Indomitus - Painting Necrons Blackstone Fortress Style pt2 Skorpekh Destroyers

Welcome back to painting Necrons like Spindle drones from Blackstone Fortress.  It is also a speed painting project for my son and I to attempt during lockdown.  Well most of the painting is speed painting but airbrushing and particular masking off areas is definitely not speed painting, I think I spent more time masking off then I did painting the whole model lol :). 

to recap the colours and technechques used on this 

1. Dry brushes with Incubi Darkness and a small edge highlight with Kabalite Green.  
2. The white is wet blended with Fenrisian Grey, Celestra Grey and White Scar with an edge highlight with White Scar
3. I have changed how I have done the pink from the previous post, I hand painted the pink with Emperor's Children, then gave a glow effect with the same colour with my airbrush,  I then highlighted with with Fulgrim Pink and highlighted further by adding a little white to Fulgrim Pink.  Finally I  used Contrast Magos purple to tone the pink down a little bit in the resist areas

I wanted to airbrush the Hyperphase Thresers in exactly the same style as GW have done with the green on theirs but I would be using pink.  I didn't photograph the dry brushing stage because I wanted to conciontrate on this pink process, but first a lot masking off to do.  I masked off the model first.

Then I masked off the inner blade.

I added 3 layers of pink trying to get a smooth transition between each colour using the airbrush; Emperor's Children, Fulgrim Pink and white mixed with Fulgrim Pink.  A handy way to do this is after you have added all the colours sometimes one tone of colour can be lost, so its always a good idea to add that colour back in so all colours are apparent and blended together.  For instance on these the Emperor's Children colour was lost when I added to mush Fulgrim Pink so a qiuck carful add of Emperor's Children did the trick,  

I then did the same process on the inner blade and masked off the outerblade.  It is also a good idea to make sure the paint is fully dry before adding masking tape otherwise you can pull off the paint with the masking tape. 

And there you go airbrushing complete, they will just need an edge highlight with Fulgrim Pink and black outlining.

I created based hacking and slashing parts from my bits box.  I want to continue the theme that the Emperium is rusting and decaying and the Necron although millions of years old they are pristine.  

So there you have it I just need to paint the bases but I'll save it for next time when I'll be doing the Skorpekh Lord.

Indomitus - Painting Necrons Blackstone Fortress Style pt1

It has been a couple of days now since the Indomitus Box has dropped for us mere mortals and I thought I would share my progress and some confessions.  

Like most people who play and collect 40K I just cant help myself from buying the new shiny shiny, and although when the Necron first came out I was tempted but I wasn't overwhelmed with the figures, how things can change.  I just could not resist in starting another new army, which is mad because I have so much on the go.  

Confession time.... My son's Genestealer and Tyranid armies are almost complete and I am very behind with my blogging so a massive apology, but as his army is almost complete we needed another project for the summer holidays.  It was my sons idea to make this army together as a joint army, and I thought it was a great idea, I didn't need mush of an excuse anyway, the figures are amazing.

I have used the Canoptek Reanimator as a test model to see what our purposed colour scheme could look like, and I haven't stolen the colour scheme from Blackstone Fortress's Spindle Drone, honest! But first I had some converting to do, I just don't like the quadruped look of the model. it has too many legs, and also the Skorpekh Destroyers only have three legs.... and so do Spindle Drones lol.   

As it was a joint project it must be relatively easy and quick, with bits that my son could help with.  To start with the dark sections of the Canoptek Reanimator have been dry brushes with Incubi Darkness and a small edge highlight with Kabalite Green.  The white is wet blended with Fenrisian Grey, Celestra Grey and White Scar with an edge highlight with White Scar.  I didn't have to wet blend and I probably will not wet blend my Necron Warriors but I just wanted to see the full effect.  Finally I hand painted the pink with Fulgrim Pink, then gave a glow effect with the same colour with my airbrush and then used Contrast Magos purple to tone the pink down a little bit.  I then went back in with Fulgrim Pink with a paint brush.  I highlighted the orbs with the airbrush adding a little white to Fulgrim Pink.  From start to finish including the converting (not including drying times) it had taken me 4 hours not bad for me and as I am teaching my son how to airbrush and dry brush, there is nothing he can't do in this project.

The final stage was the base, I used one of GW's pre sculpted 60mm basaes and added a little extra debris.  I added lots of browns and oranges for a little colour contrast to the all overall effect of the model.

I hope you like the effect, I know it is not the best painted model in the world, but that is not what I am going for, this is a speed painting project with a striking colour scheme that my son and I can do together.  Although I may have to convert all the new models into tripods, and why not tripods are cool :)  

Painting a Trygon with Contrast Paints

Following on from a previous post "Painting Space Hulk Genestealers the quick and easy way" and my son's enthusiasm for painting Genestealers; I thought I would share what happened next.  

My son has finally got the painting bug 'literally' and he said to me "I like Genestealers, but I want to paint a big monsters", I knew this would happen, but anyway.... I spent a few days looking for a suitable monster to buy cheap on ebay and we came across a Trygon for £25 

Not the cheapest but difficult times on ebay at the moment.  He settled on a Trygon because it was big, very big, and then he said could I make a base for him just like the Genestealer bases but.. I want it bursting up from underneath the floor of the space ship.  As it was going to be a one off, I agreed.

So I put the Trygon in some suitable paint remover, and set to work.  I used spare damaged end floor sections from GW's Shrine of The Aquila, plastic girders, Rhino doors and wire mesh.  I shaped them to give the effect of something bursting from the ground and I used sprue underneath the floor tiles to give a little extra depth to the hole.

  

I sanded the edges with a Dremel and used Milliput to fill the gaps

I primed it grey and used black primer on the hole.

As with the Genestealers I primed the Trygon with grey underneath with a white highlight.

I then handed it to my son and said enjoy have fun.  This was a strange feeling to spend a lot of time and effort making something and then give it to someone else to paint.  I was feeling a little nervous and I was wondering whether or not he would actually paint it.  

Well I have to say I was extremely shocked it took him 2 days and he asked for help using the airbrush on the base.  I also helped him with dry brushing the base with silver and the detail of the eyes but that was all.

A part from the base there is no highlights what so ever on this model just contrast paints and an ink wash - AIkhelian Green with a Druchii Violet wash for the carapace, Magos Purple for the skin, Gryth-Charger Grey for the claws and Aethermatic Blue for the tongue.  Also Flash Gitz Yellow over white for the eyes and he is done, quick and effective.  Oh crap, he liked it so mush he spent his own money buying a big bulk order of Tyranids on ebay.... but I said "you haven't finished painting your Genestealer Cults" and he pointed out how many figures do you have that are incomplete? erm.......... and Oh double crap does this mean I have to make bases for all his army :(

Imperial Knights painted with the aid of an airbrush - kind of

Dave or better known as Dwez from 40kaddicts sent me a text saying take a look at this on Twitter and you should put your stuff on; the twit said "Hear ye, hear ye! A grand galactic knightly tournament declared in ye old Emperor’s name. Share your loyal and heretic Knights with us!"
So I put my Chaos Knights on and I got some nice positive re-twittes and comments.  Then I realised I hadn't photographed or blogged about my new loyalist Knights, so hear goes.

Following on from the strange and mixed response from my post on my "Project: Custodes Castellan Knight" I had decided to paint my Imperial knights using my airbrush.  I still consider myself to be a novice at airbrushing but I felt confident enough after painting my Castellan.  I had already painted the blue armour on them all, and I had finished my warlord, but I wasn't happy with the gold trim which was hand painted. as you can see below, the airbrush gold on the Castellan looks better, in my opinion.

I stripped the armour off him and dug out all the other armoured bits from my other Knights and started to mask up.

This is a long and laborious process, and adding cleaning the airbrush every blink of an eye, it can put people off airbrushing.  But the results speak for them selves, it's not quicker, it's just an alternative method of painting.   

