Sproket's Small World Blog
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A blog about miniature painting by David Soper. David is a retired Graphic Designer and Illustrator who is now a full time hobbyist.
Sproket's Small World Blog
1M ago
Painting the Felarch
As the first model of this project, the Felarch sets the overall colour palette and character for the rest of the models in the Corsair unit. This turned out to be problematic as the Felarch’s armour is quite ornate and proved to be a challenging subject for a new colour palette. However, going in at the deep end made me work a lot harder than I might have done if I’d started on a standard trooper. In the end, painting the Felarch forced me to thoroughly explore and refine my colour choices, which can only be a good thing.
I’d put a lot of time into planning the colour pa ..read more
Sproket's Small World Blog
2M ago
Picking a new project.
I decided on my current mini painting project quite some time ago. The release of the ‘new’ Aeldari models had me hooked from the moment I saw them; and lets be honest, when it comes to Warhammer, if I’m not painting Nurgle it will probably be Elves of some kind! So, it was an easy choice when I got myself a box of Voidscarred Corsairs back in July 2022.
Over the years I’ve painted many types of Eldar or Aeldari, as they are now known. Back in the ‘90’s I painted Guardians, Aspect Warriors, a Harlequin and an Incubi. In more recent times I’ve turned my hand to a Farsee ..read more
Sproket's Small World Blog
2M ago
Following The UK Golden Demon in 2022 I dived straight into my next project a unit of Voidscarred Corsairs. I was on a roll coming up with an overall approach to the unit and devising a colour palette. I set to, customising the first of them, which was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, but when it came to start painting everything changed.
I simply could not bear the idea of picking up a brush and painting a mini! I’ve had times when I’ve gone off painting before but never anything like this. It was a disturbing experience. In part I think it was a delayed reaction to my Nurgle tank and ..read more
Sproket's Small World Blog
2y ago
The End is Nigh - Part 2.
With the exception of the base (and that’s a whole new chapter) the remaining work on my Tank is a matter of finishing things off. Some parts need to be painted from scratch but most of the work involved tying-up lose ends from earlier work.
Fix the hand holding the bell into place.
This was a far more straightforward process than the mecha arm. I simply glued the bell hand in place with plastic glue. Once that had set, I filled the seam with dilute PVA and then retouched the paintwork. This felt like an enormously significant step as I was finally adding the sub-as ..read more
Sproket's Small World Blog
2y ago
It's done!!!
It’s been an intense few months of preparation and painting but I’ve finished my Daemon Engine in time for Golden Demon UK 2022, which is now upon us! I’m very proud of how this project has turned out because I’ve done the very best I can. It has been a brilliant experience but it’s now out of my hands and into the GD cabinet for judging. Fingers crossed!
So it’s time to reveal the finished Tank in its entirety.
My planned pre-GD blog updates fell by the wayside. Once I’m back home and the GD dust has settled, I will upload a series of posts detailing the stages of t ..read more
Sproket's Small World Blog
2y ago
So just when I though I’d be getting back into the swing of things, with a regular painting schedule, life had other ideas! We’d been planning some long-overdue house renovations (by long I mean 20 years!) and had scheduled them in for 2022. However the chance came to get the work done earlier and we took it. As a result our home was in complete upheaval, from October until mid-January, and there was no way on earth I could do any painting. Stressful as the disruption was it’s been great to finally get our bathroom and kitchen sorted and things are now getting back to normal, whatever that is ..read more
Sproket's Small World Blog
3y ago
Ding Dong!
I’m back! Not that I’ve been away as such but I decided to take a bit of a break from painting my Daemon Engine. Things had gone very well, and I’d made excellent progress, but I felt that I was beginning to get a bit too relaxed with the project. To do my best work I need to keep on my toes and I think I was getting a bit complacent. The break in painting has given me the opportunity to reset and refresh the feeling of a challenge.
To get re-started I decided to paint the bell, which I’d been keeping back for just such an occasion. The bell was perfect to paint as a ..read more
Sproket's Small World Blog
3y ago
It’s time for a long overdue update! An interruption in my posting usually means that, for one reason or another, I’ve not been painting but that’s not the case this time! I’ve been happily painting away to a regular schedule and making steady progress. Quite simply when faced with a choice between painting and writing about painting I’ve opted for the former.
I’ve already written about the physical challenges presented by this model and they haven’t lessened. However I’ve now become used to handling and painting a model of this size and I’m coping quite well with this aspect of the pro ..read more
Sproket's Small World Blog
3y ago
Skulls, Nurglings, Tentacles and a spot of bother with my microbeads!
Since I started painting my Daemon Engine at the beginning of February, I’ve made very good progress because I’ve managed to paint for a few hours almost every day. In fact, at times, I’ve almost gotten ahead of myself. I went into the painting stage of this project with a plan, of course, but I had many different options. That’s because I’ve spent years thinking about this project so I have a lot of ideas for how I could paint it. Far more ideas than I can (or should) incorporate into one scheme!
So part of the chall ..read more
Sproket's Small World Blog
3y ago
Painting skin tones in three (painfully complicated) steps!
Over the last few weeks I’ve established a good routine where I’m able to paint for a few hours every day and it feels like I’m making steady progress. There is still a lot to be resolved with regards to how I use my colour palette, but the more I get done the more developed my ideas become. I am especially happy with how well the flesh tones are coming together.
When I started painting, I thought that my plans for the flesh tones had gone out of the window in favour of something similar to what I’ve done before ..read more