Category: Shoutout

  • June ’23 PaintSlam Community Showcase! You will Marvel at the miniatures within!

    June ’23 PaintSlam Community Showcase! You will Marvel at the miniatures within!

    Well, it’s been a HECTIC few weeks for me. My partner and I moved into a new flat, which we’re currently still in the process of getting decorated and stuff. This, coming on the tail end of a bit of a heatwave in the UK means I’ve not been in much of a position to get much content put out – but that changes now! The computer is set up, the internet is due in a few days (currently hot-spotting my mac from my phone’s internet!) and I’m raring to share some hobby goodness.

    So without any further ado, let’s take a look at what the incredible PaintSlam Community got done during the month of June 2023! Over to you lovely lot…

    Ads20000

    Alexander

    Amy_Jade

    burningoleander

    Ceda_Kuru_Qan

    diami03

    EricJ

    Gaben The II

    jedi58

    JewelKnightJess

    Maid of Cake

    MilesTheMighty

    Momma Negan

    MonsterJail

    Mosh

    Pandaemonium_Miniatures

    Prokiller1295

    SHeroQueer

    SpooKi

    Terra Luna

    The Painting Pirate

    And that’s your lot for another amazing month. Come see us in the PaintSlam Discord and join the community!

    If you enjoyed this article and want to help support PaintSlam, please consider joining the Patreon! Your support helps me keep the lights on and keep producing content like this!

  • Community Spotlight: Samurai Marines by Jules

    Community Spotlight: Samurai Marines by Jules

    Here in the PaintSlam community I absolutely love seeing all your awesome hobby. In addition to the monthly showcase posts, I especially like to feature singular artists and their projects in Community Spotlights just like this one. This time, we’re looking at Jules’ Samurai-themed Space Marines!

    So Jules, could you tell us about yourself?

    Hello! I’m Jules (he/him or she/her) and I’m a bi genderfluid sometimes dude! I’m 28 and only really started the hobby in 2020, but I’ve been eyeing it for far longer, just without the disposable income. I remember being really into the Admech line when they came out, but when I actually joined in was when the new Adepta Sororitas dropped! Sisters were my first army back then! I also decided back then, that I’d never start a Space Marine army, because they are way too boring. Look at me now!

    So what made you change your mind?

    I think I got the idea to do Samurai marines for the first time when I watched a battle report, I think it was someone’s custom Mantis Warriors samurai marines. I don’t remember what channel it was, but it definitely sparked an idea in me. I had just recently watched Ran by Akira Kurosawa and the idea of Samurai Space Marines on the then new Outrider bikes formed, similar in look to the samurai horsemen in the movie, with banners on their backs. That was the original idea that led me to buy the Space Marine half of the Indomitus box online, as well as samurai bits from Puppetswar, mainly katanas and shoulder pads.

    I later expanded the army and around then I discovered another bits service on Instagram, where I was posting my minis. The service called “The Custom Bit” was also European and very small back then. They had Samurai bits I liked even more, so I incorporated them into models I made from then on, including new heads, back banners, swords and shoulder pads, but also just other small stuff like sword sheathes or custom Dreadnaught modifications.

    Do you have any favourite pieces in the army?

    The highlight for my army and something of a crowning achievement came when I discovered that I was far from the only one in the niche of Samurai Space Marines on Instagram! A far bigger user in the space, Marco Paroli, was also doing them and we started talking about doing an art trade! So while I was working on a Kabuki-themed librarian for him, he built me a Chapter Master, the coolest model in my army in my opinion.

    My favorite models in my army that I’ve done are my custom Khan on Bike and my Bladeguard Veterans. They really exemplify the samurai theme the best. I decided early on that the higher a member in my army ranks, the more customizations I’d give them. My Bladeguard Veterans are essentially my most Samurai Samurai Space Marines!

    Can you tell us a little more about the background for the army?

    I explained that difference in how much customization I did in the extensive lore I made up for my chapter for no good reason! Since my chapter was entirely Primaris and since I really wasn’t interested in doing anything that wasn’t, I placed them in the Ultima Founding, calling them the Rising Sons, cause it isn’t a Warhammer army if they aren’t a dumb joke taken way too seriously. I placed them as technically a Dark Angels successor chapter, since they were founded by a chaplain of the chapter who crashed onto their feudal homeworld of Honin after a battle with the Fallen and there learned to live a simpler life for a while, as well as the futility of his chapter’s pursuit to hide from their past (a plot shamelessly stolen from the Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai). Long story short, I got really attached to all that silly lore I created and made writing out snippets from it in my Instagram posts of new models a priority!

    Thanks, and finally: What’s next for this army?

    I don’t think I’m done with the Rising Sons, or ever will be. There’s rumors of new assault marines in the Primaris range at some point in the near future, so at the very latest when those come, I’ll pick up the Mephiston Red again! Right now I’m working on some Ninja-style Marines for a Phobos Kill Team that I’ve placed in the mysterious 9th company of my chapter. I can’t wait to see where they lead me next and what other cool bits and greenstuff work are in this chapter’s future!

    Awesome! Well, this army looks great and I can’t wait to see how it grows in future! Thanks for sharing with us!

