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.

Project DA3: Dark Angels Chapter Command Squad
Well. I am starting late, but will likely get at least my Chapter Champion finished ready for the end of the 30th for the paining competition. So far legs finished:

Torso needs highlighting and red wash to loin cloth, sword handle and white wings on shoulder pad painting, purity sealed and dark angels logo on shield and gold breast plate highlighted with white, gloss varnish to eyes and then glue together before varnishing:

It's achievable, but had really hoped to get the whole squad completed. Need to tone down my expectations prior to these challenges I think.

Coming along nicely! You can do it!

Project DA3: Dark Angels Chapter Command Squad
Thanks Para. My highlighting is not as tidy as I'd like, but at least I'm painting again.

I have fluff for my Champion but it's pretty long. I've never written fluff before, but it was cool to do.

I named Brother Geminiel after someone important to me (actually the whole squad is named after very significant people in my life - bit of Greek and Latin translations though) and used that person's character traits to guide the fluff.

I liked the idea that Geminiel and Bethor knew each other from before with the Apothecary being a link to the rest of the Command Squad. So here you go, please give me feedback if it's good or bad, I have no idea how to pitch this stuff so any help would be gratefully received:

Brother Geminiel is a hardened warrior fighting for the The Emperor with a fury and vigour surpassed by none.

He came to the attention of the Inner Circle after his performance in the Cleansing of Durganion XIII when he supported Bethor in his efforts to reclaim the third company's standard from the vile genestealers who dared to take it.

Geminiel would not relent in the face of the slathering horde and stood fast as Bethor advanced and took back the standard and with it the company's honour. He single-handedly slayed wave after wave of the xenos and with walls of their carcasses surrounding him he continued to hold fast adding body after body to those that rotted around him creating a near overwhelming stench.

But alas, although Geminiel's strength of conviction made him endure it was not enough to prevent those filthy Tyranid scum from edging closer and closer until they started laying their blood stained claws upon him. They overwhelmed him and ripped his legs from his body, but still he fought, beating every one away that he could. By the grace of the Emperor, reinforcements reached his position to assist and were able to push the genestealer tidal wave back to the hell from whence it came in time for Brother Psilous, Company Apothecary, to stabilise him.

He was returned to The Rock at Geminiel's request so that the Master of The Rock would be able to work with Brother Psilous to augment Brother Geminiel with hand-crafted bionic legs blessed by the Machine Gods to allow him to continue his fight in the name of the Emperor and for his beloved Chapter in his newly granted position of Company Champion.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, it was a quick turnaround and I managed to complete Brother Geminiel. His base was a complete mess-up - I forgot to order more of the resin bases from www.tinyworlds.co.uk that I've started using!! So he's temporarily on that base until I get round to ordering the right bases. Once he's had a spray varnish he's done. I know he won't win the contest, he's nowhere near good enough, but I'm proud of him - he has a history, a personality and he looks good. I've learnt I need to try and work on my highlighting, but I love the red robes and am really pleased about how they came out. He'll take pride of place in my display. I will try and finish one more tomorrow so I can submit the two together, but otherwise he will be entered as a single miniature.

Project DA3: Dark Angels Chapter Command Squad
Well, had planned to complete at least three members by the wee hours of this morning, but exhaustion kicked in. I should get painting time today so will try and get a bit closer with them.

Competition is tough this month, if I get just one vote I'd be happy, I'm not greedy . But in reality I don't mind if I get none, I had loads of fun painting this one. Think it's because of him being named for someone in real life. I quite like that there is a backstory too. I'm gonna keep doing that.

Love back stories for figs. Whenever I'm painting, in my head totally imagining/making up fluff and back stories for whatever I'm painting. Acc to my head, that Solitaire I finished painting is one complete and utter b'strd lol

Project DA4: Dark Angels Vindicator
So I will now be co-building my Command squad and this Vindicator which will be for the May contest:

 TP^DC Deputy Manager wrote:
Excellent. I'm in with this:

*grumble, grumble, [silence], BOOM!!!!!*

I can enter a total of five figures so may do a diorama - I do have an old irk war buggy that might look good in a game of chicken with the Vindicator

Runaway Rhino!!! The machinespirit has decided to bugger off with the rhino while the driver was out taking a wizz!!!

@Jan - Haha! That would be hilarious! Sorry for delay, your post wasn't flagged up as being new in my thread list.

