# Never Trust a Wizard's Blood Angel Project Log



## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Yes yes! This is where it starts. I got back in to the hobby about a year and a half ago now. Been plugging away at my BA's, got about 2k painted and I figure it's about time I get posting this stuff. I'm killing time at work currently, so the first guy up is the Captain I made out of an old DC model combined with chopped up metal terminator arms and Dante's jump pack (only picture on my phone). The old paint job was stripped and I reassembled him in the same position I had when I built the dude at age 11 or something. He was the first model I painted using the new reds when they came out last year, previously I had only painted a tactical squad and their rhino/razorback with the old Mephiston/Blood reds. He's not even a model that I field in my army normally, eventually he may become the sergeant in a Vanguard squad. One of my earliest attempts at getting back in to painting, and I think it went pretty well.










I've got a bunch more stuff to post, but it will have to wait until I get home and start up taking some nicer pics. I'm not super into basing, but I give them a bit of texture and paint (grey astrogranite washed delvan mud and drybrushed atronomicon). I'm about to get a trench table made up by the same guy that made a friend's table, so I'm waiting on that to weather/base my guys in a more appealing way. Figured if I have a themed table at home I may as well make my army match, right?

Questions, comments and criticisms are all welcome! I'd love to get some feedback on ways to improve.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Just happened to have my old Lemartez model that I painted up shortly after the above captain as well. I will try to keep my posts in chronological order. Personally, I think I have improved a lot over the last year, but I will let you all be the judges of that.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Here's my Baal Predator. No highlighting has been done on my tanks yet really as I'm waiting on that table to do weathering on them to match. I might take my drybrush to it one day...










some scouts:










I will be working on my picture taking skills. These are all (kind of obviously) done with my phone. Sometimes I wonder how I can paint at all with these shaky hands.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

The last thing I was painting before I moved. It's still not done, but I remembered to take pictures as I went. This guy will definitely be first on the list to be completed once I start painting again!


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## Sethis (Jun 4, 2009)

Nice effect on the claws, good tabletop standard for everything else. I'm sure the army looks badass all together!


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

Oh... thats what NTAW means...

Nice paintjobs dude!!!


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Thanks man! I've been trying to get cleaner lines in my work, those claws I felt I did a better job on than other power weapons I've tackled. I'm not exactly a flashy painter, just try my best to recreate what the chapter looks like in the 'dex.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

JAMOB said:


> thats what NTAW means...


Yup. It's my band's name, just use the initials as my username for most things. Thanks for checking out my work!


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

I looked you guys up, not bad!
Not really my style of music but I like it. Oh, and that dread is freakin sick dude. Thought I'd throw that in...


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

On the standard model I would suggest adding in more of a color break, make the belt black and silver etc. Few places you should go back and touch up some, make not a little neater. Devlan Mud is your friend, great start though.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

djinn24 said:


> On the standard model I would suggest adding in more of a color break, make the belt black and silver


Good idea, I will try that on the next squad I do.



JAMOB said:


> Not really my style of music but I like it.


We get that a lot, hahaha. Thanks for taking an interest! I will be finishing that dreadnought likely in the next couple weeks. Just about done with setting up/painting after moving at the beginning of the month, so more new stuff soon-ish!

Until then, this is probably the best of the seven Death Company dudes I have painted. They were the squad I painted after my first tactical squad, so there was still a lot of learning going on. 




























And here's my storm raven, which was a terrible amount of red paint. Next one is Death Company FOR SURE:


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

I love your models! You're a good painter 

I have a question:
How did you get the whites on the Dreadnought? (The wings on both sides of his front side for example)

And how did you get the bone effect?

Thanks!


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

JAMOB said:


> Oh... thats what NTAW means...
> 
> Nice paintjobs dude!!!


+1 to both :grin:!


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Viciator said:


> I love your models! You're a good painter
> 
> I have a question:
> How did you get the whites on the Dreadnought? (The wings on both sides of his front side for example)
> ...


Thanks man!

Because I base my models black, white takes a few coats. Watered down and applied in layers, letting it dry (mostly) in between layers so that I am not just pushing the paint around and can thicken the areas that are lacking. Then it's a patient black wash, making sure I get the shadows looking right the first time through. Occasionally I will go back and darken an area, but that usually is visible to my eye so I try really hard to get it in one go. Then I just do white drybrushed on highlights and bam.

Same technique with the bone, except with bleached bone and devlan mud. The scrolls I do with dheneb stone (or however it's spelt) and devlan mud, both colours are just highlighted with themselves after the wash.



Magpie_Oz said:


> +1 to both !


Thanks Magpie! :victory:


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## Lipsidius1 (Apr 24, 2011)

Very nice paint job on your models. I too have a BA army of about 20K in points (give or take) of which about half is painted well enough to look decent on the table.

I've been playing now for about 5 years and appreciate yours, Magpie's and a few others' comments and ideas in many of the posts.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Lipsidius1 said:


> I've been playing now for about 5 years and appreciate yours, Magpie's and a few others' comments and ideas in many of the posts.


Thanks man! Sorry to let that slip through the cracks for a _month_. Jeeze, I need to get back to painting.

My camera's actually broken, but I have been working on some models recently. Mainly, hand swapping a storm shield onto my terminator librarian and making a sweet Crozius Arcanum for my Reclusiarch model. As soon as my camera is fixed this is getting an update.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Holy crap! I have indeed painted a few models up, this page sorely needs an update. Lets start with the newest special weapon marine I painted up!










I followed the GW method of painting, though I'm not really into line highlighting the way they show in their fancy 'How to Paint Citadel Miniatures' book. The things I have tried to incorporate are: more thinned out paints, highlighting basically at all, and just generally trying harder.

Thinning out my paints more: I've gotten a lot closer to 50/50, and it's presenting new challenges and showing me new benefits all the time. More coats = more time, but a better outcome.

Highlighting: well...this will take more time. I've never really done more than drybrush my Stormraven and a couple of guys in an assault squad. this time I tried what seemed to me like a bastardized version of wet blending. The picture isn't super great, but hopefully you can make out that I did indeed spend a while doing the two layer colours.

This guy in general didn't turn out as dead red as my previous attempts came, but I like him a lot nonetheless. I've got another few models already worked up the same way as this guy, but will try and tone down my highlights to preserve the deep red that they were before I pinked him up.

More soon!!

OH! and I really want him to look like he's got mud on his feet since my trench table is all about the mud and that's what I want my models to look best on. Home court advantage and all. Does it just look like I've slopped paint on his feet??

Hope you enjoy!


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

I like the red mate, because the mud is kinda glossy it looks ok, I would strongly recommend the sponge method or weathering though, I've found it very easy and effective


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

Really liking that mud... the model is nice too. Post the rest!


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Hellados said:


> like the red mate, because the mud is kinda glossy it looks ok, I would strongly recommend the sponge method or weathering though, I've found it very easy and effective


Glad to hear it! I was worried about it being too...I don't know. Not red?

The sponge method, eh? Would that work JUST on the feet? I've never tried weathering at all before. The wet-ness comes from that there's likely 8 colours on that base with washes in between them from me fervently trying to recreate the look of the table I have. I'm close...



JAMOB said:


> Really liking that mud... the model is nice too.


