Painting Miniatures

Painting miniatures used to be something I spent a lot of time doing. Now in 2021 I don’t seem to have as much time and energy for it. But I hope to change that in 2022. It was never the focus of this blog, but it used to be the focus of a lot of my online activity, eventually in order to focus I started a dedicated miniature painting blog.

In the past I maintained the most popular Nurgle websites on the Internet. I used these painted models in Warhammer 40,000 but even sometimes in Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Eventually after finishing university I became serious enough that I flew to another province to take part in a Grand Tournament.

When I originally authored this post I was preparing for probably the major 40K tournament in my neck of the woods at the time, Astronomi-con Vancouver. Not only must all your miniatures be painted, you can win prizes for painting miniatures. At this event you are encouraged to customize and theme your models and army.

Converting and Painting Miniatures

Some of these models were built and converted specifically for an army list I planned to use at an event, others were intended as tester figs as at the time I was trying to learn new techniques and push the limits of my ability. I also decided to build two fun models and yet another Plaguemarine Champion as I was on a roll.

Models to test paint schemes on

Testing out paint schemes and techniques on lesser models is a good idea. I often use Nurglings and Plaguebearers for this, but there is no substitute for authenticity. So, I’m using the guardsmen to test a World War One Canadian army colour pallet, but I had to dig into the bits box for enough bits to make a guardsmen. I used a mix of Cadian and rambo guard bits. The Gretchin was for the paint a Grot competition at a now defunct website called the Waaaggh.

Converted Plague Marine Champion

This Plague Marine Champion is for Syphilis Squad, I thought I’d finished that squad off, but lately I’ve been re-evaluating the plasma pistol as an option for champions, with the supposed addition of more monstrous creatures due to changes to the meta game, but also because they are good at killing marines and even terminators. This model uses the resin torsos from Forgeworld, but the legs might be from the Havoc box set. The arms are from the assault marines and chaos marauders boxes respectively.

I keep thinking I’m done painting Nurgle miniatures as I’ve painted most of them and more than most. I’ve also converted and kit-bashed many. But now after several years away from the hobby there is a whole new range of Death Guard models and their increase in size will force me to rebase my old models, but I’m not rebasing my old OOP square based models. I’ll use them as is in friendly games because breaking them off the bases will damage the paint jobs. Eventually I did rebase some and put adaptors on others.

At one point I put up a gallery of plague marines and Nurgle renegades. I think at the time I’d painted them all, now those models are all out of print, but I still have some more unpainted old models. As the Internet got bigger I moved away from self-hosting everything and using services like Flickr and WordPress, it now seems a lot of miniature painters have stopped blogging and instead use Instagram or Youtube to create video tutorials.

Test Khorne Bezerker

The bezerker is the test figure for the Chaos Lord I intended to use in the tournament. I have a scheme in mind, that is half Khorne, half Nefarious Fire. Previously, I used to be pretty good at painting red, but my old pot of Blood Red has dried out and has been retired, so I’m unsure exactly how I’m going to get the red I want. I want a dark, non-orange, red.

I ended up painting enough miniatures to have an entire squad using a variety of dark red paints over a black basecoat. They have seen the tabletop exactly once. The rules have changed several times but I gotta have 30 more unpainted Khorne bezerkers so I’ll revisit this squad again to make them more effective under the current rules, I think they could use a rhino or I could go with a big blood for the blood god charge.

Converted Chaos Lord

Above or to the right, is the first of two hopefully eye-catching models. This is a converted Khorne Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour based on the special character model released by Forgeworld. The idea came when I noticed Chaos Lords could have chainfists, however no one does it. So I decided five, strength eight attacks, on the charge would not be too shabby. However the downside of the chainfist is striking last, so I made him a little buddy.

Converted CSM Sorcerer

My DIY sorcerer I’m quite proud of. I knew exactly which bits I was going to use for the lord. But when I decided to make the sorcerer from bits, all I knew was I’d use a Dark Angels veteran body to start. I ended up using a head from the Terminator Chaos Lord kit. The flaming arm is from the chaos possessed box and the sword arm is old CSM biker bit. I had a Chaos Sorcerer backpack which I got at a Grand Tournament back when GW sold individual bits, it was just a matter of some shoulder pads, and a few additional plastic bits plus a base from Dragonforge.

The Chaos lord’s base is from Scibor, but I wanted to use another Polish supplier but I got impatient.

