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While I will be preserving the old intro below for nostalgia's sake, I feel a new intro for the front of the page is necessary. This blog will contain all of my WIP's including my Alcatran 88th Imperial Guard (Lots of pics!) as well as my Tau Swamp Fighters, My (barely) post-heresy Death Guard, and my growing Tyranid Swarm.


Now back to the blog as it all started:


Hi Dakkanauts,

I have decided that if I am to complete the monumental task ahead of me (First new army in 10ish years!) I will need a thread to keep myself motivated, get some feedback, and possibly advice.

My project is an IG army based around the hive world of Alcatran. This world was mentioned as a footnote in the 5th edition IG codex. The Alzatraz reference was immedietly apparent. I envisioned a mix of penal squads along with hive gangers and a well equipped security force to keep everyone in line.

I will be trying a large range of techniques and tools that I have not tried before, from wet-palette blending, to airbrushing, to army painter quickshade. I picked up a ton of tools and models, figuring if I am going to do this then I will do it right.

Wish me luck... I will need it.



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Well... I put together my Penal Squad tonight. I think they look pretty decent. I can't wait to put a brush to them, alas that will have to wait for nearly a week because I will be fishing in Canada next week for my father's 75th birthday. (I know... such a chore right?)



That is just a little group shot. The album below has closeups.

http://s1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd369/_RabidFerret_/Penal%20Squad/

That'll be an interesting army to paint. I'll definately be tracking that one.
Good luck!

So I have returned from vanquishing the mighty Coho and Chinook salmon to complete my basecoating.

I decided to try The Army Painter's Qucikshade. I selected the Dark Tone for its purportedly comic book feel.

The two methods I could use are dip or splash on. If I want to go quick and dirty I could just dip or slow and cautious and I could brush it on. Fortune favors the bold... why not! I will dip the minis and report back in 24 hours to give the results.

For reference, here is what they look like pre-dip. There is no shading at all, I merely base coated and then carefully painted in the details. I am sure this would be much faster on simpler models but I like the character of my penal squad.



Man I hope I don't mess this up!

looking good man, will defo be keeping an eye on this one...

Ok... So I think they look pretty good. The eyes though... I went overboard on them. They look pretty crazy. If they weren't a barely controlled group of maniacs this might look odd.

I will probably re-do the eyes. Yeah.

So what do you think? The quickshade turned out pretty good for what it is. Easy tabletop quality, which is what i am going for. I am not using it on any characters or more important models for sure. Not what I would want for display, but in a pinch it is a fast and easy way to get some decent looking models and not have to play with a gray sprue themed army.

Next up are my veterens. Going for kind of a halo ODST meets swat team look for these guys. Time to get modeling!

EDIT: I will be repainting the trim on the bases because it is pissing me off.

I think they look great - other than the eyes. I was imagining orange jumpsuits over blue, but the shade you chose is perfect.

Great job, they look really cool to me. I´m currently working with Penal legion, I might borrow some details from you

Very nice. These are quite a piece. Keep up the good work.

These are great , my type of models cant wait to see more.

Great job.

While there are a few areas of flesh that make it look like the inmates bathed in motor oil, the quickshade generally did a pretty decent job on the skin. The clothes, though, I absolutely love. That guardsman's pants really give it a comic book feel and, I must say, it works.

Stokleplinger wrote:I think they look great - other than the eyes. I was imagining orange jumpsuits over blue, but the shade you chose is perfect.

Yeah orange was my first thought as well, but I see it so much. Most of the penal squads that I see are orange. I figured I would try something different. Also I can see that orange = prison might not have stayed the same by the 41st millenium.

I am glad you like them.


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oadie wrote:While there are a few areas of flesh that make it look like the inmates bathed in motor oil, the quickshade generally did a pretty decent job on the skin. The clothes, though, I absolutely love. That guardsman's pants really give it a comic book feel and, I must say, it works.

Yeah, you know I feel the same way about the flesh. I thought about going over it with a traditional flesh buildup and highlight but that would go against what I was trying for. Quick, simple and dirty. I am going to quickshade all the infantry in the army and airbrush the tanks. The eyes still need to go however.

Once this project is complete I plan on either Orks painted more traditionally or BA painted with the utmost care to make a real display worthy army. I am also thinking of a speed painting project: 2000pits of 'nids in 2 weeks. I did that before with necrons and they looked pretty good (Was a Metallic Green, Bone and Silver color scheme).

