On The Table - More Deathwatch Marines

I am trying to clear the table of projects so I can start on my legit Imperial Knight kit. I will need more Infernus Heavy Bolters to field the number and type of Kill Teams that I want and also because they are awesome Wargear. I wanted to make a lower-points Black Shield with a little more utility than the melee killing-machines that I have already made. This guy will have a Power Sword and Grav Pistol. He come in at 67 points rather than 77/82 points. He is armed with a combination of AP 2/3 weapons so he will not be useless against any types of troops.

At this point in painting, the black has a good start. It is basecoated with 1:1 grey and black, drybrushed grey and washed black. The silver metals are basecoated and washed black with the armor. Tonight, I painted on the base colors for the gold and parchment. I also painted on the red colors on the cloak. 

Finished - Corvus Blackstar

I was kind of shocked when I finished the Corvus Blackstar tonight. I just kind of ran out of things to paint.

I started by spray painting the mini on sprue black. I wanted to assemble it in stages to make it easier to paint but I didn't find a good way to do this. The wings join the body in such a way that they need to be shaded while attached. The tail sections and engines could have been painted separately but with little advantage. So I painted it all at once.

Once it was assembled, I undercoated the whole mini with a 1:1 mix of Abaddon Black and Dawnstone. Then the mini got a drybrush of Dawnstone. I painted on my wash of Nuln Oil and then alternate with Agrax Earthshade on areas where I needed extra shading and darkening.

The silver areas were Ironbraker washed black and highlighted with Runfang Steel. It was all pretty standard. The exception was with all the vents. I dry brushed all of them with Abdadon Black, washed them black and then drybrushed with Runfang Steel. This is not precisely how I have done it in the past and it did not turn out great. I think it fits the model because it is so dark that it does not stand out much.

I painted on the red stripes inspired by the Codex. I also saw some stripes on the tail that looked like the stripes just continued. I tried to get mine as straight and as even as possible with each other but I think that worked against me. I should have made the stripes on the tail smaller. Don't ask me why, but it looks wrong the way it is.

On The Table - Corvus Blackstar

Well drunk-me tried to do some detail painting and sober-me is just now finding out about. Wisely, drunk-me decided to paint the bottom of the Corvus and not on the top or front. Good move, drunk-me.

Surprisingly, when sober-me tried to take over painting, I had a harder time replicating the fine lines that drunk-me did. It might have something to do with me having to add some water to the pot of grey paint that I was using and maybe that made it harder to get clean lines.

Drunk-me also tried to wash the red areas to try and make them darker. Unfortunately drunk-me can't tell when enough is enough (in more ways than one way). The red areas became a muddy mess and had to be repainted from scratch.

On The Table - Deathwatch Black Shield

In between working on the Corvus Blackstar I have been doing a little work on my second Black Shield. My initial thought was to give the Black Shield a pair of Specialist Weapons like LC, CF or TH, LC.The purpose of this was to give versatility of choosing between S 8 and reroll to wound and still getting the extra attack. For a mini whose only special rule is to double their base Attacks, I thought that tooling them up for close combat would be wise.
After my first (and to this point only) game with Deathwatch, I think that Black Shields with a lot of Wargear might be over-rated. For an 88 point model that only uses its special rule against very specific enemies, it is a pricey gambit. I am starting to think that just a Power Weapon would be a better option. Maybe on my next Black Shield.
In the meantime, I am going to stick to the "three Terminator" worth of points version of the Black Shield. As of right now, I have only one bit to make a Black Shield left in my collection. the bits run for about $4 on eBay but maybe I could swap for one or two on Bartertown.

On The Table - Corvis Blackstar

Things are going better with painting the Corvus Blackstar. Since the last update, I painted on the silver areas and washed them black. I also painted on black wash in selected areas rather than dipping the whole mini.
I was not able to get the recesses as dark as I would have liked. I briefly contemplated stippling on pure black on the areas that needed shading but decided against it. I traced on some black lines on some of the deep recesses and it mostly worked. I also tried alternating between Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil to try and get a deeper black.
It is kind of working but it is going to take some tinkering and experimentation to get this mini finished but I am more sanguine than in the last post. I think that this mini is going to turn out well.
The plan is to finish this as the prototype model and experiment a little more on the next one. The third and final Corvus Blackstar will be the "command" mini with a lot of conversions and modifications. What those are I have no idea but I am sure that awesome things will come to me after I google "Corvus Blackstar conversions.

On The Table - Mistakes

Compare this picture to the last in progress picture and it looks improved. I hate it though. I think that after the wash it is going to look awful and I am bracing myself for it.
Anyone that says they can paint anything any color is a dirty liar. At this point I am pretty much an expert in painting black, red and white but only in my styles. I can't do the green/black or purple/black that is popular with Necrons and Dark Eldar. I can't paint the red highlighted with tan like the 'eavy Metal nerds do with Blood Angels (though I could fake it if I needed to). I can't do the corrupted white like you see on pre-Heresy Death Guard or grey/white.
I can do red on small scale like Power Armor but that is completely different from painting red on vehicles. I am finding out that my prowess with black on Power Armor does not translate to the large scale of this flipping flyer or, emperor forbid, the Drop Pod of the future. Things are just not the same.

On The Table - Corvus Blackstar

I did some work on the Blackstar. I finished all the sanding and joining. I basecoated it 1:1 black and grey like I do with my Marines, but I am starting to second guess that at this point. the painting style that I use on my marines relied on a total black wash to homogenize and shade the model. I've learned that trying to shade the whole model on a vehicle is usually a bad idea. It is impossible to get an even coat an the whole model and there are always large and visible mistakes. I think I am going to try and do a lighter drybrushing and paint on my wash rather than dipping.
I was very nervous about doing the red lines like the Codex models has. I've painted a few lines on my Tau models and it is hard to get the big ones right. I used painters tape to get the lines straight but really just eyeballed it.
The next step will be dry brushing grey on and then painting the silver areas.
I decided against all the gold on the Codex model. I am just going to all the large areas silver with gold skulls.