Rise of the IXth - Fire Raptor

I've been ready to start my 30k Blood Angel army for a very long time, but have held off until recently so that I could finish the 40k Dark Angels army. Many would argue that I should have started earlier, but I really don't like having lots of residual grey plastic sitting around in boxes and there is something really exciting about venturing into a new army, knowing that there isn't any other work just hanging around needing completion.

I bought the Fire Raptor in January 2015 as it was originally meant as the final model for my Ravenwing army, but I eventually decided to  draw a line with the Dark Angels as, after approximately 8000 points fully painted, it was getting a little ridiculous.

My paint scheme has not changed from the Rhino test model that I did last year on my first airbrush course with MKA studios, I played with some colour tests but still came back to the original colour scheme of grey-tone pre-shade, Vallejo Game Air scarlet red and blue ink to shade the darkest areas.

It sounds simple, but the magic is all in getting the pre-shade right in the first place and making sure the red is applied in really thin glazes (3:1 ratio of thinner to paint) over the model - so far I think it's looking okay.

These are the WIP shots and worth noting the following:

1. The reds are done however I am debating whether to go ahead with edge highlighting.

2. The blacks need a very gentle airbrush highlight with a shadow-type grey on the exposed areas

3. I need to order some custom Blood angel transfers from Fall out hobbies - they need to go on next.

4. The real challenge in this model with then be adding a subtle and refined level of weathering but more importantly - applying the gold trimming and some Renaissance-style iconography as depicted in the picture below, which may well launch me into the terrifying world of freehand.

Medium term I have a BaC box set and a deredeo. I've decided to hold off building any infantry until I attend a new painting course in June - this will be a week-long training course focusing on airbrushing infantry and learning finer skills which I can apply to elite/character models. 

I want this army to be fully airbrushed and my best yet so in the mean time, I'm going to stick to painting tanks, aircraft, drop pods and dreads - which will keep me busy I'm sure.

Finally, I've pre-ordered HH Book 6: Retribution. I hope that there is at least more than a couple of pictures of Blood Angels which I can use as inspiration for my models. I recognise this will not be a full BA campaign in there, but it will be great if they have more than what has already been teased which is a fire raptor, spartan and a tactical marine. Nevertheless - this will be my first HH book purchase so I'm excited to see the book.

The Blood Angels are all about beauty...and they probably speak Italian in the Grim Dark Future