Imperial Knight - in manufactorum pt 14

With the Land speeders in the bag it's about time the Imperial Knight got finished. It's been pushed ot one side for far to long, granted everything else were perfectly valid contributions to my armies and my hobby exploits but they really have been avoidance tasks. Which is odd because as I actually start doing more on the Knight I can literaly taste how quick I can finish this thing. Sure it's not goign to be done next week but it seems straightforward and certain elements once done - patina, will have a massive impact on progress.

Anyway, greens and highlighting the banner.

Weapon options.

Carapace and the back of the banner, which was roughly dry-brushed to get cross hatched lines to make it look like fabric.

Pauldrons, I'll need to do all the battle damage before I do the verdigris. But before all of that - heraldry markings...

Choice of helmets, the one on the right is traditionally the Gerantius faceplate but I can't decide just yet.

I gloss varnished the access hatch and banner for some decals

and I'm a little disenchanted with the results.

The construction mark has warped thanks to the decal softener. I did keep re-postioning it thoughso it's partly my fault. I just couldn't get it to align in the dead centre of the hatch with it's top and bottom parallel to the window and edge. I'm also dubious about the big 'red thing' drawing attention to itself on top of the carapace. Hopefully some battle damage will tone it down.

And this! Well I always assumed it fit in this side of the banner - it does not! I had to trim off the bottom and replace it with the triangle  to make it fit. Some shading did help but as soon as I applied Lahmian Medium on top, to tone down the glossy decal finish, it rehydrated the pigment and washed it off. I'm hoping some subsequent coats will help.

Bottom line the whole project has become a bit schizophrenic, flitting from visions of the 'the end is in sight' to 'couldn't care less'. I'm sure it's not helped by fatigue but it's becoming less appealing to do. That said the other night I was not going to work on this at all and managed to put in an hour or two and get one leg and the waist completely weathered. When I get the second leg done that'll be about a third of the model complete, which is awesome butt tempered by all the other hurdles yet come. I've no doubts on the painting it's just elements like the decals, I'm half a mind to do an alternative banner...

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |

Dark Angels - Land Speeder Typhoons - moar shots

These are the 'cinematic shots' i.e. the ones with a shedload of filters on to try and make them more interesting. Unlike my pic of the Dark Talon I'm not sure if there's any improvements but I always need some pics on my phone for various social media platforms so it's always worth doing.

Sure all my other To Done! pics are in the cloud but for 'reasons' it's nice to have some stored locally too.

These actually look really ropey, nevermind.

There seems to be a bit of a furore over the use of Prisma, certainly on Facebook folk are getting pretty steamed about it. Personally I think it adds another dimension but there's a knack to it and certainly little benefit of using it on WiP shots with all your hobby table in the back ground.

I can definitely recommend dialling back the filter sometimes, it helps bring back definition of the model but retains the artistic styling.

I could imagine this being useful in making a 40k comic, if I had the time I'd do it I'm sure some bright spark will take the idea and run with it though. Certainly make the headlight OSL work though.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics.

GW on the TV

We've all seen a big change in GW recently, from their embracing social media, push for more games and return of Specialist Games, but when was the last time you saw them advertise on TV?!

That time is now (according to the wife, who just sent me this picture).

Dark Angels - Land Speeder Typhoons - To Done!

I'd been holding out for the weekend to get my To Done! pics done. I make the fundamental mistake of using natural light and with autumn approaching that's going to be in short supply. I've a plan to fix that though so 'bear with'.

I wasn't overly impressed with the pics but seeing them now they don't look too bad. In fact it's these pics that are convincing me I've done a half decent job on them. In fairness I should have taken pictures alongside the rest of my Ravenwing to compare the consistency, you can definitely see brighter and more highlights on these than the Dark Talon, but it's a smaller model with more edges so there would be more going on.

