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Howdy! This is a continuation of my Captain, My Captain thread from the P&M forum, found here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/660997.page

Lots of pictures of both WIP and finished models in the thread above. I intend for this thread to be more about the finished models and to document the next steps with before and after pictures, with the occasional WIP picture to show something that turned out particularly nicely in the painting or showcase a well executed conversion.

That all being said, let the picture-splosion commence!!

First: The Vth Battle Company's Captain, Aedus Sendini, The Blood Angel Chapter's Keeper of the Arsenal, and commander of the Vth Battle Company: The "Daemonbanes"









Next up, we have Captain Sendini's Honor Guard:







Captain Sendini, with his Honor Guard:



(Individual honor guard member photos can be found in my Gallery, here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-3687-49023_Finished%20Blood%20Angels.html)

Next we have Brother Epistolary Lexon, attached to the Vth Battle Company. (My most recently completed Angel)
















And lastly, my first and only completed Death Company marine, painted as a test mini for my black & highlighting tests. Four more are waiting to be assembled and painted to round out the squad in this same style.











Now that the finished minis have been posted, I can move on to the current project: the first half of a 10 man Tactical Squad, starting with the squad Heavy Weapon specialist, carrying a Heavy Flamer.

Here are the component parts with some preliminary work done on the base as well as base coat laid down on the component parts & weapon.



And lastly, the progress on this Marine thus far:





Once this mini is completed I'll move on to the next marine in the squad and try to power through the last four as quickly as I can before moving on to a small five man Scout Squad and then, in theory, finishing up the four remaining Death Company to complete the five man squad there. After that, I suspect I'll begin work on an Assault Squad and then more Death Company & Tactical Marines.

Lots of projects to attack in the coming weeks & months. I appreciate folks looking & following along with the progress if you'd like

With that all being said, I'll beg my leave for now & check back in with updates in short order as soon as I'm able.

Take it easy for now.

-Red__Thirst-

Always happy to see another BA blog, testament to the background and look of the army that they continue to be popular in spite of being a lower tier army rules wise.

These look great, lovely smooth painting and characterful conversions. I look forward to your tactical squad getting completed, best of luck with the army.

 Thraxas Of Turai wrote:
Always happy to see another BA blog, testament to the background and look of the army that they continue to be popular in spite of being a lower tier army rules wise.

These look great, lovely smooth painting and characterful conversions. I look forward to your tactical squad getting completed, best of luck with the army.

Thank you kindly for that, Thraxas. I'm having fun still playing and getting wins with Blood Angels around here. It's a hard fight, most games, but I always have fun with it.

I'm really pushing myself to paint this army to the utmost of my ability, to not be slapdash about any part of it. I'm painting each mini as though I were going to enter it into a painting competition, so that each & every model is one I can pick up and be proud of. Yes, it will take me far, far longer to finish the army painting it this way, but I'm getting some fierce enjoyment out of painting this way and really enjoy having an army of nicely painted models to show off and take to the table to play with.

I hope to have more updates soon. Thanks for the kind words once again and take it easy for now.

-Red__Thirst-

Just throwing this in here real fast as an update, as I'm very happy with how the decal came out showing the company emblem on the left shoulder.

Hope folks like:



And a general progress shot of the mini:



I've gotten started on the heavy flamer now and am about 75% finished with it. Down to highlighting the black portions of it, then painting the nozzle housing brass and doing final detail work on it. Once that's attached I'll get the right shoulder pad painted, then the backpack and I'll have the model finished up.

More updates to come later. Thanks for looking folks.

Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-

The Librarian looks brilliant RT.

Nice to see you've migrated the BA reboot into a P&M blog.

Subbed!

EDC

Thanks Dr. Cheese!

Quick update on progress this morning and into the afternoon. I've gotten the Heavy Flamer finished up (Barring a touch up or two I may make in a bit) and have gotten it attached. I'm very happy with the burned metal effect I achieved on the nozzle/business end of the weapon.

More images can be found in my gallery, but here's where we sit at present.



Work has also begun on the left shoulder pad. I'll have it finished and attached in short order, then will move on to the back pack.

Take it easy and further updates will be forthcoming.

-Red__Thirst-

The Heavy Flamer Marine is looking gorgeous so far. Nice work

Quick update on the model before I go to work tonight.







Work has started on the backpack, and I'll have the mini finished up by this weekend I hope. Fingers crossed, anyway.

After that I'll keep chipping away at tactical marines, and may mix in a Death Company marine depending on my mood so I can in theory have both five man tactical squad and Death Company squads finished up by mid-December if I can keep this pace (doubtful with the holidays, but we'll see.)

More to come soon. Take it easy and as always thanks for looking.

-Red__Thirst-

I think they look great. very clean and well detailed....look forward to seeing more.

I really like the scorched effect you have on the heavy flamer barrel. Nicely done.

Thank you for that, GamesEtc, and you as well War Kitten.

As for the scorched effect, it's fairly simple in the process. I got the brass laid down over a base coat of Zamesi Desert, then did several progressive drybrush layers of the old Tinbitz shade over the end, with more drybrshed closer to the front as I processed, finishing with a Nuln Oil wash over the end. Finally I culminated with some very light back ink feathered over the edge closest to the muzzle of the flame thrower. You can kinda see it more when you look at the muzzle head on.

The next few bolter marines should be pretty fast in process I hope. I may batch paint three of them at once, though I feel like the quality may dip if I do that. We'll see.

Further updates to come. Take it easy for now folks,

-Red__Thirst-

Looking good Thirst. I really like how crisp your whites are, with just the most subtle hint of blue.

EDC

Thank you kindly for that, Dr. Cheese

Blood Angels, at least as GW depicts them currently, use a lot of black & dark colors on the chest Aquila and chapter symbols. I think this looks good, to a point, but I want my Blood Angels to be brighter and more in line with the Angelic parts of their nature. I'm building my Angels as the 5th Battle Company, which are known as the "Daemonbanes". I want to use more white and gold in the army versus black & dark grey in an effort to demonstrate that they represent the purer more noble side of their Primarch, visually. The exception to this will be the Death Company, which as seen above, will use silver trimmings more than the gold on the 'regular' squads (Tactical, Assault, Devastator & Veteran Marines). I want them to have a darker, more menacing look, with whites washed ever so lightly with grey shades versus the blue I'm using on the other white bits seen above.

Most of the chest Aquila and decoration will be in gold, but a few will get the white treatment on their chest armor. It'll really depend on the model and what kind of personality (for lack of a better term) I want to establish for the miniature in the modeling and dry fitting phase.

More to come in the near future. Take it easy for now & thanks for reading along if you made it this far.

-Red__Thirst-

Keep up the beautiful work on these Blood Angels, Red Thirst! Very exemplar paintjob - aiming for perfection, as true Scions of Sanguinius do. The librarian is an inspirational model, both in modelling and painting, and the scorch marks on the heavy flamer look really good.
Subbed and activey following your progress,

Thank you for that, Mara! I hope, in theory, to be finished up with this Tactical Marine in very short order. I'll try to update here as often as I can with progress.

I'm currently debating my next mini to paint. I really need to start working on some more Death Company and finish the squad of them I've got started up, but I also need to get some basic line troops painted as well. I'm going to mull over which direction i want to go while I put the finishing touches on this tactical marine.

The good news is, the next few Death Company would be fairly quick to paint up I expect, though highlighting black is always a little more time consuming. Still, I think I could get them done quickly and move on to more tactical marines in short order.

Updated pictures of the finished tactical marine will be forthcoming soon. Take it easy for now.

-Red__Thirst-

Finished off the Tactical Marine! Very pleased with him and hope folks like the finished product. Lighting isn't the best here, but hopefully I'll be able to take some better pictures tomorrow when the lighting isn't quite so poor. Going to get started on prepping the next mini to be painted in the mean time. Can't rest on my laurels with so many models left to paint!

Here's the finished product:













Thank you kindly for looking. As always, any and all comments and constructive criticism are welcome. More to come soon. Take it easy for now folks.

-Red__Thirst-

The Tac Marine came out perfectly! Nice work, that reminds me, need to go work on my Tac Marines

Thanks for that War Kitten.

Yea, I'm very happy with the mini. As an aside, the new Blood Angels tactical squad box is, in a word, amazing. All the bits, all the parts, all the conversions, it's an incredible box. I'll be buying at least two more in the future!

That being said, I hate that the lighting is kinda pants right now for pictures, but beggars and choosers, right? I'll try and get some better pictures tomorrow.

Take it easy for now.

-Red__Thirst-

Have you thought about kitbashing it with the BaC set? You had mentioned looking into it.

Oh, that's going to happen in the future, yes.

I'm waiting to find out if I'm going to be splitting the BaC box set with a friend or if I'm going to buy it myself. If I wind up splitting it, I'll be mixing in the BaC marines with my Blood Angels to help increase the variety of armor marks in my force.

Gotta get closer to Christmas before I make any purchases on the BaC box however. We'll see how soon I can make it happen.

I'll be sure to update here once I get my hands on the new BaC Marine plastics though.

Take it easy for now.

-Red__Thirst-

I'm saving to pick up the set myself. I love the older armor marks and (in my opinion) the Ultramarines would probably still have a fair number of the older suits (termy and regular) left over since they're a first founding chapter. Same with BA. It would be cool to have those mixed in with my regular troops.

