Blood Ravens Landspeeder Storm: COMPLETED

So, after turning into a bit of a nightmare, I've salvaged what I can. Turns out I was right insomuch as you can hardly see the interior at all once you cram 6 scouts into this thing, so I guess that's a bullet (or Bolter Shell) dodged. And the overall colour scheme has turned out pretty well. It's been weathered down the same as the Predator, with of a bit of extra mud-spatter on the nose and the legs of the scouts, to (try to) simulate the sort of effect you'd get from skimming along the ground quickly.

Anyway, here it is. As ever, comments and criticism appreciated.

There's a quirk of the lighting that makes this look darker than it actually
is, but I think it's still looking OK. 

The driver is a nightmare to get into position. He had to be broken down
and reassembled in place, poor bugger. 

Look! You can hardly see the crummy interior! 

An Exercise in Frustration

When does the Taxi get here? 

The last of my reclaimed Ultramarine sets that I'm repainting into Blood Raven colours is a Landspeeder Storm, and it's turning into a bit of nightmare. I started this blog to be a record of my painting, so i guess the frustrating things that don't turn out belong here too, so here's a "Works in Progress" Update on it.

So this was assembled and originally painted up blue, and stripped down pretty well. I'd clearly not undercoated it properly when I first did so some of the paint refused to be removed, and there are some areas that whilst aren't obvious at distance, really look rough close up. But that's not the main problem. The main problem is that painting it's interior is a horrorshow.

Gah! Scruffy Cockpit Interior

I was able to get the crew out of the set without problem but the rest of the speeder remained steadfastly intact. The open cabin has a fair bit of molding, including gun racks, screens and controls, and assembled you can't get a brush at them other than in fairly broad strokes, and clean, straight dividing lines are nearly impossible, at least at my skill level. Given that I wanted to do the interior in a light cream/white colour to contrast it with the red hull, it just looks scruffy - which will be fine, to an extent, when the interior gets aged and worn but ideally I'd have liked it to look clean in the first place.

I've less excuse with the scouts themselves but my old nemesis - white cloth - has risen to defeat me again. I've had fun with it before, in small areas, but always managed to make sure it was on a small enough part of a model to not make much of a difference, visually. But these buggers are evading me - I seem to be able to get a decent cloth effect in any other colour. Currently painted light grey, dark wash and then a white highlight, and i suspect that'll have to do. Ho Hum.

Is there good news? Well white leggings aside, the scouts are looking OK. The main colour is done on the speeder now and it looks pretty solid, and once the white wings/tail are on I think it'll look pretty good. And then hopefully the busy, cramped nature of the passenger bay, combined with dirt and wear along the base line and forward edges, will cover up a lot of the "scruff". Fingers crossed, eh?

White wings and tail to be added! 

Five Things I've Learned in the Last Year

One of the first, and one of the most recent, Space
Marines I've painted. Hopefully there's a qualitive difference!

So, it's been about a year since I decided to take advantage of being stuck in the house more often to pick up the old painting hobby again. I'm still not terribly time-rich, and but I think I've learned a lot and shown some improvement in a most areas that matter. One of my big motivations for starting this blog was that when I started out I learned a lot from the painting/gaming community online and whilst I've no illusions about either my own skills or the worth of my opinions, if even one person reads these posts and comes away with some inspiration or insight then in some way I've given back.

So, in lieu of any real progress on my current project, here is the 5 things I think I've learnt this past year.

Painting Table Update October 2011

So, with most of the outstanding painting mentioned last time I did one of these round-ups done, I guess I need to put my thoughts in order again. Most of what I've painting is Blood Ravens, completeing a Predator, Dread, Force Commander and Tac Squad in fairly close order, so much so I feel like this has been turning into a "Blood Ravens Blog".

Not a Blood Ravens Blog, appearances to the contrary

Next up is a stripped, repaired and re-basecoated Landspeeder Storm for my Marines, but after that I'm in a world of conflict.

See, I've really enjoyed doing all the Marine stuff and part of my would like to expand the force a bit more. I've got the AoBR Termies still, but they're exceptionally dull figures compared to the boxed ones, so the temptation to spring for some of them is quite strong. I also like the look of the Finecast Sternguard or a Venerable Dread.

On the other hand, I'm running the risk of getting bored of all that red pretty soon, and I'd still like to expand my IG and Tau displays; fitting the blue/white electic scheme to a Tau vehicle will be a fun challenge, and I'd still like to expand my IG troops up to at least a full Platoon.

So the conclusion of this ramble is that there isn't one. But at least now i've been conflicted in public!

Blood Ravens Predator: "Furious" COMPLETED!

So, after some more free time this weekend with the kids asleep, I got it finished and photographed. Full shots, and commentary, below.

WiP Blood Ravens Predator (Part II)

Well I knew this would be a big job, and it's still ongoing. Still, the hull is now painted up, and a large chunk of the detailing is finished, enough at least to do a bit of assembly.

As you can probably make out i've done a bit of "scuffing" on the lower hull, whilst trying to keep the top nice and clean and all he's really missing apart from some more touch-ups (which seem never-ending) is his chapter markings. Assembly revealed that the right-hand-side Heavy Bolter is a bit loose in it's mounting, which i can't really do much about, and what you can't see on these pics is that the Aquila on the rear door is slightly (but noticably) wonky. grrr. 

He even has a name now...

Originally I was going to put White Flashing on the engine vents, but with the
sponsoons added it felt unneccesary.

 Hopefully this weekend should see him finished, and i'll get some decent photos done then.

WiP: Blood Ravens Predator

After a lot of drilling, filing and assembling, I've finally got some paint on my Predator. So far I've completed the Heavy Bolter Sponsoons and the Turret, which isn't bad for the best part of a week's work. I'm using the same technique I used on the Dreadnaught - Black Primer, then Mech Red Base, followed by successive coats of Scab Red and thinned Blood Red over the top. The turret has taken 3 of the Blood Red coats and i'm pretty happy with the effect; it looks sort of worn but clean, and the orange line-highlights pick out the shape nicely.

At least thats what I think; comments are always appreciated.

Heavy Bolter Sponsoons

Completed Turret - the Hatch will have a Blood Raven Symbol on it

The hull only has the Mech red base and Scab Red coat on it.
Thats a big job comming up!

Finally, my research into other Blood Raven designs turned up this thread on dakkadakka.com. I am officially intimidated, as this guys stuff is awesome!