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Painting Pressure

Posted by johnnya10 on 11/04/2021
Posted in: Uncategorized. 2 Comments

As lockdown winds to a close in the UK (I can actually go for a pint tomorrow!) I find myself in an odd and strange place in my life. I’m not going to give you a run-down of all my personal stuff that I’ve got going on (none of your beeswax) but in hobby-terms, I’m kind of in heaven right now. And yet, I find my angelic ideal with its wings clipped through only my own devilish shortcomings. And that’s what I want to talk about right now. A bit of hobby darkness that I find myself falling victim to too often – the pressure of painting, and everything that goes with the hobby these days. It might only be for me, but I’d be shocked (shocked I tell you) if it didn’t apply to you at least a little bit. Let me set the scene.

This blog is a testament to my progress when it comes to painting. Despite the 3 year gap when I was working for GW, it’s tracked a lot of my painting progress. And I have progressed – something I’m very happy with. When I started this, I wasn’t even edge-highlighting, and now, with some of the pieces I’m most proud of, I’m not even edge highlighting (that makes sense in my head). I’m actually at a state now where the miniatures I paint when i put my all into it, often surpass, one after the other, the best thing I’ve painted. That’s something of which I am very proud. 

But I have fallen into the trap of late, mainly due to my own perception of how the hobby is perceived on social media, of trying to fart out basic stuff because i want the likes and adoration and attention. That being said, I find myself sat here disgusted at myself for trying to “keep up’ with the people who rely on this to give themselves a sense of value in the hobby. And that’s not a knock – if you’re having fun, and it works for you, it’s cool, but it ain’t for me. So, that beggars the question, what is for me?

Well, I make no bones about it, that I want to win a Golden Demon. When that competition returns, I will be throwing everything I have at it. And that may still not be enough. I may yet need to go back to the drawing board, especially after a year in which so many talented painters have had all the time in the world to master their future entries, but even if I get knocked down, I will get up again. You are never gonna keep me down *plays Chumbawumba on iTunes to psyche myself up*.

However, pushing myself to that extent hurts my love for painting toy soldiers. Last weekend, I spent 3 days pouring everything i had into painting a Titan Head, and it sucked the life from me. People think I’m being lazy because it’s taken me years to paint even a fraction of that huge model, but what I’m trying to do saps the life out of me. After a spell like that, I sit at my desk, look at my miniatures and I just think “No. I don’t give a shit about this. I don’t care one bit. Fuck it”. At which point, I walk away. To keep my brush hands going, I spent a week messing around with an old restoration project that I’ve since given up on, and while I’m moving on to the next thing now, there were points in the last week that I could have thrown my paints and brushes away. Hell, if that room wasn’t my hobby room, I could rent it out and make my mortgage payments from it. Sounds handy right?

That’s not really what I want though. But ain’t that the trick. What do I want? Why the hell am I painting toy soldiers? What’s the damn point of it all? These are important questions that need answering. Am I doing it to “get fans”? Am I doing it to make other people in the hobby think I’m better or best? No. Down that route fragile self-worth lies. That ain’t me.If it’s you, more power to you, but it’s not me. So why am I doing this?

And that’s when it hit me. I asked myself that question, stared in the mirror and the face in the mirror replied “because you like doing it”. And mirror-me was right. I love painting toy soldiers. Through all my 37 years, it’s the thing that has consistently brought me the most pleasure. Through everything that life has thrown at me, it’s been a peaceful and pleasing constant. What’s more, now that I’m in a good place and able to paint to a standard I’m happy with, and that I can use as a springboard, I can feel myself getting closer to my dream. It may still take me many years, but if I’m 65 and picking up my first Golden Demon I’ll be happy. I never stop trying because when I commit to doing something, I do it, even if it breaks me. I guess I can be stubborn like that.

So the pressure is there, but I don’t care anymore. There’ll always be that pressure to try and get more likes, and subscribes and followers, but I don’t care. I am in a ridiculously privileged position in that i don’t intend to buy a new mini for the rest of the year because my unpainted pool of opportunity (read ‘grey tide”) that i own is so wide and full. That may sound like a humble brag, but I want to type out, for my own benefit, what I’m happy about, and honestly, having all these minis to work on…

…feels great. I am lucky. And I need to enjoy that. And the only pressure that I’m going to feel is from myself. Make that blend smoother, make that contrast deeper, make that edge brighter, etc. I need to be my own hobbyist, and while I’ll always continue to encourage good hobby, I won’t ever compare myself to someone else’s efforts again. That’s for Golden Demon judges to do.

Has painting pressure ever gotten to you, because it has gotten to me.

That’s my little rant fo the day. I actually have had a pretty rough time over lockdown, and while I have helped a lot of my friends through their own personal hells, I’ve compartmentalised a lot of the pain and horror that i’ve been going through, so now it’s time to let that out and deal with it as best I can. Which means I’m going to be pretty quiet on social media for a while. I think. I’ll be back, but I do find the whole thing massively unhealthy for me – it’s my nature to see it as a competition and I like winning and, well, there is no winning . Remember, if you’re going through shit, reach out to your friends and lean on them as you would allow them to lean on you – they won’t blank you and run away if they’re real friends. And if they aren’t, you won’t ever need them in your life. There are therapists, trained individuals who can help, or, if you’re like me, you can always fall back on alcoholism and self loathing. 😉 (that was a joke obvs). 

But until we’re all back drinking in the bars and hugging each other again, I just want to remind you that you’re awesome and you deserve the very best because you are the very best. And I’m going to try and be the best me too. Onwards.

