Wakko's Rich Emporium of Eternal W.I.P.s

[Wakkomaster]

Prologue

 

Greetings, brothers (and sisters) of the Bolter and Chainsword, and welcome to my very personal painting Log of Neverending Work-in-Progress. This thread is indeed the companion to my Wacky Gallery (which you can find here) and will collect the bulk of my production as, sadly, I'm incompetent enough to finish only a thin slice of my projects. Drama ensues.

 

As you might already know from my previous thread I'm mainly a Space Marine collector, but I have a soft spot for other legendary agents of the Imperium such as the Adeptus Custodes and the Adepta Sororitas (as long as I can fit everyone with a nice clean looking helm) so who knows, I might add those as well. Random Xenos mught pop up too from time to time. To time. To time.

 

As I go on and conclude this Prologue chapter I should warn you that I have a Twitter account as well (@wakko_g) which I start for no apparent reason a few days ago, on New Year's Day. I post pictures of my projects there as well, along with random bits on videogames, old-school nerdage and cooking (yes, I said cooking). You're free to check it, though it will be quite slow in the beginning (have to learn how to use the warp-cursed thing first!). No, I won't post anything on cats or dogs. No, you won't get notifications at 3 o'clock in the morning to let you know that I found the light switch. You're welcome.

 

But most importanly, thanks for taking the time to read this nonsense to the end. Much, much appreciated.

[Wakkomaster]

Chapter 1: gifts, horses and vehicles

 

As expected, I have several work-in-progress projects right now. The one I'm focusing on though, is this one:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes yes, I know. You're all about to ask "Wakko, you said you were a Space Marine guy, what's this Xeno Brick* doing here???"

 

The reason why I have a T'au Devilfish on my workbench (or, workdesk?) is because it was a gift. Yep, a Christmas gift from my elder brother and his family. And since we all know how expensive our hobby is, the least I could do was to gracefully (and gratefully) accept the gift and paint it at the best of my skill. Which is quite low but, aheam, it will do.

 

I won't bore you with the details, but this project started in 2014 and as you can see it's, well, still in progress. I had a number of things happening which slowed me down, but it should be fine now. As you can see the interior of the vehicle is painted and done:

 

 

 

I think I did a good job, though I had some problems with the Ushabti Bone getting a little streaky but, I thought, I can blame a Fire Warrior getting sick while inside, no?

 

As for the hull, I finally settled for the Farsight Enclave scheme: brick-red and grey accents. I started with a base of sprayed Mephiston Red and then I went with the Khorne Red. However, given how peculiar this project was, I changed my mind and decided to try some contrast paints. I've watched several painting tutorials made by Juan Hidalgo (you're a great guy Juan, even if you hate blue) on YouTube on how to use Contrast paints on flat panels, and decided to give it a try.

 

 

 

 

As you can see I decided to leave the Khorne red coat, and I added a drybrush of Wraithbone to make the edges pop up right from the start. Then I went with a 2:1 mix of Contrast medium and Flesh Tearer red: in the picture you can see the nose of the Devilfish has already been Painted, while the rest of the model still sports the Khorne Red / Wraithbone.

 

I'm fairly pleased with the end result, as the Contrast paint did its job in tinting and shading, and since my main goal was to avoid recess-shading the entire model, it was a success. The highlights are unfortunately a bit meh: they're there, but very light. I'll probably go over them on the hard edges of the full, so not between the different panels, so to speak. Still, it saved me hours, and that's awesome.

 

The last bit I'd like to show is the pilot viewfinder:

 

 

 

Fancy, but nothing special: it's Waystone Green Technical on Stormhost Silver. I like to use those technical paints for lenses, they give a nice touch.

 

 

So, I guess that's all for today, I'll be back when I have more to show.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a picture of the Greatest WIP of All Times...

 

 

...my painting desk.    #BlessThisMess 

 

By the Emperor, I know I'll never get it clean and tidy… 

[Wakkomaster]

Chapter 2: the cost of progress

 

Progress!

Yes, I'm as surprised as you. I actually managed to find the time to sit down and paint some more. Who would have guess it? Anyway, the Devilfish hull received a nice coat of that awesome Flesh Tearer Red, so I can check-mark basecoat, shading and first highlight from my list.

