Category Archives: A tale of painters

Painting Mephrit Dynasty Necrons

I wasn’t planning on starting the new year with a new army, but I wanted to test out a colour scheme before I started work on the Hierotek Circle Kill Team and then Games Workshop went and teased the rules for Boarding Actions. Thus I found myself gluing together the Necrons from the astonishingly good value Warhammer 40,000 Recruit Edition and picking out a colour scheme which started out by selecting the shiniest of metals to really push the Terminator vibe.

I’m pretty happy with the result, which took me about a week of short bursts in the evening and then a chunk of my Saturday (which was mostly devoted to edge highlighting). Here are the paints I used:

I started by priming using the Gloss Black, and then base coating the entire mode with Chrome. I used an airbrush or both of these stages. It’s a tool that lets me prime indoors and without fear of problems from temperature or humidity, and apply the Vallejo Metal Color range as a base coat quickly and smoothly. Substitute your preferred rattlecan or brush on black primer and then brush on the Chrome if you don’t have access to an airbrush.

Next up, give a light coat of Nuln Oil to the whole model to give it some depth. You can skip over the gun and other parts where the metal will be painted over.

Paint the gun Black, then gently dab White Ink into the recesses where the orange glow will come from. This is to give a bright colour to apply the orange to. Ink flows very easily so you can use capillary action instead of carefully painting the tiny gaps. Just add more ink until it flows into the next chamber. Do the same thing with the recesses between the ribs.

The various bits of wiring (such as the connection between the gun and the body and some damaged cables hanging from some of the torsos) also needs a white coat as do the scarabs’ central balls, but they don’t lend themselves to the ink method; use the regular White paint instead.

Once dry, apply the Fire Giant Orange to the white areas. It’s a speed paint, so use the same capillary action method for the guns and use a generous amount elsewhere. Finally use a tiny dot of Flash Gitz Yellow to create a point highlight.

Use Emerald for the face masks, the scarab wings, and the shoulder plates as well as the panels that make up the Royal Warden’s cloak (take care to leave the connectors in plain metal). Apply a tiny amount of Nuln Oil to the masks to shade the eyes and mouths so they have definition. Then go in and edge highlight with the Pale Blue. Use the Pale Blue to paint the stripe up the Royal Warden’s face too.

All the remains are the bases. I used Buff to base coat them, then applied Apothecary White to the rocks before covering the surfaces with Armageddon Dunes which I then highlighted by dry-brushing with Buff. Watch out for the single, tiny scarab that one of the warriors has perched on their tactical rock. Use the same paint scheme as the rest of them for that little fella’.

Add your preferred varnish to protect your paint job, and magnetise the bases for storage and transport if you are so inclined and you can call these Necrons done.

Gallery

Hobby Update – Horus Heresy Blood Angels

Space Marine Spartan Tank

With 40 Space Marines completed I now need to move onto the remaining four models. As one of them is quite big (very, very big), I realised I needed to get started on the Spartan.

As I’ve been playing mostly Fantasy and Age of Sigmar in the last decade I haven’t painted many tanks, so I needed to go back to basics and remind myself how to do it!

Assembly was a long process, but very straight forward apart from a small error with one of the top hatches. Once I’d worked that out it was completed and ready for undercoat.

Undercoat / Step 1

All my models have a black undercoat as I like the slightly darker affect it has on Mephiston Red. It also means there are no grey / white spots left even if I miss a bit! So I can always pretend it’s deliberate shadow.

I decided I would mask off the tracks and some of the weapons to ensure that these remained black as building back over red is a little pointless when it’s already there. If you’ve not done this before just make sure you take a little of the ‘stickiness’ off so that it doesn’t remove the paint when you take them off!

Step 2 – Red Undercoat

With the Mephiston Red undercoat on, and the masking tape removed it’s starting to look a lot like a Blood Angel tank. Next up is some pin washing (which I’ve never done before) with Nuln Oil and a little tidying up of the tracks where the red undercoat has snuck through!

I also need to finish the Lascannon Sponsors of course but they fit on very nicely to allow some movement of the model.

What’s Next

I need to finish the tank, and complete the remainder of the Age of Darkness Box Set. It’s great to be getting close to finishing a starter set!

— Declan & Eeyore

Hobby Update – Horus Heresy Heavy Support Marines

Legion Heavy Support Squads.

The last of the normal marines… having painted 10 Terminators and 30 Space Marines I am now on the final stretch (before characters, Dreadnought and tank).

And what a final stretch… for these I cheated a little bit and bought a second box set.

Missile Launchers and Heavy Bolters

I selected these, because the Missile Launcher is iconic from the RTB01 box set and my first foray into Warhammer 40k, so long ago.

The iconic RTB01 box for the original plastic Space Marines

Missile Launchers

Missile Launchers with Sergeant

Heavy Bolters

Space Marines with Heavy Bolters (including Sergeant)

It was great to have a bit of a change following the 30 Tactical Marines and the weapons themselves are easy to paint – especially given the simple scheme for the Blood Angels. Fortunately Black and Red go together!

What’s Next

I am halfway through the Praetors and Dreadnought and they will hopefully be finished before an October trip to Warhammer World. Meanwhile I have also started my Land Raider Spartan – more on that later!

— Declan & Eeyore

Hobby Update – Horus Heresy Tactical Marines

Legion Tactical Squads.

To say that the Age of Darkness box set is bursting with value, is doing it a disservice. With 40 Mark VIs, 10 Terminators, 2 Praetors, Dreadnought and Spartan Tank; it has got everything you need to have a fun game.

I’ve previously finished my Terminators, and have now completed the Sergeants for the Tactical Marines.

As there are 40 Tactical Marines the obvious answer is to build them as 4 units of 10 to give a good backbone of any army, but I picked up a box of missile launchers and heavy bolters… so I have 3 units of 10 Tactical Marines.

Unit 1

Tactical Squad, including Sergeant with Power Fist

Unit 2

Tactical Squad with Chain-Bayonets and Sergeant with Power Sword

Unit 3

Tactical Squad with Sergeant with Lightning Claw

I really enjoyed painting these models. They have enough detail to be Space Marines, whilst not having too much to paint… no trim! Of course they do have the studded shoulder pads which took a while to get right, but I batch-painted them so got used to it by the 40th Space Marine!

What’s Next

I have finished the Missile Launchers and Heavy Bolters, so the next article will show some pictures of those!

— Declan & Eeyore

Hobby Update – Horus Heresy Terminators

Blood Angel Cataphractii Terminators.

With the standard marines finished (just special equipment and Sergeants to go), I decided to try to finish off my Cataphractii Terminator Squad.

I needed them to pop a little and then I saw what Mengel Miniatures had done over on twitter.

Putting aside that they are the wrong legion, I loved the breakup of the single colour and the use of gold goes nicely with Blood Angels as well. As if to reinforce the hint, I bought the Astartes (Loyalist) book, and veteran marines in Blood Angels use gold (who knew).

The sergeant already had black shoulder pads to designate him, but a full gold helmet definitely doesn’t look out of place, and I’ve once again taken Mengel Miniature’s idea of white on the legs but moved it down to the knee. This has allowed me to use the black transfers for the legion number, although they are small, so it was fun getting some of them on.

I then added gold trim to all the models in places that felt appropriate and … hurrah they are finished.

10 Cataphractii Terminators for Blood Angel Horus Heresy

And some more pictures for details:

What’s Next

I need to finish the Sergeants and special equipment troopers, the Praetors, a Contemptor and the Spartan Assault Tank. Lots to get to, but happy with progress so far.

— Declan & Eeyore

Hobby Update – Horus Heresy August

Blood Angel Batch Painting from Horus Heresy Age of Darkness Box.

Following on from my last update, I’ve made a little progress on my Blood Angels for Horus Heresy despite work being busy and the hot temperatures in the UK.

However, I did get some paint on the non-special models such that they are now complete.

Blood Angels – non-special troops

Following on from my previous update, I’ve added more black and picked out the details on the weapons with Leadbelcher and a highlight of Ironbreaker.

Missile Launchers

The missile launcher’s above show the colours used on the weapons. I have gone for a simple scheme and black and red so very well together.

There are also transfers on all the models, with Blood Angel wings on the shoulder pads, legion number on the left knee and unit marking on the right.

Basing

The basing is a simple affair with Vallejo Thick Mud (Brown) and a highlight of XV-88 to pick out the ridges. I was generous with the mud when applying it and it looks great – not least because it is different to the AoS Destruction base I normally paint.

There’s also loads in a pot, so I’ve hardly used any to base the models so far – it’ll definitely cover a lot of an army.

Finally I finished off the bases with a black rim to keep them neat the tidy.

The standard troopers from a tactical unit

What’s Next

There’s still the Terminators, Sergeants, and 2 special troopers to finish off. And I need to start the Praetors at some point…! In order to give myself something different to paint I’ve also assembled the Contemptor Dreadnought and given it a quick undercoat to be ready as the next model on the table.

I’m still aiming to complete by October when I’m meeting up with friends at Warhammer World and I think I’m still on target.

— Declan & Eeyore

Hobby Update – Orange is the New Black

Blood Angel Batch Painting from Horus Heresy Age of Darkness Box.

In my continued effort to try to get some Blood Angels for Horus Heresy actually finished, I am continuing to batch paint the models from the Age of Darkness Box. In my last article I got them to Mephiston Red (with some Nuln Oil shading)… what’s next?

Last time I got here:

The Blood Angels from the Age of Darkness Box Sets.

Orange is new…

But I needed to get the highlighting done. As I was around when the original Beakies were released, my normal go-to- method is to use edge highlighting… but it can take a long time and I only needed battle ready. Fortunately I had heard of some people using the hallowed technique of drybrushing for their marines! Strange, but I did some investigation and I found this by Sonic Sedgehammer:

Sonic Sledgehammer with all the advice!

They suggested two levels of drybrushing, but why do two when you can go straight to the end and pick up 1? Fortunately I had Ryza Rust from some Martian terrain I painted that I got as a gift from a friend, so I was ready to go and skip right to the end.

The orange applied! A rough and ready drybrush.

The technique is explained well in the video, but effectively just drybrush the edges only and leave the panels free of highlight. This gives a good overall impression and whilst I may do a bit of tidy up later I’m happy with the results at the table-top level.

Black Legion?

Not quite, but the next colour was Abaddon Black to get some contrasting colours onto the models. For this I wanted to keep it easy (and quick) which is rapidly becoming a theme. Some of the eagle-eyed readers will have noticed the black in the picture above, and that’s what I did. Pick out the joints, the cables and the back of the backpacks.

From behind… with even more Black!

Whilst this may be sufficient I do want to add a little silver here and there, but it is a great start and the models are beginning to look like Blood Angels.

I’m really enjoying the batch-painting and seeing progress each time I sit down even if I’m only able to give 1 or 2 hours at a time. By now I’ve normally got bored and hived off some models, but I’m managing to keep with the 50 done to Mephiston Red level – and now they’re all highlighted and some black sections picked out.

But weren’t there 52?

Well yes, I’ve not done the Praetors but there’s a reason for that. In fact there are a few.

  1. I don’t mind if they take longer to paint – they are characters and should have the glory and attention
  2. I want to do a few more highlights, so I’ll like do some halfway colours on them to get there
  3. There’s so much detail I can’t go into ‘automatic pilot’ with them and because I need to think about what colours I want they will take longer.

So the Praetors are out of the batch-painting process for now, but I’ll go back to them soon as I need them to complete the foot troops before I get to the tank and dreadnought.

What’s Next

Well, I’ve already alluded to it, but I’ll be adding some silver to some of the pipes. I think want to start on the cloth/leather for the Terminators and any that may appear on the Beaky Marines, and then I’ll have to move towards the weapons.

I am pleased with the black so far and the contrast it provides, so it’s likely that they will be black as a base as well — but still time to reconsider.

Stay tuned to see how I get on.

— Declan

Hobby Update – Blood Angel Batch Painting

Blood Angel Batch Painting from Horus Heresy Age of Darkness Box.

As regular readers of my Hobby Updates will know, I have picked up an Age of Darkness box set and am painting mine as Blood Angels. The Sons of Sanguinius have been my favourite for many years, and there was never any question what I be painting for my first Horus Heresy Army (Ignoring my Epic / Space Marine ones!)

Sprays before Nuln Oil

In the last article I had sprayed most of the models in TT Combat Spray Black & then Red. The above picture shows what they looked like.

