Dark Angels - Lava swords, molten metal blades etc.

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I finished #PaintingWarhammer on my Deathwing, but just wanted to show some unseen WiPs of the lava blades. I started with Valejo Game Extra Opaque Heavy Red.

Then I stippled on some dark orange in places, then some Troll Slayer Orange.

It was the same for the unnecessary Bolter Bayonet. 

I mean this was just super easy with very little thought to it.

So much so that when I added VGC Orange Fire it felt like it was painting itself

From here I just wanted to add some yellow.

And with VGC Sun Yellow stippled at the ends they were done. 

Now a light drybrush of black in some places, perhaps the odd black dot in others would help on a bigger blade. But the Lightning Claws were already quite small, so I didn't want to confuse things.

Not sure I got the effect in the right places here but even so I was super chuffed with the results. Enough to recommend giving it a go.

I know I was tentative, despite trying this effect a few times already. If you have doubts, don't. Just give it a go, you'll be surprised how easy it is.

Terrain is everything - TT Combat Gothic Ruins MDF kit - ruin base TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I made this base for my TT Combat Gothic ruins way back when, but I never actually shared it. 

The ruins themselves come in two parts, a ground floor piece and this upper floor and I wanted an option so I could have them as two separate pieces.

This was built, primed and based for years before I finally painted the small bits of debris the other week

And for this I get a Great Big Big Build BLESSED VERDIGRIS Stamp of Approval, because it was built in 2021/22 Season.

I primed the bases with my truly awful Simoniz Red Oxide Primer. Loads of shaking and it still won't mix properly. I managed it in the end though, using a toilet roll tube to mask off the model itself and just spray the base. Then I went on with my standard Red Planet Base process. 

Here's my Great Big Big Build Base BLESSED VERDIGRIS Stamp of Approval, although I didn;t take any pictures at the time.

This sat for so long with these half dozen bits of debris just waiting to be finished.

And it's not like I hadn't done Blessed Verdigris countless times, I just hadn't remembered ti do these bits too.

Not that I'm ever likely to use it but you never know.

I mean it's the bread and butter of Red Planet BASE! 🔴

Nothing fancy, so no excuse why it took so long.

But it's done!

Anyway as I finished it this season - a Bloody Great Big Bloody Stamp of Bloody Approval!

Dark Angels - Ravenwing Talonmaster - White Pics

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer my Ravenwing Talonmaster. Really I should have taken these pics against black, given their colour scheme 😉 but white will do.

Monkeychuka will be most pleased with these unadulterated images, he's right they do show off the painting a bit more, even though they're a little less atmospheric.

It's weird seeing some of the finish as the weathering in particular looked over the top when I first did it [so long ago]. However, now I think it's fine and fascinating to see how the Turquoise pooled.

The glow FX aren't exactly my best on the jets, but again I think the overall look is worth more than the effort I put in. I'm getting a lot of satisfaction from the 'cost/benefit' ratio out of this, the cost being my effort in achieving an effect.

I mean this angle makes those jets look really good, framed with the aged bronze and then the BLESSED VERDIGRIS. I've loved that effect since I first did it on my Dark Vengeance Plasma guys 8 years ago! 

It's often a bit hit and miss, like my purity seals but for the most part the result works out OK.

I also added my 'Bear Claw' tribal stripes, both on the crew and the top of the Land Speeder.

I did the ones on the top both diagonally left and right, the existing Speeders ones is angled right and one is angled left, so it had to be both, as the 'tip of the spear'. But you can just make out the angles aren't quite mirrored perfectly, which is annoying. I'll stick to one set in future.

Close-up of the 'lava' sword and the Talonmaster's tribal stripes.

The Gunner's tribal stripes and the now obvious simplicity of the highlights. I think the eye lenses were even simpler than usual, with a few less steps but I don't see much of a difference.

That BLESSED VERDIGRIS tho! And to think I wasn't going to add the hood ornament, but what was I going to do with it otherwise?

And here we are swapping out the radar dish and honour badge for the Typhoon Launchers.

The orange missiles are a bit more vibrant than my previous too, thanks to Trollslayer ORange.

And I love how that ties in with the Power Sword colours, something a silver blade with blue highlights would have introduced more colours to the palette.

There were still some bits of Tamiya Clear colours to add and I do need to glue some of my Speeder bases together but I really, really love a Speeder squadron.

That's one of those items I think I'd just keep buying more of, unnecessarily! Anyway, since this I didn't quite capitalise on the momentum with my Attack Bikes, just some metallics added. That's because my son is back from university and we've been watching the Expanse. 🚀  Which if you haven't watched it you should as it's possibly the closest thing we have to a 40k TV show right now. The final season in particular has some excellent space battles.

Dark Angels - Ravenwing Talonmaster - TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer my Ravenwing Talonmaster. This feels like ages ago. I think it's about 2 weeks since I finished the Talonmaster. I've since picked up the eldest from uni, so my hobby time has been reduced and it feels odd to be writing this post [I;ve a Blood Bowl tournament to report on too and that was like 3 weeks ago!]

Anyway, with my epiphany regarding the simplicity of my black highlights I cracked on no bother. All the red's got highlighted, parchments and purity seals and any additional glow or lense effects.

It was only two or three sessions after the last update to get it finished and I was really chuffed as it's a big deal. Unfortunately I hadn't got any of my attack bikes or other Ravenwing up to speed so it's a retrograde step to be starting them from the beginning of the metallic stage.

But back to the Talonmaster and you can see I opted for the currently en vogue molten lava/red hot power sword. I watched a number of tutorials from the likes of Artis Opus, the one and only Duncan Rhodes, Vince Neturella and 2brushes1cup.

Given the wealth of research one might expect better results but I'm really pleased with it. It totally does not stand up to close scrutiny and there are so many subtleties from those tutorials that I just didn't do. BUT, from a tabletop perspective I thinks it's perfect.

I really can't see what difference hours of additional blending and glazing would have added to the sword. Even the quick and dirty additional glow FX feel bob on. It's amazing how some rough stippling hast achieved this. That's nto say I might not try to be more careful next time, that is practice afterall, but I'm over the moon with the end result.

I also got the Typhoon Launchers finished, I'd forgotten to do all the orange missiles for so long, so that was a last minute thing.

I do like a Squadron of these.

I don't think these can be armed with Power Swords, but I wasn't going to magnetise his weapon, not everything has to be 100% W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G.

I do like how the blade echoes the missiles though.

That trophy banner will inevitably get snapped off.

This will at least be something new for my #ArmiesOnParade2022 Ravenwing Vs Death Guard, so that's another bonus.

But I also envisage if I ever play with my Dark Angels the Talonmaster will be an essential choice to support the rest of the Ravenwing. So it's a major achievement [even though I don't always differentiate that in my stamps of approval...).

So, here's my Great Big BLESSED VERDIGRIS Stamps of Approval! White pics to follow.