Project log: Torburnides

[Magos Takatus]

Hi all.  I've been posting some pictures of my models here and there, but I think it's about time I made it into an actual project. I currently have a brief outline of the Forge World Torburnedes (Working title) and a small task force completed. I'll have a few completed models to post before I get into the unknown territory of work-in-progress posting but hopefully this will serve to make my army building more productive and could even be helpful somehow?

 

Right, well the background for my Forge World is that it is a rather isolated Forge World that like many of their kind are blessed with huge stockpiles of radioactive materials. These are tremendously useful for manufacturing processes and fuel sources. Like many Forge Worlds they are rather shrewd with their radioactive and otherwise toxic waste products. These are turned into weapons such as the "Radium" class weapons wielded by their Skitarii. Torburnedes has taken this a step further and collects waste products from Imperial Navy and Departmento Munitorum bases to augment their Skitarii forces. They can also supply their factories and reactors with the green substance known as Vespasium that seemingly leeches minerals from the surrounding area.

 

The Forge World has (an as yet unnamed) Knight houshold and a mutural protection pact with the Cremators Space Marine Chapter. Torburnedes has mining rights to the plentiful asteroid belts in the Cremators home system and both the Forge World and Marine Chapter hold training exercises in these unpredictable environments.

 

Anyway, on with the show!

 

Completed stuff!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here was one of my test models. I quickly decided that 1) working with models with a great deal of metallic parts with a white undercoat is not fun and 2) This paint scheme would have been too similar to either Ryza or Metalica depending on how I split up the colours on the Skitarii so it was ultimately dropped. Sadly I lost the opportunity to paint orange Lambda symbols everywhere after abandoning this theme.

 

 

This was test model number 2. I decided that the deep green reminded me of Victorian-era heavy industrial machines like steam engines so I was happy with the theme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's my first Skitarii squad. My favourite trooper was the Arquebus sniper hauling his gun round to a new target. I decided to glue the gun rest onto the gun like a hinge because having it separate would make it far too difficult to use for a gun used by a "relentless" soldier to fire on the move.

 

This squad looks horrifically expensive point-wise but I enjoyed painting them. I learned in the last picture that cameras do no like it when the face of a model is 90% gloss varnish and metallic paint. I will probably highlight that gold with Liberator gold to get more control over the paint in future. I was trying to paint the Forge World Thallax gold and Valdor gold but it was hard with such thin paints that are so eager to separate. I decided to avoid that when I got round to my Vehicles as you will soon see.

[WarriorFish]

Great colours, especially on the robes :tu: Looking forward to the next model :)

[Tyriks]

I very much like your green! I have to ask though, how'd you get that awesome off white on the original? I have yet to turn out a good white so I'm always keen to hear people's recipes.

 

I'm excited to see more of your work. Your metals are fantastic!

 

Edit - I'm curious how to pronounce Torburnides. Is it tore-burn-uh-dees, or tore-burn-eye-ds?

Edited December 27, 2016 by Tyriks

[Magos Takatus]

Good catch. The name is supposed to be a combination of the ore Torbernite (a pretty looking but nasty ore containing Uranium) and Archimedes (who eve had a range of educational computers named after him in the UK, Praise the machine!). The pronunciation would be a bit easier knowing that it would be more ee-dees. I hadn't noticed I had managed to spell that incorrectly. I'll correct that a bit later.

 

I wrote down the method I used to get many of the effects for my Adeptus Mechanicus force and the Magos cream robes were no exception. It reminds me why I decided not to use it! :P

 

The stages were:

1) Rakarth Flesh

2) Agrax Earthshade

3) Rakarth Flesh + Thinner (I used flow improver but Lahmian Medium might work)

4) Pallid Wych Flesh + Thinner

5) Seraphim Sepia wash (to make the bottom look dirty and to blend some areas better)

6) Pallid Wych Flech edge highlight

 

As you can see, That would be horrible to paint across an army. Some skitarii robes are very flat and others very creased so you would get models that looked really different from each other. I did decide to use Rakarth Flesh and Pallid Wych Flesh on the inside of my robes (without all the thinners and washes) and the legs of my Onager though. I'll get my rear in gear  and start posting more pictures if I can get around the My Media box behaving strangely.

[KPPenguin]

Really liking the definition you've managed to get in the robes, is that a wash or did you blend the whole thing? The use of red as a spot colour works really well too.

[Magos Takatus]

Thank you. The Robes are a coat of Caliban green, then I work Nuln Oil carefully into the recesses. Once that's done I mix some Warpstone Glow in. I usually give them a couple of passes of this and then add a pure Warpstone Glow edge highlight. I put a few more layers into the Magos so he wasn't so muted. Besides, with those folded robes the highlights contrast more anyway.

