Ezekiel, Dark Angels Librarian

Finished this guy up the other day.  It's a pretty old model but still a goodie.  It's incredibly detailed.

Next time I do a model this detailed I'm going to wash it after priming to help pick out the details.  I did that to the banner and it was very helpful.

"Gets Hot" Marine

I made this for a local painting contest. The contest was to take a standard tactical marine and paint it. Conversions were legal, so I decided to make the classic marine from the Plasma Weapons demotivator. You know the one. I didn't have the proper right arm so I used some pins and greenstuff, as well as a metal plasma gun so he is pretty arm-heavy. I used Dark Angels colors because I'm the most familiar with those. This is going to a friend when he gets back from his overseas deployment.

I attempted glow effects but they didn't come out the way I wanted them to.

Ravenwing Landspeeders

Here's my latest work. It's been a while since I posted painting or modeling content. These are part of a commission.

The weapons are all fully magnetic as are the bases. I'm trying to make each one individualized, yet simple at the same time.

Master of the Ravenwing Landspeeder Complete

Here he is! I entered him in the Golden Bolters competition. I don't expect to win but I think I really pushed myself on this one, so I'm a winner no matter what :)







I figured this is a rarely seen model, doing a Google Image search for it yields very few results. I made it out of many bits, but especially the Ravenwing upgrade sprue. The Landspeeder kit itself is somewhat of a pain as certain parts don't want to align properly. Now that I look at it, I think I should have weathered the bumper area.

Completed Ravenwing Bikes

Here they are! Here is a tutorial on how I painted them. These were painted as a commission.




This biker as you may have noticed is a bit unusual. For some reason the original gunner was missing, so my friend replaced it with a scout biker. We couldn't figure out any way to get his arms in the right position without major cutting and filing so I simply decked him out with guns.

How To Paint Ravenwing

Here's how I paint the Ravenwing. A note on these bikes, they are a commission, and were given to me in various states of disrepair. With a Ravenwing upgrade sprue, I made them better looking though I couldn't replace the bike's cowls.

First off, prime it black (duh). Undercoat the guns, seat and eyes with Scab Red, the areas that are going to be white or very light colored (such as the headlight) with Codex Gray, and purity seals/parchment/saddlebags with Bestial Brown. Paint the base Bestial Brown as well. In this post I explain how to do purity seals. None appear on this model, so check that post out if you want more information on how to do them. Since you're priming with black, you'll need to undercoat them with Bestial Brown so the Bleached Bone actually stands out.

Now paint the guns and eyes Blood Red.  It may take two coats to appear even.

Paint the saddlebags with Bubonic Brown. It will look terrible, but now wash it with Devlan Mud and you will see magic happen. While you're at it, wash the guns with Baal Red. We'll get to the metallics of the guns later.

Next, go over the white areas with Skull White. It may take two coats to be somewhat even but it doesn't have to be perfect. Make the headlight white, then paint it yellow, followed by a Gryphonne Sepia wash. Then, put a dab of yellow in the center of each section of the headlight. Scroll to the last picture to see a closeup of the headlight.

Now it's time for the metallics. Use Boltgun Metal to get all the trim and weapons, also drybrushing the engine area. This would have been easier if the rider were not glued to the saddle, but alas I did not assemble the model. Paint the frame of the headlight, but be careful because you don't want to redo your highlight. When done, wash the metallics, white and red with Badab Black (don't wash the headlight, you're done with that). Add any decals at this point.

Next, highlighting time! Use Blood Red for your first highlight of the guns, followed by Blazing Orange spot highlights (don't forget a dab on the eyes). I use Chainmail and then Mithril Silver for the metallics. Highlight the saddlebags with Bubonic Brown. For the black, I used a mix of blue and white for each highlight. I don't know my proportions, I just mixed until it looked good. I do remember that there's more blue in each layer so it gets cooler. The final highlight is more of a pale blue than a gray. I used four layers of highlight, but I probably could have gotten away with three.

Finally the weathering. I use the stippling brush and Bestial Brown to make mud splatters. I also use the Tamiya Weathering Powders for the exhaust stains and weapons bluing, you can see the effects in this post.

And that's it! I did the power sword later, you can see it when I post the finished squadrons later.

Ravenwing WIP

Here's what I've got going on right now:
Notice the bluing on the gun.

The exhaust stains and the heat bluing were both obtained by using Tamiya Weathering Powders.

When I first started the Ravenwing, I used some warm grays to highlight, and was bored with the results. It just didn't look good. I then switched to a cool gray and now am much more pleased with it. My client likes it too. I'm approaching the halfway point on the bikes, I have been slacking recently and I kind of squandered my Thanksgiving break with videogames. Well, now there's Christmas break starting tomorrow, for three weeks! I love being an educator.

Cypher, the Fallen Angel

Here's what I painted for a friend. It wasn't terribly hard to paint.
I was going to paint a red spiral on the back of his cloak, because in the Descent of Angels novel (painfully unenjoyable) they're constantly talking about the spiral, and part of Cypher's duty was to walk initiates through the spiral. Furthermore, his sightings are taking a spiral course centering on Terra. I tried it and it looked terrible, so I just went with the red border.
I also used Devlan Mud on the cloak, normally I use Gryphonne Sepia. I wanted him to look dirtier and worn down.

Now to find some proper rules for him. I saw some on a website a while back, I should have my friend playtest them. I didn't like everything about those rules, but until they make something official we can tweak them for my group.

Master of the Ravenwing Landspeeder, WIP

Edit from the future: See the finished product here.

This is my latest project. I'm painting up the Ravenwing as a commission, and I figured I'd start with the Master's Landspeeder. I want it to be ornate, but not ridiculously so.



This is the first time I've used greenstuff for anything other than filling in gaps. I should have made the corner of the robe square, I'm going to see if I can cut it right but I'm afraid to mess it up. There are a few more folds and wrinkles in the cloth than shown because of the lighting, but I could have probably done more.

I'm probably going to fix up the other things and then come back to it, I don't want to add too much more but I feel that the gunner's side in the middle area needs something else.

What the Dark Angels Need

I was thinking about this the other day, and I thought of a few things that Dark Angels need to become a more characterful army. Their looks are second to none, but their rules don't exactly follow suit. Here's what I came up with:

Deathwing: The Deathwing are quite used to going up against insurmountable odds, it's what gave them their bone-white color scheme and that tradition still rings true. To reflect this, all Deathwing should be immune to the effects of the No Retreat! rule. They should also have to select an opponent's HQ at the beginning of the game, against that model and its unit they gain the Preferred Enemy USR as this HQ has information about the Fallen.

Ravenwing: All of them should have the Skilled Rider USR, and furthermore they should always get some kind of save, or have their normal save increased to reflect their skill at dodging incoming fire. Back in 3rd edition, they had a "jink" save that was always on a 6+.

Also, why bother giving Sammael a jetbike when no one else can take one? He should be able to take an Honor Guard, all of whom have jetbikes. The Dark Angels have access to many ancient pieces of equipment, why not more than one bike?

They should be able to take the Mortis Pattern Dreadnought.

They may not get a new codex for a while, maybe I should let my friend who plays Dark Angels to try out these rules and see if they are balanced.

The Completed Deathwing- Lots of Photos

Here are the shots of the completed Deathwing. Click on the images for a larger picture. Here are the links to the tutorial in case you missed it.

Painting Deathwing Part 1
Painting Deathwing Part 2
Painting Deathwing Part 3

Here's the whole army I painted. It adds up to 27 models plus two Landraiders not pictured.



A Thunderhammer/Stormshield Terminator. I used Asurmen Blue wash on the Thunderhammers to make them stand out.

For this guy, I used an experimental technique on his sword. I got the paint really wet on the sword, then swirled in a lighter color. I am still working on the technique, so I'll post some better pictures when I master it.

Here is the Librarian. It is the old model, but still full of detail. I had a lot of fun with this one.

The tricky part was making him look like part of the army even though he has blue armor. I resolved to make his shoulder and gun bone white.

To do the axe detailing I used a slow-dry medium and simply got lighter as I got to the end of the design.

Finally, the Company Master Belial. I know it's not the actual Belial but it still works. I still have to make a banner for him, but I'll do that later.

For the sword, the fluff says that the Sword of Silence was crafted out of part of the same black obsidian as the Lion's, so I went with black and a green highlight. I also tried to make the armor and gun more ornate to make him stand out. When I get around to doing the banner that will help him stand out as well.

You can get a good view of the sword here. It actually wasn't near as tricky as I thought it would be. Just some slow-dry medium and a gradual blending. I tried to keep it subtle as everything else is ornate. I like the effect as its simplicity makes it stand out against the rest of the model.

Painting Deathwing, Part 3

Painting Deathwing, Part 1
Painting Deathwing, Part 2
The Completed Deathwing

Ok, our third and final installation on how to paint the Deathwing. We'll start with how I paint the symbol on since GW hasn't made Deathwing decals since 2nd edition. I know there's a fan decal sheet out there but I didn't want to do it that way.

Step 1: Paint a thin red line to delineate the position of the sword. The sword has a break in it near the bottom, mark that with your line. I use Scab Red for this part.

Step 2: Now flesh out the sword. Keep the quillions of the sword close to the body, my mistake on the early ones was making them go too far out. Don't worry if you mess up, after you're done with the sword get out your white color and clean up your lines.

Step 3: Now add the frame for the wings. I had to switch models for this photo, you can see that I haven't cleaned up the lines yet. The inside lines for the wings go as far down as the break in the sword, the curves are a quarter circle and the outside lines of the wings are the same length as the inside ones.

Step 4: Now thicken the lines and add the other lines to the wings. I find this the hardest step, getting the angles just right. If you mess up it's fine, once you're done use your white to clean up the red mistakes. It may take more than one coat.

Step 5: After it is all cleaned up, use Blood Red to highlight. You don't need much but it really helps bring it to life.

So that's all for the symbols, now here's how I do the scrollwork and Purity Seals on these models.



As you can see this guy is laden in scrolls and seals. As mentioned before, I use regular Bleached Bone straight from the bottle (not my thinned out mix) for the scrolls themselves. I wash them with Gryphonne Sepia, then highlight with a Bleached Bone mixed with a bit of Skull White. Lastly I take a very fine sepia-colored pen (I use a Staedtler, but Micron is a great line as well) and do some Latinesque writing. For the purity seals I just do a big letter than a bunch of scribbles. For the larger scrolls I write a bunch of Latin type words. There's plenty of websites that can give you great words like fortius, fidelius, mortus and so on. Be sure to include the serifs! If you really want that "authentic" feel, change all the letters "U" into "V." Not necessary but I do it after having seen lots of Latin writing through my various art history classes. Some Latin scholars will point out that there's much more to make it "authentic" but that's good enough for me. Besides, High Gothic isn't actually Latin anyway.



Here's the lightning claws squad. I still have to finish their bases. I used the Baal Red wash to make their claws look a little bloodstained. I just finished up the thunder hammer terminators, only 5 guys left!