Another Fallen Brother Joins the Battle

My Imperial Fists Horus Heresy army can now field a "Talon" of 3 Contemptor pattern dreadnoughts. I like to think of this as the one totally "bullshit" unit in the army. It feels right to have one of these total nonsense units in a Heresy Era force to me.

Three little piggies...

I used the plastic Contemptor kit for this guy. I embellished him with
some more crusader-ry elements than his brothers.

The Lascannon arm is Forgeworld - an easy enough conversion - and
the extra bibs and bobs are all off the Terminator sprue. 

The shield on the right arm is an extra plastic one I had laying around.

Its all about that 'bot.

With The Three Stooges done, I'm ready to back burner my HH Imperial Fists for a little bit. My plan  is to add a unit of Breachers to the army cuz they are cool as shit - but I will wait until January when I can use a free shipping coupon I lucked into from Forgeworld. So I get a little break from painting yellow.

Cheers!

The Great Hobbycation of 2017

So this year I took an extra three days off during the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US. I stayed home for 9 glorious days of sleeping in, hanging out with the dog, gaming with friends and painting models. Tomorrow I head back to the real world, but I have one night of painting left in me. Its been fantastic.

This "Hobbycation" has also coincided with a neat little hashtag on Twitter called #Hobbystreak. The goal is to do at least 30 minutes of hobbying a day, share your results, and see how many consecutive days you can string together. Its meant to motivate you on projects, inspire others and make taking time out for doing something you like a priority. So far, I've managed to get 18 consecutive days in! I'm aiming for 20. Wish me luck!

In the meantime, here's what I've accomplished over 9 days of pure hobby time!

In preparation for the release of Necromunda, I started on some Sector Mechanicus
kits I was sitting on.

I've managed to create a system to paint this stuff up really quickly.

A squadron of French ships-of-the-Line guards this platform under construction.

You all saw this jabroni last week, but I finished him on the
first day of my vacation.

This thing beats the hell out of the granaries I scratch built out of Quaker Oats tubs when
I was in college.

This is now the 4th skull crane I've done. I should put that on a resume.

I cannot wait for some hot sweaty Gangwar action on this badboy!

I added a third Contemptor to form a Talon in my Horus Heresy army.

God help me, I tried Shadespire and liked it. I'm 3/4s of the way through the Orruk war band.

I used these guys as an excuse to experiment with a
different skin tone. I didn't want to paint green for the
millionth time.

The chance to make comments in a dopey Bane voice makes this guy totally worth
having in any war band.

He likes to bash things. That's his thing. Apparently. 

I finished 10 more Poxwalkers, completing the whole 20 in the Dark Imperium kit.

I set about making a custom conversion from my Inquisitor Greyfax model. I have lots of plans for this gal.

Its been quite an adventure. I'm sure some people would consider my Hobbycation a living Hell, but for me its been Heaven and really great way to recharge. I may have to do this again next year!

Cheers!

Noxious Blightbringer and Step-by-Step

I've been chugging along with hobby projects this week - I finished my first Plague Marine character, assembled a third Contemptor dreadnought and have been chipping away at some more Sector Mechanicus scenery. More on the last two another time, for now here's my Noxious Blightbringer.

For Whom the Bell Tolls! This guy is worth it just for all
the bell puns my opponents will have to endure during a game!

Back detail. This cat is crawling with detail. Its nuts to compare
him to plastic kits from years ago.

I decided on doing my nurglings in a brighter color so that they
contrast well with the otherwise drab colors of the Death Guard.

I managed to take some step-by-step photos of this guy while sharing progress over on Twitter. Here they are with some notes of how I got to the final stages.

Step 1. Spray with a Black primer. Over this, I sprayed
the entire model with Krylon Camp Green.

Step 2. I painted the smock in Vallejo Beastly Brown and washed it with Army
Painter Strong Tone ink. Once dry, I added highlights by progressively
mixing GW Ushabti Bone with the Beastly Brown.
The god was painted with GW Retributor Armor washed with GW
Reikland Flesh Shade and highlighted with GW Shining Gold and final
snaps with GW Runefang Steel.

