Hobby Progress Update!

Recently I've found myself with a lot of free time due to the winter break of college. So I'm using that time as best I can to do all the things I didn't get to do while I was studying. One that is high on my list is get some hobby stuff done.

Just created a white and dark blue airbrush paint / primer for my 40K hobby table. So far I'm happy with how they came out. The dark blue especially. Vallejo model color is absolutely near perfect.

Also got a start on priming the tips of some drop pods for my roommate's Raven Guard army, and my Valkyries / Vendettas for my Imperial Guard /Astra Militarum army. I've had these Valkyries / Vendettas in storage for months now.

I also was able to prime white my priests for my IG/AM army. This is all after I finished painting up my roommates Masters of the Forge part of his army. 1 Master of the Forge with Servo-Harness, 2 Techmarines with Servo-Arms, and 8 servitors two of which have Plasma Cannons.

Here are some in progress pics. Sorry about the potato quality.

The white came out as I expected. I ended up just using a 100 ml dropper bottle and put in 1/3 Liquitex Basics Titanium White mixed with 2/3 water. I leave a little bit of room at the top so I can shake it up. Not sure if adding a BB or two would help with the mixing process or hurt it.

The dark blue came out near perfect. It is the color I wanted it to be, or the best I could expect. However it is a lot thinner than I expected. I am sure I'm going to have to do a few layers of this in certain places if not over the whole model.. Yet this was done the same way as with the Liquitex, only it was a full bottle of Vallejo game Color Imperial Blue. Absolutely no issues with mixing in water with this one. I just think I used too much. Which is fine because I can always add more paint into the dropper bottle. Also this is a test run so I'm really happy so far with the results. 

Hopefully with all the free time I've had lately I'll be updating more often. At least until school starts up again. Oh boy to I have a lot to build and paint =)

Hobby Progress Update

It has been a long time coming for this update. Life got in the way. Working full time and taking a full load at College sucks up a lot of my time. However when I do have free time I use it well. Over the Thanksgiving break I got a handful of things accomplished. Mainly my roommate bought a lot to add to his Raven Guard army. Yet in the trade in agreeing to paint them I got a couple of Contemptor Dreadnoughts with weapons! Plus I've found a way to quickly paint his army to where it looks good on the table top.

Also I've bought some new tools. Some have gotten here, and some I have just ordered. Recently I ordered a heat gun for some Forge World orders I foresee myself and my roommate getting here soon as well. Most of these hobby purchases have been to help expedite the completion of my armies now that I know I don't have that much time to focus on them. The rest have been just normal upkeep of new brushes as mine are wearing out, even with cleaning, and some more paint to complete upcoming projects.

As for my armies I haven't made much progress on them. However I did acquire some second hand Valkyries/Vendettas from eBay. Currently in the process of ensuring I have all the bitz I need for them, and magnetizing them. This brings my current total of Valkyries/Vendettas up to 4 for this army. Currently my Imperial Guard / Astra Militarum army can be fielded either as an infantry horde, tank company (with artillery support), or as Air Superiority. As I complete progress on them, and my 4 other armies, I will post updates.

Current progress so far has been:
Scout Team with Heavy Bolter
Landspeeder Storm
Scout Bikers with Grenade Launchers, Sergeant with Melta Gun and Thunder Hammer
2 Tactical Squad Sergeants
1 Tactical Marine

This is what I have left to paint in this batch of priming:

10 man Sternguard Squad with 

- Plasma Gun

- 1 of each Combi-melta, flamer, and plasma

- 1 Marine magnetized with Plasma gun, Multi-melta, and Missile Launcher

- Sergeant with Power Ax

8 Servitors

- 2 with Plasma Cannon

2 Techmarines with Lightning Claw, Servo Arm, and Power Ax

Master of the Forge with Lighting Claw and Servo Harness

The Drop Pods have been painted. However I will be painting the tips of the fins white. They are magnetized to come apart almost completely. Which is really cool and handy for painting them.

Next batch of priming will be another Sternguard Squad and Devastator Marines. After that will be the tanks, more contemptor dreadnoughts, and possibly (certainly) more!  

A couple of months ago I bought a wet pallet after reading up and hearing how awesome they were. I need to say they are awesome. I have had these paints on here for a week and they are still good to use. I may need to add a wet brush to them to get the paint just right. However I'm still learning how to use this properly. Plus some of the paints I have in bottles are 5 years old if not older. So far this has been one of the best purchases I have made for my hobby tools.


Here is the Scout Team:

The Landspeeder Storm

The Scout Biker Squad

Tactical Sergeants and Tactical Marine

Now the whole army is designed to be subdued. To not be flashy, and to have very little heraldry. If there is any to not have it be displayed like it would be on say an Ultramarine Sergeant. This is nearly the opposite of how I paint my own armies so I enjoy the challenge. Also from how I have been painting it seems to be quite easy. Even though I have had to learn a lot of new techniques and tricks to have the desired effect come through. I enjoy painting this army.

