Dark Angels 5th Company Plog

[imustbedreamin]

i now want to burn all of my minis and paints and take up golf.......stunning work!!!!!

 

if ever you want to take the effort to do a step by step I would be very interested to read it.

[elmo]

  feelings of inadequacy!

 

Stops painting, gets comfy chair and sits in corner nursing a bottle of 12 year old single malt watching the master at work!

[Brother dean]

  feelings of inadequacy!

 

Stops painting, gets comfy chair and sits in corner nursing a bottle of 12 year old single malt watching the master at work!

Cheers mate...  Have a seat next to March...

[jeremy1391]

DAAAAAMMMMMM

[shabbadoo]

When I do the next part of the squad, I'll do a tutorial if folks like?

I bet many people would appreciate that, including myself.  We do not see this style of shading/highlighting all that often, so presenting the method of achieving it would be of interest to many I think.  Built-up layers of dark washes/glazes, followed by final thin layers of painted highlights is how I usually see people do it.  I am curious to see your method, whether it is the same or different. 

[Major_Gilbear]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Spurred on, I have been busy with the bases yesterday, and I magnetised them today:

These are weighted with lead, magnetised, and will have velour bottoms when I'm done with them!

Colour-wise, I was thinking red tones and some warm grey/beiges, with a little dead grass. I also usually go for black base rims, which I know isn't what everyone likes, but I find that:

1) They "frame" the model.

2) They "separate" the model from the gaming surface, so that they look more like a snapshot in time and therefore clash less if they are not on a matching board.

Plus, they visually darken the model overall, which for DA is only a good thing IMO!

As soon as these are done, it's back to painting more of the squad.

@ Shabbadoo: I use a green base, two rough highlights, a wash, and then one or two highlights (including the final white).

In actual fact though, the green base is usually a couple of coats (it's vital to get a smooth base), and the wash may be repeated if I feel it needs it. Also, I skip the third highlight and go straight to white if the previous ones show through well enough, and the final white highlight may get more than one coat in some areas.

It's a bit of an organic process, but until the final highlight, you don't need to be *too* neat, and it's a method that lends itself well to painting in stages over the course of several evenings. You'll hopefully see better when I get a step-by-step up.

[Brother dean]

Red/Tan is a perfect base for all three wings...  It's what I do too.

[Major_Gilbear]

Well, I didn't realise it'd been sol long since I last posted any work here, ahem!

Anyway, I recently returned to finishing the squad and realised that (1) I'd not posted finished pics of the last lot, and (2) I totally forgot to do the step-by-step I promised...

The first is easily remedied:



The second less so, but it happens that I'd not done any final highlighting on the last squad member, so I took a picture of him next to the Sergeant to show the difference the white line highlighting makes:



I know it's a giant unflattering photo, but it shows my work "honestly" and the difference in from one stage to the next is very obvious too (and it is just one highlighting step between them!). I will use a little dark green and black ink mixed with some matte medium to carefully tone down some of the lower highlights and smooth out the blends a little, but this will be a very selective, light, not-all-over pass, and it helps to keep all the squad members looking uniform.

Anyway, before I leave this post there, one last thing to say is "Thank the Emperor I kept the colour mix in a journal"! It's why I do it really, to save me the trouble of remembering what on earth I did when I go back to old projects (of which I have way too many). Hopefully this time I will make more progress on the 5th Company and attendant 1st & 2nd support elements.

[Chaplain Raeven]

3 years for a squad? I envy your patience  and I applaud your paintingskills. I'm amazed that a white highlight works so well with green armour. 

[Major_Gilbear]

3 years for a squad? I envy your patience

I have painted a few other things in that time (a regiment of DE Corsairs, a couple of Malifaux crews, a unit of Antares Concord, er... yeah.) But I am a very slow painter (moving house and having a lot of building work didn't help either).

