Blood Raven Dreadnought

I love dreadnoughts, especially the original boxy ones. Recently, I was lucky enough to be asked to paint a venerable dreadnought for a friend. He plays Blood Ravens and it was a restoration job. Fortunately, it was a metal dread, and metal is great for stripping and restripping. Unfortunately, it was a metal dread, and those things are heavy, fit poorly, and rife with casting problems!

What I thought would be a quick and easy job (full disclosure, I did not realize it was metal at the start) quickly became much more complicated. I took apart more metal pieces than I thought the model could possibly include, then filed and sanded all of it, followed by milliputting, then sanding the milliput, then pinning just to get it ready for painting! After that, I felt I'd put so much effort to making it I'd have to give painting it extra attention. It's still what I'd call a tabletop piece, but I'm very happy with the result. (So was my friend!)

 

Yes, the banner/scrolls/scratches are freehanded. I left a couple of scrolls blank as I felt it was becoming cluttered with script. I also had no idea what to write. Perhaps once it has earnt some victories on the table I'll be asked to add some accolades...

I hope I'll be able to paint another dread soon. They really are a joy. I also hope it'll be plastic.

Until then, happy painting!

 

Return of the Chaplain

Waaaay back in the beginning you may recall I painted a Blood Angels Chaplain for a friend. A lot has happened since then and said friend left the continent for greener pastures, downsizing his collection to make the trip easier.

 

I remember painting that chaplain with fondness and never imagined I'd see him again. The wargaming community around these parts is small, though. Unbeknownst to me, my first chaplain model traded hands to a friend of a friend not far from where I originally left him, and made his way back to me as a gift when I joined that gaming group!

 

He was a little banged up and dusty, but a clean up and a touch up where the paint had chipped had him better than new again, and here he is!

 

 

This blast from the past now stands proudly in the display with more recent minis and I couldn't be happier. I have quite a few newer pieces yet to be posted, but until then enjoy sharing this memory with me.

 

Happy painting! 

Revisiting an old model: Space Marine Mark II

A long while back I painted a space marine captain from the Assault on Black Reach set. It was one of my early attempts to adapt an 'Eavy Metal painting guide and (at the time) I was pretty happy with the results (despite painting the ultramarine symbol upside down!). Then, not too long ago, I was rummaging around looking for a model to paint - I was in the mood to try putting a little effort into a paintjob, but not too much, and I found a second Assault on Black Reach Captain! It was one I'd traded for a while back - originally caked in thick paint I'd stripped it back as best I could and then forgot about it. So I decided to give him some love and see if my rescue attempt was worth it.

Here's the result:

I'm really pleased with the improvement over the old model - here's a side-by-side comparison:

I had a lot of fun painting him - it was especially nice to be able to aim for improvements without worrying about getting him perfect. I'm particularly pleased with how the paintjob (and the new base size) make him look larger and give him more presence than the older version.

Anyway, this was just a bit of fun to ease me into some more serious painting. I'm hoping to get a few more characters up here soon.

Until then, happy painting!

Blood Angel Scouts

Are you ready for some photos? You sure? Well here they are!

I decided to experiment with my Blood Angels colour recipe on a unit, and after looking through my unbuilt collection was delighted to discover some scouts that I'd forgotten about. I love space marine scouts and these guys were a lot of fun to paint. I spent extra time on the end adding freehand to all of them, and the heavy weapon model got extra love on his chapter symbol. If  When I paint more Blood Angels I'll push the highlights on the red more with the airbrush - something I didn't catch until I was painting the other elements on the model - but apart from that I'm very pleased with them.

As I don't really need them in any army and there's no point them gathering dust on my shelves, I've decided to try to sell them on eBay (here if you're interested). I see a lot of "pro-painted" models that go for ridiculous amounts relative to the actual quality of the painting and I know these are better than most of them, so I figured I'll have a go at getting a ridiculous price, too. I've set them at what I'd expect a commission painter to charge and if I get something close I'd be happy. If not, well, I can always rethink my pricing structure or just keep them. I've also put my competition winning captain up there (here).

Finally, I've decided to start accepting commissions again. I used to many years ago but stopped due to time constraints. Now I'd like to have a little spare cash to fund my hobby as well as paint a wider variety of models, so will be looking to take on projects on a casual basis. If you're interested, there'll be a contact me button appearing here soon.

Thanks for looking, and happy painting!

Iz'ldra - Primaris Dreadnought of the Salamanders

While I still have more dwarves to share I thought it would be nice to break up the posts with the other bits I've been working on.

A while back I won a painting competition in my local Games Workshop, and the prize was a primaris dreadnought sprayed gold(ish). While it was nice to have a trophy to commemorate it, I decided pretty quickly that since it was a model I was going to paint it. It took me a while to decide on a chapter but I eventually decided I'd like to paint some green so went with Salamanders. Here's the result:

Normally, I like to paint models this big in sub-assemblies. As I received this guy already built I found getting to some parts a challenge, especially when cleaning mould-lines and where he had been clipped from sprue. Because of this, and because I'm really coming to appreciate a grittier look to 40k models, I decided to make him pretty dirty. When the whole thing was painted I went over it with patches of Agrax Earthshade and built up mud and dust around the lower parts and, really, wherever I felt like it. This covered up a couple of building mistakes as well as some spatter from my airbrush, while also giving some variation to the model that would otherwise be lacking.

As a gaming piece I think you'll agree he came out very well. I've decided I really like painting dreadnoughts and can't wait to try another one, maybe this time in Blood Angels colours.

Next up will be more dwarves, but until then, happy painting! 

Vlka Fenryka - Characters

Not too long ago I shared a test model for a new colour scheme for my brother's 40k army. Well the Rout grows with the addition of two characters, also in this new colour scheme!

First up, my brother's conversion of Lukas the Trickster:

This follows the style of the test model very closely but with a little extra effort on the details, especially the face.

Next, Geigor Fell-Hand from the Burning of Prospero:

This model was supposed to be an Xmas present that I got the year the box set came out, so needless to say it was very, very late. He's also pretty different from the other two models as I was trying to keep it cleaner to make the character stand out.

Until next time, happy painting!

Blood Angel Praetor - Winner of the Irish Golden Demon!

Last Saturday the 500th Warhammer store opened in Hong Kong and I can't wait to see what shiny things are promised later this month to celebrate that - I'm a sucker for limited edition minis, provided they aren't Primaris Space Marines*. Last Saturday was also the 22nd birthday of the Games Workshop Dublin store, where I bought my first models over a decade ago**. As is tradition, there was a big party to celebrate and - having missed the last few - I was eager to attend. I was especially interested in entering the painting competition, which was ambitiously titled the Irish Golden Demon.

Irish Golden Demon is a grandiose description for a single mini painting competition featuring circa 20 entrants from among the store's regulars; nevertheless it was a lot of fun and a good opportunity for me to get back into the habit of painting well. The standard was remarkably high and chatting with the other painters I learned a few new tricks and got a fresh perspective on my painting. There's no substitute for studying well-painted models in the flesh to teach you more about what you're trying to achieve and how you can develop your own style. I just wish I'd brought a camera and had some photos of the other entrants to show you (d'oh!).

Next time I'll bring a camera. But I do have pictures of one entry - mine!

I started this guy a few weeks ago when I found Ferrari Red, a Vallejo Model Air paint that is just the best shade of red for Blood Angels. I was trying to develop a Blood Angel colour scheme and at the same time get my eye back into painting more than just rank and file, tabletop-ready units. He was pretty much finished two weeks before GW's birthday, but was a little more basic than I'd hoped and was sitting on my shelf staring at me as I tried to decide whether I'd call him finished or go back and add something. In the end, as I could only enter one model into the store's painting competition I decided I'd put the effort in and go for a complex freehand on the back.

I'm so damn pleased at how this came out. It's about the best freehand I've done so far and I'm really excited to do loads more. It didn't even take as long as I thought it would. I expected to spend the two days before the competition madly trying to finish it, but it was completed in one afternoon giving me Friday to work on some other projects. I must be getting faster.

I also touched up the black cloak and added some mud to the boots because they felt a little flat and dull, but that's not as cool as a big Blood Angel symbol.

On the day of the competition the judges seemed to agree that adding the freehand was a good move, because my Blood Angel Praetor won first in the adult category! It was a very close call with a beautiful Gabriel Seth coming second (the IX legion was well-represented!) and a very well blended Slambo coming in third. We even got trophies - Primaris Dreadnoughts sprayed silver, gold, and platinum (apparently there was some difficulty achieving a bronze effect so silver became third and the silvery-looking bronze was called platinum and became first, but I'm not going to complain).

He would have to pop out of his base for the photo...

This is actually the second time I've won the store's birthday painting competition, the last time being several years ago with my Tzeentch sorcerer. Both models are now living happily on my display shelf, although I will have to look into upgrading to a proper cabinet.

As this post has already been very long I'm not going to go into any detail as to how I painted anything, but next time I paint some Blood Angels (I have a few characters waiting for attention) I'll post WIP and step-by-step shots.

Until then, happy painting!

*I actually really like the Primaris Marines, I just don't want to buy any because they'll make all my regular marine characters look small.
**Some metal Ushabti and Liche Priests, way back when metal blisters were a thing.