What I've been doing recently, a painting and modelling log...

[Raven Morpheus]

Hi all

So, this past year has been a boon for my hobbying, rightly, wrongly, good or bad. And despite actually not being very quick at getting stuff done (due to enthusiam troughs, health issues, and a very limited budget) I seem to have done quite a bit.

I'm not a prolific member here but I thought I'd share photos of "wot I'v dun" and what I'm doing. This is an image heavy thread and is already several posts long so be warned. This may also skip back and forth in terms of timeline...

Thanks all in advance for looking.


I started painting/converting/buying some adventurer models for Warhammer Quest 1995, to replace the original 4 plastic one's which I don't like, and some of the expansion adventurer models I couldn't/can't source for reasonable prices or just don't like. These have been an ongoing project throughout the last 12 months, and I have a few still to do, such as the original Dwarf Trollslayer, Bretonnian Knight and Wood Elf Wardancer models, and replacement models for the Pit Fighter and Empire Noble models (because I don't like the originals/they're too expensive on evilbay) .

I based all these kitbashes/conversions/look of bought models where they aren't the original models for Warhammer Quest 1995 (none in this post are), on their aesthetic in the first Warhammer Quest iOs/Android/PC video game, also in some cases with a nod to the original Warhammer Quest 1995 models whose role they'll fill (like the High Elf). Although there is no Chaos Warrior in that video game so I had to wing it with that model and just based that off the original model for Warhammer Quest 1995.

I also painted an original Witch Hunter model, which I posted in this thread - https://yaktribe.games/community/threads/warhammer-quest-witch-hunter.10799/

The day before mothers day 2021, the start of my Undead pack of monsters for Warhammer Quest 1995 turned up, so naturally I painted it asap, because, mummy. The matte varnish was still drying on his leg when I took this photo, it's now clear on his knee.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

I spent about 14 days out of 9 or so months, since last June, building a semi-display piece Warhammer Fantasy tavern, inspired by the tavern by Adrian Wild that used to appear in White Dwarf Magazine and other publications (such as the Empire army book) between 1992 and just before GW changed their Fantasy terrain style. it's a bit modular, for storage/transport purposes so that I don't break stuff, each level comes off, the tower roof comes off, the weather vane is magnetized, the chimney, wood store and outhouse are all magnetised also. Not that I would take it anywhere, I rely on public transport and I don't fancy sticking this in a bag...

I had several enthusiasm losses, and struggled to get this over the line. Last years extreme heat wave didn't help.

At the end of 2020, late December, I started a refurb/conversion of a Mk1 Land Raider that I've had for 25 years. In contrast to the tavern, this was done and dusted in 2 months, and felt like a relatively quick project.

I was inspired by the Forgeworld Proteus.

It was in a very sorry state. For example the lascannons were held on with bits of paper clip, and didn't stay in position. Not sure what I stuck it together with 25 years ago but it all came apart quite easily.

The weathering is all guesswork, I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to weathering.

Among other things I did, like the armour plating on the sides and the scratch built sponsons, you probably don't notice it but I extended it's lengthy by 30mm, that required chopping the model in half and sticking in some styrene bits to extend the length...

 

[Raven Morpheus]

I currently have a Ravening Dark Talon/Nephilim Jetfighter in progress. I've done a bit more painting than in these photos though. It's all magnetised up so that I can switch it's look between the Jetfighter and the Talon.

I always wanted an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in Terminator Armour, but they are rare in terms of models, so I bought the metal original body (from an ebayer) from the Rogue Trader era Inquisitor in Terminator Armour, a box of Grey Knight Paladins and did a bit of a kitbash to make one.

Still lots of painting to do, but the base coats are all down and his base will be a lava base - he can stand next to my Bloodthirster (below) as though he's locked in a battle with it!

This is a late 90s metal Bloodthirster that I had part started more than a decade ago, painted Mechrite Red, and stripped and repainted back in May 2020.

About a month later I kitbashed a Dark Angels Interrogator Chaplain in Terminator Armour. The head is resin, bought from an ebayer, not sure who sculpted/cast it.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Recently I decided I'm going to buy a 1000pts Steel Legion Imperial Guard army. To that end I bought an original Lieutenant model, and some resin bits from Victoria Mniatures to make a further 2 officers (platoon commanders in the army list I've written) as I can't seem to source any more original GW Steel Legion Officer models. I also have a Leman Russ that I've had for 20 years that'll get repainted, it doesn't need a complete rebuild like my Land Raider did.


The heads are from Anvil Industries, they look a little oversized to me, maybe that'll change when the models are painted. I'm not overly happy with this first resin model, I prefer the pose/look of the other resin model - but that's entirely my fault. I could buy some more parts and redo the first one. Bases are temporary. I need to buy some 25mm bases as I don't have spares, and I'm toying with the idea of just slapping on the Armageddon texture paint GW do, the Dunes one as that's thicker/rougher than the Dust version I think. I don't do much with bases anyway.

I wish I could scratchbuild/sculpt the hose and box for the death mask gas masks on the two resin models but I'm not that good.

This guy was the only one I've seen on ebay, at a reasonable price, in the last 12 months, and there haven't been many on ebay recently at all, he'll be my single HQ choice and the "warlord" of the army.

 

[cainex1]

This is all very solid. Your gold is a little too perfect, I think. But if that's just the base colors then it should come out great.

 

[MedMos]

That High Elf dual wielder in the first post is ace! I also really like the tavern, though a few more windows and some timber framing would've added to the look, I feel. But solid work, I'm going to do something like that myself. Soon. Ish.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Thanks guys.

@cainex1 - yes there's no shading or highlighting as yet on the Inqusitor. Don't suppose anyone is interested but the gold was done by airbrushing on, over a black undercoat, Vallejo Game Color Brassy Brass, then Vallejo Game Color Glorious Gold.

@MedMos - The High Elf dual wielder is a nod to the original GW Elf Ranger model for Warhammer Quest 1995. I actually wanted a different head on it, to look like the Elf Ranger model (the head of the rider from the plastic dragon prince kit) but it's rarer than hens teeth so I gave up looking to source it and went with a head similar (pretty much the same) to the one on the Shadow Warrior in the Warhammer Quest iOs/Android/PC video game.

I should have mentioned in the first post I based all my kitbashes/conversions/look of bought models where they aren't the original models for Warhammer Quest 1995, on the look of the first Warhammer Quest iOs/Android/PC video game. I've updated the post to mention that now.

 

[Ashmagnus2112]

The old school land raider is awesome!
Solid work especially if it took repairs. A little piece of 40k history

 

[cainex1]

Thanks guys.

@cainex1 - yes there's no shading or highlighting as yet on the Inqusitor. Don't suppose anyone is interested but the gold was done by airbrushing on, over a black undercoat, Vallejo Game Color Brassy Brass, then Vallejo Game Color Glorious Gold.

@MedMos - The High Elf dual wielder is a nod to the original GW Elf Ranger model for Warhammer Quest 1995. I actually wanted a different head on it, to look like the Elf Ranger model (the head of the rider from the plastic dragon prince kit) but it's rarer than hens teeth so I gave up looking to source it and went with a head similar (pretty much the same) to the one on the Shadow Warrior in the Warhammer Quest iOs/Android/PC video game.

I should have mentioned in the first post I based all my kitbashes/conversions/look of bought models where they aren't the original models for Warhammer Quest 1995, on the look of the first Warhammer Quest iOs/Android/PC video game. I've updated the post to mention that now.

I LOVE Vallejo air metallics. They are the most pigment rich in the industry.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

The old school land raider is awesome!
Solid work especially if it took repairs. A little piece of 40k history

Thanks, yes the Land Raider was pulled apart completely, paint stripped where necessary, cut in half then rebuilt with additional stuff added.



I took some photos today of the progress I've made on the Ravenwing Dark Talon/Nephilim Jetfighter, currently progress on anything is slow due to suffering with arthritis in various parts of my body, I'm only 43!! Last week it was my right hand, this week it's been my lower back and right hip!!

