Ryza Pattern Ruins and Squaduary Goal

Just a quick one this time. The Ryza Pattern Ruins aren't particularly interesting to look at, nor is my goal pic for Squaduary.

I'd had these sitting around for almost a year sprayed black and heavily brushed with Mechanicus Standard Grey. Finally got the motivation to knock them out right at the end of January from a combination of Azazel's Terrain Challenge and the upcoming Sector Fronteris set that expands on the Ryza Pattern building range. Since I actually have a Ryza AdMech force, I figured it was only natural to also paint the Ryza Pattern buildings in more or less the same colour scheme. Originally, I was going to just do the same colour inside and out, but after I saw the ones The Responsible One did, they convinced me to do different "indoor" and "outdoor" colours.  It cuts down a little on how flexible I can be with them (They're not glued together, and I can still pop the various pairings apart and mix them up), but it's worth it.

I tried to get some contrast on each side, so on the orange, there's steel and the Nihilakh Oxide on the brass, while the grey side has brass and the rust on the steel. The ventilation fan tubes are grey on both sides so that they match up with my Plasma Conduits. It's all totally sloppy, and there's a ton more work that could be done, but fuck it, I wanted them done and off my painting table. Call it weathering if anyone complains ;)

Those of you who are familiar with the kit may notice that one of the corners is missing. Fairly early on in the process, I knocked a bunch of it off the table, and a couple of the smaller sections ended up under a bookcase and I didn't notice until I was basically done with the rest and didn't care enough to finish them up too.

I might go back later and re-do the "interior" part in some sort of off-white, probably Rakarth Flesh. Then the damaged bits on the edges would stand out more because they wouldn't be the same grey as the interior. But probably not.

For Squaduary, I eventually settled on a bunch of Stealer Cultists for my Cult of the Emperor's Embrace. I'm not doing it quite properly, due to the difficulties the weather around here makes for priming at this time of year, but it'll work out basically the same. A bunch of my dudes that were on the sprue will be built, a bunch of dudes who were primed will be painted, they're just not necessarily going to be the same specific dudes. But still, same net result: Fewer dudes on sprue, more painted and game-ready. I actually also forgot to take a pic of the sprues before I built these ones last night, but whatever.

That's 14 Neophytes and a pair of Acolytes ready to get painted (Most of the Neophytes from the Overkill box and a few more dudes that I started for Necromunda). Then there's another 8 Neophytes and three more Acolytes that I built last night. I didn't do the heads yet because I want to wait until I get my Atalan Jackals that I preordered and can mix them up a bit with the female heads in that kit. Then some of them would count for Fembruary as well. Also, in front, there's the one test Model I did. I'm going to have to work out a way to simplify that paint scheme a bit, because that one took way too long. Hopefully more progress on those soon. So yeah, that's where things stand right now, until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Shadespire Terrain Pt. 2

Following on from Part 1, this time I've got one more from the official Underworlds Terrain set, and a handful that I did for another project, but that also work well for Shadespire.

First up, we've got a set made from the Soulsnare Shackles Endless Spell. I like these ones for Lethal hexes, since it's possible to still fit most Models on the hex with them when necessary. The 50mm bases they're on fit into the open spots on the modular terrain bases I have, or those on the Citadel Woods, so I can use them as some sort of creepy area terrain as well. Painting was pretty simple, Typhus Corrosion, thinned down Skrag Brown, and then a patchy overbrushing of Leadbelcher. And yes, I know I need to finish off the rims. Because they're usually sunk down into the terrain plates, I haven't bothered.

Next up, a couple from the Shattered Dominion Objective set. Playing around a bit trying to get a marble appearance. Not entirely happy with my results, but more so than with what I got on the Noise Marine Dread. For the dude in the sarcophagus, I went really heavy on the rust, thinking of the burial mound in Conan the Barbarian where he finds the Atlantean sword. And yes, the top is easily removable, but holds in place well enough that it didn't need any specific work to make it removable.

For the statue head that's been felled by the Iconoclast Axe, I wanted to make it be stone, but also bleeding actual blood. And also crying tears of blood, because why not go all the way? I originally did it for a Daemon World project, and figured that was suitably weird and creepy for that. Seems like something that might happen in Shadespire, too. The eyes were just a random idea, I figure they're obsidian or something.

The penultimate piece here was based on one of the little islands from Dreadfleet. I found a bunch of the less distinctive ones fairly cheap from a bitz seller, and then they tossed in a couple more that had broken for free, so I have a number of pieces like this. But this was the one that was at hand when I was taking pics. I'm going to go back later and add some more snow. Got a bunch of stuff that wants it, and eventually I'm going to get around to clearing a bunch of space and doing them all in one go. The added sand and gravel is mostly to cover up elements that would give away the difference in scale.

And now, last, but certainly not least, the new one, one of the floating pyramids from the Shadespire Terrain set. I left them unglued, so it's possible to use just the base if I want it for a Lethal hex, or the whole thing for a Blocked hex. The central area of the base is painted with Black 2.0, which is supposedly, if you can get it applied smoothly enough, just short of Vantablack. But it's come out a bit rough in most of my experiments, so it shows up more than I'd like. It's still a pretty nice, very matte black, tho. And it smells like cherries, which is kind of weird, but also kind of cool.

