Monster March Week 3 - Lizardmen Metal 1990s Stegadon ... Stega...done

Monster March is still in full swing. I finished my Dark Elf Dragon last week, and to follow it up I've been working on this metal 1990s Lizardmen Stegadon. After a week of work, the Stegadon is finished!

This is a classic model that means a lot to me as Lizardmen were my first army ever, and  the Stegadon was one of the very first models I ever owned. As with the rest of my classic Lizardmen, I've followed the colour scheme I used when I was younger, so the skinks are green and the Stegadon is a fetching dark red. 

In the end, it didn't take too long. It was a pain to build though. It's all metal, and I had to pin a lot of the bits - especially the Howdah to make it good and strong. When I was a kid, I mostly just drenched it with superglue and then painted what I could reach. I wanted to do a better job this time, so I painted it in 3 chunks - one for the actual Stegadon, then the howdah and finally the 6 crew. 

In addition to being a big nostalgia tank, this thing also weighs about as much as a tank. It's solid metal and is basically a house brick... with points on it. It also makes a big chunk of my 1000 point plan, and puts me in a good position to move the army on towards that goal. I've recently finished the skink cold-one riders. My planned list is almost done, with just 5 more saurus warriors to paint. 

The other thing that has been nice has been having this thing on a real base. The actual model never came with one, and was part of that era when a lot of metal things didn't have bases at all and just sort of rolled around on the green flocked plains of the old world. Anyway, it fits a chariot base nicely.

Well, that pretty much rounds out my Monster March this year. Maybe I'll just try to paint whatever I have about the place as a final pledge for the last week. I'm batching a bunch of Skaven right now, so maybe if I paint enough of them, I might get a final photo. I really should be working on those final saurus though. The horror of having so many projects on the go!

Head on over to Path of an Outcast to see how the other entrants are doing. I have to say, I was shocked to read last week's update as Gav Thrope has joined the event. Exciting stuff!

Path of an Outcast

Monster March - Week 2 Dark Elf Dragon Complete

It's time for an update on my Monster March progress. I'm happy to say that my first monster is down! It was touch and go for a minute there, but I got the thing done. I still have half my pledge to go (an old metal Stegadon), so this is sort of the half-way point and the perfect time to finish a project. 

Overall, I'm really happy with the way the dragon came out. Work may seem to be fast, but it was a flurry of activity. It's been really fun though, as a lot of my work lately has been painting blocks of infantry, so taking some time to work on a big monster was a nice change of pace. 

I'm using one of my oil paintings as a backdrop again as it just makes things more fun and brings out a bit of the old fantasy style. It does make the photos a bit busy, but if you're having trouble reading it, just remember it's a big honkin' dragon and you should be fine. Here's a photo of the back so you can see the wings. 

Front shot/rider. I used a corsair helmet as it was the single most dragon-y thing in a 500 mile radius. I can't believe that thing is intended for someone on foot to wear to be honest, but anyway here it is on the head of the notorious brigand known as Filthy Lu'Gar

A close up shot so you can see the paint-work. I have my own techniques to be honest. I like to highlight up to small tiny dots of white that look a bit like the light is catching a shiny surface. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the dragon was inspired by the nautical themes of classic Dark Elves, so the sea vibe is still strong. It's a sea dragon! 

And that pretty much rounds out my first project for Monster March! Remember, you can stay up to date on all the action going on over at Path of an Outcast (Path of an Outcast). 

 

Monster March 2021 - Dark Elf Dragon Week 1

I'm back for Monster March again, and this year I've pledged my Dark Elf Dragon and possibly an old metal Stegadon depending on how progress on the dragon goes! At the moment this is the state of the dragon after 1 week of work. The Stegadon has been stripped, but is a pile of metal chunklets that need a lot of TLC, so we'll see if I can manage that one.

If you're not familiar with Monster March, head on over to Path of an Outcast to read more: Path of an Outcast: Monster March - Part 1 (swordmasterofhoeth.blogspot.com). It's a community event where the goal is to pledge and paint a monster, large model or pretty much anything in the month of March! About 2 years ago, I successfully painted my Shadowsword for the event. 

Anyway, here's the dragon so far. I started the month with it built and I've spent this week completing the airbrushing on it. I think it took about an hour and a half to get it into this condition.