It was my first go! I'm actually using one of the old Snakebite Leather hex-bottle white topped push up lid paints that is somehow miraculously around from when I was 10 and in to this game. Still got the way old Blood Angels Red too that I use for the occasional highlight (all over my Stormraven). I need to go up one more shade of brown to get to the table's highlights, but that's the most accurate I've gotten the mud colour yet.

What do you even add to brown to make it lighter??? White doesn't seem to cut it.



JAMOB said:


> Post the rest!


There is a serious photo shoot coming up. This thread has a bunch of pictures of my army on table and even in-game, but I didn't have the light to get good individual shots.

Very soon.


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

Yeah the sponge method would work, you'll have to tear a tiny bit off and hold it with some tweezers (at least that's what I do)

I would use a cream to lighten brown, Bleached Bone or Ushabti Bone

AH HA I was wondering where ntaws BAs were


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Hellados said:


> I would use a cream to lighten brown, Bleached Bone or Ushabti Bone


I was thinking that myself. It's actually how I did the scroll on his shoulderpad: Zandri Dust, Ushabti Bone, Screaming skull, White then toned it down with Agrax Earthshade. It's the same way I paint bone, but it's all about how much of the base you let show through I suppose. For bone I'd use Seraphim Sepia as a wash though.

The base is done entirely with old paints, various releases. If I did the bone colour I'd have to do a Sepia wash I think. The colour on my table is just so...odd...and kinda red...but not...ugh.



Hellados said:


> AH HA I was wondering where ntaws BAs were


I almost want to invite my friend with a fancy camera over to take pictures. This far everything has been done with a phone. Depending on the prevailing light when I get home tonight I'm at least going to try and get some nice squad shots.

Total painted:

Captain w/jump pack and LC's
old Lemartez w/jump pack
DA model converted to a Reclusiarch (still needs to get his arms done since the swap)
10 man tactical squad (ML/MM options and PG/MG options)
7 man Death Company
10 man assault squad (no jump packs)
2 Rhino/Razorbacks
Land Raider
Baal Predator
Stormraven
Furioso dreadnought w/Talons
5 man sniper scout squad

Currently working on:
5 man assault squad
flamer marines for use with the assault squad
going back and highlighting all my vehicles (aside from the SR)
redoing all my bases from grey to mud
detail work on my ADL that had it's base colours painted by the dude that did my table for synchronicity

Things to go:
LR Redemmer/Crusader
Stormraven
Assault Terminators
Drop Pod
MM/PF Dreadnought
Terminator Librarian w/Storm Shield

+a bunch of marines in various states of being stripped down and redone in better ways. Hoping to flesh out my currently 5 man assault squad among other things. A lot of them might end up green for use in a DA army. Not sure. My third LRC/R is definitely being painted Deathwing when I get around to it.

A lot of work? I dunno...let's add in my 500 point Necron army, and the Dark Vengeance stuff...jeeze.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Here's a nice little action shot of my assault squad just before they drew first blood on a Leman Russ battle tank. Oh, how that drop pod must be painted...










I think I need to go back and do a bit more nuln oil in the recesses, and then bring the highlights up a bit on some of the top surfaces. That drop pod is getting done up as soon as I'm finished the last of the foot troops for my 1500 point list.

Since I'm focusing on getting this list done, this is what it is:

HQ

Reclusiarch - jump pack PAINTED

ELITES

Furioso - BT, HF (mostly) PAINTED ....I still need to do the highlights and base, but aside from that this one's pretty done.

TROOPS

10 man RAS - 2x MG, PF, DP squad PAINTED, drop pod primed

5 man RAS - MG, PS bases, highlights and washes yet to be done

2x 5 man Tactical Squads - RB w/TLHB PAINTED ...with the exception of two models and the highlights on the tanks

5 man Scout Squad - snipers, ML, camo PAINTED

HEAVY SUPPORT

Predator - LC sponsons, AC turret 1 COAT OF RED

Stormraven - TLLC, TLMM, HB PAINTED ...with the exception of the Hurricane Bolters

FORTIFICATION

ADL w/Quad Gun BASED, AWAITING DETAIL WORK


This list is 3-0 right now, and all of them were pretty solid wins. One of them was downright abusive. 

SOON!!


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

3-0 that's impressive, doesn't seem like a very fluffy list but sweet!!

Gl with the painting an I agree with the washes then hi lights, I hate to say it but they do seem a bit flat


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

They look really nice in the tabletop. That deep red reminds me of the old GW scheme.


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## Romero's Own (Apr 10, 2012)

Good job and it's really nice to see a painter progressing and improving thanks to feedback from other members. Keep it up

Have a gold star.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Hellados said:


> 3-0 that's impressive, doesn't seem like a very fluffy list but sweet!!
> 
> Gl with the painting an I agree with the washes then hi lights, I hate to say it but they do seem a bit flat


Thanks! I was surprised that it went so well for the list but then bam. Ran my buddy off the table. That picture has a bit of shine to it, but yeah. They were painted when I used to do the late late night sessions, so they were a bit rushed. Once everything is finished I'm going to go back and update the reds of any older models and do more shading and highlighting throughout.

I'm anxious to play the list again, next time against CSM. Two Heldrakes will be a whole lot different to deal with than the traitorous Guard I put down last time. Shame I just _have_ to go on vacation for a week, hahaha



Khorne's Fist said:


> They look really nice in the tabletop. That deep red reminds me of the old GW scheme.


Thanks! One day maybe I will get the Blood Angels back from my younger cousin that I painted when I was really young. That old red ink was so very red and glossy, I'd like to see the difference between that and this, since I'm still applying the same methods to my painting essentially. I'm just better at it now, I'd like to think :so_happy:



Romero's Own said:


> Good job and it's really nice to see a painter progressing and improving thanks to feedback from other members. Keep it up
> 
> Have a gold star.


Thanks man! I'm excited to go back over everything I've done once I finish the list up and apply the things that I've looked up online and that have been suggested to me here. I think it's going to make a big difference.


Now to get on finishing the 5 man RAS and maybe even the other three tactical marines before heading in to the studio...


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

This one isn't a painting update, though I have been chipping away at the last of the infantry for that 1500 point list (which is now 6-0, thank you very much :so_happy. This is a new captain I have been making up, both for this month's conversion competition and because having a power axe _and_ a power sword is a fun idea.

Some WIP on the arms, the PA one being made up of 3 different arms and the PS one made up of 2 (you can see a bunch of the JAS WIP blurry in the background as proof it's been happening :wink:










and here he is with arms sticky tacked roughly in place. I still have some work to do where the the axe haft meets his hand.










Chances are the infantry is going to be side lined for the Captain as he may also be entered into the painting challenge for good times. Those other marines are at the point where all I need to do is shade/highlight them, so not too much work is left. You'll be seeing them soon enough!


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Woo! Just got my Mephiston model in the mail and it was pretty rough. Took about an hour to clean (suspicious foreign "finecast" alert) because of how hard the resin is. I've manage to nook and cranny the crap out of the model, but his shoulder BA chapter badge was demolished due to an air bubble. When I contacted the seller they refunded my money so hey, free Mephiston model to mess with! This is my first attempt at using GS as something other than gap filler...though I suppose this is still filling a gap. I did my best at making the feathers, and I know that it ain't the prettiest job but I felt good about stopping where I did. Here it is:










Anyone have any thoughts on how to do this any better than what I've accomplished here?

EDIT: I went back at it before the GS dried. Broke the stupid skull top to his hood off as well, but that's already back on.










