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I recently got back into the wargaming hobby and I still love the good old Space Marines WH40k has. My old army (Ultramarines, of all things) is so horribly painted it would probably cause people to stab their own eyes out if shown; which I will spare you of (for now).
In other words, I needed to start with a clean slate.

Enter the Death Ravens.

As said in the title, they're a Raven Guard successor chapter: focussing on covert ops, stealth and generally non-suicidal tactics. Unlike their founding chapter, the Death Ravens focus less on the use of jumppacks, relying mostly on regular Tactical squads. They're also on decent terms with the Inquisition due to the chapter helping them crush the Chaos cults who keep trying to get a foothold in the sector.



So far, I've made a few characters and a couple of footsoldiers:


Ezekiel, the first Scout I painted.


The Scout Sergeant. Still needs a name!



Two Marines from the Tactical squad. These guys don't have the final colour scheme (see the Sergeants for that)


Sergeant Tyrell. A hothead with a bad, bad temper. Leads one of the Tactical squads.


Sergeant Cassius. Also leads a Tactical squad.


Chaplain Apollon. I'm really proud of this model.


'The Mountain'. Part of the Chapter Master's honour guard. Also plays a part in the 'darker' pages of the Chapter...

Seeing how long this post has already become, I'm not sure how I'll continue. So I'll ask you.

Would you rather like to see 'character highlights', with more information about who they are in the story and their position in the Chapter, with more detailed pictures per model;
Or posts like this, with short info on multiple characters and more explanations in the gallery?
Please let me know!

Here's the next bunch of Death Ravens I painted.
I've decided to go for a desert theme for the basing, using the 'Agrellan Earth' paint to achieve a desirable effect. I'd like to try to work some bedouin/desert tribe symbolism in there, but I haven't found good material yet. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them

On to the models then.


Meet "The Mountain".
He's part of the Chapter Master's Honour Guard. Not that you'll really notice, he tends to jump straight into the fighting, casually throwing aside both strategy and his orders. He's also constantly in a bad mood (this might be because half his face is made of bionics after he got himself seperated and severely injured) and looks down on everyone below him. His relation with the Chapter Master can be called 'strained' at best, so you can imagine what it's like to work with this guy as a normal Marine.


Following the chain of command, let's head over to the Elites.
This lad is an old Terminator model which used to sport the Ultramarines' colour scheme; after a good bath in some brake fluid, he was ready for a new (and better) paintjob. I've got the rest of his squad de-painted as well, so he won't be alone for long.


Next up, the Vehicles section.
My Ultramarines army also sported three bikers: one Chaplain, one bike with a side-cart on it and a regular biker. Again, a nice bath in brake fluid cured him of his incredibly poor paint job and left him available for the new colour scheme.
This one was fun to work on. I bought a drybrush not too long ago and I got good use out of it here. After finishing the paintjob, I tried to dirty it up a bit to fit with the desert theme I'm going for.
I think it worked out reasonably well.


Lastly, a Marine for the Tactical Squad. I painted the shoulder pads, the backpack and his gun seperately, so I could access all areas more easily.
Also, Corvus helmets are definitly my favorite.

That's all I got for now, if you have any suggestions/advice/tips, please let me know

Nice models so far, maybe try some highlighting. I really like the chaplain but with most codex following chapter their chaplains Armour is completely black except the face and shoulder pads.

 wolfmaster1234 wrote:
Nice models so far, maybe try some highlighting. I really like the chaplain but with most codex following chapter their chaplains Armour is completely black except the face and shoulder pads.

You're right about the Chaplains wearing black armour, and I've been thinking about a way to fix that little issue. I could do it the easy way, namely just saying the Chapter doesn't follow the codex entirely; or I could just re-paint his armour. Thing is, if I'm going to repaint him, I'm considering swapping his sword for a Crozius (my Chaplain-on-a-Bike has one he's not planning on using) but that would require me to chop his current hand off.

Or, alternatively, I could dub him the 'Master of the Rites' for the Chapter fluff and use him as a Chaplain in-game?

