Horus Heresy, 30k Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought

More Blood Angels today - this time the Contemptor. This model was actually the test piece for the whole army scheme, so was a bit experimental. It seemed like a good model to practice my freehand on before scaling down to the smaller troops. 

The model is the older plastic contemptor that came with one of the box sets (Calth maybe?) - I had it sitting around down the back of a drawer for years and dug it out to add to the Blood Angels. I've actually managed to add a few things to the army from my collection, and it's been fun finally clearing some space in the cupboard of shame! 

The Havoc launcher is actually an old Anvil Industry bit. I think they might be out of print now as a lot of the old Anvil range has gone. 

Much like the Marines, I've tried to capture that old school vibe, so thrown in blue and yellow along with plenty of black flames! 

That about rounds it out for the dreadnought. The scenery pictured behind it is another project I've been working on and may share more photos of at some point  

 

Horus Heresy 30k Blood Angels Tactical Squad 2

 More photos - this time of my second completed 10 man Tactical squad. They also have a Rhino, but this time it's an old 2nd edition one! A classic model! 

If you've been around Warhammer, you'll recognise how many of the Heresy weapons and different looks were inspired by the older models in the range. The new Deimos Rhino is a good example as it's basically a rehash of the Rhino from the early 90s. Equally, a lot of the heavy weapons are variously different variants based on old models. 

As I was looking to capture an older Rogue Trader/2nd edition look with the force, I've tried to sneak in a few classic models where I can. 

The Tactical squad themselves use the new mark VI Marines pretty stock. I'm consciously trying to let the paintwork speak for them, so I've kept conversion to a minimum. I think in this squad the only additional item is the chainmail loincloth on the sergeant. 

In addition to looking nice, I've found basic Tactical Marines to perform rather well on the field!

If you like these guys, come back for more later when I'll be showing more of the finished force! 

Imperial Fists - Betrayal at Calth Breacher Sergeant

Work on my Imperial Fists continues at a slow pace. I finished painting this converted Sergeant for my Breacher squad recently. The conversion is a head and weapon swap for one of the Character models from the Betrayal at Calth box set combined with a Phalanx Warder's shield.

I'm quite happy with how he came out - although I might take a second whack at that power sword at some point as I basically just coloured it in blue without really putting in too much effort (I think I was tired!). I'm quite happy with the freehand "VII" details on the shin guard and the cape though.

He can now join the rest of the army in what I hope will one day be a legally field-able force!

Click on the links below for more pictures of my WIP Imperial Fists Force 

Imperial Fists Squad

Imperial Fists Vindicator

Mortarion Primarch of the Death Guard Painted

Well, I finished painting Mortarion. I'm happy with the results, although I have to admit that I found the whole process rather difficult. It was mostly just getting the colours to look good that I struggled with. My own style tends to be quite vivid, I like bright reds, blues and purples, but Mortarion is a sort of creamy off-white. It wasn't difficult as such, but more that I found it difficult to think it looked "good" as it isn't a colour I would personally choose. To compensate for this and to make him look a bit more interesting I used the full range of Death Guard Colours (adding in green and red compared to the Forgeworld one). I'm particularly happy with the freehand numerals on his armour.

On the subject of his armour, it was also difficult to match the colour of his armour with a good colour for the base - too light and he'd just blend straight in. Equally though it had to be muted so that your eye would be drawn to the model and not the rock he was standing on. In the end I went with a stone effect for the top and just tried to keep the rest fairly dark.

For those who missed it, I also painted Roboute Guilliman (Primarch of the Ultramarines). You can read all about it here:

Painting Guilliman 

That article contains a fairly comprehensive painting guide for him too if you're interested in the kind of techniques I use.

Mortarion Commission Part 1

Well work is now well underway on my latest commission. This time I'm tasked with building and painting Mortarion, primarch of the Death Guard.

I've completed the build and at the moment the greenstuff is drying. The natural break has given me some time to consider the colour scheme. Obviously there isn't much leeway, as he will have to be presented in full Death Guard finery, but at the same time I would like to make a few adjustments. The Forgeworld version is too mono tonal for my tastes and I know I can make the model look better, so I plan to introduce a bit more contrast into the scheme. An obvious change will be to switch the cloak to black so that it is visually distinguished from the armour. I will also introduce some green details in keeping with the traditional scheme, but that seem to be missing on the Forgeworld model. To finish things up I'll use a red as a contrasting colour for the smaller details.

I'm planning to start with airbrush work to achieve a smooth blend across the armour. At the same time I will use the airbrush to begin a non metallic metal style blend on the scythe blade. We'll see how it goes from there.

