Category: Warhammer 40k

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Miniature painting Miniatures Warhammer 40k WIP it good

WIP it good: more Judgment, Squad Adamo

I hit my stride with Judgment in early August, blowing through shading and into layers. That tipping point always feels good.

This WIP post compiles a couple weeks’ work.

Base-coating and touch-ups finally done! This always feels like the stage that takes the longest
Gotta wash the bottom of the treads first
…Then everything else
Ready for layers/highlights
My palette has developed some cute little paint-hills over the past few months
First-layer highlights done!
All of the final highlights done except the orange, which is underway

With Judgment on the back nine, I got out Squad Adamo — already primed — so I could work in parallel.

Primed and ready

I thought a bit about how to handle the ruined stone structures on 3/5 of this squad’s bases, because I wanted them to stand out from the brown/grey stones of Armageddon, and settled on brown. The only brown I have is Mournfang Brown, which looks like poop.

Mmm…poopy

But once the wash is down, it starts to look a lot less like poop — and I had faith in my first layer, 2:1 Kislev Flesh:Mournfang Brown.

I drybrushed on my Ryza Rust this time around, and I like how it turned out
More rusty metal
Basing elements done, ready for texture paint

Assault Squad color guide

Bases are the usual except:

  • Metal: Leadbelcher > Agrax Earthshade > Stormhost Silver drybrush > Ryza Rust drybrush
  • Stone ruins: Mournfang Brown > Agrax Earthshade > 2:1 Kislev Flesh:Mournfang Brown drybrush > light Grey Seer drybrush (dust/weathering)

Ditto the models, except:

  • Helmets: Averland Sunset > Agrax Earthshade > Yriel Yellow as a true layer, nearly full coverage > Flash Gitz Yellow
  • Hazard stripes: alternating bands of Abaddon Black/Averland Sunset > no layers on the black, but on the yellow: Yriel Yellow > Flash Gitz Yellow
  • Eviscerator channel: Leadbelcher > Nuln Oil pin wash

This was my first time drybrushing Ryza Rust rather than spot-painting with it, and I like this approach quite a bit. It’s easier to take a light, subtle touch and make the metal look old and rusty, rather than just rusty. Pure spot-painting seems to work well for something poorly made that’s had a few years to rust — like Ork scrap and vehicle parts — but doing it on these metal elements would be overkill.

Land Raider Crusader color guide

As general Blood Angels or Rhino, except:

  • Wings: Celestra Grey > Drakenhof Nightshade > Ulthuan Grey > White Scar
  • Commander’s helmet: Macragge Blue > Drakenhof Nightshade > Altdorf Guard Blue > Calgar Blue
  • Multi-Melta screen: Moot Green > Agrax Earthshade > Moot Green > Caledor Sky symbols

Finishing order is probably also worth noting for Future Martin’s benefit:

  • Front turret and sponson swivel guns, sensor pieces, and bottom attachments were fully painted while detached
  • Main tank body was fully painted
  • Sponson “wells” and front turret pit were varnished
  • Detached bits were varnished
  • Sponson guns slipped into place
  • Sponsor sensor units glue onto gun swivels
  • Bottom attachments glued into place
  • Varnish touched up on all sponson elements
  • Front turret glued into place
  • Varnish touched up on front turret
  • Rest of tank varnished and allowed to cure in two stages (bottom treads; everything else)

After Judgment, just 15 Space Marines separate me from my first full-fledged finished 40k army (say that five times fast!).

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Finished miniatures Miniatures Warhammer 40k

Blood Angels army update: 9th Edition, now 1,266 points

Setting up the new omnibus page for my finished Blood Angels miniatures got me thinking that it was probably time for some updated pics. As it stands now, I’ve painted 32 Space Marines, 2 Dreadnoughts, 1 Rhino, and 1 Teleport Homer. My army shrank under 9th Edition rules, but I didn’t remove anything I’d already painted. Remaining are 15 Space Marines, 1 Land Raider, and 1 Teleport Homer.

I’m still trying to get the hang of taking full-army photos. This one feels like an improvement over the previous photo just because I took it outdoors in natural light.

My Blood Angels army as of August 4, 2020 (1,266 points in 9th Edition)

Not sure how best to get close-ups with this many minis, but here are two attempts.

The left side; the front row here is Sergeant Karios, a Heavy Bolter Marine, Chaplain Arrius, and Commander Dante
The right side; the front row are the Sternguard Veterans of Squad Amedeo, and behind them is Squad Ultio

As the late, great Stan Lee would say: Excelsior!

