ChrisMurray does the Imperium of Man.

[ChrisMurray]

Welcome to my painting log. I know I've started many before and never got past one or two posts. This time I hope to be able to keep it going. So rather than have a log for each faction I paint, I am going to have this log as anything Imperial so that if I paint random squads or change direction the log can keep going.

So here is the plan. I am not the greatest painter in the world, so there will be no Golden Daemon winning level of painting here. I am currently working on a small amount of Grey Knights and a small group of Astral Claws. I also hope in the future to add an Imperial guard element too but lets focus on what I have for the moment.


I am going to leave this first post as the introductory text above and space for group shots that I will update once there is something to update to save people having to hunt for the latest army shots.


Edit 14\7\2012... First Group of 4 Astral Claws complete.

[Petay1985]

looking forward to seeing your progress fella. especially the Astral Claws.

[ChrisMurray]

First up is the start of a Grey Knight terminator. I recently decided with all my minis to paint them in sections. As I am a very slow painter this allows me to have a mini sense of achievement as I complete small sections and will hopefully keep me motivated. So here is a wip shot of the Grey Knights legs.



From here I finished the legs minus some script for the purity seal and the bit on the leg. Once this was done I moved on to the body and did the same before moving onto the arms minus the weapons (storm bolter and helberd). I then did the helberd and my first ever attempt at painting a power weapon. So this is where he is now upto.



These projects are using alot of techniques and styles of painting that I have never tried before, but it is all good fun. If there is any tip I could ever give to anyone is that the GW washes are fantastic, I now find that I am heavily washing everything with a wash of one sort or another.

[ChrisMurray]

Thanks Petay, well not to disapoint (I hope) here are the first wip shots of the astral claws. I'm trying to paint 5 at a time but still working in "body sections". I have done the below and the backpack but there is no photo of the backpacks yet. Here was the first basic run and then in the second picture they have a bit of blue. At the moment I have a enough parts for 2 10 man squads, so to make them a bit different this squad will have their left leg pads blue and the other squad will have their right. Any way pictures.






Here is a picture of my Valethex with the wip Astral Claw tacticals. He was in one of my previous threads but the pictures were really bad. So I managed to just grab this one for now so everyone could get a look. The tactical marines armour is boltgun metal with a heavy babdab wash, so is Valethex, but he has an additional wash of devlin mud that the tacticals won't get as i'm thinking of eventually trying some weathering powder, also I like the distintion between troops and HQ's.



and here is a kind of group shot I did at some stage.



Everything still needs basing. I haven't decided what I'm going to do for that yet as I don't have any experience in basing. I am thinking of keeping all the Imperial bases the same so that all the forces are linked together visually.

[ChrisMurray]

Greetings everyone. I have done a little more work on the first Astral Claws tactical squad. I've done the shoulder pads and arms and backpacks. Left to do on these first five models is the heads, the weapons, and then a bit of tidying up\highlighting that needs doing in places. Oh and the bases but I think I'll leave that till I have done two full tactical squads. The weapons are going to be hersy era (from FW) flamer and missile launcher and when I get to the second squad FW missile launcher and melta gun.

As always the more interesting part, pictures.

[the damned artificer]

Looks good mate, I like the irony of the title and the fact that you choose to paint a sm chapter that turns to chaos The irony :P

[Promethius]

What greys are you using on your grey knight there? I'm admiring your work, especially as I painted mine up in metallic colours and was not pleased with the end result

[Petay1985]

Valthex is a lot larger than i had realised, he has quite a stature indeed. A really nice model. i like the grity/dirty you are going for, always makes for a nice group aesthetic.

[ChrisMurray]

The grey on the Grey Knight is Adaptus Battle Greay (the foundation grey by GW) with a heavy wash of babdab black. It is then edge highlighted with codex grey. Nice and simple but I think it gives a reasonable result for the tabletop. I too was surprised by the size difference between a normal marine and Valthex. He is a very impressive model with lots litttle details.

I've undercoated all the parts that remain so hopefully this week I'll have time to finish these five and make a start on the next five. The tactical box doesn't contain a power fist though, could someone tell me what marine boxes have them in. I remember having one in a devistator box before (but then I'd want it for the devs). Is there a box with several in? Or shall I just leave my sergent with a bolt pistol and chainsword?

[Commandojimbob]

Hey Chris - looking like a really nice start - have subscribed to see how you progress and since you are a local lad - may get to see these guys up close one day

[ChrisMurray]

Thanks, once I get the two tac squads painted (that'll give me just under 500pts) I may have to see if we can arrange a game as thats a side of the hobby I would like to get into, but your welcome to see what I have up close any time.

[ChrisMurray]

Ok it's been a while since my last update, I apologise for that. I have no new pictures to share, but as it has been so long I thought I would give a text update on where I am currently. The first 5 marines (combat squad I suppose) are complete apart from their bases. Whilst in my LGS I spotted the Marine\drop pod box that some retailers currently have so I took my chance to grab it. I have assembled the legs\body sub section of all 15 remaining marines and undercoated them. Unfortunately I won't get to work on them until at least wednesday night now, but I hope to finish them by the end of next week if I can get a few extra hours to work on them than usual.

Not that it has too much to do with this log, but I have also been reading the main rulebook and now have a (very) basic understanding of how to move and shoot.

[Breazer]

im liking the colours of your forces so far...a few strong highlights would do them good though...perhaps that is an idea...
keep up the good work!

[Appophis]

So not going to lie I started reading this plog because my name is Chris Murray to lol but I'm glad I started it, the way you've achieved the weathering is fantastic

[ChrisMurray]

Thanks for all the comments guys. I feel I must apologise, I have had very little time to paint and to be totally honest I lost interest in the painting side of the hobby for a month and a bit. With the release of 6th edition I feel the desire to paint\model and even game coming back. So I apologise to any of you that have taken the time to read and\or comment on my blog. I have managed to do a small bit of painting, I have been feeling for a while now the pull back to Chaos. So this Imperium log may soon go back into hybernation until I feel the word of the Emperor pulling me back. In the mean time I will show you all here what I have managed to do and a rare (for me) Wip.

First up is what happened to the Astral Claws. They almost got finished, they just need a few highlights in places and the bases done. I am currently going to leave them as they are until I feel the urge to come back to them. But here is the picture.




Next up, as I have a lot of models for the Necrons and I was liking the look of their play style I tried painting up a small group. Unfortunately I picture them in my head with all sort of OSL and glowing parts which my painting skills are not able to match upto. So I decided to paint them as quickly as I could as a gaming force rather than a painting force. The spyder is my first real attempt at lots of edge highlighting, unfortunately my lack of patience has made the rusults rather poor. However as a force to game with (and from a distance) they look kind of ok, it's only when you look close at the that all the flaws stand out.



Next up I wanted to show you a model I painted about 2 years ago I think. It was painted as soon as the model was released. At the time I thought he was painted fantasticly and even entered him into a painting competition. Now as I look back I can see much that could be improved upon.




My next post will show what I am currently working on...

[ChrisMurray]

Right so here is what I am working on, it is very, very early work in progress. Especially with the metallics which you can see (the left hand shoulder for example where my hand slipped ) need tidying up. He was originally going to be another Khorne lord but I'm liking the silver (I'm using the silver is the first base in building up a nice bronze\brass) and as I've done him brighter than any Khorne I've previously done I'm wondering if he should be a Word Bearer instead. Your opinions please, based off the red World Eaters or Word Bearers? I've also done a darker red on a test piece of plastic so eventually I will do models from both factions (one with the brighter red one with the darker.).

I hope to be able to work on him a little every night next week and have him finished for the weekend.








Next up a couple of group shots...

[ChrisMurray]

And Finally (sorry for the triple post but I wanted to space the pictures out) two little group shots of the marines.





So that is it. I hope to get a 500 pt CSM force painted In a month to two months and then hopefully do some games with the Cambridge guys. What force it is though depends on what you guys think to the lord. If he is a WE lord then I'll be painting bezerkers up, if you think the red is more of a word bearer red then it'll be standard CSM squads.


Edit: just in case anyone wants to know, the new lord is the first model where I'm using 100% the new GW paints. So far they seem quite good.

Until next time please feel free to C&C.

[ChrisMurray]

Right Just a text update, no pictures at the moment. I have had less time than originally planned to paint. I also spent a lot of time experimenting with bases. I have started painting the cloth parts of the Chaos lord. I am painting them grey which will also tie into any robes etc on any other chaos forces I do (I have decided that they are Word Bearers). The bases are going to be snow bases. I think I might base my Astral Claws the same way and then one day build a snow board for them to fight over.

I'm away from home all next week so I don't imagine much progress will happen. My next update on the Chaos Lord will be in a dedicated Chaos log. I'll post a Link when that happens. So this log will go back to being purely Imperial.

Until next time keep well.

[Tradition]

keep it coming mate - dig all the stuff you've posted so far, and I like the Necrons - nice thing about them is even a "quick" paint job with two strongly contrasting colors gives them nice table presence.

[Commandojimbob]

Its starting to come together really nicely Chris - keep up the good work !