Imperial Knight - Armiger Helverins Bronze #Dreadtober part 4

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's the 'fourth' of #Dreadtober and I'm continuing my #Imperial Knights Armiger Helverins. VGC Hammered Copper, my slightly more red equivalent of Balthasar Gold is next. 

A mix of drybrushing, wetbrushing, stippling and any old way to get the paint on.

It's got another 4 or 5 coats of paint to go on over it so it can be rough as anything. Retributor Armour is next, then I'm going to try Runelord Brass, because I got a fresh pot with Imperium issue 2. 

Then a sepia wash and perhaps a Strong Tone wash afterwards. There may be an additional light sponge of Runelord Brass just for some additional nicks and scratches, we'll see.

Armour plates are fiddly and I did catch some of the coloured bits with metallics but I'm comfortable now with how I'll cover that up.

Carapaces were done too, still not 100% about the vents on the back sometimes. I suppose I could have deviated and painted them to match the full carapace but it's done now.

Rest of the torso quickly highlighted. Again, this is messy and most of it just needs one level of highlights just to help the shadow wash have some extra contrast for when the wash settles.

But, the wash will help even things out, so even the messiness now will be smoothed out eventually. Most of it is hidden, or overshadowed by the armour plates, so you can get away with a lot.

And the guns. Not just the Helverin autocannons, but a couple of Quad Guns [or two Twin Guns?], that I separated and magnetised. Add that to my Icarus Autocannons and now I can field all of my Armigers as Helverins, should I wish.

Retributor Armour is next. I know it's a lot of progress this first week, again because I gave myself a headstart. But, a lot of work still to do and it also allows me to take a night of should I need it so I don't feel pressured. Conversely I do want to finish early so I can have them ready if there is an instore Armies On Parade in Liverpool. It'd be my first time parading there and I'd love to have the full House Corvus group in it.

Imperial Knight - Armiger Helverins chevrons #Dreadtober part 3

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's the 'third' of #Dreadtober and I'm continuing my #Imperial Knights Armiger Helverins. I'm painting chevrons! I used a trusty wooden coffee stirrer to achieve this - cutting a 45 degree angle at one end, pencilling in a centre line and then placing the stirrer against it so I could rule either side of it and create each stripe. It's fiddly because it doesn't conform to the undulations in the surface but you have to make allowances. You may notice that the second from bottom yellow stripe is a bit chunkier than the rest. Yes, that was not planned. However, the House Raven full crest will go there so - happy accident it will help it fit and I can claim it WAS planned that way!

You may [or may not] note that these differ from standard house Raven chevrons in that they point backwards. The Official House Raven chevrons point forwards. As this is an off shoot of Raven - House Corvus, that explains it and I won't be doing the white edges of the black lines either.

I thought a chevron collar would be interesting on this one. Now I've done it I'm not entirely sure it works but I'll persevere with it because the quality is there, even if I'm not convinced of the result.

Let me know what you think, if it looks odd or not.

I also did all the armour plates and made some random decisions about which side chevrons would be on and I'll try and find a logic for them when I commit to attaching them to the models.

I'll be doing the Rough Iron banding next on all the edges and the remainder of the metal work.

The Autocannons also got base coated, the chevrons aren't too great but I hope to tidy them up and hide the discrepancies with highlights and ultimately weathering.

Round about this time with the Warglaives I think I really struggled trying to get my head round what order to do things in. With so much stippling and dry brushing involved, both in the red and brassy bronze which comes first? I had started to feel the same sensation as I progressed and so went back to those original posts but they weren't too revealing [typical!]. So I figured that with this stage its the metals, because every mistake and overspill of paint that goes on the red or yellow can easily be covered up with battle damage later. Of course I could catch red on the metal wehn I do but I think it will be a lot more controlled for those areas than the metal work, despite some of that banding being very fine detail. So, VGC Hammered Copper next [my slightly redder Balthasar Gold equivalent]. 

Imperial Knight - Armiger Helverins base colours & texture #Dreadtober part 2

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's the 'second' of #Dreadtober and I'm continuing my #Imperial Knights Armiger Helverins. I primed these - red oxide for the armour plates and I got two cans of Simoniz Matt black for the metals, but neither of them have had particular great coverage. The Red Oxide appears to be trying to behave like Contrast paint and the matt black appears to scratch off quite easily. I've pressed on regardless. Vermilion sponged on both and then one had Gamboge, as it will be full chevron.

I have 3 tubes of my signature Home & Bargain Vermilion Art Acrylic left. I couldn't find the opened ones so went to one of the newest. Bizarrely it is no longer the consistency of wet toothpaste and more like cream cheese. I tried mixing it with a big bottle of Vermilion I got from the Works, which is slightly thinner. It has the texture I'm after but did come out matt. There will be teething issues as I slowly transition from the H&B stuff so it's worth noting. Also, the red Helverin does have its smoke stacks switched so they're angled backwards, rather than vertically. It required a small trim of the pipes and some greenstuff to fit them around the arm mounts but it was just a test to see if it was possible.

Gamboge stippled on. I can pencil in the chevrons next to do the black lines and then already start highlighting the yellow!

All the armour plates are still attached to sprue so they're less fiddly to paint. I recall I glued them onto the model quite early on my Warglaives but I'll see how things go this way. I think I need some more sponging for the texture and all the metallic edges will be challenging,

This feels like I've made huge progress, in reality I'm probably not even 20% done. I've made more choices at adding the yellow and black chevrons on. I think that will help differentiate the units a bit more and give them more of an identity.

The guns are also getting up to speed and the shoulder joints too, but I haven't taken pics yet. Rough Iron metallics next and maybe add some highlight to the reds. I think I need to go back to my Warglaives to remind myself of the process... just for peace of mind.

