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Definitely better Nev. You're on the right track.

Two more. These are all old pics, before I got the lightbox. What I should be doing is going back and taking tight focus detail shots. All the pics I took were basically spinning the mini to get all angles, sometimes raising the tripod for a high angle shot.

I should also try to take wider shots, or at least include a little more whitespace on the borders to help center the pictures in the frames. For the oddly shaped panels, it can make it hard to get it centered nice if it runs out of picture.

Ahh yeah that sounds good.

I want what you did but old timey newspaper skin for pulp alley reports.


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I like the borders, have you experimented with dark/black or even Ultras colors?

There is an option to change the colors, I’ll poke that next.

Filters for a number of things, including newsprint, light artifacts, etc exist. I’ll give them a shot, maybe make a wanted poster. Need to find someone sinister to work on. There are a number of ones for free, but lots more things in the pro version, which they want $30 for. I do have a chunk of cash in iTunes credit, so I might spring for that if I’m having a lot of fun. But these days, I need to be significantly “wowed” to drop that on an app.


Ye olde Nurgle champion. Old, grainy, poor quality color film. Just like they used in the Old World. (censored so the pic can be used on a family friendly forum)

Quality pictures never hurt anyone... Keep them coming!

I agreed with the point earlier about having borders between pictures, but having white background and white boarders makes it look like there are no borders. Something more defining is in order, imo.
Plus the bottom right picture of Agemman is out of focus... No amount of photoshopping will put the focus right, lol.

Between you and Para... I think I'll be downloading this tool and having a play around!

I had originally taken that tight pic of the face to try to show it off. Didn’t quite work, but I wanted to try the detail zoom.

Here’s Cato:


Rather then just the full sized pics from my "Give me a twirl” photoshoot, I did some tight crops to show off the parts I want. Think it came out OK.

I like the blue borders a lot more. Can you do the name in a gold gradient as that's possibly more of an ultra mainstay? Or is it my marine fu is weak

 GrimDork wrote:
I like the blue borders a lot more. Can you do the name in a gold gradient as that's possibly more of an ultra mainstay? Or is it my marine fu is weak

White and Gold are the main accent colors I use for them. The text is just the same settings I first stumbled on. I should probably try to find a better, more interesting font, and I think you are right about going for gold.

In painting progress I think I’m done with the legs on the dread. Probably need to do some edgeing, as I’m trying that out on the 30k minis, but going to wait till the end for that. Next step is to glue him to the base and do his torso. I was holding him by the upper body while I worked on the legs, but I didn’t want the base so I could get easier access to his lower half. If I glue the base on now, I can just hold that for the rest of the time. His arms are also progressing, just finished the gold trim. Next stop is the second blue coat and then a little weathering. Not sure if I’m going to stress the AsC, as getting all the barrels to look right strikes me as very hard.

Put the shade layer on the Lt. He needs an edgeing pass and a touchup, then he’s done. I know the white studs on his shoulder need cleaning, those always end up a little sloppy. Plus his freehand.


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This will probably auto-append, but someone might post before I’m done typing.



Fuzzy picture time! I really need to learn to use my camera better. I did watch a few more of the lecture series I borrowed. Still on the basics and non-applicable stuff, but informative.

To compare freehand work, here are some RT era fists with work on them older them some of you reading this:


At the very least my linework on the quartering is a lot cleaner, and the coats are smoother. Not sure the start is any better, but the U is a bit cleaner. Of course, I used a pen this time. But now that I think about it, I may have before. I know I used one in the past, but was not happy with the results. Might have been me putting to much force on it, or the paint not flowing right. I just remember not being happy with it.

Your blog just keeps on getting better and better. More Ultras, more Captains and more/new photos. Absolutely love it.

Love the quartered shoulder pad, good job on the freehand!

Thanks guys.

Almost done with the Lt. And going to put him on hold for a while. Guess what I forgot to do? Clean and prime an age appropriate backpack. Woops. But here he is:

Ahh, nothing light a tight zoom to show the flaws. I know I say that a lot. I did do some edge highlighting, but it doesn’t really show up.

And because part of the reason for painting him was to compare with my older work, a pair of obsolete officers, their ranks eliminated from the chapter:


To wrap up this post, a WIP of the dread. He’s plugging along.

Clearly significant progress there Nev.

Old, not obsolete.

Gitsplitta wrote:Clearly significant progress there Nev.

Stormwall wrote:Old, not obsolete.

I’m quite happy with him, and my progress. And while old, I do think the Lt. Commander is one of my better works from the time. Did they revisit any of the old RT ranks in the HH stuff? Curious if there is any chance of these guys being able to formally take their proper place in the command structure.

Some painting progress:

Got all the base colors down, and the brown wash on the relevant bits. Need to drybrush the blacks with a layer of silver, paint a few of the hoses, then clean up the blues and wash that. Started on the lower arm of the powerfist, and weathering on the MM.

The dread is drying, basically done. Need to do a little final assembly, and touch ups. Maybe a little edging. Plus the base. On track for the end of the month. Which will put me 12 for 12 for entering Para’s monthly competition. On that note, I’ve finished assembling my retrospective pictures. Not this month yet, as he’s still a WIP.

March: Space Marine
April: Veteran
May: Fast and Furious
June: Some Kind of Monster
July: Sneaky
August: Rise of the Machines
September: Never Tell Me the Odds
October: Trick or Treat
November: Princes of the Universe
December: Open Category
January: Up Close and Personal
February: Size Maters Not

That's some great didication there, well done!

I missed most of last summer, so I hadn't seen the June, July and August entries. The July Rangers are awesome, love the camo.

