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Hello and welcome to my blog.

This is (hopefully) going to be a general all purpose blog that I'll be using to show the progress off and then showcase whatever I get my hands on and paint up.

I've got a few things on my plate at the moment that should keep me busy and this blog active for a few weeks.
At the moment to keep me occupied I have...
- Dark Vengeance to assemble and paint.
- My Flying Assault Butts. Viewable in this thread.
- My entry for Bebops Guardsman Grandprix
- My guardsmen army to renovate.

~~~~~

Anyway enough beating around the bush, lets get to it.
It was my birthday yesterday (yay me ), and I thought I'd treat myself to something nice. So I went out and brought Dark Vengeance and some plasticard. What a haul!!

First off wow what a great kit DV is! So much stuff to gawk at. I mean i've seen all of those models before on Dakka and on the GW website but they look so much better in the flesh. I wasn't sure where to start so I just went ahead and clipped out all the named characters.


[Obligatory crappy long shot]

Named characters waiting to be primed.
Weather is naff at the moment though, so that may not happen for another day or two. But it will give me time to clip out and clean up the rest of the models. I plan on priming the Dark Angels in two waves. Deathwing and Balthazar get primed white. Librarian, Ravenwing and Tac squad get primed black. The Chaos Marines who are getting painted up as Night Lords will get primed black too.

~~~~~

So that's pretty much all for now but I'll try to keep the content coming in thick and fast.
Thanks for looking.

So last night the weather turned good for a couple of hours and I managed to get the termies and Balth primed. I spent roughly 4 hours today painting up Balthasar.

I'm pretty happy with him. To be honest though I think I completely fluked the robes. I mean, they ain't fantastic but they are a million times better then what I was expecting to finish up with.

He's not based yet and there are a few things that i've just spotted that need to be fixed. But overall I'm pleased with the result. There are bigger pics in my gallery.
Front shot.

Back shot (sans back pack which I forgot to do)

Details

Close up.

Right so, knocked out Librarian Turmiel today and started on Sergeant Arion.






Not super happy with the left pauldron. Since both the winged sword and purity seals are white they cash badly and I couldn't nut out a way to separate them, so to speak. I might go over the purity seals with a sepia was to shade them a bit.

And Sergeant Arion has his basecoats down. I find large areas of metal frustrating to paint. I don't see how Necron players do it... Those exhausts were more then enough for me to be over it.





More later.

All looks good

You have nothing to worry about with your robes, they look good to me

And you hate painting metal on bikes? You're preaching to the choir...

Thanks Zambro.

I'm currently doing the other two ravenwing guys at the moment and they are little better then their sergeant. Less robes to deal though so that's a bonus!
I reckon they're gonna take me the rest of the year though. Then next year I can start on the Deathwing and Tacticool marines. (ah I'm so funny. and so lonely...)

Sergeant Arion is done though so I'll put him up after lunch.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alright here's Sergeant Arion. Kinda plain looking, but I didn't dick about with the lighting or size in GIMP like I usually do.

Front view. I debated on doing the headlight yellow or not but in the end just gave it a heavy sepia wash. It's not really visible though.


"Rear" view.


Right side. Couldn't get a decent clear shot of all the purity seals. It's always focus on something that I didn't want to.


Left side.


Some of the detaily type bits. I'm particulay proud of his head. I got the skin juuuuuuuust right.

 Snrub wrote:

(ah I'm so funny. and so lonely...)

Lol!

I love this time of year, you can say things like, 'This is gonna take the rest if the year', when in actual fact that is less than a day xD

The sargent is definately cool, i really like his scanner. I've only done the basic cross-hairs on my scanners. Yours looks more detailed

Ha thanks. Again, the scanner was fluked. I intended it just to be basic crosshairs too but I wobbled my brush as I was painting one and it created half the circle. So I painstakingly did the other half and then somehow managed to get a tiny red dot in the middle of it.

Seriously, I think I've used up all my painting luck on robes and a scanner.


I took a gander at your White Scars, Zam and I gotta say, I'm impressed. White and red. Far from the easiest colours to paint and have look good. You have succeeded quite nicely. The Thunder hammer captain is particularly nice.

Got the rest of the Ravenwing done. I didn't bother taking many shots of the other two bikes because they are kinda boring and don't really photograph well. Again, bigger pics in my gallery.

Crappy group shot


Plasma Gunner



And the dude with a bolt pistol.




I also got this in the mail yesterday. Completely forgot I'd brought one back in mid December. Took a couple of weeks to get here but it was well worth it.

A void navigator sculpted by a bloke called Martin Grospietsch [insert Polish last name I can't remember]


Even on the big pic it's hard to see the detail, since the yellow resin and light don't mix well. But it's a really well sculpted model. Not a single mold line or air bubble on the whole thing. There was the iddy biddiest bit of flash on the rim of the base which disintegrated when I stared at it hard. So no problem there.
Now all I need is a nice sunny hour or so to prime him.


In other news, i've assembled the Tactical squad, Chaos Lord and chosen from my DV. The Termies are primed but I haven't decided how I want to paint them yet. I don't like the traditional GW bleach bone look. I was thinking maybe more of a washed stone grey or maybe something more along the lines of this.



Also not that it affects anyone but me, but i'm now a DCM. So happy new year Yak and Lego, may my $25 serve you well!
Thanks for looking. More to come.

Wow. That void navigator looks super cool!

Alrighty then folks. Quick update.

Primed my Navigator and threw down a basecoat. Yeah yeah I know what you're thinking. "Brown? What a boring colour." But I like it. So in the immortal words of Eric Cartman; "Screw you guys!"


A coat of paint really shows up the detail. I didn't even realise his hood had funky bits on it till I primed him.



Also, I have a question for anyone who thinks they can answer.

Does anyone know what this is?


Anyone know what it is?
You know what. I'll tell you what it is. It's a foot. More importantly it's the boot of an Imperial Guardsman.
There are 2 things I want to know about this foot.
A. Where did it come from? All my guardsmen and their feet are accounted for.
B. WHERE THE FETH DID IT COME FROM? And where the smeg is the rest of him? If the Commissar learns that one of my guardsmen has lost his munitorium issue boot then there will be hell to pay.


I will update you on the case of the rogue boot later. For now though, dinner.

lol, how on earth do you find a guardsman's shoe, without the actual guardsman?

And that's a really sweet navigator. It would make an awesome counts as primaris psyker for IG

I think that shoe is gonna remain a mystery for quite some time. Coz yeah, it's got me stumped.
And yeah I was thinking of running him as a Primaris Psyker. Of course that would all be dependant on me finding someone to game with.


So the Nav is almost done. Only things left to do is glue him to the base and paint the little ball at the end of his rod......... LAUGH DAMMIT. THAT WAS FUNNY!
I'm a little stuck though. I'm not sure what colour to paint the little ball. I don't want to paint it blue. Because that's the main colour of my Guard army. I'd rather not paint it green because that would clash to much with the brown for my liking and I don't just want to leave it black. Currently my top choices are either red or yellow. If anyone has any better suggestions then I'd love to hear them.



I'm thinking the robes also may need another round of highlights.

Wow, you've really got some speed going with these figures here, and they look great as well.

If you can get hold of some, try some interference paint on the ball.


http://www.liquitex.com/InterferenceColors/

Liquitex Interference Paints change their color (exhibiting a metallic look and color shift) depending upon the viewing angle

HNNNG!

This. 1000x this.

Thanks for the link and the compliment Az. The lack of job leaves me with a lot of free time. So it's either paint for hours on end or play computer games. Painting seems the better option by and large.
So yeah. I can knock out minis pretty quickly if the mood takes me.

So got some work done today for my Guardsman Grand Prix entries.

Primed my 2nd Guardsman and gave him a basecoat.

Crappy pic but you get the idea.



Also had a bit of a win on eBay the other day.
Scored myself one of the old OoP Cadian Command Squads. And it's new in box too as you can see.


Best part though? Got it all for the same price as a one of the current command squads. $35 + $8 p/h.
2nd best part? The commander is my favourite 40k model and I've wanted him for ages and now I have him.
3rd best part? Was opening the box to find the commander in question, looking like this.





I've named him Colonel Swordhat.

Laughed my arse off when I found him like that.



On the subject of Imperial Guardsmen, let me introduce you to my Imperial Guard army.
Since I have a lot of spare time I've written up some, a lot, too much background info for them which I may turn into a Dakka article at some point.
Basically though my army is called the Aquarian Interior Guard 18th. Shortened to AIG most of the time because typing out the full thing is boring and tedious. It's a PDF regiment based on a ocean world that has a large mining industry. There's pirates, outbreaks of mutation and a gak load of references ideas stolen from video games, TV shows and Greek mythology. The regiments colours are: Primary - dark blue (armour), Secondary - grey (fatigues), Tertiary - yellow (lenses, glasses, screens, etc). With brown for anything leather, boltgun metal for anything metal, black for the boots and white for other things like the aquilas and such. Not a particularly complex set of colours.

So as I said in the OP my Guard army is in need of a bit of a renovation. Not that it's an old army, just that it was fairly carelessly painted and could use a bit of a buff up.
What needs to be done is...
- Army wide paint touch up. Just going over badly painted areas. Redoing the skin and other details. Blah blah blah.
- All the lasguns need to be properly converted to SMGs.
- Basing. Everything needs to be based.

Currently my army stands at.
1 Company Command Squad. (The metal squad previewed earlier)
1 Commissar Yarrick
3 Regimental Advisors
1 Primaris Psyker (the Void Nav)
5 Storm Troopers
2 Platoon command squads (one Cadian one Catachan)
6 Infantry squads (5 Cadian 1 Catachan)
1 Heavy weapon squad
1 Sentinal
1 Leman Russ Battle Tank

The only things that have no paint on them yet are the Heavy weapon teams, Leman Russ and one of the Infantry squads. Everything else is painted to varying degrees and with varying degrees of skill.

Here is red platoons command squad which is 1st up on the reno bench. They are one of the "better" painted units and don't need much fixing.

Front and side shot of Lt. Crawford. (Yes they have names. That's how much of a life I don't have.) He really only needs his re-breather adjusted and free-hand details on his shoulder guards touched up. Some pouches and a holster might not go astray either.


The standard bearer. The banner topper needs to be added and shoulder guard details painted on.


The plasma gunner needs a bit of work. His armour is very patchy and needs another coat. He needs highlights and a skin graft.


This guy only needs highlights and shoulder details.


The medic only needs his skin touched up a bit.


And of course the group shot where you can't see gak.

As always, there are bigger pics in my gallery.


Also, as of yet there is no update on the mystery foot.


More later. Thanks for looking.

Looks like you scored big with the CCS, even though the commander has a flaccid sword

Your colour scheme is great, but what are you going to do for the basing?

Thanks Zam. Rest assured after a soak in some hot water his sword was straightened out and now stands proudly erect.
Actually just looking at him now I've noticed a small mould line running upside his noggin'.

Basing is a sand/slate combo painted up to look like gravel and chunks of rock. Some bases will have craters while others will have pools of water and pipes leaking a green sludge. Its all meant to represent them fighting in a mine or in the dark dank undercity. I've got two bases done at the moment. The sentinal which was my test piece. And one guardsman who is an entry for bebops guardsman comp.

Oh wow! Those characters are looking awesome! Do you have anything planned for the duplicate models that come in DV?

Hey Mac. I assume you're referring to the duplicates in the tactical squad and cultists? I just planned on painting em up like the rest of their respective squads. When I'll get around to painting them I don't know.

Burst out laughing at work at the Commissar. No idea why it's so funny.

Yeah you want to watch that raucous laughter while at work. That's a prime way to get into strife.

Quick update type thing.
Went out and brought some Ceramite white today. So I can start work on my Termies at last (yay me!). Also brought one of those rattle-cans of Caliban Green in the hopes that it'll cut down on painting time for things like the Tac squad. So I guess we'll see how that goes.

I've had no luck finding that Liquitex stuff locally so I'm gonna have to suck it up and order some online. Also really hard to find locally? Masters brush soap. None of my local haunts carry it so I may have to branch out to some of the arty type stores and see if they have it.

I have a few pictures of various thing to put up but I don't have the to do it right now, so I'll see if I can be bothered after I get back home later.

Hey alrighty then update time. No doubt this is what everyone has been looking forward to with unbridled anticipation since the last time.

So the rattle can of Caliban green was a massive time saver when basecoating. Basecoating the 10 tactical marines with a brush would have taken me the better part of an hour or so, maybe longer. With the can I had the whole squad done in less then 2 minutes. Add in 15 minutes drying time and then they were good to go. Counts as a win in my books.

Knocked out Sergeant Raphael in good time. Pretty happy with him.
I was messing around with photo inserts in an attempt to fill up some of the white space that my photos tend to suffer from. This was the best I could come up with.

And from behind. His armour does have highlights. They just aren't very visible.


Still have to give him pupils. He's blind at the moment. Also gotta fix up his left kneepad. It's supposed to have the 5th company symbol on it and I forgot to do it before I glued the torso piece to the main body so now I have to struggle with fiddly bits.

Here's a shot of the rest of the squad.