I've done some edge highlighting on the not-black main colour with Citadel Dark Reaper, but I think I need to go back with a lighter colour and add some further highlights at the corners as the highlights aren't particularly visible.

If anyone is interested I used a mix of Vallejo Model Air Black (057) and Dark Grey Blue (054) for the main colour. I get the feeling the original mix that I airbrushed on was a 2:1 black:dark grey blue mix as my current 1:1 mix is a bit lighter than the original airbrushed on layer. Note - when you mix a colour for a base coat, make sure you make a note of the mix or mix a lot of it - I didn't for the main colour I used and as a consequence it's been a pita to match the colour when touching up and fixing mistakes and I've ended up with a bit of a patchwork look in places!!!

I have painted the pilot and cockpit, not that you can see it!

I also stuck magnets on the bottom of the flight stand clear part and on the underside of the base, so that I can pull it off the base for storage. The base will get Tamiya diorama texture paint applied to it to look like broken up tarmac.

The cockpit canopy is not glued on, it's loose and can be removed (to avoid fogging) when I put a satin clear coat on the model.

I feel I need better lighting for the daytime, or I should take photos when it's dark outside as my current lighting seems to work better for photos when it's dark outside!

The photos, apologies for any blur, I took these with my mobile -

I also bought a piece of dense closed cell foam (it gets used in kayaks apparently), and very very roughly cut my own foam tray (using a combination of a dremel and craft knife) to go in the box GW mail order send this kit in, in hindsight I probably could have bought a KR Multicase tray, but this is bespoke to my needs and the piece of foam cost half the cost of KR's trays -

So that's where I'm at with this. Still some work to do. Primarily the weapons for the Nephilim and the weapons and bits for the Dark Talon variant - it's all magnetised or push fit so I can switch between the two.

I may end up leaving the edge highlights on the dark grey main colour as they are as it's a tedious job. I didn't do any highlights on most of the underside , as it's not likely to catch the light under there...

Thanks for looking.

 

[sykoholic]

I wish I could scratchbuild/sculpt the hose and box for the death mask gas masks on the two resin models but I'm not that good.

A short length of guitar string glued to the end of a handle-less Melta bomb...

-or-

Greenstuff World Roll Maker

 

[Raven Morpheus]

A short length of guitar string glued to the end of a handle-less Melta bomb...

-or-

Greenstuff World Roll Maker

Thanks, I'm going to try giving the guitar string method a go, I've heard of that before but never really looked into it.

I've ordered a couple of melta bombs but I'm struggling to source a suitable guitar string! It's so confusing, there seems to be a bespoke measurement system for guitar strings (so not helpful for working out the thickness), and all the strings I've come across for sale aren't those with the coiled outer wrapping, just the inner!

One of the downsides of being stuck with online shopping I guess.

Don't fancy the Greenstuff method, I'm sure it's great if you're used to using Greenstuff but I'm not. Plus my Greenstuff has gone off I think as it wasn't very soft when I did the small amount of filling on the two guard officers.

 

[Ashmagnus2112]

It depends on what your using the string for but id specifically look for smaller bass (G string for electric not standup) if the cabling is important to you. If you are just looking for small cable to use on conversions the bottom end of guitar strings will work (any kind) and as far as having inner wrapped and outer wrapped you should have to specifically get some that aren't (flat wound I use them for my bass) but those should be rare and hard to find over standard. Also no guitar strings will have outer wrapping on the small strings. Just my 2 cents as someone who has bought strings longer than minis

 

[Punktaku]

Yeah, electric bass g string is good for models. The lower notes are better for industrial terrain instead. I use GHS Bass Boomers. They’re also longer than guitar strings, so you get more cable pieces out of them.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Ah, bass strings, I knew I was missing something. Thanks guys, at least I know what I'm looking for now.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

So, had a crack at getting the Ravenwing Dark Talon/Nephilim Jetfighter over the line and I'm sticking a fork in it, as it's been "in progress" for nearly 12 weeks...

Apologies for the photos though, I seem to be having some lighting problems...