 

My next step was my ingrained "two troops and an HQ" instinct, so the Vanguard came next:

 

 

Though the rest of my models had blue eyes after seeing the distinctive Vanguard helemets I just saw this:

http://img12.deviantart.net/933e/i/2013/338/2/8/cylon_centurion_at_birmingham_comic_con_2013_by_gonkbot-d6wq4fy.jpg

 

Okay Cylon, you win. Red eyes for Vanguard is now a thing.

 

 

It looked like the Alpha was equipped with a Refractor Field in this group shot since the camera is trying to stare through him.

 

I tried to varnish my models with gloss varnish on the weapons, but I'm not happy with the result so I'll be sparing with it on future or thin the varnish more for a less lumpy finish on the guns.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Flame Boy

[Magos Takatus]

Hi all. Here's when I point out that my mechanical-donkey-crab quota is low so I present you with some Onager Dunecrawler pictures.

 

I decided this would be the first model I would try to magnetise for convenience since many people seemed to have succeeded with some quite advanced builds. It can't be that hard, right? In the case of the Onager, I'd say it is pretty easy. There is a small hole in the gun sections of the model. That hole perfectly accommodates a 2mm magnet. Lovely. I drilled a small hole in the the plug on the round spinny bit that I painted red (technical term) and then covered both magnets with a thin layer of green stuff so they couldn't collide.

 

Hopefully I can learn from the first Onager and the next ones can feature magnets at the waist ball joint and the smoke launchers. I think I will keep the Icarus Array Onagers as a separate squadron since making them another option requires a lot more magnets (and probably a great deal of swearing).  

 

 

The last picture was taken at a much later date and doesn't seem as fuzzy as before.

 

As you can see, I have started to paint the gold metal slightly differently and it goes to show how good the Retributor armour and Liberator gold are compared to other gold colours. You can get really nice sharp highlights because they behave a lot more like normal paints compared to other watery, lumpy metallics.

 

For anyone curious, my method for this gold was:

1) Castellax Bronze (Forge World)

2) Thallax Gold (Forge World) -quite a few coats needed

3) Auric Armour Gold

4) Liberator Gold

5) Agrax Earthshade Gloss (Painted into areas that would catch less light or next to highlights for extra contrast)

 

Auric Armour Gold is still horrible to work with but with patience and about 2000 thinned coats of it you can make it work. :p

[Magos Takatus]

Shortly after the Onager I got started on a third squad of Skitarii. I added some slight conversion and some kitbashing to add some character.

 

 

 

In this image I have my Vanguard Alpha. He's got some red-tinted silver adorning his helmet to make him stand out from the other Alphas (but not too much in case we get an Alpha Primus as a standalone model down the line (The main character in the novel Skitarius was ranks as Alpha Primus and was better armed than a typical Alpha). I used some of a spare arm from a spare Magos Dominus arm to model a pistol held in an aiming pose and I re-posed the left arm to make it look like he is driving the enemy away to get a clear pistol shot. There's also some picturs showing the plasma gunners. I have added purity seals to them so that they have better luck surviving the shooting phase. Two have purity seals on the Calivers but one of them has one on his arm as if he's hoping his arm won't melt if the gun overheats!

 

 

Here's a pic of my army so far. Sadly you can't make out much detail but you get the idea.

 

 

I recieved a gift from a wonderful friend of mine which made me do this:

 

 

 

Yaaay!

 

I hope everyone is getting some time off to build and paint some Admech models. The project logs here are helping me focus on my own forces.

[Chaeron]

I think the background is great Flame Boy, and loving the alternative colour scheme - it's come out so well. Superb cohesion, and the bases work very well with your scheme too! Looking forward to seeing this grow!

[Magos Takatus]

Thanks for the praise. I've not started a project log before and it feels nice to be working on my army alongside other people.

 

I make an annoying modelling mistake and glued the gun upside-down on my robot so I've had to concentrate on the Datasmith while I get a new arm since the Omnissiah himself would hesitate to break those pieces apart.

 

 

I've got a few w.i.p. images of the Datasmith here held together with modelling putty (well, blu-tac anyway).

 

 

Does the red on the power fist seem to distracting or is it an acceptable was for the priest to show his rank?

 

 

I've not painted much of the model, there's no highlights on the robes, the skull or some of the metallics and tubes, the backpack still needs a lot of work.

 

 

I tried painting hazard stripes on the shoulder pad in silver and gold. I was talking to Tyriks about painting details in metallics and I was unsure if it would show up. You can see if it's any good or not here if that's helpful.

 

I am quite disappointed that the only custom part of the Datasmith is an optional head. However I am not surprised. Whenever there is a large gathering of 'smiths they tend to look identical...

