Eeeeeexcellent! Im getting excited to start on these. I've never painted Eldar before, and this is one heck of a color scheme to start on! I think the only one I like more than this one is the Corsair scheme that is all yellow and orange mottled.

I spent most of the rainy day cleaning a ton of Guardians, and figuring out how to assemble the Defense Line I was sent!
In between raindrops, I managed to pop out and spray a few of the finished models:

First off, the Commissar, of whose colors I am particularly fond of:


The Krieger:


And last but certainly not least, the Tauros!



Harlequin had a few details I missed on him, so he missed his chance at flatcoat- Should be done with him tomorrow!

Very nice, Ramos, especially The Krieger. Really looks the part of DKoK.

Very nice work my friend... those look fantastic!

Thanks guys!

Many hours of cleaning later, I have a massive pile of models ready to go:

13 Guardians, A Farseer (not pictured), and an Eldar Aegis Defense Line!


Close up of a double wall segment:



Also included in the ADL kit was a comms relay:


And a turret, which is now magnetized to swap between Autocannons and Lascannons.





The ADL kit is from Garage Models. Overall, the kit is alright. the main wall segments look the part of an ADL, and it was nice to see an Eldar-ified turret and relay.
However, The casts do require a LOT of cleaning and gap-filling, and in many of the recesses are covered in tiny bubbles. There was a particularly bad area on the back of the walls, where it looks like there is are control panels. The details on the top of the pad are rife with bubbles, and there's an insanely poorly placed bit of sprue that is very hard to get out without further damaging the panel.
This is one of the better pieces after cleaning:


My biggest complaint about the kit is that it has absolutely no instructions, and the support bits that you are supposed to glue on the bottoms of the wall segments are very oddly designed. You are supposed to sandwich the two differing panels together, then glue that assembly on the bottom of the walls. This makes the segments sit higher on the board,which I think looks a bit off. They look like they are simply sitting on whatever terrain you put them on rather than looking like they are truly fortifications. Also, the design of it makes the single sections highly unstable and they teeter a lot. I skipped the sandwich and just used one part of the support for the single segments, and the other half of the support for the double segments.
(I dont know if I was just assembling things wrong or what, but thats just what I found xD )

It's a bit more expensive than the ADL from GW, around 25 including shipping for just the wall, then another 20 for the relay and gun. If the bubbles issue wasnt there (or was limited), I could definitely recommend this to Eldar Players.

Not gunna lie, it was an impulse buy. But it looked decent enough online, and I wanted something unique for the army. Sorry it was such a pita.

Oh don't get me wrong, It does look good and it's a great focal point to make your army really unique. Its just that getting it from point A to B takes a bit of doing

Getting gaps filled as we speak, so hopefully I'll get some paint on em before too long.

Ramos, loved the bulldogs you did for wm, they came out spectacularly

Thanks Alf- Glad ya like em! Have to say that they were a blast to paint, and Im thrilled that the fur patterns came out as well as they did.
More are definitely in the works (including 8 more of the dogs, actually), and Im assembling the Adepticon BF mini as we speak. Should be a neat little side project!


So apparently it's monsoon season around here, and we've been getting a near constant drizzle. Fortunately, yesterday's weather actually proved to be rather nice, and I primed all the Guardians and wall segments.

Then today I broke out the airbrush and got to painting!





I would have more to this stage, however my compressor seems to be on its last legs (and only after maybe a year of very light use). Not only does it constantly cycle on and off, an issue which research indicates is not uncommon to this model, but when I use it a while it heats up and likes to pump water into the airbrush, even with a moisture trap inline!

So I need to let it cool (like right now) so I can repeat the same processes over again!

Though at least the blending is coming along nicely.

I want to try to make it up your way in the next few weeks, I can bring my compressor to lend to you if you'd like? I don't use it often, so it's just sitting around, hanging out.

I should have 2 of the Adepticon BF minis as well, one to match each of the BF forces I have. You'll be sick of the little bugger by the time you are done.

Eldar bits are already looking promising, will definitely be looking forward to them, interesting to see that defense line too as one of the people in my apoc group was about to buy that one will have to point him to the thread!

@WM: Sounds awesome. Id really appreciate that- this compressor is quickly becoming a massive pain! Lemme know when you were wanting to come up. Im here all the time


@Ignatius: Thanks! Yeah the kit is nice, though it does need a lot of extra cleaning and gap filling. Not too shabby looking with greenstuff and paint!



So I've just had a catastrophic airbrush failure....

Whilst reassembling the airbrush after cleaning last session, I noticed the tip felt odd as I was tightening it back up. It just felt more loose than normal. I continued assembling, figuring I was just over tightening and it was jumping a thread.... Turns out I should have looked at the male end of the tip closer...

Fast forward to today, and Im reassembling it after cleaning. I tighten it with the wrench they give ya when *pop*
The wrench and tip break away from the airbrush... With the threaded end of the tip still inside.





Well....
How the hell do I get this thing out now? Did I just screw myself out of an airbrush?


Not only do I now need to order another tip, but now I have to figure out how to remove a pretty much tightened hollow threaded tube from another hollow threaded tube without damaging it.....

So you're saying I should bring the brush too...

Maybe contact the mfg, see if they can help you out. Is that a masters? Looks similar to mine.

I'm thinking this coming Saturday might work, or next failing that.

I was gonna say, looks like my Iwata.

There are things you can try... but nothing that I could possible explain over the net. Contacting the manufacturer isn't a bad idea though.

 Alfndrate wrote:
I was gonna say, looks like my Iwata.

Which is what a Masters is a copy of or is that the other way around?

That'd be great all around, WM. I really appreciate it.

And its a Paasche Talon.

I'm gonna try to contact the manufacturer. Seems what some people did online. Theirs was under warranty though, and mine most assuredly isn't. Going on 3 years old, though didnt use it all that much till recently. The tip is maybe 3 and a half months old? I replaced it when i was doing my Adepticon army.

If I had a 1/8" drill bit that spun the other way, I could maybe get it out... though I doubt that exists and I guarantee we dont have anything like it....
Or a tool to remove broken screws.... Again, we've nothing like it.


Man Im really hoping I havent busted the brush... Tips are cheap, but I cant afford a new brush ><

I have one of those! Been a good airbrush, but then I didn't brutalize mine with a wrench... you'rejust too much man for the Talon my friend!

Try a pair of needle nose pliers

@Gits: I was using the little square wrench thingy they give you to tighten/loosen the tips. Plus I only really use my thumb to tighten it.... guess I dont know my own strength! (Damn vidjamagames....)

@Dee: Thanks for the suggestion- Tried, but theres nothing to grip! The whole thing is way smooth and slippery.


A small update on the airbrush situation:
I contacted Paasche, and they told me to ship it to them for a replacement... so, fingers crossed?

I could of taught you a good old fashion thermodynamics trick, but alas you sent it. Oh wells.

At least you aren't faced with an effed brush and compressor

I mean from the inside open as far as you can go and see if it rotates

So with my airbrush out of order, I decided to get things built and prepared for painting.

One project is a Wraithlord, with a healthy dose of converting to give him a rifle.




The primary reason for this conversion is due to a lack of a second Wraithlord brightlance, and WM wanting a Double Lance Lord. Fortunately, he had sent a random bag of Eldar bits, and a vehicle lance just happened to be in there. A bit of tinkering and cutting later, and I'm left with a very servicable twin brightlance rifle. On his shoulders will be placed twin flamers, and I'm still working out how to integrate his sword. Likely thrust into the ground beside him.


But Eldar arent the only thing on my table: A warp rift recently opened and is spewing forth fiends of every persuasion.
A six-pack of Screamers,


And the LOVELY Exalted Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh:

Not pictured are the obscene numbers of spikey wheels in need of painting pre-assembly.

I love this kit- everything is jut so beautifully curved. its crazy just how many organic complex curves there are in this kit! And it all fits together like a dream!

Oh, glad you posted wip pics of the chariot (and everything else). Can you leave the seeker riders off of the mounts (so just the 2 daemonettes in total)? I think they look silly. There will be some seekers at some point anyways, so fear not a wasted model.

Sure easily done!

the sprue actually ends up making a total of 8 (4 riders, 4 standing) so we end up with a lot of extras!

Cool stuff

So I just got a package in the mail from Paasche.
I was fully expecting a quick repair job, or at the very least a bill. But no...



THIS is customer service!
I had an issue, chatted with the company, and with minimal questions asked they were awesome enough to ship me a brand new brush!!

Expect more paint very soon

Woah! now that IS awesome service! well done to you, I now expect amazing paint very soon o.k!!

Its so nice to have an airbrush again!

Feels weird though, having gotten used to the feel of my old one's particularities. This one feels stiff, but DAMN does it spray nicely! Now the only problematic link is my compressor. A project for another day...

Anyways:
Got the green layer on most of the Guardians before the compressor began to spit water and forced me to stop.



This scheme kinda makes me think of those two-tone car paints that change depending how the light hits it.

Looking good. I'll still let you borrow mine, just not sure when I'll make it up. July is always my busiest month of the year.

No worries, WM. Make it up here when ya can make it up here ^^


More work on the Eldar!




Note that they are rather glossy, much in part to the Secret Weapons wash I put on it. I love these washes though- They handle completely different from GWs. I may yet replace my GW ones with SW.

I realized rather recently that Mymeara has black helmets, while mine continued the armor gradient. This has since been corrected on the Farseer (tragic, really, as I spent a lot of time on his blend >< This is why his frill is still green. I had to save SOME of it!!)

The red I added to the inner lining as well as the guardians belts/sashes to break up the vast areas of blue, and act as a bit of a eye catch. I kept it a darker shade of red (Its actually darker than the Krieger!) so that it wouldnt overpower the blue.

They're turning out great.
Happy that You got the replacement on the AB, that's customer service at his best

Looking really nice. The red works well.

Love the farseer

Thanks you guys!

So I was in a super assembly mood last night, and decided to rig up the next round of commissions, this time from our very own Gitsplitta.
A trio of Ork flyers, completely magnetized for weapon swaps.

After an evening and subsequent morning of beer, plastic dust and liquid cement (healthy!), I've managed to mostly decipher which parts are swappable, which aren't, and which ones can be used to make the planes different from one another. At this stage, it's time to drill holes for magnets, preparing everything for eventual priming!




You may notice the one plane with down-swept wings- This was something of a fortuitous accident. Not paying attention, I managed to plastic weld the primary wing mounts upside down!
I realized my mistake far too late (the following day) so it was too late to break it off- Its all one piece of plastic now. And so I pondered.



On a whim, I installed the wings, and I think i like what I came up with! Its a defining feature that doesnt look out of place on the model, yet sets it apart not only from the others in its squadron but also from any other Bommas! Sure it will involve a bit of green stuff to cover the holes in the top as well as some creative mounting for the burnabomms, but that shouldnt be a problem at all!

I'm so EXCITED!! I can hardly stand it...

Actially might be cool todo the wings that way. Since there is no standard on an Ork anything. Who's to say that this ork doesn't put his guns on top! Of course I haven't assempled one so not sure how difficult it would be.

I'm excited as well!

Also Ramos, I hear you've got something OTL in the works soon

I'm excited to see commission work (aka finished models) that arent mine!

@Gits: Good! I'm glad to hear it!

@SL: Very true. My biggest issue is that the particular wing joint in question (the one upon which the supa-shoota is mounted) is the mounting point for the big bombs- something that CERTAINLY cant go on top! (well... it IS ork..... )
Anywho, its easy enough to mount it to the bottom surface. Tucks very nicely underneath the wing as is.

@Alf: Thanks! And yes indeed! (You wouldn't of had anything to do with it, would you?) I should be getting a box from them shortly with my next project (Im assuming Tuesday).
Im actually kinda terrified at the prospect of painting for 'em. Its kinda like making a chef a dish from their own cookbook...*metaphor fail* Or... well... Im painting the models they designed...
erm... well, words are failing me at the moment... It just feels REALLY weird.


@WM: I bet. Though not to worry- Got plenty more of yours to come! Super Slaaneshi chariot of spikes, the rest of the Eldar, Some Screamers... Lotsa stuff!!


Back to painting!



Guardians and the Farseer got their whites blocked out, and will be washed shortly. I've also started on the bare heads, resulting in a skin tone that looks quite bronzed, compared to the rather fair skin I had envisioned. Perhaps a couple more layers will improve it.

The only hand I had in you painting our stuff is I was PMing with WM and he mentioned you had painted up some of his Brushfire Bull Regulars, so I asked to see painted pics. He told me to check your fb page, I saw it, and told Cyporiean to go check it out .

And don't worry about not doing a good job, I've seen what you can do And the EFT figs are a little bigger than those fiddly space elves, so you should be fine

Well I do really appreciate the words of encouragement. Hopefully I wont disappoint!
Even as intimidated as I am by the models, I cant help but be rather excited for the models, in particular an albino lizard from Brushfire. That particular skin tone should be very interesting indeed.
I Just ordered a few paints that I think I'll need for the job, including a few more Secret Weapons Washes.


As to my current progress.... I think I'm having Marines Errant flashbacks...
All I see is turquoise and white!!



I had nearly forgotten how much I despise this color.
I think it looks a little rough, especially around the gems, but I think once they're painted up it'll start getting sharper.

TO DO:
> Finish cleaning up/highlighting whites
> Gold!
> Gems and other red bitz
> Black and white helmets

I like how the guardian is coming. Well done. The orks planes will also be cool. Git's out sourcing work!

 cormadepanda wrote:
I like how the guardian is coming. Well done. The orks planes will also be cool. Git's out sourcing work!

Gits has been outsourcing plenty of his ork pieces for awhile now. Ifalna has been the biggest commission painter, but she seems to be very busy these days.

My orks are a mish-mosh and I've never been the least bit proprietary about them. I love the stuff I paint, but unlike my Mantis Warriors... it's far more important that my Bad Moon's get done than it is that I'm the one who paints them. Ramos will do a great job and be helping me out in a huge way.

Well Gits at least you always leave them in very capable and talented hands! if you ever want to risk a job I'd love to have a crack at another Ork one day :-)

i'm looking forward to seeing what comes of those planes, some of my favorite models they released for them!

The more Dakkajet kits i put together, the more I end up liking them. They go together wonderfully, the details are gorgeous, and it's amazingly simple (and fascinating) how they created the 3-in-1 kit.
Add this to my love for war planes and fighter sims, and its a kit I wouldn't mind getting more of.

One of these days, I want to walk into an Apoc game with a entire wing of Fightas and Bommas, with a superheavy flyer thrown in for kicks!


Till then, I'm still painting the guardians! This time they've got gold.


Its surprising seeing how much one or two tiny areas of a bright color stand out on these models.

The Farseer has his gold started:


The spear I had no end of trouble with, though. I just dont know what to do with it. I cant really do my normal PW effect on it as it has a big flat spot in the middle as well as having a double-edged blade.

This is where I am currently at:


At this point, I have two thoughts on how to progress:
1) Wash with a red wash- Im thinking that might help the edge highlights meld better
1b) Or, leave as is, continue

2) Scrap it and paint it a solid color, like bone or black.

What do you guys think?

I quite like the spear. Has an almost crystalline feel to it, which is perfect for Eldar. A wash might work, or maybe a gloss coat, like the gems get?

I have a dakkajet that will need to be done as well, so its good you like them

Spear looks ace!
Love the color combination on the models, great job

Secretly I'm waiting for your take on the Orkz Flierz

Good work. I like the spear as it is there.

I think the spear looks great ad is!

Whoa, lets forget the spear for a minute and talk about this super heavy ork flier you mentioned.

Please, tell me more.

It doesn't take much of an alternate color to really pop when your figures are fairly monochromatic. Nicely done my friend.

Well i guess the spear is staying- definitely gonna wash it with a red or something. I ordered a red secret weapon wash, funnily enough, so that works out.

Thanks guys

@WM: Im glad you think its kinda crystal-y looking. That was my intent, seeing as I couldnt do my traditional energy glowy look.
And your Dakkajet should be a nice change as well- I assume you'll want it painted Deffskullz Blue!

@Ice: A long time ago one of my friends was running an Apoc game. The Pulsa Rokkit (my normal super heavy choice) was pretty much unanimously banned (even by me!), as it was so powerful as to be broken, so I was looking for other super heavy choices.
I turned to IA 8 and noticed a vehicle called a "Blasta Bomma" Apart from being a super heavy flyer with a TON of bombs and grot rokkits, its primary armament was the Deff Arsenal- A weapon I instantly fell in love with
S8 AP3 Heavy 3d6

Seeing this, i instantly set forth cobbling one together, and with no extant model to base it off of, I wound up with a crazy large model!

Heres an old pic of it, pretty much how it has sat for years. Ork boy for scale:



I really dont remember how I came to the final measurements.... Probably insanely oversized. However I love the model. In 2 games, its killed more than its points in other models, including 2 Eldar Titans (Revenant, I think.... its the small one). Anything it looks at dies.... well provided it doesnt have a 2+ save!!

As far as that farseer weapon. A red wash, followed by a glaze would do it.

Da spear.. I think a red wash would be fine but I'd give it a light white blade edge. Where the edge was glowing " white " hot" I think it's 2 colors are too much and the eye need to be drawn towards the edge.

2 cents


oh.. and praise Huron!

Definitely gonna be doing the wash and an edge highlight... In fact,

SUPPLY DROP!!!



Lots and lots of Secret Weapon washes, including what I hope are suitable replacements for Badab black and Devlan Holy Grail. I also decided to try out Vallejo's airbrush primer and Model Air line (Just guess where the yellow paints going )


I also got my special OTL Project yesterday and have been busily assembling the models.
I say it's a special project because these bad boys are goin to GenCon. As such, I've a little under 2 weeks to get these guys painted up and shipped off! Shouldnt be a problem, right? After all I got my Adepticon army done in a month! *famous last words*

On the bench are a pair of BF minis: Jacques of Martinque and Tajir Serai


And a huge number of Endless Fantasy Tactics minis:


The Bandit, Knight, and Adept


Miasma Thrall and Summoner (with Minor Demonite)


Dark Priest and Lyricist (My favorite model of the bunch)


And finally the Dark Dragoon and Chemist


Next up is a bit of GS work, and We'll get some primer on these guys!

Make sure the Minor Demonite gets its own base (rather than being on the Summoner's)

Once you go "Soft Body Black", you NEVER GO BACK.

The stuff is like crack.

Yup yup! Whipping up their bases presently while I have the GS out!

Very nice, should look good. Is Jacques going to be for a specific army, or just neutral? You'll have mine to do at some point too, but gotta pick up the correct base, mine are square 25mm! Feel free to back burner the Eldar, Gencon is much more of a crunch than the ongoing projects we have.

 whalemusic360 wrote:
Very nice, should look good. Is Jacques going to be for a specific army, or just neutral?

Ordenstaat colors:

@WM: Gotcha. I appreciate it!
Guardians are all very close to completion, and I'll probably end up popping back and forth on them if I find myself waiting for the Endless figs to dry.

Last bit of progress for the night-
GS work is all complete. Found a couple bubbles that needed fixed, and smoothed out areas here and there that needed it.

I also got the bases for the Summoner and Demonite done. I went for a flagstone path look, with the edges of the stones vanishing into the surrounding dirt. Static grass will accompany the dirt areas. Tajir also got a little cactus on her (now neatened up) base.



Tomorrow, so long as the weather holds, we prime!!

ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS.

Ok.. i'll wait!

lol, i think I'll agree with Solar on that one.

 IceAngel wrote:
lol, i think I'll agree with Solar on that one.

Look at me hanging with the cool kids!

You damn kids get off my lawn!
I'll get to yer planes soon enough!





Everything got primed, so lots of blocking out colors today, including a bit of toying with an albino skintone for Tajir. The Adept and Miasma Thrall are furthest along, currently, with all of their major areas blocked out and washed.

No pics yet, but likely expect a few tomorrow.

(Ork Flyers coming soon!)

Aaaand chugging along with painting progress...





At this stage, the Adept is at his base washed layer, while the Thrall is at his second layer and wash of skin tone.

I'm definitely considering picking up a few of these models for myself- Really liking em!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ah man.... How is it that the tiny models always give ya the most trouble?

This here is the Minor Demonite, essentially a familiar for the Summoner.




The first image is the initial version. However it looked off to me, so I went with more purple on the arms and a pink breast, as seen in the second picture.

I just dont know, though. Something just isnt working on it, and I cant figure out what.

For purposes of reference, here's the official art of the summoner and Demonite:


And so I turn to you, oh faithful readers (even you Huron-worshipping traitors! )

What should I do?

Hmm, seems like a tough one. The art has it with more of a coat over his body that the model itself appears not to have as much of. Not sure what to do, tbh.

The Demonites are constructs meant to hold demons within them. The Minors are made from soft materials: feathers, cloth, wool, etc. A patchwork look to the front would be okay, making it look freshly sewn together from a mix of dyed wools.

Overall, they're looking great!

hmm the offical pic looks like two different shades of purple, maybe a watered down purple wash to blend in the pink?

I think I'm leaning towards orange. Yes, paint the entire thing orange. perhaps with some stripes!

PRAISE HURON!

@miska: Thanks! I do like the patchwork concept, though getting it across on the model might be a challenge. Were the front smooth I could easily freehand patches and stitchwork onto it, however it has that fluffy furry texture on it, making freehand difficult. I will definitely be messing around with it.

@GiraffeX: Seems like a pretty sound plan. its already been washed with two different colored purple washes, though the pink is such a light shade that it truly gets lost in it. I'll definitely be messing with it- some more washing might just do the trick!

@IA: Orange and striped, eh? If I didnt know any better, I'd think a certain someone has a certain obsession with a certain traitorous, rebellious someone.

PRAISE THE EMPRAH!


Oh, and I guess I should note- the Demonite model is only slightly larger than my thumbnail! Teeny little guy!
Thanks for the ideas, guys- definitely gonna be playing around with a few new ideas you guys have given me.

Anyways, I completed the first group of models today!

Tajir Serai:


And a close up, showcasing the albino skin tone and eye details:


I dont know what it is, but I find myself -really- liking this model. It just turned out (to me, at least) so well! Everything just fell into place so well on this model... I think I might have to snag a copy for my own personal collection


Also completed today were the Adept and Miasma Thrall!





C&C is greatly appreciated and encouraged!

Now on to the next batch!

Whoa! Very nice, Ramos. I agree with you about Tajir Serai. Beautiful work. The skin tones are fabulous, and I really like the robes, especially the purple and turquoise. I think the eyes really bring the model to life. Nice job on the pommel of the dagger, too.

I really like the skin tones on the Adept. (Reminds me of Harry Potter, for better or worse.). The baubles on his belt are really well done, too. And the book is cool. But, although I'm normally all for yellow, his robes seem a little lackluster. Not much depth. Compare his pant leg, for example. Don't get me wrong. It's still wonderfully painted. That's just my reaction.

Miasma is really nice, too. I really like the blue... what? bones? stones? They look nice, in any case. The teeth really stand out to me, too.

Really nice work, my friend!

The Miasma Thrall has crystals erupting from its skin, it's been corrupted/infected, sort of a jrpg-fantasy zombie.

Great work, everything came out perfect!

Hmmm.... I do see what you mean on the relative flatness of the robes, YB. It definitely isn't shaded as heavily as the pant legs, partially because the sculpt doesn't have as many folds and recesses on the robes, which the shading would accentuate and exaggerate. Primarily I didn't want to pollute the otherwise very smooth coat of yellow (and shades) I got on it.

Heres a slightly better pic of the colors. This also gives you a better view of the eyes- I actually could put COLOR in em! Hes got some giant eyes.



Granted, even in this pic, the colors are squashed a bit by the camera- the blending is rather subtle in real life. Not helping this is that the colors I chose to paint the lining and the robe proper are really close to one another. In retrospect I might have gone a few shades darker, perhaps even starting with a brown.

All that said, i think it definitely looks better in real life- the colors are far more discernable.

One of these days i really gotta invest in a lightbox...

Beautiful job Ramos. That lizard is exceptional.

Tajir is looking fantastic really love the skin tones.

*drools*

Those look fantastic man!

All three faces came out really well!

Thanks a ton guys! ^ ^

I think I'm definitely getting into the rhythm of painting faces... For the first time, I actually started a model by painting the face! This is the other BF mini in this group: Jacques!

Yay for faces! faces as they say are the faces to the soul!


and I LOVE that albino lizard skin detail! omg that is some super smooth paintwork right there dude! simply top notch!

I want to see you start an army of the lizard force, so the bulldogs have something to shoot

Well if you two play, let me know!

Thanks nerd! Have to say your tutorial on faces is definitely helping me refine my technique

WM & Alf: As much as I like Tajir and a few of the models, I don't think my interest is any more than artistic. I don't think I'll ever start a BF army (granted "never" is a long time...). I'm much more of a sci-fi and high fantasy guy. Not to mention I definitely don't have the money to support another (really -any-, at this point) gaming system. My job search is continuing to be a fruitless endeavor, so who knows if I'll ever be money ahead... :/

All that said, I wouldn't mind getting in a game or two to try it out... From what WM has been tellin me and from what I've seen of it thus far, it seems pretty solid.

And Jacques is complete! Four down, 8 more to go!




Up next is the Summoner and Minor Demonite.





The Demonite got its pinks washed with Leviathan Purple, and its tone is much closer to its wings now... still a lot of playing left, I think...

Monsieur Mouse is looking mighty fine there. This is like a new speed record for you, its like Gencon is in 2 1/2 weeks or something.

Looking good Ramos.

 whalemusic360 wrote:
Monsieur Mouse is looking mighty fine there. This is like a new speed record for you, its like Gencon is in 2 1/2 weeks or something.

14 Days till showtime, but we leave for it on the 12th.

Excellent! Thanks you guys!

I'm definitely putting the pedal to the metal as much as I can right now. I figure I have exactly a week to finish the remaining models (give or take a day). I want to have them finished and ready to ship by the 8th at latest (would LOVE to get em done by the 7th), ensuring their delivery before they leave for GenCon. Doing a little math it looks like Im going to need to actually speed up a little as I've 8 models to do in 7 days!!

The hard deadline actually really helps a ton, Im noticing- rather than having an admittedly "whenever" mentality, having a deadline is giving me the push forward to keep going.
It also helps keep me occupied, rather than fretting about employment and the like, so thats a benefit, too. I've been making it a point to send out no less than 5 applications per day... Hopefully one sticks soon!

In unrelated news, I seem to have struck gold today with a rib rub I threw together.
So my dad calls me today and tells me to throw the ribs in the oven so he can grill em when he gets home. He says I should sprinkle on a bit of this steak seasoning my mom likes, but it was just then i had a thought. What about a rub?
I dont know if it was a bit of culinary serendipity or a result of me watching a ton of Good Eats whilst painting, but I whipped together a rub and wouldn't ya know- We ended up with some of the best ribs I (and even my parents!) have ever tasted.

3 racks of pork ribs vanished into thin air xD

>_>

We may need an extra glass case over Jaques and Tajir... I might be drooling all over them at GenCon!

Fantastic job man

 Alfndrate wrote:
>_>

We may need an extra glass case over Jaques and Tajir... I might be drooling all over them at GenCon!

Fantastic job man

I can second this.

 cormadepanda wrote:

 Alfndrate wrote:
>_>

We may need an extra glass case over Jaques and Tajir... I might be drooling all over them at GenCon!

Fantastic job man

I can second this.

It's all mine!

Fortunately I apply several drool-resistant layers of Varnish* on all completed miniatures, ensuring they survive years of adoration

* WARNING: Do not expose Varnish to sunlight. Do not expose Varnish to electric current or submerge in liquid. Do not talk about varnish. Do not feed after midnight. DO NOT TALK ABOUT VARNISH! Do not lick Varnish. Contact with varnish may result in headache, nausea, vomiting, death, dizziness, dysentery, cardiac arrhythmia, mild heart explosions, varicose veins, darkened stool, darkened soul, lycanthropy, trucanthropy, arteriosclerosis, hemorrhoids, diabeetus, virginity, mild discomfort, vampirism, gender impermanence, spontaneous dental hydroplosion, sugar high, more vomiting, brown, your mom, and mild rash.
Rollin' All Ones (RAO) disclaims all liability, including liability for infringement of any proprietary rights, relating to use of information in this specification. RAO does not warrant or represent that such use will not infringe such rights. In fact, that’s a very strong possibility.
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^Lol.
Please say that there is a microscopic version of that on the bottom of all your models...

and nice painting.

But of course!
If you look veeeeerrrrry closely at the decal on the base, you can read it. =D


More models!! Halfway done now!
Summoner and Minor Demonite:



The Demonite continues to confound me... I ended up touching up parts, adding more brightness to the breast and arms. Don't really know if it can even be seen, but really! I brightened it!
Not sure what else I could do to it, save Ice's suggestion of Orange and stripes!!


Next up: Lyricist!

The Summoner is looking really nice I wouldn't mind having a go at that model myself although I think Tajir is the best by far.

Summoner & Minor Demonite look great!

Looking forward to seeing the Rhapsodist.

Thanks Cyp!

Lyricist has lotsa pink now...

lovely pink!

Good start on the Rhapsodist, that's some nice pink.

 Ramos Asura wrote:
Not sure what else I could do to it, save Ice's suggestion of Orange and stripes!!!

It need a TC chapter banner then as well!......................................Just saying!



oh yeah and ..... ORK FLYERS!

Praise Huron!

So I lost most of yesterday due to family stuff, so progress went slower than I'd wanted.



However the Rhapsodist is complete. Unfortunately, I'm out of dullcote!
I'll put up an updated final pic once I get more. Also, I finished the bases for three of the other models in this group.




And still more to go!

Really nice bases. Liking them a lot.

and good job on the Rhapsodist.

Beautiful work on the Lyricist, Ramos. That pink is lovely.

Bases are looking good, too.

Hmmmm... they don't look very much like ork flyers to me!

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Hmmmm... they don't look very much like ork flyers to me!

That's how Orky they are, they're sneaky.

