Thursday 17 December 2015

Orks! Tens of em'

It's been a really productive past few weeks for me, with a whole squad of Orks getting done along with a small Dreadnought and some Gretchin too! I've also made good progress on prepping and basing some new additions to the force and have almost finished tidying up the Battlewagon. It's been a refreshing change to have maintained full enthusiasm with this project and so far I've not had any problems other than running out of plastic left arms! Things will probably slow down a little in the next week or so because of Yuletimes, but I'm sure I'll have the majority of this mini-army done for the end of January. I've decided against amassing 20 Gretchin in the immediate future as the ones I'm after are too expensive to really justify buying right now, so I'll probably aim to pick a few up here and there throughout the next few months - plus I'm really fed up with the smell of dettol in the kitchen! Anyway, here's some models,...


We'll maybe hit some things,..

The Boyz! Some great Kev Adams sculpts in here! Particularly like the classic Bad Moon guys with their rad pointed caps. Really stoked on the Boy I chose to be the Nob too, he's a fantastic figure and is covered in great little details - glad to have finally found a home for the old Yarrick power claw that has been idle in the bits-box for nearly 20 years too!


Ugulhard, is a bit like Wattie from the Exploited, but less of a prick.

The only issue I had with these figures was that the plastic arms (particularly the left open-palmed type) don't accommodate weapons very well without green-stuffing. I imagine this is because they were primarily designed for the plastic Boyz that came out around the same time. I also must admit I'm not overly fond of the heavy multi-melta as it sits too high on the shoulder. However, there's little I could really do to lower it save severely hacking into it, which would have probably ended up being a real mess knowing my modelling skills. The Lascannon fella looks rad though!


Imagine painting 40 of those fuckers? No thanks!

The start of a Gretchin Mob. Not really into the Perry sculpts at all, but this guy with the stick-bombs is pretty awesome! Massive soft-spot for the old plastic mono-pose guys too, but not that massive that I'd want to paint more than a few of them! When finished, this Mob will not be uniformly equipped, but will probably be played as such.


Yellow peril.

Really hyped on getting to paint this Dreadnought. I had the option of making the classic version with two ranged weapons, but wasn't feeling the sculpts for either of them. I think he looks far better with just two claws anyway. Sadly this set was missing the hatch and banner pole, but luckily I had one of the old Battlewagon exhausts in the bits box to tidy things up at the back. Bonus Snotling lurking on the base because they're awesome!


Left arm coming soon!

Just this evening finished off (well mostly) the Shokk Attack Mek! Always had a fascination for this model and it was a joy to paint. The detail on the gun is wonderful and it oozes a sense of ramshackle menace. Sadly, this figure was in a real state when I received it and as much as I tried I couldn't quite remove all the paint, so some minor spots aren't as smooth as I'd like them to be. However, it's more than worth the smell of dettol when you get to finally get the excuse to paint loads of Snotlings!


He's having fun, honest.

Currently in the work pile I've this excellent group sculpt which should be finished up next week, loads of Snotlings for the Shokk Attack Gun and a whole Battlewagon! Got a bit too excited about the latter and gave in to painting up the engine block - can't wait to get into the rest of it! I've also got a little scenery project on the go for this army which is slowly taking shape - very much looking forward to having a little Ork Village for these guys to hang out in!


Bodywork optional!

There's a few plans floating in the pipes for next year too. I'm hoping to use Frostgrave as an excuse to paint up some rad old Fantasy figures and I'm really keen on painting a load of old Terminators to use in Space Hulk - really fancy getting enough figures together to roughly play through all the scenarios in Deathwing and Genestealer with the recent edition floor-tiles. Then there's the second edition Tyranids to finish, The Ravenwing, the old Chaos war band for Warhammer, the Wild in the Streets Goth Gang,....

Realistically it's never going to end is it?







Friday 13 November 2015

Grooving in Green

A few weeks back I was lucky enough to be sent parcels from friends for my birthday. I'm really stoked to have so many friends who skate and either used to, or have an active interest in little men. By some strange quirk of fate, two of these packages included classic Ork kits and models; more specifically 90's Kev Adams Bad Moon sculpts. I've always had a soft spot for the early aesthetic of Games Workshop Orks, particularly through the medium of Paul Bonner's wonderful artwork and Kev Adam's characterful modelling. Although GW fluff makes it clear from the start that Orks are brutal killers, there is something childishly naive and charming about the Ork background during this period.

All getting along together then

Paul Bonner's artwork was everywhere at one point and he had an excellent style that could portray any of the Warhammer 40000 races with accuracy and personality. His work on the Deathwing expansion in particular is excellent. However, it is his Orks that his work really shines through. It would be hard to reconcile the rather 2D characterisation of the present Orks with these creatively comical fellas. Bonner captures the naturalism of Orkish nature as a tumbling, bumbling dangerously out-of-control boulder of a force that crashes from one planet to another in a never-ending pursuit of war - because that's what they do. There is no over-arching, galactic political motive, no honourable quest, just Orks fucking things up. And that's beautiful in it's simplicity.


Awesome.

Anyway. Back to the miniatures. Having no (urgent) projects on the go, I've decided to put together a little Ork army to try and capture the spirit of Bonner's illustrations. Using only Kev Adam's sculpts (which should be easy as he sculpted nearly 99% of all the Orks until 1994) I'm hoping to get the majority of the force done before Christmas. This may seem a little optimistic at first glance, but I've just discovered that painting green is actually really, really good fun.

I'm serious, it's such a good colour.

Since I can't seem to get away from painting yellow and that I've ended up with several specifically Bad Moon figures, it's going to be a pure fluff Bad Moon gathering. Thankfully I don't need to be as nearly as precise or as clean with the colour as I was with the Alaitoc Eldar, so that should save on many agonising hours of holding my breath attempting not to ruin or smudge yellow areas!

The boyz.

So far I'm planning to keep the war band really small and simple. Thankfully I've not needed to spend much on additional bits as I've had a few models kicking around for awhile now. The only additional purchases have been some vanilla boyz and a Shokk Attack Gun with Snotlings. I'll probably add a few character figures in due course, but here is what the first phase looks like,..

Warboss Azzbutt

10 x Ork boyz
1 x Battlewagon
1 x Dreadnought
1 x Shokk Attack Gun
4 x Snotling bases
20 x Gretchin

The Gretchin are going to be mostly made up of the smaller proto-Gretchin 'Runt' figures as they have so much more character than the later models. Plus, it makes more sense in my head to have a rabble of badly armed little guys running around trying to impress the Orks. Obviously this list is not meant for play, but I imagine if I did play them, it would be a hell for leather 'ere we go, all guns blazing not hitting anything tactic - because that's well Orky. So far I've the Warlord painted along with a few Gretchin and some boyz - shall do a proper photo-drop when there's more to show!


Azzbutt.

The painting style is going to be as close as I can to the RT greens, but pretty rough and ready for everything else. I'm really looking forward to modelling and weathering the original Battlewagon, which in itself is an amazing kit for the time - thanks to Pob and The Melon for being so rad and sending me more rad old stuff to paint, you guys are the bestest.




Sunday 1 November 2015

Armies on Parade 2015

So I did eventually manage to just about finish off the Eldar Alaitoc army off, but only just! It was a 2am painting session the evening before that finally saw the last of the work completed. Overall I'm really happy with how they came out and it's been a really good learning experience. Here's the very last units that were completed before the force was displayed at the local GW in the annual Armies on Parade competition.


Insert zooming noises here.

I mentioned in an earlier post about the possibility of adding some of the old jet bikes to the force but didn't actually come across any at a reasonable price until a month before the deadline.  These were good fun to paint and really add some mid-level height to the army as well as the opportunity to whizz around the house like a dick with them. They're really simple four-part figures (not including rider) and have a proper weight to them. The castings were a little off in parts, but nothing a little greenstuff and filing couldn't fix.


Proper flying bases! I always preferred the old hex style base.


Bonus shrieker cannon.

I would have preferred to spend a little more time on them and come up for a slightly more exciting design for the carapace, but they look okay and fit with the rest of the army. I really feel as if I've (finally) cracked using yellow with this project too and I've started adding glazes into the painting process so that should be something fun to play around with in the future. I can't describe how much of an epiphany it was when I realised how much more vivid they made certain colours pop, which is especially useful when painting 1990's inspired armies!


Last of the boy Scouts

The very last thing to finish was the last group of five Scouts. These were okay to paint, but nothing particularly special and felt like a bit of a chore (as the last of any project is want to be). I also had to do quite a bit of modelling work to clean them up as some of the casting was iffy. Still great figures though and it's nice to have had the chance to paint up all nine of the Jes Goodwin Scout models! Anyway, here are some of the entries from the event.,..


Chaos Iron Warriors with Thunderhawk.

Amazing Khemri Undead Army.

Fantasy Ogres on an amazing display board.

Fantasy Goblins on another great board - love those Squigs and Trolls.

Chaos Thousand Sons force that won - some rad airbrush stuff going on with these guys!

My Eldar on the day - stoked to have finally finished them!



The guys at the local shop really do go out of their way to hype up the event and it really paid off, with 18 entrants this year which turned out to be a record for the country! There were loads of other great boards that I didn't get to photograph, including a rad Werewolf-themed Fantasy display and an Undead graveyard scene.  I was really impressed at some of the scratch-built boards and the amount of narrative that was happening in some of them (something which my board had none of). In the end I didn't place in the top three, but wasn't really fussed as the event is always used as a deadline rather than a competition for me - seems to be the only way I manage to finish stuff off! In true hobby style, I've already started working on the next army and will be posting an entry on that in the next few days as there's some really exciting stuff to start working on! If you've never done an Armies on Parade project before I'd defiantly recommend it -nothing better than seeing other people's work and chatting about little men.


Sunday 20 September 2015

Alaitoc Parade Part Two

I've not made as much progress during the past few weeks as a new role at work has meant that I've lost a few lunch hours sorting boring guff out. However, pretty much got my head around new things, so I'll hopefully get things back on track! The last couple of additions to the force have been a pleasure to paint and I'm really enjoying learning to play around with glazes. The difference that final thin wash makes on flattening and enriching colours is a technique I wish I'd picked up years ago. I imagine I'll be revisiting a lot of older models in the next few years and giving them some extra love! Anyway, here's what I've managed to push out since mid-August.


Cannot un-hear KLF right now.

So this isn't the first time I've painted this figure. This version of the Eldar Farseer happens to be one of my all-time favourite models. I think that's down to a combination of it's unavailability in the stores when I was a kid and that it's just a beautifully sculpted figure. (Jes, if you ever read this, I owe you a pint or several you wonderful Jesus and Mary Chain-loving goth you). The version on the left was painted in 2007 and I was proud of it at the time. However, it's rad to actually see some progression in painting skill as I've never noticed it much before. I could easily spend few days painting another one of these figures and not get bored. Think I've finally cracked red jewels too!


So proud of the freehand on this fella - massive confidence boost.

Really wanted to practice some freehand on this figure and took inspiration from the 90's output of Mcvey. I distinctly remember his wonderful spiral work that appeared on the famous 'Emperor vs Horus' diorama, as well as on figures such as Confessor Kryinov and Commissar Yarrick. I wussed out a little on going full-bore with it by making the swirls only slightly lighter than the backing colour, but I think the subtlety works well with Eldar textiles. Going to be doing a lot more of this in the future hopefully!


Konica, colours are calling me.
So yeah, feeling a lot more confident with colours these days. The only thing I'm not entirely sure worked on this figure is the yellow jewels on either side of the helmet. They've a nice fade on them, but as much as I thought it'd be nice to paint a jewel that wasn't blue, red or green, it does kind of look like a giant zit. Hmm. Space-puss.



DEATHPOD COMES FROM THE SKIES FLOATS AT THE BACK.

Ah, the wonder of the floating support platform. I've never painted one of the old Eldar missile pods and for the longest time assumed they were flat as they were always pictured side-on in the catalogue sections of White Dwarf. This was a really fun, quick thing to put together and paint. I'm quite fond of how chunky the weapon is too.


SHOOT IT UP! SHOOT IT UP!
So stoked to get Martin Degville in the army! Even in the grim darkness of the far future, war is better with ridiculous hair and Sigue Sigue Sputnik references. Seriously tempted to make an Eldar Corsair force based on the 'Flaunt-It' era band. It'd be amazing.


Oh fuck, I've just realised they look like Minions.

Saving the best for last, these two Ghost Warriors have been a real treat. These were phased out and unavailable by the time I'd got into Warhammer 40,000, but I remember being more into these models than the later Wraithguard that replaced them. Here they are with the still amazing 1989 Eldar Dreadnought. Both stoked and weirded out at how much they look like either Sonic the Hedgehog or Minions. Tempted to paint their feet red to reference the former!


Gotta go kill fast!


The most camouflaged assassin ever.

Out of the two, the bottom figure was the more satisfying to paint as I don't think the chain-fist / head-flamer combo was quite as well designed. However, they were both really good fun to work on and have a wonderful tabletop presence. Would love to make a little squad of these and have them count as Wraithguard or something.

So the last things I have to finish up are a squad of five Eldar Scouts and another War-Walker. I've also just managed to snag three of the original jet bikes without selling a kidney, so if I get a move on there's a chance that I'll have some classic aerial support too! However, I doubt that I've have time to finish them off to a standard I'd be happy with before October 24th, so might save them for the future.




Friday 14 August 2015

Alaitoc Parade Part One

The past couple of weeks have bore witness to some actual work (who'd of thought it?) for the annual Armies on Parade competition entry at the local GW. I posted a fair while back about some of the inspiration behind the choice of army and I think I'm just about to hit the halfway stage with it. Sadly, I doubt that I'll be making a force-specific board to display these guys on as I can't justify the amount of space it could potentially take up, so will instead either mod one of the Realm of Battle tiles I already own or just lame-out and re-use the one pictured. I'm just hoping the manager isn't too bummed that I'm submitting ANOTHER old army. Anyhow, here's how things are looking so far,..


You can totally see Siobhan Fahey's naked back in this photo. Siobhan Fahey would well play Eldar.

Harlequin troupe shot with the Troupe Master leading - so stoked I finally got to paint this figure up! Kinda reminds me of Martin Degville from Sigue Sigue Sputnik!

More Jes Goodwin radness. Cannot fault these figures for design. Again, always lusted after these and felt a massive sense of accomplishment after finishing them. Really hyped on painting purple gems right now.

Alaitoc War Walker. Again, faultlessly designed model. The pilot has massive sideburns for a space elf!

Three of five Guardians. Love these photo Guardian / Avenger designs. The sculpt on the female armour in particular is really well realised.

Eldar Scouts. These were the models that really kicked off the idea of an Alaitoc force.  It's rad that the modern figures take so many design ideas from them.

Totally camouflaged. Ain't no one spotting us.


Feeling pretty pleased with the progress so far, especially now all the Harlequins are done. Painting up the Craftworld stuff is actually really nice and it's great to be working with such a vibrant palette. Still having issues with yellow though, it's satisfying to get right but can be such a ball-ache as it's such a thin pigment. The only thing I'm concerned about is the dominance of the blue on the larger models - undecided as to whether or not to take the plunge and freehand some bold Craftworld symbols to break it up. May leave that until the end of the project! So now all I have to paint up are the following,..

1 x Eldar Farseer (Pointy rad one)
2 x Eldar War drones (Never, ever thought I'd own, let alone get to paint these guys!)
5 x Eldar Scouts
1 x Eldar War-Walker
1 x Eldar Support Weapon

If I have the time, I've a squad of five of the original Howling Banshees and an Exarch, but I'm pretty sure that list alongside some other little bits I have on the go will keep me busy until October. I really wish I had a little more time and that was a faster painter as I've some of the amazing metal/plastic Guardian troops and would love to include them alongside the proto Guardians/Avengers.

Right, best start getting on with it!


Sunday 26 July 2015

Scale Creep

It's been a little while since I've put any solid work into painting as I've been away on holiday quite a bit recently. However, before I went away I did manage to knock out another figure from my friend Pob's collection. But first, a little background.

My first introduction to Citadel miniatures was one of the free magazines you used to be able to pick up from the stores. Infant, it's the one with the incredible Geoff Taylor cover that features the classic World Eater marine. I would spend hours pouring over the artwork and models and still have the tattered remains of the magazine to this day. There's something really potent about it; even now I get really excited to look through it and can recall with alarming freshness the thoughts and feelings I had when it was first given to me. One thing which makes me laugh was that I could never quite tell who the 'good guys' were, which at the time made me think about the world in a whole different way. Anyway, enough with the crippling psychological effects of little men - onto one of the raddest figures ever designed by Jes Goodwin - the Eldar Epic scale Titan.


That siloheutte,..

One section of the magazine i would spend lots of time looking at was the part with all of the 15mm scale Epic figures. There was something about these huge war machines and the stylistic differences in design of the technology belonging to the various races that really did it for me. In particular, the Eldar Phantom Titan stood out as being both very alien and wonderfully designed.


Psionic Lance detail

I could talk about this model for days on end. I love how big it looks and how you can just tell it's an Epic scale figure. The way it's constructed and designed to fit together is wonderful and the overall presence of the thing is insane. This machine means business and will kick your arse without breaking a (wraithbone) nail. However, this model was not actually that much fun to paint at all. Firstly, the casting isn't great and there were some grim mold-lines on the helmet, vanes and legs. Much of the fine detail on the body was lumpy and if I didn't know better I would have suspected this to have been a recast. It's also partially my fault as I promised myself long ago that I'd not get into painting white again. Worst colour ever to get a consistent and clean finish with!


