Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Ahoy there folks! I finally figured out how to get my camera to work and I figured I'd finally share my very first army with you. As of now, the majority of them are un-primed but assembled and I've already mentioned how I'm about ready to start painting so yeah! I just wanted to share what I've accomplished so far:

And I do apologize for some of the blurriness, I tried using ultra zoom mode on my camera and apparently you pretty much have to slap it on a tripod in order to get better shots, but in any case, here goes!

Here's an overview shot:




My One Lonely landspeeder, no idea if I'm even going to use the chap, I just got him as part of my suppression force.



My termie Captain with a mix of CC Termies and Regular Termies:



My Assault Marines:



My 3 Dreads, Venerable in the Center, Tank Hunter on the Right:



My Land Raider Crusader and those bloody frakkin Hurricane Bolters



My Land Raider/Land Raider Terminus, currently equipped Terminus Load-Out:



My only two Rhinos at the moment:



My Two Predators, One Destructor and Annihilator



My Two Whirlwinds loaded with Castellan and Vengeance Missiles



And just because I can and because gosh darnit I wanna make me a LOD Baneblade! (lore be damned! *rimshot*)



My Devastator Squads with about 8 of each type except with RL and M-Meltas




And that's what I've gotten so far, as you can probably see from some of the models, I still need to improve on my modeling and gluing skills and prepping as well, but I have to say, getting all of this assembled has been one of the more satisfying experiences of my life.

More to come once I start getting them painted!

What is the planned color scheme? You may want to do some experiment with various colors of matte spray paints.

Full on Legion of the Damned, or as best as I can hope to paint it hehe:

I plan at least for the regular marines to just use black primer as the base and then do a simple flame motif on the shoulder pads, feet and hands and paint the mask bone white (to resemble a skull) complete with blood red flaming eyes (i'll try to figure out how to make glowing red eyes). I'm trying to really convey a spectral army that is phasing in and out of existence and are, for all practical purposes walking corpses. I may do some painting of bones on the marines just to add the extra "boney" look.

For the scouts I'll try to keep to the black motif, but for the exposed heads I'm also going to make them zombified flesh since they were most exposed to the horrors of the warp and are the most affected by it, mainly also glowing red eyes, but charred decaying flesh, probably blackish/brown but I'm not sure.

The devastators I'll definitely go crazy with green stuff molded bones all over the special weapons and army (or dissembling Vampire Counts Skeletal Warriors for extra bits).

The Assault Marines I want to cap the exhaust ports with Skull heads with Jaws ajar to resemble the exhaust ports instead of the standard jumpacks. Probably a liberal use of greenstuff/bones one them as well.

Termies, hrm I'm not sure how really to make these chaps stand out, fluffwise I could see these guys resisting the corrupting effects of the warp, but also given how much more butch they are, I could also see the effects of the warp making them look a lot more messed up than normal.

The Baneblade I definitely want to make this thing into a rolling chariot of hell. Heck, that's actually a perfect name for it, 'Chariot of Hell', I plan to really go all out making intricate bone structures reinforcing the dilapidated armor plates and decaying treads. I want to really convey that this thing has been lost in the warp for so long that only the most corrupted souls of the LOD can manage to hold the thing together.

I'll probably do the same things to the rest of the vehicles as well to really round out the rest of the army. Something tells me that i'm probably going to go through a ton of Greenstuff by the time this is all through.

You really should consider converting.

Regular space marines just made into such a unique chapter using only a paint scheme doesn't do them justice.

Took me a year to convert and dream/paint mine up.

If I remember tomorrow I'll show some pics.

Another idea would be start with a red base in some area and layer it up to yellow in places. This would be on the shoulder pad trim, etc. Not red on the bottom and yellow at the top of the pad, but just kind of spectrum it up in parts. Here and there.

For glowing eyes, you really want to think about white. Red is not the hottest of fires: white is, so having glowing eyes is going to involve white in the center with color around the edges.

If you plan to crazy-go-nuts with your conversions, then dig trenches out of the marine legs and put the bones part way in (kinda like the FW Chaplin Dread). More work, but looks great.

Moopy wrote:Another idea would be start with a red base in some area and layer it up to yellow in places. This would be on the shoulder pad trim, etc. Not red on the bottom and yellow at the top of the pad, but just kind of spectrum it up in parts. Here and there.

