Crossbowman number 4

All right: my fourth crossbowman, again a 'refreshed' painting of something I committed last year. To tell the truth, I'm a little bit tired of leather armours. So next time, I should be back with chainmails!

Games Day 2012: A new hope

As usual, I went to the french Games Day with my pal Haekel, and, as usual, I'm a little bit disappointed by the event: with so many people and such a poor lighting, it's always difficult to fully appreciate the work of painting and sculpting on the entries. And for us, dawi lovers, it was even worse, since I haven't seen any entry with a beard. Fortunately, Edgar Skomorowski was kind enough to allow me shooting very closely the last models he did for Forge World: three magnificent dwarves that should be on sale in December, which is really good news, since I haven't been expecting anything valuable from Games Workshop for dwarves for a decade.
And finally, the standard bearer with his two fellows:

Edgar, you did an excellent job! I hope other dwarves will follow soon.

I amost forgot: the Slayer Sword was won by Bruno Lavallee, with an Empire griffin. Excellent work (as usual with him):

As you can see, the Warhammer Monster category was very disputed, since the Silver Demon was won by a very talented painter, Jérôme Otremba, with his splendid ork warboss.

Sigh: it's always difficult to find motivation when you know that you can meet one of these guys in your category... I'll see if I can do something with Edgar's dwarves next year!

EDIT on October 30th: OK, the pictures of Edgar's work seem to arouse some interest. Here are two close-up of his standard-bearer (a little blurry, but it's all I've got!)

Crossbowman number 3

My third quareller is a model from the Marauder Miniatures range. I couldn't find a solution to get a proper beard. Never mind, I will hide him behind his quareller fellows... As you can see below, I had already painted his two brothers (for a Golden Demon two years ago): the first one crushes skulls with his hammer, the second one deafens his opponents with his big horn (for more pictures, see the gallery on Haekel & Jaeckel's website). Now, the whole family is ready for war... but not for the same battle (damned bases!)

Crossbowman number 2

Incredible! Two dwarves in less than one week. To be honest, this one is the result of a simple 'refreshing' of the painting I did last year. I've tried to improve the light and shadows on the helmet and on the leather armour, and of course, I've changed the base.
More 'refreshed' dwarves should follow quickly.

Beer again

 This month's theme for the Bugman's Brewery painting challenge is... Beer.

I've decided to restart from zero a crossbowman I had painted last year in my last attempt to make a full unit. I had to work (rather) quickly, and I wasn't totally convinced by the result, which lacked of contrast (my usual flaw).

So, new year, new try.

As you can see, the colours haven't changed a lot. I've tried to deepen the shadows with Dark blue, black and Devlan Mud and to reden the face with thin washes of Arcavia Red (a Rackham Color).
Again, the helmet was the most difficult part of the miniature, and I've tried to go from almost pure black (actually a mix of Chaos Black, Dark Sea Blue and Mahogany Brown) to pure white...


Finally, since a friend of mine noticed that a 'desert' base was not very appropriate with such a heavy leather armour, I've opted for a standard 'stone and moss' base. The moss part is not very convincing: I'll try to improve that on the next crossbowman!

Jaeckel France's Dwarf Army

Although I've been collecting Citadel miniatures for over twenty years, I've never been able to paint a whole army. The first and most obvious reason is that I'm a really, really slow painter. And the second one is that I'm not a Warhammer player, and my motivation languishes after a few weeks, a few months at best.
But the brainwashing operated by the White Dwarf magazine still works: even so many years after their publication, when I go through the pages where Mike McVey explained the making of his wood elves army, or Andy Chambers showed his skaven horde, the same old reflex comes again and again: "Hey, what if I painted an army?"
 
For the admirers of the Dwarf people, two issues were particularly inspiring (and still are): in March and December, 1991, Wayne England exposed his incredible Imperial Dwarf army, painted with some basic but efficient principles: simple colour schemes, grey beards on a black undercoat and a nice selection of Citadel and Marauder Miniatures models. The result was impressive, and I think it made me buy all the blisters I could find including a model painted by Mr. England.

So, twenty years after Wayne England's Dwarf Army, it's time for me to build my own force! 2012 will be the year of Jaeckel France's Dwarf army...
All right all right, probably 2013 and 2014 too :o)

Look at these beauties...