Varangian WIP

I have not really finished anything for the last two weeks as work has taken most of my time. But I have been working on the back piece of Varangian though, even if it is far from done yet. It is painful painting as the piece is to large to hold comfortably and there are so much details to do. So far I have put in the base colors and some initial weathering. The bones are prepared for dry-brushing. Then I will have to do the bronze borders and clean up the weathering. I also decided to try my hand at some free hand emblems on the sides of the reactor exhausts. I am not happy with how they turned out but I will leave them as is as removing them is a very large undertaking. I think the problem was that I did not have a real Idea of what they should look like so I improvised as I went along, and that shows. They are not as symmetric as I would have wished and the line work is not my best. Perhaps I should not practice such things on this model... but, well that has been the modus operandi for this model all along. I will not see it fully assembled until I have finished painting it, so there is really no way of telling how it will turn out. Hope fully I will be able to finish the body over Christmas so that I can get going with the weapons during spring. So if all things work out Varangian might be done to summer.

Armiger Hellverin

This week I finished my first Armiger, about 7 month after buying my first one. If I keep that pace my detachment with Armigers will be done in 7 years....  lets hope I will not be that long. On the other hand it has taken me three year to finish three knights, and I have 6 more to go. And I have been working on the Varangian for two years. I really hope I can keep my focus on my mechanicum and not get side tracked by a new project. I might have to take a small break when the plastic sisters hit the stores though.

Well that is as it is. As for the Armiger I am happy with how it turned out. It is a fantastic model, the right size to make it interesting to model and paint but not as time consuming as a full Questoris. I used the same color scheme I am using for the Varangian with a light green under coat and dark green armor. This gives more depth to the model with out reverting to a metal skeleton and armor as most are painted. I am thinking about adding a small banner to the back pole to denote the squad. Eventually there will be three of the to the squad but I think only one will have a banner.
I think GW missed with the design of the back mounted stubber. I know it is the same as on the robots, but I think the Icarus autocannon design from the Knight kit fits better on the model so I used some spares from the night kitts. I also skipped out on the round shields on the main weapons as I don't see the point of them. I also think the designers thought of that options as the sight behind the shield has a small view port for a target camera. The legs can be poised in a large variety of poses once they have been cut up and re-assembled. I can figure out why GW didn't do them in parts from the start. The use of the removable positioning pegs should be enough to help the less experienced modelers to assemble the kit in a standard pose while leaving the option for the more advanced crowd to vary the pose with out risking their fingers in the process. So far I have built three static poses and it will be interesting to try out some running poses next.
I have started the painting rituals of the next Hellverin and I hope it will go faster now that I got the procedure down.

I have also painted a little on the inside roof of the Varangian back piece. It is a pain as it is really uncomfortable to hold it and it is very difficult to do any details. Masking the chevrons was nigh impossible with just one hand and hence the asymmetry. And that is after I repainted some of the parts to get it looking slightly better. But as it will be hidden eventually it might not be so important to get it super nice. There are still some minor details left but soon I can turn to the outside which will hope fully be a little easier to paint even though I dread the narrow space between the cooling ridges. That is it for now

Void dragons WIP

After spraying the back and the in-take cowls I could not wait, but started on the heads of the Void dragons. I needed to see how they turned out and if I should go on with the rest. I think they turned out ok, they are the first large scale sculpts I have done, and quite frankly, at lot of the design was improvised. There are some parts of the sculpts that didn't turn out as I wanted but it is what it is now, and I think they look great. It will be nice to see them together with there rest of the spine and the back.

As for the back, I have already started the painting on the inside as it needs to get done before starting on the out side. It is taking time since the spike on the back means I can't put it down while I paint so my hand starts cramping. This means I can do to much before resting.
Well I am on my way to finishing of the body of Varangian.
and that feels great.

Green stuff knight pilots

Did a quick paint job on the two green stuff pilots I cast using green and blue stuff. I am happy with the result considering it was my first tries and that they will most likely never be seen. I will be back with some WIP pics on the Hellverin later in the week. It is taking longer to paint than what I thought.

Varangian void dragons , WIP

The internet has spoken! After the last post about the dragons on the cooling ridges I asked for some advice on the design and in the comments I got some good advice. Like my wife the internet did not like the rib cages, so I decided to remove them and go with my original idea instead (it had already been started). So instead of having ribs the cooling ridges now has some spiked bone ridges between the side vents. In the end I agree that this looks better than the rib cages. Once this dilemma was sorted I got the mojo going and have been working on the rest of the pieces. I sculpted some horns for the dragon skulls, added some small spike on the eye bow ridges. I also sculpted the last vertebra to connect the spine to the skulls. To fit the void shield projectors with the spine I had to raise them up a bit. So they are now more like umbrellas hovering above the spine. This means I need to do some sculpting on the under sides to tie them into the rest. I also need to add some more of the back bone to connect things. I also added some chaos growths to the main vent exhausts. This means I am almost ready with the back piece and can soon start painting. Once this is done the main body of the Varangian will be done so I am closing in on a major mile stone in this project.

Apart from green stuff sculpting I have also been painting on one of my Hellverin Armigers. When I bought the Preceptor knight I finally got my hands on a "real" knight pilot. Since I am not bout to by a lot of knights just for the pilot I decided to try blue stuff casting some additional pilots as a test. I must say I am really impressed with the quality of the cast. I have tried press molding green stuff before from green stuff molds. But you can't leave the mold in place as the green stuff cures as you will not be able to remove it later on, and you also need some lubricant to release the green stuff from the mold, this has always lead to loss of detail and some warping. With bluff stuff you just let the green stuff cure in the mold and then you can just pop it out with very good results. I still have some problem with the amounts of GS needed to the cast so I get some unseemly mold lines, but they will not be visible once the pilot is in his/her seat. Since I have a good surplus of skiitari helmets I decided that they would work instead of trying to cast the real helmet. This process will save me much time in the future as I do not need to build the pilots from scratch any more (unless I want to off course), which will be good if I am to build a full super heavy detachment of armigers... (preceptor and 12 armigers). We will see if it gets that far... it is a hell of a lot of models to paint and build, but it would be cool as a scouting company for the rest of the knights and titans.

Varangian dragons, WIP

I have been working on some decorations for the cooling ridges of the Varangian. My initial thoughts were to have some rib like structures on the sides between the cooling vents. Then I came up with the idea of also having some sort of skull covering the intake cowls, which then off course led to the idea of having a full skeleton along the whole cooling ridge. But that also meant a ton more sculpting and I do not know if I am up to the challenge. Right now I am working on the skulls and some rib cages...  I already have spines going along the whole structure. I am not sure how much of the skeleton to actually make...  as it is now there will be skulls with a spine and some ribs. There is off course also the option to make some front and hind legs with the appropriate attachment points. My wife is however skeptical to the whole ribs idea and so and thinks it is enough with just the skulls... so I am a bit hesitant to put to much effort into this if it risks being scraped in the end.

The sculpting is far from done yet, but just to give a view of what might be...

General WIP and an Exalted Sorcerer.

This week I have mostly finished some of the models I was working on when the Entropy project hit. First of I finished the Dark Angel terminator I was working at the time. I had also started a  I also finished a Vorax for my Mechanium army. Once this was done and I had settled some of the itching I had for working on the rusted up armor plates of Entropy I decided I would treat my self to a "character like" model, butterfly syndrome. So I picked up one of the exalted sorcerers I got from my wife I while a go that I had been saving for such an occasion. These models are crazy detailed, even if they are not true character models, and they are a joy to paint. Due to the very high level of detail I could work with a very simple color scheme as I the details will give the model all the depth and contrast it needs without having to many color fields. That being said I did choose to make the armor in the same way I did on Magnus and Ahriman, i.e. a silver metal with streaks of blue, violet, green and yellow. I think I managed to get the colors a bit better this time and I really like the effect. The rest was also done similar to Ahriman, purple robes and a color shifting white cloak.

I also decided that it was time to start with the arm weapons for Varangian. This is something I have been putting of, waiting for the back piece to be finished, but I am starting to realize that the amount of work I have to put in to the dragons is taking to much time. So I drilled out the barrel of the volcano cannon and added some magnets for the shields. For the fist I decided that I would magnetize the wrist so that I can rotate the hand later on to the right position. So I added two 10 mm magnets with a 4 mm central hole to the wrist pieces and a 4 mm M4 rod going through both magnets and being anchored in the elbow. This should make it solid enough not to drop off. I have also been thinking about the mega bolter and how to magnetize it. Both the back of the hand and the underside of the mega bolter is rather detailed so adding big magnets was out of the question. The two pieces are however extremely well molded to each other so the mega bolter is really well oriented and can not move in the plane of the hand two pair os small, 4.5 mm, magnets is enough to keep it from falling off. I put them on the armor trim and hope that the thicker metallic paints will keep the magnets covered. I still have not added all the parts to the bolter but so far it is sitting still. I could add another pair of magnets at a third position if it turns out it is not enough.

Well that is all for now...  I will add some small standard chaosifications to the volcano cannon and then I can start painting. The shields need some more advanced green stuffing so they will have to wait a bit.

