Deathwing command squad almost ready to take the field.

Hi everyone,

There hasn't been too much going on my gaming world for the past few weeks. It's been busy at work getting back into things after the Christmas period and my gaming buddy is also a teacher, so schedule matching can be a task. I've managed to play a few more games of Dreadfleet with my girlfriend and we've started working through the campaign in the book. Sadly I've had a complete lack of success in the game no matter what we try and my record now stands at ZERO wins with SIX losses....oh boy :-)


I've been working on my Deathwing painting though and putting in a bit of brush time each day, even if it's just ten minutes. It doesn't seem like much at first but all of a sudden I notice that I've completed big sections of models by the end of the week. I recommend snatching those few minutes each day to work on models, perhaps while you wait for dinner in the oven or while you play a song or two. I'm surprised at how much it can help without seeming like much effort.



So here is my command squad arrayed in full glory with Belial at their head. I'm glad I was persuaded to go for the second armour highlight layer (Menoth White Highlight) as it's brought them out nicely. They aren't all finished but now they look like a nice squad when put side by side, instead of some loosely similar bone-white figures.




I painted their left shoulderpads black as a nod to the original Deathwing story in an old GW anthology book. This was before the current Caliban and Heresy fluff but is the origin of the white armour. In essence, the Dark Angel 1st company terminators arrive on their homeworld to find that it has been taken over by a genestealer cult. In the final battle to cleanse the taint, they paint their armour bone white in the tribal ritual of Deathwing, symbolising that they are already dead and so have no fear. Their armour was originally black and it's noted that they left the left shoulder with the Crux Terminatus in the original black, as a mark of respect for the Emperor.




Belial and the Lysander sergeant stomp up the field. This squad hits nice and hard in assault, especially with the banner and apothecary to give them FNP. I often split Belial off as he can take on small squads alone most of the time and it gives me a nice variety of threats.

****Can anybody give me good advice on how to paint up Belial's sword to look like shiny obsidian? I guess some kind of highlighting similar to what you see from NMM would be good but I've not really done that before. Suggested patterns etc. are welcome.****



Here is one of the finished terminators up close. I really like the combination of Grey Knight, Space Wolf, Space Marine and Dark Angel bits and the look that they create. The lightning effect on the thunder hammer is much nicer than my first attempt (on Lysander) so I might go back and redo that one to make it look better. It's time consuming but looks good in my view.




Here is the brotherhood banner, originally from the Grey Knights set. It's not totally finished but I got tired of painting such small details and wanted to get on with the rest of the models. I've been talking with Tim from the Tau of War and he thinks the border should be brightened up. My girlfriend agrees but they each think different colours would work. Tim favours a bright red, whereas Edina thinks gold would look good. I can't decide between the two or whether I should just keep the green. Also, I can't decide if I should repaint the sword to be black with lightning effects instead of the silver here.


So that's where I stand for the moment with my army. I've got a plan for a centrepiece model using a Dreadknight conversion as a Deathwing dreadnought but I can't justify spending on that until I've finished painting these. I have to pay off my student loan first and so extra gaming expenses must be curbed until they can be properly justified (i.e. painting everything else).

How white is bone? Deathwing painting help please!

Hey everyone,

I really need some help and thoughts with respect to painting up the bone armour of the Deathwing. I have thus far painted most of my models in three stages:

- Bone white spray
- sepia wash
- highlighting with Menoth White base.

Now I started to paint up the next layer of highlighting with Menoth White Highlight and had a pause. Do you think it is too bright of a jump or should I continue to do this with the other Deathwing models?

L-R: Bone spray, sepia wash, menoth base, menoth highlight

It is possible of course for me to mix the base and highlight colours to have something in between but that carries the penalty of mixing paint to the same level for 27 terminator figures. I'm not sure if I have the patience for that haha.

Please pass on your thoughts so I can decide how I'll brighten up my models (or not).

Much appreciated.

