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.

Black Templar Terminator Squad

Here's another unit of the table standard Black Templars I'm painting. This time, it's a terminator squad.

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.

Black Templar Marshall

Another speed-painted Black Templar here - a Marshall using the stock AoBR Captain with no conversions.

Black Templar Dreadnought

This was painted as an exercise to see how quickly I could get a walker finished. I used very simple painting techniques to speed things up, and I managed to get it finished far quicker than any of my Blood Angel dreadnoughts! Click on the images to enlarge.

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

Finished Ork Boy

I've finished the test model for my Ork army, completed in a short time using basic colours and Army Painter quickshade. I've gone for a muted look for my scheme, but with lighter colours than usual on an Ork. A lot of Ork armies I see on the table are very, very dark, and I think this detracts from the army as a whole - but on the same hand, I don't want to have incredibly bright and clean Orks.

Here's the Ork next to one of my Blood Angel scouts, for comparison.

Expect to see more of my Orks posted here soon.

- Gavin

Waagghh! - A quick update.

This is what I've been working on over the weekend, thanks to the Assault on Black Reach boxset. Tonight I should get hold of two more lots of AoBR in exchange for an old MP3 player. I'll be using the army painter dip on these orks, or I'll never finish them. Pictures of the completed models to come soon, this snap was taken on an old phone.

- Gavin

Amazing New Forgeworld Tau

This is from the Forgeworld mailing list, and it's pretty cool. They've got a hefty heavy Tau Battle Suit coming out soon. Not sure how much it costs, but I may pick one (or two) up for my Tau army. I've already got a Forgeworld suit, and they truly are steps ahead of the plastic suits.

- 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