Dark Angels tribal markings

A while back I was discussing the use of tribal markings on my Dark Angels. This of course harks back to the Deathwing origin story that centres around the 'native American' inspired recruitment world that subsequently is represented in the redoecoration of the 1st Legion's armour. In particular this Paul Bonner illustration inspired me with the triple chevrons on the side of his carapace. The 'Lame Bear' icon was also evocative, although I haven't gone that far quite yet.

This Jes Goodwin concept also evokes the heraldry used by the Dark Angels, although less overtly related to native symbology [except for the thunderclouds and lightning]

The more well known image would be this one however, with the Homeworld Symbols [including the storm icon no doubt building on Jes's work above]. The chevrons continue on the leg though which is where I'm drawing inspiration.

Incidentally I did come across these homeworld symbols a while back in case folk were after more inspiration. These definitely could form a starting point for folk to create even more icons.

And this non-hobby related picture dictionay that could easily be incorporated in our symbology.

Amusingly, considering how the wealth of detail on most marines [well compared to a Termagant] is a personal pain when it comes to painting, it would seem odd I would then paint on extra details, like the chevrons. However, I really think these extra touches add a lot of character to the model and help make them that little bit different.

The use of war paint is also something I want to explore more of but my ability, coupled with the scale is something I worry about if it's anything more than ssomethign simple like the 'Bear Claw' tribes stripes.

But they worked on the Dark Talon.

And the simple highlight itself was really effective.

It was also a good way to identify a unit.

I'm sure my experimentation will evolve over time, so that eventually when the army is finished [yeah right!] I'll have adopted so many styles that the originals will need re-doing! ;)

'nids part 210 - Lictor remodelling 1 - The Great Build part 5 - TO DONE!

Having settled on my Ravenwing as my 'projet du jour', it was clear I had to go off list. Technically the Lictor is on my Great Build list so I'm not too bad. Now, we all know the Lictor pose is pretty static and with five of them in the Forest Brood and Assassin Brood they'd all look pretty unispired without re-posing - there's only so much you can do with those arms and talons. Which lead to this... Now I know the pose is a bit goofy, that left hoof could do with pointing back [like the old skool Genestealers], but this is still potentially possible. I must say the pose looks more 'unnatural' in the pics than it does in real life. The sinuous flow that should be there is mroe evident but even so the pose could have been better.

However, I like to do things quick and dirty, with the least amount of green-stuff/Milliput. If I can get away with pins and super glue gel I will. For instance you cna even see the right leg, in particular the middle section - that's on back to front! In reality it should be the other way around with all sortd of sculpted ribbing streching the joints between the ankle and thigh connections. However, turning it round cleared up that issue and gave the leg extension I was after without any sculpting requirement.

I also pinned his hoof join but didn't trust the strength so added superglue and two chunks of florist wire to add strength, whether it works is anyones guess. It's not perfect, I know, but he's been sat in a box for a year or two, now he's built and different. He almost looks like a baby Dimachaeron here.

Actually, I just realised the pose isn't a million miles away from the Fulgrim pose, so if it's good enough for Forgeworld...

He won't be used very often so branching out into something more dynamic/scenic, even with it's flaws is something I can at least live with if not be chuffed with. Now, what about the other three? BIG PURPLE STAMP!

Dark Angels - Ravenwing - Turquoisewing shading

It's been a week since my last post which is a big gap for me. That's not to say I haven't been busy, it's just once again the elements that are occupying my efforts do not really translate to pictures. That said I have shaded the 'Turquoisewing'. I'm not sure if this was one or two coats of Army Painter Dark Tone.

Interestingly I abandoned the plan to use thinned Bahama Blue to transition the black to turquoise. You can just see I tried it on the middle right bike, I may come to regret not doing it we'll see.

The command/Black Knights however have turned out almost identical to my original bikes, which is a relief to still be getting it right one year on.

 Obviously the black needs highlighting next as the turquoise bits are all done. Motivation was strong at this point but somehow fizzled off the boil in a 24 hour period. I really do not fancy painting all that black

I did conclude that perhaps I'd recorded in my previous Ravenwing exploits how long each bike took to highlight and went back in the blog to my Original Ravenwing Bike Squad. Although there didn't seem to be a record of how long it took I did observe the bike itself is done in 30% of the time, so I might crack on with that at least. But I distracted myself in a similar way to the original Sergeant and painted the medic. Picture one is a basecoat of a pale blue craft acrylic. Picture two is some first highlights on the lower leg.

Day two and I'd pretty much completed the white. I am a strong believer in sticking to a specific colour palette and ordinarily this guy would have been Stonewall Grey, Strong Tone wash, grey and then white - so all the Ravenwing symbols would match. However, this was a way of doing white I'd wanted to explore for a while - if I'd done the Turquoisewing traditional white it was one of the options.

So, although this deviates from my standard recipe having an Apothecary gave me licence to try something different within the confines of the special character. I'm not 100% convinced his left shoulder pad should have been white and some of the bronze doesn't sit well next to it yet but I'm really pleased with the result.