Some excellent stuff there, and what's more, a marked improvement across the year. Splendid stuff!

Cool work Nev.

And that’s a year folks!


Updated my last post with him.

Very nice summary Nev. Enjoyed it! And your new pic format is excellent.

Playing with the stitching together feature of the new photo program. First time I actually had to double-check file size, as Dakka wants us to keep it below 20 meg. This is 18. Spoiled for those of you on dial-up connections


Oh, and while I’m here: Para, I know you are reading this, I’m calling you out! As the only other person to complete an entry for every month, I want to see what you’ve got. Shop it together!

Love the dread, and the one-pic-to-rule-them-all is great! Any chance you can work the month they were doing into the picture?

 Nevelon wrote:

Oh, and while I’m here: Para, I know you are reading this, I’m calling you out! As the only other person to complete an entry for every month, I want to see what you’ve got. Shop it together!

I will at least put them all in one post. The issue is that a lot of the entries I now don't have to hand, so I've only got crappy pics to go on for now. I'll do me best though, the contrast between month 1 and 12 will be pretty stark, I imagine!

Dread looks fantastic!

Zambro wrote:Love the dread, and the one-pic-to-rule-them-all is great! Any chance you can work the month they were doing into the picture?

I’m not going to post the whole thing again, but I did add labels and upload a new copy

Paradigm wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

Oh, and while I’m here: Para, I know you are reading this, I’m calling you out! As the only other person to complete an entry for every month, I want to see what you’ve got. Shop it together!

I will at least put them all in one post. The issue is that a lot of the entries I now don't have to hand, so I've only got crappy pics to go on for now. I'll do me best though, the contrast between month 1 and 12 will be pretty stark, I imagine!

Dread looks fantastic!

For the most part I just took the old pictures I had and worked with them. It was showing how my photography skills and setup improved along side my painting. Not that I didn’t have some out of focus stuff in the later months, but overall my picture quality went up. There are a few shots of things taken after the final entries of the comp. Some with extra paint, others just better lit.

But I was going to get everyone together for a group shot at the end, so here we go:

If people aren’t following the rumors on the new Deathwatch board game, there are some amazing new minis. Some of which I deeply covet. But not enough to pick up the box

I just wrote a post about why a foot chaplain is pretty much the worst option out of the ways to deploy them. Then hit the rumor thread and see young Ortan Cassus There is not enough drool in the world. I covet him in unhealthy ways, and I have zero need for another chaplain.

The IF dev with the frag cannon fills the heavy slot in my squad. I could use him.
The normal Ultramarine also could find a place in my squad.

After that I get a little fuzzy on who I need out of the box. If I want to be able to field them as a tac squad (one of my original goals) I already have a salamander with the incinerator and a DA with a c-plas for the sarge. The Iron Hand in the box has a c-melta, and looks awesome. But the rest of the guys I’m kinda so-so on.

If they put out 40k rules for a squad of these guys, everything could change. Or if they did a multi part box, as was in the rumors. But I can’t justify getting the box for the 3-4 guys I covet. If I cared about the cultists, maybe. If I played White Scars, that biker would also make it hard to pass up.

I guess I’ll actually have to venture into the swap zone, or <shudder> e-bay. Or more likely just do without. But there are some very nice minis coming out soon.

Nice stuff, excellent stick-to-it-ive-ness for the contest, good work all around.

Thanks. We’ll see if I can find something to paint every month for another year of contests.

And just so you don’t think I’m just pushing pictures around and woolgathering, some paint:


kb_lock started a thread for clearing stuff off workbenches. As part of that, I’m making an effort to paint some of the lurkers from the back. In this case, a chaos marauder. He’s going to get paint periodically while I work on other things. I’m going to try to maintain a background project while I work on other things. So he might not get done quickly, but he’ll be a WIP. And once he’s done, I’ll start something new.

I was trying to decide what to do now that I’ve finished the dread. The tag end of the month is always a little odd. I’ve finished my monthly challenge, but it’s too early to start the next one. What to do? I figured I should bang out at least one jetbike. So I just finished putting down the first coat of red on one of the old ones. No picture yet.

I’d on track for my yearly progress. I know we’re not done with February yet, but time flies when you aren’t paying attention. TDA captain, RT Lt., Jetseer, Dread. 2 foot, one bike, one vehicle. That’s 8 model equivalents. Even a space elf in there.

Done:


He’s fine for a rank and file guy who’s probably never going to see play. Could have tidied up a few more spots, but at the end of the day, he’s just a lowly mook.

And the bike is basically done. Need to do it’s stripe, but I want to make sure the paint has plenty of time to dry first. So will probably put that down in a day or so. Started work on the riders. Figured I bang 3 out at the same time. Wow are those guys ugly. But they need to be done.

That's one less piece of plastic in the backlog... Good for you!

The riders are really, really ugly. That was the main reason I went with Spellcrow bits for them. It's a good job their rules more than make up for their looks.

Way back at the start of this blog I had thoughts of cutting up guardians and making new riders. Unfortunately, that level of modification would have required more work and skill then I posses. So ugly riders it is. On the bright side, the new guys look cool. Shame I bought 3 boxes of the old ones...


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Good news everybody! Looks like I’ve got a game lined up tomorrow. Fun twist though: He want to try 30k. So after a little digging and upgrading Battlescibe to have the proper data, here’s what I put together. While everything is not 100% heresy approved, it’s pretty WYSWYG, and painted.

++ Legiones Astartes: Crusade Army List (Age of Darkness) (2000pts) ++


No idea how well it’s going to play out, but should be interesting to see. Going to go grab it from the shelf and get a pack pick. Although can still swap things around.


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And the picture: