Captain General Trajann Valoris

 

 

This is a model I have been sitting on for some time. I got it from my wife together with the Custodian Wardens, but decided to wait with painting it until a special occasion. Well I do not know if it was a special occasion but I needed to immerse myself in a straight forward model for a day or to to keep my mind in check. I decided to do him in the same colour scheme as the rest of my Custodes, i.e. a white metal base and gold plate with crimson robes. For some reason I do not know, the robe turned out very glossy compared to how it usually works. Hence it is difficult to see the shades and highlights in the pictures. Apart form this I am really happy with how it turned out. To give him some extra height and some more detail I made a custom base with a broken concrete slab and some skulls.

                                                               

All in all it was a very nice model to paint and it was easy to beak it down into manageable subassemblies for painting, that was easy to assemble afterwards without chipping the paint. 

Now I just need to get my hands on some Allarus Custodians.

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.

Dreadtober dread finished

Ops, I finished my Dreadtober dread, the Custodes Achillus dreadnought, early. If only I could have this pace on my other projects I would get so much more done, not that it would make a dent in the to do pile as I am sure I would manage do fill it up at the same pace anyway. Well, this was such a fun model to paint that I could not stop, I just had to keep going. All in all it was not that long a project... 10-12 h or so in total. I am really happy with how the metal turned out, it almost lock like a NMM attempt even though it is just drybrushing with some final edge highlights. One problem with the edge highlights is that it turned the rest of the model dark, or at least the appearance became darker as I added some distinct shiny parts. The overall simplicity of the paint scheme, gold and silver metal, meant that once I had the base coat of metals down there really was not that much more to do. Just paint some blue stones and I was done. The base was also pretty simple with some metal, stone and skulls. Not to advanced and was quick to drybrush.

My Custodes "army" is not that large but I like how they look together.

This rather quick build and paint job has left me with out a dreadtober project for the rest of the month. So I will add a stretch goal. I have for some time worked on a gaggle of Armiger for my Northern Knights. They have been sitting around my desk and to do pile for some years know so I might just take the opportunity to include them in the challenge. There is just the one left of the initial six Hellverins and this one will be done at the end of the month if not sooner as I only have the armour left. I will also do all six bases. That should leave me enough to do... and if I for some reason finish these off I have more on the to do pile so I am sure I can keep my self occupied.

Dreadtober WIP 2, color test

Today I finished of the white metal and gave the gold armor plates their first two coatings of drybrushing. I also painted the shoulders crimson. This concludes the drybrushing stage. Next upp will be highlighting and adding details using normal brushwork. I also did a color test photo to make sure the colors do not deviate from my previous Custodes models. It is always difficult to scale a paint scheme as the larger/smaller surfaces will look differently even if you used the same recipe. I was afraid that I would not get enough contrast on the gold plates and that they would look to flat and homogeneous. But over all I am happy and will move on from here.

Dreadtober WIP 1

First post in the Dreadtober challenge. In my last posts I had the dread soaking in its washing up liquid, making sure that all the release agents are gone form the resin before I start painting. First thing after the soak is a good wash off in the shower, making sure that I do not replace the release agent with dish soap. Once washed I laid out all the parts on a towel to make sure that everything came out of the soak and wash and that nothing was missing. I left if do try like this over night. Then I started with cutting all the parts of from their supports and cleaning up mold lines and ports. This is a bit fiddly, especially the ports, as these can be sitting in some really trick places to access. Once that was done I needed to figure out how the model comes together...  as the model has been hanging around the do to pile for some time the instructions seams to have gone missing. There are a lot of parts in this model, in contrast to the GW equivalents. This makes it a bit fiddly to assemble but it also gives you great poasabillity.

When I was waiting for the pieces to dry after the rinse and wash I decide that I would do a scenic base. I usually do not do that, but lately I have sort of gotten used to the idea (as I am not gaming with the models the problem I have with the models dragging around scenery all over the battlefield is not so big  anymore). I really did not have a great idea of what it should look lite so I grabbed some random stuff from the bits boxes and glued them to the base. I went for a low wall at the front of the base that the dreadnought could rest on foot on, but the rest is more or less filler.

So I had a scenic base which means I needed to build the dread to fit the base and still look coll. I went for a classic hero pointing towards something while resting his legs on something pose. This meant that I first needed to build the back leg to get the height of the pelvis before I could build the bent leg. Once I knew what the height should be I pinned the front foot to the base at the appropriate place and built the rest of the leg to line up whit the straight led. The legs where then attached to the pelvis which determined where the back leg ended up on the base. Once this was set I also pinned the back leg to the base. In this way I can remove the Dread from the base for separate painting but it will still go back in the right position.

The arms was I bit tricky as they consist of so many parts and I needed a log of dry fitting before I knew in what order to assemble them and at what angles (in the end it truned out the I just built both of them more or less straight with out bends or twists). I also heated one of the fingers on the left hand so that I could make it point forward instead of beaning in a half grip position.

Once I was happy with the parts I broke it down into sub parts for painting. After spraying the pieces with a black hobby paint from the local hardware store I painted all the pieces with a watered down abaddon black to make sure there were no places where the light resin shines through. I also painted on some browns and oranges where I will have white metal. This helps give life to the metal and make it look more natural. Then it is just drybrushing, I started with a bronze color, covering the whole model. Then I went over the joints etc with three shades of silver metal. After this stage all the pieces was washed under a faucet with maximum flow to remove any paint dust from the drybrushing. This prevents frosting, especially with the amount of drybrushing required for this model..

And that is about as far as I got on the first day of this challenge. Next step will be to go back over all the silver metal with washes and inks to give it even more depth before drybrushing again. We will see when that gets done.

The Triumph of Saint Katherine WIP and Custodes Vertus Praetors

This week I finished the last of the Custodes Vertus Praetors. Not much to say about it really. It is painted in the same way as the other two, in white and gold metal with some brown leather and crimson robes. I like this models a lot. If I was making an army I would have liked to have a bunch of them as they are really cool.

Then I started a new project, The Triumph of Saint Katherine. When I first saw the model I just know that I would need to get one and paint it. I think this is probably one of the coolest character models that GW has produced. It is crazy detailed and some very nice poses on the sisters. The only thing I don't see how I will pull of is the writings on the parchments... but we will see how that turns out. The first model to get painted is Saint Katherine her self. This is by far the coolest of the sisters around the bier. It is sad that there is no regular sisters with shield and sword. Might have to convert some sisters as crusaders to get that. As for painting this it will be a challenge as it is mostly black, and black is notoriously hard to paint, especially when there is so much of it. So I will try to put some color nuances into it to break it up a bit. So Katherine's armor was painted a dark metallic and then washed in a thinned down green to make it contrast a bit against the robes. The inside of the robes got a more crimson color than what is depicted on the box. I also kept the out side black instead of read to tine in white the rest of the saints that are all covered in robes. This is a WIP so I am not really done whit here yet, as I saw from the photos. But it is a good start. Also the base is just started and need some additional dry brushing to smooth it out.

Basing random models

Once in a while I gather up all the models I have painted for the last month or year and head out into the garage for some basing. As those who have followed this blog for some time know, I am not a great fan of bases. Usually I just ad some PVA to the bases and tip them in a bowl of gravel and that is it. The base should not take over the model. On the other hand I have started to work more with the bases lately, at least for the larger models. I they are done right, they can add to the model. My greatest objection to the scenic base is if the model is used for gaming as it detracts from the experience if the hero glides around the battle field on top of an vanquished enemy. But since I have realized that I most likely will not play with these models I can perhaps bend my rules a little. Well that will have to be for some other time, as these got the normal tread mend with PVA and sand.

Here follows some examples of what I have done.

A couple of weeks ago I bought some Harpies from RagingHeroes. I was not sure about the paint scheme but I carried on with what I had at the time. Adding some leather wrist wrappings and some bone edges to the wings really toned down the very blue skin and completed the model. Now I am quite happy with them. My wife thinks that they are a bit over sexualized but I think they fit in with Slaanesh and the old Deamonettes.

I also finished the last of my Vorax robots so the family is now complete. I really like these models. They are a pain to assemble but they do look so cool once painted.

Next up is a Custodian Warden that I got from my wife for Christmas. There are still four more to go and then I also have Trajann Valoris, which I am looking forward to paint.

Last of the new models is a Pre-heresy Dark Angel terminator. Not much to say about it. It is the same precipice that I have for all my black dark angels. I which I had more time and skill at batch painting as there is a tone of Dark Angels just waiting for paint in my storage.

Then we have some models that have already been featured on this blog but I show them anyway with their new bases.

First we have a Tzeentch sorcerer on a flying disc. Here the multi colored metallics can clearly be seen. This is an effect I am very happy with. Still have two more sorcerers in the box. I will save them as a treat for a rainy day.

And lastly my Ultra marine sergeant. I do love that this blue is almost black. Next to my Pre-Heresy dark angels in natural light there is almost no difference. But one you put some moderate light on him he shines up in a clear steel blue. Much nicer than the smurf blue and much easier to paint.

Well that is it. I actually based quite a lot more models that I had just put in the cabinets as I finished the model. I am also working on the last panels with GS on Varangian so I will come back with a separate post on that. Not much left now, I can see the light in the end of the tunnel.

Varangian and friends, WIP

No major new things here. I have been trying to finish the body box for Varangian, but there are so many details and as soon as I think I painted the last thing I see something I have missed. I have worked on the shoulders, finishing of the chaos growths. I have been working on the rear platform, painting the door, lights, buttons etc. I have been painting the bottom of the body box. I have also started painting on the upper arms. I am not sure about the yellow head lights as they are VERY bright, color wise, compare to the rest of the model, but I will leave them for now and comeback to them later and make a decision.

Now I just need to finish the arms, get the support weapons painted as well as my Mechanicum guards for the back platform. Then I am out of things to paint for Varangian before I finish up my green stuff work. A major thing here is to get the back done, which is kind of problematic as I do not know exactly what it should look like. I had some ideas about two "dragon skeletons" draped over the cooling ridges, but I am not sure that I can sculpt it and how that will work with the void shields. I should however soon be able to start painting the shoulder plates as they are mostly done (has been for a while).

To get some variation I have also finished my second Vertus Praetor as well as the final Castelax. And I am trying my hand on some FW myrmidons, not to be confused with my Myrmidon Walkers, even if they are big for being "human". I have also to Skag Armigers to work on. The pilots are mostly done so I can finish up the cockpit build and start wit the exterior. There is also a castigator in a bucket with sop water so I think I have things to do when not working in the garden. Who said vacation was for resting?

Sisters of Silence

As we have had a real streak of nice weather here about I have not had much time to paint as most of my spare time has gone into shifting big boulders in the garden. But before the weather struck I had managed to finish of my squad of Sisters of Silence. I already had one painted from a long time ago so I just made the rest the same way except for the sister superior who got some white gray armor instead of the golden that the rest of them have. I sort of remember this from Beast series that the characters in the Sisters of Silence armies have different colored plates then the rest and I thought it might look cool.  It is just the five man (women) squad from the burning of Prospero so I had no real intentions of making this into a legit army so I was not to concerned about if the squad is playable or not.  But if the plastic battle sisters are released I might have to see if I will not make some additions to this so that it is filled out to proper strength.