The finish is really good and although it is far from realistic it fits well with my style of painting and would be more than good for those that struggle with the difficulties of white [tell me, are there any colours that are 'easy' to paint? Is it just blue, hence one of the reasons to dislike Ultramarines, that offers simplicity in execution?]. Anyway, we'll see what happens next...

Dark Angels - Ravenwing - Turquoisewing

I did my first 'true' Ravenwing feathers near enough a year ago and now I'm back doing them again. I just went with the Army Painter Turquoise first. I did refer back to the original post and was reminded of the two techniques I'd employed and for some reason chose this as my preferred option. So far I have six of the standard bikers done, not to mention all of them have now had their black elements neatened up and even done the highlights for the red seat leathers.

As you can see the Ravenwing banners come in quite handy for resting the bikes as they dry. I'm not sure if I mentioned the whole sprue underneath thing, probably thought it was self-explanatory. However, you can see all the bikes have a piece of sprue glued to the nifty little cuboid underneath the bike footrest. This is to hold the figure while I paint it. Then when the bikes done I can snap/cut it off and a quick dab of black will remove any trace it was there. Of course that means it's a bit difficult to rest as thin paint dries but I discovered this handy tip - hooking the banners on some wire.

Before I finished for the night I did a qquick highlight on one of the bikes. 2nd gen Anita's provided the 'pre-thinned' turquoise I needed. As you can see, particularly on the back banner, the Army Painter turquoise has quite the contrast with the black. It's not smooth blending at all so I'll have to work out how to feather that in as a coat or two of Army Painter Dark Tone won't quite transition that degree of contrast. I'm sure I'll figure it out, I may even try some Baham Blue in there as there's sufficient room to feather things.

It does seem a bit odd to highlight the bottom edge of each feather but nothing makes sense in the grimdark universe. They all look incredibly bright at the moment, again beecause of the large surface area of each feather on these older back banners.

Hopefully I can tone it all down, it's odd to do these bikes with the original Ravenwing upgrade sprue - slighty different challenges to the Dark Vengeance and Ravenwing Command Bikes who all share similar front wing and back banner feather sculpts. Bottom line I found my muse/mojo again. Although I took a night off following these [to be fair I'd had  the day off so had finished the black during the day as well] I'm really eager to get all the feathers done all the bikes, get the colours shaded right back and start highlighting/shading the actual black. Again it's weird as the Land Speeder Dark Shroud or even the Genestealer Cult should be the items I'm focussing on in an attempt to throw them into the Double Trouble mix. The Dark Shroud was achievable but I can't reconcile the mounting of the Icon of Caliban and whether to magnetise it alongside the Plasma Battery for the Land Speeder Vengeance - so it's stalled completely. Likewise the Genestealer Hybrids if completed could potentially make a 750pt GSC alongside my existing kitbashed Cultists and genestealers. But, it;s the bikes that are occupying my thoughts and efforts and they'll be a welcome addition to my Dark Angels if I can get them done.

Dark Angels - Ravenwing aged METAL!

What a difference a day makes... actually the difference is marginal but pivotal. I have applied 'liquid gold' my Army Painter Strong Tone and all the doubts I had about the brass effect has been resolved. You can see how unrealistic and 'blobby' the gold paint had been on the left model. However, I washed half my Ravenwing with Strong Tone and you can see just how much the wash has evened things out and brought the sheen down to manageable levels. It's filled me with confidence and with all the METAL! brought to the same point I'm eager to move things on.

I did need to resupply all my washes just in case - £7.50 added to my growing hobby spends but I still think it's the best value available

With the bronze/brass done is finally moving onto the black. This basecoat should be mind-numbingly unpleasant but having suffered through the previous METAL phase the simplicity of a basecoat is wildly appealing. I’m not daft though and after 30 minutes getting this guy’s basecoat completed I recalled that the process is much easier if I break it down further – do all the wheels, then the wheel fairings, the marine, then all the other bits and it seems less onerous. It’s still going to be around 13.5 hours on a process I’m not sure I even need to do. I have some recollection having done this last time with the Ravenwing bikers that after the highlights I shaded it with black [much easier than blending the highlights]. So I essentially covered up all the black anyway.

That said there’s nothing like having a reset and starting from a tidy point having covered up all the previous processes mistakes. So although it might be a waste of time and effort I’m just going to enjoy the monotony but very evident progress in basecoating the black.

Yet moar pics from GW Manchester

I was passing by GW Manchester the other day so had to nip and photographanything of interest, you're all worth it! This doggy was really cool.

A REALLY big dreadnought - Bjorn the Fellhanded?

Such a subtle stule of painting, no dark contrast edges like I usually do. This impresses me so much.

That new Eldar G.O.D. thing, Yncarrne?

The other dude.

and the lady and her cat!

The rest of the Eldar host, with some pretty cool jetbikes and their bases.

Some cool AoS Urruks.

Again an impressive style.

Some weird Tau/Necron/Chaos hybrid.

The scale and ingenuity of the conversions are insane.

Even the little drones are pretty cool and the bases are fab too.

Lets not overlook the quality of the painting as well

The muted purple with the yellows, greens and deep glossy red, really cool