To Do List 2015/16

Lets get straight into it... first and foremost I need to make the transition to my 40k Man Cave. There's been a lot of time spent on that recently and although it's not been miniatures it's directly hobby related so must be part of my list. 

But whats the rest of the plan for 2015/16... well I'd got this sorted out pretty much a fortnight ago and then suddenly I realised I could actually set myself a deadline for some of these. Essentially Blog Wars X is due on November 7th and I have promised to take Dark Angels. I quickly looked at Battlescribe for what I've got and what I can do to make a list I'll be happy with. G.O.D. knows if it's competitive or not but then Blog Wars isn't about that so my initial 6 items [in priority order] are these:

1. A fully functioning Dark Angel force [1850pts] 
2. Dark Angel - Dark Vengeance Tactical Squad
3. Imperial Knight - Cerastus Lancer
4. Dark Angel - Bastion and Quad Gun
5. Dark Angel - objectives
6. Dark Angel - Ravenwing bike squad

Now this will give me a number of interesting items to paint and use. I'll be proxying my Cerastus as a Paladin [because only the Paladin and Wardens are BW legal] and I'll be throwing in the Land Raider Redeemer I traded with PeteB yonks ago. So it'll be a bit of a mixed bag of models and I'm not hopeful on the Ravenwing, I was taking them for their mobility but should that look doubtful I might throw in some more Deathwing, although the points will be tight to do that.

Now, the other items I'd had on my list

1. Dark Angel - Ravenwing Nephilim Jetfighter
2. Imperial Knight - Paladin
3. Dark Angel - Azrael
4. Dark Angel - Land Speeder Typhoons
5. Dark Angel - Drop Pod

I know that's similar to last year but I'm being very specific about a number of things there that I'm committed to completing, although some of them have already been started which will help set immediate deliverable goals. Having a November deadline will get over a quarter of my list done in 80 days so compared to this year everything else I do will be a bonus. I'm hoping to focus on more Dark Angel stuff aside from the above but I am going to add in some Nid projects to mix things up and treat myself  when I've been good.

1. Old One Eye
2. Remaining Genestealers
3. Project Z?! Still a mystery project ;)

I also have a few other jobs that I want to remain on/be added to my list but probably have no intention of doing but the road to hell is paved with good intentions

1. Some bits of Imperial terrain I have knocking about
2. 60mm Dreadnought crater
3. Tyranid Bastion Crater
4. Tyranid Void Shield Generators
5. Tyranid Promethium Relay Pipes
6. Battle for Macragge crashed Aquila Lander [finish off]
7. New Armies on Parade board - Project X? [I'm highly doubtful on this one but the bits are still knocking around] 

 

Once again, this years green stamps of approval [with transparency] if you're joining in and comment below to share your To Do Lists and I'll add them to the community page.

 

And without transparency

 

Dark Angels - Bastion goes green, with added airbrushing!

When last I shared we were at the undercoat and salt weather stage but then I jumped forward in time to the present to reveal things had gone awry, well this is the intervening period immediately after the salt weathring, wherein I realise my initial plan was flawed and seek to fix it, which eventually worked, up until the salt started to show it's presence [did you follow all that?]...

It's always difficult trying to convey colours in my pictures, I make no apologies for using my phone camera because it's a choice between inaccurate colours or no pictures. So I'd rather have something approaching the actual colours than me just trying to explain in words.However, these weren't too far off the mark. As you can see the Hunter Green really isn't the green I was looking for.

Some additional matt black spray helped tone down the red undercoat so I was approaching the green I was after. But it was then that I thought to use my Valejo Dark Green as it just won't work out of a brush.

OK, this look way over the top and the airbrushing is slap dash, so much so you can just see in the right where I got carried away and spilt the paint out of the spray cup! But the hope was some washes might tone it down, or at least it was until I decided to see what it was like with some of the salt rubbed off... I know, I know it's too soon, but better to find out now what it's like than further down the line.

