deathwatch studios

Warhammer 40k – White Scars Jetbike

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I’m now onto my next commission which will be the Sameal on jetbike model converted up to be a counts as White Scars Captain.

White Scars Jetbike WIP

White Scars Jetbike WIP

White Scars Jetbike WIP

White Scars Jetbike WIP

White Scars Jetbike WIP

White Scars Jetbike WIP

I began work today on taking away any Dark Angels symbols and replacing them with White Scars lighting bolts. I decide the book across the front wouldn’t fit in, and after rummaging through the old bits box found the Space Marine combat shield to be a great fit, so one green stuff lightning bolt later, I had the perfect replacement. I also knew the torso would need to completely replaced, as there where too many DA symbols in hard to get to places, and wanted to make sure he looked a wee bit more unique.

Next up is the head, I’m thinking one of the marine heads with a top knot added and some good old mongolian-esque facial hair should make it look the part 😀

Dystopian Wars – Painting has begun!

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Began painting the first of my Dystopian Wars fleet this afternoon, and thought I’d start of small with the few Galen class escorts I have. I knew straight off the bat that I wanted to stick to fairly cold colours across the models (they do hail from Antarctica after all), and that I wanted the main hull to be dark blue with a whity/creamy camo stripe effect. So set about getting some paint on these to see how it looked (I’ve had a few colour schemes in the past that looked great in my head, but in reality sucked big time), and was so pleased with the first one I got the others up to the same stage…

Galen class escorts WIP

Galen class escorts WIP

I really am chuffed to bits with how they turned out, and am glad I’ve got the main colours down so early as it usually takes a whole load of mmmm’ing and aaah’ing before I settle on a colour scheme.

Not quite as exciting due to yesterdays update, but I have got all the robots up to the same stage now:

Chromium Chargers WIP

Chromium Chargers WIP

These guys have been fairly simple so far with just the metals that where there when I got them, which I believe to be leadbelcher, with a nuln oil wash. Then a coat of fortress grey (leaving the recesses dark). Simple 😀

Dreadball Progress!

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Today I started work on the first batch of Robots, starting off with just a basic basecoat…

Chromium Chargers

Chromium Chargers

To be honest this gives a clear indication of what the team will look like in the end, as the next stages for the main colour is just highlighting up to white. Beyond that is just the team colour stripes and the blue glowy bits.

One of my mates also gave me a team name for my Marauders, who shall now forever be known as…

Gamma-Slammers

and in addition to receiving a cool name (Thanks Neil), I also managed to paint up some reinforcements for them over the weekend in the form of another Orx, Goblin and Slippery Joe:

Reinforcements ReinforcementsBack

With a league kicking off this weekend I thought it would be a good idea to have some extra players to hand, and the excitement of some hardcore Dreadball meant I couldn’t put the brush down 😀

New Toys! Part 3 – Dreadball

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Dreadball-Logo

Now this one isnt exactly a new game, as I have been getting on with this for a few weeks ago. I have however got some new goodies for it, and also managed to get 4 games in over the last couple of days, so I thought I’d show you where I’m going with it next and how the games have been.

I’ll start things off by saying that this game is freaking awesome! All of the games I’ve played have been an absolute hoot, and I think that comes down to the simplicity of the rules. It’s a very easy game to pick up, which means your not constantly bogged down with double checking rules, stats, etc. This coupled with the fact the game is incredibly fast paced just creates a great buzz when playing, especially when you’ve got the right opponents. As I’ve said I managed to get in 4 games with the Marauder team and luckily won every single one :D, I didn’t expect this team to be up to scratch and the original plan was to ebay them once complete, but I’m gonna stick with them for at least one league and see how I get on.

In between games I did manage to get the ref painted up, and also invested in the acrylic token set to replace the fairly crappy ones from out the box. These are well worth the money, they are good solid tokens and with the use they will see the card ones just wouldn’t last:

Dreadball Refbot

Dreadball Refbot

Acrylic Tokens

Acrylic Tokens

Up next will be a new team, the Z’zor…

Z'zor Team

Z’zor Team

I really like the design of the models, and think out of all the current teams these ones will offer the best oppertunity for a funky paintjob. Seems I got a bonus box too, as I had one extra guard in there. Score :D. I’m gonna go for a really bright green scheme on these guys, stupidly bright I think, but that will be after a commission for these guys…

Robot Team

Robot Team

The Client is looking to have them done in the same scheme as the Chronium Chargers, so will be going along the same sort of lines as the ref above, but with some additional embellishments to help ’em stand out.

New Toys! Part 2 – Dystopian Wars

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dystopian-wars

Next up in the way of new toy’s is naval battles in Spartans Dystopian Wars.

