Lieutenant, Ancient and BeLakor

This week I finished up some Ultra Smurfs that got side-lined by BeLakor, the Blade guard Lieutenant and the Ancient. The models are, like the rest of the set, beautiful sculpts that are fun to paint. Colour wise there is nothing new. I was however having some problems deciding on the colour of the Ancients robes. I was tempted to make them in brown leather like I did on the Judiciar but in the end I did them in a bone white to match the honour guard of Marneus Calgar.

Next up for the smurfs is probably the two remaining outriders so that I can paint the Chaplain on bike that I recently picked up. Either that or I need to finish the squad with plasma weapons. But before that happens I will finish up some skitarri rangers that have been hanging around for some time.

To end todays short presentation I will also present yet anther picture of BeLakor, where the colours are a bit better. For some reason the white balance was very of in the last sets which I believe has to do with the very yellow back scatter of the diodes on my backing paper which tends to make the images yellow. Well now that the natural light is better (earlier in the day and right tilt of the planet) the colours are more representative of what the model actually look like.

BeLakor

So, now he is done, and I am pleased. I like how he turned out. I have intentionally keep him as monotone as possible so that all the details in the model does not over power the impression except for a few key colours like the blue flames and red loin cloth. All metals have been made as either rusted iron or bronze with Verdigris to go with the brown of BeLakor himself or the magical flames.

One thing I noticed on this model is that I am coming to the end of what can be done with my dry brushing in terms of shading and blending. I continuously end up wearing away the base layers before I come to the level of blend I am attempting. That probably means that I need to start air brushing, at least parts of the models to get a smooth transition. I will probably continue with the current technique on the armies where I have started this but to evolve I think I need to learn new techniques. Fortunately I have a long running project in the form of the Opus Magna that requires an air brush (since it is to large for brushes) where I can learn.

That being said, the model was both a pleasure and a pain to paint. The parts are large and difficult to hold and once all the small chains etc are attached it is very difficult to handle the wings with out breaking things. And one the wing are on the body it is very difficult to reach all places. I do not understand how any one could paint this if fully assembled before painting. But seeing it coming together is very satisfying and the sculpting is superb with so much detail that I honestly skipped a lot of it and just let it end up in the background.

And I think I am finally coming to terms with bases. The former gamer in me screams immersion breaking but the later collector and painter murmurs something about context and balance. Well, since models like this is more for display than play I have now problem with decorating the ground as well.

Now I have some smurfs to finish, and I need to get going with the build of the Opus so that I can start painting..

BeLakor WIP

The last few weeks I have been working on BeLakor. This is a fantastic model and really shows what is possible to do with current CAD designs and injection casting. It took me two or three sessions just to get all the pieces separated from the sprues, cleaned up and assembled for painting. The joints in the base are well hidden and does not require any extra work, but Belakor him self has a few quite obvious joints  on the back and hips. I filled these with GS and I think I made a decent job of hiding them.

When it comes to paint this is a real challenge as there is just so much details everywhere and it easy to miss some and you have to go back and fix them. For colours I went with a black brown scheme. I have long thought about doing some skin that has lighter parts, like what you would see on some animals, instead of doing a homogeneous colour all across the model. In this case I choose to make the chest and stomach in a lighter shade of brown then the rest of the body and the legs more of a black grey tone. I did the same for the wings with a lighter shade in the middle, toning towards back at the bones.

I also went with my rusted metal look for all the chains and will carry that on to the armour (can see BeLakor sitting around polishing his armour so it would be a bit grimy).

There are a tone of skulls on this model and I added some extra form the skull sett just to fill out the base. Not sure what Khorne thinks about that. I also choose to go with a blue power/lava stream on the base instead of blood/lava stream that is on the box art just to get some colour that breaks with the brown black.

I also added the fallen spacemarine to the base and did him in my Ultra Smurf scheme. 

BeLakor is starting to take shape and I am looking forward to seeing him with his wings on but he will require a few more sessions before he is done.

Blade guard Captain

This week I finished the Priamris Captain from the indominus box. I am not sure if he is also a blade guard as the others equipped with blade and shield, but I will call him a Blade Guard Captain as I have other captains in the collection.

As a model it is very similar to the rest of the Balde Guards from the box and fit in well with the rest. I choose to use the senic base and also to put the downed necron on it. The colour scheme is the same as for the rest of the smurfs except that I played around with using two shades of blue on the armour instead of just one. I am not sure that it made that much of a difference in the end as the metallic dominates the appearance of the colour. I am not sure I am that happy with the gold, for some reason I does not turn out as I wish it would and I do not know why. Also the amount of bone and parchment on the shield gives it a bit of a same same look, especially together with the golden rim. On the blade guards I use a blue white face on the shield which I skipped here, might have to go back and add it to give it some more variety.

The sculpt is as with he other very nice. There are some obvious places where the pushfit design is obvious and a more traditional design would have looked better, but over all a very nice character model that really stands out in the crowd.

Now I will start work on my birthday present from my wife, BeLakor, the dark master. This is a model I have had my eye on for some time but have not gotten around to paint. Well, now it is time.

Kappa Gamma 451, Captain of the Guard

Last week I was traveling with work so I have not had much time to paint, but I managed a quick one during my recovery time after I returned home. This model has been hanging around the to do shelf, built and base sprayed, for quite some time. It is built from some leftover parts from my skitarii and necron builds. Not the most advanced conversion but he has a bit of flare with the robe flapping, gun in hand and sword out. As the model is just a single model, not being part of some other squad, I did not feel a pressing need to paint it before. But now it came in handy as I needed something that was easy and quick to paint.

The idea behind the whole ting is that he is the captain of the personal body guard of my forge lord and will be protecting him and his henchmen once I get around to build and paint them. I actually have quite a few models for this little team. Apart from him I have a 10 man squad of Secutarii Hopilites, two Domitar Ferrum Class battle automata and a standard Domitar battle automata.  I will also be using all the on foot models I have from the titan and knight kits to fill out the retinue with liaison officers from the different weapon branches of the Northern Forge. With some luck I will eventually get them all done, but this is a start.

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.

Pteraxii

The second box of miniatures I got for Christmas from my wife was a squad of Pteraxii. I really love the look of these. The wings look really realistic and could probably work with strong enough jet engines. The wings are however quite large and are quite complex (7 pieces), almost as much as the rest of the model. Due to this I decided to only do three in parallel instead of the full five man squad, and it turned out to be a good decision as it was on the limit of what I can dry brush in one go with out clogging the brush. I will try to do the last two as soon as possible to finish of the squad.

I think these models look really good. The design of the wings/jet pack is really nice and could works as stand alone drones. In the beginning I was a bit unsure of how to paint them, should I do the silver and read of my main host of Mechanicum or should I go for the green of the Northern Ghosts as the Legio cybernetica?, in the end I went for a brown and green scheme, similar to my Rangers and Sicarian infiltrators. All metal parts where done in "Ghost green" and the soft material in brown / leather. The membranes of the wings  got a slightly different tone to break it up a bit. The models are also not built exactly to code as I thought the assault rifles look really good but I also like the idea with the spur claws so I mixed it up a bit. Barrels and jet exhausts got heat staining while all head lenses were done in read. I guess the one could have gone for different colours for the main eye lenses and the side sensors, but I think the cluster of similar "eyes" look really good.