Silver Skulls: Gideon Battle Tanks

[Evil eyeball]

Random question, Hoe many of those skulls come in a package? I've been looking to acquire 1-2 Skulls similar to that for use as Chaplain heads. But if a pack is like 10 or something It makes little sense for me to buy so many concidering the DA don't have an overly Skully Theme.

[alejandrinus]

You'll notice the recessed metal skull in the shoulderpads on the SQ LDR. That skull is from the GW Silver Skulls shoulder pads. I hacked them off the metal shoulder pad then hacked up a plastic shoulder pad. The metal pads stick way out, so by removing the 3D skull and recessing it into a plastic pad, it's looks a lot better. HOWEVER it is a HUGE PITA! So I gave up and now am using the GW pads as is. I will have at least 30 tactical troops, and there was no way I was doing that hack job 30+ times. You can see the GW pads on the Devastators. I will keep this updated as I progress. Constructive Criticism welcome.

I suggest to do a pressmould with Milliput or GS that way you can put the Silver Skull symbol everywhere.

And IMHO to add more colour i think you coul do the helmets and Skull symbol in a lighter shade of metal i.e. Mithril Silver + Black Wash and the body as you are doing Boltgun Metal + Black wash. Something like this Silver skull scheme

Other thing is to paint the lenses in Scorpion green + Black or Green Wash or Spacewolf grey +Blue wash and if you feel confident do a glow effect wit a glaze around the lenses with the same colours. Maybe im worng but i think that the squad marking (arrows for tactical etc) are in a dark red linky

Hope this help and keep the good work comin ;)

Edited August 22, 2011 by alejandrinus

[SickSix]

Random question, Hoe many of those skulls come in a package? I've been looking to acquire 1-2 Skulls similar to that for use as Chaplain heads. But if a pack is like 10 or something It makes little sense for me to buy so many concidering the DA don't have an overly Skully Theme.

 

The Skull Tribe skulls come in a pack of 10. However, you may be more interested in this> Skull Tribe Master of the Rites. This is basically a chaplain conversion kit! The shoulder pads are awesome.

[SickSix]

I suggest to do a pressmould with Milliput or GS that way you can put the Silver Skull symbol everywhere.

 

Yes I have been planning on doing that for things like my dreads and tanks.

And IMHO to add more colour i think you coul do the helmets and Skull symbol in a lighter shade of metal i.e. Mithril Silver + Black Wash and the body as you are doing Boltgun Metal + Black wash. Something like this Silver skull scheme

Other thing is to paint the lenses in Scorpion green + Black or Green Wash or Spacewolf grey +Blue wash and if you feel confident do a glow effect wit a glaze around the lenses with the same colours. Maybe im worng but i think that the squad marking (arrows for tactical etc) are in a dark red linky

Hope this help and keep the good work comin ;)

 

Thanks! I have not tried freehand painting yet. Red decals would be much easier haha. Thanks for the tips on the eyes. Oh, and The helmets are actually a lighter shade it's just hard to tell with my sub-par photos.

 

What are you thoughts on shoulder pad trim?

[alejandrinus]

If you follow extricly the common imagenery of the Silver Skulls its seems that the pad trim is always in steel/darkmetal colour and what depicts the company seems to be the color of the squad marking in the right shoulderpad, White 1st company, Gold 2nd Company, Red 3rd company, Green 4th company, Black 5th Company... (ie Green Arrow Tactical squad of the fourth company, Green double crossed arrows Assault Squad of the fourth company, ...) but the green shoulder trim with black shoulder guards looks ok to me to represent the 4th company.

And to give contrast to the helmets, aquilas, chapter symbol or other more lighter shades of steel, maybe you coul test to higlight with mithrilsilver+white. to get a silver almost white colours. And another way to the variety of color maybe the classic red helmet,/red stripe in the sergeants of the squad.

Hope this Help.

Edited August 22, 2011 by alejandrinus

[Volfen]

Progress!!

 

Ok, Firstly: I am having trouble deciding on what company color(if any) to put on my Silver Skulls! So the first pick is a test of green, gold, and no shoulder trim.

Please let me know what you think!(even if that includes suggesting a different color than I have tried!)

I vote for the gold, but I may be prejudiced, since my chapter is the Golden Lions ;)

 

I've found that a good "trim" gold formula is snakebite leather, covered in the old flesh wash or brown ink, then edge-highlighted in burnished gold.

 

Your work is great, by the way. Love the subtle silver on the helms.

[SickSix]

alejandrinus: I like the 'canon' scheme of just black on silver but I think it would be too bland on the table. I actually thought about doing the trim in silver, but I am not sure. I have alredy done few in gold.

 

Volfen: I like the gold as well. I will take a picture of the ones i have done. And thanks for the compiments! As soon as I get this shoulderpad thing settled I can really move forward.

[SickSix]

Ok, so I figured it out. I really like the black on silver the best. So to break it up and not make it so dull, I simply decided to paint the shoulder pad trim Silver. I will use the squad markers/icons to designate the company color. I think I am going to go green. So here are two models to show off the FINALIZED paint scheme. I just did a very rough free-hand green tactical arrow on the sergeant to see how it will look. I like it. But I think I will make some custom green decals instead of free-handing 30 something arrows. (You can see my first attempt is pretty bad anyways)

[alejandrinus]

I like it SickSix, and i think when you paint your bases in a contrast colour maybe redish/dark brown (Mars desert) or Bestial brown >tausept ocre>bleached bone (normal desert) the overall paint scheme will pop up.

In other hand googling image of Silver skulls i found this linky its a conversion based in the LotD sergeant of the Chapter Master Argentiun, the conversion is made by GrimTeef and is really cool mini.

Hope this help and keep the good work coming.