I'm also in the process of reorganizing my To - Do list for my projects so hopefully that will help me get better at getting armies accomplished. Hopefully life doesn't get in the way too much. 

Thanks for reading and I hope to have a new update before the end of the year. 

Hobby Progress Update

Keeping up with the IC's Hobby Progress Challenge I'm not (finally) able to get to my last unit for the first part of the challenge. This is a unit of Deathwing Terminators. I also have been painting my roommate's Raven Guard and finally finished painting his 3 Contemptor Dreadnoughts =D. Pics below and an update of the painted Deathwing Squad to follow later tonight.

Having just spent the last 4 1/2 hours painting my Deathwing Terminator Squad is now complete! Also this squad will be known as Deathwing Terminator Squad Damas. Here comes the pic dump! =P

For the eye lenses I have found that using a 005 (.20mm) Micro Pen works amazingly well. Now those tricky hard to paint eye lenses are done in 30 seconds! With what use to take me a few minutes painting them with a really fine detail brush. These pens are also good for freehand work on purity seals, banners, giving someone tattoos, or whatever you can think of!

The Terminators on either end have their arms magnetized just in case I want to make the unit more assault oriented. Here are their Lightning Claws!

Also just to note that this army (My Deathwing) was built back in 2005 - 2006 when these kits were new. Only upgrades have been from the Dark Angels Upgrade Sprue, Forge World Deathwing Terminator Shoulder pads, and Forge World Dark Angels Vehicle Upgrade pack which doesn't seem to exist any longer. I've dispersed them all through out the army to give more detail, and to blend them a bit more together. Some additions have been made from the Dark Vengeance kit and other kit bashes. Yet outside of one those units are not in this army, but rather my Deathwing as a whole.

The bases are just the regular bases with lines cut in them using a hobby saw. The moss is there to cover up my mistakes, and to give them a feeling of walking through the courtyard of a temple or holy place; be that alien or Imperial. This was done to give them a 'holy' feel as they are either defending the righteous, or killing the xenos, burning the heretic, and purging the unclean. This was done at a time when specialist companies like Secret Weapon Miniatures did not exist, or were not well known.

For some of these models there is a history to them. In fact the Dreadnoughts Mordekai Link and Jophiel Link are some of them. Mordekai is a 2nd Edition Dark Angles Dreadnought and is completely metal outside of his base and Heavy Flamer add on to his storm bolter. Jophiel's plasma cannon is from the old metal plasma cannons for SM Devastators. I'm debating buying the Forge World Plasma Cannon for him and restoring the Dreadnought weapon back to being an assault cannon, and to gain another Plasma Cannon as I still have all the bitz to it. 

If you have any questions please ask them!

The Chapter's Ancients WIP

Recently I came into possession of three new dreadnoughts for my Angels of Vengeance army. This brings my total of dreadnoughts up to five. However it took me awhile to be able to get to painting them. Yet now that wait has come to an end... kinda. Over the past week I've been working on these guys bit by bit, and I am now finally at a place of near completion.

The way that I prefer to have my dreadnoughts equipped is with an Assault Cannon and Heavy Flamer, or with a Multi-Melta and Heavy Flamer. This just depends on the role I want them to play on the battlefield. This should explain the copy spam of how the dreadnoughts are currently armed. I say currently because I have plans to turn two of them into Mark V Mortis Pattern Dreadnoughts with two Twin-Linked Autocannons. The rules for which can be found in "Imperial Armour Volume Two: Second Edition War Machines of the Adeptus Astartes". Basically 145 point Anti-Air units if they stay still. I honestly just need the arms with the correct weapons to make this a reality. I'm saving up for a large Forge World purchase at some point before the end of the year. With that I should get a lot of new options and toys =D.

After the three new dreadnoughts were on my work desk I wanted them to all match as much as possible. However the first two (the two dreadnoughts on the right) I've had assembled and painted for 16 years, so all that was needed was a few added bitz and some touch-ups.

Here is my oldest Dreadnought Poe. For him all I did was fix up some painting errors I had made since this is one of the first models I have ever painted. The Crux Terminatus on is front was painted grey and washed with black ink, the searchlight was repainted blue, and I painted the gold trim on his sarcophagus. 

This is Zepher. First real heavy conversion I ever did. He is on an old Forge World base and still needs some plastic tubing connected back to his right leg (OOPS!). I fixed up his paint job a little bit and added the shield and purity seal on his front near the Assault Cannon.  

