Lady Alice Liddel and friend

Lady Alice Liddel and her pet rabbit, Lewis. These are the first of yet another new project, the South Kensington Ladies Amateur Dramatic Society. Both figures are from Guild of Harmony and are quite possibly the finest detailed metal figures I have ever painted. The size of some sculpting detail is completely mind-boggling. The ankles on the boots and the steam rabbit have tiny cogs, with all the spokes perfectly cast. It makes you wonder why some insist on using resin. I made a slight change, using the key on the rabbit rather than in Alice's back, which seemed a bit weird to me.

These have been painted as a birthday gift to my wife (obviously I have been sworn to secrecy on her age). She is quite a fan of steampunk and Alice in particular, so they were an ideal present.

When it came to palette, I was keen to avoid the pastel blue dress and blonde hair that is prevalent, but wanted to make a nod in that direction. I went with red and white checks on the apron, then added the blue/turqouise dress, then worked outward from there. The hair colour is auburn or red, to complement the red of the tunic. The stock of the gun is a rosewood colour - I thought this was the most appropriate to use for the flamingo head carving. The model is mounted on a 2p piece with a layer of cobbled plasticard. And for those wondering about the photo background, it's a sample of wallpaper from the local DIY shop - a wonderland of backdrops. There are plenty more amateur dramatics to add to the group, it's just a question of finding the time and deciding which of the wonderful models to paint next.

Chaos Knights and Beast Shaman

These figures are not recently painted. The knights must be at least ten years old, the shaman probably a bit less. The knights are part of a small Tzeentch force that I used to play. Originally it included daemons - horrrors, screamers and flamers - because they were all part of one book, but then the chaos book split into three and my force was much diminished. I have had plans to resurrect (ie rebase and add to) the force for some time, and recent events make that more likely, perhaps in 2017. The Shaman is one of just two painted beastmen I own - I have always liked the models but have never had the time to paint up a full army. Now that I play mostly skirmish games that might change.

The reason they are here today is that I have quickly added some snow to the bases. They have been recruited by Vorghan the Slayer and will be taking part in a mini campaign, some time soon (I hope). The rest of Vorghan's retinue were already snow based, at some point I will get the whole lot photographed and explain a little more.

It's interesting to see these old figures. At times it feels like nothing has changed down the years, but looking at older work does show that my painting has altered. I would certainly paint these figures differently today - a different palette and using different techniques. They are nice enough, but do not have quite the impact or finesse I would aim for nowadays. I guess that is no bad thing.

Vorghan the Slayer

Vorghan the Slayer, ready to lead his troops into battle and seek glory in the name of Khorne. This is, of course, the free figure from the recently relaunched White Dwarf. I made a slight modification by removing the head trophy that protruded from his back, as I felt that it ruined the profile of the model. I wish I had gone a bit further and swapped the large blade for an axe, and possibly changed to a different (non-helmeted) head, but that's hindsight for you. He looks a bit cramped on his base, but my chaos army is a stickler for tradition and he wouldn't be allowed to join on one of those new-fangled round bases. At some point in the future, he will be joined by a unit of marauders/warriors, I am not sure which as yet, but for the time being he is a lone character model. An infamous character, in fact, from the annals of lore - only the true Warhammer nerd will recognise the name. He does have a sizeable retinue at his command, ready to take on a rival chaos champion, but more on that in a future post.

I was particularly pleased with the armour. Black is quite a difficult colour to bring to life - strictly speaking it's an absence of any colour, so perhaps not surprising. I have always been hesitant to highlight it with blue as so many tutorials recommend, that gives a very silky appearance to my eye, best left for clothing. So I tried stippling and highlighting with grey, then washing in browns and reds. It seems to have worked out well. 

I was even more pleased with the flesh. I used my own base colour, glazed it quite harshly with chestnut and browns, then glazed with the original base colour to tone down the harsh contrast. Again, it seems to have worked well and it's a technique I can come back to on other models. Luckily, I blogged quite a bit of my painting progress so here's a handy list if you want to give any of the methods a go yourself. 

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4