WIP: Deathwatch Librarian w/Jump pack - Part 4

During my last session of the week, I addressed the tabard trim, laid down some earth on the base and began some subtle glow effects in the jump pack nozzles.  I also layered on a few coats of GW Drakenhof Nightshade over the psyker helm and the left hand holding the force ax. Small improvements, but marching towards completeness none-the-less.

The white trim was base coated with GW Eshin Gray, then painted over with GW White Scar. I then added a pin wash of Nuln Oil after cleaning up the lines.

The jump pack nozzles where hand painted with GW white scar, then shaded with GW Drakenhof Nightshade followed by a heavy wash of thinned down Lothern Blue.  After that dried, I came back in with an edge highlight of GW white scar.  Similar to the jump pack Watch Captain, I am imagining that the jump jets are powered, but not currently engaged.  Anyway,something to play with. :)

So that's it for this week.  I hope to post up a TO DONE post next week.  It'll be family time this weekend, so I won't get back to the hobby for a couple days.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

WIP: Deathwatch Librarian w/Jump pack - Part 3

More progress on the Librarian to share.  He's coming together now. There is quite a bit of cleanup I'd like to do yet, but I'm working on not letting that hold me up. Never let perfect be the enemy of good, right? In this session, I attacked the arms, completing the plasma pistol and the power ax. I'm not sure I want to keep the crackling power effects on the ax blade.  Regular readers have seen me struggle and abort this effect before.  I want to keep practicing it until I get something I like, though, so here we are.

Most of the remaining details got some paint and I added highlights to the tabbard and scrolls.  Then I set to the head meaning to just rough it in.  But I was on a roll and instead shaded and began adding eyes, facial hair, etc..  I like how it is coming along.  I'm trying out some glowing blue psyker eyes balanced with the plasma coils on the pistol.  As I mentioned in the last article, I'm not aiming for significant OSL, just some visual clues that something other-worldly is going on with this guy.  He's not a human flashlight! :) I'm not convinced of the work yet, so it may change before I call this project done.

Here are a few shots of the model from various angles to illustrate the progress to this point.

The librarian is definitely starting to look good. I love how a painted face really brings a model like this to life.  It makes sense, of course, but it is still fun to see.

Here's a brighter shot of all the junk on this guy's front. I think these details are coming into their own now and starting to stand out individually. The picture is a bit washed, but still offers more than the darker picture above it, I think.

Here's the back side of the force ax.  I like the ax head in general, but I am still struggling with painting good sharp thin lines.  Here, I painted the lines first with the mid-tone, then again with slightly shorter lines using the lightest blue, and finally hit it up with GW White Scar in even shorter lines, plus highlights of the highest points on the blade head. The metallic colors have not yet been highlighted.

A hidden laurel on the jump pack got some love.I have done nothing else with the jump pack so far.  I plan to paint up the jets in the same way I painted the Watch Captain.

I experimented with highlighting the blue on the shoulder panel as GW and many other typically do.  I have always stuck with simple edge highlights on the rims of the pads prior and not tried this extra step of highlighting inside the rim. Nuln Oil was carefully painted around the inside of the rim with a fine detail brush.  The the thin light blue line was carefully painted in (and touched up several times!).

The plasma pistol is pretty stock at this point, painted in my typical style. I feel it is a matter of taste, but I prefer to paint in the suggestion of the glowing coils without going full out OSL.  It can be distracting if not done well. I completed the holster as well using the Dark Angel's recipe I recently painted on my Primaris Hellblasters unit for Squaduary 2018.

I'm pleased with how much progress I managed in only two painting sessions.  I have been working on developing a faster pace without massing things up.  I have ALOT to paint and would like to see more and more progress as time and life allow.

Next up, it will be time to complete the jump pack and the rest of the black armor.  So lots of edge highlighting for me! I think I'm starting to get into a grove there at this point, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. Also, there is detail on the cloak to paint in and then the base gets some love.  Along the way I'll clean up some things and complete the head/face as well.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

WIP: Deathwatch Librarian w/Jump pack - Part 2

I got some paint on the Deathwatch Librarian, blocking in the left arm, robes, right shoulder and some miscellaneous gold details. I'm following the Deathwatch recipe which can be seen by selecting the appropriate tab above. Everything but the right shoulder pad and holster has been shaded so far. Now, I am starting to get a look at the detail and imagine the overall look of the model when it is finished.

This fella has almost too much detail clustered on the front.  It's a tangle of robes, icons and scrolls. I hope I can clean up these details with the highlights so each item looks distinct without distracting from the overall effect.  I believe the completed head, pistol and highlights to the armor will help draw focus away from this mess of stuff.

The Librarius shoulder pad will hopefully support the fact this is a librarian and not another watch captain or other character with a jump pack. Not having the distinct looking force staff could cause confusion there. This brother of the Deathwatch has chosen to honor the Librarius rather than his chapter here.  I wonder why?

I decided to try a light coat of GW Drakenhof Nightshade over the Nuln Oil on the left arm.  This adds a blue tinge to the silver, afterall it is holding a force weapon! :)  I may go for a second and third pass concentrating on the hand...we'll see.  I like fun painting effects, but for me, they can sometimes look forced and over done.  Much like OSL which appears quite a bit these days.  I've seen amazing OSL that really added to the model and its story.  And I've seen routine OSL that distracts from a model instead of enhancing it.  So not sure how far I'll go with psyker effects. This Librarian is in the act of snapping off plasma shots in any case, not focusing his will for the kill.

That's where I'm at after the first painting session. This is the murky stage where colors are emerging but the over all model looks like crap.  Experience has taught me to ignore this and push on through with optimism.  I am proud of my other Deathwatch characters and this model should turn out no different! 

What are you working on this week?

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

WIP: Deathwatch Librarian w/Jump pack - Part 1

Hello, and welcome to a new WIP series for the Deathwatch. It's time to step away from House Taranis for a time and return to my 2017/2018 Hobby To Do List. I pledged three Deathwatch Characters, and so far I have completed a Watch Master and Watch Captain.  This librarian will be the third.

It is a simple conversion built from a stock Games Workshop Space Marine Librarian.  I felt the pose of the model lent itself to a slightly off balance landing as the Librarian let loose a fury of plasma fire at and unseen foe. Or perhaps he is about to launch back up after loosing his rounds. I replaced both arms and the backpack, and left off the cherub. The original head was turned hard right to sight down the plasma pistol.

The right arm was easiest to replace with a stock plasma pistol arm from the latest GW Space Marine Assault Squad set.  I kept the original shoulder pad to display the crest of the Librarium, rather than replace it with a chapter specific pad. The left shoulder pad was attached to the upper torso and had to go so I could replace it with a proper Deathwatch shoulder pad. This involved some careful cutting with the razor saw and then a bit of cleanup with an X-ACTO knife.

The left arm was replaced with one from the Deathwatch veteran sprue that was holding a power sword.  I removed the power sword, hand and all, at the wrist with a clean cut using the razor saw. The force ax was sourced from a power ax in the Space Marine Vanguard Veteran kit.  That weapon was held in a right hand; I needed a left hand here.  After sorting through my bits collection, I settled on an unused Corvus Hammer from the Ravenwing Command Squad.  The hammer head was snipped off and replaced with the power ax head which I snipped from its original haft. The pieces were all pinned together using brass rod and super glue. In hindsight, I probably should have used plastic cement for a better bond of the plastic parts (rod not withstanding).  We'll see how it holds up. A standard Deathwatch shoulder pad was then added.

The jump pack is also from the Space Marine Vanguard Veteran kit. I chose one with terminator honors and scrolls, suitable for a character. It didn't sit flush over the shoulder pads (no big surprise if you've customized with jump packs before), so I put a small blob of green stuff between the pack and the back plate and pressed the pack down into place.  Any green stuff oozing out around the joint was then trimmed off and smoothed before it set up. It will not be noticeable after painting and helps fill the gap securely and prevent the jump pack from looking like it is about to fall off the armor. :) Green stuff is tacky enough to bond the plastic parts once dry in my experience.

