So now here's my work comming from fort bragg, everything posted prior to page 5 was from afghanistan. I've decided to say with GW names and go with a bit of personalized touch to my army's flavor. This is my 3rd marine army (Halo Knights, homebrew imperial fist 3rd founding and Space wolves of Grimblood's Great Company)

I'm trying to work my tactical squads to all have assault marine legs giving the army an advancing feel. The Vanguard squad is waiting on more wings.

Forgive the gakky camera work, I have no tripod and was working in an oddly lit tent and now a terribly lit barracks room.

Any questions about cutwork, random bitz or pieces, etc etc are welcome as well as critique on these guys.

Next pics I'll post will be probably of more tactical or assault marines, I'm almost done with veteran sergeants, though I may still finish up the 2nd Co honor guard.

Bonus points and semi no prize if you can figure out the naming convention I've followed with these guys.

NEW: The Base paint scheme was created by me, and done mostly by the rarely seen resident painter Gorfrag. The basecoats were developed by me done by him and all officers and NCOs were painted by me.

NOTICE: I am in need fellow dakkaites, the room I was going to rent upon getting out of the service has fallen through, I am now looking for a room for rent in the Fort Bragg/Fayetteville, NC area for between 200 and 400 dollars a month for a minimum of 2 months and a maximum of 6. If you know of anyone willing to help or who needs a roommate let me know.

NEW MATERIAL INCOMING! See page 5 for updates.

wicked stuff there. if you got all or most of that kit from blood angels, then f**k GW for cooling up BA and crappifying dark angels

lol, i used to be team DA, now I am team BA... things change lol. As soon as DA became bathrobe wearing psychological freakshows in 3rd ed and even more so in 4th, I was out.

You look like you have made truly thourough and excellent use of all the awesome bits in the SG and DC boxes, nice start!

Great stuff right here!!!

I like the CSM helmets (with horns removed, naturally), the pose and general dynamics of the models...

The models look really awesome, and the veterans truly stand out as what they are : even fiercer angels of death than the "standard" SM are!!

My only concern, which can be quickly wiped out, are the mould lines which seem to appear from time to time... Nothing much to worry...

How did you get all these running SM legs?!?

Second question : do you plan on painting them in Afghanistan? I had a lot of problems when I was in Chad, for the paint was drying too fast to be used properly...

Anyway, I look forward to seeing them painted...
And good luck on your missions!

The blood angels line is amazing when used for scratch builds like this. These look fantastic.

ShumaGorath wrote:The blood angels line is amazing when used for scratch builds like this. These look fantastic.

Most definately. I was a bit unsure about these at first, but people are really building some awesome stuff with the bits

Beautiful conversions! Can't wait to see what else you do.

Yggdrasil wrote:Great stuff right here!!!

I like the CSM helmets (with horns removed, naturally), the pose and general dynamics of the models...

The models look really awesome, and the veterans truly stand out as what they are : even fiercer angels of death than the "standard" SM are!!

My only concern, which can be quickly wiped out, are the mould lines which seem to appear from time to time... Nothing much to worry...

How did you get all these running SM legs?!?

Second question : do you plan on painting them in Afghanistan? I had a lot of problems when I was in Chad, for the paint was drying too fast to be used properly...

Anyway, I look forward to seeing them painted...
And good luck on your missions!

Picked out the helmet from another librarian mini on the site, still figureing out how to do his psychic hood though.

Yeah mold lines are gone on some still there on others, easy fix. The assault marine legs are all courtesy of thewarstore.com and our good friend Neal Catapano.

And yes I do plan on painting here in afghanistan, paint pots drying out is an easy fix.

All of those conversions look seriously badass, I cant wait till you get some paint on these fellas!

Just a few more as they come up, still waiting on some forgeworld stuff so I can start work on a nice furioso dreadnaught.

GD double post, my freaking IP is a bunch of twits.

replaceing a double post with nice info. The axe for 1st captain Mikha'el was created useing a Sanguinary guard axe where I trimmed the bottom of the axe off and replaced and pinned it between the head and the gripping hand giving it a more action look rather than the choked up stand to look it had.

Wow, major error triple post aparently.

More relavant info to make up for the crappy triple post. I find myself using quite a bit of DA bits right now there's atleast 2 of em in the pics and another one in the works as well as 3 swords from their sets that will eventually be made into vanguard weapons.

I also seem to already be contemplating a 2nd squad of vanguard marines this time with either power weapon and storm shield or lightning claw and storm shield. re rolls on wounding is nice but right handed power claws are rare and usually pretty ugly, also the image of one claw and shield is kinda awkward while sword/axe and shield is just plain intimidating and this squad would probably rarely see play and be more of my personal eddification of building a large portion of first company.

great log so far! I will attempt a similar combination of bits for my own BAs (FW stuff)

keep up the good work!

Once again comming to you right outta Forward Operating Base Shank here's more desert and mountain born Blood angels, today of the 2nd company. Today we have some comparisons and some reworks due to injuries. I'm pretty interested in giving 1st Captain Mikha'el a new and more distinct axe, or possibly simplifying it, not sure which now.

Wicked stuff man. I love what I'm seeing.

Looking exceptional! Really nice theme you've got running through the army- gothic angelic without being overblown.

CadianXV wrote:Looking exceptional! Really nice theme you've got running through the army- gothic angelic without being overblown.

