[WIP] Karl Eller's Khador (Alt scheme)

[Karl Eller]

First up, you're going to have to excuse the crappy photo quality. The folks went away and took the good camera with them, so you get stuck with ****ty phone camera photos :P I also don't have proper lighting set up yet.

I used to play various Games Workshop games until uni and other hobbies forced me to give it up. Recently I've discovered a fairly active Warmachine gaming group near by, and Warmachine has been something I've been interested in since Mk I, so I decided to bite the bullet and grab the Khador Battlegroup + Widowmakers for a 15 Pt army.

After about 5 years of not painting, my skills are a little rusty, and I never was fantastically skilled to begin with :P

Here's my little battlegroup:

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Bases are greenstuffed to look like cobblestones, with the missing stones to be filled in with some static grass, and it should end up looking fairly cracked and worn.

A closer look at the bases:

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[phantem2]

The motherland welcomes you and fantastic choice of faction, great minds think alike I suppose!

I like what you have done with the bases, I have tried the same before but it never turned out well, maybe my green stuff layer was too thick or I didn't use the right tool to make the lines. What did you use to make the 'cracks', if you will, in the greenstuff?

[Karl Eller]

Everything is undercoated, and I've started on the two 'jacks.

Colour-scheme wise, I've decided against the standard red. For starters, I REALLY hate painting re, and it's been done a lot. Instead I'm going for a sandy-bone colour with red accents (Think Studio Kodiak, but sand/bone instead of green).

The bone is mostly done, just needs final highlights and a brown ink, which should fix most of the blotchy-ness (Although a lot of that is just the camera :P). The red-brown is the base for the red accents, which should end up being mostly Khador Red. It looks a little iffy right now, but it should blend together a lot better soon.


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The motherland welcomes you and fantastic choice of faction, great minds think alike I suppose!

I like what you have done with the bases, I have tried the same before but it never turned out well, maybe my green stuff layer was too thick or I didn't use the right tool to make the lines. What did you use to make the 'cracks', if you will, in the greenstuff?

I just used fairly standard sculpting tools. Most of the work was done with something like this:

I use the blade end to make the lines, and then the smaller flat end to neaten up things, square off the cobblestones (they're fairly rounded after you do the initial cobblestone lines) and add in any extra details I want.

[Flindo]

what prime color did you use? you can see through the bleached bone a little bit, its a good start for a beginner though

[Karl Eller]

what prime color did you use? you can see through the bleached bone a little bit, its a good start for a beginner though

It was primed black, then drybrushed Bootstrap Leather -> Rucksack Tan -> Menoth White Base. It's a little patchy because I haven't done any drybrushing in like 5 years, but the ink should hopefully cover a lot of that >.>

[Copperwolf]

Looks very nice so far. Cant wait to see them finished

[Karl Eller]

Did a bunch more work on them this afternoon. I've pretty much finished highlighting the bone colour, as well as fixing up some of the worse spots on it, red accents have been painted/highlighted, and I've picked out most of the detail too. The gold shoulder spikes I'm not too happy with, although I think another coat or two will hopefully help there.

All that's left on the jacks is to clean up a few mistakes, paint the bases and then ink/wash before flocking and sealing.

The light is kind of bad in most of these shots. The red is more red/orange, rather than the red/pink that it looks :P


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The slight blue tint on the ice axe was achieved by mixing in a little bit of blue ink with the Quick Silver. Looks reasonably decent, I think.

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[scotty kahn]

Looks good. I am doing a very similar scheme with some Khador I was commissioned to paint. I'm loving those bases. Cant wait to see more.

[Flindo]

It was primed black, then drybrushed Bootstrap Leather -> Rucksack Tan -> Menoth White Base. It's a little patchy because I haven't done any drybrushing in like 5 years, but the ink should hopefully cover a lot of that >.>

if you primed it white you probably wouldnt have gotten the problem of blotchyenss.

[Karl Eller]

if you primed it white you probably wouldnt have gotten the problem of blotchyenss.

Somewhat, but a lot of what you're seeing is the basecoat of Bootstrap leather showing through, not the primer. Also, I've never particularly liked priming white, and it's mainly just an issue of A) remembering how to paint properly and B) getting used to the P3 paints compared to the Citadel paints I used to use.

[comrade]

I really like that color scheme, I actually did a scheme really similar to that on my Spriggan.

