Kill Team Christmas Challenge - part 1

 

The folks over at Goonhammer have sponsored a Kill Team Christmas Challenge, and I simply can't pass up a community painting challenge!  So I brought out the Veteran Guardsmen kill team from Octarius that I had earlier assembled. It is finally time for 262krieg to paint up some Death Korps of Krieg miniatures.

Not a ton of progress so far.  It has been good fun looking over the original formula, digging out the old paints and doing my best to recreate the process and the colors of my original Krieg minis.  And so far, so good!  Gotta love dropper bottles.  I've had these Vallejo colors a long time now and they are still usable. At the end, I'll post a comparison pic with the old an new minis together.

The main change to the paint scheme was to use Vallejo Surface Primer Gray for the primer coat rather than going straight to Uniform Grey from The Army Painter.  While it takes longer, I chose to paint the great coats by brush this time around.

The challenge runs to February first, which is great since I'll then switch to Squaduary 2022, even if it is a private challenge again, as it was this year. Check back next week for more progress.  I expect to finish well before the end of January if all goes well.  I'm also contemplating popping these guys off their stock bases and putting them on trenchwork bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures, extras of which I still have kicking about. Not a great match for a Kill Team board, but fun for old times sake and blends the models with my existing collection of Krieg minis.

Best wishes for a safe and very Happy New Year!!

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Dahyak Grekh - Black Stone Fortress Explorer - TO DONE

 

Greetings and welcome back. Today I'm sharing my completed work on the Blackstone Fortress explorer Dahyak Grekh.  He's been a fun challenge.  Lots going on with the model, and a wide departure for me from my normal work on the Imperium's finest.  In fact, you don't see many Xenos here on 262Krieg at all.

I fussed about a lot with the right eye, until I had the brilliant idea to use the Micron .001 markers. I used brown for the iris, and black for a pupil.  It's not going to win any awards, but is far and away better than I was accomplishing with a brush (of any size...).

The details probably come through better if you click through to the original images, then you can zoom in a bit.  I ended up with a mix of studio color choices and my own selections.  The fee were pretty messed up when I cut the model from the original base.  So if you compare this model to other examples you'll see he's a bit club-footed here, making it difficult to pick out the claws and toes effectively.

Overall, I'm proud of the results though.  I've picked Grekh up and put him down many, many times before finally steeling myself to complete the project.  I think I missed an opportunity here to practice with textures on the model - especially with the cape which could have done with some texturing to give it more of a fabric look and less of a plastic/vinyl look. I love the cape color though.  Given the base I chose, I like to think the cape is Grekh's way of bringing a little hunter's camouflage to the Fortress.

So another big seal o' DONE for this hobby season.  I'm going to try for one more explorer before I close out 2021, but it's a stretch goal with the Holidays upon us.  Check back after Christmas to see what I take on.

What are you working on to end out the year?  Feel free to share in the comments.

Happy Holidays!

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Dahyak Grekh - Black Stone Fortress Explorer - WIP

 

Greetings!  I spoiled an image of Dahyak Grekh earlier in the week.  After a couple more evening painting sessions he has advanced some more.  There is just so much going on here.  I just keep picking away at the various details. 

I'm most pleased by this ridiculous turquoise cape.  Quite a contrast to the relative drab look at Dahyak from the other side.  Since the spoiler was shared, I've been adding details, like the skull on the base as well as refining existing details like the highlighting to leather areas and the rifle.

 I didn't have a plan going into this model, other than to hew closely to the published studio art for the miniature. That has been both good and bad.  Good, because it's been a fun freeing painting project; one where I can flirt about with the model without constraint.  But bad for all of those same reasons.  It's difficult to determine what's done and what's not...and I've had to repaint or retouch various areas as I realize one thing or another didn't work, or because I couldn't get to some area without messing up another.  I should have followed my usual "inside-out" methodology and really didn't here.

The spines on the head went in a totally new direction from where I thought I was taking them when I started.  That''s been part of the "freeing" nature of the project.  And the cape lining has come out much more brown than red as things wind down there. Speaking of the cape, it was at this point that I realized the wide armored collar at his neck was actually his bare back showing above the cape...doh.  At least I caught it before completion. :)

Taken in all, though, this is a fun model to paint and I've enjoyed working on it.  I think in the end he'll be a very satisfactory example of a Kroot mercenary and will look quite nice on a future game board. 

I expect he'll be wrapped up next week just prior to the Christmas holidays. 

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

The Hobby and a New Generation

 

I have something a bit different to share today.  With the recent reboot of the adventure game HeroQuest, I went all in on the kickstarter and decided it was time to expose my 10yr old daughter to the joys of gaming with miniatures. So it was that I brought out the core game on a rainy day, this past weekend.  Now, I know better than to force these things. So I simply brought it out and started going through the contents and reading the instructions in the family room while my daughter was reading.

Somehow, despite being a gaming since getting a copy of D&D in the early 80's, I missed HeroQuest entirely.  I'd heard of it; but never once played it.  Choosing to pick up the kickstarter mythical tier was a bit of a blind investment on my part as a result.  So I was indeed reading the rules in earnest to determine the play-ability for a 10 year old (and probably a seven year old too once her sister catches on to the fun being had).

This is a hobby blog, so I won't go into the gaming details.  In short, my daughter looked up from the book at some point as asked what I was up to.  The rest is Daddy self-satisfied prideful history.  Six or so hours of our Saturday disappeared unremarked while my daughter soloed the first quest, then ran it for me to solo as well. That was great fun, and now it seems I have a gaming partner.  But the real fun was her immediate desire to put paint on miniatures, as she's seen her dad do.

She asked for something simple like one of the treasure chests from HeroQuest, but then backed down stating she wanted to practice first before taking on one of the game pieces.  So we rummaged around in my bitz box for quite a bit and ultimately ended up in the attic where I stash my Warhammer Fantasy stuff that no longer really appeals to me. And so began our first painting lesson with old-school Warhammer skeletons.

Skeleton #1

They are *perfect* starter models.  simple, clear details. 3 colors (4 if you include the base) on easy to see and reach areas.  All basic techniques used (prime, base coat, shade, dry-brush, edge highlight).

Skeleton #2

My daughter took to it eagerly and we each painted a skeleton, while I walked her through the techniques in turn.

I couldn't have been more proud watching her nail each stage.  I should say up front that both of my daughters are extremely craft focused and have been into various art forms since being old enough to throw paint and smart enough (barely) to not eat it.

I'll let you sort out which skeleton was painted by me and which by my daughter.  I'd love to see your guesses in the comments, in fact!  I can imagine my daughter would get a kick out of it too. The exercise was so successful that my daughter grabbed a couple more skeletons out of the case and started them up to, as seen in the title pic.  Yay!  What a great feeling to be able to share something I take so much joy in.  Today I'm a happy, proud dad.

Not a Skeleton...

Thanks for reading if you got this far.  Come by again to see my progress on Dahyak Grekh, an Explorer from Blackstone Fortress.  It feels likely that Blackstone Fortress will come out as a family game soon - I'm so psyched!

After that I'll get back to more 40K stuff most likely...or possibly Adeptus Titanicus.  I really can't be certain until I'm putting paint on a model.

Wishing you lots of Holiday Cheer.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Aeronautica Imperialis - Wings of Vengeance Ork Planes - TO DONE

 

Greetings and welcome to my final post on the Wings of Vengeance boxed set for Aeronautica Imperialis.  The ork planes are now complete, so I can enjoy a large seal of DONE for this project.

The bombs and rockets were completed and I added a couple transfers.  The Ork planes come with a nice transfer sheet, but honestly, there are not many open panels for them with all the surface detail on the model.  Even GW's own pics of the models on the web site don't use the transfers which I found interesting.

The plane on the left has a leering orky head on the nose cone.  I had originally planned to paint the bases of each faction a bit differently.  But after spending some time thinking about a scheme for the Orks and looking for inspiration on the internet, I came to the conclusion that I didn't need to do that.  I like this paint scheme for the bases and they look nice on the table with a uniform base design.  It lets the planes themselves stand out.

The bommer on the right has a transfer on the nose as well.  I like how the freehand flames came out on the wings here and have some regret that I didn't paint the plane of the left with flames as well.  These Orks use flames to call out flight leaders, however so I decided to leave things as they are.

Here are the planes for Wings of Vengeance all together.  I look forward to playing a game at some point with painted models.  This is my second totally complete boxed set after Adeptus Titanicus. Kind of sad when you consider I've been collecting boxed sets form GW since the mid 90's.  But no matter.  Onward and upward.

Here, the models are all packed away safely in their box until the fateful day that they come out for a real game.  I love these trays from Battle Foam.   I choose to glue the stems on my bases, so I purchase the trays that support that (little holes for the stems to go into).  The books and maps go easily on top and the box closes normally.

So that's the Wings of Vengeance boxed set for Aeronautica Imperialis TO DONE.  It feels great completing that.  I'd like to move on to the Skies of Fire boxed set, but I'll pause here instead and choose a project from another game.

Check back next week to find out what's next.  I'm lining up the Death Korps of Krieg kill team for Squaduary 2022, and a Warmaster titan for #MonsterMarch6.  So probably a 40K or 30K project will get picked for next week.  Or perhaps I will get off my butt and complete an adventurer or two for Blackstone Fortress as I slowly move that project to done.  Time will tell.

In the meantime, stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Aeronautica Imperialis WIP - Wings of Vengeance Planes Part IV

 

Greetings and welcome to part IV of the Wings of Vengeance painting project.  The Ork planes are SOOOOO close to done at this point. I'm working on the bombs and rockets and that's it.  So I expect to post the TO DONE pics early next week.

Since the last post, I painted in all the metal details with Pro Acryl Dark Silver, then the cockpit glass. On the dakkajets I picked out a few more glyphs in white that I missed before. The cockpit glass is Pro Acryl Bold Titanium White with a blue wash from Secret Weapon Miniatures.

The metals got a good coat of GW Nuln Oil before I got into the highlighting.

I used Pro Acryl Orange to highlight the red.  This adds some nice definition to the various raised portions of the planes.

Last up for this week, I highlighted the metal areas with Pro Acryl Silver and then put the same Pro Acryl Golden Yellow on all the bombs and rockets. 

This allows for better contrast on the metal.  I'll put some GW Agrax Earthshade over the bombs and rockets and then see what's next.  There are plates and shards that lend themself to a second color for interest.  Maybe white, similar to the shards on the wings, maybe red for better contrast. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

 

Hope the progress has been interesting.  At some point I'll post up the complete paint recipe for anyone curious - and so I get it right when I move on to the other ork planes in the collection. My plan is to use a similar approach to painting the bases as was done for the Imperial planes.  However, I want to use some different colors for each faction to further separate them on the battle field.  So not sure what Orks will get...I need to think ahead to Tau, Eldar and Necrons so I have a scheme for each and don't box myself out of any good options.

How are your projects going? Let me know in the comments.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!