Ferrus Manus For A Mate

So I got asked to paint Ferrus Manus for my mate Ben a while back.  Has been sat on my shelf for so long there was a layer of dust on it!

Been struggling to actually paint much of anything recently and haven't picked up an actual brush in what seems like months, too much building of marines and the like.  

Sadly for me Ben glued the entire thing together before he gave it to me, which makes my life a living hell, but he doesn't expect a great deal end result wise so hopefully we will both be pleasantly surprised with the end result.  So far we have..............

Not much i know, but shit it;s a start. 

Exorcists Space Marine Chapter

It has been a while.......

Had a lot of life to deal with for the last few months......

But I consider myself back AND I even return bringing models, well a model. 1 converted Master of the Forge made from the Forgeworld Horus Heresy Ironhand Forgefather and much plasticard at the moment the servo arms are only black taced on to aid painting all the mechadendrites are however superglued on 

  

Exorcists Space Marine Chapter

Part of the way though the Master of the Forge I got sidetracked and started building a tracked servitor and the result is..........

tiny amount of greestuff work to do around the cables but other than that it is done

Exorcists Space Marine Chapter

A rejig of the army list has resulted in the need for a Techmarine and a Master of the Forge.  Not being overly fond of the regular models decided to make my own, which of course meant scratch built servo arm

Deus Vult

And some more........

Loving this model

Deus Vult

Started painting the the Templar

Face is one of the most characterful I have had the chance to paint yet. 

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

More Orkies

 Morknutz Goldtoof

Grizbat Luvzbombz

Deus Vult

My friend Tim brought me this lovely model from Nocturna Models, and I do love their large scale stuff, good shout on what to buy the guy that wants nothing Tim :D

Remind you of anyone......

:D


I am however not doing him in the same colours I am opting for Knight Templar heraldry, I just really fancy tackling white across an entire miniature and make it look suitably interesting.  What's life without a bit of a challenge?

I had a massive migrane last night so could not progress any work painting wise on the titan base orks as i couldnt focus on small details so I made a start on sculpting the base of this.

I have gone for something fairly simple and sort of boring but will re-enforce the theme of a crusader

Castle wall and a section of a portculis, I intend to put a bail of straw behind him to the left but will probably use real dried grass for that towards the end of the project. Stone work will be slightly darker to frame the white of the knight and the ground will be sand which should work well as the boots will be a dark leather and contrast well against that.

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

Had a painting meet on Saturday and after a catelog of errors on the orks i intended to work on before before and during the meet I ended up stripping them, but I did speak to my friend Peter Bell about ways to alter it and came to the conculsion that the problems lay in firstly not starting with the midtone, secondly the paint I was using and thirdly i didnt have my wet pallet on such a warm day the paint was drying too quickly

So after two strippings i started again airbrushing on a coat of Turf Green as the midtone and then working from there, adding yellow and white to the green for highlights and then red and black to the green for the shade

result was thus

 Bogrot Gitsmasher

Gornut Spleensmasha

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

So another trip to Nottingham came and went and much fun was had and mucho tired I was left.

The Reaver broke his duck, although it died in turn 4 in the Apoc game vs the White Dwarf guys it took down plenty of points worth of enemy. and soaked up mucho firepower from the enemy leaving our other forces fairly unopposed.

In conclusion well worth the points and well worth the money spent on it as now the enjoyment is nearly over on the painting side the gaming side of it is just beginning. 

So the big question for me was it worth £571..........damn right, 3 months of painting joy and infinate hours of gaming joy to come and once the banners and base are finished it should be worth a pretty penny.

Anyway there hs not been much in the way of work on the base because of the prepping for the trip and the actual trip.  I did get some work done on Brother Ruprecht on Sunday though.

Gone with NMM black working on principles learnt from Tommie Soule at his NMM workshop. I think that works much better than simple three stage edge highlighting which was how I used to paint my Black Templars 3 or so years ago, the progression in my painting ability when I compare what I was doing only a relatively short time ago sometimes astounds me, but at the same time I am an advocate of anyone being able to replicate it with time and a little effort. 

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

Reaver is pretty much done, just a few bits of oil to do the varnishing and then the banners and it is finished. 

Sadly I have no light box big enough to take decent photos.

Rather happy with the result from the oil wash and then buffing really made the armour plates much more interesting without much effort.

Started on the components for the base today also.

WIP on Black Templar Brother Ruprecht 

Has been a while since I painting something as small and 28mm-ish, nice change :D

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

Da Boyz Asembulz

Countless cuts on my thumb later and we have some combatants on the reaver base

Here we have the heavy flamer team flaming the doorway, one ork taking the full flame and roasting and the other (one leaping out the door) will have his ass on fire hence why he is holding it, I thought this was a nice comic relief to what is otherwise rather brutal imagery 

These are the boyz rampaging up the road, the nob at the back directing the boyz to where the fire is coming from.  The two that look like they are stumbling are the two that are/have been shot by the heavy bolter.   This was sort of inspired by the Dawn of War opening movie, fast forward to 0:44 mins and you will hopefully see what i see. 

Was important to get all the lines here perfectly in sync, heavy bolter pointing at the 2 ork being shot, nob pointing at the heavy bolter and all the orks that are aiming guns at it, any slight misalignment and everything looks wrong, I think I managed it, however will have to wait until everything is painted. 
 

This is the view from the heavy bolter end of the street.  There was also the inclusion of a random veteren with a shotgun behind the pillar ready to give any orks some buckshot lovin.....I love my bitz box, it is a veritable treasure trove of bits I forgot I had.

And the heavy bolter team, was a pain in the ass trying to get that lying correctly so in the end iI took the view of bugger this and put a sheet of corregated plasticard as a "bed" for it....problem solved, had i thought of that at the outset would have saved myself 1/2 hour or more.  But what is that.....is it an ork with a stick bomb.....oh noes!  Although it seems a rather one sided narrative with orks getting boned left, right and centre I have added a little detail like that to give the impression that things could go very very wrong very fast 

   
I also decided to add in another nob made from the new flash gitz make so much nicer nobs than actual nobs

I now am waiting for some kneeling ork legs from Kromlech so i can add in a couple of shooter boys so give a little more weight to the ork mob.  But whilst I wait I think I will actually start to paint the ground work.

Be well 

 

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

Genesis of the base has begun

There will be a heavy flamer team flaming some orks in the doorway under the balcony and maybe a flaming ork running out.

There will be a heavy bolter team in the hole in the wall to the right of the picture laying down surpressing fire down the street I have concentrated bullet damage on the building at the far end in the area the bolter fire would likely hit.

This will be end of the street that the orks will be coming from jumping over rubble and generally getting shot

AND there is even room for the reaver..................

Just about :D  

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

Vast majority of the gluing is finished; just the guns to do.  But before I glue them on I needed to start the weathering on them.  As such I worked on the barrel scorching on the turbo lasers for the most part I am happy although I would have preferred the soot on the end to have been more matt and I might even hit it with a little Daler and Rowney matt varnish

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

There is a lack of pictures, mainly because I see no point.  At the moment I am in the process of gluing all the composite parts together and due to the glue being some super duper araldite there is much waiting.  So it would just be pictures of the same thing with another bit glued on....sort of like a resin based "spot the difference" competition.  

But my thoughts thus far are:- 

1. Now it is starting to come together it is truely heartwarming to realise I made the right descision both in the original purchase and choices in respect of colours
2. It really is bloody massive
3. And SOOOOOOOOOO fecking heavy
4. Did I mention how big it is D:
5. WHERE THE SHIT AM I GOING TO PUT IT WHEN IT'S DONE!!!

I anticipate it being gameable by the weekend but then there is so much more to get done after that, weathering, base, main banner and gun penants.  

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

This is happening fast

just have to wait for bits to glue as the super strength araldite takes 24 hours to dry 

but a song says it all.........

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

Sorry......

I know I have been shit with updates......

I blame...........

However i have now managed to get all the gold done ready for shading; which will commence when I start attaching bits so I know what needs shading the most, and all the brass on the endoskeleton done also.

I have also started to glue together all the sub assemblies, so far we have some feet done.

 
The legs are now lovely and stable but most importantly a massive amount of bits of foam with pistons and armour parts stuck on cocktail sticks has vanished and turned into something wonderful, sort of like a resin butterfly.....it was beginning to fecking depress me greatly being surrounded by bits of crap 

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

More progress on the carapace and the knee pad

I had to reduce the red lighting bolt on the Legio symbol otherwise it would not have fit or the star and eye would have had to have been reduced nulifying the impact of it.  I think it is rather eye catching *boom tish*......

................

................


I'll get my coat  :D

Apart from the gold work I dub thee done

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

Work on the carapace has progressed, all the scroll work is done, not taken a photo yet and it is currently hidden under the masking tape so I will mark that down as a to follow :)

A friend of mine Drew vectorised the Legio Invigilata symbol as i was originally going to airbrush it by making a stencil, however the stencil making was more hassle that it was worth, still thanks to Drew for doing the image, I still used it as a guide for freehanding.

So far it looks like this

It is not perfectly symmetrical but it is on a ridge so it looks much better when looking at it in reality, that said I think it still looks fairly decent in the picture.  Just need to do the 2 red lightning bolts and done.

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

So week and a bit "wasted" repainting the shoulder pad and knee pad checkers.......

But I have learnt a number of things about myself in the last two weeks

1. I have the paticence of a saint.
2. In the face continuous disappointment I manage to continue with a smile on my face.
3. I am not happy with ok...I must have things right to the point of perfect. To the point of obsessing.

Maybe not good on all three but 2 out of 3 ain't a bad return on positive self evaluation.

But at the end of the 2 weeks I have almost managed to get them as perfect as they were the 1st time they were redone and the varnish made the red run, suffice to say they are as near as damn it to perfection without spending the next 12 months redoing them and loosing my mind.....my patience would run out eventually right?

So after two weeks of staring at 1cm squares working on something different was a nice change.

Queue the scroll work, I decided that this had the biggest risk of going wrong so I chose to tackle it first all the way to the point of finishing; although I do need to reapply some highlights to the cracking etc on the torso scroll work, the small unreadable scripting on the trailing scoll, and maybe an aquilla inbetween the lines that seperate the top and bottom phrases.  Less talk more pictures 

Translates from Latin as ...... yes you got it Retribution!  But there will be one that decides to point out I missed off an "N"

Translates as.......
Semper Vigilo - Always Vigilant
Custodi Imperatoris - Emperor's Guard 
Deus Bellum - God of War (although this is terrible latin more like God War - "Martem" is what it should be but that would have left too much space)
Educis Mortis - Bringer of Death

End of the day, am happy as larry that I am not painting checkers still :D

Take care and stay awesome.   

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

Disaster has struck!

On Saturday morning I varnished the checked armour plates using Humbrol Clear then went away to make my breakfast......

Upon my return i noticed pink streaks over all the white checks........

Horrified doesn't cut it as a word.......

TIP
The Humbrol Clear does not react at all well with something in the Tamiya paint causing it to bleed.  This didn't happen on the white squares I painted using exclusively Vallejo paint so the problem lies in the reaction between two of the active agents in the Humbrol Clear and the Tamiya Paint.  So word of advice don't use Humbrol Clear with Tamiya unless you want instant and random rain streaks :)  I would assume that the same happens with Gunze paint as well but I have no proof of this.  

So the whole lot needed stripping and redoing......the joy

As such my Saturday was not too productive as I was a tiny bit angry and don't paint when I am like that.  

So Sunday was productive right?

Was it f**k 

I spent all of Sunday trying to repaint the red but could either not manage to get the colour right or I ended up with a sand paper like texture on the surface that looked utter bobbins.

I eventually found out what was causing this.......

TIP
When airbrushing the higher the PSI the finer the atomization of the paint will be, meaning the small blobs of paint will be smaller.  This also means that if you hold the airbrush too far from the model the paint will dry enroute from the nozzle of the airbrush to the surface of the model leaving a rough sand paper like texture, the smoothness of the blend between colours might be perfect but you will not have that lovely smooth finish.  Therefore it is best to lower the PSI to a level you are happy with and keep the airbrush fairly close to the surface you are spraying.

