'nids part 257 - Genestealer Cult for Double Trouble 3

It's Double Trouble 3 tomorrow and I thought I'd get my army all sorted and while I was at it take a  few pics on their display board. I might take a few other bits and pieces to make it look a little more interesting.

Acolytes and Magus, obviously not intested in the flyers of the Imperium.

Aberrants and a unit of Neophytes. The second unit of coverted cultist Neophytes are behind.

12 Purestrains for maximum slashiness and a Patriarch.

And lastly my two Scout Sentinels with Flamers.

I'll be cult Ambushing the Patriarch with the Stealers and Magus with either the Acolytes or Aberrants, can't work out which would be best but with 8 units I can only deploy 4 in reserve, that is until they make you use Power Levels to define your reserve - if I was interested in Power Levels I wouldn't be doing Matched Play. So if anyone knows if I'm better off with Aberrants or Acolytes. I think the Aberrants might be better because otherwise they'll be shot to pieces hoofing it across the board but I actually think the 10 Acolytes might be more effective if they manage to close on arrival...

Imperial Knight - Warglaives in manufactorum pt.7 Highlights and damage

Not immediately apparent but the updates of note in these pictures are the highlights on the chevrons [yellow and black], followed by all the rivets being picked out in Bonewhite. All weapons are now washed ready for weathering.

And the faceplates have all been moved on, in particular I picked out the forehead with bonewhite here,

and a stripe on this guy.

This echoes the Cerastus Lancer who has a Bonewhite crest [you can see where I painted that here].

Not sure why I took so many pics the same but the Bonewhite application is interesting as it does not feature much as a House Raven accent colour but I'm employing it to tie in with my Deathwing/Dark Angels and obviously the Tyranids [not that a connection between the Knights and 'nids needs to be made]. But this isn't just House Raven, it's House Corvus - an offshoot of House Raven so a slightly adapted heraldry explains the difference

Battle damage next and unlike my Predator and Drop Pods the damage has not been sponged on. Both Imperial Knights had damage painted on and I've done the same here to keep the aesthetic. Chips of Rhinox Hide, edged with my 1st level Red Planet BASE! highlight colour with some additional 2nd level spots for more depth.

Weapons were also damaged and I was able to complete all the chipping over 2 or 3 nights.

All that's left now is finishing off the verdigris, some damage on the debris [sponge damage this time]. Glow effects everywhere and varnishing.

Really coming together now, just in time for the hype train and the World Record attempt at GW Manchester.

Imperial Knight - Warglaives in manufactorum pt.6 WHAT?! Decals already...!

First of note I've applied a highlight to the Vermilion which here looks quite pink. It is in fact the exact same first level highlight I add to my Red Planet BASE! so does have an orange tint to it but even so. Secondly I did some rough highlights on the chevrons - I mean REALLY rough, I think I was rushing but I don't know if I'll fix it as I think the battle damage will obscure it and potentially mitigate the 'pinkness' on the Vermilion [so no glazes to make it redder]. Lastly - gloss varnish on all the panels ready for decals.

That includes spats.

And there we go, Metallica Forgeworld names mirrored on the carapace. Raven heraldry on the access hatch, Raven symbol on the left shoulder, ident number on the right [would have preferred this in white but they actually blend better in black].

Rear of shoulder pads have the Mechanicum cog symbols. Interestingly the cogs with the square ends fit in the round bottom edge strip.

Spats with Mechanicum cog and small Raven symbol.

Mechanicum identifying symbol.

The other spats.

A coat of Lahmian Medium over all the decals and glossy surfaces seals everything together. The end result is almost indistinguishable... except for the fact there is no way I could ever freehand these to this quality and the heraldry on the cockpit is such fine detail it's almost a different scale altogether. Nevermind, it looks really good and the decals are so good I couldn't not use them.

And if I stick to solely decals on my Knights it 'contains' the oddity compared to my freehand everywhere else. And to held blend everything I've added some Strong Tone wash over the decals just to tone them down a bit. Also started picking out the debris on the base.

The weapons have fallen behind a bit, I still need to wash them but once they're up to speed some extra highlights, tidying up and then it's battle damage [must remember 'less is more'], Verdigris and lastly glow effects. The speed at which this is coming together is unbelievable. Just thinking back to that period where I physically refused to go any further and then suddenly I'm almost on the home stretch. Really pleased with the progress because it wasn't long ago I was focused on the Hierophant and these have come together so quick. I may well get my 'Big 3' complete at this stage with just two months left of the Hobby Season!

Imperial Knight - Warglaives in manufactorum pt.5 Flank speed!

The Warglaives continue apace! First up I added the yellow for the chevron stripes. I might have made an error here as I think with the Cerastus I did the black on the orange and then highlighted each yellow stripe separately, nevermind.

Spats were also done.

Then came the wash... on boy. I think you can see a certain 'matting' on the paint job. I used the Valejo Sepia wash I bought and although it's not Seraphim Sepia bad there's definitely a potential to go very wrong here.

Thankfully I knew it was salvageable as there are a lot more layers to go on.

There isn't quite the crusty powder deposits in the recesses but an Army Painter Soft Tone wash would not have done this. While the shading on the metallics is particularly heavy, I need to decided if I'll add some further highlights. I'm not sure if it's worth it as the Verdigris will cover a lot of it up...

In case you hadn't noticed I also glued on the shoulder pads, which I came to regret later on trying to fit the shoulder joints on underneath [note to self do the shoulder joints first]. I also painted the back of the pads black to match the House Raven scheme.

The following night I reapply some Vermillion to help mitigate the Valejo wash effect, which worked really well. I then pencilled in the chevrons, using a cable tie for consistent width.

And yet somehow the above Warglaive has 5 black stripes, while the one below has only 4. I've no idea how that happened as they still look evenly spaced. Anyway, this one matches the pattern on the Cerastus, while the one above mirrors it. Should I get a third it will have V-shaped chevrons down the middle of the carapace.

While I was at it I striped the chainblades.

And next step some highlights and prepare for decals. I can't believe how quick these have suddenly progressed. At this stage I still didn't know the release date of the Codex [obviously we know the date now] but I was suddenly very confident of completing them in time for the Record attempt.

Terrain is everything - 40k future container scatter terrain - Big Build To Done!

You know the deal by now - I set a number of tasks and targets for myself and go about sabotaging it by taking on yet more projects but the muse compels me. Having completed 2 of these containers earlier this year I had found the last three Mentos Cube boxes I'd collected - I so wish I'd bought more. I thought I could do the 'reinforcing' in my lunch break at work. So the plastic got sanded for more of a key when it gets painted, my current ones do chip very easilt but it's soft plastic. I used PVA to stick them on, it;s worked in the past. I wasn't hole punching the circles on the corners/middle I bought some small 2mm adhesive jems to make rivets instead.

Now the original plan was for these two to me MSC shipping containers  [yes, I appreciate the tautology]. Having done OOCL I wanted another global container brand and the yellow would stand out, except I changed my mind at the last minute as I already have the two biohazard containers that are yellow and wanted to try something different. So I chose orange instead and luckily there's a container company for that - Hapag-Lloyd. Now I'd undercoated these with grey primer and black primer, I then painted them with black masonry paint mixed with PVA and some fine sand [too much fine sand actually so they're far grittier than I'd planned]. All of this is to try and make them more durable. I then primed Red Oxide and the first orange paint was a Dark Orange craft acrylic which had really poor coverage. I had to stipple it twice to get coverage I was happy with but even then the colour was not the 'papaya' orange of the Happag-Lloyd container.

 
It would go on, be quite bright and then dry very matt, semi-transparent and much darker than I was after. I picked up another orange craft paint from The Works, it was only a pound and the same make as my lime green I use for toxic stuff. It's amazing because it's very like my Vermilion in that it's relatively thick but still goes on thin and also very glossy. It's hard to tell in the pictures above but the container on the left is pre-glossy orange and again the right one required two coats to get the colour I was after, it's almost a glaze! I took this picture in daylight so you can potentially see the difference.

