torsdag 14 mars 2024

Crusader and Sergeants done



Well that to more time than I had expected. From the beginning I thought this would be a straight out of the box build. But it has taken years to plan and execute. In the end it did not turn out anything what I had imagined but I am still happy with the outcome. I love these chaos models. The detail and character is great but they are horrible to modify due to all the details. This is why I could not make it as first planed, it would have required so much cutting and re-sculpting that I do not think I could have done it justice. So instead I went with what could be done with the models. I am really happy with the scratch build cannons on the back, even though I think it would have looked better with a more traditional shoulder mount. Thar would however have meant that I could not use the spikes and horns on the back. The arm mounted rotary cannons also turned out nice, giving an older and more intricate design than the original which I think goes well with the knights over all estetiks.





I am also really happy with how the paint jobb turned out. It is the first time I painted a large model using stippling weathering combined with my usually rusted metal and sponge weathering. I think this works best with a lighter colour that contrasts well to the darker metal, which means that the Northern Knights will probably not get this treatment.

Next up will be some mechanicum models I got from my wife, so back to green it will be.

torsdag 25 januari 2024

Gaunt's Ghosts



This year I got the box with the Gaunt's Ghosts for Christmas. I have been looking at this set for some time but not really felt connected with them more than that I knew they were famous. But, after finishing all the omnibusses during summer they are no longer strangers to me. So it was a real pleasure to get the box from the wifey, but also a feeling of dread. How to paint them to make them justice? Their fatigues are black and that in itself is problematic as it is a difficult colour to get right. And it tends to  become just a big blob of all the same. Also, the famous camo cloaks were a bit of a problem. On the box are they are green with some light camo pattering but I was not sure that that would cut it, or that I could pull it off.

So, I decided to try to make a numer of different black shades on the bots, jackets, armour paunches etc. I am not sure if it made that much of a difference though. For the cloaks I went with something a bit more exotic. Instead of using traditional camo I went with a "shimmering" effect, were the cloak shifts colour over a gren-bron-yellow scale depending on how it falls. If one could make such fabric it would at least not be your standar type camo cloak.

For the skin I went for a pale pink type, but with enough red to give it some warmth compared to the black. I tried adding some blue tattoos but my brush and hand was not good enough for any fancy stuff.

The bases were blinged out a bit by adding some cork concrete and plaster craters. Over all I am happy with how they turned out.

My favourite of these models is Oan Mkoll. He just looks so cool sitting in his tree and being lite "You are inte the wrong forest my friend" - to quote someone on the internet.

Sadly there are no models for the rest of the core cast, Dorden, Milo, Golea, Soric, Brostin, Faegor, Mk Venner, Daur, Merrt, Caffran, Ayatani Zwail, Anna Curth any many more. Perhaps I will have to try do make some, but I doubt that I can get it to the same level as these with the detail.


Colonel-Comissar Ibram Gaunt

Colonel Colm Corbec

Major Elim Rawne

Scout Sergant Oan Mkoll


Master Sniper Hlaine Larkin


Trooper 'Try Again' Bragg

söndag 21 januari 2024

Opus update



Last couple of weeks has gone by in a rush and I have not had much time to do hobby stuff. So this will be a short update. After finishing the main blocks of the Opus I have gone back and started adding internal wall, door etc to give the model some more detail when presented without the flight deck. This is probably not strictly necessary as it will mostly have the flight deck mounted but it will look nice.


When I started this the idea was to also furnish each compartment, but I realized that I do not have that much time. Instead I added roofs to some of the sections to suggest some purpose to the space without having to actually come up with it and make all the details. I am also finding that the base structures are by no means straight, don't know what I was doing when I started this, but I obviously did not make sure the walls were at 90 deg to the floor or to eachother. So everything I do now has to be fitted to this wonky build. It is that or restart the entire top of the model and that will not happen. I am hoping that the scale of the model will make it less noticeable. Also, I have found that if you just burry things in details it becomes harder for the eye to see asymmetries etc..  there is just to much going. I will add some detail to the roofs in terms of pipes and some fans and general technical details.