I'm still dubious about the orange missiles, but I've used orange throughout for grenades and missiles so I felt compelled to stick with it. Consistency is hugely important across the force, despite huge variation in the three wings and a riot of detail competing for attention so long as some things remain the same it ties all the disparate pieces together.

I plan to get at least another Typhoon to complete the squadron. If I ever do another unit I'll mix up the edges a bit so that there are red borders elsewhere - I don't imagine I'll have more than the three Typhoons so that element will be transposed on a different part of the model.

The jets turned out OK, I haven't added any gloss varnish. Liam brought me to task on its use as a glow effect. Whereas it may be appropriate on the white bits the rest isn't. I may well add those little bits at some point but for now I've just left it.

The Book turned out OK too, I could have done some more illumination on the page but I struggle with this sort of thing so it looked all right in the end so I'll take it as a win.

The Ravenwing pilot is called 'Maze' after the nickname for the demon Mazikeen in Lucifer, well it had to be a short name to fit on the plaque ;) Both marines had the Ravenwing symbol painted freehand, the gunner's is a bit ropey because I was painting it through the speeder frame but I think they pass muster.

These guys had markings moulded into their shoulder pads so the winged skull was a bit easier.

I also put the company number and squad tribal markings in to break it up although I think I should have stuck with one direction. The gunners eyes are a bit wonky but only if you look dead on, which is difficult as the heavy bolter obscures both eyes. They're so small though and such a pain I think they'll do. This pic does seem to suggest the highlights are too extreme, I may look to be more subtle with my Deathwatch and in turn make them easier to paint...

Just a shot of the complete underneath

So close to being completed in last Season, but I really sabotaged myself in that respect. Nevermind it's all done and I look forward to adding them into my existing force. I think they'll easily replace my Deathwing with a few more points to spend. I think they'll give me more long range firepower with potential to hide in my back field and should they last sneak around stealing objectives. Anyway, my first Big Purple Stamp of Approval!

MOAR Red Planet BASING

With the completion of the Land Speeders, with only photos to take, I'm transitioning to my next project, qwhich will no doubt be the completion of my Knight. However, I thought I'd go via Red Planet BASING the Genecult. With my patented process I keep thinking to myself about how they're in fact more orange than red and getting dangerously close to the ridiculous red-highlighting-to-yellow-to-white I used to do way-back-when.

But, as I'm fond of pointing out on the Red Planet BASE! facebook group there is far more diversity in the Martian basing style than people give credit to, evidenced by the variety seen in the group. Anyway, there's still a lot to do on these bases. I have to pick out all the wreckage and debris, render those metallics and there are also various pieces of panels I can add more colours to to fit my original Genecult rubble bases. You can definitely see where I've tried to reign in highlighting the centre of the base [where a shadow logically would be cast] but I can still be over-zealous with the final Pumpkin highlight. We'll see how the extra elements break it up and then there's even the Bonewhite chips too... The rest of the models will be then on pause while I do the Knight but I may flit between it and the Aberrants when I get bored. The rest of the hybrids are compromised by all the various elements to paint but the Abberrants look reasonably straightforward once I reconcile the skin tones and mutations with Hive Fleet Gorgon's colour scheme.

Prior to this I'd also finished my bike bases. These are now ready to drill for pinning the Ravenwing Black Knights/Command squad.

Lastly I finished up the Deathwatch paradoxically I'm looking forward to painting them but no desire to begin. The Knight is calling, it deserves completion and these Johnny-come-latelies are not going to interfere.

Dark Angels - Land Speeder Typhoons gravitic plate

The irony of posting these WiP shots of the gravitic plates underneath the Land Speeders is that the subsequent efforts over the weekend meant I applied the anti-shine varnish on the 28th August, the day of the new Hobby Season! That just goes to show I was dilly-dallying for good reason, any of those days I avoided working on the Speeders could have resulted in a 2015/16 stamp instead of a 2016/17. The fact is it makes no difference either way, borne out by my inability to feel dismayed they weren’t completed last season or happier they’ll ring out the new season in style. The reality is I’m playing the 'To Done' images out in my head and that mental celebration is a win regardless of 24 hours hear or there.

