Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Things have gone astray

 I was sitting at my desk and wanted to paint something so looked over figured I'd work on the Student of Conflict. I wanted to blend out her robes a little more and get some of the details a little more finished up.
 Here's what she looked like before I went back to her.

 I worked on the details, her face, googles, booth and leather. ..  I still need to get some stuff done on her .. I've been taking my time so might still be a bit to get her wrapped up. Dread Tober will be taking up most of my October haha.. I doubt I'll be working on much else unless I need a palette cleanse 8)..  I've started digging through my bits getting ready for Dread Tobber ..  it's ON!


Monday, September 28, 2015

Who doesn't love Dreads and October?!

 Last Friday I posted up about Dread Tober and looks like we got more participants which is very cool. John said we needed a Logo .. so this weekend I whipped up a quick drawling and then even more quickly colored it and cropped it into a logo/banner. There is a smaller image at the bottom if you want to post it up on your blog as being part of Dread Tober. Not a requirement ..Up to you 8)..

It starts October 1 and Ends the 31st.. then we can post up all of the finished pics and check it out..
 This is the original line drawling of the Dread.. I think it came out decent. ..
Smaller Image
Here is the updated list of participants.
Greg >FeedYourNerd
John S > 40K Hobby Blog
Mike S > MiniMayhem
Michael A >TheKiltedGermain
Xeno Inferno > DIY Hammer
Nils H > Klatu.org
Evan S > Facing The Grey Tide (You're in whether you like it or not! haha)

It sounds like there is going to be a pretty wide range of models and ideas. They can be expansive or they can just be a Kan .. That spread is what makes it cool. In general they will all be the same unit but there will be a ton of different looks,,  which is the point.

For mine, I'm going with Kan trying to carve a Pumpkin with his Buzzsaw.. I figured it would be a cool look and represent October and Halloween. Now I have to head to Michaels to find some small pumpkins haha..

Friday, September 25, 2015

It's Dread TOBER!!!!

At Nova this year Greg came up with a good idea. He said we should all pick a model and then each paint it up using our own various painting styles. I thought it was a great idea and we then brought it up to John who also thought it a very cool idea. So now we are embarking upon the first of these group paint challenges. We through around all kind of ideas but we settled down on an Ork Dread.. a Kan to be more exact. Or at least a Ork walker in Kan size. From all of the talk it will be a wide variety of looks. There will be a mix of solo models and diorama looking models, I personally don't play Orks so mine like the plane will just be to look cool.They can be out of the box or scratch built.. or anywhere in between.

So far it's :
Greg > Feed Your Nerd - Mr. Ork himself
John > 40K Hobby Blog
Mike > Mini Mayhem
Me >  ..  you're already here.

If you are interested please add a comment and I'll add you to the list. The time frame is October.. 1st to the 31st. Planning and purchase can happen before but all work should be done in October! Make it look however you want! .. just make it Ork and of Kan size.

I have had this box of Kans for years and now it will get built. I have a couple of ideas but I'm going back and forth as to whether I want it to be Vicious or Funny. I'm leaning toward funny...  if I can make that happen. I have some Ork bits but I might need to pick some stuff up.. I also need to look to see what I can actually use..  I don't know the Ork kits very well 8)

So again.. if you are interested please let me know! It looks like we have some other challenges in mind down the road so if this one doesn't seem interesting maybe one of the others will tickle your fancy. This isn't a competition it's just to have fun and see how each person puts their own take on the same model. It's all for fun.. 8)

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Bust Er Up..

