Army of Ghosts

[Svedberg]

5 hours ago, Will Vale said:

Right-hand side

Aha, simple as that!

 

Excuse the thread drift. Let's get back to your ghosts.

[Will Vale]

Thread drift is awesome, off-topic conversations are the best conversations

 

This weekend provided some reinforcements including Astreia Solbright riding on her Celestial Dracoline:

 

 

She's a push-fit kit and was a pleasure to build (with glue) as the design meant it was easy to assemble the rider and the mount separately by cutting off a couple of pins. Many of the seams are hidden but there are one or two I need to deal with. The gold plastic is a pain though, the stress marks and flow lines look different and it's not easy to see when a mould line or sprue gate has been eliminated, so I suspect a couple of rounds of priming and fixing will be required.

 

She's joined by this cheap (for GW!) figure who comes with a "getting started" magazine. He's perhaps the best of the push-fit Stormcast Eternals as neither of his shoulderpads has a seam running through it

 

 

For the ghosts, there are these two Dreadblade Harrows. Five bits each plus the base, although as with the other ghosts cleaning up the wispy bits was time-consuming:

 

 

I also did some work on the last two endless spells, which I'd been putting off as I knew they'd be a lot of work to clean up. It's mostly done now, but I need to get some folded sandpaper in between all the magic smoke under the gears.

 

 

More interestingly, I've progressed on the chainrasp ghosts who now have some stuff on their bases and have been varnished to boot:

 

 

I'll see if I can do the metallic bits tonight, and that'll be the first figures completed

 

While I had the airbrush out I painted the ectoplasm on some other ghosts including these Glaivewraith Stalkers:

 

 

I've updated the recipe with a third colour (Cockpit Green) for the hands and arms, since I found I was spending some effort with the brush to lighten and change these to a blue-green, and starting from a blue-green will hopefully make that easier.

 

 

Lastly I made a start on painting some of the spells, including priming these Umbral Spell-Portals:

 

 

and priming and ecto-plasm-ing the Suffocating Gravetide, which I'm looking forward to working on further

 

 

Not sure what to do next, and our club's BSK (Build-the-same-kit) competition finishes next month and I should probably build something for that (I voted for the Wingnut Wings Fokker D1, which is supposed to be pretty straightforward!)

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

[oileanach]

Thanks Will, I'm following this one with interest, my son is heavily invested in the new AoS game, with an enormous army of Nagash. I'll point him at the thread.

 

For the floor: I'm finding it hard to persuade him to attempt to paint his gaming pieces, though. He's keen on the game, has a circle of friends who play regularly, but they use bare, or just undercoated minis. My lad's problem seems to be one of confidence- he can and has painted minis to a pretty decent standard, but he's not happy with the results. He seems to think he's peaked in painting skill and his efforts aren't worth decorating the minis with.

 

Any advice, guys? Seeing hundreds of unpainted minis on a gaming table is driving me nuts! 😄

 

Ken Bromley's got a summer sale on just now- I wonder if a few W&N 7s might encourage him to pick up the hairy sticks again?

[Will Vale]

That's a shame I'm the opposite, I paint but don't play and we (my daughter and I) are trying to change that a bit this year. I do like rolling dice...

 

I'm not entirely sure what to suggest although if he and his mates get into the tournament scene there's often a requirement for "three colours" or similar tabletop standard paint jobs in order to enter. And almost always points available for best-painted army I suspect that pushing too hard isn't going to be productive though, it's more about finding an angle or a hook that appeals. Shadespire and Bloodbowl are great games and have very low painting requirements, maybe you could split a set, paint your half and he'd feel obliged to paint his team!

 

On the skills/confidence issue, the 'Eavy Metal team and other display painters produce amazing looking models but they're doing only one or two and might be putting hundreds of hours into those models. Maybe your son is assuming that the quality level of the armies is the same as the close-up characters? To which end it's worth looking carefully at the kinds of stuff on the internet and in magazines. In many of the big impressive armies featured in print in e.g. White Dwarf, the standard to which the individual models are painted isn't that high from a straight technical point of view *but they still look awesome*, especially en masse. It's not necessarily quick to paint armies either (I've never managed one) but it helps to do things like skeletons, ghosts, Nurgle etc. where you don't need it all to be perfectly tidy, or where you can paint a large part of the model using very quick simple techniques.

