The Disciples of the Four

[Tinweasel]

Here's an update on the inducted Ultramarine Berzerker, now named Tēlum, with his shoulder pads in place, added color, and a bit of weathering on his chainsword:

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_db3_wip22.jpg

[Tinweasel]

I'm in the home stretch now, and these two are looking surprising angry, I think:

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_db5_wip6.jpg

 

 

What do you guys think of the green basing? Ideally I'd like all conrete and urban ruin, but it's looking pretty impractical if I'm doing a whole army. I could do my usual red-tinged concrete, dark grey-based blacktop, and greenish-grey dirt - that sound about right?

 

I dunno - I'm open to suggestions. Other than concrete, I hadn't thought about what color to do the basing for the rest of the army.

[Durus]

I'm not sure what you mean by green basing (I don't see anything green? -_- ), but I really like your painting style and the basing you have on some of your other minis look great as well.

 

Here's a thought about additional colors on the bases. One thing to consider when you do urban rubble is where the rubble actually comes from. In terms of introducing new colors or materials that opens the door to basically anything you can think of. If you want something lighter on the bases your troops might be walking through the marble rocks left from an imperial cathedral or administratum building. Or crashed tiles from a abattoir or public bath. Steel, copper, cast iron on gears, girders, machinery and hatches from any industrial building, as well as bricks and cables in all colors and forms, safety lables and and painted sheets of metal in all colors and states of decay. You could even throw some furniture, table ware and garbage into the mix. Or Toys...being grimdark and all. -_-

Spilled gasoline, oil, toxic waste and water might as well be around as piles of coal or gastanks, tools or parts of civil vehicles and machines. Propaganda, advertisements and street signs.

 

So you could do random spots of color an your bases or pick a color that complements your scheme and think of where it might show up. Green could be on broken down walls, floor tiles, tarnished copper and brackish water or even broken bottles.

 

 

You are probably right about the bases being impractical for an entire army, but there are ways to make your life easier. Link1 Link2 Link3

I also don't think that you have to do such elaborate bases for every single miniature in the army to get the idea across. It should probably be enough to to have a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio of elaborate to "vanilla" bases.

 

Anyway good luck with this project. Looking very good thus far. I suppose the general lack of answers means that nobody can think of something to criticize. ;)

[Tinweasel]

@ Durus - Thanks for the well-thought-out and decent response. I guess the color paint that I tentatively laid down on the left-most figure looks more green in RL than it does in pics. That's what I was talking about. Now that it's all said and done (finished both the Berzerker figures) it's more of a grey than a green color overall, but it's still somewhat complementary to the red armor (which is what I was intending) outside of concrete, rubble, or other colors.

 

I'm going to aim for color variety in the basing and it was suggested on other Forums where I usually post, too. I settled on a greenish grey being the default dirt color, but I'm going to have other found objects in the dirt, as well as the pinkish-grey concrete color I'm running with. I believe I will print up your post as a comprehensive list of "found objects" that I can include in my basing.

 

I'm also using a pre-release set of the Urban Streets I and II bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures - I was asked to preview a few batches, and even though they're just pre-release casts, they're at least as solid IMO as Dark Arts or Dragonforge stuff. (Now that the actual production line is out, I'd say I prefer Secret Weapon's bases to Dark Art Minis' just for practicality and ease of mounting figures on - no rounded "mounds" of junk, say, to gap-fill under. Haven't seen any Dragonforce stuff in person, but Jeff's a great guy and I know he does good work!)

 

More out of curiosity than anything, you said you like my "painting style" - what would that be, exactly, because I'm trying to figure out what exactly my style might be...

 

 

How's about some finished Berzerkers?

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_db5_fin_front.jpghttp://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_db5_fin_back.jpg

 

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_db3_fin_front.jpghttp://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_db3_fin_lt.jpghttp://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_db3_fin_back.jpghttp://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_db3_fin_rt.jpg

[Durus]

They are looking good. :tu: And now that you pointed it out I see the green, too. <_<

 

 

[...]

