Alright, so here is my finished bike squad and right away I have to say that I'm not entirely happy with the way that they turned out. However, the learning process continues. With this in mind, I thought I'd start this post with a bit of self reflection. First of all, I don't like my highlights. The lines are too thick and they are not straight enough. I think I need to really start thinning down my paint. But how thin should it be? What is the right amount of "thin"? I really feel like this has to improve if I want my models to start looking better. I felt ok about my highlighting abilities when I finished the tactical squad but, the bike squad exposed a lot of flaws in my technique. I guess it goes back to the planning stage of army construction. I looked through the my handy-dandy How to Paint Space Marines book, and extreme highlighting seemed like the way to go. Since then, I've taken a look at a really cool posting of an Iron Hands army over at the official Games Workshop site. The idea was to use bolt gun metal and mithril silver for the highlighting to make it look like paint has chipped or been worn. I also recently read a post over at the Jawaballs blog talking about how hard it is to get black armor to look "right". Who knew? I thought it would be easy. Additionally, you'll notice that I have been trying to freehand all the chapter sigils on my marines and bikes. At a distance they look ok but, as you can see on the standard and the Sgt.'s bike, when you get close you really notice how messy they look. I think I overshot a bit trying to freehand them with so little painting experience. With this in mind, I'll press on with my collection of Raven Guard marines, but I don't think I'll go too much beyond what I initially purchased for this army.
Maybe further down the road I'll come back to Raven Guard but I really think, I'd like to try some other color schemes. A little while ago, I did a test Carcharodon model and I really liked working with the grays...
This is a blog outlining the trials and tribulations of beginning warhammer 40k and Warmachine player.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
1st Tactical Squad
Alright, my first tactical squad is complete. I have mixed feelings about the results. I spent a lot of time looking online for ideas on painting black power armor. I thought about highlighting with Boltgun Metal but changed my mind and went with a scheme I saw in "How to Paint Space Marines".
The method is for painting Black Templar but I thought it would apply to Raven Guard as well.
The book calls for a highlight of Codex Gray and an extreme highlight of Fortress Gray. Instead, I used a lot of Shadow Gray highlights and only used the Codex Gray and Fortress gray very sparingly. The biggest thing I will take away from my first tactical squad, is that highlighting is hard. Straight lines are hard to paint. Still, the practice was good and will hopefully come in handy down the road.
The Black Reach Sgt. was extremely fun to paint. The layers of the pauldron on his extended arm are great. I ended up putting a lot more paint on his face than I wanted as I tried to get the white face mutation correct. I think the washed out faces of the Raven Guard are one of their coolest aspects. Moving forward, I'll have to get this down. Definitely before I paint the scouts.
The biggest inspiration for my Raven Guard came from Aaron Dembski Bowden's "Cadian Blood" novel.
Having completed the Black Reach marines I can't wait to get my hands on tactical squad set so I can mess with the poses a little bit.
Well, there you have it. Next week, it's on to the bike squad.
Victorus aut Mortis!
The method is for painting Black Templar but I thought it would apply to Raven Guard as well.
The book calls for a highlight of Codex Gray and an extreme highlight of Fortress Gray. Instead, I used a lot of Shadow Gray highlights and only used the Codex Gray and Fortress gray very sparingly. The biggest thing I will take away from my first tactical squad, is that highlighting is hard. Straight lines are hard to paint. Still, the practice was good and will hopefully come in handy down the road.
The Black Reach Sgt. was extremely fun to paint. The layers of the pauldron on his extended arm are great. I ended up putting a lot more paint on his face than I wanted as I tried to get the white face mutation correct. I think the washed out faces of the Raven Guard are one of their coolest aspects. Moving forward, I'll have to get this down. Definitely before I paint the scouts.
The biggest inspiration for my Raven Guard came from Aaron Dembski Bowden's "Cadian Blood" novel.
Having completed the Black Reach marines I can't wait to get my hands on tactical squad set so I can mess with the poses a little bit.
Well, there you have it. Next week, it's on to the bike squad.
Victorus aut Mortis!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
The beginning...
Well here it is. The first post of my first ever blog. The purpose of this blog is to outline the progress of a Warhammer 40k army from the perspective of a beginner who is new to the hobby elements of 40k. I have only ever played a few games of 40k in my life and never with my own models, so I am really looking forward to seeing how this all turns out. I have decided that my first army is going to be a Raven Guard force. I thought about trying to paint an army of Iron Snakes, as I am a big fan of the book but decided against it because I would rather have a force that follows the codex a little more strictly. Anyway, to begin with, I will be attempting to paint a bike squad consisting of a bike sergeant with powerfist, two marines armed with melta-guns, and an attack bike armed with a multi-melta. All together, the full 10 man squad will tally 310 points. To construct the bike squad, I purchased the Dark Angels Ravenwing Battleforce Box along with a Ravenwing bike squadron box.
A lot of the Ravenwing and Dark Angel specific bits will be wasted but I'm sure I can use some of those feathery pieces... In addition, I will be painting the Assault on Black Reach tactical squad in Raven Guard color and heraldry.
The tactical squad is worth 170 points. I also purchased the Space Marine Commander set, originally thinking, that I would use his lightning claw to construct a Priad character for my Iron Snakes. Instead he will be a Raven Guard Shadow Captain equipped with the aforementioned lightning claw and plasma pistol for 130 points. I will include a scout squad with a sergeant equipped with bolt pistol and chain sword, one scout will trade his bolter for a shotgun and one will replace his bolter with a heavy bolter for a sum of 100 points.
My ten man tactical squad will select a Rhino equipped with extra armor and a storm bolter as it's dedicated transport for 60 points.
All together, that gives my fledgling army 770 points. It's not 1,500 but it should be a good start and enough painting to keep me busy for a while.
A lot of the Ravenwing and Dark Angel specific bits will be wasted but I'm sure I can use some of those feathery pieces... In addition, I will be painting the Assault on Black Reach tactical squad in Raven Guard color and heraldry.
The tactical squad is worth 170 points. I also purchased the Space Marine Commander set, originally thinking, that I would use his lightning claw to construct a Priad character for my Iron Snakes. Instead he will be a Raven Guard Shadow Captain equipped with the aforementioned lightning claw and plasma pistol for 130 points. I will include a scout squad with a sergeant equipped with bolt pistol and chain sword, one scout will trade his bolter for a shotgun and one will replace his bolter with a heavy bolter for a sum of 100 points.
My ten man tactical squad will select a Rhino equipped with extra armor and a storm bolter as it's dedicated transport for 60 points.
All together, that gives my fledgling army 770 points. It's not 1,500 but it should be a good start and enough painting to keep me busy for a while.
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