Blood Angels Earn A Display Case

My parents are visiting us this week, in preparation for a family vacation. My father brought his new camera, that I am thrilled with. Maybe the Cannon DSLR is done. In any case, I haven't posted photos of my blood angels in their new IKEA display cases yet. There are numerous unpainted bits, but I am so thrilled with how the color was being captured by the camera that I wanted to share. I can't believe I painted most of those tanks and the storm raven(even less finished than the rest) for the NOVA open. I think I am still recharging my painting batteries.

I am definitely going to buy one of these once rush hour traffic is not a problem.

--Camera Bought --
Behold---some....er...tau

Flesh Tearers & Gabriel Seth

After painting the Flesh Tearers Razorback/Rhino/Baal Pred/Vindi magneto-tank, I knew I had to paint more guys from that chapter. Differing from my first Flesh Tearers squad, I used less Blood Angles bits on this. Two of the guys have none for instance. I also used older mark legs. In terms of painting these guys almost painted themselves. I stiff have to break out the air brush for the power axe, and the weathering powders for the legs in order to tie them into the base, but I had so much fun making and painting these that I wanted to share them. (oh, a little orange wash on the damaged black parts is needed as well)

Now does Gabriel Seth fit in my army? I don't know. My only significant playing experience is the NOVA open. It was a trial by fire, which I loved, however I learned that infantry should never get outside their tanks. It is more likely that I paint up two Flesh Tearers Vindicators, since the kit is awesome, and making heavily damaged FT versions would be fun. I think I need to stop thinking with my NOVA training and go back to playing what looks good on the table. That is the only way I am going to every field that beautiful Storm Raven (yeah, I love the kit). At the NOVA I was taught that SR's were basically big grey flying targets that started and ended the game in the same place if I took first turn.

And now for something completely different......

I've been building a large Dark Elf fantasy army.

I may even play it before it is even primed.

Do I dare post shots of that army here? I mean this is a 40k hobby blog, not a square-baser joint.

Quick BA Army shot

My wife and I have been busy painting our master bedroom, which gave me the excuse to not move my BA force and NOVA swag from the dining room table. I know having one chore completed does not cancel out the other, but hey, I wanted to see the force together.

With paint fumes wafting, I snapped this shot of the army, now repaired from the load of damage entailed using my cardboard box+ double sided tape method of army transport. In the end what did me in was not pinning my troops to their resin bases. If I had done that, the chance of their bases sticking to the tape when I pulled the miniatures off would have been less. I think magnetizing bases is the way to go long term. It is far more convenient having a way to quickly place miniatures standing up rather than trying to squeeze them into foam cutouts. Even my tanks stayed where they needed to in the box, and I am a pretty aggressive driver. There was ample opportunity for acceleration to cause harm.

I just put together another flesh tearer squad using MK3 armor legs. It might not have been the best idea, as the legs look a little small for the torsos, especially since I used assault marine torsos which are already a little bulkier than normal. The good think was that the legs gave me a lot of extra space to glue knives, grenades, and pouches. My FT are going to be quite battle damaged like my other squad, and have all kinds of weathering, so they need to look like they have been in theatre for some time.

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.

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

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.

Contemptor Class Dreadnought "Chuck"

Since I don't know what army to start next, I decided to strip and repaint my original rogue trader era Chuck dreadnought as a BA furioso. I've been thinking of doing this since the new FW model came out. (yes I ordered one.......couldn't resist)

As anyone who has painted miniatures this old knows, the details are a little mushy, and the quality is poor. However as a nostalgia piece it was kind of fun. One thing I had forgotten though, the really old stuff is lead.

I did not want to use the original small square base, so I had to figure out what to do with all of the empty space on a normal dread base. I decided to really pile on the debris, which hopefully distracts from the lack of detail on the model.

Now the question that begs to be answered, does this guy merit a place on my Armies on Parade board for Games day next week? He looks a little weird visually, but it is an interesting model.

If you have any other suggestions for my next army, Ultras or Wolves, let me know. I already have two votes for wolves.

Updating Older Paint Jobs BA

When I started my Armies on Parade BA army I had a host of miniatures that did not quite fit the new style, but were also newer than my original dry brushed BA army. Since my Flesh Tearer miniatures took so well to a painting update I decided to give a little polish to my BA scouts and a 5 man sm assault unit. The updates included re-washing them for darker recesses, re-highlighting them, and then rebasing them so they were on the cooler colored bases rather than my warmer desert bases. All in all I think it was a pretty good experiment. I love the way the scouts came out, especially given that I have no desire to paint this particular kit again due to the weird arm proportions and heads. The Assault marines won't win awards, but I think they look pretty good. I can happily field these along with my new BA army. If I hadn't updated these, then I would not have the units to make a rational army list out of my AoP army. Since I had just painted units I liked rather than units necessary for a successful build, my force was highly skewed points wise.

Remember all the trouble I had with those Vanguard jump packs? If not then the short story is that one of my first Finecast(tm) purchases was the vanguard veterans squad, which had a lot of issues with the casting. The jump packs were terribly cast. At the urging of the store manager, and each of the store employees, I finally got around to taking the bad jump packs in so they could see them. The store happily replaced them. The horrible thing was that Bill had to open around 4 boxes of miniatures before we could get a set that was usable. He gladly did it, but I felt pretty bad for the store, and GW in particular. It was clear from what Bill and I saw, that one style of jump pack was simply the Destroyer of Molds(tm). We found bits of silicone embedded in multiple copies of the ornate jump pack. If you think about this, that means that GW must be racing around the clock replacing these molds as the jump packs destroy them.

The short version... Kudos to all the staff of the GW Springfield store. If I end up moving overseas I will genuinely miss the place.

Death Company Furioso

This guy was supposed to be a flesh tearer, and be part of my Armies on Parade display. However the washes did not dry in time, and there was no way I was going to get the transfers done the morning before the competition. It might be a good thing, since I am not sure I like how he turned out. I really like elements, but over all the last wash went on so think it obscured my shading. I enjoyed adding battle damage to him, which I did with zeal. His base is temporary, and I still need to shade the gold and touch up the blood drops.

I may add him to the display as part of the Chicago competition, unless I am not allowed to change the force up.

Flesh Tearers and Devil Dogs

My original plan was to have my BA escorting the Devil Dogs for Armies on Parade. However I just don't have enough space on my board to make it happen for the competition. With the little space I had left over I decided to revamp an old partially completed squad of flesh tearers. I had to re-wash, highlight, and damage these guys, as well as rework the power weapon so it would fit into my new blue PW scheme. Overall I am really happy with them. I am a little surprised that some touched up older miniatures are in some ways more interesting than my new ones. If only I had time to finish chapter master Seth....

Armies on Parade Tank Progress

All of the BA tanks are now weathered. There are still loads of lenses/head lights to paint, but I think they are coming along well. I was tempted not to weather the tanks at all.

The vindi finally got its siege shield, which it was really missing. Somehow they just don't look right without that massive dozer blade in front.

One the final details are painted, I will hit these tanks with weathering powders. It was hard not to jump in and hit the tracks with them now, but weathering powders are messy and really need to be the last step.