Witchhunters ? Not quite .... (wip)

</A>Witchhunters ? Not quite .... (knights of hod from Rackham's Hybrid boardgame)


what is it about ?
I bought some Knights of Hod on ebay to use as a second witchhunter's band.
But 2 days later I found the Hybrid boardgames at a price I simply couldn't resist, and decided to buy them as a birthday present for my youngest son.
He's not into painting, so I decided to try to finish my ebay mini's in time. (november 5th)
My painting skills are not extra ordinary, my photographic skills are non existent, but a forum friend convinced me to post some wip pictures.

For the first 3 I decided to go with the Rackham painting scheme (blue coats, brown boots), except for the green pants which I don't like. I'm thinking more like black leather pants.
Maybe I'll do the inside of their coats and their coatcuffs in dark red/maroon ... ?

Any suggestions, and all criticism (both good and bad) is more than welcome.
Suggestions on how I should paint the kind of metal grates on which they stand in particular are very welcome. (I want a kind of battered, rusted, burned, etc. kind of grate)

Anyways, here are the first pics after their undercoat.

Like most Rackham minis, the Knights of Hod are OH SO COOL! I like the techy bases; beyond the realm of the Hybrid game, they could suggest a raid of a Chaos Dwarf habitat. I'll wait with bated breath to see how they turn out.
I somehow managed to get a bunch of the Griffin Guys including the Hod Lads. I've been playing around with the idea of turning them into a Vampire Hunter War Band [Rules: http://www.killershrike.com/Mordheim/NewWarbands/VampireSlayers.aspx ]. NOW you've given moi an excuse to carry on with the project...thanks MUCHO!

They are soooo cool!

I have hybrid and nemesis as well, may have to put some pics up as well...

Looking good with your base work...so to speak...

thanks for that link Nala ! I will look into those vampire slayers !
That Vlad himself seems like a pretty scary guy himself !


I forgot to say ; should there be a contest for slowest painter this side of the ocean, I would surely enter...
My first 6 1/2 hours of painting have gotten me :
black undercoat for metal
drybrushing of boltgun metal and mithril silver
try out of regal blue coat and scorched brown boots for first guy
smeared some dark flesh + dwarf flesh to see how the mini would come to life
what I didn't notice until after the smearing, was that some guys have wrinkles on their wrists ; so they actually wear gloves .... grumble !
think I'll redo that. (black gloves probably)
I'm not entirely pleased with the drybrushing on the guns. I will maybe work on that some more in a later stage.

underneath some pics. Like I said, any ideas or comments welcome.
Especially on the colour of the pants, inner side of coat and metal grates.
Also, the green kinda glowing stuff people seem to be so good at (see the pipes at the first base)
I never seem to get that quite right. I start off with scorpion green and then ... ah ....
mess it up

As well : the underprimed minelayer and the base for my first Aberration. (told you I was raiding an old pc ...) Although this is for the far future ...











the minelayer :




the aberration base :

I love the bases and the coats and skin are very good. the boots could probably do with another coat to make the colour more even but otherwise its just right. I quite like the drybrushing on the gun/sword thingys.

thanks Dwarf
but it's just the first coat (I thought that that was what I had to do with wip pictures)
the coats will receive one or 2 more layers of regal blue before I even start highlighting. Same for the boots and skin.

Any ideas for the colour of the inside of the coat, collar and cuffs ?
I was thinking maroon, dark red ? (I'm a sucker with colours)
Any ideas for making the bases better ? (colourwise that is)
Any ideas how I should try to paint the luminiscent green ?

VERY COOL! I like the blue with the dark brown leather...red cuffs with gold buttons would be a nice touch & using all the primary colors makes for a powerful statement. The faces are starting to look good; the top Guy has a stern expression which fits WONDERFULLY with his calling.
I love the Arcane Techy look to the bases. Now get back to work!

update : another 11 1/2 hours worth of work
(I KNOW ! You don't believe me. But believe me, I'm that slow !)

the 3 blue coats should be finished except for the buttons and cords
(regal blue, enchanted blue and adding white. Two of the guys then received a wash of GW blue wash, the other a wash of thinned regal blue.)
the cords will be a very light brown/beige, the buttons gold, and I'm thinking of adding a gold rim on the red of their sleeves as well.

