Chaos Helldrake

This model is as much as pain to paint as it is to play against.  Doing the individual panel work took a bale-flamer to my skull.

Some silly shots we took at the Mark's Comics in Valley Stream.

AP3 bro.  I think we all know how this turns out.

Last but not least.  Some better photography of the WIP thunder hammer squad.

I'd love to hear your questions or comments on any of my work.  If you want to know how I achieve certain affects or how I can improve mine, feel free to ask.

Tau! Infantry galore

Here are some Tau I painted for a client.  This was a ton of infantry and quite a daunting task.  White was quite annoying to work with in the beginning until I developed a technique to achieve a pretty good table top white armor.

First layers on the mini.  Mephiston Red and Dawnstone/Ulthuan grey were the first coats.

Here is the wash stage.  You have to be sparing with the washes when working with light colors like white.  I always watered the Drakenhof nightshade down and only used nuln oil in the deepest cracks.

 Army shot.  I think there are 72 fire warriors in total.

Some cinematic shots I attempted.

 I love the way the sergeant came out.  He needs his own proper photo shoot one day.

Chaplain Cassius

First colours laid down.  Tried out a dark navy instead of black to see how I could shade it but decided to stick with the black in the end.

More colors added and the golds finished up.  I used Balthasar Gold > Gehenna's Gold > Auric Armor Gold > Mithril Silver.  It's a little tedious but the result it quite nice.

Here he is with some of his Ultramarine buddies.  Toughness 6 is no joke.

                                     

Terminator Librarian

Here is the terminator librarian after his accident.  I decided to turn the bad into good and try my hand at a conversion for the first time.  Luckily my friend has tons of grey knight bits lying around and was happy to lend a force sword to the cause.

Also the one of the first tries at blending as seen on the blade.

Green stuff is actually pretty fun to work with.

This model has so much character.  I will definitely pick another one up down the road.

These pictures are quite old and will soon improve.  Next up, Chaplain Cassius!

Thunder Hammer Terminators

And here they are.  My favorite 40k unit by far.  First, we will start with the WIP pictures and build up to the finished project.

I love grey knight bits.  The eventual goal is 30 decked out terminators like this.  Going to be quite the project.

Draigo Conversion to give him a real man's weapon and nice blue paint scheme.

Light conversion and the amazing forge world shoulder pads.

One of my favorites nearing completion.

Getting there!

Terminator Sergeant.  He looks so naked here.

Draigo's shield.  Love this sculpt.

Slapping some base colors down to get him on the table. 

The Crew Part 1.

The Crew Part 2.

Early Army Images

What a shock it was reading the rulebook and learning how the force organization chart worked.  Honour Guard aren't troops!  I needed to have some more models added before I had a true legal army and I hate playing with unpainted models so I had a ton of work ahead of me!

Not the most competitive setup...

 Low points game vs Rich's Grey Knights.  Those Dreadknights hurt!

I really enjoyed having tanks.  One the coolest reasons to play 40k.

First Rhino nearing completion.  Etherium Blue drybrush is pretty sweet.

Land Raider!  The mud effects was a lot of fun to do.  Stirland mud and little bit of drybrushing.

Needed a lower point HQ than Calgar so I adopted a Librarian.  He has had his own trials and tribulations.  These early pictures have him wielding a force staff which promptly snapped off due to finecast knowing it was a sub-optimal weapon choice.

Early basecoating stage.  I think I used Kantor Blue.  I no longer use that color since it has a little too much darkness in it.  

Final Stages.  Magnetized his storm shield and gave him a proper base to sit above the rest of dudes in the army.  His face looks terrible and I'm glad to have improved in that aspect of my painting.

Next up, the start of my favorite unit in my whole army.

Humble Beginnings....

The story of my Warhammer 40k career begins with passing comments and glances in the hobby store with my good friend Rich.  "Hey man, we really should play this game." , "Yeah, look how sick this one looks!" and with that the seed was sown.  Over the next decade or so we remained spectators and dream generals of little plastic armies until finally we made an agreement at Penny Arcade Expo '12.  After seeing countless armies and terrain boards we NEEDED to get in on this hobby.  

The purchase of Assault on Black Reach soon followed and we started furiously snipping and filing down tiny plastic pieces.  The one thing I never expected was how much fun the painting aspect of the hobby was.  I really became interested in having a really cool looking army on the table and doing battle with other well painted forces.

Here are some of my first painted Ultramarines, done in April of 2012.  I can't believe the progress I have made and look forward to only getting better.  I hope you enjoy this little journey through my past and future projects.

This is before I learned how different shades of the same color really help a mini out.

Close to my first finished squad.  Altdorf Guard Blue + Nuln Oil was all I used for the blues.  Very Basic.

First big HQ model painted.  Would do things 1000x differently now.

Few early noob scouts and first transport.

Assault on Black Reach Captain

It definitely is eye-opening taking a look at early paint jobs and seeing what has changed.  Stay tuned for plenty more images and stories!