Blood Angels Army Project (pic carpet bombing)

[Meph]

Wehey! A quicky introduction perhaps: After lurking on the blog for many years I decided to share my most recent project, which I actually started half a year ago.

As the project's been going on on some other forae, I'll just copy/paste the posts/pics in a row and continue in real-time from there.

After getting the bug again last year, after painting a large scale Space Marine from Forgeworld (it's posted over at coolminiornot) I started eyeballing my old mini's again. A friend of mine got bitten by the same bug again and he started polishing his old Space Wolves army again also so we hatched the fiendish plot to get an army together again within a year or so (busy lives...) so we could do a 2vs2 battle against some other players sometime.
As over the past 10 years, the amount of cool 40K minatures increased dramatically I felt like it was time to start more-or-less anew and a big 6 months ago the project kicked into high-gear and we started buying and assembling mini's again. :)

The project: To resurrect my Blood Angels army, paint up some new mini's and in a few months time, challenge a mate to a battle. That'll be the first in over 6 years or so ^^. By no means it's meant as a highly competitive army, just a bunch of cool mini's with a light cencept army list-wise.

So here goes, the biggy of the army, a Land Raider Crusader to ferry the Captain, Reclusiarch and Sanguinary priest (all in termy armour), plus their body guard of a 5-man close combat Terminator Squad.

It's lightly converted with the Forgeworld BA doors and some Dremel'ed and remodeled battle damage. i also used some extra resin and etched brass details here and there.

Funny thing how regular thin masking tape is exàctly the same with as Land Raider tracks. ^^

It took quite a few hours to assemble properly actually. The plan is to use the weathering skills learned with my big Marine on this vehicle so no rush, patience is the key.

First steps after assembly, a black undercoat and a base coat of roughly 50/50 Mechadendrite Red and blood red, mixed with some Vallejo airbrush thinner and a little bit of Klear to give some strength to the paint. That GW paint gun is a lovely tool to apply base coats. No tricky mechanics to clean afterwards...

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1809.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1812.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1819.JPG

[Meph]

Some progress: I applied some gentle shading and highlights with an airbrush to break up the even tone a bit. There are some tiny splatters here and there but I'll get rid of those during the weathering process.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1833.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1835.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1836.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1838.JPG

[Meph]

Some progress; gentle highlighting using a brush here and there, very dry drybrushing and the decals are applied so they can be messed up during the weathering process.

Also included are some photo's of a mate of mine's SW Crusader, he's building and painting it at the same time as me. A perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon away from professional life. ^^

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1850.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1852.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1853.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1854.JPG

[Meph]

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1855.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1856.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1857.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1859.JPG

[Meph]

*edit* Double post

[Meph]

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1860.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1861.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1862.JPG

[Meph]

Some more weathering and finishing the details, which are time consuming but have to be done before the weathering continues.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2230.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2233.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2234.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2236.JPG

[Tooze]

Looks like your tank will be spot on! The only thing I have to ask is why you didnt drill out the hurricane bolters? Its an easy step and really shows the whole extra mile thing. It probably won't take as long as the tape work. At any rate looks good !

[The Defenestrator]

I agree, drilling out barrels is right up there with mold lines in my books; another small detail that just bumps the quality of the model up that extra notch. Don't forget the little assault cannon barrels too! They can usually be handled by the the end of an X-acto knife blade if you lack a small enough drill bit, since at that size a conical hole isn't noticeably different from the proper cylindrical one.

[Duke]

I like the paint job, but Im not the biggest fan of decals... I'll reserve my final judge,met for the end... But seriously, I really do like the spray job

Duke

[fuzzbuket]

wow very very nice :D

[Meph]

Cheers guys! I'm glad you're liking it. I actually posted a lot more progress shots last night but those posts are still being held hostage by the admins as I was posting them rather quickly. I actually did drill out those barrels, but also, I did overlook them in the beginning. ^^
The actual progress atm is about 50% done with the weathering but still a long ways to go. So pléase bols-admins, pimp my thread. 0:-)

In the mean time, one more pic that's closer to the actual progress, until my previous posts from yesterday are released from captivity.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2231.JPG

[Duncndisorderly]

MOAR me likey long time

[rustbucket]

Based on what I see in the few pics that have made it up here, I'm definitely impressed. Wasn't sure about the decals either (too bold against the darker backdrop) but you've weathered them nicely and muted them down which was done well. I look forward to seeing the other posted pics when they arrive!

[Meph]

Cheers guys! The weathering's got a long way to go still; powders, oil paints, soot & dirt etc etc.
Yeah, I do hope the other posts get 'adminned' soon.
So in the mean time, another shot to show the general look of the rest of the army.

On the left a Sanguinary Guard. the goal is to work with as much metallics as possible to really give them that statuesque armour look. I'm no fan of too bright or colourful detailing on such an intricate armour. I'm also not sure I'll add the wings on them as I feel they're way to clumsy for jump troops and they look that they would cause way too much drag. (I prefer to keep mechanical stuff in the realm of plausibility)

In the middle, the sergeant for the Tactical Squad.

And on the right, a veteran of the Command Squad.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2245.JPG

[fuzzbuket]

im liking the sanguiniary gaurd those metals are really nice i was a bit on the fence about the wings as well, however if you flip them inside out they can be rather streamlined! however i assume there still WIP ! very nice!


-fuzz

p.s. ive already seen your FW marine on CMON? is it finished yet?

[Duncndisorderly]

Anychance you can tell me how you did your metallics?, they look awesome

[Meph]

Thanks guys!

@fuzzbucket: Indeed, they're still very much WIP, but good idea on teh wings, I'll definitely give that a go.

@Duncndisorderly: Well, the metallic on the Sanguinary guard was actually deceptively simple.
The base coat you see in the previous post (not yet passed through the Mods) is a home-brewn mix of the Vallejo tin colour and some golden metallics. I then applied layer of two, three of ink. First a smokey ink (can't remember if that's GW or Vallejo) thinned with Klear and a bit of water. then I did one layer of thinned sepia ink (the one from GW) with a little bit of brown mixed in, thinned with klear & water.

I've noticed it's never good to thin inks with acrylic paint thinners as they tend to matte down the colour and make the transparency a bit more opaque.

After the ink was dry I just gradually drybrushed the whole lot with a rather large brush and basically went through all the standard shades of the GW golds, ending with a very gentle drybrush with mythril silver. The key here was a very, very dry brush.

[Duncndisorderly]

Thanks for the info much appeciated and keep up the good work

[Meph]

Anytime mate. Yarr I just wish I had more time to paint... it's been two weeks since I touched a brush. I don't have a 'dirty' desk anymore that I can leave as-is and out of sight. It's the setting up and cleaning up that's a real put-down... :(

Anywhooo, here's a better shot of the Sanguinary Guard.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2247.JPG

[Meph]

Cool, the previous posts just got modded. So there's a lot of new stuff up there. ^

Thanks again for Mod's action!

So to continue the 'back-progress' a bit, without further ado:

--

All the miniatures were put together slowly over a few weeks and have all been undercoated and basecoated. I stuck together a 10- man tac. squad, 10-man dev. squad, 5 Sanguinary Guard, 5 honour guard and 10 death company and a Razorback.

The Razorback received the most attention, vehicles are so much fun to work on. ^^

I basecoated with a mix of Mechadenrite Red and Blood red, together with some thinner and Klear. Then I airbrushed some gentle shading and highlights, followed by a drybrushing with the foundation paint orange. To soften up the dusty drybrushing, as well as add some colour depth I airbrushed on a layer or three of a roughly 35% Baal red wash, 15% Red Ink and 50% Klear.
I'll probably give the edges a gentle drybrushing again to bring out the edges a bit more.

I wanted something to break up the large red surfaces a bit, other than giving the odd plate a different colour. The extra brass and resin detailing will give variation in any case, as well as the weathering still to follow, but I felt it need a little 'extra'. As red wunz go fasta but he's already red there was only one thing I could do. Almost on instinct I spent the better part of an hour meticulously applying masking tape and voilà, racing stripes.
It came out looking surprisingly well I must say and just needs some tiny touch-ups. The stripes somehow do seem to suit the look of the Razorback. ^^

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1889.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1891.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1895.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1898.JPG

[Meph]

Some more 'back-posting'

And I thought I'd post a few pics of the honour guards, all of them received some minor conversions.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1900.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1902.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1903.JPG


And some of the Sanguinary guard. The colour appears a lot lighter on the camera, in reality it's more of a dark bronze. I'm going to go for a dark look with a lot of the detailing also metallic, I want to give them a statuesque look.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_1909.JPG

[Porty1119]

Hey, when I saw 'carpet bombing' I was expecting some Marauders! :P

Mislead aside, the Razorback looks pretty awesome, and I really like the statuesque Sanguinary Guard. The matte finish is one heck of a lot better than the bog-standard brass.

[Meph]

Cheers mate. Yeah, I'm quite happy with the way they turned out, it gives them a really old and weathered look.

And here, the last of the 'back-posts". From now on, events occur in real-time. ^^
The Razorback. I'm especially proud of how the plate on the dozer blade turned out and the silver wings.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2240.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2241.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2243.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2244.JPG

And next up is progress on the thing I hate the most, the painting of the black, for all the metallics and detailing. A cursed job it is.
I still have 20 red marines to go, plus the 5 Sanguinary Guard and also 10 Death Company marines... sigh...

Of course, the Death Company marines do not need black as they were sprayed black but they have a lot of detail on them. I think I'll paint the details just on the black coat. For one I'm too daunted by the amount of marines but also I'm too lazy to bother with painting all those little tidbits white. As with the Sang. Guard I think I'll use as much metallics as possible and for the red crosses and such, I think they'll look good enough if I start directly with red. After all, my 'regular' red marines also started from a black undercoat...

[Duke]

I like the idea of statuesque Sanguinary guard, but perhaps a a few little things shouldn't be that gold color, just to hint that they aren't actually statues... Maybe something as simple as painting the eye lenses? Just a thought, so feel free to disregard it.

Duke

[rustbucket]

Thanks for that run through on you colors/inks for doing up Sang Guard. I'm getting ready to do a bunch shortly and that really helped. I've got a good non metallic gold that I mixed and am happy with but as far as the silver drybrush idea that was great! I also agree that painting in the vision slots on the helmets would be good. Can't wait to see the finished results!!

[Meph]

Good ideas guys! my original plan was to just paint the necessary details in the required colours and the rest fo the details in other metalics. For instance, I'll do the armour joinnts in a dark rubber colour, and obviosuly the coils & clips ofthe guns have to be painted and such. Bet I'll see how it looks with as much of the detailing left in the bronze-gold as-is and see how it looks. I Orginally thought to do the wings on the chests and shoulders and such in the silver with the slight purple shine, I used on the vehicles but it might turn into a cacophony. I'll detail them very gradually and see how their look changes. (with lots of pics of course :D)
In any case i like the idea of the lenzes being the only 'non' metallic bit on the bronze. I don't think I'll paint all the drops as gems, actually none of them, maybe a different reddish metallic buit we'll see :)

[bloodangel 83]

The BA's look great. At first i did not like the racing stripes on the RB but seeing it weathered makes it look a lot better, great job again.

[Meph]

Yup, and the weathering's not finished by a long shot. ;)


Some progress at last. I got tempted and bought a Terminator squad and some FW shoulder pads.
In the interest of my economy I decided to magnetize the heavy weapons guy so I can just switch arms and missile launcher. And I must say, it was very easy do do actually...
Also, some progress on the Land Raider. I decided to give a light spray with some thinned dark brown oil paint over a coat of varnish to give it a nice weathering/inking but the mix seemed to have been a bit too thin. Just after spraying it it looked real neat around all the rivets and in all the recesses and just, but after drying out there's almost nothing visible. I'll add further oil paint weathering by hand I think.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2508.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2515.JPG

[bloodangel 83]

Your tanks are looking great and I like the weathering on the LRC. I have used the FW BA shoulder pads on my Assualt Termies and they came out great. Where did you get the Typhoon ML at, i have not been able to find any online at the bitz stores. Again looks great.

