Angels, Wolves & Xenos - Swarmlord - Carapace Markings

[Brother Desultor]

That stripe really changes the tower - for the better I might add.

[Bryan Blaire]

Thanks Brother Jarl Ranulf! I actually cribbed the idea off a locomotive paint scheme that i thought looked really nice. One of the things I'm constantly impressed with is how big and how much detail this terrain does have. It's not overwhelming, but I could easily see spending way more time painting this stuff than I feel like should be devoted to terrain. Going to have to come at all of this in stages.

[Bryan Blaire]

So end of the month later (after saying that I wasn't going to spend a lot of time on this), I finally have all the base colors and a very minor amount of shading done:

So the question now becomes, since I have spent this much time on simple terrain, do I move into shading and weathering, or get the remaining terrain pieces all base colored as well. I feel like I need to at least do the two pieces that will sit as the platform above this piece before highlighting.

Thoughts, comments, criticism all welcome!

[Grand Master Belial]

Base color the rest first. As much as I hate seeing things not highlighted and you do amazing work. It might be better to get context from the other pieces. It may give you an unusual avenue of having shade on another piece that would allow you to do source highlighting or generalized highlights. 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive.

[The_Stray_Idea]

The wolves are looking great. The small markings on the chainswords breaking up that larger flat area are a great touch. Your new BA duelling champion is a lovely conversion. You can really see him walking the halls of some great monistary giving spiritual and battle advice to his brothers in arms. Keep up all the good work.

[Bryan Blaire]

Base color the rest first. As much as I hate seeing things not highlighted and you do amazing work. It might be better to get context from the other pieces. It may give you an unusual avenue of having shade on another piece that would allow you to do source highlighting or generalized highlights.

GMB, I know it's been over a year, but unfortunately the terrain is still in that state - however, it must be completed for Kill Team, so I am looking to pick it back up as soon as I get my Tau Kill Team (below) finished off.

Impressive.

Thank you sir! (Only a little late)

The wolves are looking great. The small markings on the chainswords breaking up that larger flat area are a great touch. Your new BA duelling champion is a lovely conversion. You can really see him walking the halls of some great monistary giving spiritual and battle advice to his brothers in arms. Keep up all the good work.

Thanks! I seem to work in spurts every six months or so, but Kill Team will hopefully keep me motivated enough to get some things finished off. All of my different projects will be getting new additions later, but my sketch book has plenty of ideas for further Wolf markings, as well as some more Angels Encarmine and Stoneburners ones. And along with my Tau for Kill Team, I've also been formulating a Primaris Chapter to get started with (likely to be a Raven Guard or more likely Dornish in lineage).

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I have finally started painting up my FSE Kill Team (no story just yet, haven't gotten to start playing or come up with a campaign idea just yet) - starting with three Stealth Suits. As you can tell, if you've followed this thread, it takes me forever to work on things and I rarely get units or anything else completely finished. I'm really hoping that Kill Team is what helps me change that.

The base colors for my FSE is slightly brighter than the standard, I use Mechanicus Standard Grey (which is honestly a little irritating, because it's almost Sprue Grey dammit) and Mephiston Red. The above all have their base coats of Mechanicus Grey, and you can see the limited amount of red I've gotten on. For the grey markings, I start with Celestra Grey.

Here are some other pictures of my FSE units I have done before (previously posted), but only the Fire Warriors are going to be able to be used in Kill Team (the scanner guy will probably be my Comms Specialist):

Shas'vre Ob'lotai 9-0 (a little big, so you'll have to Unhide them to look at everything):

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My Sub-Commander Torchstar:

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Some Fire Warriors:

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Can't say I'll ever have the level of fondness for the Tau that I do for the Unforgiven, but I definitely think they are up there with the Wolves for me.

The Stealth Suits as they looked when I started:

I since made a slight revision to my paint scheme: had been doing Mechanicus Standard Grey with two coats of Nuln Oil for my understructure/fatigues, but it didn't turn out well on the Stealth Suits - so I revised it to a 1:1 Abaddon Black:Mechanicus Standard Grey, and re-based the understructure. I tried to keep the Nuln Oil in recesses (although I'm going to have to redo a couple of them). I did the lenses with Leadbelcher and Stormhost Silver, glazed with Waywatcher Green. Once I get all the recesses shaded, it will be on to the arms! I'll finish all the shading and highlighting when I get everything together.

Once I got everything base coated, I moved on to the shading, and brought the red and dark grey back up where they needed to be on the higher points.

Once I got all the line highlighting on the dark grey and light grey completed on all three models, as well as getting the dynamos brought up to their highest paint layers, I managed to complete the first layer of line highlights on the red and it turned out thus:

So this is as far as they will go until I get the arms and pauldrons done and on the models, then I will decide whether to give them their final line highlights and any spot highlights or just move on with them good enough for play. I only have the one done to this stage at this time, but hopefully I can get the other two finished in the next couple of days, since I really want to finish out this Kill Team with my Pathfinders, a couple of drones, and some Breachers.

Hopefully the matte varnish will kill some of the apparent glossiness that is throwing more reflection than it seems like it should be (everything has been matte paint so far, even the shades, the only gloss shade I used was on the upper half of the dynamos).

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your painting skills are exemplary. I hope to see the models completed soon.

[Bryan Blaire]

Your painting skills are exemplary. I hope to see the models completed soon.

I appreciate the compliment! I struggle with finding and murdering my Inner Critic a lot (can already see a couple of things I want to fix on the models), and the bastard always seems to come back, so it's a slog, but definitely going to be getting these guys finished soon. Playing Kill Team is going to be my reward for getting these guys finished up.

[Bryan Blaire]

Highlighting of the main bodies is done! Time to move on to the arms/weapons.

[Bryan Blaire]

And almost three weeks later, I'm finally willing to call them ready (except for the bases):

I used the small targeter to represent the Target Lock.

Shas'vre w/ Fusion Blaster (alternate weapon):

Family Photo Time!

Hopefully they look like they fit! Making good notes on the scheme this time, and while I really wish I could come up with a good digi-cam appearance for the Pathfinder fatigues, I am planning to just truck on with them anyway. Looking forward to the special weapons and some drones!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Tau.

[Bryan Blaire]

Excellent work on the Tau.

Thank you sir!

[Dosjetka]

Aye, they look really good. The red, two shades of grey, and green work well together. :tu:

[Bryan Blaire]

Thank you, Chaplain, although the Emperor may find your admiration of the xenos-breeds most disturbing. :lol:

 

I definitely think Kill Teams are going to be my way forward - don't think I have squad level groups in me, I get bored too easily and end up leaving too much unfinished.

[Dosjetka]

I don't think my four-armed Emperor minds my fraternisation with other Xenos. After all, it helps spread His cult. :ph34r:

[Bryan Blaire]

:o :lol:

[Bryan Blaire]

So in an effort to complete my Tau Kill Team, I have some progress! Managed to get quite a bit done in the last four days, and I feel like I'm closing in on the finish of this particular team.

Some pics of the progress:

Remaining WiP Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle and Pathfinder w/ Rail Rifle (Front and Back) - these will be swapped to the painted bases when they are finished:

Stealth Suits on Sector Mechanicus bases to match terrain being built:

Currently built Fire Warriors on Sector Mechanicus bases:

Bases for remaining Kill Team members:

Base close-ups showing slight blue tint (viewable in shadow/at oblique angles):

Only have a couple of colors left in the base coat for the remaining KT members, then it will be on to the shading!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Tau kill teams.

[Chazzmos]

Those Tau and suits look very nice indeed, a good red and grey you have got going there.

[Bryan Blaire]

Excellent work on the Tau kill teams.

Those Tau and suits look very nice indeed, a good red and grey you have got going there.

Thank you both very much! Glad you like the way they have turned out!

New Additions to the Kill Team:

New Gunners:

Fire Warriors seen before:

Family photo! Entire team:

Now, my question for you - my personal current table layout will include the Fronteris Kill Team (desert/wasteland) with Sector Mechanicus Manufactorum terrain - would you use black or dark grey rims (dark grey matches the dark grey of the Mechanicus terrain), or even a different color?

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Again, excellent work.

[Brother Pheidias]

I've come to prefer black rims on bases, looks more finished somehow.

[Bryan Blaire]

Again, excellent work.

Thanks! There are a couple of little details I want to finish up, but overall I'm quite pleased with them.

 

I've come to prefer black rims on bases, looks more finished somehow.

Interesting! Appreciate the feedback, I've done several colors in the past (Goblin Green, of course, black, brown), but I've never done a desert/tan one, so not sure how good that would look.

[Bryan Blaire]

So BCK helped me work through how to properly use a rattle can to prime and base coat (which I can't ever thank him enough for), and introduced me to some new hobby tools, so I've been progressing on some gaming terrain (Sector Fronteris/Ryza Ruins stuff) for Kill Team and eventually larger board sizes/game sizes for 40K. I'm dry brushing everything over a black base coat to provide some depth, but I'm still going to be doing traditional shaded metallics. I'm doing this in the same pattern as the earlier posted furnace (which is actually going to become a larger reactor piece used on its side instead) as I imagine it's all from the same 'proto-Forge World' (or whatever you call a Forge World while it's still being established).

First, two Inquisition casks/chests that I managed to finish (two different colors so that they can be used as different objective markers):

Some repair location/sewage tunnel access hatches:

Barricades made from fallen doors propped against ruined walls:

Ruined wall sections:

Each pair is pretty much a duplicate, the blue side is the interior side of the buildings, while the dark & light grey sides are the exterior sides.

I should be able to start on the metallics some tomorrow, and getting a fully painted gaming board/terrain really has me motivated right now.