earthquake + metal models

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.