Soldiers of the Red Tassel

Hey folks!

Sorry it's been so long since the last post, i know you've all been desperately awaiting my next installment.

My excuses are that I've been on nightshift, although that was over a week ago now, and then I've had a few actual games of 40k, and some painting misadventures! We'll get to the misadventures later, but for now, some miniatures.

So, in this installment, we're going to have a look at some of my mate Earl's minis i painted for him, just after i painted up Aquillion and his unit, and before i painted up the drop pod.

The reason i got to painting these minis, and not ones of my own, was simple. We were playing DnD, and we'd encountered a band of mercenaries that had been hired to kill us. So, we kept coming across these particular soldiers, all with Red Tassels. The mini's Earl was using for the soldiers were good, but they were mostly unpainted, just undercoated in white. I took this as a personal challenge, and asked Earl if i could paint up his minis, to which he responded with an emphatic yes! (to this day he keeps offering to let me paint more of his stuff).

The soldiers of the Red Tassel were either generally archers, or footmen, and so we needed two types of mini to represent these. At the time, i had recently read a great little tutorial on painting Empire soldiers on the Games Workshop site, however they have since taken it down, and unfortunately i never kept a copy.

Since these miniatures were basically older GW Empire troops, i thought it fitting to try and paint these guys up to look the part. I went with a red and white colour scheme. There was actually about 20 archers and 15 foot soldiers, but since i wasn't taking photos of my minis at the time, I've only got a couple here to show you all.

Red Tassel Bowmen Front View

Red Tassel Bowmen Rear View

 There were 10 of these guys, 5 in kettle hats (the ones with a brim) and 5 in cervaliers (the bowl helmet), and then there were another 10, with the colours painted in reverse, ie red tunics and white hose and hoods.

This was my first real foray into painting white on a large scale. My previous regiment of spearmen had some white, but these guys had large, unbroken patches of white. I was still learning how to layer properly, and so in some places, the white highlights look a bit...out of place. The red tended to be a bit more forgiving and so while the skill of application was the same, the colour ended up looking a bit more realistic.

Now, the archers of the Red Tassel would be nothing without some footmen to defend them, and what do you know, there were some of these too!

There was about 15 or so of these guys as well, but I've only got three at the moment to show you.

 

Red Tassel Footmen Front

Red Tassel Footmen Rear

 There we can see the first guy who has the reversed colour scheme. These guys were quite fun to paint, as they are wearing "slashed and puffed" look clothing, much like real world 15th century Landschneckts. This means that in the washing stage of painting, they instantly look fantastic as the wash settles in all the slashes and provides great contrast. I've then gone and layered over these guys, but if i was to do these guys again, I'd probably have drybrushed over them, as that would have been both faster and more effective.

Oh, and the one in the centre has green felt on his base because we use a TV, sitting on a table, screen facing up, connected to a computer, as our map function in our DnD game. Yes, we're THAT nerdy.

 So, as with all adventures, there needs to be a "Big Baddie" at the end. Conveniently, Earl had just the model for that.

The Big Bad Front View

When i got this guy from earl, he wasn't even undercoated, and he didn't have a weapon. I think the shield comes from one of the Empire kits of swordsmen above, and the helmet with massive crest was definitely from a Bretonian knight.

Because he was without a weapon, i obviously had to make him one, and i didn't have many bits at the time, nor any Green Stuff. What i ended up doing was using one half of a banner pole with an eagle's head on the end as the haft, and then trimming some pieces of a winged banner decoration from the Spearmen regiment to use as the flanges of a mace. I think it worked out very nicely.

Big Bad Left View

Big Bad Right View

I'm particularly proud of the line highlighting on this guy, i really think i got it just right. And each of the rivets on his armour was picked out individually as well. The lion was done by painting in a brassy gold, washing in black, then drybrushing with a shiny gold and then a touch of silver.

 Lastly, please let me apologise for the crappy shots, I'm photographing these models with my flocked mat draped over a chair, and with my phone. I'm going to work on getting or making myself a light box for doing this, so if anyone has any ideas, feel free to post in the comments or link me a good guide to making one!

Till next time folks!

Drop Pod Mk I

Right, so without further ado, let us get into the crux of this blog of mine, modelling and painting up my Ultramarines army.

We've already seen why i chose Ultramarines. They're just f*#king cool.

