Dark Angels Assault Intercessors WIP - On Hold

 

Greetings!  A short note on my work on this squad of Assault Intercessors. I have armor highlighted on six of the marines so far.  But I've run out of time before DreadTober, so I'm putting the project on hold.  The squad is coming out great, and I'm glad I didn't rush the edge highlighting to get things done more quickly.  

I took the photo above to illustrate how the minis work with highlighting to convince myself to keep going.  They look pretty fine without the highlighting, but I do think the highlighting is a needed improvement.  A little cartoon-y, but sorta fits with how Space Marines are painted in general.

Before putting the squad aside, I took a stab at freehand painting the 5th company symbol on the left knee pad of the example marine.  This will remind me to not skip this part when I come back to these guys after DreadTober.

Next up, I'll share my DreadTober kickoff with a build of the First Legion Leviathan Dreadnought.  Look for this by the end of the week. I'm excited to get started on this mini.  There are lots of great 1st Legion details on the model and after reading the new Black Book from Forge World, I'm inspired to get to the paint work

Best of Luck to all the DreadTober challengers out there.

Be safe.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Dark Angels Assault Intercessors WIP - Part 5

 

Oh the green, it seems to go one without end.  I've been working on the armor highlights for the squad this week.  While I'm pretty happy with the results, it has taken MUCH longer for me to do than I had expected.  I'm getting better with the liner brush at keeping the paint flowing smoothly to avoid blobs.  And the edges are thin like I want in most places, again avoiding the blobs...but wow...2-3 hours a model at this point is about my best pace.  To be fair, these intercessors have ALOT of hard lines to highlight - and I'm probably highlighting things that really shouldn't be.  

The example model is coming along nicely.  I think I found a good color value balance between the red and green highlights.  Neither stands out to me as too bright when compared to the opposite. 

And with the leather, it is edged a bit less brightly than the shiner armor and metal pieces.

I managed two more models this week...so three highlighted in three hobby sessions this week. Yikes.  Don't see how I finish the squad before DreadTober at this rate. :)  Well, no worries.

Last up I got to the squad sergeant; just working my way through the ranks as I set them up on the desk.

So, yeah, slow going.  But the squad is coming out well, so it'll be worth it.  Great edge highlighting practice in any case.  I still have the chest eagles and Indomitus symbols on the forearm guards to highlight, but that will go much more quickly.  Taken in all, I'm glad I got started on this large squad instead of waiting for November.  As it is, it's not clear I'll get the whole Indomitus marine collection painted before the end of the year.  I'm chaffing to get started on The Lion now too...and painting the 1st Legion Leviathan for DreadTober 2020 isn't going to help. :)

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming! 

Dark Angels Assault Intercessors WIP - Part 4

 

Greetings.  Just a short post today with progress from the week.  Doesn't look like much of a change.  I got the bases painted, though, and put some time into the sergeant, painting his head and plasma coils as well as experimenting a bit with some armor highlights.

The eyes a a bit messy.  The look much better at table distance than they do in the close up here. I'm otherwise OK with how his head and face are coming out. I started some heraldry on the tilting shield.  I'm going to put some freehand checks and/or other symbols over the basic 5th company colors shown here.

My basic blue plasma coil approach continues to please.  I like this arm in general.  A different look for a battle line sergeant and fits with his being part of an assault squad, down in the thick of things.  I'm close to wrapping things up with the squad.  I think the armor highlights are going to take more time than I planned for.  But no matter.  They'll get done before I need to put things aside for DreadTober. 

Perhaps I'll have the final picks up next week!

Stay safe out there

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Dark Angels Assault Intercessors WIP - Part 3

 

Greetings.  The Assault Intercessors have moved on a piece.  I added the decals after deciding this would be the second assault squad in the company. I need to paint on the company markings, but that waits for future sessions.  

The decals were sealed down with GW Lahmian Medium after a night of drying thoroughly. Next, the leather, weapons and eye lenses were highlighted as shown in the opening picture above. Here are a couple close up shots of the example model I've been using...

I am happy with the results so far.  Things will look better when I get the armor highlighted.

I'm thinking a little lighter orange/yellow may be needed as a second highlight for the eye lenses.

The leather is now looking suitably scuffed.

I'm liking the chapter decals here.  I was initially bummed that I wouldn't be using the chapter pads with the raised icon on these push-fit models due to the pads being molded on and not a separate part. But it all looks cool enough. In the balance, there will be enough mix over the whole force that it likely won't matter which models have raised icons, and which are transfers.

Next phase will be painting the 5th company symbol on all the left knees, then highlighting the armor, including the chest eagles. The metal needs highlights too.  Then I'll complete the bases and likely be done with the project.  I'm considering using gloss varnish on the eye lenses this time after I complete the overall varnishing of the finished models. Might be nice to have a little shine there.  

So, probably a couple more sessions before these lads are done.  Hopefully I have some good progress to show by the end of the week, with final pics up next week if things go well.  I'd like to move quickly on to the three Eradicators to see if I could complete them before the end of the month.  DreadTober looms large on the horizon! That'll mean setting 40K aside so I can complete the Forge World 30K DA Leviathan dreadnought. 

Oh, and I acquired The Lion so that has to get squeezed in somewhere...

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming! 

Dark Angels Assault Intercessors WIP - Part 2

 

The Assault Intercessors have come along a piece.  No highlights yet, but I believe I've hit up all the areas with a base coat and a shade. These are rapidly becoming my favorite Space Marine models to date.  There is a lot of energy in the poses and they capture what I imagine of Space Marines hurling themselves at the enemy.

I got started by painting the brown leather holsters and pouches. At that point I was ready to shade the chest eagles, weapons and brown leather with GW Agrax Earthshade as shown in the pic below. 

Then I painted in all the metal bits on the weapons, the vents and what not on the backpacks, and the cylinder pouches on their belts (For some reason they didn't feel light leather to me). This took a longer then anticipated so I just finished up that session by painting in the eye lenses.

Then I came back and shaded the metal with Nuln Oil.  I painted the embossed symbol on the left forearm guards and shaded that with Nuln oil as well. The purity seal wax was also painted and shaded. Let's have a closer look at what's been done.

I'm ready to move on to highlights.  A nice drab armor fits my style. I think I have decent definition here with the shading, however.  

This is my favorite angle to view this pose.  Here the purity seal and forearm icon are visible in more detail. I'm following the recipe from the tab above. Being able to come back to these recipes has been key for my projects.  It's been quite a while since I last painted 40K Dark Angels, and I would have forgotten many of the specific paint choices. I'll post a pic of these Intercessors with the Hellblasters squad I last painted and we can judge how I did on consistency one and a half years later...

 

And we close with a look at the backpack and leather bits. Next up I'll take on the highlights and transfers...and maybe shade that back knee that apparently got missed. These close ups can really help spot stuff that gets missed. 

Taken in all, I'm off to a good start on these new Indomitus Marines.  Perhaps I'll truly end up with a painted force of Dark Angels after some 25 years collecting them.  Heh. 

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Dark Angels Assault Intercessors WIP - Part 1

 

Greetings!  

It's time to paint 40K Dark Angels.  I have committed to completing the marines from the Indomitus box set by the end of 2020. And I'm off to a good start.  I took on the largest squad to get the grunt work out of the way early.  My recipe is in the tabs above, but this time I thought I'd experiment with a zenith highlight of Vallejo Surface Primer Gray sprayed straight down on top of the models, over an initial Surface Primer Black primer coat.

From the top, this is looking pretty bright.  I tried to keep things light with good coverage only on the high points, and things getting fuzzy at the edges to promote a nice fade in the the green base coat later.

From the front, you can better see the contrast with the black primer more visible and the gray primer showing like snow on the high points. This was pretty easy to do and didn't add all that much time to priming, other than the extra time to clean and paint swap in the airbrush. In the future, I may toy with a second white coat even lighter over the gray focused to only the brightest/highest points.

Next I laid down the GW Caliban Green over the primer.  I use 1:3 mix of Vallejo Flow Improver to paint here to add some translucence to the green.  In the past, I feel the base color just covers over the zenith highlights without really showing any contrast or highlight.  Here, there is definitely a lighter tone where the gray primer is.

  

The green-over-black is definitely darker than the green-over-gray.  So I'll consider this experiment a win. Click through to the larger images to see the difference more clearly.  In the image below I've added pointers to those areas that came out lighter, as expected, due to the gray primer.

Anyway, it was an interesting experiment.  When I moved to shading the armor with GW Nuln Oil, I thinned that too with Lahmian medium so it wouldn't be as heavy handed.  I painted this over all of the armor, except the shoulder pads.  With the shoulder pads, I just painted the Nuln Oil over the trim and along the inside edges of the trim. I didn't want to darken the surface of the pads, so I could keep the most shine there, in terms of the lighter green tone.  

 In the group shot above, I think this shows pretty clearly.  I was able to get good definition in the armor, while maintaining some additional brightness on the shoulders, and even the helmets, back packs, and other portions that were lighter due to the zenith highlights in the primer coat. 

With the base armor painted, I moved on to paint in the chest eagles and the red weapon casings.  These will be shaded and highlighted in later stages. I'm pretty happy with the progress, given only one brush painting session so far.  I did spend two separate airbrushing sessions managing the primer and base coat. But I fit those in to my regular weekend days with very little impact on my family schedule.

Next time I'll have most of the details painted in and shaded I expect.  Things at this point will move fairly quickly with the bulk of the coverage out of the way. Hopefully my experiment in Zenith highlighting with primer coats will prove useful to someone.  It's nothing new, but I haven't really put much time into it.  I tried once with either my Deathwatch or 30K Dark Angels with black armor, and I really didn't see that it did anything when the black base coat was laid down. I'm glad I tried again with this project.

Until next time; stay safe out there!

Cheers and Happy Gaming! 

On the Workbench [September] - Warlord-Sinister Psi-Titan and Cerastus Knights

 

This month on the work bench I have a parcel of Cerastus knights completed.  I had a box of Knight-Lancers on the shelves to support Legio Ignatum.  Then the new four knight box was released with the missing two patterns, Knight-Acheron and Knight-Castigator.  So I found some time to get them all built and ready for priming the next time I fire up the compressor.  These knights are fun to build and it is truly amazing to me how they digitally shrink down the 28mm models to AT scale, maintaining ALL the detail.

The two Knight-Lancers and one each of the Knight Acheron and Knight-Castigator will go to support Legio Ignatum, while the remaining Acheron and Castigator go to support Legio Tempestus (I guess I should say Tempestor!).  With Tempestus being put more in the traitor camp in AT these days, I'll pick a new knight household that fought along side them in the campaigns with Horus.  I'll continue to paint the loyal knights as House Taranis to support Legio Ignatum.  I figure that will allow me to play them with loyal Tempestus when needed but still have a traitor house to play along side traitor Tempestor titans. 

This plan also allows me to bring in a new paint scheme to flex the hobby muscles on as well.

But you didn't come here to see knights.  The other accomplishment on the work bench this month is a new Warlord-Sinister Psi-Titan!

He looks a bit sad with his head rolling about on the workbench, but it's a cool model despite only having a few tweaks to the basic Warlord chassis. He's shown here with the default weapons, but everything is magnetized.  The new Sistramanus Tenebrae comes with the standard shoulder that the other Forge World weapons come with, including the same magnet socket.  This arm doesn't need to be magnetized since a Warlord-Sinister Psi-Titan is only allowed the Sistramanus Tenebrae for a left arm weapon (in fact it's known as the Left Hand of Darkness), but anything can change, so I advocate magnetizing everything when it comes to weapons.

The new Sistramanus Tenebrae

With the weapons magnetized, I can easily use the Psi-Titan to stand in as a normal Warlord when needed for a game, even if the paint scheme is unusual. :) It's always good to have options. And at the moment I have collected and built quite a collection.

All of the non-primed, non-painted weaponry was built last month or as part of this Warlord-Sinister build.  I've earmarked a few options for the Sinister's right arm and carapace, but the rest is claimed by either Legio Tempestus/or or Legio Ignatum.

Ciricrux Anima

Here's a closeup of the carapace add on for Psi-Titans.  This device focuses and channels the Titan's psychic might. And I love the new head with no "eyes".  This really carries the notion of the titan's crew using the warp to sense its enemies rather than relying on traditional sensors and ocular devices.