This I feel a lot better about. Still, any advice?


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

Looks good mate, trying to repair something like that is always going to be a real pain!


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Jacobite said:


> Looks good mate, trying to repair something like that is always going to be a real pain!


Thanks man! I decided that my job up there was TOTAL AND UTTER CRAP (haha not really, but yeah) so I scraped it up and cleaned out the shoulder underneath it to give me a smoother surface to deal with. As seen here:










...which was a bitch in and of itself. God damn. BUT!!!! Check out how much better this looks already:










I decided that I should do the two rows of feathers separately, even though it takes way longer. I was getting more than a little pissed off at screwing up the upper feathers as I was doing the lower ones. I really just used way too much GS the first time around, definitely finding it way easier to add the smallest amounts where I need it than cutting off the extra and reshaping what's left. I should be finishing this guy up maybe tonight after band practice. 


I'm beginning to get over my fear of air bubbles.


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## SSG.House (Jul 29, 2013)

Nice Job! I hope the repairs go well. 
Looking foreward to seeing more good things!


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

SSG.House said:


> Nice Job! I hope the repairs go well.


Thanks! Like I mentioned, this is my first attempt at any kind of sculpting so it's been f(rustraing)un! What I'm doing at this point is basically shaping little lumps then folding them over and trying to tighten up the lines. I found when I smoothed it out and cut the lines in it just wasn't looking 3D enough. I should be getting to the lower feathers soon, last night my hands were rocked after a 4 hour practice. Couldn't hold them steady to save my life! :laugh:



SSG.House said:


> Looking foreward to seeing more good things!


Woo! Just taking a moment to paint up some Necron Immortals for this month's painting deathmatch (cuz I needed something other than red paint happening) then I'm back on finishing a 10 man RAS. 6 out of 10 of them are totally finished basing, so there should be a little WIP pictures coming up soon. Then I'm torn between the drop pod I've been avoiding and Mephiston, who will be nuts to paint.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Here we have the full repaired shoulder pad:










Now on to bigger and redder things!


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

Well, I'll join the "Aha, that's what it means!" crowd. Based on your avatar, I just mentally associated the acronym with the sound of a string breaking or something, but... heh.

I look forward to seeing more as it comes along--and 6-0, that's impressive.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Very good work!


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Mossy Toes said:


> Well, I'll join the "Aha, that's what it means!" crowd.


You were pretty close with the string breaking sound. I've always thought NTaW kinda sounded like a weird bird call, and the band name relates to the hobby so BAM. Interwebz moniker.



Mossy Toes said:


> I look forward to seeing more as it comes along--and 6-0, that's impressive.


Thanks! ...oh, and make that 9-0-1 now. It's been retired in the friendly games as it just isn't fun winning with the same list over and over (not that it stopped the gloating, of course). I'm still working on getting it painted, and even if I shift goals I still basically need to get that stuff done for everything.



djinn24 said:


> Very good work!


Thanks man! All told with learning as I went that little bit of wing took me likely around 3 hours to make happen. It's nice to know that it doesn't look like an apple pie after Jason Biggs gets through with it :laugh:


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

This here's a little WIP of an assault marine that I finished today. WIP pics because I can't deal with how bad the lighting is in my apartment at night. I've gone way heavier into the shading this time around, this was taken before I went back over some edges with Mephiston Red and then up another notch with Wazdakka Red before finishing with a Bloodletter Glaze. Hopefully I will be home at the right time to get some decent shots of the way he turned out, but here's some of my revised Nuln Oil attack:










It's actually a lot darker than this looks. Been talking with the girlfriend about buying a camera to take pictures of our various art projects. Hopefully that turns into a better project log over here! I also bought another box of assault marines the other day, so there will be a sweet two hand flamer assault sergeant coming up. Stoked to try and find as badass a pose as two flame pistols should have!


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

aaaaaand here's the finished model. Seriously, next thing we buy is a camera. The green on the base is liquid green stuff, once painted the base will be muddy like the plasma gunner a page back or so.










EDIT: Something I have been really trying to figure out is if I want to paint/apply squad markings to these guys. Even worse than that...should I paint their helmets yellow for RAS, blue for devastators and gold for veterans? It seems like I should...but...at the same time I think it's kinda dumb. One day I may snap and redo some helmets but for now they are all staying red. Thoughts? Anyone out there care at all about the different BA helmet colours?


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

I tried it on some of my models (the painted helmets), and if done well I found it looks really good. On one squad (some foot sloggers) I did it horrible. It was obscenely bad. I tried to paint yellow on black but it looked horrible, so I decided maybe to try doing it over white instead and so painted on white then yellow and it came out super-thick. It looks good from far away though... Then I tried it on another squad and it came out ok on some of them, and I found I actually like the effect. Blue for devestators looks even better, as it adds some fantastic contrast and exemplifies their need to stay cool in battle and master their rage. I'm not sure how I feel about veterans, though... I've never really dealt with them.

Excellent model by the way, are there more along with it or is this a one at a time thing?


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

I don't think I've played Devastators in BA since Red Thirst meant you had to roll a D6 at the beginning of each turn and on a roll of 1 your squad had to move towards the nearest enemy (or something to that effect). I can't think of the edition, but it was when C:BA was addendum to C:SM and you needed both books to have all the rules. Back when Moriar was tearing faces off on the table top.

Here's the squad I'm currently working on:

the sergeant









melta gunner









and a little before/after shot of my base colours and then my shading and highlighting.









as always, criticisms and pointers are welcome.


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

Looks good man Keep it up.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

SwedeMarine said:


> Looks good man Keep it up.


Thanks! This is the MG marine with as good a picture as I think I'll get of the highlighting that I just did. Took it up to Wild Rider Red this time before doing a Bloodletter Glaze. I'm pretty modest with the highlights, as I want them do be a dark red. Are they showing up ok?


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

That was 3rd edition... good times  Yeah I stopped taking them then but restarted recently when I found my old models. Anyway, looking absolutely fantastic mate


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Looking good, only suggestion I would make is add a bit more highlights. Not the crazy shit GW does but just a bit higher on the higher points. Are you planning on adding additional colors on the shoulder pads?


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

JAMOB said:


> Anyway, looking absolutely fantastic mate


Thanks!



djinn24 said:


> Looking good, only suggestion I would make is add a bit more highlights. Not the crazy shit GW does but just a bit higher on the higher points. Are you planning on adding additional colors on the shoulder pads?


Point taken. My first one I didn't even go up to Wild Rider Red (which is more aptly an orange I'd say) so this was literally the first time I've taken it this far. The highlights are a lot more distinct than in that photo, in low light from a distance I can clearly see orange on the edges of things. I will keep it in mind as I'm kind of going for a zenith highlighting approach so I will make the top bits a bit lighter. The shoulders will get the BA decals once I bring myself to do it, but no other colours I don't think. Why do you ask?


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

ntaw said:


> The shoulders will get the BA decals once I bring myself to do it, but no other colours I don't think. Why do you ask?


It's a lot of red with no real break. Green is a good color to offer a break but there is not at of it and its pretty dark too. It's kinda like why I paint my gems on my Turquoise Eldar red.


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

Hmm, the skin on that sergeant looks awfully orange: is it the lighting? Also, I'd recommend painting the piping around the mouth and ankles on those guys that have it.


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

That is a wonderful red tone you have there, really nice work!


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

djinn24 said:


> It's a lot of red with no real break.


Even in the codex and on the GW site they're pretty darn red.










I do plan on painting their knee pads where applicable and applying squad markings there, and tactical sergeants get the blackened shoulder pads but no one else really. The units that aren't standard troops all have a lot of fancy crap on them, keeping these guys simple helps me to differentiate them on the table top as well. At a glance I know where the sergeant is (no helmet) or the Priest (white colours) or the Captain (gold bits). I feel like if I start actually painting the joints black as opposed to red then washing them black it will help, taking this bit of advice:



Mossy Toes said:


> Also, I'd recommend painting the piping around the mouth and ankles on those guys that have it.


and adding in the chapter and squad markings (including painting a knee pad black) will help things out. What do you think of that?



Mossy Toes said:


> Hmm, the skin on that sergeant looks awfully orange: is it the lighting?


It's that I'm still using the flesh coloured paint from the 3rd edition era paints. I was thoroughly saddened by the look of the Fleshtone wash over top of it, I typically did a Devlan Mud wash and it looked way better on other jobs. I think it's just time to update the paint collection with some flesh tones, yellows, and some lighter greens for edge highlighting.



Jacobite said:


> That is a wonderful red tone you have there, really nice work!


Thanks! It's been quite a work in progress. Currently, it's: 
black undercoat
Khorne Red
Mephiston Red
Nuln Oil
Mephiston Red - highlight
Wazdakka Red - highlight
Wild Rider Red - highlight
Bloodletter Glaze

I have the light orange 'dry' paint that GW says to finish with....but I strongly dislike it. Drybrushing isn't what I want to do to finish my highlights, and the consistency doesn't allow for you to take some out and water it down to make it more paintable. Right now I'm strongly considering ordering in the orange Edge paint to see if I can make that work. I've never been good at consistently mixing my own colours even when I write down the ratio, so I'm on buying every shade I need to maintain consistency. Lugganath Orange looks almost the damn same as Kindleflame, no?

Kindleflame:









Lugganath:


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

The newest member of the family, a fully magnetized Furioso/Fragioso/Libbynaught:










I have sticky tack glued under my fingernail.


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## The 13th (Jul 7, 2013)

Oh so you can magnetise the body as wel? I got told it couldn't be done. 

I'll have to give this a try with my next one


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

Nice work on the magnetising, are you going to do the paint scheme in such a way where it works for both types?


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

The 13th said:


> Oh so you can magnetise the body as wel? I got told it couldn't be done. I'll have to give this a try with my next one


Steady hands aside it was really easy. Just don't get the sticky tac you're holding onto your magnets with get into the super glue. If that happens, do not then proceed to try and pick the superglue off real quick with your fingernail. Just let it dry and cut it off with a knife later. Trust me on this one k: If you would like I can post pictures of what I did closer up, I didn't post my progress work because a Google search of 'magnetizing a furioso dreadnought' should get you the tutorial I followed with the exception of the guns mounted under the power fist.



Jacobite said:


> Nice work on the magnetising, are you going to do the paint scheme in such a way where it works for both types?


Thanks! The Libby is the same colour scheme as the Furioso, with the exception of the blue sarcophagus on the face plate that is now switchable. The Force Axe arm is all his so no worries there, and I'm thinking I can get away with keeping the PF arm neutral for if I ever wanted to run a BF Furioso instead of the typical BT one I love so much. They've done as much on their website, though I bet they don't need to worry about magnetizing. To be honest, unless Moriar comes back on the next version of the 'dex I won't be fielding a DC dread. AV13 means business compared to AV12 in my games.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

I painted up the captain that I entered into the conversion deathmatch (that tied for first for execution :yahoo for October's painting deathmatch. I feel like I went a little nuts with the colours, but this guy has WAY too much bling on him for me to know what to do with. Any comments or suggestions on how to get more out of all them fancy bits please feel free to comment with, I was a bit overwhelmed. And I did a LOT of it on the night of the 30th. Here he is:





































I feel like I should redo the BAAL on his shoulder pad, I was rushing and I can do a better B than that. I also feel like SANG on the backpack was pretty weak....but I was at a loss. Didn't want to leave it blank for the submission. Any suggestions on what I can write there??


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## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

Roman numerals of the Blood Angels' legion number?


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

^ I like that. Plus that will be easy as fuck compared to doing anything with a curve in the letter...

Why do I do _everything_ with a detail brush? I've never had a fine detail one last very long, and really aside from trying to do eyes...I tend to be able to cover up my mistakes from the previous layer with the newer one. Anyone else just use pretty much one brush for all things?


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

Nice work on the power weapons, I tried to do that once, didn't end well. As for using one brush, yeah... pretty much the same here. If it's not the base coat or dry brushing then I do tend to just use a detail brush.


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## InkedDnA (Jul 8, 2011)

Nice log man! It's cool to see you're skills progress throughout it! I'll definitely be following this one, as I too have a massive BA army....majority of them UNPAINTED  Looking forward to your next update.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Thanks dude! I haven't had a chance to do much painting since I finished the Captain, worked a bit on my Necron Lord but I'm at a loss as to where to go from where I am on him. I played a game last night and realized I need to finish painting up my jump squad. Some of them are not even primed and just looked so sad against my buddy's army. Even my guys who are just painted all red look better than grey or primed black when mixed in with models that are painted.

Plus I really want to paint my Priest, because he butchered some faces in the game yesterday. I played against a 2k army of IF and the guy brought 94 marines to the table...he had 4 left at the end of the game :biggrin:


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

Baddass mate  That's fantastic! I can never get my stuff painted...


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

ntaw said:


> ^ I like that. Plus that will be easy as fuck compared to doing anything with a curve in the letter...
> 
> Why do I do _everything_ with a detail brush? I've never had a fine detail one last very long, and really aside from trying to do eyes...I tend to be able to cover up my mistakes from the previous layer with the newer one. Anyone else just use pretty much one brush for all things?


Need to get yourself one of these Mate.









They have made ymLife ten times easier and come in several different colors. Really Useful for Script on armor or elsewhere.


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## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

ntaw said:


> Even my guys who are just painted all red look better than grey or primed black when mixed in with models that are painted.


I have an adversarial ork army that I painted half of and sprayed the other half. One day I'll paint them up, but they are... passable with the green and black spray coats the unpainted half have. So many projects.

Aside,

My god swede... what is that thing?


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

Iraqiel said:


> Aside,
> 
> My god swede... what is that thing?


It is a Mircon Brush pen The first one is the set i have but i have met others that swear by the small fine tip felt pens (of which i am very likely investing in a set.)These make small detail scroll work and fine writing much easier (although you still need a steady hand) plus the fact that they come in several different colors they can be a lifesaver on Banners (which i cannot do)


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

SwedeMarine said:


> Need to get yourself one of these Mate.


I frigging do!!! What the heck is it, some form of fine tipped paint pen? Holy crap. I want one like a year ago. All I can make out in the picture is 'BRUSH'.

EDIT: god damned ninjas :laugh:

DOUBLE EDIT: going to an art store TODAY. Will post anything I accomplish.


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## InkedDnA (Jul 8, 2011)

Micron Brush Pen....must....have....ALL OF THEM


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Just added this to the purity seal on his arm. First try after getting home and I'm friggin' STOKED on this.










