WIP: Sisters of Silence Vigilator Squad - Part 4

More work on the ladies to share today. The eyes really took a lot of my hobby time this week.  Each pair have been painted and repainted several times to get them to where they are.  I'm generally pleased with them now, but I don't promise not to retouch one or too before the project is done. So... tiny...

The Oblivion Knight was a particular challenge around the eyes and I'm not sure I'm done.  Enough of the face is exposed in the helmet's eye slits that one really must paint the eyes in there.  No cheating!  Her scrolls have been shaded and highlighted now.  The sword grip was painted and shaded, but not highlighted. Ropes and tassels were painted and shaded. Purity seals were completed.

Lot's of little detail work goes into painting these ladies. And I continue to find the odd purity seal or other detail forgotten under a section armor or behind the folks of a cloak, etc.

The forehead tattoo decals have been added to four of the five ladies with bare heads.  Not sure why the decal sheet came with only four decals when you can have five models with bare heads...?  A quick stop by eBay has another sheet on the way so I'll get the last one completed at some point when they arrive by mail.

As with the Oblivion Knight, many details have been completed now, including ropes, sword hilts, etc. And those many eyes...

This sisters awaits her tattoo while I work on shading and highlighting her flesh.

This cloak cries out for freehand, but the pleas fall on deaf ears for now.

I like this sister a lot.  A certain fierceness and conviction came out of my ham-handed attempts to paint the eyes - at least at a distance. I rewarded her with a skull tucked away in a crack on her base. Just a little splash of the grim dark.

As I work through the finished details the squad is coming together nicely.

The tattoos solidify the Silent Sisters look for sure.  More shading of the face/head will soften them somewhat without blurring or obscuring them I hope.  Still working through what I want to do in my head. As shown here, the tattoo decals have simply been applied and then covered over with GW Lahmian Medium to protect and fade them into the head a bit.

I haven't worked up to courage to got into this cloak with some freehand spots or stripes.  I feel a pelt like this deserves some extra attention. Unusual for an animal not to have some variation in its coat. The Oblivion Knight at least has the scroll papers down the back to break things up a bit.

Another fierce warrior stepping in to deliver the Emperor's justice. Not sure how they will play in either 30k or 40k games, but they look damn nice on the table. :)

And that's where I'm at so far.  I had optimistically planned to be at a completion point by the end of this week, but there is more work to do.  With luck I can tie this project off before I head out with the family on Turkey Day. It would feel good to go into December with something new. I like the results here though, so I'm not going to force or rush them.

I'll fit one more post in before Thanksgiving arrives here in the US, with luck.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

WIP: Sisters of Silence Vigilator Squad - Part 3

Not much to share today despite my efforts.  Such is the way as a project turns from laying down base colors to highlighting and painting small details. I expect to have much more progress, if not completed models, to share by the end of the week so I'm opting to skip the individual photos today.

I improved the gold armor by layering on Vallejo Old Gold, being careful to preserve shadows, and areas where the armor would be under less light and therefore darker naturally.  This results in a nice sheen that helps the armor pop a bit.  The gems (which had been based gold) were then painted with the GW Spiritstone Red technical paint.  This mirrors the GW Soulstone Blue that was painted on the Custodes gems in technique and over all appearance.

During this stage, many of the fine gold details were picked out on the cloaks, loin cloths, fur wraps, gloves, etc..  The Ladies are definitely looking a bit more flashy now.Still more work to do, including silver highlights on the armor, additional shading on the details, final work on the swords and finally the heads and faces.

I really like the overall look of this force a look forward to sharing them complete along side a few of my Custodes.  I expect they will continue to stand out while still appearing part of the larger Imperial force.  They are really great models regardless and very fun to paint.

I'll have more to share in a few days.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

WIP: Sisters of Silence Vigilator Squad - Part 2

I have more progress on the Vigilators to share today. The paint work advanced to a point where I could attach the sisters to their bases.  That's always a fun move as it really makes the project seem to advance quickly.  The bases were painted with a simple dry brush of various Vallejo browns.  The recipe is on the Custodes tab above. I used some 5-minute epoxy to glue the sisters down, pinning them with a bit of the brass rod that was previously binding them to the painting handles.