With the high contrast background, it comes pretty close to the complete blackness it's supposed to be.

One more shot, along with the first two, to get them all consolidated a bit for Azazel's wrap-up post.

And a couple of "action shots", just because it seemed like fun to show them off in their "native environment".

I've got pics taken for one more set of Terrain (40K Ryza pattern Ruins) that also qualifies for the January challenge that I need to edit and post, as well as the remainder of the Nurgle portion of the Rogue Trader box, and then we'll see what I've finished by that point. Until next time, ya'll have a good one, y'hear!

Rogue Trader: Glitchlings

Once again, we've got the Nurgle Warning here. The camera has toned these down a bit from how gross they are in person, but they're still pretty gross.

Unlike the previous sets of little gribblies, I did these more like I do my Nurgle Daemons, which takes a while because it involves a bunch of different colours and multiple washes and technical paint. As I mentioned, the camera toned it down a bit, because it tends to treat the inks I use as more translucent than they are in person, and the glistening slimy bits don't work the same in a photo. Anyhow they're right under the cut if you want to give them a look:

Silver Tower: Tenebrael Shard

Another quick post. Had this guy almost completely finished except for a final wash for quite some time. No idea why I put it off for so long, but I got around to it a while back, and then the pics languished on my HD for a while. Pretty sure I knocked him out right at the end of December, so he doesn't count toward my total for 2019.

I wanted to go for a similarly extreme look as the Mistweaver Saih, but in the opposite direction, other than the skin. I think I only used Rakarth Flesh, Eshin Grey, Dark Reaper (hair), and Leadbelcher, and the Army Painter Dark Tone for the wash. Oh, and Screaming Skull or something for the bird skull on his belt, and I think Deathworld Forest for the little vine he's leaping from.

As is often the case, the combination of the camera and the harsh lighting change things up a bit in these pics, but not much. The extra shade on his left foot isn't really noticeable in person, for instance. I'm really happy with the result, tho, both in general and as a contrast with my Mistweaver Saih. Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Shadespire Terrain Pt. 1

I thought the Shadespire Terrain set was cool, but it was kind of spendy for something that had literally no game effect, so I wasn't sure if I was going to pick it up or not. But then I won a set of it at the last Tournament I went to as the prize for Best Appearance with my Chosen Axes. Got the first couple of pieces of it ready to go:

This one was pretty simple, but surprisingly satisfying. Nice little bit of hazardous Terrain.

This one didn't quite come out like I was aiming for, but it's still pretty cool. I think I needed to start with something lighter than Stegadon Scale for what I was going for. I am very happy with the effect I got on the mist flowing between the two broken crystals, tho.

Got a couple more of these painted and waiting to get photographed, and a couple more things that just need be written up and posted. Hopefully I'll be able to get through that faster than one a week. But whenever the next time ends up being, until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

First Model of 2019: Inquisitor Daemon Huntress

Over the summer, Mordian7th suffered some unfortunate house damage due to frankly ludicrous weather, and raised some cash to help cover the repairs by putting a few things up on eBay. His misfortune was my second chance to get a couple of the minis from the regrettably short-lived 54mm Inquisitor game GW came out with back shortly after the turn of the century.

Of the two I got, the first I've finished is the Daemon Huntress. It was a little odd working at a different scale like this, but I've painted enough monsters and Dreads and such that it wasn't a huge shift. Honestly, I was kind of disappointed by the sculpt. Some of it, I was able to fix (nipple armour is no better a look for her than for George Clooney), but other stuff, like the ridiculous high heels, I just couldn't manage the work necessary on such a large metal Model. And then some of it is just plain sloppy work. A lot of the skulls and purity seals and such are really poorly done compared to those on many 28mm metal Models I have from the same era, or even substantially earlier.

All that said, tho, I'm pretty happy with how she turned out in the end. It was definitely cool to get to work on one of these Models that I've wanted for so long, and to get a bit of variety from working in a different scale.

The layering on the blended parts didn't come out as well as I'd wanted. With so much more space to cover on that blade and horn, my usual methods left each colour having too big of a chunk.

It took a lot of google image searching to figure out what's in her backpack there. It's a tiny little reliquary-type thing, but with a statue of an armed and armoured warrior instead of just a little piece of a saint.

She's technically not quite in the subject matter of Azazel's January Challenge, but I'm going to count her anyhow, since the amount of work involved and her stature are on par with the sorts of things that would qualify as centerpiece Models. I've been plugging away at some more of Rogue Trader and the start of Blackstone Fortress as well, along with some Terrain for variety, so hopefully I'll be able to get some of the finished, photographed, written up, and posted soon. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

All Things Gross and Gribbly

Well, not all of them, but this is most of the little gribblies from Rogue Trader. The Cursemites, Eyestinger Swarms, and Sludge-Grubs.I'm going to put all the pics of them under a cut, because some of them are, if I do say so myself, pretty damn gross, and I don't want to inflict them on anyone without fair warning.