I wouldn't worry about in the end you should have it how you want it. I think the sword whether true to his wargear or not, looks cool and suits the model.

So I found some more time to paint some models, as well some time to revisit the first two marines.

Again, I'll follow the chain of command, this time starting with... Terminators!


A Terminator Captain, armed with a stormbolter and a power sword. Also features a standard for a nice banner, which I'm still trying to get ideas for...


Next up, Multi-Melta-wielding Terminator. Because having an oversized power fist to smack people around with wasn't quite overkill enough.


Down the chain of command, we find ourselves with the Infantry again.
This guy was one of the first two marines I painted in this colour scheme, and both of them have been serving me as testers for whatever insanity I come up next with.
They got the honor of testing the Agrellan Earth for their base and the drybrushing to make the marines suit their bases' environment. Now they've been test subjects of my freehanding skills, for better or worse.
I went for an orange detail, as it stands out nicely against the purple. Also, flames. The Salamanders say hi.


The second marine marks the end of this update.
Here, I tried freehanding the Chapter's icon, namely a raven with a skull in the middle (like the Blood Ravens' one, only a bit different). I couldn't fit the raven's head and tail on the shoulder pad, as it was partially obscured by the backpack. Still, it turned out better than expected, considering this is my first try at doing this sort of thing.

That's all I have for you right now, please let me know what you think!

More Death Ravens reporting for duty

The chain of command shall be respected in this post, as per usual.


We're starting off with HQ this time, namely with Force Commander Tullius.
As most of you will notice, this is a SM veteran with a small conversion done to his arm; rather than sporting a powerfist pointing to...somewhere, he now sports a powerfist clenched like he's about to punch someone through a wall. The look of absolute disgust on his face is because he just spotted some foul xenos, not because painting faces is something I suck at, honest.

Also, pink powerfists are the best powerfists.


Down the chain of command, we find ourselves among the Elites again. This guy is the last of my Terminators, which means I now have a full squad of Terminators ready for action I'm probably going to touch up the base a bit on these guys, right now it's just Agrellan Earth and a drybrush of Screaming Skull.


And last but certainly not least, the Terminator captain has received a nice banner.
I really like the purple-black checkers, I think I'll use those some more whenever I get the chance

That's all I have for now, if anyone has some tips about painting checkered patterns or about Space Marine painting in general, let me know

Heya Ezra, this is some really nice stuff you have here, I do like the purple and black combination alot, suitably grim without being as monotonous as the RG pure black,

The freehand shoulders (flames and winged skull) are lovely, i'm really impressed, same with the banner? If that was free hand as well that is really impressive, getting the checks that uniform must have taken an age!

Only thing i might comment on is that for the bases if you base them brown before you apply the cracking effect it will give a lot more natural effect of darker brown under the lighter cracked layer, that said the black has more contrast, but suggests to me that the drop below the cracks is quite deep and dark!

As I say though, really nice stuff, keep it up. Will keep an eye on this.

Awesome stuff Ezra! Always good to see some custom chapters

And as suggested before, they could use some highlights. But otherwise, nice!

@J-paint The banner was made with Adobe Illustrator, I can only dream of freehanding stuff like that
As for the bases, I'll experiment some more with the colours and texture of the base, getting the right desert/cracked mud effect is pretty high on my painting checklist at the moment

@Leviathus I'd love to get highlights on these, thing is I have no idea where exactly to put them

Thanks for the kind words!

You could always of course edge highlight them as GW does. Just go along the edges of the armour with a lighter colour. But alway imagine where the light comes from, do you want it to come from above then give the upper parts of the armour a highlight etc. Perhaps its best to grab a mini and use it as your test model and test things out before you do it in earnest

That said, and just playing devils advocate here, that's assuming you want to go for GW's version of edge highlighting, not that its bad, just there are alternatives like zenithal highlighting where you paint any surfaces facing 'up' or towards the light slightly lighter than those parts that are facing away from the light. Or maybe even a wash will give you a bit more depth? Assuming you want to try ofc, they look nice as they are if you are happy.

Also, adobe! very clever indeed, I may have to borrow that idea!

Oh GWs version is definitely not the best or prettiest way. But perhaps one of the easy ways I guess? But that zenithal highlighting looks stellar! Anyway, its all up to you Ezra. Keep on coming with the good stuff!

And I'd love to see more character info too!

[INCOMING TRANSMISSION]

GREETINGS PATHETIC FOLLOWERS OF THE CORPSE-EMPEROR, I AM MILO THE ABYSMAL, GLORIOUS SERVANT OF THE POWERS ABOVE. I HAVE COME TO INFORM YOU OF YOUR IMMINENT DEMISE. BEHOLD OUR FORCES, AND SHRIVEL IN FEAR!


DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THEIR CALM POSTURE: OUR GROUND FORCES WILL BE A VITAL INSTRUMENT OF YOUR TOTAL ANNIHILATION. THEY HAVE RECEIVED THE BLESSINGS OF NURGLE, AND THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS IS WITHOUT PEER. THEIR SPECIALLY-CRAFTED 'VULTURE' PATTERN HELMETS WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN WITH FEAR, AND WILL PROTECT THEM OF THE DEADLY GASSES WE WILL USE AGAINST YOU.


BEHOLD, OUR MIGHTY WARMACHINE. WE HAVE NAMED HIM SISYPHUS, FOR HIS TRIALS ARE MANY AND HIS REWARDS ARE LITTLE. HE ONCE WAS A PITIFUL MARINE WHO QUESTIONED THE POWERS OF THE DARK GODS. AS YOU SEE, THE GODS HAVE PUNISHED HIM FOR HIS SINS, AS THEY WILL YOU.

AS YOU SEE, YOU STAND POWERLESS AGAINST OUR GLORIOUS WARMACHINE. SOON WE WILL COVER YOUR ENTIRE WORLD IN DEADLY MISTS OF THE MOST POTENT BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS. WE WILL ALL ASCEND FROM THE MOUNTAIN OF YOUR CORPSES!

GLORY TO CHAOS! GLORY TO THE PURGE! HAHAAHAAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAA-

[TRANSMISSION END]

Force Commander Tullius: "...What the hell did I just read?"

As you see, I have recently acquired some Chaos models, which I intend to make into arch-enemies of the Death Ravens. A splinter group from the warband 'The Purge' led by a charismatic psychopath (guess who?) will be causing trouble of all kinds in the Lacrima System, which the Death Ravens will inevitably have to clean up. It will involve biological weapons. LOTS of biological weapons.

I've also worked on my Death Ravens a bit, finishing up the last two marines of my Tactical squad. They have yet to be based, as I'm still experimenting with... various... 'things' coughHellbrutecough. I've also taken a group shot of the two finished squads, as well as some pictures of a bunker I made as scenery.


The Terminators' group photo. If I finally make up my mind about how I'm going to be basing my army, I'll update these guys accordingly.


The Tactical Squads group photo. These models were posed back in the times when I thought that a Marine who wasn't posed as shooting couldn't shoot.
Which is probably what every Commissar would say if wargaming was still a thing in the year 40.000


A close-up of the fourth marine. You'll have to forgive the poorer quality, both my camera and Photoshop are working against me, I swear. Or it's Tzeentch going at it again, who knows.


Aaand the final Marine of the Tactical squad.

Lastly, something not entirely Death Ravens-related: Bunker 23, a small bunker I made as scenery for my models.



That's all I have for now, hope you enjoy!

Oh, and I haven't tried highlighting yet, but I'll look into the tips you guys have given me. Also, character info will be provided somewhere in the near future, once I've finally decided what themes my chapter has

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:
[[i]
The Tactical Squads group photo. These models were posed back in the times when I thought that a Marine who wasn't posed as shooting couldn't shoot.

My Blood Angels Tactical Squad look like distracted bunch of morons As if the sergeant says: "There's the enemy" and then everyone goes "Where?! Where?!!!" *shrug* they look less static that way though

Nice scenery you've got there btw. What materials did you use? Some kind of cardboard?

