Champions Fully Painted!

Yay all finished! Here they are in a lineup. They still need to have grass added to their bases (and some rocks painted grey), but overall they're pretty much done.

For those wondering, yes, that one on the left in the group photo is in fact "flying" through the air. There were a number of times that I've thrown my surefooted champs as missiles so I thought it was appropriate. Plus, when I made him, the movie 300 had just been released, so it was a fun re-pose based on the guy that flies through the air in the movie to hack off the Persian emissary's arm.

Here is a closeup of the Kithkar:

It took me a while to get used to painting their skin again, but I think I've got it down again.

I was debating between doing the little bumps on his chin in a darker color as in the Metamorphosis art (Dark Blue) but I couldn't make up my mind so just left them light blue for now. It will be an easy change if I do decide to do that though.

Also, I decided against doing a tartan design for now, though I could add one in the future as the brown cloth is pretty neutral and could easily be converted into a tartan.

I just noticed when I posted this pic that I've forgotten to paint the wooden handle on the Kithkar's axe. Oops. I'll fix that later tonight. Not sure how I missed it, but staring at the same models for hours tends to have that effect on me...where I selectively ignore things about the model while working on other parts, then forget to come back to it.

Also, I'm not a huge fan of how the axes came out for the Kithkar, whereas I'm fairly happy with the weapons for the other members of the unit. I don't like how the axe highlights came out on the Kithkar's axe, and the bronze bolt-on part didn't come out with enough contrast. This is where I suppose NMM techniques would have made a big difference, as it's easier to make gold/bronze metals "pop" like I did with Grim's weapons.

If you look closely, I added a bit of rust/dirt to their armor with a brown ink wash, but it didn't come out quite as well as I had hoped. Still for a quick application, I suppose it gets the job done without me spending a lot of time on it. The other added benefit is that it gives a slight brown tint to the armor, so it doesn't look as "shiny" and looks more weather worn to me.

The second thing to go is your memory...

So I forgot how to paint gems...had to look this up on the web again. I'm going to post this here for my own future reference. Heh.

Finished the Champions

Finished, minus basing and four gems. Yay!

I'm going to try and finish the gems tomorrow, get some pics, and maybe start on either the Krielstone bearer or the Fell Caller.

"Sandy" Primer

Well crap. So I took a closer look at the guys I primed a few days ago and apparently they all have this "sandy" feeling quality to them. I'm not sure why this is...maybe the primer is no good anymore? Maybe it was too hot when it was drying? Whatever the reason, it's left a very rough primer coat on them. The primer also seems to flake off the models fairly easily if I run my finger over it...

I'm not really sure what I should do now...I'm worried that if I paint over it, it may not look as nice...and it might flake off. But then again, maybe if I paint over it, the acrylic paints will "fill in" and smooth out the sandy texture...then I could just seal it as normal...

Darn Arizona heat (if that's the culprit)!

EDIT:

So it seems that fortunately the mauler extreme and the Long Riders mostly escaped the "powdery" fate. Thank goodness for that. The Pygs seemed to have gotten the worst of it...and I can live with that. Borka and Keggy were mostly ok too...just some bad spots which I'll just hand prime over I suppose.

On a side note, the weather hear has been crazy. Today it rained...yep, rain, in the middle of the desert, while it was 87F outside. Go figure...

Did some painting and priming today

So I got up early this morning (on a vacation day no less :/) to prime a bunch of my trolls. It's been incredibly hot lately and I knew I'd have to do it early before it got too hot. Even at 7 in the morning it was already 85F out. Yikes. I had a lot of trouble with my old GW Black Primer...which seemed to have gotten clogged over the year or so since I last used it. After a lot of cleaning I finally got it working though. So the things I got primed were:

Borka and Keggy
Long Riders
Pyg Burrowers
and last but not least, the Mauler Extreme...oh yea!

I also did some more painting on my champions. I've just got one guy left to do now, and some final details on the others. The last guy should be fast though since he has very little skin and is mostly just armor.

It's about 105F right now...so I think I'm going to like down in a corner of my tile floor and try not to melt...

Retribution Cover Fully Revealed

So Privateer finally revealed the rest of the cover for the new Iosan faction. At first I really didn't like the look of them. The high-tech rifles bothered me, and they still do. I think the Myrmidon (jack) on the right is pretty cool, but what's with the one on the left? Can we say pinhead? Hah!

After looking at them all again though, they're not too bad, definitely have a different/original feel to them, especially the warcaster. Grittier, angrier elves I suppose. He almost looks like a Nick Fury, but elven. The lightning fists look kinda funky in the picture as well, but is a neat idea. Will be interesting to see the rules for them.

The more I look at them, the more they tend to grow on me. Of course it's still no contest with the Trolls, but really, what could be? :)

Well here's hoping the models turn out well!

PS. Went on to the DakkaDakka forums, and surprisingly most of the people there (mostly 40k players) seem to like it a lot and are talking about picking up the faction as their WM army. So even if they turn out not to be my cup of tea, it's nice that others seem to like them.

Edit: PP removed the pic from their site, so no pretty picture to link to anymore. :(

Retribution of Scyrah

So it looks like Privateer is releasing the Retribution...and I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed at the moment. They look very "Eldar" to me...I would have thought they'd come with something more original. I was definitely hoping for something a little more unique, and a little more gritty to fit the Iron Kingdoms.

However, it's hard to tell exactly how they all fit together since there's still a lot of the picture obscured...but my current feeling is still "meh." On the other hand, I suppose going with this look could be a play to try and grab some more 40k players.

Here's hoping the models are cooler than my impressions of the art.