Hello all, I am a recent immigrant to this forum since I found other forums overly critical of my efforts to paint and model a 40k army. I guess the first images I will post are from a few months back, at the end of January 09 to be exact. I purchased my first tactical squad and with an AoBR set on the way, began to put them together and paint them. This was my first ever attempt at mini-painting. Also, I was dabbling in using a plaster / pva mixture to form a solid texture to apply to foam-core buildings and rubble piles. Turned out good, I think. Anyway, here are the first pictures of the first tactical squad before I learned of washes.

After I got those done, I started in on some decals and washes, and I started figuring out that not all paints were created equal. My crappy "Applebarrel" paints were sucking immensely, so I started picking up some GW paints, just in time for the new AoBR set to arrive! I knew that I wanted red with gold highlights, but I was going for a dirtier, grungier look. I wanted the models to look like wartorn veterans, not some ninnies with spit and polished armor, so I used the Badab wash liberally to achieve that end. I thought I would like plasma pistols, so I did my first conversion (simple cut and paste really) to the AoBR sergeant to give him one. I then started experimenting with Merchite red foundation paint from GW, and found I liked it very much. I had less than 3 weeks to put together a painted force for a competition, so I started cranking. (First pics are of the wash results, and my new foamcore buildings)

Nice work on the marines - sufficiently grungy! I do like the scenery you've knocked up ... what mix of plaster to PVA did you find works best?

I got a rhino and hammered it out that night, I couldn't wait! I finished it with a merchrite and gold scheme, as I envisioned.

Then I started putting together the AoBR set. I made some minor modifications to the Dreadnought so it would pass as Venerable if I needed it to be.

I spent a good deal of time on the company captain, trying out some techniques I hadn't dabbled in before, like freehanding the border of his mantle. I was pleased with the way I managed the color scheme as well.

EDIT: Forgot pictures! Doh!

I also worked hard on a terminator squad. I was pretty pleased with the results.

I bought a squad of devastators to bolster my forces, choosing to construct the plasma cannons and lascannons to give me some armor-popping power (as I reckoned I would be matching up with other SM players). I tried doing different eye colors for the first time with these. I used green, which created a good contrast I think. (Sorry no PlasCannon pics)

With the dev squad done, all I had time for before the tournament was one of the two remaining tactical squads. After they were table-top ready (3 ft rule- if they look good at 3 feet away then their table top ready!) I based the whole force with quick-and dirty city bases (texture pva base, successive layers of gray that get lighter). Luckily, the tournament was local and Battlepoints only. Unluckily, I got stomped. Here is pictures of the tactical squad, and my first 1500 pt army I took to the competition.

My recent projects:
MODELS
10 Assault marines (all base-coated, only sergeant painted)
Mephiston (done)
Chaplain (assembled, base coated)
Commander Dante (assembled, base coated)
8 Death Company squad (assembled)
2 Heavy Bolter marines (assembled)
Multi-melta marine (assembled)
Scout squad (assembled, base-coated)
Finishing the 3rd tactical squad (assembled, base-coated)
Apothecary (assembled)
Company Champion (assembled)
Command squad veterans (assembled)
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor (assembled, mostly painted)
2 Familiar Servo-Skulls (converted/assembled)
Inquisitor Lord w/ Terminator Armor (components in transit)

TERRAIN-
Cityfight buildings (done, need pictures)
Sandbag fortifications/barricades (done, need pictures)
Cloth base (needs spraypainted)
Craters (supplies purchased)


So... comments welcome. I just ask you keep them constructive and positive. I am new at this, so a little leniency on my sub-par skills would be appreciated. I know I suck, so I don't need somebody to tell me. I am making this blog so I can sit back, a year from now, and look at this blog and go "man I really DID suck."

good job, there pretty good, only thing i can say is the rhino needs a few moar coats of blood red, but everything else is pretty good, keep peactisin and ull be a pro in no time!

And NEVER EVER EVER compose a sentence as butt-rotten as the one posted just above me. Please.

Your Marines look pretty good, especially if you're just starting out with painting. You're painting is good. Unfortunately, your photo-taking skills need some work.

A couple of tips:
1) Clean off your mold lines. (seen most prominantly on the plasmapistol)
2) Paint the rim of your bases in a solid color. The heavy drybrush you have going on now is pretty ugly and it really detracts from the model, for me.

Could you get some pics with your terrain as the subject?



Ghidorah

um how did you paint you marines above? you know the red & gold ones?

few thin coats of your colour scheme will result in a much smoother appearance. Good work on the gold and i like the green eyes, it does create good contrast

its a great start. and in time when you learn more of what you like, you can always go back a touch up the older models.

also, what is this model ? never seen it before

Mephiston!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
how could you not have seen him?!

i realy should start to proof read my posts....

i suck at it.... i have actualy surprised myself with how bad that was/is. im gona leave it in for people to decipher....

bad spelling FTW!

EDIT: yes more typos and bad spellin!

Mephiston looks great, just pick out his eyes with a tiny brush and you'll be amazed how much different he will look. I can't wait to see your terrain pics, I have been trying to get some inspiration for my own stuff. For the rest of the guys one suggestion, when you are washing the armour try not leave puddles of the wash in the middle of the plates, or maybe a drybrush of your base color over it to smooth things out. Great work for your first minis though, keep it up!

This freaks me out, you have the same colours as I do. Although mine are a bit more refined/clean, you're off to a good start - might want to pick up some armour at some point for those termies to ride in

Thanks for the replies, everybody! Yes, most of my pictures were WIP shots, and I rarely have time to set up a photo lab the way it should be (i.e. dual light source, backing, angled card for reflecting backlighting, etc.), but I will try to get some better shots in the future.

@Ghidorah: Yes, today I will be setting up my cityfight terrain I have spent the free time of the last week putting together. I will include how I did it, but I don't have any WIP shots to give you. I do, however, have some terrain that passes for urban ruins. It may not look professional quality, but I made them very cheaply and I am happy with them. Also, I recently bought a model file set, so I will finally be able to tackle those mold lines! Lastly, I did consider painting the rims of the bases in solid colors, mainly to differentiate squads once I start painting uniformly. Since I only have 3 tactical squads, should I just use black, grey, light grey as the colors, or should I use different means to differentiate the squads?

@deadly chicken: I usually start with a black basecoat (generic crap paint worked fine for this), and add merchite red to the armor. I then go over the trim and gold parts very carefully. Next I used a mixture of white and tan to do the skulls and stuff. That was followed by a drybrushing over the weapons / metal bits with a vallejo paint called Gunmetal (just like the boltgun metallic). If there was any flesh, I painted it with some vallejo paints. After all that was done, I apply a coat of badab black wash over the whole model. It creates a nice dirty, grungy look if I leave the wash over the armor plates.

@karamaiko: Yes, definitely on my to-do-list. I want land-raiders! And some razorbacks would be nice for flexibility. And Preds and Vindis for fun.


Ok, today should be a fruitful day. I plan on taking pictures of some of my recent projects, such as my recent terrain exploits and the Inquisitor I painted up (albeit poorly; I wasn't happy with the result. I'll explain that later). I also plan on getting my death company stripped and base coated. This will be my first time stripping paint from models, so we'll see how it goes. I might not strip them, if they appear to have been painted with enamels. I bought them from ebay, so I have no idea what they were painted with.

ooooooo pretty nice looking Mephiston. are you gonna add Dante or any other specials?

check out the stripping models article in the P&M section

FoxPhoenix135 wrote:should I just use black, grey, light grey as the colors, or should I use different means to differentiate the squads?

Well, I usually paint the rims in a dark color so as to not draw the eye away from the model. Depending on the basing style your're using, identify the basic colors and use the darkest shade. For example, my Eldar are based in a cityfight style. Rubble-y. So, I will paint the rim Codex Grey (or it's equivalent). If I'm doing a grassy base, I will use a darker green. Not as dark as D.A. Green, though. For desert schemes, I use an orangey brown, like Leprous Brown (do they still make that?). If the base is wilderness, grass, stones, and dirt, I will paint the base Scorched Brown.

I would also advise against painting rims different colors to differentiate squads. Just personal taste, really, but don't like the look of it at all. I think it takes away from the unifying look of an army. I also abhorr painting things like numbers, names, or color swatches on bases to ID squads. If you REALLY need to differentiate squads on a permanent basis, all you need to do is paint a number on a knee or shoulder pad. GW's supplied decal sheets are perfect for this.

Personally, all my Defender Guardians (anywhere from 2-5 squads) are similar enough that any one of them could be in any squad at any given time. Due to the squad size ranging from 10-20, I change up numbers from time to time. Sometimes I add or subtract a few to manipulate my points while building an army. It behooves me to piant them so they are interchangeable. On the tabletop, it's easy enough to seperate one squad from the next. Especially so with Marines, as you only have 10-man squads and, in your case, only three of them.


Ghidorah

I just wanted to comment and say that I think your stuff is great. I can tell you are putting a lot of effort into it and trying your hardest. Don't let criticism get to you, if you are happy with your army in the end that is what matters.

Thank you for the kind words, all.

@Snikrot's Grot: I have a commander Dante model, but I haven't gotten around to painting it. A big problem I am having is that the Power Axe he wields is really hard to get glued on. I used 2 part epoxy glue, which is the strongest glue I have, and it didn't work. The axe shaft came off again, so I need to find a better adhesive before I can think about painting it.

@Ghidorah: Yeah, I'll paint the bases dark grey then. I am not really worried about differentiating them on the table as much as off the table, in my storage case! I guess it really doesn't matter, because space marines are pretty interchangeable. Thanks for the help!

@GMMStudios: Thanks! I appreciate the compliments.


OK, now for the main event!

I spent the majority of the day painting my Chaplain (which will be a well used model in my Blood Angel Codex army to keep all those Death Company Marines in line!) and I got some nice pictures of it! I really applied every trick I knew for this one: Highlighting, washing, drybrushing, and I even painted the eyes! Ok... ok it may not be the best but I am happy with how the overall scheme laid out. I like the Bling Chaplain!

For the other pictures: I have my Astartes Shrine / Bell tower, made from wedding cake pillars, cork sheets, hot glue, pva glue, and craft sticks along with various plastic bits (such as the marine statue and the ruined bell). I have yet to make a ladder to it, but I already made a rough staircase with 1" wide steps that lead up to it. Unfortunately, that staircase is really ugly so I didn't photograph it.

Also included are pictures of my foamcore buildings, made from foamcore (duh), masking tape, plaster, pva glue, and potting soil I pinched from the wife's plant! They represent totally burnt buildings fairly well. They look totally slagged.

I also got a few snaps of a regular cork-made building corner. I like this piece because it was the first time I used the craft sticks as a wood floor, and I liked the idea so much I made the Belltower pictured above. I have a lot of pieces similar to this, albeit without the but I didn't have time to separately photograph them all. They are simple structures made from cork, pva glue, and hot glue. The PVA glue is merely to harden the cork sheets. The main adhesive is the hot glue, which works wonders at piecing together the cork. Don't do it while the kids are around, however, because the hot glue can cause burns! Duh, right?

Well anyway, questions and comments welcome as always.

EDIT: for captions

Wow! Are you sure you're just starting this up ? Because you show the beginnings of a really good painter, and terrain maker. I particularly like the marine holding his fist up in stop-hand-signal-sort-of-way (at least that's how I interpreted it) and the piece of terrain with the columns.

There's nothing I can say that hasn't been said already, but I will say keep up the good work! You're doing fantastic for just starting.

Yes, I just started at the end of January, it's true. That's not to mention the HOURS upon HOURS of reading on the subject of miniature painting before they got here ! I didn't really know what I was doing at first, and I barely understood some of the concepts that I had read about such as washes and drybrushing, but as I went along I found out what worked for me. I am still daunted a little bit by thinking about repainting all those tactical marines that I did, because I have found I am much better rewarded by sitting and finishing one model at a time. I hate assembly line painting, because I get bored and then I get sloppy, but if I painted one model at a time I think my neck would give out from the strain! I can't sit at my table painting for more than a couple hours before I get to hurting a little. I guess I should start doing all those neck exercises they tried to teach us in the Service back in the day... and I thought I would never use them!

Anyhoo, I am working on another Assault Marine sergeant (I have two squads of 5, thinking that I was going to buy a third box but never did. I keep trying to land some Jump Pack bits off ebay but I don't want to spend as much as the boxed set cost just for the packs!), this one with a power sword and no helmet. I like the look of special or important characters without their helmets, because it somehow makes them look more daring. "Hah! Helmets are for wimps..."

