Inspired by Gitsplittas project blogs and ArbitorIan's army blogs, I am finally starting my own Blog. I'm a hellishly slow painter, but I've got enough to show you to make it worth starting a blog, and hopefully I will start to make reasonable progress from here on...



The figure on the left is one I painted in 1993 or before, when I was about 15 years old. The model on the right is one I purchased on the very day that Warhammer 40k 2nd Ed was released. He was stripped of his Ultramarine colours and started in Dec 2008, when I returned to the gaming hobby after 14-odd years away. My marines got put aside in favour of Eldar for a long time, but with the new Badab War books, he is almost finished now.

Project & Personal Intro

I'm quite busy with my work (Head of Year at a difficult Inner City London Comprehensive), plus I play American Football nine months of the year. I also play online Blood Bowl and like to spend my Friday nights in a drunken stupor as often as possible, so I don't get as much painted as a would like to. However, I am lucky that I find painting quite relaxing, so it is something I can do as a way to wind down with TV or a movie in the background.

I started in the hobby with Blood Bowl in 1988. By the time I got into W40k, The Badab War had entered into the pages of WD, and I read about it in some back issues I picked up. It has always been my favourite bit of W40K fluff. I liked the idea of a purely political bit of infighting, and think that in some ways it is a shame The Red Corsairs were developed. When I got back into the hobby, I started painting up a few Lamenters, along with a few Mentor Legion guys. In 1994 I pretty much stopped playing GW games, and by 1996 I was out of RPGs and M:TG too.

I drifted back into RPGs by playing Neverwinter Nights whilst living in Japan, which in turn led to playing WAR a bit more recently. That led not into WFB, but into W40K, and I dug stuff out of my parents loft and started buying again in late 2008. I started off with Orks, flirted with Marines, then went back into a huge Eldar fixation with occasional forays into painting marines.

Since the Badab War books from Alan Bligh came out, I've been back on a huge Lugft Huron trip. I have about seven to eight thousand points of marines, I expect. I originally planned that they would all be Lamenters, but since the books came out I realised I also wanted a Tyrant's Legion force, which could double as an Astral Claws army. Then I thought "Why not have some Executioners too?" and I've recently decided to do a small (1000 points-ish) army using Azhara Redth and Gitsplittas scheme. It'll probably be just Tac squads, a counts-as-Kantor and some Sternguard. That will give me elements of all five parts of the Secessionist forces in the Badab War.

Anyway, allow me to show you some of the models I have produced so far, and then I will give a breakdown of my project list. I like the way ArbitorIan does his army blogs, so I will include that here too.



Captain Pearce is my first ever Lamenter. I painted him when 15, so I think he is decent, for that. I'll not repaint him, anyway, as he has historical signifIcance to me. I doubt I'll use him all that often, but he is available if I need him. I probably will rebase him, as he won't match the rest of the army otherwise. I have no idea how he was painted, as it was 17 years ago! That is more than half of my life so far! I know I chickened out on the checkers, and at the time I do remember he represented a huge technical achievement for me.




These two combat squads are the basis of my first 500 point block. They were painted before the Blood Angels Codex came out, or I'd probably have gone straight for Assault Squads, but I do feel there is a place for Tac Squads in Blood Angel armies. They are painted with Iyanden Darksun, a Gryphonne Sepia wash, and two different yellows to highlight. The shoulder checkers are my first significant amount of small checkering, and I think with the experience I've gained here, I have a good idea of how to approach it in future. I think they look pretty good, though there are one or two little things to tidy up.

To do the hearts, I did a bit of measuring of angles of the icon in the Forge World book and found it is actually quite simple. A square stood on its corner to make a diamond. A blood drop from the left corner. Semi-circles on the top edges, plus a slight bulge. The bottom top extended to make an 80 degree angle instead of 90. I was delighted with how well I did 9 of the 10 hearts.

If I get around to it, I plan to put up a tutorial on how I painted the shoudler pads.

The bases are home-made. I bought a LOT of the cross-hatched walkway styrene(?) sheets from the 4d modelshop in Aldgate, along with a compass that has a small blade instead of a pencil to cut out the circles to stick onto regular bases. Basecoat black. Put some Bestial Brown on a piece of tissue. Dunk the base face down onto it to pick up a smear of brown. Once that dries, use a piece of tissue to add more brown in patches, then the same using Blazing Orange. Final, a Mithril Silver highlight, and black edges.

Apart from that, the main thing left to do is get the guns painted black and highlighted. I used a white undercoat, and I plan to start from black covered by Iyanden, or white with a black wash over that in future. A successful learning experience, and one I'll be happy to put on a tabletop. The last job will be numbers on the shoulder pads, which I will probably just do faintly using Devlan Mud, to try and replicate the look in the Badab War book.



The Little Rhino Who Could was started at pretty much the same time as the Tac Squad above. It looks a lot darker in that photo than in real life. The checkering there is slightly bigger, and it was good practice before starting the smaller versions on the shoulder pads. The name came from the first Platinum Devil tournament in Canterbury when RinkyDink's entire army fired at it one turn, about 12-15 heavy weapons, and only the final Las-cannon left to fire in his entire army managed to immobilise it. By then it had delivered its demi-squad to where they needed to be. It also fairly heroically had success with some ramming in an earlier game. Obviously, metallics need finishing, and probably some labelling.




Demi-squad DeVore still need their bases edged in black, sticking to their bases and highlighting done. If using Devlan Mud works on the Tac Squads shoulder labelling, they will get the same. I wish I had used a black undercoat on these guys, but it is too late now. The painting is a mixture of bestial brown, snakebite leather, iyanden dark sun, all with a devlan miracle wash.

I like the fact they look quite yellow, but also could conceivably blend into some cover. I've decided that checkers are associated with various levels of being a full battle-brother, veteran, etc, so only the Sarge has any checkers.

I'll be painting five more the same way but with bolt pistols to complete the squad, plus a sixth as a Heavy Bolter option and a fifth with a bolter.



This Space Hulk Terminator was undercoated white, then given a black wash. Several thin layers of Sunburst Yellow(? - the lighter of GW's two yellows, anyway) were then painted on to get to where it is. He comes out a different shade of yellow to the Tac Squad, but I don't mind that. Infact, I made a decision very early on that I wanted my Lamenters to have a clean, but fairly rag-tag look.



I got this fella as part of a job lot from EBay. I plan to convert to make a Baal Predator in an old-fashioned style. I have another three complete Rogue Trader Predators, which, despite the benefits of employing Lucius Pattern Predators, I plan to include as part of my Astral Claws force, in line with their "Big Guns" ethos. I have the Assault Cannons from the Ravenwing box to use, as well as several styles of Heavy Bolter. I may magentise to I still have the option of making this a regular classic (Auto-Las) Predator, but it needs stripping before I can start work.

Very impressive work Fifty, love the use of the older style models, great colour scheme and really sharp shoulder pad freehand!
Looking forward to seeing your progress

Everything looks really great fifty! Love the way your guys are coming out and that terminator really pops! Don't know how you can stand to do the checkerboard pattern... that would drive me nuts.

I have one suggestion. I like the way your toops look, but I think they would benefit from some edge highlighting on the upper edges of the armor plates. It will help differentiate the various parts of the armor and make them pop a bit.

Great work! Looking forward to seeing more as time goes on.

On the Tac squads? I agree it would improve the look, but to be honest I think I want to finish these guys and get onto the next job! My assault squads will be both be undercoated black before painting the base layer to get the depth that way.

I am also thinking of using Bleached Bone instead of (???) Grey as the base colour to paint over for my shoulder pads to give a slightly different colour there too.

Oddly, I find the painting checker pattern almost therapeutic. I find I concentrate so intensely as I am doing it I forget about the rest of the world.

Ahh, vintage, models, always good for a bit of nostalgia! I'm a fan of the checks, they add a nice bit of detail to the marines, which might otherwise look a little plain if they were just all one colour. I'm also inclined to agree with the above suggestion about highlights. I think it's brave that you've gone for a black undercoat for yellow models, as I recall that some gw light colours (especially yellow, red and orange) have poor coverage over the darker ones.
Maybe if you want the depth without starting with black, a white spray, then iyanden dark sun or evan the orange foundation paint (I forget the name) might work as a darker base.

EDIT: just reread the part where you mentioned using iyanden arleady. Maybe just an orange base over white as an alternative.

I've done a test model starting from black, and the Iyanden Darksun gives good enough coverage to work from. I will try to dig out the test model to post as well. The foundation paints really are very good idea indeed.

Maybe I will go back and use some Devlan Miracle in the recesses of the Tac Squad. It won't be as dark as I'd like, but it also won't dirty things up as well if it flows where it shouldn't.

I will be keepingtabs on this, it seems great! would love to see another Babad war army!

Awesome, It's always cool to see another Badab War army on here, I really like the Lamenters, they may possibly be my next army, so I'll be watching this one with interest!

By the way, the models are looking very cool.

Not much progress, but just enough to justify a post, and I want to keep this blog rolling...

I stripped the incomplete Ultrasmurfs Predator. I've no idea what type of glue it was held together with, but it fell apart in the wash. Fortunately that is a good thing!

The round plates and door from the underside of the model also fell off. I don't think I am going to put them back on, as they'll be so incredibly useful for a bunch of Astartes Forward Firebase Bunkers I am building. I'll use some of the same plating I have on the bases of the models above to close up the underside of the model.



I decided I didn't want the Imperial Aquila on the front of my Baal Pred, as I'll inevitably be playing some missions and battles based in late-stage Badab War, or even post-Badab war, once the remnants of the Badab armies were fleeing into the Maelstrom, and it would seem odd. I don't much like those plates anyway, as there is no viewing port for the driver... I had an old front piece from a very old Rhino of my own, so I have ued that. That also means I have two Imperial plates, so I'm sure they'll be useful somewhere.



I was considering magnetizing the Assault Cannons I'll be loading on there so that I would be able to magnetize and restore the vehicle to it's original configuration. I think I need to do some greenstuffing that will make that impossible though, so I think I'll just consider this Rhino un-restoreable. Both the Assault Cannons and the two Heavy Bolters you see there come from the Ravenwing Sprues in the Ravenwing boxed set, and I have no other use for them, so I've done even better on the already-excellent Ravenwing deal. I may have to mount the bolters side-on so that I do not have to really go to town hacking at the sponsons, but I've not decided if I like that idea yet...



I will probably complete a Rogue-Trader era feel to the top of the turret with greenstuff, but I am also considering doing something using bike fairings from the Ravenwing sprue. What do people think might look best?

I LOVE the original predators!! Gave my one to my son for his Doom Eagle army. Such a classic model! Love the assault cannon conversion Fifty... nicely done!

Cheers Gits. I love this particular model too. It really takes me back to the early 90s! I know the modern version is "better", but this version just has more character, in my opinion.

I got a stupidly good deal on a batch of semi-derelict rhinos, predators and a whirlwind a few weeks back. After I did a bit of deconstruction, I landed up with two full classic predators, a complete rhino, and enough of a rhino to combine with bits from my own bits box, PLUS this horrible blue thing which is complete enough to build this Baal Predator. All I am lacking is the exhaust ports for one of the vehicles, but I am confident I can knock something together there.


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Another comment from me: didn't "see" it in real life, but in the photos, it looks as if the sensor array from the Ravenwing set might be a nice fit in the space between the Cannons... What do people think?

Nice to meet you sir.

I can relate to your schedule issues and will hopefully draw inspiration from your progress. The old skool Predator looks ace. Oh how dearly I'd love to get my hands on one. Maybe modeling similar turrets from scratch is an option though. When I started, they'd just released the metal versions so the original was a piece of mythological kit for me even then.

Your threads were amongst those that first ever attracted me to Dakka, and I've just had a look through some of them again. I hope I do inspire you to paint more!

Not much done this weekend. Mostly played around with my Honour Guard. Being Blood Angel derivatives, they are more like the Vanilla Command Squad. I have no intention of acually buying any models specifically for this squad. I've built them out of bits lying around from other purcahses, and I'll be adding lots of purity seals and any other appropriate looking parts.

I haven't decided whether to paint them gold yet, as the Blood Angels codex says I should for Lamenters. I am tempted to massively increase the amount of checkering on them instead. What do people think about that?



The Chapter Champion has has power blade held up in front of him in a fairly static pose. I realised that the hand that normally supports the missile launcher could do a similar job here. I think it looks quite a nice pose.



The Chapter Banner, The Banner of Tears in later versions of the chapter. I think I'll make a Greenstuff banner, rather than paper, so I can paint it properly. I'll also be adding either skulls or at least end pieces to the banner poles and using some bits from the Ravenwing sprue.

ht

I am not sure I like the Lightning Claw, as it came from a terminator and the scale looks slightly wrong. I need to do a bit of greenstuffing repair to the arm, then undercoat and then decide if it looks okay.



