Toddius 4th Company Dark Angel Thread

[Desert Eagle]

Indeed, they look sweet lined up together like that. I have to second the old school feel, very 'eavy metal. Now, the latest set of pics arn't enormus on my screen, but as you said yourself, it seems like the highligting does bring out a lot more detail in the armour now, i like it. So, in short, they look great! Not much of a c&c, but hey, they look great. :teehee:

 

How are things going with those older chapterbadges by the way? Found any versions you like?

[Master Toddius]

Okay, so I sat down tonight to change things up from painting and did some research and looked for aaaaallll the DA symbols I could find. Unfortunately I only really found maybe 4 variations. So I went ahead and took the language and ran with it. And I want to say that these ARE QUICK DIRTY SKETCHES. Just getting info down on a template thumbnail to get the concept in front of me. I'll work out the exact details with the brush on the pad.

The goal is to get almost every singe tac marine with a different shoulder icon of the same chapter. A variation on a theme. 30 tac marines with 5-6 molded out-of-the-box pads and then 25 painted. Heres technically 13 variations. I'll figure out 10 more in the months to come. :) The goal is to be prepared for the LAGD next year. I think I can make it. :teehee:

Heres a few:

The Icon Album thus far.

C&C Welcomed.

Solskjaer:

Thanks bro. If you chack page 2 you'll see the bases when I built them. :unsure:

Blargag:

Well, Ummm... Thanks for the compliment? :) When you've been doing something for 20 years you tend to be quick at it. DA painting is one of those things for me :)

Mr. Eagle: (aka Super-Swede :P )

Thanks. Ya I'm not going to show anymore of the reg tac squad in Wip mode. Only the 2 leads. The next time they're shown will be in the Hall of Honor. Alot of Pics at that point. To be seen anywhere near 'eavy metal is a Huge compliment, thanks. Icons? You ask, you recieve. :)

[Master Toddius]

When I was doing my research I looked through my old 2nd edition rulebook and found some pics of DA models from way back in 1993. And I realised where I got the idea for the paint scheme. I saw something also comparable with the Dark Millenium Rule book but this was more along the lines of where my Inspiration came from.

Interesting how images forgotten effect your subconscious... :teehee:

[Tsuro]

Models are looking great. Individual chapter symbols? Fantastic idea, and just the sort of thing to drive a man crazy implementing (I think you've already got further than I would have done variating on the theme)

 

 

Tsuro

[Desert Eagle]

Wow, 30 diffrent badges. That's a lot. And a very interesting challenge you've made for yourself. I'm all-in for that idea and hope you see it trough, i like what you've come up with so far.

 

Also, hope you don't mind, i felt like chipping in with a few possible variations for inspirations. Ofcourse, as said before, i don't really know all that much about DA heraldry, but i sat down and looked at a sprue from the rw-box (yay, i got myself even more bikes to paint :D ) and also had in mind how your marines look (those red/black checkers in particular) and came up with a few sketches. Since i don't have a scanner, i had to take a photo of them, hence the lack of focus. But you get the idea.

 

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p35/tjuven52/toddius.jpg

[Master Toddius]

Tsuro:

Thanks brother. Ya its something of a strange love to take things way to far on paintjobs for me. But then again; whats too far for some is not far enough for others... :P

 

Mr. Eagle:

 

WOWZERS. Thanks!! I think at least 3 of those would end up on a Vet or an HQ member. Great effort! I appreciate it. :)

 

More bikes? I feel you pain :) My 2400pt RW army took forever and they're only black PJ's. Yours is WAY more complicated. But at the level you take them they'll turn out incredible. Since they're Desert Eagles are you going to do a speeder --> humvee conversion? I think with your clever modeling skills you could pull it off :)

 

Thanks for the replies :)

[Desert Eagle]

You're welcome, i just got a bit inspired by the tought of you creating lots of variations of the da-icon and figurered i might try and see if i could contribute with some ideas. I didn't think you would aim for every marine to be diffrent at first but just a 4-5 diffrent versions spread among your force, this is more fun. I won't be that ambitious with the eagle-badge myself, since i plan on sticking so many banners on them instead. That's timeconsuming enough. Sadly, i'm ashamed to confess i still havn't got much painting done. But i have built a few more bikes where the marines have gone trough some serious conversion. I'll have an update comming later on, but not tonight.

 

I saw a conversion of a speeder to a jeep somewhere around here before, and that looked cool. But i'm not sure what to do with my own speeders. I love them gamewise, but i don't fancy the model much. I am currently thinking more in the lines of making them appear more like flyers...perhaps in the line of a-wings or something. I don't know. Well, that's enough hijacking of your thread.

[Durus]

On the cover of the 3rd edition DA codex there are also a few different ways to to do the DA symbol. You can basically use every bannertop as inspiration (they usually have the aquila/DA style wings and there are also a lot of variations on the theme...steelwings, angelic wings...). There also is an old shoulder pad with two crossed swords. And of course laurels, halos, fire/torches and skulls always work with DA. I remember some artwork from Ravenwing bikers that used regular DA chaptersymbols but had lightning bolts worked into this. You might even consider using Lions (it's actually the disciples of caliban's chapterbadge) because of the primarchs name. And of course there is the angel of death (look at the holy standards again you might find inspiration there, too)

 

Infact in the new codex there is an old artwork on p.56 -wich is also in the Warhammer40k Artbook (there are a lot of DA pictures in this one IIRC)- where you might find some inspiration. They have these rows of little swords, fists holding swords, ravens on the RW landspeeders and all this very classic stuff (differently couloured bands with heraldic symbols such as swords or just checkered patterns). I don't know if you have the old codex alngels of death, but there are alot of artworks inside there, too. But you've probaply thought about looking at artwork already.

 

I just needed an alibi to say how much I like your DAs. It has even made me think about scrapping my plans for another DIY-chapter and instead returning "back to the roots"... :D

[solskjaer]

Thanks todius. What did you use for the metal parts? i can't figure out where that might have originated from.

 

I like the 1st and 2nd of your icon ideas, i think the first appeals more because it's similar but different. However, it's not too different :D

 

That really is going to be one ace looking army. Have you got any plans for how you're going to paint vehicles etc?

 

-Solskjaer

[Master Toddius]

Desert Eagle:

The reason I asked is because I was thinking about doing both a custom tempest pattern RW speeder and a Humvee style as well. I already stripped one of the speeders and I'm now figuring out parts and designing the wings and cockpit for the "Ravens Talon" pattern speeder. :P Thought you might be going for a different look on your speeders :)

 

Durus:

 

Thanks so much for the research! The chapter banners do lead to some more ideas with the pads. I'll have to recheck that to see where we'll go. The 2 cross swords will move a little far into DoC but I'll recheck it because maybe I can redo the idea a bit. The RW have Lightning Bolts on thier standards because way back when the Lightning was a Fast Attack Icon. That does remind me to use some of those decals on the new RW squad I'm putting together. I bought Sammael on bike a while back and i have anough now for a 6 man squad + attack bike + a custom speeder I'm thinking about doing. They'll essentially be my show squad for Multi-wing armies. And then the older RW stuff I did will be for pure RW games.

 

I do have the Angels of Death Codex and the icons you're speaking of will be painted unto my rhinos and preds. The level of detail in those can't be pulled off well on a SM pad IMHO. Like the Deathwing sword with all the little details would look great on the side of my LRC. The main DA sword/wings + Winged Handle surrounded by a halo and skulls would look great on a pred face. And you're right, i do need to look at more heraldry to see where it could lead. Maybe more checker schemes. Great advice, thankyou. And thanks for the compliment.

 

solskjaer:

 

The metal parts are a metal light cover for fluourescent lights. I had to use it for a lighting project i did at school a long time ago. I so a bag of it in my workbox and realised they'd make great base details. You can probbly get it at anyhardware store with a lighting department.

 

The Vehicles are going to be huge murals. I love the LR's that where done on CMON. I can't remember the artist name but he did a LR with full mural of a angel of death along with skulls and other DA icons. It looked great and i want to do something along those lines. :) This army will have 2 rhinos/razors, one pred, whirlwind, DW squad, RW squad, 3 tacs, Vets, and RW master. Either the speeder or bike, not sure yet. Thats the plan. :)

 

I still have an entire 3500pt DW army to paint. Half of it is primed (2nd ed. termies). The current style termies need to be modeled and painted along with 3 dreads, LRC, and a LR. But thats for later :)

[Girathon]

Great work Toddius!!! I love the idea of using jade green for your mixes, it look fantastic!!! Not to mention oyur amazing freehand work!!

 

I do have a question for you. How do you do your metals?? They are so clean and whenever I try to do metal it ends up looking really grimy and dirty so any advice or tips you might have would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

Girathon

[Master Toddius]

Girathon:

 

Thanks bro. The metalics should be treated just like a wash paintjob. I start with boltgun metal and do a thin base coat over black. About 3 to 1, water to paint. Do about 2 or 3 coats depending on coverage. Then I do black/bolt/water mix for the recesses. Then I do a watered down minthril around the edges. Treat it like you're painting with any other color. You're just adding black or minthril to boltgun metal. Makesure to keep the paint thin. And when you're changing shades be sure to clean your brush because metal drys quickly and will gum up your brush. That gum up will leave fleck on the surface of the paint. And a little trick if you screw up and are stuck with to much build up in one area is to take a sculpting tool and VERY CAREFULLY flatten that area down by slowly and gently rolling the tool over the area which will flatten the the suface out. :)

 

Experiment with adding browns and reds to the metal mix. Or any other color. You'll find ways of doing rust effects, glow effects, or just dulling down certain areas for cool fades. Have fun with it :)

 

Hope that helps.

[Durus]

Mh, i got bored today and drew something up. As I said before I thought about creating a DIY chapter (using sword iconography) myself. I hope you don't mind but since I have it kicking around I thought i might just as well share it. :sweat:

I made some notes (even in english :teehee: ) to explain what is what in case something isn't "readable". :P

Oh and the crypic writing on top with the big exclamation mark refers to converting Shoulderpads with SM combatknives. Like it is shownhere.

 

 

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/3435/marinepadscopyuc0.th.jpg

[Master Toddius]

Durus:

 

Thats pretty funny because a few of those were running through my head last night. Those are Very inventive and smartly done. The multiple swords with checkers is awesome. I love how you did belials backbanner unto a pad. Very cool. :)

Great job. Come back to the DA's... come to the dark side... ;)

 

May I use some of those designs?

[Durus]

Of course! That's why I posted them! ;)

Feel free to do whatever you want to do with them!

[Squiggoth]

That's an amazing job on these angels ..... even your basic bolter-armed troopers are a pleasure to look at, very inspirational. :lol:

 

 

Incidentally, one of my Aspiring Champions has a Dark Angel helmet with a bone-coloured snout impaled on his trophy rack. I guess there's something about that particular colour combo that makes Dark Angels really pop. ;)

[Master Toddius]

Heres the Vet Serg minus right shoulder markings, name, and base. I'm going to get my trusty micropen for the name. We'll see how it goes.

More Pics.

C & C Welcomed. ^_^

Squiggoth:

Thanks. And yes I've seen that model. or one simlar that has the same helmet... GRRrrrr :)

J.K.

More to come. :)

[solskjaer]

looking great Todius.

 

For the chapter badge, pick a couple and paint them onto some spare green pads so you can see how easy or hard they are to paint. I love that sarges robes, for some reason I never consider brown for a colour of robes, and i like the Bone inside. (mine are black with red inside). All in all looking good, but why is he wearing heretic 101's backpack? lol.

 

-Solskjaer

[Master Toddius]

solskjaer:

 

Thanks bro.

 

I'm ready to go on the icons. I usually varnish the model and then do the icon over the varnish so that if I screw up its easier to wipe off. Then respray lightly. By the time I get to the icons the base and EVERYTHING else should be done. Icons are totally last. The robes should be ay color you want. Just make sure the color is muted. If its blue then go for a dark grey/blue. If Red then do what I did and go for a redish brown. And so on... That way the color looks less dramatic over the dark green. If you look at the 2nd/3rd edition codexes at Azrael you'll notice they went for a very muted red/brown with a navy blue robe interior. It looks great with the dark green because its dark and balanced with the rest of the model. And only my vets get the colored robes. Everyone else gets bleached bone/white. The color is an honor badge in a sense. :confused:

[KYR GKIKAS]

wow such an excellent job indeed.well done my friend

[Master Toddius]

Hes the final member of Tac Squad Delta. He'll lead the combat squad when the Strategy is executed. The blue was an experiment to see if Its possible to change up the robe colors a bit. I'll probably add a trim on him later at some point but for now this is the desired result. Now unto finishing up the bases and shoulders and unto the next project...

More Pics.

C&C Welcomed. :teehee:

KYR GKIKAS:

Thanks, Bro.

[Captain Engelhardt]

Man, your Highlights are so smooooth, love that, any recipes ? :rolleyes:

[Hubbynz]

wow very clean and smooth painting I wish I could paint half that good. nice job

[Doghouse]

Great job on these mate, it's nice to see someone do an alternative take on the regular stuff and you've executed it brilliantly!

Really nice job with the colours and the painting is fantastic! :D

[solid snake drive]

It's cartoony, I likey. :D :D