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Miniature painting Miniatures Warhammer 40k WIP it good

WIP it good: Judgment

I started painting my Land Raider Crusader, Judgment, in earnest back in July. Vehicles are fun to paint because they’re such broad canvases, and I get to break out my largest brush — but they also take me some time to finish! Hopefully Judgment will be wrapped up this month.

Testing to see if the pick-and-pluck KR Multicase tray I chose will hold this beast (it does!)

I can’t paint the sponsons and front turret if they’re glued in place, so I started with them and then moved on to the main body.

Side bits base-coated, tank coming along
Another dead soldier: the second bottle of paint to fall to this army, my “liquid talent”
Sponsons and turret washed, now getting highlighted
All the bits in place to dry, and the body coming along (albeit messily)
Trying to stay consistent with my Rhino, so he’s out there as a reference while I work on details

Painting Judgment has me even more excited to tuck into some of the vehicles I have waiting in the wings once my initial army is done. If I had to pick one right now, it’d be down to a Redemptor Dreadnought, Repulsor tank, or the Stormtalon Gunship I’m going to convert to use the sealed cockpit from the Stormhawk.

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Finished miniatures Lightbox photos Miniature painting Miniatures Warhammer 40k

Turiel, my second Dreadnought

I painted my first Dreadnought, the Librarian Narses, back in April, and it was a lot of fun. Work-wise, he was about somewhere between one model and a five-person squad of Space Marines; I was curious to see how my second one would go.

It felt like it went more smoothly this time around, although with no prospect of a face-to-face 40k game by the end of summer — a real motivator, as it turns out — it still took me a long time to paint him. I finished him on July 19.

Lightbox shots

Turiel, 2nd Company Furioso Dreadnought

Immediately after uploading the photo above, I noticed that I’d forgotten to add the lens flare to the green lenses in his torso. I’ve since dotted that in and re-varnished those two spots (visible in the final shot below).

Right side view, Frag Cannon (I knew I’d be building that version the second I saw it; Rule of Cool, baby!)
Rear view; Blood Angels backpack and Ork scrap debris up front
Left side view, Furioso Claw and Storm Bolter

The kit includes a complete alternate right arm and it seemed silly not to paint that one as well — especially since if I paint it months/years later, the style and skill level (hopefully!) won’t match where I’m at right now.

Spare right arm installed, Furioso Claw and Heavy Flamer

And finally, I’ve learned that while the lightbox is lovely my inexpensive one tends to leave the front of the model a bit shadowy — especially when the figure is a big box like Turiel. So here’s a final shot in natural light.

STOMP STOMP STOMP

WIP shots

Over the course of the 2-3 weeks I spent painting Turiel at a leisurely pace, I tried to remember to snap a few WIP shots.

Base done, lower body mostly done, starting on the upper body
Upper body base-coated
Whole body done, trying on the arms
All arms washed (Narses, on the right, is wearing the spare) and ready for layers

Turiel color guide

I wanted Turiel’s base to stand out from Narses’ base, and to emphasize that Space Marines have fought on Armageddon many times before. While painting it, I decided I liked the idea that the Blood Angels had fought there before and painted the Marine debris accordingly.

Unlike my previous bases, which applied layers only through drybrushing, Turiel’s is a mix of drybrushing and layers/highlighting. Ceramite can’t rust, and Space Marine stuff is just “made better,” so the Flamestorm Cannon and Backpack got the highlights I usually would have applied followed by some drybrushing to make them look (I hope) dusty and weathered — like they’ve languished on the plains of Armageddon for years.

  • Flamestorm Cannon shroud: Warplock Bronze > Agrax Earthshade > Brass Scorpion > Runelord Brass> Dawnstone drybrush
  • Black: Abaddon Black > Eshin Grey > Dawnstone highlight > Dawnstone drybrush
  • Metal: Leadbelcher > Agrax Earthshade > Stormhost Silver > Ryza Rust
  • Backpack: Mephiston Red > Agrax Earthshade > Evil Sunz Scarlet > Fire Dragon Bright > Ryza Rust on metal > Dawnstone drybrush > light Grey Seer drybrush
  • Ork scrap green: Castellan Green > Agrax Earthshade > 50/50 Castellan Green/Moot Green blend drybrush > Ryza Rust > light Grey Seer drybrush
  • Terrain: Astrogranite Debris > Drakenhof Nightshade > Grey Seer (drybrush)
  • Skulls: Corax White > Agrax Earthshade > Corax White drybrush
  • Rocks: Grey Seer > Agrax Earthshade > 50/50 Grey Seer/Corax White blend drybrush
  • Edge: Dawnstone

