Crimson Fists: Sternguard - painted (as much as I care to)

Well sorry for the crappy pic but it's about all I can bother for these guys.  These are my Crimson Fist sternguard - having languished unpainted since Aug 3rd 2009 they definitely deserved some love considering how often they are used.  Unfortunately they didn't come out exactly the same as my previous CF marines and termies - I did make a mistake in the order I used blue wash and devlan mud - but even after extensive drybrushing of regal blue and trying again it was just a more purplish colour.  I did use a spray gun for the regal blue basecoat over a new kind of black primer so there are plenty of possible culprits.

I've had them about 95% done for a couple months now - it just annoyed me enough to want to take a break from them.  I got all the decals on and all the other touch ups I can be bothered with.  Pass on doing hazard stripes for the heavy flamers at this point - maybe I will feel the urge later.  I won't bother with the fineliner scribbles either until I am going to seal them since it will just rub off.  Oh well at least they are painted up if not perfect.  During the break I got a fair amount done on two rhino chassis and accessories, I hope to get them finished up soon too along with my two (WIP1 & WIP2) planned entries to Fallen Prince's Badab Special Character competition.  Actually I just realized I only have 10 days left, so I better hurry up on those!

Been a busy boy...

Here's what I've been up to over the past couple weeks.  Early in the year I called about booking the hobby room at our condo so I could get some stuff primed.  I like to have lots of stuff in this state as it means if painting motivation/inspiration comes to me, I can act on it more easily.

In this batch there's my Mordaci Blaylock conversion and an AoBR tactical squad for my Novamarines, Pedro Kantor, a sternguard squad, a devastator squad, a land raider and a rhino for my Crimson Fists, finally a jump pack chaplain and my deathwatch marine for my Raptors.  I also tried to undercoat a tactical squad of Raptors white, but the can was pretty empty and it eventually started getting gritty so I stopped.

What's the best thing I should do for the poorly undercoated white guys; should i just give them a brush to see if it removes the grit? strip them and start again? any other magic tips?

Badab Hammerheads done

Got some spare time to spend painting so I made the most of it and hustled through finishing the other four hammerheads. I'm going to wait until I have a decent amount of mini's before I start doing their mud bases. This also gives me a chance to think about any differences the bases might (should?) have. The brown does show off the mustard armour quite well, but doesn't really make me think 'tranquility'. Any of you folks out there have any ideas to spice up these guys' bases a bit?


It was a nice break to paint up these guys. Trying out new techniques is always interesting. I'd like to increase this squad to 10 men (still debating what if any special/combi-weapons to take) though I could always use my Deathwatch Heavy Bolter Space Shark (seen here) in a pinch. The hammerheads get a CCW, Scout & Move through Cover so any weapon upgrades should hopefully work well with that combination. The Power Fist will cover the odd vehicle, but for the most part these are troop munching machines, without anything beyond their base wargear. Thoughts?

ps. I'm at 70.4% of my PP goal of 250 points, meanwhile we're 62.5% through the year - leaving me around 8% ahead of schedule.

More Space Sharks... hammerheads & landspeeder

Put a decent amount of time into painting today and got quite a bit done. I've gotten all my hammerheads/sternguard ready for the final details. I've also completed a landspeeder I've been sitting on for too long.

First here are some pics comparing my standard SS scheme to the tranquility scheme.

Comparing the pic in the play aid to my completed hammerhead.

Standard scheme vs. Tranquility scheme



Space Sharks Landspeeder




ps. 100th post!

Badab/Hammerhead progress + mini tutorial

I've spent a few hours on my hammerheads this week, I added some "shark's teeth" hanging on the right shoulderpad - made out of combat daggers! I was pretty excited to try the painting the camo so I haven't had much trouble staying motivated to work on these guys.

Picked up some art masking fluid from a craft store (it's meant for watercolours, but works great - by winsor & newton) and have been giving it a go. I did one whole model through to see how it looked, so in the end I decided instead of batching the rest, to get one at each 'major' stage through the process, to give you a mini guide.

Some background. I wanted the grey for the camouflage stripes to match the grey of my other Space Sharks. So I decided I would do the armour the same, and use a mask to protect the camo pattern, painting the yellow overtop. I did this to hopefully keep them more closely visually linked with the 4th company sharks.

WARNING: This stuff will RUIN your brushes, not even good as a drybrush. I ended up switching to using a toothpick/paperclip to apply it, if you do use an old brush - wash it after each dip. Dip, paint, wash, dip. Trust me.

First, here's a group shot for me to list the major steps.
Left to right;

1. prime med sea grey, black wash, light grey drybrush, boltgun metal drybrush.
2. paint over tubing and apply camo pattern with art masking fluid.
3. iyanden darksun, gryphonne sepia wash, drybrush golden yellow.
4. use an eraser, toothpick, etc. to scratch off the art masking fluid. clean using a dry brush.
5. painting details, decals, etc.

Here's a close up of the guy with the art masking fluid applied. I got the kind with a bit of tint to see it more easily, so you can kind of make it out. Wherever there's a yellowish tinge.

Here's a close up of the guy with the art masking fluid scratched off. I have a couple little fixes to do, but nothing drastic. Note: by this time I was using a paper clip to apply the art masking fluid.
Here's the guy who I completed first to sort out colours, etc. from all four sides.

I really like the masking fluid. Another thought I had to use it with would be for difficult quartered/halved patterns (Novamarines anyone?). If you have any great ideas please let me know.

ps. the space sharks have just surpased the novamarines for chapter tagged the most.

Badab War: Space Sharks Hammerheads

I hope everyone by now has had a gander at BoLS new badab war play aid. I finally read the full fluff today and it's pretty well written. The modeling and gaming sections have sparked a ton of ideas, and here is the first I've started to put into effect.

I hadn't planned on including many veterans in my Space Sharks army, I was thinking more along the lines of a battle company (eventually!) and so hadn't even thought about termies/sternguard/vanguard much. The Badab play aid changed all that. When I was first thinking about making some hammerheads the obvious fluffy choice was truly chainswords, however being the clever chap that I am I thought of something even better. I had bought a bunch of dark angels backpacks with swords tied across the top, so I've given these to the hammerheads so I can just use them as normal sternguard in regular games. :)

I've used the same bits for body/head/etc, but have used the older 2nd ed. bolters (have a stock, need to add scopes) and a rogue trader era ammo clip on their backpacks. I also cut the sword out of one of the backpacks to make it more obvious they are really a weapon. I am planning to paint these guys (probably increase the squad to 10 eventually), plus a squad of termies and convert a Quintus model as well - all in the tranquility camo scheme from pg. 39 of the play aid. Going to give liquid mask a go.

group shot
sgt & vet
3 vets

Crimson Fist Sternguard WIP

Here are some pics of my WIP sternguard. They'll be painted as Crimson Fists. Pretty much entirely just plastic bits I had. These guys were great fun to make, I have a feeling I'll be putting together my Pedro Kantor soon.

Sergeant first, I decided to use a deathwatch shoulderpad just to avoid them all having the crux terminatus shoulderpad, also I figured if there's any item I might want two of in Kill Team it's a Power Fist.

These are the two special/heavy troopers I've built so far. One is a heavy flamer (needs tubing to go from fuel pack to weapon) and the other is a combi-melta (needs some filler, a parchment and a ammo clip for his empty hand)

Finally a couple bolter armed marines. Used storm bolter ammo as per many of the guides floating around. All the marines have the scroll cases somewhere, extra purity seals and a parchment somewhere.

and the obligatory group shot