Calth Finished

I'm calling this one done.  I changed my mind about doing oil washes for the Word Bearers, so I was able to finish up in a few less steps.  I'd say that they are a good table top level, but I'm happy with them.  Everything is back in the box and the board pieces are still unpunched.  Maybe I'll get a game in some day, but for now they are in the stack of fully painted GW games (Space Hulk, Dreadfleet,  and Assiasinorium).  I've got the deathwatch box now and have the genestealer half assembled and primed...

The stages for the word bearers were:
Spray black base
Red airbrushing (directional highlighting)
Silver details
Black details
Green eyes
Gloss spray (airbrushed future floor polish)
Decals (using micro sol and micro set)
matte spray (testors dull coat)
Shoulder pad silver edging
green eye highlights

Calth Word bearers progress

Here's a quick picture showing the state of things on my Calth set.  The Word Bearers are almost ready for their oil paint treatment, and the Ultramarines are pretty much done.  The bases are basically done as well, so they are passable as table top ready, but I'd like to add some more details and highlights.

Calth Word Bearers progress

I was able to carve out a little time last night to lay down a better red on the word bearer tactical troops.  I used GW paints in my airbrush and am quite happy with the brightness of the red.  The Minnitare paints don't go well over darker colours, but the GW ones have better pigments.

I'll have to retouch the black bits and add the silver before I can move onto the oil wash.

Calth Ultramarines almost done

A little more progress on the Calth Ultramarines.  I have all the decals done on the tactical squad and terminators, so they can get a matte spray and finish up the bases.  I may try to do some edge highlights, but that's not necessary for the level of finish I'm going for on these guys.  The terminator captain is almost done, just some more highlights and decals and he'll be done too.  The Word Bearer guy needs some work, but I'm liking how the red is looking on him so far.

Its good that I'm making progress since my Deathwatch box is showing up this weekend...

Betrayal at Calth - more progress

Here's some more progress pictures of my Calth marines.

The Ultramarine tactical squad is ready for a matte seal coat now that the decals have set nicely.  They received a few coats of micro sol and that helped them conform nicely to the shoulder pads.  The terminators have their oil wash and are ready for another gloss coat for their decals.

The Word Bearers have been drybrushed and given black details, next up will be silver.  I'm not happy with the brightness of the red, so I may do a quick overall highlight of the armour before moving to the oil wash.  I'm thinking something like Wild Rider Red thinned down red will do the trick.

Betrayal at Calth Progress

Here's some more progress pictures of my ultramarines as well as the base coat (airbrush) for the word bearers.  The ultramarine tacticals got a coat of future floor polish to prepare for decals, and the terminators got their coat to prepare for the oil wash.  The captain is just getting normal layers, so he won't need the oil wash.

The airbrush layer on the word bearers was just red over a black primer, with a quick orange coat to brighten things up before layering it with red again.  I'm not sure if they are bright enough yet, so I may do another coat of red before moving on to the details.

Betrayl at Calth progress - Terminator Captain

Here's some progress pictures of the Terminator Captain, who is getting the Ultramarine treatment.  I gave him the same airbrush base coat, but will be painting him using normal layering instead of the oil wash.  This will help him stand out and is more enjoyable to paint.  I'll do this for the Dark Apostle as well when I get around to doing the Word Bearers.

These pictures are before I applied washes to each of the areas.  Black to the metal and grey, dark brown to the gold, flesh to head.  After that I touched up the blue and applied a fine black wash to all the armour.  Next up will be highlights.

Calth Ultramarines - Oil Wash results

Here's the results after using a Q-tip to wipe off the excess oil wash.  I waited about 6 hours after applying it and took a q-tip to each model (both ends, one per model) and wiped away as much of the wash as I could.  I had to be a bit careful on any sharp bits so they didn't catch on the cotton, but for the most part I was wiping away everything on the flat surfaces.  In the end all that is left is what was in the recesses and you don't need to do much highlighting.  I'm pretty happy with these guys, and they could be left as is, or if I have time I could add some edge highlights.  They'll definitely need a matte spray finish, but I'll do that after I do their bases with some sand finish.

I wish I had made the highlights a bit more pronounced with the airbrush, so that's a note for next time.

