Macroclade: 677 & Elysian/Militarum Tempestus Air Cav

[Audemus]

I just recently found this forum as I have not even played Warhammer 40k since the late 90's when I donated my time as an Outrider, I tried to put together a token force in 2006 but the medication I was on made my hands shake and going from a strong painter to jagged lines wasn't working for me.

 

When I saw the new Skitarii figurines though, I was pumped up and due to a recent change in my medicine the hand shaking issue was no longer going to stand between myself and the hobby.  It's a strange feeling picking up a steady paint brush for the first time in over a decade but I find that my ability to understand what is needed on a model has jumped exponentially and as such, I'm painting at a level that I didn't honestly think was possible for me after so long.

 

I've been placing my work up on Reddit for the last 2 weeks or so for feedback and while I have been getting some, I would like to catch any bad habits now before they get to entrenched to root out.

 

I'm working on a Vanguard based theme, as I'm in love with the models and I even just converted a Dunecrawler that I am about to start with a small mod placing a Vanguard soldier in the canopy with a custom backpack.  I'm hoping to have it done by tomorrow tonight but it could run into early next week since I haven't painted one before. 

 

Also, I know the bases are plain with the ironearth and trim on them but my intent is to get the entire army fieldable and then revise the bases with some ideas I came up with, so worry not!  The trim itself will most likely be changed to Dryad Bark due to some feedback I received recently too, so if it looks to light try to ignore it.

 

 

Skitarii Vanguard Squad Alpha - This is the first group of miniatures I painted two weeks ago.

 

http://i.imgur.com/81qxUpF.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/1us4cK1.png?1

 

http://i.imgur.com/1DL9Q8g.png?1

 

http://i.imgur.com/l5fRHka.png?1

 

http://i.imgur.com/bIp4rei.png?1

 

http://i.imgur.com/5uKf8kx.png?1

 

http://i.imgur.com/wvg7J6D.png?1

 

 

Upon completing the squad, I decided that the next jump would be to complete a vehicle and the Dragoon looked like to much fun.

 

Skitarii Vanguard - Ironstrider Dragoon with Radium Jezzail

 

http://i.imgur.com/xqdSPo2.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/Nh03UWT.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/g6fSeyI.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/WZSiD9Z.png

 

 

The next squad was an experiment on my part, I wanted to see if I could boost the amount of detail shown on the models while speeding up my painting time from one week to two non-dedicated days.  Using the tricks I learned while painting the first squad and the Dragoon, I took a run at bringing out details like the gauges on the backpacks and also tossed in an Transuranic Arquebus into the mix to move closer to my goal of having 3 of each special weapon at my disposal.

 

Skitarii Vanguard Squad Beta

 

http://i.imgur.com/W7ZIZ91.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/xVeOfnz.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/10hdlZZ.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/YJdJA1q.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/TuUO2NN.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/DKGFgpR.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/HdRFvzE.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/N5dmIVm.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/Y1QSJxE.png

 

Next in line will be my first Onager Dunecrawler and then a final squad (for now) of Vanguard; then I will be alternating between Dragoons and Onager Dunecrawler's until i'm done with my current batch of models.  Any feedback will be greatly appreciated and I will post an update with the Dunecrawler upon its completion.

 

Glad to be on this Forum with everyone!

[Apostle of the 30th Host]

It's rather late here so I'll keep it brief, but I just wanted to say those guys are awesome!! You would not have known you had any problems with shaky hands or anything.

Welcome to the forum by the way, not surprised to hear the Skitarii coaxed you back, they completely re-motivated me to start painting again after a break of months when I stopped enjoying it.

While plain, I actually love the bases, that ironearth look is great and would only need the odd rock or debris (like razor wire or the odd mechanical part or something) to spruce it up at a later date if you wanted to.

The red you have achieved is very nice, highlighted well and is a nice smooth finish.

The armour is also very nicely done and I really like the blue effects on the weapons.

 

Really looking forward to seeing more of this (especially the converted Dunecrawler) as with such a new army there isn't much in the way of inspiration out there for my own force yet (even if it is Dark Mechanicum instead) so the more Skitarii I see the better :D

[Ordo Machinum]

SELECTED: DENTRICA I OF I

ENGAGE NEURAL CONGRESS – WIRELESS AUTOSHUNT ACQUIRED

UPLOADING… + MACROCLADE 677 +

 

I began building and painting as my own physical therapy, so I understand a bit of what you're saying.

 

Excellent work on your Skitarii, in my opinion. I like the trimming and detail work on the Vanguard and Ironstriders. The basing looks fine as is, but I can't wait to see what ideas you have for them.  

