Blood Ravens Landraider COMPLETED

In a shocking moment of "this blog ain't dead yet" i managed to finished the large and time consuming Landraider for my Blood Raven Army. And here it is: 

He is one sexy beast, right? With a new codex out I'm tempted by some Centurions, so maybe they'll be here next (in a few months!) 

Blood Ravens IronClad Dreadnaught: COMPLETED

Been quiet on here, hasn't it? Thats real life for you. On the plus side, this:

Glowing Axes!

Still need a clean-up pass but I thought i'd have a crack at some strong OSL on the squad's sergeant, who has a Power Axe and a Plasma gun. Not totally sold on the execution, but I don't think it's too bad for a first attempt! 

And Another One!

And the squad expands with this guy. The effect is slightly spoiled by the fact he fell apart during painting (stupid crappy plastic glue!) and his pose is now a little "skippy". All the other Marines will mock his gait, but  its not his fault the Emperor made him that way. 

On the other hand, I'm pleased with the Chainsword. I now need to think of another two unique "looks" for the remaining two chainsword-wielders in the squad. 

Blood Ravens Assault Marine

Guess What? It turns out my window sill works really well for taking pictures with the new camera.

Some days you finish something and you think "yeah, I'm really pleased with him." Yesterday was one of those days. 

Nerfed!

So, due to exams and holiday the painting has taken a bit of a backseat, but after a conversation with my eldest, i did paint modify the paint job on this guy. He's clearly not enjoying the effects of rule changes.

Blood Raven Stormraven COMPLETED.

Well, this was a long job, and now it's done. As promised, a gallery of shots from my Blood Raven Stormraven, the largest vehicle I've yet painted. Comments, as ever, appreciated.

Ready for Embarkation (once I've painted some Assault Marines!)

Blood Ravens Stormraven Progress Report 4

If I have learned nothing else on this project, it's that large vehicle are an absolute bastard to photograph. But for now....

I really can't wait to get this thundering across the battlefield. I'll get a proper gallery set up, once I work out how to take some decent pictures...! 

Storm Raven Progress Report 3: Assembly

Well, the damn thing is finally completely put together. BEHOLD!

Obviously there is still a substantial amount of work to do. The brown areas are marking out where the bone colour sections are going to go, and there is a ton of touch of work to do before I start weathering it. Oh, and then i need to do all the weathering on it.

Slightly annoyingly, the turret is a really tight fit and wouldn't go on with the guns attached, so I have to pry them off again and reattach after the turret was in place. Its an odd design quirk in a set that goes together very nicely otherwise.... 

Storm Raven Progress Report 2

So, work progresses on the Storm Raven. Now its assembled the scale of it really becomes apparent, but in fairness to it I think it looks a lot less clunky in the flesh than in many of the pictures you see. Sure, it's not a graceful or elegant thing, but what Imperial vehicle is?

Anyway, current pics under the cut.

Stormraven Progress Report 1

So, i've been busy painting the interior of the Stormraven. Like many interiors, much of it won't ever be seen, but if the doors are open, (ie when its on a shelf) some of it will be so you pretty much have to do it all. I always think its a shame to see Flyers with the canopies painted over, for instance, no matter how much that paint-over can be. So, progress - with the interior painted we got this far:

Raven Mad!

So, now I've got my Chaplain painted he needs something to ride around in, which means I've finally got started on my Storm Raven. So far, it looks like this:

Which isn't going to terrify many enemies of the Imperium. All I've done so far is spray the whole thing Army Painter Dragon Red as a base, then re-base in black the areas that are going to be different colours. As you can see I've assembled the wings and attached the Hurricane Bolters to the main hull, but until the interior is painted thats as far as assembly is going to get.

Speaking of the interior, sticking on the Hurricane Bolters highlighted a problem I didn't expect. There is a quite a nicely detailed cargo hold, and fore- and aft-doors you that hinge open for display. Not being one of those "glue everything shut" guys, it would be nice to see it. But with the Bolters fitted the door way just leads to the interior of the weapon assembly, and looks really, really, ugly. Also, it's right next to the rear hatch, so anyone looking in would certainly see it.

But, a solution!

These are the external doors with the prongs and hinges removed, attached over the internal door holes. What I've added to them is purity seals and combat honours - its the sort of thing that adorn most SM vehicles but you're not going to stick them on the outside of an airframe and expect them to stay attached. And right next to the rear hatch? Sounds perfect for a quick prayer as the Marines leap out the back door to combat.

So, next job is to get the interior painted up. 

Blood Ravens Chaplain COMPLETED

Ah, the long weekend. As well as mulling over how to approach the Storm Raven, I painted this guy.

Really, really pleased with him. Will crack out the lightbox and do some showcase shots soon. 

Well, I finally got tired of painting Judge Dredd figures, so it's time to reinforce my Blood Ravens. 

Zooooooooom! 

6th Edition Lessons...

I've got to admit i've struggled to paint the last week or so. I just don't seem to be able to get something done with the Citi-Def that I'm happy with. I don't think it's the models, which are nice, characterful sculpts, and I'm still fond of the colour scheme, but I there's definitely something I'm just not engaging with at the moment. I've really enjoyed doing the Judges, but maybe I just need to move onto something else for a bit.

Zooooom! 

On the plus side, me and eldest offspring had our first game of 6th Edition recently, which was great fun. With both sides "full up" at 1500 points each, it was a busy fight over 5 objectives and he just - just - pipped me when the game ended on Turn 5. Given that his Orks are made up of units he thinks are cool, and mine are made up of units i've bought to paint, a certain mis-match is inevitable, but even so we had a good time and learned a lot about the new edition.

Flyers are fun, aren't they? We only have one between us, my StormTalon, but it was a disruptive little monster, especially against smaller squads it could force into morale checks. It only ever looked vunerable the turn I slowed it down to make some turns, whereupon it drew a lot of fire, and I suspect in future I may just leave it zooming on and off the board merrily carving up any squad unfortunate to be underneath it.

My other big lesson was the Power Klaw Nobs (one of the new additions) are horrific agents of death limited only by what they can reach. Ouch ouch ouch, was my general experience of being assaulted by them. Now he wants a Battlewagon to put them in. I'm comming to the conclusion that the Orks may be a good "starter" race for younger players, as whilst not the most straightforward to play, they are excitingly random, you get to roll lots and lots of dice, and there is a generally cheerfully violent tone to them that seems to appeal.

Old Dublo Castle sets make for great impromtu terrain. 

Although maybe that's just us...! 

Blood Ravens Storm Talon COMPLETED

So, I had a day off, and thought I'd spend a couple of hours in the morning working on the Storm Talon, which at that point was in a mostly-still-disassembled state covered in it's dark red base coat. But I kind of got into it, and pretty much spent the entire day working on it. And it's finished.

So that was a day well spend. *grin*

And I'm pretty bloody happy with it. I did have a crazy plan of splashing a huge Blood Raven symbol across the wings, but there is so much stuff on the hull, and the big gaps where the wings meet the fuselage, it just wouldn't have worked visually. But i'll pocket the idea for another day. I'm really pleased with the pilot and cockpit detail, but you really can't see it once the canopy went on! Oh well.

Next project is the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game stuff that turned up over the weekend. Should be a fun change of pace. 

New Project! Blood Ravens Storm Talon

First off, and in the interests of transparancy, I should mention that in my most recent Marines vs Orks battle with by eldest, he wiped the floor with me. I mean, really, really, badly. So I should probably stick to painting, right?

