Yet another Blood Ravens hobby blog: adventures in contrast

[Darkjediben]

As GW's facebook teaches us, there is nothing better than MOAR LIEUTENANTS!!!

 

So here are my Dark Imperium Lieutenants, completing my command structure for the COVID19 Corvus division of the Blood Ravens.

 

 

 

And of course, a group shot. What was once a handful of squads is starting to form up in to more of a crimson battalion and I love it.

 

 

Next up I'll be swapping between some rank and file intercessors and base coating my Invictor warsuit. My Khorne Red came today!

[Darkjediben]

Since my last update I've been focusing on school and spending a little time experimenting with new basing materials. I'm pleased to present my first foray into cork bases and my first primaris dreadnought frame: The Invictor Tactical Warsuit!

 

 

 

 

A nice shot of the latest edition to the Blood Ravens Covid Corvus Vanguard:

 

 

 

And of course, I'd be remiss to magnetize the warsuit and not show you all how he looks with an incendium cannon at the ready to bring cleansing fire to the heretic!

 

 

 

 

I really enjoyed making this fella. I think the bone colored shoulder plates really help to convey the idea that the warsuit is an accessory to the infiltrators (plus I lucked out with the ultramarines transfer sheet having a gigantic number 2 when I made the infiltrators second squad). As the army is starting to come together, I've started idly thinking about what's next. A single warsuit seems a touch vulnerable deployed all the way far forward, but I think he'd look great with a pal. A full on Redemptor Dreadnought for fire support to round out the big blocky robot trio would be exactly what the boys in red should steal acquire next.

 

Next update: Some rank and file intercessors!

Edited April 24, 2020 by Darkjediben

[Lucerne]

Did you change your painting technique for the dread?

[Darkjediben]

@Lucerne, yes, I forgot to mention that in the post.

 

Contrast doesn't provide even enough coverages over vehicle-sized flat surfaces. For the dreadnought I switched to several thin coats of Khorne Red.

 

I lost out on a lot of the butter smooth finish of contrast, as traditional paint doesn't seek the same level the way the more fluid contrast paint does, even with thinners. This is where my lack of painting ability isn't obscured by the amazingly thin contrast paints.

 

I don't have a painting set-up that accommodates an airbrush for the moment, so I've resigned myself to allowing the flat panels of my vehicles look, well...painted on. Frankly you can see the paint strokes on actual military grade vehicles when you get up close, anyways, they don't usually apply thick paint to battleships with the fine airbrush you see on consumer grade cars. I think the matte varnish over the top helps smooth out a lot of the details, but ultimately it's tough to smoothly finish a vehicle with a manual brush. The pilot on the inside IS painted with contrast paint, though, so it's clear the pilot at least is the same as the rest of the fellas.

 

At the end of the day, the warsuit looks great in the group shot, so I'm content with the color match and overall appearance.

Edited April 24, 2020 by Darkjediben

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

Are you going to be doing up the FORCE COMMANDER himself?

 

On the topic of eyes - I like to do mine by just applying a dark wash into the eye sockets. Seems to look pretty good. Then again, I'm doing what GW would consider "Battle Ready".

[Darkjediben]

@Zephaniah, I'm very much wanting to do GABRIEL ANGELOS, THE FORCE COMMANDER!!!! I'm in grad school, but once I start making cash money again that's top of the purchase list.

I also wanna do a venerable dreadnought for ol' Davian Thule at some point down the line.

 

Here's a small update, everyone, first half of an intercessors squad. I've got finals this week, so we're going on hiatus for a bit.

 

 

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

Ooh, nicely done. I like the use of different colors of purity seal.

 

Also, ah... I was referring to a certain bald and fewlish lad by the name of Indrick Boreale.

[Darkjediben]

@Zephaniah I'm totally unwilling to pay full vehicle prices for a disposable drop pod, so I'm afraid STEEL REHN is out of the picture until/unless I develop some papercraft skills.

 

Here's the back half of the intercessors, sorry for the delay, final exams were last week:

 

 

Here's the full squad, although you can't see them all in this poorly framed picture:

 

 

And lastly, I got some miniature brush in from the UK this week, so here's a full army pic with some bushes attached to various miniature bases. I picked two kinds, one a dead bush that matches my base color palette, the second a bright green bush with tan rocks. The rocks tie them to the base, the green ties to the lenses and scopes. 