 

The same goes for your upgrading the Dunecrawler. Afterall the codex mentions how different augmented Skitarii can be from time to time. Building this army cries out for some customization.

 

May the Holy Omnissiah preserve your great works,

 

R.

[Pearson73]

Looking ace; the bases are looking smashing as they are.

[deathspectersgt7]

Nice looking force. 

[Honda]

I agree that the base tops look just fine, but as was previously mentioned, a little debris or razor wire could enhance their appearance later.

 

Your comeback story also resonated with me, as I painted two different armies (my DIY and Templars) through two different bouts of pneumonia, one of which was dangerously severe, the other just severe. :)

 

The shaky hands bit was very annoying, but focusing on trying to control the shakes was quite theraputic.

 

You're doing a marvelous job, keep up the good work.

 

Cheers,

[Thousand Eyes]

Good work so far. Looking forward to seeing the Dunecrawler as I love that model.

[Audemus]

First off, I'd to say thanks for all the support posts.  Having medication that I have to take daily that causes the tremors is frustrating at times but I used your advice about focusing and tried controlling my breathing to lower my heart rate when doing some of the delicate work.  It was the first time that I've felt confident enough to try using the Psycho brush that I have (really tiny brush!) and I think the lenses and detail work on the model show.

 

Also @Honda - Pneumonia is no joke, that's impressive as hell.  I had it back in the 80's and we still only had glass thermometers in the house, as my teeth were chattering so much there was concern I would crack the glass thermometer and that's how we got our first electronic one.  I subsequently ended up in the hospital with a 106 temperature (yes, that's not a typo, I lucked out big time) and on an IV drip.  Bonus side?  Zelda had just been released for the NES and my parents got it for me to play while I was getting better!

 

Well, I was delayed due Martian Ironearth basically failing to hold on the base.  I literally had half the base fall off after giving it 10 hours to dry - it just turned into tiny paint chips and fell on to my painting tray.  It's never done that before and that's after 20 Vanguard and the Dragoon, so it was mildly annoying for it to happen on the giant Dunecrawler base.

 

Thanks to all of you for your kind words though because they really drove me to get the Dunecrawler done and I went outside the safety of the box paint scheme, including re-tasking some pieces to fit the Vanguard "radium" focus.  I know the Eradication beam is debated on but since I have three of them, I thought it might do well guarding my neutron lasers from being overrun by horde based forces.  Also, it lends itself to the Vanguard theme the easiest and I was trying to work that as well.

 

One of the biggest changes I performed was going from the black weapons with metal accents shown on the box to a more metallic, radium, and wood base that I felt worked with the Vanguard the best.  They spend all this time saying how we focus on the use of older weapons but then put modernized looking weapons on the one vehicle that (at least to me) screamed to be de-modernized based on the bulky shape and scrambling crab-like legs.  I continued the red theme to make sure it patterned properly with the existing units but all of the pipes, panels, doors, etc. were re-done to match up with the Vanguard motif.

 

Front Shot:

 

http://i.imgur.com/eLFAMXm.png

 

 

Side Shot:

 

The gun started off as bronze/metal but I decided to change things up and  apply wood paneling, turning it into a bizarre M1918 Browning + Ma-Deuce hybrid that had then been enhanced with new optics.  The control handles were re-done as wood as well to keep a uniformed look.

http://i.imgur.com/3DniXtc.png

 

Driver's Backpack

 

This actually turned into a fun side project because the only spare backpack that I had was a Plasma Caliver pack with the big square hole being rather obvious.  The normal Plasma cartridge attachment would not fit within the turrets rim and after digging through my sparse bit box...well the headlight was the only thing that would work.  Is it a bit silly?  Sure it is!  Yet I can justify it!  One of my tanker buddies explained during Desert Storm there was an incident where an M1A1 threw a track and a repair team had to be sent out to assist.  They arrived in another M1A1 and upon pulling up, without being able to see the guy sleeping outside next to the tank, he was unfortunately run over.  After that the crews were ordered to sleep inside of the tanks to avoid this happening again.

 

So In my opinion it's not to shocking to think that, when dealing with constant war in all conditions, that having a notice light on your back to avoid collisions an accidents in night combat where light discipline is not being followed the Adeptus Mechanicus could  track there units from behind and when they were outside of their vehicles.  Hell, they might not even throw off ambient light but instead work like IR Ranger Tags that only the Adeptus Mechanicus can see.

 

Yeah I just wrote two paragraphs to justify my silly conversion but I was just being prepared for the inevitable questions!