I tried for a little blood drop there, don't know how well it comes across. I will be blanking out his shoulder pad and backpack to redo them with cooler stuff ASAP.

No more being afraid of books and scrolls!!


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

Glad i helped make your life easier mate


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## Ddraig Cymry (Dec 30, 2012)

Microns are great for those tiny details you can't trust to a brush, good call Swede  Great work so far, I like your conversions.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Whoa! So I have a non-picture update on my BA army. Since getting promoted at work and starting to write a new album with the band I have been ultra busy and painting a lot less. I've also started a Imperial Fist army because they are awesome (expect that project to be posted soon enough). For my BA I'm going to work on a specific 2000 point list, and that's it. I made thematic (to me anyway) but still hopefully competitive lists for all my armies (BA, DW, IF), and I am getting real sick of playing unpainted models. So, this is my new objective with this project:

Mephiston

Furioso - BT, HF

Furioso - FC, HF

Priest - JP, PS

10 man RAS - 2x MG, PF, DP

10 man RAS - 2x MG, PS

10 man RAS - 2x F, 2x HF

Baal - TLAC, HBs, SB

Baal - TLAC, HBs, SB

Stormraven - TLAC, TLMM

Stormraven - TLAC, TLMM

I have about half of this painted, and I need to make a more suitable Priest for the army. The one I have been using with a JP lacks...imagination. And mad BA bitz. I also need to either find a PS in a scabbard for his hip or make one. I also don't have the second TLAC turret just yet for a Baal, and I need to get a few more assault marines to flesh out the flamer RAS. Also, the already painted guys will have to be worked over to match the level of shading/highlighting that I'm now doing so basically everything in this list is mad WIP. I think I am going to tackle updating the existing models (ie. ones I have already shown in this log for the most part) so that I will have more updates sooner. Hopefully my plan of scheduled painting will allow me to update both this log and the upcoming IF one in an alternating pattern at least once a month each.

Feel free to critique the list if it pleases. I seeeriously doubt I will change anything about it, but I'm always curious anyway.


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

I might have a PS you could use, I'll check when I get home... If I do I'll mail it over if you want


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

JAMOB said:


> I might have a PS you could use, I'll check when I get home... If I do I'll mail it over if you want


Dude! That would be a great help, if at all possible. I wasn't looking forward to taking a PS and trying to GS a scabbard over it. Any sort of bits that you have been hunting for? I might have some fun stuff in the boxes...


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

I don't have what I thought I did (or if I do I lost it etc) but I do have a Scout Dagger as well as the Blood Angels one (only the dagger on that one, though I do have the others too) and some space wolf knives. If you want any, let me know. BTW those aren't my ebay listings, I just linked them for the pictures


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

I should actually have one or two that ive saved for a special model actually.If i have either i would glad let you take them. I only need to check the box when i have a chance. (probably tomorrow or Friday)


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Alas @JAMOB, those ones are a bit too small for my purposes. I am going to use all those combat knives from DC boxes as a unit indicator once I invariably do a Sternguard/Vanguard squad though. I'm looking for something a bit more in the size of a sword. I was SUPER stoked to see a sheathed PS in the new Sternguard box, but unfortunately the handle is obscured by the stupid hand that goes over the top. Scratch building the scabbard side of things is the easy part, the handle is going to be tricky. The sword that Cypher has on his back would be absolute tits for this, just get rid of the skulls and replace them with blood drops...maybe some of the spikes go as well.

@SwedeMarine, do you think you have a part that fits that description? I'm more than willing to buy a part/pay postage if you have something, I'm much more willing to interact with people over bits stores.

Seriously though: both of you are awesome for even considering hunting for bits for me. Thanks a ton!!


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

Damn, oh well. Hope this works out :/


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

I will let you know by tomorrow. Wont be able to check tonight so ill check first ting tomorrow morning.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

JAMOB said:


> Damn, oh well. Hope this works out :/


haha, oh it will work out. There might just not be any short cuts for me.



SwedeMarine said:


> I will let you know by tomorrow.


No rush man! I appreciate you checking it out.


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## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

The list looks pretty cool, and good work on those scrolls!


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

@ntaw Jackpot. Let me know if either of these will work for you


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Iraqiel said:


> The list looks pretty cool, and good work on those scrolls!


Thanks! I'm toying with doing two blenderfist Furiosos, but I only have the one set of talons. The scrolls have DEFINITELY improved since buying the brush pens.



SwedeMarine said:


> Jackpot. Let me know if either of these will work for you


I'd say!!! The one on the left works perfectly. PM incoming :grin:


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

No sooner do I make a mission statement than I get sidetracked. Ah well. At least there's an update, right??!! 

I converted the DV librarian over to the Blood Angel side this afternoon:


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

Thanks for posting this picture, because it reminded me that I have one of the same model that I've removed the Dark Angels iconography from, and I've been looking for a hooded model I could convert into Cypher.

So... yeah. Not particularly related to your librarian, here--though that is some subtle GS work. May have to smooth out the chippings and hackings of my own symbol excisions with the same...

Edit: arg. Psychic hood and epistolary symbols. Worthwhile? Replace? Home-fluff a stealth librarian who Shrouds & Infiltrates the unit he's in? Hmm. Way to go hijacking somebody else's thread, Mossy...


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Whoa whoa whoa @Mossy Toes. What are Epistolary symbols?!

I don't see this model as a Cypher. I'ma break is down because I'm drunk and wanna type a bit.

-sword in hand, Cypher never draws the sword he carries (easy arm swap, but you lose the cool elbow. I would hesitate to cut it up cut you'll end up losing a lot of the cool force sword as well)

-you'd have to hack off the really cool force-choke hand he has going on for a pistol

-now I'm starting to think Epistolary symbols are those horned daemon skull things all over him, those would all be kinda ishy

-the psychic hood is too cool to alter, but you could reason he came across it at some point to help him stave off daemons/help people infiltrate (as you pointed out)

I think you could pick a better model to use as a base for Cypher. Humble opinion, of course.


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

Yeah, the loss of the force choke is the largest issue. To me, at least. It was a nice idea, but I don't think it'll be happening...


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

The left one in SwedeMarines picture is the one I thought I had, but oh well.

I like the conversion, nice and simple.


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## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

Agreed, that is one very neat re-assigned angel you have there, NTAW.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

JAMOB said:


> The left one in SwedeMarines picture is the one I thought I had, but oh well.


Still waiting on it, I actually ended up making up the model it will be attached to already :blush:



JAMOB said:


> I like the conversion, nice and simple





Iraqiel said:


> Agreed, that is one very neat re-assigned angel you have there, NTAW.


Thanks guys! It took some patience, that's for sure. First time I have ever used a file on a model, any suggestions on super fine tipped files? I have a kit I got from a hardware store, but hit some real snags as I did this piece. Maybe I just literally have to move slowly, maybe these tools ain't appropriate.


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

Hey, do you still need that sword bit? Because I just found mine.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

JAMOB said:


> Hey, do you still need that sword bit? Because I just found mine.


 @SwedeMarine said that he had sent his, though that was some time ago now and it still hasn't showed up on my end. Hopefully it wasn't lost in the mail... 

As a bonus, here's the dude I made up to be the Priest in the meantime, complete with custom Narthecium. All he needs is a sword on his left hip and we're good to go! Of course, the JP is magnetized on.

EDIT: This is as far back as I'm allowed to edit. If anyone's crazy enough to just read that stuff and is interested in pictures of it I might have something. PM me. Original pictures are gone, but here's the custom Nartghbjhaf,bc or whatever it's called:


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

Looking good! And PM me if you want me to send it over, I don't have much use for it


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## Varakir (Sep 2, 2009)

Good work on the DV libby, he makes a great model for any chapter.

The custom narthecium is genius - I've been thinking of making the FW salamanders apothecary at some point so i might have to steal that :victory:


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

JAMOB said:


> Looking good! And PM me if you want me to send it over


Thanks and PM sent!



Varakir said:


> Good work on the DV libby, he makes a great model for any chapter.


Easily the coolest Libby model out there. The force choke is key!!



Varakir said:


> The custom narthecium is genius


Alas, it wasn't my idea. I got it from a tutorial here on Heresy, though since the hack a while back pretty much all of the old tutorials lost their pictures. Pretty much, I cut all the fingers out of the Command Squad PF then used the force choke hand from the TDA Libby combined with the top of a chainsword and some antenna parts I cut up and shaped into points. I'm considering pulling it off, scraping off the skull aquila and GSing something more BA onto the back of the hand...but I dunno. I'm also going to use some of the apothecary bits from the DW box to add those jars of marine goop to his belt and find something more flashy in the bitz box for his left shoulder pad.

I'm 99% sure this model used to be a sergeant in my BA army as a youth, who has since been stripped down and re purposed for my current one.


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

ntaw said:


> @SwedeMarine said that he had sent his, though that was some time ago now and it still hasn't showed up on my end. Hopefully it wasn't lost in the mail...


Indeed. I have not gotten anything back either from the post office on my end. If yo havent gotten it by now....... well itd be the first time in a long time that ive actualy had a latter lost in the mail. If you have it @JAMOB then you may want to send it over. Sorry about the delay mate. I also havent been on here for a while as ive had alot of changes go on at home.


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

SwedeMarine said:


> If you have it @JAMOB then you may want to send it over.


I'll do that after school. I just need somewhere to send it too @ntaw...


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Sergeant with dual Hand Flamers:


Started pinning legs and hands, as well as drilling out barrels.


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## Nacho libre (Feb 23, 2013)

ntaw said:


> Sergeant with dual Hand Flamers:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Bringing da burn, me likey.


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## Tugger (Jul 22, 2013)

Double flame assaulter eh? Wicked


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Nacho libre said:


> Bringing da burn, me likey.





Tugger said:


> Double flame assaulter eh? Wicked


Playing the 2x flamer 2x hand flamer squad is my favourite. They took two wounds off a poorly placed Captain with Overwatch fire the last time they hit the table, albeit that time without jump packs since this badass didn't exist.


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## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

I always thought the flamer blood angels were sweet, and that dynamic pose you've chosen really suits the model.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Iraqiel said:


> I always thought the flamer blood angels were sweet, and that dynamic pose you've chosen really suits the model.


When I get back to painting BA (after Belial and at least one IF squad), this guy and the Priest are first on the docket I think.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Ha! Lookit how cool this guy is! Once I finish my IF terminator sergeant I'll be onto this guy I think.



Hot damn @JAMOB, thanks for hookin' it up! :drinks:

EDIT: I have already added one of the sculpted BA shoulder pads to his left arm, it was just too lame without it.


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

Oh sweet it came! That looks really good mate


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

White is SUCH a bitch. This guy'll be in the Painting Deathmatch this month should I bring myself to get back to the white...



...and to think I want to do a White Scar (allied) army as well.


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

I feel like white just needs lots of washes to add depth, either that or really good shadows. I don't know though, as I've painted like three arms and a few heads white...


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

If you check back a few pages at the Captain I made with the axe and sword, the Priest's white will look like that. Basically, a careful application of Nuln Oil and then a white drybrush against the angles.

The bitch part is getting it nice and smooth...I fucked that up hard on his Narthecium hand, but hopefully I will be able to hide that with the washes and re-whitening.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Whams! Finally willing (though I missed a skull on his Jump Pack) to call this guy done. I'll get around to painting his non-jump pack, but for now this will definitely suffice in my games. For your viewing pleasure:


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## CLT40k (Jun 18, 2010)

really well done... + rep


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Thanks dude! Whenever I get frustrated by a thing I'm working on I tend to look back at the first couple pages, read a few comments left by people with great suggestions and support, and then look at where I am now. Just gotta keep painting and paying more and more attention to detail! :OK:

A friend of mine who has been painting random models in my collection (that now spans Imperial Fists, Blood Angels, Dark Angels/Deathwing, Astra Militarum, Necrons, and Grey Knights :shok that I've based and never finished has decided he's had enough of my Necrons and wants to paint Drop Pods. Since I have had one primed black for over a year and just got two new ones...I'll take any help he wants to offer! Hopefully we'll be able to hook back up and tag team that nonsense soon for some sweet updates.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Whoa...an update? To one of my PLOGs? It hasn't even been three months yet!

So, I went back to teaching guitar only which frees up like...all of my time. Hello hobby! I finally got around to finishing my second Stormraven's magnet job. I've seen a few tutorials online for magnetizing the SR's top turret, but none of them included the covers for the weapons (since GW is kind enough to send ONE FRIGGING SET). Here is my solution:










I put magnets on the post and on the covers, with a hole drilled through the gun to allow for that lovely connection. Double stacked magnets for reach through the gun and a more firm grip. As you can see, it got a little sloppy with the glue on the covers...it was one of my first magnet projects and a bit too adventurous for my patience, so I came back to it a year later with improved techniques for tiny magnets to sticky spots using calloused fingers. Here's the finished bird:










There's also two made up Drop Pods, but there's nothing special about them until all three I now own are painted up. No magnets there...


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Been chipping away at all my projects recently, managed to work my way back to the BA side of things for the next little while. Maybe I can get some stuff painted up sufficiently for when the new 'dex comes out and I go out to the store to kill some xenos. Here's my converted Librarian, before I get into the shading and highlighting. That red trim was a real son of a bitch...



Just a few more things to touch up, mainly just fixing shaky hand mess-ups, then it's off to the washes before I get down on some highlights. Really stoked to see how this model ends up....even though I broke his damn fingers off dropping the model while painting :ireful2:


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## Drohar (Jan 22, 2014)

That's one massive jump pack - really like it. Love the yellow cloak, can't wait to see it finished.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Drohar said:


> That's one massive jump pack


I think you might be victim of strangely angled picture taking:

Imagine if you will, a normal jump pack and a single jet Sanguinary Guard jump pack here.

Though I really do dislike standing poses with Jump Packs. Looks awkward as all fuck...at least the model's a fine piece of work, lots of detail but not too much detail. I'm really stoked to finish this guy, I might get some work in on him after band practice today. I'm also finding I really like painting models like this with multiple large-ish patched of a colour over the massively one-colour paint jobs my standard marines are. They're just such a drag for me to paint, despite really enjoying the way they look finished.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

So much done, yet so very far to go. Here's an update on the Librarian and his cloak of frustration:

uh...


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

The finished product!


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

The sword looks a bit... "flat," but he definitely looks great. Good blending on the robes in that first picture, especially catching my eye there.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

The glare isn't doing the blending much justice, but I feel like I might have to go a bit darker at the hilt. That robe was....well, let's just say I'm glad it's painted now :laugh:


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Hey look, some Death Company with huge-ass Kromlech axes!


