A Wall Covered In Rhino Skulls

I am finally finished painting all my Rhino/Razorbacks! I am SO glad I will never have to work with a Forge World rhino door ever again. You would think they never size these things before creating molds for them; awesome detail? check, interesting/obscure design? check, fits right onto the model it's meant for? well....

I worked in a different stripe design for each Rhino Hatch. The barber pole stripes look pretty good and they catch the eye well. If you look at all my work I have done you can see a healthy dose of assymetry to my pieces. It's an aesthetic choice. I think that the lack of consistency in design makes an observer peruse the whole piece and find all the differences, thereby they really study and appreciate the work you put in.

Guess what I'm doing next?

The Last Dreadnought

Thar she blows, gents! The last dreadnought I have to paint for my IF force. This one took me only about a week, going quite well with my plan to finish this army by the end of may. Ambitious aren't I?

I've made his arms interchangeable, because that's just economical. I've dubbed him "Isardi", partially because of a well written Star Wars character who was a cold-hearted b*tch, and partly because it sounds very Gallic.

I actually had to repaint the Mechanicus symbol because I hadn't realized that I had mixed it up and switched it around so the black side was right and the white side was left(which is opposite from my two other dreadnoughts. so I'm compulsive? it would bother me to see the symbols not uniform).

Awww, family picture time! From left to right- Malatesta the Ironclad Dreadnought, Isardi the multi-purpose Dreadnought, and Cataphract the Mortis pattern Dreadnought. I can't wait to toss these guys onto the battle field!

Next....next, next, next....hmmm. Maybe my last Razorback? I still have a tac squad and a half dev squad to do, plus my predator and Lysander...

Imperial Fist Rhino, On The Rampage!

Here's my second Rhino for my Imperial Fists. The yellow came out WAY better than my last Rhino, and I fixed the problem with the strange film that accumulated on my last by adding less detergent to the ink mix(the detergent helps break the surface tension so I don't get pooling).

The yellow was the legendary discontinued Citadel yellow ink. I also changed the paint scheme for the Fist emblem to just a straight Chaos Black with built up Skull White highlights.

I made all the hatches and the weapon turret interchangeable with a generic top hatch so I could economize on use, the Razorback transforms into a Rhino! Waste not, want not!

Here's one of the Forge World hatches I got months and months ago, immortalized on this here Razorback. My last paintjob on a Razorback had the hatch itself as black, the ring in red, and the fist in black. I much prefer this rendition, it's brighter and it follows the actual color scheme of the real Fist emblem.

And because I've always thought it's good to get a hot chick to model your work, this is my niece Faith! What a cute kid!

Dark Angels Players Are Laughing At Us

This right here is the "contents" of the Ravenwing Battleforce Box (retail 90$ US). The 6 bikes even out the price, individually selling for 45$ per 3 biker box. Then you get a landspeeder, 35$, and an attack bike, 25$! That alone would make this kit a valuable resource for folks making a Ravenwing force, White Scars, or a counts-as Korsarro Khan flanker force. The real killer is the large 10"x 8" sprue FULL of Dark Angels army upgrades! 3 OF THEM! They've got x2 big assault cannons, multiple swordarms(hello conversions), and some very different looking heads, in amongst the DA only pieces(hooded angel icons, winged swords and etc.).



My point being is that you can never be certain where you might find value when you deal with Citadel. The battleforces have always been hit and miss in particular. The lovely IG battalion used to come with a Leman russ...now it comes with the underwhelming sentinel. The 'Nids got a bit screwed for their value with their new launch cutting the number and quality in their Battalion box. And the inclusion of certain units can be baffling; why must we always have scouts pushed on us in every Battalion box of Space Marines? My best suggestion for anyone just starting out with Space Marines(or Orks)----> Assault on BlackReach.



I love AoBR. LOVE IT. The models are excellent, there are tons of them, and the rules book, the green templates, and the subtley violence-promoting "whippy-sticks"(we have all hit each other with them. few have not tasted the Wrath of the Whippy-stick) make for an awesome set. This is a product that demands it's purchasing by all. Even if you play as neither Orks or Space Marines, you can keep the books and the tools and then trade or sell the models! I gave my pal the orks from my box 'cause I owed him a favor.

Modelling Commandments

They said it couldn't be done, but as everyone knows, through the Lord and the appropriate application of military arms, anything is possible! Roll that beautiful bean footage!

THOU SHALT TAKE A BREAK FROM THE HOBBY! *THUNDER*

Every once in a while you can feel yourself getting bogged down by creating too much work for yourself. Everyone takes vacations from their jobs, and if you have painted yourself into a corner with the hobby.....take a break!

It's important for all of us to come up for air on occasion. If you spend too much time on a single project it can become tedious, and that lack of enthusiasm will spread throughout your work likea virus. Why bother finishing that last bit of highlighting on your sergeant? You're the only one whom may notice! And forget about that gap filler on your latest vehicle project, it looks good even with that gap. Taking a break frees up your mind and allows you to roam free.

I've taken the past week off, myself. I haven't picked up a paint brush or anything. It has reenergised me and made me itch to start painting again! I even managed to work out why I haven't been so motivated lately; my space marines lack the dynamic poses that I love so much. So what does that mean? Well, when I start my last tactical squad I plan to incorporate lots of modding for each figure. I even intend to make the bases themselves much less bland than the typical "walnut shavings covered in PVA and sand". I'm expanding the armies look to make it appear as though this next squad has advanced into a desert village, and the scenery will have them reacting in tons of interesting and compelling poses. I have already made mock-ups on paper, and this next step promises to be rad!

Hitting the wall

Well I've run into an obstacle while composing my Fists; I've gotten frustrated and tired. So tired that I have delayed and delayed my friends request to paint his Space Wolf Venerable Dreadnought. Even claiming victory in Marchs' Painting Competition yesterday hasn't kicked my butt into gear. I've gotten this way every once in a while. How does everyone else deal with this slump? I think that after I finish the dreadnought I might take a 2 week break.

It's a hazard that faces people whom choose to specialize in painting a certain restricted paint scheme, you get bored!

I'm excited to see the Blood Angels Codex at my FLGS. The big draw for me was the new minis for the Angels, particularly the Sanguinor and Lemartes reboot.

Yuck.

Yay!

I have always felt the old lemartes model looked goofy as hell. The redesign is far more subtle, and frankly, beautiful!

Sanguinor? Thank you, Games Workshop. Thank You.

Imperial Fist Squad Robs Bank!

Another Tactical Squad hits the table! These guys were quite a job...they seem to take forever! I guess that's all part and parcel of being a painting masochist. All credit goes to Wil Davies across the pond in England, his beautiful techniques for painting yellow make my boys shine! Bling, bling! Oh yeah, I went there.

These are some alternate poses I worked out with my models.

Here's a flamer wielder True Grittin' his fire spitter, getting ready to share a grenade with some close friends. Sharing is caring!

This is a beaky reloading his bolter. Easy enough conversion, I just cut off the magazine of a bolter and placed it in the open hand of a standard marine.

Funk dat. This yellow fellow has adopted the wisdom of that old adage "Only a heretic would bring a knife to a boltgun fight." Well, ok, it's not an old adage. And that's not an accurate qoute of the real deal. But you get the point. This guys battle-plan consists of two parts; shoot-shoot-shoot, stabby-stab-stab. Simple, elegant, violent. Just like all the best plans.

This is the sergeants leg, in close up detail. In the lower left hand box is his company/squad designation, above is a laurel of valor. Tucked into the upper right is a small tactical squad symbol. Since he didn't have a kneecap to paint on, I opted to paint half of his lower leg in panoply. See other photos for a detail on the kneecap squad designation.

Like this one here! I only included this detailing on the left leg of the squad members. I like assymetry on my miniatures, they appear alot more dynamic that way.

The rear of the right shoulder pad, company designation.

Front side, squad designation.

Please note the free-handed aquila on the side of his helmet. I like to think of the Fists as having lots of ex-gangers. And if there is one thing gangers love, it's tattoos!

I grabbed a Cadian head off the Cadian Command squad sprue for a more characterful face for my sergeant. I hit him with some LOVELY bleach blond hair. I tend to like it alot more than the standard fare of "bald guy with scowl."

Did my best here to give my heavy weapons operator an ace marking over his eye, maybe you can tell, maybe you can't, but I did my best!