His body colors are primarily the studio colors (which notably use the Dante/Sanguinary recipe for gold, rather than the mainline Blood Angels version):

  • Red: Mephiston Red > Agrax Earthshade > Evil Sunz Scarlet > Fire Dragon Bright
  • Gem setting gold: Retributor Armour > Agrax Earthshade > Auric Armour Gold
  • All other gold: Warplock Bronze > Agrax Earthshade > Brass Scorpion > Runelord Brass
  • Black: Abaddon Black > Eshin Grey > Dawnstone
  • Gunmetal: Leadbelcher > Nuln Oil > Stormhost Silver
  • Parchment: Rakarth Flesh > Agrax Earthshade > Pallid Wych Flesh > White Scar
  • Magenta: Screamer Pink > Agrax Earthshade > Pink Horror > Emperor’s Children
  • White: Celestra Grey > Drakenhof Nightshade > Ulthuan Grey > White Scar
  • Frag Cannon tubing: Averland Sunset / Macragge Blue / Castellan Green > Agrax Earthshade > Yriel Yellow / Altdorf Guard Blue / Moot Green

My to-build stack includes another walking fridge of death, which I’ll be building as a Death Company Dreadnought so that I can have a full complement of the Blood Angels’ unique Dreads. I love big ol’ doom-walkers, so I’ve also got two Redemptors, a Contemptor, and two “near-Dreadnought” Invictor Warsuits in the queue.

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Miniatures Warhammer 40k

An omnibus page for my Blood Angels

By default I don’t think there’s a way for folks who follow Yore to get notified — or even easily notice — when I create a page (not a post), so this quick post is a heads-up: I’ve created an omnibus page for all of my Blood Angels progress to date.

Someone over on BGG suggested I update my army to 9th Edition point values, since that would likely shrink my short-term painting queue, and it was a great idea. In the course of doing that I discovered that BattleScribe had erased my “favorites” section…which is where I was storing the names of sergeants, each squad’s place in the Chapter (2nd Company, 1st Squad; etc.).

I needed a home for that info here on Yore, where I decide if/when it goes away, so I made one.

I added a running list of every unit I’ve painted, linked to every blog post showcasing finished Blood Angels, posted my current army list, and threw in all of my color guides to date — hopefully making that page a one-stop shop for my Blood Angels.

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Finished miniatures Miniature painting Miniatures Warhammer 40k

1,034 points of Blood Angels painted!

My painting pace has slowed a bit because based on the current COVID-19 status here in Seattle it seems pretty clear that I don’t need to be working towards the possibility of actually playing 40k by the end of summer — but I’ve still been quietly working on my army every day.

The points values will almost certainly change as soon as they’re updated for 9th Edition, but as it stands now under 8th Edition rules this is 1,034 points of WYSIWYG Blood Angels (photographed on June 21).

My current Blood Angels army

There are elements of the 1st, 2nd, and 10th Companies here, as well as the Chapter Master and characters from the Librarius and Reclusiam. I started building my first Blood Angel on March 11 and finished my most recent mini as of this photo, Commander Dante, on June 20. I’ve also built the rest of my army, and done priming and basing work on some of them, so there’s a bit of fuzz factor to the total time spent. Nonetheless, this represents about 14.5 weeks of painting.

June has been my slowest month so far, but I’ve still managed seven miniatures as of the date I wrote this post (June 21). By the time fall rolls around, I might just have a complete 2,000-point army for the first time in my life. It feels good!

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Finished miniatures Lightbox photos Miniature painting Miniatures Warhammer 40k

Commander Dante

My original plan for Dante was to go with the studio recipe for gold on Blood Angels — Retributor Armour> Agrax Earthshade> Auric Armour Gold > Liberator Gold — and not the scheme for Dante and the Sanguinary Guard, which is brass over bronze. They’ve got gold armor, why not make it gold?

But then I followed the studio scheme for some other Blood Angels, even when it wasn’t my first instinct, and loved the outcome. And I thought that this “angelic brass” look would also help set them apart from the rest of the army (which I suspect is part of why it’s the studio scheme!). So I went for it, more or less — and I’ll be damned, it turns out gold!