Well, today, I'm going to talk about one of the primary methods those Ultra-cool-marines use to transport themselves from space, into battle. That would be via the use of Drop Pods. These pods are fired from orbiting space craft, generally a "Battle Barge", which are the primary ships of the Legiones Astartes. They usually contain 10 marines each, but can also contain a Dreadnought, or weirdly, an artillery piece called a Thunderfire Cannon. Why you would want to launch your artillery into close combat with the enemy is beyond me, but it IS possible, in case you're stupid enough to do it.

So, my reasoning for making my Drop Pod the first vehicle, and indeed the very first thing, that i painted in my marine army was pretty simple. I wanted to use it. But i had been reading some stuff on the interwebs about how it was easier to paint while it was in pieces. I was also pretty interested in putting magnets into the doors, to hold them closed. After much net-trawling, i came across this awesome guide by Ron of From the Warp. You're going to see LOTS of links to From the Warp in future, his blog is always my first port of call when trying to work out how to achieve a specific effect or even just getting general hobby advice. His stuff is amazing and he makes it look so effortless. Keep up the good work Ron, we love it!

Well, that's probably enough smoke blowing for now, back to it. So the guide i saw on FtW was posted as a 3 part series, it's that complicated. Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment, and i am one of those people who generally has to go out and make their own mistakes before they'll believe anyone else's. So i decided to embark on the crusade to get this drop pod made. There were other delays on getting it finished, primarily ordering my magnets from overseas (apparently no-one in Australia makes little magnets for a reasonable price).

The three parts of the FtW Drop Pod guide can be found here:-

Part 1 - Primary Assembly and Magnets
Part 2 - Painting, Part 1
Part 3 - Painting, Part 2 and Final Assembly.

So, unfortunately, as this is currently still a retrospective blog, i cant show you pics of my drop pod in progress. What i recommend is reading through those three articles, and then coming back to have a look at mine, and my variances from that. I tried to stick to that guide as close as i could, but it still didn't work out perfectly.

Here's one i prepared earlier...

Drop Pod Close Up

Drop Pod Far View

So there you have it, my completed drop pod. You'll see the primary difference on mine to his is that mine is blue where his was black. This was the first time I'd painted up anything and tried to highlight it properly at all, so you can see some pretty chunky line highlighting on the top of the fins. One of the problems there is that i don't really have any consistency, I've just highlighted every edge, instead of specifically picking out the ones that need it. I've also not highlighted the doors properly. All that said and done though, I'm pretty happy with how the overall look turned out. It looks a lot like the one on the box, and I'm pretty happy with that look. Perhaps a bit more weathering and scorching on the next one, as I'm in love with those kind of effects at the moment.

Drop Pod Deployed

So here you can see two new elements of the pod, one being the interior of the pod itself, and the other being the interior surface of the doors, and the hazard striping. The interior of the pod is nothing special, aside from a few elements. Currently I've got the Deathwind Launcher in there (which incidentally still isn't completely painted), but you can just see in this photo the top of the dome inside the pod. I tried to get mine to looks like Ron's, but in red, however his looks slick, where mine looks thick and imprecise. I still need to work on my freehand a bit.

Apart from the dome, and a couple of other spot elements, the majority of the inside of the pod was done in GW Leadbelcher (Boltgun Metal), washed in GW Nuln Oil (Badab Black), and then drybrushed again with another coat of GW Leadbelcher (Boltgun Metal). Pretty simple to do but due to the large surface area, this still took a LONG time.

The Hazard stripes were done following another of the tutorials on FtW, specifically "How to paint correct looking hazard stripes. These were a bit of a pain in the ass to do, but once they were done i was SO glad I'd opted to do them. I think they really add a touch of both pizazz and realism to the model, they contribute to the "believability" factor.

Drop Pod Far Top View

This shot shows a bit more of the engine detail, but also gives you a birds eye view on how this model appears on a battlefield. From this view, we can easily see why the hazard striping is so important, it calls the eye to it and defines the model on the field.

Something else to note, but this is probably the best view to see one of the magnets holding the door shut. They're sunk into the base of the door. In future drop pods, I've put them in the door tips. Sure, they're visible that way, but i think i get a much better seal with them going in the tops rather than in the bottom. In the end, the magnets in the base of the doors didn't work so great for a few reasons, some being that my magnet placement was a bit off, and the magnets are probably a little weak for the weight of the door. 

Drop Pod Mk 2 Door Magnets

This is a shot of my next, yet-to-be painted drop pod where I've put the magnets in the door tip. They're much, MUCH more visible, yet i don't think they detract from the look too much. And having two makes for an excellent seal on the door, which is worth it to me. After all, I'm aiming for a "Nice Tabletop Standard" for my painting, I'm not here to win any competitions.

