Centurion Annihilator, Rexus

For a little while now, i've thought that the Inquisitor Tyrus model from the now defunct 50mm Skirmish-roleplay-em-up game Inquisitor would make a great 40k model, but obviously with it's sheer size it would have difficulty coming off as any of the regular infantry sized models, as it's way more huge than even a beefy Terminator suit.

And then the Centurions came out and i painted a squad up for the Marines Exemplar, they weren't far off the size, but still a little too small.

Anyway, i was selling off some old Inquisitor bits and bobs on Ebay that i will never have a use for and typically i did some searches to see what the models were going for, and then i saw a slightly damaged, child-painted model of Tyrus, complete with horrific head conversion with elongated neck.  But the Basic body was intact even if the shoulder pauldrons were missing. 

I managed to win it for next to nothing ( i don't think most people could be bothered with the renovation work or trying to find alternate parts. ) But for me i was intending to convert it anyway, and when it arrived i searched in my gargantuan bits box of ages past and managed to find a complete set of two Tyrus shoulder Pauldrons even though i didn't have the rest of the model ( i believe i ordered them when such a thing was still possible for a conversion that never materialised.)  But after that stroke of good luck i got to chopping the model and adding parts to make it look like a marine inside a massive warsuit.   And i think the end result is quite good!

I'll use him as a dreadnought (he's on a 60mm base) and bulk-wise he is probably most similar to a dreadnought (and the generic dreadnought models just look a bit bland nowadays, in my opinion.) In terms of background i imagine him to be in a similar vein to the "Punisher Attack Bikes" that the Marines Exemplar have, a lone marine in search of glory, but only able to attain access to the heaviest equipment once he has proven himself.

Big Guns Never Tire - The Devastator Corps of the Marines Exemplar

Marines Exemplar 1st Company Devastators

As i've said before, one of my favourite parts about collecting an established army with no canon is that i get to add it myself, and most of the time this works out great as Games Workshop generally never round out the background for 2nd founding onwards Chapters.

I find that thinking up this background helps me to envision the army as i build it and reason what would "fit" into my army selection, i've become more and more defined for my vision of the Marines Exemplar and wanted them to have a strong vein of Imperial Fists Character running through them, but with their own twist.

Where Daemons tread... - Inquisitor Coteaz Conversion

Lord Inquisitor Geralt Oviron, of the Ordo Malleus

I recently picked up (downloaded? acquired?) the new Codex: Inquisition, after slight initial disappointment at the lack of new toys (i don't really know what people were expecting, they were hardly going to release a new line of Inquisition models when there are so many weird old ones sitting around doing nothing.) i quickly grew to love the book though, it's infinitely closer to my idea of Inquisitors in the background of the 40k universe than any of their other appearances so far (well, apart from maybe 2nd ed.?)

Arrogance as a Virtue - The Chronicles of the Marines Exemplar

1500 Point Marines Exemplar Army, ready for battle

The Marines Exemplar are going strong!   One of the most rewarding Hobby projects i have had in a long time, i can't stop painting units for them!

I guess i've always been a huge fan of Space Marines and with that, 2nd and 3rd founding chapters in particular.

The best part of collecting these guys has been thinking up my own background for them as the army takes shape, all from the original picture i saw in the 6th edition 40k Rulebook when it first came out!

Marines Exemplar Attack Bikes - The Punisher Biker Corps.

"Punisher" class Attack Bike

Within my Marines Exemplar army, throughout the games i have been playing lately, it became more and more clear that the force was lacking in smaller "support elements", units that while not costing a ton of points or being the most effective in terms of decimating entire units in a phase, would be vital to shoring up any weaknesses in my battle line.  Speed is also an important element as they need to be able to react to the enemy battleplan.

Peace through Superior Firepower

Marines Exemplar Devastator Squad

I've mentioned my lack of love for standard Devastator load-outs before (well, that might be a bit harsh, i just think they could look cooler.) and after having a gander at the new Marine book i was thinking that seeing as i was heading into Imperial Fist territory, i was thinking a Heavy Bolter devastator squad would be totally sweet, with all those re-rolls and the ability to annihilate light-medium tanks with tank hunter.  After having already assembled and painted a "stock" Heavy Bolter for one of my Tactical squads i decided 4 of those would be WAY too boring, and something that has always annoyed me is the way Assault cannons have never made it onto the basic infantry of the Space Marine army, any hot blooded male was weened on the film Predator and as a result has an unhealthy love for Miniguns.  Well WYSIWYG be damned, i thought, i'll just convert some Assault cannons onto those suckers and use them like the totally sweet Premium Heavy Bolters they will be in the game anyway.  And if anyone doesn't like it they can SCRATCH.

