With 2018 at an end, here’s a look at some of my favourite hobby projects in the last year and what they taught me.

Star Drake

I’d been meaning to get a large, centrepiece for my Stormcast Eternals for some time. The Star Drake was a present to myself for finishing the first draft of my latest novel. The red matches the other dracoths in the army but I also went for a white belly to add some contrast. I rarely plan painting, instead I just do what seems interesting at the time. I’m pleased with the overall result. Edge highlighting each scale through lighter red into orange was a lesson in patience, but the main learning was not to glue the wings on before painting if I get any more.

You can find a tutorial for the rider’s aged bronze armour here.

Imperial Knights

Big was definitely a theme this year. My Imperial Knights were bolstered by 2 Armiger Warglaives, a Knight Warden and Knight Castellan. Instead of using transfers on my knights, I tend towards using the space for some freehand. The rest of my knights follow an elemental theme (Thunderclad and Fireclad) so the lightning-themes Castellan became Ionclad while the Warden became Tidalclad.

Here’s my earlier tutorial on painting lightning effects.

Salamanders

My Horus Heresy (mostly) Salamanders project finished last year. I used these to practice blending and non-metallic metal effects, mostly on the green of the armour. That went quite well. Even if the blends aren’t flawless, and the lighting could be better, I can get there much faster having painted a whole army that way. Having finished the project, most of these are on their way to eBay/trading pages to make space for the next project.

Tutorials are available for the armour, metals/weapons, and skin/plasma glow/basing.

A few honourable mentions are for the Sacrosanct Chamber of Stormcast Eternals which have given me some practice painting white cloth, the new Nighthaunt for more blending and contrast work.

The next project is a Primaris force of Dark Angels which will be turning up in a future blog. Feel free to leave a comment with any questions. I’m interested to read what you’ve been working on (link away).