And I'm actually quite glad as this isn't what I was after. Now that may be because I hadn't added any shading to the Red Oxide Primer but to be fair I'm not entirely sure what I was looking for. This isn't your typical salt weathering to reveal rust, it's something else, in my head, slightly obscured by all the other detritus in my 'mind palace'.

So I thought sod it, lets remove all the salt and boy is it a bugger to get rid of. I managed about 90%, which is OK because if it won't come off with a toothbrush scrubbing then it can stay, because I do like the gritty textured finish [oh the naivety]. I may try and do that on the next one...

Now it messed up a lot of the airbrushing but that wasn't really a problem as after I took these I gave it another coat of Hunter Green and returned it much to the point that we began this post.

In the next update I set about doing my normal efforts, adding a shadow wash and then drybrushing it with results I was really happy with, particularly as the bulk of the flat surfaces ahd been done and only another se tof light highlights were required and then it was all the details like metals and lights, cables, banners etc. followed byt the actual weathering powders. So it was progressing really quick with still a fair bit to do but most of those things were fun and interesting, that is until the salt showed it's ugly face.

Hobby Season 2014/15 Review

The 2014/15 Hobby Season draws to a close, and how did I do? Well I managed to complete 5 out of 17 items on my list, these were

Blood Bowl Elves - there is still a Treeman to add to make them more interesting but for the first time ever I have two, painted, functiona,l Blood Bowl teams. We don't play it much but the actual achievement means more than the outcome.

Dark Vengeance Deathwing - despite some reservations about colour choices, again this was an important milestone and despite a subtly different way of painting them they do fit in with my existing Deathwing, At least if I can't meet this year's early hobby targets these models will be useful at Blog Wars X

Dark Vengeance - Dark Angel Chaplain Seraphicus. I'm not entirely convinced Chaplains are any good but I was definitely chuffed with my effort on this one. I don't know how often he'll see the light of day but it's handy to have options.

Genestealer Cultists - I honestly don't know how this happened. The original cultists were a nightmare to paint and I suddenly got the urge to do these despite languishing for too long [they began as a concept in December 2013!]. Personally I think it was an avoidance tactic for the Dark Angels but it did pay dividends to the Fallen, we'll get to that later

Project Ω, Realm of Battle board -  I could have thrown in the towel when things went 'Polyvine up' but eventually I got this done. I'm not 100% convinced of it's durability after all that effort but should I get chance to play on the board it'll more than stand up to the occasional use.

Now that doesn't seem like a lot but as per last year what of the things not on the list well these included:

• Dark Angel Techmarine
• Spawn of Cryptus
• Dakkafex No 2.
• Malanthrope
• Deathleaper
• Asmodai
• Tyranid Maelstrom objective markers
• Vortex template
• Dark Angel Scouts

 

 

 

 

A lot of single models in there but some of significant size and others just very different to paint, the scouts in particular were an unexpected bonus but although those additions make my effort look somewhat more significant there were even more contributions in the shape of:

• a massive brood of Genestealers - waiting to be painted
• A Cerastus Knight Lancer - constructed and half painted
• A Knight Paladin - half constructed
• A Ravenwing Nephilim Jetfighter - half constructed
• My Bastion  - constructed and undercoated
• Old One Eye - constructed and half painted
• and various other bits and bobs built, modelled and painted...
• not to mention the time and effort on the 40k man cave. 

Oh, and I came second in this

And I won these

So although the mid part of the year may have been a bit in the doldrums, the blog was downsized a little to reflect this and the To Do List was only scratched I think the balance turned out quite well with all the extras, and awards. 2015/16 holds a lot of promise but also change, thanks to the transition to the man cave, theres no guarantee my output will increase, but I'll cover that in my next post. All I can say is thanks for persevering with my efforts and your own, your continued support is a great motivator and hopefully you'll all be along for the ride in the next season :)

40kaddict Towers - Painting TO DONE!

This is where I found myself thanks to the mix of Magnolias as you can see the walls are a very different colour to those on the ceiling. So It was another purchase of paint, this time a 10 litre tub from Screwfix, which was fun getting it home on the train.

The onyl problem being the squatter I'd acquired in the corner of the shed, but I evicted him and started the painting.

My initial fear was this new Magnolia was 'Peaches and Cream' to go with the cream of muchroom and butter cream.

It had a distinctly pink hue to it but it dried really quick and ended up just a fraction paler and less yellow than the original B&Q magnolia.

I whipped round the entire interior. There'd been a number of reviews online about the paint, most positive, some older ones less so but some claimed it was even suitable as a one coat which I think it just about managed, clearly covering up the two tints of Magnolia I'd used.

The end result was much more unified and consistent. The only problem areas are the corners where the cutting in hasn't quite been as opaque as I'd like but I've done enough. With still the outside ot paint I'm not doing another inside coat. For all I know it could be suceptible to mould in the Winter, in which case I'll need to coat it with anti-mould paint  making any further coats redundant.

However, my evicted squatter returned, perhaps it's a good omen for the bugs?

So another Red Stamp of Approval, whilst I still can:

Dark Angels - Bastion

It's been a while since I featured my Dark Angels Bastion this was mainly due to waiting to get hold of some Army Painter Angel Green Primer, so I could basecoat it real quick. In the end I picked up some Plastikote Hunter Green which isn't quite right but it was in a local hardware store so easy to get hold of. I then found it in a different store for half the price so perhaps patience is a virtue...

As you can see the Bastion has had some Martian Ironearth added to it. I'm hoping it'll appear as rusted paint flecks, I saw someone else use it on a diorama and had to give it a try.

Goodness knows if this'll be realistic enough and I think I'm actually making this more hard work for myself but it's entertaining me and I've got a spare one I can always try and do more conservatively if this goes wrong.

I kind of want some proper crackle medium like what Greg used on his Ork display board but it's £15 a tub here so it's another expense I can't really afford.

Anyway I also decided to try salt weathering - FIRST. TIME. EVER! So I may have got a little carried away.

I did brush some of this off  before adding the next bit of spray, it looked like there was going to be far too much of the Red Oxide on show and I probably should have added some other effects to the undercoat for when it's revealed.

However, moving on from this point I turned the bastion upside down and used a Matt Black to add shadows underneath and in corners. The picture will be forthcoming but really I got carried away, again, and started in with the Hunter Green.

I have to say the results that I'll share aren't 100% what I was hoping for, possibly 50%

Add to that the fact I did run out of Magnolia paint in the shed, nipped to a local shop to pick some up and it turned out to be more cream of mushroom than cream of butter and ended up with a two tone shed my colour choices have not gone down well although I did have some success with some Balthasar Gold, which will be revealed soon.

Ultimately the Hunter Green is a bit bluish and doesn't have the 'deepness' I was hoping for. I applied some more black which helped but we'll have to see how things progress. I may well crack out the airbrush for the first time, I think the strange properties of my Valejo Dark Green might work well in the airbrush as it behaves more like a thick glaze. I'm thinking it might be able to tint the Hunter Green more towards the hue I'm after without doing much else but we'll see what it's like when these spray coats have dried.

SPOILER ALERT

I've since moved on from this I'll share the posts in due course but suffice to say I wasn't as studious at removing the salt as I'd hoped and what I'm now seeing is salt staining on all my painting. Essentially whatever remains of salt is under the paint is bleeding through. I keep saturating it hoping the salt will dilute and not reveal itself as the water evaporates but so far no joy.

Bearing in mind that future posts will reveal this has had a coat of black primer, Hunter Green, airbrushed Dark Green, had most of the salt scrubbed off with a toothbrush, another coat of Hunter Green, shadow washed and then drybrushed Dark Green and soaked and scrubbed repeatedly with a paint brush and still the salt is bleeding through. If anyone  knows how to mitigate this/cover it up I'll be pleased to know as if it's still bleeding through after those coats I don't know how to start again. I have built up a second Bastion just in case but I was so pleased with the what I'd done on the left, which was rescuing the initial basecoats, but to see it  go wrong like this is really frustrating.