Castor&Pollux finished

So this is it... I finally found some time to weather the twins. 

First I applied some chipping - not too much, and then I contimued with weathering powders. I hope I got the exhaust pipes right. 

I'm pretty satisfied with the result and I hope that someone will be interested in purchasing them. Some people contacted me already so I think that I will wait a few days before I put the models on eBay.

This was a fun project, I learned a lot from it. Of course there are plenty of things I'd do differently but overall I'm happy with the way it came out. 

Please comment if you have something to share, feedback is always welcome.

And now the pictures:

Previously on this project:

Castor & Pollux update

Castor and Pollux basecoated (sort of)

Diaskuri update II.

Castor&Pollux after painting before weathering

Castor&Pollux after painting, before weathering

I finished painting the details of the predators just an hour ago. I quite like them. I tried some new techniques during painting, enough material for a few quick tutorials. Unfortunately I couldn't use a lightbox for these pictures, which is a shame, for there are some subtle highlights that can not really be seen due to the hard light.
Now the final stage commences, weathering.
I plan to use relatively few scratches and battering on the machines, and no heavy weathering. I preserve these for IG vehicles, marines for me are much better maintained, and their equipment is much closer to parade ground look. It is only a matter of preference.
Don't forget that these models will be for sale once they are finished. If you are interested, stay tuned, and if you have a buddy who is into classic models, spead the word!

Previously on this project:

Castor & Pollux update

Castor and Pollux basecoated (sort of)

Diaskuri update II.

Diaskuri update II.

Just a quckie; I made a few photos before I airbrushed the twins (Diascuri as they are called in Mythology) with gloss varnish and used various washes on them. They look much better now, but as usual, documentation is a few steps behind the actual work.

Previously on this project:

Castor & Pollux update

Castor and Pollux basecoated (sort of)

Castor and Pollux - basecoated (sort of)

I had some time for the twins lately. I basecoated them dark gray as I usually do and basecoated them with VMC Ultramarine blue. Much to my surprise it turned to be really ultramarine whereas VGC and Citadel ultramarine is not...
Anyway, I continued with adding some shade and zenithal highlight with my airbrush. After this I drybrushed the predators with a mixture of VGC Ghost gray and VMC ultramarine blue.
Unfortunately the pictures with the early stages fell to the warp, but here what they looked like then:

As you see they looked OK, but there was much chalkiness in the details, especially on the metal parts:

I was kind of expecting this and decide to give it a glaze at this point I heavily diluted VMC transparent blue (vallejo's transparent range is excellent, I can only recommend them, they are like heavy glazes) with liquitex airbrush medium and Vallejo's airbrush cleaner (which I use to dilute acrylics with great success) and gave the tanks two thin coats. Here's how they look like:

As you see the chalkiness is practically gone, and most of the highlights are still there. The new colour is much better suited for the mainstream Ultramarines, and since this is a commercial project, I tend to favour the mainstream... :-)

I think, after retouching the most extreme highlights, the predators will be ready for the painting of the details. I can't wait!

Previously on this project:

Castor & Pollux update

Castor&Pollux update

My classic predator revamp project progresses steadily, I have just finished the rebuilding and detailing the twins.
Rebuilding the predators was quite time consuming as the models were in a very sorry state, the following pictures may give you some idea:

I guess most would view these wrecks as waste of time, but for me they are challenge, and I had the metal parts anyway :-) 

Sometimes I had to replace damaged sections with plasticard but finally they started to come together. I magnetized the turrets, used a large amount of GS/milliput mix to fill the holes and blemishes and finally, after a lot of sanding started the detailing part.

And this is the fun part of course, details make the model alive, they make the difference between the average and the interesting. 

I added extra rivets, and decided to use mark III parts and some imperial guard accessories as the original kit is quite low on details. I also made some tow cables and other appliances. Luckily I also found some old metal tank crew members in one of my bit boxes, that somehow survived the purges.

I'm quite happy with the outcome, and I hope that with proper paintjob the twins will find a nice spot in somebody's Ultramarines army - and help to finance some new projects besides.

So here we are now:

some details:

Update: after the pictures were taken I added some purity seals too - how could I have forgotten?

Update 2: News just in: My librarian Yorias has won me the first prize at the converting competition he was built for! I feel some terminators will soon join my forces...

December retrospective

On the last day of the year it is common to look back to the year, but first I have to look back on December. It's been a busy month a bit too eventful even, as it turned out first of all, my Land Speeder has won a Bronze Gobbo in it's category on the Hungarian Games Day which is quite an achievement, considering that I accidentally applied... (I bought it for to show it to a guy, and he convinced me to enter the competition.) On the same event I won some Xyston 15mm Hellenics on a lottery game, that made me to order some more on eBay.

December has also shown me completing some commissions, plus pimping up some old school Orc vehicles for sale. This is  part of the closing stages of operation Clean Shelf, aiming to keep only minis and vehicles I intend to paint in the foreseeable future.

Finally I stared a major project to restore, superdetail, paint and hopefully sell a pair of pretty much wrecked Classic Space Marine Predators, Castor and Pollux. The aim is to try and master some techniques I saw in Imperial Armour modelling Masterclass. Stay tuned for details. Below you can see Castor in it's original state to the left:

It's been a busy week, and a busy month, and  I expect none less in 2011, though I plan to post more.

Yorias Redux

I just finished him painting. I took a bit different path in painting him compared to the rest of the army, I think the characters will resemble him, while the troops will follow a bit more simple. So here you go, as always commets are welcome.

Yorias the Librarian

For some time now I've been converting this mini, the first true HQ choice for my little chapter. I have a full plastic army in mind, so there was a lot of work with him: all parts, limbs etc were converted, nothing is untouched. Actually this mini was made with a local converting competition in mind, I have secret hopes to win it. (In reality nearly always Orc or Chaos minis win these tournaments....)
I hope you like it!

 

The torso is made from a tactical sergeant's bit, the head is from an old Catachan mini. Instead of the banner, I used some banner-like things from the ravenwing sprue. The legs are repositioned, the feet have lobstered guards. The loincloth is that of an AoBr captain's

I made new style shoulder pads for him, and attached a laser engraved chapter symbol

I like the way the powerpack turned out...

The powersword is made of a piece of plastic, a terminator ornament some lead wire and greenstuff.

And the same with a coat of dark grey primer (as primer brings things together so nicely):

If you are interested in how tis or that detail was made do not hesitate to ask. Comments are welcome too.

Stay tuned for painted pictures.