And we're off to Blog Wars

So Atreides and I are off to Blog Wars tomorrow morning (yup a day early ... thats how dedicated we are). Actually we're making the trip to WHW for a few games (will be nice to not get shuffled off our table at the normal GW store) then rock on to Maelstrom on the Sunday morning ... looking forward to it.

So I've been some what lethargically painting out the rest of the Deathwing - given my lack of enthusiasm this time round (I really do have one eye on the Grey Knights) I am actually some what pleased with the results. Though due to my lackidastical attitude - I've not got every thing I wanted done and had to short cut some stuff as well. For example I planned on cutting off all the normal storm shields and replacing them to my winged one.

Any way I thought I'd post up the individual models and some of the bits I've done this week, and as a bonus some of the test models from my armoury to show you some of the schemes I've been playing around with for my mech as I move into Grey Knights territory.


 Deathwing WIP - 

Now these guys are pretty much finished, there are some touches I could add, but I'll probably revisit the army as a whole after the GK's are well under way. Right now as it stands I have a pretty decent table top standard 1750 army, and while some bits make me cringe, I am happy enough to plonk it down on the table ... however I do have another idea that I'll run by you at the end of the post!

Here;s each model and a little blurb on what I did if there is anything of note on the model.

Regular Thunder Hammer Guy:

So not much was done to this model. Leg was slightly repositioned, and the thunder hammer was sliced off to have it lean outwards - it was originally going to be horizontal across his chest but it wouldn't fit.The basing is loosely based off my "The Fallen Objective Markers" - I wanted something "subtle but stand out". On the painting side, the blues I tried a new method of painting then washing down and then painting back up, it gave a nice effect. On the armour I used a much quicker method than before in which I skipped about 2 layers of blend and used washes to create the shadow - opposed to my typical method of blending from very dark (my basecoat) all the way up. I can cut this to 3 layers for say bog standard marines for my Grey Knights now and be able to pump out units very quickly - but at a good table top level.

One thing I was very pleased with was the reds - I worked from Red Gore mixed with black, to two layers of red gore then adding blazing orange to a sort of "orangey blood red" - but quite watery and using that to create a sort of glaze/highlight.

Regular Thunder Hammer Guy Two: 

So on this I used the Grey Knights legs as he's meant to be essentially the "first sergeant" of the company - it gives him a little bit of specialness. His left foot did get repositioned slightly to make it look like he is running rather than hovering in mid air - and used a grey knight terminator left arm to get the angled shield position.

Apothecary: 

His TH is infact a demon hammer, and his apothecary arm is again from the paladin part of the kit, I wanted to make him a little special and a improvement from my last guy. Also I wanted to denote him out a bit clearer for opponents - so the white helmet did the job. I worked up from an old old old Space Wolves Grey. The paint is about 20 years old!

CML!

Couple of things of note on this model. Firstly is the CML - I've used my marbling effect to kind of make him stand out as he is quite regular otherwise (in comparison to the other models in the unit and the rest of the army) - the other is the base. Its the first time I've properly tried to green stuff any effect on a base, the idea being of this old hatch melting into the lava, so I wanted to create a sort of wave and spitting - I think it came out decently - though I could have probably done it a bit better justice with the paint.

Pose wise I thought was quite pedestrian, but in the end the TH / SS position with the helmet position worked really well I think.

Standard Bearer:

Mixed over this guy I have to say. I repositioned his leg heavily - it has two separate cuts on that leg to get it into that stepping position - but I dont think I did the terminator justice with my painting - I think he's the weakest of the unit. He was quite fiddly - since none of these models were magnetised - I had less access to the body over all - and the banner was a nightmare (not to self, in future, leave the pin off as it will secure quite well with the pin after painting).

The banner came out well - the scroll at the top could have been done much better, I am unhappy with that, but I am in danger of over coating it if I go back and re-do it. Oddly enough its quite a fiddly banner to do when undercoated - they do these raised motifs to help painters that can't freehand (like me! I am practising though, honest) but I have to say I did look at the GK codex a few times to work out what bit of black was what lol. If I used grey or white base coat it would have been easier with shadows and what not to help.

Overall the unit came out quite well considering I spent so little time on it, in comparison to what I had originally planned. But its done and in the books so its all good.

Some stuff from the armoury!

The Land Raider is one of the earlier things I did - sponging is interesting on it - with such a large model I need to be a bit slower and careful - but at this stage I was playing around with wide / narrow veins. Like I say this was probably my 2nd or 3rd test model, so I was still getting used to sponging at this stage.

The Storm Raven which we have seen before was after I had gotten a bit better at the technique, it still could use some work, but once I have things like the engines done (glowing blue) and some of the metal work done I think it will look really effective over all. I have a 2nd one to do as well so hoping for some good results on that.

This is the technique now I am using. I've rocked out a couple of rhino's but I really liked the effect I got on this drop pod. It uses sponging, then sort of "lining with a sponge" drag effect, then some veins as well as the "diagonal lines" that Rupert from 3++ uses (great painter btw, absolutely love his effects).

Sort of a step by step evolution!

Deathwing "Count As" Thought:

I had a bit of a crazy idea the other day on my way to the store. I constantly refer to my Deathwing as "something like out of the film 300 with the Spartans holding the hot gates in the first wave of attacks" - they phalanx up, hold with their shields, then burst back through.

Now I've seen some quite cool conversions, one called Spears of Ultramar on Bolter and Chainfist would be quite cool for this - getting plumed helmets would work. But I thought about a step further ...

How about making actual Spartans - basing around probably some of the Warriors Of Chaos fantasy model range, with some other bits thrown in. I love painting skin, and its one of my strengths that I never get to do any more. I'd make suitably large bases / girth of model / height of model to avoid model issues.

My concern is if I rocked up using them, would you have an issue. Big ass spears for Thunder Hammers, Shields are shields - 6 pack = terminator armour. Bikes would be horses (yeah yeah I know ...) CML's ... erm, maybe a flying guy with a spear (like when the dude jumps up on the emissary's plinth) or something (I'll figure it out!).

Anyway - thats it from me - Andy is picking me up to go to Cambridge in like 7 hours and I still have to actually pack away my army lol. I am guessing we'll be doing some what live updates on Sunday, and as I say I am going to be putting up detailed battle reports.