Leonoas is one of the newest additions to my army. For him I needed to buy the leg plate bitz. He was already primed black so all I had to do was simply add bitz I wanted him to have and paint him accordingly. The bitz I added were the shield and purity seal on his front. 

Augavan was done in the same style as Leonoas. The reason I needed to buy the leg plate bitz was that my roommate had used his on his Terminator Sergeants. Which worked out well since it helps to make them look more like they belong in my army.

Quintus is the only dreadnought in this army to be armed differently. He has a Multi-Melta and Storm Bolter. The reason for that is this is an Assault on Black Reach dreadnought and honestly I didn't want to deal with getting new weapon options for him. Especially the storm bolter since I didn't want to deal with that much hacking and slashing. However this adds some diversity to the dreadnoughts of the army, and gives me a danger close drop pod-ing tank killer =D. He didn't come on a dreadnought base so I had to make him a custom base. Which is awesome and hopefully should be ready to paint sometime later tonight / tomorrow when it is completely done drying. Also this is one of the first models my roommate has ever painted. So all I did was add on the searchlight and smoke launchers. Mainly for I want him to see how good it can look on the table top and to try his hand once again at painting.

Another main difference from the three new dreadnoughts to my two oldest ones is that they have their bases magnetized. Right where the leg joint joins in with the foot of there is a magnet, and on the underside of the base there is another magnet. So the dreadnought is still one solid model. Yet for transport and other game purposes the base can be removed from the dreadnought. Which is something I'm debating doing to my two older dreadnoughts if I can get the bonds to break. 

As you can see most of the work is done. The only real thing left is Quintus' base, and I'll post pics of that when it is painted. Hope you all enjoyed!

Raven Guard Storm Eagle Complete!

So in keeping up with the trade with my roommate I finished another model of his that needed painting. This one was one of his two Storm Eagles/Ravens. Here are the pics of the fully painted model below. Enjoy!

I'm happy with the finished product. I wish I could have flushed the white out better, but my roommate is happy with it and that is good enough for me.

EDIT: Something I forgot to add is that the doors on the front and side ramps are the Forge World Raven Guard Rhino doors. The Missile Pods on the wings are from a Polish alternate resin model seller bitspudlo.com. 

Also the whole thing is magnetized. The Crusade Pattern Bolters come off (as shown), the top mounted gun is now chin mounted and can be removed as well as have the weapon swapped out, the Vengeance Launchers, and the tail. All of this is magnetized, by my roommate, mainly for storage and transport.

Hobby Progress Update

This has been a bit of a busy month for me hobby wise. I've been able to get a lot done. Painting up my roommate's two Stormtalons, one of his Storm Eagles/Ravens (magnets are amazing!), my new Company Commander Dominus (updated complete photo to follow), and figuring out how to model some terrain for our gaming table in our apartment.

However I still have one more project left do to and that is for the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge. To complete that I need to paint a squad of Thunderhammer and Storm Shield Terminators. I have my 'before' shot below.

When I'm finished painting them I'll post an update. As well as updated photos of the Storm Eagle/Raven and my completed Company Commander Dominus Stay tuned!

Update!!!

Here is Deathwing Squad Valeris fully painted and based!

Yet another Company Master!

Recently I found a really good deal on the 2008 Games Day miniature of the Space Marine Captain with a thunder hammer (Link). So I've been busy making this new model at home in my Angels of Vengeance army. I really do like the model, and it is really nice to be working with a metal miniature again. Over the past week I've been trying to tackle this guy bit by bit.

The main reason I'm tackling him bit by bit is this is the first model I have tried to paint BEFORE assembling him! Yes after 16 years of being in the hobby this guy is the first. Depending on what model I'm making from now on I might use this method. The amount of detail I'm able to get is far better than what I was before. I'm not sure what took me so long to start doing this.

Since I need to seal him with mat varnish (metal model and all) and let that dry completely before I can move onto new things it's taken me a bit longer to get him done, yet I'm in no hurry. I still have to paint his head, but that's for later today. Below are my work in progress pictures of this currently unnamed Company Master to join my Angels of Vengeance.

EDIT!!

Just got done painting his head. Apparently I'm getting faster at this =P There are a total of 7 paint colors used on his head and 1 wash. His eyes were marked with a 005 Micron Pen. If you need to get really fine details these things are AMAZING!!! I tried something new to get the blond hair, and I'm happy with how it came out. Hopefully by tonight I will have everything glued together.

UPDATE!!!

Here is Company Commander Dominus (I finally named him) in all of his fully painted glory!

I really had a lot of fun putting this model together and painting it. Everything on him is metal other than his helmet on his belt and his regular Space Marine Backpack. I used a spare metal backpack I had from my bitz box and it works much better than a plastic one in my opinion. I might go back and touch up his base a bit, but I'm not sure of the 'how' and 'what' with that process. Hope you enjoyed this!