The last guy looks like he is tipping forward in the photos, but isn't really. It is another fairly relaxed pose, and that is true of pretty much the whole squad. The Tac squad are in a very formal pose, then one of the Assault squads will be charging, the other reacting.



I won't bother posting photos of a bog-standard Apothecary!

i would rather see you go with more checkers!

Because you like checkers, or you like how long it takes to paint them?

Great stuff mate. I understand the whole teaching+gaming=no time conundrum (though sub 2kids for the football!). This is great blog and really good to see folk who, like myself, are getting back into the game after a long absence. Btw, I have the leftovers of Sanguinary Guard from making Owl Vanguards for Mentors, pm me if you want em.
As for yellows and browns with depth, opacity and flow, I cannot recommend GameCraft's paints highly enough; their Khaki and Yellow have great coverage and blend beautifully.
Don't suppose you fancy doing tutorial on you checkers?

I am off sick today, so I may try to do a checker tutorial, if I can find a base-coated model to do it on.

Getting there with the predator. This is my first Green Stuff work for ages, so I was a bit worried, but with a tiny bit of work, I reckon I can get the shape at the bac of the assault cannons as I want it. I didn't smooth it perfectly into the dome, as I figured a bit of a bump would suit the aesthetic of the vehice as a whole and the dome specifically a bit better.

As I say, I'll need a little work on the back of the cannons, but I think they'll be okay.

I have a little sensor probe from the Ravenwing sprue I am planning to fit between the barrels to deal with the odd-looking void that would be there otherwise.

I just like the angle in this photo. As you can see, I haven't drilled the Heavy Bolter barrels yet. On the other bolter, I'll also need to transfer the skull detailing to the other side so it is not left blank.

I also need to block out most of the back of the sponson, but I'll need to leave some space to allow rotation of the Heavy Bolter.

Lookin good Fifty! Progress, progress, progress...

Liking this a lot; really love the classic parts fused with the new.

I love the work on the Old School Pred! You have inspired me to work on my own! Although mine will be Chaos, and I need to fabricate a Twin-Linked LasCannon, but I have subscribed to your thread, and look forward to more updates! Keep up the good work!

Nice work with the predator! Interesting project, this won't be my last visit!

The Banner of Tears
After the Lamenters' part in the Badab War, their chapter banner was a tattered remnant. When they were granted the Emperor's forgiveness, the banner was given to the Adepta Sororitas to be repaired and purified. Their handiwork was said to be inspired by the Emperor, and that they wept as they wove, contemplating the Emperor's great sacrifice for humanity. The banner became known as the Banner of Tears and was taken with the Lamenters on their penitent crusade.

I'm going to need to make two chapter banners. One for when I am playing as post-Badab War Lamenters, and one for games during it. Based on the fluff above from the original Badab War article, IIRC, I could really use some help from creative types of how the banner should look. Nothing from Google was even remotely useful when I typed in Banner of Tears or Banner of Tears Lamenters. Ideas, and especially actual art, all gratefully received!

Fifty, this project is looking awesome, so I'm totally onboard. As for your banner, if you searched google, you probably came across this one:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XuuoPtHKcxg/TGjCc8GJTJI/AAAAAAAAAFk/m0I49M96mDo/S1600-R/banner+of+tears+checker+banner+9.png

It's ok, imo. I had some spare time and whipped up a mock banner for you on MS Paint. It's a little shoddy, but the "idea" is def there. If you can get passed the Greatful Dead reference, I think it could work (obviously, you could simply change the skull design so that people don't instantly think Greatful Dead). Having the skull at the center and maybe script litanies vertically down the sides of the design for added fluff.

I think the heart could be a little bigger

On a side note: I've noticed most Lamenters Forces are lacking what I consider a major component that I hope you don't leave out of your Army. Mostly, cause they looks so damn cool:
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/0/0a/LamentersDC.jpg
Lameneters Death Company

Thanks Moltar. I had been thinking of lots and lots of tears, but I suddenly quite like the idea of either a skull or other face crying. I like the skull having the checker pattern on it. As I'll be free-handing it, I am tempted to try and fade the checkers in from the edge of the skull and do it like this.

I am not completely sure if I'll make this the banner of tears, but I certainly think I'll use it. Maybe as the Badab-era Chapter banner, or a Company banner.

As for Death Company, I plan to include some. I have inadvertantly acquired about 30 older Death Company models, so I'd be a fool not to! They are quite low down on the priority list though! They'll probably be one of the last things I do to reach 3000 points.

Looking good! Can't wait to see the predator finished

Glad you like it! Needless to say, if you didn't I would not take offense. Glad you're planning on using the Death Company, but understand that it's towards the bottom of your to-do list. I look forward to what you'll be cranking out.

The pred is actually built and ready for an undercoat. I drilled out the barrels of the sponson Heavy Bolters, then drilled through and fed through some copper wire to make a swivel. I also bought some plasticard this afternoon to seal up the back of the sponsons. I put a nice round plate I found between the Assault Cannons to finish things up there. I've also made a greenstuff banner for the Honour Guard to do some free-handing on, and have a sculpted Blood Angel one from the Sanuinary pack coming from inmygravenimage in the next few days (Cheers Graven!) incase mine looks dreadful!

Photos today or tomorrow, hopefully, but I am not sure I want to risk spraying an undercoat whilst it is this cold.

Why have I not seen this before? I love Lamenters! I definitely like the fact you're painting the Space Hulk Terminators in their colors, as I'm also doing the same thing. Perhaps you and I may have a side by side pair of blogs...

There are at least two more blogs heavily featuring Badab War armies.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/289929.page - Gitsplitta's Mantis Warriors

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/335738.page - Cvife's Novamarines and Minotaurs

ionsel might start one for Minotaurs. I think Solar Lion might have a Lamenters blog too.

Awesome! Alongside my force, I'm creating a small contingent of Red Scorpions to also use in conjunction with my Lamenters when I use the Space Marine Codex instead of The Blood Angels one. Reason being is that as you know, the Lamenters use varied doctrines of war, and both codexes are wholly appropriate.

I kind of envisaged a chalice with the tears running out and down it; but, I like the weeping skull, too. Good stuff!

Prior to the Badab book coming out, I was already planning a Lamenters army circa the end of their penitent crusade. I envisaged a chapter rent in two, almost at civil war. I was planning to have a modernist, codex army led by the new Chapter Master, having extinguished the Blood Angel curse, but also sacrificing its strengths, but also a faction led by the High Chaplain and High Sanguinary Priest who clung to the old ways, and included mostly veterans and Death Company. The Badab book was so good, however, that I decided to use that as the basis for my fluff and use solely the Blood Angel codex for my Lamenters, and build Astral Claws, Mantis Warrior and Executioners armies using the vanilla codex. It also means I get to paint more variety, but still have a cohesive force.

The chalice with tears of blood emerging is another interesting idea for the Banner of Tears. It sounds like a good banner, and one I am likely to make. I am just not sure it sounds like tears if they are from a chalice rather than an eye... They just sound like drops.

It's nice to see other Badab war forces around, it's good to see history get some love

I've got a spare banner and pole from the command sprue if that's of any use to you, rather than having to make one?

Well, I've already made one, but I am not sure yet how it will look when painted. If it doesn't look good, I may take you up on your offer. Thanks very much.

I had an idea for a banner that would be a single teardrop with an image of someone lamenting (I am thinking, down on their knees head raised towards the sky, with their arms wrapped around their head). I am just not sure I have the talent to draw it on paper, let alone paint it... In fact, the drawing part would be the hard part - I think I'd be much better at translating it onto a banner.

No worries, just yell if you want it as I'm going to have a mountain of the command squad banners left over when I'm finished as I need to make an apothecary for every tactical squad!

So, giving some thought to how to differentiate each of my chapters, so they have a different playstyle as well as appearance. Otherwise, owning 4 different marine armies will be kinda pointless. Here are my thoughts so far

Lamenters: Blood Angel Codex. 3000 point. Only army to contain jump packs (30+). Only army to contain Land Speeders (4). Lots of Terminators (20ish). Bold chequer pattern. Yellow!

Astral Claws: 3000 point. Plasma, bikes and Predators. Lugft Huron 'porting in with Heavy Flamer terminators. Silver with blue detailing. Hawk Turquoise as the colour for the plasma. Very "proper"

Mantis Warriors: 1500 point. Infantry only. Mostly Tacs using Azhara Redth to confer stealth. Sternguard Vets as Tranqulity Snipers. Strictly no vehicles, except possibly a Dreadnaught. Mostly green, but with Tranquality Vets in the same yellow and black camo pattern as origially in WD98, and made famous by Gits.

Executioners: Relic Axes. Lots of Sternguard Vets with Pedro Kantor counts-as to make them scoring. Chains. Probably built using Black Templar parts. Scouts. Drop pods.

Any other ideas for differentitating them interestingly?

How are you going to keep the MW infantry alive to see battle? They'll need pods or something. Foot slogging marines will be ducks (trust me, I know). If you're going to do the stealth thing with them, you might give them some sniper scouts... that would fit in well with the theme.

I'll certainly only ever play the Mantis Warriors army with Azhard Redth in it, for starters. I figured I'd only use them on heavily terrained boards. If I gave them pods or bawkses, they'd lose infiltrate, so that'd spoil the fun. Scouts would actually be worse in an Azhara Redth army. They'd lose combat tactics, but only gain infiltrate, which they have already...

Haven't seen the rules for him... who is he?

Fifty wrote:Mantis Warriors: 1500 point. Infantry only. Mostly Tacs using Ahazra Redth to confer stealth. Sternguard Vets as Tranqulity Snipers. Strictly no vehicles, except possibly a Dreadnaught. Mostly green, but with Tranquality Vets in the same yellow and black camo pattern as origially in WD98, and made famous by Gits.

This is close to my plan.

He confers Infiltrate on the army, and scouts are only a touch better because they can move 12" after having infiltrated, to get them safely ensconsed in that hard cover before they start sniping I guess.

Are there rules in IA10 for Tranquility Snipers? I have got the rules for Ahazra Redth from a friend's book, but I had about 10 mins to look at it and couldn't absorb nearly enough of the beauty!

I have played a few games with my 1000pt Mantis force thus far, but haven't had a chance to play all infantry yet. However there are a few kinks with the all infantry infiltrate force, the biggest one being the Dawn of War scenario. Maximum 2 troops and 1 HQ on the board at the beginning of the game makes all those devastators and extra tac squads a nightmare to bring up to the front. If you're running into position for 2-3 turns then the battle is already lost. However the rules for Ahazra seem to say that if a dedicated transport is taken for the unit they can't infiltrate, rather than if they are set up inside the dedicated transport they can't infiltrate. I need to get that clarified at some point.

On topic of your blog, loving the lamenters. Two guys at our club are painting lamenter armies and they are an amazing colour scheme to see all gathered together. Keep up the good work


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Gitsplitta wrote:Haven't seen the rules for him... who is he?

Chief Librarian - may cast 2 psychic powers per turn, and may choose 2 psychic powers total: 1 must be Mirage which gives him, his unit and any transport they are in the night fighting and defensive grenades rules until the start of his next turn, the other psychic power may be chosen just before the battle begins (rather than being selected and written in the army list before you see who you will be facing). He has an eldar artifact as a gorget which gives him a 5+ invulnerable save and allows him to reroll one psychic test per turn (whether it is a success or failure, ie you can choose to reroll a double 1). He has a psychic hood and force weapon. He has an ability called whispers on the wind which gives all enemy reserve rolls a -1 throughout the game and allows him to reroll the attempt to seize initiative.

And he's only 165 points. Score

EDIT: Oh, and he gives the entire army infiltrate as Chapter Tactics. Forgot the best bit!

IA10 has no rules for Tranquility Snipers.

I have three plans:

1) Run them as Sternguard Vets, just like Gits does.
2) Create a special character sergeant who allows his squad to swap their bolters for sniper rifles.
3) Allow Devastators to use Sniper Rifles.

Of course, 2&3 will require opponents permission, so I will make sure I have thm set up to be useable as Sternguard Vets.

Pretty cool stuff! Sounds like a very powerful and fluffy character!

I cant believe I haven't seen this blog. I always searching for Badab stuff.

I love the shoulder pads, great freehand. I cant wait to see more.

Long live the Warders of the Maelstrom!

Teaser post - A bunch of models ready for undercoating:

Ilike that pic, it starts off with arms, then moves to a few marines, then more marines/scouts, then a tank! haha

ha ha a Lamenters ugly stick!

No posts for ages, because I've had an OfSTED inspection at school, and then applying for an Assistant Headteacher position, which takes a bit of time...

I've been making some progress on my scouts, and started basecoating my Baal Predator. Here are the 12 scouts (5 bolter scouts, 5 bolt pistol scouts, 2 sarges, to allow flexibility of selection.)



I'll hopefully get a lot more done this weekend, as I've hurt my knee so I can't train (I play American Football) on Sunday.

Good start Fifty, like the checks on the sgts chainsword. Just wondering why you need 2 scout sgts when they both appear to be outfitted with the same gear?

Because this way I can take them as two scout squads and thereby fulfil my troops requirements from 150 points. I can also give both of the two 5-man squads melta-bombs if I wish, rather than just one, though of course I will be paying for the privilege. Plus, I have 5 metal scouts, 5 plastic scouts and 1 metal sarge and 1 plastic sarge, so I can put a matching sarge with whichever half I want one with if I have a ten-man squad.

To be honest, it is unlikely to be a major factor, but as I have easily enough scout models available to me, (plus lots more for sniper scout squads), I figured I may as well go down this route now so I don't have to worry about painting more at a later date if I have any sudden cunning plans.

That makes sense, just couldn't quite see it, but yes, having the sarge look right in his squad is always a good thing. Plus it means you can have a more obvious combat squad leader if you so choose.

Fifty, do you want some old plastic (3rd ed, like yours) tacticals? I have the ML dude, a Sgt and the flamer (not the dude, just the weapon)?

really liking the checker pattern. cant wait to see more fifty keep it up!

Just to prove that this blog has some life in it yet, I've bascoated the Baal Predator and made a start on basecoating the Command Squad...





Long way to go yet, but I am back in the game and want to get a useable block of Lamenters ready before moving on to some Astral Claws or Executioners...

IT'S ALIVE!

ha ha

good to see an update can't wait to see more.

Thanks for the process shots of the checkerboard Fifty, very cool. Your army is gonna look fantastic!

Nice Terminator on page 1.

I really ought to finish him and some of his squadmates...


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My word, I may have tried to do something a bit too fiddly... Why did I decide that bit had to have checkers?

Also, I currently have the checkers sweeping backwards around the curve... am worried they should be curving downwards around it instead?

Opinions? Maybe I should do the other one the other way, decide which is best, then repaint the other... But that idea makes Fifty want to cry...








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Okay, need input on which way I shoudl do the checkering...

Which looks better, left or right? Swept back checks, or swept down checks?

Styrofoam04 wrote:IT'S ALIVE!

ha ha

good to see an update can't wait to see more.

I have set up my paints in the corner of the room so hopefully I'll get back into regular painting now.

Gitsplitta wrote:Thanks for the process shots of the checkerboard SL, very cool. Your army is gonna look fantastic!

If I ever finish enough of it!

Aww, nice... wasnt quite sure to start with, but that pred is looking better the more you work at it.

Keep going!

If it's not too late, I like the checkers sweeping backwards better. But if you are still working on them, maybe you could have the pivot point on the top and bottom of the turret, that way they seem more uniform, and just draw closer together as the checks go around the curve.

Do you mean so they form a more triangular or trapezium shape instead of turning into diamonds?

Yes, and just to make the point clear, I scketched it up quick. But if you don't want to re-do both turrets, I would go with the first option.

Originally, I didn't want to do it that way as I wanted it to match my shoulder pads and the way I have done them. I think maybe that would be a good way to go now though...

Umming and Arring...

Thanks for taking the time to give me that input though, and going to the trouble of sketching it. It actually looks quite good like that. Maybe will try that and see how it looks...

Sorry if I made more work for you. I mean, if you do it this way, you have to go back and change all the shoulder pads! YOU HAVE TO!

Nah, the shoulder pads look right as they are!

Ok.

Any chance there will be an update soon?

I've made progress on the predator, but not enough to post.

I've also done some work converting some Catachan melta-gunners into Orlock/Tyrant's Legion flamer guys for my Tyrant's Legion part of my secessionist forces. They already had the end of the melta-guns chopped off, and I have no use for Catachans anyway. I just hate to wastemodels. They now have the towel hanging down fro their waste, armbands, bandanas turned into Orlock-style headgear, flamers and flamer-tanks, and belt-knifes turned into holsters. They are not quite done yet, but I'll post pics soon.

I've Dettol-stripped a bunch of old second-hand metal Death Company marines and will paint them soon.

I have a some scenery ready to post when I get around to taking photos, plus more scenery on the way

I have some additional board pieces to go with the board you can see in an old thread of mine and in my gallery. I've done an Imperial Aquila etched into the ground of a 2'x2' section, and made a start on a Skull on another. Also planning Tyrant's Fist/Malestrom Warder logo, and some Eldar insignia. Oh. and a Gork Skull (or maybe Mork)

So, lots going on, but I suffer from not-finishing-what-I-have-started-itis

However, I am a teacher, and Christmas holidays start next Thursday, so I'll get some conversion work done Thursday and Friday, then take some stuff to paint when I go visit my parents. I should hopefully get quite a lot done in the next few weeks. I'll also try to finish up a lot of the stuff that is at 80-90% done, so that I can hopefully field a 1000-point painted force soon.

Teaching: it is a good profession for the hobbyist. Also, I completely understand the partial painting crisis.

Bit of a tangent, but here is some stuff I wanted to show. It is terrain for use with my boards.

These are prototypes. I have eight more ready to finish. I was originally going with the rectangular window deisgn, but it was way fiddlier than you'd expect. I actually think I prefer the circular window design that I switched to, but I wanted to get some other opinions before I finalise things. I've shown one of the WIP pieces so you can see how it was made.

I'd be grateful for opinions on the following;

1. Rectangular or square windows?
2. Green (camo) , Grey (functional), Orange (construction yard) or Yellow (construction yard or Lamenters colours)
3. How much damage and/or weathering should they have?
4. Do you think they are any good?

I say square windows. It makes it look less like a giant barrel.
It also better to shoot out of.

Square door to, at least on the bottom edge. Man wasn't made for round doors.

Really? Doors too? It is at least three or four times harder to make. Plus I have the round doors (airlocks?) prepared already.

I agree. Unless your a hobbit ... Square doors

Hmmm... perhaps if you used a smaller tube (it can be very short... only a base width) and then put the round door on the end of that so it *looked* like an airlock?

Sorry, the need to get these done and the fact that round is so ridiculously easier than square meant that I have finished them all as the round version. Just got to put on the touchpads and an undercoat, then I'll be putting these aside and trying to get back to painting minis.

Great plog. I loved the old Badab war fluff back in Rt and I was excited to see FW modernize it.

Great looking army so far. I personally like the round air-lock doors. I know whats it like to not have a lot of hobby time and having to make due with easier to make parts.

Can't wait to see some more paints, and also can't wait to see the Executioners. Please PLEASE keep them in the cammo armour. I always loved that and love seeing peoples different takes on it.

Keep up the long painting war my friend. =o]

Well, it has been a pretty awful year, mainly due to work. There have been lots of highlights, but a lot of lows too. Painting has been pretty much on hold, and most of my stuff has been moved to my parents house. Not done much recently, but...

I just finished these fellas off enough to just turn around and say "done!" at last. The quality is not what I would like, but they just needed finishing so I can move on to something new. I won't be using the same method to paint any more Lamenters, so I just wanted to get on with it...

The numerals, symbols etc are all 100% hand-painted, and whilst they are not as neat as I would like, the fact they are MINE makes the whole model feel more like mine. Don't know why, but I have never liked the use of transfers...







Next up will be finishing the pred, then the scouts. I then need to get to 1000 points, so not sure what I will do after that. Probably assault marines. Maybe terminators.

Lovely rich yellow there. I'm with you 100% on the use of transfers, hate the bloody things. I rely on micron pens, they're a godsend. And great to have you back!

Nice work on those Lamenters there Fifty.

Cheers. I think the yellow looks better in photos than in real life, unfortunately. Happier with the predator's colour, which looks worse in photos.

I don't even like micron pens! I know it sounds ridiculous, but I'd rather do a bad job with a brush than a good one with a pen. I figure it is a good way of developing my precision and hand-steadiness to do something like writing.


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 Gitsplitta wrote:
Nice work on those Lamenters there Fifty.

Cheers. Only taken three years to get that squad done.

love the yellow and the bases. I think the yellow could use some more wash in areas though

Little bit of progress on the predator. It looks a lot better in real life. This is closer to how I will be painting the rest of the yellow.

Nicely done... makes me want to dig out one of my old Preds for a re-paint.

I absolutely adore this model. I have 3 more regular preds in this pattern. They will probably be regular preds in my Astral Claws part of my secessionist army, but I almost don't want to paint them blue and silver - it seems almost wasteful to use metallics on them.

I am currently playing in a Badab War campaign at HATE in London. The terminators and scouts are all edging towards completion, but I have also been working on something special. In the campaign, we get special characters and special relics. I got a veteran sergeant with a special redeployment rule, who will be often teleporting in with his heavy flamer buddies. Better still, I got a heavy flamer with shred, rending and gets hot. I gave this to a terminator chaplain...

+++The Gorgon's Breath works by spraying a cooled, highly corrosive acid over a wide area. This has the effect of destroying both flesh and armour, even of the strongest type. The acid vapourises at air temperature or in low-pressure environments, and is then ignited, causing further damage. Unfortunately for the wielder, the cooling system sometimes allows a certain amount of emergency venting, which can put the user at risk. The weapon was created by the Iron Hands and gifted to the Lamenters thousands of years previously in recognition of joint actions by the Iron Hands and Lamenters against raiders from the Eye of Terror. A hundred years after the gift was made, the weapon vented, killing the 1st Company Captain who was wielding it. The weapon remained in storage from that time, until 30 years ago when Chaplain Deiros took it out of storage for use as his personal weapon...+++

Here are some final work in progress shots, but not ready for voting on.

Chaplain Deiros is complete!




Note to self:

The base for the crux terminatus is half graveyard earth, half astronomican grey, then washed with soft tone, then gradually lightened.
Bone is graveyard earth moving up to screaming skull.

That terminator looks fantastic Fifty... banner and shoulder pad are real marks of a quality paint job.

Thanks Gits, they took a long time! I was very pleased with the flames on the banner, I have to say.

You should be, it looks great

Chaplain Deiros looks great! Awesome job Fifty! And yay for more Badab War goodness

Welcome back to the Lamenters! I haven't started any termis yet. Not sure what style or theme I'll go with. Nice start!

Cheers Lion. I look forward to having a force the size of yours!

Always good to see another detachment of Lamenters that survived!

 Solar_lion wrote:
Always good to see another detachment of Lamenters that survived!

Well mine are currently fighting in a big Badab War campaign in London, so not many are necessarily gonna survive!

Really nice, banner ices it.

Where's the Lamenter Update?

Nice job on the checkered Shoulders.

Not much of an update, very blurry and not Lamenters either, but here are the beginnings of my Tyrant's Legion. Work has also begun on Retaliators and a Corpse Taker.



Notes to self: The grey is Vallejo uniform grey. The blue is Mordian blue. The yellow is Iyanden Darksun. Completed skin is dheneb stone with a thin ogryn flesh was, followed by a highlight of 50/50 dheneb stone and elf flesh.

So, this latest update is a work-in-progress still. The models are at a tabletop standard, so I'll be leaving them at this stage until I get more things to the same readiness.

This is my Carnac Commodus, Arch-Centurion of the Tyrant's Legion, along with a retaliator squad. These ones will be my rookie retaliator squad. I also have another batch ready to go using a variety of marks of armour, differing combat shields, etc, who will be the veterans.



Next job will be to finish the auxilia you see above.

Very spiffy. Where did you find the bolted on roundel for the shoulder pad... or did you make it yourself?

It is this model. It is the original Mk2 model and it comes like this.



Someone had already removed the sword and replaced it with a wimpy chainsword when I got it. I put a bigger one on there.

Good to see some updates Fifty! Retaliators look awesome! Where are those auxilia models from? Old Catachan models?

 Fifty wrote:
So, this latest update is a work-in-progress still. The models are at a tabletop standard, so I'll be leaving them at this stage until I get more things to the same readiness.

This is my Carnac Commodus, Arch-Centurion of the Tyrant's Legion, along with a retaliator squad. These ones will be my rookie retaliator squad. I also have another batch ready to go using a variety of marks of armour, differing combat shields, etc, who will be the veterans.



Next job will be to finish the auxilia you see above.

Any thoughts on using a wash on the metallic parts? They look good but it feels like they could use a bit of shading there. If you're going instead for a more vibrant 2nd edition style of painting then obviously ignore the comment.

