Sometimes you just need fantastic looking models to look at. Be it to spur a new level of creativity, break the boredom of work, or inspire a brand new idea for an army. The Inspirational collection is by far the biggest, so take your time and come back for more!

These are my collection of Good Reads 2016 Inspirational Articles pulled from my bi-weekly Good Reads post, emailed in links that I missed, and a few posts of my own. Click through and check them out, bookmark it for later, and don’t miss the other Good Reads 2016 Collections:

• Good Reads 2016 Main Page
• Good Reads 2016 Building Articles
• Good Reads 2016 Painting Articles
• Good Reads 2016 Gaming Articles
• Good Reads 2016 Humor and Story Articles

 Exalted Vermin Lord

The Skaven are an incredible army in a talented painter’s hand and Mihalis’ Exalted Vermin Lord is proof of this. Between the raw scars, sickly bruises, and glowing Warpstone, it is incredible to look at.

They Pilgryms of Iron Sleet

The team at Iron Sleet are constantly putting some amazing Inquisitor conversions so it is hard to pick any one post to highlight here. Kari’s Pilgrym Adsum Levit Aaronic is an incredible example of the conversions and painting going on with their Pilgrym project.

Genestealer Cult Magus

The Deathwatch box has some incredible miniatures and Wilhelm took the Genestealer Cult Magus and made minor modifications that really change the dynamic.  The creepy servo skull is also a nice bonus.

Alpha Legion Sicarian

The newer style of Alpha Legion’s metallic blue can be quite impressive. The GunGrave took this awesome look to the next level by using a stencil to airbrush scales onto the armor plates of his Sicarian Battle Tank. I’ve put the stencils from Fallout Hobbies on my wish list of things to check out myself.

Domitars

Rob put together a great pair of a Domitars that are not only painted extremely well, but he did a fantastic job of posing them to create a great sense of motion and story. The gory trooper at his feet also provides a nice contrast to his cool, robotic look.

Meeting of Scouts

There are two types of scratch builders in my mind: the economist who is trying to hack together an expensive model and those trying to create something completely new. Klaus is one of those who takes raw plastic strips and tubes and creates magic, this time with his Meeting of Scouts diorama. What I love about his work is that he walks you through his steps and thoughts along the way – on top of creating models that tell a story.

Renegade Knights

I just received my box of Imperial Knight: Renegade and very much looking forward to adding both to my current knight to have a viable detachment. ThirdEyeNuke went the opposite route and is painting both of his as traitors. But he didn’t go for the ‘just slap some chaos stars on there’ route but instead making them full blown Death Guard members.

Storm Talon

Tibbetts has returned to painting his Marines with a nicely finished Storm Talon for his Eagle Eyes. One of the cool ideas I got from watching his WIP posts is that he glazes the green with yellow to tone it back down.

Thousand Sons Forge Fiend

Rory has been constantly improving his painting and modeling skills, taking ideas from the many great bloggers in our hobby and putting them to great use. His latest finished piece is a Forge Fiend for his Thousand Sons, but with a great orange twist in honor of Thor.

Moritat Conversion

Another fantastic painter, hobbyist, and all around great personality in the hobby world, Dave Taylor took the much used Nurgle Lord and created a fantastic Death Guard Moritat. It’s amazing what this model can be used for in the hands of these great hobbyists.

Cherry Blossoms

Perhaps it is because of so many cherry trees in my part of the world, or Master Uguay’s dramatic exit, but this scene by The Fantasy Hammer looks fantastic with the Samurai standing among the blossoms.

INQ28 Techno-Barbarian Ma’tu

This was my first Inquisitor28 model that I painted to review WarColour paints and brushes as I needed something to paint all the turquoise colors they sent me. Based off the free Stormcast from White Dwarf, this techno-barbarian is just the first of his crew.

World Eaters Apothecary

I also couldn’t pass by Krautscientist’s fantastic World Eaters Apothecary. Between the pose, the details, and the story, he does an amazing job of giving his hunters a sense of realism (and fear!).

NovaOpen Grots

Greg is incredible with his Orks. Between painting them with washes and extreme weather of his walkers, his Orks look incredible. He just finished painting an incredible looking unit of Grots – that’s right, Grots – for NovaOpen.

Inquisitor Lazaros

As I get further into the world of Inq28 the more amazing conversions I find. J.E. from the Convertorum is building up a Black Ship crew with the Captain-Inquisitor above as the leader. It’s all the little details like the robotic leg and arm and the questionably chaos chest plate that make this guy so cool looking.

Dark Angel Jet Fighter

The Dark Angel Nephilim Jetfighter is a pretty cool model in its own right, but Dave’s paint job is fantastic. Between the red marble wings, verdigris, and hand painted details.

Carnival of Venom Death

NafNaf has been working on his fantastic Carnival version of the Dark Eldar. His Venom cruiser is just the latest in his crazy cool army. It’s those top hats that really do it 🙂

Aztec Themed Space Marines

I love to find non-traditional Space Marines as they help expand our creative thinking. RednekkBoss decided to go with an Aztec themed marines including jade and terracotta armor and colorful details.

Thousand Sons Contemptor

Contemptor Dreadnoughts are pretty cool models, much more dynamic than the 40k versions. Combine that with the awesomeness that is Heresy Thousand Sons, and you have Moridan’s great look models.

Salamander Storm

So here is another new addition to my blog feed thanks to Mike’s Better Know a Blogger series. Blazmo shows off his completed Landspeeder Storm for his Salamander army. He traded out a bunch of bits to make them more exciting than the standard scouts.

Orruk Megaboss

Roman did a fantastic job on the Orruk Megaboss with a few minor tweaks and some epic blue paint. (check out my review of the model here). Taking some ideas for my own.

Doom Rider Strikes Again

Rory knocked it out of the park custom Doom Rider build. I have a special fondness for 3rd Edition Chaos Space Marines and all their awesome characters, so seeing Rory’s Doomrider makes me so happy!

Dark Blood Drinkers

While I’m not a huge Blanche fan (I know half of you just booed me right now!) I do appreciate when hobbyists do fantastic conversions and paint jobs to emulate his style. D Power is one of those artists as exemplified by the Angels Encarmine. Also, check out the converted Skitarii at the bottom of the post!

Carnival of Pain

Another one of the incredible conversions by NafNaf for his Carnival, this time a reimagined Talos that is both horrifying and colorful. An incredible imagination balanced with a fantastic use of bits created this nightmare.

Nurgle Drake

I’ve been following Miniature of Tomorrow’s work on this Drake for weeks, and it is fantastic to see the completed model – a Nurgle Drake Diorama (Imgur gallery). You can check out his build process and other awesome work on his Tumblr as well.

Broodlord

To emphasize the power your old posts have (and why Thor’s SEO series does help!), The Fantasy Hammer commented on my Broodlord Tutorial from last year saying it helped him paint his own amazing Broodlord from Space Hulk. He clearly took the lesson and turned it up to 11!

A Dread Above All Others

Nova Open is having their annual raffle to raise money for Doctors Without Borders (buy tickets to win an army!). Each model is painted by awesome people like Greg who spent countless eons adding about a billion layers to the Deff Dread above. Seriously, check out the finished model, then read his WIP posts – epic stuff.

Space Wolf Breacher Squad

I personally love the mix of Greek mythos and Sci Fi grimdark. So you can see why I like Dave’s Space Wolf Breacher squad. Well, that and he did a fantastic job of painting them. Check out the detail work on the shield and a nice grittiness to the whole unit.

Treelord Ancient

The new Sylvaneth (treemen) are some amazing kits and if I didn’t have just a huge backlog, I would have jumped in on their release. But Turkadactyl is going full bore with his trees, painting them in a bright spring color scheme, complete with cherry blossom pink.

Chief Warlord Engineer Ikit Claw

Not only is this an incredible Skaven painted by Cadaver, but is an fantastic example of Oldhammer elegance! The custom banner and base are excellent additions as well.

Reaper Minis

You may remember Sean’s post on Oldhammer, but it’s not just old Citadel models he pines over. He posted up his collection of old Reaper minis full of old-time character but with great, modern painting.

Xiphon Interceptor Complete

Forge World makes some great looking flyers, even Space Marines get flyers that look like they could actually fly. Gothmog painted up a nice Xiphon Interceptor for his Blood Angles that looks brilliant in all that red.

