Silver Dart, The Iron Hide of Dakkara

 The snips I'd ordered finally arrived from Hong Kong *note to self, check sellers location before buying on ebay*.

I trimmed the mounting points down on this and re-fitted the magnets. The only thing left to do is touch up the shin plate and this is done.

I'm struggling a bit with motivation right now, as I was pysked up to finish The Lion, but am stuck waiting for the replacement part and just don't feel like starting anything else at this time.

One othee thing I have done is possibly come up with a plan for a colour scheme for the Necron army. I was chatting with the guy I know in Tokyo this morning and the idea came to me about the doing a grey ceramic colour scheme, but with the leaders being repaired /threaded with gold veins to show where they have been damaged. 

I might dig a spare Necron Lord out tomorrow and see how it looks. 

Because He"s Worth It.

 I used the contrast flesh paint on the unhelmeted Lion head, over an ushabati bone base coat.

The hair was given an Averland Sunset coat, a Reikland flesh wash, yriel yellow layer, then a flash git yellow layer.

I need to locate the yellow dry brush shade I have to finish the hair off.

Update on the replacement part;

I proved to Forge World that I had bought the mini official, from them and the replacement part, their wording, will be with me in up to 20 days, as it will be made to order.

The Lion, On Pause

 Forge World's The Lion was worked on yesterday and Saturday.

And while I was plodding on doing the fur trim that goes around the power pack, specifically when I was dry fitting it and after triple checking the instructions I realised that the lion's pelt murder mitten was missing, emailed Forge World last night, will check if there's a reply in an hour. 

This bit is missing the paw

Björn Of The Thousand Sons

 Leaving them alone now...

I had pulled the Thousand Sons dread out of the box it was in and decided to strip it and repaint it as I knew I could do a better job on it now.

After a false start where it got stripped again I started with an ushabati bone base coat, then stormhost silver, followed by a seraphim sepia wash. I'd also painted a test piece Intercessors at the same time. The original plan had been to try the Apothecary white contrast, which led to me redoing the Iron Warriors dread again, to see how that would look, as the test on the power pack had looked more metallic and a lot less white than I had hoped. I went and had a rethink and tried the thinned pallid wytch flesh again which worked a lot better with the metallic base. I went over that with a dry brush of Pallid Wytch Flesh and then a light dry brush of stormhost silver.

The yellow went over the ushabati bone base coat, I gave it an Averland Sunset base, then a Carroburg Crimson wash, a layer of yriel yellow, then a Fuegan Orange wash, then a highlight of flash git yellow.

The blue shoulder had a Thousand Sons blue base with a Seraphim sepia wash then went over that with a dry brush of thousand sons blue, then a highlight of Templar Guard blue.

Gold was a retributor gold base, a reikland flesh wash a highlight layer of the lighter gold, then an edge highlight with the stormhost silver.

The iron warriors Contemptor got done in nearly a day, stripped first thing, washed, dryed and primed, ushabati bone base coat, stormhost silver coat and a seraphim sepia wash before going over that with the Apothecary white contrast.

Today I've added some nuln oil wash in some areas and some temple guard blue on some of those lenses.

Surprise Dreadnought

As I said when I posted the Björn Intercessor the other day, I was going to see how the Apothecary white contrast looks over something that is supposed to be metal,also my living room smells like detol still.

Digging the Iron Warriors Contemptor out of last years Armies on Parade box I put it in some detol to strip first thing, after a wash off and Halfords grey plastic primer it got an ushabati bone base coat, a stormhost silver coat, followed by a seraphim sepia wash.

Next up was the Apothecary White contrast. I honestly think I'd use this if I was looking to do a metallic metal army. One thing I would consider is maybe drop the ushabati bone stage to save a bit of time.

I will go back and do the hazard stripes, most likely at the weekend now. 
 

Steps With Björn

 Since I got out of work yesterday I've put some hours in on these. The yellow was done yesterday.

I started out with an Averland Sunset base, on both the dread and Intercessor, I gave both a Carroburg Crimson wash. Once dry I gave both a layer of yriel yellow, then a wash of Fuegan Orange, this was topped off with a Flash Git yellow layer. 

