So...I ordered this from Coolminiornot.com's store last week. Sculpted by Alexandre Marks...the dude who sculpted most of the orcs and fianna barbarians for Rackham.





You can get one here while they last!

I'm selling some pretty cool stuff this weekend!

Stuff like....

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And the new year starts off with some new faces along with the old. Actually the new ones have been on the table forever....the Chaos Marauder since 2003 and the Cadian since the end of 2006...in various stages of completion. Yes, I have horrible attention span.

First up, Chaos Marauder.


Yes, I thought about doing a ton of conversion work to make him more Nurgly...but by the time I had thought of that I was half way done with him. But since I don't paint for playing Warhammer, I'll probably get around to a Nurgle one at some point. Painting for a collection of models is so much more liberating than painting a specific army. Back to the point, I was going for a sort of Thulsa Doom's Warband styled Marauder. Lots of black and dark brown leathers....more along the lines of an evil barbarian type. I'm still thinking about doing up my Chaos Chariot with a converted Thulsa Doom at some point as well.



Kord the Slayer by Tre Manor. A little more progress on him....mainly some touch ups and redos of a couple of areas. I haven't payed him too much attention as of late, but I hope to remedy that problem.



Fabius Bile. This is a commission piece I've been trying to knock out now for about two months. Nothing wrong with the model...I just haven't been in the mood to paint him. I have worked some more on his coat...the color is Thrall Flesh shaded with some Ceramcoat Dark Burnt Umber. I had to line in the seams between the different patches of flesh on the coat.



This is the base I'm doing up for Fabius. The skull is from Spyglass pack I ordered last year. They are a pretty good deal as you get a bunch of different type and sized skulls for about 6 bucks. You even get a couple of Beastmen skulls in the bunch.



And Cadian guy. Standard Cadian Lt model...using the standard color scheme. I won't say that this is some sort of artistic work of love or anything...I'm painting him up to sell on Ebay. I did do some 5 o clock shadow on his face and head...along with some shading around his eyes to make them seem sunken in like he's sort of grizzled.

So as you can see...I have been painting here and there when I have a chance. And that brings me to the second half of my post today. As you may have noticed about three weeks ago we greeted a new year. And with the dawning of every new year I have tried to set down some resolutions to help steer my year in a constructive manner. But this year, I've had a real problem coming up with a meaningful list of anything. Sure, I could rehash the same ones I list every year...lose weight, compete at Games Day, stop shitting in the floor of the local Arby's...but after listing the same ones over and over again, they seem to have lost any sort of importance to me.

I have noticed that I haven't painted nearly as much as I did in 08 or even the first half of 09. That is due to many things...ranging from things at work to things at home...or basically real life. All I know is that I don't have as much "me" time to go around as I used to. And so after pondering that I've come to the conclusion of what my resolution should be. This year, I aim to make whatever personal time I have "quality" personal time. Time to essentially pursue "art for art's sake" rather than for $$$.

With that in mind, some major changes are happening in Casa del Chaney.

1. I am going to be down sizing my unpainted stuff. Over the last couple of years, I've managed to downsize my Reaper stuff into something manageable...but now its time to focus on the big monster in the closet (literally)...GW. I have tons of plastic squad and regiment boxes that are never going to get painted. Some stuff has been sitting there for well over 10 years. So it's time to start Ebaying those off...although I'll keep the zombie and skeleton boxes as those are great for conversion work and spicing up bases and such.

2. No more painting for Ebay purposes. I have sold off my best painted stuff and all I have little to show for the last 10 years of painting. Anyting I paint anymore is for me and me only...or if some dude wants to pay an obscene amount of $$$ for it....although that hasn't happened since 2006.

3. No more commission painting. I never did it for the money...or else I'd charge more than 10 bucks a mini. But while I have enjoyed the variety of minis it has allowed me to paint, it is time I shut that whole operation down and focus on personal projects.

4. Painter's Codex will finally get back on track. I've been trying to get a free Ebook off the ground now for the last 4 years and now it is time to put up or shut up. I am going to shift it from a "book" per se into more of a monthly electronic magazine focused on educating the beginner and intermediate painter. No, I am not going to do any sort of Miniature Mentor or Hot Lead styled DVDs that cost over 30 bucks and you might get a couple of tidbits here and there from it.

Until next time....

