54mm Andrea Teutonic Knight (FP-2) part 3, Stormcast Eternal conversion, Celtic Chieftain bust

54mm Andrea Teutonic Knight (FP-2)

Well I did a bit more fiddling on the green cloak of the knight and got happier with it.  I decided the spear needed a pennant.  I first tried doing it in paper but the paper kept folding after painting, even after being covered in PVA glue.  Next I decided to make one out of green stuff.  After cutting to shape and attaching to the spear I created the folds and let it dry.

Green stuff pennant

The green stuff needs to be supported (I used a plastic bag underneath to avoid the green stuff sticking) otherwise it will sink before drying.  The advantage of green stuff for this kind of work is that you can get it very thin, it holds the shape and when bumped (as happens, esp. with flags/etc) it doesn't break as it's always flexible.  I'm really happy with the contrast work I got on the pennant.  Unfortunately makes the rest of the figure look a bit flat.  Next time..

Green cloak of many coats..

For the ground work I tried two different techniques.  Normally I sculpt the ground with milliput/modelling clay, glue on a sand/rock mix, then add flock/scatter and then static grass tufts, etc.  This time I mixed-up a batch of the usual sand/rock mix and adding the scatter and bits of static grass (the leftover jar from previous flocking jobs with all kinds of bits in it) and mixed it all together and covered all the base with this.

Ground work start

The variation in materials gave a much better ground texture.  Many people just use real dirt, plaster, ground debris for their bases and I see why now.  Another lesson on why you should try new things, esp when many other people are doing it that way.  The second technique was for the static grass.  Rather than just put it on, or use pre-done tufts I used the 'gently blowing on' technique that I first read about from Sheperd Paine.

Finished ground work

You sprinkle the grass on and then blow it from the side.  This blows off the excess but also makes the remaining static grass stand up.  Works a treat.  I also added in some longer grass bits bent over in the direction of the wind that is blowing the cloak and pennant.

The expression "before anyone did anything, Elvis did everything" could be equally said for Sheperd Paine.  The book "Building and Painting Scale Figures" is a fantastic reference and is the book that really turned me from an army painter to a figure painter.

Cut down and wire supports added

I purchased five GW Stormcast Eternals secondhand in Cancon this year as experimental figures.  The second figure I wanted to convert to a chaos corrupted version.  I had a vision of a tentacle arm going through a nose, with the nose being on the chest.

Shaping areas

Then I added some eyes as per the usual "lots of eyes on chaos things".  All very standard and a bit of a throw back to the old school Chaos marines.

Eyes...

For sculpting I'm using a mix of milliput an green stuff in approx. 60/40% mix with a dash of harsh language.

Celtic Cheiftain 1/16 bust

Finally started on the Celtic Chieftain bust.  Starting to get the bronze where I would like it.  Flesh next.  Need to work out the cloak and shirt colours and I'm thinking about using the airbrush on these given the large flat areas.

Stormcast Eternal vers 1 and prepping new figures

So a bit of a mixed bag over the last two weeks.

Stormcast Eternal

First up was finishing off the Stormcast Eternal I was working on.  I didn't get the bottom of the shield quite right but I'm pretty happy with the hammer and cloud effects around the top of the hammer.

Next was getting back to the ruined house I purchased for Terminator Genisys.  I airbrushed on the majority of the colours.  After I had all the base colours done I then did a smoke overlay over the top of the horse in grey/black to emphasise the battle damage.  That was a bit stark so I used some VGC Bleached Bone and dry brushed top to bottom on the black areas to lighten things up and get a bit of a 'burnt ash' look.  I also added some green mold in the corner of one room and some rank marks just to trial a few techniques that I had read about but not tried.

3 eyed alien

I prepped up a three eyed alien (?) bust that I purchased some time ago off eBay.  Something different to try.  Thinking about doing some kind of ochre colour for the skin.

I got the 54mm knight together and undercoated him.  While thinking about basing him the wife mentioned that he would look good with a horse.  Luckily for me a I have 54mm horse (again, another random eBay purchase).  Not sure if the figures together will work so I'm going to build up the horse (it's lead and needs some work to clean up and put together) and see what they look like together.  The knight is a good standing figure so would fit with a standing the horse which I didn't have any real plans for.

I keep getting distracted by milling machine projects so I'm finding my painting time is going down.  Plus I'm finding it hard to sit and do any painting at the moment.  The desire is there but not the motivation unfortunately.

Stormcast Eternal vers 1

Stormcast Eternal base coats

So got a bit done on the first Stormcast Eternal I have (purchased from Cancon in January).  Sick kids and work did put a damper on things.  After much paint shuffling I went for a turquoise and red/brown mix.  The turquoise is

VGC Falcon Turquoise base
Shaded with VMC Dark Sea Blue
Highlights VMC Light Blue and white

Stormcast Eternal with the turquoise done

The red/brown is

JS Red Oxide/VMC Flat Red base
Shaded with black
Highlights with VMC Flat Red/JS Orange, JS Light Yellow.

For the red/brown rather than using the red oxide as the base I used a lighter mix made from adding Flat Red as the base.  This is because the red oxide is too dark compared to the turquoise.

Colour chart for Stormcast Eternal

Trying to (re)learn a few things I did make a colour chart first.  This did help as it made it obviously that the red oxide was too dark.  Prep work for the win!

Resin fail :(

My second attempt to base coat the spacecraft failed.  The resin is bad/weeping so it went in the bin.  In the picture you can see that half the paint is still glossy (ie not dry) after two days.  Sigh.

Lots of pinning...

I need to have another go at a 54mm figure so started prepping up a knight I got off eBay awhile ago.  A very traditional knight figure.  I was thinking about a head swap (as I find helmeted figures a bit impersonal) but decided to stick with the figure as it is.  Slowly gluing and pinning all the parts together.