Ravenwing: SNAFU

Hi folks,

When painting Space Marine bikes, conventional wisdom suggests that you should paint the rider and bike separately, particularly with the robed Dark Angels sergeant, as it can be hard to get the shades in the robes right. After assembling the sergeant though, I had this terrible suspicion that he wasn’t going to fit back on the seat! To save myself the pain of having an unusable painted miniature, I decided to attempt a dry fit straight after the undercoat. As suspected, the rider didn’t fit:

Here he is, in all his not-fitting glory...

The main problem was the thickness of the robes where they had to slide over the bikes exhaust. Somewhat dejected, I plonked myself down on the lounge room floor and mulled over what I should do. One option would be to use a spare set of robed legs to assemble the bottom half on the bike, then saw the top half off the undercoated figure and re-use it. I didn't like this option because it felt like too much fiddling and back-peddling. As always, Gypsy the Wonderdog offered her unconditional support.

To fix the problem I used a file and my hobby knife to reduce the thickness of the robes at the back. After an hour of careful shaving and repeated failed dry fit attempts: click, he was in. Now… getting him back out again so that I can paint him…

To finish off this stage of modelling I removed one of the bolguns and converted it into a meltagun, to represent a bike mounted combi-melta. I also added some Ravenwing kit to the back of the bike and started the long process of turning his black robes to the bone colour required. After the assembled parts are completed I'll finish this guy off with a steering arm and a thunder hammer.

I also painted all of the chest-eagles on the rest of the squad members. My technique for this is quick and nasty: a Bleached Bone layer followed by a Nuln Oil wash, then highlighted again with Bleached Bone. To finish it off I highlight with Skull White. The only tricky bit was painting the assembled marine handling the raven, as it was hard to get my brush in the best position to do the highlights.

I'm hoping that tonight I'll find some time to do some highlights on the black armour, a job I have been secretly dreading. Seriously, give me anything to highlight except black, please...

See you across the table,

M4cr0