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

WiP - Blood Angels Faces

I've been doing some more work on my tactical marines, and this time I've been working on a section at a time. Here are my latest faces, my third combat squad so far...

Since I never completed my painting guide, heres how I paint red:

- Black Undercoat

- Flat coat of Mecherite Red

- Drybrush of Blood Red

- Wash of Red Ink/Magneta Ink Mix

- Flat coat of Blood Red

- Baal Red Wash

- Blood Red Highlight

- Blood Red / Blazing Orange Highlight

- Blazing Orange Highlight (characters only)

I've got 6 or 7 more models completed so far, but I'm not going to post them till I get hold of a better camera!

- Gavin

The Blood Angels return...

Apologies for the hiatus, I've recently moved into a new house and I've had very little time for painting. The good news is that I now have much more room to paint, and my Blood Angels are back on the painting table, going at a much faster rate than before. Expect some updates and pictures in a few days.

..on a side note, how awesome are the Blood Angels terminators in Space Hulk?

- Gavin

Ultramarines (Pre-Heresy-ish!)

The Ultramarines aren't a chapter I've ever considered colecting, and I never thought I'd be posting any of them to this blog - but that's exactly what I'm about to do.

Before reading any further, may I direct you to this blog, where there are some excellent Pre-Heresy World Eaters. Ahem, now you've had a look, I'll continue.

One of the books I'm currently reading is Battle for the Abyss, a Horus Heresy novel by Ben Coulter which sees a small force of Space Wolves, Thousand Sons, World Eaters and Ultramarines chasing an immense Word Bearer battleship through the warp, in an attempt to save the Ultramarines chapter itself. The story itself is pretty good, although it's not up there with the Eissenhorn trilogy and Fulgrim, it's one of the better BL book's I've read in a while.

The image that struck me is the World Eaters, Ultramarines and Space Wolves working together to assault the Furious Abyss as it gathers supplies - I've always wanted to model a small pre-heresy army, and what would be more interesting to paint than a force that includes several different legions? Sure, they wouldn't look too cohesive on the table, but it's something I'd love to do.

Inspired by this, I took brush to pewter for the first time in a week, and started on a test Ultramarine. I'm using an old metal veteran sarge from the metal command squad who seems to be wearing Corvus armour - as this is what the Ultramarines are equiped with during the Heresy, it's a pre-heresy model with no conversion needed! This is certainly looking better than my last pre-heresy attempt, which should teach me a lesson about not cluttering up a model with useless ornament.

It's still very WiP, but the blue armour and the face are finished:

This is actually my first use of the new GW inks, and I must say that I'm extremely impressed by them. The armour is Mordian Blue, New Blue Ink, Ultramarines Blue, Highlight. The face uses Ogryn Flesh and also some Badab Black to give it the apperance of stubble. Certainly coming along much better than the last Ultramarine I attempted:

This is my painting "skills" from 7 years ago, after around 2 1/2 years of painting. Oh dear.

- Gavin