Sunday 31 October 2021

Imperial Knight - Armiger Helverins TO DONE! White pics #Dreadtober part 10

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's the 'tenth' of #Dreadtober and it's the last of my #ImperialKnights Armiger Helverins. They're complete and here's the obligatory white background pictures.


This project started off so well and participating in Dreadtober is the sole reason I would have completed them. As the month wore on I got more tired, the weather got worse, I was disappointed at the priming fail and I was less inclined to paint.

 

That said, they weren't too hard really. They feel deceptively complex but they're not. It definitely helps to  note done what elements need toe be done and tick them off as you go along. It helps predict how long it'll take and how much effort you have to put in.

 

I do love the yellow chevron, I need to come up with names for all my Armigers and my Cerastus. This one may be Clatterbridge, I'll need to get a title for him. Do Armiger pilots get to be called 'Ser', I'll have to check the Codex.


I needed to fill that space on the red shoulder with those decals, it was so empty otherwise. But now it looks so cluttered! Ha, ha, I don't mind it's nice to have some busy models.


The number was a potential nightmare. When I had originally done the chevrons so they didn't match the carapace the number was going to go horizontal and would mostly fit in the yellow bit, I was going to outline the letters yellow where they strayed into the black. When I swapped the pattern I was worried it wouldn't work and it was only as I was adding it that I noticed it would fit diagonally inside the yellow stripe and it became my favourite bit on the model. In fact I now wish I could have had all the numbers angled like this.


The stripe on the Autcannon shields aren't angled the same but luckily when they're posed you don't notice. The Blessed verdigris on the carapace 'collar' is a bit ropey too.


I just love it so much. Sure it doesn't quite fit with the other three, but it definitely helps make it a standout model - a leader among the Armiger's which is what I was aiming for.


I had to make that left shoulder red as I'd already taken so much red off the model to make yellow and black. It's rather odd to see the white cog symbol on it, I'd have preferred a black; which is odd because when I did the Warglaives I was more keen to have white decals on the red and was disappointed when there were only black.


I did a slightly more simplified orange glow effect this time round. Usually I add some yellow into the mix but this time it's just a couple of oranges and white. It's actually more vibrant than the Warglaives so I may stick with that in the future.


I think this base could have done with a bit more debris - green panels and grey 'rebar' mesh like the Warglaives, that would have helped tie it in with them more. The shading at the base of the cliff was originally much darker but Vallejo Rust Model wash helped blend it more so its aligned better with the other bases.


Again, I love this resign base and raises the model up another centimetre.

 

The Blessed Verdigris on the debris worked really well and matches my Sanctum Imperialis. But that scale on the gravel is just too much. I should have added some of my own sand in places to level things out a bit.


I went with the yellow grab handles this time as I liked them on my Questoris knights. Also, my initial concerns about the chevrons on the carapace collar were perhaps unfounded as otherwise there would have been very limited yellow and black on this.


Of course that's a direct counterpoint to Ser Clatterbridge who is full of it, but even so it did need something to break up the red, black and white.


Nice Blessed Verdigris tide mark there on the left autocannon, but we can't win them all.  


I also added chevrons on the groin plate, Ser Clatterbridge has these mirrored.


I split a black cog decal for the other side of the plate and also added a mechanicum cog above it, as if it was connected. Random yellow arrow decal on the thigh plate too, just to break things up [as if the battle damage wasn't doing that]. It was surprisingly difficult to get that particular decal to stick in that spot.


And the tiled base. What do you think? I think it's redeemed itself in the end. But I actually think that's because the Army Painter Anti-shine has come out with a satin finish rather than the proper matt it can do. I really shook the bottle and did a second coat on it but it was still satin.


Close up of the Blessed Verdigris.


Here we have a comparison with one of the Warglaives and I'm overjoyed at how they're both consistent and yet very different. 


I think the red and the battle damage in particular match up very well and it's great I was able to pull that off despite such a long gap between painting these.


I really, really love Armigers. I would love and army of them led by my Preceptor but it's entirely daft and I won't do it. But, I do have a couple of Sentinels for my Genestealer Cult that may fill that itch although I see I never even included them in my TO DO LIST! Anyway, what next? I may have a bit of a break but I still have the Ravenwing Talonmaster and Attack Bikes. I also want to paint the yellow munitorum container using the gamboge effect I started on Ser Clatterbridge. I think that will be surprisingly swift to do - a week or so. And finish some of my Blood Bowl halflings. I just need to have a break and come back refreshed.

Thursday 28 October 2021

Imperial Knight - Armiger Helverins TO DONE! #Dreadtober part 9

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's the 'ninth' of #Dreadtober and I'm continuing my #Imperial Knights Armiger Helverins. OK, I hold my hands up, it's a big jump from my last post, sorry.


Once I started with the battle damage there just didn't seem much point in intermediate shots, they looked almost complete.

 

I did promise myself I might cover in detail some of the process in the TO DONE! post, but I'm not sure what to add really, but I think it was about my yellow so perhaps it was this:


I noticed that my Instar Vintage IV-16 - Iyanden Darksun equivalent appeared much lighter than my VGC Sun Yellow.


From where I had the yellow previously I would blend in some IV-16, but then when I added the Sun Yellow it would actually make the IV-16 darker.


Well, darker is misleading, the Sun Yellow would act almost like a glaze.

 

So it took the blend and left the lightest part and just made it such a vibrant bright yellow, rather than the sandy yellow IV-16 is.

 

When I'd originally put the IV-16 on I was quite dismayed about the all the tones in the shaded Gamboge that was disappearing.


But the Sun Yellow gave me a completely different colour that was more in keeping with the rest of my Knights.


I am considering that will be the bulk of the Adeptus Mechanicus terrain I will do, no IV-16 but some Sun Yellow in places for edge highlights - the best of both worlds.

 

This chevron Knight has been an Armiger pilot so long that his red Raven armour has almost been completely replaced with yellow and black.

 

He really stands out among all my knights because I used so much of the pattern.


It's jarring in a way, but I don't regret it.


I wanted to experiment and I still have a sadness about not doing House Hawkshroud. 


I love their special rule and would rather have had the half-damage because I think that makes a Knight army much more usable.


I know Raven has excellent rules, possibly better, but personally that durability is something I really envy.


Oops, close-up shows up that trapped hair on the lense. I might have to find a way to remove or cover it. 


The bases are also something I'm not wholly happy with.


On their own they're not bad at all.


The resin one is really great, but the gravel is a slightly different scale to my others.


The scratchbuilt one is also much better than I hoped but I didn't think it through and try to match my existing Warglaives.


They used a similar mix of sand, but also some bits of rubble and debris, which I didn't use on either of the Helverin bases. So, despite managing to keep the reds consistent across all four we have two matching bases and two random ones that don't. We have three red Armigers and a random yellow one. 


I'm over the moon with them, but I would mark myself down just for the lack of consistency as a group. Again, nothing I really care about, just a critical observation.


This is the first thing I've completed for my Hobby Season, so I get my first Great Big BLESSED VERDIGRIS Stamp of Approval! I got my Serotonin high but I also felt quite drained by the process. I had hoped this would kickstart my hobby mojo but I think I may need to take it a little more slowly. I hasten to add I've had some migraines recently [minor ones, but uncomfortable nonetheless] so I could probably do with getting my head right without feeling pressure to paint. So, I feel especially proud of both the models and the stamp because I did it despite how I was feeling. Anyway, more white pics to follow...