Battle Board WIP

So I was supposed to play a game with warhammer 39999 when he was in DC. Unfortunately I got called out to California on work, so no luck there. However in preparation for the games I had hoped we would play, I went out and bought a Realm of Battle board.

A couple of important points:

1. This thing is large
2. Get your wife's permission before priming the thing on the kitchen table
3. Do not prime something this large inside when it is too hot outside to open windows

Now that that the important parts have been covered, on the fun bit. Painting. So the I had planned to airbrush this thing brown using the colors from the scenery kit, but after seeing it primed grey I am having second thoughts. A plan is a plan though, so my next phase is airbrushing light grey over the rock areas prior to washing them with dev mud. At least that is my partial plan pre brown spray. Anyone else have one of these things? Any advice for someone before they commit to a color scheme? Any creative color schemes anyone would like to share? I am all ears here!

Blood Angles Librarian and Sanguinary Priest

I've been experimenting with washes for a bit now, and tossed these two characters together for my blood angels army. The grey wash worked s0-s0 on the sanguinary priest. I think I have been putting on too many layers at this point. I need to do touch ups and finish painting some of the details, but I was so excited to see these finally in the army I had to take a few shots.

These photos were taken in blindingly bright light this morning, so every imperfection in the paint job shows. I'll take some more later under normal lighting conditions to see if that makes a perceptible difference. The ICs look much better in person, but I guess we read that in email and blogs all the time!

The librarian saw some action yesterday, and I have learned a few things. The whole point of the going to the store was for me to take the Storm Wardens land raider and let it get some air time, hopefully getting a few more people to donate in the mean time. I had no idea I was in store for such a good game. Since I happened to have a freshly minted librarian, I let him get some game time as my HQ choice. Jawaballs has posted about how awesome the libby is. He is right. The psychic hood add a whole new phase to the game that I have never played. It was really nice making mephiston roll off for his powers. My opponent was a heavy into the cult of jawa, and his list was fantastic. I was out mech'd,out-melta'd, and out maneuvered the whole game. His army was also nicely painted, which is so rare at the springfield store.

I want a rematch. (hint---no tanks! :)

Storm Wardens Crusader Complete

I don't normally add crew to vehicles, but since this was a special project, I decided to add two tech marine crew members to the Storm Wardens land raider Tempest. In order to storm warden it up a bit, I added a deathwatch arm to the gunner, and positioned him so it looked like he was using a scanner to fine some xenos filth. I don't recall ever reading about tech marines being seconded to the Deathwatch, but I like the idea. I think this helps the LR blend in a bit with the rest of the storm wardens army.

If I haven't mentioned it, it is a bit intimidating to included in the Storm Wardens group. However, knowing that this LR is going to transport miniatures painted by that illustrious bunch makes this project that much cooler for me personally!

So click on the donate button and help Doctors Without Borders!

So I Made My Own Wash

Sometimes things just don't go as expected. On Sunday I primed a whole force of grey knights black, and was just about to start painting when I had the clever thought to test out my paint scheme first. My plan was to go for grey knights, not boltgun metal knights, so my test was supposed to be of dark grey, with a directional blast of highly thinned space wolves grey to provide the blueish tint. Well it did not work. I spent about an hour playing with the airbrush, and while there were phases where I could have stopped I just didn't. Rather than have the minis go to waste I decided to pull out my laundry list of wash ingredients I purchased after watching a wash making tutorial. I used out of the pot blue on the mini on the left, a blue wash made by diluting the wash with matte medium and flow aid in the middle, and a soft black wash on the right. diluting wash with the wash recipe produce a lovely soft wash, and I will definitely keep experimenting with this. I did a quick paint job on the captain. I used new paints, and generally had a good time painting him. So what do I do with this guy now?

Tutorial: Press Mold For Easy Terminator Basing

I've had a bunch of grey knight terminators sitting in a drawer for a while and finally got the itch to paint them. I decided to create a terminator sized press mold just as I did for regular infantry, and just squeeze out a few bases. I think the cracked desert bases will look nice with the terminators, since I'll be adding a light colored warm base, to a cool colored darkish model. The contrast should be nice. My wife was kind enough to take the photos, which tell the story pretty well. If you have any questions fire away. The only steps not shown here are the sanding of the top of the bases (because they are still curing) and the painting. I am going to douse them in FW weathering powder before I varnish them just to see what happens. I liked the effect I got last time, but not enough powder stayed on the bases.

storm Wardens Land Raider WIP 4: Weathering

The last photos were so bad I felt compelled to put these up. The varnish has gone on now, so I can handle the LR without fear of scratching it up. This is the first model I varnished in a long time, so I was really nervous about doing it. I've got plenty of posts that show frosted minis. This time it turned out great. The varnish worked the weathering powders into the tank tracks, making it look much better. I am not sure much of the weathering powder on the skirts made it through the varnish blast, but I am happy with the outcome.

I've also learned another lesson. Skip out from work at lunch and run home to take photos during bright daylight!

I am really tempted to paint up some other stuff for the storm wardens project. With all of the big name talent painting up portions of it I feel really lucky to be able to participate. Those who have followed my early postings know that I am alive today because of really good surgical care. It only takes on emergency like that to learn how fragile our lives are. Doctors Without Borders is a wonderful organization providing care where there is none. Kudos to SCW for this idea!

I hope whomever ends up with this army brings it to games day. I am committed to going, and making sure I stop by the jawaballs club table.

Storm Wardens Land Raider WIP 3: Weathering

The weathering of Tempest Lex has begun. These shots are just before the purity seal went on, so the forge world powders look a bit extreme. I was tempted to pull way back from heavy weathering given how nice the the blues had turned out, but in the end this is a venerable battle tank. It needs dents, scratches, and bullet holes.

Storm Wardens Land Raider WIP 2

The LR Crusader is coming along, with much of the basic colors in place. I added all kinds of little skull things on it since the parchment color contrasted so well with the regal blue. I've got some plastic card lightening bolts that I plan to fit into the side panels. I see the whole land raider as representative of the shield. Hopefully the large lightening bolts start pushing this more firmly into Storm Warden territory. One of the things that has been really cool about this project is working with materials that I would never have tried otherwise. I've never even used regal blue, and the plastic card lightening bolts are not something I would normally do either. If I add sponged on battle damage, rust pigments to the tracks, smoke stacks with verdigris, and dust along the tracks I will need only one thing........

What should the name of this Land Raider be? Any ideas? Shorter names are easier to paint!