Angron the not so red

So when I said I did not really do that much over summer I did not mention the long running side project I actually did do as ut was a very on and off thing over several month. Once the model was released I acquired Angron. I love the model. It really has a menacing look, with the slightly hunched over pose. First I was a bit disappointed that he did not dual wield axes, but I eventually got over it and now I sort of like the hooked sword he is sporting. I still think it would have been nice to include the option of another axe though.

When it came to choosing a pint scheme I went for a slightly non conventional look. Normally, as on the box art, Angron is portrayed as a red demon. But I thought it was to close to the blood thirster look and wanted him to stand out. As he is originally of "human" stock I decided to give him a pale skin, and give him some red block tattoos instead of totally red skin. I also decided to give the skin an unhealthy pallor with visible blue red veins. I am really happy with how it turned out and it is really sad to cover it all up with the armour. I also really like the ports for the armour in the mussels. It is almost that I would have liked to have two models. Sadly it is not possible to have the chest and shoulder armour removable as the cables from the back tie into the chest piece.

I made the armour itself in bronze with a heavy degree of Verdigris, which had the unplanned effect of giving him a blueish tone, which ties in nicely with the white and blue staps at the loin and shoulder. Very much a homage to the world eater colour scheme. The axe and the sword were made to look old and worn with rust and Verdigris. 

The scenic base of the model was raised from the oval base by adding two layers of clip of from the sprues. The void was filled with some carpentry filler and I added a tonne of extras skulls from the skull box.

It was a nice build but I do not understand how anyone manages to paint it fully built. It is very dificult to handel once assembled. And once again I am reminded of how much I do not like to paint the wings of these demon models.

Lets see what the next model will be. It is almost October so I have to figure out what I will do for Dreadtober. 

Bloodthirster, done

 Finally! These new CAD sculpts are great, but there is almost too much details. I think my take on the bloodthirster turned out ok. I gave him two axes instead of the whip/chain hammer thing and added the whip as a tail instead. I thin k this gives it a more aggressive and dynamic look. I also opted not to have to much of the armour on the chest as I was so happy with how the skin turned out with al the muscles and such on the torso. This also gives it a more feral/barbarian look with just the loincloth, belt and thigh armour. I am also very happy with how the wings turned out. I was afraid that the khorne symbols would look to out of place on the membranes and that the membranes would look to different from the skin colour of the wing-bones. There are some small things to touch up and so but in essence it is done.

Bloodthirster; update 2

Not much new on the Bloodthrister. I have painted the red on the head and hands as well as gotten some metal on to the axes. The horns are not quite done yet but I am getting there. I have also attached it to the base so that I don't risk as much hipping handling it. It still lacks some armour, the wrist and thigh guards as well as the belt buckle and the loin cloth. I originally planed to use the full armour set that comes with the model but the more I am working with it I am getting convinced that I should keep the armour to a minimum. After I am done with the head I will go on to the wings which will take forever as they are so big that I will have to paint them one side at a time and four applications to each, adding up to 16 sessions.

Bloodthirster; WIP

So, the next project is a Bloodthrister. As usual it is not a straight out of the box build but I am not telling what I changed yet. So far I have painted the body and will now start with the head and hands. I choose a darker, almost brown red tone for the skin instead of the bright red of the original. I think this gives it a more believable skin tone. I have also keep the other colours in the brown read scale except the bone to keep a cohesive palette. So far I am happy with the result, the model is very textured so it is easy to get the drybrush to look good but it is easy to miss areas as there are so much detail. Well that is it for now.

Dragon Raider

After yet another week away from home I finished the Dragon Raider, at least as much as I could with the paint I have there. So I brought the painted pieces home for final tuchups and assembly. In the end I think the Dragon ended up looking better without the raider. I will leave him loose for the moment until I decide if he should be there or not. Models have a tendency to grow on you after completion. Even if they did not turn out as you expected or imagined, after a while in the cabinets you get used to how they should look. It is much like music, you might not like to song the fist time you hear it but after a few times you are stuck on it. Well, at least they fit in with the rest of my Khorne daemons.

Some random stuff that has been going on.

So, here we are again. I have not been able to finish of any large models lately so this will just be a short update on some of the smaller things. Fist I assembled the last of the Khorne Blood crushers/marines on juggernauts. This one has a standard but is otherwise pretty much the same as the other two, I am not sure if I like how the contrast between the shield and the banner turned out, but for consistency with the rest of the squad I will leave it as is.
Then I also had a bit of a rescue mission. As I mentioned in a previous post I had noted that one of my War hound titans, Unbearable Perversion, which is in a dynamic walking pose had started to lean over more and more. When I built the titan I made sure that each leg could stand on its own and that when attached to the pelvic the plane for the upper body was horizontal. Once assembled it balanced well on it own. As it did balance by it self I did not mount it on a base, as I tried to keep the foot print as small as possible. However, quite a lot of the weight of the titan is resting on the front leg as it as both its feet in a row with the back foot of on its toes. As the model was standing on a glass surface the back for did not have any grip on the ground and any force transmitted through this leg meant that is wanted to slip backwards. This put even more weight on the front leg and the knee started to twist and bend as the top of the titan wanted to tip over. This part of the leg is also quite fragile as it only consist of a thin resin plate joining the upper and lower knee joints supported by the added piston assembly The front leg also started to come apart at the joint between the leg and the ball joint, joining the leg to the pelvis. So I had to pull the leg assembly apart, straighten the leg with a hair dryer, make a base to join the front and back leg, and reassemble it again. I am hoping that joining the feet at the ground will help with the forces a bit better as the back leg cant slide out from under the titan again. When I was making bases I decided to put bases on the other two titans as well for symmetry. They are so far un-decorated but I will get around to it eventually.

Lastly I present the sergeant for the Fallen Dark Angels jump infantry. I thought that the sergeant from the Dark Vengeance set look much better with the tabard rather then the traditional full robes of the Dark Angels so I decided to try to make my own version of this. As this aesthetic also carries over in the Death Wing set I decided to try to marry a chest piece from the Death Wing with the back peace of a normal power armor. I think the result is quite nice even though I had hoped for a better fit between the two pieces. All in all I think the Jump Infantry is looking the part with the black armor and their pre-heresy jump packs. Well that is all for now, I will keep shipping away at my stock of unpainted and un-built models and we will see what turns up here.

Update from away from home

Just a short update on the Khorne daemons I am working on when I am not home. The last Blood Crusher is mostly done so I will pack it up and bring it back home for assembly. The Drake Rider is now underway and I am almost done with the Drake body, one wing left. I am quite happy with how it is turning out. I almost forget that is assembled from parts of different models, just some small unevenness where different parts met, but over all I find the parts looking good together as the style is similar in their design. It is going faster then I though to paint it so it might be done soner than I though, well, I will have to find something else to paint.

Hell Drake Rider, WIP I

This is something that I have been working on on the side. As I have finished most of my Blood letters, Blood crushers etc at a way from home I decided that I needed a Boss to lead them. I couple of years ago I came across a Hell Drake build someone had done on the net, combining the Mauler Fiend with a Hell Drake kit. As I did not have a Complete Hell Drake kit lying around I decided to combine it with the Daemon prince instead and use what Hell drake parts I had for the build. In the end I think the Drake works. I am a bit out on the rider, I think I need to get medieval on his ass (bring out the file) to get him into a deeper seat, now he almost looks like he is flying. I still have one day to work on it before it goes to paint.

Catch of the week

The catch of the week is a Blood crusher and the final Blood letter. Even though it was one whole week away from home this time I did not have to much time for painting as work spilled over into late evenings for several nights. But I am now down to my last blood crusher so I need to get the daemon prince on the hell drake done so that I have something to work with. I have also finished the myrmidon walker and it is about to go to paint so I will hope fully have some pictures of that later. I have also finished the side blocks for the Opus, so I can start with detailing. I have been dragging my feet with this project lately as it involves two component filler, power tools and breathing masks. Hope fully I am past that stage now and can focus on one part at a time, adding layers of detail.

That is it for now.

WIP

Once again I find myself making excuses for not blogging as often as I would like, but real life has a tendency to pile up on you If you don't deal with it. But all is not lost, away form home has really turned out to be a very good thing as I am getting through quite large ( for me at lest) quantities of models. In fact so much that most of the hobby time I have at home goes into building models for painting when I am away. This has also led to an ultimatum/strong suggestion from my wife that I paint less rank and file and more large models as we are quite literary running out of display area. The problem with that is I can keep from converting the large models to such an extent that I have problems finishing them, which leads to me painting more rank and file any way. So my time lately has been split between working, painting, building and securing the house for winter. The first and the last has sadly taken much more time than I would like but I have more or less finished a Myrmidon walker that has been hanging around my to do shelf for a couple of years. It was originally intended to be a twin to the one I painted awhile ago but Opus needed some of the guns for air defence so I ended up replacing the arm weapons to some las-cannons instead. I also threw on some missile racks on the back making it look heavier than the fist one. I quite like this look and will probably do something similar to the last super heavy one.
The I have also been working on the Hell Lord, mostly with the weapons and arms. It will be equipped with a large double bladed chain axe and a combat shield. The axe is made from the original axe where I used the two halves on each side of the shaft. This means I have to make some custom facings on the other side as it is only the inside of the original blade. I have some ideas but it is not done yet. The shield is made from the doser blade and a custom lower extension. I will try to match the look on the extension to the original parts by adding a lower yaw to the khorne mark/skull. It need some GS attention but I think it will look good in the end.
As I am running out of Blood letter and Blood crushers to paint I decided to head my wife's suggestion and build some thing large to paint away from home. I have had an idea for quite some time about putting a Daemon Prince on a Mauler fiend with a hell drake head. This should in principle be an easy build and I am hopping to finish it over the next week end so that I can bring it with me to away from home after that. It did however turn out to need quite alot of GS work so we will see if I can make it.

Well that is what I have been up-to lately....

P.S we are once again out of quota on the internet so there are not that many picture this time.

Home from away; assebled

 I am back home again and I brought all the parts for the blood letters and the juggernaut riders that I had painted. As I did not have any glue at the place away from home I had to assemble them at home instead. The quality is a bit uneven over the different models representing me getting used to the new work place and a new set of brushes and all the other little things that are used when painting. All in all I tuned out five blood letters and one juggernaut rider in seven evenings of painting witch is a much higher pace than I normally can mange. It is so high that my wife told me to get some larger models to paint instead of so many small models. She is worrying that we will run out of cabinet space, which is true. But I think that if that happens I have one or two shelves of very early models that I can put into storage to give way for new ones.

I am very pleased with how the marine on juggernaut turned out. It is to bad that it is only Lord hwo can have them. Also, the conversion is a bit to simple, new head and shoulders and a back pack stuck on to the back. I think that it would have been better with a real marine torso instead of the original one. But I did not want to put to much time into it since I was in a bit of a hurry when preparing the models.

For the next trip I will probably prepare some more skittari/necorn, if I keep this up I might actually catchup on all the infantry models I have that aren't painted yet. I might also get a round to finishing of the last myrmidon/defilers I have had sitting on my to do shelf for close to four years now.

A place away from home

With my job keeping me away three days a week I do not get so much time to paint with all other stuff that needs doing once I get home. To remedy this I decided to set up a small painting station in my overnight apartment. This setup only has about half of the paint I normally use so I am restricted in what I can paint. It also has no real modeling capacity so I will need to bring pre-dissembled models with me that has been sprayed. So before setting this new station up I thought about what I could paint that did not require all my paints. The choice was between pre heresy dark angels as they are mostly black, but they also have some reds, greens and browns, the other was Blood letters and blood crushers. They are in principle red, but my paint scheme goes from black to yellow over red, so there are quite a few colors in there. In the end I settled for the Blood letters.So I built the remaining ones I had but I also got some skull crushers that I converted into marines riding juggernauts.

One I had every thing in place I started out painting some blood letters, and I must say, frosting is the bane of drybrushing. Not only had I bought new paints I also bought new brushes, and I must say, GW brushes are not good. Well the fist models got a lot of frosting as I had not gotten used to the new brushes and how they deposited colors. In the pic with the sword arms one can see the progress top to bottom. Well I have been painting away and I am getting better. The models are still in peaces as I do not have any glue. It is also easier to transport them like this so I will probably only paint the parts here and then assemble them once I get home. Also the lighting is not to good and I am using my phone to take pictures... so all in all, it is a place away form home but it is not home.