My name is Dysartes, and this isn't my first rodeo here - in fact, I've had a number of different PLOGs here on Dakka during my tenure here. Unfortunately, something tends to happen that disrupts my focus, and I drift away for a while before returning.
The latest disruption ties into the demise of my Twitch stream in the summer of 2019 - I was helping at a local miniatures show, setting up to record a panel discussion, when I managed to delete all my stream set-up within OBS. When I realised, I didn't think too much of it, but I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to get everything set up again - and after nearly two years on the platform, usually streaming three times a week... nobody seemed to notice I wasn't there any more. Which was somewhat demotivating.
Aside from building assorted bits of scenery from Conquest and the Command Edition starter set for 9th ed 40k, I haven't really achieved a great deal since then. Even in the depths of Pandemic Season 1 I couldn't really motivate myself to paint. Still, recently I've made steps to be able to do so. My desk, which had become a bit of a dumping ground and looked like this:
Has now been brought mostly to heel. It could probably be a bit better, but I figure I can work with this:
I've even got two small projects ready to get started on, to go with my Imperial Guard. As the picture below shows, I may have a few too many of the 3rd edition metal Storm Troopers, painted up as =][= Storm Troopers:
There's four ten man squads there - two with four of a special weapon (plasma, melta), and two only with three (flamer, grenade launcher). I think Nork Deddog is in there just as somewhere to put him, but I digress. I've picked up the remaining flamer and grenade launcher dudes I need to take each squad to four of their special weapon, so they're on deck to start with.
Mind you, I'll end up with three guys with hotshot lasguns left over - guess I'll have to think about what I want to equip squad #5 with, though I don't think it'll be volley guns - maybe I need to compare parts to sculpts, and see if I think I can manage that one...
In addition, I want to convert one of the Sergeant sculpts to be a =][= Storm Trooper Officer with Storm Trooper Command Rod - he won't technically be WYSIWYG, as I'm not removing his pistol, but the choices in an army list will reflect that fact that the hotshot laspistol is merely someone's hallucination...
From what I can see, taking both arms apart around the elbow should allow me to pin the plastic arm to the metal body - might need a little light GS work to tidy up, but it should work. He's effectively project #2 - and if he works, I'll need to make a second Officer.
Step 1 for all three is to find where the last 20mm plasticard strip I had was to mke a start on their bases - that, or cut another one.
You may also have noted the Thunderer and ruins on the desk - I need to bend the front panel of the tank back into shape slightly before I attach it and the top hatch, then it is ready for an undercoat. The ruins have been undercoated with Wraithbone for a while, so in theory they should be good to go - I may just need to check paint coverage first.
Finally, before I add a spoilered block to link to things I complete, I've been trying to write up what I've got that needs painting. It's a long list, don't get me wrong, but having some form of structure may help - if I don't run away screaming, anyway. I've been using the Pile of Potential website to make a start on this, though I'm sure there's a bunch I need to add on to this. 95% of a Conquest subscription, for one thing.
If you like metal stuff, Fifty Three, I'll try and get you a breakdown of what is lurking in the kitchen towel in the "tidied" desk photo - quite a few metal figures which had been through the Dettol a while back, but haven't yet either been bagged for storage or prepared for painting.
I should probably also do something with the models which have been in various stages of being stripped since mid-2019 too, but that's another story entirely.
Some progress has been made on both projects A & B - I've been through and cleaned up the little bits flash from all three models, and given the mould line on the inside of Flamer Dude's leg some attention. I've also built the custom urban bases for all three guys, so they've gone from how you see them in the first post to this:
The two special weapon guys are now ready for undercoating, if/when the weather behaves enough for me to spray them - unfortunately we've dropped into yet another cold snap, with more snow, so I'm not sure when that'll be - I'll see if warming the can is enough to get a reasonable coat on them, but I don't fancy my chances.
If you're interested in how I've built the bases, I've put a quick run-through below.
Spoiler:
I've been doing these bases for a while, and have been moving to get everything I have that's ready for 8th/9th edition onto the same same style, regardless of army. I won't say that they're quick, but I do like how they come out.
First up I remove the tab from the model's feet, then file the area until they have a reasonable chance of standing unaided - this helps ensure a decent join to the base. I then figure out which foot will serve as a better anchor and drill a hole for a pin, using a brass paperclip as pinning wire.
When this is done, I cut a piece of plasticard for the middle of the base - this gives me a good point to anchor the model to, and means they end up looking like they're stood on some rubble when we're done. I try to angle the sides of the slab so they're not parallel, and shape the corners and edges to provide a bit of interest. Once done, this gets glued to the base with poly cement.
Next up is to add some points of visual interest to the base. Characters and sergeants tends to end up with a skull from the Citadel Skulls set, often filed in such a way as to get them to sit at an angle. In addition, fragments of plaster "concrete" rubble or chopped-up dolls house bricks are used for other feature points. Adding pieces from your bits box is also an idea, depending on the size of the base. Around this time I tend to drill the hole in the plasticard for the pin to sit in.
Once that's done, we're onto the home stretch - a medium ballast is glued on in between the bits we've added to bulk the surface out, before sand is added over the top. The sand can be a bit patchier if you want the ballast to show through - it gives a bit of variety to the look. Once the sand has dried, I apply a thinned layer of PVA over the top to seal it to the base.
Having left that to dry overnight, I then glued the two special weapon guys to their bases, then used some Vallejo Sandy Paste to add some surface texture to the plasticard.
Oddly, having not used my bottle of PVA for some time, I found it had almost split when I came to use it - shaking it seems to have recombined the elements, but I'm sure it is now a lot runnier than it used to be, which is weird. Has that happened to anyone else?
In terms of the =][= Storm Trooper Officer, I think I'm now ready to move to the cutting stage. I've tried to illustrate below where I'm thinking of cutting, as well as why this particular Sergeant is getting promoted. I think I'm going to keep the elbow pad from the plastic arm, after initially planning on removing it. Not sure yet whether I'm going to keep the Scion Control Panel on the forearm, though, or file/GS it away.
I'm also starting to look at projects C & D, both from the M2O release of the models from Dark Vengeance. In particular, I'm looking at the Hellbrute and the Deathwing. I've removed all the parts from the sprues, and bagged them. I need to clean them up with a file, then the Hellbrute is ready to have a base built and be assembled - I'll be painting him for my Death Guard, and probably adding a couple of Nurglings if I have any suitable spares kicking around.
For the Deathwing, I need to straight the Sergeant's sword, as it is a bit wavy - in theory, the hot water, cold water approach should work, right, just like with a resin model? In addition, I need to drill out a few gun barrels. Question there - what do y'all use to mark where you're going to drill when doing this step? I tend to find the pin vice bit squirms when I'm going it, often leading to an off-center hole, which always looks a bit awkward.
And finally... I mentioned in my reply to Fifty that I'd take a look at what was in that heap of stripped models, given it is all metal stuff. When spread out, the selection looks a bit like this:
Spoiler:
On there we have: Arbites Judge & Arbites with Shotgun; Wyrd Pyromaniac & Wyrd Telepath; 2 Valhallan Flamers, 2 Valhallans with Lasgun; Catachan Missile Launcher, Lieutenant & Captain; Steel Legion Plasmagun & Sergeant; Mordian Grenade Launcher; 2 Praetorians with Lasguns, Praetorian with Meltagun; Long Fang Sergeant, Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour; Catachan with Meltagun; Shiv from the Last Chancers; Battle Sister with Boltgun.
I'm not sure when I'll get to any of these, but I do need to get them bagged up appropriately.
Some nice models have come out of the cleaners there...I am especially jealous of the Arbites Judge, Arbites with Shotgun, Wyrd Pyromaniac, and Wyrd Telepath.
As for the 3rd Edition Storm Trooper Sergeant, what about removing the pistol hand and replace it with a fist (like the Catachan Lieutenant's)?
Welcome back Dysartes, good to see you back with the hobby blog and I am sorry to hear about the Twitch stream as well.
That pile of potential website looks like a great and easy way to list a pile of shame. It's cool to see others' piles as well. Might give my own a go as I'm just using my notes app on my phone.
Big fan of the stormtroopers and keen to see them painted up!
I usually use the tip of my hobby knife to provide a pilot hole for barrel drilling. Where that isn’t accurate enough, I’ll score across in two directions to form a cross first.
@Siggy - They're mine! My precious... I've got the Telekinetic kicking around somewhere too, but none of the Beastmasters. I think I was planning on using them as Psykers in my IG army at some point, though they seem a little beefy for the Wyrdvane role these days.
@tzurk - Cheers, dude. Now I just need to work up the courage to make the cuts
@Captain Brown - If I pick up another of this Sergeant, with a reasonably straight blade, then I'm actually considering swapping out the pistol for a banner instead, to start forming a Command Squad. The datasheet for the Storm Trooper Officer (or Tempestor Prime, in nuSpeak) is very restrictive on what you can give the guy, and even keeping the pistol means he isn't WYSIWYG. I'd actually forgotten he can have a melee weapon, though, so a Fist or Power Sword is actually an option. I'll have a think on it, as that would at least make him WYSIWYG, even if a little over-equipped for a dude whose job is to yell at two squads a turn
@Tyranid Horde - Aye, the Pile of Potential site seems pretty flexible, and they're continuing to add features to it, like the option to split your Projects between categories, which is cool. It was brought to my attention by another streamer on there, and I think is built and owned by a third, which is also cool. I'll admit to not being a big fan of these Storm Trooper sculpts back in the day, but they look good in an =][= scheme, especially in a big group.
@Arakasi - Good shout with the knife, especially on plastic. I take it you'd file back an excess knife lines after you've drilled the hole?
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So, progress... well I got the bases painted up for the two Storm Troopers. Thinking about it, I should've set up the Officer's base and painted it at the same time, but there you go.
Basecoat with P3 Cryx Bane Highlight (twice), drybrush with P3 Trollblood Highlight, lighter drybrush with P3 Sickly Skin, pick out the brick with P3 Skorne Red, wash with Agrax Earthshade, tidy up the edge with Citadel Abaddon Black. Technically which greys you use don't matter, as long as you're working up a couple of layers of highlights, which will then get tinted by the shade.
I thought I should also illustrate why I should look for my wet palette - here's a side-on shot of the tile I've been using for, well, years at this point. The paint on top is easily thicker than the tile in places. Should probably get that in some Dettol at some point...
I've also spent some time cleaning up and putting together the Dark Vengeance Hellbrute, so that I can paint it for the Death Guard. It's currently in four parts - main body, left foor, melee arm armour and chest armour/tentacles (note that the foot is plugged into place in this picture, but not glued on.)
I did consider swapping the face out, but left it for now. I'm not sure about the Eye of Horus symbols on the two pieces on the left - I'm pretty sure I want to remove the one off the arm armour, and possibly the one on the chest piece. I'll probably leave the rest of the trim, though. I need to remove the two pegs from the feet, then I can start to make one of my urban bases for the Hellbrute - I'll glue the seperate foot to the base, and mark around that concrete slab that's attached to the other one. This should make it easy to attach it to the base once I'm done. I also need to find my box of spare Nurgle bits from the Plaguebearers and Nurglings I've previously assembled, so I can see if there are any elements I want to add to the model.
Tomorrow should see temperatures heading back up a bit, so hopefully I can start actually painting the Storm Troopers then.
Dysartes wrote: @Arakasi - Good shout with the knife, especially on plastic. I take it you'd file back an excess knife lines after you've drilled the hole?
Only if the scoring ended up greater than the hole - which with practice shouldn't happen . I find it just as good on metal - you only need a very small indent for the drill bit to bite into.
Post six thousand, aye? Not a bad run so far, I guess.
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@Arakasi - Ah, I was thinking scoring lines across the whole frontage to establish the right spot, as opposed to just scoring a pilot dot for the pin vice. My bad.
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OK, so what progress has been made since Saturday? Well, I've spent some time on the Hellbrute, planning out how to make it a bit Nurgle-y, ready to fit into the Death Guard. At the start of this process, I removed the pegs from his feet and cut some plasticard to shape for the start of the basing process, though I've only glued the foot without the "tactical rock" down so the main body can be removed:
My first step in the Nurglfication process was to look through my spare bits from a box of Plaguebearers and set of Nurglings. If you've dealt with either kit, you'll know that you end up with a whole bunch of Nurglings you can use, a couple of piles of maggots, but not many other bits, unfortunately.
Still, I was able to find a couple of the little fellas who could be of some use, but not without a little modification. Some of the Nurglings have bases molded onto their feet, which is a pain if you want to do anything more than add them to a base. As it happens, on of these Nurglings was a perfect fit for an airborne pose on the Hellbrute, while another might work on the base with a better contact surface.
So, a plot was formed - I broke out my rustiest modelling knife, coughed a couple of times to get Grandfather's blessing, and went to work...
Not exactly a before/after shot, as I grabbed the wrong Nurgling to pose the before shot, but close enough for you to get the idea - cutting at the knee joint allowed me to glue the legs back together in a way that looks fairly natural, though the one now on the base needs some post-surgery care (aka, Liquid Green Stuff, probably) to get the knee looking quite right again:
What do these changes allow me to do? Well, firstly we get to show off the playful side of the Nurglings by adding this little fella to the chains below the power fist arm:
He isn't stuck there you, but I like the look. The other fella will go on the base, as he's accidentally ended up echoing the Hellbrute's pose - as above, so below, and all that...
With these two prepped, I've started work adding bits to the base, as you see in the above pic. Since then, a couple of skulls and some bricks have joined the large lumps of "concrete." Once the green stuff on the Nurgling knee has dried, I'll glue him in place and will add the ballast, sand and - after popping the Hellbrute back on the base temporarily - the Sandy Paste.
I think I know what I'll be doing with the CCW forearm armour, but we'll save that for another time.
In other surgical news, there may have been a little progress on the =][= Storm Trooper Officer - a combination of modelling knife, saw and clipper have gotten us to here:
I'm still considering what Captain Brown said about the other arm, but I'll need to find where I've put my unbuilt Scions to look at suitable parts. Still, I can go in with a file now before doing some test fits, and see what else I need to do to make the Rod side work.
Finally, I've thrown a little paint at the two =][= Storm Troopers with Special Weapons, but I think I may have reached for the wrong grey. I applied a basecoat of VMC Basalt Grey to both of them, but it looks too light - I suspect I should actually have gone with VMC German Grey instead. I'm hoping a couple of coats of Nuln Oil will bring it back down, which I'm testing on Grenade Launcher Guy's boots - if not, time to re-basecoat with German Grey, though I'll leave the cloth areas which'll end up being red alone.
This is the downside of trying to match a scheme, from memory, that you last painted before Christmas 2018...
That’s some great fun with the nurglings. I like the idea of the one at the front thinking he’s dead scary, but it’s the gruffalo hellbrute everyone is running from
Thanks gobert - the second one is more accidental than the guy that's just hanging around. I didn't realise what I had with him until I glued him to the spare leg and went, "Hmm..."
Thanks Denny - the other advantage of the Nurgling on the chain is that he should be fairly safe from getting knocked off the model under there, as the Hellbrute's arm and body offer some protection from rogue hands, etc.
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After leaving the Nuln Oil to dry on Grenade Launcher Dude's boots, I was able to confirm that my confusion over the greys looks to have been an over-reaction on my part, which is a relief. Rather than repainting the grey with German Grey, I went in and applied a coat of Skorne Red to the cloth sections on the two Storm Troopers:
With the red dry, I went back in to basecoat some of the other non-metallic areas - grenades with Caliban Green, Flamer Dude's face with P3 Midlund Flesh, and the the bedroll on Grenade Launcher Dude's backpack with P3 Battledress Green. I'm not certain the latter is correct, but it should be close enough.
After a touch-up pass, it was time to go in with the Shades - Reikland Fleshshade on Flamer Dude's face, Agrax Earthshade on the red, Nuln Oil on the grey, and Athonian Camoshade on the green bedroll. With that done, the metallics and details are next.
Metallics are fairly straightforward - I'll be using five in total. First up was a base coat of Vallejo Air Metallic Steel to all the silver areas, followed by GW Warplock Bronze on the bronze/brass areas. These then got a coat of Brass scorpion over the bronze, and then a general tidy-up pass.
(OK, that picture is more out of focus than I expected)
These metallics needed a bit of Shade throwing at them - the Brass was hit with Agrax Earthshade, grenade pins with straight Nuln Oil, while the main silver areas were washed with a 1:1:1 mix of Lahmian Medium, Nuln Oil and Drakenhof Nightshade.
Final stage are certain lenses and lights - I basecoated these with either VMA Aluminium or GW Retributor Armour, depending on whether I was going for green or red. Once these were set, I went over the top of them with Waystone Green or Blood for the Blood God, respectively. With that, these two were finished off - the first couple of models finished this year:
I've also finished stripping another batch of models - I had a bit of an odd system, where things would have an initial Dettol soak, then a scrub, then a secondary Dettol soak, then another scrub, then into washing-up liquid before getting the final rinse in warm water in the sink. I'm sure there's a more efficient approach, but this one seems to work for me - though there are some second-hand Valhallans which may need another trip, due to a very stubborn primer.
Spoiler:
In this batch we've got: two Sisters of Battle; a Sister Superior; two Inquisitorial Acolytes; a Praetorian Guardsman; Steel Legion Plasmagunner; top half of a Praetorian Heavy Weapon Gunner; two Valhallan Mortar Loaders; Valhallan with Flamer; Sly Marbo; SM Terminator Hero.
I've recently moved another batch to the washing-up liquid stage, and am about to move a batch on from the initial Dettol stage to a clean intermediate batch of Dettol. This is also a very good time to replace the Dettol itself, given how long things have been sat in there for...
Okay, that Nurgling dangling from the chain is really good. Overall GW did good stuff with the plastic nurglings, from the release of the Nurgling horde bases up to now really.
Sigur - Thanks, dude. Yeah, there are a lot of characterful Nurglings in the Death Guard and Nurgle Demon ranges. If it weren't for the bulk of the modern Nurgling base, with them stacking ~3 high, I'd probably have enough spare Nurglings to make a base or two now. Oh well...
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Having wrapped up the two Storm Troopers last time out, I've been tinkering with both the Storm Trooper Officer and the Death Guard Hellbrute, but neither of them are ready for undercoating yet.
Instead, I went to a box that I had to crack open to grab a Nurgling for the before/after picture earlier in the thread - Plaguebearers. I painted a unit of ten of these guys, including command group, back in 2019, but ten is a bit small for a Plaguebearer unit, so expanding it makes sense. Here's what the rest of the unit looks like:
I'll be painting the bases of this next group in one batch of ten models, before breaking them down to two units of five to paint the demons themselves. One upside to working on these guys in 2019 is I can raid an old thread for a rough write-up of how I painted the old unit, which should help with matching the colours.
One thing I have been doing with plastic models in recent years - especially if I've been building these urban bases, as they make the model a bit higher and therefore raise the center of gravity a bit. I've taken to supergluing some of these lead fishing weights on the underside, then sealing them in place with a second layer of glue which is then sealed with baking soda:
So, I guess I make a start on painting the bases for these guys today:
Well, that lasted a long time, didn't it? Started to get moving, then lost motivation again.
Time to dust thing off and try again... again.
Founding a Dynasty
It has been said before, and will no doubt be said again, that it can be easy to find yourself accidentally getting the core of an army together, especially when that army shows up in starter sets. It happened with the death Guar din 8th, and it has happened with Necrons in 9th.
In neither case is it something I'm immune to, and I really need to crack on with both - given the extent of my painted Death Guard are 28 Poxwalkers and an undercoated Miasmic Malignifier, I've obviously not done the best with that side of things just yet.
I picked up a copy of the 9th Ed. Codex: Necrons the other weekend, both to help me get the Black Templars coin, and so I could look at the sample paint schemes for the named Dynasties - I don't want to directly replicate one if I can help it, if only so I can try them out easily, or even go with a custom Dynasty. That's something we'll come back to later, when I actually have some stuff painted.
In terms of what I currently own for Necrons, we're looking at Indomitus, plus a Command Edition and Recruit Edition starter, a box of Immortals, Kamoteph the Crooked (who I think is a Cryptek) and (on order, at present) Lord Hasmoteph the Resplendent. I'm probably going to sign up for the Imperium magazine, and I might pick up a couple of bits that aren't stocked in my local GW later in the month, but that's my starting point. What does that translate to?
Of these, I've assembled the Necron contingent from the Recruit Edition starter - a Royal Warden, 10 Necron Warriors and 3 Canoptek Scarab Swarm bases, though I need to sort their basing and glue them to the bases. This seems a reasonable amount to pause on assembly and look at the paint side of things, though.
For those who are curious, the first ten Warriors have been built with gauss reapers - I think I'm going to go with 20 of each weapon for the first 40, but haven't decided beyond there yet.
Completely random point - has anyone managed to get the "How to paint" info on a GW webstore page to actually give them the paint names directly? I was looking at the Necron Warriors one earlier, for the classic method, and the only way I could ID paints was to open the little swatch in a new tab to get the name from the URL...
Might flag that to WarCom on Twitter, if they answer my question about what a Neopyte is from the BT sample army list article
I'm also sure people will be shocked and appalled to note that my painting desk/table is in a state again:
There are various part-completed assemblies or part-based models on there, including the base for the Hellbrute from earlier in the thread, the semi-converted Storm Trooper Officer, a Spoilpox Scrivener, a Plague Surgeon and (I think) a Sloppity Bilepiper in need of basing. Some of the undercoated parts of the Miasmic Malignifier show up in the bottom right, though the main assembly and base are off-screen at this point. Should probably start painting that at some stage...
Anyway, back to the Necrons.
I'm currently thinking my little Dynasty will be the Zarkhasm Dynasty, headed up by Overlord Ironikh - the sole (at the moment) Skorpekh Lord will probably be Limerikh, and we'll figure out other characters from there.
I'm having a little trouble with a colour scheme for them that doesn't duplicate one of the schemes for the existing named Dynasties. Cloaks like the one worn by the Royal Warden will probably be a bronze of some description, but I need to look at the metallics I've got to figure out what's going to work best for the main chassis - I've got a silver with a hint of blue, for example, that might work. Hmm...
I did start doing one of those hobby bingo cards that they've been going on about in the back of White Dwarf, but currently only have two "Any Model" boxes checked off for 2021 (for the two =][= Stormtroopers) - I'd like to complete a row or column before the end of the year, which seems a small-yet-achievable goal.
Looking at the card as it stands, I think I should be looking to complete the top row. The Storm Trooper Officer would cover the Kitbashed model, there are several "Hero" (or character, at least) models kicking about, which just leaves a 2+ model unit to sort out.
Am I gonna make it? Who the heck knows... but it's worth a shot, right?
Nice names for the Necrons, if you go for something that can be achieved with contrast your soon smash through that lot too! I’ve not done any hobby bingo cards, but I could get behind that one, if only because I’ve nearly done the middle row!
Captain Brown - Thanks, and I've certainly heard worse plans. I suspect I'll use Q4 to clear that row on the bingo card and do prep for a stronger start next year.
gobert - Hadn't considered Contrast yet. Were you meaning over a metallic for an effect, or just a Contrast over the usual undercoat sprays? I quite like the idea of the Hobby Bingo card, even if I've not been very good at motivating myself to complete it.
Got a little work done on the Storm Trooper Officer today. I cleaned up the join on the Rod of Command arm and pinned it, with a little Liquid(ish) Green Stuff in the join. Need to tidy it up a bit, but it looks OK so far:
You may also notice that he's lost the pistol and hand from his other arm, and I've cleaned up the odd little support bit from his wrist. I think I've figured out the cut I'm going to make on the Scion power sword arm to get that part, probably like this:
Might need to do some clean-up on the outside of the arm afterwards, but we'll see. The Officer's base is already prepared, aside from some Sandy Paste once I glue him to it.
I also took a look at a couple of the models on the desk that need bases sorting. These two look the furthest along:
Spoilpox Scrivener
Daemonhost
I might add a skull or two to the Scrivener's base, but aside from that we're mainly talking ballast, sand, a sealing coat of thinned PVA and a dash of Sandy Paste as required, which may make fun a reasonable series of steps for a Sunday.
I also identified the Plague Surgeon and Sloppity Bilepiper on there, as well as the base for the Hellbrute.
I was going to pick up some Caliban Green spray from GW when I was in town yesterday, as a quick way of dealing with the Dark Vengeance Tactical Squad, but apparently that's been discontinued for a while. Back to the drawing board in that regard, I guess.
I think I have an idea for the unit of 2+ models, though, but they need building - and a blood-soaked stick throwing a long distance to keep them distracted...
I've tried a few of the product pages - and this is in Chrome on my laptop, for transparency - and clicking on individual paint icons doesn't do anything other than sort-of activate the name of the recipe, and clicking on that doesn't appear to do anything either.
From an accessibility perspective, those paint pots should have ALT text at the very least, and they don't appear to.
What are you using where they do work, Gwyn, or can you point me to a page where you found they worked so I can take a wee gander?
That's strange. I'm on the GW page for Necron Warriors cuz you mentioned that was the broken one. On the UK version of the site because your little flag say's you're a Brit. Clicking any part of a recipe replaces the part of the page that says "The Citadel Colour System breaks down painting your models into just a few easy steps" with a list of the paints, including price and a quick "add-to-cart" button.
I checked using Chrome on my PC and it worked there too.
Gwyn - OK, I'm thoroughly confused, then. Weird, weird, weird, but I will see if I get a different result if I try on Firefox or Edge.
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Some little progress has been made over the last couple of days.
First up, I finished the conversion of the Storm Trooper Officer:
Cutting the sword hand off at the wrist turned out a little easier than I thought it might be, and once I'd filed both sides of the join smooth & flat I was able to pin it reasonably cleanly. With that done, I glued him into the base I'd already put together, then added some Vallejo Sandy Paste to the plasticard piece he stands on.