Leviathus wrote:Good to see some updates Fifty! Retaliators look awesome! Where are those auxilia models from? Old Catachan models?

Thanks!

The auxilia are the plastic Orlocks from the original version of Necromunda. I have loads of them, purchased mainly for this project. I think they are pretty damn good plastics for something made in 1995.

warboss wrote:

 Fifty wrote:
So, this latest update is a work-in-progress still. The models are at a tabletop standard, so I'll be leaving them at this stage until I get more things to the same readiness.

This is my Carnac Commodus, Arch-Centurion of the Tyrant's Legion, along with a retaliator squad. These ones will be my rookie retaliator squad. I also have another batch ready to go using a variety of marks of armour, differing combat shields, etc, who will be the veterans.

Next job will be to finish the auxilia you see above.

Any thoughts on using a wash on the metallic parts? They look good but it feels like they could use a bit of shading there. If you're going instead for a more vibrant 2nd edition style of painting then obviously ignore the comment.

Yes, absolutely. Like I said, these are a work-in-progress. Once I have a few other things done I will be giving them a thin wash of a mix of blue and black, then going over raised areas with chainmail again, and probably a mithril highlight. The blue areas will also get some more attention, especially the shoulder pauldrons. These are good enough to put down on a table though, and I am in the middle of a Badab campaign, so I need to move on to other units and come back later.

Good ol Astral Claws.. Glad to see the Badab war still has a following!

Very small update.

I got this plastic dread already painted as part of a job-lot. It was already silver, but very very badly painted. The thought of trying to strip something so fiddly made me decide to do something I almost never do and just paint over what was already there. I gave a it a blue-black wash on the silver bits, filled in some of the more obvious inexplicably red bit, then repainted the washed silver with chainmail again. I then added the blue areas, which is just mordian blue. I used some tape to get the straight lines. I've added a thin highlight to the blue since this photo.

The lion head is actually from a scibor shield, from which I have snapped off all of the edging then used insta-mould to make modelling putty copies of. I actually made 13 small moulds and therefore 13 more of these heads all at once. I am going to keep three of the tiny moulds from now on so that whenever I have leftover greenstuff, I have a way of using some of it up by making more lion-heads. I think it worked so well that I am tempted to buy some of the larger scibor shields just to make bigger moulds for larger vehicles.



The gold paint was actually a calthan brown base, then snakebite leather. I added some vallejo metallic medium to the leather, then repainted, then mixed iyanden darksun with metallic medium for a final thin layer. I am really pleased with how the colour compares to what you see in the FW Badab books, so plan to keep doing it this way.

Anyway, this is a very rough and ready Dread that let me try out some new methods (the cast, the tape, the metallic medium) and I'd never be showing it off, but even with a few things more that I could fix, I'd be willing to put it on the table.

Oh, one last thing, I need to base it, but I am out of 60mm bases for now, so I stood it on two 40mm bases that have been made my normal way, but then painted with rust effects I bought from Salute. This is also a new technique for me, and one I am very happy with, although these bases were made for terminators, not this Dread, but it still brings it up to four new methods on this single model for me!

Just to be clear, there at about a MILLION ways I could do little things to make this look better, and I can see most of them for myself, but it is a tabletop model to let me try out some new ideas. Overall, I amhappy with it.

Hurrah! Do you need a specific textured 60mm or just a regular boring one - I'll bring one down to the club if you just need a regular one..

Just a regular one so I can do my normal basing, but I need a few anyway for two more, so I'll just get some online. Thanks anyway though.


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 ArbitorIan wrote:
Hurrah! Do you need a specific textured 60mm or just a regular boring one - I'll bring one down to the club if you just need a regular one..

Actually, I just realised that I do only need the one, if you have one spare that would be great.

Instead of getting on with painting some troop choices, I've been distracted by a conversion I've been meaning to do for a while, plus another that just happened as I was fiddling around. I have two Assault on Black Reach dreadnoughts and another on the way via eBay. I plan to run the three as a squadron in a Demi-Company, so I want them all to look different. Here are the first two as WIPS. Any suggestions?

The skull one needs more skulls, and I need to do something with the legs. It irritates me that the lion heads stick out. I will probably trim it slightly, and green stuff around the side. Should I run cables from the bottom of the torso-sarcophagus, or green stuff a solid section to the main body?

Bit more work on Skully Skullerson...



I can't decide whether to paint the skulls gold or bone-coloured.

So, here are the three AoBR Dreadnoughts. I might stick a few purity seals and/or honour scrolls to each of them, but they are essentially done.

The actual building work is not perfect, but I feel I have done a good job of creating three very individual models from one stock original. I also feel they could be run as Dreadnoughts or Venerable Dreadnoughts without problem. Comments and suggestions for final adjustments welcome.

They are meant to be in the earliest stages of the Astral Claws descent into becoming the Red Corsairs, without a few Chaos-y bits used, and no obvious Imperial insignia. I see these guys as some of the Chapter's most recently interred dreadnoughts, and some of Lugft Huron's most sycophantic supporters. I see them being in Dreadnoughts as somewhat akin to David Cameron stuffing the House of Lords with Tory peers.

I needed to get a bunch of tactical marines/legion cohort ready for the next round of HATE's Badab campaign, and a Dev squad.




They are literally sprayed black, then sprayed silver from front, above, behind. Eyes painted green, shoulder pauldrons painted enchanted blue.

They have LOTS of work left to do, but they can go on a tabletop for now...

Now I need to do either a corpse-taker to get my Tyrant's Legion to 1000 points, or a small bike squad and bike captain to get my Astral Claws to 1000 points. Combined with 500-750 points of Lamenters allies, I will be approaching a decent sized force...

So, it suddenly occurred to me that I ought to have been putting campaign photos in here from The Badab War campaign at HATE at Bethnal Green.

The campaign started in March and I've played 8 games so far. About twenty-five to thirty people have been involved so far, I think. I only have my own photos and battle reports, but ArbitorIan is planning to write up the campaign so far, as we have now concluded the first of the four phases. Rather than simply type up my info for him, I figured I would put it on here.

Game 1
In my opening game, 750 points of Lamenters led by Captain Pearce took on the Fire Angels of James M Dillon-Lee using the boarding action rules on a small moon outpost. The Secessionists were victorious after the battle descended into not much more than a brawl in the middle of the board.






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Game 2
My second game was a huge affair of 3000 points per side. The Void Jackals of Toby and Lamenters of Dave and myself, and my Retaliator Squad led by Carnac Commodus took on Dan, Neil(?) and Aaron's Sons of Dorn, Star Phantoms and Space Sharks.

The battle took place on a 6'x4' tunnels board made by Dan. Here are photos by Dave and I, and a report written by Dave.

+++ Lamenters 3rd Company Battle Report +++
+++ Defence Base XIII +++
+++ Badab Campaign +++

A super aggressive ambush nearly backfired as both the Lamenters & Astral Claws were caught in a deadly counter attack, as the Loyalists forces caught the would-be ambushers by surprise. A fierce fire fight & brutal melee ensued where Tyberos The Red Wake challenged Death Company Captain Boreas to a duel, that the captain accepted looking for a glorious death. Tyberos granted the Captain his release, but not before taking a deep wound from "Vengeance Bringer", this seemed only to anger the Space Sharks Commander who then went on to rend the remaining of Boreas' Death Company brethren.

Elsewhere Ancient Delvarus took out a Sons of Dorn Ironclad in close combat, only to be brought down by a lucky meltagun shot, but not before slaying several loyalists with his frag cannon.

Later on in the battle Terminator Squad Venatus were charged by the loyalist Commander Ackbar & his retributior retinue, Venantus lost the challenge issued by Ackbar & unfortunately the rest or his squad soon followed him to their fates.

Chaplain Vared & tactical squad Reznor arrived to late in the battle to have any impact due to the loyalists blockading many of the routes for the rebel re-enforcements. Despite suffering heavy casualties and a lot of bad luck for the Lamenters; the Rebels were victorious, remaning in control of the command centre until the loyalist dogs retreated.

After the dust had settled on the brutal fight; Captain Boreas was found still alive, somehow surviving his battle with tyberos, the captain was placed in stasis until the next battle to heal his wounds & keep the black rage in check. Despite the victory Captain Goriel is far from happy, demanding answers from Chaplain Vared and vengeance for the fallen.

Most of that report is for Dave's forces. My own forces had mixed luck. My vanilla dreadnought, Titos, destroyed an Ironclad in close-combat. My terminator squad, along with Chaplain Deiros, teleported in and promptly annihilated a group of terminators before falling to some assault centurions. Carnac and his Retaliators got caught in some unfortunate crossfire and were wiped out, but provided just enough resistance to distract some sizeable loyalist forces from other tasks. Carnac survived, but was captured...

Some nice progress on your Claws Fifty! Dreads look brutal! Of course they'll be needing some nice Tyrant's Claw transfers to show everyone what supporters/fanatics they are for the Tyrant's cause.

And congrats on your first win for the Secessionists!

Cheers. The Dreads are oddly annoying as I don't need them yet, and they keep distracting me from more important painting! Looking forward to painting them though.

My record currently stands at 4 wins and 4 losses. It has been fun though.

Game 3
My next game was ably documented by ArbitorIan, as he was my opponent. Despite being a secessionist, like myself, he played as Adeptus Arbites as neither of us could get a Loyalist opponent.

++ To: Inquisition Baston 3-2/44xx, Badab Sector ++
++ ADEPTUS ARBITES ASSAYANCE FLEET 404/D ++
++ AFTER ACTION REPORT Stardate 0183002104M40 ++

By the glory of the God-Emperor and his most holy Lex Imperia, Arbites Assayance Fleet 404/D dispatched under the command of Judge Ian with a warrant for the arrest of the entire Lamenters chapter, pending their inevitable guilt in the eyes of the law (Lex 41033206X0/F Tithe Avoidance).

His most glorious forces were assaulted by the guilty party on Rock 844DF7703/A (Lex 110554/E4 Common Assault, Lex 110554/E5 Assault with an Exploding Ballistic Weapon, Lex 1701/AA4 Actions Leading to Improper Procedure in a Low Oxygen Environment) requiring immediate action be taken and terminal defensive manoeuvres be implemented (Lex 10402 Interfering with Approved Plans of the Imperial Arbites).

Initial actions with Suppression Teams were repressed before cyberhound reinforcements apprehended the criminal (in the eyes of the law, praise be the God-Emperor) infantry elements. (Lex 2744026/AH Resisting Arrest, Lex 1103475 Refusing to Fall Over when Apprehended by Arbites Equipment, Lex 3201/TT Wilful Damage to Arbites Equipment sp/teeth). Lamenters Dreadnought elements hindered the operation before being laid low by Arbites heavy siege equipment (refer to: Lex 1033.4/A/M Health and Safety in a Low Ceilinged Environment, M34 - Section 402: Maximum recommended height of robot stomping equipment)

An assault was made by a Lamenters Terminator squad lead by one Chaplain Stanley Deiros (203, Male, no fixed address), the entire squad seeming to be in a state of heightened duress and emitting battle-cries from their armour augmitters. (Lex 1033.2/R Breaching of The Peace, Lex 99204 Verbal Abuse of an Arbites Officer).

The terminator sergeant has been apprehended by our suppression teams and awaits questioning and 'trial' at your earliest convenience, where his guilt will no doubt be confirmed in the eyes of the Lex Imperia.

Praise be the God-Emperor.

++ Transmission ends ++

And here was my write-up...

Last night, a group of Arbites, led by Inquisitor Galloway, entered a Secessionist system intent on collecting back taxes. They were interecepted by a Lamenters force led by Chaplain Deiros, an individual showing some markedly worrying behaviours and signs of possibly succumbing to the doom common to all of Sanguinnius's progeny.

After both forces' vessels were forced to land on a deserted planetoid, the Arbites were the first to close on a deserted science outpost within a cave complex with the intention of both securing a defensible position and using the station's comma relays to summon reinforcements. The Lamenters, however, were close behind.

Both forces sort to gain control of two vital power relays. The Arbites knew that if they could repair and keep even one of these relays functional, they could summon aid.

In the fighting that followed, riot shield Arbites and cyber-mastiffs (crusaders and death cult assassins) led the Arbites assault. One squad overwhelmed not one but two combat squads of tactical marines. Another was mostly eradicated early on by a combined shooting and terminator deep strike, which included Chaplain Deiros and his famed heavy flamer, Gorgon's Breath. The one surviving crusader would exact a heavy vengeance, later in the fight when, having recovered from the shame of almost fleeing the fight entirely, his bludgeoned terminator sergeant Europos to the ground with his power maul. Europos now languishes in a cell, awaiting final judgement.