Rhapsodist is looking very nice

Well looks like some good stuffs been going down while I was moving, I think that lovely lizard lady may well be one of your finest works to date. I can see how one would have trouble with power blades that contain a flat section in the centre, but I'm glad you've decided to leave it as it is.

Thanks everyone! (and glad to see you in the land of the living, Ignatius!)

Sorry about the lack of updates, but lots of stuff has been going on around here. I did, however, complete the rest of the EFT minis!

Bandit:


Chemist:


Dark priest (the hardest mini of the bunch, actually... Concept art and details on the mini were inconsistent with one another, so I did my best. I do kinda like the light trim on his upper robes and cape)


Dark Dragoon


Knight (with just a little bit of gold!)



And finally, a family photo!



Now I just need to finish gems and eyes on the Guardians and its on to....


ORK FLYERS!

Expect updates later in the week

Awesome work! That knight looks great fully painted.

ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS.

or Grey knights ( Red scorpions)

Great work, I'm looking forward to seeing them in person.

I expect ork fliers mate.

 Solar_lion wrote:
ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS/ ORK FLYERS.

or Grey knights ( Red scorpions)

The Red Scorpion Knights are not yet in his hand, I'm waiting on a few parts to come in first. Should have a good chunk of it by the end of the month though.

Also, holy crap, now I know where Alf's avatar is from!

 whalemusic360 wrote:
The Red Scorpion Knights are not yet in his hand, I'm waiting on a few parts to come in first. Should have a good chunk of it by the end of the month though.

Also, holy crap, now I know where Alf's avatar is from!

When OTL still had their forums on their domain, I asked Cy to make me a Dark Priest recolor so I would have a different version than what was available to users. I have moved to having it here, and on a few other sites

I'm waiting for Alfindrate's art to get done before I "permanently" switch to that.

Ha! ya know, it never fully registered with me till you brought it up. I -saw- the avatar and -saw- the concept art, but my brain never made that link for whatever reason!


Guardians are nearly complete. From here its minor details on the bases and models, then the faceplates and eyes on the helmets.


And a close up.


The Farseer is at a similar point, just needing work on eyes and faceplate, as well as one or two minor details.


And you know, I think the spearhead grew on me. red wash and white highlight on the edges helped, i think.


They should be complete either today or tomorrow. Then by tomorrow night.... The moment you've all been waiting for!

Looking very cool. Good job. Lovely colours.

Thanks Dr H!

So no pics of the Eldar yet- theyre done, but I ran out of varnish --again--! So they have to wait till I swing out and buy the damn case of dullcote

In the mean time, its back to magnetizing Gitsplitta's Dakkajets!



At this point, everything on the main fuselage has a magnet, save for the grot gunners.
Unfortunately, I severely underestimated the number of magnets I would need. I ordered 40 (10 more than I thought I needed) and still need more! And this is even after utilizing metal plates on smaller and lighter parts, like the plates on top of the wings.



There are 14 magnetic points on the underside alone!!

so much magnets

That's a lot of magnets! At least I'm comparably easy, Gits is a tyrant of magnetic jerkiness.

You aint kiddin!
I did the math, and Im actually gonna need DOUBLE the number of magnets I already have!!! @__@


I at least had enough to get the main fuselages up to being ready to prime.
This included the option for magnetizing the rear turret using cleverly concealed magnets and greenstuff!





The supashootas were magnetized as well, and smoothed inside to give the appearance of air intakes when not in use.




Tomorrow we might actually see a bit of paint on these guys!

When he's done, all your compasses are going to point to MY HOUSE!

Well my tools are already developing the habit of mysteriously sliding across my desk....


Eldar squad and farseer got varnished and now have completed pictures!
First up- the Farseer:


Then close ups of the squad









And a group photo:





And finally, The flyers get a bit of paint!


My compressor is still giving me issues, so its slower than it should be. Really like the color though!

Dude you have managed to really do an outstanding job on those Eldar models considering the colour scheme the craftworld? has! I wouldn't have known where to start with it but you nailed it! great stuff! and I love the yellow Orkishness :-)

Thanks nerd!
heh, i actually noticed that I accidentally reversed the scheme, having the green as the top color instead of the turquoise xD
Its surprisingly easy once you figure out the colors.


Second Flyer has its yellow base




I may or may not have played with these making little airplane noises as I primed them... [/fouryearsold]

Finally!~ I thought they were supposed to be painted turquoise?

Banana flier knows no fear.

Update Please..

Good job on the Farseer weapon!

Hahaha eager to see the banana flyers, eh?

No real picture worthy progress yet. Though I've encountered yet another snag in the project-
I bought a bottle of VMA Gold Yellow special for this project, and shockingly have used nearly all of it just base coating the parts!! All told, I used about 90% of a bottle... Bigger problem is that I don't know any place around here that carries the paints, and I don't want to spend 7 bucks in shipping on a 3$ bottle of paint :/
Im searching for a local place, but that's proving to be mighty difficult. I somehow manage to live in a gaming void ><

I'll have a useful update soon, though, promise!!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So while I hunt for someone around me that carries VMA paints, I'm left with time to mess with my entry.

It works out rather well, as I am a bit of a pack rat, ahd I have an entire drawer filled with junk!



In particular, I was inspired by an old gooseneck lamp and the can of mountain Dew i was drinking at the time.




Cut to a few hours of hacksawing later, and the junk drawer has produced the beginnings of an odd little refinery or something



Thus far, I have used 100% recycled bits and pieces.
The wood base was a botched cut for a flyer base, then theres a paint pot, the gooseneck lamp, some weird plastic pieces from who knows where, and a spray paint lid!

From here, I've decided on a particular tactic- Extant entries for the most part have geared towards the "newbie players". That is, the players who have little in the way of modelling supplies or bitz. My entry is going to capitalize upon the recycling aspect- Nigh impossible to reproduce, unless you happen to have the component pieces, but constructed from all old junk!

And we have a finished build!





Rather pleased with the result, as I've not only managed this very quickly, but also avoided any usage of my normal hobby supplies, ie plasticard.

The railing is part of a salvaged WW2 boat model I had built almost 10 years ago- It was in bad repair, and I had dismantled it for parts months ago. From there it was to the Drawer of the Damned, where junk can find no escape!

Additions to the list of recycled bits are parts of a metal cookie tin, some red plastic tube from an old kite, junk scraps of expanded aluminum mesh, 2 pens, a bottle cap, staples, an ancient pen-sized digital camera, an in-store display ad from Walmart (almost plasticard, but RECYCLED!), and finally a good healthy dose of sand from our backyard sandbox!



Also, an update on the paint search.
I decided to just go for it and I ordered a bunch of colors from the Warstore. Figured I might as well order some paints for an oncoming project from WM.... A project of some titanic proportions.....

I'm just happy we will have another piece of terrain to play on.

So far this makes 4 pieces of terrain. Five, if we count "Da Git Pit"


My spy networks have informed me that the refinery is complete, and send along this image:



The Marines Errant have already made landfall, and are no doubt searching for and eradicating any Xenos threats.



FINAL THOUGHTS:
Overall, it was a little rushed. I lost much of today due to family matters, so I had to hurry to finish.

I decided to try a different technique in weathering this using oil paints. I put dots of color on it, then sprayed it with mineral spirits.
Needless to say, it has potential, however I need considerable practice. The dots never really diffused much, and perhaps next time I should dampen the area with spirits, THEN put the dot of oil paint on it. This would likely diffuse the paint faster.

Al things considered, I guess its not bad for 2 days work.

It actually looks good when used against the lghter color tank.

When I used oil washes I used a heavly deluted color. and let it run. Something I learned from Meth ( on dakka - not the drug! )

Banana?? Banana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@SL: I'll have to look through some of his stuff then. would definitely help improve my results!



I got a bunch of paints in the mail today, and started putting them on the planes.
Problem is, my compressor is becoming even more touchy and aggravating. This time I got barely a half hour's use out of it before it decided to be a water pump instead! Its becoming more and more of an issue now, as if I get one spurt of water on a detail now its ruined (or at least hard to fix). So now I need to let it cool and dry out.... ugh.... Im going to mess with the placement of my water trap and -hope- it helps the issue!

Anyways, Heres the next stage (unfortunately only got halfway done with this step!)- shadows in panel lines. Also, though you might not notice it as its a much more subtle effect, is that all the planes have an overall fade to a more golden color on the underside, simulating shadows.

You can do it Ramos, don't give up!

I actually really like the end result of the Mt. Dew vat. The yellow is very yellow. Not my cup of tea for colors, but I guess it is well established the client is a bit off.

What yellows you usin as P3's is nice as is the wash

@Gits: "Give Up" is not in my vocabulary! Besides, I've got you people to push me along if I stop

@WM: Thanks! It looks a little different in pwerson, particularly the blends. You'll see when you see it in person.
As to the color- I rather like the yellow! Its much more golden than lemon. The pics lie!

@Dee: Im using Vallejo Model Air for the yellows. Im quite pleased how they behave, and its INCREDIBLY nice having the premixes for the airbrush!
Im thinking I actually might not need any wash on the yellow, save for a burnt sienna oil wash i plan on applying to get the recesses nice and dark. We shall see though. I havent tried P3's washes yet, but their paints are quite nice.



First plane is shaded. I think the new setup is helping, as I got a lot less water this time. It -is- very time consuming work, though, so taking a small break before the next one!



I dont know why the camera seems to brighten this color- its actually much more of a golden-yellow color than lemon yellow

Don't let me forget to bring my compressor up for you to use when I do come.

 whalemusic360 wrote:
I actually really like the end result of the Mt. Dew vat. The yellow is very yellow. Not my cup of tea for colors, but I guess it is well established the client is a bit off.

The planes should not be "Mt. Dew" yellow (it's green actually), this is clearly an intermediate step.

I realize that to those who do not actually paint their own miniatures like yourself... the whole concept of an "intermediate step" might be rather nebulous and hard to grasp. Please allow me to explain. An "intermediate step" is something that painters do in-between the building and the varnish coat stages of model prep. It may surprise you to know that there may be MANY "intermediates steps" in the creation of a model. These may include (but are not limited to); priming, base coating, blending, shading, highlighting, using washes, weathering, chipping and adding free-hand detail. You might find it interesting to (at least as a theoretical exercise) research what some of these terms mean and how they impact the final appearance of the model.