 

IMO a Series 7 brush is a great idea - they make painting much more fun, as does a headband magnifier, although younger types tend to have much better eyesight than we do You shouldn't need more than one or two S7 and probably nothing smaller than e.g. a no 1 or *maybe* an 0? They have great points so you can still paint dots in eyes etc., but not have the paint dry on the bristles on its way from the palette which can happen with the teeny tiny sizes.

Also useful is a good flat or shallow "dagger" tip brush (cut at an angle) - they're much quicker for basing but you can still use the edge to cut in around details. I've been using a Raphael 8413 "retouch" brush (almost like a rigger) for a lot of stuff recently and I like that too, but you need quite a delicate touch as the bristles are less snappy than a series 7. Oh yeah, and something for drybrushing - the ones GW sell (which I think are a mix of hog bristle and something softer) are pretty good, or use old knackered brushes.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Will Vale]

In other news, I put some colour on the gravetide last night: 

 

 

It's a couple of base colours applied thinly and mixed wet in places, plus two washes in the same way and a bit of dry-brushing and detail painting of the rocks. I also lined in between the rocks (quite roughly) to help separate them visually and make it look more dynamic.

 

Lots of fun to paint, but I need to figure out how to integrate it with my basing. If it's a wave through the earth, the grass and stuff should be at least partly carried up the slopes?

 

Will

[Will Vale]

After another evening's brush-work, which I have forgotten to post more detailed WIP of, the Gravetide is done

 

To finish things off, I added two or three layers of highlights to the ghost heads, and quite a lot of shading to the scenery, both to deepen the shadows and push the hues around a bit - see e.g. the blue on the tomb. I also stippled some Steel Legion Drab (earthy colour) around the rocks while I was applying it to the rim of the base. 

 

 

The ghost eyes were dotted with white acrylic ink, which took several passes of white-then-black-then-try-white-again to get them all roughly the same size. I glazed the entire heads and eye sockets with a mix of Waywatcher Green and Lamenter's Yellow, dragging it down the hill behind the ghost and applying some to the rocks on the leading edge.

 

 

Lastly a pass with the basing materials, a couple of coats of Klear Kote Flat, and a touch-up with Light Sheen on the tops of the heads and under the wave. The former to get slightly brighter colours, and the latter to give them impression of damp.

 

 

An excellent little model, and really not obvious that it's only two pieces of injection-moulded plastic. I think they did a great job on selling the illusion of separate stones on the crest of the wave.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

 

[rockpopandchips]

The grave tide is excellent, the yellow leaves you have dotted around the groundwork are these part of a base mix or something you added?  

[Will Vale]

Thanks!

 

11 hours ago, rockpopandchips said:

the yellow leaves you have dotted around the groundwork are these part of a base mix or something you added?  

I added them after, they're laser-cut paper from Kamizukuri in Japan. (Available from HLJ.)

 

I guess I could add them into the mix (which is a cup full of pinches and spoonsful of various scenic scatters, I need to re-do it really as it has too much stone in) but as they're quite bright I like to have some control over where they go. Same with the grass tufts and snippets of green Silflor foliage.

 

That reminds me - when I did the skeletons I added "moss" (matt medium and green fine flock) to the rocks, I haven't done that to the gravetide or the ghosts yet.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Will Vale]

I have now finished up the first five ghosts

 

 

I based the metallic areas with thinned Boltgun Metal (chains, shackles and blades) Tin Bitz (weights) and Retributor Armour (brass banding and locks) then added washes of Agrax Earthshade.

 

 

The silver metals are highlighted with thinned Boltgun Metal, with some bright highlights of Molotow Chrome blended in with thinned Stormhost Silver. The chrome is really a bit bright but it was quite hard to stop as all the gleams are so pretty. The silver helps smooth it out a little, but there's still a patchiness to it in photos which is less bad in real life, probably because I'm busy looking at the bright spot.

