DEATHWATCH Kill Team

Finally, I get to tell you all about one of my pet projects. A lot went into these guys and I'm glad to say they were worth it.

The Deathwatch is essentially the Warhammer 40,000 spec ops teams, made out of Space Marines. They get conscripted from the various marine chapters, paint all the non-iconography parts of the armor black, and the left shoulder/arm is all Inquisitorial silver.

For painters, it's a delight because we get to use a lot of different colors and splash images on neutral black/silver, and have lots of different little freehand things we can do to differentiate each model. Plus, I gave this squad extra meaning to myself. Mom assigned colors to me and my three brothers growing up so we wouldn't fight over stuff. Socks had a green dot on them? They were mine. Red dresser? Was Kyle's. Etc. So, I picked four chapters to represent our colors growing up, and had to figure out what to do for the Sergeant. Because if it wasn't going to be me as the lead (I wanted my Dark Angel with the plasma gun which the Sgt. can't use) then sure as hell it wasn't going to be any of my other brothers.

Eventually decided to make it themed off our dog growing up, Sparkey. He was a little half Shelty, half Poodle. Black and white. So, that's why the beaky helm guy is the leader and he's black and white.

All the decals are free-hand on there. I spent a lot of time on each face. I think the Ultramarine I painted up for this is the best miniature I've ever done, or at the very least is the best face I've painted. I also love the pose of the Imperial Fist, looking over his gun as he's about to toss his grenade. Felt very action-like.

The bases are from the Sector Imperialis basing kit, and the Deathwatch shoulders are all legit from the actual upgrade kit. Pretty much every part of each guy is taken from the Sternguard box, exceptions being the shoulders of the Blood and Dark Angel. I had the Dark Angel pad from an upgrade sprue I'd picked up awhile back, and the Blood Angel one a friend just gave me because he thought my concept was way cool.

Enjoy! If you've got questions about how I did anything, leave it in the comments and I'll try to guide you through it.

Red Scorpions Apothecary

So I decided I needed a codex astartes marines chapter rather than one of the non-complient chapters like Dark Angels. Right when I decided this, Forgeworld released rules for chapter tactics for all the Badab War chapters.

Immediately thought I should do Red Scorpions, whom I always thought were cool anyway. Love the color scheme, love their rules. They can bring an Apothecary as a sergeant in every tactical squad meaning its that much harder peeling a scoring unit off their objectives. Plus, it means I have to kitbash and custom-ish build every last Sgt. I want to do which appeals to me. Also one of their named HQs is a really powerful psychic character who can eliminate the randomness element to which powers he brings, which is one of the stupidest things in 40k. "Hey, I'm a really powerful wizard psyker and I somehow don't know what spells I know." Sometimes, GW, random is not better.

First thing I did was order the Legiones Apothecarion detachment. Used the Mk4 armored guy as my first Scorpion because they are known for fielding their guys in that pattern armor.

Only thing not done is I am going to order some transfer sheets for shoulderpads and for vehicles once I eventually do some of those. So, that blank black shoulder is going to have a white circle trimmed in yellow with a red scorpion in the middle.

Edit: Took some more photos, tried to make it look a little better. Not sure I succeeded or not, but I am not really a photographer so sue me.

Christmas Gifts!

Welp, looks like I got my first miniature done as a Christmas gift done up quickly. I worked on it a lot last night, so that's why. Make sure you go read my previous post before this one, seeing as I published it like two hours ago or something. Productivity comes in waves, I swear.

This guy was a blast to kit bash. Zack and I spent maybe 30 to 45 minutes just rummaging through parts to come up with the idea for this guy, which is to say captain of his 8th company. He is going with a pre-heresy Emperor's Children color scheme, and is saying its a faction of that chapter who remained loyal, and is therefore Codex Astartes compliant. (If you are reading this and lost, don't worry. This is legit nerd stuff.)

Their symbol was a wing that ended in a claw. I realized awhile ago many symbols on my Ravenwing guys were essentially that because whenever they had the eagle wing on something not holding the sword that usually part of the symbol, it ended up looking like exactly that. We took the helmet out of the Ravenwing Command Squad box and you'll notice its the same as the one my champion is wearing from a few posts prior.

The claw and hammer set up was Zack's idea as he just liked the weapon combination. Its pretty nasty on the table top because it turns him into an all-comers close combat warrior. Its also extremely costly points wise, but hey cool captains are more important to imagine than to actually run. We searched high and low in his Vanguard Veterans box and grey knights kits to find the rest of the gear, I believe. His right shoulder was out of the Sternguard Veterans box, and we're not even sure where the Mk6 studded shoulder on the other side came from as it was half painted already when we put it on. Basically, anything with an Aquila or that looked like it'd be pretty in gold, we put on him. The emperor's children turned to chaos out of their own pride so making sure his captains are really coordinates and gaudy was important.

For the base, I thought it'd look cool if he was at the highest point on an outcropping of rock, as if he was about to leap. It looks great, but I fear it wont last. The cork board I use for rock looks great, but is really flimsy so there is a good chance it breaks some day. Plus, posing him this way made the model extremely top heavy so I had to glue two washers to the bottom for weight instead of my usual just one.

Still, I think the end result speaks for itself. The only thing I want to add is his name on the scroll on his right shoulder and something else on the white part on his right leg, but my thinnest brush is not holding a point very well anymore and I also need to talk with Zack about what we're going to name him.

Next up: Drazhar, Dark Eldar inccubi bad-ass.

Step one of Space Marine painting competition

So my local hobby shop is having a painting competition. I wanted to challenge myself to do something I've never done and that seemed really hard on paper.

So, I wanted to toy with shadows and source lighting. The key to shadows is all in how you think your model is lit. If you want a dim situation, the odd thing is bright colors opposite your base coat end up making the model seem like its underground or in moonlight. Easiest colors to do this kind of complimentary shading with is blue and orange.

The first thing I did with my marine for entry was base it totally black then got out my white primer to lightly spritz the direction I wanted light from the eventually lava themed base to emanate from. When I based my model, anything black was coated with a thin blue (Macraggae Blue), anything white was coated with a forestry green, the kind you get from blending blue and orange together. Lastly, I used the orange I had mixed with the blue for that green shade (Jokaero Orange) inside of where the blend was, attempting a semblance of a blend.

Afterwards, I applied a blue wash over the whole model to tone the orange part down, then went back over the entire model again once that wash dried to achieve the orange shading that my lightsource would bring out. Both washes really helped the BLUE->GREEN->ORANGE blend, as well.

That's currently where I'm at with the model. More to come as I get further!