Dread-Full December Major Step Forward Hellbrute and Small Step Forward Contemptor

Hi All

So as I write I have made significant progress on the Hellbrute in particular and wanted to show the work off as part of our event.  Since the last post I completed the basic colours which is the bulk of the work for this model and washed the majority of the model with agrax earthshade.

Some of the metal areas I have used Nuln Oil as appropriate. After leaving for a full day to dry the highlighting commenced.  For a while now I have tried to get a nice dark line between the pad edges and the inner section on all space marine trim style models before adding a clear inner line highlight.  This looks striking but takes patience.  Anyway your thinking pictures so here is the Hellbrute so far:

So I have enlarge the pictures to full size and you can probably instantly notice the front is highlighted and the back isn't!  I will finish that for next post.  The other thing I'm mulling over is whether to verdi some of the gold or not?  Thoughts on that are most welcome?  I will also need to highlight the gold trim across the model.  If I haven't mentioned it before the square hole at the back will hold a small dice to show hull points.

Here is another shot showing the Hellbrute with other models within my fledgling chaos marine army.

The original thought for the colour scheme was actually pre heresy thousand sons.  Although clearly this isn't a pre heresy army.  An argument could be made for a Khorne flavour to the army due to the colour scheme.  As yet however I haven't settled on a name, background and so on.  

Lastly a quick look at my second dreadfull December entry my contemptor:

In my earlier post on the contemptor I showed how I have magnetized the arms.  So just to add to my workload I have purchased these.....

This will allow me to field the dread as a Mortis pattern should I feel that is a better option.  Anyway ill be back in a few days with a further update.

DOC Out 

Dreadful December, Space Ork Mega Dread, The Paintjob..............Part 3

Hi All

Welcome to part 3, the paintjob for my Mega Dread. First off I need to point out that this is a BIG model with lots of detail and gubbinz, so my usual paint scheme for my Orks took a while. If you've read any of my older Ork posts you'll know that I favour a patchwork, multi coloured scheme with a red,white and black saw tooth motif figuring strongly throughout and with "red paint jobz" being quite common too.
Considering the very wide palette I use they still seem to come out nice and I particularly like them on the board from 6' away, nice and bright and in your face, with the red really standing out. Anyway enough rambling here's a series of piccies running through  the process.
2 points of note; firstly I removed the 3rd big shoota due to data sheet changes for 6th ed and secondly I decided to base the model before painting to give me something solid to hold onto, the base is a GW flyer base.

The metallic plates washed with a variety of brown washes;

As an interesting aside you can see in the background a few of my new builds, all of which will be making an appearance at Worcester War II next year. Bwahahahahahahahaha! I love Ork toys!

With the red plates done;

With the multi-coloured patchwork of plates done and washed, this uses something like a dozen different base colours and 6 or 7 different washes;

The next step is to paint the white plates, I keep these to a minimum as they can easily take over the model if you use too many. Some get a dirty wash, others are kept nice and clean but painted roughly to give streaks in the finish.
I'll show that and more in Part 4 as this post is getting quite long now.
More in a couple of days.......

Bluddtoof

Dave's Dread-Full December - Grey Knights

I have managed to squeeze a bit of painting time in over the weekend to get a bit more of my dread complete.

I still have more of the detail to complete but it is nearly finished

The back is looking a bit plain and I will see what I can do make it more interesting

I think I have only one more update to do for this, when it is complete

Adeptus Custodes Contemptor Dreadnoughts - Dread-Full December

Well as its christmas, its bargain time, so its 2 for the price of 1 for Dread-Full December!
These guys are for my Adeptus Custodes army (counts as Grey Knights) which I have had semi-complete for a while now.
Although they are Contemptor models, every man and his canine companion knows that grey knights always rock best with the double twin-linked autocannon in either standard or venerable flavour, give them the psybolt ammo upgrade for a measly 5pts and its S8 dakka dakka bitches!
After assembly and pinning I gave them an airbrush basecoat of Vallejo Grey Primer. I chose to spray them with Vallejo Liquid Gold. Vallejo Liquid gold is a fantastic paint although it is not an acrylic, it is made up of gold pigment floating in alcohol. You apply it, the alcohol evaporates and you are left with a very vibrant, shimmering gold. Just the ticket for the emperors finest! Anyone thinking of using it, word of warning, do not get water in it as it will instantly rust..no joke. Also a synthetic type brush is best as the alcohol can eat away your general citadel brushes. After the basecoat I gave it a thin spray varnish to seal it and then applied Oil washes. I've now just hit the highlighting stage.
So here they are WIP: -

