Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Altansar Army Project

I'm sort of new to the Blog scene, and decided to post my Altansar Eldar project.

I've been modeling and painting WH40K off and on since about 1994, when I was 14. It's been more off than on, but that's been mostly do to college, early career, marriage, kids... well just life in general. I've been playing Eldar the whole time I've been playing, with bouts of Space Marines and tau thrown in.

I've played various versions of Eldar, focusing on a Biel-tan style, and then an Alaitoc style. Now I've decided to go with a Saim-Hann/Ulthwe mix. I saw someone come up with an army that they dubbed 'Shadows of Altansar', and after a bit of deep thought about the craftworld itself, it made a lot of sense to me. I'll go into this in a later post.

Right Off The Bat

So the first models that I'm going to be working on for my Altansar army is a small squad of jet bikers. The first thing that I wanted to do was tackle the base. I personally hate the clear plastic bases that the models come with. There is nothing stopping someone from leaving them blank and bare, so I'm taking it upon myself to use 40mm bases and give the models some character.



As you can see, I've already drilled out the holes for the clear flying base posts... but I have to say looking around online to know how big to make them was a pain. No one posted it (I will later on). Originally I was thinking of using piece of sprue cut out and painted to look like a large gem, a la Necron. It would give me something to do with all of those left-over sprues that you get anyway. Well, this or work on creating my own version of the cheapest Necron army ever (look it up, it's actually kind of cool to see it).



The problem is that if you want it to look interesting, then it can't be just a strait up and down post, you have to angle it a little, and then that would make ensuring everything else was lined up a pain. So I decided to go back to the clear flying base post.



As I mentioned earlier, finding out the sizes of the ends of the post proved to be a bit challenging, especially for someone who doesn't own a micrometer. And really, who does? But I finally managed to find out that the small end is 2mm, and the large end is 3mm. Being in the US, it's a pain to find thing in millimeters at some retailers, unless you plan on going to a specialty stop, and pay extra. I didn't have the time or money for that, so I had to convert to the closest available. Which turns out to be 5/64 for 2m, and 7/64 for 3m. These aren't exact, but they are close enough for my uses. 20 minutes, and Three dollars later I had my drill bits:



I find that these work really well, and if you are patient, and have a steady hand, you don't even really need a Dremol or pin vice to use them... at least I didn't. As for the Necron gems, I'm still planning on using them.

Also, here's a quick tip. If your sprue cutter has a flat side, with a beveled interior, as such:



Always try to cut your sprue with the same side facing the same way. Don't turn it. It'll let you get angled cuts on the tops of the gems while keeping the bottoms flat. This doesn't mean keep the cuts as strait as possible though. Angle your cuts for some variety.

Some WIP Picts





You'll obviously notice that the flash and sprue connections are still on the model (If you didn't notice, then I just told you). These aren't glued together. They are just pressed together (no blue tac needed), to see how the model would stand on the base once attached.

I hope you like it.

Comments, Criticisms and Questions are welcome.

Altansar! I wholly promote this, go for it! As far as I am concerned, Altansar are one of the better Craftworlds for background and story. The colour scheme can be pretty interesting too...

I dived back into 40k last year after several years completely out. Altansar were my first mini-project again. I look forward to seeing what you'll do!

Subbed.

Army Background And Explanation
Here are some ramblings and musings.


Current Altansar/Eldar/WH40K Fluff

The Altansar Eldar Craftworld was stuck in The Eye Of Terror for 10,000 years.

Eldrad Ulthran was one of the major commanders during Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade.

Maugan Ra entered The Eye Of Terror during the 13th Black Crusade and brought Altansar back to the materium.

The current location of the Altansar Craftworld is somewhere close to Terra. Some say it's parked right next to Mars.

The Altansar Craftworld got to its current location undetected by human forces.

The Eldar are closely tied to the Old Ones, The Necron's great enemy.

Altansar is sometimes referred to as the sister Craftworld to Ulthwe.

Personal Musing
Everything here is in no way canon. It's just personal speculation!

What commander in his right mind would send a force INTO the warp? Eldrad Ulthran, that's who. He knew they would succeed.

Why would he send in Maugan Ra? Because Maugan Ra knew what he was looking for, his own Craftworld.

How did Altansar survive 10,000 years in the warp? They would have to be concealed, hardy, mobile, ruthless, and concealed (Yes I'm listing it twice). Their psykers would have to be very strong willed to not convert Slaanesh.

