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I really like the axe and shield.

The whole model looks like an iron golem that a greek hero like Hercules would have to fight.


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I love the base and the shield (is that scribor?) Also the powerweapon looks pretty good (though I disagree about using gloss on it, it would not turn out right in my mind), just toss a few minor highlights on him and thats something to be proud of right there!

He's looking really nice, I'm still trying to get this lightning effect mastered as well.

Well, thanks to a swap meet at my FLGS, the Mantis Warriors now have a Mk-1 Land Raider! Been looking for one for a long time. This one is in good shape, needs just a change of color and was reasonably priced (that last bit is hard to find).

:-) A good day to be sure.

Ralin Givens wrote:I love the base and the shield (is that scribor?) Also the powerweapon looks pretty good (though I disagree about using gloss on it, it would not turn out right in my mind), just toss a few minor highlights on him and thats something to be proud of right there!

Oh yeah?! Well... your name is Ralin Givens but your picture is of Boyd Crowder. So nyah!

Oh boy! That's exciting news! I always thought you needed some heavy armor in your army. I'm glad you got the old school version, seeing as that's your style and what-not.

The way youve painted and modelled that TDA makes him look like an angry bulldog
I love it

Ralin Givens wrote:I love the base and the shield (is that scribor?) Also the powerweapon looks pretty good (though I disagree about using gloss on it, it would not turn out right in my mind), just toss a few minor highlights on him and thats something to be proud of right there!

Hey Ralin, sorry... forgot to answer your question. The shield is Chapterhouse. Very nice piece. It just went so well with the rest of the figure that I was lucky to have it (thanks Pyriel-) Once I finish up whatever detail I'm going to use on the helm I'll get to the edge highlighting & then make a decision on the OSL.


I'm really happy about the Land Raider. Man they're small. Appropriate for the figures of the time but they're tiny in comparison to today's standard. But, It'll be a nice centerpiece for the army and matches everything else. Just have to sort out how I'm going to paint it and I'll be all set.

Maybe add some extra armor plates to give it volume. Or would that ruin the authenticity?

maybe green with trim in yellow? or vice versa? i dunno

Green with yellow sections and some battle damage i think adds to the overall feel of the army i say

I would match it to your terminators and drop pods. Tranquility markings seem a little off here, if i understood the fluff correctly. but thats just my 2 cents

chuckwilliams wrote:

Ralin Givens wrote:I love the base and the shield (is that scribor?) Also the powerweapon looks pretty good (though I disagree about using gloss on it, it would not turn out right in my mind), just toss a few minor highlights on him and thats something to be proud of right there!

Oh yeah?! Well... your name is Ralin Givens but your picture is of Boyd Crowder. So nyah!

Touche sir...touche..your the first one to call me on that

On a more ontopic note I love the old MKI LRs and I am sure you will do it justice

just checking back in Gits! The librarian is definitely coming together. glad to hear that you got one of those MK 1 landraiders, epic model!

UG

I really want one of those MK 1 Landraiders!

Hi Gitsplitta, just read a lot (not all, but a lot) of this thread over the last day or two . . Your army is boss, keep up the good work. Inspirational stuff.

samwellfrm wrote:Maybe add some extra armor plates to give it volume. Or would that ruin the authenticity?

Not sure, I'll start painting it straight and then see how I can muck it up with gubbins.

alabamaheretic wrote:maybe green with trim in yellow? or vice versa? i dunno

Yes to the former.

polari wrote:Green with yellow sections and some battle damage i think adds to the overall feel of the army i say

As none of my vehicles have battle damage, probably not. However... I like battle damage, but am going to wait until the army is essentially done so the damage and techniques are consistent across all the vehicles.

fatty wrote:I would match it to your terminators and drop pods. Tranquility markings seem a little off here, if i understood the fluff correctly. but thats just my 2 cents

Agreed.

Ralin Givens wrote:On a more ontopic note I love the old MKI LRs and I am sure you will do it justice

Thanks Ralin, I'll do my best.

Unluckyguardsman wrote:just checking back in Gits! The librarian is definitely coming together. glad to hear that you got one of those MK 1 landraiders, epic model!

UG

Thank you UG. Looking forward to adding it to the motor pool!

Reaper Man 2020 wrote:I really want one of those MK 1 Landraiders!

I looked a long time before finding this one. Lots of failed bids on e-bay and such. Just finally got lucky.

TheBlueRedPanda wrote:Hi Gitsplitta, just read a lot (not all, but a lot) of this thread over the last day or two . . Your army is boss, keep up the good work. Inspirational stuff.

Love your avatar! Thanks for hanging in there TBRP, I know it's a chore sorting through it all but I'm glad you found it enjoyable & inspirational, makes the work worth-while! ;-)


Took a break from my marines today to finish repainting a Hive Tyrant for thing 2. It's an older metal one, but it looks good all painted up and matches the rest of the army nicely. Also got my light box and spray booth set up again... those were major accomplishments. Tyrant's over in my Nid blog if you're interested. It's just tabletop standard so don't look too hard. There's a limit to the effort I'll put into a repaint. For what it is I think it turned out fine though.

Libby for the win Gits! love the shield, it just looks so damn cool, and painted differently than you usually see too! very nicely done! more please?...please!


Nerdfest09

Yep, I'll finish it up now nerdfest... just needed a break and I've been promising Thing 2 that I'd work on that Tyrant for him for a long time now.

Looking good Gits!I personally really like the lightning effects, they work nicely and arent overly diverting from the rest of the model (as in 'o look, theres a man attached to that giant glowing sword!') which also looks great. Id agree with...damn my rubbish memory...Moltar i think, and say some extra highlights would really finish him off nicely.

Congrats on your Mk1 LR too, im not a fan of that particular model (purely for having the easiest-to-break-looking weapons the world has ever seen ), but it fits beautifully into the old school MWs, nice find

We call them lunchboxes at my flgs lol

The new LRs are much nicer... from a variety of perspectives I'll freely admit. But for my early MW army... I just had to have one.

As much as I love me some LR goodness, I think I'll stick with the current style, maybe the older style FW MKII ones.

So, still mulling over exactly what I'm going to do to finish the librarian, I am of course doing everything and anything else in order to procrastinate making a decision. One of said projects is finishing up a base for a neat GMS marine that I got from Disjointed Entity. DE volunteered to make a chaos Mantis Warrior for me with no strings attached... just because he wanted to give it a shot. Like any red blooded American I leapt (sp?) at the prospect of free stuff. So a bit later I get this really cool chaosed out vanguard from DE... all covered in gore with hoses everywhere and chainswords for arms. Very cool. He needed a base though and I needed to figure out what in the heck I was going to do with a chaos Mantis Warrior. Obvious answer... objective marker.

So, I set about making a base worthy of this cool figure. I had in mind an old rhino hatch, scarred and pitted, with the chaos marine standing on top of it as if he'd just ripped apart the rhino, killed the occupants and was using a bit of the machine to stake out his next victim. So, this little piece has a couple of important firsts... First first... tried a different series of greens to go along with earlier conversations. These are a bit darker and richer, and blend up to a yellow/green rather than a pale white/green. Second first... my first full blown attempt at pitting using the sponge technique a-la grey_death (thanks bud!).

I'm very happy with the way both turned out & have uploaded a higher res image than normal (for a WIP) so anyone who's curious can check it out. I'm sure close examination will reveal a multitude of flaws... but for a first attempt (and at normal table-top distance), it looks darn good. The shot is still WIP of course. The rhino door is complete but as you can see I just added the flocking. Once it's dry I'll wash it & add the grass, then finally the marine at which point I'll take a final pic.

C&C welcome, especially from those of you who've used this technique before. The only thing I'm not happy with is the "X" which is supposed to be chainsword damage from the chaos marine... nice idea but it just didn't translate well. Can't do anything about it now though... luckily it'll have a marine standing over it so it won't be a major distraction for the piece.

(The funny part is that AFTER DE had obligated me by sending me this cool figure, he asked for one in return. Those of you who follow this blog know that I haven't accepted any new trades for months & probably won't for months more as I'm so far behind. LOL!! Well played my friend. He was nice enough to send a figure along, so for once I get to paint a normal marine rather than some crazy custom job... which will be quite a welcome change of pace.)

Gits



What doesn't come through in the pic is that there are light grey highlights on the pits *and* metallic scraps and scratches... but in the pic they all look the same. So if you see a light grey color in the center of a pit or scratch... it's actually chainmail color rather than flat grey. That being said... it actually looks pretty darn good in RL.

Overall it looks pretty good, except for one thing, the chipping.

It is a bit chunky, it looks like you brushed it on? I would highly recommend sponge chipping to add some smaller chips too.

There are 2 problems more serious though, A, you used black as the chip color. A charcoal or dark brown would be better, as it would look like bare weathered metal, rusted or not. But black would not be the color under the green. B is related, the underlining to give the impression of a raised edge is a bit too thick to be convincing, and is grey. Really it should be a light green, usually the same as your highest edge highlight.

Using black prevented you from completing the effect in B as you are unable to make the counter shadow line to compliment the highlight line within the chip itself.

The ultimate solution, would be to AB the armor brown first, then sponge apply liquid masking fluid, and then paint as normal. When you remove the liquid mask after you are done, the fact it is recessed creates a true highlight and edge shadow, saving you a lot of work and having an accurate physical result too!

I know that was a long criticism, but I only wrote it as the solution is very, very easy and quick and I know you have all the tools necessary, I hope it is helpful!

Hey Tom, thanks for the reply...

- Actually, I did use a sponge. I'm new at it though so I'm sure my technique needs practice. Most of the chips are actually quite small though. Not sure I could go much finer but I'm sure I'll get better over time.
- The chips aren't black, they're Adeptus Battlegrey, though I admit the photo makes them look black. I can lighten/change the shade I use from now on with no problem.
- The highlight thing is good to know, can work on that the next time. Will pick a light green shade as you suggest. I'm such a clutz that it's hard for me to keep those edges as fine as they should be. Again, I'm hoping that with practice I'll get better.

I've seen tutorials on using liquid mask... might have to give that a shot.

Thanks!

Agree with tom on the color choices stuff, with just those changes the chipping will go from ok to great Overall you're right there with the technique, give it one more go with the color changes and I think you'll be much happier with the final result!

When/if you try liquid masking, you're definitely going to want to be careful and light with your pattern ( I used a sponge to get the best results ). If you go too heavy, the chips are too large, too small and you'll inevitably miss some when rubbing them from the surface. Also the paint coat over top has to be nice and light (yet opaque) which is a must airbrush situation. So to me it's less useful than using painted on chipping in many areas, even if it's technically more 'real'.

Honestly the hairspray methods I've seen and used are much better suited for any armor than masking.

Sounds like you are on the right track then! I had quite a few goes trying different things before I started being relatively satisfied, started with just sponging, took a few tries to learn to wipe off enough paint off the sponge to keep the results delicate but present... then it was the line highlighting which takes forever and is tough to be fine enough, especially on the smaller sponge marks... then it was multihued sponging with a glaze like highlight...

All that to say, in the end, I arrived at liquid masking, which I find is the most effective and one of the least effort requiring methods, like I said, it is hard to picture, but when you pull it off and see that it created an actual, real chip in the paint, and the light catches it like you pictured it would, it is really satisfying lol. That, then combined with a more rustlike or highlight color secondary light color sponging is ultimate for me! Anything to avoid brush lining the damned things lol -

Thanks g_d, will make appropriate changes the next go-round. I'd like to keep working on this technique so I can do it decently before moving onto some other medium (like masking)... if for no other reason than it's another tool in the tool box. Those little highlight lines are tricky though as even with magnification I have trouble seeing that small (God I hate getting old). I also rushed it a bit. Was sneaking in 10 minutes of painting here and there through the day as I was running errands and looking after sick children.

I need to come up with another project that's limited in scope that I can practice on... don't want to tear into one of my vehicles until I'm sure I know what I'm doing.

At least I'm not afraid to give it a shot... that counts for something, right?


@MajorTom: Sounds like I have a lot to learn yet... that's cool... think I can handle it.

Absolutely!

And GD is totally right, liquid mask is only any good on armor - armor as in tanks and big surfaces. His hint to be wary of the size of the masking is also spot on, too small and it is tough to remove the mask, or notice it (although, the bubbly but subtle relief it creates is a look unto itself), and too big and you lose the effect a bit.

He is also absolutely right that an AB is the best companion to that technique.

Finally, I have yet to try Hairspray technique, so I'm thinking the oil drums that need to go on the back of the Crasssus would be the perfect spot to give that a go! GD recommending it as the best method certainly holds some weight with me!