Night Lords Leviathan Dreadnought - Complete

A few days overdue for Dreadtober, but my Night Lords Leviathan Dreadnought is done.

Dead bodies and lightning. Must be Night Lords!

As I said in my last post, this one felt like a bit of a slog to get to the finish line. It was by turns enjoyable and frustrating but, in the end, I'm happy with how it turned out.

I haven't changed the paint scheme much since painting my Night Lords back in 2016. But, I feel my painting ability has been refined somewhat, so I was able to make small improvements throughout. 

I think the lightning pattern has improved over my last effort.

I'm not sure when this monstrosity will see the battlefield; but I am thinking of changing my Night Lords Legion force into a Chaos Space Marine army for 40k. So perhaps they will all see some action if that comes to pass.

There's not a lot of interest in Horus Heresy gaming in my local area; which is a shame, because I love the miniatures and the story. It hasn't stopped me buying and painting the things, but it would be nice to use them from time to time.

Chop chop.

So there you have it. I'll leave you with a couple more photos of this beast; hopefully more Night Lords to come in 2020.

Check out the cool red cable on the arm.

Dreadtober 2019 - Night Lords Leviathan Dreadnought - Week 4

So Dreadtober draws to a close and how have I done? Well, truthfully, not as well as I would have liked.

Not bad, but not finished.

Unfortunately, real life seemed determined to get in the way this month. I got sick, which put me out of action for a few days and crucially I lost a weekend of painting progress. I also had to go through the process of buying a new car which proved to be time consuming.

On a happier note, I went up to Warhammer World last week for a day of gaming with some friends. We had a lot of fun, but I could have used that time instead to get some more progress on the Dreadnought. It's all about priorities I suppose.

I'm pleased with the details so far.

Having said all of that, I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along so far. The details are looking decent and with a bit of concerted effort I could probably finish the whole thing off fairly quickly. Hopefully, given another week, I will be able to share the finished article with you all.

I feel sorry for the dead guy hanging off the front.

So, that concludes Dreadtober 2019. My thanks to Joel from Mordian 7th for organising it and for posting all the updates over at the Dreadtober blog.

Dreadtober 2019 - Night Lords Leviathan Dreadnought - Week 3

Dreadtober rolls ever onwards and unfortunately my progress has been somewhat stunted in the last week or so.

Still lots left to do.

There seem to be a lot of unpleasant illnesses going around at the moment and I was unfortunate enough to come down with one of them last week. Cue plenty of bed rest and no painting progress. Annoyingly it put me out of action over the weekend when I could have made a good bit of progress. These things happen I suppose, but it's frustrating nonetheless.

I did finish the left arm though.

Anyway, enough of my lame excuses. I did finish painting the left arm and have made a start detailing the body/head etc. I'm pretty pleased with the look of the finished areas, but there's a lot of Dreadnought still to paint and time is running short!

Just under two weeks to go, can I finish the Dread in time? Or will I fall into the ranks of the dishonoured? Here's hoping I find a good chunk of painting time to finish this bad boy!

Dreadtober 2019 - Night Lords Legion Leviathan Dreadnought - Week 2

We're just over a week into Dreadtober (where did that week go??) and I've made some progress with my Night Lords Leviathan Dreadnought.

Not a lot of progress but it's something.

As you can see from the above, I've done a load of ugly basecoats and made a start detailing the left arm. I've found in the past with Dreadnoughts that I prefer to paint them a piece at a time; so I've basecoated almost everything and now I'll paint a limb to completion. Apparently we're starting with the left arm because of reasons.

What's big, blue and ugly?

Despite not having made fabulous progress, I'm really liking this model. It's got loads of cool details which really evoke the image of the 8th Legion. There's plenty of obvious things like the dismembered body on the front housing. But there are lots of little touches which I've enjoyed discovering as I progress.

Oh, and if you saw my last post, you'll notice that this chap now has a pair of big claws and some heavy flamers. Perfect for a Legion that specializes in terror tactics!

Tune in next week when hopefully I will have made lots more progress as the end of October looms large.

Dreadtober 2019 - Night Lords Legion Leviathan Dreadnought - Week 1

Welcome one and all to the beginning of 2019's Dreadtober pledge. This time around I will be bringing out a Night Lords Leviathan Dreadnought and trying to finish it before Halloween.

The current state of things. Cue cries of: "He's 'armless!"

This year is a bit different for me. Firstly, because I normally go into a challenge with the models assembled and, as you can see from the above, we aren't quite there yet. Secondly, because I'm doing something for my Night Lords, which is a force I haven't added to in quite some time. Here's hoping I remember how to paint them!

A bunch of bits. Allegedly this will make an arm.

For anyone who is unaware, Dreadtober is an annual event which encourages participants to build and paint a Dreadnought (or Dreadnought like thing) during the month of October. This year being hosted by Joel of Mordian 7th. Thanks for running the event Joel and keeping the tradition going. Now hopefully I can fulfill my pledge and get this beast painted up in a month.

Hobby Update: Dominus Knight Valiant

Once again, things have been a bit quiet here on the blog. There are a number of contributing factors but rest assured I have been hobbying away quietly in the background. I'm working on a handful of small commissions alongside a Dominus Knight Valiant for my growing Knight household.

Knight Valiant! Most of the parts aren't glued on.

I was fortunate enough to receive the Knight Valiant as a Birthday gift (thanks Blazmo!) and have been excitedly working on it ever since. This is the first Imperial Knight kit I've had from new and it was a delight to build. The instructions are clear and luxurious and the design of the components is perfect. As is my preference when painting large models, I've built it in sub-assemblies which will be glued in place only once they are painted.

Looks a bit weird without the arms.

I've now made some headway with the painting. As with my previous knights I'm using a spreadsheet to track the progress and by my estimate I'm now 51% complete! Not bad if I do say so myself! I find tracking the progress of these models is essential so that I don't become disheartened and give up because it can feel like slow progress at times.

Stripy!

As you can see I've tried my hand at a bit of blingy hazard striping on the shoulders. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I think it will look ok as part of the finished model.

The legs are now virtually finished.

Once again, following the process of my previous knights, I'm painting from the ground up. The legs are now done and I've started working on the body armour. The next big step will be the arms and weapons.

Armour approaching completion.

I need to find time to polish off those commissions as it isn't fair to have paying customers waiting while I mess about with my own stuff. But for now, the Valiant has captured my interest. Wish me luck as I try to polish off this beast in the next couple of weeks!


Oh, and as an aside, I did consider entering this bad boy in Dreadtober but it would have been a very challenging model to complete in the month. It's a shame, as I love the community painting events but I felt like it would be too much pressure this time around.

Painting the Onager Dunecrawler - Dreadtober 2017 week 3

So, the end of the third week of Dreadtober looms, and how am I doing? Well, to put it bluntly, I've finished!




Oh yeah!

Ok, that's not quite true, as I did say I would paint the other weapon options and I have yet to do so. But even so, the Onager itself is complete along with the Eradication Beamer I showed off last time.

Time to Eradicate!

Painting the model in sub-assemblies really helped me to get it finished quickly and made the whole process a lot easier. It's much simpler to slap on a basecoat with a big brush when you don't have to worry about all  those pesky details!

Love the cog and skull motif.

I think this is the first time I've applied a transfer since I was about twelve years old. I must say, transfers have definitely improved in the decades since then! I also used some Micro-Sol to help blend the transfer into the paintwork which worked quite well.

How many lenses can you count?

In case you can't tell from the rampant photography, I really am delighted with how the Onager turned out. The pink and green scheme scaled up really well to a larger model and the brass details really set it off. The most fiddly part was probably painting and assembling the turret gunner; but when you can have a heavy stubber for only five points, I wasn't going to leave him off!

Feel free to count the rivets too!

So, thanks to Todd and all my fellow Dreadtober-teers! Once again, the threat of community humiliation has spurred me on to complete a model that would probably have languished in indefinite undercoat. As I mentioned in my first Dreadtober post, I'm also participating in a build-and-paint campaign at the moment so I have a few other models on my list for this month. Check in next week to see if I have a further Dreadtober update or something different entirely!


As usual, you can read my Dreadtober story here, here and here.

Painting the Onager Dunecrawler - Dreadtober 2017 week 2

Welcome to Dreadtober week 2! So, how's it going? Well, it's going pretty great, thanks for asking.

Finally glued to the base!

It's been a solid week of progress for me. I've finished painting a lot of the smaller parts that will be glued in place once the main hull is complete. Not only that, but I've finished painting the lower half and stuck it on the base!


Following in the footsteps of the rest of my Skitarii, I'm trying to keep things simple with the paint scheme. Not getting bogged down in too much of the detail (because these things have tons of it!)

