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Hello all,

Starting my new army up. Im a space marine player of over a decade, started out with blood angels, moved on to a DIY codex chapter and have now returned to the Blood Angels. My 1000pt army consists of:

Astorath the Grim: 220pts

2x 10man Tactical squads w/ MultiMelta, Meltagun, powerfist and Rhino: 250pts each

1x 5 man Devastator Squad w/ 2x Heavy Bolter, 2x Plasma Cannon, Powerfist and Assault cannon armed Razorback: 270pts

This will be my modeling and painting blog as the army grows.

the next post will be about my Devastators and Astorath, as soon as i upload the photos.

Would like to see how you paint it!

As promised, here are some pictures. Im taking this project slowly, as i havent painted in years.

Please comment on any thing. Be it modeling, painting, general comments or even potenitial improvements for the army list.

Any hooooo

First up

Delivery:







One Devastator Squad and One Tactical Squad.

Also upon searching my attic, i happened upon some SM sprues. Turns out, it was a complete tactical squad, minus the sargent sprue. all im short of for it is a multimelta and a meltagun.


Next up

My Devastator sargent:

Basecoated chaos black



All parts basecoated and some detail work started:



The squad bodies built up:



The sargent finished:



I havent got any other work in progress shots, got to excited about building them. The same for my Heavy Bolter Dev and Plasma Cannon Dev.

But anyway,

The Heavy Bolter Dev finished:





He has a litany of unblocking on the breach to prevent misfires.

Next up,

The one in progress shot i have:



The Plasma Cannon Dev Finished:





Group shot:






Next up::

::ASTORATH THE GRIM::

Here is my version of Astorath. I didnt like the colours the 'eavy metal team used, so i decided on another scheme. i generally think that chaplains should be in black armour, but felt that as a special character he had to stand out more. so i chose a bone scheme. here is my work so far:

Wings on pack and on base:







And My current phase:





its hard to see here, but the wings are black with mordian blue edging, and the jump pack is a creamy copper colour.

The next stage is to complete my second HB and PC Devs and to paint up astorath.
Then on to my tactical squads
Before purchasing a razorback and 2 Rhinos.

Please Feel free to leave some comments

Regards Nathan

They look good! My only suggestion is to give your squads a quick wash with devlan mud or badab black to make the plates separate a bit better and give the model some definition. I really like your plasma gun and Astorath's wings too! Great start, keep it up.

gman1401 wrote:They look good! My only suggestion is to give your squads a quick wash with devlan mud or badab black to make the plates separate a bit better and give the model some definition. I really like your plasma gun and Astorath's wings too! Great start, keep it up.

Yeah ive been trying this out, when i first started painting i was very much spray a basecoat and slap a colour on. Recently ive been trying harder to get details and the like sorted. as such ive been experimenting with foundation paints and washes.


And so next up is some new pictures:

Ive recently completed another HB devastator, the picture below is a group shot, just need to complete the 2nd PC trooper.
The HB to the far right is the newest edition



Next up is my special character: Astorath the Grim. as previously stated, i didnt like the 'Eavy Metal scheme so i did my own. I found that this was quite a difficult model for me to paint. for gaming purposes im happy, but i think ill come back to him.

here are the results:





(did i mention i struggled with him?)

Next up is too finish my Devastators then move on to my Two tac squads. Ill do the Sgts, MM and Melta troopers for the first squad then finish up the other 7, followed by the sgt and 7 troopers for the 2nd squad. ill complete when i get hold of a melta gun and multi melta

As Gman said i think a good wash could make a world of difference you have a great base for the regular marines and i think that astorath would benefit from toning down the lighter areas but that might be from the flash when you photographed him

Listrel wrote:As Gman said i think a good wash could make a world of difference you have a great base for the regular marines and i think that astorath would benefit from toning down the lighter areas but that might be from the flash when you photographed him

pretty sure its the flash

Nice paint scheme for astorath! I think the bone may be a little to pale and could use a darker colour in the recesses.

(nice find with the SM sprues in the attic! I wish I was that lucky )

Commander Cain wrote:Nice paint scheme for astorath! I think the bone may be a little to pale and could use a darker colour in the recesses.

(nice find with the SM sprues in the attic! I wish I was that lucky )

It looks better in the flesh, i may give it a wash.

Haha yeah was a good find tbh.

UPDATE:

I have now completed my devastator squad:












A Few more pictures of astorath:








Next up is my 1st tactical squad. I also bought a prepainted rhino from ebay.

Good stuff; the ink washes are clearly helping. It's amazing how fast getting back into the hobby pics up the pace on your painting. As a (hopefully helpful) suggestion, maybe use some gs to fill the narrow gaps on two part weapons like the plasma cannons? Just for neatness sake.

Some thoughts on photography:
Can I suggest rigging a quick 'n' easy light box for pics? Just place the figs inside the box from a tank or similar, will help with white balance.
If you have an anglepoise lamp or similar that'll give you better light than a flash.
Also, if your camera has a macro setting (the flower button, often) try that, holding the camera near rather than using zoom function, and balance it on books or something to prevent shake.
There are a few folk with links to printable backgrounds in their p&m blogs too, or just pm me your email and I'll mail you one.

Anyway, good stuff, looking forward to more!