40k Hobby Blog

Daemons So Far..

2012-01-25T07:52:00.002-05:00

I completed a squad of 10 pink horrors, adding them to the 5 metal ones I had already painted years ago. since the models were so different I decided to paint them purplish to match the greater deamon. This way I have pink and blue horrors. I'll try to get better photos of these, as the pink horror models are really quite nice. The Chaos Spawn models are a different story altogether....

I hated painting the chaos spawn. In every way I feel like I should love the models.

Pro-Spawn

They are Spawn!
They have spikes
They are fallen-fallen (sort of like twice baked potatoes)

Con-Spawn

The models are ugly
The joints between limbs do not fit properly
Details are poorly sculpted
They are huge, which amplifies the detail problems
There are really hard to paint because there are few distinct details.

So how would I fix spawn? I'd put broken bits of space marine armor all around them, hanging off their tortured frames. If there were more to distinct areas to paint it would be easier to give the impression that these are space marines who failed the emperor, failed their legions, and then failed their chaos patrons. They are thrice damned! Thrice-baked potato, does that work?

Building A Better Abbadon

2012-01-22T16:53:00.000-05:00

Abbadon is one of the original Sons of Horus/ Lunar Wolves, however the highly detailed finecast model just does not match his age or awesomeness. What the fin cast model does provide is an easy to dissect base from which to build a better Abbadon.

This conversion is not perfect, but the flaws are easily hidden with the terminator chaos lords cloak. Basically I took the shoulders and torso of the finecast model and married it to the plastic chaos terminator lords legs. The goal was to make it look good from the front. The back could be easily hidden with a cloak, which would make the model look more imposing in any case. After the body had its new legs, I used plastic terminator arm pieces to extend the arms holding the weapons. The original Abbadon model has weird stumpy arms, but huge hands. This turns out to be a benefit, because the forearm of the finecast model ends up fitting really well onto the plastic arm extensions.

All I need to do now is paint this guy up in black legion colors and give him an honor guard.

Daemons Based! Army WIP

2012-01-20T08:21:00.003-05:00

I've now based 30 models, and am nearing the place where I could actually take these guys to a game store and play a game. Given that this is an accidental army, meant originally to used with the Chaos Marines Codex, I have a weird assortment of units. I think I can pull together the following list:

1 Greater Daemon 250
x15 blood letters 280 (plus all upgrades)
x15 blood letters 280 (plus all upgrades)
x5 Plague Bearers 75
x5 Pink Horrors 85
Daemon Prince 80
Soul Grinder (If I paint it) 160

This is about 1210 points, so I am a little shy of a 1500 point game. I could paint up another 10 Pink Horrors in addition to the Soul Grinder. Do people play at 1k? Maybe I should just try a small game. Ultimately I just want to see some Daemons on the table. At the bogey man of the 40k universe, I think it would be really cool to see some marines or guard assaulted by daemonic forces. That fits my movie/fluff based vision for what a game should look like. Winning a game played this way does not even matter so long as really cool stuff happens.

Oh My God, It's Full Of Daemons!

2012-01-17T21:20:00.000-05:00

The Daemon army progresses! With a major milestone accomplished at work, and Moby songs in my head, I sat down and pushed through all of the tooth/hoof/blade portions of the Bloodletters. I was worried about the green blades, but after getting more of them completed and the first eight based, I am pretty pleased. I don't think I have ever painted this fast. The messy job of casting more bases has started, and I have little doubts that the army will be done by this weekend. I picked up one of those half robotic spider/ half deamon mutant vehicles things to add to the army, and some older models to rebase, and I think I am good to go. I was supposed to be making a slight diversion into chaos in order to recover from speed painting my minty neurons, but like many slight diversions, it snow balled.

Maybe I'll take a break from my Daemons to paint some squats or something... who knows.

Bloodletters of Khorne WIP

2012-01-16T18:10:00.000-05:00

I've had some Bloodletters stowed away for some time, and after reading the Chaos Marines codex, decided to paint them up to use as summoned lessor daemons. The fact that they can pull dual duty for both the chaos marines and chaos daemons codexes is a bonus. I think I am going to go for an all daemon army as well, just to have something different to throw down. After all, with all those Grey Knights armies around, it only seems right to have some deamons for them to face now and then.

No matter how you cut it, painting 30 miniatures is tedious. If I had not had an airbrush I would not have even attempted this. From the photos you can see that the base colors are down, and I am painting up the metallic bits. Each model has around 50 raised bumps, which I will probably have to paint by hand. I plan on painting the nubs white or orange. Before that i will need to pour 30 resin bases, so these guys have something to stand on. So with all that work, by Friday these guys should be ready for the table top. Not bad for two troops choices!

Chaos Dreadnought and Changer of Ways WIP

2012-01-14T13:09:00.002-05:00

Continuing the speed-painting-a-thon, I decided to paint up a Chaos dreadnought that I nicked off ebay for a steal. If the price had not been so good I might not have bothered, given how much I dislike metal models. In another transaction I managed to pick up some dreadnought weapons as well. One of the things I like about new models is that edges are crisp, and there is little difficulty in figuring out where to paint. The older models require a measure of looseness in painting style that works great for speed painting, but makes it difficult of me to paint clean models. Despite this, I really enjoyed dousing this old guy in paint. I think he looks great with the army.

Given my inability to actually finish a model, while painting the dread, I decided to paint up a changer of ways greater daemon as well. The palette is completely different, and will fit with the all daemon army that I've decided to build to complement the Chaos Marines. I suppose I could magnetize the daemons to their bases, and have square or round bases depending on game system, however I am not sure I want to slow down my painting with all that drilling. My wife loves the Daemon, so I must have done something right!

Chaos Possessed & Ultra Marine Traitors

2012-01-12T21:30:00.000-05:00

and now back to our regular programing.....

After the fun I had painting the berzerkers, I decided I had to paint up the box of possessed space marines, I've had sitting on my bench for several years as well. I love the models, however I had a really hard time understanding how the paint them. The fact that the hard sharp armor is melting into daemon form, makes it difficult to paint sections without blending them all together. I decided to use my airbrush and paint them as if they were turning into pure daemons. I tried to add just enough areas of hard edges for contract that the minis would be interesting. I am not sure if they look like they go with the whole army, but the basing does tie them in a little more. All of the daemons I paint are going to be vivid colors, so there is some rational for it.

The next thing any Chaos force needs is a unit of turncoat ultramarine terminators. I painted these out to see if I could reproduce the heavily weathered ultra-marine I painted eons ago. I failed. I have no idea what I did wrong, but the mojo was off, and these guys just turned out alright.

All of this Chaos stuff does not mean that my Necrons are done. I am just taking a break so I can focus on some random colors. This is sort of like a painting interlude!

Standard Dice

2012-01-10T19:22:00.001-05:00

Tournaments should provide players with tournament dice.

There, I said it.

How many times have you seen players change out their dice when they need a certain roll? Why not just remove any doubt of irregularly by removing it from the game altogether?

Ok, mini-rant over, back to the regular modeling and painting content.

Chaos Khorne Berserkers

2012-01-08T10:23:00.000-05:00

I started painting this squad years ago. In fact, they sat so long that when I decided to paint them I had to wash them under the sink remove years of dust from the partially completed paint jobs. My techniques have changed quite a bit from those used when these guys were started, but I am really pleased with these none the less. I think I just needed a non-Necron diversion. I wanted to paint a squad start to finish. I wanted to toss these guys on the test bases you see, and just enjoy their ferocity every time I glance at them in the cabinet. I might even paint some more Chaos goodies now. It was so fun just painting something different that I feel like I may need to paint that old Chaos dreadnought I found on ebay. I have no idea how to put together a chaos army, but I think if I just paint what I want, I'll end up with something enjoyable on the table.

So I've been bit by the Chaos Marines bug. Does that mean I intend to paint cleanly and carefully? Nope. My plan is to speed...er...even speedier paint a force of these guys. I just want to enjoy loose brush strokes and the freedom of heavy washes, weathering, and verdigris. How long will this chaos spurt last? I think just long enough for me to use up all those black rusty test bases I painted up for no apparent reason. I may do something I rarely do, which is go back and take finished older miniatures, and weather them up, rebase them and make them fit in some kind of visually coherent way.

Necron Army Update

2012-01-02T14:53:00.001-05:00

I've made a lot of progress on my Mint-crons recently. The Stormlord and Trazyn are complete, as are the death marks, and the Praetorians. I based both scratch built crypteks, painted another, as well as painted up a Heavy Destroyer I found neglected in the back of an independent hobby shop. (see there is a reason to go to non-GW stores!) I also managed to paint up 10 more warriors yesturday.

Visually the biggest army wide impact have been the blue power tubes attached to the rank and file necron warriors. I have not decided what color to paint the power cables test, but once I do, the last step will be basing all of them. Warriors have a wide stance, which makes them fit poorly on normal GW bases, so I may gin up some resin bases for them. My last completely unpainted models are 4 bases of scarabs.

I'm glad the end is in sight. I love the new Necron models, but there just isn't enough variety to keep and hold my interest. I find myself itching to paint some good old power armor.

I wish everyone a happy new year, and oh yeah..world peace.

Black Templars Music On Vinyl!

2011-12-31T09:34:00.002-05:00

Sometimes really weird stuff shows up at the office. A friend of mine from college sent me a note asking for an address to ship something that "I would not want, and probably could not use." Naturally I thought it was related to college gag we had going years ago. What turned up from the good Dr. was incredibly cool, a Black Templars themed album. In every way this hits the 40k button perfectly for me. Modern retro! (notice the soft orange leather ottoman in the background---mid century modern is where it is at people) I may have retro furniture, but I do not have a record player. I'll have to rectify that. I mean who doesn't want to hear tracks like:

The Emperor's Champion
10-inch record pressing

Side A
"Abhor the witch, destroy the witch"
"Uphold the honor of the Emperor"

Side B
"Accept any challenge, no matter the odds"
"Suffer not the unclean to live"

What an awesome gift this is. I thought that the two pre-heresy land raiders by wife gave me for Christmas were cool. This is far cooler. I've been wearing a smile since this arrived. Maybe this is a sign to use all those FW goodies I've been collecting and make a Black Templar force?

Trazyn and Imotekh WIP

2011-12-15T19:40:00.003-05:00

I am nearing the home stretch of having enough HQ/royal court members to start playing games with my Necrons. I am ready to paint something else for a while. I am eager to base all of these guys, put dust on their legs and get them on the field of battle. I like both of these guys as HQ choices. I could see myself running a mostly royal court army just for fun, maxing out on crypteks and scarabs, and taking minimum sized troops choices. It wouldn't be a tournament list, but it could be a lot of fun to see what happens when there are 10 crypteks on the field all in small squads. What are the other fun cryptic lists?

Bits Box Crypteks

2011-12-14T08:14:00.002-05:00

I like the GW Cryptek model, however after buying two of them, and needing three more, I decided to see what I could do using some of those extra bits left over from some of the kits. I started with necron warrior bodies and added LG loin cloths, TT tails, LG rods of the covenant, and then half LG heads half death mark heads. I have no idea where the left arms came from, the the gestures looked amusing. So what do you think? Do these guys pass as Crypteks? I can always use them as little generic lords and go out and buy three more identical dudes.

Completely unrelated to the modeling, I am really happy with how the green shading on the torsos came out. There is a lot more contrast, and I don't feel the immediate need to lightly wash the things.

Covering Up Necron Green Plastic

2011-12-11T10:23:00.001-05:00

I can't stand the transparent Necron plastic that comes with the older Necron kits. There is no way around it. In a hobby where I paint tiny models, something about seeing bare plastic makes screams tacky to me. Rather than delve into this inherent contradiction, I'm going to instead focus on what I've done to get rid of the green stuff. In some cases I think It worked, and others, I am sort of meh about the results. Good word meh.

First off I had to come up with two replacement color schemes. I had already determined that white to blue would be the color/style for all of my power weapons, so I decided to push this theme for all of the green rods that come with the kits. Implementing this was the work of tedious air brushing. The new blueish rods are all done, and can be seen in the destroyer models, the warriors, and the sides of the monolith. after weathering I plan to add a gloss coat to all of the blue throughout the army. Having both matte and gloss is another way to bring visual interest to the army.

The second set of tacky green plastic to replace was the giant crystal at the top of the monolith and the warp portal on the front of the thing. Much like the blue, I had already picked purple out as the color scheme for resurrection orbs and the weird teleportation balls on the backs of teleporting troops. I wasn't sure about this decision at the time, but my desire to be consistent, and follow my evolving painting rules, lead me down this path. The crystal was a pain to paint, carefully cutting blue painters tape and taping off alternating faces of the crystal and then airbrushing the shading on.

I wish I had gone with blue. However, the purple is here to stay, at least until I have weathered and sealed the thing.

A couple of other painting updates.
1. I finished the airbrushing of the Triarch Pratorian war scythes.
2. I finished and based the last two flayed ones
3. I painted one of the classic Necron lords and added him to my royal court.

Not bad for a Saturday!

Going To NOVA 2012

2011-12-09T08:32:00.001-05:00

So last year I had a great time at the NOVA open, it allowed me to play all eight of the games of 40k that I had played that year. I had a great time. The people I met are great, the games were fun, the room was stinky, and the hurricane and rain provided a sort of gamer car wash when lunchtime came around. So obviously I signed up for the NOVA for next year, but I haven't played any games since the last NOVA.

....crickets......

Yep, I played all of my games last year at a single tournament over the course of 2 days. I need to play this game more often. Tim over at The Tau of War who predictably a beautiful tau army, suggested a place called Dream Wizards in Maryland wednesday nights. I'm not sure if I can get there from Capitol Hill during the week, but if they do gaming on the weekend..... Challenge Accepted. My Tau versus your Tau. (Tau are the coolest army after all) ;)

Triarch Praetorians WIP

2011-12-07T20:48:00.001-05:00

I decided to go with Triarch with war scythes. I like the way the shaded blue power weapon portions stand out against the green. Unfortunately I forgot to paint the other side of the weapons when I was batch painting the lychguard, so I have to go back and do that before I can complete the staff. When I was painting the death marks and was doing the red eye/sensor thing, I went ahead and painted the red sensor on these guys as well. These guys were almost painted by mistake. It was like the excess painting from other units spilled over and I realized that I had nearly completed a unit without thinking about it.

The 40k question. Will I field these? Eh, maybe. I've been knocking around the following list idea for a 2k list. I am thinking primarily NOVA format. Basically I want to hold two or three objectives, and let my arks contest of they survive to do so.

Overlord WS orb //middle objective
cryptic tremor staff //middle objective
cryptic tremorstaff //objective 2
cryptic tremorstaff //objective 2
cryptic meltastaff //objective 2
cryptic meltastaff //objective 1
lord WS orb //objective 1
4 9 man necron squads
4 ghost arks //one at objective 1, one at objective 2, one at the middle objective, one floater
2 10 base scarabs //one at objective 1, one goes for the middle objective
1 3 base scarabs //hangs out near least threatened objective according to setup
1 spyder gloom //grey knight defense objective 1 limited scarab regen
1 spyder gloom //grey knight defense objective 2 limited scarab regen
C'tan with writhing world scape hangs out near most threatened base for late game suicide attack

There are three objectives that the nova open focuses on, objectives, table quarters, and kill points. They get swapped around depending on the mission, but an army needs to do well in all three to succeed. I believe if I can slow game time down, and make it difficult for the enemy to get to me, I can contest 2 of the remaining three objectives late game using my arks. Eventually my opponent will get to me, which is where a load firepower should help. I think I just need to avoid early assault to give myself time to shoot. The scarabs and the C'Tan function as suicide troops if my world shaking difficult terrain does not work. Gloom Spyders provide anti-grey knight defense, with scarabs as a carpet moving forward providing distance threat.

just an idea....

Deathmarks or Units People Hate Pt 2

2011-12-06T20:08:00.001-05:00

These could have been tesla equipped Immortals, which would have added the first tesla equipped troops to my army, instead they are Deathmarks. The rules for these guys do not make much sense to me. Short range assassin snipers that show up just in time to be shot during the other players turn. Despite that, the story behind these guys, that they are the assassin class of the Necrons, and the cool cycloptean look of the models themselves ensured that I would end up painting a squad. Usually I can imagine fielding even the worst units. These guys take the cake. I think they are going to sit nicely on my shelf next to their Necron brothers, and simply provide me visual entertainment.

When I was prepping my second batch of neurons, I stripped the sprues and dumped the contents into open box lids. It turns out that it takes very specific arms to make theses weapon configurations work. Much like the Ghost Ark, where I failed to read the fine print, I found myself trying to dry fit each arm to each weapon. One of minis looks like his shoulder is being torn from the socket. But I suppose that is what you get when you are a short range in your face sniper without any close combat ability! I added red as a new color for the army, and plan to add red gems/lights to the tops of the ghost arks. I used the purple color again, on the weird dangling balls on the back, as well as the embedded globes on the back armor. I am slowly settling on the the scheme that purple means weird warp technology, red is non Necron eye sensors, and shaded blue/white are power weapons or gauss cables for cause weapons. I think those colors will add all of the contrast I need for the army.

I've got a batch of triarch praetorians on the painting table now. I think those guys are considered useful in people's army lists, so they might see some action on the tabletop.

Necron Destroyers WIP Or Units People Hate Part 1

2011-12-05T08:04:00.001-05:00

I've been reading quite a bit online about how terrible Necron destroyers, death marks, or various other units are in the Necron codex for a while now. It is easy for me to decide to paint something that will never get fielded, because I am a very fast painter, and I rarely play. I paint because I want to paint, very different than paint to play. I understand how a dedicated gamer might need to optimize his or her painting time, and am very fortunate that I do not have to optimize mine. Hence my next series of posts are all units that people online have urged me not to buy! I appreciate their advice, and if this army ever sees the field I will do some careful editing, however for now it is really all about painting cool toys.

In terms of speed, these destroyers took around 2 1/2 hours from start to this stage. (still deciding what to do with the ugly transparent plastic green rods). It seemed the models just spoke to me. Part of that comes from having a recipe now that I am familiar with. For instance I did not have to think about what color to paint the beetle/egg shaped carapace section. I knew it had to be dark grey, shaded to lighter grey at the edges. After painting my vehicles that became standard. The minty color I can knock out in in a couple of minutes with two color changes in the airbrush, so it is easy as well. these miniatures were quick and easy to paint, which combined with their striking form, made them a joy to paint. I really want to paint more of them now. I think a lord and a heavy destroyer should be added to the mix. If I had simply followed the net's advice, I would have never bought these, and never gotten the thrill it was to see them add diversity and visual interest to my army.

to munge a slogan from Apple, Paint Different!

Necron Cryptic, Overlord, Lord, and Army Shots

2011-12-01T18:47:00.001-05:00

I just finished a Necron Cryptic to add to my steadily growing force. I am a bit surprised GW did not create a box for these guys since 4 of them are auto-includes in any army, and the unit is so interesting fluff-wise. I am not sure what I am going to do for the other cryptics I need, since I can't see myself buying duplicates.

I feel like I am running out of interesting necron units to paint. Anyone have any spare plastic scarabs? Those never get old!

Minty Necron Overlord WIP

2011-11-30T09:46:00.001-05:00

The Necron train continues! I think I did a better job painting the purple bowling ball this time around. If I keep up at this rate I am going to have to figure out how to finished all of the warriors and immortals.

I think some battle damage/rust tests are in my near future!

Lychguards Painted!

2011-11-29T21:50:00.001-05:00

I am making good progress with my Necrons again. If you ignore the guys whose head is falling off, these guys are ready to deflect shots with their shields and protect my lord. I continued with the purple gem theme on them as a highlight, as well as blue shaded power weapons. I keep hearing that these guys are terrible in this configuration, but I have them now, and so they will be fielded. Just in case however, I decided to bulk paint the rest of my forces power weapons. this saved me a lot of time, however in keeping with Ron's recent post about only painting the front of a model, I totally forgot to turn the power weapons on the plate over for the two lighter highlights, so these are only partially completed.

Where would I be without my airbrushes? Am I even capable of painting an entire miniature by hand? Does the airbrush make me less of a painter?

Necron Lord With War Scythe WIP

2011-11-28T18:44:00.001-05:00

My minty green Necron's finally have an HQ choice! This model is still WIP, with some areas are still pure un shaded base coat, but I really liked the way it was tuning out and wanted to share. I used the same power weapon technique I used on my Blood angels with this guy. A quick recap.

1. Prime area black
2. diluted enchanted blue base coat
3. enchanted blue mixed with white as the first pass
3. Space Wolf grey on the high energy portions.

I will go back with washes for shading, paint the rest of the power weapon, and then the rest of the details. I think the key thing here is that I was able to knock this out in a few minutes rather than hours. I can spend as much time as I like cleaning him up now. I've said this before but.....

please go out and buy and air brush. It is like magic. Imagine adding an airbrush as a tool to an already talented painter!

So do I finish this guy or just keep scatter painting the force, adding colors as I go?

Easy Necron Flying Base Tutorial

2011-11-27T16:42:00.001-05:00

I am a big fan of easy basing, so a while ago I started experimenting with creating washes out of heavily diluted GW foundation paints. Eventually I settled on a dusty desert world look. Originally this style of basing was created for my Blood Angels, but after painting up my first Necrons, and reading that they had a penchant for destroying imperial worlds, I decided to use the same style for their bases.

Step 1: Glue a bunch of imperial debris on the top of the flying bases. Cut the debris up as much as possible so there there are plenty of grooves for the wash to settle into.

Step 2: Prime white.

