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I started playing warhammer 40k about a month and a half ago, with 2 of my friends. Seeing as our FLGS is in the next town over, we usually only play at each other's houses, on weekends since we all go to school. I play space marines, my other friend orks, and another plays chaos space marines. Basically I am going to blog about the adventures of starting to play wh40k.

My first army thus far

no chapter name (need viewer input! soon!)

includes all of black reach, with one conversion by replacing the captains hand with a plasma pistol hand

1 tactical squad, with rocket and plasma gun

1 WIP scratch built drop pod

thats it so far.... looking into some assualt marines and vanguard vets.
also plan on getting a real drop pod


painting wise I have AOBR tac squad done, and 2 of the other tac squad.

some AOBR marines


my best marine thus far:


WIP drop pod


beginnings of some scenery

Looks like a great start! heres a few tips, water down your paint until it looks like coffee creamer, that will cut down on some of the chalky looks you get. If your hart is not set on the color white try an off white like bone, its much easier to shade and highlight. On last thing is the magic of inks, and washes, take some brown (preferable for skin and other warm colors) or black paint (use on cool colors) and water them down to the consistancy of skim milk, then "paint" over the areas that need shade, the wash will run into the cracks. you may need to do this a couple times after the paint dries but it will give you a lot more depth to your work.


Good luck, and welcome aboard!

They look pretty decent, but marines tend to benefit from very neet layering or hard-edge highlights; drybrushing doens't work all that well for them. I really like your scratch-built droppod and terrain, they look very nice. Make a city!

Update:

painted another marine... actually I had this done a few days ago, just now got pics. Also, it isn't the greatest so I will take more. But it pretty much is not any better then the last...


Also got more work done on the drop pod, but it isn't primed yet. I'll have pics up once i get that done.

Captain finished, Sword and all.



in other news... got some pics of some random scenery I have made.



Also started on some gothic ruins this morning. I also have a large culvert style tube that is finished, and is waiting for paint. In games, I am going to count it as a corragated metal shed, with 2 access points and 2 fire points (same as access points). pics will be up when it is finished.

I am looking into some additions to my army... I think some vanguard vets, some sniper scouts, and some assualt marines. I am also considering a jump chaplian for a hq.
Any thoughts on these choices?

Also I am still looking for a chapter name.

Any comments are welcome. verrrry welcome.

like I said. after nearly 200 views, comments are verrrry welcome.

Heh. Well, your scenery is very good. What I can see of your painting is promising, but average so far - it pales in comparison to the quality of your scenery!



This is also your best PHOTO yet. Shots that are >80% background are usually resized to the point where detail is obscured, if it was there in the first place..

Scenery Update!

finished the culvert - thing.




I am not fully content with the paint job, but oh well. not worth repainting.

In game, I plan to use as a building with av of 9. The ends will be both access and fire points.

next I plan on making a modern version of the classic sacrifice table that is usually seen in WHFB chaos scenery. Its going to be brutal.

I also might paint some marines eventually as well.

Also I am still looking for a chapter name.

That concludes this test of the public update system. Thank you.

I like the paint scheme.. but I am really impressed with the terrain.. and the use of "found objects".

I seriously don't know why you want an Ofeeeecial Drop Pod.. yours looks ace! Maybe a shot of it with a marine next to it for scale?

-Porkuslime

ha ha... funny story about the drop pod.

I sort of lost the patterns and directions for the very bottom of it. so, I decided to give it a slightly larger base with lots of rubble and such, so you wouldn't miss the bottom. but as of now it isn't looking so hot.

I dunno. maybe it can be salvageable. if all else fails, Ill just rip it off the base and go from there.

Pics of its current state will be up soon.

nice nice and nice! hurray for purple!

Alright... current state of the Scratch built drop pod...


As I said before, its a little shaky.
The only thing I planned on adding was some static smoke, for cinematic effect.

Any comments welcome.

i like the drop pod it cool

looking great, though i must say that the drop pod looks brillient, much better that the gw ones, the base completes it, looking ford to upoming pics

thats a dreadnought pod. Looks like it was created using the "GW France" plans (they were briefly available to download from the french site.

I have the plans to make the infantry pod (like the one GW recently released if you want them?


ps. hurrah another purple marine army! I did Soul Drinkers. If yours are gonna be a chapter of your own making can I suggest calling them the "People Eaters" due to the colour?

yep, strait from the french directions. I loved the horrible translation it came with


no need to put up a link... I already found the page while lurking on your Reaver Titan thread. Which btw was totally rad.

Can we get more pics of the captain!? His sword looks great!

Well, the pink Marine looks quite good up to the (red) shoulder pads. Pink and silver have a good contrast.

Latest update.

No work on the drop pod since last time... I've been busy.
painted another marine, which is pretty meh. really sloppy, actually.

and the obligatory pic of my AoBR captain. I promise this is the last one of this guy. I gotta admit, he looks sloppier everytime I photograph him.


Also I am going insane. I somehow managed to lose a giant piece of scratch built scenery in my house! And my mom is a clean freak! clearly I am going mad. Anywho, yall can look at the WIP thread while I rip out my hair in frustration. http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/225924.page

Also picked up a assault squad box and captain Shrike today...

I would paint the shoulder pads differently. Not only is checkered difficult to do but the colors just look wrong. I think black trim with a parchment inside with black writing (using a micron pen) would look great. I'd also change the chest eagles to something silver or black or parchment colored. The red is just way too distracting.

Edit: Example

a few hints: thin your paint (especially the white) with a little water before painting and, you might have to use several layers but it will look better, alsow remove the mold lines

Am I the only one that thought the "Emperor's Pointy Sticks" as his chapter's name?

The sword and lighting effects on the captain are great! As is your scenery, Keep it up!!

Update:

not much more done, just adding some quick stuff.

to themandudeperson: yes, someone mentioned that, but I just recently looked it up. I am suprised that someone had used colors like this. I wanted to be original! oh well. But I won't go back and change all of my marines to make them pointy sticks. Maybe I'll just make them some sort of splinter group/chapter, operating seperately but still part of pointy sticks. As of right now, fluff is not very important.

to Brado: Actually, one of the main criteria when I came up with the paint scheme was to get rid of the typical Space Marine "One semi interesting color pared with silver, gold, black, or white" color scheme.

Made this guy... had a bunch of bits from the boxes I bought, but no legs. So I took a stab at modeling some with clay:

not the greatest, but it works I suppose.

Also made an assault cannon for my AoBR termie:

Again, Its ok. Nothing real special.


also built and based the assault marines and Shrike.

Update:

Did a little test paint on the Drop pod. Its pretty rough, but looks promising.


and some marines to show the scale of this behemoth:


Still more work on it, like adding rivits and some chapter symbols. but I am liking how it looks so far.

Also painted an assualt marine. I am not going to post a pic, seeing as how I don't want to post pics for every model I paint. Its in the dakka gallery if you want to look there, though.

End update.

dude, these are fantastic! I can't believe youve only been doing this a month & a half. Youre far better than I was at that stage. Keep at it.

The Captain's sword is brilliant. Also, (judging by the edging on the pod [which again is frigging awesome] youre already getting the hang of this) use as little paint on your brush as possible & use the flat of the brush when you do edging & fine detail.

keep it up.

Wow great start at painting,converting,scratch-building and sculpting.If you keep practicing you will be the next migs

i like the CM's sword. and awesome work on that assault cannon! keep it up!

Ha ha. That's quite a bit of wishful thinking, saying ill be the next migs.

Many thanks for the kind words.
Next up: converting AoBR Terminators into assault termies with scratch built weapons!

They are looking awsome, i would realy appreciate it if some one could direct me to somewhere where you can get copies on templates for scratch building models

Yeah. here is the link:
http://www.geocities.com/wh40kcardtanks/

many thanks to sleazy for that thar.

also, I have had some major setbacks, so i haven't really got anything done. never fear, though! I believe I should be getting my terminators tomorrow!