Gonna try and give new things a whirl in 2010...or to give old things another chance. The old things in question....RPGs...or technically one RPG. I have never played WHFRP...although I have played many other non wargame games set in the Warhammer world (Warhammer Quest, Talisman, Chaos Marauders and a bunch of other little games GW made in the late 80s). I have always enjoyed the "fluff" that used to accompany the old Army books for Warhammer....the Undead Army book is a fanastic read. Seriously, if they had a nice big art book that had the backstory of the Warhammer world, I'd totally pick it up...and I mean an art book and NOT A BOOK WITH THE OLD CARD GAME ART.

Anyway....I picked up the rulebooks for both Second and Third Edition (I had a first edition one and I donated it to the work game library...and it has vanished never to be seen again....or actually its in a box somewhere in the "Danger Room"). I have always found that while new versions have more streamlined rules...they always end up cutting some of the cooler stuff from the earlier edition. And I picked them up in PDF format as they take up much less room in the house than an actual book.

And...it gives me a great reason to paint up all my Mordheim stuff as those minis are perfect for RPG type purposes.

So this year has one big goal for me and that is my Chaos Mortals army for Warhammer. I had toyed around with the idea of doing a Chaos Undivided army...I even started painting a model with a possible paint scheme (which I'll be posting shortly). But, as I painted that model up, I just couldn't find anything that made him uniquely mine. Yeah, I painted him up all nice and purty, but something was just missing. And so, I've been looking at the art in all the White Dwarfs of the past 10 years and all the rulebooks and nothing really stood out.

But then, I went over and looked at all the concept art for Warhammer Online. Yes, we all know my big gripes about that game...but their concept art team has always been top notch as far as I'm concerned. And whilst I was browsing, I happened upon this fella....


Yep, that is a Nurgle Marauder in all his rotten glory. But for me to have a Nurgle army that looks like this, I'd have to do some serious conversion work...which terrifies me. But, I figure I'm gonna go and give doing some sculpting one more go....minor sculpting, but scupting none the less.

And the first project is for me to make that guy....I figure might as well just go balls out right out of the gate and see what happens.

...wish me luck!

My brushes finally arrived....along with my Chaos Knights I won on Ebay (the marauders will be here Tuesday I hope) and thus painting has resumed.

First up, Fabius Bile's Chirugeon...Part One.

I had to break it down into sub assemblies. The color is Gnarloc Green that I shaded with Cryx Bane Base. The highlight was done by adding in small amounts of Rain Grey and then final highlight with Eucalyptus. I then applied a light glaze of Dark Burnt Umber. The metals are plain old Bolt Gun Metal with a wash of Dark Burnt Umber. I did add a glaze of Bestial Flesh around the edges of all the metal to give it a weathered look. The green light thing is just Necrotite Green. Its a small step to getting Fabius Bile done, but a step none the less.

And for my barbarian Kord:


Slowly but surely. I base coated the fur on his bracers and loincloth with Adeptus Battlegrey. I also base coated the skulls Charadon Granite and it was at this point that I realized new paint brushes were needed.....

So that's it for now...not a lot done in the last few days, but brushes are here so things should pick back up.

I really hate waiting on things. Today, I had to order new some new paintbrushes...namely fine detail brushes from GW and some Kolinksy 10/0 liner brushes as the brushes I have currently are worn out. I'm not complaining about the brushes being worn out...far from it. The Citadel ones have lasted me the better part of three years and my Reaper 5/0 liner has lasted since Gen Con 08 (I generally used to pick up replacements there).

No, the problem is living in Atlanta. You see, we don't have many gaming stores left...seriously, there is one at the Gwinett Mall and one around the airport...and that is it. The GW store (if it is still there) is an hour drive one way.

So that leaves me with few options...one of them being ordering online. Convenient as I don't have to leave the house, but god awful when you end up waiting 5 days for stuff to arrive.

Odds are, I'm just gonna rest my eyes for a few days and wait. New brushes will make the painting easier and some actual rest for my eyes will make stuff not so blurry.

Yep, my first cold of the season is upon me. I've been fighting it off for the last week or so but it looks like it finally got through (much like everytime I participate in the AV Battleground...).

But I am starting to get back into the painting groove...not full on like I was back in the spring, but getting there ever so slowly. So I'll open up with a group shot.


Yep, barbarian guy is moving right along and I added his buddy the dwarf explorer....the blister pack said Trapfinder but I say Explorer. Both of them are experiments for me...one using GW White Primer and the other using Krylon Gray Primer. Both have their benefits...the white is great for the barbarian guy as he has tons of exposed flesh while the gray is good on the dwarf as his color scheme is much darker but not "evil dark". For the record, I am still hesitant about using the gray primer on plastic....last time I did that it was an expensive mistake.