As I had the day off today, I undercoated him as well - need to touch up the bits the spray missed, so that's a quick job for tomorrow morning:
In a similar vein, I built up the bases for the Spoilpox Scrivener and Daemonhost this morning, and have undercoated them this evening. Not sure what degree of touch-up is required, given white over grey makes it tricky to tell where you've missed. I'll take a look in the morning and see what needs doing.
I'll probably paint the bases for the three at the same time, then focus on the Officer.
As an aside, am I right in thinking that Daemonhosts are still CHARACTER models?
Seeing this project makes me nostalgic for the old style of stormtroopers. I used to have a squad or two. I was kind of disappointed when the militarum tempestus or whatever they're called now didn't turn out to be plastic versions of the same. You're doing a great job with them. The sarge conversion looks pretty flawless.
Welcome back.. Good start to a Necron Army. As a Necron collector ( I say collector as I haven't had many games in the last year; so just working on collecting and Painting ) the Necron range is pretty good in the 9th edition. There are lots of unique units and options on how to play them.
@brushcommando - You might be interested in the below picture, then. I've painted four full squads of these Stormtroopers, each squad having four of a special weapon. I'm considering converting hot-shot volley guns for a fifth squad, as well as a command squad or two (with medics & standard bearers), but haven't gotten there yet, though I do have a couple of spare grunts painted at this point. Oh, and converting a second version of the Officer with a power fist.
@Solar_lion & Olthannon - Thanks guys. Amazing how much of an army you can "accidentally" accrue from starters. Still need to work on working out a scheme, but for now I need to get back into the painting groove properly.
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It's been a few days, but there has been progress - both with paint, and with assembly.
I've put together a unit of five Flesh Hounds as the week has gone on, as well as Caramac, The Hound of Vengeance (though in the case of the latter, I need to glue him down to his base, as well as decide if I'm leaving the upper head off for painting purposes). I figure I'll work through these two at the same time, and the Flesh Hounds will serve for the "Unit of 2+ Models" entry on the ol' bingo card, while Caramac can pick up a Hero/Character box in case I lose inspiration for the Scriviner or Daemonhost (or if the Daemonhost isn't a CHARACTER model these days).
First job was to paint the bases for the =][= Stormtrooper Officer, the Daemonhost and the Spoilpox Scrivener. The method I used was the same as described in this post earlier in the thread, so I won't repeat the steps here. When done, they looked like this:
I'll need to touch up a couple of bits on the Scrivener before I start to paint it, but that's a minor thing.
With the bases all done, I moved on to working on the Officer. I started off with an almost-all-over basecoat of VMC Basalt Grey, followed by a coat of Nuln Oil shade. With that dry, the fatigues were picked out with P3 Skorne Red, the grenades with Citadel Caliban Green, the bedroll on his back with P3 Battledress Green, and his face with P3 Midlund Flesh, though that may need a second coat. Once his face gets that second coat, it'll be time to go in and start picking out the metallics.
That is indeed an impressive array of stormtroopers.Looks like an old school Nork Deddog to boot. Your basework is impressive. Maybe I missed it in your earlier post, but what do you use for the primary base texture?
@Brushcommando - Aye, that's the metal Nork Deddog, though with the plastic skull piece from the current Nork added to his shoulder, as I thought it looked cool. Thanks for the comments on the bases - there's a breakdown of how I build them in a spoiler on this post which goes through the basics of the process.
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We have our first completed model since I restarted this, and you're probably not surprised to hear that it is the Storm Trooper Officer - or Captain Kappa Omega, as he'll probably be known.
Since the last photo, I went in and basecoated the metallic areas, using Vallejo Model Air Steel for the, well, steel, and VMA Aluminium as a base for the gold. A small dot of Citadel Retributor Armour was used on the bionic eye as a base for the red. The face also got a second pass of P3 Midlund Flesh.
Once all that had set, and I'd tidied up a couple of red spots on the grey, it was time to go in with washes. The red fatigues were washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade, the bedroll with Citadel Athonian Camoshade, and the areas which would be gold got two or three coats of Citadel Seraphim Sepia.
The grenades got a 2:1:1 mix of Lahmian Medium, Nuln Oil and Biel-Tan Green, while the steel got a mix in the same ratio of Lahmian Medium, Nun Oil and Drakenhof Nightshade.
With the shades dry, I could then go in with the Technical paints - the lens for the bionic eye got hit with Blood For the Blood God, the main panel on each arm with Waystone Green and the smaller lights with Soulstone Blue. The green and blue were both over VMA Aluminium, for the base shine.
The end result?
Given how long he has been either in progress or in my head for, it's good to get him finished. Of course, now I'm trying to pick up another one of these Sergeants at a... reasonable price, so I can do a second Officer, this time with a Power Fist. And at some stage, I'll no doubt need to convert up #3, though who knows what he ends up with.
Once I find the green pen I was using, I'll mark him off for the "Kitbashed Model" square of the bingo card. I think we'll move onto the Daemonhost next - going by the source image of him in this WHC article, I'm hoping he'll be fairly straightforward once I've basecoated the various metal areas in black...
@inmygravenimage, Kid_Kyoto, Olthannon - Thanks for the kind words. Not quite sure what went on with the levels in GIMP on the final shots, so I might redo them down the line. Still, he's in the cabinet with his 40 men and Nork now.
@Solar_Lion - I'm pretty much going with the scheme used by the Inquisitorial Stormtroopers in the ol' Daemonhunters codex (and I think were then reused in Witchhunters), so I can't take too much credit. Still, it's an effective look for these sculpts - it'd probably work on Kasrkin, too, but I'm not so sure about the modern Scions or the old-school beret Stormtroopers from 2nd edition.
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Last week gave me a bit of a nudge to move forwards, so I've made a second weekly hobby pledge on Twitter. This week, I've said that I will...
- Paint the Daemonhost
- Finish assembling the base for my Death Guard Hellbrute
- Assemble a model (though not necessarily base it)
These are things to get done by Monday, though without my Friday evening, as I'll be playing Arkham Horror LCG then instead. As we're on Thursday, where are we up to with these goals?
- I've assembled a Bloodmaster (Khorne Daemon Herald), though I've not glued him to the base yet. I may also take a look at assembling Skulltaker too, though with his cloak as a sub-assumbly if possible.
- I've dusted off the Hellbrute base. Looks like we're at the "add ballast, then sand" sort of stage in the process.
I've made slightly more progress with the Daemonhost, though it might not look that impressive:
- Painted the horns on his head with two coats of Army Painter Dark Tone, to try out the method described by Insectum7 for his Tyranids. I might do a third, as I'm not sure I'd shaken the bottle enough the first time.
- Painted the skulls on chains with Gorthor Brown, as a base for their bone coat
- Picked out all the metal areas with Warcolours Black, over three sittings, ready to start using metallics on them.
I'm using this image as a reference, and that looks to include three or four difference metallics in there, so we should get some variety. Not entirely sure about skin tone yet, but I imagine "Pallid Wych Flesh" may appear as a base - after I've touched up the undercoat with the metallics done, anyway.
@Captain Brown - Thanks, Captain. Mainly picked this up for in case I ever use Eisenhorn, rather than to run him solo, but options are options
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Carried on working on the Daemonhost - after all, there are four different metallics needing to get added to the model.
The large bindings got a basecoat of Citadel Warplock Bronze, the chains got Vallejo Model Air Gungrey, the padlocks had Citadel Retributor Armour, and the... Inquisition charms(?) VMA Aluminium.
Once all the metallics had set, I went back in and washed the chains with Nuln Oil, the padlocks with Reikland Fleshshade, and the Inquisition charms with a couple of passes of Seraphim Sepia. The large bindings got a little Warplock touch-up, then were washed with Agrax Earthshade.
Around this point, the skulls near the Daemonhost's feet were painted with P3 Jack Bone, in the same way as the ones on the base. Once that had enough time to set, they were washed with Agrax Earthshade as well.
Here's how the Daemonhost looked at this point:
Next step was to go back over the Bronze areas with Sycorax Bronze for a bit more shine, as Agrax tends to do a really good job of matte-ing down the shine of Warplock Bronze. This seemed to e a good moment to pause the metallics, and look at the skin.
The skin on my reference picture looks pretty pale, with some shading to help add definition. Looking at it, the painter may actually have started with a black undercoat. I went with my initial thought, and basecoated the skin with GW Pallid Wych Flesh.
Looking great! I always enjoyed the old SAS style stormtroopers, they always looked the part for "Inquisitorial stormtroopers". If you're looking for sourcing parts to convert some officers/sgts, the metal catachan officers have matching boots/pants as the Stormtroopers and the Stormtrooper's hands are the same as space marines, if you gives any help.
Impressive collection, I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work!
@brushcommando - I do have some Sisters and Knights to do at some stage. I was working on putting together a metal Terminator squad together, as well as a plastic Purifier one, but they're further down the pipeline.
@ValhallanWinter - Good to know about those parts, chief. Elements from the Scions set seem to work with them, too, as that Officer shows. I have picked up another one of those Sergeants up from eBay, but converting him can wait till next year.
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Having basecoated the skin with Pallid Wych Flesh last time out, I applied a wash to all the skin - a 3:2:1 mix of Lahmian Medium, Reikland Fleshshade & Agrax Earthshade. Some spot washes with a 1:1 mix of Lahmium Medium and Carroburg Crimson was added to some spots. Neat Drakenhof Nightshade was also added to the eyes, to give a sense of the Warp-y stuff going on inside.
As he's a little top-heavy, and his centre of gravity is a little front of centre, I also took the opportunity to superglue & baking soda some small lead fishing weights to the inside back edge of his base. We may have had a couple of faceplant moments recently, so hopefully that'll help with that.
Having tested it, he does seem more stable now, so that's a bonus.
The purity seals on the back of his leg needed some attention, so I basecoated the parchment element with Citadel Rakarth Flesh, followed by shading them with Agrax Earthshade. I also took this opportunity to go hunting for rogue white spots in the shadows, and hitting them with Earthshade too. The wax seal at the top I painted with Citadel Altdorf Guard Blue, before hitting it with Drakenhof Nightshade.
A few finishing touches with some Nihilakh Oxide later, and we end up with the following:
With the Daemonhost finished, we get the following updated bingo card:
In terms of the other stuff I said I'd do, here's the assembled Bloodmaster and updated base for the Hellbrute:
Need to figure out the next pledge today... we'll see.
Great demonhost, but I'm really excited for your Hellbrute Where's your bingo card from? I maybe should do something like that to break the hobby ADHD...
@inmygravenimage - Thanks, graven. That was the 2021 Hobby Bingo card that was being used in White Dwarf. The 2022 version features in White Dwarf 471. While it's on cardstock, I've produced another replica to stick to the bookcase for this year. Kinda wish they did a PDF download version so you could print it off as and when needed, but we're not that lucky
Spoiler:
Counting what makes up the squares, we get the following as required to complete it:
- Hero or Character (4)
- Fortification or Scenery (2)
- Kitbashed Model (2)
- Lord of War (or Behemoth) (2)
- Unit of 2+ Models (3)
- Unit of 5+ Models (3)
- Unit of 10+ Models (4)
- Vehicle or Monster (4)
- Any Model
Fortification/scenery and Lord of War are probably the two boxes I'm least confident about, but in theory one card is doable. I'm going to only be counting GW models for this, and primarily 40k - not doing the "Expert" mode, given that requires AOS stuff.
I think I'll be working down each column, from left to right, and stopping as I fill out appropriate boxes. I won't be deliberately picking things to fill our rows, columns or diagonals, though.
I have put together a few bits since I last posted, though, and soem of those are on the bench to paint next, I think:
Here we have Caramac (or Karanak, Hound of Vengeance, currently minus his third head, which was undercoated on a stick), as well as a unit of five Flesh Hounds. Got them assembled and based last year, and they're now undercoated.
I've also popped three figures in some Dettol this week to remove paint on them - the original Eversor Assassin sculpt, another =][= ST Sergeant (as the base for a second =][= STO), and an Inquisitorial Acolyte. While I was tidying things off my desk and bagging models up, I found two other Acolyte sculpts from the Daemonhunters/Witchhunters days, so I guess I'll be painting some of them up at some stage.
In terms of Necrons, I picked up the Worldscour Legion box up via my FLGS before Christmas, and I think my Pile of Potential list is up-to-date as it pertains to Necrons. In terms of scheme, I'm suspecting a Leadbelcher undercoat, drybrushed with a brighter silver, then hit with Contrast is likely to be the starting point. I'm thinking Akhelian Green or Aethermatic Blue as the starting point, but I need to test this out. This may mean finding where I left the sacrificial Mantic Elves, as well as picking up the appropriate Contrast paints to test this.
If it works on an Elf, then I think the Royal Warden I built last year will be the true test subject.
Those stormtroopers look great. Inspired me to dig up my old ones and start thinking about some renovation.
You use Dettol for stripping? I've never done any model stripping before, but a lot of my old Guard is terribly painted. Does Dettol work for plastic too?
The bingo is also a great idea, I agree it would be great as a PDF.
@Graven - Cheers, chief! Nowhere near your post total, of course, but still trucking along
@Haighus - Thanks Haighus. I've used Dettol on plastic before, and it hasn't had any negative side effects that I've seen. Definitely safe to leave models in for a while, too.
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A little progress this week. I've finished stripping the paint from one batch of models, as well as moving a second batch on to the final stage of the process - should get those cleaned up this week, then I'll get a shot of the group.
Ordered a metal Callidus Assassin off eBay over the weekend, as well as picking up the Khorne Blood Bowl team. Need to decide if I want to pick up any of the associated FW figures.
In terms of actual model work, I've built and done an initial undercoat pass on these three:
Need to review them in the cold light of day, and see if a touch-up spray is required. I think the central "core" cylinder will be starting from Dark Reaper, with the direction on the metal sections to be decided following the test I'm doing below. Not currently sure what colour I'll be doing the stonework, though.
I've also prepared a couple of sacrificial Mantic Elves to test a couple of approaches to my theoretical Necron scheme. Having said that, I'm now rethinking whether I should've undercoated the Convergence already.
Elf on the left has been sprayed with Leadbelcher, Elf on the right with Chaos Black - the latter will be getting a coat of Vallejo Model Air Steel today, and once that has set I'll give them a top-down drybrush of VMA Aluminium or Chrome as a highlight. This probably means that tomorrow I'll give them a pass with Aethermatic Blue Contrast over the silver, and see which finish I prefer.
With the work on the Convergence on Fri & Sat, and preparing these Elves yesterday - along with playing Arkham Horror LCG for about eight hours - that puts me on a three day hobby streak. Let's see how that continues...
Ended up using VMA Gungrey rather than Steel on the Elf that had been undercoated with Chaos Black, before both got their drybrush of Chrome.
A later of Aethermatic Blue was applied yesterday, and here are the results:
I wouldn't say there's enough of a difference to be noticeable, though I am wondering if a post-Contrast drybrush of Chrome (or Aluminium) might be a good move. In a way, this is good news, as it means I can undercoat 'Crons with either colour without affecting the end result too much.
Think it might be time to prep the Royal Warden from my Recruit Edition box for an undercoat, probably with Leadbelcher. I don't want all the Necron Exoskeleton to me a single tone, especially on characters, so it may be a case of using the Aethermatic Blue on panels, with Nuln Oil or Nuln Oil Gloss in the recesses. I'm thinking Wyldwood over Leadbelcher for the scarab-half-cloak thing, but we'll see how that pans out...
I will want to prepare and paint his base separately in this case, as I'll want to work over a Chaos Black undercoat. Should probably mark out where he stands and build that first, thinking about it.
@inmygravenimage - Thanks, graven. Not quite gotten there on the Warden yet, but the moment is approaching...
@Olthannon - Thanks, dude. Given that's literally one coat of Contrast over the silver, it should be pretty straightforward, too.
@gobert - I'm not sure how much of any colour variation between the two is due to GIMP. Bear in mind that the elves are mounted on the same coffee stirrer, and were sat within the same photo booth, about the same distance from the camera, then look at the difference in the background...
@Haighus - No worries, dude. I've just finished bagging the models from my last two batches of stripping, though a few have needed to go back in. I think that's more because they ended up in positions where the paint wasn't exposed, or it was in awkward recesses, though.
@Captain Brown - Not sure yet, Cap'n. Need to get the unweathered version in place first, and then see what I think.
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OK, time for a quick catch-up on the Warden...
19/01 - Marked out feet position on Royal Warden base, then removed him from the base. Undercoated with Leadbelcher after masking underside of feet with Blu-Tack.
Marked the base so I knew where to be careful with basing material, to avoid issues when popping the Warden back in place. Filled the dent with superglue and baking soda
Who's a shiny boy, then? And, no, I have no idea why his thigh appears to be blue...
20/01 - Started building Royal Warden base. Touched up the undercoat on the Convergence.
21/01 - Finished building Royal Warden base, sealed it, and undercoated it. Played Arkham Horror LCG in the evening.
22/01 - Used Abaddon Black on the rock/skull on Warden's feet.
23/01 - Found Scion parts for Storm Trooper Officer conversion. Basecoated base & rock with P3 Cryx Bane Highlight. Played Arkham Horror LCG in the evening.
24/01 - Got most of the base painted, aside from the wash & tidying up the rim. Followed usual method (see earlier in thread).
Camera had odd focus idea, which I only noticed when processing the image today. Still, you can get an idea on the base progress.
25/01 - Washed base with Agrax Earthshade, tidied up the rim with Abaddon Black.
If we avoid the gun, we can even focus on the base! Note tha the Warden isn't glued in place yet, so I can rotate on any axis to try to get paint in the right spot...
27/01 - Corrected Vindicare Assassin "lean". Added lead weights to Royal Warden base using superglue and baking soda to seal.
28/01 - Drybrushed outside of Royal Warden with VMA Chrome. Started shading in some detail areas with Nuln Oil - some parts may require a second coat, or a pass with Black Templar Contrast in addition. Played Arkham Horror LCG in the evening.
29/01 - More Nuln Oil. Used Seraphim Sepia as a first coat on the torc. Probably also using it on the scarab half-cape, but need to figure out interior detail first. Used Black Templar on the spinal column - need to determine where else it will be used.
And here's where he is as of this evening.
Progress is being made. Not necessarily fast progress, admittedly, but he's starting to take shape. The Nuln Oil is probably not the most obvious on these pictures, but it is helping me in person. Technically on day 15 of a hobby streak, for varying values of how much hobby was done on a given day.
I think that some of the plates next to pistons - such as on the shins - will get some Black Templar, and I may use it for the main chassis of the gun. I think the fast approach to the inside of the scarab cloak thing is do hit the cylinders with Black Templar, then do two coats of Seraphim Sepia on the outside and remaining inside. The really fast route would've included it not being in place at this stage...
The barrel cylinders will be basecoated with Incubi Darkness (at a guess), with the domes and edges near them being re-chromed ahead of Tesseract Glow being used.
I'm not sure yet if the big shoulder plates will be the same blue as the rest of the armour, and whether I'll do the face with the same approach as the starter model, with a Chrome face but the armour colour on the sides/cheeks. Any thoughts on those?
My suggestion on the shoulder plates is to leave them the same as the rest of the model...basically any patina would have worn off the Necron over the millennium.
Thanks, Captain - made some significant progress yesterday, too. Have left the big shoulder plates alone for now, but I do think they're gonna need something on there...
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30/01 - Used Black Templar on the inside of the scarab cloak, as well as the gun casing (twice) and part of the shins. Washed the scarab cloak with Seraphim Sepia (twice). Painted the gun barrel cylinders with Incubi Darkness. Added lead weights to underside of three bases of Scarabs. Aerthermatic Blue'd the endoskeleton, aside from the huge shoulder pads (for now).
@inmygravenimage - Thanks graven. Any thoughts on colours for those shoulder pads?
@Captain Brown - I could certainly target any marks ont he sculpt with Nuln Oil, for example.
@Olthannon - A light green might be an interesting option. I took a look at a colour wheel, and it was suggesting a red/orange, but that might be a bit too much. I may need to break out the sacrificial Elves again...
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31/01 - Started basing 3 Scarab bases - added bricks and medium ballast.
01/02 - Added sand to Scarab bases. Sealed them with watered down PVA. Undercoated the Scarab bases. Finished cleaning up the Scarabs themselves. Undercoated the Scarabs with Leadbelcher. Basecoated Scarab bases with Cryx Bane Highlight. Drybrushed bases with Trollblood Highlight.
Bases built
After the first drybrush
02/02 - Drybrushed Scarab bases with Sickly Skin. Picked out bricks with Skorne Red. Drybrushed Scarabs with VMA Chrome. Washed bases with Agrax Earthshade. Tidied up the base rims with Abaddon Black - bases complete. Painted rear rectangular sections on Scarabs (and any filled gaps between them with Black Templar - gaps got two coats. Hit the Scarab claws with Nuln Oil (might just do them with Black Templar in future). Painted the remaining upper hull of the Scarabs with Aethermatic Blue. Shaded the underside of the Scarabs with Black Templar. Picked out the upper side of the pegs for the Scarab base that doesn't have rocks with Abaddon Black.
Bases done
At this point, I wanted to run a test of how to use the Tesseract Glow would work over various colours on models. I also think Scarabs are a safe choice as a testbed for this. I've picked out three options for paints I think it should work reasonably nicely, without using a flat white. For this test, I'm going to try Citadel Wraithbone, VMA Chrome, and P3 Sickly Skin.
The test!
Before Tesseract Glow:
After Tesseract Glow:
In the above picture, there's barely any difference between the three Scarabs - in person, there's a visible difference between the Chrome one and the other two, due to there being a metallic sheen beneath the Glow, but the other two are basically indistinguishable, as far as I can see.
"To sheen, or not to sheen; that is the question..."
...and it is a question I don't really have an answer to just yet.
3/2 - Painted upper pegs on the other two Scarabs with Abaddon Black. Glued all three into their bases.
And with that, we hit an important little marker - the first unit of the Dynasty is complete, as (for those counting at home) is bingo square A4. By my count, I've got another 12 bases of Scarabs to paint across the three big boxes (Indomitus, Command Edition, Worldscour Legion), so we'll see how they get broken down for the purposes of the bingo.
Even alien swarms want a beauty shot...
These do give me a bit of direction on what to do next on the Royal Warden - the domes on the gun, his eyes, and the cables, so I guess I'll deal with them today as well.
So I would consider leaning into dark blues for the shoulder pads, or even just a nightshade wash and then picking out with some transitional gold, pink and white highlights to get a sort of chroming - much like the VMA chrome you've got above (very nice btw).
@inmygravenimage - Aye, I ended up going with a dark blue in the end.
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3/2 - Continued - Started basecoating the Convergence metal areas with Leadbelcher. I'm going to be at this for a while, and am already regretting not painting them in pieces...
4/2 - Applied a second coat of Incubi Darkness to the Royal Warden's gun. Picked out some cables with Caliban Green. Painted some more of the Convergence metal areas with Leadbelcher. Played Arkham Horror LCG in the evening. Added weights to the bases of 5 Necron Warriors.
5/2 - Added weights to the bases of 5 Necron Warriors. Filled the divots on the top of all ten bases with superglue & baking soda. Applied Leviadon Blue to the Warden's shoulders and face. Added bricks to the Necron Warrior bases. Painted some more of the Convergence metal areas with Leadbelcher.
6/2 - Added skulls to the bases of 3 of the Necron Warriors. Picked out domes on Royal Warden's gun (as well as the eyes) with VMA Chrome. Went over the Chrome with Tesseract Glow. Painted the Caliban Green cables with Warpstone Glow. Marked around the Warrior's feet with Cryx Bane Highlight. Painted the remaining two cables Mephiston Red. Declaring the Royal Warden done...
One Royal Warden, finished - 2/3 units from Recruit Edition are completed now
In case the notes above didn't give it away, there's a lot of metal to basecoat on the Convergence - and without an airbrush, it was either paint the rock or the metal by hand. Will get a picture when the metal is all in place as proof.
Necron Warriors will be getting the same basing as everything else, shockingly - changed the paint I was using to mark where the feet go from a metallic to the same basecoat as I'll be using on the basecoat, in case of blu-tack hiding some of it when I undercoat the bases.
@Captain Brown - That's always the tough question, isn't it? Need to figure out what I'm going to build to be next on the paint queue once the other five Warriors are completed. I suspect it should be another 10 Warriors (and 3 Scarabs), but I might throw something in between to break things up a bit.
@inmygravenimage - Thanks graven.
+ + +
7/2 - Added ballast to the Necron Warrior bases. Decided to progress as two groups of five, so added sand to five of the Warrior bases. Sealed those bases with watered-down PVA. Undercoated bases and Warriors in different colours (Chaos Black and Leadbelcher, respectively). Basecoated bases with P3 Cryx Bane Highlight.
Everything ready for undercoating
Everything undercoated
8/2 - Applied second coat of Cryx Bane Highlight to bases. Drybrushed bases with P3 Trollblood Highlight. Drybrushed bases with P3 Sickly Skin. Picked out the bricks on the bases with P3 Skorne Red, and the skull with Steel Legion Drab. Went over the skull with P3 Jack Bone. Washed bases with Agrax Earthshade. Tidied up base rims with Abaddon Black - bases done. Drybrushed the Warriors with VMA Chrome, as well as picking out the symbol ont heir chests with Chrome. Shaded joints and weapons with Nuln Oil (following the pattern from the Warden). Hit up the chest symbol with Seraphim Sepia (twice). Painted the shoulder pads with Leviadon Blue.
Painted bases
9/2 - Allied shading to appropriate bits of the Warriors with Black Templar. Guns got their Incubi Darkness pass, twice. Painted cables with Caliban Green, then Warpstone Glow. Picked out the rocks on various Warriors' feet with Abaddon Black.
10/2 - Picked out some cables I'd missed with Nuln Oil Rocks by feet got a basecoat with Cryx Bane Highlight. Painted all the armour panels with Aethermatic Blue. Highlighted the rocks at their feet with Trollblood Highlight. Used VMA Chrome in various spots, ready for Tesseract Glow.
11/2 - Hit all the bits I painted Chrome yesterday with Tesseract Glow. Highlighted foot rocks with P3 Sickly Skin. Glued models into bases. Shaded foot rocks with Agrax Earthshade - 5 Warriors complete 5 Finished Warriors
One thing I hadn't twigged until I was painting these Warriors was how battered some of them are - and that this means there's random detail consideration to make that I hadn't had to on the Warden. Figured all the endoskeleton parts (as opposed to armour plates) would get hit with Black Templar, and we'll see how things go from there.
I did make one error while undercoating this batch - I forgot to mask the bases with blu-tak, meaning that there was paint on surfaces I'd want to use poly cement on. Ended up using poly cement in the peg holes, and superglue on any upper surfaces, to try to get a good solid join.
Next up are the other five Warriors from this batch, to give me my first Troops choice - albeit a minimum-sized one that I might expand later.
Note - I forgot to mention last time that the Royal Warden filled square A1 in the bingo card.
@Olthannon - Thanks Olthannon. Surprising how well some of the Contrast paints work over the metal, and the shine from the metal gives you built-in highlights, which is handy
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11/2 - Added sand to the bases of the other five Warriors. Sealed sand on bases with watered-down PVA. Played some virtual Arkham Horror LCG. Undercoated the bases and Warriors.
I remembered the Blu-tack this time! Ready to make with the paint...
12/2 - Basecoated bases with Cryx Bane Highlight. Drybrushed Warriors with VMA Chrome. Foot rocks got a coat of Abaddon Black. Foot rocks got a coat of Cryx Bane Highlight, and bases got a second one. Foot rocks & bases got drybrushed with Trollblood Highlight. Warrior shoulderpads got their Leviadon Blue coat. Foot rocks & bases got drybrushed with Sickly Skin. Picked out the bricks on the bases with P3 Skorne Red, and the skull with Steel Legion Drab. Went back and hit the chest symbols on the Warriors wwith VMA Chrome. Went over the skull with P3 Jack Bone. Tidied up base rims with Abaddon Black. Washed foot rocks and bases with Agrax Earthshade. Washed chest symbols with Seraphim Sepia (once).
13/2 - Chest symbols received their second coat of Seraphim Sepia. Shaded joints and weapons with Nuln Oil. Used Black Templar on the bodies where appropriate, as well as on the gun casings (twice). Glued weights to bases for the next three units to be built. Incubi Darkness on the guns (twice), Caliban Green on the cables. Aethermatic Blue over the armour, Warpstone Glow on the cables, more Chrome on the spots to get hit with Tesseract Glow. Built a Plasmancer, along with a pair of Cryptothralls. Picked out rib recesses and some damage with Black Templar. Glued the Warriors into their bases. Applied Tesseract Glow as required - Warriors done.
Batch 2 complete! The whole of the first squad (for now...?)
Pretty happy with how they've turned out, and I have now finished the Necron half of my Recruit Edition starter. 14 models, 12PL, and 250 points, if the French PDF release of the MFM is to be believed.
In terms of the bingo card, finishing those Warriors allows me to check A3 off, so the updated card looks a bit like this:
Spoiler:
Next up, as referenced in my notes, are the Plasmancer and Cryptothralls unit from Indomitus - and possibly the Reanimator. Definitely getting the basing sorted for the first three on the 14th, so I can hopefully get them undercoated that day.
Finishing these on the 13th gives me #hobbystreak day 30
Great work keeping the hobby streak going, that’d be impressive on its own, but the Necrons are coming out great too! I went for one Contrast colour on mine, so I’m impressed that you’ve picked out different areas differently. Hope you manage to keep it going!
@catbarf - Thanks catbarf. I was after a scheme that didn't tie in to an established dynasty, and seem to have achieved that here.
@lordbickerstaff - Thank you very much. Will need to get them out on a table once I've got some more done, and see how they look as a group.
@Guardling - Thank you very much.
@Olthannon - Fortunately everything I've worked on so far has been 9th ed releases. I think I should be good on older kits, but we'll see. I've got some Immortals to get to at some stage, for example.
+ + +
14/2 - Glued bricks & skulls to bases for Plasmancer & Cryptothralls. Removed all the parts for the Reanimator from the sprue. Added ballast to the bases. Outlined model footprint with Cryx Bane Highlight. Built the Reanimator, bar adding the top armour plates (so they can be painted off the main model). Added sand to the bases for the Plasmancer and Cryptothralls.
15/2 - Sealed the sand to the Plasmancer & Cryptothrall bases. Undercoated both. Basecoated/re-undercoated Plasmancer base element with Abaddon Black. Basecoated bases and Plasmancer base element with Cryx Bane Highlight (twice). Drybrushed bases with Trollblood Highlight. Drybrushed bases with P3 Sickly Skin. Skorne Red Bricks, Steel legion Drab skulls. Filled the divots in the bases for 20 Warriors with superglue & baking soda. Painted skulls with P3 Jack Bone. Glued weights to the bottom of six 40mm bases for Scarabs. Tidied up base edges for Plasmancer & Cryptobros with Abaddon Black.
The Cryptothralls and Plasmancer before the undercoat step - though I did remember to add blu-tack to mask the bases before that happened!
16/2 - Washed Plasmancer & Cryptothrall bases with Agrax Earthshade - bases done. Shaded assorted joins on the Cryptothralls with Nuln Oil, as well as the inside of the shoulder pads with Black Templar. Shaded the Cryptothralls' "Scythed Limbs" with a 1:1:1 mix of Nuln Oil, Drakenhof Nightshade & Lahmian Medium. Painted the Cryptothrall bodies with Black Templar (aside from the to-be-glowy domes). Painted the outside of the shoulders with Leviadon Blue. Shaded the toes with Nuln Oil (as I forgot the first time), and filled the vents on the outside of the shoulders with Black Templar. Added weights to 10 of the Warrior bases, and sealed them with baking soda.
17/2 - Painted armour panels with Aethermatic Blue on the Cryptothralls. Repainted the eyes and "armpit domes" (for want of a better term) with VMA Chrome. Picked out the under-neck cable with Caliban Green. Highlighted cables with Warpstone Glow. Applied Tesseract Glow to eyes & domes. Went back in to shin detail with Black Templar. Removed blu-tack masks from bases & models. Glued arms to Cryptothralls, glued Cryptothralls to bases - Cryptothralls done.
The Terrible Twosome - can get some more angles if people are interested
Not a bad little couple of dudes to paint up, though I need to paint the Plasmancer (or another Cryptek) to go with them. They also allow me to cross off B2 on the bingo card - four boxes done so far, and things either built or undercoated to fill up a few more.
Thanks to the various big boxes I've picked up, I've got a total of 50 Warriors (and 15 bases of Scarabs) to work through. Trying to figure out what ratio of Reapers to Flayers to do, though I'm thinking a 30/20 split is probably the way to go for now. I'll no doubt end up adding more Warriors down the line anyway.
Status of other Necron bits at present...
- Convergence of Dominion - Still getting the Leadbelcher basecoat on them
- Canoptek Reanimator - Built, awaiting basing
- Plasmancer - Quite shiny at present; next to be worked through, once I've planned out what colour will be going where. Base is painted
- 20 Warriors & 6 Scarabs - Bases mostly prepared to start building (divots filled, weights added). Want to try some alternative bases on a couple of the Scarabs, to break things up a bit... more to follow on that one.
@inmygravenimage - Thanks Graven. I'm really liking the finish I'm getting from Leviadon Blue.
@gobert - They are quite fun little models, even if I had to paint them with the arms removed. Here are some extra angles I shot last night:
+ + +
17/2 - Continued - Added weights to the other 10 Warrior bases. Painted the Plasmancer tail, spine and parts of the weapon with Black Templar. Shaded some joints with Nuln Oil.
18/2 - Washed the spikes at the end of the tail and the bottom of the staff weapon with a 1:1:1 mix of Drakenhof Nightshade: Nuln Oil: Lahmian Medium. Desprued and cleaned up six bases of Scarabs. Painted armour sections with Aethermatic Blue, and the core of the spines on his shoulder blades with Incubi Darkness. Top of the spines, shoulder armour and top of skull painted with Leviadon Blue. Used pieces from the Sector Imperialis Large Basing Kit on the bases for two of the Scarab swarms.
19/2 - Mixed up a 2:1 mix of Lahmium Medium and Nuln Oil, and went over the metal cloak of the Plasmancer, to add delineation to the recesses. Assembled 5 Warriors with Gauss Flayers. Made a 1:1 mix of Lahmian Medium & Druchii Violet, then washed the metal cape. Added a second coat of Incubi Darkness to the spines. Painted cable with Caliban Green. Hit spots to get a glow-up tomorrow with VMA Chrome. Applied first coat of Seaphim Sepia to Necron symbols on neck and weapon.
The Plasmancer, before he felt the glow...
20/2 - Applied Tesseract Glow to all appropriate areas. Applied second coat of Seraphim Sepia to the gold areas. Highlighted cable with Warpstone Glow. Painted inside of cape with Black Templar. Glued Plasmancer to his base. Washed base detail (and pipe) with Agrax Earthshade. Shaded the blade with a 1:1 mix of Contrast Medium and Ork Flesh. Added additional shade to the weapon with Dark Angels Green Contrast. Built 5 more Warriors with Gauss Flayers. Highlighted the Plasmancer's weapon with Ogryn Camo - Plasmancer done Finished Plasmancer
Plasmancer and friends
I'm not massively happy with how the blade came out, but I think it might be recoverable - this is what I get for trying out a guide from the Warhammer YT channel...
On the upside, that's another square crossed off the bingo card - C1, for those following along at home.
I may have taken advantage of Forbidden Planet having some Imperium issues sticking around, so grabbed a Warrior squad and a Cryptek for £8.50 a piece, or 50% or more off the RRP. Looks like we'll be heading for 20 Flayers and 40 Reapers at the moment.
While I have done a little hobby this morning, we'll keep the #hobbystreak counter updated to yesterday, and call it day 37.
You are really making me want to focus on my Indomitus necrons!
The thralls are very cool and I love the different metal colours you have on the go. I think the blade looks pretty cool but if you aren't happy with it you can always change it up.
@Olthannon - I'm always happy to encourage people to get on with a project, chief I've softened on the blade a little - I think my main issue with it is the mid-tone, and the fact I didn't do the final white highlight. I'd reached the "just call it finished" stage, so we'll see f it improves if I go back to add the white highlight. There are plenty of these energy blades to look at in a modern Necron army, after all.
@inmygravenimage - Thanks graven!
@Captain Brown - Indeed it does. And that little bit more in today's post, too...
+ + +
21/2 - Added bricks to the bases for the Necron Warriors. Added a skull to one of them, and IG bits to the bases of three others. Added medium ballast to the bases. Added sand to all ten bases. Sealed sand to based with thinned PVA.
Ranked up, and ready for undercoat
22/2 - Undercoated five of the Warriors (and their bases). Re-undercoated "foot rocks" with Abaddon Black. Basecoated bases (etc) with Cryx Bane Highlight (twice). Drybrushed bases (etc) with Trollblood Highlight. Final drybrush with Sickly Skin. Picked out bricks with Skorne Red. Picked out the skull on that one base with Steel Legion Drab. Went over skull with Jack Bone. Painted bottom of grenade launcher ammo pack with Umbral Umber, and the top with Bootstrap Leather - also acknowledged I should've cut this down a bit before using it as a basing component. Tidied up edges of bases with Abaddon Black. Shaded bases with Agrax Earthshade. Bases done. Drybrushed Warriors with VMA Chrome, went back and picked out chest symbol with Chrome directly.
Finished bases
23/2 - Leviadon Blue on the shoulder pads, first coat of Seraphim Sepia on the chest symbols. Applied Nuln Oil to appropriate areas. Added Black Templar to guns, spines and appropriate other areas. Added second coat of Seraphim Sepia to chest symbols. Picked out cables with Caliban Green. Did second coat of Black Templar on guns. Added bricks to bases for six Scarab swarms. Painted barrel elements with Incubi Darkness. Added ballast to the Scarab bases. Painted the Warrior armour with Aethermatic Blue. Picked out eyes and weapon details with VMA Chrome, to Tesseract Glow tomorrow. Highlighted cables with Warpstone Glow.
24/2 - Applied Tesseract Glow appropriately to the Warriors. Filled rib cage recesses with Black Templar. Added some spot uses of Nuln Oil that I'd missed. Removed Warriors from corks, and blu-tack from bases, before gluing together. Washed foot rocks with Agrax Earthshade - Warriors done.
In line
As a cluster
That's the first half of this unit done - I've just undercoated the other half of the squad, as well as working on the basing for the Scarabs and Reanimator. I'm hoping to get the other half of the squad done before month end, though whether I achieve this may be end up depending on how many Arkham Horror games happen over the weekend.
If I do finish the squad, that'll give me 24PL (or 490 points) painted in a month, as well as giving me a functional Patrol detachment (and only one more squad of Warriors off a Battalion). Not bad for one month of completing things.
24/02 - Cont. - Undercoated this next batch of Warriors (and their bases). Painted the foot rocks with Abaddon Black. Added plaster and bricks to the base of the Reanimator. Basecoated bases (and foot rocks) with Cryx Bane Highlight (twice). Drybrushed bases (etc) with Trollblood Highlight. Added sand to the Scarab Swarm bases. Drybrushed bases (etc) with Sickly Skin.
25/02 - Painted the bricks on the bases with Skorne Red, then tidied the edges with Abaddon Black. Picked out details on the base with Caliban Green, Umbral Umber and Bootstrap Leather. Sealed the sand on the Scarab bases with thinned PVA. Added metal details to a couple of base bits with VMA Gungrey. Drybrushed the Warriors with VMA Chrome, as well as picking out the chest symbol. Washed the bases with Agrax Earthshade - bases done. Painted shoulder armour with Leviadon Blue. Gave chest symbol the first coat of Seraphim Sepia. Played some virtual Arkham Horror. Undercoated the Scarab Swarm bases. Built 3 Plasmacytes.
Scarab bases before undercoating
Painted bases for the Warriors - I may have buried the grenades too well
26/02 - Second coat of Seraphim Sepia on chest symbols. Undercoated top side of Scarab Swarms with Leadbelcher. Shaded Warrior guns with Nuln Oil. Undercoated the underside of the Scarab Swarms with Leadbelcher. Painted underside of Scarab Swarms with Black Templar. Basecoated the Scarb Swarm bases with Cryx Bane Highlight.
27/02 - Added second coat of Cryx Bane Highlight to Scarab Swarm bases. Flipped the Swarms back to being right-side-up, and remasked the pegs underneath them. Drybrushed the bases with Trollblood Highlight before going to the supermarket, and with Sickly Skin when I got back. Drybrushed top side of Scarab Swarms with VMA Chrome. Picked out the bricks on the bases with Skorne Red. Tidied up base rims with Abaddon Black. Hit the rear recesses of the Scarabs with Black Templar, along with any gaps between Scarabs. Painted barrel on one base with Averland Sunset, and the crate on another base with Death Korps Drab. Added a second coat of Black Templar to the gaps between Scarabs, and a second coat of each colour on the barrel and crate to even them out. Shaded all the Scarab legs with Nuln Oil. Painted Scarab carapaces with Aethermatic Blue, and the Imperial Eagle on the barrel with VMA GunGrey. Picked out eyes and orbs on the Scarab Swarms with VMA Chrome. Washed the Scarab Swarm bases with Agrax Earthshade - Scarab bases done. Hit the eyes and orbs with Tesseract Glow. Tidied up the poles/pegs under each Scarab Swarm with Abaddon Black. Glued the Swarms into their bases - Scarabs done.
Beauty shots of the second Scarab Swarm
28/02 - Shaded joints on Warriors with Nuln Oil. Basecoated barrel section of guns with Incubi Darkness. Shaded Warrior spines and gun casings with Black Templar. Picked out cables with Caliban Green. Applied a second coat of Black Templar to the weapons. Painted Aethermatic Blue over the armour. Highlighted cables with Warpstone Glow. Used VMA Chrome on the eyes and domes on the weapons. Filled rib cage recesses with Black Templar. Hit the eyes and weapon domes with Tesseract Glow. Removed Warriors from corks and glued to bases. Shaded foot rocks with Agrax Earthshade - Warriors done.
Second half of the second Warrior unit
Group shot of the second Warrior squad
Yes, I got a little distracted by the Scarab Swarms - this is what I get for keeping them all on the box I use for undercoating, which hid the Warriors from view. Finishing a 6 base unit of them did clear square A2 from my bingo card as a bonus, which is nice, and it pushed me beyond the 500-points-in-a-month mark, too. I also get some flexibility when it comes to Scarabs - do I want one unit of 9 bases, three units of 3 bases, a 6 and a 3, etc, etc. And I still have another 9 bases of them to deal with at some point...
Nice of the Ophydian Destroyer build instructions to confuse me by calling for a 32mm base for their Plasmacyte instead of a 28.5mm base (the same as the one from the Skorpekh Destroyers).
Tomorrow should see the basing finished for the Reanimator, and maybe even it undercoated. I should probably build one of the Destroyer squads that I've built the Plasmacytes for (2 Skorpekh, 1 Ophydian) as well, and base the Plasmacytes, too. And there's still the Convergence to finish the Leadbelcher-ing of, at some point.
Awesome stuff mate, I am also dead keen with the bases. That contrast from the bricks and that is such a neat little touch but makes such a difference.
I’m impressed that you’re keeping the hobby streak going, well done! You’re certainly being rewarded with cool looking minis and plenty of bingo squares already. Keep it up!
@inmygravenimage - Thanks graven! The bases are a little time-consuming to build, but I do think they add to the army as a whole. Plus, it means they'll match any of my other 40k forces I've been working on.
@Olthannon - Cheers, chief. I do think that without the splashes of colour from the bricks, or skulls, or debris, these bases would be a touch dull. Just got to balance it a bit better when using pieces from other kits - that grenade launcher ammo pouch should've been cut down a bit - or at an angle, at least.
@gobert - Thanks gobert. Have managed to keep going so far, but I may have an enforced break mid-March, as I have a funeral to attend, and I'm not sure about taking stuff with me.
+ + +
01/03 - Added weights to underside of bases for Ophydian Destroyers, and sealed with baking soda. Added bricks to Plasmacyte bases. Added medium ballast to bases for Plasmacytes and Reanimator. Added sand to said bases. Sealed sand to the bases. Built 2 Ophydian Destroyers in halves.
02/03 - Removed Reanimator and Plasmacytes from bases, sticking the latter to corks. Masked bases with blu-tack. Finished assembling the three Ophydian Destroyers. Undercoated bases, Reanimator and Plasmacytes with Chaos Black and Leadbelcher respectively. Ordered a metal Sergeant Telion off eBay.
03/03 - Drybrushed Reanimator and Plasmacytes with VMA Chrome. Attempted to get army shots of the stuff I painted in Feb, to varying degrees of success. Shaded underside of Reanimator shoulder armour with Black Templar. Painted shoulder armour on Reanimator and Plasmacytes with Leviadon Blue. Shaded vents in these armour panels with Black Templar (twice on the Reanimator). Basecoated the symbol recesses on the Reanimator shoulder armour with VMA Chrome. Picked out base elements attached to the sculpts with Abaddon Black. Added first layer of Seraphim Sepia to the recesses on the Reanimator shoulder armour.
Everyone likes shoulder pads...
04/03 - Added second layer of Seraphim Sepia to the recesses on the Reanimator shoulder armour. Shoulder armour moved out of the way as done. Basecoat of Cryx Bane Highlight applied to bases and base elements attached to models (twice). Drybrushed the same areas with Trollblood Highlight, and then Sickly Skin. Picked out bricks on bases with Skorne Red. Tidied up base rims with Abaddon Black. Washed bases with Agrax Earthshade - bases done. Played some virtual Arkham Horror LCG.
More finished bases...
05/03 - Shaded stone base elements on the Four Amigos with Agrax Earthshade. Picked out metal base elements with Black Templar. Shaded segmented sections on the Plasmacytes with Black Templar. Shaded the balls at some Plasmacyte joints with Nuln Oil. Painted the Plasmacyte faceplates with Leviadon Blue. Plasmacyte armour was painted with Aethermatic Blue. Painted Plasmacyte cables with Caliban Green. Picked out glowy areas with VMA Chrome. Highlighted cables with Warpstone Glow. Painted glowy bits with Tesseract Glow. Washed claws with a 1:1:1 mix of Nuln Oil, Drakenhof Nightshade & Lahmian Medium. Glued Plasmacytes to their bases. Plasmacytes done ALL the Plasmacytes!
06/03 - Lifted 5 WIP Space Marine Scouts with Shotguns off the WIP tray. Still not 100% on which Chapter they'll be, but some areas (such as skin and fatigues) can be hammered out while I'm deciding. Basecoated their fatigues with Rakarth Flesh. Painted the Reanimator faceplate with Leviadon Blue. Shaded ridged cables and joints on the Reanimator with Nuln Oil. Picked out the skulls on the feet elements with Steel Legion Drab. Black Templar'd recesses in the legs and various cable connectors. Went over the skulls with Jack Bone. Applied a second coat of Rakarth Flesh to the Scout fatigues. Washed the skulls with Agrax Earthshade. Undertook the great Black Templar-ing around the top of the Reanimator. Basecoated Scout faces with P3 Midlund Flesh. Applied much Aethermatic Blue across the Reanimator. Painted Reanimator cables with Caliban Green.
Baden-Powell would be proud.
Reanimator progress
07/03 - Glued weights to underside of bases for a unit of Skorpekh Destroyers, as well as sealing the weights and filling the divot in the middle with superglue & baking soda. Picked out the two mini-Scarabs on the basing elements of the Reanimator with Aethermatic Blue. Washed the two little claws and the lowest leg segments with a 1:1:1 mix of Nuln Oil, Drakenhof Nightshade & Lahmian Medium. Took a WIP shot, and realised there were a couple of sprue attachment points on one leg that needed cleaning up, so did so. Basecoated those two spots with Abaddon Black. Went over those black bits with Leadbelcher, as well as giving a light drybrush to the girder near the feet. Painted the to-be-glowy bits with VMA Chrome. Hit the bits of repaint with either Aethermatic Blue or the Lahmian/Nuln/Nightshade mix, as well as using the latter to deepen dings on the lower legs. Went over the bits around the feet that seem to be part of a Kastelan with Gal Vorbak Red (twice). Highlighted the cables with Warpstone Glow. Went over the glowy bits with Tesseract Glow. Shaded the Kastelan bits with Agrax Earthshade. Removed all blu-tack masking. Added "shoulder" armour panels back on to the Reanimator, glued Reanimator to base - Reanimator done.
This thing was awkward to photograph, but it's done, which is a relief
Observation - I think the build instructions for the Ophydians have a couple of the steps in the wrong order. It's a lot easier to get the head and first spine section in place without the arms & shoulder pads being in the way than it is to do it after you've attached those, which is what the instructions direct you to do. Went by the book for the first one, then changed up the order for the other two.
Observation #2 - I find it interesting that the Plasmacytes with the Ophydian and Skorpekh Destroyers are painted with different breakdowns of which elements of the Plasmacytes are which colours. I think I prefer the Ophydian version to the Skorpekh version, so that's the version I worked with when laying out the colours on the three Plasmacytes.
OK, doing all three Plasmacytes at once might be overkill, thanks to the "Rule of Three", but it gets them out of the way. Given they're not CHARACTER models, and not technically a unit, I'm going to use one of them to fill out C3 (Any Model) on the bingo card, and hold the other two in reserve - if I end up starting a second (or third) card, these Plasmacytes can fill out C3 on there, too. Unless anyone objects to that, of course?
I also grabbed a couple of group shots of the models I finished in February - not going to say they're the best, but it was worth a try...
Going to get an Overlord and a unit of Skorpekhs built today, and look at basing the Ophydians, I think.
That Necron army is coming along speedily! I think you pulled off the blade on the Plasmancer very well! Even if it's not too smooth, the colors are in the right place and most importantly the contrast is there. I also really like your Scarab bases.
@inmygravenimage - Well, the Reanimator is in the cabinet now.
@Captain Brown - Thanks, Cap'n.
@mcmattila - Welcome in, and thanks for the kind words. The Scarabs are simple to paint up, so the bases give some opportunity to add some variety.
+ + +
I've put the day-by-day progress in spoiler tags, in case it gets to be too much. It helps remind me of what I've done, and gives some proof of what I've done for my #hobbystreak count. Pictures will be after the spoiler.
Spoiler:
08/03 - Added weights to a 40mm base for an Overlord, then sealed them with baking soda & superglue. Assembled the Overlord. Marked out on Phydian bases where the Ophydians would sit, ready for basing. Assembled Skorpekh Destroyers. Marked out foot positions for the Overlord and Skorpekhs. Added bricks to all seven bases. Added skulls to some of the Destroyer bases.
09/03 - Undercoated the three Ophydian Destroyers with Leadbelcher. Added some plaster rocks to a few of the seven bases. Added medium ballast to all seven bases. Added sand to the bases. Tidied up the Leadbelcher undercoat on a couple of the Ophydians, and used spare paint on one of the Convergence. Sealed basing materials with thinned PVA.
10/03 - Used blu-tack to mask the bases I prepared yesterday. Undercoated the bases with Chaos Black, and the Overlord with Leadbelcher. Drybrushed the Ophydians and Overlord with VMA Chrome. Painted base details attached to this group with Abaddon Black. Leviadon Blue on the shoulder pads, avoiding the spheres of glowiness on the Overlord. Basecoated the bases with Cryx Bane Highlight (twice).
11/03 - Drybrushed the bases with Trollblood Highlight, and then with Sickly Skin. Picked out bricks with Skorne Red and skulls with Steel Legion Drab, then Jack Bone. Tidied up base edges on this batch and the Scouts with Abaddon Black. Washed bases with Agrax Earthshade. Picked out that one little Scarab thing on one of the Ophydian bases with Leadbelcher, then VMA Chrome. I'm going to say that the bases are done at this point, though there are a couple of steps left on that Scarab. Went through the same steps on the base elements attached to the Overlord & Ophydians.
