Year in Reflection - 2024

It's that time again, when a lot of people (myself included) look back upon the year gone by and reflect on what went well, what didn't, and what to adjust and try in the coming year.

2024 in Review

My goal for 2024 was to finish works in progress. That failed pretty miserably. I have a dreadnought still in progress, others not started, and instead actually added more to the list. There's valid reasoning behind it all, and it's the most valid reason of all for a hobby: because I felt like it. Would I like to have cleared the plate and started fresh for 2025? Absolutely, but not at the cost of making it feel like a chore. This is purely a hobby and at all times inspiration, motivation, enjoyment must be the goals or what's the point? While I would have liked more time to dedicate to the miniature painting hobby, I did have fun, so I guess it's a win overall.

Recently I started to dabble in conversions, kitbashing, sculpting, and other forms of customisation. This isn't really feasible to do across a whole army because it takes more time to complete individual models, but it was necessary to keep me interested. Between the woke nonsense invading aspects of the hobby and some of the more interesting design choices inflicted upon my favourite faction (Sanguinary Guard are supposed to have wings!), my enthusiasm for 40k in particular was fading rapidly. It still is to a degree, and my spending has been cut back in response - and yet somehow I believe I've actually bought more models this year.

My rule of "1 model bought for every 2 models painted" fell apart this year, but it's not all that bad. The main reason is actually Combat Patrol Magazine - there are some great deals to be had with that, and I didn't want to pass up the opportunity. The incredibly cheap starter of a Terminator Captain allowed me to make a decent conversion of Karlaen, starting me down the kitbashing path. The Infernus marines I plan to convert with Devastator weapons because it would look cool. The Terminators are another relatively cheap option to practice sculpting with and bling them out to something more Blood Angels. There's an upcoming Chaplain on a bike that I might buy as well just for a rainy day. Outside of that magazine there's also some purchases from local gaming stores, etsy, and ebay either because again it was cheap at the time, or because I needed conversion parts.

The Sanguinary Guard situation was a boon for Greytide Studios. They came out with their Crimson Lords pack at exactly the right time - just after the official release of the updated Sanguinary Guard without winged jump packs, suddenly here's a third party offering to give people exactly that. I naturally ordered enough parts to kit out a few models, but instead of going for the "official" new sculpts, I decided that push-fit assault marines would be just as good. I could get them for a fraction of the cost, and there's enough conversion needed on the official models anyway - why would I pay full price for models that I needed to hack apart just to make something proper out of what they were supposed to represent to begin with? With enough spare parts in the bits box I think this has turned out rather well, and yes sculpted muscular chests should have nipples.

From the time investment in sculpting, to the newer models that need a lot of thought about colour choices, to health problems, work problems, and other problems throughout the year, the number of posts has been steadily declining. I simply don't have as much time throughout the week to get enough done to be worthy of a post. That's not to say I'm not painting - that always fluctuates - but there's not always enough interesting new things each week to dedicate to writing up anything about it. This is partially also down to actually spending longer on each model - if I spend a week making golden armour look nice, then that can be summed up in about three sentences and I won't spend the time writing about it. I'm trying to adjust for that and hope that next year I can post more regularly again, if only to keep up the motivation to paint a little bit each day (or close to it). More works in progress to switch between could potentially help here.

One of the success stories from 2024 for me was that airbrushing finally "clicked" and my skills with that tool improved dramatically. Some recent models (coming soon) have almost completely eliminated the speckling / noise / grain often seen when using an airbrush. I've learned to thin the paints better, use more layers, control the trigger better, and experiment more with filtering. All of this combined gives a far superior result on the model, makes cleaning the airbrush that much easier (I virtually never get a clogged nozzle anymore) and makes me faster by virtue of being more comfortable with the tool. I'm still learning a lot every time I pick it up too, so it will be interesting to see how much I progress in 2025.

Drybrushing was another technique that I managed to improve upon recently as well. I still can't use any paint from the box and get the consistency correct, but I did learn to use the Citdadel dry paints far more effectively. Layering up highlights without a large jump in value seems obvious but was also a piece of the puzzle to allow me to get better results. I'll still likely keep to terrain and basing with this.

And to wrap up success stories for now: metallics. I learned to treat them with a lot more respect and get greatly improved results out of them. The secret for myself was really just to treat them as any other paint: layering, glazing, mixing with other paints. Commander Dante was almost an accident where I started to experiment with with that, and I wonder why I didn't do such things before.

2025 Resolutions

Going into 2025 I'm actually planning to have several models in progress to begin with. I have some time right now for airbrushing basically, and so I'm using that to get initial base coats and highlighting sorted across several models. I would of course like to get them all finished earlier in the year if possible as well.

I would like to post more regularly again, but that remains to be seen - there are a lot of non-hobby changes coming once more in 2025 that might leave me with very little spare time on occasion. The hobby is nice to have, but sometimes it needs to take a back seat.

I would like to continue sculpting and get to the point of being able to bling out models to fit a theme or army better. I paint a lot of Blood Angels, and the newer models from Games Workshop don't have that artistic styling which the Sons of Sanguinius are known for.

All of the above being said, I think the number one aspect I'd like to improve is the ability to paint squads quickly. My backlog concerns me a little and I'd like to whittle it down if I could. Not agonising over every little detail would help, and simplifying the palette would also be useful. I've been trialling this with the Legions Imperialis models, and it's been working there, but I need (or at least would like) to translate that into larger scale army painting. That is my intended painting focus for 2025 - just paint some models.

-- silly painter.

Sanguinary Guard - Part III

 

The greater the bling, the greater the warrior.

Some recent progress on the Sanguinary Guard, and enough to fully assemble the initial test model. This was the first one that I'd airbrushed the armour, added edge highlights, shading, etc. It took me a while however to decide on how the next most important feature should be painted: the wings.

I'm still baffled by Games Workshop's decision to remove the iconic wings from the Sanguinary Guard. The helmets look derpy, but they're far more easily replaced; the wings are what make them such a special unit aesthetically amongst all the Space Marines. Whatever the reasoning behind the decision, the replacement parts work just as effectively as the original, but I didn't want to paint white wings fully white. A brighter white would simply overpower everything else, and leaves nowhere to go if I wanted something else highlighted more extreme. This really only leaves shades of grey, hints of blue, to work with, and I still intended to follow through painting the higher feathers brighter than the lower ones, encouraging the eye to be drawn upward.

The process involved a lot of paints to get the look I was after, and while I'm not sure all of them are required, having such a range to mix and move between was rather useful.

• Mechanicus Standard Grey
• Dawnstone
• Grey Seer
• Ulthuan Grey
• Corax White

I started with the darkest (Mechanicus) and worked by way up feather by feather, keeping the recesses darkened to provide an outline. The whole process took quite a good deal of time, and I while the results are fair, I wasn't a fan of repeating that again. Ultimately I probably would've saved time if I had just done that, but experimentation would inform future such attempts what might and might not work for me.

Biggus Swordus.

I tried to drybrush the next wings, which was actually before I had airbrushed them. I figured I could just mask off the feathers later. The drybrushing didn't catch the feathers as well as I'd hoped - mostly it was stuck to the edges and didn't fill in each as I wanted. Stippling may have worked, but that also would've filled in the recesses too much and I wouldn't have the control over edges.

Next I tried to airbrush the colour gradient in. Trying to do that in bands across feather rows did not work at all, however using the entire wing as a single shape and building up a gradient that way did give nicer results. Gloss varnish and an oil wash help bring back definition, but I still needed to touch up places later with a normal brush. It's for this reason that I think in future I should simply just paint it all by hand; it takes time, but with fewer steps it's quicker overall. A coat of Stormshield varnish later to pull everything back to the same finish rounds out the feathers, but the varnish should also help protect the paint when masking it off for airbrushing.

Masking off the feathers also took me some time to consider. I wasn't sure if PVA glue would peel off the paint, and trying in a small area showed that it didn't - but metal tool used to lift up the glue sure did leave scratches. Blu-tac was far too difficult to put into the right shape, and I don't have any silly-putty, so in the end I went with PVA glue and a plastic tool to help scrape it off later. That mostly worked, but I did have to use water and an older brush to wipe off some of the more stubborn bits. Note to self: PVA is water soluble, making it ideal of this kind of thing. A few spots didn't mask properly of course, but they were trivial to clean up later with remaining paint from the palette.

Whatever he's facing is about to regret its life choices.

Something else I'm experimenting with lately is an alternate glue to superglue. The frosting from superglue has been causing a bit of hassle and I'd like to avoid that if possible. From unrelated activities I have a bottle of Gorilla Glue (Clear), and it apparently bonds quite well but requires some pressure for a couple of hours first. That's not always possible for these models, so in future I should probably just avoid using an excess of superglue to begin with.

I'm planning next to paint up enough of the rest of the Sanguinary Guard to have them fully assembled as well. I have a rough idea of the colours I'd like, but there's enough doubt that this might continue to slow me down. I need to break up the large gold areas with something of visual interest, but less is more sometimes and it would be difficult to paint up that gold again with a brush.

