It’s Hammer time!

Damn brother. You've outdone yourself again! Looks fantabulous. Remind me never to compare miniatures with yours.

Love the power effect on the hammer too. Superb

 Master Azalle wrote:
Damn brother. You've outdone yourself again! Looks fantabulous. Remind me never to compare miniatures with yours.

Love the power effect on the hammer too. Superb

Its actually a good thing. LDP provides so many crisp close ups so we can try to achieve similar results. It shows me what can be done

 Crimson_ wrote:
Its actually a good thing. LDP provides so many crisp close ups so we can try to achieve similar results. It shows me what can be done

Sure. If I quit my job, found some magic potion of youth, and spent 5 years training with monks in some secret mountaintop studio, I might be able to achieve those results. Or sold my soul a/o firstborn to the Ruinous Powers.

There is a fine line between “Inspiring” and “I should just drink my paints and stab myself with my brushes”

I’m an old enough dog that I recognize no amount of new tricks can get me to where LDP is painting. I can, however, glean crumbs of ideas from his table and try to make them work. And drool at the awesome. Lots of that.

Thanks a bunch Azalle!
You guys are all too kind! Neve you're making excellent use of that thesaurus it seems

Honestly guys, i'm just glad that I have a fine hand and patience. The rest of the work is done for me after that. That said, it took a looooot of practice to get to the stage i'm at now and even here there's still plenty of room for improvement (one need only flick back to the early pages to see the 'quality' of the stuff I used to put forth).

Speaking of getting work done, though, WIP on Vet number 5! That long awaited group shot is on the horizon - I can't tell you guys how excited I am to get this squad done!



LDP

By Grabthar's Hammer, that's an awesome...hammer...

This unit is going to rule.

These Ultramarines are gorgeous. The Vanguard Vet kit is one of my favorites from the Space Marine line.

Absolutely love this army

Hey all! Cheers youwashock, thecustomline, rogerio. Really appreciate your feedback.

So, the long awaited day has come!
I've been working on this squad for little over a month now and at last they're done. Really pleased with it and open to where to go next. Might quickly mop up 3 more tacticals so I can fully flesh out another tac squad.

Thanks for all the support, cheers for tuning in, here are the pics we're all waiting for

LDP









Also, for anyone who's interested, here's a photo of my painting desk, complete with steaming peppermint tea

Is the tea your secret weapon? <scribbles down notes> Surprisingly humble setup for the quality of work you do.

Squad is looking awesome. But you need to test their mettle. Any games in the future where you can blood them against the foes of mankind?

I clicked on this thinking to was Nevelon's blog, then I saw the minis and thought 'wait a second'.
Anyway they look very cool. Almost cool enough to make up for the existence of Matt Ward. Almost.

A solid finish, sir. They look stupendous.

Best looking Vanguard Squad i have seen!

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
I clicked on this thinking to was Nevelon's blog, then I saw the minis and thought 'wait a second'.
Anyway they look very cool. Almost cool enough to make up for the existence of Matt Ward. Almost.

Sounds like a plan.

LDP: How about you send me a squad of awesome minis so I can pretend I can paint, and I’ll sent you a squad of poorly painted old stuff so you can pretend to be an ancient grognard. That’s fair, right?

CREEEEEEEEED, I think you will find that Ultramarine players (at least the ones older then eight) are the ones most embarrassed by Ward. It’s not as overt as the flanderization of the Space Wolves, but a more subtle killing of the lore of the army.

Absolutely beautiful army. Keep it up

That is an awesome squad. Quite the showcase for how far your painting has come along recently.

Now you need a JP captain to accompany them! (not that I'm encouraging your HQ addiction or anything...)

Damn son, absolutely stunning!

@Neve thanks! Unfortunately no. I've moved to a different city from Knightley since I started uni and since then i've been hesitant to reach out and dabble in games here. I should really get around to it because it gives me more inspo to paint and more reason to use the minis that I put so much hard work in to. If anyone here's from Wellington, NZ: Hit me up!

@CREEEEEEED Matt Ward makes me feel the need to apologise to people whenever they see my army :(

@youwashock thanks buddy! Always enjoy hearing from you.

@Crimson_ very grateful! I'll not forget to extend my thanks to you again for the inspiration. Your squad gave me the impetus!

@pique very kind! Appreciate it.

@Para there's one primed on my workbench I'll see how I feel about getting onto it. I'm a little jump-pack-ed out for the time being

@Azalle I appreciate that my friend thanks for the feedback



Hey everybody. Hope your day is going well.

I took advantage of a long weekend to get a load of work in on Sgt. Telion. I started him on saturday and punched out a bunch of progress. I'm pleased with where he's at so far; I love the idea of a cool digital camouflage cloak that's totally undone by sheeny gold, blue and obnoxious white so that was really fun to do. I've enjoyed telion far more than any other scout i've done so far, so I might have to look at the rest of my scout squad who have sat equally neglected for a number of years now. I got the extra motivation to work on him because of the theme of this month's unofficial painting comp, so cheers to para as always for churning out inspo where before there was none. I only uploaded my proof over there now because it's my first time on since the start of the weekend, but here's where he's currently standing:





Not too much more to do. The blacks, the bolter, and some detailing here and there.


Also, I took some shots in my lightbox of some of my marines. I'm quickly realising that 2018 so far has been a very productive year as far as my painting goes! I need to find a place where I can get a full army shot whilst doing justice to such a photo. I always find army shots hard to get right - but my force has come such a long way that I want to show them all hanging out! Anyway, in light of that, here's what I have for now. My lightbox is small so I only fit so much in. These pics were for fun more than anything.



Some of you astute viewers out there will notice I swapped out my chapter champion's backpack for one more fittingly resplendent.









If anyone has any tips for getting good army shots, i'm all ears!

LDP

Hey ldp I scrolled through all your work you deathwatch gk and this very lovely ultramarine blog. that last shot is fantastic!kudos to you man looks like a rather gathering of the heroes.

you inspired me to try an make my humble guardsmen better...hell I been painting since I was fifteen (34 now) and im still now where near as good as you but man I really enjoy your work

@alabamaheretic that's very kind of you! Thanks for taking the time to look at my work. I've poured so much time into this hobby and am really grateful to see how far i've come, but there's still heaps of room for improvement Heck, this blog started in 2011 so there's a massive chronology even here. Again, I really appreciate the feedback and I understand the difficulty in putting time into guardsmen (I have a small IG blog) when they're so susceptible to dying on the tabletop :(

yea man I been in the hobby since 09 and well sometimes my excitement gets the better of me to crank out modles. . oh guardsmen are great though yes they die in droves but they are fun (been on again off again with guard since fifth)

Hey all.

Finished sgt. Telion today. Had a really restorative painting session of about two hours or so where I finished him off after a long day's work.





Going to get onto some more of the long-lost custom honour guard methinks

LDP

Really good face and cloak. I like the digital camo.

that's a very mighty goatee

Well Done Sir, Well Done

Telion is looking superb, LDP! The cloak is really cool

Also, that group shot with Guilliman is GLORIOUS!

What gold are you using? Standard Citadel? Are you highlighting it with something?

@Crimson thank you! I used Duncan Rhodes's guide on YT and it came out quite alright.

@alabama hahaha isn't it? I'm quite fond of beardy ultramarines i've come to find.

@Azalle I appreciate it thank you sir!

@Cosmic cheers dude! I have way more smurfs hidden away and I wanna get them all in a big blue sea of a group shot but i'm struggling.

@Dynas It's the standard range of GW golds but there is a bit of a process that I use.
1) Retributor Armour base
2) Agrax Earthshade wash
3) Auric Armour Gold highlight
4) Mithril Silver (Runefang steel I think?) edge highlight

Those group shots are glorious. Telion looks awesome, as well. Add mine to the praise for the cape.

yadda yadda, mindblowing work, etc etc...

Thank you. Ill have to do that. I was close, i just need to try the edge highlight with the mithral silver.

Cheers shock, neve, and no worries Dynas! Hope it works out for you.

Hey everyone, hope it's all going well.

I tried to get some army shots today. These are the best I could come up with:




So, here's pretty much what i've got that's finished:

- Guilliman
A small custodes retinue
- Marneus Calgar with a (growing) honour guard
- A Primaris captain with interchangable other captains/command squad members
- Sicarius with the same deal as above
- A librarian
- A chaplain
- 3 Tactical squads (one has 7 members so far, so it's been filled in with misc vets)
- 5 man sternguard squad
- 5 man vanguard squad
- 5 man assault squad
- 5 man terminator squad
- 2 Rhinos
- Dakka predator
- Razorback
- Land Raider Redeemer
- Telion
- 1 inceptor

Very nice LDP that a good collection of models completed my favortie is still your chaplain I had or have him might have a lookie loo to see if I got him that was one of my favore sclupts

Those army shots are amazing! You have quite the stunning army there.

Amazing.

I like how you frame your army shots. Very evocative of the old art where you have two armies surging like the sea into a collision at the center. I get that same feeling of a mass of troops rushing forward, unstoppable as the tide.

Such a glorious army shot, you should be proud man!

@alabama cheers dude! Yea totally, that chaplain sculpt is the best. There are heaps of real good chaps and libbys from that generation

@Pneumo thank you very much! Was really nice to get it all out and take a look.

@Neve Totally. You hit the nail on the head with the inspiration - I still look at the dark angels vs tyranids massive collision from the 4th ed battle for macragge mini rulebook. I'm a sucker for trying to get the minis to look like art so i'm really glad the effect rubs off and you can detect it!

@Knightley I sure am thank you! Going to keep building this up and balancing it out so we can fit a massive apocalypse game in sometime. Need much more armour and anti-tank. But that's all on the way

And they shall know no fear...

Inspirational pics.

They're looking really nice en masse. It's inspiring me to get a nice group shot of my SM, I've not done one for ages, maybe after I've finished the current leadership stuff (and probably my Ancient too).

 youwashock wrote:
Inspirational pics.

Absolutely, something to aspire to

@youwashock I appreciate the feedback as I was saying to Neve, there's something so captivating about trying to recreate real setups with the miniatures. Makes we want to get into terrain more and grab a villainous army so I can pitch my smurfs against somebody.

@Randy thanks! Hey i'd love to see that. I keep my eyes peeled over on your P&M

@Brother Castor thank you very much! Would love to see some of your stuff.

Hey all,
Finished up another HG! The build on this guy isn't as clean as some of the others but he still came out OK once the paint went on I think. The cloak was fully painted and then reused, so I went over it a second time; it's a little clumpy but not the worst thing ever. Parts used were cool and all so I think he gets made up for a little in terms of general paintwork and posing.












Also, I got really inspired. I'm thinking about moving towards working on the fourth company to break up from all the gold i've been doing lately; I really enjoyed the 1st company vets I recently did and I have a squad of intercessors and some DI stuff waiting and I think it would be nice to break it all up a bit. So, on that note, I thought it best to start with the captain himself, Uriel Ventris. I assembled this scratch-build out of spare parts and i'm quite proud of him! He seems to look fresh while keeping a sort of old school feel. I'm not sure. The face was the closest I had and i'm quite excited about everything. Might even paint him next





Let me know what you think! More on the way soon.
LDP

+1 to uriel ventres one of my favorite ultras looks pretty good to me.

I know less about his lore than I should. Only done some real light reading online and seen him appear in the Dark Imperium series.

 lipsdapips wrote:
I know less about his lore than I should. Only done some real light reading online and seen him appear in the Dark Imperium series.

He features heavily in the Ultramarines Omnibuses from Black Library.

Looking forward to Ventris. I imagine a lot of Ultramarine players have had a crack at converting him and this should be a good take on the character! Any plans to do Pasinius to accompany him? His modified power armour might be a fun thing to try and convert.

Need to have another go at him myself, I think. I did one years ago that was pretty crap!

Yea. I'm tempted to look at the leftover bits I have from watch-captain artemis (the DW bits I feel are justifiable within reasonable from the fluff), or alternatively some primaris stuff that I have lying around.

Hey,
Progress is coming along nicely. Was a last minute call to do his cloak green instead of my traditional red - but i'm really pleased with the change! The kitbash is coming together more and more the further I get along with the paint job, which is quite satisfying. At any rate, i'll leave you all with the images for now. Let me know what you think!





LDP

Very much digging the green cloak

What company is he the captain of? Green is 4th IIRC.

That mold line on the helmet is killing me. Otherwise looking good.

Yup, 4th company colour is green, so it makes sense for his cloak to be green.

@Neve seconded on the mold line front. That'll have to be seen to. But also seconding Creed, in that Ventris is 4th company's captain, so green is the correct trim.

Maaaate glad to see you're still painting Ultramarines. To the most exceptional standard as well.
Sad to see you're still missing mold lines.

Longtime follower way back. Checking in on this thread after a few years. Absolutely loving what I'm seeing.
That army shot.

Flying Pooo! Yea man I remember - great to hear from you! Hahaha, I swear the mold-lines are way less frequent; the helm here I like to think is an exceptional case. Great to see you checking in after so long regardless

Hey everyone. Today I finished my take on Uriel Ventris. Overall i'm very pleased; the kitbash came together quite nicely. I only just noticed that I rendered his roman numeral the wrong way round. It should say 4 instead of 6. Bugger! I may have to change that







So, next, i'm tackling my own version of Mikael Fabian, whose model is the plastic PA monopose captain: here he is and i'm doing a command squad to boot. I think i'm going to start with the banner because I haven't tested my freehand chops on a large scale in quite a while.



Thanks for looking!

Ventris Came out nice good start on the next captain

Love those army shots man. The force ties together really well and the close ups look so dramatic!

Well done on Ventris! I have to echo what was said about the helmet though. Everything else is done to such a high standard that the mold line Really stand out.

Ventris rocks. The gold and the green play off each other beautifully. Looking forward to what's next.

Why the black trim on the shoulder? I could see the use of green/gold/white but wondering where the black came from. Not that it looks bad, just a little shot out of left field, choice wise.

I’d give you flack about painting another captan (how many will he bring you up to?) but I don’t really have a leg to stand on there. Not to mention I’ve got two models bering the name Fabian myself. That and 3rd co is the best co.

Hey guys,
not a crazy post, but i'm working away at some old terminators that were left mid-WIP. I'm trying to refurbish them - the sergeant especially; he was the only model to be finished some 4 years ago so i'm trying to get him a little up to speed. They're coming along quite nicely and I always feel a bit bad: i'm quite critical of the older kits when I see them unfinished or in plastic but once paint starts going on they do come out ok.

LDP

They just aren't very dynamic or detailed compared to newer kits. Sometimes less sculpted detail isn't a bad thing though.

Very nice photos. What is your camera/light setup. What are you using for a background? Types of lights? Photobooth? Phone or fancy camera etc?

For your basecoat do you just use Army Painter Ultramarine Blue?

eh that's the beauty of old kits and fancy paint jobs, and since your a great painter im sure they will be fantastic. question you and knightly getting any games in soon?

@whalemusic I feel you there. Things like the old command squad banner is a classic space for trying out intense stuff. Good to hear from you again!

@dynas I just use a piece of a2 black paper, 2 cheap daylight lamps and my phone. It works out really nicely & I use the GW Macragge blue spray

@alabama I would love to get one in. It's difficult because we're living in different cities. When I go back I try to get a game in but my uni employment contract makes it difficult to return during the academic year. I hope his foot's doing okay though, and I suspect our next game will be a big one!

Well you know schooling is important so stay focused when ya can

Well I've always told myself real life first and that's always true.

I do look forward to your guys next game, I do agree as well I do hope his foot is doing better as well (hell maybe he became a shadowrunner and got a cyberfoot) lol

Hey guys!
Finished off the terminator squad today. Quite pleased with the result, considering I batch painted them - and quite fast at that. By no means my best work whatsoever, but i'll take it for tabletop standard. Keen to press on with more stuff!



LDP

I love how your batch painted, slapped together “tabletop” is still better then 80% of what’s out there.

Keep up the good work!

Love those termies

 Nevelon wrote:
I love how your batch painted, slapped together “tabletop” is still better then 80% of what’s out there.

Keep up the good work!

I second that.
Besides, maaaan, I love terminators. I still think they look so cool! Sadly most people don't paint them as their on-table performance may be found lacking. Bloody shame, that.

You’ve got some great work on here LDP, how have I not seen it all this time!! Particularly impressed with how you paint the power weapons, what’s your secret?

Subbed for more.

Looking good man. Nice to see an older kit getting some attention

I see you and I share the same premise of 'slapped together' when it comes to table top quality.

Very cohesive unit and I dread facing them on the field.

Great work as always! I wish my "table top" quality minis looked so good.

LDP is back? I've been gone to long... always great to see your ultras!

@Plodmarine my power weapon technique is taken and altered slightly from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clWZUwAN_zc pleasure to have you aboard!

Thanks for the feedback everybody! So much from so many, i'm really grateful. Awesome to hear from you brushcommando! Indeed I am back after so long. Time is short, however, so I have to get to the update.

Hey everybody! I've been working my way through the start of the Horus Heresy book series in audio format, which has afforded me lots of time and desire to paint! So I busted this dread out in no time. It's been too long since I did something technically non-infantry. Personally, he's on par with the standard of the terminators; not my best, but good enough. I'm in the mood to really bulk out my total force at the moment and if this is the cost of efficiency, then so be it. I will always still save time for HQ personnel and their retinues as per usual







Finally, I made a start on a squad of sternguard.



LDP

You know, all your talk about that not being your peak performance makes me kinda sad. But then, I am really no painter at all, so no harm done

Are the legs of the new guy the ones from the Raven Guard plastic captain? If yes, how did you apply the torso? Looking nice!

Dread looks great, as do the termies. The sternguard's pose looks quite nonchalant. "Hmm? Heretic? Oh, ok, I got it. ZAP!"

