Author: Joe B

Leman Russ 3 - 14th Grand Company

Traitor Leman Russ

Published by Joe B

So with the long, holiday weekend I spent a bit of time finishing up the two Traitor Russ Battle Tanks. These are of course for the Traitor Guard aspect of the 14th Grand Company. Here is the finished Traitor Leman Russ #2. The main body is the faded orange/red streaks but added a couple of large Chaos stars that the Forge World models tend to have. I think it helps break up the large spaces well and add new interest. At first I was going to paint the lenses green to match my Iron Warriors but through it clashed a bit too much and decided on the blue instead. The cool blue offsets all the warm oranges and is more fitting with the cool silver. I also thought the cargo boxes looked a bit funny being empty so I painted up some bitz to add some details. This one has an extra gas can (for those torch wielding fanatics), an extra lasgun and a rusty shovel. You can also see the close up of the …

Traitor Leman Russ WIP - Sign of Chaos - right

Traitor Russ WIP (4) – Second Mark Completed

Published by Joe B

So the second Russ went a lot faster even though I did a bigger Chaos star. I also was more careful with not rubbing the masking medium and it paid off. In trying to keep the stars more free-form and chaotic I choose different centers and angles for each but kept the same size to give some coherency. Next up is some more detailing and the final weathering (dust/mud splatter) [amazonify]B002ICAXLY[/amazonify]

Lemun Russ WIP - Back Side w/ Markings

Traitor Russ WIP (3) – Slow and Steady

Published by Joe B

So I’m hoping that I’m starting to pick up the pace a bit now that I’m getting back into the painting but it still feels like I’m slogging along. Anyway, on to the new work: I spent this last week to add a chaos star to the tank to add some color and break up the large side. As I said in the last post the idea came from the amazing Dave Taylor’s work and tutorial. The base coat is Tausept Ocher, then adding Dheneb Stone and finally Skull White for the highlights. I wanted to set off the yellow from the red as the two colors somewhat blue together at the edges so I added a fine line of Necron Abyss. I wanted to add some wear to the markings but without having to go back and repainting it on so I tried using a masking medium that “paints” on and once dry allows you to paint over it, and when done just rub it off. It didn’t seem to work to well on this tank as …

Obliterator Scupted - Finished - Front

Second Sculpted Obliterator (3) – Finished

Published by Joe B

Just finished the second custom sculpted Obliterator. As you can see from the steps below and the previous posts, it really only uses four bits: a heavy flamer, mutant arm, spare head, and the terminator lord head crest for the sorcerer build. Everything else was custom sculpted with green and grey stuff. As compared to my first sculpted obliterator, this guy has a bunch more bulk built up around the wire frame which I did by adding blobs of green stuff until I liked the size. I used grey stuff for the robes and finer details as it holds up a bit better. The vent tubes were added by using plastic tubing to mimic Typhus and the dreadnoughts. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It has been a good step in learning how to sculpt, hopefully I will eventually be able to sculpt all the parts. Until then I have boxes full of bitzs to use. I also put together a stage-by-stage picture, I think it is pretty inspiration for me, especially as …

Sculpted Obliterator 2 - Flesh Painted

Second Sculpted Obliterator (2) – Painting has started

Published by Joe B

I was able to get some paint done on the second obliterator. It is amazing what a bit of primer can do for a sculpted piece… Next up was the base coat. This was mostly to block out the colors and give a base coat to the follow up colors. Ugly at this stage is ok… After a black wash to deepen the shadows I focussed on the flesh, both the daemonic as well as the human(ish). The skin was a mix of ice blue, space wolf gray, grave yard earth, and elf flesh. The blue was a mix of ice blue, space wolf gray and mordian blue. The blue was then highlighted with a mix of blue and mithril silver to blend it into the actual metal. Next up is the metal areas and then the robe. As always, comments and suggestions are appreciated.

Second Sculpted Obliterator - The Build Up - The Robe is Added - front

Second Sculpted Obliterator (1) – The Build Up

Published by Joe B

As promised, here is some build up shots of my second obliterator. One of the things I wanted to change on the second guy was adding more bulk to the body. I wanted it to look closer to a full terminator suit rather than a scarecrow with a robe. I started with bending a couple paper clips to create the wire-frame with proportions of a terminator, including the width and hight of the square body section. I added the arm bits and the head. The coper wire was used to hold different paper clips sections together. I then started to bulk up the wire with blobs of green stuff. I added in some bitz around the head from an extra terminator front (from the lord box I think). I also added some exhaust pipes to the back using some plastic tubes. The daemon claw hand was cut and bent to close it up a bit, gs was added to fill the gaps. After letting the first layer of green stuff dry more was added to the legs …

Sculpted Obliterator Final - front

My First Sculpt Pt 5: An Obliterator – Finished!