 

 

The brass bits had highlights of Retributor Armour and Auric Armour Gold and weathering with an Agrax/Nihilahk Oxide/Black mix, and the bronze weights were done with Hashut Copper and a similar weathering regime. I also added a little Ryza Rust to the shackles and things like the weapon rivets.

 

 

The water on the bases is Tamiya X-22 mixed with a tiny drop of Clear Orange and Clear Green, and the blood on the uglier weapons is Blood for the Blood God, spattered with air from the airbrush while the rest of the model was protected in a latex glove. Normally I like to get secondary blood-splats but I didn't want anything on the incorporeal parts of the ghosts so I've kept it to quite small areas.

 

 

The Molotow chrome is a bit shiny in photos but looks awesome in person. It's probably a bit blingy for these models but the fiction does have corpses bound up in silver chains, so maybe it's OK?

 

 

In theory I'm supposed to switch to serious model aeroplane-type stuff this month, but the ghosts are very addictive so I might try and sneak a few more in

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[clive_t]

4 hours ago, Will Vale said:

I have now finished up the first five ghosts

 

 

Wow, I didn't know the Rolling Stones were touring again!

 

Seriously, terrific painting!

 

[Vince1159]

On 7/23/2018 at 7:35 AM, Will Vale said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great job,for some reason these two have caught my eye....

[Svedberg]

8 hours ago, Will Vale said:

 

In theory I'm supposed to switch to serious model aeroplane-type stuff this month, ...

Seriously, why would that be more serious?

Or rather, why be serious when you just can have fun? 😉

 

Excellent work!

[oileanach]

On 7/24/2018 at 4:17 AM, Will Vale said:

That's a shame I'm the opposite, I paint but don't play and we (my daughter and I) are trying to change that a bit this year. I do like rolling dice...

 

I'm not entirely sure what to suggest although if he and his mates get into the tournament scene there's often a requirement for "three colours" or similar tabletop standard paint jobs in order to enter. And almost always points available for best-painted army I suspect that pushing too hard isn't going to be productive though, it's more about finding an angle or a hook that appeals. Shadespire and Bloodbowl are great games and have very low painting requirements, maybe you could split a set, paint your half and he'd feel obliged to paint his team!

 

On the skills/confidence issue, the 'Eavy Metal team and other display painters produce amazing looking models but they're doing only one or two and might be putting hundreds of hours into those models. Maybe your son is assuming that the quality level of the armies is the same as the close-up characters? To which end it's worth looking carefully at the kinds of stuff on the internet and in magazines. In many of the big impressive armies featured in print in e.g. White Dwarf, the standard to which the individual models are painted isn't that high from a straight technical point of view *but they still look awesome*, especially en masse. It's not necessarily quick to paint armies either (I've never managed one) but it helps to do things like skeletons, ghosts, Nurgle etc. where you don't need it all to be perfectly tidy, or where you can paint a large part of the model using very quick simple techniques.

 

IMO a Series 7 brush is a great idea - they make painting much more fun, as does a headband magnifier, although younger types tend to have much better eyesight than we do You shouldn't need more than one or two S7 and probably nothing smaller than e.g. a no 1 or *maybe* an 0? They have great points so you can still paint dots in eyes etc., but not have the paint dry on the bristles on its way from the palette which can happen with the teeny tiny sizes.

Also useful is a good flat or shallow "dagger" tip brush (cut at an angle) - they're much quicker for basing but you can still use the edge to cut in around details. I've been using a Raphael 8413 "retouch" brush (almost like a rigger) for a lot of stuff recently and I like that too, but you need quite a delicate touch as the bristles are less snappy than a series 7. Oh yeah, and something for drybrushing - the ones GW sell (which I think are a mix of hog bristle and something softer) are pretty good, or use old knackered brushes.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

Thanks Will.

