carlos13th wrote: I've been utterly disinterested in space marines for a while now but I keep checking back to see what you have done with your latest one Para. The effort you are putting in both in terms of painting and the various different painting schemes makes it far more interesting than space marines normally are. Looking forward to the next one.
Who next?
Tiger claws, Raptors and firehawks would all be interesting. As would many others.
What’s with the new-fangled picture? If you want to paint Badab, go dig up the old RT pic. With variant camo patterns.
(interesting to see how things have changed)
If you find it please share it. Would be cool to see the differences.
If you find it please share it. Would be cool to see the differences.
Normally if I need to find it, I just go downstairs. But for sharing, it’s easier to rummage around google. It’s a fairly well known pic, someone must have scanned it already.
Yeah, I saw that while researching Badab. Some like the Fire Hawks aren't too far off, just the orange and yellow inverted, Red Scorps are pretty similar too, but that Tiger Claws scheme? You can tell it was the 80s!
Kind of tempting to try a 'modern' rendition of some of these schemes, see if I can actually make some of the more garish ones gritty and realistic, but for the sake of coherency, for this little project at least they'll all be in the regular schemes.
Had to weather the hell out of him to get the orange looking halfway decent and cover up the fact the legs and JP are salvaged from ancient minis and only semi-successfully cleaned up. Went a little more orange than some versions of the scheme (it seems to vary from really bright orange to almost BA red at times) but I think that looks all right, I'm pleased enough with the mini, but I can't help but feel he doesn't hold up to the other ones... Any ideas on what's not quite worked?
I disagree Paradigm! Appropriately grim dark. He really has the feel of an Assault Marine that is constantly up in other peoples business pushing his armor to the limits, i like it alot!
I’ve been experimenting myself with that photo program, and having some fun with it. In the past when taking pictures of my minis (mostly for your monthly competitions) I was just doing 360 pictures to show all the angles. When assembling pictures for a composite, I think that’s not the best idea. You obviously want one or two “overall” shots to encompass and convey the figure. the rest should showcase the best parts of the angle.
An example (spoilered as not to spam your thread with my pics)
Spoiler:
All those pics started life as full body shots. The lower left and right are actually zooms of the same one, just focused down to showcase different parts of the mini. But when I was taking the picture that the plasma pistol is cropped from, I explicitly took that angle to showcase it. So why not just show it off? The overall pic shows the mini well enough, it’s just not the best pistol shot.
For your Fire Hawk, you have two very similar back shots. It’s a nice angle, but I would do a tight zoom on the JP for one of them. Pick your best chainsword shot, show it off.
I’m not going to claim to be an expert, but I have been thinking about this a bit recently. YMMV.
@Nev: Yeah, I do need to experiment a little more to find the best way of displaying the minis. Still trial and error on size, how far I can zoom in before I lose focus, colour balance, that kind of thing.
Paradigm wrote: @Nev: Yeah, I do need to experiment a little more to find the best way of displaying the minis. Still trial and error on size, how far I can zoom in before I lose focus, colour balance, that kind of thing.
I think a lot of that depends on your camera. Obviously if you take higher quality pics, you can blow things up more before the start to come apart. I’m using an older point and click camera (Canon Powershot S95), but even phone cameras are getting to be pretty good quality these days.
As a benchmark, the photo I used for the plasma pistol close up is about 1.3 megs, and 1999 × 2377 if iPhoto is to be believed.
I don't see anything wrong with him really He's dirty, gritty, tarnished... just like his base, so that's a perfect match. The only thing that comes to mind is that there aren't any points of contrasting color on the model (or is it complimentary? I can never keep those straight) so the monotone of the piece might be what's getting to you. It wouldn't need much... just a point here or there. I'm thinking a nice glow from the jump engines (doesn't have to go beyond the mouth of the jets) and a point of whitish blue from the pilot light on the flamer.
The pose is fantastic. Really dynamic and helps a potentially top heavy model look like he can move quickly.
I agree with Gitsplitta that it may be the colours all flow together hence giving a fairly "flat" end product. This of course is a fantastic result for pure realism as even though marine colours are a heraldry system constant war and damage would tarnish any paint to a point this guy is at. I like the look and think he is one of the most brutal examples of an assault marine I have seen.
But for the love of all that is holy please teach him to put a helmet on.....
@Archer: I am considering switching out for a helmet on him actually, my work on his head isn't stellar and might be what's bugging me about the mini. Only trouble is it means more orange, so I lose the focal point which might throw the composition off even more.
@EDC: No, what makes you say that? It's clearly some very carefully sculpted fallen metal that only looks like I was too lazy to do anything more than glue some sprue to the base!
Thraxas Of Turai wrote: He is so badass that he has buried his opponent up to the neck rather than killing him .
I am liking the variety of Marines. Is it to an end or are they just primarily display pieces? Also any commissions lately?
And now I can never in good conscience put a discarded helmet on a base ever again....
The 'end' such as it is is just to have a mini for each Chapter that fought in the Badab war, for no reason other than they'll look good on a shelf, have a nice unifying theme and give me scope to practice and learn a wider range of colours and techniques (having basically done the same things on more or less every mini across the HH army).
No commissions lately, I've got methebest's Geckos to do for the volunteer painting thingymagig, and will hopefully be doing some more Orks for kb_lock's Dakka Klan project, but in terms of actual commission stuff, no luck in recent months. Might see about dropping my prices again, although even when I went down to about half price on HH stuff back when BaC came out, I had no interest, so I may just pack it in at some point... Mind you, it's not costing me anything or taking any effort to keep my site up, so I guess I'll just leave it there and if I get any interest, awesome, if not then it's no loss...
Hoping to finish off the first Gecko tonight/tomorrow, maybe get the last Court of Owls guy done this weekend as well, though I do have an essay assignment I'm eager to get cracking on, so we'll see, that could eat up most of my weekend...
Got the first of the Geckos done now, hopefully the second will follow quite quickly.
Reasonably happy with it, hopefully methebest who it's for is too.
Took the HH force for a spin this evening, ended up playing the same guy I fought last week, again with Necrons, and again lost, this time 4-3 on Kill Points. If my Techmarine had hit anything other than a couple of Warriors who immediately got Ghost Arc'd back up, things might have been different, he sent 3 shots in a row at an Annihilation Barge and fluffed either the scatter or the Pen roll each time, leaving it sitting on 1HP and immobilised for most of the game! Still re-learning how to play, and trying to take in the changes from when I last played regularly in early 6th. Need to get back into the habit of being more ballsy (for want of a better term) with my threatening units like Termies and Dreads, who spent a few turns hidden behind a bunker and contributing nothing, if I'd pushed forward they might have taken a little more damage, but also dealt some more. Meanwhile, I need to get the hang of my Vet Tactical Squads, they're competent all-rounders but I keep forgetting to give them the support they need to do much meaningful, against Crons the way they are now, Bolters just aren't cutting it... I need more firepower.
As and when I get that Ad Mech starter, I might see about mixing them up a bit into counts-asing as one of the 30k-flavour Mechanicum forces to cover that shortfall. The Dominus is oretty much a straight swap for an Archmagos, anyone familiar with the HH Mechanicum lists enough to suggest good counts-as profiles for the Skitarii and Dunecrawler models? Past that, I'm not sure what to add. Another Tactical Squad or two gets more more bodies, but don't offer anything not already in the list (And I don't really fancy painting up another 20 standard Bolter Brothers), Support Squads strike me as a bit too Glass Cannony, I love the idea of Breachers but they're hardly worth the extra points outside of Zone Mortalis, and Assault Squads in 30k are just so expensive for what they offer... I guess the answer that's staring me in the face is tanks, tanks, tanks, I just hate painting them and really, running them. Might see about getting my spare Rhinos painted up in Legion colours, they're not doing much else at the moment after all, but that solves the mobility issue but not the firepower one... Anyone with 30k knowledge got any ideas? Still not looking for anything competitive, just something that can kill stuff a little more effectively.
Anyway, that's enough ramble for one update! Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!
You kick these guys out fast. I was gonna comment on the Star Phantom and find these other guys too. They all look great as always. Have you thought of building an army? I think any chapter you pick will look great with your technique.
Quick question for you guys; what's your favourite 40k Chapter? I am currently assembling a Marine, purely as something to paint after finished the game-based army project, and I really want to see just how good I can make a basic-jsh PA marine look. I don't really have any Chapter in mind, so I'm throwing it out to you, what Chapter do you want to see me tackle as a one-off? Preferably something I haven't done before, so most of the First Founding Chapters are out (apart from the Scars, but white is still an 'aaaarrrrgh' scheme for me! ), but aoart from that, anything goes.
The build isn't finished yet, so if it's a Chapter that needs certain features/embellishments on the mini itself then that's doable.
During the RT era - Ultramarines (RT-style, so quite different to now)
During 3rd - Mentor Legion
(yeah, I've been away for most of a week!)
I really like the work you've been doing on these Badab War models. If I can make one suggestion though - get hold of a pack (or a few packs) of flat shields and practice, practice, practice your freehand. Straight lines, skulls, giant eyeballs, demon/orc/ogre faces, numerals - both Roman and Arabic), heraldic devices, Greek letters. I love the look of your Howling Griffon - it's honestly one of my absolute favourite models that you've produced, but the wonky II on his left pad keeps bothering me (also the lack of sharp end-lines on the Red Scorpion's knee stripe. The thing is that they wouldn't bother me on most people's models, but they do on yours. There's a reason for that, though - I know that the weathering covers a lot of that sort of thing, but I also know that with a bit of practice, you'll be able to achieve straight lines - and then way more for all of these kinds of markings.
It's been awhile since I've stopped by here and it looks like I've missed some awesome work. You've done a great job with your marines, and the red scorpion really stands out to me. Also glad to hear you're getting some games in again.
My favourite chapter are the Dark Angels. The background, colours, Ravenwing, Deathwing, Cypher and too much to mention all add up to an amazing chapter. And yet I have never painted them. I think a lot is tied to the original Dark Angel Captain model, such an iconic sculpt.
@FSU: I did just finish one army, while I have plans for another small force coming up (March is for Marvel, but April is for AdMech! May is probably for... More Marvel? Or maybe Marines...) I think I'll be sticking to display projects and one-offs for a bit now... Though in future, I can definitely see myself doing a Badab War force in the vein of my HH army, squads pulled from several of the participating Chapters...
@Az: Yeah, I appreciate my freehand can be a little dodgy, I do try and keep working on it, but maybe actual practice not for minis is what's needed...
@GiraffeX: Rapiers are definitely on my list to consider, not shelling out for the FW ones at £30 a pop, but there are several good conversion options around (I can see the Kataphron Breacher track units making good bases, the torsos could then be used for some Admechy conversion goodness... Failing that, Anvil, Puppetswar and Mantic have some stuff that might work).
Got the go-ahead for something slightly different on Gecko Number 2, should have some progress tomorrow!
Wow, that's only the second time that's happened for one of my pics. I saw the massive version made the Dakka homepage the other day (sadly, as blown up that much it's a terrible pic, the collage version enlarges much better), but hadn't noticed it made the gallery front page as well. Thanks to anyone who voted on it to get it there!
Automatically Appended Next Post: AAAnd it's now gone! Oh well, that's my 15 minutes of fame done!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Aaand now it's back! Make up your mind, Dakka algorithms!
Paradigm wrote: Wow, that's only the second time that's happened for one of my pics. I saw the massive version made the Dakka homepage the other day (sadly, as blown up that much it's a terrible pic, the collage version enlarges much better), but hadn't noticed it made the gallery front page as well. Thanks to anyone who voted on it to get it there!
Paradigm wrote: Wow, that's only the second time that's happened for one of my pics. I saw the massive version made the Dakka homepage the other day (sadly, as blown up that much it's a terrible pic, the collage version enlarges much better), but hadn't noticed it made the gallery front page as well. Thanks to anyone who voted on it to get it there!
Awesome! As small a thing as that might be, it is something of a milestone in my painting career!
Got the second Gecko done, in an alternate scheme:
They'll be going off this week, so now it's on to... ACtually, I'm not sure what. I'm out of Marines, can't get AdMech or Marvel yet... I have one more BMG guy to do, then whatever odds and sods I thought might be cool to paint when I was packing... Think there's some SH Genestealers, an Ork or two, some Skaven, a few Samurai (who I have no idea how to paint! )and some Sedition Wars Strain pegged for a Mass Effect Reaper-themed Deadzone/generic sci-fi squad... Any preferences?
Woah!! Now THAT is an awesome paint scheme. I liked the red, but this is far far better. I've dismissed Infinity completely, but this is enough to spark an interest for his model. Big achievement! My wallet is vey unhappy with you
My vote for the next paint challenge is the Skaven. We don't see a lot of them around and would love to see how you deal with Rhe scales
Cheers guys, going to try and sort some better photos before I send them off.
Just seen both the Star Phantom and the Griffon made the gallery frontpage... in the voice of the Halo multiplayer announcer, 'double kill'!
@TP: Skaven up next then (it's just 3 minis, so should be pretty speedy), unless someone can convince me otherwise... Infinity is an odd one for me. Parts of it I really like, some I can't stand, the rules I never got on with but some of the minis are superb (others, less so). I'll probably do some more for myself later this year, even if it's just picking up a few character models or one-offs rather than building to play.
Cheers guys! For the sake of completeness, some better pics and a collage of the two:
Sorry about the odd background colour on the red one, tried everything to fix it and I can't get it even close to the way it should look (as on the black/blue one).
And from the sleek, bright future of Infinity to the pile of mangy fur and dodgy teeth that is The Skaven! First of the 3 I have is now done, the Clanrat Champion from the Island of Blood starter (actually, I believe there were two different Champions, one for each unit... can't remember what the other one looks like, though, he's probably in a box at home...)
Tried a few new things here. Firstly, I wanted quite a limited palette of colours; my first step with new minis/styles is always googling for inspiration, and the defining feature of the best Skaven artwork (and there's some bloody good stuff, I'd not looked before but some pieces are brilliant!) was its very narrow range of colours. Brown, red, green, grey. So that's all I allowed myself here, ended up using just 10 paints for the mini, base and all.
The armour is NMM, but not the shiny kind I usually do, I wanted to emulate a patina of rust and grime and all sorts of nasty things one might get smeared in in The Under-Empire. To that end, I basically mixed in all kinds of browns and greens and reds at various stages of the process, it's given what I think is a really nice dirty effect that still looks realistic.
The shield on the base and his own were a bit of an experiment with wood grain effects, which will probably feature a little more on the other two models as I rather like the effect. He's got a Warpstone-induced glow but only in one eye, for some reason I couldn't be bothered to think up! The freehand on his shield is deliberately dodgy, Skaven aren't famed for their master painters after all! He daubed on the symbol and went off to kill some Man-Things...
Well, that's a wrap for today, I'll get on to the others at some point soon as I really enjoyed this evening's work. Any thoughts welcome, and thanks again for those who've been voting on my pics, it really does help put a number on things and some results have definitely surprised me (positively and negatively, it has to be said, but there we go! I'm not complaining!). Cheers for reading, folks!
You certainly do deliver Para. Cheers for a lovely model to gawp at. Have voted in gallery for you.
I think you should be commends not just on the high quality of these last 6(? I think) models, but that you are trying hard to develop yourself and are not sitting back content with a "well that was a good one, I'll just do more like that" attitude.
You need to buy a lamp and a daylight bulb to show off these beauties. If you don't I'm finding you and forcing them in to your hands. Student or not, IKEA sell a great lamp for a reasonable amount here
@Thraxas: Oh no, it wasn't any actual negativity, I'm still very pleased with the scores they're getting. One score just surprised me a little relative to another (the Howling Griffon is higher in both categories than the Star Phantom, but I was thinking the Phantom was the better of the two! ), but it's nothing I'm worried about! The whole thing is so subjective, and obviously people are better placed to judge my work objectively than I am, so it's all good. Two images holding their place on the front page is something I'm very proud of, as is just getting the 5 votes required in the first place!
Only thing that's bugging me at the moment is how I produce some of the best SM I've done with all kinds of new techniques, a week after finishing a SM army! Why does this always happen?
Ah cool, I read that the wrong way. Personally I never use the front page and do not bother with the Dakka gallery so it is all a bit of a mystery to me.
I think you should be commends not just on the high quality of these last 6(? I think) models, but that you are trying hard to develop yourself and are not sitting back content with a "well that was a good one, I'll just do more like that" attitude.
Yeah, with one-offs like this I am always trying to push myself and learn new stuff. I do tend to get 'comfortable' and repeat the same stuff when I'm working on an army, but for these display pieces, there's no point doing them if I'm not trying to learn something into the bargain! Glad you think it's paying off!
You need to buy a lamp and a daylight bulb to show off these beauties. If you don't I'm finding you and forcing them in to your hands. Student or not, IKEA sell a great lamp for a reasonable amount here
Actually, I'm already using a daylight bulb! Can you tell me what exactly the pics are lacking, maybe it's something I'm doing wrong in the editing phase? I know the White Balance has been off on a couple I've done recently, which I'm trying to work on.
Da Boss wrote: That is an awesome skaven. I'd just talked myself out of picking up a box of IoB for the skaven and now I'm wavering again!
Honestly, get it while you can! The Elf stuff is all fantastic, the Skaven character models and Rat Ogres are awesome, and Clanrats are... well, Clanrats, but you can never have too many!
It's ultimately down to the overall light levels. Your models are gritty, but the light tends to be too dark so although there is an argument that it can be complimentary, you are sometimes not allowing enough light in to the shot for the details to shine through.
I use Photoshop because I always have and know how to bring exposure levels, white balance, vibrancy blah blah in, but sometimes just a brightness slider in a piece of software is enough, or in camera increase your exposure time, so if you are able to add in an extra +0.5 exposure to your shot, or use shutter priority and go for a 1/125 of a second or slightly longer you may get better results.
I'd angle the lamp at the "forehead" at a 45 degree angle normally (if that makes sense - basically have it above you and behind/to the side pointing at the head of the model) then let the camera flash lighten the mini's front.
If you had two lamps (which I would love but my painting cupboard (don't ask) won't allow space wise) you'd have a lamp over either shoulder and then the flash straight at the mini at it's level.
Use a tripod to prevent shudder. I needed to put my tripod on a wooden board last time because I couldn't find my remote and whenever I used the camera button it cause motion blur
I would love to spend a few hours just playing with camera settings and lighting setups to show you what I would do, because ultimately it is a "mess around and see what works" thing. But these basics are a good way to start. Just remember that I started trading photos 25 years ago and am damn proud of how much I've improved I the last 10 since so really took a full interest in digital photography after getting a Nikon D80 which I still use today. And despite that the first photos of minis that I am proud of taking were last month's scouts when I set a full night aside to take photos. I used:
1) The lamp and bulb Januine recommended
2) The background you inspired me to look to getting (I know I advised you ages ago, but the blue never worked for me and your background was way better!)