What tactical advantage does Altansar bring? A Craftworld that is mobile and undetectable. They got to Mars without being noticed.

What corrupting presence from being trapped in The Eye Of Terror caused Altansar? Who knows. But I have some plans on this.

Why Mars? Void Dragon, anyone!

So given that, what does that mean about what I'm planning to build/field. What I want to do is show the forces of Altansar as if they are raiding mars after the initial awakening of the Void Dragon.

I'm planning on using the Necron Crystals on the bases to represent the Void Dragon's awakening presence.

I want the crystals to look as if they are bursting forth from beneath the surface of the ground.

Don't expect red painted bases. that would blend into the Altansar Color scheme too much. Instead I'm going to go for a reddish brown sand color, think Ochre.

To represent the corrupting presence of chaos, I'm going to paint a red pattern on the vehicles that look a bit chaotic in nature, while keeping the base color of the vehicles as black and bone white. The red will be a way to represent corrupted Wraithbone.

I'm actually going to be using 2 tribal fox tattoo pattern I found online, so on the larger vehicles (Wave Serpents), they pattern will form an image of foxes.

Why foxes? Read up on Nine-Tailed foxes (not the Naruto kind), as well as foxes in Oriental Culture. Eldar seem to have a bit of an Oriental feel to them, IMO.

The only thing that I'm stuck on is what color to paint the gems. I don't want green, since that's what the current Necrons use. I'm debating between blue, purple, red, or orange. Red and Orange might blend into the rest of the army and base, but might make sense for a Mars landscape. I think my choices are between blue and purple, for now.
Altansar Army

As for my desired force to begin with:

Farseer On Jetbike

3 Jetbike Squads of 3, some with a Warlock.

A Banshee squad in Wave Serpent

A Wraithguard squad with Warlock in Wave Serpent

A Squad of Dark Reapers

A Vyper Squad

A Wraithlord

I'm going to start with one jetbike squad, and the banshee squad, so that I can try and play a 200 pt, kill team game. I'll eventually add Maugan Ra and some additional Jetbikes on the back end. I was thinking perhaps a Harlequin Squad in Wave Serpent.

Now for some explanations. I'm sure that some people are going to question "Why the the banshees instead of striking scorpions?". Well the way that I see it, when you're in the warp, it's kind of hard to look to nature for examples of how to fight. So no scorpions, spiders, or hawks... for now. But Banshees should be OK. As for the Wraithguard and Wraithlord, these guys are the sister Craftworld to Ulthwe. An Altansar army has to have Dark Reapers, don't they?

Current WIP

So I figure I would continue to give some WIP shots with comments, even though I don't have much time for modeling and painting. So these shots will be incremental. I was hoping to do more but it seems that my modeling glue ended up drying out on me, so I have to add that to my list of things to buy.

I showed previously the sprue piece that would soon become the Necron Gems, here there are again. The first shot, is after the got cut, the second shot is after I took the time to file them down. I think they look pretty good. Now I just have to figure out what color I'm going to paint them.



As for the base itself, I finally managed to cut out the cork from the sheet, although I need to smooth out the rough edges.



As you can see I have them numbered to line up with the specific base I want to use them with. Below, I have one of them marked up, showing the parts that I want to remove, and how I want them to look, once I take a knife to them.



Here is how it currently looks with the base and post in place. Nothing glued currently, just stacked.



As I mentioned earlier, I was planning on gluing on the gems and the cork, and adding a bit of sand to the base, but fate had other plans for me. So now I get to go by new glue, along with the two new airbrush needles that I want/need. Given that it's raining here, I wouldn't have been able to spray primer anyway. It doesn't really matter much since I have 3 jetbikes that need filing and sanding.

While I was thinking about these bases, I realized that if I want them the represent Mars after the Void Dragon has awoken, then I'm going to need some stuff on the bases to help represent this. I was thinking of getting some Space Marine, and Imperial Guard items, and insignias. I also have a sheet of Imperial Aguilas from Forge World that I Bought a couple of years ago that I finally get to use.

Short Update

So it seems that I'm pretty slow going in my work. But then again, only having 30-45 minutes a day to be able to work on stuff will do that to you. Personally, right now I feel like I'm living in Seattle. Every time I think I might be able to get something primed, it's raining (I do the majority of my modeling in my garage).

So over the last few days I've learned a few things.

Elmer's glue can go bad. I had a bottle that I used for adding sand to bases, and now it's a thick paste. It barely even wants to come out of that little Orange cap.

Always stand up superglue when you store it. I bought a new bottle of Zap-a-gap, and though just putting the normal top on it would be good. It actually started leaking into the second bigger cap. At least I don't have to buy a second new bottle of the stuff.

WIP pictures

Here is my base after I finally glued the gems onto it.


Here is the cork that is going to go over the top of the base. I decided to add a few additional chucks, to simulate large pieces of cement rubble from when the gems emerged from the ground.


I decided to add a little bit of sand to help out the effect. In one of the pictures you can see that I was a little sloppy with the glue, and it got on to the gem. I'm going to have to clean that up before priming and painting.

And here is how things are looking at the moment. I think I managed to get the affect that I want.


I'm still debating how I want to point things. Since at this point Mars is mostly industrialized, I'm thinking I'll paint the cork to look like concrete, probably an orange or slightly reddish shade. Then I figure I'll paint the unearth rubble, and sand more of a reddish color, to simulate the original mars looks. I'm still trying to determine which color will work best or the gems.

Right now I'm leaning towards purple, but might still do blue. The image below is good inspiration for going purple. It actually gives a good inspiration for what the void dragon might look like as well.


I've seen a lot of people doing blue highlights on Grav-Tanks, so I might use that on the jet bike exhaust vents, that way I get both the blue and the purple, along with the mass amount of black and red that the bike will bring.

Anyway, as before, Comments, Criticisms, and Critiques are welcome (if anyone feels like posting any).

Priming Gone Wrong

So I finally took the plunge. After all of the bad weather I've been dealing with, I finally got some good weather. I took some time and primed the pieces that I have ready. I tried to make sure that I only had thin layers as I went along, but I think one of them wasn't as thin as I wanted it to be.

The bases ended up looking pretty good, with just a few places that will need brush primer for.



The front shield looked OK, just a little slight dimpling, but I think it's usable as is.



The real problem was with the bike itself. I'm not sure how well these pictures show it, but on the side wing, and one of the shuriken catapults, the primer dimpled up (orange peeled). It's not on too many places, so I'm wondering if I should strip it and re-prime, or just sand it. Personally, I'm thinking I might try sanding first, the orange peel wasn't too wide spread, and if it doesn't work, then I can still strip it.



I'll still have to use the paint on primer on a few places for the bike itself, once I'm done.

First Game

So I managed to play a small game this Friday. I figured I would write-up a small battle report, and some thoughts about the game. First of all, let me say that I haven't played 5th edition. I have the rule-book, but never got around to playing a game of it, so the rules didn't really stick with me. I'm probably a bit more familiar with 4th, so things that might seem profound to me, others might think are 'Meh'.

The game was 500 points against Blood Angels (Flesh Tearers). I was playing Altansar, with one slight adjustment. I didn't have enough Jet Bikes for 2 squads, so I had 1 squad of regular guardians.

I brought:

Farseer with spirit stones, runes of warding, doom, guide, and mind war.
Guardian Jet Bike squad (3) with Shuriken Cannon.
Guardian Squad (10)
Howling Banshees (5) no Exarch
Dark Reapers (3) no Exarch

a total of 496 points.

He brought:
A captain with plasma pistol and chainsword (I think)
An Assault Squad (5) Sgt with Power Fist
A Death Company Squad (5) all power weapons and pistols

From the get go I had a 2 to 1 body advantage, which I thought was good.

We decided to play the first mission in the book, which would allow us to use Night Fighting, Mysterious Objectives, and reserves. We ended up rolling to use night fighting the entire game. Neither of us used reserves. And only I tried keeping objectives.

We just placed some random terrain, and he won the roll for sides and decided to keep his side (more because he didn't want to move). I won the roll for placement, and made him place first. I didn't steal first turn though.

On the first turn he was only able to move, and didn't shoot (pistols were out of range), and he didn't run either. On my turn I managed to take out his Assault Squad with my Dark Reapers, and the Farseers Mind war. The howling banshees then didn't have anything to assault.

On turn two he assaulted my Howling Banshees, and my guardians. The Guardians died to the Death company, but my Howling Banshees survived against the captain. On my turn the Banshees killed the Captain.

On Turn Three he was too far away to assault my Howling Banshees, so he ended up shooting at my Jet bike squad. On my turn I moved my Jet bike squad to get an objective, but they ended up at a sabotage. My Banshees were able to attack the Death Company and managed to kill all but one, and then got killed in return.