Then following my technique I used on the Castellan I began to airbrush away with no idea how hey would turn out as it is all masked off.

I revealed one first to see if I liked the effect, and I did, phew.

It all looks a little too clean and tidy so it needs a lot of weathering.

OK so far so good, but now they needed basing and I wanted a theme base for all five but I didn't want the bases for my three un-based ones to over shadow the first two.  I decided to use the same Aquila and add some building wall sections and rubble, hoping it would work together.

You can also see I have some 10cm bases in the shot too, they are from my Armiger Helverins which I still haven't finished oops.  I airbrushed the bases just in the same style as  my Warlord and Castellan and here is the results of many months of work.

And as a passing shot this is my full collection of Knights and stuff I hope you enjoy :)

Painting Space Hulk Genestealers the quick and easy way

Since lockdown and spending all my time in isolation I have been relying on, and teaching my son how to play 40K, but 7 hours is way to long of a game.  So I cracked open my Space Hulk boxset and OMG I had forgotten what a great game it is.  I still have the original in the loft but the figures in the new one are amazing.  After we had a few games with my son, who has a very small "Genestealer cuts army" turned round to me and said "wouldn't it be great if these figures where painted" and secretly he wanted them for his army, he thinks I'm daft.  But... yes he is right it would be good if they where painted.   

Before we started to paint the figures I decided to buy some of GW's "Sector Mechanicus Industrial Bases" and start trimming the Genestealers to fit on their new bases.  

Last year when my son started painting (before contrast paints came out) he found normal GW paints too thick to use and didn't like painting.   I mixed up some washes for hes Genestealer Cults army.  He painted all hes figures and he was happy with them, so I started to paint the Patriarch in these washes, but I wanted them to look like the ones on the box and also simple and achievable for my son to do. 

I decided to delve into the realms of contrast paint as I think these paints are aimed at my sons level and age bracket and I would be able to get the effect and tone of what I want.  I chose Akhelian Green with a Druchii Violet wash for the carapace and Magos Purple for the skin.  I was happy with the effect with just these three quick coats of paints.  I painted his other Patriarch and showed him how easy it would be.  

He liked the effect so much that we based the original Space Hulk Genestealers and he wanted to paint them and I would paint the Genestealers from the new Space Hulk.

They don't look bad all together 

The new ones all painted.

And the old ones my son painted

Lord of the Rings Battle companies pt1 and 2

A while back our gaming buddy Otty wanted to try Battle Companies and after many discussions on you only need a few figures and it wont take long to paint, I purchased some "Hunter Orcs on Fell Wargs" thinking one day maybe in 15 years time I will get around to it.  Afterwards I started thinking how did that happen? I have so much stuff to paint why did I buy more? then it struck me "I had been Gríma worm tongued", bugger! 

To continue with the ethos of what to do in lockdown while disheartened with 40K, I started to put the figures together and create rocky bases, using up some white milliput  The arms are a little small then what I am normally used too, but they are a only 20mm, but  I really like the Wargs though.  So I thought I would look at getting another pack then I spotted this on ebay:-

11 Hunter Orcs on Fell Wargs and 15 Wargs, GW sell the Hunter Orcs on Fell Wargs for £25 for 6 and 6 Fell Wargs for £20 to buy new would almost cost me £110.  So you could appreciate this caught my interest.  Sometimes I love ebay but I do feel very sorry for the person who sold these because I bought them for a steal, only £30...... wow that was lucky.  Not only do I have a Battle company, but I have almost enough for a full army.   

My idea was to do a step by step guide to speed batch painting, I thought I had emailed all the images off my phone before I deleted them unfortunatley I was wrong so I lost all the images so here are the finished Wargs, bugger!

These are the original 6 with milliput bases, I added some shields before I started painting them

And this is the full army, and base coated, ink wash with Agrax Earthshade and finally a dry brush highlight.  Very quick and fairly effective on mass.... :)