Tactical marines

Progress!
Here are the latest additions to the Eagle Warriors - part of the Black Reach tactical squad



...just a couple more to go then I can get started on those terminators.

Goodbye old chum

Sad news I'm afraid. We lost one of our dogs to cancer. He was a friendly, patient and gentle giant, far superior in character to many humans I know, and he leaves behind a hole in our lives that will be impossible to fill. Thankfully he was not in any pain.

Just a quickie today (been on holiday) - here's another addition to the Eldar effort - a Banshee. Not happy with the pistol yet but that shouldn't take too long to smooth out.

Waaaaaaagh!

...ahem.

Right then - some proper progress now with our greenskinned friends - I've finally finished all the orks from the Black Reach set, just the Deffkoptas to do now.


Realm of Battle board is also continuing apace, although a word to the wise: I thought it might be a good idea to get the scenery painting set, and then intended to use the brown basecoat with my spray gun (generic bottom fed external mix gun), but I found that the paint, even when very dilute, quickly clogged the nozzle - much worse than standard paints. In the end I just went with the big "wall painting" brush that they give you in the set and that worked just fine. Going to have to spend a while cleaning that spray gun now - grrrr.


Anyway, without further ado - here are the Black Reach orks in all their glory - as usual, comments / suggestions very welcome:


Warboss:

The whole gang (click to embiggen):

Nobz:

Nearly finished the Eagle Warriors tactical squad too, so I'll post these hopefully next week, but painting time will be limited this weekend as we'll be in the Lake District walking about with the doggies. Have a good week folks.

Infantry time - SM scout

Mornin'

Had some metal scouts hanging around so I thought I'd see what they look like painted up in the Eagle Warriors scheme. So here we go:

Managed to get the eyes fairly straight, but a little large so he's got that look of being engaged in a stare-out contest. I guess that it's good for a sniper to have keen vision though eh? Here's a bit of detail from the back:

...and a stab at freehanding the chapter icon:

Got a couple more of these guys to do, but I think I'll focus on the main batch of Black Reach marines and get them out of the way first. The Realm of Battle gameboard is also on the cards, all base-coated and ready to go. More on that later...

Anyway, that's all for now - have a good one folks - hope the dice are kind to you this week!

Whirlwind!

More progress on the Eagle Warriors. Here's a whirlwind. First thing I've done with involving extensive use of the airbrush. Masking is a bit of a fiddle, but wow is it ever faster than painting with a normal brush. The blue in this case was done with Vallejo's model air series paints rather than GW paints (a bit easier to use in the airbrush without blocking the needle up), I think it's a reasonable match with the work I've already done. Tried a coat of citadel spray-on satin-finish varnish on this one - big mistake as I got a "frosting" effect on the blue and had to go over it again with the airbrush to clean it up. Don't ask me why I chose such a large model to try it out on... maybe it's because I'm very very stupid. Anyway, at the moment the finish is really mega-clean with no "battle damage" - this and a bit of mud for the tracks will be added when I pluck up the courage... All suggestions welcome for the best approach to weathering / scratching up this beast.

Also - infantry are now properly underway - here's a Black Reach marine work-in-progress showing the Eagle Warriors shoulder pad (bone saw to cut away the old pad, then new pad fixed in place / edges neatened with green stuff)

Third army underway... Eldar time

Trying to paint your way through an army without losing momentum is quite hard, so how do you make it easier? - well, by starting another army to add to your "to do" list of course! And then when you've got figures in various stages of completion all over your house, what's the best thing to do? - well start ANOTHER army of course! - Yay!

Ahem... well I suppose variety is the spice of life so this way I can flit between different figures as much as my goldfish-like attention span requires. I've started an Eldar force, to add to the Eagle Warriors marines (Whirlwind underway for these guys by the way, pics to follow), and the good old Orks (Black Reach Orks nearly done, got to do those crazy helicopters next).

As best-wife-in-the-world bought Maugan Ra for me, I guess the Altansar craftworld would be appropriate fluff-wise, plus I like the whole gothic / skeletal / angel-of-death type imagery that you could tap into for them. So here we go, Altansar Eldar #1 - I've started with a guardian to try out a purple / red / black colourscheme:

... and here is the (old style) weapons platform and gunners:

I think the purple and red works OK for this squad, but maybe for vehicles and further squads of guardians I might go more purple and black and less red for a more brooding look. By the way, the weapons platform is magnetised, so that the various weapons can be swapped in as required, only got this one painted so far though.