Inquisitor Loks Painting Blog [Updated 01/07 - Dark Angels]

[Inquisitor Lok]

So in an attempt to further motivate myself to actually paint through the models i have this winter, im going to try to do somesort of blog thing (and to reduce the amount of threads i start when i start new projects that never typically get finished :P)

So To start things off, my goals for the next few months (These are in no particular order either)
1. Paint up my Battle Tech models i got

(The fully built one is a Raptor MkII, the other almost built one is an Atlas, the one with the single leg is a Catapult and the last is my favorite a Madcat <3 ) Havent figured out what im going to paint them up like yet though, but have been very anxious to get on them as they arrived right before my exams started TT

2. Paint up my BFG Dark Angels Fleet (And later a chaos fleet)

They are going to be a mix of Deathwing and regular DA colours. Also the Battlebarge is the most frustrating thing of life to stay together for me lol... the prow and main body wont stay together D:
(The chaos fleet i have is kinda much more intensive as my plan goes, so thats why im holding off at the moment for them. They are going to be a Tzeench Fleet, with 'glowing' blueish bodies and lots of gold trim, so it will likely take a boat load of time ahah)

3. My regular Dark angel forces! In my continued goal of making the full 5th company with support and other fun SM models, im trying to 'touch up' if you will my current models and finish building and painting the rest that i have.

In addition to whats shown, there are 5 more tactical and assault marines on spur and a Drop Pod thats partially built :P
Over all in terms of the actual 106 marines in the chapter, i have 20 tact. marines, 10 devastators and 10 assault marines.. so just over a 1/3 of them


Essentially im updating the marines from the one on the left (thats very dark) the test model scheme i did for my 1/15 marine since i think it has more depth and looks all around much nicer.


And for the death company, i have to really touch up my initial model i did many many years ago (The one on the left again) xD as it really looks like a sore thumb next to the other :P

4. Finish my Talos (and later my DE models i have)

All thats really left for this guy are the vials, the arms, OSL and a few other little things.

5. Finish this sexy hunk of a model. (AKA my 1/15 scale SM from FW)

which has been sitting like this for many many months


So hopefully this will keep me going and give me some legitimate motivation to paint ahah, especially since ive been really wanting to paint but havent had the time lately..

[Inquisitor Lok]

So i decided upon a scheme for the Battletech models ^_^ They are going to be mainly white, with purple here and there. I wanted to have some bright colour to with the white and figured since i rarely ever paint purple that i would choose that :P So a few shots of the Catapult that is getting close to finished. I have to complete the MLRS and the backside of it still along with bringing up the purple a shade or two to be more vibrant.





C&C Is always welcome

PS, the Hex bases for them.... -_-... i dont know who designed them, but they should be fired... there is no reason there should be an indentation in them unless ALL the models are going to have somesort of base that fits inside the ENTIRE thing.... Not to mention my Madcat wont fit on they entire thing without 1 foot being really attached... Besides the bases, they are awesome models

[Tronzor]

I'm so glad to see I'm not the only one who suffers from hobbyist ADD. The test model's colour scheme looks great. The ceramic looking helmet is a nice change from the usual green overload. The Talos looks really great from this perspective. The 1/15th marine is so cool, I wish I had gotten one. Some of the ones I've seen on other forums have come out stunning, looking forward to your updates.

[Inquisitor Lok]

Thanks The ceramic helmet is only going to be used for the Veterans/ Sergeants to help distinguish them though.

Also The Catapult is finished I decided not to lighten up the purple since i think it contrasts the brightness of the white well (and the white naturally has made it a bit brighter)





C&C is more then welcome for it

[Vaaish]

I think the colors work alright for the catapult and it looks like you've modded the pose a bit so it doesn't look like someone shot it off its feet. The parts that bother me though are the windows and the metals. I think the blue color for the windows is too close to your purple to make it pop. Maybe an orange or red would work better. It would also be good to leave a thin black line around the window to break it from the white around it. The metal I think could use some highlights to help define edges better too.

On those bases, what I'm told (and what I can see from the old Ral Partha ones I've got) the models had a thick base plate holding the feet together that fits into that recess quite easily leaving a bit of area to fill in. IIRC the newer ones don't have that as much and you end up having to build up the hole. You could check with Paulson Games. He was working on some resin cast bases that didn't have the recess a while back.

