Stabbin' and such: Triumphant at Last! 2/9/17

[Firepower]

I don't normally post WIP pics in here, oddly enough. But I feel like it may help light a fire under my ass if I make the sacred bond of a "This is where things are going" post. The unbreakable bond of the internet blog, that is.

So, as a tiny teaser, these are the heretic mashers I've got ready for my upcoming Sword Brethren

A rather half assed way of covering up the Dark Angel emblem, granted, but I got a lot on my plate

I'm currently debating just how to paint these things. I gots me a fancy new airbrush now, which could do wonders for the 4 axes I have to paint as well, but these mauls don't exactly have an airbrush-friendly shape, and I loathe inconsistency in my army. However, painting power weapons by hand is a royal pain in the ass, as my Terminators taught me, and worse yet I can't remember the formula I eventually stumbled upon after days of testing.

Tough call.

Also, thanks to our venerable Templar 14 for pointing out the Forsaken maces as potential mauls. Deliciously gratuitous nastiness :)

Edited November 6, 2013 by Firepower

[Dark Scipio]

Paint them like the Terminator Swords and everything is great. :)

 

 

Where are the bits from (beside the Dark Angels/BT ones)?

 

Very promising mauls.

[Firepower]

The custom mauls' heads are chopped down from the maces in the WHFB Forsaken kits.  The arm on the far left is from the Vanguard kit, and the hand/weapon haft are a chopped off Thunder Hammer, also from the Vanguard kit.

 

I'm gonna have a hell of a time painting them to match the Terminators' power weapons.  I forgot the recipe, and it took me a ton of test models to figure it out to begin with.  Even then I wasn't 100% satisfied.  

[Dark Scipio]

Thanks.

[Firepower]

Nearly a year. Nearly a year of my vow of silence, of prayer and isolation.

A small time in a life spanning centuries, but an age for a Chaplain. I was meant to lead my brothers, to guide them and keep them pure, to carry and share the lore of our ancient fraternity, to stand amongst them on and off the battlefield. Even surrounded by relics from a legacy spanning millennia, bathing in their holy presence and the constant hum of vigilant stasis fields, it was a poor replacement for the camaraderie of still living brothers.

Muscles were achingly stiff. I had hardly moved in all that time, kneeling throughout the vow of silence before the empty plinth that was to bear my five thousandth votive and my words to the future. But sore muscles were a minor irritant, when I bothered to notice them at all. It was far from the lactic burn of exertion I knew from a life spent wading through warzones.

My throat was dry and scratched from enduring silence. That was most definitely new. When my mind occasionally wandered from my meditations and prayers, I wondered what sort of pitiable squeak or cracking my first words would come with.

I had not noticed just how long I knelt before the plinth when the first of my Household came to try and pry me from my charge. The brothers of my honor guard, the four who held the title of Sons of the Maul, felt my absence more keenly than most.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Heinrich and Joel came first, as I easily could have guessed. The two were nearly polar opposites, and yet possibly the closest brothers I had ever met within our fraternity. Even their weapons were twins. Heinrich in his passionate, rancorous nature, came to vent his frustrations at my absence. Were it not for my vow, I would have had ample room to punish his belligerence, especially seeing as he felt justified in roaring them within the solemn halls of the Reclusiam. Joel almost certainly came simply because he knew Heinrich would need checking. I spared him a slight nod of thanks when he silenced our brother with a particularly firm clap across the back of his head. Disciplined to a fault, he balanced Heinrich’s reckless fervor as much as Heinrich balanced Joel’s lacking spontaneity. Despite this, he felt compelled enough to add his own reserved protests to my sabbatical. The two left as they had entered, bickering and frustrated.

SWORD BROTHER HEINRICH

SWORD BROTHER JOEL

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Kab visited weeks after. Ever the sullen soul, he seemed almost indifferent as he stood beside me. He spoke little, and I imagine none of the words were those he truly wished to share. Only a few of us knew well enough to see through it. Hatred is a powerful tool among the Chapter, a wellspring of passion to drive us on through the Eternal Crusade. Hot and overwhelming, hatred drives our feet and fists and blades. Kab was an altogether different soul. His hatred was restrained and seething, like a monster tenuously frozen in ice. As a Neophyte, the perniciousness of war had left him stranded on the battlefield alongside our cousins of the Raven Guard. He spent two years in their company before recovery, fighting as they fought, absorbing their tactics and, it seemed, their melancholy demeanor. I had only ever seen his shell melt away once, when a xenos witch of the Eldar race cut the head from one of his closest brothers. Kab spent the better part of an hour sadistically eviscerating her as punishment. I kept him in my honor guard as much for his skill as I did to keep a close eye on him.

