MWG Fantasy painting contest entry - Archaon

'Lo there!

Here's my entry for the Miniwargaming.com Fantasy Painting Contest. I'm a bit rusty after not painting seriously for 6-8 months but I just had to try. First I want to say that this model is one of the best looking models that GW ever made, but the amount of flash that you need to cut and other problems related to assembly make it also the most horrendous. And without further ado, I give you the guy that makes you run out of time, Archaon:


This is the first picture I got of my horse almost done, with the first pass on the base. I've done the horse color by mixing Chaos Black with Codex grey in many layers, then adding a bit of Fortress Grey and Asurmen Blue to give it a blue-ish tint.
The lava was done in a few passses of Mechrite Red, Blood Red, Blazing Orange and Sunburst Yellow.

Here's the cloak (inside) and horsey placed besides each other, as well as proof that I DID paint it for the competition :D Also have a look at my marvelous handwriting. Following, there's the final product, indicating with his sword that YOU are his next target.



In the next picture you can see a better view of the base, cloak exterior which was painted in 7 layers of red, as well as his flaming sword.


For this side shot, Archaon shows us his shield which is a bit battered. The horse doesn't agree with him carrying that insane amount of metal on his back. The shield was painted in the color of the armor, which is basically 6 layer mix between chaos black and blood red, going up to a rust color at the highest intensity.

And finally, a better view of the furry shoulders and sword. The shoulders were made by blending 2 shades of brown, namely PP Jack bone and PP Bootstrap leather. The sword was done in a 7 stages, going from Mechrite Red, Blood Red, Blazing Orange, PP Cygnus Yellow and with a Baal Red wash in-between.

Enjoy :)

Deffkopta squad done

I've painted this Deffkopta squad as a gift for a friend. They're not as detailed as the other deffkopta that I previously posted, having only 3 layers in average per surface in comparison with 5 for the solo kopta. The props are all magnetized and interchangeable. Here's how they look.



The main problem was that these guys were painted with a time constraint, summing up to some 6 hours for all 4 of them, that's why they could use some work. But oh well.. he's gonna finish them if he wants :)

Deffkopta done :)

Tried my hand on a deffkopta model, painted in the same vein as the other ork. Here's the result:

Nob done

I have finally finished the nob. It's a great model and I recommend anybody who collects them to take their time and paint them properly.

I did not do the base, because this is a model that belongs to a friend and I have no clue how he's gonna base his nob squad.

Enjoy :)

Ork nob part 1

I got an ork nob from a friend to make some color tests on it. It's gonna be a Goff nob, but there's still a lot of work to be done on him. So far the green skin and leather clothes are done, but I'll finish it soon.

1 Year of space marines

Hi guys,
I just thought to put up a small sum-up of my miniature painting that started , well, one year and a half ago. But since I took a break off painting for 4-5 months , it's pretty much on the 1 year mark. So, here's what I've got painted so far:


HQ:
1 Librarian (converted from a regular space marine)
1 Jump Pack Chaplain
1 Captain

Troops:
3 Tactical Squads and some change (33 Tac marines)
1 Scout squad (4 Snipers 1 Heavy Bolter)
Fast attack:

1 Assault Marine squad (10 Marines)
Heavy Weapons
1 Devastator Squad with all weapons options (6 Marines)

Vehicles
1 Drop pod
4 Rhino Chassis , 3 of which are magnetized and can be fit with Predator sponsons and turrets
All the weapons options for predators magnetized (main guns, sponsons bot heavy bolters and lascannons)
Door sets for the Rhino chassis just in case I don't use them as Predators.

Here are some detailed shots of everything:

These are my first painted marines. The one in the right with the double plasma pistols is my first model. As you can see, there is not much unity in these guys, mainly because on each one I tried a new painting technique and then decided to stop in order to have a summary of what went well and what didn't. Also, these are mostly AoBR marines, with a few exceptions.

This is my assault squad, 5 of the marines have some green stuff work on them in order to create some jetpack flames. The chaplain in the middle was my first painted metal model and helped me change the techiques I have been a lot, mainly because I didn't want to mess it up :). Here's a close-up of the model.


Following is the squad where I finally decided on a proper color scheme for my army. These guys were made also to stand in for a Sternguard squad in case I ever need one.

Next is another tactical marine squad that I painted because I needed some extra marines for games. This is also the first squad that I used edge highlighting on.


This scout squad provided a much welcome break from the standard armored space marines and gave me the opportunity to learn about cloth and painting faces. On the snipers I have made extensive use of drybrushing and washes to give the clothing a somewhat natural look. It went ok for most of them.
On the heavy bolter scout I tried to use layers to create a more realistic face, instead of using washes and drybrushing as before, and it paid off.

In the next picture we have a sergeant for the sternguard/tactical squad and my librarian conversion. The sergeant has one of my first good face painting jobs , following the example of the heavy bolter scout.


The librarian is a conversion on which I used all kinds of cloth, leather and scrolly looking bits. He was painted using several layers of paint , especially on soft surfaces such as skin and cloth. The Ripper that's lying dead there is also painted using several layers and lots of color mixes.

Heavy weapons are always fun, because they are huge, are easy to assemble and you can paint them in all kinds of ways. For the weapons I tried various effects such as highlighted or glowing wires, glowing plasma exhausts, etc.
Also, these models is where I started to freehand my chapter logo on the shoulderpads. Following this squad I have went over older models and put logos on their shoulders.


On to the vehicles, this is my first painted and assembled Rhino. It has some assembly problems, but much of them have been covered through painting. This model is the only non-magnetized chassis that I have. All others can be converted into a Predator.
The hatch tactical symbol is painted by using masking for the arrow with a brush over sticky tape.


This chassis was completed long after the 1st one. Here I used my chapter colr scheme, and I finally stopped fumbling with colors painting large surfaces. This is the first model that I weathered with mud using several layers of brown colors, technique that I applied on all my other vehicles.

The following 2 pictures are my latest rhinos/predators. I tried to use several new techniques, such as nmm , minor plasticard conversions. I tried to do some hazard stripes on the extra armor plating but I failed miserably, so I decided to make them all black and spam some decals :)


And last, but not least, the drop pod. It's the single most difficult to paint model that I had to do so far (I have 2 land raiders to assemble though, so it might get knocked down to 2nd place ). The plastic is of amazing quality, everything fits almost without gluing stuff and it also requires a great deal of attention during the last assembly phase.


And this is it :) I hope you enjoyed it.

Rhinoes done

I finished painting my Rhino/Predator chassis. The doors and hatches are removable and they are magnetized on the inside to fit the sponsons. Still have to varnish them , but I figured I should take a picture of them before :)

Enjoy

Rhinoes part 2

A small update on the rhinos/tanks. I've finished painting the big surfaces, metallics, washed in the details and did some minor cleanup. Also, I've tried my hand a bit on some NMM for the custom doors and the tank turret.

Next up: tanks/rhinoes

For the next project I started working on something that I've neglected for a while, my two Rhino/Predator chassis. I've assembled and magnetized the main guns and side sponsons a long time ago , but never got to paint them properly. Also, I've done some minor conversion work on the rhino and doors with the use of plasticard (long live!)
This is how everything looks in its current stage, and it will look better in the future.


Enjoy(tm)

Drop pod DONE

Finally, after about .. I don't have any idea how many hours .. I've finished the drop pod.


BEHOLD!

I'm so very glad it's over :) Not much to say about it except.. enjoy :)

Drop pod part 6

Theoretically I'm almost finished with the drop pod. I've finished the metallic parts, cleaned-up stuff, painted the rivets, did some edge highlighting on the edges pointing upwards.