[Karl Eller]

The Destroyer is now about 95% done. I forgot to take into account how much the ink darkened the bone colour, so it's a little browner than I initially planned, but not too bad. Between the hull and the red accents, the 'jacks are a little warmer than I normally paint, so I'm contemplating if I can add a cooler colour (a darkish blue or more likely green) easily, or if I'll just keep things how they are. The paint doesn't look as un-even in real-life, that's mostly due to my crappy phone camera. I should hopefully have a decent camera again in about a week.

Still need to give the base a little more work (it's way too dark atm, although it's not so obvious in the pictures).


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I'll also probably add a few details such as army/unit badges and/or the Khador symbol, haven't quite settled on that.

Juggy still needs to get his black and red inks and finish his base, and then I get to start on the Widowmakers and pSorscha, but they get to wait until after my last uni exam.

[Darkmeer]

Love the scheme! Very clean painting, and it looks great!

[Peri]

I'll be monitoring this with interest. Love to see people do alt schemes. Keep up the good work.

[Karl Eller]

Both 'jacks are about 99% finished now. Still haven't decided if I'm going to do an army badge and/or jack numbering on the shoulders or front plates (above the head), but other than that (and like one or two little mistakes that I need to fix) they're complete.

You get to enjoy more phone camera photos





I'm reasonably happy with how they turned out, although there are a few little techniques that I think I picked up while doing these that should translate into better looking paint jobs in the future. Also I suck at free-handing icons and symbols.

Still to go: pSorsha and 4x Widowmakers.

[Karl Eller]

A few more Juggernaut pictures:

[Karl Eller]

And the Destroyer:

[Karl Eller]

This should hopefully be my last ****ty phone camera post. Parents come back after the weekend, and with their return comes a semi-decent camera.

pSorscha is pretty much finished, just a couple of little touch-ups and her base to go. I took some photos of her, but they turned out so terrible that I couldn't post them :P I went with a slightly darker red for her armour with sand robes. Haven't done her face yet (I HATE faces), but other than that she's finished.

For the widowmakers, I wanted something a little darker, while still fitting in with the general army's colour scheme, so I decided to go with a Thornwood Green coat over the usual sand with red accents. Ended up looking fairly decent, I think:


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[Flindo]

the widowmaker looks really good man! your painting is coming together nicely.

[HLYuall]

I love the color scheme, one of the most original around. my only problem is the widowmakers rifles seem to be a little bland. Maybe change the barrel color or the stock of the rifle? Other then that its great looking. Can't wait for more!

[Karl Eller]

Great news! I've finally got a half-decent camera and I've been able to set up some decent lighting and take some new pics. There's going to be like 4 or 5 posts after this one, so try to not respond right away :P

Here's my battlegroup so far

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Sorsha + Jacks

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Just the jacks

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[Karl Eller]

Sorsha! I still haven't painted her eyes (I HATE painting faces), and I'm not super happy with how she turned out. Some of it is the model (not a huge fan of the sculpt), and some of it is my painting abilities. Then again, I'm going to be getting pButcher pretty soon, so she'll probably end up getting retired.


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[Karl Eller]

Mr Juggy


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[Karl Eller]

Destroyer.


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[Karl Eller]

Widowmakers! I'm really happy with how these turned out, especially the female widowmaker. The non-hooded guy still needs some eyes, and they all have a couple of little mistakes that need to be fixed, but other than that I'm really happy.


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OMG she has a face! This has got to be the first time I've ever done a face that turned out fairly decent.

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And that's all for now. There's still a few touch-ups I need to do, and they all need to be sealed. Hopefully after Christmas I will be able to expand the army a bit with pButcher, some MoW, Greylords and Manhunters.

[Pixl]

Realy nice looking color there, and the cobblestone looks good to. I, how ever, feel that just cobblestone looks kind of plain. Maybe a tuff of grass could make it mode lively?

[crazychris]

Nice work i like it alot

[Karl Eller]

I, how ever, feel that just cobblestone looks kind of plain. Maybe a tuff of grass could make it mode lively?

That's what the flock is. I think the two 'jack bases need to be re-flocked 'cause the flock isn't standing up as much as on the other models, but it's definitely there.

[Karl Eller]

Crappy phone camera pic of the new members to the family, Mr Zoktavir and his pet puppy:

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Greenstuff will be curing over-night, they'll get primed tomorrow, and then I'll be able to get started over the weekend

[Sigmund]

Looking good man, I like the beast 9 scheme on the whole army (i think it is beasts) Very sharp looking.

