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Hi all,

 

Between computers at the moment as my out of warranty Surface went back to MS for replacement owing to a hardware fault they *finally* acknowledged. So I'm a bit behind on the forums. I haven't done much modelling over Christmas but I did put some stuff together and finally got some paint on some of it. I know I should really be finishing unfinished things, but these are pretty cool models and have been calling to me for a while.

 

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They're two varieties of Imperial Knight from GW's new Adeptus Titanicus line. I really tried to avoid this because it doesn't have tiny tanks, just stompy robots. But I failed obviously, mainly because I read a novel about Titans by Dan Abnett which was really rather good. I'm quite fussy about my sci-fi so I was surprised how much I liked it, and it kind of sealed the deal on a purchase.

 

The smaller Questoris knights come three to a box on a single sprue, and are pretty easy to build thanks to a sensible parts breakdown. They capture many of the details from their 40K scale brethren but are just 40mm high.

 

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The larger pair are two to a box, also on a single sprue, and are maybe an easier build with fewer fiddly parts. They also have nice non-poseable legs which put the feet in stalking positions which rather suit their lanky look.

 

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I primed them black and airbrushed the metallics freehand with Alclad. I think I used Jet exhaust and exhaust manifold for the dark areas, and light aluminium for the trim. I realised when I started painting details that I missed quite a lot of trim as it was hard to read the surface of the model in black primer. Copper bits are Exhaust Manifold with Copper over it, and the reactors are Brass and Pale Burnt Metal.

 

After that I started filling in all the armour panels with thinned Loren Forest and Averland Sunset (oh, and Eshin Grey for the black bits). The green and grey covered in 2-3 coats, but the yellow needed 4-5 despite being a "base" paint because I thinned it quite a bit. The idea was to use the surface tension to find the edges rather than having to line them all individually which mostly worked OK. I was able to remove any blobs on the trim using a wet cocktail stick because the Alclad is quite tough.


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With most of the armour and weapon areas painted I washed the green with Athonian Camoshade, the yellow with Casadora Yellow, and the black with Nuln Oil. The yellow and black look nice and I like the colour of the green but I had some problems with the matting agent clotting and leaving little lumps in/on the surface which I've had to pick off and clean up. Luckily it only happened on one model, I think I probably picked some wash from the rim of the pot and got some dry bits with it? It's hard to see when you're doing it as they tend to have bubbles.

 

I then spent a long time lining all the carapace panels and grilles with Agrax Earthshade and a fine brush.

 

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Which is quite impactful in real life, but not in this lighting. I might seal it and add some enamels, not sure yet. I've also been round the edges of some of the armour panels with this wash as well which looks quite good but is time consuming and invites more cleaning up.

 

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I'm currently trying to make the backs more interesting with some dry-brushing and detail painting, we'll see how that looks tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Thanks guys, just got my computer back from Microsoft and I'm in the process of restoring and sorting out my Lightroom catalogue. Which hopefully means I'll be a bit more active again...

 

While all the photos were copying from the backup drive I edged all the panels, tidied up the tide marks a bit, and painted more details.

 

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I also dry-brushed the metal areas with a couple of different silvers (Ironbreaker and Mithril) so they're ready for a wash. But I need to go and clean everything very carefully as it's suffered from being in the living room and there are bits of fluff and dried pigment all over :(

 

I'm thinking that an oil wash is the way to go, so I ought to seal the panel areas with Klear, and obviously apply any decals at the same time. So that's the next step. Won't be this weekend as my daughter and I are off to an orienteering training camp for three days. Bit nervous as neither of my knees are that great at the moment and I have water on the left one (yes, like in Operation!) although it is improving... Maybe I can do the theory and sit out the practice?

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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29 minutes ago, Rob G said:

Save yourself all the Lightroom catalogue grief and use Bridge/Adobe Camera Raw/Photoshop instead. It's the best photo processing thing that I ever did.

 

https://www.damiensymonds.net/bridge-30-day-challenge

Interesting, I tended to ignore Bridge. Is ACR fast? (Because PS definitely isn't, but then neither is LR...)

The bit that's causing me grief at the moment isn't the catalogue, which I backed up and restored just fine, it's the integration with LR mobile. I use that on my phone a lot and it's really made me take, process and present more photos so I rate it a good thing. But because the local copies on desktop are stored in a wacky secret folder it's a bit of a mess and doesn't integrate well with a Classic catalogue. Especially when that's been migrated across machines.

 

I think I've just about got it sorted now, might've lost an image or an edit here or there, not sure.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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ACR is quicker than you or I, and if Ps is slow for you, you need a better computer (unless you're shooting with a Nikon D800/810/850 or whatever high megapickle thing Cannot and Snoy have; big files take a LOT of processing power and slow is the norm for most people there). Lightroom is slow for everyone, because it's crap. (I used to swear by it, until I got tired of swearing AT it, and made the change.)

 

I do 99% of my post work in ACR and only drop into Ps when I really make a mess of an image in camera, or if I need to wrangle pixels. The ACR tools are the same as Lr, but the histogram's accurate, it's faster and there's no dumb catalogue (Windows has a perfectly acceptable catalogue built in!)

 

As Damien says, give it a try for 30 days. If it works for you, make the change. If not, go back to Lr. No real loss except a bit of time. Of course there's no phone version of ACR, so you'll be back to Lr Mobile if you need that functionality. Or you can use an alternative- I was using PhotoMate R2, which has been replaced by R3, but I don't do any serious processing on mobile devices any more as the screens can't be calibrated. YMMV.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I had another gap there as we were off at an orienteering training camp (lots of getting lost in trackless forest) and then there's been a mini-heatwave. But I managed to find the decal sheet for the bigger knights and have now got some markings on all of them:

 

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The GW decals are excellent - thin and hard to mess up. I'd painted the armour panels with Klear as a base and also as a sealant for the enamel weathering to come. I used a mix of the kit decals and some from the 40K-scale Knight.

 

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The Adeptus Titanicus decal sheets don't include anything for House Cadmus as the game is set in the Horus Heresy and Cadmus is a "modern" knight house, but I used a mix of generic decals like the Imperial eagles, plus some useful swords from the House Vyronii markings. I trimmed the edges off these and painted in the House Cadmus beast heads by hand.

 

I also lettered the scrolls on the small knights with a fine Copic pen which worked really well, they aren't visible in the pics though as the angle is too low :(

 

Anyway, I'm now in the process of applying some enamel weathering after sealing in the decals with Klear. The armour plates are all a bit glossy so I'm going to need to do some spot varnishing to hide the decal film, but it's looking OK so far.

 

Cheers,

 

Will 

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Aah, getting somewhere now! I added some Mig Dark Wash and a bit of brown around the metal areas, and here we are:

 

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More clean-up required still, but they suddenly look a lot more solid and interesting to me at least :) I also took a better picture of the carapaces to show all the quartering etc.

 

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The backs are still a bit plain:

 

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Maybe a highlight on the hoses will help with that?

 

Will 

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Thanks! I don't think it needs much at the back, but a touch of brighter metal or something to balance out the two shiny bits among the dark?

 

I did a bit more today, adding some mini-style highlights, cleaning up the heads and reinstating some of the colour in the dark areas. I also added glowing eyes, which need neatening up a bit more still.

 

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After that I airbrushed all the panels and plates with a couple of coats of Tamiya lacquer flat clear, which isn't really flat and has a nice level of "scale" sheen. To properly hide the decal edges I followed that with a very careful coat of two of Dullcote in the centres of the panels only, so it wouldn't spoil the metal bits.

 

I need to do some bases tonight I think, it's time to get them put together and carry on with the two bigger knights, who I think are going to have to be Sir Boris and Sir Morris after these two heroes:

 

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

 

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And a bit more - lots of separate small jobs since last time.

 

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I added gloss AK oils (fuel/oil stains) to the hydraulics, in fact I think I might've overdone that as there's not much pure silver visible at all. Also GW Agrax Gloss to joints and the chainsword teeth. I think maybe that's an easier option as the enamel gloss tends to be sticky? The exhausts were tidied up with washes and a little silver metallic paint to remove overspray, and then they and surrounding carapace areas had a mist of thinned Tamiya flat black to deposit some soot. I used this on the flamer as well, and applied a bit of Clear Blue and Clear Violet to suggest heat bloom. It's not that obvious as the copper was a bit too dark/too colourful for it to show, but I think it's *just* visible in the tarnished area. I also needed to drybrush a little copper back onto the areas to pick out the edges under the black.