In hind sight I should probably have used the side compartments to extend the hangar bay instead. It would have been easier and also provided more space for the air craft. As it is they will be stacked in the core only. There will be two levels where the second is mostly made up of the elevators being parked half way.

Once I am done with this I need to make sure the internal panelling in the hangar bay match to the sections so that I do not have holes etc in the coverage.



söndag 7 januari 2024

Opus Magna, blocks done.



First post of the new year. Over the holidays I finally got some time and inspiration to spend on the Opus Magna! It is now almost fully blocked out and I have added most of the weapons systems that I  had sitting around. Normally I like to keep things in subassemblies for easier painting, but with this model I needed to get it more or less built so that I can fit each subassembly to each other in the build process. To keep the numbers to a minimum I decided that I needed to attach the small assemblies to the big ones instead of keeping them separately for painting. In cases where I need to be able to removed them anyway I built some sliding holders so that I can attach them (without blue tack) but still remove them later for painting.





Some of the major things was that I needed to attach the air defence pods along the battlements. Since I did not plan for this from the beginning, the platforms where all cut to fit the GW barricades which meant I needed to cut holes in these to fit the pods. This meant getting in there with a jewellers saw and not destroy anything else. Not easy but I managed. One good thig about finally getting these mounted was that I noticed an interference between them and the flight deck. I am thinking on cutting some of the tabs away from the decking to give the guns some clearance. Other option is to pull the pods of and reposition them further out. This will however make them stand out from the battlements in an un esthetical way. Since this is only a problem on one side and for two of the pods, I am leaning towards the first option, might also give the deck some interesting features. Just have to make sure that that part is not needed to place aircraft on.


Once that was done I realized I needed to go back and remove some more parts of the battlements on the inside of the landing bays (and flatten them out) as I came up with the idea of adding some leftover heavy bolter towers at the blast doors. 


Once I had done all the cuts and re-assembly I put everything together so that I could finish of the last block, i.e. the launch tubes (for tactical nukes) beneath the tower. This has been a part I have been working on for many years without coming to a definitive conclusion about how it should work. In the beginning I had the idea of the tubes folding in beneath the tower when not operational. But in the end I just went with a fixed position, which I think was the right decision as it really bulks out the hull below the tower.


I also added all the tracks liks to the bandblade track units that I for many years have thought I would paint separately, but in the end I could not motivate it to have some 48 separate pieces just to make it easier to get to things. It also means that I can add some more detail around them as they are now fully assembled.

One such thing is that I wanted to add something to the front just to give it a more detailed look and decided to go for two large doser blades (which needs to be fitted to not interfere with the tracks). This is something that I have had i my head for some time but never really though to much about. So I just winged it and built something. Not sure exactly how they will end up but at least there is a start. Now that I actually have all parts build (except for the bottom floor of the hangar bay, which needs to be built after the internal panelling and elevators are truly done) I can now "relax" and start adding details to the individual blocks and make sure they fit together nicely. I can also continue the work with the flight wing. Who knows, 2024 might be the year this build gets done so I can start painting (wifey promised me an airbrush for Christmas).

lördag 30 december 2023

Crusader body done



So it is time for the last post of the year and it will be about the Crusader. I did get the Gaunt's ghosts box for Christmas from the wifey but since I built some custom bases for them I have not had time to paint anything. I also have been working a bit on Opus, taking the Dremel to some parts, but these are not yet put back together so there is nothing to show.

So instead of showing half done parts I will show a half done knight. Well it is done as far as it is built but it is still lacking its weapons. These needs to be built first and I am struggling a bit with finishing them. One main reason I did this project with the Crusader and his sergeants was that I wanted to try out some weathering techniques that I previously only done on small models. I wanted to see if these would hold up on a large scale model.

So what have I done. Well instead of painting the model as usual and applying the weathering and shipping over the base paint I did it the other way around. I started out with painting the armour panels in my standard rusted metal scheme. 