[Inquisitor Lok]

Ill give that a go later today to see if that helps

As for the bases, both the catapult and Raptor came with those sort of base plates, but the madcat and atlas did not. But ill look at that company if i get more of them down the road forsure

[Inquisitor Lok]

So. Kind of a random update here as it is not a 40k model or really any sort of scaled model. But, for a school project we had to make an RC Plane for a take off competition (of judging accuracy of the actual Take off distance vs. the Theoretically calculated one) And well i decided to take the project one step further and paint it up for my group cause ive been craving some painting and havent really had time to lately with school

But i really must say... that finishing this up today felt damn good and really helped calmed me down from stressing about an interview i have with Pratt and Whitney tomorrow for an internship lol (FREAKIN' PRESSURE!!! : / D: )

Anywho. Here are some pictures (None of the avionics/ control systems are attached and will be placed on the velcro strips later )

The colour scheme was based around the good ol' P-51Ds of WW2 (It was between that or an ME109 based upon the colours i had for my airbrush and we didnt want to offend anyone by using a Nazi colour scheme : / , you know how people are these days)




(I am well aware the Star is upside down T.T)

And ze pinup girl (Im actually rather surprised at how well this turned out.. considering its hadpainted and my freehand skills have typically been rather lackluster. What i wish i could have done differently was to have put it up a little higher so that i could have done the feet and if i could actually paint hands xD)



I guess C&C is welcome? Im not planning on changing anything at this point as we are testing it out on Thursday and once things are attached im not painting anything more on (Besides a name maybe - Im thinking Good Vibrations but will openly take witty suggestions) But for the future projects it would be useful i guess.

Anyways.. Thats all for now Once school finishes in a few weeks im hoping to start up again on actual models (probably with my 1/15 scale SM or the special 15 year anniversary model that came out a few months back)

[Inquisitor Lok]

Ok. So back to GW models

So over the past few days ive begun to revisit my Dark Angels and have final decided upon a scheme, ive been hesitantly wanting to change it to be a bit brighter (as is seen in the first post) but since the new paints came out, i decided to see if i could easily make that scheme work or if i could make the darker ones look nicer. And my final verdict was to go with the darker more traditional scheme because i could get the high lights to not look so abrupt (and it seems to be hard to get to the half and half mix of Dark Angels green and snot green, without wasting a ton of paint)

So as a quick show, here are all three of the schemes id been going between.


(the middle one is how im going to be doing it)
And to show the differences between the new greens.

(The guy on the left is done in the new paints)

Now with that said, i am taking some of the things i really liked from the original test model.. namely the ceramic helmets for the vets. and the shoulder company marker. So now detail shots of the first completed marine.


(as a side note, the Blood Red 2.0 and Skull White 2.0 are bloody heresy... i mean all the red and white was done in a thin coat or two)


The only other model to receive some new love was my older chaplain dreadnought, which i have fixed up quite to my liking (redoing the greens, changing the red plasma cannon to grey, brightening and thinning the highlights, blending in the bone a bit better and fixing a few of the gems)

Now the plan was to show how the model had changed as i thought i had some good pictures of the old scheme.... but they are all dark as hell and you cant really see anything... T.T So heres just the new version and you'll have to take my word that its quite the improvement xD





And finally. Ive also begun some more work on my 1/15th scale marine
The current plan is to use the remainder of my Dark Angels green and Snot green paint to finish this guy so that the colours dont suddenly change mid way threw (unless i sadly run out... *Crosses Fingers*)
But i started by finally growing a pair and attempting to do the OSL around the eyes which id been dreading.. And from the pictures it doesnt look quite a blended, but in person its not quite as sharp transition from red to bone, however ill likely go back to smooth it out some more..




And i begun some work on one of the arms.


Im very tempted to try and put detail on the screens, but im not sure what i should do for them.. im thinking of trying to paint in some small glpyhs for the buttons.. but im torn on doing details currently... as i like the clean look it currently has...

So C&C is more then welcome on everything Id love to know what people think of the DA scheme and any opinions on the lens OSL and what i should do for the arm screen
(And heres hoping i have much more frequent updates ahah)

Edit: Huh.. apparently i never showed how the Catapult looked with Red Windows..... Ill try and get some pics up soon of it.

[Inquisitor Lok]

Time for a slight update on Battletech models xD

So here was the completed Catapult that i forgot to showcase months ago.. (The red looks so much better then the blue, thanks for that suggestion Vaaish!)





And then i would like some feed back on the Raptor.. so for those that dont know, the Raptor II is able to cloak while standing still. I wanted to showcase that ability to some degree, but as you would expect is rather hard to do while painting without some means of having a background behind it and being an absolute boss at painting the details behind it (i saw a Tau Steathsuit painted up in a cloaked manner this way a while back) so i decided to just make it look like it could take on the colours of other mechs/ whatever it was wanting to. As a result ive tried to merge my white/ purple scheme with something else by means of having a lightning-ish style effect going across the armour with the colour changing across the effect. So some pictures of what ive done with it so far..




I went with black and yellow for the armour of the other scheme because i wanted something that would contrast the large quantities of white on the main scheme and i figured yellow worked well as an accent. In addition, i choose green for the windows because i figured blue would get lost with the lightning effect and im terrible at doing yellow window/ jeweled effects and wanted to stay away from red as its the colour of the main schemes windows :P

C&C would be lovely

[Cuddles]

The battletech is nice man. But I really like your Dark Angels, the bone colour is very well done. Really looking forward to seeing your completed Forge World marine. It will make a great display model.

[Inquisitor Lok]

Thanks Cuddles!

Anyways a bit of an update (with another slightly more exciting one coming tomorrow)

The next models to be painted are.... 10 Assault Marines (Well it will be 9 and a Chaplain for the time being) and their Drop Pod
So i had enough parts to build a full 10 man Assault Marine squad at some point within the past year, however one of those marines had his legs disected initially to be an injured ASM for a diarama a while back.. and when i decided to scrap it and use the marines for an actual squad, it meant i would be a marine down until i get some extra guys.

Soo the first 4 ASMs and the Chaplain (Not painted.. just built.)


(kinda blurry, but yes, that is a grey knight halberd.

I really liked the simple Crozius conversion i had done on my Interogator Chaplain so i figured i would carry it over to this one too

And tomorrow ill post the other two marines i have painted up, currently the pictures are really really dark, so im going to retake them in the morning.

[Inquisitor Lok]

Painted Model Time!








C&C is welcome as always.

[Inquisitor Lok]

Began to paint my Chaplain today.




Still have all the metallics and details to do.

[Inquisitor Lok]

Finished Chaplain






C&C Is as always more than welcome

[RGilbert26]

Hmm, this model looks familiar, where have i seen it before?

One thing you have missed is the highlighting of the gold with Chainmail/Mithril Silver (or whatever the two new names are). Other than that it looks great.

[Inquisitor Lok]

I dont tend to highlight gold with silver, as i never find i can make it look right :P But thanks

[Civik]

Lok, you have some awesome looking minis there! I especially am liking the big scale marine.

There is also a benefit to not necessarily highlighting with silver, but mixing the shining gold with a bit of mithril (or whatever gold you are using with a bit of silver at 1/1), it really makes the gold pop up. After that, you use pure silver on only the very top edges to highlight.

[Inquisitor Lok]

I may actually give that a shot!

Because i have such a hard time focusing (well more like getting bored of painting the same thing) on a single colour scheme for a long time (and by a long time, i mean a model or two :P )... i have decided to do a test model to figure out what colour clothing i want to give my DH's Inquisitorial Bodyguards (aka Warrior Henchmen)

So. First off, what they will look like:

The one on the left is armed with my take on a hotshot lasgun, the mid is the 'sergeant' and the R is the backside of the plasma gunner. There will also be two more lasgunner guys, i have just yet to do much with them yet.

As for schemes i have 4 im somewhat debating between (well 3 now that ive done this model :P ) They are, white, blue, red,purple (really hard to see due to me taking the shots at night) and brown (im not a fan of the brown, so ive pretty much scratched that off the list)

(this model was literally painted up in like half an hour, so its nothing special, but was more to just give me an actual thing to look at and visualize the colours on)

Im actually quite stuck on which to go with, so any help would be much appreciated Initially i was just planning to go with white as i figured it would be a nice contrasting colour to my DHs black armour. However after doing this model up, im actually kind of leaning more towards the red or blue. What does RN think?

[Inquisitor Lok]

So my first Inquisitorial Henchman is complete now. I just have to get some Green Stuff to be able to work on the others. Im not entirely sold on the red clothing yet, but i dont think it looks bad either.


I do not know why the Scout scopes dont have a small bump for the lens... it makes it so hard to get a nice looking circle painted up...


C&C is always welcome.

Edit: To give you an idea as to the army im trying to paint up currently// my thought process on which models are taking residence right now. My current army list is (Im really wanting to get back into playing after ~7ish years? I played when the 3rd ed. was out and stopped when the 4th came out xD)
Both of these brief Lists are based around a main Dark Angels force with either Daemon Hunter or Imperial Guard Allies using the models i currently have (while trying to get a roughly 2k pt. list going)

List 1: DA and DH:
Inquisitor Lok (Ordo Xeno Inq.)
Interrogator Chaplain
5 Inquisitorial Henchman
5 Deathwing Terminators
Venerable Dreadnought (Chaplain Dread)
5 Grey Knight Terminators (I think im going to be replacing this with 10Grey Knights in Tact. Armour as i dont actually have a 5th model to use as a regular termi. due to one of my Paladins being an Apothecary which i didnt think about when writing my list xD )
x2 10 Man DA Tact. Squads
10 Assault Marines in a Drop Pod
5 Devastator Marines