As a final step I plan to make a few slight adjustments to the scenic base to ensure that he can be moved in and out of it smoothly.

I'll be posting more as I go, so stay tuned for the next update where we'll be taking a look at how the painting is going (hopefully well!)

Emperor's Children Kakophoni/Noise Marines

I've been hard at work again. This time I've been painting up some Forgeworld Kakophoni to use in my unit of Noise Marines. The unit is comprised of 5 Kakophoni built straight as they come from Forgeworld (as why mess with perfection) and 5 converted marines built using resin sonic weapons and some other parts from my bitz box.

Every unit needs a few Blastmasters (and if you don't field Chaos, no I didn't just make that word up, or make a confusing reference to Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome). At S8 AP3 ignores cover, pinning, blast, they're one hell of a heavy weapon. The only downside is that the unit costs an astronomical number of points, but the firepower is immense. It's hilarious to watch a horde of 30 Hormagaunts disintegrate in a single turn of fire. The only downside is that opponents tend to remember what happened and don't make the same mistake twice!


I also did a champion with a power sword and Doom Siren, because what the hell, there's no point in holding back now.


Tactically they combine well with a Sorcerer as there is a nice Slaanesh Psychic Power that adds 1 to the strength of noise weapons against a chosen unit - turning those Sonic Blasters into a veritable wall of Heavy Bolters. A Chaos Lord with the mark of Slaanesh is an equally good option as he makes them a troops choice!

Emperor's Children - Palatine Blades

A quick picture I snapped off of my unit of Palatine Blades. I really do love these models, they're some of my favourite Forgeworld infantry. The details are really crisp and cool, but the best thing is how well they capture the essence of their Legion.

You do see a lot of them with twirly swords that bend round corners though, especially on e-bay and at your local games store. I'm sure most readers will know that this kind of warping is common in resin. The good news is that it is easily fixed by submerging the bent parts in recently boiled water (you don't have to literally dunk them into a bubbling pot like a fresh lobster!). The bent parts soften after being submerged for about 20 seconds and you can then bend them till they're straight again. It's an easy fix, but they really need to start telling you abut it themselves as I see a lot of bad press for Forgeworld from people who simply don't know how to handle the material.

I've also heard that you can heat parts with a hairdryer, but this sounds a little indirect to me and I'd be worried about bending parts that don't need it. It probably works fine on larger stuff though.

In other Heresy related news I have another commission that I'm about to start which is for the Death Guard Primarch - Mortarion. I'll post some updates about building and painting him as I go, so stay tuned for that one. If you missed it, I painted Guilliman (Ultramarines Primarch recently - article here). I'm also working on the third part of my Warhammer Pickup Lines articles, so look forward to that bombshell (If you missed Part 2 - find it here, you don't want to miss out on the faux erotic battle report contained therein do you?).



Slaanesh Chaos Lord with Daemon Weapon

Sometimes a picture speaks a thousand words. Prepare to be dazzled by my latest project. So far so good I think.

If you're wondering what that lump is on the side of his chest - it's the front mask of his helm. I need to add a few more pipes and details to show how it has been taken away from his face.

Soul Edge? never heard of it.... *GW continue with blatant copyright infringement*

See it is a helm!

Still plenty of greenstuff work to go on this guy, but it's shaping up nicely.

Copyright infringement? who is this bloke anyway?

Converted Salamanders Librarian on Bike

My fast attack army needed a suitable leader - one who could roar across the battlefield waving his mighty axe high. The only hitch is that GW don't actually make a cool character on a bike; nobody has a cool custom steed that would stand out in an army that is mostly on bikes. I also wanted a Librarian as I honestly think they're a really good choice for the points value you pay (although I painted him in green rather than the standard blue for the Librarius as it just looked a lot better).

The bike itself is made from a large variety of bits - chunky Gorkamorka wheels, combined with the bottom of a forgefiend's head and an old Ork bike chassis!

I made the rider out of a Sons of Horus Reaver body with a Chaos Chosen's power axe (that I removed the Chaos symbols from). The Corvus helm really helps give him an old school Rogue Trader type of look. The choice of parts mean that I could probably use him in Heresy, although he is for my 40k army.

The salamander scale pelt is greenstuff. I created it the same way I did on all of my Salamanders; which is to say that I cheated. I took a piece of instant mold and cast the side of an old Lizard Man Cold One. I then cast sections of scaly flesh and just sculpted the edges and adjusted the details as I went.

As far as paint is concerned I painted him the same as the rest of my Salamanders, but I opted for some freehand on the top of the bike.

For those who missed my last Salamanders post, some pictures of the rest of his squad are available here: Salamanders Bike Squad.

The obligatory work in progress shot.