7 Day Deathwing

How long does it take to change this:

Into this?

All this week I will be re-modeling my Black Templar Army into a Deathwing Force, then paint all the Terminators on the weekend.

DAY 1

This is what the army currently looks like:





This should resemble something like an army by Friday, and by the end of the weekend a battle hardened Deathwing force. 

Unlike my other projects, speed is key here. I have set myself a schedule of a week to get everything prepared (well, the terminators at any rate - i'm not optimistic about having my landraider stripped and prepared by the weekend). I'm only converting a few characters, leaving Belial to create at my leisure, and painting whatever I have prepared over the weekend.


DAY 2

Here is what the army looks like today:




I've still yet to name the squads or the sergeants. What kind of names do Deathing members have? Also, what other books, or reference would you recommend I read? So far, all I know about Deathwing is that they paint their armour white to symbolise the passing from one world to the next (becoming ghosts), and that they are named Deathwing because one unit saved a recruiting world from Genestealers. Why do they have a broken blade as their symbol? 

Day 3

Time is getting away from me very quickly now. I have started to put the squads together and sort out what weapons go where. Making a decent Deathwing list is a real art. Despite having limited choices, there are a plethora of combinations to be considered.






I've mainly been concentrating on the bases. Because the old terminators were designed for a single 25mm (I think that is correct?) base, they don't dominate the larger bases like the newer plastic ones do. I can use this to my advantage by putting a lot of Blanche-esque craziness on the bases, and building a sense of place. Dark Angels enjoy a rich heritage of fantastic artwork, something which I intend to exploit through the Sergeants.

Think, walking psychopathic Cathedrals; thats the direction i'm heading in.

Day 4

I had the day off today, so in between my commission work I'm putting in a double shift.

I've built up the bases, added all the cool fallen masonry and started the green stuff work.

The bits I ordered on the weekend still have not arrived and i'm getting a little skittish as to whether they will arrive by the weekend. I'm waiting for the main colour that I will use on the army and an assault cannon. Worry, worry, worry.







After a little rummaging, I found that I have just enough parts to make a dreadnought. Viva La Bits box.


Dreadnought



Army

DAY 4 (continued...)

Wow, what a long day. The Deathwing are nearly complete. The odd bit of Green stuff here, a smattering of glue here and they should be ready by Saturday for priming.

Here are the last blurry photo's you'll see of the un-primed army, that only look slightly different from the ones posted above. I will take some cleaner photo's tomorrow (yay more bare metal, bet you can't wait for that), then start my painting marathon Saturday morning. If you like the look of any of these models and you would like to see close up's now is the time to ask.

Day 5 tomorrow...

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It was cool in the 80's.

This is something I've been promising myself to try for a while. I bought a second addition Warhammer 40K boxed set that included a 'How to paint space marines' booklet inside. A facinating read; it describes unit markings (did you know marines had lieutenant's?), chapter organisation, power armour, and an interesting note about how the index astrates has been translated by the different chapters through time. I was determined to have a go, and see how the old methods and paints translate in 2010. 

Here is the original sheet:

"How to Paint Classic Blood Angel Space Marines"

There are similar sheets on how to paint ultramarines, space wolves and Salamanders. It's interesting to think how different 40k would be if GW decided to develop the Salamander range instead of the Dark Angels. Guess we will never know...

My classic Rogue Trader Blood Angel:

Step one 



Easy enough to start. Prepare model, and spray white. No difference.

Step two



As it so happens, I am lucky enough to own an original pot of GW terracotta that had not dried up. It took several thin layers to get a good, solid coat. I've found that GW's current merchite red has a similar pigment, but if your the pedantic type, add a little vermin fur in the mix. Paint equipment, backback (I forgot to add it to the marine when photographing), tubing, accessories black.


Stage three




Drybrush pack and weapons boltgun metal. You will notice that GW produced a colour calledBlood Angels orange and not red. However, since the guide calls for the orange to be mixed with terracotta, I just painted all raised area's of armour with blood red. 


