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Alright, what was once a simple impulse purchase of a model turned into a full-fledged obsession for me, and a simple showcase thread on my progress wasn't cutting it. Clearly, a blog was needed. So, here we are.

My ongoing project, and the overarching theme behind it, is a homebrew Space Marine Chapter, the "Order of the Talon", kind of a Deathwatch-style elite anti-heretic/xeno force. I've had fun creating some lore and backstory to them, which can be found here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Order_of_the_Talon

Previously, I had used a P&M Showcase thread to get some comments and criticism on my models, but posting in there now would kind of necro the thread, seeing as I've been busy at university for almost two months since I last modeled. Being nine hours away by car and working hard on an engineering degree probably doesn't help either. Here's the old thread, showing all my completed models, and a little info about each one.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/349439.page

Anyways, a little about me and my time with the hobby. I'm now 18 years old, a freshman in university studying aerospace engineering. I live in the United States, and I got into the hobby this past summer of 2010. I bought the Dawn of War videogame pack on sale and played through, and decided I really liked this new universe, full of Grimdark and bloody chainswords. So I picked up a Razorback model for kicks and giggles at my local retailer, figuring "hey, it's only $30, I might as well try this out". Built it up, found some paints on sale and slathered it up. It turned out looking decent, and I realized that I had the bug. I left for university, and for three months I waited to return home to a brand-new Venerable Dreadnought sitting on my desk. Thanksgiving Break rolled around and I painted it up, and had tons of fun doing so. Christmas (and a Land Raider Redeemer) came, and over a short break in February I was able to paint up some Tactical and Assault Marines. Now I've got my long-awaited Spring Break coming up in a week, and I'll be returning home to some new models, including some fresh-off-the-molds Grey Knight Terminators and a Whirlwind.

While I was originally enamored (like most beginners) with the Space Marines, I'm beginning to get an itch for some IG tanks, an Eldar Wraithlord, and most recently, starting up some Thousand Sons. In the end, I'll probably end up owning a rather large collection of cool models and no coherent army. Which is fine, because (sadly) I know no one else who plays, and the nearest FLGS is about an hour and a half away by car.

So here's a group shot of my army thus far.



In the next couple of weeks, I'll be painting up some Grey Knight Terminators and a Whirlwind, as well as touching up my old models with some Badab Black wash. Here's my plan: to make them stick out from the rest of my fairly dull army, the GK Termies will be white armor with purple trim, while the Whirlwind will blend in with the rest of my black, gold and grey army. I'm looking forward to doing something different for a change, and mixing up my techniques as well.

Anyways, for those of you that have gotten this far, thanks for reading to here. I hope you enjoy my work as much as I do creating it, and I look forward to updating this blog whenever I make any progress in my busy schedule.

Cheers!

~Josh

So you got this symbol on the tanks and shield, freehand or transfer and what is it?

1-i wrote:So you got this symbol on the tanks and shield, freehand or transfer and what is it?

Whoo, I wish I could freehand that. No, I whipped it up in Photoshop, printed it on cardstock and pasted it on.

Thanks for reading!

I'm flying back home tomorrow and will hopefully get a start on the new models tomorrow evening or on Sunday. I'll make sure to post lots of pics along the way!

After a long day of flying, I finally got back home, and unboxed my latest acquisitions. The Grey Knight Terminators are amazing - wonderfully detailed, come with lots of options and extra bits, and go togethere pretty quick. I'm looking forward to being able to customize other troops with the extra gear.



The first guy I started on is my Justicar. I gave him the hammer and cape thing, and put one of the little icons on his back. Which suck getting off the sprues by the way. There are a lot of fiddly little bits that are really hard to get off the sprues in one piece, so some reglueing had to be done.



I decided to give this guy a psilencer, although the other weapons options were pretty cool too.



Finally, here's a shot of my workstation right now, littered with sprues and the start of my Whirlwind.

Comments, criticisms are always welcome, although I'd appreciate them more when I get to the painting.

Thanks for reading!

~Josh

No one expects the Imperial Inquisition! No one expects White Grey Knights either! Because it seems like everyone and their uncle Bob is doing Boltgun Metal GKs, I thought I'd do something a little different and make them white.

I've gotten the basecoat done on the Terminators, and I think it turned out pretty nice. I've never done white before, and this is 3 thin layers deep.



As for the rest of the painting, they'll be getting bright red detailing and gold trim, hopefully this will make them stand out a little bit from the rest of my army and from the rest of the Grey Knight glut on Dakka.

Finally done painting up the Terminators - I think they turned out rather well. Got my hands on a fine detail brush for the trim, and I'm probably going to rebase them in the future so it doesn't look crappy.

Cool, another GK thread and ones which aren't silver! I had to go down the non sliver colour as well but didn't go for something as ambitious as white (grey was enough for me)

How are you doing the white?

I've found for the best results with white I had to start with a light foundation paint over a white base spray, followed up by many many layers of thinned white, like 6-7 applications at minimum.

It's a non-GW white (Testors Flat White to be precise) but your technique is practically the same as what I did. Basecoat, 4 or 5 thin white coats then the detail work. In some areas the white was left at just 1 or 2 coats to make it a little duller and grayer, like on the joints or for wear on the armor. Overall I tried to keep it fairly pristine though, like these guys took pride in their armor and tried to keep it looking nice.

As my spring break nears its close, I am happy to say I've finished off my models. The GK Terminator squad is already done, but after that I had a whole Whirlwind to assemble and paint! Thank goodness for spray primer!

Here's the result of the Whirlwind - I tried to tone down the gold and put more grey paneling in to create a more muted effect on the overall paintjob.



And with no further ado, I leave you with a complete shot of the army as of April 2011.



As always, comments and criticism are welcome. Don't be shy about pointing something out - I know that even my best painting is really mediocre, but that doesn't stop me from showing these off.

My next set of models is probably going to satisfy my Elysian Drop Troops craving, with a small squad of dudemen from Forge World and a GW Valkyrie that I'll try to convert a little.

Is that a homemade baracaid in the right?

And yeah your painting needs more developement but the bold colors do make a good table presentation.

Doing a dark color for your bases of those termies would only help amplify their striking colors.

Keep up the work

I'd suggest you start with, say, Adeptus Battlegrey. It coats much, much easier. Then, apply thinned coats of Skull White. The finish will be much more uniform, and smooth.

I agree with popsicle. Start with a non-white base color and work it up so that white is your final application instead of your starting point.

I've found grey base coat works well for a "cool" white and something like testors flat tan or GW bleached bone works well for a "warm" white.

With the elysians you're getting, don't forget that grey knights armies can include the often overlooked inquisitors and henchmen. You could easily count the valkyrie as a stormraven loaded with henchmen if you decide to drive to the game store (3hr driving time for 3-5hrs of gaming is worth it if it's a good group!)

Thanks for the comments guys, although I probably won't be doing much more white.

I'm back at school for now and super-busy with engineering stuff, but in about a month I'll be back home with disposable income galore. So I hope my time on ForgeWorld's website isn't too expensive. Tentative plans are for a flamer/demo SWS of Elysians and a GW Valkyrie.

The Elysians will be pretty much standard - it'll be my first time working with resin - but I hope to start some conversions on the Valkyrie. Planning to pick up some plasticard and Milliput from the local hobby stores, and turn the Valkyrie into more of a Vietnam-style gunship. I'll call it the "Fortunate Son", just for the nostalgia factor. But plans include making new wings and installing either a) an autocannon turret or b) a twinlinked heavybolter turret in the nose. Either would look awesome. They'll be painted in desert camo tan most likely.

Thanks for reading, Josh out.

white GK....interesting. I think that the red on them can use another coat or two, the red looks a bit thin when applied to the model. I would try and clean up some of the white around the edges as well. the gold looks great on the deamon hammer, for the gold in the trim and stuff, where all the letters are, i would just paint that entire inset with the gold and then give that a wash instead of just the letters themselves. To break up the white and red i would add some black for the "soft armor" parts in-between the legs and arms.

As far as testors goes, i stay as far away as i can. Testors is an enamel paint so it tends to hide all the detail of the model. I used the reds when i first started my Tau. You dont have to use GW paints but i would strongly encourage you to find a different paint comp. to paint with.

well thats some of my advice do with it as you will, but I think with a few fixes and stuff they would look great ^_^

Well, what a pleasant surprise to have a response so far between updates! Thanks for the comments.

I'll definitely touch up the GKs when I return home for the summer, and I'll probably cave and order some GW paints eventually. The Testors works nicely for larger stuff but for my Elysians I'll probably go with a night-desert camo in GW colors. Any suggestions?

As for the Elysians, current plans are this: 1 SWS flamer/demo squad from ForgeWorld, and I'll be scratchbuilding an airmobile tank to counts-as a Leman Russ Vanquisher. See this thread >>>HERE<<< for more info on that.

Again, thanks for the comments, and thanks for reading!

cool i like those FW guys XD

You dont have to use Gw paints. I use Vallejo and they have alot of paint that looks like the GW stuff and is less expencive. But i guess if there isnt a place around that sells it then GW would be your next best option.

Let the summer of modeling begin! I'm all home from school now and ready for a good summer filled with 40K.

For starters, I recently received a set of 5 AoBR Terminators from a Swap Shop trade, and they e been mostly painted up.

Here's a WIP shot of them from earlier this morning.



I still need to finish up the basing on them (probably just a wash of Badab Black to give it a little texture) and some other cleanup and detailing on the rest of them.

I'm sorry about the terrible photo quality - I couldn't find a good place to shoot the photo so I had to use flash which makes the colors all screwy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Woah! Now for something so completely unrelated the Monty Python quote isn't even applicable here!

DRILLED BARRELS!



Again, apologies for the crap picture, but I have yet to find a good place to photograph my handiwork.

Also, the Terminators are nearing completion, just in time for my next project, which will be unveiled soon...

A very special package came in the mail today, something from far-off Nottingham, UK!

That's right, Forge World has come to humble Minnesota!

1 package of Elysian Drop troops are currently washing in some soapy water, I'll probably get assembling them tomorrow.

A couple other updates.

I just finished making an on-the-cheap light box for photography purposes. It's just cardstock and tape right now but the photos look 10 times nicer than before. So here are a couple photos until I can get some work done on the new Elysians!

In a huge spurt of posing, gluing and painting today I have finished my first Elysian Drop Troop! Without further ado, here he is.





My company will be known as the Elysian 119th "Vermilion Lances", using the following logo on their Valkyries and other vehicles.



Comments and criticism are welcome and needed! I only have one of the six troopers done so far and I'd like to know whether the squad is gonna look good or not!

Thanks for reading!

~Josh

The red really contrasts... and I'm not sure if it 'adds' Everything else looks good.

All of my Elysians are finally done. Tan uniforms washed Badab Black, grey armor bits and red shoulderpads/visors. Also, they're my first properly based models! Desert theme all around.









As always, I need comments and criticism in order to improve! I'd like to think that these Elysians are my best-painted minis so far, but I'd like your input too! Yes, that means you, the reader of my humble blog! Comment away!

I return with good news! Over the past 2 weeks I've been working on a secret project involving lots of plasticard and will complement my Elysians quite well.

This secret project is none other than a scratchbuilt airmobile Leman Russ variant designed to be carried underneath a Valkyrie with a cargo net.

The Accatran-pattern Leman Russ Sabre uses a standard Vanquisher cannon as its primary armament, with a hull-mounted Heavy Bolter and a transport capacity of six. (Note that this is my own fluff and in no way represents ingame rules - it I ever use it it'll be a counts-as Leman Russ) Used during Valkyrie insertion to provide heavy fire support and light transport duties in the field, the Leman Russ Sabre gives mobility and long-range anti-vehicle firepower to a squad of drop troopers.

I've put quite a bit of work into this tank, so here are some of the WIP shots of the forging process. I still have to add the hull heavy bolter, fill in some gaps with Greenstuff, and I have a whole bunch of engine bits and small armor plates to glue on. But the majority of the build is now done.

The tank as of this afternoon.


The hull skeleton.


The first track unit.




I'd love to have some comments and critiques on these, I've not been getting very much feedback as of late :(

Thanks for viewing, stay tuned for updated shots of the tank!

The tank looks to be wee bit small for a Leman Russ variant. Can you post a photo with it next to the land raider?

The red on the Guard is a nice contrast it seems almost to bright. Try a wash of devlan mud or ogryn flesh to dull it down.

Good luck and take care

Hey thanks for the feedback!

As requested, here are some comparison shots. I think the length and width are about right but it's really short. It might have to get mounted on a base with terrain to be "counts-as" legal.

I've also finished putting the gubbinz on, lots of added detail ahoy! It'll be taking photos of it in the lightbox before it's painted so I can enter it in this month's scratchbuild contest.



Now, comparison shots.

My Elysian Drop Troops airmobile Leman Russ Scratchbuild is now done. It was a fun two weeks of measuring, cutting, fitting, gluing, headscratching and painting.









Comment and Critique, please! The unpainted form of this tank has been entered into Dakka's June Mini of the Month contest, the criteria for entry being "WIP". If you like the tank, be sure to vote for it in the upcoming contest at the end of the month!

Josh, out.