Undead Werewolves / Ghasts

Hello everyone. A small novelty today that will change from a world I know well. A little adventure towards a less familiar world, where shapes, colors, packaging are similar but not the same. I love Coca and I tasted Pepsi ... Well I have to tell you that I liked Pepsi .

I was trying to boost my vampire counts army with shock troops, preferably monstrous infantry that would complete my cannon fodder and cavalry. So I opted for Vargheists (renamed Ghasts in the ninth age). However, even if the GW Vargheists figurines are pretty cool, I wanted to change and try something else. By doing a little research on the web, I stumbled upon a werewolf unit from GW's main competitor, Mantic, who markets the miniatures for their Kings of War game. And I was not disappointed. Not only do the miniatures cost much less than those of GW, but in addition they come well-packaged in a box that resembles a VHS box. The figurines are molded in a hard enough resin which makes them solid and easy to work on. They require a little more work, including a bit of green stuff to fill in two or three holes, but the overall quality is very good.

And especially, once painted, they are very cool:

Salamanders Lieutenant Rogue Trader OOP

Hello everyone, I am coming back today with a little wonder that will get some people twenty years back. This figurine was offered to me by my friend Thomas before I left for London and still smells like lead! It is a Space Marine lieutenant from the time when Warhammer 40k was still called Rogue Trader, with the so recognizable beakie. Even if the sculpture has nothing to do with the finesse of the current models, painting it was a real dive into a distant world and plunges you into a certain nostalgia.

This little guy will come to boost the ranks of my Salamanders army:

Vampire Counts Necromancer

Hi everybody, small break from Warhammer 40000. I present to you today a very singular miniature because it is really vintage and uncovered completely by chance. In my bitz box, I had a small metal figure that I thought was a mercenary wizard or something else, completely forgotten for years and missing the left arm. After some research on the Internet to determine where this little guy came from, I realized that I had in my hands a necromancer for Mordheim, which explained why I could not identify it from the Warhammer catalogue... Let me just say this is the perfect fit for my last fantasy army in date. The only challenge was finding an arm to our friend. It was done with my inexhaustible empire bitz reserve: a militia arm of the empire would do.

The paint job was rather quick and easy: base coat and highlights with the airbrush, followed by a quick but effective painting in only one evening. Cherry on the cake: a "black magic" effect on the eyes. I wanted to give the impression of a look full of magic to contrast with the human aspect in the middle of an army of undead. To achieve this, I first basecoated the eyes in white, followed by a very thin and well diluted layer of Moot Green. I then performed a "glaze" which consists of several very diluted layers around the eyes. And here is the final work:

Salamanders Drop Pod

Finally back. And with a lot of good news and pictures. Let's start with a piece that was very nice to paint but not necessarily easy to assemble: a drop pod for my Salamanders army. I made the decision to paint each piece separately and all with the airbrush, which greatly facilitates the work for such imposing models. I was also able to put into practice the masking work, which also caused me some problems. Indeed, the first step was to create the flames on the sides. After a good coat of gloss varnish, I applied masking tape on the whole to be able to paint the rest green. And when came the time of taking the tape off, everything went well except for one of the sides that was completely peeled off... Rather than doing all the work again, I just repainted the black side and applied decals to cut a bit with the monotony of the monochrome side (photos 3 and 4).

Another problem with this miniature: assembling it. The problem of painting everything separately is that with the different layers of paint and the varnish to protect the miniature, the pieces have had a little trouble fitting together, Despite the magnetization of the doors (photo 5), two have trouble to close completely. But hey, we're not going to dramatize, I'm pretty happy with the final result:

Salamanders Predator

Hello everybody,

After enjoying a relaxing vacation and a return to work with a lot of pressure, I had very limited time to finish all my projects this summer. Add to that a problem with my computer that no longer saved my photos and publications became scarce. And yet, I still managed to finish a few nice miniatures. The one that I present to you today is definitely one of my older pieces. I painted it very approximately at the time, first with the Ultramarines colour scheme and then in a Salamanders green, and it needed a big makeover. So I started, like I did with all my space marines, to fully repaint it. After a bath of Bendix for plastic and acetone for metal parts, I had to rebuild everything back in good order, contrary to what I'd done 15 years ago. I then took advantage of a free afternoon to begin the airbrush work starting with my now sacrosanct flames. The problem with repainting old minis is that the work is much longer because everything is already glue and masking work becomes essential. After carefully masking the panel, I then started with the hard work that finally took me little time. And here is the final work:

Second Leman de Catachan/ Second Catachan Leman Russ

Hello everybody!