Two scouts squads made a move for each objective. One was under threat from the same unit that had killed all but one of the tactical marines. At a fortuitous moment, the roof collapsed on the final brother, and Titos eradicated the remaining crusaders and assassins with heavy flamer and assault cannon. One objective was secure for the Lamenters.

Elsewhere, the final objective was secured by the other scouts. With most of the Arbites forces having been engaged by the Lamenters terminators, one reserve squad moved to engage the scouts. Had the battle finished before they arrived, the secessionists would have victory... But the battle continued.

Once an Arbites multi-melta finally destroyed Titos everything depended on the small squad of scouts at the second objective. They charged the foe, who stood frustratingly firm. As the scouts fell, one-by-one, it all came down to one blow. If the final scout's armour could withstand the final blow landed on him, the battle would be won. The battle hung perfectly poised at the final moment, both forces with an equal chance of victory... And the scout armour failed to deflect the blow.

Loyalist victory.

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Game 4

No photos from Game 4. I played Ben's Ultramarines in a boarding action at 750 points. A combination of bad tactics, bad dice and 335 points of reserves not teleporting in until the last possible moment meant I was obliterated.

I'll get the next five battles up soon, but here is my latest finished bit of modelling. Not even fully undercoated yet. Please excuse the terrible lighting!

This is a Corpse Taker and his Dissection Servitors. I am not sure whether to paint the corpse taker in Astral Claws blue and silver or Apothecary white. I'll probably go with white, as he would still consider himself an apothecary even if others would disagree. I also can't decide if he is Corpse Master Garreon, his assistent Variel or some random Corpse Taker...

Lovely, lovely builds mate, full of character and really coherent.

Cheers. That was what I was hoping for when sharing out Fabius Bile's bits and some apothecary bits.

I am going to paint the servitors white, same as the corpse taker. I think they'll look pretty good. I'll need to practise doing some gore on some other models though, as I want them spattered but have never really done it before.

I am hoping that the corpse taker and renegade marauder units really make the Tyrant's Legion stand out as something a little different.

Ah, lovely. I might shamelessly steal your Servitor idea and copy it for my Tiger Claws!

I really like your servitors anyway.

I was doing a Google search the other day for Corpse Takers, immediately recognised yours and realised that there is yet another thing that your fiendishly fast painting means you have completed before me! I had not originally noticed them in your Tiger Claws thread.


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NOT mine, but check these out!

Progress is frustratingly slow on these guys. I am back at work now that term has started again and have nowhere near enough time...

The white is actually still only a light grey and has not even has its final white highlights. It looks a lot better in real life than in the photo, but it is late and that is in bad lighting.

I am pleased with how the skin is going. It is Khemri Brown, then Dheneb Stone, then a thinned Ogryn Flesh wash. I put some Baal red was on around where the chainswords are attached an don tyhe faces to give some depth and it looks good. Next is a Dheneb stone top layer, with a hint of elf flesh mixed in.

I really can't decide what colour to paint the metal bits of the servitors. Maybe a dark silver colour, or maybe something brassy. I am undecided.

The Corpse Taker head won't continue floating - it is only like that whilst I paint it.

Progress, and better light.

Very cool but I loved the floating head

I realised I have a lot of stuff half complete I need to put on here, but for now, I have a question;

Does this work as a boarding/breaching shield? I am worried it is not big enough and can't decide what to do now... Opinions please.

Looking at my army and Necromunda gangs, it became obvious that my normal tendency towards never finishing a model is getting worse. I've made a commitment not to start painting new stuff until the old stuff is painted. This blog is now for that purpose. Here is how things stand with the Lamenters, as I'll be starting with them before I move on to my Tyrant's Legion and Astraw Claws.

Only the original Tac squad is finished! Quite a few are models I bought from a guy who was in the Badab campaign at my club but pulled out. He gave me first dibs.

Whoo hooo Lamenters.. yes I'm Bias'd

Taking my lamenting boys out for a spin tonight against the Space wolves.

Those photos are from after a game in which I fought Star Phantoms and Fire Angels as part of my club Badab campaign. I won at the start of the second turn by escaping with the objective. That was despite the fact I had not caused a single casualty in the entire battle!

Well, I need to take some photos in better light, but I think I am done for this evening.

I've finished the Rhino - it now has its metallics finished, tracks done, etc. I don't like the chipping, but for a model I started over five years ago, I'm happy just to call it finished.



The Predator is not quit finished, but it could pass for it in an emergency. The metallics need more highlights, the bolters need metallics and a wash, I need to paint a storm bolter to go on top. The checks on the sponsons landed up just being a botch job, but they look good enough. The hearts aren't both lined up, nor are the numbers below them, but again, they are good enough for a model I started five years ago! I'm quite chuffed with the edge highlighting. It gives me some confidence for when I finally start painting some Raven Guard 30k models that I'll be able to do it well enough to not embarrass myself.

Those look wonderful Fifty. So good to see the old models getting beautified.

Cheers Gits. It is nice to have a few regular followers such as yourself, even though it only has five pages in as many years! I have another Baal Pred ready to paint at some stage, but my new rules mean I can't do it yet.

Also, a question for everyone: My 2nd Ed Tac Squad ride around in their 2nd Ed Rhino. Should be 7th Ed Tac Squad get a modern Rhino to match them, or an old fashioned Rhino to match the vehicles so far?

Retro rhino all the way. And that lamenter logo on the sponson is stunning.

I think that would be a nice touch Fifty.

Love the Rhino and the Pred.

The checkers just make the predator however.

Very Nice. You have the hardest part down for sure.. the yellow!
it needs more checkers! NO even more

Only a little bit of progress to, judged by how different it all looks, but I wanted to get some photos taken in natural light. Sadly, it is pretty gloomy today, but you'll get an idea.

I'm very happy with the Predator, which is just a few edge highlights on the heavy bolters and a wash and highlights on the Storm Bolter away from complete. The sponsons are just held on with blu-tac. I need to decide whether to just glue them and the storm bolter on. I've never used it without them, after all...



I need to dust the rhino!!! The damage doesn't look great. Advice would be appreciated.



Made progress on my support dreadnought. Very happy with the checkers so far. The legs and backpack are all but finished. I put a yellow glaze on to yellow-ise the pale sand highights. I like the overall effect. I'm already planning to paint future models with cassandra yellow, pale sand edge highlights then this yellow glaze, so it is an encouraging sign.

That predator is a thing of pure beauty Fifty. Makes my heart strings sing!

And now for another squad that I had already started five years ago in the first post of this thread. I just wanted them finished. Can't honestly say I am especially happy with them, but at least they are finished. The sarge has checkers on his gun and a heart on his shoulder. The scouts don't.

Five years ago.


And now. The original sarge joins a squad with bolt pistols and combat blades, and a new sarge joins here. This sarge has checkers on his gun and a heart on his shoulder. The scouts don't.





I now notice some of the wrists desperately need touching up. Well. at least they won't take long.

Also, I HATE the sarge's strap on his boltgun. I need to make it brown like the others.

Much nicer.

I think they need to be photographed in natural light. Also, should I paint hearts on all of the guys' shoulder pads? And on both sides?

Natural light versions, plus dreadnought WIP.

At first glance all the disassociated buts made it look like a Defiler! LOL!

The lamentors will always hold a special place in my heart love your work!

 Master Azalle wrote:
The lamentors will always hold a special place in my heart love your work!

Mine too~

Dreadnought update. Very happy with it.

As well you should be.

Gits, I think I quite fancy some sort of Defiler for these lot now. If and when there is ever a half-decent Chaos Marine Codex, I might well make a force for it from my Lamenter and Astral Claws to be in, pre-becoming Red Corsairs. Some sort of contraption might well feature in it.

Thanks for all of the prompt responses and encouragement, by the way!

You deserve it Fifty... you're awesome!

Wow you're really getting stuff done Fifty, i like the simple and effective conversion work and the striking mix between classic and more modern models. I don't know if you're choosing older models on purpose or if it's a case of 'Well shoot, i ain't buying a new one' but if defo works!

I love the 'chunky' look of your painted models (i don't mean the paint's too thick) , it has that pleasing texture that you only get with metal minis, even on the non-metal ones.

Looking good. Your getting quite a force. We should be seeing a group shot sometime soon?

Loving the checker pattern on the preds. especially the side sponsons

Bloody hell, Russ, you're on a roll!

Is it half term or something?

@Gits - stop, you'll embarass me! (Don't stop!)

@Perkustin - For the Lamenters, it is something of a deliberate decision to re-use older models.The Astral Claws will mostly or entirely be newer models, and the Mantis Warriors will be almost entirely non-GW models.

I think I know what you mean by "chunky" - most of these models have had a lot of layers of paint, and on the infantry models, quite a lot of the highlighting has been with fairly broad strokes. Hopefully that is what you mean!

@SL - I've got more progress on the Dread not yet shown. Once it is done, I'll have a fully painted legal force of Tac squad, Scout squad, Terminator Chaplain, Dreadnought, Baal Pred. My calculations make that about 750 points, so just about viable to show a group shot. Once I get another scout squad done, and some terminators, I'll be a lot happier.

@Styrofoam - thanks, it is time consuming, and makes my Lamenters far slower to paint than my Astral Claws, but I feel the impact is worth it. Lamenters are my first love, and will get all of the best attention, though I do ultimately expect to have far more Astral Claws

@Ian - Not half-term until next week, but I am forcing myself to work on old stuff instead of prepping loads and loads of new stuff. I really want to prep Lamenters Devs for my Cyclops relic to go with, and a load of Astral Claws, but I am being disciplined. Hopefully next week will be even better!

Hopefully some more progress tomorrow.

I hope my girlfriend likes the fact I made her card by hand, rather than getting pissed off that it matches my tanks...



Gunmetal and mithril silver on the left. Three different Vallejo brasses and golds on the right, Mithril silver, red gore and blood red in the middle.

Beautiful job. Nothing says I love you like genetic superhuman killing machines

Love that card! Teach us your ways haha

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Beautiful job. Nothing says I love you like genetic superhuman killing machines

Exalted!

That is friggin' awesome! Hahaha. I think I have to show that to my fiancée.

Awe.. way to combine the things you love.

Right, I have the dreadnought done. Not completely happy with it in the end, but I wouldn't go so far as to say I am disappointed. I think the main issue is that I am not happy with how I did the black. I only used one highlight colour, and it shows badly. I should have mixed a darker firs highlight and used he grey you see as a finer highlight. Still, it'll look good on he tabletop, I hope. The photos show the missile launcher without a yellow glaze on the plate around the missiles, but I have fixed that now.

I have ten pistol and combat blade scouts on the go, and they should not be too long until they are completed. After that, I'll get the first five terminators done, then I'll need to decide wha to do next.

I wonder if I should wash the black again to darken it, then re-highlight?

I think the dreadnought looks good. Nice work.

I'd do another dark wash on the cables. Other than that, it looks great

Yeah, the more I look at it, although I don't want the hassle, I realise it needs it.

X2 on the wash on the cables. It will really clean it up

I agree, but exhausts also. Bit too shiny!

Okay, fixed, I think it looks better.

Very nice Fifty! Looks great!

Beautiful checker pattern work on that dread fifty.

Large scout squad, work in progress.

The bald-headed scout veteran sarge with the checkers on his blade in this squad has a special skill in the Badab campaign running at HATE Club in London - he gives me the ability to re-roll seizing the initiative.

Very nice. I also went with large scout force, It was needed to field the 10th company formation. I didn't do a Lamenter theme and instead went for a camo them that matches my board.

Looking good!

Yeah, mine actually match my own board reasonably well, as it is a sandy board.



It makes me sad that I no longer live in the flat where that photo was taken, and sadder that I am selling it. :(

Thought I'd have a read of your blog... glad I did as there is some great stuff in here and it is nice to see the progress you have made, the checks and heart are really eye catching.

Love the Valentines day card as well.

Subscribed

Nice board.

Mad.. wrote:
Thought I'd have a read of your blog... glad I did as there is some great stuff in here and it is nice to see the progress you have made, the checks and heart are really eye catching.

Love the Valentines day card as well.

Subscribed

Thanks - it is rather time consuming, but is worth it, I think.

After some great progress there for a little while, nothing for almost a month due to the stress of selling my flat in East London. You would not believe how incompetent leasehold management companies, freehold companies and banks can be unless you've experienced it yourself.

I'm going to try to get some painting done this weekend, but I felt like posting something to this blog, so here is some work I did well before Christmas but never posted. It is an update to a trio of AoBR Dreadnoughts. Base layers almost done. The blue stripes look AWFUL in this photo despite having used tape to get the edges straight. It looks better in real life, and once I get washes and highlighting done, it should look fine. As I didn't actually paint these recently, I'm not breaking my own rule of finishing my Lamenters!

