Dreadtober stretch goals done.

This week I finally got the last part of the stretch goal done for my Deadtober challenge. It was not really that much painting to be done, just some concrete and rusted metal parts that I could add to the bases of my Armiger Hellverinsbefore gluing down some gravel.  I just wanted to break up the large empty parts of the round bases an dgive them some more life. But I think it is important that the base does not overshadow the model and if one makes a large addition to the base, as on the Preceptors base,  that it is interacting with the model in such a way that it adds to the it rather than distract from it. 

I have been working on this detechment of Armigers since they were released some 2? years ago and it feels good to finally have the first parts done. The fact that I had to build the interior for all of them and make the pilots can explain why it has taken me so long. But then again the models are quite large and detailed so they take a few days each to paint. Now I just need to finish another six Armiger Warglaives to fill out this super heavy detachment, which requires quite a lot of modeling too. We will see if they turn up for next years Dreadtober challenge or if it will be something else.

Armor plates were done for the last Hellverin.

All in all this year was fun even if I got carried away and finished my main challenge early. But there is always more models hanging around in their boxes so filling out the time is not a problem.

Bases done.

Now I need to go back to my titans and see if I can get some progress there also. I have restarted the work on Fenrir, which will require much more GS work than I originally thought. I also need to get started on the build process of the internals for Surtr.

Deardtober stretch WIP

After finishing my Dreadtober pledge a bit a head of time I decided to stretch the goal of this month to include my Armiger Hellverins that have been in construction/paint for over two years (if not more). I already had them assembled and painted but one of them were missing the armor plating so I deiced that it was time to get it done so that I can move on to the Warglaives (yeay, another six armigers to build and paint). The paint scheme is the traditional olive green base and blue white markings. It is getting difficult to keep the different patterns I have done apart so I need to be careful not to repeat my self. This time I went with one full half side in checkers. I have also used one of the siege cannons from the Dominus knight to spice things up a bit. I really think GW could have done more with the knights army in terms of weapon options and freedom to equip them. But since I am mostly doing this as a collection, even though I do want it to be as colose to the rules/fluff as possible, the rule of cool sometimes takes precedence. 

So that is the second part of Dreadtober done. Now I just need to finish the six bases. I could go for monotone gravel but I thought I would take the opportunity to add some more structure to them. 

Dreadtober dread finished

Ops, I finished my Dreadtober dread, the Custodes Achillus dreadnought, early. If only I could have this pace on my other projects I would get so much more done, not that it would make a dent in the to do pile as I am sure I would manage do fill it up at the same pace anyway. Well, this was such a fun model to paint that I could not stop, I just had to keep going. All in all it was not that long a project... 10-12 h or so in total. I am really happy with how the metal turned out, it almost lock like a NMM attempt even though it is just drybrushing with some final edge highlights. One problem with the edge highlights is that it turned the rest of the model dark, or at least the appearance became darker as I added some distinct shiny parts. The overall simplicity of the paint scheme, gold and silver metal, meant that once I had the base coat of metals down there really was not that much more to do. Just paint some blue stones and I was done. The base was also pretty simple with some metal, stone and skulls. Not to advanced and was quick to drybrush.

My Custodes "army" is not that large but I like how they look together.

This rather quick build and paint job has left me with out a dreadtober project for the rest of the month. So I will add a stretch goal. I have for some time worked on a gaggle of Armiger for my Northern Knights. They have been sitting around my desk and to do pile for some years know so I might just take the opportunity to include them in the challenge. There is just the one left of the initial six Hellverins and this one will be done at the end of the month if not sooner as I only have the armour left. I will also do all six bases. That should leave me enough to do... and if I for some reason finish these off I have more on the to do pile so I am sure I can keep my self occupied.

Dreadtober WIP 2, color test

Today I finished of the white metal and gave the gold armor plates their first two coatings of drybrushing. I also painted the shoulders crimson. This concludes the drybrushing stage. Next upp will be highlighting and adding details using normal brushwork. I also did a color test photo to make sure the colors do not deviate from my previous Custodes models. It is always difficult to scale a paint scheme as the larger/smaller surfaces will look differently even if you used the same recipe. I was afraid that I would not get enough contrast on the gold plates and that they would look to flat and homogeneous. But over all I am happy and will move on from here.

Dreadtober WIP 1

First post in the Dreadtober challenge. In my last posts I had the dread soaking in its washing up liquid, making sure that all the release agents are gone form the resin before I start painting. First thing after the soak is a good wash off in the shower, making sure that I do not replace the release agent with dish soap. Once washed I laid out all the parts on a towel to make sure that everything came out of the soak and wash and that nothing was missing. I left if do try like this over night. Then I started with cutting all the parts of from their supports and cleaning up mold lines and ports. This is a bit fiddly, especially the ports, as these can be sitting in some really trick places to access. Once that was done I needed to figure out how the model comes together...  as the model has been hanging around the do to pile for some time the instructions seams to have gone missing. There are a lot of parts in this model, in contrast to the GW equivalents. This makes it a bit fiddly to assemble but it also gives you great poasabillity.

When I was waiting for the pieces to dry after the rinse and wash I decide that I would do a scenic base. I usually do not do that, but lately I have sort of gotten used to the idea (as I am not gaming with the models the problem I have with the models dragging around scenery all over the battlefield is not so big  anymore). I really did not have a great idea of what it should look lite so I grabbed some random stuff from the bits boxes and glued them to the base. I went for a low wall at the front of the base that the dreadnought could rest on foot on, but the rest is more or less filler.

So I had a scenic base which means I needed to build the dread to fit the base and still look coll. I went for a classic hero pointing towards something while resting his legs on something pose. This meant that I first needed to build the back leg to get the height of the pelvis before I could build the bent leg. Once I knew what the height should be I pinned the front foot to the base at the appropriate place and built the rest of the leg to line up whit the straight led. The legs where then attached to the pelvis which determined where the back leg ended up on the base. Once this was set I also pinned the back leg to the base. In this way I can remove the Dread from the base for separate painting but it will still go back in the right position.

The arms was I bit tricky as they consist of so many parts and I needed a log of dry fitting before I knew in what order to assemble them and at what angles (in the end it truned out the I just built both of them more or less straight with out bends or twists). I also heated one of the fingers on the left hand so that I could make it point forward instead of beaning in a half grip position.

Once I was happy with the parts I broke it down into sub parts for painting. After spraying the pieces with a black hobby paint from the local hardware store I painted all the pieces with a watered down abaddon black to make sure there were no places where the light resin shines through. I also painted on some browns and oranges where I will have white metal. This helps give life to the metal and make it look more natural. Then it is just drybrushing, I started with a bronze color, covering the whole model. Then I went over the joints etc with three shades of silver metal. After this stage all the pieces was washed under a faucet with maximum flow to remove any paint dust from the drybrushing. This prevents frosting, especially with the amount of drybrushing required for this model..

And that is about as far as I got on the first day of this challenge. Next step will be to go back over all the silver metal with washes and inks to give it even more depth before drybrushing again. We will see when that gets done.

The embryo of Dreadtober and some test Necrons

As they say, it is that time of year,... again. Dreadtober, and I thought that this year I was going to participate. Omnissiah only knows how much I have on the to do pile, so entering this friendly activity to get a dread, or similar sized model, done from the pile seamed like nice idea. I have several knights, titans, dreadnoughts and robots lying around in the pile so I had to pick something. Over the last couple of years I have received gifts from the missus in the form of Custodes models which she thinks I do pretty well, so in one of my last orders to FW I also squeezed in a Custodes Achillus dreadnought that I thought would go well with these models. It has now been sitting in the pile for some time so I thought this would be the perfect time to bring it out and get it started.

So far it is still in the embryo stage as seen in the photo, but over the coming days it will see the light of day, cleanly scrubbed and prepared for painting.

While waiting for the mold release to dissipate from the dread I got the urge to do some test Necrons. Since I have bought several of the GW boxes that contain Necrons, but not for the sake of the Necrons as such, these models have just be sitting around in the boxes. So I felt that perhaps I should paint them, if not for an army but just to do something different. But what color scheme would I do? In Judge Dread (with Sylvester Stallone) there is a scene with an old combat robot that I really liked as a kid. It is kind of yellow, beat up and rusty and it was actually the inspiration for my Desert Eagles space marines.

As I really liked the rusted metal look I managed to achieve on my Penitent engine so I thought that the Necrons models would perhaps look good in a similar paint scheme. So I quickly build a pair of them (I have lost the assembly instructions so I winged it), sprayed them and set about painting them. A few hours later they were done and I think I got the rusted metal looking pretty good. I added some green glowing sections to the chest, legs and shield that I am not so sure that I like. Over all the models look ok but I am not sure, perhaps it is better to just do the power blades and eyes green and leave the rest as metal.

But these will stay like this for now, since the next project will be the Custodes dread for the Dreadtober challenge.