The Phoenix Has Landed

In my attempt to put a dent in my painting schedule i've managed to get a Phoenix Mirmadon painted to the point where i can show you a few pictures.  This warjack was painted much like the Griffon using the same spray paint technique to achieve the white armour.  I'm happy with how it has turned out so far.

Amassing the Retribution

Yes it's time to owe up to the large amount of unpainted miniatures i have staring me in the face and give them a decent coat of paint.  The process always seems to be more consuming that it originally does at the offset, however i try not to let that deter me when putting the brush to plastic (or metal or resin whatever it may be).

I'm trying out a new painting technique on the Mirmidons in my Retribution of Scyrah force for Warmachine to try and speed along the painting process a little.  To start with i've given the model a prime of black at which point i coated the entire model's accessible points with Astropath Grey and set it aside to let it dry.  After the model had ample time to make sure all the paint was dry i sprayed the model sparingly with white spray paint from the angle of the light source.  After that the model had a good base colour with shading to work with, I then sealed the model with a spray of matte varnish and touched up some of the details where the white was too strong or not strong enough.

The rest of the model was painted much in the same way i would paint the Mirmidons normally, just this time with the white armour of the model completed in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

This method is not fool proof and the convenience of this method does show on the finished product.  Although the model is not 100% complete, i'll post some pics to see what you think of the zenith spray technique and its results.

And here's a pic of a very sad and mostly unpainted warmachine army looking back at me.

Thats 1 heavy Mirmidon, 2 light Mirmidons, 11 Mage hunters, 12 Invictors, an Assassin, 2 Snipers, A Soulless Unit Attachment, an Arcanist, 4 Archers, Rayvn, Garryth, and Narn

WIP Plagueclaw Catapult Paintjob

Here's a few pictures to show you how the plagueclaw is coming along, now with a few coats of pain and nearly finished and ready for the tabletop.  A few things are left to remain such as some more work on the plaguemonk crew, and the "standard" as well as a few miscellaneous details that need touching up here and there.  I decided to go with the orange rust instead of verdigris to go along with the theme throughout the army, it also adds a little more colour where there are plenty of greens and greeny blues already involved in this piece.  Enjoy!

Retribution of Scyrah WIP - Painting Tests and Tribulations

For the past few days I've been playing around with slight alterations to the privateer press standard paintjob on the Retribution of Scyrah Models.  There were a few objectives i had when coming up with a scheme; first the paintjob had to have a range from light to dark colour, secondly it had to us a minimal palette, roughly 3 or 4 colours.  I also wanted to bring out a fusion of the organic with technology.  To do this i decided to use lots of greens browns and blues all found in nature, along with white painted with NMM technique to harness a truly sci-fi feel.

This archer model demonstrates the above principles although i am debating on repainting the bow to much closer resemble the rest of the models colour.  I'm thinking of repainting the armoured parts of the bow with the white paneling featured on the armour, and then repaint the stock to have a metallic blue colour. The base has been base coated with chardonite granite, and then brought up with khemri brown and dehneb stone, a combo that i'm becoming rather fond of for various applications.  Static grass and crushed bay leaves were then added to bring some nature to the model.

Once again following the above principles, here's a work in progress shot of a Chimera Mirmadon (Warjack).  The bottom half of the model and left arm still need to be painted, in what has become a rather lengthy painting process.  I'm looking forward to having this mini finished.

Plague Tower: Progress Log 5 (Casting of the Front)

So here are the first pictures of the plague tower shot with actual scenery, I thought with the addition of the front panel it was time to add some colour around the model, to get a look at what exactly it might look like on the playing field.

The front panel was originally sculpted in plasticine on a cardboard backing to get the general shape of what you see here.  the original was then cast in plaster to make a mold from which the plasticine was removed.  The front panel was then cast in resin from the plaster mold.  After the resin had cured over night the plaster mold was broken off the resin positive, leaving a archaeological dig worth of cleaning to do to remove the left over plaster stuck to the resin. The cleaning still continues!

Here is a side view with models placed on the walkways for scale.  Note that the sides of the front panel still need to be treated with green stuff to get that stretched skin look.  Also of note here are the wheels on this side which received a wooden texture look.

For a greater idea of scale of this thing, i've set it next to the imperial bastion.

There is still a great deal of work left to go into this model however it's shaping up nicely,  I'm waiting for some green stuff i ordered to come in the mail (with the help of the ever reliable Amy) before i get to work on the hardcore details and resurfacing of the front.

Plague Tower: Progress Log 4

Plague Tower: Progress Log 3

So, a lot has progressed since last i posted pictures, primarily the siding has been completed on both sides of the tank, a whole ton of rivets have been glued into place and some conveniently sized pieces of tubing have also been adhered to the front.  Things are really starting to take shape.

Another major detail that was completed was the embelishment of the side "pus tank" made from the living nature water bottle, bands have been glued around it to make it look more industrial and less little critter, and an access hatch has been glued onto the top.

Now moving to the back, you can see the detail of the rear upper hatch, which now has been added, detailing on that piece is a work in progress.

Here's an overall view of the rough plague mortar assembly...

and it's loading hatch...

overall the front looks really bland and there is still a ton of work left to do on this model, but each day is one step closer.

Plague Tower: Progress Log 2

After some further design work, i've decided what to do with the other side of this monsterous construct.  First lets take a look at the back.  I've installed some rhino doors that were extra from a predator i once bought.

after some work on the side paneling, i've finally managed to finish the wood planks along the sides, as well as adding some more armour plates for the hut supports which i will install later.

Here is a picture of the fitting for the "Pus Tank" that will occupy the majority of the other side of the model.  This was actually made by heating up a metal pipe and running it through the center of both circular disks.

And finally a picture with the "pus tank" installed to give an idea of the overall look.  The "pus tank" is made of a small "living habitat" small animal water bottle that i had hanging around collecting dust.

Plague Tower: Progress Log

Back again with some updates on exactly how this plague tower is coming together.  First i decided to finish bulking out the frame with the "hut" protrusions that are found on the exterior of the tower.  I wanted to avoid any unnessessary extra work, specifically putting these things on after i complete the siding, so it's best to get them on and over with.

Here's a second look at the shape of the structure.

Using a thick plastic card i've outlined the various areas on the model with the large metal strips that can be found in the concept sketch, these just break up the model visually.

This stage was the beginning of what will be the fiddly work on this project, i've cut out pannels of normal thickness plasticard and glued it to the sides in a mixed up fashion as to make the thing look a little ramshackle, once again a lot of this is done to visually break up the model.  All the areas that are still bare will be covered in the wooden looking siding instead the armour plates will only cover the front of the model, making it look more bulky towards the front.  You can also stee that i've started removing the top of the card that is to bee the corrugated roofing.

Here i've gone through the meticulous task of putting rivets on the sides of each armour plate, i've also started with putting the wooden siding on the areas that are still bare.  It's slowly coming along.

Well thats it for now till i get some more done.

Plague Tower Concept and Frame

So this is the plan, build a plague tower of Nurgle.  The Plague tower of Nurgle is a super heavy vehicle brought over to games of Apocalypse 40k, from an old epic Warhammer 40k Model.  The idea is that it is a plague infested tower on wheels the sports a Heavy Mortar, two Demolisher Cannons protruding from the demonic faces stretched over the front like skin and at the bottom, the very bizzare and disgusting plague cannon which fires huge gouts of sludge from the many plague vats that surround the vehicle like blisters.  Oh and did i mention it transports 30 models and has 6 structure points?

So after spending some time looking at the old epic model i did up a concept sketch of what i would want a plague tower of nurgle to look like.   I decided to keep much of the same shape and concept of the original model however I decided to place more scaffolding around the outside of the contraption, complete with decks and crew compartments.  I really want this thing to look like a plagued rotting construct. 

So this is the initial mock up of the tower done in cardboard with some models on it for size refference.  This is the tower part of the model that will sit on the chassis.  Thanks to pizza pizza for supplying the card.  At this moment it doesn't look like much, but hey use some imagination.

Here's a second picture of the great box that will be the nurgle tower!