Bloodbowl Elves: IV

What to do??
I'm at a vital stage now. I've done the flesh;(several thin coats); I've decided on nice bright shirts/tops but haven't yet worked out what's occuring on the rest of the clothing.

You can see from the original sprayed cardboard that the elves are on that I've experimented with a few colours/designs but need to sleep on the way forward.

I've painted all the figures at once rather than in batches. This is not normal for me but the paints have all been really thinned down and all need several coats before the colour looks right. (The shirts for instance have all have four coats of the brightest yellow).

TGM TOP TIP: If you have doubts about colour schemes working just use the newspaper you're resting on to practice, (not your dining room table). It's easier to throw paper away, (into the recycling bin of course), than to either paint over something or remove the paint - especially if the gonk is plastic.

Bloodbowl Elves: III

The next thing to think about is colours and should they look like a team?

The colours are going to be bright - maybe with some "40K harlequin" type patterning - we'll see what The Gonk Machine can do.

For the minute, I'm just playing and seeing what looks good. Maybe these are too bright?
(These figures don't especially have a group identity except they all seem to have gloves - maybe that is what should tie them together?

Bloodbowl Elves: II

The brief for this team was "money no object"!!!

Yesterday they were all filed down, based and then sprayed white. I then waited patiently whilst the spray dried.

Once completely dry I then gave them all a thin coat of Ghost Grey, (a really light grey).

TGM TOP TIP: Spray paint - especially white can leave the figure with a gritty texture. I will always do a thinned down coat all over with the nearest I can find to the sprayed coat. In this case it would have been white except white paint also seems to be gritty. Nearly all the "white" I paint on a model will be a really light grey for this reason.

The Secret Project: Finished.

I've painted three things rather than two but that's just how The Gonk Machine works out sometimes.

Photos will follow at the appropriate time...

Now they're off the bench and under wraps I am starting another Bloodbowl team: The Most Expensive Paint Job In The World!

I am painting an Elf team in nice bright colours, so, starting with the gluing and scraping, (boring bits) and tonight finishing by just sticking a fairly coarse sand onto the bases before undercoating in white.

TGM TOP TIP: These figures are going to be nice and bright so a light undercoat will be used. Normally everything will start with a black spray followed by a thin black coat. If there are any recessed areas not covered by the base coat then that is fine to leave them black. With white I'll need to work extra hard and add the shadows individually with a tiny brush and really thinned paint. I think starting with white is a much harder way of painting but it's needed for light, (or low pigment), colours like yellow, green, red. Strangely, most blues can be painted on top of black though.
If there is any metal on this set of figures then I will have to paint them black first then metallic.

The Secret Project: II

Back from my weekend away and straight into the latest secret project.

Of course, over the weekend away from the paint my mind gets to thinking. The project has expanded with a new twist. All will be revealed later...

Secret Project

No photos today. It's all hush hush at The Gonk Machine.

I've started with two gonks for a secret project. Actually, they've been scraped, based, undercoated and near enough base coated so there's not too much to do.

I'll be away with normal work now for a couple of days so may not be able to update until Monday. :(

I'll be taking some plastic Romans in the hope that I might get to do something gonk related. (Unlikely but I'm ever optimistic).

The Curse Of The Gonk Machine?

At the local gaming club, based at The Games Vault, there is rumour abound that if a team or army is not painted up then they're destined for failure. If the figures are halfway painted this is even worse!

Obviously, I have no idea how these rumours were started...but was horrified to learn that the Vampire/nun team, (Midnight Munchers), just recently painted, lost on its first outing tonight: 2-0 with a vampire in the "Dead and Injured Box"

Still, in my opinion they looked great!

The Nun and Vampire Team Photo

As promised, a group shot of the recently completed Vampire and Nun, (thrall) team photo.

The Thirteenth, Time Elapsed: 2Hrs 24Mins

It didn't take long to splash some Vallejo Black Wash onto these first five Legionaries
but they did take a long time to dry.

To be honest, although I want the Thirteenth to be on a campaign rather than a parade ground; the black was a bit too "dirty" so I will try the Vallejo Sepia Wash on the next five before deciding the way forward. (This seemed to work quite well on the trial the other day).

The Thirteenth, Time Elapsed: 2Hrs 17Mins

This was always going to be where I'd loose time, however, I think my stopwatch has been going without me! I only did five basic troops as I wanted to make sure I knew what colour was going where.
I've decided not to go for "Roman Red" as I want The Thirteenth to stand out and look different.

