The Umbral Claw - Chaos Space Marine Squad W.I.P

A unit of renegade Chaos Marine fighting for fortune in the midst of the Eye of Terror!

Once upon a time I had a Black Legion Chaos marine army that I gamed with quite frequently. They were a collection of 2nd edition plastic miniatures and terminators on the smaller bases led by the pre eminent miniature that was Abaddon the Despoiler. I tried adding to this army when new Chaos releases came out but they didn't sit right against my older collection. I had moved onto a different place in my life and the army came to be a milestone for me. It had fought through Abaddon's great Crusade and would now reside on the display cabinet for all eternity, gods of their own kingdom. 

But I couldn't resist playing with the new Chaos possessed kit. The details reminded me of the older Space Crusade models and I wanted to create marines that were equally as strange. So these W.I.P's are a mixture of vagabonds, traitors, liars and warped souls. I have a sizable collection of dark Vengeance Chaos Marines still on srpue tucked away in one of my many boxes. Perhaps the Black Legion will get a second birth as something far stranger than before? 

Myles

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Ferrus Manus Day 1

"How tall is Ferrus Manus? About a head shorter than Fulgrim..."

Common Emperor's Children joke. 

The above picture is the stopping point of the day. I'll quickly run through the stages and expand upon them in another entry (gives me a chance to collect questions and queries). 

Step 1 - The Zenithal base coat. 

This stages helps build contrast and also helps me plot highlighting and shading points. This stage also helps me visualise the end result. The head was undercoated grey first and given a zenithal blast of white directly from above. 

Stage 2; Airbrush

I use a cool grey mixing black white and purple with a touch of turquoise for the first thin layer which covers the black armour. I add a little more white and turqoise to highlight and then shade the armour with pure black mixed with a little black ink. I yo-yo between these stages until the undercoat layer has vanished and the armour is smooth. 

I spray the base with the same grey as the armour but do not add the black shading. The dead Iron Hand undergoes the same treatment as his father primarch. The Emperor's Children are given a pre shade of dark blue, a mid tone of reaper master series clear purple and warlock purple for the contrast on the highest points of the armour. 

The head is sprayed with a redish brown underneath and lighter, cooler shades of skin until I am practically spraying pure white straight down at his face. 

Step 3: The rest...

This stage is brutally short and needs expansion. 

The armour was shaded with black, washed with turquoise and re-highlighted with white to sharpen the  details. 

The bronze was created by mixing VMC Air bronze and copper. This was then juiced with Tamiya clear yellow, red and green (to create a warm, murky brown - mis in more green for deeper shadows). The silver was VMC Air black (metallic), VMC air gun and chrome mised and blended together. This was washed with nuln oil and re-highlighted with chrome. Looking at the pictures I think the arms could benefit from a few more layers of Chrome to lighten them. 

The face was given a wash of tallarn flesh and VMC skin wash ink. I applied shadows by mixing brown with blue (increase the blue for the deeper shadows). I used Tallarn Flesh and VMC Glacier Blue to highlight the skin. I gave Ferrus a smattering of white on the side of his head. Despite the super regenerative capabilities of a Primarch on the celluar level rendering them all but immune their hair from turning white, I thought he would look quite distinguished with a smattering of salt and pepper side hair.

That's your lot for tonight. Any feedback will be hungrily received. 

Myles

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The Gorgon Ferrus Manus Special

He who is brave, is free.

Hello and welcome to this blog charting my progress painting the Gorgon, Ferrus Manus. 

I hope to litter this with useful information for those who will be attempting to build and paint their own miniature.

All feedback and comments are welcome. Hope to update soon. 

Myles

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*NEW TAU* Farsight and Riptide W.I.P

Quick WIP shots of the infamous Commander Farsight and the new riptide suit. Below you'll find a review of the new Farsight kit.

Farsight unboxing. 

So far I feel that I have been very fortunate with my fine-cast buys so far and it was with some hope I bought this one. Finecast seems to handle larger kits quite well, so lets have a look at this.

First thing I noticed was that the cast seemed slightly out of kilter. The abdomen especially had quite a deep groove on the connecting seem.  While not severe enough to ask for a refund, it is nonetheless an annoyance and dramatically increases clean up time.

I also found the details were a little fuzzy. The lines of the armour were not cleanly moulded and I found that I had to file most the edges to give a crisper finish.

Once assembled the miniature is striking and dynamic. Farsight is an excellent focal point for a force, if you are willing to put in the work.

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Honour & Rage; Loken and Abaddon Diarama W.I.P

"These fragments I have shored against my ruins"

One more sleep until it's complete! Just need to attach it to the base and viola!

A note on osl; I felt that this would be a huge risk to take at the start of the project but without risk you don't improve and I like working to the principle of never compromising or letting fear get in the way of an idea. I'm using the under lighting as a visual reference to Horus and it also helps that he looks bat **** crazy with the red under light. This is foreshadowing e madness that will consume the character. 

There's also another reason why I've used the red. I want loken and abaddon to be associated with warm and cold colours. Abaddon's features are skewed with rage, transformed by red. For loken I've used blue as an undertone to the skin, representing the cold doctrine of the imperial truth. 

Once again I have to say this kit is phenomenal. This may very well be the best sculpted miniature I've ever painted. The detail on the face and the little articulations of the models charging at one another is breath taking. 

Lilloser.

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