The final model was glued down to a 30mm base.  Wood glue was applied and the base dunked into the bin of basing material to create the terrain that matches the rest of my Deathwatch.  For whatever reason, I did not choose to go with cork bases for my Deathwatch models.

Here are a couple more shots of the completed model.

The force ax got a purity seal to add some interest and call it out as a sanctified weapon of the Librarium.

Those with keen eyes may notice that the bolt pistol's grip has been carefully cut away and the holster hollowed out to maintain the illusion that the Librarian has drawn his sidearm. Never mind that it would never fit in that holster! Hah.  It's an illusion right?

So; there will be some cleanup of mold lines and and sprue attachment points I may have missed. Then this fellow will be primed and moved to the painting table.  I hope you have enjoyed this preview of the model prior to painting.  I omitted detailed shots of the conversion work because it seemed so simple and straight forward to me.  Perhaps too boring for a proper how-to article.  If you disagree, please let me know in the comments and I'll look to provide this detail for future conversions.

Expect to see this Librarian and two more Grey Knight Characters appear on the blog in the coming weeks.  Then it's back to House Taranis so I don't lose too much momentum on the big knights! August's workbench article will likely be my build of the Cerastus Knight Castigator, so we'll see how that goes...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

WIP: Questoris Mechanicus Knight Paladin of House Taranis - Part 1

 

In this series I will document the painting (and transformation) of a Questoris Knight Paladin for House Taranis. This model began its days as a Freeblade.  You can see the Freeblade icon still on the carapace trim in the picture above.  This will be carefully removed and replaced with the Cog symbolizing allegiance to the Adeptus Mechanicus.  Honestly, I got to re-painting before remembering to do that.

This knight appeared on the blog in May of 2016 featuring a green and white color scheme.  As luck would have it, the white panels matched the color scheme for House Taranis making it an easy task to repaint the armor. I used poster tack (a tacky putty used to hang posters on the wall, etc.) to mask areas I didn't want to get paint on and then used the air brush to carefully transform the Green/White Freeblade to the Red/White/Black livery of House Taranis. 

I had previously brought the metallic frame and the head to a decent standard, so that puts me a bit ahead on this project.  Following the airbrushing, I will have a small amount of over spray to touch up (especially on the feet) and then I'll be pretty much back where things stood with the Green and White scheme. I used GW Mephiston Red and GW Abaddon Black for the armor repaint, according to my recipe for House Taranis.

I decided to abandon the original face plate in favor of the stock Mechanicum iron skull mask.  It is stuck to the putty and primed black on the pot between the knight's legs.  A bit hard to see here. I'll probably paint it a 50:50 white/black scheme.  I'm tempted to leave the face plate off to match the couple Forge World resin heads I'm using for the other knights. Time will tell.  I need to stew on that for some time.

The shoulders are not glued on and the arms can still be removed, which will help with painting.  Given how far along this knight is, it'll be the next one I complete.  While I had the air brush out, I set to priming the other Questoris knights joining the house.  I used Vallejo Surface Primer Black (73.602) from a 200ml bottle I purchased back along from Amazon.  I found this an economical way to prime with less odor.  I have a bunch of rattle cans too that I use for terrain, but they smell much more, even when using my outside vented spray booth.

So the House Taranis project is coming along well.  I'm going to burn out painting these large knights, no doubt.  So I expect to mix in a few other projects to keep up progress on the Deathwatch, Grey Knights, and Adeptus Custodes. In fact, my Shield Captain on Dawn Eagle jetbike got primed while I was doing the knights...

I was psyched to have a new purpose for the Freeblade Paladin which was languishing on the shelf.  While I had originally envisioned a collection of Freeblade Knights, I now find something special viewing the house collections of others online.  It's impressive to see a lance of knights in the same livery marching to war!