    If you enjoyed this article and want to share your own hobby project with the community, please get in touch with me (JewelKnightJess) directly on Twitter, Instagram, Discord, or whereever else you might find me! See you next time!

    If you enjoyed this article and want to help support PaintSlam, please consider joining the Patreon! Your support helps me keep the lights on and keep producing content like this!

  • Community Spotlight: Terra’s Imperial Knights!

    Community Spotlight: Terra’s Imperial Knights!

    Back in the days when PaintSlam was still called Painthammer, I occasionally featured artists from the community here on the blog. With PaintSlam23 this is a feature I want to bring back! So I hope you all enjoy this first Community Spotlight of 2023, as we look at Terra’s Imperial Knights. And if you’re a member of the PaintSlam community and you want an army or collection showing off here on this blog, send me a DM in the Discord!

    So, Terra, please introduce yourself!

    Hi! I’m Terra (She/They), I’m a non-binary queer trans and poly gal. I’m 35 years old and I’ve been into the hobby since 2001, specifically I remember walking through Tesco and seeing Dark Elves on the cover of that month’s White Dwarf. And when you’re an impressionable emo/goth teenager, that definitely strikes an interest! Outside of the hobby I work in IT in London, I’m fond of cooking and baking when I get the time and I’m quite partial to a good charity shop!

    Awesome, glad to have you as part of the PaintSlam community! Can you tell us about your Imperial Knight army, please?

    The army itself is called “The Pride of Terra” (yes, it works on several layers) and consists of a bunch of queer and GNC* imperial knights! All the Knights have their gender on their right pauldron, and their sexual identity on the left. These knights are proud of who they are!

    The lore behind the Knights is that they all grew up in the cis normative household of the great houses, but when they came out to their families, they were shunned and shamed for who they were. So, they took the oath of the Freeblade and wandered the stars, fighting against injustice and upholding their own honour.

    Eventually, these knights found eachother, they re-painted over their household colours and formed their own found families. And now, they proudly display not their heritage, but who they are, on their might knight chassis.

    That’s great! And I love how you integrated the flags into the design and backstory of the miniatures. Any other nuggets for us?

    I made the army in a way to try to normalise asking about and using different pronouns. I found that a lot of warhammer players denote to calling their minis he or him as just the default. I don’t generally correct anyone on using the pronouns of my knights but I have noticed that at the start of the game opponents default to he/him, but after listening to me using she/they/it, that by the end of the game my opponent has picked up on it and genders my knights correctly.

    I also make sure to crack a joke to ease tensions too, I find that most cishet folks are worried about making mistakes, so usually I mention that all the flags are painted freehand, and I get to make the joke of “yes they’re incredibly straight which is interesting really considering how straight I’m not” once there’s been a good laugh at the table people are usually a lot more interested in the flags and their meanings, and I often get people asking me about what all the different flags mean. This army has been a really fun experience to play, laugh with, and talk about.

    Brilliant! And since these flags are often seen at Pride, what are you most proud about with this army?

    As for being proud about this army, it was assembled and painted in just under a year. But if I’m honest there’s still little touches here and there to be made until the army is “finished” proper.

    Thanks Terra for showing us your Imperial Knights! Keep it up and I’d love to see how the army grows in the future too! Terra is one of the members of the PaintSlam community, why not join us this year? Maybe you’ll be the next to have your collection in the spotlight!

    *Gender non-conforming

    If you enjoyed this article and want to help support PaintSlam, please consider joining the Patreon! Your support helps me keep the lights on and keep producing content like this!

  • Community Spotlight – Aekold Helbrass’s Legion

    Community Spotlight – Aekold Helbrass’s Legion

    The lovely Papa Negan over on the official #PaintSlam21 Discord is joining in with her own Oldhammer project (we’re making 2021 the year of making an oldhammer/middlehammer army, with an emphasis on a 5th edition era collection!)

    HobbySlam21 project – Aekold Helbrass’s Legion

    “Joining Jess this year I’ll be doing an Oldhammer project of my own, a small Legion for the coolest warlord of Tzeentch, Aekold Helbrass, the man with the breath of life.”

    “My army will be two 12 man units of Chaos Warriors, 5 Chaos Knights, 5 Pink horrors and Aekold Helbrass of course. Included in this post is a picture of a test Chaos Warrior which showcases my paint scheme for the army.”

    “The general emphasis should be on relatively bright colors, but with the base design I’d also like to add the general theme of Aekold with bringing life wherever he and his followers go. But all in all, I’m looking forward to painting a full army this year for the first time ever.”

    Thanks for sharing Papa Negan! I can’t wait to see how this army progresses.

    Are you joining us with the retro Warhammer army project this year? Get in touch if you’d like your own community spotlight article!

  • Kitbashember – Orktober’s successor

    Kitbashember – Orktober’s successor

    Over on Instagram there was a fantastic little event in November called Kitbashember, full of creativity. I asked the organiser if they’d like to share a few words about it, so I’ll hand over to them now… -Jess

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  • Shoutout: Binx’s Hobby Podcast

    Shoutout: Binx’s Hobby Podcast

    Just a quickie shout out to this fab podcast!

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