Warhammer Day DIY Funko Pop

Funkopop

So this one takes a little bit of explanation. Games Workshop gave a licence to Funko Pop. Funko promptly came out with three different big headed vinyl dudes. A Dark Angel, A Space Wolf and an Ultramarine.

Today (technically, yesterday) is (was) 'Warhammer Day' a somewhat abitary celebration of the Warhammer hobby, a few things were available exclusively today, one of which was this 'DIY' funko pop. It's essentially the Ultramarines one, but just painted flat gray. With the idea being you can paint it yourself.

The Dragonborn Comes

The Dragonborn

Who's played Skyrim? I've played Skyrim. A lot of Skyrim. More on that later. I had of course seen that Mophidius had acquired a license to produce a Skyrim miniatures game, but I have enough models. I was resisting. However, my good friend the IT guy decided to buy me one as a gift because (he's awesome?) we had talked about video games (smashing every stereotype about men who work with computers) and he knew about my Skyrim addiction. So no I'm going to have to collect a force for the main game when it comes out. Which was probably his plan all along right. We've all done that...

Gellerpox Infected (Citadel Contrast)

The Gellerpox Infected

Okay, so this represents my second play with the new contrast paints. As I said in the last contrast related blog I really think the secret with contrast is to use a suitable subject. These Gellerpox Infected are perfect for contrast because they are mostly organic textures. These were very quick to paint, and while yes I could have done much better if I had taken the time to go full classic method on all of them, these are some more models that I was unlikely to ever get around to painting 'properly'.

Alabaster Automata

Alabaster Automata

Relic Knights. Well. I blogged about this game before, back in 2017. You can read that blog post here. In case you haven't been keeping up, that Kickstarter still hasn't delivered. Due to spiraling costs. Nevertheless, Ninja Division has started to put out a small number of new sculpts, and are ploughing the profits from them back into fulfilling the original Kickstarter.

It's a long sad story, and not one I want to particularly retell here.

This model is for the 'void' faction, which is essentially the bad guy 'meta faction' which can be hired by any of the three main bad guy factions.

According to the Ninja Division website:

Chained to her duty and torn between two worlds—that of the chee and the "living"—the Alabaster Automata struggles to find the true meaning of self as she battles throughout the galaxy in the name of the Chee Collective.

I think they are going for the human-created robot gains self-awareness trope. Which I suppose explains why she (it?) is proportioned and dressed like a love object. I used to be really into Anime and had a definite fondness for this kind of content, then I grew a bit and discovered shame.

A bit of an indulgence then in terms of the subject matter.

I'm really pleased with how the skin turned out, given the name of the model it really had to be a very pale white skin tone. I actually followed a Games Workshop tutorial for painting raven guard faces. The 'clothing' is my standard black recipe; I did struggle a bit to differentiate the metal of the chains and the metal of the sword. Tried to do more of a dark gunmetal on the chains, and more of a polished iron on the sword. Not convinced I carried it off. 

Blackstone Fortress Ambul (Citadel Contrast)

Ambull

So, in case you were somehow unaware, today Games Workshop launched to much fanfare their Citadel Contrast line of paints. Basically, a very heavily pigmented transparent paint with slightly odd flow properties. The idea is you can paint your model in just 'one thick coat' of contrast and get a passable tabletop standard.

I had pre-ordered a bunch of contrast painted in the colours I tend to favour (black, red, bone) but due to funky distribution issues, I have not yet received my pre-order. However, Helen decided to go down to Games Workshop and pick up some other contrast paints so we would have some to play with. I looked through my shelves to find something that would look good painted in mostly blues and greens.

This is the Ambull from the Blackstone Fortress expansion set which I picked up essentially because I wanted to play the game. I never had much interest in the model, and therefore it was in the 'unlikely to ever get painted' section of my staggering collection of models.

Enter contrast. This is maybe 30 minutes work bashing paint on straight from the pot like I used to paint when I was eleven. It just dries with magical highlights. Could I do better if I invested far more time? Yes! But the Ambull undoubtedly looks better with some paint over no paint.

There is a bit of mottling on the top of the carapace. It looks okay on the ambull because he is a creature. I think the contrast is going to look suboptimal on space marines, however. Best to stick to natural textured things like Lizardmen, Tyranids, Skeletons, Nurgle Daemons or Skaven.

Nekima

Alt Nekima

I decided to buy and paint the plastic 'Alternate' Nekima. Neverborn have always been my favorite kind of Malifaux Crew, so even though I already have a first edition Metal Nekima (you can see her here, I've improved!) I decided to pick this one up as a bit of treat. We don't talk about the second edition 'standard' plastic Nekima. It was a terrible model.

I attempted to do some blending on the wings, which I think has worked out really well! I'm not very confident with blending, but in this instance, I seem to have nailed it fairly well.

Crimson Fists Kill Team

Crimson Fists

I know, I know these aren't Emperors Children, or Fallen, or Malifaux. Like I said nothing if not totally inconsistent.

As I have explained before I run a Warhammer Club at school and I  have had these guys knocking around my office for ages and ages. I like to have a simple project on the go so I did the basecoating and edge highlighting over a couple of lunchtimes. At half term, I decided to take them home and get the rest of the details done.

The aim of this project is kind of twofold. First of all, I had a pile of marines knocking around. The three Intercessors are from the push fit starter kit sprue: although with some conversion. The lieutenant is from the endless parade of limited edition primaris lieutenants Games Workshop seems intent on producing. So I had some models without a purpose.

The second aim of the project was to test out painting Crimson Fists, as I may decide to paint my currently assembled-but-not-undercoated space marine army this way. Let me know what you think.