Dodge's Current Blood Angel Force

A photo of "most" of my Blood Angel stuff lined up parade style. Missing is Mephiston (being repainted for the 4th time I think now), Corbulo ( about to start his 3rd paint scheme) and a few other bits and pieces that are in the process of being redone or finished.

Light tent on its way!

After looking back through some of my photos I have decided that my photography really isn't doing the final results justice. I had intended to make my own light tent but time and effort amongst so many projects on the bench has mean't that I have never really progressed forward with it. The tents I had seen online where all way over the budget I had to invest in one. However after a chat at my FLGS last night, one of the players http://ianjwood.com/ pointed me towards amazon where I could get one for a tenner! Don't know why I never looked there before to be honest, anyway thanks to amazon free delivery it should be here early next week and I can start taking some decent pictures.

Watch this space!

Trollblood Earthborn Dire Troll

I have decided to dip my toe into the warmahordes scene at my LFGS. In that spirit and based on no other criteria other than I love the models I have decided to play Trollbloods.

Here is a WIP of my Trollblood Earthbron Dire Troll

Two days annual leave - lots on the list of things to do!

Well using up some of my annual leave that I have outstanding. 2 days off and a list of things to do. Here is the list, their current state and the desired state at the end of the two days

Forgeworld Warhound Titan (Commission)
Currently - 90% done
Objective - Complete

Forgeworld IronClad Dread in Dark Angels scheme (Commission)
Currently - 95% done
Objective - Complete

Forgeworld Dark Angels Venerable Dread (Commission)
Currently - BNIB
Objective - Prepped, primed and main colour down

2 x Dark Angels Vindicators (Commission)
Currently - painted by client
Objective - Stripped, primed and main colour down

2 x Baal Preds (Something for me!! :) )
Currently - in Simple Green being stripped
Objective - Primed and main colour down

Build one light box for photgraphy! (Finally!)

Wow it is going to be a busy couple of days!!

Quick Deathwing Land Raider piccy

Stoopid iPhone didn't want to focus very well. Only a couple of layers of weathering to go on. About 10 minutes worth of work and they are done.

Forgeworld Warhound Titan and Deathwing Land Raider

A mate at my FLGS http://www.ironhavengames.co.uk/ asked me to do the ground work on his Forgeworld Warhound Titan. The request was to prime the model and get the main colour down and the rest sprayed boltgun metal so he can finish it off. Firstly I love this model, been a fan of Forge World for ages and this is the first titan I have managed to get my hands on. Anyway here is the pic of it pretty much finished in terms of the amount of work I have been asked to do on it. There are a few spots in the finish I need to redo where the primer hasn't bonded with the resin and has lifted.

Next up is the second of the two land raiders I have been working on for another friend.It has been varnished and given a sepia wash in the recesses. Just need to figure out the best way of assembling it so it can be swapped between a crusader and redeemer. Oh and it needs to be weathered as well. Hopefully shouldn't take too long.

Deathwing LandRaiders

A mate of mine has commissioned me to do a couple of Deathwing Land Raiders. Here are some WiP pics taken with my shiny new iPhone 4S (camera is definitely improved but the flash ain't great as you can see.)

The main colour and panel highlighting has gone down as well as some green area effect at the front which has also been panel filled. I've done this as I think an all bone coloured Land Raider risks looking a little bit flat. I have taken a couple of bits of Dark Angel iconography from the Ravenwing box set upgrade sprues and am painting that up separately to go on some of the doors. Then the deathwing decals will go on from the Space Marine Vehicle decal set. Then the whole thing sealed with satin varnish and then weathered in the panel lines and around the rivets etc with a sepia-ish wash. Then some light weathering and she will be done. I fear too much weathering on it will look too brown given the model colour so I will probably go quite lightly on it.

Airbrushed Blood Angels Vindicator - Done + few updates

Bit of a large update today.

In between prepping a couple of Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts for a commission I have managed to finish of a couple of Blood Angel vehicles that were sat on my bench.

1st up is a vindicator. It was painted using the same technique described in my previous razorback post. Very happy with the way it has turned out. I think I will go back and add some more weathering to the tracks at some stage but for the moment it is ready to go.

Overall I am extremely happy with the way it has come out and look forward to shooting foo's with it :)

2nd up is the razorback seen in previous posts. Just needed a few finishing touches to get it over the line and ready to game. The assault cannons will probably be redone with the airbrush at some point as well as again some more track weathering but again good to go on the tabletop.

Last up is the beginning of work on a dreadnought Plasma cannon and close combat weapon as part of the commission I am working on. Only the very beginning but getting some of the blended airbrush work done so I can mask it off and work the rest of the areas.

Apologies for the photo quality of the last two snaps, they were taken with no setup at dark o'clock in the morning. 

Blood Angels Razorback - 2nd tank painted with airbrush

After pretty much finishing my blood angels Rhino I am keen to keep up the momentum and strip and redo all my Blood Angels tanks using the airbrush. Next up is my TLAC Razorback. 

The model has been stripped using fairy power spray. The result was pretty good. 

Next up the hull was primed using Vallejo Air Grey Primer. This was sprayed at about 30psi in wide sweeping passes with the airbrush constantly moving so no paint could build up. 

Next up the model was preshaded using Vallejo Game Colour Dark Fleshtone. This was thinned down quite a lot as my batch seems to be rather thick and gloopy and sprayed at a fairly low psi (about 15) so I could get in nice and close. I am thinning using the Vallejo Acrylic Thinner.

After this I gave the model several passes with VGC Bloody Red again at about 30psi. 

Then I panel filled the large areas with a 50/50 VGC Bloody Red/Hot Orange mix thinned down at about 15 psi.

After that I made a few passes over the bottom half with a 50/50 VGC Dark Fleshtone/Bloody Red mix and then used that same mix to emphasis some of the shading around the chimney stacks and armour plates.

That's all for the moment. The wife is away on a hen do this weekend so expect a torrent of updates. Hoping to have this one finished, and my Vinidicator and a couple of Land Raiders for a friend in advanced stages by Sunday afternoon when my peace and quiet is shattered by her arrival back home :)

1st attempt with new airbrush - Blood Angels Rhino

OK so a few weeks ago I picked up an Iwata HP-C from FleaBay and a compressor from www.everythingairbrush.com (recommend them by the way, arrived next day and gave great advise over the phone).

This is my first attempt at using it to paint a model. I started out by taking an old bit of plasticard I had lying around and spending about an hour, hour and a half just mucking about with the airbrush, trying different pressures through the compressor, trying different consistencies and finally felt comfortable enough to have a bash and painting an old Rhino I had stripped to experiment on.

Here is the result

For a first attempt I am really rather pleased about the way it came out. There are a few fingerprint marks on it so I need to learn to be more careful with my handling but otherwise I am rather chuffed. The finish is much smoother than I have been able to achieve with a brush, the gradient transition between shades is much smoother. Overall very happy. The Blood Angels logo was found on Google and then printed out, stuck with a glue stick onto Masking Tape and cut around to give me a template to work with. The hatch is having a few last bits and bobs done but otherwise she is finished. 

Frozen water effect base WiP 3 - It all went a bit pear shaped

Oh dear.......that didn't go quite according to plan! After the frantic correction after the first pour attempt went a bit wrong, the finish really hasn't come out how I would have liked. There is a lip of resin around the top and the front is very uneven and not flat at all.

I think I will need to revisit the technique I used. I smeared vaseline across the plastic I was using as the barrier at the front to prevent the resin from sticking but it doesn't appear to have been very successful. I think next time I will paint a thin veneer of PVA across it. Wait for it to dry then do the pour and the PVA should just then peel off. Oh well, now I need to decide whether to try and repair this attempt or start again........decisions decisions

Frozen water effect base WiP 2

OK so I attempted the pour last night. Had a crack at sculpting a Nemo....hmm my sculpting skills need working on is all I have to say about that. Maybe next time. The resin was easy enough to mix and has a very long (24hour) curing time which it seems is both good and bad.

Good because I don't need to worry about rushing and getting air bubbles in the mix and pouring it all in 60 seconds.

