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A month or two back a friend picked up an AoBR box and only wanted the orcs, offering up the unwanted spance marines at a discount. I played bloodbowl way back when (I'm old) and has always wanted to delve into 40k but never took the jump. I decided I'd snap them up and try my hand at painting. A quick stop at the local GW had me leafing through codex's and decided upon the Blood angels, and some googling upon coming home led me here and to the very humbling collection of talent on this board.

I wanted to start a blog both as a way to encourage me to get my army painted, get feedback, and to make the rest of you feel much better about your own skills .

The Goal: to get a 800-1000pt army together to take on my friend's orcs, painted reasonably well (for a rookie effort at least). I am not going to bother adhering to a specific chapter scheme, but wanted them looking rather unified (all of the red involved should acomplish that) while experimenting with different accent colors / looks as my skills improve.

Without further delay, here is the first model I painted. Well actually the first model was a terminator that prompted me to find out how to thin my paints as his back turned into a chunky mess and he was promptly stripped. I wanted a dirty, gritty look on this dred, not like he just came off of the showroom floor. Taking pictures after completing him showed me to pay more attention to mold lines and that I should have spent the time to drill the barrels etc. Nothing is sealed up and I'll likely go back and try to fix those items... again, first goal was just to get them assembled and painted to play, learning as I go. Without further excuses, I give you my first paint job and base.



Next up were some terminators, and I wante to start with a less filthy look on these guys - I can always dirty them up later.



I've gone a bit nuts buying models beyond that half of an AoBR, and will post pics of everything I've done to date, then continue to post for your amusement and ridicule as I get my army together. C&C and mocking blows welcome

Next up were the tactical unit from the AoBR set. I think by this point I had wrecked a few models trying new things, and had bargained my way into a second half of an AoBR set. The goal with these guys was just to get a first pass done. Try out a new shoulder pad combo, and leave all of the highlighting etc for when I come back to them later. I dont trust myself with skin tones yet, so the sargent just got a coat of flesh for now.






Automatically Appended Next Post:
For my 4th unit I picked up some Devastators. While slowly progressing on the painting side I was trying to wrap my head around gameplay and the rules, and wanted to get a unit to deal with the Truck / defcopta's that I knew I would eventually face. This was my first kick at after-market shoulder pads (the blood drops arent going to stay white). I also let myself get roped into how they "should" be painted a little bit. I couldnt bring my self to do full blue helmets as this squad is 'supposed' to have, but did paint the crests of their helmets blue as a sort of compromise.

Again, just a first pass here, still lots of touch-up and highlighting and such. I didnt like my first attempt at doing the lens on the scope of the lascannon, so left that unfinished and the second one un-started for the moment. The sargent didnt make the picture as he was taking a leave of absence to get his arms and wrists magnetized since I'm unsure of how to equip him being so unfamiliar with the rule set.





Automatically Appended Next Post:
Finished up these two Captains next. I had basecoated them around the time I did my tactical squad, and had slowly been progressing on them when waiting for my other units to dry etc. Having duplicates of them from the two sets, I wanted to differentiate them from each other with diferent schemes. Still not confident enough to attempt a decent face, or power sword for that matter, so those items await my improving beyond 'noob' level. (found some wonderful tutorials on here for power weapons, will likely make an attempt tomorrow... I cant decide which one of these guys I want to ruin with my first effort ).

the left one also shows the results of my first attempt at scroll work on the medals on his cape.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Dante was up next. Didnt want to give him the super-shiny typical paint job, I wanted him a little more battle worn. Gold armor certainly isnt easy for a neophyte. First pass + wash is where he sits for now, awaiting improvement on my part to clean him up. I have a box of sanguinary guard awaiting attention so I wanted to try out the gilded armor on one model instead of ruining 5. Same caveat as the power swords applies to the axe... I'll come back to it when I'm a little more comfortable making the attempt.

He is also the fist attempt at an alternative basing, I wanted something darker to compliment the brighter armor so I raided a can of nabob much to the amusement of my girlfriend.

Thanks for comments all.

As explained above, power weapons, faces, and final highlighting etc await improvement on my part.

So that brings us up to date with all of my work so far. Here is the army as it stands right now. My camera is rather good, going to the gallery to zoom in will give you a better idea of the quality of the pictures. My photography skills eclipse my painting skills by far. As you can see the seminal Drednought has been the victim of my first static grass application, came out ok.



Currently in Progress:
Assault Terminators - got some forgewolrd shoulderpads so I can use both sets of arms. I have them fully magnetized and undergoing their first coats of paint. I wanted to incorporate a bit more of the khaki/red contrast into the armor on this unit... unfortunately this has them inadvertantly looking like Iron Man a bit too much.

Still to do:
2 forgeworld dreadnoughts with blood talons.
2 SM assault squads.
1 razorback
1 bike (just cause I thought it was cool, not for any gameplay reason)
1 sanguinary guard squad
and 1 squad of MKIII iron armor space marines that I intended to use for vanguard veterans... just bought them to round out my forgeworld order to a horribly offensive round number.

@Killmaim - yup I'm sure. The reject pile of AoBR marine false starts, the copious amount of cash dropped on paints and brushes, and the rediculous amount of time it takes me to finish a single model are fairly reliable indicators.

@Josh - indeed.

Here's a little WIP of where I am going with the aformentioned Assault terminators. Guy up front has just been washed, still lots of work to do on him to get the reds popping and brighten him up a little. pre-badab-bath brethern in the back.

Assault terminator WIP update

The other 4 guys got their delvan bath, still awaiting the badab bath on the reds / metals. Coming along nicely and thankfully looking less like iron man than they once did.

@ bunny - nothing wrong with iron man. I didnt have iron man in mind when I was envisioning the unit. I wanted to get a bit more contrast into my guys, instead of the overwhelming blood red everywhere... iron man didnt even pop into mind until I was done the first guy...

The assault unit is done for now. Tried some highlights but am ending up wiping off more than I'm keeping, technique isnt there yet. Played witht the bases a bit more than I have on previous units, adding some small rocks and some static grass. Also my first time applying decals on this unit, cant say I like them much. Hopefully I can knock down its shiny-ness with some matte clear-coat but I dont have any right now. Only did one unit's shoulder as a result. I'll post a picture later of the 'finished' assault squad (nothing is ever finished for me, I'm constantly going back to old units to play with things).

Undecided on what to finish next... have an armor coloring experiment going on with a reclusiarch, got one of my forgeworld Dreads half assembled (arms are going to be painfull), and have started on cleaning up the mold lines on my 2 boxes of assault squads.

--- update ---
Here's a pic of the 'finished' assault squad. A ton of cleanup and such to do at a later date, but for now I'm calling them 'done'. I want to try to do some battle damage on them at some point, and see if I can get some chemicals to make the decal apply better, perhaps a matte clearcoat to knock down the shiny-ness. All arms are magnetized, I'll be using more of the bits on the lightning claw sets.... and one day the sergent will get an ornament between his shoulders... And apparently a fair number of pieces of static grass clinging to them, didnt notice until the pictures

Messed around with a reclusiarch... his boots made me think of midevil armor, so I went for a metalic reddish tone to the armor. Looks a bit better in person than in the picture in that regard. Just a quick first pass and some washing. Havent decided if I'll keep this look yet, and definitely need to find some contrast points... get rid of his red eyes... etc.