Richter's Dark Angels Double Wing!

[richter]

Being utterly bored and urged by some friend to put together an "playable" 40k army, I've decided to do some Dark Angels.

I've made a mix out of the AOBR marines and the "usual" marines.

The whole thing has been a on/off project, but finally it's coming close to the end. Now that I have some time to do some Warseeing, I decided to share it with you guys. C&C is most welcome, either on the models and on my sketch of the army list.

Stuff done so far:

-10x DA Veterans
-10x DA Tactical
-13x Deathwing Termies
-6x Attack Bikes
-1x Assault bike
-1x Landspeeder
-1x Terminator Sargent

*Updates*

-1x Grand Master Belial (painting)
-1x Dreadnaught (converting)

Stuff to do:

-2x Dreadnaughts -->needs conversion/painting
-1x Ezekiel (converted) -->needs to be painted
-1x Azrael (just because ) -->needs to be painted
-1x Dark Angels Chapter Master (also just because) -->needs to painted
-2x Predator Tanks -->needs conversion/painting

Stuff to "renovate":

1x Ebay Landraider in ruinous condition

Next are some shabby pictures of the Termies, Tactical and Veterans. I'll upload some better ones as soon as possible!

Termies:


Termie Detail:


Termie Sarge Detail:


Tactical and Veterans:

[Student]

They look nice. I like the banners on the sergeants.

[richter]

Student: Thanks, it was my first go at freehand painting!

Well as promised, some decent pictures of the army and current WIP.

Termies:

These were the first deathwing termies I've painted, they look a bit odd. I changed the colour scheme and varnish type in the meantime.



I then changed my painting style, their colour schemes and varnish type. This was what I got:





Veteran Squad:

I wanted these guys to look really bad ass, seasoned and unique. The glossy varnish did suck a lot...



Tactical Squads:

I used the 10 marines from AOBR and then made 5 more out of some bits and pieces I had laying around. The goal was to make them as "standard" as possible, just some line marines and a cooler looking sargent





Bikes:

For these ravenwing guys, the goal was to make them to get that "fallen-hunter-veteran-uber-bad-ass" marine look. Also wanted them to look a bit wheatered, with the slightly scratched armours, ceramite colour showing up through the spent layers of paint, dirty metals and war gear from years on the road hunting without going back to re-supply or making their power armours all nice and pretty.

I also got rid of those bird-head antennae thingy that they were supposed to have on the back of the bikes. That was just too flashy for such a serious bunch to use (the wings on the bikes were enough bling). Instead I converted the default antennae to something a bit more "gothic" and functional... hodded metal skulls with a cable coming out of the back antennae tips, 40k style

So, ended up with 3 veterans on bike:



3 "regular" bikers:



And an assault bike. I did some conversion work on this one, the standard mini never settled well in my head. The gunner looklike he was traveling in a basket or something, not the militarised/ practical look I wanted. So I changed his side car a bit to something a space marine would use on the field



Last but not least, the landspeeder is WIP. I'm not going to convert it at all, except for the pilots. Guy on the right got a nice "MK 2 landspeeder helmet" mod, guy on the left got a nice hair style and some gogles. They are both also getting a respirator "MK 2 landspeeder" style. This was my first run at something so small and detailed in GS, so any tips on how to do it better are welcomed

The guys:


And for reference, an MK2 landspeeder:

MK2 Landspeeder

[richter]

Ok, so time for some updates:

The landspeeder is done! My focus on this model was converting the pilots (like explained on the previous post). Unfortunately, due to a weird spray problem while basecoating, some parts of the model where left with a sort of "sandy" texture, which in turn made tasks like drybrushing and wheathering a bit harder because the pigments just wouldn't show . Since most of the model is fine, with a look matching the ravenwing bikes, and since I was able to salvage the paintjob to an acceptable tabletop standard, it stayed in the army instead of going to the box of fail.

The goal was to give it a rather cluttered look mixing guns with antennae, like as if it was mainly used to oversee the battlefield from the air and relay all sorts of communication/data between the troops on the ground. Being well armed would also enable it to deploy some ordinance if some battle brothers found themselves in a tight spot.
Gameplay-wise it features weapon choice (detachable heavy bolter/melta) and the typhoon lauchers, I believe that the dual autocannons are only available on the "master of the ravenwing config", so I will only be using one of them on my selected config.

Some pics:





C&C valued as allways!

As a sneek-peek on the next entry to the army, I give you the beginning of the conversion for dreadnaught #1:



This will be my debut at posing a dreadnaught. The "victim" will be a AOBR dread. I already did some conversion on it to become more "dark angely", had his gaps filled and will begin posing it really soon! The torso on the pic belongs to a nice chaos chap, who found himself in disagreement with the dreadnaught. I decided to bet the farm on this one and try make the scene as dinamic as possible, like a freeze frame of a great battle! Wish me luck with that More pics of this coming soon!

As a final note to this post, I'd like to add that Grand Master Belial and the remaining terminator sarge are also getting some love. Since they didn't look the part on pics yet, I decided to skip it until they are a bit more camera friendly

[Student]

Nice work on the landspeeder. I like the hair and goggles that you put on the pilot.

[igneous]

looking good so far
liking the termies
keep up the good work

[richter]

@igneous and student: thanks guys!

Time for some more updates!

So today I finished some details on the dread's gap filling. I also got to cut the poor bloke's legs in pieces and start posing them.

Here's our volunteer after all the trimming was done, as I said on the previous post, some minor changes were done to it. I replaced the frontal "visor" plate with the one on the DA ravenwing box and did the same for the right armour leg plate, I liked the original left leg pad, so I kept it.



Next I decided to give the base some attention, so I decided to drill, cut and burn a perfectly good model...Insanity! I also added some debris with leftover plasticard and GS just to start fixing the scene. So far, so good, this chaos chap looks like he is in his last, but wont go down quietly...How chaosy of him! Must be a world eater for sure Right now he looks like this:



Last but not least, our main character gets some work done (again). I chopped his legs off (which made my GF think I was crazy, why on earth would someone do that to a new model??) and started all the posing.

To much of my amazement, I found out that something is a bit off with the dread's anatomy. If such a machine were to exist, he would have some serious balance problems, not to mention the enourmous struggle to climb things such as stairs or a small rock. The way I figured it, his legs are too short and the articulation range very limited. Since this does not suit well with the emperor's finest, I've decided to take some artistic liberties to make it work on my model (at least in appearance).

The solution was to add an "imaginary" pice to his knee, that would make him able to bend his legs alot more. The end result would be an extendible-like (maybe hydraulic) seam inside the knee, only visible when it bends. This fixed all my posing problems at once


Here you can see all that WIP, the GS is a rough version of the "knee seams" with the desired fittings and angles already defined, so some trimming and detailing will be next. The new leg wires will be attached to the fittings of the plastic ones, thus all the drilling. After the GS is cooked I'll add some wire or plastic to reinforce the legs's joints on the inside, the new angles gave the impression that the mini won't be able to hold it's weight properly.



So, thats all for today, stay tuned for the next episodes As allways C&C are most welcome!

[MasterValrik]

Army looks great, Really like the Land Speeder it looks boss.

[richter]

@MasterValrik: Thanks

And yet another update to this evergrowing army!

So first things first, the WIP on the dreadnaught.

I'm still messing around with the legs, detail work is coming together. I started to do the "seam"/piston thingy I mentioned on my last post and added some cabling for good measure:





By now I think you guys are seeing where I was getting at with that spiel (rant) about dread legs earlier on the thread With some more detailing and maybe some liquid GS, this actually might look nice.

The left leg is being more of a struggle. It has more exposure (requires more detail) and the angle is a lot trickier,right now I've emplaced the "skelleton" parts to hold it together and I'm starting to detail and cleaning it:



While the GS was curing, I decided to get some work done on the termies. This is what the sarge looks like atm:





Still need to paint all the metals, seals and details in general, but the armour it's kinda of done... (I hope)

I tried a different approach to the armour colour and I would need some feedback before moving along to do it on Belial. Do you think he looks "deathwingsh" with those tones on the armour? Does he fit the part?

C&C Is most welcome!

[richter]

Time for some updates!

So first the termie sargent is shaping up:







And now our boxy mechanical friend! I did some detailing work on both knees and re-wired the right leg. The left leg still has some work pending so don't worry if it looks unpolished

I had some GS left and decided to add a bit of bling to the dread. That green thing on the armour will be a bas-relief wing (a bit skewed), if it looks bad after trimming I can allways peel it off!

And after all this babbling, some pictures:

General view:


Right leg detail:


Left leg:


Wing detail:


So, what do you guys think of this conversion so far?

[Jo-Jo]

Nice to see some movement added to the normally boring-ly posed dreads!

[richter]

@Jo-Jo: Yeah, they allways look like fridges standing on two legs XD . I tried to make it look a bit more interesting with some movement, lets see if it looks good in the end

Short update today. Between overtime @work #1, quality with the lady and beer time with friends, I was still able to squeeze in some mini-time. Having your painting/modeling gear allways ready to go really pays off at times like these

So, the termie sarge is *almost* ready:







And I ended up peeling off that strange wing from the dread. By god, what was I thinking?? I might use it on some other project, but for now I decided to try a different decoration:



It looks a bit...bended and dented, but as I'm thinking in adding some battle damage to this chappy, this wing might just work. It does need some more detail work though.

Comments and feedback are most welcomed as allways

[Governor Gallagher]

These are great! I love well painted Dark Angels. Just something about the dark green and bone white contrast really does it for me. The deathwing and raven wing guys in particular are excellent. Just two things bug me; one you know already...the gloss finish on some models positively ruins them! I'd like to imagine they are a s nice as the others but i can't tell under all that shine! I'd re-varnish them with testers dull coat or something...it should at least tone down the shine a little.

The other thing is the bases; a good base will make or break a miniature in my opinion. I hate it when basing material is spilling off! Just personal taste mind you but I had to say it. In addition I think the bases need another highlight or a shading wash or both. Try some watered down brown paint (I recomend calthan or khemri brown) and then get yourself a small soft bristled makeup brush to very lightly dry brush on a grey basecoat and highlights (I recomend adeptus battle grey and astronomical grey). It should look like the ruins on my land speeders base on in my Minotaurs log. It's really easy to do and it will take your minis up a notch I think.

Keep it up man!

[Yorrik]

This is a great looking army. I especially like how you've maintained the basing medium around the rim of the bases on the tactical marines. It's rather unique, and looks very nice. I'm impressed by the greenstuff details you're putting on - the little things that add up to a large effect. The leg details on the dreadnought are particularly nice. Your freehand on the terminators could use a little tightening up, but that can be hard to do on a white field.

Excellent army.

[richter]

Many thanks for the feedback guys!

@Governor Gallagher: One can "re-varnish" minis?? Never tried this, I do have some matte spray around, I will do a tester, if it works well, the old minis will get some new life!

About the base painting, I followed your suggestion (sort of ), I used codex gray with bleached bone drybrush highlight and then some devlan mud for the shades, this was what I got:



Yeah, all the pebbles, rocks, and what-nots do get a really nice "realistic" feel to them, it was a nice tip, thanks

@Yorrick: Thanks! I did that base work it as an experiment and I really liked how it looked on the minis. Word of advice though, if you do that on "playable" minis and use soft-foam inserts, be prepared to have them filled with basing material :P . That was why I didn't do it for the termies and the ravenwings, the foam wears down the rim material really fast. I only do the base rims for "display" minis now and they look smashing! Give it a go sometime You are right about the freehand, not very tidy indeed, I will work on it on my next minis, and I agree, the white field just adds some extra pressure

Expect some more update pics soon

[richter]

And time for an update!

I've been a bit too busy to post updates, but work on this fellow has continued nevertheless.

I did some trimming on the dread's wing, also added some more details. Since I didn't had a clear idea for that decoration, I did a bit of improvisation. The GS wasn't as tidy as I'd liked it to be, but since I'm adding some damage later, the "dented and twisted" look, might just work. One can only hope

Also finished the wiring on the legs and magnetized the arms. So far arms choice covers Lascannon, Assault cannon and Multi-melta.



Since the alternative arms (from ebay) belonged to a venerable dread, I decided to add some matching decoration to the stock "AOBR" arms. Not quite finished yet, but they are getting the desired look. I'll do some trimming and fixing to improve them.



Finally, I did some work on the base. Both to start fine tuning the dread's pose and to get some work done on the "scenario". That chaos fellow turned out to have a very accidental resemblance to Majin Boo



So, hope to finish up the arms and the posing soon enough. Next in line will be a liquid GS session to fix a couple of things and then it's time to improve the "scenario" and add the battle damage. I also have a rather crazy ideia about the whole "battle freezeframe" concept, so, stay tuned

C&C are most welcome as allways!

[Governor Gallagher]

Glad to see you tried the basing technique! I like mine with more contrast but yours is still pretty good. As far as re-varnishing goes, it might not totally fix the problem, but it will at least tone down the shine some.

Keep it up brother.

[richter]

@Governor Gallagher: Thanks! Your tip was great, I will try some more variations in the future, because they really look great! I'll try the re-varnish this weekend with an old mini. I'll post the result

And now for today's updates!

First order of business was finish up the arm decorations. After some cutting and fixing, I decided to remove the hideous trims I've placed around the GS sections. At time I thought they were a really good idea, but now I realize that even if I did them properly (and better), they'd still look out of context and awkward. Not sure yet if I'll consider those sections as extra armor panels, and maybe add some rivets, or some other solution. In due time I'll close this matter.

Next, I finished polishing some odd bits and pieces around the dread and took care of posing him on the base. This is starting to shape up!



This chap is about to feel the full weight of the Imperium's might!...Literally

Another couple of angles:





The scene looks complete, does it not?
Not yet fellow boardmembers! I still have a bit more spicing to do! And that's where chaos bloke #2 comes in to play:



Well, he is not the whole bloke...yet, but he is going to be very soon As for the conversion, this chap is clearly possessed and he might be growing a pair of these:



...Thus the funky organic goo on the back pack. But where he is going to come in on this tragic mini diorama?? Any ideas?

Ok enough of this shameless self-hyping! *slaps self*

Side note: Also started to paint "Grand Master Belial", we shall consider him Belial "V1.0", until some nicer, cooler and shinier DA bits/characters come into my conversion table and he becomes "sarg.#3" Pics of him soon.

C&C appreciated and welcomed as always!

[Breazer]

your dreadnought is so well converted....a very dynamic pose for origionally such a static model...i love the work you did on him so far and cant wait to see it painted...the work on the powerweapon you did is epic...it is so bright and shining...i really love it...
if you wish to share your colours that would be great...
keep up the great work richter

[richter]

@Breazer: Thanks for the feedback! Making this dread is my most ambitious endeavour so far, I'm glad its getting such nice opinions! About the power weapon colours, I used this approach:

-primed black, very thin layer of boltgun metal, very thin layer of enchanted blue, ice blue drybrush, skull white drybrush (with the paint a bit watered down).

@Governor Gallagher: The matte varnish trick works like a charm! I'll re-spray the older models and post pics soon. Again, thanks for the tip, it was a life saver

And now some updates :

Not much modeling made these days, I decided to wrap up the sarge and get the base colors on Belial all done. Also started with my crazy idea for the dread.

So the sarge is done, and while I was finishing it, I decided to add some...sfx To be precise I added smoke to the bolter and some "energy" to the power sword.

On "tabletop" resolution/size it looks quite well, but I'm not really sure it conveys the idea of energy "flames" coming of the sword. What do you guys think? cool or not cool? (the "flame" comes off without damaging the sword, so, its just a matter of removing it):





Next is Belial "V1.0", I went for the power claw weapon option. The idea was to make it look like a different termie, a bit more regal, but not a walking shrine. I figure that the deathwing seem to be a rather practical bunch, not very fond of decorations and artwork on their gear, except for the occasional chapter/rank insigniae, commendation and so forth, so, I decided that this Belial should be the embodiment of that spirit:





Finally, a bunch of chopped up and drilled chaos marine bits... What will become of this ??



C&C is most appreciated as allways! Keep that feedback coming!