Building a Better Heldrake Part 3: Giving Flesh to My Nightmare!

Old School here with an update on my Building A Better Heldrake project. This bad boy is about half way painted in the Word Bearers theme I plan to use and should be done before the weekend, but let's not bump our gums too much, let's take a walk around this model!

 I haven't touched this model in a while because I tried to use a magnet to base it, which didn't work, but luckily Dragon Forge Designs came through for me. I will review their clear flight stands later this week. Bottom line is, for the price, their stands are amazing! Also, all the love the original and second post in this project got have inspired me to jump back on it. Thanks to Goatboy, KrautScientist and all the other hobbyists and bloggers who have inspired me and exposed it to the world.

The fleshy parts were painted using the first half of the steps for my corrupt flesh tutorial ... and I might leave it here or take it up one more shade. I am super happy with how the wings and back are taking the paint so far and can't wait to see where it goes tonight.

Here is a closer shot at the wing. I guess saying it follows my corrupted flesh tutorial isn't completely correct. I am using some of the new colors. So, I primed it Valspar red primer, then brushed on a mix I used to paint blood on my ogres (2 parts Mephiston red/ 1 part black/ 2 parts Carroburg Crimson). I just covered the flesh parts in that color, then heavy dry brushed Genestealer Purple, then I came back and drybrushed less area Pink Horror, then a smaller area with Emperor's Children Pink. That's where I left off there anyway.

The cables right now were based in Snakebite Leather (I have no idea what color that is now) and then washed with Leviathan Purple. This give me a really good base to lay down the brass colors (If you have never used purples for your brass, you will see what I mean when I am done, promise). The armor is ... funny. I followed Ron's Word Bearer method from FTW and primed the model black and then zenithal sprayed the Valspar Red primer at angles to achieve a zenithal highlight. I then tied it in using Corroburg Crimson heavily washed all over the armor. The trim is based black right now because I will be painting it in silvers tonight.

Being Word Bearers and a model with a huge base, I wanted to use a ruined basilica on the base to create a diorama. Between this desire and the fact that I wasn't using a flyer model with a sweet pre-cut flying-stand hole, I had to get creative with the actual construction of the flight stand. I ended up using my dremel to drill down deep into the stanchion on the base and also to drill a massive hole for the clear stand in the chest of the Helturkey. It was scary but also kind of fun. I thought the risk of potentially destroying my hard work was exciting, but I guess I am a little sick that way!

Here is a little size comparison of the model next to a daemon prince. It's the same profile as the actual helturkey model, which is nice to have for game play.

As far as the base goes, I am also really happy with how it is turning out so far. The shades and texture of it are coming off realistically so far and hopefully with some powders and some detail work, it will tie the total model together for some very nice eye candy.

Anyway, I know I have been absent from the usual raving hobby insanity, but between work and a hefty Tau comission project, I am pretty swamped. I am taking a few days off from the Tau though to work on my own stuff and just decompress a little. Once I finish this off, I will also likely have some cultists ready to go and about a million drones prepped for the comission, so be on the look out for more stuff coming up.

As always, please let me know what you think of it so far.