Drop Pod Hazard Stripes.

 Here's a closer shot of the hazard striping. At this range it's easy to spot the wobbly lines, which are the hallmark of a noob freehander! Still, I'm pleased with that effect, and will definitely take the time to do it on the rest of my pods (I have three of these in total, so expect to see more pod stuff in the future).

Drop Pod Interior Dome

Drop Pod Interior Weapon Mount

These two shots give you an idea of the interior of the pod. It's hard to photograph properly once it's assembled, but you can see the dome has been painted up to look like some sort of scanner or radar device (in 40k parlance, that's called an Auspex). Again, at the time, i was very chuffed with this, but looking at it now, it needs neatening up a bit. Next time gadget...

Another cool thing to note there is the weapon mount. For this photo I've removed the Deathwind Launcher that was there, and while it's difficult to make out, you can see that there's a magnet mounted in the little plastic flange. This means i can swap my weapons out as i please on the pod without having to buy and build a separate model for each loadout, and also makes it easy to represent Weapon destroyed or Wrecked results, coz i can actually dismantle the model somewhat to make it "broken" during the game. You'll eventually see this magnetization as a reccurrent theme throughout building my vehicles.

Drop Pod Top View Engine Detail

Drop Pod Scorch Marks

On these two photos you can see the scorched effect up close. It's the same effect on both the engine and the sides of the pod, but they look different because of the way they're applied. The engine has been more stippled on rather than drybrushed, to make it seem somewhat dirty, but it's also the exhaust where the jet flame would be coming out of, and thus away from it, meaning it shouldn't be TOO dirty. Think the exhausts of a fighter jet, they'll be sooty, but it wont go too far onto the body of the plane.. Really, i should have put some scorching on the fins as well, but i didn't think of that at the time.

The scorch marks on the side are there to represent re-entry through atmosphere, after all, this thing starts it's journey in space and comes flying in through the atmosphere at speed, and it's not the most aerodynamic shape, so I'd imagine there's a fair bit of heat there. We are in the 40th millennium though, so one assumes that their materials science has advanced a fair bit (they use alot of a substance called "Ceramite", which we are led to believe is some type of fusion between metals and ceramics). The scorched effect is applied as per Ron's tutorial in his drop pod posts, and also his tutorial on how to paint soot stained gun barrels. but i think I've gone a bit too far with the brown, and not far enough with the black. Well, I'll get to practice it again soon!

Drop Pod Mk 2 Sub-Assemblies

This is actually going to be Drop Pod Mk 2, but I've added in a photo of it here, showing it all assembled into the three sub-assemblies. I'll discuss the individual painting techniques of the pieces in it's own post in the future, as I'm thinking i might experiment with some spray painting for this next one, since there's some very large areas of silver inside it, and painting those by hand was a royal pain in the arse (not to mention extremely time consuming!).

So there we have it, Drop Pod Mk 1 - my first 40k post!

Beginning Painting and an Introduction to Aquillion

So today is going to be the first in a series of posts I'm going to do on some of my older paint work (I laugh when I say older, as I've only really been painting for just over a year).

I do think though that it's important to describe some of the things I've done in the past, and record them as a means of both cataloguing the mistakes I've made, and looking at how I've improved over time.

Today I'll be looking at the first unit I bought in recent memory. Yep, that's right, my first hobby article on my 40k blog is of some fantasy models! Ironic isn't it !! :)

OK, so without further ado, let me introduce you to Aquillion. He's my battle-cleric i referred to in the last blog post.  

Aquillion Front View

Aquillion Rear View

So, i modeled  him originally with one of the spear tips from the Games Workshop High Elf Spearmen box set. However, this particular model is actually the one i use to represent my cleric during Pathfinder games, so over time I've repainted him and re-converted his weapon to better represent an actual glaive, which is his chosen weapon (The glaive is a 40k Grey Knights glaive, trimmed up to look more fantasy).

This particular model is fairly representative of the quality i was turning out after i had been painting for about three months. That shield he's sporting on the back has been painted in freehand, and while not particularly great, i was damn proud of it at the time, especially as the black claws and detail on the lion were done in paint and with a fine brush - I have a new technique now which i will go into at a later date.

As an interesting aside, and due to a bit of a silly streak in me, the heraldry he's using on that shield is actually that of my Living History group Company of the Staple. Here's for a shoutout to my 14thC peeps! :D

 Anyway, back on topic.

The next couple of photos show Aquillion in a couple of different poses. I had originally hoped to have a model of Aquillion using each different weapon he possessed, and also one at repose too. He's after all a cleric of the deity of beauty and love. I managed to create the repose one, and also one of him using a mace and shield. It turns out that it was impractical to change model on the tabletop during game sessions, so this kind of fell by the wayside, but i did get a few different versions made before i realised this.

Aquillion in various poses

Aquillion in various poses rear view

 So here's a good comparison.

The model in the centre is my primary model, and it has been re-painted and re-converted after a bit of time had passed.

You can see that the models either side of him are ones that i have painted up right at the start, in fact, these three models are in fact the first three i painted when i started. Notice the differences in their colouring, they're much flatter in appearance, they lack depth and they lack life. They do have character, and i have to say I'm especially proud of the one with his helmet in his hand. In particular, look at the differences between the two shields. It's obvious I've improved when it came time to re-paint the centre one.

The helmet is just another head with a helmet on, where I've used my hobby knife to scrape away the face detail, and then painted it black. I think it makes a convincing empty helmet. The mace that the one on the right is holding was made from a piece of banner pole (you can see the "in repose" model has the same mace hanging from his belt). The small shields i had left over from over a decade ago, when i had some old Dragon Princes of Caledor models i hadn't got the shields on at the time. I felt that the small, heater style shield was more appropriate for the cleric than the big, tower style shield that came with the spearmen models.

 So, after painting up those three and having an absolute ball of converting them and getting them right, i decided that i would build and paint up the rest of the unit of spearmen. Partly because of a far-fetched desire to incorporate the leadership feat into my Pathfinder game and have an army of minions running around to do my bidding (I've since learned it doesn't quite work like that, both in or out of game), but mostly because i was excited to be able to put them together, and paint them up.

Spearmen Champions

 Here's a selection of the champions of my spearmen unit. You can see that two have spears, one has a sword and shield, and the last is carrying the company banner. The models were built well, and i felt like they were all posed quite realistically, but their painting lets them down. There's no depth really to their colours. They look very flat and rather 2D.

Banner Closeup

Again, the banner is done freehand and quite early on in my painting career. I was SO happy with that when i did it in the first place, but now i just look at it and giggle a little. It was a good try, but needs so much more. Could i do a better job now? Maybe, but we'll have to see.

Team Aquillion!

 Finally, I've included a shot of the entire unit all built up and ready to rumble. Their overall look works, the colours are right and they feel cohesive as a unit. They're based pretty well (in fact probably the best part of these is their basing), but the essence is in the details, and those details are just not here. Not bad for a first unit, but SO, so, so far to go from here.

I'll probably come back to these models sooner or later, but for now, there's just SO much else to paint!!!

The next article will be on my first Ultramarine vehicle, and the model which almost stopped me painting before I'd even really got started...my first Drop Pod!!!

So It Begins...

Well, i finally did it. I started a blog... 

Many people recently have said i should start a blog about my painting and gaming experiences. Not because either of them are particularly special, but more because lots of people enjoy hearing my stories about them. Why, i do not know, but yet here we are, with my first ever blog post.

A little about me before we begin.

My name is Jon. I am a complete and utter nerd (and will freely admit this to all and sundry), and have been into gaming in one form or another for as long as i can remember. It started with things like the original Nintendo swords and serpents that i could only play at my cousins house, then gradually and eventually moved into pretty much any gaming avenue you could imagine by the time i was in my teens. PC gaming, Console gaming, Tabletop gaming and role playing all became very common occurrences in my life.

PC gaming became a mainstay for me throughout my 20's, with very long stints on several of the most popular MMO's out, and shorter stints on pretty much every other MMO in existence with very few exceptions. I've played (and often completed) almost all the A and B list titles released on PC in the last two decades, with a few C grades thrown in for good measure as well. You'd think i wouldn't have had time for all of that, yet somehow i managed all of that AND also got a degree, held down a long term full time job and found a woman silly enough to agree to be my wife during that period as well.

"So what's your point" i hear you ask. Well, all that history with gaming has brought me to where i am now. I'm now in my 30's and i still find myself gaming. My wife doesn't understand it, but has readily accepted that gaming is an integral part of my life. Yet, after all this time, the virtual world has lost much of its sheen. I find it more and more difficult to immerse myself in games when i can easily see they have not been designed to challenge me, but are simply designed to waste my time. Because of this, my distaste for video games is growing. Don't get me wrong, video games will always have a place in my life, but we are growing apart to some degree. This has left a void in my life, and i have been searching for something to fill that void. Something that lets me develop skill in many areas. Something that lets me exercise my creativity. Something that forces me to exercise my mental acumen. Something that gives me a tangible, physical and real reward for my hard work. And, finally, i think i found it. "Where?! Where does such an amazing hobby exist?!" Well, my friends, i have found the amazing and intricate world of Tabletop Wargaming in the 21st century. Specifically, i found Warhammer 40,000.