12/03 - Shaded joints & recesses on the group with Nuln Oil. Tinted armour on the group with Aethermatic Blue. Glued the Ophydian with the separate base rock into his base, as he was unweildy on a cork. Undercoated the Skorpekhs with Leadbelcher. Washed assorted metallics with a 1:1:1 mix of Lahmian Medium, Drakenhof Nightshade & Nuln Oil. Went over un-ribbed cables with Caliban Green.
13/03 - Used Black Templar on rib recesses on everyone, as well as most other areas I want to use it on on the Overlord. Leaving the spine/tail on the Ophydians for now. Seraphim Sepia'd the areas-to-be-gold (twice). Painted the Ophydian Destroyer faces with Leviadon Blue. Re-basecoated all the bits that will be glowy with Chrome. Glued remaining Ophydians to their bases.
14/03 - Used Tesseract Glow on many of the things. Specifically, on the things that glow. This does bring me ever-closer to trying to do gradients on the bades again, unfortunately. Picked out one cable I'd missed on the Overlord with Caliban Green. Glued the Overlord into his base. Applied first layer over the weapons of the Overlord & Ophydians, using Ork Flesh thinned with Contrast Medium. Did pass with Dark Angels Green Contrast. Tried to highlight blades with Ogryn Camo. Black Templar'd all that needed to be Black Templar'd.
Observation #1 - Whoever designed the Skorpekh instructions was a sadist. Parts F4 & F5 can't phase through one another. I ended up removing the face from the arm, and attaching the two parts individually, which seemed to work. Fortunately, the other two Skorpekhs were comparatively sane to build.
Observation #2 - After handling them while painting, I have the fear when it comes to potentially transporting the Ophydians anywhere...
OK, that's two more units down - and the Skorpekhs are looking at me from a table, waiting for me to take them further than their undercoat. Squares C5 and D2 have been crossed off the bingo card, meaning that halfway through March I've completed 11/25 squares, which I don't think is bad going. No rows or columns just yet, though.
Assuming I've tracked everything correctly, and excluding the two Plasmacytes I can't field with anything yet, I'm up to 765 points and 37 PL, which also isn't too shabby considering this falls under the heading of #newyearnewarmy
Painting will not have to go on a pause for the rest of the week, though, as I'm away until Sunday for a funeral. I don't want to drop my hobby streak, though, so I'm going to take a couple of bits with me to build while I'm away - another ten Warriors, at the very least.
18/03 - Built 2 Necron Warriors. Played some virtual Arkham Horror.
19/03 - Built 2 Necron Warriors.
20/03 - Drybrushed the Skorpekh Destroyers with VMA Chrome, as well as picking out the chest symbols.
21/03 - Built 2 Necron Warriors.
22/03 - Picked out Skorpekh "base rocks" with Abaddon Black.
23/03 - Leviadon Blue on Destroyer shoulder pads and faces. Went over the base rocks with Cryx Bane Highlight (twice). Seraphim Sepia on chest symbols (twice). Drybrushed foot rocks with Trollblood Highlight. Picked out the one skull on the foot rocks with Steel Legion Drab. Drybrushed foot rocks with Sickly Skin. Went over the skull with Jack Bone. Washed "foot rock" elements with Agrax Earthshade. Went over the girder on one foot with Nuln Oil. Started to build Skorpekh Lord. Removed the Skorpekhs from their temporary bases and slotted them into their actual bases, though not glued into place just yet.
24/03 - Finished building the Skorpekh Lord. Used superglue and baking soda to add lead weights to the base of said Lord. Black Templar'd the Skorpekhs.
25/03 - Plenty of Nuln Oil applied appropriately to the Skorpekhs. Marked out the Skorpekh Lord's footprint on his base with Cryx Bane Highlight, before removing him and blu-tacking him to a temporary base. Undercoated the Skorpekh Lord with Leadbelcher. Went over the 3 Skorpekhs with Aethermatic Blue on their armour panels, then came back with Black Templar for rib recesses and any bits the Contrast had receded too far on previously. Added top hatches to the Thunderer, after finding a spart set while sorting boxes. No idea what they were for originally. Picked out glowy sections on the Skorpekhs with VMA Chrome, as well as doing the post-undercoat drybrush on the Skorpekh Lord. Basecoated cables on the Skorpekhs and the Lord with Caliban Green. Went over the glowy bits with Tesseract Glow. Picked out the Skorpekh Lord's foot rocks with Abaddon Black.
26/03 - Went back in with Tesseract Glow on the little exhaust ports (I think?) on the back of the Skorpekhs I missed the night before. Touched up some spots on the Scout fatigues with Rakarth Flesh. Straightened out the front plate for the Thunderer. Glued the front panel onto the Thunderer, as well as my fingers. Shaded the weapons on the Skorpekhs with thinned Ork Flesh. Tried to use superglue + baking soda to fill some gaps on the Thunderer, to mixed results. Shaded Skorpekh weapons again with Dark Angels Green.
27/03 - Cleaned up rogue superglue and a couple of bits of resin flash from the Thunderer. Highlighted the Skorpekh's weapons with Moot Green. Highlighted cables on the Skorpekhs & Lord with Warpstone Green - apart from a couple I'd missed the first time around on the Lord, which picked out with Caliban Green. Glued Skorpekhs into bases - Skorpekh Destroyers done.
The Thunderer is finally built!
Early days for the Skorpekh Lord
Skorpekh Destroyers
Question for the studio audience... I've picked up a third copy of the Storm Trooper Sergeant I used as the base for my Storm Trooper Officer conversion. I've already got the second one on my desk with parts to try out a conversion with Command Rod and Power Fist, but I was wondering about converting a third one - while he should have a Command Rod, I'm not sure I want to do another Sword or Fist conversion. Should I just give him the dagger that comes in the Scion kit for the Tempestor Prime as a basic melee weapon?
Have also been sorting through some boxes and organising things a bit better, both before my week away and since my return. Amazing what you find when you do this sort of exercise, and what you forgot you had. I should probably update my Pile of Potential list with some of it, but need to figure out what I want to do with it all first - though finding the classic bug-eyed Farseer from the M2O run was a nice bonus.
I did reach an annoying realisation on the 24th - I'd already completed the three squares on this bingo card for "Unit of 2+ Models", between the first unit of 3 Scarab Swarms, the pair of Cryptothralls, and the unit of 3 Ophydian Destroyers. In the same way I mentioned with the other two Plasmacytes being banked for future cards, I'll bank the Skorpekhs in case I make it to a second card, unless anyone here objects. Maybe I should just get cards #2 & #3 ready now...
On the Hobby Bingo front, on card #1 I've managed to complete 11/25 squares so far, though I've yet to complete a row, column, or diagonal, which I'm amused by. The Scouts will allow me to pick up C4 - heh - while the Skorpekh Lord covers the last "Hero or Character" square over in E4. Get those two done, along with the 10 Warriors I built, and we do complete row 4. Guess I know what the next couple of things "to do" are, at least.
To Do - Base for Skorpekh Lord
- Bases for 10 Warriors
- Undercoat Thunderer
- Finish Scouts, probably as Blood Angels
- Finish Skorpekh Lord
- Convert second Storm Trooper Officer, plan third Storm Trooper Officer
Question for the studio audience... I've picked up a third copy of the Storm Trooper Sergeant I used as the base for my Storm Trooper Officer conversion. I've already got the second one on my desk with parts to try out a conversion with Command Rod and Power Fist, but I was wondering about converting a third one - while he should have a Command Rod, I'm not sure I want to do another Sword or Fist conversion. Should I just give him the dagger that comes in the Scion kit for the Tempestor Prime as a basic melee weapon?
Dysartes,
Maybe just the dagger for variation?
Depends on how it looks, because that outstretched arm could also be for tossing a grenade.
@inmygravenimage - Thanks graven. Definitely nice to get the Thunderer built, though now I need to go back to my previous logs and check which paints I was using for my IG
@Gwyn chan'r Gwyll - Thank you very much. That's 44 models painted as of the start of this post, for 43 PL or 885 points. Not bad for 3 months, especially on a new army.
@Captain Brown - I'm leaning on keeping the Command Rod part of the conversion the same for all three. The other hand holding a grenade is an interesting idea, though - will have to have a look for a suitable part.
@gobert - Thanks gobert. Just working on making some time each day to achieve something, even if it is something small.
@Olthannon - Thanks Olthannon. Having had the Thunderer part-built for a year or two now, it's nice to get it wrapped up.
+ + +
Spoiler:
28/03 - Undercoated the Thunderer with Chaos Black. Added second coat of Rakarth Flesh to the Scout fatigues. Added bricks & bits to the bases for the Warriors & Skorpekh Lord. Basecoated most leather sections on the Scouts with Steel Legion Drab. Added ballast to the bases.
29/03 - Added sand to the bases from yesterday. Sealed the sand with thinned PVA. Picked out armour plates on the Scouts with Mephiston Red.
30/03 - Went over the Scout armour with a second coat of Mephiston Red to smooth things out. Undercoated bases for the Skorpekh Lord and 5 of the Warriors. Basecoated the batch of bases - and Skorpekh Lord foot rocks - with Cryx Bane Highlight (twice). Finished the second stage of unpainting a batch of models. Drybrushed the bases with Trollblood Highlight.
31/03 - Drybrushed bases with Scaly Skin. Picked out bricks on the bases with Skorne Red. Tidied up base edges with Abaddon Black. Painted the part-buried manhole cover element I added to the Skorpekh Lord base with Warplock Bronze. Washed Warrior bases with Agrax Earthshade - Warrior bases done. Drybrushed part-buried manhole with Brass Scorpion. Washed Skorpekh Lord base (and foot rocks) with Agrax Earthshade. Undercoated the five Necron Warriors whose bases I'd just finished. Added some Nihilakh Oxide to that manhole cover - Skorpekh Lord base done. Black Templar'd appropriate areas of the Skorpekh Lord. Went through and Nuln Oil'd appropriate areas on the Skorpekh Lord too. Picked out some areas with VMA Chrome on the Lord that I'll be turning gold in the morning.
01/04 - First pass with Seraphim Sepia on the gold areas of the Skorpekh Lord. Blue'd his face and shoulder pads with Leviadon Blue, then did a second Seraphim Sepia pass. Washed his claws and "loincloth" with a 1:1:1 mix of Lahmian Medium:Nuln Oilrakenhof Nightshade. Aethermatic Blue on the Skorpekh Lord armour plates. Added Black Templar to the Skorpekh Lord's rib recesses, and touched up any other bits I thought needed it. Picked out remaining glowy bits with VMA Chrome. Transferred Skorpekh Lord to his proper base. Tesseract Glow over the Chrome. Shaded the sword with thinned Ork Flesh. Shaded even further with Dark Angels Green. Played some virtual Arkham Horror.
02/04 - Highlighted Skorpekh Lord blade with Ogryn Camo - Skorpekh Lord done. Attended Wales Comic Con - which isn't in Wales...
Skorpekh Lord, over and done with
Bases for the next batch of Warriors
The Scouts are coming along...
Nice to get the big lad off the tray - I was getting on OK with the Scouts before he became a distraction. Hopefully I can push on and get them wrapped up this week. I've also got five Warriors ready to push on from their Leadbelcher basecoat, with the bases already painted.
@gobert - Thanks for the kind words, chief. Yeah, I've gone Blood Angels with them, though I fully admit shotgun Scouts probably aren't the best fit for them. I keep getting side-eye from them as they get usurped, though...
+ + +
Spoiler:
03/04 - Went over the Scout faces with thinned Midlund Flesh. Completed the unpainting of the latest batch of models.
04/04 - Went over the Scout chest eagles with Jack Bone. Did a first pass on metals on the Scouts with VMA Gungrey. Used some of that Gungrey on the grille on the outflow pipe from the base of the Miasmic Malignifier.
05/04 - Basecoated the bulk of that outflow pipe, inside and out, with Warplock Bronze. Washed Scout faces with Reikland Fleshshade. Drybrushed the outside of the pipe segment with Brass Scorpion. Picked out the Scout fingers with Rakarth Flesh. Shaded the inside and out of the pipe with Agrax Earthshade. Grabbed the base for the Malignifier main building, and painted the edge rim with Warplock Bronze. Basecoated the main area with Cryx Bane Highlight, then drybrushed with Trollblood Highlight. Washed the Gungrey grille with Nuln Oil.
06/04 - Drybrushed the Malignifier base with Sickly Skin, as well as painting the inside of the bottom of the outflow pipe and one of the "mouths" of the base with it. Picked out the drips on the outflow grille with VMA Chrome. Picked out skulls on gloves & shotguns on the Scouts with Chrome at the same time. Shaded the Sickly Skin areas with Seraphim Sepia. Added Nurgle's Rot to the drips on the grille and the two areas with maggots I'd hit with Seraphim Sepia earlier. Washed the drybrushed area of the base with Agrax Earthshade. Went back to go over the metal areas on the base I didn't work on the first time with Warplock Bronze. Drybrushed all the bronze areas with Brass Scorpion. Washed all the bronze/brass with Agrax Earthshade. Began the assembly process for a pair of Armiger Helverins.
07/04 - Went over the base of one of the elements of the Malignifier I'd left off with Warplock Bronze. Went around the base of the Malignifier picking out bolts with Gungrey. Finished building both Helverins to the end of stage 1 (full torso). Washed the bolts on the Malignifier base with Nuln Oil. Basedcoated the ribbed piping on two parts of the Malignifier I'd kept off with VMC Basalt Grey. Picked out the fly wings on the outflow pipe with VMC London Grey. Drybrushed the base of the ribbed pipe bit I painted bronze earlier with Brass Scorpion. Shaded fly wings and ribbed pipes with Black Templar. Washed the bronze bit with Agrax Earthshade. Basecoated assorted boils with Averland Sunset.
08/04 - Tidied up the boils with Averland Sunset. Picked out fly bodies with Fenrisian Grey. Built the Helverin hip assemblies. Washed the fly bodies with Drakenhof Nightshade. Painted the fly heads with Mephiston Red - outflow pipe ready to glue to base. Basecoated the one section I'd undercoated white with thinned Screamer Pink. Washed the fleshy bit with Druchii Violet. Glued the outflow pipe into the main Malignifier base. Assembled the "b" legs for the Helverins. Drybrushed the fleshy bit with Pink Horror. Picked out the boils on the fleshy bit with Averland Sunset.
09/04 - Went over the boils on fleshy bit with Averland Sunset. Washed the boils on the base with Reikland Fleshshade. Picked out the tops of a few of the boils with P3 Jack Bone. Washed the boils on the three pipe sections. Re-basecoated various bits on the three pipes - and the secondary building - with Sickly Skin. Assembled the "c" legs for the Helverins. Applied Nurgle's Rot over the Sickly Skin on the pipes. Used Screamer Pink to basecoat various bits of organs on the secondary building. Basecoated the Warplock Bronze on the secondary building.
10/04 - Washed the Screamer Pink bits of the secondary building with Druchii Violet. Did a second pass over the bronze to tidy things up. Highlighted the Screamer Pink area with Pink Horror.
11/04 - Drybrushed bronze areas with Brass Scorpion.
12/04 - Washed the bronze areas with Agrax Earthshade. Picked out some silver metal details with VMA Gungrey. Washed the Gungrey with Nuln Oil. Basecoated main hull with Death Guard Green, though a second coat will be required.
13/04 - Second pass with Death Guard Green. Third pass with Death Guard Green. Nipped in to pick out a bronze ring I'd missed with Warplock Bronze. Washed the green and that bronze ring with Agrax Earthshade. Drybrushed with Loren Forest. Applied a patchy drybrush of Ogryn Camo. Basecoated the three skulls with Steel Legion Drab, then went over that with P3 Jack Bone. Washed the skulls with Agrax Earthshade. Picked out the various boils with Averland Sunset. Washed the boils with Reikland Fleshshade. Picked out the tips of the two "about to explode" boils with Jack Bone - Miasmic Malignifier secondary building done*
WIP These guys are making progress, but are a bit confused by other things moving through to completion before them
There's a reason I'm not in the pit crew...
I'd say these pipes are done, but I'll have to adjust effects when they're on the building
Didn't realise the end of the pipe was out of focus - whoops! More technical paint to be used when going through final assembly, methinks.
Done Secondary building from the Miasmic Malignifier done - need to work on the primary when I get back
Anyone else have problems with the coverage of Death Guard Green over a black undercoat, btw? Given it is a Base paint, I'm disappointed that it took three passes for a smooth(ish) base.
I'm going to see family for Easter, so I won't really be able to crack on with more on the main Miasmic Malignifier building (or the Scouts) until I get back. I am taking a Blood Bowl team with me to build, though, so there'll be some hobby progress in that regard to keep me going.
Tackling painting the big building from the Miasmic Malignifier will be the priority when I get back, but painting the "outbuilding" has me feeling a bit more confident about it.
#hobbystreak day 89 (as of 13/04)
* - Done for the purposes of saying stuff is done - I may well revisit it with some technical paints (Nurgle's Rot, Typhus Corrosion, Nihilakh Oxide, Blood for the Blood God) when the main building is done, but it is done enough to be usable on a table now...
I'm really enjoying all the gloop. May Papa bless and keep you! The pink is a fab contrast to the goo. I like your scouts too, very old school. Yes, DG green is weak sauce. I use Vallejo Heavy Green instead if I want a decent base green over black.
Good steady progress on the scouts. The nurgle building looks pretty cool. I never knew the fun of painting papa’s minis until recently, may he bless you upon your return (in the painting sense, not covid!). Exciting tease with the titans; traitor or loyalist?
@inmygravenimage - Cheers, graven. While I've painted Poxwalkers and Plaguebearers previously, I think this is the first time I was actually using Death Guard Green on something.
@gobert - They may not be the fastest unit I've painted, gobert, but they're moving forwards slowly. Which fits with the initial Necron theme of the revived thread, when you think about it As for the Helverins, they'll be Loyalist, though I'm not sure which House just yet. I've got the Castellan & Helverin battleforce box and a copy of Knights Renegade to go with them at some point. Should be a decent start to a House.
+ + +
Spoiler:
14/04 - Started on the Warplock Bronze for the main MM building.
15/04 - Built two of the Khorne BB team players
16/04 - Built two of the Khorne BB team players
17/04 - Built two of the Khorne BB team players
18/04 - Built two of the Khorne BB team players
19/04 - Built two of the Khorne BB team players
20/04 - Built two of the Khorne BB team players
21/04 - Basecoated more of the Warplock Bronze on the MM building. Removed the balls, coins and markers from the Khorne BB team sprues.
22/04 - Finally finished basecoating the bronze.
23/04 - Drybrushed all the bronze with Brass Scorpion. Collected the Store Anniversary Inquisitor from my local GW. Started the process of washing the bronze with Agrax Earthshade.
24/04 - Finished washing the bronze with Agrax Earthshade. Started adding silver metallics in with VMA Gungrey. Shaded the Gungrey with Nuln Oil. Applied the first coat of Death Guard Green. Started second coat of Death Guard Green.
25/04 - Finished the second coat of Death Guard Green. Applied the third (and final) coat of Death Guard Green. Shaded the green with Agrax Earthshade.
26/04 - Drybrushed the green with Loren Forest. Lightly drybrushed the green with Ogryn Camo. Basecoated the three big skulls on the icon with Steel Legion Drab. Went over the skulls with Jack Bone. Shaded the skulls with Agrax Earthshade. Basecoated ribbed pipes and fly wings with VMC Basalt Grey. Shaded said pipes and wings with Black Templar.
27/04 - Painted fly bodies with Fenrisian Grey. Washed fly bodies with Drakenhof Nightshade. Painted fly heads with Mephiston Red. Basecoated fleshy bits with Sickly Skin. Went over Sickly Skin with Screamer Pink. Washed fleshy bits with Druchii Violet. Drybrushed the fleshy bits with Pink Horror.
28/04 - Touched up the drips on the front fleshy pipes with Sickly Skin, ready for some Nurgle's Rot to be applied later. Painted pustules with Averland Sunset - so many pustules... Played some virtual Arkham Horror in the evening.
29/04 - Picked out the pustules on the skull icon I'd missed with Aveland Sunset, as well as evening out some of the others where the yellow was patchy. Glued one of the three pipe pieces in place. Washed all pustules with Reikland Fleshshade. Picked out the recessed middle of some unexploded pustules with Jack Bone. Added some appropriately-placed goo with Nurgle's Rot. Picked out assorted small details that needed tidying up before assembly. Glued Miasmic Malignifier into its base. Glued the two remaining pipes into place (as they attach to the building and the base). Played some virtual Arkham Horror in the evening. Used Nurgle's Rot to link areas on the Malignifier to areas on the base.
30/04 - Went in with Carroburg Crimson, Nihilakh Oxide, more Nurgle's Rot and even a spot of Typhus Corrostion for final detail work - Miasmic Malignifier done
12 Khorne Players resting before a game - any chance of slotless Blood Bowl bases at some point, GW?
The main event - so many pustules, man...
I may need a larger light box at some stage.
Well, that ended up being more of a marathon than a sprint. The amount of bronze trim to pick out, the need for multiple coats of Death Guard Green to get a reasonable finish, and being away from paint for a week, etc. Glad to get it out of the way, though I guess I need to work up some other Death Guard to go with it, aside from 28 Poxwalkers.
We have a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, so I'm hoping to finally finish off the Scouts, and get on with the next unit of Necron Warriors. That, and I need to find the Forge World box with the extra stuff for the Khorne team.
Square B1 filled on the bingo card, so that's 13 squares on the first on completed, and 2 on the second. Get the Thunderer and Scouts done and we're up to 15 on card #1, as well as completing the first column. Not bad, not bad...
@inmygravenimage - Thanks, graven. I do wish I'd done a bit better of a job on a couple of the seam lines when preparing the model, but that's on Past Dysartes...
@Captain Brown - Thanks, Captain. I can already foresee that storing this thing will be a pain, and Grandfather aid me should I ever need to take it anywhere...
@Olthannon - Thank ye kindly. They definitely help break up the green & bronze.
+ + +
Spoiler:
01/05 - Replaced the sword arm on a Storm Trooper Sergeant with the Scion Command Rod. Removed the hot-shot laspistol arm at the elbow. Removed the shoulder pad and upper arm from the Scion Power Fist. Drilled the holes for a pin in the Fist and elbow, as well as in one foot to attach to the base.
02/05 - Removed the original cables from the power fist. Glued the Officer into the base. Rigged up a replacement cable for the power fist & glued it into place. Added a piece to hide a small gap at the shoulder. Built up the base with the usual steps. Undercoated the Officer.
03/05 - Basecoated the bases for the Officer, Karanak and a unit of Flesh Hounds (hereafter referred to as "the bases") with Cryx Bane Highlight (twice). Drybrushed the bases with Trollblood Highlight. Drybrushed the bases with Sickly Skin. Picked out the bricks on the bases with Skorne Red. Picked out the assorted skulls with Steel Legion Drab. Went over the skulls with Jack Bone. Shaded the bases with Agrax Earthshade. Tidied up the base rims with Abaddon Black.
04/05 - Basecoated the Officer (apart from the Rod of Command) with Basalt Grey. Also travelled for work.
05/05 - Shaded the grey on the officer with Nuln Oil. Basecoated the fatigues with Skorne Red. Picked out the grenades with Caliban Green. Picked out the bedroll with Battledress Green. Picked out the face with Midlund Flesh. Played some virtual Arkham Horror.
06/05 - Touched up the face with a second coat of Midlund Flesh (from a new pot). Washed the skin with Reikland Fleshshade. Basecoated the sections which will be gold with VMA Chrome.
07/05 - Tinted the Chrome with Seraphim Sepia. Shaded the bedroll with Athonian Camoshade, Shaded the grenades with a 2:1:1 mix of Lahmian Medium/Nuln Oil/Biel-Tan Green. Picked out silver metallics areas with VMA Steel. Added a second coat of Seraphim Sepia to the gold. Washed the Steel with a 2:1:1 mix of Lahmian Medium/Nuln Oil/Drakenhof Nightshade. Tidied up the base rim slightly with Abaddon Black. Washed the red fatigues with Agrax Earthshade. Touched up a couple of rogue metallic spots on the grey with Basalt Grey. Washed those spots with Nuln Oil. Picked out the bionic eye lens with Retributor Armour. Remembered to pick out the arm panel details with Chrome. Used Blood for the Blood God, Waystone Green & Soulstone Blue appropriately - Storm Trooper Officer done.
A bit of a step-by-step look at the conversion...
Karanak and the Flesh Hounds, with painted bases - though I need to do the fiery bit on the top of Karanak's pile o' skulls...
The finished Officer - Captain Johann Moxley, perhaps?
Yeah, I know. I said I'd get to work on the Scouts next, and I'm immediately off doing something else that isn't the Scouts. On the other hand, I had a bank holiday weekend available, and this Sergeant had been on the desk for a little while.
I think I need to get some more 25mm bases, as I really couldn't find mine while doing this, which is odd - I was sure I had a box of them somewhere, but could I find it today? No, but I had plenty of 30mm lipped bases. Off to the eBay for a restock...
I've left Karanak & co with their bases done, bar some flames on Karanak's skull pile. It was a little more awkward than I thought to get under the dogs to get to their bases, but I think they've come out OK.
Sorta-kinda random question - anyone know of a source of suitable bits for making Crozius Arcanums, or a third party making suitable weapons?
Spoiler:
Updated hobby bingo card following turning this officer around - as a conversion, he fills out one of the "Kitbashed Model" squares, specifically B3, completing column B. 14 squares on card #1 finished, and still 2 on card #2 (as well as a theoretical 1 on a card #3). Still want to wrap up column C next, if I can.
@MegaDave - Thanks MegaDave. It's the second time I've done the Command Rod swap, though last time I used a Power Sword instead of the Power Fist. Think I'll do a third with the Scion dagger to give me the three =][= Officers I might want to use at this point. I'm also going to look to convert up the three specialists (Medic, Standard Bearer & Comms Officer) for a ST Command Squad.
@inmygravenimage - Thanks, graven. You might be onto something with that CoD piece, if I can find any of them.
@gobert - Cheers!
@Olthannon - Thanks, Olthannon. Haven't gone back to the hounds just yet, as you might notice from the below...
@ghostmaker - The plasma pistol one seems to be more expensive to pick up, though I did just get a reasonable deal on a pair of them. Thinking I'll be using one for a comm-link guy, and maybe as a medic, but I'll need to figure out my Dremel to get rid of the boltgun on the chest of either.
@ph34r - Thank ye kindly. Not sure how much use a power fist on him will be, but it looks cool, and I'll take that
+ + +
Spoiler:
08/05 - Worked on modifying a Plague Marine icon and the back of the Helbrute's fist to get the two to marry up. Removed the Eye of Horus from the spiky frame/chestplate as well.
09/05 - Used some Liquid Green Stuff on the Helbrute fist.
10/05 - Built 2 Assault Intercessors (minus backpack)
11/05 - Built 2 Assault Intercessors (minus backpack)
12/05 - Used more Liquid Green Stuff on the Hellbrute fist
13/05 - Cleaned the following in warm soapy water - Finecast Nurgle Daemon Prince; FW Khorne BB Team Booster; FW Max Spleenripper; FW BB Khorne Bloodbeast. Played some virtual Arkham Horror.
14/05 - Started assembling the Nurgle Daemon Prince
15/05 - De-sprued & undercoated the two cross-shaped ruin sections from a Ryza-pattern ruins set. Kept each ruin in its two pieces, and masked them with blu-tack.
16/05 - Basecoated one side of the ruins with Cryx Bane Highlight. Need a bigger brush.
17/05 - Found a bigger brush. Basecoated the other side of the ruins (and the edges) with Cryx Bane Highlight.
18/05 - Filled the divots in the top of the Assault Intercessor bases, as well as adding weights to the bases of them and the Bladeguard Lt., including sealing them.
19/05 - Did a second coat of Cryx Bane Highlight on the Ryza ruin sections. Not after perfect coverage over the black undercoat, but better than I had.
20/05 - Drybrushed the Ryza ruins with Trollblood Highlight.
21/05 - Undercoated the bases on the next five Necron Warriors.
22/05 - Basecoated the Warrior bases with Cryx Bane Highlight (twice). Drybrushed the bases with Trollblood Highlight.
24/05 - Tidied up the edges of the Warrior bases with Abaddon Black. Picked out the bricks with Skorne Red. Washed the bases with Agrax Earthshade.
25/05 - Basecoated all the grills on the Ryza ruins with Warplock Bronze. Picked out the big bolts with Leadbelcher.
26/05 - Undercoated the other five Necron Warriors. Picked out the window frame elements on the Ryza ruins with Gungrey.
27/05 - Painted assorted metal details on the Ryza Ruins using Brass Scorpion, Gungrey, more Brass Scorpion, and Runelord Brass for the pipes.
28/05 - Played my first game of 5e D&D as my first time using Roll20 (session 1 of maybe 3). Drybrushed all ten Warriors with VMA Chrome, as well as picking out the chest ankhs with Chrome.
29/05 - Picked out the cables on the with Warpstone Glow, Mephiston Red, Gal Vorbak Red and Incubi Darkness. Basecoated the control panels with Basalt Grey. Went over the control panels with Black Templar. Went over the "foot rocks" on the Warriors with Cryx Bane Highlight.
30/05 - Picked out some more metal details on the Ryza ruins with Leadbelcher and Brass Scorpion. Went over a couple of glass panels with Caliban Green, and some dials with Sickly Skin. Picked out the domed light on one ruin with Fenrisian Grey. The great Agrax-ing occurred.
31/05 - Removed blu-tack masking, tidied up around it, and assembled the Ryza ruins. Went into the intersection recesses with Cryx Bane Highlight.
01/06 - Washed the intersection recesses with Agrax Earthshade. Added some Typhus Corrosion and Nihilakh Oxide in places. Washed a couple of panels I'd missed the first time with Agrax Earthshade - Ryza ruins done. Used Agrellian Earth to add some texture to the chestplate of the Helbrute.
02/06 - Washed the Necron Warrior chest ankhs with Seraphim Sepia (twice over the course of the day). Drybrushed the foot rocks with Trollblood Highlight, then Sickly Skin. Applied Leviadon Blue to the Warrior shoulders. Went over everyone with Nuln Oil as required. Did first pass with Black Templar Contrast. Went over all the armour (including the face) with Aethermatic Blue Contrast. Washed foot rocks with Agrax. Did second pass with Black Templar, to darken gun casings and fill the rib recesses. Incubi Darkness on the guns. Went over the areas that need to be glowy with VMA Chrome. Picked out cables with Caliban Green. Tesseract Glow on the glowy bits. Went over cables with Warpstone Glow. Glued into bases - Necron Warriors done.
WIP Shots Second half of this group of Warriors, with bases, before undercoating.
The Ryza ruins in their pre-Agrax state
Finished products Ryza-pattern ruins
10 Necron Warriors with Gauss Reapers
Finding that my Civilization V install works may have messed with my productivity. On the other hand, wins with Rome and Greece cross three more achievements off the checklist, including a random combination of religious tenet and many allied city states during the Greek game (though no requirement to be Alexander to get it). And then I accidentally beat it again with Englad, getting a Culture win while I was trying to finish off a Science victory. Puts me on 90 out of 286 achievements... after 300+ hours of gameplay since I bought the game. Definitely wish some of the achievements on Steam showed you how far along you were, like the "Buy 1000 tiles" one.
Nice to get these Ryza ruins out of the way - the sprue has been sat on my "coffee table" for a while, so at least they're wrapped up. Not sure where one set of the barricades has wandered off to, though. Quite happy with how the Runelord Brass has come out, for my first time using it - may have to find other uses for it now.
Pretty happy to be able to turn that unit of Warriors around mostly inside one day - on the other hand, I'm still not getting anywhere with the Scouts. That puts me up to thirty painted Warriors, though I'm going to do a once-over on Monday, when I'm back from UK Games Expo, in case I need to tidy anything up. This was the unit I took back to the family farm with me to assemble at Easter, and I think they got squished a bit in my rucksack, as some of the ankles have twisted.
8 spots left on the first bingo card - two of them being Lords of War, though I don't want to claim individual Armigers for that - that seems like gaming the system a bit. Thunderer and Scouts should be the next priorities, but we'll see.
More great work on the Necrons. You’re really pulling together the army fast with this hobby streak you’re on! The Ryza ruins pieces look cool too, really neat base coats that the wash pulls together well. Hopefully you get some inspiration to get the scouts off the desk so we can see the FW stuff progress!
@inmygravenimage - Thanks graven. They might be a touch clean, but they're definitely usable on a table as they are now. We've had a branch of Element Games open in Sheffield recently that stocks some of the AK Interactive products, so I may try out some of their grimes on the ruins at some stage.
@Llamahead - Banner tops are another good shout. Might be a little more accessible than CoD pieces these days, too.
@gobert - Thanks gobert. By my reckoning (and including the one Plasmacyte that needs a unit), I'm up to 1,300 points (or 66 PL) so far this year, which isn't bad going. With a bit of luck, I may even hit 1,500 points by the end of H1.
@Olthannon - Thanks Olthannon. What do you think of the scheme on the Deathmarks, below?
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Spoiler:
03/06 - UK Games Expo day 1. Managed to get Cursed City at 30% off RRP, which I was happy with. Tried the new MTG Commander decks from the Baldur's Gate set. Played a copy of Radlands that my friend picked up.
04/06 - UK Games Expo day 2. Tried Agents of SMERSH and a playtest of the Heroes of Might and Migic III board game.
05/06 - UK Games Expo day 3. Tried Calico, Bearithmatic & Copra, the latter of which should be going on KS later in the year.
06/06 - Started putting together five Deathmarks. Had to fill some gaps in the shoulder pads with Liquid Green Stuff - I may have been overzealous when trying to get rid of the sprue connector marks.
07/06 - Finished putting together five Deathmarks. Ye gods the arms were a pain.
08/06 - Added weights to the Deathmark bases, as well as sealing them in. Started to base the Deathmarks.
09/06 - Based the Deathmarks, including sealing the bases with watered-down PVA glue.
10/06 - Undercoated the Deathmarks with Leadbelcher. Drybrushed the Deathmarks with VMA Chrome. Undercoated their bases with Abaddon Black. Basecoated the bases with Cryx Bane Highlight (twice).
11/06 - Drybrushed the bases with Trollblood Highlight, then with Sickly Skin. Picked out the bricks on the bases with Skorne Red. Tidied up the base rims with Abaddon Black - bases complete. Touched up feet (and any other missed areas) with Leadbelcher, then picked out the chest ankhs with Chrome. Shaded joints (etc) with Nuln Oil. Applied Aethermatic Blue to the Deathmark's faces, avoiding the central eye. Used Black Templar on the spines, gun stock and hand guard.
12/06 - Went back in to the shins with Black Templar. Applied Leviadon Blue to the feet, legs & hips. Second stage of Leviadon Blue to the arms and hands. Put together the leg assembly for a Canoptek DOOOM!stalker.
13/06 - Added weights to the Doomstalker base, as well as filling the divot in the middle. Finished adding Leviadon Blue to the Deathmarks, going over the torso this time.
14/06 - Put together three out of four segments from a set of Plasma Conduits.
15/06 - Put together the fourth segment from the Plasma Conduits set.
16/06 - Undercoated the Conduits with Leadbelcher spray.
17/06 - Basedcoated the Scouts hair with P3 Rucksack Tan.
18/06 - No HH box for me, but maybe once my LGS gets a restock. After swearing blind I had a Khorne Red somewhere... I had to go into town and get a Khorne Red (and a Gryph-Hound Orange).
19/06 - Glued together the organiser trays for 7 Wonders Duel I picked up at UKGE, and sorted the core game and two expansions into them so they all fit in the core game box.
20/06 - Picked out small wires/pipes and tanks on the Plasma Conduits with Khorne Red. Washed the conduits (carefully-ish) with Nuln Oil. Went back to hit some bits I'd missed with Khorne Red the first time.
21/06 - Picked out ribbed cables, piping, and some details on the conduits with Retributor Armour. Painted smooth pipes and plaques with Runelord Brass, though I'll review them tomorrow in case of missed bits.
22/06 - Did some of the tidying up with Runelord Brass, Retributor Armour & Khorne Red.
23/06 - Painted the end grills on each pipe with Runelord Brass. Picked out a handle and a couple of buttons with Brass Scorpion.
24/06 - Shaded any additional Khorne Red elements with Nuln Oil. Shaded the grills at the end of the conduits with Agrax Earthshade. Shaded other brass and gold details with Agrax Earthshade. Remembered to undercoat the canister/battery things from the Conduits.
25/06 - Picked out skulls with Jack Bone, dials with Sickly Skin, and that one screen (and light) with Caliban Green. Basecoated the power cells with Khorne Red, then shaded with Nuln Oil. Basecoated the active plasma coils with P3 Arcane Blue (twice, in some places). Thinned some Meredius Blue with some Lahmian Medium* to form a wash, then shaded the plasma coils with it. Mixed P3 Turquoise Ink and Coal Black, then shaded the coils again. Highlighted the coils with a mix of Arcane Blue and Menoth White Highlight.
26/06 - Mixed a lighter mix of Arcane Blue & Menoth White Highlight for a final highlight on the plasma coils. Picked out a panel on one of the conduits I'd missed with Runelord Brass. Picked out the gun cores on the Deathmarks with Runelord Brass. Shaded these brass elements with Agrax, as well as the skulls on the console. Shaded the little upright on top of the Deathmark guns with Nuln Oil.
27/06 - Went over various bits of the Deathmark gun casing with Black Templar. Picked out the non-ribbed cable on their guns with Caliban Green. Highlighted those cables with Warpstone Glow.
28/06 - Tidied up gups with a bit more BLack Templar.
29/06 - Basecoated glowy bits with VMA Chrome.
30/06 - Picked out a couple of lights on the Plasma Conduit Console with Retributor Armour.
01/07 - Went over the Deathmark Glowy Bits with Tesseract Glow, in a couple of phases (to avoid unfortunate fingerprints). Picked out the chest ankhs with Seraphim Sepia. Deathmarks done.
02/07 - Went over the two lights on the console with Blood for the Blood God.
03/07 - Tidied up dial faces on two of the Conduits with P3 Menoth White Highlight. Added some detail to the dial faces with Mephiston Red and Warpstone Glow. Picked out the needles again with Abaddon Black, then Leadbelcher - Conduits done.
Completed 5 Necron Deathmarks
One set of Thermal Plasma Conduits, from the cover of an Imperium magazine
I decided to almost invert my Necron scheme for the Deathmarks, going mainly with Leviadon Blue on the armour, with just the faces getting Aethermatic Blue. I figured the darker colours were more fitting for a sniper unit in general, though whether Necrons would opt for such an approach is another discussion entirely.
With these guys done, and the changes from the latest MFM applied to my Necron collection, I'm currently at 1,300 points (or 66 PL) with everything counted, though there remains one Plasmacyte that cannae be fielded yet. Still weighted towards HQ & Elites, though I have plenty of sprues of Troops to work through. I do want to make a unit of Immortals, but I'm not sure yet what I want to build them with - but, having put the Deathmarks together, I'm aware I'll have plenty of bits left when I'm done.
The Plasma Conduits were picked up on a whim as part of an order from Forbidden Planet, though I think I have another set knocking around from the Conquest series. I know I have a couple of Regulators and Haemotrope Reactors built but not painted, for sure, so I guess I'll add to these as I go along. Went with the scheme from Imperium, as I didn't have any brighter ideas, and I'm reasonably happy with most of how they came out, with the probably exception of the dial faces.
They may have been the first time I've used Runelord Brass in a significant fashion, and I like how it looks, so that make come into play more over time.
So, what's next? Well, these models have been lurking on my desk for a while, so I guess it is time to pick them back up again... ...please ignore the Plaguebearer behind the ruin - he's there to remind me of the right final look
This group features 10 Plaguebearers, and the two smaller ruins from the 9th ed Command Edition box for 40k. The latter have been undercoated in Wraithbone, but that's it. The Plaguebearers are the same group I mentioned back on page 1, in March last year. The swords and bases are "done" for all of them, bar adding any technical effects (such as Nurgle's Rot or Nihilakh Oxide), and half of them have had their first coat of Athonian Camoshade on their skin.
Let's look at the bingo card(s) at the end of H1...
Spoiler:
To complete card #1, we're looking at the following: - 2 Lord of War units (2 x 2 Armiger, or 2 x Armiger & 1 x Castellan?) - 3 VEHICLE or MONSTER units (Thunderer, Doomstalker, Doomstalker) - 1 Kitbashed model (Storm Trooper Officer #3, or first of the ST Command Squad) - 1 Unit of 10+ Models (10 Plaguebearers) - 1 Unit of 5+ Models (Those Darned Scouts)
Not a huge number of slots to complete, but a fair amount of work to do still, especially when only 3 of those 8 are even built at this point.
Hobbystreak, to end of current notes, is up to day 170.
* - Shockingly, despite mixing elements from the P3 and Citadel paint lines, the universe did not end. Or, if it did, the reboot was swift and painless.
Well, I was going along at a fairly merry pace last year, until we had that stupidly hot spell in July. It was too warm to do much of anything then, and unfortunately things fell by the wayside. A shame, as I thought I was in with a shout of clearing that bingo card.
We're now in 2023, and while it is probably too cold to consider undercoating anything, I've made myself pick up my brushes and get started painting again. Not sure if I'm going to do a daily count #hobbystreak this year, or just look at things weekly - we shall see in that regard.
I may also be looking to move house at some point in 2023, which will be a bit of a disruption - though I'm already looking at ordering some additional KR cases to pack painted models away in. Don't really want to leave the likes of the Phydian Destroyers unsupported, after all.
I'm starting the year looking to clear some simpler/smaller projects off the deck, which in some cases have been WIP for a while. These first pieces are, in no particular order...
- Thunderer Siege Tank
- 2 small Ryza-pattern ruins/barricades
- Those darned shotgun Scouts
In terms of applying paint, I've started with the ruins and the tank, as they're going to be in schemes to fit with each other. At the point I'm taking the pictures below, they've had the following done:
- Two coats of P3 Cryx Bane Highlight as a basecoat
- Drybrush with Trollblood Highlight
- Drybrush with Sickly Skin
The tank is going to get parked here for now - heh - while I detail the ruins/barricades before applying an Agrax wash. I'm not sure whether I want to apply a camo pattern to the tank, or just leave it as a single tone - any thoughts from the studio audience? Also, as it has been a while - well, probably the better part of a decade - since I've painted tank tracks, what methods do people recommend?
I did pick up Ratling Grime Contrast and Mortarion Grime Shade yesterday, so I may try them out on the barricades to see what I think. I also picked up Liber Astartes for HH 2.0, so at some point I'll have to decide what I'm doing with the contents of Calth, Prospero and the 2.0 starter - I think I was originally looking at Ultramarines, but we'll see. I also suspect I'll be leaving that until after I move, though.
Outside of these three, I'm waiting for the new Imperial Guard book to drop - as per my thread in 40k General, I've already made some observations from the Munitorum Field Manual that I'm not massively keen on. I've been avoiding picking up Cadia Stands! so far, as I'm not sure I want the Sentinel or the Shock Troops, but I might have to depending on the price of the Ordinance Teams when they finally go up for individual pre-order.
At a bare minimum, I'm going to need to put together four Scions to go with my Tempestor Prime (who I don't seem to have a photo of in my gallery, which is odd), n =][= Storm Troopers to go with the two converted Officers, and Emperor knows how many Guardsmen to form assorting Command Squads, given my collection currently features seven Platoon Commanders and two Company Commanders...
As people might expect, a new year means a new Hobby Bingo card, though until I've filled out any squares I'm not going to post it. This year's card was posted in White Dwarf 483, and interesting splits squares between painting things and playing games. I've left the Kill Team, AOS and Underworlds elements off my card as the odds of my actually playing any of them is really close to 0, so why waste my time? I am disappointed by the lack of Blood Bowl or Necromunda options on it, though.
@inmygravenimage - Thanks, graven. The Thunderer is a cool tank, I agree. I was originally going to give it a dozer blade, but never got around to it. Still, it has been sat waiting to be built/painted for so long, it'll be good to finally get it off the list, and by my first vehicle painted in this Imperial Guard scheme - though probably not the last.
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Well, we have progress - I've managed to "hurry" through the two barricades, and my initial conclusion is I should avoid using Typhus Corrosion without adult supervision.
Spoiler:
Two Ryza-pattern barricades
No major surprises on these - the door on the first barricade got two coats of GW Khorne Red. Metal details were painted with VMC Gungrey, GW Leadbelcher, GW Warpstone Bronze, GW Brass Scorpion and/or GW Runelord Brass. Various coloured details on the second ruin were picked out with GW Khorne Red, GW Warpstone Glow and/or GW Incubi Darkness.
Once all the detailing was done, everything got a coat of last-genGW Agrax Earthshade. With that done, some of the bronze sections got a little GW Nihilakh Oxide, broken pipes got introduced to GW Typhus Corrosion, and I tried out GW Ratling Grime Contrast in a few spots.
Are they high art? No, not at all. But they're good enough to put on a table and game with (bar needing some varnish, and this isn't the time of year for a-varnishin' ).
They also allow me to cross off the first square on my bingo card (B1, for those keeping score at home). Technically it also means a start to getting stuff off the Pile of Potential, but then I upset that apple cart by ordering a metal Bonesinger off eBay, and a copy of Cadia Stands! from my LGS (though I don't get my hands on that until Saturday).
Right, now to either force myself to work on the Scouts, or figure out what I'm doing with the tank...
@inmygravenimage - Thanks graven. I'm less worried about my use of the Oxide, as I tend to be a bit more sparing in its use. But, yes, it does work well on wee ghosties, too.
@Olthannon - Thanks for the kind words. And, yeah, about that tank...
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Picked up the copy of CADIA STANDS! I'd ordered from the LGS on Saturday - having had a flick through the Codex, I feel it appropriate to quote Vito Corleone from The Godfather here, with "Look how they massacred my boy" feeling very accurate.
Spoiler:
There are far too many arbitrary or box-based restrictions on unit loadouts, and ignoring the sculpts of models you've released previously in other cases - given an upcoming M2O run is bringing back two classic sculpts with the option, why can't the Commissar have a Power Fist any more?
That's before we get to issues with kitbashed models that were legal in the last Codex, but aren't in this one, like my Storm Trooper Officers with power sword or power fist.
I'm less bothered about most Officers now being back in with their Command Squads, as they should always have been, though I don't get why the Cadian Command Squad needs to be distinct from the Platoon Command Squad - or why Platoon-level Command Squads get the Regimental Standard as an option, rather than a Company Standard. It also seems weird that the only generic Captain/Colonel model is explicitly Cadian - do other Regiments suddenly not have Officers of such a rank?
Looking at my file of finished models, I think the Cadian Officer with Power Sword is going to be slotting in as a Cadian Castellan with Power Sword in the new book. The plastic Cadian Company Commander will (finally) get the rest of his Command Squad built, though this technically means a demotion to Platoon Commander.
My triple-flamer Special Weapon Squad is no longer a thing - though as it was Catachan, that's technically half a Catachan Jungle Fighter squad with a Flamer left over. On the other hand, the one Infantry Squad I had finished in the army was also Catachan, though it did feature a meltagun (and a bolt pistol on the Sergeant) - if I rejig those models, I can get a double-flamer Catachan Jungle Fighter squad, and fill out the Command Squad for my Catachan Officer (giving his squad a Meltagun & Flamer), with one or two Infantry left over. Not terribe.
Conscripts are also gone, so I'll need to repurpose my blob of 30. I'm going to have to check how many metal Cadian Special Weapon guys I've got kicking around, and what I can do for Sergeants, but in theory I can make 3 or four Cadian squads from them.
While that resolves one Platoon Commander, the SWS and the Conscripts, that leaves me with six other Platoon Commanders in need of Command Squads. Two of them are Cadian, so in the short term some Conscripts may see themselves promoted to Veterans to fill those out. The other four Platoon Commanders cover a variety of Regiments, however - one each of Valhallan, Mordian, Tallarn and Steel Legion. I think I have an unfinished Infantry Squad each of Tallarn and Valhallan troops, so once I find them, I can reorganise people into new units. Not so sure on the Mordian or Steel Legion fronts, though. Equally, I'm not sure how I want to equip the Command Squads given new limitations.
My Scions and =][= Storm Troopers also need a bit of a reshuffle. I've currently got a 5-man squad of Scions with 2 meltaguns, alongside a Tempestor Prime - the squad will need expanding to 10 models to keep the two meltaguns legal, though I could add two other special weapons at the same time. The Tempestor Prime will need his Command Squad building, though that has been on the to-do list for a while.
On the =][= side of things, I'll need to switch special weapons around between squads, so I end up with two pair in each. Currently thinking that going by range bracket is my best option, so plasma/grenade and melta/flamer, with the latter squads getting the plasma pistol sergeants. The =][= Officers will also need command squads, though I do have 3 basic =][= ST that can fill some of those positions.
I'll also have to hope that in any friendly games, people are either OK with me paying points for the =][= Officers to have the weapons they're carrying, or accept them not being WYSIWYG. See also Commissars with boltguns.
And not that I had a unit of them, but what happened to the Wyrdvane Psykers squad?
Needless to say, stupid restrictions are stupid - and I've yet to crack open the Chaos Daemons 'dex I picked up on Saturday to see what I need to adjust on that side of things.
One upside of a Guard release, though, is fresh images of tanks to give me an idea how to do the tracks. Looking at the strangely-armoured Rogal Dorn, I'd say that the tracks lean towards a dark metal base, with pads that look almost like P3 Coal Black. I think I'll use that as a base (so VMA Gungrey, shaded with Nuln Oil, possibly shaded with Agrax as well, then a light drybrush of Leadbelcher), and possibly give the tracks a general drybrush with Trollblood Highlight and Sickly Skin (followed by more Agrax) as a bit of weathering?
While that sounds like a bit of a plan, it wasn't what I actually got on with since the last post.
Adeptus Mechanicus Cybernetica Datasmith
Looks like I started this guy in June 2019, if my older thread is to be believed, so it is nice to finally get him finished. Lots of fiddly work required to get here, so I'm not going to try and recount each step. I'm considering whether to do the folded-over bit of each sleeve a different colour, but he's at least fieldable now.
I guess this means I need to find the box with the two Kastelans which came with him, and get them done at some stage.
Can't really say I enjoyed working on him that much, as there are far too many random details in there. Still, as I said, good to get him finished - and he lets me check A1 of this year's bingo card, too.
I may have resurrected another figured that's been WIP for far too long, but we'll see on that one.
Right, now to go through and reorganise my Guard. I may well take new pictures of the units which are "complete" at this point, and get them in the gallery in a "2023 Imperial Guard" folder, but we'll see.
I also need to find where my metal Cadian special weapon guys are to pad out the ex-Conscript squads - I've found one guy with a meltagun so far, but I'm sure I have more of them... somewhere.
Yes, GW seems to be trying to force limitations based on the new kits for many armies. Those of us with massive numbers of figures will not have an issue, but those who have built a small army are suddenly finding arbitrary changes making a unit here or there no longer 'legal'. My gaming group is just adjusting with some homebrewed changes...as we are past the time for new armies.
Haha a suitable replacement for tank progress is some tasty admech. Nice colourful red on the cloak.
Interesting write up on Cadia Stands. I would have picked it up if I had time to start a new guard army. I think one day I will.. It's just as well I barely play a game of 40k, let's me convert minis to my hearts content. I think I may be quite lucky that my local GW is content with whatever you bring to the store.
@inmygravenimage - Thanks, graven. I'm not deliberately going through the n1 squares, honest...
@Captain Brown - Yeah, the whole NMNR thing is an insult to the hobby, really. Oh, to have the money to buy GW, find the person in the Studio behind it, and demote them to janitor...
