My return to Games Workshop

After not touching a Citadel miniature or venturing into a Games Workshop store since the age of about 13, I have in the last few weeks begun to dip my foot back into that particular hobby pond. Not for want of a new (old) game to play, I'm really quite happy with the various board and card games I enjoy at the moment. However, I've been growing increasingly jealous of Hana's various craft projects (cross-stitching an intricate pillow front, painting by numbers), and while my games are fun when there are friends about, they're not so great when it's just the two of us at home on a Sunday afternoon, and require a minimum investment of time in an uninterrupted block to play.

So, I bought myself a Citadel hobby starter set of paints, glue, cutters and basing materials, a model kit I liked the look of, and set out to just do my best to put together and paint some things. Expect some irregular little blogs such as this one showing the results of these attempts, and thoughts on them, from here onward until I get bored or frustrated of it. I thought these might make for an interesting record in case I keep this up for a decent amount of time and accidentally get half-decent at it, or something.

#1 - Tau XV25 Stealth Suits:

How they're "supposed to look":

My effort:

I should probably start by saying that these comparison pictures are being a little hard on myself at this point in time - I've not painted anything in over 10 years, would generally consider myself not particularly artistic or steady-handed, and Hana insisted I wouldn't have the patience to do these properly. The frst picture, on the other hand, comes from Games Workshop's 'Eavy Metal team, who are professional full-time miniature painters. Still, not a bad first attempt I think?

Paint technique:

- Basecoated with Undercoat Black.
- Mechrite Red, 2 coats.
- Highlights on red with Mechrite Red/Skull White mix.
- Highlights on black with Undercoat Black/Mordian Blue mix.
- Details with Shining Gold.
- Base: Calthan Brown, 2 coats, then sand and grass PVA'd on.
- 2 coats Devlan Mud ("skill in a pot") wash all over.

Mistakes and lessons:

- For undercoat, you have to use a spray. Using a brush and the pot of undercoat black was needless cheapskatery, that resulted in a thick and somewhat glossy basecoat.
- For highlights, use the side rather than tip of the brush where possible. I also mixed the red highlights a little lighter than necessary.
- For highlights, use a detail/fine detail brush to achieve a thinner line. I did this one using the same starter brush throughout, which led to a thicker line than I would have liked.
- For the base, cover the whole thing with sand, then later add grass on top of this. I tried to to patches of each and it got a bit messy in some places, and left awkward gaps of just paint showing in others.
- I didn't bother trying to do the optics effects, something I should try in future on models with such details.
- I've since bought a can of Chaos Black spray to basecoat, and a detail brush for fiddly bits and highlights.

Overall I'm pleased with my first effort, and enjoyed doing these ones a fair bit. These models sure are smaller than I'd remembered though!


#2 - Eldar Jetbike:

How they're "supposed to look":

My effort:

Paint technique:

- Model left in 3 sections during painting: rider, main bike (not attaced to base), front plate of bike.

- Chaos Black spray undercoat.

- Mordian Blue, 2 coats over majority of model.

- Metal details in Chainmail, guns then drybrushed with Shining Gold over the top.

- Rider head drybrushed with Chainmail and then Shining Gold

- Highlighted with Mordian Blue/Skull White mix.

- 1 coat Devlan Mud wash all over.

- 3 transfers applied once fully dried and assembled on base.

Mistakes and lessons:

- First up, the transfers ruined the model a bit, because they very obviously show up as transfers where they've been applied. This is pretty frustrating as I'd been told they apply easily (which they did) and look great once dry (which they do not).

- Highlights on the smaller sections of the bike are okay, but those on the main front plate are still too thick and a bit sketchy.

- I finished this one a bit too soon perhaps, I could've done a lot more with the rider, at the very least.

I should have been a little more ambitious with this one in the painting, trying a little battle damage, and some simple freehand lines on the larger sections of the bike instead of opting for transfers, which I will unlikely use again. This seems like a great beginners kit (and pretty decent value at ~£7), though the rider doesn't exactly sit on the seat as I'd like, and there are no "options" out of the box.

Next time: Necron Warriors and Scarabs!