I recently got back into the wargaming hobby and I still love the good old Space Marines WH40k has. My old army (Ultramarines, of all things) is so horribly painted it would probably cause people to stab their own eyes out if shown; which I will spare you of (for now).
In other words, I needed to start with a clean slate.

Enter the Death Ravens.

As said in the title, they're a Raven Guard successor chapter: focussing on covert ops, stealth and generally non-suicidal tactics. Unlike their founding chapter, the Death Ravens focus less on the use of jumppacks, relying mostly on regular Tactical squads. They're also on decent terms with the Inquisition due to the chapter helping them crush the Chaos cults who keep trying to get a foothold in the sector.



So far, I've made a few characters and a couple of footsoldiers:


Ezekiel, the first Scout I painted.


The Scout Sergeant. Still needs a name!



Two Marines from the Tactical squad. These guys don't have the final colour scheme (see the Sergeants for that)


Sergeant Tyrell. A hothead with a bad, bad temper. Leads one of the Tactical squads.


Sergeant Cassius. Also leads a Tactical squad.


Chaplain Apollon. I'm really proud of this model.


'The Mountain'. Part of the Chapter Master's honour guard. Also plays a part in the 'darker' pages of the Chapter...

Seeing how long this post has already become, I'm not sure how I'll continue. So I'll ask you.

Would you rather like to see 'character highlights', with more information about who they are in the story and their position in the Chapter, with more detailed pictures per model;
Or posts like this, with short info on multiple characters and more explanations in the gallery?
Please let me know!

Here's the next bunch of Death Ravens I painted.
I've decided to go for a desert theme for the basing, using the 'Agrellan Earth' paint to achieve a desirable effect. I'd like to try to work some bedouin/desert tribe symbolism in there, but I haven't found good material yet. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them

On to the models then.


Meet "The Mountain".
He's part of the Chapter Master's Honour Guard. Not that you'll really notice, he tends to jump straight into the fighting, casually throwing aside both strategy and his orders. He's also constantly in a bad mood (this might be because half his face is made of bionics after he got himself seperated and severely injured) and looks down on everyone below him. His relation with the Chapter Master can be called 'strained' at best, so you can imagine what it's like to work with this guy as a normal Marine.


Following the chain of command, let's head over to the Elites.
This lad is an old Terminator model which used to sport the Ultramarines' colour scheme; after a good bath in some brake fluid, he was ready for a new (and better) paintjob. I've got the rest of his squad de-painted as well, so he won't be alone for long.


Next up, the Vehicles section.
My Ultramarines army also sported three bikers: one Chaplain, one bike with a side-cart on it and a regular biker. Again, a nice bath in brake fluid cured him of his incredibly poor paint job and left him available for the new colour scheme.
This one was fun to work on. I bought a drybrush not too long ago and I got good use out of it here. After finishing the paintjob, I tried to dirty it up a bit to fit with the desert theme I'm going for.
I think it worked out reasonably well.


Lastly, a Marine for the Tactical Squad. I painted the shoulder pads, the backpack and his gun seperately, so I could access all areas more easily.
Also, Corvus helmets are definitly my favorite.

That's all I got for now, if you have any suggestions/advice/tips, please let me know

Nice models so far, maybe try some highlighting. I really like the chaplain but with most codex following chapter their chaplains Armour is completely black except the face and shoulder pads.

 wolfmaster1234 wrote:
Nice models so far, maybe try some highlighting. I really like the chaplain but with most codex following chapter their chaplains Armour is completely black except the face and shoulder pads.

You're right about the Chaplains wearing black armour, and I've been thinking about a way to fix that little issue. I could do it the easy way, namely just saying the Chapter doesn't follow the codex entirely; or I could just re-paint his armour. Thing is, if I'm going to repaint him, I'm considering swapping his sword for a Crozius (my Chaplain-on-a-Bike has one he's not planning on using) but that would require me to chop his current hand off.

Or, alternatively, I could dub him the 'Master of the Rites' for the Chapter fluff and use him as a Chaplain in-game?

I wouldn't worry about in the end you should have it how you want it. I think the sword whether true to his wargear or not, looks cool and suits the model.

So I found some more time to paint some models, as well some time to revisit the first two marines.

Again, I'll follow the chain of command, this time starting with... Terminators!


A Terminator Captain, armed with a stormbolter and a power sword. Also features a standard for a nice banner, which I'm still trying to get ideas for...


Next up, Multi-Melta-wielding Terminator. Because having an oversized power fist to smack people around with wasn't quite overkill enough.


Down the chain of command, we find ourselves with the Infantry again.
This guy was one of the first two marines I painted in this colour scheme, and both of them have been serving me as testers for whatever insanity I come up next with.
They got the honor of testing the Agrellan Earth for their base and the drybrushing to make the marines suit their bases' environment. Now they've been test subjects of my freehanding skills, for better or worse.
I went for an orange detail, as it stands out nicely against the purple. Also, flames. The Salamanders say hi.


The second marine marks the end of this update.
Here, I tried freehanding the Chapter's icon, namely a raven with a skull in the middle (like the Blood Ravens' one, only a bit different). I couldn't fit the raven's head and tail on the shoulder pad, as it was partially obscured by the backpack. Still, it turned out better than expected, considering this is my first try at doing this sort of thing.

That's all I have for you right now, please let me know what you think!

More Death Ravens reporting for duty

The chain of command shall be respected in this post, as per usual.


We're starting off with HQ this time, namely with Force Commander Tullius.
As most of you will notice, this is a SM veteran with a small conversion done to his arm; rather than sporting a powerfist pointing to...somewhere, he now sports a powerfist clenched like he's about to punch someone through a wall. The look of absolute disgust on his face is because he just spotted some foul xenos, not because painting faces is something I suck at, honest.

Also, pink powerfists are the best powerfists.


Down the chain of command, we find ourselves among the Elites again. This guy is the last of my Terminators, which means I now have a full squad of Terminators ready for action I'm probably going to touch up the base a bit on these guys, right now it's just Agrellan Earth and a drybrush of Screaming Skull.


And last but certainly not least, the Terminator captain has received a nice banner.
I really like the purple-black checkers, I think I'll use those some more whenever I get the chance

That's all I have for now, if anyone has some tips about painting checkered patterns or about Space Marine painting in general, let me know

Heya Ezra, this is some really nice stuff you have here, I do like the purple and black combination alot, suitably grim without being as monotonous as the RG pure black,

The freehand shoulders (flames and winged skull) are lovely, i'm really impressed, same with the banner? If that was free hand as well that is really impressive, getting the checks that uniform must have taken an age!

Only thing i might comment on is that for the bases if you base them brown before you apply the cracking effect it will give a lot more natural effect of darker brown under the lighter cracked layer, that said the black has more contrast, but suggests to me that the drop below the cracks is quite deep and dark!

As I say though, really nice stuff, keep it up. Will keep an eye on this.

Awesome stuff Ezra! Always good to see some custom chapters

And as suggested before, they could use some highlights. But otherwise, nice!

@J-paint The banner was made with Adobe Illustrator, I can only dream of freehanding stuff like that
As for the bases, I'll experiment some more with the colours and texture of the base, getting the right desert/cracked mud effect is pretty high on my painting checklist at the moment

@Leviathus I'd love to get highlights on these, thing is I have no idea where exactly to put them

Thanks for the kind words!