On the Fourth turn he hid behind cover. On my turn, I shot at him, then moved my Jet bike squad to a location to draw out his last man. I figured once he killed my squad, hopefully I would have a shot at killing him with my Dark Reapers.

He did manage to kill my Jet Bikes, but wasn't able to consolidate far enough away from my Dark Reapers, who ended up killing him.

In the end I won, but at the same time we were both trying out some things that we probably wouldn't normally do. Plus there was a lot of looking up of rules, and playing this in ways that didn't follow how the rules should have been played.

For example, the first time I was in assault with my Howling Banshees, I was splitting out my pistol Attacks from my Power Sword attacks. I guess all of my attacks at the time counted as power attacks, including the pistol.

Also, at one point I was making snap shots (Which I love by the way!), and was taking hits with 4+ instead of 6+, and picked up my dice before I realized what I was doing. We didn't see what were 6s so I re-rolled. I think I lost 2 hits because of it.

In the end, I had a fun time with the new rules, which I really like. Though I don't think I picked the right table to roll for warlord, but i was doing it on the fly without really knowing what the optimum table for my play style was.



As always, any Criticisms, Comments, and Critiques are welcome.

Thanks.

Quick Update

So I managed to take a look through some of my old paints, and I'm surprised to see that it looks like they survived storage, although they are a bit separated, so I'll be doing a lot of shaking. The benefit is hopefully I won't have to buy any.

Yeah me!

Interesting. I like how your bases are coming along so far

First Color

So it has been a while since I've painted anything for WH40K. I now realize why poeple tend to use a light colored primer. Either that, or I over thinned my paint. It's almost acting more like an ink, than paint.

As of right now, I've applied 3 layers or Graveyard Earth to the base, and it looks more like rich top soil, then the beginning of sandy cement.



I think the next time I take a crack at it, I'm not going to thin it at all, and see where that gets me.

Test in Patience

I want to give a quick thanks to those who have been reading the thread. It seems like I barely do anything on the model between posts, but I think that is mainly do to my time constraints. I normally have about 20-30 minutes after my wife leaves with the kids in the morning before I go to work to model a bit, and sometimes at work I'll work on something during lunch, if I'm not too busy.

I guess the one benefit of this is that what you see is more of a step by step display, rather than pictures after big chunks of work is getting done.

I hope that I'll have these guys done sooner rather than later.

Seeing Red

So I finally started work on the second base. I noticed that I had a lot of space on the frist base between the crystals and the bottom of the jetbike, so I decided to make these crystals a little longer. The only problem with them are the tips. I think I'm going to have to do a bit more filing on them. The initial cutout of the cork looks pretty good. All I have to do is add some rubble, and sand, and it'll be ready for priming (after I glue the cork down).



So went back over the base with Graveyard Earth. I didn't thin it out as much this time, and I think it looks pretty good so far.



I then put a layer of red ink on it. This is supposed to be Mars after all. I figure once I go back over it with Graveyard Earth, then Bleached Bone, it'll look like redish sand on Mars. Or at least that is the hope.

Current Musings

So I found myself able to paint for more than 15 minutes at a time yesterday. Because of that I wasn't actually able to get pictures of the base in between layers as I painted. The next time that I post, I'll make sure to get a picture of the base up.

Aside from getting the majority of the base completed (all that it needs is to work on the gems), I was able to put a layer of Chaos Black on the actual jetbike.

As for the Crystal. I know I want to go purple with it, but I just don't know what purple. I have both Liche Purple and Warlock purple (or at least whatever the new equivalent of those are). So either I can start with Warlock Purple and gradually go to Liche purple, with a white highlight. Or I can use Warlock purple as the base, and gradually go towards Codex Grey, with a bit of Scull White at the edges for highlighting.

The Liche purple is what GW lists as secondary color for their paints, but when I look at the picture of the dragon above, it uses grey and white.

Project List

So obviously, I'm currently working on a 3 man biker squad. And the sad part is that the majority of the 1750 army list that I want to create is unpainted. Heck, it isn't even primed and assembles.

So I'm debating on what I want to do next.

Howling Banshees (x10 with Exarch)
Farseer on Jetbike
Wraith Guard (x6)

For the basing on the HB and WG, I intend to use a single Necron Gem. I'm not sure how to deal with the Cork with the Minis though. Do I keep the flat tab at the bottom, or do I remove them and pin the models to the base. It makes me wonder if I should even use the cork at all.