 Leviathus wrote:

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:
[[i]
The Tactical Squads group photo. These models were posed back in the times when I thought that a Marine who wasn't posed as shooting couldn't shoot.

My Blood Angels Tactical Squad look like distracted bunch of morons As if the sergeant says: "There's the enemy" and then everyone goes "Where?! Where?!!!" *shrug* they look less static that way though :

Guess we now know why the Sanguinor has to show up to fix things every time then

Nice scenery you've got there btw. What materials did you use? Some kind of cardboard?

I used grey cardboard of 1 and 2mm and a lot of patience

Hmm would love to do my own scenery one day. I was thinking about plasticard but cardboard will suffice I guess. And it's cheaper...?

If you can find it somewhere, I'd go with plasticard, you'll get more use out of it, as you can use the stuff for conversions as well

I use grey cardboard because I have an abundance of the stuff lying around, and because I haven't been able to find plasticard anywhere so far (well, except for the internet)

I've finally gotten down to writing down some of the backstory of my Chapter, the first part focussing on the Lacrima system and the Death Raven's homeworld, Charys.

As this is a P&M Blog, I made a separate thread in the Dakka Fiction category, which you can find through my profile or via this link:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/613444.page#7171484

Fortunately, my productivity didn't stop at writing stuff down in Notepad; I've also painted an Imperial Guardsman serving as a PDF trooper on Charys.
I have around 10 of these guys lying around, covered in Cadia's colors (although Cadia would be ashamed to admit that). I wanted to tie them in a bit with the Desert theme, so I went for a Brown-Beige pattern.



I also experimented on the base some more: the Guardsman sports the (almost-) final basing. It's a combination of Agrellan Earth, Armageddon Dust, a wash with Seraphim Sepia and two drybrushings of Tallarn Sand and Screaming Skull.

And here's a picture of some of the things I've tried for the base.


More info available on the gallery page of the picture.

That's all I have for now, thanks for stopping by

Like the guardsman and the bases! Perhaps some tufts of dead grass here and there?

I have a small pack of suitable tufts, I just didn't think of placing them on my test bases

Those bases are very nice, might try using multiple texture paints on one base my self. i think on the final bases you should definitely use tufts of dead grass that would make them look just that bit more epic.

I recently went to the local gaming store to pick up some more paints, and I noticed all Hordes, Warmachine and Dystopian Wars stuff being -50% off. Of course, I couldn't keep my hands off of them, which resulted in me ending up with a Dystopian Wars 'Metzger' and one Saxon Orrik from Hordes.
The Metzger is about the most awesome thing I've seen in a long time (seriously, I love this thing already), and I intend to convert it to a custom Contemptor pattern Dreadnought. I'm mainly going to replace its arms, as the original model has quite slim ones, and that just doesn't look WH40k-like. Big guns it is!

Now I picked up the Saxon Orrik model because he has a nice desert theme going for him. He looks a lot like a Tallarn soldier, whilst still looking like an important guy (probably has to do with his majestic cloak). In other words, I couldn't wait to paint this guy.


I originally planned to replace his rifle with a lasgun, but I couldn't find a good arm replacement, so I left the original one where it was.
His name is Suleyman Al-Khalid, and he's the (military) leader of the Imperial forces on Charys. His backstory is on the gallery page, I'm not sure if I should post those here as well (as this is a P&M blog, after all).
Regardless, painting him was quite fun. I've mainly used washes for this, namely Seraphim Sepia and Agrax Earthshade. This made doing his cloak a lot easier, and gave good results as well.


A back view of the cloak. Also, it is simply fabulous.


And here we have a little comparison between the two model ranges. I've tried to match the colours between the two guys as much as I could, so they still look like they're part of the same team.

I went a little bit overboard on my Screaming skull drybrush, which made the base a little too white for my taste. The base itself is made from Green stuff, which covered the slit in the base (as this is a metal model which requires one). Although it took much fiddling, it looks a bit more like he's standing in the sand and not just on it. The skull also sinks a bit into the sand, which I personally like.

Sadly that's all I have for you today, next time I'll have some actual Death Ravens to show

I finally managed to get some free time again (combining academic studies with painting miniatures doesn't work too well I'm afraid), so I've got some Death Ravens to show you!

...or one, to be precise.

Technically one and a half, but-

*ahem*

Right, on to the new stuff then.


This is the 'half' part of the 'one-and-a-half' new Death Ravens, as I finished this model a while ago (two posts ago no less).
However, as you might have noticed, he's sporting some nifty freehanding. I think I've finally got a good design going for my Chapter, and this is my first attempt at actually painting it.
It took quite some time, but I think the result makes up for that.


Next up is the actually new addition to my forces, namely a Terminator Sergeant, who will lead the second squad (once I get those other guys assembled and painted).
He's still very much 'Work in Progress', right now he only has the base colour of the purple on him. The reason he isn't finished yet is his base.


I'm a bit stuck with the base, to be honest. I can't help but feel something is missing (and it's certainly not skulls). I'm also quite unsure about how the colours of my terminator will contrast with the ones of the base, so if anyone has any suggestions on how I could 'fix' this little issue, it'd be much appreciated

That's all I've got for you now, next update I hope I'll have a bit more to show

Nice freehanding Ezra! And I love the icon design!

As for the base, I think you should finish the termie first then tweak the base. Then you'll have a better look on the whole picture methinks. But, good to see some updates!

So I finished the Terminator first, as I couldn't figure out what to do with the base

Behold his glorious looks!


The man with the plan.
Spoiler warning: the plan is to kick your ass.


I really like hazard stripes, I think they work well with the dark and broody colours of the Chapter.


I really enjoy painting these badges (even though they take ridiculous amounts of time to get right), my only niggle is that I have to swap one of the shoulder pads' colours to purple instead of black, ruining the symmetry

That's all I have for now, hopefully I'll be able to post a bigger update in the coming weeks

He was tired. It had taken him much more time and effort than he had expected, but it was finally over. For now, at least.
The Astartes walked slowly across the battlefield. How many had he slain today, he wondered, as he stared into the lidless eyes of a cultist, lying dead amongst his comrades. So many lives lost, and for what?
For the promise of power? Pathetic.
His eyes drifted across the blasted landscape, looking for nothing in particular yet still finding exactly the source of his anger. A helmet lying in the dirt. As he walked over to it, he stared in disgust at the remains of his former brothers, their bodies eviscerated in the gruelling combat that had taken place not too long ago. He had sent them all to their doom. Every kill registered in his mind, as if some cruel sense of guilt carved it into his memory every time he closed his eyes.
When he reached the helmet, he paused. He stared into the twisted expression, the gruesome smile that had been wrought upon the shape of the helmet, almost as if it were mocking him. Once again, he felt the pain of betrayal ignite the fires of hate inside him. His brothers, his Legion, had betrayed the Emperor. They had carved a bloody path through the galaxy, only to turn around with their tails between their legs when Horus was slain by the Emperor's hand. He lifted one of his feet and crushed the helmet in one strike. "Your souls are with your gods now, traitors", he spoke to the ruined landscape.
"I hope it was worth it."




A bit of variety won't hurt, right?

I experimented with a new colour scheme today, trying to capture a bit of an Iron Warriors feel. Fluff-wise, I'm not sure what to do with him.
Originally, he was supposed to be of the 2nd Legion, one of the 'missing' legions, but I think a loyalist/renegade marine of the Iron Warriors might be more interesting to write about (as you can hopefully see in the text above).

Any thoughts?

I've always been a stickler for metallic colour schemes! Looking good so far (picture is a wee bit dark though).

 Leviathus wrote:
I've always been a stickler for metallic colour schemes! Looking good so far (picture is a wee bit dark though).

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only darkness

All jokes aside, it was late when I snapped the pics of this guy, and the best lightsource was my desk lamp

I like how the colour scheme finally came out, I'd imagined the grey to be much darker but I suppose it works like this too

Also, what do you think of his backstory? It's the first time I've written a more personal story about one of my Marines, it's not Black Library material but I hope it was still fun to read

Doing great work so far. Really nice and crisp colours. Keep it up.