The cloaks received two highlight and the heads were painted and then shaded with GW Reikland Fleshshade.

The hair received two layers of highlights as well, using a simple dry brush technique. The fur on the cloaks was also dry brushed with Vallejo Ghost Grey.

The gloved hands and various gaps in the armor where the body gloves show were painted with Vallejo Dark Rubber and shaded with GW Nuln Oil.  The armored knuckled will be picked out next and some highlights added to the dark grey on the hands.

The parchment seals and ribbons where painted with P3 Menoth White. The will be later shaded with GW Agrax Earthshade and highlighted with P3 Menoth White Highlight.

On the bases, the sisters are starting to come alive.  I think simple cork with the Black Lava sandy texture paints up well. I focus the lighter highlights around the sharp edges of the broken ground and the high points of the rocky rubble.

I haven't decided yet what colors to use on the cloak trim and details.  Something that pops while not adding too much more chaos to already colorful models.  Possibly white to match the fur.

The cloak highlights need some blending and cleanup in spots.  Every time I think I'm finally getting the hang of edge highlights, something goes blobby on me.  I'm feeling good overall though with the highlights on the sisters so far.

More fun cloak details waiting for paint.

I'm trying out some darker skin tones on a couple of the sisters to mix things up a bit.  It's a good opportunity to try new things and think about painting flesh in different ways.

Yikes...another spot where the cloak highlights got away from me a bit. I'll go back and see about blending things in better on that center fold so I can sharpen the highlight.

So much more detail and finish work to do on these ladies. I'm still thinking about adding stripes or spots or something to the long fur cloaks to break up the field of furry grey.

And that's where the six sisters stand at this point.  I had to push through some serious painter's block to make progress on these ladies this week.  I thought assembling the knights for AT would be a good break, but it almost derailed the Sister's project instead. Getting the models on their bases helped motivate me to carry on. But these things happen. I have only self imposed deadlines to meet so the only pressure is to make some progress (however small) and keep the project moving forward.

Next week, these ladies should be looking sharp.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

On the Workbench [November] - House Taranis Knights for Adeptus Titanicus

And they were legion...I used a little free time over the weekend to make use of the new Questoris Knight upgrade sprues I picked up on pre-order recently. The Knights themselves I had sitting on the shelf waiting for something new.  I new that had I assembled them, some upgrade options might come out and then I'd be bummed I hadn't waited. This time, waiting worked out.

I chose the standard three lances, each with a single main weapon type.  I armed all of the new knights with meltaguns and fists from the upgrade sprue. The original three I had started to paint have swords and a couple the stub guns.

I mixed up the legs, arms and heads to keep each lance looking as unique as possible.  I used the three heads form the upgrade sprue mixed with the heads from the original box.  And of course, everyone gets missile pods.  This is a game of mighty titans, so these little guys need the best shot they can get to make a difference.

The bases are all coated with Vallejo black lava and will be painted to match the titan based form the Legio Tempestus force. I'm not sure when I'll get these to the head of the painting queue, but I look forward to haveing these painted up along with the Cerastus and Acastus brethren.

These are fun models to build.  I could see picking up more in the future to build some Gallant and Crusader variants for fun.

My next post will return to the Sisters of Silence Vigilators.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

WIP: Sisters of Silence Vigilator Squad - Part 1

As I returned to painting this week, it was clear that I needed to choose a project set aside in the past and bring it to the fore. Not only does this help complete projects, it gives me an opportunity to freshen things up on the painting table so I don't get burned out on any one game or faction.

Regular readers may recall these sisters from a WIP post last May. Since then I picked up a sixth model in order to complete a unit of five sisters along with an Oblivion Knight to lead them in games of Horus Heresy. 40K does not currently include the Oblivion Knight model, so she'll stand in as the squad's Sister Superior or can sit out entirely.  Regardless, I have six sisters of Silence on the painting table this week! I decided to use the color scheme illustrated by the Frost Spider Vigilator Cadre picture from the Warhammer40K fandom wiki.

Frost Spider Vigilator Cadre

I based the armor using Vallejo Gold (70.996) with the intent of highlighting with Vallejo Old Gold and then steel or silver.  The swords were painted Vallejo Air Steel.  The Cloaks are Vallejo Game Color Ultramarine Blue (72.022).  The plumes are done according to the Custodes paint recipe, starting with GW Mephiston Red. The fur was painted using Vallejo Game Color Ghost Grey (72.046).