Bugger all your "table top" looks like my "pro painted" lol carry on :thumbs up:

Oh man, the Sternguard kit. I remember when those came out (back when I had a LGS :( ), I had to buy them just because I thought they looked too damn cool. Built them that day in the shop, and used the leftover parts with my bitz box to make a sort of Deathwatch team-y squad.

Ven dread best dread. Although the gold does look a little flat.

Hey all,
it's been a few days, but i'm checking in with a sanguinary guard member of all things! In classic fashion, I feel like a break from the blue for a bit and am painting up a few blood angels as a complement to my smurfs force.

let me know what you think! I wanted to get a baroque, rich, and dark finish. I also feel as though some of the blood drops on the armour should be ornamental and the same colour as the armour itself. There are some more than others that feel sensible to pick out with blood colour (to me at least).







Cheers for looking,

LDP

Well that came out of nowhere!

Amazing work as always. My one critique would be on the sword. The red gem is lighting up the area around it, but the crackling blue glow of the powerfield is not showing at all on the white wings of the hilt. Seems a little odd for one thing to have OSL (which doesn’t necessarily call out for it, it could just be a gem) but the other thing doesn’t.

Just a minor nit-pick.

It like it a lot. Super clean white on the wings and the bronze-ish gold armour! Will you do the whole squad?

@Neve That's a good point you've raised. I might avoid the OSL in the future. It's never really been my thing anyway.

@Crimson_ thank you! Eventually, yes. I'm thinking of doing one Sanguinary Guard at a time to break apart other projects.


Hi there everyone!

Working on the first member of my Blood Angels assault squad. People are right to say that Blood Angels are an artist’s army! These guys are tough but so beautiful. Accordingly, i’m taking my sweet time on them. Suffice to say there’ll be a few less than my Ultramarines but i’m still planning to assemble a decent supplement. This marine is the first to have proper BA colours, so in a sense he's the test. I'm liking the scheme so far but it takes some time. I'd be interested to hear your feedback - the red is a little dark but I think I've nailed the yellow. The red sort of works in it's own right though because my ultras are also slightly darker than usual, so in a sense there's some conformity there. Either way, i'm keen to get more progress in and see how it all shapes up. I have an exam this Saturday :( but after that I may have an update.



LDP

I love the darker armour, a lot of depth to it and the highlights really stand out. The helmet is great though. You always do those light colours so crisp, just like the white heads on the terminators. Perfection

I agree with boundless. The darker armor works well with your painting and highlight style. Really like how you highlight up to yellow on the red armor. Well done.

And yes, You definitely nailed the yellow. Be proud of that one!

The red armor has an almost gem-like quality. I like the richness of it. They should look stunning when standing next to your Ultras.

The others are right it is a nice rich and deep red. Your choice of highlights and their colour works well together. Keep em coming.

What they said. The red is superb..

Big fan of the red. Might be a little closer to Flesh Tearer the Blood Angel, but it still looks good. And I’m not one to criticize official chapter paint adherence; I’m only vaguely close with my Ultras.

Of course you can paint awesome yellows. It’s the other really irritating color after white.
/jealous

But at least you are still human. The painting may be perfect, but I can’t un-see the mold line on the sword arm. It’s probably the camera blowing something out of proportion.

If you want to change the tone a little bit to make the colors pop a bit more, you should shift to a blue, and use white/gold highlights. I find that’s the best for painting marines...

Not fair, I want to be able to paint that well.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
Not fair, I want to be able to paint that well.

Don’t we all.

Mold line on the right arm. But yeah I really like the Yellow. The red seems more Dark, like Game Of Thrones Lannister Red (on the show) which could work for Grim Dark, and Blood is naturally a darker red.

Personally, I like a brighter red as it pops from the table.
Try this formula, got it from Next level Painting (he has a couple ways to paint red). Including one where he preshades green, which is crazy to see.

Anyway, Khorne Red Base, then Carrabough Crimson, then Evil Sunz Scarlet, and finally bugman glow as edge Highlight.

Might give it a try just to compare and contrast since you are in the test model stage.

What was your formula for the yellow?

that Assault Marine makes me sad, but a little happy, that I went for the old orange-y red colour for the armour of mine.

Hey everyone,
Apologies, the updates are a little few and far between at the moment. I'm visiting the rents at the moment for a few days and have just recently been on a break and went on holiday to NZ's South Island. Suffice to say, I haven't got much time in at the painting desk. That said, I've entered this month's unofficial painting comp with the ultras second company standard. I alluded sometime before somewhere that I wanted to have another crack at it, and here it is! Pleased with how it's going so far. When I get back to the desk on thursday i'll put some more work in.

'til then!

LDP

The only thing that could make it better would to paint it as the 3rd company banner.

Good to see you painting Ultras again. I’d say there was nothing wrong with painting other armies, but we all know that would be a lie.

Courage and Honour!

Is that freehand? Man that's good if it is.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
Is that freehand? Man that's good if it is.

I think we all know the answer to that question. And yes it is.

The only real question is if he sold his soul for painting prowess, or bartered a lean of the soul of his first-born. Because there is no way he paints like this without some sort of fell bargain.

Unless it is the pure hand of the Emperor himself is enlightening the world through his brush. That’s only for the Ultramarines. Everything else I blame on the ruinous powers.

Off to a smashing start!

Praise the lord emperor, your freehand work is just stunning. Well done brother well done.

Well. That's gonna be fabulous.

That is the deepest of reds I absolutely love it looks very smashing. kinda has a pearlescent effect a bit to it to me but man does it look great.

I'm really grateful to everybody for their feedback on my last post Very motivating and awesome to recieve!


Heyo!!!

Finally got a long painting session in after ages away from the desk. Super pleased with the results as I managed to finish the core face of the banner. Still need to finish the trim, general highlights and miscellanious decorations but I was too excited and wanted to show what the final front looks like.



LDP

Awesomeness intensifies.

Nice work!

Well done, man. Well done.

This is Incredible!

Wow! Did you do any sort of outline on the freehand? Any tutorial or guides?

@Dynas I used this guide after spacing out the real estate on the standard by marking some measurements with a mechanical pencil: http://pathofseer.blogspot.com/2016/02/free-hand-tutorial-ultramarines-2nd.html

Wow. That banner... Jesus. Is there a Blood Angels one? I'm working backwards through your plog.

I haven't done a blood angels banner before, no :( the blog is almost exclusively Ultramarines - the BA are a recent addition.

Wow that tutorial is very helpful never even thought of using some decals as a base. Great stuff.

Hello all!
Hope your day is going well. I got deep into a painting session and am currently up well past my bed time to bring you this update. But dangit i'm too excited not to upload this now! I finished the standard bearer. I would love to know what you guys all think! I set this miniature to myself as a challenge of all my skills: freehand, linework, tidiness, colour matching, and honestly, I'm very grateful for the perspective it's given me. i'm personally feeling quite comfortable with where i'm at with the hobby right now. I might do the company champion next






LDP

Stunning! Sounds like you're proud, and you should be!

Your pics are coming out great as well.

Thanks, Para. Yeah, I think I am! The 2nd company standard design has always sort of been a recurring test of my skills over time. There are one or two freehand standards in the ever-growing history of this plog (not two mention one or two from before it) and it always feels good to compare the contrast between the most recent and the one before it

Looks fantastic. Now I want to see you take on more vehicles for specific commanders and put some baller freehand on them as well.

Yeah buddy, that looks amazing!

Looks good. I would proudly have it in my army. As far as kai-zan and how to make it better, I would see about begin omg to try and work in color transistor and zenithal lighting. Your work is clean, good edge highlight s , great free hand, etc...

Maybe try a zenithal prime ok the next squad and see if you. Sn get some color transition.

Overall though fantastic stuff. Keep it up.

Looking good!

snazzy

A round of applause. Looks great.

@whalemusic360 Yeeeea! That's a good idea. I always forget that characters often have their own vehicles. Great spot for some neat freehand.

@Knightley Thank you! Good to hear from you man

@Dynas, yeah I've been thinking about zenithal highlighting. I really want to accomplish the effect that the eavy metal team get with their subtle blends on panelling but i'm not sure where to start.

@insaniak thank you!

@alabama cheers my friend! Very kind, very kind.

@youwashock much appreciated, thanks as always for the feedback



Hey guys! Long time no see.

Just met a bunch of deadlines at university over the past couple days. Accordingly, I treated myself to a big fat painting session and busted out a load of progress on the company champion. I'm torn on which veteran I should do next. I have the PP PF pompous vet who's standing on rubble, the apothecary, and a kneeling combi-plasma veteran.

Hey Lips.

Been lurking your blog for a bit. You've got one of the best looking ultramarine armies out there and I really enjoy your clean painting style. I particularly like your whites. Also the freehand on that recent banner is stunning.
I can't remember whether I followed your blog before I took a break from the hobby, but i'm sure following it now.

Love the pose! Clean paint job as always brother

Just voted for your Standard Bearer over on the painting challenge thread

Solid work of the champ there. The one thing that seems a little odd is his right leg. He’s very top heavy on the gold, and his left has the scrollwork/laurels, but the one leg is very plain. I might have painted it gold to help balance the mini, but you could probably freehand some marking on it, just to liven it up a bit.

IMHO, YMMV, etc.

As for who to paint next, do you need any of them to finish squads or for the table? Are any of them duplicates to things you already have one of painted? If all other things are equal, I prioritize finishing squads/getting units table ready first, unique options I don’t have on the shelf second, and more of what I already have last. With whim and mood overriding all that, but it’s a guide.

If you don’t have an apothecary I’d do him first. Then the c-plas, as that’s pretty hot on the table ATM. The PP/PF guy looks cool, but is probably the least practical of the 3, so would save him for last.

Company champ looks to be made of strength and honor. Great model.

To add on to what Nev has said about adding some gold to the right leg, that kneepad is perfect for a dash of bling.

Snrub very kind of you! Really nice to hear

Tyvm Castor!

I appreciate the advice Neve, youwashock. I've actually since finished the miniature and i'm away from home but I have the pictures. Accordingly, the leg's still bare but he's done. Concerning my thoughts, IMHO, YMMV etc there is something appealing to me about the asymmetry of the guy. I totally merit the comments about spreading it out and making the mini less top-heavy, but seeing as he's the company champion, whose mission statement is already ridiculous, I figured that i'm sort of content with him looking absurd that said, i'll keep what you guys have said in mind and may revisit him. It's good advice and I thank you for it!






and, as per your advice Neve, I have decided to focus next on the apothecary: here he is primed!



LDP

They make quite the pair. Those vets are going to be a real showcase unit. Looking forward to seeing your white techique lavished on the apothecary.

That champion is looking really good, Lips.

What kit are the legs from? I've just noticed that the thighs look really emaciated compared to his calves (and other marine legs). Are they actually thin or is it just the camera angle?

 youwashock wrote:
Looking forward to seeing your white techique lavished on the apothecary.

Me too!

Snrub - They're from the Emperor's Children Palatine Blades, with some details removed. It's largely the camera angle and I think the fact that those forge world kits have an ever so slightly different style to GW's plastics.

For those of you who were waiting, here is some white painting! Bringing in a WIP on the apothecary I hope to finish the command squad by the end of the month. I'm quite excited actually, the remaining vets fit the bill of the classic command squad quite nicely; one weapons specialist and the customary veteran sergeant who's second in command to the captain. They should make a pretty neat bunch when all's said and done.

Thanks for checking in,
LDP

You know you are making the rest of us look bad, right?

Nice work.

Hey guys! So, I finished the apothecary. I'm quite pleased with him - the white formula came out quite nicely I think. I'm really keen to finish off this command squad, 2 vets to go! I think they'll look really neat when they're all done. The aesthetic that i'm liking at the moment are when models have resemblance to vanilla kits but still look unique.











Would love to hear what you all think!

Cheers guys,
LDP

Great work. The lenses and the fluid in the arm unit are stand out details for me, but the whole thing is.gorgeous.

Away from my thesaurus, so I’m just going to make up words.

Wonderzing! Amazfully done. Splendifourus!

Can’t wait to see the rest of the squad join him.

@Flinty thanks for the feedback! I always find lenses hit or miss but I agree that pulling them off really makes a model.

@Neve I cannot wait either! I'm really pumped. Splendifourus is my personal favourite of your 3 new words

Lips, this is the rules police! Your model is illegal, Apos can't have boltguns. I am afraid you have to give it to me for... safekeeping :p

Great work as always, though I think the saw itself could use some blood splatters as well. It looks a bit too clean right next to the gorey drill!

Lovely work LDP, the white power armour is fantastic.

He looks great. I always like when people cut out the hand from the Apothecary arm and re-jigger it. Only thing that bugs me is the yellow skull on his backpack. It's the only place you use that color on the whole model, why not make it gold to match the rest?

Legal or no, that blinged out bolter looks great with the gold trim on the shoulders. Also found the yellow skull on the back surprising. As mentioned before, the vials are a standout detail.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I'm glad people like the lenses and vials. It's very satisfying when you manage to convey the gravity of liquid properly!

And I can totally understand the apprehension on the yellow skull. While there's marginal unification with the hazard-stripe cables, it is pretty striking. I did it because that yellow strikes me as retro to the ultramarines, and for some reason, something about this mini struck me as retro more generally as well. The skull on his backpack seemed like the least offensive place to give a little nod to that. It is striking though you guys are right, especially in the contrast with the red. Nonetheless, i'm happy enough to keep it there.

I feel you about rejigging the arm whalemusic! That's one of the most static bits across the SM range. hah, makes me want to think harder and make a list of more frustratingly static bits.

Ah yes. Excellent. Looks just as good as I hoped it would.

As others have said the lenses and vials are stand out and convey a proper sense of.... something. Movement, action, intent. The bubbles are the crowning touch though for sure. You can just imagine the obscenely thick astartes-grade combat stims sloshing around in the vial.

@Snrub Yeeeah! I never really thought about the consistency of the liquids, but they totally would be sludgy! Cheers for the feedback


Hello there everybody! Hope all is well on your end.

I'm bring an update for the veteran sergeant who operates within my 2nd company's command squad. It's customary that the command squad's veteran sergeant functions as the company's second in command, and this guy is no exception. He behaves sort of like a Marcus Antonius figure: Striking, brutish, soldierly, and ruthlessly effective - he jokes about the captain's death perhaps a bit too much. Once this guy's done, I have just the combi-plasma veteran left and the squad's done! Much like the Vanguard Vets, i'm very much looking forward to getting group shots of this gang.



Thanks for looking!

LDP

G'day LDP, long time lurker of your thread, finally decided to sign up to Dakka as a result. Its great to see the progress you've made with your painting. Your freehand 2nd company banner is testament to that. Looks great!

@zahnib Hey hey! Welcome to Dakka. Awesome to hear from you - thanks for emerging from out of the woodwork! I just threw my thread into blog view and had a peruse through actually, it's quite rewarding to see the progress over the years. So thank you! Progress is certainly the bright side to having a large backlog of material that I find a little bit cringy. There are pros and cons to a P&M blog that started in 2011 I suppose

Thanks man. I've considered joining over the years but your thread finally got me to do it. Oh yeah, haha, definitely a double edged sword in that regards - you get to see your progress as a painter and a person Look forward to your future content

Ooh that's an excellent pose. Just says "i'm more important then you".
Which kit is the power fist from?

Yup, like that pose a lot and agree with Snrub, it does convey a certain amount of "be a good fellow and die"!

Beautiful work as always. I love the pose and stance. Resting his power fist on his name just screams "You're not worth the time to actually smack you with my fist" EPIC

Oh Man, thread view is insane on the big blogs, Gits behemoth is till over 100 pages of just him!

Vet sgt is on point, my only critique would be the head position in relation to the weapon facing, the head isn't quite looking where the weapon is pointing, apart from that looks good!

@Snrub hahaha it totally does say that. Fist is just from the command squad box! I had to recut the pose at the elbow to have it sit over the leg right, but the open fist just clutches it perfectly! The bit is pretty much what inspired the build in the first place.

@Elnibbus it does indeed. This guy sure loves his Codex Astartes and is self-righteous about it.

@Azalle cheers my man see above feedback for further quips about his stance

@Knightley Isn't it! Mine is only about 6 or 7 pages but it still makes for fascinating retrospect.

Yeah, about the head, I observed that when I was building him. The bit wouldn't fit and face very easily any further than it is now, and if it did, it would sit strange. I'm contented with it, if for no other reason than that this guy looks like the cockiest marine from the cockiest chapter ever to walk the imperium, and as such it wouldn't surprise me if he hardly even looked where he aimed if he didn't deem something worthy of the shot. Hope everything's going okay on your end Knightley, would love to see an update from you at some stage!

Hey guys.

Finished the command squad's veteran sergeant today. I'm very pleased! It's a clean paint job and that's what i'm really aspiring towards at the moment. One veteran left to go until the squad's done!









Thanks for looking!

Nice! He's looking swish as. That helmet came out great!

He looks great. Those pictures are amazing. So much detail, you can see every brush stroke, every little nuance in the paint. Well done.

@zahnib yea i'm pleased. I initially started doing the wreath in gold but the colour became a little too overwhelming. Thankfully the green's finish wasn't really hindered by a gold undercoat

@youwashock thank you! They came out quite well. I think i'm getting the hang of my lightbox now i'm chuffed with this guy too because he'll easily double as a sternguard sgt.

Quite the command squad!

I'm a big fan of the green wreath. That's a theme I've got with my Ultramarines.

Now that's a cinematic looking command squad!!

Excellent work LDP.

Very nice, especially how the Primaris leader doesn't actually look out of place in that squad as your paintwork and styling are so consistent.

I'll echo youwashock about the pics, your photography has come on leaps and bounds in the last few updates and is really doing your minis justice now!

Yeah buddy, keeping the standards high!

Thanks for all the kind words everybody. So much of my paintwork has improved with thanks to feedback from you lot

in with a WIP on the final veteran for the command squad! Much like the vanguard veterans, i'm excited to get the group shot starting to see the merits of painting units as opposed to an endless stream of captains...

Those highlights are looking really crisp, nice work. That's a great pose as well

Cheers zahnib, I appreciate all your feedback

Here are the finished shots of my command squad! They are preceded by the final veteran, who I was glad to finish off. The moulds of the old multi-part plastic commander must be quite warped because the leather straps that he has under his belt had terrible mould lines that I could only do so much to get rid of without scraping parts out of existence utterly. Nonetheless, I'm satisfied enough with the final outcome. Not sure what i'm going to get onto next but there are projects on the horizon!

Top work. I love the use of green as an accent across the squad as well, not a colour you see much of on UM.

*sniff*...That's beautiful, man.

But seriously, awesome job.

I love the old commander kit for the options, but you are right about the mold lines. The kit needs to be re-done, but it will probably never happen.

Amazing work on the squad!

Finished squad looks awesome! They look quite cohesive in that none of them appear 'too' fancy in comparison to the others. And totally agree with @Paradigm, the green works great as a spot colour

Thank you @Para! Yeah, honestly that green spot colour has emerged as a byproduct of deciding a couple years back to do my power weapons in green instead of blue at the suggestion of the comments from dakka!

@Youwashock Kind as ever Hopefully this should stave off my desire to do another command squad for a long while.

@Nevelon I feel you. As a definite captain sympathiser, i'd love a more up-to-date multi part plastic mini, but I understand that some other factions need newer plastics a lot more pressingly. All the more reason to kitbash I suppose

@zahnib Cheers, and I like your observation! I didn't really consider that. My miniature preferences of late have shifted to aiming for clean paintwork on clean, coherently assembled plastics. So I guess in a way, that's similar to your comment. I find it satisfying these days having a unit that looks as though it's all built out of one multi-part box, but as though it were an Ultramarines-specific one, and one that retains the unique feel of the army that i'm going for.

beautiful.......

I've noticed the shift! Your previous work on the veterans was awesome but felt more like a collection of cool miniatures and conversion ideas rather units belonging to a cohesive force. Look forward to seeing what you work on next

That's a fantastic looking command squad, and a great blog to look over. Look forward to seeing more

Thanks for all the feedback you guys


I speedily did up the final batch of 3 marines needed to complete this long overdue tactical squad today! Some of you may remember I did 3 others a couple months back and EVEN FEWER of you will remember that I did the first four way back in 2016! Suffice to say, they are all done at last. Happy to finally get that outstanding task done and dusted











LDP

Nice work. Always good to finish a squad off and get them table ready. Next stop is to hit the battlefield and purge some xenos filth a/o vile heretics.

Do you have any other partial squads awaiting their last member or two?

I didn't know you did regular troop units. Here I was, thinking you only knew about the HQs!

Do you use transfers for you checkers or do you paint them on yourself?

I think you need a rhino for them before you can call them done.

Rhino or Drop Pod

But Great Work! As always!

Amazing work

Hey everyone! I'm so excited about this project.

I've been waiting for a few weeks for all my various boxes to ship and was so keen to crack on properly yesterday with my project for kill team! My current living situation makes full-scale 40k games difficult, so kill-team is the perfect outlet for me to get my gaming fix! I have a great backlog of ultras if i ever wanted to use a SM team, so I went for Imperial Guard! The Cadian 112th scheme is so awesome, so I wanted to assemble a team of vets who thematically could be from a valkyrie team. Perhaps they operate from somewhere off the Indomitus Crusade after Cadia fell (thankfully they were off-planet at the time of course )

Anyway, I will develop some story stuff as the progress goes, I've built 12 awesome minis so far and i'll be drip feeding them out to you guys over time I'm starting off with the comms expert to test the scheme. So far it's working well! I'll upload final shots alongside a character profile



LDP

That is looking spectacularly good, loving so much about him.

Looking good. I love the difference between the eyepiece a.d the targeted.

Cadia Stands!

Ooooh, this is going to be good! And if there's anyone out there who can get a dozen unique, character models out of the (to my mind) fairly boring Cadian plastics it's LDP!

As others have said, that targeting lens is a very neat touch.

Looks great! The servo skull is a great addition. Look forward to seeing the rest of the team!

Kenning Tell.

Comms officer, Cadian 112th Killteam.



He is armed with a shotgun and has a servo-skull to help him gather intel and communicate messages. This poor sod had the task of delivering the news of Cadia's fall to the rest of his team aboard a valkyrie headed to a hab-sector systems away, before a mission against a chaos insurgency. I guess in terms of the team's anger and upset, he was less unlucky than the chaos insurgents who had to face the wrath of the fired up killteam.



I'm quite pleased with this mini for a start to my killteam. I'm awaiting the main box set in the mail as we speak and am keen to crack on with the terrain and gameboard proper, so that I can motivate myself to get more stuff done fast! I'm moving onto a rifleman now so i'll post updates soon.

In the meantime, let me know what you think!

LDP

I love seeing your work LDP your Ultras are always stunning and it's kind of weird seeing an actual squad! the Killteam dude is great, the lens detail is brilliant and extremely nicely done.

Looks great! The pose works really well too. I'm looking forward to seeing how you approach the Sector Imperialis ruins from the Kill Team set.

Also did you ever cover how you set up your light box for photographing your miniatures? Your pictures are looking great, are you still just using your phone?

Is that a shotgun? What kit is it from?

Really nice, clean work. They look great!

Great intro to the team. Absolutely love the servo skull.

@nerdy it's great to hear from you over here! Yeah I'm pumping out the occasional squad these days. Believe me, I'm surprised by how much I'm a changed man Cheers for the feedback! I'm quite pleased with some of the lens work on the second kill team member, but i'll probably have photos of him tomorrow.

@zahnib hopefully this update will please you on the terrain front! also, by virtue of it being too large, it probably gives you some insight into my photography setup as well Being in a student flat affords me little room for things. So, both my paint desk and lightbox are very humble in terms of size. For lighting, I just bought two daylight lamps from a local store and then draped a large piece of black card against the backdrop, [i]curving[i/] down onto the ground.

@Snrub yes it is a shotgun! It's a rough conversion. The original arm bit is the slung lasgun for the comms trooper in the cadian command box. I simply cut some of the lasgun off and superglued some of the loose cadian shotgun from the FW veterans upgrade sprue.

@Heretic Tom thank you very much! I'm looking forward to getting more of the members done and showing you guys. I'm torn between keeping the others a secret until they're WIP/painted (as I currently am) or showing them all in their primed stage.

@youwashock cheers buddy I was nervous about it going in, but ultimately i'm pleased i got it on there. He was a bit of a bugger to glue on, but the hold is quite secure and i'm pleased with the character it adds to the model.


Hey everyone
Hope you're having a good one. I'm tuning in with some scenery from the kill team main box and the astra militarum booster. I am on such a kick right now! I really wanna get some games in but I don't know anyone who plays in my area









I'm doing up all of the stuff pretty quick to be acceptable as tabletop scenery. It's nothing flash, but its proving to be quite a fun and totally different experience to painting minis. I've been doing up the next killteam member on the side, so there'll be an update for him very soon as well Not photographed is a colossal building from the killteam box that has had washes applied to it. For the sake of not spending $1000 on agrax earthshade, i've been watering down my washes massively and as a result they're taking an age to dry

LDP

Loving the scenery man it looks tight!

Nice! The scenery is looking so good. I'm a big fan of the new kits. The past generation I didn't like so much, but this is much more gothic.
Oh okay sweet, so pretty simple. Sounds like you'll need a bigger piece of card

Cheers for the feedback, guys


Hey all!
As promised, here is veteran number 2 for my Cadian 122nd kill team. Just a bog standard fella with a lasgun/hotshot (its handy building them like this because they can effectively double as regular guardsmen and scions). Next up will likely be a plasma gunner. I'm also tempted to intercede with a hellblaster to get the customary smurf kick and keep the painting interesting. Speaking of interesting, though, I painted up the massive ruin from the kill team set as well! I'm really excited to get some battles going on the board.









LDP

Dude! looking just as awesome as last model! what a cool killteam :-) your terrain is looking nice too, did you follow the zandri dust and drybrush approach? the containers are great but I think they need something more? some more weathering or little reflective dings or dents?

All the detail on the wrist screens is just aces, man.

Great stuff! This is going to be an awesome kill team.

@NF09 yea more or less. I didn't have zandri spray, so I used black and handpainted from the pot. It was arduous and took a couple coats, but the novelty of large scale terrain kept me interested I agree with you on the boxes - they could use something more.

@youwashock thank you! I'm glad you like them. I'm a little disappointed that the screen on his right hand didn't come out super clear in the photographs. I may have to make the contents more vivid on the next guy's because there's a neat little globe interface on there that was intricate, neat, and heaps of fun to paint!

