The Roost of Turkadactyl

I have a lot of terrain and fortifications that have to be painted.  Playing a game with unprimed terrain is a wee bit uninspiring.  My goal is to get at least 75% of my terrain and fortifications painted up by November.  I want fortifications for the assault on the Palace of Thorns for Badab War YEG.  Somewhere in there I have to fit in some Space Marine vehicles and Cataphractii Terminators.  I figured I would get started on the biggest fortification I have and that is the Aquila Strongpoint.

A while back Miniwargaming had a sale on a lot of product.  I loaded up on some Army Painter primers.  When the Plasma Obliterator was released I gravitated towards the mix of gold and blue so I figured I would use blue on my fortifications.  I’m a little disappointed with how the Strongpoint started.  The tone of blue was different and I wasn’t too excited about the colour.  Since I am a frugal person I’ve decided that I am going to make this work.

I had an odd experience and let me know if you have experienced anything similar.  I was using GW Drankenhof Nightshade and it didn’t look like it was making any difference on the plastic.  I notice that the bottom was thicker so I stir things up and start over.  After the shade dried I noticed that the paint was stripped in some recesses and the plastic melted in two spots.  This is the first time I have experienced this.  If you have too then drop a comment.  I am curious to see if this is an isolated incident.

With the shade applied the blue has a dirtier look to it.

The next step was drybrushing Altdorf Guard Blue followed by Etherium Blue.

I used Nuln Oil on the Leadbelcher painted platforms.  I’m not completely sold on the blue at this point but I have a lot of other colours to add to the decorative parts.

I then proceeded to work on the Macro Cannon.

Now for some drybrushing.

The next step is painted the base colours, which will be followed up with a shade in the recesses.  For the gold I applied Retributor Armour followed by Burnished Gold.  The other colours I used are Leadbelcher, Rakarth Flesh, Scab Red, Mithril Silver and Bubonic Brown.

Unlike the blue portions I will only be applying the shade into the recesses and corners.

Okay, I can breath a sigh of relief.  I will admit it does not look as sharp as some other Strongpoints I have seen posted on the interwebs but once all the colours are on the blue is alright.  Out of all the Strongpoints I have seen I recommend using black instead of blue like I did.  The gold and black go very well together, much better than what I have done.  I don’t mind the blue now and it is a colour I can live with.

Not too long ago I was visiting Confessions of a 40K Addict.  Dave posted the brilliant 40K life hack you see above and I thought, “Hmm, I should do that.”  Well, I should have followed my brain.  I knocked over my pot of shade.  It is one of the new pots that have doubled in size.  I probably lost a third of the pot and it made quite the mess.  Lesson learned.  Follow Dave’s advice.