 

 

 

Oh yes, I mounted the... turret? Is that a turret? A reverse turret? Whatever... I did that and it turns and spins and the gun moves up and down too. Brilliant! So awesome. I need to touch-up a few black parts and add a few extreme edge-highlights and it's good to go. I built the two drones as well and managed to spray-prime them outside, which is a feat itself given it's quite cold but mostly very dry (less than 30% humidity inside my bunker, which means I'll have to craft a wet-pallet if I want to use normal paints).

 

Here's the rest of the gang:

 

 

While I was at it, I tried to go on with my "other" project - the clean-up of my desk. Which was a tactical mistake and I bet Roboute Guilliman, still in its box waiting to be assembled, must have been shaking his helmed head in disapproval: moving some boxes I sneezed on a pile of dust, which gingerly covered part of the Devilfish (you can see some dust on the thrusters, for example). Nothing that can't be fixed with some extra dusting, mind you. Still, a shame.

Anyway, I painted the viewports and some of the grey bits with Mechanicus Standard Grey (by the Omnissiah, that thing is pure magic!). I have some doubts on how to attach the doors, as I'd like to be able to open or remove them to show the painted interior. I misplaced my magnets, unfortunately. Maybe a bit of blue tack? The doors rest on their hinges but they tend to open quite easily. Any tips?

 

 

So, that was all for this week. As there are still 10 days to the end of the month I really wanted to take part in Grotsmasha's yearly "contest", and I have several space marines in need of basing and decals, so I could pledge one or more of those. I'd love some space marine tinkering. We'll see.

 

As usual, thanks for reading and see you probably soon possibily next week!

[Wakkomaster]

Chapter 3: back to the starting point

 

This was a productive week. Just a couple of days ago I signed up for Grotsmasha's contest by pledging a single model, a Grey Knight Paladin (or was it a Captain? Can't remember). Here it is (or, was) in all its silvery glory:

 

 

I didn't pick a Grey Knight by chance, as it was the very first army in 2011. A couple years ago I stripped (again, I might add) all my Grey Knights, fixed a few broken ones, converted others and dismantled the remaining ones into bits. I was pretty proud of this one, mostly for the "come and get some, demon" pose. I used the chestpiece usually reserved for Justicars, and if I remember correctly I wanted to make a Brother Captain but couldn't switch the helm to a normal terminator one so yes, he didn't get promoted I guess. At that time I simply gave him a Leadbelcher spray base, an Ironbreaker coat and tried the new (at the time) Nuln Oil Gloss Shade. I... wasn't impressed with the result, sadly. Of the whole batch I went on and painted only a few models, mostly the Librarian (which is actually a Paladin with a warding stave and many books). Anyway, back to us.

I gave the fellow another coat of Ironbreaker but this time I followed Juan Hidalgo's video on Grey Knights, with a little difference: instead of going for the strong blue tone (which, isn't it strange, since he hates blue so much, to come up with such a recipe?) I wanted the usual grey/black, so I didn't use Grey Knight Steel and instead of a blue contrast wash I went with a black one, made of Black Templar and Contrast Medium in a 1:5 ratio. I really liked the results as the metallics were still shiny and the recess shading was good.

Then I went on to block out the other colours. Starting with gold, red and white.

 

 

Here's something I would have never done nine years ago: I painted the left shinguard with the same scheme used on the relic/insignia shield. Talk about improving! Anyway, as this model didn't have the usual "banner" on its back, which should be used on Paladins, Justicars and captains, I decided to paint part of the armour with a red and white motive instead. I should have probably painted the right shin instead, to balance the insignia on the left shoulder, buuuuut I needed to cover up something so, I just did that. Still I was very pleased with the result!

Right now, as I'm writing, I actually had enough time to go on and nearly finished painting the model, which needs to be based. I'm going to try some GW basing/texture paints, Agrellan Earth and Agrellan Badlands I think they're called - never tried them before, I should be in for some fun. When done I'll post the final pictures in my other gallery, as well on the contest main thread.

As usual, thanks for checking the thread and see you again soon!