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Post by: Theophony
The blue weapons really work well on these guys  . Great addition to your force.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
Love the Rogue Trader guys, and those Abrakhan guard turned out extremely well! It's always cool to see the old 40k stuff, as you can compare the current look of the weapons and armor to the old look. Lascannons look very much the same, while plasma weapons look somewhat different. I wish I could get a hold of some of those guys, but most of the ones I see on eBay cost too much.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys!
I went for dark blue weapons at the time because black-armoured guys with black weapons seemed a bit ...too black? Dark blue is nice and dark, but keeps them sightly distinct from the armour. The really old Plasma guns do look very different to the current, streamlined stuff. I should dig out some of the 2e plastic plasma pistols (which I hated for so long) to add in to an assault squad of some kind as relic plasma pistols.
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Post by: Da Boss
I had just started collecting WD when the Legion of the Damned came out, and as a young teenager I thought they were the most awesome thing ever. Space Marines with skulls and flames all over them? Most badass thing ever.
You've really captured the essence of what is so cool about these models- they look like a heavy metal album cover coming to life!
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Post by: Theophony
Hey Azazelx did you ever get a sgt. centurions to lead these guys?
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Post by: GrimDork
Nice. Even more lotd plus some curvy warriors.
I'm figuring that my DA will be solemnly accepting their new brother's into their mission, and the interrogator chaplains will be keeping a *very* close eye on them.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks TD, I really love the LotD so regardless, I'm going to end up with way to many of them painted than is practical to use, but that's kinda my thing, I guess. 
I did get a Centurious. They weren't actually available here, but a friend gave me his painted one, and I also ended up with a recast one before they were really a thing - I missed the one from Matt when I rebased them along with another one, so they're on the table partly-rebased still (maybe today I'll get them done?) and the other one will be done mixed in with the others to paint (if I can actually find it)
I think it's implied that those guy are eunuchs  so there's a price to being well fed. I think the backstory for my own DA Primaris will be that they'll be actual DA, individually selected from volunteers by the DW council who they embiggened themselves (which apparently chapters can do themselves with tech given from Cawl) and then equipped in armour, also supplied by Cawl and Bobby G.
Another trio of early-90's Slayers today. Not a lot to write about these guys as we've seen others of their ilk before quite a few times by now. These three have been painted with paler, more faded - slightly pastel even rather than "natural" - hair.
A couple of different tones of blue for the stripey trousers, but both wearing the traditional style. Once again, I think the tattoos turned out well.
I really need to get the final batch of these guys stripped so I can start painting them. I've still got the commanders to complete, as well as a small selection of LE figures from Citadel and metals from other sources like AoW and Mantic. And then there's the plastics. And the Fyreslayers...
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Post by: GrimDork
So that one on the right.. is he nekkid and bearded so much you can't tell, or does he have brown pants? I can't tell on the phone screen 
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Post by: Theophony
 GrimDork wrote:So that one on the right.. is he nekkid and bearded so much you can't tell, or does he have brown pants? I can't tell on the phone screen
He's the commando giant slayer 
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Post by: Azazelx
He's got a furry vest and loincloth. Not his own body hair, mind... Automatically Appended Next Post: About three weeks ago, my wife had a health scare that I think we can safely call a near-miss. Started with a muscle injury, misdiagnosed as a strain that was in fact a tear, told to keep it immobilised and then clots developed, only found because we pushed for a scan, which found them in her ankle and one above the knee in her thigh. In the Hospital she told them she'd been short of breath a little in the past week or so and they did a chest scan, which they usually do not do. They found a large one in her lung. If you're not sure what that means, next stops typically are the heart, brain and the mortuary.
So anyway, she had a stay inside, and is now home, slowly getting better and is on med for at least the next 3 months. So I've not wanted to talk or write about that, because basically it's fething horrible, and was too immediate. I also spent last week sick as a dog with what was at leats a cold and was possibly a mild flu, only starting to recover yesterday. I mean, I've been okay enough to type and start repairing the damage that Photobucket did to my blogs. It's just that I've felt like gak while doing it due to lack of sleep, stress, a nose impersonating a tap, a strained muscle in my neck (which is still making it hard to sleep) and a headache that lasted for more than a week.
Where's that new emoticon? Ah, here. 
So point being that my new posts have all been backlog stuff for a couple of weeks (and will be for probably a couple more), since I haven't actually painted anything since the day before my wife got the first scan results, which will be three weeks ago in 2 days. In the last week, I've slowly gotten back into doing a little bit of stuff, beginning with rebasing my Dark Angels, starting to rebase my small Ork force (not finished by a long shot), a bit of cleanup and build on those Dark Vengeance boxes, as well as starting to build/kitbash the Primaris from Dark Imperium. I also (finally) assembled the rest of a Devastator Squad that Damo had sent me a long time ago (with some mods and reorganisation), and built a squad of terminators - both for my Minotaurs. Yesterday I got to spray them, and today I washed them a couple of times, gave them a highlight and painted in the bases. They still need "greening" of the armour, as well as painting of ALL of the details, and proper basing. But they're on the way and recognisable now at least...
Still pretty plain, but once the coloured bits are filled in, they should look pretty good. Rhinos or Razorbacks soon, as well as the Primaris set from DM, an Assault Squad, Librarian, Captain, Apothecary, Techmarine and then I'll look at Vanguard, Sternguard, Cataphractii and "proper" tanks...
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Post by: Ian Sturrock
Glad to hear your missus is on the mend, man! Scary times.
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Post by: Da Boss
Absolutely nothing worse than a loved one who is seriously ill. Glad to hear your wife is over the worst of it, hoping for a speedy recovery.
Nice start on those minotaurs, I see that they're a really popular chapter these days.
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Post by: nerdfest09
Looks like we're gonna have a Minotaurs-off they look great already and you've got a sweet colour for them! it's the details that really do bring them to life so to speak, a splash of colour goes a long way, my own Mino's had the reds done on them today (no pics yet I had to go to work) and they look so different. I am really enjoying watching the force grow even if it is slowly, the vehicles are going to be awesome fun for both of us I imagine (Oh god I hope they are easy enough) and will really fill them out as an army. I'm not sure if you knew yet but I received the book you sent in perfect order and i'll be boxing your return up as soon as i'm able to my own rosters and work have been a little abysmal with 7 days straight and then i've 2 days off which are full of normal not hobby stuff (dammit) then i'll be on for 8 days straight a mix of 5am starts and 1am finishes! 
I am both sorry to hear and relieved about your Mrs Az  that stuff is scary and it's not always that obvious, you were lucky you persisted and they listened to you! is she on Walfarin? or wolfram? that can be as bad as the symptoms if they get the dosage wrong but I'm glad she's o.k and on the mend, and i'm glad you're feeling better too! you need a holiday in sunny Tasmania 
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Post by: Slinky
All the best to Mrs Az, it's never good when She Who Must Be Obeyed is sick.
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Post by: Theophony
Glad to hear your wife is doing better. Sorry to hear about the stress that it put on you, I know stuff like that sucks.
Hope to see some progress on the Minotaurs on the horizon.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
I'm glad to hear your wife is on the mend. DVTs are scary...
The slayers turned out well, as always. I'm a little disappointed that the guy on the right isn't going commando, though.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys, it's been a rough few weeks but seems to be getting better. I let her out on her own three times this week even! Ok, one time was with her sister and the other times were to the doctor's and the physio, but hey. She still needs to lie down frequently and can't be on her feet or walk for too long because of the torn muscle, but she's kinda-sorta getting back to normal-ish around the house. Except when she tries to lift/carry too much and I have to tell her off.  She's on Rivaroxaban which is supposedly a newer sort of stuff instead of Warfarin (though Riva has been around for 10-odd years.) The potential "might happen" list when you stop taking the stuff is fething scary, though - so there's still a way to go before it's all good. She has the rest of the month off at least, and the tear which brought on the DVT was a work injury so it's all under Workcover.
Good to hear you got the Book in good order, Damo. I've been lugging "my" copy up and down the stairs every night and morning for about a week but still haven't managed to tear of the shrinkwrap to start reading it yet.
I got the green wash done on the Minos in the picture today, and did my first actual proper painting in several weeks as well, with some more viking shields. Speaking of Vikings, I went outside to the shed this evening (well,m last night now as it's past midnight) and finally got the group shots I'd been meaning to do for ages.
This is the final post of my first "book" of Vikings - those given to me in bare-lead form by Mr. Cannon from work, who has just taken on another job and somehow managed to duck both a planned painting day and a series of SAGA (and possibly Frostgrave) encounters (admittedly, due to some family health issues on my end). I'll catch up with him again, but it might not be until September.
Anyway, I thought a group shot was apt to cap off the collection that he generously gave to me (forced me to take them, actually!) I'm thankful though, as I've enjoyed painting them and have now gotten into my own collection of metal Vikings that may have otherwise just sat around forever in the leadpile. I say may. Let's be real. They would have.
The next Vikings to be shown will be "my" Vikings, as I wanted to completely finish all of the ones given to me first, out of respect for the gesture.
I also got a new Samsung phone, so I'm trying to work out if the camera on my phone is better for this miniature photography gig than my Nikon. It seems a little grainier, but with better overall focus. I'll probably have some dual-photos in the next few posts as I clue it out and see how they look online and what others think...
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Post by: Theophony
Awesome rowdy lot of Vikings you have there. Or are they all professional wrestlers?
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Post by: JoshInJapan
That's a fantastic mob of vikings. All the freehand work on the shields really makes the unit pop.
What are your thoughts on SAGA? I pretty much never play, but I'm always in the market for interesting and simple-to-learn/teach rulesets.
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Post by: BrookM
I wish I could exalt your viking post more than once, so inspiring to see them all together like that!
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Post by: GrimDork
Beautiful progress lately things considered. All the best to your wife and your own recovery.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
I'm glad your wife is feeling better, and I hope you feel better soon as well! Nice Vikings, btw!
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Post by: Azazelx
 Theophony wrote:Awesome rowdy lot of Vikings you have there. Or are they all professional wrestlers?
Thanks Theo - It all depends on when they're born, doesn't it? In the 1000's they've vikings - raiders and traders. In the 2000's they're occasionally in the military, but mostly athletes - werestlers and boxers and MMA fighters and football (take your pick of code) players.
 JoshInJapan wrote:That's a fantastic mob of vikings. All the freehand work on the shields really makes the unit pop.
What are your thoughts on SAGA? I pretty much never play, but I'm always in the market for interesting and simple-to-learn/teach rulesets.
Cheers Josh. It's pretty fun and pretty easy to pick up and play, but with enough nuance that the way the board abilities interact with one another there's a lot of depth there. I'd still consider myself a Journeyman, and I haven't used most of the expanded factions (still haven't played Crescent and Cross, and just picked up the Roman variant but haven't looked at the rules yet). It's a pretty good game, though - and the popularity is deserved.
 BrookM wrote:I wish I could exalt your viking post more than once, so inspiring to see them all together like that!
Thanks Brook - Now I'm into the second wave of them! Then once all the metals are done it'll be time for the plastics - though probably more batch-painted than the metals have been.
GrimDork wrote:Beautiful progress lately things considered. All the best to your wife and your own recovery.
 ZergSmasher wrote:I'm glad your wife is feeling better, and I hope you feel better soon as well! Nice Vikings, btw!
Thanks Guys - we spent another 6 hours waiting in emergency last night because of some arm pain and a raised vein that was painful before getting told to go get a scan and you can leave now at 2am. Today was running around for 4 hours getting the GP referral for the scan so it could happen today instead of tomorrow at 4pm. Good results though - no arm clots, though WTF it is remains a mystery to be followed up...
So today I don't have anything new, but I have something that I painted before this Plog got started. I’ve been slowly working my way through and fixing up posts that Photobucket Phucked, in a combo of working backwards and picking the ones off the “Top Posts” sidebar of the Wordpress means people have tried to look at them but they’ve been broken - because it's easier for people to check out random posts on the web - or at least for me to know about them on that page rather than in a Dakka thread , and I’ve noticed some of them are
a) Still pretty cool.
b) More than 5 years old – so most people who follow the blog now won’t have ever seen them.
So based on that, and the positive reception to the Noise Marine Champion I (re)posted some pics of back in March, I’ll be doing a bit of sharing of old stuff, on “off” days when I wouldn’t have had any new stuff to show anyway. Obviously I haven't had a chance to do anything at all hobby-related again for a couple of days.
While trying to find the proper name for this thing, I'd found a link that describes it as an ancient Greek beast, which makes some sense. Regardless, this miniature is an old Grenadier Miniatures figure, that luckily remains in availability via Mirliton these days. I’m not sure who the sculptor is, as I can’t find that info anywhere. I painted this figure as a gift to my wife, and according to the message I painted on the base, I finished it on 17th Nov, 1996. Nothing like that to make me feel old!
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Post by: JoshInJapan
Very nice work. I particularly like the subtle blue/grey shading on the white.
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Post by: Luvvo
Love the base colour on the Minatours looks ace!
Ever checked out the vikings from:
http://www.fireforge-games.com/webstore/dark-ages/viking
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Post by: Theophony
Nice fantasy lawn dart . I never could do a decent job with feathers, but you nailed it.
Out of curiosity, how long have you two been married? We hit 16 years back in march.
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Post by: GrimDork
Sweet pegahorsicorn.
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Post by: Azazelx
So after all of that, my main “work” hard drive started to die.
Not my C drive at least, but the one with all of our photos, all of my MP3 files, my Steam & GoG installs, my Humble downloads. Oh, and all of my wargaming and hobby files collected over the last decade or so, as well as my Blog photos for this thing – including all of my archived photos that I was using to rebuild the blog.
I was lucky enough to notice early, since my music the other morning was acting oddly, even after a reboot – and the photos I was working on (cropping and resizing) for the update for a couple of days ago weren’t really saving properly.
So I'm back. It took the better part of a week to back up and replace the hard drive (still have my Steam folder to add to the external HDD backup). I'm feeling better in relative terms in that I'm over what I believe was the flu, and am down to more general, low level winter cough and cold misery. The more important family health stuff is ongoing and slow, but will hopefully work out to 100%, though there's a couple of months on that road yet before it's done.
These figures mark the beginning of "Book Two" of my Vikings. Cannon's ones are all now done, so we're onto the Vikings that I've actually purchased myself. These three are from Wargames Foundry, and are in fact the old 1986 Citadel F8 Vikings "Oldhammer!" that Bryan Ansell moved across from Citadel to Foundry back in the day. I picked up two of the packs awhile back (VNS001, VNS004) and skipped the berserkers and archers for now.
These three are the first of the next sixteen. I should have some more up shortly if I can get back to regular updates without any more roadblocks coming up.We'll see how it goes, I've still got a ton of older posts to repair...
Finally, the shields. This trio is pretty simple, though I do like the yellow/white/red one. I may reuse that particular pattern on another shield or two as I move through the rest of the metals.
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Post by: GrimDork
Nice minis!
Losing a hard drive sucks.
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Post by: Theophony
I like how the third guy in the last pick looks like "what have I gotten myself into, I thought I was pledging tri-Alpha"
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Post by: Azazelx
DUDE!!
Also - thanks, Josh. It's an old model but one I'm still happy with.
Thanks Luvvo. I'll hopefully get back to the Minotaurs next weekend. I'm trying to finish off the missing models to finish 3 squads of Dark Angels right now - bumping three squads up to 10-man ones. Then I'll figure out what to do with the 6-man scout squad. And then the DV Dark Angels can get back onto the backburner. Nice Vikings over at Fireforge, though I'll be concentrating on the metals I already have since I have a ton of Foundry ones to work on, and then a few boxes of plastics. I might grab the Foundry/Perry Viking archers at some stage, since they're also Oldhammer and so have that bit of extra "cool", and are reasonably priced...
Thanks Theo - drybrushing played a large part in the feathers, as did the sculpt being such a nice, fine one. We've been together for ...25 years now. Now that makes me feel old...
And thanks, Grim!
Another blast from the past now, as I work my way through blog repairs. These haven't been shown here on Dakka, as painting them predates this blog.
Back in the day these suckers took awhile to get going, but once I actually sat down to make myself paint them they were quite an enjoyable experience. Originally they were all-purple, then I looked up the D&D colouration, which said they had yellow bellies/undersides, which I thought would look far too cartoony, but it kept bothering me. A day or two later I came back to them and used some sand and ochre shared for the “yellow” to make them look much more like natural colouration, and it worked for me. I used some pinky-purple for the transition ridge between the ochre and the main dark bluish-purple for the main body. One of the things I enjoyed most was the fact that since these are cheap Bones models, I allowed myself to play with them a lot more. I used drybrushing, blending, a purple oil paint wash at one stage, the aforementioned realistic water products, and a few weathering powders in the end. Basically a lot of experimentation and “play”, and I think they turned out pretty successful in the end!
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Post by: Theophony
Ah, the end of one of my characters makes an appearance. Swallowed whole . I like the second one. Looks like he had a bit of a cold and needs a tissue, but alas he has no hand to wipe with . Love the extra little white dots on them.
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Post by: nerdfest09
I like those worms! you seem to just have an unimaginable collection of actually cool historical models from pretty much EVERY model maker out there!
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Post by: Slinky
You can tell that a lot of effort went into those worms, they look great!
Do you RP at all, or will they find a home in one of your KOW armies?
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Post by: Azazelx
Delish, Theo. Just needed some extra sauce!
Thanks Nerdy, I have a bit of an eclectic collection, though the benefit is I always have something different and interesting to paint.
Thanks, Slinky! I used to RP more when I was younger. My game of choice was generally Call of Cthulhu with my older, more roleplaying oriented group, but enjoyed various fantasy, modern and sci-fi games with school friends and such.
I'd still like to these days, but just as with 40k and such, time and players are the hard part. We have a pair of friends who we regularly get together with, though they're in 2 Pathfinder campaigns with others, so we have a sort-of, half-arsed one that we play occasionally with web-generated dungeons and not much story (haven't touched it in 2 years). I also ran a few sessions of Star Wars Edge of the Empire that went over well, and we made up characters for Rogue Trader, but the overly-complex rules were too much for me to cope with (we might restart the 40k system with Deathwatch, and its less broad combat focus to learn the core rules).
Having said all that, we mostly end up playing PS4 co- op games, LAN-style or the odd board game session such as Zombicide or Pandemic (or others).
We just need a bunch of you guys to move to my local area of Melbourne, and we can get a really kick-arse roleplaying, wargaming and painting group up and running. Who's up for it?
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Post by: Ian Sturrock
Lovely minis, as ever. The transition to the yellower colouring on the underside is incredibly subtle and well done.
There's a giant worm that shows up occasionally in Frostgrave.  That's where my Reaper Bones 2 Mashaaf worm gets used.
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Post by: Theophony
I'm up for moving to Melbourne . Truth be told my wife is probably willing for me to move to Melbourne too. She and the kids would just stay here .
Sucks about not having a regular group. It's the worst part of the schedule I keep, so I know where your coming from.
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Post by: Azazelx
Badoom-tish!
I think I have one of those Bones 2 Mashaaf things. I have no idea where it is, but it'd be a cool thing to get painted. Once I clear some paint-desk space, at least. Actually, on that very topic:
The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter.
“ Old fool!” he said. “ Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!” And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade.
– Gandalf’s encounter with The Witch-King of Angmar in The Return of the King, The Siege of Gondor
This model of The Witch King was one of the many that sat around half-painted for a measure of years before finally seeing completion at the end of one of my occasional bouts of focused “Just finish that effing thing!” a couple of months ago. With the chaos that has been happening lately, it took sometime to be photographed, and time again before being cropped, and now, finally posted. These were actually the photos I was working on when I noticed the hard drive beginning to fail a couple of weeks ago, as they weren’t saving first time and easily.
As with the others that I’ve painted previously, I’ve taken some liberties – the Witch-King’s steed here is dark brown rather than black, and I’ve also added the beaten copper to the horse’s icon, both in an attempt to add some visual interest to what could have been a more accurate, but far more boring paint job. Similarly, I’ve used weathering powders mixed with matte varnish to add a dirty effect to the bottom hem of his robes. This leaves me with 5 more “basic” mounted Nazgûl to paint in order to represent The Nine in games of SBG and whatnot, though naturally, I have a couple of mounted extras – because that happens when you buy large collections on eBay, plus the foot versions, and a fell beast or two, and also most (all?) of the “Named Character” versions of the Nazgûl that Games Workshop came out with late in the SBG’s pre-Hobbit life, because BUY THESE MODELS. To be fair, though, they’re overall a nice batch of models and as you guys know by now, owning unnecessary models is kinda my thing.
Obviously, this rather proud king has uses in any official LotR games, particularly the Strategy Battle Game, but he’ll also serve in the Undead Army for Kings of War (as a Vampire Lord) until such a time as my Mordor Army has sufficient figures painted to be up and running independently of the rather generic Undead force. (His not-quite-finished self can be seen in those pics, too!)
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Post by: JoshInJapan
I do like those Ringwraith models. The mud on the cloak is a nice touch. Does his horse not have a mane, or does it jut not show up in the photos?
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Post by: youwashock
I have always been fond of GW's LotR range, particularly their Nazgul. You've done a great job on this one, and I would be glad to see you take on any of the named versions.
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Post by: Theophony
 there are no unnecessary models, just models you haven't realized you have a need for.....yet.
Love the dark tones you pulled off on the nazgul, very evocative.
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Post by: evildrcheese
Very nice work on the Witch King, you've managed alot of depth of cokour despite the linited palette.
EDC
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Post by: Azazelx
JoshInJapan wrote:I do like those Ringwraith models. The mud on the cloak is a nice touch. Does his horse not have a mane, or does it jut not show up in the photos?
it's an odd one there - it doesn't appear to have one at all, which I noticed and tried to figure out while I was painting it. The leather straps on its neck seem to be a strap-and-buckle arrangement rather than part of a neck covering, and so it's just an odd part of the sculpt.
 youwashock wrote:I have always been fond of GW's LotR range, particularly their Nazgul. You've done a great job on this one, and I would be glad to see you take on any of the named versions.
I've got about three of them part-painted, Khamûl the Easterling the, um, "Nugley" one, and one other. And also the Mouth of Sauron. So I guess those will be next...
Theophony wrote: there are no unnecessary models, just models you haven't realized you have a need for.....yet.
Love the dark tones you pulled off on the nazgul, very evocative.
Thanks, Theo - that's a nice way of looking at it. Besides, I'm helping the economy... right?
 evildrcheese wrote:Very nice work on the Witch King, you've managed alot of depth of cokour despite the linited palette.
EDC
Thank you, Doc. I'm quite pleased with the final product for that very reason.
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Post by: Slinky
I don't think any of the metal Nazgul horses have manes, it's a bit odd really.
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Post by: bbb
That is a nice Witch King. I like what you did with it.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
Witch-king looks awesome! This and your other LotR stuff is making me want to get back to painting my own denizens of Middle-earth. I just have way too much 40k stuff to paint right now to even think about sidetracking myself like that, especially when no one in my area plays the game.
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Post by: GrimDork
Sweet collection of stuff lately Az, gonna have to get one of those worms.
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Post by: Azazelx
I think you're right, Slinky - and it is odd indeed. Especially since they don't seem to be bald in the films. From memory, anyway. Thanks BBB and Zerg - I haven't played LotR in ages either, but the odd model is a nice palette cleanser. The Worms are pretty good, Grim - one of the standouts of Bones 1 for me, to be honest, and I'm not even a "real" D&D guy...
After a week of not being able to find my camera, and therefore given the option of using my newish phone for photos (sorry, Samsung, you’re not quite there yet) instead, and also not quite sure what I had taken in the last batch, I’ve found it last night!
This fine fellow is Citadel’s Wight King with Baleful Tomb Blade, originally released a few years ago as part of the Vampire Counts line, he survived the transition to Age of Sigmar pretty much intact, now being a part of the Deathrattle sub-faction faction of the Death Grand Alliance. Or to those of us who don’t much care about all of that, he’s a cool looking Wight model. Like, I’m not a guy who hates AoS. The system is fine, and the models are as great as ever (generally!) but the background doesn’t do much for me, so I mostly ignore it.
