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

[Raven Morpheus]

So, sometime during the week I did a little on the Warhound titans -

The bases got their texturing, the steel trim is all done on the armour plates, and I've done a "grime" clay wash on the "skeletons", although I need to take it off where appropriate, but that's a trivial matter of a q-tip and water.

I didn't feel like pushing on with these tonight though, so I made a start on something else, see below...


Thanks for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Tonight rather than push on with the Warhounds I decided to tackle something else.

For Talisman 3rd edition I've been on the look out for a suitable dragon for the dragon's tower expansion...

And so, during the week I bought one off ebay. It wasn't inexpensive, but it also wasn't 3 figures like most are...

On some guy's Talisman site there is a page detailing the "evolution" of the "dragon king" which covers many of the dragons GW produced during that period - https://www.talismanisland.com/features/evolution-of-the-dragon-king/



The one I have purchased is the one for the Dark Elf lord Rakarth, it's metal apart from the wings, and if you look at the above site you can see apart from the head and perhaps a couple of other minor details it's pretty much like the plastic Talisman dragon.

It came to me assembled, rather poorly and with a white primer layer, so I pulled it apart as much as I could, stripped it and glued it in a better position -

Photos -

Breakdown and stripping results -

As we can see there was black and blue and some red under the white -

Rakarth -

Stripped and reassmebled, and Rakarth sitting on top, not that I'll use him -

The wings wouldn't strip with IPA (that's all I have for stripping plastic), but they don't look badly coated anyway. I'm hoping that all the stripping I've done will allow the scale details to show when I've painted it. There's some gaps to fill but that was the case to begin with anyway.

It also doesn't sit on it's feet without being glued down, so I've re-glued it to the base he came to me on. That base will be swapped out for a 50mm square one...



Thanks for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

I know this isn't the Yaks usual fare, however back in September I said I was going to be doing something Star Wars at Xmas, and I thought a sitrep was long overdue - https://yaktribe.games/community/th...g-and-modelling-log.11222/page-33#post-311645

Well, I made a start on it at Xmas, but things haven't gone as planned (health not great and engine glow lighting ideas not working as intended) and what was meant to be a less than 7 day build is still a WIP.

Xmas week -

I did a test for the Arduino nano controlled nav light LEDs -

Then I attached the LEDs to the wings and fin, the wings should have a trench like the fin, running round the edges, Revell didn't represent it so I made my own on each wing using styrene strip. The wings are solid so the trench has the added bonus of somewhat disguising my wiring -

The tail fin -

Lower hull with nav lights -

Continued in next post due to image limit...

 

[Raven Morpheus]

...Continued from previous post...


Last week I obtained some COB (chip on board) LED filaments, and tested those for the exhaust glow -

And this afternoon I pushed on with this some more -


Both wings are done, bar a bit of filling/sanding on the trenches I've added. The wires are routed through the cog thingies to roughly centre of each wing ready to go into the hull, they're temporarily taped for neatness -

Lower hull interior, again wires taped to keep them tidy, here you can see the styrene tube I've added to take the 5mm clear rod for the stand, and where I've removed material at the back which would be visible through the exhausts and interfere with the light box, that may still need some fettling -

Exhausts have been cut out, doesn't matter what I do I can't get them perfect so they'll have to do -

Upper hull with fin push fitted -

Upper hull interior, here you can see where I've routed the wires from the fin, the front bulkhead is installed but not glued -

Cockpit, unfortunately one of the attachment pegs broke off, but that's actually helpful for me -

Continued in next post due to image limit...

 

[Raven Morpheus]

...Continued from previous post...

Test assembly, this is not easy to photograph, the clear rod needs some tape around it to secure it better -

So, still some work to do before paint gets applied to the outside.


To do list, mostly for my reference -

Make light box, paint interior of it silver, and attach COB LED filaments to it.
Solder wires to COB LED filaments.
Cover exhausts holes with styrene sheet for diffusion.
Solder all wires to connections and attach to the Arduino board.
Secure Arduino board inside hull.
Solder wires to battery holder and connect to Arduino board.
Fill gaps in wing and fin trenches.
Attach all 4 gun bits.


At this point I don't know if I'm closing the hull up permanently, i.e. gluing it, or push fitting it as Revell intended and leaving it unglued, either way I'll probably end up disguising the seam with a run of styrene strip...



Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Mr. M]

That's a very cool model! Looking forward to seeing how your work progresses!

 

[cainex1]

Totally not 40k but I 1000% approve of miniature electronics and lighting!

 

[Raven Morpheus]

We have lights!

So, I spent some more time on the Star Wars shuttle today...

...I spent 3 hours wiring up the 8 COB LED filaments in two groups of 4, only to find they didn't fit well into the space...

...I couldn't unwire them either, so they're a write off!

So I spent another 90 minutes wiring up the 2 COB LED strips I bought, and after a bit of fudging, I have engine glows!

