MBA++Blood Angels 5th Company - into the Leviathan's maw

[Majkhel]

Hey Jukkiz, nice of you to stop by! Thanks and welcome to the thread :)

You had my heart skip a beat for a moment there :D Fortunately it's just a highlight this time. Mould lines would be deeper - around those little protrusions on the inner thighs' armour

[Majkhel]

Yes, managed to complete my Heavy Intercessor squad! :D

The newest 5:

Additional inividual shots apart form the 'Berserker' I've show earlier:

The 'pensive sharpshooter':

The 'trigger-happy' with ammo (almost) spent:

The 'rusher'

The 'full-auto':

And complete 3rd squad in all it's red glory:

Soooo, I really enjoyed this lot :D Straight from the box, the kit does not give that many options, but a few tweaks here and there give nice results. Inceptors' arms work well with this kit (used 2) creating options for more open poses.

I really enjoyed using classic bolt pistols on them and am really happy I still have some to use in future projects. I also like the yellow crystals (cut from the sprues) I introduced on their bases. I'm planning on spreading them a little more around other squads. Sam goes for red and green-grey tufts.

Also tested some colour variations on the Gravis helmets (black faceplate, black mohawk, black cowl).

This brings my 5th Company to 96 marines + HQ

Cheers! :)

[Blindhamster]

Very cool!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Intercessors.

[Rhavien]

Lovely

[Majkhel]

Thanks guys! I'm really, really happy you like them :D
Next up will be a Leviathan Siege Dreadnought 

[Spyros]

Epic job in making them unique!

[Majkhel]

Epic job in making them unique!

Thank you!

I'm currently having a real real blast painting the Leviathan.

I'm sooo spoiled for choices on what to do with it, it makes me literally trembling with excitement. That is after I spent almost a month cleaning up the parts, dry-assembling and tearing everything down several times trying to decide how I want to pose him

There will now follow some musings on the build process so feel free to skip them if you like and move straight to the pictures

I chose to go up from the base and the theme for that one is: "The Contemptuous Stomping of a Genestealer". It wasn't an easy feat - the legs have all parts moving so many things needed to be considered. At the same time, they are rather stubby so the pose needs to be a little exaggerated in order to be actually visible and convey the right feel of movement.

I built a little mound of milliput and arranged 3 claws and torso+feet of a Space Hulk Genestealer to represent the xenos being ground to a paste. The mound is needed to both cover the missing parts of the Genestealer and to allow for a more upright pose of the Levi. Otherwise it would lean too much to one side and look unbalanced.

After the base was built (with the feet already attached) I built the legs proper with the pelvis section and then the torso without the hood, head and one of the side armour panels. Reason behind it was that I realised I had to do all the metallics and plates before final assembly as I it would be a real pain to paint everything properly with the model fully assembled. Also the head had to be painted before placing it under the hood and for this I needed to have the whole pose sorted out to face the head in a right direction...

So After the legs were assembled I pre-assembled the torso and arms (magnetized above elbows) to get the pose I envisioned, then painted and shaded all the metal parts, then base-coated most of the armour plates dark brown. Finally I painted the head with eyelenses and only after that, I could assemble the the whole body properly with pins in the waist and arms sockets.

Then came magnets for exchangeable nipple-weapons and top-mounted grenade launcher (that's Smokescreen for 40k, right?)

After that there were loooooooong deliberations on what to add on him to make him look a storied BA relic but not a Christmas-tree. I also feel that those massive sweeping plates of armour are a defining characteristic for the Leviathans awesomeness and so I wanted to show them off in our glorious red as much as possible .

I settled for what you can see below. I may still add some discreet blood-drops here and there if i feel something would pop nicely during later stages of painting, but for the bigger bits I think it's good as it is. I opted for keeping bling outside the main torso part with exception of a big BA symbol. It serves both to visually accentuate the main plates as well as being 'practical' - it's rather obvious the main torso gets the most of the enemy's attention during engagements and any adornments would get continuously destroyed. Which on second thought seems quite befitting the grim darkness of 40k....

Of note are 2 angel figures I got from the DA Ravenwing upgrade-pack. I really wanted to use them on the Levi and since I'm now reading through the Darkness in the Blood, one will be black and purple and one white and gold.

Still thinking how can I lessen the Sith-vibes on the black one... but perhaps that is simply unavoidable when black-robed figures with swords are considered

Big long ribbons also come from that upgrade-pack. The ornate loin-cloth is from Custodian Allarus Terminators kit. It's supposed to mark and honour the first occupant of this particular chassis - a Terran-born Legion veteran present and fallen during the Siege of Terra.

As you can see, I did most of the base work on the red armour plates with some highlights already placed on the torso section (with the amount of handling, I feared I would start rubbing off paint at one point so I did main highlights and applied a thin layer of varnish to preserve the work done so far). The shades are done with stippling which is my go-to technique for big plates.

Now I'm blocking other colours to see how they work together. I plan on having both Legion and Chapter markings. Hence the black "shoulder pads" one of which will bear the 'IX' numeral.

Yellow shield is a blocker for the 5th Company marking.

Cheers!