 

Tbh it might be the way I do things that's holding him back. I'm happy spending a month or more on a single mini or squad, but he has hundreds of the beggars, it might seem like there's a lot of effort involved. I've offered to help- paint up some of his squads to tabletop standard, show him quick and dirty work arounds? But he's like most young men- headstrong and proud. He'd rather have them bare plastic than get someone else to do what he sees as his responsibility.

 

It probably doesn't help that we've sat in on 'Eavy Metal and Forge World teach ins. They make it look so easy! He was equal parts impressed and bamboozled when myself and Matt (Murphy-Kane, FW's lead painter) had a chat about colour theory. (After the talk, obviously!) Going by the younger guys reactions around us, I'm guessing they don't teach that in schools any more?

 

I did try the specialist game angle a while back. I bought him a copy of Space Hulk. It took him about five minutes to work out the points value of the Blood Angels Termies, add them to his army list and stick them in his game case for the weekend! 😄 I didn't even get a single game out of it...

 

I reckon I'm like a lot of posters on here, stockpiling/hoarding arts and crafts supplies! The house is full of brushes; regular, semi synthetic, sable, teeny-tiny detail jobs, dagger tips, riggers, GWs own make drybrushes and some art shop equivalents, a bit softer sprung. I've got a few airbrushes and the inevitable W&N No1/Raphael 8404 No 2 for detail work. I've even got a headband viewer- not quite an Optimiser, but Oxford are a well known and respected brand here in the UK. If he wants kit, it's all there.

 

Still, ownership matters, so I got him this: https://www.artsupplies.co.uk/item-winsor-&-newton-series-7-brush-set-(4).htm

It arrived today, here's hoping it does the trick... 😊

Edited July 26, 2018 by oileanach
grammer

[Will Vale]

4 hours ago, oileanach said:

I did try the specialist game angle a while back. I bought him a copy of Space Hulk. It took him about five minutes to work out the points value of the Blood Angels Termies, add them to his army list and stick them in his game case for the weekend! 😄 I didn't even get a single game out of it...

That's hilarious/tragic. Space Hulk is a great game, it's a shame you didn't manage to lure him to the table with it. Good luck with the brushes.

 

And thanks for the link, that's an amazing price and they ship overseas, so I've just put an order in

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[LotusArenco]

18 hours ago, oileanach said:

Still, ownership matters, so I got him this: https://www.artsupplies.co.uk/item-winsor-&-newton-series-7-brush-set-(4).htm

It arrived today, here's hoping it does the trick... 😊

Lol! I wish I’d read that before I answered your ‘brush’ post.

How about your son trying out the ‘dip’ painting method? I’ve seen some pretty good results using nothing but base coats followed by a wash dip.

 

And as for you Will! It’s bad enough that I’m painting blooming Space Marines again, now you’re making me want to do a fantasy undead army!

Wonderful stuff mate, keep at it.

 

Mart

[Cadman]

Will,

This is a brilliant thread. Looking forward to more.

[oileanach]

On 7/27/2018 at 4:53 AM, Will Vale said:

That's hilarious/tragic. Space Hulk is a great game, it's a shame you didn't manage to lure him to the table with it. Good luck with the brushes.

 

And thanks for the link, that's an amazing price and they ship overseas, so I've just put an order in

 

Cheers,

 

Will

😊 Glad to be able to help!

On 7/27/2018 at 7:08 PM, LotusArenco said:

Lol! I wish I’d read that before I answered your ‘brush’ post.

How about your son trying out the ‘dip’ painting method? I’ve seen some pretty good results using nothing but base coats followed by a wash dip.

 

And as for you Will! It’s bad enough that I’m painting blooming Space Marines again, now you’re making me want to do a fantasy undead army!

Wonderful stuff mate, keep at it.

