When all this was fields

I have been scratching my terrain itch these past few weeks, with a return to Middle Earth and some new gaming boards to work on. As a result of the workshop clear out last month, I re-discovered a set of six vac-form modular gaming panels from Warscape. Sadly the manufacturer ceased trading many years ago before really getting going, but not before I purchased a few pieces.

With the sudden renewed interest in Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle, I thought they would be perfect as the game plays well on even a modest amount of gaming space real estate.

Not anywhere near as rigid or detailed as Games Workshop’s Realm of Battle boards, they nevertheless have enough texture and features to paint onto directly. However as I had a roll of very old grass matting which was not been put to any use and was just getting in the way, I used that to give the boards a less harsh surface. I also added a few more textures in the form of a mix of plaster, gravel, sand and PVA with a little Scorched Brown paint added to give the mix a natural colour. The grass mat was applied in random patches to make the boards look more natural and less like a manicured lawn. It was never going to have the ultra-realism of a military diorama, but at least it helped break up the shape and gave the eye something to roam around. The gaps between the grass sections were painted with a mix of textured acrylic mat medium, PVA and paint. In this instance some old Khemri Brown that was near to the end of its life. With the basic textures in place it was simply a matter of dry brushing several earth shades and applying a couple of washes until I got a pleasing effect. Several cups of tea later (those boards may look small but they certainly took a lot of time to texture and paint), I was ready to add more foliage cover.

Patches of clumping foliage, tree bark, static grass, flocking and grass tufts were all added to break up the uniform look even more and add more textures and colours. I did toy with the idea of adding a few features such as broken statue pieces or a Dwarven entrance into the rock face, but decided in the end to keep the boards totally generic and add these as scatter pieces instead. That way I could use the boards for something other than Lord of the Rings if need be.

The flat panel I textured and painted as a marshland or peat bog and added darker patches of brown ink to the deeper recesses mixed with Klear to give a wet appearance. Games Workshops grass tufts worked particularly well here along the edges and in amongst the marsh to give a variety of textures and colour.

Very standard low hill. This was taken prior to the detailing added so I still have to re-visit with clumping, further varieties of static grass and a selection of fallen timber to help break up the bland uniform appearance. A similar technique to the marsh board of using tufts and clumping  to break up the edges of the mat where they meet the textured paint also need to be applied yet.

No table would be complete without the ubiquitous stepped quarter hill and this set is no exception. Not the most original, but does help add much needed variation to the overall table height (plus somewhere for my archers to rain death upon Kevin’s Orcs from). I was a lot more random with the matting here to break up the uniformity and add paths and ‘rabbit runs’ in and around the hill. These helped make it more organic and pleasing to the eye than just a fake hill in the corner and neatly manicured lawn up to the edge of it.

All of this playing around with verdant greenery has got me fired up to make more trees now. I wonder where I left all those conifer frames?

Until next time.

CW

Sedition Wars gets Kick-started

Just a quick post before I head off to the pit. I was pleased to see Studio McVey’s Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster show up on Kickstarter earlier today. I have not only seen the Strain miniatures for this game, but snaffled a set of the resin versions last year and can honestly say they are superb. I’m not one normally to wax lyrical about Kickstarter projects, there being so many at the moment. However, this is one I suspect that will not only well exceed its initial goals (at the time of writing it has in fact already exceeded its funding goal of $20,000 in under six hours), but may be worth a punt at if you fancy a few limited edition resin miniatures thrown in to boot and want to support the studio in its first full game venture.

Image reproduced from Studio McVey. Used without permission.

With over a month to go, I suspect some of the stretch goals could deliver a few extra goodies for the early adopters. Even more encouraging is the game is already developed and the sculpting and tooling done, so it is really more about gauging interest for putting it into production (safe to say that question has been put to bed) and just how much future funding it is going to get.

Go on, you know you want to!

Full details of the contribution amounts and goals can be found on the Kickstarter page, along with how to get yourself a piece of the action.

Have a grerat weekend.

Carl

Ultramarine White

Not all that glitters is gold and not all thinners play nicely with Games Workshop’s new paints. This past week I have been quite literally dipping into the new paint range and familiarising myself with their properties, both good, and bad. I am happy to say in the main I have been rather impressed with their new sourced in the UK offering. For one, it doesn’t smell or taste anywhere nearly as bad as the last lot. These things are important when you calculate just how much paint is ingested from brush licking during an average painters (somewhat shortened) life.