You could always of course edge highlight them as GW does. Just go along the edges of the armour with a lighter colour. But alway imagine where the light comes from, do you want it to come from above then give the upper parts of the armour a highlight etc. Perhaps its best to grab a mini and use it as your test model and test things out before you do it in earnest

That said, and just playing devils advocate here, that's assuming you want to go for GW's version of edge highlighting, not that its bad, just there are alternatives like zenithal highlighting where you paint any surfaces facing 'up' or towards the light slightly lighter than those parts that are facing away from the light. Or maybe even a wash will give you a bit more depth? Assuming you want to try ofc, they look nice as they are if you are happy.

Also, adobe! very clever indeed, I may have to borrow that idea!

Oh GWs version is definitely not the best or prettiest way. But perhaps one of the easy ways I guess? But that zenithal highlighting looks stellar! Anyway, its all up to you Ezra. Keep on coming with the good stuff!

And I'd love to see more character info too!

[INCOMING TRANSMISSION]

GREETINGS PATHETIC FOLLOWERS OF THE CORPSE-EMPEROR, I AM MILO THE ABYSMAL, GLORIOUS SERVANT OF THE POWERS ABOVE. I HAVE COME TO INFORM YOU OF YOUR IMMINENT DEMISE. BEHOLD OUR FORCES, AND SHRIVEL IN FEAR!


DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THEIR CALM POSTURE: OUR GROUND FORCES WILL BE A VITAL INSTRUMENT OF YOUR TOTAL ANNIHILATION. THEY HAVE RECEIVED THE BLESSINGS OF NURGLE, AND THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS IS WITHOUT PEER. THEIR SPECIALLY-CRAFTED 'VULTURE' PATTERN HELMETS WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN WITH FEAR, AND WILL PROTECT THEM OF THE DEADLY GASSES WE WILL USE AGAINST YOU.


BEHOLD, OUR MIGHTY WARMACHINE. WE HAVE NAMED HIM SISYPHUS, FOR HIS TRIALS ARE MANY AND HIS REWARDS ARE LITTLE. HE ONCE WAS A PITIFUL MARINE WHO QUESTIONED THE POWERS OF THE DARK GODS. AS YOU SEE, THE GODS HAVE PUNISHED HIM FOR HIS SINS, AS THEY WILL YOU.

AS YOU SEE, YOU STAND POWERLESS AGAINST OUR GLORIOUS WARMACHINE. SOON WE WILL COVER YOUR ENTIRE WORLD IN DEADLY MISTS OF THE MOST POTENT BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS. WE WILL ALL ASCEND FROM THE MOUNTAIN OF YOUR CORPSES!

GLORY TO CHAOS! GLORY TO THE PURGE! HAHAAHAAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAA-

[TRANSMISSION END]

Force Commander Tullius: "...What the hell did I just read?"

As you see, I have recently acquired some Chaos models, which I intend to make into arch-enemies of the Death Ravens. A splinter group from the warband 'The Purge' led by a charismatic psychopath (guess who?) will be causing trouble of all kinds in the Lacrima System, which the Death Ravens will inevitably have to clean up. It will involve biological weapons. LOTS of biological weapons.

I've also worked on my Death Ravens a bit, finishing up the last two marines of my Tactical squad. They have yet to be based, as I'm still experimenting with... various... 'things' coughHellbrutecough. I've also taken a group shot of the two finished squads, as well as some pictures of a bunker I made as scenery.


The Terminators' group photo. If I finally make up my mind about how I'm going to be basing my army, I'll update these guys accordingly.


The Tactical Squads group photo. These models were posed back in the times when I thought that a Marine who wasn't posed as shooting couldn't shoot.
Which is probably what every Commissar would say if wargaming was still a thing in the year 40.000


A close-up of the fourth marine. You'll have to forgive the poorer quality, both my camera and Photoshop are working against me, I swear. Or it's Tzeentch going at it again, who knows.


Aaand the final Marine of the Tactical squad.

Lastly, something not entirely Death Ravens-related: Bunker 23, a small bunker I made as scenery for my models.



That's all I have for now, hope you enjoy!

Oh, and I haven't tried highlighting yet, but I'll look into the tips you guys have given me. Also, character info will be provided somewhere in the near future, once I've finally decided what themes my chapter has

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:
[[i]
The Tactical Squads group photo. These models were posed back in the times when I thought that a Marine who wasn't posed as shooting couldn't shoot.

My Blood Angels Tactical Squad look like distracted bunch of morons As if the sergeant says: "There's the enemy" and then everyone goes "Where?! Where?!!!" *shrug* they look less static that way though

Nice scenery you've got there btw. What materials did you use? Some kind of cardboard?

 Leviathus wrote:

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:
[[i]
The Tactical Squads group photo. These models were posed back in the times when I thought that a Marine who wasn't posed as shooting couldn't shoot.

My Blood Angels Tactical Squad look like distracted bunch of morons As if the sergeant says: "There's the enemy" and then everyone goes "Where?! Where?!!!" *shrug* they look less static that way though :

Guess we now know why the Sanguinor has to show up to fix things every time then

Nice scenery you've got there btw. What materials did you use? Some kind of cardboard?

I used grey cardboard of 1 and 2mm and a lot of patience

Hmm would love to do my own scenery one day. I was thinking about plasticard but cardboard will suffice I guess. And it's cheaper...?

If you can find it somewhere, I'd go with plasticard, you'll get more use out of it, as you can use the stuff for conversions as well

I use grey cardboard because I have an abundance of the stuff lying around, and because I haven't been able to find plasticard anywhere so far (well, except for the internet)

I've finally gotten down to writing down some of the backstory of my Chapter, the first part focussing on the Lacrima system and the Death Raven's homeworld, Charys.

As this is a P&M Blog, I made a separate thread in the Dakka Fiction category, which you can find through my profile or via this link:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/613444.page#7171484

Fortunately, my productivity didn't stop at writing stuff down in Notepad; I've also painted an Imperial Guardsman serving as a PDF trooper on Charys.
I have around 10 of these guys lying around, covered in Cadia's colors (although Cadia would be ashamed to admit that). I wanted to tie them in a bit with the Desert theme, so I went for a Brown-Beige pattern.



I also experimented on the base some more: the Guardsman sports the (almost-) final basing. It's a combination of Agrellan Earth, Armageddon Dust, a wash with Seraphim Sepia and two drybrushings of Tallarn Sand and Screaming Skull.

And here's a picture of some of the things I've tried for the base.


More info available on the gallery page of the picture.

That's all I have for now, thanks for stopping by

Like the guardsman and the bases! Perhaps some tufts of dead grass here and there?

I have a small pack of suitable tufts, I just didn't think of placing them on my test bases

Those bases are very nice, might try using multiple texture paints on one base my self. i think on the final bases you should definitely use tufts of dead grass that would make them look just that bit more epic.

I recently went to the local gaming store to pick up some more paints, and I noticed all Hordes, Warmachine and Dystopian Wars stuff being -50% off. Of course, I couldn't keep my hands off of them, which resulted in me ending up with a Dystopian Wars 'Metzger' and one Saxon Orrik from Hordes.
The Metzger is about the most awesome thing I've seen in a long time (seriously, I love this thing already), and I intend to convert it to a custom Contemptor pattern Dreadnought. I'm mainly going to replace its arms, as the original model has quite slim ones, and that just doesn't look WH40k-like. Big guns it is!