3) My Dad's photography teachings
4) My friend's digital photo theory lessons
5) A +8 macro filter I forgot I had
6) SLR
7) Tripod
8) iPhone torch function because the zoom lens was creating a shadow in front of the minis
9) Patience
10) About 80 photos to get the right 10 or so
Just keep playing around. Set a night aside every now and then just taking photos of minis. It's waaaaaay different than taking landscapes and portraits.
That's all I got. Sorry it's long. Hope it was a teeny bit helpful
Yeah, that's handy... Suppose a large part of the issue is that my camera has a battery that lasts about 5 minutes before needing to be plugged in again, which is fine as it can only take 2 pictures on the card anyway before that fills up (camera and card are about 14 years old)! A tripod, lamp and diffuser can only help so much there! I'll be getting a new one soon, though (couple of months at the most), at which point I shall definitely keep working on it.
I'm using Photoscape to edit, Jan recommended it and while I'm still getting my head around it, it's working well thus far. Lots of trial and error, though, not done this kind of thing before. Going back through the blog, I think my pics have come a long way (don't look at the pics in my first few posts, just don't! ), though it is a weakness I do need to keep working on as much as painting.
Oh mate, don't take my suggestions as being insulting of what you are doing. Good lord no!!! You are doing better than some. I've restarted my Gallery voting marathons and some of the stuff is a terrible quality of photo. Your's are in the top 5-10%. I just want you to show off your awesome minis as they deserve. It takes a long time to learn how to do it. You're on the road to success though already. If you can't get the camera issue sorted it doesn't matter, you are still getting very high marks from me in the Gallery
No insult taken, it's all very valuable advice, and while I can't put it into practice with my current equipment, once I get something that isn't a relic from the Dark Age of Technology I most definitely can!
Having a play in the editor at the moment, seeing if I can get this rat looking a little better.
In Photoscape there is a tab/button labeled 'filter'. click the dropdown menu and select 'region(out of focus) - the name is slightly missleading as it has a whole lot more in it - blur etc but also brighten, darken, sharpen etc. play around with the levels, size and feather etc. with it you can brighten or darken specific areas and then feather them to blend into the photo as a whole.. really handy when you want to bring up the light on an otherwise dark area or tone an overexposed area down. hope it helps
Can't tell. I am not a photo snob (no offense) I just don't visually process detail as well as others I think.
All I can tell is that it looks dark and gritty and awesome in either photo I realize that isn't much help for improving painting technique or photo processing, but it's all I got!
Much better. There's always a danger of losing the colour quality as you brighten the image, but looks good so far. Have you got a lighter background? A silver/grey etc may help with the figs that are red/brown. Overall though, that second image is a huge step up in quality. Well done
Good to know, I shall keep experimenting and do another round of pics tomorrow so I have something better to work from, rather than trying to polish pics that seem to be worse and worse every time I look at them!
The Skaven looks fantastic mate! Is it for AoS of another system?
With regards to the photos, do you have an iPhone? I take all my pics on an iPhone and edit them mostly through the inbuilt photos app - it's a powerful piece of kit in my opinion and gets better results than my DSLR.
It's for sitting on my shelf mostly, I considered doing up my Skaven when AoS first came out but passed on the idea, I wasn't up for painting an army at the time. I may well do an AoS force at some point, though my current gaming group is All 40k, All The Time (though I am planning to try and sell them on X-wing and Batman) at the moment so that takes precedence on the army-building front. If I do AoS, it'll almost certainly be Undead, but it's not on the radar any time soon.
Seems like a really good piece of kit for the price, compared to the ones I've got used to working with, but I may be missing something as this really isn't my area (as I think we've established after 60 pages of dodgy pics )!
No phone? Amazing, but I applaud you for living without one.
I am no real judge of photography skills and have zero photography knowledge but have always found your photographs great for displaying your miniatures. It is testament to your willingness to improve your skills, just like your painting, that you want better pictures.
Ustrello wrote: Yeah those rats look really good para! I am in the same boat as you, as if you can't tell from all of my questions, photo taking wise as you .
Your photos are good too Ustrello, you need to just concentrate on framing them. Seeing the edge of the paper in the background can be distracting. Try a bigger piece of paper/standing closer/putting multiple models closer together. Also remember if you find a perfect angle for your camera/phone, just spin your mini to see the aspect you want to show off. I also find minis in a straight line doesn't wow me as much as s bunch. Your assault marine would have been cool in a circle as though they were about to face an oncoming horde.
If you want more advice/chat about photos, we can move this to your blog so Para's doesn't get clogged by this convo (sorry Para )
Wow. That Clanrat looks amazing. Limiting your palette like that has really given it a 'realistic' quality, in contrast to the cartoony style that GW usually portrays.
Cheers! To be honest, the palette limits were something taken from Skaven artwork, which is worlds away from the garish, cartoony paintjobs on GW minis. Stuff like this is just brilliant, though:
Spoiler:
Might crack on with the second Clanrat later if I have time.
Same 10 paints used here as on the Champ, a few different effects/textures on the leather rags and wooden flagpole, slightly different skin/fur too but all done using the same colours for consistency. Been meaning to do a patchwork banner for a while now, this seemed as good a mini to try it on as any. Tried brightening up the pics a bit, not sure how successful that's been.
That's all for now, any thoughts welcome! One more rat to go, the drummer. Probably tomorrow evening's project.
The rats look pretty good, Para! I had always thought I might like to play Skaven if I ever got into WHFB. Of course, that was before Age of Stinkmar was a thing...
@Thraxas: It's actually just a busted up coffee stirrer stick, I tend to horde them pretty obsessively 'just in case' I need them for a scratch-build that will never actually happen,.. I think this is the first time I've actually used one for something other than spreading PVA on a base...
I do like the Lookout Rat, I don't know whether it's obvious, but the Skaven himself is actually painted to be blind, hence the white/bloody eyes, the rat on the other hand has glowing green eyes; he's been at the Warpstone while no one was looking!
@ZS: To be honest, it's only lack of opponents that stop me getting in on AoS. The rules themselves look fun, and suit my 100% casual, 'make it up as you go along' approach to gaming, so really it should be right up my alley! Gotta get that starter at least at some point!
Are you picking one of the (traditionally) most numerous factions just to taunt we slow modellers?
I think the Skaven really suit your particular style of painting, dare i say better than the Astartes.
I've read that AoS is actually a pretty good game, Shame about the lame-o miniatures. Also the fact it's worsened GW's habit of not bothering to update core troop choices but adding at least 5 butt ugly shrine/butt ugly giant beasty/butt ugly warmachine 'Fisher Price Toy' models when a new army rolls around.
@Perkustin: More picking them because they happened to be in the very limited box of minis I have to hand, but that said, I do have some Orks lined up as well... To be honest, I could never do an army or even a regiment like this, takes waaay too long per mini for that!
@Zambro: Round bases all the way, man! Since the AoS repacking started, I've had to reconsider so many Fantasy units I dismissed at the time as not looking great simply because everything looks so much better to me spaced out and on rounds! The Standard is just on some decking made from chopped up coffee stirrer sticks, painted and washed.
Good news, I've just had family visit, and they brought:
- A handful more marines scrounged from around the house
- The decent camera, which I have permission to borrow until I can get my own sorted in a month or two. So after this weekend where I will be trying to get an essay done, it'll be full steam ahead on the Badab project, now in HD!
Well, better camera certainly! It's the one I was using before I came to uni, and pretty damn good, so hopefully I can apply what I've learnt since then with the older ones to this and get some genuinely good pics! I shall experiment a bit, and probably reshoot the better stuff I've done recently.
To be honest, 8 months or so later I'm still in two minds over the whole WFB/AoS stuff. I really, really liked the Old World background and history, and up until the conclusion, I found the End Times fluff really cool as well... but I could never get into it as a game, too many minis needed, particularly in the Core units. Now AoS has reversed the situation; I really like the sound of the game, but the fluff is not as fleshed out or captivating as WFB was... I guess the solution is just to do AoS games with Old World narrative, but the complete lack of interest in my current group makes that something of a dead end...
Really feel for you there. Having a regular gaming group is a wonderful thing. Having a regular group that want to play the way you want is a whole different beast.
To be honest, you won't find me complaining! For a good couple of years before coming to uni, I was without any gaming opportunity at all, so getting in a game a week up here is great. At the moment it's all 40k, but I'll be trying to introduce them to some other bits soon (much easier to get people playing when you're providing all the minis! )
AoS from me will happen at some point, I'm sure of that. Mantic's Undead have been on my radar for ages, and some of the AoS Start Collecting bundles are mighty tempting too (that Lizardman one is awesome!), it's just a case of prioriites (which at the moment are 40k, Marvel/Batman and X-wing, as that's what I'm likely to be able to play any time soon).
Very nice job on the banner bearer and the new camera seems to be doing the job! I think I should invest in one sometime or maybe at least a set up for my phone so my pictures aren't as shaky
Haha, haven't even used the new one yet, those pics from yesterday were taken with the old one! Working on the drummer rat now, though, so tonight's pics will be better!
It's amazing the difference a good camera makes...
Pretty damn pleased with this lot, definitely the best Skaven I've done, plenty of new textures, methods and techniques learned along the way! Got the look I wanted, and picked up a lot too. With them done, it'll be on to Project Badab next week, got the first two minis lined up... Carcharadons Astra and Minotaurs coming soon to a blog near you...
That's all for now, I may well get some better pics of other recent minis tonight, so stay tuned! Any thoughts welcome, thanks for looking!
Fanatasic P. Am absolutely loving those Skaven! Really akes me what to pick up some Skaven now but NO!!! After what I picked up back home and what was waiting for me when I got back and all the stuff I still have to do - total buying freeze for the next few months - total!!!!
I just love skaven. I'd really like to 40k a squad up but I haven't the slightest idea what to do with them (play-wise). Yours a beautiful though... love them!
Nice pictures Para! A lot clearer than before. However, the glare is a bit too much on the drummer... Maybe diffuse the light a bit better? Or do what you did with the champion and banner, as they seems fine.
Edited in a slightly better one, he's now a bit darker but the colours are less washed-out and it looks more like the actual mini. Not sure why the glare was worse on him to be honest, they were all photographed in exactly the same place under the same light...
I'll definitely try another diffuser, with the new camera I have to relearn the setup for this particular one now.
Cheers. Probably around 90 minutes or so per mini, basing included. So not a huge amount of time in the grand scheme of things (though I'd not want to take that long if I had 20/50/200 of the blighters to do for a unit or army! ). There's actually a lot of washes, drybrushes and wet blending that are all pretty quick, so it's not as involved as it looks! The limited colours also saves time switichng paints and such, I can just put a blob of everything on the palette and mix whatever's needed.
They definitely look a lot like the Skaven in Vermintide or Mordheim games. Disgusting smelly ratmen with a penchant for racial supremacy and sneakiness
The Ratmans have come up well. I quite like Skaven, and you've done a very effective job on both. I like the grungy, rusted NMM on the champion. Nice temp camera and good job on getting a new one. I know the previous one has been giving you headaches for awhile.
@Da Boss: Good! Well worth picking up, it's one of the best sets GW have done in terms of both value and quanitity, especially if you're building for a skirmish or mid-size game rather than a full-on WFB army. Hell, if you fancy giving Age of Sigmar a shot there's basically two complete forces there. The characacter minis in particular are also some of the best snap-fit plastics out there.
Back to Badab now in what will probably be my last update for a couple of days. Before I show the mini, I want to set the scene...
Forge World Design Office, Day 1 of the Badab War Campaign projects.
Dev 1: Guys, some bad news from head office. They've given us a list of Chapters they want us to features in Imperial Armour.
Dev 2: And? What's on there?
Dev 1: All the classics. Minotaurs. Red Scorpions. Mantis Warriors. Exorcists...
Dev 2: I'm not seeing the problem here.
Dev 1: Space Sharks
Dev 2: [spews coffee across desk] WHAT? 'Space Sharks'? How can they expect people to take them seriously when they sound like something out of a bad Dr Who script?
*Silence. Murmurs. At last, an idea*
Dev 1: Got it! We Latin up the name a bit, and to be doubly sure, we make them total screaming badasses that no one would ever want to feth with!
Dev 2: That's do it!
Yep, Space Sharks is not a name I'm a fan of, but the brutal, murderous, frankly nuts Carachadons Astra are a dead cool Chapter. Loose cannons with a great subdued armour scheme, a preference for close quarters combat, giving no thought to anything but killing the enemy to a man, these guys are my kind of Marines.
Pretty pleased with this guy, the chainblade 'hatchets' look as mean as I'd hoped they would (they're built from a CSM Chainfist and regular chainsword handles), the CSM helmet looks close enough to MkV Mantilla Pattern to do the job, and the flicked-on blood spatters worked very nicely to give him a real sense of brutality.
Up next, probably early next week, will be a Minotaur, in many ways the opposite of the Carachadons. The pose on the mini I have prepped is a lot more regal and passive, the weaponry more ornate and maybe less practical, the armour and overall scheme will be much brighter (though still plenty weathered). Looking forward to getting to work on it.
Anyway, that's all for now, any thoughts welcome, thanks for reading!
Great work on the Carachadon. The twin chainblades look very effective.
I think their name is just one that through a lack of reiteration sounds as silly as it actually is to us. After all, "Space Wolves", "Rainbow Warriors"... even Ultramarines. Who are painted in an ultramarine blue, and their chapter symbol is an inverted Omega that looks like a "U"...
I mean "Luna Wolves" sounds a hell of a lot less silly than Space Wolves, and actually makes a kind of sense with the wolf and moon relationship.
...pretty much any Space Marine chapter name with "Space" in it sounds awful. "Space Marines" isn't exactly fantastic, either, but I guess makes some kind of sense as a descriptive term.
Azazelx wrote: Great work on the Carachadon. The twin chainblades look very effective.
I think their name is just one that through a lack of reiteration sounds as silly as it actually is to us. After all, "Space Wolves", "Rainbow Warriors"... even Ultramarines. Who are painted in an ultramarine blue, and their chapter symbol is an inverted Omega that looks like a "U"...
I mean "Luna Wolves" sounds a hell of a lot less silly than Space Wolves, and actually makes a kind of sense with the wolf and moon relationship.
...pretty much any Space Marine chapter name with "Space" in it sounds awful. "Space Marines" isn't exactly fantastic, either, but I guess makes some kind of sense as a descriptive term.
I like the Fenrisian name to be honest - Vlka Fenryka which translates to Wolves of Fenris
Azazelx wrote: Great work on the Carachadon. The twin chainblades look very effective.
I think their name is just one that through a lack of reiteration sounds as silly as it actually is to us. After all, "Space Wolves", "Rainbow Warriors"... even Ultramarines. Who are painted in an ultramarine blue, and their chapter symbol is an inverted Omega that looks like a "U"...
I mean "Luna Wolves" sounds a hell of a lot less silly than Space Wolves, and actually makes a kind of sense with the wolf and moon relationship.
...pretty much any Space Marine chapter name with "Space" in it sounds awful. "Space Marines" isn't exactly fantastic, either, but I guess makes some kind of sense as a descriptive term.
I like the Fenrisian name to be honest - Vlka Fenryka which translates to Wolves of Fenris
Yeah, the later names sound much better as they come with a realisation of just how silly some of the originals sound.
Yeah, I remember an old book called "How to paint Space Marines". In the back was a list of 100 chapter names and paint schemes. Some were simply horrible. I always felt like some GW guy grabbed a couple of interns from the lunch line and told them to cook up 100 chapters by the end of the day. Can't remember if the Sharks were one of those, or maybe older.
Fortunately FW came along and turned them into a proper force. They saved the Minotaurs from yellow and blue hell too.
I'm tempted to try and see if I can make this look good. Or at least decent. Use Brass/Bronze as the yellow and take it from there. Probably only on a single marine, because it'd be a huge pain in the arse to actually paint. I'd keep the chapter icon to the modern one, though.
40kFSU wrote: Yeah, I remember an old book called "How to paint Space Marines". In the back was a list of 100 chapter names and paint schemes. Some were simply horrible. I always felt like some GW guy grabbed a couple of interns from the lunch line and told them to cook up 100 chapters by the end of the day. Can't remember if the Sharks were one of those, or maybe older.
Fortunately FW came along and turned them into a proper force. They saved the Minotaurs from yellow and blue hell too.
Sharks were in the original Badab War fluff in WD 101. I think that was the first time they were ever mentioned.
About the name, I agree that it only sounds silly because it's not used as frequently as the perhaps equally odd Space Wolves or even Ultramarines. I just find it quite amusing that a Chapter with a name so easy to mock are in fact one of the most awesome in the game!
As for the classic Minos look... stay tuned... That's all I'm saying...
The space sharks are a product of their time. A little over the top, a little silly. I came very close to starting an army of them back in the day, due to the fact that their chapter symbol looked like one that teenaged me could freehand. Black circle, fins, red slash for a mouth.
Plus RTB01 Mk VI corvus armor really calls out for shark mouths.
Good job on your Shark. Make sure nobody jumps him.
Oh god, I'm almost certain to disappoint now! Got a plan, though, and I might be able to sneak some painting time this evening anyway as I'm making good headway on my essay. We'll see how it goes...
Azazelx wrote: I'm tempted to try and see if I can make this look good. Or at least decent. Use Brass/Bronze as the yellow and take it from there. Probably only on a single marine, because it'd be a huge pain in the arse to actually paint. I'd keep the chapter icon to the modern one, though.
I always wondered if the stripes were suppossed to be more like a topdown view of a maze on the marines, and thereby lending to the minotaurs name.
I might make a splinter chapter of these guys and paint them red, blue and white. There would only be four of them as theres ever only 4 in a barbershop quartet.
Awesome! Much like hitting the gallery front page, that's only happened once before, so it's another sign that I'm upping my game a bit at the moment (or, at least, that people like looking at pics of obscure Space Marine Chapters... )
Speaking of which, presenting The Inquisition's Executioners, The Minotaurs:
Sorry to disappoint anyone expecting me to go full retro with this one, I have kept mostly to the current look. Did work in some of the classic red any yellow on the fist, right greave and the shoulder pads. The worn bronze armour was a bit of a challenge, but I think I've pulled it off well enough. Mostly drybrushes and washes, then hit it with weathering and a little verdigris. This guy may not be mid-combat like the Carachadon or Fire Hawk, hence the lack of blood, but he's still in the midst of a massive campaign against the Badab traitors and so he's still reasonably beat up.
Speaking of the Traitors, up next will be my first step across the divide as far as this project goes, as I've got one of Huron's own Astral Claws lined up next. Also in the queue for next week are a Son of Medusa, an Exorcist, a Raptor or Mantis Warriors (jury's out) and one more which I've yet to decide on a scheme for. Not finished the conversion yet, I'll probably have something in mind by the time I'm done.
That's all for now, as always let me know what you think, cheers for reading!
I like the menace rolling off that guy. He’s not angry, or screaming, or mid-leap or anything. But he’s going to come over and kill you, and nothing in the ‘verse is going to stop that.
Yeah, that's what I was aiming for, very much an opposite to the vibe you get from the Shark, who's very direct; going to cut you up right now, and there's not a thing you can do about it. This guy, you don't know whether he's going to take you on in single combat, order an all-out assault or drop an orbital bombardment on your head, but one way or another, you're in trouble...
Pretty much what Nev said dude. There are a lot of ways to make marines, and your posture with this guy is superb. I think he is my favorite marine from your recent run. There could be 30 dead enemies behind him or this could be his first fight, the pose works for both. Very menacing and grim, he's not excited he's just doing his job and looking quite badass. Lovely pair of weapons. The shoulder pads... after market? Conversion? Something from a space marine kit I didn't know about?
WOw, That guy is sweet, as others have said he is all about the beating he's about to lay down on you. The only Question is wether you'll get the fist or the stick.
I said I'd do an Astral Claws Marine next... so naturally, here's the Exorcist... Didn't fancy doing another all-metallic Marine so soon after the Mino, and this guy had been screaming 'PAINT ME' ever since I finished off the conversion last night. Not sure what it was about his pose, I just got the feeling that this guy, even before any paint went down, looked 'right'.
The red didn't go quite where I'd planned, if I'm being picky I'd say he's too close to how I've done some of my BA, but he's never going to share a table with them, and it looks good, I was just aiming for something a little brighter at first. The rest I'm very pleased with, I think he might be one of the best individual Marines I've done in a while.
That's probably all for now, unless I get some major inspiration this evening, so thanks as always for reading, any thoughts welcome and cheers again to everyone throwing votes my way in the gallery!
I still like the minotaur better, but this one is a worthy addition to the rest of your recent marines. He looks like he's about to nonchalantly dump some bolts into some poor unsuspecting target.
I think it has to do with the angle of his body in relation to his limbs & head. Another truly excellent effort. I don't care what you paint next frankly... just keep them coming!
@Zambro: My biggest regret with this Badab project is the lack of 32mm bases, after my HH force on them I'm completely converted to the 'I love 32s' crowd, but since since this project was a spur of the moment 'lets paint some Marines' I just had to use what was to hand, sadly 25s.
The crossed swords/skull is a piece I've been waiting for ages to put on a Marine, it was in a WFB Empire kit I bought a few years back for some Inquisition stuff, and I've always thought it'd make a great alternative to a back banner, I just had to wait for a suitable Chapter to use it on.
@Gits: Yeah, the 'lines of motion' or whatever the technical term is are something I try and do my best with in conversions, then there's the odd mini like this where it all comes together and just 'works', gives a real sense of intent and movement.
Space Sharks something from bad Doctor Who? Nah it was a pretty good episode one of the Christmas Specials. Does this mean Kathleen Jenkins is there secret weakness?
Love the Exorcist, but the Minotaur is the better of the two for my eye. I just love his beefy look and "You're doomed, but you just don't know it yet" posture.
Really like the Exorscist. I was not aware how close the scheme was to the Flesh Tearers, sans the Black shoulder pads and backpacks. The Minotaur is great too but my eye is really drawn to the piece of grit/sand on the front rim of the base...but that is me just being a smooth rim (er?!) Freak.
If all of your recent Marines are to hand in MCR any chance of a group shot? I think it would be very striking.
Hot on the heels of the Exorcist comes the first visionary secessionist/TRAITOR SCUM, an Astral Claws Marine.
Pretty pleased with how he's come out, the armour looks as beat-up as I was aiming for and I'm reasonably happy with the pose given the limited parts I had to work with here.
@Thraxas: Ask and ye shall receive! Might need to reinforce the traitor side pretty soon or the others will have Purged the Astral Claw from the shelf!
Actually, the Exorcists scheme is reasonably different to the Flesh Tearers, it's meant to be more of a brown, orangey red than the blood red I've gone for with this one, that just wasn't working out for me and I liked the shade I'd got so I just went with it.
@Llamahead: Actually, I'd forgotten that episode... Really wasn't a fan of that one, now I think about it! Even Michael Gambon can't redeem flying fish and endless singing!
That's a wrap for now, as usual cheers for reading, any thoughts welcome!
That's a great 'family photo'. I think seeing them all together like that, I can safely say that the Howling Griffon and the Minotaur are my favorite, from the poses alone.
They look epic together, almost crying out for some sort of diorama base. The Astral Claws looks great, such effective but still restrained weathering...I think he is in line for a promotion given what he appears to have gone through.
Very nice para! What filter do you use on the pictures? Whenever I used the same one I get a giant chunk taken out of the corner with the faux black tearing.
@Thraxas: While I probably won't do one massive dio base for all of them, I do have a few little 2-3 model vignettes planned for when I have some more materials to hand. Watch this space...
@Ustrello: At the moment, my process for these pics is:
- crop images as tight in to the model as I can
- hit 'Sharpen', if it's too much then I just use 'Sharpen: 1' as many times as needed.
- Play with the Page mode to get the pics all together, choose what bits to focus on ect.
- Fiddle with the Colour/Saturation/Luminescence Curves (found under the 'Bright/Colour menu) until it looks like the mini, lots of trial and error here.
- Add text
- Add the 'Cali 01' border, gives the nice edging without obliterating a corner of the pic.
Possibly, For the moment I'm just sticking to the Badab War itself, but I do want to do something with the Corsairs in future, focusing on the Renegade rather than Heretic side of things; I know they do eventually fall in with Chaos, but I want to do something before that, when they're just out for themselves. Defaced Imperial armour and weapons, nasty but not Chaotic stuff, that kind of thing.
On a side note, if anyone reading this (preferably in the UK) is interested in just the Genestealer half of Deathwatch: Overkill and is looking to sell on the Marines, let me know; while I'd love the whole set, that's not within my budget right now, but I should be able to afford to buy the Deathwatch squad if anyone's willing to let it go for a reasonable price.
Lamenters Chapter, or in Low Gothic, probably the Miserable Marines (come on, it's no worse than Space sharks! )
Yellow is precisely no-one's favourite colour to paint, but I think I've done all right here, I've got the 'cold' yellow I was aiming for and the weathering had worked rather well I reckon, very high contrast without losing the colour itself. Added the totally not as cool as the one Jan's just done but oh well! Servo Skull for no reason other than it looked cool (which 30-odd years of 40k fluff and artwork lead me to believe is their primary function) and because otherwise he was just a really boring model that was glued together too solidly to pull apart and rebuild like the others...
Did a count of which Badab Chapters I've done and which are left, and the up shot is that still to paint I have: Marines Errant, Raptors, Salamanders, Fire Angels, Novamarines and Sons of Medusa (up next) for the Imperial forces, and Executioners and Mantis Warriors (in the queue) for the Secessionists, and maybe a Red Corsair as well at the end... So in theory I should be able to wrap this one up pretty soon, by which point I should have the KM Marvel stuff and a couple of other bits and bobs as well...
That's all for now, cheers for looking and as always, let me know what you think!
No wonder he's miserable, he has a backseat driver looking over his shoulder telling him how his shots aren't as accurate as other marines. Here I thought marines didn't get married. Probably telling him he forgot to take out the heretic garbage behind the wall, or that the gutters at the fortress need to be cleaned or to bring home some feminine hygiene products from the commissary.
Great job on that Lamenters - you got the yellow down beautifully. Now I can't 'unsee' te servo skull as some little nag on his shoulder constantly berating him lol. Great job Para
Januine wrote: Great job on that Lamenters - you got the yellow down beautifully. Now I can't 'unsee' te servo skull as some little nag on his shoulder constantly berating him lol. Great job Para
'Oh look, there goes Huron? Isn't he magnificent, striding though the battlefield in his shiny silver armour! See how it catches the warm glow of his flamer, the graceful arc of his claw! Now there's an Astartes I wouldn't mind being attached t-'
'SHUT THE FETH UP!'
'Shut up yourself! And aim better! Like Huron... What a guy!'
There's a sitcom in this somewhere... also quite a lot of HERESY
I just imagine the Servo Skull having the Snarkyness of Taures from Intersteller:
"Hey, ya know, if you stopped being such a lame ass and actually shot something..."
"Silence damnedable floating nuisance"
"well look at that, the Astartes did something, now if he would level the weapon that spews selfpropelled death, he maybe worth hovering around...."
It's a great idea for the 100 year penitent crusade the chapters are forced to take after the war. Each marine is saddled with a servoskull on their shoulder to record their deeds and make sure no more heresy is affecting them. Meanwhile the skulls get to jabber on like a female C3P0. I bet the executioners had plenty of skulls laying about that could have been used for this purpose.
Servo-Skulls are the comic relief of the ultra-grimdark 40k setting! Who knew?
@Fifty: Trust me, there was Frequent Strong Language when painting those chequers... there's a reason he's just got numerals on the knees, rather than the chequers I planned to do before I knew what I was getting myself into...
Paradigm wrote: Servo-Skulls are the comic relief of the ultra-grimdark 40k setting! Who knew?
I did, it's been far too long, but I do have my Servk skull marines (Angry Servo Skull Hostile Organic Life Eliminator Squad) and over a year ago I was making servo skull janitors based off of DakkaDakka folk. Pics in my gallery"when Servk skulls attack", I really need to get back to them at some point.
@Theo: I think I remember seeing those guys, unfortunate acronym and all! Good stuff!
@Thraxas: Like most of what I paint, it was kind of the 'make it up as I go along' method, However, if I recall, it was Vallejo Dark Earth mixed with Iyanden Darksun (think that's now Averland Sunset or something like that) for the first few layers, a little more yellow in each time, then an Agrax wash, then yellow again with some ivory/sand mixed in. The last few layers (actually, everything after the wash) were actually just very lightly drybrushed on, gradually building up the highlights. Hardly any paint on the brush and nice light and quick strokes, that's what gives it the smooth transition despite drybrushing typically giving a rougher result.
No painting in the last couple of days, been hobbying away on something that I'm keeping under wraps for now, should be able to reveal it soon though in one form or another... To whet your appetite... It involves rules! It involves spaceships and robots and robot spaceships! It involves some really, really, really tiny minis... SPOILERS!
Got a game of X-wing scheduled for tomorrow night, should be a blast as it'll be the first time I've played properly with someone I'm not teaching the rules to. I'll let you know how that goes.
So yeah. more minis, Marines and otherwise, coming soon!
I'm intrigued... When will we get the full reveal?
Good luck with the Xwing game. Remember, be unpredictable. I always loved the look on my opponent's face when I do an obvious and 'terrible' move and because they expect something else it usually works out for the best.
Basically when it's done! Can't be more specific than that, though I hope to have the various elements workable some time this weekend. It's something very different to anything I've done before really, but should be very cool! Been working on the project with a fellow Dakkanought for a while now, although we're only just reaching the point where we have something solid to show for it. Don't expect anything groundbreaking, but it's certainly a little different!
Probably be a Marine or two before then, though!
I'll likely end up just winging it tomorrow, like I say it'll be my first proper game. Still, I've played a few games against various AI programs and taught a couple of people, so I have the rules down well enough, hopefully!
Another Marine added to the collection today, an Executioners Chapter Tactical Sergeant:
Pretty pleased with him, the face isn't actually as good as it was at one point in the process so I might replace that, but other than that I think he's come out all right.
And now for something completely different, the aforementioned Top Secret project. Which I guess as of now isn't that top secret!
For some time now, Dakka user Wolf and I have been working on an unofficial ruleset for Battlestar Galatica fleet combat, and as we near completion of the first draft (should be up some time weekend for perusal and critique) he was kind enough to send me some ships over to get playtesting. So first up is a Colonial Battlestar, not the titular Galactica but the Battlestar Perseus. Which it turns out isn't technically a Mercury Class like the pic says as I glued the wrong Flight Pods on, but oh well!
And next, a Viper Squadron. One Original Series Viper and one new series Viper II here, in game they represent a squadron of 20-odd ships:
Obviously to anyone who's seen the show, these aren't to scale with the Battlestar itself, but to meet that requirement they'd have to be about 0.5mm long! I ain't painting that! To give you an idea of the size of these (they're tiny!) here's a scale shot with the Perseus and the Space Marine.
So massive thanks to Wolf for the minis, and for allowing me to take part in the project! I'm a relative newcomer to BSG, I only started watching a few weeks ago (just about to finish series 2, no spoilers, people! ) but am already a big fan, and hopefully the game we've put together can live up to that! Got a few more Battlestars and fighter squadrons to do up, and I'll be ordering a few Cylon ships in the not-too-distant future.
That's all for now, thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!
WarbossDakka wrote:Cool minis as usual Para, always looking awesome. How long does a Marine on average take you? You seem to krank 'em out pretty fast.
It varies a lot, depending on the build, the textures I need to paint, that sort of thing. For models in primarily dark armour and metallics, I can get most of the work done with drybrushes, washes and wet blends and they tend to take 90 minutes tops (the Minotaur, Astral Claw, Executioner and Carachadon all took that long or a bit less), brighter ones like the Star Phantom and Lamenter take a bit longer as the colours need to be built up with more layers. So probably closer to 2 hours for them. 28mm minis rarely take me more than that, larger ones obviously take a bit longer.
Azazelx wrote:Great build and paint on the marine. I see you're becoming more of a confident storyteller with your assembly and posing.
Thanks. That's definitely something I'm putting more thought into now, good to know it's starting to pay off!
I've watched a few videos of people doing specific techniques on minis on youtube videos, but I'd actually love to watch you paint a mini from start to finish. If it is a 90 minute process, I think I could just sit there all the way through and watch the thing emerge! Models like that would take me AGES.
The Executioner is ace. I have a load of the technical paint myself, ready to go on my Astral Claws corpse taker and his dissection servitors. Is it easy to use?
Once you complete the set of Badab Marines, what do you plan to do with them? Will they go on display somewhere? I can imagine that even Forgeworld itself would love to have them on display next to the Forgeworld Books at Warhammer World, and that most FLGS owners would bite off their own right arm to put them on display.
BSG is one of my favourite ever shows, behind only The Wire and level with Spartacus and Friday Night Lights. I've watched it all the way through about five or six times! This won't make sense if you are only on season 2, but All Along the Watchtower has become one of my favourite songs. I've had no urge at all to play Star Wars but BSG would tempt me.
@Fifty: I think a painting video would undermine any credibility I have! You'd get to see all the shortcuts and cut corners that go on that aren't noticeable in the final product! That said, I could probably look into doing some video tutorials, on specific colours or techniques, I'll have to see what the video recorder on my camera is like.
The Blood tech paint is dead easy to use. I've applied it in two ways here, just painted on quite thick over the axe and the Power Fist as blood gushes out from the severed head (what a lovely thought first thing in the morning! ), then took an old, stiff brush, thinned it a little and flicked it on with my finger from the angle of impact (so following the direction the axe would be used in), that's how you get the splatter effect you can see on the shoulder pad and arm.
They are probably destined for the shelf, to be honest! I don't actually have a gaming store locally either at home or at uni that I'm familiar enough with to have them displayed at.... Might see about sending some of the better ones into the White Dwarf team, can't hurt!
Stay tuned for more later, I aim to get another Battlestar, some squadrons and a Marine painted up today.
First off the paint desk is another Marine (I'll get bored of them eventually, just not yet! ), a Mantis Warrior.
Got off to a shaky start as I couldn't get the green right, but I think I've pulled it back to something decent. One or two areas definitely show that they're old parts that haven't been fully stripped, but there's not a lot I can do about that to be honest. I do like the sense of motion I've achieved in the pose, he's definitely stalking a target, I think.
And that gives me representatives of each of the Chapters that sided with Huron at Badab, so without further ado, TRAITORS! And on the BSG front, another Battlestar and two more squadrons (one Viper, one Raptor) added to the fleet. Need to go back and get some proper pics of the Battlestar, I'll get around to that later.
@Warboss: Nah, these are from Fox Miniatures, I believe. I did try my hand at some scratch-built Vipers and while they looked all right from a distance, compared to these they're pretty pathetic! These are actually pretty nicely detailed for the size (the metal ones moreso than the resins, which I think are from a different manufacturer). Should have a working draft of the rules up tomorrow, just need to finalise some bits and bobs.
@AoV: They are indeed MkIIs, most are actual TOS designs as well as that's what I was given. But aesthetically, I'd take a MkII over a MkVII any day, they're just so much cooler! The rules will cover either war, IIs and VIIs will have different rules.
That's all for now, thanks for looking! Let me know what you think!
Appalling spelling in the combined pic corrected...
The full lineup of Battlestars at the moment is one more Mercury Class, another custom one and then another 2 Viper Squadrons and 2 more Raptor Squadrons. Then I need to get some funds together and order some Toasters! And Galactica... And Pegasus...
Mantis looks tops Para. Not sure which of the traitors you've done is my fav now.....
You using phtoscape to make the collage like for the Mantis marine....few big and a few smaller detail shots stitched together?
Yep, I'm using the Page function, just sets up boxes to drag and drop the pics into. I don't tend to take actual detail shots, I just take one from each angle and zoom in for stuff like the shoulder pad pics and such.
Aye - was just having a root back through PS and found the page function. Been using that program for years and daftly never saw the page function before - doh! Need to get some proper photos done today of this month's bits n pieces - will have to give the 'page' a bash for a change - good way of showcasing.
Finally decided to check back on this thread, and my you have been busy! Liking those most recent marines, and that Battlestar Galactica stuff is pretty nice too! I've never really watched more than a couple of episodes of the newer BSG show myself, but I've seen all of the old 1978 ones. Very fun show!
Gotta say these Badab War guys really do look great. Looking at the pics at the start of the blog vs now you have come a tremendous way in a short period of time. Keep up the great work!
@Whalemusic360: Doesn't seem like a short time to me, but thanks! I do struggle to look back at the first 20 or so pages of this blog, sometimes I have half a mind to delete all the pics but then I remember that they're a testament to how far I've come since starting, and so they remain!
Only one new mini today (I know, I know, I'm slacking!), the second Mercury Class Battlestar, this time with correct flight pods, painted as the show's Battlestar Pegasus.
