Witch-Hound - Starting position

My new project is going to be a Witch-Hound from the Avatars of War range. Instead if giving this figure away I might actually keep him for my Mordheim Witch Hunter Warband... Shocking I know... But hey... every once and awhile I do keep these things ^_^

The miniature itself is pretty badass; good pose, good sculpt. Colorwise I'm going to start with black and layer up with grey. Metal is going to be very burnished gold, I'll probably weather up the bottom of his coat at the end.

I've decided the base is going to be a wooden floor, in my mind I see the Witch-Hunter emerging from hiding to break-up a heretic ritual. If I get around to it I could possibly make this a whole diorama thing... But that'll be down the track... Anyway, I made this base to look like a rough wooden floor. It's pretty easy to do...

Items used: Fine-tooth saw, strip of plastic card, a base!

Method: Either vice the strip down or hold it down to the table at one end. Apply pressure and drag the saw-teeth along the plastic strip. NOTE: Do this on a cutting board or surface you don't mind being roughed up!!


You'll need to do this several times. Depending on how often you do it, you can change the level of roughness of the wood. Do it many times and you'll have a rough looking well used tavern feel. Do it a few times and you'll have a nice polished floor... I've gone for about five times here.

Then cut the strips and apply them to the base. You'll want to cut them and lay them so you've got cuts in various places. Once everything is dry take a needle or a pin tool and add some nail holes at the end of each cut. If you want to weather things more then add small cuts and nicks in the wood. Simple as that!

That's the prep phase!! Tune in next time for painting... Ain't I a stinker!! ^_^

Warband complete!

Finished! At last! *phew* painting fast is tough, but I've learned a lot while doing this. Having a deadline is well-worth the extra pressure, it forces you to keep going, but also try new things and shortcuts. Hopefully it's going to translate well over to painting the rest of my army... The last two Witch-Hunters were done at the same time, and while it allowed me to finish in one day it annoyed the heck outta me when paints kept drying... Back to Space Marines soon though... ^_^

Witch-Hunter Captain Done!

This pace is slowly killing me... What's worse is the fact that my painting chair is NOT comfortable for looooong periods of time. Two hours? Fine. Four hours? Heeeeell no. Longer? You'll be in pain for the night... *sigh* Anyway, ,y finished Witch Hunter Captain. Took me a full afternoon from say 1pm till 5pm, and then some little bits of extra time as I was doing the base... Four days left. Two Figures to go... Gonna be tight, especially if I want to get some scenery done as well...

Notes:
- Some people said my metals were to bright so I've given the metal a wash of Sepia after the black to take most of the shine off. Must say I kind of like the look for Fantasy-type armor...
- I've had a few people ask for various color recipes; when I'm finished I'll sit down and try and remember how I did them, most are simply foundation colors with a little bit of bleached bone added to lighten them and a crap load of washes.
- The face may look little black, had a splotch of Black wash land there, not quite sure how but had to do some rescue work...

And it continues... Fast painting isn't really my strength, but I made the decision to use heavy washes for shadowing and it seems to work well enough... ^_^

Running tally: 16 days, 8 miniatures left.