Base coated Caliban green. Anything that is to be lightly coloured got a coat of grey.


And an upcoming squad of guardsmen.




The bootless guardsman is still at large.

 Snrub wrote:

The bootless guardsman is still at large.

lol!

Your marines are looking good. Good luck dotting the pupils I always struggle. I get one dead centre and the next slightly off, so they always end up looking like they have a lazy eye

like the improved lasguns for the guardsmen

Cheers Z. I'm starting to get the hang doing little things like eyes and gak. The trick is to a deep breath, breathe out and paint before breathing back in again. Same process as target shooting i believe.


Thanks Sageheart. The converted lasguns are set to feature prominently in the near future. (Hopefully)

What time is it? It's time for AFTERLIFE is what it's time for.



But more on that later.


Polished off Colonel Swordhat.



Started work on the 2nd Platoon command squad (Yellow platoon). They're only bluetac'd at the moment.

Commander.

Bannner Bearer.

And Voxman.



And just by chance l stumbled upon and subsequently won myself a a FW techpriest off ebay the last week as well as a couple these funky FW resin flight bases that they no longer make. Oh and a NIB Iron Warriors Warsmith.

This guy is seriously the fiddlyest model I've ever seen. So many tiny and delicate bits that I have to not lose.

Cool looking flying bases. The big one has a Dreadnought sarcophagus half buried under rubble, a vox caster and some large calibre shells lying about. The little one has a couple of skulls on it.

Warsmith NIB. I'm thinking techmarine conversion for my budding Dark Angels force? Dunno how or why the photo got rotated.



I've got plenty on my plate now to keep me busy for a good long while.

I love the "you sure about this?" look the platoon commander has. You can tell he's glad the grunts are going in before him

Also love the lasgun conversions. They'll look awesome painted up.

I really love the officer.

MrMoustaffa wrote:I love the "you sure about this?" look the platoon commander has. You can tell he's glad the grunts are going in before him

Also love the lasgun conversions. They'll look awesome painted up.

Thanks mate. The lasguns are based around one of my favourite SMG's, the Heckler & Koch UMP .45.

Scipio Africanus wrote:I really love the officer.

Thanks. He's probably my favourite model GW have ever produced. I love everything about him. Unfortunately for him he's getting busted down from Colonel to Captain though. He's only Captain Swordhat now.


~~~~~

Alrighty then. Haven't updated in a while. But here's what i've been working on recently.


Finished off the Company Command Squad.

The pictures are pretty naff so I might take more later on.


Alpha Companies chief medic Hal Razen.


Sgt. Eli Zim, Meltagunner.


Comms-specialist Rassling Moss.


Standard Bearer Nikolus Ram.





Ok, so back in Feb, very shortly after I acquired my cogboy, I off the cuff decided to start work on an Ad-mech army.

Why? Why not!

So I've been working on these Skitarri for the last few days. Let me know what you think of them.

First up. The cogboy himself. Bloody fiddly model he is. Awesome looking. But fiddly.


1st two Skitarri. Pretty basic, not much converting aside from adding some guitar string added.


2nd Skitarri. I gave this guy a grenade launcher because I thought I'd look cool. Also added more wire. His other hand is going to become a pincery manipulator type thing.


I am particularly proud of this conversion. Not that it's any great feat of plastic re-engineering but mostly just because I thought of it all by my self.
I took the guy with the improvised morning star, shaved it down, drilled holes in it and turned it into a censer.


Duelies? Why not. Need to add a hose to his gasmask.


And a final shot of the other 5 who are currently under construction. I think i'll keep these guys pretty stock. A bit of greenstuff here and there to cover up any chaosy type things like extra eyes and what not.



As you might notice there's not much in the way of bionics and such yet. I wanted to get them under way before I started fiddling with them too much. If I started trying to give them all bionics from the get go then I'd get frustrated and give up on it. So I'll work on that aspect of the look later. Do a bit here and there.


And finally, from the Anvil Industry Kickstarter. AFTERLIFE miniatures.
Really grouse models these are and I'm glad I got in on the KS.

Here's a the Pan-Republic Grenadiers.
Sergeant and Medic


Some front line soliders.


"Raider" Exo-mechs.


Taurus Gun tractors.


And a group shot.



Really can't wait to start painting these guys up. But not quite yet. Got other stuff to do first.

As always, there's bigger pictures in my gallery if you want a closer look. But please don't as bigger pictures show up the flaws in my painting.

Thanks for looking.