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Thanks all!

 Archer wrote:
Any plans on an Epic army?

I'd love to, if I can drum up any local support. If I do end up painting any Epic 'Nids then I'll really be in a quandary as to how to implement the dot scheme.

One further update. Because the goal of this project has been to get 6 (reduced to 5, since the 3D printer conked out) fleets done in preparation for vacation with some friends, I hurriedly painted the Ork fleet in one night. Could have done better for sure, but at least a messy look works for Orks. Because I just can't have Ork Kroozers looking identical to one another, I had a fun time mixing and matching parts- and adjusting their scales, something I obviously could never do with conventional models- to get four unique builds. Two Terror Ships, two Kill Kroozers, three Ravagers, three Onslaughts.

Haha, different enough. I like the one with the upside-down 'head' in particular. They look good!

How'd you do that yellow btw? Is that a contrast wash over a sprayed basecoat? Whatever it is it's surprisingly effective for a dirty yellow.

I'm really inspired by the fact that these are all 3d printed.

Yeah I'm curious as well, that's a great looking dirty yellow

 Insectum7 wrote:
How'd you do that yellow btw?

1. Prime the model silver.
2. Hand-paint VMC Deep Yellow into specific areas.
3. Realize that you'll be approaching retirement before you achieve solid coverage of Deep Yellow over silver by hand.
4. Adjust intended scheme and airbrush VMC Flat Yellow over the whole model.
5. Airbrush it again.
6. Airbrush it again.
7. Flat Yellow coverage sucks, switch back to Deep Yellow.
8. That covered great but wait, why do the models look almost fleshy? Ah crap, that was Golden Yellow.
9. Actually switch to Deep Yellow and airbrush two mostly-solid layers.
10. Go and do the metallics and details and all that junk.
11. Wash 2:1:1 AP Strong Tone, AP Quickshade Wash Mixing Medium, water.
12. Wash 2:1:1 AP Dark Tone, AP Quickshade Wash Mixing Medium, water.
13. Paint engine glow.

Fin. The moral of the story is prime white.

tl;dr It's just VMC Deep Yellow with two layers of washes; given more time I'd probably do a drybrush of a lighter color (maybe just mix the Deep Yellow with white) before washing.

^Hahaha. Great writeup! Yeah, yellow sucks to paint and that's why I asked. It's even obnoxious as an artist grade oil paint, I find.

You got there in the end at least. +1

You have done some great work on here Catbarf. I was contemplating a foray into 3D printing and like you I was going to do something like BFG to get my feet wet first. The look of your BFG fleets are adding to my pro-list for jumping in. Your paintjob on the Tyranids are stunning, and it is great to see something other than what you see from GW. I also really like the stormtrooper conversions that you did. This is one of those items that I am going take another look at when I am ready to work on mine.

Yellow looks good, but always painful to hear how it has been reached!

Thanks for sharing

Yeah, yellow is always a pain. At least you've got the airbrush to make it that much easier

Six fleets sounds like a nicely diverse platter of possibilities, are you hosting a multiplayer smash or just offering choices for normal match-ups?

Thanks guys. Sorry for not answering sooner Sherrypie; the plan was to do a couple of intro games on vacation but instead I came down with strep throat. So, that didn't end up happening.

Anyways, since getting back I've been working on other hobbies, but I worked up the motivation to paint a batch of Mechanicum I'd had primed and sitting in a cupboard. I really love the designs of the AdMech Tech-Priests, but the stylized anachronism stew of the rest of the AdMech range doesn't really do it for me- the Mechanicum, on the other hand, are exactly the sort of cybernetic body horror I like. So, I got a plastic Dominus to use as one of my HQ choices, and I think it works well with the rest of them.

My one big annoyance with how these turned out is that fibers from the Q-tip I used to remove excess oil wash got absolutely everywhere, and I'm only seeing some of them now in the photos. I think I'll invest in the more tightly packed cotton buds that a few companies sell specifically for hobby use.

Outstanding job on the Thallaxii cohort, really love how the visors capture that soulless void feeling.

Looking cool, was half expecting spots on them though

Exalted catbarf.

Cheers,

CB

Excellent weathering on those!

Looks superb! Really like the muddy bases, something very evocative about these robots stomping through the mud and rain.

I'll second Olthannon, those muddy bases are great, really add to the atmosphere of the models. And beautiful paint job as always. I advent been able to spot any stray fibres in the photos if thats any consolation.

These are top notch! Just the right vibes.

Thanks guys, much appreciated. It's looking like I'll be doing some Tauroxen next to bring my Stormtroopers to 1K, and then I'll have a group shot to show off.

In the meantime, I put together a tutorial addressing a popular request:

A couple months later and I have some updates.

I converted and painted this Officer of the Fleet a little while ago, but didn't get around to taking photos until just now.





And the unit that took me a long while- twenty Mechanicum Tech-Thralls, marking a new low in terms of points painted to time spent, despite the Mechanicum scheme being designed to be speed-paintable and despite my best efforts to keep its implementation simple.

I'm actually reasonably happy with them, but I'll probably be loading them up with carapace armor and induction chargers just to make them feel a little more useful than meatshields.

Very nice officer there!

It's always great to see some fresh Catbarf on my screen.

The officer looks really neat but I love those Tech-thralls. The lenses are good and the gross skin is fantastic.

 Olthannon wrote:
The officer looks really neat but I love those Tech-thralls. The lenses are good and the gross skin is fantastic.

Thanks, wasn't too hard either so figured I'd share the recipe- a basecoat of VMC Ivory, then a wash of 1:1 Army Painter Flesh Wash / Purple Tone, then selective application of 1:1 Purple Tone / Red Tone around the implants, and then it got the same oil wash as the rest of the model. Pretty straightforward and makes for a nice less-than-healthy look.

Damn those Tech-Thralls look amazing.

Reminds me that I have a unit of those, but no arms for them. Got them from a friend who didn't want them anymore. Wonder if they'll take Skitarii stuff... or Electro-Priest parts?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Wonder if they'll take Skitarii stuff... or Electro-Priest parts?

It would probably be pretty close, possibly even an exact fit. They seem pretty similar.

Anyways, I got my Vorax done much more quickly. I initially disliked these sculpts, but they've grown on me considerably. One thing I hadn't noticed when I started putting them together was how the sculpts imply three different parts of the model as the 'head'- there's the obvious bug head, but also a human skull worked into the dorsal weapon, and the actual 'brain' of the robot is the cybernetica cortex right below the weapon (the brass 'dome' in my scheme). That's a fun touch that I think very well fits the idea of these being machines made in the visage of animals.

Well, I'm still keeping with a pretty simple color scheme, so I was able to bang them out in a hurry.

It's strange how rarely I've seen the weird FW AdMech stuff in the wild, even including the awesome siege automata, so it's always a treat when somebody paints some up. Or in your case, adds to a growing throng of techno-killers. Vorax look very cool, certainly sculpts I did not appreciate before yours. Likewise your mass of thralls above are very impressive, while also being a unit I barely registered on the FW store

I have to say I much prefer the FW aesthetic of admech to the 40k version. They look much more brutal and your paint scheme really adds to that.

 Olthannon wrote:
I have to say I much prefer the FW aesthetic of admech to the 40k version. They look much more brutal and your paint scheme really adds to that.

Thanks; I very much agree about the aesthetics. It took me a while to find a paint scheme that I liked, as I wanted to do something appropriately 'historical' to the setting, but I also specifically wanted it to be ambiguous about whether they're loyalists or heretics. That was partly so I can play either side on the tabletop, but also partly because I like the idea that all flavors of Mechanicum are frightening and monstrous- that all their allegiance affects is where you'll be sent after being abducted and lobotomized into a guidance system.

Speaking of which, I think next up is a Vultarax. I've got more unassembled Mechanicum in backlog, but all I have assembled and unpainted is the Vultarax, a Domitar, and a second Tech-Priest, so I'm pretty close to having a 2K list done. I'm thinking I might also paint up my Avenger and Lightning, originally intended for the Stormtroopers, as Mechanicum, both to get some more anti-tank and because I don't feel terribly optimistic about the future of those units in 40K.

Hopefully this doesn't take me four months like the Tech-Thralls did.

Whaddaya know, it most certainly didn't.

As with my other flying models, I've converted this one to use thick acrylic rod rather than the default flying stand. The end is magnetized to better facilitate transport.

I gave Tamiya cotton buds a try with this one, and while they didn't fray at all (so no cleanup of stray hairs), they also didn't do as good a job at soaking up and pushing around the oil wash, so there's still some staining evident. I may need to use conventional Q-tips for larger/flatter areas, and then the Tamiya ones for the fine details where the Q-tips tend to get snagged.

Yeah that flight stand is way better!

Looking at that model, I see the predecessor of the Death Guard Blight Drone.

That single red panel really pops. Kind of makes the miniature.

I'm suddenly reminded that I have an entire Mechanicum army that I haven't built. I even have a Vultarax!

Loyalist blight drone, very cool