Horus Heresy: Night Lords By DiStudios Lightning Strike Fighter Final Stages W.I.P

Despite the set back of last weeks Forge World's orders, I made some gains on the projects in front of me. And despite everything, I did actually make a fresh combined order with Hellstrom for some various Forge World bits, mainly essentials to finish my Veteran Tactical Squad and the fine details of my Terror Squads. Once these components arrive, I will probably aim to finish (and show off) the infantry portions of this army again.

This weekend, I decided to work on the some of the loose components of my Lightning Fighter: propelling nozzle, pilot and turbine. I am happy with the results, which sadly do not show well under my painting lamp, but non the less I am now steps closer to finally completing this piece, which is a comfort. I have learnt a lot so far from painting this model, mainly a case of re-discovering paint recipes and techniques I didn't realise I had forgotten, also it has allowed me to play about with the Night Lords colour scheme without Lightning. Looking at the above, I am now determined to NOT add lightning to my vehicles; as per the Horus Heresy books; and keep them limited to my infantry. Of course anything can change, but I find the addition of black stripes on the blue more uniform than throwing lightning bolts on everything.

I am not quite sure if I like the brassy effect of the engine exhausts on the nose, as right now it is too bright. But after perhaps after I darken it down, it might look fine. Another option would be to leave them black and add metal chipping instead. Sadly this is one of those trial and error situations that I will have to adjust on the fly. the gap in the front is for the main turbine, and I will be working on that this afternoon, aiming for a dark metal finish, with some weathering on it, you can still see some areas of fine details need to be done, but that will be post second varnish coat (navigation lights, optical lenses etc).

I really pleased with the twin nozzles, I experimented a bit with other metals for highlights, dry-brushing with copper to give a much more warm effect, and although the photo is not great, I added heat stains to the ends as an extra effect. I am toying with the idea of adding a glow to break up the darker colours, but we shall see, it might look fine as is. With these parts done and the turbine nearly there, I need to start worrying about identification marks and transfers. Now amusingly enough, there is no Night Lords transfer just yet and the ones available either do not have the numerals I need, or are not white transfers. I may have no choice but to use scale aircraft decals for this model in the end.

Above is a picture of a thunderbolt fighter pilot, I am not sure which publication, but I am thinking of doing my pilots with more neutral greys to help it stand out from within the cock pit. The pilot and cock pit, will be the very last things I finish on this model, and I am looking forward to reaching that stage this week (work depending). I still have another Lightning to do, but with a test run completed, it will be much easier to get and go with the next kit. I had toyed with the idea of a display base for this kit, and maybe I will just go ahead with it in during Easter, so eyes peeled for that one!

I am really enjoying my vehicles right now, very different to both the pods and infantry I was working on at the start. I really want to get some Rhinos, Bikes and Land Raiders to throw into the mix, but of course I will be focusing on the Terror Assault parts first...which sadly means more infantry. However it does give me something exciting to think about!

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

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