 

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I've also shaded and highlighted the gold reactor and copper tanks on the back of each model, painted in details like the cooling fins on the chainswords, burnished graphite powder onto the gun barrels and the like. Oh, and I added some rust streaks where necessary to hide blotchy areas and tide marks, and filled in the cockpit hatch portholes with Clear Red.

 

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Still got stuff to do - I've started the bases, and I haven't painted any of the carapace hand rails, which will no doubt be a bit fiddly...

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Here are the bases so far:

 

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The grit is one of the GW texture paints, which are actually not bad - they looked like they'd shrink too much as they appear wetter than e.g. the Tamiya pastes, but it was manageable.

I used scraps of styrene sheet for the concrete pads, and the barriers are offcuts of GW sprue with its useful cross-section.

 

I think they need a dusting of pigments to unify things a bit, and probably some scrubby greenery would help too.

 

Cheers,

 

Will 

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Thanks Andy, weirdly painting concrete is my particular joy :) Just like real life it's so varied and random.

 

More for my notes than anything, before I forget - the recipe for these started with a couple of thin coats of Rakarth Flesh (pink-grey) over grey primer.

 

Then I added sharp marks in sponged or stippled (Castellan?) green and applied several thin washes of paint (can't remember the colours, but I'll wager I used Agrax Earthshade and Screaming Skull) and blotting them off again with a sponge or tissue.  The markings were painted very sketchily with thinned Screaming Skull and then I picked at the edges with a wet cocktail stick before the paint cured.

 

I gave it all a very thin wash of the earth colour (Steel Legion Drab) and a drybrush with Celestra Grey (light opaque blue-grey) and white to bring it together, and then sanded the surface lightly with 1000 grit paper. There's a bit of MIG rubble dust in there as well but the matt varnish meant it ended up very subtle. Bad for scale effect but good for robustness and "gameyness".

 

I want to try one with hazard stripes at some point, I think a touch more colour would be nice.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been working on the Cerastus (tall skinny) knights to try and get those done this week:

 

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I started with enamel washes (MIG dark and rust) applied quite liberally and then blended/streaked away with a damp brush. I also used some Tamiya panel liner colours which flow slightly better to fill in panel edging where it had gaps.

 

After that I got the acrylics out to highlight various features on the carapace with Loren Forest and Elysian Green:

 

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I also added some chips with Vallejo Camo Black Brown, which weren't on the smaller knights, and some acrylic rust streaks from Ryza Rust and Seraphon Sepia. I'm currently tidying these up and painting the hoses which I find a bit irritating. At least the larger knights are less well supplied with hoses than the small ones.

 

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Oh, and I touched in the edges of the banners with reds and oranges and glazed the highlights to saturate them. But like the hoses I haven't taking a picture of that bit yet.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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On 12/02/2019 at 02:26, Will Vale said:

weirdly painting concrete is my particular joy :) Just like real life it's so varied and random.

You paint real concrete too? Well, I suppose everyone has to have a hobby :P

 

Seriously though, thanks for the step-by-step breakdown of your method. The results speak for themselves, and I may well have to 'borrow' some of those ideas next time I'm doing some concrete.

 

Andy:cat:

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7 hours ago, AndyRM101 said:

You paint real concrete too? Well, I suppose everyone has to have a hobby :P

I find a size 0 brush is good for getting coverage in between the bits of aggregate...

 

W

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been a bit busy the last week or so, but I'm still plugging away at small bits of paint on the Cerastus knights, they're just about due for varnishing. Last weekend we drove up the coast to run around where they filmed the Osgiliath bits of Lord of the Rings:

 

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but this week I've caught up with some modelling and made bases for the knights. As they're a bit bigger (50mm diameter) than the first knights I thought they could have a bit more detail.

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The pipes probably count as a trip hazard, but will hopefully tie the bases in to some eventual refinery scenery I'd like to build.

The cream pipes are sprue, drilled out and cleaned up, with inspection covers from punched discs of styrene. The barriers are more GW ingot-shaped sprue, and I used a handful of AFV spares for the buried tank and the pumpy gubbins. Not bad for a trip to the bits box.

