Mortarch kit conundrums...

[Banat]

Getting a bit frustrated with the Mortarch kit. Second time in 36 hours that some parts have gone in the paint stripping bucket because the painting has gotten tacky or detail has been lost on the skulls on the abyssal.

I've been trying to paint parts individually... the legs in particular, to best reach the skulls you need to paint them before you stick the three sections together that makes a single leg.

It's reaching the point where I'm just going to put it all together save the rider, barding and head (which will be magnetized).

I want to do the bone structure dark green (in the vein of Necron vehicles) which involves dry brushing Caliban Green then Warpstone Glow over the black undercoat.

The skulls will be white underneath then druichii violet wash with licks of yellow glaze.

But I'm not sure which to do first... I'd rather the drybrushing elements first but then painting the white on the skulls ends up over running onto the bone work. SIGH

Does anybody have any tips or are there any videos or tutorials out of the mortarchs like there were with nagash?

Cheers

 

[Mioum]

I just got the kit today, and while I'm not even close to paint it, here's what I would try in your case.

Get your base colors first everywhere before doing any details, so paint the body black and the skulls white. Then you could drybrush your greens on the body. You'll hit the skulls too, but only the surface, wich will be easy to touch up in white. Then you can do your washes on the skull, it's more controllable than a drybrush, and since the base of the body will already be black it won't matter if your not precise around the edges.

 

[Banat]

Ace ideas, cheers Mioum.

 

[John Rainbow]

I've heard the new kit is a PTIA to paint. Is it really that bad?

 

[Banat]

Yep. The first thing on the instructions to do is to place some skull panels inside the main rib cage/torso of the Abyssal, and it suggests painting those pieces first before you do. And that's the very. First. Step. I tried it but couldn't nail a glowing skull effect I wanted. My torso bits went in the pain stripping bucket twice before I just said "sod it" and made it up completely. Will deal with the repercussions later.

The good news: It's going to be quite straight forward to drill and place magents on the saddle back park and at the neck so you can change riders and heads. The barding, in my opinion, doesn't even need magnetising as it will clip on and stay there though gravity/snug fits.

 

[John Rainbow]

Interesting... I guess it had to happen eventually. If you think of other plastic kits like airfix or whatever there are always things you have to paint pre-assembly i.e. pilots/cockpits need painting before they go in, etc. I guess with the more complex models it was going to happen. I assume there isn't really a way to get to those pieces when it is all assembled? You could paint them darker as they are in shadow or something?

 

[Banat]

You can get to them but it's awkward and messy: you're almost certainly going to hit other parts whilst trying to reach them, so the parts that you hit will need doing afterwards. Good news is my magnets finally arrived today so I can magnetise the beastie!

I put him together at the shop yesterday using blue tac to attach mannfred's saddle and manny's abyssal's head, those are the only two things that will need magnetizing. The barding, once the two halves are glued together, will just clip on and rest naturally thanks to snug joint fits. Which makes things much much easier.

 

[John Rainbow]

And you don't think the fit on the plates will get less snug as time goes on?

 

[Banat]

No. If you've got the kit and got it to the point of putting the barding on, you'd see what I mean. It's not that kind of "snug fit". Difficult to describe...

 

[Bullhax]

@Banat did you get it to work out for you or did you "just" glue it together.. From your first post I can't fully understand why you had to strip the paint off.. What part did go wrong, was it the glue that messed it up, the undercoat or the painting itself?

I'm sitting with the kit myself, so firstly I hope I can help you or at the very least get information on how to avoid doing the same myself.

 

[Banat]

Had to strip paint off because I'd had so many attempts at painting the glowing skull effects that I was beginning to lose detail. Yeah it's mostly stuck together with the exception of the head, the rider and the barding.

 

[Bullhax]

Ok, so it was a "simple" you being unsatisfied with the result.. I can relate to that very well..
Mioums advice is very good, and after seeing the model drybrushing might be totally off the table..

My glow effect is done with washes too (bright green and then a darker green to the very deepest recesses and i touch up with space wolf grey (bluish bright grey).

