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haha weathering, turning a perfectly fine scheme into damaged. Be nice to see how it plays out.

Finished (almost) product is great!
Don't go OTT with the weathering please, this look so good already

Looking fantastic.

Theophony wrote:That's looking great dr. H, the jewels really pop, and the circuitry is amazing.

Thanks Theo. They add a splash of colour amongst the sea of blue.

Camkierhi wrote:Looking fantastic.

Thanks Cam.

cormadepanda wrote:haha weathering, turning a perfectly fine scheme into damaged. Be nice to see how it plays out.

SelvaggioSaky wrote:Finished (almost) product is great!
Don't go OTT with the weathering please, this look so good already

Thanks Both. Welcome Saky.
Worry ye not. I don't intend to go heavy on the weathering. Just a little to make it look lived in (and cover up any rough bits I don't like the look of ).

OK people. Final update on the Wave Serpent.
Weathering is in the form of a few scratches, some blackening near the exhausts and a little wear on various edges, nothing drastic.

It has also been christened. I wanted it to look like the code was stencilled on and as I didn't have any transfers that would give the right look (what are the chances of that ), I had a brilliant idea for getting the right look... Use a stencil.

The plastic stencils I had for typical pen and pencil work couldn't be used as I wouldn't get them close enough to the surface to use them and they would get covered in paint...

So I made some from masking tape by drawing on the tape with the actual stencil and then carefully cutting the letters and numbers out with my scalpel. This was not easy, but I was eventually left with masking tape stencils which I stuck in place and then dry-brushed / stippled on white over the tape, removed the tape and bingo... I had to use a little blue to get the breaks in the zero and slightly touched bits up with white but tried to leave them looking a little rough. I'm pleased how they turned out though.

I will now set to work getting a selection of good pictures from every angle and then I'll compile them with all the pictures of the inside and post them up as soon as I can. This one will have to do you until then.

Now that is cool. Looks great.

That's ready for battle I say!

Good effort and great result mate.

Thanks both. Hope you enjoy these pictures.

Today's final Wave Serpent update is brought to you by;
The Letter, Ahh (that's better).
The number, 3 (months, well just over, is how long this build took).
And the music of Deep Purple, hit play and take your time to look over the pictures. Enjoy!



Front and Pilot details:


Upper and Lower Hull details:


Turret Details:


Door and Hatch details:


Interior details:


Engine details:


So that's it done. Next up will be something smaller (and therefore quicker...3 months...).
Let me know your final thoughts on Tr01. I hope you enjoyed the ride and you'll stick around for more in the future.

Edit:
Newer photos from 2020.

is Marilyn freehand or a decal?

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
is Marilyn freehand or a decal?

Bless you. I'll take that as a big compliment. She's freehand, just don't look too close. I covered her painting, step by step, earlier in this thread.

Very nice, Doc.

Is... that shag carpeting on the interior seats? (not an insult, I think it looks amazing)

I love this vehicle. The turret reminds me of the 40K days of yore, and the paintjob just makes the entire thing even cooler. The pointed nose of the cockpit is a great touch.

The free hand on the inside of the cabinet is extremely topnotch. Love it and its sexy

Thanks Yellowbeard.

 Johnnyhorse wrote:
Is... that shag carpeting on the interior seats? (not an insult, I think it looks amazing)

It's leather. It came off of the top of one of those cushions from inside an ear-ring box. Pretty sure it's faux-leather but looks the part, cut out the shapes and folded them around a rectangle of card to give them a bit of a leather cushion look and shape. It was originally white, so I gave it a wash with dark brown, a dry-brush with light brown and then another wash with dark brown. Gently scrubbed at the middle of each cushion while still damp to make them look a little worn.

I love this vehicle. The turret reminds me of the 40K days of yore, and the paintjob just makes the entire thing even cooler. The pointed nose of the cockpit is a great touch.

Thanks a lot.

I must be old-school 40k at heart, because quite a few of my builds have been compared to the early days of 40k. I like.

The paint-job was a big learning experience and came out quite nice.

Glad you like the nose. I did that because I didn't like how it was just cut-off on the original model, not very streamlined.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 cormadepanda wrote:
The free hand on the inside of the cabinet is extremely topnotch. Love it and its sexy

Hey Comrade. Thanks.

Hope the writing is coming along well.

Your not done yet, there's still a matter of the parachute for he pilot head. Everything else is amazing

 Theophony wrote:
Your not done yet, there's still a matter of the parachute for he pilot head. Everything else is amazing

Thank you Theo.

Thanks for the detailed picture report
It looks even better now that I know what exactly took to build this one

Wow, that is one different update! music and a plethora of great images! I simply love that freehand inside the ship too, all in all you've made one individual model that no one will come close to replicating.... ever! great stuff dude can't wait to see what you do next?...... so?

