Scott Mc’s Blog

Decided to tidy up the diamonds I had already done, and also try and add some shading to the blue and red (will consider the black and white – no highlights on white though, and unsure if a highlight on the black only will look odd….)

I also bought a Micron pen for the outline of the pattern – used this to tidy also.

Also airbrushed the black areas roughly and applied a very light grey highlight.  Will probably use the airbrush for the faces / masks and plumes, the rest will be brush work.

On track for early 2015 completion of the squad.

The fear is real….. Having procrastinated in Mordor and LOL for the past few weekends, I have gotten back onto the dreaded Harlies.

I tidied up the blue / blue green base for the diamonds on all of them, then added a freehand diamond to one.  I was not happy with the time it took to mask the reaper, and the result was not as crisp as I expected from that much effort.

Still not thrilled with this result, particularly when zooming in on this photo! But it looks decent from non magnified range.  Could have been allot worse.

(For my record – the red is a 1:1 mix of warlock purple and blood red)

Thinking about how to paint this squad has stopped me painting on 2 separate occasions.  The last hiatus lasted 4 years…..

So enough thinking and time to just do it.

The airbrush work on this guy is done – so grey lining, metallic’s and gems to go.

The checker pattern I did by masking the “grid”.  I.e. I applied masking tape in parallel lines.  Airbrushed in black, then when dry apply more tape to the other angle.  Then I painted the black diamonds.  (the leg and skull was white primed – the black areas had been taped to keep that black prime finish)

The check is not as “tight” as I wanted it to be.  But if could have gone a lot worse!  Will experiment with a freehand outline on one of the next harlies I think.  The tape method can work – but jeesus – it took a long time to tape up just one leg!! Probably 2.5 hours just for this small amount of painting ……… at that rate, I might finish the squad mid next year.

I got to be honest. I don’t know how long I spent on this squad.  I do know that it was probably way too long – but at this point, I’m calling it worth it 🙂

And the reverse angle for the front row

Dire Sword Exarch

And the less impressive, but more game play useful twin catapult

I suspect it was a 50 hour paint effort, and I cannot remember assembly! (probably 5 hours I guess)

My best work to date I think.

Assembly complete.  You may note some grey patches on the shoulders (if you look closely); recently primed area after removing from sprues.  Will paint them through the week, gloss varnish (the patches) and ready for washing next weekend.

From there, decals, matt varnish, and add some grass tufts and all done.

Some decent photos will be available from the next update, but in the interim!

And

The avenger sighting system gem thingies were tricky to paint on the sprue – in fact I have no idea if the job is bad or great – will see it when I cut them out next weekend…….  That aside, happy with how things are looking.

I have always hated grey lining blacks – generally my results are horrible.  I think this is probably my best effort; I added a bone white highlight layer to a medium grey.

9 guns like that.  3 exarch option catapults (I probably over highlighted them – but I wanted them to “pop”), and the grips on the two swords.  Took too long to think about ….. I think I am up over 17 hours painting time on this squad now.  Gems, some ribbons and metallic details to go, then time to varnish, decal and assemble before washing and final matt varnish…..  Not going to finish them this weekend, maybe next week.

I’m baaa-aaaaack

Project 1 – the wraithguard.

Then i decided to get an airbrush.

Wraithguard with new tools – shiny!

Onto the firedragons.

Loving the airbrush – but, I wanted more.  So;

For clarity – this is a bunnings $99 kit, modified with a commercial fridge compressor on top for indoor friendly quiet operation!

Now working on a squad of dire avengers.  I wanted to go airbrush nuts again, and assembled avengers just seemed like a hassle.  So a bought another 10.

The bulk of the bits as of now can be seen in a single crappy shot below.

A couple of highlights – I am pretty happy with the power weapon and diresword effects (man I love the airbrush).

And went for some visual progress today, reasonably happy with how the heads are coming along (metallic’s, oil wash and transfers still to go).

I predict a fully painted army…. uuummmm soon 😉

No painting updates to speak of, but time has not been totally wasted.

Change of plan, with MOAB fast approaching, it occured to me that I am no where near complete in my army painting.  Thus the new plan; get a legal 1250 point list painted asap.  It won’t be overly competitive, but should be fun, and playing 10 games in 3 days against different people can’t hurt my learning curve 🙂

 So, time for some big point minis to hit the painting table.  #1 the Wraithlord, his smaller cousins squad will get finished off next.

A choice of 2 photos for the remaining profile, one washed out with a flash, the other hidden in shadow.  The trusth is there, somewhere in between ……….

 And finally, a shot for scale – and because I wanted another photo of this guy – pretty happy with the result 🙂