 

Mart

We did something similar with his Grey Knights. I showed him how to use a spray gun (I'll let him keep it if he gets interested- and following that, a wee compressor with a halfway decent airbrush would probably make a decent birthday or Christmas present). We sprayed the minis with a black base coat, gave them a white zenithal highlight and block painted them with the Vallejo metallic he thought was closest to how he wanted the Knights to look. We sprayed on some gloss (might have been 'ardcoat) and pin washed with GWs black. We spent a few minutes per mini to paint in details- mainly books, purity seals (those parchment thingies Spess Mahreens are covered in, for the uninitiated) and scrollwork- and then we were done. 1 squad, 10 minis, to tabletop standard. It only took a couple of evenings.

 

But I took a new job that has me working evenings, he's working himself now, commuting into the city and we kind of let it go. We haven't painted anything together in years.

 

Of course, over those years he's accumulated a staggering number of minis- it kind of sneaks up on you!

 

I reckon now, with the new AoS minis out- some of the coolest plastic models I've ever seen- would be a great time for him to get back into painting again.

 

Anyway, I've derailed Wills thread enough, I'm off to hunt down a couple of skeletons and take pics.

[Will Vale]

Back on the ghost horse after quite a long break, I started these five on Saturday night:

 

 

They're the Glaivewraith Stalkers, which are supposedly hunting lords who got a bit too into It and in death are fused with their mounts and forced to drift everywhere irritatingly slowly (!) I like these a lot, the poses capture that hunched drifting inexorably forwards, and the horse skulls are creepy.

 

The ectoplasm is the same as the previous lot, but I wanted to have another go at grey cloth. This time I used Mechanicus Standard Grey dry-brushed with Administratum Grey and then washed with Nuln Oil as a based. I added Administratum Grey and Uthuan Grey highlights with a brush, and then darkened many of the recesses and tidied up a bit with thinned Abaddon Black.

 

 

Skulls are Zandri Dust with an Agrax Earthshade wash and thin highlights of Ushabti Bone, then I lined carefully around the teeth and places where the shadows should be with a mix of Abaddon Black and Agrax. I use this a lot for lining, it's a bit like a more opaque sepia ink and the wash makes it flow well.

 

The weapon hafts are Baneblade Brown with a wash of Athonian Camoshade (khaki-ish) and messy edge highlights of Administratum Grey. I then washed them heavily with Nuln Oil to end up with a dirty grey.

 

 

NB: The blades are just a thin coat of left-over black in preparation for metallic, but I usually do that after varnishing the rest. I'll get the bases sorted out next so I can see how they look in context.

 

I'm doing this as a maybe possibly entry for Armies on Parade in a couple of weeks, and I haven't even started on a scenic board so I may give up or be driven to greatness. I want to paint at least one more unit of ghosts and a couple of characters, then I can use my Stormcasts from the end of last year and the skeletons from this year to bulk them out/oppose them, and make a quick outdoors scenery board to pose them on.

 

It is school holidays so this isn't quite as silly as it sounds, but it is silly! I was considering using the observatory/house thing as part of this board as that's quite far on with painting, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not:

 

 

Cheers,

 

Will 

[Will Vale]

 

Another hour or two and they're ready for some basing materials

 

I painted the bases with a thin coat of Baneblade Brown and the rocks with Mechanicus Standard Grey, then washed it all with Agrax Earthshade and a black/Athonian Camoshade mix in the low parts. Then dry-brushed with Zandri Dust, Flayed One Flesh, and Celestra Grey on the rocks.

 

 

I also glazed the hands with Guilliman Blue and the mid-tones of the ectoplasm with Waywatcher Green, did various bits of neatening and blending with glazes. The skulls have had a proper highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh, more blending and lining work, and some little dots on the teeth.

 

Now to find the relevant pot of green fluff...

 

Will 

[Will Vale]

Basing mix is on the bases:

 

 

I used a little matte medium to attach it, then dribbled on Klear from a pipette to bond it in place. While the Klear was wet I added some scraps of Mininatur foliage and a grass tuft here and there. The bits on the rim are loose and will brush away when I remember to do that bit. I also need to find the yellow paper leaves since the other bases have a few of those.

 

Rather than going on to varnish these, I thought I could be efficient and paint another unit up to that stage so I only have to clean the airbrush once.

