Mission (and Mumak) accomplished!

I have finally finished a model that has taken me more than 16 months to paint. I wish I could say that the whole of the time was spent painting the model, but this is not the case, I’ve actually spent around 12 hours painting a War Mumak of Harad. The model has been painted in three stages, Mumak, Howdah and base. the easiest part to paint was the Mumak, the hardest was the base. It’s a very busy base, as you can see in the pictures. the hardest part to build has to be the howdah, mainly because I’ve misplaced, er lost, the instruction sheet. So I had no idea how the blooming thing went together, fortunately a good search of the net was very helpful. after cleaning and removing mould lines and flashing the whole thing was sprayed with grey primer, including the base. The Mumak’s body was in two halves, as was the head, those components were glued together and then washed with Badab Black. I figured elephants are more or less grey and the Mumak is just a bigger, nastier version of an elephant, so washing over the primer should work fine, it did! I got the effect I was after and the wash settled in all the wrinkles of the hide to create a multi tone effect from black to the grey of the primer. the head, tail and ears were given the same treatment, the eyes I painted blue after the head had been washed so that they stood out, and applied a little red war paint on the front of the head. on each of the Mumak’s flanks there is some rigging which forms the main strutting for the howdah, this consisted of wooden beams, rope and a blanket of some type. The beams were painted with Beastial Brown, it appeared to me that the blanket was made from a type of leather so that got painted with Snakebite leather. The rope was left grey and the rigging washed washed with Devlan Mud,

The howdah appeared to be constructed from three types of material, wooden beams, cloth and what looked to me to be wicker, so the beams were painted Beastial Brown, the cloth was base coated with Mechrite Red and the wicker was base coated with Khemri Brown. The wooden beams and the wicker were then washed with Devlan Mud and the cloth was washed with Baal Red, once the Baal Red wash had dried the cloth was washed again but this time with Leviathan Purple. The tusks and toenails were base coated with Bleached Bone and then washed with Gryphonne Sepia, once that wash had dried the the tusks were washed again with Ogryn Flesh and the toenails were given a wash of Devlan Mud. Once it was all dry I set about building the howdah, it wasn’t easy! Once again GW moulding left a lot to be desired but after a few minutes, and a couple of choice words, later and the thing was finally together. I attached the head to the body and the glued the tusks in place.

For the base I sprayed the whole thing with Iyanden Darksun and then painted the three horse corpses, one black, one brown and one grey. The fallen warriors were given green cloaks and the armour was base coated black then dry brushed with Boltgun Metal, their hair was painted with Bad Moon Yellow and the exposed skin was painted with Rotting flesh and then washed with the old style Flesh Wash. I also picked out the other details like weapons and rocks. I then sprayed the base with Devlan Mud (again) and then repainted areas like the warriors hair and faces using the same palette. I then gave the exposed rocks a wash with Badab Black and then dry brushed with Fortress grey to highlight the edges. I also gave the grey horse a Fortress Grey dry brush. After a few finishing touches the beast is finally finished. I’m very proud of the finished model, I don’t know if it’s because it’s for someone else but It definitely seems to be one of my best efforts yet.

Any way, on to the pictures

 

The base primed

Iyanden Darksun basecoat

Some detail painted

Washed and more detail painted

The completed base, the pictures don’t show the detail that well.

And Finally!

So there you have it, back to the Space Marines. I still have the Venerable and Iron Clad Dreadnoughts to paint, 2 devastator Squads and a Predator to paint, and then I have a Librarian Dreadnought to get on with. It’s gonna take a while.

Night all!

In box review

 

Furioso Dreadnought

I collected one from the shop today, I know it’s a bit late and a few of you may already have had a chance to see the contents of the long anticipated dreadnought model. So where do I start, well i guess the obvious place is the box. The art work is up to GWs usual standard, the front of the box features a diorama photo of all three variants that can be put together. The Furioso itself, a Death Company Dreadnought and a Librarian Dreadnought. The back of the box has photographs of the details from each variant.

