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I really love your painting style Para. You're a very fast painter, and I can see that your not concerned with spending tens of hours making sure that each little dot of color is in exactly the right place. You don't have to, because you have a great sense of aesthetics and color. If you study, say, a wristwatch on one of your models, it may not have individually painted numbers, but damn if the overall effect of each model isn't spot on. You also don't exaggerate highlights, which for some painters (me) just looks like they don't know how to get enough contrast, but with you it looks very deliberate and realistic, for lack of a better word. That "dirty" look is something I would love to do but can never pull off. Love it!

Theophony wrote:

Spoiler:

Had to be done as you and Graven had me interested in the game, then I saw it half price on the dinged and dented shelf at miniaturemarket. Next I'll have to start looking at gangs. I've just been rewatching Arrow on Netflix the last couple of days....wonder who I'll start with.

Good, good... give in to your feelings! Join us on the Bat Side of the Nerd!

Arrow is a good one to start with if you're leaning that way. He's got two models/profiles you can use straight off the bat (no pun intended), so you have some variety there, and all bar one of the models in the Arrow list can also be used by Batman, so you're essentially getting two crews for the price of one!

Did that rulebook have Alfred with it?

Mymearan wrote:I really love your painting style Para. You're a very fast painter, and I can see that your not concerned with spending tens of hours making sure that each little dot of color is in exactly the right place. You don't have to, because you have a great sense of aesthetics and color. If you study, say, a wristwatch on one of your models, it may not have individually painted numbers, but damn if the overall effect of each model isn't spot on. You also don't exaggerate highlights, which for some painters (me) just looks like they don't know how to get enough contrast, but with you it looks very deliberate and realistic, for lack of a better word. That "dirty" look is something I would love to do but can never pull off. Love it!

Cheers.

To be perfectly honest, I am trying to be a little neater these days, not take shortcuts or half-measures like I used to an awful lot. Up until a few months ago I was definitely all about the overall impression rather than detail, but these days I am attempting to take a bit more time and be more careful. I'm getting there, but I do need to keep working at it. I still aim to keep the style, but just refine it a little.

On a side note, the gallery updating goes on apace. By the end of today there will be better pics of my Space Hulk, GK, Infinity, Imperial Fists, Malifaux and Chaos up (and a few other bits and bobs) if anyone fancies a blast from the past!

Nope, just the rulebook, no figures with it. Though they've had a penguins crew set sitting there for a while and today put a batman on his motorcycle out (it's missing one of the bars that holds the wheels). Just a quick flip through the book, are all the stats online somewhere for the models? Or do they come with the models? Guess I could use bat-builder to see how people stack up.

The stat cards come with the models (if there are multiple versions the character you get the card which corresponds with the specific mini). But they are all available on Bat-builder (click on a mini to bring up the 'card', click on a rule to bring up a summary) or on the KM site (the page for each mini has a download link for the cards).


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On a completely unrelated note, I'll be painting a couple of Tactical Squads for sale to add to the Batman fund, any particular Chapters you guys would like to see me tackle? I'm thinking it'll have to be First Founding as I don't want to risk something obscure and not end up selling them, but I'm thinking a squad of Ultramarines, and maybe one of Iron Hands or Salamanders?

Thanks for the info

As for chapters, I think Iron hands as you have the gritty paint job down pat, and dark angels.....for reasons

Would love to see you tackle Salamanders, but I think UM are a good choice if you want something nice and saleable.

I think the problem with Para painting Dark Angels is that he would want to keep them for his own army, though at this rate 40k may get blown away in the pursuit of a full Batman collection.

White scars would be interesting, but UM would be cool especially since you could pimp them out with the new upgrade kits from GW

If you are up for a little yellow, Imperial Fists would be nice. Their tac squads perform pretty good on the table as well. Plus they look good beat up and grimy, which fits your style.

Hmm, lots to think on!

Iron Hands would certainly be fun, the only issue is that these guy already assembled and for IH I'd probably want to kit them out with some fancy techo-implants and bionics. There still an option, especially as my ability to paint black has improved a lot recently, and as said they're ripe for heavy weathering. From what I understand, IH are also pretty popular game-wise these days.

Scars are probably out as as much as I like how they look, saleable white is still a little beyond me. If these were for me I'd do it, but I don't want to be experimenting on something that I'd be selling.

UM I can definitely do, did a load for my own armies a few years back and I'm certainly up for revisiting the Chapter. As said, they're popular too. Pretty sure at least one of the two squads will be Ultras, probably 2nd Co.

DA and Sallies are an option, I'm just not sure how well I can pull them off. I can do them to a standard I'd put down on the table myself, but good dark greens are something I'm still a tad unsure I can pull off. Might give it a shot, though.

I kind of want to do BA as I know I can do them, but it seems silly to use generic Tacs for them when they have a shiny kit of their own.

Fists I'm tempted by; again I can definitely do them, but yellow is far more unforgiving than UM blue or Sallies green, I think.


Sorry, lots of rambling today and no pics! Should get the next Batman lot tomorrow (Azrael and Red Hood) so I should have something more meaningful to post then!

GW did an interesting take on painting yellow on their youtube channel let me see if I can find it.


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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLpkAjDZKU4

Around the 4 minute mark

Cheers for that link! Those GW tutorials really are awesome, pretty much compulsory watching even if you never plan to paint the model in question, the techniques are easily transferable to anything. They're also so professionally filmed/presented that you're never left wondering 'what just happened there?', you can see exactly how it's all done. If you haven't checked them out, go and do it now!

Right, on with another round of pics. I went for Iron Hands and Ultramarines in the end, more on why below.

Iron Hands:






Chose the Hands as they a) play to my strength of heavily weathered, dark Marines, b) my method for black is very simple, so I can get them done pretty quickly, and still looks decent once the weathering is added, and c) they're one of the few First Founding Chapters I've never really tried to do, so it's an adventure! I'm considering changing the base colour, maybe to a Mars-style browny-red, just to add a bit more contrast. That colour combo works quite well on my small Raven Guard force, so I'm tempted to repeat it here. Any other suggestions?


And now the Ultramarine:






UM I chose as a) I wanted to revisit the Chapter, having done them (to a far lower standard) a few years back, b) they lend themselves to a brighter/neater scheme, nice and different from the IH, so I don't need to get bogged down painting 20 minis the same way. I'm considering adding just a bit of weathering (in a neater manner, not just all over like the IH).


And on a slightly different note, I came across this in a local model shop yesterday (by accident, I was actually looking though their blister pack baskets for some Mantic stuff they had on sale, to no avail) and just had to buy him. This is the 'Hold The Line' model from Warlord Games' Hail Caesar line, a mounted Roman general and his faithful warhound. The detail on the sculpt was pretty impressive, and the fact he reminded me of the opening scenes of Gladiator absolutely didn't sway my opinion in any way, honest guv... yeah, it kind of did!










Pretty happy with this, to be honest. The horse is probably the best I've done, and I think the whole piece comes together quite nicely. I've no plans for a 28mm Roman army, but I may well pick up a couple more blisters to display alongside this guy.

That's all for now, I should have more Marines and hopefully some more Batman tomorrow. As ever, thanks for reading, any thoughts welcome!

Nice job there fella. gorgeous treatment of the Roman dude....Biggus Dickus????

Marines look nice. For the freehand I found using a mechancial pencil first really helps the uniformity and keeping them tight

Marines are looking good! I'm going to have to pinch the red bolter w/ white stripe idea for my Fists. While it's always good to practise freehand, why not use the tactical arrows from the decal sheets? It could save time, and effort, for the same result.
And regarding the IH. All of my blacks aren't 'black'. If you go back and take a look at my scouts, and blacks on heavy weapons etc., they are all a dark grey. Close enough to look black, yet light enough to allow you to shade details. Some food for thought.

Excited to see some more Batman. Last night a friend brough down some BMG. We didn't have to for it, unfortunately... Gotta wait a bit longer...
When (I'd say if, but when is more accurate) I get some minis for this, I'll make sides that reflect the Dark Knight films. Batman+Gordon and Joker, or Batman+Catwoman and Bane. Something like that to try and hook friends

Cheers guys!

@Januine: He didn't have a name, I guess he does now!

@Zambro: Going from the films is definitely a sound idea, The only issue you might run into is that the film minis for Bane and Ra'sare massive compared to the rest (you can see Ra's a few pages back), but if you can deal with that aesthetically you're sorted. DK Batman is a good one for starting out too; not too expensive points-wise, and unlike the Arkham versions he's not got a dozen gadgets to keep track of.

The black is exactly like that, a dark blue-grey highlighted up. I just wanted to keep it looking black, so there's only 2 layers of highlights.

As far as the freehand, it does look worse in the pics than it actually is (and on the IH, the chipping has blurred the outline slightly). I've never really got decals to work properly and look good, and the freehand is not that time-consuming, so I'll stick with that for the time being. In the next round of pics, I'll try and get some that show it a bit more favourably.

Should do a Sister of Battle or something called Incontinentia Buttocks too

Some things are perhaps left to the imagination rather than the paint desk!

Got Red Hood for Batman painted today, and should get another Ultra finished for tomorrow as well.

That Ultramarine looks really striking, very nice work .

The Batman and now the Marine stuff are all looking very nice. Bane's Venom Thug looks good too, though I did at first think of Spidey's Venom and have to do a "oh, yeah, right" doubletake. Do the Knight models for Marvel and DC both use the same rules? I've been content to just look at the pretty pictures, but The Punisher makes things tempting...

