Blood Angels Venerable Dreadnought

My local nerd store asked me to paint up their plastic Venerable Dreadnought preview and I jumped at the opportunity. With the new Blood Angels codex and models on the horizon I decided it would be an opportunity to play with more red paint.

I still have some work to do - and I desperately need better photos so you can see the chipping - but I have to say that I really, really like the model itself.

It is, of course, standing on a base from Secret Weapon Miniatures because a little plug for my baby company never hurts!

Vostroyan Army: ROUGH RIDERS!

The incredible conversion work was done by John at Santa Cruz Warhammer -- and they have been a real pleasure to paint so far!

Yup, my army is getting Rough Riders. Ten of them at the moment. These five are unbased as I'm working on a set of new bike bases for Secret Weapon Miniatures. The urban series should work quite nicely for these guys - although I may put them on "Runic Mountain" bike bases... we'll see.

The Sergeant will keep the red coat to match the command squad and the rest of the unit will have cream coats to match the infantry. The Sergeant is also on an WFB Empire Outrider horse which turns out to be slightly larger than the stock Rough Rider horse.

I love these models and really couldn't be happier with the conversion work that John did for me. He put in a lot of extra little touches - such as the lens on the Sgt. - that have really kicked these up from Rough Riders to VOSTROYAN ROUGH RIDERS WOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!

Vostroyan Army: First Infantry Squad

I'm nearly finished with the first infantry squad and decided it was time for an update. I've included a close-up shot of the five finished troops and a super zoom of the WIP Sergeant.

Things have been super crazy and I haven't gotten to do as much painting as I would like. I lost my job three weeks ago and have been looking for a new one - and trying to build Secret Weapon - ever since. I'll get some painting done though because I really want to see this squad finished.

I decided to use a red stripe on the left shoulder armor to identify this as the first infantry squad. I'll use similar marks on the other squads so I can tell them apart on the table.

The bases are from my "Urban Streets" line - although these are from the now defunct mold. I'll put the next squad on a set of the new version.

Vostroyan Army: First Finished Infantry

I still have 43 infantry models to complete for my 1k army... but it's nice to have one finished.

The rest of the infantry will look more-or-less like this fella. I'm fairly happy with the end result and like how the snow works with my "Urban Streets" bases.

Vostroyan Army: Infantry Squad 01

I've made a solid start on the first five of my infantry. I still have a long way to go, of course, but given that this is the first time I've seen the colours on anything other than a single test model I'm reasonably pleased.

The melta conversion was made by snipping the end off of a Vostroyan flamer. The flamers will be made using the grenade launcher models - but that will happen later.

There are forty infantry - not counting the Command Squad - which includes four flamers and four meltas. I'd like to have the whole thing completed by the end of March. Between the day job, casting and sculpting that might actually be pushing my timeline a bit tight... but that's the goal all the same.

Tra la la, double post....

Okay, I know, you're not here to hear about Secret Weapon Miniatures. I keep a separate blog for that. But I did think you might like to know that I've launched a 10% off sale through 4-Jan-2010.

That's worth a bit of double post action, right?

Go, spend money, help me quit my day job! I promise many neat new toys if that ever happens!

Okay, back I go to working on bases for the upcoming FTW post....

From the Warp: Basing and Weathering

In the off chance that someone reading this blog doesn't already know about "++ From the Warp ++ let this stand as a long overdue plug. "From the Warp" is one of two hobby sites that I visit daily. It includes original posts from a small collection of authors, an incredible blog roll (of which I am a member), collaborative posts, a massive archive of tutorials... and more.

Come January 2010 FTW will also have a regular dose of misterjustin. I'm joining the author roll to post a monthly series on basing and weathering techniques. This will cover a variety of products and methods for weathering models and/or putting them on unique and expressive bases.

My hope is that readers will barrage me with questions and that my series will become a reflection of tutorials based on community request.

I'll post an update here when the series launches - and in the interim go check out FTW and bookmark it if you haven't already!

++ From the Warp ++

Vostroyan Army: Leman Russ A01

I have started re-painting the first tank in my old Armored Company. This allows me to recycle those tanks AND work on the techniques I'll be using on my Games Day 2010 entry... without having to improve them while painting my Forge World model.

Sorry about the shine but there's a layer of gloss on there.

I took some step-by-step photos but I've gone back and redone much of it so I'll get a new series when I settle on the process. This guy still has quite a ways to go AND WILL BE PART OF MY ARMY! This model WILL see game play.

Feedback is very welcome and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thanks in advance!

Photos of the original Armored Company can be seen in the "Armored Company" tag.

I may still sell a couple of those tanks since they don't really fit the Vostroyan army... but for now I'm glad to have finished tanks to start painting.

Competition Mini: Pedro Kantor - FINISHED

That's all she wrote. I haven't had the time here at the end that I would have liked. This means I'm leaving a few things "unfinished" on this guy. I am, however, very happy with the end result.

Final feedback is quite welcome - but I don't know that I'll be able to change anything this late in the game.

Thanks for following along. The competition will be posted next week:

http://forums.relicnews.com/forumdisplay.php?f=110

Competition Mini: Pedro Kantor - Banner Edition!

The front of the banner is finished and the model is one step closer to being ready for the competition. I still need to do a few small things:

1. Touch up the tabard
2. Finish highlighting the storm bolter (which is now metallic blue)
3. Add mud to his feet
4. Paint the back of the banner

I really am happy with how this has come together even if the highlights/blending still miss the mark I was aiming for. There's nothing here for me to complain about and I think it'll make a nice showing in the competition.

Of course the prize support is being provided by Secret Weapon Miniatures... so I'm not sure what happens if I win. I might just need to send myself a gift certificate.