@Para thank you! I sure hope so. I'm writing up a datasheet for all the official members as we speak.



Hey everyone,

My pace is rapid at the moment! I'm really enjoying making the most of this brief rest from university. It starts back up full scale on monday so unfortunately it's going slow down after that again my passion for the hobby is so strong right now! That said, here's a picture of a hellblaster from the DI set. I'm excited to do the sergeant - I did a small kitbash on him that I feel improved the mini drastically. In the meantime, more work on the killteam! Painting up the plasma gunner as we speak. Catch you in a few!







LDP

Lookin' so crisp! Where's the Ultramarines upgrade sprue though?!

Damn, even your more basic troopers are awesome. Love your work.

Lookin' the business, from the green plasma glow to the scribbles on the purity seal.

Great stuff as always, I really do admire your lovely crisp paint style. I have to hide my bad/lazy paint skills with lost of rust and dirt so it is nice to see something nice and shiny for a change!

That must be a small brush you used to write on that purity seal, impressive stuff

@zahnib its from the DI box! I wanted to, but they're so push-fit that it was impossible



Here is the plasma gunner for my kill team Real pleased with how he came out. Especially glad with the wooden rifle stock and browns generally. Let me know what you think! Thanks for tuning in.







LDP

My goodness your 122nd Cadians look fabulous!

I especially love the plasma gunner.

May I ask what models/bitz you used to create that pose?

Keep up the great work

Your output and the quality is astonishing. I like the idea of Killteams, every member is special with conversions and bis own story. Great Job!

Plasma gunner looks awesome! I especially like the lettering on the left shoulder pad
Ahhh yes, the old push-fit models. I forget about these. Oh well, still looks great

That kill squad is coming together really well, Lips. Individual, yet cohesive. The woodgrain on the stock is well rendered. Right down to the whorl in the grain.

What size brush do you use for the numbering on the shoulder pads?

Also, as an aside, what size brush did you use to paint your ultramarine banner/s?

@Sikplex thank you! Any sure, you may ask indeed I use Forge World's Cadian Hostile Environment troops upgrades alongside regular cadian and Tempestus Scion bits. Hope this helps!

@Crimson cheers buddy. Yeah, I'm quickly discovering that the aesthetic and squad-approach to kill team is very satisfying and also very motivating in terms of output

@Cheers zahnib. I was a little apprehensive at first about the lettering, but I think it ultimately looks ok. Better to have the detail on there I think. Sarge here happens to have some smaller letters on him

@Snrub Cheers Yeah! The stock was a neat little gamble which I feel paid off. I use an artificer layer from GW for almost all of my fine detail work. I have one which has served me exceptionally well for a number of years at this point.



Hey guys

Today I finished the 4th member of my kill team. He's the sergeant and, with his wargear, comes in at a mere 10 points. He's got a plasma pistol on his waist for loadout variety in games but i'm excited to see him on the board! I ran a practice scenario with my GF to get the rules set under control and it's been suuuper motivating! I'm really keen to get more of these guys done. They're super satisfying to work on! A flamer gunner is up next



Thanks for looking guys!

Best,
LDP

I'm really liking the mix of Tempestus Scions and regular guard bitz, looks great and adds a bit more personality to each model. Look forward to seeing the flamer

The Kill Team is looking TIGHT.

Kasrkins look great!

 lipsdapips wrote:
I use an artificer layer from GW for almost all of my fine detail work.

What's the quality of the new GW brushes like? Worth the exorbitant price?

@snrub honestly they're hit and miss. Some brushes fray beyond use or just don't retain shape from the moment you use them, but other ones get shape and keep it for years at a time. I always have a trust medium layer and artificer layer, as well as some general large brushes that last a good while. In between their lifespans I occasionally try to get a small layer or something in between (I currently have one now but it's a little tedious and not working too well, but I haven't quite given up on it yet!). My artificer layer forms a needle point with almost no effort and keeps it while I'm applying paint work, so I can never fault it for that. Normally in my experience, I've actually found artificer layers to be more consistent than other brushes too. Perhaps it's something to do with the lesser amount of bristles (or perhaps that extortionate price you're talking about )

Really, really loving the Cadian Kill team.

Great work on the sergeant.

Kill team is coming together nicely. You have one planned for your Ultras?

Hey guys!

Finished the flamer, 5th member of my kill team complete. Quite pleased with his overall aesthetic. The commander in the cadian box has the perfect legs for a sort of 'great-coat' feel to him - a subtle variation which I feel adds some character. Enough of what I think of it though, I want to hear you guys' thoughts!









Thanks for looking

LDP

Flamer looks awesome man! The heavy trench coat works well, would make sense to have a heavy flame resistant coat to protect against the heat of the weapon.
How many members are you planning for your kill team?

Also an unrelated question - what basing material do you use? I'm planning on rebasing my minis and am looking at all the different options.

Something about flamers and greatcoats go so well together. Very nice job!

I struggle so much coming here, you work leaves me speechless, so good.

Thats mega! Your Kill Team is coming out great.

These are all amazing.

 zahnib wrote:
The heavy trench coat works well, would make sense to have a heavy flame resistant coat to protect against the heat of the weapon.

Was going to write almost exactly this.

Flammenwerfer looks great and the kill team as a whole is coming together brilliantly.

@Snrub great minds think alike

@zahnib cheers! I agree. Regarding kill team members, I'm trying to do them up so I have an option for every piece of scion wargear, alongside a couple hot-shot bozos for good measure. This will give me some nice versatility as well as a couple extra minis In terms of basing material, I'm actually lucky to have an artificial beach (sounds fake, I know, but I swear it's real!) in very close proximity to me! If you're interested, you can look up "Oriental Bay" on Wikipedia, but essentially I just take sand from there (there's 22,000 tonnes of it, I'm sure they don't mind ) and the grains seem to be larger than usual. It's honestly a little bit like an endless supply of artificial modelling sand. A fantastic wee miracle for me But I think more or less any larger grain sand would match it pretty close.

@Nevelon I feel you! An inescapable world-war era German feel to it.

@Cam you're too kind, honestly. I hope it isn't too severe

@Crimson_ thank you! I'm really having such a blast with them.

@Castor cheers buddy I hope you find what's below to be consistent with the standard!

@Snrub there you go! (see reply to Neve's comment)




Hey there everybody,

I'm really chuffed to present to you the Tempestor (Prime), "Ironfist" Jens, so called for his iconic bionic hand and trusty, no-nonsense power sword (borne in contrast to his singular psydove-skin glove, which holds his custom laspistol). I know they aren't in the kill team rosters, but how could I not do one up!? I can easily just have him use the statline, and it lends some extra versatility with the tempestor that i've finished already (he can always just be an infantry sergeant ) This kill team project has really turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving - I'm having so much fun with this and feel as though I'm pumping out some of my best work. Spirits are high at the moment! Hope you enjoy the pics guys, would love to know what you think. Melta gunner is up next.












Thanks for looking!
LDP

That's the best one yet! Love the stubble and the eye lens.

 lipsdapips wrote:
@Castor cheers buddy I hope you find what's below to be consistent with the standard!

Oh yes - nice work

Wow, that is an absolutely amazing Scions you have painted up ... they look ready to Deep Strike for the Emperor!

The servo-skull/censer is sublime.

Nice! I especially like the way you've done the smoke coming out of the censer
Hahah, well that's a spot of luck! Do you oven-dry it before using it on your bases or do you just go for it? I may be moving to Wellington next year but I don't know if I can wait that long to rebase my minis

That tempestor is pretty top-notch.
Swapping the knife for a pistol is good move. Adds a nice sense of direction to the model.

Also agree with Zahnib on the censer smoke. I'll be stealing that.

@Zah I just go straight in for it. The glue and primer makes it agreeable enough in my experience, I've found. And hey, yeah - Wellington's a lovely city

Thanks for the wonderful feedback everybody!

I present scion Jako, the melta gunner for my kill team. He has a sensor lens attached to his helmet, which gives him infrared sights for those pesky targets behind cover. He can basically see heat signatures straight through terrain as if it wasn't there (I represent this fluff through the level 3 scout tactic which lets you surge 18" in movement). The custom lens is raised on the mini because I imagine that he's spotted his target and is boosting in up close for the kill!









LDP

Damm!! very nice job on the scion

All the work here is tremendous- I'll be studying how you do the faces on your pieces, they're marvelous. I've never seen anyone handle a multi-melta as if it were a las-rifle before, but this latest scion absolutely looks like he can- well done!

More wood grain on the stock. Nice. These guys a coming out great.

Cheers for the feedback everybody


Hey all,

Checking in with an update on my kill team progress. I'm bringing in the first guardsman who is unquestionably not a kasrkin. As I've said, I'm trying to get a bunch of minis done with lots of the different weapon and unit choices so that my team can have variety, if I change the roster and things like that. Having so much fun still! Also attached is a picture of those who I've finished so far!

