Ravenwinged it!

Double post again today as I have been a bit remiss at posting (not at painting though of course ;) )
First up - The DV Ravenwing detachment. Finally got them done and entered in the Dakka monthly contest (May). Think I came 5th or so. Which was totally fair enough as some of the entries were bloody excellent. Wasn't able to get a huge amount of painting done last month as the family all arrived from foreign shores and then we had the wedding on the 23rd.
Ravenwing.......yeah.....really don't think I'll be buying/painting anymore of those guys. Not the most fun figs to paint at all. The sculpts and poses are fine but they are just dull to pain. Way too much black coverage and just ....meh!!! Still, got them done (have a few wee tweaks I want to do ....at some point) adn dusted. Hope y'like them

Irish

Ravenwing Attack Squadron Arion

Ravenwing Sergeant Arion

Ravenwing Brother Gethal

Ravenwing Brother Arias

The Brothers Grimm(Dark)

Dark Angel's Deathwing Squad Barachiel

Up to my proverbial tits these days but still managing to squeeze it some painting. Mostly in the mornings as for some godbeknown reason I seem to like getting up at 6am! Anyways.....finally finished up The DV Deathwing squad and even made a wee diorama/scene for them to sit into. Really happy how they turned out. As I was entering them in a painting comp over on Dakka, I decided to make a backdrop for them as well. Piss easy and didn't take that long but sets them nicely into the fluff and I'm all about the fluff!!

That's the final dio. Thin foamboard topped with a sheet of the cobbled street I'm using for basing the DV figs. Circles then cut out of both for the figs to slot into. Stones and sand from the local river added in such a way so that it matches whats on the fig's bases. The wall is foamboard that comes with a layer of cork on top (makes for ace instant texture). The posters came from another artist's blog which I then resized and printed on the school's recycled paper which is much better as it's really gritty and soaks up the inks I used for weathering so much better. The came from Krautscientist's blog which btw I REALLY rec/mnd you check out - https://eternalhunt.wordpress.com/

Here's Vet. Sgt. Barachiel btw - haven't popped his finished pics up yet.

 

I cut a broken Aquila wing out of foamboard to mount him on. As the Sgt, I wanted up to be a little higher than the rest of the squad. I did his powersword in TMM as I'm really not a fan of NMM, esp for weapons; I just don't like the almost cartoony effect that it gives. It's hard to see here but the powersword has a blue sheen to it which worked really nicely just by glazing a few times with drak night shade wash.

 

Anyhow......here's a few other angles/shots of the final piece. Hope you like it :D Any questions/C&C -just hit me up in the comments box

 

Cheers

Irish Steve

 

 

Ohhhhh - There's 3(4) Fluff Easter Eggs or Flufter Eggs hidden in the diorama - see can ye find 'em ;)

 

 





 

Deathwing underway

Been a while eh?!!! Hectic days these; what with all the wedding preps and that. Away pretty much every weekend sorting something else out for the big day. Still getting some painting snuck in though ;) So, what have I been up to......
Well, Paradigm over on Dakka decided to do a monthly painting comp which was just the impetus I needed to get on and tackle the Dark Vengeance Deathwing squad. 3 down, 2 to go! Anyways.....results first, WIPs stuff second!

Brother Mendrion

First one finished was Brother Mendrion......ah dear, poor brother Mendrion......ripped t'shite by the Helbrute, Mortis Metalikus. Brother M. was the test model for the cooler, more realistic (IMHO) Deathwing paint scheme I came across and really liked in another blog (http://fromthewarp.blogspot.kr/2011/09/how-i-paint-deathwing-bone-armour.html - really rec/mnd you check it out)
I really hate the usual warm and creamy scheme that usually goes with the Deathwing. Makes them look like armed profiteroles. Anyways - judge for yourself

Brother Dardariel

Next up came Brother Dardariel and his accessory fetish. Lovely fig to paint. Nice to see a battle hardened religious nutjob warrior who knows how to accessorise his tool of the trade ^_-
The paint scheme and the wet-blending came a lot easier on this fella. Came out brilliantly I reckon :)

Brother Varhmiel

Latest into the cabinet (oohhhh - bought a glass cabinet!!!) is Brother Varhmiel. He's the only duplicate term in the DV boxed set so I wanted some way of setting him apart from his twin. Back to the fluff.....aha - ol'Brother Varhmiel was formerly a long serving member of the Ravenwing. Sweeeeeeeet - boom: black pauldron to honour his time with the Ravenwing. Can see am getting a little more confident applying battle damage to the otherwise pristine armour! I really do hate those perfect pristine never touched armour paint jobs. Needs a touch of reality.

Working on Vet Sgt Barachiel now.........more soon :)

(I'll pop up the WIP pics on Varhmiel I took later on. Tired and needing some snooze now. Friday and its 6-class-day arseholery tomoro)

Balthasar..........the Gaul (?!)

Finally on the hols. Winter Camps done (for now) so getting some (deserved(?)) downtime.........and can get some righteous painting and modeling done. Happy little fecker am I :D

Decided to get Balthasar, the Dark Angels' 5th Company Master done and out of the way. I'm not really a fan of this fig as it's a bit...well.... static...dull....just stands there gurning. The (huge) winged helm is really not something I fancy. Seems like he comes from a certain indomitable village in Gaul ;)

Balthasar.....The Gaul

However........I really really enjoyed painting Balthastrix (as I can't stop calling him now). The only cuntish bit was in assembling....bastarding fissure lines again and in so the wrong place. That aside.....totally had fun with this fig. Originally his cloak was going to be black (think I'll still darken it down a bit with a few washes) but the highlight layers were going on so well, and that deep wine colour was starting to look well nice and it got lighter and lighter. His armour is not quite so brighty brighty salamandery green as it seems in the photos. Anyways....overall.....well happy with our Gaulish Angel :D

Balthasar...strike a pose!

Next up - time to get some cultists painted. There's like 20 of them in the DV boxed set and there's no way I'm doing them all in a oner. They break down into 2 groups; Sect Anarkus and Sect Tetchvar. Gonna go with Anarkus' CC sect first. These are Chaos Cultists.....utter scum just to be used as fodder by their lords so wanna make 'em look the part. Much of the time these wretches are holed up in the bowels of what Chaos carrier they are bundled into. So for paint schemes want to make them look pale, unhealthy and drab. No bright lovely armour and cloaks for these dregs. Got the flesh basecoated with rakarth flesh (needed 2 thinned coats) and then washed, firstly with reikland fleshshade and then some agrax in the deeper muscle lines.

Anarkus looks kinda like a monk (ok....so a completely debased, bastarding lunatic monk) so his squad's scheme is gonna be using more monklike colours...tans and browns. Tetchvar (stupidest name ever; sounds like a petulant child) is a fallen Commisar so his squad with be more stormtrooper...y. Blacks, grey etc.......See how it goes :)

Bastarding Camps

Finally got the full DA Tactical Squad finished....well the figs are all done barring the weathering and chipping I want to do just before I base them. Need to pick up a few bits and bobs first. The thing that's holding me back on the bases is that I cannot for love nor money find anywhere that sells fine gravel/grit/sand. Looked everywhere. Usually see piles of perfect material on the street from where they are (constantly) relaying the pavements but as it's winter and everywhere is covered in a mess of ice, snow, slush, muck - that's out. I get around to the basing at some point.
Next up to paint is the Helbrute. Gorgeous fig. Not usually that into Chaos but the models that come with the DV boxed set are lush. After painting a squad, I really wanted to do a solo model. Can't be arsed with Balthasar (the one kinda crappy model in the box) and fancied something LARGE!! Helbrute it is. However. The colour scheme. The GW scheme of red skin and red armour is just daft. After looking at numerous versions on the net; still couldn't really decide. I considered changing the Chaos lot to another chapter but do kinda want to stick with the Crimson Slaughter. Red skin my arse though. Finally decided on doing the armour a dark rich red. Not too shiny shiny bling bling red as seem to be the norm and the skin a dark leathery brown. Tough and cured looking. The face was down first so I could then stick it into the model and put the 2 main halves together. All good, all good - WTF......serious crevices at the join seems. Especially going down one leg. Tried the liquid green stuff but its not really that effective and leaves a gritty texture. Balls. Anyways. the skin is all based, washed, layered and looking good. Really happy with the brown choice (mournfang brown and aba black mix). Again had to mix up my own dark brown wash. Really happy with the outcome.

