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.