So, let's take a close look at Kord the Destroyer.

Since you saw him last, I have finished up his upper torso, his head, his bearskin cloak's exterior, and his armor shoulder pad. You can also see I'm starting on the metallics for the rest of his body. I'm really the most pleased with his shoulder pad armor.


It was first basecoated black and then with Reaper Tarnished Metal. I had though about Boltgun Metal, but I prefer the Reaper metallics. I then washed over the entire thing with Ceramcoat Dark Burnt Umber. I then lined in some dlluted Dark Burnt Umber in the recesses and around the base of the spikes. Then I layered on some Tarnished Metal in the raised areas and on the spikes. I then added some Folk Art Silver into the Tarnished Metal and then highlight with the Silver. I then lined in some Rackham Bestial flesh into the recesses, but very diluted. I did this a coupe of times until it darkened up nicely. I then painted a very thin glaze of Reaper Rust on the edges of the large gouges.

And for the dwarf...which I started before Thanksgiving on a whim.

Thus far, I've only done up his face and beard....mainly to give myself an excuse to tryout Reaper's new Red Hair Triad. I really like it, even though I had to mute the highlight a tad....I wanted red hair not his face to look like its on fire.

So that is all for tonight. I'm shooting to finish Kord this weekend as his completion marks the end of my self imposed painter rehab and then I get back on to my commission works as they are stacking up.

Starting to paint once again....taking it slow and trying to keep my approach to the models as organized as possible. The creative juices are beginning to thaw...but they are still at a slow drip. The Ice Age didn't end in one day and my creative "freeze" isn't going to either. In the picture above are the four main models I've been working on for the past few months...some longer than others.


Kord the Destroyer here is a model done by Tre Manor and this is one of the coolest barbarian models I've ever painted. He is huge...that washer he is on is the equivalent of a 40mm GW base....and the style is a perfect marriage of GW and Rackham stylings. I'm not kidding, if I had a Chaos Marauder army...this dude would be at the front of it along side the Avatars of War Marauder Champion. True, the weapons are a bit tiny, but I like to think those are some weapons he grabbed off another dude after his own sword got stuck impaling six other guys. This is the model that got the juices flowing again....or maybe its the combo of the model and primering him white....all I know is this is a model I really like painting.

Yep, another Victor Pendrake. This one is for a friend of mine...who is using it for D&D. His original color scheme was literally the Burger King color scheme. But after some discussion, this is the new one thus far...more Vash the Stampede than the Burger King. The face has a much warmer approach than the first version I did...along with no 5 o'clock shadow. I figure only badasses have 5 o'clock shadow...and ultimate badass mofos have a beard.



This is a close up of the Warhammer Zombie. While yes he is just a plastic zombie, I am pretty pleased with him. For this one, I tried out doing some creative glazing and selective washing in order to make his decay more disgusting. The one that I like the most is around the eyes....washed with purple, red, and finally a dark blue....really accentuates how much the flesh around the eyes has sunk back into the sockets. Around the mouth, I used a dark red and a magenta was....I wanted blood stain rather than blood...more victim of a plague than a major slaughter....which is more in keeping with the older Warhammer Undead lore. I still have a hard time believing they haven't revised Nagash since 93...or mentioned him since they split up the Undead armies.

That's all for now. Leave some nice and encouraging comments...trust me, they help out a lot.

So, for the last week and a half I've been sitting around playing a lot of GTA 4 and Half Life 2...and while "doing nothing" is a worthy pursuit, it just doesn't seem to do anything for my compulsion..."always be doing something". So, I'm gonna try some baby steps to get back into the swing of painting.

Step 1-Paint something personal. I have a closet full of minis and so I'm going to pick one and paint it. It just so happens that the model I picked is a Goliath ganger for Necromunda. Not a heavy, not a juve, and not a leader...just a ganger. Lots of stuff to practice on him...like fleshtones, metallics, weathering, maybe even tattoos.

Stay tuned for Step Two....which comes right after I paint the goliath dude...

Lately, I've been wrecking every model I've touched...mainly by trying to over do the shading or the detailing. Luckily, those models have been metal and not any commission pieces. But "working" through the dry spells of inspiration is really not doing it for me. It sucks, but its the truth. I am going to resubscribe to White Dwarf and see if looking at all the pretty pictures again will inspire me to paint again like it did in 06 and 07.