This lord has an impressive cloak. I don’t usually highlight strong colours to white or near-white, especially when using colours as opposed to shades of grey, but this cloak seemed to warrant it as a rare example.
He’s based on a 40mm resin base from Back-to-Base-ix. In retrospect, I think he’d “fit” much better on a 32mm, but he’s been mounted and part-painted since before 32mm based were a thing, and I wanted the resin base to elevate him to more of a hero status. I’ve also used round bases on my fantasy models for aesthetic reasons since long before AoS was a thing, and since heroes in KoW don’t have a facing, I saw no reason to consider changing. The crimson flowers and grass tie him in with the other heroes in the Undead army. As one of GW's newer undead, he's also not grossly oversized, and so could be used in an "evil undead" kind of role in LotR/Middle-Earth-themed games, along with any other D&D or generic fantasy setting.
The only strong colour on this model is really the red, with the sword having a blueish tint that marks it as a magical blade, rather than simply an old, corroded one. Perhaps it glows blue when Orc-kind are nearby?
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Post by: Theophony
The red of the cape is nicely done with all the tones showing.
Hopefully his sword doesn't glow when undead are nearby....battery might wear out rather quickly .
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Post by: Slinky
Yeah, nice model!
Like you, the AoS story leaves me cold, but there are some nice models coming out of it, and I'm glad they have kept some of the best of the old WFB models around too..
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Post by: Azazelx
Yeah, I see AoS as a great source of some new, cool "Old World" models as well as factions that can be shoehorned into my own head-canon version of the WHFB world. I'll write up my "fluff" for them once I actually start to get those new- AoS-faction models painted (ha!) So it could well be a longish wait for that.
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Post by: ListenToMeWarriors
Cracking Wight there Azazel, I have always loved this miniature and you have done him justice. I like the bigger base as well, it is just so hard to envision him with the 25mm square base he originally came with. I like addition of the flowers as well. Top stuff!
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks mate! I'm very happy with how well he came out in the end.
The second unit of my Black Templars Crusade following the Terminator Squad shown a bit over a month ago, is now finished. Or at least, legal. These five Crusaders will no doubt be reorganised in the future, but they’re now a functional squad.
The first of their number is actually the first Black Templars model I ever started painting. Sometime around 3rd edition and Codex: Armageddon, there was not actually a Black Templars sprue available yet. There were, however, separate metal shoulderpads, and so that is what he was outfitted with. The sword is actually a Space Wolf blade, with the wolf-skull cut down to a human shape and size, and the tabard is one of my very early efforts with greenstuff/kneadatite.
As can probably be guessed, his Sallet-style helm with its Panther crest, and the banner arm originally came from the Empire Knightly Orders kit, which sadly appears to have been a casualty of the Age of Sigmar. It is (was?) a great kit, that not only made some great looking knights, but was a goldmine for kitbashing and conversion, particularly for forces like the Black Templars. One day this guy may be promoted to Chapter Ancient, though more likely he’ll be this squad’s Sword Brother as the banner is cool but not really blinged out enough to be an Astartes Company Banner or equivalent. Maybe I’ll have to hang a bolter from his backpack?
The other four members of this squad – and four of the other five on the painting desk – are essentially more “rescue marines”. Bought from (I think) eBay any number of years ago, assembled and with a spattering of mostly-black paint on them but not especially cleaned up, they sat for years until earlier this year when the impending release of 8th made me look through the various bits boxes and random junk I’d accumulated for 40k figures that deserved a resurrection.
The shoulder pad script either says “Dorn” in honour of his Primarch, or “Dorm” in honour of his sleeping arrangements. You be the judge! I’ll worry about more detailed squad numbering and designation once I’ve got the next five or fifteen of these guys done. Considering only five are even built, it could be awhile.
The Black Templars, despite being on my “list” of armies to build and having some very cool models are a back-burner force. I had 10 models built, plus the 6 terminators. Once these are done, there’s an Emperor’s Champion that’s also built and primed. After that I might attempt to get them up to the “2 squads, a hero or two and a dreadnought” level, maybe adding some Sword Brethren via using them as a palette cleanser, but I’ll most likely be concentrating on my “main” forces to get the Minotaurs, Dark Angels and Iron Warriors up to speed before revisiting the Templars with any level of “Army Building Seriousness”. I’ve also got similarly small forces of Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Flesh Tearers and Ultramarines to get to “completed small force” status. Not to mention my Adeptus Arbites!
For now, I hope you enjoy them.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
Black Templars look great, Az! The guy with the banner is probably my favorite of that batch.
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Post by: GrimDork
Awesome work . I really like the old empire bits worked in, they turned out great.
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Post by: Theophony
The empire bits are great additions and give them a huge amount of flavor.
I also wanted to start Black Templar back in the day. I bought the limited set with the special emperors champion and special high marshal. Both are somewhere in my crate of metal marines. I thought painting black was going to be easy .
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Post by: Azazelx
Yeah, painting black is unfortunately deceptively harder than one would think. Easier than white, but white's a real bitch. You know what they say, though - probably time to restart your own Templars force! I'm tempted to potentially reuse some of the unique models in red & black as some sort of successor templars army, and then ally them to the BT. Kinda like I'll be doing with Blood Angels and Flesh Tearers.
Once I get the second five Templars done and figure out what to do with them next, I'll probabaly incorporate more Empire bits into future models. One of the ones I'm working on was me having fun with the BT sprue when it was new, and the other four are also rescue marines, and there's nary a special or heavy weapon amongst them - which is something else I can sort out later on when I build and paint more Templars.
Working on Dark Angels yesterday and today. Five tacticals outside drying after varnish (though still lacking their bolters) and a Sergeant inside, needing a backpack and a lot of work. Two Assault marines almost done. If I can finish them tonight I just need to hope I can get home one night this week early enough to varnish them before the temperature drops through the floor. I should have done them today, but I really needed a nap this afternoon. 
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Post by: Theophony
I totally get the I need a nap today.
The alternative red color can be a seperate army badge from a different crusade that the unit went on. The Marshal could decide that they wore red dud to how bloody the campaign was or the color of the ground or sky.
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Post by: Azazelx
I was considering possibly red/crimson armour with black pads, red edging and red crosses - essentially enough to make them clearly a separate army, but with enough in common to run them alongside and still give me somewhere to paint my second Helbrecht and Emperor's Champion models. Also good for MP games. Just spitballing here, though since it's a long way off regardless.
Unless, maybe I see someone else doing something Templar-ish on here? Hint, hint!
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Post by: GrimDork
I have a modest supply of Templar bits myself but too few marines to split my focus.
Sounds like a good project though, looking forward to seeing them done.
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Post by: Theophony
You keep inspiring me to hit my old projects, which seem to mirror yours, but no Templar happening here anytime soon : nono:
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Post by: aku-chan
Nice job on the Wight!
Mine sits forlornly in a box, with a big gap in his cloak my poor skills can't fill.
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Post by: Azazelx
OK, so Theophony returns to 40k with a Templar army CONFIRMED here!
You could always mix in the bits with the DA parts, Grim? Or do a single squad to ally with if the fancy took you?
Thank you for the kind words, Aku-chan!
The next three models of “Book Two” of my Vikings. Once again these are from Wargames Foundry‘s, rebadged 1986 Citadel F8 Vikings. I’ve actually painted the duplicated axemen before, painted back in March/April, I guess the fact that he’s a dupe explains why Cannon was happy to pass the model on. Hopefully I’ve made the three of them look at least a little distinct from one another when they get used on the table.
Once again, nothing too outstanding, though the drive to keep using unique shield designs on these figures is keeping me on my toes…
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Post by: GrimDork
Nice! Those shields are fancy
I've been gradually using the bits, the chained bolters and chainswords, and some of the details. Just the shoulder pads sitting idle now.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
That's some good solid painting on the Vikings, but the shields push them over the top to fantastic.
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Post by: Theophony
I got to agree, the shields are really well done. They really set them apart from stock models and mass produced hordes that we normally see.
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Post by: Slinky
To echo what everyone else said, the quality of the work on the shields really takes these to another level!
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Post by: Azazelx
Thank you guys, I'm glad you like them!
Officio Assassinorum. The Order of Imperial Assassins. The face of death to whomever is unlucky to see them, and many who never catch a glimpse of their killers.
This is the “Head 1” version of the model. I think I have the alternative version, unpainted, somewhere. It utilises the same torso and body, and given the “throwing grenade” pose of the torso, I doubt we’re going to get a radically different model when I do eventually find and paint him.
The Culexus Assassin, of course was released last out of the four (five?) Imperial Assassin types. The first, obviously was the Rogue Trader-Era “Ninja” Assassin, of no fixed temple. Now my memory is a little sketchy, but I recall the original being superseded over the course of three months worth of White Dwarf by the trio of the Vindicare (Sniper), the Callidus (Close Combat Shapeshifter) and the Eversor (All-out Psycho-Killer Berserker). Later on, with Codex: Assassins, they introduced the Culexus, who is a psychic “null” and a thing called the Animus Speculum bolted onto their gigantic, Xenomorph-like heads. When the eye of the Animus opens, focused “negative psychic energy” is unleashed and does a right number on any Psykers nearby, and in particular on its target.
Having read through Index 2 to see what this guy is like in-game, I can see he’s a bit of a glass cannon, and appropriately nasty against psykers. Assassins were a nasty surprise to anyone who came near them back in 2nd edition, which was when I most often employed Assassins – this fellow in particular against a friend who’s Slannesh army was fond of rather potent psykers.
I’m not sure how often a weapon like this will manage to see the tabletop in my games of 8th, which will largely be focused on smaller, friendly games for some time as the forces are built up. Perhaps he could be rolled out for especially large games? Certainly once we get to the stage of Daemon Princes and Greater Daemons being rolled out to the table, he’d have a place then.
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Post by: Mymearan
I really like your painting on the black suit. I also happen to be one of the few people who really love this model!
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Post by: Theophony
I like the red of the animus. Makes me think Khorne, who are also not fans of psykers. I vaguely remember two of the other guilds of assassins from the books being a poison master and a cyber assassin (think hacker who also uses weapons).
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Post by: Llamahead
Your right Venenum and Vanus. Cool model by the way.
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Post by: youwashock
He looks great. When these guys were released they bumped Callidus as my favorite temple.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
I've got one of those metal Culexus Assassins myself, but mine has the other head. It's only partially painted; I really need to go back to it and finish it up. I do love the sculpt, and you did well on your paintjob on it.
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Post by: GrimDork
Assassin is excellent. Bodysuit is well done. Creepy suckers
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Post by: Theophony
I think I had at least two of them. I converted one for a house rules spryer ganger that was a pyromaniac. Chopped the head nub off and added an elder helmetless head. The assassins were always cool. Even the original one.
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Post by: JoeRugby
The bodysuit on that assassin is great but i love the viking shields their awesome
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys - I'm now very much tempted to dig out another half-painted Assassin and get them finished. Just need to keep focus and get some more of these Power Armoured chappies done first to make some space on the desk. I should have some more Vikings tomorrow, Joe. In the meantime here's another blast from the past from before I started this blog - basically as I go through repairing the photobucketed pic in my blog I sometimes find posts of models that have never been seen here that I also think people might enjoy seeing.
So there's a couple more painted Bones this time. One from the Kickstarter, the Battleguard (Iron) Golem, and another pre- KS model – the Troll. Seems appropriate enough since I finally just got my Bones III (might open it soon), Bones IV has started, and I showed those Bones Purple Worms the other day...
When painting the “Iron” Golem (as he’s commonly known), I wanted to play with warm metallics (copper, bronze) and verdigris, so I happily disregarded the “Iron” portion of the model.
Much of the model was actually fun to work with. I utilised a lot of heavy drybrushing that worked well on the model to bring out all the slight imperfections of the cast, and helped to create a bit of a pitted, cast-metal look, which was perfect for my ends. The rear shot of the left forearm shows it pretty well. While I’m not especially happy with the way the sword blade turned out, being a cheap Bones model, I’m happy to call it good enough. The plastic of the blade was uneven and frankly an unpleasant pain to work with. The face was a bit of a mess. To sort of salvage it, I just painted it gold in the end, and gave it a hit of ink and a small highlight. The gems on the back of the shoulders and sword blade, and also the eyes were done using the usual GW-style gem technique and hit with gloss varnish. For what it’s worth, I think the glowing OSL effect on the Reaper website looks better, and if I’d seen it earlier I probably would have ripped it off, but c’est la vie.
The bags and chain on the back of his butt were a badly-cast mess, and so they got a very quick “good enough” job. The real highlight of the model to me was playing with some new mixes of paint washes along with the layered drybrushing to create the aged verdigris effect, which will no doubt make a reappearance later down the line on some venerable space marines of some description. I also did some dungeon furniture at the same time, which I’ll have to photograph down the line and show here as well. Base is my usual for this kind of thing – Proxie models 40mm round base with the plastic Bones base glued on top and a bit of acrylic putty to flatten it all out before sand and Army Painter tufts.
Anyway, as a low-stress learning experience and relatively fast model to paint, I consider this guy to be a success. Now he can sit on the shelf until Pathfinder or Frostgrave or something calls him to duty!
This guy, like the Purple Worms from the last post, was a Bones figure I picked up before the Kickstarter campaign who spent most of the last year part-painted until I finally finished him properly more recently. The “learning experience” with this guy was to practice blending from unnatural skin tones (ie, the green) to more natural ones (the flesh). I saw some fine work done in this manner on Citadel Dragon Ogres many years ago, and it’s also been used to some extent on the LotR trolls – which is one of the places this guy can do duty, along with Pathfinder and wargames like Warhammer and Kings of War.
The paint was originally a bit nicer, but it got severely messed up (in my opinion) when I hit the finished model with Army Painter’s spray (matt!) varnish. The model got a nasty shine, some sandy “frosting” on his limbs, and it also attracted a bunch of tiny little hairs. I’ve gone over it with paint-on Vallejo, but it’s still not quite right. The base used the same techniques as listed above for the golem, but not as successful, and being a cheap bones model I’d prefer to buy another one and do it again then spend the time to rework the whole base – ie “good enough”. His claws are badly defined, and the facial details are a bit soft and sloppy – picking out the eyes was not easy. Blending the pustulent and infected looking boils into his skin was fun as always, but despite my misgivings about the casting of the figure overall and especially some specific parts of the model (claws, face) – and even the messed up finish thanks to the Spray and my sub-par job on the base, I find it to be another successful practice model. Good enough for Roleplaying and certainly tabletop quality for wargaming.
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Post by: GrimDork
More fancy models, nice stuff. Dudes I missed out on being a bones2+ individual.
I especially like the golem but the troll works quite well too. Between my bad eyes and the phone screen I can't get into the details as well as some people but they certainly pass muster from my POV.
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Post by: Theophony
Nice verdigris on the golem. I also like the speckled belly on the troll. I didn't jump in on bones since I don't play rpgs anymore.
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Post by: Azazelx
I've been more and more focused with the later Bones campaigns - eyeing off the scenery items and those that would fit in with wargaming - so big nasties are usually a good choice. JUst opened Bones 3 and at a glance, stuff seems less awfully warped than ever before.
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Post by: nerdfest09
Looking good, I enjoy the challenge of blending weird colours or those that just shouldn't belong! the metal I did blending into flesh on Ferrus Mannus arms for example. and the lighter/darker blend on troll belly is great! looks good. I liked it on the worms too, they're cool quirky models and you have a good grasp of their aesthetics for painting them :-)
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Post by: Ian Sturrock
Verdigris is so much fun to paint! Very rewarding as well. I did my bronze bull from Bones II with plenty of verdigris and really loved it.
It's a page or so back, but I'm just back from a week away so catching up... I need to echo the praise for the BT with WH knight bits. I have some heads from the knight sprue and have tried converting them to 40K but never quite so successfully.
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Post by: Azazelx
Yeah, it's enjoyable to do once it starts to look properly done. I always wince though - as I move from a lovely, bright, highlighted-and-shaded brass or bronze and start adding the blue-green to it. Usually wondering if I've made a huge mistake to start with. I found another Templar as well, so it looks like I'll have eleven. Maybe that guy with the standard will be an Ancient sooner rather than later. Unless I make the especially-blinged guy a hero of some kind, instead. hmm...
I do like blending odd colours together when it's an appropriate thing for the model. I have to say I like the challenge when it comes up on occasion and it's very satisfying to do a good job with it.
I need to go outside and photograph a Squad of Dark Angels that I've just finished the reinforcements for. Going from an old-school squad of 7 to a modern squad of 10. Still have the Sergeant to do the same for a second squad, and if it weren't such a howlingly-unpleasant windy day out there, I'd be able to varnish the last pair for a DA Assault Squad that got it's bump to 10, and an Old-School RT librarian finally finished after god only knows how long - also belonging to the First Legion.
Also trying to finish up a combat squad of Minotaurs, so I can move onto the more interesting half of that same squad...
Anyway - time for some more Vikings!
Here are the next trio of “Book Two”s Vikings. As you may have guessed, following the stuff I do en masse, like the chainmail – I tend to paint, and especially complete them in duos and trios based on a similar palette. While it might give these three guys a superficial feeling of being overly red-blue while together, once they’re all mixed in together with the other Viking models, it’s all much more varied.
But yeah, they do look very blue-and-red when presented like this…
And the shields. The one shield that appears to have a Union Flag design on it wasn’t originally planned to appear that way. The pattern I was copying had much narrower white borders and really didn’t have the appearance of the UK flag, but when you’re hand painting onto a tiny 25mm-scale shield, getting those white lines thinner while still remaining distinct is a little difficult. Having completed it, it took enough effort for me to give it the old “ah well, it was tricky enough to do and it looks decent, so it stays!”
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Post by: GrimDork
Such nice shields. Fancy Vikings.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
Those shields are awesome! Your freehand is certainly much better than my own crude efforts.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thank you homies. And Zerg - just keep practising and you'll keep getting better and better.
Once again, Warhammer 40k 8th Edition takes the responsibility for inspiring me to dig these models out and resurrect them into a coherent force. Replacing about thirty kilograms of books, contradictory rules and scattered digital files with a Tabula Rasa has given me the opportunity to step back into an IP I’ve been engaged with since I was a young teen – when Rogue Trader was released and I stumbled onto a demo game being played at Games ’87 (Later Conquest) on a gigantic crashed spaceship put together by a bloke named Andrew B (and co.)
Stripping all of that convoluted mess back to a core rules of 12 pages, with the extra details to be added in via unit entries has annoyed many people who had been playing for years, as their very expensive book collections have been rendered null (excepting for the paint sections, photography and background) and while I understand their annoyance, 40k had grown to a bloated incomprehensible mess that was anything but friendly to new or departed players. The clean slate of rules gives us a very nice (re)entry point to the game, and hopefully GW can keep the meta and power spiral (known as Codex Creep) under control over time.
This force was originally inspired during 3rd edition, by Ed B of Powerfist fame (infamy?) when I was at his place one day and he showed my his Dark Angels. I thought they looked bloody nice – and not too difficult to paint. This was during the time when things weren’t yet especially blinged out. I did repurpose a Legion of the Damned backpack for him, inspired by Chapter Master Azrael’s own pack. You’ll note the models in this box are basically just regular space marines, with the exception of the Sergeant. The bright yellow fuel canister on the Melta is a bit of a 2nd edition throwback as well…
I also had a whole bunch of metal marine shoulderpads. I thought the Deathwing pad looked rather spiffy, though where to use them? The solution was to consider Veteran Sergeants (which were an upgrade option at the time) to be “Deathwing Initiates”. The background speaks of circles within circles amongst the Dark Angels, so I felt that the promotion to Veteran Sergeant justified that extra little bit of fluff – and bling. Hence the bone-coloured pauldrons and red Deathwing Chapter badge. Bone-coloured power sword? Why not!
This trio of Tactical marines were built with the notion of being part of the Sergeant’s Combat Squad. I used 3rd ed Assault Squad legs to give them some movement, given that the Sergeant is armed for Close assault and his offsider carries a close-ranged Melta-Gun.
Thus we have the first Combat Squad: 1 Section. Kitted for a close support role and capable of doing some damage. Originally, these guys were built as a seven-man squad under 3rd edition rules with the role of riding around in a Razorback (which I never got finished). I shall folllow up with 2 Section shortly.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
Love the old-school Dark Angels!
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Post by: Theophony
They look awesome. Glad you pulled them out of the closet (because they dont come out willingly).
Sorry that's old school 3rd edition dark angels hate right there.
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Post by: nerdfest09
^ Yes but it's still viable for us older ones who love a good ribbing...... which I hear the Dark Angels do a lot :-)
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Post by: evildrcheese
Nice updates dude. Really like the undead hero from a couple of pages back.
Many other cool thing too, but the assassin really jumped out to me. Such great models that I don't see on the table enough.
EDC
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Post by: GrimDork
Nice! Since I'm doing a successor chapter, I'm getting some good vicarious pure dark angels action over here
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Post by: Mad..
Combat squad 1 section is cool, nice feeling to be dusting off older models?
And I freaking love your vikings... they are choice!
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks mate! Indeed it's nice to get the old models out and ready for 8th. And I've got some more Vikings today! More Dark Angels in a couple of days.
Cheers Grim - We  Unforgiven have to stick together, after all!
I'm hoping to get that Assassin onto the table as well - just need to finish off Be'Lakor to give him someone to go up again.
The funny thing is my Dark Angels have only ever seen the table a few times. Once I get them up and running I think 8th will finally be their time - when they can take their enemies out back and give them a right good rogering. So to speak.
Ahem. Anyway, those Vikings:
Another pair of Vikings today! Not a whole lot to write about them – one model is duplicated from the ones shown last time, and the other is nothing special, and has an annoyingly awkward hand/shield boss hole.
Having completed these two, I’m left with only another five to go from the sixteen Perry Vikings I picked up from Wargames Foundry. Of course, the final five are my favourites from the set, which is why they’ve been bumped to the back so much, and also why they’ve barely got anything past their chainmail done to date.
On one hand, while the models themselves are nothing too exciting, on the other hand I’m quite happy with the shield designs on both of this pair. I haven’t really done anything especially like them before. Next up for the vikings will be a “Book Two so far” post. Hopefully not too far behind that will be the rest of these Perry Vikings.
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Post by: Theophony
Amazing work on the shields again. Most people just go for straight colors or a pattern, but your freehand is amazing. When your done with them all you need to send pics to the perrys. I can see them putting the pics on the website.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks Theo - high compliments indeed. I might possibly do that and see what (if anything) they have to say...
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Post by: Azazelx
 Here we have the newly-raised second 2 Section of 3rd Squad. Having previously been a seven-man squad, it necessitated the addition of three more models to being the unit up to legal 8th Edition. The first of these is the Corporal. I know that officially Corporals aren’t a thing in 40k, but then, Lieutenants were missing for 20-odd years before magically reappearing a month or so ago! The Corporals in my marine forces are the guys who run the other combat squads – usually the fire support bit. I’m giving the Dark Angels Corporals a metal should pad with a simple, embossed chapter badge, and black pauldrons.  This corporal is one of the three new builds for this squad – MkIV legs and helm, MkVIII torso, MkVII arms, a DA Backpack and a Tigrus pattern bolt gun. I wanted to give him a look of being a bit special with the archaic armour and weapon, yet tie him to his Sergeant via the MkVIII torso with its distinctive gorget.  The Heavy Bolter trooper is one of my originals from this unit and one of the older models available in this form factor, the metal-plastic hybrids. So his arms and backpack are (heavy) metal on 3rd edition plastic legs and torso. Having washers underneath the bases of models like this is very necessary for their stability. He has the shouty “sergeant” head from the 3rd edition sprue as I felt it looked cinematically appropriate for a nutter advancing while firing a hip-carried heavy machinegun  These three marines include the other pair of models added to the squad. The central model is one of the originals. The two flanking him here are 2nd edition Tactical marines. Since the rest of the squad is old-school and minimally-blinged, what better models to use in it than 2e Tactical marines. I have given them more modern arms and bolters – because frankly outside of a specific use, the chunky arms and bolters from those days just don’t work for me these days and those older base models look just fine with them.  Here we have 2 Section of 3rd Squad. Prepared to hunker down and give their brethren supporting fire so they can advance, or join them in the forward advance as needed.  Finally, the entire squad with both sections combined. Rebased, reinforced and ready for battle in Warhammer 40k 8th Edition. To find action on the table very soon if all goes to plan. 4th Squad has a member drying from finally being able to spray outside, and the Sergeant nears completion on my desk - hopefully this weekend for the Sgt? 7th Squad also has guys drying out there...
