Flyer is comming along, almost done

My Ork Bommer is almost done now. All that remains is finishing the tower for the Grot gunner, and gluing the bombs on to the plane. Then there is the usual cleanup, washing and perhaps a drybrush of some sort (metal to make it look a little rough maybe).
I managed to paint and glue on the canopy for the pilot yesterday. Painting clear plastic can be a real pain in the butt. Usually you can paint over with another color if you get some paint where it's not supposed to be, but with clear plastic you are stuck with paint on places where it's not supposed to be. Same with glue, if you get glue stains on the clear plastic it will not stay clear any longer.
So I was very happy when the canopy was painted without spilling and glued on with just one tiny stain on the side window. It looked a whole lot better than all those model airplanes I had pinned to my roof in my youth... I looked through the canopy and saw a nicely painted instrument panel, an Ork pilot looking good in his chair, and then it hit me... I had forgotten to paint his teeth!
I will not remove the canopy to paint them, because it will never look that good being reattached. So I guess the pilot is sucking so hard on his lips that the shape of the teeth are showing through. At least I've learned not to make that mistake again, and I will make really sure the teeth are painted on the Grot gunner before the gunner canopy is glued on.
When it comes to the gunner I will have to do a few dry fits, as it seems to be a real tight fit getting the Grot arms glued on while the guns gets attached to the plane at the same time. And then everything is connected through the firing mechanism of the gun that is attached to the Grot hands in the sprue. So everything must fit perfectly. Then I still need to glue the Grot head on to the neck after that. Looks like it will be a tight squeeze if done in the right order, but done wrong it will just be a tragedy...

I also painted the arms of my abhuman auxiliary command squad, and glued the flamer and the lasgun troopers together. It was a little pain getting the flamer pieces to fit perfectly together, but I got there after some fiddling. This will probably improve in the future, as I plan to have flamers in many of my squads. I think the look I have given the flamers now is better than the flamers I've painted earlier, so I will see if I should try and repaint some old flamers, or if I shall just say that they have older equipment. I think both solutions will work ok as there are so many different forgeworlds delivering equipment to the Astra Militarum that some differences are to be expected.
When I glued the trooper with both hands on his lasrifle together, those pieces fitted together perfectly on the first attempt. I was a little uncertain about that fit, as there are so many different arms to choose from. I did a dry fit, but it's not always easy to see if you have covered every angle, so I am very happy with the way this turned out.
All that is missing to finish this command squad, is the painting of the standard, and gluing the arm holding it onto the trooper.
Hopefully I will be able to use my converted Ogryn as the standard bearer, but then I will find another unit for his human counterpart.

First flyer is on the way

The Mrs was working late from home today, so since I had the day off I thought I might spend it at Games Workshop. So I gathered my tools, a box with paints and glue and a box containing an Ork Bommer and went to Oslo. The ork Bommer can be painted up both as a fighter plane (Dakkajet) and two bomber versions (Burna-Bommer and Blitza-Bommer), and after a lot of consideration I decided to go for the Burna-Bommer. The main reason for this was that that it's the one with the most rokkits, so it just looks cooler. I have more Bommers on my shelf, so I will probably build and paint the other versions at a later time.
Speed is important to a plane, so I decided to go for a red color scheme, with yellow details. The metal parts are part copper and part Leadbelcher, and the bombs and rokkits will be painted as I did on the weapons of the Meganobz.
I have no idea how these Bommers take off or land, as there are no landing gear. Maybe if I get an idea in the future, I can try and build a take-off site as Ork scenery. I suppose they have to be shot up like we do in the real world with kids rubber band planes, or dropped from a height (but then how do thy get them up that high to drop them in the first place?).

All three plane versions have a big metal girder underneath so I assume that they use this to land on and  and something that looks like an anchor as a brake to stop when they are back on the ground. So I will try and paint these parts as they have had their paint scraped off.
I have decided to build all my Ork planes with canopies, as I think that looks best, and I will paint the metal holding the glass together with copper and try real hard not to get any copper paint or plastic glue on the parts that remain as clear glass.

The Ork Bommer is supplied with a sturdy base, and a pole that looks like it is supposed to be glued on to the base.
One of the other hobbyists that were in the store yesterday was painting up a Space Marine Stormtalon Gunship, and he had made a hole in the base and placed the pole all the way through and then glued it in place. I plan on doing the same thing as it looks more solid than just placing the pole on top of the base, but also securing the pole with greenstuff on top of the base, as I plan to make a nice base for the flyer. I haven't thought up any details yet, but it is quite a big base, and since the plane is high in the air I can add some sort of a diorama on it to make the model look good in the display case while still functionable as a game piece.