Step 3: Using a 50/50 water Khemri brown foundation mix, paint the entire base, leaving puddles of the paint. The paint will separate into the darker blackish color, and into all kinds of the shades of brown as the paint dries. It is important to keep the paint very watery so this can happen.

Step 4: In order to tie all the bases together, unifying all of the variants of brown, a dry brush of Dehenb stone is done over the entire base. A 50/50 mix of white glue and water is then dabbed on the base in patches where dry static grass will be added.

The end result is a simple base, with enough color variation to really help models stand out.

Necron Flayed Ones

2011-11-19T15:45:00.001-05:00

Three out of five flayed ones are now complete-ish. (not really finishing any model per-se!)
I plan to add the wet blood after they are varnished. I probably won't get much more done due to thanksgiving. I think my next major push needs to be finishing these and the guard. That will give me some interesting units to use.

So now that I am painting the bulk of my troops, what I really want to paint are tomb spiders and wraiths. Where are those models. Weren't they plastic before? I never saw one in person, but the wraiths look pretty cool to me on email. I really want to paint some, but maybe I should wait.

C'tan

2011-11-17T19:37:00.001-05:00

Unclear on my weathering techniques, I decided to just ignore the problem for a while. I did rub off more of the powder and ended up with a slightly better result, but I think I can defer the decision for a while, which will give me more time to practice on old rhinos.

I am already painting this army in unfinished chunks so I decided to just add two purple C'tan to see how well the colors meshed with the overall look. I don't remember who suggested it, but adding purple was a great idea, and I owe a commenter thanks for the idea. The internet rocks! Ctan really don't look like they belong in a Necron force, so I tried to paint them up like purple apparitions rather than regular objects of the material universe. Also, I made sure that some of the minty green color was on each of the models in order to tie them into my royal dynasty. I am fairly pleased with the bases as well. Ruined imperial vehicles make a wonderful base for just about any army, especially imperial ones!

Necron Weathering Test

2011-11-16T18:25:00.001-05:00

Rather than risk one of the more interesting vehicles, I decided to test my weathering technique out on my monolith. Do I need to rub off more powder before it starts looking right? It just looks off to me. Basically all I did to get the powder on was take a GW tank brush and start scrubbing the surface downward. Is this a case of too much powder, bad technique, or something else? I was hoping it wouldn't hide all of my shading, but the powder kind of blows that away as well. Am I being too critical and it is more of me not seeing the finished product in the in-progress phase. Do I need to do more?

Any help is appreciated!

Necron Vehicle Progress

2011-11-15T17:08:00.001-05:00

I've made progress on two ghost arks, one annihilation barge, and a doomsday ark. Whereas I can paint a rhino in no time at all, I am finding the necron vehicles really tedious. They are great kits, but having to paint 20 necron warriors just to dress the models is a lot of work. I plan to spray a diluted black wash over all of the models at the end of painting and have practiced on a few of wounded models missing from the two arks. I think weathering powders are going to look really good over the black vehicles. I was thinking of weathering the whole vehicle to make it look like these vehicles were coming out of a sand storm. I am really tempted to add rust to the vehicles because it would be a nice way to get orange into the color scheme.

So is this the start of a playable force?

Scarab Swarms And Army Shot Update

2011-11-12T11:58:00.001-05:00

I love these little scarab models, so this morning I painted ~30 of them! I wanted them to really stand out on the battlefield, so I painted the to the shame standard as my troops. This means for the green carapace I used Moss, Pale lichen, and then a white/lichen mix to shade them. I then used bolt gun metal on the metal parts, badab wash, followed by silver highlight. The little tail sections I hit with dev mud to bring out the details.

I had planned to use a very dark brown basing, much like what I see over on the Vanus Temple , since I have long admired his work, but I think I am going to stick with the basing I created for my Blood Angels. The bases are already littered with ruined imperial bits, and given the BA and Necrons have fought together before, it would bring a little cohesion to my armies. I'll also be able to reuse my display board should I decide to game with these Necrons.

Now, I have to eat a little crow today. While putting together two more Ghost Arks, I noticed that the rib sections go together in a specific order. I have no idea how I missed this with the first Ark, but I did. The arks went together really easily, and the plastic glue worked just fine. Lesson learned.

Necron Painting Update

2011-11-11T21:24:00.001-05:00

I had planned to paint 24 warriors and 10 immortals today, and while I did not complete the task I did make very good progress. I stuck with the blue tinted white heads, but added purple as a secondary color for the immortals. I think I will use a lot of purple and gold on my lords. I may paint them entirely purple. I really like the backstory that the aristocracy ended up with better personality preservation due to better quality bodies, so using purple to signify royalty is kind of cool.

My Great Necron Batch Painting Challenge

2011-11-11T10:34:00.001-05:00

So I've set myself the unrealistic goal is to complete two squads of Necron warriors and 1 10 man squad of Necron immortals today. I really want to jump in and paint all of the new vehicles and units, but I think if I can power my way through these troops I will at least have the start of a playable army. I am pretty speedy when it comes to vehicles anyway, so I think my army will grow pretty quickly one these guys are covered. I do not plan to base these guys today or paint over the green rods.

I've been working since 8:30 AM this morning using my new IWATA airbrush to get the base color on all of the models. The recipe so far is:

Armor:

Base coat of chaos black
Reaper Master Series Highland Moss (darkish green)
Reaper Master Series Pale Lichen (the mid tone)
1/1 Skull White and Pale Lichen for highlights

I got a lot of good feedback from my test model, and I have not decided what to do with the Necron heads yet. I like the ida of using purple as a secondary color throughout the army. Gold on purple looks pretty good, and has a nice regal feel. I was thinking of keeping the heads space wolf grey, but using purple stripes on the Immortals. The main characters would then have the following colors:

Mint Green
Dark Coal Grey
Space Wolf Grey
Purple
Gold

I think that would look pretty good, but the heads will be done last so I have time today if there are any other suggestions.

Wish me luck. If there is any interest I can update this post with photos as I progress. The next 3 hours will be spent painting joints Boltgun metal and applying dev mud and badab black washes, so I doubt there will be much interest seeing photos of that.

*EDIT 2:16 PM*
I have finally finished painting all the joints metallic. I have also painted all of the guns black, and painted dwarf bronze on the torso details. The bronze is still drying, and I plan to take a break for a few hours. Painting can be exausting.

Mint Green Necron Paint Test

2011-11-08T19:18:00.001-05:00

I wanted to do something different with my Necrons, so my first paint scheme test is mint green ceramic plates with boltgun metal joints, and a Space Wolf grey head. The idea was to paint this as quickly as possible and then weather the armor with sponged damage, powders, or streaks of dev mud wash. The gun and barrel are not completed either, I just wanted to see how bad the lime green barrel looked. I plan to test my weathering before I dip this guy in simple green. At the moment I am on the fence. I like seeing painted Necrons, but I really can't imagine how this guy will look finished yet. I suppose when the gun barrel is painted to look like blue plasma, and the gun is shaded grey it will help. Any opinions on the color scheme so far?

Ghost Ark Rant

2011-11-07T20:01:00.001-05:00

So like many of you, I rushed out an bought a whole neuron army this past weekend. I've got a color scheme I am really looking forward to painting, but the deal is that I cannot start painting until the whole army is built. That way, I can ensure the colors and blending are the same, as well as minimize base color painting time, since I can do it in bulk with my airbrush. I had planned to share photos of my mint green enamel colored nectrons tonight, but that was before I met the ghost ark.

Ok---now the rant.

Seriously..what do I have to do to keep the spine of the thing together. I have glued, scraped, re-glued, and repeated the following process so much at this point that I am slowly dissolving the spine. It looks more organic now that when I bought it. Why on earth did they not just create a support spine running the length of the kit, and then have the spines snap into it. The two sprue symmetry would still work. I love the finished ghost ark kit, and I really want to paint it, but glue has to dry...again.

Cracked Desert Bases Using Crackle Paint

2011-10-31T19:20:00.002-04:00

After seeing a great video making dry mud using some unobtainable material from the UK, I decided to give DecoArt Texture Crackle(brown), and Tim Holtze Distress Crackle Paint(Antique Linen). I am pretty pleased with how both materials worked. It did take all night for them to dry, and I have not figured out how to keep the chunks from falling off, but with the power of resin casting I can stand to ruin the master in order to make a better mold. One of the key advantages of this stuff is that in addition to looking realistic, it can be painted around embedded objects such as skeletons, rocks, or any other bit I might want to add to a base.

Warhammer World Tables

2011-10-29T17:09:00.001-04:00

One of the great things about Warhammer World that I did not get to fully enjoy was the gaming area. Maybe next time I'll try to find a way to sneak a tiny army into my luggage, but given how irritating international travel is these days, probably not. The tables do beckon me. As you can see from the first photo, the room is packed with really good looking gaming tables, including some really nice Tau themed tables. I really wish I had the opportunity to game on tables this nice looking. GW store tables are nice, but fully themed tables with appropriate amounts of terrain, roads, rivers, and all manor of other cool scenic features really add a lot to the game. I imagine my Blood Angles would look pretty good on that snow blasted wasteland, or fighting through Osgiliath.

Now if I could only work up motivation to paint for the competition tomorrow. I might have to bow out. Jet lag is hitting pretty hard, and all I want to do is relax and watch the snow fall.

Images From Warhammer World

2011-10-28T19:04:00.000-04:00

With a day to spare in the UK I found a way to get myself up to nottingham to visit the Warhammer Museum. I'll have a separate post showing the wonderful themed tables, but I wanted to share my photos of all of the studio magic. I've poured over this stuff for years, so seeing it in person was really gratifying. I highly recommend the visit to anyone who has the chance. My only complaint was that I was really hoping to see more forgeworld stuff.

I'm going to warhammer world right now!!!!

2011-10-18T06:52:00.001-04:00

I've always wanted to go, so this is really exciting. If you see two exhausted Americans wandering through in about an hour and a half say hi!

How awesome is warhammer world?

2011-10-13T08:15:00.001-04:00

I really need the intertubes help with this one. I am flying to London for business and wanted to know if warhammer world is worth the 2 hour train ride. Convince me!

Blood Angels Earn A Display Case

2011-10-07T15:21:00.000-04:00

My parents are visiting us this week, in preparation for a family vacation. My father brought his new camera, that I am thrilled with. Maybe the Cannon DSLR is done. In any case, I haven't posted photos of my blood angels in their new IKEA display cases yet. There are numerous unpainted bits, but I am so thrilled with how the color was being captured by the camera that I wanted to share. I can't believe I painted most of those tanks and the storm raven(even less finished than the rest) for the NOVA open. I think I am still recharging my painting batteries.

I am definitely going to buy one of these once rush hour traffic is not a problem.

--Camera Bought --
Behold---some....er...tau

Sanguinary Priest

2011-09-24T16:59:00.004-04:00

This guy was meant to be part of my NOVA 2011 army, but I was rushed for time. After NOVA he sat on my desk, while a billion dark elves were put together. He was relegated to this position because he was not quite color synced with the rest of the army, so I just did not feel that same rush to finish him as I normally would. Fortunately, he was on hand and ready to become a test model for my new brushes.

I need to buy new brushes more often.

I tested three sizes of Raphael brushes on this model, and all of them were pure joy to use. The brushes hold their tips really well, in addition to holding more paint, which makes painting much easier and enjoyable.

So if you haven't bought new good quality brushes recently, I recommend it.

Now....what to paint... Maybe I should paint some of these guys.

And Now For Something Completely Different:Fantasy

2011-09-18T11:00:00.001-04:00

It would be easy to imagine that the above photo is meant to show you the utter clutter of my hobby space. However, the real intent is to show you just how much of that space is covered with Warhammer Fantasy Dark Elves. I am not a fantasy player. Like many 40k players, I was drawn in by the originality of the grim dark future. I am not enthralled at all by the Fantasy background, but I do like the miniatures, and once that Black Dragon was released I was sold. I think this army will look fantastic when painted however I am intimidated by the sheer number of miniatures needed for a fantasy army. How is it possible to paint an army in a reasonable about of time (e.g. a couple of weekends)? There must be over 200 miniatures on that table. Just removing the mold lines is going to take a full day.

This brings me to...

John's List of Ways to Improve Fantasy Without Having Played It*(tm)

The models should be smaller, so I can enjoy larger batters. Not Warmaster small, but like half the size they are now. The middle ground between Warmaster and fantasy is where the money shot is.
Troops models should be modeled in 1 or two parts so large 100+ units could be put together easily.
Boxes should contain enough troops for a meaningful unit size. Buying 4 boxes of executioners is a pain, when the minimum unit size is absurdly small
Round bases...oops sorry reflex. Bases should have magnets in them that hold them to the movement trays.
No dwarves. It happened to the Squats, let it happen to fantasy dwarves.
Less Magic. Let the troops fight the battle, not the heroes.

*these rules are subject to change based on actual game play experience. Reading this list may cause anger, panic, derision, blurred vision, or dizziness for Fantasy players. If you experience a nerd rage lasting 4 hours, please consult a therapist.

Flesh Tearers & Gabriel Seth

2011-09-10T09:50:00.003-04:00

After painting the Flesh Tearers Razorback/Rhino/Baal Pred/Vindi magneto-tank, I knew I had to paint more guys from that chapter. Differing from my first Flesh Tearers squad, I used less Blood Angles bits on this. Two of the guys have none for instance. I also used older mark legs. In terms of painting these guys almost painted themselves. I stiff have to break out the air brush for the power axe, and the weathering powders for the legs in order to tie them into the base, but I had so much fun making and painting these that I wanted to share them. (oh, a little orange wash on the damaged black parts is needed as well)

Now does Gabriel Seth fit in my army? I don't know. My only significant playing experience is the NOVA open. It was a trial by fire, which I loved, however I learned that infantry should never get outside their tanks. It is more likely that I paint up two Flesh Tearers Vindicators, since the kit is awesome, and making heavily damaged FT versions would be fun. I think I need to stop thinking with my NOVA training and go back to playing what looks good on the table. That is the only way I am going to every field that beautiful Storm Raven (yeah, I love the kit). At the NOVA I was taught that SR's were basically big grey flying targets that started and ended the game in the same place if I took first turn.

And now for something completely different......

I've been building a large Dark Elf fantasy army.

I may even play it before it is even primed.

Do I dare post shots of that army here? I mean this is a 40k hobby blog, not a square-baser joint.

Quick BA Army shot

2011-09-03T11:29:00.003-04:00

My wife and I have been busy painting our master bedroom, which gave me the excuse to not move my BA force and NOVA swag from the dining room table. I know having one chore completed does not cancel out the other, but hey, I wanted to see the force together.

With paint fumes wafting, I snapped this shot of the army, now repaired from the load of damage entailed using my cardboard box+ double sided tape method of army transport. In the end what did me in was not pinning my troops to their resin bases. If I had done that, the chance of their bases sticking to the tape when I pulled the miniatures off would have been less. I think magnetizing bases is the way to go long term. It is far more convenient having a way to quickly place miniatures standing up rather than trying to squeeze them into foam cutouts. Even my tanks stayed where they needed to in the box, and I am a pretty aggressive driver. There was ample opportunity for acceleration to cause harm.

I just put together another flesh tearer squad using MK3 armor legs. It might not have been the best idea, as the legs look a little small for the torsos, especially since I used assault marine torsos which are already a little bulkier than normal. The good think was that the legs gave me a lot of extra space to glue knives, grenades, and pouches. My FT are going to be quite battle damaged like my other squad, and have all kinds of weathering, so they need to look like they have been in theatre for some time.

The NOVA Open

2011-08-29T18:48:00.005-04:00

Having just survived the NOVA open, my first tournament, and the most games I have played in a decade, I am at a loss for words. It was simply fantastic. I learned to appreciate the game. I met loads of really wonderful guys, whom I hope I get to see again. There were amazing armies, powerful gamer stench, and the sort of brotherly bond that forms when groups are suffering cumulatively from lack of sleep, food, and well air.

Rather than try to put up my list, which must totally rock, since I won 4 games, and I am a truly horrid player, I'll just point out that it is the blood angels one up top. Never again will I try to finish painting models before a tournament.

John's First List of Tournament Rules:

Make your list and paint your models before tournament's eve.
Bring a spare shirt, it gets really hot and smelly.
Make tournament games secondary to making new friends.
Just toss your models in a box. They are going to break anyway by the end of the. tournament when you are too tired to not go godzilla all over them.
Bring a movement tray that is also a stand, or steal a garbage can to turn into a stand, or don't bring a movement tray.
Always play against Eldar and Tau. (other species may join the list when I eventually play them)
Never get out of your vehicles.
Play the mission, including secondary objectives. Tertiary objectives are important as well
Play in the back room with the bad terrain. People are nicer backer there.
Don't be a jerk, but feel comfortable asking for rules clarifications.

I want to play 40k again this weekend. How crazy is that?

just finished painting for the nova open

2011-08-27T06:42:00.001-04:00

Next time I'll run stuff I actually have, rather than furiously paint new units the night before! All I want now is to sleep, but first I have to learn the rules to 40k.

earthquake + metal models

2011-08-23T14:39:00.002-04:00

We just had a 5.6 magnitude earthquake that bounced all of my metal models around. I now have an epic rebasing/re-glueing task! I had no idea DC even had earthquakes. At least my Ikea display cabinets did not shatter. Kind of amusing that my thunderhawk got air.

+1 to finecast for not breaking like all my old metal models!

NOVA Painting Update

2011-08-22T14:37:00.003-04:00

I made really good progress yesterday on the 5 new tanks, though towards the end of the night I started changing my list up, causing me to step back and see what I really needed. I've decided to go with 1 LR godhammer, 3 Baals, 2 Predators, and a Vindicator to round out my armor. Basically my tanks should advance as a wall of steel. Good idea or bad idea, I have no basis for comparison!

Four Blood Angels and one Flesh Tearers anything tanks

2011-08-21T13:58:00.004-04:00

Just to throw a wrench in the whole super magnetizing speed painting of 5 anything tanks, I decided to paint one up in a Flesh Tearers color scheme. This way when I field Seth, and his assault squad, I have a place for them to ride. I mean after all, Chapter Master Seth would not borrow a Blood Angel's ride unless he was taking over the chapter. When I started this iteration of my Ba I wanted to have a few squads from each successor chapter, so this fit in nicely with the long term goal. If any of you get a chance to see my army at the NOVA open then you'll know how down to the wire the whole thing was for me. The funny thing is that I am primarily a painter, so speed painting in order to play in a GT is way out of the norm. One of the cool things is that once done, I will be able to field any combination of tanks, be they rhinos, razorbacks, predators, or baal predators. Maybe I will play the game more often afterwards.

The tanks have their armor completed now, and I have begun putting on decals and painting details. (the tanks are a little glossy from the baal red wash, but should be nice an matte at the end)

After the details are done, I'll add battle damage and dust, so it can overlap providing a little more realism. I plan to add stowage to each tank as well. Naturally the FT tank will have the most stowage and battle damage, fitting in with their background of letting their vehicles fall apart. I am looking forward to adding rusty tow lines and such to the FT chassis.

So in terms of playing the game, rhinos are not assault vehicles, but could I move them flat out and ram another vehicle hoping the rhino will explode dropping its payload of troops in front of the target? Would the troops be able to assault? It does not seem like this would be ok, but it sounds really fun to play.

5 Tanks 2 days

2011-08-20T23:09:00.004-04:00

My plan is to complete 5 rhino chassis vehicles this weekend. This includes the following:

1 fully magnetized FT tanks: razorback x1/rhino x1

4 fully magnetized BA tanks: rhino x4/razorback x3/ pred(any type) x2/assault cannon baal x1

Essentially I can make a lot of different combinations. I managed to build and magnetized every tank today, which includes all of the doors. I also painted the interiors, and shaded the hulls and weapons.

At this point I think this might not have been the best idea in the world, however if I am going to have transports for nova, the I must push on. The hardest part is trying to get these tanks to match my previous ba tanks. I think I am reasonably close, but it is now too dark to keep painting.

Anyone else furiously painting for nova? I rarely play the game!

Quick Storm Raven Flying Stand

2011-08-16T17:39:00.002-04:00

I have plans to make a bunch of more interesting flying stand bases using some ruined cathedral parts that I have been casting, but in order to finish the model so I can potentially field it in the NOVA open (yes..dark angels are too hard!) I decided to go with a mostly flat ruined SM vehicle theme that I use on most of the miniature bases. Creating the base was really easy. Basically I grabbed a bunch of imperial debris and glued it onto the base as you see above. Areas were built up afterwards using GW sand and glue. There is not much to it.

The painting is just as easy. Watered down (soupy) khemri brown was applied liberally over a white base coat. The foundation paint will separate as it dries to form the dark brown/black areas in addition to the lighter areas. After the soupy paint is dry a quick dry brush of deheneb stone finished the painting. A few dabs of flock and the base was done.

I was tempted to paint the ultramarines parts blue so the base would have a little more going on, but I think keeping it mostly monotone is a good idea. Once the model is fully weathered there will be plenty to look at.

Storm Raven Pt 3

2011-08-15T18:05:00.003-04:00

I've been having a bast painting this storm raven. I don't know why I put it off so long. Unfortunately, it is a little too large for my light booth, so I am forced to using a camera with flash.

I have most of the model painted now, including the crew, and the magnetized side hatches(more on that later). I am really happy with how the crew turned out. Those last two photos were taken with flash on, which is not terribly flattering. I think the model looks really good when set on my display board, and am looking forward to coming up with a good base for it. I was thinking of putting a wrecked ultramarines rhino, but that might make transporting the model a pain. Who wants to transport a rhino purely to use it a scenery.

I've included some army shots of the SR from a distance as per request. I cropped the photos, but the shots were taken more than 5 feet away, so you can get a feel for how it fits into the finished army.

