A little bit of brush time allowed me to finish off the Land Raider and Rhino that I've been working on for the Thousand Sons, as well as getting the Predator almost caught up.
At the moment I tend to paint all of my models as though they just came off the showroom floor, but seeing such awesome weathering techniques displayed by Several Awesome Bloggers, I'm rather tempted to delve into utilizing some weathering powders and such. Still a bit hesitant to do so, but I'm planning on picking up the Forge World Imperial Armor Model Mastercraft book as I hear it's an excellent resource.
I utilized the advice from Ron over at From The Warp regarding transferring a printed symbol onto a model as a template for painting. I printed out a sheet of Thousand Sons symbols from the BoLS .pdf download section, and cut one out that was the appropriate size. Once I coated the back of it with graphite (aka scribbled all over it with a pencil) I then flipped it over onto the top hatch and traced over the symbol with a ball point pen. The graphite was transferred to the hatch and I was able to use it as the template to paint in the symbol. Not perfect, but from across the table it looks pretty decent. I'll be honing that technique quite a bit over the course of the army I'm sure!
Finally, the Predator is almost done. I still need to work on some detailing (the scroll, a couple lenses, etc.), and figure out where I'm going to put the legion symbol. It was suggested to me to try and set one over and across the two front hatches, but the attempts I made looked pretty terrible and I ended up erasing/painting over the pencil lines. I may just do the bit nova on the rear hatch and a smaller one on the white mantlet on the turret autocannon.
I'm definitely enjoying the paint scheme more and more, and one of the best things about painting tanks is how, when you're done, it appears that a huge chunk of the army has paint on it! ...Of course I'm sure I'll be grumbling about the scheme when I'm up to my ears in 40 tactical marines. Heh.
They look absolutely fantastic mate. Almost tempted to grab a set of the predator turret/sponsons. How heavy are they - would they magnetize easily?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteThe predator sponsons have some decent space for magnetization and would likely work pretty well, though it'll require a bit of work to get them to mate with the standard predator side walls. The turret is designed to accept the GW predator weapons and also comes with a piece with pre-drilled holes for 1/8" magnets to attach your own weapons. The Mk.1 Rhino kit is also occasionally available direct from the seller (though he doesn't advertise them online), if you're interested it may be worth contacting him...
Looking awesome! I have a present for you, check your email :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, that banner came out so well. The rest will look awesome :)
ReplyDeleteWoW looking excellent!! Love the red colour scheme.
ReplyDeleteAmazingly great work Mr. Mordian7th!
ReplyDeleteYou also belted these guys out pretty quick and the standard/finish is really high quality.
I love your glowing coils on the Lascannons as well!! I always thought they were for recoil or heat sinks but the energy glow really suits the area and has me re-thinking my own approach to the iconic lascannon.
Great work, can't wait to see more.
Thanks folks!
ReplyDelete@LuckyNo.5 - Good stuff, I appreciate it!
@Vitor - I was worried it would be a little too dark initially, but once the rest of the detailing was added it seemed to brighten up the whole model.
@Redscorps - Thanks! I'm doing a bunch of reading up on various weathering techniques based on the awesome results you've come up with. Seems like starting off with a 'showroom floor' model is the way to go, so perhaps these tanks will all get a coat of grime in the future! :)
Using powders definately benefits from using clean model to start off with. I'll make a point of saying that my current weathering steps are built into the painting of my tanks though. Having said that, I have not applied transfers because I am designing my own (yes, I don't make things easy!) No doubt, I will need to do work on the transfers once applied to help them blend in.
ReplyDeleteFinally, and more importantly, your stuff is looking really great! I was always of the opinion that Space Marine stuff was nicer pristine... I imagine that after each engagement / campaign, all the kit is lovingly repaired and restored (under the proper prayers of course!)... A luxury that the prolonged engagements of the IG rarely afford!
Keep up the stirling work!
Thanks very much, Oink! Transfers can definitely be tricky, but a good dose of MicroSet and MicroSol does wonders. I hadn't thought about how they interact with weathering techniques though. I'm looking into printing out my own transfers as well for the 80+ shoulder pads on all the planned infantry, I shudder to think about painting all those little novas by hand!
ReplyDeleteGood call on sticking with the pristine look of well-maintained marine equipment, I'm concerned that a grey or brown dust/grime combo on the red of the Thousand Sons may look sort of 'blah', where against something in a green or blue the dirt and grime would stand out better and provide a good contrast...
...Perhaps I can just say the Thousand Sons use sorcery to keep their vehicles clean. The ultimate sort of heresy! :)
I'm the opposite of Oink, I think that space marine vehicles and armour should be absolutely beat to shit when modelled in an active combat theme (basically anything other than showroom floor).
ReplyDeleteEverything I am reading from the black library points to them fighting in small groups against hundreds of the enemy, taking hits and damage, losing limbs, would be mortal wounds, vehicles being peppered and smashed to bits as they fight well beyond what a human is capable of.
The Reclusiarch Grimaldus in 'Helsreach' that I'm reading at the moment is at a stage where his Black Templar armour is now a dented and hacked up dull silver colour, all of the paint has been chipped off, all of his purist seals have been burnt and destroyed and he is pretty much always covered from head to toe in ork blood.
Love that imagery, it's why my shits all so beat up, I like to think that these guys are fighting so hard that 'polishing their mag wheels' is the last thing they have on their minds.
These do look great though and you have a basis now for some neatly applied damage or weathering, I think you have to completely paint the tank nicely to end up with a good result once you apply weathering anyway.
Good stuff dude,
Jack
That does sound awesome Red! I do like the look of battle damage I've seen on space wolf models (there are a few blogs doing this currently) and I am likely to go down that route if I decide to start a Lamenters Army... but I also agree with Mordian, that I'm not sure it will stand out enough on the 1ksons red, definately not as well as it would on the grey or yellow for example.
ReplyDeleteI had one of they there early Land raiders many summers ago. Not as nicely painted as yours. I sold it, which I regret now.
ReplyDelete