Chosen Diorama

Busy and yet not busy at the same time. School has been closed for the last week and will be until next Monday - well......closed to students, yet we teachers must still come in and sit in our offices. Mercifully I get to go home at lunchtime but sitting at a desk all morning is soul crushing. Anyways, due to this and also the wife is and has been away in Australia visiting friends till Sunday, I have gotten an inordinate amount of painting and modeling done in the last week.
Am working on the DV csm squad - 'The Chosen' for Paradigm's monthly painting comp over on DakkaDakka. These are seriously gorgeous figs. There is 6 of them in total, 2 of which are duplicates so it's five different and really awesome sculpts. If GW got rid of the standard CSM models and instead released a box akin to these Chosen - the whole Chaos contingent would be so much better. Anywho - The Chosen  - stunning sculpts of marines who have had their armour also start to be affected by Chaos; we've got daemonic faces growing out of armour plates, just the right amount of spikey and more vintage looking weapons. Such lovely figs deserve a diorama I thought, so have been building one for them as well. Biggest one I've made so far. As I built it I suddenly realised that it was really reminding me of the little campos or campiellos of Venice. I must be missing Italy again!! Anyways - here's a few WiP shots of what is going on. The Chosen are much further ahead now than shown here but I haven't gotten around to taking newer shots yet. I wanted to try and show their tabbards are having been made of flayed skin. They're very clean looking the now but I will be dirtying, bloodying and weathering them up at bit in final details.
Hope you like 'em
Cheers
Irish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of Knights and Men

On to what's on the painting mat at the mo. (And this is what my workplace is like....nah that's a bit of a lie....it's rarely this tidy lol)

After the wedding, I decided I needed a wee treat (hahahaaha) - still had a wee bit of savings left in my Irish account so a quick (online) trip to Orctown and that was that. Two antsy days later and my (2nd) favourite korean (after 'The Wife' of course ;) ) knocked on my door and delivered this......

The current Knight Warden kit and the new AdMech Tech-Priest Dominus and some sundry supplies incl the new leadbelcher spray. Lovely jubbly!!!!!
Now then - the Tech-Priest is a little on the pricey side.....W40,000 I think. Bloody clampack prices. Everything else (imho) GW does model wise is priced fine for what you get as far as I'm concerned. However, clampack figs take the piss somewhat. However.......the priest fig is GLORIOUS!! He's backbenched for now though.
And on the knight. This kit is huge!!! The 3 original large sprues plus the new upgrade sprue and it's all bloody lovely!!!
Have spent a fair bit of time on YouTube checking out the tuts there as from the start was intending to fully magnetise the bugger.
Getting the appropriate size of magnets over here in Korea (without having to spend a fortune or order from another country) has required a little shopping around and imagination. Here's where I am thus far....

      

 

 

Body and hip joint first. This joint is going to be bearing a lot of weight so I found these 20mm (I think) ND mags in the local Arts'n'Crafts store for the job. The mags have a hole throught he middle and one side is concave. Absolutely perfect for the pillar on the hip joint to fit into and get the full movement. These 20mms fit exactly into the bowl cap piece of the hip joint (forgot to take a photo of that) super glued them in place and then built up some green stuff around the one in the main body.

Works perfectly. The magnets are so strong that there is not slippage of movement when the model is assembled even with the full weapons loadout.

Arms and weapons took a little more time. Especially the upper arm pieces that fit onto the shoulder mounts. For these I had to first file off the ridge that would normally clip into the upper weapon housing and then carve down into the piece (didnt have a 6mm drillbit, so out came the carving tools. Obviously the weapon arms have a bit of weight to them so need a bigger magnet than the little 3mm ones I broght back from Ireland with with me. Looked everywhere......nothing.......until........I found these fridge type magets with 6mm ND inside them. Bought a few packs of those and hacked them apart back at home!! Fitted all the arm and weapons out with 6mm mags and sealed them in with GS and somtimes a bit of cut down sprue as well (the well inside a few of the weapons is pretty deep). Anyways that's the weapons all done and interchangeable. They all fit really snuggly and the 6mm mags are pretty strong so again no slippage. Theonly tricky bit was the carving out of the upper arm pieces. BE CAREFUL or you could ass the whole piece up.