Is Sword of Baal too cheesy a name? Mine is going to carry death company, so it is a mean S.O.B.

Pre-Shading A Stormraven P2

2011-08-14T11:37:00.005-04:00

Once the pre-shading is done with codex grey, a light coat of blood red is sprayed all over the model. It is is important to go a little thicker over the grey areas so they end up looking red, not pink. At this stage the finished looks starts emerging. The photo above with the taped windows shows what the model looks like with the red applied. So far nothing fancy has been done.

The next step involves watering down baal red wash 50/50 with water and spraying it all over the model. I find that this ties the whole model together and makes a much richer red. When I sprayed the wash this time, I noticed that when dry, the wash left a powdery chalky looking residue in some of the crevices. This happened when I painted my Heroes of Armageddon devil dogs as well. I have no idea what is causing this, and would very much like it to go away. It ends up looking like a bit of unintended weathering. The problem is that I can not control when it happens, so it must go.

I painted the pilot using the same pre-shading technique, and think I have found my new goto method for painting blood angels. It was surprising how good he looked for 10 minutes of work. In my rush to get this model done, I should have paused to let the crew dry, but sometimes speed just has to happen, and paint just has to run.

Pre-Shading A Stormraven

2011-08-14T08:48:00.003-04:00

I've learned a few techniques since painting my BA tanks, but since I want my storm raven to fit in with the same painting style I need to follow roughly the same recipe. The first step was to paint the interior of the storm raven and then seal it shut for the pre shading. I used an air brush and washes for the interior, selecting a series of browns up to bone white at the edges. I think that will contrast nicely with the red, and will fit this guy into my existing BA.

There are two types of pre-shading that I normally use these days. Basically one can choose to highlight the edges, or highlight the interior panels. The reason this works is that blood red is semi translucent, and when airbrushed on, some of the base coat will show through. There is also

For my Ultramarines I may use the inverse method from this one, though I will need to find a good grey primer. For the thunder-chicken here, I first primed the model black, and used fortress white around the edges of the panels. My goal was to make the lines kind of wide, so my highlight color never touches black.

Painting continues, so I'll keep you posted.

1st game in over a year

2011-08-08T08:54:00.005-04:00

I played my first game in over a year yesterday against a really great painter, and an even nicer guy, shawn, over at Glaven.net. I brought the army above(yes in that sexy cardboard and tape movement tray), and he brought 2k worth of demons. I've never played demons, so it was thrilling to get the chance to play one of the essential fluff armies in the 40k universe.

Shawn's army ate mine. It was fun, I learned a lot, but I really think BA are more my style. Perhaps I do have to finish off painting troops so my BA force can be a contender. I was hoping that with the relatively small deathwing force that I was going to be minimizing the trouble of transporting them and then setting them up and playing. However versus 17ish units I just could not maneuver.

Since I was railroaded\d\d\d\d\d into playing in the NOVA (thanks jawa! :) I now have to train. I'd like to think I am Rocky in this fantasy, but really I am just training so my opponents can have relatively fast and fun games. Things I learned from game one of my training sessions.

I need to have all special rules and main rule book rules on hand. This includes psychic powers. I am going to make a cheat sheet
Just because my army can DS does not mean it needs to. I think I should have castled
My bikes are glass, they shatter on everything. Best use them as last minute objective grabbers
splitting a bike squad into two units of three, makes a single weaker unit even worse
If I can't play to win, I should play for the draw
DW are neither hand to hand, nor long distance fire support. I have no idea where they fit.

NOVA Dark Angels Ebay Salvage Terminators

2011-08-06T19:09:00.002-04:00

I have my first squad of terminators built from my first ebay 40k purchase. I am pushing through despite my desire to let these guys soak in simple green for a while. I am working on the theory that having one army to play at 2k is better than no army. I'm going to get these guys finished which will give me the option of trying to then put a BA force together, or just go with what I have.

I love how clean my original DW are. These guys just quite measure up. I think the problem is that my focus has been on BA for such a long time that I have forgotten what it is like to paint a hard color.

Should I chip these guys up with chardon granite battle damage?

Painting Recipes Rock

2011-08-05T11:37:00.003-04:00

One of the added benefits of blogging is that the blog becomes a painting recipe repository. If I hadn't put my deathwing basing recipe online, I would not have had any idea how to reproduce the bases for the 3 new squads I am adding to the army. If only I had put the recipe for putting the deathwing themselves online!

NOVA BA Jump List and Ebay Buyer Beware!

2011-08-03T17:44:00.003-04:00

I am still debating what to play at the NOVA open, which is a problem given that I will likely have to do a large amount of painting before hand if I want a semi-coherant list. After all, as a painter primarily I paint what I like, not what is playable. Rather than make a decision now, why not paint two armies and decide later?

Using that logic, I took my Ebay'd terminators, which had turned out to be poorly put together AoBR terminators, and began the process of dressing them up with new armaments for two new DA squads. Once completed, this will mean my DA army now has enough miniatures to support a 2k list, which gives me some options.

On the BA side of the equation I have been toying around the idea of running an all jump list using 5 assault squads, asteroth the grim, dante, and honor guard. Toss in a a chaplain and a sanguinary priest and it is a pretty sizable force. Who wouldn't want to drop 50 marines out of the sky onto an opponent. At the very least it would be fun....after all, it is raining blood angles.

NOVA Open: What to Play

2011-08-02T07:38:00.003-04:00

I bit the bullet while at Games Day Chicago and decided to play in the 40k Nova open. I had a little prompting by Jawaballs. The chance to throw down some games with fully painted armies sounded like fun. So how does one prepare for a GT if one is not a regular player? My last game was more than a year ago against brother captain james. My concerns.

I've never played a 2k game before, so my painted armies might not support it well. I may have to paint up new units.
A 2k army can be hard to transport if it is tank heavy.
I am rusty with the rules so I need a simple army with few tricks that I can start practicing with now

I could play BA, IG, or DA. BA are currently my favorite painting army, but they require a real list, which I am going to get some help with. However, through the wonders of Army Builder, I've put together an alternate Dark Angels dual-wing army list. Could a mostly foot DA list work?

Belial lightening claws
Librarian in terminator armor
x5 Terminator squad
ravenwing fast attack with bike and land speeder
ravenwing support squadron (1 land speeder)

There are no tanks, but a lot of teleport homers on bikes. In the past my tanks always evaporated first turn anyway, so why not just leave them home and save the effort. Do I need more troops? Should it be a terminator only army?

Games day

2011-07-28T18:52:00.000-04:00

I don't know who is attending games day, but If anyone wants to meet in peson, I'll be alternating between the hoa, golden demon lounge, and the heores of Armageddon table.

Don't forget to vote for armies on parade. My blood angels will be there representing the Springfield va store.

Half Priced Army

2011-07-27T07:48:00.004-04:00

Like nearly everyone else on the planet I have been aware of ebay. Yet for 40k until recently I have not utilized it. It just seemed like too much trouble. A week ago I started purchasing on ebay. At first it was for OOP wolf scouts, wulfen, and other hard to find miniatures. Then it changed. Why should I have to decide between a space wolves army or an ultra marines army. Why not do both? I don't like mentioning money in general, but for the purpose of this entry I need to, especially since cost is a major reason people do not start new armies.

For $180 in purchases I was able to pick up:

20 space marine bikes (including command squad)
10 space marine tactical legs (I have loads of torsos, arms, heads, and backpacks)
10 metal space marine scouts (including heavy bolter)
10 terminators (I have loads of arms/heads/ heavy weapons etc)

If I were to buy these in a store, I would get all the nice bits that come with the kits, some models would not need to be stripped, and I would get to build them to my standard. However, I would also have to pay around $460. Additionally I would be stuck with plastic scouts, which I don't like very much.

$460 or $180?

go ebay!

Weathered Ultramarine Test Miniature

2011-07-26T18:04:00.002-04:00

While waiting for the Heroes of Armageddon drawing to start I painted a quick heavily weathered ultramarine. I still haven't decided whether to go ultras or wolves, but seeing as how I just won an ebay auction for 25 marine bikes, and I just built 5 scout bikes, I might have to go ultras just to use the new loot!

I use test miniatures to try out techniques prior to batch painting. This guy start off as a cleanly shaded marine. A lot of little dabs with a sponge full of paint, followed by weathering powders and I had this result. I play to try out the ash wastes weathering powder on another ultra, since I am not sure the red rust of mars looks right.

I am still trying to come up with good colors for power swords, axes, and lightening claws. Since ultras are blue I do not want to use the same colors as on my BA. Purple or red are my current favorites.

Contemptor Class Dreadnought "Chuck"

2011-07-24T12:56:00.002-04:00

Since I don't know what army to start next, I decided to strip and repaint my original rogue trader era Chuck dreadnought as a BA furioso. I've been thinking of doing this since the new FW model came out. (yes I ordered one.......couldn't resist)

As anyone who has painted miniatures this old knows, the details are a little mushy, and the quality is poor. However as a nostalgia piece it was kind of fun. One thing I had forgotten though, the really old stuff is lead.

I did not want to use the original small square base, so I had to figure out what to do with all of the empty space on a normal dread base. I decided to really pile on the debris, which hopefully distracts from the lack of detail on the model.

Now the question that begs to be answered, does this guy merit a place on my Armies on Parade board for Games day next week? He looks a little weird visually, but it is an interesting model.

If you have any other suggestions for my next army, Ultras or Wolves, let me know. I already have two votes for wolves.

I don't know what army to paint next!

2011-07-23T10:14:00.003-04:00

Chicago games day is just a week away, and while I wait for my family vacation to start. I find myself in a strange position. I have so many projects that I could potentially start, that I am not sure what to paint. Now that my BA are ready for Armies on Parade they feel kind of done. They could certainly use some more troops, a razor back, and the storm raven that sits partially built, but somehow having that display board filled up as it is now, makes them seem finished. Is there a viable force in the models I have paints? I have no idea. (any list help would be much appreciated)

Since I plan on shifting away from BA for a while, then I need to decide what army to commit to next. The next army I decide to paint I am going to go full bore on, using everything I learned painting the BA. I have two primary choices at the moment, Space Wolves and Ultramarines. I have already purchased, rummaged, traded for everything needed for both armies.

The first choice, the Ultramarines, allows me to paint all the stuff from the generic codex that I've never had a reason to paint. Scout bikers, LS storm, etc. Additionally I have all of the ultramarine special characters. The nid hunters look particularly fun to paint. For the army I plan to use all Pre-Heresy marines, which will lend a distinctive look to the force. The paint scheme plan is for a very clean application of ultra blue shaded down to very dark blue near the feet. Once the extreme shading is done, battle damage and brown dirt will be added. The idea is ultramarines after heavy engagements. Since a lot of PH fw units are used it could double as a pre-heresy army.

My second choice, the Space Wolves, have been seeing some ebay love since I just read The Fang(a must read by the way). I've been rounding up things like squads of wulfen, the limited release characters, and every metal SW scout I can get my hands on. I've already got a load of miniatures from the SW release, so no FW would be used here since the plastics are so nice. The SW let me do something entirely different, loads of free-hand. If I paint them dark, gritty and broken in the darker PH style I think they could look quite good. I've always liked muted pallets, which is what my SW scheme would be.

The only consistent theme between these two choices is that I really want cool colors paired with battle damage, and warm mud/grime/dirt. I want these to look like they have seen heavy fighting.

This is a good dilemma to have, but it does have me stalled in my painting since I love bulk painting.

Updating Older Paint Jobs BA

2011-07-13T08:10:00.004-04:00

When I started my Armies on Parade BA army I had a host of miniatures that did not quite fit the new style, but were also newer than my original dry brushed BA army. Since my Flesh Tearer miniatures took so well to a painting update I decided to give a little polish to my BA scouts and a 5 man sm assault unit. The updates included re-washing them for darker recesses, re-highlighting them, and then rebasing them so they were on the cooler colored bases rather than my warmer desert bases. All in all I think it was a pretty good experiment. I love the way the scouts came out, especially given that I have no desire to paint this particular kit again due to the weird arm proportions and heads. The Assault marines won't win awards, but I think they look pretty good. I can happily field these along with my new BA army. If I hadn't updated these, then I would not have the units to make a rational army list out of my AoP army. Since I had just painted units I liked rather than units necessary for a successful build, my force was highly skewed points wise.

Remember all the trouble I had with those Vanguard jump packs? If not then the short story is that one of my first Finecast(tm) purchases was the vanguard veterans squad, which had a lot of issues with the casting. The jump packs were terribly cast. At the urging of the store manager, and each of the store employees, I finally got around to taking the bad jump packs in so they could see them. The store happily replaced them. The horrible thing was that Bill had to open around 4 boxes of miniatures before we could get a set that was usable. He gladly did it, but I felt pretty bad for the store, and GW in particular. It was clear from what Bill and I saw, that one style of jump pack was simply the Destroyer of Molds(tm). We found bits of silicone embedded in multiple copies of the ornate jump pack. If you think about this, that means that GW must be racing around the clock replacing these molds as the jump packs destroy them.

The short version... Kudos to all the staff of the GW Springfield store. If I end up moving overseas I will genuinely miss the place.

HoA Devil Dogs And Scotch

2011-07-12T07:21:00.004-04:00

May I present the Devil Dog carrying case. Now I know the Heroes of Armageddon Steel Legion winner is going to get a nice custom army bag, but until then, these dogs have found the perfect kennel. Balvanie Scotch port wood aged boxes are the perfect size to snuggly fit two hellhounds!

After all those BA, a throwback mini!

2011-07-06T22:28:00.002-04:00

I've painted so many BA,GK, tanks for Heros of Armageddon despite loads of travel that I wanted to relax and paint something different. What better to paint than a 1990's Imperial Psyker. I was given this mini at one of the barter days at the local GW, and am really thrilled to have it. I've wanted to paint one of them for a long time, and am really looking forward to making this guy part of my Inquisitors retinue. I mean, so long as I have two monkeys,several deamonhosts, and a couple of servitors why not have a vaguely genestealer-magas-cult-like mini?

Heroes of Armageddon Steel Legion Devil Dogs

2011-07-03T15:57:00.002-04:00

If you haven't seen Dave Taylor's blog then you need to head over there to see the majority of the Steel Legion Armor. These two Devil dogs are the missing pieces. Now that they are done, they are ready to be boxed up and shipped to him for inclusion in the final army. You may have noticed that these guys are not as beat up as the rest of the steel legion forces. My logic on that was that Devil dogs were not like chimeras, which get the blood washed out and reused. Devil Dogs explode. Post explosion there is likely very little left to refit.

These dogs have swappable gun barrels, as well as swappable hull mounted weapons. One of the hull mounted flamers came damaged, and the other was lost during painting, so no hull flamers included unfortunately.

I found the perfect box to ship these in to Dave. Wooden Balvanie single malt Scotch boxes are the perfect shape and size for two dogs back to back. These dogs are going to travel in style!

Death Company Furioso

2011-06-28T09:14:00.003-04:00

This guy was supposed to be a flesh tearer, and be part of my Armies on Parade display. However the washes did not dry in time, and there was no way I was going to get the transfers done the morning before the competition. It might be a good thing, since I am not sure I like how he turned out. I really like elements, but over all the last wash went on so think it obscured my shading. I enjoyed adding battle damage to him, which I did with zeal. His base is temporary, and I still need to shade the gold and touch up the blood drops.

I may add him to the display as part of the Chicago competition, unless I am not allowed to change the force up.

Armies on Parade Win!

2011-06-26T14:06:00.005-04:00

I won the Armies on Parade competition for the Springfield GW store! For quite a while I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to work the contest in between all of my business travel. Now I get to represent the Springfield store in Chicago. I have no illusions of grandeur for the overall Games Day competition, but it will be fun having my work on display.

There were six AoP contestants at the GW store. There was a nicely painted Ork Army with a great battle wagon, A vibrantly painted Empire army with a chalice wielding Lady riding side saddle, an Imperial Guard Army, a very small but well painted Ogre pirate army, and a space wolf army sporting the best freehand I have seen in a long time. The space wolf army had intricate freehand on every surface. He is one painter to watch. For a first army it was outstanding. It was really just a matter of not knowing all of the techniques.

In terms of preparation for Chicago GD, I have a bevy of good critiques to address. I am going to finish putting on transfers on the troops, as well as spray dull coat on all of the existing ones.

I may dremel out the blood chalice on Corbulo, but lacking dremel skills, I am a little wary of that idea. It would look look much nicer as an actual chalice rather than a weird solid mace like thing. As expected I have a lot of wear and tear to deal with. I've got a lot of little paint chips to deal with from transport. Unexpectedly, one finecast miniature's power sword deformed deformed in the heat while I was getting dinner.

Overall my wife and I are really looking forward to going to Chicago. We were married in Oak Park, which is right outside Chicago, and are really looking forward to going back.

Flesh Tearers and Devil Dogs

2011-06-25T10:18:00.002-04:00

My original plan was to have my BA escorting the Devil Dogs for Armies on Parade. However I just don't have enough space on my board to make it happen for the competition. With the little space I had left over I decided to revamp an old partially completed squad of flesh tearers. I had to re-wash, highlight, and damage these guys, as well as rework the power weapon so it would fit into my new blue PW scheme. Overall I am really happy with them. I am a little surprised that some touched up older miniatures are in some ways more interesting than my new ones. If only I had time to finish chapter master Seth....

Warhammer 40k Cosplay

2011-06-24T20:44:00.002-04:00

Maybe everyone has already seen this, but while taking a break from painting for Armies on Parade, I found this video online. If only Games Day were something like this!

Heroes of Armageddon Devil Dogs Pt3

2011-06-21T22:56:00.003-04:00

I added washes, and used a trusty old number 2 pencil to add graphite marks to the tracks. The photos are a little dark, but such is life with photography at night. The weird thing is how my devlin mud wash made whitish pools around each surface. It is kind of cool as I think it fits in with the other HoA tanks, but I did not plan this. There may have been a little acrylic thinner in my water cup, so perhaps that caused the odd paint behavior. Any ideas?

Got to go pack so I can fly out across the entire country for a 3 hour meeting.

See you all at the GW Springfield store this Saturday for the AoP competition. If you can think up a list for my weird assortment of BA, I'll even try to get a game in.

Heroes of Armageddon Devil Dogs Pt2

2011-06-21T09:03:00.002-04:00

The Devil Dogs now have rusty tracks and pressure transfers. I tried to make the red stripe with the white lettering look like something that would be put on in the field to mark the tanks out. I am thinking about not gluing the back portions on since the chemical tanks look so cool, and can be pulled out after a vehicle destroyed hit in order to make terrain. I plan to print out some transfers for each dog, customizing it like old WWII bombers. The tacky peeing calvin and hobbs image that used to be seen on a lot of cars is actually appropriate here! I don't plan on using that one, but it was a blast from the past when google image came up with it.

So, do I add washes to the tanks, or just let them be. I kind of like the way they look right now.

Remember, you could win these tanks, along with a whole sweet Dave Taylor inspired Steel Legion army, so your opinion matters!

Heroes of Armageddon Devil Dogs

2011-06-20T23:07:00.003-04:00

At long last, the two Devil Dogs part of the Steel Legion army being constructed under Dave Taylor's leadership are under way. My plan is to bring these to the Armies on Parade contest this Saturday at the Springfield VA GW store. I think they will look right at home nestled in between my AoP Blood Angels armor.

I am not sure about the tracks though. I used water to try and dilute the weathering powders and I ended up with a glue like substance. The good thing is that it should wipe off fairly easily if it looks too bad when dry. My plan is to wipe these down, and then use a graphite pencil over all of the edges once they are on the tank.

Armies on Parade Tank Progress

2011-06-19T17:05:00.002-04:00

All of the BA tanks are now weathered. There are still loads of lenses/head lights to paint, but I think they are coming along well. I was tempted not to weather the tanks at all.

The vindi finally got its siege shield, which it was really missing. Somehow they just don't look right without that massive dozer blade in front.

One the final details are painted, I will hit these tanks with weathering powders. It was hard not to jump in and hit the tracks with them now, but weathering powders are messy and really need to be the last step.

Armies On Parade!

2011-06-18T20:15:00.002-04:00

After struggling with my display board all day, I am now on the home stretch! I still have to finish painting eyes, gems, weather the tanks. By tomorrow evening, just in time for Game of Thrones, I should have this complete.

Now, since I painted this without regard to army lists, is there a viable list in here?

Blood Angels Army Display Board

2011-06-18T11:03:00.004-04:00

I have a lot of Blood Angels, so a 2'x2' board is not going to display them all. my goal is for this board to display my Armies on Parade BA, as opposed to my two other painting styles BA groups. I've never made a display board. I wasn't even happy with the way my realm of battle board came out. Learning on that experience, I am not going to attempt to apply a wash to the whole board. I need to keep the contrast down so the models show up. At least that is my theory.

This is the first step. The board was cut, my styrofoam hills added, along with rhino bits and sand. My goal is to let this dry till this evening, and then remove the spillover sand and see what other details I need to add. The unpainted version of this is pretty close to the colors I am going for so I think my BA will really stand out on this.

Now I've got to get back to finishing my sanguinary guard! Then on to tanks....sometimes this feels like a job

Blood Angels Batch Painting WIP

2011-06-09T09:04:00.002-04:00

Lots of details are not complete on these guys because I am painting them in large batches. I wanted to share them because I think the air brush shading worked out pretty well. The Sternguard models are my least favorite so far because I had to remove so many damaged details. They are also on temporary bases while I finish up another batch of my resin bases.

