Thanks fellas. I'm hoping to get some stuff done during the week. Working on one model does lighten the workload quite a bit. That tac squad has been staring at me, taunting me to to get started on blacking out the details. Doing ten marines, weapons, backpacks, etc., can be a bit intimidating.
So I progressed the backlog a bit. I went ahead and pre-ordered the plastic Tartaros terminators and a Stormhawk, that thing needs to be made flyable as well. Will make a nice side-by-side project for the Storm Talon
The progress of the past two weekends:
Probably just a couple of hours painting in details and secondary colours. The model now needs a coat of Klear so I can apply a decal or two, and once those are on it's onto weathering.
Cheers! I applied two decals yesterday so once they're blended in with Micro Sol, I can move onto assembly. I must say, I'll quite looking forward to that.
I had a good start, seriously damaged those scary formation Riptides quite a bit, captured a few objective, but was all downhill from there.
Two lessons learned:
-Roll better
-CAD vs Formations are a big no-no, those fancy formation abilities are slightly overpowering against a traditional setup. The amount of pimped up firepower coming out of those riptides and all-missile broadsides is just awesome and scary
Amazing you did as well as you did. BA in general are not even mid tier compared to the Tau in a normal fight in the 7th ed. Add the Formations ( riptide wing, the ghostkeel one - I can't remember) and you were very seriously on the back foot to begin with. Glad you had fun ...
The new BA formations have helped quite a bit to make them more competitive; but I almost never run my Lamenters as BA unless using the new formations. Soon we'll see the AoS'ing of 40K so who knows what that will do to the meta.
Trouble is that most BA formations are heavy on troops. Although if I scrounge some older models together I can put together a few heavy hitters. Forgive me if I don't know the fomration names exactly, but I can cobble together:
Dreadnought formation
Terminator formation
Predator group
Land Raider group.
I could do a few more, but then every sqaud would be a combat squad. And frankly, I don't like small squads of just 5 marines. They become ineffective very fast with after some casualties.
lol, by turn 4 I had only 5 scouts left, the razorback, and a few assault marines. I managed to kill one riptide, three stealth suits, and the ghost keel.
Depends on the mission. 5 man squads are good at getting objectives. You'll have half the objective potential in 10 man squads.
With Tau there are very few options as they will always out shoot you. You need to get stuck in fast. Drop pods, teleporting ect.. it's still a gamble with all the extra gadgets they have to intercept ect. It's made worse with the 7th ( shooting is king ) edition.
And IMHO.. he has a pretty competitive list ( and standard with Tau players.) Nothing survives long with that many dice coming at ya!
Just to let you guys know. I crawled on the paint wagon again, walking next to it was itching too hard, especially with 8th edition coming out
I'll try to take some more pics of the progress of last weekend, but as a verbal appetizer:
-Tac. Squad finally has all details blacked out and is ready for detailing
-Tech Marine is almost finished!
-Vehicles have no progress at all.µ
-Primaris Sergeant and Primaris Lieutenant converted and undercoated.
-Bought way too much Forgeworld stuff the past few months, it all needs some more love and time.
Here are some quick pics. I just noticed I actually need to do some last detailing on the base, and paint in his eye lenses.
Oh, and I decided to do a comparison between a black and white background again.
No trouble at all! Would be good to bounce ideas off you every now and then. Speaking of ideas, what size guitar string (if that is indeed what it is) did you use for the cables on the Techmarine?
Oh, my brain is there to be picked, never hesitate.
And, 't is not guitar string at all. Something far, far better!
https://www.zinge.co.uk/ They're cables from their 'flexible resin' section. It has a tiny metal core and then some more rubbery kind of resin around it. Bends and keeps it shape, and a texture perfect for painting without any hassle. and they also have resin end caps.
Seriously brilliant stuff for the lazy modeler, such as myself. The detail is right there, it's no hassle to get into the desired shape, and it looks professional to boot.
"Who needs some fixing? You, you look like you could use some fixing!
"Erm, no, not really, my tank is doing just fine."
"I have a spanner, stay where you are, I'm coming over!"
"No, no, really, no need!"
"Refusing the Blessed Rituals of Maintenance?! Heretic!"
"Wait, what?!"
"Yes! Heretic! I also have a hammer for a whole different kind of fixing!"
I realllike the cable work . The gun Arm is awesome.
I think you need a spot of color ( I suggest green ) in the eye lenses. Something that draws you attention there ( and ties in the green on the rest of the mini )
Elnibbus wrote:Four day weekend? Bah! We will expect to see lots of stuff (including vehicles?) painted by Tuesday...
Fingers crossed!
My to do list of Musts:
-Finish base and eyes on the techie
-As much progress as possible on the tac squad ( at least secondary colours and assembly)
The Should list:
-Paint the Primaris Lieutenant. I should be able to pull off painting one marine in one day.
-Apply masking tape to the Deimos Vindi and Damocles Rhino. (Still wondering what patterns or lines to do on them)
-Clean & prep of the Deredeo Dread
The Could list
-Finish assembling and prepping the plastic 5 Tartaros terminators (Man, those heads and shoulder covers do pose quite the conundrum on what to leave off for painting. You can not squeeze in the head after the torso's been assembled. And gluing in the head beforehand makes it next to impossible to paint.)
-Clean and prep the 5-man resin Tartaros termy squad
The Would-Be-Nice list:
-Assemble at least one Interc. Primaris squad.
-Clean & prep the Xiphon fighter that arrived today.
-Clean & prep the Tempest land Speeder that arrived today.
-Start work on converting a Storm Talon into something that looks like it could actually fly.
-Start work on converting a Stormhawk into something that looks like it could fly better.
Oyyy, the ambition!
nerdfest09 wrote:I can't see the pics! am I blind?.....OH GOD NO I'M BLIND!!!!!!!!
Rub some yoghurt in your eyes, put your left index finger on the ground and spin 10 times. That should fix it.
I'll see if I can put together an imgur gallery for you. All high-res goodness with all flaws and errors in zoom-o-vision.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Aaand there you go:
Automatically Appended Next Post: W.I.P. shots! All a bit shiny because of the gloss coat (for the oil paint wash they had). All that needs to be done is is matte them down with some satin varnish, and base them.
Oh, and I just noticed that the guy holding a bolter clip still has a clip in his gun. What should I do with that? Remove it or leave it?
whalemusic360 wrote:Tactical reload. Leave it, unless it really bugs you.
Solar_lion wrote:Agreed!
Desubot wrote:Personally bothers me knife it out and stick it on the base.
Hmm, I have a whole work day to ponder about it.
warboss wrote:How difficult is it to swap the shoulder pads on the monopose new primaris models?
Actually, easier than expected. I used an x-acto knife with a saw blade to saw out the 'inner' section of the shoulder pad, and then remove the leftover rims using a clipper and knife. I made sure to leave the little extra 'lip' on the bottom, and the replacement pads sit nicely on them, keeping the new Primaris aesthetic intact. The 'hero' Primares like the sarge and Lt. have enough armpit to stay intact even with the shoulder pad removed. For safety I put a little blob of greenstuff in between every shoulder pad and arm, but the shoulder pads actually have enough touch points to be glued using the regular plastic cement.