"Dipping" is next...

On The Bench: Vampires VI

Eventually the Matt Varnish dried so that I could get the moss/grass stuck on!

TGM TOP TIP: Don't be impatient! If there's a chance that a layer of paint, varnish or glue isn't quite dry; then wait. Take from me, you could really muck up a great looking figure because of another five minutes waiting time. If in doubt leave overnight. In today's case, static grass would love to stick onto semi dried varnish and then you're left with a gonk in a ghillie suit - not good.

I stuck the moss on first and then a few bits of grass effect.

I hope you like them.

I'll try and get a team photo later.

On The Bench: Vampires V

Only the grass/moss to go!

I've got to wait now whilst the floor tiles dry before a quick all over coat of Matt Varnish; wait again for this to dry; whack on a bit of flock and job done.

I'm really pleased with the vampires - I hope they fit in with the nuns enough!

All the figures were good on this project, (except there was one that let the side down IMO. There was one gonk out of nineteen that I didn't feel the love for and would love to be given the oppurtunity to paint another gonk as a replacement - we'll see).

So, one last push to complete the nun/vampire + thralls team/s but this will have to wait until Sunday/Monday as I'm off to LegoLand!

(Of course, I'll be taking some gonks and paint for the "Portable Gonk Machine").

On The Bench: Vampires IV

Had a bit of a sesh before going away at the weekend. (Legoland is calling). Still didn't manage to finish the vampires although I'm fiddling now.

I need to tone down the bright blue on "top hat"; hilight "big wings" and do all the bases. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

I've done the eyes and added more highlights to the faces.
The black clothing for "top hat" took some time to blend some greys into but is starting to look OK. I've also done the metal to match the nuns armour. (Forgot - I need to do the toe caps).

All in all - they're coming along.

On The Bench: Vampires III(a)

Firstly a quick snap to keep up to speed on last night's work.

Hopefullly I'll remember to charge the camera more often.

On The Bench: Vampires III

Too wired to paint properly tonight. The World Cup is starting Friday and watched Top World Cup Shocks which brought all the dramas back. I almost cried with Gazza and still watched England penalties with my hands clutching my hair, even though I knew what was coming.
That's all forgotten now though: Come On England!

OK. I did a bit on the vampires but the camera wasn't charged up so no photos to upload.

I gave the large winged feral vampire a thin wash of Flesh Wash just to give him some depth without too much colour. This takes ages to dry.

The "top hat" vamp has had a wash on his hair and mouth but will do the majority of this figure in one hit as I'll be melding the colours with Glaze.

The GW vampire had a small amount of wash added to where the arm armour is going to give that definition.

All these thin washes take a long time to dry so I'll leave them to dry before I go on.

They shouldn't take long now! (Famous last words...)

The Thirteenth, Time elapsed: 1 Hr 21 Mins.

Sprayed the command Legionaries and the other four in between making IKEA furniture. Then, managed to clip, scrape and glue the remaining 10 Legionaries from my first box set that I'd bought ages ago.
As soon as the glue is dry then these will be sprayed and then I can start painting properly.
Don't know whether to make veterans or auxiliaries next?? I've got a box of each before I crack open the Warlord Army set ;)

On The Bench: Vampires II

Carried on where I left off yesterday - basically not having too much of a plan and playing with the colours.

These are all character models so are individuals with their own slightly different colour schemes.

I gave a coat of matt varnish to the big feral vampire before I started lighting up with a Glaze/Dheneb Stone mix. This was to smooth out the previous session which was heavily glazed and dryed slightly pitted, (no-one would notice but me).

I relented in the end and decided I had to use purple on the GW gonk! It is such a goth colour - I love it. I've painted the cloak with a base of Royal Purple and then mixed lighter tones to the edges and raised parts.
I also made the blue bits more, well, blue but will add Sombre Grey to these next time.

Again, I know it's a cliché but I think they've got to have red eyes. We'll see what that looks like later.

With the "top hat" vampire the colour is going to be subtle. Just around the hat and the gloves will match the nuns. The rest will be shades of grey.

The Thirteenth, Time elapsed: 58 Mins.

Managed to spray the first 13 Legionaries with Army Painter Plate Silver and then whilst they were drying I cut and scraped seven more. These included the Musician, Standard and Centurion so more time was taken on these models as they will have more attention than the rank and file.

