Wednesday 9 May 2018

Terrain is everything - Sanctum Imperialis Big Build TO DONE!

After my last Confession I'd assessed what was on my palette and distilled it down to the 'Big 3' which begs the question why I was suddenly building the Sanctum Imperialis from my Imperial Knight Renegade set... In fact, on the sprue this took up far less room but I suddenly had the urge to sacrifice valuable time on the Heirophant to finish this off.


Now I made some choices about construction, to get as much out of it as possible and match up with the smaller pieces of it I already own. However, despite not looking at the instructions or the pictures I've made an almost stock version of it, the main difference being it has the walls on both sides, instead of the front wall leading to ruins.

The balcony is also twice as big, running the entire width of the buidling. I used 'granny grating' to extend the balcony, which meant gluing was a challenge. I used Super Glue Gel, to bond it to the sprue 'cantilever' supports and various bits of cable ties to support it underneath. it should be sufficient for the load of a few figures. And the grating allows light to pass through unerneath - no shelter from the caustic rains of Ferron Proxima but it does look pretty.



Side views, so that you can see how wonky the balcony is - no plumb lines in the 40k universe - it's heresy!

So I do get a Big Build Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval, it was even on my Big Build list! Regardless I need to see how quick I can actually paint this and it's siblings...

Friday 4 May 2018

'nids part 253 - Biotitan Tyranid Hierophant pt.8 - "My God, it's full of stars"

Yet more 'highlights', I'm going to stop apologising for this now, it's a big model, there's only so much I can do so it's going to take a while and that means a lot of posts might not cover a huge amount of progress or highlight the same old process yet again. So lets just crack on...  I confess, although I had done some hard graft and fairly decent, consistent, highlights so far the model was a little underwhelming. Now I think Ive gone a little 'Liberace' on it. The spots and dots have been a key feature on my colour scheme since I first started.


Their primary function is as an 'interference pattern' to break up the expanse of blue on each plate. Given the amount I once again adopted my three sizes of cocktail sticks to create small medium and large dots without wrecking my brush and creating consistent circles each time. I may have gone OTT but they definitely achieve their function, as you can see below.


I'm a little dubious regarding the big circles. When you use the cocktail stick it does tend to make dots bigger than it's diammeter, thanks to the amount of paint you pick up. That siad this is as big a model as it gets and I was happy with that dot size on my Bastion/Skyshield/Defence Lines so I'm not going to worry too much about it.


I managed to do the entire body, legs and guns were limbs too far. I'm confident this is now better than it was and will look awesome but I accept it is way OTT, but as a centrepiece model it's supposed to be. I've actually seen a fair few Hierophants painted recently, very simply and I feel a bit sad folk didn't go all out on it.


I will at least know I gave it my all when it's done. Next up are its limbs, as mentioned above and then I may do an updated built photoshoot before I do the first set of bonewhite highlights. I want to do this in even stages rather than take the chitin through to finished and then play catch up elsewhere.


It's interesting that all the claws and spikes that have been painted black are already showing signs of wear due to all the handling this model takes to get it painted - that piece of foam comes in handy for resting it up and support. The rubber gloves help a bit too, but then they get snagged on a spike. Anyway, see you next week and I may have those 'built' pictures ready.

Wednesday 2 May 2018

'nids part 252 - Biotitan Tyranid Hierophant pt.7 - Chitin highlights on the tail and 2nd half of the body

I managed to get really focused to complete the final 19 chitin plates on the tail of the Hierophant. I honestly didn't think I'd do it but perseverance will out! It also helps they get progressively smaller as they go down the tail ;)


Vents also got done, well this side at least.


The striations still bother me as they're pretty chunky, especially on the smaller plates but then I remember these are first highlights and [even] if I could do them finer they'll be most likely covered up by second highlights anyway!


This is two nights on. Session 1 I did the left side of the head, mandible and two neck plates. Given how disappointed I was when I did this first time around I was quite chuffed as I felt I was 'to schedule'. What I seemed to ignore was I possibly did the 4th bigger shoulder plate too in that session, so I was actually behind schedule :( However, I didn't realise it at the time and so cracked on during session 2. So I was already a plate down and only managed half a big dorsal vent but I did do three plates and all the cysts. So a little behind still but it's still progressing.


And then last night's session - three of the biggest plates on the model and a few of the vents. I'm obviously still behind, this may end up taking a couple more sessions to finish up but I'll no doubt throw in the spots onto that second session and then first pass of highlights will be done.


Of course when I do the spots I'll also have to do the legs as well which might end up longer than 2 sessions, who knows. There's a bit of tediousness about this at the moment but thankfully I'm relaly motivated, at least getting these highlights complete before I flit off to do something else...

... which is lies! Because I've actually been multi-tasking this with another project at the same time. No, not the Armigers... nor the Razorback... even the Fire Firs haven't been touched. No what I have been doing is building my Sanctum Imperialis from the Renegade box set. Yeah! What the flip is that all about?! Anyway, I'll have some Big Build To Done! pics from that soon.

Monday 30 April 2018

'nids part 251 - Tyranid VSG

Almost two years ago now, there was another one of my 'honestly not' diversionary tasks while the Dark Angel drop pods failed to motivate me. But what a task to get distracted inspired by - the Tyranid VSG. Although don't get too excited I haven't touched it since, I just got sick and tired of seeing the two posts about it permanently in 'draft' status.


Anyway, this was just two nights work in 2016 as I endeavoured to fill out some of the fibrous musculature on the containment spine. First of course I had to do spikes which were sculpted to match the Capillary Tower spikes on the Skyshield. I probably should have checked that post before beginning, it might have reminded me how fiddly DAS can be, even when applied to the curtain hook core. The clay kept slipping all over the place and it was extremely difficult to bring to a sharp point it just wouldn't play ball. I'm sure Milliput or even green stuff would have rendered better results with their adhesive properties.


After the two nights of effort progress stalled. The plan was to at least get the fleshy bits done, possibly the battlements too. However, I planned on doing a 'how to' video of the fibre sculpting and for that I need a willing child to hold the phone while I sculpt. The eldest helped with my infamous Chitin panel sculpt that I finally posted regardless of it's 'adult' nature.but I haven't been able to cajole him to repeat the process. The upside of losing interest in the VSG was renewed vigour on the Ravenwing Dark Talon, then 31 Genestealers, Land Speeder Typhoons, my Imperial Knight and finally back around to the drop pods, ultimately seeing them through to completion. So despite the distraction it actually kickstarted my efforts in the task I was actually trying to avoid... eventually!


Hopefully I'll one day film a set of fibres being sculpted, but finding time to do it is tricky and I'm otherwise occupied [as I have been for almost 2 years!!!]. Then I can move the spine onto completion and worry about sculpting the battlements or do the interface with the ground...

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 1. part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. |

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 2. part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. part 9. | part 10. | part 11. | part 12. | part 13. | part 14. | part 15. | 

Friday 27 April 2018

'nids part 250 - Tyranid Void Shield Generator - how to sculpt a chitin plate NSfW!

To celebrate my 250th Tyranid post I thought I'd finally publish this 'draft' post officially to the world. I originally sculpted and filmed this almost 2 years ago but I know what it looks like and just couldn't bring myself to share it publicly. I've speeded it up to try and make it less 'inappropriate but dirty minds will out.


All it really is for is helping folk understand that sculpting these plates is not difficult. It takes 10 minutes to do each one and then it's left to dry overnight. I was also doing a couple of other plates on the sides so a half hour sculpting session in total. It's not a huge investment in time and as you can see the technique is not difficult but I think the results turn out pretty cool.


The VSG is in hiatus at the moment, I do have a follow up post to this to show the sculpted fibrous inner musculature on the tower. I actually wanted to film that too but haven't yet but one day I'll get back to it I promise, until then you now know the secrets of it's xenos construction.

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 1. part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. |

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 2. part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. part 9. | part 10. | part 11. | part 12. | part 13. | part 14. | part 15. | 

Wednesday 25 April 2018

'nids part 249 - Biotitan Tyranid Hierophant pt.6 - Chitin highlights on the body

You're all going to have to bear with me at the moment, chitin highlights seems to be a theme to these posts but unfortunately there's no getting away form it. As a record of progress it's helpful but I appreciate it's not a captivating update. However, these four carapace plates took over an hour to do, I was utterly spent and demotivated at the end of it as I envisaged the remaining plates taking forever.


But it would appear I was just trying to be really neat and tidy as my next session managed to do three of the biggest plates, with cysts and one side of the big vent and the side vent too. Again, this will be helpful in estimating time to do the other half of the Hierophant and then repeating it with second highlights.


There are still the spots to do, which will help bring it all together as it currently looks a little spartan at the moment. The irony is that despite the tedium and 10-20 sessions I envisage remaining on the chitin once it's done the Hierophant is almost complete. After the turquoise and bone there's not a great deal left to do [there is but I'm going to stick with my perception because it's optimistic].


I followed up the 3 big plates with two more, the right sides of the dorsal vents along the spine and then both ventral [?] vents on the sides.


I think I got quite busy with the striations on the dorsal vents, not much room for spots, c'est la vie. Which leaves me 5 or 6 significant carapace plates on the back with 7 dorsal vents and then quite a few little plates down the tail. 2 to 3 more sessions to complete this half of the beast and then I get to repeat the process on the other side!


I might do a bit more shading on the Razorback before that, just to stave of the tedium. I've already done some, but foolishly stopped about 75% through. But the Biotitan is definitely a slog, it's not beating me though and I'm not disliking the process but currently the reward is the progress I've achieved not act of doing it.

Monday 23 April 2018

Terrain is everything - Ferron Fire Firs

The other week I had a day off, mainly to attend a funeral but afterwards I was productive in moving a lot of logs created from my mutant Sycamore tree I had to cut down - it was starting to move the foundations of my garden fence. Having put the wood at the front of the house for a neighbour who has a log burner I Found time to follow up on one of my extra tasks and tackle my Lemax trees. I'd already added shade washes to their bases but this was after the Vermillion drybrush.


A few hours later I came and did the Gamboge highlight.


Then it's the Yellow Mid


Which leaves me with this. Again these paints are really fun as they're thick and gloopy but are slightly translucent in use so it's a bit difficult getting the right colour. I'm still not sure if I've worked the bristles enough to be 'yellow' trees. But with so many to do and the need to get them done I'm not really that fussed.


They look pretty cool, I just need to decide if enough is enough? There are a few that don;t have as much Yellow Mid so they're a slightly different tone, I might even do some with a white drybrush for 'white hot'. Some of the more squashed bistles will get a quick black spray and dry brushed to be already burnt.


Then it's on to the Red Planet BASE! I'm not looking forward to that at all, the Bonewhite chips will be so tedius :(

Meanwhile the Lemax set that I bought two of above, is currently available for £10.99 [plus postage] at http://www.millracegardencentre.co.uk/pine-trees-assorted-21pcs.html