Elnibbus wrote:Lovely work Meph: the techmarine is awesome.
Oh, I just received the Primaris Captain and -Librarian in the post. Their shoulder pads come unattached to the arms, and they're 100% regular size, without the extra little lower 'lip' that the Primaris marines have from the Dark Imperium box. Good times ahead!
Well, I'm a bit hesitant to assemble them asap, I think I might wait until the new codex comes out and check the new weapons options. So I think I'll put them on the back burner, same with the rest of the Primaris dudes , except the Lt. already in the works.
Either I'll finish the two Rhino variants. Oh, inspiration, why hast thou forsaken me? I still don't know how I should mask them. A single stripe on the Rhino (remember, the other one I painted had two, and this is a Damocles command rhino). And should I put a big chevron on the top of the Vindi or not?
But anyway, more important decisions need to be made, the Lieutenant!
Elnibbus wrote:Go with the Noo Skool way. I plan on painting mine with a black helmet as an addition to the way sergeants have black pads. Also, as inspiration: HOP TOIT MEPH!
Noo Skool it is! But the dog ate my homework, so no photos, but the miniature's OK though.
LutherMax wrote:That Techmarine is incredible – he epitomises BA!
Thanks, mate! Yeah, I must say I'm very pleased myself with how that miniature turned out.
Cheers guys! Yeah, the new edition did give some new wind. If not for the new models, then for the renewed playability of all units within the game.
So, did some stuff over the weekend. Mainly varnishing the tac squad. And oh boy, they're bomb-proof now. First the satin varnish, too glossy (probably due to the gloss coat they still had), then a matte varnish to tone it down a bit. Slight panic due to mild whitening of the models. Renewed relief after another satin varnish coat, removing the whiteness and giving an acceptable albedo. Forgot to take pictures though so I think I'll go ahead and base them before taking some final shots.
And started on the secondary colours of the Lt. For now I made the helmet stripe golden, with a black outline, but I'm wondering if I should invert that or not. I'll take a few photos this evening.
So I stuck my finger in the yoghurt and turned it 10 times, still no pics on the blog but I went and had a look at the imgur gallery :-) and he's awesome! great pose and good movement on a model that doesn't usually get much forward momentum!
Guess my personal domain is blacklisted Down Under then. That's a bit worrysome, seeing as I've done nuffin' wrong wif it, I swear! Und it's even hosted on a super reliable German server, ja?
Oh, but like six years ago it got blacklisted for a short time by google. My host didn't find any cause, I upped the security of the site to be on the safe side, and it was promptly whitelisted by google again.
What's the exact error message you're seeing?
And what's you ISP, if I may ask? Most ISP's have space/procedure/way of communication to ask for a site to be whitelisted. I'd be more than happy to make an appeal to the Interweb oracles of my Southern Brethren.
Well, tadaa! Secondary colours are being painted in. Still don't know if I should have gone for the black inner stripe with gold outlines on his helmet or not. Maybe I'll try that for the second lieutenant. And some parts have received a gloss coat for some decals.
The tactical marines received their slightly too glossy satin coat, but I think I'll leave it at that. it tends to dull down over time anyway. And as you can see the bases are halfway done. They just need some weathering powder, and some drybrushed highlights on the stones.
Ze vehicles. Masked and primed. For the command Rhino I decided to take a risk and do some quick & dirty masking. I made sure the lines went straight, but unlike previous maskings I did, I did not take the time to stick and cut dozens of tiny pieces to have every nook & cranny just right. it's a deliberate attempt to save time. I'm curious to see how it comes out. I'm expecting some manual cleanup for sure, but hopefully less time-consuming than immaculate taping beforehand. We'll see. Weathering can cover a lot of boo-boos.
For the vindi, I first wanted to add some thin striping patterns, that evolved into a chevron, and once that was in place I thought; hmm why not cover the whole back bit and do a two-tone paint job?
The Lt. has had his secondary colours painted on, was assembled, and is ready for weathering and oil paint wash. The stripe looks good enough for the naked eye, but on photo it becomes clear it was painted by a naked monkey. Next time it will be done with masking take for sure, or at least the middle stripe, so that's nice and tight.
The second tactical squad for the army. Equipped with grav weapons and a missile launcher. The still somewhat glossy coat is annoying the frak out of me. In person it's hardly noticeable, but on photo, oh boy... Well, you see the results. Whilst not catastrophic, it does show some gloss highlights which aren't there on the paint job, and these photos were even shot with 1/200 shutter speed. I'm sorely tempted to attempt another pass with a satin varnish, but I'm not sure that will fix the issue, and might even mess up that bases a bit. We'll see where the whim takes me.
Combat Squad one, with the sarge.
Combat Squad two, with the veteran leading his brothers.
Well, I'm actually still fiddling with that squad's albedo... :( When I spray them with matte (different brands), they always, always look to flat and even have a light discolouration. And the two different brand satin varnishes always come out way too shiny. I guess I'll have to shop around from some airbrush sprayable satin varnish, and maybe some matte as well. That way I can control the albedo at will. Technology needs to bend to our will, never the other way around.
Anywayyy, the progress of the past weekend. I gave the Deimoses their red base coat, applied the highlights and some washes & glazes and removed the masking tape.
I must say, for my lazier, quicker masking round I must say I'm quite pleased with the results. The Vindicator needs almost no fixing or cleanup, just the apex of the chevron a bit, but not the lines themselves.
The Rhino will need some more work. The area between the cupolas will need a bit of work, but the rest of the parts need just a little touch-up here and there.
Oh, and I bought this on a whim: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01CL4D6MQ/ref=pe_3187911_185740111_TE_item I still need to try out the frame & background, but I bought it mostly because it was one of the cheapest LED panel I could find, two of them, with table clamps.
And I must say, having some more lumen oomph sure does wonders for the photos. Usually I have to adjust the photos a bit in Photoshop to better match reality, but with these led arrays... well, the photos you see here are straight from the camera.
Well, the Deimos vehicles are easy to assemble. The core of them s still the plastic kit. The Rhino just has a different front glacis, and two add-ons for the sides that were perfectly straight when I got them.
The Vindicator has a whole new front/top center bit, as well as side plates.
In any case the predator turret holes are the same as for for regular ones, and I'm guessing that the sponsons won't be too much trouble to magnetize.
looking hot as mustard! ..... hot mustard not that weak gak! I can see your pics now which is great! :-) I don't like Primaris but I can't disagree that they look good especially as BA!
Fantastic! I'm happy to hear that you're finally seeing the photos.
Yeah, I'm still on the fence about the Primaris too. Visually, they're great models for sure. But I like the regular marines so much...
Alrighty! Dilemma time, I need your thoughts on the following.
I have a Xiphon fighter that I'm assembling. Cool looking kit, the X-Wing vibe already made me decide to give it an X-Wing paint job. But red & black instead of grey & red.
But the wings are giving me a headache; For long I've frowned upon square leading edges on SM flying vehicles. It's just ridiculous, and shaping should no longer be an issue with modern sculpting and casting techniques.
So I've got half-tube plasticards of 3.5mm diameter. It would fit perfect on the wings of the Xiphon to give the wings a rounded leading- and trailing edge. For sure it will look better.
But a vanilla Xiphon has a much highter chance to have some photos selected to go on the FW site. Already I've got quite a few photos on mine in the FW online catalogues. And over time FW has removed photos of models that showed too many visual discrepancies with the base model, such as my Spartan with its metal track swap.
And considering there aren't that many photos of the Xiphon fighter on the FW catalogue, I do think I have a reasonable chance of being published on their site.
So, shall I go for the look, or for the possible Forgeworld publishing?
Hey mate, love the Blog and the models, could i ask which kits you use ? as im looking at starting a Blood Angels army and love all your little conversions but i dont know which kits theyre from :L
I'd go for the fame. Fleeting as it is. It's a good way to get your stuff seen by a wider audience and you can always change it up afterwords.. you definitely have the talent.
My compass keeps swinging around on this one. my current status is to do the vanilla now, as I feel more like painting than spending a few weeks making a nose cone, and doing something about that mohawk/useless tail in the process. I'm thinking more of a V tail, like the PAK/FA or J-20
Meanwhile, 'the bullet has passed through the church', as a good Flemish expression goes. I decided to keep the Xiphon vanilla for now. Mainly because I didn't want to be delayed several weeks with laborious plasticard-fu.
Still I spent +-3 hours masking those wings. But it's done. I present to you; Red Two. Apparently there's a whole mathematic to that red squadron wing graphic. It's six red lines wide, with a line's width in between them, and the big red part is as wide as the edge of the third line to the edge of the 6th line.
Luckily 3mm masking tape offered a nice spread on the wing, almost lining up with the wing plating.
Then there's a shot of my work desk. Paint and tools creeping up like a North Sea tide.
I almost forgot to do the cockpit before moving on to the exterior. As with the Stormraven, I opted for a soviet-esque turquoise. A quick drybrush, some colour spots for lighst and buttons, and all it needs now is a black oil paint wash and it'll be good to go. In any case, most of the detail will be lost in the gloom anyways. I tinted the canopy but it's not 100% slick & smooth. I think I'll need to give that a gloss coat for clear it it up.
And the pilot needs a quick paint job as well.
And clumsy me slightly bent a needle of one of my airbrushes :( That, with slightly thickish paint resulted in some splatter. But luckily it is inconsequential for the current stuff.
Solar_lion wrote:Great start.. You make it look so easy..
That's because it is! The key ingredient is patience. Filling up the gaps with greenstuff and smoothing them out took some time, even if all the pieces were already straight.
And masking is a good zen exercise as well.
Elnibbus wrote:Looking good so far Meph! Liking the interior
Cheers! We can thank the Russians for that funky anti-rust paint colour.
I just stumbled across this. the Su-35's demo on Maks 2017. Just 5 minutes, and it does one maneuver after the other that makes your jaw drop. That thing is blatantly using thrust over aerodynamics, just like a marine would. If it was Japanese, the maneuvers would have names such as 'Angry Brick From A balcony', 'Fallen leaf in a Thunderstorm', or 'Imbalanced origami thrown by a child'
I've seen the Thunderbirds perform live on a Belgian airshow a few years back, and man that was the tightest gak I've ever seen. They were more accurate than the Swiss. But man, I'd love to see an Su-35 perform live. Those things are just doing freestyle parcours in the sky.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Progress! The cockpit's almost ready for assembly. The pilot just needs his oil paint wash and he's good to go.
That cockpit was a nightmare to paint though. That plastic is just so slippery, and those edges so tiny, it was very hard to keep a straight line.
And I was a bit disappointed about that break line pattern. I assumed it was a small indentation in the cockpit so it could easily take a runny line and stay perfectly straight. But nooooo, they had to make that an infinitesimal little ridge on the inside of the cockpit. I tried to keep a stable hand with non-runny paint, but that's the best I could do...
Anyway, got some airbrush Vallejo Premium Satin and Matte varnish and it seems that that is the way to go for my minis. I airbrushed him matte and then gave the metallic bits a satin coat by brush. And I'm liking the effect, it doesn't flatten the colours as much as spray can varnish. I'm thinking I'll experiment with a 1:2 mix of satin:matte. That should give a good coat that's not 100% flat.
Oh, and the cockpit's just a bit dusty, that stippling is not in the tint coat.
In the mean time, progress of the past few days. The Lady In red is slowly getting dressed, and the Deimoses are getting their decals on. For the large sides on the Vindicator, I'll wait until I have the FW new BA decal sheet. That has some cool stuff on it.
Really great work Meph. The Xiphon is coming together nicely (and makes me want one, ya git!). I like the way you've used black to break up the large amounts of red on the vehicles and is something I will be emulating (shamelessly pinching) for my own.
Theophony wrote:Beautiful work on the Deimoseseses. Love the non traditional line breaks you have in your paint scheme.
Azazelx wrote:Yeah, the line breaks are a very nice touch. I might have to draw inspiration from those for one of my armies' armour.
Elnibbus wrote:Really great work Meph. The Xiphon is coming together nicely (and makes me want one, ya git!). I like the way you've used black to break up the large amounts of red on the vehicles and is something I will be emulating (shamelessly pinching) for my own.
Pinch right away, guys! For the Rhinos, well, since they're already red, the only way to make 'm go faster was racing stripes, no? For the Vindicator I wanted to do something with the Devastator chevron. First I wanted to do just a pinstripe over the hull, but then, on a whim, I masked the whole section aft of the chevron pinstripe. Came out better than expected actually.
And the Xiphon's been a fun model to assemble and paint so far. No new pictures yet, as I've just been furiously drybrushing the Xiphon, with some washes and glazes sprinkled in between highlights. And the decals on the Deimoseseses got their umpteenth Micro Sol coat and they're blending in nicely. I'm hoping to receive my forgeworld order tomorrow, so I can apply the decals to the Vindi's sides and move on with the models.
With a bit of luck, I can finish the Xiphon red highlights today so I can remove the masking tape. I'm very eager to see how the masking pattern help up.
Aaaand I just found out I fethed up a little bit, thanks to haste. I didn't dry-fit the lascannons with the wings attached, and it seems I can't slide in the guns. The base of the lascannons is just a bit bigger than the side indentations where the barrels are, and the side opening for the guns is blocked by the wings in place. obviously a neat design to firmly hold 'm in place. So I'm forced to trim the gun base as much as is needed to allow for them being slid in from the front, and this will leave slight gaps above and below the gun base space.
That means I'll have to do some greenstuff work after the lascannons are finished and put into place, and blend in the greenstuffed gaps with the red paint job...
Automatically Appended Next Post:
The time has come. He received 6 consecutively lighter highlights, with two dark washes and two light glazes along the way.
And then; Mask off
The glass of the cockpit needs a new masking. But just the glass, not the frame included, and then it's time for decals!
Thanks guys! It's slow progress, but progress for sure.
Still fighting with the decals. Most of them are blending in nicely, other needs some more poking-with-a-needle. And one or two have shifted position, which is less fun...
The Deimosesess decals are also receiving their Micro Sol coats, but they're almost ready to go.
And then I've started applying glazes to the engine nozzles, using a vector thrusting nozzle of an Su-35 as a reference. While drying it seemed I was almost there. Now that the glazes are dry, it's clear that I have a long way to go...
A few days on and the weathering is at 60% I'd say For the Deimoses at least.
The Xiphon has had its engines given some heat discolouration, and then I glued its rocket engine into place. I based myself off off that Su-35 reference photo but I didn't want to push the colours thàt hard either. What do you guys think?
I'm also doubting a bit whether I should give do the hull streaking/weathering with acrylics or oil paints, but I'm leaning towards oil paints as they can be adjusted and corrected easier. but it is a lot messier and time-consuming.
The Vindicator is the furthest along.
Model was coated with a 5:1 mix of sating:matte Vallejo airbrush varnish.
-I gave the barrel some colour glazing with acrylics but that needs some work still.
-The hull was sponge-stippled with a mix of boltgun metal and dark grey, another layer of dark grey, a light layer of tin bitz, and some silver
-The hull damage was also highlighted using some metallics.
-Most edges and rivets were given a wash of thinned black & brown oil paint, feathered a bit when almost dry.
-Some other edges and rivets (mostly on the black part) were given a careful wash of thinned Burnt Umber oil paint with some rust-coloured weathering powders and also feathered/streaked when almost dry.
The Rhino/Razorback was given the same treatment.
The tracks need work, also the exhaust pipes and Vindi barrel. After that the lenzes need to be painted in, and it's on to soot and dirt.
Great work Meph...I'm really liking the way the new BA transfers came out! Good to see your work has stayed consistent all this time. How big is your army now?
Solar_lion wrote:Super job. Vindi is amazing. Thanks for the step by step instructions. It's always good to see how the Masters do it.
Cheers! last few models I maybe have written less on exactly how and what I did, but they're still the same techniques described in detail in the wee beginnings of this rather long thread. But in case anyone wants to know some specifics of what I did, don't hesitate to ask. I'd be happy to elaborate.
Elnibbus wrote:Awesome stuff Meph! It has given me much inspiration for my own vehicles
San76 wrote:Amazing work! Such a vibrant but grim scheme!
Moltar wrote:Man that Vindicator looks just amazing!
Thanks guys! Your cheers mean and motivate a lot!.
Eggroll wrote:Great work Meph...I'm really liking the way the new BA transfers came out! Good to see your work has stayed consistent all this time. How big is your army now?
I'm especially amazed on how good those new FW decals are. Of any decals I ever handled they are just the best to work with. They soak loose really quickly and the film is almost invisible from the get-go. Older decals really need quite a few coats of Micro Sol to blend in well, but those FW ones nearly blended in completely all by themselves.
Hmmm what have I got painted at 100% so far...?
-HQ units
-Two Tac Squads
-Two Dev Squads
-One Assault squad
-Death company (hmm I assume they would still be part of their original company?)
-Some dreads and vehicles (Counting just the 'new' stuff I bought and painted specifically for this army: Contemptor, Spartan, Baal Predator, Razorback, Storm Raven)
Oh, that's half a company I just realized.
And then from other companies:
-Scout Squad
-Vanguard Squad
-Termy Squad
-Sanguinary Guard
So with all those primariseseses painted up I could get to a full company probably.
These photos were taken an hour or two ago and since then the Deimoses have received a second layer of dirt, and the top of the Xiphon has been outlined and streaked with oil paints.
That means that the Deimoses are actually very close to the finish line. Once the weathering powder fixer is dry, I'll have to rub some metallic edges with a soft pencil or some scratched-off graphite, give them a good coat of varnish to completely seal in the powders to the models can handle being handled for gaming. And maybe I'll need to do some light touch-ups, as varnish tends to darken the weathering powders quite a bit.
Oh, and lenzes... They'll need their lenzes painted in.
Once the Xiphon's oil paints are dry and to satisfaction, all it needs is some black weathering powder here and there, and then it's also almost done.
It's been a while and didn't manage to get much painting time in the past few weeks. but over the past two weekends I managed to finish up the two Deimoses, and the Xiphon is 99% done, needing just some lenses painted in.
In the end I didn't go full-out with the weathering powders on the deimoses as i wanted them to be playable without leaving powder marks every time you set it down. So they received a big coat of varnish to seal in the powders, but that turned them really a lot darker than intended. I guess I should have gone with a very, very light mix of powder to keep the medium brown mud look after the varnish. On the other hand, while it is a tad dark right now, it doesn't look too bad, looks sufficently muddy, and it doesn't rub of when you pick up the model.
On the Xiphon, I saw I'll need to go back on some decals and stab them profusely with a needs and try to rub in some gloss varnish to get rid of the film shine that is present in some lighting angles. Mainly the pilot's name on the front section, and the signs on the left hand side just behind the cockpit.
Thanks! Yeah, for a while I was doubting what colour to do that rotary launcher, but in the end I decided to do it in that green I've been using as a tertiary colour on a lot of models. It came out better than expected.
Some beautifully converted and painted minis on here mate! How did I miss this blog for so long? Subbed for more, inspirational stuff you've got on here
Aaaalrighty then. And with the blink of an eye, more than a month has passed. I haven't completely been sitting still, well, almost. I've been staring at minis a lot.
The Derereredeo has vexed me as on how to magnetize the arms with a decent transportability in mind, and still have a good-looking pose. The whole arm setup is rather complex, yet easy to set up, but it's the ammo feeds that further complicate matters. In the end I went with a standard pose setup as it still is a cool pose, but it won't compromise structural stability. As for now the 'armpit/shoulder' part is still separate as it will be easier to paint, but once done, I'll glue the gun assembly into the armpit, and the whole gun arm(s) will be easy to remove and swap.
The tempest is stuck together. And whilst it does come equipped with a fully detailed cockpit and pilot, I decided to leave those out. I didn't feel like scratch-building a hinge mechanism for that small canopy, so I just glued it it on and called it done.
the gun and bumper will be painted separately, and I swapped out the standard wing-tip antenna with some copper detailing as I think it looks neater. The resin Forgeworld antennae were a bit to thick, and not 100% straight, and on antenna like that I though it crucial to have a clean look. Even when straightened out manually, the resin bits would never be 100% straight, and very prone to breaking off.
I also lost a lot of time coming up with a paint scheme for the tempest, but I'm not quite done with pondering... I thought to perhaps add a straight black bar length-wise, as wide as the cockpit, and smaller length-wise stripes on the wings. Or perhaps a broad, diagonal stripe across the whole of the model, much like this:
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/fighter/draken/draken_02.jpg What do you think? Any alternative ideas?
And then... I decided it was time. After a lot of thinking and brainstorming I couldn't come up with a definitive plan of approach, or even design, for the reworked Storm Talon, so I decided the best way would be to glue one together, and then attack it with a saw and a bitz box. And then the whole road ahead became clear.
Larger wings, canards, a smaller gun turret, less building-sized weapon sponsons, and an overall stretched look. I didn't feel like meticulously planning the conversion, and I wanted to use as many plastic components as possible, as they are very easy to adapt and glue. I felt that to have as much structural strength as possible, that the melted bond of plastic cement would be the way to go. So the main conversion will be done by hacking, cutting, and sanding various plastic bits, and I'll use plasticard and greenstuff to fill in any structural short-comings.
