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.

"Them Orks nabbed me tyres!"

Thanks guys
I hope the level of expectance doesn't go up even further after the Eavy Metal masterclass next month!

Even the Emperors Servants can't park their vehicles on Scouse IX without losing their tyres......

This can't be right. Two updates in one week?!
A little more weathering has been done, including adding some blue and orange into the mixture for unit colours. Next step is a gloss varnish before I start on the washes.

Nice looking blue, was that sponged on?

No, the blue was painted. It's Vallejo Royal Blue, which is a nice rich colour... unlike a lot of GWs blues that I've got

So. I've done some updates to Graven's Star Scorpion (see my Red Scorpion thread); but the main push this week has been on some guard as I've got a few games against Arakasi in a few weeks time and needed to flesh out the selection a bit.

Update 1) Leman Russ.
Now I always swore that I didn't like this model, but I had the bits for one kicking around... so I thought, what the hell. Now it's all together I'm quite liking the new turret shape on the hull; it's made enough of a difference that I may well ad some more normal Russ patterns. It'll be useful against an Ork horde... probably. As I wasn't sure which version to make, I've magnetised the turret weapons, so I can do any of the three from the box. I have a feeling it'll end up being the demolisher that gets fielded, but we shall see. It's now all stuck together and undercoated grey, so I can start on the camo at some point in the near future. the plan is to also make a longer barrel to stick into the Demolisher cannon to have a standard variant Russ.



Update 2) Some paint on the platoon that I stuck together last week


Update 3) Adventures into Finecast
I picked up my first Finecast model last weekend, the Commissar, as I'm going to need him for my second platoon. Either they are getting better, or I struck lucky, as there was only one left in the shop and he was pretty much bubble/miscast free. The only bubble I could find was on the bottom of his foot, which is stuck to a base... so no biggie there! The pieced glued together nicely, butI was confused slightly by was how easy it was to snap the pieces off the frame... I'm sure the WD article had them bending swords to almost 90 degrees, but it didn't take very much before the parts snapped off the sprue. I was a bit too frightened to try bending the sword to test their claims. I did however convert him to be carrying the las pistol he should be wielding.



Update 4) Tauros weathering
I've been doing some more weathering on the Tauros, slowly building up the chips a bit more as well as adding some oil and rust stains. I'm really pleased with it so far... let's just hope that I don't manage to ruin it when I start adding the mud and dust this week!



I've also caved in and bought some Dust Tactics figures... so expect another blog on those soon(ish)

Looking cool so far

Tauros is looking very nice indeed.

Weathering is coming along beautifully there.

I take it you do the flesh last on your guys?

I tend to do base coats of each colour so everything is blocked out; then I go back and shade/highlight each colour after that. It lets me get a good look at all the parts on the model to make sure I know which colour to start with.

This may all change in a couple of weeks though as we (myself and Arakasi) are off to the Eavy Metal Masterclass

Nearly done with the Tauros. The weathering is finished, I just need to put a final coat of varnish over it all and I can take some lightbox photos for you all. In the mean time...

Looking very sweet

That's some intensely awesome weathering. How many layers do you figure that is?

That is looking *VERY* nice. Will I get to see it up close and personal next weekend? Your Forgeworld Tank Masterclass has *really* paid off - now I just need to get my butt into gear...

I wasn't planning on using it next weekend, but I will bring it anyway as I'd appreciate IRL comments



Automatically Appended Next Post:

The Good Green wrote:That's some intensely awesome weathering. How many layers do you figure that is?

Thanks

The layers (as far as I can remember) are:

Grey undercoat
Dark grey camo/details
gloss varnish
light grey chipping
dark grey chipping
scorched brown chipping/scratches
Tau sept ochre chipping (rush)
sepia wash (multiple layers to get some stains)
Mig oil & Grease stain mixture
gloss varnish
rust weathering powder (mixed with fixer and used to create stains and dribbles)
light earth powder (lots of dust)
dark earth powder/varnish/sand (start of mud)
light earth powder/varnish (adding texture to the mud)

Great job on the Tauros, my friend... And I'm glad you chose to show the Executioner version of your magnetized LRBT!!!

lovely. I was actually dissapointed with the leman russ. In making the kit fool-proof they've taken a little of the building fun away...it also leaves little to no room for extra stuff to go on..... ah well, they're good in game. Just don't let Arakasi's ravenwing near them....

