The Ravens gather.....

Press play for some theme music!



I know it's been over a month since I have updated the blog, but I HAVE been working on the Ravens. It's just been tough to get time between raising the 2 boys, keeping the wife occupied and working on my Masters.

I have received about 90% of all the bits I need to finish.

So first off I'll start with the dreadnought. I finally received the oil paints and MIG pigments to do the weathering. I have never done this type of weathering before but I have seen military modellers pull this off with great effect.

The dread is still very much WIP as I post these pics.

I was going for the "Been out in the field for months" look. I think it looks good, but I believe I went a little overboard, but it still looks kind of cool. I really like the bullet holes!!

(Thats why this was the test model ;-))





The smoke effect done using the MIG pigments.







If you look closely you will notice a big difference in quality between the missle launcher and the lascannon. I didn't use any shadowing, like I did with the missile launcher, and I think it makes a huge difference. Also you can see some of the blue dots, where I didn't do the weathering technique properly.




Here is a link to a site that explains one way of doing the weathering very similar to the way I did it.

http://ultrawerke.blogspot.com/2007/03/painting-and-weathering-tutorial-part-i.html

I probably won't be using a dread in my list for an upcoming tourney I will be going to. (Necronomicon GT in Orlando, Florida) So I am going to put the dreadnought on the back burner for now.


UPDATE ON THE LANDSPEEDER

I'm not the type of painter that can work on only one thing and finish it before moving on to the next unit. I get bored with that.

So some pictures of the control console for my first landspeeder.










UPDATE ON THE DROP POD

I've made a lot of progress on the drop pod. I'm hoping to have it finished this week!!

Close up of the WIP console panels






More WIP pictures










UPDATE ON TAC SQUAD


The Tac squad is coming together nicely. I only need 1 more "old school" backback to finish the bits.









A picture of the bits I used to build the combi flamer. I used the tip of a cadian infatry flamer, a water bottle from the cadian infantry and a combiplasma.

I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out. Can't wait to paint it.






ASSAULT MARINES!!!














I had to cut the border off of the metal right lightning claw shoulder pad. A lot of work!! Cutting, filing and sanding. :-) That's why I used a plastic left lightning claw to save some work. I still need to find something to use to simulate the "bumps" on the right pad. I haven't found pins small enough yet at The hardware store. So I'm thinking scratch building, or ordering online.






I only need 6 more Forgeworld Red Scorpion jump packs to complete both squads.

I can't wait to get all these guys painted up, and based.

I'm planning on making a display board, where the marines are attacking a heretical chemical factory-I'm thinking of a nurgle feel using some Disciples of Xaphan from Forgeworld. I've ordered some cities of death terrain and plastruct stuff. I'll be explaining the building of my display board as well, when the time comes. I only have 3 months to get these guys done!!

I've still have 10 terminators, 10 scouts, Shrike and 2 more landspeeders to finish.

That's it for this post.

In the mean time...(Drop Pod, Speeder, & assorted)

Press play for some theme music!



So it’s been a few weeks since my last post, because of the new semester starting up and also I am waiting on a bunch of bits and weathering materials to come in.

So in the mean time I have started working on a drop pod, land speeder and some test space marine models. I also built a light box so I can take better pictures!

I have a lot of little updates this time as I wanted to get something up here without waiting tooooo long in between posts.

First an update on the dreadnought. I received my Forgeworld DNCCW and I wanted to give it a heavy flamer. I found an old terminator flamer arm in my bits box so I decided I would use that.

The DNCCW and Arm


View from the left side, after pinning and attachment


I needed to use some greenstuff to attach the tricep to the DN arm. I cut the ends off of the track links from a tank sprue to use as rivets.


The rivets came out ok, but next time I will use real rivets, I just wanted to try this approach and see how it would work.


The primed arm.


My weathering stuff should be here this week. I can't wait to get the Dread finished.


Now onto the tactical marine.

The bits


After gluing pic.
Notice I am not gluing the bolter on yet. I want to be able to paint maximum detail so I used bluetac to hold the arms onto the torso while I glued the bolter to the hands. This will allow me to paint the arms&bolter combo separate from the torso, with the idea of gluing the assemblies together after I'm through painting. I made the mistake once before of trying to paint chest plates with arms and bolters glued to the torso. Take my advice don't do it.


The primer and base coats I used to airbrush the marine.



After Prime and basecoat



After the ink wash of black ink.



As mentioned previously I built a lightbox


Here is a link to the sight I used for instructions on how to build one. It took me about an hour to make and cost me under $10.00.

http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent

I'm still learning how to use it and will have some pics later.

I started on my drop pod, which was a real pleasure to build.
The main thing I wanted to point out is that, if you plan on getting maximum detail out of the center console you should not glue the entire model together before painting it.

All of the parts ready


Closeup of the putty filler I had to use on the door joins.The picture makes it look ragged but the end of the door has been sanded smooth.


The harness frames. These were a little fiddly.


Closeup of a what you see when the harness frames are "dryfit" into the center consoles. You can see how hard it would be to paint the center console if you were to glue the frames in place before painting.



Another picture showing the same concept except with the additional obstruction of the door spars.(dry fitted of course)


So I would recomend only gluing the center console to the base with the doors so you can paint that, as a complete assembly, then after all of your pieces are painted, come back and glue them in place.

This picture was taken using the lightbox. Currently I only have one overhead light so I need to get a few more lights. But this picture is still usefull to show what I mean by only assembling the center console to the base with the doors.


I also started on a landspeeder typhoon.





Closeup of the putty fill for the massive gap. I hate assembling the landspeeder!


Again I will not be gluing the driver and gunner in place until after I have painted them. I want room to work on the interior consoles, seats and back wall


I ordered a raven wing upgrade sprue and I used the typhoon launcher from the sprue. There are also a lot of nice goodies on there that I think fit in just nicely to the Avian themed Raven Guard...hmmm Raven Wing...Raven Guard, not much of a stretch there.

So the only problem is, I have to deal with the dark Angel Iconography. So I pulled out my exacto knife and sliced away the dark angel icon. It took me about half an hour to get this thing off, as I didnt want to scar the bit. I had to slice, gently scrape and sand(using 600 grit paper)quite a few times to get it smooth.


Some post surgery pics. The banner in the background(drivers side of the speeder)is the one I did surgery on. The banner in the foreground has a skull instead of a dark angel icon. So that saved me some work!








Some post prime,basecoat,inking pics using the light box.





You can see a nice closeup of where the putty "filled" the gap. I'm not real happy with the way this turned out. I think I can fix it with weathering techniques.


A picture of the finished airbrushing and inkings for the drop pod and speeder.


OK so that's all I have for this time. Now that I've got the pod, speeder and some test marines ready, it's on to the actual brush painting. I plan on using some major blending and shading on these models. I'm hoping for a real pro look. Wish me luck.

And don't forget the dreadnought, which I will get back to once my weathering materials come in.