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Hi Dakka,

I've decided to go ahead and create a P&M blog which will hopefully portray my journey into the world of WH40K and maybe some WHFB, LOTRO/Hobbit and any other modelling shenanigans that I get up to!

I first started collecting 40K back in 2000 when I was 12. My first army was a very badly painted (12 year old me was pretty bad) Ultramarine army which I also played. I stopped collecting after a couple of years, had a brief 2 year spell of playing around 2006 and stopped again.

Roll around to the back end of 2013 and I started buying bits and pieces to get back into the hobby, however after allsorts of hold ups (including moving house) I finally got round to starting my first project, Salamanders. I don't plan on playing my Salamanders, they are mearly a painting/modelling project so I've gone a bit mad and bought models that I like the look of and fun to paint . Further to the marines, I've also started collecting some Tyranids. The nids will be my first army I've played and will probably be painted in Hive Fleet Leviathan colours, more to come on those later

If you have got this far then thank you, I intend to keep this blog as upto date as possible on a regular basis, however I'm a quite a slow painter .

Enough of the talking, a couple of pictures! First of all an apology, they are phone pics as I need to charge the good camera but can't find the cable, once found I will use that to take proper photos. The first picture is what I have waiting to be painted (since this photo I have added a Predator):



The next two pictures are of my first completed marine, minus the base. There are a few things that I feel like I need to change. I messed up on the flames on the shoulder pad, the split between each layer isn't big enough (You can barely see the orange layer at all) so for the next model each layer will be much smaller than last and I will try adding a little white at the end! I also feel like I need to neaten up the edge highlights as they are slightly messy (although from looking at the picture quality, that may be hard to tell ).





This final picture is of my second marine I am currently working on. I'm taking it slower than the first and trying to build on what i've learnt already, however If you have any suggestions/improvements I can make over the first model than please let me know as I really want to improve.



Thanks so much for getting this far, I really do appreciate it. Please do drop a comment saying hello, you suck, I like your penguin mug or whatever. All comments are welcome!

Welcome to blogging

It looks like you have alot to get your teeth into.

You've got a solid start on the Salamanders, they look great. You have a solid green colour and the highlighs are fab on the entire marine. However, I did notice a thing or two: the first marine has an unpainted skull on his helmet, easy to miss, and easy to fix Also, you could try layering the red in the eyes. Something like (from a black basecoat) dark red on all of it, medium red on front 2/3rds, then bright red on the front 1/3rd. Then go back and put a small dot of white into the top corner of the darkest colour. It's a really simple technique and looks great. Check the gallery for some pointers, more or less every marine I see has his eye lenses painted this way.

A gentler colour transition on the flames would make it look great, too.

You mentioned that you are getting stuff you think look cool. Have you seen this? I dont know where you stand on FW stuff, but that is cool.

Z

Nice start.

The armor and bolter are great, but I agree the flames need work. In the first picture the angle made me think you had done squad markings. The side shot makes them look more angular, like a mountain range, not a fire.

Not that I think I could do much better, particularly on a first shot. But it drew the eye. The armor base is smooth, the highlights subtle, but there. I like the black-line/wash on the recessed parts. Overall a solid job.

Freehand: not easy. But overall it looks like you have the skill to make it happen, just need to hammer out a few more shoulder pads to get some practice.

Looking forward to seeing where you go!

Considering the break you've had, these are good efforts.
The flames might not be spot on, but I think this will come with a couple of tries.

Interested to see where you take this!

Dan

Wow thanks for the quick repsonses, went and lost a ranked game of League of Legends, come back and replies

@Zambro - Wow you have good eyes, nice spot on the helmet, I hadn't even noticed! Thanks very much for the tip on the eyes, I wasn't sure what to do so that is perfect! As for the Dread from FW, it is , I've got my eyes on some FW pieces once I have my first batch of stuff completed, that is now on the list!!

@Nevelon - That's pretty much what I (and the misses) said they looked like when I had finished, I will try on the next and hopefully it's better. If I can't then I'm kind of screwed as ya know, flames are sort of the Salamanders thing lol Thanks for the comment, glad you like the rest of it!

@Smithy - Thank you very much. I've got some ideas for some small conversions and painting ideas so will see how it goes!

Do you have access to the old 5th ed. space marine codex? If you do, check the Salamander land speeder on page 120. There are a few flames on it that look great. And on the pad of the driver too. It's more like a flame opposed to a fire, if that makes sence? If you dont have access to it, just say, i'll post a picture of it for you.

Back when I got into 40k first I started with sallies, that is how I did the flames on the pads. It will help with the issue of it looking like a mountain range. I dug around my hard drive looking for pictures of my sallies for some inspiration for you, but nothing :(

Also, i'll be sticking around waiting for that dreadnough to be painted It's one of a handful of my favourite FW models

@Zambro - I managed to check out those 5th Ed Pictures after a friend kindly showed me the codex pages, they do indeed look pretty smart, will try and give them I go! If you have any luck of finding your Salamander pictures let me know

RIGHT, update time. It's been a while unfortunately, but with parents coming to visit and really busy with work (I mean one day involved an 8 hour safety meeting ) I haven't had much time to do hobby stuff. Luckily this weekend things have taken a turn for the better!

I started off with popping into my local(ish) GW to pick up some new bits (it was payday, be rude not to). My first purchase of the day:



This is a finished picture, unfortunately there are no WIP pictures so you will have to trust me, it was delicious

Afterwards I went to my local GW for some bits, I picked up some bits for my Tyranid army and two bits for my Salamanders, these dudes:



and a Lord Executioner to go with them, I know not many like the models but I'm a fan of the bling. In my mind the Vanguard will be the Honor guard for the Lord Executioner!

