Magnus Might Have Done One or Two Things Wrong...

 Like every good World War II gamer, every Horus Heresy player should have two armies so that they can play as Loyalists or Traitors or just introduce a friend to the game. Look, I don't make the insane rules that bounce around in my skull, ok? I just enforce them. Anyway, after painting a ridiculous amount of Imperial Fists, I thought I'd try collecting and painting a Thousand Sons force. 

The Sons of Prospero ready to do battle.

For this army; I wanted a simple, clean paint scheme that would allow me to get the army on the battlefield fully painted in a quick amount of time. A lot of the How-to-Paint tutorials I found online for 30K Thousand Sons involved undercoating them in a gold and then building up layers of red using gloss colors applied in several layers. These gave great results, and are totally valid techniques for competition painting but I realized it would take me years to finish the army if I tried to do it this way. There had to be an easier solution. I found it in the Duplicolor spray paint line - a metal flake Red made for automotive applications. After a test model, I was set. 

Tactical Brotherhood Primus

This is probably something that I'm going to start harping on pretty hard in the future. The idea of getting nicely painted armies on the board with techniques that don't take forever has become a little bit of an obsession lately. Right now I'm calling it "Median Painting". The idea is to have a fully painted army that is cohesive and looks good in a reasonable amount of time. That last bit is key, because I see great painters with armies full of bare plastic or people who don't like to paint and are trying but getting really bad information. A nicely, but completely, painted army fighting against a similar army on a board where all the terrain is painted is a magnificent sight to behold and experience. I wouldn't trade it for all the Golden Demons in the world.

Tactical Brotherhood Secundus

I painted most of these units in parts. Things like the bodies, arms, heads, packs and arms were primed with the metal flake red. Weapons (and attached hands) were primed with an aged bronze spray (that looks like GW Leadbelcher paint). Afterwards, the model was fully assembled. Trim was painted with GW Retributor Armor then that and red was shaded with GW Druchii Violet Shade. Then the gun casings were painted cream tones. I found that I could paint two coats of GW Soulstone Red over the silver metal hands on the guns and it was almost a match for the main body. Painting one hand per guy this way was definitely a time saver compared to doing an entire model with this technique. These are the kind of hacks that I feel need to get out there more. 

The same techniques were used on the characters and vehicles.

I used the 40k Thousand Sons Terminator kit for my 30k 
guys. Its Tartaros-pattern armor, so it fits perfectly.

I thought I'd keep the Heavy Support Squad simple and
just go for missile launchers. Getting 10 of these guys actually
proved to be a nightmare.

The Tactical Support Brotherhood is gonna be a mean
bunch to tangle with.

Ancient Brother Reshep was made
with some simple conversions of the
standard plastic Contemptor kit.

Man, it has been almost 20 years since I built one of these. 
It was fun, but the kit is starting to show its age compared to 
the newer vehicles.

This kit is an absolute nightmare to 
assemble. I don't think I ever want
to build another...

... that said, I went to town on it - making sure
it all opens up and has plenty of detail inside.

So there they are, about 100 Power Levels or 2k-ish points worth of Thousand Sons. Done in about months of work on and off. All painted to a consistent standard and looking cohesive. Are they the best painted force ever to hit a table? Probably not. But they have a bold color scheme and a harmonious set of paint-jobs, so they will look fantastic on a battlefield. What more could you ask for?

-Cheers!

  

Veterans and Volkites!

I've been busy lately drawing and cutting out paper figures, but I haven't neglected my regular painting duties. Some friends and I are planning a big game of the Horus Heresy in the coming weeks, and I've been nattering away at some reinforcements.

First up are some classic Rogue Trader era Space Marines. I picked these guys up on kind of a lark - its been fun to apply my current painting skills to old models that when I originally owned them I painted terribly. Sometimes I think that's 90% of the nostalgia of Oldhammer for me. The new sculpts are better by pretty much every measure, but the chance to go back and get a second bite at the apple has a big appeal.

Everyone's head is suffering from some different form of hydrocephaly, it looks like.

I'm going to use these guys as a Veteran Squad. I see them as having been some of the Emperor's original experiments in gene-altering, before he got the process right and marines became semi-proportional.

Next, I am also adding a Heavy Weapon Squad with some Volkite Culverins. I picked up the weapons and have modified them a bit to fit onto plastic Mark III armor (which makes up the vast proportion of my army). 

The resin bits on these guys are super delicate and were really finicky to build. But I'm happy with how they turned out.

I hope to add some more Tactical Marines to a couple of squads soon, but in the meantime I'm trying to finish up a War Cry starter set for a buddy.

Cheers!

Shambling On...

In an attempt to keep updating my blog no matter how mundane the posts will be, here are some recent projects that I knocked off my hobby desk. Oddly, these are all duplicates of stuff I've previously done. These units just help flesh out their respective armies. 

Ten more Pox Walkers shamble their way into the front lines of my Death Guard army.

I completed another ten Pox Walkers for my Death Guard army over the course of a week, bringing the number in the force to a grand total of thirty. I painted these guys mostly with washes, snatching some time here and there to work on them in groups of two's and three's. Before I knew it, all ten were ready to roll. 

I really love these models - I'm sure I've said so before here. They are wildly characterful will loads of great details, but the sculpts practically paint themselves with simple techniques. These kinds of models are the best kind in regards to army painting. A real joy on every level.

"Prepare to fire a load of bullshit on my coordinates. Three! Two! One!"

I also finished up a second Rapier Quad Mortar for my Horus Heresy army. One of these weapons has been ridiculously good for me in games, so I decided to up the ante and get a second. I think that's enough, though. Two of these things raining Phosphex on my hapless opponents will result in a lot of salty feelings and low grumblings, I'm sure. Three would result in a full scale rebellion, I'm sure.

Still, very fun models to build and paint. Once again, I added MKIII helmets and shoulder pads to the MKIV armor that came with the kits so that they would integrate into my army a little better visually. 

I've still got some stuff to natter away on - but I feel like I'm getting ready to paint another army from scratch. I've been kicking around the idea of a speed-painted Thousands Sons force for the Horus Heresy, or finally starting an Early Imperial Roman army for something completely different. I guess we'll just have to see what inspires in the coming days!

Cheers!

Mixed Bag 15: Paper and Iron

Progress on my own projects has seemed laborious the last few weeks, so I haven't had too much to post it seems. I have been doing some painting and crafting, though - just feels like I'm doing odds and ends lately. Much of my time has been taken up with making paper miniatures for my Dungeons and Dragons group. I kinda fell down the rabbit hole making these.

My group is playing as a pious, yet eclectic, group of Witch Hunters on the prowl smiting Evil!

This was all in service of creating a set of floor plans to allow them to explore the ruins of a three level keep. Like I said, I fell down a rabbit hole - but it was a ton of fun. 

Exploring the first level.

Heading up to level two!

Skeleton Attack!

It all culminated in a boss-fight with a terrible Wraith!

I also created a series of quick print packs that are up for sale on DriveThruRPG.com. Each pack is designed to give you a mini-army. Print as many or as few as you could ever need! There is an Undead Attack! Pack!!, an Orc Attack! Pack!! and one for a horde of gobbos in the Goblin Attack!Pack!!

In the world of three dimensional miniatures, I painted up some stuff for my buddy Chris as a trade. He generously gave me some more Halflings from the Westfalia line he had laying about for some quick paint jobs on a pair of Armiger Helverns and a Rhino for his Iron Warriors.

I painted these up in House Krast livery to match his other units.

The Minotaur insignia are for the Great Battalion that Chris' force belongs to.

I ended up doing the insignia on the top hatch freehand after
screwing up the decal several times.

All in all, a weird mix the last few weeks. 

Cheers!

They Call Me The Seeker

"They call me The Seeker
I've been searching low and high
I won't get to get what I'm after
Till the day I die"

                                  -The Who

Despite some radio silence on my blog, I have been chugging away on some more 30k Imperial Fists and nibbling away on a unit of High Elf Dragon Princes that should be done sometime after Ragnarok. Man, those models are a LOT of work.

