Some of my Dark Angels & Tau

Here are pictures of a few Dark Angels and Tau.

With Dark Angels I started collecting with begin of 3rd Edition. Some of them are a little old as you can see at the land raiders:


But I'm trying to increase my painting skill.
Here is one captain I'm pleased with:


You can see his manic mien even through the blurry picture:


At this Techmarine and his big friend I had first tried to paint some damage to the armor:






I started Tau as soon as they where available and collected quite an army.
Here is only a brief look at some of them guarding CDs and DVDs:


Or sitting an a board:


And here is my Commander:


Thought of the day: Excuses are the refuge of the weak

Very very nice - sharp painting, especially on the tau where it really matters. My favourite has to be the techmarine, it's such a detailed model to paint and difficult to make look good - you've certainly achieved that! The colour scheme used for the techmarine is a great combination of dark angel and mechanicus (I like the way you went with a mix - it ties in to the other models so much better).

Any more to share?

Cheers Laney

Excellent painting! I love the tau commander your highlights are amazingly crisp! The DA look very cool, but is there any chance you'd do the pupils on some of the eyes? They look so good but they look a little manic with just the whites.
Any close ups on the other tau?

VERY, VERY COOL STUFF! The Tau Commander in particular is an EXCEPTIONALLY WELL DONE piece. There's a smooth, clean crispness to your style that is VERY APPEALING. FINE WORK!

Holy Smoke! They are great.

Thanks for the nice words.
02laney: In time there will be another Techmarine. I want to convert his helmeted brother to a Master of the Forge carrying a conversion beamer.
And here are still two Forgeworld-Dreadnoughts (DA Venerable and Chaplain Dread) awaiting assembling and painting.
"Master"-Kiwi: Most models actually have pupils. The Terminatorcaptain hasn't. At the Terminatorlibrarian I tried "painting" pupils with a small pencil but it didn't went well. The Captain with stormbolter has a pupil. It makes him look so nice. And the Techmarine has one too as you can see here:


When I get my hands on a camera again I'll try to shoot some more pictures.

Does anyone has some ideas to bring good looking dirt on the model? I want to give my Dark Angels a more realistic look, like they where days and weeks in the battlefield.
Has anyone used these weathering powders?

Thought for the day: Heresy must be met with hatred.

I look forward to the conversion beamer - I created my own a while back - but I didn't take pics of him (I have a distance shot of him in an army) and sold him as part of my old Soul Drinker army. I have the helmeted techmarine in my bits box waiting for a conversion beamer conversion too!

Never tried to use weathering powders - I would like to get some though.

I've usually weathered either by stippling and appropriate (almost with a drybrush amount of paint though - to help keep control) or by using rough washing (I used this on my blood angel jump packs to create a sooty look - it took a couple of coats - but looked pretty good - I'll post a pic if I get time). Maybe a tutorial thread of peoples ideas on weathering would be useful (my own techniques on this are pretty limited).

Cheers Laney

Oh right - the conversion beamer. I wanted to dig for an old chaos conversion beamer in my genestealer hybrid box. I'll see whether I find an unused one. Thanks for the reminder

Do pupils with fine brush tips, try it again and again and sometime it will work. Just never give up and don't use cocktail sticks or pencils, they are too big

Skraag wrote:

Oh right - the conversion beamer. I wanted to dig for an old chaos conversion beamer in my genestealer hybrid box. I'll see whether I find an unused one. Thanks for the reminder

Do pupils with fine brush tips, try it again and again and sometime it will work. Just never give up and don't use cocktail sticks or pencils, they are too big

Easiest thing to do for pupils is to paint the eye black and put two small white dots in the corners. That way the eye is centered and you don't get the cross-eyed look.

I do the Eye Thingy in a slightly different way than DoZeR. I start by painting the eye socket black...a bit larger than I actually want the eye to be; then I paint white inside the black; when dry, run a line of black from top to bottom about dead center in the white.
Try a couple of different methods that you get suggestions on; whichever works best for you is THE BEST METHOD.

But Deaf... you could probably paint the legs on the flea that rides the Squig! You have an insane brush control.

Thanks for tips, guys.
I used the pencil long ago. Actually I'm making a vertical line. In the end it's more of a dot than a line. Works quite well.
But I'll try your methods during the next paintings.

Thought for the day: Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.

Sorry... I forgot to comments on your models.

You have an AMAZING brush control! It is extraordinary! So good, that your line highlighting is almost invisible. That is EXACTLY how it should be... it took me a while to see the lines (once you see them they 'jump out') and... MAN! They are SUPER even. I tried that once... very difficult!

The face on your Captain THE best I have ever seen on the web. Sorry, but there is a local ( Dozer: I'm talking about Zack!) who beats you hands down... he can paint (blend) 5 o' clock shadow (beard stubs) and arm hairs! Anyway... you work is WAY better than mine. So I'm officially envious.

I agree with you that SOME of the models look too clean. DO NOT DARE TO TOUCH THE CAPTAIN! I swear... I kill you if you do! He is awesome! Ohh... your models. Sorry, do what you want... it is that he is SO cool! Anyway... I would start with the scriptures on the Dreadnaught. I think Forgeworld has a great tutorial on powders...


I read on the web that instead of starting with 'miniature powders, one could start with MAKEUP. Yes... freaking makeup! I read that eye shadow (earth tones... not sparkly pink... unless you are working on Eldar! ) I read somewhere that you take the eye shadow (of face powder) and put some on the model (dusted, not rubbed)... the take a brush with water and sparkle some droplets... they will 'merge' with the powder and form some crust.

PLEASE... do NOT try it on these SUPER models. Experiment with others. Show us your work too! Good luck man... you have talent to spare, so I'm rooting for you!

Thanks for the comments and ideas. I'll try the make-up-dirt on the next marines...

But here are some pictures of the work I've done last week:

A new Techmarine, slightly converted to mount the conversion beamer, that Skraag found in an old box:








First GW-Ruin:







Defence-Line:





Some group picture:






And now some pictures of older Space Marines and Tau:



































And if you look in the background, you can see in some pictures parts of the Combatservitor

Thought for the day: The Emperor protects!

Gorgeous!

The Tau are Perfect... very clean lines. At least that is what I imagine the Tau to be. SUPERB! The TechMarine is amazing... but what caught my eye was the building. Yes... the building. I still have to paint mine... and I have been stuck not knowing how to paint them. You are an inspiration!!!

THANKS for sharing. I will have you in mind when it comes time to paint Mikelopolis!

Great job on the Techmarine with conversion beamer. You can hardly see anymore that he wields an old chaos artifact taken from defenseless Genestealer hybrids.