Eradication Beamer! Such a cool weapon.

I'm delighted with how the scheme is turning out. I'm always worried about transferring a colour scheme to a larger model, but so far it seems to be working well.


As far as assembly goes, the legs were a bit of a bitch as I hadn't realized that you can't just slide the funny snowshoe type things around the feet once they're fixed down. This led to much cursing as I had to rip the legs off the base and then reconnect them with the 'snowshoes' in place. However, it doesn't seem to have damaged the finished product.

Other assorted gubbins. All WIP.

Still, so far, progress is good and I'm well on the way to finishing the model by the end of the month. You can check out my previous progress here and here. Also be sure to stop by the main Dreadtober blog to see how the other participants are getting on.


Tune in next time for another batch of hot, steaming progress!

Painting the Onager Dunecrawler - Dreadtober 2017 week 1

Well the first week of Dreadtober is finished and things are going ok for me. I've decided to build the Onager as a series of sub-assemblies for painting and have made a start on painting most of the bits. I've even managed to finish painting a couple of the smaller parts!

So many parts!

As with most modern plastic kits, the Onager is a joy to build. The components fit together nicely and there are very few mould lines. You may just be able to see from the picture above that I've built both the neutron laser and the eradication beamer as weapon options. I have drilled and inserted magnets behind the weapon housing so that I can pick and choose. If I get the chance I will also magnetise the heavy phosphor blaster, but realistically I would probably always use the eradication beamer instead so it seems a little redundant!


I've noticed that a lot of people tend to magnetise the weapon barrels instead of the whole gun chassis. In my experience this tends to make things a bit wobbly on the tabletop and if you aren't super careful it can lead to some very wonky gun barrels.

Nice legs! Just test fitting the armour panels.

For the colour scheme I'll be using my usual Skitarii scheme which you may have seen here. It's an attractive (if I do say so myself) combination of deep green and bright pink; with plenty of metallic thrown in for good measure. They are armoured cyborgs after all!

Complete! Turret gunner and....whatever that thing is.

Mostly, I'm just delighted to have finished some of the bits (even if they are tiny!) Hopefully finishing a part at a time will give me the motivation to push through and get this thing finished.


Check in next week to find out if I've rocketed ahead with the painting or if it's slow going. Right now the motivation is high and I feel like I'm on a roll. Oh, and if you're interested, you can check out my intro post for Dreadtober here.

Painting Skitarii - 500 points complete

I reached an important milestone this weekend with my Adeptus Mechanicus army. Painting a 500 point army to completion.

Sorry for the glare....and the curtains.

I guess thirteen models doesn't seem much to write home about (especially as I completed the bulk of these models this year during Squaduary and Monster March.) But it's very significant for me. Having a fully painted army of a certain value is quite a rare event in my hobby life, so it's definitely one worth documenting.

The final model.

Some of you may recall that when I took part in Squaduary I had painted the rather inadvisable combination of an arc rifle and a plasma caliver for my squad of Skitarii Vanguard. As it turned out, the lack of a second identical weapon really damages the focus of a squad on the tabletop, so I felt I needed a second plasma caliver before I could honestly call the army complete. I painted up the guy above and added him to the vanguard squad for a double dose of hot plasma death!


I'm also taking part in a campaign over the next few months run by my buddy Lewis over at Canis Aureus. The concept is to increase the army size by 250 points per month and play a series of games over a system map of the Charadon Sector. Hopefully this will push me on to complete 750 points by the end of October, which ties in nicely with Dreadtober as I will be painting an Onager Dunecrawler to add to the force.


Stay tuned for more updates on Dreadtober and, with any luck, a fully painted 750 point force in a month's time!

Dreadtober 2017 - Skitarii Onager Dunecrawler

It's that time of the year again! The nights are drawing in and there's no better way to spend your evening than slaving over a hot Dreadnought (or approximate equivalent).




Spooky!

In my usual fashion I will be trying to stretch the category of Dreadnought to its limits by building and painting an Onager Dunecrawler for my growing Skitarii force.


For those that don't know, Dreadtober is a participation project within the hobby community. The primary aim is to get a Dreadnought (or Dreadnoughts!) built and painted to completion within the month of October. Participants post weekly updates on their various blogs (all collated at the main Dreadtober blog) and with any luck, we all end up with a shiny new Dread at the end of the month!


Having participated in these community events in the past I find them immensely motivating and hopefully this Dreadtober will prove no exception!


