WiP Catchup 2 - Kat-man-Do!

And onto what I've been working on more recently. Adding a new squad to my Achlys III Admech force - a squad of Katraphron destroyers. When I got these tasty little fellas I remembered reading in one of the new AdMech novels from BL about a Dominus riding ino battle on the back of a Kat and decided that was a class idea and having a Kat that another fig could use as a command/transport platform was defintely the way forward. Time for some conversioning ;)

Kataphron Destroyer Conversion

Not the hardest of convs but did need a bit of fiddling. I reserved the chasis within the track units so it would jut out the front more and therefore allow for a bigger space at the back on which to build the central post(?) that the platform would be mounted (mag'd) to. The platform was then built from metal grating and thes filed and sanded lengths of sprue were bent with heat to fit around the plate shape. The underside and sides of the projecting 'bucket' into which the servitor fits need carefully cut and shaped pieces of plasticard to be made to seal it up. Magnets have been greenstuffed into all the Kats' servitor bucket so they'll be able to turn and face once painted. SO - with construction finished - onto the painting!

I started with just the lead Kat to test out how the paint scheme would work and then have a reference to paint the other two from. Needed someone to ride on the back though and the Dominus is a touch tall. When mounted on the back he does kinda take over the whole thing and it just looks a bit overbalanced. Luckily I had a box of skitarii waiting for build and paint. Skit Ranger Alpha quickly built and fits the bill perfectly~!!

 Lead Kat is mostly set. Wearing the grey armour plates of his forgeworld with the secondary blue colour on the underside of the servitors bucket and one or two other places.

For the Alpha, I inverted the usual colour scheme (you can just see I have my Sydonian Dragoon model in the background for reference) and drilled two holes into his feet into which I glued into 2 pieces if paperclip which will then attach to the magnet within the platform's post. The Skit feet are just way too skinny to allow for 3mm magnets to be used.

That done - time to paint the Alpha. His robe has been inverted to blue on the outside and grey on the inside. Markings are a fusion of cutup transfers and freehand. Happy with how he's turned out :D

The other Kats are nearly done now (all the brass takes FOREVER) and I'll pop up some finished shots when everything is done.

Cheers for looking  and C&C welcome as ever :D

Jan

WiP Catchup 1 - The Colour of Knight

 

Came into work today to find that all morning classes have been cancelled bcs of student elections - Loooooovelllyy Jubbly! My Friday schedule is a bit of a bitch so having 4 classes wiped off the board certainly helps especially considering I was woken up in the middle of the night by a fething mosquito....in novemeber.....a mosquito. Not impressed. Anyways, 'nuff of that.

 

I'm gonna use the sudden gift of a few hours of time to try adn catch up with my WiPs here and over on Dakka. Yes, yes - I'm quite sure that there are much more important teachery things I could be doing but.....:P

Anywho - first catchup is about that imperial knight I bought.....a while . Magnetising a Knight I fully magnetised the brute as these knights have so many awesome weapon loadout options, it seemed a shame to just glue on one loadout and consign the rest to the bitzbox. Origninally I dug out the places to hold the magnets by hand using some crafting gouges and awls. Since then I have got a dremel and really really wish I had bought it earlier! I've started 'wrting' some fluff to go with this Freeblade (admittedly mostly in my head!) Homemade destroyed/ravaged by Chaos due to his brother knight turning to the dark powers (future project will be building his brother, Diomedes' Chaos Knight for which I hope will come even close to the amazing conversion that Krautscientist completed - check his work out over here at  Kraut Scientist's Chaos Knight - absolutely awesome inspiring stuff. ) was rescued and taken in my the AdMech of Achlys III, whom he know fights alongside in his hope of eventual vengeance against his former brothers in arms. Sarpedon is the pilot and his engine has been rename 'Orphan's Wrath'. In thinking up a colour and heraldic scheme for the Freeblade, I wanted to give it quite a 'Greek' feel as the fluff pulls a bit from ancient Greek culture and mythology, albeit in a rather loose and twisted way. Of course as ever, I do love to sketch ideas, things and bits out as I go along. The first page of doodles I bloody lost! So I started over and the new stuff did actually come out a lot better imho!

Freeblade 'Orphan's Wrath' Heraldry Ideas

Main elements are going to be playing around with a Greek(ish) helmet, laurel leaves and the trident. The main decision though was the main colour scheme was going to involved a creamy marble scheme. Now, finding good marble painting tutorials is not the easiest of things. At all :/ However after a load of searching, reading, head scratching, swearing, reconsidering, re-reconsidering, stubborness, more swearing, a lot of coffee and a final ' fuck it - I'll give it a bash anyway' - a faux marble effect was attempted.

Here's the progress -

 

 First all lots of nuln oil to tone down the incredibly shiny leadbelcher sprayed basecoat. Then lots n lots of brass fittings and bits as that ties him in quite nicely with the scheme and style of Achlys III's forces.

 Head done first and then one of the masks ansd the cowl were painted as test pieces for the marble effect

Test painting went well, so onto carapace, greaves and leg armour plates - step 1 - basecoat then staining

Step 2 -defining the cracks

 Step 3 - softening down the whole effect

Then onto the metals

Test fit - check the look so far. Happy happy with how this is going :D

More armour plates and time for some weapons!

 

'Orphan's Wrath' - Freeblade Imperial Knight

 And that's where we're at now. He's coming along pretty nicely. Really happy with the overall look. Next week (once the Kats I'm working on are done) it'll be back to the knight for the rest of the weapons, shoulder plates and other bits. After that, decals  (not that many as I've made all my own heraldry) and a load of freehand painting!

 

 

 

 

 

Kickstarted

Came across this little diamond of a kickstarter over on dakka. 'Asylum - The Alderney Case'
They're 54mm boutique figs from Thirdman Studios in France. Dark, twisted and very very cool. I pledged for an individual character box at first bu looking at the sculpts again, just had to up my pledge to storybox (way better value anyways)
Have a look anyway and see what you think

'Trick or Treat'

A bit after the date but hey ho. Finally finished the Dark Eldar Haemonculus I'd been painting for the Halloween paintin comp over on Dakka. Always loved this fig. It's a really beautiful sculpt but fairly fiddly as well. Especially as I paint in pieces or subassembies rather than gluing the whole thing together at the start. Anyways - all finished with an unfortunate Cadian for him to play with. Hope y'like him

Jan

Minus The Merciless, Dark Eldar Haemonculus

Minus The Merciless, Dark Eldar Haemonculus