Finished Painted Miniatures

Someone started sharing this post around Facebook on February 12th, 2012 and I was curious as to what made this post so special. I hadn’t been painting miniatures much at that time. I did however eventually finish painting all these models and they all appear on Flickr. so now I can embed them below.

Pro tip, use the custom HTML embed not the Flickr WordPress block.

Now as I revise this post for at least the fourth time I’ve discovered WordPress or Yoast does not like it as much as the people over on Facebook do. Facebook has grown to dominate the English Internet, there are now private groups where all the best miniature painters gather. Somehow I’m included in their ranks even though I’ve never even entered the Golden Demons, I don’t paint for competitions but to game, so I’ve just won a few local painting competitions over the years. Now not only is my body failing but my eyes seem to get worse every year, so in 2022 I will get new glasses and try to paint some models at my new painting desk.

Ten Future Miniature Painting Ambitions

A lot has happened since I started this blog. I did get everything painted in time for the tournament, but I was up pretty late the night before. I wrote an event summary and battle reports if that is of interest. As time went on I lost my regular gaming group, though many of them not only still game, they actually have their own gaming stores. I moved around, became more anti-social and focused on painting miniatures.

Now I’m living in Calgary for the third time in my life and I don’t have a regular gaming group, but I do know a guy, and we plan to play more if Covid restrictions allow it. Even if they don’t I plan to be painting miniatures in 2022 and below are the ten things I’ll focus on.

#1 Paint more Plague Marines

After a seven year hiatus I played a game of Warhammer 40,000 with my Diseased Sons army for which I used the Death Guard rules, the Chosen Sons Plague Company specifically. So for those hoping for more Khorne, Tzeentch, Slaneesh, or Undivided models you may be disappointed. Eventually I’ll try the Nurgle Renegades rules from the Chaos Space Marine codex, but first yet more plague marines will be painted.

#2 Paint a Necromunda Gang

I now have an apartment in Calgary but no painted terrain, my mom has all my painted terrain in her basement and I’ve realized I’ll need to get a bigger place eventually to get all my stuff out of my mom’s house. The other realization I came to is skirmish scale games are just less work and can be played on your kitchen table. So I plan to paint models for Necromunda, I’ll probably just use existing painted models in Kill Team, but I may paint a team or two just for that game.

#3 Rebase Old Models for New Rules

Re-basing a lot of Warhammer 40,000 models is in my new year’s plans. Apparently scale creep and “heroic” 28mm models was not enough for GW, there are now genetically engineered super soldiers that are better than the genetically engineered super soldiers from the Rogue Trader era. There also appears to be armour better than terminator and bolters and chainswords are quaint armaments from a bygone age. As a result of all this I ordered rings to increase the base size of my old models as I think that is fair under the new rules, I may still field some demons on square bases in friendly games, but if I ever go to a tournament it may be without any demons.

#4 Paint Chaos Cultists

I was going to use the Forgeworld rules, specifically the Servants of Decay list and collected a lot of models to convert to be Chaos Cultists. Then GW release new Chaos Cultists in a boxset. I didn’t buy that boxset just the rules books, now those models appear to be out of print and I think I have five. GW keeps releasing new models but I already have a lot of Necromunda models, Chaos Marauders, Flagellants, and even some Guardsmen that will be convert to chaos for use in 40K and Kill Team, I just like painting miniatures which are man sized better than vehicles.

#5 Paint Night Goblins aka Gloomspite Gitz

I’m not sure why, but the one gaming guy I knew in Calgary wanted to play Warcry, not 40K, not Kill Team, and not Necromunda. So I dusted off some old out of print night goblins to practice painting and I even bought some new models so we could play Warcry. Now Bill wants to play the other games but of course Covid-19 has been an obstacle to any social plans, but as 2021 ends and 2022 starts I plan to again practice painting miniatures on old goblins and maybe paint more squig hoppers or whatever they are called now so Games Workshop can trademark it.

#6 Employ simple but effective miniature painting techniques

A lot of miniature painting products have been released since the days Citadel Colors came in boxes of nine. The first Citadel paints I ever bought were in the Orks versus Eldar paint set along with black, smelly primer, and Waaargh green ink. Over the years I’ve read a lot of tutorials and bought a lot more paint. I recently had to throw out a lot of the old pots as they basically became solid while stored in my mom’s garage. The screw on bolter lids were the worst.

I started to experiment with GW’s contrast paints and of course there are many, many paints and other miniature painting products not made by GW. I want to refine my style to be more efficient as I doubt I’ll ever enter the Golden Demons and I’m not sure I’ll top the painting I did just after the turn of the millennium. My biggest painting accomplishment is just sticking with the same army and refining and enhancing it over the years.

