Squaduary 2023 - Week 3 Status

 

More progress on the knights! February is rapidly running out but I made good progress over the past week.  The knights are starting to come alive now.  There is just SO much going on here. As can be seen in the pics, I have painted enough to attach the capes and tilting shields.  I have one more piece to attach to the squad leader, once his face is completed.

The plasma weapons got the blue coils effect.  It's a fun spot color on these otherwise black/red/white/silver models.

The capes attached well and look good.  highlights and additional details will come as I work over the whole models in the reaming time I have for the challenge. 

The blade hilts got 'blinged' up with some gems. The blades themselves got a simple dark blue wash.  I'll probably do something else there with highlights. But man, those black bases!  I've gotta leave time to paint those up.  I think I can pull everything in by the end of the 28th - but it will be a close run thing.  For only five models, there is a ton to paint here.  I hope to breath more life into the project with highlights as we're a bit drab here right now.

The final posts and pics will be up next week after the Squaduary challenge expires.  I hope to have some great light box pics of these fellow completed!

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Squaduary 2023 - Week 2 Status

 

And so the Inner Circle Knights Cenobium continue on a piece. Soooo much detail to cover.  I managed during week two to get all five knights to the sample place in terms of what is painted and what is not. I'm sort of batch painting, sort of not and it's making things difficult to keep track of.  But the models are coming along great, so there is that.

At this point, I am only blocking in base colors.  No shading or highlighting has been done, with the exception of the hoods and tabbards. I  shaded those when I shaded the cloaks (which are still waiting their time to get attached). So we don't have much contrast here which hides much of the detail.

I'll be away from the painting table for a few days of vacation, so week three will be short hobby-wise. I'm going to have to make quite a push to finish by the end of the month.

I have four swords and a bunch of little details like keys, books, rivets, and such to go before I lay down the shade.  Hopefully that fits into week three.  Week four is reserved for the bases and highlighting. Like I said, it's going to be a close run thing. sometimes projects are like that though, and it's OK. No lives are on the line here. 😁

Also posting a shout out to Siph at WeeMen who is painting up some more Relictors for a Squaduary challenge.

Hope to see you back here in a week.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Squaduary 2023 - Week 1 Status

 

Greetings, and welcome back for some Squaduary progress. These knights have tons of detail and it's going to take me the whole month to get them done properly, no doubt. I'm off to a slow start as it is, but progress is being made.

I started off with the cloaks.  The are ready to attach to the models now, once I get the bodies painted.  Pretty straight forward approach here to get started. Once the models are fully assembled, I may come back to adjust shading and highlights.  I didn't shoot pics of the underside, but it's a typical light bone/ivory shaded with the same mix of Agrax and glaze medium that I used on the outside of the cloaks.  I've started using a custom glaze medium (similar to GW lahmian medium) to thin Nuln oil and Agrax lately.  I feel the results easier to control and I end up less coffee staining, or just general 'muddying' of things. On these cloaks, I used glaze medium to thin Pro Acryl Bold Pyrrole Red then applied it in several layers concentrating most layers on the high points of the folds, and the least in the shadowy valleys.

After I got the cloaks to a good point, I started on the bodies. The model on the lower right is the title pic for this post and the most complete.  I'm batch painting, but occasionally I get into a groove and take off with one particular model rather that maintaining the batch.  In this case, I think I wanted to see where the colors I chose were going to take me before painting it on everything.  I'm using mostly Pro Acryl paints here which is not the original paint recipe.  Since these are elite warriors, it shouldn't look off if their colors don't match the rank and file exactly. But to be honest, I don't think they will stand out much at all as different from the rest of the collection. The Pro Acryl colors are matching up well. 

Lots left to do, but these Inner Circle Knights Cenobium are beginning to take shape. To see another Squaduary project in action check out weemen.blogspot.com. Until next week...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Workbench [January] - Custodes and a Primarch!

 

I forgot to post this prior to my Squaduary pledge, so we're in February now...but rest assured, these models were on the work bench in January!  A simple squad of five Adeptus/Legio Custodes warriors with Pyrithite Spears, they may get broken up and sprinkled about other Legio Custodes squads in games of Horus Heresy, Age of Darkness where individual Custodian guard models may take different weapons. I almost made this my Squaduary 2023 project, but i really need to keep going on the 1st Legion.

I had a couple nights left before February officially got under way, so I needed a filler project.  Why not build The Lion?!  It's about time I added the Primarch to my growing First Legion (Dark Angels) collection.

The helmeted and non-helmeted heads were both cool enough that I chose to magnetize them for an easy swap.  I like the helmeted head the most, but I wanted to try my hand at painting The Lion's noggin as well.

I went a little big on the magnets for a strong attraction (don't want the Lord to lose 'is 'ead, right?!), and lost a little bit of neck seal detail.  However, it doesn't show once in place.

And he looks regal as always with his helmet off. Though I think the helmeted head ends up sitting better on his shoulders after the magnet treatment.

So back on the shelf go those models until some future time when the muse strikes. Time to get on with the Inner Circle Knights Cenobium and my personal Squaduary 2023 challenge!

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Squaduary 2023 - the Pledge!

 

Greetings, and welcome to Squaduary 2023.  The inspiration comes from a community challenge that is no longer running.  However, I have valued the opportunity to put a stake in the ground and say with certainty that at least ONE squad from my collection will be painted each year. 😆 So it is that I have continued to challenge myself to paint a squad of some sort each February.

This year, I'll paint up these five Inner Circle Knights Cenobium from Forge World for the Horus Heresy Age of Darkness game.  They are a specialized, terminator armored elite choice for the Dark Angels legion. I primed these guys shortly after receiving them in the mail, then sat on the project for a bit...maybe a year or more?  yikes...

I did start to base coat the cloaks and symbols before moving on like the hobby butterfly I am. But that still leaves me most of the work to do which qualifies for my loose set of personal rules for the challenge. So that's what we'll have on the painting table for February. I hope the shift away from tiny planes is a pleasant change. If I do well with these and get my 28mm painting mojo back, then I might just tackle this before the winter is done...

 

Cheers and Happy Squaduary!