Painting Guide – Blackstone: Obsidius Mallex

February 11, 2023 by dultoriminis Leave a comment

Paint(s): Chaos Black spray, Abaddon Black, Dawnstone, Dark Reaper, Retributor Armour, Reikland FleshShade, Scale Colour – Metal n’ Alchemy – White Alchemy, Iron Warriors, Leadbelcher, Nuln Oil, Averland Sunset, White Scar, Trollslayer Orange, Bugmans Glow, Cadian Fleshtone, Kislev Flesh, Druchi Violet, Zandri Dust, Agrax Earthshade, Ushabti Bone, Screaming Skull, Rhinox hide, DoomBull Brown, Mephiston Red, Carroburg Crimson.

Method(s): base with Chaos Black spray, like with other models, base again all over with Abaddon Black. highlight all armour plates around the trim with Dark Reaper.

for the gold trim base Retributor Armour, wash Reikland FleshShade, layer avoiding recesses with Retributor Armour, lastly apply a very fine highlight with Scale Colour – Metal n’ Alchemy – White Alchemy.

Flesh: base the face and all the fleshy tubes with Bugmans Glow, pick out eyes with white scar and teeth with Screaming Skull. apply a wash of Nuln Oil to the teeth only. paint pupils of eyes with Abaddon Black. apply a wash of Reikland FleshShade to all flesh parts including the face. next layer Cadian Fleshtone avoiding the dark recesses. highlight with Kislev Flesh. finally create a 1:1 mix of water and Druchi Violet and paint over all fleshy pipes and the lower part of the face in particular the sunken cheeks, this really helps give the grim dark evil look we want on a chaos warrior.

Steel Parts: base with Iron Warriors and highlight Leadbelcher.

Leather wrap: base Rhinox hide, and highlight with DoomBull Brown.

Weapon glow: base Averland Sunset, layer Trollslayer Orange and highlight White Scar.

Bone: base Zandri Dust, layer Ushabti Bone and highlight Screaming Skull

Hair and fur: base with Abaddon Black and dry brushed with Dawnstone.

Cape: base Mephiston Red, wash Carroburg Crimson and highlight with Mephiston Red.

Paint Time 8-10 hours

Painting Guide – Blackstone Fortress: Spindle Drone

February 4, 2023 by dultoriminis Leave a comment

Painter: Dultoriminis

Model(s): Main Blackstone Fortress original box.

Paint(s): Grey Seers spray, Abaddon Black, Eshin Grey, Gryph-Charger Grey contrast, Grey Seers base paint, Mephiston Red, White Scar.

Method(s): Spray whole model with Grey Seers, paint legs with Abaddon Black, once fully dry dry brush with Eshin Grey.

Armour plates: apply Gryph-Charger Grey mixed 1:1 with water. once completely dry do a very light dry brush with Grey Seers base paint. lastly for the eye, base in Mephiston Red and apply a little flick of White Scar to bottom corner with a dot of white in the opposite top corner.

Paint Time: 30-45 mins

The ‘Default truth’ or Learning a lesson from feminism

February 2, 2023 by Mark Myers Leave a comment

I was recently reading “Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language” by Amanda Montell, and the author was talking about truth. The context that they were talking about was if a man would keep repeating the same thing, time and time again without objection from others, it would become the “Default truth” and in doing so it would become actually true. Again, in this context, they meant it in terms of a men vs women thing, however thinking about the actual corporate world, I realised that everyone does this to each other ¹.

That default truth isn’t necessarily male versus female. It’s a thing humans do to each other. How many meetings for how many projects have I been in over the decades, where simply the loudest, most strident voice, the one that repeats their point of view again, and again and again, won.

How many of us when faced with this have muttered to ourselves, “oh, yeah, we’ll just accept it for now and then get back to it when they have calmed down”. But in doing so, you’ve accepted their truth. It’s a human trick, not a magic trick.

There are 2 things to learn here:

Is don’t let people that do this as a standard tactic get away with this without challenge.
On the meetings that you think that the only way you’re gonna get any further is to just accept what the person said and move on or take it offline. Make sure that you actually do that and bring it back up later, keep fighting, or in the end you have let that person become the truth.

Though I FULLY accept that women experience it far more than men[↩]

How to define a crisis? (for a corporation)

January 31, 2023 by Mark Myers Leave a comment

When you deal with projects, and you deal with issues of any type within those projects, people will state that one of them is ‘Critical’ or ‘this is a crisis’.

Now, there are strict dictionary definitions on what a crisis is, i.e.

“A crisis is a time of intense difficulty or danger”

and critical is

“Having a decisive or crucial importance in the success or failure or existence of something.”

However, when these words are used in a corporate environment, it is mainly used to massively emphasise that this is an issue or problem that the reporter wants fixing rather than it being critical for the company / enterprise or project as a whole. But it is also quite difficult to push back on as multiple people get swept up in the management of the issue.

So, I came up with what I personally class are the three definitions of critical and/or what constitutes a crisis when it comes to any company or corporation:

This is a legal or regulatory need or law. e.g. GDPR
There is a significant financial threat or gain to the company and/or project. e.g. Licence breach
There is a significant or real threat to a client of the company, either in terms of reputation or financial, e.g. security breach.

And that’s it to me, as I’ve seen in many, many corporations, everything else is merely important or very important. Only those three things are truly critical. Because if any of those three goes wrong, real lives can be effected.

I know it’s a strange item for a post, but it’s something that I feel strongly about and when ever I’ve mentioned these definitions, people have nodded and used them. So if it’s of any use to people to fight crisis merchants then please feel free to use them as well.

Does anyone have any things that they would add to this list?

Painting Guide – Blackstone Fortress: UR-025

January 28, 2023 by dultoriminis Leave a comment

Painter: Dultoriminis

Model(s): Main Blackstone Fortress original box.

Paint(s): Leadbelcher spray, Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthshade, Celestra Grey, Ulthuan Grey, White Scar, Drakenhof NightShade, Mephiston Red, Retributor Armour, Averland Sunset, Yriel Yellow, Rhinox hide, Mornfang Brown, Skrag Brown

Method(s): Base coat all over with Leadbelcher, wash with Nuln Oil and then Agrax Earthshade once Nuln Oil is fully dry,

Armour plates: base with Celestra Grey, layer Ulthuan Grey, recess wash with Drakenhof NightShade, edge highlight with White Scar.

Lights: base Mephiston Red, add a few tiny dots of White Scar to mimic reflective shine. Or base Averland Sunset, layer Yriel Yellow leaving outermost edge and then add a dot of White Scar. (a mix of both is best)

OPTIONAL: Rust, For rust and grime pick out some small areas with Rhinox hide, less is more here as you can always add more later so start slow, I would also recommend going around any rivets first before doing drips. inside the Rhinox hide apply Mornfang Brown, covering about 2/3rds of the Rhinox hide. next add a few dots of Skrag Brown just to give it the slight rust ‘setting in’ look. and finally a small amount of White Scar highlight under any rust or scratches, this will give it that 3D effect.

Paint Time: 4-6 hours

Notes: Although this model looks easy from the guide I cannot stress enough the importance of taking your time with the “white armour plating” the key thing here is multiple very thin coats of Celestra Grey and Ulthuan Grey. take your time and be ready for 4 or 5 coats. While it may seem tedious it will be well worth it for the smooth finish on the white. no body wants lumpy plates.