Blood Ravens - a painted army in 2 weeks

[Simon]

2 days left!

can't wait to see what u can do in 2 weeks

[nik_]

Yep I'm counting down the remaining hours!

On Tuesday I gave the 'red' models a coat of Red Gore (over the Mechrite Red) to get the colour right, and started painting the Razorback turrets.

Last night and this morning I worked on some more of the bikes.

Stil left to do is the captain, 3 bikes, 1 attack bike and 2 landspeeders.
The plan is to get the bikes done tonight, and the captain and speeders tomorrow.

Friday night will be where the whole army gets a spray of devlan mud. There may be a late night involved....

[Lazarus]

you may end with 3 colors but i dont they are going to look that good with them being so rushed. After BC i would go back over them and do a slower paint job.

I am known for being a fast painter and getting army's out really fast but it still takes me months. I don't see the whole army getting to the standard of the test model.

I just spent over 30 hours painting a single land speeder.

[nik_]

Yep, I agree. Although a lot of the mess you see in the photos I took I have since cleaned up.

I think the base colours can be a little messy, because the wash and highlights will cover some of it up.

I expect that it will take 1/3 of the time to get them to a 3 colour standard, and 2/3 of the time to get them looking nice after that. I also want to print decals for all the shoulders etc as well.

[Simon]

I think if he can paint the whole army in 2 weeks with 3 colors and some highlights, then I think it is already quite impressive.
 

[NeckFace]

same - nik's already demonstrated he can paint like a champ, with those lovely wood elves of his, i think challenging yourself with speed painting like this is just another way of pushing yourself. and i can forsee these marines are going to be a tidy lot that can be worked on further in the future.

[nik_]

12:51AM Saturday - Whew, made it 

3 colours, brown base and a wash (drying as I type) on all the models I needed.

Pictures will follow after the tournament - I need to go and get a few hours sleep!

[Solarian]

Haha, classic, I miss those days. Well done 

[nik_]

All painted was better than a bunch of the armies there, but I still scored 7/15 for painting. I didn't expect to get 15, but the checklist was perhaps more strict than the one I'm used to from Fantasy events. Plenty of scope for improvement for next time.

The event was great, had a good time. I only played 1 power armour army! My first introduction to Orks, Dark Eldar and Blood Angels, and games against Eldar and Tryanids.

2 wins and 4 losses, with below par painting and a good comp score got me at 20th from 30. About right I guess.

For all of you that liked my list, it was judged the 'softest' list there, with an average comp score of 4/5. I won a $50 prize for that, which was spent on a Shrine of the Aquila building set - just the kind of luxury thing you don't really want to pay retail for...

I took several photos of my army on display for the beauty pagent, but am far too tired to post them tonight. Perhaps tomorrow.

[Lazarus]

What tourney did u go to???

Need those picks

[Big D]

And Captain Soft Scores lives up to his name. Was a seriously good weekend (despite some mediocre results on my part), just a shame more City Guard players didn't get off their asses and join us.

[Hunter_Flood]

And Captain Soft Scores lives up to his name. Was a seriously good weekend (despite some mediocre results on my part), just a shame more City Guard players didn't get off their asses and join us.

I wish I could get off my ass and get myself a license.

[NeckFace]

good job nik, i'm still keen to try and have a game against your army

i actually wouldn't have considered it to be all that soft in my opinion, just balanced

[Lazarus]

He would get a good comp due to Bikes being troops.

Only things what are elite units are the speeders and the attack bikes. And a 2nd HQ.

so he may loose 2-3 points for that. but coz its a mostly troop based army you get really good comp.

this army would be a 16-18 out of 20 army for comp.

they class heavy troop army's as weak army's. This will be around the same comp score i will get for my deathwing due 80% of my army is under troops.

Its dumb how they work out comp but thats how wayde told me it works.

[Fujin]

Wow... how little I know about 40k now. I would have thought 60 marines in combat squads would be absolutely horrific to face.

[Lazarus]

i took 86 marines in rhinos to battle cry 2009 and only won half my games but got good comp haha.

Issue with tac marines is they are a jack of all trades and not good at any single thing so they suck if thats all you have.

[Lezle]

... just a shame more City Guard players didn't get off their asses and join us.

Where would I purchase an ass? Would they do a trade on my horse?

[Lazarus]

any Ass would trade and ass for a horse   

[nik_]

I expected my army to be 'middle of the road'. As far as I could tell it had a good mix of units, didn't max out on the good stuff, and could compete in most phases pretty well. Not too much mech. As NeckFace says, 'balanced'.
Apparently Over The Top is called that for a reason. 3 and 4 landraider lists, super squads of Orc nobs, armies made entirely of Storm Shield Terminators, 9 landspeers, 2 preds, 2 razorbacks and other assorted stuff, super nasty combat characters, Seer Council on bikes backed up by Eldrad.
Comparatively, mine was soft

Anyway, a couple of shots of it on display. As you can see the airbrushing of the wash worked out well in most cases, but there were a couple of models that got far too much, and a couple where (for whatever reason) it ended up drying to a nasty chalky white finish. In hindsight brushing on the wash would have looked better, but at midnight I just wanted to hurry up and get to bed!

The whole army


One of the Tac squads


A couple of guys walked past and complimented me on my nice looking army, and were surprised when I said it wasn't finished They can't have looked too closely, but I think it did look the part on the tabletop.
In hindsight I should have glued on the bolters, now that I've painted the chests. That would have contributed to them looking a little better.

Conclusion: It is possible to get an army to tournament legal level in 2 weeks, even while working a full time job etc. However you have to make sacrifices, and further work is required to get it looking good.

Thanks for all the comments along the way! It's nice to think that people are interested in what I'm doing.

Expect to see more updates to this in time, as I go back and complete the army. For now I have to finish up some painting for FluffyCon, but I'm playing Equinox 40k so may do some more work before then.

p.s for future reference, are the pictures the right size? Or can I afford to make them a little wider?

[HarasinCreed]

Nice army i recon it will look awsome when you are done. Have you givin the bleached bone a wash? If so i think another wash of devalun mud or G sephia would look good. Also the pictures could be bigger in my opinion.

Wow the other lists sound pretty rediculus glad i didnt go becuase even though it can be fun going up against some of those lists would suck.

Keep up the good work.
Ed

[Simon]

I can't believe you actually did it, I can't believe it until I saw those pics.

that's freakin' impressive mate.

[Lazarus]

Some dudes had no bolt guns. The marines are look how you like my invisible gun.

Good work for 2 weeks i just hope to dont call them complete, still alot of work left on them will be a waste if they just sit at this point and dont get finished.

I really like the army list build to be honest i think with a few more games under ya belt it will be a good army to VS. I see it wining alot more games.

And dont worry about having a balanced list i always try and do that with my army's, but these days most tourneys let the cheese in so balanced army's have a hard time in wining games it is annoying as hell coz you never get past the middle ground in tourneys. The guys who win normally build there army to kill at any cost not for it to be a good fun battle. But they will always say its a balanced army and not cheese.

[NeckFace]

and the problem with those cheese lists is that there will be one or two builds out there ready to take them out with ease.  no point having 4 landraiders if someone's spammed lance and melta weaponry

anyways.

those sorts of lists are still fun to bust out every once in a while.  i guess OTT is our own 'ard boyz.  might be keen to try it on next year, and build a swarmlord just for it

[Sectiplave]

Nice work man, it looks fully servicable on the tabletop as it's all cohesive, they have the same amounts of primary colours so it's easy to tell at a glance they are all a single force.

Yeah those cheesy lists sound tough as nails, and look great on paper, but throw enough game types and balanced armies at them, and you will start to see the cracks.

[Derick]

Well done!
2 weeks and a lot of sacrifices... Your first born plus 10% of the harvest?
If I'd try that it'd look like poo (who am I kidding, if I took 20 weeks it'd still look like poo)

Does that mean your missus got a really nice V Day gift

[nik_]

Nice army i recon it will look awsome when you are done.

Cheers!

Have you givin the bleached bone a wash? If so i think another wash of devalun mud or G sephia would look good. Also the pictures could be bigger in my opinion.

Yeah, it had a wash, but it was sprayed rather than painted and it looks a lot 'thinner' than a painted wash. Some of the models could do with a second coat. I found it difficult to judge how much was needed.

I can't believe you actually did it, I can't believe it until I saw those pics.

that's freakin' impressive mate.

Thanks The Airbrush, simple colour choices, foundation paints, and a large brush with very thin paint made it all possible

Some dudes had no bolt guns. The marines are look how you like my invisible gun.

Good work for 2 weeks i just hope to dont call them complete, still alot of work left on them will be a waste if they just sit at this point and dont get finished.

Not to worry, more will get done

I really like the army list build to be honest i think with a few more games under ya belt it will be a good army to VS. I see it wining alot more games.

Yeah I did think it had most of the tools I needed to win. Had I had a dozen more practice games against a range of armies then most of the games I lost were definitely winnable.

Nice work man, it looks fully servicable on the tabletop as it's all cohesive, they have the same amounts of primary colours so it's easy to tell at a glance they are all a single force.

It occurred to me after it had been marked for painting that the judges probably thought the black was just undercoat that I hadn't painted yet... oops

Well done!
2 weeks and a lot of sacrifices... Your first born plus 10% of the harvest?
If I'd try that it'd look like poo (who am I kidding, if I took 20 weeks it'd still look like poo)

Does that mean your missus got a really nice V Day gift

Hehe, the only sacrifice was sleep and a day at the beach. Plus damn sore eyes from painting at night with poor lighting! I've since bought a brighter lightbulb for the study.
My partner didn't mind my obsessive painting schedule - she's going to submit her masters thesis next week so she was up late typing all the nights I was up late painting