Hello, fellow miniature enthusiasts, I've been lurking here on WAU for months. I was convinced by my son at the beginning of this year to finally have a go at the painting miniatures lark - "Just TRY painting one of these, come on Mum!". Of course, I'm now a fully-fledged painting plasticrack addict.. sigh! I thought I'd start a bit of a log of my painting efforts of "the Beast Herd of the BeastKid". My building and painting skills are getting slowly better, but they, and my photography skills, leave a lot to be desired! I'm always happy to receive comments and constructive criticism.

First up, a nurgly Beastmen Regiment. This is the third regiment I've built and painted, but the other two need touch-up help before I'm game to post them anywhere!



Same Regiment, a bit closer!



But wait, there's more... a BSB to go along with them.



So, there you have it - the first post of a new Nurgley Beastmen Army Painting Diary! I stick stuff on Cool Mini Or Not from time to time for an ego deflate (hey, I finally busted through the "6" rating ceiling the other day!), and I've also started just a similar diary over on Herdstone, so apologies if you look there too and are bored by the cut and paste posting!

Cheers,

BeastMum

Looks really good. The banners and gems are really quite cool.



Its nice to see some of the fairer gender coming along to events and painting, it makes me feel much less nerdy.

Thanks for the compliments, sious_69. The regiment banner was my first attempt at making a banner out of green stuff. It's a bit 'how're you going', (as is my freehand,) but I try!

Sadly, even though I'm a girl, nerd IS my middle name.. and I'm thinking about getting the t-shirt that says it! But hey, the geeks shall inherit the earth you know.

Well, I reckon they're looking pretty damn good! I'd love to see some closer-up photos, some of those mutations look kinda cool. It looks like everything is nicely shaded, and I think the only criticism I can make is on the bases. I think a little paint over the sand and black edges on the bases would help a little with the look. I used to do goblin green on the edges of my bases too, but I started doing black and it feels a lot better.

Thanks, Rojo! I'll see if I can get my act together and take a few closeups then!

Ah, the goblin green bases, with no-paint sand. You are so right, I totally agree! When BeastKid first started building this army, that was his request for the bases (under advisement from one of the GW staffers I think, bless them all, they have all been VERY helpful and kind to us always!). Once started, it's become an increasingly large task to think about changing them. There is an Ogre Kingdom army waiting in the wings, however, and it is my plan to get into basing in a bigger way with those guys. And who knows, one day the urge to change an entire army's bases might just come upon me. I've been thinking about it, but with a cupboard full of unmodelled, unpainted little plastic guys, there's too many more inviting tasks ahead of me!

They look pretty good. Definitely painting the bases and doing the edges of them something darker would be improvement I agree.

If you're up near the northside, our club has a few families that do the hobby together too, it's not that nerdy!

Ha ha, thanks Peacekeeper! Next time we're up Caboolture way, we'll look you guys up!

So, here are a few closeups as requested by Rojo - now you get to see all my painting flaws. And from now on, everyone just excuse the Goblin Green bases if you would be so kind

















Somebody stop me if this is too much, won't you. Remember, you're dealing with an obsessive/compulsive plasticrack addicted person here!

I tried to make some little conversion on every member of this regiment, some with mutation sprue parts, some with bits of leftover spawn, and a few with good old green stuff.

Thank you for the close-ups! Those mutations look pretty good close-up still. You've got a good technique for your highlighting, although it does look a little patchy in places. Have you been using washes or glazes? They really help tidy up multiple layers of highlighting, which looks to be what you've done here. Other than that, the fur and the cloth are great. The gems are fantastic!

Thanks Rojo! I was pretty happy with the gems myself. I painted these guys back in May, and you're right, the blending is a bit dodgy! I did use a green wash, but I think it's basically my lack of patience coming through.. 20 of those little suckers tried it a bit! I'm trying to remember to be more patient and take more care, every little imperfection shows up in photos! Thanks for the tip, I'll try more wash or maybe a glaze next time.

My first blending efforts were on these Dragon Ogres which I painted back in March. I was pretty proud of them given I'd only been painting for less than 3 months! I only worked out that you have to thin your paint about 3/4 of the way through them.





Please excuse that big blank space!!

Haha- couldn't decide on a colour?

They look quite good, very neat.

Just plain ran out of Dragon Ogres!! Not very "Beast", but they're fun!! Bit like these Spawn.. (man, I'm getting to be the Segue Queen!!)



I'll get to the serious stuff soon, I promise!!

Here's some more serious painting, as promised. A few Warhounds of Chaos for your viewing.. pleasure?

That's some great work on the exposed muscles there! Again, the photos are a little too far away to make any helpful suggestions (if you wanted them of course), but they do look very well painted. Some of the greens and browns look a little flat, you're not using the flash on your camera, are you? That often washes out a lot of the colour.

Thanks Rojo! Ah, my very amateur photography skills at work again. (And hey, my painting skills - those greens and browns might just BE a bit flat!) I took these photos in natural light with the flash off, (although there's always the chance that I left it on by accident I guess!) I'll get cracking and take some closeups and post them for you, as I'm always happy to receive helpful suggestions!

Meanwhile, here's some banners I painted, the red and orange ones were done back in January, when I'd only been painting for under a month. Pretty pov compared to some I know, but as I suffer from a complete lack of artistic talent, I was pretty pleased with my freehand efforts!!



And some closeups of the freehand:



Please just excuse the bad paintjobs on the Beastmen, they're part of those two first regiments I have to redo before I can post them anywhere!

Well, for some early freehand work, that's pretty damn good. Even the banners are well highlighted and shaded. Good work!

I'm not a particularly good photographer here either, but there is a thread in the FAQs about modeling and painting section. Should be able to give you some help.

Thanks! I'm still pretty pleased with them eight months later!

You know, I've read the threads here, and on CMON, and other places about photography.. I think I'm just plain too impatient/lacking in talent to get it together properly. I just want some fabulous photographer to come on down from the sky and snap away when I need some more pics taken! Making my feeble efforts look fabulous of course..

Gday mum! It's your favourite GW staff member, well ex staff now, but still!

Have seen these mini's a million times when liam came in, but to see them in nice pics, they look brilliant!

I cant wait for you to do those chariots up, there are quite a few of them arn't there?

Keep up the top work! Dan

Hey, Dan! Cool to hear from you! Whaddaya mean, ex-staff? Oh no! I'm sad now! I hope it's 'cause you've moved on to bigger and better things. We'll miss you heaps in at the GW!

Yep, you're right, there are eight chariots all up (that crazy BeastKid!) - one that I painted ages ago, (needs help before I'm taking any piccies of that one!) one I've just finished recently, and another six from a fleabay bargain that need conversion and painting. I'm working on the first one of those now!

Here's some happy snaps of the one I just finished a few weeks back: This one's for you, Dan!














I started out not really looking forward to painting this, but it fast became fun, and now I think it's probably one of my best efforts ever! There are a few places that need help, like the binding on the chariot and the fur on the boar's necks (yep, guilty of greenstuffing gaps halfway through the paintjob.. whoops!) but I was pretty happy with the drippy axe blood and the head on a pike. Yeah, Warhammer gore!!

Wait- this is little Liam's army?

Wow, last I saw his stuff it was being assembled.

It's been a while since I went into GW...

Are you at uni~ now Dan?

Yes, little Liam - otherwise known here as the BeastKid!

@Rojo - Here's some closeups of some of those Warhounds:



*Edit* Those first pictures were a little bit TOO big!

Well, looks great. Maybe try a wash on the muscles to bring out the highlights more and make 'em glisten, but I think that looks pretty damn good. I guess I'm just an amazing teacher .

@rojo - Thanks! I'll have to get busy with some washes. Yes, teacher - where would we be without you?

Here's a herd of Bestigors I painted a few months ago..

The regiment:



Closeups:



The command (with stray Pestigor!)