So what about the contents? After tearing open the cellophane, I took a moment to feel the weight of the box, I think it’s a bit light. Considering there’s three variants in the box i was expecting a bit more, opening the box I have to admit I was a little disappointed to find the standard Dreadnought base. I would think that particular base is getting a little tired now and fielding three Dreads that are all on the same style base can be dull. To be honest I would prefer a plain base and either bits on the sprue to make the base individual or leave the base design to the person who has bought the model. The instruction manual is well presented and not too confusing, it has detailed instructions for the variants, something I find a bit odd as it is, after all a Dreadnought and goes together like any other dreadnought. Moving on to the sprues, there’s only two. Again I was expecting something more, considering the amount of stuff that is available for the models I felt there would be at least three. However, on closer examination it’s clear that the boffins at GW have done their homework and crammed a great deal of components on the sprues making use of every available space on the frames. The components for the legs and feet are also Dreadnought standard, considering the fluff for these things says that they are old, would be too much bother to change the design to represent and older version of the Dreadnought? or do they all have to be MKV?The quality of the moulding seems to be above average and there were no discernable flashings or mould lines, that will make it a bit easier to paint. The individual sarcophagus pieces are very well detailed and display a lot of character for each type. One thing I did notice is that a lot of the Blood Angel iconography can be quite easily removed through careful use of a sharp blade and gentle filing.

Like the recent Storm Raven release GW claim that the three available variants are exclusive to the blood angels, but I really don’t see why other chapters wouldn’t place highly decorated and revered psychers in a Dreadnought so that they can continue to serve the Emperor, after all a great deal of training and experience is tied up in a Librarian so I believe that they would want to keep that warrior around to train potential librarians and as a last resort unleash them on an unsuspecting foe in the darkest hours of a battle.

My overall impression of the kit is good and I would rate it very high, despite the Blood Angel markings the kit will prove a hit for BA players and general fans of the mighty Dreadnought, I don’t doubt that there are many people who have plans to adapt some aspects of the kit into their existing armies. Magna grapples may prove useful and who wouldn’t want a Librarian Dreadnought stomping over that battlefield and slicing through enemies with its Nemesis Force Weapon?

So I plan to build and paint a (non Blood Angels) Librarian, probably as a display piece but I may get to field it if my opponent is feeling brave.

Elephants!

I had the house to my self today, what shall i do? oh I know, I shall see if Smiffy fancies giving me a hand with a spot of painting. Several months ago one of the guys from the shop bought a rather large model for the Lord of the Rings table top game, the model concerned is a War Mumak, it’s basically a big elephant with six tusks and a bad attitude. I was asked to paint as the lad isn’t very confident in his painting skills. so, like a fool, I agreed. that was over a year ago. well since i had the house to myself, and given the fact that yesterday I gave the chap my word that the model would be painted and delivered to him on Sunday, I made a start on painting the thing. I started at around 13:00 and finished at about 18:00. I must admit that i am rather pleased with the results so far, and my deadline of having the model finished by Friday night is looking rather realistic.

The model is based on a beastie that features in the books and, obviously, the films, and it is the standard elephant colour, grey! now I’ve never painted something that uses a real animal as the template, I’ve painted a couple of dragons and some weird alien creatures, both of these allow you a free run with your palette. so an elephant was a bit of a challenge, i spent a few hours looking at pictures to get an idea of skin tone and shading, and to get get an idea on the best way to paint the tusks, granted it’s not an accurate representation but it’s close enough for jazz, as you can see by the pictures here.

They don’t really do it justice, the flash from the camera washes out the shading and the background could be better as Trudes pointed out. but the important thing will be Sunday when I present it to the owner and see how he reacts to the end result, I expect I shall be a bit worried that he will hate it, but knowing him as I do that’s rather unlikely. All I have left to say about this particular model is, although I’ve enjoyed painting the model, I’m never going to do another one.

The model is incomplete as Smiffy has had the task of painting the howdah that mounts on the back of the model. He’s recommended that the wicker work of the construction should be done with the foundation paint that is Khemri Brown, so I shall nip into the shop tomorrow and grab a pot. I can’t thank him enough for his help with this model, without him it would be a long way from finished.

I shall post on Sunday and let people know how Mikey reacted to seeing the finished piece, lord knows the poor chap’s waited long enough.