Forgemas 14; Eldar Corsair Hornet, Update. Disaster Averted!

Hi All

Bluddtoof here with a much delayed update on my progress on the Eldar Corsair Hornet.
My previous post on this showed the build, including the scenic base, find it here. Unfortunately I had something of a disaster during the next step which I will now explain....

So I started the process of painting the base, this needed to be done in a few steps as the plan was to use water effects to simulate a water filled trench. I started by painting the concrete trench wall,

I had painted the slimy water beneath the walkway during the build so at this point I painted the rusted metal walkway. I took the second photo with flash so the colour of the water shows up better.
Next I moved onto the pipes and painted the base in the green slimy colours which would show through the water effects...

I also added some weathering and moss effects across the concrete, as well as a freehand peeling poster by the valves.
Once I was happy with all that it was time to tackle the water effects; I built a mould around the base using a piece of thin plasticard wrapped tightly around the base, this was lined with a sheet of greased cling film to stop the water effects resin sticking to the mould...

It all went incredibly well to this point, first time I'd tried this and well happy so far, I then proceeded to pour the thin layer, about 1 1/2 mm deep into the mould..... no seepage! Huzzah!
I left the model in nice warmish room to set, a day later no change, nor the next day or the 2 after. At this point I was a little concerned as the resin was showing a marked dip in the centre, I checked for leaks but all was good there. Next day some of the resin was starting to clear but only in the middle of the 2 sections, so 4 days in and it was barely setting, I decided to check the bottle to see if there was a best before date; no such thing, however I did spot the GW copyright text which was dated 2000-2005, implying that the bottle was as much as 10 years old! I had a little think and realised that yes this was the very bottle I used nearly 10 years ago when I built a series of water filled craters for a scenery project! Now I don't know for sure if age was the primary cause of the failure to set but I suspect it played a major role. 6 days later the resin had still not set but had in fact taken on the consistency of cottage cheese!
At this point I decided to carry out a little exploratory surgery; removing the mould which pulled a mass of gloopy, cloudy resin with it. I then spent a pleasant couple of hours scraping and cleaning to remove the residue, in the process I had to remove the mesh walkway completely and some of the pipework too.
This was the weekend before Christmas so finishing in time for the judging was unlikely, I was now nearly 2 weeks behind schedule. So I had a few days off and then set to work redesigning the base and building the new bits. I've gone for a more pipe filled dry trench now, here's some pics of the newly rebuilt base, some of the paintwork was unaffected as you can see...

I'm now in the process of repainting this and I actually quite like the new look, I will be buying some new water effects resin for use on other models in this army, I have a plan for a large base depicting guardsmen crawling through sewer pipes to evade a prowling grav tank

So to close, if you're planning on doing something similar, check that your resin is still in good condition before committing it to your models!

Stay tuned for more updates as this progresses.

Bluddtoof

Imperial Knight Freeblade, Work in Progress.

Hi All

Time for another update on my progress with my Imperial Knight; I've finished the base and legs now apart from the final weathering which I'll be doing all in one go once the models complete so as to ensure I get a coherent and consistent finish.
Here's pics of it so far...

I'm pleased with the banner sculpt, I've not put the lightest highlights on the red and bone on it that you can see on the plating or the gloss finish, as the banner will  be a tattered piece of grubby cloth once the weathering is done, with the heraldry just showing through the dirt and grime of decades of war without the support of a knightly houses tech servants to repair it.
I've given all the gold trim another coat of Lamentors Yellow Glaze to bring it up a little more. The clenched fist is a transfer and the vines and thorns are all freehand.

Next step is to move onto the torso sub assembly, less plating on that so it should be a little quicker to paint.

More to come soon....

Bluddtoof.

Imperial Knight Freeblade Work In Progress

Hi All

A quick update on my progress with my Imperial Knight Freeblade. I've made quite good progress this week and the legs and base are almost complete.
Here's a few pics....

As you can see the base is now done, the rocks were painted in a dark grey base and washed black then dry brushed with a series of lighter greys up to a final very light brush of white. I've tried to create a few rivulets of frozen ice and water trickling between the rocks; these were initially painted in a pale blue and then highlighted right through to white, they were then gloss varnished.
The snowy areas were first painted white, quite roughly, just to give a good base of colour, I've found that putting snow flock on top of a non white base gives it a dirty grey look. The snow itself is bicarbonate of soda. This is the first time I've used it instead of white flock and I have to say I prefer it, I think it gives a more powdery look, it was simply sprinkled generously over a thinned coat of pva glue and left to dry. The excess was harder to get rid of than snow flock.
I wasn't happy at this point though with the icy trickles, they weren't shiny enough so I decided to use a little water effects on them......this was almost a terrible mistake as I hadn't taken into account the bicarb! It reacts with water (and other liquids) the base went a bit frothy as bubbles appeared all around the edges of the "water"! Thankfully they did dissipate with a little help, next time I'll use the water effects before the bicarb!

Here's a close up of the heraldry I've gone for....

As you can see it's a mix of transfers and freehand vines, I'm pleased though it's a shame about the quality of printing on some of the fist transfers. Each example of thee heraldry will be slightly different depending on the area of the model it appears on. The plates were given a gloss varnish before applying the transfers so as to give a better fix and reduce the noticeable shine common with transfers.

I'm leaving the weathering to the very end once it's all done and put together so I can weather the model as a whole. That will be a first for me too as I don't usually go in for weathering. I'll be experimenting with weathering powders so any hints or tips will be most welcome.

Hope you like it so far, feedback is as ever welcome. I'm currently working on the 2 shin guards and a tattered crotch banner I've made from green stuff (you can see them in the background of the first shot). More pics to come soon......

Bluddtoof

Imperial Knight Freeblade W.I.P.

