Blood Angels Land Raider Crusader

[IronKobra]

You use pretty much same technique for your BA red as me haha YAY go us! Looking very nice! gives me hope for when I finish something. The base coats look so smoothe too! Looks like an airbrush is a worth while investment for those dull boring layers! Looks like I could even miss out the mechrite stage altogether!

[Meph]

Cheers guys! Ah well, the racing stripes are there because he's already read and I needed something to make him go fasta! ^^

IronKobra, an airbrush is SUCH a joy, I'm never basecoating models by hand, ever, again! And vehicles and large models are such a pleasure to let loose the airbrush on for highlighting and washes and such.
I'd never kick out the foundation red though, or rather I'd never overestimate Blood Red's opaqueness. The high pigment content of foundation paints are a blessing because you have to thin the paint quite a bit before using it in an airbrush.

[Meph]

Some progress at last. I got tempted and bought a Terminator squad and some FW shoulder pads.
In the interest of my economy I decided to magnetize the heavy weapons guy so I can just switch arms and missile launcher. And I must say, it was very easy do do actually...
Also, some progress on the Land Raider. I decided to give a light spray with some thinned dark brown oil paint over a coat of varnish to give it a nice weathering/inking but the mix seemed to have been a bit too thin. Just after spraying it it looked real neat around all the rivets and in all the recesses and just, but after drying out there's almost nothing visible. I'll add further oil paint weathering by hand I think.

[Meph]

Someone on another forum was interested in a mini-magnetizing tutorial so I thought to post it here as well.

For the arms it's very simple, just find a drill bit that's the right size for the magnet. I first made a small notch using the tip of a modeling knife where I want to start drilling, then I drilled a small pilot hole using a pin vice and a medium-sized 'tiny' drill' (a bit bigger than the one on the pic), and then the full size hole using a hand drill. I found the best way to handle that clunky hand drill is to put it on your lap, bracing it against one thigh and then slowly drill with your right hand while holding the mini against the drill with your left. Since you're drilling very slowly, this goes ok and is quite accurate. More accurate I feel than clamping the mini in a vice and holding the whole weight of the drill on the mini.

For the cyclone it's a similar process. I drilled quite a deep hole in that torso so I could fit two magnets in there for some more magneto-power. and then covered he hole with some green stuff to make it flush again. mind you, this is a very thin layer, you can see the magnet's edge just where the groove of that little top armour plate is. And then, as you can see from the pics, the magnets I used fit neatly inside the missile launcher itself. that was the handy bit about the plastic cyclone. I assembled the cyclone after the torso magnets were in place and left off the front section. Then you just put the magnet in, right-side up, and put it on top of the termy to dry-fit. Take it out, a drop of superglue in the cyclone's middle section, put the magnet back it and put the missile launcher on the termy as usual. The magnet will position itself neatly while the glue's still wet., with the minimum adjustment needed. And when that's dry, glue the front back on. the cool thing is that those little magnets are strong enough to hold the cyclone on even with +-3mm between them, and the little plastic mounts of the terminator body and cyclone hold it neatly in place. It's not the strongest of bonds though although you can pick up the model by the cyclone, but I wouldn't flick it very hard...

Oh and on a general note, I found that the handiest way to put the magnets in the holes is, for the first magnet; a drop of glue in the hole and then just stick the whole little stack of magnets in the hole and then you can just slide off the stack while leaving one magnet in, that way the magnet sits nicely level and flush. Pushing in one by finger tends to be less level.
And when that's dried I just put on a single magnet on the already glued one so it's centered and right-side up, put a bit of glue in the hole of the second part and push the part onto the magnet, squeezing it in. And then slide off the part. Worked like a charm.

[Meph]

Ah, the joys of thinned oil paints...

[Meph]

The first tactical squad almost complete. I'd say it's at roughly 90% finished. I just need to apply some more decals but I'll have to make & print those first. I thought to cook up some righteous mumbo-jumbo for the on the larger pigments and I need some black blood drops for the right shoulder pad as I decided to make them from the 5th company. I'll freehand some stuff on the smaller purity seals and such. And they need some basing done as well.
For the rest I think they turned out quite nicely. I didn't want to go too elaborate on them, both in terms of colours and painting technique. The idea is to have them at a decent table-top quality. The size of the pictures does tend to show the drybrushing a bit harsher than it actually is.
Oh, and I think I'll use some black oil paint to outline the details and panels.

[Torn blue sky]

Ahh I dunno how you pump out vehicles! I've a Razorback sitting here I just cannot be hooped doing!

[Meph]

Vehicles are fun to do, for me it's the infantry that can seem a chore at times, especially blacking out the details and metallics...
Arch! And I seem to have lost my tube of black oil paint, meaning I can't outline the details just yet. Ordered a new tube off of Ebay, I hope it's here soon...

Maybe I should start blacking out the details on the devastator squad, otherwise they'll never get done. Sigh, here goes...

[cassar]

yeah pull yer finga art speedy!

[Torn blue sky]

Hmnnnn... Might start on an old school Bjorn the Fell handed I have kicking about then. This Wolf Guard lark can sit on bricks for now.


Along with everything else I half started...

[Meph]

Wehey, some quick shots of just the two sarges and their bling. Requested by someone on another forum but I'd thought I'd share the shots here as well.

[Meph]

Hmmm I'm wondering what colour to use for the robe actually. I was thinking either a darker shade of the red, a deep burgundy, or black... Any thoughts?

[Torn blue sky]

Not red, too much red! ARGH! The red, it burns!
Try a lighter colour, like cream or magnolia.


Maybe a nice floral pattern.

[Meph]

Hmmm that was my original thought as well, but I'm not fan of the too-typical creamy robes. I want to distinguish it more from a Dark Angel robe. Hmmm... Typical Catholic habit colours are, brown, cream, black. Or I could also go for a dark green with a yellow pin stripe? Seeing as green is used for BA details now and then. I could always make everyone's eyes bleed by attempting a burgundy freehand pattern on a very, very dark (almost black) cloth?
Or a stony khaki colour like this?


Or maybe a nice orange & brown wavy seventies wallpaper pattern?



Gah, I'm at a loss for this...

[Torn blue sky]

Go with stoney Khaki then

[Meph]

Whaddayathink?

I think it came out ok but somehow I'm contemplating to give it some washes and glazes to give more depth.

[cassar]

whilst the skills you have displayed in painting the robes to a high standard are evident im not sure about the colour. dont ask me what i'd paint myself because i havent a clue. this is a real doozy in fact i'd be tempted to go for a really dark grey almost black or a really light black almost grey and then lighten it up. might go well with the red n gold

[Mr.S.Marbo]

Whaddayathink?

I think it came out ok but somehow I'm contemplating to give it some washes and glazes to give more depth.

Yeah I like it. I like the colour too. It's suitably dull and non flashy. Don't take that in a bad way because it isn't. I just feel traditional Blood Angles are just too flash with a lot of red, this robe colour cuts the red and brightness down and looks good and goes well I think. So yeah, I say stay with that style which goes well with the rest of the model I think. But that's just my two cents!

[MightyChad]

The khaki works, but I would like to see one in black, and maybe one with the 70s wallpaper. But if it is too much, just the black will suffice. Great work on all this stuff, either way.

[Meph]

Cheers guys! Yeah, the khaki grew quickly on me too. My gut instinct was to make it darker as well but it grew on me, fast. In any case, so far he's the only one that will be wearing robes in the army. I'm thinking I should do the BA icon on his chest in the bronze/gold so it contrasts a bit better.

And in the mean time, I thought it was time to get ahead (badum-tsh!) and start painting the devastator heads. Right now they're looking a bit spacewolfish but I intend to give them quite a few glazes/washed with thinned blues & blacks to give them a good full dark blue tint. I want them really dark so the blue doesn't clash too hard with the red. (I still want to slap the guys who came up with the blue helmets in the first place)
The guy with the masking tape collar is the unlucky fellow who got his head glued into place before I realised it had to be a Devastator. The tape will make my life a lot easier when applying the glazes and inks.

And as a last pic, meet the crew for the Land speeder Squadron that's in the pipeline. One Land Speeder is the first plastic type, sitting in a red base coat since a decade, and then I've got two of the latest kits; one already full magnetized for all weapon options and undercoated, and one is almost assembled but still needs to be magnetized.