[Meph]

Thanks mate!
Well, I managed to find a reasonably priced closed box set of the Terminators, comes with the ML, AC and HF. ^^

[bloodangel 83]

Thanks, I guess i will keep looking for them. How's the plastic AC vs the medal one look and how does go together with the shoulder pads.

[Meph]

I think the plastic ones are better in terms of detailing, and the FW shoulder pads fit perfectly. :D

[Meph]

Someone on another forum was interested in a mini-magnetizing tutorial so I thought to post it here as well.

For the arms it's very simple, just find a drill bit that's the right size for the magnet. I first made a small notch using the tip of a modeling knife where I want to start drilling, then I drilled a small pilot hole using a pin vice and a medium-sized 'tiny' drill' (a bit bigger than the one on the pic), and then the full size hole using a hand drill. I found the best way to handle that clunky hand drill is to put it on your lap, bracing it against one thigh and then slowly drill with your right hand while holding the mini against the drill with your left. Since you're drilling very slowly, this goes ok and is quite accurate. More accurate I feel than clamping the mini in a vice and holding the whole weight of the drill on the mini.

For the cyclone it's a similar process. I drilled quite a deep hole in that torso so I could fit two magnets in there for some more magneto-power. and then covered he hole with some green stuff to make it flush again. mind you, this is a very thin layer, you can see the magnet's edge just where the groove of that little top armour plate is. And then, as you can see from the pics, the magnets I used fit neatly inside the missile launcher itself. that was the handy bit about the plastic cyclone. I assembled the cyclone after the torso magnets were in place and left off the front section. Then you just put the magnet in, right-side up, and put it on top of the termy to dry-fit. Take it out, a drop of superglue in the cyclone's middle section, put the magnet back it and put the missile launcher on the termy as usual. The magnet will position itself neatly while the glue's still wet., with the minimum adjustment needed. And when that's dry, glue the front back on. the cool thing is that those little magnets are strong enough to hold the cyclone on even with +-3mm between them, and the little plastic mounts of the terminator body and cyclone hold it neatly in place. It's not the strongest of bonds though although you can pick up the model by the cyclone, but I wouldn't flick it very hard...

Oh and on a general note, I found that the handiest way to put the magnets in the holes is, for the first magnet; a drop of glue in the hole and then just stick the whole little stack of magnets in the hole and then you can just slide off the stack while leaving one magnet in, that way the magnet sits nicely level and flush. Pushing in one by finger tends to be less level.
And when that's dried I just put on a single magnet on the already glued one so it's centered and right-side up, put a bit of glue in the hole of the second part and push the part onto the magnet, squeezing it in. And then slide off the part. Worked like a charm.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2517.JPG

[Meph]

Ah, the joys of thinned oil paints...

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2534.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2533.JPG

[Meph]

The first tactical squad almost complete. I'd say it's at roughly 90% finished. I just need to apply some more decals but I'll have to make & print those first. I thought to cook up some righteous mumbo-jumbo for the on the larger pigments and I need some black blood drops for the right shoulder pad as I decided to make them from the 5th company.
I'll freehand some stuff on the smaller purity seals and such. And they need some basing done as well.

For the rest I think they turned out quite nicely. I didn't want to go too elaborate on them, both in terms of colours and painting technique. The idea is to have them at a decent table-top quality. The size of the pictures does tend to show the drybrushing a bit harsher than it actually is.
Oh, and I think I'll use some black oil paint to outline the details and panels.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2576.JPG

[Snyderson]

How I love the good old black-rimmed shoulder pads... Those were the days... ;)

Greetz,
Sny

[Emerald Rose Widow]

How did you do the weathering work, it looks awesome.

[Meph]

Hehehe, black rims & bieakies ftw! :D

@ERW: Well, I've used several techniques. I 'dry-sponged' on some chips with boltgun metal, black, and dark brown & -grey. I also gave the panel lines and details a wash with heavily thinned dark brown oil paint and turpentine and on the Razorback I've also apllied some stains and smears using MIG's Oil & Grease Stain Mixture, a oil paint based pre-mixed ink, great stuff.
And I've applied some weathering powders around the exhausts using some turpentine.

I've you want some more detail on specific things, don't hesitate to ask, or you can always have a look through my Large Forgeworld Marine thread (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?t=12800). Most of the techniques there are explained in more detail, with lots of step-by-step pictures.

Cheers!

[Brotherjames]

Can we get some more shots on the Srg and his backpack? Awe struck!

[Meph]

Sure thing mate. I'll see to take some more pics this afternoon, if exterior lighting conditions allow for it. I'm a big fan of sunlight, oi am!

[Emerald Rose Widow]

Hehehe, black rims & bieakies ftw! :D

@ERW: Well, I've used several techniques. I 'dry-sponged' on some chips with boltgun metal, black, and dark brown & -grey. I also gave the panel lines and details a wash with heavily thinned dark brown oil paint and turpentine and on the Razorback I've also apllied some stains and smears using MIG's Oil & Grease Stain Mixture, a oil paint based pre-mixed ink, great stuff.
And I've applied some weathering powders around the exhausts using some turpentine.

I've you want some more detail on specific things, don't hesitate to ask, or you can always have a look through my Large Forgeworld Marine thread (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?t=12800). Most of the techniques there are explained in more detail, with lots of step-by-step pictures.

Cheers!

Thank you, much appreciative, its something I will have to look into when I finally make my Sisters army (when they come out)

[Meph]

@ERW: Anytime ;)

Well, here are a few quickie shots of the Tactical and Devastator sergeant. If I had more wings, I'd put 'm on every sarge. ^^

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2615.JPG

[Brotherjames]

The wings are what I liked too just makes them pop! Are they the dark angel helmet wings or the blood angel shoulder pad wings slightly modified?

[Meph]

Yup, they're the DA helmet wings. I was lucky enough to find 'm on ebay. They fit surpisingly well in those backpack grooves, they needed only the tiniest of adjustments. I wish i could buy a bucket of them...

[bloodangel 83]

Hey Meph, Dev Sgts look great, keep up the great work.

[Meph]

Cheers mate! Oh and I stumbled across an ebay shop that still had 7 pairs of those wings; I promptly bought them all, muha! Muha! Muhahahaha!

[FastEd]

I really love those helmet wings, but I've never been able to figure out exactly the proper way to fit them onto the helmets. Is it that they only fit properly on specific helmets, or just that the placement doesn't have a natural resting point?

[Meph]

Lol, I actually never tried dry-fitting them on a helmet to be honest. I immediately went for the backpack thing. :D
Hmm but they do have some rounded indentations that seem to suggest that they should fit on some curvy part of the helmet. My guess is that there's not one correct way, just sort of a broader area on the MK6 & MK7 helmets where they could rest.
My best guess is to just glue them where you want and support them a bit until it sticks by itself.

[Wolfshade]

Meph really liked looking through these and I just love the use of gold on the tactical marines to link them to honour guard/ sanguinary guard/ dante tycho. Thinking of my collection my gold marines really stand apart and don't look like the rest of the army, might need to steal your ideas.

[sps62487]

Very nicely done. A whole army of that would look very beautiful on the battlefield. I decided to go a darker red and do the pad trim a medium brightness gold to have nice contrast.

[Meph]

Thanks guys! :D

The army so far is:

Land Raider Crusader, 90% finished
Razorback, 90%
Baal Predator/Razorback/Rhino (yay magnets!), undercoated
3 Land Speeders, magnetized, undercoated
Tac Squad, 90% finished
Dev Squad, basecoated, ready for detailing
Dev Squad, assembled
10-man Terminator Squad, undercoated
10-man Deatch Company, undercoated
5-man Command Squad, basecoated, ready for detailing
5-man Sanguinary Guards, basecoated, ready for detailing,
3 Dreadnoughts, old models, finished
1 Converted captain in terminator, old model, semi-finished.
1 Converted Sanguinary Priest in term. Armour, old model, semi-finished

I've still god loads of really old models stored away somewhere, so I could ramp it to a very big army but the goal here is just to paint this up as a compact force made of mostly newly painted stuff.

Oh and I made some progress on the sarge of the Dev squad, I went with a grey/khaki robe. I wanted to avoid the standard cream coloured ones. Whaddayathink?

I think it came out ok but somehow I'm contemplating to give it some washes and glazes to give more depth.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2617.JPG

[Meph]

And in the mean time, I thought it was time to get ahead (badum-tsh!) and start painting the devastator heads. Right now they're looking a bit spacewolfish but I intend to give them quite a few glazes/washed with thinned blues & blacks to give them a good full dark blue tint. I want them really dark so the blue doesn't clash too hard with the red. (I still want to slap the guys who came up with the blue helmets in the first place)
The guy with the masking tape collar is the unlucky fellow who got his head glued into place before I realised it had to be a Devastator. The tape will make my life a lot easier when applying the glazes and inks.

And as a last pic, meet the crew for the Land speeder Squadron that's in the pipeline. One Land Speeder is the first plastic type, sitting in a red base coat since a decade, and then I've got two of the latest kits; one already full magnetized for all weapon options and undercoated, and one is almost assembled but still needs to be magnetized.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2623.JPG

[Meph]

I did some more work on the helmets this afternoon. I drybrushed the helmets with some pure Skull White and then I gave the devastators three washes/glazes with blue ink, with a little bit of black and thinned by some water, about 2:1. The yellow ones received a white drybrush as well and then two washes with sepia ink, with a little bit of devlan mud, and water.

The camera does show the drybrush in a rather harsh fashion, but then it's also some ridiculously close close-ups of a tiny bit. The effect does look a lot softer on the model and the blue appears much deeper as well. When the lighting conditions are a bit better I'll take some more pics. It's a bit too sunny atm for good model photgraphy.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2628.JPG

[Meph]

All the details have been basecoated, ready for inking. Maybe tomorrow or so.
I'm continuing the 'minimal' palette as with the Tac. Squad. Just some metallics and a few detail colours. After the inking's done, I'll gently drybrush the black as well as the details. Then I just have to apply the decals, paint in the tiny details, such as lenzes. And finally I'll outline the details with thinned black oil paint. The end is in sight! (for this squad).

C&c welcome as always,

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2688.JPG

[Brotherjames]

I wish I would have painted/assembled my devs like this

[MarneusCalgar]

I like them very much!!

Hope you show us the final results!!

[Meph]

Cheers guys!
Yeah, the painting went so much smoother with the head and weapons seperately. Next Squad I'm painting I'll leave teh backpacks off as well. It may seem more time consuming but it's actually a lot faster as you don't have to be overly careful when applying details and highlights. I hate cleanups....

And of course this thread will continue until it's all finished, and I'll post plenty of pics!

[Meph]

Hmmm, I'm wondering what colour to paint the lenzes on the Dev helmets... Red, green, or yellow. Personally I'm leaning towards a light green perhaps. What do you guys think?

[isotope99]

Hmmm, I'm wondering what colour to paint the lenzes on the Dev helmets... Red, green, or yellow. Personally I'm leaning towards a light green perhaps. What do you guys think?

Green goes with all the helmet colours allowing consistency.

[Irongut]

Meph- looking great! I have never had any luck painting plastics and then gluing them together- what kind of glue are you using for the final assembly?