If I go with the Farseer, I'm thinking of going the Centerpiece route with him. Since I want it to seem like Mars after the awakening of the Void Dragon, I'm was thinking of having a Cryptek look like he was emerging from the ground.

On A Completely Different Note

So I noticed that I haven't been getting much in the way of feedback. Please feel free to let me know what you think.

Thanks, stay tuned for some picuture tomorrow, and let me know what you think so far.

Thanks.

All Your Base Are Belong TO Us

As I mentioned previously, I did some modeling/painting this weekend. Here are pictures showing how things are coming along.

I know this is hard to see, but it's the current condition of the jetbike. Nothing has really been done to the bike itself, other than add a thinned out layer of Chaos Black. It helped fill in some of the areas that the primer missed.



Here are close ups of the base. I'm actually pretty proud of them. If you look at the previous entry, where I had applied red ink, it looked a little too red for my tastes.



To this I did:

A layer of Graveyard Earth, just letting the red look through.

A dry brushing of Bleached Bone.

A wash of Gryphonne Sepia.

It got the look I was hoping for. I looks desert-like but with a bit of red showing through from beneath.

After that I started painting the Gems. I obviously started with Warlock Purple.



A mix of Codex Grey:Warlock Purple for highlights (about 1:1). And a different mix of Codex Grey:Warlock Purple for higherlights (about 2:1).



Based on the highlighting attempt, you can tell that I don't have the steadiest of hands. Dry brushing works really well for me, as you can see in the earth of the base. Although, I guess the opposite would be that I'm not patient enough to use really thinned down paint and applying layer after layer after layer of paint, for very little results. It's probably something that I should work on.

I then added the OSL, from the Gems to the sand. I'm not sure how happy I am with it. From looking at it online, I think I have to paint the empty are of the base purple as well.



It's kind of funny. It looks a TON better in the photo then it does on my workbench. I'm not sure what to do. It seems to me that the OSL doesn't quite pop enough. I was thinking of using Liche Purple the next time for the highlights, and possibly for the OSL as well just to see what the difference between the two would look like.

Full Of Hot Air

Well, maybe not hot. I ended up going to 'The Depot' and picked up an air compressor pressure regulator, and an air filter for use with my Badger Air Brush compressor. Why is that... well, I'm planning on finally braking out my old Badger 200-20. Mostly for parts of the jetbike, but who knows, maybe I'll be able to start using it on bases and other models.

I have a new detail needle that I have to replace first, so we'll see if I can get that done tomorrow.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? It's funny, I keep asking for them, but I never get any.

A Wrong Turn At Albuquerque

So I decided to go back to my base, and I tried changing the highlights from the grey to Liche Purple. I hated it. Luckily I was thin enough that I could go back over with grey. I then decided I would add in very thin highlights of pure grey. The only problem is that you can kind of see the Liche Purple highlights. I also painted the location where the gems meet the base.

Since I was complaining before that I didn't like how the OSL was working, I decided to go back over it, slightly more heavy handed with the paint. I have to say I actually like the results now.



I also tried to start on the bike itself. I was thinking about adding red to the bike in the form of patterned scales. I was planning on using the shadow blue as a background for the color. Looks like it didn't work out so well. I think I'm going to bring it back to black, and then just do the scales without a background shade to outline it.



As for the comments and criticisms, Keep them coming. Well I guess in reality I should say bring them.

I haven't read through everything, but I like that you're putting time into creating a backstory/fluff for your army. My friends and I do that for ours and it makes the game much more enjoyable. But you want some criticism, don't you?

My first question is why cork? I like the use of the 40mm bases, that's for sure, but personally don't like the cork too much. It makes the base look a lot larger than it should be, in my opinion. The gems, however, look great. My suggestion for those is make them WAY brighter. They don't look like they would be giving off too much light, but the OSL is a good start for sure.

Inspecting the latest pictures I can really see what you meant about the primer. Sucks that that happened :(. The pattern on the bikes should look really good once it's done. You plan on varying it though correct? (ie not the same pattern on all the bikes?).

That's about all I can think of for now. Hope it got your gears turning. And by all means if you're happy with how everything is that's all that matters. Realistically, who cares what anyone else thinks! They are your models

Just Talk

I want to first say thanks to those of you who are reading this blog on a regular basis. To Eiríkr and Myrthan, thanks for letting me know you're following along. At times I feel like maybe no one is, but then again, the view count keeps going up, so someone is definitely reading it. Thanks!