Helbrute WIP

(edit: finally got round to getting a wee shot of this bugger. Went with a nice dark wine red for the armour base (Aba black + Kho red) - really begining to come together)


Havent had hardly anytime to paint recently due to all the preparation work I have on my plate at the mo for an ele English camp next week. Figs just a sitting there.......staring at me........bloody camps!!!
I pop up a few progress pics when I have some tie in the moro. Till then, keep on painting folks :)

First Five Finished

Well....that's the test lot finally done. Managed to squeeze in a few hours to finish them off in between marking bastarding test papers! Pretty happy with them overall (the figs not the sodding test papers). First figs I've painted in about 10 years. It's all starting to come back! Still hate painting faces, that much hasn't changed!

Photos are still a bit shite. Need to set something up for that. Anyways here's a few shots.

 Next up -  finish off the rest of Raph's Tac Squad and then.......;)

Plasma Bitches!

Finally got to doing the 3 plasma guns in the Tac squad (Sgt. Raphael's pistol, plasma canon and a plasma gun). I've made the casings black rather than the usual red and I really don't like the usual Dark Angel's red casings.

Piss easy and loadsa fun :) Drybrushing a plasma glow on the coils(?) really makes a huge difference and looks fucksmart on the fig! Quick n simple to do, well worth it. Added a little surrrounding drybrush as well to bring out the glow effect.
Paints used: black primer based with Altdorf Guard Blue, then shaded with Drakenhof Nightshade. Dry brushed highlights with Caledor Sky (I think) mixed with a bit more each time of white. Finally gave them a light watered glaze with Drak. Night. to soften the glow and tone down the 'powdery' effect. When I (eventually) paint Raph's head, I give the right side a little touch of blue glow as well I reckon. Nothing too severe, just a touch ㅋ

 

Surplice to requirements

Term is nearly over and holidays are looming. 1 more week and it's winter holidays. 2 months of freedom (barring the 2 winter english camps I have to teach and flying home for a fortnight!) Managing to scounge an hour or two in the evenings though to do a wee bit more on the first half of Squad Raph.

Getting there!

Armour is done (will probably add a few light point highlights at the end....maybe) soft joints done and the chest aquilas as well. The aquilas came out exactly the way I wanted them. Didn't want that creamy warm bone effect that I've seen everywhere. Was looking more for a greyish weathered bone colour. Real bone is not creamy once it's weathered. Based the aquilas with Dawnstone and then (as I don't have Agrax Earthshade) shaded them with a wash made up of Sepia, Crimson and Nightshade. Highlighted with a mix of Dawnstone and Screaming Skull. Worked just how I wanted it.

Working on the weapons now. Decided on black/grey for the casings instead of the ubiquitous red. They're Space Marines, not Santa's little helpers ;) Finished up Raphael's surplice as well. It turned out.........ok. Not 100% happy with it. Will probably go back later and add a light glaze to soften it down a bit. It's fine but there is something bugging me about it......
As a test batch, this lot are coming along nicely.

All Layered Up

Busy as buggery recently. Exam season and writing test for my students takes up a shit-ton of time. Managed to get the first half of the Tac Squad's armour, including the 3 plasma carriers (Raphael, cannon and gun) finished though. Several layers to finally get what I wanted.
 I wanted the armour to (obv.) be dark green with lighter points of light without them ending up too light (DARK Angels after all) and without those yellowy green highlights I've seen about so much which make them look more like Salamanders than DAs. So, that meant Moot Green was not going to be used at all. After basing with Caliban and then washing them with Bieltan - I went for 4 layers of highlights, going from Caliban > Warpstone. I've gone for a (faux/pseudo/sorta) zenithal lighting approach. I've cheated at times but overall I wanted and reckon I've got the overhead light source the way I wanted.
I may put a few lighter spot highlights on the very apex of some edges (powerpacks, fingers, pauldrons etc) and then give them a really watered down green wash to bring it all together but haven't totally decided yet.
After the Caliban basecoat and Bieltan wash, the layer ratios from Clb>Wrp were 3:1, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2. Keeping Clb in the mix seems to keep any yellowiness in check.
Anyways - see what you think. Photos are a bit shite and really arent showing the top highlights well - ipad doesnt take the greatest of fig photos. Gonna need to dig out my proper camera at some point