Did manage to give the wee 3mm mags some love though. The 2 carapace weapons are maglocked using 3mm pairs (2 in the weapon and 2 drilled into the hole on the carapace) I also decided to make the face plates interchangeable too. This was more to fit the fluff I'm making for this knight; I want him to have his original imperial knight's house face plate and then a 'vengeance mask' which was gifted to him by an AdMech forge world.......more on that fluff stuff later, laaaattter!!! The masks are fitted using the wee 3mm mags. Simple enough to do.

And so......all the pieces are now cleaned, trimmed, filed, smoothed and magged. Next came priming and basecoating........No way in the warp was I going to be basecoating this monster by brush!!!!  Primed everything with a light coat of Chaos Black spray and then got busy with the new Leadbelcher spray. Was a little nervous as the Skull White spray can be ........odd at times and hadn't heard anything about how the LB spray behaved. But it went on as smooth as silk. beautiful coat. I will say though that the LB spray is somewhat lighter and shinier than the LB paint from a pot.....not by much though, but it sure is quite silvery shiiinny (oh, Shiny!!) I also coated the outside of the armour plates with the Skull White spray, which decided that today was the day that it was going to go on smooth and silky (relief). So, the whole bugger is now primed and basecoated and ready for paint..........well, after I get these DV Chosen and their dio finished up for this month's DakkaDakka competion!!!!!

Anyways, that's where the new Knight is at. The magnetising wasn't that much of a bitch at all and has come together really solidly - no disco wobble at all!! Any questions or anything about the build - just drop me a line in the comments

Cheers

Irish

Ravenwinged it!

Double post again today as I have been a bit remiss at posting (not at painting though of course ;) )
First up - The DV Ravenwing detachment. Finally got them done and entered in the Dakka monthly contest (May). Think I came 5th or so. Which was totally fair enough as some of the entries were bloody excellent. Wasn't able to get a huge amount of painting done last month as the family all arrived from foreign shores and then we had the wedding on the 23rd.
Ravenwing.......yeah.....really don't think I'll be buying/painting anymore of those guys. Not the most fun figs to paint at all. The sculpts and poses are fine but they are just dull to pain. Way too much black coverage and just ....meh!!! Still, got them done (have a few wee tweaks I want to do ....at some point) adn dusted. Hope y'like them

Irish

Ravenwing Attack Squadron Arion

Ravenwing Sergeant Arion

Ravenwing Brother Gethal

Ravenwing Brother Arias

'Run Mon-Keigh........RUN!!!'

Second part of today's postings. The finishsed product. Finally the Harlie Skyweaver is all finished and set into its mini-diorama (see previous post for a quick tut on that thing). Am really happy how the whole thing came out.


Harliequin Skyweaver

 Quick notes..... The motley was all freepainted after being lightly penciled on with a clutch pencil


Harliequin Skyweaver

The rider's hair was done with multiple glazes on a pure white base. Wanted to try using glazes to get that blended look for a change and gota say, glazes are defintely the way to go for hair. So much easier and a much better look. The blood streaming off the back of the zephyr black was once again BFTBG tech paint and a few more bristles snipped off my dog's toothbrush! I had a bit of a fuckup when I sealed the bike with a spray of purity seal and the metallics all frosted over as well as the gems. That was not fun. Everything else seemed to be ok but I had to repaint the frosted areas with was a pisser. Oh - the Chaos cultist (with my DV theme base) is just a proxy for the moment. The final mon-keigh that will be there is gonna be a running screaming Space Wolf marine. Need to somehow get my hands on one. Buying all the seperate parts for one on a bitz site ends up being kinda expensive just for one fig........if anyone out there has a spare screaming running SW they don't want....lemme know ;)

Anyways - there it is. Took about a month all told I think to do and finish which considering I'm supposed to be planning/organising/getting ready for my wedding in under 3 weeks, ain't too bad!!!

Hope ye like 'em

Irish Steve

Free-Basing

Double post today as am well behind. The Skyweaver is all done and dusted. Made a wee dio base for them as well. These dio bases are really easy to do but make a real difference to the finished fig.

 The primary base piece is 2 parts (I'll pop another photo in later if I remember) - The bottom is 2mm black plasticard and then the top part is 2mm foarmboard. Using a circle cutter I cut out the slots for the Skyweaver plastic base and a reg. small base to slot into. The steps are made from the same foamboard and stuck together with hot glue. The tiles are drawn out on 1mm card (should have used plasticard but didnt have any 1mm) then a circle cutter used again to get the one for the flying base. This way it ensures that the tiles on the flying base and those on the dio base will line up.

 The tiles, steps and a rock are hotglued on and then sand and peebles PVA'd on in the usual manner. Because of the foamboard and the card, I gave the whole thing 3 coats of PVA/water mix to make sure they were totally sealed in, as the spray primer would eat into the foam and paint would soak into the card and warp it

 2 light coats of the ol' Chaos Black spray and we're ready for paint :)

The finished base. The greys were done with mech grey as a base, washed with Nuln and then layered up through eshin, dawnstone and lightly drybrushed with admin grey and final highlights of ulthan grey. The tiles are based with tallarn, washed first with seraphim sepia, then agrax earthshade where the sand/stones meet the tiles and in the recesses of the tiles and steps and then layered up through usabti and screaming skull and scrub brushed to give a worn eroded feel. Think I may have used a little pallid wych as well.....Came out really well I think. All told maybe 6-7 hours at the most. And the final product is above :)

Cracking the WIP

Quick wee update while I have a few minutes.
Working on one of the new Harlequin Skyweaver bikes at the mo. Seriously gorgeous piece of kit. Been busy as with the upcoming nupts but still managing to sneak in a little brushtime here and there. Few shots of ongoing progress thus far. Was finished with the actual bike but gonna have to go back and redo the gems on the fins as well as some of the metallics due to the purity seal fethign them up and frosting over. Annoying as hell but thankfully fixable. Anyways, here's where I am. Hope you like 'em :)

Irish

"Alas.....Poor Mon'Keigh..."

Really really quick post as I need to get ready and head to work. Recently finished and based the Solitaire from the new Harlequins range. He was pretty fun to paint except for b/t his legs and greatcoat. That was an utter pain in the ....brushes ;)
I made a few wee alterations - I didnt like the way the original model's left hand was posed so I lopped it off!! Flipped it over so he could hold somethig in the palm of his hand...... a chaos cultist's head no less lol. The blood drips are actually 2 bristles from my dog's toothbrush which were glued between his fingers and then painted after a coat of purity seal with BFTBG tech paint.
Anyways....here is. Hope you like him :)

Harlequin Solitaire - Masque Of The Shattered Mirage

The Brothers Grimm(Dark)

Dark Angel's Deathwing Squad Barachiel

Up to my proverbial tits these days but still managing to squeeze it some painting. Mostly in the mornings as for some godbeknown reason I seem to like getting up at 6am! Anyways.....finally finished up The DV Deathwing squad and even made a wee diorama/scene for them to sit into. Really happy how they turned out. As I was entering them in a painting comp over on Dakka, I decided to make a backdrop for them as well. Piss easy and didn't take that long but sets them nicely into the fluff and I'm all about the fluff!!

