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A man who notices his other half's hints??!! say it isnt so!

I've always liked the shiny GK's (not saying the red ones and the grey ones arent awesome too btw), im looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

The red/orange Khorne bits will look excellent if they are anything like the BA shown

Also, hope you enjoyed your holiday

@ Knightley: I know, like Starscream to your Megatron, Once again I have failed you I've done something very similar to what you suggested actually, I'll try to get a pic up later. I have a draigo built from bits so this is getting to be a really sizeable force!

@ Revenant: Thx bro. I shall try to meet your expectations and do them justice. Frightening that I listen to woman, but she did coerce her entire family in to buying me geek stuff this year. Yeah, hol great, Center Parcs with kids - tip top. Highly recommended.

I'm going try to get a ton of stuff based tonight, and make some Death Cult out of assorted fantasy minis. Also, on a very happy note, an outstanding payment for 2 lots of ICT work just came through (7&5 months late respectively); that's £180 I didn't expect that I get to waste on toys now! Game on!

Hey gang,
I've just realised we've crossed the 20,000 view threshold. I'm a little in shock about this! But, it's a happy shock. Thanks to everyone for your continued support of the Bloggit! Anyway, on to business.

All my GKs are now built and based bar the NDK and some stuff I'll be doing from bits (I went a bit nuts in www.letthedicedecide.co.uk), including a homemade Solomon Lok (need a pointing marine arm - anyone? pretty please with the still beating heart of a heretic on top?).

The big news, however, is I've finally started using the airbrush. Big, scary stuff. Actually, to my delight - not at all. What I'm doing is using it, for starters, to lay down a layer of white over the grey prime/badab black wash on my Mentors. I'm really pleased:



So from L-R we have simple grey prime job (pre-heresy BA for Conclave), badab black wash (gms Mentor for DarkStarSabre) and airbrushed Vallejo White (Mentor LotD Sergeant). Tbh, the white's brighter than the pic suggests, but more importantly it's clean with a good gradation, preserving some of the shadows without getting bitty the way that drybrushing can. What I do need to get are some decent airbrush cleaning brushes and a stand. That's a job for tomorrow, along with more primer and black wash (I swear I had another tub somewhere).

And if I'm really feeling brave, I'm going to try doing some casting tomorrow, too. Gulp.
Later,
graven.

Looking great my friend. Progress, progress, progress! Looks like you've got the airbrushing down pat. It'll help make things move along quicker to be sure.

Oooh casting huh? This aught to be interesting

Looking good graven!
The airbrush seems to be working out nicely

Ok folks, here goes. This is my working paint scheme for my GKs, incorporating elements of the Knights Carnelian idea and the wife's request of "Shiny":



It's my proper first attempt at the power weapon like that (and when you zoom it's pretty obvious which one I did first!), as well as using the Micron pen. Sorry you can't see more detail on the critter skull on the base. Please be ruthless with your C&C folks, I can only improve!

In other news, I did more priming of GKs and built (mostly) my NDK, for a game tonight. I realise after some experimentation it's not the baby carrier per se that annoys me, it's the lack of protection, so his arms are now armoured, and his legs soon will be likewise courtesy of some bits from Knightley. I'll let y'all know how the war goes (1k, Corteaz+Retinue, Interceptors, NDK).

Oh - didn't get round to airbrushing, but got a cleaning station, and didn't get round to casting (sorry BH) as couldn't find where the wife has hidden the talc (aka release agent). Bah, etc.

Tomorrow, might pic up some more Vallejo paints, we shall see. Probably another Chimera, depending on how tonight's game goes (it's one from my guard that's pulling double duty.

Later, and thanks for staying tuned and keeping me going,
graven.

Ruthless C&C time:

Ahem, I think the eyes need work, they are too plain at the moment. Also think lightning power weapons are meh (not your specifically, the whole idea of them). Also, is that an osl attempt on the crotch armor plate? Hard to tell in pic, but I think your painting style (along with my own) does not lend itself to that particular painting gimmick.

Otherwise, looks pretty good I like the scheme, and the modeling work looks solid.

