Corvus Blackstar

The retailer I usually buy my 40k stuff from happened to have one Death Masque box set left. Since its story was apparently fairly important in the now-progressing story of 40k, and it included two armies I have relatively recently started collecting, Deathwatch and Eldar Harlequins, I decided to buy it. Of course, it doesn't include a Corvus Blackstar, so this introductory chapter was just a ruse.

 I'm still not sure about what would be the best way to photograph flyers, since they tend to be not only on the large side, but only relatively tall with their flying bases. This time, I ended up taking two separate photos from different perspectives.
Since clean, sleek, and menacing is Deathwatch's style, I elected not to make any elaborate Green Stuff decorations on it. I did glue one of the icons from the accessory sprue on the nose, but that was it.

 I originally intended to magnetize the front guns so that I could swap them from lascannons to assault cannons or vice versa as needed, but it turns out the fit is snug enough to not need magnets to stay on. Also true for the missiles, and the hurricane bolters stay on through gravity alone.

I have no idea when this will be ready and painted. On one hand, it's a very large model with lots of detail, but on the other hand, it's mostly black, and the sleekness demands certain asceticism. I may need to get a new bottle of primer spray first. Remains to be seen.

Stormwolf Assault Craft

This is another model I actually mostly finished a long time ago.I hadn't varnished it, though, and I was really unsatisfied with the freehand knotwork I had painted on it. Finally, I decided two things: that I need to finish the model and varnish it, and that I have to read up on Viking artwork to make better knotwork in the future.

 The varnishing process was a little tricky, as I didn't want to apply satin varnish on the windshield. I ended up covering it with some blue-tack.
I used more transfers on this model than most others. While I generally prefer somewhat less boxy shapes, all the straight planes do make applying transfers very easy.

 The Stormwolf/Stormfang kit does include a lot of nice presonalising touches, such as the decorative chains and shields. I thought the chains on a flyer stretched my suspension of disbelief a little further than I'd like, but the shield on front somehow didn't.

 I primarily plan to use this as a dedicated transport for the Blood Claws, once the pack is full, but didn't want to paint Blood Claw markings on the craft, because otherwise, I'd be too hung up on them to use it to transport anything else. Instead, I decided to slap on a bunch of fairly generic Space Wolves symbols.

I did give the craft Ragnar Blackmane's Great Company markings, since most of my other models either have another transport or will be deep striking in.
I do like the way the Hellfrost Cannon looks, with the runes glowing blue. No idea how it's supposed to conduct heat away from enemy troops, but I'm not too bothered. It's 40k universe, somehow even the vacuum of space has the ability to snap-freeze human bodies, despite being a perfect insulator.

The Blackmanes' Drop Pod & new posting schedule

Of all the vehicles in WH40k, Drop Pod is perhaps the least rewarding as a modelling and painting project, simply because of how static objects they are.
In the fluff, they are dropped from high orbit and accelerate the speed of their fall through the use of a huge thruster, until, through the use of a set of angled, smaller thrusters, they slow down abruptly. In an unusual show of realism from GW, only transhumans like the Astartes can use Drop Pods, because this rapid deceleration would kill normal humans.
Now, in game, you just place them on the field, where they stay until destroyed. Also, if I wanted, I could ally with the Imperial Guard and give them a Drop Pod, which they could use for a group of raw recruits who would be just fine until they'd be outside the pod and something looked at them funny.

 Because Ragnar Blackmane is my main warlord, I wanted to keep it fairly simple. I'm going to have to paint at least a few more of these, and getting too detailed would make that a pain. For once, GW's practice of using The Blackmane's badge as the standard actually works in my favour. I used plenty of black soot weathering powder to make the pod seem like it it has entered the atmosphere the hard way.

For the armament, I chose the Deathwind launcher. I wanted the drop pod to pose an actual risk to something on the battlefield, so that the opponent would have to either ignore it and take casualties, or divert some of their forces to dealing with it. Also, a dropped pack of ten men armed to the maximum can make a serious alpha strike, and the launcher can add to that.

In other news, this will be the last Thursday update for the time being. Starting next week, I will now post three times per week, to have more time to make bigger projects. I'll go more into it later. For now, Happy New Year!

Arjac's Shieldbrothers' Land Raider Crusader, painted

This is another model I had mostly finished earlier, and now just touched up the paintwork and varnished. I originally started to work on the model quite a while ago, and this can be seen in certain places, as far as quality of the work is concerned.

 I sculpted the decoration on the front hatch out of Green Stuff. Unfortunately, the sculpt wasn't terribly clean -- a problem that was exasperated by using the final gasps of a spray bottle in a warm weather for the primer coat. This led to the final sculpt collecting a little too much of the washes in its recesses, making the highlights stick out a little more than I'd like. It's not a disaster, but I wish it could have been better. The somewhat rough finish of the decoration called for some weathering on the front ramp. I used rough pieces of sponge to apply some Leadbelcher over the ramp.

 The Wolf that Stalks the Stars was painted freehand just today. I found the thought of painting it a little intimidating, even though I knew that the symbol wouldn't be visible from both sides at once, so perfect symmetry wasn't absolutely necessary. As it is, I think the symbol fits the model well enough.
Decorating a large model like a Land Raider in a suitably Space Wolfy fashion is demanding, but pretty fun. I ended up using a lot of pieces from the Stormwolf/Stormfang kit, such as the decorative chains and shields that I don't think work that well on an aircraft model. I also added some wolf skulls that I glued over the headlights and painted in bronze colour.

 The rear of the model is left pretty much undecorated. In hindsight (no pun intended), having some kind of decorative elements behind the model would have been cool, but it is as it is.

 The left side door had a plastic Space Wolfy bit from the dreadnought kit IIRC. I also sculpted a small Crux Terminatus between a set of bronzed rows of teeth. Again, this was made of Green Stuff, but the finish turned out significantly better than on the front door.
The meltagunner has the Iron Priest torso and head from the Stormwolf/-fang set, but the rest of the gunner comes from the standard Land Raider kit.

 I felt like the top of the model needed some flavour, and after a lot of deliberation, I decided on a loose knotwork pattern. It could have been cleaner, too, but it's not really even close to what I'd call bad.

 I magnetized the side doors so that the insides could (and should) be painted. The small magnets I used can be seen in picture, as I had already painted most of the hull when I came up with the idea. I think the naked magnet look actually works pretty well here, though.

I also painted the insides of the crew compartment. To achieve that, I simply painted the insides of the model before the final assembly, so that both sides of the track and side assembly,floor and the upper part of the model were painted, as well as the assault ramp and the front door.

Now that my Land Raider is finished, the only things to finish of Arjac's Shieldbrothers are the Pack Leader and Arjac himself (canonically, pretty much the same thing, but in terms of rules, a Wolf Guard Termnator pack must have at least two models and a pack leader).