Cypher

Despite the recent push to finish my Dark Angels I managed to pick up one of my fave minis, the man called Cypher (apologies to Sting).

I painted the power armour with a base of gun metal speed paint followed by black speed paints and washes. The gold trim on the mini also used gold speed paints and watered down brown washes with silver highlights. 

Given Cypher has been on the run for over 10 000 years I added some oxide effects on various sections of the power armour, plasma pistol and his Lion Sword.

I also wanted Cypher’s master crafted pistol to be different to my loyalist versions of plasma weapons. I used the below paints to get the nuclear / red plasma finish including a little overpaint for a subtle source lighting finish. I am still learning this technique but am happy with how it came out. I recommend the white air paint over a metal base for this approach on the plasma coils.

The cloak was intentionally dark green and used a range of green speed paints and washes with lighter green highlights. Perhaps the colour of the cloak indicates he may be questioning his previous life choices.

Other fabrics were painted with deep reds using speed paints and lighter red highlights.

I have no idea how he will go in the game but my Alpha Legion  will be happy to see him on the battlefield - whether they can trust him is currently unknown.

Ruined Convent Cathedral Terrain

 I picked up a set of the TT Combat ruined convent cathedral in preparation for the arrival of my Trench Crusade minis.

I had never built and painted any of their terrain sets and am now a convert to these dudes.

Assembly was pretty straightforward and although it took me a little time due to my lack of experience, this was not excessive and I definitely recommend their kits.

Painting was intentionally muted with various spray paints used  for the walls, floors etc with earth and light browns from Vallejo for the roof and tiles. I then used a red brown wash all over and some light highlights.

I have a further ruins kit to assemble and am similarly looking forward to their assembly.

Invader ATV

 The Ravenwing continues to grow with a second ATV.

This one is equipped with the multi melta to get up close to the big boys and melt them down.

Painting followed my other Invader and Outriders with a couple of different transfers including my new favourite, the inverted Dark Angels symbol on the left shoulder of the crew. 

I used the ravenwing symbols from the Dark Angels upgrade kit on the Invader sides along with a couple of other transfers from the same kit. I still need more ravening transfers but they can be obtained and applied at a later date.

Next up will be these Black Knights using outriders and weapons from the first born knight kit.

Dark Angels Reivers

 One of my favourite Primaris unit is the Reivers. 

As always the rule of cool wins for my mini selection and these bros with their punisher helmets and dynamic posing get the tick from me.

I could not decide whether to go full or half helmet so I did a 50/50 split that meant I could also run them in two five man units.

For painting I prefer to undercoat everything whilst on sprue. For these dudes it’s a black undercoat and then I hit them with a grey followed by a light white dry brush. 

In my mind this gives me a head start with my painting after I have assembled the bros. Might just be me but this works as my personal hobby hack as with most gamers we all have a pile of shame.

After assembly this approach does require a bit of touch up of paint but is manageable.

After the tidy up of the base coat I used Vallejo steel, gold  and leather brown sped paints on the metal and pouches. The left should pads used green speed paint and a touch up of dark green. 

The power armour also used thinned down black speed paint and a light black wash in some parts.

The white sections relied on various thin coats of GW white air paint with higher sections picked out by Vallejo white.

Although these guys are to be part of my Ravenwing that includes some non mounted units, the black power armour and Dark Angels logos means they can also sub into my Greenwing.

Heavy Intercessors

After a recent Tournament I decided my Inner circle taskforce for my Deathwing needed their own battleline intercessors. These intercessors will take the battlefield with the appropriate bone white colour scheme.

I picked up some alternate intercessor sculpts compared to those in my Greenwing Dark Angels so decided these bros would be heavy intercessors. I added the larger should pads where possible to differentiate them from normal intercessors. The larger bolt rifles also complements the “counts as” approach.

I picked them up second hand and they needed to have the house paint that was used to undercoat them stripped off.

Unfortunately this paint left a little “battle damage” on a few of the minis. On a couple of them this was remedied with some additional bits from the upgrade kit and transfers to hide the worst of it. 

Using a heavy bolter from the centurion kit I converted one of the bolt rifles into a heavy bolter. A little bit of green stuff and he was ready. I added a cool deathwing bit for a blast screen that also hid the left hand that I was not happy with.

As I will also be using my Sternguard Veterans as heavy intercessors from time to time, the painting generally followed their approach for a more bone rather than pure white colour for power armour.

With these dudes finished I am pleased to report I have finished all my Deathwing minis from the pile of shame.

Next up is my push to finish my Ravenwing including my heretical approach that includes infantry.

Sammael Grand Master of the Ravenwing

 After finishing Azrael it was time for Ravenwing to get their Grand Master Sammael ready for the table top.

I used mainly Vallejo paints follwing the same techniques as my Ravenwing Outriders.I purposely kept the highlights on his black power armour to a minimum.

Some of the sculpt had a few imperfections that were fixed with parts and transfers from the Dark Angel upgrade kit.

The base was built up using bark with a astrogranite finish. Some grass tufts, shrubs and barbed wire finished off the large base.

I even tried some source lighting effect from the plamsa cannon underneath the jet bike and what looked like exhausts at the rear of the bike. 

I still have the Ravenwing command squad, black knights converted from outriders, an ATV and some sneaky reivers to do.

Supreme Grand Master Azrael

 I finally got my hands on an Azrael miniature for my Dark Angels.

As a member of the Deathwing I decided to invert the usual painting approach of Azrael of his dark green armour and white/bone cloak. 

The deathwing paint job of the armour went with more of a bone colour rather than pure white similar to my Sternguard Veterans.

The banner was pretty tricky to paint and I also inverted the usual colour approach with this and made it primarily a bone white colour with gold trim.

I kept the colour selection limited and really liked how the red came out on the lower cloak using a base of white, red speed paint and then mephiston red to highlight.

The sword of secrets had a gun metal speed paint with a white highlight followed by light blue speed paint in some of the areas. I left some of the white highlights to give off a pretty cool combined look for a plasma sword.

The base had a mix of rocks, grass tuffs and some barbed wire for something different.

Despite the mini being from a less reputable source I am happy with the finish.