Dark Angels Indomitus Deathwing Lieutenant - TO DONE

 Greetings and best wishes for a happy new year!  For my final post of 2020, I have a completed Lieutenant to add to my Primaris Dark Angels from the Indomitus boxed set.  This model brings me to 20 complete models from the set, with four left to paint for the year.  So I won't succeed my goal this year, but I made great progress and got most of the Marines from the box painted.  My friend, who took the Necrons, also didn't finish so it's all good from a challenge point of view.  For now, I'm happy to give this models a big seal of DONE for the hobby season.

I put in a little more time on the Deathwing Ancient as well, but didn't complete him. Here is where the model stands at the end of the year.

He's coming along well enough for now and should be finished soon as we move into 2021.  Let's hope the New Year brings us a better time than 2020 did; I mean come on, that's a pretty low bar to beat, right?!

I'll wrap up with a few more pics of the Lieutenant from the light box.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Holiday Side Project - Aeronautica Imperialis Bases

 

Greetings and Happy Holidays from 262Krieg.  I hope your family is safe and enjoying whichever winter holidays you choose to celebrate.  Here, we enjoy Christmas and while our celebrations have been much subdued by the pandemic, we're still in good spirits and have very much enjoyed our time this year. 

With vacation time off from work, I got inspired to dip a toe into my growing Aeronautica collection after reading a post over on Warpstone Pile. I honestly hadn't given any consideration to how I was going to paint Aeronautica minis, but this post got me thinking.  If the bases come apart (easily), then painting them would be easy.  Since they are a mechanic of the game, one doesn't want to disrupt the functionality of the dials that track speed and elevation.

So in short order, I had eighteen bases open on the workbench.  You want to keep track of which dial goes where since they are not the same.  But otherwise, a little prying with a small paint chisel (others use screwdrivers, etc.) and - POP - you have them apart.

Next I needed a paint scheme.  So as I typically do, I turned to a Google image search.  There isn't a ton of pics out there, but there are enough that I spent an hour or two going back and forth on what to do.  In the end I kept coming back to this reddit post for a "radar base" scheme. Since facing is part of the rules, I like the notion of green indicating the front ark, and red the dangerous back arc where you wouldn't want to find an enemy war plane tailing you. Then I saw this variation and I was convinced. 

So I set to work on may own take on these bases, minus the radar blips which just seem odd to me on a base.  I should note that I did not follow the video tutorial, but rather went off on my own with a simpler take on the scheme with less steps and masking.

I did mask off the stems, since mine are glued down and I wanted to keep them clear.  Then I used the airbrush to prime the base tops with Vallejo Surface Primer Black. With this dry, I first painted the green sides with Pro Acryl Dark Camo Green.  Next went on the Pro Acryl Bright Yellow Green, focused on the center and front rim of the green side so some of the darker green remains and blends forward into the brighter green.

The red was done the same with Pro Acryl Bold Pyrrole Red sprayed over Pro Acryl Burnt Red.  I was very careful with the red so I got no over spray on the green side.  I obviously could have masked this as is done in the video, but I wanted to work on my air brushing skills.  Since the dark fade is desirable here, I knew I had a good chance of keeping the red on its own side since I didn't want to go up to the trim in any event.

The irony of painting this scheme at Christmas time was not lost on me...

The details came next with Pro Acryl Bright Titanium White for the arrow symbols and Pro Acryl Dark Silver Metallic for the bolted trim and front triangle plate.  A touch of Pro Acryl  Rich Gold Metallic finished off the Aeronautica Imperialis symbol. And after some clean up on the rims, I had 18 pretty decent looking bases.

After a coat of spray lacquer to seal the paint, the masking on the stems was removed.  When it comes time to paint planes to go on these bases, I'll probably add some highlights.  But I dunno.  I like them as is, and I'm not sure the highlights are worth the risk of messing up the red and green blends which will be hard to touch up.

