Improvements on Red

After reading around on forums and a few painting blogs, I've had a go at changing my red recipe to improve it. In the past, I used excessive black lining in the crevices to add shade and I've tried something new for me.

To add a more natural shade, after the red basecoat I've used a mix of red gore and dark flesh on the recesses washed with Devlan Mud - this is followed by another slight wash of Devlan Mud later on in the process. This has produced a more gradual progression from the red armour to a very dark brown in places where I would previously have used a simple black line.

On top of this, I'm taking my highlights further towards fiery orange, but at the same time I'm using fewer, more subtle highlights. I like to think this has improved my red a great deal, but the new models will hopefully still be recognisably part of the same army.

This is a comparison shot - one of my original recipe Blood Angels compared to the marine that I was testing the new red out on. The new one's still WiP, but the helmet is more or less finished. Both pictures were taken with the same camera, the same lighting and at the same time.

Blood Angels Librarian

The paint-job is a bit of a disappointment to me, but at least it's one more Blood Angel painted. Luckily, I have a much better librarian model soaking in some paint stripper right now, so I'll hopefully have a better painted librarian to go alongside this guy eventually.

Blood Angels Rhino

I've completed a Rhino for my marines - I've used a 'weathering pen' that I picked up from hobbycraft, although it gives a nice built up mud effect I find it's hard to get the coverage right.

Blood Angels Captain

It's a pity that the Blood Angels captain is one of the most useless characters in any codex - I have two of them fully painted now. Oh dear. I have no idea why I painted this model instead of an assault squad come to think of it.

I'll be back shortly!

This blog is pretty much in hibernation right now. I've got plenty of new things to put on here, but I'm waiting until my life is slightly less busy. Until then, here are some of the best mini's I've painted to act as a placeholder.

1250 Point Blood Angels List

I've given in, and I've bought both the new BA codex and some of the plastic sets. I love the parts on the Death Company sprue, and armed with some Green Stuff and my bits box, I'm taking the parts and scattering them through the unit's I'm currently assembling. Granted, this will set back my painting of them by a few days - but that is surely a small price to pay to give them all some awesome Blood Angels flavouring. 


I've not spent nearly enough time on my Blood Angels recently - I've recently got involved in organised skepticism, which is almost a second job! In between organising meeting, talks, appearing on a podcast and even giving a talk myself I somehow thought it was a good idea to help paint a friends Black Templars army! I'll be posting a few pictures of them eventually, they are finished to match the Black Templars test model I posted a few months back and I think they turned out pretty groovy.


Still, my Blood Angels are calling to me, and I've written a 1250pt list to get me started in 5th edition. This list is far from perfect, but it's all models that are completed or close to completion, so I have a good chance of getting it fully painted.


1250pt Blood Angels List


HQ
Recclusiarch with Jump Pack


Troops
10 Man Tactical Squad, Power Sword, Plasma Cannon, Melta-Gun, Rhino
10 Man Assault Squad, Jump Packs, Power Fist, Plasma Gun, Infernus Pistol
5 Man Scout Squad, 4 Sniper Rifles, Missile Launcher


Fast Attack
5 Man Vanguard Veteran Squad, Power Fist, 2 Power Swords, Infernus Pistol


Heavy Support
Rifleman Dreadnought
5 Man Devastator Squad, 2 Missile Launchers




It's not a list I'm proud of - I'd have dropped the tacticals for a second assault squad, taken the assault squads in transports, with the Vanguard dropped for a few priests and the Dev's dropped for a Baal, but I'm refusing to proxy for this. Being forced to play with what resources I have will help my playing in the end - one day I will have the models painted for a list I'm truly happy with.


I'm also going to magnetise the jump packs on my assault marines, so I can take them with or without them - they look so much cooler with, but it seems they perform better without. That should rock quite hard.


- Gavin Schofield

Awkward Basing

I'm back after a hobby free Christmas and New Year, and I'd better get working if I want a painted Blood Angels army ready for April. I've started off slowly, now I'm a hairs-breadth away from a finished ten man tactical squad.


I've been trying to get the smaller pieces from the 40K basing set to fit on bases without taking up too much room, and as I don't have anything powerful enough to sand away that much resin I've had to resort to cutting away the base instead. You can see my rough handiwork in the extremely low quality image to the right, I'll have to fill in the gaps with green stuff.


With any luck you'll be seeing more of my Blood Angels completed and on the pages of this blog within a few weeks.


- Gavin

Burnt Face Devastator Completed

Here he is, finished just the other day. Click on the images to enlarge. Next up : a Terminator and some Ork Boys.

- Gavin

40K in 50 Minutes - Part 1

I've set myself a small challenge - to assemble and fully paint and base five 500pt armies, for use in quick games of 40K. I've written the lists, and want to get this done by christmas. Many of the models I need are in my bits box, and the rest I can piece together quite cheaply. Without any further ado, here are my first list, the Blood Angels and Black Templars - I've ignored some requirements to make lists that I feel are more effective / characterful:

Blood Angels

Chaplain w/ Jump Pack - 120pts

Tactical Squad w/ 5 Men & Plasma Cannon - 130pts

Assault Squad w/ 5 Men & Power Sword - 155pts

3 Death Company w/ Jump Packs - 45pts

Assault Bike w/ Multi Melta - 50pts

Black Templars

Emperor's Champion w/ suffer not the unclean to live - 125pts

4 Terminators w/ Assault Cannon - 180pts

6 Initiates w/ Power Fist - 106pts

5 Initiates w/ Plasma Gun - 81pts

- Gavin

Speed-Painted Black Templar

To stop my brain imploding from the sheer amount of red I have to paint, I sometimes decide to paint a single stand alone model just to break it up. I recently set myself the task of painting a Black Templar in under 2 hours, and here it is. Click on the image for a close up view.

