Last night I got paint on some more Zone Mortalis tiles and finished one:
I then spent today cleaning the flash and mould lines off the parts for 16 ZM columns.
My thumb hurts.
One off the pile.
BATG Score: +54
1 Like
I haven’t had much chance to paint for the last few days, but it’s at least a one-in one-out situation today.
In the mail I received another, final old-style sentinel for my Heresy Militia.
It’s been pretty costly getting these together, but I’ll be very happy to see the full unit of five ready for the tabletop.
To make up for that, I got paint on another Zone Mortalis tile:
I painted it in the same manner as the other one; they’re terrain, so I figure there’s no need to get tricky. Plus, I have to paint a boatload of this stuff and I can always complicate things later.
One on the pile, one off the pile.
BATG Score: +54
1 Like
Looks absolutely fantastic. I see some people’s boards I hate, some I just dislike, and others that look absolutely brilliant. This is brilliant, and how I want mine to look once I start painting them (in the fullness of time, of course)…
Do you have a recipe you’re following, or even a list of paint colours/washes used?? I’d be happy to just copy what you’ve done for most of my own!
~N
1 Like
Haha, really? Thanks! It looks pretty rough in person. I’m sure with a little care it could be made to look very nice though.
Here’s the process I’ve used:
- Prime Rust-oleum Flat Black
- Overbrush the whole thing with a craft paint mix that roughly matches GW Rhinox Hide using a huge flat craft brush
- Drybrush the whole thing roughly with Army Painter Leather Brown using a slightly smaller but still quite large brush
- Spot drybrush with GW Skrag Brown anywhere the Leather Brown is more pronounced
- Drybrush the vents black
- Very roughly paint all the concrete with Vallejo Basalt Grey (leaving gaps so it looks like grime has collected in the edges)
- Stipple a highlight on the concrete with Vallejo Stonewall Grey with a really crummy old brush and kind of drybrush it so that each panel has a slightly different finish
- Pick out the floor details with GW Magmadroth Flame and Nihilakh Oxide
I would ideally spray prime in the dark brown but I haven’t been able to find a good colour match. Alternatively, you could prime the whole thing grey and then airbrush Rhinox Hide over all the reinforcement bits and be a bit more careful with the drybrushing.
Colour matches:
- Rhinox Hide is hell to match - lots of guides have blatantly incorrect suggestions. I’ve found Vallejo Game Color Charred Brown and Two Thin Coats Cuirass Leather match very well and actually come in dropper bottles so would work better through an airbrush than Rhinox Hide.
- Vallejo Basalt Grey matches GW Mechanicus Standard Grey from the pot - although the spray can is a lot more green, for some reason.
- Vallejo Stonewall Grey is a rough match for GW Administratum Grey but it’s a little more yellow. It’s going on so roughly that I don’t think an exact match is required.
EDIT: I’ve just remembered that sponges exist. I’m going to try using one on the next tile and see how it goes.
1 Like
And here’s the fourth Zone Mortalis tile:
Having remembered that sponges exist, I tried using them for the highlights on the concrete. It was so much easier to get a consistent result than mucking around with the dodgy old brush.
I also decided to try out yellow tiles. Yup, that’s yellow. I’m not going to bother with hazard stripes on this one, but I might do on another one.
@Nicodemus if you want this yellow, it’s Steel Legion Drab → Averland Sunset → Flash Gitz Yellow 
One off the pile.
BATG Score: +53
2 Likes
Taking a little break from the high effort of Zone Mortalis terrain, I’ve been sitting on the couch and barely putting in any work on these:
Five toxic lakes to break up the ZM battlefield or scatter around some horrible moonscape battlefield. Keen observers will note that I gave up on the texture paste around the rims after the first one. I’m not sure if it shows up in the picture, but they do have highlights.
Incidentally if anyone knows where I can get my hands on a 6x4 foot moonscape battle mat for less than $200 AUD, hit me up.
Five off the pile.
BATG Score: +48
1 Like
Another small update today. I grabbed three Primaris Intercessors because I went a little mad trying to figure out what I want to do with my Space Sharks project.
I assembled them and they’re now awaiting blessed primer.
I’ve been tossing up between creating it as a “modern” 40k project, a Horus Heresy project (leaning on the lore of the exiled Terran Raven Guard being the Carcharodons’ predecessors), or a Badab-era project using firstborn marines.
These guys were an effort to see if I enjoy painting Primaris marines, I guess? Ultimately I really want to paint some Tartaros Terminators as Space Sharks, so I’m almost certainly going to be building a Heresy force. Also Heresy is a game I actually enjoy playing.
So, we’ll see.
Three on the pile.
BATG Score: + 51
1 Like
There were some priming issues with the Primaris and they’ve all come out very shiny:
That’ll teach me to prime in the evening!
Fortunately the surface takes paint fine and I have access to a very matte black. A layer or two and the problem was solved.