I liked enough other schemes that I saw while Googling that I'm planning different schemes for the Ork and T'au bases.  The bases here will be used only for my Imperial planes.  I'll probably replace the green with blue for T'au and I have a different look entirely planed for the Orks.

Maybe it's a bit wonky to start with the bases, but when inspiration strikes I try to go with it.  Having these cool looking bases will further prompt me to put some time in on the planes, I hope.   But before any of that, I will get back to completing the Dark Angels Primaris characters I have left from the Indomitus set.  Check back at the end of the week to see where those have got to.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Dark Angels Indomitus Deathwing Veteran Bladeguard - TO DONE

 

Greetings.  It's time to put these Indomitus Bladeguard in the DONE pile.  I could keep picking away at them with additional highlights and what-not, but it's time to move one to the remaining five characters from the set.  Here's four units from the box done and to a good standard, which feels great.

I'll close with additional closeups from the photo shoot.   I could not keep the iPhone from yellowing the shots so I did some editing to get them back to what they look like in person.  I normally don't see this problem, but I assume the white/bone armor is tripping out the light sensor. If some aspects of the photos seem a bit too bluish, it's my ham-handed photo editing. 😂

Next up, I'll be completing these five characters.  Then it'll be time for a break from 40K Dark Angels.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

First up is the squad Sergeant, looking like he's ready to take a charge.

Then the next Veteran Bladeguard. The ornamental tilting shields are great fun to put some creativity into.

And the third and final dude; Sir Dude, that is...

Dark Angels Indomitus Deathwing Elite and Characters WIP - Part 2

 

Greetings.  More Bladeguard progress this week; now with transfers! I started the week cleanup up the armor and highlighting it.  With that done, I was able to lay down the Deathwing company badges and the crux terminatus honors.  While I was at it, I also put an Indomitus campaign badge on one tilting shield, and a rank skull on the sergeant's shield.

Then I put some time in on the power swords, using the technique from Duncan's old GW YouTube video for painting Adeptus Custodes (fast forward to about 10:06).  It is simple and I've slowly adopted this approach (with my own tweaks) as my go-to for power weapons. Here they can be seen in their glory.

I have to complete the hilts now that the blades are done. The Indomitus transfers for Crux Terminatus symbols are also clear in the photo above.  Perhaps not as cool as the embossed shoulder pads of the terminators, but it gets the point across. So far, these chaps are too cool for a squad number.

The Deathwing company badges from the Indomitus sheet are looking sharp, but nothing new here. I got the bases painted up using the standard scheme from the paint recipe on the Dark Angels tab above.  Nothing fancy, just a basic background to set the models in their scene.  I brought some of the dry brushing and shading up onto the feet and lower legs to tie the models to the bases as well.  With bone colored armor, I wanted it to be clear these warriors have been foot slogging it, kicking up dirt and dust as they pass.

I'm closing the the finish line with these three models now.  While I didn't post pictures this time, I have continued to poke at the other characters as I painted various areas on these Bladeguard.  So they are also moving along slowly. Hopefully I can display more next week.  

I also remembered why I didn't have the Chaplain from the Indomitus set on my painting table.  He's going to be painted up to join the Blades of Vengeance while the older Primaris Chaplain model joins the Dark Angels.  The older model's long flowing robes really fit the whole Interrogator Chaplain vibe that I wanted to have for the Dark Angels. So that model will feed into this Indomitus project after the Deathwing models are complete.  It's pretty clear that I'm going into January at this point. C'est la vie.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Dark Angels Indomitus Deathwing Elite and Characters WIP - Part 1

 

Greetings.  The Dark Angels Deathwing characters and elites from Indomitus are coming along well.  I'm focused on the Bladeguard currently, but as I do certain batch painting, I've been skipping over to the Lieutenant, Ancient and to a lesser degree the Master. This helps use paint already on the wet palette to limit waste and in some cases saves time as well.  Let's look at the Bladeguard models more closely.