@Olthannon - Glad to hear you like the Datasmith. Aside from the new Sentinel (which I'm not keen on as I prefer the shape of the previous one), I've not got any issues with the contents of the box so far (though ask me again once I start building things from it) - it's the massacre of the Guard they've done in the Codex I'm not keen on
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As I mentioned last time out, I'm going to be doing some work to try to get my Guard to fit within the boundaries of the latest ludicrous 'dex. I've reshuffled the three Catachan choices I had painted previously, getting a Platoon Command Squad and a Catachan Jungle Fighters squad out of the mix, with two spare painted Guardsmen left over to start a second CJF squad - need to find where my spare Catachan metals are, and how many flamers I've got.
Spoiler:
Cadian Castellan
Assorted Commissars
Regimental Enginseers - could also be used in AdMech if needed
Catachan Platoon Command Squad
Catachan Jungle Fighters Squad 1
Steel Legion Heavy Weapon Squad - not a new picture, but a current unit
I've also managed to find the sprue with the rest of the Cadian Command Squad on that this Commander came from back in 2019. I've started putting together a Medic and a Vox-Operator from there, and now just need to decide which two special weapons I'm going to use, as I don't think I'll be putting a Regimental Standard in there. Currently thinking plasma and a grenade launcher, for a stand-off-ish CCS.
I did manage to find one metal Cadian with Meltagun so far to go with into one of the three Cadian Shock Troops squads I'm making out of my Conscripts - I've also found three on eBay at vaguely reasonable prices, so that'll get me to two squads with double melta - would like to add two plasma to the third squad. If I can find the parts to build sergeants for the three squads, that'll leave me with 9 troopers left over, which will make most of a fourth squad, which'd be handy.
I'm pretty sure I filed away the head/laspistol/chainsword trifecta of bits from the three squads I built the Conscripts from, so I really only need legs & torsos - need to go looking, as I'm sure I've got some of this generation on-sprue somewhere.
Worked on the Thunderer tracks as described in my previous post, though I've held of with the Agrax step, and used VMA Steel instead of GW Leadbelcher for the drybrush step.
Hey! Look! A proper tank, that isn't afraid to show its belly!
Those with a keen eye may also notice an Ultramarine on the tray - that would be Lt. "Twenty Degrees" Calsius, the exclusive Lt. from the Imperium magazine run. Like the Datasmith, he was also started back in 2019. I've done a little tidying up on the white so far with Celestra Grey, as well as doing what looks to be a second Seraphim Sepia pass on the to-be gold parts. I put him to one side shortly after that photo was taken, so I could concentrate on the Scouts, with the exception of when I was tidying up leather areas.
Speaking of the Scouts, what did I do with them? Well...
Spoiler:
- Paint grenades GW Caliban Green
- Paint ropes GW Incubi Darkness
- Paint shotgun barrel section VMC German Grey
- Paint pistol butts VMC German Grey
- Paint shotgun slides (I think that's the term) Umbral Umber
- Tidied up the leather with P3 Bootstrap Leather
- Picked out the meltabomb on the Sergeant with GW Averland Sunset
- Remember that Sergeants have black shoulder pads in the BA, and repaint those with VMC German Grey
- Washed the Sergeant's shoulder pads and the ropes with GW Nuln Oil
- Tidied up red armour with GW Mephiston Red, including a couple of previously-missed areas
- Went back to get any missing silver metallic areas with VMA Gungrey
- Finally got to the boots with VMC German Grey
- Tidied up gloves and fatigues with GW Rakarth Flesh
- Shaded any silver metallic areas with GW Nuln Oil
- Built up the gold with GW Seraphim Sepia
- Shaded fatigues, cloth, leather, armour with GW Agrax Earthshade
- Picked out whatever the thing that looks like a light or sight on the side of the shotguns with GW Retributor Armour
- Went over the RA with GW Blood for the Blood God
I was pretty much at the "fiddly detail" stage of things, so just had to work through them.
Glad to get these five off the WIP list
They also clear square A2 of the ol' bingo card, giving me a little cluster in the top left.
Not sure I'l be moving on to next - could be the Command Squad, could be Lt. Calsius, could be the Thunderer, or it could be something else entirely...
@Captain Brown - Thanks, Captain. I need to get a shot of Nork Deddog and the reorganised =][= Stormtrooper squads at some point, so they can all be on here as units. And, yes, NMNR really does suck.
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As well as what I've been working on, I've had a model painted by a commission painter, Ashelyn Gaming. In this case, Ashelyn painted the copy of Bayard's Revenge I picked up last year for me, with quite a quick turnround.
I'm happy with the end result, and will likely use her services again in the future, particularly with character models I'm not planning on using in an army.
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This week may have mostly involved revisiting a model that I think last made an appearance back in October 2021, in the form of the Spoilpox Scrivener.
When last seen, I'd painted the base for this Daemon, but hadn't progressed with him much beyond there. As you can see from the below, that's no longer the case...
A model after my own heart, tracking data whenever appropriate...
Roughly in order:
Spoiler:
- Tidied up areas where I'd been untidy with Grey Seer
- Basecoated metal areas with Abaddon Black
- Warplock Bronze on the icon, scroll handle & sword
- Drybrushed those areas with Brass Scorpion
- Tidied up over-drybrush with Grey Seer
- Went over ink bottle(?) with Leadbelcher
- Picked out leather straps with P3 Bootstrap Leather
- Painted quill with Aethermatic Blue
- Picked out centre of quill feather with Leviadon Blue
- Washed slug underbelly (and maggots) with Reikland Fleshshade (twice)
- Picked out slug gums/tongue/mouth with Screamer Pink
- Washed the above with Agrax Earthshade
- Washed maggots with Seraphim Sepia
- Washed skin with Athonian Camoshade (twice)
- Generally tidied up washed areas, given white undercoat
- Painted small bits of cloth, scrolls-in-belly, etc, with Skeleton Horde
- Painted Big Kahuna Scroll with Skeleton Horde
- Painted guts and small back wound with Druchii Violet
- Shaded the ink bottle with Mortarion Grime, just because I can
- Basecoated Hungry Nurgling with a 2:1 (ish) mix of Lahmium Medium & Fenrisian Grey
- Shaded Hungry Nurgling with a 2:1 (ish) mix of Lahmian Medium & Druchii Violet
- Picked out areas on the scroll to become metal with Abaddon Black
- Picked out the Scriviner's third eye and some of the boils with Averland Sunset
- Picked out Hungry Nurgling's eye (and some highlights) with Ulthuan Grey
- Went over the metal bits on the scrolls with Brass Scorpion
- Shaded yellow bits with Reikland Fleshshade
- Shaded Leadbelcher bits with Nuln Oil
- Shaded Brass Scorpion elements with Agrax Earthshade
Quite a few fiddly details on the guy, and I'm sure some areas would've been easier to work on had he been in sub-assemblies. Having said that, I'm not sure how easily he'd've gone together after painting.
And, true to form, as soon as I took these "finished" pictures I find little bits I need to touch up - the downside of a white undercoat.
Is anyone else confused how Nurgle Daemons seem to be lacking a Heavy Support choice? Seems more fitting for them than Fast Attack - bring back the Contagion of Nurgle as a HS, you cowards!
I'll admit, I'm a little curious how many points things end up becoming by the end of the year, so I'll keep updating this spoiler when things get finished.
I've continued making progress on some of these older WIPs, with some detail work on Lt. Calsius, as well as working my way through a unit.
More of Grandfather's blessings...
These were originally intended to be reinforcements for my existing unit of Plaguebearers, but then GW changes the Daemons rules. There are another five to work through now these are done, but they were a little further back in my process for this scheme.
Guess I'll have to do a third squad in this scheme, and put together an additional Champion/Standard/Musician when building that unit.
Mildly annoying, as I'd wanted to do a Sickly Pallor of Decay unit as my second or third Plaguebearer unit - guess they'll be unit #4 now.
Progress steps:
Spoiler:
- Calsius: Basecoated the two purity seals with Steel Legion Drab
- Calsius: Went over the brown on the purity seals with Rakarth Flesh
- Calsius: Shaded the seals with Agrax Earthshade
- Plaguebearers: Did what I think was the second coat of Athonian Camoshade to the first 5 Plaguebearers
- Plaguebearers: Picked out eyes and some boils on the first 5 with Averland Sunset
- Plaguebearers: Washed eyes/boils/maggot with Reikland Fleshshade
- Plaguebearers: Picked out wounds with Screamer Pink
- Plaguebearers: Washed the Screamer Pink areas (and the skin around them) with Druchii Violet
- Plaguebearers: Picked out teeth/bones with Steel Legion Drab
- Plaguebearers: Went over teeth/bones with P3 Jack Bone
- Plaguebearers: Washed the mouth maggot with Seraphim Sepia
- Plaguebearers: Washed the teeth/bones with Agrax Earthshade
There may be a little bit of tidying up to do when I've finished the other five - the downside of looking at pictures on the screen, especially when we're talking models with a white undercoat.
Progress on Calsius
Interestingly, when he's done, I think Calsius will be my first Primaris marine - and definitely my first Ultramarine.
Shockingly, my next project will be the other half of this batch of ten Plaguebearers, though there's a chance Calsius might get finished first. I'm pretty sure these 5 daemons get me half of cell E2 on the bingo card, but I'll confirm that once the other five are done.
I guess this means we can move these Plaguebearers fully off the "old WIP" list, then...
Full unit shots to come once the command groups have been sorted out
Progress steps:
Spoiler:
- Plaguebearers: Painted the compound eyes on the fly head with P3 Coal Black
- Calsius: Basecoated the shoulder pad rims with VMA Chrome, ready to use Seraphim Sepia to turn them into the gold that the 2nd Company now seems to use
- Plaguebearers: Applied two coats of Athonian Camoshade to the skin
- Plaguebearers: Picked out eyes (on 4 of them) and boils on all of them with Averland Sunset
- Plaguebearers: Washed eyes/boils with Reikland Fleshshade
- Plaguebearers: Picked out assorted wounds with Screamer Pink
- Plaguebeaeres: Washed in and around the wounds with Druchii Violet
- Plaguebearers: Did a tidy-up pass with Athonian Camoshade, as I was seeing some white/light spots where there shouldn't be
- Plaguebearers: Picked out teeth with Steel Legion Drab
- Plaguebearers: Went over the teeth with P3 Jack Bone, as well as picking out the two maggots in one gut with it as a basecoat.
- Plaguebearers: Washed the maggots with Seraphim Sepia
- Plaguebearers: Highlighted the guts (and tongues) with Pink Horror (also did this step on the previous batch of five)
Time for a quick hobby bingo update...
Spoiler:
If I'm not mistaken, that works out at 50 points
So, what's likely to be next?
- Build and base 10 Plaguebearers, including two command groups
- Build and base the remaining four guys for the Cadian Command Squad
- Base 5 Assault Intercessors
- Base 1 Bladeguard Lieutenant
- Base a Necron Psychomancer
- Base a Plague Surgeon
- Base a Sloppity Bilepiper
- Undercoat all of the above, assuming I get a good day for it, weather-wise
- Check my desk for anyone else who should be ready for basing
- Review where I got to on the Hellbrute
- MOAR PAINT on Twenty Degrees Calsius
- Possibly figure out what I want to do in terms of camo and markings for the Thunderer
@inmygravenimage - Thanks for that, graven. It's good to get some of these models that have been sat around for a while off the WIP list and into the "finished" list.
@gobert - Thanks, gobert. The Scouts had been haunting me, so I was really glad to get them finished up.
+ + +
Progress steps:
Spoiler:
- Plaguebearers (PB ) : Assembled 10 Plaguebearers, including two command groups
- Assault Intercessors (AI) : Based all 5 models
- Bladeguard Lt. (BGL) : Based
- AI/BGL : Undercoated with Chaos Black Spray
- AI/BGL : Basecoated the bases with two coats of P3 Cryx Bane Highlight
- AI/BGL : Drybrushed bases with P3 Trollblood Highlight
- AI/BGL : Drybrushed bases with P3 Sickly Skin
- AI : Picked out the skull on the base with Steel Legion Drab (Sgt. only)
- AI/BGL : Picked out the brick on each base with P3 Skorne Red
- AI : Went over the skull with P3 Jack Bone (Sgt. Only)
- AI/BGL : Tidied up the base edges with Abaddon Black
- AI/BGL : Shades the bases with Agrax Earthshade - AI Bases Done - BGL : Picked out the Necron skull with Leadbelcher
- AI : Basecoated the Sgt's bionic forearm with Leadbelcher
- BGL : Highlighted said skull with a light VMA Chrome drybrush
- BGL : Basecoated his helmet with VMA Chrome
- BGL : Tinted the skull with Aethermatic Blue - BGL Base Done - BGL : Went over the helmet with Seraphim Sepia
- Calsius : Went back to the purity seals and picked out the metal elements at the bottom of each seal with VMC Chrome
- Calsius : Picked out the two wreaths with VMC Chrome (I was originally going to do these green, but changed my mind)
- Calsius : Went over the shoulderpad rims & purity seal bits with Seraphim Sepia
- Psychmancer : Glued the Psychomancer down to his base.
- Calsius : Tidied up his power armour with Macragge Blue
- Calsius : Picked out the 4 small vents on his backpack with Leadbelcher
- Calsius : Washed the vents with Nuln Oil
- Calsius : Washed the wreaths with Sreaphim Sepia
- Calsius : Went over the eagle on his chest with P3 Jack Bone
- Calsius : Washed various bits that had had one coat of Speia with a second coat
- Calsius : Washed the bone chest eagle with Agrax Earthshade
- Calsius : Went over the grey bits of detail with Ulthuan Grey, to get them to "white"
- BGL : Second coat of Seraphim Sepia on the helmet
- Calsius : Picked out vox mouthpiece thing with Leadbelcher
- Calsius : Washed the above with Nuln Oil - Calsius done
Nice to get Calsius off the WIP list, given he joined it in March 2019 - only took four years. He also crosses off square E4 on my bingo card. I'm pretty sure he's the first Ultramarine I've finished, and fairly sure he's the first Primaris marine, too - there's a WIP Mentor Legion Lt. in a box somewhere who I'm sure is pretty ticked off with me now...
It'll be interesting to see if I regret starting on the gold helmet and bionic forearm on the Blade Guard Lieutenant and Assault Intercessor Sergeant respectively, given I've not basecoated the main armour panels yet...
@gobert - Thanks for that, gobert. He's another one that had been hanging around for far too long, so it is good to get him off the WIP list. As for a fun bunch coming up? We'll see...
+ + +
Progress steps:
Spoiler:
- Bladeguard Lt. (BGL) - Basecoated armour + backpack with Mephiston Red
- Cadian Command Squad (CCS) - Built remaining two men for the Command Squad
- Plaguebearers (PBs) - Added 10 Plaguebearers to their bases with plasticard spacers
- CCS - Added the 4 men to their bases, with plasticard spacers
- Psychomancer (PM) - Added basing material to the bases
- CCS/PBs - Added basing material to the bases
- Sloppity Bilepiper (SB) - Glued the Bilepiper and his Nurgling to his base, without a plasticard spacer
- Hellbrute (HB) - Glued the dangling Nurgling to the arm chains
- SB - Based the model
- PM/CCS/PBs/SB - Undercoated with Leadbelcher/Chaos Black/Corax White as appropriate
- PM/CCS - Touched up (or painted) the bases with Abaddon Black
- PM/CCS - Applied two thinned coats of P3 Cryx Bane Highlight to basecoat the bases
- PM/CCS - Drybrushed bases with P3 Trollblood Highlight
- PM/CCS - Drybrushed bases with P3 Sickly Skin
- PM/CSS - Picked out bricks on bases with P3 Skorne Red
- PM/CSS - Washed bases with Agrax Earthshade
- PM/CSS - Tidied up base rims with Abaddon Black - Bases done - CCS - Basecoated the skin with P3 Midlund Flesh
- PM - Drybrushed the Psychomancer with VMA Chrome
- PM - Painted the staff shaft, weird forearm, and spinal elements with Black Templar
- PM - Shaded hands & joints with Nuln Oil
- PM - Shaded tentacles with a 2:1 mix of Lahmium Medium & Nuln Oil
- PM - Went over elements of the carapace with Leviadon Blue
- PM - Went over the Necron symbols on the weapon and chest, as well as the orb on its back with VMA Chrome. Over-brushed the skull thing with VMA Chrome ready for when it would get its Technical coats.
- PM - Applied a first coat of Seraphim Sepia to the Necron symbols
- PM - Aethermaic Blue'd a lot of armour sections
- PM - Second coat of Seraphim Sepia on the gold symbols
- PM - Washed the tentacles with a 1:1 (ish) mix of Druchii Violet & Lahmian Medium
- PM - Went over various spheres that will need Tesseract Glow adding with VMA Chrome
- PM - Shaded the end of the tail, bottom of the staff, and the retracted arms/legs in the lower torso with a 1:1:1 mix of Nuln Oil, Drakenhof Nightshade & Lahmian Medium.
- PM - Applied Tesseract Glow as required.
- PM - Went over the bladed bits at the top of the staff with Ork Flesh Contrast
- PM - Added a little more shading to the top of the staff with Dark Angels Green Contrast
- PM - Used Nighthaunt Gloom and Hexwraith Flame (and a mix of the two) to try to do a sort of wet blend over the skull image thing.
- CCS - Applied a second coat of P3 Midlund Flesh on the skin
- PM - Highlighted the top of the staff with Ogryn Camo - Psychomancer done
Necron Psychomancer - also known as square C5 on the bingo card.
Apologies for the weird focus in the front shot - I'll get another shot when I'm next in t'booth.
Nurgle Daemons - Undercoated, awaiting their spot in the limelight
The Psychomancer is an... interesting model to paint, given how many bits want to flex when you paint them. Not disconcerting at all, no sir.
I've actually filled up all the "Hero or Character" squares on the bingo card already, which is probably not a good sign. Want to get the Cadian boys finished next, though I'll probably work through the basing on the Daemons at the same time.
The psychomancer is such a cool mini, one of the few extra Necrons I’d like to get. I love how you’ve blended the colours on the digital ghost, really nicely done
@gobert - Cheers, gobert. Hope the better pics below make up for the out-of-focus initial one.
@JoshhInJapan - Glad to hear you like them, Josh. The other advantage, of course, is that it makes them fairly simple to paint effectively
@Captain Brown - Thank you, Captain. It's still easy to get distracted, but we're getting there, slowly. We'll just not mention painted vs. bought YTD, OK?
+ + +
Progress steps:
Spoiler:
- Cadian Command Squad (CCS) - Washed the flesh with Reikland Fleshshade
- CCS - Basecoated the uniforms in P3 Cryx Bane Highlight (twice)
- Plaguebearers (PBs) - Basecoated the bases in P3 Cryx Bane Highlight (twice)
- Sloppity Bilepiper (SB) - Basecoated the base in P3 Cryx Bane Highlight (twice)
- SB/PBs - Drybrushed the bases with P3 Trollblood Highlight
- SB/PBs - Drybrushed the bases with P3 Sickly Skin
- PBs - Picked out the skulls on two of the bases with Steel legion Drab
- PBs - Went over the skulls with P3 Jack Bone
- SB/PBs - Picked out bricks on bases with P3 Skorne Red
- SB/PBs - Washed all the bases with Agrax Earthshade
- SB/PBs - Tidied up the base rims with two coats of Abaddon Black
- SB/PBs - Washed any horns with Reikland Fleshshade
- PBs - Went over the plague swords and standards with Abaddon Black
- PBs - Basecoated the plague swords and standard tops with Warplock Bronze
- PBs - Drybrushed all the Warplock Bronze with Brass Scorpion.
- PBs - Washed all the Bronze/Brass with Agrax Earthshade.
- PBs - Went over the spiky bit at the base of the two standards with Leadbelcher
- PBs - Basecoated the standard poles with P3 Umbral Umber.
- PBs - Washed the spiky bit at the base of the poles with Nuln Oil.
- PBs - Drybrushed the standard poles with Steel Legion Drab.
- PBs - Washed the poles with Agrax Earthshade.
- SB/PBs - Tidied up where necessary with Grey Seer.
- SB - Applied the first coat of Athonian Camoshade to the dancing Nurgling
- PBs - Touched up some of the Reikland Fleshshade on the horns
- SB - Applied the second coat of Athonian Camoshade to the dancing Nurgling
- PBs - Applied first coat of Athonian Camoshade over the skin
- SB - Basecoated the Bilepiper's skin with a 2:1 mix of Lahmian Medium & Fenrisian Grey
- SB - Shaded the Bilepiper's skin with a 2:1 mix of Lahmian Medium & Druchii Violet
- SB - Shaded the Bilepiper's exposed guts, tongue and wounds with Druchii Violet
- SB - Painted the fleshy sac of the Bilepiper's Gutpipes with Reikland Fleshshade (twice)
- PBs - Applied a second coat of Athonian Camoshade to all of their skin
- Scarabs - Removed the Scarab swarms from my Boarding Patrol box from the sprues and cleaned them up.
- SB/PBs - Went over some bone elements with Skeleton Horde
- SB - Painted the hood of the head-on-a-stick with Black Templar
- SB - Painted the face of the head-on-a-stick with Nighthaunt Gloom
- Scarabs - Worked through basing the Scarabs, taking care not to have basing material interfere with them from a height perspective.
- Scarabs - Undercoated the Scarabs - Scarabs themselves with Leadbelcher, bases with Chaos Black
- Scarabs - Worked through the steps to paint the bases (see above).
- SB - Painted some of the Bilepipe pipes with Basilicanum Grey
- Scarabs - Drybrushed them with VMA Chrome
- Scarabs - Filled the rectangular recess at the back of each Scarab (and any plastic between claws) wit Black Templar.
- PBs - Used Basilicanum Grey on the hair on any severed heads.
- Scarabs - Shaded Scarab legs with Nuln Oil.
- Scarabs - Went back over orbs and eyes with VMA Chrome
- Scarabs - Painted the orbs and eyes with Tesseract Glow
- Scarabs - Went over the underside of the Scarabs with Black Templar
- Scarabs - Tidied up base edges and the uprights under the Scarabs with Abaddon Black.
- Scarabs - Glued the Swarms to their bases - SCARABS COMPLETE - PBs - Went over the skin on all the severed heads with Reikland Fleshshade
- SB/PBs - Picked out eyes and some boils on the Plaguebearers and Dancing Nurgling with Averland Sunset
- SB/PBs - Washed the bits I'd painted yellow with Reikland Fleshshade (along with the maggot on the back of the Bilepiper's stick)
- SB/PBs - Applied Screamer Pink to the wounds, guts and tongues of the Plaguebearers and Dancing Nurgling
- SB/PBs - Washed all the Screamer Pink areas with Liche Purple
- PBs - As he was looking pretty white for a fly guy, painted that fly head's eyes with Coal Black
- SB/PBS - Went over any maggots with Seraphim Sepia.
- SB/PBs - Basecoated teeth with Steel Legion Drab
- SB/PBs - Picked out any bits of leather with P3 Bootstrap Leather
- SB - Basecoated metal areas with Abaddon Black
- SB/PBs - Went over the teeth with P3 Jack Bone
- SB/PBs - Washed the teeth and leather with Agrax Earthshade
Improved pics of the front of the Psychomancer
WIP of the Bilepiper
More Scarab Swarms Just how many of these is enough? I'm up to 12 painted bases now.
Plaguebearers A couple of bits to tidy up on these, mainly on the musicians
Question - does anyone know of a good 3rd party canopy replacement for the Doom Croissant? Ideally UK-based.
Was quite fortunate to be able to pop into my LGS on the 22nd and grab a "The Lion & Retinue" box off the shelf there, despite how quickly they sold out on the GW store. Wasn't even really hunting for it, but I'm not going to complain.
Weird observation for the day - on the UKGW webstore, at the time of writing, the "Contact Us" in the top left displays an email address, but is formatted as a click-to-call link, which is odd. The sort of thing you noticce when you work in the field.
What's next? Well, I'm close to finishing the Bilepiper, so I guess him. I should also crack on with finishing off that Cadian Command Squad, as they've been on the tray for a little while. After that, I have options, but I should really get around to making a call on markings and camo for the Thunderer, so it can get finished.
Still not completed any rows or columns, but I've filled 9 squares after 4 months, and if I get the Bilepiper done in time, that'll be 10 in 4 months, which I don't think is bad progress. I'm currently planning on using him as the "Any Model", before I start a second card.
Looking at that latest image, I've got 2 rows and 1 column with 3 squares filled, so I'm not far off starting to check them off. Lord of War and Scenery seem to be the boxes I need to push on, so I guess I should go back to building those two Armigers I was working on. Kitbashes will probably be for the Stormtrooper Command Squad(s) I need to put together, but I'll come back to those - I need to check which Sergeants I've got kicking around to serve as bases for conversions.
Dysartes wrote: @Captain Brown - Thank you, Captain. It's still easy to get distracted, but we're getting there, slowly. We'll just not mention painted vs. bought YTD, OK?
That Plasmancer is great, I might have to get me one. I know the canopies you mean, but I’ve not seen any available in the UK. The plague piper looks good so far, really neat base colours
@FoxHybrid - Thanks for that, Fox. I do like this sort of drowned/asphyxiated scheme for Nurgle models.
@Captain Brown - offers a salute - my thanks, Captain.
@gobert - I found the Psychomancer a little awkward to assemble, and worryingly springy until attached to his base, but he was nice enough to paint up. No idea if he's good in-game or not, mind you
@Olthannon - Thanks Olthannon. I'm pretty comfortable with my process of painting this scheme for Nurgle now, as you might hope after 30 Plaguebearers and a few characters
+ + +
Progress steps:
Spoiler:
- Sloppity Bilepiper - Did a second pass with P3 Bootstrap Leather, carefully eliminating white spots.
- Immortals - Built 5 Immortals with Gauss Blasters.
- SB - Hit that one drop on the lowest pipe of the Bilepipes with Nurgle's Rot.
- Immortals - Built the bases for the Immortals.
