Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights and Terminators - Bone highlights

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity and a happy new year to you all! I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Deathwing. I last worked on these 'properly' in July, before that I'd started them in February last year! Of course, they're now all being updated with new bigger Terminators, but much smaller maces.

I still prefer these in design. Hopefully, when I do get round to making the new terminators if I just glue them to the base, no bits of slate, the scale difference might not be too noticeable.

So this is the first set of Skelton Bone highlights, the most laborious and tedious aspect of the painting and it's not even 25% of the tasks I have to do! But it feels great to have got them past this point. 

There are so many bits that still need doing, but nothing as demoralising as this set of highlights. It's all the detail bits and some might be fiddly [especially those banners] but they will make interesting challenges.

It's just getting the bone done then it's the greens, reds, greys and blessed verdigris and everything else is just detail work.

And that bit is really fun, because all the embellishments, like the eye lenses, blade effects, plasma glow and tribal markings just make the figures so much more interesting.

It's the personality that I'm adding and once these are all done I'll be satisfied with my Hobby Season, whatever else may come.

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights and Terminators - Shades and metals

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Deathwing Knights and Terminators. Another peak behind the curtain - this was February!

Whether it was just finding time to blog or too busy doing other things but I threw on all the usual shades and metals here while I was working on my Haemotrope Reactor and Halfling Blood Bowl star players.

This usually becomes a 'save point' anyway - get the metallics done and then it's the bone highlights. 

I don't mind doing the blending for the highlights but it is laborious and takes a lot of time so I didn't want to start down that road when i had other projects I wanted to tick off.

I still think I have enough time to do them but I wanted the quicker wins before I tackle them in earnest. 

I think there was just the final brassy bronze highlight to do at this stage, which was just put off for ages but I did it eventually.

Last time I did Knights Army Painter Soft Tone was too dark and it put me off progressing with them for so long.

This time Army Painter Angel Green had a similar effect. I mean just look at that coverage! Maybe I didn't shake it enough, I need one of those vortex mixers. But this looks almost like Contrast and therein lies my issue with contrast.

When you've been told for years that multiple thin coats for good coverage is the way to go a paint that actively shows the undercoat, but tinted to create a highlight still feels like poor coverage to me.

The irony being - I never do multiple thin coats for good coverage. I either do one coat so I get an uneven coverage and see my undercoat [yes, the exact negative issue I have with Contrast, but somehow it's a positive when I do it] as texture, or I do a thick coat and damn the consequences.

Anyway, a second coat made it a bit better but it was the Dark Tone wash that actually made it look like it was Dark Angels green in the end. So, when I get some other little projects out of the way I am good to go for these. Definitely the Knights will be finished before the end of the season and hopefully the rest of them too. I've just checked back to my previous Knights and it takes 40-60 minutes to do that first bone highlight so I have some clue how long it'll take to do now... maybe not so definite now!

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights and Terminators - base and prime TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Deathwing Terminators, here they are all primed with Halfords Red Oxide Primer.

Then Army Painter Skeleton Bone, with a slight zenithal highlight to keep some of that red oxide underpaint. The sepia wash will help eventually help blend it together.

Meanwhile, I had another Terminator body, legs but no Thunder Hammer and Stormshield, or at least not a Dark Angel one. I did have Space Wolf shield and hammer, so I took a Dark Angel upgrade symbols and bent it with pliers across the wings [you can see the white sterss points]. I then shaved the front of the shield.

I then glued it and held it in place with crocodile clips.

Which gave me this fella.

Based, with sand and slate.

A better shot of the Storm Shield, and while the Thunder Hammer still has a Space Wolf skull on it I'm hoping it won't be too apparent when it's painted.

 Great Big Big Build RUSTY Stamp of Approval for the build.

I then primed and based the terminator.

As well as all the other terminators, which I haven't taken pictures of but they look like this.

Which gets me a Great Big Big Build BASE RUSTY Stamp of Approval. 

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!