Dark Angels 40K Character WIP - TO DONE

 

Well, after a couple months of puttering along, the six Dark Angels characters are finally complete! I took my time with these and set no specific deadlines.  I'm happy with the results and its now time for a big ol' stamp of DONE to celebrate.

Chapter Master Azrael was the last of the six characters to be completed. I have the original in metal, but never painted him up before this.  These new plastics are a dream to paint, and while a Primaris character now, he's at least scaled appropriately now within the current range.

While I enjoyed painting Azrael, it's Master Lazarus of the 5th Company who really inspired me out of these six characters.

The Primaris Techmarine was a nice diversion from painting forest green.

Lots of cool, crisp detail on this model; it was a treat to paint!

Next up is the 5th Company banner bearer, a Primaris Ancient. More cool details and a mix of transfers, raised detail, and ink pens really brought out the banner. I slapped the Lion's name on it in honor of his 40k model release which coincidentally coincided with this project.

And last, but not least there were the two Primaris Lieutenants to complete the six model project. The first lieutenant will support squads with ranged weapons.

The second lieutenant will lead the charge with the assault intercessors. I imagine these two will be a bit out classed with only a power sword.  But we'll see how Tenth edition 40K mixes things up. Well, and in tenth edition they'll join squads rather than simply following them with auras, so that's certainly one change.

And that's what I have to show for a couple months of painting since I completed #MonsterMarch7.  I'm currently looking at a five marine squad of intercessors on the painting table, as I only have one squad of five painted so far (not counting a ten marine squad of assault intercessors). I need to continue riding the wave of excitement following the launch of Leviathan.  I'm finally getting a tidy little force of fully painted Dark Angels together!

Best wishes for your own projects.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Dark Angels Azrael WIP - part 3

 

Azrael is coming together!  This week, the chapter master of the Dark Angels is glued to his base at last.  His head is not glued down yet, as I'm still working on the back banner. But here we get a glimpse into the future to see what he'll look like when done. Lots of additional details and highlights went on this week.

The base colors are down on the banner and I'm looking to clean things up and apply highlights and a few missing details.Back banners make me so nostalgic.  Any one from the early editions gets this - though you either loved them or hated them, I suppose.

Plasma glow completed on the combi weapons along with some power sword effects.

Here's a better look at the sword.  The skulls on the backpack got painted too. And I completed a pass of armor highlights.

I'm definitely moving into the end game here. Lots of bets a bobs to complete but its all stuff that should go quickly.  Not bad progress this week given I was away for the long weekend here in the US and didn't get all that much painting time in since the last post.

Maybe a TO DONE post next week??

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Dark Angels Azrael WIP - part 2

 

Sharing more progress on Azrael today. The head is basically complete and I'm back to working on the body. Progress here is slow but definitely coming together. I'm definitely taking my time with this model.

The helmeted head has come along well.  I'm waiting to attach it until the back banner is complete because it gets in the way of much of the detail on the banner. I don't need to see Azrael's mug so I'm not planning to magnetize the head for swapping about.  The helmeted head will do just fine here, I think.

I'm working on the various details currently. Here, the shoulder pad is completed, except for highlighting and the weapon is mostly complete, minus plasma effects. Both forearms have details yet to be painted. I did tinker with a bit of edge highlights around the front armor of the model.

The base of the sword is complete as is the right shoulder pad.  The sword will have some blue power sword effect added, and the should pad will have a decal and some text for the scroll. Otherwise, another forearm and lots of belt stuff to take care of. I tinkered with all the purity seals, but the still need text and highlighting. The the backpack and banner need to be completed. I continue to work with the model off the base, but he'll get glued down soon, once the stuff on the right side is complete so the Watcher won't be in the way.

Taking a break for a weekend trip but hope to get back to Azrael next week.  Progress will be made!

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Dark Angels Azrael WIP

 

Not a lot to share today, other than Azrael has indeed fallen under the brush.  This week I worked primarily on the base and some additional base layers on Azrael's tabbard.

The watcher is complete along with the sword and bit of helm on the base.  The helm is oddly 30K Dark Angels - perhaps from a Fallen? Definite Mk. III vibes if you ask me.  SO that's how I painted it. I have some highlighting left on the black of the sheath, but otherwise we're good to go.  I didn't want to have to paint the base around Azrael and so completing it was a priority. Now I'll work on Azrael to a point that he can be glued down to the base without effecting any of the rest of the painting.

And let's have an unnecessary helm close up! Not sure why I took this, but there it is.  Blocked in some base colors and painted the eye lenses, purely because I was painting other characters' eye lenses at the time. Baby steps here, but I did have fun painting the base...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Dark Angels 40K Character WIP - Part 1

 

Greetings and welcome back.  With the winter community challenges behind me, it was time to take stock of my collection and reach for inspiration to guide my next project.  I've been reading the Arks of Omen: Vashtorr since acquiring the new Primaris Azrael model...and thinking about the soon-to-be-pre-ordered Lion and that was all I needed to get set on the path to painting more 40k Dark Angels.