I like the Ultramarine better than the Iron Hand guy, but that has more to do with the fact that Ultramarines have a better looking scheme than Iron Hands. The Roman guy is awesome, too! Always nice to see some historical stuff around with our scifi/fantasy miniatures. Do you think you will pursue Ultramarines instead of Iron Hands, or are you planning to do both?

Love all three of those minis. I hope you go the roman/greek style of UM, and keep the bright colors.

 Azazelx wrote:
The Batman and now the Marine stuff are all looking very nice. Bane's Venom Thug looks good too, though I did at first think of Spidey's Venom and have to do a "oh, yeah, right" doubletake. Do the Knight models for Marvel and DC both use the same rules? I've been content to just look at the pretty pictures, but The Punisher makes things tempting...

There's no rules for marvel yet. I believe they are working towards getting the rights to do a game for it, but their contract with marvel was only to produce the minis.

I really like the roman. Very cool model. In regards to the iron hand, I just wonder if his pauldrons need their trim painted in a different colour to break up the model a bit?

Excellent job on those marines. The paint job on that mounted roman general is something else. Great work.

D

Romans now? Awesome. I love the variety. Keep it coming

Thanks y'all!

@Az: As Theo said, there's sadly no rules for the Marvel stuff yet. From what I've seen, the 'supers' game that's coming soon for the DC stuff will also be able to work with Marvel, either as part of the game or just two games built on the same mechanics that are 'totally not compatible wink wink' to alleviate any rights issues. Either way, when it happens, The Avengers vs the Justice League will be happening, definitely! Now I've got access to a blank character card too, I'll be writing up rules for the 'street level' Marvel heroes in Batman. Punisher, Daredevil, Elektra, Spidey, Wolverine and assorted villains will all be getting house-ruled in at some point, though probably not until I'm done collecting the Batman stuff I want.

@Zergsmasher: I'll probably be doing a squad of both, as an experiment if nothing else, but the UM are taking priority as they're more fun to paint.

@Archer: I thought about it, but the codex said they have black shoulder rims. If anyone can point me to some fluff that states otherwise it's definitely up for consideration.

Now, on to the pics!

As mentioned yesterday, here's Red Hood. If Nightwing/Dick Grayson is Robin dun good, Hood/Jason Todd is Robin dun bad. After being abandoned by Batman, killed by the Joker and resurrected by the League of Shadows, it's understandable that he's pretty messed up by the end of the ordeal. On returning to Gotham, he sets about cleaning up the streets in the way Batman never could, not afraid to drop bodies by the dozen and play off the criminals against each other from behind the scenes. As you might expect, this brings him into conflict with Bats... then spoilers happen (by which I mean, the animated 'Under the Red Hood' movie is awesome, so I won't ruin the ending here). These days he's teamed up with Arsenal (formerly Speedy) and Starfire in a band named the Outlaws, who are basically DC's Guardians of the Galaxy (their New 52 comic run is well worth reading).






And since someone asked a while back, scale shots of Hood with Bats, Robin and Nightwing:



Not overly happy with how the hood itself looks in these pics, but it looks fine in real life. Very nice model, with a good mix of textures to work on.


And another Ultramarine:





This will probably be it for a while; I move out/in on Sunday, and the rest of the time between now and then will most likely be spent on packing. I've got a bit of free time in the first week so I'm going to try and get Azrael done, but things will definitely be slowing down a bit here. Thanks again to everyone who drops by here, and hopefully I'll still manage to keep reasonably productive on the hobby front over the coming weeks and months.

Cheers for looking, any thoughts welcome.

Best of luck with the move and settling in, if your first year is anything like mine you will have plenty of free time to get your hobby on.

Really like the Ultramarines and Iron Hand, some really good work on those, brave to do the freehand chapter symbols too.

I think that Red Hood is one of the few BTMG sculpts that I am not sold on, as a whole the miniature is great but the head just makes it seem off. Then again he is painted well and looks great as part of the group.

Jason Todd wasn't abandoned. He got kidnapped by Joker and beaten within an inch of his life with a crowbar lol. Then blown up.

Red Hood does seem to be a pretty polarising sculpt among BMG fans, I like it a lot but that could be because I'm a big fan of the character. More than a few jokes about his fabulous dancing pose have been made, though!

angelofvengeance wrote:Jason Todd wasn't abandoned. He got kidnapped by Joker and beaten within an inch of his life with a crowbar lol. Then blown up.

True, but particularly in the Arkham version and the Outlaws comics he seems to see it that way, and rather resents Batman for not saving him. He's messed up either way!

Always wondered which robin it was that became the red hood, I heard he was one of them, and remembered him dying, but really didn't care enough to find out back then.

As for this picture.....

I think it's just a coincidence that the glare on Batmans leg looks like red hood just shot his gun, which is aimed at his groin. Well that'll teach him

Also picked up a box of Mercs for dirt cheap today. Did you say you have the rules, or just painting the one gang for fun?

ooo i picked up arkam batman
I should really get around to painting him...