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Post by: JoshInJapan
That's a great unit. It's nice to see those older models getting some love.
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Post by: Mymearan
Love that unit. Love the red period nods with the yellow details, the bases also complement the models very well!
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Post by: ZergSmasher
Your Dark Angels look great! I'd love to get my hands on some of the older metal models. I'm kicking myself for not getting Sgt. Naaman when GW was doing those rerelease models.
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Post by: Theophony
The dark green with red is such a definitive color pattern and you have nailed it. The remind me of all my old White dwarf issues, very studio style from the 90s.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys! The photos of the Dark Angels aren't that great (I may take them again) The chest aquilas are actually bone rather than yellow. Ok, it's yellow-ish, but... and the focus and exposure is a little dodgy as well. I never got Naaman either. I think he was one of Mike McVey's dodgy sculpts that they released? I tried to avoid a lot of them, though I have a bunch of his Death Company. I think I manged to avoid his Lemartes as well. But yeah, they're very much inspired by the '90s studio style. If I were to start them again today they might (have) ended up with black bolter cases instead, but then again maybe not. I'll have other armies for a more muted scheme, after all...  Somewhat recently, I showed off my Legion of the Damned models, updated for 40k 8th edition on nice new scenic 32mm bases. When I took that series of photographs, I somehow forgot(!) to take pics of Sgt. Centurius and the above Bolter Marine. They were residing on a separate shelf at the time, and it was some time before I noticed, let alone got back to take the photos with this pair.  Sgt. Centurius in this case was not painted by myself, but by my friend, Matt F. He was lucky enough to get one from a friend in GW when they were released as part of the “Apocalypse 100” celebration of Games Workshop’s 100th store worldwide, back in March 1996, with rules in that White Dwarf. Of course, there were no GW stores in Melbourne at that time, so for almost all of us, we were SOL. I think Matt was mostly interested in it as a painting exercise, so having done that he was kind enough to pass it on to myself, as I played LotD.  Centurius’ offsider here is another Blood Angels Death Company marine, added to the squad because of the sculpted skulls and scrolls on his armour. (Imagine that! a time where you had to actively seek out Marine models that had some extra skulls and bling on them!~) The flaming-skull shoulder pad is of course freehand. Corvus helms are my favourite mark for painting Legion of the Damned models. The shape and extra space really lend themselves to the design. The Aquila is a transfer, originally just a white outline, I overpainted it with the shading and details. He has 2nd Edition marine arms and a 2nd Edition Boltgun, which has probably now been retconned into being a Phobos-pattern variant. Pretty chunky! Unfortunately, Sgt. Centurius today suffers today from being an unavailable figure of a named character from a previous edition of the game. Meaning that there are no rules for him or the Animus Malorum (the skull he he holds aloft) , and barring a remake of him in plastic (Slambo!) there will not be rules for him in 8th edition. With that in mind, I’ll have to “Kitbash” some rules for him, based on the other 8th edition Marine and LotD profiles for use in friendly games here. We’re currently using Power Ratings anyway in a friendly-rather-than-exploitative-way, so niggling over a few points isn’t going to be an issue. I’ll do the same with the Librarian when I finish painting him. Yes, LotD had a full army list – in White Dwarf 224 (August ’98).  To cap it all off, we have a group photo of all of my completed Legion of the Damned models. I’ve got a couple more classic Rogue Trader models on the paint desk to join them one day sooner or later, and once they (and a bunch of the other unfinished Power Armour on my desk) are done, I can look at some of the later “proper” LotD models.
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Post by: GrimDork
Ooo more dangels and Vikings AND LotD . Awesome! Those damned legionnaires really go well with the regular old greenwing guys. I've always wanted to make some LotD but with how cheap storm shields are these days...just seems like company vets could do the job.
Excellent work lately
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks Grim! A question on that - how often do you/do you see yourself playing? If it's not all that frequently - or your games are at least as many friendly as WAAC PUGs, then you may as well do yourself a squad of them for the enjoyment of painting them, even if they're not the most optimised or points-efficient models in the Imperium.
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Post by: IFC_Casting
Wow those Lotd really pop!
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Post by: GrimDork
I get in a game once or twice a month these days, but there's no guarantee 40k will make it into that rotation. My brain is happiest when making things that are both cool and useful (even if that use is rare at best), but LotD may be cool enough to skip worrying. I'd have to actively embed bones to paint for my guys, can't freehand like a certain someone.
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Post by: Theophony
I always loved that Sgt. Centurius model, I had plenty of opportunity to buy him when he came out, but never pulled the trigger .
Love how your friend painted the bluish glow to his face.
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Post by: youwashock
Centurius and his crew look awesome. Straight out of an 'Eavy Metal spread.
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Post by: Mad..
Wow... those Legion of the Damned look great!
I reckon some of the viking freehand work you have done would look good on a 40k storm shield or two
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys! I'm quite happy with the old Cent-man and my LotD overall.
Theo - that's the same kinda thing I was talking about in your plog.
I'll no doubt do some Viking-esque freehand once I start on my Space Wolves. And some Polynesian-inspired stuff on my (squad or two worth of) Carcharodons. I've got about 50 dudes in power armour to get through first before I get to red or grey marines - Mostly more Minotaurs, Dark Angels, Templars and Iron Warriors first up. I've got 6 almost-done Minotaurs on my desk right now that I need to finish first up, but I'm about out of steam to do the fiddly bits of detail right now...
Maybe I need to spend next weekend putting the queue entirely to the side and doing something cool from start to finish to recharge my painting mojo. Maybe a Rapier & crew for the Iron Warriors or something?
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Post by: Theophony
While the nostalgic models are cool and I want t see more of your older models refreshed, I'd love to see you tackle some newer stuff as well.
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Post by: Azazelx
The next few posts will be Dark Angels that I've queued up. I just need to find something cool to paint that will keep me interested but not be too fiddly.
Maybe a FW Praetor, etc model as an IW character or something like that?
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Post by: JamesY
Very nice LotD mate. You do know how to bring back those memories with your painting style, very golden age of 'eavy metal.
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Post by: Azazelx
Assault Squad Terath is the third of my Dark Angel squads that I built back during 3rd edition Warhammer 40k. Originally 8-men strong, I’ve recently painted an additional pair of models to bring them to full strength for 8th edition.
The Sergeant is originally from the second range of Blood Angels Death Company figures, specifically #5 – These were created via Mike McVey’s sculpting of additional details over the top of Jes Goodwin’s plastic marines, recast into metals. I chose him as he was clearly an assault-style marine, was different to the one (or two) “standard” Assault Sergeants of the day, had some bling and was easily armed with whatever I wanted due to separate arms. I gave him a Power Fist and Bolt Pistol/Combat Shield Combi, which I decorated with the Company badge.
The “special” weapons of those squad are a pair of Plasma Pistols. My next Assault Squad (for whichever Astartes force) may well have a bit more variety in it in terms of Flamers and Eviscerators, but like most all of my “resurrected” squads, these guys remain armed with what they were armed with originally.
The Squad Corporal is one of the two models I built and painted recently. In game terms he’s identical to the troopers in the rest of the unit. In the event that I (or anyone else playing them) decides to split the 10-man Squad into 5-man Combat Squads, he’ll be the one to lead them. No functional difference of course, but the model follows the lore – which is how I like to do things. He’s built from a mix of plastic Marine Vanguard and Assault parts with a metal DA shoulder pad and a Templar “knight” style head.
The troopers are made up of two trios of figures. First there’s the 2nd Ed Assault Marines with 3rd Ed arms and weaponry, and then there’s the 3rd Ed Assault Marines, using Tactical (standing) legs in order to fit in better with the 2nd Edition models. (And to free up some running legs for the “charging forward” element of 3rd Squad!) The central figure with the 3rd ed helm is the second of the 2nd edition metal Sergeants released, with a headswap to a plastic marine. He would have been the squad Corporal, except I preferred to incorporate the metal shoulder pad as well as the pad with the nameplate, and both in black – and I didn’t want to mess with this figure beyond rebasing him as he was completed back in the day and I’ve always been quite happy with him. The second of the figures painted to bring this squad up to 10 men is one of the 2nd Edition metals above. If it’s not obvious which model it is of the three, then I’ve done my job of making the new guys fit in with the old. I'm still not entirely happy with the photographs of these guys, though.
Hunting the Fallen…
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Post by: Slinky
Auspex screen looks good!
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Post by: nerdfest09
Very nice yet again! I really quite like the Dark Angels but can't connect with the fluff of the unforgiven and all the secrecy or i'd do some myself! one of my first painted mini's was a DA sarge holding the chainsword up :-) didn't look as good as yours by a long shot.
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Post by: GrimDork
Glorious! I quite like these guys. I hadn't given them s name but I usually designate a specific marine to lead the second combat squad too. Corporal it is
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Post by: ZergSmasher
Yet more awesome Dark Angels! I love that sarge with the cool shield especially! The Lion would be proud of these.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
The 2nd ed metals fit quite well with the 3rd ed plastics, especially with the newer arms and weapons. You've probably already said this, but what green are you using for these models? I seem to recally that DA green is much darker than this.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thank you James, Slinky and Zerg. I'm pushing to get my old DA battle-legal ASAP, with a few additions and (it turns out) a lot of subtractions. The old-school RT-era armour is being given to another army, so I'll need to rebuild these guys some more modern tanks and such. At some stage.
Thanks Nerdy - I went for them based on aesthetics over everything else. The Fallen fluff is convoluted but the concept of a SM chapter with a dark secret that they'll abandon or even assassinate their own allies makes them a bit more interesting than the default in a lot of ways.
Grim - I'm using Corporals leading Sections since they reflect the AU and UK military organisation a little. Of course, Squads with Sergeants leading them are based on the US military, so there's that mix in there, though both do "fit" together.
Josh - I'm using my old school recipe, of black undercoat, then DA Green over the top, then highlighted with some scorpion green (old school white flip-top hex-pot) mixed with DA green. The lighting (3 diffused lamps + ambient) brightens them up a fair bit, they're a bit darker in hand.
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Post by: ListenToMeWarriors
You are really pumping these Dark Angels out Az, and they look great. I like how the 32mm bases help to modernise some of the older sculpts a well. The pauldrons and combat shield colours on the jump sergeant are especially cool.
And those LOTD look great, I was not even aware of the existence of some of those sculpts.
Good luck with getting your DA into a legal army.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks mate - the addition of this guy makes them legal, but there's a lot more to get done to make them decent.
Today’s model is another Dark Angel. One that is – once again – a long, long time in the making. The model itself is one of the original Space Marine Librarians from 1990-1 – right around the time of the “Death Eagle Marine” variants, and like those figures, sculpted by Mark Copplestone. This particular fellow is imaginatively titled “Librarian with 2-handed Force Sword”. As you can see, he’s had a late-Rogue-Trader-era/2e Metal Jump Pack strapped (pinned!) to his back, allowing him to get stuck right into his foes.
Again mirroring the Death Eagle Marines, his helmet is a proto-MKVII helm underneath the psychic hood.
The trim comes from an old Epic transfer sheet, though he took a shelf dive at some stage and so one corner had to be repaired with paint. In the original small, DA force that I built in the past his job was (obviously) to join the Assault Squad and give them a more hefty punch in close combat. The transfers on his jump pack symbolise his twin allegiances to both the Dark Angels Chapter as well as the Inner Circle/Deathwing.
After sitting about 3/4 complete for a good decade or so, he’s now finally complete and likely to purge the Emperor’s enemies while hunting the Fallen.
I mentioned earlier the plan of running him alongside the Assault Squad, so I snapped a shot of them together. They’ll be coming to the table soon!
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Post by: JoshInJapan
Nice work on a another very old model. The transfers on his jump pack are an especially nice touch. I also like the inversion of the usual light/dark colors on the force sword.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks Josh. It's not picked up in the photos well, but there's a tiny, tiny DA icon on his left shoulder above the shield-scroll, and the light/ice blue on his sword is painted with a pearlescent paint, so it's got a bit of shimmer to it.
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Post by: GrimDork
Nice librarian! Smite all the things in preparation for Assault!
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Post by: evildrcheese
Some wicked stuff dude.
Realky digging tge Jump Librarian the rhe LotD Sergeant.
EDC
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Post by: angelofvengeance
Good lord that's an old model haha. Looks nice though, Azazel!
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Post by: Llamahead
Excellent Librarian I painted one of those ancient librarians a while back however I used him as an Inquisitor due to scale with my 3rd ed marine army.
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Post by: Azazelx
He's just a little hunched over with all of his weight of Knowledge, The Fallen and the Warp. Still plenty of fight in him when the time arises, though. Like Yoda.
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Post by: Theophony
I love him and his lightning force sword. One of my favorites from that era. Another favorite I'm sure you have is the guy with two power firsts who's hunched over in a football stance. I got about 10 of him somewhere because I was going to make a 40k chess set and use them as pawns.
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Post by: Azazelx
Yeah, I've got him. He's currently painted as Death Company. I'm waiting to see what to do with him since he doesn't fit into a lot of spaces very easily.
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Post by: Theophony
He is the perfect template for an Angry Marine. just needs power boots 
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Post by: weetyskemian44
Lovely old models Az and beautifully painted. We appreciate the background info too. I think I've got one of those twin powerfist guys. I thought with some old combat knives as claws he would make a good lightning claw dude.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thank you Weety! I always enjoy doing a bit of revisiting into the history of the models. For me it really adds to the enjoyment of blogging about them. Power-double-Fist-guy is probably going to stay in Limbo for awhile yet. Plenty of pother power-armoured dudes in front of him in the queue before I need to think or worry about him and the few other odd models that he's with.
Taking a brief diversion from Dark Angels (still need to finish their Tac Sergeant - hopefully later today!) - but instead I have the Bolter half of a Devastator Squad for the Minotaurs. Once again, with luck I'll finish the heavy half of the squad later today, but with poor weather for spraying in general, work tomorrow and so forth, it'll likely be a few days at best until I can get them photographed and posted up.
As with a lot of my Minotaurs, I've added in a few third party components here, which today are all from Anvil Industry, who are one of my favourite suppliers of unofficial bitz. Two of the marines have scopes added to their bolters while once again I've sprinkled in a couple of Anvil's "Spartan" helmets. The tabard is also from Anvil, though they're currently OOP for some reason.
The other additional parts are of course Forge World's Minotaurs shoulder pads that look pretty impressive as always. My only gripe with them is that some of them seem completely inappropriate for the left shoulder pad. I did finally come up with a solution for that, which I'll post up a bit later on.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this short update, and hopefully I'll have more from both the Dark Angels and the Minotaurs ready to show and ready to go very soon!
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Post by: nerdfest09
Looking good on the Mino's I agree about the pads too, they are a bit heavy on the top side of some with a skull etc, I just snipped it off and hoped for the best.
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Post by: Theophony
I like your take on these guys with a much cleaner paint scheme and the more silver and white ornamentation compared to Nerdies dark red and beat to heck. Both are great choices and both look great across the whole of the army.
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Post by: Mymearan
Those are fantastic. I have to say the stripes on the bolsters really lift the whole squad to another level, details like that really stand out.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys. I'm very happy with the way they're turning out. Doing things like the bolter stripes and freehand markings are what keeps a lot of the painting interesting to me. Original inspiration credit has to go to Sas0mg's Minos from a few years back for the overall colour and method of doing the armour, though I tweaked his scheme to be more to my own liking. Sadly his Plog here has been long abandoned and since then lost to Photobucket - Though I did go and download all of his Mino images. I did the same with Nerdy's photobucket folder as well. Haven't opened it, so I'm not sure if anything is lost, but given how much inspirational stuff Damo has done over the years, I decided I should grab the images while I could. Especially for when I get back to working on my AdMech/Mechanicum (new AdMech book in a few weeks - hooray!) My "skully" and "shield" Minotaurs shoulderpads have been diverted to another mini-project, but I've got a fair few other models to finish to do before I get back to those - hopefully the second half of the Dev Squad this weekend if I keep focused and don't get distracted by playing games or catching up with blogging too much spending time with friends and family and the cat...
And now, for something completely different:
Space Orks!
I actually started these models back in 2005, using a mixture of Fantasy and 40k Brian Nelson Ork components. I was originally making up one of those "Combat Patrol" forces (which is also how the DA and IW started life), though the entire Ork project was derailed hard due to a family tragedy which really hit me very hard. I've been eyeing the Orks I'd started back then a bit in recent months to get out and finish, and now I've started on them again. It's been one of the reasons I've been getting back into painting the odd fantasy Orc and Goblin this year. Kind of "warming up" my greenskin painting skills. This army is going to be a tribute of sorts, so I want to do it justice.
The CP force originally had 2 mobs of 10 (or 12ish?) Boyz. One mob of sluggas and one of shootas, with 'heavy shootas and rokkits as the support weapons, along with metal Nobz, led by a Warboss and with some grotz and a slaver on the side. While they were all (mostly) built, none were actually completed in terms of paint, so I'm getting onto that now - along with making some additions. I don't want to get carried away though - if I'm working on too many forces, none will get done to any satisfaction, so the Greenskins will be a nice side, palette-cleanser project for the time being, and I can take a serious look at them when their codex comes out. If I can get them to around PL30+ or so while painting them in this way, then so much the better and they can hit the table before the book comes out.
I went with camo (or "kamo") for their scheme because I enjoy painting it. It's a lot more work than painting them in more basic browns and greys and blues and reds or whatever, but this way painting them manages to keep me interested. I won't be doing too much with heavily green-based camo, since their skin is green and I don't want them to blend into one another. Also, being Orks, I can vary the patterns and colouration as much as I like, since uniform isn't exactly a strong concept to them.
While I guess painting them in camo makes them nominally Blood Axes when it comes to having to choose a Clan for rules purposes, I have to admit I never liked the Ork Clans or many of the background changes when it was introduced during late- RT and early 2e. The whole "fungus men" thing has never sat with me, so I simply ignore that aspect in my own head-canon. (Similar to how I ignore "Mon'Keigh - and may Gav Thorpe forever burn in hell for that one!) Some of the Clans were conceptually okay (Snakebites - the semi-feral Orks, for example) but too many of the examples and paint schemes went way too far down a ridiculous and garish road, reducing Orks to a silly sideshow of the comedy joke army of the 40k universe. I can handle a few jokey things, like squigs and the way gretchin are portrayed (and the Goff Rokk Band), but generally speaking, I like my Orks guttural, angry and brutal, and want to reflect that with my force. Much more original RT-Rulebook (and ironically, 3rd ed Rulebook) than 'Ere We Go.
Anyway, these are the first of what may never be a huge army (horde armies have a LOT of models to paint), but what should be a cool looking, brutal force.
I'm glad to have these guys back on the painting desk after so long.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
That desert camo must have been a royal pain to get right, but it looks great! You've got a decent start at your own little WAAAGH! there.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
Nice work on the orks, especially the camo and the integration of the fantasy orcs. I have about 3 million points of Orks, and I found that mixing the WHFB and 40K sets kept them from getting too boring and repetitive.
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Post by: Azazelx
That's the thing about the camo. It took a little research to work out the patterns and colours, but I enjoy that sort of thing anyway, and the actual painting of it is (mostly) just fun. The Auscam is a bit tedious to do over a lot of models (you'll see my IG later down the line) but on a very few pieces of Ork clothing? Piece of piss!
And yeah, totally agreed that mixing in the Fantasy Orc components also keeps the models that bit more interesting.
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Post by: Slinky
Very nice - I dig the desert camo look.
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Post by: Theophony
My workplace has changed security settings and now I'm not seeing half the pics posted. I know imgur is blocked, I'm not sure who your using, but I can't see it while I'm at work . I'll have to look in the morning, but that kills half my break time usually .
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Post by: Azazelx
Yep, I'm using Imgur since it seems stable (as stable as you can get, anyway) after Photobucket. You could try the wordpress blog, since those photos are hosted directly on WP.
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Post by: Theophony
Okay I'm home now and I got to tell you that camo is awesome . All blends together well yet diverse at the same time.
My problem with the pics affects so many more blogs right now since a lot of people have moved to imgur and it just means I have to check some WIP here when at home, and the rest anytime. Yours and the_Blackadder's blogs are some of my favorite and now your both blocked when I'm at work and need the cool pics to make it through a shift.
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Post by: Scarper
Beautiful camo on those orks. Not something I've seen done very often before, and the desert tones really pop against the green skin. Great work.
And would you believe your post is the first time the whole Mon'Keigh / monkey thing has ever registered with me?! Feel like a right berk.
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Post by: Da Boss
Lovely job on those Orks. As the username suggests, Orks are my main love in 40K, and I did a lot of swapping and changing with the fantasy components back in the day too. I think you've done a really nice job on integrating them here with your colour scheme though.
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Post by: Azazelx
Theo - try the Wordpress site. The photos there are hosted on Wordpress rather than on Imgur. See if that gets through? https://azazelx.com/
Thanks guys - Da Boyz are definitely in my painting rotation now, so they'll be popping up with some regularity from here on in. They'll give me a nice bit of variation from painting Power Armour all of the time lately as well. I really enjoy painting the camo. And yeah. "Mon'Keigh" stuck in my craw ever since I first read it. There's another, more recent stupid name they've used for something with that same 13-year-old boy "hur-hur" mentality that pisses me off as well, but luckily I can't remember it right now.
Having said all that - here's some more Power Armour!
After a bit of a delay (lots of Diablo III recently!) I've finally completed the Dark Angels Veteran Sergeant figure, thus completing 1 Section, and therefore 4th Squad. As you can see, I've opted for dark green robes with a deep red inner. I never liked it when GW changed that element of their DA scheme from dark green robes to bone coloured ones - so I'm simply ignoring it and painting them my way, but in more of a black-green with a desaturated highlight to help distinguish them visually from the armour.
He is one hell of a fiddly figure. While the robes are simple enough, he's just dripping with extra details, sculpted rather finely as well. This is a figure I picked up a few years ago, rather than having purchased at release. His base tab seems to say "GW01" but 2001 seems a bit old for this model, and he's not in any of the catalogues I can find over at Stuff of Legends until 2010 - though there's only abiout thee useful catalogues there covering figures in the Noughties. Maybe the sculptor had a dyslexic moment, or perhaps it was sculpted for some time before being released. I don't recognise the sculptor, either - perhaps Diaz? That's something you could do with hand-sculpted metal figures, and as much as I enjoy the new digitally-sculpted plastics, it's a nice little thing to be able to look at a model and recognise who the sculptor was. Something still very possible with smaller companies, of course.
His offsider here with the plasma gun is a metal torso married to a pair of plastic 3rd edition legs. The torso of course came from the Space Marine Bike Squadron, which appealed to me as a cool looking "plasma gun at rest" - as opposed to the limited MKVII armour options at the time this guy was built (there was not yet a plastic plasma gun in the modern style.) ...you kids today, you have it so easy. Everything in plastic. Back in my day we had to walk to school uphill, in the snow, barefoot, backwards...
Ahem.
Two of these three are simply plastic 3rd edition marines (with a few pouches added), while their squadmate is the metal MKVIII model with plastic arms. He's here essentially because of the Sergeant in MKVIII armour that I used in the other squad. It only took 20+ years for us to get the DeathWatch models in proper, multipart MKVIII armour, but I'm sure a few of those could be built and incorporated easily into regular marine squads. Hm....
And here's the entire squad, finally complete with both sections fully manned now that I've finished their new Sergeant.
