PAINTING: The Crusade is over

I have finished painting my Land Raider Crusader and therefore finished painting 2000 points of Blood Angels Space Marines in one year.

YES!

Ahem.

This model was a monster to paint and represents an insane amount of time and effort. I hope it's worth it on the tabletop.

The shiny patches around the transfers are the spots where I've painted varnish so that the transfer is sitting on a flat surface. I'll be re-varnishing the whole vehicle and that will disguise the glossy bits.

There are still some additions I'd like to make to this model eventually - weathering for instance. My Crusader is in a similar position to my regular Land Raider in that it has no battle damage or churned up mud and dust on it's tracks. This means they stand out from my other vehicles like my Rhino, Predator and Razorback. I'll probably return to both vehicles at some point and weather them together.

I had some modelling issues with my Crusader.

The assault cannons are glued in place as one of the holes in the weapon wasn't formed properly so it wouldn't take the pin. Also the front ramp mechanism has ceased to work (this has also happened on my other Land Raider). That means I can't open the ramp very far, nor can I shut it fully. I guess God doesn't want anyone to see the fully painted interior.

The whole model feels fragile. As I've mentioned before it is oddly weighted and the Hurricane bolters feel like they could come apart very easily. Coupled with the plastic/metal combo of the multi-melta I'm not confident that this model would travel in one piece.

Anyway, despite some reservations, I have achieved my goal of painting a full 2000 point Blood Angel army in a year. I'll be posting some army shots on my blog and on Warseer over the weekend and then I'll be planning my next project.

Destroy the Gargant
With one project finished another is drawing to a close too. I have been blogging my old battle reports since September 2007 and I'm down to my last campaign. Once all these games have been ported over I'll only have my future games to add to my battle reports.

The campaign is an epic series of battles between my Daemonhunters and Gary's Orks. It's based on the premise that an Ork Waaagh has overtaken a Chaos held planet and an Ork Gargant is in danger of being possessed by a daemon. Can Inquisitor Lord Severus destroy the Gargant or will Warboss Brazhak Snitchtongue foil him?

Find out here.

PAINTING: Crusader on the way

With some hard graft over the weekend my Land Raider Crusader is almost finished.

I painted all of the sub-assemblies separately first and the attached them to the hull. That included the tracks, Hurricane bolters and all the hatches and weapons. When it came to painting the hull I ran out of Blood Angel Red and had to buy a new pot. Despite four or five coats of paint the finish is not as smooth as the spray colour on my other vehicles. If I paint more vehicles in the future I may have to invest in an airbrush.

The model feels strangely weighted with all the bits in place; the Hurricane bolters are really heavy and are on the outermost parts of the tank while the centre is lightweight plastic. I reckon the whole thing would fall to pieces if I had to transport it somewhere.

All that is left to paint on the hull are the lenses and viewing plates, a layer of extreme highlights and then some weathering. I also need to add the assault cannons and frag launchers.

I hope to have this model finished by the end of this week.

PAINTING: This n that

I haven't got nearly as much painting done as I had hoped, partly due to bad planning and partly because I'm not in the mood. I have a day off work and painting is meant to be fun and relaxing so when it feels like an effort I don't want to push myself.

Even so, I have painted something.

First up are the armour plates for the Hurricane Bolters. The iconography is my usual Snakebite Leather, Desert Yellow, Bleached Bone combo with a wash of Gryphonne Sepia and then some Skull White highlights. I still need to paint the recesses and then touch up the red. I'll probably paint the top and bottom bits in a metallic colour too.


I also spent some time on the gunner.

I wish I'd painted him in separate bits because I had a devil of a job getting in to all the nooks and crannies. I highlighted the red up from Blood Red through Blazing Orange to Fiery Orange. To set the gunner apart from the vehicle I highlighted him again with Skull White mixed into the Fiery Orange.

As I wanted to make progress with my Blood Angels but I wasn't feeling creative I decided to undercoat my Lemartes model and paint his base. It was a quick job but still needed doing.

While I was painting his base my mind turned to the other Blood Angels character models I have. I've put them to one side because they are already painted, albeit to a comparatively low standard. Nevertheless they were still usable in games so I thought I was better off concentrating on my unpainted models first. Their bases were painted green rather than the brown my new Blood Angels are based with now, so I thought I'd bring them up to date.

So, I didn't finish my Land Raider but at least I have something to show for the day.

PAINTING: Uh oh

Well, I haven't had a good start.

I quickly discovered that I didn't have enough Mechrite Red to cover the Crusader. Oops!

All of my previous Blood Angels vehicles have been sprayed with Blood Red spray but this is long discontinued and my stash has now been exhausted. My Crusader would be the first real vehicle to be painted with paint. I'm a little concerned about how it will fit with my existing models - I guess I'll find out soon (but not quite as soon as I thought!).

With the main hull of the tank out of commission I turned to the extra bits and pieces. I had already assembled the Hurricane Bolters, which was a tough task given that I'm working with the old metal model. I sprayed them black and then drybrushed Boltgun Metal over the top. I drybrushed Mithril Silver over that and then washed them with Badab Black. This morning I tidied up the black casings and highlighted them with Codex Grey.

Fortunately I had already painted some of the hatches and plates with Mechrite Red before it ran out. That means I should be able to complete them today. I added another layer of Blood Red then washed them with Baal Red previously so this morning I reapplied the Blood Red. My next task will be to highlight them.


Okay, here we go again...

