Space Wolves Iron Priest (Part 3)

With the icon drawn on the yellow knee guard, and few minor touch-ups, I declare this model done!. Time for some natural lighting shots, outside in the moss patch:

Iron Priest in natural lighting.

Again, this was a very challenging miniature to paint. And I originally thought I could knock this out in a few days? Hahaba! Hell no! Still, I am very satisfied with the end result even though my decision to embrace Mars Red on an Iron Priest may be slightly controversial to the fluff police.

So much stuff to freeze with my icicle gun.

I drew the knee icon on with a micron pen. It took me a few attempts until I settled on this one as "close enough."

Still working on a name for this guy. Keen-eyed readers of this blog might have spotted the name Iron Prieat Wotton over on the Rogues Gallery page. That is name of my original, metal, Iron Priest whom I have yet to paint. But finishing this guy has inspried me to put him into the queue so he may one day make an appearance.

Ageir Ironjaw the Iron Priest is the name I am leaning towards for this guy at the moment, but I could be influenced to change that (no, not gonna name him Lager, sorry Cheef ).

Space Wolves Iron Priest (Part 2)

I have dabbled off an on, here and there,  on this miniature since I posted part-1. Not enough I thought to justify a "part 2" at any of those times, but finally I think we have arrived at that point. In fact, after a new hours of concentration, he is all but done.

The assembled Iron Priest.

I feel like this was the hardest single miniature I have ever painted. This model is practically over-loaded with details. I don't know how someone could assemble him first and expect to reach all the details when painting it.

Backpack and head attached.

Granted, I made things harder on myself by chosing to make him predominately red with Space Wolf gray and yellow details instead of just Space Wolf grey like all the example GW have presented, but even then,  this would still be a challenging model to paint. During the course of assembly I was applying touch-ups to the paint job that I knew I wouldn't be able to reach later.

Gun arm attached.

The model fits together well, but it is still something of a puzzle. I suggest putting the backpack on first as everything else attaches to it. Then the gun arm followed by the shoulder pad that goes on it. I made the mistake of putting the shoulder pad on last which ment I had to maneuver it past the hydraulic claw arm and cables while the pad was wet with glue. I pulled off this feat, but had I put the pad on first it would have been less stressful.

Rear details.

A lot of the rear details get obscured or covered up when the left arm and hydraulic claw arm arm attached. I made sure to put my Space Wolf decal on prior to the final assembly.

Assembled.

And here he is, assembed! To think, I thought I could do this in less than a fortnight! It's probably possible for me to do but I would have to have been a total hermit to make it work.

Stay frosty.

The frost gun and the hammer's frosty bits both have these ice runes that are another insane detail the sadistic sculptors added. These were a challenging detail to paint also as I kept screwing them up until I was finally satisfied with them. I think I have worked out a better solution for handling it, in case I encounter this sort of detail on another model.

Still one thing left to do...

The only thing left to do is draw a Space Wolf badge onto his yellow knee guard. But I was too tired to do that so I will have to continue that in Part 3. And I could not find a Space Wolf decal small enough for it either. Which is weird as other chapters have them, but whatever.

And a name, got to come up with an appropriate name.... (Yellow Knee the Technician has already been rejected).

See you in Part 3.

Space Wolves Iron Priest (Part 1)

Back in May of last year (2016) you may recall I painted my Eversor Assassin in a fairly fast and focused painting session. I was quite proud of myself in fact and was sure that I could do it again. That weekend I decided to take part in a local painting competition, which stipulated that you had to buy the miniature from their store during the contest window with all entries submitted by May 31st. It was May 22nd, and I knew that if I focused on this model I could knock it out. But I was woefully unprepared for just how complex this model was, but pushed on anyway.

I had decided long ago that my Space Wolf Iron Priests would wear the traditional red armor of the Adeptus Mechanicus - at least to some degree. Either in full suits or just their helms, the red would appear somewhere. You can see where I did this with the gunner on my Space Wolves Landraider (below). Either way, this extra color palette was going to add additional time to my painting deadline.

Land Raider gunner.

I launched right into this project and didn't take any pics until I was past the base-coating stage. The pic below shows how I like to paint loose heads.

Head on a spike.

When painting models that haven't been assembled yet, I often drill a hole into the bottom of the head with my pin-vice and glue it onto a brass rod or wire. This allows me to hold the wire or rod and get to the details with my brush that I might not be able reach if I were holding it with my fingers. If I don't need the pin-vice for anything else I'll leave it on it and paint it just like that. Which is what I did in the pic above.

Above is the model at the base-coat stage.

 I was making decent progress on this when suddenly the person running the painting contest announced on FB that he wanted to see some entries and started posting entries that were already submitted. There was a bit of a back and forth online over it which left me feeling odd about the whole premature showcasing of early entries, so I dropped out. And instead of continuing on this model I put my focus onto a different model that I needed to use in an upcoming game instead.

The state this was in for about a year.

As the year came and went, I found myself once again considering painting and working on some Space Wolves and as I looked upon this model in it's exploded state, I felt a keen yearning to press on and complete him. There has been additional progress on this model, but we'll save that for part 2.