Ravenwing Land speeder progress

I am really enjoying these models. I have done a first pass painting the weapons, and have added a few decals prior to some more washing. My plan is to put some more orange/rust colored washes on them so the troops stand out from the vehicles. Overall I think the sponge technique is my favorite new painting technique of the past year.

I still haven't decided how to paint the drivers, or even built up the top torsos yet. Would it look weird for the Master of the Ravenwing to be brandishing a DA sword while ostensibly driving a flying vehicle?

I wonder if I should go back and sponge some chainmail chips onto all of my bikes now. If I followed it with some orange/brown washing it might make the bikes fit in a little better. Has anyone else changed painting styles mid unit as quickly as this?

Magnetizing Ravenwing Land Speeders

There are two land speeders missing from my DW/RW force. Let me put this delicately...I hate putting land speeders together. I love the finished model, but with all the weird clamping, rubber bands, and luck needed to get them put together properly, I know that when I get into the build process I will be frustrated at some point.

Knowing this, I decided to magnetize my land speeders so I could produce all of the variants in the codex. My goal was to be able to change from The master of the raven wing, to a tornado, or to generic tank popper or infantry hunter without hassle.

I started with one Ravenwing battle force, and one stand alone land speeder box. My first surprise was that the land speeders are different kits. The RW boxed set had the old land speeder, along with enough missle launchers and twin linked assault cannons to last me forever. The regular land speeder added a heavy flamer to the mix, so I am glad I got both kits.

My magnetizing method is very easy, though there are a few gotchas.

• figure out your magnet facings first, using a pen to mark them. The little buggers shoot all over the table while working, and I kept gluing them down upside down.
• My tweezers are metal...ugg! You'll need some non-metalic implement for pushing the magnets around. I kept grabbing my tweezers by accident causing the magnets to de-seat from the glue and stick to them instead!

The process:

1. Cut two small chunks of plastic-card rebar (not sure what it is called) to make magnet stands for the land speeders. Glue one magnet in the recessed center portion of each. Then glue the rebar chunk to the inside of the LS hatch area.
2. Cut the nibs off of the doors/missile pods, and glue a single magnet as shown.
3. done.

Ravenwing Based

I had planned to do Mars like red earth basing for these guys, but woke up this morning and just based them with dirt and dead grass. I still haven't painted all of the wings, feathers, or done a lot of touch up work, basing them seemed to give me more focus. I am starting to like the miniatures now. You can't see it in the photos, but I added the cool looking gothic numeral 2 to their shoulder pads from the transfer sheets as well. I tried the forgeworld powders on the bases, but the dull coat ruined the effect. I may give a dusting to the bases and the undercarriage of each bike.

I put up a few shots of the force as it stands. For some reason I am painting this army differently than any I have before. The land raider still needs its hatches put on, there are touchups to the terminators to do, there are final decals, and heraldry partially completed this in addition to the RW being partially done. Even with all of those todo items, I am happy with how it is turning out. In the past I would have painted a full unit and then moved on. With these guys I am content to get them mostly done and then move onto the next unit so I have it to field. It is a different approach. The hobby itch is starting again, and I think I will paint up a DA rhino even though I have no PA squads. I need to build two land speeders so I will be done with the RW, but I just want to paint something green!

Hopefully I will be able to get a game in today, using a combined DW RW force for the first time.

Ravenwing Pt2

I pushed forward with these guys, and at least have a full squad now (minus land speeder). I still need to do all of the touch up paint, and paint the feathers. I just don't have a great method of covering the black yet. I definitely rushed these guys, but I really want my Deathwing to have the homer beacons these guys come with. One full squad gives me 4 locations from which to center my DW assaults.

On the painting side of things, I was thinking about using forgeword powders all along the bottom instead of spraying a tan color with my air brush. I have so much stuff I want to paint right now I am probably going to regret some of the work.

WIP Ravenwing

I have finally started my RW models for the other half of my dark angels force. I am a little worried about how they are coming along, but I think I am at the phase where I just have to push on, clean up my brush strokes, and get ready for the washes. My plan is to do a few washes of mud and black over the entire model. At the end I am going to take a mud color and air brush it all along the bottoms of the bikes, giving them that covered in grime look. I guess I will just have to wait and see how it goes.