I planned to bring my Imperial Guard heavy weapon squad home with me yesterday and post some pis of it here, but the store manager asked if they could have it on display until the next competition, and naturally I agreed to that. It's not like I need them any time soon, so it's sort of cool to have them on display where other people might see them too.
So the pictures will have to wait until the next competition who is three weeks away. I'm not sure if I will participate myself, as the theme is "tank" and I don't really have anything yet that I think can stand any chance. But I will participate in later competitions for sure.

Another week, another project

I never got around to basing and washing my chaos space marines, so they didn't go to the competition with me. Instead I brought an Imperial guard heavy weapon squad (yes, I know it's Astra Militarum now, but Imperial Guard just sound so much better...).
They are the first completely finished heavy weapon team for my army, and I will post pictures of them next week when I get them back from the Games Workshop store. They wished to have the entries in the store for a week, so I'll post pics next weekend.

Today I've been working more on my Tempestus Scions, fixing backpacks and the vox caster, and painting some details. Next sitting with them I think I will be ready to glue the backpacks and the vox operator's arm on.

I did the basic work on one of my buildings today. I made up my own brush-technique that I call wet-brushing. It's very similar to drybrushing, but with a brush full of paint. This sets the standard for all my buildings for the future, but since I use a lot of paint I will try to learn drybrushing and see if I get the same kind of result. The building is painted Mechanicus Standard Gray, and the door and pipe as well as some smaller details will be bronze. It is not finished yet, just a work in progress...

The walkways are painted in the same way with metal (Leadbelcher), same color as I will use on the ducts and the small pipes on the top of the building.

The final project of the day is two new heavy weapon squads. These are Catachans  and will serve with 2nd Platoon.
I have painted their pants, the metals and the plants. If you look closely you will see that the trees have a lighter color on their leaves than the meat eating flowers.
I like the Catachans, and look forward to finish these units. I haven't decided on the color on their scarves yet, but the rest of the colors are going to be my standard army colors.
I have not assembled these units, so I will not take credit or blame for the way they are set up. They were bougt used on Ebay and are probably painted up, tripped and re-primed. I like some of the things that are done with them, but there are also some things I would have done different. We'll get back to that once the units are done and ready for a better presentation...

Chaos is coming

Had a good session Monday afternoon with the Chaos Space Marine Terminators. I got to clean up the mess I had done earlier, and painted in all the colours where I had forgotten to paint before.
I have a few Terminators that still needs a little green paint on their trophy racks, but I had to leave that for another session because I had painted so much other stuff on the racks.
The next step is to make the bases, mostly with black aquarium rocks, but I will try to add some small pieces from the basing kits if I can to make the bases more exiting.
I was thinking of entering the unit in a competition at Games Workshop this Saturday, but I don't think they will be done in time. I had planned a painting session yesterday but that got "cancelled due to other activities in the home", and for a couple of days now we will have guests in the house and I won't get much painting done while they are here.

I have attached the arms to my Tempestus Scions, and one thing I am sure of after that is that I will not paint up too many command units. I love the Tempestor Prime with his greatcoat, but getting the standard bearer together was not an easy task.
I will look in to the possibility of using the greatcoat on other miniatures, as there are one in each box. Perhaps a few high ranking Astra Militarum officers can wear the same kind of coat, as I will need several officers for my Platoons.
I also started to look at a setup for the army, and think up what kind of units to add to the different platoons.
I know the army will have at least two companies, one with Cadian troops and one with Catachan troops. Then I will have an abhuman auxiliary, cavalry, artillery and an airwing.

More progress

Ended the day yesterday with basing 3 Cadian heavy weapon teams. I used Stirland Mud texture paint, to make some nice and muddy bases. The teams have built up their fortifications with Tamya 1:35 sandbags that they managed to find (think I need to keep my warhammer stuff away from my scale models from now on), and I had originally given the sandbags a wash of nuln oil, but that does not look too god after it has dried, so I will repaint the sandbags and give them a devlan mud wash instead.

My Chaos Space Marine Terminators are done, all that remain with them now is adding bases (black aquarium rocks) and going over the models to fix flaws in the paintjobs.
Hopefully I can have them ready before Saturday, as I would like to show them off in a painting competition at Games Workshop (but if it is allowed I might show off my heavy weapon teams instead).

I went a little crazy with my Chaos Black spray yesterday, and all the scenery I have built is now basecoated black. Well, almost everything as some of the small corners remains unpainted. There were a few spots I missed, but I am now all out of black spray, so either I will have to live with the basing I did yesterday, or I will have to redo some of the scenery when new spray is in the house next weekend. I'll probably redo it, as I ned to spray some tanks anyway.

I have also assembled my first Hellhound, and that was a mixed experience. The set is beautiful, but I had some issues with getting the top to sit right, so I will need to work some greenstuff magic on it.
I have three more to make, so hopefully it was just a flaw on the one I assembled yesterday...

Pictures will follow as the basing is done and the tanks and buildings are painted up.

