Terminator Librarian

A few quick pics of the terminator librarian for my Crimson Fists force.

Went with the force axe (taken from one of Calgar's honor guard) over the stave purely for the AP2.
Playing with the force stave had the advantage of the high strength, something I thought would synergise with the thunder hammers in the unit he runs with (5 assault terminators).  Instead it left him wounding easily but unable to punch through the armour of the threats he'd be up against and the promise of consussing a foe at I5 is just too unlikely, so best make what few attacks he has count at AP2 and trust in the 2+/3++.

Painting wise, pretty straight forward with very basic techniques used throughout.  The eyes an hood were an attempt at lighting effects but end up looking a bit messy and like he's wearing eye liner.  As I was listening to Adam and the Ants while painting, this seems appropriate though.

Thoughts always welcome.

Sedition Wars - Vanguard

Sedition Wars - Arriving with an intimidating number of miniatures from the kickstarter project there are ample to practice and experiment techniques on.  Good job to as the hard plastic, laden with detail presents a different kind of model to what I'm used to working with.  The features are much more subtle and suited to washes than others I'm used to.  As such this is the first in a series of experiments to find the ideal technique.  I'd love to say that is the technique that looks the best but if I plan to ever play a game of SW:BA with a fully painted complement of strain and vanguard, time is going to be a major factor.

Fig 1

Starting with a vanguard basic (female) model I based it white with a spray gun and then applied a medium wash of Drakenhof Nightshade (fig 1).

Fig 2.  Half painted white against the base+wash

Watering down white scar to about 75:25 paint to water I focused on the plates, repainting the edges after dry to form a basic highlight.  Mistakes are a pain but can be corrected with a modeling knife and tissue if caught quickly (fig 2).

Fig 3. Hair built up with sepia and a yellow highlight.

Building this up quickly painted the armor.  The head and hair was a wash of Reikland Fleshshade before watered ungor flesh and Eldar flesh.  The eyes (over done but ok from a distance) are nuln oil with a dot of white and then blue, a very light (25:75) wash of eldar flesh brought the colours slightly back into the skin again so they don't stand out as starkly (fig 3).

Finally the gun.  Not fully finished here as needs a little tidying it was edge highlighted with ulthuan grey.  some of the larger blocks will be filled with ulthuan and then edged with white in the final.

Total time... 25 minutes and a good tabletop standard as long as you don't get too close.

Comments or shared pics of your SW:BA models appreciated.

Sky Ray

Wow it's been a while.

Not only since I last posted but since I last saw (or bothered reading) the entry for a skyray.  The current train wreck that is the skyray is still a damn beautiful model and a joy to assemble and paint.

Tau vehicles have enormous open spaces with sweeping lines and graceful curves.  The open spaces can be intimidating but benefit from crisp lines and an even paint job.   I've often struggled in the past to create a paint scheme that looked believable given the size of the vehicle.  Taking a technique from my recently painted tyranids I decided on a more organic camouflaged appearance, this is how it was achieved.

Base - Celestra Grey - applied across the whole model and then washed with nuln oil.
The wash created strong tide marks as it was heavily applied.
The technique is Stippling to create the mottled effect.

The GW stippling brush I find to be too hard for a good effect, I use a dry brush cut back to about 3mm and then a fine brush cut back to about 4mm.  Collect a light amount of paint on the brush and dab it (twisting slightly) randomly across the surface. Start with a base layer and then progress through the shades to the highlight shades (as you progress the finer brush).  My progression was celestra grey - ulthuan grey - skull white.

Dry brush - Praxeti white heavily stippled along raised edges and edges formed a highlight (rather than a solid edge highlight to avoid the tron effect.

The block colors continued the highlights along the lines but with a more solid highlight.  The surface orbs were painted as gems to create contrast.  Once done return and wash directly into the gaps and crevices.  A few other techniques across the model but this was the main one, used in the same way as on the tyranid carapace from earlier posts but to produce a similar organic and muted effect, ideal for a tank trying to lose itself in the snow.

The finished Sky Ray for Tau