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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!