Marine Exemplar Devastator

Paragons of Obstinacy

Marines Exemplar Tactical Squad

The release of the recent 6th edition Space Marine Codex has fuelled me to a frenzy of painting what i paint best, power-armoured badasses.

I'd been wanting to do a new Successor chapter army for a while what with the veritable new odds and ends released for Marines since selling on my last Iron Lords army (all gajillion points of it.)  and being a long-time hobbyist i have plenty of disowned marines from various chapters in various states of painting sitting in various figure cases and various bits boxes.  One of the things i really like about doing a non "Stock" Space Marine army is the ability to just throw random touches of iconography from different ranges at models and use them in interesting ways, there are lots of winged shoulder pads and touches from models like the Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard for example, that would look a touch out of place on an Ultramarine, but not a model with a less established Canon.

The Glorious Dead

Kaevern Mournsong - Iyanden Spiritseer

In my quest to, it would seem, collect every single force vying for attention in the 41st Millennium, i recently decided after some truly appalling defeats with my Tau that i would go back to one of my old favourite armies.  The Eldar.

And not just any Eldar, an Iyanden Craftworld Eldar army.  As with most new releases from Games Workshop, many mewled and cried and moaned about the price of the new Iyanden supplement, and while they were complaining i was ignoring them as i couldn't hand over my money fast enough. 

To the dark gods of the uh.... Greater Good?

 

XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Commander

So, it all started when the Cities of Death book came out,  This Art from the front cover (the artist of which is evading me through google) blew me away when i saw it.  Easily one of the strongest Games Workshop related art pieces i have seen in years, and as badass as the Vostroyans look (they do look, very badass) what caught me was the Tau in the picture, this White and Red colour scheme is so striking i was surprised it hasn't been replicated onto any studio models before or since.  I always wanted to try my hand at converting it to the real thing (even though the Tau are taking an absolute pasting in the picture and one Fire Warrior appears to have lost a fight with... a spike?).

Live by the blade, Die by the blade.

Chosen Chaos Space Marine of Khorne.

With the release of the new Chaos Space Marine Codex i have been pledging to finally dive into 6th Edition 40k.

The release of the new rules set, though brilliant, left me feeling stranded.  My Entire Armoured Chaos Space Marine force was left feeling decidedly gibbed.  It is clear the importance of troop transports has been reduced greatly in the game, and though while they are useful they now work in an entirely different way to before.  Squads buying transports to get into the fray faster seem better off walking now.

Nights best spent crafting flesh

The first five Wracks stagger free of the laboratories.

This edition of Tower of Snakes comes to you straight from the painting table, i've been buoyed ahead with painting recently, feverishly brushing acrylics/inks/mediums/varnishes onto any Dark Eldar models within my reach and i'm happy with the results so far!

The Coven of the Severed Tongue

Dark Eldar by Adrian Smith

It all started with this picture.

Over the weekend of course the 6th Edition Warhammer 40k Rulebook was released and alongside that came all the inevitable reading, i have to say, i'm a huge fan of the new rules so far and for everything they have taken away, they have given you ten more, pretty excited to get some games in!


Flicking through the army background section of the book i was suddenly floored when i came across this picture, Adrian Smith has always been one of my favourite artists, his style is unique and instantly recognizable, but it struck me that i don't think he has ever painted the Dark Eldar before, and if he has, never in such gruesome and beautifully dark detail, the complete picture shows the bodies of terrified guardsmen strewn across the ground with their eyes cut out and the Dark Eldar standing aloof and alien in the aftermath of battle while a Talos floats broodingly in the background.

I'd always been tempted to do a Dark Eldar Coven based army, but now alongside 6th edition coming into being and waiting for the new Chaos Codex it seemed like a perfect time to actually get into action!

I picked up a box of Wracks and a Talos to get to work on and pictured above is my first wrack, not completely finished yet but coming along nicely, the detail of the models is absolutely incredible and very fun to work with, the skin is a lot nicer to view in the flesh and is an absolute joy to paint.