No mini painting recently - getting engrossed by building my terrain entry for the League of Extraordinary Riveters. Link to the main competition Pte is the picture in my signature, my terrain blog is also there.

Can't wait to see what you do with that Rhino sir.

I'm going to do it as a Vindicator with the old FW upgrade kit. I thought about sticking an old remote car chassis under it so I could amuse my kids, but I think the one I've got is just slightly too big

Project DA4: Dark Angels Vindicator
After a 13 hour shift yesterday I managed to sort out the League table for the painting challenge and half built my Vindicator. Like an idiot forgot to take a WIP shot! Was disappointed with the resin parts and despite warming couldn't get them to sit right. Will need to green stuff the gaps.

Think I'll have a gunner on the top and wondering about having him standing with gun in hands. I'll add a safety harness like I've seen in pictures of army helicopters.

Still can't decide whether to do a diorama.

Hey, just checking in. May have time for some tank building tonight, but nothing so far. Did make some progress on my Tau Landing pad - check out my terrain blog if you're interested:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/645013.page

Project DA4: Dark Angels Vindicator
Well, I decided just to do some work on my Vindicator last night, because it was either that or sleep. Oh, wait, sleep probably would have been a good idea. Good job I'm catching the train today and not driving - screeeeech

Anyway.

So here's a collection of WIP:

Top left is how I started last night - FW panels and conversion kit mostly applied. Top right is tank plus gunner (but wait, they aren't the moulded hatch legs that came with it I hear you scream!) Should have taken a pre cutting photo, but basically the other two photos show the right lower leg pinned and pelvis and left leg combination with right hip pinned.

And why did I butcher this poor troopers legs I hear you ask:

Yeah, that's why.
His pelvis and torso alignment is off, but I have modelled this myself and it is surprisingly an accurate tilt. He's just a furious (*hint*) little who likes to gun down anything even remotely close to his tank.
He's blu-tak'd together at the moment so I'll start gluing elements together quietly when I get chance. He'll obviously need a bit of green stuff on the leg joins.

I'm sure he's not the best "pose conversion" out there, but I am pretty happy with him. It also means I now know what my diorama would be for Paradigm's painting contest - couple of dead orks in line with bolter and (if I can) a magnetised smoke cloud coming from the cannon (maybe).

Really would love some feedback.

I can almost see smile under that helmet

“You! With the Melta Bomb! I’ve got a little something for you as well!"
Dakka Dakka...

Love the pose. I can see his tank being swarmed with cultists, too close for the main gun. Is he going to sit tight and wait for some assault marines to came clear them off? Nope. He’s got a stormbolter and he loves to use it.

that looks a lot more fun than these bleedin' ravenwing i'm embroiled iwth at the mo

I agree with all the comments! That's a really cool conversion! You really sense a lot of character from the pose! Personally... I kind of invisage him as a 40k Tank version of the chopper gunner in Full Metal Jacket.......


GET SOME>>>>> GET SOME..........

very cool!

Thanks guys. He is pretty much based on the Full Metal Jacket chopper gunner Magos and dubovac - I've decided he is smiling with an insane glint in his eye.

Jan - I abandoned my Ravenwing in the first competition, there's something headache-inducing about them.

Well thanks for answering that query then, I'll be getting the glue and green stuff out tonight

Don't know what it is about Ravenwing; done well, they can look amazing, and are fun on the tabletop to boot, but painting them just seems such a slog. I was going to do some for the challenge myself, but after a few hours staring at the (comparatively) huge flat black, dull surfaces, all I could think was 'Nah, not gonna happen...' and that was just one squad! I pity anyone who's running pure RW!

Said it elsewhere, but that gunner pose is awesome!

I love the Vindicator. The gunner will be a nice centerpiece.

That gunner idea is exceptionally cool, I wish I had thought of that when I was building my vehicles.

TP^DC Deputy Manager wrote:Thanks guys. He is pretty much based on the Full Metal Jacket chopper gunner Magos and dubovac - I've decided he is smiling with an insane glint in his eye.

Jan - I abandoned my Ravenwing in the first competition, there's something headache-inducing about them.

Well thanks for answering that query then, I'll be getting the glue and green stuff out tonight

Paradigm wrote:Don't know what it is about Ravenwing; done well, they can look amazing, and are fun on the tabletop to boot, but painting them just seems such a slog. I was going to do some for the challenge myself, but after a few hours staring at the (comparatively) huge flat black, dull surfaces, all I could think was 'Nah, not gonna happen...' and that was just one squad! I pity anyone who's running pure RW!

Said it elsewhere, but that gunner pose is awesome!

TP^DC Deputy Manager wrote:Thanks guys. He is pretty much based on the Full Metal Jacket chopper gunner Magos and dubovac - I've decided he is smiling with an insane glint in his eye.

Jan - I abandoned my Ravenwing in the first competition, there's something headache-inducing about them.

Well thanks for answering that query then, I'll be getting the glue and green stuff out tonight

They're getting there. Finally got all the metal and black of the bikes pretty much finished but damn was that dull to do. They do look much better now. Gotta do the riders now......doing the riders and the bikes different 'blacks' to try and make them pop a little and not look so.....well, ...boring. Think a fiar bit of weathering adn damage to the bikes too will help.....we'll see....hopefully! wedding in 9 days lol

Thanks Neconilis, I hate static models, but often spend longer trying to get inspiration than actually building/painting!

Januine - you'll do a great job, I'm sure. I was going to ask when the wedding was. Hope final prep going ok.

getting there!!! Family starts to arrive from tomoro! Still manage to squeeze in a bit of painting time in the early early morns.

Loving the guy manning the storm bolter on there. Very cool!

Project DA4: Dark Angels Vindicator
WIP - Have put tank together and here it is, needs green stuff next to fill gaps and to make the extended tubing (paper-clip) look a bit more like that which is attached to the model itself.

Time running out, will need to crack on to get it done in time.

Project DA4: Dark Angels Vindicator
Minimal progress because my green stuff was a bit too hard to mould, but managed to sort my gunner's leg out. Have bought more today so will try and get the rest greened up soon. Here he is though:


Spent time on my LoER entry instead - see terrain blog for details

Oh dear. My mind wandered away from current projects (so many unfinished ). To be fair, that was only because I was cleaning out my pond initially and then had to do the ironing (so domestic).

So basically, I'm looking at the off-cut bit of pond filter I was replacing in my pump/filter combi and thought it would do as a smoke material in the miniature world much like people use cotton wool.

The problem is that I then started wondering about comments made about doing Monstrous as the next theme in Paradigm's painting contest. And so, I remembered I still had Tyranids from back in the day to paint and figured that if it won, I would just paint some of them for the contest. Which I got excited about.

Then I got to thinking about how I would base them. You see I am a big supporter of the advice that your base sells your models. After I switched the bases on my first tactical squad to the resin ones I was stunned how much better they looked.

Anyway, with MEdge on the horizon, I've already thought about my scheme for them, which makes my list a bit like this:

Epirian - industrial (undecided how to make bases easily industrialised so far)

Karist - ice world (various cool schemes on line)

Tau Farsight - lava

Dark Angels - Urban rubble

So how would I base the Tyranids who I'll probably never play with and may get used in dioramas only, but would like to have the opportunity? I'd also like to not have to buy lots of bases and it be as cheap as possible

And then I thought about Alien and Predator and their various incarnations. That's when it struck me that Aliens are scary when there is fog and it's dark and they are stalking towards you. So I wondered about a swamp (or other location) with fog on it. And that's where the start of my take ties in. So here, for discussion and opinion is a genestealer with some fake fog on his base:

There is a lot more to do before it would be finalised, but in theory do people agree that this may be the way to crack the fog on base question?

Great modelling on the gunner on the Vindicator, sterling work. It is nice that you have photographic evidence of the old tactical squad to show how far you have come. I still think the Tactical Marine with the massive choppa coming out of his leg is my favourite though.

Good luck on this, you have quite a workload but the new minis you are painting look great. I will always have a soft spot for DA and yours look grand.

As for the 'Stealer base I am not sure I think i would have to see the finished version. Your MEdge colour scheme ideas seem spot on.

Cheers Thraxas, it's very kind of you to say. I did like the chopper, but it just felt a bit childish some how. I may do a more grown-up version down the line

I know what you mean about the genestealer base, I was way more convinced last night, today not so much. This is the traditional cotton wool:

I really want something in a hammer horror haunted forest type look and fog would just nail it, may have to keep thinking about the execution.

Now back to my vindicator!