Counts-As Mephiston

I posted a bad picture of this a while ago, figured I'd add a higher quality one. Parts are from the Death Company kit, a Dark Angels sword, random plasma pistol, and cloak from the Dark Elf Corsairs. Psychic Hood built from an extra shoulder pad and some green stuff.

SF

Counts-As Sergeant Telion

Because I just love this guy. The grizzled old war veteran who insists on teaching the youngsters. It's almost a trope. Anyways, I spent quite a bit of time cutting and filing away at the Ultramarine symbols on this guy (the right bracer and the shoulder were the most irritatingly difficult), and then used greenstuff in an amateur fashion to put my chapter badge on his left shoulder. As with all my scouts, I replaced the head with a Pig Iron helmet. Because I'm pretty sure they should go over wearing your helmet in Space Marine Basic Training.

Scout Squad Complete

Here's the Space Marine Scout Squad that I've been working on for a while, finally complete. The helmets are from Pig Iron Productions and work wonderfully with the scout models (because as I usually insist - a dude without a helmet is just asking for a bolter round to the face).

Gorgon Knights Scouts

Here are a couple of Scouts from my Gorgon Knights chapter. Rather than go with the usual gold, I decided to make it a much darker scheme than usual, while simultaneously making a subtle reference to the Iron Hands (their parent chapter). They are after all Scouts, they infiltrate and tend to rely on stealth. Wearing bright colors doesn't help that at all. A subtle detail that I'll be incorporating is (with the exception of the Sergeants) is the fact that the Scouts don't bear the chapter emblem, a right that they earn when they become full battle-brothers. The most noticeable thing is the use of Pig Irons' Heavy Infantry heads. Even though they're space marines, they still wear helmets into battle. Doing anything else mere combat stupidity.

The paint scheme was heavily inspired from the Halo series of video games - mainly on the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (the best of non-augmented human soldiers). I have a hard time painting with darker pallets. I find that trying to stick to it creates a rather boring model. Fortunately, it allows me to play with metallic paints much more than I'm usually able to and try to simulate a True Metallic look. The helmet visors were definitely a nice contrast to the rest of the model. 

As usual, C&C welcome.

Cheers,

Squirrel_Fish

Centerpieces

So it's been a month since my last post, but i haven't been sitting on my hands the entire time.

I've completed painting two Tactical squads (nothing exceptionally new in those guys), assembled some more Death Company and Assault Marines, have prepped my Scouts for priming and finished (for the most part) a few models that are certainly centerpieces of the Gorgon Knights chapter. 

First up, is Chapter Master Kelzax (my Counts-As Commander Dante). I wanted to make my army commanders models that are truly mine and no one else's. Seeing as how I'm terrible with greenstuff or scratch building, I went with kitbashing. For this guy, I used the glaive from a Grey Knight, Legs and Jump Pack from an Assault Marine, Chest, Cape, Left Shoulderpad and Iron Halo from the Commander box set, and the Helmet and Infernus Pistol from the Death Company box. 

Due to a wedding I had to attend, I wasn't present for the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center's "Malleus Imperator" event. However, I did have this model submitted into their painting competition and lo and behold.

Here's Chief Librarian Diomedes (Counts-As Mephiston). Once again, I wanted a model that would be mine and did very little converting other than kitbashing. The left shoulder pad, torso and legs come from the Death company box set (blood drops shaved off and filled with green stuff). The cape comes from the Dark Elf Corsairs, while the pistol and right shoulder are from the tactical sprue. The sword comes from a Dark Angel's kit. The Psychic Hood was made using a shoulder pad that I carved out with a hobby knife and the cabling was done with green stuff. This is one of the only models that I will have that isn't wearing a helmet...

I learned quite a few things while painting these models. 

First, patience pays off. Being a good miniatures painter is knowing that you'll have to touch up constantly and techniques such as blending and gradual highlighting are only achieved through patient work. The lightning on my Librarian's left shoulder and the weapons on both model are testament to that. 

Second, I've come to the conclusion that I don't really enjoy painting an ultra-realistic miniatures. Don't get me wrong, I think it's highly impressive work and absolutely fantastic art. But I found out after perfecting my gold technique and attempting some non-metallic metal that it really doesn't work for me. I like that comic book-esque, cell shaded art over the photo-realism approach. Neither way is wrong, it's just a matter of taste.

Kitbashing is the Best Bashing

So I picked up a box of the Blood Angels Death Company for purposes of kitbashing a Counts-As Death Company as well as various other projects.

This is my Company Champion, using a lot of parts from the Death Company kit, including the legs, torso, head and the winged blood details on the shoulder pads and then the sword and combat shield from the Assault Squad. For both models, I was very careful to clip off any and all blood drops from the models. I feel that the shoulders are probably the best part of the model. I clipped away the blood drops and shaved it down to look like a wing and simply glued them to the model.