Well if you look at the older blood angels art they were much more demure and simplistic, on the cover of the blood angels omnibus sgt rafen has fairly simplistic armor with some filigree. When my paint comes in for these guys I'm going for their older paint scheme when they black shoulder trim and many had gold chest eagles. the covers of the Warhammer 40k compendium, Warhammer 40k 2nd edition, Epic 40k, deus encarmine, and the blood angel omnibus as well as artwork in WD 363 all show Blood angels with black trimmed shoulder pads. Also black tide, red fury, the blood angel omnibus and the same WD art show blood angels with gold chest eagles, I think this bit of color off sets the plain flat red and gives them a sense of depth.

I'm Also enjoying mixing codex parts in with Blood angel special pieces, spreads em further and lets me make a whole company out of about 6 boxes of death company, I'm up to 4 and still have a ton of shoulderpads, chainswords, bolters, etc but then again I'm not even done with a full squad, right now I have 6 vanguards, 2 full honor guards, 2 captains, 3 veteran tactical sergeants and 3 veteran assault sergeants as well as 5 tactical marines. I'm working as quick as I can but working 12-15 hours a day kinda saps ya. Had sapped while working with sappers.

Another Idea I picked up from reading chapter war recently is a devastator squad with 4 missile launchers having their 5 support marines turned into a demo team, working out sachels and melta bombs and grenades, y'know real sappers. Or perhaps doing this with one of my tactical squads.

Last thing is somethign that I'm gonna repost in the opening shot is that I'm in the market for a pair of Ad mech axes, metal, carved plastic or plasticard/gs sculpted either for sale or for care package to a soldier overseas, PM if you find yourself thinking about it.

You say you are doing this from Afghanistan, are you on a tour there or do you live there cos your sig says you are german...

They look nice tho, and the pics aren't that bad.

keep it up and lets see some paint...

Imp. Monkey

Imperial Monkey wrote:You say you are doing this from Afghanistan, are you on a tour there or do you live there cos your sig says you are german...

They look nice tho, and the pics aren't that bad.

keep it up and lets see some paint...

Imp. Monkey

Paint is on the way from GW with the primer (shipping overseas is rough) and the war store. Pics are getting better along with my skill with the camera.

I'm on deployment in RC east our net is routed through Germany.

I'm really loving these conversions, Once they are painted they will look really good.

It's a shame that I'm not a blood angels kind of guy, my heart lies with The Allfather and the Space wolves.

But keep these pics coming !
I look forward to your next update.

These look fantastic!!!

Good bit bashin. Might have to get me some BA for the same purpose.

The eagle on the axe is some excellent thinking.

Each model is packed with character, very cool.

Tonight we have some close ups of my captains as well as honor guard members of the 2nd company. Almost done with a full tac squad, both honor guards are complete, half the 1st vanguard squad and a smattering of other veteran sergeants. GW still has 3 of my orders "processing" after 3 days when they say "usually ships in 24 hours" Also waiting on some forge world red scorpion mk4 equipment. Also soon to be worked on, and I'll try and post in progress pics of it, is extended dreadnoughts. Both a Mk4 and plastic venerable, done up to extend the arms and legs.

Absolutely awesome. Just goes to show how useful kit-bashing is!

I really love the conversions in this blog. Anyways, where did you get that helmet with all those rivets?

Looking good

Great conversion work. This is turning into a very unique and characterful army.

I look forward to the painting...

Munch Munch! wrote:I really love the conversions in this blog. Anyways, where did you get that helmet with all those rivets?

The riveted helmet comes from the Venerable dreadnought plastic kit, as well as my 1st Captain's helmet. Neal at the warstore has been good to me shipping overseas and all.

Nice looking army. Where does the chaplain's head come from?

grrr

Looks pretty good so far; keep the updates coming. I'm in the same situation, working on my Ultramarines and Empire forces here in Iraq. I don't know about you, but the hardest part for me is getting a hold of paints and things that I need.

Tonight we have 3 more tactical brothers of the 2nd company. A mix of tactical and death company pieces, with my least liked (mk7) helmets. One with a pair of GW blood angel shoulder pads.

I'm considering replacing my 1st captain's helmet with a death mask with the halo trimmed off, or a naked head painted bright brass or gold to make for a different death mask. I tried to clip Sanguinor's head off but aparently he's on a 25mm scale not 28 because his hands and head are too small for normal marines, then again he seems much more in proportion than most models.

I think next I'm going to be working on a 2nd company assault squad. I have a few nice ideas to keep from getting boring.

lastly there's a thread in the swap shop I wouldn't mind plugging here http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/292626.page


Automatically Appended Next Post:

grrrfranky wrote:Nice looking army. Where does the chaplain's head come from?

grrr

The chaplain's head came from the Chaos warrior sprue from warhammer fantasy.

Sturmtruppe wrote:Looks pretty good so far; keep the updates coming. I'm in the same situation, working on my Ultramarines and Empire forces here in Iraq. I don't know about you, but the hardest part for me is getting a hold of paints and things that I need.

GW ships well to APO and as far as I know will also ship primer. thewarstore.com is a great source for vallejo (the superior) paints. I use Gale Force Nine for tools, they can ship to afghanistan within 7 or 8 days. Thewarstore.com in the same timeframe so tools and bitz.

Right now it seems that the volcano over europe delayed a lot of GW Britain shipping. I'm still waiting on replacement FW pieces for 26 days and a black library shipment for the last 24, I'm awaiting the manditory 28 days before complaining. However this aparently has not slowed US shipping, I'm hoping it's just simply due to a backlog in England.

i Think the one with the little rivets is from a ven dread right?

The reason that we're faling horrifically in the UK is that 2 of our 3 major airports are shut again, and British Mail sucks *grumble*

Keep up the good work man, looking nice

Disjointed Entity wrote:The reason that we're faling horrifically in the UK is that 2 of our 3 major airports are shut again, and British Mail sucks *grumble*

Keep up the good work man, looking nice

Now see this is the kind of thing GW needs to send us out e-mails of as info, "possible delay due to airmail halt"

Anyways when my camera is charged up I got a psychic hood started on the librarian, so we get in progress pics of this one.

I await with interest.

Tonight I'm being lazy and posting just a couple of tactical marines. Sorry guys did 9 clicks with an 80 lbs load today so I'm wiped. Tomarrow I'll post the begining pics of my libarian's aegis circuit.

carabine wrote:Tonight I'm being lazy and posting just a couple of tactical marines. Sorry guys did 9 clicks with an 80 lbs load today so I'm wiped. Tomarrow I'll post the begining pics of my libarian's aegis circuit.

all your models look amazing. How were you able to give the walking/running affect to the tacts?

carabine wrote:
Now see this is the kind of thing GW needs to send us out e-mails of as info, "possible delay due to airmail halt"

On the French website, the welcoming banner announces it out loud... Maybe the French advertising team's better at dealing with crises??

Or is more used to them, with the usual strikes??

Cheers, and good luck on your patrols...

Looking really really good!

IronfrontAlex wrote:

carabine wrote:Tonight I'm being lazy and posting just a couple of tactical marines. Sorry guys did 9 clicks with an 80 lbs load today so I'm wiped. Tomarrow I'll post the begining pics of my libarian's aegis circuit.

all your models look amazing. How were you able to give the walking/running affect to the tacts?

Simple answer, lots of assault marine legs, Mainly provided by battlewagonbitz

Yggdrasil wrote:

carabine wrote:
Now see this is the kind of thing GW needs to send us out e-mails of as info, "possible delay due to airmail halt"

On the French website, the welcoming banner announces it out loud... Maybe the French advertising team's better at dealing with crises??

Or is more used to them, with the usual strikes??

Cheers, and good luck on your patrols...

Unfortunatly that wasn't a patrol, that was just PT, fun stuff. And I havn't noticed any notices on any of the sites talking about shipping delays. Heck on FW 's main site there's stuff about them being able to make their open day happen despite the volcano.

carabine wrote: Unfortunatly that wasn't a patrol, that was just PT, fun stuff.

So at least some can have fun in Afghanistan, that's nice to hear uh!

carabine wrote: And I havn't noticed any notices on any of the sites talking about shipping delays. Heck on FW 's main site there's stuff about them being able to make their open day happen despite the volcano.

Well, then for once us Frenchies have been da best at something ...

Cheers!!!

this looks awsome

Tonight coming to you live from Fob Shank, Afghanistan after a brief delay due to comms blackout we bring you our feed of the lovechild between my idiocy, boredom, and creativity.

Okay seriously been without net for a night so I'm behind in the pics so I have a special treat for you folks tonight, not a blood angel though I'm still considering it, but a prototype for a resin version on it's way from forgeworld primed for conversion.

I bring you Storm Knights Venerable Dreadnought Brother Joseph from beginings to his glorious finalie.

Subscribed

Awesome Sauce!

Like I promised awhile ago here's my first work on the Librarian's aegis circuit/psychic hood. I'm actually working on it right now so here's some of the results.

So here goes again I've now brought you as promised my librarian's Aegis circuit and psychic hood in progress right now.

Has the thought of using a shoulder pad as the psychic hood crossed your mind, just making a suggestion.
Looking good so far, keep up the good work.

Paint something, please, I beg of you!

i love the character that each of these figures have.

that dred is bliss too!!

Schiznas wrote:Has the thought of using a shoulder pad as the psychic hood crossed your mind, just making a suggestion.
Looking good so far, keep up the good work.

Yes unfortunately my attempts at that path have failed miserably. So as long as this one turns out clean and smooth I'll be happy.

Skarwael wrote:Paint something, please, I beg of you!

I'm having an issue currently, getting flat black primer is a pain overseas. All other paint is on it's way over now. I may end up hand priming a piece or two by drybrushing black once or twice over a model.

I love the conversions you are pulling off, more so since I know the trouble of getting that stuff unwarped by heat in the mid east so cheers to you good sir!! The only one I am not a fan of is that knife on one of the tactical brothers as it just feels out of place.

You conversions are fantastic, and particularly effective as many are simply bit swaps, but smart, characterful choices and posing make them look perfectly balanced, dynamic and unique.

If I ever gt through my current project and move on to non-terminator BA's, rest assured I will come back and rape your ideas blind at a later date =]

As a fairly new BA player I must say that I'm quite inspired by the stellar work you've done here. Each one of your conversions is a very characterful addition to your force. Even the smaller touches like the double wings on your captain's power axe are tremendously helpful in making your army unique. My hat's off to you.

Here tonight I just have some updates to the psychic hood and lightning claw honor guard. I'm pushing his armor into full pre heresy and the librarian's hood just needs a coat of paint.

Awesome, unique and characterful, you're gonna have a sweet force when you're done!!

Keep up the great work.

Awesome army man and i would love to play against this

These are all amazing. :3 A refreshing breath of originality, and certainly well done. I love everything so far. Keep up the good work. :3

these are pretty kool paint em up and post em around you'll get 10/10 for sure.

A bit more work on Squad Exusai, 1st Company, 1st Squad Vanguard. 2 very veteran brothers here for you and hopefully tonight I'll finish the last 2 and post pics of the whole squad together.

