Thursday 9 April 2015

Dark Angels progress, honest!

Ben has been on my case about the Dark Angels, so I've challenged myself to complete the foot troops from Dark Vengeance this month. Completing the Tac squad may be a bit beyond my capabilities, I'll get somewhere with them, just maybe not finished. But I currently have the five Deathwing Terminators on my painting table [pile of junk]. It's slow going because I keep flitting from one thing to another, having to backtrack on bits I've missed and changing my mind on things but so far two Terminators have reached the final Bonewhite highlights stages and for them it's just all the little bits that make it special left to do.


As you can see this guy sports a Cyclone Missile Launcher, it's from a Land Speeder Storm. I've still to neaten up the stripes and there's some more verdigris to add to the extra brass/bronze elements I added, not to mention the eye lenses, but I think I'll do all the lenses on the five together so they're consistent.


The other 'completed' terminator is the sergeant, still to do his sword, tweak the Raven feathers and some read highlights.


I'm not 100% happy on the Raven feathers. I did a quick drybrush with a purple, then added some reflective stripes with a little blue and then added in some turquoise for the highlight. I may add some very fine white reflections but these areas are going to be gloss varnished anyway.


You can see the colours a little clearer here. I've added black wash twice to tone down the colours. I think I've achieved what i wanted I'm just not sure it fits the model. I'll persevere with it until it's done, I can always chicken out later and redo them.


I'm also doing a number of character models alongside the Terminators, they're on my list, sort of, so that's OK. This is DV Interrogator Chaplain Seraphicus [maybe that's the new chaplain we're rumoured to be getting, would make economical sense GW]. He's really starting to come along now, the helmet in particular is far beyond my expectations. I'll probably be going with red lenses on these - scarier!


You can't see much of the highlights on the clock but I did them very rough and pointilised, to try and evoke a textile texture.


It's a bit more evident here, it's another 50:50 choice that I think 'wow I really like that effect and it's more fun to do than trying to get smooth blends'. Then I look at it and go 'that's rough as a anything, you should be ashamed'. Still I'll wait until it's done before I pass final judgement...


And Asmodai... another contentious decision, with the only DA green on his pistol holster. Originally I'd done the purity seals red too but thought it was too much. I'd ummed and ahhed over cloak colours and then decided this guy should be old skool all black. I'm hoping to reference the original colour scheme and that of the Consecrators, who got all the good, black, relic gear. I reckon Asmodai would be wearing some of the original archaic stuff, and super militant about the first Legions heritage, so he's going to be black and red throughout.


With obvious bone highlights. However it does stand out a bit compared with Seraphicus, again wait until I've added some highlights and see what it's like with Verdigris in place. Ultimately I chose Dark Angels many moons ago so I could represent Green Wing, Deathwing and Ravenwing. Having that variety to paint different coloured models, I shouldn't balk at the idea he looks different now.


And my Azrael kitbash. I finally sussed his colours, he's managing to show off all the wings. A Deathwing undercoat, with an original first Legion tabbard and then a DA green cloak over DA green armour.


I did the rough highlights again, this time managing to get a little bit of hatching going on to pick up the weave in the cloth. Here you can also see the Raven feathers pre-shade wash, again another colour may have helped them stand out a bit more but I'm sick of this idea that all these feathers should be white.


Anyway, apologies about the pictures but I'm just snapping progress. I'd rather have some record and some evidence I'm painting/progressing/alive than be put off posting for want of studio photography. Maybe when I get my man cave I can have a little setup in the corner for progress shots...

7 comments:

  1. I like the raven feathers - and am also getting started on my dark angels ravenwing I built when DV came out.

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  2. Very nice. Looking forward to seeing the finished army

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  3. It would be nice to get Sapphon back, instead of Seraphicus. The classic Asmodai model used to reflect Sapphon's wargear better anyway (Powersword and crozius). Now that Asmodai has his own new figure, they could use the old one as Sapphon and it wouldn't cost them a thing. Of course I wouldn't buy one; I have three of the blighters already ;-)

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  4. Looking good Dave! I wouldn't worry too much about blends. I watched some masters at adepticon do it right in front of me...its really just repeating them tens of thousands of times till its second nature. I'm not a big fan of it myself. I'd rather just cover things in rust! (#lazygreg)

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  5. Beautiful work in perspective, Asmodaî is really awesome. the captain cloack is great.

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  6. Cmon dave, get em finished so I can kill em. Seriously tho mate, looking forward to seeing these on the table

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  7. Cmon dave, get em finished so I can kill em. Seriously tho mate, looking forward to seeing these on the table

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