Crimson Angels Warp talons

Finished the last two Warp talons that I got from my wife for my birthday. I thought that the small winglets that were supposed to go onto each jump pack looked a bit tiny so I deiced that the aspiring champion and his right hand man would get some decorative wings made from the winglets instead. All in all I thing the kit was fun to build and paint, but I am not sure how much flexibility there is to make another five of them. Might to that just to beef out the unit.

Since I am very happy with this color I have decided to paint the chaos marines from shadowspear in the same colors. And since I can not have a large force with out a name I am calling them Crimson Angels. I do not know if there already are some force with this name but it was the best I could come up with.

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.

Its been that day again...

It has once again occurred, it has been that day when I have become one year older. And as per my tradition I give my self a day of from work to celebrate my self. This year I got a box of raptors from my Wife. The models are quite good looking and I have thought of getting a box of them before but I have not really felt that I had a place for them in my collections. They really look very chaosy and most my my stuff is a bit more toned down. So I was at a bit of a loss about how to paint them, but then it hit me. Some time ago when I was painting my Guilliman model I painted a pinkish chaos marine for the base, and I remember that I at them time thought that it would be cool with an army of them. As I had the day off and I had planed to spend it in the hobby room it became apparent that I needed to test the that paint scheme on the raptors. Once I started building the models i realized that the claws looked much cooler than the sword and bolter option, so I think they are more warp talons than raptors now. Well, any way, it does not matter much as I am not really playing games any more.

The painting technique used for these models are pretty much the same as I use for my ultra marines. I start out with a black base, drybrush some bronze and silver tones onto the model. Then I used a heavily watered down screamer pink to paint the armor plates. I added some metal rust tones the filigree and edges. Then it was time for another pass with the drybrush going from bronze to mithril. Then it was just to add some eye lenses and exhausts to the back pack.

I think they turned out ok. This way of painting really gives the models a very special lighting effect were the highlights move with the light source in a very realistic way. I will try to make a series of pictures as the model is turned and the camera is fixed, or perhaps I can make a short movie showing this effect. But that will have to wait. Now I still have two more models left to go. Then I am really tempted to go for the shadow spear box and make the chaos marines all pink.

More distractions

For some time now I have been looking at the Ragingheroes range of models. From the images that I have seen , which appeared to be CG, they appear to be very detailed to be 28 mm models. I was really wondering if the models were as detailed as the promotion pictures made them out to be. So when the Harpies came out, and in a nice bundle I decided to give them a try to see what they were like. The models really are very detailed and the assembly process was not for those with butterfingers. There are quite a few very small pieces that needs to be assembled for each model. Sadly there were a bit of mold slippage with the following casting lines. Not much, but with these high detail models it does not take much to throw things out of alignment and it is almost impossible to correct it. Apart form that the shape of the pieces was really good and I did not have to heat treat a lot of parts go get them to go together. Once assembled I gave them a black base coat and a three tone paint job with the airbrush. Then I set about laying in the colors using very watered down paints before dry brushing per my usual recipes. I choose to do them in a blue, pink color scheme to go with my Slaanesh models. I am however not sure about this, the Wife does not really like the colors, they look to much like a statue to her. I am not really pleased with how it turned out either but it is getting better as a finish more and more colors. The model presented is a WIP but it is far enough that I might ask the internet for its opinion. So, does it work or does she need a dip in the paint stripper?

More distractions

Here are some more models I have been painting in parallel to Varangian. This time it is two more death guard from the Dark Imperium as well as a Primaris Ultra marine sergeant. I like to have these smaller models that I can finish in a day or two. It helps me relax and gather the drive necessary to continue on Varangian. I do like working on the titan but it is such a long term project that I need these smaller projects in between.

Note to self, Ultra Marine and Death Guard Scheme.

DB =  dry brush

WB = wet blend

Blue:

Abaddon Black

DB Warplock Bronze

DB Leadbelcher

DB Ironbreaker

DB runfang steel

WB kantor blue

WB altdorf gurad blue

DB kantor blue

DB  altdorf gurad blue

DB Fenrisian grey

DB Warplock Bronze

DB Leadbelcher

DB Ironbreaker

DB runfang steel

Water wash

Red:

WB doombull brown

WB Khorne red

DB doombull brown

DB Khorne red

DB Evil sunz scarlet

DB Warplock Bronze

DB Leadbelcher

DB Ironbreaker

DB runfang steel

Water wash

White:

Karak stone

Ushabti bone

Flayed one flesh

white scar

Insignia:

kantor blue

thousand sons blue 

Lothern blue

Death guard

Bone/ white:

Ushabit bone

Agrax earthshade

DB Ushabit bone

DB Flayed one flesh

DB whitescar

Agrax earthshade

DB Ushabit bone

DB Flayed one flesh

DB whitescar

Water wash

 Death guard are rusted with WB orange ink

Another Dominus Knight

So, once again the hobby butterfly has struck. Instead of finish building the last Hellverins, or completing Lady Oxidia in Entropy I started another knight build, a Dominus. This is something I have been thinking about since the Dominus kit came out, and I have had the model for quite some time. Apart from the Dominus being to similar in load out to the Questoris, I did not like the small extra turrets on the back shield for the melta guns. So I always had the intention to remove them and make something else, but exactly what has not been clear until now. So once inspiration struck I started cutting up the kit. I removed the turrets from the back and covered the holes with some laminated plasticard. I will cover it up with more layers until I get a solid border like the front of the Questoris carapace. As I wanted to be able to remove the back to show an inside I also needed to solve the attachment of the melta guns so that the were independent of the carapace. So I turned them upside down and attached them to the bottom of the body super structure instead of at the middle as per the original. Having the central carapace removable also meant that the shoulder mounts had to be attached to the main body instead of the carapace. I made a similar structure as I did on my Questoris Dominus, using some support legs from the Aegis defense kit as arms supporting the discs for the shoulder weapons. Since the shoulder guards also would be attached to the weapon mounts and the central carapace I needed to figure out how to attach them to the weapon mounts only. The siege breaker cannons in the kit was a bit small so I decided to use some rapid fire cannons instead. When I bout the kit I thought that the Valiant carapace looked better than the Castellan. So even though I planed to build a Castellan type knight, I bought a valiant. That meant I could not use the main weapon in the kit and needed to build something of my own. So the main weapons are based on two Baneblade volcano cannons that will act as volcano lances. So far I am pretty much still in the base building, mocking things up to see how it will fit together, before starting with details etc...

Another Vorax and some Sicarian stalkers

Parallel to my to my painting on Varangian and Armigers I have been slowly chipping away on another Vorax and yet a new version of my Necron conversion skitarii.

The vorax has a slightly odd stance as I did not want it to stick its gun into the ground as per the original pose. Instead I intended to make it like it was sneaking around in a looping stride. Well it did not really turn out as I wanted but I am still quite pleased with the result.

As for the skitarii I did some necron conversions before the official skitarii kits were released. I do like the official skitarii models but they are a 10 monopose kit and I am not to sure about the robes on all of them. I have said it before and I will again. A mechanicum necorn aesthetic mix would have been a sweet looking army. Be that as it may. I wanted to make some terminator looking skitarii so once again I took out the necron warrior box and started cutting up the legs and reposing them. Then instead of using the gaus weapon nozzle as heads I used some left over skitarii heads. I also hade some weapons over from a rust stalker kit, hence the name, Sicarian stalkers. I also added some skitarii back packs that will be left over after I build some of the FW skitarii. All in all I think they fit better with my cybernetica army than the first versions. I think I have parts to build another 5 man squad so I might just do that,... at some point.

Now I will just have to press on with the Varangian and the Hellverins...