I knew I was going to paint Azrael, so I decided to pull in a couple more characters that have been waiting in the wings for quite some time.  Master Lazarus was a must for the new lore and then a handful of utility characters would suit. The one pre-painted Lieutenant has been requisitioned from the Blades of Vengeance project and his armor is undergoing the rites of color to match his new chapter. Not much else to share about the Lieutenants at this time.

The ancient has only had his green armor base coat applied.  This is the newer of the two Primaris Ancient models...maybe a limited edition?  I don't keep track, honestly. It's very close to the original Ancient, but with a couple more characterful details, like the shoulder slung bolt rifle.

The Techmarine likewise has only had an armor base coat.  I do very much like this version of a techmarine though.  Great dynamic pose, lots going on.

Master Lazarus caught my attention right away and so has enjoyed more paint so far. To my eye, this is just a great Space marine pose.  No so original, I know, but I just like how the whole thing comes together.

Not much to see here really, but progress none-the-less! This brings us to the main event...Azrael!

His original model was SO diminutive. You could be forgiven for thinking HE was a watcher in the dark. This new model brings him back up to date after decades, so it's about time. He's sort of anti-climatic when stood next to Lazarus. I guess I'm just too used to seeing all the over-the-top primarchs and what not.  I mean he's JUST a normal Primaris marine. :) Lots going on here though and I hope to do him justice with the paint.With that banner and the (admittedly simple) diarama base, he's sure to stand out.

I managed to get a pretty even coat of paint with a brush here, so that's cool.  Very early days as you can see.  I'm not exactly batch painting, but I am taking advantage of various colors on the wet palette to move things along and not waste paint. By the time I'm finished, I'll either be primed and ready to paint The Lion returned, or totally sick of Dark Angels green.  I guess time will tell. 😀 Either way, it was past time to put some more work in on my collection of 40K Dark Angels.

So that's going to take me through April for sure, maybe longer.  We'll have to see. Best of luck with your own lives and projects.

Cheers and Happy gaming!

On the Workbench [April] - Arbites and Azrael!

 

Greetings.  

With the passing of Squaduary and MonsterMarch, it's time to return to my monthly "On the Workbench" posts.  This month, I have some Adeptus Arbites models from the Soulshackle Kill Team box in production.   The models are all very fun and characterful so I want to have representations of all the various members of the team, but I also would like a few extra of the models that are likely to be most useful during games (yes, the ones I rarely if ever play 😂).  So I went out to eBay and picked up a second set of Arbites to go with those from the Soulshackle box. So far, I have completed all of the models from one set, and I think three or maybe four from the second.

You can begin to recognize my strategy, with both squad leader styles (HtH and Ranged) in the upper right.  Then an extra grenade launcher because it may be more useful than the very cool looking heavy stubber (or webber) in games, etc.  In the end there will be enough of everything to paint a full team, plus the extras to provide flexibility on the table top.

But enough of that - on to the main topic.  I managed to get a hold of Azrael from eBay as well!  Crossing the rubicon, or not, it's great to finally have a decent sized representation of the Dark Angels chapter master.  His diminutive predecessors were cool sculpts and all, but he very much needed to be right sized to fit the rest of the chapter. I'm imagining he will be my next painting project, but I'm not committed to that yet. There is a lot of fantastic detail here, so he'll make a fun and challenging project whenever I get started.  Titan legios are also calling my name from where they lounge, loved, but untouched.

I prepped the base, but left Azrael blue-tac'ed for now. He can easily be popped off for painting, and the right leg is also only attached to the body with blue-tac so I can pull that out to make painting the robes and under robes easier. The head is also only dry-fitted for now. I loved the option to have the Watcher either carrying the scabbard or the helmet.  I chose the scabbard since a) I love the winged helm look (same as The Lion, which I just completed), and b) he has no scabbard otherwise on his person.  He has to have *somewhere* to put the sword when he needs to sign a requisition scroll or what not.  It can't always be stashed in the bowels of the mutant, the heretic, or the xenos!

So that's it for today.  I need to complete assembling the Soulshackle box contents so they can be properly stowed in the Battle Foam inserts I picked up.  I'd like to have the walls playable with the prior Kill Team "into-the-dark" themed boxes so I can manage a boarding action game, or Zone Mortalis for Horus Heresy. I'm slowly working my way towards hosting either or both this spring now that the 21st century plague has abated somewhat. Whether or not I have a painted board really isn't that import at this stage - though I've been slowly acquiring what I need to paint up the interior of a space hulk...

More to follow as the week moves on...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!