The base is a work in process.  Nothing is glued down at this point.  I started to arrange bits of cork only to be sure the titan would ultimately stand on it correctly. One thing about the warlord kit is the pose-ability of the legs.  I worked through whether this titan would be stomping on anything, climbing or descending terrain, etc. by using various bits of cork to prop up one leg or the other.  In the end, I settled on a simple striding pose, similar to the Legio Ignatum Warlord I completed for #MonsterMarch4 last year.

I'm working towards the sheer weight of the titan fracturing the Martian crust in some unstable area of the planet as it strides forward to punish the Emperor's enemies. Regardless, the legs are the most dynamic part of the model so its beneficial to look at how to bring some motion to the otherwise static looking war engine.

So, with that little build out of the way it is time to get back to painting.  I expect to leave this model for #MonsterMarch5, in 2021, sadly.  I am already committed to building and painting the HH DA Leviathan Dreadnought for DreadTober and I have the entire Indomitus marine set to paint up as Dark Angels by the end of 2020 (a side challenge with a buddy whom I gave the Necron half to).  So at this point I have just a couple weeks of September to do anything with, and I might be best served cracking on with the Dark Angels Primaris marines. If I finish early, I'll be in a better position than if I'm late in December with the holidays trying to get things wrapped up.

But no worries.  This mighty Psi-Titan will get painted this season, along with the Reaver and two Warhounds I have built for Legio Ignatum. In fact, I'd like to hit the Reaver in January so we'll see. Everything turns on how quickly I can paint up the 23 Indomitus marines.  Doesn't sound like much, but with a good half of them characters or character class models, I want to put the time in to do a good job.  This won't be a speed painting competition.  This will be the start to my new Dark Angels force and I want it to look good! I've chosen to put aside further progress on the classic marines to go all in on the Primaris models.  This comes as a complete turnaround to my prior stance, but the fluff moves on and so will I.

 

In closing, the titans and knights are stowed and the work bench is clean for now until I set to building the First Legion Leviathan in DreadTober. Next up, we'll be back to painting.  Most liekly it'll be Dark Angels Primaris marines.  I have a lonely squad of Hellblasters waiting for some brothers to battle with...

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

2020/21 Hobby Season To-Do List

 

image courtesy of www.40kaddict.com

It is time to join the 2020/21 Hobby Season with 40kaddict.  This is the forth season I'm formally taking part in and I'm looking forward to earning my stamps!

My To Do List for the 2020/21 season:

The Horus Heresy

• Complete all new First Legion units released (or to be released) by Forge World.

Warhammer 40K

• Complete Dark Angels from the Indomitus Crusade Box by 12/31/2020

Adeptus Titanicus

• Complete Legio Ignatum Reaver Titan
• Complete Legio Ignatum Warhounds (2)
• Complete Sinister Warlord Titan
  

Blackstone Fortress

• Complete Starter Set

Aeronautica Imperialis

• Complete models from Wings of Veangence 

Bonus Projects:

• Complete another House Taranis Questoris Knight for Warhammer 40K
• Complete another Unit of Custodes

As I head into the hobby season, anything on the hobby shelves will be fair game as long as I make progress each month.  In this way, the list of goals will focus, but not constrain my efforts. I am not playing many games, nor do I compete at all, so I do not need to work towards any external constraints.  This work is pure hobby joy for me - a chance to break form the responsibilities Husband/Father/Worker and just chill out with something I'm really into.

I've chosen to keep 30K/40K/AT as the three main games I want to put time into.  I added Aeronautica Imperialis to Blackstone Fortress as projects I'll use when I need a break from the primary three projects. But as I said, all bets are off based on what gets release during the season and anything that changes in my ability to play games.  I got a couple games of socially distanced AT in this summer, for example, and that has raised my interest in completing more titans. Who knows what's just around the corner of new releases?

So let's see how the season turns out.  I welcome you to join me on this journey into the unknown as we enter into the 2020/21 Hobby Season. We have goals, but we also know there will be lots of new stuff coming out as we work on it all...how will the season turn out?

Cheers and Happy Gaming!