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Alright, finally back at home from the hospital with the new addition and now I can actually do some painting and modeling again.

I started over on the Chaplain and here is what I got so far:



Mark IV legs, which leaves room for a few more added icons and decorations. I am going to stop by Hobby Lobby to see if they have very small chains that I can use for decorations as well. Still using a basic skull helmet from Anvil Industries and then a Forge World Raven Guard torso, now my chaplain doesn't just have skulls on top of skulls, but raven skulls as well!

Left arm:



More Raven Skulls! But I actually think this may be too much skull power, although I am not sure. I do want to make sure that the Chaplain looks chaplain-y enough, but I also don't want to go overboard. My other concern about that shoulder pad is that it limits the dynamic of the model. I had him aiming a bolt pistol, but since the skull is hanging down from a chain it really doesn't look right unless the shoulder-pad is facing down.

And right arm:



I am actually pretty happy with the way the shoulder pad turned out. I was worried that I would either have to buy the new Command Squad kit for a nice skull shoulder pad, or that I would have to green stuff something together. I found the skull/wreath combo in my bitz-box and clipped it in half and filed it flat. I then filed the curved part of a Mk III shoulder pad flat as well so that it would lay flatter against it. The arm itself is just a place holder until I figure out the best way to model the Crozius Arcanum.

Picked up the new Vanguard Veteran Squad box today, and it is full of wonderful bits!

Cut up my old metal Chaplain and used one of the arms from the VV box and replaced the RG shoulder pad with one that doesn't have a skull:






And I think I finally got a nice hunter-like tactical pose for Shrike:

Those models are looking great!

Thanks, I know it would be a lot less work to just pick up a Chappy, Librarian, and Shrike.

But I really want to make this army my own and give it lots of flavor.

Nice looking Raven Guard you got here. The scratch builds of the Chaplain and Shrike are very nice. Shrike looks far better than the GW version.

Got parts of the Chaplain primed, so I started to play around with the Librarian some more:





Force Staff is a Power Axe with the head cut off and replaced with an Iron Halo and extended with some brass rod. I was thinking about maybe running some wires along the bottom part of it to make it less plain. Left arm is a missile launcher hand glued to a different arm. Head is still up for debate.

I am trying to accomplish a casual "walking towards the enemy, just not giving a damn" look for the model, just kind of casually shooting some lightning from his left hand as he walks towards the front line.

Biggest issue is that I still need to work on before even thinking about priming it is to green stuff the librarian markings.


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Tried to work on a shoulder pad:



My horrible Green Stuff skills are still making life hard for me...

At least the staff is coming along nice:

Been working on painting parts of the Chaplain. I haven't decided exactly what left arm and shoulder pad to use, nor on the weapon, so that part is still pending. So here is what I got so far:



Gotta touch up the gold trim on the shoulder pad, and I have not done any highlighting of the black armor on any of the parts. I think the pad ended up pretty decent and looks right for a Chaplain.



I did the eyes in yellow, like the power armor guys, but I don't think it shows very well with the bone color. I think I am going to have the same problem with any while helmets I might have in the future as well. Will probably go back and try them in red. Also still have to paint the black parts of the helmet.




Still very much WIP. Have not done the wax for the purity seals, no highlighting, and I need to touch up parts of the black as well.

Making progress though.


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Have to write on the purity seals and then hit the whole thing with DullCoate, after finishing the other arm and the backpack of course!

Getting closer to finishing the Chaplain, and I have the Librarian primed and should get started on him today. I need to order some new RG transfers from Forgeworld this week to finish the Chaplain completely though.






I need to hit the whole model up with some GlossCoate, and then the plan is to put a RG transfer on the white cloth on the back.

I guess it is also time to start thinking about what kind of bases I want for this army. The Scouts I did a year ago are on a city-rubble base, so I guess I could just keep on using those...

Do you have any plans on picking up Shadow Captain Korvydae?

I have the model somewhere, and he is a pretty nice sculpt.

