Battlemasters Tower (Part 3)

 Continuing from Part Two, I finally made progress on this thing by painting the doors. 

Adorable huh?

These doors were left in their original black primer for a few years now. The idea was that I would simply dry brush them in a gray and call it done. Only that once I got around to doing it I found that the gray of door kind of clashed withe the surrounding gray bricks. 

The gray on black doors. 

Well, I wasn't having that. So a wash of Agrax Earthshade mostly did the trick. I did find that the cracks between the individual door planks needed a kick in the contrast department, and more Agrax Earthshade wasn't going to do it, I needed to bring out something more potent. And that turned out to be Brown Ink from the Citadel Inks set from the '80s. The inks from that time still hold up and they were, and I'm not understanding this, very intense hues. I just used a thin blush and ran the Brown Ink down the joins and along the door edges. 2

Brown Ink in the joins. 

Gray over black. 

The hinges and door latches were all painted with the old Tin Bitz paint, then randomly painted with an old Copper craft paint. 

The studs on the doors were painted in a copper cplor as well then highlighted with Leadbelcher. I used Leadbelcher as a highlight on the hinges and latches also. 

All-in-all, I think these doors turned out pretty good. They really have an archaic vibe to them which is totally what I was going for.  But this mighty little tower isn't done yet. In part tfour I am going to paint the banner that is draped over the front crenalations. Well not the whole banner. -You'll see! 

Anyone know where I can find 25mm-28mm empty milk bottles?

Celestial Lions Chaplain (Part 2)

Continuing on from Part 1, it's time to paint this first-born hero. 

I picked out the gold ornamentation with Retributor Armour and used Skeleton Horde Contrast Paint on the areas I decided to paint a bone color. 

After a bit of internal debate, I decided to go ahead and paint the right shoulder pad a bone color instead of gold. I thought this might break up the monotony a bit. I kind of like the armor bewing white. It reminds me of a Dark Angel force that was shown in White Dwarf back in the '90s that had all the leader models painted in Death Wing white. Well, that's an idea for a different army I think. Next I painted the armor black using good old Abaddon Black 

Next I picked out the gun holster and the wax part of the purity seal using Khorne Red. Gee, for a guy who hates Chaos, he sure is adorned with a lot of colors named for it, huh? 

So, I suppose he's painted to a Combat Ready standard, but I have no intention of  keeping him this way. So far it's been fun painting up this old miniature. Next up, his mid-coats and highlights. 

Where's My Thane?

Of all the used dwarf models that came in the lot that I bought back in the summer, the only one missing a component was the Thane model; he was missing his axe.  His mighty axe. Gone. Lost in the warp. 

"Aye ain't 'armless, aye still got me teeth!"

The paint job on this one was refreshingly basic, so doing my thing over it shouldn't be too challenging I think. I'm tempted to keep that pink trim on his cloak, just for the humor of it. 

Gotta have solid stones to rock the pink frill.

Going through my bits, I found this hammer from the early '00s multi-part dwarf kit that I determined would do the trick. With minimal tinkering I was able to get it to fit, and I think it looks pretty tough. 

Heavy metal indeed!

Being the big-bad Thane that he is, I thought he needed a suitable base. Who needs a tactical rock when you got tactical slab! This came from the old citadel basing kit. I added a few skulls too in order to make it a bit more interesting. 

But is that enough skulls?

Here he is being test fit to the base. Yeah, I think he's going to look cool on this thing. I was surprised at how balanced he was on it, which will make gluing him to it a little easier. 

Surprisingly balanced.

I painted the base up first. I like to keep things detached at this stage in order to get a cleaner paint job. 

Painted rock and skulls. 

Painting this guy was pretty straightforward because he was more metallic colors than anything else. 

The green is my typical mix that I use for my dwarves: Caliban Green with a highlight of old Woodland Green.  As I paint more of these guys in this scheme the cool greens contrasting against the hot metallics seem to work better. Especially when a lot of them are all ranked up.

And yes, that purplish trim contrasts nicely against that cloak also. He's a Thane with a sense of style. 

Style. Pimp royale.

I used the existing color that was on the cloak as base for my greens and it works well giving the green an added sense of depth that I like.  I'm not sure but I think that existing  color was Kabalite Green or an older analog of it... just not too sure actually.

I needed more depth on his beard so I washed it with Nuln Oil and highlighted it again with White Scar.  After a few touch-ups, he was good and done. 

Hammer time! 

Here he is ranked up with the dwarf warriors that I painted a few months ago. I think he looks good and stands out prominently as a leader among his peers. 

A true leader indeed! 

Ultramarines Redemptor Dreadnought (Part 4)

 With mere hours of the year's Dreadtober challenge left, I managed to get my project completed. 

I used 'Ard Coat to apply the decals on this model. This was particularly necessary for the III icon on top the red circle. These two overlaying decals were from a decades old sheet and the red circle almost disintegrated when trying to apply it  I had to repaint it using Mephiston Red before applying the 'Ard Coat layer to get it ready for the roman numeral three.  

I didn't talk about it in the last post, but toward the end of the construction process I decided to use some of the left over bits from the Venerable Dreadnought kit (my Dreadtober project from 2021) to give this thing a bit more flare. The most prominent one being the shield with the terminator honors and skull jewelry  

On his back he has the round Adeptus Mechanicus shield on display. On the examples of painted versions of this model, I don't think I can recall ever seeing anyone paint in the palte that Ad Mech icon on in Ad Mech red. I decided to give it a shot and I think I like the way it turned out. 

The left side of the model doesn't have any decals. it just sort of happened that way!

One of the joys of this model is that the main guns can be swapped out. I see myself using the plasma gun mostly but the assault cannon one is just too cool to leave on the sprue. 

The plants on the base are an assort of grass tufts and Dumb Cane, a new thing I picked up from my local Hobbytown store by a brand called Gamers Grass 

This turned out to be a project that I was very satisfied with in the end, and I look forward to next year! 

Ultramarines Redemptor Dreadnought (Part 3)

 

WIP continues.

Progress on this metal hulk continues. Well, he's a plastic model of a metal hulk anyway. Regardless of all that, he is now blue! With the Dreadtober deadline for my stated project fast approaching I set about trying to achieve my month-end goal.  

The basecoats.

The basecoats were easy and quick. This is primarily because there were really just two colors, Space Marine Blue and Delta Ceramcoat Metallic Pewter (I prefer this over Leadbelcher, but that would suffice if I had to resort to it). 

First stage mid-coats.

Macrage Blue was the next layer added to the blue followed by Ultramarines Blue and edge highlighted with Fenrisian Grey. 

"Guve me details or give me death!"

Getting down to the wire as the days of the month dwindle down to hours. It's mostly the minor details and the big guns that I need to knock out before the final stage of decal application. But can I make that deadline?  With the real-life obstacles before me, my spare time is going to be (and for too much of this month it's already been) sparse and fleeting, but we'll see what I can do! 

Ultramarines Redemptor Dreadnought (Part 2)

 And finally, a progress update:

Forgive my tardiness on this update. I found the construction of this Remdemptor Dreadnought to be a tedious affair. And, much to my chagrin and annoyance, I made multiple mishaps along the way that set me back a bit as well. 

    

The biggest one, and the one I can't figure out how to overcome, is that somehow the bottom door cover doesn't go far enough up so that the top door will set into the groove on the lower door. I haven't been able to figure how I screwed this up, so I moved on. I feel that it gives the semblance of an underbite on this thing which amuses me. 

And yes,, I am keeping this in sub-assemblies for easier painting. 

I love that the guns are interchangeable. A concept I hope the GW design team allows on more kits. 

The left arm was the biggest challenge. I kept making mistakes in assembly and had to tear it apart a few time to get it right. It's not correct as the joint that connects into the should is upside down. I couldn't fix that with damaging the model so I used a piece of sprue to make a stud for the armor plate to attach to.  Desperate necessity for the win I suppose...

I didn't want to spend too much time on the base but I didn't want into be plain either. I cut up a few pieces of sprue to use as rubble chunks and tossed on a few skulls before gluing down some grit. It's subtle but it works. 

And finally, I primed this brute. He is far from done but I celebrated getting to this stage! 

And now, let's get painting! 

Ultramarines Redemptor Dreadnought (Part 1)

 I love this annual event (Dreadtober) as I usually get a really cool model built and completed for one of my factions. Two years ago I did an original Rogue Trader-era Space Marine Dreadnought (Furibundus). This year I will be revisiting that  theme by doing a modern-era Redemptor Dreadnought.  I will probably be following the same painting steps used for the Furibundus,  although it has considerably more detail, so I will likely be using more colors in addition to the Ultramarines scheme.

Redemptor in three sprues. 

Why I chose this Dreadnought is simply because it came with the final issues of Imperium Magazine and I thought it would make for a good endcap for the year considering how many Primaris Ultramarines I painted while I was recovering from my heart event earlier in the year. 

I haven't decided how I'm going to equip this guy yet, but these in depth profiles from the magazine are giving me some ideas...

Inspirational load-out guide. 

These magazines always have these small charts that are fun for rolling up little details about your specific models. They also have record sheets to track stuff like opponents defeated, etc. 

Battle Record charts.

I couldn't resist doing it for this post. So, rolling on the table my guy's name is Brother Allister and the fate that got  him interned into a  Dreadnought sarcophagus was that he was struck by a plasma blast. -Ouch!

Another reason I valued this magazine was the indepth and expanded assembly instructions that contain. This should be quite handy really soon! 

A Snippet of the assembly  guide

With the plastic piled up and clippers in hand, it's time to get Dreadtober 2024 going!!! 

Ready to build. 

What are you going to build and paint? Leave your pledge on the dreadtober blog page once you have it figured out. 

Thunderer Struck! (Part 1)

 Here is the next unit of my recently acquired second-hand Warhammer Fantasy Dwarves to receive my attention. I have already updated their bases from 20mm to 25mm.

Rebased.

Like the previous unit, I intend to just paint over the existing paint job. Weirdly, this unit featured even more metallic colors than the previous lot including green metallic clothing and gold beards.  Color-wise it's surprisingly close to the scheme I'm using, just in metallic. 

Before. 

But unlike the Warriors unit, I felt these guys needed a bit more than just grass tufts. Rocks, random rocks scattered about seemed like a logical, and easy, thing to do. However I needed more small rocks and I wasn't about to pay $9.99 for a bag of them when my front yard looks like this: 

Lots o' rocks.

After a matter of minutes I had gathered up a few appropriate, and interesting enough, rocks to serve my basing ambitions. And I finally found a use for the empty container that came with the old Citadel Basing kit. 

"I gotta rock."

With a few strategic glued down rocks, I decided that the unit leader would look snazzy with an orc skull on his base. Then it was time to apply all the rest of the grit.  -Exciting stuff huh? 

The process for painting these guys is the same I used to paint the previous batch of Warrirors. The original painter painted the wooden stocks of the rifles in a bold burgundy color. I drybrushed on a layer of Screamer Pink and finished that with a wash of Carroburg Crimson to get a look that I liked. 

After.

And with that I have the first guy of this unit done. Well, 'done' to level that I'm satisfied with. I think I can knock out the rest of them in part 2.