27/11/2024

A dozen years

Who would have told. Twelve years ago, a day just like today, I started this adventure, this Old School Workshop. Twelve years in a row.

Wow. I know I've said it before, and that I repeat myself every time, but I wouldn't be able to do this everyday without your continuous support. Once again, thank you. Thanks for being out there, reading, commenting and supporting the blog. It means a lot!

What's been happening over here during the last twelve months? Let's recap!

I had the craziest of games, a mod of Formula D but with racing pods, in the Boonta Eve Race:

I managed to muster part of the crew of the bold Agreusa, Athenian trireme:

I closed December with the scratchbuilt airship, the Laika:

I started January 2024 bringing the old Dark World Manticore back to life:

Oh, and enjoyed quite a lot coming back to my realscale Carcharodons with these slightly converted marines, making the old school vibe look new, and with the addition of this monstrous Rhino:

I kept on recovering old minis, and so I repainted this Ork cyboar rider:


And then these ancient Space Crusade Androids!

I also finished the Infinity project (well, "finished", ahem, you know)

Year of bringing old stuff back on duty! I put some work on this (only relatively old) Orc Warboss on Wyvern for a friend:

I also got the long forgotten pleasure of drawing during a few days off with the family, which was a much appreciated thing to do:

Again, making old school vibe back to modern times, I went full Red Era with a twist:

 When the date came, I posted this quite particular take on St George and the Dragon:

I was really in need of updating my old Epic Titans, and I took the opportunity to build a few more:

 When I thoght I was done with AvP, it happens that I still had some unfinished bussiness!

 Mwahahaha, no one expects the ancient Khorne Blood Slaughterer!

In this year of nostalgia, I tried not to get myself lost inside the Labyrinth... 

I felt comfortable (or fool) enough to try a second chance with Epic, even making this conversion to build a Banelord:

My Orksies got even more mobile reinforcements, as I added all these bikes to my Waaagh! army force bunch of pals:

Oh, when you thought I had more or less a coherence in the stuff I was painting this year... this happened. Make mine Marvel! Both heroes, villains and stuff:

The last part of the year has been essentially devoted to the Qala Debdou board, which has consumed quite an amount of time and effort, but has also left some rewarding experiences. I recklessly put some lights on (or in?) the board, I hollowed a space for a bazaar, also built a thematic and ethnic entrance, ended the main hulk of the board and finally cared about the details that bring a board to life. I still may put some additional work to change some stuff, but this first module of the board is essentially finished.

Oh, and after such an endeavour, I felt the need of doing something much more sizeable and reasonable, which was the Eldar Farseer:

 

This is all my work from the last twelve months! You may rightfully observe that I apparently have done no work since the Eldar, and that was almost a couple of weeks ago. Oh, fear nothing, I'm already working on new stuff. So buckle up, counter is set on zero again and there we go! Ready for the lucky thirteenth year!

I know that everyone uses to do this kind of recap posts by the end of the year, instead of on the blog anniversary, but I find it a nice way to remember the date, kind of a birthday party. I may move it to the end of year next time, I'm not sure. The only think I know for certain is that I still fancy painting little people and that I'll love to share my stuff with all of you up there. Thanks again for showing up, for commenting and for your own blogs, which, trust me, are a constant source of inspiration and encouragement.

Let's keep on!!

16/11/2024

Interlude: Eldar Farseer

 After finishing the Qala Debdou project (Well, "finishing", you know... "finishing this stage of the Qala Debdou project". Or maybe "finishing the core stages of this stage of the project") I needed something really simple. Call it a palette cleanser, call it whatever. The simple pleasure of taking a single mini and painting it, from the beginning to the end. Start a project and closing it. So this was the perfect choice.

I had this Eldar Farseer for some quite long ago. It's the modern Eldrad Ulthran model, but I don't really have any plans of starting an Ulthwé army. However, I have this Biel Tan warrior, as white/green is a scheme I find pleasing, so I decided to go the same way with this one. Please let me introduce you Ellinderelion, Farseer of Biel Tan.

I made no conversion at all but just cutting the rear crest out. It was a little too much for me, and I think I've saved the poor guy a lot of neck pains.

What do you mean "over the top"?

I couldn't just paint it plain white and green. This is undoubtly a singular character, and needed a little more ornament. I mean, it makes no sense to have such a mini with all those details and then painting the robes with plain colours. Not that I'm capable of doing complicated freehands, of course (besides, this was to have a relaxing experience!), so I made simple paterns with grey over white and white over green. Simple, but it adds something to the general impression.

Yes, of course I could have painted way more stuff there. I could, but I couldn't at the same time

Of course I couldn't paint any metal on the mini, not even the bracelets, as it's all wraithbone. Maybe some golden colour would have looked nice (aesthetically speaking, just in chromatic terms), but it wouldn't have made sense. I tried to make a difference between white and bone, I hope it works.

As you can see I kept both the sword and the staff in bone colour. I didn't want the model to be a colour splash; less is more and keeping it sober was a conscious decision. A decision I immediately broke painting all those sprit stones! I didn't want to paint them all red, so I chose this RGB pattern. It adds some variety, I believe, and it still makes the model look decent, I hope.

Here you have my whole Eldar force:

Can this be the beginning of a Kill Team?

I definitely have no plans of starting an Eldar army or whatever, but I enjoy these models, so I'm happy with these as they are. I don't see myself purchasing Guardians or anything else in the immediate future, so I'll just enjoy these.

This is it for today! I have another new project on the bench, but it still will take some time. I'll bring something however soon!

Cheers!