Black Dragons Chapter Army WIP: centurions and a contemptor

[gloc]

So after playing Space Marine on my PS3 I decided I needed to start my first army.

Well I did a lot of research onto which space marine chapter I wanted to do, I was pretty set on dark angels until I came across this: http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Dragons

for those who don't care to read the wiki article here's the important bit:

certain Astartes of the Chapter to develop blade-like outgrowths of bone on the head and forearms. Some Black Dragons afflicted in this way sharpened these bone growths and sheathed them in adamantium for use in close melee combat.

sold!

If the Night Lords are Batman, then the Black Dragons are Wolverine.

 

 

these are what I've done so far, the pictures are terrible, apparently the iPhone camera sucks for this. I sharpened them a bit in Photoshop, but they are still pretty bad, they look much better in person.

 

I plan on 3D printing shoulder pads and other dodads soon enough, so these are shoulder-less for now.

 

 

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/photo-3_zps34f7d6e8.jpg
WIP Dragon Claw (assault marines) with a little GS chest detail

 

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/photo-1_zpsbf311445.jpg
WIP Dragon Claw
this one is a newer member and does not have his modified dragonclaw armour yet and had to improvise. (though I'm starting to regret that weird shoulderpad, the bare arm looked too bare.)

Then I bought some terminators.

I did that semi-tru-scale thing to them, where you add a spacer in the waist and lower the arms.
some show horns/blades others do not.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/photo-21_zps53600ae4.jpg

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/photo-4_zpsb80c514f.jpg

All flamers will have dragon heads on them
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/photo-41_zps9169688a.jpg

The other terminators dont have arm blades, just this guy, and now his armour for that arm no longer fits, so instead of defacing the priceless heirloom armour, he just doesn't wear it.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/photo-22_zpsb0822a41.jpg

as a general theme I remove all bird wings and replace them with dragon wings.

also most units have wings on the sides of their knees.

 

I came up with a backstory for them but i should probably read that book they came out with and see if that's already established.

 

Now I wait for that dread to arrive from ebay.

[Ch@oZ]

This is a very cool idea. I'm looking forward to seeing you progress with it. Your modified termies (tru-scale implemented) also look good.

[Firepower]

This is one of those Chapters that depends wholly on conversion skills for their awesomeness, like Iron Hands.  Judging by these guys, it looks like you're up to the challenge.  Keep it up :)

[Mr.selfdestruct]

Nicely pulled off! 

[batu]

Fantastic chapter choice brother !!!! Stuff looks great so far.

[gloc]

Ok, remember when I mentioned I'm going to 3D print things for my army?

Well here are two of the models I'll be sending to Shapways (or another company if anyone has suggestions)

 

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/shoulderwip001_zpsa2ce1211.png

here's a generic Black Dragons Shoulder Pad

 

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/dragongunwip001_zps2db5e78f.png

This is for the Dreadnought.

It's a CCW with a heavy flamer.

The teeth are chain blades, and it has a double barrelled flamer with a forked "tongue"

its unfinished and will remain in this state until the dread i bought on ebay arrives (so I can make it match)

[Firepower]

Ok, now I'm officially excited :)

[deathspectersgt7]

Is shapeways going to do the flamer for you?

[gloc]

well unless there's a better 3D printing service, yes eventually I will send my 3D model to them for printing.

 

BTW i forgot to mention, this is my first army, I have no idea what im doing.

So please feel free to give suggestions on what to do/build.

 

I was going to do a blood angels count-as army (for all the melee focus) but now I'm thinking SM and use Vulkan Hestan for flamer boosting.

I have no idea what a good SM army would need.

[Teetengee]

This army is going to look great, and in many ways that is more important than any win percentage. Definitely excited to see how this turns out.

[Firepower]

Aside from telling you a good way to paint black, all I can offer is my bottomless bag of nitpicking for your future results :)

[gloc]

Yeah sure, tell me a good way to paint black. I'm terrified of painting them honestly.

You just reminded me of why I stopped years ago, I was going to finally paint my guys and the primer spray messed up and ruined everything. Heartbroken, I stopped altogether.

So yeah telling me a good way to paint these would be appreciated.

 

Edit: Also what skin tone should I go for?

