Deathwing and Brother Zariel

I've been working on my Deathwing some more, applying a light Gryphonne Sepia wash to my first squad, which is also going to be Belial's command squad.

They're coming along nicely now, although there's still a lot to do. Now the basics are done, I'm planning on turning my full attention to one terminator at a time, so I can make sure each one is perfect before moving on
 to the next one.

Here's the first one: Brother Zariel of Squad Belial

Brother Zariel has seen active service with the Dark Angels for more than a century, although only two of decades of that has been in the service of the Deathwing. Since his induction into the Inner Circle however, he has proven himself to be a valuable asset, earning promotion to Master Belial's personal squad within a few short years. He possesses a keen, analytical mind that has served him equally well whether in pursuit of a Fallen or where best to ram his claws into an enemy of the Imperium.

Note that his right-hand lightning claw has sustained damage, caused during the hunt for the Fallen, Akelzion. At the height of the battle for Fanrax's Reach Zariel cornered the Traitor and engaged him in personal combat. Over the course of the fight the claw glanced off the Traitors breastplate, damaging them and causing him to stumble . The mis-blow allowed Akelzion the opportunity to activate a personal teleporter and escape, a failure that haunts Zariel to this day. As result of this, he has vowed not to repair the damage to his weapon until it has sliced through Oriol's neck, an oath he has taken most seriously. 5 years have passed since that day, yet the claw remains in the same state, despite the pleading of the chapters Techmarines.

Zariel's nearly done but there's still details to finish, such as his left eye lense, the Deathwing symbol on his shoulder pad and a few odds and ends, as well as a Badab Black wash for the metallic areas (I need to find someone who still has a pot to sell me some)

The wings on his shoulders are from the DA upgrade sprues, otherwise he's a standard Lightning Claw Terminator. He still needs basing, but I'm waiting until the entire squad's done before doing that, so I can create a united basing scheme for them.

More soon....

Horus Heresy this Autumn!

Horus Heresy from Forgeworld has been confirmed at Chicago Games Day and GW's 'What's New Today'. I havn't been this excited for a long long time, I was literally giddy with excitement as I watched the video. So many prayers have finally been answered, not least f which is 'what codex should i use for my PH Thousand Sons?'. Autumn release suggests the first copies are going to be on sale at Games Day UK, which I probably won't be able to attend this year (curse the gods!).

In the meantime this means my Pre-Heresy Thousand have been bumped up to top priority, alongside my Deathwing and Chaos. By the looks of things, my wallet is going to be crying and pleading for mercy over the next few months, with DA, Chaos and FW Pre-Heresy dropping in very close proximity to each other.

Look what I found...

I was sorting through some boxes, having moved into my new place and in the process of setting up my new hobby area and came across this old project, left over from my first attempt at Deathwing, nearly 2 years ago now.

 While the Land Raider itself needs a bit of work, missing both the front and side hatches, a simple order from Forge World should solve that issue. What I really like is my attempt at freehand work across the hull, which I feel can be brought up to scratch with a bit of work.

If I get some time over the next few days, I'll spend some time on this and let you know how I get on...

Deamonic Goodness

 Picture have been emerging on Warseer of the new Deamon models that are on the way next month.

 I personally love them, particularly the Nurglings (strangely cute...), as it all captures the essence of the artwork that's in the codex and army book and the madness of chaos that I feel the model range has been lacking in recent years. The Nurgle stuff in particular looks like it could've been sculpted by John Blanche, which can only be a good thing.

I'm planning on picking most of this up at some point, minus the Blue Scribes, which I already have my own version of. If GW bring out more models in this kind of style, channeling the macabre and twisted artwork that originally drew me into the hobby, then 6th edition may well turn out to be my favourite edition ever

Good Weather = Deathwing Progress

Today was scorching hot, so I decided to sit in the garden, enjoy some music and get some painting done. I settled on working on my Deathwing, with my friend finally returning them to me, nicely basecoated and having had my chaos dreams dashed by contradicting rumours about the release schedule. I've decided not to get more excited until pre-orders go up on Saturday

Anyway, onto my Deathwing...

This is how they were returned to me. Note the three blue ones which are Librarians, one for each discipline I'm planning to use.

As I sat down to paint, armed with a paintbrush, an ice-cold beer and Bob Marley on the stereo, they looked something like this...

 A few hours later, I'd made quite a bit of progress. I've decided only to tackle two squads at a time, to keep my morale up (I have 46 of them to paint after all)

As you can see, they're nowhere near done yet, but I'm taking my time with them. I'm hoping to do a good enough job on them to be my display army, so detail and care is being lavished on each and every one of them

 Since taking these pics, I've applied a further Gryphonne Sepia to the Crux Terminatus, followed by Badab Black, dulling them down nicely and stopping them from being the dominant feature of the models. I'm wondering whether a Gryphonne Sepia wash into the armour crevasses and joints would be a good idea or not. I might pick a model I don't like so much and give it a try.

What do you guys think?

Hail Chaos!!

After a week of frantic moving and shifting of stuff for my new flat, I logged back onto the Blogosphere to find my prayers have been answered. A new chaos codex!

GW have put up their usual trying-to-be-cryptic-but-failing pre-pre-order video that is obviously for the long rumoured Chaos Space Marine codex and Blood of Kittens has emerged with a massive rumour dump on the same subject. Both are easy to find so I won't bother linking to them here, but both have send me into a hobby frenzy as I dust off and reboot my CSM Warband in preparation for this great day, having been relegated to storage since that thrice cursed, god awful excuse for a 4th edition book came out.

By the sounds of the rumours I shall be a very happy cultist. It's not the Legions 'Dex but it's close enough. The only thing I'm not sure about is the 'Dragon' flyer, but I'll wait to see it before passing judgement. Depending on the model I may end up converting a suitable count-as, seeing as anti-flyer stuff is a must under this edition.

Well done GW, you've made me genuinely happy for the first time in a long time. With Dark Angels being the most likely candidate for the next codex after chaos, my wallet isn't likely to thank you though

Massive Sale

Having contemplated the extent of my collection in light of my post on painting earlier on, i feel it's high time for another clearout. It amkes sense to me: new flat, new hobby  start.

Having spent the last few hours documenting everything I don't see myself in the foreseeable future and the price I could bear to part with it for, ready for sale.

Take a look down the list and if you see anything you like, leave a comment, or shoot me an email at rickyjoy9@yahoo.co.uk. If you've got paypal, that'd be ideal

Here's the list, complete with prices. Postage will be worked out per sale, with discounts for bulk sales

Marines


2 x Rhino, built and partially painted - £12 each
Vanguard Veteran with Jump Pack Chainsword and Bolt Pistol, painted - £4
10 x Tactical Terminators, partially painted -£25
Contemptor Dreadnought, painted - £30
3 x Thunderwolf Cavalry, painted - £20

Necrons

Trayzan the Infinite, slightly converted, painted - £8
10 Partially built Necron Warriors - £10

Imperial Guard

FW Manticore, converted for use with my Traitor Guard - £20

Empire

30 x Old style empire handgunners, partially painted - £20
Plastic Helblaster Volley Gun - (No Crew) painted - £8
5 x Outriders, Painted - £10

Orks

2 X Ork Tankbustas, Painted - £8
Ork Goff Rocka, Painted - £5
Ork Bomb Squig, painted - £3
Trukk, Painted - £12

Dark Eldar

5 x DE Kabalites, painted - £10

Malifaux

Collete Box set, partially painted, includes stat cards - £20

Dark Elves

10 x Dark Elf Crossbowmen - £12
5 x Cold One Knights, painted - £10
10 x plastic Corsairs - £10

LOTR

Kingdoms of Men sourcebook - £10
12 x Rangers of Middle Earth, painted - £10

Rulebooks/Codices/Army Books
7th Edition Hardback Warhammer Rulebook - £15
8th Edition Hardback Rulebook - £30
Dark Eldar Codex £10
Ork Codex - £10
Eldar Codex - £10
Planetstrike Book - £10
6th ed Dark Elf Army book - £7
6th Ed Hordes of Chaos Army Book - £7
Black Library

Signed hardback copy of Blood Pact by Dan Abnett - £15
Ciaphas Cain, Hero of the Imperium Omnibus - £5
Malekith by Gav Thorpe - £5
Word Bearers Omnibus - £10
Know no Fear by Dan Abnett - £5

Have at it guys, there's some good bargains in there. Hopefully wiith your help I can clear some valuable storage space and buy the 6th ed book at the same time
 

Thinking about my painting life

Ok, so Ron just posted an article on From the Warp that got me thinking about my painting skills, which have been lacking for years. He talks about how it's a great idea to get out of your painting comfort zone and paint something you normally wouldn't paint to imptrove your skills, as you're trying something new.

Reading through it, i had an epithany as to why I never seem to be able to improve my painting skills: I always paint in the same way

To show you what I mean, lets us take a look back on my past few projects. In the last three years most of my painting has been focussed on the following projects

Orks
Vampire Counts
Blood Pact
Dark Elves
Space Wolves
Deathwing

On all of them I applied basecoats, then used liberal amounts of washes to make them grimy and to create the shading (which I fail so much at doing the old fashioned way) and 'grime up' the whole model, then pick out minor details to finish. No wonder my skills havn't improved!

With this in mind I am going to branch out and explore new ways of painting, starting with my Deathwing. Apart from on their guns and armour joints I'm going to avoid washes much as possible through the entire project.

Then I'm going to trawl the internet for as many painting articles as I possibly can and apply them to as many different models as I can, painting up my entire collection and selling those I don't realistically see me ever finishing. The 'Eavy Metal Masterclass book I picked up back in December should help too. I don't ever see myself getting to that kind of standard, but if I study the techniques, it should at least help me improve.

Finally, when I get paid I am going to start buying those models I absolutely love, but would never do a full army of - like Harlequins, for example- and paint up some nice display pieces for my new flat, which will have room for a cabinet to display them in.

Hopefully all this will help me out and improve my overall painting abilities, we will see...

Deathwing Built

Havn't had a chance to play 6th edition yet, but that doesn't mean that I can't prepare for it. With that in mind I've been stripping down and building those terminators I bought back in february, ready to be airbrushed by the friend I mentioned last post.

Here they are, crated up, ready to be taken over to hers tomorrow morning...

Once they've been basecoated, it shouldn't take too long to get them done and ready to field. I'm enforcing a rule on myself that under sixth edition I'm not going to use any models that aren't fully painted on the tabletop, hopefully putting a crimp in my tendency of starting a new army on a whim. Hopefully.

On other fronts, I finished my Tree Kin commission, although unfortunately I forgot to grab some pics to put up. Need to remember to do that when i get commissions, so i can develop my website for them. At the moment I'm relying on word of mouth around my local area to get work, but I want to expand so it's a bit of a more reliable source of income, which means a website's a must.

On a plus note, however. I had a game of Mordheim the other day and got through it without a single hero death, even earning enough gold to buy some more henchmen, so things are looking up. Also managed to get some pics of the game, so i'll put up a battle report very soon.

Until next time guys, Happy Gaming!