Finished Blood Angels Dread & WIP Sergeant

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!

Kit Bashed Librarian Dreadnought Part 2

I am beginning to really like this paint job. I think the trick is the black undercoat + air brushed blood red. It gives the model such rich tones, while keeping large portions of the model in shadow. Since this is my librarian dread, I painted a little more gold/bronze on him than usual. I blocked in all the colors last night prior to a 50/50 dev mud/water + 1 drop of thinner wash. Now that I am learning to thin my washes I think I am getting much better results. I think I have reached the point where decals have to be added. I always dread this step since it is hit or miss with me. I still need to paint the cables, wash and highlight the purity seals, and do something with the etched brass on his right leg, but I've had those FW blood angels decals sitting near my desk since receiving them as a Christmas gift from my wife. I think it would be nice to use them. I also have that Arvus Lighter to paint from her!

Kit Bashed Librarian Dreadnought Part 1

I started a new Blood Angel's army when I first got back into 40k after a long hiatus, and consequently after a few years my painting style had changed. Since my first BA dread with FW CCW, I have moved on to heavy air brushing, and shading, giving a slightly comic book feel to the force. In preparation for my first libby dread, I purchased on dreadnought FW CCW and one Grey Knight dreadnought force weapon. I have had these pieces sitting in a box for ages.

As it turns out, work has been pretty busy, so I have not been able to make it out to the GW store. Rather than pass up the opportunity, I decided to finally convert my own libby anyway. This guy will eventually be towed behind a storm raven, but that requires me to have some time to shop.

My new BA recipe is the same for vehicles as it is for dreads or troops.

1. Prime Black
2. Spray Gore Red lightly, keeping as much black as possible.
3. Spray Blood Red
4. Mix in Blazing Orange into the airbrush and highlight edges.
5. Spray with diluted baal red (this step is probably a bad idea! since it removes a lot of the shading in favor of richer color)

I have held off putting battle damage on my new BA, but I think I am going to go with chardon granite followed by chainmail. Som heavy streaking of black will follow.

WIP Techpriest

Since I had a bunch of resin bases, I needed something to put on them. A few minutes of rummaging, and voila, the techpriest I purchased ages ago for my IG. This guy got a really fast and sloppy paint job, so I have a lot of cleanup work and final highlighting to do, but as he is, I kind of like him. I've found that the older metal miniatures are weird in that they have both more detail, and worse castings. With plastics, the older models are just barren of detail.

So in game terms, does anyone use this guy in their army lists? Is there ever a reason to take one? In fluff terms I feel the need to paint up as many priests from Mars as possible, but they seem kind of weak in game. the problem with having this guy, and all of the advisors I recently painted is that I now want to field them!

Deathwing Chaplain and Squad

I painted up some test bases to go with both my Astral Claws and my Dark Angels. Previously I had been creating custom bases for each miniature every time I needed one. The power of home resin casting has freed me from that now! The Deathwing squad above used individual custom bases, and while they look nice, I wanted a way to create a base quickly that showed off the miniatures. The Rhino top hatch base shown below is meant for a hero character, since it allows for dynamic poses. I used one of the new flatter bases for the chaplain, since his pose was rather static, and I was unable to pry his torso off of his legs for repositioning! I am really pleased with how he came out.

The rest of the Deathwing are a little lighter in color than my other squads, but I am just happy to have three squads instead of two. I think I may have to get a game in once I paint up that venerable dread lurking to the side of my painting area.

Home Made Resin Bases

I finished and based my dark angels terminator chaplain, and then followed him up with another squad of deathwing terminators. The problem was that I was out of bases. Normally I make a load of bases ahead of time, and then have them ready for miniatures as I finish them. This time I decided to create resin molds of ruined space marine equipment. These bases will find dual use on my Astral Claws chapter, which is why some of them are desert brown. The deathwing bases I paint dark, with loads of rust.

Custom bases are just too cool!

Plastic DA Chaplain WIP

The new DA FAQ has me pretending I am going to play games again, so I decided to paint up an Interrogator Chaplain as my second HQ to hand with Belial. I grabbed an old BA FW crux, the torso from a Chaos terminator, a chaos marine head, and a chaos maul. I added little bits of cloth that came from who knows where, and a key from some fantasy kit. I don't exactly hate the model, but it just doesn't look right to me. There is no mistaking it on the battlefield, so maybe I'll keep this guy as a sort f weirdly static icon of death.

Updated Glowing Power fist

Ron, graciously shared his suggestions on how to improve the glowing power fist I painted in response to his first article, and though I did not have a lot of painting time, I did have enough time to throw down a layer of bleached bone on areas that should not see the glow. The painting is not complete, as real life intruded, but I am much happier with the results already.