Indomitus - Painting Necrons Blackstone Fortress Style pt2.5 Skorpekh Destroyers

Following on from the previous post on my Necrons, I realised I hadn't included how the bases have been finished, and, keeping with essence of the speed painting project, I decided to use metallic paints and dry brushing. 

When it comes to basing I am a big fan of batch painting, especially if I'm using my airbrush.  the time it takes to get all the paints and airbrush ready you may as well paint 40 to 60 bases then just 5 to 10, this way the colours will match and so will the style of dry brushing.  

All the bases have been undercoated with a grey primer then I airbrushed sections with Mournfang Brown and VX-88.  Then I hand painted the gold sections and dry brushed the other areas with Leadbelcher.  I gave everything a ink wash with Agrax Earthshade.  Finally, I edge highlighted with Stormhost Silver and added Nihilakh Oxide to parts of the gold and highlighted with Gauss Blaster Green.  Quick simple and effective.

I had also pre planned all the bases I would need and bought Necromunda, Sector Imperialis and Mechanicum bases.  The reason being that multiple units would have it's own base type. i.e.  each unit of 10 Necron warriors would have its own type of base, and therefore no need for any squad identification markings as I wanted the all to be the same.  Also you will note throughout these Necron posts all bigger models would have their own bespoke bases, as I am basicallly cheating on the standard smaller troops I thought it would counter act the standardisation.

I loved these models so much that I bought a second set and followed the same process including giving each one their own unique base. 

Sneak peak of things to come in the next few weeks  - a converted Imperial Fists Primaris Centurion.

 

Imperial Fists - Whats your new project?

So what is on your hobby table at the moment?  For me its been three weeks of non stop playing with shades of yellow.  You've guest it, it's another Imperial Fists army.

I have a back catalogue of blogging to do, including my whole Necron army which is now complete and I have expanded my Death Guard by over 50% and, which is also finished.  For now though I thought I would share my latest creations and hint at what will be coming next over the coming weeks - including Imperial Fists Primaris Centurions and trying my damndest to create a shade for yellow which does not include brown :)  Enjoy.

 

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.

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 :)

Showcase XV104 Riptide

With armies on Parade looming I thought I would showcase one of my Riptides, I've selected it because I think it's is my favorite pose, it show off the thrust flames coming from his jet pack and another Tau holographic public information station, painted using my "Blue glow effect - Airbrush tutorial in 3 easy steps." I hope it's well liked and as usual comments are welcome :)

“Where’s the goddamn beacon? Oh. I see it.” Tau Skyshield landing pad

I finished my Tau Skyshield this morning by adding some weathering effects and adding the blue glow effect, I have been a little sneaky I have bought a pack of very light blue paper and I have glued them behind the vents were the light will emanate, because I have placed blue fairy lights inside and the paper diffuses the overall brightness, unfortunately my flash on my camera is stronger then the LED's so you can't see them, but it looks good in the dark :)

More posts to come on how it was made and the concept behind it.

 

This is my original Imperial Skyshield landing pad painted about 5 to 6 years ago when they first came out, note :- Its still not finished Oh well my new one is :)

That's a big tick off my to do list :)

Stay on target...Armies on Parade - Tau Skyshield landing pad WIP

A sneak peak of my Armies on Parade project X (WIP) and one of my painted Riptides and yes I know it's a rubbish photo, I have to leave you wanting more :)

Tau Tetra - Farsight Enclave

I have finally finished my 4 Tetras and I am happy with them, but in hindsight I think they could of done with a few more markings even if it was just to number them 1 to 4, oh well too late now.

The blue Tau statue is not a statue at all.  I wanted it to be different from the barracuda base http://bluewarpstudios.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/the-barracuda-so-what-is-it-part-4-tau.html so I opted for a holographic projection, which are used as public service announcements or issuing orders on the battlefield "for the greater good" and such.  I liked the idea so much I'm going to make 3 more of these and use them as objective markers but next time I think I'll paint them a little lighter. I had toyed with the idea of casting them in clear resin and placing blue LED lights in the base, I thought that would be cool for objective markers doted all around the board, maybe be I should put it to a vote?   Anyway I hope you like :)

Tau Tetra and The Magic Round about

Just hum "The Magic Round About" theme tune in your head or out loud and it makes all the difference :)

Tau R'varna "you have 20 seconds to comply"

Straight off the back of my Farsight Enclave Barracuda - I have been working on my second airbrush project, the Forgeworld R'varna, and I have to be honest here and say that when I first saw this model I wasn't that impressed, but the original experimental rules were fantastic with a potential of 6 haywire hits per shooting phase.  Nothing last for ever and FW realised it was a bit good and toned it down a bit, now that I have one and can field it in a ordinary 1500 point game I thought it about time to paint it and I have gone from not liking the model but liking the rules to loving the model and indifferent about the rules with regards to the guns, Oh and the pointy things at the end of the guns they had to go too.

Second airbrush model complete just a few more Riptides to go :)  anyway I hope you like it and any comments are welcome. 

The Barracuda - So what is it? Part 4 Tau flying base

After many many hours of learning how to use an airbrush, I have finally finished my first airbrush project.  I have to admit that in the passed I would consider the use of  an airbrush as "cheating". but now after undertaking this project I wont be saying that again, it's true that the light effects are a lot easier the doing them with a brush but having to mask every individual panel was wxtrememly time consuming.

As this is my first attempt any hints or tips are welcome. or if you can identify any mistakes please don't hesitate to message, i hope you like it :)