Vaaish's 40k Stuff

[Vaaish]

Well a slight break for the dread, but I really had to get this guy done for the bolter and chainsword DIY swap since it had to be finished by the first of february. It's a little rushed, not my color scheme choice, and the lettering isn't the best (happens when you paint from 1pm to 2am and only get to the lettering at 1:30am) but he is done before the deadline



I now return to my regularly scheduled epic marine bikes and dreadnought arms.

[paulson games]

That's some pretty crisp freehand work and I love how the blue pops on the armor.

[Seb]

Nothing like a classic marine.

The metal work on the storm shield is very nice, any particular wash mixture there?

- Seb

[Vaaish]

Thanks! With any luck I'll have the dread ready to go this week too.

Seb: It's not so much of a wash. Black basecoat, tin bitz, wash with delvan mud, then blend in a 2:1 mix of tin bitz and boltgun, do final highlights with mithril silver.

[mangozac]

You've done a great job Vaaish but I do have one comment in that the colour looks a little "chalky"
Maybe it's just the lighting and contrast of the picture...

[Vaaish]

Not following you Zac, could you be more specific to where on the model? The aquilla is supposed to be that weird light blue color, but beyond that (and the gray) nothing used white as a highlight color. It might just be part of the color scheme that's causing the chalky feel, but a few specifics would help me troubleshoot.

[mangozac]

The lighter blue-grey parts of the armour, especially the shins, the paint looks a little chalky. But as I said, I suspect it may be a lighting issue rather than a painting one.

And is that a mould line I see down the outside of the right leg?

[Vaaish]

It's probably a little of both. I just used straight codex gray and mixed in white for highlights to match the scheme the guy had. I should have probably added a touch of blue or red to counterbalance the chalky effect of the white. That is a mold line you are seeing, but because of it's placement I'm calling it an armor line.

[Vaaish]

Following my practice of attempting to fill the entire solitary forum with only my work, and after probably 5 months of work on and off I present to you Venerable Brother Iret-ka, my chapter's first dreadnought. He was converted out of one of the AOBR dreads I have and eventually will have a second one converted as well as finishing up a seismic hammer arm to allow them to be used as Ironclad dreads as well. I hope you guys like him, I'd rate this as my most complex conversion project and probably one of my best paint jobs. The progress shots of the conversion are in my other thread.

[mangozac]

Wow so very beautiful! All of the colours really compliment each other very well - the green on the storm bolter is a nice touch.

What's the reasoning behind only one of the plasma cannon barrels being drilled out? I like the idea, but think it would be better to be made more deliberate by doing something different with the lower tip (not sure what though).

I'm not a big fan of how high up the head sits, but it's far too late for that now

[Vaaish]

Thanks!
Ironically, that's how the plasma cannon came from Forgeworld. I didn't actually drill out anything with it. I think I've seen people paint the lower one like a lens, but I didn't actually think too much about the reason why it was there. If I had to hazard a guess it was to balance the top hole and fill the empty space underneath it.

I guess we will just have to disagree about the head placement. I much prefer the higher placement since it makes a nicer triangle between the head and arms than if they were level.

[Vaaish]

Last week I pulled out all of my marines to take a shot including the dreadnought and was disgusted by the horrible quality on some part of the models. Thankfully I hadn't tried to do many techniques beyond what I was capable of so I don't have to repaint all of my infantry. What this did mean was that this last week was spent touching up all my older models. The first thing was to go back in with black and sharpen contrast, mainly on the wrists, bumplate, and feet. After doing that I went back and rehighlighted the helmets and weapons on all of my marines since the highlights never show up in any of my photos. The last bit was to hit a few areas of the helmets with black to clean up odd bits and touchup the white highlights on the feet, knees, and helmets where needed.

While I feel I could probably use a bit of touchup on the metals and definitely the eyes since some of the eyes hark back to the days when I didn't leave a black edge around the lenses, I didn't want to spend that much time right now and I'm still not happy with the effect I'm getting with the combination of blue I've been using for the eyes.

Anyway, now that I've written a book, here's the updated marines:




And the lone lascannon gunner that doesn't get used much these days:

[mangozac]

I don't know what it is but there's something so very characterful about your marines. Especially the guy with the lascannon - it's a shame he doesn't get used much. I had the same problem - one of my best painted units was a squad of sniper drones and their spotter but I hardly ever used them in game.

The green works really well with the earthy colours too.

[Vaaish]

Thanks. Yeah, the lascannon guy doesn't get used because I found that I roll pretty horribly when I have to roll a single dice. That means he misses most of the time so I decided to fix the issue and take heavy weapons like the lascannon and such on dreadnoughts so they can move, shoot, and be twinlinked. I also like to keep the tac squads cheap and not using him nets me a few extra points which helps elsewhere.

Back before the new codex I was planning on running a couple of 10 man squads with las/plas and a devastator squad with 2x heavy bolters and 2x missiles using traits to snag tank hunters for them so the HB could glance most transports. but then the new codex came and traits went away and I turned the devastators into a third tactical squad and two tacticals got missiles and one got a heavy bolter.

Now here I am, still 3 dreads, and a box load of vehicles shy of finishing the army. I keep promising myself I'll paint up the rhinos here but I've been saying they are next for so long that it's a running joke and I've nearly run out of 40k models to paint. (1 dread and 3 rhino/razorbacks)

[Vaaish]

It's been ages since I posted and update to this army, but I've finally finished up a project that's been languishing for years. I've kept saying I was going to paint up my rhinos but pretty much every other project got in the way. First it was 40k troops, then it was land speeders, then a dreadnought, three epic armies and a large commission, >5k Imperial Fleet for BFG... you know things happened. Anyway I decided that the running joke had gotten too old and set down to paint these up. I still have one more, but it'll be a good while before he comes into play anyway. I've learned several things through this project. To start, tanks and khaki are a pain without an airbrush; you shouldn't try out new weathering techniques on models that took three months to paint; and crazy hieroglyphs are possible.

I nearly ruined Rhino 1 attempting to do chipped paint. While the technique did alright, it just didn't look like the chipping I'd done with a sponge. For those interested the writing on the right side DOES in fact translate. Both rhinos are listed as being the Regiment of Re. It then gives the names for the rhinos. Rhino 1 (kerew) translates as "the chariot of the Justified, much beloved of Osiris who is upon his throne, the lord of eternity. The second rhino (akhet) translates "the charior of the Horizon, much beloved of Osiris who is upon his throne, the lord of eternity. In middle egyptian writing the words ma'a kherew literally mean the true of voice and was used as a euphemism for the deceased. Akhet, the word for horizon, can also translate as tomb. I realize it's a little arcane, but I thought it would be nice to add a tad of humor in the naming of a vehicle that tends to get labeled as a death trap.

So here you are, enjoy the somewhat messed up rhinos: