Confessions of a 40k addict

Tuesday 19 January 2021

'nids 306 - Tyranid Void Shield Generator part 7

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I'm finally breaking my silence on the progress of #Tyranid scratchbuilt void shield generator. With the sand around the edge of the base I was ready to prime, but what with the weather what to do? So I did it in the garage, but it doesn't matter if I keep the garage door open, waft or what, my wife can still smell it from our loft conversion, in the house and 2 storey's up!

And yet, once it's primed it still looks like terracotta DAS clay! But better details of the petals.

Filled to the brim with hobby endorphins it didn't seem like too much just to block in the base colours, even if I hadn't done the base first, like I always do.

But I could still wash the base after, now that would be a BIG pot to spill!

Everything got washed. The base and all the red fleshy bits were washed black.

Bone and blue get a sepia wash, then the blue gets an Agrax equivalent wash. With so much Valejo sepia and black wash I did a 50:50 mix in a spare Army Painter bottle that works in all the recesses on the bone and on the blue.

However, those two little corner pieces were actually 2nd washes with Army Painter Strong Tone, hence the 'glossy' finish. The Valejo can often have the crusty deposits I suffer from with Citadel shades but there was no issues this time. You may also notice I added some thread veins on the buboes.

Having looked at a Capillary Tower and observed how they all had that it seemed wrong not to follow the concept through on these. A slight interruption for an evening and then another night to paint them red but I'll be back up to speed soon.

You can see some of the wash is a little patchy on the blue, but not to fear, it'll mostly be covered with Turquoise anyway, leaving a mottled and cloudy blue that is fascinating to observe close-up.

Red Planet BASE! next. I can check that off my Big Build 'prime and base' then and get on with all the other little bits.

Friday 15 January 2021

'nids 305 - Tyranid Void Shield Generator part 6

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've finished building my scratchbuilt #Tyranid Void Shield Generator. I'll say this again, and possibly repeatedly through this post and its paint log...

The sense of satisfaction I'm feeling getting to this stage is unbelievable. The amazing thing is, is that it doesn't seem to be fading. Every time I look at it I get the warm fuzzies.

I don't know if it's the length of time taken or the fact that this is my own sculpt, my own concept finally brought to life. It's an improvement , in some instances, to my existing Tyranid terrain.

But there are also elements that I know could have been improved but I am at aa stage in my hobby where that doesn't faze me, where I can be content with 'finished not perfect'.

For instance I had thought of having some Adrenal Glands climbing over the walls, but in the end I couldn't find many and it just looked plonked on.

So It's less detailed and exciting but aside from the emitter ball and pen stalk, it's all my own sculpt.

I can't wait to start painting it. it feels like it would be really easy to do, despite my experience of painting these big nid things. But if I can ride the crest of this motivation and hopefully overcome whatever challenges it faces i could very well 'surf' this project home in a few weeks! [Famous last words...]

For now I get a Great Big Granite Big Build Stamp of Approval.

Wednesday 13 January 2021

'nids 304 - Tyranid Void Shield Generator part 5

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been back at the Void Shield Generator. I've tidied up the inner fleshy walls. It might not be 100% what I'd hoped to do - the plan was to evolve the inner walls from the Bastion. Now I would admit that is the case but it's more v1.5 rather than v2.0.

I did manager to recreate the 6 petals from the opening in the Skyshield Landing Pad, it was very difficult though given the emitter stalk in the centre. I had thought a ring of clay subdivided would be the best approach, but in the end went with 6 triangular pieces smudged into shape. It's not quite the standard I'd hoped for but given the difficulty and my lack of practice I'm happy with it.

The fleshy collar to the well, again, not quite what I'd hoped for. It doesn't quite match my inspiration from the pumpkin flower. It's close but there's something a little undefined about it. It was a bit wobbly when I was doing it, perhaps more on top would solve my issue...

But I am content with what's been done so far and the gains don't feel like they're worth the effort. I think the painting will help elevate it to where it should be.

I also sculpted the rocky ground around the Generator. Again a lot of that technique began to come back, and I do think I improved on it compared to the base of the Capillary Towers.

It would make more sense to refer back to those posts when I do something similar. I've got some realism in place. I have already added some sand since these pics and luckily left the peaks of the stones bare. Again something I identified with the Capillary Towers, but failed to act up on. Thankfully this time I subconsciously acted on that knowledge, despite failing to refer back to those posts!

So it's almost TO DONE! Big Build stylee, just the sand in the next pics and then ready for priming.

Such an amazing feeling to have pushed this to this stage. It has taken so long and really didn't need much effort, but it was quite concentrated and fully understand why it took that perfect alignment of motivation, opportunity and desire to get it done. I can't quite express the sense of satisfaction this is bringing me. If I get it primed and painted my Hobby Season will be considered 100% success. Anything else beyond this will be a bonus...

Monday 11 January 2021

'nids 303 - Tyranid Void Shield Generator part 4

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been sculpting again, something I haven't done since September 2019. But here we are and I can't be happier to start getting over one of the last few hurdles - the 'battlements'. Now this was started in 7th edition, which had some generic rules for how you could define buildings. Before the actual Imperial VSG model came out it could be any 'small building' that had a defined size and transport capacity. It was an Impassable Building, so you couldn't actually get anything inside it but you could climb up the outside to get on the battlements.

Of course this now takes up a bit more space than the actual model, so tournament wise it's never going to be used, but it'll make some interesting NPC terrain. The sculpting has been a bit of an adventure, rediscovering some skills, but it's been so long since I did the Skyshield Landing Pad some technique has been lost. I had also added some more PVA'd strings to the generator node.

I think I could have put in a couple of extra dotty lines for texture on the battlements. I need to do some petals at the base of the emitter, in the well, then add some more folds around the edge. There's a lot more muscle sculpting to on the walls and supports but I just needed the battlements to dry out before I do any more.

I'm hoping to get this sort of effect at the base of the emitter, but with the stalk protruding between the petals... Hopefully the paint job will help mask some of the discrepancies in execution time has caused.

I'm still pleased so far, but I think the next set of sculpting will really help tie it all together. This will BE DONE!

Friday 8 January 2021

Blood Bowl - Nurgle Team Trio

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer #BloodBowl Nurgle players. Between other projects I would randomly throw a bit of paint on these, with unexpected results. Still lots to do though, but they're at a stage where I'm excited to paint them to completion.

First up, this Rotter. So far there are some things I am very happy with. The raw flesh is working very well and the orange is a great starting point for the subsequent highlights yet to come. The filthy cream is also as expected. The green skin however is both a disappointment and a success.

It's disappointing because this Rotter was supposed to be grey skinned. I wanted to explore a different skintone but when I added yellow to the grey it just ended up green. I should have expected it but I didn't. Thankfully, it looks OK though but it does leave me missing out on that exploration.

The albino bloater is also working out really well. Here's my own tip for Nurgle - one thin coat. You really shouldn't be striving for flat colours with 2 thin coats. You want all sorts of undertones showing through and it's working really well so far on his skin.

I had hoped to add some pink mold in places, you know how sometimes you can get it in bathrooms and even on bread, but I'm not sure if it'll work now I've added the red shading. We'll see how it goes.

I also wanted to explore a foetid yellow Bloater and this too is coming out interesting. I think I need to add some purple in places. Green could also be an option but I worry it'll take it more in that direction and I've already explored some green players. I'm sure colour-theory could provide an answer but it's not just the theory it's how I put down the paint and even with the answer I could blow it on execution.

Currently I think it has 2 dimensions of the contrast and different tones in the red shading. But I need another dimension in additional tones to show variation in the diseased nature of the skin. The albino has that somewhat already, but it doesn't quite have the finish I'm after yet.

I'll get there in the end. Orange armour highlights and pants next. This will give me more time to mull over the skin and the various approaches I'll take to help them get to the next level.

Tuesday 5 January 2021

Blood Bowl - Halfling Team Big Build TO DONE!

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been building my Halfling #BloodBowl team. It was a treat to myself after witnessing PaintedByG's amazing Armies on Parade entry.

Interesting to note they come packaged in plastic inside the box, I don't think the Nurgle team did.

There's not much to say about them, the feet can be fiddly to add. It's perhaps always worth putting them on before you attempt gluing them to the base.

I also tended to leave them just glued to the base without arms and heads and going onto another one or two before coming back to the original, giving it time to bond to the base a bit more.

I also employed my strips of fun foam to fill the slotta gaps. It wasn't always completely effective but additional grass will hide most of the sand and gravel anyway. At some point I'll need the Kurnoth Hunters for my Treemen.

Not sure when I'll be undercoating them, what with the weather but I'll get them in my Porkbelly Stuffers colours - pink uniforms with crackling shoulder-pads.

Halfling/Treeman