Dreadtober WIP2

So just a quick update, as I could not let this go. Once I got home from work I slapped on some base colours and did the base drybrush. It is a bit messy now but that will clean up with the next layer. Over all I am excited to see what this will look like one done.

Dreadtober WP1, Dark Angel Saturnine Dreadnought

Welcome to this years Dreadtober build. I am not sure if this truly qualifies as a pure Dreadtober build, as it is a quite new model that has not been sitting in the pile of grey shame for long. Initially I had planed to do a Deredeo dreadnought, that has been sitting around for some time, but as the new Hours Heresy box dropped I could not help my self and I ended up with more grey shame.

I did build some of the Terminators recently and I liked how they turned out so I wanted to do the dreadnought as well. So I pulled out the sprues from the big box and I realized just how complex this kit is. There are a huge amount of parts. Just the legs consists of 16 pieces each, the torso is 24 pieces and the shield generators are 8 pieces each. So I got really concerned about this build, as the build it self would take some time and then painting all the details to an acceptable standard might not be possible in one month. But I will give it a try.

So the first task was to build the model, and as mentioned there are a lot of small parts to assemble to build all the major parts of the model. It is impressing how good the pieces fit and interlock with each other. The model is as complex as any scale model I have built and I did enjoy the process even if I felt a bit under pressure. All in all it took me three days to build (about 2h each day). I decided to leave it in as many sub assemblies as possible to be able to get to all the details.

Next step will be a base spray and start with the paint. I will do this as a pre-heresy First Legion Dark Angles dreadnought, similar in style to my previous ones. Lets see how this develops.

Fallen inner circle

This week I painted some Inner Circle Companions. This was the first time in over a year where I managed to take a whole day to just paint. I must have been at it for at least 8 hours straight, and it felt good and it really got my hobby juices flowing. I really love these models has they have a very distinct Dark Angels feel with the robes, large swords and power armour that looks more like medieval armour.

I decided to paint them in "black" armour instead of dark green which is more in line with my fallen Dark Angels. I know they are not part of the original legion organisation but I think they look better in black. This means I will also paint the Lion black, once I get around to doing him.

The robes got a purple colour, which I am happy is also the box art colour, and not the bone white that was popular some time ago. When I painted my original Dark angels in the mid 90ths I decided to use purple robes even though it was not standard then and they go well with these newer models.

The trim got my standard rusted metal look, but it has this brownish tone that gives it a feel of gold unless you look closely.

All in all this was a very nice trio of models to paint. I did not do the standard this time so I might do another three in the future, or I use the standard for some other model. We will se.

Now I spend some time building stuff for opus while I am getting ready for Dreadtober. This year I will do the Saturnine Dreadnought, also for the first legion. 

Opus flight wing update

I realized that I had not updated the progress on the fliers for the Opus flight wing. This is something I have been working on in the background through out spring and part of the summer.

Last time I mentioned that I had remade the wings of the fighter bomber so that they folded a bit better. I was very pleased with how this worked out, but I still thought that the wings were a bit skinny so I decided to add some leading edge flaps to give them some more area. I think they turned out ok, perhaps not as neat as they were in my head, but I guess that once I get some paint on them they will look ok.

Once the wings were sorted I added two hard points on each side for the weapons (these can be removed and switched out for other loadouts). The kits that I use for these builds does not come with any separate missiles so I decided to use the missile pods instead. In the kit there are almost parts for two types of pods so I built the missing parts so that I can have two sets, one for the fighter bomber and one for the close air support ship. The pods still need some work, as I am thinking on adding some extensions at the back to represent some longer missiles in the pods.

Once the fighter bomber was sorted I started with the close air support. This was supposed to be the closest to the original model and I thought it would be a quick build, but the folding wings once again took way more time than I thought. These also got two hard points on each wing to carry missile pods or other weapons (I am working on some twin linked assault cannons to go on the outer points). I also decided to add some skinnier versions of the heavy bolter to the side mounts were the original pods sit. I also need to fix the shin mounted assault cannon. I was going back and forth on if this should be twin linked or not. In the end I think the profile looks better with a singel gun (not in these pictures, so I will have to get back on that).