The first units of Bullgryns are done

I've managed to get some work done this last week, and I have now finished both groups of Bullgryns that I have been working on.
The three Bullgryns with grenadier gauntlets and slab shields will be part of a larger unit in the future. They are a legal unit as they are now, with one bone 'ead and two regular Bullgryns, but since I can have up to ten in one unit a larger unit will look really cool. I am thinking a unit of nine.

The five Bullgryns with battle mauls and suppression shields will probably be the only ones with this armament, and will work as one unit. I might have to add one more Bullgryn as this unit doesn't have a Bone 'ead yet, but I am not sure if that is a must (but I belive so). I will look in to that and build from there. There are two small details left on these, and that is painting the tips of the power generators on their battle mauls and on the shields and painting a circle in the middle of the shields a lighter blue (need to decide on the blue to use before I do that).

The remaining boxes on the shelves will be made in to Bullgryns with slab shiels (two more boxes and I have a unit of nine) and regular Ogres.

The Abhuman Auxiliary command squad is also comming along. The uniforms are painted, and the armour for the ones wearing that is also done. I have also painted the banner, but not attatched it to the pole yet.

The Chaos Space Marine terminators are also getting close to completion. I have added everything to them, and painted six of ten with all the silvery bits. The remaining four will be done shortly.
I have also started on their trophy racks, and so far I have painted the leather pouches and the "pompoms", and the next job will be painting skulls and helmets before I finish with painting the tips of the racks metal and do a clean up. Then I plan to add rust to some of the chainmail and the broken trophy racks.

I have also done a little painting on my first Inqisitor. I'm missing a lot of details still, but he comes along slowly. I have not decided what unit to use him with yet (might be mainly for display purposes), but I am leaning towards a unit of Tempestus Scions. He's armed with a plastma pistol, and I think that might fit well with either Scions or Space Marines where the unit maxes out on their plastma weapons.
The second Inquisitor is still waiting to be painted. He is armed with an Inferno pistol and power sword, and he will fight alongside a squad of Sisters of Battle, but I might also use him with other forces if I want to add him to a game. These two Inquisitors look a lot like old witch hunters, and that is probably why I ended up getting them, as I love that look.
The third Inquisitor I have, looks a bit more special with a rather special helmet and armed with bolter and powersword. He will be accompanied by two Crusaders, as I think these figures fit together.

I have also dived in to fantasy for some experimental basework. I decided to base my Ogres with a snow theme, and I used texture paint for the first time on the base of one of my Ogres. I used the one called Mournfang Snow (if I remeber he name correctly). The idea is to use both this texture paint and the snow powder (same as static grass only white it seems) to make some snow effect on the bases. Still all bases will not be completely covered in snow, there will be som mud, some rocks and some small forms of vegetation as well.
If the texture paint works well, then I will use some of that on my Dwarf army, but then with mud and rocks. The only Dwarfs based so far are my miners, and they are based mostly with gravel, and I think I will use that for my remaining Miners, maybe combined with texture paint.
I also plan to use texture paint on the ground of my Citadel woods, both the two regular forrests and the haunted forrest.
If the temperature is kind to me, I hope to basecoat a lot of buildings, the haunted forrest and the one finished regular forrest this weekend.

New month, new progress...

I still haven't finished any more minis since the last update, but hopefully this will change soon...

I have painted the uniforms and boots of my Abhuman command squad, and the next step will be to paint the skin and weapons.

My Ogre standard bearer has also gotten his standard painted, but I am still wondering about what kind of text or image to paint on to the base colour.

I haven't painted much more on my Scions, but I have glued the servo scull to the Tempestor Prime. The plan is to work more on these in the following days.

One unit (or rather two) that has gotten a lot of work though, are the Bullgryns. I have five of them armed with battle mauls and suppression shieds, and I have come a long way on these. Their pants, boots and armour are done, and I have just a few more details left to finish their shields.

Then I need to paint their skin, the heads with gas masks, some singlets (wife beaters) and belts. I also need to find out what colours I'd like to have on their battle mauls.

The three Bullgryns with grenadier gauntlets and slab shields are even closer to completion as they already have their skin painted. All I am missing there is the singlets, belts and straps and eight yellow stripes on each slab shield.

Then all the Bullgryns will get extra equipment like ammo pouches, water cans (jerry cans) and grenades. This will be fitted after the painting is done, and depending on how the poses make this possible.

The Chaos Space Marine Terminators are also comming along. They all have at least one arm attached to their torso, and the painting of the weapons are almost complete. I have one more session with the metallics before I can add the second arm to all of them, and then I have to add and paint shoulderguards and some spikes and do some detail painting of chains and some silver details on the outside of their gloves.

I have also gotten well on my way with the Commissar that's assigned to the Abhuman Auxilia, he has his torso assembled and painted in base colours. I need to do some detail painting in his chest and shoulders, and paint and glue on his arms and head.