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UPDATE: OK so this has kinda turned into just an IG blog at the moment due to my not being bothered to paint up my Grey Knights. This means there are lots of tanks further down if you like that kind of thing. For those that want to see some Inquisition though they are coming just not any time soon. Sorry.

I've not painted much 40k since getting back into the hobby after a ten year break but now I am setting out on a project to paint up an Inquisitorial Force made up mostly of Stormtroopers and a few Grey Knights.

Below is an image of the troops I have (1500 points worth)...



That is:

44 Kasrkins
8 Psykers
20 Grey Knights
Coteaz
Vindicare
Kabuki Sci-Fi Napoleon

That's basically all the infantry this army will ever have with any higher point value games making up the extra points with vehicles.

So far I have painted one model - The Vindicare...



The base is a resin cast and I have 70 of them in total because I can never be bothered to make my own bases.

I have 8 Psykers who were converted from a box of Flagellants and a box of Cadians:



Currently my biggest headache is picking a colour scheme (which is why only the Vindicare is painted). I'm trying to use Inquisition colours (red/black/white/gold) but having real trouble deciding. This is my current favourite...



Obviously this isn't a finished model just a test. I would prefer something that contrasts with the base more and absolutely welcome suggestions below.

I like the scheme, but, I feel like the orange needs to be dirtied up or dulled down a bit.

That Vindicare looks choice, mate.

While trying to track down some inspiration for colour schemes I suddenly remembered Killzone:


Killzone Series 1 by DC Unlimited by PlayStation.Blog, on Flickr

Helghast troopers are exactly the kind of look I want to achieve so this is going to be my next experiment.

Really big picture showing the Helghast troopers in detail:

Oooooh subbed! I wanna see the look of these Kasrghast!

I am sooo subscribed! I love Inquisitorial Henchmen armies, they're so characterful. I think that for the colourscheme you could really do whatever, as long as you include the Black/Gold/Red of the Inquisitorial =][=. Either way, I hope to see more progress on this thread.

Some more test figures today trying to figure out a process for painting so I can keep the army uniform. No particular order to the minis except that the second one is still having a wash dry hence the shine.

The first mini was only brush painted. Cloth was painted USA Grey, Black Plates/weapon, entire model washed with black then the shoulder pad and visor were painted with Mahogany then highlighted up through Italian Red to Orange.

Second one was airbrushed black then dark grey blue then a 1:1 mix of dark grey blue and intermediate blue. Shoulder pad was brush painted with Italian Red and highlighted with Orange. Edge highlights were painted with USA Grey more to show the paint having worn off than light fall. Experimented with using the airbrush to do OSL on the visor but there was far more overspray than I anticipated.

Third one I sprayed the shoulder pad and visor Italian Red and used the airbrush to highlight to Orange. Then I masked those parts with Blu-tack and sprayed the model Black then Dark Grey Blue then Medium Sea Grey. Did some highlights with Light Grey and Leadbelcher to try a different technique of weathering the plates.

Fourth mini was primed grey then I masked the shoulder pad and sprayed Dark Grey Blue, Medium Sea Grey, Light Grey. This one has had nothing else done to it aside from being airbrushed.

There are different things I like in each mini, I prefer the gradient on the shoulder pad on 1 but would definitely mask the shoulder pad to get a smoother surface to work on.

I prefer the black plates on 2 as going bluer rather than paler looks better for a hard smooth surface like armour.

I prefer painting the visor first then masking it like on 3 as it means I can get the colour right on a white surface and it's far less fiddly than doing it later. I also like the small amount of metallic showing through for weathering.

Number 4 is just a great example of how easy it is to paint infantry with an airbrush and just 3 colours. You get alot of the highlighting work done really quickly with a smooth finish. I think number 1 is going to be the last ever mini I base coat with a regular brush.

On the modelling table at the moment are 2 Demolisher kits which are waiting to be magnetised and a Manticore which I am very tempted to build as a Deathstrike just for the fun of it. I also bought an Aegis Defence Line and have to say I spent more time cutting and sanding that thing than any other kit I've ever bought - it's an absolute nightmare.