Nuln Oil on right

I then drenched the models in Nuln Oil. If you’re reading this 2 weeks from now (so mid July-2022) the old Nuln Oil. It gives a very dark undertone, but I wanted to use it instead of pin highlighting. If you are include pin highlighting (putting Nuln Oil only into the recesses) is slower but neater!

Tactical Marines and 2 Praetors with Mephiston Red

I have then added 1 coat of Mephiston Red to all the foot troops (52 models) from the Age of Darkness box set. This takes off some of the gloss of the Nuln Oil and the TT Combat Seriously Red spray, and gives the models a nice clear and smooth coat. Whilst I may build up the red on the Praetors a little more, the troops are done with red at this stage.

Heavy Bolters… to the fore!
The Blood Angels from the Age of Darkness Box Sets.

What’s Next

Next up is highlighting the armour with Wild Rider Red. I need to be a little careful here as it is a very bright orange and if I apply too much it’ll look odd. I just want to add a little highlighting to the armour before proceeding with the weapons and other non-red items.

Stay tuned to see how I get on.

— Declan

A Tale of Painters – August 21′

On our YouTube channel we had a series known as A Tale of Painters. However, since life has got in the way a little recently and my time for filming and editing videos is very limited o thought it would be best to continue the series in the blog.

So I’ve included (most) of the Woehammer team below and what they’ve been working on since our last episode.

40k Ben

Since the last episode, Ben has been busy on a number of projects. But perhaps his most impressive in this time is his Bel’akor. Ben has even done some on source lighting to great effect!

Bel’akor

Ben even had his first few games of Age of Sigmar against AoS Ben and Declan.

40k Ben’s Chaos v AoS Ben’s Seraphon

As well as this Ben set himself the challenge of painting all this:

For September! As you can see he’s already well on target.

Dave

Dave has started a new Ossiarch Bone Repears army, and has given himself a deadline of 3rd October to have them done. His entire army is around 50 models and so far he’s painted one……

AoS Ben

As always Ben has been extremely busy, as well as finishing his Seraphon army and attending a few tournaments he’s now decided to build another Kharadron Overlord army, the Ghostlords 2.0!

Ben’s Seraphon army

All of his models are always painted to a very high standard and his basing is, in my opinion world class.

Ben recently completed Spiderman using just contrast paints:

Friendly neighborhood Spiderman

Ben also painted the Kruleboy half of the Dominion boxed set:

Ben’s Kruleboyz

Declan

Declan has been busy painting some more units for his Goblin Warmaster army:

Warmaster Goblin Wolf Riders

He’s also recently gotten into Kill Team and has painted up some scenery for his games.

Liam

Liam hasn’t had as much time as he would like to paint. But saying that he’s now down to fifteen models in his pile of shame. He did manage to paint Ghazghkull:

Paul

As always Paul has probably painted around 15 armies in the time since our last episode.

Paul has recently painted a lot of stormcast in order to play Path to Glory in his local gaming club.

Some of Paul’s Stormcast

He’s also been cracking on with his historicals backlog…..

Sexy Saxons

Sarah

Our plastic crack dealer from SCN Hobby World has been continuing her amazing work on her Orks. With an amazingly grubby looking dreadnought.

Green is Mean…

Ed

Ed has been cracking on with his Lumineth to make sure that they’re ready for his first tournament.

Ed was so keen on getting these ready he even had a roadmap for their painting schedule..

As you can see his models are coming on nicely…..

Ed’s Kangaroos

Guests

Jack

This time around we have a guest on our episode. Jack has submitted his Trogg via email to thewoehammer@gmail.com.

The skin on this Troggoth is awesome and you can really get a sense of the icy effect that Jack was after. I’d love to see an entire army of these boys.

If you’d like to submit models for us to look at and include then please either email us at thewoehammer@gmail.comor use #woehammer on Twitter or Instagram.

Don’t forget that we’re doing our first painting competition sponsored by SCN Hobby World where you can win your choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box for painting any single miniature on a 50mm base. For details see our post on the competition here.

To follow any of the guys above on social media simply click the links below.

40k Ben – Instagram

AoS Ben – Twitter

Dave – Twitter

Ed – Instagram

Sarah – Instagram

Declan – Twitter

Jack – Instagram

The Woeful Brush Painting Competition Sponsored by SCN Hobby World

Closing date for entries 30th November. £1 entry, win your choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box set!

LINK