WIP: Sisters of Battle

Its been a while since I posted, but I have been slowly working on my Tyranid army. I got distracted by the new Tau. And then flitted back to my Sisters of Battle army. Me and a large part of my gaming group have been distracted with a return foray into the realm of Magic: The Gathering (or MTG for short).

Its been quite a nostalgic ride with me looking fondly at the old decks I used to play. And also with some regret that I had missed out on some really nice tribal releases over the past blocks like Lorwyn and Innistrad.

Sadly, the newer blocks (now known as Standard) did not have tribal themes which attracted me. I am looking forward to the Innistrad one which had in the past heaps of Werewolves, Spirits, Angels, Inquisitors and Vampires.

But I digress yet again. I decided to go ahead and finish up my Sisters of Battle army. Painted as they were depicted in the Shield of Baal campaign, the Order of the Sacred Rose. I almost typed the Scared Rose there lol!

I am liking the white with red and gold accents. Reminds me a tad of white scars. But they play much differently.

I have always found the older Sisters of Battle sculpts to take much more effort in getting them to look good. I'm not sure if its the sculpt or something else. But I do suspect the convents seem to recruit the most manly looking of women.

I do wish GW would come up with a new plastic line of Sisters, and from the way the Dark Eldar, Wood Elves and Daemonettes are sculpted, they should now be capable of coming up with more feminine faces for the Sisters of Battle.

My goal is to get at least 2 squads of Battle Sisters done by end of Decemeber 2015. I have assembled the Immolators and Exocist tanks a couple months back. They will be a real treat to paint.

Have a great weekend and a super week ahead all! And even though I do play with toy soldiers in imaginary battle scenarios, I pray there will be more peace and understanding between everyone on this Earth.

Dark Angels WIP: Tactical Squad Sergeant

Happy September everyone! I've been planning my Dark Angels army again and will decide to include more standard Tactical Marines. This will also fit well into the Slowburn League that I have joined. I recently had some games with my Deathwing/Ravenwing combined list. While fun, they were sorely lacking in numbers and Objective Secured.

So I decided to paint up some Tactical Marines for the next phase of the Slowburn League games :)

I quick painted a test model last night to get a feel of the colors I would need with the newer range of Citadel paints.

I think the Sarge here is from the Black Reach set. The miniature is primed black. Then I applied 2 coats of Caliban Green. The paint itself is already Dark Angel's fluff flavored haha!

I like it that the starter box set Dark Angels have the Tactical Squad insignia already moulded into the model. Then I mixed in Warpstone Glow with Caliban Green (30:70) ratio to layer on the whole model, just to brighten the armor just a bit.

Moot Green was then used for the edge highlights, while pure Warpstone Glow was used for the initial highlights.

I did not paint much gold on this miniature as gold is reserved more for inner circle and veteran members of the chapter.

I'm planning to see if I can fit a Lion's Blade detachment into 1250 points which is for the next Slowburn League battle. Will be priming and assembling more Marines then ;)

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Dark Angels WIP: Ravenwing Biker

Its a brand new week again and I decided to try my hand again at painting a Ravenwing Biker. Did a quick paint up this morning of a test model for my Ravenwing bike squad.

I went with the classic black colors signature of the Ravenwing. This was followed by a highlight of grey on the raised areas of the bike. It was quite fast to complete.

I used Vallejo's Model Colors for the bike highlights. I outlined the bike with Dark Grey and then hit the most prominent edges with Neutral Grey.

I still have some highlights to do and some symbols to paint up. But this will generally be how the Ravenwing section of my Dark Angels movie would be looking.

A view from the top. I've started to give some freehand detailing on the screen of the bike as well.

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Dark Elf WIP: Kharibdyss

This model belongs to my friend Jaeroler for his Dark Elf army. I finished this model about 4 to 5 months back. But never got to pass it to him. I was going to finish the base with my glue gun to simulate some water effects, but the glue gun broke down.

Anyways, I hope to finally pass it to him by this month lol!

But before that, I might just do some touch up on the model. It's quite an unusual monstrous creature in that it had no eyes or face per se. Mainly gaping maws and lots of teeth. The model is resin and it took a bit to get him even assembled.

I went with mostly turquoise and purple for its colors using Citadel paints. The turquoise part is a base of Stegadon Scale Green. Then it was a mix of Stegadon Scale Green mix with Temple Guard Blue.

The gradual highlight was done with layering on the initial mix with increasing amount of Temple Guard Blue. Then it was a Temple Guard Blue mix with white on the highest parts of the model.

The accent color on the monster is purple hues using a base of Naggaroth Night. Then I layered on Xerses Purple and then a highlight of Genestealer Purple. The final highlight was of Genestealer Purple with white.

