A 40k project log (Easternheretic's Peach Blossom Isle)

[Goat of Yuggoth]

That progress on the special 'Nids is looking very groovy, I can't say how you do it but it seems that every time I visit your blog I get an instant boost to my inspiration towards building my 'Nids, a project that has been onice for some time now..

Must see more of this

Cheers,
Goat

[Putty]

Put up pictures of your T-fex dude.

Its super awesome and BIG!

[easternheretic]

That progress on the special 'Nids is looking very groovy, I can't say how you do it but it seems that every time I visit your blog I get an instant boost to my inspiration towards building my 'Nids, a project that has been onice for some time now..

Must see more of this

Cheers,
Goat

Cheers Goat, I've just completed the tyrannofex with pictures below. Here's hoping it will inspire you even more! Thanks for stopping by.

Put up pictures of your T-fex dude.

Its super awesome and BIG!

Roger that old chap! Pic as commanded. Cheers!



The rupture cannon is made using a spare raverner lower body, a set of scything talons from the carnifex kit, 2 venom cannons and a set of rending claws from the warrior box set.




As usual C&C is welcome!

Cheers!

[Putty]

i noticed that resin looking part at the lower torso... what is that about?

[easternheretic]

i noticed that resin looking part at the lower torso... what is that about?

Resin? What resin? I see no resin anywhere?
You mean that yellowish looking stuff at the bottom of the torso?

It is a 2 part plumbing/all purpose epoxy putty. I usually use the stuff for large areas that need bulking up as it is a lot cheaper than green stuff. About 4 times cheaper than green stuff and I get from the local hardware stores.

It doesn't hold details well. If fine details are required, I would usually cover it with green stuff later.

For this particular project, the plumbing putty was more than enough details wise hence no green stuff.

Cheers.

[Putty]

Awesome improvisation!

I thought it was some resin casting you did for yourself (or came from some forgeworld kit).

Does the guy only need one?

[easternheretic]

Awesome improvisation!

I thought it was some resin casting you did for yourself (or came from some forgeworld kit).

Does the guy only need one?

For now I guess. He's sounded me out for a Tervigon, and I'm waiting on him to pass me another fex kit so I can get started.

Anyways, I've finally managed to borrow the camera from my sister, AND some of the conversion I've done for others have come back with painted pics so I've got updates.

First up, the Mawloc conversion I did for a friend with the beast bursting form out of the ground has been painted and pics are below.




If you look closely at the pictures, you will notice some primed black old school fexs and zoans in the corner. Since the original config of the model is a screamer killer, this brings me up to a grand total of 3 carnifexes in the screamer killer config. I have one painted up a long time ago. With 3 in my collection, this allows me to use the screamer killer brood apoc formation! You have got to love that strength 7 ap 2 hellstorm template!

Since its been awhile since I've updated my log, I've already finished painting them along with 3 more old school zoans as well.

The pic also contains my current wip models that are being painted. The striking scorpions are almost. The eyes, gems and straps need to be painted, as well as touching up the white. Pics are below.



And finally, I've also finished painting an old Armourcast Dactylis that I managed to purchase of ebay. I've been trying for years now, to complete my collection of old school armourcast tyranid assault spawn, and the Dactylis was the final piece of the puzzle. Oddly enough, it was the only one I manged to get unpainted, and as such, it is the first one to be painted in my hive fleet colours! I'll be posting pic of the other 3, once I've painted them up in my hive fleet colours.

For now, enjoy this blast from the past! For scale purposes, there is a Pedro Cantor model less his powerfist arm near the horn of the Dactylis in some of the photos.



As always, C&C is welcome!

[Dezmord]

I simply love these old models! The Zoanthropes are ace The Dactilys is also nicely painted , but the whole sculpt looks somehow "wrong" compared to all other 'Nids.

[easternheretic]

First post of the new year, and a belated happy new years folks.

I simply love these old models! The Zoanthropes are ace The Dactilys is also nicely painted , but the whole sculpt looks somehow "wrong" compared to all other 'Nids.

Thanks Dezmord much appreciated! I know what you mean in regards to the Dactlyis not fitting in with the new look that the nid range has taken, but since I started out with old school nids, and have a fair number of them in my collection as well it fits in. I've always wanted to collect an Epic nid army, and find it quite odd that I now have one although in the 40K scale!

Looking back at the past year, I must say I'm rather disappointed with myself and the amount of progress I made in the attempt of putting a big dent in my pile of unpainted minis. A total of 25 updates in a year where I had hope to make one a week for a possible 52 updates in a year means I managed less than half the hoped for updates.

Seeing that it's a new year, I'd thought I make a new years resolution of sorts in regards to my big pile of unpainted minis. I will attempt to update this log regularly: at least 3 times a month.

So first up for the year, even though I started them last year are the remaining 7 2nd Striking Scorpions I'm painting for my eldar army.



The Scorpions on the bottom row have some conversions ranging from minor to fairly major repositioning to break up the monotony of the same poses over and over again.

As always, C&C is welcome.

Seeing that I had hoped to speed up my painting and had decided to paint my Eldar army, (Smooth gradients on large surfaces anyone?) I bought an airbrush using a bit of last years bonus, but never got around to using it regularly, as it was a bit daunting learning to use it.

I have started to muck about with it.

Seeing that part of my large pile of unpainted minis included some Orks, I've started experimenting with the airbrush and using it to help me paint minis. I've figured that a slightly messily painted Ork will not detract from the overall look of the model to badly, in fact, it might even add a bit more orkiness into the whole look, thus making them perfect for experimenting on with the airbrush.

Here's a photo of my aribrush rig, and the Orks in question.

BTW The background blue gradient for both the airbrush and Striking Scorpion photos was also an experiment and trial on how to paint with the airbrush.



Just a quick share in regards to the airbrush.

Thin your paints. Even more so then you normally do when painting with a brush. The most common advice I found on the net was that it has the consistency of milk. I gave that a try, and the it did not work out so well.

After much trawling of the web for advice on how to overcome this problem, and finally, much trail and error, I now know that I need to thin the paint a lot more than my initial idea of "milk consistency" is. So for folks who are trying out the airbrush for the first time, if the paint is not coming out smoothly, or sputtering a bit, even though you have already thinned down the paint, thin the paint some more.

The net also coughed up this really useful nugget in regards to paint thinning. Use Windex to thin the paints. (For local folk here in Singapore, you can use Kao Glass Magiclaen. I bought a bundled 2 bottle pack from NTUC for extra savings!)

Well that's it for now.

Cheers!

[Putty]

I hope you AB varnished your Eldar metal miniatures with a layer of gloss varnish and after that a layer of matt varnish (if you want a matt finish) to preserve their paint job. There is nothing more heartbreaking that well painted Eldar miniatures that get their paint chipped / worn off.

They look absolutely smashing!

Looking forward to seeing more updates!

[easternheretic]

Cheers Putty old chap.

I've got some new updates this week.

First up, I've completed (less the base as usual, I haven't figure out how I will base an ork amry.) the 40 grots from the 2nd edition starter box set I had in my collection for the longest of times.

As I have explained in an earlier post, I've been trying out an airbrush to help speed up painting and first on the line were these grots. I've figured that messy ork models still look in character to the army and adds to the orkiness hence making them perfect for learning to use the airbrush.

I went for the Bad Moons clan for a few reasons. First, yellow is notorious for being difficult to paint and I hoped that the airbrush would make it easier for me to attempt. Next, I don't have a yellow army in my collection and wanted a mix of colours in my mini cupboard and finally, A yellow ork army would look awesome on the table top where I game, as there are very few yellow armies around here.