Bad because as it turns out the 1st attempt at this I interpreted the "the resin will cure faster if left next to a gentle heat source" part of the instructions as "hey if I shine my hobby lamp with daylight bulb, that will do the trick!!". These bulbs generate a fair more bit of heat than I anticipated and consequently it softened the Plasticine I was using to keep the mold in place to the point where when I checked it 30 minutes after the pour, the mould was no longer flush and I was leaking resin. Queue the A-Team music and a rather panicky clear up, reset of the mould and repour. Consequently I have no idea how the second pour is going to turn out but I suspect it will not be the neatest of finishes. I will remove it later and post up a pic.

Frozen water effect base WiP

For a while now I have been working on painting my Malifaux band. I loved the frozen pond effect on the Ice Golem and when I was pointed in the direction of a how to in Wyrd Miniatures newsletter I thought I would give it a crack. I am at the stage where most of the painting has been done. Next step is to shade the reeds to make them look more frozen and then do the resin pour.

Once the resin pour has finished and been given a good time to dry I will then dust some white over the surface and mount the golem and probably using some snow effect bring him into the base and try my hand at making some icicles to dangle on him.

I am also half thinking about trying my hand at sculpting a mini-nemo and freeze effecting him to go in the pond :)

THQ: Space Marine Demo

Downloaded the demo this weekend and played both available levels. I have watched the build up to this game quite closely and have really wanted it to work. Thankfully my impression from the demo is that THQ have indeed created a good game. The ability to switch ranged weapons quickly I liked. I am not sure on the ability to carry four ranged weapons though. I would have preferred sticking to two for a bit of realism. The stun/execute combo to regain health is certainly interesting. I wait to see if there are other options such as apothecary packs or anything like that. If the stun/execute is the only way to regain health I can see that being somewhat limiting but may make for an interesting challenge. All in all this will still be a release day purchase for me. Will probably see BOps traded in to cover some of the cost.

Airbrush on its way

Well I have taken the leap and bought an airbrush of eBay. See what it looks like when it turns up. Now if I can just find a compressor . . . .

Striking Scorps - Speed painted-ish

OK in an attempt to get some projects off my shelf I have finished off 6 striking scorpions that I promised to do for a friend ages ago and have been very slack in doing. These have been, for me at least, speed painted or more properly an attempt to paint faster whilst still achieving a nice finish.

I am quite happy with the way they have turned out.

Once again apologies for crappy iPhone pics. I really REALLY need to sort out better photography. 

Deathwing Banner.....done!

Just a quick update this time. Finally got round to finishing the Deathwing banner for my mates Dark Angels army.

My hobby area

Quick rather bad photo of my hobby area for anyone who is even vaguely interested. I have two lamps for light, one a hobby lamp with a lift up flap covering a magnifying lens for fine detail work. The other is a cheapy Argos lamp with a daylight bulb in it.

Sanguinary Guard, more WiP

Spent a fair bit of time on these over the weekend. Here is a pic from early in to the session

And also a job lot of wings ready to be glued on. These will go on once the arms and shoulder pads are glued on. They still need some more white highlighting around the upper sections of the wings but I will do this once they are on the model and I can get a better idea of how light would hit them.

Sanguinary Guard wip

Working some of my Sanguinary Guard at the moment. Got the real bug to play a few games after recently being entirely focused on the hobby side but I hate throwing down unpainted models. It is a real bug bear of mine. Anyways, the usual shaky iPhone photo for you

I did think about having an attempt and NMM on them however time is rather precious at the moment and I simply don't have enough of it to do such a technique justice at the moment. I have only tried it a couple of times and I certainly need to practise more with it when I have a decent amount of time to spend.

The armour is pretty much done on these. It just needs a final highlight of Burnished Gold/Mithril Silver mix and a light sepia glaze and it should be there. Then onto the detail.

Devastator Sergeant

WIP shot of my Devastator Sergeant conversion. Well not much of a conversion really just a change in the left arm and hand to make the grasping of the signum look more realistic. Should be painted in a couple of days.

