Merc's madness

[xmercx]

Well hello,

Long time lurker, first time poster and all that.

I've been out of modeling for a few years now but got the itch to start back into painting and playing. I figure I could use more feed back then my four year old can give me so I thought I would start a WiP thread here and contribute to a forum that has given me many ideas in the past.

Coming back into the game with the release of 6th ed. I am opting to stick with the one army that I actually found some success with on the gaming table and that's Blood Angels. I have decided that I want to do some kind of successor chapter as I have never been one to paint along codex lines. First few models I tried painting after dusting off all my old bits I tried playing with red to see if I could get something I liked (was trying to get something close to a black cherry) but just about everything I did ended up looking like they should be chasing skulls for Khorne. So I went back to the drawing board for ideas. Flipping through books I came across the pics for the Angels Encarmine Sanguinary Guard / Death Company. The last time I painted marines white was when I got my 2nd ed box set and painted the marines to look like storm troopers.

What I ended up with was (I'm a chemist not a photographer so just doing my best with the pics)

I like the way it turned out so I think I will run with it. So far I know I'm going to do death company in robes with black helms. Will be doing the white armor for the rest of the army, not sure if I am going to do white helms for them or do different colors to denote squad type. Will be working on some more death company to start with while I am waiting for some parts I ordered to get here for some Sanguinary Guard.

Some WiP of the rest of squad:

and a rough out for a chaplain:

hoping to have the rest of the first squad off the painting table and put together by the end of the week but they will end up staying WiP till I figure out what I'm doing for a chapter badge.

thanks for looking.

[dizzy-xc]

Chaplain is looking mean!

[Peredyne]

The chaplain is seriously cool, brother!

[xmercx]

Update time, painting has been going slower then I would like but I have made progress.

So far I have manage to get one marine of the 4 I'm working on pretty much done. Still need to finish his jump pack and normal backpack (trying out magnets to make some more options)

other three are moving a long and starting to get some of the details picked out.

I did manage to get some new toys this week too:

still waiting on the heads I ordered to show up so I can start on my sang guard. But I think the Chaplain is next up after this squad is finished.

[xmercx]

update!

first squad is now almost done. need some touch up work and to finish all the packs. Reworked the bases a bit from my first try.

and a full squad shot:

should be able to finish these guys up tomorrow and then get started on my chaplain.

[HumanSupreme]

and a rough out for a chaplain:

That dude is freaking bad ass, but what is that model? Is it from the Legion of the Damned squad box?

Edited July 24, 2012 by HumanSupreme

[xmercx]

That dude is freaking bad ass, but what is that model? Is it from the Legion of the Damned squad box?

 

 

its this guy, http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/...Id=prod1600020a

 

LoTD single sergeant. Kept the right arm (changed the weapon out to a home made Infernus Pistol). Left arm is the power maul one from the DA vet kit with the head cut off and replaced with a winged backpack topper.

[HumanSupreme]

Nice. I love the sergeant in the Legion squad, but I don't want to pay 41 bucks just for the one guy. ;)

 

Great mini.

[xmercx]

Nice. I love the sergeant in the Legion squad, but I don't want to pay 41 bucks just for the one guy. :P

 

Great mini.

 

 

I got him as a single mini in a blister for about $16 if I remember the price correctly. My local store had him plus some of the LoTD heavy weapons teams has finecast blisters.

[xmercx]

update time again. somewhat blurry WiP pics of the Chaplain, he is moving along now, have the color's roughed out and started on some of the details.

and the base

and my order of heads finally showed up, so I can start on my Sang Guard

touch smaller then I thought they would be but they should work

[EgoDraconumNigrorum]

Your painting is top notch mate, great colour scheme.

Cant wait to see the Chaplain fully complete, he is a mean looking dude!

 

- EgoDraconumNigrorum

[Biohazard]

That Chaplain is looking great, cant wait to see that finished.

[xmercx]

spent a few more hours on the chaplain last night, the wings aren't as shinny has they look in the pics (lighting playing tricks), last pic probably shows them the closest to what they really look like, but he is coming along nicely now.

[sword brethren]

looks gorgeous

 

only thing i would say is despite the whole thing looking great and the concept with the jump pack being good, is that the exhaust does look like fluff at the moment.

Edited July 29, 2012 by sword brethren

[xmercx]

looks gorgeous

 

only thing i would say is despite the whole thing looking great and the concept with the jump pack being good, is that the exhaust does look like fluff at the moment.

 

 

yeah its too think atm. I had more on the main thruster and when I when to thin it out the whole clump came off. Think I am going to have to work on a better way to glue it on so I can get the effect I want which is just some smoke contrails coming off of them, not for them to look like a chimney.

[xmercx]

So the Chaplain is to a point where I feel ok moving him off the painting table for now. Still deciding if I like the jump pack smoke or not and what to do with it.

I still need to finish up his and the rest of the squads normal back packs but I have also started on my next project. I was trying to figure out what to do next and I have decided that I want to get to the point where I have at least a small legal army to use. Since I am counting my first squad as Death Company it means I now have one troop and one HQ ready to go. It also means that I can use this guy as my second troop slot:

going to mag the arms so if I want to change out stuff later I can (like for that multi melta). I also have some tweaks planed for the model, mainly as I can't leave anything alone.

So I have these:

which are extra feet from a forge word dread that I got a few years ago (which is mounted up on the FW base which had the feet on it). I figured i could use those to add a little different look to the dread but not in the way you are probably thinking.

now with a little bit of knife work and probably a bit of green stuff and card I think i can turn the toes in to pretty good fingers. more pics when I have them

[Biohazard]

Lol Jazz hands! Nice idea with the feet/hands though. Will be interesting to see that develop. For the Chaplain I would say lose the smoke to be honest, its a nice idea in theory but imho I dont think its really working. He looks awesome though.

[xmercx]

Lol Jazz hands! Nice idea with the feet/hands though. Will be interesting to see that develop. For the Chaplain I would say lose the smoke to be honest, its a nice idea in theory but imho I dont think its really working. He looks awesome though.

yeah, still trying to work out what I want to do with it. I may end up doing the heat effect that I have seen on here but putting him aside for now to work on the dread.

speaking of which, in-between naps, family time and ranting on facebook, "Jazz Hands" got some more work done.

still needs a bit of green stuff work and some more clean up/filing but moving right along

[eetdestroyer]

speaking of which, in-between naps, family time and ranting on facebook, "Jazz Hands" got some more work done.

"The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!" :)

Good stuff man

\m/

[Kierdale]

I'm not sure about the smoke-effect on the jump pack, but otherwise I love that chaplain. Fantastic work!

[AlexCrute]

You require 2 x FW Mk IV DCCW claw sets or something similar. For jazz hands that can shred what's on the other side of the room.

[xmercx]

update time again.

been a busy few days with non painting stuff going on but I do have some new pics.

some of the PiP pics

and some "final" pics

and a blurry group shot:

still working on painting white without it looking chalky, some spots on the dread are a little worse then others but I think I'm learning. I have also learned just how bad some of the old metal casts were. I probably could have spend another 3 or 4 days trying to clean the dread up before paint and still not fixed everything that was wrong with it. I'm not sure if i want to even put the other metal one I have together at this point or if I just want to break down and go buy a plastic one.

as for the next project:

5 more death company, another chaplain and Astorath. Though I'm not sure on the Astorath. While I like the model I don't really care for marines without helms. I have been eyeing some different bits to make a count as, and I will probably end up going that route. Still a pile of stuff to work on after that too. Looking at 2 sang guard squads, 2 preads, 1 stormraven, 1 vindicator, 1 baal, the set of spacehulk termies plus another squad of plastic ones, and one more dread. And thats if I dont strip anything thing else or go shopping. Stay tuned.

Edited August 18, 2012 by xmercx

[xmercx]

update time again, second set of 5 is mostly finished, currently working on jump packs for them and then on to the second chaplain and astorath.

[jeremy1391]

what is your theme? I am picking up somewhat of an egyptian style with the anubis heads and the death masks.

[Lord Antares]

I really like the use of those Blood Angel heads, I might steal the idea :huh: