From the Painting Desk #4 – Beregond and Dark Angels Dreadnought

I’ve been painting a little in the last month or so, just haven’t finished anything especially interesting or worth sharing. I’ve finished a bunch of soldiers of Minas Tirith to a tabletop standard for my KoW Armies of Men force (as well as, obviously – LotR SBG and eventually – WotR). I’ve also finished the odd Dwarf, Human, Orc and Goblin as well, though I’ll share them later down the line when they have more substantial groups to pose with. I’ll try and take some more proper photos in a couple of weeks.

Dwarves and other random painting desk models.

I did finally finish something worthwhile though – Beregond, first Captain of the White Tower – guard and friend of Faramir.

Beregond and (bad) Faramir model.

Both of these two were started at least four years ago, at a guess. Maybe longer. The Faramir model is quite an average sculpt in many ways and also suffers from mould slip on the face. I’m just going to use him as a more generic captain, and use a better Faramir model as Faramir. The shading on the cloak hasn’t come up all that well in the pic, but then, the photo backdrop this time around is… well… read on.

Beregond and Faramir models.

This is the main reason why I decided to share Beregond here. While the pair still needs to be varnished and have flock added to their bases, I was quite happy with the freehand on Beregond. The knotwork on the front of his cloak and tunic came out decently, but The White Tree turned out quite nicely, despite the folds of his cloak making the tree look even tricky. Using white (and yellow) on black is a bit of a pain – darker colours on lighter colours would be easier but that’s not really an option. Perhaps gold on off-white would work for a future cloak if it comes up.

Dark Angel Dreadnought

This Dark Angels Dreadnought was originally started back during 40k second edition. I’ve finally dug the thing out and decided to finish it off. I also decided to stick some of the plastic DA bits from the intervening years on the model to liven it up a little more.

Dark Angel Dreadnought Legs

I tried the salt weathering technique. It went badly. The panels on the Dreads’ legs are just too small, and it’s probably not the best model to learn that technique on. That’s been scrapped. Just trying to repaint it green now.

Dual Assault Cannons!

And there we are. The paint on the arms dates these arms back to 1997 (when I added the nWo logo) and then 1998 (when I went over it with the red of the Wolfpac). The long scroll is from 2014. I imagine the painting of this model got abandoned late in 1998 when 40k 3rd edition was released and the uber-combination of dual assault cannons on Dreadnoughts became a thing of the past. Back in the day there were no “left-handed” Assault Cannons and dreads were 100% metal models, so I cut up a right handed one (in metal) and a Missile Launcher left arm to make the above. With the Contemptor Mortis pattern Dreadnought being an actual thing, I’m also considering adding a magnetised missile launcher battery to the top of the model. Both arms are already magnetised.As part of my “1k 40k Armies” project, I’ve costed out a Dread with Dual assault cannon for a 1k Dark Angels army, and plan to finish this sucker off in the coming couple of weeks. Since, like the KoW forces I’m working on, the 40k armies are all going to be supplied by me for friendly games in my War Room, there should be no arguments.

I’ll be showing more of the small 1k Dark Angels force in the coming weeks as well. Many of the models are already painted. I just need to sort out the vehicles and a few more troopers. And the characters.

Discount photo box?

Those pics of Beregond not being the best? This is why. 😉

 

Zavod 311 – Post 2: Theorycrafting and the building begins.

 

Zavod 311 Train and Warehouses.

 

I’ve bought a pile of the $1 sale Dave Graffam models. I was initially looking for some free papercraft buildings that I could use as templates for the storage buildings (in the background of the train pic above) and eventually found some of the DG ones that seemed to have potential for cutout templates for foam core. (And then bought a bunch more for Fantasy/medieval cityscapes down the line, because, hey – $1 each!) Not sure when the sale ends. The best I could find is June 3rd, which was already days past when I found the sale, and it’s still running now (I bought another one this morning). Here’s some freebies and examples:

 

Free Hovel: http://www.wargamevault.com/product/82128/Hovel-Paper-Model
Free Coach House: http://www.wargamevault.com/product/84421/Coach-House-Paper-Model
Free Observatory: http://www.wargamevault.com/product/92342/Observatory-Free-Paper-Model
$1 Inventor’s House: http://www.wargamevault.com/product/92484/Inventors-House-Paper-Model
Free Cargo Pod: http://www.wargamevault.com/product/115255/Free-Cargo-Pod-Paper-Model

 

Dave Graffam’s Papercraft Warehouse – the basis for my Foam Core Soviet Warehouses.

I decided to start on mine last night. After an hour or so in the shed, this is what I had, drying.

Dave Graffam Warehouse on Foam Core

Lift-off roof on Dave Graffam Warehouse.

Leonard the Cat helps me build scenery.

I then came inside, because it’s damned cold out there at night. I then found myself printing three more sets and then back out there, to cut the templates and adhesive-spray them down to more foam core.

Graffam Warehouse Templates glued down to foam core.

This morning I cut them out. I can’t do much more until I get some dressmaker’s pins. The little pinboard pins I used on the test model are just too small to be that effective. Notmuch else I can do today. Well. I guess I could bevel the edges, but I can’t be bothered right now. I wish I could find a tool to bevel the edges of foam core cleanly, since my box-cutter method is pretty rough. Any ideas?

Graffam Warehouse Cutouts.

Dave Graffam Warehouse.

Spacemans and toy car for scale. I’ll have four of these at the rail yard part of the map.

Once I’ve got all four built, I’ll cut out the large and small doors, and any windows I decide to add. I want them to be consistent, after all. Then they can be based.

These.

Obviously they’re not exactly the same, but they’ll be close enough, and representative of those warehouses. Except a Dreadnought will fit into my buildings! 😉

 

I’ve also been thinking about the tanks. 24+ tanks is a lot of tanks to paint, and I’m not typically fast with that sort of thing. Clearly, batch painting is the only way that it will ever happen. So I’ve worked out a plan of action. Should be rapid and reasonably painless. Maybe even slightly enjoyable. My new Korean best friend – Langley said he can hopefully send them towards the end of next week, and then it’s a good 3 weeks from Korea to Australia, and then I tend to do a weekly mail pickup on Fridays.

First assembly.

Prime black (spray can). Airbrush the crevasses that I miss.
Rustoleum Brown or red-brown
Airbrush various patchy different shades of red-brown through orange.
Salt.
Spray can an approximation for the appropriate undercoat colour for T-72s (research this in the meantime, then get a “close enough” from the hardware store)
Salt.
Spray can an approximation of the right colour for Soviet armour. There are a few specific cans made for FoW players by PSC and Army Painter, and they’re twice the size of the little Tamiya, etc cans you can get.
Salt.
Patchy highlights and such via airbrush.
Salt.
Maybe some badly-applied camo (as in the GY pics).
Airbrush with Pledge for a clearcoat.
Wash with oil paints.

Let dry for a day or two.

Mineral spirit some of the mess off.
Remove Salt.
Maybe some really subtle metallic edge/scratch highlights, but probably not. They’re supposed to be rotting hulks, after all.
Gloss Varnish
Weathering powder.
Matt Varnish.

Those spray colours (and spray varnish) will take forever to dry between coats, and so will the oil paints. So I’m hoping I can maybe get them done in a week or so, but it could well take two weeks or even three or four since I’ll also have to go to work, and it’ll be the mid-winter (which is obviously gak-awful for spray-can work. Or not pissing down rain. Or light by the time I get home from work.

Hm, after writing all that, I don’t know how much fun those 45 middle steps are going to be. Hope I still have my enthusiasm for the project when they arrive in about a month.

 

That’s probably it until next weekend at the earliest!