 

The "good" news is that I have a complete 5th Company (plus a few extras for Sergeants, heavy weapons, etc), 50 Vets, 50+ DW, 50+ RW, and a good handful of metal characters - so even though I forgot to do a step-by-step this time, there are still lots of opportunities for me to do this in the future! :D

[Chaplain Raeven]

 

3 years for a squad? I envy your patience

I have painted a few other things in that time (a regiment of DE Corsairs, a couple of Malifaux crews, a unit of Antares Concord, er... yeah.) But I am a very slow painter (moving house and having a lot of building work didn't help either).

 

The "good" news is that I have a complete 5th Company (plus a few extras for Sergeants, heavy weapons, etc), 50 Vets, 50+ DW, 50+ RW, and a good handful of metal characters - so even though I forgot to do a step-by-step this time, there are still lots of opportunities for me to do this in the future!

 

 

Did you just list painted stuff, or stuff that needs to be painted?

[Major_Gilbear]

No, no, it's all stuff to paint! And that's just the infantry...

[Bryan Blaire]

LOL, Major_Gilbear, your painting queue sounds like mine! Looking forward to more!

[Chaplain Raeven]

Wait, what? How is it possible that both of your have so many unpainted mini's? My queue is never larger than 10 models. 

 

Good luck with that backlog, I do not envy you 

[Major_Gilbear]

Thanks for the comments guys, appreciated. :)

 

@ GreyRavenC:

 

Well, actually that's just the top of Lead Mountain! It's reached the point where I assess my miniatures collection in terms of volume, weight, or factions... I have two companies of UM as well, Guard, DE, SoB - that's just 40k. :embarrassed:

 

It's why I started this plog really; to share my progress (hopefully giving back a little to the B&C forum folks who share their stuff) and to help motivate me. I have a lot of progress to make still though! :D

[Epher]

Great looking marines!  The shading looks great on its one, it has a very smooth transition from light to dark, and when you highlight with the white it really makes the details pop!  You must have a very steady hand to get all of those little line.  It is very impressive.  When I first saw the progress pic with the sergeant on the left, I thought it was C3PO from Star Wars.  It was the circles on the stomach!

 

Great work!  I am looking forward to seeing more.  Any chances of a vow for the ETL?  The deadline is Wednesday!

[Major_Gilbear]

Any chances of a vow for the ETL? The deadline is Wednesday!

Thank you for the kind words. Unfortunately, no chance at all I will make it in time for ETL - I only did the armour highlights on that last Marine yesterday, and due to building works I've done nothing so far today. :(

 

Realistically, these are going to take me a few weeks to finish (end July if I power on maybe?), but I will make an effort to put up some WIP udates as I go. :)

[Brother Captain Arkley]

Cant believe I havent commented here... Will be watching :)

[Major_Gilbear]

Well, I sat down to paint yesterday, and realised that I don't really do many "WIP" shots and thought I should probably remedy that!

Here's where the squad was before I started:

Slightly dark fuzzy pix, as these were done in the evening on my phone (always the case it seems!).

However, I did the plasma coils on the plasma cannon and titivated the chapter badges (those take forever - the gradient of P3 Greatcoat Grey to P3 Morrow White is very steep and therefore very laborious to paint).

They're not too far off being done now - finishing details and metals mostly, along with two more plasma coils and the red weapon casings to highlight. The bases are all finished too.

I've been giving some thought to the next Tac squad, also based off the DV models to some extent, and have decided to go for a ML and meltagun, plus a combi-weapon and chainsword on the Sergeant. The regular bolter troopers will be based off slightly modified DV versions (which I enjoy painting as they are simple), and the other three will be made from bits sourced from the colossal Pile O' Bits.

The trick to these looking good is in adding some "restrained bling" in the DV style, so to that end I'm thinking Heresy-era ML on a mostly Mk6 Marine, a modern meltagun on a marine with some converted Company Veteran parts, and a Sergeant with modified Black Templar and Sternguard parts.

In ferreting through the parts for this project I came to three conclusions:

1) The old 3E Tac squad is very dull and horribly cast. Few leg pose/style options, few Aquila chests, and mouldlines that haunt me in my sleep. I'm tempted to get a new Tac kit as these are so poor.

