# "Knowledge is power" - Blood Ravens log!



## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Hello everyone! 

I traded my space wolves for about twice as many marines in points, and quadruple the amount in models! I thought I would paint them up as Blood Ravens.

The goal is a decent tabletop standard, and really make them look like Blood Ravens in dawn of war...

I finished my first squad today, and it took me a total of about 6 hours for all of them, and I'm pretty happy with the result!


































Hope you like them! I'll do over 65 of these bad boys! So it's a lot of models that need to be painted!


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## Salio (Mar 29, 2009)

Very cool! I like the subtle battle damage. Honestly, i would line in the metal chips with black to make them stand out a little more and give them some more depth. Just my 2 cents. Anyways, lookin' good! Excited to see more.


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

Hey Wathier, Great job so far man. Really like the weathered look you have given you Marines. As a recommendation I would have to agree with Salio with the black lining. Its easy to do, just add black where you want the damage then fill in with boltgun metal. It adds a great deal of depth to the model and increases the weathering/damage effect 10 fold. I only say this because I did the same thing at one time with my Krieg and once added the black followed by the metal it made them look much better. You can check out some pics in my log, if interested in how it looks. 

Anyways, awesome job mate looking forward to seeing this develope!

Edit...One more thing I noticed and if you don't mind...I would also recommend drilling out the bolters, adds more realism to the model. Just my two cents.


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Thanks guys! I actually thought about the blacklining, and chose not to use it. Looking at the guys in DoW, the battledamage and chipping is very subtle, and i chose to keep it that way. Sure, it would add a lot of depth, but I don't want the focus of the models initiate appearance should be on the weathering, more on the red and the chapter badge. 

Reference:









As you can see, it quite subtle, and the goal was something similar, which I think I managed to do pretty well...

Edit: Drilling out the bolters is maybe something I'll go back and do later. As I said in the above post, I'm speedpainting the guys. 30-40 min is my version of speedpainting, and the army as a whole is supposed to look good, not individual models, that's not what the paintjob is designed for


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## BrotherTearz (Dec 20, 2010)

I am loving the smooth layers you have put down on these models, I also love the way you have decided to do a moderate weathering effect, keep up the good work.


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## Legiomortis (Jun 11, 2011)

Nice, simple, clean, effective - nothing else to say really other than an excellent job, looking forwards to seeing more


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Nice work mate! I agree with DoE and Salio in their comments but I recognize you are going for a certain theme. Good work all in all.


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Working on my second tactical squad I suddenly got the urge to paint tanks...so I panted two at once! My first tac squad finished, and the second one only got the bases left, I decided that it was a good idea to paint their rhinos...

Took me about 45 minutes per rhino all in all. And I'm pretty happy with the end result! It's an okay tabletop standard for me!

Enough talking! Pictures!!!!

































"Yes! We approve! This transport looks good enough! Nice paintjob for only 35 points" - That's what squad sergant Dromadus told me.:laugh:

Hope you like them!


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## Viscount Vash (Jan 3, 2007)

Nice and tidy army.

Loving the clumped snow on the Rhinos, bit clean but very effective.


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

Wathier said:


> Took me about 45 minutes per rhino all in all. And I'm pretty happy with the end result! It's an okay tabletop standard for me!!


Ummm Want to paint some of my tanks? LOL...J/K...but damn, wish I could pop out a tank in 45 mins. They look great as well. Good Job man!

Hope I get the itch to paint some tanks...as for now, it's infantry!

Regards,
DoE


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Thanks for the feedback! 

The snow is a bit clean, yes, but since out Gaming group has a frozen battlefield (Yeah, like Siberia (Russia) frozen) it doesn't really come much dirt on the tanks, just snow clogging in the tracks. It took inspiration from Swedish tanks during winter in northland. There they get a lot of clean snow, since all mud and dirt is frozen solid more or less!

Got the bases finished on my second squad and took some pics:


























The terminators are primed and ready for paint! I'll paint them later tonight!

This is sooooo much fun! Producing quickly!:chuffed:


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Terminators ready!

































I'm sitting here thinking about my Gabriel Angelos conversion. I decided to make hin as chapter master instead of commander, so he'll be the post retribution version. 

I already collected a two handed daemonhammer, and I'll use stuff from the commander-box for the rest of the upper body. In the ending for blood ravens, it looks like he's got his bionic legs covered with robes, so I was thinking about using some dark angels robed legs for him. Total bionic legs is not really an option, since I think it would look tacky...
About the head...his head is half bionic, and I was thinking about using the half bionic head in the SM box for him, and greenstuffing some hair for the "fleshy" parts of his head. The bionics are unfortunatley, on the right side of the face in the ending in retribution, but on the model it's the left side...anyone know of a better idea to symbolize the bionics on gabriel? Or will it work even though the bionics are on the "wrong side" of his face?

Any ideas welcomed!


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## Legiomortis (Jun 11, 2011)

Theres the chaplain with crozius model found here, you could easily remodel the arms I guess and he has enough iconography.

Or you could use this guy here and model a bionic eye using some green stuff to place over the top facial area and add the bionic lens.

These guys here offer great 
options for bionic parts to kitbash.

Another great model here, and he holds a fantastic *victory/rallying* pose, you could remodel the crozius to the hammer with ease.

Just some models I think hold the closest you can get for our man Gabriel. Hope that helpsk:


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Looking great dude! Nice sharp outlines, good weathering and propper deep shading. Me gusta! +rep


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Thank you fot the tips Legiomortis (+rep)! I didn't really think that any of them fitted the Angelos in the ending in redemption, so I made bionics in greenstuff instead, and it turned out exactly like they pictured him there (almost).

I finished my Librarian as well. I hated his bare head (Looked too babyfaced), plus, I don't like the fact that they remove their helmets (it's just dumb), so...I put on a helmet on him!

It's not a finecast model, it's good old metal, so it took some effort to get it right, but I think at least now I got a Librarian who looks pretty kicka**!

The painting on this dude was pretty slow. He's got a LOT of small details, and I think it took me about 6 hours from start to finish!

Here he is (Pictures are not very good however):

















Hope you like him!


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## greenee22 (May 12, 2011)

i like him, and the red contrasts very well with the snow


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

You did a great job with the head conversion! Plus the paint job you did on him is super.

Again, great work...keep it up!

Regards,
DoE


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

These are awesome, very nice for just being "table top" As others have pointed out there are some thing to make them pop a bit more. One thing I have seen is you chip the red but a lot of the other colors seem to be lacking in any type of battle damage.


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## scscofield (May 23, 2011)

That head conversion on the libby is pretty much exactly what I am thinking about doing when my finecast version finally arrives.


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## Tedathalan (Jun 20, 2011)

This is some truly awesome work. They really look game-accurate to me!
Question, what did you use to base the snow? I'm thinking of copying your style for that.


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Hello again everyone! It's been a while since I last updated my painting log! Not much has happened actually! I started work as a security guard and it's been mostly work, work and work the last few weeks!

Today I'm back on track though! I converted and started painting gabriel angelos today, and I think he'll be finished tomorrow or on friday!

Here he is, very much WIP:









I'm doing him after retribution, as a chapter master, and this is my reference:









Hope you like him so far! He's not nearly done, and I've got a lot of highlights that need to come in, and some shading as well...

Thanks for all the comments so far! You're far too kind!


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

"I know I cannot serve the chapter in the same manner as before....But you, Gabriel...Chapter master is fitting! None shall find you wanting!" - Apollo Diomedes


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

Great job mate, and the mace looks much much better now! 

Have some Rep for a job well done!

Regards,
DoE


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## tau112 (Jun 30, 2010)

:shok: Just AMAZING I really like them!:shok:


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## The Sullen One (Nov 9, 2008)

Stunning work mate. Your battle damage is a brilliant feature of the models and your conversions are nice and subtle.


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## InquisitorTidusSolomon (Mar 7, 2009)

Brilliant work here, mate. Definitely gonna be following this. Have some rep.


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## D-A-C (Sep 21, 2010)

I have to say, your army is looking awesome, I especially love the tone of red you've used.

Looks really great, keep up the good work!!!


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## Masstadon (Jan 18, 2009)

this is absolutely fantastic! ive been wanting to do a blood ravens army for quite some time but the icons is kinda what would hold me back. how do you do them?! awesome work!! :victory:


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Thank you so much everybody! To get that kind of feedback for something you've painted is really warming and inspiring! I'm truly happy that you like my army!

Next up is Gabriels "honour guard". Since I play him as a normal captain it will be a command squad. It will consist of 1 apothecary and 4 veterans in white beaky helmets, all with stormshields and meltaguns! I found some old Empire shields which I'll file down the details from to get an awesome rounded shield perfect for the chapter badge to fit on, with a black trim around it! I think it will look pretty impressive! Real shock troopers armed for the heavyest stuff you can imagine!

In my gaming group I often play against terminator/tank heavy armies with a lot of multi wound models (draigowing) and high thoughness (deathguard themed chaos) so a command squad that can take a punch and at the same time give one is crucial for my army right now, since it's mostly vanilla all the way through.

The chapter badges are from the forgeworld transfer sheet! I ordered one and it's really, really nice to work with! It looks really good when applied correctly!


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Command squad/Honour guard done:









C & C Welcomed!


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## ownzu (Jul 11, 2010)

very nice,always liked this chapter and you pull em off pretty good,+rep to you m8


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Dreadnought done!

Reference:









Result:


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

You forgot the roman numerial II on the front right side =P

Just given you some crap =) 

Great Dreadnaught man and nice stack of Magic cards...lol!


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## torealis (Dec 27, 2006)

Wow. beautiful painting mate!


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## hungryugolino (Sep 12, 2009)

How'd you do this scheme? Nice models, too.


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## forkmaster (Jan 2, 2010)

Holy shit dude, talk about doing a great job here.


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

It's been quite some time since I painted or played 40k!

This weekend I was on short notice invited to a 40k tournament and I decided to enter. I basically got my @$$ whopped, so I decided to make some changes in my army list and get back on the horse!

I took some new pictures with my wife's cam that better show the things that are painted at the moment:


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## Red Corsairs (Jun 8, 2008)

Great painting Wathier, especially with the effects on that thunderhammer. The head swap on the Librarian in Terminator armour is so simple yet makes such a difference. He looks really cool k:


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

continued post:

























I decided to run them with blood angels rules, use Gabriel as mephiston and his commandsquad as honour guards, then go with the rest approx. like the previous SM list I had - to give it a little bit more edge...


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Red Corsairs said:


> Great painting Wathier, especially with the effects on that thunderhammer. The head swap on the Librarian in Terminator armour is so simple yet makes such a difference. He looks really cool k:



Thank you very much!


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## Minizke1 (Feb 7, 2010)

I literally JUST found this...and DAMN. That's a nice army. I love your conversion work, especially on Angelos. Keep it up, this is fantastic stuff!


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

That is a great looking army. Very characterful.


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

Wathier I love the thunder hammer too, as well as everything else 

If I was to pick holes I would personally put some smaller scrapes on him, like mad matt does with his BT. Imho it should compliment the larger scratches


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

With 6th ed incoming I'll get on with the 40k again. In 6th ed there doesn't seem to be a big focus on having everything mechanized, which I think is nice! All the tanks and stuff really set me off so now I'll try again - this time with minimal amount of tanks. I also like the new allies rules, which make it possible for me to have some allied units - like in DoW - Grey knights. I'll be using Chapter master Gabriel as a grand master grey knight w. daemonhammer and a retinue of GK terminators - since the SM chapter master isn't enough for this awesome character (My opinion). The GK grand master rule with daemonhammer more represent the awesomeness of Angelos. The only problem is that he doesn't wear Terminator armour, but he has artificer armour and iron halo on the model and with some slow bionics he can clearly count as having a terminator armour.

The list will probably be something like this:

Terminator Librarian 125 pts - Painted

Gabriel Angelos (GK grand master) 185pts - Painted but need a bigger base.
Master crafted daemonhammer

5x Grey knight terminators 225 pts - Not painted yet
Psycannon

5x Terminator squad 230 pts - Painted
CML

10x Tac. squad 200 pts - Painted
Melta, ML, PF

10x Tac. squad 200 pts - Painted
Melta, ML, PF

5x Scouts 100pts - Not painted yet
Snipers, camo

Dreadnought 145pts - Painted
Lascannon, ML

5x devastators 230 pts - Not painted
4xlascannon

6x devastators 206 pts - Not painted
4xplasmacannons

Vindicator 150pts - Not painted
Siegeshield, extra armour, storm bolter

1996 pts, 50 models

It's a casual list, so I'll just have some fun with it and hope it'll work. I have 2 defensive scoring units, 1 sneaky scoring and 1 really offensive scoring unit. 
the devs will be working closely with the tactical marines, and the scouts will be working on pinning units so the grey knights and the terminators can do a better job. The dread and vindicator will focus on big stuff and punching holes in the enemy lines.

I'm getting married this week and after that I'll spend a week in Rome, after that I'll start the painting and post some pictures!


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

I also saw now that some requested I'd tell you how I painted these, and what material I used on the bases...

It's really simple:

1. assemble space marines, leaving shoulder pads and bolter off the model.
2. Spray marine AP Dragon Red, shoulderpads white and bolters black.
3. Chip the edges of the red armour by painting mithril silver, paint eyes green and details gold.
4. Paint edges on shoulder pads black
5. paint metal on the boltgun
6. assemble model
7. Wash model with army painter dark shade
8. Apply forge world transfers with water, blow dryer and gloss varnish.
9. Base with GW sand, paint shadow grey, overbrush white, apply patches of GW snow with PVA glue
10. Spray with anti shine matt varnish

Done!


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## Deus Mortis (Jun 20, 2009)

Wathier said:


> I finished my Librarian as well. I hated his bare head (Looked too babyfaced), plus, I don't like the fact that they remove their helmets (it's just dumb), so...I put on a helmet on him!


Yes! I have exactly the same feeling about bare-headed models. Most annoying things when SM terminators chose not to wear the best helmets the galaxy has to offer and leave their soft brain exposed for a pot-shot. 

I was planning to do a similar thing with a Grey Knight librarian. Can I ask how you got rid of the face/put a helmet on him?

Also, all the models here are great k:


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## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

Very nicely painted I have to say. I look forward to seeing more.


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Deus Mortis said:


> Yes! I have exactly the same feeling about bare-headed models. Most annoying things when SM terminators chose not to wear the best helmets the galaxy has to offer and leave their soft brain exposed for a pot-shot.
> 
> I was planning to do a similar thing with a Grey Knight librarian. Can I ask how you got rid of the face/put a helmet on him?
> 
> Also, all the models here are great k:


I'm a reenactor/LARPer as well, and i NEVER go into a fight without my 12 gauge spangen helmet with cheek guards - the risk of getting shot/hit in the head is pretty large even if we don't intentionally try to hit one another in the head. Well- trained Space Marines should know that the most important equippment after his bolter is his helmet in battle. A shot or two through the brain will probably kill even a marine. A shot in any other bodypart will probably just be annoying and painfull!:wink:

I put the helmet on the librarian simply by cutting off the face with a knife, and cut off pieces on the back of the terminator helmet untill I was satisfied with the fit! Easy peasy!


