Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights and Terminators - BIG BUILD TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been building models as part of my BIG BUILD. I first put my 'remaining Deathwing Terminators' on my 2016/17 BIG BUILD TO DO LIST. Lets just process that for a minute - I planned to BUILD these in 2016 and it's taken 7 years just to fit them into my build schedule! To be fair it took my 5 years to paint the first 5 Deathwing Knights, and I was somewhat traumatised by the process. This second set was bought at the same time, the Dark Vengeance expansion box had 2 sets of Knights and no Ravenwing. It's a little annoying that there isn't an extra Mace of Absolution and you're forced to run a flail, when a unit of 10 limits it to one flail only,. Nevermind, I'm not likely to play them anyway!

Now this is a fun kitbash of sorts. There's a mix of standard plastic Terminators, Dark Vengeance plastics, Veteran upgrade sprue and parts from the command/Knight upgrade sprue. 

When I get round to priming/basing them I'll fill in all the details but feel free to see what you can spot.

And a few more - an Apothecary, a Deathwing Champion and Flamer [in case I ever play Space Hulk]. The champion was a Forgeworld Red Scorpion Carab Culln I ended up with from a trade year's back. I cut all the Scorpion motifs off and thought he'd look great holding that Halberd on high in a pose I think his arms are physically incapable of achieving!😂 

I have a couple more torsos and legs but can't seem to find the motivation to finish them off, as I think I need to magnetise Cyclone Missile Launchers on them. 13 is far too many for me to do at once anyway. With the basing sand added they're now ready to be primed when the weather is a bit better. I'll do all the basing and no doubt they'll sit on the shelf for another few years, but who knows... Here's the Great Big Big Build RUSTY Stamp of Approval for the build.

Dark Angels - A pair of Deathwing - TO DONE!

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've also finished #paintingwarhammer a couple of Dark Angel Deathwing. These were thrown in with the Deathwing Knights as it seemed like it'd be easy to do it as one big squad. That was a mistake. This was a Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield conversion of the Dark Vengeance terminator sergeant.

This guy is from Space Hulk.

And alongside my previous Dark Vengeance Deathwing I'm really pleased the painting, although possibly very different in approach is still consistent in look, despite the time difference.

Probably not the best comparison shot as the new figure is in shadow 😉

Hopefully, this looks more consistent between the two new ones and old ones.

Still not sure about the skull, I tried adding some rust effect on it, yeah, I know it sounds odd. But, the Red Planet BASE means I can use orange rust wash to get a colour matched 'effect'. Worth a try, I can always go back and fix it when I have more patience.

Just see his tribal stripes on the back of his terminator armour.

Forgot to do all the turquoise highlights on the Genestealer skull, maybe they bleach out with age...?

Should have done more damage and weathering on the green debris, but was losing the will on this so just wanted it done. Once again, I can go back.

However, I do regret choosing to give him his tribal marking on his kneepad as the back is rather empty without that splash of extra red.

So many purity seals though!

Converted Vs unconverted sergeant.

Check out the size of the Space Hulk Terminatore Vs the Dark Vengeance one. Now I know he has extra height with that base debris and he's squatting slightly less but even so - this should be the size of all the terminators. 

Of course you could say "scale creep" and you'd be right, but that Dark Vengeance model is probably bigger than the Assault on Black Reach Terminator too. You can see he's nearly as tall as the Deathwing Knight, which has a taller base but is considerably newer, so the scale creep between the Space Hulk marine and the Knight is minimal.

Anyway, two more done.

And my Big Galactic Stamp of Approval for being a good boy!

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights - TO DONE! White pics

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity whenI finish #paintingwarhammer I used to take a number of pictures - the quality pics with a digital camera and then some highly filtered shots on my phone - because they look cool. Nowadays the phone shots seem to suffice, thanks to my home-made light box, I mean they could be better but I think they're OK.

However, although I believe the pics always look great against my original Ferron Proxima terrain mat I know that they're an issue for some and white background shots are what White Dwarf like, not that I've ever been in White Dwarf, but one can dream.

So, my second lot of pics are the white background ones, in my hopes of being published and to appease those who don't see the benefit of my contextual Red Planet BASE shots.

Given the focus on recording the miniature, rather than taking cool pics I have taken shots from more angles.

This way you can see more details. In particular I rather like the small verdigris stains that have leaked down the back of the terminator armour.

I spent a bit more time on the verdigris on the shields, multiple coats.

In no way have I reached the depth of colour Marc gets on his Iron Snakes, in fact it's pretty flat and on the face of it not particularly convincing despite the effort.

But having observed a lot of verdigris its a reasonable representation as quite often its is flat and unassuming.

In fact the weathering can appear different from panel to panel, that's the nature of a naturally occurring weathering effect. 

The mace came out pretty good, but still undecided about whether I should have applied an orange glow in places...

This shield worked quite well with the verdigris.

At some point I need to break out the other squad and start posing them. Man, I could be 50 by the time they get done!

Squad leader came out OK, kneepad showing my favourite red and white quartered heraldry from my first dwarven shields way back when [and Middenheim Marauders schem more recently].

The cloak is far from perfect but I think I just about salvaged it.

I guess fabric folds is just one of those things you need to practice and I don't get to do a lot of that so it's a bit hit and miss.

Oh and I still need to put some text on those nameplates but I don't know what to put or if I can manage freehand that small...

Anyway, hope these additional pics get to show a bit more detail. Obviously it highlights some of the bad bits too but overall I think they transcend their deficiencies and ultimately I'm pleased with the outcome and my efforts to finish them off.

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights - TO DONE! Red pics

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've finally finished #paintingwarhammer Dark Angel Deathwing Knights. I originally got these in June 2015 at Blog Wars 9 and if you follow the link you'll find my gaming crew gave me the vouchers towards it for my 40th birthday!

I then discovered it had 2 sets of Deathwing Knights [oh joy, another 5 still to paint] but no Ravenwing.

Luckily the legendary Games Workshop customer service meant they sent me the Ravenwing Command Squad separately.

So, it's been a long time coming, but I could say that about a lot of my projects. 

But these have always been a challenge with loads of detail the required decisions, which always cause delay. 

Add in metallics and other projects they just got pushed back and pushed back.

Even when I committed all this time and effort to getting them done I feel I've had to make compromises.

I'm not happy I didn't paint the ropes and knife scabbards the same maroon red of my other Deathwing - always check your schemes first.

Red purity seals instead purple feels inconsistent too.

Skin-tones are also one dimensional, I only base-coated, shaded and highlighted once. I didn't even do any eyes - I tried but it went wrong so just gave up.

But the hoods make it difficult and they should be shadowed, I mean this guy doesn't even have any eyes!

I wanted to do orange glow effects on the censer holes in the maces too, but I chickened out, I thought it'd go horribly wrong and just wanted them done.

\But none of that matters because, as I look at these pics I realise they look bloomin' cool!

All of those issues don't detract from what I've achieved, no one else will know and should I ever be inclined I can always fix them by painting the elements I'm unhappy with.

When I ever get round to the next set of Knights I can make those calls, and either match these up or leave them subtly different so it's two identifiable squads - if that would be helpful - do people ever take two min squads over one max? 

Anyway, they look great, I've got some pics against a white background coming up next. hope you like what I did and enjoy some of the more PC desktop orientated shots above

Here's my Big Galactic Stamp of Approval for getting these done!