Detail of the thorn motif.

I chose the Biel-Tan colour scheme as it was the same as the first Eldar model I ever painted. Plus, I've always wanted to have a stab at painting the thorn-vine design that the Craftworld is known for. Not entirely convinced it came out as well as intended, but it's not too bad. The scope for freehand that this model gives you is immense - loads of flat areas to get busy on! I imagine there are some great examples of these out there lying forgotten in attics.


Big purple head.

What I really enjoyed with this figure was painting the large, gem-fronted head. I've never had much luck getting red-coloured gems down cleanly, so went for a purple as it seems to be easier to work with. I'm actually kinda proud of how this came out, although a lot of the detail is lost in the reflection. The shoulder freehand isn't too bad, in hindsight that particular icon may have been a bit too complicated to be painted at that scale.


Psychic doom.

Overall it's not a bad paint-job, I just wish that I'd enjoyed the actual work a little more! I think the best part was making the tiny trees for the base, which is a shame. Perhaps it was a big thing to take on as an introduction to 15mm scale stuff - maybe do a bit more research and practice next time. Pob has assured me he's a load of Epic stuff squirrelled away, so perhaps the next addition to the force won't be such an effort!

Wednesday 3 June 2015

Chaotic Distractions

Sometimes it's good to put a project to the side and let a curveball generate some enthusiasm. The past month has featured some distracting radness courtesy of my good friend Pob. After a pretty bum day at work, I came home to a package which included several wonderful old models, including something I've always wanted to paint. In summery, I've ended up with several classic Chaos models, an Eldar Warlock Titan (!!!!!!!!) a Genestealer Hybrid and some assorted other figures. It's safe to say that my Harlequin painting schedule has been put on hold for a while! So far, I've finished up three Blue Horrors of Tzeentch and two World Eaters of Khorne Marines.

Gribble

The Blue Horrors were some of the fastest figures I've ever painted, pretty much finished them in less than a day. They were a real blast to paint and I finally managed to try out one of the new blue glazes which really intensified the hue and took away the chalkiness of the some of the highlights. They're some of the most characterful sculpts I've painted recently and I can see why people go mad for collecting old Chaotic demons. Didn't get a picture of the whole crew, so this fella looks rather lonely here.

 - W O R L D  E A T E R -

I think these are Dave Andrews sculpts judging by the chunkiness of the design and the amount of skulls on them. Whilst not being the most elegant or iconic examples of World Eaters of Khorne (that honour in my opinion belongs to the later semi-armoured assault marines also by Dave) these have a real charm of their own. Despite going for a bright, 90's paint scheme, I decided to add some wear, dirt and bloodstains to make these figures a little bit more relevant to today's tabletops - that and the fact that painting blood is super fun. 

It was a really good chance to paint some figures that I would have otherwise never have got to work on and I'm really looking forward to painting up the Eldar Titan for the local store's next competition.  It's also been a great break from painting the Harlequins and I'm happy to say that I've only got the one Troupe leader left to finish up now. After that, I'm planning on painting up two war-walkers and ten scouts to form the core of the force. The best part is that Pob has got back into painting again and has been knocking out some rad old fantasy figures with his kid Rhys. So stoked when stuff like that happens!

Tuesday 14 April 2015

Dancing With Myself - A Harlequin Revue.


Years ago, more often than not, you had to buy multiple blister packs in order to make up units. If you were looking to buy a Harlequin Troupe, firstly you'd have to track down the blisters with the good miniatures in (any that included a model with the Harlequin's Kiss or a Solitaire) as well as pick out a Death Jester too. However, for a kid like me on about £2-£5 pocket money a week, a bulk purchase was never really an option. I couldn't save money if my life depended on it and mail ordering was out as there was no way I was ever going to get my parents to voluntarily give their card details away on one of the order forms on the back of White Dwarf. Unless a birthday or christmas rolled around I very rarely had money and if I did, any ideas of committing to any sensible plan of investing in a single, coherent unit was well out the window and I'd buy a stupid new tank or something instead.

ALL THE COLOURS - ALL AT ONCE IN YOUR FACE.

