Shadespire, eBay, and "The Project"

It's been a long time.

I have not been posting as much on this blog, because I don't feel like I have had a lot to blog about. I have not really been working on my Warhammer 40k army as much since I started working on my Shadespire project. The project is simple, I am painting my Shadespire set for the purpose of selling it, this is my trial of my painting skills to see if I have gotten good enough to actually begin taking commissions as a way of earning some money on the side. Below are a few of my WIP for my Shadespire set.

I was never good at painting flesh, this is in issue when it comes to the reavers.

I am a big fan of these bases, had a blast painting. Didn't have any green washes or shades so I had to take some regular green paint and thin it waaay down with water to create a somewhat mossy effect on the stone. 

Like I said, I have never been that great at painting flesh, but I feel like I did pretty well with these guys.

Despite my lack of experience in painting flesh, I think I did very well here. What do you think?

I have also opened an eBay store where I have a few older codices, rule books, and other games on sale. Below are a few of these books.

Finally, there is "The Project"
The project is a story I am working on. the purpose of the project is to create a universe that can be turned into a table-top wargame. Over the past few weeks I have been working on races, cultures, backgrounds, and finally on character designs. This includes the design of miniatures using 3D modeling, and speaking to small batch manufacturers to start producing miniatures. I have also been talking to local hobby shops in an attempt to find a starting place from which to introduce my creating into the market. Story wise, character wise as well as universe wise I am not very far, but I have created a few concepts which I want to flesh out a little more.

This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, and I hope I can get the support of all of you to help me see this through till the end. I hope I can actually lead this project through to fruition as I have never before worked on a project this big. I will post samples of the miniatures once I actually have the physical prototypes.

If there is anyone who has experience in doing anything like this, and would like to help out then please reach out, I'd appreciate any help I can get with this project.

N7 - Tactical Squad.

Work on the first tactical squad has started, and I gotta say that I really regret building my marines before painting the bits individually first. Noah, the guy that runs the Games Workshop store that I frequent, suggested that building the Marines first, then painting was the best way to do it, however I feel that it makes it too hard to paint all the finer details of the models. Given that this unit is ten man unit, where none of the models are really too different from each other, I feel like we can get away with missing some of the details.

Since I am still trying to grow as a painter, I am using this first tactical squad as a learning opportunity to learn new techniques, and try new things. Just like I did with my first terminators, I am not going to fix the mistakes. Considering that I painted these guys after they were built, and that I was trying different things as I was building them, I can say that there are plenty of mistakes on this first tactical squad. 

If you take a look at the Marine on the far left, you will notice that his armor is darker, and scratched. This was my first attempt at creating a weathered, battle-torn look. I tried doing it on my own with no guidance. Overall, I hate the outcome. The way I tried to achieve the look was by first priming the model, then adding a layer of "leadbelcher". Once the leadbelcher paint dried out, I added a layer of "chipping medium". The role of the chipping medium is to allow for the easier creation of a chipped, weathered effect. The effect is achieved by applying a layer of chipping medium over the paint layer which will be painted UNDER the layer of paint to be chipped. The mistake I made was that I sprayed primer OVER the chipping medium, then painted a layer of "Dark Reaper" over that. when it came time to chip the model, the medium was already under two layers of paint and thus was not chipping as designed. In order to achieve some battle damage I scraped away at the paint layers using an X-acto knife. I also went over board with the use of Nuln oil to create a dirty messy, battle hardened look. After all was said and done, the model just looked dirty and scraped up. 

The one thing I am the most proud of, is the muzzle flashes. The Muzzle flashes that I used for these builds comes from Anvil Industry, which is where I get most of my third party bits, and I plan on doing most of the squad up with these muzzle flashes. 

As I build the remaining 6 members of this Tactical squad I will continue experimenting with weathering effects. My overall goal with this hobby is to get good enough to enter painting competitions. In the mean time I am just having fun with doing what I'm doing. 

If you would like to check out the progress of my army please check out my other social media accounts.

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The Captain is Ready for Battle

I know that this guy is not the best guy ever. I know that the face looks like shit correct, but I am actually really proud of him. He is my first custom figure, kit-bashed from several Citadel miniature bits as well as bits from Anvil Industry.

He is only one more component of my N7 army. However there seems to be some hate about the chapter I have decided to start. Most of this hate seems to be coming from 4chan, so I tried not to let it get to me, but it did. So I will use this opportunity to answer address some of the hate.

If this is N7, why is the armor not black and red?
Because in Mass Effect 2, and I believe Mass Effect 3 you were allowed minimal customization of your armor, including color scheme. The scheme I chose is the scheme that closest resembles my armor in those games.

Also, I was planning on making Tactical Marines, Devastators, Centurions, and Other vehicles in the black and red armor. The Dark Reaper Color would apply to veterans, scouts, and venerable dreads. I may end up just keeping it all Dark Reaper.

Isn't N7 some xenos initiative?
Nope, N7 was the name of the Alliance's special forces group. It is also important to remember that after the first contact war there was still a lot of animosity between humans and other xenos.

The Mass Effect Story doesn't translate into 40k fluff.
I don't expect EVERY aspect of the Mass Effect story to translate into 40k. Obviously the story will be significantly different, but that's to be expected, and personally I enjoy the challenge of creating my own fluff to fit within the pre-existing 40k fluff.

That's that, I am going to continue my chapter, and I will start brain storming on the fluff. Most exciting though, I have also decided to create my own sci-fi story and universe.

N7 - Terminators Squad - WIP

I am continuing my work on my Terminator Squad. This squad has technically been in progress since back when I first got "Assault on Black Reach". I only ever finished the Dreadnought that came with the set, along with the tactical Squad, but I never finished any of the other models, including the Terminator Squad. Back in December 2016 I got back into the hobby after my supervisor showed an interest in it, so I ordered a "Start Collecting.." set of Space Marines from Games Workshop.

I was originally going to go with Ultramarines, but ultimately decided I wanted to create a unique, custom chapter for myself. That is when I decided that I would go with an N7 theme for my chapter. I have also ordered some bits from third parties (Anvil Industry, Kromlech, Puppetswar, and others) which I will use on later models since I have already built most of my current models. I also plan on writing some sort of back story as to how this chapter fits in the over all 40k universe. Anyway, here is my work in progress for my Terminators.

The Squad.

I have been focusing on my Sgt. I finished one of the other Terminators, I am not pleased with the outcome of the other guy, but instead of fixing him I am just going to leave him as is. The point is to have something to look back on, in order to make note of any changes as far as skill, and also to learn from my mistakes as I progress in the hobby.

Side view showing where the N7 Logo will be painted on.

Front View

Other side view of the Terminator Sgt.

One last look

I also plan on using some 3rd party bits as I build my over all N7 army, this here is some "Muzzle Flashes" I bought from Anvil Industry which I plan on using with some of my models.

First N7 Terminator - Done

First N7 Terminator is done, the rest of the squad is still WIP.

Here he is still a WIP

Showing the WIP next to an unpainted WIP

Final product side

Final product other side

Final rear....although I just noticed areas I need to improve

My N7 Space Marines - WIP

I first got into Warhammer 40k back in like 2005/2006 or whenever it is that Assault on Blackreach came out. At the time I really did not know much about the lore, I just knew that the figures looked fucking awesome, and so I wanted in on this hobby. It was that Christmas that father then got me a starter paint kid, Assault on Black Reach, and the Space Marine codex (5th edition I believe). At the time I just took great pleasure in painting my figure and didn't really pay much attention to the game aspect of the hobby. As far as I was concerned, painting the figures was fun, and it was a great stress reliever.

Recently I got back into the hobby when one of my supervisors made a comment that he wanted to get into Dungeons and Dragons or a similar hobby. I suggested he look into Warhammer 40k which he did, and immediately dismissed as it was too expensive. It was not long before he began to browse the Games Workshop website though, soon settling on the heretical World Eaters as his army of choice. Naturally I was disappointed in his decision to choose a traitor legion, but said fuck it, at least I would have someone to learn the game with me, and to talk about painting with. Next thing you know, we have two other people at work looking into the game. One of the men was a friend of ours named Ben. Ben decided his best option was to go as the Imperial Guard, although they are no Adeptus Astartes, I told him it as an acceptable choice to fight for the Imperium of Man. The second man, he was one of my subordinates who was surprised to find that I was into Warhammer 40k, but soon started looking into buying a Tau Army, good for me as far as I was concerned, their squishy bodies were of no threat to me.

Once I ordered a few marines I decided I was going to go Ultra Marines, my assault on black reach tactical squad and Dreadnought were already in Ultramarine Blue. (see below)

Not all my 5th edition guys, only some.

 As you can see, I never got around to painting my terminators. Hell I never even finished the commander or sergeant that came with the unit. Since I still had a few unpainted units, I decided that I would take my brand new units, and take the unpainted units from the 5th edition set and simply create my own custom chapter and color scheme.Since I am a big fan of the Mass Effect series I decided that my best option was to start a chapter based on Mass Effect. This Chapter soon became my N7s

Brother Wrex in the Venerable Dreadnought Armor, Brother Presly in the Terminator Armor, and Scout Sgt Vega.

The truth is that the N7s didn't start off as the N7 marines, I actually played around with a few ideas. First I thought I would paint the marines on a "type of squad" basis. Tactical Marines would be painted in Blue Suns, Devastators in Blood Pack, and Scouts in Eclipse. Veterans would all have N7 armor, and Dreadnoughts would come in Normandy's colors. Then I decided all my Marines would be Cerberus, then eventually I just went for N7.

Now, I know what some of you are going to say "But N7 armor is black and red" and to that I have a response. N7 armor is whatever goddam color you want it to be when you go into the armor's appearance settings, so there you go. In my case I went with "Dark Reaper" as the main color on my Marines. Each Marine, Dreadnought, and Scout which is to be painted in the N7 colors will also have an "N7" on a shoulder-pad, or anywhere on their armor or equipment. Since I decided that this is an Ultra Marines successor chapter, every now and then an Ultra Marine emblem can be seen on some of the units.

The thing is I do not want to stick to creating straight out of the box Space Marines, I want some sense of individuality in my builds. So after I heard that third parties sell their own upgrades (at varying levels of quality) I decided that I should also give it a try.

At the moment all of my space marine units are fully built except for my space marine scouts, and my land raider. Since these are the only units not currently built, these are the ones I will be focusing on for my first attempts at conversion and customization. For instance, here is a squad of scouts with sniper rifles.

Notice their heads, with the night vision gear, and all that jazz. So Nifty and tactical, but I though, man there has to be something better. After looking online I found several products I felt would better fit these masters of stealth. The following products are from Anvil Industry, these are just some of the products from them that caught my attention and will tested to see if they go on my final product.

I purchased some items from bits of war, But these were mostly for the land raider weapons. 

Here is one of the products

Here is a set of heads I may used for the Sgt Telion figure I ordered.

I have also started thinking about using a combination of Citadel parts, and parts from third parties to create my own battalion of what I have learned to be called "Reasonable Marines". Reasonable Marines are a sort of joke chapter, which you can read about, which I feel is a project which will allow me to really test my creativity in customizing my characters.

Stay tuned, as I will continue to post my progress here on this blog when ever it is that I finish my current work-in-progress figures. If you have any suggestions, make sure to leave them in the comments. Also dont forget to check out our social media pages listed below

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