Guardians of the Covenant painting log

[warsmith]

Hail Brothers.

 

I've signed myself up for the LPC vow with a small amount of models, but I have much grander plans than these for my Guardians of the Covenant army. I've vowed to paint up at least 10 veterans and 1 master with p.fist/storm bolter. I thought I'd post up a log here in teh DA forum as well so that everyone can see how I am progeressing.

 

I suppose that before I show you models a little background about myself might be in order. I'm 25 and have been into the hobby for 14 years now. I've previously worked for GW and also doen a fair amount of commission work. I love tournaments and generally use them as an incentive to get a force finished, however over the last 18 months I've been very relaxed with the hobby and played about 5 games due to the fact that I have moved and there is no gaming group where I live. This has impacted upon my motivation to paint.

 

I lurk on the forums pretty much all the time and I have a collection of saved pictures and army lists that I use for inpiration and amongst the lists that I want to create are the following:

• Pure Deathwing
  
• Pure Ravenwing
  
• Deathwing and Ravenwing
  
• Battle Company
  
• Sternguard Heavy (SM codex list)
  

 

The models for the vow are from the Sternguard based list, but time permitting I intend to work on my battle company list aswell.

 

Well being as the point of this is pictures I have some for you all to see, only WIP at the moment.

 

Partly constructed marines.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/101_0063.jpg

 

Constructed Veteran Sergeants.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/101_0064.jpg

 

Master WIP (will count as Pedro Kantor in the SM list)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/101_0067.jpg

 

Azrael conversion (will be a tactical squad sergeant)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/101_0066.jpg

 

I intend to update this log pretty much each weekday. I am fortunate enough at the moment to be able to paint each day during the day, but not at the weekends.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Dan

[warsmith]

Good morning all.

 

Well I spent a little time yesterday and managed to almsot finsh 5 marines, so I present them to you in thier current condition.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/100_0068.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/100_0069.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/100_0071.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/100_0070.jpg

 

Each of my marines will be robed, with normal battle brothers being unhooded and veterans wearing hoods. All my terminators will also be robed once my MicroArt order arrives. I'm a little unsure whether I should put anything onto the robes, I was thinking a thin line of cream/bone near the hem to represent rank within the chapter? The marine with no arms will be a lascannon marine (as I said previously, the vets were for a sternguard based SM list).

 

This is also an experiment for me in many ways, I have always built my models as complete as possible to paint and this is the first time I am doing them in this way. In total there are the following sub assemblies

• Head
  
• Torso/Legs
  
• Left Arm/Pad
  
• Right Arm/Pad
  
• Bolter
  
• Backpack
  

 

I've undercoated the bodies and heads with Halfords red and the rest with Halford Matt Black (both far superior to anything from GW IMO) and have found the red undercoat to be of great help for the robes. Not only that I have always in the past batch painted models, this is something I am not doing with these. The beeauty of the sub assemblies is that I can churn out a robed body in about 2 hours start to finish so can easily get 2-3 done in a day.

 

I intend to make the bases for the entire force (thats each of the different lists above) in one go and spend a day or two making them all look the same.....at the moment I'm toying with the idea of a slate pieces in sand for the texture, with the sand painted up from scorched brown, the rocks a dark grey and some snow on the bases.

 

Well, thats all for now. I've gotta head out for a bit, but once I get back I'll start work on aanother marine and post up the results later.

 

Cheers

 

Dan

[kanan]

hi warsmith, nice work on those Marines, from what i can see of the pics the robes came out really well. i like your clean painting style overall. youve done the models justice i think. however any chance you could perhaps take individual pics a little closer to the model? that way i could see them more clearly. but no worries if you cant.

great work anyways and i look forward to seeing more of your updates.

 

peace

[Capt. Lysander]

These are by far some of my favourite Guardians of the Covenant I've seen so far. Very nice and shiny silver, as well as smooth, in depth red. You have a very steady hand, and I have to commend you for your freehand work on the shoulderpads' shields.