Entropy, WIP

Sometimes things do not go as you plan. After finishing the dominus knight I thought I would treat my self with some small models, i.e. not knight or titans, to unwind a bit. But as I was sitting there painting a Dark Angels terminator my brain went off on a completely different path.

Some how I got to thinking about the background of the Northern Ghosts and how the different knights fit in to it all. And out of nowhere came the thought of Lady Oxidia in Entropy, knight preceptor of the Eques Borealis, the Northern Knights, who are the ailed knight house of the Legio Umbra Borealis, the Northern Ghosts. Well in truth the Eques Borealis was the there first and the titan Legion adopted a name similar to the house on which lands they settled. Well more no that at a later time.

So the Lady Oxidia is a outcast from her own family after she killed her uncle and mentor and stole his Knight suit. To erase any traces to her old family she stripped the knight down to bare metal, removing any old house insignia. This however left the metal unprotected and has over the years started to rust and wear away as she has fought as a free blade for many different war hosts, often taking on the role of mentor for younger knight pilots in training, hoping to save them from the same bad experience she had with her mentor. For may years she managed to live like this, but eventually her childhood trauma caught up to her and she got into conflicts with her employers, usually over the way a senior ranking officers treated one of her proteges. This has caused here to become embittered and hateful, and finally she retired as a free blade and settled among the Eques Borealis, a house known to take in knights and free blades that has now were else left to go.

After this story settled in my mind I just had to get my self another knight kit and start working. So to represent Lady Oxidia and her knight suit, Entrophy, I decided to go down a different path of chaosification than what I have done for my knight so far. I wanted to paint the knight in a metal base but have plenty of damage and holes in the armor plates. I also wanted to do something different form the chaos growths I did before. So I set about drilling holes in the armor and carving away at the boarders to give them a worn look, and then I added horns growing out of the armor to give it that chaos feel. This is a first for me, starting with the armor with out having the chassis built yet.









As Oxidia is a preceptor it is only natural that she will take charge of my armigers as the natural leader of the Skag Valkyries. She has only painted her right shoulder and left leg armor in the colors of the house, not fully embracing the coat of arms of her new lords. The armigers will however stay in the green livery of the Northern Knights. So far I have just started on this endeavor, but I am feeling the hobby mojo about this.Lets see how far it will go.

I might also start writing down the background and fall of the northern realm.

Dominus knight done

Finally, the last of my trio of knights are done. I am really happy with how it turned out. The free hand on the shield could be better but it will have to do for now, apart from that I really like the two tone color scheme, it gives more depth to the model. It will be interesting to compare this dominus with the original GW dominus once I get around to finish building it. Over all I think it portrays a more massive version of knight chassis. All the extra armor and shields really help biffing it up. I like how the upper body is almost round. To bad it is not a rules legal build, but you cant have everything. In this case I am going for the rule of cool.

I have also finished some banners for the Varangian, that I have hung from the neck armor. Once again I am not really happy with my free hand. I don't know if it is that I have become so accustomed to the sloppy way I paint with my dry brushing that I don't have the patience to make clean free hand painting.

Here we have the Northern Ghosts in the display cabinet together with the knight escort. One can also see some parts of the accompanying Skitarii and Mechanicum forces. The cabinet is rapidly filling up with all theses large models.

General WIP

I am back, sort of...   Last couple of weeks has been taxing at work so I have not had much time to work on my modeling projects. Apart from that I have not felt any real mojo for any specific project, so I have just been doing some work here and there on what ever has been lying around.

For the Varangian I have continued with the shoulder armor. It is not quite done yet. I still need to give the edges another go with the drybrush and then add some color to the sigils etc...
I have also been working on the back with some green stuff, adding two dragon skeletons to the ridges. This is the second try at the skulls, the fist time they turned out to large and the anatomy did not quite work out. This time I think they look better. I still have some work to do before they are done. I also need to finish the rest of the spine and the ribs, adding spikes etc and making sure the void shield projectors fit in...

I have also been working on the dominus Knight... painting the leg, torso and back armor... I still have quite a bit more to do before it is finished, but I think it is coming along nicely.

I have also work on my armigers and have now more or less finished the build of two of the Helverins... now they just need some GS chaosification before painting can commence.

So to put it shortly, I am a bit all over the place just now and I have not been able to finish anything of lately... I hope that some rest will help me to focus and end some of the projects. I am tempted to add my Helverins to the Dreadtober challenge (http://dreadtober.blogspot.com/) just to help me focus a bit... but that might just add more pressure that I don't need at the moment. I have a week off from work now so hope fully I will be able to post some finished models/sections later in the week.