Putting on decals is really hard. At least on shoulders. Here are "the gang". It is missing a power sword sergeant (I wonder how often someone fields a chainsword and boltgun sergeant) and a meltagun marine. I also realized that I need to fix my lascannon marine so he's got a tactical up arrow as well. I have greenstuffed up arrows for the two new marines (pictures coming in the future when I start to work on them) and it looks pretty nifty all in all.
I like the AoBR tacticals, thinking of getting more of them. Maybe I should have two fourth company squads too :) The downside is needing two more Razorbacks :)
Here's a slightly better view of the decals. And again, how the heck to you get them to conform to the shape of the shoulder? I do have Micro Set and Micro Sol, yet I get wrinkles etc. And there is no way I am freehanding that, it is far too hard for someone with my handling of the brush. Maybe in the future:)
And here we have a little dread! Chose to put the logo on the left weapon arm instead of the leg "plate". Thought that it felt better that way. I have put some basing sand on him, we'll see how that goes. He is getting close to finished, even though he is out of the list. Maybe he will make a comeback :)In the background we have some sergeants (power fist and power sword, with magnetized banners. Cool huh!). But that is for a future post!
I also popped by The Source this weekend for their Black Crusade 2010. There was a massive amount of people there and series of gigantic Apocalypse games. It was a brief visit and I scoped out the local scene a bit. Some nice looking minis there, and one insanely expensive piece of terrain in the form of a Thunderhawk. Dark Angels Thunderhawk. A freakin' Thunderhawk as a piece of terrain. Awesome:)
I really do need to get some games in (blah blah, don't have my army up and running. Me stupid!), I am getting itchy for some gaming. I also realized that my painting is pretty good. I think I have looked at the works of far too many great painters online and effectively use that as a frame of reference. Stop being so freakin' awesome you internet people! :) But seriously my painting is pretty OK for being me :)
dont worry about how others have painted, I really like how are painting your minis, however is always to try to be better.
ReplyDeletewith that my wife thinks that maybe a red wash to enfatize the shadows could be a good result.
you can try using a wash on a plasticards piece first.
I'm all in all pretty happy with my marines (my oldest need some extra red on their imperial eagles. I paint them orange and then go in with a Baal red wash). I think that it is healthy to compare oneself to others. Gives you a frame of reference. It's just important to not connect ones self worth to it. I try to paint within my abilities and sometimes a bit beyond. I wonder how it will be painting Warmachine Cygnar again in the future:)
ReplyDeleteI never considered a red wash. I use a Gryphonne Sepia (think old photos if you don't own a pot of it yourself:)) for an early shading but it tends to stain the yellow very brownish so I can't apply it at the end as I usually do. I wonder what Baal Red would do. Might give it a red/orange feel to it. Haven't dared Badab Black:)
Seeing that my minis stack up fairly well gave me a little confidence boost for the future when I will go out and find people to game with. If you show up with something at least OK you get more cred than winning with an unfinished army with lots of grey plastic:)
Dude, your minis look great! I really really like your dread. I wish I was as close to finishing my army as you are. I paint oh so slowly :( I also wish I could paint as good as the people I see on forums :P
ReplyDeleteAbout 5 years ago, there was a Wizards of the Coast store near where I lived in Miami. The store had some showcases with extremely well painted minis. I thought everybody painted like that but then I saw a couple of games and became disappointed. How could people paint their miniatures so badly and in a rush was a crime to me (even though I had never painted a wh miniature or would for 5 years.) So I know what you mean when you saw the armies on that event.
Keep those yellow marines coming!
My only comment on them is that they look brand new. Are you going to add weathering of sorts? Or is the newness a look you planned for them, kinda like they are so disciplined that they clean their armor after each mission :P
As close?:) I have one meltgun, two sergeants, two rhinos (half finished, kinda), 5 assault terminators, Lysander, five more assault marines, and finally a land raider to finish. And I am thinking of modeling up the possible variations you can have for tacticals so I can field whatever combination I can think of.
ReplyDeleteI also have to come up with squad markings. Thinking of marking them with a I and a II in white on the right shoulder, on the big arrow. Going to add an arrow to the first squad lascannoneer as he's the only one missing one, and if that retrofit succeeds I might do it for second squad as well. Did it prepainting on the meltagun and sergeant for 1st squad with some greenstuff and it turned out ok:)
Some speed painting techniques turn out pretty ok results, I rather people take the little time to do that and choose a paint scheme that goes well with such techniques. Spray on a base color, dip them, add a few quick details (like red eyes on marines) and base.
It wasn't that I was disappointed, nor that I want to diss the people playing, I just kind of had an epiphany that I have compared myself to some pretty awesome guys out there :) Check the blogs I follow and you'll see :)
The tacticals look a bit unclean in the paint when they are not photographed, but yes they are very devoid of any kind of weathering or scratches. First of all my good Imperial Fists are very much taking care of their gear, but the real reason is that I chose to wait with it until 1. I am a better painter from painting my full 1500pt army 2. My army is done so I can play with it. Can always add little things like that along the way:) Not too much though mind you, as these guys aren't sloppy :)
Many thanks for appreciating my painting! This is the best part of having a blog :)
It was disappointing to me because I haven't seen battles before only really well painted minis. And they were painted very very poorly. And damn you have a lot of models! I only have to paint 15 more to be done with the AoBR space marines :)
ReplyDeleteI saw a couple of the blogs you follow and wow, I will check them more often now.
Keep up the good work!
Funny, we saw the same thing but reacted differently (mostly). Sure I rather see well painted models (again not trying to be mean or condescending, I have zero background to the owners of different models, and there were some pretty nice looking models as well for sure. I can't enough emphasize how many models were on those tables:)), but seeing some models painted to a lesser standard than mine was liberating. Kind of "I don't suck totally" :)
ReplyDeleteI also have some Ork and Eldar models that needs painting. I also have a secret project going. Hope it will pan out :)
Make a point at looking at Ron's from the warp blog, there are some amazing models there. The Tau of War has really nice stuff too. And if you can survive the Swedish Among the Way got really awesome models that are amazing. Check out the Nob Bikers :)
Hey flekkzo! I love them AoBR marines too. If you're concerned cabout not getting what you need from your sergeant, convert that whore! Yeah! Mine needed a power fist on his left hand so I just chopped his arm off at the elbow(caaaaaaaaaaaarefully) and attached a powerfist on that monster. As for the sword? Come on man. Chop the top of the chainsword off, then buy a box of WHFB empire stuff for bits. Chop up a sword where the hilt meets the crossgaurd and attach to the hand of the sergeant. To better anchor what could appear to be a flimsy conversion, only chop off some of the hilt on the replacement sword and reduce the girth of the remaining hilt piece. Drill a hole where the sword will be placed with a pin vise, making sure that the peg that is the remainder of the sword hilt, will go. Adjust as needed, voila! What once was a chainsword is now a tasteful power sword conversion!
ReplyDeleteI like the hazard yellow of your IF. Did you use an airbrush to get such a consistent coat? Smashin' job. I only chose my wacky scheme because I hate my body. Why do something simple when it can be bone-numbingly complex? I think you need some brown ink lined into the recesses though. Washes may be a little too subtle for yellow, i.e. they can't stand up to that sunburst yellow.
As to people not "painting" their models prior to playing....lets face it. There are gamers, and then there are hobbyists. I like to paint. I have played a handful of games. I can't imagine going to the field without a fully painted army.
@ ashi- the best way to plow through painting an army is to schedule yourself. write out all your units, indicating which you have bought, and which oyu have painted. STAY FOCUSSED. Take breaks in between projects within that army, DO NOT PAINT ANY OTHER UNIT FROM ANY OTHER ARMY. Check off the units as you finish them. Progress will become it's own reward. :)
I'm slowly starting to get into doing small conversions, so there will be a little more of that in the future. I did has an extra box of tacticals laying around so I used that to build new Sergeants. Have two powerweapon ones on the painting table now:) Might finish up the power fist one too. Modded them so I have a magnet in the backpack so I easily can add and remove a flag. Got some pictures coming up!
ReplyDeleteFor the tacticals I used an orange/yellow color from Vallejo, but I've since switch to Tausept -> Gryphonne Sepia -> 1:1 Iyanden Darksun/Golden Yellow -> 1-2 coats of Golden Yellow and finally a Sunburst Yellow highlight. The foundation colors are truly useful. Found out that Macharios Solar Orange + Baal Red Washes is an awesome way to paint red btw :)
I do have an airbrush but haven't gotten into that yet. I plan on using it for my vehicles because there is no way I can paint all that with a brush again (didn't even finish the first Razorback properly because it took such time).
It's hard to get the recesses nice and dark without staining the rest of the model a lot and I don't want to go black. Maybe I'll try to mix in some black or brown in the Sepia on the next set of models (don't want models in the same squad differ too much).
Sometimes I need to paint something else to cleanse my palette. One Ork or Eldar or Tau and I am good to go into Yellow land again! At least until my army is done and I can start to look at some Space Wolves :)
If you get you hands on old school gw yellow ink
ReplyDelete(Vallejo probally works too)
Take a test Fist and hit it with a coat of 50/50 matte medium and yellow ink.
You may just like the results.
Your army looks good like said pick a unit, paint a unit, done is the way to go.
The only thing that bugs me is the decal on the dreds arm.
It should be upside down with his arm up.
I've been eyeing P3's yellow ink, it looks very yellow. I haven't really seen the old school ink from GW so I don't have a good visual comparison.
ReplyDeleteWould you recommend using the ink to color or shade (or both)?
I can't believe I haven't seen it, the decal on the dread should have the fist up when the arm points down and it is pointing forward. Wow, sometimes you are blind to something until it's pointed out to you. I will jot it down to experience:) Funny thing is that I did it right on the infantry models:)