Bringing my fleet up to this, plus another Viper squadron not pictured:
Rules are also with Wolf now, so the alpha will be going up for feedback some time tonight! I've done some templates for printable ship models as well if anyone does fancy testing it, they'll be posted with the rules doc.
And back to the theme of progress, as I've submitted my entry for the 12th monthly challenge, I'm answering Nev's request for all the entries in one place... Yes, even the appallingly bad ones from the first couple of months!
Spoiler:
Month 1: Space Marines: Wolf Lord:
Must admit I'm still a fan of this one. The pics are frankly shocking, but the conversion went exactly where I hoped it would, I'd still happily put this guy on the field, I think.
Month 2: Veterans: Word Bearers Champion:
This one is again one I'm still proud of. The face in particular, and the overall composition, still look good to me even though I know I could paint the whole thing better now. This was the only one of my entries to place this year (unless Lorgar makes it), netting joint 3rd.
Month 3: Fast and Furious: Prince Althran:
Month 3 I think is one of those periods where I think I kicked it up a notch. Lots of new techniques here, the NMM gold I still haven't bettered, the feathers, the various textures. I think the pictures let this one down, I was really hoping he'd place, but looking at the entries that did take the top 3 spots, that's some bloody impressive stuff that I couldn't come close to, then or now!
Month 4: Some Kind of Monster: Last Man Standing:
This one I was proud of at the time, looking back I can easily see so many areas where I was frankly lazy. The bases of the minis themselves, the diorama back section looks tacked together... the Broodlord is probably fine, but the rest, I could definitely have done better.
Month 5: Sneaky: Sudden Death:
Far from my best effort, I think. Possibly one of my most thematic entries, and the pose of the minis is nice, but the paintwork leaves a lot to be desired. Too much going on, lack of focus, from a technical perspective I'm definitely not that happy with it looking back.
Month 6: Rise of the Machines: TIE Fighter
If I recall, this one was a last minute entry. I'd not painted anything suitable all month, so I just threw that in. For what it is, I still like it, and it's very cool sitting on its shelf, but as a competition entry, it's neither flashy nor fitting.
Month 7: Never Tell Me The Odds: The Fall of Sauron:
A poor entry, this one, with terrible pics, but given that this was the month I started uni and had bigger things to worry about, I'm not going to beat myself up over it! But moving on, because it's a bit crap...
Month 8: Trick or Treat: The Other Dynamic Duo:
Two of my favourite minis there. Pics aren't great, but these guys are definitely one of my strongest entries.
Month 9: Princes of the Universe: Mortarion of the Death Guard:
Again, one of my stronger entries, but bad pics. There's actually an updated set of pics in my Horus Heresy gallery if anyone's interested.
Month 10: Open Challenge: X-wing Starfighters:
These didn't do that well in the polls, but for my first X-wing repaints I still think they look good! Not the most interesting in an open challenge, though!
Month 11: Up Close and Personal: Shattered Legions Command Squad:
Another late in the day entry, they're fine as tabletop minis but the pics aren't great and really, they're just nothing fancy. My model selection was pretty limited in January, though, and I did have a bunch of exams, so again I'm just happy I got something done!
Month 12: Size Matters Not: Lorgar of the Word Bearers:
Pleased with the mini, but typically he's the one thing I paint all month that doesn't want to photograph nicely! Oh well, we shall see how he does!
So there we are... 12 months of entries that are pretty much all over the place! An interesting look back at the last year, to be sure!
That's all for now, cheers for reading and any thoughts of course welcome!
Sure. The draft will go up later tonight, but here's a quick overview:
Based around D6/D8D10 rolls and modifiers; the better the unit, the better the dice type and modifier. For example, a Viper Squadron has a Firepower stat of D6+2, whereas something like Pegasus has a Firepower of D10+5, so a much higher damage range and potential. Rolls are opposed for the most part, so when one player attacks, they'll roll their Firepower dice while the target unit rolls their defence. Highest total wins, total attack-total defence=damage.
Activation alternates between players, so it's not IGOUGO. There's also a card game on the side as well, you get cards representing crew/characters that you can play to boost an attack or repair damage or all kinds of other effects, which I hope will inject a lot of the show's character into the game. Missions are still in progress, but will feature things like recon patrols, search and rescue ops, ambushes, so lots more than just pitched battles.
This first draft is just an alpha to test the mechanics, so a lot of that isn't done yet, but I think it'll be pretty good when it all comes together. Lots of work has already gone on 'behind the scenes', now we just need some tests and feedbacks to start tweaking and improving the core mechanics and adding the fun stuff!
Oh, and I forgot to mention it earlier, but thanks to everyone voting on my Marines! 3 got on the gallery front page earlier (Griffon, Phantom, Mino), which is awesome!
Nice compilation of your 12 challenge entries. None of them, even the earlier ones, could I call bad. You have improved, but not from bad to good, rather from great to freakin' AWESOME!
Slight deviation from the ongoing projects, with March's Challenge now running I was finally able to paint up my Salamanders Centurion that I'd been saving for the event, the last model in my HH army for the immediate future:
Honestly, I am so happy with how this guy's come out. You know when you just have an imagine in your head of what the final product is going to look like, and then the mini comes out exactly as you had imagined? I think that happened here; his pose says exactly what I wanted to, his composition works, the painting puts in to practice all the new techniques I picked up over my HH army and recent Badab Marines, and I think he definitely works as something of a centrepiece to the force.
Hope that doesn't sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet, I just am really proud of this model, having had him sit awaiting paint for several weeks! Also ,
That's all for now, normal Badab and Battlestar service will be resumed shortly, and in the next couple of weeks, some Deathwatchy goodness should also be heading to the blog! Any thoughts welcome, thanks for reading!
You know Paradigm, I've never seen anyone represent the Badab War as well as you have... and I'm including my self in that statement. Your marines are gritty, realistic and dynamic. I just don't have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to properly express my admiration for the job you've done. Pretty darn amazing and very inspirational.
The Salamander Commander looks absolutely amazing. Your work has really stepped up a notch with this series of Marines (both 30k and 40k) you should be commended on a unique and realistic style that I don't believe i have seen before.
@Archer: Pretty sure others have done Marines in this style before and better than I have! There's a ton of stuff out there that's a direct inspiration for what I'm doing; lots of Forge World material, and plenty of painting studios and individuals as well. First step in all of these schemes was Googling the relevant Chapter and seeing what's out there, picking my favourites and doing my best to put my own spin on that!
Bit of a slog, this chap, and I was very close to just starting over at a few points while painting him. Giving him a helmet and swapping a few colours around just about saved him though. Also had a bit of fun with the Lens Flare function on the top right pic, dakkadakkadakka!
Puts me on 49 minis for the year, a total that I'm pretty happy with for two months. While at this point last year I was closer to 149, the quality has been far more consistent this year, and I'm pleased with both pace and progress. Sadly, I don't have any fancy minis to take me to 50, and the Deathwatch that would certainly fulfil that requirement won't be with me until next week, but I think I will do something a little different to the endless stream of Marines I've churned out so far this year. That might just be a Spikey Marine as I've just found a DV Chosen lying around that I'd forgotten about, it might be something a bit spookier... for some reason, the SH Genestealers have got all restless...
That's all for now, got an essay to do this weekend so I may not update for a couple of days (on the other hand, I might! Unpainted minis are a great motivator/reward, I find! ). Cheers for looking, any thoughts welcome!
Wow, you've been producing some awesome marines lately. The weathering is particularly good. Really look like they've been in the thick of a warzone for awhile. Keep up the good work as well as your quick pace!
Ta chaps! Yeah, the Sally Cent would've made a nice landmark model, I'm just impatient at the best of times and the 3 weeks or so he'd already been sitting there were bad enough!
++Contact Established++
++Xenos Presence Confirmed++
+For The Emperor++
[Incoherent screaming]
Yep, mini number 50, finally got around to the first non-test SH Stealer... I only got the box on page 1 of this blog, so it's not been waiting too long!
Tyranids are, to be honest, completely outside my comfort zone. You can't weather them, there's not really a real-world reference unlike various armour types/metals, there's no 'shortcuts' that there are on Marines, you can't just rely on washes to to all the work, and they stray from 'nightmare inducing horror of the darkest depths of space' to 'cartoon baddies' very easily unless you get the scheme right (I'm not a fan of the white or blue GW ones at all).... so I'm actually very relieved with how this chap has come out. He has the horror factor, he has the monochrome scheme that I shamelessly nicked from Jan's and the rough insect-like texture I shamelessly nicked from Thraxas, and he wasn't too complex, so buddies will follow.
Won't get any more done tonight, so that's a wrap for today! Essay work begins in earnest tomorrow morning, so don't expect much until Sunday, though I can bang out these stealers in under an hour so I might get one or two done. Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!
While different from your marines I think I can still tell it's your style, and I really like the mix of what's basically grey/white/black like it exists in a lightless environment.
I like the steeler, nice and muted like a stealth predator would be. I think the SoM marine should be a more neon green though. Looks more like a Dark Angel at the moment.
whalemusic360 wrote: I like the steeler, nice and muted like a stealth predator would be. I think the SoM marine should be a more neon green though. Looks more like a Dark Angel at the moment.
When he stepped off the parade ground, I’m sure he was nice and neon. But once he hit planetside at Warzone: Paradigm he got all weathered, beaten, and grimdark. Nobody gets out clean and shiny. Nobody
That's one explanation! Fulgrim The Fabulous himself couldn't escape my desk unweathered!