I might have him done before I go to work tomorrow, but we'll see. If I do, I'll post pics. Also, I need to get pics of the Inquisitor in power armor I did a lousy job of painting. Maybe I will try to touch up the paintjob on that one first, and I'll post pics of that if I do.

i like the statue idea however you should cut it off its base and restick it. it looks a tad weird.

Would anybody be interested in a tutorial of how I did my cork buildings, or have you all seen that kind of terrain already?

@deadly chicken: I thought about that.... but I like building really, really, REALLY durable terrain pieces, and taking the model off the base would have resulted in less for the hot-glue to adhere to, and the model was already glued to the base with plastic cement (the kind that literally welds the two plastics together) so removing it would have been needlessly difficult. (That was the worst run-on sentence I have used in years!) The reason for the durable pieces is that I have little mini-me's running around. It isn't so much because my kids damage them, but more along the lines that when I have to try to find a place for everything (out of sight and out of mind so the wife doesn't get PO'd) they tend to get dumped in a container of some sort and they could break easily if they are too fragile (my current storage container for terrain pieces consists of large soda-crates, the kind that 20 oz bottles get shipped in).

then maybe change the base so its not so obvious its a GW model on a GW base. but apart from my knit picking thats some great scenery.

You should try to pin the axe haft, that will create a much better bond.

Pinning? I forgot about that. I have a 1/16th" drill bit, but that is as small as I have. Do you think that would be small enough, or do I need a thinner bit? Thanks for the suggestion, GitD, I think it will really save my bacon.

it would do the job. Give it a test on some spare sprue plastic, see if its to big or not, i would advise investing in a pinvice drill (u can get them from GW) there not that expencive if ur gona use it alot, but if its only for 1 use its a bit expencive....

I have been painting up some death company models today, just real quick and dirty like. They're not done yet, but here is what I have so far. I also got a picture of the lame inquisitor I made from bits. I will have to repaint it better in the future. Ok

Nobody really said their opinion: Should I do a tutorial for cork buildings or has that already been done?

yes. yes you should. but not just the cork ones, they are all full of awesome.

OK, I will make one tomorrow. I will take detailed pictures at all the steps! I will post a link to the new thread when it is done.

Just a quick suggestion, I played Black Templars way back in 3rd ed, and sometimes this results in painting white over black. If you do this you need to thin down your paint (just add a little water to what you're working from) and do several layers.

Paint it, let it dry Completely, and do it again... anyway, this might sound obvious but a few more thin layers of white on that chaplain would make it look great!

I'd also put a wash of Badab black over his (rosarius? crozius? I can't remember... it's been too long ) in his right hand, it looks a bit plainer than the rest.

Nice models! I look forward to seeing more.

Ok, I haven't been updating this in a bit, but I did get some details done on the Chaplain. I am not real happy with the nameplate, however, so I will probably redo that soon, but for now, it works. Nero Paternus is the fluff name for the chaplain in my army.

I know.... Another double post... sorry. Anyway, I have been working on a Terminator Chaplain 'conversion'. Really all it is just a kit bash, using pieces from all over. I ordered the leg and body pieces from a bit supplier, because it was on sale for a couple bucks, and the rest of the pieces I already had. The leg and body pieces are from a Night Lord or something or other, and I filed and spliced some armor pieces from a regular terminator set. I made the chaplain's whacking stick out of a dark-angel terminator sword arm, cutting the blade off and replacing it with a section from the teleport homer piece, and finally topping it off with a commander bit.

I still need to file down the dark angel emblem on the sides of the storm bolter, and drill out the barrels, along with cleaning up some mold lines. Also, since I had to use a regular size base for lack of 40mm, I will need to weigh down the base with metal. Luckily, since it is plastic, it is not as bad as my Dante model's balance...

Any comments?

There is a lot of great stuff here. I like the cork building, the cork gives a great concrete texture.

Your marines look cool, I especially like the devastators.

Keep up the good work and keep posting those pics

The terminator chaplain looks pretty good, however I'm not sure I like the CSM and SM kitbashing though. Looks like a chaplain who wanted terminator armour so much he went and nicked some from a worshipper of the dark gods!

Warning: Do not drop.
This is just a small thing, but the shaft of his pw looks bent.

Your mini painting has improved greatly from your first try. They are looking pretty good now. As for the terrain.... WOW! That really looks like cement buildings and ruble.

