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...

a bit more paint and stuff

so i had some time to do a bit of painting today. i managed to get about halfway through the Howling Griffon librarian and done some painting on something new; a wasp zoanthrope.

Librarian
i had some problems with the blue on the librarian. apart from not being happy with the highlighting (quite messy), i also thought the blue was a bit too dark; especially with the yellow/red from the Howling Griffon scheme on the shoulder and shield. so i decided to leave the armour alone for now and concentrate on some other parts - the tabard (not that clear in these pics) and small details. ill most likely re-base most of the blue (some parts, like the arms and torso im pleased with; as theyre smaller surfaces than the greaves, the proportionately larger number of highlights make them look paler). ah well, i am a bit out of practice. better pics as i continue work on the librarian.

Tyranid wasp zoanthrope
i always loved the 2nd edition zoanthropes with warrior-like bodies and big flat heads and have never been too keen on this iteration of the beast (both the 3rd edition and 4th/5th edition floaty versions). its not so much i dont like the idea, its more i dont like the execution so much. i love the idea that theyre modified warriors, as essentially, standard 40k creatures seem to be based on gaunts and warriors, which i think is great.

using that philosophy i decided to make my zoanthropes more warrior-like.

ive always loved the carnifex crushing claws and thought they were just an interesting shape, and just thought theyre one of those parts that has potential for something other than a claw... which i found out they do; as fat insect-like tails (well, abdomens technically). after some messing around with GS and some warrior and hormagaunt parts and a 3rd edition dark eldar jetbike prow that was heavily converted with GS (regular viewers will recognise the head from tyrannic war veteran im working on), i had something that i was actually really pleased with, so i made three of them...

and forgot about them for a year :p

until today!

the painting is really simple - just a hawk turquoise drybrush, with some skull white added for consecutive layers. no proper painting at all on the blue. the armour was just chaos black and painted in lines, highlighted up in about 5 layers mixed with more skull white until the final layer. the armour was finished off with a gloss varnish.

airbrush woes

well ive had a chance to try out the airbrush and, ive come to the conclusion that buying cheap is not always good. as is often the case with me, i tend to buy first and do research later (something im learning the hard way is not the right thing to do, as though that needed elaborating). it seems as though the airbrush i got is an unbranded one.

when spraying, the colours are always powdery and i can see the individual spots of paint. after spraying for a few minutes, it starts spitting and the flow of paint becomes very random indeed. after taking the thing apart, cleaning it (as far as i know, properly) with airbrush cleaner and reassembling it seems to be ok (ish) though very quickly starts spluttering, with the flow appearing to decrease steadily with the same amount of pressure onthe compressor producing a thinner spray.

im wondering if the paints make much of a difference. i have ordered quite a few vallejo air colours for use specifically with the airbrush though for the time being im using normal GW paints. a lot of them have been around for years and are pretty... jelly-like (thats the best way of describing them). ive thinned them down with water to a milky consistency. i dont know if thats good or bad though ive read that thats the consistency to aim for. ill try again once the vallejo colours arrive and will post my results then.

in the meanwhile im thinking of buying another one - probably badger or iwata, though i am put off by the prices on most of them. i want a dual action which seem to be more expensive than others and considering that im never permanently in the hobby (i tend to model/paint for about a year then stop for a year and so on) i dont know if its 'worth it.' having said that ive already spent 150 euro on a compressor and the current airbrush set i have so its not like i havent spent a bit on it already.

ill see how i work with the vallejo paints and then see from there...

meanwhile the Howling Griffons are undercoated (they seem ok though one thing ive noticed is the paint (GW skull white) is very delicate - a slight rub removed the paint. not sure if thats always the case or a result of the way theyve been sprayed

ok, im pretty much done on these guys now:

Epistolary Balaam

i'm really pleased with the way he turned out - the tabard, the details on the waist, the hood (which i was dubious about at first). just need to wait for the staff to dry so i an bend it back into the proper angle. 