I'm gonna take a step back over the next month or so off from painting. Odds are, I'm gonna work on my art skills as they have taken a back seat to everything else over the last 6 years and they are in dire need of some lovin'. And of course fit in some time for playing some video games....or as I like to call it a job skills seminar.

So..if I'm doing some commission work for you at the moment, don't worry...just a temporary set back until I can get the painting mojo working again.

It finally recognized PAWS Atlanta in their non profit donation section and so I have it set up where 25% of the final amounts goes to them. In case you were wondering, it is where we adopted Hattie in 1995...and where I played with a small German Shepherd puppy named Miller.


eBay Seller: chaney insaney: Toys Hobbies items on eBay.com

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eBay Seller: chaney insaney: Toys Hobbies items on eBay.com

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That my website is missing. Long story short....we have to move it over to the new webhosting guys and as soon as we have their info, it'll be moved. So for now the only galleries that I have are the ones on CMON....which is by no means all of the ones I've painted, but they are the best of the bunch (IMO).

Oh, and the inspiration drought has returned....I guess I'm just burned out on painting at the moment.

Well...one new one, but I did finally pull out the photography rig and snap shots of stuff I've done over the last couple of months. Sadly, yes this is all I have done. Basically, I finished up Viktor Pendrake 01 Friday night....and of course the priest back in August.

So, meet the fellas. Two, yes TWO, Victor Pendrakes in there. The one in the foreground is a commission I'm working on....the model is commissioner's Ranger character which apparently is a sort of Aragorn meets Judge Dredd kinda thing...so I've kept his colors very dark and brooding along with weathering and fading the gold trim.

Viktor 2 belongs to Oscar and it would have been a lot further along now had it not been for the two weeks of rain we had making the humidity horrible. Four days for the primer to completely cure out.

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while my recognize the space marine. Yep, the Deathwatch guy I converted for GD 07 is finally back on the table. I have a method which I like and I am comfortable with for painting black armor. I did cheat though and used a molded Ultramarine shoulder pad instead of handpainting the chapter symbol on his right shoulder pad.

Next up, Psyker dude. Not much on him...I think I did a dark brown wash on his leathers.

And that leaves the fellow at the far right....Fabius Bile, former apothecary of the Emperor's Children. Another commission and it will allow me to get a trial run in before I work on my own Fabius Bile model...along with his 5 gene enhanced troops.

Some more pictures...

For years, I have used nail polish remover to strip my minis of various painting mistakes....and there are like 6 jars of minis from the last 15 years sitting in my mini-room. But today, a new era has begun as a friend told me of the wonder of Pinesol. Yes, I was very skeptical as I associate its uses with cleaning bathrooms and kitchens....however my initial test results have proven Pinesol superior to nail polish remover.

Not only did it remove the paint and primer...it removed the primer that I tried to strip off 9 years ago. Seriously, the mini looks almost brand new. All it took was three days soaking in some Pinesol, a firm bristled toothbrush (2 for a dollar at CVS), and a little effort. I am now in the process of stripping the old paint remnants from some of my older GW minis including the first Chaos Marine I ever purchased (the one with the heavy bolter from the early 90s).

If this goes well, I'm thinking Grimgor Ironhide is going in there next.

...[insert generic Mike lewd comment].

Painting once again...not back up to full speed but getting there.




Viktor Pendrake...he got a bit of a redo. I went with a more subdued greenish brown as opposed to just a green. The green I was using made his tunic look more like it was made of some sort of plastic rather than cloth. I have also been doing glazes of Khardun Flesh over his face to warm it up as the flesh went a little to desaturated.

Sanctioned Psyker...his greatcoat was painted with a mix of Vallejo Japanese Uniform and Vallejo British Uniform. His sash is Rackham Mutant Flesh. He's going to be a part of my Valhallan collection as he doesn't fit in with my Catachan guys or my Traitor Imperial Guard collection.

Whilst waiting on some technical stuff today, I was messing around with Maya, the Occlusion Render setting, and photoshop....
Basically, I did a top down occlusion render in Maya in the perspective mode....then basically painted and textured over the greyscale image. I've been toying with idea over the last couple of months...especially as I wanted to try my hand with some environment paint overs and such. But I think I'll keep working on these...actually kinda quick to do once you figure out all  your shortcuts and cheats in the various programs.