Silent Swords - WIP

[Hubernator]

The thread hasn't been updated for over a year. Let it sleep...

[Silber]

Yeah, the female Astartes buggery.....

 

Indeed my own feelings towards the matter have cooled down some. That's not to say that I discontinued mine, I worked on the background a little and on the models a little more. But still, I used to feel stronger about it.

 

That's probably why I didn't update the thread any more. Although the amount of outrage over my desecrating the Astartes wasn't too great and seldom devolved into trolling the whole debate grew into some kind of djihad in my head, which wasn't fun. I considered migrating to a blog, and still do, but didn't find the time. If I find the time to take some pictures I might pick up the thread again, though. There's a couple of models waiting to be showcased....

[Chaplain Hiltraud]

I don't care much for the 'sister' marines, nor did I read much of the coments; I mostly looked at the pictures in this thread and I must say Silber that your painting style is not just artistic but I find that it is also accurate and life like.

When I first saw the finished dreadnought a vision entered my mind of that behemoth of metal lurking through the dead of the night, smoke billowing from it's exhausts while the assualt cannon churns out the sounds of the emperors smite, piercing through armour and flesh alike...

Such work is truely an inspiration.

At the end of the day, you do the work (whether it be writing fluff or painting) that appeals to you, if others like it that's good, if not, who cares ;)

Yours in honour and faith

Chaplain Hiltraud

[Terminatorinhell]

Dude this was an awesone thread, you have to continue!

[Silber]

So. By public demand (well, kinda) I actually took the time to dig out my cam, set it up and take some pictures. I'm a little out of practice, though, and it shows - sorry for that. Hopefully my next batch of pictures is going to be a little more up to standard. Alright, on with the pics.

This guy is nearly done, as will be most of the minis I'm going to post over the next days. He's the Sanctity / Standard Dude of my Bike Squad. To make it a little more interesting and in order to show that these are Marines with some experience to back them up (after all they're scoring) I decided to model up some of the squadmembers as specialists. Kind of like a Command Squad, but toned down a little. So here's the toned down Standard Bearer.

[cathar the great]

It might be over a year, but I still can't get over how freaking awesome that dread is!

 

New biker also looks quite nice.

 

I'm glad you're continuing this thread.

[Silber]

Thanks. I've got two more dreads in the can, although they're quite different from the first one. Pictures coming....

[Silber]

Next batch. Some of you might actually remember the conversion-stage pictures of this one. They are to be found on previous pages of this very thread, for those of you who don't. The pictures suck, frankly, as all the depth in the white got eaten up. And the white is maybe the part I like best about this paintjob. Yeah well, you'll have to take my word on it: the white looks better than that in real life. New pictures are probably not going to happen for some time.

The differently colored missiles are meant to represent the two ammunition types the Typhoon can fire. Other missile launchers keep with this theme, as you are going to see.

The glass effects got eaten, too. :angry:

My thruster glow is getting better, I think.

This sword is actually not a decal. I meant to use one, but it was too much of a hassle. So I just freehanded it. It's not perfect, but it's not a golden deamon miniature, and I really already spent way too much of my sparse hobby time on it. I love painting, but I like to play now and then, too.

[Chaplain Hiltraud]

Hell yeah! I love the robe on the biker marine, very nice flow to it, and that land speeder is awesome! The thruster glow looks perfect and nice freehand with the sword...

I really like the way you highlight too.

Great work Silber.

Yours in Honour and Faith

Chaplain Hiltraud

[GooseDaMoose]

Oh man that land speeder is sooo cool! It looks like an A-Wing out of Star Wars, that was like my favourite.. -sigh- good ol' days..

[cathar the great]

Thanks. I've got two more dreads in the can, although they're quite different from the first one. Pictures coming....

 

Can't wait to see them ^^

 

Landspeeder also looks good, though I don't really like the Landspeeder chassis, no matter how good the conversions of it are.

 

I do like that you thought a decal would be too much hassle and "just" freehanded it :)

[Terminatorinhell]

I love the sword work on the chassis! It almost looks like it was drawn in pencil!

[Silber]

I do like that you thought a decal would be too much hassle and "just" freehanded it :tu:

Let me elaborate on that. I meant to cut the decal up and apply it in sections to the model. The first time I cut wrong and had to start over, the second time I had it cut up and applying it realized that there are sections were it would take hundreds of coats of solvant to make the decal sit right. At that point I decided to freehand it instead, which honestly is never going to look just as crisp as a decal. And I think that this crispness is something that really benefits my painting style, because it complements the artsy sloppieness of my brushwork nicely. You will find the same mix of crispness and sloppieness in many of John Blanche's paintings. So doing it freehand was really the non-optimal but easier way to go, short of not doing it at all.

I love the sword work on the chassis! It almost looks like it was drawn in pencil!

Thanks. For a freehand it's quite nice, isn't it? It was really one of the most annoying things I've ever done. Painting on the shape, then correcting it, correcting the corrections, correcting back and then correcting some more. Then start over in some areas and going through the process of correcting and recorrecting again. After that I merely had to clean it up a little and then highlight it and voilà - there you go. Stupid B) Sword. :)

Dreadnought #1

Senex Antiqvvs Zamvo, my ranged Dreadnought. I give him extra armour to justify the chunky Ironclad chassis. There are Autocannon Arms in planning for him, here he is with Hellfire Pattern armament.

The depth in the whites got eaten again. :P

See what I meant with the Missile Launchers?

The sheen is a little less in this picture, so you can see better that the banner really isn't up to the rest of the paintjob. It's going to be reworked some time soon.

His Lascannon Arm was made to keep in theme with my first Dread, with the added "ellbow joint". It was made from Land Raider Sponsoon Lascannons and the Seismic Hammer shoulder part. The ellbow joint is magnetized, so it can turn and I could (and might) make additional weapons.

The back of the banner I like.

The missile launcher arm is made from the Ironclad right close combat weapon arm and a deathwind missile system from a Drop Pod (have I posted my Drop Pod before? Don't think so....). Also to keep the ellbow theme. It has the Searchlights, too, taken from the Ravenwing Sprue. I especially like those Searchlights.

[GooseDaMoose]

-droool- I love your elbow dreadnoughts man! I can't wait to try one out myself :tu:

[Silber]

-droool- I love your elbow dreadnoughts man! I can't wait to try one out myself :D

Elbow Dreadnoughts? Makes me think of the ancient and holy STC Elbow Pattern Dreadnought Template. :(

Well, thanks. Take pictures.

[Terminatorinhell]

Consider the dread idea stealthily stolen :(

[cathar the great]

The dread looks great, though I think it would have worked even better if you had shortened the Lascannon. It would have fit the stocky Ironclad design a tad better.

 

Still a cool piece.

 

Not on the same level as the previous mind-blowing one, but I'm just a sucker for the MkIV sarcophagi :lol:

[Silber]

@cathar the great

Come to think of it that might have been a good idea. Yeah well, I guess that's what you get when you forfeit your fellow modelers' critique during the conversion process....

 

@Terminatorinhell

Don't they say that plagiarism is the highest form of compliment? :lol:

Thank you very much, and although I can't give you proper WIP shots I'll be happy to help as good as I can.

[Natanael]

Love the dread. Might have to rework the arms of mine to look a little like that :lol:

 

- Natanael

[Silber]

I didn't mean to post all these images in one go - originally I intended the suspense to be drawn out a little longer. But I'm sick today, therefore I have time and am bored to death - so here you go. My Captain on Bike, complete with removable Servoskulls as Wound markers. Goes by the name of CENTVRIO CATAPHRACTOI SILAS

Same deal: Reflexes and the white got eaten. Although you can guess how it truly looks in some of the pictures this time. This one is probably my most favoured miniature of all those I have done to date. I don't feel much like typing long-winded explanations, so I'll let him speak for himself. (Although, being a Battle Brother of the Silent Swords, he of course won't speak to you at all.... ;))

I hereby proudly present to you SENEX ANTIQVVS CRVPPELLARIVS CALYX

The paintscheme you are probably going to see again - it's the First Company Colours. I also probably should mention that the Hunter-Killer Missileheads are magnetized, so I can mark them being fired or, if need be, have him enter play with missiles already fired in order to not have to buy them....

[Pulse]

Really enjoy looking at your work, such uniqueness!

 

I very much like the rocket arm you have created for your dreadnaught, that makes much more sense than current standard design, great work! ;)

[GooseDaMoose]

Oh hawt mama, I love that dreadnought! Man that helmet in the sacrophagus is perfect!

 

So. Badass :D

[Silber]

@Pulse

Thank you! Uniqueness is what I'm going for, among other thinks, so that's a very noce compliment to get.

 

@GooseDaMoose

Thanks. The helmet is the plastic Techmarine helmet from the Ravenwing sprue, slightly modified. On the next run of pictures I can take a detail shot of it - the Sarcophagus is magnetized, so the nicely detailed marinebody doesn't go to waste and, theoretically speaking, I can put on a different lid. Because I like the helmet so much both in sculpting and paintig I haven't made one yet, though.

[AngryJohnny]

I really like your Dreadnought. I was wondering if you would mind sharing how you did the 'power' effect on his Power Fist. I want to have a blue power field effect on my power fists and really like how yours came out. My power fists are either black or a dark green (similar to DA green) do you think the way you did your power effect on your power fist would translate over to the black or dark green?

[Silber]

@AngryJohnny

I am only just beginning to understand source lighting, and most of my painting is.... impulsive. But I will give you all the advice I can. Firstly I would think that deep green shouldn't be a problem, although black might. You can see many instances of green source lighting on deep red in my minis (I love that so much), and I imagine blue on deep green to work in a similar way. Black could prove more difficult than that, for the transitions are a little harder to pull of - I have always struggled with source lighting on black, but it's definitely possible. Here's (roughly) what I do: In preparation of the light effects I will paint all the rest of the miniature to completion, just as I would without any fancy effects, including highlights and shadows on the surface I'm going to paint over. Then I will take the color the light is going to be, in this case Enchanted Blue, and mix it with a little water and a little more matte acrylic medium so that I get a very translucent paint. When in doubt just add more medium - if the paint is too opaque it won't work, while if it's too translucent it'll only take more time. I will then give the area that is going to be lighted a layer of this mix, though I will try to avoid areas the light would not reach or that are recessed, like the gaps at the finger joints. If you get more than a slight hue your mix was too opaque. I let that dry and repeat the process once or thrice or more, as needed, reducing the covered area, so that I get a nice feathering. Your base colour should still be showing, though hued, even in the place of the "light source". Which in this case is the lightning. For the source I will add paint to the mix, and start to paint the lightning patterns with that, building them up to a true entchanted blue, again with feathered edges (though much more shallow this time). Now white goes into the mix. For an "ordinary" source lighting I would then go through the process again up to a highlight with thinned but pure skull white. For lightning effects however it's a little different. I will usually only do this in one to two steps, as sharp lines and strong contrast are mandatory to create convincing likghtning. I don't think I managed to do that too well with my dreadnought - the theory however goes something like this: onto your enchanted blue "base lightning" you paint sharp lines of white with a little blue in it, making shure these lines escape the boundaries now and then. You thne go back with pure white to highlight those lines, and add a little more even finer zig-zagging to them.

 

Hope that helps, I might come around to a pictured tutorial some time if it is wanted, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that if I were you....