Mechanicum - Knights, and more...

While I've been waiting on the custom decals for my Heresy-era House Taranis, I've taken my Knight Paladin a little further. Of course, once I reach a certain stage with him I'll use the same custom decals, and then just need to build his power blade replacement for his Reaper chainblade. The base is the Knight base from the Tech Deck range by Dragon Forge Design.

A few folks have asked me about my metallics recently, in particular the base metals for my Knights' super-structure. Well the basic approach is this:

• Prime GW Chaos Black spray
• Heavy dry brush (with "Tank Brush"-sized brush) with Vallejo Game Color Tinny Tin
• Drybrush (with "Tank Brush"-sized brush) with Army Painter Gun Metal
• Wash with Army Painter Dark Tone
• Selectively shade with thinned washes of Vallejo Game Color Charred Brown
mixed with Army Painter Matt Black
• Highlight edges (as appropriate) with Amy Painter Gun Metal
• Highlight edges (as appropriate) with Army Painter Shining Silver

I hope that helps : )

For those who would like to get a closer look at how I do my metallics, I've been coerced into running two classes at AdeptiCon 2015. More details to come!

Another work project I've had on my painting table are a bunch of the fantastic Hell Dorado models from Cipher Studios. Much more information to come as this project nears completion : )

Cheers
Dave

Project Alchemy - An Oldhammer & Collecting Citadel Miniatures charity project : )

I was recently asked by my friend James Craig to help promote a project he has been involved with recently - Project Alchemy. This combines three things I like - good friends, charity activity, and a nostalgic look at old Citadel minis : ) These rest of this post is from James himself. Please read and click on the links to check out this great effort. The project runs from now until November 9th!

Project Alchemy

Jon Boyce, Tony Mansfield, Steve Casey, James Craig and others have been working over the last six months on a charity fundraiser. We've collated a fantastic pool of 30 prizes, including unreleased figures, original artwork, studio resins and signed books.

Donors to the project automatically get entered into the prize draw, with £1 = 1 ticket.

All you need to do is check out the website and donate some cash and you could win some pretty amazing stuff: Project Alchemy - An Oldhammer & Collecting Citadel miniatures charity project

http://www.project-alchemy.weebly.com 

Here is some information straight from the site:

What is Project Alchemy?The aim of this project is quite simple - to raise money for the charity UNICEF through a shared love of old-school tabletop wargaming.

Project Alchemy is a virtual raffle of some fantastic and unique prizes - if you fancy winning a piece of original Games Workshop artwork, classic signed rulebooks or unreleased models, then this is the charity project to donate to!

Each £1 pledged through our JustGiving website enables you to qualify for a virtual raffle ticket. If you would like to be entered into the draw for the prizes on offer, you must tick the box that allows Project Alchemy (Jon Boyce) to contact you.

Project Alchemy is being co-ordinated by a team of people from the Oldhammer forums, Oldhammer Facebook group and the Collecting Citadel Miniatures Yahoo group.

The charity project is not affiliated with and does not represent any of the companies whose products are being offered as prizes, and no challenge to their legal rights is intended.

Why UNICEF?Project Alchemy will (we hope!) draw donations from around the world. We have selected UNICEF as the charity to support as it meets our key criteria of both being an internationally active charity and of its high external ratings for the effective management and use of its funds; the money gets spent where it should be! UNICEF was also selected simply because it helps kids...and who better to benefit from a charity project centred on toys?!

What is JustGiving?JustGiving is a widely used online donation platform, specifically created to support charitable fundraising. For details on how JustGiving operates, visit theJustGiving homepage.
The Project Alchemy team have selected JustGiving as the platform for processing donations as it is secure and transparent. Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Mechanicum - Finally, an update on the Knight-Lancer

A quick update of the Cerastus Knight Lancer. Last post you saw the pilot posing in his Throne Mechanicum. Here you can see some of the painted version in situ.

And here are a couple of shots with the carapace in place. I have a bit more work to do on the carapace and shoulder pads, including custom decals and weathering.

And then, of course, it's completing the weapon arms. I'm pretty happy with how he's coming along : )

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - A few new shots and a pilot for the Cerastus.

A quick shot of the finished Thanatar standing alongside my still-yet-to-be-named combat-focused automata.

The Castellax with all of their shoulder icons.

Finally, here's the pilot I built for my Cerastus Knight Lancer. He's currently painted and in place. Once I've made a bit more progress on the Knight-Lancer I'll post some more shots : )

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - Cerastus Knight-Lancer Part One

No prizes for guessing what's in the bath of Simple Green. This weekend's assembly project is a Cerastus Knight-Lancer. I'm looking forward to getting this puppy built, and if I can squeeze in a little time, I'll even build a pilot for it : ) And that's a Tech Deck base in there from Dragon Forge Design.

And for those who have not yet seen the rules for the Cerastus Knight-Castigator (the one with the sword), Forgeworld apparently posted these rules up today. Check out the madness that is the sword! S10, AP2, with Deflagrate, and the ability to auto hit all models in base contact at Int2. Perfect for wiping out Terminator hit squads!

And with that thought I bid you all a great weekend!

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - Completed Thanatar, and more automata!

I squeezed in a little painting on the weekend, and yesterday my FW Iron Hands decal sheet arrived. I received a neat tip from an excellent modeler on a Facebook HH group about the Mechanicum symbols on the sheet and wanted to use one on the shoulder of my Thanatar. Of course, once the sheet arrived I realized my black shoulder pad wouldn't really display the symbol properly. I quickly went for a deep red on the shoulder pad, added the decal, and then finished it all off with some chips and scratches.

I hope you like it : )

I also finished up the Castellax (his shoulder pad received the same treatment).

And four of my final 12 Thallax. Just eight more to paint now.

And finally the group shot of the recent automata painting spree.

Along with my decal sheet, I received my Cerastus Knight Lancer. I hope to start cleaning and assembling him this weekend : )

Cheers
Dave

A New Look for the Blog

I've been tinkering a bit with the blog recently, and thinking of a few new things I can do.

Welcome to the start of the new layout. I want the blog to look nice and clean, with the posts continuing as the primary focus, but with the added potential to do some other things. These other things will include a little bit of advertising, and the ability to better promote the miniature based activities of my friends "in the business". 

The first incarnation of this is new approach is exemplified by the Kickstarter project being run by long-term friend of the blog, Nick Baran. I invite you to click on the image at the top of the sidebars to the right and see what his very cool new miniatures boardgame - Broken Contract - is all about.

Stay tuned for more tweaks, and feel free to leave you thoughts and/or suggestions in the comments below.

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - The Thanatar PIP

Crazy times lately, my apologies for the slow trickle of articles appearing on the blog. I'm not attending any shows over the next two months, so hopefully I can get a good rhythm going again with some fresh Mechanicum and Imperial Knight units, plus a few posts about a Napoleonic commission I'm working on, and some terrain elements for Infamy: Welcome to the Big Smoke.

Anyway, here are a few Paint In Progress photos of my Thanatar. I'm hoping to have him completed (well, close to) by the weekend. The large brassy areas have been a lot of fun to work on, and now I just have to wrap up everything else : )

The Plasma Mortar needs quite a bit of work (just base colors down at the moment), and the wrinkled bit of grey plastic in front of the base is a loin cloth kind of thing that I'll be painting to match up with the loin cloth on the dreadknight construct I completed last year.

Cheers
Dave