For glowing eyes, you really want to think about white. Red is not the hottest of fires: white is, so having glowing eyes is going to involve white in the center with color around the edges.

If you plan to crazy-go-nuts with your conversions, then dig trenches out of the marine legs and put the bones part way in (kinda like the FW Chaplin Dread). More work, but looks great.

Ahh ok then, (thanks for the tips by the way), so essentially I'd base the eyes white and try to create an outer ring of layered red to simulate a flamey/glowey eyeball appearance more or less? I have to admit I'm not sure how to do it but I do want to achieve something to that effect.

Stelek wrote:You really should consider converting.

Regular space marines just made into such a unique chapter using only a paint scheme doesn't do them justice.

Took me a year to convert and dream/paint mine up.

If I remember tomorrow I'll show some pics.

Aye the more I think about how I want this army to look like, it definitely looks like I'll have to start prying apart some of them to re-do the painting and modeling of bone and flames. I really really want to get this army into a spectral army of death motif, I just hope my nascent modeling skills are up to the task.

(BTW, I can't wait to see your pics! )

Almost forgot. Here's a pic of my Vindicator tank for my LOTD.

Hopefully you see what I was going for.

Holy crap that looks awsome, i love the 'old' effect you gave it. Awesome job.

Thanks.

The whole army is like that.

I tried to emulate the 'ghosts' from Lord of the Rings 3 effect.

Aka the Army of the Dead...it's a bit harder to do on space marines lol so I did it my way.

I think the overall effect is good.

Stelek wrote:You really should consider converting.

Always good advice.

Stelek wrote:Regular space marines just made into such a unique chapter using only a paint scheme doesn't do them justice.

While I appreciated Stelek's take on LotD, it's not for me. I remember purchasing a WD many many years ago and seeing a LotD Assault Marine diarama on the inside cover. The black armor, painted bones and flame motif were simply amazing. The key is to get the right amount of flames/ bones without going overboard. Find that mark and you'll have a great looking LotD army. I vote you stay true to their colors.

Awesome, thank you so much for posting the pics Stelek, always a good source of info.


Aye I figure I'll go mid-way, I'll go crazy with converting and green stuff for my special characters/hw/vehicles and stick to the normal flame motif for the regular space marines. I figure in the LOTD heirarchy, you gotta earn your "bones" to get the heavy weapons....

Hrm, tho I suppose that could be taken too far, what happens to the Termie Capt? Walking bone-man-marine thing?


*Ponders upon this*

If you really want to push the "inner fire" thing then you should continue it through the rebreather. Take a look at the marine in your sig. See how his mouthpiece is metal highlights with black spaces in between? Instead, make it black metal strips with inner white fire in the empty spaces.

You could do it in other places but the idea is harder to convey. The eyes/mouth work well because they are so close to each other.

Moopy wrote:If you really want to push the "inner fire" thing then you should continue it through the rebreather. Take a look at the marine in your sig. See how his mouthpiece is metal highlights with black spaces in between? Instead, make it black metal strips with inner white fire in the empty spaces.

You could do it in other places but the idea is harder to convey. The eyes/mouth work well because they are so close to each other.

oooo that does sound pretty awesome actually, I guess I'll need to get some kind of magnifying lamp and some really fine detail brushes to achieve that. Do you think it would work well with a bleached bone face or should I stick to a full on black motif with them?

It will only work with a black helmet.

Keep in mind that Legion of the Damned are apparently going to be some kind of special unit in 5th Edition Marine armies. If you were planning on using some kind of old rules to represent them, those will likely be replaced in the new Codex.

easiest way to do the mouth piece would be to give it a couple of white washes, I finish my flames that way and then almost drybrush te final black back ove the ridges.

As a side point...I thikn you may have the ammo bins on the predator turrets backwords, looks like you've got the power packs on the destructor, and the ammo bins on the annhilator....? That landraider terminus too, not your fault, I just don't like the model. It's agw half heated job, 'we want something coll for apoc, lets slap some more lasconnons on a landraider'. They could have done so much better. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it though, it may actually fit into your army with you conversion plans!

