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.