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Okay, I'm back painting again on my Ravens. Have had about a years absence from wargaming but I'm back! Right now there are 12 Sternguard and 7 Devastators washed and waiting to dry. And since I decided to go with Pedro Kantor (Apollo Diomedes) as my commander I also decided to upgrade my tactial marines to Tactical sternguard...I also decided that I should raise my painting standard a bit so I went back and did some highlights and stuff on 2 models to see how i looked...I'm pretty pleased so I think I'll do it on my whole army! First I go for "tabletop quality" like my previous standard to get everything painted in a reasonable amount of time. Then I can go back and spend some time on individual models and raise the standard!

Anyway, here are the results:

After/before









Sideshot:









Backshot:









Frontshot:


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Just finished these:


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Some better pictures of my finished stuff:

Sternguard









Devastator squad









Librarian and Terminators









Chapter master Gabriel w. Command









Dreadnought









Sternguard w. Rhino


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

ooooo I like

Where are the shields from?


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Just some old fantasy empire shields my friend had lying around!


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## Lethiathan (Nov 11, 2011)

How'd you do the white?


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Right now I have two different whites. The sternguard helmets are the "upgraded" clean version but only have one more step than the other more "dirty" whites!

This is how I paint the white:

1. white basecoat
2. wash with 1 part acrylic medium and 1 part army painter wash "dark shade" (Yes, the wash, not the dip)
(Sternguard helmets upgrade step 3. Hightlight with ceramite white)

That's it! Really fast and simple!


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

It's not recorded who got to take command over the 3rd company after Gabriel Angelos became chapter master, but since he still got Apollo Diomedes loyal to him, I imagine that he's the one who got to take command over the 3rd company - still working closely with the 1st comany. 

















He's still a work in progress, but it's what I had time for this sunday night! It's been a while since I took time to actually care about a chatacter. There are still some finishing touches to make, and transfers to apply, but over all I'm pretty pleased with him. Made him a bit more "clean" than the rest...Apollo is, after all...a big friggin' diva


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Paint and shading look nice and they all go well together. 

Not to gripes. Mold lines.... Kills a good paint job. 
Drill out barrels, adds a lot to a model. 
Why are most of your Marines looking at the ground? 

All in all a very nice above tabletop that needs just a little more to push it up in quality.


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Djinn I was planning on drilling out the bolters, but....the mould lines...which ones do you mean and on which models? Because I can't see any obvious mould lines...


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Oh, and, btw! They're looking "down" because they're supposed to look angry with killer instinct. When you're angry in a concentrated way you often look "through your eyebrows".. If you look at some of the artwork the marines are often doing this to look more intimidating...


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## alasdair (Jun 11, 2009)

Lovely work so far, I wish I could paint marines to anywhere near the standard you do!

I demand a full army shot! :grin:


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

alasdair said:


> Lovely work so far, I wish I could paint marines to anywhere near the standard you do!
> 
> I demand a full army shot! :grin:


Thank you! Your demand will be met! I just need to figure out how to make them all fit into one photo! It will be done soon enough though! :victory:


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## zxyogi (Dec 7, 2009)

Very nice very very nice!


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Somewhat bad pictures because I took them with my iphone but I'll show them to you anyway:

Apollo:

























I needed some heavy flamers for my sternguard so:









And I upgraded the painting somewhat on my terminators:


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Saw now that the chest eagle on the terminator sgt isn't finished. It is now though! Sometimes it takes pictures to see such obvious things! :-D


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## Dragblud da scrunka (Mar 26, 2009)

Damn theres some great minis there! nice colours, make me wanna play DoW again! The termi armour is nice i like the highlights on it. The sternguard heavy flamers rock too :B And apollo is just rockin' !


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## Wathier (May 1, 2011)

Thanks man! Glad you like it! Whenever I need inspiration I just play some DoW och DoW II or any of the expansions and I just can't keep my hands from the brushes! Quite handy actually!


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