I started with the shields off, since they cover portions of the models and make things hard to paint.  I love the push-fit models for this. I'm trying out a new recipe for the bone color of Deathwing Armor.  Here I sprayed Pro Acryl Bright Ivory, from Monument Hobbies, and shaded that with GW Seraphim Sepia.  The model on the left was brush painted as a test model.  I quickly realized that wasn't going to work if I wanted these done this month, so the rest were all airbrushed.

I used standard GW Caliban Green on the tabards and chest eagles, shaded with Agrax Earthshade.  Then I had to have some fun with the tilting shields on front armor.  These Bladeguard are seasoned veterans with a long service record who have earned the right to display personal heraldry (In chapter colors, of course).  So a little fun with free hand here.  Decals may be applied as well once things get cleaned up.  

Next I painted all the leather work, eye lenses, the halos, base coated the power swords, and then spent some time on the storm shields.  These were great fun to paint and I like how they have turned out. Here's a close up of a shield.

The camera washes out the fact the the sun burst surrounding the skull in the middle is actually more gold than silver, but it's subtle in any case.  With much of the armor details and shading done, I could glue the arms on. Here they are, standing proud.

As I worked on various areas on the Blade Guard, I would occasionally skip over to the other characters as described above.  Here's where the Bladeguard Ancient stands currently.

The standard will be a special project, so I've mostly left that unpainted, focusing just on the marine (and some purity seals).  Here is the state of the Deathwing Lieutenant.

When I move on from the Bladeguard, I'll be well along in completing these other Deathwing characters.

I did not take an updated picture of the Master/Captain, but you can see that he is also coming along in the title picture above. With so many details, these models are taking some time to paint, but I like how they look in Deathwing colors.  Progress is being made and we'll see if I can complete them before the end of the year.  I have a suspicion that I'll need all that time to finish these six and likely won't get to the new Judiciar or Chaplain.  In fact, I misplaced the Chaplain somewhere, because I noticed while putting the article together that there is one in the box, but not on my painting table. 😂

He'll turn up in a future post, no worries.  So that's where the first week of December got me.  It's been interesting to pivot from the black Ravenwing to the bone colored Deathwing.  Dark Angels are a fun force to collect and paint for that reason.  There are many details that pull them all together, but the different armor worn by various companies really mixes thing up and makes for an interesting force on the table.  I look forward to finished family shots of the whole set of Indomitus marines painted up.

I hope your own projects are coming along this season and that your families are safe and healthy.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

On the Workbench [Nov/Dec]

 

Today, I'm sharing the few things I've built recently.  I missed posting the five additional Mark III armored tactical marines I built to bulk out my squad of Terrans. At some I'll add five more Mark IV marines to my Caliban tactical squad as well.

Nothing special here. I built these stock, except for the Forge World mark III shoulder pads. The bases were painted with wood glue and dunked in the tub of mixed size model railroad ballast/rocks.  This armor mark is definitely a favorite of mine.

So that was November.  This month, I took a break from painting Indomitus Dark Angels to build a set of Imperial Navy Avenger Strike Fighters for Aeronautica Imperialis. I've been remiss and documenting most of the Aeronautica model assembly, I think.

I haven't played a game so far, but boy do I have a lot of tiny planes. 😂 I hope to involve a couple friends in the game post-Covid - assuming we ever get back to a point of hanging in-person. Maybe something socially distanced once the warmer weather comes back next year.

In the mean time, I have PLENTY to paint.  The game looks to be a lot of fun and I like the smallish skirmish style.  I'm treating games like this, Titanicus and Blackstone Fortress as board games that I hope to invite friends along and play.  It's hard to get folks to invest in the games otherwise. But I can piddle away at collecting and painting them up.

Anyway, back to Indomitus Dark Angels later in the week. I've begun painting the characters and Bladeguard veterans as members of the Deathwing. So more on that later.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!