The Mt Dew was the terrain piece silly. If someone had looked at the pics after fishing maybe I paint up dark angels and nids quite regularly btw. Updating a blog was just taking to much time, for very little feedback (mostly just you).

Oh the hate hahah Planes looking quite nice btw Ramos it is yellow that's fer sure will be nice to see it progress and have a few extra colors on it to break it up some

Dont worry Gits- The camera is a liar!

The planes are a quite nice golden yellow color, as per VMA Gold Yellow. If they -do- turn out too bright (not likely, but just in case) I'll weather them down nicely.
So not to worry! Theres still a long way to go!

@WM: Ah, misunderstood. Too bad... it was one of my best smarmy tirades. Yeah... SL has had some of the same issues. Not sure the solution though. You guys know all of my tricks (blog-wise).

@Ramos: You have my complete faith, no worries here.

Plane is looking plain awesome....or plane? awesome? the subtle shades on the panel lines are nicely executed and not overbearing either, should look a treat when she's weathered!

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Yeah... SL has had some of the same issues. Not sure the solution though.

Apparently I have issues. DAMN!

banana plane gunna do banana things.

 Solar_lion wrote:

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Yeah... SL has had some of the same issues. Not sure the solution though.

Apparently I have issues. DAMN!

Ew, hopefully I don't get any of those problems. Though they do make pills for such things....

And now all three planes are airbrushed up to VMA "Medium Yellow"

I seem to have mostly fixed (or at least bypassed) the irritating water issue by moving the moisture trap closer to the airbrush. However, the compressor would not leave well enough alone and now has taken to heating the air in my little workshop to uncomfortable levels. I wouldnt be surprised if it was 10 degrees warmer in here than the rest of the house! (You know, Im surprised that I've never tripped the overheating auto shutdown on the pump)



This picture is closer to the actual color, though the camera still fails to capture the warmth and depth of the colors. Its really a quite nice brilliant yellow.
At this stage, theres only a bit of tweaking before gloss coating and brown oil wash- aka the first step of weathering!

and then paint turquoise?

just kidding... or am I?

Looks good .. as a yellow painter; share your steps. Always looking to perfect the inbetween steps!

Well hopefully you arent joking......

















Well the yellow couldn't be simpler, SL. Its simply based VMA Gold Yellow, then highlighted with VMA Medium Yellow. Panel lines are shaded with a 1:1 mix of Gold Yellow and VMA Gold Brown. If needed, pure Gold Brown can be used to deepen shadows.

For added depth of shadow, I take a further step, as shown below!


I gloss coated the model and began to run burnt sienna oil pant in the panel lines and crevasses, Here is a comparison shot. The top bit is washed, while the bottom is pre-wash.



And the whole thing oil-washed in.


This took a long time, surprisingly, but at this point im about half done. Only the two other plane bodies to go. all the extraneous bits have been washed too.
After I finish all of them, I'll let it set for a bit and dry before cleaning it up with mineral spirits!

Thats looking good now, less like a banana plane

Looks very nice Ramos!

Thanks for the formula!

They are starting to come together.

That turquoise blue scare the gak out of me for a second

Those eldar you did look awesome and im really liking where the daka jets are going at the moment paint wise as well

@GiraffeX: Good to hear! Banana/Lemon yellow is definitely NOT what I (or Gits, for that matter) want on these guys. Now you see some of the method to my considerable madness!

@Gits &SL: Thanks! And dont worry.... the best is yet to come

@Alf: Then its job is complete! Heh.... If I wasnt already painting 2 armies of a similar hue, I might actually consider painting a jet turquoise (my own, of course). All things considered, I rather like the color!

@bigfish: Thank you! Stay tuned, for there is much more to come!


So The family and I ended up popping over to my grandmother's house to celebrate her birthday today.Then we went to a county fair about an hour south of here (lots of delicious fair foods!). So in short- not much painting happened!

I spent a bit of what painting time I had today completing the oil wash on the remaining planes, and cleaned one of them p with gentle dabs of mineral spirits. This is where having a gloss coat really helps, as the paint lifts right off from where i dont want it with just a bit of thinner!

Here we have a close up of a few of the most distinctive areas of the cleaned plane.




im still not liking how the camera seems to squash my shading!
Definitely need to build a light box! (or a better camera)

The yellow and stuff on the jet is looking very nice. I can see the shading, faded but there. Next step weather and checkers right?

Looks very nice Ramos. Well done!

A great many magnets later, and the planes are FINALLY fully magnetized!


(not pictured are the other guns. Theyre magnetized too, though )


The little rockets in particular are proving difficult to magnetize, as theres no real area to place a magnet or even a piece of wire!
So I've taken to etching a small trench in the top and inserting a shaved down piece of music wire. This seems to do the trick!

Now its a bit of epoxy on the bomb magnets to make sure they stay put, and a little more waiting to make sure the oil wash is completely dry! in the mean time I have the pilots and gunners to paint.... lets see how far I can get on them!

How do you magnatize stuff?

And if you say with magnets ya gonna get slapped

Love the way that's coming along Ramos.

@Dee: Really its very simple to magnetize different parts. At its simplest, its a case of drilling a hole and sticking a magnet in both sides. alternatively, depending on how heavy the part is, you can substitute one magnet for a mass of ferrous metal (ie magnetic!). I use cut up bits of an old cookie tin for this purpose.
On particularly thin areas like the missiles and Rhino doors, I drill a hole perpendicular to the magnet's pole and insert a length of music wire.

And there you have it! Magnetizing in a nut shell!


Did some skin today on the pilots and gunners!


(These guys are actually more neutrally-toned. The camera seems to be adding more yellow than normal)







Heh.... so it struck me today that I've put nearly 30 pages on this blog since I started commission work.... Merely a little over a year!!
And so I want to thank all you guys who read and comment on my little fingerpaintings.... I wouldn't be anything without you awesome people!!

Thank you xxx

Nice to see some progress on the orkses.

Glad we can help out. Not all of it is commission, your ME are part of that too!

Well, why wouldn't we peruse your thread Ramos? it's full of brilliant and beautiful painting with a great mix of topics and styles! c'mon man you didn't think we stayed here because we liked you? :-) ...


...just kidding, of course we like you, we just like you better when you update lol!

Don't forget the turquoise! For the Turquoise! That why we come here!

I finished up the pilots and popped em in to see how they were looking



And I shall dub this jet "The Burninator"
The pilot likes the flames motif

(not finished with the black detailing by a long shot)

I may have gone a slight bit too thick one a few of the flames (making it look like tiger stripes, actually), but I think with a bit of shading it'll look great!

They will be on top and bottom of the wings, and im gonna put many more other little details on as well to break up the planes (get it) of yellow.

Nice work. They will look very cool in the end with those stripes.

Perfect job on those skin tones Ramos, you got them just right!

More tiger stripes!

 IceAngel wrote:
More tiger stripes!

Oh Lordy.

"Shhhhh..... we'z in-ful-traitin da stripey ladz..."







a few close ups of the nose and tail:





At this stage, the stripes and black details are blocked in and will get a bit of sharpening further down the line. Aggravatingly, the flatcoat I sprayed on it to get rid of the gloss from the wash step is spotty in some places (even though it LOOKS flat!). This results in the paint beading up at random places. For the most part, the issue is resolved, just needed to go over it a few times with a heavier paint. Seems to be holding nicely now.


Grots also got painted (except for the little bit on the last one's hat)



Metals next!

Great job on the planes. love all the details. Crew looks spot on.

Flames should be painted Turquoise.. just saying!

Well, its starting to happen.... Im getting burnt out on the jets ><
Though I guess I'm not too surprised, as its all Ive been staring at for a week and a half ><

The project is, admittedly, way bigger than I had initially planned. The sheer amount of paint it took to base these things was astounding!

I did manage to force my way through to getting everything blacked out and most of the metals painted on. I think Im going to work n something else tomorrow, though, just to take a break from the grind.


Metals:


Top is before first wash, bottom is after. I will be giving this a soft black wash to deepen recesses and further weather the metal. Certain parts will be picked out in bronze and given some verdigris, such as the afterburner pipes on the jet nozzles and vent areas on the exhausts.

I can empathize Ramos. No hurry my friend. Rest your brain a bit. The end result will be better if you can approach them with some enthusiasm.

They are looking great ..

Gotta say, the yellow looks much better irl than in the pics.

Much appreciated guys. And yeah, WM: thats why I really gotta figure out a better photo system. Currently, I keep getting minor inconsistencies in the blending and colors. Small, but noticeable.

WM and I played a game today using our respective AC lists. Blood was shed on both sides and we both learned a lot of do's and dont's of our armies. I managed to pull ahead midgame, despite what we both thought would be a one-sided match.

Now I have a clear plan of action, and know exactly what to do for my Drake stand-ins. Now I simply need to search for a suitably awesome "Chaos Lord" model and axe.

In other news, I progressed on the Eldar ADL, as I wanted a break from yellow jets!



And the guns:


They're rather close to being complete, just a few touch ups and details, then a blue-gray oil wash!


Oh.... and while he was here, WM dropped off a very special future project

So the question is... how much modification...or is it going to be a clean assemble/paint?

Should be fun.

I want and fear at having one for myself... would have to do so much modification. Though a LoTD warhound does sound scary as hell.

Nice work on the ADL ramos. Love the way the gems work with the blue.

The blending on the ADL is splendid Ramos and as for the special project thats going to be very exciting, what colours are planned for it if any?

The gems are sooooo good and the ADL looks very nice as a whole.

The titan will be Warmonger colors, in order to fit in with the Badab War theme we use at Adepticon. No major mods planned, but it will be based.

 whalemusic360 wrote:
The titan will be Warmonger colors, in order to fit in with the Badab War theme we use at Adepticon. No major mods planned, but it will be based.

Oh thats exciting WM as in the below scheme, you have loads of cool minis

I wish it was a reaver!

Thanks guys! I quite like how the blend turned out myself. The red gems are just icing on the cake (and to think- I wanted to go with PURPLE gems! Red is much better, honestly...)

ADL is pretty much done. just finished cleaning up the oil wash, so it should be ready to flat coat and assemble tomorrow!





