'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