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...