Another night was spent spraying my UCM fleet as I got to grips with my Airbrush for the first time in an age and another couple of nights went on painting them though I was far from happy with the results in the end.
Y'see I had a vision in mind for the fleet. I was going to aim for a Sulaco look, a military green/grey that would convey the sense of scale I was going for. I had a look at some colour swatches and Vallejo German Green looked about right. It was even a sod to get hold of. Imagine my annoyance when I realised that it was FAR more green than i had planned on, more akin to the base colour for my Emperors Blades than anything I had envisaged.
Bugger,
Even after mixing in some black and Drakenhoff Nightshade it was still not right. Well, fuck it I thought. Stick it in the airbrush and get it done.
I love airbrushing, though I am but a novice and haven't yet got to grips with the even the most basic of techniques. It makes basecoating so incredibly quick and easy. Yes the airbrush requires a fair bit of cleaning and maintenance but I consider that worth the saved time it would take to basecoat this lot by hand..
So a bit messy to be sure as I got to grips with Airbrushing again, but I got them all basecoated, Sadly they were still dark green so a few coats of Drakenhoff Nightshade were thrown on top and this helped somewhat. However, it still wasn't the colour I wanted so I knew that I was going to have an uphill struggle painting this lot. They were barely basecoated and already I wasn't happy with them
.
In the end I was just about satisfied with the way it turned out. I'm far from happy with the scheme but it'll do. I'll need to see how it looks on one of the larger capital ships before I can form a final opinion on it.
Still, my confidence had been knocked. Somewhat deterred I turned my thoughts towards the PHR. I wasn't writing off the UCM but I definitely needed a break from them. So I started to put together the other fleet.
The PHR frigates are very easy to put together and with a single hull configuration it means the only bit that was going to vary was the underslung piece. They would be easy to magnetize and swap out but in all honesty with the low squadron numbers and the high number of models I had it wasn't necessary. I had all the Frigates done over the course of a couple of evenings.
The cruisers are a lot more fiddly, however, the principle is still the same, the flanks of the ships have weapons just like Battlefleet Gothic models they could be magnetised but a couple of the configurations are repeated so I haven't bothered at this stage.One point I must make is that a couple of the sprue connection points are in very frustrating places. One is right on the top of the hull, nigh on impossible to clean up.
The Kickstarter Exlusive battlecruiser was a different matter entirely with many of the components being resin, There was a lot of warping and hot water was required to straighten things out. Worse, the two hull sections really didn't want to go together so elastic bands were employed. There isn't even a hole for the flying stand, very disappointing overall.
And that was about it for this week. not bad but the UCM fleet not turning out the way I wanted was very disappointing. I really didn't want UCM green. Oh well, I have a week off of work and only a few plans so hopefully i'll get a a lot more done then, and then there is my Heresy entry to think about as well as Lee has surged even further ahead, as you can read below....
I didn't do one of these last week as I spent all weekend with my other half being in hospital so got no hobby done at all for those two days. Despite then being in hospital myself for two days during the week I have still managed to hit one of my hobby goals and completed November's Horus Heresy unit on time, my Word Bearers Sicaran tank.
I'm really pleased with how quickly this got done. I'm always a little bit intimidated whenever I start any Forge World piece but there was not a lot of exterior detail that wasn't going to be red which really sped things along. I even got the tank tracks done first as those are the parts I hate most on any tank and probably helps explains why I like Eldar so much.
The build was easy enough, there are some mould likes that may be visible in the pictures that I had no chance of getting rid of but that's fine. I justify them still being there as battle damage or the beginnings of blessed change.
Colour wise the tank was airbrushed all over with a mix of Forge World's Word Bearer and Gal Vorbak red. From there I painted the tracks Runefang, washed black and dry brushed with Runefang again, I really didn't want to spend too much time on them. The track housings were painted Corvus black same as my Ashen Circle and highlighted with Eshin Grey.
The red sections were given a Leviathan Purple wash in the recessed areas, tidied with the original red mix then highlighted with a mix of Word Bearers Red and Blood Red. All over are blasphemous excerpts from the Book of Lorgar picked out in white. I didn't bother with the transfers as I was happy enough with this effect but didn't want to overpower the model with them. You'll notice I used the Lascannons on my Sicaran (which are magnetised for transport). The Word Bearer's special formation, the Dark Brethren, only permits one heavy support choice so whatever I take has to be able to knock out the heavy hitters in my opponents army.
I've already decided on December's Horus Heresy model. As I want to be able to spend more time on my Wild West Exodus models next month I've chosen a single model, the plastic Calth Contemptor. I should be able to knock that one out pretty quickly giving me a couple of weeks to complete some Hired Hands.
After that I really need to get back to an infantry unit. Most likely another tactical squad of 10 men or maybe the MkV assault squad I have as they also count as troops. One I get a regular unit done I will treat myself to something more exciting, like some Gal Vorbak.
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