Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello and welcome to my army building log. I've recently decided to return to the hobby after a long hiatus and what better way to return than
with the construction of a new army.

For my new army I chose the Blood Angels which I got rather excited for after seeing they got a new codex and minatures. If completed this
will be my first full army so to help motivate me I decided to set up a log on here. It's been a good few years since I've painted any miniatures
so I'm a bit rusty. To help with this instead of jumping right into painting squads I've just built and painted one test mini to let me work out
how I'm going to paint the models and get back into the swing of using a paintbrush again.



I'm rather low on funds at the moment so this log will probably progress rather slowly but I've got about enough miniatures for a squad of tactial
marines and a sergeant with powerfist so expect to see updates on those in the future.

Excellent stuff! Consider me Subscribed, because I'm almost certain this is going to be a Blog to watch! Brilliant Red there; you must have a very steady hand for all those Highlights! The Metal on the Boltgun looks good, but the Skull looks a little... messy. Also, I'd try Highlighting in a slightly darker Shade on the Black. Perhaps mix your current Highlighting Colour with a drop of Chaos Black. That way, it won't look so sharp and odd. Otherwise, perfect; can't find any faults with the Red! What's the Recipe, dare I ask?

Thanks for the reply, I'll take your critc into consideration it's been a good few years since I've painted anything properly so I'm still getting back into it. Will touch up the skull and the grey highlighting.

I'm actually writing a tutorial on my website of how I paint the red so I'll post a link on here when that's done.

Work has now commenced on the rest of the squad which consists of three more regular marines, one with a plasmagun and a sergeant with a powefist. Look forward to pictures of those soon.

Don't mention it; you must understand that your Standard is absolutely brilliant for someone who's not been Painting for a time, so I'm having to be very critical and nit-picky about my Comments. Don't feel put down by them, because it's a sign of just how good you are that I need to go into so much detail with my C&C!

I'm looking forward to the Tutorial, I'll keep an eye out, as I will for the rest of the Squad. Got a Work-in-Progress Shot? I'll be they'll look fantastic as a Squadron.

Thanks for the compliments, please feel free to be as nit-picky as you like it's the only way I'll be able to improve.

After touching up the first mini the squad as a whole is coming along though at a slow pace, but here's a work in progress picture
of them as they are at the moment.



I'm not really one for batch painting my models as that tends to bore me after a while so I usually paint them up one at a time with
the one on the left, in the picture above, having the most work done to it.

There is no 'right' answer - so if you don't like 'batch painting', well, obviously don't do it!

Your results are excellent so far, so whatever keeps you motivated, stay at it!

Looking forward to more...

Thanks for the compliments guys, all the positive remarks and looking at some of the other projects on here are
really keeping me motivated and I'm actually progressing faster than I thought I would.

I've been working on the next Marine and have finished it so far just have to finish up his plasmagun.



This picture is taken from the tutorial I'm writing on how I paint Blood Angels for my website but I'll add some more on here when I've finished his gun.

Neat and crisp , looks good .

The reds on these guys are looking superb, very crisp and clean style of painting. If you are just getting back into the painting and you are producing this standard already then it real does bode very well for the your future development.

The only critique is one of personal preference and that is that I prefer the black rims of the 2nd Ed BA, so not even sure if that can be classed as a critique, .

Loving bases as well btw, keep up the good work and consider me subscribed.

Cheers guys I've been out of the painting game for some time now but I am slowly feeling like I'm getting back into it. The bases
are all made to fit in with a modular cities of death table that I'm making.

Anyway here's the marine now with his plasmagun all painted, varnished and ready to play. He's got a purity seal on his trigger hand
to hopefully stop any overheating of the plasmagun.



Going to start work on the next marine soon so expect pictures of that on the way.

Holy sweet space emprah! that's some superb painting, especially for a grunt model...personally I hate that bright neon-y red but thats just personal taste, you've done a really good job. Excellent detail on the plasma gun too...tho the wax on your purity seal probably should be a little different in color to help it stand out against the armor color

Thanks mate, the armour's not actually as "neony" as it appears in real life, some of it is down to the camera flash. The plasmagun
was actually my second attempt as I threw the first one away because it didn't come out how I wanted. Then took me about
half an hour to find another one in the bitz botx

Never throw the stuff away chap, normal dettol will strip the paint given enough time, or alternatively acetone free nail polish remover (test the brand you get though as some can melt the plastic).

That's a good tip to remember, I'll have to go on the hunt for some nail polish remover I'm sure the girlfriends got some hanging around somewhere she won't mind me using

Alex your blood angel models are looking clean and crisp! How did you do the shading in and around the shoulder pads? Is it a wash or just a fine highlight???

I'm currently in the process of writing a tutorial on how I paint Blood Angels for my website so I'll post a link to that when it's finished, should be able to answer any questions you have.

I've been working on the next couple of marines and should
have another one finished by either tonight or tommorow depending on how
distracted I get by other things so expect pictures of that soon.

On another note I've aquired one of the these off of ebay for £3

Brother Noctis from the Space Hulk Game:


So I'll actually have something to paint after I've finished this Tactical Squad
while my ongoing quest for funds continues.

Great little thread starting here. Makes me think I should start a blog to get my units painted.....Maybe once i've finished casting and converting.

I've been thinking about trying to track down a space hulk game for a while now (I know, good luck eh).

Very nice painting by the way!

Looking really nice, good luck with painting wach to the same standard, if you manage it the army will look stupendos

Got the next marine all finished and was going to post a picture on here but the battery in my camera is dead, got to put that onto charge. So expect a completed photo either in a bit or tommorow morning.

AlexHeap wrote:

On another note I've aquired one of the these off of ebay for £3

Brother Noctis from the Space Hulk Game:


So I'll actually have something to paint after I've finished this Tactical Squad
while my ongoing quest for funds continues.

Ebay can be great for steals! I got a baal pred, 5 man terminator squad, umpteen tactical marines, a broken dread, 4 assault marines and a captain for 25 quid. All in horrible condition, glued together with PVA and paint slapped on everywhere with no undercoat!

I'm working on turning the dread and a few of the worst marines into an objective marker!

@niallkissick: Yeah ebay's great, with my monetary situation, the way it is, ebay's pretty much the only place I can get models
from and only then if they're really cheap

Anyway here's the next marine all painted up, two more to go after this and then the sergeant who I think
I''m going to convert to have a combi-plasma.



These guys can then get in a razorback in zip up the table into rapid fire range and get some shooty death
going while the rest of the army likely move in for assault. But that's getting a bit ahead of myself

Update wise work is continuing on the rest of the squad, I've been painting one of the other regular marines and he's at about
50% now. Undercoated the other one and have just about finished my Sergeants converted combi-plasma.

On another note I've managed to scrounge enough parts, from my friends, to make a lascannon armed
marine so I'm in the process of cleaning and building him. One problem though is that he doesn't have a head atm
I shall attempt to track one down for him. If I can scrounge/borrow/steal three more marines from people I might be able
to have a full tactical squad

For such a nice painter it's a shame the models you're getting are few and far between!

Cheers mate, it is rather annoying, the job I've got does actually pay rather well it's just all my money has to go into the bank to save up to be able to pay for my Law School tuition fees and money for accomodation while I'm there. Doesn't leave much left over for minis.

As for updates, Brother Noctis arrived in the post today so after going rather nerdy over all the details that are crammed onto the mini I composed myself and started slapping some paint on him.

I've also managed to paint the lascannon and arms for my new lascannon trooper while the rest of him has been getting the old paint stripped off it.

What's your recipe for the red Alex? It looks nice and bright.

Do you paint the blacklines, or are you using a pen?

Lovely work so far dude - loving it. Please keep it up

Good job! Can't wait to see the tutorial on how you painted them, as I'm looking for a new way to paint BA since GW killed their red ink. Any tips on how you got that nice texture on the bases?

Lol, nevermind, I see you took care of that in the how-to.

Thanks guys The tutorial is up and running on my site you can check it out a:

http://www.thewaaaghstudios.com/paintba.html

Hope I've covered everything and If you've still got some questions feel free to contact me.

Well today's progress has been quite good so far. I've managed to finish up another tactial marine aswell as finishing brother noctis'
storm bolter arm and adding basecoating all the details on the rest of his body.
I've also based my sergeant and lascannon trooper so that's done aswell.

Here's a picture of the new tactical marine along with brother noctis' arm. I'm getting a little collection of finished arms as I've done
the lascannon marines arms aswell



On another note I've been practising using plasticard to build some basic shapes. Hopfully I'll be able to build myself some vehicles out
of that to try and help with my lack of funds. Should be fun aswell so we shall see how that goes in the future.

Thought I'd post another picture on here with the four squad members at the moment defending a Sanctum imperialis.



This Sanctum Imperialis is part of a modular cities of death table I've been making for a while but is currently on hold as I haven't got much money, This tile is finished though so I though I'd get it painted. Some mindless drybrushing is nice after all the highlighting on my blood angels