Hi All

Bluddtoof here with more w.i.p. shots of my Imperial Knight Freeblade.
I've got the armoured plates done on the legs now so all I've got left to do on this section is the iconography some weathering and the base.
I'd hoped to be a little further along by now but the weathers been so hot here this week that I've struggled to paint as the paint has been drying much quicker, sometimes before I've even got it on to the model!
Here's a few pics, including close ups of the green cables as requested.....

Hope you like it so far, I'm thinking I might take the highlight a little further on the red, it shows more in the flesh than on these pics but it's still quite subtle, I'll give it some thought and let you know over the next few days.
As ever feedback is very welcome.

Bluddtoof

Imperial Knight Freeblade W.I.P. The Build

Hi All

So now that our day of Deadzone is done, (and a great day it was, a cracking game which is ideal for a group day letting, everyone play several games), it's time for my next project; my Imperial Knight!
Firstly it's a really nice kit, easy to build and goes together nicely, I'd originally intended to magnetise many of the parts so as to give me the flexibility of main weapon options and also to have a model which was easy to transport but was held solidly together on the table, alas it has not come to pass because none of the joints between arms/body or body/legs lend themselves to the placement of magnets, I've not tried magnets before and I want my first attempt to be on a model that does lend itself easily. As for the possibility of using magnets to allow swapping out of the main weapon, that also proved impractical for two reasons; the two variants both have different power feeds that connect to a common point but the Thermal cannon feed originates from a piece which is hidden inside the main body of the gun and so cannot be removed, also the battle cannon ammo pack is hollow and so would need extensive remodelling to provide an anchor point for the magnet. In short I decided it was too much work for a first attempt and I've settled on the Thermal Cannon and I will fix the torso to the legs but leave the arms separate as they have a nice twist and lock connection to the torso.With this set up the model will fit snugly in a figure case.

So on to the model itself, I've built all the sub-assemblies and the next step will be to undercoat them.
The model will be fielded almost exclusively alongside my Space Marines, the Thunderbolts who feature a rock and snow theme on the basing. The Knight is a big imposing model anyway but I wanted it to be more so, originally I'd had the idea that I would model it stepping up onto a snow covered rocky outcrop, however the legs are moulded as a rigid piece for their entire length so no convenient knee joint, I looked at the knee with a view to cutting and reposing but the mould has no material to play with and so I would have needed to sculpt the whole knee section which is beyond my sculpting talents, the last thing I wanted was to give my beautiful model a gimpy leg!! I settled on mounting the model on a large rock outcrop, thus raising it even higher over it's foul enemies! The rock is modelled from thin sheets of balsa glued together and held with elastic bands overnight, once dry I cut away at it to create the broken and eroded shape, the layers give the appearance of a slate outcrop. Then an all over coat of thinned PVA to seal the balsa. Once dry I glued the legs sub-assembly in place and then I applied the rocks, gravel and then sand in stages letting each stage fully dry before the next. One benefit of using balsa instead of sculpting from a modelling clay is the base is very light so I didn't need to be too concerned over the bond between the models feet and the rocks.
Here's pics of the base prior to undercoating...

You'll notice I haven't attached the shin guards or the crotch banner as these will be painted separately and attached at the end.

In total I'll be painting the model in 12 pieces, firstly to break up the monotony of painting very large areas at a time and secondly to minimise the amount of areas which are hard to reach.

Painting pieces like the banner and the shoulder guards will also be easier as I'll be attempting some freehand work on the Knights heraldry, he's going to be a freeblade, I'm still working on the design for his heraldry.
The other technique I'll be trying for the first time is OSL, which I'll be using on the eye lenses and the face mask.

That's it for now, more to come over the next few weeks....

Bluddtoof

Eldar Corsairs, My New Project, Modelling the Bases

Hi All

So Worcester War 13 has been and gone and now it's time to start something new.
Last year I went to Warhammer World with some of the code boys for the Carnage tournament and whilst there I picked a few nice forgeworld bits and pieces for my long planned Eldar Corsair army.
With the release of Doom Of Mymera last year I'd written a few little lists and knew roughly what I wanted, namely a jet pack heavy infantry army with some heavy vehicle support. So most of that is bought in one form or another and just waiting for some glue and paint....
To start with I'm doing a corsair squad to test out my new colour scheme, but before even that happens I needed to sort out how I was gonna base the army up, I don't see a bunch of space pirates sporting squad markings so how to differentiate the squads since they'll be equipped similarly if not identically? I took inspiration from a guy I played against at the Spikey Clubs SVAXIII tournament earlier this year; he had a lovely Deathwatch Marine army who's individual marines each had their own chapter badge on 1 shoulder pad but no squad markings, so he'd used a unique base design for each squad, with all models in a squad having the same style of base. I liked this idea and I've stolen it and modified for my own needs.
My army represents a corsair raiding party assaulting an imperial base, so the bases will be cut-away sections of flooring complete with girders and ducting under the floor. Each squad will be identified by the type of flooring material they're stood on.

The flooring discs cut out for the first squad;

The bases with girders added. These are plastruct girder sections cut roughly to size;

Pipes and cables added;

The bases complete with the pipes and girders cut/filed and sanded to the shape of the base and with the flooring discs fixed on top;

A base with rivets added;

The rivets are made from the tiny plastic balls you find inside water filter cartridges. Each cartridge contains thousands of them as shown here,

Just drill a hole in the surface a little smaller than the ball and pop one in, I used a pair of pointy tweezers. It's a little fiddly but worth it. The filter cost a fiver and I don't think I'll ever run out!!

 The bases for the squad with rivets and some pipework coming up through the floor on one of them, this will be duplicated throughout the army.

That's the bases done, next is modelling the squad itself.

Til next time........

Bluddtoof

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