Its not a flashy title but it is the truth. I spent a lot of this week working on refining and smoothing out all of the gold surfaces on the Knight-Judicator. I’m pretty happy with how it looks other than the circle above his left breastplate. I will revisit that and try to smooth it out a bit more sometime soon. This week was probably the least exciting part of this miniature as I had to work a lot on the back to try and figure out what needed to be painted and how the cloak was going to shade everything once attached. A good chunk of what I painted will be covered up but that’s okay. Better safe than sorry when working on display minis. I should mention that this is an “easy to build” kit that doesn’t really even require glue and I have to say that I’m impressed. With the exception of the scabbard, which was hard to reach with a brush, this mini has been really easy to work with so far. I bought a couple of “easy to build” miniatures about 4-5 years ago and I found assembling them much more difficult. They also ended up having decent sized gaps in them which was really annoying. So kudos to Games Workshop for improving their miniatures in that regard.
The pictures last week didn’t turn out as well as I thought they should have so this week I thought I’d grab a new photo background from Massive Voodoo and then try taking the same pictures with the plain white background to see which one came out best. I definitely have a clear winner in mind but I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. My feeling is that my camera just cannot handle a ton of contrast and this mini has that in spades currently. I do look forward to getting a new camera one of these days as it is clearly time for an upgrade.
And here’s option two.
This upcoming week should lead to more exciting progress because I’m going to work on the base and then potentially the cape.
With my new goal to paint more Warhammer in 2023, I’ve been doing a fair bit of surfing around GW’s website to see what other projects I might enjoy tackling in the near future. As a result of said window shopping, I will close today’s update with my top 5 gigantic Warhammer projects that I might actually tackle one of these days in order of most least likely to happen to most.
This is one of those models that show how far GW has come with their sculpting technology. While this one is out of my comfort zone in terms of colors I usually paint with, I think it’d be a great challenge. Like a lot of the minis on this list, this is a piece of artwork almost more than it is a gaming piece.
Next up is the relatively new, Eternus mini. This figure is very metal both figurately and literally. The only thing keeping me from painting this one is that it doesn’t have a lot of variety in surfaces and textures. Painting this much metal would likely be a bit tedious, no matter how cool Eternus looks.
This model is getting pretty old but I’ve been a big fan of it for quite some time now. I love to see some comedic Warhammer minis (which I think are somewhat lacking in Warhammer Age of Sigmar) and this one has some of the old charm that Ogres used to have. I’d like to see some gnoblars to add even more comedy to this one but other than that, I think its great. The only reason I haven’t painted this is that I don’t have any ideas for how to paint this other than how GW has already done it and I generally don’t like to copy what the ‘Eavy Metal team has done.
The Triumph of St. Katherine is an artistic masterpiece. Its a diorama that features some of the coolest looking grim dark characters in Warhammer 40k. This is a model that I have no concerns about painting other than the amount of time it would take. There is a real chance that I will tackle this one in the future.
The Coven Throne is on the top of the list because I’ve already bought some skeletons for a diorama project. I fully intend to paint this and might even take it up sooner than later. Painting the ghosts will be a challenge and is definitely unfamiliar territory to me but that is my only real concern with it. This sculpt has been around for a long time now and GW is not likely to keep it in production for too long, I imagine. It may not be to everyone’s taste but if you like the Vampire Counts, I can’t imagine not thinking this one looks cool. To me, it is the essence of that faction distilled down into one beautiful mini.
Of course, with a bunch of Games Workshop previews happening this weekend, there’s always an opportunity for something new coming out to jump the line! That’s it for me and if you have any ridiculously large dream projects that you have no business undertaking, I’d love to hear about them below. Please help encourage me to make some irresponsible decisions in the near future!
Kuribo's Painting 
Some nice progress! I have to say I’m liking the textured background over the pure white. It’s clear your camera exposed better for that one, it’s probably over compensating in the case of the white background.
Those large models are all great, really exciting to hear you’re planning on painting some Vampires, they’re one of my favourite factions and I think a lot of fun to paint.
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Thanks, Nic! I agree that the textured background is the way to go with my current camera. A painting friend of mine swears by the plain white background and his photos look great but my camera is pushing ten years old and just can’t make it work. The background leads to noticeably sharper pictures as you pointed out.
You can’t really go wrong with any of the large models in Warhammer and its more about personal taste I suppose. Vampires are among my favorites too even if I prefer the classic Warhammer fantasy designs to the newer releases of them overall. With LOTR being less of a focus for me, there is a very good chance more vampires will make it into my hobby queue!
