Lots of Tanks

I've been working on a huge force of IG tanks for a friend of mine.  Progress has been pretty slow with me squeezing in what time I can between classes.  Start to finish, the total time ended up being about 10 months, but thankfully my friend was not in a rush.  Total number of hours spent was probably around 50.  I really didn't keep careful track though, so that could be pretty far off.  Anyway, here's the complete set of 16 tanks.

I was told to create a desert themed set of tanks that looked like they'd been in the field a while.  They came primed the lovely tan color that is the base on all the vehicles.

After a bit of research it occurred to me that my typical rust approach wouldn't really fit in with a desert theme.

So, rather than rust I decided to try to make them look like they'd been sand blasted.

Step one was to sponge some scorched brown over all the the edges.  Any corner got tagged with a scattering of brown paint.

The next step, which was probably the most time consuming, was to carefully paint a coat of silver inside the brown from the previous step.

I then picked out all of the rivets to add a bit more interest.

After that it was just a matter of finishing up the details and sealing everything.

I'm rather pleased with the final look.  There's a few things I think I probably could have done better though.

Some level of shading/highlighting to the base color I think would have made the final product a little more interesting.

The tan surfaces are still just a little too flat, but once the weathering went on there was really no way to go back and change it.

Dark Eldar WIP

Here's some work-in-progress shots of my friend's Dark Eldar that we've been grinding away on over the last couple months.  Just about everything still needs some basic work before it can be called finished, but the whole army is coming along quite nicely and at a rather fast pace.  We've been getting together most Sundays and spending the day painting away.  Some basic techniques for the colors are included after each picture.  Once they're finished I'll get some less washed out photos posted.  The black background makes for a cool look, but all the light colors and metallics end up getting washed out.

Ork Lootas

Finished the first of my lootas finally.  They're taking quite a bit longer than most of the rest of the force due to the sheer number of details.  Once I finished with the base colors I painted them one at a time to make sure I didn't miss anything.  Here's the first three just before I flocked them.  They're a bit shiny at the moment, but the matte sealant should tone the metals down just a little.

 

Nurgle Dreadnought

I was feeling a little overwhelmed with classes yesterday and decided to take a little time to work on a quick casual paint job.  The conversions on the dreadnought itself were done some years ago by a friend of mine.  I only needed to redo the close combat arm and fix up a few little things and it was on to painting.  The base isn't painted yet, but I wanted to share him while the techniques used were still fresh in my mind.

Weathering Practice

A friend of mine generously donated the use of one of his Rhino's so I could practice a few weathering techniques.  The vehicles used by his 13th company space wolves have seen a lot of abuse of the last 10,000 year,s so I got to go a bit crazy with the rust effects.

Commissar Yarrick Completed

After having the model for 11 years I have finally completed my Commissar Yarrick.  I got the model along with the Steel Legion boxed army in 1999 and just never got around to putting paint on it until now.  All things considered I'm rather glad I waited.  My skills prior to the last few years weren't up to the task.  It's a very detailed model and I hope I've done it justice.

Finished Daemon Prince

I finally managed to find something I was satisfied with as a base for the Black Legion Daemon Prince.  I picked up a vinyl floor tile and broke it into pieces.  The sloped piece at the back is there to support the tail as well as add a bit more interest to the base.  The base was then primed white, washed with Asurmen Blue, and sponge painted Skull white.  Overall a very easy process with some excellent results.

Dark Eldar Warrior

Painted a quick test model for a friend's Dark Eldar army.  My goal was to create a scheme that looked decent and was fast and easy to replicate.  I'm reasonably pleased.  The armour turned out looking rather blood splattered, which was the general idea.  I'm rather disappointed with the loincloth, so I'll need to come up with an alternative for that.

 

Best of all, the model only took about 20 minutes to paint not counting waiting for paint to dry. Here's hoping the owner is pleased.

Winged Daemon Prince

I've finally gotten around to starting in on a Be'Lakor model that I've had sitting around for quite some time.  It will be an addition to my friend's Black Legion army.  I'm rather pleased with its current state.  The sword turned out exceptionally well.

I haven't started in on the base yet.  It will be some sort of snow base, but I need to find something to put under his feet to raise him up a little.  This older model isn't quite as large as the new one and I'd like to make the size difference a little less noticeable.  I should have the base finished in the next day or two, provided I can find what I'm looking for.


In the next few days I expect to be finishing up a Jain-zar model for another friend as well as another small figure and hopefully finishing pinning together a few war walkers and wraithlords.

Painting for Others

I love painting miniatures.  It's an activity in which I can lose myself for hours on end.  This fact combined with my current state of persistent poverty has led me to start painting miniatures for my friends in place of purchasing them gifts.  So far, this has worked out wonderfully for everyone.  I get to paint something away from my norm, and my friends get a well painted miniature to add to their force.  These models also give me a chance to experiment with new techniques in a setting where they aren't required to perfectly match with an existing force.  I will usually be given some color guidelines and then let loose on the project.  I have pictures of some of these that I'd like to share.  Hopefully I will eventually be able to get photos of the others so I can share them as well.

Speed Painting IG Veterans

My Imperial Guard force is my longest standing army.  It was started back in 1999 with the Steel Legion boxed army that was released with the Armageddon campaign, and still consists of mostly all metal figures.  I have begun slowly adding in plastic minis between working on my other projects.  The main additions are the veteran squads which provide me with much needed melta fire, since a meltagun was never released for the Steel Legion line and I have no interest in converting some.  I chose to use the cadian plastics to represent them, but swapped out the heads for ones made by Pig Iron Productions that have gas masks.  I dislike the helmets on the stock cadian models.  They are much too large for their heads in my opinion, and the gas masks fit much better with the ash wastes theme of the Steel Legion.

And the Warhound is Finished

The Warhound Titan is now officially complete.  I'm quite happy with the end result, especially considering when it was handed to me it had a rather crummy paint job and had just been knocked off a shelf by the owner's cat.  It's impact with the ground had left it in rather poor condition.  In addition to the expected chipping and general damage from have never been sealed or primed, several parts were broken.  The spot where one of the weapons connects to the arm had been broken out and lost.  I rebuilt that using epoxy putty over an armature of heavy gauge wire to give it strength.  This required a fair bit of care to ensure that the arm would still be movable.  The Vulcan Mega-bolter arm had been snapped in two, so I put a pair of two inch brass rods in it for support and glued it back together.  Two of the spines on top of the main body were broken off completely.  I'm not sure if they were lost or not, but I didn't have them when I put the beasty back together so they were left off.  I also built a circular base for it out of 3/16" tempered hardboard, and pinned it's feet to the base in the interest of it not taking another tumble in the future.

Shoota Boyz

I've been spending a lot of time painting Orks for the last two months and I've made some good progress I think.  My currently completed force consists of:

Big Mek with kustom force field
Wierdboy
30 shoota boyz
19 slugga boyz
3 killa kans with rocket launchas
11 grots with runtheard

And I have nearly completed a further 11 shoota boyz, 8 lootas, and 3 more killa kans.  Overall good progress and I'm very pleased with how they are turning out.

 

I've chosen to go with an olive skin tone and lots of rust effects to tie the army together as a cohesive whole.  My photography skills still need some work, but I'm getting better at it.  Future posts will discuss the logic behind my color selections and discussions of the techniques I've used to get the army painted quickly.  I've finally gotten a small photo booth set up in my home office so I can get pictures of units as I complete them.

I'm currently working on an old Warhound Titan for a friend of mine.  It's the old armourcast version.  I'm trying to make it look as good as I can, but it's a rather cartoony looking model and looks rather dated.  I'll throw up some pictures as I get it a bit closer to completed.