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After my little break to work on Krom, its back to the grail wardens and hive fleet_______ ( BTW if anybody has a good suggestion for a name I'm all ears. I did some research and pretty much every mythical sea creature name is already used). First up are some raveners and a lictor. I finished these guys a bit ago, just didnt get a chance to take pics til now.

Two of the raveners are stock bodies from the old metal raveners with warrior heads (As the old ravener heads were rubbish). The last one is a salvaged warrior that i got in a trade witha bit of old metal gargoyle for the lower body. Not much is visible, but I like the way it looks clawing its way through the decking.



















Not sure what happened to the pics of the lictor but I cant find them in my gallery, so I'll have to post them later. Thanks for looking and comments and criticism welcomed and appreciated!

Nice.

On the subject of mythical sea creatures, are you sure that "Hive Fleet Sea-Goat" is taken?

Yeah, for some reason sea goat doesnt conjure the same sense dread that dagon, kraken, oe leviathan does


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Heres the pic of the lictor that i meant to upload the other day.

Can you post pics of the whole army together? It would help with perspective.


Ember

Sure ember, I'll see if I have a few minutes this afternoon to get em all out and get a few shots. Were you just interested in the tyranids, or also the grail wardens?

Get the grail warriors in on the group photo too! would like to see your progress all in one pic!

Ok, since there seems to be interest in a group progress shot for both forces, here goes. Fist up are the Grail Wardens, as they were the impetus behind both these armies.

















Next up is hive fleet Anonymous

















I'm actually really glad that I took the time to get these all set up. I didn't realize it, but I think I am approximately half done with both of these armies ( At least with what I already have for them. We all know you are never really done with an army) I still have a bunch of tactical marines and gaunts to slug through, but seeing it all like this definitely helps me remain enthusiastic about these armies. Hopefully this gives everybody a idea bout how far these two armies have come in the last year or so. If you have anything specific you want further pics of just let me know. Commenets and criticism are welcome and appreciated as always!

I believe we have only seen about half of those on this thread so far.

Well done!

Sweet army shots dude. They both look great.

EDC

Thanks guys, glad you like em! Some times the sheer number of infantry I have to do for both is intimidating, but I think I'm going to set aside a few sundays this summer and just batch paint like crazy. So on to the next thing, I just got in a contemptor from Betrayal at calth that I picked up cheap on EBay. I already converted it some (namely cut it at the waist to get a bit more of a dynamic pose, drilled the barrels on the multi melta and exhaust, added bling etc) but I'm not sure which of two heads to use. I hated the derpy head it came with and I've tried both a saguinary guard vet helmet, as well as the librarian face plate from the furioso dread kit. You guys have any opinions on which you think looks better?

Heres the look with the librarian face plate:








And heres how he looks with the sanguinary guard veteran head







I would love to hear some opinions about which one you guys think looks better, I'm really torn myself.

the librarian face plate looks better IMO, I think it gives it a much more "ancient-relic"-y look... noice conversion though!!

Yeah, I'm kinda leaning that way as well STG. At first I preferred the vet head, but the more I look the more the librarian head is growing on me. Arrgggghhhhh!! Decisions!

Those both look awesome. The librarian head seems to fit with the proportions better... Its your model though. Go with your gut -- you're the one who needs to be happy with it.

So aside from the ravenors and lictor, I also recently finished two more of the sanguinary guard. I think the bone has turned out a bit better than on the first one I posted, still not sure about putting a final highlight on them or leaving them as they are now. Seeing the pics up close has also made me notice several spots I need to go back and touch up as well. I have one more for this unit who is about mid way done, hes the one carrying the standard. The last model from the set is on hold to make a home made version of dante once I get the right sort of jump pack. So heres number 2 and 3 of the four man unit:




















Thanks for taking the time to look and comments and criticism are welcome and appreciated!

