Lost in the Eye - NiceGuyAdi's Raven Guard

[MithrilForge]

Great work here, can't believe i missed it, now I'm thoroughly motivated to go paint stuff tonight  

I love LSS + Shotgun scouts   and i'm ever so happy you drill out a big hole for the flamer nozzle area's...  double x  

You may even be slower than me(thats quite a statement actually)...but your Def getting it done "Mr Ice Berg" 

 

Cheers, Mithril 

[NiceGuyAdi]

"Mr Ice Berg" 

 

This tempted me so much to change my handle on here! Cheers Mithril.

[NiceGuyAdi]

So all the bits eventually arrived, and after some sawing/filling/kitbashing, I've got my HQ ready to be primed. This guy's gone from Damned Legionnaire to a jump packing Chaplain. I was sweating bullets about working with Green Stuff to make the purity seals and pommel on his crozius, but in the end it wasn't too painful:

 

 

More Pics:

 

 

[NiceGuyAdi]

I've got to say, I went to hell and back with this Chaplain. I don't know if it's because it was my first experience with Finecast or what, but I spent weeks chipping away at him and feeling less and less happy before stripping him down before starting again:

 

 

After starting him again, I finally got him to a point where I was happy enough to say he's finished. There's still a few things about him I'm not ecstatic about, particularly the purity seals and base, but I think that's possibly the curse of the internet when there are so many spectacular models to compare yours against. C&C very welcome.

 

More pics:

 

 

[Mechanist]

He looks ace and well worth the extra effort to make you happy with him.

[Race Bannon]

Agreed! He certainly fits the part. Starting over can be a tough choice because it suggests wasted time. In the end it's worth it when the result is what you want :tu:

 

This guy is inspirational in my humble opinion.

[WAR]

Very nicely done

[Major_Gilbear]

Lovely-looking Chaplain there, well done (and for having the courage to start him again when you weren't happy with him). :)

 

I am surprised looking through your pics again that you never went with the old blue-black; I have a feeling this might make the main black colour more intense and interesting, and would also "free up" the regular flat grey-black for details like jump pack harnesses and such.

 

Finally, on the subject of blending, it might be worth starting with the highlight colour and glazing down into the shades. I find it easier to work this way as the thin paints and washes want to run into the recessed areas anyway, and you can always go back with a few final highlights and glints on important areas like faces. :)

[NiceGuyAdi]

Thanks for the kind words, all!

 

 

 

I am surprised looking through your pics again that you never went with the old blue-black; I have a feeling this might make the main black colour more intense and interesting, and would also "free up" the regular flat grey-black for details like jump pack harnesses and such.

 

Finally, on the subject of blending, it might be worth starting with the highlight colour and glazing down into the shades. I find it easier to work this way as the thin paints and washes want to run into the recessed areas anyway, and you can always go back with a few final highlights and glints on important areas like faces.

 

 

Thanks, Gilbear. I was actually reading through your post on black recipes in the Dangers of Black thread halfway through this guy, but wasn't about to start him again. I'm still not settled on a black recipe so I'm going to keep tweaking it and agree introducing a colour into the tonal range will help,here. Interesting point on why to shade down rather than up, too. I'll give that a go.

[Major_Gilbear]

You know, it's funny; I didn't realise until I came write that post how many different versions of "black" I've painted over the years!

 

The good thing about a totally neutral grey-black like yours, is that with some thinned inks it's reasonably easy to bring it into line with one of the more "colourful" blacks. Even if the match is only 90%, it still beats repainting! ;)

 

I would also suggest good old Ebay for getting old metal versions of Finecast models. Seeing the poor starting quality of that LotD model you made your Chaplain from made me cringe. :(

 

Anyway, enough waffling from me. :P

[NiceGuyAdi]

It's been ages since I updated anything here, but I did manage to get a Drop Pod done for the Talon's Reach armoury event in the Raven Guard subform:

 

 

 

I switched to VMC Black as the base colour for the Drop Pod, and I much prefer it to Abaddon Black for vehicles at least; It's much less glossy. And if anyone notices that there's a typo on the Chapter motto, don't worry. The serf responsible has been reassigned to more appropriate duties as the pilot of a Skyspear missile 

 

The thing about a Drop Pod is, though, they need some bodies to give a ride to. So that'll be 31Sqd Tactical, then:

 

 

I've mixed and matched armour marks here (regular Tactical Marines with the MkIV plastic set), and accessorised them a fair bit with pouches/grenades/pistols/combat blades as well. They've also had a height boost as I'm worried Marines 2.0 will make these guys look like Squats:

 

It's just a ball of Green Stuff in the torso joint:

 

and the neck joint:

 

and finally I added some plasticard under his feet to stop him sinking into the base and give him another little lift. It's not true scale (which I have mixed feelings about), but he's noticeably bigger than the Dark Vengeance plasma gunner:

Edited May 29, 2017 by NiceGuyAdi

[Mechanist]

I have to agree on the mixed feelings for true scale. There are some wonderful conversions out there but to honest just this little boost is enough to make up for the massive over scale most humans get (which I feel is the real issue) and also gets some space for some spare clips and packs.