Oh and BONUS good news atleast 1 seller has shipped me primer so painted squads will be on the way in the next 1-2 months. I also plan on useing "The Book of Blood" as a refrence for some more marines but you can all complain to Black Library as they did not ship til april 14th and now have just only sent a replacement (they told me it shipped on the 9th so 28 days had past) so we're waiting on that. I might try to also work on the tactical brothers and assault brothers as GW is shipping me about 40 pairs of metal shoulder pads, both 1 drop company insignia and chapter colours. So here we go again folks.

Having some camera issues so pics are gonna be slow but news is that I've finished Squad exusai and got my paints, sans primer so there may be a painted mini in the next few days.

That's what I like to hear.

Wow amazing. When you gonna paint 'em?

comisarmilo wrote:Wow amazing. When you gonna paint 'em?

In about a week when my primer gets here, or barring that when I can get a decent non spray primer idea. I've heard good things about priming with adeptus battlegrey out of the foundation line.

Those are some nice looking models. All the way from the sand box no less.

Good luck on the primer front. I've used Gesso myself and it doesn't come out bad if you are careful to go on thin.

The Green Git wrote:Those are some nice looking models. All the way from the sand box no less.

Good luck on the primer front. I've used Gesso myself and it doesn't come out bad if you are careful to go on thin.

Mountain range actually, I basicly live in a gravel pit.

Now see I've heard pretty mixed reviews on using gesso, especially on it's consistancy even when thin that it turns out gritty.

An idea that I have heard is using a foundation paint as a primer, expensive but worth an attempt if anyone else has met with success with the idea.

And now the last 2 brothers of Squad Exusai, 1st Squad, 1st Company, Vanguard. I'm going to end up painting the shoulder guard crosses white to denote their fast attack roles and the skull is the 1st company marking. The squad Sgt has a company champion shoulder pad marking his former status of the 2nd company it will be painted gold and white (1st co veteran and 2nd co honor)

I've always been a fan of some of the more codex tactical markings so these guys are gonna have gold shoulder trim and white helmets which should contrast with their deep set red armor well. I also plan on trying to do red painted laurels on all their helmets to blend things together.

Before I paint them I'm going to try and figure out if I can adjust their knee pads or legs to make them more pre heresy as the rest of their arms and armor is mk4 and heresy era.

Looking great there. Got some nice dynamic posing going on.

THis has alot of character going on. Waiting for the first painted mini!

Your minis are an inspiration sir. I am currently kitbashing 3 different marine armies: Irons Hands, Raven Guard and DIY chapter that will be very similar visually to yours. It uses parts from BAs boxes, SWs box, BT upgrade and FW RS upgrades, I have a few made but right now I only have Internet access on iPhone so no pics right now. Anyway I stumbled over to your trade thread and I think we can do some swaps, give me a bit to get a list together, also slow because of only having the phone. Here is a link to my old trade thread, still need most of that stuff: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/264275.page

Again everything looks beatiful, I am more of a modeler than a painter so those are a work of art to me. Cheers!

Tonight just a smigen not much work done, got caught up playing assassin's creed II at work and also calling Forge world and wondering why it takes them 38 days to get me a dreadnought but it takes guys from America 8 to get me packages. Cest La Vie.

Anyways tonight I did some work perforating barrels and built a flamer tactical brother cause I forgot about him when building the 1st tac squad.

Also cause I got caught up talking with Gorfrag on skype I ended up perforating an entire hand flamer cowling so there's a nice pic of that too for ya.

Primer should be here sunday/monday so expect atleast 1 painted mini up maybe tuesday or later.

Looking really good, the Van Guard are great. I like how you got around the death company shoulder pad, painting the crosses white to denote that there fast attack, wouldn't have thought of that.
keep up the amazing job.

Tonight we simply have a pair of Brothers from the assault squads of 2nd company. Still no sign of my primer in the mail but it looks like it's in the army mail system so it's on it's way.

Lovin' the army. Can't wait to see it all painted.

Keep up the good work, in both modelling and out in Afghan!

Sweet army. Keep the good stuff comming.

Tonight we have some special treats, Black Library products and sources for my ideas as well as one last surpise.

"Black Library products and sources for my ideas as well as one last surpise."

lol i looked at that picture: hmm, book of blood, cool; insignium astartes, awesome.
M4, WTF is that doing there??!!! oh yeah, hes in afghan, my bad. i thought for a moment you got the m4 from BL i was like O_o

well folks here we have the first prototype of the army, a veteran sgt of the 2nd company. Keep in mind I'm trying the new red technique as layed out in the BA issue of WD. Also that I haven't painted a mini since december. Still need to do the detail work but there's some of the first work. I'm especially proud of how the white helmet came out, white over astronomicon grey.

Finally, you've painted one! Wooo!

It's coming along well, that's a nice red.

One thing though - I can see the areas on the vents of the backpack where you've cut the tabs off... Have you got a file handy? Sorry, I have a habit of spotting things like that :S

Looking pretty good Carabine, that red's wonderfully rich. Might i suggest you hit the gold with a wash though, also, perhaps the scroll could be a parchment type colour (eg bleached bone) to make it contrast a bit more. White helmet looks awesome though!!

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Looking pretty good Carabine, that red's wonderfully rich. Might i suggest you hit the gold with a wash though, also, perhaps the scroll could be a parchment type colour (eg bleached bone) to make it contrast a bit more. White helmet looks awesome though!!

The gold is actually silver with 3 washes of gryphonne over it. Scrollwork is gonna end up bleached bone anyways. Always liked that color, maybe with a devlan wash over it.

Oh right, my bad! Kinda' hard to tell from the pic. Yeah bleached bone's nice, devlan always works wonders!

Fantastic work carabine, nice compliment to the excellent job you did in assembly and customizing.

Where did the Preheresy pistol and the robo arm come from?