Also, here's an update on my Burnt Face Devastator, alongside my Templar for comparison.

The highlighting on the Black Templar is a bit rough around the edges (mainly because of the time limit I set myself), but I'm pretty pleased with it. The model was salvaged from a friends sprue where the spray paint was far too thick, so the details are a bit obscured as well. What do you think?


- Gavin

Blood Angels Combat Squad

Here's a quick update on my Blood Angels. I've almost finished painting five of the Tactical Marines from the AoBR box which only need basing to complete them. These are actually the five marines I started painting in my aborted Blood Angels painting guide, which shows how slow I paint!

Here's some close-ups of the individual marines.

I've converted one of the marines to hold a Melta Gun, and applied the yellow/black hazard striping that I used on my Assault Captain.

These were pretty quick and dirty for me, my third combat squad on the table are looking a lot better than these - I'll post them as soon as they're painted (and based!).


- Gavin

Blood Angels Assault Captain

Another one of my Blood Angels characters has finally been completed - this time it is my 8th Company Captain, currently nameless. This guy is equipped with a Jump Pack, Combi-Melta and Power Fist, making him my most expensive character, which means he'll probably only see action in larger games. Click on the pictures for larger versions.

This model was converted way back in August 2007, appearing in my 18th Club Workshed post. As I'm one of the "fastest painters in the world" it only took 2 years and a month to finish it! To mark this model out as a captain I used a larger base and a lot of gold detailing, and I used grey paint on his heraldry to represent the 8th Company.

I'm quite chuffed with the combi-weapon, I think it turned out quite well! I'm going to use the yellow/black hazard marking on all my hand-held melta weapons.

If anyone has any good ideas for this characters name, please post them in the comments section!


- Gavin

Blood Angels Devastator - aka Burnt Face Man

We've all made mistakes when modelling or painting our miniatures, both small and large. Even the largest mistakes can be covered up by sheer ingenuity, as this Land Speeder and Land Raider from the Drunken Samurai aptly show. I have never had to cope with that, the nearest I've been is 3 coats of paint on a Rhino - although there is a mistake recently that I've had to cover.


Whilst painting my latest batch of Blood Angels, I slipped with the brush and covered a portion of a face with a black streak of paint - no big deal really, as I could just re coat it. There was also one more thing nagging me about that models head though, while I was assembling it I was really sloppy with the mould lines on that side of his face. This was my Plasma Cannon marine for a tactical squad, so I decided that at some point in the past his cannon had misfired on him, leaving him horribly scarred....

Behold, burnt face man! A bit of stippling with dark browns and blacks, coupled with some ink use, has made me less embarrassed to have missed such an obvious mould line. I just have to finish the rest of the model, and then I can rest easy.


UPDATE - I've also decided to enter the Jawaballs Painting Competition, so I've started work on a Blood Angels terminator a little early. Here's the start of the model, an ex-salamander and an AoBR arm that will hopefully work well with normal Termie arms. Apologies for the poor picture.

- Gavin

Old Models- Better Camera

I've borrowed a decent Sony camera from a neighbour, and played around in photoshop. Before I upload pictures of my latest models, here's some of my older models reposted with better pictures.

Eldar Guardian - Painted this year, this was a very quick and simple paintjob, followed by a dip in the quickshade. Turned out quite well, and I want to one day paint an army in this scheme.

Chaplain Grimmauld - This model was painted this year, and is one of my better painted Blood Angels. This model was the first Blood Angel of the army, in fact it inspired me to collect the Blood Angels again!

Sniper Scout - Painted around 2 years ago, you can see white specks on this model from poor varnishing. I'll get rid of them eventually, but they're not noticeable in the 'flesh'.

A new Blood Angels combat squad and an Assault Marine Captain are coming soon, and maybe some more old models.

- Gavin

Blood Angels Whole Army (so far)

I have borrowed a much better camera for the time being, but I'll need to get hold of a card reader before I can use it - until then, here's my current complete Blood Angels list, alongside some blurry photographs! I've picked up a bit of pace in the last few days, but It'll be a while until they are finished.

HQ

7th Company Captain

Power Sword, Storm Shield

120pts

8th Company Captain

Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Jump Pack

155pts

Chaplain Grimmauld

Jump Pack

120pts

Librarian Novella

120pts

Elites

5 Death Company

Jump Packs

25pts

5 Terminators

Assault Cannon

Chain Fist

235pts

5 Terminators

200pts

5 Sniper Scouts

Missile Launcher

120pts

Dreadnought

Multi Melta

125pts

Troops

10 Tactical Marines

Power Sword, Heavy Bolter, Flamer

230pts

10 Tactical Marines

Plasma Cannon, Melta Gun

225pts

5 Assault Marines

Power Sword

155pts

Fast Attack

Attack Bike

Multi-Melta

50pts

Heavy Support

Whirlwind

Storm Bolter

90pts

10 Devastators

3 Missile Launchers, 1 Heavy Bolter

275pts

10 Devastators

2 Lascannons, 1 Multi Melta, 1 Plasma Cannon

310pts

Allies

5 Deathwatch

Librarian, Power Fist, Kraken Bolts

235pts

Roughly 2800 points so far assembled, with a further 2 Dreads, Baal Predator and Tactical Squad in boxes under the bed.... hopefuly next year I'll have a post showing my fully painted army!

- Gavin