Painting Updates

I am getting to the point that there is nothing left to do on my Deathwing Terminators.  There are a few lights and wires that I need to paint as well as highlighting, flocking, and sealing their bases.  I need to pick up the paints to actually complete the lights.  I am extremely pleased with how these are turning out.  They have far exceeded any expectations that I had when I started painting them.  I was extremely worried about how painting something a bone color and feared it would come out either look too messy or just off.  Instead, they've turned into some of the best looking miniatures I think I've ever painted.

With this boost in confidence I started on a small batch of Tactical Marines.  I am using the robed models from the Dark Angels Chapter Upgrade sprue.  So far, I've painted and highlighted the armor and put the base coast and an ink on the robes.  The results look promising.  I've followed the color recommendations from Games Workshop for the Dark Angels Green scheme and it is actually a nice look.  It contrasts nicely with the robes.  My only complaint with the models is that there are some areas that are extremely hard to get to, so I will need to do some touch ups after I've completed everything.  Seeing how these guys have turned out really makes me excited to paint my Ravenwing Bikers.

Also, my local GW is holding a painting competition for March.  The entries must be chosen from the Elites FOC.  It can be an entire unit or a single model.  I had originally planned on painting a Dreadnought or a Dark Angels Veteran squad; however, in order to keep things interesting, I decided to paint a Chaos Space Marine Terminator.  I've played a lot of games against a father and son who have a Chaos Space Marine army.  They've become my favorite opponent(s) and every game we've had has been enjoyable.  The son with the help of his father has come up with a great background for their Legion and has dubbed them the Claws of the Forgotten.  In an homage to this, I am going to buy the Chaos Terminator Lord kit and put together a suitably sinister looking Terminator using the Lightning Claws.  I plan on using one of the hooded heads that I have from my Dark Angels and then paint him up using my take on their color scheme of red, blue, and gold.  After the contest ends, I plan on gifting the Terminator to the son.  He seems to really enjoy my Deathwing Terminators so I think he'll take a liking to this guy.  Pictures will be posted as work progresses with this guy.

One final thing of note, the nerds have been pressuring me to get into Fantasy.  With my slow painting style and a large inventory of WH40K models to paint, I've been very hesitant.  I've been feeling the itch to play so I decided to give it a go and try my luck at Ogre Kingdoms.  If I don't enjoy playing them, I know I will certainly enjoy painting them.  I have no issues at all painting skin, which OK has a lot of, and it's possible to field a 500pt army with only ten or eleven models.  It sounds a lot like playing a Deathwing force.  So, once my change jar fills up, I'll be picking up an Ogre Kingdoms Battalion.

Terminatus

As I've mentioned before, I am a terribly slow painter.  I've been working on a squad of Terminators for the Escalation League.  I'm very close to completing these guys.  I'm happy with how they've turned out so far.  Here is a taste of things to come.

There's Nothing Quite Like a Classic

It pains me to do so, but a couple of weeks ago, I decided to change the color scheme of my Dark Angels to the original scheme.  This means I have to repaint everything that I started.  I decided to keep the two original Terminator Squads and the Dreadnought in the original Camo Green scheme, but everything else will be repainted in standard Dark Angels colors.

As for progress with the new scheme, I have been working on a squad of Terminators that will be added to my Escalation League force to bring the point total up to 750pts.  I was a little hesitant at first painting them in the Bone White scheme.  The base color I was using didn't cover very well over the black primer and was very time consuming to apply.  However, after finishing a test model, I am very pleased with how it turned out.  It has a gritty, comic book feel to it.  I have four more Terminators that have their initial Zandri Dust base coats and a Nuln Oil ink awaiting an Ushabti Bone dry brush.

Next up on my painting plate after the Terminator squad is five Tactical Marines from the Dark Angels Chapter Upgrade Sprue.  I plan on using this sprue to make most of my Tactical Squads.  I feel the robed models really set the Dark Angels apart from the other Space Marine forces and give the army a very dark, sinister feel.  These models should be fairly easy to paint and churn out.  The robes will be painted much in the same way as the Terminator armor and the green armor will be painted per the Games Workshop standard, starting with a base of Caliban Green, a wash of Biel-Tan Green, then successive highlights of Warpstone Glow and Moot Green.  Since most of the model is covered by the robes, there is not a lot of armor detail to pick out.

After I paint those five Marines, I am going to work on a Ravenwing Biker test model.  Their armor is traditionally all black, which can look very flat and bland if not done right.  I've opted to do the shading on the black armor with dark blues so I can highlight the other black areas using greys so there will be some differentiation between the colors.  I'm not a fan of hard lining, so hopefully my dry brush technique will turn out well.