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It's on the way Alpharius, I'll have some time to waste up to the end of the year so there is some painting planned into my calendar.
And making bases.. making a fewustom ones are fun but making 40+ is getting on my nerves. I am seriously concidering buying a few resin bases to mix it up with.
I have been a bit occupied with modelling (some cases of re-modelling) my two tactical squads and the devastator squad.. currently converting two legionnaires with autocannons and it's really tricky to make weapons carried on the shoulder look 'right'.

Well well well, the holidays are over, new madness is on the loose; armed and dangerous and guess what? It's Update Time!

True to form I have been a little impulsive, (when will I EVER learn? ) painting a few assultmarines for the legion about halfway done, the same with a landspeeder typhoon awaiting the final green highlights.
Quite some time has been plowed into another project that I started a while back, quite a while acctually. Since it was mostly in sawed-up, unassembled parts I thought I'd give it a go and finish the damn modelling stage at least.
So yeah, I got that Storm Raven (AKA 'the flying brick') on the releaseday and promptly started ''improving'' the design, a design that lended some inspiration from MajorTom's Stormraven project for his Blood Angels. (''Shamelessly stole and ran away laughing'' is more accurate but it doesn't sound as nice as 'lended' now does it? )
It's mostly done, it needs a little more texture work with plasticard and some gap-filling but otherwise I am quite satisfied. I am a firm beliver in the thesis that the dreadnought goes INSIDE the dropship during atmospheric entry, afterall it does not have the 'reinforced cheramite' rule to make it melta-proof now does it?

Pictures Yay!









So, it seems I have a new project too! I am quite certain it is my 4th active painting project sharing time with the Legion, Eldar and Black Templars. Yes my bwunny wabbits; we are going to the Badab Sector!

What fresh hell is this I hear you moan, well it is a small one, promise.
So, Yesterday I finally took the time to jog (take the car) down to my local hobby store (premium store! yay!) for a fresh pot of snot green, some plastic rod and hopefully Sandy Mitchell's latest Ciapas Cain novel 'The Last Ditch'. steamingly fresh from the Black Library's printing presses.
General small-talk about this and that commenced and then the storeowner (very talented hobbyist and general fun guy) drops a little hellstrike missile on me: ''-by the way, we are going to play through the Badab War campaign during february. We'll do two-man teams for each game and everyone has a 1000 point army. so 2k per side. we are 12-13 people so far, care to join?''
What do you say to that? Yes ofc!.. so I spent yesterday going through my bitboxes to see if I could scrounge up 1K points worth of spacemarines, toy around a bit with an armylist and reading through my Badab War books.
I was 'encouraged' to pick the renegade side since irregular participations would be balanced up with the Store's resident spacemarine company wich happened to be Salamanders.
So, Astral Claws? I thought. Mmmmm could work.. Partly because yellow is my mortal enemy and the executioneers' chapterbadge would be an complete ass to free-hand.. and silver-blue-gold is a nice colourcombination.

Today I have been doing some colour-testing, wash-mixing, setting a small hamster on fire with a spare bottle of acetone alcohol and eventually finishing a testmodel for the colourscheme.
Took me about three hours including waiting-time for washes to dry and 4 coffebreaks. Some highlights got a little thick and I forgot how the 'tyrant's claw' icon looked like halfway through painting it (don't ask) but the overall look is quite okay and it's an acceptable tabletop standard.
I think I should be able to narrow the time down to 2hours per model now that I have the method nailed down properly (somewhat) and can start painting them in groups to eliminate drying downtime etc.

So, Pictures: Brother Legarius of Tactical Squad Perseus; Strike Force Ixiad, Bellerophon's Fall Massacre.







That's all for now, more in the works!

I must say I like it!

That astral claw is fantastic, as well as everything else in here. I love the alpha legion scheme you've devised and will refer to it if ever I have to paint some.

Can't wait for an update.

LilLoser

Well if you must then you must I guess.

.. Man.. Alpharius is going to send me suspiciously dangerous PMs when he sees an update without the Legion.. I promised him more pictures.

That astral claw guy is great- love the shoulder pad and the silver has come out good. The base is to my liking - which is nice.

I'll just have to pretend that he's a Legion operative at heart!

All kidding aside, any updates from you are quite welcome here!

Amazing!!

Thats a very nice Astral Claw marine

What's the word I'm looking for?




There, that should cover it

That's awesome! I love the metallic armour and the weathering is perfectly done, not over the top and it is painted very well, the adjustment to the bolter wrist is a great touch and gives the model some movement without being a crazy hard thing to do! I'd love to see some more of these bad boys!

