Primaris Ancient Done!

Just a quick update! My airbrush failed me the other day (replacement parts on the way), so I had the opportunity to blend a bunch using a normal brush. I've done some wet blending and glazing before, but never to this extent. So let's learn!

I tried using paint retarder for the first time. I think I got the hang of it by the end, although I was making a huge mess along the way. I even sanded the back of the banner down to black at one point. Trying to wet blend with it, the retarder only made me spend more time to move an imperfect blend around. I'll need to work on that some more. It was great for glazing, but it's not difficult to glaze without a retarder. It gave me time to prevent tide marks I guess.

I also tried watering down GW washes to create blends... Big mistake. I kinda cleaned up most of it, but not all. There's still some glossy sheen on the front of the banner that stands out in person. Maybe I'll dull coat it, but I'll have to be really careful about not dulling metals.

All that aside, painting this was a blast! I am really happy with what I ended up with, my golds turned out better than ever, and "REGENT" is turned out better than I expected it would. Thanks Siph_Horridus for the great name!

Stuff I'm working on

I wanted to shoot my finished Fellblade this weekend, but it doesn't fit on my background. Oops!

I ordered a bigger one. But that leaves me without an update...

So here are pics of the next batch of pieces I'll be painting. Getting ready to prime these and get started!

Leg-swapped Grimaldus and Friends:

FW Chaplain Dreadnought with Contemptor limbs:

Primaris Ancient:

 Kitbashed Techmarine with all the moldslips:

Scout bikers:

With these I'm getting really close to wrapping up the project. I have some Devastator bits ready and waiting, and I'd like to build some Vanguard Veterans. Maybe I'll kitbash a set of Sword Bretheren too, I don't know.

Anyway, so much for now. Thanks for looking!

Plague Doctor Knight Conversion

Here's something I've been working on. It took a lot of work to get there; repositioning legs, inverting a left hand into right, 3D modeling fingers and hand accessories, and sculpting a faceplate.

I'm intending to build a little diorama. The current idea is that he'd be walking in a medieval town at night with a lantern. Not imposing, not dangerous, but slightly unnerving and spooky if anything. I removed all weapons and I like that look for what I'm going for.

He's still held together with bluetac, but I'm thinking about posing him kinda like in these pictures. Slowly walking, leaning on his cane to look old and fragile, lifting his lantern in anticipation of who knows what. There might be rats on the streets or something, I don't know. We'll see when we get there.

On a sidenote, I haven't been posting a lot recently, but I've been painting a lot. My Space Marine collection is crazy big now; 60+ crusaders, ~40 elites, 8 tanks, 4 dreadnoughts etc. I am working on the Fellblade now, and I feel like wrapping up that army. It'll probably be done with it within a few months, and I'm planning to take a family pic once it's done.

Here are some more pics. If you'd like to know more about something specific that I did here, please ask below. Hope you find this interesting, and thank you for looking.

Weathering a Train Thingy

So I wanted to give weathering a shot. I've done very little of it, and the results were pretty bad overall. The thing is, while I kinda had an idea of what I'm supposed to do, I never wanted to learn on a painted model. So I bought a terrain set to play around with!

For this model I wanted to try painting a model all rusty (trying out rust powders, enamels, and normal paints).

Then I'd use AK Washable Agent to create paint that can wear off easily, paint the model yellow:

Then load up water into rough brushes, sponges etc, and rub this weakened paint off!

Finally, more pigments, enamel streaking agents to make the model looks like it was sitting in the rain for the while.

None of these steps worked out completely. The washable agent is very thick, so it had to be watered down a lot to make color blending possible. However, all that water made previous layers of paint loosen. In the end I applied a very, very thick layer of yellow/brown, and used a very soft brush to drybrush lighter yellow and dab darker brown without stripping previous layers. It didn't really work out too well. Lesson learned: use an airbrush to apply paints with the washable agent.

The rust, while looking great initially, came off when I started removing the yellow paint, so there's that. The arm is still rusty, but whenever I stripped the yellow stuff, I also stripped the rust under it, leaving a pristine metal. Lesson learned: varnish before applying paints with the washable agent.

After that, I was imagining a chipped paint look, not severely scratched, but that's fine. Not all scratches make sense.

Finally, I was trying to use the AK enamel streaking paint with white spirit to emulate rain streaks and it didn't really work: The streaking paint can leave a nice brown streaks, but they're too dominant. White spirit is then used to dissolve the streaks and soften them. However, what was happening more often than not is that I'd just remove the streaks instead of softening them. Next time around I'll have to try a different method. I think people use inks for this?

Oh, and I applied a transfer for the first time. There's a small "XII" on the rear right. That was very easy!

Anyway, yeah. Painting with non-acrylic paints and powders is definitely different. Even though no step achieved what I was imagining it would, the model looks amazing at the end, and I'm very happy with it! And, with a hair dryer to accelerate paint drying, it took ~6 hours to paint start to finish!

Ironclad Converted!

It's been a while since I posted anything again! I'm not that good at taking pics as I work. I'll probably need to take a family photo soon to atone.

But here's this guy!

I always wanted to improve on the "classic" Dreadnought pattern. I guess giving one actual limbs was a good start! And creating an actual Seismic Hammer was just perfect.

This is a mix of the (no longer available) Forgeworld Mk IV Ironclad and a Relic Contemptor. The hammer's staff is 3D printed, and the head piece is made from a few Flamestorm Cannon bodies and a Storm Raven landing sled.

The pose is somewhat fragile for such a heavy resin model, so I pinned him all the way through. Arms, legs, and joints all have brass rods holding them together. Only fingers are superglued without brass support; but I'm ok living with that.

The missiles and flamers are all magnetized. I don't have storm bolters that would fit in place of the flamers, and I'd like to convert some at some point.

Thanks for looking!