Thursday, March 7, 2013

IC podcast - March! Nephilim and Dark Talon pt 2

Not much of an update, but I wanted to mainly cover some airbrushing that I did on the fliers.  First, and most foolishly I basecoated them in Chaos Black. BAD MISTAKE.  I ended up with fuzzy models. I ONLY ever get this problem with Chaos Black, it's an awful paint in my opinion.
Luckily I was able to deal with the issue with some careful wetsanding, then re-primed the affected areas with P3's black primer.  It's far superior in my opinion.  It's a shame that I can't buy Osh primer up here in Canada. After I airbrushed, then did the usual thing where I have to get rid of the "suede texture" that the Tamiya paint leaves behind for me, it was better.  Then as with the bikes I painted the Boltgun Metal and the red (hurricane bolters on the Dark Talon) I did a wash through the airbrush with the thinned Badab Black.  I wasn't happy as there was a bit of a tide mark left, which hasn't happened before. Cleaned it up though, with some careful application of a 50/50 mix of black paint and black wash.

I wanted to get the wing panels to look something like they do on the box. Well, the Nephilim wings anyway.  I do like the look of the Dark Talon, but that is a lot of work. I tried to mask off the statuary bits on the fuselage bit it was a LOT of work, and there are - for me anyway - a lot of awkward spots and corners to get the masking tape trimmed around. I will brush paint that stuff as best I can.

 

I masked the wing panels with some 10mm Scotch autobody masking tape, and trimmed with a fresh #11 blade.  It took two evenings to get it done, but it was very tidy in the end.


Yes. Hilarious amounts of blue painter's tape.  The green stuff was from the dollar store and just STUNK. Didn't stick worth a damn either.  I was quite worried that when I took the tape off that the adhesive would affect the paint.  Didn't, though. 

I decided to try some of Vallejo's Model Air line for airbrushing the wing panels.  I bought the white and cerulean blue from Imperial Hobbies, a local hobby store that has a LARGE range of materials for all kinds of scale model, miniature, board game and card game hobbyist. They're also sponsors of Foodhammer too!
I also bought some of Vallejo's surface primer too. I'll have to play with it to see how it works for me.



I gave the wings a few thin layers of the white until it was pretty much opaque, then I switched to the blue, using a pre-shading technique to hit the rear edges of the wing panels. After that, I just dusted the wings with the white until it reached a point where there was a slight fade into the blue. 


Before I took the tape off, I didn't think it looked that great because I was just looking at a lot of white with a little bit of blue.  I had not considered the contrast that the black would give.  But when it came off - WOW! I'm very happy with it.  




As you can see, the wings look great. I'm hopeful that the rest of the painting goes just as well and each model just pops. That's as far as I am with them right now.  Taking a distraction break while I build a Dakkajet for the Waaagh! of Hamish, my 7 year old Warboss. I'll be putting the third twin linked Supashoota on it, but I need to find a way to Ork up the mounts for that third weapon.  Hopefully the Nephilim will be finished quite quickly.  I imagine the Dark Talon will take a little longer :-)

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

IC podcast - March! Nephilim and Dark Talon

My commitment for March was to build and paint the Nephilim Jetfighter, but since I also have a Dark Talon I thought that I would do them side by side. Not in single file to hide their numbers.

I built one Nephilim and two Dark Talons. But I only have one Dark Talon. Story goes thus; I started assembling my Nephilim and went through the first few steps of assembly. Then I went to grab part #3 from the sprue which is the cockpit control panel. Missing... I looked around, POSITIVE that I hadn't clipped it and dropped it.

The part that was missing is the one you see in front of the pilot. Now not missing.

So as I said in a previous posting; after I tore my hobby space apart I convinced myself that it was in fact missing from the kit. I called my local GW, gave them a heads up and went in the following evening. I was sure they thought I'd just lost the part, but true to their customer service policy they wrote off a new kit and gave me the missing part. I happily completed the kit!

The Dark Talon assembly was going VERY quickly, and I almost had it done in an afternoon. Almost. I was almost finished the assembly when I noticed a fault in one half of the fuselage.

Wife suggested that maybe an extra gun could poke through the hole. 
So off I went with an almost completed kit and showed them. The member of staff tore open a brand new kit so that we may inspect the entire kit together. The look on his face was priceless. The part that was missing from the first kit was also missing from this kit! Because I didn't want to be a complete ass, I pried the control panel from the model I was returning and took the replacement kit with me. Five hours later I had the kit fully assembled without faults. Work the next day was not fun. So tired.

As with the Darkshrouds, I magnetised the pilot for easy in-place assembly.  He's out and in the box to make it easier to paint the cockpit.  Nick The Grip suggested that I should not merely magnetise the torso in case it came loose after the canopy was glued on.  Bonus attraction - it can be a game where you shake the model in an attempt to get the torso back in position! But I said no - it will be glued.