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Post by: nerdfest09
That Sarge is one of my favorite older models too! I had him many years ago so 01 might not be far wrong! if I find him again i'd buy him for sure just to paint :-) your army is coming along pretty fast too! and I love seeing the older more original schemes coming back with your work like the weapon colours/stripes etc.
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Post by: GrimDork
More dark angels woot!
Orks look good too and that's saying something because I largely dislike gw orks.
I about quit dark eldar back in the day over mon'kiegh...
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Post by: Moltar
Classic DA's and those Camorks look so good. Great job!
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Post by: JoeRugby
Great stuff use
Really like the camp on the Orks
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Post by: ListenToMeWarriors
Those Orks are great, really like the camo scheme on them and beautiful flesh time as well. Natural colours always seem to work better for Orks to me rather than excessively red or yellow schemes.
And glad you got the DA tactical squad done, a grand looking squad.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
Yet more classic Dark Angels! I wish I had some of those old metal ones. Maybe I'll have to keep trying eBay, maybe I'll get lucky and some will be on there.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
Another nice set of Dark Angels. I'm partial to the off-white robes/accents, but your dark grey-green works quite nicely as well.
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Post by: nerdfest09
Did you get your pod for the Mino's from me yet? looking forward to seeing how you tackle it!
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys. More Marines and Orks soon, since I got to go outside and spray today. Got to finish more DAs before there are any more of their kind to show, though. I haven't yet got the box, Damo - but I'm doing a postal pickup run tomorrow evening, so hopefully it'll be there!
Today we have the first proper post on a little scenery project I've been planning and slowly working on for some time - a trope-laden fantasy cemetery. Or graveyard for those who prefer that term.
"Viking" Themed Graves.
Over a year ago, I wrote up a small scenery post around some Uruk-hai ladders and an old metal grave that I'd finally done something with and actually finished. Sometime following that, I also found a literal bundle of additional Uruk-Hai ladders, Anyhow, in the comments, I mused about making some more, since it felt like creating more would be incredibly easy, and so inspired by Alex, IRO and especially D&B, I put together a pair of additional "grave bases", using some Renedra Gravestones as the base.
That original metal-cast grave that inspired the creation and form of these graves, flanked by Neferata and Bastet.
Of course, the wider graveyard project that these will be part of only exists because of the inspiration provided by Cheetor's St Cranium's Cemetary. If not for that post and it's followup batreps, I'd simply have had the various Grendel resin bits that I'd picked up in the 1990's and they'd provide some scatter terrain, or be clustered together and that would be that.
A slightly more fancy grave.
This little experiment worked well. I used PVA initially to glue down the sand, and then a sample of a liquid adhesive created by Kibo called "Area 52" in order to firmly set the sand. I've been using it on a lot of my scenic bases lately, and I find it works really nicely when you want to build up impressions using sand while still giving a lot of control. The initial plan was just to create two, but since it was simple and easy enough I decided to put together an additional ten, with a mix of single and double graves, as well as one double-wide.
"Crusader" Themed Graves.
I've kept on with the "dark brown earth" theme that I've been using for most of my models since the late 80's. I originally started with the dark brown because I wanted to figure out a type of base that worked both for normal games of 40k as well as Space Hulk, as the green-based terminators I used back then looked too conspicuous on the SH tiles. I figured that dark brown was kind of non-specific and generic enough to work for scorched earth or muddy ground while being unobtrusive and dark enough to work for Space Hulk.
"Generic" Graves.
I made a conscious effort with the painted colours on the first two bases to allow them to work reasonably well as generic scenery and also fit in specifically with the Undead Army. I also chose to decorate these bases with both rich green grass and red flowers for the same reasons as well as a wry wink to the soil being rich for growth. The flowers were placed again to be able to be read as placed or wild growth.
"Fantasy" themed Graves.
I tried to come up with (sort-of) broad themes for them as well. Several of the headstones that feature Christian crosses were decorated with shields painted with Templar symbols (except for the Maltese cross - that bit's a transfer!) Others are Viking themed, Norman themes and a couple are more explicitly fantasy themed. I figure while I'm sure they're very much wrong in terms of actual historically accurate viking or templar graves, they would hopefully still look reasonable enough to use in games of Saga/Crescent and Cross/etc if need be. And of course, in fantasy games - anything goes!
Norman, is that you?
Gravestones by Grendel. Painted many moons ago.
These small graves have also been shown previously. I've since glued some sand down over the dodgily-sculpted "dirt" they originally had, and also added some flowers and grass
Reaper Bones Bat Swarms (with their gravestones).
The Cemetery, as laid out for a not-so-recent game.
I've still got plenty more tombstones to work with, and have a Hirst Arts set or two on "the list" of things to buy. The two Garden of Morr sets I've got might finally get built this summer, depending on what else I still need to finish and get out of the way, along with the two Bones III Graveyard Expansion sets I got from Reaper. The graveyard is a fun little project, but definitely a slow burn.
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Post by: angelofvengeance
Awesome stuff as usual, sir . I love those bat swarms!
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Post by: Slinky
Very nice and atmospheric - The flower tufts were a v good idea too.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
That's a nifty idea-- basing them individually. I (like most other gamers) have a small pile of gravestones sitting in a box, waiting for some attention. I think I'll have to steal this idea.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys!
I'll probably do another (larger?) batch of them once the weather gets a bit better. Maybe do a simple tutorial on it as well.
I’ve recently painted the second of my “Oldhammer” style Fallen Dark Angels. “Brother Napier” this time – as named in the old catalogue. Unlike many other models, this guy wasn’t really started. Having some black on the model doesn’t really count as part-painted, unless I’m doing a drive of “only finishing models that have been started in some way”, but either way I needed to re-prime him anyway.
For his markings, I’ve applied some really old ( RT-era, natch) transfers. I could have tried to freehand, but I do like my chapter iconography to be perfect. He’s rocking the old-school RT-sergeant’s stripes on his pauldron, which I did colour-fill from the transfer’s original plain white. Full chapter bade on his (understated by today’s standards) powerfist – power glove in those days!
Something I really noticed on this figure is just how easy it was to paint. Seriously. Black armour, a grey lining, then careful sort-of drybrushing on wear points and the odd thin line for scratches over the armour. Really quick and easy, and it looks effective. Just got to keep the messiness looking neat and focused rather than like the model’s simply been randomly drybrushed with silver. I likely will continue to keep most of my marine models “clean”, but I’ll retain this colour scheme across all of my Fallen and it should be a doddle to get the painting done while giving them a unique look amongst all my power armoured models.
What’s not old, scratched-up armour is a dark brown leather. A less-glowing skin tone with some scar tissue and requisite 5-o-clock shadow, and black-to-greying hair completes the look. The greying sides is a particular note to the original Brother Napier.
Since I only have the pair of these done so far, I thought a 2-shot was in order. Both of these guys have rather hunched postures, something that was common to the original RT-101 line. I’ve got a few other original metals so allocate here and there. The hardest part is working out which ones to use in which army. I’d love to set up a full squad of RT-101 marines for The Fallen, but I’ve got a couple of them earmarked for Legion of the Damned and Iron Warriors, as well as my RT-inspired Crimson Fists project. There’s just not enough to go around – I need some more old metal beakies!
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Post by: Slinky
Very nice - I don't remember ever seeing those transfers for the rank insignia, would have made it a bit easier for my 10 year-old self trying to copy those intricate designs from the book with my rubbish brush and thick paint
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Post by: cormadepanda
wonderful classics. I like how you painted them.
Your thread is awesome. I will come back.
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Post by: Theophony
Those are awesome , not just the models which had so much character, but the paint job has all the old school feel to it, looks like it came out of the old white dwarf magazines. Beautiful work on the skin tones around the implants.
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Post by: Archer
Really nice work Az, really nice. I am not sure I can handle the aesthetic of those Rogue Trader marines anymore, but it is really nice to see them to see the history of the game that has taken a large part of my life.
The cemetery is amazing. Those graves really pop. Would be great to have a game with a cursed graveyard spawning undead vikings every turn......
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Post by: GrimDork
Awesome scenery d00d! Liking the oldhammer fallen too.
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Post by: JoeRugby
Love the Graveyard dude
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Post by: JoshInJapan
Every time you post photos of these old RT-era marines, you tempt me to dig out the ones I still have and give them a go. Technically, I have given them to my son for his Ultramarines, though, so I manage to resist.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys. The old-school decal sheet only has a few sets of sergeant stripes on it, mostly it's just DA (or whatever chapter) badges, so I'll have to freehand anything beyond that. Next time I use something off it, I'll take a pic of the sheet as well. There might be a few floating around on eBay? The RT marines are definitely their own thing, but I really still do like them a lot. Of course, my view is tinted by nostalgia but I do think that (most of) them still pass muster, particularly Mark Copplestone's sculpts. The Morrison ones are much mroe hit-or-miss for me, but then that was always the case and my opinion of them. You can hide some of their main deficiencies with a good old LotD Skull-mask on the face, though. Josh - you could just send them to me and we could replace them with modern marines or Primaris, then there'd be no temptation or conflict at all anymore. I'm actually quite keen on doing some more with the graveyard now. Sadly, despite the official beginning of Spring being a week ago, the weather is still the pits. Not natural disaster-bad of course, but just depressing, overcast, chilly and drizzly. Like an English summer. I've got a little bit of time off work in 2 weeks time, so if the weather has cleared a little I might be able to do some more terrain and focus on the graveyard project before the Christmas break. As for today's post - more Space Marines photodump!  I've finally managed to get time to spray, base and photograph the second half of my Minotaurs Devastator Squad. Like most of my Minotaurs units, there's a bit of kitbashing going on to keep the models interesting.  First up is the Sergeant. He was originally a gift from my mate Damo/Nerdfest09 over on Dakka along with 2 Lascannon and 2 Heavy Bolter Marines and painted in his earlier style of doing Minotaurs (a darker, more coppery armour colour than the brassy tone I use, and scratched metal weapons). I asked permission from him to tweak the model so that it fit in with the rest of my army and he said no problem, so I redid some parts of the model. The head I replaced entirely with a Maxmini Tribe of Black Lotus Helmet, since I wanted something a bit more obviously Spartan-influenced on the Sergeant. Some Liquid Greenstuff to obscure the eyes and facial details underneath, and then painted the eyes as lenses and the "face" as black enamel. Looking at it now, maybe I should have tried to sculpt a simple grill and paint that in silver. Oh well, maybe next time. Oh, and I have plans for the original sergeant's head...  I painted the red base and yellow lines on his chainsword, but went around the scratches that Damo had put on the original, to incorporate them into the finished model. I also added pteruges from Anvil Industry over his crotch - Centurion Leather Straps.  The bolter that Damo had originally armed him with was also removed and replaced with a Combi-plasma for practical, gaming purposes.  The backpack scanner's metals were left pretty much untouched from Damo's original scheme, showing the contrast between the original armour in tone (the armour was more coloured than the scanner) and the scheme I use. I also swapped out the left shoulder pad for a Forgeworld one, in keeping with the rest of the squad.   When outfitting the Devastators, I knew that I wanted to use the two Lascannon models that Damo gave me, which left me with working out what weapons I wanted to use to compliment them. One of his Heavy Bolters has been in use for some time now, and the other is awaiting a new squad to join. I went with the traditional jack of all trades - missile launchers. I used Calth parts for the weapons. The right-hand model is mostly Calth MKIV parts, along with FW MKIV Minotaur shoulder, along with a Anvil Vanguard Torso, which I bought a bunch of years ago for my Minotaurs as the gorget makes them strongly resemble MKVIII armour, which the Minotaurs were said to have a fair supply of. I didn't bother on this guy because of his arm being in the way, but the bare chest also makes them easy to add transfers or other details to.   The other bloke wears a more cobbled-together suit using a bunch of FW parts with the same Calth Missile Launcher. MKV head and Torso, MKII legs and shoulder, A bit of wear, staining and scoring on the launch area of their weapons, and they're done. Incidently, the official FW Minotaurs transfer sheet (sadly OOP now) has their Devastator badge as the "explosion" variant. Clearly though, the Lambda is the most appropriate to use for Space Spartans.   The two Lascannon operators both wear pretty standard MKVII armour. I retained much of the work on the weapons, adding the red weapon casings and putting in the brass of the barrel coils. I might have repainted the barrel tip casings, but I wanted to keep the great heat-discoloured metal that Damo had done, so I left them as-is.   Once again, FW Minotaurs shoulder pads were added and the armour was "brassed up" a bit from the original to fit in with the rest of my force.  And finally, we have the completed squad, with both sections present. Next for the Minotaurs are some HQ units, and then some Terminators.
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Post by: youwashock
That's a great looking unit. It is also neat to hear the individual history and process for each model.
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Post by: Theophony
I have to tell you when I opened up the thread and saw the first pic in your latest post there was an audible WOW!!! That doesn't happen very often . Love the commanders helmet and just the overall coherency of the color across the unit. The extra touches of the stripes on the weapons are what really push it far and above though.
I miss being able to see half of Dakkadakka at work now because of our stupid imgur ban . So many great threads have gotten neutered by it and I keep forgetting to check it when I get home. My bad on that.
Keep up the great work.
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Post by: nerdfest09
YESSSS they look great! I'm so glad you could use them Az, and thank you for leaving a few Nerdy touches on them I've got a Dev squad to paint too for my own with 4 Missile Launchers and a sarge, i've no idea if it's any good or even practical yet.
I am really looking forward to you doing some HQ and Termies, I know they'll be totally different than my own vision of them yet they will all look undeniably Minotaurs!
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Post by: JoshInJapan
Stellar work, as always. The helmet and pteruges (I learned a new word!) are a sweet accent for the sgt., and the retro missile launchers are sweet as well.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
Those devastators turned out great. I do like the Hoplite helmet on the Sarge- really fits the ancient Greek aesthetic that the Minotaurs should have.
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Post by: Slinky
Love that colour, it's just right, metallic without being garish!
And I am always a sucker for pteruges
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Post by: Azazelx
Thank you guys, it's quite rewarding to finally finish stuff like this. I'm no Archer or AoV when it comes to finishing whole armies or even consistently getting units from the same army done, so the feedback always helps. Pteruges are always a bonus because they look great, and plus, I get to write about pteruges!
Nerdy - I got your package and even got to open it. Cheers for that and there's a little extra in there I hadn't expected. It's a little sticky, but I'll just hope that's just clear resin that hasn't quite cured...  Not sure what to do with the pod. I've had a thought for some time to paint any and all drop pods in "codex grey" rather than individual chapter livery, then weather and scorch the everloving crap put of them and perhaps just magnetise some interchangeable chapter icons. That way they can be a part of any of my SM armies while still (more or less) fitting in.
The helmet (and a bunch of others, and bits like the pteruges, and vehicle bits, and way more) have been collected over something like the last 5 years for the Minotaurs project that I've been planning for at least as long. It's pretty cool to be using them finally. (I just wish I had more Rhinos!)
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Post by: angelofvengeance
Hmm. Me? Finish an army? Lol. Never happened
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Post by: GrimDork
Those are excellent Az, I really like the whole batch.
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Post by: Archer
Don't know what you are talking about. I think you are one of the most prolific for finishing models off or are the last 86 pages lying to me?
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Post by: Azazelx
Oh, I'm getting stuff done - but in terms of actual finished armies you put me to shame. It doesn't help that like yourself I also have a Crazy Army Plan, but it doesn't help that I barely have any organisation behind mine besides some general, unpointed ideas about what I want in each of the armies and a butterfly-like painting attention span... I have to say that Power Ratings and friendly games are helping me immensely, since I don't have to worry about the minutia of each weapon and options' point cost and am simply going with Rule of Cool for each squad or model with a bit of a nod towards effective choices.
Another three Slugga Boyz today. I'd have potentially had something different to show but I ended up spending most of yesterday Spring Cleaning the house, so these three are all I have finished at the moment. The Ork on our left is fully kitted in Coffee Stain (DCU) camo, while both of his comrades wear Auscam (DPCU) on their lower half. The Boy with the chainsaw above his head has a British 2-Colour Desert DPM vest while the third Ork wears Australian "Desert Auscam" (DPDU) (v.3).
Once again, there are some fantasy Orc bits mixed in, but that's par for the course at this stage.
Here are the Orks I've finished so far. Not too many (at all!) by Ork standards, being a horde army - but I'm happy with each of the models, and like the Vikings before them, each model is an individual. I'm really pleased with the way they're turning out, especially since they were pretty much a forgotten, long-shelved project for literally over a decade. The sort of thing that you'd like to get back to but don't think you necessarily ever will.
Finally, with everything happening in the world in the last little while, I'd just like to give my best wishes to everyone to stay safe and look after one another. We as individuals can't do anything about NK, but having seen Harvey, Katia, Chiapas and Irma devastate so many places in the last few days, with Irma far from finished and Jose still on the way there's been an awful lot so far but still a lot to come, so stay as safe as you can.
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Post by: GrimDork
Those look pretty snappy. I'll reiterate my distaste for GW orks, but you have done a great job on them regardless of that.
You guys and your army plans... I'll be lucky if I get this *one* faction done to 2k haha.
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Post by: Theophony
I love the desert themed camo, at a trivia contest right now, and we just had a desert storm question and these guys would have fit in nicely.
Speaking of armies, there's new Vikings by warlord games, they could bulk out your Viking pro wrestlers. There's also a Viking longboat
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Post by: Azazelx
I saw those. I'll likely pick up (most of? the full?) range of them around the end of the year when WLG has a Black Friday or Boxing Day sale. I've got about 4-8 boxes of plastics between Gripping Beast, Wargames Factory and... I want to say Conquest? As well as a good several dozen metals from a mix of companies unpainted yet - and one of those Revell Longboats! Plus several boxes of Saxons that pretty much look identical.
I've been thinking about what to do for my Summer Historicals unit(s) recently. It won't be Vikings, though - it needs to be much more of a uniform force for me to smash out 20-40 models inside a couple of weeks of work. I'll probably put up a poll in a month or two, but I'm thinking Spartans (again) or Romans or Templars or Perry 1400-1500 stuff, maybe WW2 Germans or Aussies or US or British or Soviets, or (less likely) Athenians or Celts or Zulus.
Too many bloody choices there! But it's nice with my time off work over Christmas/Summer to knock out a decent sized batch of something different to either cap off my painting numbers for the year or give me a big boost going into the new year. I'm now at 392 models for 2017 with 3 months to go (finishing those 40 dwarfs in January as well as a bunch of Terminator Endoskeletons helped, followed by painting 40 tank traps early on made a difference as well, let's be honest!), so maybe 2018 will need the boost!
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Post by: Theophony
I didn't realize wargamesfactory had Vikings, these are probably the same figs because Warlord bought the samurai figs from them and only changed the bases to those. Same with the zombies and survivors.
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Post by: Azazelx
Hm, good point. I'll have to double check before I buy any.
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Post by: Azazelx
I’d planned to finish three specific models this past weekend, but as it happens I got distracted by cleaning the house, sorting miniatures, mowing the lawn and watching the Mae Young Classic with Marouda, so in the end I only managed to complete a single figure – this Apothecary. Despite buying this model (and all of his contemporaries) on release back in the mid-1990’s, this is the first post- RT apothecary that I’ve painted, and boy, is he one fiddly model! I thought the Dark Angels Veteran Sergeant that I finished a couple of weeks ago was saturated in detail, but this guy puts him to shame.
The model itself is an Apothecary circa 1995 or so, with a metal arm with power sword from the 3rd edition Death Company box from 1999 pinned on. Not the first of the contents of that box that have popped up in my other units… The shoulder pad is a Forge World Minotaurs pad with a cloth draped down the arm, which looks good on one hand, but obscures a bit more detail than I’d like on the other hand.
“Clean” white is a notoriously tricky colour to get right. I can see why painting dirty white (Death Guard) and weathered white (World Eaters) is so popular. Still, I thought it best to keep his armour to the traditional white and keep the accents to red with a touch of gold and silver – keeping him tied in fairly strongly with the rest of the Minotaurs.
His Narthecium was a right bloody pain in the backside to paint. There are a lot of fiddly elements on it, and wanting to achieve a neat and clean look to it while picking out all of the distinct parts took a toll on my patience.
Similarly, all of the vials on his belt (and those on his backpack) also added to the over-fiddlyness. I chose to paint his spotlight lamp in silver tones to represent it being unlit, rather than the more commonly seen bright yellow. Between the vials and lenses all over this model and the wreath on his shin and the bluish tinge of the power sword there are already quite a few colours on him and I want to avoid the “skittles” look that Space Marines (particularly HQ specialists) can sometimes start to have. That’s also why I kept the vials on his belt and backpack to a couple of tones of red with a little yellow for the sole variation. We don’t need blue and green on the vials as well.
In the end, I’m very happy with the final product, and I’m aware that I need to sort out an Apothecary for the Dark Angels as well, but I’m not massively enthused by the thought of doing another one of these guys particularly soon. I might have to give the DAs one of the Forge World sculpts instead to keep it interesting…
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Post by: ZergSmasher
I know the Apothecary was tricky for you to paint, but you did a really good job on him. I've got a couple of Apothecaries of my own for my Dark Angels; both are kitbashes with the Company Veterans kit as a base. One has parts from the Space Marine Command Squad kit; he's painted, but very very poorly as he's one that I did before I learned to thin my paints and all that good stuff. The other is more recent, using Apothecary bits from the Ravenwing Command Squad kit; not finished due to the fact that Apothecaries can no longer carry special weapons (which they could in 7th, at least for Dark Angels command squads RAW). I'm in no hurry to finish him up as I already have one Apothecary, but maybe I should finish him and post a comparison shot showing how my painting has progressed at some point. I do think Apothecaries are cool models when done right, which yours definitely is.
Enough about my models, I look forward to seeing more of yours!
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Post by: GrimDork
Sounds fiddly especially with the white. But he looks awesome so good job!
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Post by: Theophony
He looks great, nice work on the vials and the narthicum.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
Nice work on the Apothecary. I have always liked the 3rd ed. command squad models, but never had a reason to pick them up. If my son keeps his interest, that may give me an excuse to visit Ebay...
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Post by: Azazelx
I'm back!
Thanks guys.
@Zerg - thank you. I'll get to the DA Apothecary sometime soonish. I'll use one of the Forge World models as befits the First Legion, though he'll still have to take his place in the queue. You should finish up your guy when you can and post him up. You might be able to use the special weapon in friendly games, as this guy will likely continue using the Power Sword.
@Grim - thanks. Clean white is such a fiddly pain in the arse to do. Doing this helped me to decide not to do more than a minimal couple of White Scars down the line, and instead do those models as one of their successors. Storm Wardens, probably!
A bit of a slow week this last couple of weeks for posts as I had exhausted my backlog of recently-painted-but-unshown models, and to be blunt had a bit of the old blogging-burnout. I'll slowly catch up on people's posts and keep on painting here to get more new models finished. Still, I do have something today - one of the models I'd planned to complete a couple of weekends ago but only managed to do during the week. This guy is from the GorkaMorka range, which was a side game of GW's (now known as "Specialist Games") and the sort-of successor and replacement for Necromunda in their release schedule. GM never took off like Necromunda did, and my group never actually played it at all, which I felt was a shame, since it looked like a fair bit of fun. I did, however pick up a ton of GM kits, which I guess might start to be assembled and painted now that I'm resurrecting the Orks.
Palette-wise, I kept him fairly simple and muted. A robe that started as off-white before being dirtied up quite a bit, some leather gubbins and the old Pilot's cap all in browns finished him off.
Of course, Bruce Spence's iconic character of the Gyro Captain is a visible inspiration for this figure's look - not to mention several other Orks through the years. Of course, Mad Max 2 has been huge influence over much of popular culture in general and 40k - and Orks in particular. I mean Just Look Anywhere.
Ork Slavers are generally also called Runtherds, and have been so since the RT days. One thing that is for sure is this figure was called "Ork Slaver" for it's GM release. So this means there's something missing here!
Now at this stage I don't have any runts ready for this guy to herd ...yet. But rest assured, when they get sorted out, this guy will make an appropriate reappearance here on the blog.
He's comin' ta getcha!
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Post by: ListenToMeWarriors
Really like the blending on his skin, cap and ...is it a dress, a robe, a cassock??? Who knows? But great work, you constantly nail natural tones really well. As ever the larger base really helps the miniature as well. I look forward to his runts appearing someday.
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Post by: Slinky
ListenToMeWarriors wrote:Really like the blending on his skin, cap and ...is it a dress, a robe, a cassock??? Who knows? But great work, you constantly nail natural tones really well. As ever the larger base really helps the miniature as well. I look forward to his runts appearing someday.
Could be a mumu?
I never got into GM, and I'm not familiar with the figures, don't think I've ever seen this guy before, he's definitely a step above the RT runtherd models, and your paintjob brings out his best as ever
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Post by: Mymearan
Lovely muted paintjob on a classic figure! One of Brian Nelson's best (I assume it's Nelson).
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Post by: Archer
Your whites on that Apothercary are really good.
THe Gyro Captain Ork is excellent, really like the natural look.
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Post by: insaniak
Yup, that Runtherd looks the business.
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Post by: Theophony
Very cool fig and well painted.
Never got into Gorky Morgan either, there were some neat models for it though, including this one.
I remembered that teef were the currency of the game, so this guy looks pretty rich. The hat is really does make the model, and the cloak is so nicely blended .
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Post by: JoshInJapan
That's a Gorkamorka model? He fits in so well with the 3rd Edition boyz that I assumed he was newer than than. You did a great job on him.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys, he's a pretty great figure. I found him buried in amongst the other models from my ill-fated and unfinished 3rd edition Ork Combat Patrol force. He was really a pleasure to get done once I made myself get started on him
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Post by: youwashock
This guy and the Shaman that Nelson did for WHFB stand out as such great examples of his ability as a sculptor. Timeless.
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Post by: Azazelx
Another model that was part-painted for many years. Jes Goodwin's original sculpt of Asmodai. Once again, the revival of Warhammer 40k has really resurrected my interest in the game and its models, and Asmodai is the latest of my old, half-painted and forgotten marine models that has been taken out of his foam-filled sarcophagus, rebased and then finished.
I can't say enough positive things about this sculpt. I've always been a huge fan of Jes' character model sculpts, and this one really captures all three key elements of Asmodai perfectly - Space Marine, Chaplain, and Dark Angel.
As I've noted before, I was never especially taken with the early (2e) change from green to bone-coloured robes for those in the Dark Angels/Deathwing. The green robed figures in their iconography really captured the DA feel much more for me, and so I decided to just go with the green on Asmodai, giving him a bone-coloured robe hem on a whim as I thought it would look good. I painted his mask with bone, though I have seen some nice work with iron/silver over the years, but still - Chaplain. His pistol holster colours reference the 2nd Octavius Crusade Company, which is the designation of my personal DA army.
Obviously under the green robes, I've given him the traditional black armour of an Astartes Chaplain and picked out his more ornate armoured elements in iron and a dark copper, which I continued to his wargear. I added a 3D-printed Dark Angels icon to his right shoulder which I got from Pop Goes The Monkey on Shapeways. Seems that GW is busily C&Ding his designs down at the moment, both the ones that are reasonably GW-owned as well as ones that are much more dubious as far as claims go (at least in terms of GW "owning" them). It's pretty Chapterhouse in many ways, but I doubt that PGTM will be able to fight them in the same was, as CH lucked into a quality Pro Bono legal defence. Bascially, if you want any of their stuff, go buy it now before it disappears!
Rather than going for plain iron or the metallic blue/silver that I like to use for power weapons, the Palette of his Crozius somewhat echoes that used on traditional Dark Angels iconography, though using metallic shades of those colours for the winged watcher. Now I really need to get a Company Master finished for these guys so I can then get onto the more interesting heroes and spend some time slogging through the DV tactical marines...
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Post by: ZergSmasher
The old Chaplain mask looks like a Harlequin Death Jester's mask. Obviously the aesthetic changed between then and now for Chaplains. The mini looks great; I'm very jealous of all your old metal minis!
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Post by: JoshInJapan
The off-white trim on the green robe is a nice touch. Also, that chaplain must have looted that mask from a dead harlequin--that's hardcore!
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks for the compliment!
As for the aesthetic - Nah, it's just this specific model. It's because both Marines and Eldar of that time were designed and sculpted by Jes Goodwin.
Here are Asmodai's more generic contemporaries - also by Jes. You can see that the current chaplains still follow this template quite closely.
http://www.solegends.com/citcat1994/cat1994p112-00.htm
It just stands out more since Asmodai has a "full skull face" rather than a skull built around the rebreather grille and the hood hides the space marine helmet shape
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Post by: Slinky
I really love the Dark Angels crozius head, that's awesome
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Post by: angelofvengeance
I wish they'd left the power sword on Asmodai for his newer sculpt :(
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Post by: nerdfest09
Asmodai, Ezekiel and Azrael were some of my favorite sculpts as they were smack bang when I was getting into the hobby (about 94-ish) and I wanted to play DA, there's still a small part that does still want to give them a go but I find it hard because I just don't like the fluff behind them and I find them a bit self serving for my tastes :-), who knows what will happen in the future though....... I hear the big guy is having a snooze in the rock?
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Post by: Theophony
And people complain about GW putting Skulls everywhere now . I always enjoyed Jes Sculpts. So much character without having to en-biggen the models. Great job blending the robes. Once again changing things up by going a completely different route with the cloth than I've seen. Most often I'd see him wearing purple, deep red or white to contrast with the rest of the army, but the white trim does that without making him look like a complete outsider .
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Post by: Archer
That Chaplain is really good. I like the colour choice especially the trim tying him into the Deathwing but not detracting from the ominous black of the Chaplains armour.
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Post by: GrimDork
Sweet ork and killer Asmodai.
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Post by: Mad..
Very cool looking model and you have done it good justice with the paint job!
Also thought I'd comment on the commentary between photos, I really enjoy it as it gives more information and understanding on what you have done and why.
Keep up the great work
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Post by: Llamahead
Asmodais looking good some excellent older models here.
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Post by: Azazelx
 Slinky wrote:I really love the Dark Angels crozius head, that's awesome
Thanks mate. It's just such a great figure I didn't want to leave it plain when I could bling it up without too much work.
Yeah, the sword really adds to him and his badass look. I've got the newer one as well - picked it up as a secondhand finecast figure with some other stuff awhile back. Didn't even realise it was Asmodai at first(!) I've got to do a little surgery to it to replace his pointing finger, and then get some paint on him. I think Original Asmodai will be actual Asmodai in my force, while New Asmodai will be a more generic Interrogator-Chaplain.
 nerdfest09 wrote:Asmodai, Ezekiel and Azrael were some of my favorite sculpts as they were smack bang when I was getting into the hobby (about 94-ish) and I wanted to play DA, there's still a small part that does still want to give them a go but I find it hard because I just don't like the fluff behind them and I find them a bit self serving for my tastes :-), who knows what will happen in the future though....... I hear the big guy is having a snooze in the rock?
Dude! You're building Minotaurs! They've got to be the biggest douchebags in the 41st Milennium! Face it, neither chapter are really "good guys". 40k Space Wolves and Ultramarines, maybe - but not either of these chapters.
We may well have The Lion, Awoken when the DA book comes out. After all, we've got Bobby, Mags and Morty so far...
Theophony wrote:And people complain about GW putting Skulls everywhere now . I always enjoyed Jes Sculpts. So much character without having to en-biggen the models. Great job blending the robes. Once again changing things up by going a completely different route with the cloth than I've seen. Most often I'd see him wearing purple, deep red or white to contrast with the rest of the army, but the white trim does that without making him look like a complete outsider .
 Archer wrote:That Chaplain is really good. I like the colour choice especially the trim tying him into the Deathwing but not detracting from the ominous black of the Chaplains armour.
Wot? There's only ...21 ...unless I missed some. Yes, it doesnt show up well, but each of his knuckle guards is also a skull.
It stood out more on figures like Asmodai though, since the regular marines of the day might have had a skull on their chest aquila and/or occasionally forehead, but that was about it. I have to say, the Primaris are (overall) a nice bit of a return to the less blinged marines, but with enough scope to add your own bling to them.
As for the robes... yeah - some deep red or bone mixed in can look really good for contrast, but plain white/bone/red robes just never worked for me with the (green) DA.
 Mad.. wrote:Very cool looking model and you have done it good justice with the paint job!
Also thought I'd comment on the commentary between photos, I really enjoy it as it gives more information and understanding on what you have done and why.
Keep up the great work
Thanks guys - much appreciated! I like to do a bit of "historical commentary", especially with the old models as it keeps me interested - which is always important - and it often provides a bit of context to the choice of paint or what I was thinking or why something is modelled in a certain way. I know a lot of people like to write up background stories for their models, which is cool - but my own style deals with the more mechanical aspects - both of the model or the way I think of their background and how they fit in with other models in a force.
Now, new-old stuff!
This Ork hails from the second proper wave of Space Orks back in the Rogue Trader days, when they were just transitioning from the RT codes into the "serial numbers" to designate each model. White Dwarf 106 back in October '88. Today being the 1st of October, 2017 it's effectively taken 30 years for this guy to get painted!
OK, I'm cheating. I didn't get him in October '88. It would have been sometime in '89, but still...
I've gone for very much an old-school style palette on him, though probably less bright and garish then some of them. Clothing and armour are otherwise again in earthy tones that still fit with the overall "desert warrior" feel (even though his trousers are in a woodland camo variant)
The weapon being worn (but not rusty!) metals and his stahlhelm in bare metal as well. No "WAAAAGH" title for this post, since this guy is a figure I pulled out of my stash to paint for enjoyment rather than one from the still-being resurrected Ork force. So he'll still be part of the army, but I'm not sure where he fits in yet.
As with most Orks of the day, rather than boots, he's got puttees wrapped around his feet from his toes almost to his knees. This was Kev Adams' style on the fantasy orcs that he sculpted in those days, and something that directly carried over to almost all of the original Ork line.
I'll hopefully have some more figures up shortly. Unfortunately I've still been a bit ill and so more dopey and confused than normal, so I've not had much energy for painting, blogging or replying to others' posts. I photographed a couple of other old-school Orks at the same time as this guy, but the photos were way too blurry to use, so I've got to take them again, and that put me off posting anything for about a week since I still needed to crop this guy and the third one and didn't have the energy/mental constitution for it. Pretty pathetic, eh? I've still been looking at people's stuff though, so if you haven't gotten much in the way of comments from me recently, that's why.
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Post by: insaniak
Love it.
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Post by: Azazelx
So Dreadtober is a thing that has been around some of the 40k Blogs for a few years. Well, this is the third one, and a couple of the blogs I follow have mentioned it recently as they worked through Spartember, so I did some looking up to see how it works and if I can play as well. I found the online home of “ Dreadtober 2017” (though I assume it’ll also serve the same purpose next year and so on) and contacted them to find out if finally getting stuff finished fit their criteria for participation, since I have a pair of Dreads that have been unfinished since 3rd Edition and 4th/5th. And now that the dumpster fire of 6th/7th edition 40k has been taken out behind the shed and put out our misery, there’s a reason to get back onto my 40k collection again – including this pair of Albatrosses.
The green-and-white dread was built as part of my fresh-start-for-3rd ed marine army. A lot is done, but it still very much needs highlighting, shading and work on the details and suchlike.
The Iron Warriors Forge World Dread was purchased second-hand about 10 or so years ago now (whenever it was that 4th was transitioning into 5th), and was painted pretty much as you see it now – reasonable tabletop quality but not up to scratch for what I want. I’ve rebased it and built/added the left arm with the drill-powerfist, as the original was a very roughly scratchbuilt thunder hammer. I’ve also magnetised both arms. (and plan to add a Plasma Cannon option.)
For good measure, I also asked if Be’Lakor would qualify, as they have people doing Daemons and such as well. I started him as a stretch goal for 2015’s Painting December project, and never finished him. So, you know. Motivation.
Anyway, the reply I got was in the affirmative so I now have a bit more motivation to get these suckers done. I’m waiting on some 3D-printed Icons for the green-and-white dread that will be integral to completing it beyond the touch-ups and completion of various bit that the model sorely needs. I may decide to rebase it as well. I’m not sure.
Of course, even with these three larger guys to finish off, I’ll continue to blunder my way through completing more Iron Warriors, Minotaurs, Orks, ##### #######, ##########, ############, Dark Angels, and any other Odd Angry Shot that I decide to paint and/or finish off. The important thing is that I now have even more motivation to finish these three off, so they might even get done. Finally.
Not sure if I’ll do a theme for November, but I do plan to resurrect “Painting December” this year, though. I might even see if anyone else wants to get on board, but that’s a post for later!
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Post by: Slinky
Is the green/white a specific chapter? (Mentors?) or is it a homebrewed scheme?
Nice work on both
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Post by: Theophony
Looks like a cool goal for dreadtober . Are dreadnought pods allowed as well?
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Post by: GrimDork
Oooh dreads. Can't be arsed to sign up for a painting commitment but I'll be watching yours with much anticipation.
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Post by: Azazelx
I've done nothing on the Dreads in the last week or two, naturally. I'll try to start soon. I honestly haven't been doing much hobby stuff, and when I have it's been either trying to finish some figures off to clear the desk, and a little on scenery and the mass of DAs.
Today we have the Narik Dreygur Iron Warriors model from Forge World. Nominally for 30k/ HH, Narik, the “Gravewalker” was a renowned Iron Warriors commander during the Horus Heresy who eventually turned from the Traitors and became a loyalist and close confidant to the Salamanders – specifically, Cassian Dracos, the “Iron Dragon”. While my grand plan for my Iron Warriors force does include creating a decent element that will be 30k/ 40k compatible, I’m also realistic to know that my chances of ever playing 30k aren’t huge, so the main focus will be the 40k aspects.
With that in mind, I’ve painted him following the same scheme as my 40k Iron Warriors. They’re pretty much the same between 30 and 40k, but perhaps a little more in terms of Hazard striping and in some cases copper/brass trim. I considered going brass with his right shoulder, but felt it looked good in iron – and would probably look less good if I changed it, so it remained. My 40k IW retain the heraldry of the IV Legion, so Dreygur’s power fist seemed an appropriate place to stamp that firm.
I gave him a not-Iron Warriors shoulder pad from Puppetswar, in Poland. They have some amazingly great designs, but when I ordered from them they were slow as molasses and the casting quality was nightmarishly bad to the point where they ended up having to replace most of my order – but only after I kicked up a huge public stink with the photos to the extent that they stopped posting on Dakka for a couple of years. I’ve not ordered from them since, so I don’t know if their casting quality and QA have improved, and I’m not that desperate to try again. I know they do occasionally send out freebies for review, and those models would obviously be lovely, cherry-picked casts.
The backpack under his feet is painted in the dark green of my Dark Angels. I considered Minotaurs, but I felt that the brass of their armour would be too much metallic to add to the model, and not distinct enough from either Dreygur or his base, while their traditional foes, the Imperial Fists wouldn’t work well since I plan to eventually have only 1-2 squads of them, as opposed to the scores of Dark Angels I’ll eventually have painted up.
While Dreygur is a named character in 30k, in my 40k force he’ll be used as an Exalted Champion, to run up alongside assaulters to help inflict those important close combat wounds (rerolling 1s to wound!) I might well keep the moniker of Nârik Dreygur, as I’m sure the IW would appreciate that kind of dark irony.
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Post by: JamesY
Very nice. I have a Narik on my painting table at present, looks so much better in hand than the fw pics. I like the pale skin tones you've given him, captures his moniker well.
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Post by: Theophony
Loved the model and the Iron warriors, the shoulder pad looks great on him too. Puppet wars has some great designers, and I remember the flack they got back then. They have since returned to the forums and all I’ve heard are good reviews...not outstanding, but good which is a massive improvement. When I do move to Australia we will have to build the world record 30K Iron Warriors army and take on all comers .
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Post by: ListenToMeWarriors
I still need to pick up Narik, he is a great sculpt and you really did him justice. I think the metallic army looks especially cool in terms of execution and feel, almost a NMM effect.
And as for those old casts...ouch.
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Post by: Llamahead
Lovely model shame to hear that about Puppet Wars I'm vaguely considering them for a pre-Brexit order.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
A forgeworld character model? With shipping, that must have been at least 1 million AUD! I remain impressed by your metallics. The iron looks grimy but well-maintained.
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Post by: Azazelx
@ JamesY. Cheers mate - He's a great model. Funnily (pr predictably) enough, I think he looks better in hand than in the photos. I just can't get the focus in those front-on shots. I used the same kind of unhealthy pallor for him that I did with the other unhelmeted IW that I did years ago. As you say, it suits both him and the IW in general.
@ Theo & Llama - thanks. as for PW, I'm not saying no-one should order from them. Honestly, I'd like to order some more stuff from them sometime. If I ever do, though - I'll be telling them that I'll be blogging about the experience here, on Wordpress, facebook and everywhere else in the hope that they give me, you know, the quality of casting that they should be giving everyone. 
@ LTMW & Theo. I'm also happy with the armour. I tried something different on him (and the Obliterator that I'm struggling to finish/hope to finish today.) of spraying in a dull silver, then doing some washes, then drybrushing to pick the details rather than starting at black. As for Forge World's prices... You know what the funny/insane thing is? GW's regular AU prices often make Forge World (mostly) look reasonable by comparison! Even moreso now with Brexit.
It's actually cheaper to but a Land Raider Helios from Forge World than a Land Raider from GWAU.. (57 GBP =96.0162AUD) or only $13 more to get an Achilles. There are lots of other examples, but it's crazy, as you can see. Just need to order enough for the free shipping threshold. I've actually accumulated quite the (unbuilt, unpainted) FW collection over the past ...it must be a decade or so now.. I think I got my first FW stuff in the early 2000s when GWAU mail order did a big order for locals (got some IG tank conversion stuff that I've not only not yet built, but lost!) but I started ordering things in 2006 when I finished my return to Uni and went back to work. Now that 40k is playable again, I'm enthused enough to have started working on these armies again. I just need to complete the stuff I started back then, and since almost none of that is FW stuff, It's only the odd model like Narik that gets thrown in. Though I do have another character for my IW in the pipeline.
Speaking of starting stuff that I began working on all those years ago, here's a figure I started painting a month or so ago as a palate cleanser. I have had it for a long time, though.
What? Dreadtober? Yeah, I’m working on that, too. Just clearing some stuff off the paint desk first, though.. This particular Ork happens to be the very first Ork Mekboy. Known initially at the time as a “Mekaniak” “Mek Boy” and “Mekboy”, he came included in a kit with the first Wartrak and a field gun, also known around the same time as a “Hop Splat Gun”. When I sold off most of my Orks back in the day, this fellow was one of the figures that I kept, along with the pair of gretchin slaves that go with him. (I need to dig them out and paint them up!)
This particular Ork was originally painted back in the day, stripped, and then stored in various boxes and cases for the next few decades. As with his companion that I shared here the other day, he’s finally out and painted to a standard that I’m happy with – and he’ll be joining the WAAAGH at some stage as well. While it’s certainly true that he’s pretty basic by the standards of modern Mekboys, I’ll have a good look through the Index (or maybe Codex, if it comes out this year – fingers crossed) and see if there’s a suitable spot for him. The whip makes him a potential Runtherd, though I think I’m well covered for that spot, at least for the time being.
Once again, bare metal, earth tones and camo are what make up the colours of his gear. His ammo pouches seem to be modelled after the FG-42 pouches and webbing, right down to the Y-harness – which makes a lot of sense I guess, as Orks from the originals through to part of second edition weren’t shy about taking inspiration for some of their elements from German sources. (Stormboys obviously being the most egregious example.)
Regardless, I always really liked this sculpt and even to this day I still love it. There’s just something so impassive and at the same time brutal and threatening about it. Not a figure that needs to be overblown to impart a sense of menace.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
That old-school Mekboy looks awesome! Very interesting sculpt, and your paintwork really makes it great!
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Post by: JoshInJapan
Nice work on that Mekboy. Your Ork skintones are particularly nice-- very green without being garish, if you get my meaning.
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Post by: Theophony
I think I’m in love with his helmet , totally absurd which fits orcs of that age. Great job on the skin tones as well as the ground colors around his feet .
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Post by: Slinky
Top notch!
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys. Orks of that vintage are much more understated than what came later, though I personally find that many of them are still very cool. I'm trying to keep the skin tones in a kind of middle ground that's still very much a "GW Orc/Ork green" without being too garish on one sign, and without being too "realistic" like LotR Orcs going into ochres and browns - and yeah, love that squared-off spiked barbute on his head. You could easily see that on a Fantasy Orc of the time as well.
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Post by: Azazelx
Yeah, I know that the Iron Warriors aren’t considered especially hardcore, or even enthusiastic when it comes to worshipping the Chaos Powers, though we do have strong precedent for cult troops within the Iron Wariors’ ranks in Graham McNeill’s Storm of Iron, which features Iron Warriors Khorne Berserkers. I’ve also had these plague marines painted for some time, though I’d never gotten around to doing more than the single group of five of them.
With the release of 40k 8th edition, I’ve been building up forces to play with, and the Iron Warriors have actually seen the table several times, so I recently started picking parts to create a squad of the aforementioned Berserkers. At the same time, the Death Guard release has been happening, with new figures released on a weekly basis. They’re lovely looking models, but quite different in both size and aesthetics to these Older-School Plague Marines from the early 90’s. (These two models date from 40k Second Edition.) What’s more was the fact that I liked the models I had painted, but was not so keen on doing an entire Death Guard army in the beaten copper that I painted these guys in.
Sometime after that point, I had a bit of an epiphany while browsing the new CSM codex in bed. I’d just use the Plague Marines in my Iron Warriors force. All they’d need would be a rebasing, and they’d be golden. After all, Storm of Iron is all the only fluff justification I need. Pair that with Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s rather excellent piece on what’s it like to be a Chaos Space Marine Lord and I have no problem going with it. I know you can do whatever, obviously, but I do like to create forces that fit in well with the game’s background, and when I was looking around for examples of Iron Warriors Plague Marines I found some rather vociferous arguments again them having any kind of cult troops. I figure that these guys are either Iron Warriors who turned to Nurgle at some stage, or they might even be Renegades from another Legion or Chapter – or even a squad that splintered from the Death Guard at some point in the past.
Naturally, the conversion from their older state was more work than anticipated. Not simply swapping over their bases. I repainted the wooden bolter stocks on these two from red to a worn-wood brown, like my old desk. Pouches went from the original green to a dark red, to match those on my painted IW. I’d have gone with black, but they already have a fair amount of black armour panels and I didn’t want them to disappear completely. Hose-looking cables were changed from pale green to pale tan wile others went from red to brass on their backpacks. Armour remained the same with the exception of the shoulders that once bore chaos star decals. I replaced those with 3d printed, glue-down “Iron Legion” insignia from Pop Goes the Monkey on Shapeways to proclaim their new allegiance.
Of course, these guys aren’t the only Plague Marines being updated. They’re just the first pair I managed to finish. I should have some more finished and posted in the next week or so, hopefully even the entire squad over the next few posts. I need to do some more varnishing when I get home from work tonight…
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Post by: ListenToMeWarriors
Love the look of your Iron Warriors Plague Marines, have not seen these minis in ages. As for fluff justification I see no trouble at all with cult Iron Warriors, hell in the most recent "Tale Of Four Gamers" in White Dwarf the IW had a unit of Plague Marines in his army. I think some of the naysayers may point to Mortarion recently defeating some IW in a piece of background in the Death Guard codex but I say that Chaos will happily fight each other but also unite to destroy the Imperium.
There is also :" In 400.M32, Perturabo emerged once more to wreak havoc. Invoking Nurgle, Perturabo imbues a curse with extreme contagiousness and releases it into the mechanical systems on the Forge World of Toil. The Chaos plague spreads through the machines, and factory complexes change over the course of eight days. On the eighth day, giant cables burst from the ground spewing fourth hungry Daemon Engines while the factories themselves grow legs and prowl the planets surface. All life on Toil is eventually annihilated."
Anyways, I await the full squad.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks mate, I do agree with you on Chaos fighting Chaos being a part of the norm - going right back to the Realm of Chaos books and probably before that as well.
Here's the text from ADB. It's great stuff:
A "story", if you will, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, written to clear up misconceptions about the nature of Chaos Space Marines, Legions, Warbands, and everything to do with them. Originally posted here.
For the sake of argument, let's say you're Helikaon the Mourner, a Word Bearer Chaplain in the Heresy. You're part of the command team, with Captain Vilus (maybe he has a personal title like Archon, Consul, Warleader, or whatever else), essentially co-leading the Company, within the Chapter, within the Host of several Chapters gathered together. Or just one Chapter. Or just half of several Chapters banded together for a few months, years, decades, or centuries. Maybe all of your Chapter/Company remnants form a Host for convenience, or because Lorgar ordered it, or you're part of the same Crusade Fleet, or you just owe each other bonds of absolute brotherhood. But let's focus on you, Vilus, and the Chapter of the Sacred Phoenix Unbound, named after one of the constellations above Colchis.
Maybe on the tabletop, you're a Chaos Lord, or a Dark Apostle, or something the rules don't have a place for, because they're merely the basic skeleton structure. Let's move on to what matters.
Time passes in the Eye of Terror, after the Sons of Horus lost you the war by running when their primarch fell. You spend a lot of that time fighting the Sons of Horus because they're weak, and getting weaker. You kill them and take their ships, their worlds, their fortresses, their equipment. You make deals with worlds settled by the Dark Mechanicum. Other times, you invade those worlds, for supplies. Other times, the Mechanicum breaks its oaths to you, screwing you over, because that particular forge, that particular leader, or that particular world had a better offer from a stronger warband. Or because they secretly hated you. Or because of reasons you never find out.
You raid the Imperium a lot, for vengeance, for supplies, for slaves, for territory, and to teach them the truth behind reality. Maybe you do it for the glory of the Dark Gods, to please them, or maybe you do it for yourself, to make life better, easier, or to humiliate a rival who lost a fight against that world or fleet in times past. Maybe you do it because there's pressure from several Aspiring Champions and squad leaders that are inciting the troops into believing you're weak, and should be removed from your position as co-leader. You need a show of strength. Soldiers need victories.
You make alliances with other warbands from other Legions, either to group together against a serious enemy, or because you share territory and genuinely consider yourself allies. You break some of those promises, because it suits you better to kill those former allies and take their land/resources/ships. You stick to some of the others for all time, because they're your Gods-damned brothers in arms, and you'd die for each other. Only, in 6,000 years of living in Hell; fighting daemons; and fighting the Imperium, you betray them because you learn they're about to launch a surprise attack on your stronghold, or your fleet. Only, maybe they weren't, and you were deceived by a third party. Or maybe they were, and they win, and you have to cut and run with half your resources and manpower squandered in a war you never saw coming. Much of the time, no matter what happens, you fight a lot of other warbands from other Legions. That's life in the Eye of Terror. For every alliance you make, there are half a dozen battles.
Sometimes, perhaps often, you come into contact with other Word Bearer Companies/Chapters/Hosts persecuting their own wars. Sometimes you join together, share news of the Legion's movements, and are the best of blood brothers. Other times, it isn't so simple. These Word Bearers worship a different cult and creed to you, and your beliefs aren't exactly gelling smoothly. There are as many cults and paths of Chaos faith as there are preachers and worshipers, and just as real world religions and branches of the same religion come into conflict, it happens with Chaos faithful, on a much, much, much larger and more frequent scale. Maybe they force aspects of Tzeentch worship you think makes them weak (maybe they use lore of the Change God to read the hearts of their enemies, which relies too much on Chaos rather than being strong on your own), and they think the way you see nobility in Khorne makes you deluded. They think you take one aspect of your faith too far, or not far enough. You think the same of them. You both have evidence of why the other warband is weak, because no group is ever without flaw. Maybe a tense negotiation between your leaders on neutral ground becomes a gunfight. Maybe your fleets meeting by accident becomes an all-out void war. Maybe you reconcile your differences in the name of the Word, and become brothers for 3,000 years, either answering each other's calls for aid, or even joining into a new Host, of two Chapters bonded by absolute loyalty. Maybe you become a new Host of a whole new Chapter, to reflect your new unity. Maybe that alliance lasts for a year. Maybe it lasts until the end of time.
Other times, other Word Bearer warbands call to you for aid. Sometimes you answer, because you're the same Legion, damn it, and that matters. But sometimes you don't answer, because if that Host gets butchered, you can move in and claim their territory and resources much easier. Other times, you answer their call for help because you owe them; they've saved you in the past. Other times, you don't answer because those guys are oathbreakers and heretics, dangerously disloyal - a nasty splinter faction - and you want them dead anyway. Other times, you want to aid them, but you don't make it in time, because the Warp's tides delay you; or because astropathy is near-strangers interpreting each other's vague dreams, and you miss the message in the nightmare of a million screaming children vomiting black sludge from their mouths while they're skinned alive by chanting monsters with liquid flesh made of pus and filth and liquefied hate. Oh, that was a call for brotherhood by the Chapter of the Dark Maw? Not just one of the million nightmares you have, or the daemonic whisperings you hear all the time, because you live in Hell? Damn, Maybe you'll get it right next time.
Except maybe next time, the Host of the Dark Maw come and attack you for breaking an oath, and bring several other Word Bearer Hosts with them, who now despise you for breaking the loyalty of the Legion. They're loyal Word Bearers, but they see you as dangerously disloyal, a nasty splinter faction that needs to be destroyed.
Or maybe you interpret the message right, and are dying to come help your brothers, but the Dark Maw are fighting the Chapter of the Osseous Throne, and you owe both Chapters your allegiance, so the only honourable thing to do is sit the fight out. Or maybe you owe the Osseous Throne an actual oath of brotherhood from past campaigns, and can't take the Dark Maw's side. Maybe the Dark Maw are fighting a warband from another Legion - the Venomous Rune, of the Death Guard - who you've served with and allied with a dozen times. But you break your oath to your proven allies, because the Dark Maw are Word Bearers, and the Venomous Rune are not your Legion. It doesn't matter because Legions mean everything, and your loyalty is to your bloodline, knowing it will never fail you. Or maybe it does matter, this time. Maybe you take the field against a warband of your own Legion, because the alliances you've made in the years since the Heresy during the Legion Wars in the Eye of Terror are what matter most to you now.
At some point, Vilus is assassinated, leaving you in sole command of the Host. Now you're powerful, but vulnerable. Your own Aspiring Champions are, well, aspiring. They think they can lead the Legion better than you. They point to oaths you've broken to other warbands, or oaths you've made when many of your men wanted to break them; or battles that didn't go in your favour. It doesn't matter if their slander is fact or fiction, words spreads among the ranks. Some (many? most?) of your men harbour secret desires to replace you. Or maybe they don't, and you're just worrying over glances and stilled conversations and spy reports over nothing. You form an elite guard, but they take heavy casualties because they're in the front line of every battle. And can you trust them, really? They're in the best place to kill you if it came to an assassination. Maybe they're taking so many casualties becuse your other squads keep not deep striking in time. Is that intentional, or are the frequent repairs that need to be made really causing mechanical problems? Or is it that your ships are increasingly alive and sentient, half-daemon themselves, and harder to control with conventional means?
Maybe you focus on learning ancient , difficult-to-acquire lore on sorcery, to learn how to bind daemons more strongly and control your mutating fleet. Maybe you do it to control your own men. Only, the rebellion against you grows, because they say you're focusing too much on sorcery and not material conquering. Are you? You're sure you're not, but what choice do you have? This has to be done. You have to make things secure for the warband. Don't they see that? Maybe some do. Maybe others are still planning to kill you, and will have to learn in time that they'll go through the same doubts and plans when they're in your position.
A Crusade is called. Maybe one of Abaddon's Black Crusades; maybe one of the lesser Black Crusades called by another individual of great power; maybe just a massive raid into realspace. Awesome. During that campaign that lasts 24 years and covers battles on 30 worlds, you're attacked by a warband in an ambush, in the middle of a fight against the Imperial Guard, by an Emperor's Children warband you've never even heard of, and can't remember offending. Why? Are there reasons from the past? The Legion Wars? Maybe there are. Maybe they just saw a chance to screw a weaker enemy over, or force you to lose the fight so your Legion's reputation suffers. Maybe they were mercenaries hired by another warband to soften you up for a coming assault. Who hired them? You redouble your spy network, not knowing if you can trust them at all, since they said nothing about this ambush.
During the Crusade, you ally with a cabal of Thousand Son sorcerers, and their Rubric bodyguards. They have their own ships, resources, manpower - what a coup. They join your warband, though not really being sworn members of your Host, they'd still die for you and you'd die for them, with bonds forged in the crucible of war. They could've betrayed you a dozen times, but instead they risked everything to save you from one hell of a fight. You could've betrayed them and stolen their lore, but you saved them. Except maybe you didn't. maybe you need their sorcerous lore, so you slaughter them when they're weakened from helping you. No one will ever know. Right? Right? You get away with it cleanly, never hearing about the incident again, and enjoying their books of sorcery. The Thousand Sons never seek revenge. Except maybe they do, because they come 1,000 years later, in force, to annihilate you. Or maybe another Thousand Son warband thanks you for destroying their main rivals, and offers you a union. Maybe another Word Bearer warband gets annihilated almost to the last man, because the Thousand Sons believe it was them, not you, that did it.
Back in the Eye, at several points the Black Legion descends on your stronghold. Sometimes, they're weak and feeble, offering you a chance to join them. You refuse. Maybe you negotiate peacefully. Maybe you destroy them. Maybe you sense their leader is a weakling getting above his station, and has nothing to do with Abaddon, as many Black Legion warband leaders surely don't. Other times, they descend in force enough to annihilate your world/fleet/stronghold, and you have to run. Maybe they catch you, though. Maybe they offer you the choice to wear the Black, or be destroyed. Maybe you manage to escape anyway, and maybe your Host is finally destroyed. Maybe you join the Black Legion out of necessity, and despise it, gearing up to betray them later. Maybe you find that the freedom is liberating, and stick with it. Maybe you find that it's literally no different - your warband is still the same, your faith is still the same, and you have the same complicated relationships with Black Legion warbands that you did with Word Bearer warbands. Legion ties mean everything to some warbands, sometimes, and nothing to others, at other times. Maybe you spend endless campaigns devoting yourself to the Black legion, or the Word Bearers, only to find more and more warbands from your Legion are defecting, or betraying you, or never swore quite the same oaths as you did. Why didn't they? Or did they, and it's a misunderstanding? Remember that time you were assumed to be a traitor to your Legion? If they would just stop firing at you and killing your fleet, maybe you could sort it out. Wow, how many men did you just lose in a misunderstanding? Does the truth even matter anymore? If you keep hesitating and bleating about misunderstandings, you're going to be wiped out. How weak do you look in front of your men right now? Kill or be killed.
Say you remain a Word Bearer, though. maybe over time you seek the Black Legion out yourself, to swear loyalty the Legion that seems more unified in your sector of the Eye, or that is enjoying the greatest success and by far the strongest. Maybe you remain a Word Bearer, and the local Black Legion warbands are pathetic. You lord it over them, and demand tribute. Maybe some pay, others resist, and others run to tell Abaddon. maybe Abaddon listens, and descends with the Planet Killer. Maybe he ignores the mewling whines of weaklings, and you never hear from them again. Maybe the Warp eats them, or another warband, or daemons, or some ghost-god of the slain Eldar civilization in whose ruins the Chaos Marines have made their empire.
While you're Crusading next time, your Host joins with two other warbands - a World Eater remnant, and a Death Guard warband. Of the three commanders, you have the most power and influence, so you become de facto leader of this Council of Three. Now you have Khorne Berzerkers and Plague Marines to use in battle. This is the life, right? Except, the three factions of this new warband don't get on. They ally for convenience, or because they recognise the advantage, or even just temporarily for the current Crusade - or even just for this single world, and once it's taken, they break apart. Or maybe you manage to hold them together, and they become your lieutenants. Maybe you keep them in line, despite fights constantly breaking out between the rank and file warriors, and the clash of faiths, and the constant pressure of your lieutenants to undermine you and take control themselves. Maybe you're a lieutenant, and the Plague Lord or Skull Champion leading your mixed warband is weak, or foolish, and you know you can lead better than he can. So you're the one working to take control. You're the commander of the Host of the Sacred Phoenix Unbound, but your warband itself is known as The Triumvirate, and your reputation for success, brutality, cunning and competence begins to cast a long shadow. Other warbands can't match you in size, and begin to pay fealty, or serve you, or simply flee from you when you enter their territory. What was a simple alliance in a Black Crusade is now a legitimate warband. maybe it breaks down in a month. Maybe it lasts 8,000 years of ruthless, elegant destruction of its enemies.
But you remain a Word Bearer. Maybe you remain closely allied with your other commanders in The Triumvirate, but you prefer to spend most of your time working alone, and the bonds of the Triumvirate are only for times of great need. That makes perfect sense. Then it becomes like any other allegiance of warbands, and you go your merry way. maybe you never had anything to do with those pathetic deviants of broken Legions anyway.
Now you need new Marines. You find a sorcerous way to breed them. Or the technical facilities to clone them. Then you have to find the lore to clone them yourselves, or hire out a fallen Apothecary who is absolutely insane, for the right for him to help you. But he wants an artefact lost on on a daemon world, or deep in the Imperium, or he wants his former warband destroyed for exiling him, before he'll help. Maybe he does as you ask, but it doesn't work. Maybe he's too unreliable and screws it all up for you. Now you're even worse off, having lost the facility and all those resources and the time spent getting it all. Maybe he does it, and it actually works.
Or maybe you raid loyalist Chapters and harvest their fallen for gene-seed? Attacking Space Marines is risky, they don't just sit around and wait to be attacked. They strike planetary targets hard, then leave. They rarely defend, and usually attack. How do you find them? En route to a world? Lure them in? What if they bring overwhelming force and you risk destruction?
Then, of course, what about purity of bloodline? Does that matter to you? Does it somehow affect you on a deep level if your own future brothers are made from Imperial Fist or Ultramarine gene-seed? What will you do? Maybe you attack other Word Bearer Hosts and harvest their gene-seed. Maybe you cut deals with Mechanicum factions - which themselves are devolved into countless city-states and independent worlds in the Eye, allying and oathbreaking in much the same way the Chaos Marines are, and the same way every faction in 40K does to a lesser extent. Maybe you arrange to protect their forge world in exchange for them establishing gene-seed and Marine production facilities. What if they're invaded and you can't handle the scale of the war, though? Maybe you run, and earn the eternal enmity of the local Mechanicum. Maybe you get away clean. Maybe you fight it out, and suffer horrendous losses. Maybe you win easily, and the allies of the destroyed warband come for your head. Maybe the Mechanicum world you've agreed to serve screw it up, and you've just wasted a lot of time, ammunition and Marine lives in a campaign that profited you nothing.
You could fly to other Word Bearer territories, and ask to use their facilities. Maybe they welcome you with open arms. Maybe they've heard you're a traitor, or that you refused to come to the aid of another Host, or that you sinned in some way that you've never even considered or heard of. Maybe a greater Legion commander steps in and weighs in favour of your claim to gene-seed facilities. Maybe you're cast out, and have to sail elsewhere to deal with others. Maybe you approach one of the major power players, like Erebus or Kor Phaeron. Are they on campaign, in the Imperium, for countless decades? Are they on Ghalmek or Sicarus? Reaching either of those worlds - reaching any world in the Eye of Terror or the Maelstrom - where space and time obey no physical laws - may very well be something like the Odyssey, a journey that could take days or decades, under the eyes of malignant daemons through a realm that itself exists to possess, mutate, consume, and digest material life.
Maybe the human thrall-army that serves you mutates beyond usability. Maybe they're lured away by another cult's faith, to serve another warband. Maybe they're just slaughtered in a bad battle, and you're massively underpowered in terms of Traitor Guard and human slaves now. Raid prison worlds? Hmm, good body count, but they're untrained. Try to convert Guard regiments? Tough call, and it involves careful sedition work, and your only trusted co-leaders spending years away from the warband to convert the human armies. Maybe you could send your less trusted underlings to do it, but then who would the new humans serve? Would they be an army secretly waiting to betray you?
Maybe you agree to serve a Black Legion warband for sixty-six years, to have your Apothecaries and Fleshsmiths trained in the mastery of Berzerker surgery. Now you have Berzerkers. Awesome. But what if another Word Bearer warband considers that a dangerous collusion with an enemy Legion, despite the fact you've been perfectly loyal and you know a dozen other warbands have done the same? Now you have another fight on your hands, with fanatics as dangerous as you are. Maybe the Black Legion warband you've allied with betrays you, and reveals nothing at all. Maybe they're destroyed from internal conflict and the new leader refuses the old deal his predecessor made. Maybe over time, your Host and the Black Legion Company become bound in blood-loyalty, and form a joint warband of two factions. Maybe you get tired of them after three days and replenish your recent losses by stealing their ships in an ambush.
What if Vilus doesn't die? What if he starts grooming other co-leaders as the warband grows in size? Maybe he means to replace you. Maybe you most loyal warriors keep telling you they know a betrayal is coming, that the whole warband may have to choose sides. Maybe you act first, and start the civil war. Maybe Vilus does. The warband breaks apart, and the survivors go their own ways. Maybe both warbands call themselves the Chapter of the Sacred Phoenix Unbound. Maybe you surrender the name, or Vilus does, because he no longer cares about the old traditions.
What if Vilus encourages contests of competency between his underlings? You lose favor by failing wars, or gain favor by successful missions. it's all a game to him. He's no leader at all. You could command the warband and focus it to better, more meaningful ends. Right? Right? It's not like almost every other Aspiring Champion in the warband thinks the same thing, after all. Right?
While you're away raiding the Imperium, what happens to your stronghold? Is it hidden well enough in the Eye of Terror? Maybe it is. What if time and space distorts and reveals it, though? Do you leave a garrison of your best troops to defend it? Maybe you do, then you take the battlefield without your best warriors. Maybe you return and another warband has still destroyed your base, or occupied it for themselves. So begins a costly war to retake your fortress, or carry on as a fleet-based warband, forever suffering a lack of resources compared to those with fully operational and well-supplied homeworlds. Maybe you go to Sicarus as just one of the Hosts using it as a base. You still share the territory with countless warbands that have an eternity of complications, grudges, oaths, betrayals and future treacheries on their consciences. You're certain half of them even here, in your Legion's deepest claimed territory, are only united by strong leaders that demand they stay united, and enforce it by death. So many warbands seem honestly bound by brotherhood, but look over there - the fleet of the Host of the Shrieking Wound. You know they failed to come to your aid a few centuries ago, and betrayed the Legion at the Battle of Ziar by taking too long to commit to the fight. Maybe they say the same things about you. Tension is always rife, even between blood-bound allies, for glory in the eyes of the Legion's power players, and in the eyes of the Gods.
Maybe you stay. Maybe you go. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
That's what it's like to be a Chaos Marine.
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Post by: Slinky
Love the copper effect - What bases are those, are they the newer GW plastic ones?
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Post by: BrookM
Whenever ADB interacts with the community and sheds some light on how the setting works, the background gets a little bit richer in content.
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Post by: Azazelx
Yeah, the bases are the new plastic GW ones. Initially, the IW all had Sector Imperialis ones, but since the Sector Mechanicus set was released, I've started mixing those in as well. ADB is great like that - agreed!
I know, I know. The title “discipline-master” makes it seem like this orc should be the one armed with the whip and not the other Ork I posted up. This guy is the commander model from the very first Space Ork boxed set (and the second 40k box set ever) RTB02 Space Ork Raiders. In (the original volume of) Chapter Approved: Book of the Astronomican, this model and the other like him were the example models for Discipline Master (Sub-Chief) who had Ork Hero level stats. While he’s not huge compared to modern Brian Nelson Orks, he stands high over the rest of the models from the Space Ork Raiders box.
For his camo I’ve given him Desert Auscam, and attempted to give his gear some contrast to his skin by using reddish leather trim and brass/copper/bronze for his bling and scale armour – but without going all the way to actual red. Rather than going with the traditional old-school red for his plasma pistol, I went with a more muted dark turquiose. It still (sort of) stands out from the rest of his gear, but without being garish against his camo and overall more muted tones.
Looking at this model even then, but especially today the closed pose of it really stands out. Arms and weapons folded around the Ork’s torso, yet it still manages to look like a badass that you would not want to mess with. As with most Orks of the day, rather than boots, he’s got puttees wrapped around his feet from his toes almost to his knees. This was Kev Adams’ style on the fantasy orcs that he sculpted in those days, and something that directly carried over to almost all of the original Ork line.
This particular model is one I’ve had for decades, since I was a young teen first discovering the original Rogue Trader. One of the first 40k models I ever collected. The rest of his original cohorts were sold off many years ago, but he was one I kept out of fondness. He’s been painted (in enamels) then stripped, then boxed, then bagged, then boxed again into storage. With a lot of years in each of those. After so many years, he’s back, rebased on a 32, and most importantly painted and ready for the table again!
And for good measure, here’s the three old-school Rogue Trader Orks together. I hope to get some more of these guys done this year, but the painting queue is pretty full, so I’ll make myself finish more of the other Orks I started years ago before I begin any more old-school Orks from scratch!
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Post by: Theophony
THese guys really work well together, and I love this powered chain butter knife with basket handle . They almost look civilized enough/tech savvy enough to be the hired thugs of an imperial governor.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks Theo. They must be getting all that camo gear from somewhere*, right?
*Actually, it's probably from the corpses of Imperial troops.
Ahem.
The third member of my small collection of Rogue Trader Marines in the heavily-scuffed livery of the Original Dark Angels – to be used as Fallen Angels in modern gaming. This chainsaw-wielding lunatic with the wild hair was first sighted by myself in Chapter Approved: The Book of the Astronomican, back in the day. As The Fallen are old. Really, really old, despite the machinations of time within the Warp, I mixed grey in with the brown of his hair, and moreso on the highlights. I also had those old “Motörhead” facial hair pictures of Andy Chambers in mind while painting his hair.
His helmet got the appropriate old-school treatment of a red stripe, though I left the eye lenses dark, as the helm is obviously not going to be active while it’s mag-locked to his hip. Despite only having painted three of these guys, I’ve really enjoyed doing each one of them (once I forced myself to finally get going on the long-started-and-stalled Brother Holt, anyway).
The old-school-inspired palette combined with a bit of the Forge World-style penchant for weathering makes these guys really quick and simple to paint, while still looking great. Of course, there are more modern touches such as weapon casings not exclusively being drybrushed silver and the basing (I might add some powders to them once the entire force is complete for consistency). I’ll keep this style unique to this force which will keep them visually distinct from my other forces, and I have concerns that if I were to use the “dark & scuffed” look on too many other forces, they could easily start to look samey. There is another force I’ll be working on in future who might get weathered and scuffed armour, though the armour certainly won’t be black or near-black as these guys are.
Here’s the trio so far. One of the hardest parts of this force is finding figures that will fit in. I’ve only got a limited number of the old metal RT marines around, I’ve got very specific places that some of them are destines for, and on top of that – sometimes they go missing, such as another trio I’d planned to add to The Fallen. I could easily add some plastic RTB01 marines, I suppose – though I don’t want to overdo the use of those here, either. Maybe a couple of them can fit in, I guess – though I’m (apparently) going for more of a close combat oriented squad here. I do plan to drop in some modern DA parts mixed with older armour marks, Calth marines and some Forge World DA parts down the line, but I’d much prefer to finish off some more of the old metals first.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
With all these classic orks and marines, you're outing yourself as an old guy.
I remain impressed by your weathering/aging. I have always preferred my marines to wear their helmets, but your work on these guys almost makes me want to reconsider.
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Post by: ListenToMeWarriors
Wow, that Ork was the first miniature I ever painted. Great bit of nostalgia for me there Az, and your work really helps the models look relevant today. That is no mean feat given how much the aesthetics of the Orks have changed over the years.