I take advantage of a lull in August and especially to have done the necessary photos to publish an article about my latest work. Before leaving for London, my buddy Thomas kindly gave me some minis that he no longer used, including some vintage pieces and a Leman Russ he wanted to use his Blood Angels. After ordering on Ebay two missing pieces (to build a turret), I could finally start to paint this tank which is probably for me one of the nicest GW models. I still have at home the Imperial Guard codex in which we still see figurines of imperial guards sitting on the tank. Unable to resist something as beautiful, I immediately went searching on Ebay "Catachan tank rider" and was able to purchase two minis that come from another time.

The result is pretty cool:

Vintage Little Treasures

Enjoy!

Salamanders Apothecary

Let's go, a little article before the weekend. Continuing with the command squad, here is an apothecary. In fact, I painted it some time ago. White is more difficult to master than other colors and you will see, I did not necessarily give myself the means to achieve a beautiful miniature with gradients of white/gray. Nevertheless, this model has the merit of having a huge number of small nice details like cables or vials of blood at the belt!

Hexwraiths

Hi all, the interruption has been a bit long because of intensive work. So photos and projects pile up, but I have not had much time to publish. Today we return to our first love, namely Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Since I arrived in London, with no friends to play with, I enrolled at the London Warhammer Gaming Guild to test my new Vampire Counts. Well I have had time to play only four games, which is not bad you might say. Very relaxed atmosphere, we meet lots of nice people and more, we play the Ninth Age: let's say complete secession from the damn Age of Sigmar! And as it turns out, it allowed me to test my pretty Vampire Counts, and; cherry on the cake, with good results. And I remembered that I did not post pictures of my Hexwraiths, the last painted unit of Vampire Counts...

Here are the horrors:

Premier Marine de la Deathwatch/ First Deathwatch Marine

Salut tout le monde, j'ai fait une petite pause de peinture bien méritée ces derniers temps ainsi qu'une pause dans la publication de mes articles. J'ai eu tellement de mariages cette année que les week-ends ont été bien pris, mais malgré tout j.ai tenté d'être efficace sur certains projets qui me tiennent à cœur. Un de ceux-là a été mon unité de la deathwatch, commencée mais comme beaucoup de projets, non terminée... C'est un peu le problème du peintre collectionneur, on accumule par peur du manque on peint et on commence quelque chose d'autre sans avoir fini ce que l'on a commencé... Comme ma bibliothèque fournie de milliers de livres dont je ne verrai sûrement jamais le bout...

Mais assez parlé d'états d'âme, je vais donc présenter au compte goutte ce que j'arrive à terminer au gré de mes envies... 

Voici donc l'homme au bazooka de mon unité de la deathwatch:

Chaque Space Marine de la deathwatch garde son épaulette gauche placée à droite provenant de son chapitre d'origine. Celui-ci est un Salamanders, pour l'instant peu de changements par rapport à mon armée! La figurine provient de la nouvelle escouade tactique, et outre la sculpture encore plus détaillée que les anciennes figurines, ça fait du bien de peindre une figurine neuve qui n'a pas dix ans et est passée à travers un bain de Bendix! Bien sûr, tout est personnalisé avec les épaulettes et têtes de la Deathwatch achetées sur le site de GW, avec des petites touffes d'herbe qui donnent toujours un peu plus de caractère à la figurine!

Salamanders : Sergent Veteran/Veteran Sergeant

Dans un moment de confiance, j'ai décidé de peindre mon escouade de commandement. Elle avait fait trempette dans un bain d'acétone il y a quelques temps déjà, donc il était temps de lui redonner vie. La bannière provient de ma planche déjà imprimée et prête à être découpée. Comme il s'agit de personnages importants, j'ai quand même décidé de personnaliser un peu le socle avec des touches d'herbe et un caillou, mais aussi de réaliser des marquages sur l'armure et à divers endroits.

In a moment of confidence, I decided to paint my command squad. It was first dipped into a bath of acetone some time ago, so it was time to revive it. The banner comes from my already printed and ready to be cut board. As they are important characters, I decided to slightly customize the base with grass tufts and a stone, but also to make markings on the armor and in various locations.