Configured as the Dark Talon -

I tried something "new for me" on the gold bits on the tail section, I painted them Citadel Stormhost Silver and then applied Citadel Contrast Skeleton Horde. I had read/seen that it makes a good gold, and it does, kind of.

I could not resist making the "whatever they are" either side of the rift cannon look like Hal9000... I probably should drill the barrels out on the hurricane bolters, but I'm not feeling up to it - I need to make some kind of jig so that I can do it properly, eyeballing it just doesn't work for me.

Configured as the Nephilim Jetfighter-

I filled the Heavy Bolters barrels, because I had tried, and failed, to drill them out (I drilled 2mm holes that were very off-centre, did I mention eyeballing it doesn't work for me!), hopefully it'll be 2nd time lucky, I tried drilling a 1mm hole as a start but the "gloop" I used hadn't quite hardened off...

The base is just Tamiya Diorama Texture paint, painted black, then Citadel Eshin Grey, then dryrbushed Citadel Dawnstone and Administratum Grey. The white line was masked off and drybrushed on.



So that's all done, apart from re-drilling the heavy bolters. I could go back and "improve" one or two aspects but I feel this has dragged on for too long and I have other stuff to be getting on with.

Overall though I'm happy with this model, I mostly achieved what I set out to.

I had a few issues (probably of my own doing) when I closed up the front section which led to me having to sand down the joining part on the underside of the wings (which are magnetised and pull off for storage) to reduce a gap (it's still there but not as prominent as it was to start with).

I do wish I could have done better in certain areas though, for example I wanted to do a fade on the white on the wings, but my airbrush skills aren't up to the job and I'd like to have done the Dark Talon's tail "stone" and the "stone" in the middle of the fuselage as some kind of marble, but, patience is/was lacking. I thought about doing it almost pure white and claiming it's alabaster, but there's enough white on the model already.

Also quite a few of the edge highlights I've done seem to be barely visible (particularly those on the not-black main colour), I get the feeling I'm making them too fine or not using colours that contrast enough - is there such a thing as too perfect edge highlights?!

Thanks for looking though.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

OK, so I updated the post above with some slightly better photos taken tonight. You can see the older photos at the bottom of the post.

I think my lighting needs an overhaul. I suspect the LED daylight bulbs I've had in the ceiling light for about 7 years may be starting to die on me, I've read that LED lightbulbs do lose brightness over time. That may explain why my "work area", i.e. the dining room table, isn't very bright at the moment and also why I've been struggling a little with seeing what I'm doing, despite wearing a magnifier with an LED light on it (might change the batteries on that and see if that helps)...

I tried adding a spot light (cheap £20 angle lamp from Argos), also with a daylight bulb, to the mix and that helped a little. I also wonder if I would have been better off using my black backdrop, instead of the white, but the model is predominantly "black" so I wanted to avoid a black background.

Changing the settings on my cameras only seems to make matters worse, so I definitely think it's my lighting that is at fault.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

And now for something completely different...


My gaming buddy and I currently use for our gaming sessions a 4'x4' board made from 2x 6mm MDF sheets. On those MDF sheets I "taped down" 2 of the Know No Fear game mats, I could have done a better job of it but it looks better than a blank board. You can see the board here in my Necromunda terrain thread - https://yaktribe.games/community/th...ventures-of-raven-morpheus.10674/#post-245151

One of the things we recently agreed upon is that, for 40K at least, we need a LOS blocking centre piece of terrain.

So, as I'm kind of stuck in the 90s and love GW's terrain aesthetic from those days, I came up with making something like this -

It's a "ruined chapel" that was used in various White Dwarf magazine articles and GW books (codices etc.) from around the '92 2nd edition 40K era.

As I'm the one shelling out for, building and painting this terrain piece, I discounted using GW's terrain kits as a basis for this, as they're just far too expensive. And building it entirely from scratch isn't really an option for me as unfortunately I'm not much of a modeller, for one thing I have no idea of how to replicate the arches, Adrian Wild, or whoever built that, is either one of those terrain moulding/sculpting geniuses or found some pre-moulded stuff to use that I can't find now. However I have come across some terrain made by Pegasus Hobbies, which can do the job, sort of.

