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Here's the birdy after the first few weathering passes. Just some brown, grey,boltgun metal, and black stippled on with a little sponge, and some streaks with thinned boltgun metal. And I must say, getting nice streaks with acryllic paint ain't easy. Quickest compromise I found between look & speed is applying a thin line of the thinned paint along the edge of a plate and then, using a large flat brush, streak it backwards in one smooth go before it dries. On some parts it looks very good, on others, not so much... It'll need some adjusting and correcting here and there but I think I also can camouflage the dodgy bits with some more haint-painted detailed streaks. And once i hit that puppy with oil paints, I'm sure I'll be able to to add some nice black re-entry burn streaks using the larger metallic streaks as a base to work on.

Thoughts & comments are always welcome.

I thought to take some pics of the fully finished speeders but the weather outside is gak as usual. It's kind of annoying/scary to read here and there that this summer weather shift might be more and more frequent thanks to the Gulf Stream being pushed south because of the warming of the planet's poles...

Anywhooo

Great work, Meph!

The scraping/streaking effect on the wings is particulalry nice. Did you just do that with a very dry brush or a sponge or what?

Cheers, mate!
Well, it's actually a rather wet technique. I mixed some boltgun metal, Vallejo thinner, and water to a ratio of roughly 3:2:2. This mix as to be stirred often as it the metallic pigments sink rather fast.

Working in short sections (2-3 cm) with a fine brush I applied a thin line but with some thickness along the leading edge of the section, added some perpendicular 'T's'. Working very fast I then took the large GW drybrush and quickly swiped the paint backwards in one or maybe two swoops, creating the effect. This was done with a light touch.
If you're vèry fast you can even correct it a bit before the paint dries using a pointy cotton stick or brush.

As you can see here and there, it can appear to be a bit too broad and even, but that can be worked upon later with a fine brush to introduce some finer streaks.
Painting straight, perpendicular lines in one smooth move is damn hard, I tell ya.
Slow, controlled lines won't look as good will be less tapered. I feel it's more akin to calligraphy rather than pin-striping. I did a few tests on a piece of paper before committing and slow lines do tend to show and not convey the same a sense of speed as smoothly 'pulled' lines. Damned tricky that.

Beautiful work on your army Meph, and I like that version of Stormraven or storm Eagle that you got there!

Wow, time went fast. Sorry for the lack of replies, but I'm back! Time went by pretty quickly with some holidays, busy days at work and general busy-busy.
But here's some progress. Just before going to Warhammer World in the UK last weekend I managed to finish the 2nd devastator squad. Well, finished... they need bases and two of 'm need bolters, but still. They were ready for gaming and saw some good action.



And I peeled off the masking tape on the Stormraven's cockpit. The bird's ready for oil paints now and since the cockpit seams need some dirtying up as well it seemed like the time.

Gorgeous stuff Meph. Never used a HB dev squad... how do they work?

Well... DAKKA DAKKA!
Great to mow down weaker enemies. Keeping 'm as a big squad give you a lot of dice. ^^
They're not much of a danger against tanks, but lighter vehicles are worth shooting at.

Very impressive work! As a fellow BA player I am often very critical of others work, usually I find most people's angels the same old look for the most part and rarely unique. But your force does not fall in with those heheh. Great converting on the Storm.

Cheers, mate! I'm happy you're liking them. The outset for the project was to give them a lived-in and moody feel.

Oh Meph, you just made my night! those Devs look beautiful, I really am fond of the way you paint the Blood Angels, every colour looks brilliant and the HB's are fantastic, i really like the way you've used the aged metal on the magazines etc. it works! simple as that! :-) and you're right it has been ages since we've seen stuff from you, hopefully this is the start of more pics to come?....

Thanks nerdfest!

Well, there are currently three non-GW models first up in the pipeline. Two of them are overdue birthday gifts so they have priority and the other is my large scale Terminator and then:

In my posession and in need of finishing or even starting:
-Baal Predator
-Land Raider
-FW Spartan
-10-man FW MKIV Assault squad
-10 Scouts
-15 Terminators
-FW Librarian+ command squad
--Shadowsword/Stormlord superheavy

No rest for the wicked!!

Sneak peak! After some slow painting of some large models, I felt I needed a change. ^^

You need to make a second base with either an NFL or soccer goal post on it and display them about 18" apart.

Woo Hoo! Meph is back!

Very nice. Glad to see you're working on the Contemptor. Love that pose!

Welcome back. I always like the story poses.

Welcome back Meph. The Contemptor is looking great so far, love the about to be squished scorpion.

Great looking Contemptor Meph. Been scouring your blog and you have some utterly beautiful models.

I really like your Stormraven conversion on page4. It's just standout looking.

Gitsplitta wrote:You need to make a second base with either an NFL or soccer goal post on it and display them about 18" apart.

Hehehe, that would make a great objective marker! Bloodbowl, 40K style

Yellowbeard wrote:Woo Hoo! Meph is back!

Very nice. Glad to see you're working on the Contemptor. Love that pose!

Solar_lion wrote:Welcome back. I always like the story poses.

GiraffeX wrote:Welcome back Meph. The Contemptor is looking great so far, love the about to be squished scorpion.

Cheers fellas! Well, there are two more Striking Scorpions coming up. One is already impaled on the assault cannon's bayonet (oh yeah, I went there), and another is going to be crunched by the power fist, although I'm still pondering for the least-effort-maximum-effect to make it so as he appears to be in the process of being casually, but slowly, squeezed to death, clamping onto the fist in sheer agony.

Snrub wrote:Great looking Contemptor Meph. Been scouring your blog and you have some utterly beautiful models.
I really like your Stormraven conversion on page4. It's just standout looking.

Cheers, mate! I'm still amazed that I managed to pull that one off as I wanted.

Oh happy days! Meph is doing stuff again! :-) and it looks as if it's going to be fantastic too! I love the 3rd shot of the Contemptor booting the Scorpion! that same shot when it's painted will be on the gallery front page for sure!

Hehehe, cheers, mate! Feels good to be at it again.


Here's the start on the right arm and erm.. decoration. ^^
I drilled out a hole right through his torso, rather than try to get two parts of the blade perfectly aligned. And that way I can paint the victim separately before sticking him on and adding some guts/blood.
I'm actually doubting whether I should magnetize the weapon arms or not. Any extra weapons from FW do not come with the large shoulder pads and the small shoulder-joint-elbow seems too small and fragile to accept any magnets large enough to hold the weight.
Anyone any experience in magnetizing contemptor weapon arms?

I did mine.. but not calculating for the additional weight of the figure. I did mine with one Mag,in the body to hold the arm and one under the shoulder peice. This way I could get the maximum out of the pose as possible. Secondly the body magnet could be adjusted to change the center of G on the weapon arm by allowing the shoulder to rotate.
Some weapons are better centered than others.

Assault cannon with bayonet? How sweet it is!

Will you be repositioning the libs of the Scorpion?

Solar_lion wrote:I did mine.. but not calculating for the additional weight of the figure. I did mine with one Mag,in the body to hold the arm and one under the shoulder peice. This way I could get the maximum out of the pose as possible. Secondly the body magnet could be adjusted to change the center of G on the weapon arm by allowing the shoulder to rotate.
Some weapons are better centered than others.

Hmmm, yeah, and this weapon+bayonet+eldar kebab is not very balanced at all. I guess it's worth a try, in worst case I can still glue it all together... I'll go ebayshopping for the right-size magnets.

Snrub wrote:Assault cannon with bayonet? How sweet it is!
Will you be repositioning the libs of the Scorpion?

Oh yes! I'm not a green stuff master, but the idea is to detach his pistol from his hand and have it dangling on it's power cable. Also remove his chain sword and try to reposition the hand to be either clutching the bayonet or simply hanging limp. And the legs need some repositioning as well. Luckily, this is easy with finecast models. Just soak the part in hot water and adjust by hand, then hold it under cold running wtzre to fix again. I did that with the kicked eldar, just the right foot needed a tiny cut to help it bend further.

I like it. It's wonderfully grimdark.

but the idea is to detach his pistol from his hand and have it dangling on it's power cable.

Also remove his chain sword and try to reposition the hand to be either clutching the bayonet or simply hanging limp.

Nice. I was hoping you were going to do something like that. Its gonna look brutal once finished.

 Meph wrote:
Sneak peak! After some slow painting of some large models, I felt I needed a change. ^^

i like how that dread is casually going 'nah, cya later' and just booting him away!. pretty sure that striking scorpion has just been emasculated by that gesture lmao

Cheers, guys!!

Progress so far, I've decided to glue the weapons. Magnetizing will be better suited for a less posed model. That, and I was unwilling to search & wait for the suitable magnets.
The arms themselves are just temporarily attached. I'll paint them separately. The 'fist' is not attached to the arm either, but the eldar is firm within its grasp. ^^

very nice, thats a pretty epic contemptor you've built

I take it you have had problems with striking scorpions in your gaming group

and I quite like your painting style too

"Mmmmph... mmmph... ... Mmmmph!!"

*squish*

Nice. Love the Scorpion in the claw.