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I haven't properly used a work in progress log in a while and when I had it was a little bit sporadic so I thought I'd put a bit of time and energy into it, so - on that note, I really hope the community likes my work and C&C are most appreciated!

Some of you may know I run a commission painting service on my website (see signature below for details) and this isn't an advert for that, but a showcase of the work I've done so far. My client has asked me to work on some Astral Knights Space Marines so without further ado, here is some of that work...

Before we dive right in, who are the Astral Knights? Taken from the 40k Lexicanum this short quote gives us a bit of background, "The Astral Knights sacrificed their chapter to destroy the World Engine. This Necron weapon was a planet-sized spaceship, armed with gauss projectors capable of scouring planets of all life. The World Engine destroyed a third of an Imperial Navy Battlefleet before Artor Amhrad, the Chapter Master of the Astral Knights, decided to ram the World Engine with his Battle barge, Tempestus. Engines at full power, the Battle Barge collided with the World Engine's shields, and broke through. Only once they were inside the shields did the Space Marines have a chance. The entire Astral Knights chapter deployed from Drop Pods onto the artificial world's surface. For one hundred hours, seven hundred seventy-two Astral Knights fought against tens of thousands of Necrons, destroying every flux generator, weapon forge and command node they came upon. But each victory came at a price. Only Amhrad and five battle brothers were left to launch the final assault. Fighting with the fury that legends are made from, the surviving Astral Knights made their way to the deepest part of the World Engine that housed many command nodes. In a final act of heroism, Amhrad detonated melta-charges that brought down the World Engine's shields and silenced most of its weaponry. The Astral Knights were gone."



Our first batch in this project are two squads of Sternguard Marines. 14 marines in total plus one to spare, to be equiped with a flamer, as the box contains 5 per box! For this our client has ordered in specialist weapon upgrades in order to have 5 with combi-plasma and 2 with combi-melta per squad. These two squads will use the drop-pods, but we'll do them later.

While waiting for the upgrade kit to arrive, I had enough parts to piece together a couple of marines out of odd bits and pieces just to get a start on the squad. On a personal note, I am thankful that these are finecast models as despite all of the fuss about them, I believe they are a great idea and certainly much more fun to paint as all the details are there and can be brought to life in spectacular fashion. I've begun adding a few bits to the basing on these guys, the idea being that they are treading through apocalyptic, ruined cities - perhaps on the trail of the World Engine. So far I'm pleased with how they are looking.



And here is a snapshot of the work in progress as I started to get the colour scheme nailed down.


Which led into this, the first completed marine!




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Here we are then as we see a few more Marines going through the process.


Followed by our second complete Marine...



That Emblem was designed by the client and freehand painted on.




We tried a little scorched effect on the end of this Sternguard Marine holding a flamer, to show that it has been used to burn the enemies of the Knights to a crisp.


A wider shot of the flamer.


Of course it wouldn't be 40K without some skulls in there somewhere! Lovely Chaos Warrior skulls severed and left to rot as the Astral Knights trundle through this terrain.


Another experimental effect, chips and chunks missing from this Marine's shoulder pad, he is an experienced Sternguard Veteran afterall. This effect is to depict perhaps him dipping his shoulder into a hail of oncoming bullet-fire and the ammunition ricocheting off in all directions.


Again, all part of the Flamer model, a good close look at his helmet. We'll be posting a full picture of this guy when the rest of his armor is finished.


This chap is awaiting a final review by the client before he gets touched up, polished off and varnished to join his battle-ready comrades.

Here we are then, the 4th finished Sternguard Marine, our Flamer. Very happy with this one.



And from behind...


The skulls on the base finished.


Another freehand painted emblem


And here are a few others that I assembled today ready to go, freshly spray painted with their basecoat layer. It should be noted at this time that I have superglue all over my hands from converting on the combi-plasmas.

The 5th Marine complete and ready to go, power fist charged and weapon at the ready.






And the 6th Marine who just needs basing, but complete and ready for battle. Emma is very happy with the Roman numerals on the shoulder.

Those look really nice!
Is the logo on the flamer sternguard freehand? If so, kudos to you, cause that sir, is well, really nice!

Nice overall colour scheme.

The logo is indeed freehand, took a fair while so thank you! The colour scheme was designed by the client who took up our painting service, I just made it work in reality cos thats my job! Love painting projects for people and seeing them satisfied with the results.

On a side note, kudos to you sir for have a 6 win tally with your Skaven! I'm only 2/2 with my clan.

Photography and paintwork both in need of improvement, even for a very low price point. I'd be surprised if posting work of this standard has the effect on your business you're hoping for.

The low end of the market tends to rely on simple, neat work. In terms of practical goals this means aiming for a smoother finish on those basic colours, detailing cleanly and eschewing freehand in favour of decal work to gain the precision and consistency the artist responsible for these lacks.

At the end of the day though, if you and your client are both happy, that's all that matters. I would however prepare for some less constructive posts from others.

It is true that there is nothing like holding the model in your hands - at the end of the day we don't have a great camera and I admit that the photographs aren't good in the slightest. However, they provide a little insight into the work thats going on. In this instance, the client has requested freehand emblems and things such as the roman numerals to really make the models stand-out from basic-coloured troops.

You may be very surprised as the effect I am hoping has been more than achieved and we are currently booked up now until the end of July. Whether or not it is a result of this thread or not remains in question, however it has happened since posting the Astral Knights project online.

I do admit though that the white is really bugging me, and since these have been taken the models have been given a second going-over with a MUCH smoother finished, which makes the client even happier - objective achieved.

I would consider putting up photos of these improved models however, in this experienced ones opinion, Dakka has become a very negative forum full of flamers and as you've pointed out, people with less constructive posts. So I am on the fence about posting up a further update or leaving the forum altogether for one of the better websites out there. Depending on whether there are such comments on this thread. I believe the moderators of this forum should seriously look into that. I have this thread on 3 other forums and some cracking responses offering all sorts of fantastic constructive feedback. Time will tell on that note.

Thank you for your opinion '@winterdyne it further encourages me to neaten up that messy white/boltgun (which again can be put down to gunky paints as Citadel fail to impress).

Finally, if anybody knows where I can get that emblem in decal format do tell me! It would save me ALOT of time.

It's not the paints, it's most definitely the application. Textbook example of poor flow and brush control. That you are attempting to blame paint for what is frankly a beginner level issue with the finish would concern me were I a potential client.

With the photos, it's also not the camera, it's the lighting and setup. You do not need an expensive camera to take decent miniature photos. You need a tripod or stand, a backdrop and a good light. Everything else can be worked around.

I wouldn't say dakka was negative. It's pretty honest really, and from the sounds of it you need a dose of it. There are a lot of commission guys on here, operating successfully at all ends of the market. You'd do well to take critique and advice when they're given, rather than feigning offence.

In terms of getting the emblem decalled- print it. I get my decal paper at www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk. There are many tutorials on printing your own decals, a little effort is all that's needed.

Try a lightbox for photo's, even the basic sheets of white card arranged into a box can make a massive difference and remove the background interference.

I suggest you water down your white down a lot more. Almost like milk consistency and apply it in several very thin layers.

Infact I would water down all your layers a bit more.

Finally tidy the base up a little more.

A final update today, we aren't any professional photographers or anything but its amazing what a white card box can do for your photographs on an otherwise overcast day.

This is marine number 7, we used an old head and hand we had lying around to create the dismembered body parts on the base. And a new pot of Skull White AND Boltgun Metal(Leadbelcher now) works wonders for your painting, so pleased to throw the old gunky stuff away when the pot ran down.