Once done I used a bone white colour and stippled it on to the model using a brush half full of paint. This will give the effect of only partial cover of paint as if it has mostly shipped/worn away revealing the underlaying metal, and since the metal was painted before it as a nice coloration to it that is hard to achieve if it is applied over the base paint. The bone white areas were given a light drybrush to give it some shades. Some of the drybrushing will go over the metal and give it a slightly bone-ish colour which works quite well in the next step.


Once the base colours are done, the metal and the white, I added some free hand patterns to the panels, taking care to only paint on the white. This actually is easier than painting on a solid background since the pattern is broken up it is not as critical to get it perfect. I added some light stippling of bone to the red to give it a more broken up texture than what I managed while painting in the patterns. Once that was done I did some standard sponge shipping to added some minor wear to the paint, don't know if this is really necessary though. Once I was happy with all this I used some watered down orange ink to colour the edges of the paint so that it looks like rust add the edges. Here it turned out that the over colourisation from the white drybrush helped to pick up and shade the orange rust effect.


Overall I think the technique works also on this scale, and I might actually prefer the look compared to the traditional way, at least if I am going for heavily worn look.

Once all the panels were done they were attached to the knight. Shoulder armour are still lose as I need to fit the arms before locking them in. Now I just need to sort the weapons out and get this finished. 





But I might take a detour and paint some Ghosts first.

söndag 17 december 2023

Update, Opus and Crusader

 These last weeks have been full of work and other commitments so I have not had that much time to work on the hobby stuff. That being said I still have made some progress.

For the crusader I decided that I did not really need to finish the build before painting so I sprayed the legs, torso and most of the armour (which I need to re do since I forgot battle scaring) and started out on the legs. I am doing rusted metal again! I thought I would make it more of black and silver metal but I ended up with a brownish metal any way. It is just the base paint so far I I need to go back and add details both on pistons, cables etc but also on the rust. I am pretty happy with how the stance turned out. I did have an idea of making the toes grip more around the chimera by heating the plastic and bending it into shape. That did not work out as I intended, and to save the model I had to stop and work with what I had. This meant that the feet are not attached properly to be bottom of the legs, but are at an angle that would normally have been taken up by the ankel (and I did not like the idea of cutting up the legs to correct for this). But I do not think it is bad enough to bee seen. The toes also do not connect properly with the tank but this is not seen from a distance. I hope that the lower leg armour will hide a lot of this. I need to get me some Cerastus Knights to see if the legs are better on these.




I have also been working a bit on Opus. It is slow going as there is so much to do that it becomes daunting. I have mostly been working on the upper bow section. This was probably one of the first sections I worked on an I tried to use some car body filler to fill gaps etc. This did not work out so well and it needs to be corrected. The geometry of the hull part is also quite odd so there was a lot of things to fix up and hide. 


This is one of the more heavily armed sections of the hull, featuring two Vulcan Megabolters, six twin linked heavy bolter turrets, six lascannon turrets, four stormbolters, a dual hurrican bolter arrays, two twin linked assault cannons and two Interceptor quad guns. Most of these needed some custom setup to be attached to the hull which is also taking time.


All in all I am very happy with how it is coming along and I am almost at a point with this section that I can let it rest and move on to the next.



torsdag 30 november 2023

Sergeants of the Crusader


This week I had some time of from work so I finished of the sergeants. There was not that much to be done. Painted the heads a slightly darker bone than the carapace. Added lenses to the eyes etc. In the end I decided to go for the dual wield anyway... I can always rearm them be swapping weapons. In the end I am happy with the painting, but the ideas I had for posing was slightly better in my head than what I managed to get in to the build. I specially think I should have taken the extra time and effort to make the Wardog with the Gatlings crunch down more on top of the building. In its upright walking pose (original leg pose) it looks like it is on stilts. That or I should have used another building with a more solid look. For the jumping one I think it might have been better to have the foot pointed downwards instead of forwards with the extreme forward position of the leg. This might have worked better with a lower elevation of the leg. So for the remaining Northern Knight's Ghost pattern armigers I will be a bit more restrictive with the poses and make sure to take the time to get it right if I try something fancy again. 

Sergeant 1






Sergeant 2






Now I just have to finish the Crusader himself. I have most of the things built so I am thinking of start the painting while I finish the weapon builds.