[warsmith]

Well been at it for a few hours this morning and managed to get another main body done.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/101_0075.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/101_0076.jpg

 

Took longer than I was expecting, I couldnt quite get the red to work...managed it in the end though. I'm about to have some lunch and see what I feel up to doing this afternoon, though its likely that this will be it for the day......Star Trek: Next Gen is on this afternoon on WVirgin, and its the episode with the battle against the Borg at Wolf 359. Might try and get something done after that though.

 

There wont be an update tomorrow as I'm going to go out for the day (been stuck indoors all week) but I will post one up on monday.

 

As a side note, here is what came through the post for me this morning

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/DSCN2690.jpg

and they're bloody huge! The legs alone are the size height of a space marine......I'm not sure how terminators will look with them now......but I'll try them and see.

 

Cheers

 

Dan

[Fire Lord Captain]

Very nice work there brother!! The silver looks great!

[warsmith]

hi warsmith, nice work on those Marines, from what i can see of the pics the robes came out really well. i like your clean painting style overall. youve done the models justice i think. however any chance you could perhaps take individual pics a little closer to the model? that way i could see them more clearly. but no worries if you cant.

great work anyways and i look forward to seeing more of your updates.

 

peace

 

I'll try to remember to get some closer piccies this week Kanan, though I may have to wait until they are done completely.

 

These are by far some of my favourite Guardians of the Covenant I've seen so far. Very nice and shiny silver, as well as smooth, in depth red. You have a very steady hand, and I have to commend you for your freehand work on the shoulderpads' shields.

 

Thanks Capt. Lysander, I'm really pleased with how they are coming out myself. I intend to push myself further than ever with these and free hand is one of the things I want to try.

 

Very nice work there brother!! The silver looks great!

 

Thanks Fire Lord Captain, its really simple and quick.

 

Boltgun

Black Ink

Re layer with Bolt Gun

Highlight Boltgun/Chain mail 1:1

Pure chainmail

Redefine plates with small thin brush and black ink.

 

Thanks for the comments so far guys. Hopefully going to get another marine started today.. Going to get 5 more bodies complete, then bash out the heads in one go, the arms/pads/shields in one and the back packs some time after that.

 

Cheers

 

Dan

[kanan]

thanks warsmith i appreciate it. i look forward to seeing the new pics. ill be keeping an eye on your thread ~smiles~ good luck with all your painting and converting.

 

peace

[Kable]

Your Guardians of the Covenant look fantastic Warsmith and probably the best painted one's Ive seen. I'm looking forward to seeing the terminators when you get stuck into them.

 

Cheers!

[warsmith]

Hail brothers.

 

Well i've managed to sit down and paint this morning and knocked out another marine body. 3 more to go and thats 10 finished...I'm hoping to have the unit done by the middle of next week (possibly excepting the base)

 

Anyways, here is todays work so far.

 

Front

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/101_0080.jpg

Back

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/heldane/Guardians%20of%20the%20Covenant/WIP/101_0079.jpg

 

I'm going to go and sit down now totalling up the models for each of the different forces I want so I can start to get the bases out and prepped...its going to be a long, laborius task, but one that will help the models look good.

 

 

As an aside, I've come up with another idea for my veteran sergeants in my tactical squads. So far I have the azrael body I've shown above. He will be given the old metal devestator pointing arm with a boltgun in the hand and most likely the bioninc chainsword arm from the SM commander box set. The bionic arm will tie in to the head - I intend to use the tactical squad half bionic head.

 

For a second veteran sergeant I intend to use Asmodai, again with a pointing right arm and leaving his raised left arm in place I intend to replace his crozius with a chainsword. After that a head swap (I'm thinking of using one of the old chaos terminator bare head with the respirators in place of the skull mask) and the model will be complete.

 

Of course, this will leave me a crozius spare and I intend to convert another Azrael model into a chaplain - crozius in place of the sword, remove the opposite choulder pad for a blank on and put the open booc from the SM chaplain in its place, making sure there is a holster on the model for a bolt pistol. As to a head I have very few ideas at the moment but I'll see what comes to mind when I get round to it.

 

Cheers

 

Dan