The blue was started with a base of thousand sons blue, a wash of Seraphim Sepia. When that was dry they got a thin coat of thousand sons blue, then a highlight of temple guard blue. 

The basic point of this was to a better job than I had done the first time I painted this one. Already feel much better with how it's looking. 

Monthly Vow 12th Of July To The 12th Of August

 Yeah The Lion is still in the box... In my defence my last day off was on the 20th of June, so anything that has been has been squeezed in around work.

Plan for July to August

I have a week off so hopefully can get some progress on the Dornian Björn project and there is a X wing Fighter to build and paint, this is for a client of my day job, those Heavy Intercessors still need to be built, as does The Lion. The Björn Fell Handed dread was bought at the weekend, think the box helbrute will be bought next month so that'll be August to September. As well I need to get the Cursed City guy off my mate for the Björn project 

Review Time. 

I finished the replacement Storm Lord off, with the sepia wash on some areas. 

I got back on with the DV Helbrute, fitting the heraldry panels on it with some green stuff, and totally forgot about putting the dire wolf head in the cowl, an inconvenience for sure, but not a big one. 

This lead me to green stuffing the Dire Wolf head on to the front of the cowling, rather than behind it like I had originally intended to do. 

The Claws were also green stuffed into place. 

I gave it all an ushabati bone base coat before going over the flesh bits with the flesh tone contrast paint I have. 

The base coat grey was applied, as was a Sepia wash in some areas. 

Top coat of grey was done and some washes applied to the dueling heraldry plate and some brass Scorpion was added to a few bits of trim, all other bits of trim were painted with an ivory look. 

I also ordered this one a more fitting base, partly as it didn't come with one and partly this looks much more fitting.

Overall I'm really pleased with how this one has come together, my one niggle is I think I should have done the area on the back around the exhaust cowls in grey rather than the flesh tones. 

The mk2 metal dread got some work done/another fiddle, before going back into the project box. 

The Juggernaut arrived, the assembled Gregor sits nicely on there without any work, I'm undecided on if I'm going to give this Gregor the blade from the blood letter. Although I say no work I am planning on removing the claw arm and moving it around so the power fist sits on the shoulder. 

I spent a day priming dreads, one I painted for the Dark Angel, with the old metal front, the Björn the Fell Handed old metal and the World Eaters Contemptor, which I missed the arm off, but found it not long after and primed that and added it to the bag this one is in. 

I need to work on those arms a bit, trim them down a touch so the guns sit better. 

I do seem to have ushabati bone base coated the World Eaters Contemptor, which got bagged at this point, at the same time as I base coated the Björn dread. 

I felt like I'd gone the wrong way with the first attempt, and after some advice I decided to strip this and start again. 

I'd ordered some more fitting bases for the Mortis Talon for The Lion's Blades. 

I though it would be a good idea to use an Intercessor as a test piece for the white on the second attempt. 

The ushabati bone base coat was gone over with a coat of stormhost silver and a Sepia wash before I went over it with a thinned pallid wytch flesh to see how that looked. 

My first attempt at the shoulder was close but needed a bit more, and with some advice from Normski Ealand at Broken Toad Brushes, I got to where I needed to be. 

As I thing I chose to paint the eye lenses 2 different colours. 

Thanks to Normski's suggestion of the Crimson and orange wash over the base coat of avaland sunset, with a yeril yellow layer and a flash git yellow layer.

On my next day off I'm planning to finish this guy with the gold and blue to see how it looks on a modern Primaris Astartes.

On Saturday I went to Preston to get the Apothecary white as well as the Björn dread, the plan was to do a second Intercessor with the contrast paint and see how it looks against the white on the first one, with the better looking version being how I'd paint the dread. I started with the contrast paint on the pack. This was not what I had hoped for, if I intend to ever do a metallic look, maybe strip the Iron Warrior contemptor and re do that, I will absolutely try this again to see how it come out as it's a very flat, metallic effect.

So the contrast got put aside and the pallid wytch flesh got thinned.

The white plates on the dread got a pallid wytch flesh dry brush.

I feel this is pretty close.

And before we went to the cinema to watch Black Widow, I had enough time to give it a general stormhost silver dry brush, with an edge highlight as well, which really does not come through in the photo.