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Hi good people of dakka dakka

I'm new here and have been browsing around (stealing ideas) and have thought that I'd create a WIP blog to try and help motivate me to get my force done.

I started playing GW games quite a long time ago, but this is my first foray back into painting and modelling for about 9 years. My main goal is to take my time and enjoy the experience and hopefully end up with a really good looking force... that said there's a tournement in May that I want to take part in so I will have to have something done and ready to put on a table.

so before I show you the pictures of what I've been working on a couple of questions.

What is a true scale marine?

I've seen marines with their legs cut and white stuff putin to make them larger, what type of material is the filler and what thickness woudl I be looking to get for marines and say dreads? also Where can I get it (cheap)?

I'm looking to magnetise vehicles and maybe special weapons. So Where would I buy the magnets from? Is there a tutorial link?

Where's this scouts shotgun from? http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/236089-Scout%202%20WiP.html - scout shotgun

Thanks in advance for any answers and now some pics (and thoughts):

Assualt marines - meant to look dynamic - these guys are on the charge!







tactical marines - again dynamic



scouts - dynamic also the 2 boxes of scouts only provided 8! shotguns hence one of the models with bolt pistol and grenade doing a counts as...




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veterans - relaxed (they've seen enough war to not have to worry). The ones without bolters will have them strapped over shoulders. need to know what to do with the one with no right hand? can't really do another auspix (spelling?) or binoculars model as there's one of each in the squad. Any ideas?





Techmarine - just something I decided to build whilst doing the other marines from spare bits. need to get a backpack for him.



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Objective marker


Bases - aim is to have trench work style wooden bases on the sand... any tips for painting / getting the plank effect?

Battle damage - for the marines and marines, I've been using a file to put 'rips' in the armour. Do you think drilling holes would add anything? I'm a bit cautious... Also can you do battle damage to scouts or should I do injuries and if I do injuries would that detract too much from my colour scheme and fitting them in with the army?

Drilling - what size drill piece for the bolter / pistol barrels? 1mm / 1.5mm? Anyone got a link to a cheap 1mm?

Anyway after this marathon of pictures there probably won't be an update until midweek. In the pipeline are 6 devastater marines and 3 special weapon guys. Then a rhino. once thats all built I'll get to the painting stage and once thats painted it'll be time to think about HQ's...

Thanks in advance for any comments, criticism or your thoughts.

so after a weekend of no minature work, this evening I intend to build 5 devaster bases (including trench walls...) and the 5 devasters to go on them.

wish me luck!

so my miniature building skills are slower than expected... all bases completed, 2 hvy bolter marines completed and the final scout bolter completed.

Some pics (click to enlarge thumb nails):
The base building. Trying to give the impression that the devastaters are at the back line and more heavily dug in than other squads by including trench wooden walls. If there was enough space 9there wasn't) I would have attempted a small green stuff mound to put the sand on to give a better trench impression. Any tips on improving the bases gratefully received.


The 2 hvy bolter marines semi - completed and the legs / bases for the other heavy weapons.


scout with heavy bolter - running into position not particularly happy with the legs...


Tonight i aim to complete the remaining devestaters, then its only the 3 special weapon, ironclad and dread to finish beofre applying paint.

Tournement booked for May 5th so deadline is now down. Need to work out a list for the models and what else requires purchasing. Then I need ot build and paint it all.

Cheers folks and enjoy.

Nice.

Where'd you get the servo skull on the tech marine? got a spare one?

I wouldn't worry about hands not holding anything - leave it empty. 6 of my GK's have an empty hand, I've got some left over if you want some.

My build skills are still weak... There seems like a lot to do building these guys, mold line removal, bases, gs'ing gaps... On that note on positioning what do you use to position / decide on the final position of your guys before gluing I'm using my fingers and its difficult to get an overall idea of what the completed model will loook like.

Another question, am I making it harder for me to paint them by fully assembling them before hand?

anyway here's the work I got done last night:

2 special weapon marines almost complete (melta and plasma gun)



3 heavy weapon guys - plasma cannon done, plasma cannon laid out and missle launcher doen to this point, think I will wait beofre final assembly based on answers to the above question on painting.


Also realised I cannot count, the devestaters box gives me enough weapons to model 8 heavy weapons, so 2 more bases and bodies to assemble (thank goodness the battle force set includes a combat squad), with another tactical squad box set I could field 2 10 man devestater squads (2 combat teams with 2 heavy weapons in each per squad) hmmm, thats also 2 more razorbacks...

