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: Decals

Okay, the first tick off my list.

• Wash my stripped models to get the Dettol off
• Write up more battle reports
• 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

I thought I'd stick the transfers on my models first so that they would have some time to dry before I photograph them this afternoon. So rather than show you quick photos now I'll post some proper army shots later on.

I've kept the transfers as low key as possible with the Terminators in particular only getting two each (their Blood Angels symbol and the Armageddon lightning flash). I plan to paint individual heraldry on each Terminator in the future so less is more for now.

PAINTING: I've developed a new philosophy... I only dread one day at a time

As I tweeted yesterday I settled in for a marathon painting session and, about five hours later, I had a fully painted Dreadnought.


I had already sorted out the base and drybrushed the metallics so the big job was the red armour. And it was big job! The base layer was Mechrite Red over the Chaos Black undercoat as normal and then I built up the layers of Blood Red on top.


Perhaps because the flat panels were so large, or maybe because I over thinned the Blood Red, the paint went on very patchy and I'm sure you can still see some trace of that in some of the pics. Once I add some transfers it'll be unnoticeable I think.


I painted this model shortly after I painted my Terminators so I used a very similar palette, with the black left fist and the scrollwork and badges the same brown bone colour. This helps tie the elite models, and indeed the army as a whole, together visually. It might also suggest some shared history - could the Dreadnought pilot (called Eluvies, by the way) have been a Terminator before his confinement?



This is now the third Dreadnought model in my Blood Angels collection and it has me itching to field all three together in one force. They may not be earth-shatteringly good on the tabletop but they'll look cool!


So the completed Dread adds five whole points to my painting points tally and brings me up to the halfway mark of fifty for 2009 so far. I'm one month ahead of schedule with my target standing at 100 points for the year which now looks as achievable as ever.

The Dreadnought also helps out considerably for the Warseer Tale of 40k Painters pledge. My total at the moment stands at 1350 points and my aim is to have 2000 points painted. There are only three months left so I need to rack up those painting points! The Dreadnought comes in at 125 points and I also have 115 points to add from my completed Terminators (I claimed half points last month as they were half done). By my reckoning my new total will be 1590. That means I'll have two months to paint 410 points of models. It's going to be tight but it's possible I think.

I plan to paint my Land Raider Crusader next so that will gobble up 255 points on it's own. If I get that done within the next month I will have 155 points to paint in the final month. What will I paint?

My Chaplain Lemartes model is tempting because it is just a single model and will paint up quickly which could be useful if I struggle to complete the Crusader. The downside is that he only costs 125 points and will thus leave me short and he would be the second Chaplain model I have painted for the Tale.

Following the logic outlined above another character model is appealing. I have the Captain model from the Assault on Black Reach box but again there are problems; he would be short on points and he would need to be converted before I could paint him.

I already own all of the other character models such as Mephiston, Corbulo, Tycho and the mighty Dante himself which I bought and painted yonks ago. They are in need of a refresh but it seems a shame not to paint something new when after all the models are totally usable as they are.

Gamewise the best choice to strengthen my army would probably be some more Tactical marines. I could either add five marines to an existing squad or paint up the start of a new squad. Depending on the loadout of weapons and upgrades they might just squeak out the requisite 155 points. The downside to this is the length of time it takes to paint the models. I'm not sure that I could bash out five more infantry in time.

More leftfield choices would include a scout unit (add tactical variety to the army but LOTS more models to paint - at least ten to hit the points target), five more Death Company marines (rock hard models but are ten too many in a 2000 point army?), a Whirlwind (indirect shooting adds something new to the army but only weighs in at under 100 points) or more Assault marines (means I could add a powerfist jump packer but again five models may be too much to paint).

Decisions, decisions...

PAINTING: Terminators terminated

I've all but finished my Terminators. Get ready for a blizzard of photographs.

All that's left to do is paint some of the details on the bases and then attach the transfers.

I did all the painting that was left in one monster session yesterday. That meant touch ups to the armour, the power sword on the Sergeant, the highlights on the weapons and powerfists and all the iconography.

It's a shame I didn't get them finished in time for the Warseer Tale of 40k painters pledge. I claimed half points so I didn't have to play a joker, so it wasn't all bad, and it does mean I now have two weeks or so to paint up more models to make up the points shortfall.


I was fairly impressed by the quality of the Terminator miniatures given that they came from the Assault on Black Reach boxed set. Some of the details were a bit soft and undefined, especially the badges on the left shoulders, but overall I was happy to paint them.

At some point I might return to the Terminators and add some more individual heraldry to their armour; the armour plates protecting the left shoulder in particular are crying out for some personalisation.

I tried out new technique for painting the powersword, shamelessly copied from The Painting Corps. It came out okay for a first shot so I copied the technique on my Assault Squad Sergeant below.

So, with my Terminators all but done my attentions are turning to my Dreadnought. This should be a relatively quick paintjob and I should be done by the end of May, meaning I can add a hefty points total to the Warseer To40K painters pledge - somewhere in the region of 250 points. This should bring me back on track to hit my 2000 point target.

It will also add some much needed points to my own painting points total. Speaking of that, after much deliberation I have decided to add large infantry (that's anything on a 40mm base or larger) to the two points category. That means the Terminators I've just finished are worth 10 points in total, rather than just five. I think this makes sense given the size of the models and reflects the extra time it takes to paint them.

PAINTING: Terminator highlights can be lowlights

Over the past couple of days I've managed to get in about five hours painting time on my Terminators. I've been concentrating on the armour and building up the highlights. My first session was to complete the second layer of highlights.

Here are the results:

I used Blazing Orange with a little Blood Red mixed in to edge all of the armour. It's a tedious but necessary step to get the effect I want.

The next thing I did was to mix up some Fiery Orange and Bleached Bone in preparation for the final layer of highlights.

Each model took about thirty minutes to highlight. I hope you can see the difference between the two photographs. The sharp highlights really bring the models to life, I think.

So, enthused by my progress, I plan to edge the armour in black and then tidy it up with some Blood Red over the weekend so that I can call the armour finished. Then next week I'll complete the odds and sods like the powerfists and badges to try and get the unit done for the Tale of 40k Painters deadline.

PAINTING: Blood red Terminators

I've added another layer of red to my Terminators.


The Blood Red really 'pops' compared to the rather dull layer of Mechrite Red underneath but it takes on another level of intensity again when the highlights are added. You might just be able to see that I've added some Blazing Orange highlights to the model far right. I need to do this to the other four then add some Fiery Orange highlights before I can call the armour done.

The armour looks great when finished but bloody hell it takes ages. The Terminators are obviously bigger than a standard marine too and their armour is more intricate. I might regret just counting them as one point infantry for my painting point scores; it doesn't really reflect the work I've put into them. Ho hum.

I just need to look forward to the day I can whack them in a Land Raider and send them into the guts of my opponents army.

Gauntlet 2003
You can read the second game of my first ever tournament here. After my crushing loss to Gary's Dark Eldar I took on an Imperial Guard army.

PAINTING: Red all over

Just a quick blog update to say I've completed the Mechrite Red base layer on the Terminator armour.

This was no small task as each model took around thirty minutes to paint. I did the first on Tuesday night and then the rest on Thursday. I really didn't feel like painting as I was shattered from work but I knuckled down thinking I'd paint one or two but I kept on going and finished the lot. Unfortunately I'm working over the weekend so I probably won't get anything else done then, but I might have some time after work during the week.

Fingers crossed.

PAINTING: 'Eavy Metal

I did a little painting over the weekend on my Terminators.


Like the rest of my Blood Angel infantry models I started with the metallics first. The weapons and details on the armour are Boltgun Metal with a Mithril Silver drybrush then a Badab Black wash. The fancier bits, like the pommel on the Sergeant's powersword and his Iron Halo are layered with Tin Bitz, Brazen Brass, Burnished Gold and Mithril Silver followed by a Gryphonne Sepia wash. Nice and easy and they provide good results.

I also did most of the work on the bases. My main colour is Khemri Brown, drybrushed with Bleached Bone and then washed with Devlan Mud. I picked out the bits of ruined buildings in Scorched Brown then drybrushed this up to pure Catachan Green and then again drybrushed up to pure Skull White.

Unfortunately this didn't give me the pale green colour I was looking and just made the ruins blend into the base so I washed them all with Thraka Green. I'm still not convinced by the effect so I stopped there without picking out the rest of the features. I'll paint the rest of the models and then come back to the bases later.

I've also undercoated my Dreadnought with Chaos Black so it's likely I'll move onto that after the Terminators.