Cyric's Dark Angels Army WIP

[MrDee]

that purple cloak is beautifully done mate really really like it, care to share how you did?

[flameseeker574]

exellent job on the cloak!

[Lil Tweaker]

Ga dang you knocked that out quick. Nice work. Remember, even its not whether you win or lose, it's all about beating Steve. Family rivalry is someting you should always try to keep up on.
On a side note, everything is ready on this end for 'A Tale of Two Titans.'
-J

[Walex]

If I were to pass comment on the master fellow then I'ld say that the cloak over the shoulder doesn't look as smooth as it could. I was going to comment on the face but since it's finished now I needn't.

[Tsele]

You have done some grat work in the Master... The cloak for sure it is a bold color to make and not an easy one for sure... The off-white, or beige, is smooth and I like it a lot... The face is a little dark but given the fact that it is mostly hidden by the cloak I can understand why... I would make some extreme highlights to the bottom part of the face though...

One thing I really was not so good with... the weapon is a little dark in the feeling and in the pictures... but maybe it is just the pictures?

Very nice work all together! You have achieved the level in painting for not only participating a painting competition but actually getting a little statue off it! :party:

[Cyric the Mad]

Post-Holiday updates.

My brother didn't bring anything to enter in the contest, and that day turned out to be the day I was spending with family anyway. Short story long, I didn't get to enter. As soon as I found out I wouldn't be able to enter, I didn't devote a lot of energy to finishing Cicero, so this is as far as I got:

I plan to finish him soon, but I decided to put some quality Baneblade time in during my too-brief vacation. With the amount of bits I had on hand, I was able to finish one of the sponsons. I ended up chopping the mount itself quite a bit to make it shorter than it is on the Land Raider. I'm pleased with the result.

This shot shows you with a bit more clarity how the sponson ended up coming together.

I also finished green-stuffing and assembling the Demolisher cannon. Honestly, of the weapon-swaps so far, I think this one is my favorite. It just has so much more attitude than the original Baneblade Demolisher.

And I also finished the sides, including placement of the two icons I injured myself so grievously to make (that cut has yet to finish healing). So the Baneblade as stands currently looks a little something like this:

Next steps for the body of the tank:

1. Finish left sponson (whenever bits arrive - BWBits has been exceptionally slow lately)
2. Finish dozer blade (again, waiting on bits)
3. Various cleanup and bits additions

So aside from a few minor additions and tweaks to the body, I think this part of the project may be complete. Now, about that turret...

So everything I've done to this tank so far has been fun and has turned out very well. In all honesty, this has all just been prep, filler, and time-waster until I got to the big project of the turret. I've been pretty tight-lipped about this turret so far, and this is for a variety of reasons - the most important of which was that I really didn't have a solid idea of what exactly I would do.

To me, the turret is going to make or break this model. The steps taken to make this a more Space Marine-looking tank will matter little if the turret doesn't change. The turret is the focal-point of a model that will be a focal point of my army. No pressure.

The incarnations of this idea have progressed in the following manner:

1. A platform that rotated with the turret on which there would be an Interrogator-Chaplain and an interrogation table for captured fallen.

I didn't like the idea of the platform rotating with the turret, so this idea turned into:

2. A platform that remained static on top of a rotating turret on which there would be an Interrogator-Chaplain and an interrogation table for captured fallen.

In the end, I scrapped these two ideas because a semi-public venue for showcasing Fallen seemed contrary to the secrecy of the chapter overall. I liked the idea of a platform though, so the idea became

3. A static platform on top of a rotating turret. The platform would hold an IC giving fiery oratory accompanied by two honor guard made from converted Emperor's Champions.

Getting closer, though the idea of some ranting IC seemed to be missing something, so it became:

4. A static platform on top of a rotating turret. The platform would hold an IC standing in front of a podium-mounted book giving fiery oratory accompanied by two honor guard made from converted Emperor's Champions.

Sounds like a plan. So I moved forward with this idea. Lil Tweaker was kind enough to donate an Asmodai model to the cause, and he and I talked about ways to convert Emperor's Champion models into more static poses. After talking about it, I decided that chopping though metal EC models sounded like a pain, so I opted to use plastic robed Dark Angels instead, turning the idea into:

5. A static platform on top of a rotating turret. The platform would hold Asmodai standing in front of a podium-mounted book giving fiery oratory accompanied by two honor guard made from converted Dark Angels Veterans.