Best wishes for your own hobby projects.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Armiger Warglaives from House Taranis - TO DONE

It's time to call the Warglaives of House Tarnis DONE. Since my last post, I was able to complete enough of the highlights to bring the second Warglaive to the same level of details as the first.  They now stand united in service to House Taranis.  There is more that could be done, for certain, but I need to move on to other projects.  These two are well beyond tabletop quality already and look very cool on the field.

Here is a set of gallery shots showing the final work on the second Warglaive. The model has been sealed with Model Masters Lusterless Flat Lacquer. The top light is a bit harsh in these shots, washing out some of the highlights and detail at the top.

Here the mighty war machines walk together.

I'm very pleased by the consistent results.  Now if I can just keep up the work with two Helverins and the five big knights I am adding to the House! I'm proud to put a big seal of DONE on the project at this point.

There will be much more to come from House Taranis.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

WIP: Armiger Warglaives from House Taranis - Part 9

In today's post, I reveal the progress made on the second of my two Armiger Warglaives for House Taranis. I had taken a break from painting the second Warglaive while building the three Questoris knights I had laying about for the House.  This week it was time to put those back in the case and go back to painting.

Since I have already posted quite a bit about painting the Warglaives, I'll not go into a lot of detail here.  In short, I made a pass at the red highlights and put time into the arm weapons and cleaning up details on the model such as the gold skulls and interesting pipe-work. Then I hit a point where it was time to fix the legs to the base and apply decals so I could wrap up the paint job, at least for now.  There is another level of highlighting and weathering that could be done on both models, but I'm coming close to the finish point for now on these.

Here's a quick look around the second Warglaive as it stands today.

I decided to give the Warglaives unit numbers below the house crest on the carapace.  I also added honor markings along the left side of the cockpit hatch.

Shoulder plates are glued down now with decals applied.

I painted up the Mechanicum seal on the rear of the Warglaive.

One more session to complete the basic highlights, touch up anything I missed and then get everything sealed with the Model Masters Lusterless Flat Lacquer. I've been very pleased with this project and I look forward to reproducing the results at larger scale on the three new Questoris knights that I built. I'll also feel good when I can put a seal of DONE one these bad boys.

Painting this week was made a little more fun by using my new Everlasting Wet Palette which came in the mail recently.

I have enjoyed this palette better than my prior one.  Some of the paint here is three days on the palette, and while some paint dried out where it was thin, it didn't separate and run everywhere which is what I am used to.  This made it very easy to just sit down and get stuck in painting right away without resting the palette with new paper each night. Also, paint that wasn't spread out too thin stayed moist and was totally re-usable. So far, a great Kickstarter project! You can see a review from Spikey Bits here.

If you don't use a wet palette for your painting, what are you waiting for?  I highly recommend this useful tool.  It makes a great difference to maintaining consistency throughout a painting session. Also, mixed paint stays fluid on the palette and doesn't dry out making it easy to go back and do any touch ups without having to remix and possibly get the wrong color.  Even if you don't choose this product, give a wet palette a try!  There are ample examples on the web for making your own as well.

That's it for today.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

On the Workbench [July] - Questoris Imperialis (Knights!)

Knights of House Taranis WIP

Another workbench post today.  While the blog has been quiet for the last week or so, I have been very busy with the hobby. It started with this...

I was taking a break from painting and decided to build a "shield captain on dawneagle jetbike" for a game I was playing in.  Yes, it's true.  I do occasionally (very occasionally) play!  Anyway, turns out I went a different direction and played Grey Knights with a Death Korps of Krieg battalion instead of Adeptus Custodes, so this guy went back in the case for a later painting project.  It was still a fun build.  And while I didn't find them post worthy by themselves, I also built and primed a handful of Grey Knight marines I needed for the game as well. So that was early last week.