So when I mentioned the running scouts leg yesterday I forgot to include any shots of it... Here's 2. Any thoughts on improving it, it didn't seem so bad on 2nd consideration last night.




won't get anything done tonight so next updae will probably be Friday. Have fun.

Edit: yep I have a spare servo skull, I'll drop it round when I come to collect the bolters hopefully at the weekend.

More pictures of last nights work, I did a lot of bits sorting and stuff but not too much actual building, however I'm happier withthe building process now, starting to enjoy it more (i.e. I'm not sucking at it so much now).

The mace you can see in this picture is going to be the veterans right hand, semi resting over his shoulder. bolter will hang by a strap over the left shoulder.


progress made on the remaing 6 devastaters - all based, weapons / packs built, now to clean etc


another shot of progress, this time focusing on the special weapons


Over the weekend I'm going to look at list to see what else I need so I can get everything built ready for paint. Hope to have it all undercoated by mid march...

After much soul searching myself on the question of to fully assemble or not, I would say it's actually more hassle to keep it in bits, just glue the lot together then paint. easier in the long run.

oh, I forgot do you still need some of that thin plasticard for the bolter slings?

It's been a long time, but I finally got a drill with a suitable size drill bit and drilled out all the bolter barrels. Now not all of them are straight but hopefully that small detail will be hidden by paint...

Have tournement coming up in June, just need to decide what will be in the 1250 and 1750 size forces and will purchase additional minatures / applying paint and then I'll put some more pictures up.

Wish me luck.

Disaster, spray paint ran out, resulting in:
a) uneven coating on several models.
b) loss of details on some as the spray 'blobbed' out

:-(

Have ordered more paint and the few things I need to finish off my 1750 point army and will start painting to see just how bad things are.

So yesterday I applied a wash to my minis.

First thing, when I'm applying the wash it looks all good, the pigment has gathered in the recesses and the contrast between the wash and the base coat is nice and strong however as it dries it tends to even out across the miniature resulting in an even tone across the whole thing... Is this normal or any thing I can do to avoi it?

I'm looking for a tutortial on the tutofig link provided by tech soldier but haven't found anything yet...

secondly, where my primer ran out and allied sand paper type paint to model, any easy way to fix this?

Thanks in advance for the feedback, I will put up some pictures once I feel I have something picture worthy...

So following on from the last post here's some pictures of what I'm dealing with.

1st some background:

Army colour scheme: base coat army painter skeleton bone, highlighted up to bleached bone with purple details.Overall colour scheme, off yellow / bone colour.

Plan: I've been base coating then applying a wash of P3 sepia to try and bring out the details with the ideathat I can then layer up to bleached bone and white highlights

Reality: primer ran out, leaving about 24 or 50 models with a crappy coat, that was uneven and textured like sandpaper. The P3 sepia, has when dried spread across the model which means the recess aren't as deep as I wanted when applying the first layer. Also the bleached bone is too pale.

New plan: To get a yellow (suggestions anyone?) to use as the first layer (after the sepia wash), then highlight up through bleached bone to skull white. Once the first layer and initial highlights are on, I'm considering sealing with gloss (again any suggestions) and re-doing the wash as a pin wash (as per the vehicle tutorial on the tutofig page), then final highlights and details.

Gun casings and damage to the armour to be done in gray and black. Metals are undecided...

Anyway pics of progress so far (all marines are WIP)

This what an unwashed based coat should look like:


This is how marines came out after a properbase coat and a wash of the P3 sepia


These two images should show the contrast of where the proper base coat and wash was applied and where the basecoat wasn't good and I tried to rescue the model using the wash


This shows some models that I've tried to rescue using the wash and then applying bleached bone to get the colour backup, if you look at the heavy bolter guy, check the difference of the bolter versus the rest of him...


Similar to the comparison above, however I think I can rescue this chap (and many of the others, through a few layers and dry brushing


Still a silver lining, at least I'll get plenty of painting practise, I'm very rusty after not doing it for 8+ years.




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So with an aim of completing 1500 and 1750 points for The Beyond a call of Duty tournament in Bristol 23rd June, I'm going ahead and paint what I can, a few models I've put in water and washing up liquid because I've had it mentioned to me that removes the paint...

So in terms of where I am at the moment:

Red = ordered waiting to collect, assembled but not primed
Yellow = assembled, primed, wip
Green = completed

SM captain
Master of the forge (needs a servo harness :-( )

5* Veterans (1 is being stripped)
Ironclad dread
Ironclad dread

10* Tactical marines (multi melta, meltagun, power weapon)
10* Scouts (power weapon, 4 snipers, hvy bolter, 4 shotguns)
5* Scouts (powerfist, shotguns)

Razorback TL Hvy bolter

5* Assualt Marines (flamer, thunder hammer) all 5 being stripped
Drop pod
Landspeeder storm
Landspeeder storm

10* Devastaters (2* plasma cannon, 2*ML)

The devastaters being exactly 250 pts and the difference between the two lists.

Probably should stop reading the dakka pm posts and actually get on with the painting...

So I've ben sitting on dakka, reading other peoples blogs for inspiration (some of the projects people do are immense and I'm not even sure where they even get their ideas from letalong then translate that into a model, I've a long way to go)

And one blog inparticular (Arakasi's Da Dark Angelz (upto page 10 atm) gave me pause to thought, especially whenhe laid out the organisation etc of the force along with colour schemes.

So I've had some fluff ideas floating around for a while, I think I'll make this an UM successor chapter and obey the codex for squad markings and rank etc:

So (if looking at the marine head on) the right shoulder will be purple with a white chapter insignia
veterans will have white helmets
left shoulders will be armoured coloured with appropriate squad marking e.g. up arrow for tactical and also donate the squad number
other squads by the colour helmet as weel (assualt red?, dev's blue?)
Techmarine will be in the same armour as the other marines except for a red left shoulder.

Also as a young chapter that explains the large amount of scouts I have in my lists...

So all I need to now is actually create some fluff, start naming people and so on... I htink I'll stick to the painting for a bit and let the ideas stew.

So remember the horrible base coat drama?

Well a friend at work's husband also collects miniatures and has recommended this to remove paint from plastic mini's:


The results which can be seen here:


Fairy liquid not just for hands that do dishes.

Dude, getting there with the army! I like your thoughts on the UM sucessor chapter, UM's rule.

What are your Storms and Dred's armed with?

So everything yellow status by the end of the bank hols? ;P I'm off to GW to buy a stormraven cos no-one can lend me one for BCoD :(

Good Luck with the storm raven, will you get the 3 colours down in time for the tournament?

I didn't get much work done on the amry at the weekend, did some painting on the sargent off the vets which I'll add as WIP pic later. Will propably have a mammouth drybrushing session this week where we I get every single marine a basic highlight of the bleached bone. Can't say I'm exactly thrilled at the thought.

Edit: dreads are armed with hammers, hvy flamers and meltguns, both storms have assualt cannons for transport popping so my scouts have something to shotgun / assault.

Liking your terminator pic's. I'm going to have to try and learn that thing you've done with the different purples in layers :-/

Here's some work in progress pics of some marines, I'm still trying to come up with the best way to paint these so any suggestions are welcome.

far left - this the marine with the primer (army painter skeleton bone) and sepia ink / wash done
2nd left - marine as above with a layer of yellow

far right - marine with primer, sepia ink and then a layer of bleached bone
3rd left? - as above with a layer of yellow

The final colour is to be an off yellow / bone highlighted up to white, which of the above would seem to be the best approach to take to achieve this look?



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lol posted long reply which got lost.. :(

2nd from left, make sure the yellow is in all the cracks, drybrush with bleached bone.

slowly but surely all my marines are becoming a dirty yellow colour:



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have you assembled your whole list yet? (10 days left...)

ummm... I'm waiting for Dark Sphere to get my spray paint in. Then I'm going to collect that, my 2nd ic dread and a tactical squad I need to finish up the force.

Edit: also I need two more objective marker ideas, anyone got some that I can make quickly and easily for this tournament?

All current assembled and base coated marines have their yellow coat applied. Next the bleach bone dry brushing.



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for the rest of the evening though, I'm going to try and magnetise my commanders arms and the melta and plasma gun. Wish me luck.


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Commanders arms have been magnetised. The techmarines axe arm is to heavy for the 1mm*1mm magnets.

mini mini mini mini magnets




Edit: drilled out the commanders storm bolter.

Commander looks cool, yellow and all your assembled marines looking very cool, I wouldn't bother about the objectives, concentrate on the army. how come you're still shopping at that place if they're supplying so late? (6 days left....)

My full tactical squad has now been completed to this level:



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so got to get the scouts and vets done. Then collect the remaing dread, landspeeder and the primer (fingers crossed that will be in stock) and get all of them plus a few hvy weapons and assualt squad to this level of complete.

happy happy joy joy.

At least I've a day and half booked of prior to Saturdays tournament to work on them...

lookin cool