Edited August 23, 2011 by alejandrinus

[SickSix]

I like it SickSix, and i think when you paint your bases in a contrast colour maybe redish/dark brown (Mars desert) or Bestial brown >tausept ocre>bleached bone (normal desert) the overall paint scheme will pop up.

In other hand googling image of Silver skulls i found this linky its a conversion based in the LotD sergeant of the Chapter Master Argentiun, the conversion is made by GrimTeef and is really cool mini.

Hope this help and keep the good work coming.

You are absolutely right about the basing. I will definitely do a highly contrasting color. And I have all of GrimTeef's images saved to my computer lol. I love his Argentius conversion. I like his Dread but I will go a different direction with mine. Speaking of keeping the work coming.....

Here is my Test Terminator. Right now he is missing all highlighting and some finishing details but what do you think about the overall scheme?

[Bat33.1]

I sprayed them from a 45 degree angle from the front but the back was way to dark so I hit them from the back at a 45 as well. I will probably try the overhead approach on the next batch of tacticals.

 

I have used this technique with Raven Guard to highlight the black using vallejo dark sea grey but I left the back of the mini unless the leg was visible from above where it got a light spray. The idea is that the light source is coming from the front and above so the back of the mini should be quite a bit darker. I use the same technique with vehicles to get some colour variation on the model.

[SickSix]

So I tried some minor highlighting on my Terminator. Not sure if you can tell in the pictures. I also got my 'test' squad to what I think is 'table top standard'. I will probably try to get the majority of my army to this standard before I really get into detail work.

[tyrannosaurus]

Hadn't heard of the Silver Skulls before so just researched them and they seem like a sick chapter. I like your scheme, nice and simple - are you using the same 'silver' for all the metal bits or just the head? I think the silveryness of the head could pop a bit more if there was more contrast with the other parts, maybe a black wash? I also think they will look sweet with the chapter symbol on the pad, looks like a toughy to do though. Lastly I read that they cover the heads of their victims in silver, you gonna include any of this somehow? Well done on these man you should have an army together in no time :P

[alejandrinus]

Im with tyrannosaurus maybe a light black wash in the joints of the armor and maybe a light wash o gryphone sepia wash in the gold areas will help to give more contrast to the minis, but they are looking good so far, waiting for you new update SickSix

[SickSix]

Well darn guys. Their armor has already been washed with badab black. I guess I will try and highlight the helmets with a brighter silver color somehow. I also think they stand out better in real light, than they do in the pictures. I'll think of something.

 

As for trophies, I will probably do some in silver and some painted as 'fresh' trophies. I need some more xenos head bits.

[SickSix]

So I FINALLY got my Cities of Death building in. Which of course I immediately started cutting up into pieces! I must give credit to Battle Brother GAR as his LR was my inspiration.

So here are the pictures after the new skull motif has been applied to my first LR:

Oh, and some Chaos Tank Sprue pieces have been used as well.

[alejandrinus]

Wow Sicksix, amazing LandRaider conversion, specially the door of the assault ram, the COD pieces its a good source of skulls.

Have you thought of using the arcane ruins set of WHFB linky, dont know how usually is in bitz stores but seems a nice source of big skulls.

Nice job men :P

Edited August 29, 2011 by alejandrinus

[alejandrinus]

-oops sorry double post please delette- Edited August 29, 2011 by alejandrinus

[SickSix]

Wow Sicksix, amazing LandRaider conversion, specially the door of the assault ram, the COD pieces its a good source of skulls.

Have you thought of using the arcane ruins set of WHFB linky, dont know how usually is in bitz stores but seems a nice source of big skulls.

Nice job men :)

 

Thanks. That is a great terrain piece, but I am trying to stop spending $$ on new models now. I need to cut myself off for a while. I really would like a source of a large skull, something that would take up most of a LR side door. Not sure What I am going to do about that. But for now I am going to work with what I have.

 

 

Question: Is there any presedence for Librarians/Chaplains to not be blue/black? The Chaplain's black armor will actually fit fairly well with my troops but that UM blue of the Librarians drives me crazy. I was thinking of reversing their paint scheme. So he would have silver armor with blue trimmings/shoulderpads. What do you think?

 

PS: I made a LOT of progress last night. I base coated about 20+ more marines and got primer on the rest(love the airbrush). So look for more updates(w/ pics) in the next few days!

[alejandrinus]

Question: Is there any presedence for Librarians/Chaplains to not be blue/black? The Chaplain's black armor will actually fit fairly well with my troops but that UM blue of the Librarians drives me crazy. I was thinking of reversing their paint scheme. So he would have silver armor with blue trimmings/shoulderpads. What do you think?

After a bit of googling i found this Ravenguard Libby , Salamanders Libby, White scar libby and Iron hands libby. Hope this help ;)

[SickSix]

Awesome. I will go with that. Silver with blue details.

[Brother Melice]

love the blueish wash on the vet's armor. hopefully you will incorporate that technique through out the whole army.

Cities of Death bits on the Raider is cool too.

 

Where are the turrets from on the Razor?

[SickSix]

love the blueish wash on the vet's armor. hopefully you will incorporate that technique through out the whole army.

Cities of Death bits on the Raider is cool too.

 

Where are the turrets from on the Razor?

 

The turrets are from www.bitspudlo.com, a polish resin caster of conversion parts.

 

Not sure I will use the blue wash again. If I do, I will water it down as I think it is way too heavy.

[SickSix]

Progress Update!!

I am still working on this army! I am just trying to apply the Assembly Line Method to about 30 marines at once so I don't really have any 'finished' figures yet. Also starting to work on some other parts of the Army.

[tyrannosaurus]

Looking sick Sicksix, looks really impressive seeing them all together like that, especially like how the parchment came out on the chappy.