[PG_Agamemnon]

I like the color scheme. Nice start can't believe I have missed this till now.

[dekeduffy]

Great looking army. Really liking the color scheme. Sorscha pops really well and the gold symbols on her really stand out nicely.

[Karl Eller]

Great looking army. Really liking the color scheme. Sorscha pops really well and the gold symbols on her really stand out nicely.

Funny you should say that, but I'm actually not happy with the way Sorscha turned out The plastic model has places where armour meets cloth that's really lacking definition, and I found her rather frustrating at times. Gluing on her left arm first (which obscures her face when painting) probably didn't help, either.

Now pButcher, on the other hand, is really fun to paint. There's something about painting big detailed metal models, and this one is a beauty. It's also my first time trying Gesso as a primer, which has some pluses and minuses. He should be finished in a day or two, and I'll put some photos up then.

[Karl Eller]

Aside from a few little mistakes I've noticed since taking these photos (What is it with cameras showing off every single tiny little flaw?), Butcher and his War Dog are finished!


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I really enjoyed painting Butcher. He's a nice big model with a tonne of cool details, without being fiddly and annoying, and he certainly makes a striking model.

[Karl Eller]

Still not a huge fan of the ward dog's pose, but it's growing on me a little. His torso/back legs were really freaking annoying to assemble, though. and I ended up sticking a big blob of greenstuff in the hollow section so that he'd actually stay together.


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A man and his best friend

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[Karl Eller]

Some good news: I've got a few new additions to my army. MoW Drakhun with Dismount (that's a lot of metal), Greylord Ternion, Koldun Lord and Manhunter arrived today, and I'll be getting some MoW Shocktroopers, a Manhuntress, Yuri and a Widowmaker Marksman in a few weeks for 2nd Christmas. Expect updates starting tomorrow and going on for the next few weeks.

Bad news: Both the Drakhun and Manhunter are missing pieces. Drakhun is missing his sheld cannon, and the Manhunter is missing his left leg. Drakhun isn't as bad (I don't want to put the shield on until he's fully painted anyway), but the Manhunter's leg means I can't start assembling/painting until I hear back from PP. And who knows how long it's going to take for them to get replacement parts to Australia

[Karl Eller]

Also:

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It doesn't even make sense how that line got in there.

So that's 3 out of 4 boxes/blisters today that had something wrong with them. Where's the Quality Control, Privateer Press?

[Defenstrator]

Looking good. That's a nice clean colour scheme and you've painted it up neatly.

Sucks about the model issues though. I can say I have never had the same experience so here's hoping it's a fluke.

[Karl Eller]

Disaster!

Despite my lack of updates, I have been painting over the last week, just not a whole lot due to uncomfortably hot weather. I've been plodding away at the MoW Drakhun + Dismount, which is a lovely large model, and has a lot of detail. However I botched up the inking, forgetting to add some mixing medium when I did the mounted Drakhun, and watering it down too much when doing the horse and dismount. This lead to the mounted Drakhun's ink pulling away from the crevices when it dried, and when after inking him again (this time with mixing medium), he wound up way too dark. The horse and dismount, instead of having nice dark crevaces, are now looking pretty splotchy and generally being kind of half-assed.

So now I have to figure out if I can still salvage them, or if they're going to get an acetone bath and repaint. I've given the armour a light drybrush to try and lighten it up a little, but it still looks kind of shoddy. Bleh, I'll leave it until the morning and see what I can do.

No new pictures for now.

[Karl Eller]

So after a bit of work, I've managed to somewhat salvage the Drakhun + Dismount. I'm still not happy with them, but at least they're at a stage where I'm not too embarrassed putting them on a table. I'm going to strip them and start again some time, but that can wait until after I've finished painting everything else.


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If the rider looks like he's about to fall off, it's because he's not glued yet, just sitting there held in by his pin. No shields yet, I haven't gotten around to painting the dismount's shield, and the rider's replacement is still in the mail.

As you can see, the armour looks fairly crappy in a lot of spots, both due to bad inking and a so-so primer. Also a bunch of little detail work that could be done, but it's kind of hard to motivate myself to do that when I know it's going to be stripped in the near future :P

Still to go:
Greylord Terion
Koldun Lord
Manhunter (still waiting on his leg)
Manhuntress
Yuri
Widowmaker Marksman
Man-O-War Shocktroopers