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John Blanche is that you?

simply gorgeous!! I dont think it needs muc more bling clout ot it all - the subdued tones really work I think. It's a lander after all. Any glitz n that would have been burned and worn off long ago. Absolutely fantistic work - cant wait to see the finished piece

Thanks so much!

@MajorTom: oh I wish. Clearly I am a big fan of his though, and I'm proud to say he even purchased one of my models!
@youidiotkid: no problem. Unfortunately I tend to mix all my colors and don't use a lot of paint straight from the pot. The blue-green on the lander is mosty tube acrylic pthalo green (yellow-hue) mixed with some space wolf grey and black paint. Then I washed it with a mix of yellow ochre, red, black, and lots of matte pigment, and then some seraphim sepia ink. In general I use a lot of the Sybarite green color, often mixed with blue or brown ink depending on how I want to tint it.
@OneManNoodles: quite right! I love Jodorowsky's Dune but decided to go for something a bit more subdued, although you'll see I am trying to push it in a more Chriss Foss direction.

I've gotten more work done on the lander. I love the Maschinen Krieger look, but wanted to bring in some more detail and Chriss Foss style. I also lightened the main green color quite a bit with a few rounds of highlights and light-colored washes; I liked the old color a lot but it made it hard to appreciate all the detail in the model.











I had some trouble with masking tape and primer that didn't stick to slick plastic, so I'll have to repaint those areas, but I'm going to incorporate that into the paint job — I want the paint to look layered and palimpsestial as much as the ship itself.

Next up I need to introduce some finer detail work to contrast with the overall painterly approach, then metal edging, rusty washes, gold, verdigris, etc. Oh and I will do the golden domes with my Hasegawa mirror foil.

--

I also finished building the display base / terrain slab. I added tons more detail, including a multi-layered semi-eroded right side that includes a lower area at the back to take the Dropship's flying stand. Then I covered everything in a mix of gesso, matte medium, coffee grounds, baking soda, plastic trimmings, and saw dust. I think next time I'll leave out the saw dust because it was too clumpy.









I wish I had more time for detail work and more careful texturing but this will have to do. Next up I'll see how it looks after lots and lots of spray-painting.

Holy Terra! This whole project is just gorgeous!

Your ship is beautiful, the navigators are just the right amoount of creepy, I love it!

Wow, amazing to see the lander finally complete and it looks incredible!

That lander looks fantastic! The new colours really make it pop. Great work!

Lander is looking really really nice! That display base is going to be amazing.

Every time I fall into an artistic slump (miniature-related or otherwise), I always check this page. You've managed to inspire me yet again.

Just look at that Lander! Look at it!

Beautiful.

EDC

Wow, that lander looks amazing, beautiful work mate .

That lander looks great with some paint on it. For that proper Chris Foss look, it'll be needing more stripes and checkerboards though.

Thanks everybody!

Got some more painting on the lander. Nota bene: Almost all of the painting was done while sitting at the living room coffee table (and watching House of Cards and the many US presidential debates), hence the messy living-room in the background of these quick snapshots.









I think I'm almost done! I decided to embrace the type of painting I most enjoy doing, which is less subdued and realistic than you'd see in military or movie prop modeling and less technical and careful than you see in most warhammer stuff. I kind of like that it looks more like a painting of a spaceship than a real spaceship, the type of hazy suggested structure you might see obscured by atmospheric perspective in the back of one of John Blanche's huge old battle paintings.

Next is hasegawa gold foil on the dome view-windows, and then some selective ink washes to bring out details. Maybe some letraset rub-on letters and shapes, and then the big question is if I do semi-opaque rusty orange wash in the recesses or let it be. I should probably start painting the terrain! And then there's the magnetized antennae arrays to do ...

Awesome! I like the Blanche-esque colours and style. Keep up the good work!

Whatever the style, looks good to me!

Dear lord, this is incredible. Out of all of the amazing details, that freehanded "MERZ" alongside the pin-striping is what really sells me on this.

I could look at that thing for hours. Totally mesmerizing!

EDC

I feel like it's 1987 all over again!

Great stuff

That lander looks very awesome.

Thanks guys! Added the gold foil last night and just need to a few final touches before taking some new photos.

@youidiotkid: Glad you like the Merz lettering! The slanted bar on the E is a graphic design history reference to Kurt Schwitters' Merz magazine logo:
http://www.dadart.com/dada-media/Schwitters-Merz-ensemble-p.jpg

That lettering also relates to a font I quickly threw together*, inspired by my Navigators and the 40k aesthetic in general, aka weird, brutal ahistorical postmodern mixing:



One of these days I'd love to draw a proper 40k inspired typeface, but for now I'm considering this the house font for my Navigators.

*I've written about parallels between graphic design and this hobby before, but this font is basically a conversion, not a "scratch-build"; I took a fairly conventual sanserif I had already drawn, and did some character swaps with anachronistic forms pulled from historical models (medieval, 19th century, and early 20th century). It's also pretty germanic in nature because I was working on it along-side a related font for a book about Berlin.

Anyway, back to models!

Some rough spray paint work on the terrain slab/base:





I'll go darker from here, but this should be a good basis. The sides will get more color and tone and the top will get shaded/highlighted but will remain the color of ash and dust.

Awesome! The base looks great! I can't wait to see it in all its grimdark glory! May I recommend scattering a few corpses around in some of the gaps and little holes, to add a bit of character?

Some really inspirational stuff in here!

The ship is stunning, but that base will put the whole thing soooooooooo far over the top it's nuts.

That's funny, I had thought the name "Merz" sounded familiar. I've only encountered Schwitters's work indirectly through Dadaist film, but I can appreciate the reference. Is there any chance that we'll get to see that font again? It might look at-home on a plaque or a stencil somehow integrated into that display slab (then again, you don't want to make the board too crowded with details).
I might be getting a little bit too excited about seeing the finished lander, so please update soon!

That dropship is beautiful.

Truly amazing stuff.

I love how the boards coming along, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how you paint this up.

Thanks guys!

@youidiotkid: at the very least the font will find on a home on my army list print outs!

I've started painting the board in earnest! I have no time at all so I'm working fast and messy, but I kind of love it. Very, very fun to do in any case.









That's mostly done with phtalo green tube paint thinned out with liquitex flow aid (and water and matte medium). I really love the flow-aid and it's perfect for terrain like this. I think tonight I'll go over most of the base with a rusty wash, then move on to sponging and chipping and other accents.

And here is the completed Landing Pavilion (barring any eventual aerials and other minor details if I have time):

Fantastic, I can not wait to see this all together. Many Kudos in advance!

I was right about the paint making this thing stand out, excellent start.

Awesome! That paint job really ties the board together. I look forward to seeing the entire thing painted!