Harlequins always interested me and I think one of the main reasons for that was my love of combative dance Jes Goodwin's utterly amazing sculpts and John Blanche's artwork in the Eldar Codex. His images of the Troupe Master, Solitaire and Shadow Seer are pyrographed into my mind as iconic, visual ideals. To my pre-pubescent eye, these images and their descriptive counterparts were so fantastically baroque and alien that they literally changed the way I appreciated art. However, I was always aware that as much as I loved Blanche's work, I was never going to be able to, or wanted to ape it. His artwork has always had a cinematic feel, as if the artwork is a split-second snapshot of a movie rather than static piece. I could never paint Harlequin like Blanche drew them and to my knowledge no one, not even Blanche has ever tackled the subject. I think the closest thing to such a thing would be his limited edition Femme Militant range - a Blanche-esque Harlequin could be a great challenge for the future!

Love the way the mask is changing in this. All of the Grotesque faces in the armour are amazing too. I can pretty much feel his disdain for us Mon-Kei from here!

What isn't there to like about this? The massive jewel face and antique pistol are so gnarly.

The fucking anguish in this is so grim. Sad Solitaire looks well like Chris Corner of IAMX too.

Mental illness bone daddy disco fabulous. Such a burly image.

When I decided to revisit my love for RT/Second Edition Eldar, I knew I had to include a proper unit of Harlequins to exorcise the demons of my misspent youth. With the wonder of eBay and trading sites, I've managed to get all the figures that captured my imagination way back without having to trawl through loads of crappy blisters.  In a strange twist of fate, whilst gathering ye olde Troupe, Games Workshop released a new set of plastic Harlequins, based loosely on the metal ones that came out in 2007. The last incarnation of Harlequins were a joy to behold - a great rendition of a classic Eldar staple with all the litheness of the mid 00's Eldar metal releases. They were and still are in my opinion, some of the best modern figures that have been produced, echoing their forebears in spirit and design. This Troupe was painted in 2009ish over a summer of unemployment and they were a huge learning curve in regards to precision painting. - black and white contrast is very unforgiving! They're not perfect by any standard, but at the time I was really proud of them. I think I'll tidy these up a little once I've finished this present Troupe.

Dance magic dance.

These two sculpts in particular really do it for me.

The new releases initially piqued my interest. The new kit came with a massive selection of easily convertible plastic parts, plus dozens of extra bits -  but closer inspection bummed me out. Whilst the recent metal releases had some real strength of line and acrobatic rigidity to them, the new plastics seemed sloppy, almost wet in their poses They also appear too uniform to my tastes when compared to the wildly differing selection of outfits and styles the original set. Even the character figures are re-works of the previous models, with poses and additions which don't really add to the overall look of the figure; showcasing the potential of the materials used (in all fairness, the stuff GW are doing with plastics at the moment is incredible) rather than being an opportunity to expand on the corpus of Harlequin imagery. One figure released did excite me though. The Solitaire, although posed in a somewhat awkward way is an interesting model which I plan to include in my 'new' Eldar army purely for completeness. I like his mask and cowl which in a way, is a gesture towards that famous Blanche portrayal. Plus, if I get him done, I can finally sort out the Shadow Seer that has been on the to-do pile for the last few years!

The undercoated WIP pile. New Solitaire is between the two versions of the Shadow Seer.

Anyway, enough of my bitching. I'm now halfway through working with the Troupe, choosing against the classic 'all colours and patterns at once' look and instead going for a limited palette of blue, pink and grey to create some kind of uniformity whilst breaking that up with sparing use of black and white to give the models a greater sense of difference. Hopefully this will work without the whole crew looking overly garish. They'll be twelve altogether, ten Troupers, one Solitaire and one Death Jester. Painting chequered patterns hasn't been too much of a hassle yet, but I think I've been lucky and unknowingly got the spacing and ratios right. Sure that won't last long!

EVERYBODY DANCE NOW.

You could never find this model in a blister pack - ever. Still feels special to own it!

Agh, need to sort that mold-line out!

Unconscious nod to the Hart Foundation.

Such an iconic sculpt. Can't believe Jes Goodwin did all of these.

So glad the rad crystal gun thing has made a return to the modern game, no idea what it does, but it looks cool!

Should hopefully have them finished off in the next month or so. I'm hopefully going to make a start on the meat of the Eldar force then, focusing on ten rangers, ten guardians and two war-walkers before moving onto a character or two. That is if I don't get distracted by a new, super jazzy tank or something. Old habits die hard!