Good luck with it, personally I'd have gone mad putting that many marines together without having a break to paint

Woah. Looking forward to many updates. I don't think I'd have the patience to put together that many models at one time. Lookin' good!

Fetterkey wrote:Keep in mind that Legion of the Damned are apparently going to be some kind of special unit in 5th Edition Marine armies. If you were planning on using some kind of old rules to represent them, those will likely be replaced in the new Codex.

Hehe yeah, seeing that page is the reason I wanted to make my army this way, once I saw that page I went gaga considering that the LOTD were the army I originally wanted to make when I got into this hobby but was disuaded from doing it because they were so old and the old rules for them "didn't work anymore" or so doth quoted from my FLGS chap.

covenant84 wrote:easiest way to do the mouth piece would be to give it a couple of white washes, I finish my flames that way and then almost drybrush te final black back ove the ridges.

As a side point...I thikn you may have the ammo bins on the predator turrets backwords, looks like you've got the power packs on the destructor, and the ammo bins on the annhilator....? That landraider terminus too, not your fault, I just don't like the model. It's agw half heated job, 'we want something coll for apoc, lets slap some more lasconnons on a landraider'. They could have done so much better. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it though, it may actually fit into your army with you conversion plans!

Good luck with it, personally I'd have gone mad putting that many marines together without having a break to paint

Aye, I personally wasn't sure which bin went with what model myself, those "instruction manuals" they include are vague at best.

And I do appreciate all the comments! I'll do my darndest to get my first models up and running this weekend!

Le Grognard wrote:Woah. Looking forward to many updates. I don't think I'd have the patience to put together that many models at one time. Lookin' good!

Hehe thankee! I managed to get all of these chaps done over a period of about two weeks, I don't think I'll ever get the stench of Plasti-glue out of my hands.

And awesome work on those nurgle models!

Alrighty gaze ye unto the horror of my very first space marine, all criticism and advice is welcome!

As they say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and with this step I have discovered some very important things:

1. Painting flames is damn hard!
2. Painting Flaming Demon Eyes is Harder...
3. Black Primer is my Friend....
4. (Switches to Famous Jaws Scene) "I'm gonna need a bigger bucket of paint...."











dullcote/glosscote added






And there we go! One down bout 700 to go!

I'm liking it except for those eyes. It looks like he's got racing stripes on his helmet. Also, the shoulder pads need to have the sprue contact point taken off.

Here's an update folks! I finished my first squad of Special Weapons Chaps

Good god though, painting consistent flames is bloody damn hard. This project is going to take me much longer than I thought. But I am getting better at it slowly but surely. And I do apologize for the mold lines in some of these models, these were my very very first models that I assembled, and in my rush I missed quite a few of the mold lines on the shoulder pads and helmet. But anyhow, on to the pics!









Shots of all 4, I built them in order from left to right so you can sort of see the evolution of them.

And a nice solo shot of the RL dude, I kinda like how he turned out



Sorry for the lighting angle in here, the cruddy desk lamp is the only thing I have in my room that'll give adequate lighting for the minis :(

I love the skull on the end of the gun, makes it look like screaming death is about to be unleashed from it!

Thats a nice touch that really spruces up an otherwise regular model.

I don't think models have to be heavily converted to achieve a unique look, it's just all about the right touches here and there.

Some nice bases might help too. Not sure if you talked about it but maybe some skull piles?

Yar I'd definitely like to throw them around willy nilly, only problem is finding skulls of that size are a pain, the skull I used for the rocket launcher was form the Vampire Counts Skeletal warriors set and those puppies are 23 bucks for only about 10 skelly heads, I'll try to track down some cheap skelly heads from halloween supply store or something.

Thats sweet

The missile launcher is not able to fire...aside from that good start.

You might find that less is more when doing the flames. Less all over flames with more yellow/orange/red stepwise progression will really make them stand out a bit better. You don't need to worry about them being exactly alike, in fact a little variation is better, but avoiding big blocks of solid color will really help. Recall that flame licks out in tongues as opposed to solid sheets, and you should be good to go.

Your army is going to be really impressive once you grind through it though. By 20% done you should be quite the expert with some experimentation!

Your flames look awful. I do Blood Red, Fiery Orange, and 60:30:10 Bad Moon Yellow:Fiery Orange:Skull White; and paint thinner, swirlier flames.