I used a lot of the new GW paints to paint the model including the Dark Eldar specific skin colours and the dark blue/grey highlight colours, the blood is achieved using Tamiya Clear red ink, this stuff is fantastic, it works best if basecoated with a nice dark red (think GW Red Gore) colour and the subtly worked along, the Wrack models are brutally stitched together in a number of places so i thought it would be great to highlight that, basing usually presents a bit of difficulty for me, i don't like to be too flashy with it as i like the attention to be on the models themselves, i like the idea of the army walking across a desert like area, but i also thought it would be cool to have lots of blood spatter and blood drips to further the narrative of such a horrific army, i used the same blood method as i used on the models and it has come out pretty well, going to paint the first 5 wracks up with the same basing method and see if it bears up across the squad, and if it doesn't look so good i can just rebase them!

The models to the right are some more Wracks from the same squad that i am painting, the one on the left has had a Basecoat of Rakarth Flesh, highlighted with Pallid Wych flesh and then inked with Leviathan Purple wash, the model on the right has had the same treatment, but then a recoat of Pallid Wych flesh after the purple wash, after this i do one more coat of Pallid Wych flesh as a highlight, but mixed with 50/50 with Skull White, and then the work on the rest of the model begins!

I will post some more progress soon hopefully and let you know how i get on!

The Gore-Trodden path

The army arrayed in all its Infernal Glory.

6th Edition 40k creeps ever closer, and every day i hear a new rule or tidbit, no matter how hard i try to ignore them.

Not that i'm not interested, i'm just so excited i want to be sitting with the new book and a cup of tea already god damn it.

There are several huge changes i'm liking already though,  firstly the constant chatter about allies interests me, straight off people have been discussing particularly beardy combos and how to pull them off, but me personally, i'm thinking about how to present unique modelling oppurtunities.

For example, once the new Chaos Space Marine book rolls around, if there is in fact no sign of Chaos Cultists (which i'm desperate for as i think they add a ton of theme to any Chaos army) then i will be quite happy to utilize some Imperial Guard and proxy my own, the allies rules also fix the weirdness surrounding Chaos Marines and Chaos Daemons being two books quite nicely also.

The Second thing that interests me greatly is that armies can now purchase "Fortifications" as part of their Army points allowance, which is pretty nuts, especially when you start to factor in the additional heavy weapons and special rules some of them bring to the field.  But even if this is the case i am pretty excited, i love the idea of never hitting a table without enough scenery ever again, that sounds great!

Gorak, Skull Champion of Khorne.

The Khorne Berzerkers in my army prove their worth nearly every game, the damage output these guys have is phenomenal compared to how they look on paper, the best factor about the whole squad i think is the WS5, those 3's to hit really push the bracket up for how much damage they do.  I've played games where the squad (7 Berzerkers and a Champion with Power Weapon) have charged into a squad of 4 Thunder Hammer Terminators and Vulkan and aced the combat (much to my shock).  The furious charge on the unit allows me to break my habit of giving all sergeants power fists in an attempt to cover and redundancy, there is however the constant threat of Dreadnought attack, but i attempt to stay vigilant against that!  As for the modelling side of things, i wanted the Khorne Berzerkers to stand out in the army and i imagined them viewing themselves as more "Pure" in their worship of khorne, i imagined them amputating any mutations not fitting of the blood god in particular and replacing the mangled limbs with simple combat blades and prosthetic chainsaws, the better to aid them in combat, it turned out pretty well!  The Champion Gorak has had his model taken from an old Games Day Limited Edition Chaos Warrior that i'd had sitting around doing nothing for a while, he just seemed perfect, even though he's holding a Wood Elf (which i like to think of as an exodite eldar or possibly a dark eldar)  the pose is so arrogant it's very fitting for a Khorne Berzerker champion i think!

The rest of my troops choices are rounded out with Chaos Space Marine Squads with the Mark of Khorne, a Power fist and a Meltagun in each, if i'd had the points i would have liked to have taken combi weapons on the chaos champions for the more guaranteed melta fusillade at important times, but even so they have performed admirably, the ridiculous amount of attacks they put out tending to do me a lot of favours up close (apart from the odd game where i'm allrgic to rolling 4+.)  For my next project with these boys i am looking to convert some more icon bearers, i imagined the banners as windows into the realm of chaos, so i would like to hollow out a banner and have a daemon model actually lunging forward from the banner itself, i think that would look really cool (if a little tricky to pull off!)

Blood Disciples

Redmawr the Rancid, Daemon Prince of Chaos

Well, i have been remiss updating lately, but so what?  That's what blogs are for right?

I haven't been dozing in a cave though, i have been doing a fair bit of painting in the mean time, i completed a new army which i took to the local 40k Ashes tournament (for the ashes of the 5th edition Rulebook, what with the new one around the corner and all!)

In the run up to the tournament, i decided i wanted to take an army that is viewed as underpowered within the current meta game, so in the weeks running up to it, i kept hearing people say how rubbish the Chaos Space Marine book is and how it's only any good if you take Lash of Submission, and even then it looks a bit shonky now.

Well, i've always been a follower of the dark gods, my first foray into 40k was with a horrific circus coloured Tyranid army (you know, in 2nd ed. when all the troop types were different garish colours) my next and first solid army was a Chaos Space Marine army built around Khorne.

"Soul crusher" Blood Disciples Vindicator

My old army used to be lead by my Chaos Lord Redmawr Rancid riding a Juggernaut of Khorne so i thought it would be fun to do an army built around him a bit further on down the line once he had attained Daemonhood.

I decided i wanted to do something a bit different from traditional red, and also that i wanted the army to consist of renegades who worship Khorne rather than a straight up World Eaters force.    So i settled on naming my force the Blood Disciples, only realising a little later that there is an army called the Blood Disciples in the codex, i decided my Warband had struck out on their own, self imposed exile under the command of Redmawr himself.

I played around with a couple of lists but settled on quite a nice well rounded force headed up by Redmawr himself, with a squad of 5 Terminators boasting a variety of weapons mounted in a Land Raider (as a dedicated transport) for troops i decided on one squad of Khorne Berzerkers (the most blood mad and elite renegades) in a rhino, as well as two squads of 8 chaos marines in rhinos.  Moving on i spent the rest of my points on Heavy Support, with a pair of Obliterators, a Chaos Predator Annihilator and a Vindicator as well.

 "The Gore Hounds" Chaos Terminator squad

The army performed admirably well in practice games, winning the vast majority, and to my surprise i even managed to come out on top against a couple of lists i pretty much expected to get smashed by.

I utilized a variety of techniques in the painting of the army, but i decided straight off that i wanted everything to look filthy, one of my biggest problems with a lot of Chaos Marine armies is how clean cut they all look.  If you worship dark gods, cavort with daemons and flay the skins of the damned, i don't see that polishing armour and repainting it all the time would be high on your list of priorities, i thought it would also provide a nice counter point to more clean looking Loyal marines as well (and of course hopefully look pretty good on the table top)  this project was also the first time i made use of the new Citadel paints range and i have to say that i am very happy with the new paints, i wasn't too sure how they would manage to improve on the old range, but somehow they have!  Good work GW!

"The Corpsegrinder" Chaos Space Marine Land Raider

One thing that surprised me about the army is just how effective the Terminator squad in Land Raider proves to be, even with the laughable set of abilities of the tank (The glaring omission of anything comparable to "power of the machine Spirit" is really felt a lot of the time) the Terminators themselves often ridiculously overperform, and the one thing i put this down to is the purchase of a single chainfist.  That 5 point upgrade has spelt doom for a whole junkyard's worth of vehicles, often my tactic will be to engage an enemy unit and multi-charge the single terminator with chainfist into a tank on his own.

He nearly always takes them down.

The utility of the Chaos marine units and Berzerkers in their rhinos is very interesting to play with as well, part of the end result of going for a core of Chaos Marine squads instead of pure Khorne Berzerkers is that the Melta Guns have provided them the ability to perform "drive-by" attacks from the top of Rhinos whilst maintaining a certain degree of safety.  This is utility would be lost with a pure Khorne Berzerker force, and while the majority of the army isn't full of whacky abilities (something i think a Chaos Codex should be full of by the way) it is extremely solid and tactical, almost on a par with the Loyalist marine codex.

Blood Disciple Obliterators

One victory that caught me off guard in particular was when i went toe to toe with a Kaldor Draigo-wing Grey Knight list, the Obliterator's Plasma Cannons proved to be a vital counterpoint to the monstrous Paladin squad, stripping multiple wounds off at once (stopping Draigo bouncing them all off on his shield)  across the first couple of turns the paladins were all stripped down to one wound each and then slowly picked off, i even got to use the old "Adamantium Barricade" maneuver with both the Chaos Marine Squad's rhinos, disembarking from both and placing the rhinos an inch or so apart so there was room to fire but they couldn't be assaulted in the ensuing turn, beautiful!