I finished him up on June 20.

Commander Dante, Blood Angels Chapter Master
Rear view

I was fascinated to see how Dante would go from deep, dark bronze to gold, so I took a couple WIP photos to highlight the stages of that process. This kind of magical transition is one of my favorite things about miniature painting.

Base-coated and washed, so his armor is currently Warplock Bronze > Agrax Earthshade
First layer colors down, so his armor now has Brass Scorpion layered on top of about 90% of it.

With one exception, all of my Blood Angels to date have had their layers applied the same way: as edge and transition highlights. Somehow this makes them read as fairly bright red despite the fact that most of their armor is still Mephiston Red darkened with an Agrax Earthshade wash.

The exception is the Chaplain’s helmet, which had its first layer (atop a Rakarth Flesh base coat and a wash of Agrax Earthshade) applied to 90% of the surface area rather than just the edges/transitions — I basically repainted the whole helmet in Pallid Wych Flesh, leaving only the cracks/shadows alone. Then the final layer, White Scar, went on as an edge highlight.

That second approach was the only way I could see Dante’s armor turning out gold. If I left it mostly dark bronze, no amount of edge highlighting was going to change that. Unlike a normal Space Marine, he has musculature and other features molded into his armor that make it fairly simple to paint the “highest” areas over completely — trusting the lower pigment count in the layer paints to allow the richness of the bronze underneath to show through — and then do a spot/edge highlight with the final, most gold-colored, layer.

It definitely didn’t come out perfect, but it was a blast and I can see doing more parts of other figures this way in the future.

Commander Dante color guide

I mostly stuck to the studio colors, but diverged in a couple places — mainly because I didn’t want to buy more paint and I didn’t have the right green for his laurel or the Fenrisian Grey for his black elements. (Shades in italics, as always.)

  • Armor: Warplock Bronze > Agrax Earthshade > Brass Scorpion > Runelord Brass
  • Black elements: Abaddon Black > Dark Reaper > 50/50 Dawnstone/Calgar Blue
  • Eyes, jets, and axe blade: Caledor Sky > Drakenhof Nightshade > Temple Guard Blue > Baharroth Blue
  • Parchment, left pauldron, inner portion of halo: Rakarth Flesh > Agrax Earthshade > Pallid Wych Flesh > White Scar
  • White elements: Celestra Grey > Drakenhof Nightshade > Ulthuan Grey > White Scar
  • Leather: Screamer Pink > Carroburg Crimson > Pink Horror > Emperor’s Children
  • Seals and blood drops: Mephiston Red > Carroburg Crimson > Evil Sunz Scarlet > Wild Rider Red
  • Gunmetal: Leadbelcher > Nuln Oil > Stormhost Silver

I was tempted to paint some Sanguinary Guard first before taking on the chapter master himself — but when I started this army I painted a Sergeant Karios first rather than an unnamed battle brother, so in that spirit I started the “golden boys” with Dante.

It feels good to have him done, and it was fun to paint just one figure rather than a whole squad. I’m impressed with Citadel’s recipe for the gold on him (and the Sanguinary Guard), which includes no gold paint but somehow reads perfectly as gold.

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Finished miniatures Lightbox photos Miniature painting Miniatures Warhammer 40k

Crossing the 50% mark with my Blood Angels army

I’ve been watching the race between my two most-used paint pots, Mephiston Red and Astrogranite Debris, to see which one would have the honor of being the first one to expire in service of Sanguinius…and it was the texture paint!

My first dead soldier

Battle-brother Astrogranite Debris’s loyal service provided terrain for 33 Space Marines, 1 Dreadnought, and 1 little teleport homer — over half of my current army. That seems like a pretty solid performance.

Squad Amedeo and Chaplain Arrius

In the course of using up that texture paint, I finished my Sternguard Veterans, Squad Amedeo, and my Chaplain, Arrius, on June 12th.

Sergeant Amedeo, Chaplain Arrius, and my favorite battle-brother from the squad
Rear view of those three
The remaining three brothers of Squad Amedeo
Space Marine booty

I have some WIP photos for these guys, but I’m going to forego them. It’s already been some time since I posted, and WIP when it’s really “work in progress, like, weeks ago” doesn’t hold the same appeal.

Wrapping up these lads brings me to 884/2,000 points — although given my current painting pace, point values may all change due to 9th Edition before I finish!