Powered by 2x AA batteries in a battery box, hopefully they'll work just as well connected to the Arduino powered by a cr2032 -

More how it looks to the mk1 eyeball -

I'm going to have to glue the hull halves together as they don't quite fit nicely at the back, might be a result of my fudging, might not be -

The engine glows aren't perfect, there's a couple of dark spots and I somehow creased the styrene diffuser, but after nearly 5 hours faffing around I'm going to run with them.




Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[cainex1]

If you feel really pressed about it, you could try a paper diffuser. But it looks good from the pictures

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Been pushing on with the Revell Star Wars shuttle, but I've also been tinkering with the GW metal (Rakarth on) Dragon...

Progress photos of the shuttle, it's all sealed up, undercoated, and ready for further paint -

That black paint is Archive X's Grimy Black.

I still need to do a little more light blocking as the engine glow can be seen through gaps where the two rear wing fold cog things are - I should have completely sealed the LED strips in a light box as I originally intended instead of bodging it!! I'm thinking though that I can put some Perfect Plastic Putty into those gaps and then paint those areas black...

Now, I can't get any further at this time. I could swear I bought Archive X's Reefer White, but I cannot for the life of me find it!?!? So, I'll have to buy another. I've ordered one from Element Games, but it's on back-order from Archive X, and Archive X's own site shows it as out of stock. Hmmm. Hopefully it won't be out of stock for long...

So much for an Xmas week build, it's taken me nearly 4 weeks to get this far. Nearly done though.



In the meantime, once I've sorted the slight light blocking issue on the shuttle, I plan on getting on with the GW dragon. I took off and reglued the head last night as it had a nasty gap at the joins. There's several areas where I've still got gaps at the joins, I'm hoping once I undercoat in Vallejo bonewhite the gaps won't be as noticeable because I really don't want to fill them - they're too small for green stuff imo, but other putty might look smooth and odd...

Anyhow, photos of the dragon will be incoming when I've got paint down on it...


Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Mr. M]

Did the shuttle come with a stand, or is that something you'll have to make on your own? It's really coming together nicely!

 

[Raven Morpheus]

No stand, had to "make" one. You can see it in photos further up.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Spent about an hour at the table this AM...

I started by filling gaps in joins on the GW dragon, I'm waiting for the putty to go off before putting the first coat of paint on, photos will be forthcoming when I do that...


In the meantime I started putting the base colour on the Star Wars shuttle model -

That's Archive X Reefer White and Concrete mixed 1:1ish.

So far, so good. Revell would have you paint some panels a light grey and a dark grey, but that's going to be too contrasting and it's not how the studio model looks. How the final result looks grey on film I have no idea!

Probably won't take any further photos of this, as they'll spoiler the "final reveal".


Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

So, been a while...

I finished my GW dragon, more on that below, and the Star Wars Lambda class Imperial shuttle got finished week before last, at around 16 inches wide/tall it was hard for me to photograph!

The nav lights still flash, here's an equally poor video showing that -

Need a bigger backdrop/photo space...


Anyhow, since I finished that, I pushed on with the oldhammer dragon that got re-assembled, gaps filled, and undercoated, back in October '23/January '24. Besides the Star Wars shuttle (which was all airbrush work) this is the first model I've painted this year and since October '23.

Just to recap - It's an ebay rescue of Rakarth on Black Dragon. I'm repurposing it for Talisman 3rd edition as the dragon king, hence no rider, but I've left the rider gap sans horns in case I wish to add a rider at a later date. Given it's metal and quite hefty I can see the base breaking off (I had trouble getting it standing right as it is), and/or it falling off the cardstock tower (when I've made it)!!

I tried to paint it like one of GW's current Age of Sigmar dragons but it didn't quite work out right. It'll do for tabletop though. It's 90% contrast paint...

Not sure what to start next, of the stuff I'm enthused by, I have 12 RTB09 terminators (one of my "holy grails" finally obtained) and 40ish Genestealers (2009 and OG versions), for Space Hulk, plastic AoS Undead Black Coach (for Mordheim scatter terrain), Gotrek and Felix (OG metal versions), a few terminator librarians and a kitbashed terminator captain, again for Space Hulk, 15ish characters for Talisman 3rd, Sisters of Sigmar proxies (for Mordheim) and I'm awaiting the metal Green Knight I recently caved and bought direct from geedubs...



Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Had a push on my Sisters of Sigmar proxies whilst watching the 81st Goodwood Members Meeting this afternoon...


These are resin 3d printed, by an etsy seller, Sisters of Sigmus by Monstrous Encounters.

I have a 7 body wysiwyg warband written up. The figures I chose, from the full set of 15, were assembled and "primed" in Vallejo Model Air "White Grey" about 2 weeks ago. I'm having to "make this up as I go" as there's no official painted examples and only few (not very helpful imho) photos of examples by other painters. One of the downsides of "indy" figures/3d prints...

Apologies for the out of focus nature of some of these photos, they looked OK on my phone, but I had gone somewhat crosseyed!

I've started with the Sigmarite Sisters (one rank up from being a novice), these had base coats done about a week ago and today I've done some shading/highlighting, not that it particularly looks like it -

The rest of the warband -

Augur -

Sister Superior -

Matriarch, the shield is white tacked on -

And a bonus, Bertha Bestraufrung proxy, it's actually one of the Sister Superiors but looks close enough, she'll get a black "prime" and I'll work from there as she's mostly black -

The OG Bertha had her butt hanging out, this proxy is a little more modest -

Seconds out, round, errr

And, I finally finished cobbling together my terminator captain for Space Hulk, although I feel I need to further drill out (widen) the barrels on the Storm Bolter and grenade launcher -

Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Spent a few more hours today, whilst watching day 2 of the 81st Goodwood Members Meeting, finishing off the "Sigmarite Sisters"...

I thought taking individual photos would be better, but I think it's clear that I can't see what I'm doing as they're still out of focus!!

Need to do green stuff bases, but I'll probably do all 8 at once...


Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Spent about 90 minutes at the table tonight, continuing on with the Sisters of Sigmus, and made a start on the sole "Sister Superior" in my starting warband...

I'll be doing this one and the remaining 3 individually as they're all fairly different so batch painting probably wouldn't help much...

I had to remove the hands/weapons as they were blocking access to the rest of the front, they'll get painted separately. They were non-trivial to remove, despite only being CA glued on, and despite having put the model in the freezer for a while (makes the CA glue brittle/weak), one of the hands snapped apart, and that worries me as all these figures (bar the Matriarch) are all CA glued by one foot at least to the bases they're on and feet could snap off! Just one reason I don't like resin...


So, Vallejo "White Grey" undercoat a few weeks ago -

Base coats were then applied.

Photos are fairly reasonable tonight for a change...

I watched Vince Ventruella's recent Bretonnian knight video and on all the sisters so far I've borrowed his "steel" armour method.

So that's a shadow layer of Vallejo Metal Color Magnesium plus dark grey (he uses an AK Interactive one, I used Citadel Corvus black) -

The armour then gets a layer of Vallejo Metal Color Magnesium leaving the previous layer as a shadow -

Then a highlight of Vallejo Metal Color Magnesium plus Vallejo Metal Color Silver -

And a further highlight of Vallejo Metal Color Silver -

I usually use a black undercoat, Vallejo Metal Color Steel, Citadel Nuln oil recess/line wash and Vallejo Model Air silver highlight method for steel armour but as long as I can work out where to put highlights I think I prefer Vince Ventruella's method so far...

There's a few places where I need to reinstate the shadows but essentially that's the armour done. This figure should be relatively quick to get done as there's not a lot of detail and I've already blocked in the base colours ready for layered highlights and contrast paint...


Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

I seem to be buying some really rather expensive GW metal figures recently...


Today we have a "what fell through my door" from ebay post...


Some really rather expensive bubble wrap -

No, sorry, wait, 11 Teutogen Guard bodies, including the 3 command group figures (standard bearer top leftmost, musician top rightmost, champion bottom rightmost) -

Associated weapons. Stop! Hammer time! -

Banner, amazingly this is a "scultped" banner, something which I thought GW only started doing with plastics -

So, my reason for buying these is a Mordheim Human Mercenaries warband.

I want to do a Middenheim Human Mercenaries warband and these are cult of Ulric, so Middenheimers. I was going to do a Reiklanders warband (to go with my Reikland themed Empire WFB army) but GW squatted the figures I want for that!

I'm missing the musician's horn part (which is also his arm), but I've ordered another complete musician from another ebayer anyway...

I only need 6 of the Teutogen Guard figures for the warband anyway, including the champion (warband leader, 2 champions and 3 warriors, accompanied by 3 marksmen, more on those below).

I have 5 Highland Miniatures Sunland Empire Arquebusiers (in 32mm scale, hopefully they're not too big!?) on the way from an etsy seller to use as Marksmen also (I actually only want 3), along with White Wolf cloak parts from an ebayer to add a bit of the cult of Ulric theme to them.

I would buy a priest of Ulric, for a future addition to the warband, but they seem rarer/more expensive than hens teeth, maybe one day one will pop up on evilbay at a reasonable price...


These will probably get painted after the "Sisters of Sigmar" (possibliy after I've done my Empire Man O'War fleet) as I'm currently enthused about them, my loose idea for a paint scheme is "Space Wolves of Middenheim" although the marksmen will look slightly different...


Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Spent about an hour tonight finishing off the Sister Superior of the Sisters of Sigmus...

I have a couple of bits to do still (I forgot to do the hair bands on the back and I want to push the highlights on the blue further) but it's 5 minutes effort...



Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

So, I sat back at the table for a 2nd session tonight, for just over an hour...

I properly finished the Sister Superior, no photos as there's not much difference.

I also almost finished the Augur (hair needs to be finished) -

One thing I'm noticing is that some highlights don't "pop" as much on camera as they do to the mk1 eyeball. Hopefully they'll look better against my black background in final photos. Having white in shot certainly doesn't help...


So, just the Matriarch, Bertha proxy and bases to do...


Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.