 Anyway, i now look forward to the eminent release of 6th edition, bring it on!

Normandy

Flames of War - German Hitlerjugend from Normandy

Recently i had the honour to be commissioned to paint a vast army of Germans from Flames of War, i've posted previously about these fellows but now the second half of the commission is completed they are even more impressive!

I find it quite funny that you could put a Space Marine (which doesn't exist in the "real" world) and i could tell you it's affiliation, probably home planet and preferred method of warfare and yet, place a World War 2 unit or tank in front of me (which, you know, actually existed) and i haven't the foggiest what it does or it's strengths and weaknesses.  Having said that i quite enjoyed painting these models, the tanks in particular were a joy to paint, all the years spent practicing on Space Marine Rhinos really pays off once you make the switch to painting something and attempt to make it look realistic!

Painting the infantry presents their own unique challenges, i like to lavish detail onto infantry models and they are normally a strong point for me, but in 15mm, even the casting is fighting against you for fine detail, and the overall look of an army is much more important than the tiny details (but they are still fun to sneak in here and there.)

When it came to assembling the infantry in the first wave, i had the daunting task of being faced with 50+ models that looked identical, and at that time not knowing the difference between a Panzerschreck and a Panzerfaust.

But i learn quickly when i can and learned to love the little fellas for the unique challenge they presented, the second batch were far easier to paint once i had the experience with the colour scheme under my belt and a predetermined plan instead of sitting around chewing paintbrushes and looking confused, i put in a couple of days solid work and managed to polish off the tanks and remaining infantry at a pretty good pace, i even went back and added some extra detail to the infantry i had painted previously to bring them all into line with each other in terms of quality, which isn't something i was paid to do, but i'm a perfectionist till the end!

The addition of a "Special Character" in the second wave of models was quite interesting as well, riding in a Panther tank he isn't readily distinguishable from those of his squadron, so i made sure during assembly that i fitted the front mudguards to his tank prominently and made sure he was poking out the top hatch, as well as painting up the numbered insignia on the side of his turret from the box, i think he came out pretty well, and his mobile Tank workshop piece was great fun to paint, a little diorama in it's own right!  Hopefully the client will like them!

March of the Grey Knights

Well!  I've been busy painting away as always!

I decided to alter up the colour scheme of the Grey Knights a bit as i couldn't get the gold helms to look swish, the newer white helms actually look  lot nicer in the flesh so i'm going to go with that, and after a little segway painting some more Flames of War Germans (Which i can photograph this time, including the older batch i painted as the owner was kind enough to lend them to me!) i will be kicking down to finish the Grey Knights or at the very least get them more done!


I should be able to finish at least a squad.

Hopefully.

Malifaux: Sonnia Criid

Sonnia Criid's Witch-hunters.

Well, i know i said i was going to start Malifaux with Kirai Ankoku, but after a bit more research and starting to get into the rules of the game, i realised that yes, Kirai has incredibly involved playstyle and that to jump in feet first with her might be making it tougher for myself than need be, with this in mind i cast my eye over the other gangs available and decided on Sonnia Criid and her Witch hunters as the models are also, just gorgeous,  i haven't even played a single game of Malifaux yet and i am totally intrigued by the system, the resource management twist with using a deck of cards in lieu of dice is something i'm really looking forward to giving a go, hopefully when i get a chance to grab a game or two i might be able to do a battle report to give people a bit of a taster.

Sonnia Criid.

One of the details i really like is the fact that scenarios you play aren't repetitive, there are lots to choose from, including ones specific to the crew you are playing with, as well as these basic scenarios you get "Schemes" which are an extra level of victory conditions built into the scenario on top, some require you to keep them a secret, some you tell your opponent, but the rule book essentially reads like something akin to a highly tweaked and more interesting version of Necromunda, and when you add in the fact that Malifaux crews only tend to be made of a select group of individuals rather than sprawling armies, getting started doesn't carry a prohibitive cost, in fact, this crew cost me less than twenty quid, and the rulebook was a tenner (from Heroes and Legends mind, they discount everything!) and then the fate deck to play games with was only a couple of quid, so for just over 30 quid i've got everything i need to get knee deep in Malifaux, which is pretty exciting when you think about it.

Sammael Hopkins.

Sonnia Criid herself is a High-Damage Output Caster with a variety of flame-based spells at her disposal, as well as her anti-magic abilities, she works for the guild, the dystopian organisation that polices the frontier dimension of Malifaux, i am an instant sucker for that "Good guy... or not?" character that essentially fights for the forces of good but may have other motives going on, she heads up task forces that hunt down the various mages of Malifaux and persecutes them in the name of order, she is backed up Sammael Hopkins with his trusty .45 Colt and Huntin' Tools, he can magically imbue his shots with flame, Gunmancy, pretty awesome in my book.  He can also loose off three devestating shots that can annihilate nearly anything in the game with a series of decent draws which i like the sound of, as a friend of mine has been threatening that he will be using Lord

Witchling Stalker.

Chompy Bits and the Dreamer, so hopefully i'll be able to stand up and spit in their faces!

The basic grunts for Sonnia and her crew are the Witchling Stalkers, now initially i was put off by the Witchling Stalkers as they essentially look like deranged midgits (or little people as i prefer to call them) but when i first showed interest in the game someone said to me that "a lot of the models in Malifaux don't necessarily make sense until you read the background" which is very true.  The Witchling Stalkers are captured mages from other warbands in the Guild's pursuits, Sonnia Criid then binds these individuals with powerful Hexes that are essentially anti-magic, the effect this has on the unfortunates is that their bodies begin to atrophy and wither under the strain, this causes catastrophic trauma to the individual and under the attentions of the Guild's witch hunter's they are

Witchling Stalker.

rehabilitated into combat against their former allies, eager to do anything to stave off the inevitable decay of their bodies, after reading this in its full context i was pretty riveted and reading along the background of some of the other casters inspired me greatly as well.

In the game Sonnia and her hexed friends form a kind of "Anti-magic pit" those reliant on spells will have a hard time against her, but she is by no means insurmountable.

A nice feature of Malifaux is that it definitely has a feel of Rock/Paper/Scissors some crews do benefit greatly against others, but it is a gentle push into the upper hand rather than a "haha! you lose!" feel, when compounded with the vast range of scenarios available you have to bear in mind that a lot of the time, winning a game isn't about annihilating your opponent, it can be setting up dynamite, assassinating key models (not just the opponent's caster), protecting supply wagons and many more.

Witchling Stalker.

Wyrd Miniatures (the company that produce Malifaux) also make a selection of scenery called "Terraclix" which i'm quite interested to give a go as well, its entirely modular pre-printed stuff, but it includes stairways funny little gantries and building interiors and actually looks like it would be a lot of fun to play across, and i like the idea of switching up between "Outdoor" games on traditional tables and "Indoor" games inside buildings, something you don't really get to do a lot of the time.

So i will grab a few games of Malifaux and post on my progress, i look forward to getting stuck in yet another wierd and wonderful world!

Adieu!

Scourge the Daemon!

Grey Knight Terminator Librarian.

A while back i painted up these Grey Knights and sold them on Ebay, originally i purchased them pretty soon after the codex came out, but after looking through the book i couldn't make head nor tail of the list at the time, so i thought i would give it some time to let some cheaky tricks emerge (let other people do the homework for me!)

I started off by making this Grey Knight Librarian from a metal Space Marine Terminator Librarian i'd had kicking around, i quite like the Terminator Librarian model, but i'd got bored of the same face bossing around my Space Marines so i thought it would be cool to fit a helmet over the top, i took a while boring out the back of the head with a modelling knife, i snipped the back half of the head off first.

And filed down the original face until he looked like he'd dipped his head in a bucket of Acid.

Stuck on a shield for the Heraldry and a Nemesis Force Sword as well as a book icon on the back, worked out quite well for a conversion i think!  I will be repeating it in future and refining it slightly for my own Grey Knight army.

Grey Knight Strike Squad.

I also painted up this Grey Knight Strike Squad, i actually swapped the Justicar and the Psycannon's legs for those in the Sanguinary Guard kit for a bit of variation amongst the squad, i quite like how the Justicar worked out.

I also added a few bits and pieces to the base as nice additional features, a Spawn arm underfoot, a Chaos Marine Helmet and a Khornate Vehicle icon all add detail nicely to the squad as well as Gale Force 9's Autumn Foliage to spice up the colour palette a bit.

Grey Knight Terminator Squad.