Now I picked up the Saxon Orrik model because he has a nice desert theme going for him. He looks a lot like a Tallarn soldier, whilst still looking like an important guy (probably has to do with his majestic cloak). In other words, I couldn't wait to paint this guy.


I originally planned to replace his rifle with a lasgun, but I couldn't find a good arm replacement, so I left the original one where it was.
His name is Suleyman Al-Khalid, and he's the (military) leader of the Imperial forces on Charys. His backstory is on the gallery page, I'm not sure if I should post those here as well (as this is a P&M blog, after all).
Regardless, painting him was quite fun. I've mainly used washes for this, namely Seraphim Sepia and Agrax Earthshade. This made doing his cloak a lot easier, and gave good results as well.


A back view of the cloak. Also, it is simply fabulous.


And here we have a little comparison between the two model ranges. I've tried to match the colours between the two guys as much as I could, so they still look like they're part of the same team.

I went a little bit overboard on my Screaming skull drybrush, which made the base a little too white for my taste. The base itself is made from Green stuff, which covered the slit in the base (as this is a metal model which requires one). Although it took much fiddling, it looks a bit more like he's standing in the sand and not just on it. The skull also sinks a bit into the sand, which I personally like.

Sadly that's all I have for you today, next time I'll have some actual Death Ravens to show

I finally managed to get some free time again (combining academic studies with painting miniatures doesn't work too well I'm afraid), so I've got some Death Ravens to show you!

...or one, to be precise.

Technically one and a half, but-

*ahem*

Right, on to the new stuff then.


This is the 'half' part of the 'one-and-a-half' new Death Ravens, as I finished this model a while ago (two posts ago no less).
However, as you might have noticed, he's sporting some nifty freehanding. I think I've finally got a good design going for my Chapter, and this is my first attempt at actually painting it.
It took quite some time, but I think the result makes up for that.


Next up is the actually new addition to my forces, namely a Terminator Sergeant, who will lead the second squad (once I get those other guys assembled and painted).
He's still very much 'Work in Progress', right now he only has the base colour of the purple on him. The reason he isn't finished yet is his base.


I'm a bit stuck with the base, to be honest. I can't help but feel something is missing (and it's certainly not skulls). I'm also quite unsure about how the colours of my terminator will contrast with the ones of the base, so if anyone has any suggestions on how I could 'fix' this little issue, it'd be much appreciated

That's all I've got for you now, next update I hope I'll have a bit more to show

Nice freehanding Ezra! And I love the icon design!

As for the base, I think you should finish the termie first then tweak the base. Then you'll have a better look on the whole picture methinks. But, good to see some updates!

So I finished the Terminator first, as I couldn't figure out what to do with the base

Behold his glorious looks!


The man with the plan.
Spoiler warning: the plan is to kick your ass.


I really like hazard stripes, I think they work well with the dark and broody colours of the Chapter.


I really enjoy painting these badges (even though they take ridiculous amounts of time to get right), my only niggle is that I have to swap one of the shoulder pads' colours to purple instead of black, ruining the symmetry

That's all I have for now, hopefully I'll be able to post a bigger update in the coming weeks

He was tired. It had taken him much more time and effort than he had expected, but it was finally over. For now, at least.
The Astartes walked slowly across the battlefield. How many had he slain today, he wondered, as he stared into the lidless eyes of a cultist, lying dead amongst his comrades. So many lives lost, and for what?
For the promise of power? Pathetic.
His eyes drifted across the blasted landscape, looking for nothing in particular yet still finding exactly the source of his anger. A helmet lying in the dirt. As he walked over to it, he stared in disgust at the remains of his former brothers, their bodies eviscerated in the gruelling combat that had taken place not too long ago. He had sent them all to their doom. Every kill registered in his mind, as if some cruel sense of guilt carved it into his memory every time he closed his eyes.
When he reached the helmet, he paused. He stared into the twisted expression, the gruesome smile that had been wrought upon the shape of the helmet, almost as if it were mocking him. Once again, he felt the pain of betrayal ignite the fires of hate inside him. His brothers, his Legion, had betrayed the Emperor. They had carved a bloody path through the galaxy, only to turn around with their tails between their legs when Horus was slain by the Emperor's hand. He lifted one of his feet and crushed the helmet in one strike. "Your souls are with your gods now, traitors", he spoke to the ruined landscape.
"I hope it was worth it."




A bit of variety won't hurt, right?

I experimented with a new colour scheme today, trying to capture a bit of an Iron Warriors feel. Fluff-wise, I'm not sure what to do with him.
Originally, he was supposed to be of the 2nd Legion, one of the 'missing' legions, but I think a loyalist/renegade marine of the Iron Warriors might be more interesting to write about (as you can hopefully see in the text above).

Any thoughts?

I've always been a stickler for metallic colour schemes! Looking good so far (picture is a wee bit dark though).

 Leviathus wrote:
I've always been a stickler for metallic colour schemes! Looking good so far (picture is a wee bit dark though).

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only darkness

All jokes aside, it was late when I snapped the pics of this guy, and the best lightsource was my desk lamp

I like how the colour scheme finally came out, I'd imagined the grey to be much darker but I suppose it works like this too

Also, what do you think of his backstory? It's the first time I've written a more personal story about one of my Marines, it's not Black Library material but I hope it was still fun to read

Doing great work so far. Really nice and crisp colours. Keep it up.

RBeijers wrote:
Doing great work so far. Really nice and crisp colours. Keep it up.

Thank you

Oh dear, it's been an awfully long time since I updated this thread

I haven't really been able to work much on my Space Marines lately, mostly due to real life stuff and my Orks claiming their share of the painting time (they have their own thread now, be sure to check it out )

However, my most recent Ebay visit has left the Death Ravens with a few more toys they will (hopefully) soon use against their foes....

So lets have a look, shall we?

First up is an old predator model, not sure what year it's from, I personally think it's pretty cool (even a bit cooler than the regular Predator)



To be honest, I actually like the colour scheme it currently has, although it's lacking a bit in detail. What mainly prevents me from directly repainting it is that I'm afraid the tank would be far too dark in colours to really show off the sculpt. Ideas, anyone?

Secondly, I got a Furioso dreadnought, which is one of the most fun kits I've worked with so far. The thing has (sadly) been claimed by my Orks, who have turned it into a Deff Dread; as you can see here:


(there's two more pictures of it on the Ork thread)

Now the kit comes with 4 arms, as it has options for a Death Company dread, a Librarian one and a vanilla one. The Orks claimed the cannon thing and one of the Talons, which leaves me with one Blood Talon/Claw arm and one that holds the Librarian's Power Weapon.

As some of you might remember, I purchased a Metzger from Dystopian Wars a while ago. In case you're not familiar with the model, it's just the most awesome thing since sliced bread.



Giant Prussian Robot wearing a Pickelhaube. Awesome.

There's only one gripe I have with this model, namely its arms. They just look a bit too slender in my opinion, so I was stuck with an awesome mech with no suitable arms.

Until now, that is.

So I'm planning on mounting those spare dreadnought arms on this model, hopefully creating the awesome thing I have in mind. It'll serve as a relic/venerable dreadnought for the Death Ravens, sporting the chapter's icon on its chest (if I can get that painted, that is).

That, however, still leaves me with one problem; the base. The Furioso came with one, but I've had to spend it on the Deff dread, so I'm a bit stuck again. If anyone knows a good way to obtain/make a suitable dreadnought base, let me know!