Pete

New brush time. How about Windsor and Newton Series 7s?

This is just a brief interjection before I get on with part 3 of my Orcs and Goblins posting.

I'm painting up my Deathwing now and I've come to realise it's time to buy some new brushes. My current set have been going for over a year now and while they're in decent shape, they're forking quite a lot not, making it hard to keep the detail painting going. My GW brush forked a while ago after just a month or so of use, so that's no help.I've heard rave things about the Windsor and Newton Series 7 brushes and wonder if it's time for me to invest in a set of them.

Does anybody have any experience with these brushes and what sizes to pick up? I was thinking of a size 2, a size 1 and a size 0 so I would have a range to work with.

Thankyou

Pete

Painting display models

Hey everyone,

Been very busy recently getting myself settled into my new life in Bratislava, Slovakia where I'm teaching English (for more info see here http://pete-teaches-in-bratislava.blogspot.com) so not much time to do anything wargaming related. I've managed to keep up to date on blogs and internet news for the most part but haven't broken out the brushes or even taken my models out of their packed state since June 28th when I put them away before flying here. Since I haven't yet managed to find any gaming groups around here and I'm not sure I'll have lots of evenings free to play wargames, I was thinking of getting a fancy model or two to really go to town on and make into display pieces.

The two possible models that have caught my eye for now are:

Ruby from Studio Mcvey



...and the completely crazy option of Elspeth Von Draken on a Carmine Dragon from Forge WorldRaaargh

Mmmm, insanely fine detailing

Now the difference between this two are primarily scale and cost. Ruby fits on a 50mm base and costs about £27 shipped, whereas Elspeth would set me back something like £80 shipped. Quality-wise I would trust Studio Mcvey more but then again this is a new model from Forge World so the moulds are likely to still be good.

The main concern I have with both of these is making sure that my painting lives up to the quality of the models.

Have any of you painted models that were intended almost entirely for display? If so, how do you suggest going about it, especially for something as big as Elspeth? What's the best way to maintain interest during such a long and complex project? What techniques should be mastered before going about such a task? Paint in pieces then assemble? Create a fancy base for the model in case I want to game with it in the future?

As you can tell I'm both excited and intimidated by the idea of either of these models. Who knows, with a good enough effort over time they might even be somethiing I can sell for a profit. I can dream right? ;-)

All the best,

Pete

Painted Ramshackle Figures

Hey all,

A brief update on my painting. I've not had much time to do it what with commuting a lot more now (1hr trainride each way - nice views though) and having two dogs who need a lot of attention. I try to get some done each weekend at the least as my wife (plus dogs) like to sleep in and get extra shut-eye. I take the opportunity to brew up some nice coffee and start painting or writing, depending on my mood.

In any case, the attention to detail needed for the Harbinger of Menoth, the layering needed for my SM honour guard and Marneus Calgar figures plus the sheer quantity of unpainted, large surface area vehicles I have yet to do meant that I was feeling uninspired.

Instead, I went into my massive collection of Ramshackle figures (I have all but about 4 figures that they produce) and pulled out a simple, easy one. It was a chance to work through a model from start to finish without too many worries of complex details or thinking up a fancy colour scheme. Instead I went with the muted look and had fun with it.

This led to a burst of inspiration and before you know it, I've finished off the entire Society Against Mischief (4 figures) as well as doing a mostly finished Oliver Sprockett (from the Society of Intrepid Explorers). Now I have 8 well-to-do Victoriana figures just raring to bring some good manners to those ruffians in the radioactive wastes of the future.


Here we have (L-R) Fidelia St-John Smythe the sniper, Spanny (technically not Victoriana, but she was another cool resin figure to work with), Thaddeus Borlase-Arlington, Archibald Trumpton on Buzzby his vehicle, Oliver Sprockett and his calculating machine, and Matilda Grey the medic.




