WIP Sternguard - now with better photos!

So, a day off work means more painting, more progress and, shockingly, some better pictures. Think how much progress I'd make without that pesky work to do!.

I now have three of the squad (mostly) finished - by which i mean they're at the stage where i periodically pick them up, touch up a tiny area of paint and put them down again, and of course they need properly basing, which i'll do at the end. As a group, they look like this:

The armour is what I've used before, mechandrite red base with a thinned blood red layer over the top, and orange dry brushing for the highlights. I've seen the tip to use Thraka Green to wash direct into the recesses and i like how that's turned out. Shoulders are Bleached Bone with a Devlan Mud lining to deepen the edges, with black trim where appropriate, and the purity seals are the usual bleached bone/sepia combination with either brown or black squiggles for effect. More close ups under the cut!

Blood Ravens Sternguard WIP: Wombles!

So, the next project (before I go back to my Sorylian Cruisers) is the Finecast Sternguard I picked up for my expanding Marine force. Even after a bit of cleaning up, I keep discovering small, messed up areas on them - in fairness you get this on metal figures too, and I suspect the finer detail versus plastics mean there is more to go wrong, but it's faintly annoying and occasionally beyond my meager fixing skills. Anyway, the squad is progressing, with heads and armour mostly done.

Whatever else I say, I love the design and poses of these guys. 

This feels like the end of the "production line" stage, so now we are at the detail it's a matter for picking one up and just going around and around him till it'm satisfied. The only one I've put a lot of work into is one of the "womble-nose" chaps, so here he is:

Underground, Overground, DEATH TO LITTER DROPPING HERETICS! 

He's mostly finished - with the odd bit of touching up around the place to do, and the gun detailing which you can't see (because I didn't photograph that angle). You don't get a decent shot of his shoulder pads either, which are of course creamey coloured as he's a Blood Raven. That said the more I look at these figures the more I've come to realise that there is very little space for the Blood Raven iconography to go on them, due to the very "busy" shoulders that they have. Maybe I could use a knee pad for that, or try my shakey hands at a bit more freehand work...

Shocking non-40k Post!

Yes its true, I've again lapsed from the True Path of the Emperor and painted a non-40k piece. I expect the Brutal Door-Smashing of the Inquisition any moment.

I can across Firestorm Armada whilst looking for ships to supplement the Full Thrust rules i have, and used to play quite a bit. And their ships are pretty cool - so whilst I'm unlikely to ever play the game I picked up a couple for the sheer joy of painting them, and because collecting figures for games I'm never going to play is my current favorite hobby. The Sorylian Battleship is the only one so far painted, so here he is:

The Stripes and markings are free-hand, which still needs a little practice

I've tried to stick to "simple, bold colours" rather than anything fidly

Engines - may take another pass at them, I think they're reasonable
but not totally right. 

Anyway, its a lovely model and I hope I've done it justice. May need some pictures against a white background as well, but this was late last night and I wanted to go to bed!

Finally, in order to appease His Imperial Might, the next project is these guys:

Painting Table Update!

So, I've got my exams out of the way so I get some free time again! Hooray! I mean, there is still Arkham City to play, but more importantly I've got some painting time, and some new things to paint.

First off I picked up some Sternguard to go with my expanding Blood Ravens army. They're Finecast, of course, so they came like this:

Flash! Ahhh-Aaaaaaa! 

At first I thought they'd be like the Lord Commissar I bought, where the flash just rubbed off cleanly and I wondered what all the whining was about. And in some sprues that was the case. But on others, the flash (not the sprue attachment points!) was thicker than the element caught up in it, and being a cack-handed fool I've managed to damage a couple of the figures whilst snipping and cutting the little buggers free. Most of it I've been able to repair, but the guy in the bottom left, with the gun held out in front of him, has lost his weapon strap. I've left the front part on so I can paint it up a parchment roll, and hopefully this will salvage some character.

Finecast models have the natural reflective index of Moondust. I
think that's the "Secret Ingredient"

I also discovered that the resin doesn't drill the same way as plastic (yes, i know that should be obvious) so theres a couple of hashed up gun barrels as well. But I'll spend some time with little bits of greenstuff and a bit more cutting and filing and hopefully once they're based up no-one will notice.

For a total change change of pace I've also got some spaceships from Firestorm Armada, presumably because I am constantly drawn to shiny things for games I'll never get to play.

I think the Captain of the second cruiser is drunk again. 

Power Swords, Redux

Right, so with a bit of time on my hands last night I've had another play with some power swords.

First up, the Imperial Guard officer:

I wanted to see what a green sword would look like, and a many of the "sabre" like swords i've seen done well have a sort of secondary glow around the curved areas, which is what i'm going for here. It's a little inelegant, and works better if you squint, but i think it gets the shape and general effect.

After that, I went back to Captain Firey-Sword and, inspired by some work over at Smurfs in Space, redid him.

This turned out a little better, i think, and certainly more elegant than the previous effort. I've tried to maintain a bit of fluidity to the effect by "feathering" the colours along the leading and trailing edges of the blade.

Overall i think i may be getting past my fear of Power Sword effects, don't you think?

Fun with Power Swords

One of the techniques I see around the place that makes me most intimidated by other peoples abilities is the effects on Power Weapons. Loads of models use them, and there seems to be lots of ways of doing them, but they're such a striking effect when done well that at the same time "feels" very hard to get right. I've had a few stabs at it (so it to speak) so in lieu of any actual painting content I thought I'd share. 

My first attempt was my Imperial Guard officer. Well, I say "first attempt" but i mean "first attempt that still exists on a model". Its pretty basic, just some layered colour moving up to the edge of the blade.

This is actually the third of fourth covering of paint on this guy's sword, which can't do it's edge any favours in a fight. Anyway, heartened by this I got confident for the Lord Commissar, read some online tutorials, and managed what I think is a pretty good Lightning Effect. 

But the general look of a full blade still eludes me. When I finally bullet and redid my AoBR Marine Captain, I wanted to do something interesting on his sword, and after some mucking about ended up with a firey effect like this: 

I think its a pretty good blended fire effect, but I'm still not sure it's wholly appropriate for a Power Sword effect, which should be more "glowey" and less like it's actually just on fire. So this weekend I've been messing about with the Termies consigned to the paint test bin, and the best effort so far is this guy: 

Which I rather like. Not sure about the colour; it's a little cold but the technique may not be at the level of a lot of work you see around the place but I'm confident enough in it to stick up a picture on the internet, so that's progress! 

The blue arm, by the way, is me practicing to get a blue-grey colour for a Librarian - more in line with the scheme used in Dawn of War over the brighter blue you often see. 

Something a Bit Different

I'm having a bit of a major dither about what to paint up next - largely torn between expanding the Blood Ravens force a bit more and a desire to do something in "not red". In the meantime, a mate sent me a link to Mongoose Publishing's Judge Dredd Minatures Games, which do some great figures based the 2000ad stories.  And I've always particularly remembered the Kleggs from when I was a kid - you'll notice my profile uses a picture of one - and I really couldn't resist.

Very quick paint this, actually, as it's mostly strong, bold colours in big blocks, as you'd expect for a comic character. And a bit of a reminder of how much I dislike painting metal compared to plastics or resin. And the base is just greenstuff pushed around to look give a muddy texture, then painted up. Anyhow, pictures!

Its a really nice pose, in my opinion, and a nice rendition
of the character - a little simple but that's how they're drawn. 

From the Front, with his snaggly teeth!

And the jet-pack. All the reference drawings I can find do
them silver, but there are few enough colours on him as it is!