Freehand Painting – Don’t Be Afraid To Try It

Posted by johnnya10 on 17/03/2021
Posted in: My Painting and Modelling, Uncategorized. Tagged: . Leave a comment

I love painting freehand designs on my miniatures and over the years, this has earned me a great many compliments. In fact, between you and me, dear reader, I sometimes repost photos of some of my freehand works to social media just to get the endorphin hit that comes with everyone telling me how wonderful I am. Even my ego needs stroking sometimes.

Some of the pieces that people have said very nice things about

I often get comments along the lines of “I could never do that!” or “how is that even possible!?” and those too are wonderful stroking hands to my purring ego, but I wanted to write this post because I think anyone can do freehand and I want to help you and everyone else, if I can, to gain the confidence and skills to have a go. You should never feel you can’t do something, but we all need a bit of advice and help, and with that, you can do anything. I promise you, it’s not as tricky as you think it might be. So, as is tradition around these parts, I’ve done a nice list of things to consider and remember should you want to give freehand miniature painting a go yourself. Let’s dive in, starting with a cliche so old, I’m pretty sure it was scrawled under the artwork of mammoths in those caves in France…

Practice makes Perfect

Or at least, practice makes very good, and very good is usually good enough for even the goodest of painters. If you’ve never tried painting freehand on a miniature with acrylic paints before, I’ve got a friendly warning for you; your first attempt is probably going to suck. Mine did. Most people’s first attempts at almost anything in life suck. Sure, there are those freakish naturals (lucky bastards) who can get it right first time but those folk are as rare as a thing that is very rare (like a charismatic Ultramarine). Remember the wisest words Bob Ross ever spoke – “Talent is a pursued interest”.

One of those skulls on the left came first, the right was good enough to end up in an email from Forge World!

Take my Mortifactors as an example. I painted 100+ skulls for that army because, much to my shock and dismay, the one thing Games Workshop hasn’t made with a skull on it is a Space Marine shoulder pad (no, Silver Skulls ones don’t count). And the difference between the first skull I painted and the last is huge. But I couldn’t have painted that last one, without painting the first one and then the 99+ that followed. You have to put the time in and practice. Just being able to get the feeling for how the brush moves, how the paint sits and builds, and how to bring what you imagine to life is a huge and vitally important part of this aspect of painting, and for the overwhelming majority of us, we need to put in that time. Rome wasn’t painted in a day. But where to start?

Where To Start

How’s that for foreshadowing? Start with the basics. Yes, you could just paint that chainsword red, but why not try giving it hazard stripes? Sure, that banner pole could just be yellow, but why not do black and white checks? Basic patterns (squares, triangles, lines…) are a great way to learn that brush control, and they can help set miniatures apart. Being able to just paint a straight line with your brush is a serious skill to develop and it’s crucial if you then want to go on to attempt more complex shapes. 

Even leopard-print, which has garnered me much praise over the years, is far simpler than you think. In its basic form, it’s three steps: Paint the light brown fur underneath, then paint the little dark brown sort-of-circles, then put a dot of shade inside those circles and you’re done! But practicing techniques like this help you to gain brush control, and to think of your miniature, or a part of your miniature, as a canvas. And once you’ve got the basics down, you can push on from there. No one’s asking you to jump a hurdle from a standing start – that’s what the run up is for.

Also, I bet your bits box is full of shoulder pads, swords, vehicle doors… all of these are great for practice. If you don’t feel you can risk doing it on the miniature you’re working on yet, get something out and just practice on those and get comfortable. My bits box (well, technically, I have four bits boxes, a bits tub and a bits… crate (I may have a problem)) is full of half painted things that were used to test theories.

Remember Your Friends

We all need things that make our lives easier, and there are thankfully a couple of tricks we can perform when freehand painting that give us a cushion, while forgiving us our occasional painting sins. Weathering is a big one. My hazard stripes aren’t always straight, or evenly spaced. My checks aren’t always square. So scuff them up! Get them as good as you can get them and then add scratches and scuffs, patches of mud, blood, verdigris and rust. Especially when you’re learning, you want to be proud of your efforts and when you do this, yourself and others are less likely to notice the little follies and foibles, and you can be happier with the results too. Then one day you’ll get that really satisfying moment when you don’t want to weather any of it because it looks so pretty – that’s a great day. 🙂

When you’re painting more complex pieces, remember the art of washing and glazing. Every time I attempt something big, I will, at some point, make a transition between two shades that is too harsh. I’ll try and blend it out to correct it, but sometimes, especially when you’re working with minute amounts of paint that dry in seconds, this isn’t always possible. Do your best here, but when the job is finished, remember that you can dull the whole piece down to bring it all together and hide some of those transitions by applying a sympathetic glaze over the top of the artwork. A couple of thinned and evenly spread layers of Seraphim Sepia or Skeleton Horde are great for pieces that are meant to look older, but pick the colours that suit you and what you’re working on.

Literally covered in multiple glazes to soften the image. P.s. Don’t talk to me about the titan.

Tips For Complex Pieces

When it gets to the really complex things, I’m not sure there’s a formula that I can give you. You have to put in the work and work out what works best for you, but I can give you a few tips that worked for me. First off, work from dark to light. I often start most of my miniature painting at or around the mid-tone, but for freehand, I start dark and build to the light. This allows me to more easily frame the lighter areas and bring them up in tone – it’s like drawing all the outlines first and then colouring in. It also helps me to understand what things need to be what shade (“so in the [hypothetical] photo, that hat is darker than that coat so I’ll remember that as I’m building the colours”) and work towards what I know are the lightest tones I have. 