• https://www.40kaddict.uk/2018/05/imperial-knight-warglaives-in.html
• https://www.40kaddict.uk/2018/06/imperial-knight-warglaives-in.html
• https://www.40kaddict.uk/2018/06/imperial-knight-warglaives-in_4.html
• https://www.40kaddict.uk/2018/06/imperial-knight-warglaives-in_6.html

Imperial Knight - Armiger Helverins Big Build BASE TO DONE! #Dreadtober part 1

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's the first of #Dreadtober and I've been Red Planet basing my two Armiger Helverins. It's quite a challenge to get the order right as both the basing and the metallics will require sponging/stippling and there will be mishaps.

I also hope to do the tiles as red marble, which will be difficult as the scale of the tiles is much smaller than my display board. I'll work it out though.

The second Helverin, the base has come out really cool considering it's scratch built. Hopefully the torso and guns will help balance how far back it looks. Of course I was planning on a different pose so it's composition is a bit odd now.

You see it looks like there's a lot of space on that side. It feels like it need a corpse in it. Maybe something to consider after it's finished.

Army Painter Rough Iron [Warplock Bronze equivalent] will be next on all the legs and ffet.

With that first post out of the way hopefully that shows my commitment to the month. Granted I haven't posted or done much hobby recently - mojo is low and I'm finding social media less pleasant than I'd like so I'm trying to take a break from it. But this community project is worthwhile and should help me get back into things in the right way. I also have a bit more time as my eldest is back at Uni. 

Here's my Great Big Big Build Base BLESSED VERDIGRIS Stamp of Approval.

Blackstone Fortress - Stronghold 1

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity This post is so old that it didn't even come with my templated intro text! Basically, we had a game of Blackstone Fortress before COVID, and I never even wrote down what happened, just took some pics. It's been sat in draft form for so long I just can't bear to see it unfinished anymore. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can recall much of what happened but I just need to publish it to try and whittle down my 14 drafts posts that have never seen the light of day.

So, pre-COVID the five of us attempted our first Stronghold mission. Now I think this might have been the one with some shady shenanigans by Ben with the lift and where everyone was positioned meant some of us started wounded or something.

At some point there was a lengthy debate about whether you remains inspired from mission to mission, right when we were about to face or strongest ever adversaries AND having suffered some significant wounds, because of the lift debacle. I think this is finishing off the first mission in the Stronghold.

Later I would research this online and discover that we do indeed retain our Inspired nature from mission to mission. Here we are in the second mission of the Stronghold.

We clearly managed to whittle away the cultists, psykers and Beastmen. Like I said I can't really remember what went on, it's like 18 months ago now! 😂 I just needed to not see 'draft' next to it.

This is where my character was at the end of the game.

Balckstone Fortress is such a great game for us, we could get 4 of the crew gaming together, collaboratively and although the rules were a bit convoluted, there wasn't half the issues that 40k was bringing to the table with stratagems and buff upon buff. Of course since COVID, we considered trying to play it over video, but that just didn't seem workable. We had some great Middle Earth Role-Playing sessions but that's been a challenge to reconvene. More recently Middle Earth Battle Companies has been something we could do and even though it was slightly competitive again, the short games, limited figure count and ability to get in a couple of battles between friends has made it popular. 

I'm not sure when we'll get to play again, whether we'll finish up our MERP campaign or return to Blackstone Fortress, but hopefully we can do something soon.

Imperial Knight - Armiger Helverin Big Build TO DONE!

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity having gone standard with the other Helverin  I went back to the 'leaping' one to try and get it right. As you can see I didn't quite crack the pose but hopefully I can explain why.

At some point I was looking at these two options, with the foot backwards or the foot splayed forwards. I couldn't quite decide which was the better option and the practicalities of it - preventing the model from breaking or ease of transport made me rethink.

I ended up with this pose, as if it was in mid turn and it had acquired a target. It seemed so right, made more sense as a Helverin and of course it did, because it was very much still the pose of the standard model, doh! I even ended up with both Helverins being right foot forward, losing some variety.

It was really annoying, but all the faffing, cutting the legs, reposing them, splitting the toes, pinning and resculpting bits was becoming so overwhelming I just had to grit my teeth and get it done.

I'm a little disappointed I don't have one that is leaping, or even 'loping' along to give that famed impression of the Armiger's speed and 'pack hunting' behaviour. But this is a nice compromise thanks to the forward lean giving it momentum.

The greenstuff inbetween the toes is a bit ham-fisted but shouldn't be too noticeable once it's painted. Now, I'm just awaiting some black spray so I can get them primed. Naturally they'll both be based and I may even get the bronze base colours and stipple the vermillion craft acrylic on ahead of Dreadtober; that's the only way I can see them achievable in the timescale. But I won't do any more updates until then, which may leave the blog a little sparse.

Until then - Great Big Big Build BLESSED VERDIGRIS Stamp of Approval.

Imperial Knight - Armiger Helverin Big Build TO DONE!

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's been a while but I haven't been doing so much hobby over the last few weeks. With the end of the hobby season it felt like a nice opportunity to take a break. I have my Ravenwing Talonmaster to do but I wasn't inspired to crack on with it. I was however anxious to get the Armiger Helverins built and ready for Dreadtober. I know it's supposed to be built and paint over the month but I also know my limitations. So I started on one of the Helverin, having it jump off a cork cliff face, but it was becoming too challenging so I just went and built this one in an almost stock pose, just a little 'man-spreading' at the hips. The base was off ebay and raises it up a good centimetre or two, so it's a little more imposing.

Great Big Big Build BLESSED VERDIGRIS Stamp of Approval, just to get me off the line.