 

 

Next up will either be hellblasters or inceptors from Dark Imperium, haven't decided yet and both are base coated on my desk next to me. I've got a few vehicles in the online orders pipeline as well!

[hushrong]

Your Blood Ravens are great!

Edited May 13, 2020 by hushrong

[Darkjediben]

Today I've got some buzzing bumbling bumblebee looking Ravens for you. Those chonky bois, the Dark Imperium inceptors!

 

 

 

 

Their squad number is blank because I haven't decided if they're squad 5, or if I'm rolling them into squad 3 with my suppressors as sort of an aerial combat jump squad. The numbers are entirely fluff anyways, so I can pretty much do as I please. 

 

This wound up being the very first sergeant I made actually wearing his bone colored helmet. I was really enjoying practicing faces, but eventually somebody's gotta think about safety. OSHA would have a fit! 

 

Once I finish the 5 hellblasters I've got in the pipeline, I'll have officially done it: Painted 2 full starter sets and completed the base of an army. Except I totally failed at my objective to do it before buying new models. In the interim I've acquired another box of intercessors (I'll be running em in 5s so both sergeants are gonna have helmets), a predator (looking forward to magnetizing that beast), another warsuit with a custom 3D printed cockpit, and I've got a Leviathan Dread with stormcannons, a repulsor executioner, and a drop pod on the way.

 

Damn you, plastic crack.

[Darkjediben]

Well it's been a long summer, but I'm finally back home at my painting desk. I present to you the final unfinished piece of Dark Imperium: 165 points of sizzling hot plasma death!

 

 

 

 

 

I did the plasma with a base of mechanicus grey, highlights of grey seer, and a couple corner and top highlights of pure white, all washed over with a soulstone blue and then sealed with gloss varnish. 

 

Really excited to have this off my plate, because next up we've got interesting models. Sitting on my desk primed and ready to paint are the librarian from space hulk, a leviathan dread, an invictor warsuit, and 10 more interecessors with assault rifles to round out my infantry contingent. 

 

For anyone still reading, thanks for your patience over the summer break, more to come!

Edited August 17, 2020 by Darkjediben

[Guest Triszin]

Rad

[Darkjediben]

Having finished my open starter sets I popped the seal on my Space Hulk box to get at the amazing terminator sculpts they've got. I may revisit the box later for the whole squad, but right now I had eyes on the most crucial unit for any Blood Ravens detachment...their librarian!

 

The nice part about the Librarian in Terminator Armor from Space Hulk is that the skull steps he's walking down put his height on par with the rest of the primaris marines in my army.

 

[Darkjediben]

Time for a big, hulking, stomping update to the Blood Ravens. It was a beautiful, lovely gift given by a chapter that shall remain nameless, please enjoy my Leviathan Dreadnought:

 

 

 

 

This guy was a delight to make. I finished him up and decided the front of the model was just a touch too bland, and since I'm right :cuss at proper weathering, I figured a sporty racing stripe would be just the thing. Took me probably half a dozen coats and touchups to get it pretty much straight, but I think it came out pretty great for a straight line on a curved piece of armor!

 

I love this model. I love the size of the guns, I love the hulking physicality of the armor plating, I love the staunch legs like pillars. I absolutely HATE working with resin. I've only got one more resin model in the backlog (well...2, but one of them is a xenos model), and once I finish them I will do everything I can to avoid working with resin again.

[Doghouse]

I've only just seen this, very nice army you have here they look great.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Leviathan. I find it strange he doesn't bear the Blood Ravens Chapter symbol. Is he meant for a Horus Heresy Imperial Fists army, as the "VII" on his shoulder suggests?

[Darkjediben]

Bjorn Firewalker, he's got the ravens chapter symbol on both shoulders. I usually just put it on one, but the topography of the shoulder didn't have the exact dimensions I wanted for a big decal, so I went with 2 small ones. I'm running my fellas as the 7th Company of the blood ravens, so both of my walkers have a big ol' VII on them.

 

So this is pretty minor news in the scope of things, but I'm OVER THE MOON that GW picked up this hulking monstrosity on Instagram and now have a picture of my stomping boy on the forgeworld website!!!! Just wanted to share a couple screenshots with yall

 

 

 

 

As one of my stated goals was to get better at painting at the start of this project, it's a wonderful endorsement that GW likes my stuff enough to use it to advertise their models, even if it is a low-volume forgeworld piece.

 

Thank you all for helping feed my voracious ego!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Congratulations on winning official recognition for your efforts!

[Darkjediben]

Thanks Bjorn!

 

Small update for tonight, the hammernator himself is in progress. Trying something sliiiightly new with my basing method, I'm wanting it to come out as close to the same as I can get with a quicker and cleaner method for me. The old fella is looking a bit like a daemonhost with only his blotchy eye outlines marked out. Hoping to make him more human tomorrow!

 

[OriginPainting]

Bjorn Firewalker, he's got the ravens chapter symbol on both shoulders. I usually just put it on one, but the topography of the shoulder didn't have the exact dimensions I wanted for a big decal, so I went with 2 small ones. I'm running my fellas as the 7th Company of the blood ravens, so both of my walkers have a big ol' VII on them.

 

So this is pretty minor news in the scope of things, but I'm OVER THE MOON that GW picked up this hulking monstrosity on Instagram and now have a picture of my stomping boy on the forgeworld website!!!! Just wanted to share a couple screenshots with yall

 

 

 

 

As one of my stated goals was to get better at painting at the start of this project, it's a wonderful endorsement that GW likes my stuff enough to use it to advertise their models, even if it is a low-volume forgeworld piece.

 

Thank you all for helping feed my voracious ego!

Congratulations, big day for anyone. What did you do to get your stuff entered, just post it up on the gw pages?

[Darkjediben]

 

Congratulations, big day for anyone. What did you do to get your stuff entered, just post it up on the gw pages?

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Origin, when you go on the website for forgeworld or gamesworkshop and click on any unit, at the bottom they have a stream of images of hobbyist creations and a hashtag. If you post on instagram with that hashtag, the GW community servitors check that hashtag regularly and if they like your stuff or if there aren't a ton of submissions for a given model (which is what I expect happened here) they'll send you that message and ask if they can repost your stuff.

 

On the one hand, free advertising for a big corporation for no compensation, but on the other hand...I'm super geeked out to have my stuff featured and I love it.

 

So tonight's progress, I present to you the man with the plan, the somersaulting terminator, the Cinder from Cyrene, Blessed by the Power of the Land Raiders, the Golden God(-emperor fearing warrior), Gabriel Angelos himself:

 

 

 

 

Well...a reasonable third party facsimile of him that doesn't have the derpy forgeworld head. Nabbed it on ebay, It seems to be 3D printed yet still have resin mold slippage. This guy was a bitch and a half to file and fill, I really hate working with resin if I haven't mentioned that a dozen times already.

 

Anyways, now that the man himself has arrived to lead my forces, the next step is to...well, give him more forces to lead! Next on the docket is another squad of intercessors with a walker.

 

[Darkjediben]

I had planned on a bunch of in-progress pics, but truth be told the only interesting/non-standard thing I did with these fellas was to swap the arms of the sergeants with some regular marine arms I had lying around. They turned out great!

 

 

Next up, a buddy for my invictor warsuit to get stuck in with. Excited about the popgoesthemonkey custom cockpit I've got on him, can't wait to see it painted up!

 

Small sidenote: I'm not able to upload my photos from imgur using the bracket "img" "/img" tags I had previously used. I get an error saying that image extension isn't allowed on this site. Does anybody know if that's a new rule? I've created a gallery on B&C and linked it directly, but I don't love forcing you guys to go through 2 extra clicks per image to see  my pics. Any thoughts?

Edited September 1, 2020 by Darkjediben

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Intercessors.

[Darkjediben]

My first sneaky boi was great, but he was getting pretty lonely up behind enemy lines. Therefore I present to you: Battle bros!

 

 

 

 

With the completion of my battle bros, I have successfully completed an entire shelf of models during covid:

 

Next up, I'm going to be clearing my desk, selling off any pieces from Indomitus I'm not going to keep, and then magnetizing and building some extremely Heavy Support before diving in on that starter set. Time to clear off another shelf!

Edited September 3, 2020 by Darkjediben

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work. Are the "Battle Bros" one Redemptor Dreadnought and one Invictor warsuit, or are they both Invictors (one of which has an armored cockpit)?