Tuesday 26 January 2021

Blood Bowl - Nurgle Team Trio - TO DONE!

Remember my trio of Nurgle #BloodBowl players? You won't believe what they look like now! Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've started using 'clickbait' titles in my tweets, because that's how human's speak now! 😖


Sadly I think the lights have flattened some of the highlights on the orange a bit.


The pants in particular have a bit more going on, but maybe it's a victim of the texture that's going on in the 'cream' parts...?


I'm 2/3rds done with these now. Just 4 players left. 3 Rotters and a Pastigor. I may do the Rotters as a group and the Pestigor on its own.


This Bloater was an exploration in pale skin. I added a little more sepia in places from the last shots. That's probably more tones than I was going for, perhaps a blue might have been more interesting to tie in with the purples but it's Nurgle, nothing is ever truly wrong.  

 

 I'm pretty pleased with it, even if all that work on his feet got covered up! I also added some tar goop in his hands, as if he'd picked some up when falling over.

 

Exploring diseased yellow skin, I may name him Colman, he's pretty mustard!

 

And switching the pustule on the back to white, so they're more like fungal growths seemed like the sensible thing to do.

 

I've already completed the twin of this one. As mentioned I was a little disappointed as he was supposed to be grey but I've somehow managed to copy his twin.

 

There's very little difference between the two. I'm not a fan of his face, and again my effort haven't quite captured the detail but I can trot out the same excuse - it's Nurgle!

 

Here's the team so far. Still need to come up with a name. Maybe find a way to tie it in to my son's condition, maybe with the PXA initials after the name, like PSG. 



And so I gets me this season's Great Big Granite Minor Stamp of Approval, because I can.


Thursday 21 January 2021

Whats on my palette?

Bless me #warmongers for I have sinned, it's been nearly a year since my last confession! I've known exactly what I needed to paint so it didn't really require an overview to keep track.


I'm still somewhat focused, but I did feel the need to just list what I've got and the [subject to change] order I have them in. So:
  • Blood Bowl - Nurgle Trio [almost done]
  • Tyranid Void Shield Generator
  • Adeptus Titanicus - at least one Warhound
  • Adeptus Titanicus - weapons
  • Adeptus Titanics - Knight Lancer
  • Blackstone Fortress - Amallyn Shadowguide [she was in my review last Feb!]
  • Blood Bowl - Nurgle [last four]
  • Genestealer Cult - Aberrants
  • Deathwing Land Raider...

I also want to build my Ravenwing Talonmaster, so that needs to fit in there somewhere and some various other Ravenwing bits and bob need building. I'm really lucky in that a lot of these are ready to go/part done. Bad weather and inability to prime isn't a problem. I estimate this log of work can keep me busy well into May/June. It's also handy because some elements overlap - last 4 Nurgle players might have similar bits to my Aberrants, so I can streamline their painting.


I'm feeling really positive and motivated at the moment, which now that I've said it, it could easily evaporate. This time of year is usually the post-Christmas hobby malaise, but I think the massive sense of achievement with the Void Shield Generator has gone some way to inoculate me from feeling down about things. I'm just really looking forward to getting things TO DONE! 



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.


Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 1. part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. |

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 2. part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. part 9. | part 10. | part 11. | part 12. | part 13. | part 14. | part 15. | 

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. 


Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 1. part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. |

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 2. part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. part 9. | part 10. | part 11. | part 12. | part 13. | part 14. | part 15. | 

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...


Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 1. part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. |

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 2. part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. part 9. | part 10. | part 11. | part 12. | part 13. | part 14. | part 15. | 

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!

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 1. part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. |

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 2. part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. part 9. | part 10. | part 11. | part 12. | part 13. | part 14. | part 15. |