Calth Finished

I'm calling this one done.  I changed my mind about doing oil washes for the Word Bearers, so I was able to finish up in a few less steps.  I'd say that they are a good table top level, but I'm happy with them.  Everything is back in the box and the board pieces are still unpunched.  Maybe I'll get a game in some day, but for now they are in the stack of fully painted GW games (Space Hulk, Dreadfleet,  and Assiasinorium).  I've got the deathwatch box now and have the genestealer half assembled and primed...

The stages for the word bearers were:
Spray black base
Red airbrushing (directional highlighting)
Silver details
Black details
Green eyes
Gloss spray (airbrushed future floor polish)
Decals (using micro sol and micro set)
matte spray (testors dull coat)
Shoulder pad silver edging
green eye highlights

Calth Word bearers progress

Here's a quick picture showing the state of things on my Calth set.  The Word Bearers are almost ready for their oil paint treatment, and the Ultramarines are pretty much done.  The bases are basically done as well, so they are passable as table top ready, but I'd like to add some more details and highlights.

Calth Word Bearers progress

I was able to carve out a little time last night to lay down a better red on the word bearer tactical troops.  I used GW paints in my airbrush and am quite happy with the brightness of the red.  The Minnitare paints don't go well over darker colours, but the GW ones have better pigments.

I'll have to retouch the black bits and add the silver before I can move onto the oil wash.

Calth Ultramarines almost done

A little more progress on the Calth Ultramarines.  I have all the decals done on the tactical squad and terminators, so they can get a matte spray and finish up the bases.  I may try to do some edge highlights, but that's not necessary for the level of finish I'm going for on these guys.  The terminator captain is almost done, just some more highlights and decals and he'll be done too.  The Word Bearer guy needs some work, but I'm liking how the red is looking on him so far.

Its good that I'm making progress since my Deathwatch box is showing up this weekend...

Betrayal at Calth - more progress

Here's some more progress pictures of my Calth marines.

The Ultramarine tactical squad is ready for a matte seal coat now that the decals have set nicely.  They received a few coats of micro sol and that helped them conform nicely to the shoulder pads.  The terminators have their oil wash and are ready for another gloss coat for their decals.

The Word Bearers have been drybrushed and given black details, next up will be silver.  I'm not happy with the brightness of the red, so I may do a quick overall highlight of the armour before moving to the oil wash.  I'm thinking something like Wild Rider Red thinned down red will do the trick.

Betrayal at Calth Progress

Here's some more progress pictures of my ultramarines as well as the base coat (airbrush) for the word bearers.  The ultramarine tacticals got a coat of future floor polish to prepare for decals, and the terminators got their coat to prepare for the oil wash.  The captain is just getting normal layers, so he won't need the oil wash.

The airbrush layer on the word bearers was just red over a black primer, with a quick orange coat to brighten things up before layering it with red again.  I'm not sure if they are bright enough yet, so I may do another coat of red before moving on to the details.

Hersey Marines

I've started assembling the first squad of marines from the Betrayal at Calth box.  So far its your typical marine assembly.  I was getting flash backs to my early years with the original plastic marines when assembling the rocket launcher.  Its interesting how they have tried to match the look based on a design that's what, 25 years old?

A few observations:
-Adding the hands to the weapons will make for better assembly, but makes painting a bit more difficult (can't leave the weapons off).
-I don't like the pose that I ended up with for the sergent with lightening claw.  Might have to repose it.

Contemptor Re-pose

At the suggestion of MiniWarBlog in my comments I reposed the contemptor's torso and assault cannon.  To get a minimal cut I used a sharp exacto knife rather than the razor saw.  The saw would have cut out about 1mm out, and I didn't want to build a spacer.  So I rotated the torso slightly and did the same with the weapon arm to give a slightly more dynamic pose.

Here's a look at the top half of the torso after cutting:

Betrayal at Calth Comptemptor Assembly

Hobbits are done, and now on to my next project, the Horus Heresy, Betrayal at Calth.  I decided to start by assembling the Contemptor and I think I'll try to do all of the Word Bearers first before moving onto the Ultra marines.  I'm hoping to airbrush them, so I'll be doing some sub assembly first before applying the main colours.  Hopefully I can come up with an efficient process.  I'm thinking of leaving their backpacks and shoulder pads off, but I'm not sure about their weapons.

As for the Contemptor, I think I'll make a few cuts and rotate the arms and torso.  It looks pretty static and maybe a little modification will go a long way.

Some hobbits battling it out on my desk:

Ready to dig into the Contemptor sprue:

Assembly done, needs some magnets: