[sovietspace]

sovietspace's Dark Angels Project

Hello there LO!

This thread started as a log of my entry for the 08/09 Tale of Painters Project. Since completing the project I've continued the thread on as my army heads towards 3000pts. I'll be keeping this front page updated with the progress of the army list - mostly for my own satisfaction! If I get time I'll link all the units to their relevant posting, it should help anybody browsing through

Dark Angels - 3000pts Apocalypse Army List

HQ
Belial
Interrogator Chaplain
Power Armour Chaplain

Elites
Forgeworld Ven. Dread

Troops
5 Deathwing (including Apothecary, Standard Bearer & Flamer)
5 Deathwing (including Cyclone ML)
5 Deathwing (including Assault Cannon)
Tactical Squad 1 w/ Rhino
Tactical Squad 2 w/ Rhino

Fast Attack
6 Ravenwing Bikers & 1 Attack Bike
1 Landspeeder

Heavy Support
Armoured Spearhead:
Land Raider Crusader
Land Raider (Normal)
Land Raider Ares

Total: 3000pts

Progress Key
Black = Yet to Buy
Red = Building Work in Progress/Boxed
Orange = Painting Work in Progress
Green = Finished

Thanks for reading guys!

++++ Original First Post Below++++
​

Hello all,

In the spirit of ToP I decided to make this WIP thread to track my progress, and as a sister to my small 40k blog: The Astronomican.

As the title suggests I'm planning on doing a Dark Angels army, as part of a larger 1500pts Army List I've been planning for a while. It's taken me about 3 months do do my first Deathwing squad (that I'm not entering to ToP), so hopefully this will give me a bit of motivation to get the rest of the army done quicker!

Here's what I'm planning on painting over the course of the project:

HQ
Belial with Lightning Claws - 130pts

Interrogator Chaplain with Terminator Armour - 145pts

Troops
5 Deathwing (including a Terminator Apothecary & Cyclone Missile Launcher) - 265pts

Tactical Squad (5 Man; Sergeant with Power Weapon) - 105pts

Fast Attack
6 Ravenwing Bikers & 1 Attack Bike - 290pts

1 Landspeeder - 65pts

Total: 1000pts

Progress Key
Black = Yet to Buy
Red = Building Work in Progress
Orange = Painting Work in Progress
Green = Finished


With only 19 models I'm hoping this shouldn't be too hard, even for me...

Anyway, this is a painting forum and where would we be without pictures?

First off here are a few pics of the Deathwing squad mentioned earlier. This is NOT being entered, but will give you an idea of what to expect.

So yeah, any comments on them greatly received - I'm working on how to do the banner and they will be getting a layer of highlights eventually, I just really wanted to start on my first months entry!

That entry will be the 10 man Tactical Marine Squad, coming in at 205pts. Here's my test model:

I'm pretty pleased at how this came out, and hopefully I should have my first entry ready by the 15th! Let me know what you all think and good luck to everybody else!

 

[Canew]

Pretty good on the test guy. Nice, clean paint job, not too thick. The highlights aren't too bad, but I suspect they look better in person.

My only suggestions are to put some script on those purity seals, and, for the love of the Emperor and all that is decent and holy, DRILL OUT THE ^[email protected]#&% BARREL!

 

[xbanditsx]

Your shading on the Deathwing looks fantastic! You have a very clean and neat style. My only suggestion would be to add some more highlights to the armour on the Deathwing because it looks a little flat. However, the highlighting on the Marine looks really good so it might just be the photos washing out what you've done.

Great work!

 

[sovietspace]

Thanks for your comments guys, they are really appreciated.

Canew: Yes, its a fair cop, drilling out the barrels is something fairly simple that would improve these models a lot- I imagine I'll be picking up a drill next time I'm out and about. Thanks for the criticism!

xbanditsx: The Deathwing haven't actually been properly highlighted yet - building up the bone armour took forever and I'm putting them aside for the time being to work on ToP entries. However, in any free time I get from that I'll be working on both the highlights and a banner, watch this space.

The Marine was actually my first real crack at highlights, so I'm very pleased with that feedback!

 

[sovietspace]

Well, I realised a while ago that I'm a bit of an idiot. Because the sign up thread for ToP was posted some time in September I got the idea in my head that the first deadline was on the 15th of October (as opposed to the 15th of Nov.).

This has meant that I had already finished my tactical squad entry by that date and was ready to submit them before I realised my mistake. Doh!

So, not wanting to wait a month to submit them I've just decided to not use them in ToP - I'll just probably paint up a second tac. squad for my last entry.

Anyway, treating this a bit like a more general WIP thread, as opposed to a ToP one, I have attached some photo's of the completed tac. squad. Apologies for the lighting on some of the photos, they didn't work as well as I would have liked.

As you can see I've used a number of bits from the DA Veterans box, including some of the Veteran torsos. I decided to paint these marines in brown robes instead of the traditional Deathwing Bone for a few reasons. Primarily I think that bone robes stick out far too much in a dark green squad, I wanted them to look like a coherent unit. It also means that if I do ever get a veteran squad they will look distinct, as they should. And of course, the brown was far easier to achieve! Any thoughts on if this look works?

Any comments and criticisms are very welcome, there are more photos on my blog.

 

[sovietspace]

In an effort to actually put some ToP stuff on this thread, here are two WIP shots of my Ravenwing. They are coming along nicely I think, I just HATE painting white. I'm going to have fun with my Terminator Apothecary when I get to him...

Any comments etc. would be great.

 

[Zema]

Well, from seeing these pictures i guess you have some kind of experience with proffesional photography, the models look solid too!

 

[sovietspace]

i guess you have some kind of experience with proffesional photography, the models look solid too!

Yikes, thanks a lot! But I feel that I must tell you that all the photos were taken on an average camera phone (5.0 megapixels, if your interested), and my only photography experience comes from reading these two tutorials that I found right here on LO:

http://www.librarium-online.com/for...07-minus_t-s-guide-miniature-photography.html
Photoshoping your mini pics! - Wyrd Miniatures

Shows what you can achieve with a bit of instruction.

Thanks for your comments!

 

[forumjayz]

Great stuff mate looks crisp and clean.

Keep up the great work

Repped and subsribed

Cheers Jayz

 

[sovietspace]

Right, as some of you may have noticed I managed to get my first ToP entry in. Here are a few extra shots of the Ravenwing...

I've got to be honest, I really didn't enjoy painting the 'wing much, and I'm not really sure why. They just dont seem as clean or nice as my Tac. Marines or Termis. I know I messed up the front light on a few of them & I struggled with the white feathers, but it just got to the point where I just wanted them 'done'.

It's quite amusing, because I know full well I would have been chuffed to churn these models out only a year ago, which is a nice indication of progress!

Any comments or criticisms from you out there are welcomed, and thanks for looking at my efforts!

I'll leave you with a shot of all my DA, they are finally starting to look like an army...

 

[sovietspace]

I'm back!

Just a small update today. I finished my Ravenwing Landspeeder so I thought I'd share.

I took a bit more time on this model than I did with the bikes and I'm much happier with it. Using Codex Grey as the main highlight worked better than Shadow Grey (used on the bikes). I think it gives a more 'metallic' feel.

Next I'm moving on to do some more Deathwing. I've got to get 3 done in time for the 15th to make my 200pts. 3 models in 17 days, I'm hoping even I can manage with that!

I'd love to know what any of you out there think. Cheers for looking!

 

[xbanditsx]

The black highlighting looks really clean and sharp and the details in the cockpit and on the scrolls are very well done. My only suggestion would be to give the metallic front armour / trim thing a wash with black to give it some depth. Can't wait to see the terminators!

 

[Pickle]

Great work but as xbanditsx pointed out the metal is a bland wash or even glaze it a touch to make it different.

 

[forumjayz]

just one thing rough up the metal it looksto shiney in comparison with the rest of the model. xbanditsx suggestion about washing it might solve the problem. rest of the mini lookexelent. Love the fact that you even took time to highlight the controllpanel buttons, that just gives it the flair it needs to stand out. and I really like the huge seal banner latern thingy on the right side of the vehicle looks very nice.

Great work mate and keep it up

Cheers CJ

P.s. some rep to keep you going

 

[sovietspace]

Cheers for the replies guys, great to get some positive feedback and even better to get some advice!

I picked up a wash today as I was out, so I'll let you know how that goes.

the huge seal banner latern thingy

I am in awe of your descriptive skills mate
Thanks for your comments!

 

[forumjayz]

hahahaha thanks mate guess your work is also awe inspiring, so much so that I seem to loose my ability too type in english


Cheers Jayz

 

[sovietspace]

This is not strictly relevant because its not a painting update, but I've just posted some Fluff for my DA army on LO, here. Please head over and let me know what you think!

Now I'll to get back into my cave and carry on painting Termi's...

 

[sovietspace]

Hey guys, the middle of the month has arrived so it must be update time!

Heres a few close ups of the Terminators that I submitted for ToP this month:

Although I was keen to get them finished (and thus rushed through them a little) I'm pleased with a number of things with these termis. I particularly like the lightning claw termi (including my first attempt at feathers), and I really like the pose of the guy packing the cyclone launcher.

I've still not started to highlight the bone armour so they aren't 100% done yet, though I'd call them table top worthy. I want to finish off the rest of the squad and then highlight them all at the same time. Once I dont need the Bleached Bone pot I'm currently using I'm going to mix some white straight in so I don't need to try and recreate that colour each time I need it. So anyway, please bear that fact in mind when looking at these guys.

I've also got a WIP shot of the Rhino I'm currently working on:

I really like how its shaping up. The forge world parts are a pleasure to paint!

Thanks for reading guys, I would love to know what you all think.

EDIT: Forgot to add that I followed the advice here and used a wash on the metalic areas of the Landspeeder. It worked a treat, many thanks to xbanditsx, Pickle & forumjayz!

 

[forumjayz]

Hey Soviet they are looking pretty good already I was missing the highlight but you all ready mentioned they still need to be done. I thing I would like to ask is are you going to highlight the red of the guns in anyway because it looks really flat in the pictures at the moment. but besides that great work yet again the highlights are crisp and the colour very tidy. can't wait to she the wash on the speeder so if you ahve time try to get a picture up from that asswell!

Cheers Jayz

 

[xbanditsx]

The lenses on the Rhino look great and those Forgeworld details look good also. Glad to hear the wash worked out for you.