Minotaurs Space Marines Part 4: Hekaton Aiakos

May has been a busy month for me, but I've kept pushing.

At the beginning of May, I knew my schedule would be very full, but with time ticking away, and all the other issues delaying me so much, I figure I'll have to step it up, working on multiple units, so that I can get it all together for detail work with time to spare before Astronomi-Con, which date had not yet been announced, so it was important to try to get more accomplished.

My primary objective was to build and paint the contemptor, Hekaton Aiakos. As a secondary objective, I wanted to at least start to build the second tactical squad, though that's more a task for June.

I will probably be blitz building the rest of the army for June as well since my deadline is looming, as they have announced the date for the last weekend of July. To complicate my life, I'm also trying to get the house ready for sale and may not be able to hobby much when we list it as I'll have most of that stuff packed away to show the house...

Despite all that extra work, which really has interrupted my painting time (including commissions, which I've stopped taking for a few months now) I'm making progress. Slow but sure!

Here's Hekaton Aiakos in early paint. I'm still working on him, as this coat is only the first thin coat of gold, and there's more to do.

He's posed to be lunging forward with fist raised to punch something, and plasma cannon ripping off some shots.

I'm trying a different paint now, as I was hoping to speed up the process by using an airbrush to do the base coat. So I thought I would give the Minitaire Old Gold a try. It's got a more yellowy brass look, but I'm finding it's not as bright. Possibly because this is only the first coat, and it's on a white/black preshade primer. Notice where the white shows through it looks more blotchy, but it looks more solid where the black is prevalent.

Based on my trials, the Vallejo Liquid Gold covers the white undercoat well. This....not so much. Plus I find it's difficult to shoot through my airbrush. I think I may need to up-size the nozzle.

I'm happy to be making some progress. Just frustrated with how slow everything is going, and how many problems I've been having with this project. I haven't had this much difficulty painting a project due to paints since I first started painting...grr... makes me feel like a novice...

On a brighter side, I have also made progress with assembly, and finalizing my army list. I expect I can have the assembly mostly complete in a week or two, though the realities of life are making me look at plan B for my Astro Army.

Links:
Astronomi-Con
Minitaire Paints
Forgeworld
Games Workshop
Vallejo Paints

Minotaurs Space Marines Part 2: Painting Bullsh.... Ehrm... Adventures in Painting Liquid Gold

Well, in my first post, talking about my new Minotaurs Space Marine army, I mentioned that I was going to try using the Vallejo Liquid Gold for this project because I've heard many awesome things about the quality of the finish...

I also heard many horror stories... but thought how bad could it actually be? I won't have any issues with this. I've got the right stuff, and the experience...

How could I be so wrong?

Initial paint trials utterly failed. I had a paint catastrophe and just could't get the Liquid Gold to work right. It clumped in the palette, would not mix properly with the alcohol I used to thin it, didn't ahere properly, or coat properly, and just made the miniature look like crap...

Here's a picture of a pile of Bullsh... Thankfully it's only a test miniature.

Vindicare Part 3 - For the Gold...

Recently, things have been very busy, so I have not made any updates. I won't bore you with the details, except to say that one of the things that had me so busy was the Astronomi-Con Toronto tournament on June 11-12. Now that that is said and done, and I've had a chance to rest and visit with friends from out of town, and deal with day to day life, I have decided to do an update.

This update comes at the request of a friend of mine, who was also at the Astronomi-Con Toronto. When we were talking about hobby stuff he mentioned that I never did finish the Vindicare Assassin that I was working on, and he would really like to see the finished model.

Well, George, this one is for you!

Here you can see I blended all the grey highlights down to the black for a deeper tone. This also added more weight and volume to the model. This was done with wet blending and a Badab Black Wash to equalize the tone.

I've also painted up the leather belts and pouches, blending from a Scorched Brown to a lighter Vallejo Game Colour Brown Leather colour. The face mask started with GW Graveyard Earth and blended up with Bleached Bone.

The brass shells were painted with Vallejo Game Colour Tinny Tin, Brassy Brass, then Shining Gold. The metal was painted with VGC Gun Metal, then Silver. Both were given a Devlan Mud wash, followed by a Badab Black wash. The gun metal was then given an Asurman Blue wash, and then final highlights on all the metal were with VGC Silver.

To add some contrast to the model, I gave the guns a deep black coat of paint with very subtle highlights in a Vallejo Game Colour Caymen Green. I then blended up from Vallejo Game Colour Black and Caymen Green to Vallejo Game Colour Yellow Olive, washed with Badab Black wash, and then a final highlight of pure Yellow Olive.

The scope was painted with a standard red gem effect, going from VGC Black through GW Blood Red, Blazing Orange and Sunburst Yellow. To tie it together this was glazed with the old GW Purple Ink. And a single VGC White reflection spot was added. The eye lens was painted similarly, except only going to red. A purple glaze was then used to colour shift the red to make it deeper and more menacing.

The rocky base was painted very simply. First it was given an overbrush of Vallejo Game Colour Stonewall Grey, then given several thin washes of GW Devlan Mud, very thin Thraka Green, followed by several thin washes of GW Badab Black.

This completes the Vindicare Assassin model, though I may come back to add some yellow static grass to the base to hint at some dried weeds.

Related Article:
Vindicare Part 1 - Strike a Pose
Vindicare Part 2 - Back in Black
Vindicare Part 3 - For the Gold

Links:
Games Workshop
Vallejo

Vindicare Part 1 - Strike a Pose

Well, it's been a while since I have done a hobby update here. Life keeps me busy, and even though I don't always get a chance to update the blog, I'm still doing hobby stuff.

But this weekend, after the monthly gaming night with the friends and discussing our hobby progress for the year so far, I decided to give updating the blog a bit more priority. Partly so they can easily see what I'm working on, and to help keep us all inspired (especially me since I've been losing inspiration lately).

In February, I spent much time experimenting with paints and such, mostly trying out a bunch of my new Vallejo Paints, after I had recently purchased the full Vallejo Game Colour, and the full Vallejo Panzer Aces paint sets. I've been using Vallejo for a long time, just have difficulty getting it here, so needless to say, getting both of these full sets, and at such good prices, was definitely a happy day.

I also decided I would break out the airbrush and start using it more for painting table top miniatures. The primary reason is that priming models during the winter months is a lot harder to do with spray primers, often being forced to do it indoors. The fumes from spray primers are particularly nasty healthwise, and having the residual smell in the house is unpleasant. Where with the airbrush, I can prime models to my heart's content without the fumes overwhelming the house, which I know my wife and pets all appreciate!

The main subject for February's experimentation was a Games Workshop Vindicare assassin. Specifically, this model:

By way of an explanation, I have posed the Assassin so his rifle is slightly at rest, to give him more of a sense of readiness, as opposed to the "Here are my guns!" pose prevalent in the late 90s that he originally has. This required a little green stuff work to fill in the shoulder joint.

The model was also mounted on a resin base from Dark Art Miniatures. They are rather nice easy bases to work with, with lots of flat surfaces. They are also easy to drill, for pinning your models to, but not so soft that they crumble after drilling, and not too hard that they shatter.

Anyway, I went with this basic base as it gives a nice generic base for me to use for the model, allowing it to be used on nearly any table. I know that basic stone and dirt bases are very easy to make, but I rather like their stone bases, though I really only got them to fill out an order when I bought some lava bases, which these will be complimenting for the army that gets those lava bases, as rough volcanic rock. But that's another story.

One other thing you might notice is that this miniature appears shaded. Well, that's a side effect of age. Tins oxidize as they age, and you often get a brownish tinge on older models if they have not been previously sealed. No real harm as this is sealed with the primer and paint. But I was able to use this oxidation as a visual clue to gross flash and mould lines. A trick you can use that helps you see flash and mould lines better, and similar to this, is to give your model a generous wash of black or brown ink. It really makes them stand out without harming your model.

Related Article:
Vindicare Part 1 - Strike a Pose
Vindicare Part 2 - Back in Black
Vindicare Part 3 - For the Gold

Links:
Vallejo Paints
Dark Art Miniatures