Dark Angels - Devastator squad marking

Day 1 of the loft conversion [last Thursday] brings with it all the scaffolding and having taken the day off to be 'on site' I do get to spend the rest of the day painting. I don't think I'll be able to justify that every day I'm home but it's nice to get something done considering it's preventing Armies on Parade. This is only a micro blog but it'll do considering the upheaval. The Devastators have get the most of my attention and having created a wonderfully dark blend on this marine I'm now going to cover it up with the Devastator blast symbol. First things first was to pencil in the shape. Later on I didn't bother as it's relatively simple [although I didn't take anymore pictures :( ]

With outline in place I painted an inverted T shape using Mechrite Red [still have my supply] and then ran diagonal lines off the bottom of the T, then filled in the spikes. Black washes at the base gave it a bit of depth and then Vallejo Bloody red edges. Subsequently I decided there was too much black in the 'blast' so toned the spikes down with Mechrite red, making more of a linear gradient than an offset inner one. Interestingly I kept on finding all sorts of brown marks on the leg greaves after painting these. I couldn't figure it out as they weren't like that when I started. Then I realised I'd been using latex gloves I'd used when sculpting Milliput months ago and somehow it was still transferring to the model! Lesson learned - wear different/clean gloves.

The Missile Launcher guys have slightly smaller right shoulders and some have discs on which will render the blast symbol impossible. For these marines I will paint the 5th Company symbol on the disc and paint the blast symbol on their right leg. Where possible I'll also paint the 5th Company Roman numeral and various litanies painted on their armour.

And to prove I'm not just scamming you all on the abandonment of Armies on Parade, this is the morning of day 4 of the loft conversion. The dormer is up and by the end of the day was roofed and boxed in. The builder is hoping to finish in 3 weeks, instead of the 4-6 originally quoted so who knows where we'll be at the end of it, there may yet be time for AoP.

But at least we'll have a kick-a$$ view ;)

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah a new Print & Play building

It's been a good few months since my last 'Print & Play' terrain template and as the loft conversion is beginning my hobby and blogging exploits will take a back seat. Therefore, to tide you over I thought I'd release a new building skin. This time you get a green marble structure with reinforced iron buttresses.

The complete set of three will once again follow the same basic sizes as my beige and black buildings. Which raises the question - should I be making some additional sizes? How about a tower that is half the width [2 windows] of this one or some single storey buildings that will offer LoS blocking to infantry but leave those Imperial Knights and Lords of War with just a cover save. Let me know if you prefer new sizes or new skins?

Just to point out you can make these as simple or as difficult/detailed as you like - print onto paper and stick to foamboard and they're done but you can print multiple copies and stick on top of the foamboard another cut-out version on mounting card that's the rusted iron and then another later of just the buttresses. That way your buildings can be more detailed or as simple as you want.

These would ideally be suited for foamboard that has the black foam core. Black foamboard would make these easily playable from the off, without looking too much like a quickly knocked up bit of terrain.

To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here, be fair warned it is 8MB in size [I make no apologies for this, I could probably render it as a .jpg or spend hours trying to reduce the file size, I tweaked it a little bit and got it down so hopefully it's less of an issue now.]:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbNGJyS05pLWtuNzg

Dark Angels - Land's Speeder Typhoon Pattern

I mentioned how I was struggling to paint my Ravenwingand thought I'd shared the pics of why but can't seem to find them so forgive me if this is a repost. As you can see the highlights are by no means neat, or subtle. As I've maintained 'nids by their very organic nature offer so many advantages for those who struggle to be neat in their painting.

As you can see man-made items need a lot more finesse than my hand/eye co-ordination can provide. However, I hoped some Badab Black would solve this but that's where it had issues with strange effects appearing in it's 'tide marks'.
[incidentally that's the sort of size a Heavy Bolter barrel should be drilled to, none of this 1mm nonsense, make those Bolter rounds proportional, rant over]

I've since tried thinning black paint down and painting over the mottled Badab Black wash, this has improve the effect so much more.

As you can see here, with it's newly acquired wing-man. I've still to add some litanies and maybe some decorative markings. The Codex includes the old tropes of checks, red and gold piping, I want these to be dark and menacing but maybe I need to bite the bullet and do them just to break things up. Alternatively I could try some battle damage and I will maybe add some of my Secret Weapon Miniatures red weathering powders to represent the dust picked up on Ferron Proxima

So there's plenty to do, there's mini progress at least and having a second one completes the squadron. I do fancy a Darkshroud to provide cover and be their big brother but it'll be a while yet before I get one of them.

ebay purchases I won't regret!

I'll be honest here this is nothing more than a tease post. I've made a couple of purchases on ebay recently that I'm super stoked about. They'll form part of my 2014/15 Hobby Season but I won't be looking at them at all until after Armies on Parade, should I have the opportunity to create my new board that will require all my focus.

Suffice to say that although they won't be as exciting as a scratchbuild based on my own designs and crazy ideas they are really important items that will be interesting to share with you all. So I'm sorry about the tease but I'm super excited and had to share something at least. It's going to be all kinds of awesome, bring on the new hobby season!

Dark Angels - Watcher in the Dark - TO DONE!