Therefore the higher the atomization (due to PSI) the smaller the droplets of paint will be and therefore the quicker the paint will dry.

Find a balance by practicing. 

So although it may look like I wasted a weekend I learnt some stuff that will only benefit me in the long run.  So it was not a total loss.......

Oh and I managed to get the red bang on perfect last night, possibly better than it was the first time (well second infact) around.  To coin a phrase used by one of the painters who inspires me; Roman Lappat....

"Everything happens for a reason" 

The reason here was to teach me lessons. :)

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

Much black armour painted.....

Very nearly ready to start the gold trim....

But before that I decided to dry fit it all to give me an idea of what it will look like....

 
Couple of things need adjusting before I start the banding like the highlighting on the leg plates needs toning down slightly as it is a little too bright at the moment.

But we are heading in the right direction :D

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

Candy Coating and Checks Tutorial


From the black undercoat I basecoated with Hull Red and then layered up through Flat Red and then Flat Yellow to give a result as below.

Then using a very thinned down clear red I candied the armour, it is basically an airbrushed glaze of a transparent colour.

This results in a lovely rich red.  I then gave the entire thing a coat of clear to protect the red when I use the masking tape.

Whilst the varnish dries the squares are drawn and cut out.

Each square is attached with care to create a chess board ensuring that the squares are firmly pressed down.

Then I basecoated the entire armour plate again in Beige, layering up through Pale Sand and then White.  Thin coats are a must ensuring each coat is dry  before proceeding to the next.  Once totally dry remove the squares and your done.

A simple technique that just requires a little time, care and patience but well worth it in the end.  It has been mentioned to me that it would have been easier to do the cream/white first then the red however there is a valid reason for this reversal.  When candying the red the clear red leaves an almost plastic coating so that when removing the tape you run the risk of it peeling off the clear coating, I encountered this problem when I painted the oil marks on the pistons, for the pistons I eventually got around the problem by removing the tape whilst the paint was still wet however for this check pattern there are many bits of tape whereas on the pistons just one per piston so it was easy to paint one piston and remove the tape. But if the red was done without the clear red candying involved I would have done the lighter colour first and then the darker.

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

So having looked that the pads when i got home last night I felt that the only option was to strip them as I wasnt happy with the balance of the red when the plates were on the Reaver and looking from the front.  From above it is not a massive issue as due to the size of the Reaver you will not see a perfect top down view like in the photo below, unless of course you are a giant, a small demographic I am not overly concerned about appeasing.

Red is now lovely and smooth, there was only one bit of bleeding under the masking tape at that was on the part of the Adeptus Titanicus T but I am not overly concerned about that once the metals are done and it is gloss varnished and then given an oil wash the shading created around the metals will cover that up.

I also sorted out a basic walkthough on how to do this with pictures but had no time to post before work.  Will post them later.

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

More bloody checks!!!

Although I think I am going to strip these and redo them as the red is very un smooth in places and not identical on both shoulders.  But we will see what I feel like when I start painting tonight.

I also did a tester for the black armour using a left over shin guard from my long since sold Warhound.

Assume that the light source is from the right of the picture.

Danol's Retribution - Reaver-Class Titan of the Legio Invigilata

This weekend has been rather productive.  Although I forgot to take much in the way of bloody photos, I enter a zen like state of painting and forget to do stuff so I will sort some out tonight.

Anyway I managed to get the following stuff done: 

1. All the pistons, including all the toe, hip, shin and thigh pistons, there are so many but they are done and I am happy :D

2. Planned out the colours for the armour plates.

3. Got the red gradient done on all the armour plates that will be red, namely the toes, lower piston guards, gun armour and knee pads.

4. Started the paint bonewhite armour, including the checks on the red knee pad, and the head.

Strawberries and cream anyone?

5. Painted the endoskeleton for the head and the pipes on it.  Araldited the tubes in.

I am considering doing the same red and bonewhite check pattern on both shoulder plates as well because it looks rather striking I though.

I feel there is serious progress being made and I am liking it :D