SWORD BROTHER KAB

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thamos didn’t say a word. He arrived in silence, stayed in silence, and left in silence. He brought with him nothing but the gesture of his presence, and the background hum of his power armor to sing with the quiet whines and hums of countless neighboring reliquary stasis fields. He was always that way, careful to measure and weigh his thoughts before sharing them. Between this and his age, the other three sometimes called him a Dreadnought in jest, when they thought themselves out of my earshot. It was unbecoming to turn our most venerated brothers into a crude punch line, but I had never reprimanded them over the jokes. The similarities were rather obvious, after all. Implacable and level headed –whether on or off the battlefield- he was in many ways the foundation of the Household. Even without sharing a word, his visit was perhaps the one with the most weight.

SWORD BROTHER THAMOS

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Temptation pulled at me. I missed the thrilling cleansing of the battlefield. The warmth of brotherhood as we purged the galaxy side by side. Just when I felt my resolve wavering, inspiration finally came.

I stood, amused by the fine sheen of dust falling from my armor, though a significant layer remained. It turned the stygian black of my war plate a dusty shade of ash. I pulled my Crozius free from the leather loop holding it at my side. I thumbed the activation rune, and the machine spirit leapt to life with impish glee. It seemed far more frustrated with its silence than even my brothers.

The maul lifted, and with a thunderous retort, fell on to the blank plinth. The golden plaque cracked down the middle, leaving a jagged crevice where scripture had waited to be born for the greater part of a year.

Destruction is the true legacy of a warrior. Let the poets scribe away with pretty words. One day, my reliquary would reside on this plinth, and I could not think of a more appropriate message to leave my Chapter.

I lifted a hand to my collar and clicked the channel open. “Brothers,” I grumbled, grimacing at the sound of my neglected voice. I took a draw from a goblet of stale water delivered days before by my attending servitor, ignoring the chirping replies on the vox before holding the transmission open again.

“Brothers. Does war call?” I asked, full well knowing the answer.

“Bloody yes it does!” replied Heinrich’s tinny vox, followed presently by Joel. “Yes Chaplain,” he replied, leaving the vox open as he muttered beneath his breath “Shut the hell up, Heinrich.”

“It always does, Chaplain,” Kab responded, sounding as bored as ever.

Thamos simply sent an acknowledgement blip.

A smile crossed my face to mirror the skeleton grin covering it. “Then we will answer.”

[Firepower]

Ahhh thank God, I can finally post again!!!!

 

For those who may draw the meaning from the little fluff piece, I took something of a Vow of Silence here on the boards.  I resolved that, seeing as the BT subforum is where I really found my home in the BnC, and the reason I ever truly assembled a proper BT army (rather than petering out as every other army I made did), I decided my 5000th post could only be the continuation of that Crusade.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't think that through very well.  Turns out I can go quite a long while staring at incomplete models on my desk.  I actually have 4 more half completed, but there is a different priority now, the ETL!

 

Chaplain Grimaldus will be joining my ranks, presently.

And yes, I really did feel that something as arbitrary as a 5000th post warranted all this silliness.  So shut up.

 

It took a very long time to come up with a Power Weapon scheme I liked, and then even longer to get it looking right.  I'm about 85% satisfied with the result.  I'm super satisfied with how the bare head turned out.  Hooray for magnifying visors and good brushes!  Unfortunately, I apparently did a crap job dry fitting these guys many months back, because the arms and those ridiculously large Crux shoulder pads didn't really wanna fit right.  Gluing was...troublesome.

 

Now then, honorable mentions.  Much thanks to our venerable Templar14 for his donation of brother Thamos many months ago.  It is easily one of my favoritest Space Marine models ever, and I hope I did it justice

 

Also, thanks to our forumite KBA for the spontaneous and generous donation of several Forge World spare parts which I am far too stingy to buy myself.  Many of them found their way into these guys.  And yes, Kab is a fairly uninspired anagram for KBA

 

And thank you to the BnC, and particularly our little BT subforum.  As I said, this Crusade wouldn't have gone past 10 models or so without continued support, inspiration, and the downright absurd nonsense this little corner of the net supplies.

Edited July 6, 2014 by Firepower

[Urkh]

yah... that unhelmeted face is amazing... I require instruction.

[HLVW]

Really nice power maul it's a very nice vibrant contrast to the armour, kind of has tron feel to it.

[minigun762]

Amazing models, power weapon and bare head especially.

[KBA]

Love what you did with your 5000th post, Firepower. The fluff, models, and paint all came together so damn well. Taking huge notes on your technique for black, and have to add that the purple for the power weapons, along with being really well executed, brings an awesome pop to the Templars I haven't seen. Great stuff man :)

[Mandolore511]

Firepower Lives! He Walks! He walks to War! A thousand thousand acolytes great his awakening and sing his worshipful praise (you're a titan BTW)

 

Ah sing the wondrous song of ages writ in fire and steel!

 

Listen now and listen well for our reverend brother stirs!

 

Sit young one and learn the ways of war, while a veteran of uncounted fields his knowledge transfers,

 

Once more he walks our sacred halls and we are richly blessed,

 

And into the crux of battle he leads us to the test.

 

I expect to see Jasper and the paddle coming online to help with some of the heresy that has been rampant of late.

 

Also I still puzzle how to model Neal from time to time... I'll figure it eventually... 28mm seals have been hard to find.

[Firepower]

yah... that unhelmeted face is amazing... I require instruction.

 

I learned two things from tutorials lately which I am quite fond of.  First was how to paint a face like that (with a bit of my own alterations).  Second, keep a paint journal!  Oh God I'm so glad I stumbled across that suggestion. I dunno how many times I painted something and then forgot how!

 

Thankfully, the face painting formula is in this precious journal.  However, I pretty much exclusively use colors from the old GW paint range.  I'm not sure what the best analogues would be in the new range. 

 

Black undercoat

Dark Flesh base color.

Dwarf Flesh base.  don't worry about leaving any Dark Flesh showing.

A very heavy Ogryn Flesh wash.  Perhaps two.

Dwarf Flesh highlight

Elf Flesh extreme highlights for the most prominent features.

I painted the eyes first of all, though.  A simple dab of white on the black undercoat.  For the pupils, a very, very careful straight line from top to bottom with black paint.  It was a bit of a pain avoiding those eyes through the rest of the paintjob (especially during the wash) but it was easier than painting them after the fact, in my experience.

 

Also, the blonde hair, which I had never tried before.

Snakebite Leather basecoat

Stripes of Desert Yellow moving in the direction of the hair.  

Stripes of Bleached Bone, leaving some of the previous two colors showing as well.

 

For the power weapons, I adopted the method used by sockwithaticket in his Crimson Tears blog: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240799-crimson-tears-occasional-allies-updated-060714/page-11

 

Switching his technique from blue to purple was...troublesome.  Purple's a lot less cooperative than blue.  Basically, it's simply Liche Purple, a thin highlight of Warlock Purple, and then extremely thin white highlights.  I used a 'negative' painting technique though, on account of Warlock Purple's crappy coverage.  So, the basecoat was Warlock (thank you Airbrush!!!), then I did the white highlights, touched up with Warlock again, and filled in the bulk of the shapes with Liche until only the extreme edges were left.  All the edges on the maces made it absolute hell to paint though :P

Firepower Lives! He Walks! He walks to War! A thousand thousand acolytes great his awakening and sing his worshipful praise (you're a titan BTW)

 

Ah sing the wondrous song of ages writ in fire and steel!

 

Listen now and listen well for our reverend brother stirs!

 

Sit young one and learn the ways of war, while a veteran of uncounted fields his knowledge transfers,

 

Once more he walks our sacred halls and we are richly blessed,

 

And into the crux of battle he leads us to the test.

 

I expect to see Jasper and the paddle coming online to help with some of the heresy that has been rampant of late.

 

Also I still puzzle how to model Neal from time to time... I'll figure it eventually... 28mm seals have been hard to find.

 

Wow...happy happy ego :D

 

Much thanks for the warm welcome and the praise, everyone!  It's great to be back!

 

May the P&M subforum quiver in fear!!! 

[Mandolore511]

Its great to have you back Firepower, you have been missed... we have done our best to fill the void you left in the Chaplaincy.

 

The more of us mad men here together the better. Something about only the insane being fit to lead in an age of insanity.

[Urkh]

How much of it is drybrushing vs wetbrushing vs using your airbrush?

[Firepower]

The flesh is all 'wet brushing.'  I didn't use the airbrush for anything but the Power Weapon basecoats.  I don't think I did any dry brushing on these guys at all

 

If you want a darker/red shade of flesh, I have a guide in my Broken Arrows painting blog.  There's a link in my sig.