What do you think so far? Any thoughts or suggestions?
Aaaalrighty then. And with the blink of an eye, more than a month has passed. I haven't completely been sitting still, well, almost. I've been staring at minis a lot.
The Derereredeo has vexed me as on how to magnetize the arms with a decent transportability in mind, and still have a good-looking pose. The whole arm setup rather complex, yet easy to set up, but it's the ammo feeds that further complicate matters. In the end I went with a standard pose setup as it still is a cool pose, but it won't compromise structural stability. As for the now the 'armpit/shoulder' part is still separate as it will be easier to paint, but once done, I'll glue the gun assembly into the armpit, and the whole gun arm(s) will be easy to remove and swap.
The tempest is stuck together. And whilst it does come equipped with a fully detailed cockpit and pilot, I decided to leave those out. I didn't feel like scratch-building a hinge mechanism for that small canopy, so I just glued it it on and called it done.
the gun and bumper will be painted separately, and I swapped out the standard wing-tip antenna with some copper detailing as I think it looks neater. The resin Forgeworld antennae were a bit to thick, and not 100% straight, and on antenna like that I though it crucial to have a clean look. Even when straightened out manually, the resin bits would never be 100% straight, and very prone to breaking off.
I also lost a lot of time coming up with a paint scheme for the tempest, but I'm not quite done with pondering... I thought to perhaps add a straight black bar length-wise, as wide as the cockpit, and smaller length-wise stripes on the wings. Or perhaps a broad, diagonal stripe across the whole of the model, much like this: [ATTACH=CONFIG]61506[/ATTACH]
What do you think? Any alternative ideas?
And then... I decided it was time. After a lot of thinking and brainstorming I couldn't come up with a definitive plan of approach, or even design, for the reworked Storm Talon, so I deiced the best way would be to glue one together, and then attack it with a saw and a bitz box. And then the whole road ahead became clear.
Larger wings, canards, a smaller gun turret, less building-sized weapon sponsons, and an overall stretched look. I didn't feel like meticulously planning the conversion, and I wanted to use as many plastic components as possible, as they are very easy to adapt and glue. I felt that to have as much structural strength as possible, that the melted bond of plastic cement would be the way to go. So the main conversion will be done by hacking, cutting, and sanding various plastic bits, and I'll use plasticard and greenstuff to fill in any structural short-comings.
What do you think so far? Any thoughts or suggestions?
Cheers, guys! I'm hoping to get some work done over the weekend.
The chin turret is the assault cannon + brace from a land speeder, with an extra Land Speeder auto cannon. I might need to find a way to add pitch to the assembly, as the standard mount of the Storm Talon only has jaw.
And I also think I need to come up with a tail thruster, at least one that points down.
Under construction!
Progress from the weekend. Took my time to undercoat the speeder and the dread. Lots of nooks & crannies, so lots of little sessions with drying time in between. Also, an airbrush booth cannot get rid of the stench of a spray can thàt easily so I preferred to spend the drying time elsewhere.
But the better part of hobby time was spent on the Storm Talon MKII. As foreseen, going into the build without a plan means I'll have to McGyver my way through every unforeseen issue that pops up.
I glued in some extra little bits in the back hole in order to have some extra support for the tail, but I probably should have waited with gluing the tail on until the nose section was finished.
Not that it's a dramatic issue, but I'm thinking that that nose would be a bit easier to shape without the tail attached, in terms of holding the model my hand for sanding and cutting. I also wondered if it would be best to blend the nose to the fuselage using plasticard for a cleaner look, but I know myself. Accurate measurements of such a complex shape would be subject to complex quantum physics between measuring, cutting, and fitting. So greenstuff it is! Came out better than I feared though. needs some sanding when dry but I feel it will look OK.
I also glued in some extra support struts in the tail section using bits of sprue, and I subsequently found out that the wings needed to be mounted just a tad higher in order to properly be clear of the engine nozzles. So more sprue was cut up and glued into place. This also means that I'll have to do more work than expected to the dorsal area.
But I feel the McGyver is strong with this build, so full steam ahead! (Although I doubt I'll get much done during the week...)
Alrighty, a month and a half onwards and not that much has been done. Personal life and work life have been rather busy and exhausting but I did squeeze in the odd hobby hour here and there.
Also bought myself a Nikob D3400 and a tripod on Black Friday at a rather ridiculous discount. It's been well over a decade since I worked with RAW (.nef actually) image formats so that needs some tweaking here and there, especially with presentation photos.
As you can see below, lots of skill to (re-)learn.
And here's the main progress of the past weeks, the Storm Talon reborn. A lot of time was spent pondering and contemplating, seeing as this whole build is without plan. But bit by bit it's taking shape.
I like how the nose turned out, looking much better than I feared and the knight bit blended in nicely with the body. I also have the gun assembly figured out, as well as a separate sighting system that will be installed just below the beak/nose, with the gun system sitting below it on it's 'standard' connecting point.
I though long and hard on how to install the canards but in the end I just took a saw to those side bits so I can slide them in neatly. I'm wondering whether to blend them in nicely to the body (extend it to the hull using plasticard, or leave them somewhat separated as-is. What do you guys think?
The wings, I'm honestly not too sure about those. If I had all the time and skill in the world, I would completely reconstruct the sucker with the wings more in the middle, and a complex engine-rotating system a little more aft, but since I decided this would be a minimum-effort project, I'm going to row with the oars that I have. And actually I consider this project to be a warm-up session for the Stormhawk rebuild I've got lined up as well, so I don't mind the more wild exploratory kitbashing. With the delta wing this far aft, and the rotating engines in their default location, the whole thing does give off a kind of ornithopter vibe, which suits the Storm Talon I think.
At the very least, this rebuild has a more plausible wing surface area where air could actually flow over and under instead of that utter brick-like design of the regular storm talon (especially that silly turret and those ridiculously oversized weapon pods).
I reconstructed the wings of a Stormraven to have it's missile pods on the wing tips, and had to improvise the missiles-, and exhausts themselves, kitbashed from another kit as I didn't have the Stormraven's original missiles anymore. Tempting as it was, I decided not to go for a complicated, modular, and magnetized setup, so the build will be missiles only, no Heavy bolters or lascannons.
Hmmm, looking at the model right now makes me think I can probably move the main wings up and forward a bit, seeing as those canards will be pumping furiously all the time. I can relocate the wings until they're touching that little backwards scoop on the top. That could balance out the craft quite a lot I think.
Green stuff needs drying now.
Built up the back/shoulder a bit using two parts of a sprue, and blended in with some green stuff. The wing is just a tad too low now. Although the wing is not blocking the engine nozzle, I would like to have just a tad more clearance to allow for a better air flow over and under the wings. I'll use the tabs I cut off of the large Stormraven wings. Perfect thickness, and I can continue to build up the wing using plastics only so that the meld bond of the plastic cement will ensure a solid structure.
Oh, and as you can see I gave the chevron masking an attempt on the Land Speeder Tempest. Not 100% tight but not too shabby nonetheless. I think it's reasonably accurate for painting.
