Painting the Rectificators

Chicago Games Day 08 Duel

2008-08-17T16:01:00.005-04:00

GW doesn't seem to want to post this on their site, so I figure I'll post it here first. This little vignette got an honorable mention, and I hope it makes it into the pages of White Dwarf.

Look for this in the mail sometime in September!
(Okay, maybe October...)

EDIT: They are on the web site! Check it out!

Final Group Shot

2008-06-02T20:17:00.004-04:00

I had them all out of the case for a final varnish, so I thought I'd take a final group shot.

I'm gonna miss these guys (sniff.)

After...

2008-06-01T22:09:00.003-04:00

Before...

2008-06-01T18:31:00.001-04:00

A second set of eyes always helps.

Finalization

2008-05-31T23:34:00.003-04:00

Well, there they are.
Please take a look, and let me know if there is anything you would like changed. If they meet your specs, I will send them FedEx Ground on Tuesday.

Please let me say that this has been a great experience. You've been very pleasant to work with and infinitely patient with my inability to estimate time on this project, and I have a little surprise in the works as a way of saying thanks. You won't get to see it until July sometime, so have patience. I'm really hoping it's worth it.

The Rectificators (2 of 2)

2008-05-31T23:22:00.009-04:00

The Rectificators (1 of 2)

2008-05-31T21:43:00.013-04:00

Here is the first set of final shots. Sorry for the low angle. I was quite pleased with how the 2nd storm bolter on the Rhino came out.

Finished!

2008-05-31T01:15:00.001-04:00

That's it. They're done.
I wish I had the energy to take photographs tonight.

Almost Last Night, anyway

2008-05-30T02:15:00.006-04:00

I decided to update a little differently this time...

The collision of real life and a bunch of painting details is going to push it out another night. Seriously though... here's the short list:

Latin phrases
Vindicator driver
hatch on predator
Improve lenses on dreadnought weapons
color coding on Razorback turrets

So close.

Last Night... and Last Night

2008-05-29T12:30:00.003-04:00

I painted a lot last night. Freehand work. Razorback weapons. Space Marine drivers. Weathered dozer blades.

I will paint a lot tonight. Dreadnought weapons. Skulls (on tanks.... lots of skulls.) Other things, as I find them.

Tonight should be the last night. I can't believe I'm really saying that.

More Tanks!

2008-05-28T01:14:00.006-04:00

There are some nights of painting that seem like work. There are other that fly by, and you regret the fact that you have to stop for something as trivial as sleep. Tonight was the latter of the two. Tonight reminded me of why I like painting.

The Rhino is pretty much done. I need to do some little details on Sinkiller. It turns out that nine letters on that little piece of scroll on the sarcophohas are a bit much. I had some retries, but I got it. I was happy how the freehand turned out too. Simple, but pretty much what I was going for.

So we're pretty much down to details on the tanks at this point. I've been looking over the troops to try and find things I had missed, and I've found a few good ones.... like forgetting to paint the chapter symbol on the chaplain. Whoops. Also, everything will fit into one army case, so I will probably ship them separately to save money, assuming insuring only one box will save money.

zzzzzzzzz

2008-05-27T00:32:00.001-04:00

all treads are on

Some gray details done. more to do.

orange dreadnought.... much cooler than it sounds.

okay. bed.

Tanks A Lot

2008-05-24T15:25:00.002-04:00

My wife was kind enough to supply the title of this post. I can take no blame... er, um credit.

More as the weekend continues. Hopefully the new dozer blades don't look too much like doors. The eagle on the one (again, Stef's idea) helps.

The Razorback guns are converted, but not painted. I used a magnet, so switch the cowling should be a little easier than the pin system I devised for my own. Oh, yeah... my own Razorback and Dread are out on the table. I'm not really sure why I put them in the picture.

The goal for the weekend

2008-05-22T07:51:00.002-04:00

There was a long meeting last night, so no painting work.