The glow effects were not as straight forward as I'd imagined. Orange was always the first choice, red was considered but with the red lights I thought it'd confuse matters. I must remember to always do the Macharius Solar orange glow though. When thinned it really does add the 'halo' effect, whereas the darker craft acrylic when thinned just sticks to the crevices. You cannot make the glow with it alone, it just defines the shape.

With the varnish dry I was not happy with the anti-shine finish, too many brush strokes were visible. This is a recurring issue on the black, particularly flat surfaces where there is no place to hide. So I cranked out the airbrush and tried to be a little more careful than I was with the Nephilim. In fact I think I had to spray on even more varnish but luckily it didn’t go ‘dusty’ [on initial inspection at least]. The second coat did at least manage to even out the varnish and cover the brush marks. All that remains to do is Tamiya Clear Red X-27 the lights, Tamiya Clear Orange X-26 the targeting lenses and then take the To Done pictures and I can get my first Big Purple Stamp of Approval.

Then what...? I guess I'll have to check the list, I mean it's what it's there for afterall!

To Do List 2016/17

Having covered my achievements over the past season it's now that I look forward to the new Season. Initially I want to crack on with some of the things I couldn't quite finish off in time. They're mainly Dark Angels, they're still my focus despite those Genestealers creeping into the mix at the end there. Anything in bold is a priority, everything else is nice to have

1. Dark Angel - Land Speeder Typhoons
2. Imperial Knight - Paladin
3. Dark Angel - Bastion and Quad Gun
4. Dark Angel - Deathwing Knights
5. Dark Angel - Ravenwing Knights
6. Dark Angel - Ravenwing Bikes
7. Dark Angel - Drop Pod [this is less of a priority but I want it finished]
8. Deathwatch marines

The top three are to add to my Armies on Parade board, hence their priority status, although I supposed everything else is also valid. The remaining nid and terrain based items are these:

1. Project Z?! Still a mystery project ;)
2. Genestealer Cultists
• 1st/2nd gen hybrids
• Aberrants
• Mining Lasers
• Magus
• Primus
• Patriarch
• 3rd/4th gen hybrids
• Familiars
3. Tyranid Void Shield Generator
4. Some bits of Imperial terrain I have knocking about
5. Tyranid Bastion Crater
6. Tyranid Promethium Relay Pipes [way down the list only here to remind me I want to do it]

As always things will insert themselves into the mix  as and when the muse takes me. For instance the Aegis Defence Lines are also something I want to do I've not included them above as I've no real aspiration for them above my list but should I fell the urge...

On top of all that I want to undertake what I will be referring to as 'The Great Build'. Usually painting is my priority but particularly over the winter months, when priming can be a pain I want to build and prepare as much of my Grey Tide as possible. Ordinarily I don't work this way, but having built some things last season I want to crack on and have stuff prepared so I've fewer 'blank pages' to start with.

Then on top of The Great Build I want to base, prime and paint the bases so everything is ready to pick up and go when I feel the urge. To this end I'll be introducing a couple of extra stamps for myself just to complicate the system I never wanted to be complicated! These stamps allow me to tick off this element and nto feel guitly they didn't go through to completion as that's not their goal at this point. There's no complete list here but they include

• 4 Tyranid Lictors
• 3 Tyranid Warriors
• 3 Tyranid Shrikes
• Tyranid Trygon
• Ripper Swarms
• 5 Dark Angel Assault Marines
• 5 Dark Angel Veterans/Command Squad
• 10 Dark Angel Macragge Tactical Squad
• Space Hulk Genestealers
• Remaining Deathwing Terminators
• Sanctum Impearialis

So that's me for 2016/17, I'm not sure it looks particularly impressive but I think we may all be a little surprised further down the line ;) All the best for your own efforts this season.