That's the final dio. Thin foamboard topped with a sheet of the cobbled street I'm using for basing the DV figs. Circles then cut out of both for the figs to slot into. Stones and sand from the local river added in such a way so that it matches whats on the fig's bases. The wall is foamboard that comes with a layer of cork on top (makes for ace instant texture). The posters came from another artist's blog which I then resized and printed on the school's recycled paper which is much better as it's really gritty and soaks up the inks I used for weathering so much better. The came from Krautscientist's blog which btw I REALLY rec/mnd you check out - https://eternalhunt.wordpress.com/

Here's Vet. Sgt. Barachiel btw - haven't popped his finished pics up yet.

 

I cut a broken Aquila wing out of foamboard to mount him on. As the Sgt, I wanted up to be a little higher than the rest of the squad. I did his powersword in TMM as I'm really not a fan of NMM, esp for weapons; I just don't like the almost cartoony effect that it gives. It's hard to see here but the powersword has a blue sheen to it which worked really nicely just by glazing a few times with drak night shade wash.

 

Anyhow......here's a few other angles/shots of the final piece. Hope you like it :D Any questions/C&C -just hit me up in the comments box

 

Cheers

Irish Steve

 

 

Ohhhhh - There's 3(4) Fluff Easter Eggs or Flufter Eggs hidden in the diorama - see can ye find 'em ;)

 

 





 

Deathwing underway

Been a while eh?!!! Hectic days these; what with all the wedding preps and that. Away pretty much every weekend sorting something else out for the big day. Still getting some painting snuck in though ;) So, what have I been up to......
Well, Paradigm over on Dakka decided to do a monthly painting comp which was just the impetus I needed to get on and tackle the Dark Vengeance Deathwing squad. 3 down, 2 to go! Anyways.....results first, WIPs stuff second!

Brother Mendrion

First one finished was Brother Mendrion......ah dear, poor brother Mendrion......ripped t'shite by the Helbrute, Mortis Metalikus. Brother M. was the test model for the cooler, more realistic (IMHO) Deathwing paint scheme I came across and really liked in another blog (http://fromthewarp.blogspot.kr/2011/09/how-i-paint-deathwing-bone-armour.html - really rec/mnd you check it out)
I really hate the usual warm and creamy scheme that usually goes with the Deathwing. Makes them look like armed profiteroles. Anyways - judge for yourself

Brother Dardariel

Next up came Brother Dardariel and his accessory fetish. Lovely fig to paint. Nice to see a battle hardened religious nutjob warrior who knows how to accessorise his tool of the trade ^_-
The paint scheme and the wet-blending came a lot easier on this fella. Came out brilliantly I reckon :)

Brother Varhmiel

Latest into the cabinet (oohhhh - bought a glass cabinet!!!) is Brother Varhmiel. He's the only duplicate term in the DV boxed set so I wanted some way of setting him apart from his twin. Back to the fluff.....aha - ol'Brother Varhmiel was formerly a long serving member of the Ravenwing. Sweeeeeeeet - boom: black pauldron to honour his time with the Ravenwing. Can see am getting a little more confident applying battle damage to the otherwise pristine armour! I really do hate those perfect pristine never touched armour paint jobs. Needs a touch of reality.

Working on Vet Sgt Barachiel now.........more soon :)

(I'll pop up the WIP pics on Varhmiel I took later on. Tired and needing some snooze now. Friday and its 6-class-day arseholery tomoro)

Harlequin Happiness

Manic trip to Seoul yesterday to go to a wedding festival to get more stuff sorted/booked for the upcoming 'Big Day'. Managed to drag the lass to Orctown for 10 mins to pick up a 'few' things ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Lovely lady got me the Skyweavers as a late Valies present and I grabbed the rest. Can't wait to get busy on the killer space clowns. Gonna be a wee while yet though. Need to finish up the DV Deathwing squad first which is entered in a competition on DakkaDakka. Need to decide on a colour scheme too and how to go about it.  Thinking about the Masque of the Shattered Mirage......Reckon a colour scheme that's fairly classic and works well alongside the Mymeara colours....