Make way for the Inquisition

Hey guys and girls,

So its been a while and not much has happened on the hobby side of things - work has been kinda hectic and I have been diverting a lot of my attention towards Magic the Gathering with the release of Gatecrash at the beginning of February. However, I did manage to devote a couple of evenings to painting and was able to complete High Inquisitor Torquemada Coteaz - read on to check him out...

I have always wanted to add an enamel type effect to Coteaz's armour as I thought it would really make him pop and when arrayed against my army of silver knights. My girlfriend was able to find me a lovely Tamiya gloss white acrylic (White X-2). While it looks great, painting with it is a pain. It gets tacky very quickly so make sure to give it a really good shake before use, also it doesn't mix very well with water. However, it only takes a couple of coats to build up a really strong colour. 

I am planning to use the same effect on the Crusaders to continue the theme of a "pure" force of Inquisitional troops. The perfect complement to the most hallowed of Space Marine Chapters. Although I am giving some serious thought to experimenting with tinting the plating to see how it looks with the glossy effect. Of course, no Inquisitional units look quite complete without some red thrown in; the bright red of the cloak really helps to contrast against the glossy white plate. The Cyber-Eagle was an interesting aspect to paint. I decided to base the colours on an American Bald Eagle as they are kinda the iconic poster-child for eagles. After doing a number of gem types / lenses on my Stormraven, I really think I nailed it first time on the Eagle's bionic eye!

So, there isn't too much time left until Vanquish in April and I need to get the final two squads finished so the rush is on to get them done. The Crusaders will be up soon, they have had their base coats and I have done some sculpting to make their shields a little more "Inquisitiony". The real challenge will be completing the Death Cult Assassins in time... until next time!

-Lucifer

Storming into 2013

Hey guys,

Welcome back after a very busy December and Christmas period. Unfortunately, life has been rather hectic over the past month or so and as a result, I have not been able to devote as much time to hobbying as I would have liked. However, I did get a load of new toys to play at Christmas including a custom, handmade wooden hobby station from the girlfriend, which has allowed me to dive straight back into things with reckless abandon!

I finally finished my Grey Knights Stormraven and updated BLOODYdice with a small showcase which should be up in a couple of days. I spent a lot of time painting it all nice and pretty then ruining ruining it all with weathering to add some character. I was very pleased with final result and got some lovely pictures for you all!

Of course, the model would not be complete without a suitably epic base. Initially I just created a very plain base as I didn't want to detract from the model itself but that just looked to boring and very much like it was a last minute addition "because it had to be done". So I stripped it all down and went back to the drawing board with my box o' bits...

I took a hacksaw to a spare Chaos Bike I found and added some bits from the rider. I decided to go for a nice red and gold theme to mirror the Chaos Space Marine's World Eaters... my friend Dave is a little obsessed with them and we find it fun to depict their shattered remains on some of the bigger bases! I think this scenic base adds a lot more life to the model and allowed me to experiment with loads of basing supplies I also got for Christmas (my girlfriend kinda spoilt me a little!).

Lastly, I want to share with you an awesome technique I have only recently come across called Focus Stacking. For the uninitiated, it involves taking a load of photos while focusing at different depths across the target, then stacking them together to create a perfectly in focus picture. The program I am using to achieve this is called CombineZP. I attempted to create a few pictures to show the development of the Stormraven's base. Please appreciate that I am still experimenting with this technique so the photos are by no means perfect!

Stormraven base - Initial build.

Stormraven base - Base coated and detail painted.

Stormraven base - Completed base.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much I as enjoyed taking and messing around with them. Keep posted, more to come soon!

-Lucifer