Anticitizen013, thanks for offering some feedback.

The reason that I decided to go with cork was to offer the base a bit of depth. It's texture is great for drybrushing, and I've seen some people use cork really well on bases to show stone or concrete slabs (granted I'm not at the level). While it makes the base look thicker, I tried to keep it within the 40mm outline. Granted I didn't round out the edges before painting, but it's something that I am thinking of doing going forward.

As for the gems. I'm not sure how to make them 'brighter'. Is it an issue of color choice, or do I need to try to incorporate some more patterns in the gems to simulate 'brightness'?

I have every intention of making the patterns on the bikes different from bike to bike. Chaos is after all chaotic, so having them be the same would seem pretty counter to the issue. I actually have a design that I'm using (I really should link it, and offer credit) that each bike is using a different section of.

I'm thinking I'm just going to have to mask off the pattern for each section and start airbrushing the pattern on, rather than trying my (shaky) hand at blending/shading.

Thanks for your feedback.

I will watch you now mate, consider me a regular

Totally valid reasoning for the cork. Perhaps I will lighten up to it when I see more of them together.

Also I think airbrushing the bikes will look awesome. Eldar tend to have large surfaces that are perfect for that, so I would personally recommend that.

For the gems, to make them brighter you could also airbrush them before you glue them on. I'll get a picture of my Emperors Children I painted and you could use those as an example as their armour is purple. They have a base of Chaos Black, the mid colour is Liche Purple, then Warlock Purple. Since they are CSM, I didn't feel the need for any additional highlighting, but to help give your gems the effect they may need, is perhaps line the edges with a 50/50 Warlock Purple/Fortress Grey mixture, then a little bit less with pure Fortress Grey, and finally tip the corners with Skull white. That should give it a bit of a brighter more glowy feel. I'll get a picture for an example, bear with me!

EDIT: So here's a picture of how I mean for the purple.

Perhaps rather than painting the gems first and gluing them on I just need to mask them, and paint with airbrush.

Thanks for the comment and example!

I really appreciate it. Wish me luck.

Short Update - No Pics

So I managed to change out my airbrush needle last night, and got it to work with some water running through it just as a test. I was happy with it for the most part, now I just need to calibrate the pressure on my compressor. It seemed like it was spraying really wide is I was using a fine needle. Then again, it was water so it might have been too viscus considering that airbrush paint is a little thicker than water even. I've always been told to think of the consistency of milk.

So with the airbrush ready (I hope) it was off to make the masks. I was planning on putting some masking tape on some wax paper so I could draw out the pattern I want, and cut it out with a hobby knife. I made it to the kitchen drawer looking for wax paper to find that we didn't have any.

So this plan is slightly sidetracked until I either buy new wax paper, or figure out another medium that I can apply the masking tape to before cutting it with the pattern I want (Glass might work, but that's just asking for a ton of trouble).

So I might be running to the grocery store today.

Better Late Than Never

I'm sorry for not posting in a while. I guess when you work for a company that does political polling; it gets REALLY busy just before a presidential election. With that said, this and most future posts will be a little shorter.

So I finally got around to getting some wax paper, and tried to sketch out what I want the pattern to look like. The problem is that it doesn't quite look like I want it to look like.



So I'm even thinking of scrapping this, and just going with a more simple pattern, that I might try adding some stippling on once I have the simpler mask applied.

As for the bikes themselves, I took them back to strait black, and then I'm going to apply the simple mask once they are dry. I did manage to add a second coat of brown to the seat, and start on the random area that will be under the shield.

Man, this is an awesome blog. I am stealing your crystal idea for my DE. I look forward to further updates!

Eureka

So I just had an epiphany about this mask.



I was originally hoping to use it to make a scale look to the areas, similar to this picture:



Instead of cutting it out to look like scales, I'm going to see about using a hole punch to take out the random shapes. Perhaps I can get it to look more like a string of spots, almost like a rash would look like (here is my having two children at or under 2 comes to the surface).

That is a great idea!

More Delays

So as of right now, I find myself unable to do much painting and modelling as I've been really busy with Work, and sick children and wife. Although I do have the masking tape with holepunches currently on the bike, it might be a while before I get around to actually airbrushing them.

Seeing that the set-up/teardown time involved with using the airbrush is so long, I was thinking of just using it as a normal painting mask, yet I fear that I might end up having some run under the mask in areas that it might not be too well attached to the bike.