PAINTING: On a crusade

I haven't blogged about painting my Blood Angels for a while. That's about to change as I have a day off work and I'm settling in for a monster painting session. My rather lofty aim is to completely finish my Land Raider Crusader. Yeah, right.

Anyhoo, I'll be coming back every few hours to chart my progress, hopefully with photographs.

PAINTING: Blood Angels army 1600 points

First things first - I've painted the tracks on my Land Raider Crusader and here is the proof:

I'm still struggling with my photography, especially with the light. At one point I had the blind pulled up on my window, two lights pointing at my models and the room light on and the camera was still telling me I needed the flash!

It's clear I need to get some seriously powerful lights but for now I'll have to struggle on.

Terminators
I'm really pleased with the finished Terminator squad.

I painted some black around the building ruins on the bases to help them to stand out. I still might go back to them in the future.

I haven't varnished the models yet as I plan to paint some heraldry on the shields.

I've also left space on the fists to add detail later if I want to.

Pretty good for starter models out of the Black Reach boxed set.

Dreadnought Eluvies
Again this model comes from the Black Reach boxed set, but I modified it to carry an assault cannon.

This model painted up very quickly and I'm happy with the finish.

The fluff I'm developing for the Dreadnought is that he was a former Terminator, hence the black powerfist.

You can clearly see my assault cannon conversion in the photo above. What do you think?

I was very happy with the base too. As it's my third Dreadnought it had to be different from the other two which have the standard plastic base.

Army shot
These are all of the Blood Angels I've painted since August last year.

Of course I have a few more models I already had painted since before the challenge, such as my Predator, Furioso Dreadnought, melt Dreadnought, etc. If I get the chance I might take a photograph with everything together.

GENERAL: Track wash

Time is getting away from me so I won't have time to photograph my Blood Angels army for Warseer. This also means I can't give you photographic evidence that I have painted some more of my Land Raider.

As the weather was dry I decided to spray undercoat the tracks outside. I have left them on the sprue and I'll attach them to the Land Raider once I've painted the hull.

I drybrushed the tracks with Boltgun Metal. When that had dried I drybrushed a lighter coat of Mithril Silver over the top. I washed the lot with Badab Black. This took a long time to dry so I've only just washed the tracks again with Devlan Mud. Although they're not yet dry I'm going to call them done.

• DONE - Wash my stripped models to get the Dettol off
• Write up more battle reports
• DONE - Paint Land Raider
• DONE - Put transfers on Terminators and Dreadnought
• Photograph my Blood Angels for Warseer
• Tidy my games room
• Read some more Imperial Armour 3 and/or Dark Apostle

Okay, time for a little tidying.

PAINTING AND MODELLING: Land Raider Crusader interior

I got an unexpected opportunity to have an afternoon off work on Monday so I came home and started painting. I wasn't really in the mood but I thought I'd try thirty minutes and get at least something done but once I started I didn't want to stop until the whole of the interior of the Crusader was finished.

As you can see, I did just that! I painted the interior in the same scheme as my other Blood Angels vehicles - white with brown shading. This provides a good contrast with the vibrant red of the exterior.

The only difference with this kit was that I used Devlan Mud rather than Brown Ink to shade the recesses. I painted all of the details too such as the seating, keypads and shrine.

My favourite part was the datascreens. I enjoyed painting all the green logic engine screens - very Aliens.

After I'd taken the photos I decided to glue what I had together and leave it overnight. Just for fun I thought I'd line it up alongside my finished Land Raider to see how it compared.

I now need to decide whether to put the Hurricane bolters on the front or back openings of the Crusader. Although I put the Godhammer lascannons on the rearmost mounts on my regular Land Raider, largely for aesthetic reasons, I'm currently thinking I might put the bolters on the front mounts. This will help to make each Raider visually distinct and might also help on the battlefield as it will give the guns an extra inch or two of range.

Anyone got any opinions?

PAINTING: Start your engines!

I've begun the painting of my Land Raider Crusader. I know this will me a massive task, particularly as I've decided to fully paint the interior. I have undercoated it on the sprue which is a very unusual technique for me. The first part I chose to paint, to ease myself in more than anything, is the engine block.


It's a fairly straightforward scheme with silver pipework and brass fittings. I played around with some different washes on the metallics to give each set of pipes some variation; a bit of Gryphonne Sepia here, some Leviathan Purple there, a dash of Ogryn Flesh. It's subtle but took virtually no time to do so what's the harm? In fact the whole part only took about an hour and a half to completely finish.

So with the engine finished I can now move on to the rest of the interior.

GENERAL: Spray away

To do list:

• Convert and post up another battle report
• Complete my Dreadnought conversion
• DONE - Undercoat the interior of my Land Raider Crusader
• Start stripping my plastic Catachans
• Sort out my podcasts on iTunes
• Check my IG listings on eBay and link to the auction from this blog
• Paint the metallics on my Terminators
• Apply transfers to my Techmarine and Death Company
• Sort out my Blood Angels photographs on Picasa

Here's the proof.

I used Halford's white primer for the interior rather than Game's Workshop's own brand Skull White. It was £6.99 for 500ml instead of £8 for 400ml. I had to spray indoors because it is so windy outside and then had to open a window to get rid of the fumes. I think this has roughed up the undercoat a little. It's not bad though, and will certainly be good enough for a quick paintjob on the inside of the vehicle.

I wasn't brave enough to buy the black car primer at the same time so I plumped for my regular GW Chaos Black. I used this on the engine block and again it didn't dry smoothly. Again, I can live with it.

I've put the Land Raider sprues back in the box for now and update you on the painting of it soon. But now, on to my podcasts.