So I went out and bought this -

And this -

I've actually had both kits a few weeks now and the other week I put them together loosely to see how things would look, this is the result -

Two sets of bits to make the "single arches" shown in the original GW photo above. Not entirely sure how I'm going to approach those, I may just ditch them entirely as they may look a little odd just being free standing wall sections like they are, even if I "ruin" the top and down their right hand sides.

And two bonus corner pieces, to go with several other corner piece "ruins" we already have (mostly quick and rough foamboard one's that I made some 15-20 years ago).

The red areas in two of the photos above represent where I'll be attacking the building with my dremel/flush cutters/craft knife/sanding sticks to make the building look "ruined", although the image below is more representative of where I'll make my cuts. I'll do the same to the two corner sections.

There are enough pieces with the blanked out/bricked up arches to make the ground floor totally LOS blocking, like the original GW piece. So ignore the windows in the ground floor in my images above, as I hadn't at the time of photographing worked out the configuration of the kit pieces - still haven't but I have a fair idea of it now.

I'll be adding the wall at the front of the ground floor and the stepped floor sections like in the original GW piece using styrene sheet. I thought about using XPS foam sheet, because it has a texture, but decided to not use that because a) I can't find a way of securely bonding it to the plastic parts without melting it, and b) the texture is useless for drybrushing as I found out on my recent "generator" terrain piece build (also in my Necromunda terrain thread), not entirely sure why that is the case though.

The original GW piece looks to be only 2 levels high (each level of the Pegasus kits are about 3" tall), but I don't think the Pegasus kit parts would look good with either a flat top or only a slightly ruined top, so I elected to go 3 levels high and "ruin" the top level quite a bit. Although that does make the rose window piece look a little out of place in my mind.

The ground floor will act as a base, but I won't actually put it on a base with debris and stuff, as I'm not that good a modeller. The 2nd and 3rd level sections will be "plug and play" and come off for storage. Handily the Pegasus kits make this easy as they're semi-modular in the first place and are designed to come apart.

Painting wise I won't be painting this grey, I came across a video by Vince Venturella, and I'd like to try most of what he does in that video on this, so this piece will be "sandstone" coloured -

So, that's my next/current "big" project going forwards. Sounds and looks like a big build but it's not really, and as it's a terrain piece that will get used, it shouldn't take me 9 months, unlike my tavern!! Better not, as my gaming buddy and I intend to meet up for a gaming day in a month or two...

Thanks as always for looking. C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Seems I'm on the night shift at the moment (I suffer with insomnia), so I thought I'd have a crack at finalising the configuration of parts for the ruined chapel and see just exactly how well (or badly) the parts all fit together and what extras I've actually got.

I've glued most of the wall sections together where they needed it, I started using Gunze Mr Cement (the orange topped bottle version) but I was getting impatient so I switched to superglue, just hope the wall sections do actually glue together where the Mr Cement is...

A view from the "side" of the building. I neglected to take a photo of the "back", doh! Starting from and including the front buttress, every other one is loose. I'll have to shim or fill the hole a little where the buttresses attach. They also seem to not quite reach my cutting mat, I think they'll each need a small base added, although my cutting mat isn't the most level of surfaces so I'll check on the kitchen worktop first...

I put a couple of figures in the photo below for scale comparison, they're on 25mm and 40mm bases. The overhanging pillar on the left end of the top level will be cut off (I'll cut the whole section diagonally-ish) and will be recycled round to the other end to provide a ruined corner going out over the top of the rose window section. The top level is a bit wobbly at the moment so it will probably need a corner piece for a bit of support.

There will be a wall (shown roughly in the image below as a darkened area in front of the figures) added to extend the wall section on the right hand side at the very "front" of this building, as I'll be putting in floors like the original GW terrain piece has. So the two models in this image are in fact standing in a void that actually won't be there! I have planned to make that wall extension from styrene sheet, but I'm now considering shortening, from the bottom up, a couple of the kit's wall sections, instead of using styrene sheet to make the frontmost wall. Hmmm, how straight can I cut with a dremel...

