[Showcase] Astraeus super-heavy tank forgeworld

Alright, it's finally time to post what took me the last 3 months to paint (only to paint, I'm not counting the cleaning and building time...)

I've finished this big guy over the week-end and I can say that's been the most exhausting project I've done so far.

I'm really happy with the result, some things might still be better but considering the size of this thing, just to finish building and painting it, is an achievement in itself.

Being forgeworld mean you need to take your time playing with resin, massive mould line and bad joint, the result is very impressive but goodness me, this thing is heavy. It almost flipped the glass shelf in the cabinet! Beware!

Building the kit, you can clearly see it's one of the newly cad design, a good kit not too bad to build, though the amount of grav-plates and cleaning required for them can be off-putting.

Oh, and keep in mind, if you add a gunner or techmarine, you won't be able to have the trap lying flat on the side, it will touch the side weapon otherwise and you'll have to keep it slightly open (been there, done that...)

The painting was mostly straight forward, you can find most on the recipe used on this blog, I had a few setbacks with the gold and the void shield but settled for an old gold in the end.
The thrusters were granted a small ionic effect, similar to the void shield which is many small globes of lightning, the osl for the light is a bit strong.
Most of the weathering is a mix of oil and acrylic, I don't usually use oil but on this kind of surface, it's way easier to control the result.
I also had to come up with a colour for the plasma; I settled for green, which give a nice contrast with the red, a tutorial is planned for the next unit with plasma, which will be the inceptor.

As usual if you're interested in tutorial on other part of the model, feel free to ask in comment.
Seeing the result, I now find my repulsor a bit boring though 😅

A small description/fiction to go along, something I always wanted to try, let me know what you think!

"Gifted to the second company of the Knight of the Chalice during the relentless time of the Indomitus crusade, the Astraeus Celaeno has been the back bone of many frontal assault and a strong asset in the hand of Captain Artemis Beshop.

Deployed from orbit and protected by her void shields, she opened the path to many deployments of reivers and inceptors, creating opportunity moving straight for the enemy; a temperament strangely reminiscent of the company's captain.

Since her first induction during the 21st year of the crusade, Celaeno has been a paragon of war for nearly a century. It's last sighting has been in the Vigilus sector of Dontoria fighting the ruinous power of the death guard."

*Side note, excuse the font, I had nothing big enough to accommodate this tank. Say hi to Vigilus!

Astraeus Celaeno

Had some fun doing this heat effect!

"Bring me closer, I want to hit them with my fingers"

I had a simple drop in mind but I went a bit overboard in the end

When you say "strong" osl...

Void shield lightning

You can't see it on the previous pictures but the techmarine has a little screen thingy

I'll be happy to work again on something smaller in scale (and lighter!); after putting her in the cabinet, I feel my workspace in enormous. 

The state of the army in the cabinet, quite a few red dudes

And that's all for today, thank you for your interested and see you next time!

Anamnesis

2018 Retrospective - Happy new year!

Let me begin by whising you all an happy new year ! 

2018 have been a very productive year on many front, the main highlight being engaged now!

I've never painted as many minis as this year, ported by this awesome community and the different interactions from social media. 

2018 saw also the creation of this blog to keep track and share my painting recipe, being asked more and more about my painting on instagram, facebook or forums.

In six month, the blog had 30'000 visitors over 18 differents articles, the tutorials being the clear winner; a massive thank you for your interested ! 

I hope to bring some new interesting content for you this year too!

If you would be interested in some specific article or content, feel free to make you're suggestions in comments!

On the hobby side, this year saw a clear out of my cabinet, having accumulated enough armies and plastic sprues for another life. I decided to concentrate my effort on one army for 40k and start one for Age of sigmar with Nighthaunt and the amazing starting box. 

I've been pretty bad with warhammer underworlds with all the warband so far and only one painted though. The champion of death were a late crush with our little group picking up blood bowl again.

Also my pictures were printed in the white dwarf 3 times and finished second on the ead'banger competition on the Eavier metal group, as I said, good year!

Controling the feeling of "Oh shiny!" and keeping to my grand scheme, the tally of this year painting consist of:

Warhammer 40k - Knight of the Chalice:

• 1 Repulsor tank
• 1 Captain in gravis armor (which is still going around the internet, really like this guy)
• 4 Aggressors to go with him
• 1 Special Raven guard contemptor on an exposition base, as a gift for my little brother, an article will probably come for it

Captain Beshop, probably the coolest mini I've done

Age of Sigmar - Nighthaunt:

• 20 Chainrasp, the biggest unit I've ever done
• 1 Knight of Shroud on stead
• 1 Guardian of souls
• 1 Lord Executionner
• 1 Spirit torment 

Mister Wobble 

Warhammer underworld:

• Severin's steelheart warband and a fun exercise in NMM with full tutorial
• 6 of the 7 member the skellies band but I never finished the leader

I'm really proud of them, they really pushed my painting

And the latest, one ball for blood bowl! I just magnetized the ball, but it's pretty cool in game  

The last two month have been pretty busy, I had planned to finish the Astraeus but I took way longer than expected, even to just build this tank. It should be finished by the end of january, emperor's willing.

The techmarine on the Astraeus

Doing some details work on the screen

That's a total of 40 models painted, I can hardly believe it to be honest (and almost one massive piece of resin).

My painting has also improved on many levels, understanding the value of differents technics for better expressing the texture and materials instead of only focusing on smoothness at all cost.

Getting more use of my airbrush has been a focus throughout the months and the year ended with the new kimera kolors which are pure pigment but have a limited range, expect a review soon-ish! (Spoiler alert: I love them).

Into 2019

There are quite a few things planned for 2019 including a wedding, but here a short idea of what's in the pipeline:

Finish to paint the five reaver to have 1000 pts painted finally, I would like to do the inceptor aswell

Convert a librarian, a standard bearer and a redemptor dread

Maybe paint my undead blood bowl team

Try to paint some nighthaunt other than heroes...

Quick conversion !

Brother Gabriel, Keeper of the company's standard, still wip though

And I will continue to report my adventure throughout the year on this blog.

Thanks for your visit and may the paint be with you!

Anamnesis