This is before

Before

After

After (he'll need some highlights on his helmet)

The whole squad after I finished

Calth Ultramarine Tactical progress - Oil wash

I managed to get through the oil wash stages on my tactical troops from the Calth box.  This was a bit of a test, and I'm pretty happy with the results.  To review, first was laying down some basic highlights with the airbrush (blues), adding silver, gold and black (plus some grey and red details), then spraying with future floor polish before adding an oil based black wash.

The idea is this... future floor polish is an acrylic gloss finish.  This will protect the paints underneath from the oils and allow me to rub off some of the black after its partially dry.  The gloss finish allows the paints to flow nicely, and since its from a bottle I can airbrush it on.  The oil wash is just a mix of thinner and artist oil paints.  I'll be using black, but you could use whatever makes sense for the colours your are shading.

Tactical squad with the acrylic gloss coat

Closer look at the gloss finish 

All ready for the oil wash

Oil wash applied

Ok to dry for a few hours

Ultramarine progress - Airbrushing

I finally got around to airbrushing these guys.  I had to check that my compressor wouldn't wake up my son, and thankfully being at the opposite side of the house was sufficient.  So that means I can work on things while he's napping or sleeping.

Anyway, I added some highlighting layers to these guys.  I'm using Badger minitaire paints, and found that they weren't really adding much until I added some white to the paint.  In the future I think I'm going to start with a black base rather than blue and work up the colours.  After a blue and white coat I added some blue ghost tint to the models.  Some of it helped, but I also think I may have messed up some areas.  Maybe I'll give these guys another shot before moving on to brushing on the other colours.

Calth Ultramarines Base coated

Here's a couple pics of my Ultramarine force before and after the base coat.  I used double sided tape to attach them to the strips of wood and sprayed them with some army painter sprays.  Nothing fancy here.  I did the underside of the shoulder pads gold in hopes that it'll save time when I do the edges.  Next up will be some zenith highlights with the airbrush followed by the additional base colours.

I'm thinking the process will be:

Spray base coat
Airbrush highlights
Additional colours
Airbrush gloss (future floor polish)
Oil wash
Matte spray
Decals (maybe paint some gloss on areas for decals first)
Final highlights (going to try water colour pencils)
Matte Spray

Final assembly and basing.

Hopefully this will be quick and easy.

Assembling Cataphractii Terminators

Man, I'm having a hard time finding time to assemble all the guys from this box.  So many bits to clean up so it takes for ever.  I guess that's a blessing and a curse with not having single pose models.  Lots of options, but takes way longer.

Hersey Marines

I've started assembling the first squad of marines from the Betrayal at Calth box.  So far its your typical marine assembly.  I was getting flash backs to my early years with the original plastic marines when assembling the rocket launcher.  Its interesting how they have tried to match the look based on a design that's what, 25 years old?

A few observations:
-Adding the hands to the weapons will make for better assembly, but makes painting a bit more difficult (can't leave the weapons off).
-I don't like the pose that I ended up with for the sergent with lightening claw.  Might have to repose it.

Contemptor Re-pose

At the suggestion of MiniWarBlog in my comments I reposed the contemptor's torso and assault cannon.  To get a minimal cut I used a sharp exacto knife rather than the razor saw.  The saw would have cut out about 1mm out, and I didn't want to build a spacer.  So I rotated the torso slightly and did the same with the weapon arm to give a slightly more dynamic pose.

Here's a look at the top half of the torso after cutting:

Betrayal at Calth Comptemptor Assembly

Hobbits are done, and now on to my next project, the Horus Heresy, Betrayal at Calth.  I decided to start by assembling the Contemptor and I think I'll try to do all of the Word Bearers first before moving onto the Ultra marines.  I'm hoping to airbrush them, so I'll be doing some sub assembly first before applying the main colours.  Hopefully I can come up with an efficient process.  I'm thinking of leaving their backpacks and shoulder pads off, but I'm not sure about their weapons.

As for the Contemptor, I think I'll make a few cuts and rotate the arms and torso.  It looks pretty static and maybe a little modification will go a long way.

Some hobbits battling it out on my desk:

Ready to dig into the Contemptor sprue:

Assembly done, needs some magnets: