Cardiff Challenge

So. I made my way West to Cardiff for a weekend with the Dark Pact on Thursday morning. Apologies for not getting my "mini project" updates up, between work and painting in the evenings, I just didn't get a chance to write up anything, or film it for YouTube. In any event, I didn't achieve everything I set out to do, but I did achieve a lot.

Firstly, I managed to finish the Vindicator and Dreadnought. Well, I say finished. They still need their washes and varnishes and all that other good stuff, but I didn't have the materials to do those processes anyway, so at the moment they are being used in their less fancy guise. Though they are functionally done. I'll get the washes and things done this month. 

Secondly, the Ravenwing are almost complete. What this means is that the bikes are done, but that the riders still quite aren't. For the most part this just means a quick edge highlight in grey, and finally gluing the together with polycement. 

The upshot is that everything on the table "looks" painted. No unsightly plastic or metal for us this weekend! Craig, fellow Dark Pact member Craig painted an entire 2000 points Grey Knights army in two months, and the results are exceptional. 

Jim's already nicely painted Tyranids received further reinforcements, and these were also painted as I showed on a previous post. So it was nice to see beautiful tables, with well painted figures upon them. I think it makes all the difference. 

As I said at the start, I didn't achieve as much as I wanted to, but I certainly got more done than I thought I might. Battle Reports to follow. 

C-17

As the title of this post suggests, I am only seventeen days away from my next epic gaming weekend with the Dark Pact in Cardiff. We will be making use of Firestorm Games' excellent new venue, and enjoying their excellent tables and terrain.

I set myself the task of getting as many Dark Angels reinforcements as I could for that weekend done as it looms, and there is some progress to report. Firstly, I have had to assemble a lot. I suppose since I paint primarily metal historical miniatures, I always find that assembly is a massive chore, but with some thought it can pay enormous dividends. As my the first element of my reinforcements I assembled a squad of six Ravenwing bikers and an attack bike. One of these bikes is already done, and the rest are merrily on their way. 

Bikes awaiting paint.

Work in progress bikers.

I started with the riders first, as you can see above, I have opted to balance the black with a preponderance of bone, and worked some more colour in by including some company markings, since many of these marines would have been in other companies prior to being assigned to the Ravenwing. This squad is going to have a flamer and a meltagun in order to give it some anti-armour and anti-personal capabilities. The attack bike is going to be equipped with a multi-melta to vaporise enemy armour assets. 

I also decided to work on a Vindicator and a Dreadnought. Neither of these figures are Dark Angel specific, but using the Ravenwing vehicle accessory sprues, I have managed to tart them up a little. I also broke out the airbrush to get these done in super quick time. The effect is that the highlighting is much softer than I normally get from using my brush. 

I am far from proficient in the use of my airbrush, but I got the effect I wanted. I am keen to gloss varnish both the miniatures, and then apply some enamel wash to tone the green down, as well as make the rivets and recesses pop once they are painted, I've seen this done a lot on YouTube, and I quite fancy giving it a go. The Vindicator, above, is a very old kit I had lying around. The side panels are metal, as are many of the details, so it is a very heavy kit. I am not enamoured of it, but it will do, and I had it lying around anyway. I added a few Dark Angel bits to make it look like a part of the army. When it is done I'll post some close up shots of those details. 

The Dreadnought above is from the old Black Reach boxed set. It came with a Multi-Melta, which I also have, but I found an assault cannon in my bits box and decided that I liked that more. So I drilled out the barrels and added some iconography and scrolls. I also hacked off the original shin guard pieces, and replaced them with Dark Angel specific ones from the Ravenwing sprue. I also mounted another sarcophagus plate over the moulded on one, since this one is a Dark Angel one, and it bulked the miniature out a little more. I'd quite like to add a Venerable Dreadnought one day, painted in bone, using the Forgeworld figure, but that can wait. 

So there is some movement on the desk. I'm hoping to get these done over the next seventeen days by working on them at night after work. I'm trying to get an hour in a night, which is often not possible. However, I do have next weekend off, so I am hoping to put a dent in the project then. Once Cardiff is behind me I'll be returning to the Poland project. That is all for now. 

+ LOYALTY & HONOUR +