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## hocky (Jan 31, 2009)

Like the librarian - fair played for going yellow, tough colour but the robe does look great and will stand out on the battlefield.
I love death company and have always wondered how to make them stand out. Now I get it give them weapons bigger than them!! Those axes look brilliant can't wait to see them painted up. Will be interesting to see how you make the black come alive too. Keep it up, love the work so far.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Thanks for the kind words, @hocky. The yellow on the libby was a tough call, I wanted to do a red robe but also wanted him to stand out in the squad more. Granted, the blue jump pack is a pretty good indicator now that I've played the unit and had to see where he was at a glance. The axes were....a bit of a disappointment. I purchased them to use with my Guard army, but they're of anime proportions so I smacked them onto some marines (who might have a chance of swinging them). The other four are ever so slightly less over sized and I've started working them into my Catachan Infantry Platoon. I haven't painted a Death Company model since I first got back into painting, I think they were one of my first posts to this project log. I've come a long way with my painting, but I'm not sure that I'm going to do the armour any differently that before. I found with the DC if you do really crisp detail work (and there's TONS of details) and get a nice red on the weapons and jewels to tie it together you end up with a pretty bangin' model. The highlighting I do to black is just the thinnest of thin grey lines, otherwise I go for something along the lines of my Necron Lord (more black) or Callidus Assassin (way more grey, but easily washed black):





Both of those models were based grey and washed black repeatedly, with grey highlights done between certain intervals of washes. Much less highlighting on the Lord, and my buddy who painted all the rest of it put a bit of a blue wash on it that I notice more now that I've seen it blown up in the picture. Either way, I'm not too keen on that kind of work for a whole squad of dudes...plus I've already got 7 painted black so there's already a monkey wrench in that method. We shall see how they turn out though, I'm kinda curious myself.


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## hocky (Jan 31, 2009)

I think black is tough - I am painting Flesh tearers as allies to me Feth army and couldn't be bothered highlighting the black so just drybrushed it with codex grey. It kind of works but you are right you need to add some details in some brighter colours. Luckily the DC are not short of these. I got around the problem with my DC (who I love by the way, they are great fun to paint and play with) by changing their fluff a little. I decided that they weren't in the throws of the black rage but trying to gain ascension by their actions and painted them white. I am half way through painting the squad and they look amazing in white although it takes ages. I will be revisiting them on my project log soon.
Back to you though and I was looking through your whole blog - its amazing to see the progression in your painting over the project - well done and keep learning!


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

Only just saw this now - Unholy Khorne those axes look sweet - I will have to get some in the future!

When painting black there are several ways to do it - Personally I prefer a slight blue hue to my blacks, as greys make it look more flat. When looking at oil and true black material, you usually get a bluish hue from it to make it more deep. Instead of grey, I could recommend trying to highlight with colours such as "Dark Reaper" or "The Fang" can give some interesting results after a wash or two.

Just my two cents  Keep up the good work!


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

@hocky, I was very tempted to do the white armour as well. Some of the successor Chapters in the Codex do just that, I think the Lamentors (the yellow guys) among them. The only reason I didn't do it is because I want to involve a detachment of White Scar bikes at some point and wanted to field them all together. Either way I like your spin on things, and from a fluff perspective I think it's time to move forward for the Blood Angels (indeed, for all of 40k but how does that even happen without changing the name to 41k). This plog has been quite the journey, and my skills have definitely improved with the comments and suggestions left by other Heresy members here. I appreciate that you've noticed my increased effort when it comes to painting :drinks:
@Nordicus, those axes are amazingly large. I get why people would like them...but I'm actually pretty sad that they are the size they are. I've done the best I could in lengthening the hafts by the thickness of the model's hand, but they still look a little too anime for my liking. Decently cast, there's a few un-fixable/crummy looking details (and if you go back to my Mephiston model you'll see how far I'll go to fix details) that I just cut off and smoothed out. Here's a comparison of the three Kromlech axes you get in the pack with a Space Marine one, so you can get an idea of what I mean:



They're cool, but if they were just a little bit smaller I'd be fucking gaga over them. 

As for blue highlighting black...I like that idea. Very apt conclusions as well, and from a glass working perspective there's three colour options that get cut with black to make a deep solid colour: green, purple, and blue...with blue being the obvious choice in this respect. I don't have either of your suggested paint colours but I do have Kantor Blue, Codex Grey, and Skull White. I think I can come up with something close to The Fang, but the Dark Reaper has some green in it (I think) that I can't quite place. Either way I'll give it a shot on a backpack/shoulder pad as I'm getting going and see what it looks like. I agree that the thin grey highlights I have been doing look flat, but didn't really know what else to do aside from the unholy amounts of washes that took place on the Assassin and Lord. Thanks for the suggestion!


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

ntaw said:


> but the Dark Reaper has some green in it (I think) that I can't quite place.


The Dark Reaper is more tourquise than true blue if you want to make your own version of it. But it works wonders as the dark highlight and then top it with a The Fang equivalent. After those 2 highlights have been placed, you can use either Aggrax Earthshade to blend it together or, if your feeling up to it, a blue glaze.

I did a version of it with more extreme highlights on these possessed:









Obviously you shouldn't go that light, but it gives an idea of what hues to expect. The bright blue is a Administratum grey with 2 x blue glazes over it, so just dump that, go for Dark Reaper, then the Fang and top it off with a aggrax, and you should get some interesting results :good:


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Well, since all of my pictures have disappeared I am declaring this PLOG over. There's zero chance I will ever wade through and figure out what goes where based on the pictures that I did manage to salvage from the photo albums I had online. I'd just like to say that I appreciated every single comment made by others in this journey through the last few years of my painting, without the guidance and feedback from the various Heretics that have passed by here I don't think I would have grown into the painter that I am today. Thanks guys and gals! :drinks:

I have been considering finding a new place to host my images online and starting one central PLOG of all 6 (or 8 or whatever) of my 40k armies, but I'm not sure if it's going to happen as I'm pretty defeated by this. Only time will tell I guess!


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

ntaw said:


> ...I have been considering finding a new place to host my images online and starting one central PLOG of all 6 (or 8 or whatever) of my 40k armies, but I'm not sure if it's going to happen as I'm pretty defeated by this. Only time will tell I guess!


Hey Man, my recommendation is Flickr. I've recommended it to a few of our members when they've had similar issues. I switched from hosting here on Heresy using attachments after the Great Russian hack. And I'm glad I did.

It's a big community, supported by a major corporation. Granted, one never knows exactly what they will do in the future, but it's unlikely Yahoo will suddenly disappear. They have a lot of nice tools for organizing photos, they grant 1TB of storage, and they even have a built-in "share to BBCode" which gives you the exact code snippet you need for posting on Heresy.

I haven't posted anything in a while to my Flickr account, but I think it's one of the best, most reputable sites around. Also far fewer adds than photobucket or the like.

So here's an example of an embed. This is from when I made the same pitch to @Mossy Toes (don't know if he ever went for it), but I noticed Roganzar recently started using Flickr too.

Bb code from Flickr by warped forge, on Flickr

This is exactly as copied from Flickr, no changes. Usually I add a carriage return after the image before the by-line.

Cheers!


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

I never quite made the jump. I've stuck with imgur--I was having issues, only being mobile-based for a summer, but during the school year it's less of an issue.]

Still, the limited number of photos you have access to on a non-premium imgur account is kind of annoying, as well as a couple other small aggravations like limited album sorting tools, the need to log in again every time I need to get online... (I could probably sort out some sort of cookies autodeleted issue there, but meh)

Who knows. I might make the shift eventually.


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## Uveron (Jun 11, 2011)

Mossy Toes said:


> I never quite made the jump. I've stuck with imgur--I was having issues, only being mobile-based for a summer, but during the school year it's less of an issue.].


I Personaly hate Imgur, but that becuse both offices I have worked in over the last 5 years have listed it as a 'bad' site.. thus when people post from the site I see no pictures. 

I like Google Photos, but it is linked with my phone, so I can take a photo and in a few sec's load it onto the forum.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Thanks @Kreuger I'll check that out, though I must admit it's not so much about finding a reliable place online to host photos it's actually about doing it again. I'm at a pretty crucial point where I'm reevaluating how much time I'm putting into this hobby, which includes online posting. I haven't even been reliably painting, not even sure I've touched a brush in 2015....if I have, it was merely to base coat my Drop Pods red (which I didn't finish). I've gotten involved in an escalation league and have met others that share a similar outlook on the hobby who I might start a narrative campaign with after the league runs its course, maybe that will bring me back to this a bit more. It's been fun, I'm the only Blood Angel player and I'm holding my own for W-L ratio. Realized I have a crushing distaste for WAAC players, which made me start thinking about why I care so much about this game that it bothers me the types of lists people play, y'know? I'm rambling, but you see where I am for commitment.


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

@ntaw I hear ya'. I haven't painted anything in more than a year and I haven't played in ages. I participate here because I still find the world compelling and _want _to get back to the painting if not the playing.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

@Kreuger, just so you know I'm currently failing at Flickr. Either I'm tired-stupid or their code doesn't work, but posting pictures based on the code that you showed in your picture is failing in numerous ways. For example, here is the code that you showed in your picture as pasted for me here:

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/16930437652" title="Necron Lord Collab by Luke Mitchell, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8734/16930437652_3cf0413aaf_c.jpg" width="480" height="800" alt="Necron Lord Collab"></a>

and here it is posted as if I was posting a picture like before:










What am I doing wrong here? I want this to work.


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

Hey @ntaw, I'm pretty stupid tired myself. No worries. It looks like there may be 2 problems.

I trimmed the URL to get back to your gallery (https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/) and it looks like nothing is available publicly. The other issue is that you are exporting HTML code not BBCode.

The first we can change by going into account settings: 

Click on your user icon in the upper right corner
In the menu select *Settings*
In the settings area select *Privacy & Permissions*
In Privacy & Permissions, in *Global settings *section, choose the *edit *link beside *Who can access your original image files?*
Choose the radio button for Anyone (Recommended)
Select the *Save *button
In Privacy & Permissions, in *Defaults for new uploads* section, choose the *edit *link beside *Who will be able to see, comment on, add notes, or add people?*
Under the *Who can see your photostream? *heading choose *Anyone (public)*. You may also want to let Flickr members comment, and specific people and notes or tags.
Select the *Save Settings*button 

Now you should be set to share anything you upload.


So let's say I want to share my Chaos Ogryns picture, you're sharing using the HTML code. Which I've highlighted below. This is going to cause the errors we see in your post above, because a BB forum uses a modified type of coding, and doesn't interpret HTML like a regular website.


ChaosOgryns_with_HTML-code by warped forge, on Flickr


You need to switch over to share the BBCode. Again highlighted below. And I used this exact process to share these help screenshots which I posted to my photostream.


ChaosOgryns_with_BBCode-code by warped forge, on Flickr

Once it's configured, it really does have nice features for sharing on the forums.

I hope that helps! And of course, let me know if you run into other problems. I'll stand by my suggestion.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Let's see if it works:



Woo! And I even got rid of the extra text. Nice. @Kreuger, thanks for your help! You might just have given me cause to start anew with the whole project log thing...though having individual ones for each army is silly and slows down updates. Here's a picture of a sweet bike Captain I made a little while ago JUST BECAUSE I CAN (insert maniacal laugh here):


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

That seems to have worked.
@ntaw are you wrapping this code in tags? It looks like there are extra tags at the bottom of the post. Otherwise, looking good! 

I followed the link to your Photostream and now I can see you have uploaded a TON of stuff. Right on!


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

hahahaha you ninja'd my edit. I dumped everything I saved when shit hit the fan, I've done a lot of stuff since then that I haven't even been photographing.


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

Heh. Hey man, glad to help! 

Part of my professional role is actually solving technology problems for a university and training new users, so your issue here was right in line with my work.

I like happy users. 

I'm glad the ease of use may have rekindled your interest in having a project log. 

I'm getting ready to (try) start a new project myself, and even though there are big time gaps in the log I still use the same one.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

I have had no worries about leaving big gaps in my work, even in this thread there were multiple dry spells. Now that I'm playing 6 different armies as well as stuff from digital mini-dexes I feel like one central vein to my hobby is a good choice for forward motion. At least now I can reliably post pictures! What are you looking to start into for a new project?

EDIT: Fuck it. I just went back as far as I could and put any images I had back in. Here's the Sanguinary Priest I made up after the new Codex dropped. It's the old metal one I got with the BA Command Squad as a kid, had to sculpt the chalice into his right hand. The Lightning Claw was a cut at the arm/shoulder joint to swing it out, and putty up in the armpit to prop it out at that angle. It was the best I could come up with given the bits at hand and the way that model was made to be.


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

ntaw said:


> What are you looking to start into for a new project?
> 
> EDIT: Fuck it. I just went back as far as I could and put any images I had back in.


He looks pretty good. Come to think of it, the term conversion may have recently run into some devaluation, at least where GW miniatures are concerned. 

No new models are in metal. All models are plastic or resin. Slicing and dicing no longer requires a fret saw or jeweller's saw. 

As for my new projects, eBay was kind to me recently and I scored 2 Forge World units cheap; a blood slaughterer and 5 death shroud terminators. I got _both_ for less than it would have cost to get ONE from Forge World including shipping. But really that's not . . . it. I don't want to divert your thread so everything else i can think of off the top of my head will be in the spoiler below




I have a backlog of projects from when I was last painting about 2 years ago including:
- an armorcast cannon of Khorne (#2)
- a decimator daemon engine
- everything from dark vengeance which is being converted to chaos
- 2 dark vengeance dreadnoughts (one of which will get the tentacles from the forgefiend kit to become a warpsmith dread)
- 1 rogue trader chaos dread which needs a newly sculpted arm (arm is 1/3rd done) 
- a few units of heresy era marines in Mark III which will become 40k Iron Warriors, along with the forge world guys (again thank you eBay) is an awesome 3rd party Iron Warriors conversion kit from a Ukrainian seller named Montastore.
- a unit of rogue trader terminators which need to be stripped and repainted, 
- the list goes on and on.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

:shok: that's a pretty bonkers list of stuff man. Good luck!

I agree that everything being plastic makes it considerably easier to convert a model to a new pose, but I gotta say the malleability of their plastic has encouraged my imagination much more when it comes to poses time and time again. I grew up with the metal...now I kinda hate it, so much so I've sold/am selling all my metal stuff off aside from a couple key Blood Angel models :laugh:


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