I wanted each of the AoBR Dreads to look like an individual, even though they will fight as a mob. They haven't had a huge amount of work done, but should look good as a unit. I think I will add a bunch of purity seals to at least one or two of them to hide some of the poorer work.

That skull frontplate looks very cool, It will be interesting to see how that squad turns up.

Would be so useful in the Badab theme games at Adepticon. Just saying!

Sadly, there is zero chance of me getting there :(

So I'd been fairly disciplined for a month there then life went mad with flat-selling, house-searching. and so on. Still the big move to go, but a bit calmer. Been ill and struggling to get my painting mood back, so allowing myself a distraction.

Over the last 18 months or so, I've been gradually picking up Rogue Trader era Chaos Renegade Space Marines whenever I see them at a good price on eBay. On average, I'd probably spent about £6 on each of my models, and I now have about fifty, including a load of Havocs. I plan to paint them as Black Legion. I've wanted to paint a test model for a while now, and let myself do so today.

I've only painted the gold properly. The black has no highlights on it yet, as I'll be using these two photos (one lit from the front, one lit from above) to position the greys. The gold started as Vallejo model colour bronze, washed with Agrax Earthshade, re-done with bronze, then old gold, then old gold/mithril silver.



I also made five hideous chaos spawn a while back. I ought to post photos of them too.

 Fifty wrote:
So I'd been fairly disciplined for a month there then life went mad with flat-selling, house-searching. and so on. Still the big move to go, but a bit calmer. Been ill and struggling to get my painting mood back, so allowing myself a distraction.

Over the last 18 months or so, I've been gradually picking up Rogue Trader era Chaos Renegade Space Marines whenever I see them at a good price on eBay. On average, I'd probably spent about £6 on each of my models, and I now have about fifty, including a load of Havocs. I plan to paint them as Black Legion. I've wanted to paint a test model for a while now, and let myself do so today.

I've only painted the gold properly. The black has no highlights on it yet, as I'll be using these two photos (one lit from the front, one lit from above) to position the greys. The gold started as Vallejo model colour bronze, washed with Agrax Earthshade, re-done with bronze, then old gold, then old gold/mithril silver.



I also made five hideous chaos spawn a while back. I ought to post photos of them too.

You have fifty of them ? I am really jealous !
I actually have the same renegade on my table right now and its a brilliant sculpt, with a nice alien like head that will work very well with your BL scheme.

Looking forward to the next step, and to the next forty nine renegades.

I went Salute yesterday. I was crap at taking photos during the day, but I've taken photos of my haul...

I was lucky enough to get in before the doors open, and I am glad I did as I might not have noticed these guys once the crowds were slightly bigger... Purgatory is a game from Underestimated Games. I went back later and bought a couple of models from them...

The first is Hannibal. Yes, that is a little war elephant.


Next is St Peter, re-imagined as Heaven's bouncer...


Plus some artwork, which sadly got a bit crumpled, and a short story that I have not yet read. I also got some jelly beans. No photos, as I ate them.



I also picked up from bits from Brother Vinni, just because.



I went to Osprey to have a look at Black Ops, but they'd sold out, so I bought these instead.



I also enhanced my Bits Box with £15 of random stuff from Zinge Industries in little £1 bags.

Bits, bits and more.. Nice Haul

You got all that Zinge stuff for £15? Wow, didn't realise there would be so much in the bag!! Impressive haul. I didn't clock the Purgatory minis at all - interesting looking...

All of those bits are either from incomplete sets or (a few) slightly miscast stuff that they can't sell. I went there early, before they ran out and just grabbed bags before other people spotted them!

The company doing Purgatory are three mates doing it out of a spare room, as far as I can tell. They actually had a lovely banner behind them, but Salute seems to be a bit about the huge banners and being a bit in your face, so they were easy to miss.

Nice haul

I've decided I don't post enough to maintain the multiple blogs I have, so from now on everything futuristic or modern will go in this blog, and if I post fantasy stuff I'll re-purpose another old blog. That is especially true after barely painting for what feels like forever due to moving house.

One of my old blogs was just for terrain, and featured this board



Under my new policy, I'm posting some terrain here that I am working on; barrels!

They are painted as follows;

1) Turn upside down and undercoat black

2) Once dry, turn the right way up and highlight white

3) Paint on radioactive warning signs one some

4) Paint any ground bestial brown

5) Wash with Devlan Mud or Army Painter Strong Tone. Dry upside down so that the wash pools in the right spots

6) Wash again with Cassandora Yellow

7) Highlight with Pale Sand

8) Glaze with Lamenters Yellow

9) Add rust using Model Mates Rust Effect (I think mine is getting a bit too old)

10) Add Nurgle's Rot as the leaking gloop.

The recipe is based on the yellow that Adam used when painting his Anvil Industry Republic forces. I just added the Devlan Mud stage to dirty it up. You can get slightly different finishes with black washes or sepia washes. Black looks blakcer, and sepia looked cleaner, but orange.

That is an awesome lot of barrels, the finished ones look great ! Can't help but think of worms armageddon and see them explode ^^. Great board too, should be brilliant for army shots !

Good job on those Barrels . Nice and neglected.

I do love crusty crud. Most impressive.

Yeah, I'm very pleased with how manky they look.

I've gotten a bit obsessed with terrain suddenly...



The main thing is a trial of the yellow for a crashed Lamenters Aquila Lander...



And another one surrounded by my new tank traps



I am quite happy with both the wing and the tank traps, which were done using model mates rust effects. Model Mates have just ceased trading, so I got myself two more of each of their rust effect pots on eBay today before they are gone for good. I don't have all of the bits of a full Aquila Lander in London, but I will get done three bits from now and get the rest from Kent at some point. I think I have at least three full ones. I plan to cut them up and reassemble them a bit in order to make sure they don't all look the same.

That wing section is looking great, hope it doesn't upset lamenters fans too much.

Terrain is something that gets forgotten until you see some great stuff on the board. Then everyone wants to play on it.

Never think you have painted too much.

Cheers,

CB

@Stormwall - I am one, and we are only happy when everything is going badly for us!

@CB Glad you like it.

Spending time on terrain is always a good idea. Makes every game you play better.

 Fifty wrote:
@Stormwall - I am one, and we are only happy when everything is going badly for us!

I knew it was at least you and Solar. I forgot to put the word other before lamenter's fans.

Nice work on the barrels, they'll make some really decent looking terrain.

Wrecked lander is looking good so far.

EDC

No worries Srormwall. We Lamenters players are too busy Lamenting to be upset.

I recently repainted my craters to include Lamenters colors. Since it's mostly my vehicles blowing up anyway. I'll post some pic when I get some new pictures.

Good work on the terrain. I think it makes the game more interesting. This is a table top game after all.

So, I did a bunch more terrain bits. First up are a whole bunch of tank traps and barricades. I've picked up this bit by bit from eBay purchases, but these were always just extras rather than the bits I actually wanted.

I sprayed them black, then a very gentle grey highlight from various directions, then a very gentle mid-brown from various directions. I then liberally coated it with dark rust from Model Mates, who have sadly ceased trading. It isn't a great finish, but it is certainly better than I''ve seen most of these things painted, and it'll look pretty good on my board when I get it to London from my parents' house in Kent.





I also had some old Forgeworld dragon's teeth. I assume I got these in the same way... The ground is done. The stone needs an edge highlight then a grey wash/glaze to finish.


The aquila lander is coming along nicely. I'm getting faster and faster at checkers these days!



Finally, the barrels are getting there. The ones at the left end have all been highlighted (with mid-90s bleached bone instead of pale sand, which is a little bit too light, as I have darkened the recipe from Adam's original) and glazed, whereas the ones on the right are unhighlighted and unglazed. I am actually really glad the difference shows up so much in the photo. It makes it feel worth doing all of the steps. Just need to add rust and gloop, and they are done too. Mammoth terrain blitz almost done!

I've finally started painting my rather wonderful Afterlife miniatures. I'll probably concentrate on Republic eventually, but for now I am starting with my Unity Council forces. My UC marines will be in olive drab and khaki, and my Unity Guard and Spectres will be black. I thought long and hard about a scheme for my Crane Infantry and Warden mechs. I want my Afterlife models to look relatively realistic, but not completely dull. As these are the army of a private company, I figured there could be some colour in there, and I settled on a yellow head and shoulders. I wanted to create a bit of a signature look. I'll be painting my Warden Mechs in dark grey with yellow armour plates to match. I imagaine that Crane forces fight mainly against other well-equipped military forces with IR and imaging tech, and re-paint their helmets black or grey when fighting irregular forces who rely on their own eyes.

They look a little bit Star Fleet to me. Although I'll probably do all of my Crane stuff yellow, in my head fluff Crane troops from different regions of the globe might be, say, light blue or red.

Annoyingly my camera seems to be borked.When it auto-focuses, I now need to move the camera back another 3" or so to get it into focus. Quite annoying.

This guy is not quite finished - I still need to do gem effects for his eyes.

 Fifty wrote:
Finally, the barrels are getting there. The ones at the left end have all been highlighted (with mid-90s bleached bone instead of pale sand, which is a little bit too light, as I have darkened the recipe from Adam's original) and glazed, whereas the ones on the right are unhighlighted and unglazed. I am actually really glad the difference shows up so much in the photo. It makes it feel worth doing all of the steps. Just need to add rust and gloop, and they are done too. Mammoth terrain blitz almost done!

Blimey. You ought to watch what you're painting with!

None of that lot looks very sanitary, they haven't been kept in optimal conditions, and some of it is even radioactive.

Definitely not the sort of thing you ought to be licking your brush after working with!



On a serious note, though.

Love the work, but the barrels done in the browner tone and on the bases. I presume they are resin? The 'rings' at 1/3rd intervals up a barrel are rolled into the sheet metal before it is wound into a tube to make the 'wall' of a barrel. Therefore, although the base and top may have ben dented, and therefore are prone to leaks, the middle ones should have been filled before painting so those rings were intact.

Other than that, and maybe a splash more colour - I would have stuck a couple of black drums in that lot, and of course the ubiquitous 'exploding' red one - a sterling job indeed. Very consistent on the colouring, whilst still giving enough difference of shade to suggest different batches and ages of drums alongside the different uses.

Yeah, definitely agree about the barrel bits 1/3 and 2/3 of the way up. It was simply a case of wanting to just get them done and figuring that for a piece of terrain, it was not that important. It can be bullet holes, corrosion from inside, and so on. I considered some black ones, and maybe one or two red ones, but decided on uniformity. I've already acquired a couple more though and might indeed do them in a different colour.

I felt like posting, even though I have not done much.

I have two crashed Aquila Landers, so one will be Lamenters, and the other either Astral Claws or a loyalist from the Badab War. So that they don't look too similar, I am modifying them slightly.

Nice extra touches..

look forward to seeing what chapter you pick for the other one.

Good job on seaming those parts together and the extra bits seal the deal.

What chapters do you have in mind?

I think I might paint the other lander as Minotaurs. They are the Lamenter's Nemesis in the Badab War. The other option is Howling Griffons as they are my favourite Badab loyalists. Trouble is, not sure their scheme would suit the lander, and isn't very different to the Lamenters scheme.

Nice to see some modification of those basic terrain pieces with all the cables, etc.

Also didn't see Zinge at Salute, must have walked right past them!

I've just remembered that I have an unpainted crashed Aquila terrain in a box up in a cupboard. Seeing this is motivating me to pull it out and get on with painting it up!

I like the modification you have done on the second one... simple but effective.

Nice mods on the Lander, looking forward to seeing it painted up.

EDC

I wasn't completely happy with my Afterlife model above, the Crane Heavy Infantry. It is darker than I had in mind. I'll go back and redo at some point.

For now though, I've got the hardest parts of some Unity Guard done. Very happy with them so far. The solo model is still wet with a black glaze I am using to soften the edges of the highlights. I'll probably do another glaze, then paint the remaining details. The other models need the black highlights done (assuming this one lands up looking okay) and then glazing too.

The paint scheme is a full, 100% copy of that on the Anvil website and by Neal from Miniatures of the North.

Very nice. The black coats with the white helmets is very striking.

EDC

Cheers, EDC. They'll be finished soon.

Now that they are nearly finished though, I'm obsessing over the colour scheme for the next squad. I am paralysed with indecision between these three. Anyone who reads, please comment on which you prefer, left, middle or right! I am leaning AWAY from the one on the left, but not even certain of that.








Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, before even getting a response, I decided to go with none of those three. Here is the final scheme. Now, of course, I need to paint in a bit better quality!

It works.. nice Urban or Desert looking.

Middle looks fantastic.

Great work on the mini's. I love the extra pouches and ammo, looks far more realistic!