And in other news, a vat of FW goodies goes for a bath....



In addition to the Titan (GODDAMN I LOVE THIS MODEL! Its so damn huge!), there are 5 each Mk3 and Mk4 maringes (the mk 3 have the boarding shields) and a contemptor dread + arms. I figured if I was gonna be doing washing, I might as well throw the rest in!

Eldar ADL Complete!



A close up of the double wall segments' details


And the Communications relay:


And finally, the Turret, including magnetized options for an autocannon:


or a Lascanon:


Suppose its time I get back to the planes, eh?

How did you do the rules? Are they hand-painted?

Yup. All of the runes are freehand. This is really clear when you look at them all next to each other, as its damn hard to make perfect copies. The closeup of the wall is the last one I did, and is the one I consider best.

Good job on the markings. Look cool.

The runes great! Good practice pre-vehicle too. Never noticed how much the coms unit looks like a turret from Portal.

I've an idea or two for vehicle markings once we reach that point. One idea in particular is to have the eye glyph superimposed on one of the front "fins." Should make for very interesting contrast! Heh and yeah I'm noticing that too, WM!

So no interesting updates on the planes- they all have washed metals now, so they look pretty much the same, save for slightly more shading.
So while waiting for the washes to dry, I decided to get started on armor and weapon upgrades for my marine I sent IceAngel.



It is a little more red than the initial test model I did for Nerdfest's Golden Bathtub contest, however its close enough to be a very distinct color of orange. Next up is green for the marine, and metal highlights for the jets!

Everything's looking great dude! some really really nice blending and colours happening! the jets are coming together awesome and the Eldar stuff is just WOW! also looking forward to the red/orange marine too! and speaking of Golden Nerdfest...... :-) this is the first mention of the second annual Nerdcademy Award happening soon! :-) hope you'll be on board again?

Nice freehand .. It looks very uniform to me!

Explain the ice 's marine? GMS?

YES!!!!! JASKA 2.0

Very nice burnt reddish orange color you've created. I see we went for a larger plasma weapon. NICE CHOICE! I do me some plasma. Would you like me to make you another marine, so it can be an official swap?

@Solar - Ramos and I had a long discussion about his marine, Brother Jaska of the Marines Chrysemys, at Adepticon. He mentioned that he wanted to send a new model. Brother Jaska is one of the few marines still alive in my story from the Great Marine Swap. He deserves to be upgraded.

@nerd: Thanks!! and you bet your Hellsak I'm in! Any clues to the theme you'd care to share at the moment?

@SL: Thanks a ton. The Marine is essentially an armor (and paint) upgrade for Ice's GMS marine. I half-considered promoting Jaska to Sergeant (with green helmet and all), but have decided against it. Perhaps if he returns from the Ice Angel campaign alive he will be deemed worthy!
In any case, now he has a little more power and armor.

@IA: That sounds like a pretty cool plan, actually. Id love another Ice Angel- an upgraded Brother Ruqum, perhaps, or even a death company veteran

Great work Ramos. The titan will be quite the work.

Lets just say Faces are the windows to the soul.....and faces

 IceAngel wrote:
@Solar - Ramos and I had a long discussion about his marine, Brother Jaska of the Marines Chrysemys, at Adepticon. He mentioned that he wanted to send a new model. Brother Jaska is one of the few marines still alive in my story from the Great Marine Swap. He deserves to be upgraded.

What a great update and backstory!

Is that the helmet that goes with the armor?

@cormade: Indeed! Gonna be a blast to work on.... that is is I ever finish these planes!!

@nerd: ooooohhhh.... If you're thinking what I'm thinking you're thinking, then I'm thinking I have a pretty good idea already

@SL: Normally its a regular old mk7 helmet (basic vanilla marine) but in this case, I wanted something to set Jaska apart from every other marine. I took the basic helmet and did some GS work on it, giving it a more shielded appearance. I figure that since Ice tends to portray him as quiet and calculating, I'd give him a loadout geared more-so to defensive than offensive. Advanced armor systems for survivability, and a larger variant of his original plasma pistol, now geared more for anti infantry and (if needed) anti vehicle.
So a bit of fluff to back up the modeling madness


In other news, i think I can finally call the primary paints on the Bommas complete. Nearly all of the colors it will get is currently on it, save for the small red and white areas still to come.



Close up of one member of the Squadron.


Random wing art


Next for these guys is a good bit of weathering, including sponge chipping and a whole lotta airbrushing and rust powder!


Jaska continues as well, now with more green!

Green and red.. its that time to get presents right?

Oh pfft... Its orange! No christmas marines here

Love the random wing art, adds some nice interest to an otherwise uniform color.

Nice moon on the wing, i like the way you did it! are you going to show us how you do your sponge chipping and powders as you go? i'd like to see how others get results as i'm not too good at sponging chipping on :-)

@Gits: Excellent! Glad it meets your approval. I will be adding a few decals of things that are difficult to freehand (ie, checks and dags on the wings' leading edges!) so that should help break the yellow up some more!

@nerd: Yeah sure I can do that. I'm definitely no master myself, but I can definitely pop up a few shots as I go along.


PLanes continue, again a mundane update to them so they don't look very different.
In between coats of paint, I washed the FW bits I have, including the Warhound, Contemptor, and Mk 3 and 4 marines.

In case anyone was curious..... the Titan has a LOT of parts!




Ohhhh boy O_o''

That's mostly the dreadnought

Oh my god! you have TWO washing machines?

 nerdfest09 wrote:
Oh my god! you have TWO washing machines?

One of those is a dryer

Phew! lucky for you I was about to send you all my washing!

Haha yeah nerd thats a washer and a dryer. Though with 3 brothers, a second washer isn't too farfetched! xD


Bommas continue, mostly with priming the remaining bitz (lots of bombs!). Much of the weathering was waiting on getting new needles/tips for my airbrush, which have just arrived, in fact.

I got on a huge assembly kick, and put a good bit of work into assembling the Titan. You know, for a kit with rather limited directions included, it goes together rather nice and easily!



Feet and legs are ready to get pins.... soon as I figure out where to buy em from!

Holy crap that even looks cool with only feet! make sure you include the marine for scale in each update shot dude!

Nice building work.. you didnt put the war hound in the wash did you? If so add bleach. It will suck the chaos right out of it.. as it purges the unclean.

@nerd: Thanks! And I definitely will do. I rigged up the legs with pins today and daaaaaamn its tall!! (Pictures later)

@cormade: In the washer? Well yeah! How else could I get them so sparkly clean! Plus it let me add softener, so the warhound is now huggably soft!



So I've had a frustrating day... First it was the normal stuff, like family and the airbrush compressor spitting water (though after using it for a LONG time!).
Then I tried weathering the planes. And oh boy is it driving me crazy.


Burn/exhaust marks? Easy.




Verdigris on copper/brass parts? Ditto.




Chipping? Oh HELL no...




It kicked my ass in every sense of the word. So I'm relatively inexperienced in the ways of sponge chipping, but with a number of tutorials and what little experience I had, I thought it'd be -much- easier than it turned out to be. I kept trying to fix mistakes here and there, be it a blob of paint or a smudge, and ended up with what you see above.
The objective was to heavily weather the leading edges, because of course Da Burninator should be well known for flying fast and low (hitting the odd tree branch or stormboy along the way). So I put a bit more than what I normally would. Problem is, I think parts are overdone... Though that might be me staring at it for too long and frustrations taking hold. Whatever the case, the other two planes aren't getting anywhere -near- this amount of chipping. it'll be much more controlled and sparse.

What do you guys think? I know its not perfect, but did I at least manage to save it?



In slightly less aggravating news, Jaska got a number of details, including a badge for the Ice Angel Campaign. I ended up blending the two chapters' heraldries together, and I think it looks alright. A bigger one would have been better, but what can ya do on a knee?

I think it looks ok on the tail fin, but the wing still looks a bit off. Maybe needs to be filled in with solid chunks of silver? Dunno, I'd ask the Gitmista.

I think its cool Ramos. I don't know if its the pictures or not but the chipping could almost be a bit darker.

As for Jaska 2.0. The warp turtle ice angel badge is cool. I'll have to see how I can fit that into my fluff.

Lookin good! Yellow is a hard color to pull off but you make it look easy! The chipping looks really accurate. I work on aircraft and the areas you hit are the areas most prone to chipping. Also areas forward of guns.

Don't stress too much dude! perhaps try using a different sized sponge applicator to re apply some smaller areas of yellow? and then some brighter silver as fresh chips?

It is REALLY EASY to overdo chipping and rust with a sponge. Most of the ork vehicles I've done this on look like they've been through a shredder (and a rusty one at that). I've been working very hard to scale my sponge work back to a more sane level. "Less is more" clearly applies to any type of sponge work, be it chipping or rusting.

One question: Exactly how is the leading edge of the tail section getting chipped? Is he flying under trees??

I like nerdy's suggestion about sponging on a little yellow to break up the solid metal areas... or perhaps you could chip on a little brownish/orange in the most scraped-bare areas to simulate rust? That would break up the silver patches nicely. Just use a delicate touch. You might also consider a different sponge. I picked up some sea sponges from a craft store and they work nicely because the pores and much more irregular giving a more random pattern. If I do use regular foam, I use a tweezers to tear chunks out of the surface so its less regular.

Once you hit something it leaves a debris cloud that can fly into most any where/thing!

I like the chipping. I don't expect the Orks to be anything but banged up!

I do my weathering by sponging on black first and then painting inside with Vallejo Air Gun Metallic so it has more of a 3D effect, looks like this

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/378267-Drop%20Pod%2C%20Skyrar%252527s%20Dark%20Wolves%2C%20Skyrar%2527s%20Dark%20Wolves%2C%20Skyrar%27s%20Dark%20Wolves.html]

Well thanks guys.... at least its not a total loss.

@nerd: The pics dont show it too well, but I did actually do the lighter color of metal idea. The chips are Adeptus Battlegray, Boltgun Metal, then finally Mythril Silver.
Bits of yellow, or even as gits suggested, rust, might get it to look a bit better.