-- silly painter

Legions Imperialis - Sicaran Battle Tanks (Part I)

 

Tanks a lot.

Delayed post because of being laid low, but back to things now. I have a few things with slight progress, but these little tanks have been sitting assembled and primed for a long while now and I wanted to start them. I'm hoping to use the airbrush very regularly over the next couple of weeks just because I have an window to do that before certain distractions are restored.

Part of the reason in delaying starting these next models has been in wanting to try and get a better handle on using the airbrush. I've been getting used to thinning paints more, using multiple passes to reduce some of the speckle, and even swapping between airbrushes to see how the higher quality ones compare with my skill level. Hint: thinning paints makes cleaning out an airbrush much, much easier! I've been skipping full tear down and clean outs because it's simply not required, and there's been virtually no nozzle clogging. There is a downside that the with the amount of thinner and flow improver I use, the paint definitely does not adhere as well. It takes quite some time to cure and stick to the model, several hours or even a full day will give better results in this regard.

The multiple coats, multiple sessions airbrushing approach I'm developing works for me because I don't have all day to sit and paint - generally an hour session each day works best right now, so I can line up multiple models and batch as appropriate. The tanks here will have another couple of sessions before the paintbrush comes out: the Contrast paint filter stage, and then later gloss varnish to secure everything.

The initial stage on these tanks was Typhon Ash, roughly one part of that with one part thinner and one part flow improver. I probably need to adjust that mixture in future, make two parts paint to one part each of the thinner and flow improver. I did need to hold back the airbrush further initially, and the first coat was far too watery, but later it mixed better and more to my liking. I used about four passes in the end, rotating through the parts to give each time to dry before the next layer, to build up to full opacity and given even coverage. A little patience is needed, but I think it worked well.

Previous models always suffer from the problem that I don't go bright enough with the initial Zenithal highlights, so this time I then mixed in White Scar to the cup and did another pass. I'm hopeful this is now bright enough that the later Contrast filter won't be too dark. I still have trouble with this: I almost always need to go lighter and brighter than I might think, forgetting that mixing paint decreases both. I'll see how I fare this time.

-- silly painter.

Textured Bases

 This post is slightly different to normal and won't focus much on painting, but instead creating textured bases - particularly by using textured rolling pins from Green Stuff World. This all stems from wanting bases that are more appropriate for certain environments, e.g Space Hulk settings, Imperial Palace, etc. Generic gravel or dirt doesn't quite fit in these circumstances.

I considered 3D printed base toppers, or resin sculpts, etc, but while effective for smaller groups (e.g kill teams) they lack enough variety for larger forces and the costs can add up quickly. While browsing for other parts, I came across the texture rolling pins from Green Stuff World. I'd seen them before, notably for Eldar, but this time I saw some designs that might fit what I was looking for. In the end I chose Ancestral Recall for ornate flooring that might fit the excessive opulence that is likely to appear around the Imperial Palace (and be therefore suitable for Custodian Guard), and Factory for industrial flooring, grating on ships, etc (Space Hulk comes to mind for these, or Boarding Actions).

Marbled floor with gold inlay.

My very first attempt, was to use an old glass jar to roll out green-stuff onto waxed paper, transfer it directly to a base and then use the texture roller on that. After some trimming around the edges and a quick bit of painting (more on that in a moment) the result was...pretty good. I did however learn some important lessons:

• Rolling out on wax paper was a bad idea as the paper kind of stuck to the green-stuff.
• Rolling directly onto a base gives uneven thickness.
• Leaving bits of the cured green-stuff seam causes imperfections in the end result. I made this mistake a lot.

For my next attempt I bought a cheap acrylic rolling pin, normally intended for icing sugar apparently, and cookie cutters of multiple sizes. While not the perfect size, the cookie cutters should get me close enough. This worked again remarkably well.

Old and beaten factory flooring.

A couple of mistakes with putty that had already cured, but the acrylic rolling pin gave a more even result. Next up I wanted to get consistent thickness however, and so I hunted around for a way of doing this. I've only been doing one base at a time, so in the end I went with layers of cardboard with a hole cut in the middle. I tried 4 layers, 3 layers, and 2 layers, leaving the 1 layer for the actual textured rolling pin. It seems that 2 layers for the acrylic smooth rolling pin, and 1 layer for the textured rolling pin, is the sweet spot for what I intend.

Ideal for black and yellow chevrons.