Here they are swapped around so you can see the parrot Thaddeus has, the cool letterig on Sprockett's printout, and Spanny's rather high-cut hot pants ;-)



Last up is the Society with their vehicle, The Brass Coffin. Sadly the shield broke during our move here but a bit of resin fixed that up. I've also added an assault marine for scale. What's interesting is that he looks pretty bulky compared to the Ramshackle figures, giving you a good idea of what a true-scale figure would look like relative to a marine. Some of the GW human figures are really bulked up when looked at this way. You can see now why Fidelia comes with a dinky small base, since she's supposed to ride in the tank and take down enemies that way.


Also in the photo, note my 3 new Privateer Press P3 paint pots. I have Menoth White Base, Menoth White Highlight and Morrow White. I really like the trend PP have of making base coats for their major schemes (i.e. Cygnar Blue, Khador Red) and then providing a complimentary highlight colour. It really helps keep the tones even and highlighting consistent when you know the pigments are in the same shade. They are really easy to blend as well and water down excellently without getting thin or failing to cover.
The paint pots are like the old-school GW ones with the airtight lid that pops closed afterwards. They come sealed from the factory too, which is nice as I always wondered how I would know if my GW paints had been used by somebody else since they lack any kind of seal. They have about 18ml of paint in them I believe, giving them a price advantage over GW at their similar basic cost. To be honest, I can see me replacing all of my GW paints with these as I run out/dry out of the paints I already have invested in. They really do cover nicely, thin out well and are better value for money. I'm sure there will be a few colours that are challenging to match but I'm happy to work around that. The only downside is that the paints are too tall for my little set of drawers I keep the GW paints in.


I hope everyone is doing well and I will continue to update my progress on things as and when I get time.

All the best,

Pete

I'm still alive and I've just bought myself some Warmachine

Much like Old Shatter Hands over at the Tau of War, I have been very busy recently with little or no time for blogging/wargaming stuff. Me and my wife just moved into our new apartment in Frederick, Md and have been busy getting used to life. Of course, we had no sooner got settled than we went back to Bethesda to dogsit for our old neighbours for a bit of extra cash. Now that I've finished at Starbucks (7 day working weeks were too much after 6 months) I have a lot more free time coming up so hopefully there will be more bloggage and more gaming going on.

Now my position in the sales team for clear channel (5 radio stations: Hot 99.5, DC101, 97.1 Wash FM, 98.7 WMZQ and BIG 100.3) is a tough job at times as there are many many thousands of dollars moving around at all times and I have a team of seven salespeople to manage. It's a lot of fun though and I get to meet with some celebrities at times. So far:

- Three Day's Grace
- Shinedown
- Silversun Pickups
- Kellie Pickler
- Sarah Buxton
- Cage The Elephant
- Charice Pempengco
- Vita Chambers

Some of these are big groups, some of them are up and coming but it's all good fun. In any event, I've been lucky to get a little boost in my sales position through the wonder of commission. I'm a salaried employee but a few chances have come up to make some small extra cash on commission for certain voucher sales (http://dcdd.halfoffdeals.com/). I don't make a lot but for the month of march it was nearly $100 on top of my regular pay, yay.

So I bought myself some warmachine...

Since OSH gave me some trollbloods already I didn't buy a lot in the way of models (just one) but I picked up the rulebook Prime Mk2. I'm excited because it's supposed to be a great book as well as having the rules for nearly all of the models in the different Warmachine Factions (excepting a few that came out after the book). Imagine if GW released the 6th edition 40k rulebook with a full colour page on each model/unit for half of the game factions? That would be cool***

So the model I bought is not for playing really but is just for the sheer beauty and joy of painting.

May I present the Harbinger of Menoth




That is some sweet looking model right there. Also, if I never play the Menoth faction in Warmachine, I think it looks far better than the GW model for the Living saint so we might have some Holy-God-Emperor's-Power-Channeling flying saint action as well as Holy-God-of-the-Menites'-Power-Channeling flying warcaster.