2) There are very few SM bare head options worth a damn. Again the new 6E and 7E kits have far better options than the older kits, but there's actually not a lot to choose from (including the five or six Sternguard heads). I've got a few spare FW heads that might make the cut for this project, but I may end up looking through some third-party sites too.

3) The Company Veterans kit has lots of parts that I will likely never use because they are either awful or are a totally unhelpful size. I would like to add some backpack icons to each Sergeant, and am looking for some DA icons the same approximate size and shape as the DV one... I found two plus one in the RW upgrade sprue. So, really, I'm going to be two short unless I convert some or have duplicates. Shame.

Anyway, the next update will likely be of the squad finished and photographed outside with better (sun)light.

[SickSix]

Your painting is masterful. Makes me ashamed to post pics of my minis.

 

Can't wait to see more, especially some robed Veterans and Interregator Chaplains.

[Master Ciaphas]

These are great! I love them! I am nearly at the limit of how many marines a single battle company can fit - and I am rather hooked on doing the next batch as 5th Company to supplement my beloved 3rd Company...

 

Can you shed some light on how you do the green? Is it simply a matter of undercoating white and washing with "Thraka Green"?

 

Best 

Master Ciaphas

[Raychu]

very nice mate!

 

keep up the good work

[Major_Gilbear]

Thanks guys!

 

@ SickSix:

 

Besides Asmodai, I have Seraphicus and the new one with the powerfist planned... Along with some suitable kitbashes for one in TDA and one with a jump pack. Maybe one on a bike as well!

 

 

@ Master Ciaphas:

 

I mostly use P3 paints and Vallejo inks. Roughly (i.e., from memory) the process is:

 

1) Two-three thinned coats of Gnarls Green over a grey-primed undercoat. Get this stage smooth and even.

 

2) Add some Iosan Green and Hearthfire Yellow to the Gnarls Green and apply a very broad highlight. Big bold highlights that are about 40% of the model! Just to upper areas of each panel.

 

3) Add some more Iosan Green and Cygnus Yellow to the step (2), and a tiny spot of white or ivory. Add some more highlights with this - still broad, but maybe like 20% of the model, and again just upper areas of each panel.

 

4) Mix some Vallejo Black Green ink with black ink (about 2:1) and some medium and wash the whole model. Keep it fairly runny, and don't let it pool. Repeat once or twice more as needed.

 

5) Line highlight with white, thinned about 1:1 with medium. Keep these thin, and do all around the edge of each panel - even the shaded areas.

 

6) As an optional step, at the end of doing all the models, you may want to mix some of the step (4) with more water and medium to use as a glaze to even up any patchy areas or tone down any highlights. This is a very selective step, any may nor be required much or at all.

 

This is a slow process because each step has quite a lot of acrylic mediums in it and takes the better part of a day to dry. On the other hand, steps (1)-(4) are very fast indeed, and so the process lends itself very well to short but regular even sessions in the week where you can do one step per session. Save step (5) for the weekend when you can give it more more time.

 

Citadel equivalents are approximately:

 

Gnarls Green = Caliban Green

Iosan Green = Warpstone Glow

Hearthfire Yellow = Flash Gitz Yellow with a touch of red to warm it up

Cygnus Yellow = Flash Gitz Yellow

Black Green Ink = Biel Tan Green

Black Ink = Nuln Oil

Mediums = Lahmian Medium (note that I also use some retarder and glaze medium in step (4) to help avoid tide marks)

 

This produces a very dark green model with subtle soft green-yellow tones, and sharp white highlights - much more like the artwork portrays them than the studio paintjobs do. :)

[Master Ciaphas]

Most excellent! Thank you very much, Major!

[Greenz]

Stellar models Major! Its great to see so many different takes on green. On one end you have guys like Lostrael who's greens have more of a yellow to them, which he pulls off very well. Then we have your take on green here which strikes me as a much more subtle, realistic shade of green. You follow my thread, so you know how I enjoy more realism.

Slow and steady man, they look terrific!