 Last night I played around with the Russ and some of the weathering. The tank might look a little odd as I tried different things on different areas haha.. so .. as you spin it around it takes on different looks. The right side of the tank is more of the abandoned look, sitting out in the weather for awhile forgotten. I started on some grim and rust streaking. I didn't go too crazy with it, I just wanted to see what it would look like..  the streaking will take time for sure. It's like applying a glaze and will take many coats to looks right.
 I also wanted to see how added a color after I already chipped the core color would affect it. You have to be real careful. The mask will pull the base color off easily so beware! 8)
 The front is just some rust.. less of pretty much everything. A little light mud on the left of the tank.
 The right I added some mud mostly .. it's harder to see here but I splattered it with two colors and it looks ok but it really is going to need a lot of color variation to make it look right. Again it's a test so I wasn't going to go that deep into it. I think I got what I needed from the mudding.. I'll need some much lighter colors to show the dried mud. So I'll be ordering some more I suppose.
 The back is mostly just heavier rust without a lot of other stuff. I did work some of the sides into it a little but not as heavy.
Weathering is a time consuming process to be sure. In general it's easier to fix your mistakes which is nice haha.. but it might take you a while to get back to where you wanted to be as you've just gone through a ton of layering. All in all I think it looks ok..  I went heavy on the rust in some areas and it should probably be dialed back. But while I was looking at pictures on the net I noticed the age and use really do factor a lot into it (no duh right? haha) .. I was just playing around but if I was going for the abandoned tank in a field the heavy is right. But if I'm going for old and in use not so much .. the vibrations and use would knock off all that rust build up..

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

When was your last Tetanus shot?

 Since I've been working on the Ork Flyer and haven't really painted a fully rusted out model I figured I would perform a test. I picked up a bunch of old Russ's a long while ago.. for next to nothing. They were built a little odd (the right HB is actually glued sticking out like that haha) but whatever and that makes them perfect for the test. I did pick up some FW turrets to add some needed flavor to them when I made my armored company. I started working on a tank I had hand camo'd that looked rough and didn't match my airbrushed camo on my newer paint jobs.
 I started off by spraying the tank down with chainmail. I wanted to base coat to be metal since that at the heart of it is whats there.... at least that seemed to make the most sense to me ha..
 Then I started to blend over with CAM Mid Brown and Rust leaving some of the edges metal. The areas I figured would get a lot of wear and tear.
 I then rubbed the edges with a paper towel a little so as to give it the worn feel. But I wasn't really sure what the AK Interactive products were going to do haha.. it might just cover up all that work.
 I then started with the AK Dark Rust, that stuff really covers and at first I thought I was going way heavy but as it dried you could see some of the variation below. Plus the metallic chainmail shows through very nicely. Next I added some Light Rust and let it run into certain areas where I figured water would pool and sit or would at least hang out for an extended time. Again I rubbed certain areas to remove the excess and give it that worn look.

 Next I went in to certain area with the GW Specialist paints.. Whatever you call it corrosion, you know.. the blue green color stuff.. haha.. I only wanted a little here and there. I didn't want to go overboard.
I think it looks pretty decent for what it is. If this was going to be a rusted hulk with nothing else on it I'd add a lot more moderation to the colors from section to section but since it will have paint added and chipped off I think this will look good. I sprayed it with chipping fluid but sadly ran out of time to paint and chip. So maybe tonight I'll get into that..  depends on my time 8)

Monday, September 21, 2015

There can never be too much Dakka..

 This weekend I worked on the Ork Flyer some more. The Valk Bits came in so I started chopping them up and going to town on the fuselage. I think it looks much better now with the added size and construction.
 I took the back of the Valk engine and cut off the cone, adding that to the Russ wheel. Achieving the right proportions and now matches up with the rest of the plane. But that was looking a bit too smooth so I chopped off another piece and added that to the bottom..  It added to the piece but then demanded I add on to the top as well. Next I added two stacks from an Ork Trukk to the top to make it looks like it's venting from there as well..
 Added two of the cable pieces (engine wiring I suppose) from the Valk and glued them to the side/bottom. Since this is going to be a display non gaming piece I covered the normal mount section over, the alternate front panel works perfectly and the added scoop looks pretty cool 8)

 For the pictures I fun tak'd the prop and pipes on but I'll be keeping them off for painting since they'll be completely different. Metal and such..
 I also added more Dakka.. the planes are broken down into three types but again since I'm not really using this for gaming I figured I was just going to load the thing up with all the Dakka I could. I think that's what an Ork would do right?
 The bombs are Tacked as well.. I'll be painting them up off the flyer..
 I think it looks decent with or without the prop. Looks like an old 50s-60s Jet.