I have set myself the task of painting a full squad of Kasrkins in my chosen scheme in time for a big game on Wednesday.

Above is the squad after being based using the airbrush. Doing all ten of them this way took about 2 hours including painting and masking the shoulder pads with blue tack.

Production line work like this is easy with an airbrush and much faster than basing with a brush.

The bone coloured shoulder pad is going to be home to an Inquisition decal but I won't have any decal paper to print them out until next week.

The Power Sword on the Sergeant was my first ever attempt at the effect and it was far easier to achieve than I expected.



A few days later I had painted the cloth parts Light Grey and given them a black wash. I also took a stab at the Sergeants head and tried to add some stubble. It was at this point that I noticed that the Kasrkin Sergeants doesn't seem to have any eyes which threw me a bit.

The light grey cloth with black wash had dried really grubby (I'm sure I'm doing something wrong with washes as I always get this) so I repainted the cloth parts with Barley Grey and then sprayed Nuln Oil from underneath the models to shade the cloth which worked far better than the wash ever did.

By this point I had decided that I was going to strip the models and have another go at them later (Good thing they're metal and strip easily) so I decided to practice some airbrushed OSL with the power sword, plasma coils and visors.

Conclusion is that the Visor is just too small for airbrush OSL to work and I need to thin the paints I use for OSL much more than normal to keep them translucent enough.

Update on the Inquisition Storm Troopers...

All of the infantry have been base coated (all 55).

Thanks to my airbrush I was able to get 55 models to a basic standard in about 3 hours total.



This was then followed by about 12 hours of painting the cloth Barley Grey with a brush during which I went slightly mad.

My army consists of 4 vet squads and a CCS so I had lots of spare special weapon guys that I knew I was never going to use. As a result I converted a Flamer Kasrkin into carrying a Heavy Bolter because I had a Scout marine Heavy Bolter sitting in my bits box.



Now for some reader participation!

I am of the opinion that I am terrible at painting with a brush. My models look OK from a distance if you squint and on scaled down pictures on the internets but holding them to paint in real life they look awful. My biggest issue seems to be with small details like visors, emblems and other tiny things like that. I also have issues with brush control, depth perception (I only have one good eye) and getting my paint to flow smoothly off my brush without flooding the surrounding area.

As an example below is a picture of a Flamer trooper in various stages of completion. This is a big picture that can be zoomed in the gallery so you can see what it really looks like. I'd appreciate feedback and tips on how I might improve.



Left to right:

Basecoat - All airbrush work except for the cloth which is brush painted.

Medium Details - Cloth shaded and highlighted (not happy with this) and leather painted up (pretty happy with this). Screen on the flamer is painted and I panicked and drybrushed on some glow to the chest. Kinda regretting that now.

Final Model - Edge highlighted the hard surfaces and painted the eagles, respirator and visor. Touched up the cloth highlights a little. Transferred onto a pre-prepared base. This is the hardest stage for me.

I use decent Kolinsky Sable brushes and a variety of Vallejo and GW paints so the fault is with my technique not my equipment.

Great OSL and paint scheme!

Awesome. Huge Killzone fan! They look Helghastian good.

Mat

With my FLGS starting a 10 week 40k escalation campaign soon it spurred me into action on my Guard forces as there are bonus points up for grabs for painted armies.

I've had this guy for about 4 months now and not done anything with him till now.



Up until I started painting him I had been having real trouble with my brush painting since getting back into the hobby (I was once a finalist in UK Golden Daemon back in 99 or 98 but that was a long time ago now) however everything finally clicked while painting this model and it's as if my muscles are starting to remember how to paint again.

I'm considering adding some snow to the bases of this army as right now the troops tend to blend into the base while on the table and I've always found a contrasting base looks better than a harmonizing one. Problem is I've already painted 50 bases and don't want to repaint them

After painting up that Primaris I started to look at the colour scheme of my army with regret. The black armour on grey cloth has lost it's appeal over the last few months and I find myself fielding my Guard without their Grey Knight allies any more.

I start to think that I might be better off painting my forces up as a more generic unit than an Inquisitorial force so I strip one of my spare lasgun models and set to work painting him up as a test model for a new colour scheme.



New on the left old on the right.

Aside from having suddenly become a better painter over the couple of weeks since I painted that flamer guy I'm finding that this new scheme sits better on the grey bases and is generally more colourful (aside from the lack of a bright red shoulderpad that is) and it's faster to paint to tabletop.

Downsides are that it's the generic GW colour scheme for Cadians, green armour and tan cloth.

I doubt I'll be able to repaint my 23 troopers I need for the start of the campaign on Thursday but I might be able to get a squad done in time. I would love to be fielding a fully painted force though.

In other news...

Bought an unopened Chimera box on eBay 2 days ago which arrived today and I was so excited to be painting a tank that It's already done!



This is why I started playing Guard. TANKS!

I am however my own worst enemy when it comes to painting. Right at the end when I was painting the lens on the Multi-laser I picked up the model and discovered I had Mephiston Red on my thumb. I splodge red paint on the top hatch of the turret. I scramble for the emergency brush (My large drybrush which is nice and soft and clean) and start dabbing with water to try and remove the mark. I succeed only to realise I had also gotten red paint on my index finger and had an older much drier finger print on the hull.

Fortunately I was able to cover up any mistakes with some hardcore weathering and battle damage

The Chimera above is for sale as I bought it to practice on before tackling my Russes and I plan to convert some Chimeras to have set back turrets later.

Nicely done on these guys, I really like your style and speed. Agreed that the lastest IG you painted is looking better, but I do like the orange shoulder pads you got going on there, will you incorporate this into your new squads?

Lovely work on the Chimera, hope it sells well...

A quick one tonight as I'm still obsessing over my 500 point starter list for this campaign (Should I take an executioner? I could but not much else).

Worked on my first Set Back Chimera conversion today.



Aside from a Rhino Cupola and hatch, some plasticard and some track covers which will arrive tomorrow with my accessory sprue it's made almost entirely from the standard Chimera kit.

I've seen better ones on the net and having built one myself I now see why they did some things the way they did.

For example: The turret is sitting very far back on the body rather than central. This isn't a bad thing in itself and makes it look a little bit like a Predator but it means the rear hatch is tiny and no longer looks like 5 guys could fire out of it.

Were I to do this again I would cut the L-shape out of the upper hull piece and fill the gap with Plasticard so I can mount the turret a little further forwards and gain myself some more hatch space.

I also would not use a Rhino Cupola again as they are quite alot bigger than the normal hatch and look a little out of place. I know the tank accessory sprue comes with a cupola and hatch that would fit and be a bit smaller so in future I would use that.

I'm currently selling the painted Chimera on eBay and if I break even on that sale I may paint this one up and sell it so I can take another stab at it with the lessons I've learned.

Campaign has begun and I fielded a 500 point list that was lead by my Primaris (I wasn't allowed a full command squad in the melee at the end so ditched it), 2 vet squads with stuff and an Executioner.

Yes I got comments from Marine players who felt it was a dick move bringing an Executioner but then again one guy brought 'nids with a Flyrant and a Tervigon pooping out Termagants.

I was up until 7am painting the Executioner for the campaign and it looks a bit like this:



OK exactly like that. No sponsons but the entire model is magnetised so I can attach them if I want them later but only the pars I needed for today are painted so far.

Really chuffed with how this turned out and it's now the centre piece of my force.

 Ruglud wrote:
Nicely done on these guys, I really like your style and speed. Agreed that the lastest IG you painted is looking better, but I do like the orange shoulder pads you got going on there, will you incorporate this into your new squads?

Lovely work on the Chimera, hope it sells well...

I'm considering marking the special weapon troopers out with colored shoulder pads for ease of identification on the tabletop, red would be for flamers, blue for plasma, white for melta and black for 'nades.

Spotting the sergeants is never a problem but I've frequently thought I had more special weapons on the board than I did often due to casualty removal in close combat - color coding the shoulders of these guys would make things easier. I was going to use colors for squad markings but I'd rather retain the ability to change squad composition as my list changes.

My Psyker Battle Squad have unfortunately proved to be incredibly fragile and have so far broken in nearly every way I can imagine during transit as have my Grey Knights. In fact the only two models in the Inquisition side of the army that haven't broken in some way are Coteaz and the Vindicare (presumably because they are each just a couple of lumps of resin).

Arriving in a couple of weeks are a bunch of Highland Guard conversion kits from Victoria Miniatures who will form the basis of a new Platoon when combined with a Battleforce box and the basis of a Scottish Straken eventually. I also have a Kabuki Sci-Fi Patton, Commissar, Manticore, Vendetta, Aegis Defence Line, Demolisher Kit, 2200 points of Raven Guard and about 1500 points of Warriors of Chaos waiting for paint. I really should stop buying new models...

I've had a rotten cold the last few days so haven't done any painting. I've mostly been laid up on the couch watching terrible TV and writing army lists.

However I have taken some time to trim all of my spare sprues and organize my bits box.

During this I decided to actually build a Power Maul for one of my Sergeants from a Grey Knights Daemon Hammer and a Warding Stave.

This is the result:

Remember the set back Chimera conversion from last week?

Well I did some work on it and ordered some track guards from Forgeworld (tip: Don't get them they aren't worth it) and painted her up.



I like to think that the hull was redesigned to make the vehicle better at busting through ruins, moving the turret further back make sit less likely to be damaged when it rams a pile of rubble at high speed.

I unfortunately over did things with the wash at the end and if you turn it over it's got newspaper stuck to it.

I've also painted the sponsons and other turret options for my Russ so it can now be fielded as either an Executioner, Demolisher or Punisher.

My Chimera conversion ideas are coming thick and fast. Having watched the original Tron the other night I was inspired to try and fit a Predator turret to a Chimera hull. What better turret than the Baal Predators Flamestorm? Perfect for a Hellhound!



The turret being offset to one side makes it look very cool and it only required a small 50x15mm section of Plasticard to fill the gap (I used the face plate for the Predator to provide an interesting back)

A couple of handles from the Russ kit on the turret, smoke launchers and a Heavy Stubber takes the Space Marine edge off the vehicle. Removing the Blood Angles logo on the gun was also really easy.

Overall this was a very simple conversion and the Predator top plate is exactly 5cm on one edge making it fit perfectly into the Chimera hull.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So I got overexcited and decided to paint up my new Hellhound.



About 9 hours later and the sun has risen and I emerge from my study victorious and covered to paint.

This is the last tank for a while I think. I need to get on with my infantry and will be introducing a policy of rewarding myself with a vehicle or character to paint when I've got a squad finished.

Today will be week two of the local escalation campaign. Still at 500 points but I think I may switch out the Executioner and field this instead. The points I save lets me buy a bunch of Plasma Guns so the list is still pretty balanced.

Introducing Alpha squad of the 85th Storm Dogs Elite First Platoon.



First platoon is made up of the toughest, best trained and best equipped soldiers in the 85th. Each one a veteran of dozens of missions equipped with full Carapace armour and the best weapons at the regiments disposal. Only Storm Troopers are better equipped but who wants to hang out with those stuck up glory boys?

Alpha squad is tasked with Suppression and fire support. Their grenade launchers let them deal with any threat from waves of Orks to the really big Tyranids. Alpha squad is currently famed for having recently taken down a Chaos Maulerfiend in close combat without taking a single casualty.

Honestly can't understand why this thread isn't getting more love. Great modelling skills and weathering! Subbed and then some.

That Executioner carries the most convincing plasma weapon I've ever seen!

The first week of 750 point games is here and I am preparing for thursday already...



Scooter and Beans are my two Scout Sentinels. I've magnetized the weapons but only painted up the Missiles and Autocannons so far. On Thursday they will be using the Autocannons and hiding behind Chimeras to get a cover save.

While i was painting my Sentinels I took the opportunity to paint up the Quad gun from my ADL so I could field my Hellhound as a Hydra.



The gun is a bit of a tight fit so I have some filing and sanding ahead of me but it looks great on the Chimera hull and on the ADL emplacement (to be painted).

At some point I'll buy a real Hydra but until then this will do (plus I hear that there is a Plastic Hydra kit coming this year).

Finally here is the 750 points I will be taking on Thurday.



I have one squad of infantry to paint up but I don't think I'll get them done in time as I only really have tomorrow night to paint as Wednesday is now a Judge Dredd RP night.

Some of the best painting I have seen, cant wait for more.

I love that hellhound conversion, it looks a million times better than the current one or forgeworld one combined, so good

Another games night has come and gone and I managed to field a 100% painted and based army!



Bravo Squad have suffered some of the highest casualties in the 85th's First Platoon and only half of those have been inflicted by the enemy thanks to the unreliable nature of Plasma weapons. Nevertheless Bravo squad are one of the hardest hitting units in the Platoon and to serve with them is a great honour even if it is a death sentence.

Here we have Sword Force under the command of Dmitiri "Creep" Mendelev



750 points of painted models so far.

Games took a bit longer on Thursday due to the upping of points so I only got to play one game (plus I started late). My one game was against a Tesla heavy Necron army who conceded on turn 4 after I had destroyed everything that had a chance of hurting my tanks (Scarab bases do not like Demolisher cannons).

Highlights of the game include the enemy lord getting evaporated by a Demolisher shell on turn 2 and my Dozer blade equipped Chimera rolling a 1 on it's first move of my first turn as it charged through a ruin. It was then rerolled into a 2 for the best use of 10 points I've ever had.

Things went from bad to worse for the Necrons when their Wraiths deep struck, scattered onto my Russ which then just crunched over them as they appeared taking them out of the game before they could do anything at all.

The Hydra glanced an Annihilation Barge to death and Dmitri electrocuted about 7 Warriors in one turn (Lightning Arc is ridiculously good).

All that was left on the board at the end of Turn 4 was about 8 Immortals with Tesla while I had only lost a single Sentinel.

The Melee changed format and we were all split into doubles teams. My 70 point Psyker was teamed up with Mephiston who basically did all the work. I took the opportunity to try out all the different Psychic powers I could take and did manage to Psychic Scream a Wolf Lord and a Chaos Lord to death shortly before being eaten in close combat.

Dmitri Levelled up twice and gained +1 toughness and +1 initiative. He's getting tougher but all I want is +1 Ballistic Skill and Iron Will for a 4+ deny the witch.

Great looking army! Lots of nice conversions to personalise the force. It looks really dark and moody, great work.

Fantastic army!

And now I know how to make a hydra (or 3) for my army. Never thought about using a rhino hatch! And I have tons of those (I think)

Commissar Venkman is always ready to inspire the troops with a rousing speech. If that fails then he can always shoot one of them.

Not a great deal of progress this week. I've been distracted by the new Warriors of Chaos models (already painted the new Chaos Lord)

Still 2 weeks to go before the escalation campaign kicks up to 1000 points. My plan is to add a third Vet squad and maybe an Aegis. I'd rather try and avoid buying any more models for a bit (again Warriors of Chaos release is to blame for this) so have to stick with what I have left to paint (which is still alot of stuff).

This is a really entertaining blog. Loved reading through it and looking at the great paintjobs. Tanks = awesome!

I decided the other day to build myself a Marbo for the campaign. Marbo is one of those great characters who always looks different in every Guard army and mine was made entirely out of stuff in my bits box.



Buck Morris has been on forward recon for so long that he's almost turned feral. He's one of the best shots, best combatants and most insane individuals in the 85th Storm Dogs.

I like to think he's having a bit of a Brian Blessed shout.

"I'M BEHIND YOU!"