What's on my palette?

Bless me readers for I have sinned, it's been nearly 3 months so it's long overdue, although some of this has been covered in recent posts having it altogether will help me take stock and potentially make me stick to the plan.

 

After a period of intense productivity at the beginning of the Hobby Season I was hit with the traditional festive blues and it wasn't until the middle of January before things took off and I was able to get back into the grrove. Since then I've managed to crack on with a number of things, get a number of the Genestealer Cult done, unnecessary but they were the 'pilot light' to some of my other projects. There's only the Magus and Primus to complete and then they can all be varnished at once.

The rest of the hybrids can remain in stasis as they're actually a distraction at the moment.

Which is why I was slighlty relieved that Ben borrowed Blood Bowl, taking the temptation to paint both teams with him. I'm itching to do them but I need to prioritise my time.

Which is why the Drop Pods finally got the attention they deserve. Pod 1 is almost complete, just some additional markings to do. Pod 2 needs some highlights, details, weathering and markings. Both need varnishing but I'll be so pleased when they're in the bag.

Meanwhile I actually got to add some metallics to the Deathwing Knights. These are also a distraction, in a way. Ravenwing should be a priority, I foresee them being far more in use than their Deathwing bretheren but I actually painted these easy bits in my lunch break so I feel less guilty about it. Reds next, second metal highlights and then washes and probably back into hiatus.

Which was going to leave me with a nice hole that I would take some time over the Assault Squad as my secondary task and look to do some other bits.

Unfortunately this thing turned up and I suddenly worked out how I could fit it in my Double Trouble 2 list. Now that would mean not taking the newly painted Drop Pods and monopolising all my time between now and then. I know how slowly things progress, particularly my Dark Angels of any hue. It's feasible and I'll at least get it done for my Great Build stamps but the recent completion of projects has given me some breathing space and that's incredibly welcome at the moment.

The fact is this already took up most of a session that could have been spent really cracking on with Pod 2. I'd visualised all I was going to achieve on it throughout the day and despite making this, the fact I didn't complete the planned progress on the pod has irked me greatly.

So, pods, Genestealer Cult, then busy myself with other things [which may mean fewer blog posts for a bit] while casually progressing Dark Shroud and Assault Squad.

Dark Angels - Ravenwing Dark Shroud part 1

I managed to pick up this Land Speeder Dark Shroud for £30 on ebay. It really is the missing link to make my Ravenwing that much more effective. I'll probably magnetise it too [following for the Limey's guide]. I don't see much chance of using the Vengeance but it doesn't hurt. I pointed out it would fit into my Double Trouble list which prompted it making it to this stage part of me wants to crack on with it to completion but I need to be sensible and get stuff done and try to keep my plans on track. It can't take priority, as much as I'd like it to. I know that flies in the face of 'going with the flow' but other things need attention.

What is annoying though is the jets - because those holes really won't give me opportunity to paint them properly.

If you recall I had the same problem with my Ravenwing Nephilim Jetfighter/Dark Talon and had to plug them with tissue and DAS air drying clay. Doing it at that stage was a nightmare and I mentally noted it would have been so much easier during the build stage, before the intakes at the front went on.

With that in mind I'll probably have to fill them in now so I can create a similar jet effect as below.

Meanwhile, I picked these up for £15 too. It was a bargain I couldn't turn down even though I've enough grey tide to face already. Hopefully this will fill out my Ravenwing alongside the 6 completed bikes 6 other bikes in progress and 7 Black Knights.

I can foresee a few more Land Speeders down the line but hopefully won't need to buy anything else until these are all painted, but first they need stripping and then I have to decide if they're armed appropriately...

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights - METAL!

Quick post. These guys just really don't fit into my schedule but I wanted to crack on with them somehow. Luckily they're just base coats so I thought I could find some time in my lunch just to add some Warplock Bronze.

 It is incredibly untidy, I'm hoping it'll all get neatened up as I go along.

 Reds next on all the Ferron stone Crux Terminatus and their Storm Shields.

I also did these two guys and then it'll be the next highlights on the bronze and washes.

They'll probably go into hiatus again after that but I just need to keep chipping away at them so one day I look up and realise I've reached the home straight without realising

Then it should be a simple push and they'll be done.

The 'Eavy Metal Storm Shieldsfeature grey stone work behind they warrior monk relief. I'll obviously be doing them Ferron Red, but all the wings and the warrior monk on the shield will be picked out in the standard colours. It'll be a bit of a departure for me, I could have just as easily done it all weathered bronze. Bronzing it would have been the sensible choice and helped reduce the palette of colours for consistency but this way is the challenge and they deserve a little extra effort too.

Moving on...

Dark Angels - Drop Pod[s], Pod 1 numbering

Despite feeling confident to leave pod 1 well enough alone I felt the urge to add numbers. The original plan was awesome massive numbers on the door but I threw that idea out the window when the chapter markings looked alright as is. So instead it was numbers on the top fins, but how to make them consistent? Decals were the obvious choice but aside from not having enough vehicle decals to do all five fins I know I can paint that gothic swirly number 5, it's just it tends not to be consistent size wise. So I created a tiny stencil [without the line up the middle]. It took me two goes to cut it out of paper without destroying it.

I managed to do all five of the fins but you can see by the last pic [actually the 5th fin] it was becoming less effective. I'm not sure if this was due to application or dampness in the stencil but I definitely could have taken it down a notch so I didn't go quite as rough as it turned out.

But not to worry, because with the 5 in place I easily neatened it up, which was the plan all along. Ordinarily I'd have pencilled it in first but again it;s about being consistent. I also went round with some Caliban Green on the edge to neaten up any overspill.

Not the same 5 but each number did have subsequent pure white highlights. The end result is consistent across all the fins but hindsight I think it would look much better as a white circle with green 5 in the middle, although I'm sure the 5 would have to be smaller for it to fit and I doubt the stencil would be possible at such scale, extremely difficult to cut at the least.

Anyway, this is what I used, cutting out the five on the top row, although the actually fin shape and measurements are not correct so I had to fudge it a bit in positioning.
 I now have to decide if I'm doing the company symbol on the opposite side of each fin, by which I mean I have [annoyingly] decided to paint the company symbol, I just need a circle stamp on it at the correct size before I then fill it in.

Meanwhile Pod 2 got some love with the door edges orange in just two coats. I now need to do some extra shading and final green highlights.

Dark Angels - Drop Pod[s], Pod 1 weathering

I'd had the opportunity to get a good few hours concerted effort in resolving the edges on the doors but moreover I was happy with the result. However, the process wasn't without a new issue in overspill from the orange getting on the green outside of the doors, not to worry though as the doors were to receive some weathering that would potentially hide all my sins [until some Interrogator Chaplain tortured them out of me for his little black pearl].

In the mean time I also finished marking out the symbols on the sides, really quite pleased with the results, just Valejo Stonewall Grey, Army Painter Strong Tone [Agrax], Stonewall Grey and white. Obviously the rivets had also been done, I think I counted 165 are on each pod, add in the 150 holes on each door and it really is the repetition that can kill you with a pod. Regardless you'll notice some additional splodges of paint that got caught on the doors. Once again not to worry as the weathering would cover these up.

Sponge and Rhinox Hide as per Duncan's advice. I tried to be a little bit economical with it this time [compared to the damage on my Aquila Lander], only really catching the edges of the door.

I think both the Aquila and Euronymous suffered from too much weathering, Euronymous I fluff-excused the Aquila made a little more sense as it had crashed afterall but both seemed a little busy and had to be salvaged in one way or another to make me happy with it.

Interestingly the Dark Angel Codex features some painted miniatures that are clearly done at a 'tabletop' standard as opposed to the 'Eavy Metal team standard. As much as I approve of them showcasing a standard that's achievable by all in the Codex I was determined to do something better than the weathering on this at the very least.

So here's my first attempt with the sponge and Gun Metal on the left door.

And then I continued round the model, note where I covered up those paint smudges.

