My Assault on Assault on Black Reach Part 3

From Mars' Project Blog

Got to do a little more work on these guys last night. I thought I would get a lot further, but I ended up getting a little hung up on the heraldry. So basically, the stuff I thought would take forever, didn't. And the stuff I thought would go quickly, took too long.

From Mars' Project Blog

I was having a lot of fun with the armor, but considering how light the bone color is, I figured I should probably block in the rest of my colors on the model and then revert to the usual "inside to out" painting.

From Mars' Project Blog

From Mars' Project Blog

I am looking forward to working on these guys more this weekend so hopefully I will have something to show on Monday.

Thanks for reading,
T

My Assault on Assault on Black Reach Part 2

Had a game last night so I didn't have a lot of time to paint. Not that I am complaining as it was a lot of fun. I played my friend Mike Camin's Dark Eldar to a draw, which is always cool. Even cooler, he likes the Kokanee which I had had in my fridge from someone else bringing it over, and I think it tastes how I imagine horse piss would taste...if the horse drank beer I guess. So, anyway, win-win. Good times had and bad beer gone.

As I was winding the night down I thought I would get a little brush work in on the AoBR project. First off I based the terminators with Dheneb Stone. I should preface this with the fact that I chose to do the terminators first because I thought they would be the biggest pain in the butt. But, the last time I did Deathwing terminators the foundation line didn't exist, so I was pleasantly surprised. With just a few thinned coats Dheneb Stone covered like a dream, and I suddenly found myself with more time to paint then I thought I would have.

From Mars' Project Blog

As I was poking around the internet I saw a lot of people use Dheneb Stone as the the bone color and shade it with gray, keeping it kind of cold. While I liked the look, I decided I preferred the older look, with the warmer, yellowish-bone. In order to warm it up quickly I washed the models with Gryphonne Sepia.

From Mars' Project Blog

I should have thinned the wash a little, as I ended up with some splotches and pooling, but it is still going to manageable to paint over or blend out. I was amazed to see that what I assumed would be the hardest part of the AoBR project had taken me like an hour. Busting out the hair dryer I helped the wash drying along as it was getting kind of late and I wanted to get my last shading wash in before bed.

Once they were dry I "lined in" the deepest recesses of the model with Ogryn Flesh from the wash line. Normally I will just thin a normal paint like Scorched Brown for this kind of shading, but since I was working with such a light color I decided to give the wash a try instead. I am not entirely sold, but I am going to reserve judgement until I start bringing up the bone.

From Mars' Project Blog

Thanks for reading,
T

My Assault on Assault on Black Reach Part 1

From Mars' Project Blog

The guys who play at the local game store have this kind of impromptu tradition of going to breakfast together before the tournament starts. Even though I wasn't playing in this particular tournament I met up with all of them. Over breakfast I got to talking with my buddy who plays marines. And then we did some more talking, and then I was pretty much done for. I had marines on the brain. The powered armored demon had a grip on my soul. My Dark Eldar Wracks had to move aside for a bit, I was going to need brushes to exorcise this evil.

I like the Assault on Black Reach marine contingent a lot. I think the models are really cool for what they are, and feel as much like green army men to me as they do models for a specific game. Since I had a set of them, I figured I should probably just do them up instead of paying thirty-something dollars for a box of tac marines.

Since they were already built the next part was pretty easy. Because inevitably their armor will be something dark I went with black primer, and an ample amount of it. Since it was a nice summer day I grabbed a beer (Yeah...it was 10:00 AM so...) and moved my priming operation outside. First I stood them all up and primed around them in all directions. Then face up:

From Mars' Project Blog

Then face down:

From Mars' Project Blog

Once they guys were all dry and I had done a good 45 min shift making sure the chair on our back deck didn't get away I picked everyone up and moved indoors. The next step was going to be to base them all in one fell swoop. But I noticed that despite my gallant efforts, there were still parts of gray plastic showing. So I broke out some Chaos Black and thinned it a little with water and grabbed my tank brush.

From Mars' Project Blog

I went over the models quickly, all the while having the Rolling Stones stuck in my head, getting the gray I saw poking through, which was mainly like the tiny areas of space between the side of the armor and the shoulder pad, or something equally as irksome.

From Mars' Project Blog

So now that everything was the blackest black in black land I figured I had enough time to get the bases done before I had to move onto not morning-drinking and toy soldiers. My first color for the bases was Catachan Green.

From Mars' Project Blog

After that it got a wash, well dowsing really, of Devlan Mud. Once that was dry I drybrushed in Codex Gray and then Fortress Gray. Eventually I will paint the ring graveyard Earth, but if I do it now I would just rub a lot of it off as I was painting the models. In the final touches some static grass will be added as well.

From Mars' Project Blog

That's what I got for now, kinda weak sauce that I made you read a book to see a guy prime and base models. It'll get better, or at least I hope you think it does.

Thanks for reading,
T

More Dark Eldar Warriors

From Stuff I Have Painted: Eldar/Dark Eldar

Put the finishing touches on these guys last night. They are the last of the Kabalite units for my "army", unless Scourge count too. I am not super familiar with the fluff.

This is the second warrior squad that I have sized to ride in a second Venom. The list I have kicking around has two Venoms, two Raiders, and two Ravagers. Something about parity must really appeal to me. I was pretty stoked to finally have a banner come out that I didn't want to instantly paint over.

From Stuff I Have Painted: Eldar/Dark Eldar

It is the little things. Up next are some coven units.

Thanks for reading,
T

Dark Eldar

From Stuff I Have Painted: Eldar/Dark Eldar

I tried something, it didn't work. That is about all I am going to say about it right now. I needed to go away from Daemons after the release of Grey Knights. I didn't throw in the towel happily, or even willingly, at first. I ignored the bitching and moaning around me and set out to try it for myself. What I discovered was disheartening. There are very specific builds, which I have no interest in playing, that I am certain could weather the Grey Knight storm. But the army I loved, and was excited about, simply cannot. But enough of all that.

From Stuff I Have Painted: Eldar/Dark Eldar

This was the first squad I painted. I really just set out to get to know the warrior models. I liked the big dark lance, and brought the blaster as well, as I used them a lot in my earlier Dark Eldar army. I am not crazy about the squad's banner and hope to revisit it someday. But I probably won't.

From Stuff I Have Painted: Eldar/Dark Eldar

After the warrior squad I decided to get to know some Wyches. I found them to be quite a bit more intensive than the warriors, but still very rewarding. I wanted to tie the blue into the warriors kabal and the Cult of the Seventh Woe was a pretty good fit. Rules wise, I am not a giant fan of the Agonizer with this squad so I stuck with just a power sword for the Succubus. This is all complete speculation, as I have never actually played a game with my Dark Eldar under this new codex.

From Stuff I Have Painted: Eldar/Dark Eldar

As soon as the Venom kit was released I knew I had to have few. Though not the huge amount that are springing up in tournament lists. I have always loved the Eldar Vyper, and the Venom is very reminiscent of that. Knowing that I would want a few I started expanding my kabal to accommodate one or two of them with a small warrior squad with blaster.

From Stuff I Have Painted: Eldar/Dark Eldar

Not hugely fond of their banner either. And again the hope is to go back some day and fix it.

That is what I have been up to. I need a little more for my bases though. I am having a hard time deciding what color static grass to use. I want the bases to look like a desolate or blasted planetscape, so I have narrowed it down to Citadel Dead Grass or Citadel Burnt Grass. If I have any readers left after my hiatus chime in the comments section and let me know which one you think would look best. At this point I think either would work, so I will take whatever one you all think would work best.

Thanks for reading,
T