Golden. Moving forward, I found a great bit to use as the floor of this platform, and started hatching plans for a DA chapter icon. Busily congratulating myself on being so brilliant, I never put much thought into the logistics of all this. So when it came time for me to actually put this plan into effect, I discovered that the platform wasn't nearly big enough to hold Asmodai, his podium, two honor guard, and the icon. Liking the idea of the honor guard better than the idea of Asmodai, I shifted to:

6. A static platform on top of a rotating turret. The platform would hold a Dark Angels chapter icon accompanied by two honor guard made from converted Dark Angels Veterans.

Awesome. So my plans for the turret went into motion. I chopped and gutted the original Baneblade turret so that the support for this platform could be secured to the inside of the tank and come up through the turret - allowing the turret to rotate while the platform stayed static. This involved a lot of plasticard and a lot of drilling and cutting and shaving and... well, it was a lot of work. And when all of that work was done, I dry-fitted the structural bits together, stood back and said, "Wow. That looks like crap."

Here's the problem. Tweaker actually warned me about this back when I was tossing around concepts for this thing. I had achieved what he called a "houseboat effect". A large turret static on top of a comparatively small rotating turret just didn't work at all. It looked inelegant and thrown together. Kind of like something an Ork would make if you told and Ork to make a Space Marine tank that looked like Space Marines were trying to make an Orky-looking tank.

So back to the drawing board I went. The idea of a platform is good, I think, but the fundamentals of how it is on the tank and what purpose it serves need to be re-thought. I think the notion of having any marines on the platform was misguided, and so far most of my ideas have suffered from being just too busy. Less is more, as they say. So my current idea is:

7.Imagine super-sized Razorback turret holding a Battle Cannon and an Auto Cannon. What I have in min is wide enough to cover the entire current turret mount, but not nearly as tall as the old turret.

This concept, I think, has merit. It has the advantages of keeping the theme to a more Astartes-looking weapon configuration, and still providing me with enough area to use the one piece of my platform that I haven't scrapped - the chapter icon. I had some time to put this thing together this weekend. I'm curious to see what you guys think of it. Behold:

Still cleaning up a few spots in this thing (the frikkin sword isn't lined up), but I absolutely love it. This thing will absolutely be part of my finished product regardless of what I do with the turret.

So there you have it. Some setbacks, but overall some good progress. I'm getting more and more excited to see this finished tank.

[minus_t]

Cicero is looking nice, did you do any more work on the back of his cloak? It seems to be looking nicer now, but maybe I'm imagining it.
Really looking forward to seeing him finished, and it's a bummer you weren't able to test yourself against them pesky Golden Daemon winners...

The Baneblade looks fab, though the wings on the icon seem a little odd to me, I think it's 'cos they're unfulred, but in motion, so they look kinda like the icon is about to fly straight upwards...

Possibly I'm just being pedantic, but I'd really like to see some 'furled' wings, hunched up over his shoulders.

-t.

[Tsele]

Cicero is going along fine... even now if you decide to play him it is at least at above tabletop quality...

The Baneblade is going wonderfully... I like the Vindi's cannon in the front... and all the trivia things, from Imperial City I assume, adorning it...

And as for the DA statue... the sword looks pretty aligned to me!

[xbanditsx]

Everything looks really good (not just the tank and commander, but everything in the thread), but I have one suggestion. The wings on the icon look a little low to me. Something like this:



The wings here are right between the shoulders and I think it looks grander, especially when they are opened like the ones you have. I might also be crazy.

[Cyric the Mad]

Hrmm... good advice so far on the icon. I shall have to rethink a couple of things. Rep all around.

In other news, I spoke with the FW guys this morning and sorted out some payment issues (my bank froze my card due to possible fraud when FW tried to charge it). The guy told me, "I hope you're not in any hurry for that Warhound - demand for those things is through the roof at the moment."

I didn't ask him to clarify because I didn't want to get depressed. Instead I focused on the fact that my Dark Angels Venerable Dreadnought and assorted other bits (brass etch and land raider doors) should ship today or tomorrow. That dreadnought is a thing of beauty. Here's a link, in case you haven't seen it. I ordered mine with the lightning claw and plasma cannon.