Nerdfest09

Missed opertunity with the Ordinatus,you should of left it melted ,mounted on a 2x2 board and turned it into scenery.
This army is great,your plasticard skills are impressive.
I would love to bounce some ideas off you when I get my Tank Company next week.
Could you take a close up shot from the other angle for that assault Sergeant with his fist cocked back,I have to steal that pose,I mean see how you did it

I can't believe I actually missed this.

STC this is one of the greatest P&M threads I've ever seen and since I saw those Alpha Legion I am starting to fall in love with them, DAMN YOU. I am tempted to use the colour scheme but nay, I shall resist. Awesome work on the minis mate, ace Astral Claw. The work is just epic. Keep it up.

Subscribed

the thunderhawk is amazing!

I really like the bird! I got the chapter house conversion kit for my one (hope to make it soon) but yours is perfect

Well thank you all, a pat on the back is always nice. Glad you like my work

@ LilLoser: Wait no further! update with Pics Below. and steal my Legion colour scheme to your heart's content and then some more. the Legion suffers from some garish colours out on the interwebs and I am quite pleased with mine. Now go paint a Legionaire or two!

@ Tortured-Robot: I am glad that my rushed basing and the quick painting of it is appealing to you, I was a little nervous it would look a bit too monochrome and flat.

@ Alpharius: Who knows.. there might be a little hydra somewhere.. did you check his inner left thigh?

@ Eisenhorn: Bounce away! ..and you'll get more pics of the assult sergeant soon, he's almost done.

@ crimsonfist832: Dear sir, you make me blush. .. And now the Legion has it's claws in you! Mwahahahahahahaha!

@ FantasyBob: It's a Storm Raven, would be that it was a thunderhawk.. I got to get me one of those one day.. one day!



++WARNING!++UPDATE!++PICTURE+EXTRAVAGANZA++

Terminator! first of a 5-squad. Took me about 3 hours to complete from the black basecoat and I managed to remember how the 'Tyrant's Claw' icon looked this time








BFF-Shot!


WIP of the ''Hmm.What's-in-my-bitz-box?'' Librarian with it's blue basecoat applied.


WIP Tactical Marine 2, 1 /3 done on the metal.


That's all for now people, Dakka On!

Those marines are outstanding! I can't get over how clean the paint jobs are.

I gotta side with FP here, the paint is hellishly smooth and oh so cleanly done! a joy to just look at!

NF09

amazing but, One thing though, Shave off the Aquila, the marines are traitors
Right?

very impressive weathering on the marines

WOW those are some crisp painted models, im loving the poses too!

Again more good stuff - the bases have a nice urban -ashy wasteland - fallout quality to them which has to be a good thing.

I wish my painting skills were that good they look perfect in my opinion. The painting is so crisp, love it.

Fabtastic paint job

3d update in three days.. jesus I think I have to go lay down..

Thanks for all the positive comments guys, I am trying out some new things with these minis like the chipped and dented armor (never done that before).
Anyways, Librarian is halfway done and I have three terminators getting the basic colours, will try to have all 5 terminators done by friday. (fingers crossed).

So, pics! tactical marine number two are ready, tried to make some bloodsplatter and well, worked out a little iffy but it's good enough. Painting all those freehand symbols is quite annpying.. I want transfers..






See you next week!

Forge World has the transfers if you're looking for them
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Space_Marines/Space_Marine-Vehicle-Accessories/ASTRAL_CLAWS_TRANSFER_SHEET.html

The only problem is that the ones you are after only make up about one third of the purchase

Yeah, I know. I can do without the FW transfers I hope, I am just going to have 21 infantry models and 2 tanks in this army so buying a whole A4 transfer sheet might be a little exessive.
I need to find a Boltgun Metal primer spray too.. the basecoating takes forever and I do not want to basecoat the predator and landraider with a brush. Damn you GW for discontinuing your colour primers!

The Army painter plate metal primer is pretty close, it's a touch brighter but if you either wash the recesses or airbrush a wash over the whole thing it would tone it down enough to fit in the force? I've used it before and it's not bad, but you need to shake the hell out of it and be quite careful when spraying as it can get some flat spots on large flat surfaces, other than that one i'm not sure if there's any others worth looking into?

NF09

I'll check it out, might need to adjust the wash-mix to a slightly darker shade if the army painter primer is a touch brighter but that should really be a non-issue.
Thanks!

wow he looks like a class act bad m.....f....., Mace Windu would be proud