Basically the build of all the fighters for Opus are now done. I need to clean them up, make sure all wings are symmetric etc and add some details. Then I can start to paint, and that will be interesting as I need to switch to air brushing (as I am not brush painting 14 aircrafts +4 landspeeders) which is something I have not really done before. Perhaps getting some paint on these will motivate me to finish of the Opus build itself so that also can go to paint.

Saturnine Terminators

I just had to get these, so I ordered the Heresy starter box even though I do not play, as I figured it was a very good deal on the amount of models, instead of waiting for the separate release. I sort of remember the old original but it was not a model I like then, and I am not sure I like these now but they have something I can't put my finger on. Anyway, I just had to have them as they looked like nice models to paint with a lot of details and it would be a great opportunity to paint some more Heresy Dark Angels.

I read a comment someone made somewhere, that GW models are getting more and more like scale models, and I would agree. These models require a lot of assembly of quite small and fiddly bits. But that is also what makes them great models as the 3D feal is much better. It did however take me one evening sit down to build each one of them. Just getting everything of the sprue, clean up mould lines and assemble to an absurd amount to time.

Normally I would have done just one, and then perhaps one more at some time later, but I really need to get better at batch painting so that I can get through the pile of grey. The experience with the death riders were positive as I managed to paint five large models in parallel to an ok level, so I thought I could do it again. I did beak it up by painting the bodies first and the shoulders and weapons after before final assembly. This also helped with getting access to the shoulders of the arms and also made it easier to try to get some freehand on to the plates.

I decided to do the black in the same way I did for my fallen Dark angels and other heresy era models I have painted over the years. I start from a black base and dry brush up with blue tinged grey before washing with nunoil. This is very similar to how I paint my rusted metal so I decided to do that and the black at the same time. It was a bit fiddley to not over "spray" in the drybrushing but it blended quite well. This process was done twice before I painted the free hand symbols and patterns. I still need to figure out how to do this properly. I think I need to experiment with some other brushes, because I can't get the details I like. It all comes across a bit clumsy, especially the Dark Angels symbols.

But I am ok with how they turned out (It will be better next time). I had to dial back a bit on the use of red details (the chest eagles were red at one point) as they stated to look to much like Night Lords. This is also true for the black which can very easily turn into Space Wolves if the grey become to dominant. At some point I thought of testing this by painting three models with the same base and just use different accent colours to see if I could turn them into the three different legions.

Another thing that became quite obvious when building the models is that the legs and arms are robotic, as the joints are literally the same as used in the Imperial robots. This means that the marine is fully enclosed by the torso. Not sure if that means that the arms and legs are amputated or if they are folded upp some how. GW has not given any details on this as far as I know.

I still have three more to go, but that will have to wait a bit as there are other things in the pipeline. Also, October is soon here and that means I have to do a dreadnought size model...

Death Riders of the desert

After some time, as usual, I have managed to finish the Death riders. These models are truly magnificent with all the details, but that also make them very hard to paint, and very time consuming. As a collector I appreciate this, but if I had to paint a viable army of these I would despair. That aside I enjoyed the experience but would probably not paint another five at the same time again. And that is my second point in all of this. I do normally not batch paint, but focus on a singular model and try to make the best of it, but this time I decided to go for the whole squad at the same time. This ment that I had to go back and forth on the models as a continually discovered things I missed. I guess that if you are a seasoned painter or commission painter this might not be a problem as you probably already painted a stuff of them, but as a first time experience it is a bit daunting. But, with the amount of back logg that I have on things that I do want to paint, batch painting might be the way to go to get it done with in my life time.

For the riders I did the same as for the "horses". I went with a tan armour and grey robes and trousers. The robes do nicely tie in to the "horses" grey bellies hand feet. This makes the over all model look cohesive and the grey of the robes does still give enough of a connection to the original Death riders of Krieg colour theme. In the end I think this tied in nicely with the desert theme of my imperial regiments with out losing to much of the grim darkness of the Krieg theme. The only thing I am a bit uncertain about is the glowing power coils of the spears as they are not typically part of my palette.

But I am happy with how they turned out. Now I just hav the Marshal left to do, but that will have to wait a bit as I am very keen to start on some Saturnine terminators and a dreadnought for the first legion.