@Gits: A sea sponge would be far better than what Im using at the moment. The nightmare began when I grabbed foam that I had cut out of a GW figure case. I knew it was pretty even bubbled foam, but figured it was close enough to the pluck foam and blister foam I had used before (chalk one up for me being an idiot). To start fixing it, I then moved to a scrubbing sponge, which had more variety in its cell sizes. It helped, but by then the damage was done.
I have since switched back to the pluck foam I normally use, and hopefully this'll give me more randomness and better appearance.

As far as the leading edge of the tail goes, I figured that nearly every leading edge would be chipped away, given the reckless piloting skills of orks. (flying under trees isnt too farfetched )

@GX: Thats a really nice pod. The process seems solid too... Might darken up the weathering nicely without overpowering it. i think im going to try that.


Well, with your help, guys, I think I know where to go from here. Hopefully after fixing the one bomma, the rest will be cake!

 GiraffeX wrote:
I do my weathering by sponging on black first and then painting inside with Vallejo Air Gun Metallic so it has more of a 3D effect, looks like this

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/378267-Drop%20Pod%2C%20Skyrar%252527s%20Dark%20Wolves%2C%20Skyrar%2527s%20Dark%20Wolves%2C%20Skyrar%27s%20Dark%20Wolves.html]

WOW! that's messed up.. I'm not sure I'd even get into that! What a great effect!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ramos Asura wrote:

As far as the leading edge of the tail goes, I figured that nearly every leading edge would be chipped away, given the reckless piloting skills of orks. (flying under trees isnt too farfetched )

Well, with your help, guys, I think I know where to go from here. Hopefully after fixing the one bomma, the rest will be cake!

I like it beat up. I agree it should be a bit varied in darkness buy not as dark as GiraffeX Drop pod. It doesn't need a new paint job it need Bondo!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
WM what weapon load outs did you pick for you Hound?

Alrighty. Round 2 went a bit better, and I REALLY scaled back the chipping. Im honestly too terrified of another fiasco to go too much further. I need a ton more practice at this technique.... ill never understand how some people do it though. The chipping effects I've seen are amazing (even the GW one looks awesome!)


So I dinged up the control surfaces and leading edges of the second jet. I took the advice here and kept it sparing and made the initial bit much darker (but not black!)



Don;t know if I want to go any further with it (same maybe a bit more on the tail control surfaces). They're still gonna get a bit of rusting powder on them, so the plain flat areas will be broken up with splotches of rust.

SL: Titan will be getting a Plasma Blastgun and Laser Destructor.

I think (based on what I can see from my phone) that you've got a much more realistic balance there. Nicely done.

Aye.... If not realistic, than certainly more restrained. Not "Oh Gee! Ill just slather the wings in silver paint! *derp*"

Looks smashing!.. now make 1000 little bugs and plaster them all on the windshield and you bout there!

 Solar_lion wrote:
Looks smashing!.. now make 1000 little bugs and plaster them all on the windshield and you bout there!

Or 1 Nid gargoyle

And as Ramos said, I got the Turbo Distructor and the Plasma Blastgun. It is a sniper Titan, both guns have 96" range.

Second attempt is much nicer Ramos! the first is still good, keeping in mind that they are ORKS! they wouldn't give a hoot about the condition of their vehicles.

Looks like Your fall is booked up. I'm guessing the titan will take many weeks of no stopping and no sleep!

Insert ( sound of a whip cracking )

Sleep? Whats sleep?

And yeah, its kinda nice having a list of projects on the table. OTL is going to be sending me more stuff to do for them, too!
So loooots of stuff to do!

Titan got legs pinned, so I could start to mess with posing. Just waiting on WM to ship me a few vehicle wrecks to use on the base before I start gluing it together. Mostly just uninteresting gap filling on that front.

As to the jets- Bombs and Rokkits are done and just need a little weathering.


The Jets should be complete tomorrow (finally!!)- assuming weather cooperates enough to flat coat them. At the moment, the only parts in need of paint are the grot turrets- and those are just yellow!


And sort of related, but this is what greeted me when I opened my pot of red foundation the other day....


Maybe if I water it down..... <.<

Bombs....... Bombs!....... BOMBS!!!!!!!

I think ya might need a water Bomb for that one

Lol, thats so unlucky mate, just lol.

On the plus side the grot bombs look awesome

Ork Fightas inbound!!


Dakkajet


Burna Bomma


Blitza Bomma




Also appearing in this update is the random harlequin in a kimono!




And of course, Jaska II!





Finally, I've been building my contemptor (to be used as a Daemon Prince, should I roll it on the Chaos Boons table)
I wanted something imposing, and came up with the idea of him crushing a traitor marine. Im curious to what you guys think of the idea.
Mind that nothing is glued, this is just a roughsticky tac'd concept


"Do you know fear now, traitor?"

I think he needs some tiger stripes, like the pu....err....cat he is

I think the jets look great! Jaska looks good too.

Fantastic work on the jets! I couldn't be happier. The kimono is really cool Ramos. Great idea.

Amazing Job on the Jets.

On the contemptor - Be careful the traitor marine doesn't become the focus. Couple of suggestions.. either stepping on the traitor or lower him to below chest level ( Maybe holding him by a single leg - upsidedown)?

2 cents!

Fab on the jets and the DP

 Solar_lion wrote:
Amazing Job on the Jets.

On the contemptor - Be careful the traitor marine doesn't become the focus. Couple of suggestions.. either stepping on the traitor or lower him to below chest level ( Maybe holding him by a single leg - upsidedown)?

2 cents!

Solar does have a good point. You could also make sure he isn't to bright. Perhaps a nice dark green or dull yellow with checkers would be perfect. Or if you up for the challenge try to replicate Moonpies executioner camo. I do love the demon prince counts as though, great idea!

Great job on the jets too. When do we start to see some of your own storm talon hell drake things?

or you Could have him pulled in half

 Miss Dee wrote:
or you Could have him pulled in half

/\ Like that

 IceAngel wrote:
Solar does have a good point. You could also make sure he isn't to bright. Perhaps a nice dark green or dull yellow with checkers would be perfect. Or if you up for the challenge try to replicate Moonpies executioner camo. I do love the demon prince counts as though, great idea!

Ahhh.. everyone is seeing whats going on... In reality if he's going to paint the Dread in ME colors then he will have trouble with any of the 4 as they will be considerably darker.
You could do the Astral claws ( IA version ) that might be less distraction ( My suggestion is go for TC thou)

Hmm... all very good suggestions... I like the ripped in half concept, however I think it'd be difficult to implement on this model- you see, I plan to be able to use it as a dread, not just a counts-as DP.
I want to be able to swap weapons on it, particularly the right arm (I have an autocannon and another ccw right now), and this means that the tear in half might not work (at least to the same extent as that hulk pic, which I want to make happen xD [another model, another model]) as unless I have him always as 2 ccw, he'll just half half of a marine in his hand, not the tearing in half narrative that Id want to convey.

tl;dr I dont think Ill go that route just cause it'd look off with an assault cannon arm :/
I definitely will save the tearing in half idea for the next model. Once I have burnable income, thats DEFINITELY gonna happen! Its too cool of an idea not to build.


As to paint scheme, sorry Ice, but I think a Tiger Claw is just what the doctor ordered!
The orange complements the turquoise perfectly, and would add a good bit of story to the model.
Lamenters almost made the cut, however SL's not on the opposite side from me this year- YOU ARE

As far as it potentially overpowering the model, I plan to paint the orange a bit darker than Ice usually does, prolly closer to my Chrysemys color. (close to Macarius Solar Orange). Minor bits of weathering, and you should get a good balance between marine and dread.


Re: my counts as heldrakes- I dunno when. Im STILL job hunting (somehow even walmart refuses to call me back) so I cant get the models till I have a job xD I definitely have a good plan for when I get them, though. One that should give my army a unique flair!


In Titan News, While I await some basing supplies from WM, I primed the interior to prepare for painting. I decided to try out the new airbrush primer I bought, and its nice. A majority of the areas are durable and nice and smooth, though a couple areas seem to not have bonded particularly well, namely the massive flat areas on the sides of the engine room walls. The resin here is oddly glossy, even after a vigorous washing. Fortunately, its an area that will primarily be covered up bu other parts, so you wont even see it! Other than that, the primer was a treat to use, though I think it'd be better used on plastic than resin. Anyways, its the interior, so doesn't need a bomb-proof base layer. It just wont see the kind of abuse that the exterior would, so this seems perfectly fine!



Also primed are the crew models, including the Princeps:


And the Moderati (I like the one on the right. "Whats this button do?" )



Also on the painting bench are a whole bunch of OTL models! I'm painting a few models for them, and a few for the lovely KS backers who pledged for full painted minis!
Of note is the presence of the King Gel- a particularly large (and awesome) model!

Till next time- PaintMan AWAAAAAY!

Self destruct in five seconds....

Just waiting on some busted ass tanks, then its on its way to you (along with other junk, like a good plasma gun arm for Terry the Titan)

What kind of 'busted ass tanks' are you needing?

Got a large box from Ramos today... I can't WAIT to get home and open it!

@Dee: Nooooo! It all blew up into pieces! @WM: Sounds good- Fortunately this gives me plenty of time to work on the interior of the beast, as well as the many little other projects I currently have going.

@Alf: To base the Titan, I want to have it walking on/over a wreck so it gives a more dynamic pose (not to mention showing off the gorgeous detail on the feet pistons!). Seeing as the wrecked rhino terrain is used to death, WM suggested we use other stuff, like some of SL's old IG wreckage that he used for the display last year.
So i imagine theres a chimera or two in the titan's future. Vehicles so wrecked in model that they're only suitable for terrain and the like!

@Gits: Excellent! It's good to hear they arrived in good time- Hopefully you will find the contents to your liking
(I did notice I forgot something.... shot you a PM about it)

Nothing major on the hobby front as of yet. Much of last night and today was spent helping my grandparents out with hooking up new electronics. I love them to death, but they are COMPLETELY helpless with anything electronic! To the point of needing notes on how to print a page in color

The Airbrush primer seems to have hardened considerably overnight, and the parts are ready for paint! I've also washed and dried the minis I got from OTL, so those should be incoming as well!

