New Citadel Paint range (it's a good thing people)

   
   

Finally, Alan Merret has revealed to us what 'that' Games Workshop teaser video was all about! Apparently Games Workshop are releasing an entirely new paint range. Wow, I didn't see that one coming! So we all now know what the number 145 means! OK so that was me being sarcastic, I know, very out of character for me. So yes, we all probably knew before the Store managers officially knew, because Games Workshop has an insane fear of actually telling their staff and customers any information. Why? God only knows. But, putting aside the companies piss poor marketing techniques, and frustrating lack of dialogue with their customers and indeed their staff at the coalface, I actually think this move is a pretty good one on the face of it. I'm going to explain why...

Frontline Painter: Maagaan Warlock of Baalor WIP 2 (Flesh and inner cloak)

   
   

He looks alright so far... but getting to this point? Phew!

So my first WIP on this miniature was a bit of a beast. For that I apologise, but I really do believe that the first thing to painting a good miniature is good prep work. So sure maybe I went over the top a bit, but if you think that was bad you should wait and see what I do with the the painting guide!!! Firstly before you start painting you need to get yourself a pot of 'dirty' water to clean your brushes and a pot of 'clean' water to thin your paints down.Plus what ever mixing palette you use, be that a tile, a mixing palette or even a wet palette.

Frontline Painter: Maagaan Warlock of Baalor WIP 1 (prep work)

  

Maagaan Warlock of Baalor and bane of green stuff!!!

So this is my first painting guide type article since I hurriedly painted my Sorylian Cruiser for the House of Paincakes HoP Idol contest. That guide was actually pretty well received, which surprised me. What people liked about it apparently was how detailed it was. So again with this guide I'm going to put a lot of detail into the guide, and if at points I'm teaching grandma how to suck eggs I apologise. But I guess I personally feel it's more important to be precise about these things rather than skip over details and leave some poor sod clueless and scratching their head.

Picking a Project

Yeah as I may have intimated to you on Thursday this is the 'one-off' project I wanted to attempt to try and kick start my desire to paint again. If the hints weren't strong enough SinSynn made me blow the big surprise by doing comparison shots for him! Why did I choose this particular miniature? Well it's pretty simple really. Although I own a lot of lovely resin sculpts from a number of high quality producers, like Studio McVey, Kingdom Death and of course Banelegions, only a few stood out for various reasons. I also knew that painting anything from the massive backlog of miniatures for the various games I currently play would be a bit of a mental barrier, as it would simply feel like I was starting to paint a faction again. Something of a psychological block that for me at the minute. So I needed a one off display project really, something to get me thinking about painting again. I wanted to do something with a bit of non-metallic-metal, or NMM from here on out, because I want all my Infinity miniatures to use this technique and quite frankly I'm a little bit rusty with it, so I wanted the practice. I was never great at it in the first place either. I also wanted a miniature I could use my Secret Weapon crushed glass snow on, because I've had it for a while now and I really want to use it so I can do a review of the stuff.

So I set about looking for a fully armoured miniature that looked a bit Nordic or at the very least like it was dressed for colder climates. Digging through my boxes (yes I said boxes) of unpainted miniatures I finally came to rest on a few choices actually. There was the Kings Men, Buthcher, Forge Priest and Survivor Male all from Kingdom Death. Meanwhile from Studio McVey I was tempted to start Vitharr Bearclaw, Isabella or The Raven Priest. I quickly ruled out Isabella and The Raven Priest from Studio McVey because of the lack of metal on both miniatures. After looking at the Forge Priest from Kingdom Death I decided he looked more like he belonged in a dusty wasteland, as does the Male Survivor. I also felt the Kings Man looked like he belonged on some pristine marble courtyard somewhere. So this left me deciding between the Buthcher, Vitharr Bearclaw and Maagaan. I started to see Vitharr Bearclaw in some meadow somewhere during spring and I really didn't feel up to painting the Butcher from Kingdom Death, as I felt I wanted to pick my skills up a little bit again before attempting him because he's limited edition. So this left me with Maagaan who I really wasn't too fussed about ruining with my piss poor paint job if I'm honest about it! I mean I can always just buy another one.