Veteran Brother Venator, Ultramarines Tyrannic War Veteran, First Company

still missing some detail-work on the hammer and, of course, the storm shield, which is going to be based on a cast i made using an instant-mold of this:

ill be adding a chain and lots of parchment and purity seals to it, thoughthe whole head crest will be the shield, which i think is quite cool 9i know ultramarines arent much for keeping trophies but i figured it wasnt entirely out of character

Brother Vassago of the Howling Griffons, & Brother captain Nelchael of the Mentors

Vassago is still missing equipment, but is otherwise done and Nelchael is ready to be primed (really looking forward to painting the Mentor colours on this guy too. again, im pleased with the tabard on the first model - i think im finally getting the hand of cloth (to a certain extent... see below :p)

and finally...



Brother Captain Nathanael Garro; Captain of the 7th Great Company of the Death Guard

well, ive always been a fan of the Death Guard, and Garro in particulat (nothing to do with the fact that we share a name :p)


im still not too sure on the chest - apart from the fact that its description on the books is open to interpretation, i think it might have come a bit too big. though this was my third (and best) attempt at the chest i decided to keep it as is. im rather pleased with the model overall, particularly the shoulder pads and the cloak (which still requires some work on it), though ill post up pics as i mmake further progress. looking forward to painting the pre-heresy DG colours on this guy. 

update

so a small update on these; getting closer to completion. they just need some small GS details (piping on chest, filling in dents in the armour etc), and addition of equipment and pouches etc.

brother shooty (howling griffon)


quite pleased with the pose on this one. will probably add a tabard to him and the same sort of pouches that featured on the other griffons. unfortunately, though, like most of these new models, i dont think the poses are quite as good as the first batch, thats probably as i made these as more of an assembly-line rather than one-at-a-time liek the others. i tried the assembly line to save some time but think ill go back to individually making them in the future (the bodies at least - the arms and fiddly bits can always be done together)

Mentor Legionnaire


im gonna flat out say it - my fave of these guys so far, though unfortunately the pics are not coming out well - they all look somewhat squashed and the pose is not translating well to a flat image - looks a lot better when you can rotate the base in your hands. maybea vid? :p

librarian



the model with the most amount of work left to do - cloak, tabbard, lots of work on the staff, more GS detail on the torso and random gubbinz. those shoulder pads are just placeholders - ill be adding slightly more ornate ones with rims.

corvus tyranid veteran

still need to do the last of the piping detail on the torso and trophies and equipment as well as the tyranid details (head-crest shield, skull-thunder hammer and other details).

5 men and a barbarian and a giant

so first thing's first - these pictures are boring! but im just trying to show that im making progress on the next 5 models.

man 1: soon to be an ultramarine veteran tyrannic war veteran with tyranid skull thunder hammer and hive tyrant head-crest storm-shield and various out bits and baubles

man 2: will become the fifth Howling Griffon, so i can 'promote' the guy with the lion head/cloak to company captain.

man 3: what could this be? what could that chopped up shoulder pad be doing on his shoulders?

man 4: will become a mentor legion veteran leading a squad of carapace-armoured IG vets... when i get around to making them. he's equipped with a drum-mag bolter with silencer and scope and will have errant armour and lots of pouches and equipment. looking forward to painting this one.

man 5: no idea!

got my airbrush and been messing about with it on random models. been meaning to paint this up for ages and just undercoated him and tried out the airbrush on him. feel confident enough to undercoat the Howling Griffons and basecoat/highlight the yellow parts of the armour with it.

and finally... whats this? the first tentative steps on my road to sculpting a large (around 80 - 90mm tall) marine. enlarged a pic of one of the Griffons and printed it out to scale with the final product.

some more pics:

as per request; a blurry scale shot comparing two of the marines with a guardsman. actually the size difference isnt as bad as i thought it was going to be - result! the marine on the right is the latest addition to the squad:

the left arm was difficult to get just the way i wanted so i ended up GSing the top half. the lion head on the right shoulder pad is the start of a cloak that ill add tomorrow once the torso has dried. after a rough start im quite pleased with the end result and think he fits in with the rest of the unit... now onto the last guy then i can start with last details and then paint!



and, just because i can:

ah sweet pea, i cant wait to see you :)