AoBR Blood Raven Dreadnaught COMPLETED

So now I've settled on the Blood Ravens as a scheme, I popped over to Forgeworld to pick up the Blood Raven Transfer sheet to save myself any more embarrasing free-handed chapter badges, at least till I get a little better at them. I've also gone back to my box of stripped and re-based Assault on Black Reach figures and pulled out the Dreadnaught. And here he is:

Better image updated 20-12-2011 with base!

Crisis, What Crisis?

After a lot of fiddling with colour schemes I finished the Electric Tau scheme XV8. The original plan had a lot of Dark Blue, with the Electic-and-White only used for things like the shoulders and bits of the chest plate. Big problem - it looked rubbish. So back to the drawing board I decided to stick with a Ice Blue Base and improvise around it. And you know, I rather like it.

Signs of Progress

So this is the first post since I was welcomed onto the "From the Warp" Blogroll. So "Hi" folks,hope some of this painting isn't too dissapointing!

I mention a week or so ago that I was playing with Space Marines, trying to find a scheme that works for me, and I think I've now settled for the Blood Ravens, because I like red for Space Marines, and I like the Dawn of War series. So I spent some time going back to my re-stripped Assault on Black Reach Marines to get some practice, and with a heavy heart I retuned to the Force Commander figure.

Squad Morale Restored!

My other main achievement over the weekend was to fish out the camera and take some more pics of some of the finished Imperial Guard Miniatures. My photograhy is not unlike my painting - improving, yet still not without it's flaws. First up, my Squad Commander and some of his Special Weapons troopers.

 

Aside from the shame of un-drilled gun barrels I'm quite pleased with it, and the power-sword turned out well enough that with the next figure I got a little ambitious...

"To Do" list!

Right, I've spent a good part of my free painting time this weekend basically mucking about on different things, so I need to get my brain in order. So this is me, trying to get my Brain In Order.

Painting Table
(or, stuff I own that my attention span won't let me finish)
- 3 Firewarriors from the Electric Tau need finishing (detail work, mainly) and basing up
- Electric Tau XV8 and Drones need, well everything
- Having settled on Blood Ravens I need to finish up a 5-man combat squad for them
- Strip my AoBR Dread and any paint test marines to swell the combat squad up to a full tac squad

Wish List 
(or, stuff i want to buy)
- Tau Piranha, mainly to see how the Electric Scheme looks on a vehicle
- Imperial Guard Infantry Squad and Heavy Weapons Team to round out a full Platoon.
- Imperial Guard Hellhound
- Marine Terminator Squad (the AoBR one is rubbish and un-fun, sadly)
- Marine Sternguard Veteran Squad and Razorback
- Some Firestorm Armada ships, because they're lovely designs and it'll make a change.

I also need to work out if i'm brave enough to submit this to one of the many blog-roll sites around the painting/40k hobby world. 

I think that'll keep me busy for a while...

Space Marine Paint Tests

So, the "stars" of the 40k universe are clearly the Space Marines. They're big, they're shouty, they have ridiculously big guns and even bigger shoulderpads, and from a painters point of view probaby get the lions share of "love" in terms of variety and fun figures. When I was restarting I forked out for the Assault on Black Reach set, because it comes with a load of (uncustomisable) figures that I could practice with. And indeed I did; some were OK, some i made a right hash of. More importantly they were all Ultramarines, who are terribly, terribly dull.

So if I want to paint up some more SM stuff, I need to settle on a chapter, or more importantly, settle on a colour scheme that it fun to work on and looks good, as it's not like these guys are going to see a lot of action, and even if they are, I play for fun, not min-maxing whatever rule is broken at the moment. So all the Ultras went in a big bath of paint stripper (Fairy Power Spray, to be precise) and came out clean and new, ready for me to repaint in some novelty colours.

I should emphasis that as paint tests, these are a little rough around the edges.

Forever with Electric Tau

I'm still a little unsure of the Tau's placement in the 40k fluff - clean, superadvanced Anime aliens don't quite gel into the Grand Gothic Insanity of 40k, although at least they aren't the Necrons. On the other hand, clean superadvanced Anime Aliens do make for some lovely models, and I couldn't resist some Fire Warriors. I was going to paint them with white armour but the Electric Blue seems to work a lot better.

This guy is supposed to be chucking some sort of Grenade, but it really, really looks like he's just playing Air Guitar on his Rifle...

  

No squad would be complete without a Shas'Ui, who at least makes the effort to fit in with the traditions of the 40k universe by refusing to wear a hat, so that you know he's harder than everyone else

And finally, this is the whole happy squad.