Published by Joe B

With some nice time off from work I was able to finish the Obliterator that I had sculpted. Paint wise there wasn’t much left to do, just some touch-ups and finish the base. The skull mast came from the defiler kit, the chain arm from the sentinels, and the shoulder plates from the marauders. I spent a lot of time trying to blend the organic, blue tissue into the metal by high lighting the flesh with silver tones and washing the metal with blue. I had also started the second obliterator a few days ago while waiting for some paint to dry. For Christmas my wonderful wife got me a package of Procreate Putty which I have to say is a fantastic alternative to green-stuff. The procreate is not nearly as sticky as green stuff is but adheres very well to the model. It is also stiffer than gs which made creating the robe much easier as I didn’t have to ‘paint’ super glue onto the end of the tatters to keep them in place. Here is …

WIP Sculpted Obliterator - part 4

My First Sculpt Pt 4: An Obliterator – Long Over Due Post

Published by Joe B

So it has been a while since I picked up the brush… well continuing on then. Did some more details on my Obilterator which brings him to a nearly finished state. I still need to finish the base and perhaps something more on the robe, but not yet sure what. I had thought about adding the XIV to the shoulder plate but remembered that oblits don’t have an allegiance and just fight for who ever pays them the best. Instead I opted for the yellow chevrons on the chain blade to tie in with the rest of my army. I was struggling with separating the sash and robe since they are supposed to both be red. I have tried using different temperatures of red along with the yellow border to separate them. The sash was highlighted and shaded with cooler shades of red, the highlight was almost more blue than red actually. The robe used warmer shades of red to highlight and shade. I’m not sure if I like how it turned out, but perhaps it is just that the robe doesn’t …

WIP Obliterator Sculpt 9 - Blue Painted

My First Sculpt Pt 3: An Obliterator – Base Coat Done

Published by Joe B

Spent some time painting the Obliterator. After priming it black, it is amazing how all the details (and mistakes) pop out. I then did the base coat of all the colors to block it out. Mechrite Red for the robes, Mithril Silver to the steel, Dwarven Bronze for the piping, and Ice Blue for the metallic flesh. The whole model was then washed with Devlan Mud.  The blue ended up looking nasty, dirty bubble gum, but thats ok since I will be repainting it anyway. Which I did next. I wanted to try a blue, lava-like texture that blends into the metal. Not sure of the result, it looks too shiny. Any ideas for fixing it? Next up is the red robe, which will the much more difficult piece to paint as I am hoping to do some freehand trim.

WIP Sculpted Obliterator - 4

My First Sculpt Pt 2: An Obliterator – sculpt nearly finished

Published by Joe B

Got some more work done on my Obliterator sculpt. I filled in more of the front foot by adding pistons to each of the toes. I also added the upper robe and shoulder blades from the Fantasy Chaos Knights box. The ball on the end of the gun will shortly become an eye ball. Also need to add the wiring from the arms to the back. I also photoshop’d the image to get an (rough) idea of what the coloring will look like. I’m not sure how I’m going to paint the flesh-metal but it will probably be a dark gray or purple, any ideas would be appreciated 😉

My First Scupt: An Obliterator – WIP – and why I had Green Stuff

Published by Joe B

So I’ve developed this habit: when I try something new, I go all out and skip to the hard stuff. See my Mentor Legion post when I wanted to try painting white armor. See my WIP (kinda dead-in-progress right now) Scratch built Titan. Well the newest thing I decided to ‘try out’ is sculpting. I’ve done some green stuff work to fill gaps and create some honor badges for my Iron Warrior Chosen, but I haven’t done any true sculpting.Well after scouring FTW, The Painting Corp, and Massive Voodoo for how to sculpt and digging through the Chaos Codex (all three editions), Horus Heresy: Collected Visions, and Iron Warrior for ideas I grabbed my tools and got to work. Below are some very rough WIP shots of the first Obliterator (eventually I will do three). Obviously, there is still plenty of work to do on the upper half, but eventually the robe will continue on his upper half, including a draping hood. The left arm (the one with the chain blade) is not attached so …

Iron Warriors Rhino #2 - Done - Front

Iron Warriors Rhino 2 Done

Published by Joe B

Finished the third and final (for now) Rhino for my Iron Warriors army (see the first and second here). This one I tried a few new things. The first is the scratched metal. I tried using an old, terrible brush and splayed the bristles to create parallel streaks. I don’t think they all work out well, but it is something to build off of. The second is the free-hand Chaos star on the top hatch. I took the design from one I found in the 4th edition Codex showing the dual rings and 3d shape. I don’t think I pulled it off how I wanted, but for a first attempt, I’m happy with it. For this tank, I decided to put the stripes on the outer faces of the smoke stacks. Keeping it simple was needed to retain the tank from becoming too busy with the start, chain and skulls and havoc launcher. And here is all three in their finished states (click for a bigger picture!). I have a couple of random projects I …