- Immortals - Undercoated the Immortals with Leadbelcher, and their bases with Chaos Black.
- Immortals - Painted the bases (not going through all the steps individually again)
- SB - Picked out silver/steel metallics with Leadbelcher
- Immortals - Did a tidy-up-the-undercoat pass with Leadbelcher
- SB - Washed any white areas inside Dancing Nurgling's mouth with Liche Purple.
- SB - Basecoated any brass areas with Warplock Bronze
- Immortals - Drybrushed the Immortals with VMA Chrome, as well as picking out the chest symbol with it
- SB - Went over the Warplock Bronze with Brass Scorpion
- Immortals - Went over the chest symbols with Seraphim Sepia (twice)
- SB - Shaded the brass and leather with Agrax Earthshade
- Immortals - Added Leviadon Blue to the shoulder pads.
- Immortals - Went over the over-spine with Black Templar.
- SB - Went over claws with Black Templar
- Immortals - Added Black Templar to other details, such as gun casing and rib recesses.
- Immortals - Shaded appropriate Leadbelcher areas with Nuln Oil.
- Immortals - Went over the armour plates with Aethermatic Blue
- Immortals - Went over the gun barrel elements with Incubi Darkness
- Immortals - Went back in with Leviadon Blue to their foreheads
- Immortals - Used VMA Chrome to set up the areas that will get Tesseract Glow later.
- Immortals 2 - Started to clip parts off the sprue and clean them up.
- Immortals - Basecoated remaining cables with Caliban Green.
- Immortals - Went over the Chrome with Tesseract Glow
- Immortals - Highlighted some of the cables with Warpstone Glow.
- Immortals - Glued them to their bases - Immortals done
Immortals with Gauss Blasters - bingo card square C4
Thought I'd try making the end of the barrels glow as if about to fire on the three poses that look like they're shooting at someone. Not made my mind up on how it has come out yet, but I think it was worth a try.
Random confusing point - I ordered the metal Typhus from the recent M2O, along with some small flight stands, to get delivered to my local GW. Got shipping confirmation on Friday, but then got an email today saying the package has been returned by UPS. Here's hoping GW can sort that out - maybe UPS tried to deliver an order to my local GW on the bank holiday Monday? I dunno - I've replied, and am awaiting more info.
I've taken a look at the bingo card, and this is the detail of what I need to do to clear it:
Spoiler:
Kitbashed Model - ||
Lord of War - ||
Vehicle or Monster - ||||
Unit of 2+ Models - ||
Unit of 5+ Models - |
Unit of 10+ Models - ||
Any Model - |
Fortification or Scenery - |
The second unit of 5 Immortals I've got to build from the Combat Patrol - with Tesla, this time, using Doomfire Magenta for Tesla glow - should cover off that last "Unit of 5+ models" slot, and I've got a variety of units kicking around I could paint for the 10+ models slots. Once the 5+ and 10+ slots are filled out, any unit can complete the 2+ on this card - though I think I'd like to use Tomb Blades for one of them. The Bilepiper will slot into Any Model when I finish him off.
Lord of War, Vehicle/Monster and Kitbashed Model are the ones I need to think about, for sure. I'm part of the way through building a pair of Armigers, which will cover one LOW option, and the Thunderer will cover one Vehicle. I'm looking at a part-built Doomstalker as I type this, which would cover another V/M slot (and I'm pretty sure I have a second one from the box I got that one in).
Here's a question - can I hit 1,000 9th ed points of models painted this year before the 10th ed launch box releases? Gives me about 5 weeks to complete 290 points.
Cracking work on the Immortals. I think the glow works pretty well on both the barrels and the eyes. Gives a bit of variety in some pretty standardised poses
@tzurk - Thanks for the kind words. Here's hoping barricades become useful bits of cover in 10th, eh?
@gobert - Thanks gobert. I like the glowy eyes as a thing for the whole army, as at least I can say I have an army I've painted the eyes in on this way Not so sure how well the glow was worked on these Tesla Carbines, but we'll see.
+ + +
Progress steps:
Spoiler:
- Sloppity Bilepiper - Basecoated the shaft of the staff with Steel Legion Drab.
- Im-more-tals - Built a unit of five Immortals with Tesla Carbines
- SB - Washed the shaft with Agrax Earthshade (...phrasing?)
- Im-more-tals - Undercoated them with Leadbelcher
- Im-more-tals - Drybrushed with VMA Chrome, as well as picking out the chest symbol with Chrome
- SB - Painted the eye and added some highlightes with Ulthuan Grey.
- Im-more-tals - Blocked in the shoulder pads and forehead with Leviadon Blue.
- Im-more-tals - Washed the chest symbols with Seraphim Sepia (twice).
- Im-more-tals - Used Abaddon Black on the over-spines and rear rib recesses.
- SB - Picked out the pouch on the head-on-a-stick with Wyldwood Contrast
- Im-more-tals - Used Abaddon Black to block in the gun casings, as well as front rib recesses and shin details.
- SB - Went over the scroll on the head-on-a-stick with Skeleton Horde Contrast.
- Im-more-tals - Shaded joints, ribbed cables, etc, with Nuln Oil.
- SB - Picked out the nail holding the scroll to the shaft with Abaddon Black.
- SB - Went over the nail with Leadbelcher.
- SB - Washed the nail with Nuln Oil.
- SB - Reviewed the model for random white spots, filling them with appropriate colours. Sloppity Bilepiper DONE - Im-more-tals - Built the bases
- Im-more-tals - Undercoated the bases with Chaos Black spray
- Im-more-tals - Went over all the remaining armour panels with Aethermatic Blue.
- Im-more-tals - Painted the bases.
- Im-more-tals - Picked out future glowy bits with VMA Chrome.
- Im-more-tals - Picked out the eyes with Tesseract Glow
- Im-more-tals - Went over tesla glow areas with Doomfire Magenta
- Im-more-tals - Basecoated smooth cables with Caliban Green
- Im-more-tals - Highlighted thickest cable with Warpstone Glow
- Im-more-tals - Glued robots onto bases - Im-more-tals DONE
Sloppity Bilepiper - bingo card square C3 True to form - no matter how careful you are with a model that started with a white undercoat, as soon as you take a picture you find some recesses you missed...
Immortals with Tesla Carbines - bingo card square D5 Not 100% sure about the green cables despite the magenta "glow" - might revist that down the line. Thoughts from the studio audience?
Next up on deck is going to be an "easy" 10 model unit, in the form of another unit of 10 Necron Warriors with Gauss Flayers - that'll give me 20 Warriors with each weapon, which seems a good point to take me into 10th. Unfortunately, they're only 110 points in 9th, so I'll only be on 985 painted when they're done, so I may have to find something else to add to tip me over the 1,000 points before the Leviathan pre-order kicks in...
@inmygravenimage - It's a simple scheme for the Bilepiper skin, but effective. Not going to take credit for creating it, though - that was entirely lifted from a GW painting video.
@gobert - I thought the magenta glow might work - I figure different glows help people remember different weapon types on the tabletop, even if they don't know what the gun looks like. I agree with both of you that a different colour on the cables is probably for the best long term, but at least they're fieldable for now
+ + +
Progress steps:
Spoiler:
- Canoptek Doomstalker - Finished building the Doomstalker into subassemblies (legs, torso, 2 x side panels, 2 x "shoulder pads"
- CDS - Undercoated sub-assemblies with Leadbelcher spray
- CDS - Drybrushed all the parts with VMA Chrome
- CDS - Painted the outside of the "shoulder pads" with Leviadon Blue
- CDS - Painted the underside of the shoulder pads (and the recessed vents) with Black Templar.
- CDS - Basecoated the shoulder pad recesses containing Necron symbols with Chrome.
- CDS - Shaded those recesses with Seraphim Sepia, twice.
- CDS - Re-undercoated the base elements attached to the legs with Abaddon Black
- CDS - Picked out the elements supporting the glowy spheres on the side panels with Black Templar, as well as the piston hub on the leg section.
- CDS - Went over the outside of the side panels with Aethermatic Blue.
- CDS - Painted the inside of the side panels with Leviadon Blue.
- Necron Warriors - Glued weights to the underside of 10 bases, covered those with superglue & baking soda, and filled the divot in the top of the base with the same.
- CDS - Painted the glowy orb on the side panels with VMA Chrome.
- CDS - Went over the Chrome on the orbs with Tesseract Glow. 4/6 sub-assemblies done at this point.
- CDS - Painted the Doomstalker's faceplate with Leviadon Blue.
- CDS - Much Black Templar-ing of the torso.
- Overlord - Built the base
- CDS - Built the base
- CDS - Painted the barrels of the Twin Gauss Flayer with Incubi Darkness.
- CDS - Picked out main/known glowy areas on the torso with VMA Chrome (was unsure at this point what I was doing with glowy bits on the main cannon).
- CDS - Went over the aforementioned glowy bits with Tesseract Glow.
- CDS - Shaded ribbed cables with Nuln Oil.
- CDS/OL - Painted the bases.
- CDS - Worked on base elements attached to the legs at the same time as painting the base.
- CDS - Made up a 1:1:1 mix of Lahmian Medium, Nuln Oil & Drakenhof Nightshade, and used this to shade the lower leg claws, pistons, end of the Twin Gauss Flayer, and both ends of the big cannon on the Doomstalker's back.
- CDS - Shaded the recesses in the lower leg claws with Black Templar.
- CDS - Glued the leg section to the base.
- CDS - Aethermatic Blue'd the heck out of the upper sections of the legs.
- CDS - Shaded some joints with Nuln Oil.
- CDS - Basecoated smooth cables with Caliban Green.
- CDS - Went over Chrome areas on the big cannon with Striking Scorpion Green.
- CDS - Tidied up the base rim with Abaddon Black.
- CDS - Picked out a Scarab inside the pipe I'd missed with Leadbelcher.
- CDS - Did a tidy-up pass on the torso with Black Templar.
- CDS - Over-brushed the Scarab with Chrome.
- CDS - Painted the Scarab with Aethermatic Blue.
- CDS - Assembled the torso & side plates (not gluing it to the legs for now) - Doomstalker DONE
Spoiler:
Canoptek Doomstalker - bingo card square C2
I would've finished this thing off on Friday, but I was at UK Games Expo, so couldn't.
Maybe the impulse buy of Ashes of Faith from my LGS wasn't be best idea, in terms of keeping bought vs. painted under control. On the other hand, I didn't have any of those Cultists, only one set of SoS, and can always find a use for more Scions.
Bingo card update
Spoiler:
Yes, we have our first complete column! Achievement unlocked: Complete one column or row on t'bingo card.
Ah, so this thing still works - and this is post 9,000.
Mental note: Don't commit to not posting post 9,000 until you hadve something to post in your PLOG - that would explain nearly a six month gap between post 8,999 and 9,000.
Unfortunately, just after the above post we ran into a bit of daftly hot weather, which completely killed any desire to paint. I'd gotten five Warriors about 50% done, and the other five built, but just didn't have the energy/desire to get on with the job.
Given not getting them done had stopped me posting, though, I figured I'd get those five done so I could get back to posting on here over the festive period - time to start countering some of the donkey-caves on here, methinks.
I do expect 2024 to get off to a slow start, with the possible exception of those other five Warriors - in theory I'm buying my first house in Jan, maybe Feb, depending on how much longer the vendor's solicitors hold things up for.
Question tied to that, though - what would people recommend as a starting airbrush set-up, in the year 2023/4?
+ + +
@Olthannon - I'm pretty sure I missed that pipe scarab until I was 97%+ done. Hopefully the Doom Song has now expired...
@gobert - Yeah, random little scarabs on other models are definitely something you have to watch out for with these more recent Necron sculpts. While it isn't in the same wave, part of the reason I've not put a Spyder together is all the internal scarabs, and trying to figure out how to approach them.
+ + +
I'm not going to go through the steps I used to finish these off - there is a bit of tidying up to do, and my poly cement wasn't playing ball this morning, so the Warriors haven't been stuck down just yet. Downside of trying to get them done before travelling.
Five more Warriors - 20 with Reapers and 15 with Flayers completed now
One thing I have invested in since y'all last saw me was some storage from KR Multicase - using some of the custom layers. As it stands, one case is now holding almost all my 'crons (or it will when I'd tidied up these Warriors), bar a Psychomancer and three Ophydian Destroyers (where the springiness of the models terrify me).
KR Multicase tray currently holding 30 Warriors - today's five to go in there, but not sure what will happen with the last slot
+ + +
Points Log (recalculated for 10th, using the 06/12/23 MFM)
Congrats on 9000 posts! Good to see you back with the Necrons, quite a force you must have now. Hope the momentum carries to the new year and the new house!
@Captain Brown - Thanks for the kind words and the congratulations. Given some of the shapes the new Necrons end up in, custom foam seemed a good choice to protect them.
@Olthannon - Cheers, chief.
@gobert - Thanks for that. According to my Google Sheet I'm using as a log, going by the latest MFM document I've got 1,470 points painted, so I'll be over 1,500 once the other 5 Warriors are painted. 80 models today, though that includes a Plasmacyte I've painted that doesn't have a Destroyer unit to go with (I believe they're with the Destroyer units now, right, rather than their own datasheet?)
+ + +
Back in the Steel City today, after being away for Christmas. Tonight's task? Get my poly cement flowing again, so those Warriors can be glued into their bases, then start looking at basing the next five. They've been built, and the area for their feet marked on the base, but the bases aren't built yet.
One thing that is almost new for 2024 - I used it briefly before I went back to the family at Christmas - is a change of paint palette. I want to be clear that I'm not taking credit for this, though - it's something I saw on Instagram, and I can't recall who's post it was.
Rather than using a tile, I've picked up a silicone fidget popper thing off amazon. The one I've got gives me 28 small wells to work in, though I'm unlikely to be using them all at the same time. Once I'm done, I can leave the paint to dry, then invert the little silicone cup and peel the paint off, giving me a clean surface for next time. Seems to be working well so far, at least for small volumes of paint. And, unlike the tile I've been using for years, it doesn't have about half an inch of paint built up on it.
In non-painting news, I made my first and second blog posts in nearly five years at the start of the year, giving my thoughts on the cards revealed for Arkham Horror LCG during the spoiler season for the upcoming Hemlock Vale set.
From an AHLCG perspective, I think I know what I want to write next, but I'll need to wait for the set to be out, which is mid-Feb. If I want to keep to a fortnightly schedule, I'm going to have to come up with two other topics before then, probably not AHLCG in nature.
Anyway, got those five Warriors glued into their base and touched up, so they've joined their brethren in that blue foam tray and have been packed away.
To follow up on my response to gobert in my last post, here's a list of what I've completed for my Necrons so far:
Spoiler:
- 1x Overlord
- 1x Royal Warden
- 1x Skorpekh Lord
- 1x Plasmancer
- 1x Psychomancer
- 3x Canoptek Plasmacyte
- 1x Canoptek Reanimator
- 1x Cryptothralls (and I'm surprised we haven't seen a clampack with some alternative poses yet)
- 5 Deathmarks
- 3 Skorpekh Destroyers
- 20 Necron Warriors with Gauss Reaper
- 15 Necron Warriors with Gauss Flayer
- 5 Immortals with Gauss Blaster
- 5 Immortals with Tesla Carbine
- 12 Canoptek Scarab Swarms
- 3 Ophydian Destroyers
- 1x Canoptek Doomstalker
By my reckoning, that's 1,470 points as of the last MFM, which will rise to 1,570 when these next five Warriors with Gauss Flayers are completed.
Speaking of those Warriors, I have undercoated and made a staart on painting them - as well as building the bases - but writing those blog posts, work travel, and the cold weather means I've not gotten as far yet as I'd like. Still, some progress is better than no progress.
I have made some more progress in packing stuff from my cabinet, though:
Spoiler:
30 Plaguebearers, 3 bases of Nurglings and a pair of characters
28 Poxwalkers, 2 Daemon characters and an Ultramarine, with room for these 5 Necron Warriors when I get them done
I suspect layer 3 will end up being Blood Bowl stuff.
Not the most exciting update, but proof I'm not dead, at least
We've not hit the end of January, but we have got the first completed models for the year out of the way:
The other half of the unit of Warriors that were done just before Christmas
I'll be doing another bingo card this year - and hopefully even completing it! - so between the two groups of five I feel justified in checking off square E2, as the first "Unit of 10+ Models" entry on the 2023 card. I'm not keen on the 2024 Bunker thing, so I'll stick with the painting side of the 2023 card, thank ye very much.
Up next is mainly going to be moving to new house, but I've got three bits of terrain undercoated that I intend to work on while everything is going on. In this case, I'm talking about two Thermic Plasma Regulators and a Haemotrope Reactor, both from my Imperium subscription. They've been undercoated with Leadbelcher, though I think the Reactor needs a touch-up pass on that undercoat, then we'll be starting things off with a Nuln Oil wash. I figure the two Regulators can count for one scenery square, and the Reactor can count for another - any objections from the crowd?
In moving prep news, I used the last layer in that other KR case to pack three Blood Bowl teams in, including their painted Big Guys, so that was handy.
@gobaert - Good to know, though I need to find where they box they're in ended up (or how to get to it).
+ + +
So, I'm now in the new house - not unpacked, by a long shot but I'm in. The terrain I was working on is in a plastic box... somewhere, so I decided to get a new project cycled through that would be quick and simple.
Hence some more Scarab Swarms - though at 15 completed now, I'm starting to wonder how many is too many...
Usual steps and basing apply, and these were glued into the painted bases this morning:
I should probably have a play around at some more interesting basing options for the next three I do, but these will do to shake some of the painting rust off.
Next up is another three base unit, but not of Scarabs - no, this time I'll be working on three bases of Nurglings. Easter break means I probably won't have them done in a week, but I'll be looking to make a start. Going to try to get them undercoated as soon as I've posted this...
Glad to see you’ve found the painting sticks post house move. Scarbs are a fun way to get back in the zone. Looking forward to some cheeky nurgling bois next
@gobert - Thanks gobert. Scarabs are a nice simple way to get back into the swing of things. Hopefully this group will fit in with the ones I painted nearly five years ago now - sheesh. And I think I found another box with three bases in during the move...
+ + +
OK, three bases of overly cheerful plague-ridden terrors completed. As with the last three bases of these I did, I've gone for a mix of skintones on each base, even if the majority are a similar green to the Plaguebearers I've done so far.
Due to how they go together, I kept the various segments of each base apart, and didn't glue them to their bases - or build the bases - until the Nurglings themselves were completed. Even if some of the detail is obscured by the row in front, I feel better knowing it is painted.
Steps:
Spoiler:
- Undercoated with Corax White
- Touched up undercoat with Ulthuan Grey
- Picked out all horns with Reikland Fleshshade
- Went over all horns with Athonian Camoshade
- Decided which front, middle and back segments I wanted to go together, and labelled the corks appropriately
- Placing the three nurgling schemes to try and avoid them sitting next too each other too much.
- Applied second coats of Athonian Camoshade and Reikland Fleshshade to the appropriate Nurglings
- Shaded the third colour of Nurgling with a 2:1 mix of Lahmian Medium & Druchii Violet
- Picked out guts, wounds & tongues on the green & flesh Nurglings with Screamer Pink
- Shaded the maggots coming out of one Nurgling's guts with Seraphim Sepia (twice)
- Picked out guts/wounds/tongues on the Sickly Pallor Nurglings with Druchii Violet
- Picked out eyes and boils on the green and flesh Nurglings with Averland Sunset
- Found where my pot of Khorne Red was, saving me buying another pot.
- Shaded the Averland Sunset bits with Reikland Fleshshade
- Picked out drips from things with Ogryn Camo
- Added Nurgle's Rot over the Ogryn Camo
- Shaded the Screamer Pink bits (and some bits on the blue Nurgling's with Druchii Violet
- Basecoated all the teeth with Steel Legion Drab
- Went over the teeth with Rakarth Flesh
- Shaded the teeth with Agrax Earthshade
- Picked out the eyes on the blue Nurglings - and did a few highlights - with Ulthuan Grey
- Went over the rocky bits at the base of each stand with Cryx Bane Highlight
- Shaded the rocky bits with Agrax Earthshade
- Glued the bits of the three bases of Nurglings together into... clumps?
- Glued the clumps of Nurglings to actual bases
- [BASING OCCURS]
Bingo card update after the Nurglings are completed:
Spoiler:
I should probably finish off something that's been WIP for a while next, rather than starting something new. There are a few projects on deck that would fit there, so I guess I've got a decision to make...
General question - if my goal is to paint more GW models than I buy this year, should I count any Miniatures of the Month I claim as "purchased"? Would currently be the difference between breaking even, and having one more model "bought" than painted...
@Captain Brown - Thanks Captain. The Nurglings aren't too bad to paint, even if I am undoubtably making things tricker for myself with the three-colour mix.
@gobert - Cheers gobert. I figured with the first group I did that if they were all green, they'd just be blobs - with the mix of skintones, there's more visual interest there. in my Pile of Shamer 2024 record-keeping post I've ended up with two net totals for the year, one including the free model and one without. If I can get/keep the without-free-models total in a green state, I'll be happy.
+ + +
With the Nurglings out of the way, but both wanting to continue with Daemons for now and clear something that was on my 2023 "Pile of Shame", I brought back Karanak and the unit of 5 Flesh Hounds I'd previously gotten to based status. A little under two years is a long time for them to be on hold for.
Steps
Spoiler:
- Karanak/Flesh Hounds - Basecoated their hide with Khorne Red, shockingly (two coats required).
- K/FH - Basecoated any fur with Rhinox Hide.
- Built 10 more Plaguebearers
- K/FH - Stippled the transition between Red and Brown with mixes of the two, to soften the transition.
- K/FH - Washed the hide & fur with Druchii Violet
- K/FH - Drybrushed the fur with Warpfiend Grey
- K/FH - Lightly drybrushed the fur with Ulthuan Grey
- K/FH - Went back over tail spikes/blades & noses I'd missed with Rhinox Hide
- K/FH - Washed the tail spikes/blades & noses with Druchii Violet
- K/FH - Drybrushed skin with Wazdakka Red
- K/FH - Painted neck fans with Bugman's Glow
- K/FH - Washed neck fans with Carroburg Crimson
- PB - Added weights to the 10 bases
- K/FH - Painted tongues & inside of mouths with Screamer Pink
- K/FH - Washed all tongues & mouths with Druchii Violet
- K/FH - Highlighted tongues with Pink Horror
- K/FH - Basecoated teeth & claws with Celestra Grey
- K/FH - Shaded teeth & claws with Nuln Oil
- K/FH - Basecoated collars & embedded Khorne symbols with Warplock Bronze
- K/FH - Went over the collars with Brass Scorpion
- K/FH - Went over any embedded Khorne symbols with Runelord Brass
- K/FH - Shaded both sections of metals with Agrax Earthshade
- K/FH - Added some Nihilakh Oxide to collar recesses
- K/FH - Picked out eyes with Ulthuan Grey
- K/FH - Highlighted teeth/claws with Ulthuan Grey
- K/FH - Went over eyes (and the flames on Karanak's pile of skulls) with Averland Sunset - Flesh Hounds DONE - K - Glued third head/face on.
- K - Drybrushed the fire by that one leg with Ember Orange, Wazdakka Red, Khorne Red, and Abaddon Black - Karanak DONE
Pictures All 5 Flesh Hounds, demonstrating that my photo booth might not be wide enough
Unit as two groups
Karanak, the Hound of Vengeance
Getting those finished has also checked off boxes A1 and A2 for the bingo card - 20% of the square completed, at least, though I'm fairly far behind where I need to be if I want to complete one card this year.
I see we've had another MFM released, ready for the Custodes and Ork Codex releases. A quick look at my log for what's been completed shows minimal changes - my Daemons and Death Guard are completely untouched, while my Imperial forces have dropped by 55 points overall (and are now back below 2k, annoyingly), while my Necrons saved 25 points (but are still over 1,500 points - and are currently my largest single-faction army ready for 8th onwards).
While these two doubled my points total for 2024 so far, it still feels odd to have painted four-and-a-half units and barely cleared 250 points painted.
@Mothsniper - A fan of the bricks, I see? Aye, they help break up the otherwise often monotone-ish bases, though so do elements from the bits box if I don't bury them in too much ballast.
@gobert - Thanks, gobert. I followed the guide from the box/build leaflet on the fur, and I'm glad I did, as I probably wouldn't've thought of it otherwise.
@Captain Brown - Keeping at it, Cap'n! o7
+ + +
How have we been on this page of the plog for over a year?
Having gotten the pack of Flesh Hounds off the list in the last update, I managed to find which box I'd put the WIP terrain bits I started in January in, and decided to crack on with the two Thermic Plasma Regulators. Typically, they weren't in the box I thought they were in...
When I packed them away, they'd been basecoated with Leadbelcher, washed with Nuln Oil, then drybrushed with Necron Compound, as was the Haemotrope Reactor. The platform pieces then had a single (I think) coat of Rakarth Flesh, but were still somewhat streaky.
I started off just working on the Plasma Regulators, then eventually decided to do some work on the Reactor at the same time, generally to avoid wasting too much paint.
Steps
Spoiler:
Key TPR - Thermic Plasma Regulator
HR - Haemotrope Reactor
PB - Plaguebearers
+ + +
- TPR - Added some details with Mephiston Red while my water was still mostly reddish. 2 coats, then change the very red-tinted water.
- TPR - Added another coat of Rakarth Flesh to the platforms.
- TPR - Basecoated the little plaques with letters on with Runelord Brass.
- TPR - Went over various bits of piping with Warplock Bronze.
- TPR - Went over some of those bits of piping with Brass Scorpion.
- TPR - Basecoated the plasma bits with P3 Arcane Blue (twice).
- TPR/HR - Shaded cables with ridges with Black Templar Contrast.
- TPR/HR - Basecoated the two big domed lights on each model with VMA Chrome.
- HR - Basecoated the little plaques with letters on with Runelord Brass.
- TPR - Used Macragge Blue, Averland Sunset, Khorne Red & Warpstone Glow to pick out some of the cables.