If I am not mistaken the pistol is from the chaos marine box and the arm is from the Red Scorpion upgrade from FW.

I love it. They all have so much character, the conversions are really good.

Cool, I gotta pick up some csm sets for my dc.

i often find the colors in WD articles to be BS. The base colors are accurate, but when they give the ratio's for blending/highlighting I find more often that not they are badly off.

I completely scrapped the tutorial red and went by eye to make sure the red I ended up with looked red and not orange lol.

Good job pfc carabine

Where does brother ramiels shield come from? That thing is friggin' sweet!

chaos0xomega wrote:Good job pfc carabine

Where does brother ramiels shield come from? That thing is friggin' sweet!

Champion Ramiel's shield comes from the Assault terminator sprue. I added a piece of FW etched brass and a pair of dropped wings from the death company sprue.

Tonight I'm proud to present, short of his scrollwork a complete Veteran Brother Sergeant Canael in his full glory.

I left his washes looking worn after I realized he's a tactical veteran he's gonna look like hell. I also inked his helmet to give the corners depth.

He looks good, the laurels need some work as does the white of his helmet.

the modelling of them is amazing tho. Spectacular!!

Imp. Monkey

Wow good job

Imperial Monkey wrote:He looks good, the laurels need some work as does the white of his helmet.

the modelling of them is amazing tho. Spectacular!!

Imp. Monkey

One of the major reasons I started this blog was to get help specificly about painting white helmets and laurels as I plan to do the same with my Storm Knights.

Doesn't look like the laurel leaves are molded in. Have you thought about making a little stamp out of rubber for the laurel leaves? I expect one could be shaved out of an old eraser easily enough (I'd use one of the white erasers rather than pink). I was considering doing something similar to make a leafy camo pattern for scout cloaks.

carabine wrote:One of the major reasons I started this blog was to get help specificly about painting white helmets and laurels as I plan to do the same with my Storm Knights.

I think i can give you a bit of help. Perhaps hitting the recesses of the helmet with badab black would help to define the helmet a bit more?

As for the laurel, your first attempt looks good, but have a look at this one, might give you a few ideas.

Instead of using black, i would recomend, a 50/50 of Ult blue/white wash over the helmet/wing details and a dark red/purple-ish wash over the armour, then use the black only in the deep recesses. That shoud give you plenty of depth and definition.

Hrm there is some badab in the helmet but I guess I didn't use enough. The laurels I don't think I can manage a stamp out here but I really need more advice on painting tthem finer, I might just cover them on this guy though.

I'll take another whack at this guy fixing the issues you folks spotted as well as try and paint another one today/tonight. Surpised no one saw that I forgot the eyes.

Modeling looks A+ and painting will get better with practice.
You have the same laptop as me!

nice looking figs and conversions!
i hope to use some ideas from here into my Dark Angels if you don't mind ^_^
can't wait to see more!
oh and what bits did you use for that dreadnought conversion? IG sentenal bits?

When it comes to laying out the laurel wreath, it might help to make a stick figure "sketch" first, then paint the leaves over it. Basically make one long line to represent the bow of the wreath, then short little lines off it to represent where the leaves will go. With the layout done, you might find it much easier to paint the leaves over each stick, making for a much tighter and better looking laurel. Add a highlight line to the top edge of each leaf and perhaps one down the center for the vein, and you'll have it.

Gitsplitta wrote:When it comes to laying out the laurel wreath, it might help to make a stick figure "sketch" first, then paint the leaves over it. Basically make one long line to represent the bow of the wreath, then short little lines off it to represent where the leaves will go. With the layout done, you might find it much easier to paint the leaves over each stick, making for a much tighter and better looking laurel. Add a highlight line to the top edge of each leaf and perhaps one down the center for the vein, and you'll have it.

Y'know I had this same idea about an hour after doing it. Though I also forgot it an hour after that and now I have it again thanks to you, I mean what other reason did I bring mechanicle pencils with me to afghanistan anyways.

Gratias

The other idea I had was painting over the edges of the laurels to cut their size down.

Here we have the first coat in another style of painting my buddy Gorfrag gave me. First layer is mechrite red and I'm planning on a full coat of devlan mud.

And here we have this Veteran sgt after his drybrush of red gore and further drybrush of blood red followed by a wash of baal red.

That white helmet is so clean and fresh, it looks beautiful. I'm more in awe of you now that you're painting!

Not done yet but I'm behind schedule so here's another tactical veteran sergeant for your enjoyment.

Dropped the laurels decided to wait on those, first time trying a layered plasma pistol technique.

Boltgun painted skulls need mithril highlights purity seal needs a touch up, and vials/gems of blood need an ardcoat

Comments, critique, criticizm all welcome, I suck at painting so ready fire and go.

Oh also you can't see the blue wash in the recesses of the helmet due to the lighting, the helmet actually apears much more contrasted than it seems.

Id paint the ropes a brown to help break up the red some. Plasma pistol looks great!

your 3rd pic of the edges of the blood drop touch up the gold ^^

whalemusic360 wrote:Id paint the ropes a brown to help break up the red some. Plasma pistol looks great!

Thanks, I figured on useing something like mecherite or scab for the ropes but then the armor came out so dark, I'll try brown.

-=Scar=- wrote:your 3rd pic of the edges of the blood drop touch up the gold ^^

Missed that one thanks.

Light duty day at work so I got some painting done but forgot my whites back at the tent so these guys aint done yet but there are some bits on them that I had to show off, mainly their armor and power weapons.

New method of their armor plating and I think it's how I'm gonna do the whole army now these guys however are still missing their blood red highlight so they're a tad bit darker than the last one.