I think I ended up using the hammer for another model though, and I'm not sure where the JP is. I think I will probably end up sticking with custom builds for all the characters though, so if I end up using Korvydae he will be another custom model.

I will probably end up using the body of the official model as a Vanguard Veteran Sergeant though.

 d-usa wrote:
I have the model somewhere, and he is a pretty nice sculpt.

I think I ended up using the hammer for another model though, and I'm not sure where the JP is. I think I will probably end up sticking with custom builds for all the characters though, so if I end up using Korvydae he will be another custom model.

I will probably end up using the body of the official model as a Vanguard Veteran Sergeant though.

Rock on D!

I've just been scouring FW's site today looking for pieces that I can use as inspiration for a SM chapter.

Talking about it got me curious, so I had to check what I ended up using his hammer for:



I ended up using the head of the hammer and his right hand on one of my True Scale guys:





I needed a one handed grip and I tried to get a natural look for carrying the hammer. I have never been a fan of the GW way of just holding a heavy hammer midway down the shaft (even if you are a genetically mastered super soldier) and just remembered how I would carry a sledge-hammer at work.

I end up with a lot of metal and resin models that have been cut to pieces for parts...


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Started up on my Librarian:





(and just noticed I got a bit of blue to touch up)

Working on the Librarian, feeling kind of so-so about it.

I'm not the biggest fan of the big backpack decoration, but I worry that it's needed to help identify him as a Librarian since there are so few markings on him.

Ordered Transfers and Etched Brass, so the two models are done for now until those come in.

Time to work on new projects!

Starting to think about bases. I've used Dragon Forge Design Urban Rubble bases for my True Scale Scouts, and I was thinking that I would have to use them for these models as well. But I think I am going to add regular scouts instead of the True Scale scouts since I would have to build quite a few more of them for this army and although I love how they turned out that is not really a labor I want to repeat. So any suggestions for bases? Right now I am leaning towards basic dirt & grass bases, but I might go for something fancier (although more expensive).

Putting together a Predator tonight, and for the most part it went well:



Main problem so far: I think when I started on one of the side pieces last year I was planing on making it a plain Autocannon Predator, so I glued a door hatch to the side. Which means that at this point I don't have the right door panel to glue the side guns onto the tank. I might end up trying to cut off the three small "anchors" on the side door and set magnets into there so that I can put side guns as needed, but I'm not sure if that would be a good idea. I think I want to end up running a Triple Lascannon Predator though.

I will also leave the top plate unglued so that I can switch between the different variants that utilize the Rhino platform, like the Razorback:



I will glue the hatches together as well so that it can also run as a plain Rhino.

Beautifully done! be watching this for sure!

Finished the Rhino hatch:



Just a piece of plasticard to make sure the two halves stay together and don't get lost.



And I gave the whole "sawing off the teeth on the side doors and magnetizing the guns" a try:







Doesn't sit flush against the hull like it would if it was glued to the inside of the actual predator side pieces, but I think it is a playable solution. I need to see if I can fix that line on the doors where the magnets sit, maybe just a very thin layer of filler on top. I ended up sacrificing the line to make sure that the magnets are lined up straight.

Primed the hull, and finished the first side-gun reinforcement:



And a close-up of the gun on the side:



Basically just build up some more mass with plasticard and then used green-stuff to make a smooth transition. Now it doesn't look like the gun is just attached by a thin piece of metal anymore and I still think it looks modular enough like a tank where the guns can be changed based on missions.

Also made sure that the Razorback turret still fit:



Task for tomorrow: Finish touching up the main turret and prime it. Finish up the second side-gun, and then prime them. Also start painting the tank.

Pred is look good! the adding to the side sponsons really help pull it off.

also had a look back, really like what you did with the chaplin!

Making extremely slow progress with the Predator.

But I did discover weathering powders:

Looks good!

I need to use mine some day.

Thanks.

I think I am actually done with painting the Predator and the Turret. Gotta touch up the lascannons a little bit, but the whole thing has been hit with glosscoate so I am ready to go once the decals get here.

Haven't done anything to the side guns yet though.

Got the Libby and the Chappy hit with glosscoate as well for decals.

For the next batch of models I got a Dreadnaught sitting in Dawn Power Dissolve and 10 Terminators that will become a full Tactical Squad.

Nice work on the predator. You can use weathering pigments in may skill/useful styles. You need to varnish afterwards to prevent rubbing off, or mix the pigment in a decal sealer/liquid varnish to protect its placement. Depending on a medium, makes it hard to take off, or reduce if you over do it.

Gotta touch up the barrels on top and paint the two las-cannons on the side, but other than that this is the stopping point until my decals get here:

Got 3 scout bikes primed and will get started on them tonight, and the 3 drivers are getting primed in a few minutes.

Also started to base the Chappy and Libby. I think I am going to go with a fairly simple Sand/some grass/some tufts bases for this force. I think some brighter dirt and green grass will help break up the black of the army.

Hey Markus!
Just found your thread, and love it. I'm playing around with making a couple of Librarians (2 on foot, 1 on bike) and love what you did
with yours! I took the easy (lazy) way out and got Exorcist chapter shoulder pads for my lobbies! Great job!

Thanks, I finally picked a head for the Libby (No idea where it came from. Looks like a Forge World or Finecast head) and got it primed as well.

I hope that my decals get here this week so that I can finish those two guys up.

I also looked through my bits and I think I have enough of the special bolters from the Raven Guard upgrade kit to make a 6 man Sternguard squad, so I got to fit them into my painting rotation somehow.

Probably will do the scout bikes, then the 5 bolter scouts, sternguard, dreadnaught, sniper scouts, terminators.

But somewhere in between my ADHD will kick in and I will mess it all up.

 d-usa wrote:

But somewhere in between my ADHD will kick in and I will mess it all up.

Moving in a strait line gets boring! Got to do a donut every now and again!

 d-usa wrote:
But somewhere in between my ADHD will kick in and I will mess it all up.

Do you have any other stuff to work on if you get distracted? I always find that having a model to do a few minutes on every now and then when I get bored of Chaos/Orks/Inquisitor/[insert thing here] helps me paint more of the models I mean to paint.

On the other side, that weathering is looking awesome

Thanks on the weathering.

I've been picking up details on the Libby and I got a dreadnaught ready to prime. He will probably be my "I'm bored of painting another Space Marine, I want to work on that for an hour" model.

Here is my current batch of work (that angle also makes me less upset about how the close-ups look. They will look pretty good at the table-top level):



Also shows some of my workflow. Working on the bikes and scouts separately before combining them. I've been trying to figure out what color to make the cloth on the scouts though. I was originally going for a grey, but in the end I decided to go with Khaki. Too much black/white/grey in there already, I think Khaki is still subdued enough and not that bright of a color so it won't clash with the rest of the force, but it adds variety.

Close-up of the WIP bikes:



Shows the progress on the scout as well. I will probably do the boots in brown, but I'm not sure on the gloves yet. Either brown or a very dark gray.

And trying to finish the last touches on the Libby. realized after the glosscoate that I had not highlighted the armor, so I need to do that later today. I did work on an actual head though:



I really like the half helmet. I usually prefer the Libby with a bare head, but this guy seems like he may have blown off half his skull once. That warp-energy is hard to control sometimes!

I am doing all the faces with a 3-1 mix of light gray and a light skin-tone. And then hitting it with a 50/50 mix of Nuln Oil and Sepia. I try to get the whole "white, bleached skin" look that the Raven Guard are known for while still leaving a trace of actual healthy colors in their skin.

More progress:



Have I mentioned how much I hate painting bikes! Just too much damn detail to pick put. Picked up two more scout bikes from my GW today so that I can field a squad of 5. Trying to decide if the Sgt will get anything special or not.

The Bikers are almost done as well:



The Khaki might have ended up to brown, but I'm lazy and not repainting them. So brown-pants-scouts it is