I have not played the new Age of Sigmar yet. But hope to get some games in with my Wood Elves :)

Take care, and have a great rest of the week everyone!

Dark Angels WIP: Deathwing Venerable Dreadnought

I've been under the weather a lot lately, and the streak has not been stopping. I'm thinking I need more exercise. But hobbying has not stopped much as I paint up one of the few metal miniatures I have in my collection.

The Venerable Dreadnought is finally seeing paint after almost 10 years! And I've painted him in the colors of the Deathwing for my Dark Angels army in celebration of the new Codex.

The large amount of bone white on the armor was a bit of a challenge. I still have some highlighting and lining to do in the recesses. But he is table top ready :) The green was done using Citadel paints. First was a basecoat of Caliban Green. Then I mixed Caliban Green (50:50) with Warpstone Glow. The pure Warpstone Glow. Then a highlight of Warpstone Glow with Moot Green. The most extreme highlight was dine with Moot Green mixed with a bit of white.

I used the Vallejo Non Metallic Metal box set to paint the NMM gold. The color used for the base is Heavy Brown. Then I mixed 50:50 mix of Heavy Brown with Heavy Goldbrown as the 2nd layer. The 3rd layer is a layer of pure Heavy Goldbrown. I then added white to Heavy Goldbrown (50:50) mix. This was followed by a 30:70 mix of Heavy Goldbrown with white. The final highlight was pure white dot at in the highest raised areas.

I painted the interior mechanical parts of the dreadnought with Chainmail and gave it a liberal wash of Nuln Oil when it was dry.

Decided to paint the assault cannon with some red accents in the colors of the Deathwing to give it a bit of contrast.

For the back of the Dreadnought, I went for a blue accent at the centre of its back chassis to represent its power core glowing a white blue.

I'll be moving on the paint the rest of the Deathwing terminators now. Look forward to getting back to them after a short break.

Have a super week ahead everyone!

Dark Angels WIP

Its the month of August and I'm focusing this month on my Dark Angels army. Not much green armor in this force as it will be mainly Deathwing and Ravenwing Formations. I've been quite under the weather for a while with Nurgle's Blessings. Now back in the saddle to assemble and to paint :)

I finally got my Deathwing all basecoated in the bone white armor they are so very famous for. I started with painting the helmets/face of the models first. This has been a point of origin for me when I start to detail the model as the face provides inspiration for the rest of the model.

I mixed in and converted some of the Terminators from the Dark Vengeance box set. I'm slowly replacing my metal Terminator minis.

Basecoat work all done on the Deathwing Knights as well. They will be quite a treat to paint. I had to include a unit of them as they are now also part of the Deathwing.

Despite my love of the newer plastic miniatures, there are some metal classics that I have difficulty letting go of.

And this metal Venerable Dreadnought is one of them. I really like the detailed gothic patterns on his armor. Here he is primed black.

Did a first layer of Baneblade Brown and also painted the metallic areas with Chainmail and then washed with Badab Black. I'm using up some of the older paints and washes as they are all expiring lol! And quite fitting for a old mini.

Base color of bone white armor also up to speed with the Terminators. Man, this mini is quite heavy lol!

Still got a ways to go. But I am putting finishing touches on the head/helm, and then work will start proper on the main body.

Tried to do some NMM gold on some of the areas of the Venerable Dreadnought. I used the NMM Box Set of paints from Vallejo. It comes with a step by step instruction. I rate the box set 8/10. Its got really good colors and I'm glad I got it. The instructions were clear. But I felt advice on more gradual blending of the colors would have made the NMM transition between the layers much better.

And the army would really not be complete without the Ravenwing!

Mainly because I can't really field a CAD pure Deathwing list anymore due to the Reserve restrictions on the Deathwing Redemption Force.

So I'm taking 2 Ravenwing Attack Squadrons. One Squadron consists of the 6 Bikers while the other consists of 3 Attack Bikes.

And a Land Speeder Typhoon for each of the Ravenwing Squadrons to top it off.

I leave you with a metal miniature which I have had for more than 9 years.

I have been fielding him as my counts as Belial in my Deathwing army. I painted him many years ago and he brings back a lot of good memories and tough battles.

I did a conversion for the top of his Terminator armor to symbolise his vigilance and unending mission both night and day. He actually represents the previous Grand Master of the Deathwing, Gabriel aka Broken Knife.

And this is my army list for the Deathwing/ Ravenwing:

The Hunt (1850pts)
Dark Angels: Codex (2015) (Formation Detachment)

Formation
Deathwing Redemption Force

Belial
Storm Bolter and Sword of Silence

Deathwing Command Squad
Cyclone Missile Launcher, Deathwing Apothecary, Deathwing Company Banner, Deathwing Sergeant, 5x Deathwing Terminators, 2x Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
Deathwing Knights

4x Deathwing Knights, Knight Master

Deathwing Terminator Squad
Cyclone Missile Launcher, 5x Deathwing Terminators (incl. Sergeant), 2x Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield

Deathwing Terminator Squad
Cyclone Missile Launcher, 5x Deathwing Terminators (incl. Sergeant), 2x Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield

Venerable Dreadnought Squadron
Venerable Dreadnought
Assault Cannon
Drop Pod
Storm Bolter
Power Fist
Storm Bolter

Ravenwing Attack Squadron
Ravenwing Bike Squad
2x Plasmagun, 5x Ravenwing Biker
Ravenwing Sergeant
Combi-Grav

Ravenwing Land Speeder
Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher


Ravenwing Attack Squadron

Ravenwing Attack Bike Squad

Ravenwing Attack Bike
Multi-Melta

Ravenwing Attack Bike
Multi-Melta

Ravenwing Attack Bike
Heavy Bolter

Ravenwing Land Speeder
Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher

The Ravenwing allows me to place something on the table on Turn 1 so I don't auto lose haha! The force has nice fast moving elements for Maelstrom objective taking. And a nice hammer in the form of the Deathwing.

Have a very happy August everyone! I would also like to wish everyone good health.

For the Lion!

Deathwing Terminator WIP

I've been quite ill for the past week. Caught the flu when I was in the train and someone sneezed directly onto me. It was a direct hit with no scatter lol!  I decided to spend my time at home painting up some other miniatures other than Tyranids, whilst recovering.

I decided to paint up a group of 5 Deathwing Terminators. I primed them white and applied a basecoat of Baneblade Brown. Then I mixed in a 50:50 mix of Karak Stone to Baneblade Brown. This is followed by 80:20 mix of Karak Stone to Baneblade Brown. Then a layer of pure Karak Stone. The paint was a bit wet to allow it to cover the model quickly.

I then added a mix of Karak Stone with white at a ratio of 80:20. The final layer is 80:20 mix of Karak Stone with white. The edge highlights were done with pure white.

For the Storm shield, I used a base of Skavenblight Dinge. Then a layer of Dawnstone. Then I washed in Agrax Earthshade. After it was dry,  I then highlighted the edges with Karak Stone and the final highlights is Ushabti Bone. I feel this gives the stonework on the shield a more organic look.

Still working on the Deathwing iconography on the shoulder pad as well as the Thunder Hammer.

Back view of the model. Its been a while since I painted Deathwing Terminators. The paint scheme certainly has evolved for me over time. I find myself now not using a Bleached Bone at all for the armor. I believe that I like this current color scheme the best. This is a test model and I'll be using it for the rest of my Terminators :)

The configuration I have decided for my Deathwing Squad would be 2 with Thunder Hammer/ Storm Shields, 1 with Storm Bolter and Powerfist, 1 with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Storm Bolter and Power fist and the last is my Sergeant with Power Sword and Storm Bolter.

The Storm Shields allows me to at least tank some high AP shots while retaining some firepower. The Sergeants power sword will help me kill some stuff if I have a high initiative.

I've spent the week also assembling a Sisters of Battle army. Will put them up after I've firmed up an initial balanced list.

The weekend approaches! Stay healthy and keep hobbying :)

Tyranids WIP: Assortment of Monsters for Apocalypse Game

I've been trying my best to put at least the 3 color base coats on my collection of Tyranids as there's an Apocalypse game coming up this weekend. Its gonna be a bit tight but I'm giving it a go. I got distracted when I started off with my Trygon/ Mawloc. I decided to go with the flow of inspiration and painted another Xenomorph skull type face on the creature.

Again it was really fun to paint up and its really good training for freehand.

A closer shot of the creature.

Some side shots of the head.

"Munchies!"

Carnifexes WIP

The 4 Carnifexes slowly getting the colors on as well. Their rate of being painted is equal to their Initiative value heheh!

Tyrant Guards WIP

Living shields for the his Majesty the Hive Tyrant.

Hive Guards WIP

These critters can't see, but they can shoot lol!

Neural Node (again)

Neural Node members with more colors on now. Hopefully they will be more survivable the next time. Still a fun formation to run.

Venomthropes WIP

The Givers of Cover! Tyranid umbrella organisms. Great for a rainy day of bullets and lasers.

Tyrannofex WIP

And last but not least, a Tyrannofex with the Rupture Cannon. I keep thinking that if the cannon had legs, it would be so much easier for the creature to lug along lol!

Whew! And that's a wrap for the day.

Have a great July ahead everyone!