With their special boltgun rounds and precision attacks, I felt like the Seeker units in my army should use MKIV armor instead of MKIII

I've been trying to expand the Fast Attack choices in my Heresy army, and I'm not super drawn to jetbikes so I opted for some Seekers. Tasked with head-hunting vital enemy characters or crewed machines, Seeker Squads are equipped with multi-choice boltgun rounds to get the job done. I'm aiming to have two five-man squads in the force, so here is the first one done. I went for a bit of reverse color scheme to add more black so they feel more stealthy. Or as stealthy as a 7' tall giant wearing yellow armor bits can be.

Next up is a lascannon equipped Tarantula sentry gun. Why this counts as a Fast Attack when it can't move at all is beyond me, but here we are. I got this model from Kromlech and it was a fun little model to crank out. I look forward to making "zzzzap!" noises soon.

This was a nice little alternative model. Easy to build and paint and super
obvious what it is.

Cheers!

Rhinos Ready to Rumble - Step-by-Step

My armored spear head for my Imperial Fists grows!

I've added some much needed armor and mobility to my Imperial Fists army in the form of a pair of Rhino APCs and I thought I'd share a quick step-by-step of the whole process. The building of the kits is totally standard, and everything went together quickly. After that, I primed the hulls white for two reasons: first, a good priming coat is always a good thing and two, the white would form the basis for the tactical insignias on the top doors of the transport.

After the primer was dry, I took some painters tape and masked out the arrows. I laid the tape out on a piece of glass before I cut it to shape. Then I transferred the mask from the glass to the actual tank.

The tanks were then sprayed with Testor Model Master's Afrika Mustard. Once that dried, I applied several coats of GW Yriel Yellow with an airbrush. Once all that was dry, the tape was removed and the white tactical arrows were revealed. The arrows weren't perfect, but any over-sprays could be easily cleaned up with some Vallejo White.

I then did some panel-lining with GW Agrax Earthshade to create some definition between armor plates and add some initial weathering. Some black panels were added and then some chipping was added with a sponge and Vallejo Dark Flesh. Some chipping on the tactical arrows were added with Yriel Yellow. This helped age the model and hide any bleed-through or mistakes from the initial masking.

Next was finishing up some details like painting the smoke stacks, view ports and tracks. Weathering was added to the bottom of the tank with a heavy drybrush of Vallejo Beasty Brown. Decals from the Forge World sheet for Imperial Fists were then added.

I added some final weathering with streaks of GW Reikland Flesh Shade and a few chips on the black  areas with P3 Coal Black. And they were done!

Cheers!

Armored Might!

"2019 is the year I get serious about adding some armor." I sent that text to a buddy that I play the Horus Heresy against a while back and now it seems like I'm trying to make good on that promise. This week, I built and painted a Sicaran Battle Tank to add to my Imperial Fists. I've always liked the look of the Sicaran - it hits a lot of the design beats of the Land Raider, while maintaining a sleek, predatory look all its own. And it'll add a ton of firepower to the army.

A Tactical Squad Sergeant gives some idea of the scale of the Sicaran.

The kit was a pretty easy build. The only real issues I had was some of the resin where the massive feed gates on the tracks were cut off left two areas that weren't totally cured. I simply cut some plasticard and covered over these areas - easy peasy. Otherwise, the rest of the kit was a dream. Very little warping to correct, and reasonably tight fits otherwise. 

I tried to keep the tank pretty simple - its very easy to go nuts with weathering and chipping. I wanted to still have a nice bright yellow visible at the end.

After initial assembly - leaving the turret as a separate piece until the end - I undercoated the whole thing with Model Master's Afrika Mustard spray. Then I did a few coats of thinned down GW Yriel Yellow sprayed through an airbrush.

The longest part of the paint job was having to put several thin layers of black over the areas I wanted to cover. I usually don't mind 2 thin coats, but to get a really solid black over yellow it took at least 4 to 5 coats. Which was tedious as hell.

I really can't wait to get this thing on the battlefield. 

Next on deck is a pair of Rhino APCs to give me some mobility. I'll be approaching them the same way and can't wait to have a real armored element available for my army.

Cheers!

Imperial Fist Showcase

Assault Squad Atrius - 10 marines in MKIII/MKIV hybrid armor with Jump Packs and Combat Shield by Kromlech.

Wooooo-hoooo! I finally finished the assault squad for my Heresy Era Imperial Fists. They were a bunch of work - between conversions and painting each felt like two models worth of effort - and I'm super happy to be done with them. Their completion brings me to about 4,000 points/ 200 Power Levels worth of guys and now I feel like I'm ready to play some really big games of Horus Heresy. 

In celebration (?), I've tried to take some shots of the whole force together. 

The whole army ready to rumble. Tremble Traitor scum!

With a little over one hundred marines in the army - I feel like I'm done painting infantry for these guys for a little while.

My next step is to add some armored vehicles to the mix - I've got a plan for a couple of Rhinos and a Sicaran Battle Tank next on my painting queue.

"For Dorn! For Terra!! For the Emperor of Mankind!!! FORWARD!!!!"

I started this project about 18 months ago - I think its a pretty good effort considering how much other stuff I've painted in between. Onto the next chunk!

Cheers!

Loyalists, Traitors and Pointy Hats!

First on deck is the first five Assault Marines for my Horus Heresy army. These cats have been a lot of work - mostly due to the fact that I think I'm hitting burn-out for painting yellow infantry. That said, I'm super happy with them. I need to get cracking on the next five. This will bring me to about 4,000 points/200 power levels for my Imperial Fists.

These guys are a mix of MKIV and MKII armors, with shields and jump packs by Kromlech.

After these cats were done, I needed a break so I turned my attention to a single model for my Death Guard army - a Foul Blightspawn. The current Death Guard are just such a treat to paint up. I've still got to work on a base for him, but he should be finished up pretty soon.

This guy is literally dripping with detail.
And I loved every nub and bolt.

I'm pretty chuffed with the painted liquid in his tank. 

I've also been nattering away on more High Elves. I've still got paint up a command group for the spearmen, but the rest are finally based and ready to go. Pretty soon I'll have to turn my attention to some more cavalry for the force.

I'll end up adding at least ten more of these cats to the army.

These stalwart spearmen patiently await a trio of heroes to lead them.

So far, I've managed to paint up about fifty models or so since January. Not too shabby, but I think I can increase my velocity some. 

Cheers!

More Elves March to War

Lately, I've decided to start growing my High Elf army. I've played a handful of games of Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Kings of War with what I have now, and I'm re-learning a lesson that I'd forgotten: namely that most massed battle games aren't as much fun as smaller games. Its not that games I've played haven't been fun per se, its that feeling that they'd be so much more interesting with more units. To that end, I'm putting some more paint on some new units for my High Elves.

This weekend, I managed to get a 15 man unit of classic Spearmen painted up. I still need to finish four more guys, paint the unit's bases and wait for a Champion model to arrive from Ebay.

These old models paint up so quickly with assembly line techniques. And the nostalgia I get painting them keeps me well motivated, so this should skip along pretty fast. I'm going to graduate out the command models currently in my missile units to serve in melee formations, so I've been painting up some bowmen to replace them.

These two will replace the standard and musician snatched away
for melee units.

I also finished up a test model for my Imperial Fists Assault Squad. It uses two different kits and the shield and jump pack are resin models from Kromlech. After all the bits and extras, I probably should have just ordered the standard assault squad from Forge World for cheaper - but this feels more unique and more "mine". 

"For Dorn! For The Emperor! For Terra!!!"

I hope to get at least the first half of this squad finished in the coming week. This should be the last infantry unit for my Imperial Fists for a good, long while. I'm kinda excited to finish them and then dig into some tanks!

Cheers!