Grimm facially looks like a Space Wolf forerunner minus the canines, bonus points for invoking Andy Chambers when doing his hair as well.
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Post by: Azazelx
I am indeed getting to be an Old Guy, Josh. It's why I need to quit my job so I can paint my models full-time in a rush to get them done before I expire. I just need that lottery win, then. Thanks LTMW - I put my painted orks together out in the War Room earlier this morning and (mostly through consistent paint and bases, admittedly) it's amazing how well these old Orks fit in with the newer ones.
...
Back at the end of 2015, I’d been working hard for the previous few months on basically trying to finish off models that had been started whenever ago, with a focus mostly on Fantasy figures, and sub-focus on getting these figures into workable units for Kings of War. While this was rewarding in many ways – as getting stuff done always is – I had some time off coming up and wanted to do something more, something different, something significant in that time. Generally speaking, I turn out a lot of “regular infantry” models and a lot of scatter terrain with the odd larger piece of terrain. Something I’m not so good at is getting anything bigger than an Ogre done. I don’t get a lot of Dreadnoughts or Dragons done.
So the idea of “Painting December” was born, and I asked for suggestions, and then used those to help me put up a poll of MILPs (you figure it out) to help me decide, and the big bastard in the middle above was what I went with. Mierce Miniatures’ Talos.
I did manage to finish him in time, and following that, started on three(!?) more, managing to complete none of the three.
The Marauder Giant. Today.
The Marauder Giant was one I’d really hoped to get done, but unfortunately complete indecision on how to paint his clothing froze him in place, where he’s been ever since. I don’t like the patchwork look on the box art, and decided to paint him in tartan, and in this case I felt that red tartan would look the best, his ginger hair created the potential problem of him being overly-red. Neither green nor blue (not blue-green) tartan especially appealed to me once I considered them more closely, with the result that he’s been literally laying on my painting desk gathering dust (and occasionally being dusted again) since December 2015.
I also started on Be’Lakor. First Daemon Prince in the various Warhammer Mythos. He got a bit further along, and I’ve made a few half-hearted attempts to complete him since – so he managed to finally get mounted on his base, (I didn’t have any official round 50mm bases at the time, so he got a rolled-edge one). Most recently I entered him in Dreadtober, but I’ve not managed to do much with the Dreads I put myself down to complete, and I’ve done nothing at all with Bel. (Work is again kicking my arse, plus Shadow of War is eating a lot of my relaxation time).
I also (secretly) started on Ashoka, from Hell Dorado. I thought it would be cool to have a special reveal after I finished Bel and the Giant. I didn’t finish him either, but finally made myself get him done earlier this year.
So now we’re at the end of 2017, and I’d hoped to do another Painting December – but it looks like I’ll be working right up to the wire of Christmas (last work day is 22nd December) – so I’ll have a couple of weeks in January, and so that will be a better time for me to do this. I’ll invite any readers of this blog – either in Plog form right here on Dakka (I could make a new thread, I guess - like the 6-month paint challenge) or over on WordPress – who want to participate to join in themselves. I might make a little banner or something.
So the object of Painting January is going to be the same as it was originally:
I thought it would be a nice thing to paint something new/different/interesting/cool.
Something that works as a centrepiece model of some kind. I also set myself the following additional stipulations – which I’m going to again follow:
1) No pain in the arse assembly (this means you, large complex metal multipart models!)
2) Nothing smaller than an AoS hero or Ogre-sized model – I’m looking to have fun doing the kind of centrepiece models I don’t usually allow myself to work on due to the backlog.
3) Nothing from Mantic or Reaper’s Bones line. They’re just not up to par for this. (Except for Mantic’s Zombie Trolls and newest metal Ogres)
4) No Scenery – either Big pieces or Scatter terrain – I’ll usually work on these sorts of things over summer anyway and I’ve got a few of each part done, but they’re separate things to this “project”.
5) No Vehicles, Knights, Leviathans, Drop Pods, Dreadknights, etc. I’m happy to do a Contemptor, but nothing bigger or more complex. I want to avoid assembly for the most part.
6) Theoretically, every model will be a gaming piece. But it doesn’t have to be from an army I’ve actually started. If I’ve got the figure, it’s fair game.
If you’d like to play too, you can obviously skip stipulations 1, 3 and 5 as I created htem for myself a few years ago - and these days Mantic and Reaper Bones both have better models out, but bear in mind this isn’t about building models, it’s about painting them – and getting at least one model completed from start to finish, not including assembly. (Maybe we can do Building April or something later?)
My preliminary list to choose from for this one is:
Bragg The Gutsman (Citadel Ogre Hero)
Mierce Rhino-Man
Mierce Minotaur
Great Unclean One (Citadel Mid-1990’s model)
Great Unclean One (Forge World)
Cor’Bax Utterblight – Nurgle Daemon Prince (Forge World)
Nurgle Plague Ogres (Forge World)
Nurgle Daemon Prince and Herald (or maybe not the Herald) (Forge World)
Hecaton Aiakos – Minotaurs Chapter Dreadnought (Forge World)
Orc Rogue Idol (Forge World)
Troggoth Hag (Forge World)
Dread Maw (Forge World)
Ogre Hero (Avatars of War)
Ogre Apocalypse Marauder (Avatars of War)
I’ll get pics up later (probably), but they’re all easily googleable should anyone want to check them out in the meantime. I might also try to work on the Marauder Giant as a secondary/stretch goal, but getting something big and cool done from start to finish is going to be the main focus.
If you might be interested in participating, have a think about what you might like to paint, leave a post here, on your own plog, all that jazz.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
This summer (winter here) project sounds interesting. Is it cool if I participate as well? I have tons of big stuff just sitting around as well.
From your list, I vote for either Dread Maw or the Troggoth.
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Post by: Azazelx
Absolutely, Josh - that's the idea.
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Post by: Slinky
Excellent idea!
From your list, I vote for one of these:
Great Unclean One (Citadel Mid-1990’s model)
Nurgle Daemon Prince and Herald (or maybe not the Herald) (Forge World)
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Post by: GiraffeX
I'm going to vote for the Dread Maw as well, such a cool model.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
I love your work on that old fallen Dark Angel! Although he looks more like a Space Wolf with that hair! The old models had so much more character than the current ones.
As for what I think you should paint in January, I say tackle one of those Great Unclean Ones. I wish I could pick up one of the FW ones myself, as that model is so much cooler than GW's official one that is smaller than a Daemon Prince...
I'm thinking I may save Mortarion and get him done in January myself, assuming I'm not too busy knocking other stuff out preparing for Adepticon. Are you going to start a thread for everyone who's participating in that?
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys. I may well do the Dread Maw and that giant Bones worm together at some point. I think they'd make an interesting pair to work on alongside one another. Not having any 40k rules for them is a bit of a drawback when it comes to motivation right now, though. I'm also been thinking about the Nurgle Brigade a bit more and maybe the two Daemon Princes (Cor’Bax and Mamon) and even the 90’s GUO might be a better way to learn/practice some techniques before I tackle the gigantic FW one, because that's one intimidating model!
Any more people here interested in working on something big of their own over the holidays?
As for painted stuff, three more Slugga Boyz again today. I literally finished these off yesterday, so I bumped them up in the blog post queue so I could “Orktober” them. (I’ve gone from having not much to show to a backlog of stuff to show again.) Not much to write here that I haven’t already said before. A mix of 40k and Fantasy bits used again, as well as muted palette and camo schemes.
Our leftmost Ork wears UK Desert DPM, the middle one wears an AUSCAM top with a made-up camo on his pants, and the third Ork has that same made-up camo on his top and a different made-up camo for his pants. Both of the “made-up” camo schemes are (loosely) based on the Yugoslav variant of the “puzzle” pattern of camouflage – though both with 3-colours and my own arid-themed palettes.
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Post by: Llamahead
Looking good I'll have to think about it. Thing is January is a fair way into the future for me and I usually go to my unpainted shelves and drag of whatever I fancy and finish it as I fancy it. I usually have 4 batches on the go and won't start something until their done so I don't have the half done backlog. Maybe remind me in January.
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Post by: Azazelx
I think I'm going to actually make it Decembuary. As in - you may commence whenever you begin your Christmas/Holiday/Summer/Winter break for the end of 2017 - which recognises that people have breaks at various times and for various lengths of time.
Assembly and preparation may of course take place in advance.
And yep, another three Orks today. I figured that I could have shown all six in one post on a 2-day turnaround, or just post them three at a time over two days. So I’m doing the latter to give them all a bit more space. Besides, they took me long enough to get finished, so I’m good with giving them a bit more individual showcase. It’s not like it’ll happen for these models again as any new posts with them will either be much larger group shots or battle reports, so I’ll give the hours of work these guys took their moment in the spotlight.
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Post by: Archer
I would be happy to join in. Do Necron Monoliths count as I have a pair of them to get done and I am in desperate need of some motivation.
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Post by: Azazelx
Are they a big centrepiece thing that's different to what you usually paint? i think that question answers itself!
This next pair of Plague Marine models hail from two years later than the previous batch, this time the models are from 1995. At this point they had been redesigned somewhat. Or perhaps tweaked is the more appropriate term. The helmets had been changed from the MKVII (Aquila) variant as GW started to back off slightly from the overly-aggressive retcon of all marine armour from MKVI to MKII. Their new helmets are a more unique style. The “gas mask” look was starting to creep in, influenced no doubt by the Pickelhaube-esque spikes on their helmets – which had also been toned down and were now more in tune with actual Pickelhaube spikes.
This pair are based on the same model. One that I’d painted previously, modelled doing the crotch chop (nWo, not DX) and the other, originally modelled in the pointing pose and part-painted by Matt F and acquired by me after he lost interest in a Plague Marine force, which sat in a case for 15 years before being repainted in the copper-and-black livery of these guys over the last month or so.
The trio of skulls on their pauldrons are of course reflective of Nurgle’s mark. The stowed bolter on the left-hand plague marine has been repainted from a metallic red, and I think looks much nicer now.
Their other shoulders have been updated, once again with “Iron Legion” Skull icons from Pop Goes the Monkey on Shapeways for the Iron Warriors army badge. I really do like those badges, and I think I’d best grab another set ASAP. These guys don’t get a IV Legion army badge, since they’re very likely later, post-heresy additions to the Iron Warriors.
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Post by: 40kFSU
Man, going through your blog is like strolling through a museum. You got some awesome paint jobs on those older GW models. I really like the camo Orks too. I was considering something like that, wasn't sure if it could be pulled off. You have certainly shown it can.
But I have to say my favorite are the Iron Warriors, of course.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
One of the coolest things in this blog is seeing you paint different generations of the same models and how they evolved into what GW makes today. Those old Plague Marines are much different from the much beefier ones found in Dark Imperium and the current Death Guard range. It's interesting seeing models like that in the Iron Warriors scheme instead of the off white/green of the Death Guard.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
Another nifty set of models there. The Pukelhaube 1 /gas mask look great in IW colors-- much better than Plague Marines, IMO.
1 Another new word! Dakka is becoming downright educational.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys - I'm enjoying the motivation that the new 40k is giving me to get stuff painted up - and while it's mostly been older stuff that's largely because I've been rather excellent at starting stuff over the years and quite a bit less awesome at finishing things off. I spent a good 6 months completing fantasy models, and now with 40k I've got an impetus to do the same for the 40k models. (While throwing in some new ones to keep me interested, of course!)
I'll (hopefully) have finished off showing the single squad of Iron Warrior Plaguemarines by the end of this weekend, though it does leave me with the question of what to do with the rest of them, since I'll be doing Death Guard using only the newer models. I guess I can add them as squads into other CSM armies, as I'll be doing some Black Legion and Word Bearers, and maybe a second Iron Warrior squad. Decisions, decisions...
And speaking of Iron Warriors...
Yep, I’ve been pretty quiet on the Dreadtober front. Basically, I joined a little bit late and already had a pile of other models on my plate that I was trying to get finished, and they were ahead in the queue. On top of that, I picked up Shadow of War, because despite the Shadow of Microtransactions hanging over the game, I really enjoyed Shadow of Mordor, even completing it (again) in the final days before SoW’s release. I’ve since spent a good 40+ hours in SoW, which has largely come from the same weekend and after-work times that painting comes from.
So I’ve been doing a little here and there, but last weekend, I noticed that the month was nearly up, and I was in no danger of finishing any of the three models I’d aspired to complete. So… time to get stuck in. Luckily the gloss of Shadow of Mordor had started to come off by that point, and I’ve started hitting the grind wall (please buy an xp boost for this full-price, single-player game!) So it’s not been terribly hard to redirect myself to painting in my time. The focus of most of my attention has been the Iron Warriors Dread, which believe it or not has had a pretty severe overhaul over it’s original paint since the start of the month. Since the scheme is mostly identical, it’s hard to see, but the current model has more tonal qualities in the metal while remaining, well, Iron, and also stuff like weathering, scuffs, heat discolouration, rust and rivets. In fact, all that’s left on it is to complete that Lascannon arm and then some final tweaks on things like lenses.
I pried the Loyalist dread off it’s old “diorama” base, as dead chaos marine just isn’t the look I want on my base for it. It’v every possible that this fallen Word Bearer (probably) will also be pried off the base in turn and turned into something else. An objective marker, perhaps?
How dead is he? How long has he been there? I guess it depends on how undead he was at the point when he had his hat knocked off his head!
So here’s the new base. Yeah, I know – so far, so standard – but this way he’ll fit in with the rest of his chapter, that I also need to get started on upgrading to 32mm bases and finishing in the near future.
The rear view shows where the red cabling has all been replaced by dark copper. What was I thinking? I think I know, actually …it was probably leftover 40k 2nd edition influence! Anyway, it looks much better now.
Plasma cannon hasn’t had much done to it yet. Just some highlighting and shading on the fuel tank’s metal brackets. Back in the day, this was the only way to get a Plasma Cannon (Heavy Plasma Gun) on a Dread – convert the bloody thing yourself! Out of metal components.
As with the legs, the Sarcophagus has had all the red cabling replaced with copper. I also completely redid all of the white, cleaning it up from the unfortunate yellowed effect that it had picked up while in storage for a decade or more. I also managed to drop it on the floor(!), shattering a big chunk of paint off the power plant on the rear, but luckily not breaking the tiles. Old-school Metal Dreads are Very Heavy Metal.
A bit of work on the arm remains to be done. I’m not entirely sure what to do with the shoulder. Chapter badge? Aquila? Something else? I wonder if I can dig up a chapter number for this one?
Then there’s old Bellingham Be’Lekor. Nothing’s been done with this guy – but let’s be blunt – we’re getting to the wire of the time limit for Dreadtober, and if I have to make hard choices, it’s the Daemon Prince that’s getting bumped – not the actual Dreadnoughts! Maybe finishing him can be a stretch goal part of P̶a̶i̶n̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶D̶e̶c̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶P̶a̶i̶n̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶J̶a̶n̶u̶a̶r̶y̶ Painting Decembuary?
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Post by: JoshInJapan
Nice work on the Dreads so far. You are much braver than I am-- I can't bring myself to post WIP photos. I don7t recognize the Loyalist dread-- Mentor Legion?
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Post by: Theophony
LOve the iron warriors dreadnought. I have one of him somewhere, but his hip joint busted in two places and pinning was a pain.
You have your painting months as well as the half yearly group , I can’t even get motivated to paint anything this month. Maybe I’ll scrounge something up to join you in December though.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys, I'm really quite lucky to have gotten the IW dread, since FW has discontinued the originals now. I've got a few others, but not another of the IW, sadly. T'was my first IW Dread, though, many years ago. Hopefully the Loyalist Dread will have it's chapter reveal inside a week (if I can get it finished!) This is my first dreadtober, but it seems to very much about the journey, so others post up a lot of WIP, not to mention the stuff others regularly post up here. I tend to do it only when I'm after a suggestion or starting something unusual - and even then generally I keep bumping WIP posts when I have finished stuff to show.
Theo - part of the motivation (to be a bit morbid for a moment) is creeping mortality - especially as the years whiz by... Gotta get as much of the pile painted as I can while I'm around!
As for pics...
A quick and dirty post today – Just something fun to show off all of the Orks that I’ve recently painted in a group shot. Da Boyz are certainly back in town! By the time their codex comes out, I’m hoping that I should be well on my way to a small (points-wise) but playable force. I’m quite pleased how well the Orks from such different eras work together as a group. Consistent basing and an overall shared palette/theme really make a difference!
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Post by: 40kFSU
Orks look awesome. And you are right about the scale. I dont think the old marines hold up as well but the boyz look good in a mob. Lots of character too.
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Post by: Theophony
They look fantastic as a whole unit as well as individually. You did an excellent job with them.
I’m having more of those moments where I realize how much crap I’ll be leaving behind when I die. Probably from clearing out grandparents houses.
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Post by: Azazelx
I think the Orks have a bit more flexibility there because they're "monsters" and so they still look okay in different sizes. We'll see once I get a couple of the RTB02 troopers done. The marines should be fine in their own units, separate from the more modern ones. I guess we'll find out soon...
It's a race against time to watch all of the shows and play all of the games and paint all of the things!
The penultimate post for this first squad of Iron Warrior-aligned Plague Marines. This time, I’m showcasing the plasma gunners. Their unique selling point is really the heat discolouration on their plasma guns. It’s an effect that I’ve been playing with lately, trying to teach myself to get to a point where it looks good. I think I’m at least partway there so far – the tricky part is the transition between the brown and the blue – the purple band. It seems a little harsh on the left hand figure still.
A little about these figures – both are from the same range as the previous pair – the 1995 run. The right-hand figure is a single piece casting, excepting the backpack. No comments about the sensibility or realism of a wooden casing on a weapon that fires superheated plasma, please. Because… containment field? Or perhaps – A Wizard did it!
The figure on the left is a “regular” Plague Marine model from that line with a metal Nurgle shoulder pad of roughly the same vintage. In fact, it’s the same figure that once bore a bright, metallic-red flamer. Now, I’ve said before that I don’t like to change “finished” figures too much, but these guys were already getting a makeover with the new bases and the addition of Iron Warriors heraldry. Also (and rather importantly) Plague Marines can no longer take flamers. Sure, they get plague belchers in their stead, but they don’t look exactly like Imperial Flamers in my version of the 41st Millennium. So a second plasma gun for the squad, which obviously will have better synergy with the other plasma gun and the bolters. Plasma gun is a FW HH model (to keep it old-school) but cut down to fit properly.
As with the previous two pair of Iron Warrior Plague Marines, the Iron Warrior icons came from Pop Goes the Monkey via Shapeways. I’ve ordered some more to ensure I have enough stockpiled for what may potentially come, and no, I get no kickbacks for mentioning them. I knew about 3d printed shoulder pads and weapons and stuff for Imperial Knights, but stick-on chapter icons that function like 3d transfers which can be added to any model – including my hoard of old metals? Yeah, I really like that concept.
One more post in this series to go because I really need to go sleep now and can’t write up any more text to go with the final photos for the squad.
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Post by: Llamahead
Lookign good and the obvious answer is alien trees......
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Post by: Theophony
Great looking nurgle iron warriors. The heat distortion worked out well on the guns, but will you darken the front rim any? Right now it looks as if the blast just left the chamber (which is cool ), but I always see them dirtied up a bit as the remnants of the expelled stuff cools and sooties (not a real word ) up the muzzle.
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Post by: Azazelx
Not sure - I tend to like the exit hole of my plasma guns nice and shiny. blackened can have them just blend in with the barrel too much. I've also just noticed that one of the exit holes is slightly off-centre. I'll have to fix that! And I guess non-flammable heat-resistant alien trees is as sensible an answer as any.
So here’s the final post for this lot – starting with the completed squad photo! Yes, I’ve gone for the 7-marine squad because Nurgle. I still think it was a dick move of GW to sell the new Plague Marine box with only 7 models in it, and especially so by adding three more models in the form of “champions” at clamshell hero prices. I may still pick some of them up to flesh out/vary my DI models, though I’ll wait till I find them for a deep discount.
Here’s a close-up of the Plague Champion. His right arm has been replaced by a Cybork arm from Gorka Morka which still manages to look the part of a cybernetically-grafted-on bolter. We know how fond the Iron Warriors are of mutation (not very) and so this seems a likely consequence of this fellow having sprouted a tentacle – amputation and some cybernetics attached in their stead!
The shoulder pad is one that befits a unit champion. It’s one of the Puppetswar ones that I discussed recently. In fact, it’s one of the miscast ones that they sent me, as the bottom of it is all messed up. How fortunate that years later, I’d work on some Nurgle Iron Warriors, eh?
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Post by: ZergSmasher
Those Plague Marines all look awesome! As do the camo Orks. On the Orks, it's pretty cool how all the generations of models fit together well, and I love how those Plague Marines look in Iron Warriors colors. I imagine it took a little while to do all the black and yellow stripes.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks Zerg. The stripes are actually fun to do since they're detail work, and they need a bit of discipline and more than a bit of concentration so I need to "steel' myself to do them each time, but it's satisfying once each batch of them are done.
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Post by: Azazelx
Next up, the Iron Warriors Warsmith model. Quite an old model at this point, it dates from way back in 3rd edition 40k, more specifically the 3.5 codex release in 2002 (models are obviously sculpted some time in advance). This is one of several of this model that I’ve accumulated over the years. My first one I converted into an Exalted Champion (for 3rd) who I’ve been using as a Chaos Lord in our 8th edition games to date. I’ve also got one that I picked up from eBay as a bare torso, sans arms and pack, and one more, still in the blister to be used later. This one I actually got second-hand & assembled when I bought a some of a local guy’s Iron Warriors many years ago. I picked up this figure, a Rhino, a (converted) Vindicator (based on the Forge World kit of the day), and the Dreadnought/Hellbrute that I’ve been working on very slowly for Dreadtober.
So yeah, I’ve had this figure for over a decade, and again, as part of the finding and finishing 40k figures and putting them into armies that I’ve been up to lately, I finally got this guy done. As per usual, I remounted him onto one of the new Sector Imperialis bases. As he’s got quite a lot of cabling on him, I wanted to make some of them a little distinct without doing the whole “skittles” thing.
It’s a nice model but rather a busy one. Of course, adding in the hazard stripes of the Iron Warriors does nothing but make the model even more busy.
Interestingly, and sort-of amusingly for the “no model, no rules” crowd, this model doesn’t actually have rules in the 8th Edition of 40k – despite still being sold (as you could see from the link to GW at the top of the page). Sooo… I guess I’ll just use him with the Warpsmith rules. Which isn’t quite the same thing in the background (or equipment) but close enough, I suppose.
We now have a trio of heroes for the Iron Warriors. The War(p)smith, Nârik Dreygur: Exalted Champion, and the model who I’ve been using as a Chaos Lord, who will now slot into the role of Dark Apostle. It seems more appropriate for that model’s build, after all. And yes, this means that a new Lord for the Iron Warriors is in the making sometime soon.
Despite my general dislike of changing models for new rules and new editions, I did buckle and replace the Bolt Pistol on the Chaos Lord (Dark Apostle) recently. He now has a Plasma Pistol as a small but effective upgrade.
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Post by: JamesY
As ever mate, some beautiful Iron. I really need to get my socks pulled up and catch up with your productivity
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Post by: Azazelx
Hey! I actually managed to finish some stuff for this thing. Something that JamesY should like, too!
This is my third try at getting this post done because stuff keeps happening! At least the first bump was only a flat camera battery. Anyway - here's the stuff you're here for: Pics!
So as I've mentioned a few times before, this model was one I originally picked up alongside a few others more than a decade ago off ...some guy from the internets who was selling off a bunch of cool stuff because he was done with his Iron Warriors. The Warsmith I posted up here last time was one of those models, though the others are yet to come. I think he was dumping them because some codex release or another had made CSM not so good anymore. I forget, and it doesn't matter. What does matter is that after many, many years, my enthusiasm for 40k has returned and it's helped me to get a whole bunch of stuff done, and that combined with Dreadtober meant that I actually finished this bloody model off, finally!
