Dark Angels 1 - Test model.

Hey Buffer, I'd be interested to hear your opinion on this. I too have been a DA fan for a long time.

Well, good evening to you all. I'm taking a long time to write a fairly short intro to one pic because I'm typing whilst looking at the TV.

Erm, played around with some colours. Rather than arse around with I think I counted 7(?) different paints, shades, glazes and whatever other watered down horses piss they can sell you, I decided to use no more than 3 colours for the DA armour. These colours are caliban green, moot green and sybarite green. The last two are the same brightness, but I really loved the look of sybarite green that I convert the final highlights into a desaturated erm, line highlight.

Very very rough and ready, just to see how the colours played out. 

Now, here are my caveats; 1) I hate GW's all over highlighting thingy, they have a word for it I think but I can't remember it at the moment. 2) Bearing that in mind, I've gone for a top down zenithal approach (which will be easier to see with the proper lighting rig, but to get the picture I have to stand up and clear my desk, and whilst I appreciate all my followers and commenters, I've got a bit of a sore leg. I then chose a band of the model, in this case a band from head down to feet across his right hand side, this is where I've focused edge highlights. (Bear in mind, this hypothetical band of light widens at the base to incorporate both right and left foot. But the light is v much focused on his right hand side.
So let's just all pretend that he's fighting a battle to the North, while the primary sun of the hypothetical planet is in the East.

Yeah tenuous, but fucked if I'm going to do all over edge highlights.

Errr that was a lot of words for a fairly uninteresting post.

Steve

PS: Just realised that if I type whilst looking at the tv, I write 'erm' a lot.

Help Me...

I am struggling, so many mixed emotions, I can't think about anything else. Life is so difficult, there are times I think I should just end it all.

I can't decide what project to do next.

I have the following options;

Chaos Renegades

Dark Angels

Rebel Grot army. Consisting of grots only.

Couple of issues beset my decision. 1. The Dark Angels would be painted with airbrush, I have no paint thinner. 2. I don't have enough grots to really start the army. 3. I have no Krieg left to paint which would excuse me from making a decision now, which I could defer.

The answer is really, Chaos militia. What do you lot think, will you enjoy a renegade militia project?

Breakfast of Chosen.

Steve

Edit - This is my 69th post. Heh.

Army of Me - The army shot promised.

Army of Me of course a song by Icelandic Mindfuck Björk. But then I like Björk.

Now then, the force is arrayed across 3 1ft^2 shelves in the glass cabinet.

Quatermaster and retinue, Infantry command squad, two infantry squads, cyclops and operator, engineers with mole launcher, grenadiers, sentinel powerlifter, scratchbuilt searchlight at top rhs and chaos ogryn.

Valkyrie with rocket pods, macharius vanquisher, HQ command squad.

Thunderbolt with +fuel tanks, malcador with battlecannon and artillery crew.

Might not have any updates for a couple of days, for this I apologise. I am entertaining this weekend...

Steve

Krieg Command Squad Finished - Painted Pics

Evening all,

And a welcome to all my new members, thank  you all. :)

I expected my next update to be the finished artillery piece and trojan. But unfortunately owing to my girlfriend spending £85 on animal food/bedding Purity Seal spray (vital to the completion of said items) was deemed an unnecessary purchase. Though I will be purchasing some on Friday. With luck, they will be done by next week. If I don't run out of thinner. It never rains, it pisses it down.

£85 worth of animal bedding, no, it's not a fucking hotel, unfortunately.

So, onto other things, here are the finished crew for the arty and trojan. I took the piss a bit, one guy has a hammer and the other is holding a great metal pin under his arm. I guess you'd want to look busy in some way.

Here is the command squad, I'm very pleased with them how they've come out, particularly the banner bearer.

"I must say, I don't know why my legs are quite so wide".

"Purple isn't gay".

"Do you like my coat? I got it from Hugo Boss...."

"Excuse me sir, that chap over there said 'The Emperor can suck my balls' I am away to cut off said balls and feed them to him". 

"Why must you hold your rifle the same way I do, everytime we're in a photo you have your rifle the exact same way"
"Fuck off".