TGM TOP TIP: I'm sure I've said it before but spend more time on your characters! They'll need particular painting and basing as the eye will always be drawn to them. I will not "dip" these but paint them individually.

I'm quite excited now. I'll clip and scrape the remaining 10 figures in the boxed set before painting any of them - then the fun starts.

On The Bench: Vampires I

Started playing with the vampires that will be used with the nuns, (the nuns can be played as a human team or as thralls in a vampire team).

I need to have a link between these character models and the nun team. The only way to do this is by bringing across the blue/grey to a greater or lesser degree.

I am still experimenting but I like the feel of the blue winged vampire which was done using loads of glaze and mixing and blending colours as I went. I wish I could write down and give some sort of insight as to what I did.

TGM TOP TIP: If in doubt of the technique used, blame it on the internal workings of The Gonk Machine, after all I just load the figure in; add lightning bolts add crank the switch down.

The GW vampire, (second in from left), is nearly always done in red so I thought blue and purple would make a change.

Of course, these colours are all subject to change, (see TTT above).

The Thirteenth. Time elapsed: 30 Mins.

Busy weekend, (as usual), what with Grandparents and chores and Ikea and then of course making heavy flat pack things into furniture.

This summer, I'll be playing in a Roman battle, something I've never done. To do this I will need some sort of troops. I was tempted with a barbarian horde but after all the books I've been reading, I am having a bit of a joint venture with Steve at The Games Vault: The Daventry XIII have been launched.

I'll be using the superb Warlord figures and hopefully keep most of the army plastic. (Although I may relent and buy Marco and Cato in metal!)

I really wanted to see how long it would take me to construct enough of an army to play and what better way than to track the progress here on the blog. This project is only for me and will squeeze this around all the million other things I'm doing.

I found a spare half hour and started the countdown timer on my 'phone to produce 13, (weird number), Romans scraped and glued ready for painting. I have not gone crazy with the mold lines, only the large chunks of plastic that would really stand out when painted.

I'll spend much more time on the section leaders, musicians etc.

30 mins done. 13 paintable basic Legionaries.

On The Bench: Alien dude.

Having finished the nuns last night, I needed some Glaze to start the vampires. However, in my rush to get to town and back I forgot to buy some!

I spent the morning finishing off a project I started ages and ages ago. To be honest there wasn't much to do. I made the gun and back pack brighter as well as the skin.

I figured that once the "cloaking device" was off there was no need to have camouflage and aliens could have tough material that isn't necessarily metal.

The base is part of the custome sci-fi flooring I make, (with help from Steve at The Games Vault). It was grey/light grey/white but I put on a very thin coat of Mithril Silver, as it happens it turned everything silver but I'm happy with the result.

TGM TOP TIP: I will quite often use a Satin Varnish or Gloss Varnish on a small area. In the alien gonk I've given everything a Matt Varnish then, once dry I went over the gun; back pack; knee pads and the flooring with a Satin Varnish. This reflects the fact that that these objects are not natural and I'd expect a slight sheen to "futuristic plastic stuff". I have also used Gloss Varnish just on Space Marine's shoulder pads as this not only hilights but offers maximum protection when handled in a game. If your not happy with the look just brush on Matt Varnish over the top.

So, another one is off the long back list...I wonder what's next?

On The Bench: Nuns XIV

The nuns are done!

Last night I touched up two sets of eyes that I wasn't happy with, (and redid the makeup).

I also finished the last five's habits, gold trim and the bases.

With the instructions and palette of colours written down it was easy to recall how I'd done the paving stones, (and the rest of the figure).

I've taken a couple of photos this morning, (in the better light), which I hope will be on the main site shortly: thegonkmachine.co.uk

Right off to the local, (superb), games shop - The Games Vault - for some more Vallejo Glaze before I start to tackle the last four figures in this team: Vampires!

PS I might also pick up a box of Romans for the summer project...

On The Bench: Nuns XIII

Hello there. Just a short entry today - been mental at real work and am looking forward to my weekend off!

I've progressed with the last third of the nuns and keep thinking about the vampires, (which are all different) and how they can be linked with the "nun blue", (not to be mistaken for Blue Nun).

On one of the vampires I think the link will be quite subtle as the figure will look great in black/grey and another will have to be mostly blue - but that's for another day.

Nuns. OK - so the base colours are on, the faces are done; I've touched up the flesh; toned down the blue/grey and gone over the black.

All that's left is the black hilight, the gold, (with a wash) and the base. They'll look great as a team - can't wait. (Not long now!)