Tonight:

add searchlights, smoke launchers and tracks on all tanks
paint gunmetal details on tanks
paint gray details on tanks
build another dozer blade or two

Tomorrow:

turrets for razorbacks
freehand on vehicles

I guess they are supposed to share

2008-05-20T23:12:00.003-04:00

Okay, GW. I have a question.

If every stinking tank the Space Marines have can take the "dozer blades" option, then why oh why is the Razorback turret the only sprue that actually has a dozer blade on it!?!? Yeah, I know. The new Vindicator has 10x the dozer blade that any tank before it has had, but that doesn't really help me now, does it? Does it?

Well, griping aside, I'm trying to get all the details for the tanks together so I can actually finish them. Yes, I dropped the f-bomb. Finish. I'm having a hard time tracking back through all the emails to get the details right, so please verify them for me here. Also, I shall craft a clever dozer blade alternative in light of GW wonderful ability to not include them.

Dreadnought: all weapons interchangeable, including storm bolter and heavy flamer. Did you want searchlight or smoke launcher?

Razorbacks: convertible heavy bolter / lascannon turrets, dozer blades, storm bolters

Predators: Autocannon turrets, heavy bolter sponsons, storm bolter, dozer blades
(one will have convertible lascannon/autocannon turret)

Rhino: storm bolter, dozer blade

Vindicator: storm bolter, dozer blade

Airbrush: Big fun, Huge Mess

2008-05-20T01:19:00.002-04:00

The second jar of "Macharius Solar Orange" is almost empty. I'm hoping most of it ended up on miniatures. The airbrush is very precise when it's actually being used for painting, but the amount of paint I accidentally spill, or that gets sprayed into a paper towel to clear the nozzle, or during cleaning is epic.

Each tank now has base and weathering. Now all they need are little extra doo-dads like hatches, guns, turrets, scrolls, etc.

I've been noodling over how to make the sponsons on the Predators convertible, and I just can't think of a good way.

Do you have a preference for hatch open/hatch closed on any of these?

Little Update, No Photo

2008-05-17T09:04:00.002-04:00

I took a couple nights off painting, mostly due to being sick and turning 40.

Last night, I worked on tanks some more. By the end of the weekend they should all be pretty far along.

I Think My Eyes Are Bleeding

2008-05-13T23:25:00.003-04:00

I had to take a couple puffs of Albuterol this evening, so my hands were shaking. Trying to write 2mm text with shaky hands is... challenging. The usual tricks for steadying seemed to work, and the lettering doesn't look appreciably different than my normal non-shaky lettering. I'll need to go back over them to strengthen the lines.

4/8

2008-05-13T00:50:00.003-04:00

Not bad for basecoating. You can see the darkening effect on the Predator around the exhaust stacks, and the dusty areas at bottom near the treads. These are all airbrushy goodness.

The turret on the Predator is one I had previously converted to a convertible autocannon/lascannon. The only caveat is that it is fixed in the forward position.

Would you like the option to switch out for the lascannons at some point on one of the tanks?

Oh, man. Airbrushes rock.

2008-05-09T21:36:00.004-04:00

Ann Marie brought her airbrush in for me to use. Oh. Wow.

I tested it first on a dreadnought of mine, just to get a feel for the controls. Then I tried a Space Marine. Then I tried the Rhino/Predator chassis. Then the other dread.

Oh, man. So smooth. So fast.
I have got to get myself one of these things. The only downside is that I look like I've been eating cheetos when I'm done. Orange fingers.

Oh, this is going to be fun

2008-05-09T09:38:00.002-04:00

No work last night. None. I somehow crashed out at 10:00 PM fully dressed.

But... but! My coworker Ann Marie loaned me her air brush and compressor. There shall be tanks. Oh, yes. There shall be tanks.

A Glimpse onto the WIP Shelf

2008-05-07T22:20:00.002-04:00

Somewhere in there are your sniper scouts. Please don't be concerned by the other items on the shelf. There is the odd mini that my kids have painted, along with a 30+ year old Star Destroyer and ... well.... lots of stuff.

