Knowledge is Power...in the company of ravens

[corai]

Despite never really playing the Dawn of War games, I've always loved the Blood Ravens chapter. The aesthetics of the dark crimson and bone pauldron fields always attracted me and as I read up on the increasingly none secret backstory I fell in love. After toying with a few chapters, I'm having a stabat getting a full company of Ravens together, and they say every journey starts with a single step, so here's the first half of the first tactical squad.

 

 

The new FW chapter tactics gave me the perfect set to use (IMO) to represent the blood ravens. I'll be playing them as Mantis warriors, basically for access to divination (seeing the future being a big part of their librarians tool kit in the background and all) as well as the ambush skills which gel with the infiltrate ability they used to have in the old doctrine system.

 

I wanted to highlight blood ravens reverence for ancient technology, their habit of 'borrowing' stuff from other chapters and the obsessive-space-archaeologist vibe they have going on so have used a mix of lots of different armour marks. The look I'm going for is one where every marine i nthe company has a personalised suit of armour, made from compnoents they themselves have discovered whilst on digs throughout the galaxy (this should be driven home when they make it to a battle brothers event with a friends ad mech army in tow)

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b98/Corai/d2ecbfcd-aceb-4073-b675-01b5e2324f90_zps3d570307.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b98/Corai/f6e6106b-1341-4e37-9c89-8153100a7266_zpsbcd0f2c8.jpg

 

and a few close ups

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b98/Corai/6c43645a-f192-4f73-bdb6-f5167984dbfa_zpsddefac63.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b98/Corai/d9808c87-84a5-402a-8093-873ffda21535_zps7f94dbbc.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b98/Corai/8a62e4f3-d73c-4894-8ea5-25f71a4395da_zps650a17e4.jpg

Thanks

Dan

Edited December 5, 2013 by Brother Tyler
Tags edited

[Bannus]

Wow! Those are some nice looking Blood Ravens. The red seems....almost metalic in appearance - is that just a trick of the camera or something else?

[Quixus]

Wow, they look really great. The metallic red looks a lot better than the usual brownish red. How did you do it?

[GrandMagnus]

Without words, applauding loudly in front of the PC

 

Seriously, these are the best BR I have yet to see, the deep, dark crimson is just excellent and the use of mixed armour marks is great.

[Fallen11]

yep,they look excellent! Metallic recipe please :D

[SteveW1]

Looking very nice, I really like the red.  You could also just use the Ultramarines chapter tactics that way you can do a counts-as with Tigerius, and Sgt Telion can be a counts-as Scout Sgt Cyrus.

[corai]

Thanks Brothers. I was originally using the Ultras tactics for access to Tigurius as I felt his divination and reserve changing schtick fit very well with the blood ravens (Telion/Cyrus was a ncie bonus too!) but with Tiggy being considered so brokenly ridiculous, I didn't want to be seen as 'that guy' who only took the new awesomeness, no matter how fluffy I felt it was. Thankfully, Forgeworld gave me an out by letting all my libbys take divination!

 

For those asking, the red was a lot of trial and error but in the end the method I used was:

-undercoat chaos black
-spray basecaot Army Painter Gun Metal
-Zenithal Spray basecoat Army Painter Platemail (only spray from above to add natural shadow and highlight to the underpainting stage)
-Extreme Highlight Vallejo Air Aluminium
-wash Carroburg Crimson straight from the pot. Keep a dry brush on hand to blot and pools which aren't just shadows
-wash carroburg again
-was carroburg for a third time
-Glaze Bloodletter:Vallejo gaze medium 1:1
-Glaze with above mixture again
-pin wash the depest recesses and face details with drakenhof blue to push the shadows a little darker
-final extreme highlight with army painter platemail. this is to simulate chipping so can be on any area which would experience wear, but does a good job of pushing the edge highlighting back towards the extreme to drfine the edges of armour panels etc

Hope this helps someone!

Cheers
Dan

[Bannus]

That is a lot of work to get the red - but looks well worth it.

 

You plan to build a company with this technique?  Hope you have a good therapist.  :P

[corai]

If doesn't actually take as long as it looks. It's mostly drying time so I'm trying to have multiple groups on the go at once.

 

And yes, I'm planning 100 of these boys. Although Im more daunted by how I'll apply the technique to vehicles as I may need to finally man up enough to use my airbrush for the washes and glazes!

[Brother Casman]

Those are fantastic! I look forward to seeing more.