Iron Circle

I am a long time Iron Warriors fanboy, and of course picked up Angel Exterminatus. The Iron Circle was only mentioned a few times but they sounded so cool. The recently released models by Forge World are awesome, but Xach depicted one brilliantly with some awesome weathering. (oh he has a Warsmith on there too!).

Necron Triarch

Necrons have always been one of those armies that I have wanted to do (killer robots are irresistible after all!). I also love blue, so when I saw Grenn’s Necron Triarch Praetorian, I had to share him here. It’s a fantastic metallic blue and green that adds interest to the metal warrior.

Red Hunters

I hadn’t heard of the Red Hunters until Gothmog’s post on them, but I really like how he used the Death Watch set to build them. It’s a great use of all those inquisitor bits for this specialty chapter and yet not painting more black and silver.

Sons of Horus Levithan Dreadnought

It’s not Dreadtober yet, but Red Scorps painted up this beautiful Leviathan Dreadnought for his Sons of Horus. I love the little details like the ruined Tarantula under his feet and the battle damage. To see the fully, army, he also posted a few shots of the beauties.

Glowing Malifaux

Malifaux is an interesting looking game full of diverse creatures and characters. Cameron added two Metal Gamin for his Arcanist crew to summon. He did a great job of contrasting the muted grey bodies with the glowing, red weapons.

Death Rattle Army

One of the nice benefits of the new ruleset in Age of Sigmar is being able to create small armies that play well. No longer needing blocks of 100 skeletons, Heaven’s Teeth built up this Death Rattle army rather quickly and it looks great.

Forge World Tyrant Conversion

I hadn’t realized that Forge World had done a Hive Tyrant model, but Grenn Dal took his and transformed it into a Prime instead with a miasma cannon that looks pretty awesome.

Nekima in Blood

Zab from Almost Perftec has been working on this lady for awhile but has now completed his Nekima model. He’s got some great tips on make the gory red base in there too which is awesome.

Sylvaneth Treelord Ancient

I’m claiming it now, if GW puts out one of the Christmas box sets for the Sylvaneth, I am finally giving in. In the meantime, I’ve really enjoyed Turkadactyl’s tree army grow, this week with his finished Treelord Ancient.

Creepiest Army on Parade Ever

I’m pretty sure I’ve covered a few of Wilhelm’s creepy-awesome army build, but here he has outdone himself with his Army on Display board. Not only are there a few odd heads into the display, but it has three levels of monsters in the dark.

Mongo the Beast

Dave Taylor is a fantastic artist and this model, Mongo from Dark Age is a testament to his skills. Between the fantastic warm skin tones and the cool concrete blocks, it’s a great composition and great weathering.

Magos Titus

Apologist is a constant source of amazing conversions. His AdMech Magos is no exception. That and the awesome fluff he wrote for it makes it well worth the read.

Genestealer Cults Rockgrinder

One of the cool aspects of the Genestealer Cult is their utilitarian look. Amy really brought this out with her Goliath Rockgrinder with that awesome red dust effect.

Amazing Dimachaeron

Wolfsherz is painting up some incredible Tyranid monsters including this beautiful Dimachaeron from Forge World. Not only does he have amazing painting skills, but he paints each peice before assembling the whole model!

Mechanical Vermin Lord

Going in the other extreme, Jake is showing off his WIP Skavan Vermin Lord built from a Knight kit! I’m not sure why he wants a twelve inch tall rat, but I am sure it would be intimidating to play against.

Techmarine Dreadnought

Marc had a Techmarine character who didn’t make it past a slightly larger Tyranid monster, so to immortalize his heroics, Marc built up this great Techmarine Dreadnought. With a conversion beamer, tech harness, and even an extra power generator, this is clearly a unique model!

Imperial Guard Spec Ops

Taking a step outside his Chaos Marines, Rory tried out some commission work with these Spec Ops Imperial Guard. Not only do they look great, but he was given a bunch of third party bits to use on them, making them truly unique.

Converted Haemonculus/Venom/Flyer/… Thing

Mr. Pink’s Dark Eldar coven is among my favorite converted armies. Something about the dark kin make them ripe for disturbing and amazing conversions. In a peek inside his mental state, Mr. Pink shared the steps to create the Haemonculus Venom Lots of greenstuff and creative use of bits.