Step 3. I added more gold trim and base coated the plasma pistol's
and the censor's vents with Vallejo Jade Green. The fleshy parts were base
coated withVallejo Squid Pink then washed with GW Reikland Flesh Shade.
Final highlights on the flesh were done with fine lines of Vallejo Dwarf
Flesh. I also stippled some blood onto the smock with a mix
made of 50/50 Vallejo Red and Black.
The horns were base coated GW Administratum Grey and then
washed with Army Painter Strong Tone ink. This was done in two
coats. After the last coat dried, I did a third coat with Army Painter
Dark Tone ink just towards the tips. Final highlights were
picked out with thinned GW Ushabti Bone.
The Green of the armor was washed with GW Reikland Flesh Shade and
then highlighted with Vallejo Heavy Grey. Final snaps were added
with a mix of Heavy Grey and Ushabti Bone.

Step 4. Silver metals were base coated in GW Leadbelcher and then
washed with Army Painter Strong Tone ink. Once dry, highlights were added
with GW Runefang Steel.
The Nurgling was base coated inVallejo Jade green and washed
with Druchii Violet.

Step 5. The plasma vents were highlighted with Vallejo Jade Green
progressively mixed with Vallejo Skeleton White. The Nurgling was
highlighted by mixing in more and more GW Ushabti Bone with
Vallejo Jade Green. Sores were coated with a thinned down layer
of GW Lothern Blue to give a bruised look. 

Then it was just a matter of popping him off the painting stand and attaching him to a base I'd built. He was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to working on more of these dudes.

Cheers!

A Pox on Your House! And a Dread...

"My Lascannons! They do nassthing!"

Things are still in the 41st millennium on my painting desk lately. Seems I just can't quit the Dark Imperium box set or the Horus Heresy. First up was another Dreadnought for my Heresy Era Imperial Fists army. For a guy who only wanted to dip his toes in the Heresy pool, I feel like I'm suddenly up to my armpits in it.

This Contemptor is made from the plastic kit from Betrayal at Calth.

I added the twin lascannon arm from Forge World with just a little
conversion work.

The plan is do one more armed the same way - because you can do silly things like take a Talon of Dreadnoughts
as a single choice in the Horus Heresy.

I've also set about knocking out the Death Guard side of my Dark Imperium starter kit. I figure I'll just do that and a tank. I know, I know, I'm kidding myself… Ugh! Anyway, I decided to tackle the Poxwalkers first, as there are so many of them. I figured that I would enjoy them the least because of the shear numbers, but I was super wrong. These models are damn-near perfect - lots of character and individuality, simple construction, and the right amount of details to really make them easy to paint with washes. I'm actually looking forward to doing the next 10.

Sing along now - "I'm a Pox Walker, I'm a Pox Walker!"

I'm trying to participate in a hashtag on Twitter called #Hobbystreak. The basic premise is to get at least 30 minutes of hobby a day and to see how many days you can continuously go for. I'm on day 4 so far. Let's see how long I can keep it going.

I like the idea of this unit having been an Imperial Hazmat team that got infected during a routine clean-up job.

What's important is they all seem to be having a good time.

Before I jump into the next batch of 10 guys, I'm going to treat myself with one of the Death Guard characters - the guy with the big bell. 

-Cheers!

Aquila Strongpoint Action Playset Complete

Over the course of this week I assembled and painted up the Aquila Strongpoint terrain piece by Games Workshop. This thing is a monster, easily taking up a foot of table space and bristling with guns and all the skulls you can eat. Its a nice centerpiece set and I'm looking forward to playing some games centered around knocking it out.

I love the missile silo look. It screams "Stop the Launch!" scenario to me.

The Macro Cannon that comes with it sockets over the missile bay and is easily interchangeable. 

I kept things pretty simple, since there is so much detail on this thing that you could go nuts if you wanted to, but I
couldn't resist adding little stuff like the hazard striping on the doors.

Reverse of the cannon and bunker. This thing wasn't too bad to paint up. I used a lot of sprays to basecoat it and washes and dry brushing to give it depth.

This blog seems to have gone from a general wargaming blog to a GW blog and now an Imperial Fists blog. I've got to get some other projects in the queue just so I don't get burnt out. But, in the meantime, here's some more Imperial Fists.

The whole army so far, ready to stalwartly defend the Imperium from Traitors and heretics.

"Fortifications are for pussies!" cried the guys on 40mm bases.

The Emperor's Finest laugh at your need for safety!

Terminators wear their bunkers, I guess.

"We'll enjoy our walls and fire support, thank you very much!"

"We only get defensive trench works, because we are just tactical Marines."

And the Vindicator holds the end of the line because nobody thought to build a revetment for it. 

My buddy Marky also got a bunch more 40k terrain and I said I'd paint it up for him. So there is some of this stuff in my painting future, I guess. I really need to do some Napoleonics or something in the meantime, though.

Cheers!