'nids part 361 - #DreadTober High Rule Dude - White pics

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer honestly I have! But, it would appear that I didn't publish my TO DONE! white background pics of my High Rule Dude from #DreadTober last year [or my Screamer Killers either, so expect another catch-up post on them down the line].

Not sure what to say really, that I haven't already said in the original Ferron Proxima background TO DONE!

Essentially I was overwhelmed by how this came out.

It's funny because I see people who's Tyranids are exquisite. 

The striations are perfect, the blends are amazing. Or they have done grimdark versions that manage to convey the horror of these creatures. 

Or that look so realistic. And yet mines is an absolute riot of colour. 

Almost the antithesis of the grimdark aesthetic.

And yet I still love it. I may wish I could do these other colour schemes. Both for the talent to achieve them and the results because of that talent.

But that doesn't change the fact that I can do this scheme with great results every time. And what price can you put on that?

As I'm slogging my way through my Deathwing, which is becoming tedious the urge to crack on and finish something with predictable results is very strong.

That said, I have a lot of the Leviathan smaller bugs and I'm sure I might find that tedious if I was doing 20 Termagants in a sitting!

But this guy is a beast. A little too big by comparison to the Forgeworld model. We could have gone 10-20% smaller I think to get the right size. 

Instead I'll just have to cope with this massive creature, I'm sure I'll survive. 

Anyway, enjoy the pics, hope you like them.

Imperial Knight - Armigers in manufactorum pt.1 - reposing the legs

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #buildingWarhammer on my Imperial Knight Armigers and the first thing is magnets obviously, but with that done it's reposing the legs. Now I do not look forward to this and although I love the results for the first armiger I went with my crude score the joints, then bend and snap approach. 

I trim off the back of the hip hose-rings are the back. This helps the leg fit at an angle. Then the gap is filled with greenstuff, which is crudely sculpted to look like it's got ridges light the other side of the hose ring. When it's painted you won't notice. I also use piece of sprue to hold the torso in place, cutting a notch in the hole to make a 'lock and key' fitting.

The pistons on the inside of the thighs were drilled out and had metal pins added. Holes were drilled into the inside of the legs to receive the pins. This will make it stronger. However, it can be tough getting the hinge pieces to fit in the groove around the groin. I crudely hacked at the connector until it fit. It won't be noticeable when it's painted.

Adding a gun shield to the Thermal Lance

I also decided to create a gun-shield for the Thermal Lance, using a Questoris Ion Shield. I drew a lien down the centre, put the gun in the middle, marked off the centre for each lance barrel and then drilled a hole. Getting bigger each time.

And bigger, until I stopped at 5.5mm and joined them up. However, I think 6 mm is perhaps the better size. 

So it could get over the lozenge shaped barrel mount. There's some gaps to fill around it but not bad fitting in the end.

In some respects I still prefer the profile without the shield, but I wanted more variety and to give the Armigers more character. 

I prepped the other shield too, same process and results. 

Reposing the legs on a running Armiger

Here I decided to do the better job on the legs - removing the hind joint whole. It is best to do this when the leg is still in right and left halves. It's harder to do and digging into the joint with a scalpel is not without risk. I found a way to do it that is relatively safe and videoed it but haven't done the edit yet. Once done you take the six pieces, join the halves together so you can pose the three pieces as one leg.

This means you can compress the leg as much as possible. I removed the pipe at the back, drilled holes in the connectors and used guitar string to replace the pipework. I would go onto trim the peg at the ankle ball so I would have more options in positioning the foot.

This foot is only resting on the front toe, with the back toes contracted. This mean you could see underneath. I used a nail to help pin the front toe. Filled the other toes with green stuff, then rolled out a thin piece to cover the bottom of the toe. Trimmed to fit the profile.

Then I used car body repair mesh to create a tread pattern - pressing it into the green stuff, after dampening it a bit.

The second toe got done too. I had to do this three more times on the other foot..

This leg has no reposing on it - it's full tilt but it was so low I added the little piece of slate under it's foot to add a little more height. It also meant the pin in the foot is not just going into cork. I sued tile grout to blend around the stone, so it looked like it was coming out of the ground.

Testing the position of the legs. I use a pin going through holes in the legs, the hole in the hip joints al the way through to the other leg.

You can bend the pin a bit to get more direction in the hips.

The foot will need to be fully contracted before I glue it in place.

And that's it. I'll upload the video at some point and next it's basing these two, ready for some good priming weather.

