Adeptus Titanicus - Imperial Knight - Part II

Room for a knight.

Some progress on the Imperial Knight. Still a bit slow going, as I decide on colours here and there. I'm having real trouble making it seem like a Knight instead of an attachment to an Astartes battleforce - I've been painting it like Space Marine armour, not considering cheverons, markings, and the like. Never have been one for bling.

Anyway, the metallic trim from before is now fully:

• Castellax Bronze
• Agrax Earthshade (Gloss)
• Sycorax Bronze

This keeps it distinct from the Space Wolf model I painted, in helping make my chosen Titanicus colour scheme different from them. What also helps is the trim. I wanted a more harmonious colour to the blue-grey, which discounts black, and also not a metallic. Too much of that, and it would detract from the head. A complementary colour would do the same. I also didn't want simply a shade of blue-grey. Any shade of red would also not fit for the same reason. This really only left muted purples or greens - a dark blue-green would be about right. I think I've managed something rather well with:

• Stegadon Scale Green
• Thunderhawk Blue (been wanting an excuse to use that one for a long while!)
• Drakenhof Nightshade in the deepest of recesses, or to border the trim. I may revisit this and use Coelia Greenshade instead at some point.

This trim colour is used on the upper carapace, half of the cannon shielding, and the knees. I'm also experimenting with it on the banner hung between the legs, but the jury is still out on that one.

Cowling above the head is:

• Corvus Black
• Dark Reaper for initial highlights.
• Thunderhawk Blue for edge highlights.
• Abaddon Black thinly applied to tone it back and tie it all together.

The same was done on the edging around the knees. This separates the metallics on the thigh and trim armour, giving more definition to there being knees, and creates a kind of triangle (head and knees) for balance.

Some Agrax Earthshade (Gloss) has been added in various unseen areas from that camera angle. It's meant to give hints of oil, grease, lubricants mixed with battefield dust, etc. I'm still working my way through that, but have to be careful not to overdo it. The gloss shade isn't as strong as the non-gloss variant, which is mostly why I'm using the gloss shade for this step.
A little Nuln Oil in places has been used, though sparingly - mostly just to better outline rotors around the elbows and other joints.

The pelvis joints have been covered in Black Templar (Contrast) just to make them distinct and give a less rigid appearance to the grey metallic skeleton. That area is crucial to a walker's movement, and I wanted something that gave an impression of more flexibility (less shine, less rigid, more flexible).

Finally, a bit of whatever was on my palette to give the visor on the head a red glow appearance. This spot colour really draws attention there, although I might make it a little brighter later on. I believe it was actually Gal Vorbak Red.

-- silly painter.
 

Adeptus Titanicus - Imperial Knight - Part I

'Tis but a scratch!

And so I've started on models from Adeptus Titanicus. Actually I've had the Knights ready to go for a while, but couldn't fully decide on the colour scheme. The colours I choose now will be across the Titan battlegroup, and the Aeronautica Imperialis aircraft as well.

Ultimately, I decided not to have red. Well, maybe a Red Baron or something for a single model at some stage, but overall I wanted something distinct from Blood Angels. I also didn't want a deep blue, for no other reason that many of the reference models and colour schemes are that, and I wanted something a little more original. In the end I settled on blue-grey, which works within urban settings, and allows brass and copper trim to be used instead of gold. This is highly similar to Space Wolf colours I know, but still works as a neutral colour scheme for combat machines. House details will likely be either black or red, or some combination thereof.

The model shown has really only just been started. The foundations were done with an airbrush:

• Leadbelcher across all metal areas.
• Ironbreaker to highlight some metal areas.
• Deathshroud Clear to add some shading. Nuln oil would also work to a degree.

In future I may try a base coat of Iron Warriors owing to it being a darker silver, allowing Leadbelcher to serve as a midtone. Continuing the airbrush:

• The Fang across upper panelling, and shin armour.
• Russ Grey to highlight these areas.

I then painted in remaining armour panels by brush with the same colours. I've also started on using Drakenhof Nightshade in some areas, but haven't completed that yet. I will do more as I continue the trim, because it allows me to hide mistakes with that easily.
Not seen, the reactor core (I presume) on the back has been base coated with Warplock Bronze. I will likely continue with a bronze or copper highlight on that. The armour trim is Castellax Bronze - a slightly lighter bronze, but a layer paint and so may need a couple of coats.

And that's about it so far. I need to continue with the armour trim, and then work on showing oil, rust, and grime on the pistons and joints before I can glue the arms into place. They have been started as well, but won't be glued in until I've done enough on the areas they'll block easy access to.

-- silly painter.

Tyranid Ripper Swarm

om-nom-nom-nom-nom

Just for a light little something to paint, I decided to clear out a few of the extra bits from the various Tyranid sprues. Some come with Rippers, so I decided to assemble them into a little swarm, 3 to a base to try make them flexible for use.

I did not even attempt to do more than tabletop quality of them because they're not a centrepiece, but fundamentally there's no real difference in painting them when compared to any of the other Tyranid models I've done.

Collectively, they're known as "you little Rippers". I'm sure they're so eager that they just let rip all the time. Ripper & tear.

On the subject of letting rip...

Sphincters. With teeth. And tentacles.

I'm not really sure what these other accessories are intended to be (spore chimneys perhaps), but they look more like the, uh, back end of a Tyranid invasion. Really didn't spend long painting them (four in total, but only one pictured), because they're not really even a playable piece, but might be useful for objective markers or something.

Still a couple more 'nid models to go before the army is ready to be sold off. It's the Carnifex that I'm dreading the most to get done.

-- silly painter.

Horus Lupercal - Part VI

Eye eye eye, not entirely armless.

This is only a short update with some details filled in for Horus. Almost all the eye icons have been completed, with the exception of the right pauldron (which I haven't entirely decided to paint the same yet).

All the eyes were painted the same as before, copy & pasted here for convenience:

• Jokaero Orange (base)
• Yriel Yellow (layer)
• Bloodletter (glaze)
• Carroburg Crimson (shade)
• Corvus Black (base, iris)
• 'Ardcoat (technical, varnish)

It's really the Bloodletter that makes it work and gives the Eye of Horus symbol that firey, forbidding appearance.

The right knee symbol of the Luna Wolves was mostly done with contrast paints:

• Corax White as a base coat across the entire symbol.
• Apothecary White on the sliver of background moon.
• Basilicum Grey on the remaining background.
• Black Templar across the wolf head.
• Mephiston Red for the eyes of the wolf.
• Stormhost Silver to write the XVI on the wolf's forehead.

The last step was a pain, required quite a lot of fixing, and looking at it closely isn't perfect. Normally I would have done the wolf head silver and let a wash fill in the XVI naturally, but that doesn't work when I wanted the wolf head itself as black.

Damn this model is taking me a long time.

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (Primaris) - Part VI

Chief Librarian Mephiston, the Lord of Death.

And so do I consider another model finished.

There's no doubt about it, the finished model is amazing and a great improvement upon the older version. There's also no doubt that it was one of the most frustrating assembly experiences I've ever had.

With the Purity Seal applied and some of the last details completed (Bloodstones, some 'Ardcoat), I decided that I would not add any further details to the black cape. The highlighting of it already naturally gives it something to prevent a bland appearance, and lack of additional details makes it fit better with the red cloak. Additionally, I don't feel that it unduly draws attention from the rest of the model - giving something more on the cape might do that. Freehand practice will have to wait for another model.

Considering so much of the colour scheme was based on the previous model of Mephiston, I thought it appropriate to compare the two side by side. It also helps put the scale of each into perspective.

Seeing double.

In short, an excellent model, the fundamental design of which has stood the test of time remarkably well. I am eager to see what comes next for the Blood Angels (hopefully refreshed Sanguinary Guard).

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (Primaris) - Part V

Whatever he's looking at is about to have a very bad day.

Finally enough has been done to fully assemble this model of Mephiston. Naturally, the frustration continued throughout the entire process.

The syringes threaded through with cord was not aligned correctly to the attachment points, and I couldn't bend the plastic beforehand. So it was a case of trying to glue it in one position, and then bend it across to the other. This caused the first position to come loose naturally, and so it took a few tries to get it right. The end result was scratched paint and it not quite fitting correctly either (green-stuff again being used to fill a small gap in the area of the right hip). Just another frustration with the assembly of the model, but I didn't want to leave the syringes out - it adds a bit of colour and detail to the area, and means I now don't need to free-hand the hem.

The sword glued into position easily enough, and green-stuff to fill the join seam along his left glove worked quite well. A close up shows a few imperfections, but I just wanted to get the model moving along.

I thought long and hard about how to paint the sword, being partly the reason for the long break since the previous post. A sudden flash of inspiration was to paint it by taking cues from the Nekima model: dark at the end, blending into some kind of energy glow towards the hilt.

• 1:1 mix of Leadbelcher and Abaddon Black the length of the blade.
• Introduce more Leadbelcher to the mix, blending towards the hilt.
• Repeat again by adding more Leadbelcher.
• 1:1 mix of Leadbelcher and Grey Knights Steel, blending towards the hilt. It should be about one third of the blade by this point.
• Add more Grey Knights Steel, keep blending.
• Add Talassar Blue, just in the area near the hilt. There is also some along the tips of the spikes near the end of the blade.
• Straight Talassar Blue, but very little, to give that extra brightness in areas.
• Aethermatic Blue, just around the energy nodes on the blade.
• Abaddon Black, thinned with water, in multiple layers towards the tip of the blade.
• Leadbelcher from the palette, just in thin lines to highlight extreme edges.

I intend to put a very small amount of Drakenhof Nightshade around the energy nodes as well, just to define them better.

There remain a few edge highlights on the model to be done, and of course all the gemstones, before Purity Seal is applied and then final metallic highlights.

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (Primaris) - Part IV

Bad smell alert.

A little more progress on Mephiston, even if painting has been less of a priority of late. I've managed to put the hand into a position that's a little better than the default pose, which looks more like a facepalm than anything else. Once again, I'm most displeased with the assembly design decisions made for this model.

Much of the attachment point of the arm was cut and filed back, and then green-stuff used to position it a little better, obviously after painting said arm. I was not overly concerned with neatness of the attachment point because the shoulder pad will cover most of it anyway. Once the green-stuff was completely cured, I then drilled a hole through the arm and glued a small metal pin in place. I was a little concerned that the adhesive qualities of green-stuff were insufficient longer term, and pinning it in place is much more easily done before the shoulder pad is attached. If the arm does fall off later, then there's a convenient pin to correctly realign and glue everything back into place.

Painting wise, not too much to add. Still following the steps of finecast Mephiston. The psychic hood cranial attachments I'm not entirely happy with right now, but haven't decided on what more to do. Brass based metallics and Talassar Blue for the moment, but I might re-highlight with Runelord Brass soon; too much blue there for my liking.

Shoulder pad and backpack are works in progress, and the belt of syringes are still yet to be done, before starting on the sword hand. And blood drop gemstones remain to be finished as well. Much work to be done, but with enough effort to fix all the little issues it's starting to come together nicely enough.

-- silly painter.