Opus Magna, weapons and flightwing

These last couple of weeks have been intense, both at work and hobby with hobbystuff, so progress has been made in spurts of creativity in between travel. The first thing that i finished were the shields along the sides of the Opus as well as attaching the vents that I 3D printed some time ago. In the lore of this vehicle these side pontons are the antigravity arrays, that help take most of the weight of the Opus so that it does not get stuck in the ground. The track units are only there to provide traction and stability. The second part I worked on was the bow. I had previously made a quite intricate structure that I was not really happy with. I think I tried to not interfere with the bastion parts to much which lead to some convoluted designs. Now I just added two large calibre las cannons instead. I also boxed in the mounts for the two demolisher cannons that sits in the center line of the prow. Both these parts need to have some GS filling done but that will have to wait until the next disassembly of the Opus. As it is now I am just blocking things in to get all the major parts done. Then I can return to each to finish the details.

I have also started to assemble a lot of the supplementary weapons systems that will go on the Opus. This will mostly be AA and ground clearance weapons mounted in pods around the flight deck.

The next thing I have worked on is the flight wing. Many years ago I made a "marine" storm talon as a test model. But since I have been a bit lax about the building of the Opus itself I never got around to order the rest of the models for the flight wing. But recently some of the models when temporarily out of stock, and considering that they are "old" marine air crafts I do not know how long they will be around, so I bit the bullet and ordered about 2/3s of the flight wing before the models go out of production. The last third I will hold of on until everything else is done, and who knows, there might be some new nice fliers for that.

As it is I am (of course) not entirely satisfied with the models as they are and plan to make some modifications. I will base these around the Stormtalon, Stormhawk interceptor and the Nephilim jet fighter. there will also be a Valkyrie variant. The idea is to have a number of air superiority fighters, some fighter bombers and some close air support. I will make the fighters from the Nephilim fighter, but modifying it so that it more resembles a Thunderbolt. To do that I need to shorten the tail and extend the nose. I had previously noticed that the hulls of the Strom airframe and the Nephilim airframe is actually quite similar so I got the idea that I might do a tail swap.

After comparing the actual pieces I realized that they are similar but not identical so a swap will need a bit more fitting than I first thought. This procedure will then leave me with a Strom frame with a loner tail, which it turns out might actually be good for the interceptor as I will remove the engine pods from the wings (as the air frame needs to fit on the lifts of the Opus) and need somewhere else to mount them. I am thinking about a mount similar to an A10, or I will just leave them of completely and rely on the engines that are mounted in the hull similar to a A6. I am not sure how I will do this so first I will just finish the tail swaps and make sure that I have a nice and smooth hull before thinking to much about it. The Nephlims will also need some serious restructuring. My first thought was to move the cockpit further aft to get it behind the main wings, similar to a spitfire, but that would require to much cutting. So instead I will extend the nose forwards as well as att some cowlings to the front of the engine pods and mount the wings further forward instead. We will se how that turns out. It is the same here, that I will start with finishing the tail section before moving on. The close air support units will be more similar to the first test model I made with minor modifications. The main decision here will be if I should skip the wings and just go for a hovering type of aircraft, similar to an attach helicopter like the Apache or Cobra. The Valkyrie will get a back mounted radar disc similar to the E-2 hawkeye.

Those are the plans, lets see how long they will take to execute.

Dark Angels Levithan Dreadnought

So, I finished the Levethian that I got for my birthday. I must say that this is a lovely model, with great posability and a lot of character. The build process was quite straight forward but with a lot of pieces, which gives the model a lot of detail and 3D feel. I also love that there is enough extra parts in the kit to make a nice scenic base (I know, I hated these things a while back but now I love them).

I made the base as a fallen Levithan, half buried in the dirt. As I am painting the main model as a Dark angels Levithan I thought it would be thematic to make the fallen one a Night Lord.

The main dread got my usual black DA treatment. However, I think the result is heavily dependent on the brush I use. So I need to be more careful in the future if I do big black stuff. I did some free hand bone white chipped stripes and some red DA symbols. as the panels are far from square I needed to make some of them in half versions... which makes them look a lot like chaos symbols with all the pinons and blades (not so far from the truth?).

Now I am just waiting for the release of the new plastic lion to lead the forces...  or if I ever buy something more from FW I might get the heresy version...   both models look great.

Random WIP

This week has seen some random WIP that I have not really finished. After last weeks work on Opus I had to reassemble the hole thing to check some measurements, which lead to me not finishing what I started as that would have meant disassembling Opus again. Instead I started work on some shields for the lower part of the hull. I will get back to these one they are done. One thing I noticed when I put Opus back together again is that it looks much more solid now that the fornt and back is sealed up and also that the interior adds to this feeling. Sadly the shelf that Opus sits on is to his so I had to take the top of the island of. I might have to address this so that I can have Opus fully assembled without hitting the roof.

One thing that I changed from the previous round is how the elevators work. In the original build I had made three towers that I would inset in the elevator shafts (seen down to the right in the top picture). These were however quite flimsy and I could not get them to work properly as the friction in the sliding bars, holding the elevator platform, was to great to easily allow for adjustments of the elevator position. So this time around I build some tracks that I attached to the side walls. In this way each elevator will have four independent riders, relaxing the need for every thing to be to measure and parallell, and the friction is much lower... perhaps a bit to low...

Apart from that I have been working a bit on my birthday present from the Wifey, a Levithan siege dreadnought. I decided to do it in pre-heresy Dark Angels black, but for some reason it turned out very black... so I might need to go back and drybrush another round. I also build a scenic base from the left overs from the build. 

I must say that the legs are incredible. Why could they not have done this for the knight model. Each leg consist of 12 pieces...  while the knight leg is 8 pieces... and that includes the four pistons... This model really feels like a proper model and not just a gaming piece.

Opus Magna, blocking.

This weekend I have finally gotten some stuff done on the Opus Magna, and it felt really good. This is a long standing project for me, where I have been held up by some mechanical integrity issues of the model. Once I got to a certain point in the build I realized that it did not stick together as I had envisioned. So I took it apart and re-thought the assembly process. Sadly this meant that I had to discard some parts I have already build and I needed to re do these to fit the new way of putting ting together. Well that sort of became a block for me and the Opus has been sitting around for some time. I have done a little here and a little there but i have not maid any major progress. Well I hope that this new found enthusiasm for the project will stick so that I can get all the major blocks built.

So I started with sealing the front end and the back end of the main hull. The front was just missing a plate joining the left and right side of the bow. Now they are attached and I need to add some strengthening plates here and there on the inside but mostly it is now as it should be. I am thinking about adding a bolter array to this section as well but I am not sure...  I will also have to see how it interact with the bow section above.

For the back I had the idea of having some loading bay doors that could open, made from a scenery set. This has been sitting there, dry fitted for ages, so it was just a quick fix to cut out the doors using a jewellery saw and then putt in some pins for the hinges. I also trimmed the edges a bit to fit the rest of the hull but otherwise it is pretty much standar.

The sections I needed to rebuild where the two centre sections that initially held up the sides together with the front and aft sections. since this is no longer needed have rebuild them, adding some staging platforms outside the doors. I am not done with these yet, as I need to add in some flooring sections out side the doors on each side. I also need to build the right side of the second section, that will be beneath the iland and that will host a battery of strategic missiles and launch tubes. I am using a Stormtalon to check that it can fit in the hangar bay with all the new additions. In the end I think the hangar bays could hold something like 13 to 15 Stormtalons. 

Once this is done I have all the major block build again and can start adding details to them with out having to worry how they will interact with each other.

Death Guard

For the last few weeks I have been away with work so there has not been any real progress with my minis. These Death Guards has been hanging around my desk for a year or more and only needed som last details before I could finish them. For being starter minis and mono pose they do look quite ok. I am not overly fond of painting the organic stuff but I enjoy the white armour and the rusted iron parts. I thing these where the last of the "normal" soldiers and now I only have the charters left, and the Blight drone. We will see when I get around to doing them.

Over all I am working on finishing stuff. For years now I have had a section of the hobby room ocupied by half build models that have just been waiting for me to finish them. It has been really nice to see the Dominaus Knight and the King in the North getting done. Now I only have five armigers left before I can clear the table and set up Opus there (now Oupus is on the floor, which is kind of un inspiring), but those will have to wait a bit as I am currently working on my Birthday gift from my wife... but more on that later.

King in the North done

Well that went quicker than expected. The armour plates were fun to paint so perhaps I pushed a bit harder on these than what I have done previously. All in all I think it turned out nicely. There is for sure places where I am not happy with my sculpting, and places where I could have though a head more. But from afar it looks good. I think the amount of added details tend to blur things so that no individual thing sticks out as being off.

I am also very happy with the stance... only thing I would have done differently is to use a fully custom base instead off adding to the "normal" plastic ones. As it is it looks a bit wonky with the front foot sticking out over the base. Originally I also have a piece sticking out behind the back foot. This was removed as it looked very out of place. Well it is what it is now. On to the next one... or something.

I still have some War glaives on the desk that needs to be finished, perhaps that is up next...  and I definitely need to finish the Deathguard marines that has been on my desk, half painted, for close to half a year? Then I probably should start on Surtur... he has also been sitting on the desk for quite some time (waiting for me to finish Fenrir)...  mostly the head but still...  and I till have a Acastus Porphyron and a Cerastus Atrapos to do... 

King in the North WIP 5

This week I have been painting away on the armour plates of the King. I really had forgotten how much stuff I had sculpted on to these...  so it has taken a bit longer than I thought to get it all done. But in the end it is mostly just filling in the fields using my, by now, routine scheme for the ghosts. I think the GS blends in well on the model. Some of the things could have been neater sculpts, but this has been a project over such a long time that it is not all consistent. Now it is only the greaves left and the groin banner (which I have no clue how to attach)... and off course the base I need to finish . But all in all I see that I can soon have this model done.

King in the north WIP 4

These last weeks I have been working on getting the king up and standing. It has taken a lot longer than I thought as I constantly needed to go back and paint in details that I missed as there are so many of them. I also feel that it is harder to paint these resin kits than the plastig knights as all the recesses are deeper and there are quite a few very deep pockets that are hard to get at with a brush. The pieces are also more 3D as they are not bound by a 2D projection in the casting. I also find that the pieces are more warped than the plastic, also on the smaller details, which is a bit detracting if you look closely at the model. But apart from that I enjoy this model and I think it is turning out nicely.

Since it was quite some time since I actually did all the sculpting on the model I have for gotten a lot of what I did so it there are some nice surprises for me as I start applying colours to the GS. It is also, sadly, quite obvious that I have progressed in my sculpting since I did the first parts. This means that not all the GS work is of the same standard. But I hope that it will still look ok in the end.

I am very happy with how the head turned out. I was not a big fan of the original look, but the crown really blends in well and give the head a better profile. This means that I can use the new head I bought for some other knight (Porphyrion).

Now that I have a standing skeleton I will start with all the armour panels and finish up the base. Then I just need to figure out how to attach it to the base, as the surface of the base is quite porouse with all the plaster that it attached to it.