Imperial Knight - Cerastus in manufactorum pt 12

Next level? I think so. I couldn't help myself and did another load of damage on the right shin pad and I think I did a much better job than my first attempt.

It's definitely helped mitigate my less than stellar litany efforts. I did however become unstuck because there are supposed to be house Raven decals on that red side and obviously I've now covered it with damage I don't want to cover up and then have to re-apply/blend in. So I think I'll abandon following the heraldry too closely. I suppose I already did that with the white stripes.

I also applied a bit of very bright yellow [not sure which VGC one it is]. Although I was loving the realism of the Tau Sept Ochre my love of high contrast means this captivates me much more now. Although I think I managed to be much subtler with the application than normal.

And so I had to add it to the carapace stripes too. I also added some litany script, which quite frankly I'm just relieved will be mostly hidden by his shoulder pad

I was a little rougher with the application because there's no texture on this edge, trying to paint in some where it doesn't exist. It's passable, and again although the griminess has gone, I still really like it.

As you can see the shoulder pad does cover some of the litany. It looks a little misplaced on it's own, I feel the two panels either side would benefit from some script but being less than impressed with it so far I don't feel too compelled to add anymore disappointment in that aspect.

Here's the other side, where a Titan marking is equally MEH! For one aspect I was always so happy with on the Dark Angels and my Reaver Titan it's just failing here and I'm not sure why.

The shin pad in-situ

I think it's time to try some decals next. Haven't used them in years and part of me doesnt want to - given the freehand nature elsewhere, but they're so nice I feel it would be rude not to.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 

Dark Angel Objective markers

I made another decision. Despite being perfectly happy with my force field pylon objective markers I decided to do the force field glow effect on the generators. I planned to add glow effects on the Knight so it made sense to recreate the effect I did for my Plasma weaponry to see how it would look. I know that sounds odd as my Plasma guys clearly illustrate how, but I needed more reassurance.

I wasn't 100% convinced this time around. I'm not sure it looks like a glow and more like yellow discs.

With that doubt in mind I added a little more orange inside the creases of the discs.

I think this is more what I was after, it's less defined as an object but I think more realistc as a source of lighting.

I also applied the same effect to the plasma coils in the Teleport homers. Obviously I did them completely differntly to how I did Plasma coils on my weponry but nevermind.

I'm less convinced of the beacon lights but I'm hoping Tamiya Clear Red X-27 may lift them up. The OSL works, it's just the lights themselves that look a bit flat.

Nearly there though and then I can tick them off. Still no idea how to number them, there realy isn't space to put a numeral and even then it'd look slapped on after adding the SFX now :(

The question is do I go with the yellow/orange glow as above [when there's already yellow on the chevrons so it may look confusing] or, do I go with the green glow I did on my Epic Reaver titan?

What do you think? I'm not even sure if this was the final iteration of the orange plasma, maybe that's it, less yellow/white moar orange.

'nids part 180 - Stealing bases

As I keep finding myself painting bits of the Cerastus when I should be waiting to add the decals which then cover those bits I've gone slightly off pist. It's only slightly as my 30 Genestealers are on my To Do List. However, they are by no means a priority, but they are easing my hobby compulsion. As other projects stall and take steps back once again it is the familiar that can deliver that feeling of progress and if I manage these 30 Genestealer this year that's no mean feat in itself.

Really I just wanted to get the bases done. They'd already been shadow washed and all I was doing was dry/wet brushing them with Vermillion. I did all 30 bases and left them to dry. Even if thats the extent of my efforts it's one element of their completion done. I expect to finsih all the Red Planet Base up to the Bonewhite chips. Then if I consider further progress I'll probably chunk them into three groups of ten or even six groups of five. 30 is far too much for batch painting for me, not a problem just on the bases but the actual models are far too time consuming to commit to 30 in one sitting.

10 would be my limit and each colour application would be a nights work but I if I can get my head back into the Cerastus the units of five would be better as it would not represent the bulk of my nights efforts, that really should be on the priority - the knight

I painted some other bits as well, tidied up my force pylons but they're in another post.

Blog Wars X Painting competition pics

The Blog Wars painting competition was up to it's usual high standard. Of course I knew what Liam and Otty were bringing but there weere some really good entries from other people too but my mates efforts did cause some people not to display because they didn't see the point. Which although I don't agree with, because if you've painted an army you should show it off, but I do understand people may feel it's pointless. Hypocritically I didn't display my army either. I'd intended to, but not to compete but as I may game finished dead on 2 hours 30 I really couldn't bring myself to set everything up when I had lunch, keeping up with the family at home and buying my Vargheist.

I did take pictures though and I know Alex wanted better ones if they were available as Liam did all his best army shots and was unfamiliar with the camera. In fairness lighting was pretty grim so I'm not sure my shots are an improvement but I may have caught some angles and shots Liam didn't, so enjoy.

