Painting the Leviathans....update

Well Oscar's been painting keenly these past couple of days, and the old Sorylian leviathan has been taking shape nicely. I've been shamed into getting my brushes out too and getting the Hyperion sorted!

So, we left the Sorylian lizard just after having had it's wash.

...and here he is again after drying and drybrushing;

Next up he's got a nice red frill and eyes have been done...

Here's a close-up, which shows some of the tone variations;

Next up he's done the inside of the mouht, teeth, nose ring and horn basecoat

Then a wash on the horns and teeth to tone them down a bit and bring out some of the detail;

He'll be drybrushing those horns next....

For my part, I'd just sprayed my leviathan....next was to drybrush and then deal with the pilots enclosure cockpit and designators;

Hopefully you can see the drybrushing tones down the colours slightly. Here's a close up of the "head"...I'm quite happy with the blending on the "cockpit" part and how the designators turned out.

Next were the railguns...a steel undercoat first...

...then "lighting up"!

So they're both looking pretty mean - still plenty to go, but coming along nicely! See you next time!

Painting the Leviathans

So I posted an unboxing of leviathans a while back, and thought it time to get them underway after the obligatory washing and drying to remove and mould-release agent. First up is the Dindrenzi Hyperion, done in my usual WWII late-war three-tone German camo;

I did the Letos at the same time, 10 of them...wow!

Next step will be drybrushing and then detail painting.

At the same time as this, Oscar asked me to base-spray his Sorylian. Here it is;

He then gave it a wash of 50/50 Green/black on its upper and outer surfaces;

this really brings out the detail and contrast in the spraying - an excellent starting point..the boy's getting good!

Sorylian Leviathan Planetfall Unboxing

Final instalment, here are the three Leviathans, each following the familiar format of box with glossy sleeve;

Now let's take our final look at the Sorylian Helix - as usual the reverse features a picture of the studio painted model, plus the usual small intro fluff piece. These are the weakest parts of this Helix from my perspective - the paint job, while nice, is not as good as the others (I don't really like the green used). Also, I don't like the fluff piece, it doesn't fit with the existing canon built up for the Sorylians in Firestorm, and I always find things like this a bit "jarring". Now, the idea of a massive dinosaur-lizard I can accept no problem, but making it some clever ancient that's never been mentioned before, strapping a howdah on its back and sending into a battlefield with weapons designed to destroy leviathan robots seems...a bit daft. So, in my particular corner of the FA universe, they'll be giant lizards from the jungles and plains of Kerender that the Sorylians have used as pack animals for centuries.

Anyway, that is just my personal view on things, and has pretty much nothing to do with the model itself, so let's get on with the unboxing;

Now I had a bit of trouble getting the sleeve off the box, because this one is jammed full of resin - its apparent when you pick it up, it weighs a lot more than the other leviathan helix boxes. That's clear when you lay out all the resin;

The body of the beast itself is a nine piece model, the size of which is quite amazing (and apparent to anyone who has already seen the Sorylian lights (as you can compare them here). Here is the main body;

As you can see its a big block of resin, countered on tp to take the skiff platform, and with a large join for the head piece (good for surface area for glueing. Underneath the piece is similarly countered for the legs;

A nice piece here are the moulded numbers embossed both into the body and the appropriate leg, making constructing simple and error free;

As far as the tail goes, a male/female join will make this easier to join and stronger in use;

The tail itself, nicely posed and detailed;

The head is a great piece of sculpting - I particularly like the whale-like throat folds. Again, it is cast with positive junctions for construction with a mind to strength - nice to see a games company thinking about how the models will be used on the tabletop.

That completes the organic part of the leviathan, but then you have the large skiff strapped to it;

This is a nice model in its own right, and comes complete with a massive cannon (with gunner);

Also in resin are the mounted rocket launchers....

...plus a small crew/rider contingent (which are the standard white metal infantry). Also in white metal are the beasts teeth;

If this wasn't enough, you also get a bunch of the fantastic little grab-bikes, which are one of my favourite lights (along with the Relthoza);

In summary, this is an amazingly good value set, and whether you like the background or not its a fantastic set of models and well worth buying. I'm sure it'll find a place on many tabletops and it does look pretty epic when its together. So, minor niggle aside, it's a great addition to Planetfall - well done Spartan on all three of the latest Leviathan releases!

Aquan Leviathan Planetfall Unboxing

Once again, in the second instalment, here are the three Leviathans, each following the familiar format of box with glossy sleeve;

Now let's look at the Aquan in detail as promised - the reverse features a picture of the lovely studio painted model, plus the usual small intro fluff piece;

Opening the box;

And getting it all out;

The Aquan base is unique (the others being generic), as it has the "feet" moulded directly onto it - a good idea, since I can't imagine assembly would be easy it they were not fixed!

The leviathan itself comes as four main pieces (plus the base and accessories) - the single-piece body and three legs. The single piece body is finely detailed, and I'm continually impressed with hoe Spartan have continually improved their mould-making to create crisp detail, sharp edges and undercuts for these single-piece castings.

The legs are long and substantial, but still convey a feeling of grace to the model - very appropriate for the Aquans;

The remaining resin pieces for this model are the two lasers and two gribble tentacle bits. I like the overall feeling of the organic/cybernetic nature of this model, it feels very alien.

Once again you get a bunch of lights with the leviathan (I think the only exception is the Directorate flying death ring of doom!);

For those who are unfamiliar with these, they are lovely little models, supplied with bases to give them the impression of hovering over the terrain.

This is a really nice model - it makes me envious that Oscar has it and I don't - I look forward to seeing it built up and then trying to take it down on the battlefield (which I don't think will be easy!).

Next up, the Sorylian Dinosaur!