And finally i painted up this Terminator Squad, i was really happy with how they came out, Games Workshop did an amazing job with this kit, you can really create endless combinations for your models, and the poses are quite realistic compared to some models, i like the metallic look of the traditional colour scheme, but i'm awkward so i decided for my own to do them white to make them stand out, sometimes it's good to paint a whole squad in a traditional scheme just to make sure you want to go that way with your army, i did these guys over the space of two evenings and was quite happy to let them go, but found the experience i got painting them to be quite useful to my own Grey Knights once i started them!

The Germans are coming!

 

So recently i painted a large number of Flames of War Germans for a lovely fellow, it was quite an interesting experience.

It took me ages.

Assembly alone was hilarious, opening an infantry platoon box to work on seems like a great idea, everything is pretty easy to differentiate, but when you open up the box and see piles and piles of little white metal men staring back at you, it's very difficult to work out who is who, either way i made it through, painting 15mm infantry is a bizarre experience and when the colour scheme for them is the Hitlerjugend from Normandy (basically tiny dots of varying neutral colours all over the uniform) it's very difficult to make them look flash.   But i approached it with zeal and i was happy with the results, i foolishly forgot to snap the models before i handed them over (i was working on them till 4AM one night... i'm a bit nocturnal) but i did snap this Tank, i really enjoyed painting Flames of War Tanks and i hope to get some more in the future as they are a really different experience, i love my weathering in all different forms and these really give you a chance to go hog wild.

There is talk of some more coming my way so i will make sure i get the next ones photographed for the future!

Warmachine: Storm Strider

Cygnar Storm Strider

Recently i had the pleasure of painting a Cygnar Stormstrider from Warmachine up as a commission, when i first looked at the model i thought it would be a complete nightmare, but the collection of techniques involved in painting it was actually quite refreshing, a nice mix of weathering and painting interesting textures onto the different parts of the model kept it fun to paint throughout, and it was a lot quicker to paint than i expected also.

There are normally crew to go with the model but i only received one to paint which i duly left at home when dropping the model off (when this picture was taken) so he is having to undertake and arduous quest of his own to be reunited with his Warmachine through the streets of London currently.

I was quite pleased in particular with the subtle gradient of the blue on the legs, going from darker at the bottom to lighter at the top, i'd been itching to have another go at this technique, but i think it looks better on rounded surfaces than flat, and i've been painting a lot of Imperial Vehicles for 40k which everyone knows are all about the Right angles.

I thought it would be a good time to talk about one of my favourite techniques at the moment for creating false perspective on a model, and how easy it is to achieve, The gashes and strikes on the legs of the Storm Strider are done using this method, i call it "Gouging" but i'm sure that there is another more accepted name for it in the painting community, but so what, right?

the Privateer Press Studio version of the Storm Strider has an amazing extension of this "Gouging" effect where by paint is chipped off to reveal rusted and pitted metal underneath, but i thought i would have a go at this on one of my own models first, other people's models aren't always the best place to begin experimenting!

Anyway, it goes a little like this,

Step One:  Take your surface that requires roughing up, in this example it's the unfinished leg plate of the Storm Strider, i'd got the basic colours of the leg down by this point so i figured it was a good time to chuck in this particular detail, paint fine lines over the armour plating with a colour that is just a darkened version of your main colour, the swipes in this picture are Enchanted Blue with Chaos Black 50/50 (they just look a bit darker in the picture).

The swipes tend to look better if they taper off at the ends to smaller points at each end but as you can see here i was happy just to have the basic line down, you can always go back and add the tapered ends later.

Step Two:  Go back and extreme highlight the lower of the two sides with a lighter version of your base colour (base colour of the armour, not the darkened impression), this gives the impression that the light is catching a raised edge, really deep cuts could be highlighted both edges (to simulate say an axe becoming embedded in an armour plate and the wielder really having to struggle to pull it free)

As you can see in the picture this instantly adds perspective compared to the line below it, and these are close ups, quite unforgiving, down on a gaming table it looks awesome.

So uh, yeah, that's it really.  Pretty easy, and a technique i would recommend everyone to try, these are quite large cuts obviously and i didn't want to rough the model up with too much weathering as Cygnar models tend to have quite a "Pristine" image, more industrial models like Khador i'd just say go nuts, this technique extrapolates quite well onto infantry as well, i've used it a lot on Space marines in the past with great results, when you combine it with weathering powders and little extra paint chips here and there it really looks beastly,

to take it to the next level and increase the quality even further i'd recommend a further highligh towards the edges of the first in a lighter colour adding more White or bone to whatever colour you are working with.

So if you haven't tried it already give it a shot, it's well fun.