Anyway, it might be a right palaver to do, four coats of paint to get what I'm after, and that's before washes but I'm finally happy with it. I still have some of the earlier stages to do on the second H-L container and I've changed my mind about the third too. Originally the third container was supposed to be Dark Angel Green but I might go for light grey and make it a Maersk Line container, for yet more giggles. Obligatory B&W art shot.

So I do get a Big Build Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval.

Imperial Knight - Warglaives in manufactorum pt.4 Where there's muck, there's brass!

I last covered these in the middle of April but not sure if I shared these two pics, at least they're not in the last post but appear afterwards in my photo album.

Anyway, as I push to try and meet the unknown deadline of the release of the new Knight Codex it's a decent place to remind you where I was at. I then went with some Balthasar Gold on the Warplock Bronze, but as reported had to stop partway through as I physically and mentally couldn't deal with it.

Thankfully, my recent 'girding of loins' finished off the Balthasar highlights, then Retributor Gold the following night and Runelord Brass the night after. Something is up with my Runelord Brass though, it's very gloopy, doesn't drybrush at all well and stippling is rubbish.

Nevermind, they'll all be getting washes next and having done it this way I can sepia wash the entire model, Vermilion too, all at once. I've picked out the chainblades in orange but they'll be yellow and black striped, so yellow next before the sepia for the antique tone and shading. Then I'll be washing Strong Tone in the deeper recess for contrast and definition.

While I thought about the washes I realised there was no reason not to have the foot and thigh plates on. I'd perhaps been debating even adding them, I'm not a fan of the 'spats' but without them the thigh plates look too muscular. So it was all or nothing and I stuck them on so the decision was made.

I might differentiate some of the panels - yellow and black stripes, white or black panels for heraldry and to tie in with my Cerastus. With all the 'actual' painting left to do, and the weathering and battle damage it's an awful lot but these few nights progress have felt really productive, but I'm not about to count my chickens like I did with the Hierophant!

'nids part 256 - Biotitan Tyranid Hierophant pt.11 - Bonewhite highlights on the legs

Dear readers, you will recall how well the Bonewhite highlights were progressing and how pleased I was with myself. Now they say 'pride comes before a fall', this might be evidence of that. I estimated I'd be able to get through this big leg in one sitting, I was clearly very wrong. I managed to do most of the edge highlights but when it came to the pinstripes I could only manage the lower third and even then I wasn't overly happy with the result.

This pretty much felt like my momentum was killed dead. I know going forward to approach the other legs in the same way - edge highlight and then fill in. That's why the ribs were so easy to do, each element was conatined, whereas here there's just so much space that I need to section so I can deal with on a smaller basis. Funnily enough the original plan was to paint the legs first, I don't know why I didn't but I'm extremely grateful for deciding to paint the ribs first. Without that under my belt I may well have felt even more disheartened.

With the legs giving me grief I thought I'd flip everything on its head and think smaller again - focussing on the bio- cannon arms.

Despite them being the smallest of it's limbs with the least bone it was a full hour to do all this and a surprising amonut of Skeleton Bone paint that I now worry is running out. 

I used what was left on my palette to do this bit on the right arm. For a variety of reasons [that I'll list below] I'll put this on hold at this point. As the Skeleton Bone is running out I don't expect to replace it until Double Trouble 3, when I can nip into Element Games directly. I've probably got far more than I think but this gives me an opportunity to try and tackle something else in my Big 3.

Despite my utter aversion to the bronze on the Armigers I took the opportunity to force myself to overcome the issue. The Manchester GW is holding an Imperial Knight World Record attempt - the most Knights in a store, and Armigers are included. Unfortunately the event is on 'the day of release of the new Imperial Knight Codex', which I estimate could be between 2-4 weeks maximum. I honestly don't think that's achievable, certainly not the two week deadline. I can but try and even if I miss the deadline I should have progressed sufficiently that I'll feel happy about their state, they may even be good enough to join in unfinished... Regardless, expect Armigers next on the blog.