Back again - with a teaser

Real life has been a bitch for some time but things seem to settle now, perhaps not the optimal way but at least with much more free time.
Nothing is more pathetic then apologize for your absence on your OWN blog, isn't it?
Anyway, I started a new project that pretty much grown on me. A lot of work, but hopefully a most rewarding result. Can you guess what this WIP part belong to?

More pictures and an in depth progress report is coming down the road later this week.

Castor and Pollux now on e-bay!

If you want the twins for your army, here is your only chance:

Buy them on e-bay!

For King&Country - going Napoleonic

I've been silent for a while, but have not been completely idle.
I painted some of His Majesty's riflemen (from the 95th). Actually I wanted to paint them KGL, but I found out that they had a pommel on the shako and not a plume, but since the figures were already primered I went on with the bit  more minstream (boring) choice.
The Perry plastic minis were much fun to paint. I also produced my first ever tree for this little diorama.

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...