See how I started off with dark colours and basic shapes on the shield?

Start off with those basic shapes you’re familiar with. Don’t try and paint a space marine. Paint the cylinders and rectangles that make him up first, and then, as you add highlights, keep reducing those shapes so that eventually they will start to look like a space marine. And don’t be discouraged when you look at it half way through and think “well this looks crap”. These things often do at that stage – it’s like seeing a half built house and thinking “well it’s not how the finished project was supposed to look”. Of course it doesn’t! Keep going and only judge it later when it’s very nearly done – this will give you the chance to make any fixes you need to make. And when you do judge it, be kind to yourself; we’re all learning this all the time.

Lastly, it’s worth remembering that patience is a virtue. It can take multiple days to get the image right, so don’t expect to do an hours work and then have a masterpiece on your hands. You need to put a shift in. A long shift. But it will be worth it. And honestly, between the peaceful therapeutic hours of painting, and the joyous payoff at the end, it’s just wonderful.

Be Inspired

Like I said, I love the compliments I get for my work, but there are a lot of miniature painters who do it a lot lot better than I do. Check out the work by Richard Gray which has been blowing my mind for years. or if you want to see a top miniature painter do some amazing freehand in a video, Sam Lenz has some sweet stuff on his channel. If those guys intimidate you (and they shouldn’t because they’re both lovely, helpful people) maybe take a look at some of the more introductory freehand that Pete The Wargamer puts out into some of his excellent tutorials – Pete is great at giving simple advice that helps so many hobbyists (and, by the way, also a lovely human). There’s so much out there to be inspired by in mini painting, but it’s also worth looking at artists and illustrators that work in 2D as well. Maybe you’ll find the piece you want to recreate on that space marine’s cloak out there!

Can’t say this cherub was entirely my own idea!

I hope this has been useful. You’re more than welcome to keep telling me I’m amazing – I won’t hold it against you. But I’m kind of hoping that one day I’ll be looking at your elaborate, perfectly executed freehand and telling you that my mind is blown. Of course if you then want to tell me that this article helped in some small way, leave a comment down below, then we both get an ego massage so that’s great all round. If you choose to take on the freehand challenge, I wish you luck, I hope you enjoy yourself, and I look forward to seeing your wonderful creations soon. Oh, and if you have any questions about the subject, find me on twitter or leave a comment below – I’ll do my best to help you out. Onwards!

I Am Returned!

Posted by johnnya10 on 16/03/2021
Posted in: My Painting and Modelling, Uncategorized. 3 Comments

Ok, so the first question I have is; do people even read blogs anymore? Seriously. My attention span has a maximum working time of about 5 minutes these days so- oh, look! A butterfly! Anyway, I’ve been out of the game for a while, and while I’ve been thrilled to see so many people head here through the years that I have been… unavailable, I still wonder if people are going to come here to see my hobby progress or if you just want name generators (not that there’s anything wrong with those and they shall all continue to remain available to you).

Either way, it’a all good. I’m thrilled to tell you that I’ll be doing some new name generators (eventually), and I’ll still be posting all of my hobby progress and theories and histories and all of that jazz, but things are going to change here. As well as all of that good hobby you enjoy, I’m going to be talking about board games, general sci-fi and fantasy, and maybe some other stuff too. Because I am so thrilled to be returning to blogging, that I just wanna talk about all of the stuff and many (if not most) of the things. 

Where have I been? Check a couple of posts back. It’s been a wonderful couple of years or so, I’ve made so many friends, and I’ve had a blast, but honestly one of the reasons I left, was because I get to do this again. Which may sound weird, but blogging has always been one of my loves. I got to work in a great company, with a fantastic team for almost three years, and now it’s time to get back to what I love. And it’s good to be back.

So you can expect lots of cool stuff on here, but I thought I’d start with a quick recap of some of the hobby I’ve been doing over the last three years (not all of it – no-one has that sort of attention span). I’ve had an amazing opportunity to work on some great hobby with some wonderful people and here’s a showcase of some of my favourites:

The Mindstealer Sphira… Sphiri… Sphyra… Cat

Some Harlequins On Fancy Bases (that I built and painted back when I was doing this blog over 3 years ago!)

My Nurgle Mega Gargant

Another Contemptor (who may or may not be known as ‘Bob’)

A Very Well Concealed Bastil… Bastilla… You’d have thought I would have learned some of these spellings, right?

Big Dreadnought & A Plane (That’s how you get round the spelling issue)

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. These are the cool things I’ve been able to share while doing a very cool job at a very cool company (I know I keep saying that but it’s true!), but there’s plenty of personal hobby I want to share with you too. Over the next few weeks, I’ll pick out some of my favourite bits from the last few years. From a plethora of Bounty Hunters for Necromunda, to Blood Angels and a whole lot more (though that probably does cover most of it), you can expect a lot more on Heresy & Heroes soon.

In fact, why don’t we make a week of it. Let’s have a whole week of posts straight off the bat for you and I to enjoy together.

So until tomorrow, know that I’m back, I’ll be posting a ton of stuff, and I’m thrilled to be blogging on Heresy & Heroes again. As I always used to say, and shall again; Onwards!