More out of curiosity than anything, you said you like my "painting style" - what would that be, exactly, because I'm trying to figure out what exactly my style might be...

[...]

 

I posted this after looking at your CMON gallery to see some of the other concrete bases you mentioned and not just the minis you posted here.

What do I mean by painting style. That's a good question. To me it means anything that makes your miniatures instantly recognizable as yours.

It's how you do, what you do. Starting from the placing of your highlights to the use of contrast or the palette you use.

 

The ultramarine for example has very nice smooth highlighting and even though there is a big dark/light contrast it looks subtle enough to look natural. This also means that you know where and how to place highlights in order to make the plasticity and scale of the model work instead of making it look flat or exaggerated. Add to that the warm earthy colors and use of light/pastel tones that I have seen throughout your gallery (the UM's sword here) and the subtle clean conversions in this case.

This makes for a naturalistic appearance that I find very appealing and recognizable as it is not quite as bold or crowded looking as minis sometimes tend to be. It let's you appreciate the sculpt and the mood of the colors without "forcing" your eyes in one direction.

 

So in short it just makes me look at the miniature as a whole instead of a collection of certain parts, complementing the sculpt instead of using it just as canvas. I look different at it than at other painters miniatures. I guess that is what makes you "feel" a style. Different painters have different qualities and it shows in what they do. This doesn't necessarily has to have anything to do with how "well" or "clean" painted something is, it's just the distinction between two peoples approach to the same thing for example.

 

Sorry if that's to much philosophy, but it's the best explanation I can give. :)

[Hashshashin]

awesome models, they all loo really good so far, Great Job!

[Tinweasel]

Before I get too far in, I had a few questions...

 

I know way back when, the Night Lords were painted Midnight Blue (as well as being designated as worshipping Khorne), but that's a paint color I'm not familiar with since it came out after I "retired" from painting. Does anyone know if this looks about right (not counting the glossiness in parts or the highlighting):

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_d4_2_wip2.jpg

 

 

I was wondering about his Melta, too - I know it's a heat weapon, but do people normally paint them up as internally (infernally?) glowing, or just in stock metal colors and such? It's got the vents on the underside and in the barrel, so I was wondering how comparable it was to how people usually paint plasma weapons.

[Brother Nihm]

The blue is perfect. :tu:

Personally I always paint up my meltas like this but gold works as well.

[GI Joker]

These all look fantastic. Top-notch work there. I particularly like the UM.

[SirTainly]

Wow really top notch work here, great stuff!

[Razblood]

Before I get too far in, I had a few questions...

 

I know way back when, the Night Lords were painted Midnight Blue (as well as being designated as worshipping Khorne), but that's a paint color I'm not familiar with since it came out after I "retired" from painting. Does anyone know if this looks about right (not counting the glossiness in parts or the highlighting):

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_d4_2_wip2.jpg

 

 

I was wondering about his Melta, too - I know it's a heat weapon, but do people normally paint them up as internally (infernally?) glowing, or just in stock metal colors and such? It's got the vents on the underside and in the barrel, so I was wondering how comparable it was to how people usually paint plasma weapons.

 

I think the blue could stand to be a little darker to be honest, with a tiny bit of red mixed into it.

 

Awesome conversion work and painting though :mellow:

[Tinweasel]

An update on my inducted Night Lords Melta CSM:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/bwride/gw_d4_2_wip3.jpg

 

I'm wondering whether to go with red shoulder pad trim, same as the decayed wings on his helm or the accent on the Melta, a gold similar to the basecoated trim here (except finished, as the rest will be soonish), or the brownish chainmail color of the rest of my Warband (as seen through the rest of the thread.)

 

(Been working on my Chaos Lord w/ Mark of Slaanesh...)

[Tinweasel]

I'm doing a WIP post on my Chaos Lord w/ Mark of Slaanesh to ideally get some feedback as I head into the home stretch here in painting the guy. I've painted this figure with more contrast than I think I've ever put into any other figure, with the shading and highlighting going from near-black all the way up to more or less pure white or pure silver in all the different color areas. He's a little bit different from my usual slightly-more-subdued painting style in that regard, I think - I generally seem to favor blended highlights as opposed to strong edge highlighting. (I realize there's probably not any of that, either, a la the 'Eavy Metal style of painting, but in any case I don't usually make as stark a jump in my highlighting/shading progressions as I've done on this guy, especially on the pink gear and the hood - I'm also putting a little more work in on him closer to what I do for my display figures, just because he'll be the leader of my CSM Warband.)

 

I'm wanting details to carry over among all my Warband troops, like shoulder pad or trim colors, places for insignia, a matching 3-part pattern of purple for the right greave and both shoulder pads, etc. - that way even if I do go way out color-wise (like with this guy or upcoming inducted Space Wolves, Imperial Fists, Emperor's Children, etc.) there's going to be elements that are unified all the way across on all my figures. I'm hoping I'm hitting that mark, maybe? If not, I've got problems...

 

 

Here's the update - I had some time this morning to do a bit more work:

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_slord_wip12.jpg

 

The little decorative shoulder doodads aren't white but are actually metallic white, just like I took the purple armor up to metallic yellowed-purple following the same highlight colors as my CSM (but with metallic medium added). I'm not set on the color of the grip of his Daemon Weapon, but I figger a pale whitish-purple and purple-tinged (or maybe blue?) silver would be a good color for a "Blissgiver" flail/scourge.

 

 

I've no idea what color to paint the scroll tucked under his arm, but I'm thinking I can balance whatever color out by his bolter holster and strap that'll be going back on. Maybe like they're made from flayed flesh, or a bright yellow, or pure white, or...?

 

I've also decided that this isn't going to be a Golden Demon army, because that sort of thing just isn't practical at this point in my life. Hell, even just painting is a struggle. It is what it is; high-end tabletop or something? Dunno.

[Tinweasel]

Well, after playing around with a few paint mixtures on the separate holster, I believe I figgered out an excellent contrast color that seems to suit the rest of the figure's color palette nicely - a dead flesh tone.

 

It's kinda an idea I had in the back of my head from the outset, but after trying out the basecoat color I've decided that the grip of the Blissgiver/scourge, the scroll (to a certain extent), and the holster for the Chaos Lord's converted, now-modular combi-bolter are going to be painted to look (hopefully) as if they were made from flayed skin.

[13skullz]

I think that for cabling/piping etc, go ahead and get yourself a package of guitar string. Using mainly the low E string for thicker cables, a single package ought to last you a goodly while. Cheers!

[Tinweasel]

I think that for cabling/piping etc, go ahead and get yourself a package of guitar string. Using mainly the low E string for thicker cables, a single package ought to last you a goodly while. Cheers!

Thanks for the suggestion! I've used guitar string in the past and that reminds me that I need to replace the "tubing" on the Night Lords melta-carrier's gun - I was going to maybe use a trio of fishing line lengths just to have it look different, but guitar string would probably be much easier and much quicker. (I've got a little set of wire bending "tubes" that I picked up from Harbor Freight and they do a much better job of getting nice smooth curves in guitar wire than I ever did using a round file and my thumb for leverage - plus a lot less painfully!)

 

One of the main reasons I haven't touched the replacement tubing yet is I'm wondering what would look best to decorate it, given that the guy's an inducted former Night Lords Legionnaire - the default one I clipped off had a fang or something, but I'm wondering if a dangling skull or maybe some bones strung from the cable might not look more appropriate. Any suggestions, anyone?

