Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Upgrading My Angels

It would be hard to tell from the blog, but I've been putting a lot of time into my Angels of Absolution the last month. I've been painting on an almost daily basis but not all of it has been about completing models. I've been in the process of upgrading the models I have to be more visually interesting and to better represent how they are organized. One of the things I have felt in recent years is that my models are too clean and pristine. They needed some mud, scratches, and battle damage. Additionally, bases have come a long way since I started this army in 1994 when all bases were Goblin Green with either Green Flock or a layer of sand painted Goblin Green and drybrushed with either Rotting Flesh or Sunburst Yellow. Oof. What a mundane look that was? Over time we've branched out into new colors, textures, flocking materials, water effects, and now even elaborate resin cast bases. Needless to say, though newly painted models can be granted these luxuries, they just won't match the old bases unless everyone gets some upgrading to link them together.

One of the 1st orders of business this month has been the abolishment of the 7th Squad Tactical Squad of the 5th company. You see, when I created the 7th Squad over 10 years ago I didn't understand the organization of the Dark Angels well enough to pick up on the fact that the 7th Squad of the 5th company wouldn't be a Tactical squad, they would be an Assault squad. This
has been a huge black mark on my army for the last 10 years that I had been meaning to erase. Today I'm going to go explain briefly how I erased that stain.
The above model details the offensive 7th Tactical squad marking.
Here I have taken Bleached Bone and thinned it down to a watery consistency so that I can cover the black in multiple successive layers without globbing up my model.
After 2 coats.

And here it is completely erased on the 4th coat. I didn't bother to stage by stage it, but I did the exact same process with Mechrite Red until I had a pristine Tactical symbol to work with. Then I went in with watered down Chaos Black and painted new numbers onto a handful of these 7th squad rejects. Here is the end result.
You might also notice that he has mud splatter and chips in his armor added. His base got upgraded with broom bristle, gravel, and taller static grass tufts.

All of my Angels of Absolution are named. This Meltagunner is Trojin.
Gravis was another 7th squad member. I still love the rivet mohawk I gave him years ago.
Folin was also a 7th squad member. He has a black knee pad with script to indicate that he is a Chaplain Apprenta.
Many campaigns ago Holgin was actually Veteran Sergeant Midas of the 5th Squad. One of his original arms was removed and attached to a different model and his name was changed and his rank lost. If you look closely you can tell he's an older model because his Bleached Bone is not as opaque as later models.
Crace was pictured last post. Unlike the others he wasn't reassigned to 2nd Squad, he was painted specifically to complete the Combat Squad.
One final note. On Saturday night I sat down to paint and discovered my Fine Detail Brush was past its days. It couldn't hold enough paint to reasonably coat an elbow pad on a marine. Completely bummed because my girlfriend had the laptop we've been sharing with her at work and unable to make an emergency order, I sat down to spend a full evening of cutting Space Marine bitz off of sprues. Sunday morning I ordered my new brush and some other supplies including the new Liquid Green Stuff. Hopefully my package will arrive tomorrow afternoon. Today was all basing and photography because I was crippled without that damned brush. Its funny how important our hobbies can be to our daily lives, but they are. Thanks for reading.

-Nick

Fine Cast Death Guard...

Hey all, bought some Fine Cast Death Guard a while ago from GW and when I opened my box I noticed that alot of the miniatures had defects.. arms completely fragged up, faces with large bubbles on em, etc...
Wasn't completely upset as they are Papa Nurgles little boys, but still called GW and had them send replacements, in the past they've always just sent a new box/model when there were defects, this time though, they specifically asked which ones on the sprue were messed up and only sent those. I was totally fine with that... Going through my box of Chaos bit though and was able to make an almost complete new squad... and here they are




Thats it for today...
Cheers

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

AdMech Rough Rider test model

Hey all,
Just recently picked up 5 of these little fella's from MicroArt Studios and thought they might look pretty good as a AdMech Rough Rider conversion. So here is a couple picts of my first attempt..





when i first started painting this guy up, i was like... wait a second, this model is bit different than the pictures posted on their website... sure enough i sent em an email pointing out the differences and they said.. yes, they had problems with the cast had to change it and apologized for not updating the picture, i noticed today that their picture is still the same... hmmmm... ps.. a added the chainsword and bolt pistol...
The other thing i tried to add was the Mechanicus symbol. I used the instant mold stuff to grab the icon from a landraider.. gotta say, that i will have to do try that one again, was hard to tell how bad looking it was til i started painting it up... Next one!

any how, here are some more...





Over all i would give this model a 8 out of 10 for creativeness, i think maybe a 6.5 out of 10 for the actual model it self, there are casting anomalies in quite a few spots.. missing pipes and cables with chunks missing out of them and the biggest was the fenders missing compared to the photo's online, really liked the hazard line painting online... oh well, its all good i think. Really have put this out there too, been posting on forums asking how people use their Rough Riders and so far, no one has said they actually use them anymore, as they only get to use the lance on the charge and only 1 attack base... kinda weak, but i will still paint up the rest and maybe try em out at some point, figure they could be a good last minute objective contest'r. The other thing i've been trying to find, is a good sort of Mechanicus type hunting lance i could use for the count as... any suggestion folks?
Cheers,
Brose

Monday, October 3, 2011

AdMech Guardsman Marbo

Hey all, Just got this Bounty Hunter Model off ebay and thought it would make a nice count as AdMech Guardsman Marbo.




I know the rest of my army is base coated red, but wanted to try some simple greys to help make him stand out and also to fit a bit more with the fluff and hiding in the shadows. Really excited to try him out in a game, pretty much a one hit wonder i've heard, but sometimes, those can be pretty fun and really mess with peoples plans!!!
Cheers,
Brose
*edit.. just noticed that i didn't paint the handle of his knife...woops