Meet up – Element Games

November 4, 2019 DebbieForster3 Comments

This weekend, myself, Dave and Jenn went to meet some of the Warmongers at Element Games. It was really nice to put some faces to internet names and actaully speak to the people I have known for nearly three years face to face. There were also games going on, and it was good to see other people’s miniatures as well. I did manage to take some pictures of people and the games, so here we go:

Of course, it wouldn’t have been half as much fun without the people to chat and laugh with.

Thanks for a great day folks!

miniatures. · painting

Teaching Painting!?

July 23, 2019July 22, 2019 DebbieForsterLeave a comment

Last week, I met with my good friend Rhiannon (https://rhiapaintsminis.blogspot.com) with the intention of showing her how I do non metallic metals and layering. I was a bit unsure about doing so, as I have only just acquired the technique myself and it is by no means perfected. Still, I had the rough idea of what to do and there is no harm in showing someone what you know. We could learn together after all.

So, I started with the layering principles: Using very thin layers, blending back and forth until there are no seams in the colours and being patient with it. Also, not worrying if it goes a bit wrong because you can add more layers to correct it.

I always keep some old Chaos Space Marines around for testing things on, so I took a couple with me and we got to work on layering.

We used the same iniatures for Non metallic metals as well. Explaining that knowing how light behaves and where it hits is key was easy enough, and then we talked about using a picture for reference – Pinterest is everyone’s friend I think when it comes to learning techniques and finding pictures. Why not use expert pictures as a reference for your own? We also talked about starting with dark shades and working up.

It was just a case of trying it out and seeing what happened, keeping the brush strokes in the same direction and practice!

Here are the results:

The above two are my efforts

Rhiannon NMM

This one is Rhiannon’s. All in all, I think we did very well considering that neither of us are ‘experts’. It is a case of refining what we tried out today and just keeping at it!

figures · miniatures. · Wh40K

Hull GT and an Army Showcase!

July 22, 2019July 22, 2019 DebbieForster2 Comments

On Saturday, I went along to help out at the Hull Grand Tournament. Mostly, my role was to watch out for people who wanted drinks and snacks from behind the counter. However, I was also asked to have a look around and pick out six people’s armies that I thought had been really well painted. They would be short listed to go into the final ‘best painted’ contest, which would be judged by all the players. This was a very difficult thing to do as I know everyone put in a lot of effort into making their miniatures look great. I did go around and take pictures of as many people’s miniatures as I could and here they are (there are a lot of them!):

This yellow delight was painted by Gary at http://www.the-vanus-temple.com/ His army ended up being voted the ‘Best in Show’, which is very fair. Go and have a look, his work is amazing!

I couldn’t vote for this shiny blue army, as I painted it!

This last picture is 1800 points work of Space Marines in one tower. We named it the Power Tower!!

I had a really great day while I was at the GT. I didn’t play, but I did get most of a Night Lord painted and enjoyed the atmosphere and speaking with the players as well. Seeing everyone’s army was also really cool and I was sad I couldn’t vote for more people!

Maybe next time!

miniatures.

Miniature Swap: Results and Deadlines!

July 1, 2019 DebbieForster3 Comments

I drew the miniature swap on stream this evening. Here is the results showing who is painting for who and what should be painted:

New Canvas

So, I am Heretic Deb, I would like a Black Legion miniature, I will paint something for Vidpui, who has no preference.

I expect everyone to be able to sort themselves out when it comes to speaking to one another about what they actually want.

Remember: The spend amount I suggested was £20, though you are more than welcome to exceed the budget if you want to.

Deadline: September. I’m not putting a hard and fast date, but the end of September gives you three months to paint the miniature, which should be plenty of time.

Pictures: It would be amazing if at the end of September, I can do a post of pictures showcasing the miniatures we have all painted. Of course, this is not compulsary but any pictures I get, I will show off to the world.

Have fun!!

IMG_2118 (2)

40K · Age of Sigmar · miniatures.

Miniature Swap – Details and Information

June 24, 2019June 24, 2019 DebbieForsterLeave a comment

I put a poll up on twitter about a miniature swap, which has been recieved with positive vibes. So, I thought I would write a blog post about how it is going to work and what the ‘rules’ are. Here we go:

1) You have to be on twitter – this is open to twitter people only as it will make is far easier for me to manage, rather than me having to check multiple social media platforms.

2) In order to sign up, you need to message me to say you want in and what army you would like a miniature for. EG: Heretic Deb – Black Legion. This will allow me to create a list of who wants what.

3) Miniatures – There is a recommended spend of £20. You can go over this if you wish to do so, this is mean to be a guide so people don’t go crazy!

The miniatures are to be a single character for the person’s army. It can be bought, converted or kitbashed from whatever you have at home. This way, no one is going to end up painting a Reaver Titan and getting a tactical marine in return… For example. The one I did over Christmas for the local games club was for a Space Wolf player. I painted him Krom, who I bought. I recieved a kitbashed Thousand Son Sorcerer who was made from a Storm Cast and several other bits.

I don’t want to limit this to just Games Workshop either, any system goes, so long as it is no more than £20

4) Deadline – to be arranged after I have recieved entries and arranged them.

5) Who paints for who – This will be done at random. I will put each name into a ‘hat’ and work down a list. The only redraws will be if someone gets their own name.

6) Postage of miniatures – We all live miles from one another, so postage should be covered by the person posting the miniatures.

7) Location – This time around, I will only be taking people who are in the UK – this is to keep postage costs the same for everyone and to keep it fair.

8) Discussion – I expect you to talk to one another about what you’re going to paint so there are no duplicates – most of us follow each other by now so this shouldn’t be too difficult!

9) – Have fun?

40K · miniatures.

Mephiston

June 23, 2019 DebbieForster2 Comments

This isn’t going to be a massively long update today, but I wanted to share Mephiston with everyone. I finished him yesterday, and he is going to be a present for a friend’s birthday. She has already seen him so I have no worry about it being spoiled. Anyway. although he was finecast, and I did have to do a fair bit of cleaning up, he was a lot of fun to work on and different to the usual heretics I paint.

Here he is, in all his red glory!

In other news, Stormcast Eternals are not so bad to paint…

40K · figures · fine detail · hobby · horus heresy · miniatures. · painting · Warhammer 40000 · Warhammer 40k

Sevatar.

May 23, 2019May 23, 2019 DebbieForsterLeave a comment

Finally, I am able to post my thoughts and comments on painting this amazing miniature. You all get to find out who won and which mini belonged to who.

First off, congratulations to Office, who was entry A. He was judged the winner.

I’m going to post the pictures of my efforts again as a reminder and then talk about what I learned:

This is the first time I have done layered blending like this. I used a lot of thin, very thin, coats of paint to gradually build up the lighting on the ceramite. You can see it in the bottom picture clearly on his leg and shoulder. This counted on me knowing where the light hit the armour and was a challenge for me to make consistent over the entire mini. There are spaces where I could have been more consistent with it, but now I know how to do this, I can refine the technique when painting other miniatures to a higher standard.

I am exceptionally pleased with the lightning, I think that looks neat. The metallic bronze of his armour trim worked well too, though I am not convinced the game colour paints are as good as I first thought. I’m going to try a few others out and see if they are better.

The base of the miniature looks dark, which is something the judges have indicated to me in their feedback. I agree with them. The colours blend together and the detail is lost in this case. If I were to do this again, I would change the steps from silver to dirty bronze and maybe change the pipe colours as well.

This does not mean I am displeased with the result. This is by far the best miniature I have ever painted – that includes the multitude of Ahriman/Ahrimen and I’ve learned a great deal as well. It was a massively positive experience and I would do do again.

Sevatar is now going to go and cause some trouble in the cabinet with the Ultramarines along with a couple of his Night Lord buddies that I have also painted up.

This leaves me with one question. Office, Game for a rematch?

40K · Age of Sigmar · miniatures.

Where to find me!

May 17, 2019May 17, 2019 DebbieForsterLeave a comment

This site is not the only place I use for social media. I have recently refreshed my facebook page as well so I thought it a good idea, maybe for my own sanity, to put the places I am for ease. Here we go:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Heretic_Deb

Facebook: fb.me/heretic.deb1

Twitch: twitch.tv/heretic_deb

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heretic_deb/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Heretic_Deb

Tumblr: https://heretic-deb.tumblr.com/

These are the active ones, and most of them are linked to this blog anyway. I think if I have any more social media sites, I’ll just spend all my time updating it rather than actually doing things.

I’m going to put this image here, as posts without pictures are dull:

Have some Ahriman!

In other news, my new lightbox should arrive just in time to take pictures of Sevatar – win!

40K · Age of Sigmar · hobby · horus heresy · miniatures.

Games Day!

May 12, 2019 DebbieForster3 Comments

Today, I went to Games Day. I did not enter the Golden Daemon contest as my diorama would not have been finished in time – the competition was exceptional and there were some amazing miniatures on display. It was good to see them.

There was a lot to see and get involved ith that it is difficult to know where to begin. I’ll try and keep this focused… Contrast paints. These have the ability to revolutionize the painting aspect of the hobby. They allow anyone to create decently painted miniatures in next to no time at all. After applying a special smooth undercoat, these paints are quite literally slapped onto a miniature and the rest of the work is done. I managed to paint two Brimstone Horrors in under 2 minutes.

All these miniatures were painted using Contrast paints. There will be lots of experimentation going on in the future that much is certain. It will cater to those who do not like painting!

I did a speed paint! In twenty minutes I painted a Storm Cast to what I think was a good standard. I challenged Caitlyn, who spent a good deal of it screaming! Meet Erik:

There was a lot of people dressed in cosplay as well, the costumes were amazing. I took several pictures, got shot by a Kreiger and watched as another friend was captured and slaughtered for heresy!

My favourite part of these events is chatting to the design teams. I got to meet the people who created my personal favourites: Ahriman and Abaddon, and enthused with them. I saw concept sketches and had in depths conversations about how they work and design the models we all love so well. I then got chatting to one of the artists about the Dark Angels Legion. The artwork was spectacular, however the chat about how the legion is differently organised was also interesting.

They have different heraldry depending on who they are. Their squads can be compromised of multiple marines from different specialities and it is a lot more fluid than any other Legion. In the same squad, there might be different individuals who have fought in different areas – the squads are not fixed. So, there might be a guy who fought against orks, a guy who fought genestealers, a seige specialist etc, and each of them will have different runes, while they all share squad, chapter heraldry as well. I think this makes each miniature in a squad an individual rather than a batch painted one and that is awesome!

Finally, there are some shots of the Chaos Knights. Beautiful miniatures they are indeed. They did have a copy of the codex, but it was behind glass and locked – no-one was allowed to look at it, not even the staff!

What an amazing day it was! Exhausting, but a lot of fun! I am sure there will be more posts about this in the near future as I remember things, but for now, this is all I have.

40K · hobby · Uncategorized

Hobby Update!

May 6, 2019 DebbieForsterLeave a comment

I have been out of teaching for a few weeks now and after the initial amazement of having visitors and catching up with my sleep, I have begun to turn my thoughts to what I am going to do next.

It’s not an easy thing, my focus was teaching for at least seven years and had always floated in the back of my mind. I’ve been in some sort of limbo, which has been strange. Fortunately, I have the support and encouragement of good friends around me who have helped keep my head clear.

What I truly want to do, is commission paint miniatures. I have a few avenues to explore to make this happen and I am in the process of doing so. One of them is streaming on Twitch. I plan to make this happen a few times a week after the success of the Paint-a-thon. Other plans will be announced when there are more solid details to announce.

If you are interested in commmissioning me, here is the link. Feel free to get in touch.

https://blackhandmarines.com/commissions/

Other hobby news:

The diorama is not going to get finished in time, to the standard I want it to be done, before Golden Demon on Sunday. I have decided to keep working on it but it won’t be entered this time around. I will not be participating this time, however I will enter it into the next contest, should I be able to do so.

And so, my next major task is Sevatar. I have great plans for him, great ones indeed. No spoilers, this contest is all hush. I don’t want to give away any advantage after all – this is a high pressure contest.

I have a warp smith to paint for someone who won it a month or so ago.

I have also been asked to paint the Master of Possession in the Black Legion colours.

There is no shortage of tasks to keep me going, I just hope that everything I want works out. It won’t be for lack of trying, that much is certain.