I've added some red to this image for visualisation again of roughly where I'll make the cuts and stuff to "ruin" the top level and down the left edge of the building. There will be no visible locating pegs or locating holes once this terrain piece is completed.

Handily, or not, Pegasus provide you with floor supports (one is highlighted by a red circle in this image). Strangely no floors are provided in either kit, but I was aware of that when I looked into buying these kits. How handy these supports will be is another matter, and I've just realised I don't need the two on their own (the one in the red circle and the next one along) in the position they are in as the floor where they are will be lower - will have to remove and reposition those. DOH!

For going on the top of the buttresses you get these -

They're push fit, and are quite a tight fit, but probably could do with a bit of glue.

One in place on the top of a buttress, sorry for the blur, didn't realise I wasn't in focus, seems my mobile's camera focused on the background instead... I'm thinking these will look OK and a little 40kish if I paint them some kind of bronze colour and add some Citadel Nihilakh Oxide for weathering.

Handily you get these parts to fill the unused locating holes. Not sure how many there are, I have quite a few of the big sprue, but there are what look like electric lamps that I can use, and I might even be able to cobble together an Aquila or two out of a couple of the eagles of one or both of the styles provided, for a bit more of a 40k look to this. The rectangle bits are blank plates.

The entire chapel in sections/parts as it will be when finished but disassembled -

From front to back (or bottom to top in this photo) - the ground floor section. In the middle - The second level wall plus rose window section, I've left the rose window section separate for the moment as I'm not sure I can glue it to the main wall and still have the second level fit easily on top of the ground floor - reason - the locating pegs are a bit out of line/tight as I'm obviously not assembling this kit in the configuration it's supposed to go in. And at the back/top - the top level, which will be less than half as tall when I've attacked it to make it "ruined". Alongside are the buttresses.

Can't do any more of this tonight as I need to get my dremel out and start cutting the ends of each level and most of the top level down for the "ruined" look, and I'll wake up other members of the household doing that. The plastic of this kit is so thick/stiff I can't realistically cut it all without a dremel (or a hacksaw). I'm also waiting on some styrene sheet so I can't make the floors for the ground floor yet either.

I am tempted to cut out the "bars" on one or two of the 2nd level windows and make some stained glass. I have this idea of printing a colour image on clear decal paper, then applying it to clear styrene sheet and maybe sandwiching the decal between two layers of the clear styrene sheet.

But I'm thinking that might be going too far for a terrain piece that'll get used...


Thanks as always for looking. C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Ooohhhh maaaaaan, I've gone and ruined it!

Made some more progress on the chapel this afternoon.


Unfortunately I couldn't cut straight with the dremel, no surprise there, but I managed to cut the two wall sections that I needed to shorten for the "front wall" just about right. I'll have to do some filling and to that end I've added a base with a very minute overhang, visible in the next photos. I'll use some Tamiya Diorama Texture paint to disguise the join/base, hopefully I've got enough left after the last couple of uses of it...

I mocked up the floors with paper. Unfortunately it seems I measured the two lower ones wrong. Back to the drawing board on those two.

And the back of the chapel showing the outside of the main wall and the buttresses. As expected the buttresses don't meet the ground, or in this case the kitchen worktop, so I'll have to add bases or something to each of them, once I work out how tall those bases needs to be, looks like just a couple of mm to me.

In places where I've cut the plastic with a dremel it's been melted. But that's OK, melta weapon damage and all that. I might also be able to take advantage of that in painting...

I've got gaps all along where each level attaches to the level below, due to the "modularity" of this, unfortunately I don't think I can do anything about those, but it's a terrain piece, not a display piece, so it doesn't matter as much. Some gaps in other parts to fill also but so far I'm happy with how this is looking.

Need to go over it in palces with IPA and remove the sharpie marks I made as a cutting guide, I know from previous experience that sharpie has a habbit of bleeding through paint...

Thanks as always for looking. C&C welcome.