Stay tuned for weekly updates all throughout October.

Dreadtober - Progress update #2

Shockingly, I've actually managed to make some progress with the Dreadtober/Carnifex painting challenge. Trust me, I'm more surprised than you.

I think the paint was still wet when I took this.

As you can see, most of the chitinous areas are now complete along with the fleshy parts. All that's left is to fill in some detail (ie apply moot green with wallpaper brush) and finish off the base. This is definitely a good thing as I'm going abroad for the last week of October so I only have this week to finish him off. Wish me luck! More photos below.

Zoomed out so you can see some other random objects. You're welcome.

Rear shot so you can admire the junk in the trunk!

Moar photos!

From the top ie General's eye view.

Dreadtober - Progress update #1

A Carnifex?! For Dreadtober?!! Madness you say?!!! Well, get over it, it's happening so you'll just have to deal.

Ugh, that looks hideous!

As you can see, it's part way through painting. By the end of the month it will join my tie-dyed horde of alien gribblies. The colour scheme for my Tyranids is very basic because it was conceived when my interest in 40k was rekindled back in 4th edition. Essentially the fleshy parts are painted with an 80/20 mix of Evil Sunz Scarlet/Abbadon Black and the base is painted in Dawnstone. All of these areas are then washed with Nuln Oil. Once that's done the chitinous parts are painted with White Scar and then heavily washed with a 60/40 mix of White Scar/Altdorf Blue. The final details are picked out with Moot Green and Pink Horror and a goodly dash of Ardcoat is applied as necessary. The last step is to drybrush the base with White Scar.

Given that there is no highlighting, glazing, metalwork (non-metallic or otherwise) etc. it's not really surprising that I can turn these things around pretty quickly (now watch me miss the deadline!) I'm sure my fellow Tyranid players will agree that when you're playing a horde army, the simpler the paint scheme the better!  

What do you mean the photos are identical?!

As you can see, I've completed the basecoat on the skin and base, washed it down and made a small start in applying the white layer. As with most of my Tyranids, there's a bit of construction history to this guy. He's one of my ebay salvages; basically I went a bit nuts and bought three Carnifexes I didn't need along with nine Tyranid Warriors, a bunch of gaunts and spore mines and a Red Terror. Those who were aware of the size of my existing Tyranid collection simply shook their heads woefully. I think I'm about five genestealers away from an intervention.

Anyway, like most cheap things from ebay they'd had a hard life. Badly constructed with polystyrene cement, shellacked with layer upon layer of paint and displaying some impressive battle damage. Nonetheless, I take a perverse joy in resurrecting these poor miniatures and adding them to my armies in new and glorious forms. This particular model was stripped using Fairy Power Spray before removing the head and limbs. Once this was done I used a new head from my bitz box along with some new claws and re-posed the torso joint so that the model is rearing up instead of staring at the ground.

There's bound to be a few experienced players out there rolling their eyes and wondering why I would bother to put so much effort into building a Screamer-Killer style Carnifex. The simple answer is that I think they're awesome; are they the most effective build on the tabletop? No, not by a long shot, but it's a classic build that takes me back to the misty eyed days of second edition (when they were toughness 8 and had 10 wounds...).

More updates to come soon.

Dreadtober, Tervigon and other random things

In random painting news, I've finally finished painting my Tervigon. This is particularly significant, as it was a Birthday present from my darling wife, so I have to show that I appreciate it rather than just letting it join the forlorn pile of half finished, unpainted junk gradually accumulating beneath the bed. Here's a blurry camera-phone shot of the finished article for your amusement.

Thankfully the blur hides the painting flaws.

Now, many things have been said about my Tyranid colour scheme. They've been called garish; been described as hippies; and once even compared to Aston-Villa fans! Well to those people I say, screw you! This is how Tyranids look in my imagination! The terrible horrors from beyond our galaxy would surely be festooned with tie-dye! Ahem...

Moving swiftly on; I have come across a certain painting event known as Dreadtober. The gist of this is that the participants must build and paint a Dreadnought before the end of October. Sadly, I don't have a Dreadnought to hand, but I do have four spare Carnifexes! Using the old, Space-Crusade definition of a Dreadnought, I'm sure a Carnifex could be squeezed into this category (despite Greg's protestations). So, before the end of the month, I will produce at least one fully painted (tie-dyed) Carnifex. Updates and complaints about lack of progress to follow.