 It's a bit hard to see from the picture but I bored out all of the gun vents to make it as real looking as possible. Was a pain but I think it looks cool you an see through them now ..
I noticed that once I cut the flaps and angled one it impedes the mounting of the bombs. That's annoying haha.. I know they probably didn't make it with someone cutting the flaps free and going like that but it would make the plane uber hard to turn or the bombs would pop off as soon as it did..  We'll .. thinking about it now that's kind of what an Ork would probably build haha...

Next will be some battle damage.. I'm going to scar it up and add some bullet holes. I just want to plan that out so it looks as realistic as possible.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Clamp Down

 A little more work on the BA Techmarine, he's moving along. I started adding in some other colors so he wasn't just a bunch o red. I'll probably finish him up shortly to move onto some other stuff.
 He was really just the first model to get me spending some more time blending and slowing my painting down. I'm still in massive rush mode since I was rushing to finish up for Nova. So I want to slow down before I move onto the things I want to paint for a complete look. I still have some work to do .. the metal needs to be finished as does the wiring but so far I think he's pretty clean looking.


A few pics as I was going along ..  My bits came in for the Ork Flyer so I'm going to mess around with that and see if I can fine out what I want for the prop housing.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

ReConstruction

 This weekend I undertook a large project.. the ReConstruction of my painting area. Sadly my painting area is very cramped and that annoyed the crap out of me. My wife requested I build her some shelves so I figured it would be a good idea to wrap both projects into one. I could break down my old setup and use the pine I had to make the shelves without having to drop a bunch of coin on the nice wood for her shelves. Working it this way I spent under $100 total which is what I was going for! I sadly had to remove my built in spray booth with vent so I will be swapping it in and out as needed. But it did also make it easier to normally airbrush at the same location I paint. I don't always need the ventilation so it will be nice to paint something then quickly clear it without standing up or moving to the other side of the room.
 I also now get a nice view outside and some natural light if I can squeeze some time to paint during the day. Pretty happy with it so far.. I played around for about 15 mins last night to try it out and was nice. The rest of my time was putting everything back in it's new space. I built it to hold as much as I could and that has really helped. I still have some organizing to do but so far it's much more room.
 You can also see the white surface on there, it's coated MDF that gives it an awesome surface for painting. My friend Scott recommended a counter top but that would have been way too much. So we looked around and came across this. Its water repellent and very cleanable. A drop of primer landed on it last night and I just wiped it up. Nice..
 I will miss my old setup and desk but what can you do.
It's much more clean being together and with the white reflective surface a lot brighter! Whoot!.. I want to get down to business and paint something but it will have to wait. I'm going to see Pop Will Eat Itself tonight in Philly.. going to be a long long day.. up for work at 4:30am and the show says it ends tonight and Midnight ..  yikes...  Tomorrow will be zombie Friday 8)

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

More Flaps!

 I've been playing around with the Ork flyer and I really want it to look like it's flying like it's suppose to when diving and banking. I also added the prop which I bashed together. As I was looking at it I was up in the air about. it. I think it looks cool but there was something that was off... I think it's that the prop shaft is a bit too spindly.. I'm going to beef it up a little and I think that will balance it out.

 The prop is made out of a Leman Russ track wheel, a pintle mounted stubber, a Deff Kopter blade and a Storm Boyz thruster cap.
 I think it looks awesome from the front. I also like the old school prop plane look way more then a jet look. Gives me more of that WWII vibe..  and just feel it looks cool.
 The hardest part of it so far..  I chopped all the flaps and ailerons. Holy crap was that a lot of cutting. The plane wings are very thick so it takes a ton of work with the Xacto (thankfully no figure damage!). I looked up flaps and how they moved to make sure they are in the correct position.
 The plane will be diving and banking to it's right. So the right wings are up and the left are down..  the tail is also moving to it's right.

I've been working on my painting room layout and redoing all the shelving and desk area. Right now my room is DESTROYED.. you can barely even move around in there. Sadly my foot started acting up again too so it's slowed me down. I'm hoping I can have the room finished up by this weekend. I'm excited to get to painting this thing haha..  I'm thinking about going with the Goff design but also a little like I don't want to paint checks 8) ..  I do think it will look awesome that way though so that is probably the route I'm going to follow.