Blood Guardians WIP Log

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

Due to the work load I have been having at school, I have been unable to either work on fluff for the squad or work on any miniatures at all. 

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

"Wait, you have not heard of Jorgan Saladorian, the Silent Hammer? Well then lad, sit down and grab a goblet of wine, for this story is a long one."

"It is rumored that Jorgan held the eastern gate of the city of Veltor alone against a small force of Chaos Terminators while covering one of is wounded comrades"

"See that thunder hammer he is carrying? It is said he was given it to him by the Chapter Master of the Blood Angels for his valor during the Thranx Campaign."

"He isnt called 'The Silent Hammer' for laughs pup. Just... Do not ask him about it if you favor your head."

Post one of four. I have three other models to post, but atm I got class in a few minutes, so I will post the other three after class on my break. Enjoy!

[Flint13]

I love the Silent Hammer, and the well executed (pun!) fluff ^_^

[deathspectersgt7]

This one is your best to date.

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

"Martellis Ursivaa, The Silent Shadow. He is the only brother I would trust, over Sariel."

"Just do not ask him where he got the scythe, if you favor any of your body parts. He is rumored to have slain a Eldar Wraith Lord and ripped off its weapons to craft the scythe."

"No on has ever seen his face. Why? Don't ask me lad, He hardly ever talks to anyone, hence the SILENT part."

"The bolter, bearing the fetishes of the Space Wolves, was given to him by a Grey Hunter during the Velcorian Campaign, in which Martellus covered the wounded Hunter, waiting for his comrades to come up to relieve them."

Two down, two to go.

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

"Kairon Azheron, "The Silent Hunter". The best marine armed with Lightning claws since.... Since him."

"He is the only Guardian to have reportedly declined the position of being appointed to the Lord Guardians Honor Guard. Why? Because he didn't want to run around in fancy targets painted onto his armor."

"Kairon, a great brother eh? Just dont ask him about his helmet.... He is very touchy on the subject."

"The blood on the claws? It isn't from one of the local typhroc's if that is what you are wondering."

Three down, one more to go. C&C as always, is welcomed.

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

"Jurga Ixidomus, the Claws of Silence. Yes, he is wearing Space Wolves gear... But only due to his gear was..... obliterated while blocking a escaping civilian from a plasma cannon while assisting the Space Wolves in the Gyrogan Crusade."

"Those claws of him has splattered more blood on countless walls than you have pissed after a bout in the practice cages. So do not whine about your wounds to him, if you value your legs."

"He, like Martellus, never takes off his helmet, so do not ask how he got it into a shape of a snarling wolf. He doesn't like questions."

"It was said that, upon the fields of Partanis, that Jurga charged a tank. A TANK, during a surprise attack on their position by a band of Alpha Legionaries. Lets just say the tank was "out" of commission."

That is the last post! C&C on all four please.

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

I present to you today my finished Sternguard Veteran Sergeant, who is unnamed:

Close up of the first pic:

C&C as always is welcomed for any of the models within this plog.

[Flint13]

Nice! Your painting is getting better by leaps and bounds!

 

How do you feel about trying some washes out? Your unnamed sternguard is super neat, but a black wash over the metallics can deepen the shadows, a red one can bring out the folds in that loincloth and wax seals, a green could really pick out the leaves on his wreathes and the oath papers would look all nice and crinkly with a brown wash. 

 

Feel free to let me know if you ever want help with anything. Keep up the good work!... even if it *is* for the wrong legion :P

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

Thanks for the comment Flint. Atm I only have the Drakenof Nightshade wash. I need to get others. Also, how do you do lightning claws? I feel as if mine are reeeaaallllyyyy bland atm.

[Flint13]

Haha, nice! Are you sure you aren't a nightlord? I go through so much drakenhoff painting midnight blue

But in seriousness, try some drakenhoff on those little blue powercables running to the claws if you want to test out wash technique. They're small and easily fixable, but you should get a good idea of the depth some of those extra little shadows can pull out.

For the claws, it depends on how advanced you want to get with them. When I do power weapons, I go for a super simple recipe that I can duplicate easily and takes all of five minutes per side.

1.) Boltgun or Leadbelcher, wash with badab black

2.) Highlight with ironbreaker

3.) Highlight with ice blue (just the very top raised edges). Then drag small lines diagonally across the blade. This gives a pretty cool energy "flow" effect.

4.) Highlight the tippiest top of the raised edges with super fine astronomicon gray.

5.) Wash with a thinned blue, drakanhoff in this case, to pull all the colors together. Make sure you thin it quite a bit, maybe 60% water to wash, minimum. That keeps it from just obliterating all of your detail work, and you can always add a second coat if need be.

Let me know if you'd like advice on anything else!

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

Thanks for the steps for the lightning claws! And on the inside I am in midnight clad. I just need to buy the paints you listed so I can give it a go lol. 

[Ch@oZ]

I'm...I'm going to be a bit unkind, so apologies in advance.

First of all- the kitbashes look great (the nemesis halberd scythe is one thing i don't like, due to it looking extremely unwieldy, that's not important), but...

Being nasty starts here, all imo, but forgive me nonetheless:

As painting goes, I think sometimes your minis look overly flashy and unbalanced. Imo, throwing gold, purple, green, orange (oh god, this orange), red and brown on one model isn't good. it might be a good idea to limit the palette- namely perhaps mixing the red and orange together, perhaps with some brown, to get one rust shade to use on pauldrons and guns(Vallejo model air rust comes to mind and hey- it's already at a perfect consistency straight out of the bottle). You could also mix some of it into the gold to tone it down and unify the minis further. The purples and greens- cool, why not, BUT- they don't mix well with this charcoal black, especially such a shiny one. I usually find it's a good idea to stick to a palette type when matching colors eg. a pastel green, neon green and olive look horrible next to one another, but a toned yellow next to a toned blue looks ok.

I know everyone's a critic, but hear me out- I've painted some of my first marines very similarly. I know sometimes painting a weapon sheath next to it's handle the same color seems lazy, but too many colors at once is bad. I also fell into the same trap as You did- i did a black army. I thought painting black is going to be easy, no shading etc. But i was wrong, highlights are EVEN MORE necessary in such a case and they require an experienced painter's stable hands. So here is my solution- what first drove me to painting my black marines this way was a white gwarf article on painting black templars. One way described was- "just paint them black, highlight edges later", but i never felt confident enough to highlight them. HOWEVER- the second option, which i discarded at the time, was- mix a dark grey (50/50 or 75/25 chaos black to codex grey) and shade with black ink, which i now think was much, much better all along. Anyway, sorry about being a downer, but seeing as You are improving at a great pace, i thought maybe i could tell myself i had a hand in Your future betterment .

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

It is fine Ch@oz, you were not being nasty, it is just, their isnt any orange on any of the models. The pictures make the red very orangey though, which I hate. As for highlighting... I am very very uncomfortable with how my skills (even if they are improving) to attempt highlighting just yet. Plus some of the colors everyone is throwing around I just do not have yet. I am not hurt by your comment, but very happy that someone came along and did what you did, point out what I was doing and what I need to improve on. Eventually I will try my gauntlet at highlighting, but until I get the paints I need, the models will stay as is. 

[Ch@oZ]

 

their isnt any orange on any of the models. The pictures make the red very orangey though, which I hate

 

So the space wolf-like guy- the one with wolf claws, wolf helmet, wolf banner... what is the color on his shoulder pads/mohawk like IRL? Judging from two, rather diffused shadows behind the model, You're photographing under either a ceiling lamp and a small light off to the side, or with a mix of natural/artificial light. Whether or not a photo flash is involved, then maybe You should tinker around with the camera's white balance. I found that even switching to my camera's default "artificial light" setting worked wonders. Or, if You really feel like putting in extra effort, You could check your lights' "temperature" online and adjust for it accordingly.

 

Also i'de venture a guess that you're probably right-handed, judging from the shadows.

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

IRL the space wolf like marine on top of his head and shoulders are red, a bright red. And yes I am right handed and yes I am using my lamp that I have on my work table, shining off to the side, at my bed. Since it is my parents camera, Idk what all it does honestly, but I will look at it and tinker with it abit,

[Squeaky]

Typhus eat your heart out xD that is one big scythe. I like use of the grey knight terminator heads, They don't look as out of proportion as I would have guessed

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

Typhus eat your heart out xD that is one big scythe. I like use of the grey knight terminator heads, They don't look as out of proportion as I would have guessed

Lol thanks Squeaky. I love the Grey Knight Terminator heads, so I decided to give them a try on regular marines, and loved the result.

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

Also, this is a very general question, so anyone is free to answer: How do it post a group shot, without having a very large picture that is skipped when I upload it to here?

[Ch@oZ]

 

Also, this is a very general question, so anyone is free to answer: How do it post a group shot, without having a very large picture that is skipped when I upload it to here?

 

Just edit the picture in picasa, for example. To change picture size you crop and export the file to a determined size. You can also fool around with color correction in the program, I presume.

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

Sorry for the very long silence. School has taken up much of my time, but my paint brush has not been idle. I am in the process of painting all the silver details on the last five members of my seven man Sternguard squad and for the five man Vanguard squad. Also, I will be taking part in a campaign against a few of my friends (And this will be my first time EVER playing a game of 40k) and the Blood Guardians are answering the call of a planetary system under siege from a foul xenos race. It is suppose to be Orks, but one of my buddies has yet to get his hands on them so we will be just saying, for now, that a "unknown" xenos race is invading. My other buddy will be playing as the sneaky Alpha Legion (With the DA's from the DV set being converted into Alpha Legion along with the Chaos as well.) So, once I get done with it, I will post a story for the Blood Guardians answering the distress signal from the planet Calsif V. Wish me luck!

[Flint13]

Awesome! Can't wait to see these guys in action.

 

Be careful fighting the Alpha legion though... you may have already been infiltrated... 

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

Awesome! Can't wait to see these guys in action.

 

Be careful fighting the Alpha legion though... you may have already been infiltrated... 

 

Lol this may be true. Them sneaky little.. Anyways. If any one has any of the new grav weapons that came in the new Sternguard set, what color should I paint the areas like in between the metal plates on the barrel? I have see them painted green, but idk how it would look.

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

I have finished both the Vanguard and Sternguard squads. I will post the Sternguard today and the Vanguard tomorrow.

First up is the Sergeant of the Sternguard squad (Once More), Sergeant Augurutus Epathus:

Then Veteran Sternguard Zethideus Inferaco:

Veteran Sternguard Maxucia Drakken:

Veteran Sternguard Cryuco Sevethus:

Veteran Sternguard Azidimus Belathon:

Veteran Sternguard Klede Centovan:

Veteran Sternguard Raptoruz Serpentovaa:

C&C please. Also, if anyone wants to see other shots of any of these just ask me, I will even provide fluff. I can also provide fluff on the 2nd Compant, especially after the Sedraxis Campaign (Which saw the entire 2nd Company change drastically.)

[ChaptermasterDemon7]

Now for the Vanguard Squad:

Sergeant Angalius Illavan:

Veteran Vanguard Helatho Hexanides:

Veteran Vanguard Dracetos Angelerius:

Veteran Vanguard Thaddeus Romanum:

Veteran Vanguard Rhamah Romedeus:

C&C welcomed as always.