It has literally been years since I last did a Warhammer 40k vehicle at a showcase painting level. But now I want to take on the challenge again: two weeks ago I bought the new Imperial Valkyrie.

Today I finished the assembly, which was quite straightforward. Everything fits very well and most parts are really big and easy to handle. GW did make one mistake however: if you're looking for the small bits that go underneath the wings (above side doors): don't waste your time, there not on the sprues.

I left some parts off to make painting easier: the canopy (of course), the crew members' bodies, the landing gear and the armaments underneath the wings.

I already have a paint scheme in mind... it's going to be quite simple because painting this vehicle in just one color is going to take up really much time. I plan on using more Vallejo Pigments and use some techniques from classic military modeling.

If you're interested in all the latest news on the Valkyrie: follow me on Twitter. You can also see the latest Twitter updates in the sidebar on this very blog.

In my last post I told you about two new products from Vallejo: washes and pigments.

I was very curious about the pigments especially, but at the same time I was aware that they would require a lot of practice to get used to. There are also plenty of options to use them: dry, mixed with water, with other paints and mediums ...

So it was time for some experimenting. My victim was an Assault on Black Reach Terminator which I got free with a White Dwarf half a year ago or so.

First part of my experiment was the paint scheme I had in mind for some time. It involved an off-white (platinum) shaded with a reddish brown and highlighted with white. The base features some Army Painter barbed wire.

When all the basic painting was done it was time to apply the pigments. I applied them dry and at first I only wanted to put some on the legs, but it looked so good I brushed a light coat all over the Terminator. I also put a lot of the stuff on the base, and this creates a really realistic look in my opinion.

Although the painting isn't top-notch I'm happy about the final results.

There are a lot of pictures of painted Valkyries out there, but only a few of them of showcase quality.

Recently I found those two links:

First of all a step by step guide on painting the Valkyrie with the help of some oil paints: http://akaranseth.over-blog.com/pages/Step_by_Step__Valkyrie_Imperial_Guard-1335315.html

The second link are some high quality photos of a finished Valkyrie which I really liked: http://forums.ttgamers.com/forums/yaf_postst1370_Finished-Valkyrie.aspx

Vallejo recently released two new products: washes and pigments.

The washes are obviously to compete with Games Workshop's latest line of washes. But where GW has a complete range of colors, Vallejo only has 2 so far: black and a sepia tone. There is a rumour that a third color will be added: a beige-brown.


Their other new product is a complete line of pigments, similar to MiG pigments, which is very popular among military modellers. But the Vallejo variant is cheaper and holds a third more powder than the MiG jars. I decided to pick up a red-brown tone to test it out on a base.


I'm currently working on a Space Marine Terminator and decided to use these new products on it. I will post a WIP picture very soon.

Last month a painting competition was held at my local game store which involved painting a promotional Warlord Games Roman. I missed the competition, but there were some miniatures left so the storekeeper challenged me to paint this one because he knows I'm not involved in historical wargaming. It was fun to paint this figure, but painting up a batch of these to play a historical wargame: no thanks :)
I think these new miniatures are of very high quality. And they're very cheap when compared to Games Workshop's plastics They're multi part with several options such as the weapon and the pose of the arms.
Anyway I hope you like the paintjob!

After a 5 month hiatus this feature is back. I'm going to try to catch up with all the great entries I've missed since my last my last CMON Favorites post. Actually I haven't been on CMON ever since, so I'll have to do a lot of catching up. To make things easier I only browsed images with scores between 9 and 10.

• Leonardo DiMiragliano - The Great Wyrdstone Collector... Part I of IV by Matt Cexwish - a diorama like you've never seen before. I wonder if there really will be 3 other parts.
• Anima Tactics Kujaku Hime by Bren - Brenda Gosman's winning entry from last year's Crisis, as seen in my picture report.
• Sentinel by automaton - very nice weathering effects, along the lines of Ben Komets.
• Urban Warfare by jarhead - an Infinity miniature and some basic scenery is used to create a very apocalyptic atmosphere.
• Krieg HQ Squad by Kaple - at first I thought the color scheme was a bit odd (because I expected the Krieg to be grayish) but the painting and the subtle weathering on them is actually really well done.
• Limited Edition Sorceress by mrika - a nice color transition on the robe and super-fine details make this figure a winner.
• Psycho! by Bren - Another entry by Brenda.
  

On Saturday 21 March Mini Art Con 2009 was held in the town of Reken, Germany. For me drive took about two and half hours but it was pleasant because of the sunny weather. The location was easy to find and there was plenty of parking space nearby. The building itself was similar to last year's edition: a large hall with a stage.

Once inside I was immediately plunged into the familiar and friendly atmosphere of the event. Not too small to be boring, not too big to be a mega-event. A good mix of exhibitors and traders offered a lot of interesting stuff to see. I immediately sought out my countryman Guy Botteldoorn who was displaying some of his miniatures on a table which he shared with Stefanie Arndt. A lot of my other painting friends were there too, and like most events I spent a lot of time chatting with Michael Holzapfel. And after seeing her on last years event and also at Crisis 2008, I finally took the time to have a chat with Brenda Gosman, who also had her own display stand.

For me, the highlight among all the exhibitors was Ben Komets. I'm a real fan of his work and I was very delighted to see the Poland Slayer Sword winning piece in his display cabinet, as well as the German Slayer Sword entry.

The painting competition had less entries than last year, but the level was again very high. The best of show award went to Brenda Gosman for her Cordelia, after winning several other prizes for the rest of her entries. I also managed to finish a piece in time: an Infinity figure. I didn't really have the time to put a lot of effort into the figure, so it didn't win anything, as expected. But I really wanted to enter something because competing is more important than winning, isn't it? :) If I find the time to take pictures of this figure I will surely post it here.

With this post I'm also happy to announce I finally have a gallery set up! It is hosted at Michael Holzapfel's darklined.com website. It's still empty apart from the Mini Art Con 2009 pictures, but I hope this will change in the near future. Expect my painted miniatures to get a place there, as well as more pictures from past events.

So check out the Mini Art Con 2009 pictures here. See you next year ;)