 SelvaggioSaky wrote:
Thanks for the detailed picture report
It looks even better now that I know what exactly took to build this one

Thanks SS.
Yep, a lot has gone into this one model which is also apparent from the page count (I started this on page 4!).
I wrote a brief list in a post here, of all the modelling changes I'd done, somewhere after I'd finished building and before I started painting and it surprised me at the time with how long it was...

I was bored of knocking out plastic model kits, word for word from the instructions and wanted a new challenge, which is why I tried these models for a change. Then I found that you could modify them and with the freedom of not being based on real life things, I could turn a model that would normally take a few days and turn it into a few months of very challenging modelling.

I've just tidied my modelling space ready for the next thing...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 nerdfest09 wrote:
Wow, that is one different update! music and a plethora of great images! I simply love that freehand inside the ship too, all in all you've made one individual model that no one will come close to replicating.... ever! great stuff dude can't wait to see what you do next?...... so?

Thanks NF. High praise coming from one so gifted with brush-fu as yourself.

Yeah, the music happened as that song came on during one part of the building or painting process and it really matched well with how I envisioned the feeling of the model. Sounds a bit bohemian of me really to write that, but it captured something of the spirit at that time. I could see The Scientist and his brain-washed engineers tinkering with the Wave Serpent with this song blasting out in the background and I thought I should pass on that feeling to all you lot out there.

That's exactly what I wanted to achieve with this model and the whole army. So many times I've seen armies painted differently, but all with the same (obviously popular for gaming purposes) model in the same pose, carrying all the same stuff, in the same way... and I wanted a completely unique army that I could call my own from the lowliest trooper to the largest tank. All in the name of modelling.

Will have to see what's next, I have many plans and much plastic at hand. I'll probably do a few smaller models and build up to the next large piece, as I've been doing throughout the blog (well the first few pages of the blog before I started the WS), alternating between a couple of small, simple troops then something bigger/more important and then small troops again...
I shall decide when I next sit down in front of my desk to start the next modelling adventure.

Righty-O, I've updated the list of army units in the OP with some useful links to the landmarks of the (so far) two larger builds of the blog to make life a little easier for anyone new. Copied below...

Eldar War Walker - Number 1: Start, Complete,

Eldar Wave Serpent - Tr01: Start, Build Complete, Painting and Detailing Complete,

I've started selecting and cleaning mould-lines from the bits for the next models. I'll share pictures of them once built (before paint) if people are interested...

Thanks for the speed links Dr. H, really enjoying the progress of your work.

 Theophony wrote:
Thanks for the speed links Dr. H, really enjoying the progress of your work.

No worries. I just thought that as I had a squad of tactical marine, a squad of terminators, 3 Ttyranid warriors, 12 Termagants, 12 Hormagaunts, 8 Genestealers, some rippers, 8 (and counting) Eldar guardians, a few Dire Avengers and the War Walker all within the first 4 pages...

...and then the Wave Serpent taking up 8 pages by itself, it would be a good idea for people to be able to find the more important steps quicker if they're not bothered with looking at innumerable pictures of a partially blue pill bottle while I prattle on about what painting steps I threw at it to make it look slightly different to the last time...

And I know that future builds could become just as big so it would be good to get into a good habit of doing links for them as I go along.
The troops are more mixed up, however, so it's not so easy to link them all up like that, maybe I will one day when I feel motivated to do so...maybe...

Oh I've missed so much! Wonderful work man, so many layers of detail in modeling and painting! The freehand pinup is very impressive and stood out to me! I've really enjoyed following the process start to finish.

 Casey's Law wrote:
Oh I've missed so much! Wonderful work man, so many layers of detail in modeling and painting! The freehand pinup is very impressive and stood out to me! I've really enjoyed following the process start to finish.

Thanks Casey. I'm glad people are enjoying what I am doing.

I'm happy how she turned out. Just need to work on doing a better face for next time... Let's just say that the trooper that painted it inside his favourite transport was less interested in her face and more interested in other details...

She has a face.........oh yeah, looks ok to me, but hey first glance. LOL

Fantastic work.

lol. Thanks Cam.

As I'm quite pleased with the progress on number 9 I think I'll share with you what is to come.
More to do on the rifle yet, but should give you an idea of where it's heading. Can you guess?

Number 10 is currently missing a ccw that I will need to build (it may be axe-flavoured as I've been looking at pictures of the Wraithblades...).

FINALLY made it to this thread (catching up on all my subbed threads)

Falcon is looking great, very 'salvaged' but solidly built and functional.

solidly built

Except the door I pulled off at one point...

Thanks Skalk. Good to see you floating about the aether again.

Guardians with boomstick . At first I saw the torso and didn't recognize the legs seperate I thought they were servo arms of a unique design. I've been thinking too much about servo things.