My Sanguinary Guard and Commander Dante are up next.

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Gunpla Miniature painting Miniatures Warhammer 40k WIP it good

A little omnibus WIP post: 40k and Gunpla

When I stopped posting hobby stuff — both here and on Twitter — on May 31, I didn’t stop working on 40k miniatures or building Gunpla. (I did take a lot fewer pictures as I went along, though.) Some time away has made me realize that I miss having this creative outlet and that spending less time on Twitter increases my well-being. So I’m coming back to blogging, slowly, and staying entirely off Twitter. We’ll see how that goes.

To catch the blog back up, here’s an omnibus of the few WIP photos I had backlogged.

Gunpla

MG Astray Red Frame Kai — finally done with the body!
I picked up an MG ∀ kit to work on next (although it got leapfrogged by a cute little HG kit), and the difference in box size between it and my Kai is striking

40k

Squad Amedeo starting to take shape
Amedeo WIP
Nearly there with the Chaplain and the Sternguard!
Chaplain Arrius freshly shaded
My Sanguinary Guard getting their base coats, and the Land Raider Crusader partially primed

I’ve got several posts queued that cover the stuff I’ve finished during my hiatus; those are up next, a couple each week.

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Miniature painting Miniatures Warhammer 40k WIP it good

Painting the weekend away

On Saturday, I wanted to work on another character. As chance would have it I was just about to paint the black elements on my Sternguard, so I fired up my Chaplain, Arrius, and figured I’d paint everything but black — his dominant color — so he’d be in sync with the veterans.

Chaplain Arrius

I love this mini, and while I found resin to be a pain in the ass my guess during the assembly process was correct: That pain faded once I started painting him. It’s such a great sculpt!

I was feeling a bit down, and also a bit out of it, on Saturday — so much so that I completely forgot I always paint bases first. Nothing on his legs would make it risky to drybrush around them, so I wrapped up his non-black colors and switched gears.

Closing in on a finished base — and base coat

As I gain confidence as a painter, I’m also going off-book more often. I love his studio paint scheme, but that’s not a Blood Angel. (I mean, intentionally so; he’s a “generic Chaplain” by design.) I gave him a Blood Angels backpack, but he needed a bit more to tie him into the chapter; I figured a red knee pad with a chapter symbol would do the trick. He also has black armor, which means black suit gaskets aren’t going to read well — not to mention a mix of red elements that need definition and separation.

Which means it’s color guide time!

Chaplain color guide

  • Black: Abaddon Black > Eshin Grey > Dawnstone
  • Bone and parchment: Rakarth Flesh > Agrax Earthshade > Pallid Wych Flesh > White Scar
  • Metal and piping: Leadbelcher > Nuln Oil > Stormhost Silver
  • Armor gaskets: Mechanicus Standard Grey > Nuln Oil > Dawnstone
  • Leather and piping: Screamer Pink > Carroburg Crimson (skipped on gems) > Pink Horror > Emperor’s Children
  • Gold: Retributor Armour > Reikland Fleshshade > Auric Armour Gold > Liberator Gold
  • Eyes and tubing: Moot Green > Agrax Earthshade > Moot Green
  • Book cover: Khorne Red > Agrax Earthshade > Wazdakka Red > 50/50 blend of Wazdakka Red/Kislev Flesh
  • Knee pad, gems, purity seal wax: Mephiston Red > Agrax Earthshade > Evil Sunz Scarlet > Fire Dragon Bright

Other hobby work swirling about

I also looked at my painting queue for May and decided I wanted to make my stretch goal the Sanguinary Guard — as planned — but that doing Dante and the Sanguinary Ancient (with his massive banner) might be too much of a stretch. Still, having primed Dante, I figured I’d take him through basing.

Commander Dante

…And get the Guard and Abaoz through basing as well, so I’d be covered no matter what.

Squad Remiel and Sanguinary Ancient Abaoz, curing overnight
The state of my painting area this weekend
Squads Remiel and Adamo

I put in less hobby time than I thought I would this weekend, doing more other stuff instead, but kept my hobby streak up — Monday was day 93! — and laid the groundwork for what comes after my Sternguard.

Wrapping up the Chaplain and Squad Amedeo should definitely be doable before the end of May, and really going beyond that — 1x Rhino, 11x Marines — was a stretch anyway. But I won’t discount the possibility that a couple of banner painting nights sneak in, say, all of Squad Remiel by May 31, either. It happened last month, after all!