Thanks guys. Now I just need to work out which version to take for Arakasi to blow up

Endtransmission, I'm disappointed.
You are not living up to your Rank here on dakka (might need a spell check lol)

Disjointed Entity wrote:Endtransmission, I'm disappointed.
You are not living up to your Rank here on dakka (might need a spell check lol)

I will leave you to think about that one for a second...

Dang.
Lol

So. Myself and Arakasi went to GW HQ last weekend for another Masterclass day; this time around we had the pleasure to meet and be taught by two of the Eavy Metal team. I'm not going to go into much detail here as I have plans to start a separate blog to explore different painting techniques and tutorials. Needless to say, the masterclass was good fun, if a lot slower than the Forgeworld tank masterclass; but that would be due to the nature of the two vastly different styles.

Forgeworld clearly want things to look good on the tabletop and fairly realistic with lots of weathing, chipping and stains while not taking forever to paint it.

Eavy Metal, on the other hand, want things to look ultra crisp and as good as they possibly can in order to sell products. If you've seen Eavy Metal miniatures in person, the highlights are over the top and don't always look all that realistic. The reasoning behind this is that when you take a photograph of it, the colour contrasts are toned down slightly so they have to counter this by over highlighting things. The other interesting snippet we learnt is that because everything is painted for the camera, it's not unheard of for some things to only be fully painted on one side in order to meet the deadlines they are set.

We also managed to get in three games over the course of the weekend. My W/D/L ration was better than normal at 0/1/2
All three were very close run things with me being in a winning position on turn 5, only to find the game going on for another turn or two and spoiling things. Arakasi is better at battle reports than I am, so I'll leave those up to him.

Oh. the thing I forgot to mention. On Saturday there was a family fun day at GW HQ, for the kids of all the employees with baby animals, a bouncy castle, climbing wall and Dunk-The-Execs where you could throw balls at the executives in order to try and knock them into water. Hilarious. I was, however, most disappointed in the distinct lack of SKULLS on the bouncy castle and climbing wall. Shame on you GW. Shame on you.

Awesome weekend again - and not just because of the battles I think the Forgeworld *Tank* Masterclass was better, but probably only because it was more suited to the format... Inspired me to make a start on my Orks' Dark Angelz clothing and armour... (and some hints for improving my Ork skin and red in the future...)

Yeah, I preferred the Tank masterclass... but this one has inspired me to go back to basics and learn to paint properly. Which ties into our conversation about doing one or two really nice models rather than a new army

Dang

having just read this entire blog (and your red scorpion one) after stumbling across it somewhere in Dakka, I can safely say I'm gonna subscribe.

Some of your stuff is amazing! Painting.....plasticard work...wowza.

That weathering looks super realistic!

On another note, that story about 'Ëavy Metal is pretty funny. I'll never look at GW promotional shots quite the same way again.

Thanks for the kind words. It's a good kick up the arse to keep going.

I don't know how common the Eavy Metal story is, but there's certainly one of the river trolls that isn't shaded/highlighted around the back

Well, I'd say the 'Eavy Metal method is just good business- do what you've gotta do to sell the product. One could talk all day about how they are being dishonest doing this, how they are just some big money hungry corporation, but really, they're just like anyone else and know how to market their products. After all, we still buy their stuff, so they're doing something right... And the extra colour for the subduing camera is rather clever, if I might say so myself.

Kaesar II

My apologies to everyone for the long silence here, I've been busy working on an inquisitor for Panic's Pimp My Sorcerer competition and relearning to paint. My wife is away, so I've been clearing out my office and decided to see what stuff I've actually got for my Guard so I can calculate which trays I need for a P.A.C.K Air case to store them all in.

Sorry for the line and fuzzyness and the lack of actual painting updates, I just thought it'd be interesting to see where we're at and what bits I've got left to work on.



It seems I have:


I've also got the bits to add the following:


Leaving out some of these items, I can make a 3500+ point Apocalypse force or 2700+ standard 40k FOC out of the built stuff and it will probably hit the 4000 point leve with the unbuilt units. Not bad going... now I just need to finish painting some of these half done units! First up is to finish the lasguns and commissars I think.

good to see you back on ig