 

http://i.imgur.com/wHhG35W.png

 

 

Back Shot (Sorry for the blur, couldn't even sharpen the picture to fix it entirely)

 

http://i.imgur.com/MnUHjyV.png

 

 

Main Gun

 

So with the main gun, I used the Arc special weapon and the Radium Rifles as my inspiration.  One thing I fixed shortly after starting it was the bars above the gun.  To be frank, they look damn silly as metal or black/metal in my opinion and this becomes especially obvious when they hover above the giant radium charger for the beam that my paint job creates.  So instead, I made them cooling injection rods, using blue glaze over caliban sky lightly dry brushed by Baharroth Blue.  I then repeated the steps but made the dry brush more uniform before re-glazing the pipes.  The end result, while difficult to see in the picture, is a pip that looks like it's holding a cloudy murky substance related to radium but lacking in the neon glow all of the normal radium pieces put off.

 

Which leads us to a bit of a problem.  The gun itself has an old antiqued copper/brass look to it that is spectacular in person.  The only issue is that it appeared with me doing nothing more than using Warplock Bronze with a dry brush of Brass Scorpion.  Yet I do that combo all the time and have never had a color as rich and almost rose-gold looking as the gun turned out.  I'm really not sure that I can even reproduce it.  It definitely works for the model though and offsets the Adeptus Mechanicus symbol style I use, thereby avoiding the re-use of colors to often on the model.

 

My only guess is I have been using a brush cleaner and that it may have left some of the soap in my water, causing it to subsequently dry on the brush and thin out the paints as they were applied to the brush.

 

Guess I'll find out on the next one!

 

http://i.imgur.com/2POPYiG.png

 

Side Note: I really have started to like the use of glazes on cables around the uniform color scheme to create visually different cables without having to slow down the assembly style of painting I prefer.  For instance the leg cables are Caliban Sky, Dry Brush of Baharroth Blue, with a Green Glaze over them.  While the cable cluster of doom on the back of the model (I can take pictures if you guys want but it's difficult due to the model shadowing them) I used the same combo with a heavy blue glaze.  I did the same on the claw with a light glaze and it really made the process easier for me as I was going to paint each cable and that would have added a lot of unnecessary painting time.

 

Hope you guys like how it turned out, I'm sticking with the current base trim until I have some Dryad Bark to test a darker color but I'm happy with the model.  Getting the Dunecrawler to feel more Vanguard than Ranger required more brainstorming than I thought and I'm glad I have a template to work from in the future.

 

Edit:  Thought this might be a good point to get a picture of the entire force.  Lighting is a pain because the HTC One (M9) camera makes everything yellow/green (Original if you're curious), it's pretty damn annoying.  I've tried to compensate for it some so the actual colors are visible since my Ott-lite can't fit on the chest at the same time as all the figures!

 

http://i.imgur.com/GqRPq3n.png

[deathspectersgt7]

Looking Good. Would add more but alittle dog wants her treats.

[Pearson73]

Looking smashing!

[Thousand Eyes]

While I really like how clean the force is it does leave me starting to think that maybe some more sacred oil and blessed grease should be smeared around a bit.

 

Sure they keep everything it perfect working condition but maybe not so pristine looking. Just my thoughts.

[Lord Commander Scrymgeour]

what an amazing start! I cant believe this is your first proper painting job in all that time!

[Audemus]

While I really like how clean the force is it does leave me starting to think that maybe some more sacred oil and blessed grease should be smeared around a bit.

 

Sure they keep everything it perfect working condition but maybe not so pristine looking. Just my thoughts.

 

I agree with you, I just didn't want to mess up the paint jobs until I had the right material to dirty them up.  I saw another thread where someone was using some environmental paint that looked like dust from Forgeworld.  I'm just debating on the best way of going about things now.  If you've got some ideas feel free to throw them at me, I already intend to add metal and debris to the bases once I have the current army completed.

 

what an amazing start! I cant believe this is your first proper painting job in all that time!

 

You and I both, I'm not sure if it is just my grasp of color has changed but "detailed" painting for me used to just involve a dry brush or a wash, rarely did I ever combine both.  On the Onager and the Dragoon's armored plates I have at least 4 shades of red being applied just between the bronze etching and the outer edge.  It's really cool finding new ways to make colors stand out.

 

I'm currently preparing to base two Ironstrider Ballistarii and I should hopefully have images of them up by tomorrow.  Potentially tonight but Ironearth takes so damn long to dry that I'm not getting my hopes up.  I changed up the standard paint scheme again and they are both being manned by Vanguard troops, per the Army theme, and I can't wait to show them.  I am just to stubborn to show anything that doesn't have at least a basic base applied to it.

 

Thanks again for the kind words everyone!

[mactire]

Great work on the Sitarii models, brother. Also glad to hear your able to get back to your painting, keep up the good work.

[Audemus]

Thanks Mactire!

 

Well, I have now finished two Ironstrider Ballistarii and I'm getting closer to using up all of my available models.  I have 2 Dunecrawlers and 1 Vanguard squad left to go before I manage to actually outpaint my purchasing habits.  That was always a huge issue when I played back in the mid to late 90's as I went from playing Orcs to Imperial Guard and the sheer number of guardsman and tanks I had to paint was kind of baffling.  In order to play with my friends, I had to just play with primed units a lot of times and after a while I think it made me a bit lazy.  I got my demo force fully painted and then just stopped, as I was working as an Outrider for Games Workshop and doing weekend demos for Target Games (Warzone and Chronopia).

 

Alright so enough of that, here are the Vanguard Ironstrider Ballistarii as promised!

 

 

Skitarii - Ironstrider Ballistarii - Vanguard: Front

 

I have changed up the color schemes again and the components of the weapons to bring them back in line with the AM obsession with old technology.  I would not presume to question the Omnissiah as to why the lascannons have polished wood housings for an energy weapon!  To do so would be sacrilege!

 

http://i.imgur.com/PKdB5mU.png

 

 

 

Skitarii - Ironstrider Ballistarii - Vanguard: Side

 

I also decided to change up the design for the energy cylinders on the cannon to show that they are active.  I've seen videos on making things glow but I never really grasped the technique they were using and was hesitant to test it due to the amount of excess color shading around the glowing point that was necessary.  So you can imagine that I was more than mildly surprised to find that the method I was applying the paint for the clip and cannon barrel glows like my Tritium keychain even in the shade of the blast shield.

 

I based the cyclinder ports with Caledor Sky and made sure to fill the entire port.  I then used a wash of Baharroth Blue twice in each port, I basically just went through both models and by the time I got back to the first it was dry.  I did not try to mitigate my wash much by removing water, I just used a Fine Detail brush for the process and if it overflowed out of the port I dabbed it with a paper towel.  This made sure there was a darker center behind the wash and the edges of the port were bright teal, which I can only assume created the glowing effect.  I hope that's what it was at least since I really like the look of the lascannons!

 

http://i.imgur.com/Pi8vm1J.png

 

 

Skitarii - Ironstrider Ballistarii - Vanguard: Gunner

 

Close up of the gunner.  I didn't realize until I was trying to remove the HTC Green/Yellow hue from the pictures that I missed the purity seals, so I apologize about that.  They are so hidden up on his leg that I missed them, I will be taking care of it later tonight.

 

http://i.imgur.com/6HFpPwK.png

 

Skitarii - Ironstrider Ballistarii - Vanguard: Driver

 

I really feel the driver portion of this model is overlooked to often as he is just an extremely open example of what the AM will do to achieve their goals.

 

I've made the top portion of his head almost match to the pipes sending fluid into it to, as I cannot imagine that extended time having a colored fluid pumped into your skull would not eventually begin to stain your skin if it seeped out.  I then made his lower jaw a lighter blue to reflect the same thing, to a lesser degree, and the paleness from lack of sunlight as he is eternally mounted into the Ironstrider.  If you look behind the gunners foot you'll also see there are three huge spinal tap plugs pumping even more fluid in.

 

http://i.imgur.com/HCpkqqY.png

 

 

Skitarii - Ironstrider Ballistarii - Vanguard: Back

 

On my first Dragoon, I decided to just make the cables on the back metallic but this time around I wanted to experiment with it.  All three cables are the same base colors, Caledor Sky/Baharroth Blue Dry Brush, but I then applied different glazes to see how it would turn out.  Personally, I think it gives a little more life to the back of the model but feel free to throw some C+C my way if you hate it.  I'm not above changing concepts on future models!

 

http://i.imgur.com/xZ78YUj.png

 

 

Feels good to get these posted up, I was able to finish painting them by Saturday night after starting on Thursday night.  I was a bit hesitant using assembly line style painting on two vehicles/walkers but I think the end results and the completion time were more than worth it.  Hope you guys like the paint job and please don't hesitate to let me know what you think or ask any questions!

[Audemus]

Update!  I have finally built my two Dunecrawler's and begun assembly line painting them.  This isn't WIP so I'm going to post half painted figures here.  The good news is that this leaves me in line to jump on my Crusader Knight the moment it arrives next week and also supplement with some Cult Mechanicus stuff if I can figure out how to make them Vanguard in appearance.

 

I'd like to get some feedback on what you think of this.  It would require a slight modification of the visor but with my Vanguard themed force, the AM specific helmet for the Knight doesn't seem to match up as well as this one.  I also shopped in a rough color scheme I'm rolling around in my head, these guys are to expensive to not think them out in advance.

 

http://i.imgur.com/1Gwb8qt.png

[Audemus]

I've completed two more Dunecrawlers and have begun assembly on the Imperial Knight Crusader with the above modification already applied to keep the Vanguard style helmet.

 

Close ups of one of the Dunecrawlers and a group shot, albeit with bad lighting - my phone revolts at night and refuses to take pictures that are even mildly acceptable.

 

http://i.imgur.com/QTI8X07.png

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/pV1Qti9.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/7mfCHez.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/JzWGfMf.png

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/XyR9hQI.png

[jeremy1391]

Very nice work!

[CommodusXIII]

Update!  I have finally built my two Dunecrawler's and begun assembly line painting them.  This isn't WIP so I'm going to post half painted figures here.  The good news is that this leaves me in line to jump on my Crusader Knight the moment it arrives next week and also supplement with some Cult Mechanicus stuff if I can figure out how to make them Vanguard in appearance.

 

I'd like to get some feedback on what you think of this.  It would require a slight modification of the visor but with my Vanguard themed force, the AM specific helmet for the Knight doesn't seem to match up as well as this one.  I also shopped in a rough color scheme I'm rolling around in my head, these guys are to expensive to not think them out in advance.

 

http://i.imgur.com/1Gwb8qt.png

 

This would match even better if you carefully trimmed the grill from the bottom of the helmet, allowing the underlying piping to show like the Vanguard helmet.

[Audemus]

 

...

 

This would match even better if you carefully trimmed the grill from the bottom of the helmet, allowing the underlying piping to show like the Vanguard helmet.

 

 

 

So yeah, you are my personal hero.  It wasn't easy cutting it away, as it brings you ever so close to the pegs that keep the helmet off the face, but after cutting it down I was able to file the rest of the grills rim off.  I know this isn't WIP but this is to cool not to show you; I just set the helmet on the face as I have a lot of work on the upper body left but I think the picture shows that you were absolutely correct.

 

http://i.imgur.com/bGl38Eb.png

 

So thank you very much for the idea, I'm basically building a giant Vanguard robot now!

 

I had an idea last night that is either going bite me in the ass really badly or it's going to work out.  Unfortunately it's one of those things I won't know until I'm done but I'm doing the legs of the knight, as well as some accent points, just like the Dunecrawler and Walkers.  Basically Rakarth Flesh > Seraphim Wash > Dry brush Ushbati Bone > Dry Brush Pallid Witch Flesh.  All of the gears, bolts, joints are still metal like the smaller units.

 

So far it looks good but I don't know enough about knights to know if I'm committing some horrible faux pas with them, as they weren't even mentioned back in 2nd edition that I can remember.  My other concern is doing all of the armor plating in red without the double color that seems so prevalent in the Codex, though I do plan to put Baron markings on this to break up the red in the center mass of the Knight.

 

The legs are about halfway done now and I still need to prime the arms and the primary armor (Body/Shoulders) but I was just to excited about the helmet to wait to post until later!

[Dark Rage]

A very nice force you got there.

[CommodusXIII]

Perfect! I'm glad it worked out for you!

[carpediem]

Very nice.

 

I don't know how bad the problem gets, but the old scientists' trick to help with hand tremors when doing fine work is to support the hand you're working with on the wrist of the other arm. If that doesn't work then try using the little and/or ring fingers of your working hand as a 'stand' to stabilise the rest of the limb. You may have tried both or variations thereon, so I apologise if I'm teaching you how to suck eggs. 

[CommodusXIII]

Very nice.

 

I don't know how bad the problem gets, but the old scientists' trick to help with hand tremors when doing fine work is to support the hand you're working with on the wrist of the other arm. If that doesn't work then try using the little and/or ring fingers of your working hand as a 'stand' to stabilise the rest of the limb. You may have tried both or variations thereon, so I apologise if I'm teaching you how to suck eggs. 

 

As a chemist, I can attest to these techniques - especially that of using the little finger as a stabilizer.  I wouldn't be able to freehand without this.

[MithrilForge]

I'm loving the new Dunecrawlers you have there

and the Knight Helm (Vanguard Pattern) is perfect!!

Keep it up and i look forward to more top notch stuff from you!

Cheers, Mithril