More Ultra Marines and Green stuff

So, 2020 is almost over and I do hope that 2021 will be better in so many ways. Over all it has been a productive year with a lot of posts. I have however not been able to finish any of my large longtime projects that has been sitting on the desk for eons. The problem is that I can't find the focus to have a long time commitment to one projects so I move a around working a little here and a little there, and in between I paint single miniatures that I can finish in a a few sittings. I had some sort of belief that I would find more piece of mind during the Christmas holidays but so has not been the case. Instead I have been once again jumping between projects.

Well, I do hope 2021 will offer me a better focus so that I can get Fenrir finished and start the construction of Surtr. I would also like to get the base construction of Opus Magna done so that I can start with detailing etc, and eventually get the airwing sorted. At some point I need to take a photo with Opus and the titans/knights.

These last few days I have been working on the out raider sergeant for the Ultra Marines as well as two more rank and file. From the beginning I did not like the look of this new bike, but it has grown on me and now I actually think it is one of the better New Marine vehicles. I might actually by me the chaplain for these guys. The easy to build construction once again make it hard to get it painted properly. For the remaining two models I will do some cutting to get the raider separated from the bike in a better way. Paint vice I went for solid blue with some free hand motifs (not the best but I need to practice). Over all I thin k it turned out ok considering the construction of the model.

Apart from painting the Ultra Marines I have been working on the base for Fenrir. I have gotten so far that I can start painting the feet as the attachment to the base has been sorted. I have also be working on some details for the base. In this case I went for a Ridge Raider that has hit a mine and gotten its rear axle blown of. I have always wanted to paint one of these because they look absolutely bad as. And I must say that the model is bad as as well. There are tones of details, from the under carriage to the add on's like fuel cans, hammers and power shovels. I might actually get me another one just to paint because the model is so good. It was also great fun building it and I which that GW would make more vehicle kits like this.

And when I have not been working on Fenrir I have been trying to finish the Armor plates for my Knight Lord. I think it is mostly done now, at least the parts I got stuck on, so I can hope fully wrap it up soon. And talking about knight I have also been adding the finishing touches to the internals of my Dominus knight, adding the pilots (there are two), cogitator screens etc. Soon this will be ready for paint. There are still some details left to do on the main guns but once that is done I will just do some quick chaosifications to the armor plates and I can finish of this project.

I really need to close some of these long time projects so that I can start new ones.

Ultramarine Primaris Captain

The time before Christmas is contrary to common belief (my) not a time for hobbying. One might think that once the Christmas holiday is here there will be ample of time to tackle all those projects that need you attentions. But that is the problem. Why do to day what can be done tomorrow, and you have the whole holiday yet to hide in the hobby hole. And there is off curse all the other things that needs doing before Christmas, even though, shopping for presents has not been an option this year.

But I managed to sneak away for a couple of hours to paint some Ultramarines. I Choose a Primaris captain and a standard bearer and following my example with the Necrons I also need to paint two rank and file together with character model (just so that the rank and file ever gets done). I thought I had the recipe down for the Ultramarines and set to work, but in the end I realized that they were a bit dark compared to my first batch, and it turned out I had used wrong blue (Kantor blue instead of Altdorf guard blue). The difference is subtle as the blue is applied watered down over a dark background, but in the end they sometimes look almost black, especially if I use a bright contrast color.

Left is Kantor and right is Altdorf

Which brings med to the gold trim. I am not sure what I did to the trim in the beginning or why, but is was a very pale, almost towards a silver gold. For these models I did a brighter gold which I sort of like better, which meant I needed to go back and redo some of the paint I had already done. This included my Guilliman model, and I must say that I am not sure what I did there. It is very tempting to get a new one and do it properly this time.

The free hand on the models is not great. I am not sure how others do it but I can't get the brush to produce thin enough lines. Also, for some reason I am having problems with the raised areas as on the standard. I think it might be that the raised areas are slightly raised to much so that it is difficult to get god coverage on the sides of the relief without getting paint on the lower parts, i.e using one stroke of the brush.

All in all I am happy with the result, I will have to finish the five man squad in the darker tones, but I think for the rest I will return to the brighter blue.

Canoptek Wraith

Last week I painted some necrons as a way of doing something simple after the Lard Discordant, and ques what, I got hocked. I have never really liked the Necron fluff as they seamed a bit forced when they appeared first time around. They were the undead in space, pulling a terminator theme of human extermination. Since they they have kind of evolved with some retconning, getting some variety and personality. But, the models are looking great and they are great fun to paint, and as I have a bunch of em laying around from some of the GW boxes I though I would paint them.

This time it was one of the Canoptek Wraiths from the Forge bane box that I got my eye on. And as I am not into this for the playing I need to do two Necron warriors with any other interesting model if I am to get them all painted. My first concern was how to build the Wraith. I have lost the build instruction and there are a lot of parts for these so I did not want to gamble with the assembly by just improvising. So a quick google later and I have a pdf with the instructions. After running back and forth between the hobby room and the computer I had it built and in disassembled in suitable pieces for painting. The two warriors were just the next in line in the Indomitus instruction.

All in all it was quite a quick paint job as there are not that much else to paint then the rust colored metal. Just the eyes and globes and then it was done. I am a bit concerned about the pose and the balance of the model. It does stand on its own but it is kind of top and front heavy. So I might need to glue in some counter weights in the back of the base.

Well that is it for now. I need to get going with my titans and knights so that I can tidy up some parts of the hobby room.

Necron cleansing

After finishing the Lord Discordant I needed to cleanse my palette. Do something easy, both in therms of building and painting. My choice fell on some Necrons from the Indomitus box, a Royal Warden and two warriors. The sculpts are excellent, but I was a bit surprised to see that the warriors looked more like shambling skeletons than terminators. But that and the damaged and missing armor pieces go well with my rust theme. To make it slightly easier for me I decided to do them in some sub assemblies, but that was not as easy as I expected. The easy to build/push fit makes it difficult to assemble the models out of order which is needed in some cases to be able to paint them effectively. So it is either hard to paint and easy to build or hard to build easy to paint.

Anyway, once I managed to figure out how to build the models and still be able to paint them I set about doing my rust theme. It is really really easy and does not require any fines, just slap on the colors, and the more sloppy the better. Then it is just to go over them with the drybrush, repeat, add some details and you are done. Quick and easy, and so rewarding after the Lord Discordant. With these additions my Necron army can now boast a total of five models, but with the reanimation protocol that is an infinite number of warriors.