I've been reading the old 5th Edition Armies book, and was kind of inspired by the background in there of Dark Elves being a seafaring race, so rather than going for black on the dragon I wanted to paint it a bit like it could be a sea dragon! Anyway, I've gone for a sort of blue hide with an orange/red trail down its back. I added a few indications of stripes, but I'm not that happy with them, so that whole area is something I'll be sorting out with the regular brush now. I did the skin on the stomach and wings in a sort of almost flesh tone that's not far off Rakarth Flesh in colour.

I normally name some of the paints that I've used, but in this case, I'm really not sure as it was a lot of layers. I definitely remember base-coating the body in Prussian blue, but I can't remember what I highlighted it with, possibly Vallejo Emerald and white mixed with the blue. The skin was definitely Vallejo Dark Flesh with white mixed and added for highlights.

Anyway, that's my week 1 progress on this thing. It's fun to paint a dragon again after so many years. If I want to finish the Stegadon, I probably need to finish this dragon up pretty quick (I am not looking forward to building the Stegadon - it's the metal howdah with 6 metal crew - I'm going to have to pin them all so I can paint them separately and stand any chance of getting it looking good!)

Speaking of pinning, the dragon has a rider that I have mounted on a block to paint separately. 

Dreadtober - Dark Eldar Talos

Just a quick update on my plans for Dreadtober this year. As I've started working on my Dark Eldar again, and given the Haemonculus Coven theme, it seemed fitting to do a Talos for the event. I've got the kit and have started constructing it, so work is already underway. 

As with most Dark Eldar kits, it's a really nice thing. Just great details all round, from the grizzly flesh-hooks that hold its carapace on; to the emotionless mask head and all the tanks and vials. That said, as I started building, one thing struck me as odd - the lack of legs. Sure, it floats, but the Talos has a perfectly formed hip section with ports just screaming out for a suitable pair of legs to be added. So, in the interests of science, certain conversion works will be conducted.

Luckily, here at Tabletop Apocalypse, the design department were able to sketch out a rough idea of what a futuristic space elf monstrosity with legs might look like:

Don't rush yourself, just take it all in. Obviously, this is just an impression of what the final piece could look like, but I think you'll all agree it has great potential...

Monster March 2018 - 40k Skaven Stormfiends/Kastelan Robots

With a very successful Squaduary out of the way, I thought it was about time for a rest.

Or Not...

So I signed up to the very next painting challenge that came along!

If you missed it last year, Monster March is an event being run by Sword Master over at Path of an Outcast. Much like Squaduary, the event is a month long painting challenge. As the title suggests, the theme for this one is "monster" or something big and monstrous.

For my part, I've pledged a pair of converted Stormfiends to be used as Kastelan Robots for my 40k Skaven/Mechanicus force. I think painting them should be quite manageable in a month, especially compared to the quantity of models that I put out in February. They should give me a good boost in points and add some much needed backbone to the force. If I have the time, I'll also add a Datasmith to the force, as one would traditionally accompany them into battle.

I've had these models since Christmas, and they were one of the main inspirations for the force. I don't think they'll need too much conversion, as they already look like they belong in 40k, so with any luck a few techno-bits skilfully placed should do the trick. I also have some other units in the works, so there should be a steady stream of posts coming over the next few weeks as work continues.

I have done some more extensive work on one of them; building a large double handed twin heavy phosphor blaster. I'm most happy with the little mechanical arm and leaver set up. These pictures are still very much work in progress, so there will be more work and more filling yet to come. In particular, the gun needs more work, but as this is a challenge that will be running all month, I wanted to get a post up to introduce what I was doing.

The shoulder mounts look better in person, maybe it's the pale colour of the resin compared to the rest of the model?

The mechanical arm is my favourite part.

Canoptek Spyder - Necrons Continued...

Well, I've had 2 weeks to work on my orange Necrons. Last week I finished the entire starter set, but this week was a bit slower. I did manage to finish off this Canoptek Spyder though. I really like the model and it's such an improvement over the old metal ones.

Paint-wise it was another piece of airbrush work with the detailing finished off with a regular brush. I'm happy with the way it came out, especially considering that it took less than 3 hours in total time, which for a model of this size I think is a pretty good turnaround.

The force is at about 500 points now fully painted with more warriors and scarabs on the way soon. Now all I need is a Ghost Ark or two to bulk out the force and perhaps some immortals after that...

On the subject of Necrons, I got my first game in with them against Ed's Skitarii on Friday. I took some pictures, so I'll probably do a little after action report on that at some point. I've added a picture from the game at the end of this post.