Suppressors

The day of days is here...  the legacy interface is gone and I am forced to use the new blogger to make a post. So I apologize in advance if this will look strange. I still have not figured out how to do a lot of the things as easily as I did in the old version and some things are just impossible to do. But then again they might have solved some of the major bugs.

But enough about that. This blog post is about my latest additions to my ultra smurfs, this time in the shape of some suppressors from the Shadowspear box. Sadly they are not individual sculpts which is a shame as there are only three of them. Apart from that I do like them if you cut away the death traps under their feet. Not sure what they are supposed to do? If landing needs these to cushion them a normal marine would also need them if jumping of a wall etc...  and I really can't imagine them moving around with them still under their feet. So off they went. I am also a bit confused about how they are supposed to fly. All other marine jump troops have these beefy engines on their back, but these just appear to have some extra heat exhausts on the back pack and the graves. I suppose that it is some sort of anti-gravity thing to be stealthy. But if one disregard some of more obscure functionality of the model I really like them. The guns look good and the belt-feed looks nice. I was not sure about the small wings in the beginning but I do like them, some how they make the tropes more flyie. 

Color-wise they are painted in my usual take on the smurfs with a dark blue (kantor blue ontop of a white metal base) steel color. Trim is golden and the right shoulder is cream white with a blue ultima. I also added some line trimming and other insignia on the armor using a more light blue color  to give them some contrast but still staying in the blue. The tips of the guns got some heat staining just to keep with the belt-feed. I also dusted up the lower part of the legs a bit to indicate that they actually do trudge around a bit now and then just like the rest of the boys in blue.

The only tricky part with the build was to get the backpacks attached to the flying stands. The point of contact is small and the clear plastic does not melt as well as the normal grey stuff so the bond is weaker (I use polystyreene cement).

All in all am starting to get attached to these blue men. I have not been a great fan of the baby blue standard color but these guys do look like mean.

P.S: Placing the images are a pain in the A with this new interface, the pictures are jumping around all over the place, covering text and escaping their area of containment so that you have to chase them all over the post. It was bad before too, but not this bad. The drag and drop of images is at least back again so I guess it is always something.

Penitent Engine

We continue with the additions to my slowly growing collection of Adepta Sororitas. This time it is the Penitent Engine form the Sisters of Battle box. I have never really been a fan of the model, not even the old metallic one as it think it is to front heavy. I also sort of have problem with the lore. I can understand repentia, falgellants etc as these are individuals who are in-principle executed on the battle field. But putting a convict into a battle engine with the purpose of getting them killed is a bit strange. I would guess that you would want the larger damage dealers to survive? But be that as it may. Accepting the concept of strapping some to a close combat machine and sending them into the fray to get killed as a punishment I can not still get around the new VR version of the model. What is the purpose of strapping them to the engine, sending them onto the battle field, with out the ability to influence their own fate, and let them watch something else horrible on TV instead of what is going on around them? If you just wanted to scare them with a horror flick you could just do it at home, in the cellar, and then just cut their throats as the credentials roll...



So, I do not like the new pilots and how they are mounted to the model. The original positions makes the model even more front heavy. So I decided to repose the pilot so that I could mount it further into the casket opening. I bent the arms a bit by just bending the plastic. Then I cut the shoulders back a bit so that I could mount the arms along the sides instead of our in the crucifix form. I swapped the head for one of the seraphim heads without a helmet and sculpted some green stuff across the chest to make the pilot more female.

I decided to paint it as a rusted metal with out paint or other adornments to represent the engine itself being ancient, recovered after each execution, to receive a new occupant. The sister/pilot got the same purple robes that I use on the rest of the army. I tired to get the flames at the top of the model to look good but I can not do these "effects" so that they fit with the rest of my style. But aside from that I am happy with the model. I will most likely not make another one though.

Inquisitor Greyfax and friends

This last week I have been working on Inquisitor Grefax and two Seraphim Sisters. I absolutely love the these models. Very rich in detail and appropriately scaled. Color scheme is as per usual... white metal and purple robes for the sisters and silver and gold for the inquisitor. Really not much to say that has not already been said so I let the images speak for themselves.

Abaddon the Despolier

Finished Abaddon and I am really happy with how he turned out. The over all palette is more muted and dark compared to the box art which really suits the model. I removed the burning torch as I realized that as the model is so dark, the bright flames stole to much focus from the rest, just leaving it as a black backdrop. The added skulls really pops, but still is inline with the rest of the base.

Hope you also like him.

I also brought out my old Abaddon model that I painted some 20 years ago. 

Abaddon WIP

This week I finally got some hobby time. I tried to work a bit on my Dominus knight but I was not in the mode for GS so it sort of stalled out. Instead I started work on Abaddon. I have had the model for some time now but have not been feeling the inspiration to paint him. But after finish the Triumph of Saint Katerine and the black green armor there I felt that it might try it on a larger scale.

I build the model as standard, only adding some extra skulls to the front of the base. Then I set about painting the armor. I did my standard recipe for metallic armor starting a black base coat, and dry-brushing bronze and three layers of silver metal. Then I washed the model in green ink and repeated the dry-brush befor a final wash of black. I also opted to paint the underlying parts as rusted as I thought that Abaddon eats, sleeps and make war in his armor and hence the inner parts would not get cleaned very often... and it looked great...  but it did not read Abaddon, just some rusted guy with black/green armor plates...   I took some test photos just to see what it look like and realized the the metallic plates look almost silver... so in the end I had something more like Perturabo than Abaddon. And even if the model had turned out ok I decided to lose the rust underneath and darken the plates significantly.



Now I just need to finish of all the small details and the cloak. But I think he is coming along even if a lot of the initial work is no longer visible.

The Triumph of Saint Katherine

This vacation has really not been about hobby time. Instead all my time has been spent digging in the garden and barbecuing. So that means I do not have that much to show, as I really have not done anything new. But I will show you the assembled Triumph of Saint Katherine. All parts have been shown individually but here they are all together.

This is my fist "diorama-type" model from GW that I paint and I must say as a collector that I really like these types of models, so I will have to get me some more. All in all it was a nice model to paint and I was easy to do it in parts and then assemble it all at the end. Compared to the box art I have used a darker palette with less white and a deeper crimson. That combined with the bird of prey wings on the cherubs make it a bit darker. I am happy with the result. Next up for the sisters will be a penitent engine...  just need to finish it up with some green stuff.

I have also finished of two more Armigers for the Northern Knights... but that will be a separate post as I need to spread out my results until I can pick up the pace again.

Bier of Saint Katherine

Finally got around to finishing the Bier of Saint Katherine. This was not fun... there are way to many fiddly cherubs, banners and cyber gear, and that is not to mention the slightly discomforting feeling of painting naked babies. As with all the late GW sculpts the detail level is super high so you need to paint it in sub assemblies to get to it all.

Apart from the paint not sticking to my base coat things when smoothly but just took so much time. I choose not to do the cherubs with the traditional white wings but instead I went for something more bird of prey like. Over all I think it looks good, but the freehand on the banners are awful, the brush I used did not want to yield the paint smoothly and if watered to much is just started running all over the place. I do not know how people do this... so that is the one part I am not happy with but will have to live with.

The bier was done as an all metal piece with a purple cushion to hold the armor and bones of Saint Katherine. I did the armor as a rusted version instead of the golden one portrayed in the box art. From a distance it does however look like it is golden... all in all a limited palette.

Now I just have to go back to all the saints, and make sure they are all painted similar, touch up some edges and assemble it all.