Edited October 17, 2021 by Majkhel

[Lord Raven 19]

You're on a roll! No idea how you're getting so much done!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Leviathan torso is beautifully painted.

[Xenith]

Gorgeous Levi, great work!

[Majkhel]

Thank you very much, guys! It's really a pleasure to share my own joy at working with this fella :D

Not much to show for now - after the armour plates which went really quick I continue working on edge highlights continues and I started the slow grind through the embellishments. Then the time will come for the weapon arms, then the free-hands and decals. Then the base and then weathering.  

 

@Lord Raven - ha, ha, I actually believe myself to be a slow painter: no airbrush, no contrasts (at least not for speed-painting), gradual building of layers... I do cut some corners during edge-highlighting bur focusing on those most exposed edges and for some works I use stippling with big brushes. But other than that it's actually pretty traditional painting.

I do work on motivating myslef recently though. For me it seem that working on fewer models but to a higher standard is the most rewarding and helps in keeping the hobby mojo up. I plan my work as much as possible and choose my models/units as I like them and build them in advance in a way that I like. Gotta do it like this as my Pile of Shame Potential is quite substantial :P

 

I also joined a local proffesional painter's patronite and as such have access to some nice tips, advice and a community of nice talented people that paint really various stuff. Sometimes you are just unable to paint by yourself but other people's works or discussions can spur you on.

[Majkhel]

Yes! He is DONE!
I'm soo excited I managed to complete him (and in record time for me!) that without further ado - the pictures:

What can I say? A really, really wonderful model to paint (that is, if you remember to clean the resin really, really well )

I have to admit I was initially kinda worried I didn't manage to get the BA-specific one but in retrospect I regret nothing. Not with the amount of fun I had embellishing it and later on painting and placing decals. So many interesting decisions to make in terms of colour palette ranging from details to be picked, through different esoteric weapons all the way to the bug on the base (have to say that Leviathan Hive-fleet is quite appropriate for BA in terms of colour-matching )

I really could use some of the more BA-specific FW decals here, but the fact that I lacked them pushed me to improvise more. For instance I really love that Gryphon-holding-chalice decal I dug out from a really old Bretonnian Knight of the Grail tranfer sheet (removed the lily that was part of it). It's so much more personal in terms of heraldry!

Edited October 11, 2021 by Majkhel

[Rhavien]

What a beast. Love it Majkhel.

[Hintzy]

Great work, I really love the pose.

[Xenith]

He looks amazing, you've really outdone yourself! 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Leviathan.

[Jolemai]

All of the above and more. Will need to really pull the stops out when I do mine next year to surpass that masterpiece :Tu:

[Majkhel]

Thanks guys! I really appreciate your praises and am really happy that you like my work. It's giving me so much motivation and pushes me to new boundaries you have no idea 

 

@Hintzy - I put quite an effort into the pose, especially at the very beginning when I only played with the legs. The limiting factor is actually that the feet are different. Fortunately you can choose which will be left and which right.

In the end, it seems it's quite a common pose in it's general design and there are many variants of it across the net. But I think it transmits the weight and power of the dread well. 

We'll see how the arms' setup holds out when I paint other weapon types - the shoulders are fixed as I thought that magnetizing them would be cool on pictures but a liability during actual games which I intend to have with him. The 'elbows' are also glued fixed.

[Majkhel]

Small but necessary update - painted some more weapon option for the Levi:

I still have one more unassembled grav-flux bombard, but for the moment I feel a bit exhausted by those weapons.

In my opinion, the melta lance came out nice - it's a nice compact design that readily takes almost any colour without looking strange. Storm canons I feel are kinda forced. I could have easily made them all just plain metal and call them done, but of course I couldn't I like the brown (recoil?) buffers. Not sure about the those little yellow tanks, but I'll leave them as they are.

Next up.... I don't really know. I pledged 2 more BGVets for 12 Months Hobby Challenge to flesh-out the already painted 3-man unit. It's a choice of reason as I got few games last month and hate playing with unpainted models. I still have Mephiston looking at me menacingly from the desk. There is also a primed and ready Indomitus Captain, which has increased value in that it's the last unpainted model from my original box.

We'll se how it goes

Edited January 1, 2022 by Majkhel

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Beautiful work on the Leviathan. The black and the white angels on his shoulders, are great touches.

[Majkhel]

Thanks Bjorn!

The angels obviously represent the twin aspects of the Blood Angels genetic and spiritual heritage - white golden nobility and dark raging destructive force. In this instance I set them facing outwards to show the total will of the dreadnought to direct them against the enemies of mankind rather than allowing them to combat one another.

 

From a more practical point, I'm learning to handle the dreadnought with care as those angels have a nasty habit of jabbing their pointy little swords into careless hands :P Need to be careful not to break them...

[Xenith]

Dat yellow melta 

[Majkhel]

Dat yellow melta 

Had to be :D

[BloodyB]

Loving the dread, the Angels perched on those shoulders are great, adding so much detail and really speaking to the conflict at the heart of the Blood Angels, especially one resting in the sinister sarcophagus of a Leviathan Siege Dreadnought.