All in all I'm pretty happy. Especially because I ordered it this afternoon and the UPS email suggests it might be delivered tomorrow. How's that for service?

Go Warstore :-)


***PS: I should be fair to GW here and say that I'm very impressed with their unit stat summary in the back of AOBR rulebook but it skips over a lot of the special rules.

PPS: Dhinata over at Run'Al is officially the man for helping me out on something that I will blog about if it works. Thankyou good sir.

Damn, can't I stop buying models.

Hey all,

Just a brief update on my latest arrivals from the wonderful Ramshackle Games. I made a big order this time of:
- Nuclear Renaissance 2 (4 vehicles, 14 characters)
- Nuclear Renaissance 1 set (2 vehicles, 1 terrain, 12 figures)
- Larken, Chicken, Stanton and armoured dungers (5).
- Two bikers (Dag and Spiker).
- Vehicle upgrade set
- Big batch of miscast pieces

Now there has been ridiculously heavy snow over here around DC so I've only got one of the two packages from Curtis (bikers, vehicles from NR1, upgrades and miscasts). Still it gives me a little bit of time to get the assembly started before I'm overwhelmed by the incoming resin.

Here you can see my two half-utes in position to let the epoxy glue dry along with the bikers and three miscast dungers (very very small air bubble errors). I've added the rhino and marine for a sense of scale.

Here we see that marine Dreadnoughts are really not as big as you might think.

Last of all we have my vehicle upgrade kit (outside the box) and the batch of miscasts that Curtis added to this order for a minor sum. I think we can safely agree that this is a complete buttload of resin that will make for awesome conversions, terrain or even a kit bashed new vehicle.

So that's about all from me right now. I've finally got hold of some Krylon spray primer so I've got my next batch of miniatures to paint soon enough. The honour guard are next in line after the current ramshackle vehicles and hopefully working on them will be enough to get me stoked up for finishing the land raider so they can have an armoured bunker to charge out of.

Two 'free' models plus latest painting updates.

Hey folks,

Hopefully people enjoyed reading my adeptus mechanicus fiction. I've got another story that I may post up if people want to read it. It's called Face Off and features orks and tyranids fighting over a planet while the Imperials desperately try to evacuate the population.

So, as per the title, two free models...what's the deal?

Well I was going through my bits box recently to tidy it up (I find it nice and calming) and a lightbulb moment occured. All Tau devilfish hull vehicles (Devilfish, Hammerhead and Skyray) come with a tank commander on the sprue. It's a tau figure standing upright who is meant to go in the cupola and has a special binocular arm set to go with them.


Picture taken from www.bitsandkits.co.uk

I used one of mine as a test model for my paint scheme and the other one sat in the bits box. Reading Sholto's blog (http://incunabulum.co.uk/blog/) gave me the inspiration for some less combat oriented models that would work for a more RPG setting. To that end I gave both tank commanders a pulse carbine (plenty of those spare) and now they look like capable sentries for a Tau base somewhere.



The picture shows my Giggles Clan models from www.ramshacklegames.co.uk. I'll be using these with some custom rules in 40k games but they will also go really well with the Throne Agent/RPG setting that Sholto has played in. Fun models also and enjoyable to paint. I was talking with Old Shatter Hands recently and it seems like we're at the two ends of the spectrum at the moment. He's played a lot of games recently and really worked on tactics whereas I've hardly played and have been just painting and modeling. What a great hobby that you have so many facets to enjoy depending on your time and motivation.

Also I'm pretty much finished with my Boneyard truck (also from Ramshackle games). I modded this one up to have a set of hurricane bolters on the side and I think it's come out pretty well. The palette is a little too brown right now so I'll be adding some other colours to brighten it up (or maybe some graffiti). Still, this gives an idea of what it will be like. I need to spend a bit more time on my photography setup with lighting etc. I'll probably have a big photo day and then post it all up.