That's about it for now, I'll try to get some more updates out soon (or at least not with one-month intervals)

Awesome new toys! Perhaps you could paint the red parts of the predator purple like your Death Ravens and leave the rest as is (with some decals to make it look less bare or perhaps some weathering?)

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:

Secondly, I got a Furioso dreadnought, which is one of the most fun kits I've worked with so far. The thing has (sadly) been claimed by my Orks, who have turned it into a Deff Dread; as you can see here:


(there's two more pictures of it on the Ork thread)

"You will be avenged brother!"
"Zog off beakie! Diz dread is ded stompy! Da Orkses are da best! Waaagh!!"
Welp, my Blood Angels loath it but my Orks think it's great and I do too!

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:

As some of you might remember, I purchased a Metzger from Dystopian Wars a while ago. In case you're not familiar with the model, it's just the most awesome thing since sliced bread.



Giant Prussian Robot wearing a Pickelhaube. Awesome.

There's only one gripe I have with this model, namely its arms. They just look a bit too slender in my opinion, so I was stuck with an awesome mech with no suitable arms.

Until now, that is.

So I'm planning on mounting those spare dreadnought arms on this model, hopefully creating the awesome thing I have in mind. It'll serve as a relic/venerable dreadnought for the Death Ravens, sporting the chapter's icon on its chest (if I can get that painted, that is).

That, however, still leaves me with one problem; the base. The Furioso came with one, but I've had to spend it on the Deff dread, so I'm a bit stuck again. If anyone knows a good way to obtain/make a suitable dreadnought base, let me know!

That's about it for now, I'll try to get some more updates out soon (or at least not with one-month intervals)

That thing is fantastic! How big is it? Roughly the same size as a dreadnought? Very curious how it's gonna turn out!

You can always look at Bitz sites for bases. Bitzarium has one: http://www.bitzarium.com/en/108-warhammer-miniatures-bases. I haven't ordered there yet so I don't know how the service is (I normally get bits from BitzBox but he doesn't have the dread base).

 Leviathus wrote:
Awesome new toys! Perhaps you could paint the red parts of the predator purple like your Death Ravens and leave the rest as is (with some decals to make it look less bare or perhaps some weathering?)

That's a good idea for that Predator I could also test the colour scheme on my old SM vehicles, if I can get their horrible Ultramarines paintjob removed that is

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:

Secondly, I got a Furioso dreadnought, which is one of the most fun kits I've worked with so far. The thing has (sadly) been claimed by my Orks, who have turned it into a Deff Dread; as you can see here:


(there's two more pictures of it on the Ork thread)

"You will be avenged brother!"
"Zog off beakie! Diz dread is ded stompy! Da Orkses are da best! Waaagh!!"
Welp, my Blood Angels loath it but my Orks think it's great and I do too!

As much as I love working on my Ork army, I decided I wanted to paint something completely different today. So I sat down with an old friend I dug up a while ago, namely a Land Speeder that once belonged to the Ultramarines.

Sadly my construction skills weren't up to much back when I put this thing together (although I vividly remember the construction process to be diabolical to begin with), so the Speeder is stuck with a rather large split between its top and bottom half.

But anyway, it took quite a while to get it fully painted, it's not 100% finished at this point (I think I might add some highlighting to the edges of the armour, like I'd done with the Attack Bike), but I thought it was post-worthy


It's currently mounted on a smaller flyer base (I nicked one from my Tau drones), as I can't find the original anywhere




I'm not sure where I'd put the chapter icon, maybe just one on the pilot's shoulder pad?




Say cheese, guys!


And here's the Land Speeder with some ground troops.

That's all I have for now, let me know what you think

Nicely done Ez! The colour scheme really works on the land speeder! I also have one laying around for my Astral Claws, looks like real fun to paint!

Thank you!
The model is a bit of a time-sink though, so make sure you're prepared for more than just a couple of hours of painting

I was in the mood for some character building yesterday, so I pulled out my Terminator kits and started my attempt at creating a suitable Chapter Master for the Death Ravens.

Now, bear in mind, the Death Ravens' combat doctrine is focused around using stealth where possible and applying brute force effectively when necessary, so they're not really into lots of blinged out wargear; they prefer their weapons and armour to be functional, and more importantly, 'discreet' to any degree possible until the time is right.

Grand Master Levi, Lord of Charys and Overseer of the Lacrima System, is a good example of this doctrine in action. His natural affinity for stealth is contrasted by the absolute mayhem he unleashes the moment combat starts. More than one foe has died with a perplexed expression on their face, the last thing they see a thunder hammer descending on them from the shadows.










Forward, brothers! Let the enemy know their hour has come!

This was a pretty simple construction job, I didn't want to add too much bling on him, so I kept his armour mostly unmodified. The one thing I did change were his shoulder pads, I replaced them with some dreadnought arm-plates, inspired by a piece of artwork I found in my old SM codex. Gives him a nice authoritarian feel I think

Also, he doesn't need a Storm Shield because the powers of his almighty beard are sufficient to stop even the heaviest of bolter fire

I hope I can paint him as soon as possible, as my time is bound to be absorbed by real life stuff sooner than I would want it to...

That's all I have for now, thanks for stopping by

Awesome stuff! I really like the shoulderpads idea suits him very well! Where's his head from? The Sternguard veterans kit?

Head's from the Sternguard kit indeed, long live glorious old guys

And the shoulder pads really give it a little extra, don't they
They remind me of one of those older pattern Terminator armours, Justaerin I think? Could be wrong though

I found some more time to build another character of the Death Ravens, this time I'm introducing you to a little secret the Death Ravens intend to keep hidden....

"The False Prophet", once the Chief Librarian of the Death Ravens. Although his name has been thoroughly erased from the chapter's history, his legacy has not yet been forgotten.
He was a noble, proud warrior, his psychic powers unmatched by any in the chapter and his wisdom guiding the younger members to greatness. Even as many Astartes remain uneasy around those gifted with psychic potential, the Death Ravens embraced the Librarium, making it a center for wisdom and knowledge.

Perhaps that is why they suspected so little when the visions came.

After a particularly grave defeat against the rebels on Ghyron, the Chief Librarian was haunted by strange dreams. He saw his chapter turned to dust, obliterated, their names erased from the Index Astartes, every last one of his brothers slaughtered mercilessly. The hellish visions went on for 9 days, until the Emperor himself appeared in his dreams. The Emperor made it clear that what the Librarian had seen the past days were the chapter's future if they did not change their ways in time. He would show the Librarian how to do so, if he pledged to follow his instructions without doubt and, more importantly, share this secret with no-one. The Chief Librarian, desperate to prevent his chapter's coming end, agreed.

//error: Librarium Records Compromised
//shutdown imminent

(I'll finish the fluff once I've got him painted, stay tuned )











This was a pretty fun build, most of the parts are from the Chaos Terminator Lord (an awesome kit by the way), with added parts from the Sternguard (staff icon), the Grey Knights (head) and regular Chaos Terminators (lightning claw). Oh, and a Loyalist Terminator's shoulder pad.

I might go back and trim some of the spikes, I think he looks a bit too evil atm - thoughts?


That's all I have for now, thanks for stopping by

His armour is indeed a bit evil looking, just trim the spikes, chaosy signs on his butt plate and slap some aquilas on and He'll look fine
I also think he needs a banner on top. I keep thinking he's missing something. But that entirely up to you of course Anyway, I think he looks really cool! A character to be proud of

Hello again everyone, it's time for a little update on the Death Ravens.

After a couple of long discussions and psychic duels, the Chief Librarian has agreed to let me trim the spiky bits off of him
Now he looks sufficiently less evil for my taste (I'm leaving the other decorations on, the arrows can serve as Librarian lightning bolt symbols and the decoration on his greaves can be seen as a reminder of a demon he killed).

This is how he looks now:




And here he is next to a new addition to the Lacrima system, namely Lieutenant Jenkins!


There are many things the Imperial Guard prepares you for. Unfortunately for Lieutenant Jenkins, having your Valkyrie shot out of the air and most of your allies killed after crash-landing deep into enemy territory is not one of those things. He'd been forced to drop his lasgun in the few seconds after he'd staggered out of the wreck of what once was his transport, the cultists shoddy aim giving him just enough time to dive into cover. Fortunately, he managed to land on his commanding officer, who was -apart from very dead- the owner of a shiny chainsword. Something clicked in the young troopers mind, and as the wannabe Khornates amongst the cultists charged his position, they themselves were charged by a madman swinging a much bigger stick.

Now Lt Jenkins roams the battlefield, panicking, confused and somehow incredibly successful with his new weapon.







A regular human being for once, even if he is posed rather awkwardly (just imagine him running away in panic from a mob of angry cultists, that's what he looks like to me)
I managed to not mess up his face for a change, even managed to give him some eyes while I was at it
I still have to base him, I think he'll get a grassy base like my Orks.

Lastly, I found a competition I'm thinking of joining, namely this one:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/637582.page

Now I'm not the best painter out there, nor the fastest, but I think it'd be fun to enter this competition with my Chief Librarian or my Chapter Master. Time's a bit short these days though, so I'm not even sure I'd be able to get it done in one month. But tell me, which one would you guys like to see painted first? The Master of the Librarium or the Big Boss himself?

That's all I have for you today, thanks for stopping by!

Hello again everyone, it's time for another update on the Death Ravens, this time featuring the Big Boss himself

Introducing...

Chapter Master Levi, in his (semi-) painted goodness!




The man. The legend.




The Death Ravens wear hazard-striped cables on their backs to give the enemy a chance to see them before they die.
Most of them don't.

Those who do, are usually found dead with their eyes removed.


Happy bunch, those Death Ravens.


He just spotted some heretics. And he is not amused.

So I finally got around to painting this awesome guy, I'm really happy with the way he turned out; the face looks actually half-decent for once, thanks to a shiny new detail brush I bought a while ago Still got to do the base, which I think I'll do when I do the Chief Librarian's one, as I'm going to try to make a little diorama out of the pair (as part of the Monthly Painting competition)

Next up, some more freehanding experiments. I wanted to test some squad markings and scrollwork, so I took some of my older models (and the first two Death Ravens; Emperor, those guys have endured pretty much every test I did on them, which is rather impressive) and painted away!


Here's an old Ultramarine and an equally-old Raven Guard-like Marine. The scrollwork isn't really working too well in my opinion, I'll have to look up some more reference material before trying that on my Death Ravens.


Tactical Marine insignia turned out great though, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be


And here's the Tactical marking on two Death Ravens.


I also took some time to fix their Sergeant's eyes, as they were comically large previously. Took me a while to get it right, my detail brush is already wearing out I'm afraid


And here's a gratuitous group shot of the bunch

That's all I have for you right now, thanks for stopping by!

Hello everyone, I found some more time to test my basing method.

Here's Squad Antioch, they're still work-in-progress (still have some details to finish up),






These last two already had sand applied to their base, which prevented the Agrellan Earth from forming decent cracks. They do look more like sand though, so I'm a bit torn between the two options. Thoughts?




And here's a little sneak peak at the Librarian I'm working on for the Monthly Painting Competition:





I took a bit of inspiration from the Death Ravens' parent chapter for the depiction of Librarians, the Raven Guard just have one shoulder pad painted dark blue to identify their psyker brethren; so I figured that would work here as well

That's all I have for now, thanks for stopping by!

Nice updates Ezra! The tactical markings look very good. As for the bases, I think I like them both. You can use them both for some variation. Not every patch of ground is cracked and some patches are more sandy then others.

The characters look awesome! I'm really curious how the libby's gonna turn out.

Thanks Levi!

Speaking of the Librarian....

Introducing: the Chief Librarian, Master of the Librarium!









So that's one half of my entry in the Monthly Painting competition done, the Chapter Master's base is still work-in-progress, but we're getting there

I also got some more bases done, I'm still experimenting with the Armageddon Dust - Agrellan Earth ratio, so far it seems to be working out


Comments and suggestions are always welcome, and thanks for stopping by!

The libby is awesome! And he's not that evil looking what bitz did you use for his staff?

Thank you! Glad to hear he passed the 'not-completely-evil' test

His staff is only two bits really, one being the staff from the Chaos Terminator Lord kit with the icon clipped off, and the other is one of the icons of the Sternguard kit which I glued on top of it

Also, here's a little something I made yesterday evening, when I sat down to finish the base of the Chapter Master...

...somehow I ended up with a hired gun who's working for the Inquisition at the moment





A combination of an WHFB Empire model, some old IG arms and equipment and some shifty Greenstuff work, this guy might be the start of a small Inq28 warband!

Awesome! It's very inspirational to see people on Dakka working on their Inq28 stuff! Must resist the urge to buy stuff and start building Inq28!!! (I'm saving me money for a small AdMech allied force )

Hello everyone, here's another update on the Death Ravens (and a little something else)

I finally got the Chapter Master and the Chief Librarian fully done, and got some decent pictures of them as well (I had to lighten the pics in Photoshop though, screw the weather here)

Behold, the Masters of the Death Ravens!



-Chapter Master-






-Chief Librarian-






-Standoff!-


You can picture this scene playing out like Metal Gear Solid 4's ending.

....aaaaand I got another Inq28 character done. I just can't help myself, I swear!

This one's a Scum/Mutant character, built from a LotR Goblin King and some Cadian and Catachan arms. I found him somewhere in the pile of old LotR figures I still have in my possession, and looking at his awesome sculpt I just couldn't resist converting him into a crazed mutant for my Inquisitor's retinue.

Here he is, with one of his buddies, the Enforcer.


No-one knows where he got that grenade launcher, all they know is that he has poor trigger discipline.




That's all I have for now, thanks for stopping by!

Maybe I'm missing something, how did you make that Terminator Back banner?

 Matthew wrote:
Maybe I'm missing something, how did you make that Terminator Back banner?

I made it in Adobe Illustrator (based on a sketch I made beforehand), which I then printed on the right size for the banner pole

Ah. I'm guessing this Adobe Illustrator costs?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Why yes it does!

I think there are plenty of free programs that can do the same things as Illustrator, I just use it because I happen to have it

The only thing that really matters is that the program can draw things in vectors as opposed to pixels; working with vectors means you can make it as big or as small as you want without losing the quality of the original drawing

brilliant!!!! I love the fluff and the colors

gummyofallbears wrote:
brilliant!!!! I love the fluff and the colors

Thank you!

Ermagherd, amazeballs. The librarian is just awesome, and the freehands on the tactical squad fill me with envy. (In a good way) Keep it up!

Oh! Look! Purple Spess Mehrens!
Will you be joining Slaanesh soon brother? It feels good!

All jokes aside, I'm loving your modelling skills, and the retro termies and predator are pretty awesome, I have to say. Purple's always a difficult colour to highlight because it's either pink, red or blue; none of which work very well. Might I recommend testing out a little highlighting with skull white, or whatever the hell its is now, as I think it would make a good contrast to the black and purple. Alternatively, you could do lightning effects on their armour plates like the night lords have, just a thought. The faces look great, have you tried any washes on them? I find aggrax earthshade is a must, when I'm not doing pallid zombie flesh. Keep on converting, until you run out of cash, time and brain cells, because other than that there is no limit.

CREEEEEEEEED wrote:Ermagherd, amazeballs. The librarian is just awesome, and the freehands on the tactical squad fill me with envy. (In a good way) Keep it up!

Thank you! I hope to be able to do more complex freehands in the future (I'll master you one day, Assault Squad icon, I swear)

Drakeslayer wrote:Oh! Look! Purple Spess Mehrens!
Will you be joining Slaanesh soon brother? It feels good! .

I FEEL THE WARP OVERTAKING ME.... IT IS A GOOD PAIN.

Also, Tzeentch has already called dibs on the Death Ravens, for what purpose, no-one knows... (maybe I'll paint some Slaanesh CSM some day; I still have some Chaos Terminators lying around...the Flawless Host's colour scheme is pretty cool )

Although some Death Ravens Renegades could sport this colour scheme:

All jokes aside, I'm loving your modelling skills, and the retro termies and predator are pretty awesome, I have to say. Purple's always a difficult colour to highlight because it's either pink, red or blue; none of which work very well. Might I recommend testing out a little highlighting with skull white, or whatever the hell its is now, as I think it would make a good contrast to the black and purple. Alternatively, you could do lightning effects on their armour plates like the night lords have, just a thought. The faces look great, have you tried any washes on them? I find aggrax earthshade is a must, when I'm not doing pallid zombie flesh.

Thank you!

Personally, I like having subtle highlights of pink and dark grey, for the purple and black respectively; I'll definitely give skull white a try though

The faces have been washed with Seraphim Sepia, but I generally leave the faces alone once they look halfway decent, out of fear of fething it up All the tutorials online make it look so easy
How do you paint your pallid zombie flesh by the way? There's a couple of Undead bits from WHFB coming my way, which may or may not end up as Plaguebearers, so I could use some help with that

Keep on converting, until you run out of cash, time and brain cells, because other than that there is no limit.

Haha, will do, my wallet won't be so happy though!

Zombie flesh is dead easy (hur hur). Firstly, you undercoat the whole thing in The Fang. Then you wash it with a suitable colour, depending on what overall tint you want it to have. Green for traditional zombie look; blue or purple for tzeentchian or slaaneshi flesh respectively; red for a meaty, khornate look or just nuln oil. Then you drybrush it all with Fenrisian grey, which will give it your overall pallid zombie colour. (the wash is optional really, it just colours the recesses a little). This generally works with anything, be it chaos, daemons, undead, or even raven guard or iron hands! Anyone with a serious vitamin D deficiency, basically, and in the grim darkness of the 41st millenium, there is no sunlight...

Thank you, I'll give it a try once those Undead bits come 'round

My Death Ravens get their lovely tan from walking on a Desert world in dark colours all day

Hello everyone, it's time for another update on the Death Ravens!

I originally planned to add some more pictures of my Inq28 warband here, but I decided they'd be better off in their own thread, so this one doesn't get derailed too much
Here's the link to the Inq28 thread: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/642832.page; be sure to check it out, the warband received some reinforcements yesterday

Now, progress on the Death Ravens is a bit slow these days, many distractions (and interesting models!) are preventing me from getting many of them painted. At the moment, I've got one Scout in the works, he's nearly finished (still have to do a detail pass and basing), and I've got several guys primed and waiting.

You'd think this would prompt me to continue painting them rather than making more models that will require painting in the future, but no, I went ahead and built some more guys

The first one is an actual Death Raven, a Sternguard Veteran with a Stormbolter no less:


And the second one's a dirty Heretic, a Slaaneshi Terminator:

He'll be sporting the Flawless Hosts colour scheme, I think

I'm considering entering one of these (or both, or the full Sternguard squad) in the new Dakka Monthly Painting Challenge, the theme being 'Veteran'. I think the Slaaneshi Terminator would be more of a challenge, considering I've never painted the scheme before, nor fleshy mutated bits. Thoughts?

That's sadly all I have for you now, thanks for stopping by!

Sexy! You should totally enter that Terminator to the challenge. Protip for awesome looking mutations: Paint them Khorne Red and apply a blue shade. Awesomeness.

Thanks for the tip!

(also, if you got some time to spare, check out the Inq28 thread, I could use some feedback on it )

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:
You'd think this would prompt me to continue painting them rather than making more models that will require painting in the future, but no, I went ahead and built

Story of my life bro Can't seem to stop building new things. expanding the painting list even further

Anyways, nice stuff you've going on here! I think you should enter the competition with the chaos termie as you said yourself, it'll be more of a challenge

*scurries off to the Inq28 thread*

Thank you! I'm going to test the colour scheme on one of those push-fit SM to get a feel of the pinks and purples, already got him primed up

Hello everyone, here's another quick update on the Death Ravens.

As said before, I'm working on a Scout Marine, namely this one:





He isn't finished yet, but he's getting there

I've decided to go and try to finish the Scout squad before I work on any of the other squads, trying to get more squads actually finished and all that jazz There's two scouts left after this one, so I should be able to finish the squad sometime soon.


Here's a little group shot of the Scouts thus far

I'm not sure which squad I'm going to go for next; atm, I've got 3-4 Tactical Marines from the second tac squad, one Devastator with a Multi-Melta and one Assault Sergeant primed and ready to go. Reason I haven't started on the tac squad yet is that I'm not too happy with their poses, I tried getting away from the 'vanilla' poses, but ended up with them nonetheless

Also, I've tested the colour scheme for the Flawless Host Terminator, here's a few pics:






I personally like it this way, it's not too complicated and gives me a nice opportunity to refine my freehanding skills

My ebay orders decided to arrive today as well, so I'm sitting on a small pile of interesting bits, including some zombies, an Ork head and choppa, several mutant arms, some Defiler heads, parts to make one Cadian trooper and some funky other bits Maybe I'll post some pics later.

That's all I have for now, thanks for stopping by!

Awesomesauce! Scouts look great the Flawless colourscheme works pretty good as well! But why did you only paint his legs and shoulderpads?

Oh wow, that is one Flawless Marine...
Get it? Because he... he's a...

Is it strange that I get seriously uncomfortable when chaos marines end up in space marine threads? I think my dedication to the lore rates way up on the "way too seriously" scale. Sorry. Anyway, your models look cool. The paint job is coming along nicely.

Leviathus wrote:Awesomesauce! Scouts look great the Flawless colourscheme works pretty good as well! But why did you only paint his legs and shoulderpads?

Thank you! I only painted the legs and shoulderpad out of laziness, I just needed to get a view of how the colours would look together

Matthew wrote:Oh wow, that is one Flawless Marine...
Get it? Because he... he's a...

Haaaaaaaaaaaaa it's funny because it's heresy

Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Is it strange that I get seriously uncomfortable when chaos marines end up in space marine threads?

I think my dedication to the lore rates way up on the "way too seriously" scale. Sorry. Anyway, your models look cool. The paint job is coming along nicely.

Thank you I'll try to keep the amount of Heresy in this thread down a bit

HERESY!
*BLAM*

Hello everyone, I've got another update on the Death Ravens for you, not many new things but an overview on what the Death Ravens currently have.
But perhaps I should let the Ravens do the talking...

"Tell me, Master Rahman, how is our Chapter faring?"
It was one of the rare occasions where the Chapter Master met with the Master of the Marches, the unending task of the latter consuming most of the noble warrior's time. Master Rahman had been around since the founding of the Chapter, his uncanny ability to coordinate the vast resources circulating in the bowels of the mountain complex invaluable to the Ravens' organisation.
"It goes well", Rahman replied dryly, "Slower than I would like."
Levi chuckled. "Wasn't it you who said patience is a virtue, brother?"
Rahman slapped his pauldron, the gesture a mix of mild annoyance and amusement.
"I just wish our Chapter to be on its feet again, that is all."
"And it will be", Levi replied. "Rebuilding what once was always takes time."
"And our allies' trust? Can that be rebuilt?"
Levi winced at the remark. Trust. Loyalty. These things had been robbed of them too much lately.
"That I do not know, Rahman", he replied wearily. "Only time shall tell."

After that bit of fluff, on to the army itself!

The army in all its glory

The current state of the army. Only primed or assembled figures on display.

HQ
Chapter Master and Chief Librarian

These guys are pretty much finished, not sure what I could add to them. The Chapter master will probably lead one of the Terminator Squads (the Assault one probably, for obvious reasons ).

Elites
Honour Company

The fabled Honour Company of the Death Ravens, the Heroes of Saint Salaberga's Pass. They were the first members of the Chapter to earn Terminator Honours for their heroic actions in the Antillus VII Campaign.

Terminator Squad

This Sergeant is still rather lonely, the rest of his brothers are awaiting assembly I've also got an Assault Terminator Squad that's waiting to be built.

Command Squad

Currently comprises of only the Chaplain and one pissed-off dude. He's probably going to end up as the Company Champion, although I did build a swordmaster-esque character to fit that role already... oops I think I'll add an Apothecary and a Standard bearer to this squad, if I can find the models on the cheap somewhere.

Sternguard

These are actually two squads, one old metal Veteran squad (that has the Force Commander as its Sergeant) and a Sternguard squad, of which I've built only one model so far. The metal squad is still partially Ultramarine, so I'll have to give them a nice bath in some brake fluid, which I sadly don't have at the moment. Not that I don't have anything else to paint

Troops
Combat Squad 1

Squad Antioch, counting 5 heads at the moment. These guys were all reclaimed from the Ultramarines, and some of the first models of the chapter. I'm thinking of adding more members to it, but I'll have to see how many members the second squad ends up with first.

Combat Squad 2

The second Tactical squad, made from a new box. I'm not too happy with all the poses yet, and I'm running low on parts for new recruits (mostly due to mixing and matching bits from the GK kit and the like for my characters), so I might buy another box of em... I could also repaint some more Ultramarine models to bolster the ranks, I'll have to see what the future brings.

Scoutt Squad

The Scouts in their nearly-finished phase. The two last recruits still need their bases finished, and maybe I'll do an overhaul of the first models to tie everything together a bit more (for example, making all the grenades green like on the new ones).

Fast Attack
Assault Squad

The Assault Squad's in a bit of trouble, as they're already one man short due to the tragic demise of brother Münir, who died in the toxic wastes on Sallius V. (as in, my first attempts at stripping paint were....less than successful). Not sure how I'm going to fix that, as I don't exactly have another model to fill the gap. I do have some Heresy-era jumppacks, which I was saving for a Vanguard Veteran squad....

Attack Bike

One lone rider speeds ahead of the army, his bike surging forward, looking for an opening. Few can keep up with Artabas as he effortlessly navigates the battlefield, slipping through the cracks in the enemy's lines and wreaking havoc along the way to victory.
I really like this model, something about the design just speaks to me (or I'm secretly becoming a White Scar, who knows). I've also got one of those bikes with a gunner attached to it, so there's a chance Artabas won't be stalking the plains alone anymore

Land Speeder

This thing was a to paint, but the end result made up for the trouble. Haven't attached the main gun to it though, I'm afraid the metal would tip the model forward too much.

Heavy Support
Devastator Squad

Currently only comprising two guys, the Sergeant (recently returned from service in the Deathwatch) and a guy with a Multi-Melta. I've got a Plasma gunner and a Heavy Bolter in Ultramarine livery as well, so I'm just one man short of a full squad. Maybe I'll steal the Missile Launcher guy from the Tac Squad to fill the gap

Predator

And lastly, the Predator. This guy's probably going to get a repaint, as much as I like the original colours (if anyone knows what colour the brown parts are, let me know!).

Dreadnought: sadly, I haven't found a suitable base for my dread yet, so 'Lucifer' won't be seeing the light of day anytime soon. I can't bring myself to repaint my old Ultramarine dread, that thing's got sentimental value

So there, that's the Death Ravens thus far. Comments and suggestions are always welcome, and thanks for stopping by

Beautiful! I love how your force is coming along! I Especially love the scouts.

Thank you! Any thoughts on that second Tactical Squad? I'm a bit afraid that their poses are too stiff

No, they look awesome! The stiffness may come from... the fact that they are glued together?

... *eye twitches*

It's just that I was looking at other people's SM stuff and saw more varied and interesting poses

Nah, don't worry. They look just as cool as everyone elses.

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:
Any thoughts on that second Tactical Squad? I'm a bit afraid that their poses are too stiff

Tac squads tend to get a wee bit plain due to the "holding mah bolter brah!" pose but yours look fine! You always could through some assault squad legs in the mix. But then the squad will get less coherent methinks. I shouldn't worry too much about it.

I also like the rest of your force! It's nice too see them together

Thanks guys

I've been working on my Flawless Host Terminator some more, he's pretty close to being finished now:








Pics are a bit crappy, I don't have my regular camera at the moment

It's been a lot of fun painting this guy, I'm not used to painting brighter colours, so this was a nice little exercise I'm not sure how I'll do the base though, I'd like to have it a bit more grimdark this time around...burned ground perhaps?

The Dark Gods wanted to have some more followers though, so I started cobbling together the other Terminators. So far, I've got another Slaanesh worshipper and one Khornate in test poses...

First up, a Slaaneshi swordmaster whose sword has merged with his body:


He's probably going to end up as another Flawless Host marine, as I've grown a bit of a taste for the colour scheme

And here's the Khornate, or the resident crazy person of the warband, who's an expert in CQC attacks with his lightning claws. One of his arms was chopped off during a particularly bloody battle, and Khorne favoured him enough to gift him a new one which emulates his beloved lightning claws. He's also completely bonkers, incoherently screaming and raging every second he's awake, which is why the warband sedates him into a coma in between deployments.


I tried to go for a 'Come at me, Loyalists!' pose, the combination of lightning claw and mutant arm just begged for it. His base sports a few 'lost' appendages from his last victims, courtesy of the Undead bits I received recently.

Here he is with the Terminator Lord's cape, as I feel I can't let such an awesome piece of equipment go to waste. It gives a bit of a rogue Space Wolf feel, doesn't it?


And finally, here's a group shot of the trio. The plan is to add a Tzeentch Terminator and a Nurgle one as well, the first being the level-headed leader of the squad while the latter is the calm and durable heavy weapons guy. Colour-scheme wise, I'm not sure; I'd love for all of them to have different colour schemes, like they're just a loose group of survivors, guys who were left behind or lost by their own warband. Thoughts?

That's all I have for now, thanks for stopping by

Looking good! Nice freehanding on the Slaaneshi terminator I think the Khornate crazy guy is my favourite

Thank you!

Any ideas for the Khornate's colour scheme? I'd take a lesser known warband to reinforce the 'abandoned survivors' idea, but all the Khornate warbands seem to look the same

Yeah, they're all red.... let's see... I took a peek at Lexicanum.com.

Some warbands I found interesting and are not entirely red:

- Hounds of Abaddon
- Knights of Blood
- The Sanctified
- Wrath

Not much colour difference... but it's the best I could find atm or just develop your own... or go Red Corsairs! No wait- they are Chaos Undivided... ah well, still red though

I love that freehand, how can anyone be that not-shaky?
Seems like both of us fell to Chaos, eh?

Leviathus wrote:Yeah, they're all red.... let's see... I took a peek at Lexicanum.com.

Some warbands I found interesting and are not entirely red:

- Hounds of Abaddon
- Knights of Blood
- The Sanctified
- Wrath

Not much colour difference... but it's the best I could find atm or just develop your own... or go Red Corsairs! No wait- they are Chaos Undivided... ah well, still red though

Those are some interesting warbands indeed Those 'The Wrath' guys have a pretty sweet colour scheme, I might try that one...

It's also pretty funny how 'the Sanctified' and the 'Knights of Blood' have rather similar-looking colour schemes, must be confusing when those two clash

Matthew wrote:I love that freehand, how can anyone be that not-shaky?
Seems like both of us fell to Chaos, eh?

There are many advantages to joining Chaos, brother.... like painting freehand without shaking all that much! This new tentacle really helps out A LOT, you should totally try it!
- Probably some Emperor's Children marine

In all seriousness, it's quite tedious to get things like that done; a really fine brush and a lot of patience are a must (and another fine brush to repaint the parts you fethed up)

My Chaos deviations are on the rise indeed, maybe I should open another thread for them... (ignore the Orks screaming for attention in the background, for they are no followers of Chaos and THUS UNWORTHY MAGGOTS WHO DESERVE DEATH! GLORY TO CHAOS!)

Hello again everyone, here's another update on my Chaos Terminators (maybe I should get them a separate thread)

I started building the Tzeentchian and the Nurglite, posing those guys went pretty smoothly:

Firstly, the Tzeentchian, who's also the squad leader (being one of the few sane individuals in your warband has its merits).



I went for a 'calm and composed' pose, to reflect his role as leader. While CrazyKhornate and Burnsy the Fleshburner are ripping and burning people apart, he's moving in on the actual objective, making sure that whatever the warband wants dead, captured, or fethed beyond recognition ends up that way.

He's probably going to get the pimp-cape, I feel he deserves it as squad leader. Colourscheme-wise, I'm not sure, gonna have to head down to the Lexicanum for a good Tzeentchian colour scheme... suggestions are always welcome

Next up, the Nurglite Heavy gunner, who doesn't mind chopping people up:


I tried to make him look a bit 'slow and purposeful'-like, as he is a kind of laid back Nurglite. He's fine with playing the support role, lighting up targets with his autocannon so the rest of the squad can move up. He's not in a rush, either; death comes to all, sooner or later.

A good Nurgle paint job should be easy enough, I've got enough greens to get most Nurgle colour schemes done. Which one, however, is another question...

The Slaaneshi swordsman is still in the planning stage, although this pose is a bit better I feel:


Lastly, I assembled most of the Khornate, might give him a few extra skulls though:


He looks a lot better now, those spikes really 'finished' the overall look. The pauldrons helped too, I guess

I swapped his Terminator helmet with a naked head from the Terminator Lord kit, it reminds me of those Butcher's Nails the World Eaters are 'equipped' with; I think it works rather well, actually

A head that shows pure RAGE


And here's the obligatory group shot.

That's all I have for now, comments and suggestions are more than welcome

It feels like a comedy! The muredring Khornate guy, a Nurgle dude who just wants to kill, and that one calm guy who always gets mad at his friends for disturbing him.

The A-Team (or Chaos-Team for that matter) is coming along nicely!

Thanks guys!

I really like the idea of them being a Chaos 'A-Team' I mean, followers from the four Chaos gods being forced to work together, if that isn't a recipe for hilarious disaster I don't know what is

I'll delve deeper into their personal relations to one another in some fluff texts, that'll have to wait until I have them painted though

I'm also thinking of using them as a Kill-team of sort, seeing as I'm not planning on starting another army any time soon (my wallet wishes to live for a while longer, y'know ), which would make their different colour schemes make a bit more sense

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:
Thanks guys!

I really like the idea of them being a Chaos 'A-Team' I mean, followers from the four Chaos gods being forced to work together, if that isn't a recipe for hilarious disaster I don't know what is

I'll delve deeper into their personal relations to one another in some fluff texts, that'll have to wait until I have them painted though

I'm also thinking of using them as a Kill-team of sort, seeing as I'm not planning on starting another army any time soon (my wallet wishes to live for a while longer, y'know ), which would make their different colour schemes make a bit more sense

You need to write a fluff based on these guys.

They'll get their fluff alright, but first I'll have to get 'em painted

Anyway, I glued all of them together, so the squad is now paint-ready (well, primer-ready to be exact). Here's a few pics of the final squad:


Fething badass



The squad leader got the cloak, he looks pretty cool with it I think. Maybe I could run him as a Terminator Lord if I ever run a Chaos army



I changed the Nurglite's pose a bit since last time, the axe is now pointing downwards; makes it look like he's advancing forward more. The pauldrons really bulked him up, he looks ready to take some punishment



The swordsman had a change of heart, and decided to be a rogue Word Bearer instead. I'm not 100% happy with the pose, but it works well enough with the rest of the squad

I also gave the Khornate and the Word Bearer some extra details, both of 'em now carry their helmet on their belt. The Khornate also got another skull on his belt and some shark tooth/tiny knife on a rope thingie.







Now I also had the irresistible urge to make an objective marker of some kind, so I chopped up an old Ultramarine (and put him back together, don't worry) and added some basing materials...


Come get some, filthy Xenos!

I'm thinking of entering the entire squad in the Monthly Painting challenge (even though there's no way in hell I'll get them all painted), it would ensure me actually painting them in a decent time-frame Still not sure on how I'm going to base them, I feel they deserve something special...

That's all I have for now, comments and suggestions are always welcome

Yeah, this is still awesome!

Hey everyone, just a quick little update: I moved my Chaos-related stuf to another thread, which you can find here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/645412.page

Comments and suggestions are always welcome!

What happened to these boys?

They're a bit stuck in limbo I'm afraid, Chaos has been distracting me for a while now...

I'm also thinking of re-booting the Death Ravens somewhat, to make them a bit more interesting to paint and look at (stuff like company markings, squad markings, cool conversions etc.). I have a couple of ideas, I'll post something relevant about them sometime in the future

This is an interesting blog, keep up the good work!