Father MacGregor

So, I've started painting my Terminator Chaplain, Father MacGregor. He's not done, but Im not likely to post another pic of him for a week or so as Im going on vacation.

Terminator Chaplain

So, for some reason, as I've been "updating" my Emperor's Pride Space Marine Chapter, I got a little Terminator Crazy. I think it's because I saw a buddy of mine (Russ) playing deathwing in a tourney, and all of his models were magnetized, and really well painted. I came home and looked at my fairly well-painted AOBR terminator squad and said "Yup, I gotta get me some more!"

Of course, I like my assault chaplain, so quickly I came to the conclusion that I had to make him into a terminator version.

Well several Bitz purchases via Ebay later, and some extended brainstorming got me here.
The body is that of the AOBR Termie Sgt.
I used 2 basic groin plates from the Assault terminator sprue for kneepads, I kept the skull icon, since its very chaplainy, I was going to get a matching one for the right knee, but thorugh discussions with my buddy Justin Kase, I decided to keep the non-symmetry of the armor. Same for the Chaos Skull Shoulderpad. The Helmet is a chaos marauder shoulder pad on a shaved down terminator helmet.

A Variety of Purity Seals were used to hide any blemishes I couldn't quite file away.


The Crozius is a power ax from the Space Wolf terminators, and the top of the weapon is just a back banner icon thingy. The iron halo is the stock iron halo from the AoBR termy sgt, but I cut it off, removed the skull in the middle and glued it down behind the helmet flange to make the crowned look you see now.

I don't think anyone even looks at this blog, but let me know if you have C&C. heheh

So here are some terrain pieces I recently made for a customer. He wanted desert terrain to match his game table, specifically hills and razorwire.

Ork Stormboyz

Okay, well, most of my space marines have been finished, to at least a level that I'm not completely embarrassed to bring to the table, and really I used the idea of finishing my orks as a motivational reward to get my marines repainted. So, utilizing some new techniques I picked up online, I decided to paint some old minis to see if the results would be good enough to warrant a redo of the rest of the Waaaagh! Have a look.

The new process uses washes to achieve what has been up til this point impossibly good results for me. I am colorblind, therefore subtle shading and blending is truly not feasible, or at least not at the speed at which I like to paint.

Step 1: Prime (White)

Step 2: basecoat, get your main colors on there. I decided to go old skool, grey khakis and black boots.


Step 3: Wash (Im using a water-based stain, but don't tell anyone)


Step 4: final details: here I do a bleached bone on the teeth, and some other little details. Again, my main goal is table-top quality, and here is a pic with half the unit, all of these guys at once, looks far better than anything I have previously done, and I am stoked.

Chaplain Redux

So because it has taken me so long to paint all of my marines and because I have discovered the awesome technique that is dipping (sort of), I have decided to "upgrade" my faithful leader, the Emperor's Pride Chaplain MacGregor. He's okay as he is, but he lack depth of shading. Wearing all black will do that, but the white of the skull mask, shoulder skull, and chest wings makes me want to do something for my beloved Chappy.

(here are some before/after pics so we know from whence we came)


That crozius needed some attention, though I don't particularly care for the sculpt either, perhaps I will try and find something better but for now... (btw, you have just witnessed why it takes me so damn long to get everything painted)

So a better look at that crozius...pitiful. Note: No decals yet, but I like to put them on gloss varnished models to help hide the edges. So now we're ready to go.

I didnt really want to dick around with shading black, and he's a chaplain, so I'm not changing the black armor to some other color. my plan was to shade (using the dipping) the helmet, shoulder, greaves, crozius and purity seals. I attempted a gem effect on the chest gem. then I inked over it to make it less dramatic, perhaps the keen-eyed can see it. I then gloss varnished him (not the gloves) and will give him some decals. I also redid the base to match the rest of the army, which helps too as it was grey with didnt make his black stand out, now it does. Nice little update for the old vet, methinks.

By the way, the orginal conversion repositioned the left hand and crozius, and replaced the left shoulder pad, and added the jumppack. No leading from the rear for the dear Chappy.

AoBR Terminators, I might have to get my buddy Val to send me the rest of his AoBR Orks because I love these minis, they are really detailed and nice. I'm not sure these guys are done, but they are close, and I like them. You can barely see the Crux Terminus or whatever on their left shoulder plate, but they were done with the dipping method for shading and I really like the result. you can see it also on their chest plates... what do you think?


So in addition to the little bit of painting I've been doing I also made some terrain. Woods, in my experience is the least seen terrain piece. This in part is due to the lack of good trees to be found in the hobby.

These trees were made with fake plants that I found near a cemetary. Now, yes they were at some point used to decorate a grave (I'm not sure if that makes them more or less suitable for use in tabletop warfare!), but it was after a really bad windstorm and I found this selection a good ways away from any grave site...I'm not that sick! :o)


Here's my Rhino for scale. Eventhough GW did away with area affect terrain, if I ever played I think several of the woods stands on an area marked out as woods would be best.

Assault Squad 2

This Assault Squad was done recently, it uses the dipping method to get the wash result on the chestplates, which I really like. Compared to my first assault squad I likes these much better.

Tactical Squad 3

Okay, so I've been gone from 40K for a long long time, and from blogging about it even longer, but occasionally I get some stuff done and here is some of it to show... (not sure how this got underlined. heheh)

Tactical Squad 3 consists of mostly the AoBR marines. They have 3 white marking across the backpack to make them easily identifiable on the battlefield.

Librarian Assembly - shhhhhh!

Well, I've been working a bit on my marines, I really want to just get them finished. A fully painted army is the best.

Of course I can't stop tinkering so here is a Librarian. unpainted. *sigh*

Scouts

Okay, longtime no post, but since no one is reading this anyway, no real harm.

Anyway, I have painted up (or repainted) some space marine scouts. I decided to try the "dipping" method on these guys and I have to say I was quite surprised at the quality of the job.



First up is the Scout squad leader.



Standing sniper and a couple of Scouts.



2 metal kneeling snipers.



The heavybolter scout.



Some more scouts.

So basically I painted the whole model goblin green. I then painted the camo on the pants and where applicable the sleeves. I painted the faces with flesh. I then "washed" the entire model with brown polycrylic stain. IMO there isnt much more I need to do for tabletop quality paintjob. The brown stain in the recesses, even on the face just make them look as though they are scouts that have been in the field for a while. I may try to ton down the glossy shine on them, but for painted 12-16 scouts in a couple of hours to tabletop level, I am tickled.

I have already primered a ton of Empire Spearmen and bowmen to apply this method to, hopefully to sell on E-bay, we shall see.

form of....a Librarian!

So I've been slowly working on a Librarian, I was going to extend his Shoulder pads etc. and make some elaborate stuff of his armor, and I just didn't like it at all. So I'm back to basics as far as his regular kit is concerned. I used a necron spine thingy to make I guess what would be his psychic hood. I tried to make it more Imperial using the back banner eagle top.

Anyway here are a few new pics.

Librarian

I'm not sure I will ever use one, they seem nasty but I like Chaplains better. Anyway, I was poking around my bitz box and here are the bitz I think I will use to make my Libby. This is also a test to see if my buddy Val is still checking my blog. heheh

Chapter Decal

okay I haven't posted in a while but I have not been completely idle, either. I have installed the shoulder decals including the tactical squad designation and the Chapter symbol.

Here is a pic of the chapter decals.









Notice also the contrast you get on the greaves where I've drybrushed 'dirt' and not varnished it. Looks good, and the pic is from much closer than anyone is likely to get when my marines are running around the battlefields of the 41st Millenium!

Varnish or Pre-decal

Okay I realize that I have not posted in a while. That's because I am about to embark on redoing my kitchen. I am going to rip up the subfloor and prep it for tile, then new cabinets will be installed, new countertops, new appliances, and some wiring, before I will lay tile. :o)

So, I put on a coat of gloss varnish. Now I know many people do not like the really shiny armor, but first of all, I kinda do like it. To me, the space marines, being a totally martial brotherhood would keep their kit in tip top form. Plus the use of varnish allows for some neat detail, for example I have drybrushed some "dirt" (graveyard earth) around the bottom of their greaves (? armor around their lower legs?) to simulate that they have been moving about on foot and didn't just step from the shower. This "dirt" effect has not been varnished giving it not only a color contrast but also a finish difference that the keen eye might pick up.
Secondly, the gloss varnish allows decals to hide much better. i will most likely tone down the gloss with a coat of matte varnish later, but the shininess of the decal would render the illusion of the chapter symbol, and unit markings being painted onto the shoulderpad. Here are some pics.

Squad Markings

I think I have decided on a way to differentiate marines from separate squads that will look decent on the tabletop as well as make it easy to tell. I may further differentiate with shoulder iconography, but this will make it easy as a player.

The two white slashes on his backpack denote that he is a part of the 2nd squad. By painting different parts of the backpack you'll be able to tell where each squad starts and stops even within those huge tabletop melees.

Chapter Symbol

The question arose that I had not yet detailed my Chapter name, iconography, etc.

As previously stated I am a huge Penn State Nittany Lions fan, and alum. I come from a family of Alum, my brother, mother, and father all graduated from PSU. This has caused me to do a great many things to demonstrate my absolute fanatical loyalty to the school.

Chapter name: Emperor's Pride
colors: Dark Blue and White
Symbol: Paw print
1st Squad's Ultimate Super-fly ride!













The reason I am not starting with 1st squad is because it is already all but finished. The chapter and squad iconography was done with decals. I had Griffon Games custom make them for me. It was a great deal. $40 or so got me 100 shoulder decals and several different vehicle-sized decals. High quality stuff. The also have a selection of decals that you can get for much cheaper.

Tactical Squad

So my buddy and I are gonna assemble and paint a squad of tactical marines. He has agreed to allow me not to start from scratch as I have a very busy life and need a bit of a headstart.

It's important to note that I am an absolute die-hard fan of the Penn State Nittany Lions, and that I am colorblind. Red/Green and Blue/Purple. makes it harder to shade to the level that some people do, but I don't mind. I did mind however when after selecting and painting a squad of marines in what I thought was Dark Blue. :o( (midnight blue = Purple, who knew?)

Anyhoo, with a "new" 20 year old house desperately in need of renovations, a 2.5 year old and a 3 week old, not to mention a fulltime job, I stay pretty busy. However, as stated before this little blog challenge is an effort to work through all that and still find time to spend on my hobby.

Without further adieu here are some starter pics....

2nd squad will be a 10-man tactical squad. It will include a marine with missile launcher, a Vet. Seargeant with Powerfist, and a special weapon trooper with either a melta or Flamer. I have magnetized the Special weapons to allow some flexibility with that model.









2nd Squad's Veteran Seargent. Being a true Penn Stater, I do not like the idea of using a contrasting color to accentuate the eyeglass of my marine helmets. I have chosen to use black, which I do not highlight at all. I will add a bit of extra varnish when its all said and done to demonstrate that it is glasslike. :o)












Some marines with their trusty bolters from 2nd squad. They do most of the work, and all of the dying.

Introduction

Okay, well here we go. This Blog will be about Games Workshop Miniatures. Specifically, the GW miniatures that I own, convert, and paint.

My pal and I decided we would each start a BLOG to post the progress we make on converting and painting our models.

Of course we'll also both be stumbling through how to actually make a blog.

So unless you are that friend, GET OUTTA HERE! :o)