+ inload: Post-Sanguinalia hobby +

+ New year and a reboot of the Visualiser Engine +

+ Reboot from start +

The appearance of a new Rubricist/autoscribe miniature (see below) seemed like a good excuse to look again at the visual side of the blog, so today you can see an example of what I'm thinking of rolling out.


Hopefully it's familiar enough that any long time Rubricists will know where things are, but a bit easier on the eyes. I've also restricted the old font (twelve years of which has made me inordinately fond) to the headings and bits of particular emphasis:

+ Like this +

... in order that the overall experience is a bit easier on the ol' occulobes. Happy to hear any thoughts or objections – otherwise, on with the show!

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+ Work progresses on my Legio Metalica maniple for Beachhead. Just a month to go, and plenty to paint – yikes! +

Perhaps fittingly for raising God-Engines, it's proving quite the logistical task, as I've opted to part-build them, leaving sub-assemblies for painting. This is further complicated by the need to unpack and sort at the start of every session, and tidy everything away after each session, all of which eats into the available time. None of this is conducive to getting good pict-captures!

However, the good news is that the substructure of each Titan is now assembled and his its base coats applied – as in the example of Old Three Skulls above. I've used various dark metal mixes, broadly a combination of Black Legion Contrast, Leadbelcher, Burnt Sienna and silver calligraphy ink, which gives a nice muted old metal. Over this I've applied a variegated wash of Seraphim Sepia and Druchiii Violet (i.e. I add spots of each colour, and allow them to mix into each other on the surface, without intentionally mixing them too much).

The red is a coat of Mephiston Red over Colour Forge's Sanguine Red. While the spray coats well, a thin layer of paint applied with the brush helps to enrich the colour a bit. I want to keep it fairly vibrant, as I'm planning to apply some oil washes, which will mute things a bit.

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+ Lovely gifts +

Blessed fellow that I am, I was very pleased to get a Reaver for Christmas – already assembled, as part of the Iron Skulls above – and these chaps, too:

Regular inloaders may well remember the Throng of Nog, and the new plastic releases for classic dawi are right up my street. Delighted with this kit, which sums up everything I like about dwarfs. I couldn't resist a little conversion work; namely trimming down the headdresses so that the underlying structure of the crown/helms are a bit more apparent for this cyng/thegn.

The bearers are lovely little figures in themselves, with lots of cool details like a the hold's Book of Grudges (visible here on the bearer on the left), and a beer tankard.

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...and unrelated to anything except my love of cool sci-fi miniatures, I couldn't resist picking up these two, from the recent Inquisition set for Kill Team.

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inload: Painting the Partisans III – Red Fish

 + Sword, Plough, Trowel, Quill! +

+ Happy new year, all – and welcome back to another year of Death of a Rubricist. We'll kick off 2025 with some painted figures, my own contribution to the Hidden Armies challenge event (of which, more soon). +

+ Sporting one of my favourite colour schemes in the War of the False Primarch project, and bafflingly underrepresented (in my view), are the Red Fish, a partisan Chapter that are the creation of @eatdrinkdeath. +

+ The Hidden Armies challenge event, which finished just before Christmas, seemed perfectly fitting to give them a go – though in all honesty, I’ve been working up the courage to tackle them since pretty much the start of +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+ got started, as there are so many neat little concepts folded into them that I wanted to include. +

+ The scheme itself is quite tricky to start – it’s based on the sockeye salmon, which becomes a vivid red. I’m not sure I’ve quite got the hue right, but I’m pleased with the pinky-maroon result. It’s a mix of Screamer Pink and Vallejo Black Red (Gal Vorbak red is a good alternative), highlighted up with the addition of Army Painter Mummy Robes (Bleached bone or the equivalent would also work). Over the top of this, I added glazes of Bloodletter Red, one of the old (and vanishing) Citadel glazes. +

+ Company colours are shown by a band on the right arm – a very cool concept that I’ve not seen anywhere else. @eatdrinkdeath’s example marines belonged to the sixth company, which had a yellow band. I followed suit initially, then changed my mind – I thought one-off models like this were a good opportunity to illustrate a different company. +

+ I opted for turquoise (Sotek Green, I think), as the Chapter has some Native American/First Nation themes threaded through, and I thought it’d work well with the rich red. Plus turquoise is a favourite of mine – and I never need much of an excuse to include it.+

+ The chapter icon is a lantern-jawed salmonid – the Red Fish of the Chapter's homeworld. The red circle is easy to lose on the deeper red field, so I added a little visual flourish of turquoise beads/dots – perhaps a personal honorific, or some form of squad marking. You'll spot similar dots and zigzags on the pouches and holsters of the two marines, which also look a bit like coarse Wild West-style leatherwork. +

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+ The addition of the gyrinx served two purposes – firstly, a nod to the Chapter creator's pet cats, and secondly a chance to say something more about the the Chapter, visually. The Red Fish are deeply embedded with the Delphurnean League, their pocket empire (and really more of a commonwealth), and so I wanted to have something that made this more of an action shot. The brief, after all, was for a diorama, so I liked the conceit of the Red Fish working hand-in-glove with the wildlife of their region. +

+ A few extra shots for your (hopeful) enjoyment +