 

I think I did better with this one than the Arrows, though.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Firepower

[Urkh]

Ty. I actually have all of the new range's colors for what you're scheme is. They're as follows

Dark Flesh --> Doom Bull Brown
Dwarf Flesh --> Ratskin Flesh

Ogryn Flesh Wash --> Reikland Fleshshade (yah... that is how it is written on the bottle. Two "SH"s in a row...)
Elf Flesh --> Kilselv Flesh.

 

I actually tried doing very similar to this before, but for some reason it turned out very... cartoonish and not realistic at all. Luckily, I have a ton of unhelmeted space marine heads to practice on! 

[Firepower]

I wouldn't be 100% confident in those new paints matching the old, Urkh.  The conversion chart that GW made is a lie, in my experience.  

 

That's not to say those new paints won't result in a decent flesh palette.  I'm just warning that my formula won't have identical results with the new range of paints.

 

At any rate, painting flesh (especially faces) is one of the hardest tricks I've tried to learn, and I'm still far from a master.  I don't know that I could replicate my own results, even knowing the formula. There's a lot of trial and error with each attempt.  So, it's a good thing you have a lot of practice dummies to work with

 

Another unfortunate truth- the eyes make the face.  Screw those up, and it's gonna look wonky.  Seeing as eyes are an absolutely brutal thing to get right...yeah, painting faces is painful :P

Edited July 7, 2014 by Firepower

[Tekman]

You bring us all pride brother, keep it up and I'll keep watching with gleeful eyes.

[Golf33]

A worthy 5000th post, brother Firepower! Some very good looking Sword Brethren there. Guys like you, HLVW, Honda and Krikey certainly give the rest of us something to work towards - a little extra zeal, so to speak.

 

On which note, I have a Marshal to paint...

Edited July 8, 2014 by Golf33

[Eberious]

Some good looking stuff FP, really loving the white cloth and bone decoration colours. Also that skin tone is fantastic.

[Firepower]

ETL progress! Grimaldus, primed and with his first highlights via airbrush. This is the first BT I'm trying to airbrush, and I may be setting the bar too high for my patience to tolerate There is a ton of stuff on here I will be painting by hand, with a butt load of nooks and crannies, so risk of accidental brusthrokes onto the black is very high. If it gets too rough, I'll probably strip and redo him in my normal method. But, I wanna at least try airbrush, to see if I can use it on my eventual Helbrecht Ludoldus model. Should also be good practice to get back in the groove of using the airbrush, so I can whip it out for Storm Talons and Dreads some time down the road

Anyway:

And while I'm on the subject of Chaplains, I figure this is a good time to show off this little doodle from my archives. Better than resurrecting the old community drawing thread, anyway:

Edited July 10, 2014 by Firepower

[Firepower]

Working out a gold recipe for Grim. Not entirely sure if I like it. The purple wash is pretty strong, but in the right light, it looks pretty good. Trouble is, I don't paint in the 'right light.' So, it's not very easy to tell as I go along how things are working out. It is also working better on some spots than others. Larger surfaces like the joining point at the bottom of the crozius do fine. Teh chains have a lot of recesses, so the wash shows up a whole lot.

Might have to do a really watered down semi-wash of Shining Gold. I already went back over the raised bits with another thin coat, but I think I'm gonna have to leak some into the recesses to soften that purple

Gold continues to be my white whale

Edited July 11, 2014 by Firepower

[Golf33]

Drybrush gold maybe, rather than a wash? You could desaturate the purple with a black or yellow wash. I'd be worried about a gold wash pooling in the recesses, in which case you're practically back to primer to fix it.

[Firepower]

Vow complete. Our High Chaplain stands ready for war:

Truth be told, I'm not finished with him. There are some fine details that need touching up. But, someone unexpectedly decided to dump a puppy in my lap for the week, so I can't get to my paints for final touches. It still lives up to ETL standards, of course

I'm not sure I want to paint the studs. For some reason, they kinda look good in black. It may jsut be that there's already a ton of metal and color on the model, anyway.

I've never done Templar infantry with airbrushing, and it was something of a headache. Literally, I'm fighting off a migraine as I type this

Having the black airbrushed on meant I had to be super careful with every step, less I slip and mess it up.

Anyway, that's another 185 points for the cause.

Didn't realize my yellow paint had disappeared until I got to those candles. :(

Edited July 31, 2014 by Firepower

[greggles]

Congrats! He looks great!  Excellent detail on the tabard, very clean and sharp.  This is another one of those models where it is just covered in detail, and difficult to get the brush in just the right spot, at the right angle!