For the next step I'll glue the model together, add the missing storm bolter , add some dirt and burn marks and it should be finally done.

Enjoy :)

Drop pod part 4

Quite some time since the last update, mostly because other pressing business :). However, here is a small update on the drop pod. It's a huge model , with lots and lots of details to paint. What I've done so far is finish painting the big areas with their respective colors.
The white needed about 5-6 coats to get right, 2 of Astronomican Grey and 3-4 of P3 Morrow White.
What's left to do is paint the exterior metalic surfaces (now in black) , use washes and inks in the creases to add detail, do the danger signs on the drop pod doors and add the weathering.

Enjoy (tm)

Drop pod part 3

I have basecoated the green portions of the model with the regular Knarloc Green. It went pretty fast, because I tried to paint in a cross pattern and the foundation paints seem to love this way of applying paint.
Basically what I did is wet my brush a bit, squeeze almost all the moisture then get some paint on a large drybrush. With this I painted one layer from top to bottom and one layer from left to right. As you can see from the picture, the result is messy on the edges but very uniform where the paint should be. All the green areas took some 30 minutes with some slacking and waiting for paint to dry between layers.
Next up will be finishing the greens, then cleaning up and going for the white portions.

Drop pod part 2 and a celebration

I have finished doing the basic metallic drybrush on the drop pod. It's a great model, the best I've assembled until now as far as how everything fits together. The pod in the picture has many pieces that are not glued together, and is stable enough to handle and test various things.
The assembly instructions are lacking one small detail: the marine harnesses need to be placed on the pod's floor together with the central console, otherwise you would have to cut some of the plastic in order to place them correctly. This is what happened to me while building this drop pod, but it's not noticeable by any means.



Also, if you want to have a good looking painted pod interior you may want to paint the harnesses and the console BEFORE glueing them to the pod's floor, otherwise you won't be able to reach the console with your brush.

The picture above is the 100th picture I am uploading to the blog after about 1 year since I've started painting miniatures. It's not 1 year yet, but we're getting close. It's quite nice to see how much one person can progress from absolute 0 to .. more than that just by practicing and dedicating some (not a lot) of time to a certain field. So I guess the moral would be that anything can be learned up to a point if one practices enough.

Drop pods ahoy!

I got a new transport in the mail today that had 2 Drop Pods and a Land Speeder Storm, so I quickly tried to assemble one part of the drop pod, namely half of the interior. Much to my surprise, I failed to see some of the hints that the assembly guide showed me, such as gluing the panels on the top turbine upside down :) Oh well, now I'll have to live with a little strange drop pod.
One nice thing about the drop pod is the turret mount. That should not be glued to the rest of the turbine, because it can be fit with 2 weapons and it can rotate freely. Combine that with a spiral pattern on the turbine head and it should make for a great showpiece :)

Also, I have a few ideas how to magnetize the weapons to make the pod even more flexible (not that anyone would actually USE a Deathwind launcher , but still)

Devastators squad done

Here are my devastators and the rest of the marines that I needed for my list. Heavy weapons are a bit "harder" to paint than normal bolters and handguns, because of their large surfaces and the need to cover them in more than one color unless you want them boring.

Here's the final result.



and some full frontal shots :)

Devastator squad in progress

After a week or more of not touching a model, here's a small work in progress shot of my devastator squad. The armor including highlights is pretty much done, however there are still some minor touch-ups to do here and there. Weapons are also WIP, but not much work has been done on them apart from metallic brushing and washing.

Librarian replacement done

Finally, after severe slacking in the painting department I have completed the librarian. I've also added added a small ripper to the base, just to make it look different.

First terrain piece completed

Here's my first terrain piece. It's a bunker made out of a Warmachine blister, plasticard, and some green stuff.

Pseudo-librarian update

Here's the body almost done for my replacement standard librarian. It still needs way more scrolls and tabards , but I'll get there. Also in news is a brief appearance of his faithful servo-skull.



Enjoy