Like all good experiments a test subject is required, in this case the next Rhino on the list for the Ultramarines. Unlike its predecessors however I decided to reverse the palette for a bit of interest and predominately paint it white, reversing the colours for the Chapter doors, quarter panels and hatch. The obvious choice seemed to be Ceramite White from the Base range as it should have similar properties to the previous Foundation colours. Before I could let loose with the airbrush I first of all primed the kit in white and then gave it an overall spray of thinned Wolf Grey. If you are wondering why I bothered painting it grey when I am only going to paint it white again, it is because white can come across as completely flat on its own, there is nowhere you can really go highlight wise. In order to help give the model some variation in hue and contrast, no matter how subtle, a pre-shade is required. Wolf Grey is perfect for this as it has an underlying blue tone which works equally well with the white and the Mordian Blue I will eventually paint the contrasting panels in.

The Ceramite White also helps as it isn’t a true white, having a cream edge to it. This allows a pure white to additionally be applied for any extreme highlights.

Before loading up the airbrush with the new paint, I ran a few testers first to check its behaviour. Not all acrylics are made equal and what works well with one manufacturer can have an undesirable reaction with another when you start adding thinners into the equation. Even though these are still Games Workshop paints, they are sourced from an entirely different manufacturer and formulation from what I can tell. Running a few tests is always highly recommended.

For the Ceramite White I did three. Firstly with the mix I regularly added to the previous Foundation paints; 50/50 water/windex. The second run was with Mr Sticky Acrylic Thinner, which I had borrowed off Kev. It works very nicely as a thinner for Future varnish, but was untried for colours. Finally, Tamiya’s ubiquitous X20A which understandably works fine with their range but does horrible unmentionable things to GW and Vallejo acrylics. Thought I would give it another try with the new formulas however.

The results were a bit surprising.

For the water/windex mix the results were similar to Foundation, but nothing stellar.

The Mr Sticky however reacted almost immediately with the new GW Base formulation gumming the brush up completely. Not the result I was looking for.

Tamiya’s X20A on the other hand did exactly the opposite. Where in the past it had reacted badly with GW acrylics, against the newer range it performed by far the best. There was zero adverse reaction to the thinner, paint flowed well and smooth with almost zero clogging. What did gather on the needle tip was more down to the huge density of pigment present in the Base range and to be expected. I could have actually thinned further to avoid this if need be. The paint was also atomising well even at low pressures and was very controllable. Overall, I found the X20A to perform equally as well with Game Workshop’s new ‘Base’ range as it does for Tamiya’s own acrylics. I could adjust the behaviour even further through the addition of a flow-improver to cut down on any clogging during long session, but for the short runs I was doing it wasn’t required.

Obviously these results are anecdotal and I would recommend you conduct your own experiments as tastes and results may vary depending on your own choices of pressure, mix and preferred paint behaviour.

The only advice I would strongly give is if you do like Mr Sticky, use with caution with GW’s paints, unless you really like deep-cleaning your airbrush.

The Rhino is still very much work in progress and at the stage shown here has the base colours applied, initial chipping and highlighting added just to give me something to work to and the decals partially chipped in. For the hatch markings I tried a slightly different approach to my normal ‘salting’ method and chipped on masking fluid with a torn piece of packing sponge. This was done over a lacquer coat (Hair Spray) and a few extra grains of sand were also dropped into place for good measure whilst the lacquer was still tacky.

I was worried when I started that the white was going to be too much of a jarring contrast to gel with the rest of the army, but actually it seems to be working out better than I hoped. This has probably been one of the more organic palettes for my Ultramarines as I have been largely making it up and adjusting as I go along. I have a general idea of what I wanted it to look like impression wise, just not sure how I was going to get there. I think it still needs a lot more contrast and the brightness overall toning down. This I will achieve through a lot more weathering which should also add some further earth colours to the end result. At the moment it is a rather polarised white or blue with nothing to help pull it all together with the rest of the vehicles other than the first pass with oil paints to add the staining.

The next stage will be to add further effects around the exhausts and hatches of soot and smoke deposits, some earth pigments into the tracks and a further dry dusting of light earth along the lower edge. All hopefully this coming weekend as I have some terrain and a few Necrons lined up next as something of an experiment using Alclad chrome laquer. The Necrons that is, not the terrain!

Until next time.

