+ inload: Fire up the Bigmob +

+ Painting Gargants +

+ Waa-ork! The boiler's nearly at full, so let's go full steam ahead on getting a Bigmob of Gargants ready for Adeptus Titanicus play. +

I'm having fun picking away at this Gargant – I hope that the slightly mismatched look almost inevitable with this approach should add to the feel. For all my protestations of disliking painting big things like tanks, this year seems to have alternated between giant Titans and teeny-weeny Epic figures, with very little in between. Funny how things work.

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Since last time, all I've really done is work on the muted olive green of the superstructure with washes. I've had a variety open on my painting desk, ranging from Gryphonne and Seraphim Sepia to Agrax Earthshade and whatever the red, green and blue ones are called.

The effect gives a textural result that I really like – I think once some contrasting plates are in place, it'll provide a bit more 'pop'. Regardless, I'm finding more and more that I'm simply enjoying the process of painting, rather than the finished result. 

I'm not sure that's entirely a good thing – I can't imagine it's quite so interesting to everyone else, but the relaxing nature of gradually building up and refining is certainly relaxing.

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+ Fire the secondary batteries! +

This Gargant has been a bit of an experiment in avoiding primary colours, and substituting them for secondaries. I've used lots of reds, blues and yellows recently (along with highly-saturated greens), and thought another palette might be a fun experiment.

Enter the secondary colours, and in muted, earthy hues. I like working within restrictions like this – it'll help to give a coherent finish, and the nature of picking a colour scheme means that groups of colours like this (a triad) will always tend to work.

The washes have been laid in around the seams and rivets in a fairly hotch-potch fashion; varying the colours across the surface. While wet, I've used a clean dry brush to selectively lift out some of the pooling wash from raised areas, as well as dropping in other wash colours for variety here and here. I've also used some kitchen paper and swiped with my thumb to remove washes in more textural ways.

As I hope you can see, the results are starting to build up into the appearance of mottled, dusty, rusty and oily textures across the surface. I think this sort of textural greebling goes a long way to selling the idea of scale. Compare the effect on the front with the back, where things are mostly at an earlier stage.

I'm planning to have some brighter areas to suggested internal lighting – showing through in the various little 'huts' and portholes/windows, and to have some plates made up of metals taken from looted foes.

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You'll note the base has been worked up in various browns up through yellow ochre to an ivory colour for highlights. This matches my Iron Skulls (Legio Metalica) forces and the rest of my Armageddon-themed miniatures. I'll probably add a few tufts and bits and bobs. The huge bases of Titans and similar War Engines provide a great canvas for stuff that helps set the scale, like barrels and infantry figures. You'll spot a little mek poking out of the hatch at the top of the Gargant's head. He's from Vanguard Miniatures' Skinners range [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+].

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+ Plans and plots +

The eventual plan for this is to have a 'maniple' of each of the 40k factions I find iconic for Epic – Eldar, Orks and Imperials. I'll be using the Bloodsong expansion, [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] which is entering its final beta testing stage over the next couple of weeks.

Duplication is anathema to the orks, and I managed to find another Great Gargant sculpt, which a friend of mine has kindly printed. This version is a bit more refined than the other, I think; a bit more natural looking. 

I've not received the figure, but he should fit in very nicely alongside our unnamed friend above.

Speaking of names, it struck me that it might be fun to have name generators or a list of suggestions in Bloodsong, so I'm very open to any ideas or suggestions for Ork Gargant and Eldar Titan names – exload 'em into the comments here, or pop them up on the +Death of a Rubricist+ Facebook group [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], where you can ask any questions you like about the project.

A couple more 'glamour shots' of the WIP Great Gargant. He's magnetised at the head, and the torso is also unglued in order to allow things to rotate freely. 

The weapons are magnetised, mostly using 5mm rare earth magnets – apart from the shoulder guns (part of the gun decks, rules-wise), where I realised I could use some spare corsage magnets instead. These Gargant models are quite substantial, and so larger, cheaper magnets seem sensible.

I haven't got a pict-capture of them on the Great Gargant, but you can see them nice and clearly on this smaller Gargant:

... and while they're at an early stage, I thought I'd show the rest of the bigmob as they currently stand:

This head is based on the original Great Gargant one – I found a couple cheap second-hand, and have bulked it up a bit (it looked a bit pin-headed originally!)