Road To Warhammer Fest – Update 4: The Duel Is Done

Posted by johnnya10 on 01/03/2018
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 8 Comments
chaos space marine eldar duel
Ladies, gentlemen, orks, t’au, and goblins of all ages, I present to you my finished Emperor’s Children Terminator vs Eldar Harlequin Solitaire Duel! Yep, it’s done, and I am properly pleased with myself with this one. There’s plenty to talk about, so let’s dive right in.
The first thing that my regular readers will notice is that there is no trailing monofilament wire looping around these models, and you’re right. Oh, how I swore. So many curses, screams and expletives. You see, the thing about really thin, fiddly wire, is that it’s incredibly annoying to work with. It also doesn’t hold paint very well at all. And, given the precarious nature of our Harlequin (and before you say anything about pinning, know that I very seriously looked into said solution and I don’t possess drills or pins thin enough), every time I tried to make an attachment of said wire, the damn thing fell to pieces (there’s no way this is making it to Coventry in one piece). So sod the @£€#ing wire. Just move on.
slaaneshi terminator solitaire duel
But does it need it? The hairy blood (ewww) works quite nicely, and there’s plenty of movement there already. I’ve also added blood, scraped paint and metal flecks to the end of the Harlequin’s Kiss weapon to illustrate the wound has been made by this weapon. That should be enough to give this duel motion and context.
In the end, I went with a star field pattern for the Harlequin’s coat. It’s a technique that I’ve used before that works quite nicely, and I gave it a few extra effects to break it up a little bit. I was thinking about going for a more intricate piece of freehand but it was just too fiddly a surface and I didn’t want to do anything that would have looked too forced. And I avoided painting a diamond pattern because I’m not very good at standardised patterns and that one looks rubbish if you get it wrong. The trailing, shiny diamonds will do.
emperor's children harlequin duel
The Solitaire was a lot of fun to paint actually, and I’d have no issue doing a star field themed Harlequin army in the future if the mood ever takes me. The face of the Solitaire wasn’t nearly as fiddly as I thought it would be, and there was some fun to be had with the jewels and gems on this model. There are lots of little details on here, and bar a couple of lines that I may tidy up before he goes off to the show, I’m quite happy with this guy and his contribution to this scene.
The terminator has just the amount of movement that I wanted – slow to react to the lighting fast attack that has just gutted him, he’s staring over at the Solitaire, still aiming in the wrong direction, not yet able to raise his heavy power fist to meet his assailant. Meanwhile the Solitaire is already bounding off to meet his next victim, or perhaps get behind the terminator to stick him in the back as well and finish off the job. I may add some text to the base of this piece that reads something like “In the dance of light, the shadows stand as statues…” or something like that. It might help to illustrate things a little more.
warhammer 40000 duel
I added a hidden rat too, just to make something a little more interesting on that side of the model, though hopefully the eyes will be drawn to the shoulder pad far above the rat – that’s still the bit of this model that I like the most. There’s also some light weathering on both models, and I’m quite happy that I only added a little bit of dust to the Harlequin’s toes to illustrate that he has been sprinting and dancing lightly on his feet.
And that’s about it really. You’ve seen all the WIPs over the last couple of weeks. I need to start work on my next project which I’ll hopefully get round to tonight. Of course, you’ll see all of that on H&H, so keep your eyes peeled for that work. From a very snowy London, I hope you’re keeping warm and getting plenty of painting and gaming in. Onwards!

Horus Heresy & Necromunda Weekender – Part 2

Posted by johnnya10 on 06/02/2018
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: . 3 Comments

If you missed yesterday’s post on Day 1 of the Horus Heresy and Necromunda Weekender, you can find it here. Now let’s take a look at Day 2.

We arrived at the Belfry early on Sunday morning in the hope that some more new stuff had been put up for sale, but no dice. Well, not only no dice, but also no new miniatures. Although, actually, I believe there were some dice so… Anyway, the day there started with a quick mooch around, and a chat with a few people before  attending our first seminar.

Tales From Necromunda

black library logo

Nick Kyme was giving a seminar on what we can expect to see from Black Library in the coming months that will deal with Necromunda. However, Nick was running late, so fellow esteemed author Josh Reynolds kept us entertained with a tale that had us all in stitches, or shocked, or a mixture of the two – ‘enthralled’ is probably the best word for it. I won’t try and tell it myself, but if you ever meet him, ask him about the grave digging story. It’s a classic tale of grave robbing, tax avoidance, shotguns, beer bottles and a wild hog with a grudge. He made growing up in South Carolina sound like a lot of fun.

Eventually Nick turned up and the intimate seminar (there were only about 8 of us patrons in attendance as everyone else was talking titans in the main room) began.

john blanche ratskin

By the end of the month, we should see at least the first of six short stories about life in Hive Primus. What struck me was how much scope and freedom the writers had been given, and that they were really having fun with the new setting and narratives. With Necromunda, they could write stories that they’d never be able to write with 40K or AoS, including romances, comedies, heists and detective fiction.

Among the works to come are tales of Ratskin juves seeking to see the sun and pass an ancient initiation rite, tales of enforcers chasing thieves and fighting Eschers, and even Nick Kyme’s own interpretation of Romeo and Juliet featuring a cast of Goliaths and Eschers in fair Hive Primus where our play is set. Nick actually read some of this to us (and Josh read some of his own work too) and it was very funny, and very well done – I look forward to giggling and remembering his voices when I read it all myself.

warriors

And they were very interested in our suggestions and ideas. Films like Gangs of New York and Warriors are ripe for parody in this setting, and they seem very keen to bring old characters like Kal Jericho back into the mix – a character that many wanted to hear more about.

kal jericho and wotan by henry south golden demon

Josh and Nick were great to hang out with in this session, and if you ever get a chance to chat to them, I heartily recommend it.

