Where Are We Now?!

Right - that's what was, now what is....kinda. The buying freeze has had some sucess but far from total! Have picked up a few things in the interim. Got some more of the Mortician's Guild from Steamforged as they are simply awesome - got the Starter Box'Obulus, Cosset and Graves and also the big fella Casket and their mascot Dirge. So they're sitting waiting with Ghast and Silence in the cabinet now.

Also totally caved and picked up a copy of this beauty. When I'm actually going to get them all painted (it's like 50 highly detailed stunning figs in there) well......it'll happen.....IT WILL!!

And last of all (apart from backing Rum'N'Bones - Second Tide on Kickstarter that is) I got myself a Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transport. No, I'm not going to start collecting a SA force (though they are gorgeous) but the Dracosan really has an old AdMech look to it so am going to convert it over to being a reclaimed tank now being used as a transport for my Dust Dogs Skitarii Rangers squad. I've made a start on this one at least. And have converted the top gunner into a skitarii and replaced the multilaser/flamer option with a twinlinked lascannon from the Ironstrider kit.
The cast is for the most part well done but there was a little mould slip and a few other things that need to be filed and fixed. It's pretty much ready for the build now so hopefully get that done over the weekend. Hopefully

Reclaimed Dracosan Skitarii Gunner

 So what have I been painting? 'Eavier Metal over on Facebook is doing another one of their comps and it's a big one - 'Eadbanger II. The amount of figs they've got from sponsors is astounding!! So I fugured I'd give it a bash this year. So far am entering in three categories - Unit/Warband; which I'm putting 'The Ashen' in for. Need to reshoot some photos for them though. Single figure- Showcase; I'll enter 'The Nurse' for that. I've got her prepped, built and primed but really need to get a move on and start painting her soon.

'The Nurse'

 Which leads up to Armour. For this am doing one of Forgeworld's Thanatar Siege Automata. Glorious beast of a model he is. Been trying out a whole pile of new techniques and stuff with him and, touch wood, it's all gone great so far. He has been hogging the paint recently though. He's getting towards final stages now though so should have him finished soon. Am really happy with how it's been going thus far. Few WiPs for you to finish up this post then

Thanatar WiP

Thanatar WiP

Thanatar WiP

Well there we go, all caught up. C&Cs always welcome and paint till ya drop :)

Cheers

Jan


*Edit*   Shit - totally forgot but remembered again. My Harlequin Solitaire was featured on the Games Workshop website. Very very chuffed :D Here's a screenshot

Kats-Be-Done!

Kataphrons Destroyers finally all done. Fantastic figs but, like most of the new GW AdMech are really intircate, fiddley and highly detailed. That is not a complaint - I love all the extra detail. The sculpts are gorgeous but do require an extra element of patience, esp in the builds. I finished building a squad of Skitarii Rangers and they are just a normal squad but still so highly detailed and a touch fiddly. Gonna look awesome when I (eventually) get 'round to painting them up. The King of fiddley has to go to the Sydonian Dragoon though - holy feth that thing was somethign else to put together!!! Yeah......I want another one!

AdMech Kataphron Destroyers

AdMech Kataphron Destroyers

AdMech Kataphron Destroyers

AdMech Kataphron Destroyers

AdMech Kataphron Destroyers

AdMech Kataphron Destroyers

AdMech Kataphron Destroyers

AdMech Kataphron Destroyers

Anyways - here's the squad of Kats. The lead one has a command carrier platform and I jumped ahead and painted the Alpha of the Skitarii Ranger Squad to ride along. Hope you like them :D

Jan

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