This Dark Mechanicum army was fantastically creepy

Best painted special character category.

40kaddict Terrain Competition

You should have noticed I’ve added a totaliser on the navigation bar to the right. If you recall, thanks to the furious clicking of my readers over the last 4.5 years I finally got to cash in my first £60 of Google AdSense money. I then revealed the next £60 would form the basis of a prize fund for a competition. I honestly expected it would take a similar length of time before I’d have to give an update on ‘where your money is at’ but it seems that I’ve been quite lucky over the past 4 months and already we’re 20% there. I’ve had a look at the dashboard to try and work out what’s going on and it’s all CPCs and RPMs – way above my head. I was particularly lucky though as I had 3 clicks on an advert that was worth 42p a click, when the majority of my adverts are between 2-10p but alongside other clicks that put £3.68 in the prize pot in just one month

I have to admit that despite all this 'trying to give something back' I am feeling a sense of discomfort as well as excitement, I don’t know, maybe I'm just overthinking. I have covered the 'dirty' topic of monetising your blog but even though I felt comfortable with the decision to only go down the AdSense route and this time all of the proceeds [and I will add to that fund if necessary] will go to a lucky competition winner. So I’m hoping the transparency will help alleviate this feeling and I think the key next step is to set up the rules of the competition, perhaps you want to start early to get some entries in place? If people see there is a competition, what the criteria is and see the fund building it will make this the fun community payback event I wanted it to be.

As a reminder here's what I had planned for the competition:

The initial plan of how to win the prize will be based on a picture competition with the only criteria being that it must feature an item freely available from this very blog – STC templates, Print & Play buildings, even just the wound counters [although the picture will have to be pretty darn good to secure a prize using just the wound markers]. The choice will be yours.

Therefore you could build one of my STCs straight out of the downloads, or even amend it, remix the template like Fenrisian Studios did, take a picture and that's your entry. Alternatively there's the Print & Play templates, but as they're relatively simple to do the picture best be all kinds of awesome - perhaps you fill an entire gaming club with my templates, or manage to get a table populated at a big tournament with my terrain [with links back to the templates] - now thats worth serious kudos. The chance to be creative in how you approach the task is up to you so it's not solely down to someone's hobby skills or photographic skills, so everyone can take part.

Now I'm not sure how I'll judge this just yet, I may want to solicit the help of the readers, allow them to vote somehow but reserve the right to make the final decision. We'll iron this part out as the fund grows but please do offer suggestions on how this could be managed. As to the prize, this was my initial thought

The next £60 in adsense revenue I will put towards another Imperial Knight [alongside my own money to make up the difference]. I will even offer to paint the Knight at no extra cost. But of course whoever wins the competition can choose an alternative model of equivalent value or for me not to paint it should they wish, it will be up to the winner.

I'm a little hesitant about the painting side of it now as that borders on commision painting and I really don't want the added pressure of having to deliver something for someone else. Also, by not painting it I can ensure the winner gets their model this side of the 41st millenium because, as you know, I really don't paint that fast. So, again I'll seek advice from readers if that's something I should offer. But this will definitely be an international competition so anyone can enter, I certainly wouldn't want those guys in Syria who've clicked my adverts feeling left out of the competition. We'll work out the details of how the winner will get their prize if it's abroad but it will definitely require a photo of you looking suitably impressed and shocked at the win, so everyone knows the comp was real [I trust that's OK].

Ultimately there are a number of reasons for this competition:

• I want to give back something to the community after I was able to get an Imperial Knight from my AdSense revenue
• I want to generate renewed interest in my FREE terrain templates and markers/gaiming aids
• I'm genuinely excited to see how creative people can be to win the prize
• I want to de-stigmatise AdSense clicking, so other hobby bloggers can feel comfortable monetising their blog without too much inconvenience to their readers - its a click on an advert created by their browsing habits, that's no hardship

Hopefully its clear there are some genuine altruistic reasons for me doing this and conversely there are some definite benefits to me and the blog too. But I believe that the benefit to me - 'more web traffic for the STC page', for instance, is offset by more people accessing and building the FREE terrain templates and markers. This in turn makes the effort I invested in them more worthwhile because it's enhancing their hobby at minimal cost [aside from materials]. There's nothing more disheartening than me putting effort into these templates if no one actually uses them. I'm trying to make the hobby easier to get into and although I know the fun that can be had from building terrain I also understand for some, it's the last thing they want to do when they have a whole army to paint/build/buy. But feel free to let me know what you think, once I've had more feedback and we're reaching another milestone in the prize fund I'll pin down the full details of the competition so everyone is happy about what's expected. And also let me know if you're keen to take part, how you might approach it etc.