LDP

left handed lasgun conversion. very cheeky

Incredible work on these guys.

Here is a selfless man, my kill team's medic. There's a reason he's the only on on the team with an eyepatch and a bandaged arm. He's too busy keeping everyone else in good nick!







LDP

Here is a group shot of my kill team! I have painted material up to make a very elite kasrkin team at the moment, but still have a bunch of minis with which to bulk the numbers and add diversity to the weapon choices I'll still be working on them but I couldn't resist getting a picture of the whole gang as they stand so far! As I've said before, I'm really pleased with this project so far and I've been having SO much fun playing kill team! I haven't had the space or the means to play 40k in my student flat, but my girlfriend and I have been playing Kill Team a bunch! The downscaled size and rules are super accommodating and fun.

So cool!

That is without a doubt, one of the best looking kill teams out there. Each model is unique, but the unit is super coherent. Everyone of them oozes character.

Great use of the bandaged arm as the basis of a left handed conversion on the medic. What did you use for the right hand?

The group shot needs to be on an imperial recruitment poster.

Amazing work!

Played my first KT game this weekend, had a blast. It’s subtly different from 40k, so still wrapping my brain around it.

 lipsdapips wrote:
Here is a group shot of my kill team!

You mean your Super Killer Team, these guys looks ace!

Great painting and clever posing!

You Kill team is seriously impressive. The attention to detail is really whats separates it from the standard kill teams seen.

I don't play but kill team really adds an opportunity to create something different, just struggling to think how I could make a rough rider kill team

I wonder what's now on your work bench, lips. Gorgerous models, great paint scheme!

Many thanks to everybody for the kind feedback. I want to reply in full, but it's super late and I need to turn in quick :0

Well, @Lum...it's funny you should ask

I've enjoyed Kill Team so much that I just NEED more teams. I got enamoured on the idea of an eldar kill team, so I decided to have a go at painting some Biel-Tan! Here's the test model:



She's a trusty guardian defender, who will be one of a couple tasked with defending the weapons platform. I felt as though I liked the diversity afforded by a kill team of Eldar and have some exciting modelling plans for putting a diverse team together I like the eldar kits, but they are old and, to an extent, the age shows. This proves in part both a challenge and something satisfying - to me, these minis leak nostalgia and are elegant in their simplicity. That said, they're also mould-line ridden and pretty rough around the edges. Paintwise, this scheme is satisfying when finished, but painting both the green and white with layer paints is very difficult, as is layering black over white. Dangerous protocol, tricky paintwork, but that's the joy of kill team! I only need to do a few models and then I have an awesome and complete squad. Also, the nice thing about eldar is that aspect warriors have different coloured armour, so I only need to do so much white and green I've given the admech unit from the starter set to my girlfriend, who's going to use them as her own gang, and I've pulled the 10 deathwatch miniatures that I made a start on in 2016, as well as some of my Tau, to see what I can do with them. Very exciting stuff on the horizon - kill team feels really liberating and gives me great inspiration to delve into little gangs of other miniatures than my regular, smurf-heavy output.

More on the way! I'm keen to fill you guys in with these. A certain avenger may or may not be up next.

LDP

Very crisp lines and color. I've always found Guardian Defenders to be a nice relaxing paint job that results in a very elegant minaiture. I look forward to how you handle additions to the team.

Guardian looks great. I’ll agree that the sculpts are nice and look cool, but physically they have a lot of problems. Soft detail, mold lines, etc. GW has come so far in their plastics since these were made. I’d say I’d love to see them get re-cut, but there are so many other things in the eldar line that need to be made in plastic before these guys get another pass.

What were your thoughts on a KT squad? You just going pure guardian defenders, or going to mix it up? I tried looking at their rules, but couldn’t wrap my brain around something that looked like it would work on the table.

@CaptainWaffle thank you! I personally found that miniature a little pesky, but I totally see where you're coming from. I think my trouble came more from the choice and execution of colours than the miniature itself. They are elegant indeed and I back you sentiment wholeheartedly with this dire avenger that I'm working on! Far more pleasant that all that white.

@Neve I feel you. The day GW releases new plastics for all the aspect warriors is the day that I convert largely to an eldar collector As far as KT lists are concerned, I'm building this group around a provisional list that I've made. It's informed somewhat logically and strategically, but it also has some stuff in there for the sake of testing and trying. The list is this:

-Ranger (Leader 1)
-Dire Avenger exarch, SP, PG (Combat 1)
-Dire Avenger
-Dire Avenger
-Guardian Defender
-Guardian Defender (Comms 1)
-Missile Launcher Weapon Platform
-Storm Guardian
-Storm Guardian
-Storm Guardian Gunner w/ Fusion Gun (Veteran 3)

This list lets me try every unit the Eldar have to offer. The logic is that I have a pretty in-your-face frontline, with a strong combat mini and a couple gribblies, the fusion gunner can go on an assassination mission or two just behind them, the dire avengers hold the middle, and then the two guardian defenders do their job: defend the weapons platform (+give it a comms specialist shooting buff) and the ranger, who keeps an added layer of threat from the backline. Not sure how successful it'll be, but I'm excited to try it out all the same

Anyway, onto the updates! I have finished said weapons platform, and here it is, with its noble custodian, tasked with its defence:



It's hard to get photographs of the clean white against my black backdrop, because they wash each other out or meddle with the greens. I'm quite pleased with the finish of the platform, but I'm not sure the photos do it's shade total justice. Oh well.

I've also started the first dire avenger of the team. Now these guys are a blast. They're very much like painting Ultramarine 1st company vets, which is one of my favourite things to do. I'm eager to get onto the exarch now that i've got the test out of the way



LDP

Heh. I hear you about the color scheme on the Dire Avenger. “Time to paint my Eldar, to give me a chance to paint something a little different from my Ultras. Now for a DA, which I will paint the exact same way as the army I’m trying to take a break from”

Pretty critical fail from a secondary project.

I need another box of them...

You can always choose a different shrine color scheme for the aspect warriors, you don't have to go for the standard shrine scheme. The 7th edition Craftworlds codex has perhaps the best section on color schemes of every unit, with alternate aspect warrior shrines for each aspect. You could even make your own shrine. I always have my 7th codex nearby to reference. Some of the shrine schemes are only minor changes on the "standard", but other can be quite a drastic change.

That said, the Dire Avenger looks great! I'm too shaky to get those narrow, crisp highlights that you appear to get just right every time. The colors are coming out richly too. The only critique I have is about your backdrop: the setting is fine it could just use a quick blast from a can of air or something to get rid of the small hairs and other bits before taking a photo.

Too bad that the boxes of Dire Avengers are so costly now just for five models. I have 30 of the warriors, but I managed to get them all back when they were cheap and came in boxes of ten (or when you could get that Wave Serpent-Dire Avenger deal). I wouldn't pay that much for what they are now.

Stunning. And weird.I just done some eldar. And you are doing some at the same time. Just too weird.

Yours are light years ahead of mine though. Beautiful.

Love Eldar. Love what I'm seeing.

Looking good man! The Eldar are freakin' sweet, and Biel-Tan are my favourite with their 3rd edition retro vibes. I managed to pickup 10 of the old metal Howling Banshees a while back, one day I'll get around to collecting an Eldar army to go with them.

Your IG kill team is coming along great as everyone has been saying. My one complaint would be that the medic doesn't have any medic gear! I do like the conversion though

@Zahnib cheers as always for the feedback. Yeah, he has nothing flashy. There is the emblem on his shoulder and the backpack likewise has an aquila mixed with the caduceus, which is the medic specific bit from the command squad. I was shooting for a subtle effect so that I could play him not as a medic if I needed

Cheers for all the feedback everybody. @Neve, @CaptainWaffle I suppose I shouldn't complain - it's more of a pleasant return to form than anything. Besides, I totally love the default DA scheme, they're very slick. Speaking of, I have finished the Avenger test model:

I ALSO finished the Comms specialist! This fella is tasked with firing the Weapons Platform and will definitely be giving it his 6" shooting buff. I'm a little confused about some of the soft moulds on this guy - his left arm seems to have a bicep groove which is just an abrupt cut into a recess which looks suspiciously like a massive mould line. It's almost non-existent on the other side but seems to drastic to simply shave off without causing problems. Not really sure what to do about it...either way, I'm more or less pleased. The helmet came out great and I think I'm improving the white armour recipe.





Thanks for looking!

LDP

Beautiful classic look, perfectly executed. Special stuff.

These are so slick, excellent work!

Very clean and sharp!

That oddity on the comms guardian is definitely a mold line. It's a sign of the age of those molds. I've spent many minutes carving those things out when they pop up. The black bands you painted should be tassles and such that wrap around the arm or waist, but as I think you've discovered (based on the comms guy) sometimes the mold just doesn't let that happen. It looks great, though!

Well, your whites continue to be (aggravatingly) spot on. Well done.

How many dudemens have you got planned for this kill-team?