Oh, I have no idea why because I'll probably lose the bloody thing but I magnetised the Statis Bomb that goes on the Dark Talon. Installing magnets like this!

 

Pretty easy, and I didn't really need to put any putty on the back for support, it's not like there is any heavy weight on it.  I did buy some very short drill bits at GameStars, my FLGS.  1/16" High Speed Steel bits, and they're about 1.5" long! A product of Primal Horizon.

Magnetising the bomb was a little fiddlier.  The small tab was too small for a magnet, so I drilled in and buried a piece of paperclip in there.  Just enough for the magnet in the fuselage to grab. Nice.

So there they are.  Ready for paint.  I also magnetised the megabolter/lascannon assembly for the Nephilim - there is a spot where a 1/16" magnet will fit inside the recess at the top. Next - PAINT! Huzzah!

 


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

February - Chaplain Dreadnought, part 2

So there's not much to tell really - it's complete!

There's no need for a stroke by stroke account of the paintwork since the black is pretty much the same as the Ravenwing, and the base was done using the same materials I used for the Ravenwing bases.

I played around with some of the new GW metallics for the bronze and copper areas.  There's too much gold being used in 40K.  I like the patina of a red metal, so I went with that.  The cooling tubes on the plasma gun were painted in using Hawk Turquoise up to Ceramite White.  That new white really covers well but it's too artificial - too stark for my taste for general use.

I left the mud shiny on the base.  The bubbles were done using Non-Pareils!

I'm quite satisfied with how it turned out.  And here's a few pictures for you to enjoy.

 

 

Next up... I dunno. Haven't decided yet.  I'm working on cleaning and prepping the dreadnought drop pod. Maybe at the same time I shall work on the flyers.

In the meantime, here is the army list that I committed to.


HQ: Belial (1#, 190 pts)
1 Belial, 190 pts

Elite: Deathwing Knights (5#, 235 pts)
4 Deathwing Knights, 235 pts = 4 * 46 (base cost 46) + Knight Master 51

JANUARY COMMITMENT COMPLETE: Fast Attack: Ravenwing Attack Squadron (8#, 331 pts)
1 Ravenwing Attack Squadron, 0 pts
5 Ravenwing Biker, 181 pts = 5 * 27 (base cost 27) + Flamer x1 5 + Plasma gun x1 15 + Ravenwing Sergeant 41
1 Ravenwing Sergeant, 15 pts = (base cost 0 + Upgrade to Veteran Sergeant 10) + Melta Bombs 5
1 Ravenwing Attack Bike, 55 pts = (base cost 45) + Multi-melta 10
1 Land Speeder, 80 pts = (base cost 50) + Assault Cannon 30

Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad (5#, 245 pts)
4 Deathwing Terminator Squad, 245 pts = 4 * 44 (base cost 44) + Chainfist x1 5 + Assault Cannon x1 20 + Deathwing Terminator Sergeant 44

Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad (5#, 245 pts)
4 Deathwing Terminator Squad, 245 pts = 4 * 44 (base cost 44) + Chainfist x1 5 + Assault Cannon x1 20 + Deathwing Terminator Sergeant 44

Heavy Support: Land Speeder Vengeance (1#, 160 pts)
1 Land Speeder Vengeance, 160 pts = (base cost 140) + Assault Cannon 20

Fast Attack: Nephilim Jetfighter (1#, 180 pts)
1 Nephilim Jetfighter, 180 pts

FEBRUARY COMMITMENT UNDERWAY - Elite: 1 Chaplain Dreadnought (IA)
1 Chaplain Dreadnought (IA) - Storm Bolter; Dreadnought CCW; Dreadnought CCW; 

Dedicated Transport: 1 Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod (IA)
1 Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod (IA)

Total Roster Cost: 1841

Sorry, I couldn't get the other nine points from anywhere but I'll be painting more models than listed. I promise! For instance, when I work on the two Terminator Troop choices, I will be painting a Deathwing Champion to go with my existing command squad. I will also be building and painting a few of the fat kids with Cyclone Missile Launchers and lightning claws. There will be six more Knights painted to go with the five in the commitment. MAN, I want to put eight of them in a Spartan with Belial and Asmodai.

The Land Speeder Vengeance will have its Darkshroud pieces painted at the same time. As will its twin, so that month's commitment will be a twofer! I could say the same for the Nephilim as I will be painting the Dark Talon in the same month.

I couldn't get them into the list but I have the Ravenwing command squad and six black knights to do also. I'm glad there's a banner in each box since that gives me three tries at not f'n it up