Onto Painting then, I finished my second tactical marine. I'm pretty pleased with this one, some of the line highlights are a bit sloppy but overall I'm pleased:



and here is my second attempts at the flames, I think these turned out better than the first in terms of shape but I messed up the colours. Slowly getting there, what do you guys think??:



I then came up with an idea for how I'm going to base the army, this is obviously quite a big piece so will save it for something special, again what do you think?:



I was then dragged to Ikea by the misses today, however that didn't turn out too bad these draws I picked up to organise my hobby stuff so thought I would show you guys how I keep my gear:





and then:



Finally Tactical Marine number 3 WIP, I'm hoping to progress quicker than I have up till now, plan is to have a couple more complete by the weekend:



That's all for now folks, I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. Any comments or hints and tips please feel free to drop a comment. Thanks

Absolutely beautiful. I'm sure it tasted great!

I like the vanguard vets. Who wouldn't? There are loads of bits to customise models with - only 5 legs and torsos, but easily enough bits to kit out 10 guys. And that base, I think it should be reserved for a vanguard veteran to diving off of it swinging his weapon of choice.

Hmm that is interesing, between those and the sternguard vets, if I could get my hands on 10 legs and torsos I could be onto a winner! Thanks for that.

As for the base, I'm thinking one of the vets or maybe the Lord himself. Does the base look realistic/ok? Am going for a rocky base theme for the army with grasses and some smaller stones/gravel so trying to get my technique down for the rocks.

Cheers

What struck me with the second set of flames was the contrast between colors. You might want to try your hand at blending them. The shape is better then the first; keep practicing!

While I hear people bad-mouthing the rules for vanguard vets, as minis they generally get high praise. I know I love the ones I put together. You can definitely stretch the kits out with extra bodies. I added the parts from an assault marine so I could get a captain with a jump pack and a 5 man vanguard squad. Cutting the sternguard box with tacticals also works.

The base looks real. The lord executioner has more of a striding across the battlefield pose, so it might not be the best base for him. A vanguard sarge with a more dynamic pose might suit it better. It is rather tall though, I might try to keep the rest a little bit lower. Works for jump troops though.

I am envious of your workspace organization and display shelving unit. Get some clutter going STAT!

Yeh I definately messed up the colours this time, surpirsingly there is actually an orange layer in there but it has completely disappeared. Blending could definately be the way forward but I have no idea how Will check out some youtube videos when I get home, if you have any pointers that would be great to

I will need to come up with another idea for a base for the Lord then, I haven't seen the model in the flesh yet (my local GW had to order it in ) To be fair it was the biggest piece of Cork I had in my tub, there are however some slightly smaller pieces but I will cut these down before using them. I don't have to use this base if I don't want to, I mainly did it to see how it turned out, I do however like the idea of an assault marine leaping of with a power weapon in his hands!

I agree with Nev about the lord executioner not being the right pose for that base.

The base itself is great. Probably scale it down for the other guys, but you have the essence right.

As for the blending, wet blending is really tough (Well, at least I cant do it :( ). You could try mixing and layering. Get your 3 colours (Red, orange, yellow). Start with a layer of your red, marking out the shape. Then mix a little bit of orange into it, so it is just slightly brighter, and then layer it onto the red, leaving some red showing just at the edges of the flame. Then add some more orange and repeat the process. Keep going until the colour is almost orange, then jump to a solid orange. Paint pure orange on the middle of the flames, leaving the layered areas visible. Do exactly the same with the orange and yellow.
The process takes a while, but should be worth it when it's finished.

Looks like your off to a good start, the green on the sallys looks really nice. Flames are quite hard to do but it looks like your getting the knack of it.

Oh the penguin mug looks good also

@Zambro - I looked at some wet blending videos last night on the tube and I agree, it looks rather difficult. I will probably give your method ago, just need to have the patience I might practice on a bigger panel that I have lying around first to see who I get on.

@GirrafeX - Thanks for dropping in and thanks for the kind words, it's my favourite mug Also another fellow Wiltshire-ite, I'm in Melksham!


So last night I did some more work on Marine number 3. I completed the green coat and blacked in all the necessary bits and also but a brown base layer on the gold parts. Tonight will consist of a wash of the whole model and line highlighting. I'll post a progress pic tonight when done!

Cheers.

Are you Spuj off OCUK by any chance?

I think you've got the armour nailed down, the green looks stunning (what method are you using?)

Definitely the flames that need work, if you don't want to try wet blending then you can achieve a similar effect with careful application of thinned paints of different shades

Hey Shami, it certainly is me I can't get onto OCUK atm as I can't remember my password for love nor money and have no idea how to reset it. I've been keeping my eye on the threads but no way to respond lol as I also wanted to post some of these pics in the OCUK threads.

I've kept my method for the armour simple as I thought it would allow me to keep consistency across each piece. The model is basecoated black, I then was the whole thing in a watered down Warboss Green. Once dried I go back over in Warboss green to get a solid colour, the whole model is then washed in Nuln Oil to darken it down and then I edge highlight with Moot Green

It does seem like thinning and slowly mixing colours is going to be the way to go! I was looking at some Salamandersa on youtube and the guy hadn't done flames on their pads as they were just tactical marines. Why didn't I think of that

To be honest, it's good to get the practice in on these guys as I will hopefully have it nailed for when I start doing the bigger and more badass stuff!

Cheers.

Haha, thought you'd been gone for a while! To reset your password you need to PM one of the Commissarios/Admins (there's a list with links to email them here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/faq.php?faq=vb_user_maintain#faq_vb_sig_explain)

Did you ever finish your marine for the competition?

That one marine looks so alone in the display case lol.

 bossfearless wrote:
That one marine looks so alone in the display case lol.

He will have more friends soon I promise