Blood Angels Razorback - Update

OK the next week will see quite a bit of content update here hopefully. Work has progressed well on finishing of my Dark Angels for my mate Tellos. There will be photos up of all the work I have done. In the mean time here is a crappy iPhone teaser pic of the Blood Angels Razorback I have been working on

Upcoming updates

Wow life has a funny way of taking over and dictating what you do. Work has been manic and on top of that my scenario paintball team is putting on a first of its kind game in the UK next month which I have been crazy busy preparing for. It's kind of put back 40k progress this week. Combined with the fact that I have got fed up trying to take a decent pic with my iPhone that does justice to the models I am working on. I have found instructions on the intertubz for building a simple lightbox so hopefully will be getting that set up this weekend/beginning of next week and then I can take some decent photos of what I have been working on.

There will be updates on the two Ravenwing squadrons I am finishing off, the Dark Angel robed veterans and the Deathwing squads as well.

Stay tuned!

More Belial and Deathwing Banner pics

OK into the home stretch now. Belial has his arms. I ummed and ahhed over whether to put the lightening claws back on him thinking that with the new FAQ, a TH/SS combo makes him much more survivable however I still think given his lack lustre stats (doesn't even have the same WS as a codex SM Captain and he is supposed to be master of the deathwing!!) his best ability is to be able to deliver another attack at I5 in order to do the most damage.

These are iPhone pics so apologies for the quality. I am in the process of trying to sort out a light tent to get my SLR up and running taking decent pics.

And the Deathwing Banner. This is pretty much done now. There is some tidying up to do and I need to decorate the shield somehow and put some text on the drape around the skeletons body.

Deathwing Banner and Belial WiP Pics

OK after stripping down my original Belial after deciding he wasn't up to scratch he is back with a re Milliputted cloak, banner and fresh lick of paint in progress.

Getting there slowly but surely. And next we have the Deathwing Banner from my previous post now with some paint in progress as well

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Deathwing Banner

Mostly finished the sword that the skeleton is holding with Milliput last night. Just need to smooth it down once it has set.

Back from the dead

Boy have I been slack here recently. Basically I burnt out. I was painting an AWFUL lot and playing a fair amount too. Then after the wedding I really had no desire or compunction to play for quite a while.

So what am I doing now. Well about 2 years ago when I started playing 40k again my first army was Dark Angels. I ran several flavours including Greenwing, Deathwing, Ravenwing and Doublewing lists and became not completely incompetent with then which was a good start to playing again. I would even dare to say with the Doublewing I became actually reasonable with them :)

So why bring this up. Well I have probably 3000 points or so of Dark Angels sat around that I have not used for quite some time after picking up Eldar and then Blood Angels so the time has come to move them on to someone else. To that end I am finishing off painting them (finally after 2 years!) in preparation for the inevitable eBay auction. I have

2 x 5man shooty termie squads with AC's (+ an extra with a HF to allow for substitution if required)
1 x 5 man CC termie squad with cyclone (used as Belials command squad, one will have a banner by the time I am ready to sell them)
2 x Full Ravenwing squadrons (12 x Bikes, 2 x Attack Bikes, 2 x speeders)
7 x  devastators (2xPC's, LC, ML, MM,2x HB)
11 x tactical marines
6 x Veterans (used as Sergeants)
Asmodai
Ezekial
Brother Bethor with hand painted banner
Azreal
Sammual on his jetbike
Belial with TLLC's
Belial with TH/SS (a LOT more viable post FAQ!)

So amounts to a fair bit so hoping to get a reasonable price for them. Never sold figures on eBay so will be interesting to see if the amount I get for them matches my expectations.


Over the next few days I will try and post up some pics of the work I have done. In the mean time here is a rough iPhone photo of the Deathwing banner I am currently converting to round out Belials command squad.

It was inspired by the suggested banner bearer from a GWOnline article I found quite a while ago. The figure is the Warhammer Empire Standard. I have chopped/hacked/filed/dremmeled off the hammer and using an old terminator power sword and some milliput started to build a sword to better represent the deathwing.

Next is Astorath for my Blood Angels. I am hoping to play a few tournaments this year to get back into playing again. Again poor quality iPhone photo until I can set up my decent camera, the model is extremely shiny as it has been hardcoated before I use the Army Builder Matt spray varnish for the final protective coat

Again will post up a better picture once he has been sprayed and I have my decent camera set up.