And some champion closeups:

Wow, you made those Dire Wolves look bloody good! I always hated those models too. Anyway, I have a soft spot for Beastmen and I really like what you've done with these guys. Well done

Haha, gotta love that blood drip off the axe on the chariot! Little details like that, really really makes the model blow people away. The Bestigors are mighty good too, your work is getting better with each unit!

~ Mum and Rory, yeah at southbank institute of technology now doing diploma of multimedia and games design. Couldnt juggle full time uni and gw's, so had to move on. Sucks, but still floating around there every now and then, plus I'll be at orktoberfest if u guys are goin? * nudge nudge, go to orktoberfest, theres only 3 spots left! *

Dan

Oh, cool, studying things similar to me.

Bummer to hear about Uni/Work clashes- always a pain in the arse when it happens. I'm trying to get back into Fantasy again after 6months+ without a game, but I'm so busy at the moment, can barely spare the time to sleep.

Would love to go to Octoberfest, but with no will to play my Daemons at the moment, and my Dark Elves being prepared for re-painting and re-basing I find my self without an army, or the time to get one together.

Keep it up, you're doing great Beastmum. Remember though, to think about a theme (ie. uniform colour scheme) for your armies. Papa Nurgle does not require, in his plague ridden beast hordes, chaos ogres who have pink or yellow legs! However, the green and red ones are more than welcome to apply for the position...

@Intergalactic Games - Thanks! I've developed a soft spot for them too. When BeastKid first chose Beasts, I confess to thinking "Oh no, so ugly! Why not one of those nice Wood Elf armies?" but I've come to love them, Nurgley pustules and all!

@Runefang - Thanks Dan! I can't tell you how much fun I'm having, specially with things like that drippy blood. Glad to hear you're studying - sounds exciting! We'll be playing PS3 games with your name in the credits in no time! I don't know if Liam will make it to Orktoberfest, he hasn't played for a while (too busy skateboarding all weekend with non-Warhammer mates) and we're going away for a couple of weeks. I'm encouraging him tho!

@DancingPigeon - Identify yourself kind sir, next time we're both at the GW!

@Gop - Thanks Gop! Theme? They've all got the same colour bases haven't they? He he! I'm going home to see how coherent they really aren't! And hey, who's to say Papa Nurgle isn't into the element of surprise.. lull your opponents into a false sense of rainbow security.. then ATTACK!!! He he, I'll be making BeastKid write the fluff to support the army colour choices next!

Right, here's just about the last picture update before we're in real time, and you'll have to wait until I paint the next thing!

For your viewing pleasure, trolls! I painted these in secret for BeastKid's 13th.. that was last Friday.

Well, my pretties, we're going away tomorrow for two weeks holiday, so these last piccies will have to do you until I get back. They bring you pretty much up to date with the whole army, so then you'll have to wait until I paint some more!

Bray Shaman:



And a closeup (showing a small improvement to his toothy necklace):



The latest chariot I've just finished, with a semi-Nurgle converted Beast charioteer:









And lastly, the whole army!

Firstly, the army showing only completely finished Beasts:



Next, ALL the painted Beasts - including those two regiments that need help! You can tell all the guys who are going to be touched up by their Goblin Green bases. You'll be pleased to note that I've redone the rest in gorgeous Graveyard Earth.. so much nicer!!



Finally, the WHOLE army so far.. including those guys not yet painted, and not even started!!



As you can see, there's some work ahead of me still!!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! From a fabulous two weeks away.

So, now I've finally posted the whole army up to date, and I'm down to posting WIP. The latest thing I started working on before we went away is (I think) a Warmaster model, I bought it off eBay right back in the beginning (when I knew nothing!), but I figured it would make a good Spawn if I brought it up to around the same height as the other two.

I found some fabulous bases from Back2Base-ix, (we can mention names like that, can't we?) and have painted one up:



I was pretty happy with the stagnant slime water - amazing what some wood glue and a bit of green paint and ink can do when mixed together!



I'm thinking the Spawn will be shades of fire, seeing as the other two are sort of earth and water - I guess for symmetry I should add another one and theme it "air"! He looks a bit battered at the mo, I had to do some greenstuffing (not one of my fortes!) which still needs a bit of work, slapped a bit of paint on as a test, and his undercoat has started to wear as he's been hanging around for a while now.

