Steel, plasma and lightning.

Been busy with work and stuff, but heres some progress. Plasma cannon work happened this afternoon.

Jim the Night Lord

He's not finished yet, plenty of details to fill in. I'm generally happy with how he's going with one exception - the nmm gold!
I like the nmm steel but I'm not sure if I like how I did the gold... I might redo it.

Criticisms are welcome.

What have I been up to?

So last friday I had a minor operation on my spine. Been a little lazy. Anyhow, I've been working on the scourges again and I primed and base coated a couple of raider craft. I'm not sure if you can tell on the raiders (crappy washed out light, can't afford a new work light) the hulls are highlighted and weathered with an airbrush. The weathering is just secret weapon's armour wash, which I'll be brushing into the armour recesses for that added depth.
With wyches being made nearly redundant in the new codex, I chopped up one of my squads and gave them kabalite weapons - because you can never have too many raider squads right? They're not painted yet, but I'll include some pics anyway - maybe it will give someone an idea or  two!
I'm going to start working on the diorama again this week, so hopefully I'll have something new to show off :)

Scourge of the Skies!

My first Scourge (1st of 10).
I've spent a long time painting him because I've been trying to figure out how I want them to look. I guess I figured it out.
I figured out I really like painting those fluid canisters. I wouldn't mind trying one full of red goo or maybe blue. These guys all get the green treatment however.

I like the idea of scourges in-game. Generally in 40k, jump infantry gets the role of assault troops, but scourges go against the grain. I have both of my units kitted out for tank hunting - one unit with 4 dark lances and the other with 2 haywire blasters and 2 heat lances.
After lots of chopping and changing with the new codex, it's time I added a voidraven. Something to save for anyhow.

Duke Sliscus (not that it matters anymore)

So, here he is in all his piratey, flesh garbed glory - the most pimpin Duke in Commoragh.

I'm sort of upset they took him out of the new codex release because I spent a lot of time sculpting him and a lot of my list revolved around his poison enhancements...

And now, he'll be doomed to just being a lowly dracon for my poison armed trueborns.

Well I hope you all like him.
(For the record, the base isn't finished)

P.S By anyone's request, I'll do a tutorial on sculpting flayed skin. I'd be more than happy.

Like my razorwing?

Still deciding whether or not to turn the rest of those bubbly blister like protrusions into gems or not...

Jetfighter is fully weathered and the cockpit canopy was completed first with brush and then with airbrush.

I havent finished the missiles yet, but for this one - I was gonna go with the necrotoxins to complement the disintegrator cannons for maximum infantry butt-hurt.

I have another razorwing (unbuilt) which I'll either kit out in factory standard dark lance/monoscythe missle loadout or sell and get a voidraven for maximum tank busting!

Trueborns :)

So I'm taking part in a narrative campaign at my local gw this coming sunday and I'm frantically trying to paint up the rest of my 2000 points of dark eldar. First point of call is to finish sculpting the cloaks on my trueborns.
I decided to break them into 2 groups - 4 shardcarbines, 2 splinter cannons and the duke in a raider.
And secondly, 3 blasters and a dracon with a blast pistol in a venom.
I decided to do that because they both have a specific purpose and having them all in the one big deathstar was certainly an invitation for disaster.
I converted the dracon from a spare incubus.

And finally we have a sneak peak of my talos pain engine in progress.

Diorama Progress

Been hard at work!

I finally decided on an overall theme - the Schism Of Mars during the Horus Heresy. Sigismund led the loyalist forces to complete their objectives on Mars to secure additional materiel to supply Terra for the impending seige.

I know there is a lot of wood there, but it's all just framework for a heroic looking hill! The hill will be filled out with plaster of paris and afterwards textured and painted and lots of Mechanicum type details will be added.

The busted Leman Russ tank also has an interior visible through where the turret should be. (Don't judge the crappy paintwork on that tank too much, I painted it when I was 14).

The little creepy guy in the red cloak is Sigismund's scabbard bearer that I got from the Inquisitor Hector Rex kit.

Mk III armour marine is 50% done.

The diorama will feature a couple of servitors and more marines of course with the traitors represented by chaos cultists from the dark vengeance box.

Tomorrow, I need to buy more plaster!

Sigismund - finished :)

I finished Sigismund this morning. I'm super happy with the job and I cannot wait to get started on the rest of the diorama.
The Emperor's Champion model is one of my favourites of all time and I had to paint Sigismund in the metal version of it. It fits perfectly with my vision for the diorama (if you're lucky, I'll do a crappy drawing and post it up).
I'd thought about doing some conversion work on the model pre-painting such as adding that strange wing thing from the Celestine model or even using the EC sword arm on Forgeworld's company champion model in its heroic pose. I just couldn't bring myself to do it! I just love the model too much! I did however add an iron halo and some grenades with a scroll from the grey knights kit just for some extra flavour.
The other marines in the diorama will no doubt have some conversion work. I have an idea for an astartes in mkIII armour with a bolter, his front leg resting atop a slain ork while he fires his bolter into the onrushing horde.
I'd also thought of maybe doing some freehand work on the cloak - perhaps a celtic weave pattern in white along the hem - but I really dont want too much going on on the individual level when the diorama will have so much already.

Anyway I hope you all enjoy Sigismund and stay tuned for WIP shots of a big ugly dragon.

Sigismund, Emperor's Champion

Working on this fella for an Imperial Fists diorama (great crusade era) featuring Legionaires in mk's III & IV armour battling against maybe orks? With Sigismund at the fore.

As you can see, he's not quite finished and I'm still waiting on those forgeworld kits. I also have to build a diorama box but I cant decide whether to make it a corner of a box or one with 3 sides.

I'm hoping to have it finished by November 22nd for a painting contest my local GW is running.

Wish me luck, and as always - constructive criticism is encouraged.

Sculpting progress

Been doing some sculpting today. Duke Sliscus' flayed skin cloak is very nearly complete, maybe an extra patch of skin sewn on or maybe too. 2 trueborns with shardcarbines now have cloaks underway also.

It really surprised me how long it was taking to complete the fabric cloaks compared to Sliscus' cloak, especially considering the level of detail going into the stitches, a face and a few fingers. I was really having some trouble with the folds and contours in the cloaks.
Perhaps I'll start the trueborn's cloaks again and this time make them from 'a very rare leather'.

Black Guard, Trueborns and more

Work continues on the Black Guard. Yellow, I've decided was a bad choice for the cloaks. It takes so damn long per layer!

Here are those Dark Eldar Trueborns with Duke Sliscus I mentioned a while back. I went to sculpt the cloaks only to find that my greenstuff had fouled, so I had to buy some more. The paint scheme for these looks terrible, ergo I am repainting them once they're sculpted (obviously) to match the rest of the army. 

Here's a closer shot of the Duke himself, with the beginnings of his flayed skin toga which I sculpted from milliput. The rest of it will be with greenstuff. 

Also, this happened. I like it.

A not so Black Guard

I'm hoping he doesn't look too much like a Naggarothi McDonalds employee. He's the first one anyhow, so if I decide I don't like the scheme, perhaps I'll make the cloak blue and the sash yellow instead of the other way around.
One consideration is that I've just realised that yellow takes a very long time to get painted on without looking like toothpaste. I'll admit I'm not well versed in using it, but I love how it looks when used right. As a result (and from my reading the horus heresy novels), I'm going to be working on a sculpt of Sigismund - the first Emperor's Champion. I'll use the base EC model as a starting point and work on from there. I was thinking of doing a blood angels diorama with The Sanguinor as the centrepiece, but maybe I'll make an Imperial Fists diorama first :)