This time I filled the gaps below the concrete pads and sanded it all smooth so hopefully the edges will be a bit more professional than the last lot :)


Cheers,

Will

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Got some primer on the bases while I was varnishing the armour panels, and cleaned up some stray bits of grit. The problem with the grit pastes (as compared to glue and loose material) is that you can easily end up with particles stuck where they would fall off.

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I went round with a cocktail stick flicking them off surfaces, and did a bit more filling and sanding on one of the edges. And while I've started painting (base colours only) I haven't taken any pics today, sorry!

 

W

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Painted the bases now, up to a point at least. I followed the recipe I wrote above for the concrete and it came out pretty similarly, so I think I described the steps and colours correctly. I did add a wash of Reikland Fleshshade to get some rustier tones in there to go with all the metal bits:

 

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The red metal areas are Khorne Red with washes of Agrax Earthshade and Reikland Fleshshade, then highlights of Mephiston Red and some brushed/sponged orange on the edges.

 

The pipes are Dryad Bark (I think) with various browns and oranges stippled or dry-brushed on. That looked a bit messy so I sponged a brown/black mix over to tone things down, and I'm thinking I might add a bit of dirty metal after they're varnished - something like Tin Bitz or whatever the current equivalent is? Applied to the middle bits of pipes that are in reasonable repair only.

 

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I need to paint some lines on the maybe-it's-a-screen thing (green bit) and do some more to the pipes so they look a bit more real - maybe time for enamels? Up to now it's all been Citadel paints & washes.

 

I also might tidy up the THETA-7 text a bit more, or weather over it to disguise the bits that are less neat? Also wondering if a bit of yellow or some other text or graffiti on the pipes would be a good idea?

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

 

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I think the bases are done - greened, varnished and weathered a bit. I also stippled some Tin Bitz and Boltgun Metal onto the pipes away from the rusty ends, and toned it down with sponged Agrax Earthshade.

 

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The cable is a bit of EZ Line fixed with matt medium, and the oily marks are stippled Typhus Corrosion and Agrax Earthshade Gloss. With some matt Agrax to blend them in around the edges. I thought this combination worked really well and I might be less ready to reach for the AK stuff in future.

 

I haven't fixed the knights yet, I need to figure out exactly where to put them, but the general idea seems to work.

 

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Given that they were painted in different sessions they match the smaller ones pretty well.

 

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Cheers,

 

Will

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I had time to fit the knights to the bases yesterday. They each have one flat foot and one raised toe, so I drilled up into the leg between the toes on the flat foot and glued in a length of 0.5mm brass wire. Then fitted this through a hole in the base with a little CA under the toes and a blob of earth stuff on the toes which weren't on concrete.

 

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On the above knight, where the lifted foot is on concrete I also drilled (nervously!) through the base from below into the flat toe and fitted a second rod as I thought it might need a bit more to keep it flat. So far so good.

 

I built up the earth around the feet and painted it to match the rest of the base, with more dark washes around the foot itself to suggest disturbed earth and help ground it with both contact and shadow.

 

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I've also added some glossy washes around the joints and hydraulics, and painted in the eye glows which don't quite work yet so I'll adjust them carefully shortly. Looking at the models I think they need a bit more interest on the hips which are rather bigger and more exposed than those on the questoris knights I did before.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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I finally got the weaponry painted and put the remaining bits on with CA :)

 

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I polished up the lance rods with graphite and gave them several coats of gloss Agrax Earthshade before building up a mixture of matt Agrax and Typhus Corrosion (which is lumpy) on the ends. The heads were painted Hashut Copper and washed with Reikland Fleshshade, Agrax and Nihilahk Oxide before drybrushing more copper, Boltgun metal, and finally touching in the upper flukes with Vallejo liquid metal copper.

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I need to touch up a bit of copper on the grey when I was painting the heat-sink fins. The shield was mostly the same colours, applied with a mix of sponging and dry-brushing.

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I also built up some shading on the "thigh bones" and picked out various details with shading and highlights including the reactors and tanks. The light is a bit bright for good pictures but I'll take some tomorrow hopefully after touch-ups.

Cheers,

 

Will

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