New Year, New Projects

Well, thats it for 2012, and as the new year comes along, so do new painting projects. Having backed the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game Kickstarter, I now have a bunch of figures for that to be getting on with, which I suspect will be mixed in with the Orks that Ewan got for xmas.

So, Happy New Year, and I'll leave you with the first figure I've got completed, Psi-Judge Cassandra Anderson.

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. 

What do you mean, no-one brought a TechMarine?

Normal Service Resumed after my exams!