A heavy base coat of Vallejo Dark Earth (71.029) was brushed on all the bases. This will get shaded and highlighted as the project continues. The bases are my statndard custom cork bases with Vallejo Black Lava brushed on the flat cork surfaces.  Moving on, let's take a look at a couple of the models close up.

This is the model I will use as an Oblivion Knight in Horus Heresy games. No shading on the armor yet, but shades on the other base colors.  GW Agrax Earthshade was used out of the pot on the plume.  A roughly 50:50 mix of GW Drakenhof Nightshade and Lahmian Medium was used on the blue cloth.  Nuln Oil was used on the sword blade and cloak fur.

With the simple shading, some texture comes out in the fur.  More dry brushing and other details will be added.  I'm thinking about spots or stripes in the fur as a way to grow my techniques and skills here.

Another fur cloak model, I used the same painting treatment here as above.  I'm batch painting at this point to get the basic paint jobs done quickly and efficiently.  Once the base colors are laid down, shaded and highlighted, I'll look to the individual details on each model.

Another model, this time with fur only on the shoulders. The blue is showcased here after basic shading using GW Drakenhof Nightshade.

The sister below will likely be the unit leader. I like the pose very much.

Nice details on the cloak, too.  This is going to be fun to pick out carefully with a brush.

That was a look at the models after session one.  Session two should refine things nicely and really start to bring them together.  It's been a while since I painted such slight, spindly models. It feels different than painting marines, dreadnoughts and tiny titans. Some of it is more fussy, and some of it is easier and progresses more quickly.  I'm using this squad as a means to get re-calibrated for painting some of the Blackstone Fortress minis.

As always, thanks for reading and passing along your comments.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

On the Workbench [November] - Adeptus Titanicus Terrain

Following hard on DreadTober 2019, I decided to take a painting break and work on some Adeptus Titanicus terrain I had still on sprue. I picked up a couple boxes of the original buildings, and then a box of the spires and it was time to get them off the shelf and put them together to see what I could come up with.  Some buildings were built stock from the instructions, some were of my own design. The kits go together well and provide a lot of options for customization.  I have a second spire kit on the way and will build out this set a bit more, I think.

This simple Administratum building should provide some good cover to advancing Titans and skulking Imperial Knights alike. I'm sharing front and back photos of each building to showcase the many details.

The spire kit blends well with the base building kit.  I built the spires pretty much stock form the instructions and then added them to some of the base buildings which I varied a bit for variety.

Lots of 40K Gothic goodness on all sides.

The small cathedral is a design all my own. It was fun to go through the various pieces and sort out the overall design.

Lots of windows to allow in the light of the Emperor of Mankind and various doors to admit the many, many pilgrims bound to bathe in His glory.

I imagined the nave the top end of the cross, so no doors there.

Another of my own design build, this was a blatant attempt to provide simple line of sight blocking terrain, at least for knights and the smaller warhound titans.  It is still good cover for the mighty Warlords.

A fun challenge is making sure pipes, doors and windows all make sense.

More stock build combinations to form various tall structures.  "Rule of Cool" and good line of sight blocking terrain combined! The details on the plastic kits just continue to amaze.

It's going to be great fun putting paint on these buildings.

Soaring arches, vaulted roofs, gilded domes - you have to appreciate the architecture of the age.

I guess that once you've seen one tall spire you've seen them all...

But they are still pretty cool!

For a game I haven't even played yet, I sure am excited to paint up the terrain...

Wow, you stuck along through all of this, eh?  Good on ya...

I promise it'll end...soon.

The humble beginnings of a basic building from the kit. This one awaits the new spire kit before it can soar to new heights.

And to think I found this simple structure pretty cool when first released.  The look even more fantastic with the spire kits bits on top as shown in the examples above.

SO that's where I'm at with a collection of terrain for Adeptus Titanicus.  Once painted up these buildings should provide a great backdrop for the Legio Tempestus Titan maniple I've painted up.  And now I have transfers!  Or will have once they arrive in the mail. Expect some more AT projects through out the hobby season.

For now, however, that's all I have from the workbench.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!