29 Jan 2015

Chaos Warhound Project - finishing the Torso

Hi guys - I've been working on the Torso recently, which has been a pretty big step in the Warhound project and has taken the last week or two to finish (as well as being uber busy with work).
So, the interiors were already finished (see here and here), so I carefully masked off the painted areas to make sure no spraypaint was going to work its way in and ruin ll the hard work I put in. Definitely worth being thorough and double checking there are no gaps (including between joints - greenstuff those gaps up!).

After that it was just a case of painting up following a similar process to the legs (iron metallics first, then golds/bronzes followed by black panels).
The holes you can see are for some spikes that still need to be attached (I'm leaving them off for now so I can easily handle the Torso and place it upside down).
The Void Shield Generators got my blue/glowing treatment to add a bit more colour to the model and should compliment the big-a$$ plasma weapon which will be painted in a similar style.
Even at this stage - still loads of hidden detail.
The bit that took the longest was working out how to hold it and paint one side before moving onto the next - the thing weighs a ton! Well...maybe not a ton..maybe a pound, but you try holding that in your left hand for hours on end...lol.
With the Torso painted, all that's left now are some minor bits of detail and it can be attached to the legs,,,coming soon!

Cheers, the6thDegree

27 Jan 2015

Daemon Soul Grinder Conversion

Hi One and All,

thanks for popping over to Weemen!

Here are a couple of pictures of my Converted Soul Grinder, which I've added the final few touches to.

This originally was built a few years ago for BW3 (years ago!) but I've finally got the model out of the display cabinet and completed.

I decided a while ago that I wanted the soul grinder to look less static than the original, plus already having 2 Soul Grinders, I wanted something different- I also wanted one that looked in keeping with Khorne, as for BW3 I went for a full Khorne force. Having looked at all the models available that could be used I opted for the Cygor/Ghorgon beastman kit, which built as a Ghorgon had a suitable 'Khorne' feel to it.

The build was quite straightforward, I cut the hips/leg away at the level of the upper portion of the pelvis, utilising the 'hole' to allow the body to fit onto the Soul Grinder Chassis. The tabard from the sprue was also added to 'hide' the join from body to Chassis This was pinned into place, once I was happy with the pose- I wanted the model to look like he is about to smash something (tank, SM, Nid, Grot etc.) I used all four arms of the Ghorgon- with the forearms on the right replaced with a Soul Grinder Claw and the Harvester cannon. The Left upper arm had the SG sword added.  To add to the dramatic pose the legs were positioned to exacerbate the pose- as if in mid fight.

The model was painted with a major lean to Reds, with a slow build up to brighter reds from the more deeper ones. The chassis was dry brushed up to grey/silver from black.
I really like the view from the front of the  model, which shows a lot of movement with the combination of the arms position- the left arms are open, with the right ones coming forward to attack- this is also helped by the legs- with the right front leg down to support the weight of the arms coming forward.. 

Thanks for reading!!

19 Jan 2015

Relictors Space Marine Librarian with Jump Pack

Hello Readers, thanks for dropping by. Here is some pics of my latest addition to the Relictors Battle Company, you didn't think I'd forgotten them and moved on to Necrons only, did you? ;)
Ever since I saw the Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard with their winged Jump Packs I knew I had to include one of them somewhere... well an ideal use I reckon is on an HQ Character, and since the Relictors have more than the average share of Librarians, I thought I'd address both and do another Librarian.
The feathers are painted with Dheneb Stone then washed with Asurmen Blue, drybrushed again with the Dheneb Stone followed by a light wash of Skull White to lighten the tips, but not to obscure the wash totally, giving I think, a more feathered look - maybe as the Relictors use Daemon Weapons in the fight against Chaos, these are not a mere mechanical jump-pack, but instead a chaos manifestation of real wings...
The main armour blue is Regal Blue with a highlight of Enchanted Blue which would work well for Crimson Fists too! The leather is Calthan Brown followed by a Nuln Oil wash and a highlight of Snakebite Leather. The sash is Dheneb Stone with a Kommando Khaki in the recesses and a Devlan Mud Wash and Dheneb Stone highlight. The Purity Seals are washed with Gryphonne Sepia instead.  My golds are a simple recipe of Brazen Brass, Wash with Devlan Mud, Brazen Brass again, Shining Gold and a drybrush highlight of Mithril Silver.
I particularly like the axe, these colours could double as an Ice Weapon for Space Wolves too. It was a blend of Enchanted Blue, Asurmen Blue wash in recesses, highlight of Hawk Turquoise, Lothern Blue and edge highlight Skink Blue, but a kinda wet blend throughout so apply while the Asurmen Blue Wash was not 100% dried - made it all blotchy.
Here's a shot of him on the table.
And finally with the other Relictors Librarians so far.

15 Jan 2015

Chaos Warhound Project - Painting the Carapace

I'm back again (told you I was making a lot of progress!) and this time it is the carapace that is finished.

You can see here, the torso ceiling section that fits into the carapace, that I finished earlier in the project.

Build-wise, the carapace wasn't that tricky; I had to trim down one of the sides that sits against the torso, due to one of the torso sections not being entirely straight - but the part is not visible when assembled. I also added the hatches to the carapace that fit over the side compartments of the torso - meaning that those interiors are now visible. They were a little awkward to add to ensure that they were flush to the torso, but also had a strong join on the carapace - in the end I had to greenstuff a few gaps where they meet the carapace, but they look seamless now from the exterior.
The torso ceiling fit in easily and is yet another example of a lot of obscured detail (I still cant get over how much there is on this thing).
Paint-wise, the carapace matches the rest of the black armour panels and I have painted it to be battle-scarred with parts of the daemon interior starting to show.
I have checked that carapace fits nicely with the completed parts of the Warhound - and it does - but I am going to refrain from posting any full pictures until it is done now.

Cheers, the6thDegree

12 Jan 2015

Chaos Warhound Project - painting the Head

Hi all - starting to feel like I am making some real progress on the Warhound now, so next thing to show you is the head that I have finished.

I started with the interior and painted up the pilots to match the uniform of the engineer who was unfortunate enough to be entombed in the torso section, but gave the Princep a bit of gold flourish. The interiors were actually one of the harder parts to paint - loads of fine detail but access was a little tricky.

All the control panels were painted up and the interior of the roof was also painted to match.

Being Legio Mortis I took a look at some pictures and was pleased to see the heads are typically red, which breaks up all of the black and metallics nicely.
The rest of the exterior was painted up on my usual style, so small elements such as the lights are consistant across all of my vehicles.
Looks pretty nice all built up!
Cheers, the6thDegree

9 Jan 2015

Chaos Warhound Project - Finishing the Head and Torso build

Hi guys - a quick post on a bit of building I have been doing now that the legs are finished.

First up, the head; not much to build here really, but I wanted the interior accessible so magnetised it. A pretty simple and straightforward job - the hardest part being drilling the magnet hole in the roof of the head, which is only slightly thicker than the magnet itself (so take it slowly and drill by hand - testing the fit frequently).
 
I then added a test-pin to the rear of the head where it will connect with the torso in order to play around with the pose. Once I had a pose I liked, I drilled out the pin hole in the torso to test - everything was good so I scaled the pin up to a thicker piece of brass to make it more stable in the future.
The torso was mostly complete after I built it together, but still required a few bits adding (like the Void Shield generators and exhausts).
I also needed to work out how to access the bolts easily to swap out weapons - again, magnets helped! Checking that the exposed bolt-heads were magnetic (they were), I carefully drilled the shoulder covers and glued a magnet in place that now sticks to the bolt.
All done - the head and torso are now ready for painting!

5 Jan 2015

Necron C'Tan Shard - Shard of the Nightbringer

Happy New Year! Hello avid Readers, thanks for dropping in again. I have always loved the Nightbringer C'Tan Shard model, like a big scary 'Death' figure, looming over the battlefield. Well, after my dealings so far with the Finecast (Failcast) Necron Cryptek or Heavy Destroyers (binned), I opted for an old metal version from EBay. Thise long extended arms would be too flimsy and no-doubt mis-cast too - so a metal one will be better!
Not all my own work, the C'Tan was painted to a good enough standard as seen above, I just had to repair the damage (both arms) and repaint the joins, base and Scarabs. I also re-did the Scythe and blade and added some Blood for the Blood God effects on the blade. He is a little mis-built at the knee which can be seen at the top photo, however, without pointing it out you didn't notice - there was too much glue in the join to remake without damaging it - so it will do nicely as is.
A rather characterful and nice addition to the Necron Army so far. Hope you like the progress I've been making. I've a busy New Yearfor the first few months, so posts may be scarce until I've moved to a bigger better Weeman House!

2 Jan 2015

Chaos Warhound Project - Legs

Happy New Year all - hope you had a good one!

Today I am showing off the work I have done on the Warhound legs (click here for the build stages) which are now finished.

The legs were by far the biggest job to paint to-date, as all the other pieces have been done in parts - but I wanted to make sure the legs were stable and load bearing before painting - which meant painting them fully built. This brought up two issues; 1) getting access to a few nooks and crannies (although this wasn't as bad as I feared) and 2) the weight - the legs are pretty hefty, but they are attached to terrain'd chopping board base (2kg doesn't seem like much until you are holding it in one hand for 8+ hours).

The paint job went the same way I would paint any Iron Warrior vehicles; undercoat and then my metallic recipe (basecoat, black wash, overbrush, drybrush x2, bronzes/golds, highlights and final wash). To make things more manageable, I took the legs to the drybrushing stage and then broke them down into stages (feet, shins, thighs etc) to make it more manageable.
Once all the metallics were done, I then focused on the armour plating and matched them to the Armour Panels I completed previously.


The last step was pretty exciting - actually attaching the Panels to the legs, meaning that everything below the waist is now finished.

I actually painted up the base before adding the panels, so that I could access everything and weather the feet to match the base - but I will cover that off in another post.