Cheers! Same here actually The stormtalon design is growing on me. Placing the wings a bit more forward and up really helps to balance the look. I still have to build up the 'spine' between the wings, and I think that will balance out the look even better.
Just found this thread and I got to say as a pretty new player/painter (I've been play for about 3 years on and off) but am a amazed by the level of effort and dedication put into your Army. The first army I played was tau but I shared them with my brother sooo I could not really decide what paint jobs we did. I loved the fasight enclaves but my brother loved the classic tau paint scheme. So we ended up with a squad of farsight enclaves fire Warriors and the rest of the army was the yellow orange ochre of the tau. I then realized that I would find the exact opposite army to the tau that would work with the red paint scheme. So I picked blood angels and form then on I was hooked. I'm ranting now but I just want to say that your army is (well I can't think of a better word so..) beautiful. Sorry for ranting bu I love blood angles
Red wunz are the bestest! Welcome to the thread and thanks for the kind words. Don't hesitate to ask if you're wondering about a particular model or technique. I'd be more than happy to oblige.
Oh, and if you put the # of posts per page on max, the thread is only 34 pages.
Just wondering how you got the crisp red? I think you said you used an airbrush but I don't have one. Should I buy one? Beacuse currently no matter how much I thin my paints my base coat looks chalky. If you could help that would be amazing.
Thanks
I got a similar kit from Germany almost 10 years ago with the exact same compressor, and I'm still using it. A few years ago I upgraded to a better airbrush, but s starter kit like this is a great start. Especially if it's mainly for basecoating and applying washes.
(Oh, and buy some empty airbrush paint jars, and a big bottle of thinner and cleaner. Do not buy the mini bottles for those two as you use them a lot.)
As for the red, the exact names elude me atm, I use a +- 1:1 mix of the darker, almost terracotta GW red and a light red as base coat, and I enrich the colour with some thinned dark red wash.
Then, I drybrush highlights with the lighter red, red+ a flat orange, the same flat orange and then Vallejo's Ice Yellow, a very light and flat yellow that GW doesn't hvae. Absolutely brilliant for the last highlights on reds and greens.
But the main trick is that those highlights will have your red look a bit pale, so I give the model another spray wash of the dark red, followed by a coat of thinned red wash as a glaze to deepen the reds again, and it blends the drybrushed highlights together. As a final touch, I gently drybrush the edges with the Ice Yellow again.
Red is notoriously difficult to highlight as it tends to pink up or become chalky very easily, as you have noticed. Using washes and glazes help bring back the full red colour again.
Somewhere in the thread are a more lengthy and detailed 'step-by-step's on how I paint my models, but building up your colour in layers of highlights-glazes-highlights is the underlying technique I use.
The whole concept of building up layers is what makes the whole difference. Sure, two edge highlights look nice but the pro competition painter apply anywhere between 50-100 incredibly thinned layers to build up highlights, and the effect just shows. Just think of it as building up an illustration in photoshop, or special effects passes in movies, i.e.:base colour, highlights, scratches, grime and rust, lighting passes, etc, etc..
I am a bit too lazy to paint 50+ layers on army models so I applied/developed a technique with very dry drybrushed highlights with washes and glazes in between. I apply anywhere between 4-8 highlights and depending on the desired effect, apply anywhere between 3-6 washes and glazes in between the highlights.
Hmmm, yes.and no. The one from the link (same as I have) is a good deal quieter than a vacuum cleaner or a hair dryer, but I wouldn't classify it as quiet.
Let's say that during the day, with some background noise or general activity in the house it won't bother anyone, and you can easily listen to music or the TV at a normal volume. But at night when everything's quiet, you will hear it outside of a room.
No doubt there are some real quiet compressors out there, but they will be more expensive.
Some progress from over the past few weeks. Din't have much hobby-time, sadly. But still, I got some stuff done. I've done some more stuff today, but didn't take any pictures yet.
But the progress to far:
-Found sweet and easy way to build up the back spine. I clipped a part from a Valkyrie, and some spure. -Finally got my head wrapped around the sighting mechanism. It's the lens bit with the two hoops, with the gimbal on the bottom right. Plus greenstuff, plenty of green stuff.
-Also concocted a neat gun assembly.
-Gave the tail a rounded leading edge with some suitably shaped plasticard.
-Built up the 'shoulder' of the wing with greenstuff.
oh, and some gak got red, yo.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And the progress of today:
I added a thruster assembly to the tail. It made sense, giving it better maneuverability, both in hover as well as level flight.
Things are moving along nicely. Despite not having much free time to paint, I did manage to get some stuff done.
The Storm Talon is complete, which came as a small surprise actually. After so much time fiddling with bits, cutting, sanding, etc., it suddenly popped into ready-for-paint status.
I'm currently assembling the pilot to see see if I have to glue in the main cockpit console bore painting or not.
Actually, since the last set of photos I just had to add the canards and my original plan was to extend/blend the canards into the fuselage. But after much staring and contemplating I figured they would look better without the extensions so I just had to slot-, and glue them into place and close the little gaps with some greenstuff. I'm getting eager to give the model its black under coat so it will be easier to see the actual state of the kit-bashing and sculpting.
And the other models have gotten most of their red coats on. I gave them my usual layering of drybrushed highlights, washes, and glazes. I just need to add the lightest highlights with Ice Yellow (VJ), and maybe another glaze. And then it's peelin' time!
I hope there's not too much bleed-in of the red onto the black as I've noticed that some bits of masking tape are not as tight as they used to be. Fingers crossed!
Ok, the red's on, and the tape's come off. It's better than expected as I feared much more leakage under the masking tape. Guess I didn't do such a shoddy job after all. Just some lines need to be cleaned up here and there.
Looking great, Meph! Stripes are clean and well applied, and considering that the dread has guns for arms, he's surprisingly dynamic! Eager to see in which direction you face his helm. keep up the characteristically great work.
Yeah, his helm... that will be one of the last pieces that'll be glued into place. It doesn't have thàt much wiggle room in that socket/cowl but I'm curious to see what look it will get as well.
Today I'll clean up the lines and start blacking out the details. Although I do think I first might paint up the missile pods. There's a golden lines masked on the front cowlings and I'm dying to find out how it will look on that black.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Some more shots just to show off the masking. ^_^
Also, I did enough work on the missile pods so I could remove the masking tape. Those lines are tight! EvenifIdosaysomyself...
Thanks, guys! Yeah, I'm eager to see more progress myself. I'm hoping to do some stuff during the week. But it all depends how mentally and physically drained I return from work each day.
The photos I took last week didn't really turn out that well and I didn't really get round to taking new ones until now.
But that means more progress to show, yay!
The secondary colours are almost done, just a few bits & bobs here and there. I stuck to the same base scheme as the rest of the army, with just a few new colours on the cables so each has a different colour. We wouldn't want to confuse the Tech Priests now, do we?
And I still have to add the plasma glow. It won't be true OSL, just a glow effect on the coils, as I did on the other plasma weaponry in the army.
And here's the Tempest. The metalics are on, and only the missile launcher exhaust plate got the tertiary green colour.