I re-blacked the ribbing in the joint softspots (behind knees, inside elbows etc.) I'll highlight those later with dark grey. Some folk keep them green but done black they really make the armour plates pop a lot more)
Overall - really happy so far. Not bad for the first figs I've painted in 10 years ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Finally getting m'paint on

Crazy busy weekend; unexpected visit by some of the future in-laws, dinner party till the wee hours and a ton of work to be getting done for work meant I barely got started on the first squad I'm gonna paint from my new DV box. There are loads of good tutorials lucking about. Some really good, some basic and a few......
After reading a few and checking out some the colour/paint schemes out there - decided on tackling the Dark Angels Tactical Squad first. Managed to get them trimmed and spray primed black on Saturday but nowt much else until today. I've finally decided on a scheme so today got them fully base coated. I want a really dark green scheme. A lot of other painters (the GW versions too) have used a very bright yellowy green for the final highlights. Not going that way as they end up looking more Salamander than DA. So hoping to avoid that when the time comes. Also not going the way of using red for the bolter and plasma guns' casings. Just not a fan. They end up being a bit 'festive'.  The emperor's finest are not known for delivering Christmas presents to all the little boys n girls!
Anyways, I base coated them with 2 coats of caliban green thinned down with a few drops of water and a few drops of retarder medium to give a nice smooth even coat. I painted the power packs separately for the first coat and then attached them before applying the second. I'll attach the weapons later after doing the chest aquilas. I've base coated the whole squad but after the wash, think I'll split the squad and paint them in 2 sets of 5.........maybe ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Squad Raphael

Vet. Sgt. Raphael

 Not the best of photos but you get the general idea. 

'Spend' you damned heretic, 'Spend!'

  Finally made it to Seoul and hunted down what is (as far as I know) the ONLY place in SK to get GW product. The totally awesome 'Orctown'

Orctown (Maebong, Gangnam-Gu)

Piss easy to get to and pretty well stocked n all. Thy have several games tables which were hosting games with foreigners and Koreans alike. I was in a bit of a rush so didn't get the time to really get chatting. List out and a shopping I went. Had pretty much everything I wanted to pick up barr Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade. Fuck. Need those but will mix up a substitute until I can get my hands on some. When I went to pay I was quickly reminded what an expensive fuck of a hobby this is! The wee lass on the till nearly fell off her stool when I saved her from having to speak English by just using Korean (I really was in a rush). Picked up the DV boxed set (which now comes with a bonus mini and stat card; Vrosh Tattersoul - Chaos Marine aspiring champion for The Crimson Slaughter. The figure is bloody lovely!!), pin drill, undercoat spray and shitload of paint.

The haul

Anyways.....credit card glowing and all my stuff in hand - I headed back to Wonju. It was all I cold do to not rip everything open on the way home!

The Dark Vengeance set is a bloody prize! I'd already heard the quality of the figs was proper excellent but seriously - the detail is superb. W117,000 for rule books, 50 figs (incl 3 bikes and a Helbrute) and other bits'n'bobs. Where they do get you though of course is on the paints! I've been reading up on different tutorials/bogs recently (some of them linked yonder on the right) for colour schemes/tips/new paints et cetera so had a list of the paints I wanted. Ouch - credit card glows an angry red at the memory!

 I've decided to start with the Dark Angels tactical squad that's included so spent last night prepping them. Fucking mold lines!!! In all fairness, there was no flash and the mold lines were really light and barely noticeable; most folk would probably not bother but I wanted to anyways. That done and drilled out the bolter barrels (why the fuck do people not do this??!) and plasma gun and left it at that for the night :)

I'll spray coat them this morning once I've got suitably caffed up. Seriously excited to be getting back into painting!!