Cheers guys. The unity guard are almost finished. The marines are now about halfway through. I also finally painted my first Spectre. I've been planning this paint job for aaaaages!

Apologies for the picture quality, as my camera died so I am improvising with my phone until I buy a new camera for my next holiday! It has just the very faintest of dark grey highlights on the black, as they are hiding!

So, I've found myself enjoying 40k again. I barely played 7th, but 8th has me interested again. I built a squad of bikes, and decided I needed a biker command squad too...

I've almost finished assembling. I am waiting on a Ravenwing banner to arrive to turn the Thunder Hammer dude into a a Company Ancient, and the robotic fella needs a storm shield and a bit of green stuff work around his hips to become a Company Champion. The Mark V veteran took a surprising amount of work. I got the torso in a bile, but he had no belt/waist, so I had to cut a plastic bit from another model to build up from the legs. I thought he deserved a fitting back pack, so I raided my beakie pile. The veteran sergeant with the combi-melta was very straightforward, as was the apothecary. The wheeels on the bikes all come from Zinge Industries.

Good to see you back in the saddle

*groan*

Nice looking set of bikes there Fifty.

Cheers, Gits.

Fully built and ready for paint now. I'll get something up ASAP.

More bikes built, and a librarian biker and chaplain biker almost ready.

In the meantime, I've painted some Necromunda doors. But in the way of the photos is a bunch of Frateris Militia. Wait, no, Tyrant's Legion Auxilia. No wait, they are a Necomunda gang. Wait, no, both of those last two. How helpful.

Group Shot


Champions and Leader. The leader as had that sword turned into a power sword, but the bit that shows it is on the back. The boltguns are from Anvil Industries.


The two heavy stubbers on these guys come from Van Saar models. You'll see a couple of the base models with autopistols further down. The flamer was an old metal arbites one that replaces the end of a laspistol. One of the guys had a replacement head and some greenstuffing to give him a collar.


All of these guys had weapon swaps. I think they are all from the old Necromunda spare weapons set. Also, the left two models had a head swap. It was a long job to carve out the laspistol to put the shotgun there.


One of these guys has a new head, though I can't remember where it came from. Nor his little pouch. The autoguns all come from Eisenkern miniatures. They look a lot like the Van Saar heavy stubbers I used further up. One of them still needs a strap for his gun, but the Zinge bits I want are still in the loft after a load of decorating.


These two were Van Saar juves. I did some greenstuffing to turn their body suits into separate jackets and trousers. I also gave them boots with trousers tucked in.


These fellas are either backup or conversion fodder. You can see the base for most of the rest of the gang here.


Some bases in the middle of being prepared, painted using modelmates rust effect.

Disco gangers!

As if I don't get sidetracked easily enough anyway...

I am playing in a 1000 point Zone Mortalis Horus Heresy campaign. I'm using this as a way to learn how to use my airbrush. First unit are done, except for either transfers or brass etchings. Bases are mostly done, but not yet washed...

Loving the proper old school marines.

Yeppers, nothing satisfies like the original plastic beakies.

I am off for my first ever visit to Warhammer World tomorrow to play in the Necromunda tournament. I have only just managed to get my gang "fully" painted, by which I mean at least base-coated and washed, with a very rudamental base. Still, they don't look too bad. Looking forward to finishing them. Once I get some more layers on, I think I'll be happier with the changing skin tones through the generations.

Prophet Zicarios will lead his main disciples Elder Jocastum and Elder Sebastophon, Brothers Zil, Lum, Cos, Fel, Wessel and Vekkum, trailed by Krug and Glom.

Very nice GSC gang! I really like that arm swap on the Primus, makes for an interesting variation on their design. You did a very nice job on the skin so far, will be nice to see how they look finished.

Did the gang do well in the event? Our group is thinking about starting a bit of Necromunda and I've been putting together a small gang myself.

I am playing a campaign this weekend at HATE Club in London, same place as Arbitorian. I am taking my Raven Guard, many of whom are almost painted. We also have to take an Inquisitor and his retinue, for which we get 15 Power Points maximum, from our 100 total. I persuaded them to let me bend the rules and took two Inquisitors instead of a retinue, so I present Inquisitor Sanchez de Cacares el Grande y Konor-Ramius and his apprentice, Brokeknife. Sadly, Sanchez is not quite painted and Brokeknife has even more to do. Well, it is an annual thing, so maybe next year. Except I just remembered I'll be getting married this time next year. I'd better not say, "Bugger!" just in case my fiancee reads this

Anyway, here is my duo as they will appear tomorrow.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Source:

They may not be finished, but they already look brilliant ! Excellent to see these old models getting some attention (and some paint) !
Well played on bending the rules, but unfortunately, they still need a retinue...You know you want to give them a retinue ^^ !

Classics

Love seeing these in their classic colours !

So, as if I did not have too many projects unfinished anyway, I got convinced to revive my Eldar for a slow-grow campaign. You may have seen Arbitorian post about the Custodes that he will be using for it. Anyway, my Eldar have been in my parents' loft for at least five or six years, but I had a few posts about them on here back in the day. There was an autarch, some reposed classic wraithlords, a classic war walker and even some terrain

Well, I dug everything out and restarted, and now I have some work to present. The first stage of the campaign is to build and paint the contents of the relevant Start Collecting box. Some of us, me included, are using models we already have to fill this gap. Despite already have painted the war walker, I've decided not to use it. The Farseer and Wraithguard are no brainers though. Here are some almost finished pictures, because the next post will be all about the wraithlord I have gone a bit over the top with...

So, the main body of the force, I shall call them the punitive army of Ynn-Bydos Craftworld, are these guys, who are, as is normal for me, almost finished.



There will eventually be ten of those guys. Five more are at the same stage of painting and awaiting rebasing. Later will come some D-scythe conversions...



They will be led by Farseer Avurial. He is basecoated, but has no washes or highlights, and I am hoping to find time to give him reflective eyes...



And this little dude won't be in the army, at least not yet, but he is just so damn cute.



Next post, the mega-epic of the first reconditioned classic wraithlord!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, back in May 2009, I made this and posted it here on Dakka. It then went unused until now, spending at least five or six years sitting in my parents' loft.



I decided to finish the conversion, and that he needed a ghostglaive. I cut out the basic shape of a blade from a sheet of 0.75mm plasticard, then the back of the blade from two thinner sheets. I then filled the gap with greenstuff and sanded it down and sharpened with a blade



I then took a cast of the blade, as I want to use it for several other ghostglaive conversions. Next, I made a haft for the weapon from the vane at the back of a Falcon turret. I whittled the corner of a sprue to made the crossguard. The gem comes from a random bit. I cut around the edge, shaved the back carefully and set it in greenstuff. The rebirth-of-ancient-days rune comes from the little statue that comes with Dire Avengers.



Then, of course, he needed to hold the blade...



And I had to sculpt some fingers. I am not much of a sculptor...



I also wanted him to have a pair of shuriken cannons, all the better to dakka my enemies to death with. But I didn't want a boring conventional pose. No, I wanted a pair of shoulder slung stub-shuricannons.



And then I stuck it all together, based it and undercoated it. I made sure the line of the blade followed the line of his forward leg. At one point, I had lost the continuity of the line, so I had to rip of the arm and re-pin, but I think it was worth it.





If I foul up the paint job, or if I ever drop this, I will be soooooooo mad.

Excellent converting... especially because you aren't a sculptor!

Love the wraithlord, the sword and cannons add so much to an already cool model. Looking forward to seeing the paint on it!

Thanks Gits. As you say, I am not a sculptor. I am friends with Joel, lead designer at Anvil Industries and it is not a patch on what he could do, but as a bona fide amateur, I am pretty pleased.

Thanks TH. I think it is a model that had so much potential and was ruined by the crappy pose. Should be painted this weekend as I need it the week after.

Almost finished the first 25PL...

Can't give enough love to those old school Eldar. That Farseer is fabulous and the home-made glaive rules. Extra love for the Spirit Warrior.

Lovely lovely. Gems and tiles especially.

A selection of pictures from our tournament.

So yesterday, 26 of us played with Start Collecting boxes at a tournament in Hastings. About a dozen of us came down from London for it. Here are a few photos.



More Old eldar


We played an extra mission where made a last stand together

Arbitorian's Scibor Custodes

This was the FIRST army the guy ahd painted!

Lovely, old, eldar, metal... Nothing there I don't like.

Craftworld Ynn-Bydos

Ynn-Bydos craftworld is strategically important and politically influential amongst the Aeldari despite its relatively modest size due to its status as a crossroads between Iyanden and Biel-Tan craftworlds. Ynn-Bydos maintains one of the largest direct, permanent webway gates to Iyanden, capable of conducting fleet-size movements of forces and war materiel on a massive scale. It is also the primary realspace nexus for several webway routes linking Iyanden and other craftworlds to Biel-Tan.

Ynn-Bydos has fought many times alongside both craftworlds and suffered significant losses of its own in the tragedies each of these primary Craftworlds suffered. It does not require a Farseer's foresight to recognise that the loss of either of these great craftworlds would lead with inevitable certainty to the destruction of Ynn-Bydos but a short time later. Nor is it lost on the Farseers of Iyanden and Biel-Tan that the fall of Ynn-Bydos would, at best, all but sever their connection to each other and, at worst, leave their own craft open to attack.

Ynn-Bydos is a twin-hulled craftworld, and the inhabitants of Ynn-Bydos mirror this dual nature and tend towards one of two extremes. The majority are of a sombre and fatalistic disposition. They share a grim recognition that the time of the Eldar is waning and that they are, at best, in the autumn of their species' time. A significant minority reject this philosophy and fight to regain ascendancy over lesser races such as the Mon-Keigh. Many of this latter group have fought as members of the Bloody Hands of Khaine, a particularly fanatical group of Eldar pirates who ferociously fight to protect, cleanse and purify Maiden Worlds of the taint of invaders.

Fifty,

I actually rated a few of your old Eldar without even thinking who had painted them a few days back. You have brought them back to life and I am especially impressed with the Dreadnought and how you have take the old static pose and made it dynamic.

Cheers,

CB

Another squad on the way...

Oooh, gloriously retro.

There are over 30, maybe over 40 people playing in a joint London/Hastings slow grow Ascension campaign, with the London folks travelling down to Hastings for six events. Four of us are using Eldar, and three of us are sticking to retro models. All three of us are using the same original Farseer model. Also, all of us are using different Craftworlds, and we all have different painting styles. I am, as a result, loving it. I really hope we can all gight together at some stage.

 Fifty wrote:
There are over 30, maybe over 40 people playing in a joint London/Hastings slow grow Ascension campaign, with the London folks travelling down to Hastings for six events. Four of us are using Eldar, and three of us are sticking to retro models. All three of us are using the same original Farseer model. Also, all of us are using different Craftworlds, and we all have different painting styles. I am, as a result, loving it. I really hope we can all gight together at some stage.

Wow, nice. Do you know mabrothrax? He's old school classic nurgle (and squats, occasionally), and lives/works in Bexhill. Sounds like his kind of scene!

Especially loving that dual-wielder.

 inmygravenimage wrote:

 Fifty wrote:
There are over 30, maybe over 40 people playing in a joint London/Hastings slow grow Ascension campaign, with the London folks travelling down to Hastings for six events. Four of us are using Eldar, and three of us are sticking to retro models. All three of us are using the same original Farseer model. Also, all of us are using different Craftworlds, and we all have different painting styles. I am, as a result, loving it. I really hope we can all gight together at some stage.

Wow, nice. Do you know mabrothrax? He's old school classic nurgle (and squats, occasionally), and lives/works in Bexhill. Sounds like his kind of scene!

I don't think so, as I am one of the London half, not the Hastings half, but point him towards HATEstings. https://www.facebook.com/hatestings/

HATE is the Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts. One of our founders, and easily our LOUDEST member, moved to Hastings and started HATEstings. Hastings Area Tabletop Enthusiasts, obviously. I think HATEstings has an existence as both (a section of) a shop and as a club, so might be useful to him in more ways than one.

 monkeytroll wrote:
Especially loving that dual-wielder.

I had cut up a couple of plastic meltaguns to make the metal lasguns fellas into melta-gunners, and decided to use the remains of the meltaguns by adding the very tip of the lasgun to them. Then I decided they looked like kinda cool large pistols. So yeah, I like him too

Pistolero is a definite winner, with his guns and his mullet-hawk. I love these old Guardians, especially the ones without helmets. Great 80's hair. Marvelous idea with the meltas, too.

Fifty,

I think I have two or three of those Storm Guardians if you want them. Although they have had the power sword replaced by a chainsword.

A forever fan of the old metal Eldar.