Birth of a Chaos Knight Titan

Anyone who finishes a Knight Titan deserves an award. And to do one with such incredible degree of details, Thor’s Chaos Knight Titan deserves an extra reward. Named Ironfate, Thor has put an amazing amount of work into painting him.

Converted Gal Vorbak

Forge World’s models are epic, and the Gal Vorbak of the Word Bearers are no exception. The problem Eric ran into is that he already had five of them and didn’t want the second five to be copies. So instead, he converted all five Gal Vorbak with subtle changes like tentacles and heads.

A Vengeful Gun

At some point I need to get more terrain built and painted as I figure it will make easier to start playing again. Here Siph shows off a nicely done Vengeance Weapon platform with a neat trick to switch it from battle cannon to the Punisher Cannon.

Orruk Ironjawz Brutes

Not going to lie, I like orks, orcs, and orruks. I also like how Amy paints her Orruks in orange armor, and this squad of brutes is no exception. The orange is bright enough to be interesting without being in your face.

Alas that is a Nice Figure

Now that Will is done painting dick monsters, he switched his attention to painting this beautiful sculpt, ‘Alas’ for his wife. You can check out his Tumblr for some of his incredible step-by-step progress as well.

Grand Master D Powers

Not long ago the talented D Powers started doing commission work and Marc jumped right in with a request for Grand Master Gabriel for his Dark Angels. Let’s just say D didn’t disappoint! Staying true to the Blanch-ian style, this is an incredible conversion.

Imperial Boarding Action

Yellow is a tough color to paint, but Rory took it head on with this Imperial Fist Breacher Squad. He has some good looking Terminators in there as well.

Mork & Gork: The Knights’ Tale

To provide some major firepower Dakka and, more importantly, a ton of Waaaggh!!! to his Trust in Rust force, Greg converted a pair of Knight Titans into impressive mechanical beasts worthy of being idols of the two green gods.

Purple Ad Mech Dragoon/Ironstrider

It’s great to see Skatarii and Ad Mech in non-red color schemes and Gren Dal’s purple Iron Strider is a fantastic alternative. He has also magnetized the model so it can turn into a Dragoon as well.

Phatom Titan of the Stars

Normally I think the Elday Revenant Titan looks fake with so many smooth, unadorned surfaces. But Clyde proves me wrong with his stunning paint work. The colors and start effects are fantastic and great interest to all those flat surfaces.

La Dance Macabre

NafNaf has had a couple of his creative nightmares featured here, and finally he has put the whole army together! Check out the playable Carnival conversions of Dark Eldar, Eldar and Harlequins. An incredible work of art throughout the army.

Death Guard Contemptor

The Death Guard can be difficult to balance between painting great looking colors and weathering. Cadaver does a great job balancing that on this awesome looking Contemptor Dreadnought.

Master of the Forge and Snakes

I’m a fan of Marc’s Iron Snake both for the cool over-the-top Greek look but also his great painting skills. Here he shows off his finished Master of the Forge. Some of the details are incredible on this guy including the verdigris fade and glow effects.

Age of Santa

Getting into the holiday spirit, The Fantasy Hammer made a Santa from a Stormcast as a gift. It’s a simple conversion but a great execution, including the extra snow on the model.

Hundreds of Zombies

What is scarier than a zombie? Painting 380 or so of them! Warhammer39,999 painted the miniatures for Zombicide over a collection of posts in 2016. Each is well worth checking out, escpecially all the heros which come with a zombie version!

Dreadtober 2016

I hosted Dreadtober this year and we had a fantastic turnout! The final showcase is a post of inspirational models just unto itself. Even if you don’t like Dreadnoughts, make sure you check it out as there are many great conversions.

Wrap Up

I hope you enjoyed a look back at some of the AMAZING things your fellow hobbyists have done and shared through their blogs. Make sure you visit as many as you can and leave them a comment with your thoughts and encouragement.

And don’t forget the other Good Reads 2016 Collections:

• Good Reads 2016 Main Page
• Good Reads 2016 Building Articles
• Good Reads 2016 Painting Articles
• Good Reads 2016 Gaming Articles
• Good Reads 2016 Humor and Story Articles