Blackstone Fortress Part 10

Greetings Terrans, I hope you are well. I can’t believe it has been nearly 6 weeks since I last posted! It has been a ridiculously busy time with study, work and family all taking up a lot of energy at the moment – it’s all good stuff, but it has left me with little headspace or motivation for any hobby. I have a few minis that have been getting the odd tickle with the old hairy stick, but it’s only this week that I’ve managed to sit down and actually finish one… And here he (?) is, Navigator ‘Espern Locarno’:

Espern was fun to paint – there is a nice range of things going on with him, but it isn’t a stupid amount of detail to get through. All the flat surfaces would be particularly nice if you really wanted to go to town with the freehand- the official ‘Eavy Metal paintjob has that central strip as parchment rather than the cloth interpretation that I went with for example, but I’ve deliberately kept it simple.

One thing I was keen to capture was the importance of the character’s third eye mutation, so I painted the normal eye lenses black to de-emphasise them on the model. I also wanted to get some flesh on show, so chose to paint the hands as ungloved & with a pretty unpleasant skin tone. Otherwise it was a pretty standard paint job for me – it’s a bit sub-par I guess given my rustiness and general lack of motivation, but I’m pretty happy with him all the same.

Anyhow, that’s it for now – just 2 more BS Fortress dudes to complete, and they are both more than half done so hopefully it won’t be another 6 weeks until my next post!

Blackstone Fortress Part 9

Greetings Terrans, how’s it going? Another quickie from me today, and another BS character done and dusted – this time it’s the Eldar Ranger type ‘Amallyn Shadowguide’:

This one was a real sod to paint… I really like the look of Eldar, but every time I paint one I am reminded just how bloody fiddly they are. In this case, it’s more than just the bajillion gemstones – the rifle is ridiculously fragile & got snapped off mid-barrel as I was painting – I really should’ve used a painting handle for this one! The barrel was too thin to glue so I resorted to a small wrap of GS to add some strength… hopefully my crude Monkeigh sculpting didn’t ruin this fine mini!

Frustrations aside, I’m really pleased with how she came out – in particular, the face… I absolutely nailed the eyes, even if I do say so myself :-)

I roughly copied the green/bone scheme from a much earlier Eldar Exodite project, so she fits in with her peeps:

She also works ok with another earlier Eldar that I painted – a converted Harlequin Solitaire:

Anyhow, that’s it for now, I have a few more BS dudes to paint before I’m done with the set – onwards and upwards!

Blackstone Fortress Part 8

Greetings Terrans, how goes it? I’m back after another BOYL weekend – great to catch up with some awesome hobby people, meet new ones, and generally soak up another full-on OldHammer extravaganza! I was pretty much winging it this weekend with nothing specific planned, and that kinda backfired on Saturday when the rain forced everyone into cover & drastically reduced the number of tables available. Still, I managed to get involved with a SpaceHulk campaign, played some Frostgrave, tried out a new game called ‘The Doomed’, and generally caught up with folks. A particular highlight this year was having a short chat with Trish Carden – superb sculptor and a lovely lady to boot. Probably most importantly, this was the last BOYL at the current Foundry location, so I really wanted to be there to mark the close of that chapter. I’ll miss the old place, and I wonder if the new one will have the same kind of atmosphere, but I’m looking forward to finding out next year.

Anyway, the best cure for the post-BOYL blues is to get on and paint something, and as you can probably guess from the title, it’s back to the BS Fortress for another adventurer – this time it’s the shouty bashy priesty guy called ‘Taddeus the Purifier’:

The name ‘Taddeus’ always makes me think ‘Tedious’, and honestly, I expected the painting experience to be just that because he’s a detailed mini with a lot going on. However, he’s actually quite a nice thing to paint once you get going, and I did enjoy the process. The colour scheme might seem a bit busy, but green & red are opposite on the colour wheel, and so is purple and yellow, so it works in theory… I’m pretty happy that it works in practice too.

Anyway, that’s all I have for you this week – short but sweet. I’m going to be pushing to clear all the other BS Fortress characters over the next couple of weeks, so expect to see a few more in the near future.