I added a subsequent wash of Strong Tone, just to make it less clean and unrealistic. I didn't go as far as I did with the Aquila and add Typhus Corrosion and then Strong Tone to blend it in as I thought the results were OK by themselves.

Here you can see the doors open and how the sepia wash on the door edges blended the oranges together. Compared with the piece of the crashed Aquila you can also see that the orange almost looks like my Ferron Proxima Red Planet Basing, unsurprising given the similar colours and yet unintentional. However, the result is most welcome and once again ties things together.

The fact is the pods, Aquila Lander and Euronymous run a fine line between process, effect and consistency. There have been slight deviations in process - choices in green and weathering that are completely different. The effects and how they’re consistent across the army was always a concern, not helped by the pod being started before I went all Verdigris Bronze on everything. And yet the inconsistencies are still valid as in reality not all materials are made at the same time so there will be differences in colours, some armour will be scuffed and reveal an undercoat, some will reveal bare metal. Some metals will be steel, some will be bronze etc.

I think 100% colour matching is really effective and I’d love to have that but for the most part my nids deliver on this front. As much as I’d be happier for the Dark Angels, who I consider rightly or wrongly, to be the army I put more effort into; they’re also the army I agonise over more intensely so I have to take success where I can find it. There’s little left to do on this, I considered litany markings before the damage but wanted it left without extra paint breaking up the strong green. There are some yellow pipes inside that I also don’t think should be black and yellow striped. They’re so small breaking them up with black would disturb their ‘silhouette’ in the model. There's quite a few more details I could pick out but I need to remind myself this is just a pod, I’ve another one to do and this is pretty much better than I expected anyways. So, it just needs varnishing and some of the dials/radar need Tamiya Clear Orange X-26 and it’s done…

Dark Angels - Drop Pod[s], no seriously!

One of the reasons why the drop pod was put to one side involved the doors. The standard is usually to put yellow and black chevrons done the side/inside and although I love a good chevron [yellow and black in particular] this was never what I wanted. Orange was my plan but having put the orange down the side I panicked and tried it inside as well. When I say panicked I mean I had a thought to photograph it and then Photoshop the extra orange on the inside and ask everyone's opinion but when I cam to do a successive coat of orange I just started painting the inside regardless [covering up the blended green I'd painstakingly done already].

But you see this was the inspiration for the orange [although they also did it in BR Green and yellow] so in some respects the original plan of just the side of the door was the right one.

So with the Aberrants out of the way and the Primus and Magus running out of steam it was time to look back at the pods. First step was to take a slightly different Craft Acrylic orange and run it along the bottom of the strip. I thought this would make it shade from bottom to top as my Valejo Fiery Orange was going to be on the edge. Then I carefully filled in all the 150 holes that are for the explosive bolts holding the doors shut.

But the intention was always to show the scorch residue from the bolts and the subsequent 'splotches' just didn't sit right and I was contemplating repainting the orange again [which had taken about 4 coats to get this far] and redoing the holes neatly.

I have a rule that if something doesn't look right then it usually isn't and as much as I wanted to show scorching what I had created was just 'untidy', like I'd tried to be neat but failed abysmally. You can also see the 'darker' orange didn't look darker, but more a hue shift so I was becoming frustrated and very early in the process of trying to finish this for good.

One last hope was to apply some silve to the edges, just to try and convince the viewer the scorch was intentional. Realism potentially out of the window, how do you get exposed metal and soot damage at the same time [you probably can but it didn't seem right in my head]? 

But the result was pretty OK and I thought it was good enough to save me from resetting the edges, both bad for progress and morale.

I also added some washes to the edge, not as apparent in the pics as it's ended up. Sepia all over and some Nuln Oil on all the holes to try and blend that 'soot'. Grunging it up saved it completely and you'll see how good it's become, blending the two orange hues together.

So I'm now really pleased with the result, it may not be the crisp clean orange of the Aston but the end result is something so much more and much mor ein keeping with what I've done in the army already. With this hurdle over it was full steam ahead and it looks like it's almost the home straight.