List 2: DA + IG
Interrogator Chaplain
Company Command Squad (DKoK Command Squad)
5 Deathwing Terminators
Venerable Dreadnought
x2 10 Tact. Marines
Veteran IG Squad (DKoK Engineers)
5 Assault Marines in a Drop Pod
Valkyrie
5 Devastator Marines
Vanquisher Tank (Might switch out for a Basilisk)

If anyone has any rough criticism of the lists that would be helpful to Since i havent played in ages :P

[Inquisitor Lok]

Yet another update! This time it's the paladin i was going to enter in the last painting comp.! It's only a few months late right? :P (The only thing it needs is some static grass)






Also man. the new rulebook is so nice Finally got mine in the mail today (apparently it was copy 2706/4000)

[Inquisitor Lok]

So ive been really not in the mood to paint much lately. And today to try and help combat that, i decided it would likely be a bit fun to jump out of my comfort zone and try some new stuff.
So the first model im going to try stuff with happens to be an old IG Kasirkin model that ive had lying around for ages (it use to be a friends that he gave to me when he stopped playing) and figured he would be the perfect place to start (im repainting the model) as ive been wanting to start a small Alpha Legion force since finishing the HH Book Legion a month or so ago, and am planning to do it around a few marines with some IG auxiliary forces that have been inducted into the legion. Essentially the goal of the model is to see if what a NMM Blue-green metallic armour would look like. However this has proved difficult as i cant find any reference pictures on the net xD The other two things im going to likely try on the model are some OSL (If i can find a place) and weathering.

So some basic WIP Pictures. Ive only done the one shoulder pad and most of the helmet so far. The rest of the green that can be seen on the blue is where im planning on doing the transitions from blue to green.
The shoulder

Helmet

Rear of the helmet


Im hoping on completing this model tomorrow as i watch the olympics. So if people see anything glaringly bad or areas that need improvement feel free to comment (and would be appriciated)

And just as a reminder, this model was previously painted, and im just painting over it as it wasnt much or very thick in terms of the paint coat, so most of the model is just based (such as the dark khaki pants and dark blue armour) and everything else will be touched when i get to it (the hellgun and backpack in particular)

Edit: and for reference i guess, this is what im basing the colour scheme on (The one on the right)

[AridMonk]

Looking good, I am away to start painting an Alpha Legion Rhino using my airbrush, so interesting to see how you did yours. Keep it up!

[Inquisitor Lok]

So heres the finished model. Im quite happy with how it turned out and am rather wanting the new Chaos codex to come out :P
It also turns out that the Pre/Heresy Era chapter symbol (the A) is very hard to paint :P

[Inquisitor Lok]

Woo random update!

So I guess the new DA codex presale got me wanting to paint up some more of the 1st Legion

Deathwing Termi.





WiP Assault Marine (The random white/ blue on the knee pad is sticky tack from me reattaching the halberd hand :P )




Basically i still have all the metals and touchup/ detailing still to do. However the long monotonous part of highlighting the armour is done :P

Lastly, i had gotten some new brushes for christmas and wanted to try them out on a random model before using them. In addition to that i also wanted to try and improve my skin painting, so i painted up most of the unused 1/15 SM Head i had lying around :P I havent done the lips, hair or little lights at the base yet.



Any C&C is welcome.

Cheers.

[Le Wicked Hisptorr Harhtarkk]

Wauw you are really good with the Optics/Crystal effect

Are you gonna paint the Gold on the DA Termie the same way your GK Termie above? (kuzz it looks kool mann)

I found that using 1 million thin, thin, thin layers of watered down white works to great to avoid the painted on/stroke/clumping defect that your Deathwing suffers a a little (tiny, (microscopic really..)) bit from. (though I have to say that I would not notice it had you not taken the picture so close)

What is your thoughts on the New Dark Angels?

[Inquisitor Lok]

Thanks.

The gold is actually done the same way between the Deathwing and the Greyknight terminater, i think it's just the amount of gold/ the changing of paint lines that may make it look a bit different.

But i agree with the watering paints down a bit, (not that this is an excuse lol, but..) I had actually painted the armour close to a year or two ago and was mainly just finishing the model up as it had been sitting semi painted for all that time :P

As for the DA Codex, I love love love the Terminator Kit and the Nephilem fighter just solely based upon the looks. In addition the ravenwing knights also seem quite nice. (I'm solely going from a looks perspective because 1, i havent seen any rules, and 2 i havent played a game in about 8 years :P ) But i'm still rather looking forward to adjusting my current full 5th company + auxiliaries (Deathwing, Ravenwing and tanks) list though.