This would be my Gorgon Knights Reclusiarch (for the occasions that I field my Space Marines as Blood Angels). I took one of the running robed bodies and a power mace from the Dark Angels kit, the skull helmet from the Chaos Marines kit, an Infernus Pistol and shoulder pad from the death company kit and used various other bitz to round off the conversion (such as the Terminator Laurel as a crozius head). While compared to the previous model, he looks rather plain, I plan on doing a lot of freehand painting on those robes to make him really pop off the table.

And of course, the power of magnets allow me to swap backpacks.

So what kinds of kitbashing have you done? How do you do it? Post links to your kitbashes!

What I've Been Up To

So I've been at college for a solid three weeks now and have gotten little to none done (seeing as how I'm taking 19 credits and am a music major, that's not surprising -_-)

Anywho, here are some pics now that I got my camera working. Unfortunately, said pics still suck because I can't afford a nice camera.

This is the Tau Battlesuit 'Helios'that I slapped together a little while ago. It still needs some touch-ups to ease up on the highlights and cover up some slips, but overall it's done. I wanted to add some glowing effects from the lens, plasma rifle and multi-tracker a lot more prominent.

Next, some of the Salamanders that I've been working on.

Tactical Squad Flamers - the different colors on the trim of the right shoulder pad designate which squad the marine belongs to.

Now, for all of you folks out there with lower end cameras, how do you get decent pictures out there onto your blogs?

As always, C&C welcome.

Squirrel_Fish

Sternguard Veteran Completed

Hey all,

It's been a long week for me with work and trying to help my friends out with their armies.

I have a friend who (in the last week and a half) has purchased two Tyranid Battleforces, a box of Gaunts, a Hive Tyrant and a Tyrant Guard. Unfortunately, he's still got two more Battleforces coming in on Friday and everything has to be assembled by Saturday for the Tournament. On the plus side, I've figured out how to magnetize a Carnifex.

Anywho, I managed to put together my Predator and magnetize all the sponsons and turrets.

Unfortunately, my camera is on the fritz, so no picture worth uploading. :(

However, here are pics of the Sternguard Prototype fully painted and based.

As always, C&C Welcome

Sternguard Prototypes Update

So I got my Dark Elf Corsair cloaks in the other day and spent most of last night trying to figure out how to fit them onto Space Marine backpacks.

Here's a couple shots on how the first came out looking.

C&C?

Edit: Added a rearview shot of the cloak

Tutorial: Combi-Melta

It's time for CONvergance down in the Twin Cities and I find myself taking a break in order to share how I make my Combi-Meltas. A minor update on some things: my Wave Serpent is finally completed, meaning that my Eldar army is (relatively speaking) complete! My Salamanders WIP is coming along as well. I have one Tactical Squad and two rhinos fully built, the Rhinos are also magnetized so I can swap out the hatches at my whim.

Tutorial: Combi-Melta

If you're like me, you don't have the money to buy a dozen or so Combi-Meltas from the Commander sprue. So here we go, a combi-melta from the tactical sprue!

Requires:

Boltgun

Meltagun

X-acto Knife

File

Super Glue

Greenstuff (optional)

Step 1) Clean both the meltagun and boltgun of any moldlines. If you like to use your pin vise to make holes in the barrels, do this now.

Step 2) Take your bolter and make the following cuts. Keep the part with the muzzle and the grip.

This is what you should have left over:

Step 3) Take your Meltagun and remove a small portion of the cabling closest to the barrel.

This should be your result:

Step 5) Dry fit both parts together; if there's odd gaps due to weird angles on the boltgun, file those down until the pieces are nearly flush. Use your superglue and adhere the two pieces together. Optionally; what you can do is use greenstuff to strengthen the hold and to fill in any weird gaps that might be there.

And there you have it, a simple combi-melta right out of the Tactical Squad box.

Eldar Farseer Jetbike Done!

It's been a while since I last posted, but I've been a busy, busy, busy bee helping my brother move to Fargo.

Anywho, I finished this last night and decided to throw up some pics. Couple things that I was satisfied with were the greenstuff robes and the armor on the canopy of the jetbike. Thanks to Shortsonfire79, I was rather inspired to sit down and work on that bleached bone for several layers. The spear tip came out wonderfully, but the pics don't capture it well. C&C welcome!

It's been a while since I last posted, but I've been a busy, busy, busy bee helping my brother move to Fargo.

Anywho, I finished this last night and decided to throw up some pics. Couple things that I was satisfied with were the greenstuff robes and the armor on the canopy of the jetbike. Thanks to ShortsonfireC&C welcome!

Farseer on Jetbike WIP

Happy friday! I've been slowly working on my Eldar Farseer and just wanted to show off the progress a little bit. The white parts on the canopy of the jetbike are meant to look like wraithbone armor, but my greenstuff-fu is weak thus far. I'm not sure yet whether or not I want to have that be white to match the robes and regular armor of the farseer or bone to match the wraithbone armor on him. Opinions?

Next on the Painting Table

Warlock #3, primed and ready to paint. More pics to come as soon as progress is made.

Squirrel_Fish