A new year, and some new hobby.

Happy New Year everyone! We hope you've all had a great Christmas and New Year and that Santa brought you all the hobby goodies that you wanted. I finally got my hands on the new 'Eavy Metal Brush set, and they were put to good use almost immediately (I had to watch The Snowman first - it's a tradition...). The tin they come in is pretty cool too - now my brushes don't disappear into the realm of mists and shadows beneath my desk every time I put them down. So with the advent of a new year, we thought it would be a good day to show off some of the holiday hobby that we've had sent in to our inbox. First up, we'll take a trip to the nightmarish universe of the 41st Millennium.

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  Byron Orde took a quick break from painting Ogres to get a few Necrons done. He recently got his hands on the 'Eavy Metal Masterclass book, and after wiping the drool from his chin (his words, not mine) he finally stopped looking at the pretty pictures and read some of the articles. One of the first techniques he tried out was using a triad of colours from the colour wheel. As you can see form the Monolith in the next picture, he was working with blue armour, red(ish) rust/weathering/bases and yellow(ish again) glowing effects.

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  Initially the yellow started life as Scorpion Green and just kept getting lighter, with Byron adding much more yellow than he normally would to highlight it. Sadly, Byron was so unhappy with his colour scheme halfway through painting that he nearly scrapped the idea and resprayed them. But, seeing as these were unwavering Necrons, he gingerly persevered and added the weathering to the models, surprising himself with how well they turned out. We never doubted they would look awesome, Byron!

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  We then found these stunning Crimson Fists in our inbox painted by Justin Boulanger. We loved the intricate little details on this unit of Sternguard Veterans, from the chips in the armour to the funky cork bases that they stand on.

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  The unit is made using parts from several kits. The guns and bodies come from several of the Sternguard Marines, parts from the Tactical Squad kit, some Blood Angels heads and even the shoulder pads from the Crimson Fists. Just goes to show how versatile the Space Marine kits are.

We were also rather excited when we got sent this email by Giuseppe Chiafele, who has been working on a Bretonnian army. Suffice to say, I crammed every picture I possibly could into the blog post because they are truly beautiful miniatures. Here's what Giuseppe has to say about them:

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  Giuseppe: Bretonnia, land of knights and ladies, oppressed peasants and spoilt young nobles. Nothing says warfare quite like the thunderous charge of heavily armoured knights with huge lances and commoners armed with longbows - what a glorious way to go to war.

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  An army of Bretonnia is a fantastic modeling and painting opportunity for those who are not afraid to confront a myriad of colours and heraldic symbols. I chose to paint every rider differently to reflect their personal heraldries.

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  At first it seemed like an almost impossible task, and I had to carefully plan out all the colour combinations for each knight without repeating them or using inappropriate colours (brown isn't a very noble colour).

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  I imagine that the further up in knightly rank you get (ie: Knight Errant to Knight of the Realm to Questing Knight to Grail Knight), the more ornate and over-the-top their armour, heraldry and equipment become.

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  I actually started with the lowest rank of knights first - the Knights Errant. I imagined them as the younger sons of members of other regiments, which is why I've not given them any heraldic symbols as they are not yet landholders. For the Knights of the Realm I adopted a two-tone scheme split in half down the middle of the model.

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  The Grail Knights are my most recent unit - a regiment of heroic knights that have finally met the Lady of the Lake and drunk from her chalice - they are now heroes of Bretonnia. The horses were all taken from the Green Knight model and they were painted with an intricate combination of colours and details to represent their noble status.

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And to round off the day, here's something to sink your teeth into. Don't have nightmares now...