APoD!

This week, I worked on Marneus Calgar to the exclusion of all my other models. He's still not even half done

APoD! May 20, 2010

So, I finally get around to making my update, not because I haven't had time, but because I'm a bum. Anyway, I managed to paint most of my assault squad, stopping only because I got sidetracked by Marneus Calgar. I'll be painting him to 'Eavy Metal standard (or the best I can) before moving onto the next unit. The Sternguard are finished. At this point, with six weeks left to go, I have thirty-five models to paint. A little daunting, but I know I'll get it done.

I love Monster Hunter

It's true. The title says it all. Capcom has made a game that gives me a unique sense of accomplishment like no other. I found an article on IGN today by Mike Thomsen that pretty much summed it up:

http://wii.ign.com/articles/108/1087446p1.html

Pictures

As an addition to my post from yesterday, I also did some painting on my Adeptus Rahn model from Warmachine. I'm going to try and upload the pictures from yesterday's post, along with a pic or two of Rahn. Behold:

APoD!

I figured that I need to do more regular updates on ApoD here it is:

Its the beginning of May, meaning Just under 8 weeks remain in our challenge. At this point, I have 45 models left to paint. That's a little daunting, but given my extra free time now that school is finished, I'm confident I'll make the cut.

I'm pretty much finished the Sternguard unit, not counting the bases, so I thought I'd upload some pictures of them.

First, a picture of the force in its entirety. Then, a pic of the squad, and the front of each individual model, along with any interesting features.

...ok, well, blogger has decided that it doesn't feel like uploading my pictures right now. I'll try again later, likely tomorrow.

Special Characters

More on my painting methods, now for special characters.

For armour, I paint as recommended in "How to Paint Space Marines":

Basecoat with a mix of Chaos Black and Regal Blue (or straight Necron Abyss Foundation), then layer on a mix of Regal Blue and Ultramarine Blue, then highlight with Ultramarine Blue.

For red cloth, I follow a method that was shown in White Dwarf 361, Feb. 2010:

1. Basecoat the cloak with Scab Red. Shade the area first with a 1:1 mix of Chaos Black and Scab Red, followed by a 3:1 mix of the same colours

2. Begin highlighting the areas with pure Red Gore, before blending up to a 1:1 mix of Red Gore and Blazing Orange

3. Continue to bend the highlights to a 3:1 mix of Blazing Orange and Red Gore. Apply a final highlight of pure Blazing Orange

4. Create a wash using a 1:1 mix of Devlan Mud and Regal Blue; apply this directly into the recesses. Overlay with a wash of pure Regal Blue to finish

For Purity seals and parchment, as in White Dwarf 360, Jan. 2010

Wax part:

1. 1:1 mix of Scab Red and Chaos Black was applied to the purity seals

2. Layer on Scab Red

3. Highlight with Blood Red

4. 2nd highlight with Blazing Orange

5. 3rd highlight : A 1:1 mix of Bazing Orange and Skull White

6. Dot highlight of pure skull white

Scroll Part:

1. Basecoat with Dheneb Stone

2. Two watered down washes, Baal Red, then Devlan Mud

3. Layer on Dheneb Stone.

4. highlight with a 1:1 mix of Dheneb Stone and Skull White

5. final highlight of Skull White, then letter with watered-down Chaos Black

For pretty much everything else, its the same, except with a few extra intermediary colours on some things.

Painting?!

Well, I'm done school. As in, completely done. Graduation is on June 17. That being the case, I'll now have significantly more time to do the hobby related things I want to do.

Apocalypse Paint or Die! Is passing us by, and most of us have slowed our progress down significantly. None of have quit, but we've slowed down. I, for one, plan on not failing, and will enforce the rules if someone doesn't finish, myself included.

To that end, I thought I should post my methods for painting each piece on my miniatures so that I would have central place to look, should I forget, or someone is curious. I paint things slightly differently depending on if its a normal trooper or a special character. I'll list "Normals" first, then any differences for "Special Characters".

Normal Troops

Armour

Base: Mordian Blue Foundation, washed with blue

2nd Layer: Ultramarines Blue

1st Highlight: 50/50 Ultramarines Blue/Space Wolves Gray, wash with asurmen blue wash

Points highlighted with white.

Anything Red:

Base: Mechrite Red Foundation

Layer on Blood Red

Highlight with Blazing orange, wash with Baal Red

re-highlight with blazing orange

Anything Metal:

Boltgun

Wash with black wash

(sometimes) re-boltgun on raised surfaces

highlight with Mithril Silver

Anything White:

Astronomicon Gray

Skull White

Anything Gold:

Dwarf Bronze

wash with brown

shining gold

(sometime the steps above may be reversed)

highlight with 50/50 mix shing gold/mithril silver

Parchment, Etc

Base with Dheneb Stone

Bleached Bone

50/50 Bleached Bone/Skull White

Skull White

I have some other things to get done right now, so I'll update later with my methods for painting special characters.

APoD! Week 5(?)

Well, my progress over the past couple weeks has been fairly limited, due in no small part to the release of Mass Effect 2. Between this game and school, my life has been effectively ruled over since Jan. 26. I will however, post below the progress that I had made up to this point. I'm quite happy with how the vehicle portion of my force has turned out, and look forward to painting the troops and completing this challenge.