Power weapons were done with a mix of a few paints as I just went lighter and lighter, the blue flame effect is better than I had hoped for and my new style to put all power weapons in.

To all those who have PMed me about bitz trades be patient all of a sudden I seem to have a dozen parties interested in my items or selling me theirs so I'm sorting as fast as I can.

How do you get the 'flame' effects on those blades?

Disjointed Entity wrote: How do you get the 'flame' effects on those blades?

Y'know I shoulda put this in the image post. The sword was a basecoat of black then I started with hawk turquoise brushed up from the blade's edge with a detail brush. Next I layers on ice blue in the same manner with a fine detail brush. Lastly I went even smaller with a 1:1 mix of ice blue and bleached bone alonge the edge. I overlapped these layers while keeping the older layers visible.

The Claws followed a similar pattern but I base coated with enchanted blue with 2 washes of badab black. the sides and bottoms of the claws were done bry draggin the brush along them and letting it flick between the claws.

This was my first experience with mixing paints and I think it turned out quite well.

I like the effects you have done on the weapons! keep up the good work

Parhaps I can come with a suggestion?

I love your convertions. But they do deserve a neat paintjob.

To get a really good bloody colour with a clean and good looking.

1. Basecoat all black.
2. Paint Blood red on all armour parts.
3. Go through all the other parts with colours of your choosing, shining gold. Green eyes. White wings.

4. Wash. Now, Wash the blood red with badab black.
dont be shy with the wash. give them a good beat on.
Allso, wash all gold parts with badab black.
(if you have any bone parts, (skulls) base that with bleached bone, and wash down with sephia.
Washing If you want a clean wite colour on wings, helms.
There are two types of washes. either you wash the white with blue, or a thin wash of sephia.
WASHING DONE.

5. When all is washed, Go thourgh every washed area with base colour. All resessed parts that is.

6. Highlight. When youve based the orange/red parts of the armour, mix 50/50 blood red with sunburst yellow and go through the armours most pointy parts. That will give a a mini that is more then above average table top qualety.

Gold - Shining GoldWash badab - Gold pointy parts.
Red - Blood Red - badab black - Blood red - 50/50 blood red Sunburst yellow.

Hope this helps a little, in other case. someone else might enjoy it.

Christoffer.

Ahh thanks man, been trying to get information like that from loads of people recently, thank you for responding!

Every single model here oozes character great job.

Cryb wrote:Parhaps I can come with a suggestion?

I love your convertions. But they do deserve a neat paintjob.

To get a really good bloody colour with a clean and good looking.

1. Basecoat all black.
2. Paint Blood red on all armour parts.
3. Go through all the other parts with colours of your choosing, shining gold. Green eyes. White wings.

4. Wash. Now, Wash the blood red with badab black.
dont be shy with the wash. give them a good beat on.
Allso, wash all gold parts with badab black.
(if you have any bone parts, (skulls) base that with bleached bone, and wash down with sephia.
Washing If you want a clean wite colour on wings, helms.
There are two types of washes. either you wash the white with blue, or a thin wash of sephia.
WASHING DONE.

5. When all is washed, Go thourgh every washed area with base colour. All resessed parts that is.

6. Highlight. When youve based the orange/red parts of the armour, mix 50/50 blood red with sunburst yellow and go through the armours most pointy parts. That will give a a mini that is more then above average table top qualety.

Gold - Shining GoldWash badab - Gold pointy parts.
Red - Blood Red - badab black - Blood red - 50/50 blood red Sunburst yellow.

Hope this helps a little, in other case. someone else might enjoy it.

Christoffer.

Gotta agree here, the paintjobs aren't near the quality of the conversions by a long shot. Now it may sound like criticism but honestly it's more a compliment than anything else! The above was great advice, the only thing I would add is to be sure to thin your paints, they look a bit chunky, I would guess that has a lot to do with the zero humidity environment you are working in.

Either way, the thread is still inspiring!

Guess I may as well add in something to top off this spree of painting advice.

(haven't tested this, but it looks pretty good from what I've seen)

Gold: 50/50 mix of shining gold and scorched brown, then highlight with pure shining gold.

Alternative to washing with Badab black. ^

Darkvoidof40k wrote:Guess I may as well add in something to top off this spree of painting advice.

(haven't tested this, but it looks pretty good from what I've seen)

Gold: 50/50 mix of shining gold and scorched brown, then highlight with pure shining gold.

Alternative to washing with Badab black. ^

I tried it based on the Sgt.Lorenzo Space hulk tutorial, wasn't too impressed, I think it is better to go the traditional route, gold, sepia wash, shiny gold, silver.

I thought Blood Angels used gold helmets to mark veterans?

The blue flame looks good, by itself.
In the models hand, seems like its lacking something.

From a table top perspective it probally looks stunning but under the scrutiny of close up well... really none of our stuff looks that good when you get really close.

maybe if the blad was less black in the non flame areas. Im not sure, probally going to copy that idea and work with it a bit in the soon future.

Good work still

To all those with painting criticism I give you and age old quote by deForest Kelly.

"DAMMIT JIM I'M A DOCTOR NOT AN ARTIST"(not kidding I'm a combat medic, sister is the professional artist)

With that out of the way let me say thanks. Seriously folks with modeling I have a very wel developed tactile sense but when it comes to painitng I suck mostly due to the fact that for 19 years I've avoided relying on my eyes for anything due to wearing coke bottles.

Biggest and foremost reason for posting these models and basicly letting my @$$ hang out on the line is to gain advice and criticism which I apreciate it coming in.

If you have ideas, different red schemes, anything like that I want to hear it. So far I've posted 4 painted minis that all fall into 3 different styles of red and 2 different styles of gold. I've never tried a paint scheme this bright before. Last army was dark blues like royal so there wasn't much do do except paint royal then drybrush enchanted and bam they looked great but they were just dark.

Roleplayer wrote:I thought Blood Angels used gold helmets to mark veterans?

Up until 4th edition Blood angels only had Assault veterans which had yellow helmets as per normal assault squads. I'm a big fan of keeping the gold helmets with the honor guard staying with some of the fluff in the Blood Angels novels. My guys are also going to have blacked trimmed shoulder pads as per the old 2nd ed era images. I have a slew of images showing Blood angel squads with black trim and gold imperialis on their chests and I think it looks amazing so I'm going to try and run with that scheme.

As for the white helmets I always felt that it looked amazing as a piece of contrast so I'm probably gonna run with it.

Sounds fair enough to me.

And I always think of the black rimmed armor as their pre-heresy scheme.

Hi Carbine,

Just thought i'd add my 2c, love the paint jobs atm - especially the blades.

if you're struggling with the white, may i suggest building up from codex grey to skull white? i've done this with my model and i'm pretty happy with it:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/292718.page#1539014

Cheers mate, keep up the good work!

Kensei

I'm creating my fourth army now, and they are salamanders.
I'm going on a whim with this army and my assult marines will look like flame/blood/crazy/cool/I guess'ish
I'm using he method I wrote earliers, when i am done with one
I'll add up a pic for you.

Cryb

Here's the first highlight and coat of white on the helmet, need to clean up some of the wash on the white but the highlights really brighten up the armor.

I'm taking a whack at useing the red style given on page 5 but its turning out too bright for my tastes. I'm thinking I need a way to stick with the tone that I got with the vet sgt with the power fist and plasma pistol but I need it to turn out cleaner instead of the dirty look (which I still enjoy)

MajorTom11 wrote:

Darkvoidof40k wrote:Guess I may as well add in something to top off this spree of painting advice.

(haven't tested this, but it looks pretty good from what I've seen)

Gold: 50/50 mix of shining gold and scorched brown, then highlight with pure shining gold.

Alternative to washing with Badab black. ^

I tried it based on the Sgt.Lorenzo Space hulk tutorial, wasn't too impressed, I think it is better to go the traditional route, gold, sepia wash, shiny gold, silver.

Meh. I'm no great painter, and I shall try out both ways with my new army, although the idea I posted was much simpler.

Now, back to the awesomeness of the Blood Angels this dude is churning out.

dont gotta worry about runnin outta sand of there in the sandbox eh? stay frosty

Hey carabine. Things are lookin' great... but I'm not sure about the blue wash on the white helmet. I've done the same thing myself to good effect, but with the red it's kindof out of place. Valejo makes something called a "pale wash"... it's a very dilute grey, but it makes a nice set of shadows on white which you can then drybrush with white to brighten it up.

Here's a decent photo of one of my son's terminators with the pale wash on the head and power fist, then dry brushed over again with white to bring up the volume & highlights a bit.



Just a thought...

Very nice, but where do you get your models from?

The OLD version of Space Hulk, from WAY back in the day!

Alpharius wrote:The OLD version of Space Hulk, from WAY back in the day!

Gotta love sentimism!

OLD as in 1989, that's ancient history!

BTW, Carbine, did you get a case of dusty primer? I cant tell in the pics but looks like the priming may have dried a touch rough? What did you end up doing?

Yeah, yeah... So I've been around for a while. (grin)

I was very skeptical when I first got the pale wash, but on white it worked out pretty well, at least in combination with the silver it works

MajorTom11 wrote:OLD as in 1989, that's ancient history!

BTW, Carbine, did you get a case of dusty primer? I cant tell in the pics but looks like the priming may have dried a touch rough? What did you end up doing?

Armory is all I can get out here and it sometimes has that effect of a gritty texture when it dries. We can't get spraypaint (non gloss) out here and armory is the only kind I could get to ship.

The advancing feel of your army is AWESOME! I also love how you painted the blue lightening effect on the blades. Keep up the good work.

Your kit bashing and conversions are stunning! I just picked this thread up last night and have been looking through the photos again today. Great work. Keep working at the painting and take the advice you've been given here for sure. I've found lots of good tips here and on other blogs for technique. One of my favorites is to wash metallic's with Badab black, it really enhances the weapons and makes them look nicely worn.

Keep up with the updates and the great work!

Hey dudes.

This is an extremely easy and quick way to paint a really good looking, above avrage table top quality mini.

To get the red look bloody and deep, I based with Skull white.
went through the armour with blood red, washed the armour with badab black, and went through the parts thats hit by light.

Now, if you want to take the highlight further, go on with fire orrange on pointy parts, the just keep adding yellow untill you are satizzzzzzfied.

Sorry for the big pic. Really dont know how to scale it down



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Cryb

Hey Carabine, I've watched this blog from the outset for your conversions, absolutely beautiful for the most part.

When it comes down to the painting though are you after the brightness of the 2nd Ed as well, if so I think you would be better off coming from a white basecoat as the black tends to give a darker more sinister effect.

If this is the case you can then ditch the mechrite and simply go from a blood red base coat to an ogryn flesh wash to a blood red highlight to blazing orange highlight and finally a baal red wash.

Sorry I know its another opinion on the painting, lol, but I hope it helps. Keep up the good work and stay safe. God bless.

How's the army coming along?

Piece of advice, don't add yellow, add vomit brown, it prevents the model from looking orange with red shading. Check out my thread, I rencently did a few Red BA termies and you can see the result to expect using this method as opposed to yellow.

Nice red so far though! A very nice tone -

Okay folks I've been back in the states for awhile now and I'm here home and back with a good amount of new work, so for your viewing pleasure I have 3 tactical squads, 2 assault squads, a squad of Death company, a pair of chaplains, my 3rd company captain, a pair of sanguinary priests and a death company dreadnought. I'm working on new models as things work out, Eventual pictures will include my storm raven, land raider, two predators and a baal predator.

Good looking stuff - a tip for the white, use a foundation astronomican base with a watered down black wash over the top. Then highlight with the foundation again and then white. If you use thin coats you can get it very very smooth. There's loads of examples in my P&M blog, the link is in my signature at the bottom.

Good to see someone else struggling with getting spray paints, I'm way less remote (Peru) but can't get decent sprays. I've had to resort to expensive airbrushes, though very pleased with the results and won't be going back to spray ever!. Maybe you could consider this for a smoother basecoat if you can take it over to Afganistan? My compressor and whole brush setup is very portable (<5kg).

Looking forward to seeing some vehicles too. Like the style and mix of helmets and general kitbashing throughout too! Keep it up.

alexneufeld wrote:Good looking stuff - a tip for the white, use a foundation astronomican base with a watered down black wash over the top. Then highlight with the foundation again and then white. If you use thin coats you can get it very very smooth. There's loads of examples in my P&M blog, the link is in my signature at the bottom.

Good to see someone else struggling with getting spray paints, I'm way less remote (Peru) but can't get decent sprays. I've had to resort to expensive airbrushes, though very pleased with the results and won't be going back to spray ever!. Maybe you could consider this for a smoother basecoat if you can take it over to Afganistan? My compressor and whole brush setup is very portable (<5kg).

Looking forward to seeing some vehicles too. Like the style and mix of helmets and general kitbashing throughout too! Keep it up.

The helmets look much better in person, the light in here just sucks, at our FLGS I've gotten compliments about my new helmet painting.

Try thewarstore.com was able to ship armoury primer to afghanistan so you may wanna try them.

The new red coat is meant to look dingy just like the gold does. the whole army is more meant to have a "used" feel to them, rather than be pristine and shiny, I'm tired of seeing marines who look like they havn't seen battle.

Welcome home and welcome back to the forum.

Glad to hear you're back!!!

The army has progressed significantly, good job!

Great conversions, and as ever it's nice to see someone putting some character into their force.

there amazing! and do you even get internet in afgahnistan? lol jokes keep up the good work cant wait to see them painted!

Awesome, great work!

Like how you can see Roleplayer's sig in the background as well!

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Awesome, great work!

Like how you can see Roleplayer's sig in the background as well!

Yeah I'm on dakka getting a post ready for dakka. So dakka inside Dakka, heh trippy aint it.

not sure about the heavy bolters....just don't look comfortable...
A normal heavy bolter with the full backpack regalia looks quite good running, give it a look...
Nice painting. Where is the chaplin's head from?

.

Those models are bloody awesome, but was I the only one expecting them to be wearing turbans?

nice looking

Im heading to KBC soon what part of Afghanistan are you in? Do you find time to assemble and paint over there?

PM me if you like - awesome army - Im starting one myself.

Imperial Monkey wrote:not sure about the heavy bolters....just don't look comfortable...
A normal heavy bolter with the full backpack regalia looks quite good running, give it a look...
Nice painting. Where is the chaplin's head from?

The eventual devastator squads will have full regalia but for the tactical brothers I was kinda leaning torward the m240 feel. The chaplains head is a Chaos warrior bit ou can get separate from Thewarstore.com in it's battlewagon bitz section. I simply cut the lower jaw off to give the helmet it's proper feel.

davij wrote:.

Those models are bloody awesome, but was I the only one expecting them to be wearing turbans?

No you were not, I get this alot it's why the thread name changed from "Afghani Blood Angels" to "Blood Angels all the way from Afghanistan and Bragg"

Cpt. Rusty Hook wrote:nice looking

Thanks, expect more soon.

kaiservonhugal wrote:Im heading to KBC soon what part of Afghanistan are you in? Do you find time to assemble and paint over there?

PM me if you like - awesome army - Im starting one myself.

I was in RC east at FOB Shank, now I'm home at Fort Bragg. Time is in ample supply, safe area and storage as well as lightning are in short supply. Paints, brushes and pieces are all happilly provided by Neil Catapano from Thewarstore.com, I encourage all to visit and spend some time looking over his selection which also now includes Micro Art Studios and Scibor miniatures.

Glad you're home safe mate. BA are looking top notch as always.

I tried to add little things to truely add character to the Force.

Notice Chaplain Rohas' Crozius and how he holds it. The Death Company's chain axes and rare bionics. Bonus points if you can pick out what unit here used to be a tactical sergeant, he's here somewhere else in this thread with a few modifications.

carabine wrote:

Love the Heavy bolter conversions!

Wow! Awesome stuff. If I'm not mistaken the chaplain's head comes from the fantasy warriors of chaos?

Iandroid wrote:Wow! Awesome stuff. If I'm not mistaken the chaplain's head comes from the fantasy warriors of chaos?

Yep, mentioned it a few times still a great bit and I just got a few more from thewarstore.com

carabine wrote:Tonight we have some special treats, Black Library products and sources for my ideas as well as one last surpise.

Love the idea of the assault squad markings. The Tartan Army will love it too, lol . You'll have to give that squad a Scottish sounding name if your going to give them shoulder pads with Saltires on them lol. Seriously, your work is inspirational. Keep it up.