Arator: Lord of the Last Dawn.

"Arator was not born to rule the Order of the last dawn. Unlike other households and orders, last dawn gives its "crown" (a record of honours, heraldry, and deeds on a banner called the crown) to the knight that proves himself upon the field of battle. Arator won this honour from the moment he was bonded with the throne." 

My first bit of freehand banner work for my Knights. Lots of work will be going into Arators knight. A knight that will require a very forgiving opponent. 

No it's not just because they interviewed me.

A little shout out to Legatho! Reading the interviews with the other Blanchjitsu artists, and of corse the journeys of Legatho into the dark world of INQ28 is awesome. It's a little section that visions hasn't done. 

Read. Enjoy. Follow. 

http://legatho-s-warehouse.blogspot.co.uk

How to make a £5 wet palette

Hey guys. Yet another wet palette tutorial. There are many out there like it but this one is mine. :)

What you'll need:

1) A shallow Tupperware box. The multi pack from ikea is the best I've found. £1

2) a multi pack of sponges £1 MAX

3) old dish towel 50p

4) "stay wet" Rowney palette membrane and blotting paper kit. From any good art shop maybe £3 maybe less from Amazon. 

Cut the sponges to fit into the base of the Tupperware snugly. Try to give yourself a good even base. 

Then cut the jay cloth to do the same. The sponges will absorb the water and the cloth will bring it to the surface. 

Once this is done put enough water in to make all the sponge wet but not soaking. 

Again cut to fit, your blotting paper (the thick sheet to put on top of the cloth.) and the pallete membrane to go on as your final layer. 

First press the blotting paper into the cloth until it's fully wet then lay palette paper on top carefully. You don't want puddles on top of this layer as it will mess up your water to paint ratio. 

And there you go! Sealable palette complete! No need to replace the sponges or anything else but the blotting paper once every few months and the palette paper when it's full of old paint because you forget to leave the lid off!

Happy painting!

H

Two Knights one WIP

Strap in! It's about to get boring! So my knight household is growing! I love these models but I'm never making two at once again. It's brutal and slow. Another Lancer and a freeblade Acheron will be joining the ranks as the cohort to my Dark Angels. 

But back to the title. Planning. Two big model robots that need to have a touch of personality. 

So the plans were to have the Acheron dominating the battlefield over burnt skeletons and the command centre of the trenches, that all my Knights are based on. 

(Yeah I didn't put much effort into that one. I knew what I wanted)

And the lancer leaping among the network of trenches giving a really dynamic pose and a little more interest into the base. 

So after the initial sketches I drew the lot again on the bases themselves. Until the paint actually starts flowing you can draw on the lot. Really plan this shit out. Measuring the stride out to see exactly how far apart the legs will be and giving the space it needs to tell a little story helps a lot later on. 

 

First few bits and bobs start to appear. Plasticard and bits from the box based on the initial sketches. 

As you can see in the lancer base (the one on the right) I've sheered off the side of a part of the trench to make it look like the lancer has a proper weight smashing through the side there. 

Second layer of bits goes on! Skeletons for the Acheron and jerry cans for the lancer. Like the inhabitants have fled from his headlong dash. 

Jumped a couple of steps here. You all know what it's like, nothing happens for months and then suddenly you get a burst of inspiration and BAM! You have black hands for days. All that's happened is a layer of "Polyfila" to simulate mud and grit and then actual dirt and twigs from the garden with superglue for filling gaps. 

As you can see I've also placed the feet and painted it black. Just so I don't get distracted by the colours of the dirt and plastic and stuff. 

The next few bits are a crazy whirlwind of bluetac, drilling and snapping and glueing and snapping again. All things can be fixed. So be brutal with this step. Greenstuff, paint and glue can fix all but melting things so don't worry about it.  

And finally here they are. The poses locked down and the heads bluetac'd on to give poise to the models. I think they've worked out! Thank fuck for that. 

Stay tuned for more, less wordy wips of these two! Big plans for the Acheron and his close combat weapon. 

Happy painting! 

H

30k Dark Angels

This slow burn project has picked up again! All the gold and base colours are down and but 2 bases have been made. (Two more flyer bases for the jet bikes need polishing) and then next week I have my Elites arriving :) here's some tasty photos! 

Iron Sleet invitational

Thought I would introduce my readers to both a fantastic blog and tell you all about a very cool modeling and painting invitational! Get in and follow the fun in this clash of creativity!

THE IRON SLEET INVITATIONAL!

Iron Sleet is a blog started by Kari, Migs, and Mikko. 3 crazy good painters who have graced White Dwarf and walked away with all sorts of well deserved accolades for their work. And last year I joined them in the fantastic Blanchjitsu article! Putting my models to shame. Below you can see their awesome talent.

Kari 

 Mikko

Migs

Yeah I know. Mentally good.

So the rules are as follows:

Iron Sleet Invitational 1 – All your Bases Are Belong To Us

• pick a strong theme that studies the Warhammer 40000 universe, or it’s history!

• build and convert 3 models that are

• each based on a differently sized citadel base that have been creatively enhanced to really tell the narrative and make it a group. (25, 32, 40, 50, 60mm… or biker base, or flyer or…)

• we encourage to make the three individuals as different in physique, stature, movement, category as possible, while maintaining the group identity.

• start and announce of invitational February 1st

• WIP pictures in Black and White from all contestants March 1st. (but many bloggers intend to share their progress as they go, including us!)

• Final results of finished miniatures April 1st

My plan is to continue with my knight household but with the leader of the household in his ceremonial terminator-type armor on a palaquine of some sort, Maybe one of the 50mm. A 40mm based astropath and a knight on their big bad ass flyer base. Cant wait to get started on this! I'll make sure I keep everyone up to speed on the other entrants too.

Happy painting!
Henry