Overall I like him, but it is the helmet that doesn't do it for me, I agree with whalemusic360 that the eyes need a bit more work but also I can see some weathering on the helmet but it still looks flat. How about an inquisition symbol on the side of the snout and maybe make those two round bits, on the side of the helmet on the end of the bit that comes from the ear to the side of the snout, into lights? Could just liven the helmet up a bit. I quite like the power weapons and I went for a similar take myself on my word bearers army for the power weapons. I'm not entirely sure about the critter head on the base either if I'm honest.

I should say again that overall I like him and those are just some minor tweaks I might make if he were mine.

I agree with WM360 and Reaper, I like the painting alot but the eyes just leave me wanting a little more. They almost seem flat and lifeless, fill those eyes with the ritchous zeal they are screaming for

Likes:
- Dark red on the shoulder/weapon housing looks mint, I really like the dark effect. Have you done any edge highlighting on the plates at all?
- Inscription on the back banner, Micron pen usage is about location in my opinion. Style does come down to it and the way I work it is how long would a word normally be in their times? would they have any words which have bits that go below the line such as a y,g or a p then try to include that in the scribbles.
- The lightening on the blade, great start (see below for more)
- Love the dark metallic look of the armor!

Dislikes:
- The shin 'words' don't look to have anything different about them, even having them black would set them apart from the silver (this is unless you've done something like that but the picture doesn't show it)
- The eyes probably could have been a different color due to having red as your alternate scheme, a blue or green would have brought more focus to them, it looks like you might be missing a very small white mark in the far edges to give that illusion of reflection
- The helmet looks dirty while the rest of the model is clean, I have the inclination that you are trying to emulate the lighter tones of a helmet as I have, from what I can see there isn't much definition, I say this because as you look at the head the right hand piping/block the color is solid on the outside with no recesses darkened except on the inside (I hope this makes sense)
- The blade almost looks unfinished, you have the dark blue to medium blue with small bits of lighter blue however over all the blues don't 'pop' I hate to use that word btw where the forks spread out consider using a watered down light blue/white mix to accentuate the power swelling then splitting, you could do the same with the tips of the lightening as well.

Over all looking pretty good and as you say it can only get better from here

Cheers for the feedback folks!
To address issues: I need to fix light-balancing, as the fact that the wording on armour is all gold is just not showing at all, as are highlights on shoulders/sword. Glad folk generally like the sword (even if the lightning is somewhat passée - I've done it to differentiate from my power weapons, and to push myself.
I agree about the various issues on the head. Green eyes is a good call, and I'll see if that helps.

@WM360: the "OSL" is using pale blue to highlight red where the light naturally catches the model. I've avoided OSL as, I quite agree, it doesn't really suit my style of painting (well... I use it for plasma, but that's about it).
@Reaper Man: Critter head still needs work, I think. I might add some cables coming off it, actually, as it's part of broader "We crush you Dragon Warriors!" theme that runs through the basing (wait till you see the NDK's base...)

I'm really happy with positives - Knightley I know you weren't sold on the idea of metal GKs!

Last night was a really interesting game. There was a disaster beforehand when one of the clips on my monster case snapped off for no appreciable reason, sending GKs flying - only broke two halberds and a warrior acolyte, but still filled with mighty gaiju RAGE so off to store to rant today.

My opponent, who's a former staffer, was unimpressed about me playing GKs - "You have newest codex, you win by turn 2, this is going to be dull" - but actually we had an excellent game. He was playing Marines, running Scouts and Termies, and it was a very close run thing. Marines are a tricky match up for GKs, with their lack of AP3, though the Retinue with its 3 plasma toting Warriors and 5 Psychics did very well. The 2 Death Cult did nothing - but that was my fault, next time I'd run 2 Jokaero instead - and the Mystic was useless as I didn't realise that "on the table" meant "not in a transport". Ah well. Corteaz was awesome, taking out 2 LC Termies before going down. The Callidus was good, but not as vicious as before. The Strike Squad did far better than they had any right to, laying waste to scouts, and securing the main objective. The Interceptor squad were, again, sacrificial lambs, but did that very well. The NDK was brutal, though the DH pointless, really - better to spend points on Psyflame. Still, he took out a Dread and a marine captain. The combination of Heavy Incinerator and PT on the NDK was really the game winner, imo. 3 turns, and a good game all round.