 

Jet black like the salamanders (who they say they are from) - seems too weird

Pale greyish (to suit the mutation) - not a fan of this one personally

or regular skin colours - leaning this way

 

has anyone read the book Death on Antagonis? Perhaps there is something in there that sheds more light on their origins

[Brother Captain Lucian]

Yeah sure, tell me a good way to paint black. I'm terrified of painting them honestly.

You just reminded me of why I stopped years ago, I was going to finally paint my guys and the primer spray messed up and ruined everything. Heartbroken, I stopped altogether.

So yeah telling me a good way to paint these would be appreciated.

 

Edit: Also what skin tone should I go for?

 

Jet black like the salamanders (who they say they are from) - seems too weird

Pale greyish (to suit the mutation) - not a fan of this one personally

or regular skin colours - leaning this way

 

has anyone read the book Death on Antagonis? Perhaps there is something in there that sheds more light on their origins

Just bouncing in here -

Love your conversions so far, looks really promising.

 

Now having painted/painting a pre heresy Dark Angel army.. I know the pain of painting black - So here's my 5 cent.

 

Buy a black primer (duh), I use the GW one. Go outside when the humidity isn't to high, and its not way to windy. Shake it for a good few min (the primer..).

Spray it on in short bursts, to avoid ruining the details.

 

If you want, you can stop here. But if you want it to look better, well then grab a grey ( I use Vallejo German Grey), and start highlighting the edges of the armour.  It takes forever, but it looks much better than just plain black.

 

Or if your really talented..

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/231503-barbarossa-crusade-army-project/page-3 A really cool way of painting black.

 

Black skin would look pretty bland, id go for a contrasting pale skin, like elf pale.

 

Good luck!

[Disciples of Purity]

hi, i love the work so far!, but can u please tell me where u got the bone blades from as i am also making a black dragons army, thank you

[Firepower]

Yeah, madmatt's method of painting black is pretty much masterclass.  That's outside my wheelhouse.

 

Black, on account of being a primer color, can be easy to paint if you don't really set a bar beyond basic tabletop standard.  However, it's surprsingly time consuming to make black look real good (as opposed to awesomely good as madmatt's method provides).

 

What I do-

 

Prime black.

 

First highlight of 50:50 Chaos Black:Codex Gray.  This is a bit tricky, because it's dark enough that you will have a hard time seeing it on the model.  Fortunately, you can afford to be a touch sloppy here, but bear in mind that you will be coming back to fix mistakes later (and they will still be hard to see), so don't just go wild.

 

Second fine highlight, pure Codex Gray.  This one you have to keep narrow along the edges.

 

Touch up.  Simply take pure black paint, and 'push' the thicker and messier first stage highlights towards the edges.  It's a very easy way to end up with a nice, sharp gradient highlight.  If you just go straight Codex Gray without a halfway-highlight, it can look too stark and sort of bizarre.  

 

That's the method I use.  You can see results in my Templar blog linked in my sig.  Several other BT players around here use the same method.

 

One important note- Chaos Black paint and Chaos Black Spray Primer are actually not exactly the same tone and finish.  You can't tell on small models, but on a large flat surface (vehicles) you will be able to see any splotches where you painted black by hand.  This means the touch up phase sort of flounders on vehicles, so you have to be a lot more precise (or use a different method entirely).  Even more irritating, it also means that any spots you miss with the primer and subsequently fill in with paint will still stand out against the original coat :P

[gloc]

Thanks for the painting tips

 

Also to those that are wondering the bone blades are whittled out of the sprue leftovers, I'm not going to recommend that method as I have also whittled my thumb.

 

update time!

I abandoned the project when I was trying to go for a new job, now that I have it I have resumed.

 

My photography however hasn't improved.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/dragonclaws2_zps9d7b59cb.jpg

Trying to mimic the art for the dragon claws

 

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/dragonought2_zpsa9f0f541.jpg

The dread I ordered off the internet  was a knockoff (I assumed that because it was so cheap) but it didn't come with some parts notably the head, so thats there for now, not sure If ill leave it with that, I black and whited it to give a clearer view as it had a lot of greenstuff.

