The Sons of Mortarion

Forge World Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought

I have a client that has commissioned me to paint various models for his Forge World Death Guard army here and there, he's a lovely chap and he's one of these folks that loves him some 40k, but breaks out in hives whenever he goes near a paintbrush. 

As a result he's not too fussy about the paintjobs (which seems nuts to me spending £20 on every five marines, but hey, not my army not my business!) so he asked for me to do just "Tabletop Standard" Paintjobs on them, which is just as well, because the first commission from him consisted of over 100 models!

One of the really great things about painting a lot is that every once in a while you get something across your desk that you really wanted to paint or try out, but you don't necessarily have a place in your gaming army for right now, this army is full of little gems like the Contemptor Dreadnought on the right and various bits of Forge World Crusader armour that i will probably get around to picking up some of once the new Marine Codex rolls around (whenever that may be, i'm a staunch Imperial Player to the end.)

He tends to use the army as Space Wolves on the tabletop, which in turn leads to odd things cropping up to paint that you wouldn't normally see in a "regular" marine army (like Terminators with crazy wargear, representing Wolf Guard Terminators)

This army gave me a real headache when i started painting them, "Over 100 white marines?!" i was thinking to myself, but as ever, a bit of browsing the 'ole google for some white marines generated some interesting models from different painters that had started with White as the main colour, and then proceeded to just "dirty it up" with weathering powders, which is actually quite effective in the flesh even if it translates badly in photographs.

Strangely enough, around the same time my Mother was throwing out some old eyeshadows/mascaras (i'm a dude, i don't know the difference!) and in typical Mom fashion she asked me "Can you use these for your little men?" and for once i replied "why yes, yes i can!  Thanks!" 

So with a spare brush with good quality bristles that was quite unsullied by the grime of ages, i had a go at stippling it onto the models and it didn't work so well at first, but i quickly cottoned on that if you breathe heavily on a model (bear with me here) the condensation of your breath clings to the model and subsequently holds the powder in place, this can only be done once it's fully painted of course but it works a treat!  And i've seen his army months after i painted the first batch and the powder has held on just fine!  It's weird the little things you come across eh?

He also commissioned me to paint this Rhino, which i absolutely love, based on the old Rogue Trader/2nd Edition Chassis, it's actually built off a modern day rhino with the addition of Plasticard, the result is so effective i think i'll be giving it a go myself some time!

I'm a complete sucker for anything harking back to the older days of 40k as i first developed an interest in it when i was about 12 in 2nd Edition so i have fond memories of lots of different models.

My first model ever was actually an Eldar War Robot though woefully, throughout the years it has disappeared entirely.

And as you can see from the Rhino, the weathering effect of Powder even works brilliantly on Large surfaces of vehicles (much to my relief.)

I'll no doubt have more Death Guard goodies to post in future!