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AND lastly, I am NOT a sexy, young, single chick who has the hots for nerds who take their little plastic army men and yell “pew-pew” on a table in front of like-minded men

Wyfox's sig

Hey Gits! Love the final shot of the vin, looks great, and the resin is a nice touch.

As for the assault minis, your technique with the air brush just keeps getting better and better. The contrast and shading looks very dynamic, i'm looking forward to see how they turn out.

Iv said it before, and i'm sure I will say it again, your use of RT minis with your painting style really does remind me of the 'Eavy Metal' painting teams of the old days.

Keep it up!

Oh, I guess it worked, sorry!

Gits Let me know when the Marine arrives please.....

@Hits: Thanks mate, still a long way to go on my airbrushing technique... but I do appear to be improving steadily. I'll take that as a good thing. I often have people make comments similar to yours about the old minis. As bad a reputation as they've had over the years, something about how I handle them seems to strike a chord with a lot of folks. If my painting style suits the mini's... that's a good thing... but I'm not sure that it's really a conscious effort on my part as much as it's where I am as a painter. Perhaps good enough to stand with the better painters of old, but not yet able to paint to "modern" standards of the hobby. As long as I keep getting better... I'm OK with that.

Sure will Dee.


Speaking of getting better... I thought I'd post this while I'm in the doldrums of painting things on the assault squad that take time but don't make for a very interesting pic. Here is a shot of the Mantis Warrior motor pool. I think you can really see a difference in the early vehicles (razorbacks and pods) and the more recent LS Storms, and the brand new vindicator. Granted the Storms aren't really finished yet... but the major airbrushing and such is complete... it's just some details that are still lacking.



Amusingly, I never noticed until just now that I'd never finished the yellow on the top of the fins of the left-most pod.

So... how have things changed over time??

1. From the early work to the LS Storms: The colors became much richer and warmer. This is due to a change in my highlight shade from a white-based light green to a yellow-based light green. Also the surfaces are much more dynamic. I owe this to Eggroll & his Blood Angles blog. Take some time to see how he places airbrushed lines of dark shades around objects and seams & how much this improves the dynamism of his figures, especially his vehicles. There is no zenithal technique on the speeders... it's all just done with careful application of dark and light shading over a medium green.

2. From LS Stoms to Vindi: Increased drama and dynamic coloring due strictly to painting prior to assembly. I can treat each piece or surface as a separate entity with it's own unique relationship to the light, thus the results are somewhat startling and were ridiculously easy to achieve. Warmth increased by slight increase in yellow pigment in the final spray.

Hope you like it. Hope to have an update on the assault squad in a day or two.

the one with out the yellow could be for another squad?

Could be... but it's an easy enough fix... just need to take the time.

ya I find those all the time. whole parts I forgot to paint. I usually never get to it tho.

Gitsplitta wrote:
Besides... you're hardly the fist male dakkanaught who has an attractive female avatar.

Represent!

Loving the motorpool Gits... That's some sexy Green n Yella

Gitsplitta: Making the rest of us MW green with envy since 2010.

@Styro: I feel ya on that one... got my MoTF painted "enough" for Adepticon last year and still haven't actually finished him.

@Johnny-C: Thanks man... I do appreciate it!

@graven: Given that massive pictorial update you just did, I'm honored you'd stop by and comment. Thanks bud.



I've got some practice games with Dajobe after work tomorrow, so I really burned the midnight oil to get these to the point where they could be assembled and varnished. Definitely on track for getting these done this weekend.

The love the shade of yellow you always go with, it gives it a super contrast!

Great Job man!

Gold, seals, eyes, sword details, flamer, power sword... that's about all that's left. Then just the edge highlighting & basing and we're all done. Crap... put that way it still sounds like a lot of work!

Really looking forward to this afternoon's game(s) with dajobe. I specifically did not bring my camera in the hope that it would help me concentrate on the game at hand. I expect to get brutalized... but then again I'm not really running a balanced list, it's 1/2 of a balanced list. I just want some practice with my "new" units, commander and rules so I can be comfortable with them during the big dance. As I was looking over my list I realized that I'd given both of my assault sergeants the mini-meltas which I totally forgot to model. Jumped on e-bay, snagged a couple from a bits merchant and will make appropriate switchouts when they arrive. Will probably pin them so they can be exchanged with bolt or plasma pistols in the future.

Good luck, I can't wait to read the Batrep with no pictures

Well... might not be much of a batrep with no pics. I have my phone... if I really feel motivated I'll take a few pictures with that (but they're pretty poor quality).

"... and as you can see this group of yellow blurs arrive on the left flank and destroy the big blue and white blur with melta fire. Then the squad of little blue and white blurs exit from the OTHER blue and white blur and take out half the yellow blurs with combined melta and multi-laser fire..."

I'm *really* looking forward to getting these guys done. Not that I'm sick of them really... it's just to have the last "squad" off my back for Adepticon. I mean that's huge. Once these guys are done, everything else I need to do for Adepticon is pure fun!

Gitsplitta wrote:@Vit: Vallejo Surface Primer. Doesn't say that it's specifically an airbrush primer but it can be loaded directly into an airbrush with no problems what-so-ever. Leaves a nice thin coat that doesn't cover up the details.

Thanks, just picked some up from the War Store, though they call it Auxillary Primer (same model # though). After researching on line, these surface primers were specifically designed by Vallejo to be applied either by brush or airbrush. Guess you just stumbled upon this by trial. They also have a number of sizes of bottles they sell it in from 17ml to over 200ml. They also come in a variety of colors. Pretty sweet actually.

Personally tired of having the random surface flaw from overspray or bubbles from using airolsole cans. Not to mention the smell.

Oh yes! I bought a big bottle of white, and a couple of smaller bottles of other colored primers- it is the BEST primer I have ever used- I'll probably just chuck my unused Armory spray primer cans now, really- there is no need to keep using it...Well, maybe I'll keep it for big terrain jobs, but that is about it.

TLS carries it too. They can hardly keep the white & black in stock. I bought large bottles of white, black, grey, red, green and kind of a slightly greenish tan which I may try to use as a base for orky yellows. I did blend it with some white primer and made a decent starting primer for Thing 2's nids. The assault squad above is primed using the green, which as far as I can tell is exactly the same shade as Vallejo's "field green" airbrush paint.

I didn't really stumble on it as much as Hans talked me into it. Anyway... I'm permanently off the can... these primers are light-years ahead of anything else I've tried... and *very* economical to boot.

Best part is, because they're just liquids you can blend them to get the color that you want... that's pretty impressive when you think about it.

Ah yes, Hans, quite the instigator that one . Oh, and blending...like with normal valejo colors? But wouldn't that mess up the primers ability to bind to the plastic?

gitsplitta wrote:I'm permanently off the can...

Ah, somebody should sig that

Nope! It's a new kind of resin as the binder actually!

Actually, I meant I was blending colors of primers... not mixing regular paints with them... though in small amounts I doubt it would matter.

Like the new avatar BTW wyfox... You should animate that last one and this one exchanging every few seconds.

The Assault Squad is coming together rather nicely Gits! On a related note your package arrived today!

Despite the multi-layers of packaging the axe-hand managed to come off but it was an easy fix. Lovely detailing mate, top quality as should be expected from someone of your skill. I hope it has given you plenty of inspiration for a Chaplain of your own.

Sorry it arrived in bits GS... I double-boxed it with two layers of padding... can't get much more secure than that. Perhaps the glue just failed?

It sure did. It's actually made me consider some alternate schemes when I finally get around to painting my post-crusade army. So yes... from that perspective it was a hugely important figure.

I'm glad you like it. After waiting as long as you did, you deserved something extra-special.

Im loving those old school assault marines, the poses really do make them stand out !

Gitsplitta wrote:Not a decal exactly. I made the original (based on the original artwork) and then just print them out on paper. I tried decals for MONTHS on they were all crap. Paper works just fine.

I had the same problem, the decals just didnt do it for me either as the ones i was doing looked rubbish, so far all the guys i have painted i have missed the markings off, i keep telling myself i will put them on at a later date, when im a bit better at it.
Ive got a mate trying to sculpt me a mantis warriors symbol on an old and new rhino door so i can take castings of that for my vehicles, just hope it looks better then my efforts.
Also i will be getting myself a new camera soon and i can show you what i have done so far, although that are not up to your standard
Im currently trying to get the front half of a mantis on the top of my venerable dread, with some guns from puppetswar though i have not had much time though as of late.



The dread isnt mine, just a pic i found with the right weapons on

That sketch on the dread just makes me smile...

My advice... and feel free to ignore it.... is to spend your time trying to modify the head area so that it looks mantis like. I'm not sure the arms could be done without looking either goofy or over-the-top chaosy. You could however... try to make a CCW arm that looked like a mantis arm, however I think it would still look too much like chaos to be believable as an Imperial construct... even from such a chapter as the Mantis Warriors.

If you can find someone who has some simple GS skills (or you develop your own)... you could mold your own MW symbol on a shoulder pad and resin cast them for yourself. As long as you don't sell them you're covered from an IP perspective. I had Chapterhouse make some pads for my post crusade Mantis Warriors Penitent, but they were my design based on a photograph of a real praying mantis... which has NOTING to do with any of the official GW designs... so there was no IP issue.

Since I do the original design on my Badab era army... I paint it by hand. They're far from perfect but it's a simple design and I can usually pull it off OK. It's not a big enough pain in the butt for me to try to come up with some other alternate system of adding it.


When you start your blog, you're welcome to announce it here. My recommendation is to include a single picture of your work and a link to take people to your blog (along with whatever background you want to add). I'm very happy to lend the popularity of this blog to starting another Mantis Warrior blog!

Gitsplitta wrote:Like the new avatar BTW wyfox... You should animate that last one and this one exchanging every few seconds.

Don't have the computer software, but if one of your fans (wink-wink) felt willing to donate some effort and make it, I would be happy to oblidge .

download The GIMP! no more excuses!

The assault marine squad is looking really nice Git's, I feel the yellow tint on the armour is just right and goes well with the yellow bands on the jump packs.

That dread picture makes me laugh now as it happens haha, it does not really capture the idea very well at all.
Il stick with it and see how it looks and if it ends up as bad as the photo i will probably just do a head on the sarcophagus bit. As it happens that was my original thought.
With respect to the badges i guess its just a case of me doing it over and over until i get the hang of it, i just have a real problem at the moment painting the smaller details, practice makes perfect i guess.
Thanks for letting me put a link up too, i will take you up on that offer when the time comes, Keep up the good work man !

@Gir: Thanks Gir, even unfinished they looked great on the table last night.

@Rayvon: My pleasure, look forward to seeing your efforts!



Battle Report is up! http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/438644.page#4068820

2000 pts total... 2x 1000 pt armies (both BA) vs. melta-vet/mech IG

Hope you like it, fun game.