I have a conundrum about the Abe Lincoln beard though... My original idea was to have it black, with the bigger 'blocks' on the bumper in either a dark metal or the bronze/gold, but I felt it might be too distracting from the general look of the model. Leaving it in black feels like a good compromise, as doing the bumper in red might be too bland, and doing it in green, or bits of it, doesn't seem to suit it at all. I'm curious as to what you guys think of it.
Once the last little colour bits are done, it's on to decals!
Slow progress over the past two weeks, but a lot of progress over the few days seeing as I've got some vacation.
First off. I finished the plasma effect on the Deredeo. It took a little longer as the larger coils called for a slightly different approach to the little plasma weapons. Those were done easily by basecoating them white, drybrushing Gobling Green, and drybrushing Ork Flesh (Yes, I still have paintable paint from way back when the animals were still talking).
For the larger coils on the dread, I needed to clean up quite a few areas and drybrush again, and in the end I gave the coils a wash of extremely tint of Goblin Green, with a light touch-up drybrush of Ork Flesh.
And then the time was ripe for a little side track. A friend of mine got the Rising Sun boardgame that has a metric feth-ton of awesome miniatures and I greedily jumped on the opportunity to paint them. But seeing as those minis have a 'canon' colour scheme that goes with the game, it means that I had to push the shades of red I had to extremes that I rarely dared upon before. It took me quite a while, sitting down in front of my painting desk, and after reaching enlightenment, and squinting really, really hard for a very long time, I began to discern difference in shade and tint.
First up is the Oni of Plagues, this guy:
Seeing as it a mini with rippling muscle and flowing robes I needed to revisit another ancient technique I don't use often; blending.
I decided to have a goo ad the very finnicky 'selective blending' that a lot of CMON folks have mastered. Damn tricky, but fun to do, if not extremely time consuming.
And of course, this particular oni had to be to be the most difficut red of them all, something called 'hwhite'!
But it's not too shabby for a first attempt, I hope. I also realised that I just can't treat these models as ultimate show pieces because theer are dozens of them. And I've got more incming, also from a few kickstarted board games I backed myself, although those are still a few months away.
Any feedback and c&c is welcome. I'm particularly interested in tricks & tips on how to have a speedy painting process while still maintaining a decent level of quality.
I finally got round to put the photos I took Sunday onto the PC. The vehicles are a bit shiny right now as they're in their gloss coat to apply the decals. I'll blend them in over the week, and then I can move on.
In the end I decided not to further embellish the front bumper. The decals on the flanks are already pushing the limit in terms of visual balance. But I wanted to stick with the insignia standards I've got going on in the army. Vehicle number in normal- and roman numbering, a campaign badge, a few chapter badges, and the black blood drop for the 5th company, and then some bling here and there.
The dread received the same insignia, and I managed to put a fancy ribbon on his hoodie collar, although the gloss coat makes it difficult to see.
And then the Oni. It was touch-and-go for a moment and I was just working with the darkest tone, got a phonecall, and fumbled gloriously... But I did manage to straighten it out a bit. I think I'll just do a few more highlights and then move on. I realized that I have little over a month to go before our annual gaming weekend and I've got a box full of minis to paint. Not the whole Rising Sun box of minis though, just a selection. the whole box is easily over 60 minis... :S
But yeah, so I'll need to paint them a lot quicker, or at least get them to a visually interesting stage, and hope they survive a few games without a protective coat on. Luckily most of the crew are familiar with miniature games so there's only minimal chance of ham-fisted babooning.
Sorry for the lack of updates, guys, I'v'e been spending little time on the forae, as well as my painting desk.
But I've been painting for an hour here and there, and things are slowly chugging along.
The Blood Angels have had their decals blended it, a coat of airbrushed satin varnish, and ready to have their asses weathered off.
The first little layer of metallic sponge chipping is already on there
And the first three Oni are almost done. Honestly, the're not the best models I ever did, but made the hard choice of sacrificing quality for speed. Since the models are legion, and they're going to be used frequently for gaming. So three down, around 40-50 to go, lol. I've got the two next ones in undercoat, and two more that need a wash & scrub.
But anyways, tadaa!
So I came here expecting to see beautiful red SM, and I am not disappointed stunning work on the marines. But my gods man, these other figures are a whole different level of awesome. I love the figures, but you have done a truly magnificent job on these.
Cheers mate! Yeah, I have been digging under my desk, and selling my soul to kickstarter, so I do plan to start painting other stuff as well. I've got all the minis for this Rising Sun boardgame to do, two mini-heavy boardgames I bought myself (by the end of this year), and enough non-GW minis to do an Imperial Guard detachment, as well as a small Sisters of battle one.
But I also promised myself that I'm always going to have at least one Blood Angel unit in the pipeline as well. I've still got sooo many of those lying around. Dreadnought flyers, vehicles, terminators, etc..
Ok, some painting got done. The past few months have been way too hot to paint during the day so progress has been very slow. But I did manage to sneak in the odd half hour here and there during the evenings.
The land speeder is finished. Although I might touch up the weathering powders here and there.
I just noticed that one of my lights was still set to a yellowish light when taking the photo's so I think I'll take some new pics later.
The Stormtalon has been undercoated, a golden stripe added to the wings, and the cockpit done. Tomorrow I'll glue the cockpit shut, mask it, second undercoat, and then she's good to go.
The Deredeo is actually also finished but since the base flock is drying, pics will come later.
And then I spent some time making a new model of one of the characters of out Warhammer Fantasy campaign four years in the making. Gotrak (no relation), the Daemon Slayer of the party who got his arm lobbed off some sessions ago. He promptly invested his hard-earned gold to go to a dwarven engineer and requisition a steam-powered punching arm.
Just a quick kit-bash of some bits and bobs, and a daring foray into greenstuff world to make some straps.
Oh, and a bit by accident I stumbled across a nice little bust online, which will make a nice birthday present when finished.
So, some stuff finished, some stuff progressed, and there's more to come. Onwards!
Thank the gods that the heatwave is over! Finally was able to put in an afternoon of painting without paint drying in an instant!
Deredeo finished and based. I must say I'm pleased with the model. Boaty McBoatface really grew on me, and I have his bigger brother Leviathan lined up as well. :-P
The Tempest Land Speeder is also done. And the Stormtalon redesign has gotten its cockpit masked and base coat put on. I'm actually looking foward to see how that one turns out, as I do think it's already looking spiffy in red, evenifIfdosaysomyself.
And then... Gotrak's buste got some paint splatted on. I must say I am liking it a lot playing around with glazes, but I also constantly am catching myself subconsciously losing patience and speeding up way too much. there are lots of little drying marks all over the place, but nothing too destructive I feel. Some spots can be blended in when I start highlighting, other might be turned into little skin blemishes.
So far I have just done some shading while keeping in the 'three-band' theory in mind; i.e.: top yellow, mid red, lower blue. I also used some purple for shading on the cheeks, and darkening the are around his eyes. I want him to have a somewhat tired look and reddened cheeks & nose from excessive drinking (it's a dwarf after all). I think the model might even be just big enough to use some red cloth fibers to put some veins on the eye whites.
But considering this is my first forray in large bustes with realistic humanoid skin tones, I'm open for any advice, tips & tricks, etc. The skin is full of wonderful little details, like tiny wrinkles and cuts and I'm wondering how to bring those out the best. thinned glazes/washes, perhaps some thinned oil paint? Or should I apply a very, very fine drybrushed highlight here and there to really pick out the edges of said cuts & wrinkles?
How big is that bust? Great to see some updates from you Meph, lovely work as always. I couldn't profess to give advice about the bust because I think you're at a level that's past me! I trust that you'll produce a stellar result anyway.
Cheers man, yeah it's been a while since I did some solid painting. It's really been way too hot here in Belgium for painting, but luckily the temperature has gone down a bit.
Well, the bust is pretty damn big, and heavy. Here are some photos of an earlier WIP stage:
I decided to give the hair a base coat (it's going to be a ginger dwarf), just to see how the skin actually looked with some colour around it. I'm not too sure how far I should push the shadows as I feel the skin has a quite realistic look at the moment. Mind you, in the flesh the whole red shading on the cheeks and nose somehow does appear a bit darker than on photo.
I'm wondering, how far would you guys push it?
To compare, I took some phone photos.
And then I finished the red on the Stormtalon. The red came out just a tad darker than usual, but that's OK. I was very eager to get the making tape off to see how the stripes looked, and I'm quite pleased with the results. That black and gold sure does give it an old kitch look, doesn't it?
whalemusic360 wrote:I can only imagine him skipping through the streets singing.
He was skipping on a moon one dayyyy, he was about to join the frayyyy.
I did notice that the whole structure titled back just a teeny bit when the legs were drying. He's pinned to the base and I can't risk repositioning him without breaking something at this stage.I might have to 40K'ify it by putting a victim under his boot.
Illumini wrote:Amazing how weathering really takes the models to that extra level. The dread and tempest look great!
A weekend's work! I'm going to have to play around a bit with the photos as, while they're not bad, they do seem a little bit harsher than the model is in real life, especially the purple around the eyes.
But not too shabby, eh,
For the rest I have been blacking out the details on the Stormtalon. Tedious work...
Woops, seem like I fell of the edge of the Earth there again for a while. Some time has passed, but I haven't been sitting still. September was filled for the most part with an awesome trip around BC in Canada, and in October I had some weekends away, including a two-day excursion to Essen Spiel 2018. Man, that was a blast again as usual.
Anywhooo, the fruits of my labour:
First up, I had some progress on the Leviathan. Black undercoat as usual, red basecoat, and the drybrush highlights + washes & glazes.
I have him some striping on his right torso as it seems I have become addicted to masking tape. But damn, that beast is all curves & angles, and in the end, I had to make a compromise between either super-straight lines that lay a bit uncomfortable on the overall shape, or go with more balanced proportion, but not having them all straight at all angles. I chose the latter and I'm OK with the result, but not super-duper happy either. Ah well we'll see how it goes with decals & weathering...
Also, the Stormtalon rebuild got some good progress, highlights are done, and weathering is coming along nicely. I must say, that ugly duckling is growing on me as the painting progresses.
And I have also been painting some other minis as well as assembling.
First up, the five standard Party Guests from Monster Slaughter, a kickstarted boardgame that arrived the same day I came back from Essen Spiel. Awesome game, and a bucket load of cool minis.
It was a quick & easy paint job, done in a few hours. i think I have some 40-dd minis to go on that boardgame.
Then, the Eisenkern APC. Now thàt was a joy to build. Way more intricate than GW models and more akin to the military modeling kits of old. Loads of moving parts as well. Turrets move and extend, all hatches open, there's even an engine under the bonnet!
Oh, the windows look a wit weird as they have a coat of liquid mask on them to protect them from painting.
And last but not least, a squad of Primaris Reavers and a captain, and a 10-man Tartaros Terminator squad. half GW, half Forgeworld. The white shoulder bits on the GW ones are from shapeways and have a 3D BA symbol on them. I actually had enough to give the Forgeworld ones some as well, but then I assume they would never be able to be selected for the FW website anymore as they have recently have removed the photos of my Spartan which had the metal replacement tracks... :-/
Anyways, I'm back in the saddle and boy I sure have some catching up to do by reading the threads from you folks. Cheers!
What a great haul of content! You've made a real dynamic leviathan there. I love the pose. It gives a great sense of how their mass actually moves about when they're in motion.
The Storm Talon is done! Unwrapped the cockpit after weathering and varnish, and tadaaa. Still an ugly ducking, but better than the original I think.
The Leviathan Dread also went through the weathering and varnish. I though I was finished and it just dawned upon me that the base is still missing... dagnabbit!
Some other stuff in the pipeline. The humble beginnings of my non-GW Imperial Guard detachment, possible with a non-GW Sisters-Of-Battle detachment.
I still have to come up with a colour scheme, lol. I narrowed down the choices to either an olive drab or a WW2 Wehrmacht grey... I wonder what would look best on that APC? I'm slowly starting to lean towards the olive drab but I'm curious about your thoughts...
And to whet you appetite, yesterday I took all that I have so far of the non-GW stuff and laid it out on the table. It's already quite a bit, and I still have two Kickstarters incoming, well, three to be exact. I put the photos in an imgur gallery so I don't clutter the thread too much.
Depending on how it goes, I might even add some GW tanks or APC's as well. Oh, which reminds me, I still have a GW superheavy in a box somewhere... Time for an archeologic expedition under my painting desk!
Alrighty, two months on, time for some photos. I haven't been sitting completely still but I completely blame Star Citizen for absorbing a lot of free time that otherwise could have been spent painting.
But as said, I did manage to squeeze in some painting. And some other stuff than red Blood Angels as well.
First up; A female commisar, I think from Heresy Girls. And daymn it's tiny.
Those models are 'true' 28mm, so actually true to scale to a Space marine, but with fine detail that's becoming a bit too fiddly for me to spend much time on. But I like the minis nonetheless and I have quite a few of those 3rd party Imperial Guard-a-likes, so I'll paint 'm up to medium quality so I have an alternative army to play with/against.
Second, an Oni from the Rising Sun Boardgame. Fun, just metalics, but I went a bit overboard with glazes. Still good for a table-top boardgame.
Third, the Eisenkern APC. Got so excited painting that one that I completely forgot the racing stripe masking that I had originally planned for it.
So I guess I'll be just olive drab. But that leaves more open spaces for nice decals.
And as a fourth, I blasphemed, blasphemed bad... With this year alone there will be 5-6 miniature-heavy boardgames incoming within our gaming group... We're talking 200-300 minis. And I pledged myself to paint 'm all.. Woe me. So for the simple rank & file minis I decided to dab, quite literally, in the most heinous of painting techniques... dipping! Yup, that's right, I bought myself a pot of that gooey so I can just paint up a mini in base colours, some quick highlight, and dunk that sucker. And I must say, it sure goes quick. Just 1-2 hours for a batch of minis. I'm never going to win anything with them but at least we'll have painted minis on the table, which is always nice.
And then I finally managed to complete the base for the Leviathan. So here it is in all its glory!
High praise indeed! I'm humbled.