Next will be the reds, browns and faces I guess. (maybe I'll try for the second time in my life only, to give them coloured pupils instead of just a black dot. But the eyeslits are more than tiny, so I don't know if I'll be able.)

Any criticism welcome !
I'm also in need of suggestions on how I can make the bases better (by painting I mean. I think of adding some rust, and maybe a bit more shine, but I don't know ...) (some green around the two little pipes in the corner ... anyone got a got tutorial for that shiny, poisonous green stuff ?)

Suggestions on which colours to use on the stuff on their belts, other than the little pouches which I will do in brown are also greatly appreciated !

here are the guys before the washes :




I'm still trying to find the correct light to have some more or less decent pics ... Here is after the washes : the pics show less difference than in real life. (most of the chalky whiteness is gone)




tried some with less light ; think these are slightly better pics
hope they give you some idea of what they're looking like ...






seeing that my pics don't turn out quite like reality, I'm beginning to wonder if this thread has any use to anybody ...

oh well, lemme know what you think

cheers

The second set of photos are MUCH better, but keep the backdrop you used one the first set. I think being able to post photos AT ALL is WONDERFUL!
I like the way the Lads are turning out. The blue in particular looks good...nicely highlighted & shaded. The perspective on the pistol in the bottom shot makes the muzzle look the size of a cannon barrel..I LOVE it. FINE WIP.

little update ;
dark hair face is done
blue coats and brown boots are done except for buttons, buckles and cuffs
other two faces still need work

I'm getting depressed at seeing the amount of time I put in, for the result I'm getting ...
Any help in the good direction would be highly appreciated !!

sorry, had wrong pic

TIME WELL SPENT! The results MORE than justify the amount of time you're spending on the minis. Painting is an experience to be savored...leave the speed painting for the Guys painting armies. The faces in particular are VERY WELL DONE! Keep uo the FINE WORK!

hi there,

got the first Templar finished
not golden demon stuff, but about the best I can do
feel free to leave feedback ; it would be appreciated

VERY WELL DONE! NOW you've got me thinking of painting my Hod Guys...motivating an Ancient One is a sure sign of success.

second one finished

once again : feedback & criticism would be greatly appreciated
I want to learn how to become better at painting.

WOW!!!....

I think you do paint great And you are really creative with those bases...

What do you do with your metal?? ?

You are better than me. How could I come with anything to improve you?

Now, as a personal taste, I would have them a bit darker in the colours.

It's UNANIMOUS...the Lads of Hod look TERRIFIC! VERY WELL DONE!

thanks guys
2 more to come

@ Lord Siwoc ; you're right. The red came out less dark as I wanted. (the blue and brown is about as I intended.)

@ Trulsa ; I don't know exactly what you mean with metal ?
The guns were just drybrushed lighter shades over a black undercoat. (boltgun + black / boltgun / mithril)
The blond guy's base had a few splashes of thinned scorched brown on it, but you can't see the base much in the picture.

Cavonius gave feedback in a PM and gave me some tips about painting metal, but he's planning on posting a little tutorial about that. So I'll leave the honneurs to him.

et voilà ; third one finished
I stopped recording my time, but those 3 mini's cost me something between 40 and 50 hrs of work ... just crazy !
I saw people getting the same result within less than 25 % of the time I spent on them.

I had difficulties with the eyes and the colour of hair, but this is about the best I could get them.
Not particularly pleased with the green snaketube on the ground, but I don't know very well how to do that. If someone does, please let me know, since I'm planning more techie bases with tubes and stuff running over the ground.

oh well ...
as always ; comments very welcome

Please don't be disappointed if you don't get much in the way of critiques. There is really nothing to criticize; i.e, the choice of colors is EXCELLENT, AND there are VERY FEW Guys on the Forum that can approach the quaility of your painting style. VERY WELL DONE!

another one finished with a second try at orange/brown hair ... still not completely pleased with the result

let me know what you think

What a REALLY expressive "Oh my God!" face. AND I LOVE the base! VERY WELL DONE!

finished the templar
the face was quite difficult (and I never seem to get the hair right ...)
I thought a while about trying "object source lightning" with the 3 grenades (?) hanging on his belt, but I didn't dare ...
to be honest, the grenades look better in real than on the pics