Needless to say, Ill be a busy busy bee in these coming weeks

I was gonna say, what busted ass tanks, I might have one or two sitting around gathering dust

For mi i based my first tau picts later

sounds great ramos

@Alf: No worries, SL is currently shipping me a handful of terrain pieces. If you still have those tanks later on in the year, I could have a use or two for em- My terrain here at the house is rather limited.


The titan progresses, and the interior has gotten a few colors.

The forward section, with elevator already installed:


The side panels of the generator room- here you can see where I scraped the primer away from the resin. It's primarily in these areas that the paint doesn't seem to like adhering. The resin is particularly slick. It is fortunate, however, that these areas are the bonding points for assembly! I'd need to scrape the paint off anyways!
Definitely going to need to rough up the surface before gluing.


And finally, the whole torso section dry-fitted. note that there is a door section separating the elevator and power rooms.


Still a ways to go on this but its worthwhile, I find, to keep a running log of projects. Small progress is still progress, no?
Plus, given the scarcity of Titan project logs, I think its nice to see what goes on as one is assembled

It really is nice to see a titan.. damn things are just so much.

I have actually seen FW items that somehow get the released agent baked into the resin, and it wont take paint. If it's bad, they should replace it. Just lmk.

Thanks for showing the little steps, it is very interesting.

Other than Turquoise what other colors are you going to use?

So I'm guessing that your going to be painting alot of sections prior to assembly?

Is this the Jackel or the Wolf head ( Lucius Pattern correct?)

It's going to be warmonger colors, no turquoise I know of. It's a mars pattern.

@WM: I've heard of that happening, too. It does seem that these areas held on to much more of the release agent than normal. If you look at the fore segment of the interior, I actually found a large spot that refused to hold primer right around the waist joint. It is fortunate that once again this is an area which will be hidden from view after assembly. The rest of the area seems pretty stable, but I will definitely be watching out. Hopefully once I clear coat it, things will toughen up.

@SL: As WM said, its going to be painted up in Warmonger colors, which is to say a lot of black, white, and metal! This is the Mars Warhound variant- it has the smoother carapace.
As to painting pre-assembly, really it seems that once the interior is complete, most of the heavy building can commence. I know that most of the legs will be built up prior to paint, as well as the sub assemblies of the arms and body. The Armor plates are going to be painted separate as well.


Todays progress was metals and the start of all the little lights and screens which dot the interior.

The main hull component.


A close up of the doorway, with the inscription "The Emperor Protects Us"


And the side panels/carapace:


I think what Im going to do is apply just the faintest amount of rust and wear on these components, particularly the metal floors and bronze/brass components. Sure it's a revered God Machine with countless technicians to take care of it, but it is also a machine of War, meaning that the elements are bound to take its toll eventually. Hopefully it'll give a bit of life to the interior. A "lived-in" sorta feeling.


Also, I made an odd discovery whilst browsing the internal pics of the Mars Warhound on FW- Though the outside is rather nice, the interior seems rushed and looks to be little more than a boltgun drybrush at its base level. The cockpit is like that too.


It just looks a little sloppy to me. Really odd.

Looking ace's! and your right it looks rushed!

Yeah.. if that's a forgeworld pic that is sad.. it seems really not the expected paint job.

After a much longer break in activity than expected, im back and I bring photos!

The Warhound's interior is now complete, and i've gone and epoxied the parts together (sanding the contact points, of course!)


Good ol' Brother Testie acting as scale marker.


Before gluing, I took some final shots of the interior, the likes of which aren't likely to be seen again, lest the titan has an accident.

Forward segment:


Walls of the engine compartment:


And some shots of the interior all put together.



But thats not all ive been up to!
No, i've been keeping busy with some projects given to me by OTL.

First up, Batman the Dark Knight from Endless and Tony the Tiger Wu Xian from Brushfire.


Secondly, a batch of Endless figures for one of the wonderful KS backers!

(Not pictured are a Cleric and an Earth Troll, plus a few markers for the Earth Troll's abilities)

A third (much larger) group for another KS backer is not pictured, but i'll try to get some of those up soon!

"Now Ramos," I hear some of you saying. "Where are the bases?"
I'm glad you asked, because Im trying out something new for them.

Recently, there was a Kickstarter for something called Basius, which was essentially a resin disc that you could use to put patterns onto greenstuffed bases, making it very quick and easy to base a ton of minis very quickly.

Unfortunately for me, the kickstarter was based in the UK, and I couldnt afford to pledge for the £60 US option (90-100 bucks was way too much for me!). I do hope there'll be a way to get these in the future (that isnt $100) because the concept is amazing, and the product itself looks awesome.
In lieu of that, I've decided to attempt to build my own!
The concept is inspired by Tonio's AMAZING board recently used by OTL at GenCon.



If you havent seen the rest of his work, DO IT NOW!!! Seriously, his terrain is absolutely amazing!






















Ok, all done reading through his project log? Good, let's continue.

So with that in mind, i set out to build something based on an old crystal mine I could use to make press basing for the Endless figs.
One night of messing with Sculpey later, and Im left with this:

Image heavily altered to show details.

Still to be added are a bunch of rock features and crystals (seen to the left of the main piece), but you can see what Im trying to shoot for. Ultimately, I want to be able to make quick and easy bases for the EFT minis.
Though this leaves me at an interesting predicament- I don't have any silicone for molds left (but plenty of resin!), so I need to be creative to get a negative impression from this master. The final process is to be determined, but I'm going to try to cast -with- the resin. That failing, with plaster, wax, and resin. Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be a waste of time!


Thanks for reading!

Might want to order a pack or two of "instamold" from c'mon or eBay. I suspect it will work much better than resin, and it's reusable.

Edit: Oh yeah, titans ok too.

Now I know you're painting the titan for whalemusic, but I don't think I'd paint the inside of the cockpit, especially if no one was ever going to see it >_<

The top will be removable, silly Alf.

 whalemusic360 wrote:
The top will be removable, silly Alf.

These are lies and falsehoods, the Adeptus Mechanicus would never let you sully the God-Machines by removing their tops! At least not without buying it dinner first

When you spend that kind of money for a titan, seeing whats under the hood is the least you should get

New from the Imperium of Man: Warhounds Gone Wild!



Heh... Plus, Alf.... Com on. I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to painting. I painted the screen on a SAG Mek, for cryin out loud! not to mention all the Rhinos Ive built over the years xD

 Ramos Asura wrote:
New from the Imperium of Man: Warhounds Gone Wild!



Heh... Plus, Alf.... Com on. I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to painting. I painted the screen on a SAG Mek, for cryin out loud! not to mention all the Rhinos Ive built over the years xD

If I had a Titan, I'd probably take years to build and paint it, but I'd probably also use it as a palette cleanser. Like, "Oh man I've just painted 50 Guardsmen, I'm gonna go spend a week on these three panels"

Whalemusic, buy me a titan

I do kinda want to get a twin brother with the flamer and bolter options. And a Reaver. And some Eldar titans of various sizes.

 whalemusic360 wrote:
I do kinda want to get a twin brother with the flamer and bolter options. And a Reaver. And some Eldar titans of various sizes.

I want a warhound with plasma arm and bolter... it's never gonna happen though.

Never say never.!

Do it all.

 Alfndrate wrote:

 whalemusic360 wrote:
I do kinda want to get a twin brother with the flamer and bolter options. And a Reaver. And some Eldar titans of various sizes.

I want a warhound with plasma arm and bolter... it's never gonna happen though.

The two weapons don't complement each other as well. This titan has 2 guns with 96" range, so it can stand in the back for support. The Bolter is much shorter, so you loose the maximum functionality of the long range gun. At least in theory, I haven't used it yet.

So minor work on the Titan: The carapace is now magnetized!




Most of my time today was spent finalizing the base master:




And molding it...



And crossing my fingers...





And kinda failing, but kinda succeeding.

After removing the mold box, It was then a chore to start removing the master. Unfortunately, it did not survive- it just had to be broken to get to the cast!

The ground detail looks decent, and the results in areas are promising. However a majority of the milliput (the lighter yellow parts) is stuck in the resin. Unfortunately, it means I need to carefully excavate them, whilst preserving the mold's detail. After removing the polymer clay base, I threw this cast into the fridge, where I hope it'll loosen up on the trapped pieces of clay and milliput.

Next time, I need to utilize a different technique, or at the very least use a more aggressive mold release like petroleum jelly. The spray I have helped, but the details got glued to the resin!

Optimally I should have used rubber, then resin, then something else to get a cast I could reuse, but Im all out of the stuff- Plenty of resin, though!

Hopefully this hasnt been a colossal waste of time!
So fingers crossed, everyone :/

You could dunk the resin in something like simple green. Should break the softer stuff down while not hurting the resin.

Thats actually a really good idea. Ill have to pick up some when I go out next.

In the mean time, the freezer made the remaining gunk brittle, so it was easier to remove. Still a lot of trash still in it, but its good enough to try it out in spots!




And the first few prototypes. Bear in mind, Im gonna sharpen details on them as they harden a bit more, and when set Im going to square off the blobs.



I guess not too bad, considering what happened to the cast. I wish I was a better sculptor so I could make a better resin plate!

it looks pretty good to pass off.

So today I get the mail and what should I find there to greet me? A box full of vehicle wrecks!!

So I quickly set to work cutting apart the myriad bits, and have now started the base of the Warhound!





And the legs:




On a related subject, WM and me realized she still needs a name!!
So iffin you guys would have any ideas, shout em out!

And to sweeten the pot (as if you really needed more incentive than to have named one of the Emperor's finest machines), I might just ship the namer a special thank you gift!

IT shall be named Destructicus. For it is wolf.

I nominate Quæ lupus. "She Wolf".

Shakera

I choose Dorothy from the wizard of oz or Toto just because lol

"Genetrix de Omnis Acies" (mother of all battles) or "Gene/Genie" for short...

Since we seem to be going with a feminine theme...

Its interesting to see the feminine theme emerging... the "she" bit really just came from the tradition of referring to things like cars and other big machines by feminine pronouns (itself a carryover of the tradition of calling ships "she").

Neat ideas thus far, guys! Keep em coming! ^^


So I got excited and went and put together her legs, and with a bit of effort and a lot of sticky tack have managed to get a prototype stance.




And a 180 degree view of the stance: