New paints

White base (on a white primer), Casandora Yellow all over the model, Ceramite White highlight, and to finish it up Lamenters Yellow all over again. That's my new yellow "recipe". Doesn't get any easier to paint yellow as far as I am concerned!

Tried out a few of the other new paints and I am pretty happy with them in general. Used some old ones too. So a mix so to speak:)

It's the metal stern guard with a metal Imperial Fists backpack. In the future I will avoid metal models like the plague. They are terribly to work with for me.

I have no idea of how to add anything to the pauldrons. It's hard to enough to freehand normally, and with all that gunk on them…

Opinions more than welcome!

Vindicators almost done

Taking shape. One of them is missing a gunner and the loading crane thing and still needs a decal and finishing the tracks.

Then both need a Devlan Mud airbrush to give it a muddier feel and a little black dry brush for soot around the exhausts. Keeping those two last steps light as to not overdo it.

Now I just hope they can destroy my enemies!

Weathering

This is Vindicator #2. It needs details, washes, tracks, and some airbrushed mud. I used Chardon Granite for the weathering, just putting it on a piece of pluck foam and "dabbing" it on where it would be worn. The color worked really well in this case. At least I think so:) Click (or tap) the image for a larger version to see for yourself.

So, looking good or looking bad? Thinking of adding a few larger scrapes to the Siege Shield too.

Painting yellow!

I've fallen behind on my blogging, but funny enough not my painting. I plan on getting photos of everything painted and put in on the static army pages (I.e. Imperial Fists and Skaven, and probably a misc as well) and start chronicle things from here on.

I've been trying out Vallejo's white airbrush able primer. It works really well, with one exception, tape can rip it off (with disastrous effects on the valkyrie I'm painting!) back to the plastic. I would love to get hold of an airbrush able primer that really bit into the plastic (and resin) since I never ever anticipate trying to strip any paint off anyways (I just paint something else from my big pile of plastic crack:)).

So I started out with the white primer, then I pre shaded with Tausept Ochre. I didn't really clean up the Tausept well which I will do next time around. Apart from that minor snafu adding on the Golden Yellow  afterwards went really well. The Tausept turned out to be a bit orange in shade which actually looked quite nice. See for yourself:)

45 degree hazard stripes. 15mm "wide" (I measured 15mm between the dots on the top and bottom and then drew lines between them, they aren't actually 15mm wide per se). I really need to find a better tape, this type pulls off the paint (even when careful!). I didn't have it on nearly as long as on the Valkyrie, which probably saved me some headache, plus the pieces that happen to peal off (small) ended up on spots I intended to paint other colors anyways.

After airbrushing black. Looks pretty cool already :)

With bolt gun painted on. Going to paint the wings/skull red and give the metal a thing wash of badab black, followed by a devlan mud on the bottom quarter. Then some nicks in mithril silver and it should be off to battle we go. I do have a little experiment I'm thinking of though for the back of it. Going to paint in some "light" from the headlights on the tank on the back of the shield (the little flaps are there to represent that you can open them to let the light through). Going for light blue xenon light:)

So, how's that for painting yellow?

Various things

Hi dear blog readers,

I haven't posted for a while so it's time for a quick review of what I have been up to. Here goes!

Painted a daemon Juggernaut of Khorn. Forgot to take pictures. Gave it back to it's owner. Wops:) It looked pretty cool in yellow and brass. I also painted a green Ghoul at my FLGS for Matt. If you're reading this, I want to see how you did painting the rest of them :)

I have also started to play Warhammer 40k, with pretty mixed results. I've found that Razorspam probably works just fine, if you spam them, but two Razorbacks is just too much of a soft target. Same thing with my poor Land Raider. It has a tendency to blow up before it can wreck havoc. My thinking is that I will switch to Rhinos and use the points for a Devastator Squad instead. Five man and four Missile Launchers. And to go up to 1750 points I'm thinking of adding two Vindicators.

Either way since the plan is to build a whole company I should have plenty of options in the future:) Technically two companies since veterans are from the 1st Company :) I'm also thinking that some dreads should be a good idea to own. Three of each kind:) And as a last note about playing, I really am thinking of seeing what you can do with a lot of plasma. S7 AP2 shots would be an interesting thing to throw around :)

I also have been painting. Almost done with Tactical Squad VI for the 4th Company (only IF transfers left) and here's a little green teaser. How's he looking? I'll post again when he's finished :)

Dark Angels green directly on top of a white primer worked really well. Takes a few layers to cover, but you get a free shading in the recesses :)

The painting weekend continues

The Vespids are taking shape. Looking at how they are painted on the box I have to say that these models really are for high end expert painters. I'm in awe of GW's 'eavy metal team!

Imp fists project. Will show a group photo when the plasma team is done :) Think I might have a ride ready for them as well. Need yet another Rhino for the upcoming all melta team :) Q is, combi melta or fist for the sergeant?

Two more shots of the Russ. The paint seems to be drying just fine. What do you guys say, think it's time to seal it with some Purity Seal and ship it off to Sam?

Weekend painting

I will be spending a long weekend (taking some extra days off) painting and playing Apocalypse. I hope to have finished by mid next week:

Squad of ten Tacticals (4th company, 6th squad). Plus special surprise.
Captain Vulcan of the 4th company (count as guess what:)) Might give him a better name though. It's a conversion :)
Five (six) Vespid. The weapons are a bugger to paint this way. Questioning my sanity a bit:)

A Leman Russ.

Tiger stripes and weathering. What do you guys think? Looking ok? I think I will leave it like this, possibly painting the light at the front. And a protective coat at the end. The CVinton like weathering failed me big time. I have a hard time finding / clearing off the damn liquid mask. Guess I need a better one in the future. Funny thing is that if Sam ends up rubbing/chipping paint of, it's brown/orange beneath :)

Anything beyond that will be counted towards bonus. I really need to get a move on and order those magnets so I can put the two Land Speeders and a Land Raider together (possibly two). And the Ironclad dread. And I've got sternguard and vanguards and scouts and wolves. I better get a move on!

Lord Kaldor Draigo

Here's my finished take on a Grey Knight. Interesting but very busy model to paint, bet it's a great army for people who really like to paint and are quite good at it, just like both forms of Eldar. I think my take on it looks OK for putting on the table top. Hope the owner will enjoy fielding him:) I myself is looking forward to a few days of agony as more and more snot(lings?) is created in my nose. Hate being sick, but maybe I'll end up working on a little secret project or two :)

And from a different angle :)

Any comments?

Group Photo

I gave a comment on a blog that I had "given up" trying to build a cohesive looking army. The very awesome Ron Saikowski of From the Warp fame misunderstood me, thinking that I had given up on my Imperial Fists. That couldn't be further from the truth! I did convince Ron that I am indeed continuing with the boys in yellow. Expanding them even! But I thought the whole thing was quite interesting so I thought I should make it into a post.

I have not given up on my Imperial Fists, but what I have done is "given in". I can't for the life of me match the color on them after trying so many different ways of yellow. I have learnt new things, I have tried new techniques. I experiment and the result is an army that looks a bit rag tag. It isn't cohesively based, got different types of highlights, different shades of yellow, different shading, and…

…here it is! 1500 points of yellow Imperial Fists! A bit too tooled up to get to 1500p, but still:)

Here's a closeup on the left side. We got the Assault Marines, one Tactical Squad, the Razorback, and the big man himself with his "bodyguard" of five Assault Terminators.

And on the right side we have Lysander's yellow cab, followed by the other Tactical Squad with Razorback. If you look closely you can see that the Razorbacks got both Assault Cannons and Lascannons. Still need to paint a big arrow on the Rhino hatches:)

Because there are a few things missing. I have to name all vehicles, write the names on them, put a gunner on the other Razorback, a little guy looking out the hatch on the Land Raider, Rhino hatches, and that's it. Then it's time to paint the rest of the IFs I have laying around. A quick list:

Sternguard x 5
Pedro Kantor (should I rename him?:))
Vanguard (Death Company) x 5
4th Company, VIth squad Tacticals (Plasma all the way)
Ironclad Dreadnought
Legion of the Damned

Until next time, enjoy your hobby, and give in to enjoying it rather than following something because you have to :)

Land Raider finished

Only thing left is Purity Seal and some 'Ard Coat on lenses. So feast your eyes on the finished product. Hope you like it, but all (civil) comments are welcome!

Vroom vroom says Lysander's ride :)

To finish it off a higher quality photo of the Ultramarine. Should be possible to see the VIII on top of the Jump Pack this time around.

