Dark Angels - Bastions, double trouble

Having rinsed the salt stained bastion to within an inch of it's lifeI had to try and recover some of the actual richness in the colours that also leakeed away. Bastion 1 got another load of shadow washes in all the nooks and crannies. Angel green is next, considering I never rated it as paint I'm really getting through it all now. It goes on but just tints the underlying colour, it definitely works on the Hunter Green to create a much more vibrant colour but it can be very difficult to obscure the areas of shadow I may have been more exuberant with than I should have.

Bastion 2, and as you can see this bears little resemblance to the grungy orange beast you last saw. The shadow/texture/grime wash has dried very flat on the red oxide primer. I've then worked a load of red oxide texture paste into all the crevices and on edges to try and cover up cracks and seams.

It's questionable the amount of effort going into this when I'll be covering it all up with green. I suppose if I'd been doing the salt weathering technique or using one of those chipping paints then it might be justified. But I'll stick to what I'm comfortabel with, deviations from the norm have met with little success so far. However, the Martian Ironearth is still something that is paying dividends so I've used it in places here.

40kaddict Towers - Almost there.

When I was ordering the shed I was advised to paint it to protect it from rot. The recommended product was Protek Royal Exterior Wood Finish I was kind of sceptical as this was £60 for a 5 litre tin but I managed to find it at that link for £45 delivered, even so how much would 5l cover?

 

Well it seems quite a lot. So far I've painted the shed twice [with the left end wall 3 times] and I've still got about 25% of the tin left. So I've no doubt 5 litre tin would paint this 10' x 6' shed three times over.

 

Now the opacity isn't compltely solid, the colour gets stronger each successive coat and you can still see the wood through this end after three coats. I'll probably be doing four coats on this end and side leaving the back and right side on two. They're not as visible and less exposed to I expect them to receive less weathering as the back is covered by a hedge and the right is sheltered by the second shed. 

However, I'll monitor the situation over the next year or so and should I feel the need I may paint it with an exterior house paint just to bulk it out, it's much cheaper and again it doesn't have to match perfectly, particularly the back, but for now this will do.

Incidentally the colour of choice was Cornish Cream, whicc is another [tenuous] link to my past in the four years I spent at university in Cornwall. The other shed in the garden is black/dark oak but I thought this would be too imposing to be dark, whereas this is quite bright I think it does evoke a beach hut feeling, so I'm quite chuffed.

I'm just waiting on the electrician now and opportunity in the weather to finsih off my tin of paint.

Hawk the Hunter

 

One of the very first videos we rented on our Betamax video player was Hawk the Slayer, that and Sword and the Sorceror. I'm pretty sure this was my choice, my parents weren't that fussed and I can't imagine it being my brother's choice but anything fantasy for me was a must. I still love the film today, cheesy it may be with production values some scoff at but it holds a special place in my childhood.

 I even have a foil etched slipcase VHS copy as well as the paperback 'book of the film' that literally promised there would be a sequel, something the film only hinted at.

 

Well, after 35 years the Director has finally got backing to create that sequel - Hawk the Hunter. So far he's got backing from Rebellion, video game publisher and owner of 2000AD no less. However, they're still looking to secure the remaining 20% of produciton costs so have gone to Kickstarter to see it through. Although it's highly unlikely it'll stretch to getting Tom Hardy as the lead, which was rumoured a few years back.

The fact is I'll be backing this myself, the first time ever I'll have backed a Kickstarter and just had to share so you can all appreciate the awesomeness of Hawk, I mena he has a MINDSWORD!

Here's the Kickstarter pager https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/723609774/hawk-the-hunter

Otherwise this is the deal:

700,000

Over the weekend I managed to reach another arbitrary milestone [I've another two about to threshold real soon]. 700,000 views is still an amzing figure though and I feel really privileged because even though my stats have levelled off over the last few months and are lowere than they once were I'm still getting hits that many bloggers would love to have.

I can't thank you all enough for the continued support of the blog, particularly as there have been some lean times over the past few months - this may actually be my least published year. But it is your support and following that continues to drive me to post and hopefully I can continue with this momentum as there are a lot of things going on and it's ideal material for shorter, more regular blogposts in the immediate future.

Anyway, thanks once again for making this achievement, you're all awesome!

Dark Angels - Bastion levels of redundancy

Just in case the salt staining on my current Bastion could not be removed I quickly knocked up a spare the other night. Last night I primed it and wisely decided not to use salt but I did want to add a little more texture to the flat surfaces. To achieve this I added a mix of Satin Black paint [the same paint I've had in the garage for over 14 years!] some plaster, PVA glue, some of the finest sand I could 'pinch' out my basing sand and water. The still wet finish looks almost 'Blanchian', probably an ideal derelict structure.

 

However, I looked at the dried version this morning and it's not quite so gross and distressed. I'll be adding some Martian Ironearth and perhaps some Valejo Red Oxide texture in places to make it a little less plastic model and a bit more futuristic Grim Dark fortification. I'll then be adding Hunter Green. I also thought while I was at it I'd also throw in a Defence line and Comms Relay too!

 

I currently have a real sense of hobby momentum, which is only hampered by the lack of time and setbacks that are slowing progress. I really want to get a number of projects done so I can start playtesting the Dark Angels list I have in mind for Blog Wars X.

But this is still great progress and even though it's a second Bastion and defence line and not really on my new Hobby Season list the progress, even if it was thwarted on the first one was so quick I think I can chuck these into the mix without delaying other things too much. Even if I can rectify Bastion 1 and postpone completion of these then the effort so far won't be wasted as it'll be a head start for when I do get chance to complete it, like those 20 genestealers waiting to have their bases painted...

Dark Angels - Inglorious Bastion!

This is where Ifound myself after the shadow wash, I mean it's a bit Nurgle but I was confident I could rescue it from here and there was still some of the chipping and the Martian Ironearth crackle effect visible which just added texture.

Here is where the salt started to appear, only lightly. I'd done the Dark Angel drybrush and was happy with the result. So I thought applying some water would help dilute the effect so it was less visible...

....and it was! The vibrancy came back the spotty white mottling disappeared and all was right with the world.

I set it out in the sun to dry and...

The filthy white salt deposits came back in a vengeance [a Light Vengeance?] it's almost like the Polyvine debacle, no matter what I do it comes back worse and all the shadow wash is fading too.

Suffice to say I was not happy. I'd brushed it with water about twice at this point. The next option was to run the entire thing under the tap.

It's currently drying in the hope that thetotal saturation will have leached away sufficient of the salt as to no longer leave staining.

The good news is I've had a look at the dried article and about 95% of the salt staining has been removed. Their are still bit in some of the crevices but I may be able to mitigate that with successive paint and weathering powder as Greg suggested. Bottom line I'll be having another crack at the shadow wash and another round of Dark Green highlights and hopefully we can move on from this debacle. Suffice to say I'll be cutting salt out of my menu for the foreseeable future, it's bad for my blood pressure!

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