Then I decided it was time to go all in on my House Taranis project.  I had been holding back on building a handful of knights until I decided what House to paint.  I knew I didn't want keep building freeblades.  And as regular readers will know, I finally decided to go with House Taranis after building and painting (mostly) two Armiger Warglaives. I need to go back and finish the second Warglaive, but you can see them with their new family in the title picture above.

So...with a house chosen, there was nothing to do but get stuck in and build!  I had the sprue for three more Questor knights sitting in my Knight Renegade box (the first edition).  Also in the box were three Forge World resin knight heads (which I had chosen for Mechanicum aligned knights back when I was seriously planning to build an Adeptus Mechanicus force - still a back burner project...).

The first up was a Knight Gallant which was built a little over a week ago and used for my recent how-to post on magnetizing Knights at the waist.  Since then, I have build a Knight Warden and the legs and torso of a Knight Crusader. Here they are, displayed with their custom Forge World resin heads.

Questoris Knight Warden

 

Questoris Knight Crusader

Here are all of my Questoris knights crammed into the cabinet. Two freeblades in the back and the three new House Taranis knights up front.  I'm most likely going to repaint the freeblade knight paladin in House Taranis colors too, leaving the Knight Errant as my only remaining freeblade oath-bound to the Holy Ordos. The errant is fully complete and there is no need to ruin that work with a new Taranis paint job. A repaint of the paladin, which is only partially complete with only base colors on the armor, shouldn't pose too much of a hassle to with the airbrush and some judicious masking.

It feels good to have them all built at last.  Now I have to get back to the second Warglaive and finish its paint work so I can push on to these big boys.  Then a box of Armiger Helverins should complete the project..well...except for this...

Yes, that's right.  The last knight to build will be a Forge World Cerastus Knight-Castigator.  This fella has languished in the original bags on my project shelves for far too long.  It's high time that this engine walks!  I have no idea when I'll get to the build.  With the other three Questoris knights built and waiting for paint, it isn't a priority.  But it WILL get built this summer. maybe July, but definitely by the end of August. So this has turned into the summer of knights.

I'll mix in some other projects as I go so I don't burn out on painting the big knights.  I want to continue progress on the Grey Knights, Deathwatch and Adeptus Custodes...and I should toss in a Dark Angels project too after completing the squad of Hellblasters. Lots of good stuff to paint ahead.

For those interested in magnetizing Knights, I'll drop a few pics below that further illustrate my method for magnetizing the waists and carapace weapon mounts.  Otherwise, stay tuned for more and expect the frequency of posts to increase as I get back to painting.  I hope your projects are going well.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!
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Knight Warden Legs

Knight Warden Waist (top/inside)

Knight Warden Waist (bottom/outside)

Knight Warden Carapace Weapon Mount (top/inside)

Knight Crusader Legs

Knight Crusader Waist (top/inside)

Knight Crusader Waist (bottom/outside)

Knight Crusader Carapace Weapon Mount (top/inside)

All the same as the Knight Gallant I posted about earlier.  I am using five-minute two-part epoxy instead of super glue.  Dries quickly with a strong, sticky bond that isn't brittle.  I generously cover the magnets and sprue so the whole mass is well glued in.  I expect it to be very unlikely that any of this will separate from the shells of the knights. All sprue bits are glued in using standard plastic cement first to get a good plastic-welded bond for holding the magnets.  the the epoxy was spooned around the result once the plastic cement was dry. The large 1/2" x 1/8" magnets have great attraction.

The key is to be sure the "button" on top of the legs is large enough to fit securely into the waist and also is shallow enough so that the whole upper carapace is sitting town the on the ball joint at the top of the legs. I did a lot of filing to make sure this was the case for all three knights.   When the "button" at the top of the ball joint is too tall, the upper torso wobbles and is far less secure even with the big magnets.  I just kept filing until the upper torso sat down securely and no longer wobbled on the joint. More careful cutting of the aluminum rings used to increase the diameter of the "button" would have reduced the need for so much filing, I expect.  But cutting such a thin sliver off of an  aluminium tube is a challenge in its own right.  I squashed one or two in the process as it is.