Founding Day Painting Contest!

I won the GW springfield 2nd founding day competition for vehicle/monster! I took my Arvus Lighter, which unfortunately I do not have pictures of finished. It is on display in the GW springfield if you are interested in seeing it. I thought I was in strong contention for best squad, but a gentleman came in with an incredibly beautiful Angels of Redemption squad that just stole the show. I wish I had photos of it. I recommend that anyone interested in painting go to the Springfield GW store and check it out.

So how cool is the trophy? I love the brother Artemis model, and have always secretly desired one. After winning this one, and contemplating dunking it in green stuff in order to paint it up as a non-trophey, I think I will just buy one online. Bill's patina is just too cool remove with a simple green bath.

The day after the painting competition I went to the Bazaar Bazaar, and traded away all of my 2nd edition Orks, Eldar, and Tyranids. I managed to buy/trade for some weird adeptus mechanicus stuff, some cool space wolf miniatures, Mordian Iron guard, and vallhallan squads. I am most excited about the Mordian miniatures. The scale is slightly different than current models, so the miniatures look better proportioned next to space marines. I kept joking to Gil, the original owner of them, that I knew they were ugly, but I really wanted them anyway. My perspective has changed. I think they look cool, and not just cool because they are goofy, but actually cool looking in person. The scale difference makes them look odd online.

Mephiston and Grey Knight Paint Test

My last photos of Mephiston had a lot of glare on him, so I decided to try and take photos without the flash. These shots show mephiston more true to real life than the last ones. I am entralled by the miniature. I suppose I will have to give him a backpack and clean up the paint chips!

I tried a test paint scheme for my grey knights, which looks so so to me. The recipe you see here is:

1. Boltgun + black
2. Boltgun
3. chainmail
4. mitheral silver
5. boltgun + thinner as a sort of wash to tie it all together.

I am leaning towards grey Grey Knights using zenithal lighting...I mean quick and easy airbrushing from above!

Mephiston WIP2

I have not applied dull coat, and I committed the terrible miniature photo taking faux pas by using a flash camera instead of my light booth, but still I could not resist putting up shots of my new Mephiston model. I am really happy with how he turned out. I used an air brush, followed by a lot of targeted washes and highlighting. The washes left him a little shiny, but that will be dealt with in time. I am painting this army in sort of coarse brush strokes, and plan to come back for rebasing as necessary for the display board, and weathering.

I am not sure how it is possible, but I lost mephiston's backpack, which means he will end up with a pre-heresy backpack of some type. I added a shot of asteroth because as I was painting mephiston it was fun to see how all of the details carried over.

Heroes of Armageddon

From the same folks who brought you the Storm Wardens Project...
Heroes of Armageddon is coming soon.

Arvus Lighter WIP2

The cockpit details of my arvus lighter are nearing completion. As I've noticed with older FW models, the pilot is not quite up to par with the quality of the newer sculpts. Regardless, I really love this model. It does not feel 40k at all to me though.

Now that most of the paint is on, it is time for me cut out and glue on the clear plastic that will serve as the glass for the model. I have been dreading this part of the build, both for this model and for the lightening bolt. There just seems something wrong about having to makes ones own windshield!

Now, how can I get my hands on the adepticon FW heresy era marine model?

Arvus Lighter WIP 1

My Imperial Lightening fighter needed something to escort on in, so I decided to paint up the Arvus Lighter that my wife gave me for Christmas. Originally I had intended to paint the whole ship dark red, using grey pre-shading to help the color transition. However after getting the pre-shading on, there was something about the color that made me want to stick with it. Star wars has conditioned me to think of grey and orange as good starship colors, so my inner-inner geek had to go with it. The weathering on the model is just starting, but I think some character is already coming through. '

I still have landing gear, cockpit, stains, weathering powders, and the obligatory nose are to put on this thing before I try to mount it on its flying base. When the Imperial Navy is not using it, my Astral Claws will be. (of course that would require me to paint more than 1 squad of the tyrants legion)

Imperial Lightening Bolt WIP 1

Seeing as how this summer is the summer of flyers, I thought I should get a jump start on the whole thing by painting up the Imperial Lightening Bolt that I purchased to provide air cover for my arvus transport. I decided to paint this guy up using minty greens and grey-blue. Each panel on the aircraft is shaded with an air brush, with most of the colors blocked in now. I still have quite a bit to paint, but I wanted to share my progress. This model has been a joy to paint, even though the casting was iffy. I used magnets drilled into the flaps to allow me to raise or lower them, as well as on the undercarriage weapons. The insignia will match my DKoK, and will be that dark red/maroon/brown color that comes on the FW transfers. Once all of the colors are finished, I will spray the model with sealant prior to weathering. I am going to use a light grey for paint chips on the surfaces. The paint chips should really blend the model together. a very light wash of browns will go in between panels. The kit comes with clear plastic that the builder is supposed to try and cut to fit in the cockpit window. That looks like an impossible task, but who knows, I might get lucky.

So the big question. Does anyone know what the two round solid air vent things on the nose of the aircraft are supposed to be? I am tempted to paint them up like two blue gems, but have no idea what they are.

Forgeworld Heresy Era Blood Angels Squad

I have been painting a load of miniatures for the Armies on Parade contest, and decided to take a break and paint an all forgeworld squad as a reward for painting so much. first off, I am not happy with my work here. I am not sure where things started going wrong, but I struggled with every phase of the build. The resin on some of them was really molded poorly. Some of them were so badly aligned that I had to toss them aside and cherry pick from the units I bought. Some of the shoulder pads were not even fully cast. In terms of painting, I think I need to go back to pre-shading with grey before I put any red on the miniatures. Since blood red is semi-translucent, it works really well, and may help me avoid putting on too many layers of paint.

So the things I like:

• The squad is split between running guys for the close combat squad, and standing for the missile squad.
• I love the older mark armors.
• Some of the red gradients turned out really good.

Things I plan to do to improve these models:

• Line the armor plates with black/darkflesh wash in order to increase contrast
• use weathering powders on their legs to blend them into their bases.

Lastly, I am not sure I want to sponge on a grey color to simulate scratches and battle damage. I am just not sure it would look good on these minis. I suppose that means a throw away test miniature is in order!