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