Reaver Titan Re-Paint Part 3

Its been a while since i posted on this project, but i have got a lot done since i last posted!

The first think i did was repaint all of the gold trim (and theres a lot of trim!) It was at this point i did start to doubt the wisdom of this idea, but i powered through. Once that was done i was able to progress with the other bits quite quickly. 

The heraldry on the knees needed a lot of attention. They previously looked very dark and boring. I was a bit limited on the left knee as the detail was already modelled onto it. I re did the gold of course, and then i used an airbrush to get a fresher finish on the scroll work. The gold also looks a lot better now - and i can actually replicate the recipe!!

The right knee was a blank canvas so i quartered it to maximise its usage! Hazard stripes make up the top quarter (as per my recent Hazard Stripe Tutorial) with a yellow quarter opposite. The remaining 2 quarters were left blue. The blank quarters will eventually sport some Legio Astorum transfers.

The carapace heraldry was given a lot of airbrush attention to get a smoother gold effect, and a fresher look on the scroll work. The shield on the middle is plain blue, again waiting for some transfers.

I had an interesting little idea while repainting this. I decided to magnetise the void shield generators. This would help me keep track of the void shields that are still active during the course of a game! I'd simply remove a generator when a shield was lost, and add one when it was restored.

Finally, i repainted the head. I kept it yellow as per the Legio Astorum colours, but gave it a much brighter look. I also managed to achieve a much better degree of shading by using the airbrush.

So I'm nearly there! Just the weapons to paint and Praetorian will walk again!

The GunGrave

Blessings of the Omnissiah: Questoris Knight Styrix Complete!

Another mighty Knight is ready to fight for the Mechaniucm! The second Styrix is now complete. All the weapons are magnetised as usual!

The red armour plates received the same black - red shading treatment as the rest of the Mechanicum Knights.

The fantastic bronze carapace maintains the strong visual link with the rest of the Mechanicum force.

I went with something a little different with the shoulder plates of this Styrix. The lower two plates on the shoulders had hazard stripes applied. These were a royal pain to apply, but after 4 attempts i managed to get a result i was happy with! I'm glad i went with it though.

The armour on the legs was kept mostly red this time. I'll be relying on the still-to-be-released Mechanicum transfer sheets to break up  the colour.

The Hekaton Siege Claw. Modelled with its claws more open than the last - i wanted to make it look like it was using its Irad Cleanser on some unfortunate enemy troops!

The fearsome Volkite Chieorovile!

Here are the 2 Styrix together! Apologies for the picture, it was impossible to get both Knights into the light box without a bit of the white edges creeping in!!

Time to get them out killing! Only 1 Knight remains in the meantime; a Knight Errant!

The GunGrave

Heresy Era Death Guard: Contemptor Mortis Complete

This guy has been complete for a while but i haven't got around to photographing him until now. This final Mortis sees the completion of my Death Guard Dreadnoughts, and some much needed anti-aircraft support!

Some weathering powder on the barrels of the Assault Cannons.

I used the same shading technique on this Mortis as the other 2 dreads. Sadly the green colours i thought i used were actually slightly different to the ones i used this time around. Never mind, it still looks good on this Dread.

Rust effects on the exhausts. I seem to have forgotten to do this on the other 2 Contemptors, so i quickly went back and added it to them!

Rubble base. The eagle eyed of you may notice a piece of the old Urban Basing Kits that GW did years ago.

When i built this Dread i wanted to make sure it had interchangeable weapons options, specifically Power Fists. I'm really interested to see how effective close combat Contemptors are!

Once i started doing that i decided to give one of the older Contemptors the magnetic treatment as well, so its arms came off and the magnets went on! I only had to buy one more fist for this guy, as he already had one to go with his Lascannon. I really like the look of them actually!

Here's the Contemptors all together! You can see the differences between the green on the shoulder plating in this shot...as time goes on I'm sure it ll bug me enough to go back and update the 2 older Dreads!

Now time to find a game and unleash the CC Dreads!

The GunGrave

Hazard Stripe Tutorial

So before i did the hazard stripes on the second Knigt Styrix, i did a bit of research on how i could jazz up the stripes. They would draw a lot of attention from the eye as they contrast so starkly with the red of the hull, so i wanted them to be a bit more special.

The tutorial i decided to follow was from Spikey Bits blog. I loved the technique, although long winded, and really wanted to give it a go. You'll need an airbrush and some suitable paints to use in it.

First up i had to tape up the shoulder plating. this was no easy task over an uneven and curved surface! In light of this i know the stripes arn't perfectly straight. But by the end of the process (and this was actually my 3rd attempt at successfully hazard striping these pieces!) I'd had enough!

So first stage was a layer of Vallejo Game Air  Beastly Brown. Black is far to dark to apply yellow straight over, so you need to build it up from black to make sure the yellow actually looks yellow!

Next was Leather Brown.

Now it was time for a bit of yellow. A layer of Gold Yellow was  next. I was careful to leave a bit of the brown showing at the edges of the stripes to create some contrast.

Now, to make sure the yellow achieves  its full colour a layer of Dead White was applied over the yellow, again carefully leaving some darkness at the edges.

A second pass of Gold Yellow. You can see the difference here from the first pass of yellow.

Now we've had 4 passes of colour with the airbrush so the contrast could be a little overpowered by now. To make sure I got the contrast i wanted, i gave the edges if the stripes a thin pass of Beastly Brown again.

Then i softened up the edges of the contrast with some more Gold Yellow. Looking back i think i should've been braver with the contrast here - i think i didn't leave enough brown.

And that's it! It does seem a bit of a long winded process, but the layers of paint are so thin they dry quite quickly. I sped things up a bit with a pass with Mrs GunGraves hairdryer between layers.

It looks a little messy at this stage...

But once i got the trim on it looked a lot better!

If i have occasion to do this again then i would definitely make more of an effort on the contrast. Not bad for a first attempt though! I'm looking forward to finishing the Knight and seeing the plates on properly.

The GunGrave