Stage four


 


The highlighting stage is really bizarre. Drybrush any metallics surfaces as described above - no problem. The red armour: first highlight with a mix of blood angels orange (just add a touch of blazing orange to blood red) and sunburst yellow. I moved from a 70:30 mix to a 50:50 (sunburst yellow is pretty transparent when thinned down, so I would use this as a wash to 'taint' the edges of the armour), then added white. White? I didn't understand it either. I thought that the mixture would be tinged with pink (which it was) and ruin the highlight (it didn't, but you have to perform this stage sparingly). 


Stage five





At this stage, you've done the donkey work; time to tidy up. Black line all the recesses in the armour, paint the eyes green, then paint on chapter symbol and squad insignia (interestingly, since most of the old models had a studded left shoulder pad, chapter and squad insignia were often represented on the same pauldron - see above for Blood Angels Tactical).

Stage six




Base. In contrast to he sand base above, I've really gone old school and based my marine with classic goblin green and green sand.


And voila - Classic Blood Angel Space Marine.

Conclusions:

I think the marine turned out ok. It has the feel of a classic Rogue Trader paint job (No ink's or washes - even though I cheated a little with the latter), even using the current colour range. I think my effort tunred out a little darker than the orginal GW's. I couldn't get comfortable with the highlighting at stage 4. It still feel completely alien highlighting red with white. I also think I should have made the armour brighter at stage three. However, I'm really pleased at how he has turned out, adding an unusual accompaniment to the rest of my army.
When I mixed white in, it created a colour similar to elf flesh, which I used to hghlight the very extreme of the armour plate. If you make a mistake, and make the highlight too extreme, use some sunburst yellow to wash over it and try again.

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The Killers Stroke

Varakaai won Rumour and Thief by murdering the Twin Headed Harlequin's Avant and Demi. 

The Incubi shrine of the Ghoul-kin Murder was believed destroyed in the massacre of Shaadoom. It has become common practice for Incubi Shrines associated with the Kabal of the Poisoned tongue to hunt surviving members of the Ghoul-kin as a rite of passage to enter a real space raid.

These pic archives indicate that a few survivors remain, under the new Shrine name of Wraiths-Mor: a name that is both a disgrace, and a curse. They are a scattered tribe, united by the terrible pact they made during the last days of the sundering of Shadoom. For the Incubi of the Wraiths-Mor are dead, animated by the hellish alchemy of the Haemonculi Maristille Gene-Weaver. In death, they continue a war long lost against the Shrines that caused their genocide. 

The Wraiths-Mor can be identified by their prevalence; or rather Maristille's taste, for flayed skin tabards and fetishes. The Gene-Weaver's sense of humour can be seen here on this Incubi's tabard incorporating a still living human being

These Incubi came into being after reading through Rabid Bunny's excellent dark eldar blog; Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue. I love the current incubi kit, but eventually they all start to look alike when they appear on so many Dark Eldar Blogs. I wanted something distinctive and personal. I want these to be instantly recognizable as the incubi from the Wraiths-Mor Shrine and put a little of my personality into them. 

The klavies are made with putty, plastic card and I have used a metal one on the last model. 

Now, how to paint them? 

LilLoser

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Cynath Ch'Ihll The Medusae Prince W.I.P

Here is a W.I.P shot of Cynath Ch'Ihll as an Archon of the Cabal Medusae. 

I worked up this colour scheme inspired by the Dark Eldar cover.

I have finished one model so far, with twenty more of his pals and their pleasure boats for them to joy ride in coming soon.

I've noticed a growing trend with dark eldar armies to use TMM armour instead of matte colours. Just like the widely used 'lining' technique (where the edges of the armour are given an extreme highlight: see GW's army for examples), metallics highlight the highly detailed kit and segmented armour prevalent on the Dark Eldar kit.

However painting with metallics requires a different mindset and set of techniques. You cannot shade nor highlight as you normally would. There are so many pitfalls. This test model is the end product of three other tests which ended in failure. I am in the process of compiling a tutorial on how I created this warrior in hopes that it will help you with your own experimentation. 

LilLoser

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Re-envisioning the Dark Elf range

I've been very busy collecting bits for my planned warrior kit. I quite like the current plastic kit, but I like to do something different with anything that I collect. I worked up some sketches of how I would like the warriors from House of Ch'ill to look. I tried to strike a balance between the old 'chaos elf' look of the 80's and the sleeker, more agile look of the newer range. 

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