Elysian 205th lands on Facebook

Well I've decided to take the plunge and make my small updates a bit easier to do by creating myself a facebook page. I'll us this for posting pics when playing games, updates during the painting process and anything else that takes my fancy hobby related. I'll use the blog as more of a showcase type tool. I'll look to possible create some nice features that I can add, such as youtube vids etc - but I'll see how we go to begin with.

Find us on Facebook

Also I was pointed in the direction of this awesomeness by Tim over at The Vanus Temple

Logan Wing Painting Update

So I have actually pulled my finger out and done some painting. On with the pics.

Mostly done, just need do decal on shoulder pad, crux terminatus and metals. I will varnish and do the metals after I've the dullcoate applied feel it needs a little more contrast.

Space Wolf Terminator Completed (almost)

I can hardly believe it, I've completed this space wolf terminator... almost. I have some minor additions to add to him, such as his base and some weathering powders around is feet - possibly higher up, depending how I'm feeling. I personally feel quite exhausted after painting him - though that could have been the recent spate of flu that has swept my family and the reason this guy wasn't done sooner.

Back to Basics has a reason

So I just wanted to share the next project I'm working on (fear not the 205th are not dropped and I'll make some updates on them in the next week or two).

Tim (Dezartfox over at The Vanus Temple) and myself had a real hoot getting into the best army nominations and gaming together. So we have started planning our next doubles force. On my behalf I'll be entering with Ultramarines.... I know I know... But I've always enjoyed the crisp cleanliness of them and I want to turn my hand and messing these guys up with some weathering etc etc.

The plan is to go for a desert theme again as it will help the blue "pop" against the base, I have a handful of conversions / mini dioramas planned for my side of the force.

The theme is going to be of two forces joined together to combat the xenos threat of nids. 

So onto test colours. I really want to achieve a muted blue, that still manages eye catching, so I've gone into the Vallejo model colour range and also some model air as I'll be aiming to get these guys painted with the airbrush as much as possible. Here are the colours I've selected so far to trial:

VMC Dark Blue, VMC Ultramarine Blue, VMC Royal Blue, VMC Andrea Blue, VMC Deep Sky Blue, VMA French Blue and VMALight Sea Blue.

(VMC = Vallejo Model Colour, VMA = Vallejo Model Air)

So my first port of call was to lay down some Primer. I use grey primer these days from the Vallejo Model Air range. Once the primer was dried I layed a solid base colour down using the airbrush and VMA French Blue. This is a really rich shade of blue, however it does have the "classic" cartoony look to it. Again once dried I then airbrushed a highlight using the VMA Light Sea Blue. This was the result.

For me this was just a tad to "baby blue"... however it may work, once weathered. Though I didn't bother finding out. I reapplied the base colour and this time added a highlight using a 50:50 mix of VMA French Blue and VMA Light Sea Blue. Much better! from here I went a hit an edge highlight on using pure VMA LIght Sea Blue... Big mistake, it ended up looking messy:

It's almost there, but the extra highlight was rather sloppily applied for an edge highlight and looked more of a bad line highlight. However, not one to consider myself a quiter I decided to see what it would look like with a little more colour added - This is messy, so please don't judge... I just wanted to test! 

The white is the worst messy bit, but I decided I wasn't going to continue adding another 10 layers to get it smooth whenI could see the colours were just looking too cartoon.

back to the drawing board and to trial some of the other shades I have!

Back to Basics Pt2

So after finally getting round to finishing this guy or sort of finishing him, I took a few quick snaps.

I didn't go too far with this guy getting into the weathering etc as I know I can achieve that look. I'm relatively happy with this guy, though I think I can definately improve my edge highlighting technique!

Anyway here's a couple of snaps.

Anyway, comments on points to improve would be greatly appreciated :)

Back to Basics

So after a really successful trip to the 40K Doubles held at Warhammer World, Dezartfox (Tim from no on!) and I have already decided on what we will be doing for our next attempt at the best army title.

What I felt after being in the nominations, was "was I really up to the level required... or do I have a shiny a Forgeworld Army". I think it was a blend of it being 1) Elysians 2) I painted them quite well... but not perfect and finally 3) I was with Tim, a previous best army winner with his Deathwing.

Obviously I have had the thought... Am I really good enough? I think personally the answer is no. Me and Tim have had a good chat about it and come up with a potential screamer of a problem. I currently paint at nearly arms length in an almost comical fashion, as when I hold it closer I struggle to see the model. The answer is possibly glasses. I'm going to try and arrange an eye test if I can this Saturday.

Aside from that, I've ever truly worked on ensuring I have a clean, smart and tidy paint job in my life. So after taking some inspiration from Ron (FTW) and Dave (N++ Wargaming) I decided to go "Back to Basics".

FTW Back to basics
N++ Wargaming Back to basics

So I present efforts so far... Smurf #1

This first image I have applied black undercoat, and base coat of 50:50 black and regal blue and then another layer of 50:50 regal blue and Ultramarines blue.

In this second image I've appled line highlights of ultramarines blue, followed by an edge highlight 0f 50:50 ultramarines blue and space wolf grey. I've also notice I've taken some paint of the toes... Next lesson is painting on a handle.

C&C welcome as this is going to all about improvement.

GW Doubles Nomination and my Army

Wahooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I recently went to the GW 40K doubles tournament held at Warhammer World. It's a great even, I absolutely love it and will be going back for more. Dezartfox over at the The Vanus Temple and myself took a combined force of Angels of Redemption and the plucky lads from the Elysian 205th Air Corps.

The force really worked well together as the Angels of Redemption were the real hitting power to the force and the guard ran distraction. It worked so well we managed to come 13th place from what I hear... not only that, but we got nominated for Best Army as well.

So here's some pics of our force in the freshly installed cabinets.

And here's a few links to the blogs of the guys I went with:

The Vanus Temple
Marts Warhammer 40K Blog
The Rune of Stone