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I like this!

^ Thanks bud! Your input was much appreciated in the early stages.

Proof of other stuff: blocking in turquoise on Ordo Hereticus:

Oooh... like the turquoise!

Wow you have definitely upped your painting skills recently. This lastest mob look delightfully gothic.and dark.

Amazing cakes too. With those same skills plus a kiln she could be a ceramic sculptor.


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For that matter maybe I should make more cakes.

Much better photography Graven. Nice work on the lighting effects.

I like the turquoise too. Tell Mrs Graven the Tardis is awesome!

Hey guys, sory I've been off radar for a few days, work's been a bit crazy. Pesky RL.

Gitsplitta wrote:Oooh... like the turquoise!

Reaper Man 2020 wrote:I like the turquoise too.

VJ MC Turquoise - an amazing colour. Much, much thicker than many of their paints (although that's generally the case with MC range) so has to be thinned, but the coverage is amazing and it's really rich and vibrant, especially over the whitish base.

LeadLegion wrote:Much better photography Graven. Nice work on the lighting effects.

Thanks man. Fixing my lamp has been on my to do list for ages, just never got round to it! And I know that decent mini photography (or lack thereof) is your bete noir.

weetyskemian44 wrote:Wow you have definitely upped your painting skills recently. This lastest mob look delightfully gothic.and dark.

That's a serious compliment coming from someone of your talents and I was definitely inspired by your methods - we seem in some ways to have similar philosophy about bases and washes, and you have proven time and again that an idiosyncratic approach to painting is no bad thing.

weetyskemian44 wrote: Amazing cakes too. With those same skills plus a kiln she could be a ceramic sculptor.

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For that matter maybe I should make more cakes.

Reaper Man 2020 wrote:I like the turquoise too. Tell Mrs Graven the Tardis is awesome!

Yeah, she's very talented. My mother, who used to do a lot of ceramics, has made the same observation, worryingly enough. Currently she's planning what to do for #1's birthday: I suspect some form of transformer cake with functioning eyes/headlights.

About all I've had the time to do is put together a composite shot for the competition:


Still, I'm off next week, so might get some odds and ends done. Possibly more on various Hereticus WIPs, as they're quite fun and actually don't need a huge amount of work (metals, highlights on cloth, bit of general tidying), although knowing me I'll probably get (a) side-tracked and (b) distracted by tiny details.

Adios,
graven

Like the composite pic, just one thing, the smallest picture (right at the bottom) seems out of place for some reason...

Hadnt noticed the rather amazing shoulderpad before either!

A wee bit big maybe? Only way I could show the very subtle osl orange though. Chapterhouse shoulder pad, an absolute beauty. Having spent about 3 hrs making the composite manually the wife said "oh, you've been using my picasa then?" um, nope...

I would have said a bit small weirdly....it took me a moment to work out what it was a shot of, and its noticeably smaller than the other parts of the composite. I know exaclty where you are coming from, as the subtle OSL is rather beautifully done, so it does deserve its own special place, trying to think of a way to do it..(that you havent already thought of )

Ahh thats where its from! Its gorgeous, it really is, great use of it too graven!

Noooo that must have been a kick in the unmentionables...

Nice Graven! He came out very well!

@ Graven: Bette Noir? Nah, my photographer is called Caroline. Never heard of this Betty chick, like.

Sweet. But I agree with Reiko about that one shot - maybe enlarge it and swap it with the psilencer shot, that might be a better fit?

Cheers for the great comments gang.

Still not of much p&m done, but...


Nuff said.


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Well. Ish.

2 questions:
1. My local hobbycraft still has da vet sets for £15 - sorely tempted to pick them up to cannibalise, but I do have all the pagk in the world now!

2. I'm sorely tempted to rebuild my mentors as weepers, still. Is this an idiotic idea that I'm going to really regret down the line?

And one other thing: 1st stage metals (brass) and highlights on turq (60/40 with VJ Pale Flesh, then ~30/70 the other way).


Busy busy!

Added some verdigris to the sanctum, and tidied up the sobs too. Done the lenses black gloss, going to experiment with dark gem methods *gulp* This is also a photo experiment, camera phone with repaired lamp. Opinions?

Obviously not as good as camera pics but passable, at least for quick wip shots, I think.

Yeah man, passable shots! a hint when taking with your phone camera is to grab a blob of Blu-Tac to rest it on while you shoot pics, stops the shaky shaky we often get :-)

and I'm liking that shrine! I'm painting one as well and they're a big bit of kit to paint with a bunch of details you dont see until it's damn well in front of you and you want to finish it grrr! ...... yours is looking good! :-)

Certainly good enough for wide wip shots like that one. Which looks fine by the way

Sanctum verdigris looks good, and a bit of life appearing in the sisters too.

Two suggestions:

1) Buy a cellphone tripod, they're cheap.

2) Use two lamps, it really helps.

@nf - ta! I'm not attempting anything as ambitious as your magnificent marbling. But I know what you mean about all the detailing. I've also added lots of tube and and H beams (kids' balloon sticks - cheap and easily stolen ) Btw those shrine-plaques off the bastion are a good size for doors on this bad boy.

@mt - yeah, still early days. Hair needs washed (as it were) and more dusty drybrushing. Verdigris likewise, need to get of bestial brown equivalent into the mix (helps round out the colours I find) and of course some copper. Other metal tones'll make into the mix too, especially some more green. Once I'm happy with the combination of colour I'll break out the detailing on the banners, panels etc.


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@ Briancj - true. I actually have another 4 lamps, burg they're so far away across the kitchen...

The weathering on the shrine is excellent. Thanks for sharing the formula.

Looks great Graven! Is that the sun reflected in the background? Is that allowed in the UK? Wait... no, it's just a picture on a box. That makes more sense.

The new batch of models looks great! I do like the tourquise and your metals are awesome. As far as a repaint goes, I would say that if you feel that you really want to do it go for it but right now I am in the middle of one and really hate myself for it!

Yup, re-paints are never great. It feels like losing ground. I'm not so much re-painting my Imp Guard at the moment as advancing their quality by adding a few more highlighting layers to the flesh and textiles and re-painting their body armour.

If you really want to do more work on already painted models, it's a lot better for your sanity, motivation and patience to simply add a few more stages to the existing paint job rather than re-do them altogether.

Ah, I should clarify. They are largely unpainted, but they are built. So I'd need to pop a *lot* of shoulder pads add replace them accordingly.

 inmygravenimage wrote:

2. I'm sorely tempted to rebuild my mentors as weepers, still. Is this an idiotic idea that I'm going to really regret down the line?

Redoing an army is something that can seriously go either way. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. Knightley and Skalk are two folk here that have pretty much redone stuff up to a top notch so clearly they're positive examples for it.

I just cheated with my re-do of my Iron Warriors. Stripped what I could bare and incorporated bits and pieces of them into the Blighted Brigade (guess where the Vindicator went) and the Extinction Angels.

Now my actual Death Guard/Apostles of Contagion? All FW stuff though that may change shortly enough and yes, some old Terminators from my Blighted Brigade might migrate over (as Obliterators!).

Go with your gut. If you feel you can do them justice then do it. If not then perhaps keeping them as is for the sake of nostalgia?

Yeah, it's a tough call. Obviously I put a lot of work into the design of them etc, made god knows how many owl insignias etc., yet I find it very difficult to motivate myself to paint them. Nevertheless, it's a bit of a leap from that to rebuilding. Some things that I'd want to incorporate - eg using teleporter packs as jump packs so they can Blink - are already built. Ach, I dunno *shrug*

So back from holidays, and lovely they were. As a family break in Scotland, I recommend Crieff Hydro very highly.

Karamazov.

Wife commented he could use more blood spatter around the base, and then realised she was thinking like a gamer she's right of course. Still needs his Alpha Legion corpse, naturally other than that, and some text on his groin scroll, not sure what more needs done without being OTT?

Grimdarkius:

First stage reds and purples added. I do love this chap.

This guy needs a new name. Any suggestions?


Similar stage to Grimdarkius. Liking his skin tone, hair next.

Acolyte - yellow needs work around the edges.


Servitor - needs grey/metals added.


Sisters, and the Sanctum, to follow!

Graven

Love those graven... very nice. I really like the tints of color on the big scrolls on Kaz's thing.

Thanks buddy. I was going for some variety there, there's just so damn many scrolls - and a whitish paint scheme anyway - had to try to stop them blending together.
I also am feeling very time-pressed - Mrs G has been a caking, leaving me with 2 increasingly frustrated hyper kids, and my "break" amounted to a scattered and disrupted half hour *sigh* not their fault really, but hard graft nonetheless.
Anyway, as promised...



I actually rather like the gloss lenses. I may just leave it that way. Missus feels that the turq is starting to look a bit washed out on the sisters. I can see where she's coming from; views?

Incidentally, with all of these, I used 2 lamps. Blame Briancj!

The rationale behind the IG Flamer pack on her was simply I was one short and it worked for the unit leader!

Formerly had a Storm Bolter:

Alas, the shame! I can see grey in that barrel!

Very fond of this mini, face needs work though:

I don't know if I'd ever play SoB, the cost seems prohibitive, but if I ever did I'm fairly sure I'd want plenty o' meltas.


Not sure if the hair colour is a bit too plumy?

This young lady's inside thigh needs a bit of attention:

I do rather like this scheme for SoB although I wonder if it's not better suited to power armoured man-dolls.

More inattentive thigh!

I wonder if perhaps they're suffering from being block painted, when there's such a level of detail on their lovely metal surfaces. I think that, when it comes to tidying them, I suspect I should focus on them individually (like the =][=s) rather than as a unit.

Of course, they are still wip, though.


Nonetheless, sloppy edging of cloth


And a mould line to finish. Yay. Wow, these look gak in hi-def :(


And the Sanctum, which progresses apace-ish:


Hmm. Feeling a bit down on these now. Perhaps should go back to my gks, though I have enjoyed the variation sob offered. Might be as well seeing them through just now and that'll gee me up a bit. #1 wants to do some tank building tomorrow so stuff may emerge from the big box o'doom!

Adios muchachos (or as my nurgle phone tries to autocorrect to, mucus cups),
Graven

I think some more vibrant shadows wouldn't hurt them (in the blue).