These guys look great , apart from the eyes the only suggestion I could add would be to add Tattoos as I imagine even prisonsers in the future would keep up the tradition of Jailhouse tats.

Celtic Warrior wrote:These guys look great , apart from the eyes the only suggestion I could add would be to add Tattoos as I imagine even prisonsers in the future would keep up the tradition of Jailhouse tats.

DRAT! A missed opportunity... Not sure how I missed it. I think perhaps in trying to keep this a fast painting style. Thanks for checking them out.

I think the eyes could work if you added bloodshot...edness, if you don't want to completely repaint them. Looking good!

Ok so these guys are more of a cross between SWAT and Halo ODST. They are my veterans there are 3 different melta variants in the squad. I will be using the same process on these. Basecoat, Detail, Quckshade, Finishing Touches. Going to try and get these guys done this week, and maybe get started on my Astropath. (No quickshade on this one!)


Until next time.

Ok, So I just need to base my Vets and they are ready for the Dip. I think they look solid. I am pretty happy with the color scheme. I will be more careful about where my shade pools and brush it out while I still can. I will base them tonight and tomorrow they go in. I will post the finished results once they are dried and anti-shined.



Now I sleep...

Dip is underway. I will post pics in 24 hours.

Those look really good! Can't wait to see what new squad will look like after dip.

I'm liking this! The only thing you could do is drill out the gun barrels.

Tyranid Horde wrote:I'm liking this! The only thing you could do is drill out the gun barrels.

I drilled out the barrels before I dipped them. They are drying right now after the matte varnish. I will post the completed vets soon.


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Ok so the dip is done. I am happy with them. I think I may do another batch of them soon. Perhaps shotties? Maybe make a couple plasma as well so I can run shotties with melta and lasguns with plasma? hmm...



EDIT: Probably should have used a flash on these. Oops.

Next up I will either work on my Astropath or my foot sloggers. (My mech and foot troops are a bit different.)

Ok so I have completed my first mech squad. I am still in love with quickshade and aside from characters I think I will be using it for the whole army. I like the way these guys turned out. Next I will move on to my conscripts/footsloggers (depending upon my mood)
I also have converted up a pretty fun looking command squad. I will be doing these both at the same time. I will have some progress posted soon.





/cheers

Paint the edge of the base black and dry brush some earth on the pebbles and they'll be good to go!

Yeah I am going to trim the excess off the base on the ML as well. I just was in a hurry to put em up. I painted around the bases a bit with the Penal Squad. If you look at the pic with the three squads you can see the difference. I think I will drybrush the bases though. Probably will do like 10+ squads in one session when I get around to it.

Thanks for watching!

Dude. Heck yes! They are themey and look brilliant and simple.

They are looking good. The main probelm I see is that they blend a little too effectively into the base. I think you could do a quick once over on the bases to help the models pop a bit more.

Flinty wrote:They are looking good. The main probelm I see is that they blend a little too effectively into the base. I think you could do a quick once over on the bases to help the models pop a bit more.

Thanks.

Yeah, I will be drybrushing over these a bit to help the minis stand out.

I really like the look of these,great job. It's a very clean paintjob, I would usually say to highlight the black, but these don't need it.

Pennywise wrote:I really like the look of these,great job. It's a very clean paintjob, I would usually say to highlight the black, but these don't need it.

yeah... quickshade is some amazing stuff. I think I will be using this for any army I do not care to lavish attention on. Tyranids are my next and I plan on doing those in quick succession over a weekend or two.

Well I decided to show what I can do when I am NOT using quickshade by painting up my Company Commander AKA The Warden.

I went for extreme highlights to allow him to fit into the sort of comic book feel I am going for. He was a lot of fun to paint. First time I have tried battle damage on something that is not a tank and also the first time I have painted bloody bandages. He was a blast. The rest of the command HQ will be fun as well. Astropath and Master of Ordinance are ready to go.






/cheers

Hi Rabid Ferret , really liking your work the model without quickshade looks great , a quick question would you be able to tell me which paint / colours you use for basecoating the penal squad before using quickshade as i would like to give this a go on a renegade army.

Great job so far be sure to post more .

~UnDeAd~