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.

Nice little army shot you have there. I gotta bust everything out for an updated army shot soon.

You devastators are good, too!

Cheers Zambro, they certainly look like they have seen less action than your Marines!

A bit more Blood Angel progress, some Scouts so if I use the Death Company Dread as Cassius The Damned I have 2 troops choices.

I have also started work on 5 tacticals. Once these are done I will be at 55 miniatures painted in my collection, so 1 more to do to make it 25% of my unpainted stuff done...so I thought i would make it a biggish one:







WIP Tactical Marines:



And zoooooooooooooooooooooom:



As ever thanks for looking.

Like the Scouts a lot and the Tacs are coming along nicely!

Am not usually one to post single miniatures, but this is a big one for me as I have been dreading painting the BA Tacticals, I do not really know why it is not like they are going to be as much of a PITA as the Death Company. But I am quite happy with him, I thin one of the issues may be they are a lot more detailed than your average vanilla Marine. So here goes, welcome Brother Vacius:







Will be trying to complete the other 4 today.

Adios.

I feel your pain with the DC marines. FAR too much bling on them. I mean, I get Blood Angels do have a rep for that on their stuff but it gets ridiculous on the DC kit.

I wouldn't worry. You've nailed it!

 Zambro wrote:
I wouldn't worry. You've nailed it!

Yep, this! Excellent stuff!

With the DC it is not only the bling but highlighting all of the black power armour, very unforgiving and quite dull.

Thank you Para and Zambro, am thinking that after the BA are done I will try and mute and add realism to my painting style to be more like yours. I see so many well painted armies out there that are less aggressively highlighted and they just seem better to my eye. Think I will try it out on some HIPS Mantic Enforcers I have knocking around.

Thanks man

I think when you're developing your painting style, you have to take into consideration what your painting. Certain styles fit certain things better. For example, muted and dirty fits the Imperial Fists because it looks good over yellow. The contrast is there, and it almost defies what you would expect. The edge highlights fit Ultras/BA/SW well. My sort of weathering and style wouldn't work well on those colours. Edge highlighting does.
At the end of the day, style comes from loads of experiance. So just try things out and see what happens. I just looked up what Enforcers looked like, they should be a great test for muted colours and realism.

Yeah, good luck trying out a different style! When I went the other way earlier this year, from very, very muted to playing with things like NMM and blending a bit more (particularly on Fantasy stuff) it was very liberating and fun.

If you want any tips then I'm more than happy to help out, the trick is getting into the habit of shading down rather than highlighting up for the most part. Start with what you want to be the brightest-but-one shade, then shade in a style of your choosing (washes are great), and when you highlight back up, only go a little brighter than your initial colour. The alternative is to paint how you normally would, from dark to light, but start a hell of a lot darker (as in, for red I start from an almost brown purple) and blend your way up gradually; you still get a nice smooth gradient, but it's not the 'highlighted to white' style.

You also need to pick the tone to suit the minis, as Zambro said. Things like your purples and reds look great with the bright, aggressive highlighting so there's no need to change up there, while something a little more military or 'low fantasy' benefits from a more muted palette.

Looking forward to seeing your results!

Thanks for the advice gents. As for "knocking back I tend to do that once. I basecoat and then wash the mini, that is it. My experiments will probably not happen for a good while, but the intention is certainly there.

So there...I did it. On 21st August I posted a list of my entire unpainted GW collection. Some 220 odd models. Basically far too much stuff so I imposed a buying ban on myself and set to work. Since then I have painted 55 of them, they look like this:



I must say I am very happy with what I have achieved. So what will I buy...I decided nothing. Onto the next quarter!

Here are the Tacticals that completed the 55 models:





One of the pleasing things about the challenge is that it re-invigorated my Blood Angel army when I had basically given up on them. The army is now in excess of 1300pts and looks like this:



So onto the next 55 models...(well I may buy a little Land Speeder as a treat).

Adios.

Awesome stuff, really excellent quantity and quality! Even if there's nothing you plan to buy right now, at least if you see something cool online or in a store you can pick it up without feeling guilty!

Congratulations!! On two counts: 1) Painting 55 models in 45 days, and 2) getting through a quarter (quarter!) of your unpainted collection.
Two very solid achievements, feel proud.

Buying minis is a slippery slope into having a giant collection and feeling overwhelmed. I always do my best to stay ontop of my painted minis. As it stands, I have 2 speeders and a Dreadnought in progress. 5 Terminators and 2 bikes that need to get built up. And a LotD squad that arrived today. I'm on a self imposed 'no buy' until the speeders, dread and LotD are done.

Can we get a sneak peak at what the next 55 minis are?

Thank you gents.

@Zambro: will have to get a picture tomorrow, as for now a dull list


Stormcast Eternals: (15)
Lord Celestant On Drakoth
1 Lord Relictor
3 Retributors
5 Liberators
3 Prosecutors
1 Lord Castellant
1 Gryph Hound

Chaos: (8)
1 Exalted Deathbringer
1 Chariot
3 Dragon Ogres
3 Skullcrushers

Dark Elves (38)
1 Sorceror
1 Assassin
5 Cold One Knights
20 Dreadspears
10 Executioners
1 Bolt Thrower.

Total: 61 Fantasy Miniatures.

Warhammer 40k

Chaos (45)
35 Cultists
5 Raptors
5 Chosen

Ad Mech: (19)
1 Onager Dunecrawler
3 Ironstriders
3 Kataphron Breachers
2 Kataphron Destroyers
10 Skitarii Rangers

Blood Angels: (27)

Stormraven Gunship
1 Drop Pod
15 Tactical Marines
10 Death Company
Landspeeder

Hawk Lords Space Marines (20)
10 Tactical Marines
5 Terminators
2 Characters
3 Bilkes

4 Assassins

40k =115

So 175 miniatures in total, but if I consider that I had 25% more than that less than 2 months ago then I am good to go.

No real idea what I will tackle after the Stormraven, any requests/ideas?

More Fantasy stuff! Your Khorne and Nurgle stuff is awesome, so if you can get the Dark Elves or Sigmarines looking that great then we're in for a treat!

A little bit of everything!

If you've reinvigorated your passion for BA, keep going with them. Make a dent in the Tacticals and do one of the vehicles.
I'd also suggest doing 5-10 of the cultists. Just so your not left with 35 cultists to do in your last stages

(I really enjoyed painting my dragon ogres... hint hint )

I caved in and bought...just a single Space Marine Landspeeder.You tend nto to see them as they are just so fragile game wise but the design has always been very evocative for me.

How long have GW not done the ball and socket joint for the top of the flying stand? I assume they got rid of them as they always cracked.

Will get cracking on some fantasy stuff once I return from Bognor Regis.

Cool, is the Speeder destined for the Hawk Lords or the Blood Angels? I don't own too much stuff on flying stands, but the Land Speeder Storm I bought about 4 years ago had a pin and socket rather than ball and socket on the stand. Though I think a more recent Necron Spyder had a ball... I guess it's just whichever they reckon holds the mini up best.

Seems to make sense. The speeder will be for the Blood Angels,I need to get painting some yellow helmets.

I too have 4 year old speeders, and they are regular pin stands. I think the ball and socket stand was more of a recent thing. And the speeders haven't had a kit update in a while, so it could be that.
It could also be that the speeders won't sit well on the ball+socket stands. Because, lets face it, those ball stands aren't great.

I'm excited to see your LS. How are you loading it out? There is a lot of surface area, so painting by brush will take a while. I'm supprised that you count a model as a model and take no considerations as to it's size. A DE dragon takes longer than a tacitcal marine!
I guess it comes down to whether or not time is an issue. Are you aiming to clear your backlog by a certain date, or just looking to set goals to help get through the stuff?

Have fun in Bognor Regis! Not been there in a long time. Bringing back some childhood memories

That's a nice looking 55 minis.

I'm glad you're going to do some fantasy stuff next. I love fantasy models!

That BA force is really coming together.

Is the speeder for the BAs?

D

@Zambro, missile launchers and heavy bolter. It will be part 1 of a squadron of 3 hopefully.

We are in Bognor for a music festival called Rockaway Beach, has been excellent and sunny all weekend too, a bonus in October.

@Eyeamrai: thank you, always good to have you around. Fantasy is indeed great.

@evildrcheese: it is far bigger a force than I imagined a few weeks ago. The speeder will certainly be Blood Angel.

Lovely to see more things getting finished, if only we could all have so much self control!

Really like those BA tacticals, looks like a cracking kit to play with.

@Ignatius: It is a very nice kit, so many options and also a lot of bling/different armour marks but not as out of control as the Death Company.

Have completed my Stormraven, I opted for a more battered look than usual and made a big usage of sponge weathering (thanks to Zambro for that tip).

And yes the tail fin is on the wrong way round.

Here goes:















I also hope to get my Exalted Death Bringer done today as well, so for now 1/58.6* painted.

Adios.

Is this thing on?

I really like the weathering on it but I think it needs some more colors to break up all the red.

At the moment it looks like a red brick. Though GWs styling make it look like a brick no matter the color.

It looks great! The weathering is great, too!

I think it could benefit from some company markings to break up the red a bit. Which company are your Blood Angels from?