Today, off to GW this morning, and try to get more painting done this afternoon - might try to fix those eyes.

Later, graven.

@graven: I can noodle with your pic when I get back from my trip later today to get the color right (it's why I haven't commented to date). Exciting battle story, hope to have one of my own soon.

Wait, what about being "on the table"? My want to post in ymdc, but I'm pretty sure in a vehicle is on the table (in play), not that the model has to be physically touching the table.

A-pparently it has to be physically on the table. He equated to scouts in a rhino with a homer wouldn't be on the table either. But he freely admitted that was a ruling made a gw staff tourney in 4th ed.

Anyway, redone, and reshot:

I've tried to adjust the gamma correction slightly, though it feels a bit grainy as a result. Improvement on helm?

Also, popped into GW as promised, went up to the manager and he straight swapped the case without even blinking - good bloke. But, GW Glasgow has a really ethic, so I'm not overly surprised.

got a test mini up (bottom link) pic not so good tho

Yeah, pretty sure thats not the correct ruling anymore. Big mek with a KFF in a battlewagon makes the KFF have a bigger radius, not go away. Cant imagine it would be any different with whatever the case with yours would be (dont know the rule off hand, but never heard of anything like that)

@Miss Dee: Can't see it yet?!
@WM360: Good to know. Happier with head now?

Significantly

Looks great graven the helm does 'pop' now, i like the power weapon effects too (although its a bit dark IMO).

Interested to see how the base works out, i am officially intrigued...

Never heard that interpretation of the rules before... if it's on the table, it's on the table. Transport or not.

click on my started topics.

The green eyes def suit it better.

Hola peeps,
Yup, not dead, as the title says, though feel dreadful today. Wife's had a bit more time off in run up to our anniversary this weekend, plus other stuff - leaky roof that's going to cost me £5k, bee hive in living room wall, etc - so not got as far forward as I'd like.

Still, progress, with some (admittedly really shoddy) pics.

First up, a test on using vallejo greens for Mentor Legion - who've not been forgotten, I've just been trying to get my GKs done:

Left is the new green. Disregarding the shininess, I'm very impressed by the depth of colour: that's two coats of dark green over the airbrushed white layer. Blokey on right is the original test model for comparison.

Next up, a built thing (because we need building to keep us sane): I went on FW to order some bits, only to discover Solomon Lok's no longer on the site:

Quite pleased how he's turning out!

So, yes, painting. I've decided to block paint, which is soul destroying but forces me onward. Apart from the NDK and the LRC (and the Techmarine, but he's a slightly different case), everything has at least its first set of colours: Black/BGM/Terracotta/Fortress Grey. Be warned, photos are shoddy as I hadn't realised wifey had been fiddling with my camera to do cake shots till after.

Paladins:





Stern and counts-as Draigo (hate the "real" Draigo model)


Counts-as Crowe and Brotherhood Champion (wife liked the fig, had to do something with it!)


Ven dread, with ACs down the front


NDK - I've tried to avert baby carrier syndrome with additional armour from dreads


Incinerators (awful photo, sorry) - all my regulars are split into non-robed and robed to give me distinct squads


Psycannons


Halberds from squad 1


Halberds from squad 2


Interceptors


And lastly, a libby and a (very) wip techmarine with c-beamer that I threw together this morning



So, there you go! If anyone wants me, I'll be on the sofa with my magic space phone.

Later,
graven.

Wow, that's an impressive amount of work!

Very impressive amount of work! I find myself recognising bits on bases

Nice models, especially the Techmarine.

You have really made progress! Bummer about the house though :(

Very nice work. I like the extra armour idea on th DK.

Looking good graven!
real shame about the house, heres hoping it gets sorted quickly (and as cheaply as possible )

Really like the way the new green looks, very nice!
And you've got some great stuff otherwise too, the GK's are coming on nicely.