Blood Angels Drop Pod WIP

I finally dusted off the drop pod and sat down to put the thing together and paint it. I am still having a bear with red. For some reason I cannot duplicate the red I painted most of my army with. I've seen smooth blended red, and the battle worn red of my early days no longer holds me. I want my terminators to look like red rock stars.

The drop pod looks kind of cool now, but was not as cool as building a tank. There is something about having to paint all the parts individually that does not give me the same satisfaction as mostly building a kit and then painting it. The pod has touch up work, a few more bits, and some washes, and it will join the ranks of my BA.

So, does anyone just field one? Can I use a single drop pod? I was thinking of just putting my furioso dreadnought in it and calling it a day, but I have not ready any reports of single drop pod use. I suppose it could be used as a distraction while my jump packs and rhinos surge forward. If you had the choice of a furioso in your backfield, or death company jumping forward front and center, where would you fire?

Blood Angels White Dwarf Test

I've painted a lot of blood angels, which you can see some of in an earlier post. However for some reason I have a painting block when it comes to the new Space Hulk Terminators. The miniatures are so nice that I am nervous about painting them. I tried inks in a previous post and decided to give Anya's painting method as described in White Dwarf 356 a try. I am not sold on it. Granted I did not spend a dozen hours working on my test marine, but even with thinning I get too much paint build up. I gave the mini two washes of baal red. The first one was watered down as the article describes, the second was at full strength.

The crusade style marine is painted using Anya's method. The thunder hammer using my old method.

1. prime black
2. dry brush a mix of blood red and mechanite red foundation
3. highlight with blood red
4. dry brush blazing orange or just highlight.
5. wash baal red

Counts As

Rather than do an Iron Scythes counts as Lysander I decided to kit-bash my own Lysander and just use him with my custom chapter whenever I want his special rules. While I was at it I created 5 sterngaurd veterans to go with him. I am not terribly pleased at how Lysander himself came out, but I am really happy with some of the marines. This was my first try using GW Inks, which I found in my warhammer misc box during unpacking. I love the way the inks work on yellow. The red ink leaves a bit to be desired. You can see a post with some orks I tested the red ink on earlier on this blog. So should I post ink tips? I am a novice with ink, but have already learned that putting too much on ruins detail.

Wolves In Progress

I have done some more work on my wolves. I am thinking about basing now, and think I have to go with a greenish plant covered base. I may try water effects. I've found that the basing choice makes a huge difference in how a model is perceived, so getting the right base created is important. I will put up a tutorial on whatever I come up with. I wonder if the failures would be more interesting for people to see though.

I really like painting wolves. I may have to end up playing them.

Test Minis

Does anyone one else paint up test minis like a crazy person before starting a project? I have been experimenting with inks, washes, layering, and dry brushing in order to come up with a recipe like for the JAWABALLS painting contest. I have a box of old orks that are pressed into duty any time I need to experiment.

Rough Riders

A funny thing happened on the way to my bits box... I found 5 original rough riders. Having turned into a speed painter, I had to quickly get these glued up and ready for battle. I was missing a few pieces, but one halved knights Panther and I had all the legs I needed. I have no idea why I painted the horses eyes red, must have been thinking about lord of the rings or something.

Basing Really Helps

I really dislike unbased models. I found some uninspired bases left over from my Chaos demons and thought they looked pretty good against the color scheme. I may touch these guys up in the future, or try another batch to see if I can come up with a recipe closer in keeping to the marine painter version. Toning down the orange will help desaturate them a bit.

SQUATS

A funny thing happens when you are unpacking from a move...... This is weirder so, since I did not even pack up all of my 40k. My wife carefully packed everything up while I was recovering at my parents place She then moved it all into my new office---er 40K room. I found a whole Squat army painted in the original squat colors. Back when I painted these dry brushing was brand new to the hobby, and these were my super detailed minis that accompanied my RT001 beaky marines. I also have most of the original Eldar pirates and the harlequin boxed set! So does anyone one else repaint their miniatures, or do you keep them as reflections of your earlier work. God knows I have more to paint than I ever will. Why go to the trouble of stripping them down?