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Macroclade: 677 & Elysian/Militarum Tempestus Air Cav


Audemus

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I'm loving the new Dunecrawlers you have there wub.png

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

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

Cheers, Mithril

Thanks for the encouragement! I have to admit the Knight is turning out better than I thought it would and once I finish the the upper armor plating and the arms, I'll post him up. In fact, I'm off to work on him right now because I'm dying to complete it.

I will admit I am hesitant about using decals on models though, I remember trying to use them back in 2nd edition on my Imperial Guard and it was mess. I may try to put one on his shield but that may be the only place I risk one right now!

I hate using decals myself. I had bad memories of them from my first attempts back in 3rd Edition, and when I restarted in 6th I took to freehanding everything. I didn't touch a decal again until I started working on my Titan. It needs detailed painting to make up for a lack of detail on the model itself. There are a lot of things that I wanted to add, especially with the honor banner, that I know I wouldn't be able to freehand and do them justice. So I bit the bullet.

The trick to using decals, from my perspective, is to make them blend in with the paint job. If you'll be freehanding other details, it's probably best to freehand everything - I don't know about you, but my freehanding sticks out terribly against a relatively-perfect decal. If everything is freehanded, it doesn't look so bad. tongue.png If you do go the decal route, use Lahman Medium to seal them to the model and get rid of the glossy finish. You can hardly tell afterward that it isn't paint.

EDIT: I'm now seriously considering overhauling my own Knights with your modified helmet. It would be perfect for bridging the gap between my Skitarii and my Titan - it looks like both the Vanguard helmet and the head of a Lucius-pattern Warlord. happy.png

Well here we are, I've been working on this Knight since last week and was a bit taken off guard by the variations allowed for within the kit itself.  After @CommodusXIII recommended modifying the helmet the entire thing came together.  I plan on adding some sandbags to his base with a Vanguard Alpha pointing forward as if suicidally calling fire from underneath this monstrosity, I just need to find the sandbags to do it.

 

As for the paint scheme, it is entirely modeled after the Vanguard influenced Skitarii Mars vehicle paint scheme that I have been using for my entire force.  I'll get an updated full force picture taken soon; it should be relatively easy now that I have a photo tent to take the shots from inside of.  I'm still trying to figure out the lighting but hopefully the images below will be a noticeable improvement on my previous pictures.

 

Blessed be the Omnissiah!

 

Imperial Knight Crusader - Skitarii Vanguard Pattern

------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

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

 

http://i.imgur.com/gvUWLp1.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/UHU9EZW.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/kc6AEKO.png

 

 

Edit:  New Full Force Picture!

 

 

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

The Knight came out absolutely fantastic! I love the bright blue of the lenses peeking through the helmet, and you struck a great balance between the red and cream. Job very well done! biggrin.png

Thanks man! Without your suggestion to remove the grill, I don't think it would have integrated so nicely into the full army.

Some excellent work on the new models, but man, that Skitarii-themed Knight head just takes the cake -- what a wonderful little (or rather, big) detail! Fantastic!

Thank you for the comments! I'm glad you guys are enjoying the pictures and I'm doubly glad that I got a photo tent so that my work doesn't get overshadowed by the horrible yellow tint my camera leaves on pictures. biggrin.png

These look absolutely fantastic friend. My hobby helps keep me from slipping off the deep end with my depression so it's always a hitter when someone uses the hobby as a positive mechanic other than just "I liek modals". I particularly like the Dunecrawlers and the helm on the Knight is inspired. 

These look absolutely fantastic friend. My hobby helps keep me from slipping off the deep end with my depression so it's always a hitter when someone uses the hobby as a positive mechanic other than just "I liek modals". I particularly like the Dunecrawlers and the helm on the Knight is inspired. 

 

Good call, anything you can find to help manage your Depression helps. Go for it.

 

Really liking the models you've done up so far, but I am madly jealous of how well your pictures turned out. That is still something I am working on. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.

These look absolutely fantastic friend. My hobby helps keep me from slipping off the deep end with my depression so it's always a hitter when someone uses the hobby as a positive mechanic other than just "I liek modals". I particularly like the Dunecrawlers and the helm on the Knight is inspired.

I can absolutely relate to this. Painting is extremely cathartic for me and as I am in the midst of getting my first company funded, I am in desperate need of anything and everything that can keep me calm/occupied in between conference calls. The worst thing was running out of models the other day and having to way the pros/cons of the cost for more models vs. the calm concentrated state of mind painting provides me. Needless to say, I ordered more models!

I am almost done with the third Ballistarii for my squad and I've outfitted him with the twin auto-cannons to give the unit some anti-air capability when it comes on the board. I also have a Dunecrawler that will be in Icarus Array format to complete with my final ten man squad of Vanguards. I've given in to the idea of having one suicidal squad of Vanguards with three plasma calivers in it, while using the other two squads to provide cover for them until they can pop out and decimate a unit. I'm sure it will fail 9 times out of 10...but that one time?