Well now, I hope you like them, I think they're quite nice, a good unit to lead my Krieg in fruitless wars of attrition.

Steve

Rolling Barrage... A glimpse of things to come...

Well I want to thank you all for joining my little blog, I have now hit 50members, for which I am very grateful.

"We have a neeew member...".

And so, with the vanquisher Macharius now completed, I attend to the last krieg model/s I own. They are; Earthshaker, crew and Trojan. Which you can see here.

I am awaiting one or two bits in the post to finish the trojan, but whilst that wings its way to me on our marvellous postal service... I will paint the 5 crewmen.

When these models are complete I will grab all the models and do an army shot. Partially for my benefit. When I say that these are the last krieg models I own, I am remiss, as I should say own 'currently'. For I am aware that I need more infantry. But with that will come some other projects. Saying that though, I also have a HQ command squad to paint, whilst I like the Quatermaster, I think I will use the HQ squad instead.

So, in short, thanks for new members, and stay tuned for more modelling.

Steve

Mechanicum's Finest - Macharius Vanquisher Painted

Evening all,

I've bollocksed up the imperial strongpoint piece, await (a long wait) further news on that. So instead, here's the Macharius Vanquisher Finished. Easily my favourite FW tank they produce. Enjoyable painting too.

Chuffed with the lighting...

Steve

Sentinel Powerlifter Finished and Terrain Train Part Two

Evening all,

Well now, Sentinel Powerlifter is painted, bear in mind it's not a frontline unit and I wanted it to retain some sort of erm, how do you say it, ubiquity, as in, it's merely a mechanised lifter for helping behind the lines. So, it's not got an awful lot of 'striking' features as it were, but I'm pleased enough with it.

His boring side.

Pleased with the scratchbuilt counterweight. 

His name isn't Krieg. It's Grippy.

And now, my 'edits' to the terrain board are made, you would not believe how hard it was to get photos of this, black light-sucking background for what are mainly shiny light objects. But I've done my best, hopefully it'll all be easier to see when painted.

My own dragons tooth, hereafter (DT). Looking like a shell or bolter has hit it and it's metallic top has buckled.

Replaced fuel cans next to generator. Added lots of sandbags to replace the ones there.

Sandbags replaced over one strongpoint.

Sideview of generators, had to replace a lot of the earthwork but think it's ok.

Overall board, whilst plaster is drying I'll find some accessories and things to add (though they'll be painted seperately) Barbed wire will eventually look different once fixers have solidified, I will effectively double it's coverage by careful negotiation....

Until next time, have a nice Halloween. I am celebrating halloween by going to Pizza Hut and then watching the new Silent Hill Movie. A movie I've waited for for a long time.

Steve

All aboard the Terrain Train - Part One

Choo choo.

Right, well I had an enjoyable temporal space in the Lake District between leaving on friday and returning on Monday. Here's a picture of a tree stump.

So, with Operation Spacegrave off to a flying start (f**k off), with the completion of the thunderbolt. I am going to now work on a different item, a RoB board imperial strongpoint available at FW. Here is the board;

As you can see it comes as black vacuum formed resin. With this in mind, some poor detail is inevitable, for example, the fuel drums and sandbags. These will be replaced, along with the dragon's teeth. Whilst doing this I will undoubtedly pick up some other bits that I want to fix up. I will start doing this tomorrow.

Other thing I did was replace the counterweight on the sentinel power-lifter. Not quite finished, but I have basically accomplished what I wanted which was to use plaster to make the rockcrete weight and plastic in the holder arrangement. This will give me a better painted texture in the finish that the all resin alternative.

Brass rod with square nuts holding the rockcrete within the holder. When painted there'll be imperial aquilas on it, i.e. I know it's plain at the moment.

Well, back to the bump and grind now, finished a rheology essay so I think a couple of days hobbying is in order.

Steve

Thunderbolt Finished - Painted Pics - Operation Spacegrave Part 3

Hardly worth that previous update was it. Anyway, aside from the base (forthcoming when supplies acquired) The 'Bolt is finished. Quite pleased with it.

Quite pleased with the camouflage, getting good at doing the delineated edges I think,  also chuffed with the sweeping look of the camouflage.