CW

Making peace with my Daemons

I have been painting miniatures for well over two-decades and during that time I have had what could be described as two epiphanies; both quite recently as it happens. Firstly I am never going to be as good a technical painter as those Studio and Golden Daemon types. And, secondly, that is completely ok.

As I get that much older and longer in the tooth, I find I don’t enjoy spending long spells hunched over the palette as much as I used to, or was capable as a younger man. It isn’t that I have fallen out of love with painting or the hobby, quite the opposite in fact. But that I am constantly looking for ways to get the best use out of the time I spend doing it. With easy access to photos of beautifully painted miniatures, either on other blogs, or places like Cool Mini, I have always strived to try to emulate and raise my painting to those standards, using those techniques and methods.

I stopped doing that a few years ago now, around the same time the aforementioned age and lack of patience caught up with me. That was when I had epiphany number one.

I am not an ‘Eavy Metal painter, so why try to paint like one?

Around about the same time I got back into collecting a couple of armies for Lord of the Rings and I realised that my painting ‘style’ (if it could be described in such terms) had changed immeasurably in recent years from what it used to be. We are not talking about a sudden step change, rather a gradual move away from attempting to emulate ‘Eavy Metal and more towards an efficient technique that gets me quick, but no less pleasing results.

The wet palette was put to one side and new tools and materials began to creep onto my workbench. Materials such as ‘washes’ and ‘weathering pigments’. Tools like airbrushes, and hairdryers! What I came to realise was my painting approach was moving steadily away from one of blending any layering everything, to something less precise and more organic. That was when I had my second epiphany.

It’s ok to paint the way you want, you are pleasing nobody but yourself

Methods I initially passed off as tricks to circumvent doing the job ‘properly’ became established techniques and part of my painting process. What I was erroneously viewing as an erosion of my painting skills was actually the opposite. It was the evolution of my own approach into something that suited me more and the results I like. I stopped trying to satisfy the rules of somebody else’s painting style and started painting to my own.

That is not to say I have abandoned more traditional painting techniques altogether, far from it, I simply treat them as just that; techniques to be called upon when the mood takes me. In many ways realising this has made me a lot less dogmatic about my painting and far more adventurous about trying out different things.

The Ultramarines are a good example of this as I have probably incorporated more methods I normally reserve for vehicles and terrain in their finish. The end result isn’t an army that I feel is inferior to my previous efforts because I have used these methods, but rather one that better reflects “my style” of painting and is the richer for it.  Despite only featuring a limited amount of traditional blending and highlighting, I actually prefer the finish more so than I do my previous armies. Having made peace with my inner painting daemons I have now unshackled my creativity and feel free to explore other painting methods guilt free as it were.

A really good example of what I am talking about was in White Dwarf several months back, in an article by no less than John Blanche himself.  Director of Games Workshop’s art department, John Blanche’s artwork has graced the pages of virtually everything GW has produced since its inception and his visceral gothic images have formed the bedrock of Games Workshop’s vision of the 40K and Warhammer universes. Personally, I am not a fan of John’s style of illustration per se, but love the intense narrative that they deliver.

Over the years, John has developed his own unique style of painting which has amusingly been coined ‘Blanchitsu’. Like his artwork, it has become an extension of his painting personality in miniature form and is instantly recognisable.

For the greater part of my hobby years I took it for granted that the studio way to paint miniatures was the ‘right’ way. This in hindsight is just plain wrong. There is no right or wrong way to paint a miniature; just methods and techniques. Games Workshop’s Eavy Metal painters predominately use techniques such as harmonics, blending, colour theory, light sourcing and feathering to amazing effect because they all help show the miniature at its absolute best, and GW is in the business of selling miniatures. What it shouldn’t imply is that is the ‘only’ way to paint however and that’s the trap that many, myself included fall into. What was inspiring about John’s article and subsequent examples was to demonstrate it is perfectly ok to take a different approach to painting than that used by the studio. In fact, it is not only ok, it is more likely to bring out the narrative and mood of an army far better than a ‘display cabinet’ finish. John’s ‘Blanchitsu’ style is probably the more extreme example of this, but there are plenty of others.

For me, I don’t really have a style, but have found I am gravitating more towards Forgeworld’s ‘scale modelling’ realism and heavy weathering, or the muted natural tones you get in Lord of the Rings from the liberal use of washes and shading.

There is still a place in my arsenal for fine highlights, blending or glazes, but only where I am trying to draw the eye to a particular point or detail. I have made peace with my inner Golden Daemon and moved on into a world filled with new and interesting painting methods and materials I previously thought as ‘heretical’. To coin Games Workshop’s own strapline

 In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only weathering and the occasional use of purple hairdryers.

