Call for War, Callius' VII Legion, 5/11 Spartan finished!

[Mirbeau]

Your weathering is amazing!

[ranman8]

I'd really love to know how you do that weathering!! Its amazing!

[lionofjudah]

NICE!!! Not ususally a fan of the chainfists but your works!! 

[Brother Callius]

Your weathering is amazing!

 

Much obliged, over 12 years of hobbying have taught me a thing or two

 

NICE!!! Not ususally a fan of the chainfists but your works!!

 

Thanks mate, it's really not that big a conversion but it makes it look more brutal as it should be...

 

I'd really love to know how you do that weathering!! Its amazing!

 

Glad you like it, and I will be happy to give you a (not so) quick run through the process.

 

After the mini is finished in the base colours and the drybrushing and highlights are complete I follow these simple steps:

 

- All the transfers, helmet stripes and the like get a dabbing with the colour that's underneath using a sponge, I.E. if it's a black transfer or stripe on a yellow background I hit it with that same yellow. This helps to give the illusion that the detail is painted on the warmachine (as it would be in real life) and has been scraped off in certain places.

 

- I use a sponge with Rhinox hide to simulate dirt and the effect of the yellow paint deteriorating. This is done over the entire mini but concentrated a bit on the edges and places that would naturally be exposed to weathering. If your model is another colour than yellow I would just use a darker shade of the base colour, this gives the best results.

 

- This time I use leadbelcher, again on a sponge. This is more sparingly applied to the areas where the brown is strongest, and on the black parts of the mini. In my experience it's best if you don't use the brown on black areas but to just go straight to the metallics. This gives the effect of the paint chipping down to the metal beneath. I try to be quite gently with this as it's easy to go overboard and end up with too much silver and then it's hard to go back.

 

- Then it's time fo a wash. I use Agrax earthshade as it helps to tie the earthy colours of brown and yellow together and give the metal a more dull appearance. This step is applied all over the model except for eyes, lenses and other details that would get too messy with a brownish tint over them.

As with the second step, I think it's quite important to use a wash that compliments the colours of the mini as to not give it a strange tint.

 

- This step is all about the mud/ dirt on the lower legs and feet. For this I use Typhus corrosion applied with an old brush and then rubbed around with a q-tip and sometimes a finger. I try to concentrate this towards the places that would get mud or dirt build up in real life such as the boots of a marine and the tracks/ bottom edges of a tank. It's quite easy to mess this stage up by using too much Typhus corrosion so I would go for smaller amounts and build it up slowly.

 

- The last step is completely optional but one of the most fun parts. It's time for some blood effects, if your mini has a melee weapon mind you.

Here I use GW's fantastic technical paint Blood for the blood god. It gives amazing results and really looks like blood and as an added bonus it's much easier to use than if you try to mix a convincing blood paint yourself. This is applied to the edges of weapons that would get bloody in combat and then with swift, light strokes pulled upwards in the direction that blood would streak if the weapon was swung. By itself this looks a bit unconvincing and the last thing to add is some splatters. With a stippling brush, get the bristles loaded with blood paint and start flicking your thumb over it with the brush pointed to where you want the splatter to go. This is a very messy technique but it gives some amazing results and looks very convincing. If your unsure about this step there is a fine video on youtube with Duncan showing the technical paints off, that was where I picked this technique up.

 

A good thing to remember with this type of weathering is that it has to look natural and realistic, even though it's applied to plastic miniatures that live in the distant future. It's easy to go overboard and make it look like something out of a cartoon. I like to paint my minis like well used warmachines and as such I draw inspiration from my life in the military. I've been serving for a good while and have been deployed overseas, and the paint/ scuffs on the Danish vehicles (especially in Afghanistan) is a good representation of machines that has just the right amount of weathering and I try to bring that same effect to my minis.

 

Hope you can use this step by step guide and sorry for the word wall  

[Brother Callius]

Time for a quick update!

With the Contemptor done I have set my sights on the Scimitar jetbikes.

I will be making the sergeant as the first one so I can try out my ideas before applying them to the whole squadron.

The purchase of an airbrush has been a real god sent for basecoating my minis, it saves a lot of time and the finish is much smoother than with my brush. One of my best hobby related purchases

Just a quick WIP on my jetbike:

[Brother Callius]

Been awhile since my last post. Sorry for that but I've been extremely busy in real life and I just needed some time away from painting to focus on other things.

I'm now back at the brushes and have finished my tester jetbike as a way to see if my ideas with the colour placing would work on a mini and not just in my head.

All in all I'm quite pleased with the end result, and I feel that I have given the model my own touch in the little details.

The thing I think suits the model the most is that the pistol has been moved to the side of the jetbike rather than on the marines leg.

I like a little bit of realism in my models and as an army man I can tell you that pulling a gun form a holster that sits where Forge world placed it while your sitting down is a nightmare, and I can only imagine doing that in power armour.

As such I moved the gun to a more feasible position and I imagine the holster having some kind of mag lock so when he gets off the bike he can clip the holster back to his leg.

[Pearson73]

Nice, really liking the fading on the insignia.

[Brother Pheidias]

That's looking fabulous! Worth the wait!

[Soldier of Dorn]

Regretting my decision not to include any jetbikes in my plans for the Fists now... majestic. I do love me some jetbikes. And yellow. And, in this case, a yellow jetbike. :tu:

[Dosjetka]

Callius is back! The lone jetkbike is looking good and I look forward to seeing the rest of them soon. :tu:

[lionofjudah]

Welcome back man!! Great looking scimitar and I'm hoping to see more from your Fists soon

[sockwithaticket]

Your weathered yellow really is top notch.

[Brother Callius]

Nice, really liking the fading on the insignia.

Thanks, the insignia weathering is such a crucial thing that really adds to the realism. 

 

That's looking fabulous! Worth the wait!

Glad you think so, though I must admit that 5 months are a bit of a stretch for one mini. Hopefully the other two will be a lot quicker

 

Regretting my decision not to include any jetbikes in my plans for the Fists now... majestic. I do love me some jetbikes. And yellow. And, in this case, a yellow jetbike.

Well it's never to late to add some jet powered awesomeness to your force...

I think that jetbikes actually makes great sense in a VII legion force since they love defending stuff, and jetbikes would be great for flanking the enemy artillery, or used as a diversion before a counter attack.

 

Callius is back! The lone jetkbike is looking good and I look forward to seeing the rest of them soon.

Thanks brother, they will hopefully be on their way shortly

 

Welcome back man!! Great looking scimitar and I'm hoping to see more from your Fists soon

[Pulse]

That jetbike is fantastic and i can only agree with previous statements, your weathering is very good!

Edited June 28, 2017 by Pulse

[Brother Callius]

Thanks for the warm words, I'm glad you like how this guy turned out.

I have been working on prepping the other two jetbikes for basecoating, which has been a struggle with the weather here.

But after some waiting, the humidity finally dropped and I was able to get them sealed and primed.

Last night I got the base layers of yellow and metal on with the airbrush which speeds up the boring basecoating so I can get on with the fun stuff.

I'm off on vavcation on sunday and won't be back until the 7th so I will have to put the jetbikes on hold for now.

When I get back I hope to finish them up quickly so I can have a finished sky hunter squadron, and not just one guy.

And since this is a WIP blog, I can't leave without a photo of the progress so far (even if it's quite boring)

[Brother Callius]

After some vacation and a few busy weeks at work, I'm back at the forges

The Jetbikes are now as close to done as they can be.

The only thing left now is weathering on the bikes and some drybrush and detailing on the bases.

They will show up here in the next weekend so I have some extra time to do a proper quality check before I post them here, there's nothing worse than being done with a mini only to spot a glaring mistake on the ''job well done'' photos.

So if you like your Imperial Fists to be clean and overly bright yellow enjoy this pre-weathering photo and DO NOT check back next weekend

[Brother Callius]

Hallo again.

As promised I've gotten the Sky hunters all done and have taken some half decent photos for you all.

I had a few issues when I tried to get the stands used for painting out of the bikes since they both broke off and I had to drill them out without messing up the finished paintwork.

After some swearing and very careful drilling I got the remains of the stands out and could continue to mount the bikes on the bases, happy days.

Theres a 30k tournement coming up here in Denmark that I hope to attend and I have to get the next project done before then so I can show up with a reasonable force that complies with the rules of the event.

For that reason I hope to get going on that by sunday and will update as the new project begins.

In the meantime, enjoy the finished jetbikes:

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The jetbikes look great!

[Brother Callius]

The new project is now under way as I have thrown a few different kits together to make what I think is quite a nice little veteran squad.

My intention is for these guys to be a bodyguard unit for my Centurion since he can't take his own honour guard, and he looks so lonely all by himself on the shelf.

The kits used in this squad is:

MK. III Despoilers

MK. III Power weapon set

Imperial Fists legion command squad

Imperial FIsts torsos

Imperial Fists heads

Iron Hands heads

Now to paint hem up

[Brother Pheidias]

Looking great!

Everybody needs some buddies sometimes :D

[Luna707]

Love the bit selection, looking forward to these!

[Dosjetka]

The Jetbikes look excellent and I'm looking forward to seeing further progress on the Veteran Squad. :tu:

[Brother Callius]

Hi again B&C...

I'm glad you like my veterans so far, they are now about 70% done.

A couple of weeks ago I attended my first 30k event in Copenhagen where there was a campaign set up as a siege of a planet where loyalists, seperatists and traitors fought for control over the course of a weekend. It was amazing and I had a lot of fun while learning the game and meeting some awesome people including our very own Brother Pheidias and WickedWeed, who are both super chill and nice guys

We are having another such event in november and I decided that I needed some heavy hitters to take on some armour since I found out that I am in short supply of some high strength guns. So I am putting my veterans on hold since they won't be of much use at that event and focusing on getting my Spartan ready, because after all a hard to kill box with two quad lascannons and maybe some termies is just what I need

Just a quick update on the veterans; the sergeant is almost done and his guys are not far behind:

And here is the next pile of resin on the workbench, so excited about the massive gates that has to be sawed off and all the fine resin dust...

[Brother Pheidias]

 

... It was amazing and I had a lot of fun while learning the game and meeting some awesome people including our very own Brother Pheidias and WickedWeed, who are both super chill and nice guys

Ditto!

 

Can't wait for the next installment, and to see the new toys you bring to batter the foul traitors into the dusty surface of Raltac Prime :D

[Brother Callius]

... It was amazing and I had a lot of fun while learning the game and meeting some awesome people including our very own Brother Pheidias and WickedWeed, who are both super chill and nice guys

Ditto!

Can't wait for the next installment, and to see the new toys you bring to batter the foul traitors into the dusty surface of Raltac Prime

It's going to be a blast, hopefully we can take the victory this time around...

On the hobby front the Spartan is coming together and I'm now waiting on the glue to fully cure.

I can't say that this was an easy build so far as there were quite a few big pieces that were warped and I had some issues aligning the different parts of the front.

But after some hairdrying magic and a couple of strong vices I got it together and finished up the sub assemblies with no problems, I'm just glad that I didn't get a Spartan back when the tracks where seperate pieces. I've heard that one is a pain to put together.

For the gluing I've used a two part epoxy from Loctite that is extremely strong put smells terrible when liquid so for now I have to deal with a smelly Spartan