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights and Terminators - Bone highlights 2

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Deathwing slow but steady. I know the blog hasn't been active but I've struggled to fit in hobby time. It's not the usual post-Christmas malaise. My eldest is home permanently so we're continuing our nightly TV viewing and it's hard to fit in the Deathwing, when they're not the easiest to paint in the first place. And with limited progress on the hobby there's even less motivation for the blog, which is a shame as I really wish I was posting more often.

But I've got half the 2nd highlights done here. I may have done a bit more of the cream than I usually do, which makes the process slower and in some places the results aren't great. 

All fixable and I'm far from disappointed but it doesn't help with keeping motivated.

You can see the variety in the butt plates here, the middle one in particular went too far. But I can easily hide that with some tribal markings.

Here we are with the remaining upper half of the highlights. Still to do the shoulder pad on the shield arms, but want them glued in place so they're highlighted correctly.

But I'm OK with the results even if they're still less consistent than I'd normally prefer.

And the rest of the Terminators have got done too - just in time for many of them to be excised from the Codex, or so I believe. 

Good job I didn't put a Cyclone Missile Launcher on one of these. A common load out gone from the Codex.

I think the Apothecary and Champion have gone also, but again I remind myself I was never going to play with them anyway!

They're just figures I needed to paint and poses I wanted to create.

Lots still to do, just about half-way through the spreadsheet but the hardest parts done so far I think.

I even decided to do the bare heads and I was really pleased with the results, that is until I looked at the close-ups - they look shocking. 

Which is a shame as they look great from a gaming distance. I was genuinely chuffed and then gutted when I saw their squints and patchwork skintones.

I mean I love seeing a brushstroke but these just look like blobs in places.

I'll get over it once they're in place but it's a little disheartening as I was convinced these were some of the best faces I'd done, only to realise I was way off the mark. 

Nevermind.

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights and Terminators - Bone highlights

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity and a happy new year to you all! I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Deathwing. I last worked on these 'properly' in July, before that I'd started them in February last year! Of course, they're now all being updated with new bigger Terminators, but much smaller maces.

I still prefer these in design. Hopefully, when I do get round to making the new terminators if I just glue them to the base, no bits of slate, the scale difference might not be too noticeable.

So this is the first set of Skelton Bone highlights, the most laborious and tedious aspect of the painting and it's not even 25% of the tasks I have to do! But it feels great to have got them past this point. 

There are so many bits that still need doing, but nothing as demoralising as this set of highlights. It's all the detail bits and some might be fiddly [especially those banners] but they will make interesting challenges.

It's just getting the bone done then it's the greens, reds, greys and blessed verdigris and everything else is just detail work.

And that bit is really fun, because all the embellishments, like the eye lenses, blade effects, plasma glow and tribal markings just make the figures so much more interesting.

It's the personality that I'm adding and once these are all done I'll be satisfied with my Hobby Season, whatever else may come.

Hobby Spends 2024 [so far] and an absolute bargain!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity y'know how I spent a fair bit on the hobby in 2023 and said I would be frugal for 2024...

Yeah, I've already started the new year off with a couple of significant purchases. With Adeptus Titanicus MIA, I went with some other big robots - Armigers. Now, I may prefer the bigger ones but it's undeniable the smaller ones are more useful and versatile - specifically in smaller games. Should I ever play 10th again having 6 Armigers would add that extra level of choice. Now I did consider getting an Acheron as well at this point, but common sense prevailed. Also, I'd been given £40 in Christmas money, so they were practically paid for completely.

Now, before Christmas I'd seen some suggestions that the new HeroQuest was half price on Amazon. This was not true. However, Zavvi had it for just £47.99 [down from £107.99]. Now I thought if I got some Christmas money I would get it, but come boxing day it was no longer available, just some of the expansions. Well, fate intervened and I wasn't buying a game I may never play, even if it was an absolute bargain. 

Except, just the other day it popped up as available again so I ordered it. Now if you too think it's a bargain, or want to get any of the expansions, which are up to 50% off, then please consider using my referral link: https://www.zavvi.com/referrals.list?applyCode=DAVE-R2NU I make £3 for every referral using DAVE-R2NU and you get an additional 10% off, so HeroQuest would be just £43.19 [plus £2 p+p]! Hopefully I may get round to playing it, maybe it's something I can play with my youngest. But even so it's an absolute bargain!