Next project on the board is the Storm Talon I bought a while back. I wasn't too impressed with the initial pictures, but after seeing on in the flesh, as it were, I liked the look of them a lot more, and now I have one I'm happy that its a chunky little slugger of a model, if a little too nose-heavy. Learning the lesson from the Rhino build I've part assembled it, and base coated like this:

And then moved onto the cockpit, which has tons of dials and switches, and it's hard to tell until it's all assembled which ones will be visible and which ones won't. So I painted all of them. Anyhow, a weeks work and the cockpit painted and assembled, and looks like this:

Which i'm pretty pleased with. There will be more contract with the Techmarine pilot when the main hull is lighter red, of course. Next job is to stick into the rest of fuselage and paint that up in it's main red colour. 

Blood Ravens Rhino: COMPLETED

So, the Big Red Box is finished after a big push over the weekend. Pretty happy with it in the end, although doing the doors and interior made it a lot more interesting than I suspect a normal, glued shut Rhino would be. Anyhow, here are the final pictures:

Side shot - the top doors are glued open, and by some odd design quirk they won't lie flat due to the engine exhausts. So i'm not sure how the passengers are supposed to shoot out of the Top hatch, but there you go.

Front Quarter view. Markings are for 3rd (Tactical) Squad, 5th Company.

And here's the interior. Its pretty straightforward but looks effective. And i had fun imagining where Marines had stomped mud everywhere!

A top shot with all the doors open.  There isn't any way of hinging the side hatches (well, not easily) so they just clip on and off at the moment. When this guy gets on the Battlefield I think i'll just leave them off, but they'll look cool open and on display.

And with troops, for scale and colour matching. I need more Rhinos for my Blood Ravens, but i'm in no great rush to start production lining them! 

Blood Ravens Rhino: Getting Together

So, more works in progress shots of the Rhino. I can't help but feel I may be over-complicating what is essentially a large red box, but this is in many ways a dry run for picking up a Landraider at some point, and that really would be a project I don't want to screw up. Anyway, pictures!

Final Assembly done. The tracks were painting and washed separately before going on, and then the lid was stuck down. There isn't anything special about the tracks - just Boltgun Metal followed by a Black Wash (Nuln Oil in the new GW parlance) then the Dark Brown Wash (whose name I can never remember) to give it a rusty oil quality different from the metal on the exhausts and weapon mounts.

Here the red has had a thin coat of Vallejo Blood Red to brighten it up a bit, and then a thinned black wash it the recesses and along the joints just to define them a little better to the eye. You can also see I've added the black base to the side doors and eagle. 

And more base-coating on the to-be-cream areas, which finally break up the red and stop it looking like a Blood Angels Box. I've also painted the doors, and for reasons that escape me the rim of the top hatch which will be totally covered up by the Storm Bolter mounting.

And finally, a shot of the one of the side hatches. The doors fit snuggly enough that I can leave them unglued and display the Rhino with them open and the hatch revealed, and then if I end up playing with it then it can be un-doored or just with them pushed into the recesses. 

Blood Ravens Rhino: New Adventures in Interior Design

So, I picked up a Rhino to use as a test bed for using more spray cans in painting, before deciding finally if I want to invest in an airgun. But because Rhinos are pretty dull, plain boxes, I decided I wanted to paint the interior, and build it with the doors open, just for interest. This causes some problems, as you need to part-assemble and paint, then do some more assembly and more painting and so on, But, the story so far...

Part Assembly (mainly the side panels) and spray-basecoating. The red is Army Painter Dragon Red, which is a lovely colour and should "warm up" nicely with a thin coat of Blood Red later on.

So these are the interior parts.  I've just pulled them together and re-based the interior zones black, so that i don't get any "pink" bleeding through.

Actual Colour! Gone for a basic, military grey for the interior, which is a little functional but I don't see the marines being the type for pin-up calenders and dado rails. My speeders have had the "interior" sections done the same bone colour as the doors and shoulder pads, but on reflection I think thats wrong, so future speeders will be done more in line with this.

Quick wash and high-light pass.  I've also done the detailing on the control panel.

And assembly! I've sponged some boltgun metal, and then dark brown, around the door frames, and the rear hatch, to simulate wear and mud, and then used powders to granularise it further where I think troops would, well, troop around.

Next job; get the tracks painted up and on, so I can add the roof.