Agreed completely, I see BA having suits from every era of both pre-heresy, and post-heresy. Obviously there will be fewer whole sets of older marks, such as Mark 3, Mark 4, etc. but their components will be mixed in here and there. I intend to do a bit of both, having some variety of marks cobbled together on some marines, and others will have 'complete' sets of the Mk 4 or other marks of armor that they wear.

I'm excited to get my hands on one of these BaC boxes (in whole, or in part). Fingers crossed that'll be sooner rather than later.

Take it easy for now.

-Red__Thirst-

These guys look really tidy, and the whites are crisp as hell. I feel like the one thing this army is missing is an extra highlight layer to really make them pop. The reds are so good as is, but some edge highlights would really take them to the next level. I like the basing too. Either way, it's looking good so far!

Thank you kindly for that, Brother SRM. Your painting has been some of the work I've been looking to as inspiration for both technique and how I want my army to have a defining 'theme' as is the case for your Old School Ultramarines.

Kinda honored you took the time to reply here also, I appreciate it sir.

As for the highlights. I have a VERY hard time highlighting red for some reason. I don't know if it's a degree of Red/Green colorblind or what, but I can't see a big difference between shades of Red and Orange (I have a similar problem with some shades of Green, I just have to go by the paint pot and trust I've got the right color). Not that it's an excuse, but I just have a difficult time making edge highlights on red look clean versus doing them on black or any other color such as my Librarian pictured above. I may try and experiment with it down the road and see if I can improve or get a better/truer white painting light bulb for my lamp and see if that helps me see the gradient better and not make the edge highlights sloppy.

One good thing about Red, though, is that it looks good (at least to me) with minimal or no hightlights thanks in part to the nature of the color.

I appreciate the feedback and critique. I'll try and pick up a brighter shade of red, or may try and do some very fine highlights with the Troll Slayer Orange I have on hand to see how it looks. We'll see.

Take it easy and I look forward to seeing more on your Blog there Brother SRM.

-Red__Thirst-

Brother SRM's marines were actually a big part of my motivation to start up my Ultramarines again, they were mostly unpainted before hand. He does have some pretty good advice doesn't he? Also go look at the Valhallan thread he has. Top stuff

I'm flattered, guys! If people look at my stuff and want to paint more of their own, I'm happy!

I can understand colorblindness really messing with highlights and subtle shades, without a doubt. Experiment on a test model or test bit or something with a few highlight colors and see if you can see the difference, and see what other people think. Your stuff looks great now (and you've got a point about that great red) but if it got to that next level it'd really be something. Keep on painting!

 Brother SRM wrote:
I'm flattered, guys! If people look at my stuff and want to paint more of their own, I'm happy!

I can understand colorblindness really messing with highlights and subtle shades, without a doubt. Experiment on a test model or test bit or something with a few highlight colors and see if you can see the difference, and see what other people think. Your stuff looks great now (and you've got a point about that great red) but if it got to that next level it'd really be something. Keep on painting!

I'll play and experiment with it in the future, gotta get some other paints first and see what I can see. I'm not the greatest at edge highlighting, but I'll keep growing my repetitious of techniques and see what I can come up with in the future.

As for the keep painting, by your command, sir!

I've begun work on a second Death Company marine (Trying to get these multiple five man squads I've started, finished!) and will continue to chip away at them a model or two at a time. I've just finished off the Death Company Marine's base, and have begun preliminary work on the marine's legs and body itself.

Here's the base:



(The bare spot in the center is where the foot will glue to the base)

And here's the marine:



Never fear, that mold line on the side of the grenades on his left hip has been dealt with already since the pictures were taken. If I can get this mini painted up quickly, I'll probably do one to two more in short order, depending on my mood and desire to paint more black (which can be tedious as hell!). I'm re-purposing some old assault marine bodies that have been sitting unpainted for a long while and are finally getting some attention they so rightly deserve. I intend to ultimately paint up ten (or more..) Death Company and will have one power first + Bolter in every bank of five marines. The next DC marine I paint after this may be the power fist wielding marine. Haven't quite made up my mind yet.

I appreciate you guys following along, and I'll try and keep good steady progress moving forward so folks don't get bored.

Take it easy for now and I appreciate all the feedback given greatly! I'll definitely keep it in mind for my painting progression and use it to help drive me to improve.

-Red__Thirst-

The finished HF dude looks great. I think the only thing I'm not keen on are the purity seals. I went with blue wax to contrast with the red armour, and I think purple works, but perhaps just need to be a bit brighter /another highlight to make it pop.

EDC

Purple and green are the colors I've found work best on purity seals for red models.

Yeah, on red models you want blue or purple on the purity seal itself, it makes it stand out against the armor.