[plawolf]

Lovely looking paint jobs! What color did you use for the lascannon and plasmacannon barrels? Looks really great!

[Meph]

Thanks for looking, guys! :D

Well, for glue I'm just using GW's plastic glue. Two things though; it's important to scratch away some paint on the to-be-glued contact points until your reach plastic again, and put some glue on a palette and apply it with a toothpick. That way you ensure a good bond with the glue and you avoid an excess of glue.

For the Lascannon barrels, I did one in Vallejo's Oily Steel, which is somewhat like one nudge of GW's Chaimail towards Boltgun Metal. And the other one is a mix of +- 40/30/10 Vallejo's Tinny Tin/Bright Bronze/GW's Burnished Gold. It's the same mix I use on the other bronze parts as well. the paler area on the Plasma Cannons is Burnished gold mixed with some Mithril Silver.

Bazingah! I made the lenzes yellow, on a whim. ^^

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2701.JPG

And here for some zoomtastic ******atronic extravanganza.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_2707.JPG

[plawolf]

Awesome, cheers for the info, will have to whip up a batch myself as that colour is simply amazing. Although looks like need to go hunt down some vellajo paints, as I have been lazy and only been using GW paints so far as they are easier to get ahold of.

However, I am a little confused as 40% + 30% + 10% gives 80%, or did you mean 4 parts, 3 parts and 1 part mix?

[Mortimer]

Nice job! I can only suggest using the gloss varnish before appluing decals. If you do that - the borders of decal will be very hard to spot

[Meph]

@Plawolf: Oh, I forgot about the thinner... lol ^^ The final 20% is thinner, for which I also used Vallejo's airbrush thinner. Good stuff, comes in 20ml bottles.

@Mortimer: Cheers, yeah I forgot about that with the tac.squad... Micro Sol and Micro Set go a longs way, but the varnish coat does help. Will do that on the dev squad. ;)

[MarneusCalgar]

Amazing work dude!!

[plawolf]

Cool, mystery solved. Cheers for the formula. I think I shall refer to that color as Meph Bronze if i ever manage to cook up a batch. ;)

[Meph]

Cheers Marneus!


Hehehe Meph Bronze, kinda has a nice ring to it. :D

[Meph]

Yarr! A mate of mine went and made it worse... (The same guy who's Space Wolves is in this post as well) He got me a Stormraven for my birthday with the explicit request to convert it as he's well aware of my disdain for the awefully unbalanced look of the standard GW model. I seriously detest that ugly turret on top, that out-of-place intake behind it, and the ridiculous front-heaviness of the front vs back end.

That being said, I do like the look of the main cockpit, the front thrusters and the engine/wing assembly. I've been looking at as much self-made and converted Stormravens as possible ever since the rules appeared in the BA Codex. And actually quite recently I've found the best conversion I've seen so far.

It's the one from 1hadhq over at DakkaDakka (he made two actually). After asking about it, he was kind enough to provide me with two links to his beauties.
Painted: http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-6838-16466_Stormraven%20-%20Slightly%20Altered..html
Unpainted: http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-6838-15713_Storm%20Raven.html

I absolutely love his engine/wing setup, the way he elongated the main compartment, and the canards in front. I'm not going to copy his design 100%, but I'm going to use a similar layout. I ordered some extra bits of off Ebay and once they arrive, the project begins. My plan is to have higher tail rudders (Sukhoi Su-35s ftw!) and I'll elongate the rear hull section using a pair of double side pieces I ordered to cut up. I'll also add some Defiler legs as Dreadnought grapple.
I'm also thinking about the placement of the turret. I intend to use a FW Razorback turret for it but I'm not too happy with the placement on top, with the Stormraven being a gunship and all. During construction I'll see if I can pull it off to locate the very top hull section (inc. cockpit) somewhat more forward so it sticks out above the front loading ramp. If I then can place the FW turret upside down under the 'beak' of the forward cockpit, and it doesn't unbalance the look too much, I think I'll go for it. It will give it a nice attack chopper look I hope. Whaddayathink?

[Meph]

Alrighty, a start on the Death Company. I didn't want to go for the classic black-highlighted-with-blue-or-grey colour. I started out with a black under coat and the drybrushed them with Mechadendrite Red + black and Mech. Red + orange. Followed by two airbrushed on glazes of Black Ink, with a little bit of red, thinned to a 50/50 mix with water. I also stirred in a tiny, tiny droplet of detergent to break the surface tension.
I then airbrushed on a layer of Vallejo Red Shade, thinned with water, and the bloody thing dried out leaving bright pink lines in the creases of the models. So I then sprayed on another layer of the black/red wash to fix that.
While usually spraying models like this holding them in my hand wearing a surgeon's glove, in my haste, I sprayed some of the models while still standing in the cardboard box I use for undercoating. The cardboard box decided to shed some white fuzz from an old undercoating with white, and now some models have little white specs on their lower legs...

Besides these trials and tribulations I'm quite happy with the effect of the drybrushing and washes. I think it will contrast nicely with all the metallic detailing I'm planning for them.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_3756.JPG

[bloodangel 83]

Looks great Meph

[Meph]

Cheers, mate! :D

Here's some experimenting with a red metallic. The mix was just a bit too thick by the end so some cleanups will be needed here and there.

Whaddayathink?

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_3768.JPG

[MarneusCalgar]

Well, it´s too... metallic hehehe!!

I like it more fantasy style, not so realistic

[Meph]

Hehehe, I prefer 'm gritty and moody. ^^

Still got a lot of work on that colour though, the photo's make it seem like a nicer shade of red that it actually is... under normal lighting conditions it does, somehow, have a very light purple sheen *cough* I'll need to get rid of that.

[bloodangel 83]

Meph, very great looking DC. I like the metalic on the DC, quick question are you going to add more colors to your DC?

[Meph]

Well, the plan is to keep the palette limited as well. So I'll just be using that bronze colour for some other detailing, some green for the little ropes, and some metal on the weapons.

[bloodangel 83]

That should be a great color combo. Keep up the great work

[MarneusCalgar]

Of course, Meph, they´re yours and you can paint them as you prefer, hehe, no one can tell you anything about that, just ignore if they do, it will be crap and trash talk!!

Keep working dude!!

[Meph]

Hmmmm... it wouldn't be crap & trash talk if I'd paint them bright pink with blue dots with lila trimming and turquoise banners... then it would be just crap & trash. :D

[Meph]

Alrighty, I did some testing on a piece of paper, including some highlighting with a purer red, but I think that the solution I came up with is the best compromise between speed and desired look. I highlighted with Vallejo's Bright Bronze mixed with some GW Mithril Silver, drybrushing the rough bits and normal highlighting the smooth bits. I then airbrushed blood red heavily thinned with water, and after that a layer of black ink mixed with a little bit of red shade, also thinned with water.

It's not entire the effect that I first envisioned but I'm ,liking it nonetheless. The deep red copper tint looks more muted than a pure red, and the reddish hue on the black armour gives it a look of dark, dried blood. Which is appropriate for, well, 'Blood' Angels. And I'm also quite confident that once the other detail colours are on that it will tie the unit in decently with the look of the rest of the army. The brass/bronze, some green, the parchments, some metal detailing. There's even one Marine that has a loincloth that I will do in that khaki colour.

What say you?

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_3777.JPG

[marcus]

Looking good there Meph, starting to beat the Metallic red into submission :)

[Meph]

Cheers mate! Yup, I got to a point where I'm happy with it. Yay! :D

[Meph]

Wehey! Something arrived in the post today! :D
A pre-order of this: Chapterhouse's Stormraven body kit (http://www.chapterhousestudios.com/webshop/news)
The pre-orders were actually sold out, but the generosity of Whalemusic360 over at DakkaDakka knew no bounds! He offered to send me one of his 4 sets he just got at normal retail price plus shipping. Was sent last Friday, arrived today. That kit really will save me a lot of time and headaches. It's easily over a decade and a half since I handled some plasticard for vehicle conversions and this is just exactly what I had in mind to extend the hull. I'll still need some extra construction material together with the extra parts I ordered off of Ebay to get where I want.

So the master plan is:
-Extend the hull using the kit.
-Integrate two tail booms with the engine housing and cut/relocate upwards the vertical tail to create large vertical rudders, much like a Sukhoi Su-35s (look up pics in Google, most beautiful airplane I've seen).
-add a center boom with no vertical tail, to hold the Dreadnought clamp.
-Ditch the silly top intake
-Position the cockpit section forward well over the front hatch so I can make an attack helicopter-like turret to replace the silly top turret.

Yup, that's right, another project that's crammed into an already full pipeline. Surely Sisyphus's a sissy!

Everything arrived intact and I must say that the quality of this Chapterhouse cast is of good quality. They even have adequate interior detailing. :D

The details and lines are crisp, little to no warping, just a slight bend in the larger parts but they're actually as good as straight. The only bits that will require some serious attention are the two side panels. They have quite a large resin 'bar' on the top edge that's 2-3mm thick and 10cm long. That's going to require careful but persistent sanding.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_3778.JPG

[MarneusCalgar]

Lucky you hehehehe!!

Hope to see it soon!!!

[bloodangel 83]

DC is looking great there Meph. keep up the great work.

[Meph]

Thanks guys! :)

After a while of tinkering...
I decided to stick everything together temporarily to see how it actually looks like as I didn't exactly drew any plans or sketches. I'm just winging it basically.
Everything's pretty much in place. I just need to build the 'chin' under the cockpit and figure out what I want to do for chin turret. A razorback turret is a bit too clunky and the original turret is out of the question. I want to make a simple design that holds up using a magnet and have the turret design simple enough so I can magnetize the weapons as well. Any suggestions are always welcome in terms of bits I could use and such.
And the only other thing to do is to close up the sides, install some canards, and close up the 'neck' behind the cockpit.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_3782.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_3788.JPG

[MarneusCalgar]

Nice conversion!!!

Hope to see more works soon

[Tynskel]

I like your conversion ideas.

However, I dont get where people get the idea that the Stormraven cannot carry 12 marines. the passenger compartment is larger than a rhino, which can hold 10 marines.

[Meph]

Thanks fellas! Ah well, it's not that the actual Rhino model could actually hold 10 marines, unless unarmoured and sardined together... :D

I'm back from the mad professor shed:
Ze gun turret. First design is meant to have the entire gun assembly swivel up and down on the strut. The whole thing is held together by the gun magnets in combination with the central strut, which also has a little magnet in it. Mechanically it works but the whole thing can't stay perfectly straight. the interaction of the gun magnets with the strut magnet results in the strut wanting to rest just a tiny bit crooked.

The last two pictures is to show what direction I'll go for I think. It's a more solid design which will be better to handle. the up-down motion would be just for the guns then, with the central assembly being rigid. the whole will be mounted to a, well, mount, that will go under the chin and takes care of the left-right rotation. (This would also have been the case with the first design) I'll have to cut up another defiler leg to geth the exact piece I want for the vertical strut, but hey, that's why I bought 'm off of Ebay for.

Whaddayathink?

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_3793.JPG

[Emerald Rose Widow]

I love the storm raven conversion, which is odd that i say something like that.

[Meph]

Awww, no worries, you'll be just fine.
There, there
*pat*pat*
There, there.

[Emerald Rose Widow]

Awww, no worries, you'll be just fine.
There, there
*pat*pat*
There, there.

lol, love creative conversions though

[Meph]

In that case, feel free to stay a while. kick back, relax, more nonsense will surely follow.

[Tynskel]

Yeah, sardines is right, but, they can fit with their armor. Take off their bases, pose some sitting and some standing tall, and you'll find that they fit.

[Meph]

Somehow I get the feeling you actually tried this? :D

[bloodangel 83]

Meph, nice looking stromraven gunship. i like the eagle look w/ the cockpit sitting on top. BA83

[Deadlift]

Loving the death company shades of red on the armour, looks very cool.

[Meph]

Thanks guys! :D

Tadaaa.
Well, obviously I need to chop down the support struts and maybe make the center strut shorter as well. Right now the turret looks good but it's way too big and I need to place it completely forward in order to have clearance for the front ramp.
'Winging it' bit me in the bum this time...

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_3800.JPG

[Meph]

Some more progress. Added some extra thrusters, changed the turret, and tried out the canards. I temporarily set the turret on those two magnets so it sits at the correct height. This gives a reasonable idea how to build the chin down and around the thrusters.

C&c welcome.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_3811.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_3816.JPG

[Kawauso]

Yeah, sardines is right, but, they can fit with their armor. Take off their bases, pose some sitting and some standing tall, and you'll find that they fit.

Yeah, that's one thing that bugs me when people complain about models 'not being able to fit' in transports in 40k. They really could.

Anyone who's been inside a military APC will tell you that there is -no- space in there that goes unused.


On-topic:
That's an expensive-looking conversion, Meph, but great job so far.
Not to my tastes, but that's just me: I like Stormravens just fine the way they are.

[vman]

Very cool thread. Pics are worth many words :D

[Meph]

Hmm yeah, true, current day APC's are pretty cramped but at least soldiers actually fit through the doors and hatches. Any Space marine trying to access a round top hatch needs to first disconnect his power pack and then chop of his arms. And to try and access through the side doors, they have to do a perfect sideways dive, like a goalkeeper doing style jumps. :D

In terms of price, meh, that's OK, the SR itself was a gift, I bought some extra parts cheaply off of ebay and the hull extension kit was only about 20$, shipping included from Yankeestan to Belgium. :P

Vman; Many more pics will follow, oh yes... :D

[Meph]

A direction has been taken. I've layered the chin up to exactly the height of the round base. Thankfully, three layers of plasticard is exactly the right thickness.
Never mind the rough, stepped edges you see. I gave them a little bit of leeway so I can easily sand them down to a flush angle. The bit behind the turret i'll box up as normal and slope back up to the top of the forward ramp.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_3819.JPG

[Tynskel]

nice work

[Meph]

Cheers mate!


Alrighty, after a long vacation, it's time to pick things up again. i haven't gotten round to painting anything yet but I have been practicing my plasticard-fu.
The chin section is complete and I've figured out how to mount it. The whole assembly neatly slips into place and sits relatively solid during dry-fitting, so when glued it will be a firm joining. Maybe I'll add some extra internal strengthening if needed.

As a whole, I finally have the feeling that I'm getting somewhere. The sides will be easily closed using some plasticard paneling but any suggestings for details or greebles there are welcome. Same goes from the empty back section. On the sides, I'm even thinking about a plasticard wing cutout on the sides but I'm not sure if I can cut that accurately enough.

What say you?

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4273.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4279.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4285.JPG

[Meph]

Alrighty, got the top section sorted out. It's not glued on at the moments as I still need the access for the wing magnets, but it sits almost perfectly flush with the rest of the hull.
The sides have been closed up as well. First I thought to do some more elaborate paneling or a large BA wing cutout, but for the first I felt too lazy and for the second there was not enough room. The area is a bit too low and long for a large icon cutout.
I have some white a transparent decal laserjet paper lying about I intend to use for this. The little top plate is perfect for a decal with the name of the ship, and the large bottom plate seems like a good place to put some artwork. I'm thinking to use some GW art, post-prod something together in Photoshop and print out a full colour decal with some epic imagery. It will allow for much greater detail than a feehand and it will keep the visual style nice and tight.

The end is starting to get in sight for this build, yay. :)


http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4289.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4293.JPG

[bloodangel 83]

WOW Meph, your StromRaven looks great. I like it better then the one's i seen and have. Yours looks like a mini Thunderhawk. Great work. BA83

[Meph]

Cheers mate! Yeah, it did turn out a bit longer than expected but I think to myself: "not too shabby even if I do say so myself. :D

[Meph]

I'm guessing that the build is about 95% complete now. Just some sanding here and there and add some extra detail.
Things done over the week:
-Magnetized the wings
-Some greenstuff gap filling
-Made the 'shoulders' for the canards to sit on. Looks better than expected.
-Added a piece to the main wings to give them the same forward sweep as the canards and tail planes. The macro perspective of the photo's does tend to distort this but all three wing surfaces now have a 10° forward sweep.

At first I thought to close the gap between the wing add-ons and the main wing using greenstuff, but actuallyI I like the look it has now. I figure it will be easier to paint those up as leading edge flaps, with weathering to clearly show that they can move, rather than to use a lot of greenstuff and excessive sanding to perfectly hide the seam. Best to hide in plain sight then I thought. ^^

Any thoughts?

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4305.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4310.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4314.JPG

[bloodangel 83]

It's coming together nicely. Great work on the wings, I like the stabs on the front of the wing. BA83

[Meph]

Cheers mate! :D

Hmmm... dipping or spraying?

To colour the transparent cockpit glasses. I am thinking of using some GW sepia or green ink mixed into Klear to get the hue. But would I spray it on using my airbrush, or would I dip the canopy into the mix and then set somewhere to drain off and dry...?

[A Barb]

That is so cool and I can't wait to see it painted:D

[bloodangel 83]

Meph, I have done the dipping into future floor polish on my acft model canopies and the look great, only thing is the drying time. I think the green ink would look nice on this project. Keep up the great work on this SR. BA83

[Tynskel]

Where do the bolters go?

[Meph]

Thanks guys! :D

Luckily, drying times do not scare me. :D A lot of people are urging me to spray on the coat. My brain says to follow that advice, but my gut tells me it will be easier to get an even coat using the dipping method.
As for colour, green would contrast nicely but I'm leaning towards a gold/amber colour, much like the gold-coated stealth canopies of the F-22 raptor and those Stealthhawk helicopters used for the Bin-Laden mission. That would also look good with the red methinks.

Ah the bolters :D well, the little side hatches are magnetized so I can take them off and replace with the Hurricane bolters easily. ^^ Magnets FTW!

[Meph]

After having some leftover paint after a DIY job, I decided to use the half-liter thinned Levis wall paint as an undercoat. Yup, water-based paint you would normally use to paint your walls with, thinned with water. ^^

It's much clearer to see like this which parts need some more attention for green stuff and sanding. Overall I'm pleased with the smoothness. The file lines you see on the back are actually from the sanding, the actual seam has gone. It just needs a wee bit more green stuff here and there to make the parts fully flush.
Also, there's a first time shot of the Dreadnought clamp, and yes, the door has clearance enough. ;)

Whaddayathink?

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4333.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4319.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4325.JPG

[Snyderson]

I just fell in love... :rolleyes:

[Morgan Darkstar]

Beautiful!

More than a Stormraven but less than a Thunderhawk.

This baby should have some new rules.

"I know it's silly but I get the theme tune to Airwolf in my head when i see this model"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIoSPevvsds

[Duke]

/applause. This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen scratch-built. Kudos, mate!

Duke

[Firebird]

How long is it compared to FW's Thunderhawk? It looks almost the same length.

[Meph]

Cheers guys! I'm glad it's being well received. :D

Hehehe, Airwolf! Hmmmm a black hull with a white belly... :P
In the flash of nostalgia i also thought of this one. ^^
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0zzz3f9VpI&feature=related

The length.... Well, mine is about 33cm from tip to tail. I'm not sure of the size of the FW Thunderhawk but a rough guess would be about 2/3rds maximum.

I also realized that I'll need to paint the cockpit first, colour the canopy, glue it on, and then mask it up so the canopy can withstand the staggering amount of paints and washes that thing is going to receive...

For cockpit, I was thinking about something like this. :D

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2010/01/su27-fcp-large-660x439.jpg
http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/Museums/ThreatTrainingFacility/Aircraft/Mig23Cockpit.jpg

[marcus]

Hmmm are you sure thats complicated enough ? ;)

[Meph]

Lol, yeah, I'm not going to replicate an old Su-27 cockpit (top) or a Mig-21's (bottom). Although they probablyu would suite an Imperial Navy craft quite nicely. :D I'm just going to go for that neat, ugly and cancer-producing blue zinc paint colour. ^^

Luckily for the Russians, they did introduce better ergonomics in the Su-35 ;)
http://www.patricksaviation.com/files/photos/full/37189_28230.jpg

[Meph]

Yesterday's work. I'm quite chuffed I managed to paint the pilot in one afternoon. It's been a while since I painted just one infantry mini at a time:D

Whaddayathaink?

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4337.JPG

[Meph]

For the cockpit, I wanted to incorporate some black around the canopy, like the anti-glare section most military planes have. But then I thought of to apply a larger scheme to the craft. It will be mostly red of course, but maybe some black section like these would look nice. including a 40k'ified version of the tail art. ;)

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=8613&d=1317570186
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=8614&d=1317570265


And since I'm waiting for an order of painting materials to arrive by post, I though it was about time to push the Land Raider further to completion. I did the lenzes of the lamps, sensors and Tech Marine's eyes. And I did some work on the large engine grills. All that's left now is some odd and ends like the impact marks, engine detailing etc.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4350.JPG

[Meph]

Suitable appalling colour, no? :D In real life the tint is slightly more green, but not much. I think this is a good base for some drybrushing and inking.

And i also did a dipping test on the canopy of the turret, which I'm not going to use. At first I thought the effect was quite good, but up close you can see these little imperfections everywhere.
I'm unsure about the exact cause, it could be some bit of dust that got on during drying, even though i covered it up with a glass.
Or it could be the mix. I mixed some Tamiya clear into Johnson's Klear and dipped it in a small clean metal cup. Maybe the mix curdled ever so slightly or the Tamiya clear simply doesn't mix that well. My gut feeling might be to add a tiny bit of dishwashing detergent to try and break the surface tension of the two fluids. I'd like to hear any other suggestions or tips...

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4358.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4367.JPG

[Meph]

Cockpit almost done!

Just some quick drybrushing and some very quick detaling. Since almost nothing will be visible in that cockpit I didn't want to spend too much time fiddling with details.

After that I sealed both the pilot and cockpit using a spray can of GW satin varnish. And then I made was with black oil paint and turpentine. I just madly applied it over the lot of it and as you can see the oil paint neatly sucks itself into every bit of texture it can find without tinting the underlying colours too much. I took some before and right-after pics to show what it does. I'll let that dry out for now and see if it needs any correcting after but it looks like it's not going to need much.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4378.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4388.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4395.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4404.JPG

[Meph]

Voila, cockpit sealed, taped up and seams closed with masking fluid. Fingers crossed, because that's not coming off until it's done...

And I also applied a first of many layers of weathering powders on and around the tracks. It's not bad but it needs a lot refining. Even though it was a mix of 5 different colours (some more than others), it came out predominantly reddish like clay. I feel I need some lighter, more sandy tones to contrast better with the red of the hull I feel.
What do you guys think?

Arch, and I keep overlooking those bullet impacts each and every time, like I'm selectively blind to them... :S

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4413.JPG

[Meph]

On another note, some over at another forum asked me what brands of oil paint I use so I though I'd share it here as well.
I just bought the colours I needed off of Ebay from random webshops. My experience with oil paints is that most of them are quite to very good. A general rule of thumb to buy them would be is to buy a true arts brand or high quality modeling. It doesn't hurt to go for the medium-high priced stuff as it's not that expensive anyhow and it will last forever. And you want a paint that has a decent medium and high quality pigment, quality does show. mine cost somewhere between 3 - 6€ a piece.
In general, oil paints are just basically an oil based medium and pigment so there's not much that can go wrong with them. Also handy to know is that the colours names are universal as the paint has been around since hundreds and hundreds of years. The oil paint Burnt Umber for example was first used in 1650...

-Top one is from Bob Ross, the afro'd painting pixie. Actually this black is one of the easiest to thin oil paints I've had so far. Dissolves very smoothly with turpentine.
-Middle one is from a 'true' artsy brand. The colour shade is universal, Burnt Umber, absolutely perfect for grease stains and for rust when mixed with weathering powder.
-The bottom one is from MIG and is 'Shadow Brown', I used that over the whole of my vehicles for shading. Made a wash with it and brushed over the whole lot except the silver metallic detailing.
-The lighter is fine produce bought from a nocturnal Pakistani entrepreneur.


http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4414.JPG

[Meph]

Huah!

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4427.JPG

[fuzzbuket]

i sees a sausage dog with tiny wings

[Meph]

rofl! :D

[Jambo]

love the storm raven you've done a really smart job of it cant wait to see it completed

[Meph]

Cheers mate! Here she is with some light shading and highlighting and shading done, plus a heavily thinned dark red wash. She's ready for drybrushing, she is. :D

Oh, and as for WW2 style 'logo'... Those two large side plates just behind the canards will be filled with large full colour decals which I'm going to make and print. I'm just not sure what to put there yet. Any ideas are always welcome, as well as interesting artwork that might inspire me.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4456.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4455.JPG

[Snyderson]

I'm really excited how this beauty will turn out when you've shown her some more love with your brush...! ;)

Greetz,
Snyderson

[Firebird]

Coming along nicely!

[Meph]

Cheers guys! :D

The infantry is put on hold for the moment as my time is a bit limited. I do expect to bith finish the LR as well as the almost finished infantry in the very near future. My main reason to pause the infantry was the lack of enough decals for the BA symbols. I was planning to do a full A4 sheet of self-composed decals as I've got some printable decal paper lying around but I managed to find a FW BA decal sheet on ebay for a cheep price so now I've got little BA wings a plenty. :D
So now I'm in no more time pressure to cook up a decal sheet in Photoshop.

Speaking of which, I shall have to commence soon as the decals need to be in place on the Stormraven before the weathering starts... This also creates some incentive as I also need to use the sheet for custom decals; The side panel art, the tail art, perhaps some custom size blood drops and wings, some mumbo-jumbo for scrolls, the Stormraven's name to go on the thin side plates, the pilot's name, maybe some hazard signs etc...

As for the side art; here are some idea's I quickly composed in PS. Some feedback?

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/noseart.jpg

[Meph]

Hmmm....

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4453copy.jpg

[Snyderson]

I'd maybe go for something more like a fresco without a direct wh40k/blood angel relation...
Haven't found something I really like so far, but something kinda like this: http://static.desktopnexus.com/thumbnails/627995-bigthumbnail.jpg

[Meph]

That's actually a pretty damned good piece of art for it. It would work great when cropped to 6x2cm... Good find mate!

[Grailkeeper]

[QUOTE=Meph;163081]Hmmm....

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4453copy.jpg[/QUOT

Wow!

[Meph]

Cheers mate. ^^


@Snyderson: Got a name of that artist by any chance? Or links to similar stuff?

[Sandrat]

Looking good so far -

[Snyderson]

I got to back track how I found exactly that piece of art, when I'm back from work.
But so far, my good old friend Google helped me... I think I was searching for "fresco angel" or something similar.

Greetz,
Sny

[Meph]

Cheers, thanks for the info!

[Snyderson]

I was able to find it again! It is an artwork by Kirsi Salonen.
Here's the LINK (http://abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/627995/).

Greetz,
Sny

[Meph]

You da man! Cheers!

[bloodangel 83]

Looks good Meph. I like the acft nose art on the side of the SR. BA83

[Meph]

Halloween update, shock & horror! I decided to get those two squads fully finished now that I've got the decals to put on the right shoulder pads.
Everything went smoothly and perfectly. I gave the little guys a coat of satin varnish, applied some Micro Set on the decal spots, applied the decals, and over the past few days, gave the decals a few coats of Micro Sol. And the decals looked perfectly blended in, utterly transparent, and the edges were almost gone. Seriously, they looked perfect. And today I gave them a coat from the same, almost full, can of satin varnish and look what happened. All tricks but no treat. :(

Look at the first model, that's how they are after the satin coat. The decal completely shows it's surface, and the whole model has a somewhat white misted tint to it. And it's the same frickin' can I used not two days ago without a hitch.
I first tried another coat of satin varnish on one model, no luck. As soon as it dried out the mishap reappeared.

I tested on the second model with the thinned black oil wash I intended to give them, hoping the oil would smooth out the misty effect. it kinda did, but as soon as it dries out completely, the effect seems to come back. Somewhat diminished, but still there.

And the third model I have an unthinned coat of Klear gloss varnish, hoping that that would fix it. As soon as it dried, no luck.

Any help and assistance on how I might be able to fix this would be greatly appreciated as I've got 20 Marines sitting like this... :(

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4485.JPG

[lattd]

Use a fine detail brush and paint over the outline of the decal.

[Meph]

Well, there's a first time for everything. Even varnish frosting due to humidity...

But... an afternoon of damage control later I managed to completely reverse the damage! :D
I almost was at a loss as testing with gloss coats did not resolve the decal problem, only fixated it in place. And extra layers of Micro Sol only temporarily masked the problem. I was at a loss when it hit me, why not try to capture the temporary state?
So I stabbed every decal furiously with a modeling knife to perforate both the the satin coat and the decal itself. I then applied Micro Sol, which made the decal transparent again, and I rubbed as much off with the brush as possible until it was damp but still transparent. Then I quickly applied Vallejo gloss varnish with a brush, and the rest of the model as well. And lo and behold, the decals are back to their pristine state and the gloss varnish also took care of the frosting. Now thàt saved me a lot of time scraping off and re-applying decals.

So then I proceeded as planned and applied a wash of thinned black oil paint to bring out all the details and I must admit they look pretty good. Thanks to DST, there's no daylight left so I took some shots to show the result. They just need a satin coat again, and basing.
During the many drying periods I also gave the Stormraven 4 highlights by drybrushing, a red glaze, a deep red wash, and another drybrushed highlight. The red's finished now, sealed with a coat of Klear, and ready for masking out the to-be black sections. Again, no decent light so I'll post some pics of that tomorrow together with some more pics of the marines.


http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4491.JPG

[MarneusCalgar]

I like them!!

[Meph]

Cheers! I hope the atmospheric conditions today are a bit better so I can give them the sating coat they need. Glossy is a bit too, well... glossy

[Snyderson]

Really nice! I'm looking forward seeing those guys finished! :)

Greetz,
Sny

[Meph]

Cheers, Snyderson!

As promised... Some more pics. The marines are still glossy, and as I couldn't cover the direct light for the SR pics, the tint shown is not 100% accurate. In real life it's much deeper with more subtle gradations here and there from the airbrush shading, consecutive drybrushing, and inking. But it's good enough to show the idea. Don't mind the little dark spots from excessive inks. those will be worked into the weathering. ;)

As always, any request for specific shots, questions, remarks, mad banter, or mind-bending conundrums are welcome. ;)

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4512.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4517.JPG

[Snyderson]

Thank's for the updates... you really remind me that I need to get working on my Blood Angels... :o

Will you go for a light weathering or a really battle/time worn look?

Greetz,
Sny

[Meph]

Cheers mate! Well, knowing me that Stormraven will receive quite a beating. I didn't Dremel any actual battle damage on the model but I intend to add a lot of grease stains and black smears, and chipped off paint etc... it's on the menu for tomorrow.

[Tynskel]

Yes! dark angels stuff. I use dark angels robes and shave the sword symbols, like you did, to make my Blood Angels Command squad.

[Tynskel]

Well, there's a first time for everything. Even varnish frosting due to humidity...


When you say "due to humidity" what do you mean? High relative humidity? Low relative humidity?

Thanks.

[Meph]

Yeah, I love the robed marines. I'm thinking of using them more in the future for veterans and sergeants and such. :D

As for the humidity, high humidity. It was sunny but chilly, and apparently a lot of moisture in the air as a few hours after spraying it rained quite hard. I hadn't had any encounters with the spray can phenomenon before but after talking to quite a few painters who live in more humid parts of our planet I became more conscious of it.
Apparently, high humidity can wreak havoc on the consistency of varnish in a spray can, particularly satin- and matte varnish. The moisture in the air reacts with the propellant in the spray, resulting in a milky, frosty sheen. You wouldn't have this with an airbrush.

[Meph]

Just to show I've not been doing nuffin'; here's what I've been doing at the moment. I've fallen a bit sick just before a long weekend So I decided to start masking out the Storm Raven slowly as long as the headache allows it.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4522.JPG

Next up is the taping of the wings. :)

[bloodangel 83]

Hey Meph, looking good and hope you feel better buddy. BA83

[Meph]

Cheers mate! In the meantime managed to keep the headache and fever shivers under control...

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4526.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4538.JPG

[elmir]

Great stuff man! I do have a question for you...

Do you take any precautions to prevent painting chipping off when you remove the masking tape? For some reason, I keep running into that problem when I do patterns with my airbrush. :(

[Jambo]

youve done a great job with the storm raven its looking fantastic. hope you feel bettoer soon mate

[Meph]

Thanks guys! The headaches are subsiding slowly, light at the end of the tunnel! :D

As for preparations... I don't do anything in particular, but I guess the key is a good cleanup of the model, and a good, solid base coat to work on. I don't treat plastic bits, but for any resin parts, they have to be cleaned very thoroughly before even thinking about putting paint on it. I've had some chipping on the Land Raider and Razorback because I didn't was the FW resin bits with enough soap. But with any following resin bits on the Storm raven I didn't make that same mistake. Good scrubbing with an old tooth brush is the key here. And when you feel you've scrubbed enough, scrub some more.

And on the other hand it's also the solidity of any underlying paint layers that matter. For the SR, it's layered as follows.
-Grey undercoat. For this I actually used some leftover grey Levis wall paint and thinned it with water. Nothing special here, it was just a mad experiment and it did get me worried a bit because it appeared to be a bit brittle at first.
-2-3 thin base coats of a home mixed red, prepped for air brush. mainly it's GW reds and Vallejo reds, thinned with Vallejo air brush thinner, and a little bit of Johnson's Klear added. In case you don't know it, it's basically a transparent, water-based floor varnish for stone tiles. Cheap household stuff, but it's a great gloss varnish by itself and when added to paint it does add a bit of strength to the mix. It's rather known for its use with airbrushing because of its simple and decent qualities.
-Then I gave it some airbrush shading with a slightly darker- and a slightly lighter mix.
-A layer of very dark red wash, applied with an airbrush. Just inks & water.
-3 layers of drybrushed highlights.
-A red glaze, just Blood Red thinned very heavily with water.
-Another dark red wash, also heavily thinned.
-A light drybrush to redefine the edges.

So as you can see, by the time the masking tape went on there were already quite a few layers of paint on the model. That gives it a solid base. I also make the effort to buy some good quality masking take (Tamiya's for example). Lower quality tape either tends to stick to hard, or not decently enough.

And whenever you're feeling suspicious of the solidity of a layer of paint, you can always give it a light coat of satin or gloss varnish before applying the tape. Anything that will seal the paint with a smooth layer will help.