So as soon as I get my painting desk (read dining table) set back up, I'll get on with some more painting!

I've Played against this army at Big Tsugua last round, poor little guy had so much bad luck. Wasn't completely painted then but It Looked good at that point. Great work and holy heck thats a lot of Stuff done. Keep up the good work.

Tim

The base looks fantastic.

Currently rebasing my army on their paved road line- really, really impressed.

Awesome job on the army.

Steve

@SturmJager - Thanks! Still plenty of army to go even now. You'll get to see the updated version if you're going to Orktoberfest, as BeastKid will be there. Hopefully having better luck than last time...

@DancingPigeon - Thanks! They do great bases, don't they! I'd love to see your army - any plans to post it up?

@Steve Riley - Thank you! All appreciative comments gratefully accepted!!

I'm looking forward to the weekend when I can get down to some serious painting! I think I'll have to start off with some of the touch-ups that I've been putting off, just to get my hand back in.. it's been neary three weeks, I feel like I'll have forgotten everything I've learned!!

Yeah Poor little guy needs to remember to keep his giant on one of is Flanks and at least 6" away from any of his own units.

I'll pass those words of wisdom on to him! Thanks, SturmJager!

wow!

@Jimbo81 - Thank you! Best one word reply ever!

Well, I didn't feel up to much yesterday, but to get my hand back in after 3 weeks off, I started to touch up the first regiment that BeastKid and I ever painted. They're not really nurgle, I know, but this was before the army theme had been decided upon. They're still not the best work ever, but believe me, this is much improved!



So, four down, only sixteen to go!!! And the other regiment of 20...

Another day saw only another four done - drat this flu!





Not the best work ever, but here's the before shots so you know what I'm working with...





Onwards, onwards, and ever upwards!!!

WOW those are some old paint Pots.

@ SturmJager - Ha ha, yes they sure are! We were down on the South Coast (of NSW) one weekend about three years back, when BeastKid first started getting into Warhammer. He found them in a funny little toyshop/newsagent, and we bought these four at some bargain price, knowing nothing about their antiquity, or even what washes and glazes were! Now that I'm wiser, I wish I'd bought all of the different colours/types there were available! Having said that, I use 'em mainly as you see for painting stands..

I wish my mum would paint my miniatures for me...

Ahhh, Gop, if only there weren't tedious things like the need to earn a living getting in the way, I could happily spend my days being the stand-in "Mum Who Paints" for legions of gamers. If only... *drifts off into a beautiful painting daydream*

being a avid beastmen player my self i say kudos
and did you say you painted this for your kid?????
thats funny cuz i am makeing a army for my dad

@Angorn's_Son - Thanks for the kudos! Yep, you got it, BeastKid is the gamer, I am the painter... nice one that you're making your Dad an army. Which one?

So, here's the next installment of the green loinclothed beasts.





And a skirmish tray for them I just gussied up this morning..



And the completed beasts so far on their tray!

Hot damn! You made a skirmish tray. Not only that, but you "gussied it up" this morning. I can't even sit down for 5 minutes to bother putting the things together, my hat goes off to you (that's a lie, I took my hat off ages ago, but it's nice to say).

There's some continued great painting you have there.

@Rojo - Thank you for your hat doffing, though it was unfortunately misguided!! Apologies, my last post was obviously misleading... I was not responsible for the creation of that wonderful tray, that came from the fabulous people at WarPuppy. If only I were so talented! The gussying up part was just whacking on some paint, sand and grass. Not quite so impressive... But thanks for your call on the painting!

. Ha ha, all good, still looks nice though.

@Rojo - Thank you!

And here's another update for you...

Beastmen Nos. 13-16:





They'll have to do. Nearly there, only 4 more to go! And the others....

why are the spears all crooked
also i posted my beastmen if yah want to look
and why do you have gor heads on ungor bodies
it looks way to unnatural
but i have done ungor heads on gor bodies and it make 'em look ultra buff

Its Chaos 'Nuff Said. Nothing should look natural