Feast thine eyes:

My Progress, End Week 2

My progress this week has been terrible at best. I managed to get final highlights on all the vehicles(the second land raider,rhino, predator and dreadnought). I also managed to get some details picked out on the land raider, like skulls, etc. Apart from that, my progress has been limited. I'm unhappy with this, but hey, what can I do? That's right! Work harder! Now that I'm more or less adjusted to my school and work schedule(though I missed my first class this morning. I thought I had a 9am class; it was 8am.), I should be able to ramp up the progress. The goal is to finish the vehicles this week, at least. Heck, its practically just painting Boltgun and black anyway. I'll try to get a video and some pictures up sometime tonight. To keep up with Damien's format of listing progress, here's mine:

UNBUILT
Marneus Calgar

BUILT
Chaplain Ortan Cassius: 125
Honour Guard- Chapter Champion, 3 Honour Guard, 1 with Chapter Banner: 425

PRIMED
Tactical Squad 110 Man, Missile Launcher, Flamer, Sgt with power weapon: 185
Sternguard Veterans10 man, meltagun, 2 combi-meltas, sgt. with power fist: 290
Tactical Squad 210 man, missile launcher, meltagun, sgt. with power fist, Rhino: 235
Terminator Squad5 man, cyclone missile launcher, sgt, with power weapon: 230

PARTLY FINISHED (65%+)
Dreadnought MagusExtra Armour: 120
Land Raider: 250
Predator Twin Linked Lascannon, Lascannon Sponsons, Storm Bolter, Extra Armour: 190
Assault Squad2 Flamers, Sgt. with Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon, Melta Bombs: 245
Devastator Squad10 man, 4 missile launchers: 230

FINSHED
Venerable Dreadnought Chronos***REPLACED WITH SCOUT SQUAD***
Land Raider CrusaderMulti-Melta: 260

MODELS DONE: 6 of 73
POINTS DONE: 500-something

Damien_Frosst's Progress

Its the beginning of the third week of APoD, and all involved are making at least some progress. We've heard nothing out of Magus, but I have recently discovered his lack of progress equated to a lack of black paint, a main component of his colour scheme. I have since helped him remedy that situation. Currently, Damien_Frosst is leading the pack, with 23 of 73 models painted. Remember, that our stipulation are only that they are table-worthy, so three colours minmum, bases done, etc. Damien_Frosst is satisfied with how he's coming along, and I don't blame him. I, however know that I will go back over some of my models and add highlights and shading when I have more time. Below is Damien's progress, and written by himself:

It's the start of the third full week for APoD, so here's the stats:

Models done: 23 of 71+2Points done: 595 of 3000

Current Model: Honoured Brother Vigil (the Dread with twin-las and missiles)
I'm happy with how things have been progressing, even if they've slowed some since the first weeks. I've got classes now, so I expect them to go slower, but I'll try to keep up a good pace. I've attached pics of the current stuff, the full force, and a pic of the unit before I got painting.
And the full stats here:

UNBUILT

Master of the Forge - bike, conversion beamer, power weapon: unbuilt

BUILT

Land Speeder - typhoon missiles: built

Land Raider Redeemer - multi-melta: built

Ironclad Dreadnought - chain fist, heavy flamer, assault launchers: built

Dreadnought - twin-linked lascannon, missile launcher: built

5 Scout Marines - 5 sniper rifles, camo cloaks: built

5 Sternguard - 5 combi-melta: built

PRIMED

Captain - relic blade, digital weapons, hellfire bolts, bolter: primed

Techmarine - thunderhammer: primed1 servitors: primed

Squad 3 Rhino - storm bolter: primedVindicator - siege shield: primed

Predator - twin-linked lascannon turret, heavy bolter sponsons: primed

Sternguard Rhino - storm bolter: primed

GREEN/PART GREEN

Squad 3 - power fist+plasma pistol, flamer, missile launcher: 9 green, 1 primed

10 Devastator Marines - 4 missile launcher: 6 green, 4 primed

PART DONE

5 Assault Terminators - 3 Thunderhammer and Storm Shield: 4 of 5 done (160 points to make up)

DONE

Vindicator - siege shield: done (125 points to make up)

Land Speeder - typhoon missiles: done

Squad 1 - power fist, meltagun, lascannon: done

Squad 1 Rhino - storm bolter: doneSquad 2 - power fist, meltagun, plasma cannon: done

Squad 2 Rhino - storm bolter: done

MAKE UP

125+160=285 points -> Land Raider Crusader (Partially done) + Heavy Bolter Servitor (primed)

Lady Gaga - Badder Romance FULL LENGTH

APoD! Week 1 Update

Well, week one of Apocalypse Paint or Die has passed me by, but not without progress. I spent most of this week working extra hours, so I was cut down on my painting time, but that can't be helped.

I got my Land Raider Crusader painted to just past base colours, not including the hull itself. That is completed. I use a simple scheme for my vehicles: Mordian Blue, drybrush of Shadow Grey, another drybrush of 50/50 shadow grey Space Wolves grey mix, and then straight Space Wolves Grey.

I also had to take the time to "re-blue" some of the other vehicles, and they are old models that were poorly painted by myself when I was first joining the hobby.

The amount of time it has taken for me to do these simple tasks can be attributed mostly to work and the fact that I like to load my miniatures with loads of extra details. In the pictures that follow, you'll see what I mean.

For this next week (though I start back at school soon, so that might slow things down further), I plan on focusing on the other vehicles in the force: the other Land Raider, the Rhino and the Dreadnought. I had planned on having them all done this week, but what can you do?

Paint Goal Reached: Negative.

Action Plan: Keep pounding ahead!