 

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/shoulders-2_zps28c852b2.png

 

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/dragon-gun-2_zps4a6b47f1.png

 

I finally finished and sent these and some other bits to shapeways, so we'll see how horrible they turn out.

[Marshal Rohr]

Zenithal Highlighting Black isn't crazy difficult if you have the right equipment and a good understanding of source lighting. Dante77 and Madmatt both have accounts on CMON if you wanna give them a shout.

[gloc]

Shapeways came in!

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/shapeways_zpsa0c745e3.jpg

I ordered Ultra detail if anyone was wondering.

I think ill have to do a lot of sanding though, there is a "grain" to the plastic (is it plastic?) and some of my measurements weren't perfect

Some of the icons and detail seems like it turned out too shallow, but that may just be the material being hard to see.

But it wasn't too bad, about what you would expect.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

You should probably hit the pieces with a coat of primer to better assess things. Looks cool though!

[Firepower]

With any material aside from the gray plastics, I always have hell making things out prior to a priming.  Pewter really messes with me.  That stuff...yeah, I wouldn't know for sure til it was primed, no doubt.

 

Still kinda feels like cheating hobby wise, but then if you had to go through the trouble of making those 3D models, I suppose that's a good enough prerequisite to avoid going through the trouble of sculpting...says the kitbasher ;)

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

If could 3D model and get it printed without that grainy texture, I'd be all over it.

[araekyus]

Shapeways came in!

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/shapeways_zpsa0c745e3.jpg

I ordered Ultra detail if anyone was wondering.

I think ill have to do a lot of sanding though, there is a "grain" to the plastic (is it plastic?) and some of my measurements weren't perfect

Some of the icons and detail seems like it turned out too shallow, but that may just be the material being hard to see.

But it wasn't too bad, about what you would expect.

 

 

I have ordered and worked with Shapeways prints using the FUD for my chapter emblems. Some advice for prepping:

 

Grab some toothpaste and an old brush and clean, clean, clean. The waxy residue left over from the process will eat right through, over time, any paint you put on it, clear coat included. I learned the hard way about this. If you still can scrape off junk with an edge of a scalpel or your finger nail, go back and clean again. All the painted marines you see with my chapter symbol in my gallery got ruined because i did not clean enough. (all stripped, lesson learned, will revisit at some point)

 

Don't ever print in anything else but FUD. The rest of the material available is not (imo) suitable for what we do. I tried to save some dough and get a set of pads done in WSF and it was a total disaster. FUD does have its issues, but nothing a little sanding and polishing wont fix.

 

If you ever have to strip your models, don't leave the parts in whatever solution you use. The material absorbs faster than resin will with any chemical other than water, and you will be left with a rubbery mess. Think of over cooked pasta. Again, something I learned the hard way :/

 

Personally, I believe 3d printing should be used for a master maker for resin casting. Had I 3d skills, I would have created my own, printed each as  master and made bottle cap press molds.

 

Your pads do look great! And the dread arm is very cool! You should try taking some shots next to a standard plastic pad for scale for us to view.

 

Hope the advice helps!

[Ulther Drakk]

Love your work. I'm just starting to rebuild my Black Dragons for the 3rd time.

So was wondering how they came out after priming? You still working on this? How are they coming along? 

 

Was thinking of trying to get set of Black Dragon Terminator Shoulder pads that I converted one of from oop bits made into a set for all my terminator Chapter Pads. Now just need to figure out how to make a  3-d pic of it lol. Might have to do a dragon flamer like in the art as well for my tacts. 

[gloc]

yeah, sorry about dropping off the map, fell into depression and stopped working on this altogether.

 

I made the flamer from the artwork as well: http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/flamer_zps8d013cc5.jpg

 

I have finished sculpting my terminators too, making push-moulds like what was recommended to me worked out fantastically:

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/termy1_zps59578218.jpghttp://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/termy2_zpse279f693.jpg

 

Also the dread finally has a head (and a tail)

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/dred1_zps5ac2a831.jpghttp://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/omega_mog/dred2_zpse6f6f865.jpg

 

Everything seems ready to be painted, but I don't know when I will be ready to proceed.

[RolandTHTG]

It all looks great, but the flamer Is Awesome! The mouth, and the wing and the tail wrapping around the canister