I don't know what to do. Wait or brush paint.

Any suggestions?

Take your time and do what is more comfortable.

A Bit Spotty

Hello again. I want to say to everyone thanks for the suggestions and the encouragements. They really helped.

So I finally got around to doing some painting this weekend. I think what I did turned out great.

As for the process: I started with the masks in place using the masking tape with holes punched out of it (1/16th inch holes). rather than use the airbrush, I just penciled in where I wanted to paint. After I removed the tape, I was ready to paint. I started out with red gore, and just dotted the heck out of where I wanted the paint to go. Once done with the red gore, I moved on to blood red pin pricks in the middle. I think this gives the look of an angry rash with blisters in middle of them. I guess this could easily represent some chaos corruption (a mix of Khorne and Nurgle). All in all I really liked it. I just wish I has remembered to take an image of the bike assembled, and on the base.

Now all that is left are the Spirit Stone Gems, and the display for the control panel. I was thinking either orange or purple for the gems, and green for the display.





A tip for those using masking tape. The best thing to use to remove the masking tape adhesive residue... the actual masking tape itself.

I really like how much work you put into the back story of your army, and it's coming along nicely.

Consider me following

Wowza!

Huzzah!

So I just want to thank everyone who has been keeping up with this blog. It has managed to get 1000 reads. If you were one of them, thanks. If you weren't one of them, and are a new reader here, I still give you thanks for being here now.

As I mentioned in my last post, here are pictures of the bike on the base for a more complete picture of where things stand.




I have to say sometimes you miss some things that when you look at it on screen in a higher resolution, you notice. You might notice some places where I didn't cover the pencil marks that I laid down as a guide. I'm probably just going to go over them in black to cover them up.

I can't wait to get more paint on this thing. I can't wait to get the gems, the display, and a little edge highlighting done.

Learning Along The Way

So I've been doing all of this work with very little money invested. Or I should say very little money in the last year invested. Most of the paints that I've been using I purchased 2 years ago or longer. Some of it was given to me from a friend who had a ton of extras in certain colors.

I'm surprised how well the paint has kept. Granted, I took some precautions with the previous generation of Citadel paints to keep them smooth. I ended up putting about 3BBs in each of the pots with a few drops of floor cleaner (I can't remember the name of the brand right now) to help with mixing the paint when I shake them. But the paint itself has managed to stay wet, although a little thick at some times. The older generations (minus the screw top Citadel paints from 2/3 generations ago) seem to also keep very well, with very minimal drying.

The only paint that I have that I'm not sure how it's going to work out in the long run is my old Vallejo paints. The bottles look to still be liquid, although separated. But it seems that when paint collects in the tips, it dries out, and makes it hard to get any out. Or at least that is what happened in the one bottle that I decided to try out.

But given that I'm not wanting to spend too much money on my little projects, I'm hoping that a well used paperclip will take care of any blockages.

Patiently Waiting

So it's been a while since I've last posted. And this is due to a few things.

One is work. The last few weeks my workload has been immense, resulting in working through lunch, and late nights.

Second is weather. With living in the US mid-west, winter is cold out here. And since my modelling/painting area is out in the garage, it makes for a less than desirable place to work.

Third is the incoming holiday season. My wife loves the holidays, and any good weather days have been spent putting up Christmas lights and other such tasks.

Current Activities

With all of that being said, I haven't been completely idle here.

Last week, during Hurricane Sandy, I tried to do a little painting. Unfortunately, the pigments in the paint that I wanted to use had settled to the bottom of the bottle, and no amount of shaking was loosening it. I was basically working with dirty water, which is fine if you're into wet blending. I am not. Thus I have to buy that particular color again.

I've been doing a lot of reading and watching a lot of videos as well. One of the things that I've been coming to the conclusion of is that I don't have the right air brush for the work that I want to do. So, I've been looking at getting a new one (cheep). On top of that are supplies, like little dropper bottles, so that I can thin out GW and Vallejo paints to the consistency I need/want.

Here is what I've found:

From Zenithal Airbrushing, OSL and Snow and Ice Tutorial, subject - Grey Knight they give what looks like a good option of a cheap airbrush.

I've also looked at getting these tips and droppers. The only problem is the $10 charge for small orders, thus you have to find the balance of a number of droppers for cheap, while dispersing the $10 additional charge. I was thinking of getting 20 droppers to start.