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. 😉

 

Sci-Fi Pipes and Generator

Another smallish update today. Basically, I haven’t been painting much at all over the last few weeks, and so I’m sharing some more “back-catalogue” scenery pieces. As usual for this stuff, these are at least 10 years old, yadda yadda. They were painted during the heyday of Necromunda, and have been used in many an underhive battle and on 40k tabletops since then. I’m also sure they’d fit in just fine for Warpath, DeadZone, and pretty much any other sci-fi tabletop or RPG games.

Armorcast (I think) pipes. OLD!

 

A view from higher up of the Armorcast pipes.

Rear view of the Armorcast pipes.

This piece, despite looking like the sort of thing that you could easily assemble from a few bits from your local hardware store is actually a purchased resin piece. Probably cost between AU$10-15 back in the day. It’s a slightly rough cast, and I think it’s an old piece from Armorcast – or possibly Forge World – not the current GW-subsidiary, but the US-based company that produced 40k-scaled Epic stuff back in the 1990’s. It’s a slightly rough paintjob on a rough cast of a rough terrain piece, but it’s good enough for most tables. I went with blue-grey because Necromunda, and as you can see, I wasn’t quite sure on what happens to the orientation of hazard stripes on certain things. Not sure what the iron sights on the pipes are in aid of, either.

Once I get past the batches of fantasy figures and terrain I’m working on right now, I may well wander down to the local hardware store and pick up some plumbing fittings to create some new and better-quality variations on this theme. Maybe some more exhaust ports like the above?  The traditional outflow pipe into a small pond of toxic sludge? There’s an endless supply of clichés to mine, after all…

 

Kit-bashed Generator

Kit-bashed Generator – Rear View

This generator is made of an old broken toy part that many of you have probably already recognised – yes, the Hoth Generator from Empire Strikes Back. It’s from an old, old Micro-playset that was a bit broken and busted up from many play hours as a kid (and was second-hand and incomplete when I got it) The main body is made of two audiocassette cases glued together, the box on the side is a random part from a model kit, and the control panel on the front is a thumb switch from a kids’ flashlight. Some flyscreen mesh and a rectangle of card over the top to finish up. Mounted the whole thing on some MDF, then add paint and a couple of decals to finish.