The cookie cutter is slightly larger than the top of the base, so after the green-stuff has cured for several hours I remove it from the flat surface (a piece of glass in my case) and glue it to a base. The glass has some Vasoline rubbed on it before I roll out the green-stuff to help lift it off, but I find it easier when it's cured enough to be rubbery, but not before it's like hardened rubber. A hobby knife helps to peel one section off, then I can use that to help lift the rest without tearing at the putty. After gluing to the base, the hobby knife can be used to slice away excess overhang - but a Dremel rotary tool most definitely helps to smooth that out and unify everything. Just make sure to wear a respirator mask when doing that.

Creating base toppers is fairly keyed in now.

I did one test to try create two bases at once, but this showed a particular uneven thickness that I should've been aware of. The cookie cutter should be used in the middle area of the green-stuff, as the outer edges will be pushed away from that and might have a reduced thickness.

I did contemplate for clay based toppers, but ultimately decided to stick with green-stuff. I can confidently create new prints now while avoiding the almost certain mess that comes with clay, and all while keeping the tools clean. I try to use excess putty for creating tubes, cabling, insignia that might prove useful one, etc, but there is definitely some waste. I'm not sure on the cost effectiveness of using all that green-stuff (clay would be _much_ cheaper here) but the results are good, I like the designs, and can create different sizes as and when I need them. If I were army painting, then yes I might just roll out some clay and create dozens of bases in one go, but an army painter I am not.

To round off, here are how I've painted each so far, starting with the marbled flooring:

• Black primer.
• The "baby wipe" technique and Wraithbone spray.
• Praxeti White drybrushed across most of the whiter areas, and catching edges.
• Basilicanum Grey and flow improver into the recesses.
• Pallid Wych Flesh along edges, certain raised areas, and generally glazed where I wanted it more white.
• Retributor Armour to pick out some of the flooring design.
• Not done yet, but I may pick out the smaller diamond tiles in Corvus Black later.

And for the factory flooring:

• Black primer, mostly to hide the green.
• Wraithbone over all of it.
• Space Wolves Grey (Contrast) over the whole base.
• Necron Compound drybrushed over the higher surfaces and metal grating.
• Basilicanum Grey in recesses, some glazing where necessary to tone things down a bit.
• Iron Warrior / Dawnstone mix across edges, some scratches, etc.
• Skrag Brown watered down for rust effects.

It's a bit of a convoluted process, but I do like the result. Not sure if I'll keep it - depends if I can think of a more efficient method to get something similar or not.

Still need to clean up a few edges and get painting on them all. With the process sorted, the novelty has started to wear off and I can instead plan the models that will go on top.

-- silly painter.

Legions Imperialis - Leviathan Siege Dreadnoughts

 

His name is "Plod".

These had been sitting in the prepared stage for a few weeks, and I finally got around to finishing them off. It didn't take long once I'd decided on a few colour choices.

These models I went with a simple black primer and then built up layers of Typhon Ash for highlights. Instead of immediately going for the next colour step, I decided to edge highlight with white first. The theory was that this would show through more than the Typhon Ash and give proper edge highlights without needing to colour match the Terradon Turquoise. It kind of worked, but I ended up cleaning a few placed with Lupercal Green anyway, so I'm not sure it was worth the effort. Gloss varnish and Black Legion with flow improver worked a treat as always for recess shading. I touched that up very slightly later with thinned black where necessary, but only where it was going to make a strong visual difference.

One of the major changes from previous attempts was to only edge highlight the black, without trying to perform any volumetric highlights. This saved a lot of effort and particularly with black isn't really noticeable compared to more detailed highlighting anyway. I do like how the green turned out, which for these dreadnoughts makes a difference because of the large, flat surfaces of the body - but even on the legs it's not really very noticeable. For "normal" troops, as I've previously considered, it's just not worth such attempts at all.

I am a dreadnought and I'm digging a hole...diggy diggy hole.

likewise with the metallics it's not worth putting in much effort. For this scale, edge highlights are everything - base, wash, maybe additional definition on raised areas if necessary.  I went with darker silvers because of the darker overall palette, and limited Runelord Brass to add variation where I wanted to break things up a bit, such as the hood over the head. A relatively small brush and light touches, and not even a wash is needed afterwards. 

The eyes are Troll Slayer Orange. I did do a very minor amount of volumetric highlights on the helmet simply because it's a focal point and helps to frame the eyes.

Not much else to say on these. Very quick to paint, mostly because I'm only aiming for a tabletop standard, but the end result is still rather solid and they look impressive enough when grouped together. Next are some more tanks, which I hope to have done by the end of the year - if I get time enough with the airbrush.

-- silly painter.