But again, for any resin parts, or even plastic ones if they feel even the tiniest bit greasy; scrub like a madman and rinse it like an OCD. :)

[Meph]

I managed to get a design going for the side panels. I think this would suit it. Not 100% convinced myself though, so what to you think?

The top one is for the right panel, the bottom ones are for the left panel.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/noseart06.jpg

[Meph]

And in the mean time, I couldn't help myself, I just couldn't... :D

High Res Goodness (http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/NoseartTest001.jpg)







.

[Meph]

Here are some designs for the tail art, just some preliminary designs. I'm a bit unsure what way I want to go with this.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/0Skull&bonesTEST.jpg
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4527-Nosetest.jpg

[fuzzbuket]

looking good :) i love the images without text though , but if you want text how about on a scroll underneath it?
as for the tail i like the augmented skull but the crossbones look too piraty!

great work!

-fuzz

[Snyderson]

Did you try the pictures in gray scales or a kind of marble-effect?
I really do like the artworks, but on the model they somehow look a bit like commercials beeing all that eye-cathcing. So this is why I'm pondering a way, to get them more in line with the model.
Hopefully I was able to make myself at leat a bit clear... :rolleyes: It's hard to explain. ^^

For the tail, I would opt for a skull, maybe with a blood drop on it or wings. The bones push it too far in the "Arrrr!-pirate-corner"... ;)

And I really do love the blood drop on the nose...! :)

Greetz,
Sny

[Meph]

Cheers for the feedback guys, it's much appreciated.

@fuzzbuket: Yeah, i wasn't very much convinced about the text either. It would look better if incorporated into a scroll. I'll experiment with that I think.

@Snyderson: I catch your drift completely, that's been my major dilemma as well. A marble or crack filter/texture might work. Consider it on the drawing board.
As for the tail art, my current gut feeling is the skull& numerals with perhaps a Blood Angels symbol under it.

Alrighty, I haven't been painting much. Weather conditions have been too bad for outside airbrushing so I finished some odds and ends.
I finished up the Land Raider and the marines, all they need is a coat of satin varnish and they're done.
I wanted to put some small rubble on the bases but after endless and fruitless searching I decided to flock it. It looks pretty good but I feel if perhaps I shouldn't give it some thinned brown ink or something...

I took some indoor pics just for fun. ^^ Oh, the Razorback is is also almost done, just some heat distortion on the las cannons and painting up the lenzes.

Enjoy!

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4546.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4551.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4555.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4559.JPG

[Snyderson]

Man you kept us waiting a long time for your post, but - DAM'N! - it was worth the time!
Awesome weathering and battle damage on the tanks... it looks so real! Fantastic job!
I'm looking forward seeing the marines finished... maybe you should go for some mud and dirt too - in comparison with the tanks they look a bit too clean up to now... ;)
I hope you'll be able to pull some great results from the drawing board. If you know which pictures you want to use, let me know; maybe I can get a friend of mine working this marble-texture-stuff into it...

Greetz,
Sny

[fuzzbuket]

WOW that land raider is AMAZING! it looks gritty and very realistic. im also fond of the racing stripes :P

great work :)

-fuzz

[Meph]

Cheers guys! I'm pretty pleased myself how they turned out. All that's needed is a coat of stain varnish to dull 'm down a bit but i feel I should add some flock to the vehocles' track and some mud to the infantry bases. Good spotting Snyderson! ;)

[Meph]

I managed to finish up the tac- and dev squad. Found a spray can of satin varnish which did not produce any frosting, and I darkened up the bases.

Oh, and I also managed to completely ruin the weathering powders on on the Razorback and Land Raider yet again... The red hull is now nice and dull, but the varnish completely whitened and frosted the weathering powders... again... raaah! But at least the satin varnish on on there now so I re-applied yet another layer of weathering powders and I'll fixate them with several layers of Klear. With the rest of the model protected by satin, I can easily airbrush on the glossy Klear on just the powdered parts, which might create a nice wet look.
Some pics!
The lighting quality was terrible, especially the marines could have used more front light but I only noticed on my monitor. Ah well, once the weather is better I'll take some decent ones. I also feel they come out better with a black background.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4647.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4657.JPG

[bloodangel 83]

Looks great. BA83

[flekkzo]

Fantastic stuff, just fantastic. Keep up the good work!

[Meph]

Cheers guys! :D

Oh, and just on a whim, I made a little compilation of the major painting and weathering steps. It's seemed like fun to see the evolution in one view. Those models had a slow progress over more than a year, as I don't paint thàt often. ^^

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/0MG_1809.jpg

[bloodangel 83]

Nice looking army there Meph. BA83

[Meph]

thanks BA83! :D

Oh, and just on a whim, I made a little compilation of the major painting and weathering steps. It's seemed like fun to see the evolution in one view. Those models had a slow progress over more than a year, as I don't paint thàt often. ^^

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/0MG_1809.jpg

[Deadlift]

I really like the way your army is progressing, looks great especially the tanks and the weathering. very realistic and lost of attention to detail.

One thing that does let your army down a little in my view (and its just that so feel free to tell me to go f**k myself) is the bases of your men. It looks like their just dipped in flock. I think with some nice sand, painted and dry brushed with a little bit of flock here and there on the bases and your models could look even nicer than they do now. Even that pre-painted stuff from the army painter would do your guys some justice.

http://shop.thearmypainter.com/products.php?ProductGroupId=3

I dont mean to be harsh because the simple fact is besides the bases, your army looks fantastic :D

[Orbital]

Great job. You do a very good job of keeping the painting crisp and clean but still making them look like they are actually employed in the businessof war. Good balance with weathering/use.

[Meph]

Cheers guys! Yep, a well-maintained-but-long-campaign-wear&tear was what I was going for. I'm glad you're liking it. :)

@Deadlift: nope, no offense taken at all. In fact, I appreciate and encourage any scrutinous comments. It's the only way to improve.
And in fact, I wholeheartedly agree with you. I actually intended to make them more elaborate, but after a few days of searching for my more substantial basing stuff without success, I just thought: "Ah well, flock it!" :D

So I just flocked them, didn't really like it, gave it a brownish wash, making them slightly less 'meh...' And then dusted on some weathering powder on the lower legs of the marines and the base, which only slightly improved them. I agree it looks flat and dull at the moment. I do intend to paint up some rocks/debris and add some more life to them, but at least they're game-ready now.
Basing has always been something I didn't get much passion for, but you're right, they do deserve a bit more oomph! Hmmm those brownish tuffs look interesting also...

[SotonShades]

Great work as always. Love seeing the progress montage as well. Keep it up :)

[Meph]

Thanks mate!

Yesterday I also made this.
Here's a big piccie after some light post-prod. :)

High Res Goodness (http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4649Large.jpg)



.

[Cpt Codpiece]

Great work Meph,

I may have to borrow the metallic red idea :) and maybe the storm raven mods, though for me the front is a little long but still looks cool as a cucumber :D

[Meph]

Cheers mate! Welcome to the forum, it's an honour to receive your first post. ;)

Yeah sure man, take the ideas, use 'm. Share the wealth I say! :D

[Meph]

After some more OCD, I did manage to finally seal the weathering powders using that blue-bottled pigment fluid from MIG. Great stuff. Although to add some extra protection I airbrushed on some satin varnish from Vallejo. And now it looks satisfactory, and you can touch it without the powder rubbing off.
I actually wanted to work on the large terminator this weekend but after another failed attempt, I decided to coat it in satin varnish, which is slightly less slick than Klear. But now that has to dry and cure. So I thought I'd take some high-res pics of the marines and vehicles.

The satin spray from GW left the models a bit too matte overall to I brushed on some gloss varnish on the lenses, lights, and gold/copper materials. It did a great deal to bring those parts back to life.

On another note, this has been announced:

Lowlands Painting Competition 2012 (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=2200009&section=community&aId=15200023a)

I'm thinking to enter the Land Raider and my Stormraven. So I've got a deadline of April 14th to finish that bird. Should be doable...

But until then, some High-Res Goodness!! (All pics are 1920 x somethingsomething)

Marines! (http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4690b.jpg)

Razorback (http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4701b.jpg)

Land Raider Part 1 (http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4706b.jpg)

Land Raider Part 2 (http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4714b.jpg)

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4693h.jpg

[SotonShades]

Absolutely terrible. Hate it all. Nothing remotely good...

Well, maybe not. Great work as always. I especially love the yellow/gold lenses, both on the vehicles and the devastators. Only 2 minor drawbacks. The right eye of one of the Sergeant's looks a little... off is the only word I can think off, but not exactly sure why. Might just be the angle of the picture. Besides that, I really wish you'd painted the interior of the Razorback. Everything else is done to such a fantastic level, I can only imagine how good that'd be as well.


2 very very minor criticisms. As I said, everything else is properly top notch. Very well done.

[Foxhound2delta]

I really love your Stormraven! It is so awesome. I wish I had time to convert one like it to make my own but until I finish my tour as a Drill Sergeant my only free time is seeing all the neat stuff guys like you make.

[Meph]

Wow, long time no update... Time to rectify! Sorry for the lack of replies guys.

@SotonShades: You're absolutely right. The eye lenses were all nice and crisp, but the final was of thinned oil paints did mute some lenses on some marines. I'm pretty some I'll fix that at some point in the future as it's been sticking my eye out as well. It's low priority atm, as I'd like to finish some more WIP stuff and I'm itching to start so many new projects as well.
And the interior, yeah, at the start of the model I really couldn't be bothered but now that it's finished... I actually still have a pot of the mix I made for the Storm Raven interior, and seeing as there are some more vehicles in the pipeline, I can give both the LR and RB an interior at the same time as the newer vehicles. the interiors can easily masked off for the airbrush.

@Foxhound2delta: Cheers mate! I hope the tour doesn't take too long anymore so you can get back into some civvie hobbies. ^^ Stay Frosty!

Alrighty, now that that Clone Trooper is finished, on to the next one.
I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere with the custom decals for the Storm Raven. Even though I liked the previous designs they were just re-hashing existing 40K artwork, which didn't really sit right in my mind. So after a small epiphany last night I went to work this morning. I went googling for photos of angel statues, picked a few, and dived into Photoshop. After a small hour, this came out. I think this will more suit the purpose of the decals. The imagery might be less clear and defined but I feel the whole look of it will blend in better with the model so it doesn't attract all the visual attention. And since I'll be able to print on a high resolution, the detail will still be there. And for the sake of **** I'll use the same decal on both sides, but mirrored.
And if you look even really close you'll see even some symbology. On the left you have two angels weeping over a fallen man, and on the right you have the Angels of Death bringing The Light to the fallen, and also a spear to the nuts as punishment for having fallen in the first place. For the Emprah!

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/noseart7.jpg

And also a new version for the tail art. Less piratey, more Blood Angely.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/0Skullnbones005.jpg

What say you all?

[Meph]

I wanted to try them out, so here are some composites for your critical eye.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/noseartTest7b.jpg

[Meph]

Anyways, variations! After letting it rest a bit, I'm not that happy with the yellow wings. So I fiddled around a bit. The third and the last have caught my attention... Whaddayathink?

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/0SkullnbonesTest.jpg

[Jangoo]

Nicely done, how do you do the weathering effects? Do you use pigments?

[bloodangel 83]

I like the 3rd blood drop and like the idea of is on the tail and front of the SR. Keep up the great work. BA83

[Meph]

@Jangoo: Cheers, mate. Well for weathering I usually first stipple on some paint using a little sponge that's almost dry, seal it, then use oil paints, seal it again, then weathering powders, and seal yet again.

Cheers BA83! Phew this is turning out to be quite the brainstormer to get things right. Lots of ideas look good but I've yet to come to the definite 'Eureka' moment I feel.

Alrighty, some adjustments. I do feel it has a more balanced look right now. I'm not too sure if I'm 100% happy with it yet. Comments?

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/noseart8.jpg

Also, some tail art tried on for size. I must say, the yellow/golden one is growing on me, fast.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/TailArtTest004.jpg

And as a final reference, the two side panels I had made before using existing artwork. A part of me keeps thinking: "Ditch the rush DIY job and go with these balanced visuals." Dilemma's, dilemma's...

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/noseart02.jpg
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/noseart05.jpg

[Meph]

Also, I've been playing around a bit with other small decal designs. Such as warning signs, something to go on the side doors, name of the pilot, name of the craft, and even a back sticker that'll be tucked away on the back. ^^
As reference, the total width of the widest decal here will be 4cm.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/WarningSigntest001.jpg

[Xar]

it looks so easy - why does mine look like crap.

[Lovecraft]

Very nice looking. I'm a fan of all the different versions of Stormravens I see people using. Mine's just the basic GW kit with a decent tabletop paint job, but it was still my favorite piece to add to by BA army.

[Snyderson]

Nice as always! :)

I'd opt for the "classical" yellow wings with red blood drop & numbered skull for the tail art - even if that's the variant you don't favor! ;) On the black surface this stands out quite nice - at least in my perception. :D
For the front stabilizer ( or what ever you call that mini-wing :P ) I'd just put the "IX" in yellow and maybe below that a scroll with the name of that lovely lady... ;)

Greetz,
Sny

[Meph]

@Xar: You mean the build, or paint job? In any case, in general the easiest way to improve a model is to slow down. I personally have to force myself during a build to take patient and accurate measurements but I always end up 'winging it' slightly because I want to see progress. It's a matter of finding a good compromise between time you want to invest in it and the look you want to achieve.
When drybrushing or blending for example, do it in 3-4 layers. Making sure your brush is very dry and your paint thick (let it sit on a little palette for a minute) when drybrushing helps a lot. And when blending, it does help to thin the paint enough. I personally prefer drybrushing as it's faster and needs less accuracy. And I also like the textured effect it produces. ^^

@Lovecraft: Cheers mate, don't hold back to post a pic here. I'm always curious to see what other people did with the Storm Raven. :D

@Snyderson: Good ideas man! I'll definitely include the IX some more on the model, and the 'canards' :D seem like a good spot. lol

[Meph]

It's funny how little secondary colour I feel like adding to the model. I think that all details have been prepped to start with the weathering. Stuff like the grilles on the back, the landing gear and other similar details will get their colour during weathering, no need to over-define them now.
The decal sheet has been prepped and will be printed during the week and then there will be some more substantial progress.

At first I wanted to paint the thrusters and engine intakes metallic, but after an experiment with bronze, I decided to go with that. It contrasts nicely and fits in the rest of the models painted so far.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4776.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4785.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4788.JPG

[CajunMan]

I love your paint jobs man very much like my style you seem to do very simple techniques that look amazing on final product. Keep up the good work!

[bloodangel 83]

The SR looks great. Keep up the great work. BA83

[KrewL RaiN]

The yellow winged skull decal pops out of the best out of the others I find, especially on the black tail fins. The positioning for the murals looks solid as well.

So, would this be the "extended cab sports model" edition of the Storm Raven? Its amazing looking!

[Meph]

@CajunMan: Thanks mate! Yeah, I try to find a good compromise between speed/laziness/desired quality. ^^ I just love drybrushing in combination with washes and layering it all up. I feel it adds a certain depth to the look of the model. Of course, delicate shading and blending produces awesome effects, it's also very time-consuming. And despite my sluggish painting speed, I like to see progress as well on large models or large numbers of infantry. ^^

Cheers BA83! Blood Angels FTW! Huah! :D

@KrewL RaiN: lol, yup, finally a place to store your bolter, spare ammo, ànd your legs! :D

[Meph]

I was going through some boxes and to my big surprise I rediscovered these. Oldskool vehicles ftw! There are some of the first vehicles I ever painted, with Rhino #7 being the absolute first. I guess that puts these vehicles somewhere between 20-23 years ago. :D It's very funny to see my early attempts at weathering and infatuation with etched brass details and early attempts at conversions. I'm feeling tempted to give at least some of those vehicles and update, and maybe even finish that razorback after twenty years, lol.

So, without further ado, some vehicles from the depth of time. Enjoy!
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4790.JPG

Oh, and look what gradually evolved on my table over past week while waiting for my mate with the colour laser printer. The honour guard squad for the new army! Right now they just received a wash of thinned oil paints and they're ready for some cleanup and finishing. It's amazing what one can do on a week of being home on doctor's orders. :D
Comments and crits are welcome as always. And yes, there are some mold lines that were glanced over by laziness and lack of zoom-o-vision. ^^

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4809.JPG

[Brakkart]

Nice find with that haul of retro tanks Meph!

I'm loving your command squad and I'm not much of a Blood Angels fan. Especially like how well the eagle heads on the champions backpack have come out, though they don't half look like Sam Eagle from the Muppets, same stern visage. I dub him Brother Samuel.

All Stormravens should look as awesome as yours does, such a great conversion. I'm totally borrowing a couple ideas from that when I get a Storm Eagle for my Imperial Fists, cos the twin tail looks so much better.

[Meph]

rofl! Cannot be unseen! Sam the Eagle! Brother Samuel, there's still some room on his shield. :D

[SotonShades]

From humble beginnings...

To be honest, if Rhino 7 was your first ever vehicle, you had more than a fair shout and hit the ground running!


Liking the command squad, though they look a bit more mottled than your usual stuff. Was that intentional? Still pretty awesome for the first wash stage.

[Meph]

Well, I did do some 'general' military modeling before that as a wee lad. But that was the run-of-the-mill plastic aircraft and tank kits painted with Humbrol enamel, and no sort of shading, highlighting, or any other technique for that matter. :D So by the time I discovered WH40K I did have the basic skills to paint a layer of paint relatively even, and stick tiny bits of plastic together.

About the command squad, well, you made me curious so I compared with one of the previously finished models. The tone and texture are the same. I think it's just the photos, different lighting conditions and some very slight post processing to get the tone right. (I like to avoid as much as post-prod as possible and just try to get the tone right using the shutter speed.)

[Meph]

Just some minor cleanups needed here and there, and basing.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4820.JPG

[Meph]

Here's some progress on the Death Company. The photos are not that good as I was losing daylight very fast and the veranda light didn't offer much solace either. I'll take some better ones soon but here they are. The marines just had their oil paint wash but they need some cleaning up. Some red area's I'll go over with a fine cotton stick damp with turpentine and polish it up here and there.
I went with the same limited palette as the rest of the marines and it suits them nicely I feel. Bronze, metal/silver, green for detailing, muted grey-green for the loincloth.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4843.JPG

[bloodangel 83]

looks great.BA83

[Skari]

loving the dark scheme.

[Cpt Codpiece]

looking good Meph, like i said before i am so using the matallics on the DC. did you go gold then red washes/inks for them?

hopefully my tartaros kit should be here soon (my friend got his already.... but its FUBAR'd) and ill crack on with them :)

[Angron]

For the tail art, keeping with the general ww2 ish fighterjet theme, have you considered 2 crossed boltguns and a skull? Might look sharp if you arent satisfied with wings and blood drop.

[ksoh75]

Dude......your work is simply AMAZING! All I have to say......

[Meph]

looks great.BA83

loving the dark scheme.

Dude......your work is simply AMAZING! All I have to say......
Cheers guys! I'm glad you're liking it. :D


For the tail art, keeping with the general ww2 ish fighterjet theme, have you considered 2 crossed boltguns and a skull? Might look sharp if you arent satisfied with wings and blood drop.
That's actually a great idea! I think I'll try that although I feel that a bolter might be a bit too short and stocky to make a nice cross. Worth experimenting with though, cheers!

@Cpt Codpiece: Well, first I mixed up some paint alchemy-style, I don't know the exact ratio's anymore but it's some bronze, some metallics like Boltgun Metal and some silver, some dark red, some Blood Red. I thinned it with red wash and red ink as well as some thinner. I think I also added some Vallejo's metallic medium. It was really just trial and error, slowly mixing little bits together to get the right tone of red metallic and then adjusting again because as soon as you add non-metallic paint you tend to matte it down quickly, which you want to avoid.
I highlighted by taking some of the base mix apart and adding some silver. In this case, you lose the red shade very quickly and it turns pinkish. I balanced that with a wash or two of thinned red ink, highlighting again and re-shading with some very thinned red ink with a little bit of yellow/sepia ink.
At one point, I also applied a glaze which I made by mixing Blood Red with a lot of water. Using thinner to make washes and glazes with add a milky sheen and kill the transparency. Actually, best water to add is demineralized water, as used for ironing (take ye basic unflavoured kind of course). Dead-cheap and the lack of calcium is better for the airbrush as well keeping your home-brewed paint mixes in little pots for later.

I'm sure I'll be able to streamline the mixing and workflow in the future as I intend to expand the DC but it was fun experimenting with it. I found out very early on that if you add too much light gold to lighten the red metallic it tends to go back to a bronze-ish colour very fast, and with just silver you go to the pink side immediately. I really wanted to keep it as red as possible, hence the experimenting.

I used an airbrush to spray on the washes to get a more even coating. And all washes were also heavily thinned with water, easily 1:5.
So this was done after I made the red highlights for the black. I drybrushed black with a little bit of red and maroon brown, then with more red added, the some orange and finally with almost pure 'Ice Yellow', which is a brilliant colour btw for many a colour. Between every consecutive lighter drybrush, I sprayed the model with black ink, mixed with red ink, thinned with water, roughly at 3:1:4.
the reason I did it like that was to blend in the highlights with the black, emphasize the red tint, but try to preserve the 'lightness' of the highlights. Using unthinned inks would darken the colours way too much and obscure the underlying tints. Layering it up like this allows to give tint and depth to a dark colour without negating the added colours too much. the aim was to get a really deep black with a red sheen, and not a dark brownish-red with black shading.

The spray on washes for the metallic red were done over the entire model to this helped to enhance the reddish tint on the black. Although I do think I did sneak in one very light drybrush touch-up on the armours edges between the washes.

[/RANT]:D

[Cpt Codpiece]

oh yeah thats quite the concoction :D

ill have a go myself with some gold and matallic medium :) i just got my air brush today so gonna get the hose and regulator at the weekend (cant afford a tank comp right now so tinned air it is :(), so ill have a go with the washes too :)

i just cant stop looking at the DC the metallics are just great hehe

i may actually use the method for black that you did but with green instead of red for my DA, they have been on the back burner a long time. but i want then black (Pre heresy, but still hold the DA theme.... i hate black though )

[Meph]

Happy experimenting mate. I'll be curious to see what you cook up in your cauldron. :D

In the mean time... I now consider them to be finished. The bases will follow at a later stage, as I'm not fond of the act of basing. Tedious...

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4855.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4868.JPG

And a high res piccie of the lads together.
Tadaaa (http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4884L.jpg)

The pictures are not that great sadly, as the weather is freaky... sunshine, cloudy, rain, sunshine, hail... Sadly the lack of space prevents me from setting up a decent indoor light box.

[Meph]

The Sang. guard post-oil paints and ready for final detailing. I wanted to keep them pretty minimalist and statuesque so maybe I'll just paint up some blood drop gems here and there besides the eyes.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4898.JPG

[bloodangel 83]

Nice job on the Sang. BA83

[Meph]

Cheers, BA83. :D

In the mean time.
The lighting conditions were pretty crappy but I decided to take some pics anyhow. The weather has been pretty grey since a few days. Voila, lenzes and gems painted in. A of me senses that some extra colour might be nice for visual impact, but the statue look has really grown in me. As ancient chapter relics, these armours can be easily imagined standing sentry, looking very much like ancient status. Could be a great movie scene, barely lit corridor, harsh shadows, lenzes flaring to life.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4922b.jpg

Oh, and there are a few details that still need to be painted in, a final sealing coat, and some gloss on the lenzes and gems.