Markings.

I was going to paint him like Owen Wilson in 'Behind Enemy Lines' But then I forgot I hate Owen Wilson.

Sensor light - bristle to left which has since been removed.

Thunderbolt PIP - Part Two - Operation Spacegrave

Hey all, bit of work done, you'll notice my choice of markings on the starboard wing. Also a yellow stripe on the tail fin. I opted for a small transfer of the eagle on the nose instead of the rather large and incongruous detail. I hope to have her finished before tomorrow as I'm going to the Lake District for the weekend. Admittedly not a huge amount left to do on it but wanted to get a WIP up anyway.

Steve

Operation Spacegrave Part I - Thunderbolt WIP

Hey all, small update this evening, and I'm typing this with one hand, and you'll soon see why.

Basically, I've gotten this far with the 'Bolt, I've been busy decorating and putting carpet down so now hobbyical work can resume.

This is where the 'Bolt got to;

 Before this happened, quite sore to be honest.

 In other news, got my first tattoo this week, very pleased with it.

It's from this song;

Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros.

Steve

Vengeance is mine...

Well, on a half whim I took a look in my local GW, to find this little gem on the shelf. I have not purchased Dark Vengeance yet, but seeing, on the shelf a sealed limited edition copy, I was compelled to purchase it. The last copy available in County Durham it would appear...

I am most pleased...

Steve

Operation Spacegrave is a go...

Well, the DK ground forces are approaching completion, left to do is, artillery piece and support, and 2 superheavies (mach and minotaur). So, this morning I have ordered from FW the navy wing, stay tuned for some aerial madness and ground based strangeness...

Steve

Death Rider Squadron Finished (Pics) - Project Muffin the Mule.

Well, can't remember when I bought these but it was surely a long time ago, nice to see them finished, lovely models but the banners need to have a bit more definition to them; they seem a bit rushed in the sculpting. Anyway, there's five of them, but I've done pics of 3 of them then a group shot as they're all very much of a muchness...

"My wife calls me 'Ridemaster ' too y'know".

Grey horsie.

More of a brown, nut horsie.

This was an odd colour choice horsie, I looked up 'pictures of horses' (not recommended with 'safe-search: off'') and saw some interesting colours so I went with this browny, bluey, grey colour. Pleased enough with it.

"Trench Patrol".

You may have noticed one of them has his demo-spike missing, must have lost it when I moved house, which is dissapointing. What I think I'll do is buy another rough rider and take the lance from that, I have intentions on creating a mounted commissar so nothing will go to waste.

Aanyway, let me know what y'all think.

Steve

Project setbacks..

What, no love for the Thunderbolt Pilot?...

Right, well I ran out of black spray yesterday, and I also ran out of knife blades, so I can't even build anything at the moment. So... I've recommenced a long forgotten project, the Death Rider Squad.
I have had a look at them and realised the bulk of the work is done, with any luck I can have them finished by tomorrow evening. Friday I will purchase some more chaos black.

So basically, a teeny delay, but stay tuned for the rider squad, which I think will look rather spiffing since there are 5 of them.

Steve

Thunderbolt Pilot Ltd. Ed model painted.

Well it only took 4yrs but the GD Ltd. Ed. Thunderbolt Pilot is finally painted. I'm quite pleased with him I must say. Two things to notice is the work on the base and the skin tones, which I tried to keep muted (don't really like it when faces are painted coming up from dark brown to white, doesn't work for me). I think there's just enough shading on my interpretation.

Please note there are a couple of blips, at the top of his left arm, and just above his left pocket, these are tricks of the light, I'm guessing where I've painted it and it has resulted glossy, but they weren't there when I looked to correct them before this post!

"Good job I stood next to this pipe or anyone taking a photo of me would have a shite foreground...".

Can't properly see it, there's a raised section from which the pipe issues. Tried a little go at OSL too, kept it more as a hint of green aura rather than a bright light. I use a mixture of inks and gloss varnishes to finish diodes/gems/lights/screens/picters etc so there are two light reflections on this image, one of them is hand painted....

Next up is errr, hmmm, uhmmm... Fuck knows.

Steve