DreadKnight Commission - Completed

Luke's Finished DreadKnight

Pictures of Luke's DreadKnight. I'm really pleased with the colour scheme - which matches the rest of Luke's Grey Knights army - the yellow's really strong and the limited use of metallics makes the gold and silver eye catching. GW colours throughout.

The idea for the shoulder mounted weapons are from a conversion Luke found online.

Green purity shields :)

The rear is deliberately down played, there are some little touches to look at though.

The banner is from a Grey Knights Terminator set.

WIP: Bust of Commissioner Croe

Just some base coating so far, GW Tallarn Flesh, undiluted GW Ogryn Flesh wash, highlight of Tallarn through to Vallejo Dark Flesh (not a very dark tone at all really).

The slate grey is Vallejo Black - a very flat and matte black - lightened with GW Mordian Blue. Not sure what the base colour for the reds will be. Maybe GW Mechrite Red, maybe the Vallejo Red..

)

Above is the partial picture of Croe from the front of the 2002 Forgeworld Catalogue on which I'm basing the colour scheme. The scan has not brought out the green in the wreath on his cap, it comes out slightly better in the leaves on his sash, they're just to the right of his medals. I can't, at the moment, find a good picture of Croe in that colour scheme. I love the relections in the peak of his cap and the rather grim forcefulness the artist has drawn out of the sculpt of the face.

New Project - Bust of Commissioner Croe

This is one of the busts Forgeworld used to produce, it's listed in the 2002 catalogue.

The plan is to collect and paint them all :) there are lots though and some are very expensive nowadays, so we'll see how it goes I guess.

This bust was bought on eBay May 2011 and had not been painted before. It was in good condition and only needed some very minor fixing & filling (the elbow needed tidying from a previous milliput repair and some tiny bubbles on the downward facing surfaces were filled).

I bought it from a collector of unpainted FW busts and figurines from that period. I suspect he sold it to me with mixed feelings knowing I was going to paint it :) I'll be trying not to horrify you too much with the results Simon...

First pic, fixed, filled and primed.

There's an interesting partial pic of Croe on the front of the 2002 catalogue which I'm going to use as a starting point. Deeply hooded eyes, green leaves and gold wings on the cap, dark (navy blue?) material  with blood red, dark blood red, piping. He looks very grim with his piercing eyes, scars and titanium plate on his jaw :) Should be fun.

Space Marine Captain - Final Pictures

Some final pictures of the Space Marine Captain from the Assault on Black Reach boxed set, painted to table-top standard for eBay.

It was bought as a birthday present for a young space marines collector and player - I'm sure he's using it to create mayhem and dismay in his enemies. :)

WIP AoBR SM Captain for eBay

The Captain is coming along, in fact to the (my) naked eye he looks ok - so I thought I'd post these and look at them in a day or so before basing and finishing.

I also experimented with a different background, this is a white towel.

At this stage I'm pleased (ish) with the overall look of the face and the creams of the cloak inner and loincloth. Not so much with the golds, I can see now that I'm going to have to apply metallics in many more and much thinner layers. I'm not even going to think about NNM yet. Ok, that's a lie but thnking's as far as it gets for now.

Some cloth highlighting done but need to think about edge highlighting on armour and black outlining on shoulder pads. The leather looks a bit naff as well.

Also in need of work - the weapon

Jump pack and back of banner still to be highlighted.

Forgeworld Khorne Daemon Prince's Herald

Painting Little Mr Happy here for Jamie (thx Jamie) and, no surprise, it's a pleasure to work on and paint. The FW resin miniatures are so detailed you just grin every time you look at them and of very high quality - what tiny casting defect bubbles are left in the resin are easily filled.

There was only one in this case really, on the end of the sword

Here he is anyway.

See what I mean about the detail? It's 28mm scale, which means that the partially dismembered male human figure would be 28mm tall is standing - and if he weren't dismembered of course.

First thing was to disassemble and green stuff any bubbles and seams.

Ok, green stuff then, under the arms and behind the ears.

 

And then a little to avoid BBS (Builder's Bum Syndrome)

And he's ready for Spraying with Skull White.

Looking at that pic makes me a little uncomfortable about picking him up again, nasty little guy...

Space Marines Captain, Assault on Black Reach

Painting a model before you assemble it is hardly a new technique I know, but I rarely remember to do it. I invariably get 1/2 way through painting a model and hrn find I can't reach the bit behind his cloak/leg/armpit and start to use language that would embarrass your average docker.

Not this time though....

This time I remembered, and it's useful. I had loads of other pictures of other bits, somewhere.

Here he is assembled but not finished off.

I'm pleased with the face and with the initial Badab Black wash around pretty much all the detail. Here's what I did:

1. Clean and mount each piece on a panting mount
2. Spray GW Skull White
3. Pick out detail with GW Badab Black - I did think of using GW Chaos Black but the wash is easier, and much more forgiving.
4. GW Chaos Black on the weapon
5. GW Tallarn Flesh highlighted with GW Elf Flesh through to GW Skull White on the face
6. GW Codex Grey then GW brown foundation, v thin layer, for hair.
7. Bolt Gun Metal highlighted with Mithril Silver for head set
8. Bleached Bone for cloak lining and loin cloth
9. Ultramarines Blue for armour
10. Mechrite Red for cloak, purity seals and rope, highlighted through to Blood Red
11. Shining Gold trim

Having said that painting before assembly was useful, and it was, I did struggle a little assembling and trying not to damage paintwork and in retrospect it would have been better to pre-paint on those parts that would have been hidden. On this miniature that's behind the loin cloth, behind the weapon and the very bottom bit of the banner - behind the golden collar.

Finished Pics to come.