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I don't consider myself a great painter, or even a good one, but I'm doing my best!!

I played 40k years ago, but never really painted my own models, but since I've got back into the hobby after 8th edition launched I've really started to enjoy painting and seeing my own progress.
Comments, criticism and advice is most welcome. I don't expect to ever get to proper display standard, but I'm pretty pleased with my standard of painting but am looking to improve.


My homebrew chapter colours are mostly because of the colours that came in the starter paint set I bought when I got back into the hobby, and Raven Guard successors becasue I like the chapter symbol - very heraldic, plus by the time I got around to getting transfers I'd already painted the shoulder pads black, so wanted a chapter symbol in white, and don't have the skill to freehand one!!

So these are my Night Raven Intercessors:

That color scheme is really working for me. Welcome back to the best part of the hobby (painting/headcannon)

Thanks, yeah I've been really enjoying the creation of my own Chapter and the painting. I think I might be the slowest painter of all time though! I've just never thought to post anything online until now.

Still don't particularly enjoy actually building the models all that much though.

I've got some more squads and characters already painted, I'm going to take photos of them and post soon.

Welcome back to the hobby!
Painting slowly isn't uncommon, I take way too long to paint my models as well.
I really like your scheme, it works well. And your painting isn't bad at all, especially for someone who hasn't painted much in the past. Keen to see more.

P.S. how can you not enjoy building?! I find it really relaxing and could build stuff all day.

 Tiberius501 wrote:
Welcome back to the hobby!
Painting slowly isn't uncommon, I take way too long to paint my models as well.
I really like your scheme, it works well. And your painting isn't bad at all, especially for someone who hasn't painted much in the past. Keen to see more.

P.S. how can you not enjoy building?! I find it really relaxing and could build stuff all day.

Thanks! Well I used to not enjoy painting the models at all and was only interested in playing and reading the background, and now painting is my favourite part of the hobby, so maybe with a bit more practice/confidence I'll start to enjoy the building a bit more!

I find the painting relaxing and would happily do it all day long these days!


Anyway, here's the rest of my Intercessors:

Couldn't fit all the images in one post, so here's my third and final squad of intercessors

Here's the Reivers I painted for my Night Ravens. I got them in two separate sets of 3 (easy build) and painted the two groups a few weeks apart.

Here's the first 3:

And here's the second set of three. I painted this batch a couple of weeks after the first and made one or two adjustments to the colours, white rather than silver for the skull masks, picked out some details in green and I think my highlighting is a little neater, especially on the leather satchels and whatnot. Also happier with the sergeant's face, still not happy with the hair, but I'm overall happy with how they turned out:

After my Intercessors and Reivers I got myself a squad of Scouts. I'd planned on keeping the Chapter all Primaris, and I'm not sure if Scouts fit into this in the official fluff or not, but in my head cannon the Night Ravens use scouts the same way as regular Marines chapters do, before they finish the transformation into fully fledged marines.

I'm not big into fluff writing, so don't have a history of the chapter and a name for the home world et al, but I have established some rules for the organisation of the Chapter in order to help determine squad and company markings and to keep myself consistent with the colour scheme.

Essentially the chapter colour is Navy Blue (akin to Crimson Fists and Night Lords), but the Chapter wears black on the shoulder pads in honour of the Raven Guard, sort of acknowledging their roots.
Other than that, the chapter is pretty Codex Standard (for a Primaris Chapter) so the red trim on the shoulders indicates 3rd Company. When their is a colour highlight or trim, it will also be red mostly, for the same reason.

Sergeants wear red helmets and knee pad. Veterans would wear a white (so my Ancient, when painted), and Command would also have their own helmet markings - black with a red stripe for the Lieutenants, and a black helmet for the Captain. I'll post these all here in due course.

Anyway, here's my Night Ravens Scouts. I think they look great next to the Primaris Marines, I like the difference in scale between them.


I'm very happy with how the Camo Cloaks turned out, I watched a bunch of videos online to get tips before I started and went for a sort of Urban Camo palette, it think its nicely in keeping with the Navy Blue Chapter colours. I'm also really pleased with how the green lenses have ended up. Was my first time painting lenses and camouflage.

Those look suspiciously like Papa Cawl had an Oopsie involving some geneseed of both the Night Lords and the Raven Guard.

"Aw damn! I totally didnt mean to mix those. Those glands somehow ended up together in the gene-splicer and then I already made a batch of new Marines before EVEN noticing! OOP-SIE! Interesting though how those seeds seem to be a perfect mixture. Just LOOK at those Subjects. We'll ... Just pretend this never happened right? They're raven guard. Yeeeees. Nothing else in there. Nonono. LOOK at them SNEAKING and CREEPING! They're perfect!"

Morkphoiz wrote:
Those look suspiciously like Papa Cawl had an Oopsie involving some geneseed of both the Night Lords and the Raven Guard.

"Aw damn! I totally didnt mean to mix those. Those glands somehow ended up together in the gene-splicer and then I already made a batch of new Marines before EVEN noticing! OOP-SIE! Interesting though how those seeds seem to be a perfect mixture. Just LOOK at those Subjects. We'll ... Just pretend this never happened right? They're raven guard. Yeeeees. Nothing else in there. Nonono. LOOK at them SNEAKING and CREEPING! They're perfect!"

Actually, that is pretty much my head cannon for the Night Ravens. Between the colours, and the NIGHT Raven chapter name, but I think its a little on the nose to say it outright. But its also why the wear the black pauldrons, sort of to say "See, we really are Raven Guard Successors, honest!!!" Kind of trying a little too hard to be Raven Guard. I haven't decided whether or not anyone is aware of potential Night Lord legacy, maybe sort of inner circle in the higher echelons of the Chapter, but that might be a little too Dark Angelsy. Also, I've heard some people frown upon homebrew loyalist successors to traitor legions, so its deliberately ambiguous. As it is, I play them with the Angel of Death Warlord trait for -1 Leadership, My Ancient (already painted, I'll post a pic at some point) always carries the Standard of the Emperor Ascendant for -1 Leadership, and I've got an unopened box of 10 more Reivers on top of the 6 already painted for more -1 Leadership.


So... nothing like the Night Lords at all, definitely Raven Guard Successors. There's nothing to see here, move along, thank-you.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So after my Scouts I painted up my Inceptors. I wasn't sure what do with the Jump packs and decided on a grey. I wanted to something other than just dark blue and black, and thought to go with the red as a company colour on them would be too much since that's already on the shoulder trim and the chest eagles as well as the Sergeant's knee and helmet. Decided on grey as It's sort of in keeping with my overall theme of a Chapter that sneaks around and probably mostly strikes at night, grey seemed to fit with that especially if they are dropping from the sky. Most fighter jets are some sort of grey after all.

I decided to try and get a sort of flame/heat type glow from the jump packs and I'm mostly happy with that especially since it was my first time trying that sort of effect. I really should have put more effort in with the bolters though rather than just silver all over, but if I remember rightly I was trying to get them finished on time for my first game as I finally had enough models painted that I could enter a local 500pt tournament. I think the pose looks really good and dynamic, the standard pose seems to have them just sort of sitting there. I think this looks a lot more aggressive, like they're really rushing forward into the fight on those jump packs.









The only thing I was missing for my 500pt tournament was an HQ. I still had all the characters from the Dark Imperium set unpainted. I'd been putting them off unitl I'd painted a few squads hoping to get to a standard that I'd be happy with for a character. I decided to pick the Auto Bolt Rifle Lieutenant. I'm happy with how he turned out, especially as he was my first character. I'm especially pleased with the face and with the helmet. As you can see, I decided that Lieutenants in the Night Ravens wear a black helmet with a red stripe. (Red is my Sergeant Colour, and Black will be for the Captain, so this seemed like a nice intuitive choice).

I painted the Hellblasters and Aggressors next.

Before painting the hellblasters I did a little research online for tips for painting the plasma guns. I went for green in the end to contrast with the existing colour scheme. Really pleased with them:










The Aggressors came next:









After the Hellblasters and Aggressors were painted, I needed to fill out my HQ choices, and still had my Gravis Captain, Power Sword Lieutenant and Ancient still to paint from the Dark Imperium set.

I've almost photographed and posted all of my Night Ravens now, just the characters to go and I'll be up to date. And my Redemptor (If you fancy a look at it, you can see it in my P&M Blog thread. I'll be posting it here once I've caught up with the last few Night Ravens characters).


First up, my Gravis Captain. This was my first attempt to properly paint a cloak. I don't really count the scouts, because I was concentrating on trying to get a camo pattern and didn't pay too much attention to try and capture the depth of the shadows or the highlights. I'm really happy with how it turned out, I decided on red since that's the 3rd company's colour and it seemed the only choice for the colour of cloak for the 3rd Company's Captain! I used 4 different reds as well as a wash and a glaze. I tried to get a lightning effect on the power sword, I'm not as happy with how this turned out, I can't seem to get my brush strokes steady enough or fine enough. Just have to keep trying. I went with a Black helmet, having already established that Red helmets are for Sergeants and the Lieutenant had a black helmet with a red stripe - so solid black for the Captain.

Here he is:










After getting my Captain ready for battle, I thought he needs someone to carry his banner, so the Ancient was next up. I used the same technique on the banner as I had on the Captain's cloak and its ok but don't think it turned out as well as it did on the Captain, I don't think it has quite enough shadow in the recesses, but i think its alright (Again, it had to red, the company banner has to be in the company colour!!). Actually, I'm pretty happy with the shading on the banner for the dark blue sections on the front, its more the red on the back that I think looks a bit flat.
The white is a bit overexposed in the photos, I tried a few times but couldn't seem to get a photo where the white came out looking right without the rest of the model looking far too dark. I'm actually really happy with the white, I built it up from black primer with Skavenblight Dinge, Dawnstone and Ulthuan Grey and final highlights with White Scar.
I tried to get some writing on the banner - "THIRD" for the 3rd Company. I'm not happy with this to be honest!! Any advice on how to paint writing would be most welcome!

The last of the minis I painted from the DI set was the Power Sword Lieutenant. I was really happy with this model, I managed to get a much better power sword effect than I'd managed on the Gravis Captain, going with red and yellow flames inspired by the Burning Blade relic. I manged to get much cleaner edge highlights on much of the model, especially the leather holsters and satchels, and on the black helmet with the red stripe. Getting better on the blue armour too, but still sloppy in places, especially on the calves.

After I finished off my Dark Imperium Primaris Marines (and the few extra models - Scouts, Reivers and Aggressors) I went and got myself a Primaris Librarian. I really like the look of this model when it first came out and was really looking forward to painting it.


First thing was to figure out the colour scheme. I wanted him to immediately stand out and be easily identified as a Librarian, but still have him look like he was part of the same Chapter. Librarians, of course, are traditionally blue, but my army is already blue. I had a look at Some Librarian colour scheme online and saw that most Crimson Fist Librarians seem to be painted the same colour as the rest of the army, and my blue armour is similar to the Crimson Fists armour, but I didn't fancy this since he wouldn't really stand out. And most Ultramarine Librarians seem to be a darker shade of blue, which wouldn't work for me either. So I decided to go with a lighter blue inspired by the Thousand Sons colour Scheme.

My other dilemma was that usually the Chapter colour is painted on the shoulder pad of the Librarian, but my Chapter has a different colour on the shoulders already - black instead of the dark blue of the rest of the armour. So I decided to keep the black shoulder pad, but his cloak would be the Chapter colours. I think this really works and ties the model in with the rest of the army while also making sure that he stands out. No Red trim on his shoulders since that's the 3rd Company colours and as a Librarian he stands apart from the Companies, so I went with gold trim.

I'm very happy with how he turned out, I think I made some good decisions on the colours overall and I'm very happy with the cloak, bothe the Dark blue and the yellow. I'm a bit disappointed with how the Force Sword has turned out, nowhere near as good as the Power Sword on the Lieutenant. I tried to get a glowy effect for psychic powers on the eyes and in his hand, I think the eyes are ok if a bit sloppy, but like it on the hand.


Please feel free to leave comments and criticism!

Those last two models really show you hitting your stride with these guys. They turned out very well.

I think it's a great color scheme and i am always for people making their own chapters and suchlike. That's the fun of a lot of the hobby to me.

I do agree that the eyes might need a bit of touching up but it's still a very neat figure

 youwashock wrote:
Those last two models really show you hitting your stride with these guys. They turned out very well.

Thanks, yeah, its nice to see some progress from where I was at the start.

amazingturtles wrote
I think it's a great color scheme and i am always for people making their own chapters and suchlike. That's the fun of a lot of the hobby to me.

I do agree that the eyes might need a bit of touching up but it's still a very neat figure

Thanks, I'm really happy with the colour scheme, particularly since I sort of stumbled onto it initially and made it up as I went along rather than planning it out fully to begin with. I'm thoroughly enjoying making up the Chapter, its colours and a bit of fluff.

Here's my Redemptor Dreadnought, I've posted this already in my P&M Blog thread, but now that it's finished, and I'm up-to-date with posting the rest of the Chapter its time to add it here.















I'm currently working on a Repulsor for the Night Ravens and will post it when finished, and I'll try and get a whole army shot soon too.

Fantastic work! Also extremely cool looking model as-well.

 Stormatious wrote:
Fantastic work! Also extremely cool looking model as-well.

Thanks! I'm really happy with how this one turned out.


I've finally got around to taking photos of all my Night Ravens, but can't seem to get a picture I'm happy with. I've tried with a few different backgrounds and tried to get the lighting right, but this is the best I could do. Still, Its pretty cool to see them all together. So here are the Night Ravens:

First against a dark background -


Against a light background -


Lit from above -


And with the camera flash -

They make for an impressive army together, that is for sure. And any completed army is an army worth celebrating, especially one done so well.

 amazingturtles wrote:
They make for an impressive army together, that is for sure. And any completed army is an army worth celebrating, especially one done so well.

Thanks, I've never had a whole painted army before, its really nice to see it all together!! Back when I used to play and hobby before I had an extended hiatus form it I'd always end up starting and not finishing various armies and projects!!


I've added to the Night Ravens with a Repulsor. I've made a few modifications when I built the model since I'm not super keen on some of the aspects of the model. The main changes are not fitting the skids, no antennas on the turret, and repositioning some of the weapons.

I posted the WIP pics and some finsihed photos on my P&M blog thread, but here are some new photos of the finished model without my hand in shot. They've turned out a bit on ther dark side, but I think still show the model off fairly well. The photos in my P&M blog thread are a bit lighter, so might show off the model better, but I don't like that my hand is in some of the photos/

Let me know what you think, and any criticism and/or advice is welcome.