I have long been interested in the world of Warhammer 40,000, or 40k in shorthand by those of us in the know, y'know. I remember being in my early teens and staring longingly at the miniatures in my local Games Workshop store. Eventually, i started playing Warhammer Fantasy with some friends in my early years at high school, but i can count on one hand the number of battles we played, and while fantasy was fun, there was always something about the glorious Space Marines that drew me to 40k.

Over the years, I'd toyed with the idea of just buying some miniatures and painting them for fun, but always talked myself out of it, saying that I'd just want to play the game too, and had no-one to play with (even though most of my friends are nerds too, no-one wanted to get into a NEW hobby). Last year, however, all of this changed. One of my good friends, Chris, got me into a Pathfinder group, for a bit of DnD fun. I'd never played DnD proper before, and it was perfect timing for me as I'd just decided to stop playing whatever MMO i was on at the time, and was hunting for my next game. Pathfinder became it, and through my Pathfinder game, I've made some great new friends, who are also like-minded nerds. After a few sessions, i decided i needed a new miniature to represent my battle-cleric, and thus - remembering my youth playing warhammer - ended up back at my local Games Workshop store. I bought a box set of High Elf Spearmen, with the intention to paint one up as my battle cleric, and i also bought a few other basics to get me started. I think i walked out with the minis, about 8 paints, and 2 brushes.

I had SO much fun modelling, converting and generally messing about with those miniatures, within the week, I'd gone back to Games Workshop twice more for more paints and a couple more brushes. I painted up my miniatures into a reasonable unit of spearmen, using lots of guides online and with FAR more patience and care than I'd used as a young teen. I converted several of the minis into various poses and was generally having an absolute blast with the whole modelling, converting and painting thing. Then i took my new model to my pathfinder game, and my gaming group were all extremely complimentary. Far too complimentary in my opinion, but they were all raving over my model. Several of them asked me to take their models home and paint or repaint them, so i did. I painted up a bunch of my DM's bad guys as well, which gave me some much needed practice.

By the time all this was done, i had completely convinced myself that i was going to buy some of my much beloved Space Marines. I had never forgotten my love affair with the glorious Legiones Astartes, and in the preceding decade had played every single 40k video game released, along with having begun reading the now extremely popular Horus Heresy series.

So i asked my pathfinder group if anyone would be interested in starting and playing 40k, fully expecting all of them to say no....yet i was pleasantly surprised when both my good friend Chris, and our DM Earl both said yes. Since that time, one of our other players, Brad, has listened to me carrying on about the joy and glory of 40k for long enough that he too has started playing.

So, i finally had people to play 40k against! Holy Crap! This was a situation i was not expecting, yet could not have hoped for in a million years. We're all busy professionals, many of them with kids,  and yet here were three other grown men, all wanting to spend time playing with toys together (Lets face it boys, this is just the man's version of barbie dress ups, but who cares, it's awesome!).

At this point, i started buying models left, right and centre. I got some amazing deals from some great shops, and bulked out my collection pretty swiftly. But i had yet to decide on a colour scheme, and a codex. I was sure i wanted to play marines. I'd read a fair few of the Horus Heresy books at this time, and already knew a significant amount about the lore and history of many of the Legiones Astartes. While trying to decide what codex I'd use, and what colour scheme i wanted, one thing kept coming back to mind...the Agemo symbol of the Ultramarines chapter.

I read more and more into the history of the Ultramarines. They really are the classic and quintessential marines. Over half of the current chapters in "existence" are Ultramarines successor chapters. I absolutely, and shamelessly, fell in love with their lore, their tactics and their story. The ultimate army, forged by the ultimate general. Dark Angel players will try to tell you that Lion El'Jonson was the ultimate general, and formidable he was, but not a patch on Roboute Guilliman. The primarch of the Ultramarines was playing the long game. He was responsible for the creation of the Codex Astartes, and it was he who was responsible for the armies of the Emperor after his internment in the Golden Throne. There was simply no question. My army, my colours and my codex were chosen for me in one glorious instant.

I was going to play Ultramarines.