Broken Paintbrush

Well it only took 4 weeks but I have finished my first squad of Ork Boyz! One could argue that I spent a bit too much time on simple boyz, but since I’m doing this for the enjoyment of it, and trying something new, even Boyz get a shiny paint job

Even though these are the Orks from the Assault on Black Reach set, they are still detailed and entertaining to paint. From their unique sneers, dangling teef, and cobbled together weapons (there are bolts holding the choppas together!) it was fun picking out the details as I went along.

A decided to paint the squad as Death Skulls for two reasons: I like the color blue, and I wanted to try a hand at war paint. So each Ork has sone form of blue face paint, painted weapons, or shoulder tatooes.

I was also going for a heavily weathered look so I added rust, teal patina a lots of scratches. Even the mud was brought up the legs, knees and rear ends of the models.

For the most part I followed the painting guide from WD350 where they paint the AoBR Warboss step-by-step. Obviously the blue was replaced for the yellow and I didn’t go nearly into the number of layers/colors that they used, but it was a very handy guide.

For the bases I wanted to add lots of texture and follow what I did for my Tau suites. I will be putting together a post on how I did this while I work on the Deffcoptas.

After painting this squad I can see how some get the green fever and go all out with the Orks. While I was working on the squad I was continually looking up units in the Codex and online, reading Ork blog posts, and in general fantasizing my own Waaaagh! but for now I need to keep it in check as I have a goal to do: four 500 point armies by the end of 2012!

So as part of my plan to reinvigorate my hobby passion I am looking at picking up the gaming side as well. The problem though is the GW store in Kent, WA (the US city, not the UK Kent) closes to early for my to get home and get a game in after work. So I’m looking for a gaming club or just a group of guys from the Kent/Covington area who have a spot to play in the evenings.

If anyone knows of a group or how to find such groups please hit me up!

As promised I completed Cypher and posting the pictures, off to a good start on my new goals!

Cypher was a great character in 3rd Edition Chaos that was mysteriously phased out in the following Codex which really is a shame. Though after reading DFG’s rumor roundup it seems like he may be making a comeback!

And here is the full squad together. I am quite aware that I may never be able to play with the squad (except for Apoc of course) but after sitting in my closet for years I figured that Cypher had earned himself a squad.

Well the pictures capture that I haven’t really “completed” the squad as most evident by the lack of a banner. I also haven’t finished clear coating and glossing the models (see the back of the medic for a finished piece there), but it is done enough to post and put on the shelf until the day I decide to add custom banners to models.

Next up will be some Ork Boyz!

It is amazing how fast four months go. I have little hobby work to show for it though I have set my self some goals for the next year (not really news years resolutions, but close).

By tomorrow I should be posting the finished Cypher and his command squad. He has been sitting on my desk at 95% complete for these last 4 months and I am just about to finish him off.

As for the future goals, I have decided that rather than plodding along on my chaos forces I need to mix it up a bit. Over the next year I plan on building and fully painting 500 point armies for my (other) favourite armies. I’ve always been more of a hobbiest/painter than a gamer so these armies are for the pure joy of building and painting. The armies I plan on doing are: Orks, Tau, Necrons, Tyrinads, and Mentor Legion. Thanks to the AoBR set I already have near 500 points worth of Orks and have finished putting them together and ready for painting. For the Tau I already have a commander and his side-kick finished so it is just a matter of building up an army around them. I have a combat squad of Mentor Legionaries finished and plenty of parts to build the others. The Necrons and Tyrinads would be starting from scratch.

In between these for armies I still plan on finishing some of the many random projects for the 14th Grand Company so Chaos fans shouldn’t need to worry!

So I finally completed the last two members of the Fallen Angel command squad to accompany Cypher. Well when I say complete, the models are complete, I now need to create a banner or the pole bearer… I’ll be spending some time on FTW trying to get ideas for that.

First up, the standard bearer:

And the final member: the power weapon bearing dude.

And here is the squad all together waiting their mighty, if mysterious leader.As I paint Cypher up I plan to take more step-by-step pictures to post how I did each step. stay tuned!

Finished two more Fallen Angels for Cypher’s retinue. As I wanted to treat Cypher as a Space Marine Captain (or is he really the Primarch!?!) I built the retinue as a command squad including a medic. I figured that even Fallen Angels need to preserve their gene seed to continue the fight.And the third Fallen:

Something about robed marines is rather fun to paint and quite dramatic.

And the first three together.Even though I’m painting each one at a time, I’ve written down the paint colors for each step so each model stays consistent even when I leave the lid off my wet pallet and it all dries up.

As promised in my last post I’ve been working on something that old timer Chaos players may remember: Fallen Angels. These are the secret that the Dark Angels do not want any one to know about. They are the followers of the mysterious Cypher which was a special character option in the 3rd edition Chaos Space Marine Codex.

I’ve had these models kicking around my closet for years (Cypher since 3rd edition even) and never got around to painting them up until this last week. After priming and laying down the base coat on all the models I decided to do a test model first to see how it turned out.

As there is no official Fallen models I am using normal Dark Angel models for the squad with bits from the command squad. I could not find any special markings to set them apart from the loyal brothers so I just added some blood to the wings, symbolizing them being torn off.

Although this model is 90% done I still have markings left to do but I’m not sure what they will be, any suggestions? I also really wanted to play with the robes, making them look like they have been dragged through the mud a bit.

Also wanted to play with a bit of gory-painting and show they actually use those chain-saw weapons of death.

And just to prove that I really do have the whole squad and the mystery that is Cypher:So one down, five more to go and a banner to boot.

So with the long, holiday weekend I spent a bit of time finishing up the two Traitor Russes.

Here is the finished Traitor Leman Russ #2.

At first I was going to paint the lenses green to match my Iron Warriors but through it clashed a bit too much and decided on the blue instead.

I also thought the cargo boxes looked a bit funny being empty so I painted up some bitz to add some details. This one has an extra gas can (for those torch wielding fanatics), an extra lasgun and a rusty shovel.

And Russ #3.

This one got a camo cloth and broken down  stubber.

Hope you all like how they turned out. I have the two Leman Russ Demolishers still to do but first I have a surprise. The next unit has been sitting on my desk for a few years now begging to be painted and all you old school Chaos players might remember this character

So the second Russ went a lot faster even though I did a bigger Chaos star. I also was more careful with not rubbing the masking medium and it paid off.

In trying to keep the stars more free-form and chaotic I choose different centers and angles for each but kept the same size to give some coherency.

Next up is some more detailing and the final weathering (dust/mud splatter)

So I’m hoping that I’m starting to pick up the pace a bit now that I’m getting back into the painting but it still feels like I’m slogging along. Anyway, on to the new work:

I spent this last week to add a chaos star to the tank to add some color and break up the large side. As I said in the last post the idea came from the amazing Dave Taylor’s work and tutorial. The base coat is Tausept Ocher, then adding Dheneb Stone and finally Skull White for the highlights. I wanted to set off the yellow from the red as the two colors somewhat blue together at the edges so I added a fine line of Necron Abyss.

I wanted to add some wear to the markings but without having to go back and repainting it on so I tried using a masking medium that “paints” on and once dry allows you to paint over it, and when done just rub it off. It didn’t seem to work to well on this tank as I tended to rub it off while working on it so the other Russ I plan on handling a bit more careful.

The close up of the back o the turret you can see some of the masking fluid’s work.

The last Russ is almost complete with it’s chaos stars and both will be moving on to the last weathering stage before completion.