Watch Fortress Velheim - Characters Finished (22/05/2022)

[Duke Danse Macabre]

A Small update, trying to get my Intercessor squads with grease launchers done this past week and was just getting the base colours ready and putting the squad markings on the few I had previously finished to get them ready for trinkets and rebasing, sadly I hate this part of painting when doing multiple thin layers so in an effort to avoid it I decided to go back and start doing the detail work on my leviathan that I got the base colours on a few months ago.

Sadly the large base holder gw make is not quiet as strong as the small one and the dread sprang out, unlike plastic resin doesn’t bounce.

[Smoke Frog]

Gloriously painted! The red stripe all the way down the leg is a nice touch, as is your freehand #2's and 3's. 

 

I will confess I am having a hard time painting numbers on my marines' kneepads so I bit the bullet and bought some transfers 

 

I like the battle-damage you seem to have painted on parts of your black armor, the metal showing underneath really makes it look like the paint has been stripped off by an enemy weapon or bullet. 

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Thank you for the feedback, it’s a pain having to change squads and trying to update paint jobs but I think the stripe and squad markings really add to the squad.

I make so many mistakes painting the numbers I have to rego over bits all the time. Lol

 

I agree on the damage, makes the armour feel more lived in.

Just wish I could paint your weathering in dust colour. :p

[Duke Danse Macabre]

So with a spare Weekend I have soldiered on through my newly disassembled leviathan and used the fact it was not in bits to try and paint some hard to reach places near the body and arms, not being able to use a hobby handle without a base I decided I may as well put the start of the pin in now and use it like a handle, a foot long length of brass rod seems to of done the trick.

combined with the triple pins in each leg to groin join I don’t think he’s going to come apart at the waist any time soon.

having the handle spare and the legs separate to the leviathan I decided to start designing the base, with smaller models I make a bunch of pre made bases then try and fit them where they look best then base a little around the feet and add bushes so it looks more natural but with a dread I need to make sure it fits.

With this in mind I decided I did want the model to be closing in and crashing through a wall but wanting to be able to see the model and not just a pile of rubble I decided at a short wall being kicked through, after designing the lay out I removed a few parts then destroyed and re pinned them together in corners so things have the appearance of actively falling apart or being destroyed.

Having the Dreadnought in bits proved to be useful, let me get under the grav flux and paint all the cabling and coils much easier.

after pinning it back together.

The small detail for the eyes and the free hand didn’t take long and the blood splatter went nice and quick for a single weapon, the little scrolls and fetishes I have all pre painted so just needed to stick them on in the best places.

Let me know what you think so far of my Black Shield Leviathan Dreadnought, Carrow the Neverending, hopefully I’ll have him fully based for my next update.

[Smoke Frog]

Excellent! Your blackshield Leviathan looks good with the bits of script on his armor.

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Excellent! Your blackshield Leviathan looks good with the bits of script on his armor.

Cheers for the feedback, I really think just a little armour text helps them pop more, tbh though I am massive BT fan and miss my old army, keep meaning to restart it. (Sold it years ago as my painting levels had improved to such a point a touch up wasn’t on the cards and I hate stripping models)

Dry fitted the big guy last night and gave the base a spray before bed and again before work, allot of agrax, a hairdryer and some hours later the base is done.

Ive fitted the name plate as well, still debating about trying to freehand a fanged skull onto the head of the dread and still need to do a small amount of osl on the grav flux but otherwise I reckon Carrow is done.

[Smoke Frog]

Great work! That first picture is super blurry but the rest look great.

 

Ancient Carrow's heraldry and markings are beautiful, and so is his base. Also is that crusty blood on his claw? Can't tell if it was supposed to be rust, but it does make the weapon use very well used. 

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Great work! That first picture is super blurry but the rest look great.

 

Ancient Carrow's heraldry and markings are beautiful, and so is his base. Also is that crusty blood on his claw? Can't tell if it was supposed to be rust, but it does make the weapon use very well used. 

Thank you mate, been putting this big lad off for a while.

I take pictures on my potato phone when doing work as I tend to listen to music and warhammer vids on my tablet and then when done I’ll take a better one with my iPad.

Really need to start getting into the habit of taking more pictures whilst working, I always end up saying just after this next bit. 

 

I’ll take some better pictures soon, I’ve tried to build the blood up in areas so it’s more like gore and then after doing the standard feathered coat on the blades a couple times to build up I’ve splattered it lightly with a toothbrush but used a bit of kitchen towel with a hole in the centre for the arm to feed through so I don’t coat the model and it’s base by accident. :p

 

I like how he has turned out but feel like I’m missing something still.

I would like to add something but a rear mounted hang mans pole maybe a bit much...

[Duke Danse Macabre]

So off work for the rest of the week so using the time to get a little more done and to streamline my projects.

Hopefully this way I can trim some dead weight and free up resources to move elsewhere.

Made a little progress on the intercessors getting things tidied up and adding little details such as bolts, etc, currently sat drying after a wash.

With the amount of time wash takes to dry I decided to finish off a old Apothecary I hadn’t got around to finishing as I was waiting for his head, I like to replace HQ’s heads with skulls for my inner circle so I have to source Chaplin hooded heads from ebay and bits sites so only got the base colours done, with smoke frog recently finishing his own apothecary it’s inspired me to try and get my own done.

So a couple of hours turned into a full day but I think it’s time well spent and now Apothecary Clermont is ready to administer aid to his brothers.

[thesilverback]

Very cool Deathwatch.

[Smoke Frog]

Fantastic looking apothecary, the red cloak and hood looks great. Good choice for the head!

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Fantastic looking apothecary, the red cloak and hood looks great. Good choice for the head!

 

Cheers, sourcing the heads is a pain and I have a few spare headless Chaplin laying around these days but I think it’s worth it.

I considered changing the arms but as he lacks any expansive wargear and his arms already had so much character I didn’t want to change them.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Apothecary.

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Been some slow progress on the intercessors, did some extras on the guys who are almost done minus the seals, etc and got the armour tied up on these three, normally don’t show things off till closer to done but trying to show more progress.

Anyway got the stripes and squad markings done, picked out all the details and bolts, did the armour text and lenses on helmets and weapons, the buttons, ammo and straps and metal loops plus the chapter pad markings, next I need to do the gold, glaze the lenses and battle damage, then They will be at the same stage as the other 5 and then I just need to focus on getting the sargents to the same point.

The sargents as I like to give them more character have allot of extra bits to do over a marine so I’ll have to paint each of them like characters.

Once all that I one just need to get them based.

I really wish for once I could just paint an army quick and be happy. Lol

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Been doing some more sorting this week in an effort to avoid painting and seeing what I had left to do in terms of upgrades for units to round them out so I can move on to other projects.

Put aside my old DW with metal shou,deer pads, not going to change these guys but keep them for additional numbers if needed in larger scale games.

My idea before the DW dex was a thing was to put as much character and individuality into each model as possible and have fun with the posing.

A few of these models never got painted so I have 30 unpainted with weapon options like lascannons but these are the guys who are done.

[Duke Danse Macabre]

The last 5 of the old guard.

[Smoke Frog]

Wow that is a ton of deathwatch marines and options!

 

You are good at painting faces! They are always very challenging and intimidating for me... and I can never seem to paint the eyes right!

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Wow that is a ton of deathwatch marines and options!

 

You are good at painting faces! They are always very challenging and intimidating for me... and I can never seem to paint the eyes right!

So many options some are not even in the codex. Lol

I had I think 11 different marine armies at one point so made my DW to condense them, they didn’t have a codex and never had, just some metal pads and I liked the lore.

All my jump packs were bare head as well with eviserators so had to update them which is what I’m now doing, I normally hate lack of helmets but did this army as an exception, shame I’ve had to undo most of it to make it codex complient now but lesson learned, next time make my own chapter. Lol

These were done at start of 7th which is why the big gap in my old stuff compared to new in painting levels but I’ve been doing it 20 years and there are people who have done it 5 and make me look like I paint with watered down crayon. Lol

Best advice I can give is surround yourself with people who are better and you will be elevated by learned from them, also watch sort tutorials, long ones for me I can’t do and bores me to sleep but just small bits like how to paint seals or this colour really helps.