Paint Chip in the Eye. Seriously.

2008-05-06T23:53:00.004-04:00

I just got back from the ER. My buddy who works at the GW store got a paint chip in his eye, and they had to use a needle to remove it.

Paint chip in the eye. Strange, and it gets stranger. As we got ready to leave, the brake light on my truck was lit and the brakes felt very mushy. Whoops. Looks like I may be working from home tomorrow. Good things the economic stimulus package (aka "stimpack") showed up in my account today.

Don't get too excited yet.,,,

2008-05-05T23:45:00.004-04:00

As you can see, all the veterans are done and the scouts are in progress.

So much for my "three vehicle" goal. I expected to have more done by now. I always do.

Nightly updates from now on, even if only text.

Still. Still....

2008-04-08T23:41:00.003-04:00

One more night and the veterans should be ready for approval shots. I still need to finish the standard and the snipers.

The Hours Melt Away

2008-04-03T23:19:00.003-04:00

I haven't been estimating "almost" very well lately. Despite these guys being "almost done" I have managed to spend a few nights of several hours of painting and they seemingly creep to completion.

At this point you can see (perhaps) that all holsters are done, power weapons have a few colors, special decorations (power fists, chest symbols, etc.) are done. The apothecary will get some more colors on his sensors.

Mini-rant: I'm shocked that GW has no plans to release black, white and gunmetal foundation paints in single jars! I refuse to buy an entire hobby kit just to get those three paints!! (Oh, who am I kidding... I probably will.)

The Veterans are Nearly Done

2008-04-01T22:23:00.004-04:00

They only need shoulder insignia, eyes cleanup, base color and bolters. Okay, and skull highlights. And power weapons. Man there are 1000 details that you can miss on these things. Oh, and don't worry about the shine on the black too much. The foundation black is pretty shiny, but the Testor's dullcote I'm protecting them with takes the shine down nicely. The non-veteran marine in the front is a good example of final tone.

You can catch the command squad peppered in there, but the standard is not mounted to the bearer yet. The apothecary should be pretty obvious.

Vehicles, well.... stay tuned. Very soon. No April Fool's joke here.

A Librarian and a Chaplain walk into a bar...

2008-03-17T00:22:00.003-04:00

Wow, has it really been two weeks since I last posted something?!!?

Here are WIP's of the two HQ models. The sash on the chaplain will be gray.

Is the blue on the Librarian okay? I figured some touch of blue would be fluffy.

Veteran models are nearly done, except for a lot of base painting. These pseudo-urban ruin bases take a lot of painting, since the cork absorbs quite a bit of paint before taking on the color.

The Dreadnought "Sinkiller" is partially done, but most of the other vehicles aren't very far along.

The Unmitigated Disappointment of Poor Photography

2008-03-03T09:09:00.009-05:00

I was seriously considering not posting these, but I haven't updated in an age, so here they are. I'm guessing I had forgotten to set the camera on macro model. I was pretty happy with the way these turned out so the photos were a big let down, especially since I have taken pretty good photos of models fairly recently.

Pictures are the (presumed) completed non-veteran tactical marines. I also included the assault and scout squads, since they now have snow.

I can see in the photo that I forgot to hit the joints on the assault marines, so I'll go back and get those. The rest of the tactical marines are WIP, at about 50% color. I'll be completing them in small batches at this point, since most of the "assembly line" style painting is done. All infantry except sniper scouts have their orange scheme in place. Veteran non-command models are next. Vehicles are still in various states of assembly.

Take to the Skies!

2008-02-04T02:00:00.000-05:00

Despite the poor photo, the assault squad is looking quite good. I still need to shade the vents of the regular troopers to match the sergeant.

...and, of course, they need snow.

Next up! Tactical Marines and lots of them!

Scouts. For scouting.

2008-01-23T00:22:00.001-05:00

The scouts are nearing completion. They need snow.

