Serberys

This year I got a pack of Serberys from my lovely wife for Christmas. I loved the look of these when I first saw them upon release but I have for some reason did not picked them up before, so it was a perfect gift from the wifey.

I could not decide whether I should build them as sulphurhounds or raiders so I choose the parts I liked the look of which probably does not make them WYSIWYG but who cares as long as it looks good. So I set about building these puppies and I went for the dog/horse head without the flamer as I think they look far better. But dual wilding six shooters were way to cool not to build so I went with that. I also gave the alpha the sword from the Raiders but swapped the gun for the sulphurhounds variant, just to keep with the theme. I also stripped the rifle case from the sables for the two normal riders just to give them the potential same load out as the alpha (which also have a rifle as backup).

As for paint I went with a dark metal for the legs, skull and spine/tail. The "bag/cloth" containing most of the body was painted a brown leather while the armour plating got my standard ghost green treatment. The raider also got a dark metal body with a red coat with leather inside to keep in with my other mechanicum troops. Over all I think they got a good blend of my green/brown scheme and the metal/red so that they can both work with the main core troops and with my rangers/scouts. The models have quite a lot of small fiddly parts that are easy to break if the model is painted un-assembled, which I recommend as it is very hard to get the brush in between all the legs and cables etc on the underside.

I also got a pack of Pteraxii that I will make more in the style of my rangers, but that is for another day.

Blade guards

This week I offer you some Smurfy Blade Guards. I love these models!, even though they are monopose. The three models form the Dark Imperium box are all different so there is no repeat and I do not think it would be possible to do these as anything other than mono pose as the tabard connects the legs to the torso and then it is only the arms that would be posable within some range. And as the legs and torso is sculpted in a dynamic pose I do not see great variability by repositioning the arms either. So all in all, fantastic sculpts, in limited numbers (unless they do more sculpts). I am looking forward to doing the ancient and the lieutenant to complete the group.

The colour scheme is the same (I think) as for most of my Ultra Marines, i.e. a dark blue metallic. Painting it this way almost feels like it could be for real. The base metallic is basically metallic marines that is then lightly washed in blue, like a marine painting the bare plates in the chapter colours. This technique is very simple and at the same time very difficult. The base metallic is dry brushed on over a black base in four shades. This stage is very straightforward, and one could leave it at that and go for the details if one want silver/metallic marines. The next stage is also simple but also very hard to get really good. Using watered down base paints I paint over the sections of armour that I want coloured. That basically is just filling in the fields and will give a ok result as is. However, if one is careful with the direction of application and has just the right water to paint ratio it is possible at this stage to shade the plates with a smooth gradient, but it require practice. And since I do not paint these to often it is a bit hit and miss if I manage the last stage, and in this case I was off. The plates turned out a bit to even and I hade to try to sort this by using other shades of blue and some black wash.

The gold details also did not get the depth I wanted, which is strange as I more or less followed my basic recipe for this... I must have been un focused.

Apart from this I am happy with the result, they look good and go well together with the rest of the collection. Some part of me is really looking forward to seeing all the marines form the last three starter boxes painted up in this scheme (if I ever manage that).

Custodes Wardens

This time I finished the Shield-Captain and the Vexilus Praetor of my Custodes Wardens form the to do pile. These were a present form my wife some times ago together with with Captain-General Trajann Valoris. I painted up the three Wardens with axes some time ago but has held of on these ones as well as the Captain-General as I did not want to do them all at once. I really do like how these turn out but they take some time to do. As per my usual Custodes pattern the base armour is a white metal with golden plates. I think this gives the models some more depth and character than just painting everything gold. I added blue stones and yellow lenses to the armour and helmet. The robes where done in crimson with a purple or bone white lining. I was a bit surprised that the Captains cloak did not have any raised reliefs like the captains cloak from the base Custodes kit. So I tried some improvised free hand, and I do realize that the main sign is from the titan legions but it was what I came up with at the time (I really do need to plan what I am to do before setting the brush to the model). The conclusion I think is that I still need to practise my freehand a lot more.

Next up for my custodes is Trajan Valoris, and at some point I am tempted to do a converted dropship based on some conversions I found on line, but more about that if it happens. It would also be interesting to do a tank or something and see how the paint scheme translates to something bigger. The dreadnought I did for last years dreadtober turned out quite well so at least on that scale it works. I might need to get me the codex and have a look at the options.

Laser blasters for Fenrir

Recently I finished the two arm mounted Laser Blasters for Fenrir. All in all they are a straightforward paint job, similar to the back mounted Laser Blaster. I kept them in the yellowish basecoat with some black and yellow chevrons. The barrels where painted white metal with heat staining going from blue to brown. I choose not to make them "glowy" as I do not thing that is to realistic and does not fit my style of painting.

One thing that I notice while painting these where that there are noticeable 3D printing lines on the models, as well as casting lines. I guess that FW 3D prints the masters for the models and then cast them for customer. I would have guessed that FW would clean this up better before casting as it has a cheep fell to it when you buy something that expensive and it looks like something you could have printed yourself. The warlord Laser Blaster does however not show any of these ridges and is very smooth so I wonder if it is only the Battle Titan Laser Blasters that have this or if it is all the remodelled weapons.

This also makes me wonder why FW has not released all the AT weapon options for 28 mm. Since they are made in CAD, and if the masters are "just" 3D printed, then why not just offer them in scaled up versions as well?

Dreadtober; Ghost Pattern Warglaive done.

Well, that was unexpected, I am done with my Warglaive Dreadtober challenge. When I posted last I did not think I would make it as all the chipping, weathering and details where left to do and usually that takes me a lot of sessions to get it done. But after having two solid (rather long) sessions I manged to finish it of. It is however a bit of a speed paint job, and I realized that I could have been a bitt better with cleaning up the modifications. Once the paint goes on all the places where a little green stuff should have been becomes more visible. I also realized that the new shoulder pads that I made to close the space between the arm shoulder plates and the body needs to be a bitt better prepped. But all in all I think the "Ghost" pattern Warglaive came out nice. It is really distinct from the Hellverins.

For the conversion I have mostly used bits from other kits. The glaive is made from the original and a lamp post from one of the scenery kits. The shield on the lance arm is from the Land Radier upgrade frame. The waist extension is a light bulb, also from one of the scenery kits. The skull is from the skull kit. It is only the cookpit (which is not visible from the out side ) and shoulder guards that are scratch built, the rest is just repositioning and some carving.

 I which GW would have done the knight kits a bit more modular so that they could have released an upgrade frame that is not only the weapons and armour but also some pieces that would alter the build of the chassis. Now I will just have to do the other five so that my super heavy detachment with armigers will be done. 

Dreadtober update

This week I managed to get the base paint on and the blue white chevrons. Next is shipping and weathering, hopefully this weekend. Next week will probably not see much progress so this is looking a bit bleak at the moment. But then again, I lost a week at the start of the challenge because I did not pay attention and the last week is work so I can't do much about it.

Dreadtober, Build phase done.

Had a few quick sessions to carve some damage into the plates and added the chaos growth. The model is not in it subassemblies ready for a undercoat spray and then it is of to paint. Really hope that it will turn out fine with the paint on. The modifications are quite drastically taking it some way from the original and there is always the chance that it will look out of place with the rest of the range.

Lets see if I can finish it this week as I will not abele to work on it the last week of October.

Dreadtober update

This weekend I decided to get as much construction done as possible for my converted Warglaive. Since there eventually will be six of these  in total I decided to do all of the constructions in one go to have some consistency between them. That meant six cockpits, and six sets of shoulder guards. This of course took more time than I hade planed so I did not get to where I wanted to be after the weekend. But with an extra evening of work I am now in a position to do some battle damage and start sculpting on the chaos growth. If all goes to plan I will start painting the coming weekend.

Dreadtober challange 2021

It is that time of year again, and I almost missed it, Dreadtober. I was traveling with work and totally forgot about this, but better late than not at all. So I singed up for the challenge. As I started late I had to choose a suitable project that would not take to long to get to a painting stage but still was complex enough not to finish in one or two sittings, and the gods only know that I have enough big models sitting in the to do pile, half built and unbuilt.

For this year I vent with a Warglaive that has been sitting around my desk since the Armiger knight class was released. I even managed to paint six Hellverins while this one was sitting by the side line. I am not sure why it never was finished but this is my real chance to get it done. It will act as the model for another five of these that I have and that will go with the Hellverins.

I really wanted the Warglaive to look distinctly different from the Hellverin, not just a weapon swap, so I decided to make some conversions. The first thing that struck me was to shave down the top carapace front flaring to make the "neck" slimmer. Then I decided to add some extensions beneath the feet and a at the waist to give it some extra height. I also decided to try to mount the shoulder guards on the arms instead of on the top carapace so that they will move with the arm which will make some nice dynamic poses. This does however leave quite a large gap between the shoulder and the top carapace when the arms are in a hanging position. So I hade to make some smaller shoulder guards to bridge the gap but that still allows the main shoulder to slide up over it it the arms are lifted.

I also decided that the reaper chaincleaver was to short and made it into a pole arm instead. The thermal lance was equipped with a shield to further emphasize the closecombatness of this monster.

The model is almost built now, just need to finish up some green stuff work on the custom pieces and add the standard chaos growth. I also need to build the cockpit for the pilot. That will be up next. Hope fully I can get the model full build this weekend so that I can start painting next week.

Morvenn Vahl

This week I present to you; Morvenn Vahl... or Fnyssan as I like to call her (due to the colour combination which is my wife's signature colours). I like this model!, to bad that that other paragon suits are not more like this one. The level of detail is really stunning and lends it self well to dry brushing. I did not go with the box art paint scheme for this model, instead I did it almost the same way as I did the Paragon suits, but instead of covering the metallic green with a black wash I kept the green and give it a dry drybrush to polish it a bit. This last step was just an improvisation but it worked really well. As the model is dry brushed silver in several steps with a black wash as a base, the green wash really pops with an emerald sheen, but it is rather flat. So instead of dry brushing a layer of silver on top of the green I used a dry brush and dry brushed the model. This wore away the green wash and revealed the silver beneath, giving nice highlights with a light green tone. This is something that I need to try again with other colours. Over all I am happy with how she turned out even if I think the green and purple is not really my coup of tee. The army colour's are silver and purple (as set out by my wife) and my addition of the green/black just turned out this way when not adding the black top layer. But it does fit nicely with the darker paragons from a distance as one can see the resemblance in base colour.

Fenrir leg armour

This week I finished the green stuff sculpting on the left leg armour for Fenrir. This is the leg that has the demon face breaking through on the knee pad. This is a recurring theme on my titans. In this case I sculpted an actual face that had broken through the armour rather than having something beneath the skin as portrayed on the FW chaos Reaver and what I tried to emulate on my war lord. I think this turned out fine. This part was done some time ago and I might have already blogged it. 

What I had not figure out was what to do with the lower leg armour and how to tie this to the face. I was playing around with some ides of having spikes/horned ridges breaking trough the armour in some nice pattern but I could not settle on a nice design. Then I came up with the idea of having two great horns poking through just beneath the knee cap, similar to the horns on the Magnus model. So I set about sculpting these, and to cut back on the need for excessive amounts of GS I made the core from three layers of 2 mm plasticard that was shaped into a rough horn shape. This was then covered with GS in several layers adding more and more details.

Once I hade these done the thought struck me, what if I continue on the Magnus theme and let the horns come come from a chest and then the face could be the demon face on the knee. Then I just needed to add the rest of the rib case to the side armour together with some arms to fill up the space. I did this in the same way as the rib case on the chest panel, where the ribs are poking through the armour in places. To get the anatomy reasonably correct I actually use some reference images. All in all I am pleased with the result. I probably could have med the details a bit better and the transitions to the armour smoother but over all I am pleased.

Painting was pretty standard. I kept the base colours of the armour to the greens without adding any decorations so that it would not be to busy, except for the knee that always has the heraldic designs on them. Now I am working on the laser blasters for the arms. After that there is not much left, just need to finish the GS designs for the right leg, fix the shoulder amour and the weapon cowlings. 

Back mounted Laser Blaster for Fenrir

This week saw the completion of the back mounted Laser Blaster for Fenrir. I tried to paint it the same way I did with the Laser Blaster for Varangian, so that if I need I can run a legit build for my Warlord (in that case Fenrir would get the Apocalypse missile launcher also making a legit build). But for now I am keeping with the rule of cool (in my opinion).

I have also, almost finished building and GS-ing the arm Laser Blasters so that will be next. Then it is only the armour plates left and the titan is done. I am so close to finishing this quick build, I can almost smell it.