 

http://static6.comicvine.com/uploads/original/6/67602/2255695-004tmr_hugo_weaving_003.jpg

 

 

More silliness and maybe even some painting to come later.

[Tyriks]

I think I intentionally messed up one of the guns just to add a little variety... I've definitely seen real world guns with top loading magazines like that, so if you can't find a replacement, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[Canadian_F_H]

I think I intentionally messed up one of the guns just to add a little variety... I've definitely seen real world guns with top loading magazines like that, so if you can't find a replacement, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Yep, there were a few top loaders in ww2.

[Vel'Cona]

Great work so far, love the "evergreen" shade and the squad bases are a very nice touch.  I'd say don't sweat it about about the Robots and just run with it, as I've seen both the "proper" and "alternative" assembly and either can really work just fine. 

[Magos Takatus]

It's true that they look fine the other way around, the main part that bugs me is the empty cartridges would be fired at the robot rather than away from it. It's only a minor niggle I suppose.

 

I've got more work done on the Datasmith. I did consider him finished but the curse of photographing your models is that it shows the imperfections you don't spot when painting them. It looks like the robes trim needs tidying and some of the metal cables need a bit more shading. That, and the metallic parts seem to lose their paint very easily. I should handle them less before varnish is applied.

 

Anyway, see what you think of him:

 

 

[Canadian_F_H]

Nice.

[Chaeron]

Love the Datasmith Flame Boy! The colour contrasts (and range of colours used!) really make him stand out. I'm looking forward to seeing his Robots next!

[Magos Takatus]

So yeah... robots... I got a bit distracted...

 

 

I decided to build and magnetize some Kataphron Destroyers. Trying to paint the wires on/in the right shoulder even with the gun mount removed is a real pain. I can only imagine how tough it would be to glue the gun on like the instructions suggest.

 

I simply glue a magnet to the end of one of the grav cannons and then wrapped it in some green stuff (making sure it still fits in the mounting before it sets!). Then I placed a magnet in place and surrounded that in green stuff and then glued the magnet in place with a small dot of super glue. Had I planned the job better I may have been able to magnetize the entire mount to allow me to use them as Breachers, but I decided to go with the simpler method. I have another set of Kataphron sprues that I received for Xmas so they will probably end up being Breachers. Covering the fiddly bits up with armour plates makes building those seem more palatable. Before that though I have to finish my robots before they gain sentience and wander off my painting table. :p

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job so far.

[WarriorFish]

The colours work really well on them, the transfers the final touch to make them pop along with the bases. Excellent work! :D

[Vel'Cona]

The contrast between the dirty tracks and super clean lines on the armour plates is impressive!  Great work!  

[Magos Takatus]

The contrast between the dirty tracks and super clean lines on the armour plates is impressive!  Great work!  

That's a good point. Would you say the dust needs to blend in the rest of the model better? I was concerned that the transition would be too jarring. Also, does anyone know of a good way to fix weathering powders without changing the effect? I have heard applying varnish will just turn it into soggy goo, which would look pretty bad with my arid base decoration.

 

Oh, while I remember, the rocks on my base were pretty useful. They are Cotswold stone that came from a garden centre. We had some in a sack in the garden and I was given some of the smaller chips. I currently prefer them to using slate. Just to let you guys know any new techniques or materials I aquire. :) 

[Vel'Cona]

No way, I think the contrast looks great.  I'd just make sure to stay consistent with the paint scheme rather than increasing weathering halfway through.

[Chaeron]

Those Kataphrons look amazing Flame Boy: I echo Vel'Cona's sentiment of the contrast between the weathered track-set and the more pristine body, it works so well! Love the contrasting colours too. 

[Ch@oZ]

Great color scheme, if only i had pushed myself and finished my green skitarii on similar bases earlier i could have taken credit for it ;-) also that red glint in the helmet is a brilliant idea, great work all around.

[Magos Takatus]

Great color scheme, if only i had pushed myself and finished my green skitarii on similar bases earlier i could have taken credit for it ;-) also that red glint in the helmet is a brilliant idea, great work all around.

I wouldn't worry, there were green Skitarii before I put paint to brush. I remembered there being a nice camo green Onager on Google images before I decided on a colour scheme. That's one of the reasons I wanted a dark but saturated green. I was thinking along these lines:

 

http://www.uwhworlds2006.net/images/ph_bk_sheff2.jpg

 

There's the green, cream and red right there. Suffice to say the idea wasn't mine. :) Have you got your Skitarii painting underway? I can't see them in your gallery (Though I do see an interesting space marine scratchbuild project. :) )

 

I'm currently wrestling with a faulty hard drive and getting a new replacement to work so I've not been getting much painting done. :/