I base coated the models black to begin with, and then using the airbrush, I covered the face, ears, arms and the shirt in white, as my initial attempt with yellow on black just did not work.

Next, I sprayed the now white shirts with yellow followed by bestial brown for the pants.

All the while, being careful not to over spray the wrong colour into the other areas. Naturally, there will be some over spray, but with a little careful tweaking of the PSI output of the compressor, and the amount of paint being sprayed by controlling the airbrush trigger, I kept it to an acceptable level of over spray.

Next I touched up the black and metal areas black again removing the over spray. Washed diluted scorpion green for the skin, dry brushed boltgun metal on all metallic parts then washed the whole model with griffon sepia. A quick dry brush of bleach bone for the whole model less skin where I used billious green instead, and then red for the eyes.

All in all, I completed the models in a much quicker time frame then I would usual have taken for 40 models, and am pleased with the results. I will definately be continuing with this method for my future ork army once I'm done with the eldar.

I'll continue to practice using the airbrush with the remaining 20 slugga boys that came with the 2nd ed box set.

I've also completed 5 old school eldar ranger as you can see in the picture. Detailed shots are below.




As usual, C&C is welcomed!

On a final note, a friend of mine (Raeho) has started a plog right here on warseer, if your a space marine fan, I invite you guys to have a look! I've added a link in my siggy. Cheers

[Raeho]

Nice cannon fodder, we need to get a picture of our Deathwatch characters ploughing through them all. How much Eldar do you have left anyway? I know you get through you're stuff a lot more efficiently than I do.

[easternheretic]

184 ELDAR models to go. Ranging from more cannon fodder through to many aspect warriors up to a super heavy grav tank and off course the titans! Its likely to increase some more over the months with all the forgeworld love the eldar are getting this year.

I'm working on 10 wraithguard at the moment.

I did a head count for new year just to see exactly what I had in the cupboard and it came out to be about a ratio of about 1:8 painted to unpainted 40K models.

Appearances are deceiving my friend, the only efficient painters I personally know are Putty aka Dezzo, and Nick. My output last year was probably about the same as yours. Maybe in a pinch, slightly better.

Cheers!

[Putty]

I base coated the models black to begin with, and then using the airbrush, I covered the face, ears, arms and the shirt in white, as my initial attempt with yellow on black just did not work.

Next, I sprayed the now white shirts with yellow followed by bestial brown for the pants.

All the while, being careful not to over spray the wrong colour into the other areas. Naturally, there will be some over spray, but with a little careful tweaking of the PSI output of the compressor, and the amount of paint being sprayed by controlling the airbrush trigger, I kept it to an acceptable level of over spray.

Next I touched up the black and metal areas black again removing the over spray. Washed diluted scorpion green for the skin, dry brushed boltgun metal on all metallic parts then washed the whole model with griffon sepia. A quick dry brush of bleach bone for the whole model less skin where I used billious green instead, and then red for the eyes.

As discussed during lunch the other day, I think working with a white primer/base would speed up the painting of the Orks as you cut out 1 step. As you can directly work on a white base when it comes to yellow or green.

The inking / washing during the last stages will also correct and sort out the over-saturated colours when working on a white base.

I usually AB my yellow on but for smaller surfaces, I mix yellow paint + yellow ink to get a more malleable paint. I think your AB nozzle size is perfect for AB-ing the yellow and green on your Orks... you should be able to breeze through them quickly.

Either way, your Orks look fantastic. Keep them coming!

[Talon Raven]

Ah, Putty is Dezzo? Didn't know that =D

Real nice eldar you got there, nice and clean and pure. Lovin' the contrast o black and white.

As for bases... good ol' traditional sand and grass I say =)

[easternheretic]

Thanks for stopping by Raeho & Talon Raven!

I only have some minor WIP painting updates this week, I'm working on ten wraithguard. Most of the highlights are missing, along with details and of course the cleaning up of the splotches of black on the white armour. I did however start on the bases as I was doing some GS work for a friend which resulted in left over unused GS that would have gone to waste, so I took this opportunity to GS all the wraith guard bases as well. All that is left is paint.