The model below is yet another Chaos Lord I converted and painted to lead yet another army in yet another tournament. It is considered by many to be my best work. But I’m not sure, I needed even more time than I had.

#7 Paint Chaos Spawn

Under the latest Death Guard rules I can’t field Beasts of Nurgle as easily as I can Chaos Spawn so I’m finally going to buy and paint some if I can find the miniatures. Both Chaos Spawn and Plague Marines were sold out last time I was at Sentry Box. I want to try out different colours, paints, and techniques on them. They also count as Fast Attack and are only 45 points to field in-game so they are a cheap unit to put on the tabletop.

#8 Paint More Nurglings

Although Bill doesn’t understand the appeal, I still plan to paint a few more stands of Nurglings. I think I’m done putting them on square bases though. I have a few metal ones partially painted already on square bases so I’ll finish those at some point, but I plan to try yet another Citadel Contrast paint I bought over Wraithbone to see if I can get a dark green I like. In the future, I want to include at least a Combat Patrol detachment of Demons in a larger battle force. I don’t like the rules for Nurgle demons in Kill Team or even Warcry, but as I pointed out to Bill, Nurglings are too elite for Kill Team anyway.

#9 Paint Non-Nurgle Chaos Space Marines

My number one priority is to get the Diseased Sons to work better with the current Death Guard rules, this involves painting miniatures which are differently armed Plague Marines and the new Foetid Virion. These are the lieutenants of the Death Guard and have rules that boost the core units. I plan to paint some Demon Engines eventually but I want to try the regular Chaos Space Marine rules too and plan to rebase them as well. Expanding my non-Nurgle forces was the previous plan. GW has released new regular Chaos Space Marines and Havocs along with a lot of other nice new models and I still want to paint more Rogue Trader era chaos renegades as well as some new and OOP terminiators.

Personally I think, my black with purple flames paint scheme is sharp and used it for both my goblins and CSM. The Nefarious Fire is also a great name that works for goblins and Chaos Space Marines. I think I may need a new recipe for black or I’ll have to order more paints from Foundry. Purple I’m less picky about but I seem to recall I just bought a new one before I packed up my painting station for the last time.

#10 Paint some Orks or Orcs or however GW spells it

Around the time I got talked into buying a copy of Assault on Black Reach and trading for a second Ork half, I realized I’d never paint all the models I own. Since that time I’ve acquired even more models for Warcry, Necromunda, Kill Team and yes even Warhammer 40,000 and WFB. I doubt I’ll get all the Chaos models painted for 40K let alone all the old OOP greenskins I have. I still plan to paint a few as either test models like the gretchin above or I might paint the Ork Kill Team after breaking my vow never to buy another GW boxset after I thought Bill wasn’t going to get that one.

Bill is big on playing campaigns and narrative games so I said I would be Orks and he could play the Imperial forces as he is now an Ultramarine player. When I first met Bill he played Orks and Nurgle, then he moved to Calgary and converted to the dark side. Bill is more active in painting miniatures than me, he is on Instagram. I’ll probably post more WIP pictures to the ‘Gram, apparently everyone wants to be an influencer nowadays. I hope to go to a game convention again someday, Bill is less interested in tournaments this millennium.

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The Future is still Uncertain

Covid-19 seems to be on the rise again, so staying inside alone and painting miniatures doesn’t sound like a bad hobby to focus on to start 2022. Eventually I’ll have to go through the many boxes of unpainted miniatures I have and sell some. I also have a lot of scenic 25mm bases which are now less useful as CSM and Plague Marines need to be on a 32mm base. This is why cultists have appeal they are small and I have the right bases. I doubt I’ll update my Rogue Trader era work army. However, I actually am good at painting green skin.

Now that I’ve returned to Canada and gotten my miniatures and paints out of storage I’ve slowly returned to the hobby of painting miniatures. I doubt I’ll ever paint, game or blog as much as I used to but I do still update old blog posts to try to make this blog better. Spammers used to like this blog post too much, but I decided to update it and enable comments again, so if you have thoughts on painting miniatures, converting models, or what I should paint next you can leave a comment below.

This entry was originaly posted on March 24th, 2010, it was last edited on June 1st, 2024 and is filed under: DIY, Hobbies, & Interests and tagged: 40K, Chaos Space Marines, Miniature Painting.