Opus Magna, rear bolters and surface to air missiles

So, I have been slowly shipping away on the Opus build. This time around I focused a bit on the rear quarters. As I built the fighters for the Opus the Nephilim the kit came with the options of either wing mounted bolters or missiles, I went for the bolters so had the missile inserts left over. This made me think about building some surface to air missiles (SAM) pods to mount on the rear platforms. So I started the build and after some nights of tinkering I had to pod arrays with 12 missiles in each pod. However, when I tried to mount them were I originally planed to have them they turned out to be to big to fit in the space available without interfering with the flight dec (and I was not about to cut in to the deck for these to).

So I needed to find some were else to put them. I already had some smaller platforms built for the quad autocannons so I tried a quick swap. But these platforms were sticking out to much, which is fine for the smaller quad guns but it looked strange with the SAM's. So I decided to reposition the platforms and move them up and in to get them closer to the hull. While doing this I just put them SAM's on the tower instead of some icaros Las cannons and it really looked cool. It gave the tower a more aggressive look with the two pods on each side of the main battle cannon batteries. Once I relocated the rear platforms I tried the SAM's also in this position and now they looked good there also. So now I do not know if they will be on the tower or the back. The mounts are the universal disk so I can move things around so do not need to decided now.

When working on the back I also came up with the idea of mounting three heavy bolter towers on the back platform to mirror the three turrets that are mounted on each side at the front. Originally I hade the idea to have these on the tower but I could not really find a good position for them. In the end I am really happy the placement. Now I just need to get the towers mounted on the platforms.

Vashtorr the arkifane

This is a model that I have been looking forward to painting, and it did not disappoint. Already when it was teased I knew that this was a model I wanted to get my hands on, but when it was released I missed it as it was in the limited box. So I had to wait until it was released as a singel model. One acquired, it sat in my to do pile until the opportune moment arrived, and it just happened to be now.

The model as such is a fairly easy build even though there are quite a few pieces. The level of details is great and I absolutely love the amalgam of machine and flesh. One thing I missed was that I should have placed a small managed in the chest so that the front armour can be removed to show all the detail beneath. This might be my one criticism of this model. It looks so good without the armour that I am seriously considering getting another one and totally forgoing all the armour pieces. Apart form the armour I also left the wings and the extra stack of exhausts of for painting but otherwise the model was painted assembled. The base was done separately, nothing fancy, just some extra filler to extend the scenic piece to the edge and some extra skulls.

The metal parts were done in my usual way with a black base and brown/orange blotches before dry-brushing bronze and white metal. The flesh is a variation on my standard chaos flesh, but instead of suing the Kislev flesh as a base I used Dechala liliac. Then I painted in the highlight and larger areas starting at Kislev and going up to bone before doing a green and red/brown wash. Then it was back to painting in highlights again and at the end I added a white wash. The last step with white turned out to be a mistake as it toned down all the other colours to a more monochrome tone. So I re washed the model in gren and red/brown and re did the highlights except the white.

Armour was done with a basic gold rim and some two tone striped plating (the model has some structure but not as much as I put in). Not sure if I will attach it or if I will leave it of. Model looks better without armour, but with the graves and arm plating on it looks a but strange to not use the back and chest pieces. If I were to do another one I would re-sculpt the lower legs and the left arm so that no armour was used. Just the flesh and machine.

The hammer was originally done as a marmor type stone but it did not look so good so I went back and redid it in a hot metal type of thing. First time I do this on a large piece, I am normally not to comfy doing these light effects. I guess one should have done some OSL also but one thing at a time. At some point I need to try that though.

Over all it was a very fun model to paint, and it is testing my technique a bit but still staying close to the look I like.

Opus interceptor, re-imagined

 As part of the Opus airwing I wanted to have a dedicated air superiority fighter or interceptor. I based the design of this aircraft on the Dark angels Nephilim fighter. I have previously shown this process including the tail swap I used to get the tail shorter. However, I were not happy with how things looked. Originally I wanted something that looked like the thunderbolt or lightning as they look a bit like WWII fighters with a long bonnet and the cockpit towards the rear. This design has also been used in other Scifi settings such as the viper from Battelstar Galactica, the X-wing from starwars etc.

However, the Nephilim has the cockpit quite far forward with a rather long body behind the canopy and a long tail. Initially I thought that I would just angel the wings a bit upwards, swap the tail to so a shorter one add a longer nose and it would look like I wanted...  but I nerver rally managed to get the proportions right and it never really looked like the fighter I imagined. So I stalled the build for some time until I finally decided to bite the bullet and move the cockpit. This was something that I dreaded as it would involve a lot of cutting to the main body and once that was done there was no going back.

So I started out with the prototype as usual with the understanding that I might need to get a new Nephilim and restart the process if it did not work out. But I was lucky. I managed to cut the cockpit away from the engine cowlings without destroying any of the details on the connecting pieces. I then moved the cockpit backwards about 15 mm and cut away the same amount on the body behind the canopy. This made the cockpit look smaller and much further back than before (even if it is not that much further aft).

There was still a problem to figure out how to make a bonnet. The lines around the cockpit and the rest of the body sort of tapers towards a point. Adding a long square nose did not lock better in this design than before all the cutting and I was a bit disappointed. Then as I was playing around with the roof scoop that I no longer could use du to the shortened body I accidentally put it in front of the canopy, but reversed with the intake pointing backwards, and it all fell into place. From there on it was not that hard to figure out the rest with the front and side panelling. This new, longer nose also allowed me to mount the avenger gatling and add some visible barrels under neath. I also added some larger las-cannons to the sides of the nose than what is provided with the Nephilim kit, but I am sure the originals can also be used if I need to re-do this more times.

I also added the three arched skull things from the kit to the sides of the nose to make it look like the exhaust ports found on WWII fighters. Not that a jet would need that but I thought it looked nice. 

Once I got far enough with the prototype I re did all the steps on the remaining three craft making sure they are all looked more or less the same. Then I added some more details to the craft like the antenna, moving some air scoops etc.

I will leave the models as they are for now, just to make sure I am happy before gluing everything into place. I will also have to figure our how to do the landing gear...

Pteraxii done

Long time no blogg. This time it has been about two months. Not that I have not done some hobby stuff, I have, but nothing worth showing, until now. This time I finished the Pteraxii squad that I got from my wife many moons ago. I painted the first three back in feb 2022. When I started the models I quickly realized I could not paint all five in one go as the back pack is quite complex and requires some time. So I said I'll do three now and then the last two a bit later. A bit later turned out to be two years, but who is counting.

I used the same woodland theme that I have used on my rangers, a brown leather body suit and olive green plating. This is a very basic scheme and there really is no finesse to it, but it look ok and it is fine with rank and file soldiers. I really like the backpacks, the small jet engines together with the variable pose wings look really neat. I can really see these backpacks as drones with a small bomb underneath. The membranes are a bit of a hassel to get right as I am drybrushing in the blend and there is a constant "over spay" on the spars holding the membranes that I needed to go back and fix. There was also a bit of an accident with to much paint on one of them that I saw in the pics that I need to go back and fix.

With this squad done there is only the last Onager left to do on the recon elements and perhaps another strider (which I do not have right now). Then I have 20 titan guard to do...  wounder when that will happen.

But all in all I am happy with this small element of my mechanicum host.

Sydonian Skatros a.k.a the stilt man

This year I got a Sydonian Skatros from my wife for my birthday. This is somewhat of a controversial model as it seams to evoke either feelings of love or hatred for the design. It is definitely a mechanicum model with its arcane look and unconventional design. It was quickly dubbed "the stilt man" when released. I can not say that it was a favourite of mine as it is clearly an unpractical design. But once I got to sit down with it, it sort of grew on me. I used my custom ranger scheme on him with a leather suit and olive green armour. I kept all the armour, legs, and weapon in one colour which I think helps smooth things out so that the individual details of the model does not yar the eye as much. And once that happened I actually started to like the design. It is still un-practical but in a swamp or deep ash layers I could see something like this being used to keep out of the muck. But still, once you go over you ain't coming back up.

I like the back pack on this model with the extra arms holding the range finder and some new ammo clips. I think this could have been a nice addition to more of the mechanicum infantry.

I am however not a fan of the tail pipe hanging so far down his back. I can't see any point for it to be that long and it does look strange from the front.

I also started working on my last two pteraxii together with the Skatros but realized I could not keep the standar up on all three models at the same time and so I focused on the Skatros (as it was a present to be enjoyed, not rushed in a batch paint). Now that the Skatros is done I will complete the Pteraxii squad. Then we will se what is up next for the mechanicum. I still have the forge lord to complete and also a marshal as well as a Onager.

Opus flight deck extension

So, an update on the work on the Opus Magna. For many years now I have been thinking about the flight deck and what I should do with it. One thing that has been bouncing around the back of my head were what to do with the crenelated sides. These comes from the landing platform sides that are intended to be raised to form a barrier from where the soldiers defending the plattform can shoot. This looks good and ties the Opus into the ascetics of the 40K scenery.

However, once I started work on the flight wing I quickly realized that to fit everything onto the deck I needed to balance the aircraft with the tails sticking out as far as possible over the edge, which meant balancing on the crenelations with big holes in-between. The fact that that the aircraft does not have a modern landing gear set up does not help as there is no nose wheel but a tail wheel, preventing the tail to overhand the edge. So this meant that I would need to close up the gaps in the crenelations, adding some much needed extra space to the flight deck. I always imagined that this would be a quick thing. Just cut out the suitable shapes and glue them in. Well it did not turn out to be that easy. Not all pieces needed to fill the gaps were the same shape, and to give things some details I also needed to att some extra layers to each piece. All in all I ended up doing some 53 pieces, each consisting of four layers. So this to a lot more time than expected, but in the end I think it was worth it. Next thing will be to mount it to the hull and see what this did to the profile (there are still some things to do around the interference with the air defences).

Another thing that has been troubling me with this build is the fact that the original aircrafts are WTOL's, which in principle makes a carrier somewhat obsolete (as there is no need for a take off and landing strip). But on the other hand I think that WTOL operation, from what I have seen on live footage is not a rapid thing and probably not something you would like to do in a hot zone as you become an easier target as you slow down for the landing or is a sitting target as you take off.

Then there is also the issue of moving things around the deck as the original air frames do not have wheels. This probably means I have to remedy this on my builds. And that sort of lead me to the second addition to the flight deck, catapults. As I will have wheels on the aircraft I can also use the catapults to launch them of the deck, and actually use the angled deck for normal landings (when in a combat zone).

I added two catapults to the forward section of the deck where I had left some space open as decoration when I build this part. I also added a slightly longer catapult to the side of the angled deck to launch heavier crafts. Each catapult has a small runner that I can move along the track depending on what action I want to portray in the future. I also added two horns to the front. I am not sure they look good. They are a bit on the skinny side. The hone on the angled deck is lager, perhaps on the large side. I will have to think about what I do with these...

All this has taken a lot of time and it is not done yet. Now I need to go in with GS and seal any gaps, which I dread as I know it will take forever. But before doing that I will paint some normal models just to clear my head.

Crusader and Sergeants done

Well that to more time than I had expected. From the beginning I thought this would be a straight out of the box build. But it has taken years to plan and execute. In the end it did not turn out anything what I had imagined but I am still happy with the outcome. I love these chaos models. The detail and character is great but they are horrible to modify due to all the details. This is why I could not make it as first planed, it would have required so much cutting and re-sculpting that I do not think I could have done it justice. So instead I went with what could be done with the models. I am really happy with the scratch build cannons on the back, even though I think it would have looked better with a more traditional shoulder mount. Thar would however have meant that I could not use the spikes and horns on the back. The arm mounted rotary cannons also turned out nice, giving an older and more intricate design than the original which I think goes well with the knights over all estetiks.

I am also really happy with how the paint jobb turned out. It is the first time I painted a large model using stippling weathering combined with my usually rusted metal and sponge weathering. I think this works best with a lighter colour that contrasts well to the darker metal, which means that the Northern Knights will probably not get this treatment.

Next up will be some mechanicum models I got from my wife, so back to green it will be.

Gaunt's Ghosts

This year I got the box with the Gaunt's Ghosts for Christmas. I have been looking at this set for some time but not really felt connected with them more than that I knew they were famous. But, after finishing all the omnibusses during summer they are no longer strangers to me. So it was a real pleasure to get the box from the wifey, but also a feeling of dread. How to paint them to make them justice? Their fatigues are black and that in itself is problematic as it is a difficult colour to get right. And it tends to  become just a big blob of all the same. Also, the famous camo cloaks were a bit of a problem. On the box are they are green with some light camo pattering but I was not sure that that would cut it, or that I could pull it off.

So, I decided to try to make a numer of different black shades on the bots, jackets, armour paunches etc. I am not sure if it made that much of a difference though. For the cloaks I went with something a bit more exotic. Instead of using traditional camo I went with a "shimmering" effect, were the cloak shifts colour over a gren-bron-yellow scale depending on how it falls. If one could make such fabric it would at least not be your standar type camo cloak.

For the skin I went for a pale pink type, but with enough red to give it some warmth compared to the black. I tried adding some blue tattoos but my brush and hand was not good enough for any fancy stuff.

The bases were blinged out a bit by adding some cork concrete and plaster craters. Over all I am happy with how they turned out.

My favourite of these models is Oan Mkoll. He just looks so cool sitting in his tree and being lite "You are inte the wrong forest my friend" - to quote someone on the internet.

Sadly there are no models for the rest of the core cast, Dorden, Milo, Golea, Soric, Brostin, Faegor, Mk Venner, Daur, Merrt, Caffran, Ayatani Zwail, Anna Curth any many more. Perhaps I will have to try do make some, but I doubt that I can get it to the same level as these with the detail.

Colonel-Comissar Ibram Gaunt

Colonel Colm Corbec

Major Elim Rawne

Scout Sergant Oan Mkoll

Master Sniper Hlaine Larkin

Trooper 'Try Again' Bragg