Terrain is everything - Sanctum Imperialis - the inner sanctum

I was a little disappointed with how my highlights had gone in my previous post so I decided to bring back the redness with a glaze of Bloodletter, followed by some purple shadow washes and I'm much happier.

Here's a before and after, although colour accuracy is far from perfect you can see it's definitely changed and more importantly for the better!

But despite the desire to make these buildings fit the Red Planet BASE! of Ferron Proxima so it wouldn't be too distracting in battle I had decided to flip that vision for the interiors.

We paint the insides of our homes and offices independently of the exterior anyway and bone [Magnolia] seemed like the obvious choice. This way from the outside it blends in with the board but from a different angle viewing the inside you get a whole different effect.

I scruffily stippled on the paitn as I will be adding a lot of shading to make the dilapidated interior I have visualised in my head.

Aeverything has been shaded with my Burnt Umber art acrylic. It's a funny paint with the consistency of tooth paste that looks like a desaturated brown, but when thinned and dries has this aged speia tone that is very reminiscent of Blanchitsu.

I have never done this before, but I theorised it would look like this and once again I'm in love with the brush marks.

I haven't quite visualised the next step, I know it needs more shading in the recess but a stippling of the lighter colour will cover up some of the underpainting already visible and possibly the brushstokes I need to retain.

That said the bone colour isn't right so I really need to find the subtle path to what I'm after, even if I don't quite know what that is yet.

Luckily I have the small piece to test my approach. I've added the Strong Wash in the creases so I might focus on this to get a sense of what I need to do on the bigger pieces.

I also need to do all the Burnt Umber on the biggest ruin so I should be achieving both quality and quantity in my output for the next update...

Terrain is everything - Sanctum Imperialis

With every intention to finish of my Dark Shroud I was then tempted to put some effort into my Sanctum Imperialis while my magnetising efforts cured. I'd finished building it in September 2018 and that was a distraction from my Hierophant. I'd also dropped this part like a hot potato when I came to paint the Warplock Bornze on all the buttresses and doors. But with time to fill I finished all the bronze off and in some areas mixed a replacement with some craft acrylics - bronze+metallic black+brown.

I then shadow washed it with a mix of Burnt Umber+Black art acrylics. You can also see I stippled on som vermilion in places - a mistake, as a drybrush would have acheived better results. I also washed the bronze in places and it looks so awesome and yet I'll cover that all up with extra highlights. I don't know why I can't leave well enough alone?

The side walls will be drybrushed with vermilion next.

The taller structure and at this stage this is about as grimdark as I've possibly ever got. I need to remember this for a future project as I know I can't stop here and need to do my usual highlights. But this is just so much more realistic than I normally do and my Honored Imperium statue is what I'm heading for. This means I'll be verdigri'ing all the bronze, the doors will be less so and all the red needs highlighting.

I'll be possibly be picking out the scrolls as parchment and the lenses in the lanterns.

The doors will be the same brassy bronze I usually do, while all the vertical support will be well green! This is because the doors are polished while the structure is just weathered.

And this little corner piece. I don'tknow whether to create some broken stained glass panels for the windows, it might be nice as I've nothing much else to attempt them on.

And here we are with the highlights and they're much yellower than anticipated. I might glaze this with Bloodletter to see if it brings back the redness.

I might have goe a little overboard on it, I'm pining for the lost grimdark as I've gone down my over-staurated reds & yellows.

How does it compare? I'm not even sure if the Verdigris is the right thing to do now.

I desperately want to do something much greener and I love how the statue turned out but as much as I miss the red Sanctum of 3 highlights ago I also love this grungey version

The dark bronze is just rich and most of is is going to be covered up, which will at least help where I've caught the metal with my drybrushing.

The other question is do I keep those gothic finials as solid bronze, or paint each facet as encased red glass? I'm thinking glass because it'll look cool.

Perhaps the solution is I need more buildings so I can explore these variations...

Dark Angels - Tanks - Razorback Moar Pics

The usual filtered phone pics, which I prefer to the digital shots.

That said they don't add any extra insight into this except for taking a moment to remember I've had this Rhino for 25 years or so!

I mean that conversion with the lighting rig, I've no idea what prompted that but decades later this model is complete and it fits in my army.

And again the defunct Las-Plas turret is symptomatic of the entire model as most lists I make nowadays would not have room for transports.

