Sunday 10 May 2015

Bark! Grr! Woof!

I also considered naming this article Doggy Style, but I was concerned that it would bring in the wrong kind of traffic and would leave people disappointed...

My quest to complete my collection of Chaos Hounds has come to an end and they've all been painted and based now. You can find my post about the beginnings of the collection here.

Undead, Two-Head, Hound 3 and Hound 5 were a very thoughtful Valentines present from my girlfriend. It turns out that the way to a man's heart is via small metal soldiers. Who knew? The rest were sourced from the Oldhammer Trading Group so thank you to everyone who helped me out.

Overall I'm really happy with the final result and I'm looking forward to getting them onto the battlefield. In the meantime though they'll have to settle for prowling around my display cabinet.

"I have just met you and I love you!"

The first three are Scorpion Tail, Hound 2 and Two Heads - I hope it's clear which is which!

I decided to start mixing in some vivid colour schemes as twelve models of just 'dog' colours would be in danger of looking boring. Inspiration for this came from Rab's article 'Bad dogs!' - it really is true that just a simple change to the colour palette will give even quite normal looking creatures a very unnatural appearance. It also gave me a chance to dig out some paints that I hadn't used in a long time, if ever at all, and try them out.

Hound 2 is probably the least detailed model of all of them. There is no real definition on the legs or ribs and I was really worried about the model looking too 'flat'. I also missed a mould line on the front-most leg. Bah! Still, I'm happy with the choice of colours and some slightly rough highlighting gave the flat parts of the model a bit of texture.

I'm pretty happy with the other two though, Scorpion Tail could have done with having a brighter shade of green, but I think it works pretty well as is. Two Heads is actually split straight down the middle - I like the idea of two different dogs having been fused together.

"Oh I can Bark. Ruff! And here's howling. Awoooooo!"

As you can see, from the other side Two Heads is a nice silvery-grey colour, although he doesn't look quite that shiny in real life.

I'm also constantly amused that the left head looks like he's licking the right head's eyeball - and the right head looks incredibly grumpy about this!

"I am a great tracker, my pack sent me on a special mission all by myself."

Next up is Spines (my second one), Hound 3 and Hound 1. 

Spines II's rainbow colour scheme was practically pre-determined as soon as it was pointed out that he had exactly seven of his name-giving bony protrusions! The skin itself was painted in a fairly light, neutral colour so it wouldn't clash too much. I think it came out surprisingly well for what was originally a joke paint-job.

Hound 3 has excellent definition on the model making it really easy to paint. I went with some warm oranges to give him a look that was borderline unnatural but still different enough to be a bit unsettling.

Hound 1 got a similar treatment, although slightly more 'fleshy' as I wanted to accentuate his pig-like face. It's a super weird model with hooves instead of the traditional paws and I actually like him a lot. He's also got one of the most dynamic poses of all the models, rearing up on his hind legs.


"I was hiding under your porch because I love you."

The last group of three contains my second copy of Hound 3, Hound 4 and Undead. I've continued adding in unconventional colour schemes and I'm really happy with how they look.

My second Hound 3 is entirely green, which I think turned out pretty well. The sculpt takes colour and shading really well which meant that I felt comfortable experimenting with it as I couldn't really go wrong!

Hound 4 is probably my favourite, which I wasn't expecting before I started painting. It was the first one I did with an unnatural colour scheme and I'm pleased with the violet tones. I also like the sleek body and face with the protruding eyebrows a lot. The model looks very focused and exudes a lot of menace.

Undead  is a really cool model too, with entrails and his trachea trailing out he's definitely one of the most interesting to paint of all the Hounds. I tried to paint him in German Shepherd colours as both the tan and dark grey would contrast nicely with the open wounds.


"SQUIRREL!"

There's even more detail on the other side of the model with the skin ripped open on the back leg and a big wound on his side with ripped flesh hanging down.

The tail being completely stripped, with just bone remaining, is a nice touch too.

"Find the bird... find the bird... Point!"

Overall the set doesn't contain the most technically beautiful models, in particular the detailing on the paws is very soft and there is very little fur texture. However, this makes them quite quick and easy to paint and they do have a lot of character with even the non-mutated ones having some unusual features. Some of them, particularly Hounds 4 and 5, have some excellent movement to them too.

The next thing on the painting table is going to be a beast handler. I've got a Marauder Chaos Warrior almost done, but it's a bit chunky for my linking so I'm really keen to get hold of the Citadel ones too - especially the Chaos Dwarf. So if you have one kicking around and don't know what to do with it, let me know!

12 comments:

  1. These are brilliant....well done! I love these model, and your paint jobs. Out of the pack I really enjoy Two Heads, the green one, and the Spine 2's rainbow spikes are by far my favorite.

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    1. Thank you very much, those are definitely among my favourites too. :)

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  2. Great range of colours on these, the rainbow spikes work surprisingly well too

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    1. I'm just as surprised as you are to be honest. I started with the spines, but was half expecting him to be taking another Fairy Power Spray bath within the hour!

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  3. There's something about the beasts and the wonderful paint job you've given them that makes me think that the Pan Tang beast handler would be a very appropriate model...

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    1. I had to do a bit of googling to find out what those looked like and eventually found them here:

      http://magpieandoldlead.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-vile-pan-tang.html

      They look quite nice actually. Although that just means I have even more models to try and track down now!

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  4. Those are awesome, and i might just nick a couple of ideas for a few hounds that i bought some days ago. Congratulations!

    One question though: what do you use for flicking/basing, especially the grass tufts?

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    1. Hi Miguel, thank you very much. Send me a pic once yours are painted up. :)

      The static grass is GaleForce nine 'Green' and the tufts/flowers are Army Painter Jungle Tuft and Meadow Flowers. I was able to buy both of these from my local hobby store.

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  5. Those are lovely. The mix of colours works very well, its great to see more than a sea of greys or browns.

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    1. Thank you very much, I'm definitely going to experiment with more bright colours in the future, especially for fur and skin.

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  6. I never realised that there were so many of these hound's produced! I've got four of them, but I'm still undecided about the colour scheme. I think multicoloured is the way to go.

    Great job Peter :)

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    1. I'll look forward to seeing what you do with them. Which ones do you have? :)

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