'nids part 368 - #DreadTober Norn Emissary Bone highlight & tourquoise

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer it's #DreadTober2024 and it's bone and turquoise. Perhaps it was obvious in my last post and I'm sad to say it there are certain aspects of this paintjob I am not enjoying. Mainly the realisation that my skills are somewhat lacking and I may not make improvements in the future.

Throw in how tedious this process can actually be and it feels like the results are not delivering on the effort expended to achieve them.

That said, the second set of bone highlights has both reaffirmed some of those feelings and reminded me to not judge a model until it's finished.

Because, although close inspection shows brush strokes I am less than happy about I do think it's an overall improvement. Furthermore, from a distance [tabletop standard] it looks pretty good.

But the bone is done now and I will add some additional tonal variations and shading down the line but next up is the turquoise on the chitin - lets see how onerous a task this will be...

Very onerous is the answer, but not actually more than I could stomach. But overall it looks great and it looks much more impressive than close scrutiny reveals but I'm OK with that.

All of the turquoise took about 3 sessions, it was much too labour intensive for me to cope in one sitting. Now I did do some bits on my sentinels and even Leviathan Tyranids, which may seem odd to break up painting a Tyranid by painting more Tyranids but I assure you it made sense at the time. Unfortunately the sentinel progress was not worth taking pictures of so there's no update for them this week.

However, the challenge here was made harder by the choice of paint. For this side I was using a cheap craft acrylic I've used before, but it's dries quite quickly, meaning it becomes quite gloopy. Unfortunately thinning it down with water makes it flow too much. I end up with big globs of opaque thick paint on my brush while the watered paint soaks in the bristles and travels up to the ferule. Getting fine feather stokes is almost impossible.

So for the other side I switched to Miniature Paints aquamarine, which is almost identical [I know the colours look wildly different, but that's different exposures on the camera]. You can see a subtle difference when the aquamarine is next to the turquoise but when it's painted on like this the difference is indistinguishable. But the main difference is in the application. It's slightly thinner, more consistent and thins better. The second half was a much more rewarding experience, which was a relief.

I've already started the next set of highlights and I've done the base, legs, torso, head, and arms. All that's left is the carapace - the crests have two sides each and then back mound has left and right sides which are everso fiddly to get into. I hoped to have got it done, but fell short, maybe over the weekend?Second highlights are a little easier because you can see where you are going to paint. But, you have to be more careful with the brush stroke to get the lines thinner and not obliterate all the painting done here. I don't always manage it but it's looking OK. At least at this stage I am much happier. This will be as good as my Screamer Killers and High Rule Dude from DreadTober 2023, so whatever disappointment I did feel hopefully I've come to terms with it. 

Test

Test

Don't dlvr.it

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been using dlvr.it to autopost my blogposts to my other social platforms since September 2017. As time has gone on the amount of channels has been reduced and I was left posting to Twitter and Threads. Now I was only posting to Twitter to prevent my username being recycled. The platform itself is too depressing so I rarely engage with it now. However, Threads feels like a much more pleasant experience, so reposting my blog there made even more sense.

However, I recently discovered my new articles weren't being reposted. Initially I thought this was some permissions thing. Back in the day Facebook needed to update permissions on a monthly, bi-monthly schedule, but it wouldn't always remind you so often they wouldn't get posted for weeks on end.

Well, it turns out that's not the case at all. Those folk at dlvr have finally had enough of us freeloaders and their starter plan now costs $4.99 a month! Trying to find a free alternative has been challenging, not least because sending an RSS feed to socials for free is not high on the list of tech goldmines. But I eventually found this article:

How to Automatically Post Blog Content on Threads App via RSS Feed Using IFTTT and Buffer (Without Spending A Dollar) (digitalinformationworld.com)

It uses buffer and IFTTT to achieve the same thing. It's a little convoluted but I'm hoping I've got it to work, this is something of a test. The big difference is it's not immediately responsive, you have to tell it  when to check, but you can schedule that multiple times a day to help cover your posts. I usually schedule my posts around lunch time anyway so setting a few checks between 12 and 1 should cover it 🤞 

Currently it's also free, but that's not without a catch. IFTTT only allows you to have 2 free applets. I don't know if this applet with service whichever feeds I plug into buffer or if I need to do an applet for each platform - I guess we'll find out. Currently I already have an applet set up for a security sensor in my shed, although it's not been active for a while. It does mean I'm at the limit of my applets and any new ones means I have to archive and old one. It's a little frustrating but even if I needed more it's $2.92 a month rather than $4.99.

Anyway, if anyone blogging had also come across this issue, or wanted to start doing so I just wanted to share how I've addressed it in the hopes I can automatically post again to those platforms. Here's hoping...

SHED 2.0 (part 2)

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity here's another [out-of-date] update on Otty's shed 2.0. This was from the end of July and I finally had some time off to spend a couple of days helping out. My first effort was close to my heart - not just painting, we did not use industrial amounts of Nuln Oil on it! But painting fences goes back to childhood memories of painting my grand-parents' garden fence during the summer holidays. It sounds like a traumatic experience, using creosote, with woolen mittens and plastic bags on our hands to avoid the irritating preservative. Hot days, sweating and struggling to paint the fences. And yet, it's a task I will willingly undertake regularly so I was pleased to get to paint this end wall of the shed - forever my contribution.

Inside, Liam and Phil were putting insulation into the walls. then covering them up with OSB.

Liam was particularly careful about measuring the insulation, and I joined him as an insulation team fitting the sheets into the gaps. Then Otty and Phil would be the boarding team.

Again the attention to detail here, ensuring that all boards butted up seamlessly to its neighbour. 

They were even using a spirit level when all of this side would be hidden by glass cabinets [and unknown to me it was also covered in thin MDF too, so none of the OSB is visible at all!].

With the fence painting urge in my veins I spent 10 hours the following weekend doing my own fence.

I know the garden is a mess. I've tried for years to get a nice lawn but it's mostly moss and Dandelions now. But at least the fence looks good. It'll start to fade over the winter but I think I'm committing to doing it again next year rather than leave it for a few years like last time. It may increase it's durability.

Anyway, the following week was my second day of helping and with all of the OSB done Scott was here to help with more insulation.

The other walls were clad in MDF, which would be painted.

Fill was back again too and Scott and I continued to help with the insulation.

Including filling out the gaps in the roof beams.

All walls now boarded, only the ceiling to be finished off now.

Otty has been an absolute machine throughout. So much attention to detail and so well deserved. Any gaps or screw holes were being filled and then the entirety of the walls 'keyed' for painting.

Here he's adding some panelling details

As Ben admires his handiwork for all the thin MDF clad ceiling panels.

We all rocked up to help prime the walls, the next day Otty did another coat and you can see 'Bilbo's' door with its undercoat ready for its green paint.

Otty painted the walls grey, two coats and repositioned all his cabinets and shelving units from the old shed with new cabinets and displays. Carpet was fitted and you can make out the size of the gaming table we'll have.

A mighty space it's going to be so great when it's all done.

'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!