Have a great week.

WIP: Cave Troll

Last weekend I kept my promise to get the workshop up and running again. A task easier said than done. Requiring a degree of bits box dexterity, I eventually manage to unpack enough sprue to clear a space large enough to migrate some figure cases into. Which in turn opened up access to the seedier parts of the terrain shelves and bookcase. These were then re-tasked as storage racks, whilst the painting station was temporarily uncovered permitting an assessment of the work needed.

Two small controlled explosions later and the paint rotunda was turning freely and most of the painting palettes un-stuck from each other. The spray section is sadly a write off and will require bricking up, but I fully expected there would be casualties from such a long period of inactivity.

A couple of positives out of the exercise so far however. Firstly, the Imperial Guard bits box has now become an eclectic mix of Cadians, Catachans, Wargames Factory Great-Coats and Pig Iron militia heads. That box has Traitor Guard written all over it for the future. The second was all my digging through the dustier parts revealed a treasure trove of forgotten miniatures. In particular a limited edition Ephrael Stern from Black Library, a box of Wulfen and a mint pair of epic scale Capitol Imperialis. If you have any epic blood running through your veins you will understand why the latter was such a particularly pleasing discovery.

With the painting station usable again, I have been fleshing out my immediate painting plans. LotR features heavily, understandably, with the aforementioned Gondor army at the forefront. There are others, however. A partially painted Cave Troll in particular has been staring accusingly back at me from the shelf for quite some time. So I will finish that first.
It won’t all be Halflings and Horse Lords though, you’ll be pleased to know, as I still have a massive amount of Ultramarine’s to crack on with. In order of intent, they will likely be Chaplain, Assault Squad and Deimos, with a smattering of fixed emplacements. Enough certainly to occupy until the next shiny distraction comes along.

All that is for another day however, so getting back to the subterranean cavern dweller. I’ll confess now, I’m not all that happy with the Troll’s palette or highlighting. In fact, I am pretty annoyed with myself that I didn’t just start again from scratch. What’s done is done though and its not like I would be too ashamed to field it alongside my Goblins. The problem is picking up a miniature that I started several years back with one palette in mind, continued with last year to a different plan, then attempted to salvage now. The lesson here is finish what you started and don’t change your bloody palette choice half way through! Bottom line is the highlighting has far too much contrast and there is no graduation of colour across the two flesh tones.

Not what I was shooting for, but there you go. On the up, its a Cave Troll and not likely to win any beauty pageants anyway. I won’t repeat the colours here as they are an exercise in how not to paint a Cave Troll, so I wouldn’t want to lead anyone astray. Unless, of course, you specifically wanted to know what colours not to use. If that makes any sense? No? Thought not.

Troll experiments aside, I put in an order for a selection of the new Citadel paints to give them a go. I bypassed the layers range, as I see these pretty much as a near-as-dammit like for like replacement to the current (sorry, previous) colours and instead focussed on the updated washes (sorry, shades), foundation (whoops, base, my bad!) and Dry Brush range. I very briefly tried these in my local store and the fleeting time I spent with them convinced they were worth a further look at least. Not sure if it is just the usual GW hate, but there has been a fair amount of mud-slinging and ‘fist-waving’ in Games Workshop’s direction over the launch of this new range of paints. I have absolutely no idea why to be honest and find it all a bit bemusing. Some appears to be down to a misunderstanding that the release of the ‘new’ paints mean all previous versions of paint must be replaced as they will now no longer function and be ‘obsolete’. Well, I am still using some of the Citadel Hex pots from over twenty years ago and can assure they still “work” just fine. So no worries there.

A few seem to be terribly upset by the choice of silly names for the colours. I agree, many do not exactly roll off the tongue, nor do they accurately describe what the colour is. There is actually a sensible reason for the re-naming to such obscure titles; they are easier to protect as trademarks. The trouble with calling your colours scorched brown or dwarf flesh is you can’t really claim you uniquely own the rights to that description. Thus it can easily be copied by a competitor and there would be precious little GW could do about it with any certainty of winning if they attempted to enforce their claim. Naming their colours by trademarks clearly associated to them is far easier to protect and harder for a competitor to duplicate without obviously appearing to directly copy. Alternatively, it could just be a bit of fun, it is a gaming hobby after all. Either way, not something I feel merits quite the hostility it seems to be getting from some quarters.