They look mean! Good effort on a difficult colour, the red power swords look seriously slick

Thanks STG, I'm fairly happy with them. I still wish I could get the bone a little cleaner without doing 15 water thin coats, but I can live with them as is. I am very pleased with the swords as well. I always wondereed when they are called encarmine blades why no one paints them red. So i figured I would make mine look like the were dosed in glowing red blood

I like their poses. Normally the big jump packs make them look like they're falling over, but here they have ice dynamic poses. I like the highlights on the power weapons.

Nice Sang Guard, great work on the Contemptors, you did a much better headswap that I achieved with that model!

EDC

Small update: Got some decent downtime yesterday, so I got most of the base coat on the contemptor I got this week. Also spent some time assembling a box of death company marines and converting some bits to make a honor guard unit, but didn't get a chance to take pics of them. Heres the contemptor so far:









Thanks for looking, c&c welcomed and appreciated!

Your colour scheme looks really mean on that contemptor. Black as a secondary colour always looks good.
the way you put the paint on is very even, no idea how you do it, lots of thin layers??

STG, The red is about three layers. One of straight khrone red to get the base, another slightly thinned for coverage, and another coat thats much thinner to give it a fairly smooth finish. Right now I'm working on the edge highlights,hoping to have him done by the end of the week. I'm pleased with his look so far, its amazing how much a head swap and a slight change in position can do for a model. When I first saw this one I really didn't like it, and thought it was so much wasted potential. Still not very fond of the legs, but changing those would require quite a bit more work and I don't have the patience for it.

I had a bit of time this weekend and was able to get the contemptor finished. Got the highlights on him and a transfer on the tabbard. I ran out of dull coat, so the transfer is still a bit shiney. I'm really pleased on how this guy turned out, its pretty much exactly how I pictured it when I started working on him. The blood angels bits work, but don't over power the composition of the model in my opinion. Let me know what you all think!













Commenets and criticism are welcome and appreciated!

Looks really good, colour scheme comes together well!

Thanks STG! I am rather pleased with this one. At times I'm overly critical of my own stuff, but not this one. In fact when I just scrolled past the pics I was like "Damn, that realy turned out well!"

To be fair, it's quite hard to paint a bad Contemptor. But, hey, good job!

So thanks to Evildrcheese, I am now registered with Bolter and Chainsword and I am participating in the Tenebrae Lux V paitinging challenge. I vowed to paint up a certain number of Blood angels units, and I started with my conversion of a counts as Dante. I had him primed, so it was fairly easy to get started with him this weekend. Here he is, let me know what you guys think. I'm fairly happy with him, and he looks better in person than the pictures due to the lighting. If i ever get really ambitious I might wash the golds to give it some more depth and highlight it with bright gold on the edges, but I think I'll probably leave him as is.









As always, Comments and criticism are welcome and appreciated.

Dante is looking mean! one nitpick is that on his axe theres a mouldline all the way down the handle...
gold is hard to paint so fair play dude, looks great

Yeah, I noticed that same mold line once I put up the pics! Thats half the reason I post stuff, because I notice things I never would just looking at the mini.

Hey Col. Nice to have you in board for the ETL, Dante is looking wicked cool.

Your Contemptor is looking ace too, nice work.

EDC

Thanks EDC! And thanks for the invite to participate in the ETL, I'm sure it will motivate me to get stuff painted quicker. Speaking of which, heres a few things I have done in the last week or so. First up is a random rogue trader era marine I had laying around. Its amazing how soft the details were on this one, made it kind of hard to paint. He's a bit fuky looking, but I kinda like his swagger ;-)








Next up is random tactical marine I painted right before vowing on the ETL painting challenge. Now That I have made my vow the rest of his unit will have to wait until I finish up the stuff I vowed on already.










And last but certainly not least is the Captain that I pledged for ETL painting challenge. Hes a little rough in spots as he had quite a lot of bling poorly glued on his when I got him in a trade.








Thanks for looking, and as always comments and criticism welcome and appreciated!