Back with a new project.

So I have taken a break from painting for long enough, time to get back to it. Decided best way to jump back into it would be with a new army and a whole new game. So giving Kings of War a try.
To start this off I decided to start with a Vampire Lord on Undead Pegasus. I tried to figure out how to make the Pegasus look undead. Settled on painting it dark purple to make it look like a dark colored shadowy ghost. The purple is MUCH darker in person than it is the pics and came out pretty stunning imo.

Review: Scibor's Chaos Master

Today weare going to look at a miniature from Scibor Monstrous Miniatures (http://sciborminiatures.com/). The one we are going to look at is the Chaos Master (#28sf0050).

I must start by mentioning where this mini came from. The Chaos Master was ordered through Slave to Painting (http://www.slavetopainting.com/).Slave to Painting was a pleasure to deal with. Their website is easy to navigate through, just make sure you select the right country so the prices are in the correct currency. The minis were well packaged and as a cool added bonus they came packaged with a Slave to Painting decal and a awesome paint brush shaped lollipop.

Now to the miniature in question, the Chaos Master. I found this mini while searching for a suitable model to use as a Dark Apostle in Terminator Armour to lead my Word Bearers army. The Chaos Master seemed to fit the bill so I ordered one up.

The multi-piece resin miniature comes in clamshell blister pack.


The arms and mace haft are on separate sprues with some small decorative shields while the rest of the parts are loose.



Here is a parts break down with individual pictures. All these pictures are straight out of the pack without any trimming or washing.
First we will look at the main body piece. The torso, legs, and head are all cast in one piece. As you can see there is a ton of detail on this model. While we are talking about detail, the detail is very very crisp and there is almost no sign of mold lines.




The left arm is meant to hold the power maul/mace and represents the model from its shoulder to the wrist plus a couple of the small shields. During transport some of the shields had came off the sprue but were in perfect shape and not damaged.


The mace haft is on its own sprue and though it looks like there is a lot of flash on it this is very thin and mostly on the sprue. It trims away easily and leaves no trace of it behind.


The mace head is a large well detailed chunk of resin on a small round plug style sprue. It trims away easily with a steady hand and light pressure.


The right arm is on a sprue with a couple small shields. This power fist style arm ends in a pointy finger pose that looks great on the model.


The base, what can I say about it? It is a true work of beauty. It is an elaborate display style 40mm base featuring demonic creatures wreathed in flame wrapped around a rock with eldritch symbols carved in it.
This does add so height to the model but to me is more than acceptable because it makes the model look much more impressive on the battlefield.


Clean up of the model was cake. What little flash there was easily trimmed away. The same story applies to the mold lines though there was next to no mold lines on the model and what there was were very faint and did not run through any highly detailed sections. The parts went together quite well. The shoulder joints required a bit of careful trimming to get a good solid mounting surface but this was done quickly with the edge of a razor blade. The three piece arm/mace combo went together very well with very minimal trimming.
As you can see they meet very flush and tight.

There is sadly a minor bad spot with this model and that is on the base. The blue lines point to some minor pin holes in the bases detailing.

Honestly though this is a minor thing. I was thinking about filling them but they were so minor I decided to leave and after painting the base they are pretty much invisible.

When it came to painting the resin took paint very well. I used a spray primer that is the same color as GW's Fortress Grey and it went on smoothly and did not soak into the freshly washed resin. The rest of the painting went pretty straight forward using GW paints.



This is a model that can be painted quickly to get it on the table (like I did) or one can really take their time with and make a true master piece. The resin is crisp and of very high quality. The sculpt is amazing and truly full of presence once assembled and painted up. I highly recommend this model and judging from another model from Scibor that I got at the same time as this one their quality is top notch on all their models. I know I will be buying 6 more termie style models from them in the future to make a squad to accompany the Chaos Master onto the 4x8 battlefield.

Thank you for reading this review. I welcome all questions and/or comments. Until next time may your dice roll those magic numbers you need and happy gaming.
-Manny-

Review: Zvezda 15mm German Medium Tank Pz.Kpfw. III G

I am making another review post and this time I am looking at the Pz.Kpfw. III G from Zvezda. Zvezda is the largest Russian manufacturer of model kits, board games and toys and makes up 3/4 of the Russian model kit market. This offering is from their Art of Tactic line and while the tanks are 15mm the foot soldiers of this line seem to be on a larger scale.

So why did I choose to use this kit. First and for most was because I was in need of some 15mm German tanks and the second reason was because I have three of these new on sprue.

Speaking of sprue lets start there.

The tank is made up of a total of 10 pieces if you count the flag piece used in Art of Tactic (I did not use this piece on mine). The parts are well sculpted and cast with very crisp details. Speaking of details the hull is covered with them in the form of an extra idler wheel and tools. I was surprised to see them so well done on such a small model. The plastic that makes up the model is a little flexible but it is not a hindrance and actually makes assembling the model easier.

The included instruction sheet is simple and straight forward. They show the numbers for each part as well as a diagram of how they fit together. Also included with the instructions is a card for use in Art of Tactics. This model fit together so well that I only used four small drops of glue and honestly would have been able to get away with not using any glue at all.


This tank painted quickly. I just gave it a grey base coat followed by a black wash and then went back and picked out the details. From start to finish this tank took about an hour and 15 minutes from sprue to finished and that includes drying times of the primer, wash, and dull coat. Here is the finished product.


I am quite happy with the end result and it meets my needs perfectly. I would like to get a few more of these in the future. If you are looking for some 15mm WWI or WWII tanks I recommend checking out the line from Zvezda.

Movement trays and odds & ends.

Truth be told, there has not been alot of painting progress lately. So I have decided to answer a couple of questions I have been asked.


The first one is "What kind of base coat do you use?" For basecoat I use Rust-oleum Specialty Camouflage in either 1917 Khaki (for light/bright colors) and 1918 Earth Brown (for dark colors). I know many people are like "OH MY GAWD!!! NOT RUST-OLEUM!!!!" Now normally I would agree, but with these paints they go one nice and thin (hides no details what so ever), it dries quickly, and the Khaki matches spot on for GW's Komando Khaki with the Earth Brown it matches GW's Graveyard Earth.

While on the subject of paints I was asked "Do you use GW paints on the bases?" The answer is no, no I do not. For my bases I used color "bathroom" sand, cheap craft paint (see pic), and Woodland Scenic's flock.

Now I am going to talk about movement trays. No a person does not need to have these, but i would hate to play a game without them. Also yes you can buy movement trays but I do them this way because they are much cheaper. The materials used is a "thick" Tenet Parking sign, old pieces of sprue, some super glue, and basing materials.

I trim the bumps off the sprue and make a square around the bases I plan to use for the unit. Then I glue them down one piece at a time, taking care not to accidently glue down the bases as well.

Then I trim away all excess sprue and the sign as well.

The bases are then laid back out in the tray.

At this time I also number the bottom of all the bases to make it easier to rank them up to lessen the amount of time it takes to setup before a game.

I hope this answers some questions people may have had and though I respond to everyone as soon as I get em, if I get enough questions I will do another post like this.
Thank you all for your support and please stay tuned for another post soon.
Manny

Time for some Dwarves! Feel the thunder!!!!

Well I have finally finished up the first unit of Dwarves for Jenn's fledgling Warhammer army. I present to you a unit of 16 Thunderers lead by a champion with pistols, a banner bearer, and a musician. I tried to give each little guy some personality while still maintaining a look of unity. Sorry for not getting these up sooner, I have had these finished for a while. I just finally got around to finishing up the movement tray. Thanks for looking, now some pics! :)

(Click each pic for bigger version)

Group Shots

And now some closeups.

The command section.

One thirsty Dwarf!

And some "red shirts" (Star Trek reference) 

Thanks for looking, next up will be a unit of Skeletons for Helen's Vampire Counts army. 

Till next time,

-Manny-

Release the hounds!!!!

For this update I present a unit of Chaos Hounds. These guys are straight up out of the box with a quick paint job threw on em. Plan for them is to move quickly up the flank and hopefully maneuver them into position to act as a supporting flank charge for my Chaos Knights.

Here are the pics, for some reason the fur turned out looking flat in the pics. The hide on the hounds varies a bit from hound to hound for variety's sake. (click the pics for a bigger view)

From the front.

Sides

From the back.

And now a few close ups.

Thats it for now. My next update will be a unit of Dwarf Thunderers. I know what you are thinking, "Dwarfs don't go with Chaos." And you are right, they don't. ;) In addition to my WoC army I have also taken on painting a Dwarf army (for my wife) and a Vampire Counts army (for her best friend). I will paint one unit of Dwarfs, then a unit of VC, followed with a unit for my WoC. Then just keep repeating that cycle till they are all finished. Should also keep me from getting burnt out.
Thanks for looking, all comments and feedback appreciated.



Now with 100% more magic!!!

I know it is hard to believe but here is another update!! This was a quick task since there was only two models to paint. I decided it was time to add a little bit of magical punch to the army so I added these two sorcerers, one with the mark of Tzeentch and one with the mark of Slaanesh. At a later date I plan to also add a sorcerer with the mark of Nurgle as well.

For my two magic users I used the two faced Tzeentch sorcerer that I acquired from a friend as part of a trade. Since, in my opinion, there are no suitable models in the Warriors of Chaos line for a sorcerer of Slaanesh I decided to "borrow" one from the Dark Elves line since they also have what is known as the Cult of Slaanesh in their fluff, I used the new plastic sorceress models that was released for Storm of Magic.

Also I gave each one of them at familiar on it's base. I may not give them a familiar every time, but atleast this way they are always there if needed. For the Tzeentch one I used the familiar provided but for the Slaanesh sorcerers I used the mini demonette familiar I picked up a few years ago.

Now onto some pics! (Click the pics to see bigger versions.)

First a couple of group shots.

Now for individual shots. First up is the Sorceress of Slaanesh. I decided to go with a Drow theme for painting Dark Elves to make it stand out from their Elven cousins.

For my Sorcerer of Tzeentch I painted it in pretty dark and drab colors so it would also make a good double as one with the mark Nurgle. If I had it all to do over again I would have painted the robes green though rather than brown.

Thanks for looking. Comments and feedback is appreciated.
-Manny-