Another is that green (as in actual green, not the olivey green I used on my Sallies and the Mantis Warrior) is a nightmare colour for me at the best of times, bright green would literally be hell! When googling for inspiration, I came across some awesome darker SoM, so they became the primary source for this scheme.
Phwoar that's a fantastic update, that Medusa marine is absolutely stunning and the Genestealer is a slot on. The albino kind of skin tone really makes the blood look more gorey
That genestealer is amazing. You said you can paint those that well IN UNDER AN HOUR?! How the hell do you do that? I have a hard time knocking out a squad of basic tactical marines in a week!
That 'stealer look fantastic. Really great job there. Imho schemes like that work a thousnad times better than the guady uber colour ones. He becomes.....real! Something you can imagine actually being out there....just......waiting.........
ZergSmasher wrote:That genestealer is amazing. You said you can paint those well IN UNDER AN HOUR?! How the hell do you do that? I have a hard time knocking out a squad of basic tactical marines in a week!
Easy peasy! It's a good 90% washes and drybrushes, the paints are mixed as I go along and in the early stages, you can be as messy as you like! The large base on this one probably took me half as long again as the mini itself, and slightly over the hour mark, but for the ones with less elaborate bases, under an hour should be very achievable!
Januine wrote:That 'stealer look fantastic. Really great job there. Imho schemes like that work a thousnad times better than the guady uber colour ones. He becomes.....real! Something you can imagine actually being out there....just......waiting.........
Great, now I'm having nightmares for the next week about my own minis!
Got another Stealer done, and again had some fun with the editor. Timed the painting this time, about 50 minutes start to finish including base.
And on a different note entirely, finally got around to doing some more Batman stuff! This mini I won in a giveaway on on Graven's column on Big Comic Page (great site for comicy nerdy stuff, not just because Graven gives away BMG minis every now and then! ). Damian Wayne, the Bat-brat himself, son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul, and the 5th (I believe) Robin. Really nice, really, really tiny mini, chock-full of character!
Also brings to a conclusion my Bat-family, apart from Batwoman who I probably won't pick up for a while (need to read more stuff with her in)
And my collection of Robins, at least the ones KM have made. From left to right, Tim Drake as Robin, Dick Grayson as Nightwing, Damian Wayne as Robin, Jason Todd as the best... I mean, as the Red Hood.
And that's a wrap for today! Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!
That you can crank out work of that quality in under an hour is awesome and depressing in equal measure :') love Damian - def read Hydrology/to drown the world because batwoman is fab. And thanks for shout out!
@Graven: the N52 Batwoman stuff is definitely on my reading list, possibly once I've finished the N52 Outlaws and Batgirl runs (both some of the best comics I've read... Not a fan of the look of the new Batgirl reboot run, though). As a relative latecomer to DC compared to Marvel, I'm still in the 'so many comics, so little time' situation!
There have been 5 Robin's? I really need to improve my Bat knowledge. Really like the Genestealers, they look like they have been drifting on a Hulk just waiting for their next meal.
Dick Grayson- the original Boy Wonder who goes on to become Nightwing
Jason Todd- killed by The Joker in A Death In The Family, returns as The Red Hood
Tim Drake- Goes on to become The Red Robin (like regular Robin, but with more jetkpack)
Stephanie Brown- Has also been Batgirl and later Spoiler (the name, not an actual spoiler... confused me a lot when I first came across it), was kicked off the Bat-team for basically screwing up massively as Robin.
Damian Wayne- son of Batman, trained by the League of Shadows, the current Robin
Carrie Kelly- Robin in The Dark Knight Returns future/parallel universe
Blimey...notice how there is only ever one at a time because Robin's are anti-social gits. However if you ever do see a group of them they are a Round.
You bring the Bat knowledge and I will do the twitching! Cheers Para. Red Hood is obviously the coolest.
Genestealers suit your painting style perfectly. Yours capture what I feel are the the correct colours, without being too bright like some that you see. After all, they are only likely to ever be somewhere dark.
Batgirl of Burnside is actually really good, and I say that as a die hard Gail Simone fan. I would love to see Spoiler/Stephanie in game, I am a big fan of the Knightfall era.
And I feel your pain - remember I write comic reviews!
Anyway, I am sidetracking your blog! What's next in your paint queue?
inmygravenimage wrote:Batgirl of Burnside is actually really good, and I say that as a die hard Gail Simone fan. I would love to see Spoiler/Stephanie in game, I am a big fan of the Knightfall era.
And I feel your pain - remember I write comic reviews!
Anyway, I am sidetracking your blog! What's next in your paint queue?
I think the Robin I want to see KM add most is Carrie, the Dark Knight Returns/Miler Batman needs some backup. I'd love to see Sons of Batman as well... a one-armed Green Arrow would be a laugh, too!
Up next? More stealers, an Ork or two, some more Badab Marines, one more Court of Owls guy I really must get round to, a couple of Chaosy bits, the Deathwatch squad... Yeah, lots to come!
Bottle wrote:Loving the Genestealers Para. Can we expect some dark gritty Blood Angels Terminators from the set soon? (Did we get some already that I missed?)
Haha, about 18 monthw/70 pages ago, right back on the first page. Don't look, though, the paintwork just about holds up but the pics are crap. I did rephotograph the set a recently, I've linked the gallery below. They're not too grimdark by my standards, to be honest I should probably redo them at some point a little closer to my current style (which at the time I'd not really established).
Not got a huge amour done this past week, been super-busy with uni stuff, but I do have a couple of minis done.
First up another Stealer, nothing different to the other two apart from the extra gore between his claws done with a blob of PVA glue. Not hugely successful, but for a first attempt at the method I'll take it!
And an Ork boy I painted up on a whim, really couldn't get a nice front-on shot of him but I reckon he looks the part. Particularly pleased with the metallics, it seems ages of pouring over Jan and Damo's metallic work is maybe starting to pay off! Will do a couple more of these when I get time.
That's all for now, should hopefully have some more soon as I'm almost done with my current load of work (a thrilling essay on US policy in Vietnam). I did finally get a game of X-wing in this week, a smaller one as my opponent had played before but not recently so we were both re-learning the rules a bit. Came down to Luke (me) vs Soontir Fel in an Interceptor on 1HP each on the last turns, after my good start/his repeated asteroid-crashing) was overturned by some absolutely appalling rolling on my part. I could hardly land a hit for about 4 turns in a row, worst was on the penultimate turn, Luke vs Fel, 4 red dice, no Focus token as I was stressed, need 1 hit to get through and win the game... I roll... 4 Focus icons! AAARRRGH. Next turn Fel spins and blasts him, game over. Great fun, though.
And an Ork boy I painted up on a whim, really couldn't get a nice front-on shot of him but I reckon he looks the part. Particularly pleased with the metallics, it seems ages of pouring over Jan and Damo's metallic work is maybe starting to pay off! Will do a couple more of these when I get time.
On a whim? That looks pretty good -- no, really good -- for something you did on a whim. Looks like several hours work to me.
@Cleatus: No more than two hours, probably closer to 90 mins. Got a couple more to do up, working towards an 'Enemy Within, Enemy Without, Enemy Beyond' display (because I clearly need another project! )
Howdy folks, apologies for the brief hiatus, been very busy and lacked both time and inspiration in the last week or so. However, with the Easter break and a couple of deliveries, I'm 100% back in action! In the last couple of days, both my Marvel minis and the SM half of Deathwatch Overkill turned up, so I've set to work on both.
All the various minis have seen assembled (no Avengers pun intended this time ) and the first two are painted up.
Up first, the Sentinel of Liberty, my favourite member of The Avengers and one of my favourite comic book characters period, Captain America!
And another Avenger, The Black Widow, she who kicks many, many people in the face:
Both really nice models, Widow is a bit spindly compared to Cap, but being a comic-based minis, I'm not going to be too picky about proportions. All the minis are actually very good in the two sets I got, Avengers and X-men. Thor and Cap are probably the best two, but there's not a bad one in the bunch and they all look the part. The game itself is really fun too, the mechanics are solid and smooth and much like Batman, you can see the inspiration has been taken directly from the source material in designing each character/team.
That's all for today, I'll be back tomorrow with an X-person or two and maybe a Deathwatch Marine as they're epic models I can't wait to get started on! Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome! Also, if anyone wants scale/assembly shots of any of the Marvel minis, just let me know!
Cap looks great! Black Widow looks good too, but with that figure she'd be hard to make look bad... I'm really looking forward to seeing you do the Deathwatch guys, as I myself am going to be getting the SM half of that box set.
@Nev: They're 35mm, same as the Batman minis. Cap is quite large and on a raised base so looks a little bigger, Widow on the other hand is a hell of a lot thinner than most of the others.
@AoV: I do love the MCU Cap costumes (apart from the bright spandex-esque suit in Avengers Assemble), but I think the classic scaled armour fits in with the rest of the line better, particularly the very comicy Thor and classic X-men models.
Wouldn't say no to an all-MCU set of minis, but Knight have said most characters won't get duplicates for the time being.
Cheers guys. Got Cyclops and Wolverine done, but the light had gone by the time they were finished, pics tomorrow, along with more Avengers and maybe Deathwatch...
)
HERESY 
and over a year ago I was making servo skull janitors based off of DakkaDakka folk. Pics in my gallery"when Servk skulls attack", I really need to get back to them at some point.
Yeah 