Finally, there are those who are mid-project and are annoyed their favoured colour has been discontinued. This group I have a lot more sympathy for, having pinned my own colours to the flag of Mordian and Asurman blue for the Ultramarines. However, I am yet to be convinced that almost identical matches cannot be achieved with the new colours. Near enough to make no difference that is.

All of this is merely conjecture on my part, of course. No doubt I will be accused of being a Games Workshop “fanbois” because I don’t automatically condemn their products out of hand, it matters not to me. Although I have been using paints from Vallejo the past several years, it hasn’t stopped me also using paints from Tamiya, Windsor & Newton, Games Workshop and Privateer Press where I have found them to be useful. Frankly, anything that helps make painting either easier for newcomers, or squeeze better results out of their miniature purchase has to be a good thing in my book.

Getting back to the miniatures in question, it is a long weekend here in the UK. Thus, I am making maximum use out of the bonus free time and tidy-ish desk to make some headway with the Moria Goblins. Yes, the Cave Troll was just the start. Another Troll, Shaman and some drummers are all lined up next so I can start pulling together a few actual warbands ready for gaming. The crew above have only had a base colour and wash at this stage. One of the things I love about Lord of there Rings is how quickly you can get an army painted to a state fit for gaming. Niceties like highlights and base garnishing can be done at a latter date. Preferably once you have a few victories under your belt. Although these guys being Goblins, I’m not holding my breath. Perhaps they need another Cave Troll?

Until next time, have a great weekend.

CW

No More Marines

Is exactly what I would love to say to Forge World, only I would be lying. Their current penchant for releasing variant pattern Marine kits, such as the recent Rapier and Tartarus pattern Terminator armour is really starting to get on my wick! Mainly because I really like them and thus have to resist the urge to buy them. An urge, I hasten to add that I have failed dismally to suppress to date. I still haven’t managed to get through the last lot which include Boarding Marines, a Contemptor, some gothic defence turrets (ok, the latter aren’t Forge World to be fair, they are from Quantum Gothic) and a Rhino ‘Deimos’.

I had defined plans for the size and scope of my Ultramarines and they didn’t say anything about mobile las-cannon platforms, or relic Tactical Dreadnought armour. But that’s ok, it wouldn’t be too big a deal to maybe squeeze in this awesome chap.

and his buddy too I guess…

More Terminators? I already have one squad planned out. Ok maybe just one, or two of the MkIV styled chaps then. But absolutely nothing more. Unless of course they do some mark III ‘Iron’ or mark V ‘Heresy’ styled of course. I mean that would be too good to resist. But seriously nothing more could possibly be squeezed in after that.

Well, bugger. That’s just plain downright fighting dirty.

Joking aside, the Storm Eagle is almost certainly a step too far for what I have planned for my Ultramarines. Nothing wrong with the model, it looks fantastic, its just that the Storm Raven I already did is sufficient. That plus a future planned  large flyer is already pencilled into that slot. No, I couldn’t possibly see any place in my Ultramarines for Forge World’s latest creation.

Space Wolves, on the other hand. Now it would look right at home there. So it is a good job I am not planning to start one of those anytime soon?

Carl

Clearing the cobwebs

Ok, I confess, I am not a winter person. Much like the proverbial dormouse {dormouse |ˈdôrˌmous| noun an agile mouse like rodent with a hairy or bushy tail, found in Africa and Eurasia. Some kinds are noted for spending long periods in hibernation} I have been exactly the opposite of active, hobby wise, the past several months.

Now that spring is here and the weather in the UK unseasonably warm, I find myself brimming with painting enthusiasm again. I cannot say the same for the state of the workshop however, which has ridden out the storms of inactivity less favourably. In particular due to a recent outbreak of house re-decorating. Not the painting I had in mind. Fortunately, plans to whip the workshop back into shape are well under way and I hope to get in some quality brush time in the not too distant.

So what have I been up to during the intervening months, if anything? More of the same to be honest. The Land Raider Proteus discovered mud and heavy weathering, as well as some proper Chapter markings. Not quite finished but 99% there.

Having a spare set of icon doors still as the Proteus didn’t need them, I also put together a second Land Raider. The more up to date Helios added a bit more variety with it’s off-centre missile launcher.

With both of the Land Raiders I took the weathering a few stages further than I did with the other tanks. No doubt I will revisit the Rhinos to bring the level of track decor up to the same spec as that of the Raiders. That wraps up the heavies, for now.