@CptWaffle cheers for the insight It's handy having an Eldar specialist on hand! appreciate the feedback.

@Snrub The plan is for it to be a ten-man team (incl. the weapon platform), which is a good way for me to segue into my progress on member number 5, my combat specialist!

The Dire Avenger Exarch:



This one has been a lot of fun so far. It's taking a fethload of time to do (it's much harder to keep lines sharp and details clean on older sculpts!), but I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.

LDP

Oooh. Very nice. You rock that blue and white.

@youwashock cheers buddy! it's very familiar territory. Actually though, would you believe it - it is a slightly difference blue recipe from the one which I use for my smurfs. I build up from macragge but move to alaitoc and hoeth for highlights, with spot highlights of fenrisian grey.


Hey everybody,

I present Illisar, Born of Twilight - the combat specialist for my Biel-tan kill team. I'm pretty pleased with the tidiness of this guy. I never realised how small the eldar were! I guess i'm too used to space marines, especially in the era of primaris. When I throw them up next to these guys, the size difference is crazy.







LDP

Fantastic work on the Exarch, a really crisp model. I like that you didn't use the Exarch torso, it makes the model much cleaner without all the straps.

Well you smashed him out quick! Your whites contrast beautifully with your style of blue.

Is that ranger next on the chopping block?

Nice! The green works well as a spot colour (once again) and will help tie your Dire Avengers in with the rest of your Biel-tan

Great work, particularly dealing with the "okay" plastics of the Eldar range at the moment.

So much excellent progress since I last checked in! The IG kill team is beautiful, the attention to detail on each model is stunning, makes me want to have a shot at something like that. I always end up compromising on paint quality in order to get more stuff churned out but that may have to change after seeing those guys...

The Eldar are also looking awesome, the white armour in particular looks great!

Very nice work.

Did you use a filter for some of those photos, or is your paint work just better then the camera can capture? Some of them (shimmershield specifically) have that frosted effect.

 Nevelon wrote:
Very nice work.

Did you use a filter for some of those photos, or is your paint work just better then the camera can capture? Some of them (shimmershield specifically) have that frosted effect.

The WIP image of the Exarch apears to have frosting from the primer. When I saw that I was worried that the markings on the shield wouldn't come through in the end. The golds were done extremely well, but they look pitted due to the frosting.

Another great Eldar! I agree with Tyranid Horde on use of the non-Exarch torso. I kind of wish I didn't build my Dire Avenger Exarchs with the belt/harness torso. It's too busy and I always wondered what it was about. It's not holding up anything. You made a superb choice going with the standard torso. It draws attention to the "crisp" lines and the important other parts of the model, such as the helmet and the glaive. LDP, your title is going to become "the crisp one" if you keep it up. We all seem to be using that word a lot to describe your work.

Do you have an image of what you put on the Exarch's back? It looks like you opted for the sword, but there's no good view of it (I always throw a banner on my Exarchs, but for killteam that might not be ideal). Very nice yellows on the tassles and colors on the gems! You really made those gems pop.

Lovely. Absolutely lovely.

Hey guys,
It's been a couple days. That's not to say I haven't been productive! I finished the third and final dire avenger for my Biel-Tan kill team. I now have to wait for a second package from GW before I can continue with them, which at this point is taking suspiciously long to arrive In the wake of that, I've decided to work on a couple deathwatch vets, because the short stint I had into a deathwatch blog in 2016 didn't come to much - but I can easily expand what I did into another cool little kill team! The more kill teams, the merrier I say! Also, because I'm nostalgic for my Ultras, I took a bunch of group shots again I'm also awaiting Calsius in the mail, whereafter I shall be doing up some smurfs for a kill team of their own. ALSO ALSO - I touched up Guilliman a little, as my gold scheme when I started back up this year was initially a little flat.























Thanks for looking!

LDP

That sword . Those Eldar are looking great too.

Excellent looking Dire Avenger yet again and Guilliman looks like a beast, the whole army looks stunning!

<Stunned into silence>

Awesome pics man, as usual. The first army shot is really something.

Thanks everybody for the feedback and for the kind words

I'm still waiting for my eldar stuff to come in the mail. so, in the meantime, here's what i'm working on:

Nothing says “serious business” like a heavy thunderhammer.

Nice menace from that guy.

Cheers Neve. Yeah - I figured he was the most imposing of the group of vets I had. Naturally, he had to be the Ultramarine

Hey everybody!
Finished the smurf Deathwatch vet. He filled the gap between eldar shipments well! Onto the rest of the kill team






Thanks for looking,
LDP

Just beautiful. The helmet is amazing, and the haft is outrageous.

Nothing says "you're proper fethed" like a massive hammer and a mean look (which I must assume that marine is giving!).

That Eldar kill team is really coming together well. Should look good with the addition of a pathfinder or two.

And your army shots are just spectacular. Looks like an army marching off to war.

Hey guys,
Here, at last, is the leader for my Eldar kill team!

I have to say, Finecasat is very annoying. Not a fan of how severely it affects casting quality. Add on to that that so much of the stuff my makes my paint work decent depends on clean edges to highlight! BAH! I'm satisfied with the mini overall, but I wish it were plastic.



Thanks for looking,
LDP

Looking good man! I've luckily managed to avoid finecast, sounds like its been nothing but disappointing. Still looks ace though!

These are looking fantastic. Really good photography, too.

We have just abandoned our Eldar force, which were Biel-Tan... perhaps it's good to cut our losses as they would never look as beautiful as yours! Great work.

Nice work on the sniper.

I’ve had some decent experiences with finecast. My Sgt. Talion was fine. He’s a solid chunk, without a lot of spindly bit and details. My TFC was a mixed bag. Again, being mostly solid helped, as did me thinking of how bad it would be in metal. The servo harness on the tech was a little dicy.

But all my Eldar in finecsat have been twitchy at best. They have so much tiny detail, bubbles screwed up a lot of them, and injection ports meant you have to carve your own detail back in places. And my rangers have wobbly gun syndrome in a bad way.

Love that model. I had actually ordered him when I got back into Eldar, but the store screwedup and didn’t get him. After looking at the rest of the finecast I picked up, I told them never mind.

I was thinking about eldar specialists the other day and how to distinguish them. He’s a stand out for rangers.

@Hivefleet Oblivion: Don’t let the fact that LDP pains so well hold you back, steal his ideas and use him for inspiration.

Love the ranger

Looks real good. I have 4 Lhamaeans due to the vagueries of Finecast. Just gave up after a while.

Lovely work on the ranger, even if it is Failcast/Finecrap.

Really nice job on your ranger, I've gone through 3 replacements of Zoanthropes just trying to get one that hasn't been destroyed with bubbles. I have a set of finecast rangers that require hot water to fix the rifles. I tend to avoid it where I can now.

Love the ranger.

Out of this world painting skills. Must be something in the water down there.

Hey everyone, thanks again for all your lovely feedback. Means the world to me and everything is taken in and considered! It's a huge motivation to keep the painting going.

Sorry I've been AWOL for a good few days. I'm smack bang in the midst of the toughest exam period I've ever had (postgrad is tough, unsurprisingly). Regardless, many of you perhaps know how much I love the classic T'au Sept scheme. The early naughties era, rich blue sky plastered over the top of a blazing desert with fire warriors, battlesuits and pulse fire was a huge 40k inspiration for me early on. So, as I have been many times before, I'm back on the Tau buzz! I'm hopping all over the show at the moment, goodness knows what's wrong with me.

In any case, here's the breacher Shas'ui I painted up as a test model. I'm very pleased with how it's come out and I'm looking forward to adding more bodies to the finished pile!

LDP

That's really nicely done, proper sense of resilience and toughness that you've got out of that pose.

I'm always impressed by how clean and crisp your paint jobs are. Consistently good quality!

@Paradigm cheers! Yeah, I took a head from the pathfinders box. His grizzly stare really suited the stoic stance I thought.

@DV8 Thank you, hopefully this next update holds up!

Hey all,
I'm going on a painting spree right now! I have TWO finished miniatures for you. My kill team sniper and leader: a pathfinder with a rail rifle and an XV15 Shas'vre with a burst cannon respectively. I'm going through lulls and surges at the moment because I have exams on. So when I take days off, I'm totally free. When I have exams upcoming, I can get almost nothing done. In any event, pleased with the progress! Hope you guys like it:








Thanks for checking in as always,

LDP

They could use a touch of weathering. Some sucking chest wounds always look good on Tau.

Nice work as always, even on filthy xenos.

Those Tau looks great! I think they really suite the clean and crips paint style you've got. T'au Sept has such a great colour scheme as well. They work really well with your basing scheme too.
Nice to see an XV15, I much prefer them to the XV25 stealthsuits. Nice work as always, good luck with your exams

Excellent looking Tau, the pathfinder is definitely my favourite of your Tau so far. I think I've inadvertently come across your Instagram at some point so I was wondering where I'd recognised them from!

Great stuff, beautiful brushwork as usual!

Looking great! Nice to see the older stealth suit. Sweet edge work.