[Meph]

Just to show that I've not been sitting still. The next batch basecoated, three thinned layers. The paint is still wet even and most likely they'll need another coat.
It's the land speeder squadron & magnetized parts, and the all-HB Dev. Squad. The SR is on hold as I still didn't manage to print the decals.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4923.JPG

[Meph]

Anywhoo, progress!
First up the marines and speeders received 4 drybrush highlights. Blood Red, orange with some blood red, Ice Yellow with some orange, and Ice Yellow. I never cleaned out my palette so the very few leftover colours from the previous run were mixed in with the fresh, lighter paint.

Then they received three spray on washes, applied liberally with the GW spraygun.
Two washes red ink, the new GW red glaze and demineralized water to a ratio of roughly 2:2:5
One wash with more of the darker red ink to it was more of a 3:1:5 mix.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4937.JPG

Now the red is ready on the models although I might accent some edges a bit more with a very light and dry brush with Vallejo's Ice Yellow.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4949.JPG

So from now on I'll focus on the speeders and finish the dev. squad after that. It's a smoother workflow if you can focus on one type of unit. And the Land Speeders have extra, magnetized parts so that's quite a bit to paint anyhow.
As an excuse to clearly distinguish the different units in the Land Speeder squadron, what better way than stripes, right? Also, it's the only way to make an already red vehicle go faster, innit? ^_^

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4953.JPG

[docbungle]

Really like how you did the SG

[Meph]

Really like how you did the SG

Cheers mate.

[Meph]

High-Res Picture Time!

The group picture's a bit fuzzier than I thought but you get the general idea. I did take some high-res pics of the individual units as well.
I included some easy-to-unbox oldskool mini's which were painted right before my almost 10-year painting hiatus, so you can see the difference. If I dug up all my old BA mini's I could easily add several thousand points worth of mini's; 4-5 marine squads, around 30 terminators, a dozen vehicles, lots of characters, some weird and odd conversions, etc etc. And that's just my Blood Angels, I've got loads of other ancient stuff as well, as well as a dusty Eldar Alaitoc army.

I'm thinking to either update/finish that Captain, or either remake it using new model parts.
Oh, and I forgot my dreadnoughts, three of them, all old metal ones. I kinda overlooked them as they're spread around on book shelves...

There are currently another Land Raider, and a Rhino/predator/Razorback waiting to start, and I've got my eye set on a Contemptor, a Stormeagle, Librarian, and Assault Squad. In that order of eagerness to buy/paint.

Army
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4960.JPG

Units
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4963.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4965.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4966.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4968.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4969.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4970.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4971.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4972.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4973.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4976.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4977.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4978.JPG

Enjoy!

[Meph]

Lol, somehow I completely overlooked the dreads. :rotfl:
I actually have four of them. All metal, once really old, two old and updated at the time I started my FW Marine, and one old but never finished.
Here's three of them (old photos):

http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/dread/IMG_0013.jpg
http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/dread/IMG_0014.jpg
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_0384.jpg

[KrewL RaiN]

I love how the Sang.Guard give off an antique look. The way you painted them makes them look ancient, and in the 40K universe, ancient tech tends to show power. So you do the bulk of your work with an airbrush, then drybrush and paint in fine details? And oh yes, you HAVE to get a Contemptor! I just know you would make that model badassness level to insanely badass.

Also awesome to see ones "painting age gap" from their old models and current ones. As much as I like the age gap in my Tyranids, it drives me nuts at the same time, because of army painting awards lol. Someone picks up one of my 4 year old Genestealers to inspect closer, and I am all Darth Vader"nooooooooooooooooooooooo" xD

[Brakkart]

Really enjoying seeing this army come together, they look very impressive in the army shots with that Storm Raven looming overhead. I love the Death Company guy with the power fist who looks a bit like he's doing a charging bro fist!

Never been that big a fan of the Sang Guard as they are a bit too showy for my tastes, but yours look really good, the worn and ancient look you's have suits them much better than the more bling look they often tend to be painted up with.

Would love to see you do a biker squad!

[bloodangel 83]

Looking great Meph. Keep up the great work. BA83

[Meph]

@KrewL RaiN: lol! I can so imagine the silly swaying steps while crying 'Noooooo!'
And it's true dammit. If I look at my really old models, I get the same feeling. I think it's because of the frustration because the then lack-of-skill that I only really finished about 50% of my models. I still have hundreds of unfinished models from over 15 years ago... Wisely, I have not yet posted pictures of those early, dark beginnings... literally, Blood Angels were still terracotta then instead of the bright red that followed with the second edition.

My current paint flow. base coat (airbrush), 4 consecutive lighter drybrush highlights, 3 layers of thinned ink/wash(airbrush), possible touch-up of the highlights, paint in details (base, ink, drybrush), apply oil paint, paint in eyes and gems. (This is the short version, if you want teh long version, I can type that up as well, no sweat ;))

Ah, Contemptor... will be ordered soon! I've already got a kickass pose in my head where he comes stomping through a Striking Scorpion squad, muhahahaaaa!

@Brakkart: Cheers mate! Yeah, a bike squadron always sounded tempting. I even have 2 or three and an an attack bike. All old stuff, from when they first came out, and they're just basecoated.
Although I do like the general blocky look of the SM bikes, I always found them to have a bit too low ground clearance and poor maneuverability. If I can come up with a cooler design, I just might do that. Any ideas or examples are always welcome.

@BA83: Cheers for the cheer! :D

[Meph]

Proof that I haven't been sitting still! :) The tedious, tedious job of painting the parts black has been done so now I can move on the the slightly less tedious job of painting all the details in and applying the decals.
I've hit a snag though, my airbrush broke so I've been looking around to buy a new one, and an upgrade at that. I figure that after 4 years of suing a cheap one, I can move on to something better with a budget between 100-200 Euro. I've been going nuts with searching. So many brands and types. I'm definitely going for a dual action one, but I'm still on the fence if I should go gravity feed, or bottom feed... Also, what needle diameter.. choices choices! I'm looking for something not too small as I don't intend to go for ultra-fine airbrush work, but rather that can handle some volume and large surfaces as well as work in medium-to-fine detail, as well as being sturdy and easy to use. As it's going to be a respectable buy in terms of cash, I could use any suggestion and experience any of you guys had with the 'better' brands and types of airbrushes. I'm sure I'll be able to pick out something decent by myself but any positive experiences are welcome, such as ease of maintenance, simplicity of mechanics etc etc.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4991.JPG

[Brakkart]

Ah, Contemptor... will be ordered soon! I've already got a kickass pose in my head where he comes stomping through a Striking Scorpion squad, muhahahaaaa!

@Brakkart: Cheers mate! Yeah, a bike squadron always sounded tempting. I even have 2 or three and an an attack bike. All old stuff, from when they first came out, and they're just basecoated.
Although I do like the general blocky look of the SM bikes, I always found them to have a bit too low ground clearance and poor maneuverability. If I can come up with a cooler design, I just might do that. Any ideas or examples are always welcome.

Ohh looking forward to seeing what you can do with a Contemptor! Hoping to get myself a 2nd one (think I'll go for the Relic body this time) and a lot more weapon arms soon. And the missile launcher is a must have!

As for bikes, I've got a couple Attack Bikes and a trio of bikers at the moment, all the newer plastic kits which while nice and solid looking, I have to agree about the ground clearance. I lack any decent conversion skills though, but looking at them other than lengthening the front prongs a bit I can't see any good remedy for that particular problem, but that might make them look a bit... well... Orkish!

Your Land Speeders are looking nice, never been a fan of them really, bought myself a Land Speeder Storm like 2 years ago and it's still only base coated.

[bloodangel 83]

Your speeders look good cannot wait to see them finished. BA83

[Emerald Rose Widow]

I noticed you tape off a lot of stuff for painting, do you use a spray can for it or do you airbrush.

[Meph]

@Brakkart: Yeah, the bikes need a whole redesign in my book. I do feel the Scout bikes look better though, they have a more off-roady feel to them.
And the Contemptor has arrived! Now just the Striking Scorpions and I can start converting. :D

@BA83: Cheers mate! :D

@ERW: Well, the black undercoat is from a can but the basecoat is sprayed on using the GW gun. In the end both masking tape and masking fluids can be used with spray cans or airbrushes, no problem.

[Meph]

Pwogwess!
Also, some goodies have arrived. I present to you a hunter and its prey. The plan is to have the dreadnought look like he just charged into a failed ambush. one Striking Scorpion impaled on his Assault Cannon bayonette (oh yeah, I'm going there ^^), one SR crunched in his power fist like a rag doll, and one being kicked in the chest so hard he breaks double over the foot. :D
That project will slowly start as well, but finishing the painting takes priority atm.

The detail painting is going well as well, the gold/bronze is painted in, the Vallejo Aluminium that makes a great silver, a few red metallic blood drops and I drybrushed bolt Gun metal on the other to-be metallic parts. The engines were first drybrushed in my bronze mix and some parts received a secon drybrush with BG metal.

Onwards & upwards!

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4992.JPG

[Snyderson]

Hey Meph!
Everytime I look in your thread I realize how negelcting I am to my little toy soldiers... :(
You are doing such amazing work! Keep working on my guiltyness, I hope beeing able to work on my army the next holidays! :)
Cheers Mate!
Sny

[Meph]

Cheers, mate!
There's no pressure like peer-pressure! :D

[DrLove42]

Why kill Eldar :( ;). What did we do to deserve such hatred

Love the Contemptor, not even a marine player and I want one just to build. Look forward what it will look like with your considerable skills!

[Meph]

lol, well Eldar are actually my secondary army. I'm a huge, huge fan of the designs although I haven't bought a new model for that army in over 10 years. ^^

[Meph]

Well, luckily it wasn't Finecrap, sadly it was Failcast... there was a whole frickin' model missing! Luckily the mold lines are naturally rounded off so it's clearly a miscast and not a dodgy employee with clippers. :)
I ordered the box from Waylandgames.co.uk , which was waaaaay cheaper than ordering from GW directly and they swiftly asked me to send it back, refund the shipping costs and get me a new box out. Two thumbs up for their service, let's just hope it gets here faster than the 3-4 weeks it took for them to ship out the first box...

And for the rest, no progress, more excuses! Some more goodies arrived, a large scantly clad female (w00h00!) and my new airbrush. I just love the way that gunmetal airbrush looks awesome and would look nicely assorted with my car in case the dash board would have an airbursh mount. ^^
I can't wait to give that brush a blast of air. But first things first, now that I'm back from a short vacation I can get back to painting. The mates and me had our annual 4-day gaming weekend in a house in the middle of nowhere for which i had to prepare and GM a 3-day Shadowrun adventure. We had a blast but the prepping ate all my painting time.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Land_Raiders/BA/IMG_4997.JPG

[eldargal]

Best miscast ever, lol. See, if you had contacted GW with that issue that would probably have sent you out a new sprue for free.:p

[Meph]

Yarrr! I should've done that indeed! Good thinking Eldargal, I'm remembering that for next time it happens. :D

[TemplaR_Omega]

I must say this is an amazing army so far. The models you've painted look exquisite, very well done! When I get a job ( lol ) I'll be starting my 40k back up and probably Blood Angels so thank you for being an inspiration!

-Omega.