Despite not doing much painting, I did wade into a fair pile of Lord of the Rings miniatures over the winter to get ahead on assembly, basing and priming. I see this as an investment in future hobby time for actual painting, something which will hopefully help me expand on my already sizeable force of evil-ness. Sauron hasn’t had it all his way though as I have finally started on a second Forces of Good army to give me an alternative to my taciturn Dwarves. The catalyst for this was a recent “Tale of Four Gamers” in White Dwarf, which I thought I would leverage as a gimmick for motivating me into delivering a Gondor force to an actual schedule!

The challenge hasn’t gotten off to a bad start either, as two Warbands, led by Boromir are already well under way. I can see Lord of the Rings becoming a regular theme throughout 2012, what, it being a Hobbit year and all. Games Workshop obviously feels the same way judging by the sudden relegation of War of the Ring to a ‘Specialist Game’ and new found enthusiasm for all things Strategy Battle. Can’t say I was as enthused about the release of the all new source books however. Nice though they are, value for money they are not. Nor are they particularly well-endowed in the page count department, especially when you discount the fifteen odd pages that are literally replicated in each and every one of those books. For shame!

The new miniatures are a different story however. The Watch in the Water in particular a surprise stand out miniature for me (absolutely love the foul beastie) and the Beast of Gorgoroth is also an impressive sculpt. Both I grabbed when they were released and just wish the casting quality was as good as the miniature design. Sadly it wasn’t; Finecast being a hugely frustrating issue for me. It isn’t that I dislike Finecast, I don’t. I recognise Finecast for exactly what it is; the only sensible way of getting away from metal production for large and/or lower production run miniatures. It is the erratic quality that drives me to distraction. For every mangled, mis-cast or wibbly-wobbly weapon there is a spectacularly crisp cast somewhere else.

Kamul the Easterling – Mr Blobby

Necron Lord – perfect in every way!

Watcher in the Water – slip-cast tentacles

Arjac Rockfist – Quite possibly the best cast I have ever had from GW

Beast of Gorgoroth – Don’t go there!

Amdur Master of Blades – straight and crisp, not a bubble in sight.

The list goes on…

In all of the mis-hap cases above the offending parts (or miniature altogether) were replaced by GW without any fuss, so it is hard to criticise. It must be costing them a fortune however, and that, I suspect is what the high price tag is helping to partly offset sadly.

Anyway, moving along. Cobble stones have also been on my mind of late, particularly those found on the streets of Gondor. To add a bit of variety to the aforementioned Men of Gondor I am currently working on I conducted an experiment between green-stuff and Magic-Sculpt to see which I preferred for stamping out stone bases. The latter was the winner, finer finish, less sticky and sanded nicely. The only negative is it does have a habit of lifting at the edges by comparison. But that was easily resolved with a thin line of super-glue.

The brick pattern one I rejected in favour of the curved design. Whilst waiting for the bases to cure I set about the first group of Gondor Warriors on regular textured bases. Yes, terrible photo I know, it was taken on the phone. better images to follow once the full war band is painted, detailed and base garnish added.

Nearly there!

The loft clear out also revealed a set of long-forgotten gaming boards from the ill-fated Warscape start up. These were the Realm of Battle boards before their time and were vac-formed as opposed to injection moulded. Not as detailed or resilient, they are nevertheless far from useless and now I have been re-united with them and keen to see what can be produced with a lick of paint and scatter grass. More on those after the weekend.

Finally, bringing things right up to date, it wouldn’t be right of me not to comment on the entire re-write of the Games Workshop Paint Range. After all, everyone else is, some even to dismiss them out of hand before they are even out which I find amusing. I am largely ambivalent to the new range being fairly well stocked for paint at the moment. That said I did get a chance to try out what they refer to as the Shades (washes in old parlance) and Dry (new formulation specifically designed for dry-brushing straight from the pot). I have to say initial impressions are positive and I am looking forward to experimenting with seeing what can be achieved mixing and matching across the ranges effect wise. Abusing them in other words, but all in the name of science! Overall, I am not as pre-disposed to dislike them on the basis of the logo on the label as some seem to. Seems like actually trying them out first might not be a bad idea. But maybe that’s just me.

So, I’m back and just as soon as the debris is bull-dozed back out of the workshop I may even have some painting to comment on.

Until the hopefully not too distant next time, have a great week.

Carl