 

 

These are Grimghast Reapers, and have a more manic feel with the whirly scythes and the one ringing the bell, aka the Extoller of Shyish, which has to be a pun on tolling? I used exactly the same recipe for the ectoplasm as the earlier ghosts, with two minor additions. One is that I blended Caliban Green (a vivid viridian) between the dark blue-black and the mid tones, which I think makes things a bit richer. The other is that the final highlight uses a mix of white ink and Pallid Wych Flesh, which gave me slightly neater lines. I still had to do quite a bit of clean-up where the moulding was rounded and the lines spread though.

 

 

The red trim is Khorne Red, and I'm worried it may lend a Christmassy air when combined with the green? I wanted to go with red so it can tie in with the cloth on my skeletons, who are going to be part of the same army.

 

 

Hopefully when the robes are a bit further along the black will act as a buffer. Incidentally the trim definitely makes these a bit harder to paint than the stalkers - it winds around inside the robes and you have to be a dead shot with the brush to avoid hitting the already-done green bits. I had to touch up a bit here and there but it's done now, and I don't need to highlight the unreachable bits as they are conveniently in the dark

 

Cheers,

 

Will 

[rockpopandchips]

3 hours ago, Will Vale said:

I'm worried it may lend a Christmassy air when combined with the green?

Paint the sticky out bits on the red cuff white, add a bit of tinsel to the base and you will have some christmas spirits......

 

Looking good.

Edited October 2, 2018 by rockpopandchips

[Will Vale]

I think I got the steps the wrong way around on the robes, or maybe just a bit too much dry-brushing at the end?

 

 

So I'll need to do some tidying up in daylight to make things a bit neater without losing the texture and contrast. I also need to do the red bits and skulls.

 

 

Still, not too far to go with these now. Two units in a week will be a record

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

 

[rockpopandchips]

Looking good to me.

[Will Vale]

 

On ‎10‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 3:40 AM, rockpopandchips said:

Looking good to me.

Thanks!

 

I missed posting a step yesterday so here's that one first:

 

 

I highlighted the trim with Wild Rider Red and Lugganuth Orange, cleaned up with thinned Khorne Red and gave it a wash of Carroburg Crimson. I did the reds on the skeletons a bit differently (more orangey highlights, more blue shading) but I didn't want this to be too warm or dramatic. We'll have to see how they look together.

 

I painted in the skulls, which are regrettably messy. They were going OK but one of the layers I added (a glaze mixed from Lahmian Medium and Seraphim Sepia) appears to have left clumps of matting agent. So I need to try and scrape those off and cover them up, which was the second part.

 

After scraping with a cocktail stick and a repaint, they ended up like this. I did the hands at the same time, highlighted with Celestra Grey and shaded/smoothed/cleaned up with a mix of Loren Forest and some leftover blue shade that was on my palette.

 

 

I hadn't spotted I'd made the last round of pics a bit contrasty, sorry about that. [Edit: Fixed the pics and re-uploaded.]

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Will Vale]

While the scatter is drying on the reaper bases, I made a start on a couple of character models. These are probably easier to paint than the rank-and-file as they don't have robes. Just ectoplasm (lots) and armour on top.

 

First up is the Guardian of Souls, a tall scary (not-a-ring-)wraith with a lantern:

 

 

I'm partway through the blending at the moment, and I've added Golden retarder to my thinning mix so that it's now about 1:1:20 retarder/Liquitex flow aid/tap water. Makes a big difference to the blending as you can apply a thin layer and spread it out while it's still wet to remove any tide-marks.

 

 

I didn't use it for the Ogryn Camo edges as I wanted more solidity and control, but I'll blend up inside those next to feather them in. For reference, the airbrush blend I started with looked like this:

 

 

The other one I'm doing at the moment is also in the above pic, and has only had the darker colours applied - Drakenhof Nightshade and Caliban Green, to blend the ectoplasm towards blue and then black where it reaches the armour.

 

 

These are two of my favourite models in the box (and the range, really) as they're so creepy-looking. I think it's the facelessness and the long thin slotted masks.

 

Will