Sorry guys, I have been promising a tutorial on the terrain, since that is what I get the most comments on, but yesterday was my son's 1st birthday and today is his birthday party. Thus, I will not be able to make the tutorial until later. Thanks for the comments though! I will try to make the tut as soon as I have time.

I am starting a new blog off of Dakka, so I don't have to make a new one for each forum I join! You can see it at http://foxphoenix40k.blogspot.com , but I don't have anything new yet. This will be the discussion thread for anything on that blog. Ok, go get em.

UPDATE! Started a tutorial for my method of building ruins. You can see it at http://foxphoenix40k.blogspot.com/2009/03/foamcore-ruins-part-1.html ! Being updated as I speak. Go check it out and give me some feedback!

Part 2 is up! Somebody break this chain of posts....

The Dracula looking guy is beyond awesome.

dracula looking guy??

deadly chicken wrote:dracula looking guy??

This feller:

Oh, yeah. I have never heard Mephiston the Chief Librarian referred to as Dracula, but I guess I can see that.

I have finished the tutorial for foamcore ruins. See it at HTTP://foxphoenix40k.blogspot.com/

Please comment here!

I know I haven't been keeping up with painting much recently, but I have had sort of a renaissance lately. Here is the first of the recent models I have been giving some attention, and the closest to being done. I have been trying different combination of washes to get different results.

lookin good, colour is clean, detailing is good, only 1 thing i could say and thats more of a fluf/personal thing, it doesnt seem red enough for me, but i know that blood red can be a bit of a pain to get looking clean quickly.

bah, who cares, keep at them how you wish, there your army, and your doin a good job!

I got up a new crater tutorial, see it here:

http://foxphoenix40k.blogspot.com/2009/04/sunday-terrain-piece-1-easy-craters.html

Let me know what you think!

These are looking really great, I am rather impressed with the chaplain.

What I would recommend you try paint wise though, is to basecoat your gold trim in a gold/tinbitz mix, then highlight it up to gold. You get this really rich deep gold colour which needs a lot less inking to look very good, and can really add depth to a model, with not much effort

I am godawful at terrain, what you have up is fantastic so far.

Yeah, funny thing is that I'm god awful at painting but decent at terrain. Thanks for the tip though!

Ok, it has been forever since I updated this... thus is the danger of having a dedicated blog elsewhere. I just thought I would update your guys on some of my recent progress:

New Predator: Getting it painted
Greenstuff sculpting: First attempt at a fur mantle today, check it out.
Game Board: Made a more portable game board today from a board, hinges, and a felt covering.

That's what's new, keep regularly updated by visiting my blog, listed in my sig.

only one thing is you might try to do highlighting on the tip of the space marines armor. your better than me but i suggest getting your base red color and just mixing in some white or doing a redishoragneish color

Yeah, I will get to it eventually. I finally saved up 3 dollars and bought a pot of blood red (my wife didn't even notice the quarters were missing!!! *cackle*) so now all I have to do is go back through ALL my old marines and highlight them......

this might take a few years.

Yes this is a necro post, but it's my blog so I hope nobody minds.

I've been distracted by IG lately, but I needed a break from all those infantry and tanks... so I broke out more infantry and tanks... for my Blood Angels successor chapter!

I've been grungifying a Predator that I was going to steal for a conversion for an IG vehicle that I reconsidered. It is now a proper Predator again. Still a WIP, have some additional weathering to finish.

I also put together a decent veteran squad from various commander models I had previously put together, as well as a handful of jump packs I ordered several months ago and didn't know what to do with. I've since finished up their bases, but I ran out of batteries in the camera from shooting the Predator pictures, so this WIP shot will do until the batteries are recharged.

Subscribing, I like the look. I enjoy the simple and effective terrain.

I'm glad you approve! You're terrain is generally 100x better than the stuff I crank out, but I only have a little tiny corner to keep all my stuff in so I tend to keep it small.

I got up some pics of the Veteran Assault squad, ready for some clearcoating. I think I've begun to lose my love for the painting aspect of this hobby (painting 50+ IG infantry and 3 tanks for a tournament kinda burned me out). I see how sloppy I did these now that the camera is shining on them with its unrelenting criticism. Ah well, this is my secondary army now anyway. Well, I'm off to dig up the Bike squad.