I spent some of the week working on some GS work on 2 models for a friends space marine army.

First up is a space marine captain. I worked on a GS cloak off of a plastic card base, and the second is a WIP tech-marine. I worked on the GS pistons and hinges on a bionic leg, as well chopping up the cable tabard from a SM tech-marine, at6taching it to place and GS work to cover up bare spots a dings.





For the up coming week, I'll be putting on the finishing touches on the 2nd Ed 20 strong Ork mob that I was using to test the airbrush on, as well as the 10 strong wraithguard squad.

For those interested in seeing how the space marines would look painted, click the space marine link in my siggy and it should appear there sooner or later. Unfortunately I will have no control over when. You would have to bug Raeho for any future updates for the 2 model!

Before I sign off, to all who will be celebrating the Lunar New year this coming Thursday Happy Lunar New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai ! And HUAT AH!

Cheers!

[Dezmord]

Nice work on the techmarine! It looks like you've managed some sharp edges with the green stuff - something I'm always struggling with....

[easternheretic]

Nice work on the techmarine! It looks like you've managed some sharp edges with the green stuff - something I'm always struggling with....

Hi Dezmord, I use a standard metal sculpting tool for hard edge work. I find that the key is to lubricate the sculpting tool with vaseline, and to alternate between the 2 surfaces that form the hard edge between each other with light circular motion. The constantly alternating between the 2 surfaces is key.

I hope this helps. The next time I'm sculpting a hard edge, I try and take some step by steps if you like.

Anyway I have some updates on stuff I did last year along with some progress on current stuff as well.

When the new nid codex came out last year, missing some modeling parts, the friend with the red nids that appear on my plog asked me to help him scratch-build/convert some bone-swords and lash-whips for his tyranid warriors. He's completed painting all 19 warriors and was kind enough to bring them over to my home for me to snap some shots.





I've also completed the 20 2nd ed slugga boyz that I was painting as part of my use the airbrush experiment.

Continuing with my experiment with the airbrush, another friend of mine who collects Orks was kind enough to give me 15 pairs of slugga boy arms. I've used them to kit-bash myself some more slugga boyz using some orcs as the base, that's right orcs with a C.

A couple of years ago, I had made an unsuccessful attempt into WHFB, and bought myself the 6th edition starter kit, which came with some orc choppa and arrer boyz.

The picture below will show that I've snipped of the arms of the arrer boys and stuck on the slugga boyz arms on instead.



Moreover, I had noticed that 6 of the arrer boys already came with choppas, so I converted them into slugga boyz as well by making myslef some sluggas out of plastic sprue, plastic card and rods and some spare bits. The picture below is the result of my efforts at scratch-building.



Finally, a picture of a completed slugga boyz mob, as well as a WIP of the newly converted sluggas.



And on a side note, I've noticed that the 4 image limit seems to have been lifted. Cheers to the Mods for this development. Much appreciated!

As always, C&C is welcome.

Cheers!

[Putty]

Cool conversions for them Orks... the transition from WHFB to 40k was a smooth one.

新年快樂! 萬事如意!恭喜發財!

[Goat of Yuggoth]

Hmm, cool Ork conversions indeed!

I was just wondering what did you do with the quivers? I had these converted into two choppa Orcs (FB) and I had slight inspirational problems considering what to do with them...

And on another note, those boneswords look ace! I see you opted for the "cut-a-bioweapon-really-thin.and-make-it-look-like-a-sword" conversion

I intend to do a crazy idea with a bonesword, as I have a certain need for an Alpha with CC capability. I'll make a two-handed (or, in his case, four-handed!) Bonesword! We'll see how he turns out...

Meanwhile, you won't mind me leeching all the inspiration from here, will you?

Cheers,
Goat