The right dread is currently more finished than left. They both still need substantial highlighting and shading in some areas. Bases have been weathered but I need to go in and add more details to the bases. I think i'm going to add some snow so i'll probably do a little tutorial on how I do that. I also have some brass details that I may add to give them a little extra as the armour plates look a little bare, perhaps some freehand on the kneepads may help but we shall see.
I will also do a full post of the army after dreadful December draws to a close.

I'll just leave you with a sneak peak from the army

Cheers
Luko Dakka

Dread-full December, Space Ork Mega Dread, The Build.................Part 2

Hi All

So here's part 2 of my walk through of the Mega Dread build. This will show how the primary weapon arms were built. Importantly it should be noted that both arms can be built for left or right fitting, depending on the orientation of the upper arm to shoulder piece connections. Your choice but be careful not to make 2 left arms! ;)

First up you should recall that I did a dry run and drilled and pinned the shoulder sockets previously but didn't fix them to the torso as shown here;

The Kilkannon arm;

The following series of shots show step by step how I built the main gun and the left shoulder;

The shoulder joint and upper arm, drilled and pinned;

The Barrel and Support prior to fixing showing the excess lug protruding and then with the excess material removed so that the barrel joins snugly to the chambers later. DO NOT fix the support to the barrel yet!

The Kannon frame attached to the upper arm/shoulder sub assembly with the kannon klamp, shown from several angles. The large hole is for a wide pin to connect the shell chambers to the frame later.

The wide pin which will hold the cylinder in place, the kit doesn't contain this. Whether mine was missing or not I don't know, the instructions/contents sheet doesn't show anything. I made this pin from the chopped off lug from the barrel, by shaving it down to the correct diameter. You could use whatever you have available.

The cylinder attached to the assembly. Ensure you fit it with the shells pointing forward! ;)

The barrel support now fitted in place, note that the hole for the barrel is aligned with one of the shell chambers.

Barrel fitted. This was a nice strong joint.

The shoulder guard fitted onto the shoulder joint. This was a total mare! The join is small and not well moulded. I spent a lot of time filing and sanding and in the end used 3 pins to get a decent fix. Be wary!

Left arm in place but not glued, the pin is tight enough that the arm doesn't droop under the barrels weight so I'll probably leave it unfixed after painting for ease of packing and transport.

The Ripper Klaw arm

Now the right arm, this was tricky! The worst bit was fitting the 4 pistons, the instructions are rubbish! My pistons did not conform to theirs, I did lots of dry runs and ended up using them in different positions and having to create an extension for one of them. There was some bad moulding involved with 2 of the pistons. My advice is to take this bit really slowly and be very very patient!

The shoulder pivot connected to the shoulder joint. I pinned this just in case.

The next 3 shots show the pin holes in the wrist and the 3 Klaws and finally the completed "hand".

Adding the pistons to the arm. As I said earlier this was tricky and required a lot of trimming and repositioning.

The arm connected to the shoulder pivot. This required a pin and some careful positioning so that the finished arm was in the desired position when complete. Again dry runs required at every stage.

The pin and hole for the wrist joint;

The klaw attached to the arm. Full rotation is possible here for a wide choice of positions;

The shoulder guard fitted. Again this required a lot of work and 2 pins to get a decent joint.

At this point I will share an important lesson I learnt; Don't Stop Doing Dry Runs!!! With the guard on, the arm didn't fit to the torso with the pin in its current position. Only a fraction off, but enough for the join to not work. So I removed the guard and fixed the arm as I wanted it and then put the guard in place. The arm is now fixed to the torso and cannot be removed.
Lesson Learnt!

The finished model;

Overall well pleased with the build, I made a few mistakes along the way but also learnt a couple of things. This is a big and complex build which deserves a careful approach and the model is well worth that effort.
I have since modified the model slightly as I want to field it in a codex orks army and the latest data sheet for it in I.A.Apoc, which is the only way to have one in a codex list, doesn't allow a third big shoota! Boo! So I've removed it.

The next post will cover painting the model and the base I decided to put it on.

Bluddtoof