I've got one squad of vanguard vets on the way, followed by vehicle painting. My intent is to get all of the main painting done this weekend, and then build a display board. I am just not sure if I have painted enough models for armies on parade. What I have so far is:

1 dreadnought (1)

1 tactical squad (10)

2 terminator squads (10)

1 death company squad with jump packs and lemartes (6)

1 Librarian Terminator

1 Chaplain Terminator

1 Corbulo

1 Asteroth

1 Mephiston

1 vanguard squad (7)

1 death company rhino

1 land raider

2 baals

1 vindicator

Because I am limiting myself to this new style of painting, my unit choice is pretty weird. I think I may need to find a way to get a squad of sanguinary guard and dante in the mix.

The display board is going to be basically a the same color as the bases. I plan on two levels, and will embed broken imperial vehicles all across the surface.

Grey Knight Army Progress

2011-06-06T19:32:00.002-04:00

I've switched gears to Blood Angels, and soon will switch to IG vehicles for Heroes of Armageddon, so I wanted to put some better shots of my Grey Knights up here. After buying all of those GK kits, I ended up painting only two new miniatures. The rest are old GK or Inquisitor miniatures that I never got around to painting. I am really happy with how the army is coming, but BA are calling.

Grey Knights

2011-06-04T09:14:00.002-04:00

I've had quite the month of travel, so few updates, but much speed painting between trips! I now have a tiny Grey Knights army nearing completion. I went really dark with these guys. I mixed a small amount of boltgun metal into black and used that as my base coat. I then slowly changed the angle of my airbrushing, increasing the amount of boltgun metal in the mixture until I had a nice dark gradient. Since the miniatures are cool and dark, I gave them warm and light bases to provide contrast. The bases are really simply. Forgeworld weathering powder mixed with water on top of army painter bone color. Nothing more than that!

I have also kick started my Blood Angels armies on parade army. I am still not sure I am going to finish in time, but the new Finecast miniatures re-enthused me. I have a new tactical squad, vanguard squad, terminator squad, and sternguard squads to share.

Now... Finecast..... I love that metal is gone, and I love the detail on some of the finecast miniatures I managed to purchase, but the quality of my sternguard, vanguard, and terminator librarian is just terrible. I had to cut off large parts of each model in order to deal with huge resin bubbles. Anyone looking at my Armies on Parade army will be able to see that my newer squads have weird details missing from them. On the other hand, I bought a box of raptors that is simply stunning. Overall I am thrilled that metal is gone. I just want my quality back.

The other thing taking time is work on my Heroes of Armageddon contribution. I'll be posting some WIP shots soon for the two devil dogs that are joining Dave Taylor's Steel Legion. I'd like to personalize the tanks, so if you have some cool name ideas, put them in the comments below. I was thinking of putting DTSL-159, DTSL-314 on the tanks as serial numbers.

Tau Ethereal

2011-05-08T08:43:00.001-04:00

The light is a little harsh in these photos, but I wanted to share them anyway. This is a WIP of my second Tau Ethereal. I have never even played my Tau army, but just in case I do, here is my 4th HQ. I am not even sure what those weird gem weapon things are!

Daemonhosts

2011-04-30T13:59:00.002-04:00

So my knights now have space orangoutangs and daemonhosts accompanying them into battle! It is such a strange looking but fun force. Not bad for iPhone photos.

Grey Knights W/Warm colored bases

2011-04-25T07:58:00.002-04:00

Since my Grey Knights are predominately dark cool colors, I decided to use a warm light colored base to set off the miniatures. These quick iPhone pictured don't quite do the minis justice, but they do show how contrasting temperatures can help with presentation. I need to be careful going forward to not make the reds on the GK too warm. I can do this by using blue washes to shade the reds rather than red or brown washes.

My bases are dirt simple. I painted them with Army painter bone, and then used the dark earth forge world weathering powder as a wash. Afterwards I went back over them wiping off most of the powder from the raised surfaces. The bases are plain, but I think that helps the dark miniatures stand out.

Monkeys/Jokero With Grey Knights in the Background

2011-04-24T08:31:00.004-04:00

I took my light box down while cleaning my office, so these photos were done with flash. I have been paining Grey knights for a few days, which you can see in the backdrop. Since my knights are dark metallics, I thought the army needed some lighter colors. I added Jokero and Demon hosts in bright light colors in order to spread the color spectrum out a bit. My wife does not like the blue gem eyes. At least I did not go with my original color choice of red gems eyes!

Now, on the models themselves. Jokero are small. The Grey Knights in the background are the old metal Grey Knights, which are already a little smaller than the current range. I had some trouble with the smaller scale earlier in the week while trying to paint some mordians. Despite the difficulty in painting, I really like this scale. The Jokero and Mordians look appropriate standing next to space marines.

Since the grey knights army is now in full swing, I started pumping out resin bases. Since the models are dark and cool (mostly) I am going to go for a warm cracked desert theme. I read somewhere online that mixing color temperature could enhance a miniatures presentation. Well, here goes!

Founding Day Painting Contest!

2011-04-18T20:09:00.003-04:00

I won the GW springfield 2nd founding day competition for vehicle/monster! I took my Arvus Lighter, which unfortunately I do not have pictures of finished. It is on display in the GW springfield if you are interested in seeing it. I thought I was in strong contention for best squad, but a gentleman came in with an incredibly beautiful Angels of Redemption squad that just stole the show. I wish I had photos of it. I recommend that anyone interested in painting go to the Springfield GW store and check it out.

So how cool is the trophy? I love the brother Artemis model, and have always secretly desired one. After winning this one, and contemplating dunking it in green stuff in order to paint it up as a non-trophey, I think I will just buy one online. Bill's patina is just too cool remove with a simple green bath.

The day after the painting competition I went to the Bazaar Bazaar, and traded away all of my 2nd edition Orks, Eldar, and Tyranids. I managed to buy/trade for some weird adeptus mechanicus stuff, some cool space wolf miniatures, Mordian Iron guard, and vallhallan squads. I am most excited about the Mordian miniatures. The scale is slightly different than current models, so the miniatures look better proportioned next to space marines. I kept joking to Gil, the original owner of them, that I knew they were ugly, but I really wanted them anyway. My perspective has changed. I think they look cool, and not just cool because they are goofy, but actually cool looking in person. The scale difference makes them look odd online.

Mephiston and Grey Knight Paint Test

2011-04-15T17:30:00.002-04:00

My last photos of Mephiston had a lot of glare on him, so I decided to try and take photos without the flash. These shots show mephiston more true to real life than the last ones. I am entralled by the miniature. I suppose I will have to give him a backpack and clean up the paint chips!

I tried a test paint scheme for my grey knights, which looks so so to me. The recipe you see here is:

Boltgun + black
Boltgun
chainmail
mitheral silver
boltgun + thinner as a sort of wash to tie it all together.

I am leaning towards grey Grey Knights using zenithal lighting...I mean quick and easy airbrushing from above!

Mephiston WIP2

2011-04-11T21:10:00.002-04:00

I have not applied dull coat, and I committed the terrible miniature photo taking faux pas by using a flash camera instead of my light booth, but still I could not resist putting up shots of my new Mephiston model. I am really happy with how he turned out. I used an air brush, followed by a lot of targeted washes and highlighting. The washes left him a little shiny, but that will be dealt with in time. I am painting this army in sort of coarse brush strokes, and plan to come back for rebasing as necessary for the display board, and weathering.

I am not sure how it is possible, but I lost mephiston's backpack, which means he will end up with a pre-heresy backpack of some type. I added a shot of asteroth because as I was painting mephiston it was fun to see how all of the details carried over.

Heroes of Armageddon

2011-04-04T20:41:00.002-04:00

From the same folks who brought you the Storm Wardens Project...
Heroes of Armageddon is coming soon.

Arvus Lighter WIP2

2011-04-03T19:28:00.004-04:00

The cockpit details of my arvus lighter are nearing completion. As I've noticed with older FW models, the pilot is not quite up to par with the quality of the newer sculpts. Regardless, I really love this model. It does not feel 40k at all to me though.

Now that most of the paint is on, it is time for me cut out and glue on the clear plastic that will serve as the glass for the model. I have been dreading this part of the build, both for this model and for the lightening bolt. There just seems something wrong about having to makes ones own windshield!

Now, how can I get my hands on the adepticon FW heresy era marine model?

Arvus Lighter WIP 1

2011-03-29T23:43:00.002-04:00

My Imperial Lightening fighter needed something to escort on in, so I decided to paint up the Arvus Lighter that my wife gave me for Christmas. Originally I had intended to paint the whole ship dark red, using grey pre-shading to help the color transition. However after getting the pre-shading on, there was something about the color that made me want to stick with it. Star wars has conditioned me to think of grey and orange as good starship colors, so my inner-inner geek had to go with it. The weathering on the model is just starting, but I think some character is already coming through. '

I still have landing gear, cockpit, stains, weathering powders, and the obligatory nose are to put on this thing before I try to mount it on its flying base. When the Imperial Navy is not using it, my Astral Claws will be. (of course that would require me to paint more than 1 squad of the tyrants legion)

Imperial Lightening Bolt WIP 1

2011-03-28T20:44:00.007-04:00

Seeing as how this summer is the summer of flyers, I thought I should get a jump start on the whole thing by painting up the Imperial Lightening Bolt that I purchased to provide air cover for my arvus transport. I decided to paint this guy up using minty greens and grey-blue. Each panel on the aircraft is shaded with an air brush, with most of the colors blocked in now. I still have quite a bit to paint, but I wanted to share my progress. This model has been a joy to paint, even though the casting was iffy. I used magnets drilled into the flaps to allow me to raise or lower them, as well as on the undercarriage weapons. The insignia will match my DKoK, and will be that dark red/maroon/brown color that comes on the FW transfers. Once all of the colors are finished, I will spray the model with sealant prior to weathering. I am going to use a light grey for paint chips on the surfaces. The paint chips should really blend the model together. a very light wash of browns will go in between panels. The kit comes with clear plastic that the builder is supposed to try and cut to fit in the cockpit window. That looks like an impossible task, but who knows, I might get lucky.

So the big question. Does anyone know what the two round solid air vent things on the nose of the aircraft are supposed to be? I am tempted to paint them up like two blue gems, but have no idea what they are.

Forgeworld Heresy Era Blood Angels Squad

2011-03-22T19:59:00.003-04:00

I have been painting a load of miniatures for the Armies on Parade contest, and decided to take a break and paint an all forgeworld squad as a reward for painting so much. first off, I am not happy with my work here. I am not sure where things started going wrong, but I struggled with every phase of the build. The resin on some of them was really molded poorly. Some of them were so badly aligned that I had to toss them aside and cherry pick from the units I bought. Some of the shoulder pads were not even fully cast. In terms of painting, I think I need to go back to pre-shading with grey before I put any red on the miniatures. Since blood red is semi-translucent, it works really well, and may help me avoid putting on too many layers of paint.

So the things I like:

The squad is split between running guys for the close combat squad, and standing for the missile squad.
I love the older mark armors.
Some of the red gradients turned out really good.

Things I plan to do to improve these models:

Line the armor plates with black/darkflesh wash in order to increase contrast
use weathering powders on their legs to blend them into their bases.

Lastly, I am not sure I want to sponge on a grey color to simulate scratches and battle damage. I am just not sure it would look good on these minis. I suppose that means a throw away test miniature is in order!

Three Blood Angels Chaplains

2011-03-14T20:06:00.003-04:00

I have been pondering how I paint black these days. All of these miniatures were painted using a similar air brush shading technique. The goal was to make the base armor grey enough that black wash would shade the details well. They look black situationally. When put next to my red BA, or other miniatures they appear black even though they are not. I think they work well, but I am still a bit undecided on the technique. I have a death company dread to paint, and wanted to make sure I had this down before I tackled it. I will probably weather the force at the same time in order to make it consistent, so the chipping and weathering powders will have to wait. I am trying really hard to resist working on them until the whole force is done, but since weathering is my favorite part it is a little hard!

Ron has been posting a lot of red miniatures these days, so I thought I would paint up the fabric on the walking chaplains cloth with my old red technique. I think it works well in this context, distinguishing it from the red I use on the regular troops.

A two by two display board is beginning to look a little small to me. Is it better to fill the thing with as many vehicles and troops as possible, or to let the board help tell a story?

I tried to post the pictures a little differently this time. Is this better than the individual pics?

BA Painting Update

2011-03-06T08:06:00.003-05:00

I decided to paint up 5 death company troops with jump packs along with lemartes as an excuse to use a new wash mixture. When the wash dried it seemed to crystalize in all of the crevices on the models. I was able to cover this up by applying a heavy wash of pure badab black, but I would have rather not had to do so. The Death Company are all WIP, so there are a lot of details to figure out. I am looking forward to applying battle damage and weathering powders to them. I am going to damage them similarly to the DC rhino/back I painted a while ago, except for the use of powders instead of paint for the dust weathering.

Asteroth and Mephiston really look like one was the replacement model for the other. The designs are just so similar. Mephiston's details are repeated on Asteroth. Maybe they are in some kids of post Black Rage kind of fraternity.

I had the same crystalizing wash problem on these miniatures, with most of the visible problem areas near Asteroth's face and arms. I am fairly disappointed how Asteroth turned out, but I am not going to simple green him yet.

I was really loving Mephiston's power sword, but if you look closely you can see where the paint chipped away when I dropped him. One of the problems of air brushing is that when stuff like this happens it is really hard to figure out what color to use for touch ups. His sword may need a respray.

Corbulo WIP

2011-03-04T21:16:00.003-05:00

Corbulo is a bit more gore red than blood red due to carelessness with my airbrush. Ron mentioned his techniques for shading red using tans instead of orange over on his studio blog. I think there is something to that. I plan on giving it a run with my airbrush at some point. I am committed to my current recipe for this army though!

In these photos he is a little wet, with some washes not dry, but I am pretty happy overall. I've found that I am not interested in painting chainswords these days, so I am going to have to do something to make painting them interesting again. When I think about what they represent, they should be amazingly cool, full of armor bits, blood, and bone. Mine look a little meh.

I reread the rules for Armies on Parade, and notice that forge world models are not allowed. That rules out the tactical squad I wanted to do using older mk armor. I love painting resin, and was really hoping to be able to paint a squad up for the new army.

Blood Angels Terminators, Death Company, and Astorath

2011-02-28T19:14:00.005-05:00

The pictures did not make it in order as I uploaded them, so bare with me! I have a load of details still to paint, but I love the way the terminators are turning out. I've had so much fun with them that I painted a bunch of units to accompany them, but more on that later. The unit consists of 3 space hulk terminators, three regular terminators, and a chaplain model that I have just started. The key element of this whole process has been the use of my air brush for armor shading. Basically, I prime the models black, and then layer on small amounts of paint, working from dark to light top down. Not everything has been easy though. I have found it difficult to paint the crux terminatus, and the storm shield. I don't have a clue why it seems so difficult to me, but those items are just not up to par with the rest of the painting. On the terminator above I have not even attempted the SS yet!

I used the air brush for more than just shading the armor. I am shading all power weapons using it, which is producing such a rich color on the models. It seems to help tie them into the librarian as well which is helpful. Lightning claws are really difficult to air brush though, so I am going to have to go back and look up softening some of the blends. The problem is that I am not sure how to do that, since the paint is so thin each time I touch it I damage it a little.

I added little details on the non space hulk terminators in order to BA-ify them a bit. It isn't much, but it does distinguish them a little bit from the regular models.

This photo is out of order, but the shading on the power claws can be seen pretty clearly, including the left claw that is slightly sup-par. Since I had one unit in the can and I wanted to paint a bunch of other units using the air brush I decided to batch paint all of my black models. I painted lemartes, a foot slogging chaplain, a terminator chaplain, Asteroth's wings, and 5 death company. Most of the minis are in the pre-wash but shaded state, but I think the airbrush is going to end up being the MVP here.

The final step for all of the black models is going to be a diluted black wash with a little flow aid mixed in. I tried this on a test model, and it toned down the grey shading quite nicely, while also shading the details. I am trying to paint all of the details that could benefit from a black wash first, and will then go back and finish those remaining.

I could not resist a shot of the mostly completed death star!

Red is where the air brush shading is really having an effect. Since I had shaded Asteroth's wings dark grey, I had to paint his red torso. Since I batch paint when using the air brush I threw mephiston and corbulo into the mix as well. If you look at brother Corbulo's legs, the shading is really evident.

I am thrilled with the way the wings turned out. By angling the air brush so the paint stream hit the raised edges of the feathers. This provided instant shading. Throw in a slowly lightening up of the color and I had the wings shown below.

BA TerMINATORS WIP 2

2011-02-22T20:40:00.003-05:00

This is my death star. There are many like it, but this one is mine.... My BA terminators are progressing well. I love the red armor tones from the air brush, and decided to attempt the same kind of color gradation on the power claws using dark blue to white. I used note cards as paint shields and gave it a shot. The claws turned out ok, but I really should touch them up, as the paper left clean lines where it was torn. In any case I am really pleased with my first squad, and can't wait to get it completed. I supposed it absurd to have a force with BA terminators lead by Librarian in a land raider, and an assault squad + priest, plus librarian dread on a storm raven, but I am going for it!

BA TERMINATORS WIP 1

2011-02-21T09:05:00.004-05:00

My latest painting spree has lead me to a new recipe for red. Basically I followed the same path as with my librarian, but with earth tones. The recipe might seem complex, but basically I just keep adding color into the air brush pot as I go along, which is why there are so many mixtures listed below. This is all about laziness, since I don't like cleaning the air brush once I am in a painting groove.

Air brush dark flesh leaving some areas black
Air brush dark flesh + gore red
Air brush gore red
Air brush blood red
Air brush blood red + blazing orange
Air brush blazing orange
Air brush 50/50 baal red + water

The next step is to mix acrylic thinner + flow aid, and darkflesh+chaos black into a solution to darken up the recesses.

The really nice thing about the flow aid, is that it keeps the pigment from bleeding out along the areas being lined. It also dries slowly, so over paint can be easily wiped off with a damp brush.

Ron, if you are reading this, I want you to know how much your site has meant to me. I have already hit up your new 'less is more' blog and am looking forward to your posts! The Armageddon project is pretty big, and I am looking forward to working with you again.

Transfers the Easy Way: You were all right!

2011-02-16T20:32:00.003-05:00

After doing a pretty poor job putting transfers on my dreadnought a few of you suggested I use gloss varnish along with microsol and microset. You were right! I did not have gloss varnish, but I used GW 'ardcoat, followed by microset on the shoulder, followed by microsol on the transfer. I could not be more pleased! The transfer has none of the weird air bubble discoloration that the dread had. I should have been using gloss varnish a long time ago! The only downside is that I had to use testors dull coat, which after a mishap a while back has left me fully in the camp of those who do not varnish models at all!

I should listen to other people's advice more often!

BA Terminator Librarian

2011-02-13T13:23:00.007-05:00

After having so much fun painting the BA dread and the jump pack Sergeant, I thought I would take a stab at one of the the Space Hulk miniatures. This guy will either lead the Land Raider assault, or the Storm Raven assault (picked up a Storm Raven last night!). I used a lot of air brushing on this guy, which I am really proud of. The base is one of the resin bases, I have been tinkering with, and works well with the pose this guy comes in. I have a red micro-pen which I plant to use to mark up the prayer sheet on his leg, and on his magical tome. I would like to make the marking look like cuneiform, but so far my practice markings have not worked out very well. I have the FW BA transfers, but I need to wait until I have some gloss varnish before I try them again. I mucked up part of the libby dread and I don't want a repeat of that. (I used microsol and microset, but they still went on poorly)

When I went to the GW store yesterday I spent some time looking at the Armies on Parade contest. I really want to participate in it, but have never made an army display board. June 25th seems kind of close if I want to really lavish time on the Army. If I want to take BA, then I will have to completely redo my army with my new style. I was thinking though that a lessor known chapter might make a bigger splash.

Color Schemes for Marines (BA,DA or just turned Chaos)

Pastel Green / light Purple with gold trim (just turned or turning to Chaos)
DA green / Bleached Bone (DA successor)
flesh Tearers
Blood Red / Bleached Bone (BA successor)
My Iron Scythes scheme with new models (and painted this decade!) I could also cast some roman crests to add to their helmets.

Units I would like to include:

Storm Raven
Rhino
Land Speeder
Jump pack troops
Tactical Squad
Dreadnought
Terminators

Settings:

Hanger bay with rearmament vehicles, servitors, and chapter serfs preparing the drop ships. (storm raven in this case)
Hive city ruins with flying units up top and ground units driving through rubble.
broken up desert battlefield with destroyed ultramarines vehicles, and dead strewn about. The bright blue would add a striking color, and it is always fun seeing another chapter picking up the pieces. A few live ultramarines could be in consultation with the BA relief force. That would let me integrate red and blue and not have my librarians sticking out so much.

Just some ideas.... How much of a diorama is needed on these boards? Does anyone know? Should I repaint my Squat army instead?

Finished Blood Angels Dread & WIP Sergeant

2011-02-12T23:05:00.002-05:00

I finished up the Dreadnought, baring matte varnish. I think I am going to avoid transfers until I find a better way to put them on. I am getting a lot of air pockets despite the surface being extremely smooth. In any event, I love how the dread turned out.

I used the same techniques to paint up the special order Sergeant from GW. I was not thrilled with the mini at first, but now that I see it painted and interspersed with a squad, I really like the way the pose stands out. The new plastics have loads of detail, but less character pose wise. This guy has it all. I tried a new way to paint his power sword, and I think I am hooked. Lost of small passes with an air brush and I have the best blade I have painted! I finished and based the model a few hours ago, and started on the BA librarian from the Space Hulk game. I'll post some photos tomorrow of him. It turns out one of my custom resin bases is perfect for his pose. It almost looks like the base and the model were made for each other!