more nids

amazing... i take pics with my phone today and they turn out better than yesterday's... taken with my actual camera. yay for HTC :p go figure

todays work - the last of the 3 zoanthropes. need some more work on their necks, though its enough for today. im having fun making skeletal parts in press moulds for use on the bases

carnifex!

well after what feels like a day of hard work toiling on those oh so hard to paint carapaces i think i'm almost done with the carnifex (just need to add some tufts of grass on the base once the snow is dry). actually it took me (a shameful) 8 hours start-to-finish to get this model done and well over half of that was the many layers on the armour plates...

the blue is simple hawk turquoise drybrushed on in a few layers with skull white added to it for another two or three layers (mostly to the tail, head and highlight areas). very quick and dirty and simple - just the way i like it :)

the armour plates are a base of chaos black with skull white added for about 8 consecutive layers until i was applying pure skull white. the paint was applied in a stripey fashion with an old flat brush, which helped speed up the process somewhat. but still... a very painstaking progress that i dont particularly enjoy (and it shows on the vents on the back too - they were the last part i painted), which is a shame as i love the final effect. the scything blades are just black and gloss varnish.

the fleshy areas between the armour is dwarf flesh overbrushing with some wkull white added for the second layer. an old black ink was added after

the tongue is just red gore with added tanned flesh. the base rim is vallejo charred brown (exactly the same as GW scorched brown) while the earth is a mix of chaos black thrakka green, vermin brown and shadow grey applied in patchy sections for variations, all highlighted with fortress grey though truth be told its probably not worth it as i end up covering most of it up with snow anyway, so ill likely just stick to a simpler method with other models. the snow itself is pva with baking powder sprinked on top.

slow progress...

well my crappy work-hours, coupled with lots of overtime recently has slowed down my modelling work over the past weeks. lots of evening and night shifts mean im either too tired to do much other than eat and sleep at home or leaves me with a mornings off, which i havent been able to get my head around working in yet. but anyhow, i managed a bit of work on the librarian and something else.

Librarian

i repainted most of the blue and, on the whole, am a lot happier with it this time round. the highlights are a lot better than before (still far from perfect, but good enough for me) and the colour is better, though i suspect most people wont notice the difference. originally it was painted with a base of necron abyss over a white overcoat, feathered up to regal blue, ultramarine blue and finally highlights painted on with ultramarine blue + skull white. a few layers of black ink and badab black were applied before early coats. the second time round i started with a base of 50/50 necron abyss/regal blue with a single black ink wash painted to the recesses before feathering with regal blue, regal blue/ultramarine blue, ultramarine blue and final highlights with ice blue. i think the new colour i not as dark and a bit colder than the original one, which offsets the red/yellow and warm base...

im happy with the robes. pretty simple and rough, which is how i like them. i like to imagine marines in really rough burlap tabards - cheap coarse stuff - so i dont take too much time on them. keeping mind that the tabard is scratch-built from milliput im quite happy with it. finally i can say im getting the hang of sculpting robes (though full on cloaks are still defying gravity somewhat, as youll see when ive finished the other howling griffon characters and especially garro...

the howling griffon shoulder pad turned out nicely, though theres not much to it. i did mess up with the quartering, giving too much to the left (front) side than the right (back), but luckily, thanks to the shield it doesnt show. this was also my first experience using home-made transfer sheets and i think i done pretty well for myself considering its my first attempt, and on a curved surface to boot. i feel confident i can apply them to the rest of the unit without problems. i also intend to use a larger griffon on the banner, once i decide exactly what else ill add to it (thats why the brown on it isnt exactly up to par - ill most likely be covering it up anyway later on).

the base im not too sure about. the rim is dark flesh, which i used to good effect on the angels of censure. its difficult to tell as of yet as the majority of the models are going to be red/yellow - warm colours, which might complement that choice of base colour. not sure yet. i can always repaint it later. maybe scorched brown or chaos black?

thinking too add something to the right shoulder pad - maybe the librarian horned skull, though not sure how to do it (plus havent done freehand in a while, so need to practice more)

EDIT: as always, in my haste, ive realised ive left loads of bits unfinished - the book on the shield, the piping on the force weapon and other details. they can wait until i paint the rest.

Tyranids
well, i had so much fun painting the zoanthrope that i had to think about what to do next... and here it is:

so its two big boys up next. im going to really enjoy painting these guys in that black/turquoise colour scheme and applying baking soda and weathering powder to the bases. maybe ill actually finish this army one day!

Orks
my long gestating orks are slowly coming back to life, in the form of this monster:

i scratchbuilt this about a year ago and never got round to painting it as i wasnt entirely satisfied with with end result - felt a bit too flimsy for a proper ork vehicle. though im more than pleased with the technical aspects of the model - the hydraulics and mechanical parts, for instance - i really think it could be more orky. well ill keep that in mind for when i make the next one :p for the time being ill paint this up in my bad moon scheme and see if i can sell it off.

painting the chrome and applying the badab black / devlan mud rust was a breeze with the airbrush, really saved a lot of time and gave me the confidence to go ahead and maybe make that transformer model ive been wanting to make for a while - from a proper lamborghini car kit, chopped up and reassembled in transformery fashion - ive got the kit, just havent started yet. ah so many projects, so little attention sp...