So, I painted one:
My first Primaris marine. Dreadful photo, but he looks pretty nice in person. Very grubby. It will definitely be simple to paint an army of these, whatever model range I end up picking.
One off the pile.
BATG Score: +50
3 Likes
And here’s the other two Intercessors finished as well:
I’m doing a lot of bits-and-bobs painting this year so far, but looking at the numbers I’m on track for 20+ per month, which is about where I want to be.
I’ll need to do a few no-mini months though, otherwise my pile is going to get a bit (more) out of control.
Also, finish all that Zone Mortalis terrain!
Two off the pile.
BATG Score: +48
1 Like
Randomly, someone in the Discord for my local game store wanted a single Grimghast Reaper, and here’s me with a single one that I neither want nor need:
So that’s gone out in the mail today.
But what goes out must come in!
I’ve been a little stressed lately, so there’s another slightly unwise wave of purchases coming. Today, the postie brought me a couple of gifts:
Five Tartaros Terminators and a Cadian medic (I’m really going to need a couple of no-purchase months to catch up, I think!).
The terminators are for my Space Sharks - despite the significant hemming and hawing I’ve been doing about them, I’ve been very certain right from the start that I wanted them led by a squad of Tartaros with lightning claws, so I’ve decided to start there.
I built them straight away:
The medic is to fill a spot vacated by a heavy weapons team in the updated Astra Militarum codex. I don’t even know if I’ll play 10th but I figure I might as well keep the squads up to date in case I do.
Six on the pile, not include Grimghast Reaper because it was from a previous year.
BATG Score: +54
2 Likes
Daddy shark, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.
Daddy shark, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.
Daddy shark, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.
Daddy shark!
I randomly stumbled across Lil Legend Painting Studio while looking at space shark colour schemes and saw that they sell prints intended as Tyberos, the Red Wake. How could I not partake? Especially the ridiculous chainfist-lightning claw combination that is clearly the creation of some excited twelve-year-old. He’s an absolute unit. That’s a 50 millimetre base!
He arrived today and has been immediately assembled and primed.
I expect to enjoy painting it together with the Tartaros terminators.
One on the pile.
BATG Score: +55
3 Likes
As I said, I went on a bit of a purchase bender.
Twenty more Space Marines and some toys for them, because I have a problem. The only solution, is more space marines.
I somehow forgot that the Heresy melee upgrade sprue only has ten chainswords, so I’m going to have to reconfigure my plans a bit - but at least this way I have an excuse for chainsaw bayonets, which are the coolest thing ever.
Also, I’m seeing where I’m at this early in the year (yikes!) and trying to figure out a way out of this deep hole. I’m relying pretty hard on finding (or making!) time to churn out all the rest of my Zone Mortalis terrain and bring my Heresy Grenadiers back up to 90% painted after the big influx of models I bought while in recovery.
I’m going to allow myself two more Space Shark purchases (a dreadnought and a predator, to get to 1000 points) and then I’m going to make myself focus on models I already have, and try to focus on getting down to net zero by mid year.
Unless I find cheap Krieg artillery or something…
Twenty on the pile.
BATG Score: +75
1 Like
I took a little hobby time today and painted up another three Space Sharks:
A sergeant, a specialist and a regular despoiler.
That brings me to half a legal squad (wooh!) with a Chaplain to lead them:
I’m a little annoyed that I didn’t realise I had the transfers on backwards until I’d done three of them, but I’m calling these test models anyway,
They look pretty great, even if they don’t photograph very well on my phone camera. I’m satisfied that an army of them will look pretty awesome - which is good because I’ve already bought most of one! I need a few good assembly days, now.
Three off the pile.
BATG Score: +72
1 Like
It’s been a busy couple of weeks, but I had a little time in the last couple of days to paint up some more Shark Boys:
Five Tartaros Terminators: the unit that I really wanted to paint up as Carcharodons. I had originally planned to make the unit leader my general, which is why I gave him all the bling and the special head - but then I found the model I bought from L’il Legend.
So, these five will serve as a retinue for Daddy Shark.
I’m particularly happy with the freehanded Rogue Trader style Space Shark icon on the Vexilla. I also added an “XIX” on it, since I want to run them in Horus Heresy I thought I’d add a little shoutout to their potential origins as Raven Guard exiles.
We’re currently in a bit of a heatwave, and I’m absurdly busy with work, so the increasingly large pile of models I have ready for priming has to wait a little while.
Five off the pile.
BATG Score: +67
2 Likes
These actually arrived at the start of the week:
Hell’s Last, including Minka Lesk and a bunch of cool characterful supporters.
I haven’t even read the Minka Lesk books. I just wanted the skinny and sinister commissar and the badass nun with the banner.
I have no particular plans for these.
Five onto the pile, and a preorder penalty for Shame Golf.
BATG Score: +72
2 Likes