green.  Red has an orange accent.  Yellow has a green accent.  And the green one has a red accent.

Red doesn't have a front accent

... to the back

If I get some time this weekend maybe I can finish these three.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Storytime - Mordheim - Dinner



I am utterly exhausted.  I thought I was more than prepared to take on this task.  All I want to do is rest.  Right now the bare rocky ground would be welcomed.  My eyelids are so heavy, my muscles are so sore.  We enter the building.  I don’t have a room of my own to slink into so I shuffle toward the great room.  That makeshift cot is there.  Ah, sleep.  Brat Khresti has left me to go to his quarters.  I open the door daydreaming and yearning for the approaching sleep.

Oh man…

The disappointment was evident on my face.  Eight sets of eyes look up at me.  I think I’ve interrupted dinner.  Dinner.  Yeah, yeah, I am hungry.  I pull up a chair and reach for some bread.  The eyes that looked up at me now pierced my skin.  Just the weight of the stares stops my hand.

"Hungry?"  Kihot questioned.

"Yeah."  I said sheepishly

"Do you think that's for you?"

"Uhm..."

"What did you do to earn that?"

"Nothing"

"Do you still think you should do that?"

"I need food.  I can go get some bread from my bag, I can pitch in."

"I don't think you can."

The fearful look on my face was now replaced by a look of confusion.

"That is the bread from your bag.  It's a treat for us. No mold.  We couldn't resist."  Kihot chuckled.

The confusion was replaced with relief.

"Dig in!"

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Mordheim Update 8/13/14 - Red Flagellant's Accent Color

I squeezed in about 20 minutes worth of painting last night and decided to do the accent flap on the "red" flagellant.  I decided to do his flap in an orange color.  I used VMC Flat Brown, VMC Germ. WWII Beige, and P3 Khador Red Highlight to mix up different glazes.  I happy with the way it came out.  I think I like how this method turns out but it takes a long time.  The area I painted was tiny.  I added a touch of VMC Off-White to the last layer.  This is how it looks.

20 minutes and all I painted was that little flap

I think it looks sufficiently dingy for the type of life he leads.  His robe looks chalky from the basecoat so I'll try to fix that.   The other flagellants didn't do that so I must have messed up on the colors on him, I don't know, but at least I only need to fix one and not three.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Mordheim Update 8/11/14 - Green Stuff Sculpting (Almost Done)

Whew.  I'm so close.  Just a few more steps and I'll be ready to prime and paint the warband heroes.  All of the capes and hoods are basically done.  I think I'm going to try to add some folds via green stuff sausages, using a tip I saw in a video.  Also I still need something to bring the warband together.  I have an idea for that.  I would like to get that done soon.  Here are the last of the basic hoods and capes as well as an almost finished version of my favorite miniature, Brat Khresti.

Witch Hunter Captain

I can see already I made him hard to paint

Witch Hunter

Blank spot on base may get filled by a "ruin"

Warrior Priest

Brat Khresti
I've been getting faster at things so I am better able to take advantage of small windows of time.   I'm still undecided on the skulls on the warrior priest, hmm.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Mordheim Update 8/8/14 - Green Stuff Sculpting

I didn't think I'd get the chance to do much last night.  Turns out I sculpted two capes and one hood in one hour.  I only have one cape and two hoods to go!  I am finding it a touch easier to sculpt and I am definitely getting faster.  I've got an idea of what to do to tie the warband together.

This model will have a hood.

The hood is down on his back.

I did my first hood and think it has turned out okay so far.  I realized as I was writing this post that this is the first appearance of the warrior priest.

The hammer is from a chaos warrior box.

The torso is from a Blood Bowl human lineman.

I think I'll remove the skulls... maybe.

Getting closer, I think the September deadline will be doable.  Please leave a comment on your opinion on the skulls and such.  Thanks.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Mordheim Update 8/7/14 - Flagellants Basecoat

The stop light of the flagellants is almost basecoated.  Stoplight?  Well, no two people have the same exact skin tone and I wanted my warband to have differences.  I say stoplight because I chose a red base, a yellow base, and a green base for their flesh tones.  The diffences are very subtle as they should be.  I already posted about the "green" flagellant so this post will feature all three but the palette shows the red and yellow.  The palette shows some metal work and colors for their clothes as well.  I started with spots of VMC Flat brown, Citadel Mechrite Red, Citadel Ratskin Flesh, Citadel Elf Flesh, and Citadel Bleached Bone.  For the yellow flesh I substituted Citadel Iyanden Darksun for the red.  I used a combination of Citadel Mechrite Red, P3 Khador Red Highlight (orange), and Citadel Gnarloc Green to make up the accent colors on the clothes.

Another palette

The basecoats are very, very close to being done so this picture is of the flagellants as they stand now.

Yellow, Red, Green

I am at a holding point now with the flagellants, I need to work on more capes and hoods so that is the next main modelling thing I'll be working on.  I feel like my warband is coming along nicely, maybe I'll actually learn how to play sometime

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Mordheim Update 8/6/14 - Flagellant #1 Basecoat

Well, I had a whole 35 minutes to paint yesterday so I decided to put more base colors on the green flagellant.  I put a trio of browns out on the palette and went to town on his robe.  I also mixed up some dark brown, black and off-white to make up a base for his hair and beard.  I had a little time left when that was done so I started to shade the flesh and the cloak.

Browns and Grey; some shades too

More of the basecoat done
I think I need to set a goal for my warband's completion.  I'll choose September 1, yeah I should be done by then.

I've come up with a plan and a budget for a table top thing.  I need that usable by September also.  Oh man I better get going.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Story Time - Mordheim - Now



Training?  What did he mean?  I already know how to fight, search, what could they need to train me on?  I came here to fight.  I came here because I had nothing left.  I needed some reason to be on this planet.  But I don’t need training.  I have my sword; I have my health and my wits…  I should be out there.  I can fight.  What am I doing here? 

I begin to gather my things.  I will fight today.  As I reach for the door it begins to open.  I slide quickly in behind it with my weapon at the ready.

They came in with their heads hung low.   Extra dirt and blood adorned their garments.  The party was short one.  I didn’t have to ask but I heard the words escape from my mouth.

“Where’s Povahu?”

No answer.  None was needed.

The returning members continued silently into their rooms.  Doors closed sharply and soon I was alone again in the corridor.  Then I heard the moan of well-worn hinges under the great weight of one of the doors.  Brat Khresti appeared in the hall; he looked me in the eye and then turned his gaze to the great room at the end of the corridor.  I followed him to the room and closed the door behind me.
_______________________________________________________________

Brat Khresti's eyes were dark and serious.  He looked at me and I felt his stare go down into my soul.  We sat silently at the large table.  I was not about to be the first to speak, I couldn't.

Brat Khresti began, "Remember I told you we'd been expecting you?  I witnessed you in a dream.  I discussed it with the other members of the order.  What I didn't tell them is that I also saw the fall of Povahu.  I knew nothing good could come of the others knowing of today's events.  I thought we'd have more time.  All of your life's events have led up to this.  You are to be our new Witch Hunter.  You must go through your training now."

"What if I decline?"  The words had escaped without a thought.  I shocked myself.

"The door's not locked.  You may leave whenever you want."

We sat in silence for what seemed an eternity.

"I'm not going anywhere.  When do we start?"

Monday, August 4, 2014

Mordheim Update 8/4/14 - Flagellant #1

I didn't have nearly the amount of painting time I had anticipated over the weekend so I didn't get much done.  I didn't touch the zealots or sculpt any more capes.  I did lay down some base flesh on one of my flagellants.

I used some green in each level of the mix to give this flagellant a olive tone.  At this point it looks more like dead flesh than olive toned flesh but I think once it is shaded and glazed it will look good.  My grand plan is to have different tones on all of the flagellants.

Here is the palette I used for the flesh to get the base.

Green Flesh Base Palette

Here is the flagellant as it stands now.

Green Flesh Base

If I get a chance tonight I would like to base at least one more flagellant.  We'll see.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Mordheim Update 8/1/14 - More Zealot Work

When I picked out the fluff for this warband I decided to make a Ukraine theme.  Their warband name is Ukrainian for The Order of the Hammer.  Their names are Ukrainian words using letters from our alphabet to represent sounds.  The yellow and blue you are seeing together is from their flag.  This isn't going to be the scheme for the entire warband just for their unis from a past life.  Warbands are made up of all sorts of people/things, there will be no scheme.

I decided that I wanted to keep better track of the colors I'm using for this project and therefore will be taking and posting pictures of the palettes used on this project.  This palette is especially messy and contains 9 colors. 

I started with spots of a black, a bluish green, dark blue, and off-white.  I mixed these color around to make up the base for the blue areas of the clothing.  When that was to my liking I moved on to the yellows.  For this I had a beige, brownish yellow, an orange, and a deep yellow.  I mixed in some of the off-white as well.  Then I painted the spears in a mix of black/brown and the bluish green.

After I did all this I noticed I had some of the colors I would need for sky/earth so I put them on the armor areas.  I had some slow-dry and also used some thinning medium.

Another mess

I've finished up a lot of the basecoat on these guys.  I intend on finishing the basecoats completely this weekend.
Uniforms taking shape
This is likely the most vibrant they will look.  They're in a ruined city after all and will be quite grungy and dingy when they are done.  Maybe by Monday they'll be done.  But maybe I'll jump around to another part of this project... or another project altogether... I don't know.