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).

Space Wolf Terminator

Surprisingly enough, I finished this while taking breaks studying for my music final. This is a part of the Space Wolves army that I've been working on over a long period of time. For gits and shiggles, I put hazard stripes on the chainfist so that the Xenos scum know to get out of the way.

Upcoming, I've got a couple projects starting to flesh themselves out more. 

1) I'm going to be painting up a Unicorn by Reaper Mini as a Christmas present for my girlfriend. Not just any unicorn. It'll be a Robot Unicorn.

2) As soon as I've edited them, I'll post photos of that scout squad that has been in progress for a while.

3) Lastly, I'm finally getting around to getting started on a Warmachine Army, but I'm still beating back and forth between what to start.

Avatar of Khaine

I was looking for something to add to my Eldar army and finally thought: "You know, the Avatar is kind of iconic - even if the pewter model is crap in compared to Forgeworld." So I did some cutting and pinning and greenstuffing for the following result. Both the arms are reposed, the torso is taller and bulked out a little more and the hair has been turned and bulked out so it doesn't look atrocious.

Rather than painting the upper most lava layers as a super dark red or black, I just left it at red since I really wanted this guy to pop out from the rest of my Eldar army. I spray coated with white primer and gradually worked up through yellows and oranges and then to red. All the armor got a coat of black and then painted up with usual gold recipe. The sword has a slightly blue sheen to it due to a thinned out wash of blue ink (yes, I still have a bottle of blue ink. It works just fine for what I need.)

I also tried experimenting with some basings effects - blending the blood spatter on the snow into a (hardly visible in the photo) pool of water effect around the Avatar's feet to represent the fact that he is the flaming god of war and his every step scorches the earth beneath him. Didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, but oh well.

If you notice the helmet on the ground, it's painted in the same color scheme as the Space Wolves commission that my friend hired me to do.

On another note, I turned 21 today. Bar run tonight!

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

Counts-As Commander Dante

Throwing up some pics of my counts-as Commander Dante.

Cheers,
Squirrel_Fish

More Gorgon Knights

The latest model I've finished for my Gorgon Knights Space Marine chapter - an Honor Guard Veteran wielding a Thunderhammer. I had to paint the legs, torso and backpack before entirely assembling the model, otherwise the giant hammer would've gotten in the way of brushwork.

Cheers,

Squirrel_Fish

Space Wolves Commission

I'm not dead, just too busy to actually post anything. Here's some pics of the Space Wolf commission I've been working on for some time now.

My client wanted a darker, bluer Space Wolf scheme in order to distinguish his force a little more. He also wanted a more hard-popping style of highlights to simulate almost a cel-shaded comic book. In order to keep the army from looking too much like a deployment of Ultramarines, I decided to use bronze as the primary metallic, as opposed to my usual Gold.

The flash from the camera made this guy extra blue looking and makes him look almost like an Ultrasmurfmarine. He looks like the rest of the following Wolves.

This guy actually has eyes, but the angle of the photo just happened to hide it perfectly. Oops.

As always, C&C welcome.

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.

Farewell 40k Radio

So today's big news twist. Spencer over at 40k Radio is retiring from the podcasting business due to threats leveled against him and his family from an anonymous source. (Here's a link to the whole affair).

First off, I'd like to give my thanks and condolences to Spencer and his crew. In my long time periods away from the hobby (due to school), I regularly listen to them and amp myself up for the next time I can sit down and paint or play a game. Even though the likelihood of this being read by them is slim, once again, thank you 40k Radio for keeping my passion for this game and hobby alive.

Second, I hate people who hide behind the anonymity of the internet with a passion. It disgusts me to think that we live in a modern age of logic and reasoning and people like this act cowardly and disgracefully. There is no place for behavior like this in our hobby or our lives. These people should be ashamed.

*End of Rant*

Squirrel_Fish

Titan Talk

Image Courtesy of Games-Workshop Forgeworld

The table is yours for Titan Talk. We've all seen them on Forgeworld's website and our jaw drops at both the huge scale of the model and the price tag. We've heard what it does on the tabletop, whether gloriously breaking enemy superheavies or slaying infantry in the droves.

I'm highly considering getting a Titan (Warhound or Revenant) for my next modeling project (since a third army at the time doesn't interest me very much). I'd like to hear what some of you have to say. How satisfying is it to build and paint one of these things? Is it worth it to spend so much money on an item that will probably get used once or twice a year? And on the occasion that you do bust it out onto the tabletop, does it perform? What are your experiences with these things?

Discuss.

Why Your Hormagaunt Won't Get Cheaper

I had a conversation with a friend the other day who claimed that his hormagaunts were overpriced simply because they had a BS of 3, in contrast to the Genestealer who is properly priced (and min-maxed) because it has no ranged weapons to benefit from, thus a BS of 0. Does adding a BS to a model with no ranged weapons make it more costly points wise?

The answer is a resounding no.

Regardless of its actual Ballistic Skill, a model without ranged weapons has an effective Ballistic Skill of 0. A hormagaunt with BS 10 will cost no more or less than a normal hormagaunt. Add any ranged weapon to its outfit and then the cost of the model will skyrocket.

Why Ballistic skill and not anything else? Because no other stat can be ignored with the exception of specific rules. Your WS/S/T/I/W/Ld/Sv are all going to be referenced at some point. Whether or not those stats are effective is a different matter entirely.

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!

Still Alive

This was a triumph.


I'm still alive, just been buried under a mountain of school work, work and now bronchitis. But hey, sickness allowed me to work on some hobby stuff and post some pics that should've been posted a while ago.

Here's the completed Terminator Sergeant from my Painting Gold tutorial

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How to Paint Gold

Following up on my last post, here's a tutorial on how I paint my gold.

1) Prime black and basecoat your gold sections in Bestial Brown. This doesn't have to be a perfect coat.

2) Add several thin layers of Dwarf Bronze. Metallic paints tend to have odd textures when layered on too thick. Be patient and don't use TOO thin of a mix of paint or else the glitter will separate from the binder and pigment of the paint.

3) Using a 1:1 ratio of Burnished Gold : Dwarf Bronze, add several thin layers to your metallic sections.

4) Paint several thin layers of pure Shining Gold

5) Mix a 4:1 ratio of Burnished Gold : Mithril Silver and apply to your higher sections, leaving the lowest recesses pure Burnished Gold. The goal is to lighten up the gold to really pop.

6) Mix a 1:1 ratio of Burnished Gold to Mithril silver. Highlight the parts of the model that will reflect in the light. For a more advanced technique, use the same principles of non-metallic metals using metallic paint.

7) Highlight with pure Mithril Silver for that super polished effect.

What I've Been Painting

So I haven't been sitting on my hands for the past two weeks. Here're the fruits of my labors.