If your still at the very beginning try out your effect on a skeleton it has many of the same features but is more forgivable to mess up a single skeleton than an expensive mini like the mortarch kit..!

 

[Banat]

I've been trying out some ethereal flames on my Coven Throne, purple wash with streaks of yellow glazing has satisfied me with the effect I want. So I'm going to be doing the skulls in that manner. The red tones in the purple will contrast nicely with the dark green whilst the yellow will prevent it from being too dark.

 

[Bullhax]

Sounds very cool do you have a plog that will feature theese models when they're done.! If not get it done

 

[Banat]

I've got a plog yeah, need to update it, not sure if I'll get a chance to do that today as I've got the best part of a TK battalion, 22 pirate zombies and some blood knights to make today before I leave to go to London for some games with my friends! =P

 

[Wolfrahm]

I just got finished assembling it and have to say it is probably one of the worst kits I've ever had the misfortune of putting together. The tail and one spirit hold it up, very springy so if you're like me, assemble then paint, be very careful when you begin painting because it is fragile. For the first time in a long while, I'm disappointed with a GW model. Having to basically butt up a lot of the pieces with no support just feels like they dropped the ball on this one. Beautiful model, don't get me wrong, just a little more unstable then I think it should be for the price.

Good luck on the painting, can't wait to see everyones pics.

 

[Banat]

Personally I think it's a lot more stable it looks like it should be. I got the Morghasts yesterday. Now THERE'S a frustrating kit. Definitely not a beginnger level box. Less than obvious places to stick things, and if you're making the Archai, THOSE DAMN HALBERD ARMS.

 

[Wolfrahm]

Yup I can't wait to get them. I got the spirit hosts yesterday and put them together tonight as well as Manny. The hosts are really dynamic and just plain badass, I can't wait to paint them. However pay very close attention the instructions, they are a bit misleading so trial fit before glueing.
Get the pics of the Morghasts up asap, in progress as well.
You can see by this pic the flimsy connections that have to be glued

 

[Banat]

Yeah, they were a bit of a bugger to make, took longer than expected, but they are such insanely cool models, the spirit hosts. By far the best swarm model.

 

[Mioum]

I had to stop building the Abyssal and start painting it, otherwise it'll be too hard to paint. Lots of parts to paint separately too, kinda annoying

 

[Bullhax]

I've almost assembled as many of the parts that can before I start painting it up. It has so many places that is horrible to access if it is assembled too much.. It does seem rather stable but I woundn't want to be too rough with it though.. But man the kit is very cool. Especially the fact that changing rider, head and armour seems rather easy to do so you effectively get all three.. I wont be fielding more than on mounted mortarch anyway.. Very happy with it so far!

 

[Banat]

I think provided you treat them as MODELS and not TOYS, there will be no problem. The Mortarch's are fairly stable and the Morghasts are definitely more stable than I thought they'd be.

 

[Wolfrahm]

That's good to know. They will be my next purchase.

 

[Kappu]

would it be "easy" to just take of the spirits and make it stand on the ground? The tail could just go inside the the ground through some "huge" crack, where could be some more skulls or raising zombies or some swamp pond you name it.?

 

[Martin15]

Found this thread rather interesting to read. I completely agree with the morghasts being annoying - I was magnetising the weapons as I went and that was very frustrating (I preferred the archai helmets and breastplates so was using them anyway).

I'm hoping to get a Mortarch kit soonish (I.e. before they stop doing them), so this gives me some idea of what to expect.

To Kappu - yes it would be very easy to take the spirit hosts off the skeleton and have them some other way - one of my units is raised up slightly using a fence from the garden of morr kit.

To Banat - what do you use in your paint stripping bucket? If its safe for plastic I assume it's safe for metal, but have you tried using it on resin? Also, you mention magnetising the head and barding etc, is this so you can switch between Mortarchs? I'm wondering as I'd like to do that if possible. As lovely as it would be to play a game with all three, I really can't see it happening.

All the best

Martin