I would suggest just dropping the helmets back down a mm or two especially the Mk4 one as they look a little bit high, The squad looks excellent though and will be ace ll painted up.  

[brother tycho]

wow you have a good feel for posing up power armour adi, love that combat sqd and chaplain.  model on..

[wiqid]

Great looking minis mate. Love that ideas you used for raising the height of your marines. Subtle but pretty effective. Hope you don't mind me stealing that :)

 

Keep up the good work. Lookin forward to seeing more!

[Biohazard]

Some great work on here. That drop pod looks brilliant. I have to agree with mechanist though. I like the lift the GS gives at the waist but I think it would work better if the heads were still sitting closer to their original position. Look forward to more :tu:

[Bob Hunk]

Love the Chaplain, well done! B)

[NiceGuyAdi]

Thanks for the comments, all. This site never ceases to surprise me with it's positivity and helpfulness.

 

@ Mechanist & Biohazard. Funny you should mention the necks. A couple of days ago I shaved one of the marine's neck sockets down to bring it in a touch. Looking at your suggestions I think you're right; I've brought the MkIV marine's head down and will do the Sergeant's after I've painted his head (looks tricky getting into that gorget otherwise). The other two I'm happy enough with not to mess with them. Especially since MkIV marine came apart almost completely during the surgery! Thanks for the pointer.

[NiceGuyAdi]

Tortoisesque though it may be by other people's standards, I'm speeding up: five marines painted in 24 days. 31Sqd Tactical is finished. I've got to say I'm pretty happy how they've turned out, and taking Gilbear's advice of mixing a colour in with black as a base (in this case 1:1 Abandon Black:Dark Reaper) is the main reason for that.

 

 

All the same, C&C is most welcome.

 

Time to knock together some Scouts, now.

Edited May 29, 2017 by NiceGuyAdi

[Mechanist]

That squad looks ace.

[bloodhound23]

Yeah. This most recent squad (after looking back over the rest of the thread) makes me want to say: you've got the perfect black with these guys. Excellent modeling and a very subtle and effective method for scaling up a bit, which I am totally gonna steal. 

[NiceGuyAdi]

Thanks, guys. Finishing this squad was one of those nice moments for me when you feel like you've progressed.

 

@bloodhound: have at it pinching the idea. But you must observe my fair usage policy by citing your reference on the models' bases. In freehand.

[Major_Gilbear]

That last squad really does look smart, well done NiceGuyAdi!

 

I think it also shows how far you've come in pose, modelling, painting and colour.

 

Finally, I'm glad that the not-quite-black worked well for you. I know it's subtle (it's supposed to be!), but when you place a model painted that way against a plain black one, the differences suddenly seem so obvious, heh.

[NiceGuyAdi]

Thanks again, Gilbear. And you're right: I'd put one of these Tacticals side-by-side against one of the Assault Marines I did a couple of days ago, and the addition of just a little colour adds so much to my eye.

 

On to the next squad then, and what Raven Guard army has enough Scouts? I'm going for snipers this time, and though they're just held together with Black Tack now, 62Sqd is starting to come together:

 

 

The last squad of scouts I did used modified Chaos Marine helmets (heresy!) for an aggressive look, but I think Scions heads, as others have used, work better for a more 'thinky' kind of Scout.

 

I'd found Brother Chaplain Kage's excellent tutorial on making cloaks and capes from tissue a while ago and I've been looking forward to trying it for scout cloaks. The nice thing about using tissue is that you can easily do a test run by just adding water and not PVA glue whilst you get the hang of it. I definitely need to practice more on the hoods I think. The one on the left reminds me of Little Red Riding Hood.

 

I'm also going to modify the Lasguns into sniper rifles, and I've ordered new rods to replace the barrels. I think I'll need to invert the stocks to make them more poseable. I'm trying to think of a way to make it look more like a bolt action weapon.

 

I can't go any further until bits arrive, so in the meantime, any ideas welcome!

Edited June 5, 2017 by NiceGuyAdi

[Race Bannon]

*gasp* the rifle idea is brilliant!

[BlueBelly1863]

Scrolling through this whole thread has been a joy. Fantastic work Adrian! Especially your Chaplain and the latest tactical squad are stand-out, but everything really is. The time you spend with each model really shows in the finished product. 

 

Great idea to sub in the Tempestus heads on the sniper scouts, it works perfectly for them. Look forward to seeing em painted up!