What’s better than a monkey?

 A monkey in space:

Jokaero are great. Digital weapons in the old Inquisitor rulebook: awesome. The fluff that they’re inveterate tinkers that will if left unattended upgrade your bathtub but it might also be a weapon: awesome. Whilst looking like a space orangutan: awesome!

I caved and bought a finecast version a few years back, as I figured that my chances of scoring a metal one for a reasonable price were firmly somewhere between slim and none. Alas, even with plenty of liquid green stuff, as I was painting I kept finding more and more little bubbles, but c’est la vie. There are a couple on the mysterious apparatus on his back, but I figure maybe they’re special technological holes too advanced for our stupid human brains:

I think I started painting him at some point last year (or possibly the year before!), but after being let down on my Blackstone Fortress Escalation order my enthusiasm cooled somewhat and he got relegated to the boxes in the basement of half painted miniatures sadly awaiting their turn in the sun. Luckily for him though, I couldn’t resist his little face! Looking at the pictures as I’m posting, I wonder if I should have gone a shade lighter on his fur, but I think I’ll leave him as is (as I’m rapidly running out of year!)

Tally:

35 vs 23 = +12

Wailing Death...

Another miniature finished in the race to the end of the year!

A Howling Banshee, the first Eldar model I have ever painted. A couple of years back, I started musing over building an Ordo Xenos warband for Inq28, as it wasn’t something I’d ever really thought about before (all my previous plans having involved those mainstays in the Ordos Hereticus and occasionally Malleus), and started imagining a group with a Kroot tracker, an Eldar Ranger, maybe even a Rogue Trader as I’d never thought about converting one of those... then Blackstone Fortress came out, which had basically everything I’d been thinking of. Not to be dissuaded though, I mulled on it some more, and decided I fancied painting a Howling Banshee...

This was over a year ago now that she dropped through my letterbox, according to my Timehop app last week, but now I’ve finished her! I’d originally planned on going with the traditional bone coloured armour scheme, but whilst procrastinating experimenting with techniques I went over the grey under coated miniature with Tamiya Accent Colour Panel Liner (as you may have seen if you follow me on Instagram), and was so struck by the effect that I decided to go with a grey scheme instead!

She even got a tiny freehand (well, freehand Micron pen) version of the Howling Banshees rune on her forehead. Ooh, these pictures are the first on the blog using my wife’s new photo booth, and looked amazing when I was taking them, but not looking so hot on my iPad as I write this post...

As opposed to this shot, taken at the same time with the same settings, which looks a lot more vibrant and closer to the actual miniature. Eh, there’s still things for me to learn I guess!

In the latter stages of the paint job, I began to wonder whether she’d really be an appropriate crew member for an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, being that she is basically the enemy from their point of view, and wondered if she might be more suitable in the employ of an Ordo Malleus type, maybe having been sent by a Craftworld to act as a bodyguard for an Inquisitor that the seers have predicted will foil some machination of Slaanesh... Wherever she ends up going, I like the image of this totally alien... well, alien, standing silently, unmoving behind the Inquisitor during more diplomatic encounters, but being unleashed as a shock weapon during combat and absolutely terrifying enemies with her acrobatics and combat prowess...

Finishing her brings the Tally to:

36 vs 27 = +9

So, if I can finish and post 16 miniatures in the next 23 days, I hit my one a week challenge target. Don’t hold your breath, but stranger things have happened..

Are you still there?

(Click this for the reference)

Ah, Spindle Drones, in my head they're something of a mashup between the turrets from Portal and a sinister, unknowable alien intelligence. I've not read the novel yet, so I can but hope that they turn out to be dorky and adorable pets...

This paintjob was another classic case of millions of layers that end up looking like far less effort has been put in, but that mostly comes down to failed experimentation. My initial concept for their colour scheme was to have the legs look non-metallic (to look more alien, less robot) while their 'carapace' would look metallic, but with an unusual sheen. I'd originally planned on just giving the metallic coat a wash, but then Contrast paints came out so I thought I'd give them a try. I toddled off to my local GW and grabbed a pot of Aethermatic Blue. I applied a coat of the Contrast paint over a bright silver base, and found the effect a little timid, so ended up going way overboard on the next pass, leading to having to take multiple passes trying to glaze it back to closer to what I originally had in mind. Obviously, this didn't go to plan, so I had to keep going back re-applying the lining separating the plates, then glazing it with Contrast again... Eventually, it came to a point where I decided enough was enough, and I moved onto picking out the details.

For the central eye I went with classic evil robot red (I imagine them patrolling with their eye a purple colour until they detect a foe, when it turns red, maybe a tiny alarm goes off), whereas for the cabling and lights of their leg joints I decided that the key colour of the alien nature of the fortress would be Privateer Press' Arcane Blue, to reflect the ghostly blue seen on some of the tiles.

Speaking of the tiles, I forgot to mention the basing in my previous post! They're mostly based to match the majority of my existing miniatures, but with the addition of randomly arrayed tessellating tiles meticulously cut out from plasticard:

that then got painted with Aethermatic Blue Contrast paint and Arcane blue, in order to tie them to the Spindle Drones and the aforementioned blue tiles that I may be misremembering as appearing on some of the tiles.

Completing these brings the Tally to:

10 vs 27 = -17

Blackstone Fortress completion stats:

Explorers: 0/9
Enemies: 8/35

What's next you ask? Well, you know what time of year it is...

Do you hear... sniffing?

So I've actually managed to finish painting multiple miniatures, in a shocking twist of events!

I quite like these Ur-ghul miniatures, even though the poses are a little chorus line-esque.

They were painted using a mix of the GW and Midwinter minis youtube tutorials, and have come up looking rather good, especially when you consider that the majority of the paintjob is repeated drybrushes! I think these might also be the first miniatures that I've painted from a grey undercoat rather than my usual black. I'm glad that I took the time to go and outline some of the muscles, a step that I was originally going to skip, as it really makes them look a lot better - plus the liver spots are a nice little touch!

Completing these brings the Tally to:

6 vs 27 = -21

Hopefully I can press on and complete some more of the BSF miniatures to cross off that section of this year's Challenge - if inspiration wanes, I've got the tie-in novel ready to shepherd my attention span back this way!

Blackstone Fortress completion stats:

Explorers: 0/9
Enemies: 4/35