Also my terminator chaplain kitbash finally got painted.

Some Space hulk terminators are getting the works. Enjoy:

The tank looked great , the shinny gold barrel looks abit out of place though ( would look tons better if its less shinny ) On the marines it looked fine because its counter balanced via the black lines , none on the tank though.
( maybe if the rest of the barrels are black )

What color or how did you coat the orange on the termies?
they are so smooth!

That's how the Space Hulk terminators come... they use a different color plastic.

FoxPhoenix135 wrote:That's how the Space Hulk terminators come... they use a different color plastic.

Sorry o_o i honestly thought they were casted in red plastic.

Wow, hard to believe all the hype of how good these terminators look. I don't get it, they look pretty bad in my opinion (I haven't seen them in person).

I thought the same thing , til i seen them in person , they are really nice sculpts .

Yeah... they are very nice sculpts... the only bad thing about them is that they are not very pose-able, kinda like the Black Reach terminators, but they are super-detailed. You'll see once a few of them are completely painted.

Funnily enough, ive just added 5 hulk termies to my army lol.
Good luck with them, they are great sculpts

I finished the one I'm going to use as a sergeant: Brother Valencio. He's getting a promotion...

Anyway, pretty simple paint job.

Holy Sh..! *jaw drops to floor*
IMHO never glaze models, especially chaos black models, it looks way to shiny, what happened to the grunge theme man.

No glaze involved. Same regular method of Mechrite Red basecoat with Badab Black wash... I just went light on the wash since I am running out of it

I haven't matte finished it yet either, which will help with the shine. I want to finish the whole unit and do them all at once.

Great work man, personally I think your painting is fine, it's all within the lines and details aren't obscured with layers of paint. Just be proud that you are trying at all, several of my 40K mates are fantastic generals but play with naked models cause they are too scared/lazy to pick up a brush.

Keep it up!

I never thought about how many people might be afraid of painting their minis.

jabbakahut wrote:I never thought about how many people might be afraid of painting their minis.

im one of those types

As with most people, its time that is my biggest limiting factor in painting... between that and my neck/back pains from sitting hunched over too long that is.

BTW Jabbakahut, you're post count is 666 at the moment. that is a little scary.

I'm going to try to get a few more of them done... next month I plan on buying the whole Space Hulk set from a LGS that has a few copies, so I might get more to paint then.

You have a solid mastery of colour schemes and armour washes, but if I were you I would take another look at Mephiston's face before doing any more unhelmeted models. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like you did a layer of skin-coloured paint and a black wash. Try doing a darker layer of paint, a highlight layer, and then a brown or reddish wash depending on the skin tones of the character. In Mephiston's case, I recommend Gryphonne Sepia.

Yes... I have since refined my flesh skills (See my avatar or my IG blog) but I appreciate the tips!

FoxPhoenix135 wrote:Yes... I have since refined my flesh skills (See my avatar or my IG blog) but I appreciate the tips!

I was just going to ask that... Nice work, if you want tanned flesh, use elf flesh followed by ogryn flesh wash, quick, effective tanned skin (I use it on my WE).

WOW!!!! kick-ass stuff!

...um.....

you do know sergeants can only have power weapons?...

Yes I do... but under Deathwing rules any terminator can exchange their "power fist or power weapon" for a chainfist. I'll probably be using deathwing rules... because I plan on picking up a full set of Space Hulk in the next month here.

This is a very nice army well done.

On the note of the 'terminators' how did you paint the helmets?

Recently I have started by priming black, then basecoating foundation color Deneb Stone. I paint the eyes gold, and the two stubs a metallic color such as gunmetal or mithril silver. I use a black wash, and finish with a very light drybrush of pure white.

sounds good!!!

i dont know anything about DA. sooooooooorry!

DC

Well i also have a space hulk and i love the models. My Army is massive and i have never got around to painting them which is 350 marines all waiting to be painted. But your paint scheme is pretty good and is very easy by the looks of it. Also what is your army up to? In points?

Well, I suppose it depends on whether I am fielding them as Blood Angels or regular SM. I am pretty sure for BA I have something like 2500 points, if I'm going vanilla its probably less (due to fewer special characters).

lookin good, you could relay make them stand out if you can get the eyes right, but 1 color usually works well enough for it to look nice(no need for gemming them)

I love the terminator that is pulling apart the snowy ground!