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Been busy with family/travelling the last couple weeks so catching up on all your work. Your Knight-Judicator is coming along nicely, I think gold is a very hard color to get right and yours is spot on.
Good luck on what ever large model you take on, just assembling one of those is daunting to me.
My large ambitious goal is the same every year, to reduce my metal mountain. So of course I add to it.
The textured background definitely shows off your painting better.
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No worries and I hope you had a nice trip! I’m glad to hear you like the gold. I’m trying to figure out better ways to paint metallics among other things so that seems to be coming together so far.
The larger models not only require careful assembly but you have to put some thought into how you’re going to paint the different parts too. There’s definitely an art to it.
Those new soldiers for your Aliens game isn’t going to help the backlog! 🙂 It will be cool to see you paint something different though and if that is what is motivating you hobby-wise then you should stick with it!
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That armor’s highlights are gleaming now. Looking really good. The camera picked up the colors better with the background. Do you happen to have a warm background? I’m wondering how it would look against that.
Project wise, the Slann and the Ogres speak to me the most. Though you’re right on the Ogres, they pretty much picked the best colors possible and it’s hard to imagine anything different. Maybe try playing with the image in photoshop and see what results you can get?
The ghosts in the Vampire one, look like they were painted with the Spirit paints (Nighthaunt and Hexwraith, I think?), as they released the paints probably at the same time and were pushing them. I never had good results with those paints, but they might have been re-released with the last batch of Contrast paints. As you can tell, my memory for GW paints is quickly fading since I switched over to AK and Reaper! 🤪
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Glad to hear you can see the improvement in the armor, Brian! I just tossed my warm background because there were some scratches on it. I can certainly print another out and we can try and compare the two. This is my first time ever using a cold background, if you can believe it.
Your interest in two out of five of the potential projects isn’t bad! It doesn’t completely scare me away that I don’t have a great idea how to paint the Ogres other than how GW did but I like your suggestion of playing around with the colors a bit more. I’ll do that as I’m tempted to buy the mini in the coming months and stash it away until later since its an old sculpt and could go out of production in the near future.
Sharp eyes on the vampire as well! Its possible that they used those Contrast paints but I suspect not since the mini came out in 2012. I think they might have used some of the old glaze paints that are no longer available. Juan Hidalgo does a video on painting ghosts and I would most likely steal his ideas for that project because I don’t have a lot of insight or experience painting ghosts. I’ve only used a couple of Contrast paints myself so I’m not very knowledgeable about them myself! If I worked on the Sales team for AK or Reaper, my knowledge of Citadel paints would disappear quickly too! 😉
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Wow, the Vampire model was from 2012?! It definitely looks like they used those pre-contrast ghost paints, but that’s too old even for those. I guess they just glazed something, like you said. This month I have to figure out if I’m going to buy a yacht or a private jet with my Reaper/AK commissions! 😂
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I Googled it and that was the date I saw so hopefully that is correct. I wasn’t even in the hobby at that time to be honest. That’s about what I would expect from you and your high-powered sales job! Probably going to Spain all expenses paid too if you work for AK haha!
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Great looking progress Jeff, and hopefully this week will be more interesting for you moving on to other sections.
Some interesting choices you’ve selected, with the Slann that looks like Lord Kroak, have you considered the standard Mage priest instead ? whichever you choose to do, I will look forward to seeing your interpretation.
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Thanks Dave and I think the project will be more interesting from here on out. I wasn’t bored this week thankfully though its natural to look forward to the exciting parts at the same time.
That is indeed Lord Kroak though I think the standard Slann or the Skink one that was recently teased would considerably easier and more comfortable for me to paint. It looks like the new one indirectly went on pre-order this week (meaning its a big box set of Seraphon minis) so maybe it will come out on its own in the coming months. I don’t mind being patient and waiting for it as I have plenty to do as it is!
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Making progress is good! 🙂 I like the first background better as well! As for one of those five potential projects, I like the third one and have no idea what it is! I don’t think I have any big projects looming, just too many small ones! 😉
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I think its just about unanimous on the photo background as I expected (though sometimes you lot do surprise me!) 🙂 I wonder if you like the Ogre one because the Ogres, especially when they came out twenty years ago, were clearly inspired by the Mongols? I know for me, that is part of the appeal! Since you paint in 20mm, I would have been very surprised indeed if you had some really big projects in your near future 😀
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Textured background is a clear winner or me. Lord Kroak… something I would like to do myself one day.
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Its unanimous at this point so not even a naysayer can swing this election! Thanks for weighing in, mate and I’d love to see you take on Lord Kroak. Its a real project but one well worth undertaking if you can find the time!
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I don’t really have a good enough eye to give you proper feedback. It all looks nice to me. 😀
Those OTHER miniatures from GW are insane. While they look cool I cannot imagine gaming with them or even attempting them. They’re obviously for people who like painting. So I’m not the target audience.
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No matter your skill level, its always helpful to know something looks good to someone else so thank you for sharing that!
Yeah, GW really likes to have “centerpiece” miniatures in their games, particularly in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar though there seems to be more and more of that in Warhammer 40k too. I don’t know how you’d game with these large minis and not damage them either. Anything I paint will go into a display case so I’m not too bothered about it thankfully! 🙂
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Do what makes ya smile!
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That is a promise! If it isn’t fun, I won’t be doing it 🙂
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The armour looks spectacular, your NMM skills are just awesome! As for the photos, I’d go with the first background; the camera is obviously compensating for the bright white background in the second one and has buggered the exposure up.
Those other GW models are pretty good, and I think the Coven Throne in particular really shows what the designers can do. I can’t wait to see you tackle it!
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Thank you, Matt! I completely agree that my camera is struggling with the white background. I look forward to replacing it in the nearish future.
I’m glad you like the Coven Throne too. I plan on buying it sometime within the next few weeks so it will show up here sooner than later, I would think!
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Wow, that Stormcast armour looks astonishing. Your work-in-progress shots are so inspiring, though your skill is so far beyond mine that I don’t delude myself to paint anything so cool. Keep up the good work!
I’d love to see you tackle one of GW’s big centrepiece miniatures. The company’s sculpting has come on so nicely in the last 20 years or so and it’s hard to think of anyone really competing with them in that space. With your great talent you’d make a wonderful job of these… though it might take a long time!
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Thank you, mate! 😀 It takes practice and a strong desire to improve whenever and wherever you can. That’s what has gotten me here.
I couldn’t agree more on how long it will take to paint one of these “minis”. I honestly can’t say but I would anticipate it could be months maybe even 6-9 in total. No matter what you do in our hobby, there’s never enough time to do everything we want, that’s for sure!
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Just catching up here, Jeff, so a little late on the comments.
Option One, no contest.
Not necessarily your camera, though, but the lighting. White backgrounds like that can cause problems with the way your camera sees the light. It’s a case of playing around with exposure to get the right balance. Over expose, which will blow out the background, and then adjust it on the computer.
I prefer a black background and light the figure from the front and side. I can then set an exposure for the figure and not worry about blowing the background out.
It took me ages to figure out all the right settings, though, and a good flash (which I no longer have) is a bonus.
That’s a fantastic gallery of pictures you’ve posted there, certainly something to aim for. Thinking about reaching that standard is enough to make my brush hairs fall out!
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No worries at all, mate. Its always nice to hear from you! Unfortunately, I think it is my camera because it has limited programming options with regards to things like exposure. The camera tries to adjust depending on where I take pictures and what the subject is but I’m sure a newer camera can do a better job. Now if only I can save up a few quid to buy one… Its definitely on my to-do list!
I’m glad you like the minis I picked out as well. I definitely intend to take one on in the nearish future. I probably would have bought one of them if it wasn’t out of stock currently in fact! 🙂
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I do like your top 5 there. I think I have most if not all of them (unsure on Kroak) here somewhere. Will I ever get around to painting them? Well, that’s the big question, innit?
Regardless, I’d enjoy seeing what you could do with any of them, and I think you’re selling Eternus short – there’s nowhere that states that he has to be painted in relatively plain metallics…
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Thanks and you must have a large backlog. Even bigger than I imagined! And you might be right on me selling Eternus short. I would try to cut down on the metallic surfaces a little bit because even a standard infantry mini who is all metallic (such as a Stormcast!) can really take a long time to properly paint up in NMM. I haven’t tried display level TMM but one day, I suppose I ought to…
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Oh, you have no idea. It’s actually not especially healthy in the amounts, so it’s not something I think works as a flex to be honest. Regardless, I do look forward to seeing what you work on as the next run of display models. 🙂
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