Finished Ultramarine Assault Marine

Here he is! The glue for the base is still drying so I will remove the excess later. I hope Frank will like him. Maybe I can get him to let me paint some neat Ultra HQ :) Feast your eyes on one of the Assault Marines from the VIIIth squad of the 2nd Company of the Ultramarines:

The transfers were, as usual, hard to get to stick neatly. Doesn't seem to matter what I do, I just don't have the Mojo for it apparently. I do use the nifty special liquids and all. Go figure! I do like having the assault X on top of the jump pack though. Looks awesome.

I also painted the chainsword as the pictures in Codex:Space Marines. Three red bars for the 8th squad. Looks pretty cool if you ask me. Breaks up the big block of black on the weapon. The VIII on top of the jump pack bled out *really* bad in the photo, it is far more readable in real life. Still pretty hard to freehand stuff like that for me. Baby steps, baby steps. I can't actually paint/draw anything so it stands to reason that I might find it a bit hard:)

So what do you guys think? Did I do the wrong thing to go yellow instead of blue? :)

(No I am not switching over, I just enjoyed painting something else once:))

Ultramarines! WIP

I went to the nearest gaming store yesterday (Armored Ogre Games) for 40k day/evening and watched a game between a team of Tau and Ultramarines battle Blood Angels and Tyranids. I asked Frank the Ultramarine player if he had any unpainted minis that I could have a go at and he promptly showed me a bunch. I choose one that I like to paint for him.

It was already primed (a thick black, I really need to push my message of thin thin coats of primer at the store) and the glue work wasn't totally up to snuff. After some surgery (split the jump pack and cut the arms off) and cleanup I glue him back together and went to work with the airbrush. Mordian Blue if anyone is wondering :)

He still needs battle damage, a VIII on top of the jump pack, a base, some scripture to protect him, and maybe some other weathering, but it shouldn't be much more work to get him done.  I really hope Frank likes my little experiment as I think he might have some high expectations. "Sure I'd want a professionally painted mini." or something similar at least, was mentioned. While I won't be ashamed to put down my Imperial Fists on a gaming table, I have no illusions that I'm a professional Painter:)

So what do you people think, will Frank be happy with his Assault Marine?

PS I've actually painted some Imperial Fists since last, but the WIPs hasn't been that interesting. Will return with a group photo of 1500p of fists plus some highlights:)

First battle damage

What is this? Two updates the same day? What has happened is that I have been painting more after watching TV. Here's a WIP of the Land Raider.

And here we have the first battle damage. Any opinions? Does it look ok? I went with blood red, chaos black, and finally mithril silver. I'm thinking of going with sunburst yellow, bleached bone, and finally mithril silver for the yellow hull. I don't want too much though, it's Lysander's personal "Panzartaxi" after all. Such a bad ass first captain rides in style :)

(I'm keeping away from yellow on weapons so I can reuse them on Space Wolf vehicles later on:))

Comments are very welcome at this point. I'm a bit nervous about the prospect of painting battle damage on such a large surface (I'm going for more of a worn look than being shot up).

Various updates

Did some airbrushing today and here's the results. I was very surprised how well Boltgun Metal worked with an airbrush. The finish was really awesome. I'm going to add some black wash, black drybrushing, and some special treatments on the flamer (hint: blue). I do wonder if I can add some weathering to the metal color *hmm*. And if you look in the top right corner, that's a future project taking form :)

I ended up winning one Assault on Black Reach Tactical squad. I intend to make it a plasma squad, so plasmagun, plasma cannon, and absolutely no plasma pistol (+15p in the current codexes is silly). Might put a combi-plasma on the sergeant though. Going to be conversions at the very least. So stay tune for Squad III, 4th Company, Imperial Fists :)

My wife and I went out to find me some gift for me for our 3rd anniversary. I thought it was time to try to cut down on the plastic crack and went for another of my vises, books. This is today's loot. Half priced books had this awesome stack of Horus Heresy books in real nice quality. I've got tons of reading material now :)

Until next time, be careful out there!

Magnets and a crazy idea

Started with some nice big magnets behind the tracks. I really can recommend these. I think they are around 1/4" for us whom are trapped in the terrors of the land that don't do SI. Gotta buy me more of these since I'm using them on the backside of the sponsons :) Still don't know what I'll do with the extra weapons (2x hurricane bolters, 2x flamestorms) :)

Here we have the Land Raider, very overexposed so we can see the frag launchers and smoke launchers. All of it is magnetized. And one important lesson to all you kids from uncle Flekkzo. Get the polarity right, every time. I didn't once, and I am not happy about it. It was a pain to dig that magnet out of the plastic and glue :(

Now on to the crazy idea. Assault on Black Reach Marines. I'm thinking about getting four sets of them and paint up squad III to VI of the fourth Company. I'm also thinking of repainting my two squads to be fourth (green) instead of fifth (black) to give me I and II. Add to that my Assault Squad and that would be 7 squads. After that I would need to get 10 Assault and 10 Devastators.

Super poor grammar aside, that would be a full Company of Marines. Would be awesome to field in a game of Apocalypse. I could add a Captain with a command squad and why not a librarian and a chaplain. And yes, I am crazy for even thinking of doing this, but it would be soo cool :) Anyone agreeing with me? :)

Some more miscellaneous magnetic Land Raider pictures

Woroxon wanted to know about my magnets, and yet I ended up taking any good pictures of it. I will try to rectify that now! I glued the magnets on the backside of the frames. You can see the bottom four in the picture below. The other four are hidden already. I'm going to add magnets under the tracks so I can plopp the fun grenades on the front on and off. I hope to acquire a standard Land Raider weapons sprue in the future and the standard Land Raider doesn't have them :)

Another W.I.P. picture. Has a bit more depth now, and some more highlights. You can also see how horrible the door looks. I decided to retcon the whole thing and claim that that piece comes from an old and venerable Land Raider (Terra Ira) that now lives on in this one. Going to try to paint a bunch of battle damage on it and dirty it up a bit. Make it Venerable :)

And here's one of my little Hobby Helpers :) The runt of the litter, Merryweather.

Land Raider W.I.P.

Turns out two things didn't work out the way I'd hoped. Golden Yellow apparently covers Iyanden Darksun just fine when using an airbrush, and Sunburst Yellow doesn't cover a thing. Ended up using Bleached Bone instead and adding Iyanden after the fact at the bottom of the sides. Also painted the engine covers Iyanden Darksun instead of Golden Yellow. I will add a bunch of soot later, so I thought I'd play around a bit :)

The white color I got with my airbrush #$(%#$*%^#($ sucks, because it peels off just so damn easy. Not fun! I ended up re-airbrushing the white parts. So I've used up a bunch of masking tape today :) Also, painting white with a brush? NO WAY, doesn't freakin' work at all :( Gotta airbrush that stuff.

Doesn't this look a lot better painted? I haven't highlighted/washed anything (except a black wash on the wings) yet, that's the next step. Maybe, just maybe, I can finish the hull today. Then there's weapons (plus some Rhino/Razorback ones) and tracks left:)

Still haven't decided 100% what to call the yellow beast. Terra Ira is winning at the moment though.

Break over, back to painting! :)

Teaser

The Land Raider is assembled, I've even assembled some of the weapons. I primed it (white of course) but I fear I might have, by mistake, over primed a few spots. Really irks me as I thought I'd learned by now. Kids, don't overuse your primer! A little is far better, and that way you can come back.

Next up is the airbrushing, and I've rearranged my hobby / rat room today so I should be able to do the deed tomorrow. White and Yellow, here we go! And I thought I'd leave you, my faithful readers, with a little teaser. I personally think that engine looks pretty much a lot better with both those logos on there :)

Imperial Fists are awesome

Only one big question left, what to name the beast. Malleus feels a bit cliché, but Pugnis might work better. I want it in Latin, to make it sound righteous :) Maybe Terra Ira would be a suitable name. Just hope I get it right :)

"Inside" scope on my Land Raider

I'm done painting the insides of my Land Raider now. Time to glue everything together, but not before I take some pictures to show my faithful readers what I have been up to. Plus it will be a tad bit hard to take photos when it is all glued up :)

The right side, with all the nifty stuff on it. I figured out that drybrushing Space Wolf Grey was a pretty nice touch, made the seats and such look nice. I have also glued in two magnets in each door so I can switch sponsons at will.

The left side, plus two frag assault launchers. I'm painting all the weapons and such dark red so I can use them both for my Imperial Fists AND my forthcoming Space Wolves :)

Some more pieces, and you can see some extra magnets I added so I can magnetize this and that to the top of the Raider.

Close up on the monitors :)

And to close it all up, here's my favorite piece. I'm quite happy with the icon. Looks very very snazzy. Hope it's going to look like the bee's knees when I open the front hatch and snow people the insides :) I'm quite amazed at the reactions I get when I tell people I paint the insides of my vehicles :)