Sisters of Battle: 31 March 2018

Lots of time on Saturday, and so the squad is complete!

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Sisters of Battle: 30 March 2018

White lining continues . . .

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Sisters of Battle: 29 March 2018

Tiny little red details, and the tedious white lining begins!

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Sisters of Battle: 28 March 2018

All the blue robes and black armor is done!

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Sisters of Battle: 27 March 2018

I pulled out a squad of Sisters of Battle I'd previously undercoated and did a test paint method on one of them. I needed it to match previous Sisters, but I wanted to make it a bit more nuanced and less "1990s GW".

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Primaris Marines: 26 March 2018

I assembled some more Primaris Marines, more just to get them off the sprue and into a smaller box, if the truth be told.

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Thunderhawk & Primaris Marines: 25 March 2018

The three layers of the tail were glued together and minor detail added to the dorsal tip.

I also completed (finally!) assembling the Marines from a Dark Imperium set, together with a two (matched) conversions of the captain.

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Thunderhawk: 24 March 2018

The various layers of the tail were cut out and the outside detail panels were notched.

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Thunderhawk: 23 March 2018

Not much to see, but I spent the time today modifying the tail template so it would look right with the elevated dorsal section I am planning.

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Thunderhawk: 22 March 2018

Blocked in the rear section and prepared the central engine. The rear panels are a complete bodge, but they will look okay once they are skinned and tidied up. The engine is from Anakin's podracer with a GW engine nozzle on the end.

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Thunderhawk: 21 March 2018

No picture today - not because I didn't do anything, but because I only took video of it! I made a working door for the front of the Thunderhawk. It worked out really well and I shall have to get a picture I can host on a blog of it :)

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Thunderhawk: 20 March 2018

Work on the Thunderhawk continues - most of the main shapes for the front of the vehicle are blocked out. I agonized over making a fully-detailed modelled interior - I eventually decided against it because i) it would be a load of work and ii) I'd already put rather ugly bracing pieces inside the main body of the craft. However; the forward cargo bay will have an opening door (and so will have interior detail) and the cockpit and command bridge (where the rose windows are) will have windows and a removable roof, and so will be detailed.

I also bought some lights (just a string of fairy lights) to provide illumination. Illuminating the main body will be easy - just stuff the lights in there and let them shine through the windows! But to illuminate the rest will require some careful consideration and thought - the actual light sources will be visible, and so must be carefully considered.

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Thunderhawk: 19 March 2018

Well, despite what I said in my other blog about starting the Alexa on Easter Sunday, I guess that was an April fool :) I did the work you see here - I glued together pieces of the Pegasus Gothic kits, attached them to a big piece of plasticard as a base and started work on the nose. 3mm plasticard is fun to cut, u guise . .  .

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The Opus COMPLETED! & Thunderhawk mockup: 18 March 2018

Okay, so bad pictures are bad (terrible background and no lighting worth a damn) but the Opus is completed! Follow my other blog to see nicer pictures when I get around to taking them :)

And I also managed, while the base was drying (bases always take an age to dry, don't they?) to create a cardboard mockup of the Thunderhawk.

This was very useful, and allowed me to measure things and get an idea if the proportions were going to work. I think the wingspan needs to be bigger (and, yes, I am aware the tail fin is on backwards . . .)

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The Opus: 17 March 2018

Today was a Saturday, so the plan was for a lot of painting and to complete the project. But I was invited to a party in the evening, and I had to make a cake for the party (delicious, it was). Cake making does not count as #1HourANight but I did manage to get some modelling in. The model still looks very similar, though . . .

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The Opus: 16 March 2018

Again, there is work being done on it - I promise! These weekday evenings just don't have that much time to work on things and, full disclosure, I don't actually enjoy painting as much as assembly.

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The Opus: 15 March 2018

The lighting is different, and I promise the painting is, too!

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The Opus: 14 March 2018

It is a different picture from yesterday, I promise . . .

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The Opus: 13 March 2018

The first of several days when I didn't get very much done at all, and all the pictures look very, very similar. Working on the details of the Opus.

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Thunderhawk: 12 March 2018

More work on planning the Thunderhawk this evening - I got a different set of plans, printed them out (I also had to resize them) and sketched some modifications on them. For details of what I did, check out my other blog!

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Thunderhawk: 11 March 2018

Not a lot of actual modelling today, but a significant amount of planning - a scratch-built Sisters of Battle Thunderhawk gunship! Take a look at my other blog for a post about the planning stages.

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Colossal Statue: 10 March 2018

I finally finished the statue (she had a little bit of sculpting to be done on the chainmail on her left arm). I then sprayed her black, sprayed her gold (Krylon, natch) and gave her a wash of some dark woodstain. I think she looks great - she just needs the rocky base painting (you can see a test swatch in the bottom right of the final picture) and this part will be done. I have more advanced ideas for the base, so watch this space!

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Palatine Melania: 9 March 2018

And here she is finished! Perhaps with the dullcoat on, perhaps not (I bought some Krylon matte varnish and it's great).

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Palatine Melania & Inquisitor Danforth: 8 March 2018

I pulled a couple of figures off the unfinished pile and worked on them. One is Palatine Melania (a character who has just appeared in the RPG I am running) and the other is my namesake; Inquisitor Danforth Laertes (in his war-armor released from the Crystal Vault by Verity herself). I'd already done a fair bit of work on Melania (who is a conversion based on a Warmachine figure) but hadn't done anything with Danforth. She got a few more details and he got the classic "weathered bronze" I really like using.

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Canoness Shania: 7 March 2018

And here she is completed! Canoness Shania of the Order of Our Crystal Lady. She is varnished with satin Krylon, which I think gives an unwanted gloss to her. I bought the satin because the place I was at did not have matte - but I shall have to get some matte and re-varnish her, I think. Not a big deal.

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Canoness Shania: 6 March 2018

I really stuck with it and finished off the Canoness. To be honest, it really wasn't that much work. To be honest, I think a lot of models are like this - I dread slogging through them, but when it actually comes down to it the actual process is much easier. Anyway - here she is, all-but-done (basing and a few details).

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Canoness Shania: 5 March 2018

I'd had enough of working on an aircraft, so I pulled out a very old model and worked on it. I'd already done a fair bit of work on it, and I didn't get much done to push it forward.

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The Opus: 4 March 2018

Lots of work done - mostly with decals and stickers. The white markings are DIY decal paper sprayed white and then cut up. The rest of the decals are from various Imperial kits. There are a number of stickers, too - these were from a Bandai Zoid kit and were stuck down after using gloss varnish to make a smooth surface. I then gloss varnished over the top to hold them in place.

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The Opus: 3 March 2018

Masking! I've never really used masking on models before - I haven't needed to - and I know you are supposed to use specialized modelling masking tape. Or perhaps that is just what you are supposed to think because it worked just fine using regular masking tape (not even that fancy blue painter's tape) and a craft (rather than model) paint. I masked off various areas and painted them the "Tuscan red".

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The Opus: 2 March 2018

Friday is RPG night, and we had a power outage, so there was little time to paint. But I painted a thing red! I am actually using some craft paint, not model paint, as many of my red model paints had dried up and the color was just perfect. It seems to work very nicely.

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The Opus: 1 March 2018

Some black detailing to separate the gold lettering from the silver bodywork.

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