WIP: Bits and bobs

Just a quick update today on various hobby stuff. In other news, the Battle Box that I purchased from these guys.has yet to arrive, despite having been marked as dispatched on 31 March. I asked about it, having checked the USPS website with the tracking number provided, and was informed that "USPS sometimes does not scan in the tracking info". Most disappointing. It's just as well I've other projects to keep me occupied...


Blood Angel Assault Marines

I've another squad of 10 marines in jump packs to add to my DoA list, this time armed with 2 flamers and a sarge with a power weapon. I've gone back to using a black technical pen to blackline marine armour and here's the result:

I've been asked how I paint the yellow helmets on my marines. I've probably mentioned it somewhere on this blog before, but what the hell, now I've got a nice camera to show how it's done, here we go. First, coat the helm in Iyanden Darksun (or, as they call it now, Averland Sunset). As usual, thin down your paints and use as many coats as necessary to get a good solid colour. Next, get a nice fine brush and paint Devlan Mud (now Agrax Earthshade) into the recesses.

L: Iyanden Darksun, R: Shaded with Devlan Mud

Layer (that is, paint the raised areas which aren't meant to be shaded) with Golden Yellow (now Yriel Yellow) and that's that. If you want to take it a little further, I suppose you could edge highlight it with say, a mix Flash Gitz Yellow and something White, but for rank and file Assault Marines, I stop at Golden Yellow.

L: Shaded, R: Layered with Golden Yellow

Menoth Repenter

While waiting for my ridiculously late Battle Box, I nipped over to Wolf's on Saturday and picked up the Menoth codex and, just to get the feel of painting Menoth colours, a Repenter light Warjack. The result: I has my first warjack!

Me likey. Construction was quick and straightforward, with good snug fits all round. Moulding was excellent, with hardly any filing for me to do. Only thing was the resin they used to make this doesn't work with the Tamiya Plastic Cement I usually use, so I did a little pinning and used Selley's superglue.

Painting was easier than expected, and the technique I'd learned off years of GW paid off. Also, the new Citadel paint range helped a lot. I primed the model with Krylon Camo Black, then this is how I did each colour, in order:

Metal: Boltgun Metal basecoat, washed with Nuln Oil
White: White basecoat (seriously, any damn white. I hear good things about Ceramite White), wash with Devlan Mud, layer with Bleached Bone + White
Purple: Screamer Pink basecoat, wash with Druchii Violet, line highlight with Pink Horror
Gold/Brass: Shining Gold basecoat, wash with Chestnut Ink

And that's it, really. Now, there's a reason for painting the colours in that order: As a general rule, always try to paint from inside to out, i.e. start with the most difficult things to reach with your brush first. It also helps a lot to think about how you're going to paint the model before gluing everything in place. For example, I left gluing the left arm til last, since it's lowered position would obstruct my brush.

Ah, I'm just itching to get my grubby paws on more Warmachine stuff... One thing, though... Warjacks look really puny next to a good, honest Furioso Dreadnought:

Until next time, happy wargaming...