Aah, this wee little fella got done. Not sure why I was so keen to get him finished, he's little to nothing in my army but I guess it just feels good to complete something.

I went a little OTT on the yellow weed, just a tad more than I should have done but I find it's quite difficult to work with so it's a bit of a gamble.

The Lion Helm is a little understated I think but I chose to do it similar to the Codex version - red wings. It fits my colour scheme [with the red planet base], although I think bronze would have probably been more appropriate.

Shadows in the creases of his cloak/mantle/habit are probably a bit too extreme but I've always been a big fan of contrast so although it's not realistic I'm still happy with the result, despite knowing it's wrong, wrong, wrong ;)

The Dark Angel green turned out OK too, now I just have to replicate it on the Tactical and Devastator squad.

Glad to see his hood was suitably dark and mysterious inside.

Some pics before I got the white balance half decent, but this is probably what the little fella would look like on Ferron Proxima, where the sulphur yellow skies would have this tint.

I find it so amusing to mount such a tiny little model on such an imposing piece of slate. It's like he's the one in charge,

Anyway, I've run out of content for the next few days, the scaffolding has gone up for the loft conversion and I've done nothing significant hobby-wise since the weekend. I've a few new terrain templates I hope to reveal that should tide you over but a slight lull in momentum is definitely in effect as the house prepares to get ripped apart.

However I do still get a big blue tick [probably my last] for being a good boy and painting some Dark Angels, even if it's only 15pts for a Perfidious Relic or 0pts to add to my Azrael.

The 2014/15 Hobby Season starts soon, join me!

As I mentioned the other day the 2013/14 'hobby season' is about to come to an end. This is when I look at my 2013/14 To Do List and see what I've done/not done/added etc. I'll review my efforts and plan ahead for the 2014/15 'season', this year it's bigger than ever.

When you've got a blog and you're trying to keep up with it, arbitrary milestones are always useful - followers, page views, actual posts, blog anniversary and for me the annual To Do List. To that end I will no longer be marking my progress with the 'big blue tick', especially as it was the icon for one of the Android apps I use to keep track of my progress. I've put together my own 40kaddict 'red stamp of approval' which will chart my progress through the year.

Now I'm hoping that I'll drag a few of you along with this newly minted blog movement, so on the 28th August you too can plan ahead for the hobby season. Should you feel inclined to do so I made another 'red stamp of approval' that doesn't have my blog address on [although should you wish to use the branded version go right ahead]. Admittedly this is still a bunch of free vectors mashed up into a badge but it'll serve it's purpose.

Every time you complete something on your To Do List you get the red stamp, you also get to do a post on the 28th August to list what you're going to do so for all those people struggling to think what they can put on their fledgling hobby blog, well there are a few posts right there. All you need to do is write that list, it can be as big or as small as you like and you can follow it as religiously or loosely as you wish. I know I get a great deal of satisfaction out of mine and refer back to it regularly. Every time I complete an item I nip back and Strikethrough the item so I know it's complete and bask in the warm glow of self-satisfaction.

Fingers crossed a few of you will join in but don't feel pressured, although if my mate Liam joins in I expect an Armies on Parade board to be in that list somewhere ;) Let me know if you like the idea and will give it a go, hopefully I've given you time enough to think about what your hobby season goals could be and take part.

Dark Angels - Mo' missiles - Devastator squad missile launchers

I'm actually really enjoying getting on with some Dark Angel action. What's amazing is that I may well have 1,500pts done soon, after all my current units and the Aegis are complete. It won't be a competitive list by any stretch of the imagination [they're DA, do they do competitive lists?] but it will be a list nontheless.

My Devastator Missile launchers. These are the Forgeworld Legion ones, well actually two are the original ones from the Legion Special Weapons Pack, these are really poor casts, particularly around the targetting lens, the bottom right one is one of these. Alternatively is the Legion Missile Launchers these are a better cast with slightly different tagetting lens. I'd recommend these if you have a choice and need five [I mentioned to get the two I needed from a bits site]

I've Tin Bitz'ed all of these and then mixed some gold to make a brass colour. A couple of elements are silver but I've kept that to a minimum. Everything has been washed with Devlan Mud equivalent. Missiles will be orange, if I'm honest they look a bit rubbish but the very poor cast doesn't help so I'll just live with it.

Here's the Verdigris wash. Once again I have some legitimate fluff why such weapons have been left to tarnish, then again Dark Angels are fond of Plasma weaponry which routinely blows up so letting your guns get a little weather worn is no different. When I get chance I'll reveal they are patinated so, I need to create a photo-composite to set the scene first though.

Unlike the Librarian's armour this has worked really well though, it's no perfect by any stretch but it's effective and having stuck them onto the Devastators they look really good [if a little oversized on the Rogue Trader models].

Next up I'll be painting the DA green on the Devs. I'll either run through the Tactical squad, possibly painting 2 or 3 a night any more and I'lll go mad they're even more monotonous than a Termagant. Or, I may start the second set of highlights on the Devs so they can be ready for next level detail - company insignia, litany scripts and any other interesting item - studs on the shoulder guards etc.

Meanwhile Armies on Parade is in stasis at the moment. I need a large wire brush attachment for my Dremel-alike and some more coving adhesive and then I can go the next step...