Sounds like a good starting army.
… and I just ordered metal Mephiston, Lemartes, and Brother Corbulo, to make sure I get’em before they go Finecast.
and I just keep buying more. But I’ll never be able to spend as much as I used to spend on Magic the Gathering, unless I maintain three or four forces, so it’s okay.
Anybody have recommendations on army carrying cases?
Portable Warfare (disclaimer: owned by a friend of mine,) competitive pricing and flexible purchasing (the last time I checked which was a couple years ago, other companys were about the same price, but separately purchasing the foam was just as expensive as the case with foam!) Plus the outside carrying capacity is better than other cases I’ve seen.
Coincidentally, I’m just finishing up painting my friends Blood Angel army. I’m so tired of red. Just the “Storm Raven” he built from a valkyrie and landraider is left to do.
Those do look nice. I’ll keep’em in mind for once I get enough painted to play!
My army, now :
5 Tactical Marines (from a paint set I purchased ages ago)
10 Tactical Marines (including one Sergeant, from Assault on Black Reach)
1 Space Marine Captain (Assault on BR)
5 Terminators (Assault on BR)
1 Dreadnought (Assault on BR)
5 Assault Marines
5 Scouts
5 Death Company
5 Sanguinary Guard
2 Baal Predators
2 Razorbacks
1 Stormraven Gunship
And in metal :
Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host
Astorath the Grim
Terminator Captain
Librarian in Terminator Armor
Chaplain (with Jump Pack)
Brother Corbulo
Mephiston
Lemartes, Guardian of the Lost
Techmarine (w/ Servitors)
Planned purchases : Two Furioso Dreadnaughts, a Drop Pod, a Blood Angels Battleforce box (More assault marines, more death company, a Rhino..), Commander Dante (if I can find him in metal), misc. marines from a fellow Doper.
Yessss. Found Dante in Metal!
Alright, there were some calls for me to upload pictures of my painting efforts - or maybe I imagined them. In any case, I’m mostly done with the five marines from the paint set. I may still apply a dark wash of some kind, and they definitely need to be sealed and to have chapter/squad markings put on them…
But the rest is good. Took these with my new phone’s camera - some using the built-in flash, some with independent lighting.
Good first attempt. You might want to read up some on highlighting and shading.
Not bad at all ! My first minis certainly were worse than this :o
If you want to add a little more flash to them (without delving into l33t pr0 techniques and shit), you might look into ways to use all that prime flat real estate - the huge-ass pauldrons of course, but also the knee pads and boots. These large, flat surfaces are all usually within easy access (because they’re unlikely to get covered by other limbs & bits) so it’s easy to paint or add decals to them, stuff like unit type (IIRC tac marines are supposed to have an upwards arrow on the right pauldron, Devastators a chevron and assault marines a saltire), skulls & crossbones, checker boards, squad numbers etc…
These all help break the monochrome and reduce the “I dipped my Smurfs in a pot of paint and called it a day” effect. Even something as simple as painting the raised edges of the pauldrons a different colour (as seen here) looks snazzy IMO.
I’d recommend dry brushing, which is neither 1337 nor pro. 
Drybrushing and I have a complex relationship - either I don’t dry out the brush enough, and it becomes overbrushing, or I dry it out enough, and it doesn’t feel like I’m depositing any paint. The vent covers on their backpacks are drybrushed, and there’s some edging on the bolters.
And.. wow, what the hell is wrong with Photobucket? When logged out, I’m not seeing these things at a usable resolution. Are you folks even able to see these at a size to pick out the details? Because - these are not my first miniatures. I’ve been painting for YEARS. And I think they look pretty damn good.
It looks like I’m getting redirected to Photobucket’s mobile site. Annoying.
As I noted in my original post, I’m still planning to apply chapter symbols to their shoulder pads. Right now, the raised edges of the pauldrons only have a little orange shading at their apex for a lighting effect.
Yeah, I’m going to have to chalk this up to camera operation failure.
You can see the shading and drybrushing on some of the figures in some of the pictures, but a lot of them do look plain red.
You can see it on the knees, hands, and feet of #1 and #3 here :
#3’s helmet, shoulders, and backpack here :
And #1 shows off the shaded valleys on his armor pretty well here :
That’s funny, CandidGamera.
I’ve had a Blood Angels army for over 20 years, and even though blue is my favorite color, I picked Blood Angels primarily because I had plenty of Testors red flat enamel paint. Since then, I have learned to paint better (I use acrylics now instead of enamel), the Blood Angels have gotten their own rules (starting in Second Edition), and the game itself has been revamped three times.
I glue in the last bitz after I do almost all of my painting.
Not sure if this is helping me or hindering me, as all of the Citadel and GW guides show complete assembly before painting. There are some cases where this is virtually required - especially with metal models that might need to be pinned or have gaps filled with Green Stuff - but I just can’t get past trying to paint the chest eagle around a bolt gun that’s been glued in place.
I’ll have to come back later and take a look at your gallery…
The chest eagles were exactly the problem. Nice to see another player of Blood Angels around!
I am going to be constructing a lightbox for better miniature photography..
I wan to model a Space Mareine army. Right after I finish my Dark Eldeer set. And of course, Equestrian Guard is more proppa…
I was gonna ask where you got those plastic Second-Edition marines until I read this. I think I have one full squad left unpainted, but the bitz show up in other places in my army.
Your Blood Angels look very good, crisp and clean. The bases add a nice characteristic touch; I’m ashamed to say that I have used three or four different basing methods over the years, and the lack of unity detracts from my army when I put all the models out together. If I had the time and motivation, I’d go back and re-do the stand-outs… maybe I’ll get to it some day when my son gets a little older.
You mention putting unit insignia on later… might I also suggest painting the raised edges of the shoulder guards black for the squadboyz? That’s the “Chapter Approved” color for Blood Angel squadboyz (sergeants’ shoulder colors are reversed, with yellow chapter insignia), and it breaks up the model nicely…
… plus it gives you a chance to paint and highlight something that isn’t red. Death Company (black uniforms) and Librarians (blue uniforms) are good for that, too.
Thanks! I do see why other folks aren’t seeing the detail I put in, though - the lighting just was not good enough to show it - and I do favor a slightly subtler painting style than the usual Warhammer standard. I mean, I think the exaggerated colors look good, but they also seem less ‘real’ to me.
I’ve actually just finished some lightboxes to attempt some better photography.
You bring up a very good point, about the typical squad markings, and the reason I haven’t done anything with their shoulderpads is because I haven’t fully decided what I want to do yet. I know I am going to deviate from the blood angels’ standard a little bit, at least - I think the ‘helmet color’ thing for squad types is goofy, and I think, instead, I may color the ‘mohawk’ on the helmet instead of the whole thing. And I don’t know if I want to freehand the chapter insignia, use transfer sheets, or what as far as the shoulders go.
And thanks for the kind words on the bases. I’m pleased with how they turned out, though they didn’t come along quite as easily as I’d hoped. I had a vision in my head of a long-disused brick road with moss and grass overwhelming it, and the effect worked pretty well after I found the right color for the bricks.