I’ve had my eye on this one for a wee while now, as it steadily grew in popularity. With a mate recently starting his own Empire of the Blazing Sun force I thought it was the perfect time to jump on board(sorry, couldn’t resist the pun :D). I set out over the last couple of weeks to settle on a force I wanted to play and was suitably impressed with the range on offer. All of the forces have an excellent range of models and stick to a particular theme, but the one that really popped out for me was the Antarticans. They have a really alien and advanced look which I fell in love with immediately, but its the airforce for them that solidified that this was the force for me….

Antarctican Aerial Battle Group

Antarctican Aerial Battle Group

The flying ships are just too damn cool, and I cant wait to get stuck into the painting, and then set about blowing up the Japanese with lasers (that’s right Dave, all of your ships are going to die!).

I knew I needed something other than the above though, it is primarily a naval battle game after all, so also invested in the following box…

Antarctican Battle Flotilla

Antarctican Battle Flotilla

I’m really impressed with the product you receive out the box as altogether it must have taken less than half an hour to get all those models ready for undercoating. Mold lines are to a complete minimum, or missing entirely from everything but the metal models, and the detail present is fantastic. It’s going to be weird doing a force with absolutely no basing required though, until we start getting into ground forces that is.

Having had a wee read through the rulebook I think this may take me a while to get my head around but there does seem to be a good presence of players at the local gaming shop (including some Spartan play-testers), so hopefully I can get some help from the guys in the know. I’ll let you know how I get on…

New Toys! Part 1 – Infinity

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Infinity_300Dpi_Orange_BluecopiaAs I mentioned yesterday I’m looking to get into a few new games systems, with a primary aim of painting something other than 40k models :), the first of which is Infinity.

A fair amount of mates have been getting stuck into it over the last few weeks, and tend to have nothing but praise for whats looking to be a great game. All that said I’ve not had a chance to play it myself but have picked up a few models to get me started…

Caledonian Starter Pack

Caledonian Starter Pack with William Wallace (centre)

Given the choice of models I had to go for the kilted radges, as not only does this give me the perfect opportunity to paint up some tartan but also I get to take William Wallace to lead them! The models are pretty stunning, with the level of detail being above par, and nothing really needing cleaned before putting them together. Was pleased that they are actually kilts, pleated at the back, as I expected just a flat surface all round.

The plan is to get going with these guys until I’ve had a few games and have a better idea as to where to expand to with the force. In regard to painting I’m planning on naming each of the folks in the force so that each one will have a specific tartan related to their clan, and this will give me the chance to paint as many varieties of tartan as I can, bonus!

Come back tomorrow to get a look at the next batch of awesome toys that I’ll be working on :D…

Dreadball team finished!

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Been distracted from my painting this week by a combination of new toys, no deadlines, and more gaming than usual. Managed to get one game of reffing which helped me nail down the rules to a good degree, and played a game against a mate, his first game. Made all the more better as it took no time for him to learn what he was doing and gave me a more challenging game, in the end beating me by 2 points. All this confirmed that Dreadball is indeed an awesome game and I can’t wait to play more. Gonna try and get more games in this week, and get a we write up of what went down 😛

In the time I did get to some painting I finished of the Marauder team, although I still need a name for them(any ideas folks?). Can’t say I’m not happy with the way they’ve turned out, but I’ll let you judge ’em for yourself 😀 :

Marauder Team

Marauder Team

Marauder Team

Marauder Team

I decided to stick with the green displays on these guys, but inspired by sho3box, will be using a different colour on each of the teams I do (I have three planned). The plan is to use a colour that compliments the main scheme I’ve picked for the team.

In other news I’ve decided I need to diversify and get some models from some other ranges on here. I’ve always been stuck into 40k and would really like to try different aesthetics in sculpting and fluff, whilst also showing I can paint more than just grimdark sci-fi :). Over the next week I’ll give you a taste of whats in the works…

Dreadball Marauders Test!

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Got stuck into a couple of the marauder players, a guard and a jack, from the boxed game today in order to get an idea of a colour scheme for the team. This is what I came up with:

Guard

Guard

Jack

Jack

Obviously they arent quite finished yet with some details here and there needing added and some work on the yellow and black sections, but overall I am very pleased with the colour scheme. Especially pleased with how the digital numbers on the backs look. Gonna carry this across all the Dreadball teams I work on, with a more race specific number marking appearing on the shoulder guards, so for these guys something fairly messy and slapped on looking.

Would love to hear what people think of them, and any changes/additions you think could be made?

Hydra’s Finished!

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This afternoon has been spent getting the last bits and bobs on the Hydra’s done, which means they are now done and dusted 😀

Completed Hydra's

Completed Hydra’s

Completed Hydra's

Completed Hydra’s

Will be getting a few more detailed images of them over the next few days, individual shots from all sides and such 🙂 Then it’s on to the next project (still making up my mind as to what that will be :-/)