'nids part 367 - #DreadTober Norn Emissary Bone & GSC Sentinel yellow

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's #DreadTober2024 and it's bone and yellow. I managed to get a really focused painting session in on the Emissary. I usually do the bone first, which is challenging but I'll probably find the turquoise much worse when I get to it.

It was about an hour and a half to two hours to get it done and all the Assimilator bits to. For me that's a lot at the moment. Even when I've been my most productive I don't often sit and paint without a break for that long. If I do it's definitely broken up with many different things to paint. I would not be just doing endless bone. So in that respect I was quite proud of myself.

However, once again my brush control continues to disappoint. I've said many times I love to see brush strokes, I like to see someone has painted something. Obviously 'Eavy Metal and Golden Demon entries deserve the respect for their quality and execution. But I appreciate much more something that you can see has been executed to look painterly. As I know I can achieve that too, it helps, but that requires a level of brush control - so that when you're marking a mark, that mark is there because you decided to make it that way, rather than that's the only way you were capable of making it.

And that's why I feel a bit disheartened with many of the strokes on the tail in particular. This the best control I could muster and it is not the standard I aspire to but also thought I'd be capable of after decades of painting. My progress hasn't even stalled it has regressed! So, this is somewhat disappointing but I am trying to reframe that feeling that only way you are capable of making brush mark is a bad thing. Accepting what I can and can't do is an achievement in itself and 'finished not perfect' has been my mantra for quite a while. Not perfect could mean 'even less perfect' for me now. But I get ahead of myself, it's far from finished and there is still paint to come that will draw attention from some minor wobbly lines. I've experienced a lot of emotions and self-reflection in this one process. It may not be the function of #DreadTober but there has been growth for me, even if it has been hard to face it.

Meanwhile, I got to slap on some yellow. Rather than go with my Gamboge Art Acrylic, I started with Instar IV-16 yellow [armoured Sentinel]. It's what I did with the original Sentinels and I wanted to attempt consistency. 

However, they did have a tint layer of Gamboge on top, but I tested Citadel Iyanden Yellow contrast and it achieve the same effect. It's used on the one on the left.

Again, there is more to do to tone things down and add more weathering and rust so they will look very different when finished.

I love these old sculpts. Sure the new Sentinels are pretty cool but there's something so basic about them, like the original Willy's Jeep. Whereas now they're 'overengineered' if grudgingly more functional.

Anyway, here's one next to an original and yes there's a bit more orange on it but that should tone down a bit as we go on. If not... screw consistency! 🤣

I've done a bit more on all of these since these pictures, maybe get them up early next week. But I actually did some Leviathan bits and pieces too, as well as a few Genestealers to potentially add to my Ceraatus bases. Progress is progress!

'nids part 366 - #DreadTober Norn Emissary & GSC Sentinel shading

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's #DreadTober2024 and it's shade wash time. For some reason this doesn't feel like much progress but I've done both the sepia and strong tone washes so it's now ready for the first set of highlights.

I also did the rusty sections on the base with Vallejo Game Effects Dry Rust, similar to Typhus Corrosion, just a little more red. This will form a great base to drybrush and weather.

The Sentinels also had Dry Rust applied.

I also added a chainsaw arm to the armoured Sentinel. This was an original Adeptus Titanicus chainsaw arm. Part of me felt this was heresy.

But I'm not likely to use them for their original function when I have lovely new Titans painted if I want to play Adeptus Titanicus

And, it's better the bit gets used rather than sit in a box gathering dust. You may also spot some decorative gemstones on the inside leg joints of the scout sentinel. They had been missing some bits and I just wanted to cover the holes up.

I'll cover the gems up with paint on primer and Dry Rust and it'll look almost original. That's it for week one, hopefully I'll continue progress and keep this momentum going with first stage highlights this weekend.

'nids part 365 - #DreadTober Norn Emissary & GSC Sentinel prep work

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's #DreadTober2024 and I need to get my hobby mojo back on and get some painting done.

My pledge this year is my Norn Emissary/Assimilator. I've had this for about 10 months now and it's about time he got finished. He'd pretty much been built, based, primed and base-coated months ago but I then decided he would be for DreadTober and also I'd magnetise the Assimilator arms and head which was something of a challenge.

It was such an afterthought it was quite difficult to get it done, but this is my usual starting point for DreadTober for me. Everything else takes just so long to do and this stuff is so tedious it needs to be out of the way to give me any chance of getting it done by the end of the month.

Another issue was that I dropped it at some point and didn't realise his tail spike had snapped off. obviously that piece is no lost for all eternity so I used a Carnifex spike to replace it. I'm hoping that this will be the easy part of the challenge. I mean it's big, but it's not High Rule Dude big, like last year's pledge.

Now, because this was technically done last hobby season I need to break out the old Bloody Great Big Bloody BIG BUILD Stamp of Bloody BUILD Approval as well as the Bloody Great Big Bloody BASE Stamp of Bloody Approval for one last time.

The first time I joined in DreadTober was 2017 and I painted 2 Genestealer Cult Sentinels and look what I have as my 'stretch' goal - 2 Genestealer Cult Sentinels.

As you can see all prepped and ready to go. It's actually worth noting that these might be far more of a stretch than they appear. Sure, last year I did a massive Tyranid monster and two Screamer Killers for my stretch - 3 much bigger models. But they were all the same colour palette so it was very easy to keep the flow going.

Here I have a very different palette and although the models are significantly smaller I really do pack in a lot of techniques to make these grungy and weathered. Although, perfection isn't 100% necessary because of that weathering so they may actually be very quick

But I had a bit of fun building the 'armoured Sentinel cabin'. I had the cabin frame but none of the panels. So, I cut up post-it notes to create templates for the panels between the frame sections. Then I stuck the shape to an old credit card and that became the armour plating. Then I used the template again on cereal box card, but cut it 1mm inset, to make the additional armour plate. 

Drilled holes in the cereal box card for added detail and then used a superglue tube spacing ring to make the roof hatch, with a drawing pin, bits of card and a cocktail stick. I'll probably never use these in a game, so it begs the question why I'm actually doing them but I really enjoyed painting the first two in 2017 so hopefully I'll get a thrill from doing these.

And this gives me the first Great Big Wooden BIG BUILD Stamp of Approval for the hobby season

As well as the first Great Big Wooden BIG BUILD Basing Stamp of Approval

'nids part 364 - Leviathan bone

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Leviathan Tyranids this has been a slow process over the last few months and even then limited progress. The Neurotyrant has just had it's bone applied.

But I also spotted a chitinous armour plate on its back that needs to be blue, you can just make out how bright it is - that will need shading.

OMG how tedious are Von Ryan's Leapers? All the detail of a Lictor [and more] squashed into a 33% smaller model.

Genuinely these made me rethink  how 'easy' I thought my Tyranid scheme was. It's another reason why I've not been painting much recently.

The tedium and endless detail just killed my mojo. That said, I bet Contrast paints work amazingly well on these...

What's worse though is I did get issue 2 of Combat Patrol and now I have another 3 of these to build and try to catch up as I dare not think about doing another 3 down the line when these are completed. I may as well get the paint out of the way now.

And the Barbgaunts weren't much better, makes me wonder why I'm doing 'nids for DreadTober.

And lastly the Winged Prime, but he's got his second layer of bone highlights.

Only marginally more entertaining. How many times have I heard people say painting shouldn't be a chore? Sure, I've not been painting recently because this was chore-like but eventually you have to wade through this and overcome.

Who knows when I will be motivated to finish these off but 'progress is progress'!

Imperial Knights - Cerastus Twins in manufactorum pt2.

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #BuildingWarhammer on my Imperial Knight Cerastus Castigator and Acheron. You will recall I just had a pile of bits but I have since managed to construct one pair of legs [ignore the Horus shin pads, I'm not turning traitor, they're just dry fit in place of the plain ones, that will be primed on the sprue].

Lets have a little flashback. First of all I decided to offset the hip joints. Instead of them both pointing down I cut them off and rotated them so they were asymmetrically angled. I'm not sure if this made any difference, or if I chose the correct angle for the pose but I felt better for attempting it. 

The base itself had a sheet of pink insulation foam for the 'step'. I printed out some reinforcement detail, stuck to cereal bock card and glued to the facing. Coffee stirrer for the top and 1mm gem beads for rivets. The toes had screws superglue/bicarb to add fixed mounting points to the base.

My attempt is to recreate a mirror version of this Reaver pose - stepping down, rather than stepping on a 'tactical rock'.

I haven't quite got the legs perpendicular to each other and it's not quite stepping down, but it's not stepping up either. I'm actually quite happy with it. The thing is there's a lot of thought going in to achieving these poses, so much so that eventually you have to just commit.

It's something of a leap of faith. The alternative is to constantly have the process swimming around in your head on how you will execute it but just gluing the feet in place can settle on the next bit and then the next. Hot glue was used for the toe screws [to fill in the thread] and then superglue in places. I also ran glue into the knee joints to lock the pose in place.

I added some red crackle paint around the foot - to look like it had shattered the surface. Then added sand and gravel to help blend the base a bit. The weapon feed is fantastically engineered. I've even magnetised it so they can be swapped around.

OK, so the Castigator has also progressed. I actually ended up with 3 Paint |Your Own Venoms and this one - started with my Dremel, but the cutting disc wasn't wide enough to cut through his feet without catching the base. In the end I just used a junior hacksaw. I then glued on some slate, to cover the holes where its feet were and then used tile grout to blend it together. Legs glued in place, using Milliput to blend around the toes.

Added some sand, gravel, texture and crackle paint then I started to think about more decorative elements. I have a lot of Genestealers and I considered adding some. However the 3 'running away' didn't seem to make sense, despite them looking much cooler than the three running toward the knight.

I've now considered 2 on the left and 1 on the right, which gives the knight a little more space around its feet. Obviously I'll be removing their bases but I think I will pin them and add them down the line, that way I can leave the base as it is for now.

There's still a fair bit left to do on both of these:

• Decide on how the legs and torso will be connected
• Make the pilot access hatch openable
• Finish weapon magnetising

OK, that's just three things, but they're quite complicated problems to solve - the Acheron Chainfist has some pistons on it that I need to magnetise or pin so they still function and there are no guides online to make the hatch moveable.

This has been quite a long-winded build. I started on the 17th August and it's still not complete. It's occupied a lot of my hobby thought processes but luckily my urge to paint is non-existent. I'm hoping DreadTober will go someway to getting my painting mojo back, but I want these ready to go or at least prime, before the weather properly turns and priming becomes problematic.