Three! - Angels of Absolution WIP #5

Yesterday I completed my third Angels of Absolution Scout. For me this pacing is nigh unheard of; and I have more completed bitz on the painting table.

I wanted to try out giving a Scout a backpack like how the art consistently depicts them. I'm also cycling through the various bald Space Marine heads with rebreather masks, so when I pulled this vehicle driver head with antenna I decided to go all out and add an Imperial Guard vox pack.

Like my other Scouts he is based with a mix of GW Sand, GW slate, GW Static Grass, Noch Spring Grass Tufts, and clippings of broom bristle.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to shoot to complete 6 Scouts, so I'm halfway there.

-Nick

Two Down: Angels of Absolution Scouts WIP #4

Before the weekend hit I finally finished up the Angels of Absolution Scout I had been working on all week. Here he is. He has a Space Marine head with the neck shaved down to fit in the armor's neck socket. He also has a green stuff loin cloth and the "skull on a rope" that I no longer recall where it came from. So he's got a few little conversions to give him some character.

 

Here's the same model from a slightly different angle. The base has standard GW basing material, a little pile of shale fragments, a spring grass tuft from Noch, some German company, some standard GW static grass, and a few broom bristle fragments sticking out of the ground out of holes drilled with a pin vise.

This model is the "test model" I completed February 17, 2010. 2nd City Warzone - First Blood! 2/17/10. He's been waiting over 3 years for some buddies to go to battle with. He also has the green stuff loin cloth and Space Marine head.

These are more legs waiting in the wings. The legs to the far left have a veteran crux attached to the loin cloth so those will be the sergeant legs. The legs in the middle are for a normal Scout, or maybe since the combat knife is at his side, maybe that would be the ideal heavy weapon Scout? The legs all the way to the right have received a lot of work since this pic was taken and actually if now a mostly done 3rd Scout. Note that if you look closely I took a moment to drill holes in the bases for broom bristle to stick out of. I think doing this now is better than when the model is done and I'm almost ruining a completed model as I'm drilling into it multiple times.

This final picture is from the 4th Edition Dark Angels Codex and shows you some of the reference material I'm working with. This is where I got the idea for loin cloths and bald heads. I noticed that this pic and the one in the new book both depict Scouts with backpacks, so I'm trying to incorporate that as well in the future.

 

-Nick

Piece By Piece: Angels of Absolution Scouts WIP 3

I've been working along on that Angels of Absolution Scout Squad. The other day I highlighted up the flesh for the head I intend to use on the body I've been working on (visible to the right of the head). I'm really happy with how the flesh came out. Hopefully I don't destroy it when I do the eyes.

Tallarn Flesh, Ogryn Flesh Wash, Cadian Flesh Tone, Bronzed Flesh, Elf Flesh, and Agrax Earth Shade in the eye sockets. Only 2 of those paints can still be found on a shelf at a store. That's how I roll.

I've started base coating Bolt Pistol Arm attempt number 3. Its coming along.

Part of me wants to convert this in some way or add some sort of bit, but after painting up two separate arms previous that didn't work, I'm afraid to do anything fancy and run into the same problem a 3rd time.

This set of legs is all ready to go and will be used for the Veteran Sergeant. It pretty much has to be - considering I have the Veteran Crux hanging from the belt.

Green stuff loin cloth and a Veteran Crux bit.

I started dabbling with some sculpting. I'm planning on giving the Sergeant Melta Bombs so I took a Catachan arm and started the process of giving him a sleeve over his bare muscled arm. The piece of plastic card will be part of the Scout Armor Gauntlet they all wear. Its got a ways to go. Since I had some leftover green stuff I made some pieces for a purity seal. I'm really happy with how well I got the scale on these.

I suck at sculpting but I want to learn. This is my attempt to push my limits. Hopefully when the gauntlet and shoulder pad are added it will look decent.

Also while sculpting I gave this head a mohawk like the old scouts had. I think it came out pretty well. We'll see when I get it all cleaned, primed, and painted though.

Green stuff mohawk. Someone get him to Hot Topic for some bondage pants. I kid since if my hair didn't thin in my early 20's I'd totally have rocked a mohawk somewhere in the last 20 years.

Finally, here's one more set of Scout legs all base coated and ready for highlighting.

Another green stuff loin cloth with an Imperial Eagle groin protector to show he has faith in the Emperor to protect his junk.

-Nick

The Wrong Arm Take II - Angels of Absolution Scout WIP #2

One piece at a time. I just completed this arm.

Here I am again, trying to complete the same Dark Angel Scout model. Since the last post I completed this Combat Knife arm and glued it in place. If you read my last post you know that the gun arm I had completed for this model couldn't be fitted in place because of the amount I had rotated the torso - it was impacting the holster.

The Wrong Arm: AGAIN!

Well, the comedy of errors continues. I have the arm above mostly done - just some highlights and the squad marking to go. I decided to pull an extra of the identical arm from my bits box to make sure it still lines up correctly with the Combat Knife arm glued in place. Of course, it does not. The blade tip impacts the gun and though I could make it work, it looks awkward with the knife and gun touching. I spent a good half an hour test fitting Catachan, Cadian, Orlock, and Scout bitz to see what my best/easiest option would be. Sadly, most of the bitz I tried would have been most suited for a Sergeant or would require a lot of sculpting work.

Hopefully this arm works because the only other Scout arm that fits doesn't really go with the rest of the pose.

Finally I settled on this bit. Space Marine Bolt Pistol Arm attempt #3 coming later this week.

I hate the Scout heads (like a lot of people) so I'm making do with some Space Marine ones.

Finally, this blurry pic shows the Space Marine baldy with rebreather that I shaved down to use for the head. Lets hope nothing goes wrong here.

-Nick

The Wrong Arm - Angels of Absolution Scout WIP

I'm glad I'm still working on Squad #1. I'm out of practice so that freehand 1 took me a half hour.

Its been a while since I made a 40K post. I played in an AWC tournament a few weeks back and I'm excited to paint my Angels of Absolution again. I decided to pull out some Scouts I had started in the hope of working my way through a 5 man squad. One disadvantage of painting piecemeal and doing test fittings with blue tack is that sometimes when everything comes together the pieces you were working with don't line up as planned.

You'll notice I added a green stuff loin cloth as well as the skull on rope bit.

I had originally planned to use that arm for this body. Sadly, when I glued the torso in place I twisted it too far for the arm to clear the holster creating a terrible gap if I had chosen to glue it. I worked on that silly arm on and off for the past couple of days. It'll still get used, but I was excited to have this model almost done. Instead I'm going to have to prime a different arm tomorrow and start over. I guess at least I have an arm done for one of the other Scouts in the squad.




-Nick