Canew's Avengers of Dyeshr (SM Chapter)

[Canew]

Hi all:

Well, now that I'm finished with the necrons, this post is the beginning of what I hope will be a nice collection when it's done... a HUGE three-part Imperium force, consisting of custom-chapter Space Marines, a Daemonhunters army, and a custom IG regiment. Right now, I have a stack of boxes of SM stuff, and I think I'm going to make my tale of painters entry an entirely SM army after all, instead of combining it with DH.

Anyway, the Avengers of Dyeshr are on a penitent crusade, having lost a significant number of their members when the former (now deceased) chapter master turned to the dark powers. Now, the avengers are on a mission to redeem themselves.

A few quick notes on the model:

-- I use a clearcoat, brush-on primer for almost all my models. It works well, and doesn't make me worry about how well my basecoat will go over black. Oh, and I hate spraypaint.

-- The base, which I built in another thread, is supposed to represent deck plating, since they're living on their ships.

-- The color scheme is kind or ripped off from the pre-heresy World Eaters. I wanted a color scheme with that same kind of dusty chalkiness of the Deathwing Terminators, but with a blue base instead of brown. The topcoat is Space Wolves Grey and highlighted with Skull White.

-- The eye lenses are an experiment. Since no one here has tried it, I'm taking a shot at making amber lenses. They're hard to see in the first set of pics below (crappy photos. A bad way to start out ), but I'll try to do them again later. They came out surprisingly well. EDIT: Slightly better pics, I think.

-- There are no squad or chapter markings as of yet. I have a chapter icon in mind, a round symbol that will probably go on a round background, but I'm not sure what colors would go well with this. White and blue seem a little too obvious. Any ideas out there?

Ok, enough yammering. On to the pics!

Front:




Back:




Left (best shot of the eye lenses, I think):




Right:



So far, I'm most pleased with the results. I know the grey is a little heavy. That batch of GW Space Wolf Grey was unusually thick. I'm hoping to pick up a bottle of Vallejo Wolf Grey (my first real test of their products) for a better time, maybe.

C&C now and throughout this oft-updated thread are most welcome!

[Tekore]

The blue and white there is a really nice color scheme, and your white is nicely done. Have you considered lining a little around the knee pads? I find it looks very nice on white models.

Tekore

[slorak]

Overall a very clean looking marine. I like the shade of blue.

The only things I would really look at are the silver/metal areas. I would definitely ink them to give more contrast (weapon included). If you are leaving it that light - I think it might compete with the white/grey area too much. You might want to consider something darker such as a bronze or even gold.

Darklining th top of the kneepads as suggested wouldn't be a bad thing.

Otherwise not bad at all. How long did it take you to do the white/grey areas?

Cheers,

-Mike

[Canew]

Overall a very clean looking marine. I like the shade of blue.

The only things I would really look at are the silver/metal areas. I would definitely ink them to give more contrast (weapon included). If you are leaving it that light - I think it might compete with the white/grey area too much. You might want to consider something darker such as a bronze or even gold.

Darklining th top of the kneepads as suggested wouldn't be a bad thing.

Otherwise not bad at all. How long did it take you to do the white/grey areas?

I did, in fact, ink the silver, but clearly not enough. The pictures don't show it off well, but as I was assembling it for the pic I noticed it wasn't shaded well. I was trying to not overdo it with the black ink, but I will go a little heavier next time. I'd like to keep it silver, as brass/bronze/gold might clash with the scheme, I think.

As to the lining, I agree the kneepads need... something. Maybe a dark line on top will do it. As I said, I basecoated Shadow Grey and was a little sloppy putting on the Space Wolves Grey, so I went back to "clean up" a lot of the lines you see there. As to how long the main armour coat took, I'm not sure. Maybe an hour. I'll try to clock it on the next model. It took a lot of touch-ups after the first coat dried, but I'm hoping the Vallejo will cover a little more smoothly.

Thanks for the comments! Watch this space for more by end of month! I've got another five more guys (four special weapons marines and a bolter) to do, plus a (hopefully) converted sergeant on a scenic base.

[chrispcarter]

Very nice, I think the colour scheme works well, I look forward to seeing how they look with the Chapter / Squad markings on.

As for your chapter symbol, that's a bit of a difficult one. Traditionally I would say some form of winged device but that has been done to death. How about a star or moon or a mountain or similar? You could use something that represents their home planet or system.

Or failing that you could try a... winged... scythe or something? I dunno really

[Canew]

Very nice, I think the colour scheme works well, I look forward to seeing how they look with the Chapter / Squad markings on.

As for your chapter symbol, that's a bit of a difficult one. Traditionally I would say some form of winged device but that has been done to death. How about a star or moon or a mountain or similar? You could use something that represents their home planet or system.

Or failing that you could try a... winged... scythe or something? I dunno really

Hmm... well, I already know what the symbol will be. I will post an image tonight. I plan to use custom waterslide transfers to put it on the pads, though. My question is, what colors should it be? It is a series of circles -- one large one with three inside, a variant on old samurai iconography. (EDIT: I basically edited the symbol on the cover of Hagakure. You can see it here (Clicky!)

So what color should that be, and should there be a background color as well? I'm leaning toward a white background, but a black symbol with a white background is too plain, and blue/white would be too much like my color scheme. What to do, what to do...

[chrispcarter]

Ahh, sorry I was a bit slow on the uptake there. My first thought is that a bright(ish) green or yellow/gold would look good, or even red, obviously with a bright colour for the design you would need a dark background, black maybe? or grey background with red design?

[zuke174]

Hmm... well, I already know what the symbol will be. I will post an image tonight. I plan to use custom waterslide transfers to put it on the pads, though. My question is, what colors should it be? It is a series of circles -- one large one with three inside, a variant on old samurai iconography. (EDIT: I basically edited the symbol on the cover of Hagakure. You can see it here (Clicky!)

So what color should that be, and should there be a background color as well? I'm leaning toward a white background, but a black symbol with a white background is too plain, and blue/white would be too much like my color scheme. What to do, what to do...

Hmm... Personally, I see a few things that you may want to avoid, and here's why:

I'd not do it in red, because it reminds me a lot of a "biohazard" symbol.

I'd not do it in green, because the three-circle thing in that position is similar to the symbol for Nurgle. If you turned it upside-down, though, you might get away with it.

That being said, I think if you want to do no background, I'd go with a bright yellow, white, or silver to "pop" against the dark blue of the shoulder pad. Even a bright, fiery orange could do, so long as it doesn't get too red like I mentioned above.

[slorak]

I agree with Zuke. You will want to keep the transfer light so that it doesn't compete with the darker blue it is going on. White of course would stand out the most.

One thing that could help with the chest eagle is to darkline around the edge of it to help set it apart from the lighter grey around it. Personally I still think that going darker than silver/metal would be a good solution to have it stand out better against all that light (grey around it). Another solution rather than going a different metallic would be to paint it a dark solid color - perhaps even the same color as the shoulder pads.

Darklining it will also work well enough. Perhaps the pictures are simply too fuzzy to show the inking on the metallics. I would still probably go a bit darker.

Keep it up. I look forward to more of the squad.

Cheers,

-Mike

[Canew]

Thanks again for the suggestions and encouragement, all!

@Zuke: Yeah, I will DEFINITELY not do it in green or red. Maybe a bright yellow, printed on a white circle. That may work.

@slorak: I'll try to line a little better, around the knees and eagle, and I'll use more ink on the silver next time.

Grrr... seems my "better" pics are still quite grainy. Anyone know what causes that? I'm using high resolution, macro mode, and a bright daylight bulb as a light source. What gives?