dark Angles Paint Spree Part 3: Land Raider and Terminator

The red on the land raider looks a little pink to me, so I was thinking about lining it with a blood red/orange shade to try to pull out the red tones. I love the way the bone it turning out, both on the raider and on the terminators. The land raider is not shaded yet other than the lining and the natural shading an airbrush produces. It is a little hard to see in the photos, but the terminator is cleanly shaded from bone to white with graveyard earth in the shadows. I really like the clean look of them both, and am looking forward to using powders on the lower halves of both models. I am not sure how to base these guys, since they are part of a raven wing detachment. I really want to paint the rhino that is sometimes part of the force, since I have a hankering for painting something green.

Dark Angles Paint Spree Part 2: Land Raider

I've been having a lot of fun with painting today. As promised here are WIP shots of my land raider as well as three of my terminators. I have a ways to go on them all, but the land raider is pretty close...which begs a question..... Why all the interior detail? I spent all that time painting the inside and without some kind of interior lighting it is all lost! I hope to finish the raider tomorrow so I can have some fun with decals and weathering, but we'll see.

Dark Angles Paint Spree Part 1: Bone Painting Tests

After posting my potential lists last night, and talking to Bill at the local GW store I decided to paint. The list is good enough, and It has so much variety I that I am really looking forward to completing some units and seeing how they turn out. Once Bill said the crusader was a good choice, I knew I had to start painting. Of course, how does one paint bone? For that matter, how is a nice black achieved? As usual this led me to some experiments, which is why you see and eldar model in a DA post.

The first image is my 10 terminators lead by belial. I used a thinned down bleached bone and an air brush to get them base coated. As usual I used white primer. I did get smart this time and use plastic cups with packing tape as stands so I did not totally coat my hands with paint. The base coat is even, but very thin.

How to paint bone?

I posted a while back how to paint my chaos terminators, and decided if they were going to use devlan mud and be dirty, that these not fallen angels would need a cleaner approach. I really like the approach taken by Ron over at FTW, but I am going for a different feeling.

Bone Test 1 Banshee: White undercoat, followed by sepia wash, and then bleached bone to white highlights. I think the banshee looks pretty good, and the recipe is dirt simple.

Bone Test 2 Power Fist Arm: White undercoat, bleached bone base, followed by graveyard earth wash just into the crevices and then a sepia wash all over.

Bone Test 3 Storm Bolter Arm: White undercoat, bleached bone base, followed by a graveyard earth wash carefully placed into the crevices. I then shaded the model with bleached bone up through a 50/50 bone/white color. It does not photography well, but the shading is pretty subtle, and I think battle damage or designs will contrast really well. I think this is my recipe.

Land Raider:

I have never painted one of these, so once I knew it would fit in the army I could not resist laying down some color last night. I really should have gotten some sleep, since I painted areas that are never going to be seen, but here they are regardless. I used a gull grey enamel paint, followed by chardon granite and bolt gun metal sponge chipping. Once dry I let a wash of blazing orange run into the crevices. I painted the screens and a few other bits, but am not even sure what is visible.

Overall I wanted a dark grey/blue interior in order to contrast with the bone white with green highlights exterior. The inside will have the most battle damage, with the exception of hatches and the bottom edge of the tank. Will it look weird to have more damage inside than out?

Paint to Play: Plus Terminator Apothecary Conversion

Jawaballs posted an article about whether one paints to play or plays to paint. I use list building as a motivational force in order to direct my painting. Often, my lack of gaming ability keeps me from building or painting the 40k material I have bought. I have the hobby gene, but I also want to be able to take my miniatures to the store, plunk them down, and enjoy a game. It is important for me to build lists that are legal and interesting to paint. The dark Angles have caught my fancy, and I have constructed my belial and one squad of terminators at this point. At this point I need to actually know the list so I can build a legal 1750 pt list with the remaining models. I love the idea of a dual wing or a tri-wing list just because I get to use all of the special bits that come with dark angels, in addition to having three main colors. Here are my preposed lists. I could really use some help to make sure I don't produce an unplayable army.

So both lists have a small amount of each Dark Angels faction. What do you guys think? Do I need to add a thunder hammer to one of my terminators? In one list I get to paint a dark angels rhino which I look forward to, but in the other I get to paint up a Master of the Raven Wing land speeder.

List 1: Death Wing,Raven Wing, Green-Wing 1750

HQ: Belial, Master of the Deathwing (1#, 130 pts)

Deathwing Terminator Squad (Chain Fist (x2); Lightning Claws (pair) (x1); Heavy Flamer)

Upgraded Deathwing Terminator Squad (Lightning Claws (pair) (x1); Cyclone Missile Launcher; Apothecary)

Land Raider Crusader

Ravenwing Attack Squadron (Meltagun (x1); Plasmagun (x1); Power Weapon;Melta Bombs ;full squad)

• Attack Bike (multi-melta)
• Land Speeder ( Assault Cannon; Heavy Bolter)

Dreadnought (Twin Linked Lascannon; Missile Launcher)

Tactical Squad (10 man, rhino, melta bombs; las cannon)

Ravenwing Support Squadron (Heavy Bolter (x1); Typhoon Multiple Missile Launcher

OR

List 2: Death Wing,Raven Wing 1750

Same list as above, but replace the red items with:

Tactical Squad (5 man)

Sammael, Master of the Ravenwing (landspeeder)

Metal Dark Angels Dreadnought

I don't normally paint dark angels, but years ago when I was first starting my Iron Scythes, I painted up one of their all metal dreads for use in my army. After a bath in simple green all of the gloopy ~15 year old paint was removed and a very heavy dread emerged. The mold is kind of wonky, with pits everywhere. Rather than do any cleanup work I just decided to lay down some paint with my air brush.

I am not very happy with how this guy turned out. I rarely use Dark Angels green, and I think

it is my unfamiliarity with it that makes it so hard to use. There is a slight transparency to it

that makes it really hard for me to work with, even though I normally really like thinned paint.

Despite how it turned out, I did a little black friday shopping to pick up some terminators,

some DA veterans, and the raven wing box set. Black, Bone, and DA green should really

challenge my painting skills. Maybe I should invest in some more simple green!

Anyone have a good recipe for clean looking DA green armor?

Multi-Regiment Guard Force

I've mentioned in previous posts that I am building a multi-regiment guard force. So far I have cadians, original guard, valhallans, armageddon steel legion, and storm troopers painted. I have Death Korps of Krieg, Kraskins, and a large voystroyan force yet to paint. When I started this project the idea was to be able to paint as many different units as I wanted, but retain a similar style so they all fit together. My grey knight force draws from these guys as well. I have about 50 voystroyans to paint, but other than that the largest element is the cadians so the other units play off of their primary colors. I think the force is coherent visually, even though they are all different models. Do other people build forces this way? It does seem a little scatter brained at first, but every time my steel legion guys take casualties it means something, since they are the only unit from their regiment in the army. Lord Solar is a unifying character since it would make sense for him to have all of these different forces acting as his body guard. The only element where I have not drawn from multiple regiments is with the tanks. I wanted the armored company to have a unified look. The only exception here is the valkrie, which I painted in Imperial Navy colors. So, am I succeeding, or is cohesion just a painters wish fullfilment?

Happy thanksgiving

Lord Solar Macharious Complete

I based Solar M. as well as added one more gryphonne sepia wash. I am not sure the reddish was a good idea, but it did tone down the extreme highlighting that I had added. I had a lot of trouble with his cloak. I have been using a lot of vallejo paint and I tried out their ochre brown. My pot of it simply does not cover. It seems like the medium and pigment are slightly separated as well. I'm glad I tacked this old miniature before hitting my next troops choice. I now have so many guard and tanks that they are filling up my display cabinets. Maybe it is time to shift out my original Iron Scythes space marine vehicles. That would buy me another shelf for new work. the problem is that I really like seeing my old work. It gives me proof that my skills are improving. This helps tone down the frustration that sometimes comes when painting just doesn't go right. A badly frosted miniature from today is probably still painted to a higher standard than some of my first work!

WIP Lord Solar M.

I thought it would be fun to post a WIP of my new multi-regiment war master. I was initially planning on just testing a color scheme on him and then stripping him down with simple green, but I think I will work towards the end on this guy and just see how he turns out. The first wash is drying now. I plan to highlight the yellow up through bleached bone to white.