I wanted to base them to represent "move through cover" a little more than the average tactical marine, so I put larger chunks of concrete/cork on their bases. This lead to some interesting center of gravity issues for the models leaning more heavily to one side or the other. I corrected the imbalance with fishing sinkers glued to the light side of the base, as pictured here.

Wow, that is one blue picture. Digital photography can be mystifying.

Here is the latest version of the chapter symbol. It's a little shiny, since it need to be varnished. I think we're pretty much where you had specified, but let me know if you want changes.

And lastly, I'll throw in a WIP of the assault sergeant. I still need to highlight his chest insignia, hit the joints with boltgun, and probably add more damage to the power fist.

Update.... 15 down (well, 16 including that sergeant)

2008-01-21T06:34:00.000-05:00

Assault Squad and regular scouts are almost complete. (Sorry for the lack of pics over the weekend.) Tactical squads will be next.

We need to discuss what the company standard will look like. That will probably require a couple iterations of revision before I get it exactly how you want it.

More Pics Soon

2008-01-17T00:16:00.001-05:00

I hope to get more WIP pics over the weekend. Stay tuned!

Scout

2008-01-14T01:05:00.001-05:00

The scout sergeant is the test model for that unit. The model directly to the left shows a scout in progress, and should give a good idea of the importance of getting a good base coat for flesh. One coat, even for foundation paints, is seldom enough. Undiluted paints result in chunky texture. Only multiple thin coats can give a smooth texture and good coverage at the same time.

Each of the scouts is equipped with an empty pistol holster, which makes attaching additional pistol holsters counterintuitive. To get around this, I clipped the pistol grip off four of the holsters and glued them in place on the existing holsters.

Chapter Symbol

2008-01-10T06:35:00.000-05:00

I altered the sergeant's chapter insignia to reflect better proportions and some options for added decoration. It will be modified to match the final design.

Assembly continues!

Now comes the tedious part

2008-01-08T00:29:00.001-05:00

Now comes the task of preparing the models for painting. I've washed the plastic scouts and assault marines, and are in the process of assembling them. The assault marine squad has 110 parts, plus basing. I will have to partially assembly the scouts, since bolters will cover their chest plates and make painting difficult. Once the fronts are painted I will glue on the arms and work from there. The scout sergeant with the power fist doesn't look as lopsided as I had feared he might.

First model complete?

2008-01-08T00:25:00.000-05:00

Having added black to the gun (handle and side panels) and painting the chapter insignia, I think this sergeant is about done. Assuming, of course, that this is how you want the chapter symbols done. I think there's an optical illusion in the photo that makes the cross a bit distorted, but it looks quite square on the model.

Getting close on test model

2008-01-05T00:17:00.000-05:00

I think we're getting close on this. I changed the power weapon color using purple ink. I also added some more roughness to the concrete and then added the snow. I still need to add the chapter insignia.

I bought a compact fluorescent light bulb to use as a second light source when I paint, so hopefully there photos will look better than my historically bad photography.

If this looks good to you then I'll get started in earnest on the troops.

More testing

2008-01-03T00:20:00.000-05:00

After a second session of painting, I'm rather liking the effect of the orange armor. I toned the highlight on the side of the helmet down a notch, which should lower the chalky look. I still need to paint the chapter insignia on the other side... we might go through a couple iterations of that until we get one you like. I can see in the photo that the brush-on matte varnish that I use hasn't completely dried in a couple spots, so don't be alarmed by goopy spots. :-)

The basing is cork painted to look like a slab of concrete, and sergeants/veterans will get slightly higher basing than regular marines.

From Zero

2007-12-31T02:26:00.000-05:00

I had one of the models that will be included in the army beforehand, so I was able to get started on a veteran sergeant before most of the models arrive.

I'm pretty much playing around with the orange armor and black helmets. Here is test model #1.

There is a subtle OSL from the green eyes, which I will probably do on sergeant and command models, but not regular tactical marines.