What I do for my faces is find a base flesh colour I like and is light enough, if not I’ll add white it lighten it up then water it right down, flesh takes me 3 coats, then once dry wash with Agrax lightly then I’ll use the same flesh with different amounts of white on the most raised areas as highlights, eyes are last and I keep a sharp knife read to scrap if needed but just a really fine brush and brace your hand resting on something solid to avoid shake and test the constancy of the white before applying, too thick won’t apply and will cling to your brush unless you squash it into the models face which would make a mess and too watery will mean it flows down, test on the back of your hand first if possible.

As always sorry if I’m telling you how to suck lemons, I just like to share and with lockdown I don’t get to sit at a table with a few guys and talk hobby whilst painting in the past.

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Mini update, got all intercessors done bar the sergeants and basing.

going to try and get most of the rest done tomorrow but we will see how things go.

Happy with how they turned out, need a slight touch up at the contact points for the seals and a metal trim on the boots but that’s it before basing. (Until I figure out weathering powders that is)

[Smoke Frog]

Those intercessors look great! Its amazing how many poses can be made out of that box. I like the tiny "script" lines you have on the armor and purity seals too. 

 

 

As always sorry if I’m telling you how to suck lemons, I just like to share and with lockdown I don’t get to sit at a table with a few guys and talk hobby whilst painting in the past.

 

 

I can totally understand, I haven't painted around a table with friends in ages. One thing I have been doing with my brother and uncle is to skype/facetime and paint randomly during the week or month. It has been a good way to swap ideas and progress.

 

Of course forums like this are great for that too, and I enjoy sharing pictures and seeing what others are up to in their hobby project lives!

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Cheer for the kind words, I still do find their kit highly restrictive though sadly compared to regular marines.

I’m Jelly, wish I still had family in the hobby, the old man got me hooked 25 years ago then got out 5 years later, he said they were getting too pricey, can’t say the guy was wrong. Lol

This is pretty much the reason I’m doing my Plog, don’t get good ideas and honest feedback otherwise and I really tend to get distracted with other projects.

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Progress has slowed down as I caught the hobby bug again and have ended up going on a building spree/bits hunt to round out the units I’m painting to their full 10 men so I don’t have to come back and do it later, as ever though if you build only parts of boxes and what you need you tend to have to do allot of bits hunting, the below picture is my life lease last few days...

On another note however since I have had most of the nights this week to myself I did get a little painting done but just not on what I expected to, granted they will be done hopefully by the end of the week, it’s a somewhat pricey squad but after removing their Melta fists and refitting they didn’t need too much work compared to what’s currently sat on my table. Lol

[Duke Danse Macabre]

So a Little more progress today, got a little more painting done, not on my intercessors though as I’m distracted with modelling and painting a different unit.

Sadly inspiration that’s you where it will and today that was to build my jump pack Chaplin using the Cassius model as a base, it need allot of greenstuffing yet and will have a few extras added with the paint job such as scrolls but let me know what you think.

[Smoke Frog]

Wow that chaplain conversion is great! I like the bits choice, and weapon loadout of powerfist and crozius. 

 

Is he going to be a Raven Guard successor?

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Wow that chaplain conversion is great! I like the bits choice, and weapon loadout of powerfist and crozius. 

 

Is he going to be a Raven Guard successor?

Cheers, added a few extras like rexs scrolls once I had reshaped the resin in a cup of boiling water.

Plan is to run him as a Ravenguard Chaplain upgraded to reclusiarch with the warlord traits to have two litanies inspiring on plus 1 and takes the Ravenguard advance and charge warlord trait, combined with the strat that lets you auto use a litany in any phase I’ll be able to have him and his friends in with a nice +2 to charge, just need a fancy teeth of Terra cap to go with which I’ve almost got finished.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Duke Danse Macabre