Oh me, Oh my, The Omnissiah shall see them fry! devil.gif

These look absolutely fantastic friend. My hobby helps keep me from slipping off the deep end with my depression so it's always a hitter when someone uses the hobby as a positive mechanic other than just "I liek modals". I particularly like the Dunecrawlers and the helm on the Knight is inspired.

Good call, anything you can find to help manage your Depression helps. Go for it.

Really liking the models you've done up so far, but I am madly jealous of how well your pictures turned out. That is still something I am working on. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.

As for the pictures, I am currently rescuing them in Photoshop because my cellphone camera just butchers anything I take a picture of. My first hurdle was defeating the evil HTC One (M9) cameras tendency to make everything yellowish green.

Enter: THE PHOTO TENT

...otherwise known as the purchase that got me in the doghouse with my girlfriend because I may have been mentally measuring 48 inches in my head and not Accounting for the lights...yeahhhh...the dining room table has become the Omnissiah's Sacred Photo Booth! WITNESS!

http://i.imgur.com/z14IfRQ.png

So then I found out that the camera also has an astounding failure in its ability to handle bright lights...

Right side was the original shot and left side was my attempt to tone down the blazing inferno that is 5500k Bulbs of Doom!

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

So today, I decided that I would not be defeated by the machinations of Tzeentch and how else does a devout follower of the Machine God throw the veritable Holy Bird of Imperium in the face of such sinister fiends?

Why...with more technology my good man!

Tomorrow my new dedicated camera will be arriving and I settled on the Samsung NX300 due to the fantastic deal I managed to get on it and the solid 4 and 5 star reviews on multiple sites that it received.

http://i.imgur.com/T7rQusZ.png

Hopefully, I will have some pictures re-taken and placed up by next week so you guys can see the shading applied on the models. It's really frustrating to work so hard on layers of shading only to have it lost in translation when the picture is taken.

Never again!

Thanks again for the positive feedback from everyone!

Side Note: Say a prayer to the Omnissiah for my humble soul as, upon the arrival of the camera tomorrow, I fear my girlfriend may throw random objects in my general direction and I will need all of the blessings of dexterity that the Machine God can provide!

"Paz, why are you looking at pictures of cameras and lightboxes, don't you have enough toy soldier stuff?"

 

"of course dear, I'll just.. oops woops finger slipped, can't cancel that purchase now, we'll find room for it!"

 

- my entire life.

The new camera got here yesterday and after tinkering with it for a day, I finally decided to hook it into the mini-tripod and take a shot at Imperial Knight Crusader. I'm a bit dumbfounded right now as I didn't expect this kind of leap but that's technology for you.

The picture below is the original image down-sized to 9 inches tall, cropped a bit, and reduced to 150 pixels/inch; beyond that I have not re-touched it at all or boosted any colors.

http://i.imgur.com/vT7uOcm.png

The next image I am going to link only because the thing weighs in right around 11.1 MB in size but it will give you an idea of just how much detail was being lost in my initial cell phone pictures.

Original Picture

I will most likely be going through all of my models this weekend and then posting them in one big update but I wanted to go ahead and get this out there as the detail now being shown in the pictures is stunning and making me extraordinarily happy I'm painting again.

Thanks for all the kind words above everyone! biggrin.png

..and as promised, I've got all of the vehicles taken with the new camera. I live with two cats and a dog so I apologize about the blurred pet hair on the black back drop but, beyond that, I think they came out amazingly well.

I'm going to skip the front shot of the Imperial Knight as it's right above this post and I don't want to re-post the same image in back to back posts.

Hope you guys like the pictures! smile.png

http://i.imgur.com/J68vz4s.png

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

http://i.imgur.com/ToN3fbp.png

http://i.imgur.com/QRDu4NF.png

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

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

http://i.imgur.com/xr1Ujtg.png

http://i.imgur.com/2yMws4G.png

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

http://i.imgur.com/wQyyfo0.png

http://i.imgur.com/xr1Ujtg.png

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

http://i.imgur.com/R7bsf4i.png

http://i.imgur.com/2E5TS8M.png

http://i.imgur.com/ty2HkiG.png

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

http://i.imgur.com/Uuh4MNZ.png

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

http://i.imgur.com/PSL5D30.png

http://i.imgur.com/m964Hiz.png

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

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

So my inability to transport the Skitarii vehicles reached a fevered pitch today.  I kinda went to Home Depot and built my own miniature case.  Not sure if anyone wants to see it or not so I won't inflict the horror on you unless asked but it is functional and I had a good laugh making it.  Looks like I might be actually putting my figures on the board and the GW Store manager asked if I would mind bringing my Imperial Knight Vanguard Pattern in for the monthly painting competition.

 

I picked up a few things to spruce up his base and I'm going to sacrifice one of my Alpha's who is pointing a power sword and place him behind a barricade at the Knights feet.  I may also crumple the emplacement gun so it looks like it is barrels down in sand.

 

 

Side Note: I noticed a single box of Space Hulk still present at the store and the Manager retrieved the limited edition art print and the White Dwarf with supplemental rules for me.  Now to see if I can figure out a way to get the Skitarii Vanguard converted into Space Hulk.  Triple Plasma Caliver Squad, I'm looking at you!

In 1st ed the one Space Hulk expansion i wanted but never was able to get was Space Hulk Campaigns. It had rules for Powered Armour Marines in Space Hulk, but the cost of obtaining it 2nd hand is very high. It might be easier to work with the White Dwarf expansions for Advanced Space Crusade/Tyranid Attack which were at least partly based on Space Hulk rules. They had marine scouts, eldar, inquisitors and even dreadnoughts in Advanced Space Crusade so that might give a better starting point for making Skitarii rules for Space Hulk i think.

  • 3 weeks later...

Finally, I have something new to post!  I've been really busy and decided that, instead of speed painting the next Skitarii Vanguard unit, I would flesh out the design concepts and I've been using on the larger units.  So you will find a transition away from metal painted wiring toward the blue/green wires that you see on my Dunecrawler/Knight/Walker models.

I also decided to man up and really take a crack at the guns for this unit, I tried to retain as much detail from the original model as possible and the filigree actually has the wood stock showing up behind it rather than turning a blind eye to accidental brush strokes.  Also, I have made serious strides with the new camera and to show this at the bottom you will find the shots of my Vanguard Knight and how the picture quality has been improved with each step...that is, if you're interested in that kind of thing!

Full Group

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

 

Vanguard Alpha w/ Arc Pistol & Taser Goad

 

http://i.imgur.com/a0ouIa8.png

 

Vanguard w/ Omnispex

 

http://i.imgur.com/Ag2aaCe.png

 

Vanguard Special Weapons

 

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

 

Vanguard Soldiers

 

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

 

Skitarii Vanguard Imperial Knight Crusader Variant Comparison

 

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

 

i Love em and great to see more detail on the rifles...sorry to say this blush.png but the trim on the cloaks kinda looks a wee bit ...santa like whistlingW.gif are you thinking of doing the cog pattern on there? or leaving it...if you left it maybe try a black trim instead?...but if your happy with the white/bone then ignore me and continue onwards laugh.png ...

cheers, Mithril

Lovely work. I really like the caked mud appearance on the bases. Really nice detail. Man I want a small AdMech detachment now...

Thank you! I try to always bring the base paint up onto their boots a little just to keep it from appearing as if these guys are running on perfectly flat hard terrain. You're the first person to actually comment on that I think and all of my models show the same type of give from the ground, trying to convey that the martian landscape is not entirely rock. biggrin.png

i Love em and great to see more detail on the rifles...sorry to say this blush.png but the trim on the cloaks kinda looks a wee bit ...santa like whistlingW.gif are you thinking of doing the cog pattern on there? or leaving it...if you left it maybe try a black trim instead?...but if your happy with the white/bone then ignore me and continue onwards laugh.png ...

cheers, Mithril

I could always dry brush some bone onto it! I normally wouldn't do the trim so wide but with how low their cloaks go in the back on some of the models doing a a thin line results in an absolute mess that looks more like a mistake than a desired outcome. My hands are stable now but I have off days and I couldn't risk the brush bouncing out across the coat by trying to get to small of a line on it. Not sure but a Serpentine wash might actually achieve the desired effect, I'll have to think about it since these guys took me two weeks to paint. (I'm a wee bit burnt out right now after painting 2k+ points in a month and a half).

My intent with the coloring was to make it a lighter version of the inside of the cloak but to be fair in person it doesn't look as white, that's 3 5500K bulbs making each color pop out. It's not ceramite white though and is actually pallid flesh.

Also, I changed the way I handle the radium portion of the rifles/weapons on this squadron as an experiment. Usually I base with Caledor Sky and then dry brushed Baharroth Blue with a touch of Ceramite White at the top. This time around I based with Caledor Sky and applied a heaver dry brush of Temple Guard Blue, capped off with a semi-circle dry brush of Gauss Blaster Green. The Green turns into a much softer teal and gives the rifles a really nice effect, though the lights may be washing it out some I promise it's there!

Anyways, I'm curious what you guys think of the new method vs. the old one? While I won't be back-tracking over the old models I'd like to get every uniform moving forward.

Example Shot (Closest identical pose I could find)

http://i.imgur.com/i8xjj6E.png

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