 

 

@ Durus - I don't know how I missed it, probably through only sporadic visits when I've actually got some painting done, but I want to thank you for your "philosophical" analysis of my painting here and over on my CMON account. What you noted makes perfect sense, and no, it's not too far out or anything. I appreciate your comments on my painting style, and that's probably the clearest (actually, the only) explanation that anyone's ever given of how they see my painting as looking. (I've had people tell me I have a very "clean" painting style, but nobody's ever explained exactly and I've not been in a frame of mind to ask... i.e. - "Hey, I just won a Bronze Demon in Fantasy Single!" "Wait, what do you mean by a 'clean painting style'?!?") Seriously, I appreciate the feedback!

[Tinweasel]

I need to tidy up the gun and a few other details, but how does the holster look color-wise - assuming it was made out of tanned human skin, that is?

 

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_slord_wip13.jpg

[Tinweasel]

Duplicate post?

[Snugsmike]

Wow! I love your conversion work! You're doing what I wish I had the patience to do.

 

Keep it up!

 

PS: Do you have any of the old Noise Marines models with the guitars? I think they would go well with that Slaanesh Champion.

[Tinweasel]

Wow! I love your conversion work! You're doing what I wish I had the patience to do.

 

Keep it up!

 

PS: Do you have any of the old Noise Marines models with the guitars? I think they would go well with that Slaanesh Champion.

Thanks for the compliments! I don't know if it's necessarily "patience" but more that I get an idea stuck in my head and feel obligated to try and follow through - I'm wanting my warband to look sort of motley outside of the unifying insignia and such, just for the sake of keeping things fun to paint. When I get to a block of rank 'n' file CSM's fully covered in armor (they're next after I finish my Berzerkers) - out comes the airbrush, which I already know I should be able to use because I tested the painting on the two Berzerkers. (The conversion was more the end result of a thinking through things fluff-wise: now how would an Ultramarine fit in with Berzerkers? Oh, he's got tanks full of chemicals strapped to his back to pump him full of Frenzon and 'Slaught an all sorts of other niceties, and since I've got a bunch of tanks on his pack, why don't I make it all look like a Khorne symbol?)

 

Hopefully I can keep things up - I was feeling pressured to have a painted, playable army there for a while, but I've not been up to the LGS in a while and I really need to find a job, so I've just been keeping to myself and chugging along in fits and starts with the troops. The hardest part for me is prepping them and removing mold lines and such - if I knew someone who loved doing that sort of thing, then I'd be golden! I've got a block of 5 Berzerkers up next, and I'm using a competition over at the Relicnews P&M Forum for motivation to get 'em done. (Trying to claw my way out of a depressive period here, so things are taking a lot longer than I would've expected otherwise...)

 

Nope, no Noise Marines and they're not in my 1,000 point list. I like 'em, though, and probably would convert up some. First I think Plague Marines are a necessity - or a "must have" for me, just 'cause I loves me some Nurgle - and I would need to convert those up, too. Aside from maybe an Emperor's Children CSM or two done up like Cenobites from Barker's "Hellraiser," the Lord is probably going to be a lonely Slaaneshi in the army - he's there more for stats than anything. (Paired with Berzerkers, too, but it just seems to work so nicely with the higher Init and the hero-killing Daemon Weapon, backed up by a whole squad with multiple attacks and bonuses on the charge.) He also seems to strike fear into the local 'Nid player with his Primes and such...

 

And now for something completely different:

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_slord_fin_front.jpghttp://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_slord_fin_back.jpghttp://www.wideopenwest.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_slord_fin_lt.jpg

 

This was my first time applying decals, and my first attempt on this guy after a few tests elsewhere I jacked things up something fierce. Between using overly much Micro-Sol and the removal of the initial ugly decal, a large part of the front of his hood was stripped back down to primer. I decided I'd use one of my simpler black-n-white decals instead of the full-color ones and touch things back up as best I could - color-matching was a pain. There were some lumpy areas where the surface texture had gone funny, so I painted those up to look like warts 'n' such, same as on the rest of his body.

 

I'm proud of the way this guy turned out (leader of the army and all, so I put in extra work) and I think he has more contrast than anything else I've painted so far - from almost pure white in the highlights to near-black in the shaded areas. (People tell me that a lot of my figures are "muted" - I didn't use any of my usual favorite pale greyish-yellow paint in highlighting this guy, though, and I think even the skin is more vibrant than anything I've painted in the past year or so.)

 

I gave the "Blissgiver" Daemon Weapon a light coloration of purple and highlighted up to the same metallic white as on the decorative plates on his chest - I kinda figgered that it ought to look somewhat exotic, well, outside of having a grip made from tanned human leather. 8^)

 

Feedback - the more detailed the better - would be appreciated!

[Blackpudding427]

Tinweasel, as a current Ultra player and ex Chaos Renegade player, I must say that I love the Khornate Ultramarine. In my Red Corsairs army (now sold) I had a fallen Ultramarine Terminator who was one of my favorite models. I find modeling fallen post-heresy CSMs to be a very cool idea, and I'm glad to see that it is thriving in the hobby.

 

Cheers! :P

[Tinweasel]

I haven't started painting the batch of Berzerkers yet, but I did do a conversion of a Beastman to fill the role of a Bloodgor Packmaster (per the Imp. Armour, Vol 6 army list) - I pretty much worked him up so as to enter him in a painting competition over on the Relicnews TT Painting & Modeling forum, but I'm going to use him as a proxy Berzerker along with the rest of them since I think he fits the bill nicely. (Proxied ranged weapon, of course, but what the heck!)

 

http://home.wowway.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_bg_wip3b.jpghttp://home.wowway.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_bg_wip3.jpg

 

Again, feedback on this guy and any of the other stuff in the thread would be great! Time-wise, I've been fairly limited - it's looking like my army is going to be in a WIP state for some while. I don't go to my "regular" hobby store any more, the closest GW shoppes are nearly an hour away and I've no specific motivation to get me going to either, and I don't know anybody locally who's into TT stuff. I figger I'll just keep plugging along using the CSM Codex rules with the IA Siege of Vraks army lists as an alternate - would be nice if there were FAQ's to bring some units up to speed with the most recent IG Codex release, but the power armored stuff is solid at the moment.

 

[Edit] I guess I never posted up here the block of Berzerkers I was going to paint - whoops! Here they are:

http://home.wowway.com/~tinweasel/gw_chaos_warband/gw_db8_wip.jpg [/Edit]

[Tinweasel]

I had a little bit of free time today and didn't feel like working on the 54mm historical mini someone asked me to take a stab at, so I decided to try some freehand on the helmet of the inducted Night Lords CSM:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/bwride/gw_d4_2_wip4.jpg

 

Not sure if I'm sold on it, but it adds a lot to the helmet's appearance, that's for sure! I apologize if the photo's not so hot - my computer's still in the shop so this pic is pretty much cropped and posted straight from my camera.

[MRCHAOS]

WOW your skills are awesome!

 

These mini's are draw dropping good, and I love a good chainsword hand when I see one! B)

[Tinweasel]

WOW your skills are awesome!

 

These mini's are draw dropping good, and I love a good chainsword hand when I see one!

Hey, thanks for the compliments! I just wish I had more time I could devote to painting and such, now that I seem to have gotten the motivation to get back into it again - feeling better than I was, in other words. I'm trying not to put too much work into each one while still maintaining a reasonably decent standard so that I can feasibly get enough painted figures together for an army by the end of the next decade - well, except for HQ and leader-type figures so I can satisfy my leanings toward display-level stuff here and there. That's my goal, anyways, and I'm trying to stick to it!

 

As to the chainsword hand, yeah, I figgered that was a definite when I decided on converting up an inducted Ultramarine. Permanently joining him with a CC weapon and having a pack carrying tanks of chemicals seemed a good solution to the problem of 'how would I make him seem convincing as a Loyalist gone over to Khorne' - at least, he seems to be regarded favorably so far and the Khornate symbol backpack helps, too.