I kept the basic paint scheme that was painted on the model, though I've repainted entirely over the top of it - simply using the original paint as a basecoat - which is fine. The Lascannon arm is the one that came with the model, complete with gargoyle-headed barrels, though I added the Forge World brass etch Iron Warriors skull icon to the shoulder. That stuff is so soft, and I'm still so inexpert at using it that the mouth-grille got a little mangled when trying to make it stick down. Ooops.
The rear view shows the heat discolouration on the "in" and "out" pipes of the Dread's engine exhaust. As I mentioned the other day with regard to those Plague Marines and their Plasma Guns, that's the latest thing I'm playing with and trying to get down (so expect to see a bit more of it in the near future!) Obviously, a bit of blued metal to add some variation alongside the brassy bits. I've not gone the whole hog on discolouring the entire Dreadnought/Helbrute, as the Iron Warriors livery is, well. Iron. Dull, often dirty and worn silver. Not a multicoloured rainbow of metals (which look bloody amazing when done well by people like Nerdfest09 - but that effect is for another series of models).
The left arm is something I added myself from my stash of Forge World stuff, that I have been accumulating for years now. Replacing a well-intentioned but ... not great converted Thunder Hammer. The mining drill-fist with integrated heavy flamer seemed entirely appropriate for the Iron Warriors, and also eventually provided me (via the elbow guards) with a place for some hazard stripes on that side of the model that weren't overwhelming or over the top, especially since there's so much of it happening on his right side. Fingers open, so - depending on the angle of the arm - he's either reaching out to grab and crush his foes, or spitting out that promethean flame!
As the legion number was added to his right side via the large transfer on the lascannon arm, it also features much more subtly on his left shoulder, facing forward this time in the form of a small disc with the Iron Warrior's designation of IV. The core model itself is one of Forge World's older (and sadly now discontinued) Chaos Dreadnoughts - more specifically what became known as a Ferrum Infernus Chaos Dreadnought, though apparently now they're all called Hellbrutes anyway, and the rules for them are the same regardless.
Oh, and did I mention that I went and magnetised both arms? Because I did! Now this guy is able to represent both the battle damage of "weapon destroyed" results (not actually a thing anymore in 8th edition) and he's also like a semi-posable action figure toy. Hurrah! I say hurrah because he's also cheering in this shot. See?
While I didn't manage to do anything at all on Be'Lakor, I did manage to complete the other Dreadnought for Dreadtober. Another model that had sat half-painted for many years, I'll have it up in a few days. Sadly, Melbourne has re-entered Wintry weather again for the last two weeks as we slide into the third month of "Spring", so it's still a matter of letting that varnish dry before some spot touch-ups with gloss varnish. So, sometime on the weekend, then!
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hey! It seems I forgot to resize that first pic. But you know what? It looks cool, so feth it - it can stay!
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Post by: JamesY
He's a beaut of a brute! So much nicer than the IW contemptor as well. Great work on him.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks James. The IW Contemptor's not all bad, it's just got a ...dodgy chest.
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Post by: Azazelx
Today we have the second (and last) model I finished for Dreadtober 2017. And yes - Josh has called it a couple of times. I just wanted to hold off on the confirmation until it was done!
When I restarted on this model for Dreadtober, most of the basic work was already done. Long done in some parts, and then piecemeal during the various times I’ve tried to make myself complete the model over the years, but it had been a real albatross for a long, long time. My Dreadtober work, then – was a bit of final cleaning up, shading, highlighting, de-skittling parts of the model, and then of course adding in the iconography. There are some Easter Eggs here for those who recognise them as well.
The model is the old, 2nd edition Metal Space Marine Dreadnought with a Plasma Cannon converted from the Multi-Melta and a metal Space Marine Plasma Cannon, because none of those parts existed when I built this model – not even the resin Plasma Cannons from Forge World. The arm is magnetised, and all that metal is why it droops a little. I’ll add back in a little bit of blu- tac which will reinforce the magnet enough to hold itself up for long periods
The Mentor Legion were my second “proper” Space Marine army, following my Rogue Trader Ultramarines and the mess I made of them when the latter part of 2nd edition hit – which I will discuss some other day. I started the Mentor Legion when 3rd edition came out. “New Edition, New Army” wasn’t really a thing back then – certainly not as a marketing term, anyway – but it’s what I chose to do at the time.
One of the things that put me off from finishing this model for the longest time was the lack of Mentor Legion transfers or Iconography available. Back in the 1990s, when I used a Mac (G3/233), I created a transfer sheet with Mentor Legion decals, along with many Aquila, and all sorts of other icons that would be very useful for wargaming. I purchased a sheet of decal paper, and ran it through my Inkjet. Looked amazing. After a wait to allow it to dry, I then sprayed it with a fixative as the instructions stated, and it ran and was ruined. And that was the end of that until the 30th of October 2017 when I finally tried again. Because I really wanted to add the chapter number (888) of the Mentor Legion to the model.
Of course now, in my home office, I have a really quite good quality colour laser printer. I’ve had unused decal sheets for a few years, but again – it took the completion of this project and the deadline inherent with “Dreadtober” to get over that particular hump. I also had some 3-d printed “owl” icons made by a nice fellow on Shapeways. I’ll update the post in a few days with his details once my next order has been sent as GW has been a bit litigious with this sort of thing lately and I’m a bit tired of things I like that aren’t really enforceable being ruined by C&D’s from big corporations lately.
The rear-facing number on top of the sarcophagus was inspired by police and similar vehicles that do the same. It’s not really at a proper aircraft recognition size, but it still looks decent. I’ve gone for a “Dreadnought number” rather than using the company number of my Mentor Legion. Mentor Legion, I should point out – circa White Dwarf 98/ – as distinct from the red-raptor headed “Mentors” that they kind-of retconned the chapter into, though with such little detail that it doesn’t matter. I consider them a successor chapter, or perhaps a sub-chapter in my own head-canon. I might write it up one day, or perhaps not. Either way, there’s so little written about them post-WD98, and what came later is contradictory enough that there’s plenty of Tabla Rasa space there, so I’m sure I could write up some fluff that incorporates it well enough and would probably make more sense.
So there we are then. I guess I’ll need to get to work on the rest of the unfinished Mentor Legion sometime soon enough, but I’ve got other stuff to clear out first before I re-start that project in earnest. It might even be a 2018 one.
We’ll finish with a shot of the pair of Dreads that Dreadtober motivated me to finally complete. Both finished, finally. After so many years. It feels bloody good to get this pair of monkeys off my back.
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Post by: angelofvengeance
Oooh I like that white and green scheme mate
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Post by: Slinky
A fine pair of Dreads!
Mentor legion, a very fine choice - I always loved the old picture of the Mentor putting on his armour.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
Dreads look awesome! I very nearly picked up a used Forgeworld World Eaters Dread at my FLGS yesterday, but passed because I don't think I would use it very much, if ever. If it's still there later I might pick it up anyways. I just love Dreadnoughts!
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Post by: Warboss_Waaazag
Nice Dreadnaughts. Both look stunning in their own unique ways.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
 Azazelx wrote:Today we have the second (and last) model I finished for Dreadtober 2017. And yes - Josh has called it a couple of times. I just wanted to hold off on the confirmation until it was done!
And thus to I confirm my Old Guy cred. I remember the Mentor Legion being briefly popular in my little gaming group back when their rules were released. I don't think any of us actually go around to painting any, though.
Seeing the contrast between the green and white,plus all accessories, makes me think the model should be too busy to work, but it all comes together with a nice, old-school vibe. Do you find the Shapeways bitz worth the price? I can't help thinking that shipping must be killer.
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Post by: Pacific
That is an absolutely cracking job on that dreadnought - very nice work!
Slinky - top marks for pulling that old piece of artwork from the archive!
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Post by: Azazelx
Thank you, gents. I'll get some more group dreadnought photos sorted out at some stage. If the Mentor Dread was smaller, all of the decals and decorations would make it look a bit too busy - or if they were in more colours, but I feel like it's just on the safe side of not looking like a Nascar. The shapeways shipping is small compared to how quickly the bitz prices add up, especially as it's a flat rate (or seems to be since the bits are so light). I've spent a fair few hundred bucks on them in the last few months, but I'm doing it in mind that:
1) GW will probably shut a lot of them down (and already has) and
2) because of 1), I'm using a buy as many as I'll EVER use and be done with it mentality rather than buy as I need - so getting chapter badges and such for armies I've literally done nothing at all on.
I might grab a few more assuming they have a Black Friday sale. We'll see.
Obliterators.
They’re not good models, and we all know this. The current models aren’t that old, but they’re old enough to have been retired and replaced with models that aren’t gak. These models are less gak than the original ones – those are really gak, but these ones are gak too. Just less so. Still, I updated/resurrected my original pair just over a year ago, and they’re obviously a thing in the new Chaos army, just as they were before, so I finally forced myself to find and dig out another one of them to complete the squad, since these days they’re entirely bought in sets of three.
I did change out the head (again) in order to make the model look a little more “Iron Warriors” and a little less “hot garbage”. This is a MKIII head from Forge World. I think it was from an Iron Hands kit. I do think it improves the appearance of the model significantly.
Just as I mentioned last time, I really dislike the random weapon-spam look of their arms, and so just as I was a bit more judicious with the others I assembled over a decade ago, I was again with this one. Twin-linked bolters on one arm, with ammunition magazines sticking out of the side. (Wait.. so how does he reload? Shh.. don’t think. The model is awful. It’s a meat-man. Don’t think. Don’t use your brain here…)
There might have originally been a decent sculpt underneath all of that, before the sculptor covered their sculpt in too much greenstuff. I will say that I think painting it like meat makes it look less bad than GW’s go-to of pinkish flesh. Which isn’t to say that this is good looking. If you look carefully, you can see the dented left shoulder where I accidentally dropped the model wen in the final stages of finishing it. Somehow it dented the shoulder without damaging the paint. It’s certainly a heavy hunk of metal, in any case.
…and the left arm. Again I’ve gone both minimalist and attempted to make the arm look less rubbish. In this case by using two melta barrel ends I found in a bits box – from converting metal Imperial Guardsmen back in the 1990’s. It actually kinda almost looks okay here, and as I’ve mentioned I’ve been practising a few times lately – another couple of heat-discoloured weapon barrels.
So now I have a trio. The three models required to legally field the Obliterators as a unit in 8th edition Warhammer 40,000. I’ve got more of these models. A bunch of finecast ones bought cheaply secondhand. I planned to make them into Mutilators, but I’m not sure if:
a) Mutilators are worthwhile in 8th
b) I can really be bothered to build and mildly convert them into something passable. I guess I have some spare parts from Ork Mega Armoured Nobz.
c) Which army to build them for. Despite the confluence of the Iron Warriors and the (groan) Obliterator Virus in the lore, I feel like they’re a bit gribbly for my Iron Warriors. Or to have to many of in my Iron Warriors. I’ve also got all those Dark Vengeance models that are a bit too …Chaosy for my Iron Warriors, so I need to decide on a Non-Mono-aligned Fallen Legion to go with my Traitor Legion. Which I guess will be Word Bearers, since I’m disqualifying the four Chosen Legions, I already have the IW, I have specific plans for a small force of Alphas and Black Legion, and I don’t really connect with the Night Lords (and they’re in many ways more murder-y than chaos-y).
If I loved the models, then a) and b) would not be an issue. As it happens, it’s much more the case of “I’ve got them, let’s see if I can be motivated to assemble and paint them.” So… yeah.
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Post by: Mymearan
I... looked at those and said "Hey, those sculpts don't look bad... wonder what they are?" Considering I find the Obliterator models to be some of the ugliest ones GW has ever put out, WOW you did an impressive job there! The head swap combined with the paint scheme (the flesh looks great) makes them immensly more appealing, although it's hard to hide the poo-squat. Very, very impressive! Edit: For reference, this is what the stock GW painted ones look like 
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Post by: Kid_Kyoto
The helmets are a great change.
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Post by: nerdfest09
Perfectly twisted and the application of the red muscle looks spot on with such an awkward model, helmets make them at least 100% better looking too!
and I must stop looking at your blog......... now I am leaning towards a Deathwing army even though I don't like the DA! but thanks to you and your expert commentary I wanted to learn more so I did dammit!
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Post by: Azazelx
So I’ve started to look into my archives and bring out some of my Necromunda figures and give them the 2017 treatment. This means finishing figures that were never completed, giving them new bases – and of course – de-skittling them. I’m going to do them a pair at a time for the time being, since it means I can concentrate on the models as individuals and actually get them done – something I find much, much harder when doing models in larger groups – even 10 at a time for anything that’s not-identical.
Rather then typing a lot of words, I’ll just show the models.
Here’s how they were previously.
Not a lot of changes: dirt bases, since I wanted them to be as generic as possible at the time. I was never happy with the tiger striping on the leggings, so they were cleaned up. While I think the green armour plates looked decent, it did lead to a bit too much happening in terms of colours. Scabbards have been changed to a dark blue, and I’ve changed the weapon furniture from green (originally designed to look the same as my Imperial Guard) to greys. I did leave the shotgun belts and some other pouches in a light khaki green.
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Post by: ZergSmasher
I don't think those gangers looked bad before TBH. They do look pretty good with the new paintjob, though.
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Post by: Azazelx
They weren't bad. Well, the tiger stripes annoyed me, but the green armour plates I think looked good - but there was a bit of skittles overdose happening - especially with these and the other models (still need to update, didn't have a chance this weekend) together.
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Post by: Slinky
Overall an improvement, for sure, but I like the tiger striping, think you should have left it
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Post by: angelofvengeance
Some great looking gangers there, Azazel .
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks guys. I've got some better tiger striping to show shortly - when I finish and update some other gangers. The one on her wasn't up to standard.
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Post by: youwashock
Oh, I do love those Escher. New look, old look, whatever. Nice work.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
I have never played Necromunda, but I always did like the models. You made the right call on the green armor, I think. A more limited palette suits the models much better.
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Post by: Archer
Necromunda is probably my favourite game GW has done. Interested to see how the new version plays.
I like the use of bright colours on Necromunda gangs. Particularly House Escher. I liked both the old scheme and the repaint. Look more cohesive now.
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Post by: Azazelx
I also think the bright colours work well for them, though I'm glad I toned them down. I haven't had a chance to get the others finished/updated yet. I hopes to have them done before my New Necro stuff arrives, but apparently that ain't going to be happening. Yet, anyway. It'll be good to see how the new version plays.
I’ll lead this post off with an objective marker that I just completed. It’s actually the previous base that the Mentor Legion Dreadnought was based on, before I pried it off for a fresh start. I considered prying the dead Chaos Marine off it as well, but then figured that it would be easier and probably more effective to just glue some more crap down to the base – so it received a munitions crate and a half-buried barrel, courtesy of some of the recent GW basing and terrain kits.
I’m in two minds as to whether I should add some tufts to fill in some of the empty space. I don’t mind it looking a bit more sparse and generic. Anyone have any opinions on that?
I’m also thinking that perhaps I should rim the base – either in black or brown so it’s consistent. Maybe go over the dirtied-up crate with some dry pigment? Hm…
Then again, I could well be overthinking a small, fairly insignificant bit of table fodder.
Some 40k figures to provide with a fuller sense of scale. I’m sure it’ll all end well with these three on site.
I’ve also done these Teleport Homers recently-ish, so I thought I’d throw them in here. More or-less one at a time as I’ve found them on sprues and amongst other junk, just copying the same scheme, and varying the colour of the lights – just in case I ever use them for anything and need to distinguish them from one another. I guess I could even use them as objective markers from time to time, especially since Terminators don’t actually need them anymore in 8th edition.
Here are some RT-era Black Templar terminators doing their rendition of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.” Again for scale. (And I guess, context?)
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Post by: JoshInJapan
Good work recycling that base. It will make a nice bit of decoration on the tabletop.
Those things are teleport homers? I have at least one in a bitz grab bag I picked up years ago, but have never known what to do with it.
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Post by: Azazelx
Thanks Josh. I'll need to get some more done at some stage, too. And yep, teleport homers. You can just as easily cut them up for bits or use them as objective markers or add them to scenery these days, since they're no longer a distinct thing in the current edition.
Another scenic post today – Pegasus Hobbies’ Technobridge.
I picked this up quite awhile ago, got around to assembling it awhile ago, and then when we had a brief run of good weather several weeks ago I was finally able to paint it. Warm to hot weather is what I tend to need to get me motivated for any kind of scenery project, mostly so I can take things outside and spray them, and also because drying time is much improved. Box shot is taken from Pegasus’ website. I literally recycled the box (which I had kept for all this time) a week before I took these photos. Ooops!
I wanted it to look weathered and worn, so after the first spray coats of gunmetal and then a mid-silver, I played around with Vallejo Rust Washes, Orange paint and Pledge One Go floor wax (didn’t work out so great), drybrushing and a couple of different weathering powders.
I also wanted to emphasise the direction of years of traffic on the bridge, so I used a tissue (hi-tech modelling tools, here!) to “pull” the half-dried grime across the panels along the length of the bridge, creating a directionally weathered effect.
Here’s a scale shot, so you can see roughly how big the thing is. I didn’t have any vehicles ready, but it could easily fit a single Land Raider, but it’s just a bit too tight to fit two modern Rhinos side by side – you could probably fit a pair of original RT-era rhinos next to each other, though.
Unfortunately, the thing is too large for my light box, so this was the best I could do to see the sides of the thing once complete. Overhead light is obviously much stronger on the table. While this can easily be considered sci-fi/ 40k/Necromunda scenery due to its Industrial look and feel, those same design factors actually make it pretty appropriate for a lot of modern settings as well. This is A Good Thing.
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Post by: bbb
I didn't realize that was so big. It looks great.
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Post by: Azazelx
I’ve talked about Painting December recently, which was a thing I did a couple of years ago when I decided to paint up a couple of the larger, more impressive models that I’d collected over the years – which just get pushed aside because I often have a bit of a mental block when it comes to painting things larger than “human” sized. So my plan this year is to “Revive” it, and paint some of the larger, more impressive models that I’ve had sitting around for years.
When I brought it up, a few other people indicated interest, and so – hey, why not make it a bit of a community thing for whomever wishes to participate.
So here’s the “rules” for anyone who wants to join in:
It would be a nice thing to paint something new/different/interesting/cool over the Christmas/Summer/Winter break. Something that works as a centrepiece model of some kind.
1) ++++EXPUNGED++++
2) Nothing smaller than an AoS hero or Ogre-sized model – I’m looking to have fun doing the kind of centrepiece models I don’t usually allow myself to work on due to the backlog.
3) ++++EXPUNGED++++
4) No Scenery – either Big pieces or Scatter terrain – I’ll usually work on these sorts of things over summer anyway and I’ve got a few of each part done, but they’re separate things to this “project”.
5) ++++EXPUNGED++++
6) ++++EXPUNGED++++
If you’d like to play too, you can skip stipulations 1, 3, 5 and 6, but bear in mind this isn’t about building models, it’s about painting them – and getting at least one model completed from start to finish, not including assembly. (Maybe we can do Building April or something later?)
You can start (and complete) assembly anytime you like, including before you get started or the challenge officially begins. When does it begin? I’m glad you asked!
It begins in December. You set your own exact start date.
Ideally when you start to get some time off so you can settle down and relax a little and enjoy some painting time. It concludes at the end of January. If that gives you enough time to finish a cool model – that’s bloody awesome. If it gives you enough time to finish a half-dozen cool models – even bloody better!
My own work this year doesn’t close up until 22nd December, so that’s probably going to be my own “official” start time, but I’ve been assembling, and I’m even allowing myself to base coat from a spray can before I “start”.
If you’d like to participate, then just drop a note in the comments. Make sure to smash that like button, share and subscribe! Hit the notification Bell so you can.. oh wait, I’m not an annoying YouTube vid. So yeah. Just leave a note in the comments, and Ill put together a “home base” post with links to participants blogs. Also let me know when you officially start doing stuff, as I’ll do “round up” updates every so often. Maybe/probably/hopefully once a week over Dec and Jan. I can't be arsed making another thread for it, especially since it's a short-form event, and people can have heaps of photos on their own blogs. (If you don't have your own Plog, feel free to post your stuff in this thread). If there are a gakload of people wanting to participate, I'll do a thread, but I can't see it, TBH.
And yes, I’m setting myself a pair of Nurgle Daemons as my own personal target. The Great Unclean One from 1997 that has been sitting in my lead pile since 1997 and the much more recent Forge World Nurgle Daemon Prince known as Mamon Transfigured. If I’m successful with this pair, there are a few older models I started but never finished (Be’Lakor, Marauder Giant, Rogue Idol) and plenty of others not yet touched.
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Post by: JoshInJapan
Count me in.
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Post by: Januine
Oohhh. Sounds good. Would an Inq54 mini be too small?
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Post by: Azazelx
Works for me, mate!
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Post by: ZergSmasher
I think maybe Mortarion is a go for this one. He might be going with me to Adepticon, so I think I'll go ahead and get him done for this.
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Post by: Azazelx
Sounds like a plan, Zerg.
I haven’t finished anything recently. There are some Orks I haven't shown here yet, but nothing new actually completed in over a week now. It’s been the busiest month of the year at work, and there’s been a lot happening outside of work. We’ve just finished the longest, hottest streak of November weather in Melbourne’s recorded history which is in the midst of concluding with 2 months worth of rain over three days. While Pyro and Orez and a third friend helped to sandbag the entrance to the garage, which has a real danger of water entering, the constant rain has naturally, finally overwhelmed my roof, so I’ve got one bucket set up, catching water from the first leak, and a second bucket set up in preparation for when the second one starts dripping through the dark, wet, shiny patch in the ceiling’s plasterboard. I expect it’ll start in the next couple of hours. As fethed as all this is, the weather is .. it just started. Much worse than the first one. if they weren’t coming through the down light shafts and dripping off the actual light fittings I might not be quite to stressed about it all.
But… there’s nothing I can do about it. The Bureau of Meteorology has described the heat and following rain as an unprecedented weather event, and it’s not like the hurricanes and tropical storms that others have had to endure recently – or even nearly as bad as initially predicted (for Melbourne, at least). It’s just another stressor, and assuming that we don’t have an electrical fire – could almost be described as the least of my current concerns. Though that electrical risk certainly does stress me the feth out. I won’t be using those lights for several weeks at least, even after everything dries off and we get the roof looked at. Meanwhile, the buckets fill up drip by drop, and the road outside slowly morphs into a river…
So, miniatures. I’ve had this trio of Ork Killer Kans for a few years. Purchased from eBay already assembled, I sprayed them in metallics some months ago, and they’ve sat in a tub waiting for me to finish the actual Ork force first. Since I’m stressed as feth lately, and probably not going to be doing my best fine detail work, I’ve decided to work on broad details on these larger models to keep my mind occupied.
So today I’ve added discolouration to the metal. Purple, blue and sepia washes, as well as some drybrushing of a mix of Vallejo black and silver primers mixed with Model Air “Rust”. I’d previously washed all three with Nuln Oil Gloss which is what picked out all of those dark details, and picked out the odd bit of metal in another colour.
Now as effective as the discolouration looks, I’m not sure what to do next. Which is another one of the reasons these figures have sat for awhile. While my force is pretty much “Camo/Military/Blood Axe” themed, I’ve also been leaving metal items and armour bits unpainted so far. I’d most likely be painting some of the panels on the vehicles when I get to them, and even with these walkers darkened and dirtied-up some more, they could well still look a bit too “Rainbow Brite” if left untouched.
So I’m stuck again. Trying to decide if I should paint some panels, and if so, how many, which ones, and using what colours? Desert Yellow/Bone? With or without camo? Spray-paint-style lines for camo in the style of German WWII armour? (Because how would Orks paint vehicular camo – with a spray can?) or something just as simple but in a different style, like British EW Desert camo?
Or just desert Yellow/Bone, heavily weathered?
Oh, three new dark patches have appeared on the ceiling. Above Marouda’s desk, computer and printer. Time to move a whole lot of stuff and remove power boards entirely…
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