The Orlocks Appear

orlock queue weekender

When we got out of the session with the authors, we noticed a line starting to form towards the sales area. Instinctively we joined it, and were then told that there were 100 boxes of the new Orlock gang, and 100 copies of Gang War 2 now available! They were 1 per ticket holder and had we taken a few more minutes in that seminar, we might have missed out as we were around 40th in the queue and it grew very quickly after that.

So, I did bag something that I wanted after all. I was very pleased to pick these up, but before going to have a read, we swung by Golden Demon to see if any judging had taken place. It had, and what’s more, I had been given a pin! Only my second time at Golden Demon, and I had earned a pin for my Blood Angels Veteran Tactical Squad! Though I wouldn’t make it to the podium, I was absolutely overjoyed with this. I went in just wanting to see my work alongside the work of some truly talented painters, but I actually finished 4th in the squad competition that had some pretty stiff competition. Made my month. And obviously, the plinth did it most of the work. 😉

blood angels veterans golden demon pin john ashton

The Siege Of Terra

After a spot of lunch and a flick through the Gang War 2 book (more on that in another post – it’s too good to shoehorn in here). It was time to hear from the Black Library authors (Nick Kyme, Gav Thorpe and Guy Haley) about the Siege of Terra – the final chapter of the Horus Heresy series.

siege of terra black library

They are planning a number of books, full of lots of surprises, to cover the most momentous part of the Horus Heresy. They wouldn’t say how many, but it sounds like it could be up to 10, and there won’t be huge waits between each book. Gav Thorpe, Guy Haley, and Dan Abnett have all been confirmed as contributors, though they wouldn’t confirm if Dan would be ending the series (as, after all, he did start it all).

The authors are terrified but also very excited about this project and we did get a couple of tidbits on what we can look forward to. We will see an ending to the Perpetuals story, and we will see Angron walk to the walls of Terra alone to demand the Emperor’s surrender. And they have confirmed that in one book, we will see a fight between the Khan and Fulgrim – which sounds just awesome. All of these books will be set within the Sol System and on Terra itself. And you’ll be able to tell when these books are due to come out as the tale of the Death Guard turning fully to Nurgle will be the penultimate book before the Siege of Terra begins.

And the Heresy series will end when the Emperor gets placed on the Golden Throne. They may return to the setting to fill in some gaps in the future, but everything else that follows (the scouring, etc), will not have the Horus Heresy stamp on it. All in all, there’s a lot of good reading to look forward to.

New Miniatures On Display

There were some shiny, new minis added to the display cabinets by this point, including everyone’s favourite Squat who is looking fantastic with this simple but awesome paint job (along with another very cool looking bounty hunter):

squat bounty hunter forge world necromunda

enhanced bounty hunter

Lots of new weapons options for Goliath, Orlock and Escher gangs will be coming from Forge World very soon we hear, and there are some stunners in this collection – that Orlock Heavy flamer in particular is a real winner.

new orlock goliath miniatures february 2018IMG_0190IMG_3224

Animals! Yes, the Underhive’s pets made an appearance with Croco-Dog being by far my favourite – the Jagged Aggressors will definitely be adding one of these to their ranks some time soon.

escher phyrr catscawdor bomb ratsgoliath croco dog sumpkroc

And a termite too!

termite vehicle forge world

Golden Demon Awards

This was a very special Golden Demon as I got to see my mate, who I’ve been painting and playing toy soldiers with since we were knee high to a squig-hopper, pick up his first Golden Demon statue. Henry South picked up silver for his Kal Jericho (as pictured above) and, though I may be a little biased here, I thought he deserved gold. Was a pleasure to see my oldest pal pick up a gong.

henry south with his golden demon

Everyone was in good spirits, but perhaps none more-so than @Kenkenwf (worth following on Instagram) who was literally jumping for joy when he picked up gold in the vehicle category for his Night Lords dreadnought. He’d come all the way from Tokyo, Japan to enter, and apparently he’s only been painting since 2016 (which is really impressive, as well as being a little depressing too for veterans like me!)

The best of the Single Miniature category also scooped up the Slayer Sword, and it was no surprise to anyone that it was Andy Wardle’s magnificent Magnus the Red that won. Andy not only has a track record of picking up these prizes, but his work on Magnus was frankly mindblowing. Seriously, check him out on Instagram too if you’re not already aware of him – it was an amazing piece.

When I went to pick up my miniatures, I got the chance to ask the judges what I could have done to turn a 4th place into 3rd or better. He was very nice and said that there wasn’t much in it, and that it came down to a few brushstrokes, but they do judge you on your mistakes as much as they do your successes (and there were more than a few tiny mistakes on mine – I’ll admit to that). He also gave me a good tip for future Squad competitions – paint 5 instead of 10, but spend as much time painting those 5 as you would have done 10 before. I shall take that on board, and try again next time.

Only slightly galling was overhearing him say “yeah, we don’t really look at the plinths” and I could have kicked off then and there.

You may see my entry in print, or on the Golden Demon website, but you also may not – who knows if 4th place is good enough…

Warhammer TV

Finally, I should bring it to your attention that I have made my initial Warhammer TV appearance. You can see me (large, hairy guy in the black/red hoodie which says ‘Heresy & Heroes’ on it – that the damn camera didn’t even pick up!) and others talk about the weekend.

 

In the initial cut, I even made a howler of a mistake – I said “Age of Sigmar” when I meant to say “Alpha Legion”. Warhammer TV have thankfully spared my blushes by not including this in the latest cut, but I maintain it was a ploy by an Alpha Legion operative located somewhere in the building who didn’t want me talking about Age of Si- Alpha Legion! See; they’re still doing it! 😉

And That’s That

When the awards were over, so was the weekend. A quick trip to the pub, followed by a long journey back to London. But we were in high spirits. Awards and pins in tow, we left Nottingham happy, monetarily poorer, experientially richer, and sleepy. It was something else to wake up on Monday morning and see my pin on my bedside table (it’s now on my desk so I can look at it every time I paint). It’s on to the next project for me now, but you’ll have to wait to find out what that is. I hope your weekends were just as wonderful as mine, and that you have a great week. Onwards!

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The Top 5 Heresy & Heroes Posts Of 2017

Posted by johnnya10 on 14/12/2017
Posted in: Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Is it really that time of year again? As we hurtle into 2018, (more by luck than design, one feels these days), it’s time again for me to reflect on another year of Heresy & Heroes. This blog will be entering its 6th year (!!) in 2018, and over the course of 2017, this blog has had well over 40,000 visits, which is a rather auspicious number if ever there was one. Well, that happened a while back, so it’s more by now, but this was the first time that this blog crossed that line in a year. Huzzah!

But what have you all been reading? In what has now become a Heresy & Heroes tradition, I’m taking a bit of time here to tell you what were the top five most popular posts published here in 2017. What’s more, I’ll throw in my personal favourite, and something from the first year (2013) too that will hopefully give you an idea of how far this site has come. So without any further ado, in reverse order, here are the Top 5 most popular H&H posts from this year…

5 – New Necromunda – What’s In The Box

Necromunda 2017 Box contents

Well, it’s certainly had a lot of us very excited, and we spent several months salivating over the prospect of descending into the Underhive once again, and as soon as images of the contents were released, Heresy & Heroes was there to bring you the shiny images, and talk you through the gubbins within. And what gubbins they turned out to be! Even with the shots in this article, we were all even happier when we finally cracked open the box itself. Less happy when half of us immediately lost the tiniest cigar ever, but happier again when we saw that this game has immediately been taken to heart by the community.

This game promises to bring us all a lot of enjoyment in 2018 with all the original gangs and more all turning up in the coming months – and yes, all will be reviewed here. Still though, it has to be said that the boxed set is a fantastic collection of rules, minis and more, and one we’ve rightly all been very happy to ogle.

Read the post here.

4 – Know Your Necromunda – The Gangs Of The Underhive

necromunda original artwork

Don’t worry – not everything on this list is Necromunda-related, but this one (and its sister article about the other denizens of the Underhive) was a pleasure to write. I got to dive into a bit of nostalgia, look at some classic minis and illustrations, and try to get some jokes in too. Of course, the gangs have all received slightly updated fluff in the new showing, but this is a hopefully funny take on what I remember from the original incarnation of the game.

It’s always nice to do these sorts of articles, but I’m particularly happy with this one, so if you didn’t check it out the first time, I hope you get a chance to now.

Read the post here.

3 – Chaos Space Marine Warband Name Generators

chaos space marine

It’s our third most popular post here, and I’m only surprised that it has taken this long to see the words ‘name generator’ appear in this list. There have been more than a few this year, but the boys from the Warp were, by a long margin, the most popular in this category of posts. If you’re looking for a new name for a Tzeentch, Slaanesh or Khorne warband, you can use the charts in this post to inspire you.

What was really fun though, was working with Dan from Ritual Miniatures (which looks like it’s going through a little bit of a rebuild at the time of writing this – not looking its best but I’m sure it will again soon) on some more randomly generated names from these spreadsheets. These aren’t up right now, but you’ll have to go beg Dan to recreate them if you want to see them again.

Read the post here.

2 – Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition: New War Band/Chapter Name Generators

primaris marine chapter name generator

Shocking. Another name generator post makes this list? I am shocked. 😉 To coincide with one of the biggest events of the year – the release of 8th Edition 40K, I dusted off the ol’ spreadsheet and thesaurus again to come up with name generators for both Nurgle Marine and Primaris Marine armies. As ever, this was a lot of fun for me, and plenty of you seemed to really enjoy it too.

I remember being at Salute on the day 8th edition was announced and the excitement there was palpable. A few GW/FW personnel were there and they all stayed dutifully tight-lipped as they were probed by all around them. And I’m so glad they did keep schtum. The launch went fantastically, and with each reveal, things got even more exciting. So, caught up in all of that, these name generators were born, and I enjoyed creating them as ever.

Read the post here.

1 – Pickle Rick in the 41st Millennium!

pickle rick space marine

It had to be, right? Well, it’s always nice to see some of my actual painting/modelling make it into this list each year, and what was undoubtedly one of the silliest miniatures created in 2017 (and by anyone, ever) and complete with equally silly rules,  has done just that. You all really enjoyed this, and the threads on Reddit, Facebook, Google+ and other social sites definitely showed that it was worth me spending a 3 day weekend swearing at two staples and a tiny lump of green stuff.

And how will I top that? We’ll have to see if I managed to do that in a year’s time. I doubt there’ll be another series of Rick & Morty between now and then, so my inspiration will have to come from somewhere else. Oh, and just so you know, despite this post being wildly popular, and easily the most popular post published in 2017, it wasn’t the most popular post on the site this year – that honour belongs to 2016’s Space Marine Chapter Name Generator, which just goes to show how popular that sort of post can be!

Read the post here.

My Favourite – Our Desks: A Photo Essay

our desks - a photo essay

Oh, maybe I could have come up with a better layout for this, but I still love it. What was really nice, was working with and talking to painters around the world about their sacred spaces – their hobby desks. Seeing the range, the preferences and hearing about all of the stories behind them was an honour and a thrill for me. Gamers get to meet other gamers all the time, but aside from rare competitions and social media, us painters rarely get a chance to chinwag (as we prefer to sit, troll-like in our caves, licking paint, drinking brush water and swearing quietly under our breath) so that was fantastic.

It was a joy to do then, and it’s great to be able to flick through it all now. Next year, I’ll try and turn it into a coffee table book! No, actually, I doubt I will. But I would like to do another project like this where I bring a few more artists to the attention of you readers. We’ll have to wait to see what 2018 brings!

Read the post here.

2013 Flash Back – Grey Knights

grey knight paladins

It’s a little sad that my Grey Knights have spent the last three years living in carry cases, seeing the light of day on only the rarest of occasions. I was well proud of this lot all those years ago, and they were the first army that I painted and thought – yeah, they’re good.

By my own standards these days, perhaps they’re a little old school now, but they still look ok next to more recent projects. These guys were used on the table top during what must have been 6th Edition and my Purifier-focussed force never really benefited too much from the infamous Ward-codex. They were a huge amount of fun to play with, and maybe I’ll crack them out for a game of 8th at some point next year. Will be interesting to see if my build can still deal some damage.

Read the post here.

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So, there you have it. I’ll try and do a proper “Year in review” type of post soon too, though we’re fast running out of 2017 and as ever, things are insanely busy. Presents to buy, trips to plan, work to do, etc. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this brief look backwards – it’s been a great year. And now, as ever; Onwards!

New Necromunda – What’s In The Box

Posted by johnnya10 on 31/08/2017
Posted in: Thoughts and Comment, Uncategorized. Tagged: . 8 Comments
They’re here! The first images of the New Necromunda Box Set and gangs have appeared on the Warhammer Community site and they are looking good! Let’s disect this image a bit before we move on to looking at the gangs of House Escher and House Goliath.
Necromunda 2017 Box contents
Well, I’m glad I didn’t chuck my templates. 😉 Yep, the trusty markers are back in business, though I think I prefer the green ones that I’ve got to the rust orange ones here, but it’s good to see these fellas back after a brief absence. Tales of their demise were greatly exaggerated it seems. So does that mean the rules will be more closely linked to Old 40k than 8th edition? I can’t wait to find out.
And we have a board. This is interesting, and from what the article says, there are more than one way to play: Either using the board, or playing on your tabletop with multi-level terrain. This is sensible, as it makes Necromunda both a gateway/entry-level game (kids can buy it, play on the board included with unpainted minis) while those more hardcore of us can take the miniatures to the tabletop. Time to get building those crazy walkways and pumping stations folks!
There will be some useful looking bulkheads and doors in there too, which is a nice touch and great for any of us wanting to craft our own scenery. And do I spy some new Underhive-specific objective markers in there? Why, yes. I believe I do. Winning. On top of that, we have our two gangs, some dice, markers and various rules-related paraphernalia. This looks like an excellent set which I imagine will be priced around the £85-95 range. Pricey for pocket money, but not bad when hours of fun can be had.
So how does it compare to the old days?
old necromunda boxed game
I know exactly what you’re going to say. You’re going to put on your rose-tinted glasses, stare back into the warm depths of nostalgia and talk about how the Necromunda scenery from the first box set of the game was amazing, and I am going to totally agree with you. At the time, it was frankly groundbreaking. It transformed so many tabletops and became almost as iconic as the gangs themselves. But I challenge you to take a look at it now, compared to modern GW scenery, and even scenery made by other companies and tell me that it looks as good. The bulkheads have actually aged extremely well, but the cardboard, not so much. It was flimsy and wobbly and while it looked amazing to my young eyes way back when, I can acknowledge now that it wouldn’t quite be good enough. And yes, GW want us all to buy more scenery kits, but that’s hardly a shock. Just consider what you could do with all the terrain pieces now available to you…
Beyond that contentious point (I know some of you will still be spitting bile about not getting that kit again), it’s a general upgrade of everything. Everything’s a little more polished which is what one can expect these days, and the models are better too. Speaking of which…
house goliath gang 2017
house escher gang 2017 necromunda
How good do these gangs look?! The Goliath gang will be so much fun to paint. I’m thinking tattoos, bright mohawks and a lot of rusty, red armour for mine. And as for the Escher gang, I’m sure my regular readers know well my predilection towards 80s fashion and animal print so you can expect to see plenty of that from me. But as good as they look, this isn’t what’s got me most excited. This paragraph from the press release has made me very happy indeed:
“One of the best things about Necromunda is building a gang and equipping your gangers with wargear, and each kit is absolutely packed with options. There are weapons for any situation, from classics like the stub gun to more esoteric choices like the repurposed industrial equipment of House Goliath or the chem-weapons of the Eschers.”
Options!! In a box set!! Get those teeny-tiny magnets ready folks because everyone’s going to be swapping gear and weapons around here. Everything can be unique and of course if you’re rich in bits too, you can do so much more! Slaaneshy Escher gang? Why not. Mork-following Goliaths? As you please. Necron affiliated Van Saar? Hells Yes. Renegade Cawdor, Wig-wearing Delaques, mutated Orlocks… the possibilities are endless. This is fantastic news and I cannot wait to get going with these adaptations.
So what are your thoughts on the box? Happy with the way it’s looking? Got any ideas for your gangs? Excited by all of this? Not as much as I am. November can’t come soon enough. Onwards!
charlie kelly dancing gif

A 40k Mystery…

Posted by johnnya10 on 04/08/2017
Posted in: Thoughts and Comment, Uncategorized. Tagged: . 4 Comments

Well, well, well. What do we have here then? This isn’t one of my usual rambling articles, but just a quick post regarding GW’s new teaser trailer. Have a quick watch (if you’ve not done so already) and let’s discuss…

So, we have an Aquila-shaped skull. That’s already interesting. I mean, trust GW to turn a two-headed eagle into a skull because, hey, everything should be a skull, right? 😉 And inscribed above it, we have “B50-AP/78903//M/h” inscribed above the skull eagle (Skeagle?). Now what the heck does that mean?

Question_Mark

Now, as regular readers will know, I don’t usually just post these vids up here, but the reason I’m posting this is that it’s a genuine mystery at the moment. I’ve had a quick check in comments sections and a couple of forums, and there’s nothing certain. Usually when one of these teasers comes out everyone is just like “Oh, so Dwarves then” and then it’s just about waiting. This one has had people talking about Grey Knights, Death Watch, Dark Mech, a new campaign, Legio Cybernetica, Necromunda, Assassins, and about a billion other things. I like it! True intrigue! And does that code mean something? Or perhaps it’s a red herring and it means nothing. Who knows!? Whatever this is, you can call me intrigued.

So what do you think? Got any cunning theories? If you do, stick them below in the comments. I genuinely have no idea so happy to hear any and all theories. Onwards!

Painting Miniatures By Stages – A Method

Posted by johnnya10 on 29/07/2017
Posted in: Tutorials, Uncategorized. Tagged: . 8 Comments

I wanted to show off a bit more of the Orc Blood Bowl team but it’s still not done and I didn’t want to do just another WIP post as I’ve shown them off a couple of times now. So what I thought I’d do was show you how I’m painting them. I’m not much of a batch painter, and this method has worked for me throughout this project. You may do something like this yourself already and if that’s the case, you may as well skip on to the last photograph and see the finished project. But for those of you who are interested in how I do what I do, this is where it starts…

Stage 1: Undercoat

undercoated black orc blocker

Not the most interesting of stages, I shall grant you. I put the muddy stuff down first (I used Blackfire Earth which is a difficult bugger to get down but leaves a lovely effect) and undercoated in black because this is going to be a dark looking miniature when finished. When you start, you may see some patches didn’t get much of the Chaos Black Spray so just touch those up with a little watered down Abaddon Black.

Stage 2: Basecoat

basecoat miniature

The entire miniature is given its base colours. There aren’t that many of them but keep it all neat. I made the skin with black and Waaagh! Flesh – after all this is a Black Orc and you want a nice dark, almost ‘Dark Angels’ sort of green. In the words of our Lord and Saviour, Duncan, you want to use two thin coats all over. And don’t get frustrated if you miss the odd bit and have to go back to a colour you’d thought you were done with – it happens to the best of us. Also, Rhinox hide has gone down on the base.

Stage 3: Wash

applying washes to miniatures

Everything gets washed aside from the red and black on this miniature. Use a complimentary shade for each different colour, such as an orange wash for the yellow  areas, or a deep green for the green areas. The silver areas, and a few gaps and cuts in the red get treated with Nuln Oil to add some real depth. In fact, this is going to add shadow and depth all over the model, which you then bring back up in…

Stage 4: Highlight

highlighting miniatures

This is a bit of a long winded stage but it really does add so much to the model. With steady hands avoiding the recesses and keeping to the edges, you work with lighter colours than in the basecoating stage. For skin, you want to build up the colour over several stages for a more natural look. And for both the silver areas and the red areas, you can use a highlight and lowlight. For example, over Mephiston Red, for down facing edges use Evil Sunz Scarlet, and Fire Dragon Bright on the upward facing edges to represent light hitting them. But for many areas, you only need a single highlight colour.

Stage 5: Details

detailing miniatures

Think of this as drawing with a brush. You’re adding patterns and details that aren’t built into the sculpt. This is the little brother of true freehand painting, and on this Orc, I’ve added the ‘Orcidas’ stripes, the torch emblem on one shoulder and the number on the other. Because it’s Orcs, I don’t want to be too neat, but if you’re working on a miniature that ought to look a little more perfect, you need to practice your steady hand. I also took off some of the white by using a rough old brush with a little Mephiston Red on it. This neatly leads us on to…

Stage 6: Effects

adding effects onto miniatures

Typhus Corrosion is your friend here. This is the stage where you add the mud, rust, wear and tear. A bit of rust on the bare metal is always a nice touch, and of course a bit of mud on a Blood Bowl player is very good. In fact, after taking these photos, I went back and added a little more mud (especially to the shoes) and I sponged on some black spots and ‘wear patches’ too. I also added some ‘Ardcoat to the mud to make it look wetter, and a touch to the eye as well to give it some life.

Stage 7: Basing

blood bowl basing

Our final stage! Clean up the base (you don’t need to go green – I’m going retro for this) and keep it neat. A subtle bit of white lining on the patchy flock that was added using a little PVA glue and a quick dip in the flock box.

And that’s your lot. I love seeing how the miniature comes together under the paint. I’m getting closer to finishing the core of the Orc team so keep a look out for that, though there are a few other little bits to add to the overall squad. But more on that later. I hope that’s given you a bit of an idea regarding how I do what I do, I also hope that it might help an aspiring painter or two. But who knows. If you have any questions, stick them below, and I will do my best to answer them. Onwards!