- TPR - Shaded plasma coils with P3 Meredius Blue mixed with Lahmian Medium.
- TPR - Shaded the plasma coil recesses again, with a mix of P3 Coal Black and P3 Turquoise Ink.
- TPR - Drybrushed the plasma coils with mixes of P3 Arcane Blue and P3 Menoth White Highlight to, well, highlight them. Added more MWH to each mix to pump up the glow.
- TPR/HR - Applied Cassandora Yellow Shade to the Chrome'd lights.
- TPR - Hit any non-dial screens with Death Guard Green.
- TPR - Picked out some pipework detail on the platforms with Hashut Copper.
- HR - Used same Hashut Copper to pick out various small details on the piping.
- TPR - Picked out the two smaller skull swih Screaming Skull.
- TPR - Much Agrax Earthshade came into play, on the platforms, the non-silver metallics, and the skulls.
- PB - Based the unit.
- TPR/HR - Picked out the inside of little dials with Celestra Grey.
- PB - Undercoated the unit with Corax White.
- TPR/HR - Went over the inside of the dials with Ulthuan Grey.
- TPR/HR - Picked out the needles on the dials with Abaddon Black
- TPR/HR - Went over the black sections of the Cog Mechanicus (except the huge one on the HR) with Black Templar.
- TPR - Basecoated the other halves of those Cog Mechanicus icons with Celestra Grey.
- TPR - Went over the Celestra Grey with Ulthuan Grey.
- TPR - Picked out keypad keys with Ulthuan Grey, Macragge Blue and Khorne Red.
- TPR - Basecoated various small lights with VMA Chrome or Retributor Armour, depending on desired final colour.
- TPR - Went over the Retributor Armour with Blood for the Blood God.
- TPR - Went over the Chrome with Soulstone Blue or Waystone Green to give two other colours to the lights.
Pictures
I'm both impressed and amused that when I've checked what I've got painted against the big MFM update that came out with the dataslate, exactly one model changed points - my Canoptek Doomstalker, which went up by ten.
I'm going to get caught by one of these eventually... right?
Anyway, what's up next? Well, I'll continue tinkering with the Haemotrope Reactor that's WIP, but the primary focus is going to be the unit of Plaguebearers I undercoated on Friday. I'm going to be trying to do them in the blue skintone I've used on some Nurglings and characters before now, as well as trying out a couple of paints I've not used before, in the hope of avoiding having to use any black on them...
@gobert - Thanks gobert. These weren't helped by me remembering them as being in a different box for a couple of months.
@Olthannon - Thanks Olthannon. They're definitely a contrast to the green units I've put out before now.
@Captain Brown - Why, thank you, Cap'n. And thank you for tipping us over onto page 7
+ + +
I've been meaning to do a Sickly Pallor of Decay (SPoD) Plaguebearer unit ever since I completed a SPoD Poxbringer back in 2019, and followed it up with a SPoD Sloppity Bilepiper last year. There are also SPoD Nurglings on each base I've painted.
It's a fun variant colour scheme, just so my Daemons aren't a sea of green. I may well add a second unit in this scheme at some stage, as I know I've got more Plaguebearers kicking around somewhere, awaiting build and paint.
I'd've finished this unit sooner, but for two things - one, I was away for a week towards the end of July, and secondly I've been working with a friend of mine on starting a podcast. We've got 4 episodes in the can now (subject to editing), so we're hoping to launch soon. Mainly problem we've found so far, though, is sticking to an intended duration - but I guess that just means they'll make good background for painting sessions
What's up next? Well, I think I'm going to continue with "finishing off WIP stuff" while I decide what to build next. That means I'm looking at four options - finish the Haemotrope Reactor (2024); work up the two ruins from the 9th edition Command Starter (2022); finish the Thunderer (2022); finish the 5 BA Assault Intercessors & BA Bladeguard Lieutenant (2023). Not currently sure which.
In terms of building, I've got one more Plasma Generatorium to build; the Generatorum Hub to build; 10 more Necron Warriors to build; and 3 Tomb Blades to build, all as immediate options. Building the third PG is almost certainly going to happen this time round, as it is a simple build I can do while watching a Twitch stream. I should probably build my first unit of Tomb Blades, too, as I haven't got any of them in my Necrons yet. Probably the Gauss build for the first three.
Steps
Spoiler:
Key HR - Haemotrope Reactor
PB - Plaguebearers
PG - Plasma Generatorium
+ + +
PB - Basecoated the bases with P3 Cryx Bane Highlight (twice)
PG - Built the first Plasma Generatorium
HR - Picked out three large elbow pipes on the rear of the Reactor with Brass Scorpion.
PB - Drybrushed the bases with P3 Trollblood Highlight
PB - Drybrushed the bases with P3 Sickly Skin
PB - Picked out the bricks on the bases with Khorne Red
PB - Shaded the bases with Agrax Earthshade
PB - Picked out the hair of the severed heads carried by the champion with Black Templar
PB - Painted the edge rims with Abaddon Black (twice)
PB - Went over the maggots on one base, and the severed heads in the Champion's hand, with Reikland Fleshshade
PB - Went over the maggots with Seraphim Sepia
PB - Went over the skin on the severed heads with Athonian Camoshade.
PB - Picked out the standard's woodwork with Wyldwood.
PB - Realised there was a severed head on the standard, so went back and picked out the hair with Black Templar, then the flesh with Reiklad Fleshshade and Athonian Camoshade.
PB - Basecoated all swords & banner top with AP Speedpaint Talos Bronze. I swear this is more of a copper than what I was aiming for, but it'll do, Donkey.
PG - Built a second Plasma Generatorium
PB - Touched up the undercoat with Grey Seer
PB - Picked out leather strapping on standard & musician's pipes with Snakebite Leather.
PB - Went over the rest of the musician's instrument with Skeleton Horde
PB - Agrax'd all the Talos Bronze, to take down the shine a bit and add deeper shadows to the recesses.
PB - Basecoated the skin with a 1:2 mix of Fenrisian Blue & Lahmian Medium.
PB - Shaded the skin with a 1:2 mix of Druchii Violet & Lahmian Medium.
PB - Shaded specific wounds with neat Druchii Violet.
PB - Went back and re-basecoated some bits with Grey Seer.
PB - Went over any teeth with Skeleton Horde
PB - Picked out Fly Guy's tongue and that one dude's belly maggots with Reikland Fleshshade
PB - Leadbelcher'd a couple of rings on the standard
HR - Picked out some of the elements on the rim of the reactor with Warplock Bronze.
PB - Went over Fly Guy's tongue and that one dude's belly maggots with Seraphim Sepia
PB - Went over all the horns and claws with Black Templar.
Insert 1 week gap here... PB - Realised I wasn't keen on how the horns looked like that, so went over them again with Grey Seer.
PB - Went over all the horns with Reikland Fleshshade
PB - Went over the horns with Athonian Camoshade, twice.
PB - Shaded the eyesockets on everyone bar Fly Guy with Druchii Violet
PB - Picked out Fly Guy's eyes with Incubi Darkness
PB - Picked out everyone else's eyes with Ulthuan Grey
PB - Tactically applied Nihilakh Oxide to weapons & banner top
Pictures Sickly Pallor of Decay Plaguebearers
I should probably go back and add some Ulthuan Grey highlights to various points on the skin at some stage, but these guys are ready for the table at the moment.
Talos Bronze worked well for a metallic paint over a white basecoat, but I wouldn't describe it as a bronze - it looks far more like copper to me. Still, a dash of Agrax and some Nihilakh Oxide got things closer to how I wanted them to look.
@toasteroven - Thanks. It is one that I originally saw on a Warhammer YT painting video, so I'm not taking credit for it, but I do like the look
@inmygravenimage - Cheers graven. When it comes to Grandfather, a pustule is a pustule.
@gobert - Thanks gobert. In theory, you could probably do a Nurgle army where each unit is painted for a different form of disease or necrosis, but would it look good on the table?
+ + +
I had an idea what I was going to get finished next, and this definitely wasn't it. Still, progress is progress. Couldn't really get any traction with painting the Reactor or the Marines, but once these Tomb Blades were built, it was pretty simple to roll through into basing & undercoating them, then getting them painted.
I definitely want a word with whoever designed the Tomb Blade kit - both the Gauss Blasters and Shield Vanes would really benefit from a better way of attaching them, which is why the alignments on the three I've built might not be perfect.
Might try and do another post in a week or so, just showing off the "active" WIP models that are on the go, assuming I've not finished any of them by then.
Steps
Spoiler:
Key AI - Assault Intercessors
BGL - Bladeguard Lieutenant
GH - Generatorum Hub
HR - Haemotrope Reactor
PG - Plasma Generatorium
TB - Tomb Blades
+ + +
PG - Built the third Plasma Generatorium
BGL - Second coat of Mephiston Red on everything that will be red
GH - Built the Generatorum Hub
TB - Constructed 3 Tomb Blades with twin Gauss Blasters
HR - Went over the "faceplate" side of the large skull with two coats of Black Templar
HR - Decided I'd split the panel behind Big Skull as well, so went over the other half of that with two coats of Black Templar
HR - Basecoated the other halves of the Big Skull and backplate with Celestia Grey (twice)
HR - Went over the Celestra Grey with thinned Ulthuan Grey
TB - Built the bases for the Tomb Blades.
TB - Undercoated the bases for the Tomb Blades.
TB - Painted the bases for the Tomb Blades.
TB - Undercoated the Tomb Blades with Leadbelcher
TB - Drybrushed the Tomb Blades with VMA Chrome
TB - Basecoated the ankh symbols and recessed script with VMA Chrome
TB - Went over those areas with Seraphim Sepia (twice)
TB - Shaded three sets of ribbed cables on each Tomb Blade with Nuln Oil
TB - Used Black Templar on the spine above the Tomb Blade riders, as well as various recesses & the riders' spines.
TB - Deployed the Nuln Oil in the joints on the Tomb Blade pilots, as well as the areas of the Gauss Blasters needed to keep them in line with my existing Immortals.
TB - Black Templar'd the Gauss Blaster housings.
TB - Blocked in the pilots' shoulder pads with Leviadon Blue
TB - Went over the rest of the armour on the pilots with Aethermatic Blue
TB - [Insert series of steps as I work in Nuln Oil, Black Templar, Leviadon Blue & Aethermatic Blue on various bits of the tomb Blades]
TB - Went over the arguably-black-rock bits in the guns and sensors with Incubi Darkness.
TB - Picked out anything that's meant to be glowy with VMA Chrome. Also rebasecoated the panels on the... stabilisers(?) with Chrome, as I wasn't happy with how the Aethermatic Blue looked there.
TB - Picked out cables with Caliban Green.
TB - Went over all the glowy bits with Tesseract Glow.
TB - Went over the Chrome on the stabilisers with Aethermatic Blue.
TB - Highlighted the cables with Warpstone Glow
@gobert - Thanks gobert. In theory, you could probably do a Nurgle army where each unit is painted for a different form of disease or necrosis, but would it look good on the table?
There’s only one way to find out! Might make it easier to tell the difference between units, I think tzurks geometric daemons did that iirc.
Love how the tomb blades turned out, and I could not agree more about how much of a pita they are to assemble… and how easy they are to break! They do look cool though
@gobert - The plaguebearers could make for some... interesting research, though possibly not something to do when you've just eaten. Didn't realise the Tomb Blades were overly breakable - something to look out for when I have to transport them, I guess.
@Warboss_Waaazag - Thanks for the kind words.
+ + +
Apparently, working on multiple things at once can be slower than just concentrating on one - who knew? Still, I've managed to finish off the Khorne Bloodmaster that originally showed up in here nearly three years ago, so it's good to see I can complete things in a timely manner.
I've picked up issues 2 & 3 of Combat Patrol, and gotten the Infernus Marines built and started - I'm going to paint them up as Mentor Legion, using a Contrast-centric approach, so we'll see how that plays out.
I've also found where the box of Fenrisian Wolves I bought in Q1 went, and built those over the last weekend. They're getting their bases sorted at present, then can get undercoated and under way. Hopefully I can get one of the two units finished off before another month has passed, but we'll see...
Steps
Spoiler:
Key BL - Bloodletters
BM - Bloodmaster
FW - Fenrisian Wolves
IM - Infernus Marines
KB - Kruleboy
+ + +
BM - Attached Bloodmaster to base
BM - Built the Bloodmaster's base
BM - Undercoated the Bloodmaster with Chaos Black
BL - Mostly built 10 Bloodletters
BM - Basecoated the skin with Khorne Red
BM - Washed the skin with Agrax Earthshade
BM - Drybrushed the skin with Mephiston Red
BM - Drybrushed the skin with Wazdakka Red
KB - Cleaned up and finished assembling the MotM Kruleboy
IM - Built 5 Infernus Marines, sans backpacks
BM - Drybrushed the skin with Evil Sunz Scarlet
IM - Built the bases for the Marines
BM - Drybrushed the face & upper back spikes with a 1:1 mix of Fire Dragon Bright & Evil Sunz Scarlet
IM - Undercoated the Marines with White Scar
BM/IM - Painted their bases, carefully (and after changing the very red paint water).
IM - Undercoated the backpacks with White Scar
BM - Basecoated skulls with Steel Legion Drab
BM - Rebasecoated the tongue with Ulthuan Grey
BM - Went over the skulls with Screaming Skull
BM - Washed the tongue with Druchii Violet
BM - Washed skulls with Agrax Earthshade
BM - Picked out some of the darker silver metallics with VMC Gungrey
BM - Went over the Gungrey with Nuln Oil
IM - Touched up the undercoat on the underside of the backpacks with Ulthuan Grey.
IM - Basecoated the backpacks with Dark Angels Green Contrast.
IM - Went over all the ribbed undersuit sections with VMC German Grey
IM - Shaded the German Grey with Nuln Oil.
BM - Went over the kneepads and chain/scale mail loincloth with VMA Gungrey.
BM - Basecoated the cheek horns with German Grey.
IM - Went over pouches, holsters and a shoulder strap with Snakebite Leather Contrast.
BM - Shaded the Gungrey & German Grey with Nuln Oil.
BM - Applied Brass Scorpion to various bits of metal.
IM - Picked out metallic areas on the backpacks with Abaddon Black.
IM - Basecoated the metallic areas on the backpacks with VMA Steel.
BM - Went over the head armour with VMA Steel.
BM - Shaded the Brass Scorpion with Agrax Earthshade.
IM - Shaded the Steel with Nuln Oil.
IM - Tidied up areas on the Marines that are about to become green with Ulthuan Grey.
BM - Picked out the eyes with Averland Sunset
BM- Went over claws and the sword handle with German Grey.
IM - Went over weapon foregrips with German Grey (originally intended to do these in green, but changed my mind).
BM/IM - Washed both newly German Grey areas with Nuln Oil.
IM - Painted the green parts of the armour and guns with Dark Angels Green Contrast.
BM - Remembered to shade the Steel head armour with a 1:1:1 mix of Nuln Oil, Drakenhof Nightshade & Lahmian Medium.
BM - Picked out assorted straps with Rhinox Hide.
FW - Built 5 Fenrisian Wolves.
BM - Highlighted the horns & toenails with Warpfiend Grey.
BM - Touched up various bits with various colours.
BM - Painted the sword blade with Runelord Brass.
BM - Shaded the sword blade with Agrax Earthshade, to dial back how shiny it was.
BM - Picked out upper teeth with Warpfiend Grey.
BM - Highlighted the teeth with Ulthuan Grey.
Pictures Knorne Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne
Looks like it has been nearly six months since the last bingo card update, so here you go:
Spoiler:
At this point, I doubt I'm going to complete it this year - however, I'll give completing a row and a column the old college try. Of those, I think row 2 and, oddly, column C may be the ones to focus on, but we'll see how I get on in Q4.
Achievement unlocked! - 50 GW models purchased in 2024 (Is that an achievement? Who knows.) Achievement unlocked! - 500pts painted in 2024 (as of latest MFM)
Well done finishing the blood master, he’s a cool mini, now nicely painted! The Mentor Legion are a cool scheme, I look forward to seeing them grace your plog!
@gobert - Thanks gobert. He isn't a bad sculpt at all, but I do wish I'd left him off the base to paint him. Would've made both painting the base and getting to parts of the model itself a lot easier.
+ + +
I may have distracted myself from the Infernus Marines, but at least that means I've gotten something else done fairly quickly. I remembered a video I's seen on the Warhamer YouTube channel about painting Fenrisian Wolves with Contrast paints, and thought I'd take a crack at that.
I'll be honest, I'm pretty happy with the outcome - except for how few points a unit of Fenrisian Wolves takes up in a list. Apparently I'm up to 300 points of painted Space Wolves now, but that's three characters, a unit of Wolf Scouts, and a unit of Wolves, so hardly the most useful army...
Steps
Spoiler:
Key FW - Fenrisian Wolves IM - Infernus Marines KB - Kruleboy + + + IM - Rebasecoated chest eagles with Wraithbone. IM - Skeleton Horde'd the chest eagles. FW/KB - Built the bases. FW/KB - Undercoated with Wraithbone spray. FW - Painted the bases. FW - Touched up the undercoat with more Wraithbone. FW - Washed the whole of the wolves with a 1:1 mix of Skeleton Horde & Contrast Medium. FW - Washed the wolf fur with a 2:1 (ish) mix of Snakebite Leather & Contrast Medium FW - Washed the upper 3/4 (or so) of the wolf fur with a 2:1 (ish) mix of Gore-Grunta Fur & Contrast Medium. FW - Washed the upper 1/2 (or so) of the wolf fur, as well as inside the mouth, with a 2:1 (ish) mix of Wyldwood & Contrast Medium. FW - Washed the wolf's spine fur and nose with a 2:1 (ish) mix of Black Templar & Contrast Medium - then changed the water. FW - Rebasecoated eyes, gums & tongue with Grey Seer FW - Aethermatic Blue for eyes IM - Touched up the undercoat on the white armour with more White Scar. FW - Volpus Pink on tongue & gums.
Pictures
5 Fenrisian Wolves
I really should knuckle down and finish off the Infernus Marines next, but I'm also undertaking a #bigbrushchallenge with a friend of mine to paint the MotM Kruleboy, so he needs to get done by November 4th - and will handily fill up that "Any Model" square on my bingo card.
Latest field manual came out today - Necrons are 5 points more expensive than they were, and my general Imperial list went up by a net of 5 points, once I factor in the wolves.
Quick question, as I don't have the SM 'dex - are any of the weapons combinations that the Jump Pack Captain can be built with not currently allowed?
@gobert - Thanks, gobert. Not too bad to paint, though I do wish I'd held some of the heads together longer, given the seam lines. Still, they'll do for tabletop.
+ + +
I may have continued to distract myself from the Infernus Marines, but I have at least finished off something else that's been in progress for a while - the Haemotrope Reactor I started before I moved house.
I have started preparing a dozen Poxwalkers - I've apparently got 28 painted at present, so adding another dozen will take me up to two full units, which seems a reasonable number for now, especially when I don't actually have any painted Death Guard yet.
Steps
Spoiler:
Key HR - Haemotrope Reactor
IM - Infernus Marines
KB - Kruleboy
PW - Poxwalkers
+ + +
IM/KB - Painted steel(ish) metals on the weapons with SpeedPaint Broadsword Silver.
PW - Built 12 Poxwalkers
IM - Went over the flamer barrel shroud things with SpeedPaint Golden Armour.
KB - Painted the shaft of his spear with Wyldwood.
KB - Touched up the Wraithbone undercoat on his chest & other areas.
IM - Painted the skin on the Sergeant's head with Guilliman Flesh.
IM - Picked out the Sergeant's mini Mohawk with Gore-Grunta Fur.
KB - Painted the skin with Mantis Warriors Green
KB - Painted the scaled skin with Leviathan Purple
HR - Picked out three lenses with Retributor Armour
KB - Drybrushed the scales on the skaled skin with Fenrisian Grey.
HR - Picked out the recesses in the teeth with Fenrisian Grey.
HR - Based three elements I wanted to be red lenses with Retributor Armour.
HR - Once thoroughly dry, went over the Retributor Armour with Blood for the Blood God.
KB - Picked out the cords around the spear with Snakebite Leather.
KB - Went over the two skulls with Skeleton Horde.
HR - Picked out some metal details with Runelord Brass.
HR - Shaded the Brass with Agrax Earthshade.
HR - Basecoated the exposed plasma elements with P3 Arcane Blue.
HR - Shaded the plasma elements with thinned P3 Meredius Blue.
HR - Picked out a couple of handles and an elbow joint in the piping with Brass Scorpion.
HR - Shaded the plasma bits with a mix of P3 Coal Black and P3 Turquoise Ink.
HR - Highlighted the plasma with a 2:1 mix of Arcane Blue & Menoth White Highlight.
HR - Highlighted the plasma with a 1:1 mix of Arcane Blue & Menoth White Highlight - then changed the very blue painting water...
HR - Picked out a bunch of details with Hashut Copper.
HR - Picked out some cable details with Warpstone Green.
HR - Picked out some cable details with Khorne Red.
HR - Picked out some cable details with Averland Sunset.
HR - Picked out some cable details with Macragge Blue.
HR - Touched up some elements with Black Templar.
HR - Picked out final metal details with Warplock Bronze.
Pictures Haemotrope Reactor
Next up should be the Kruleboy with Spear I'm working on for a #bigbrushchallenge, then we'll see.
@gobert - Cheers, gobert. Aye, good to get it off the litle shelving unit next to me, and it definitely frees up some space.
+ + +
Quicker update this time - I've finished the Miniature of the Month Kruleboy from a month or two back.
A friend and I have done what we call the #bigbrushchallenge - painting a model with the biggest brush you've got, along with a secondary large brush for metallics and a drybrush. I opted to go mostly with Contrast and Speedpaints for this model, as they can give even the newst of painters a decent result as long as you maintain your brush control.
Steps
Spoiler:
Key KB - Kruleboy
+ + +
KB - Picked out some more leather with Snakebite Leather
KB - Went over the base with Gore-Grunta Fur
KB - Painted the rim of the base with Abaddon Black.
KB - Touched up a couple of areas with Wraithbone where I've been a little messy.
KB - Did minor touch-ups to spots where coverage wasn't brilliant, including repainting the bits I had re-undercoat with Wraithbone.
KB - Painted the loincloth/skirt/thing with Aggaros Dunes.
KB - Painted the scaled loincloth bit with Aethermatic Blue.
KB - Drybrushed the base lightly with Rakarth Flesh
KB - Washed the underside of the hide with Guilliman Flesh.
Pictures MotM Kruleboy with Spear, from Kruleboyz Monsta Killaz WarCry Warband
I should probably have made a montage image there, rather than four individual shots. And, true to form, as soon as I take & post pictures, I spot some bits to touch up. Oh well...
And the skin there is the toned down version - I wasn't expecting Mantis Warriors Green over Wraithbone to look quite so much like toxic waste!
I like the sound of the big brush challenge. I’ve been doing the cheapest brush challenge lately with some of my kids’ old brushes. Similar thing you’ve been going for to improve your brush control. I think you’ve mastered it more than me though as displayed by your kruleboy
Dysartes wrote: @gobert - Thanks, gobert. Not too bad to paint, though I do wish I'd held some of the heads together longer, given the seam lines. Still, they'll do for tabletop.
+ + +
I may have continued to distract myself from the Infernus Marines, but I have at least finished off something else that's been in progress for a while - the Haemotrope Reactor I started before I moved house.
I have started preparing a dozen Poxwalkers - I've apparently got 28 painted at present, so adding another dozen will take me up to two full units, which seems a reasonable number for now, especially when I don't actually have any painted Death Guard yet.
Steps
Spoiler:
Key HR - Haemotrope Reactor
IM - Infernus Marines
KB - Kruleboy
PW - Poxwalkers
+ + +
IM/KB - Painted steel(ish) metals on the weapons with SpeedPaint Broadsword Silver.
PW - Built 12 Poxwalkers
IM - Went over the flamer barrel shroud things with SpeedPaint Golden Armour.
KB - Painted the shaft of his spear with Wyldwood.
KB - Touched up the Wraithbone undercoat on his chest & other areas.
IM - Painted the skin on the Sergeant's head with Guilliman Flesh.
IM - Picked out the Sergeant's mini Mohawk with Gore-Grunta Fur.
KB - Painted the skin with Mantis Warriors Green
KB - Painted the scaled skin with Leviathan Purple
HR - Picked out three lenses with Retributor Armour
KB - Drybrushed the scales on the skaled skin with Fenrisian Grey.
HR - Picked out the recesses in the teeth with Fenrisian Grey.
HR - Based three elements I wanted to be red lenses with Retributor Armour.
HR - Once thoroughly dry, went over the Retributor Armour with Blood for the Blood God.
KB - Picked out the cords around the spear with Snakebite Leather.
KB - Went over the two skulls with Skeleton Horde.
HR - Picked out some metal details with Runelord Brass.
HR - Shaded the Brass with Agrax Earthshade.
HR - Basecoated the exposed plasma elements with P3 Arcane Blue.
HR - Shaded the plasma elements with thinned P3 Meredius Blue.
HR - Picked out a couple of handles and an elbow joint in the piping with Brass Scorpion.
HR - Shaded the plasma bits with a mix of P3 Coal Black and P3 Turquoise Ink.
HR - Highlighted the plasma with a 2:1 mix of Arcane Blue & Menoth White Highlight.
HR - Highlighted the plasma with a 1:1 mix of Arcane Blue & Menoth White Highlight - then changed the very blue painting water...
HR - Picked out a bunch of details with Hashut Copper.
HR - Picked out some cable details with Warpstone Green.
HR - Picked out some cable details with Khorne Red.
HR - Picked out some cable details with Averland Sunset.
HR - Picked out some cable details with Macragge Blue.
HR - Touched up some elements with Black Templar.
HR - Picked out final metal details with Warplock Bronze.
Pictures Haemotrope Reactor
Next up should be the Kruleboy with Spear I'm working on for a #bigbrushchallenge, then we'll see.
Papa Bless!