Sure the Razorback Spam Guilliman list was [is?] a thing so it does have a use, I'm just not sure how much I'll get out of it.

That's nto really the point though as hobby is my driving force at the moment so painting part of my beige tide [this pre-dates the grey plastic] is a huge achievement.

And a reminder that is a goal in itself. Obviously my two Knights are part of that tide and of potential use in future games but painting things not for gaming is OK too.

I just need to capitalise on that feelign so I don't feel the need to go out and buy more stuff.

I mean inevitably that's going to happen - I fancy Kill Team, Shadespire [although I may wait for the new version] and I'm actually looking at subscribing to Warhammer Conquest for the random extra minis you get for weird things to paint.

Fitting in some Primaris Marines or even Death Guard feels like madness but the urge is there - again the perfect example of being an addict!

The amazing thing is that my spends so far this year is £460 [last years total was £490] and with only two thirds of the year gone that will most likely go up.

BUT, nearly £430 has come from 'income' - Christmas and Birthday money, Amazon Vouchers, Google AdSense, and I sold various items on ebay specifically to add to my hobby found.

The way I look at it that means only £30 has come out of my own pocket, money that could have been spent on putting food on the table, etc.

I mean that's covered in other ways but I'm keeping my own money out of the equation and as I'm spending mostly extra income I feel better about the fact it's not a year-on-year reduction.

Anyway, enough wafflingI'll leave you with close-ups of the turrets.

Terrain is everything - 40k future container scatter terrain - Touch ups

Just a quick one, in amongst completeing the previous future containers I decided to embelish this older green container. It followed a similar pattern to the Maersk Line container and I had a spare stencil template to put a big number on so it was rude not to.

Now although I firmly believe big numbers make anything look cooler there is something about this one that doesn't quite work, perhaps it's just too bright. I also added some more Rhinox Hide sponging and Ryza Rust as well as Valejo Red Oxid paste in places to cover up where the paint has already chipped off. I also weathered up the base a lot to be more durable and fit with the three previous containers.

As you can see its overall colour 'silhouette' has changed dramatically. The overwhelming green its now competing with 25% white and the orange and brown is significantly more noticeable. So I'm a little sad I've lost a solid block of colour but I've just got to accept where it's at now.

Maybe a little more toning down of the number 5, some silver in places and a varnish. There was no urgency in doing it just something I felt it needed.

Dark Angels - Tanks - Razorback TO DONE!

Here we go, Old Skool/Nu Skool Razorback is complete. I don't actually think I paint these tanks well, but I do think they look effective.

Certainly I'm happier  with these than I ever was when I was struggling to paint tanks first time around. I always loved this as a silly kitbash - the side railings repurposed to make some 'off-road' framework to secure the lighting rig to.

The weathering was a little restrained, as was the Predator. Unfortunately I didn't do a side by side comparrison between the two. There is a very subtle difference between the greens but not enough to worry about.

As much as I like Dark Angel tanks that have huge chapter logos on I've been very minimal to retain the overall green where possible, we don't want what's happened to my green future container.

I like the orange lense on the top too, not sure if it's a light or a sensor but it broke things up a little bit.

And here's the lighting rig. I added some pseudo-reflective elements in white and grey inside. These 4 'cups' are actually tracking pins from Space Crusade. I pulled the pins out and I've stuck craft gem stones in to make the lenses.

I was dubious about using PVA or Super Glue to stick them in place an was convinced UHU all purpose would work. Unfortunately I put too much in that one on the left and it's gummed up the genstone pretty poorly :(

The stenciled 5th Company number came out OK too.

And on white backgrounds for the purists.

The Tactical arrow saynbol was just something I had to do. I had thought of a big 5 because, well you know my rule on big numbers...

But that big white number would have tipped the colour balance and I needed something red so it was still a 'dark' Dark Angel vehicle. So the arrow was the perfect fit.

And here's the Las-Plas turret, which I've only just discovered is no longer an option. I suppose I could always use it as twin Las Cannons but a big disappointment as I much prefer the look of the gun. That said I'm far more likely to run Heavy Bolters and as I don't have a need for a second turret because I don't have a second Razorback, it's not really an issue. No doubt it'll find a use one day.

For now, here's my Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval, I've a few Camera360 shots to share too which will come eventually, no doubt lots of other things coming up ahead of those as the Season comes to a close.