I'm back! after a brief hiatus from forum-crawling, I now have internet hooked up in my new home. It is a quite an achievement for the missus and I. Being homeowners definitely gives you a feeling of security. Anyway, I haven't accomplished much in the last couple weeks due to working a lot. The holiday season is the time of year we professional photographers wait for. People are willing to drop big money to get some cute pictures of their kids, so I'm putting in overtime to take that money off their hands! I'm up to 35 hours at work already this week, and it isn't even half over yet. Hopefully I get some time off soon to put some work in. Expect more frequent updates after the first of the year.

I started my papercraft titan again, and actually look like I have a shot at completing it this time. I plan on finishing the assembly, then hitting it with a coat of a textured spraypaint. I haven't decided what kind yet, but I am leaning towards basing it with a metallic and then block painting over the carapace with the color I want.

I need help deciding the weapons I want though. I was leaning towards making the super plasmacannon and the vulcan bolter, but are there many Apoc vets that know what works better? For clarification, I plan on adding this to my MEQ force, which frequently combats mechanized lists and maybe the occasional superheavy. I don't need a super-heavy killer, but I want the capability to wound one if the need arises, and I intend on equalizing between anti-horde and anti-mech.

Did you mean to have the carapace cut that far back? I know it's a scratch build and there will be variances, I just think it looks a bit odd. Is there enough room to attach the arms underneath?

I'm also curious about the best weapon load out from any apoc vets, also what they think about the reaver load out would be insightful.

That is how the templates I got were designed, but keep in mind that I have not constructed the front portions of the shoulders yet. If the carapace is set back away it will not bother me too much, as I used to play Mechwarrior back in the day and I wouldn't mind a omni-mech looking design.

From what I have found on the internet, it looks like I am going to be going with a combination of a Vulcan for anti-horde, and a double-barreled turbo destructor for anti-vehicular work.

Updated picture!

The picture before that makes it look like a Timberwolf from battletech...

Check it out! Today I got a Combat Mat from Sabol Designs... it rocks! They are definitely cheaper than some of the alternatives... and they are way less messy than flocked gaming mats. Check out what this one looks like:

I know I have been neglecting this thread for a while, but I wanted to share a model that I have spent a great deal of time painting for a friend's b-day present. Shoot on to my gallery and give me a rating and let me know what you think!

You have almost 200 gallery images, could you like this photo to your gallery to make it easier to vote on?

I like it, looks a bit... Not light, but most of it is of the same color (and the gold doesn't help to break up the model). The blood is cool. I think I'm just not a fan of the gold.

Here's the picture for voting purposes:



So how should I break up the model more? Maybe painting some of the chains silver instead?

Painting the chains silver would help but wouldn't be enough IMO. Maybe you could paint some parts (I.E. kneecaps/helmet/hands/) a different color like white, silver, etc. Just my opinion.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nice work so far btw

Starting up the assembly on a mass pile of plastic, in anticipation on the BA release in a month. I have a huge mess of kits to assemble, including:

3 Land Raiders
2 Rhinos
29 Assault Jump Troops (9 of which are DC)
10 additional Assault Terminators

I finished a Land Raider yesterday, probably the fastest I have ever finished a kit of that size. It took me less than 3 hours from start to finish (not including drying times).

To paint before the tournament:

An additional Land Raider
2 Rhinos
10 Assault Terminators

Love the paint job on the raider, the mottled effect looks cool, are you gonna carry it over to the marines?

If you look at earlier marines of mine, you'll see that I utilize the heavy washing for them too, but thanks for the compliments! The effect just shows up better on larger surfaces.

BLACKHAND wrote:Love the paint job on the raider, the mottled effect looks cool,

I agree, looks great.

Time to hurry up and finish these projects, so I can clean up my painting table.

Here you can see the 2nd LR being painted, as well as 2 rhinos getting finished (complete with tactical symbolism on the top hatches).

All that hard work really paid off. Look at all I got accomplished today (minus one land raider that was already done):

Very good to see you hard back at work!

Thanks! I just got back from a few practice games with my new LR-heavy mech lists, and I must say I love my TH/SS termies and Land Raiders. They are made of win.

Yay win!