Showcase; Forgemas 14; Eldar Corsair Hornet

Hi All

At last, after a mere 3 months, my Eldar corsair Hornet is finished.
I must say I've enjoyed this project immensely, apart from the water effects fiasco of course, but even that led to a much better base in the end.
It bodes well for the rest of the army I'll be building and painting that I've enjoyed the paint scheme and I've learnt some stuff whilst doing it and also improved my method since I developed the scheme on the test figure. I'm looking forward to it a great deal.
Here's some pics of the finished model...

I say it's finished but in truth it's not quite complete; I want the army to have a symbol which will be some form of stylised scorpion or possibly just the tail. My Corsair Band are called the Scions of the Scorpion; their back story being that the Corsair Prince and his Bladesworn Retinue were at one time Striking Scorpion Aspect Warriors, hence the green and yellow colour scheme and the fact that I will be converting striking scorpions to represent my HQs.
Anyway back to the symbol, or lack thereof, I haven't nailed down the design yet so I'll be leaving all the models without varnish and I'll come back to them all once I'm happy with the symbol.

So my next project will be some scenery for an upcoming Code 40K event; Worcester War IV, more on that in later posts, and then back to finishing off my Imperial Knight Freeblade.

Hope you like what I've done with the Hornet, c and c as ever is most welcome.

Bluddtoof

Forgemas 14, Eldar Corsair Hornet, More Progress...

Hi All

Done some more work on my now severely delayed Forgemas entry, my Eldar Corsair Hornet.

Above is the overall progress, following are a few shots of the details..

Two shots of the underside which is now complete apart from a little work inside the exhaust ports.
The second shot is with a flash, which brings out the yellow highlights on the green plating a little more.

And a few shots of the hornet  so far on its base...

That's it for now, the work on the underside since the last post amounts to about 10 hours. Just the top side and some detailing work like gems and such like to do now so I should be done soon.

As ever c and c welcome...

Bluddtoof

Forgemas 14, Eldar Corsair Hornet Update; Base Complete

Hi all

Bluddtoof here with another update on my Eldar Corsair Hornet; the base is now complete with the addition of the hunted Guardsman and his abandoned kit...

I painted the guardsman in muted colours so he wouldn't stand out too much, the Hornet is the main event here after all. I chose green, grey and brown shades as these will tie him into the base colours.

he's painted quite simply, with just simple highlights and washes.

I took a few shots with and without the flash and with a really strong light source off to one side too...

Hope you like it so far, I'm working on the hornet itself now, more to come soon..

Bluddtoof

Forgemas 14, Eldar Corsair Hornet, Painting the redesigned base.

Hi All

Bluddtoof here with an update on my Hornet base. My previous post was about the disaster I'd had with some ageing water effects; I'd rebuilt the base without any watery areas and it's now painted....

Next step will be to paint the guardsman who's hiding on the walkway and some final weathering touches, including a little sponge weathering on the pipes and glossing up the damp areas.

More to come soon...

Bluddtoof.

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

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. 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

Sons of Horus Justaerin Terminators - The Beginning

I would consider myself a forgeworld fanboy, I actually do love it. So I've finally decided, that for my heresy army, I am going to plump for the instigators, the original bad boys, the Sons of Horus.

I recently picked up my first batch of Heresy era models at the Forgeworld Open day along with the Betrayal book. I've picked up Abaddon & Loken, some Justaerin Terminators & a pack of MKIII Iron armour marines with SoH shoulder pads and phobos pattern bolters.

I've decided to start with the 1st company Justaerin Terminators as I later want to move on to Abaddon so I think it will be nice to have him and his squad finished together.

Now we all know Forgeworld stuff costs a small fortune so the army will be bought in stages. That way I can do 2 things, await the Horus, SoH Contemptor and Catalan Reavers release & I can also save for the next batch whilst finishing what I have currently. Well thats the plan!

I am going to go to town and then some on these guys. I'm not interested in timeframe, they will take whatever they take. I'm going to be be doing every technique I know on these - hairspray, osl, chipping etc so i'm hoping for great results. We shall see :-)

So first things first, bases. Now in the past i've been an advocate of the resin bases but this time I wanted some thing a bit more custom. That way I can replicate it whenever I want, without having to buy a load more resin bases.

So here are the Justaerin Terminators bases built and now ready for basecoating

Made using a combination of wood chip/bark, sand, slate, guitar strings, copper wire, resin & brass bits from the 40k basing kit.

Next will be the terminator build, they are currently being snipped, filed & cleaned up including a little green stuff smoothing out.

Till next time

Luko Dakka