Cheers,

CB

Two or three of them would be really useful actually, as it would push me towards the full squad size I want. I've got another eight on the WIP table at the moment, with photos to follow soon.

I worry that it would not be worth the postage from Canada though :( Let me know how much it would be though, as I guess they'd be fairly light and I could just Paypal you, or send you something you'd find useful in return.

So many good memories of those figures...

I decided it was time to re-organise my paints. They have become a complete mess over the last year or so...

Somehow I missed the photo of all my modern layer paints. It is an equal sized pile to the modern base paints.

Original Citadel paintsReplacement original Citadel paints and a couple of second wave paints3rd wave Citadel paints4th wave Citadel paintsSome random bits I foundVallejo game and model coloursShades and glazesMy modern base paints. I forgot to take a photo of an equal number of layer paintsRandom Flames of War, Vallejo washes, P3 yellow and some Army Painter grey

 Fifty wrote:
Two or three of them would be really useful actually, as it would push me towards the full squad size I want. I've got another eight on the WIP table at the moment, with photos to follow soon.

I worry that it would not be worth the postage from Canada though :( Let me know how much it would be though, as I guess they'd be fairly light and I could just Paypal you, or send you something you'd find useful in return.

I will find them and send you a photo. Surface mail to the UK takes a long time, but is not bad if it is for lighter lots.

Cheers,

CB

I didn't like the pose on one of the guys, so I re-did him completely...

Then I did eight more guys for this unit. I didn't exactly stick to the regulation loadouts...




Two in particular required quite a lot of work - some pistol rangers who had had both hands lopped off by a previous owner. I am very pleased with how they turned out.

I made two more fusion gunners so that I can run two squads of eight with special weapons if I want.

And a squad of eight using even older models. I have enough more models to double the size of the unit below, but it is lots of duplicates, so I might not do it.


And finally, five rangers. Again, I have lots of these guys, so I will eventually do at least five more, and probably a lot more.

https://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2018/10/22/978716_md-Eldar%2C%20Guardians%2C%20Storm%20Guardians%2C%20Ynn-bydos.jpg

Nice kitbashing!

Great work! Some really nice conversions to classic minis.

Thanks Gits. It is really nice to have you drop in and comment so often.

And thanks to you too Dreadclaw. I reckon they only just count as conversions, but a few of them had pinning and greenstuff work, so just about qualify, in my opinion!

Craftworld Ynn-bydos
Craftworld Ynn-bydos has a large number of Aspect Shrines but, like many craftworlds, is frequently forced to deploy its citizenry in to combat. When this happens, they almost invariably deploy alongside a powerful spirit host of many wraith constructs. Whilst many of the Ynn-bydosi Asuryani arm themselves with the traditional shuriken catapult, there are also those who use weapons they were trained with in their past lives as Aspect Warriors, and they inspire others to a more violent approach to warfare too. There are even those who wear a red glove on their left-hand, marking them as former members of the Bloody Hands of Khaine.

Fifty,

Nice to see someone else working on reviving old Eldar models.

Cheers,

CB

The kitbashing is great, and I was impressed by all the bits you have. Then I noticed that you have quite a historical collection of GW paints and I realized you've been at this a lot longer than I have!

I should work on a Craftworld background as well, some sort of old-school Alaitoc offshoot or something. I can see how your fluff work adds to the army.

Captain Brown wrote:
Fifty,

Nice to see someone else working on reviving old Eldar models.

Cheers,

CB

And two more on the way

 CaptainWaffle wrote:
The kitbashing is great, and I was impressed by all the bits you have. Then I noticed that you have quite a historical collection of GW paints and I realized you've been at this a lot longer than I have!

I should work on a Craftworld background as well, some sort of old-school Alaitoc offshoot or something. I can see how your fluff work adds to the army.

Thanks I started back in '88 and played until '96 so I have a lot of models from that era, including lots I painted as a teenager. (At some point I will post pics of my Dire Avenger exarch and my Maugan Ra). I then stopped until about 2008, when I picked up a brush again, and started playing again a year or two after that. There was a bit of an eBay golden age circa 2010-2013 when it was possible to get some fatastic large and varied job lots. I picked up a few such bargains and it means I have lots of random bits. I am trying to use some of them up now though! I really admire/envy people like the guy who writes the magpie and old lead blog who can see how a lot of bits will go well together and do some really impressive bashes/conversions, but I think I can make some decent things happen with random bits too.

I think a background helps me decide on quirks that make the paint job more interesting. For example, lots of the Storm Guardians (and maybe Rangers) will have red left hands, which is a sign that they once belonged to the Bloody Hands of Khaine. I know most of what I want to know about them, but won't actually write any of their background until I do a bit more painting of some actual current members. I find that starting to paint also leads back into the background in a circular process. The other thing I urgently need to do is decide names for my Farseer and Wraithlord. Maybe even my Wraithguard, though that might be overkill.

This is great, and it's nice to see your era (88-96) is identical to mine I love that you're not precious about classic figs.

Love the guy with the massive chainsword , who said Eldar don’t overcompensate . As others have said I’m glad to see the old models given new life.

That's some retro Eldar work going on there. Haven't seen any of those old-school rangers in person since about 2005.

I've made progress, but nothing quite worth a new photo.

Instead, I have some pics of some models I painted back in the early 90s when I was about 14 or 15 years old. I was very happy with both of these models when I painted them and am not ashamed to put them on the table still now. I'll actually be using the exarch tomorrow night.

Maugan ra could probably do with rebasing, but I don't really want to. I have two unpainted ones of him, so I'll eventually do a new version plus a statue version for a terrain piece.



If I remember rightly, this exarch matches one in the first Eldar codex 'eavy metal pages. I started rebasing him about 6 years ago, but then he went into the loft for ages. He probably needs rebasing again, but then he wouldn't match the rest of my Avengers, so I will probably leave him as is.

Two of my favorite models. Ever. Nice to see your take on them.

Have always loved the Maugan Ra figure.

Seeing the Phoenix Lords keeps reminding me that I need to make my own Court. The stuff you did at 14/15 puts what I was able to do at that age to shame haha!

 Fifty wrote:
If I remember rightly, this exarch matches one in the first Eldar codex 'eavy metal pages.

Page 41 of the first Codex...back when Shuriken Catapults still shot 24 inches.

Cheers,

CB

This weekend I was in a desperate rush to get ready for the latest round of the 40k Ascension campaign tournament down in Hastings. Sadly, we had a mock-Ofsted school inspection at work the week before, so I had bugger all time...

Still, I made progress. I need to make the bases pop more, so they need one more go at to brighten the corners of the tiles. The guardians all have blue helms and one layer of bleached bone/rakarth flesh since these pics were taken. They still need a final bone layer. They need their helms all layering up to the brightest blue and their eyes done. The eyes are done with light grey and white, followed by a yellow wash. All of them still need their weapons done.

The rangers will have a blue and grey camo pattern on the coats.






My first of three battles saw my army fight alongside a more modern Iyanden force. We secured a 12-7 victory point in a game against Sisters of Silence, Custodes and Marines. We had to catch and keep some enemy agents who kept trying to escape off in random directions. Despite forgetting to move my Wraithguard in one game, we managed to hold on to our own agents, claim one from the enemy and kill the squad holding the other.




Second game was alongside Carcharadons Astra, or Space Sharks, if you will. I could only get victory points by claimign objectives, and he could only get victory points by eliminating squads. We ignored the Death Guard, mostly, and almost wiped out the Emperor's Children for another win. That was despite me accidentally killing a Dreadnought, Chaos Lord and squad of Noise Marines! My Wraithlord became best buds with the Redemptor.




The last game was Maelstrom-extreme. We rolled five dice to see which of six objectives we needed to claim. Doubles, trebles, quads and quins had special rules! The vagaries of the pairing system this time left me with a Tyranid partner, up against two Primaris armies! My Storm Guardians had done nothing but sit on objectives in my previous two games, so whilst effective were hardly invovled. In this game, a squad of sixteen Storm Guardians protected with Celestial Shield and Fortune weathered two turns of shooting from almost every Primaris squad to pick up lots of VPs and finally had to be attacked by five Primaris in combat all at once to be finished off. Talk about overkill! The squad of eight sat further back but did similarly well, later in the game. For once my Wraithlord underachieved, as it was blown apart by pesky hellblasters.

Makes me happy to see those old eldar models...

I am pleased with how they are turning out.

Also pleased to be on page 10 I'll catch up with you soon, Gits.

Love your blog man... very inspiring.

Nice report. Good to see the lead out on the field.

I finished the Wraithlord last night, AND created a new blogspot...

https://restlesslead.blogspot.com/

Just beautiful! Excellent conversion and great job on the gems!

Beautiful , that guy deserves a high 5!

Gorgeous looking Wraithlord, love the base too!

Very nice Fifty.

Cheers,

CB

I think this squad of eight Storm Guardians is completely finished. Oh damn, even as I type that, I remember I need to do the grey bits on a couple of heads. And as soon as posted a preview of this post, I saw that the powerfirst needs some red highlights. Still, photo-worthy. Happily, these guys dropped by 14 points with CA18. (-1 per Storm Guardian and -3 for each Fusion Gun). Not a huge difference, but with another squad of 16 of these guys, more drops on my Wraithlord and Wraithguard and I can squeeze in an extra squad of Rangers or soemthing similar into a 1500 point list...





I also took a decent photo of my War Walker. This was the very first model I painted in this scheme, and since I painted it, I ran out of the very original Bleached Bone. The second version, and the type now in the Cote d'Arms range is slightly warmer and richer, so I now mix with Bleached Bone Ushabti Bone and White to get my final layer. I still think they look fine alongside each other though.

Sweet looking squad! I like the blend of blues you've used on their helmets.

I've a few guardians in need of assembling and the release of CA has me tempted to make a Storm squad with the Avatar to make a fearless bubble of dudes. Definitely worth trying them out in a few games at least.

Can't have enough flat-tops and mohawks. Beautiful squad, man.

Classic metal guardians take me right back to the early 90s and my first opponent. Happy days indeed, lovely stuff, beautiful paintjobs too.

Retro stabby elves!

Oh my heart!

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Sweet looking squad! I like the blend of blues you've used on their helmets.

I've a few guardians in need of assembling and the release of CA has me tempted to make a Storm squad with the Avatar to make a fearless bubble of dudes. Definitely worth trying them out in a few games at least.

I have found Storm Guardians surprisingly useul. Don't expect much out of them in combat though, even with their chainswords and pistols! My favourite use for them is to either have them objective sit or deploy them aggressively to use Fusion Guns. When objective sitting, you won't get to shoot as they have sod all range, but they are cheap and slightly less helpless if they get charged. If anything, people are more likely to ignore them if they lack heavy weapons, even if they are scoring VPs. If deployed aggressively, a squad of 16 can be extremely durable with the right stratagems and runes. I play Iyanden, so morale losses are not really a concern.

 youwashock wrote:
Can't have enough flat-tops and mohawks. Beautiful squad, man.

Yeah, I love the hair on these guys!

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Classic metal guardians take me right back to the early 90s and my first opponent. Happy days indeed, lovely stuff, beautiful paintjobs too.

Weirdly, although I started in 40k 1990, I never had these models. I started with Orks, and them dived straight into the Jes Goodwin Aspect Warriors.

 Nevelon wrote:
Retro stabby elves!

Very stabby! Though I find it absurd that chainswords and Aeldari blades cost the same (0 points) but Aeldari blades are less effective.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Oh my heart!

In a good way, I hope!

Some classics in that squad - the bionic eye/chainsword and the hachimaki headband guy in particular.

Only had a couple of these guys as I was far more interested in chaos back then, so knowledge is a little ropy - but is the last guy on the right in the second group an actual guardian that they then based the striking scorpions off, or was he an early iteration of an aspect warrior?

As I remember it, Jes Goodwin designed a load of Eldar Guardians, then went on a holiday to Egypt where he was inspired to design five models which are now regarded as proto-Avengers. They look to me like the inspiration for both Avengers and Scorpions. There are some callbacks to other models from earlier in the range too, such as the top left of my guys with the chainsword.

Scroll to about hafway down this page...

http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Eldar(Warhammer_40,000_Rogue_Trader)_-_Collectors_Guide

Ahh, yeah, the angle in the guide does seem more Avenger-ish, and I guess the Scorpion head-dress is more modern than I thought too....

Great stuff Fifty.

Cheers,

CB

So, a long time ago, I posted this image of a Falcon I have never finished. The Falcon is painted in the colours of the Bloody Hands of Khaine, but it serves as an introduction to the colour scheme for the Eldar vehicles in my Ynn-Bydos army.


These fellas are for Phase 3 of my 40k Ascension army. I'll be working on them over Christmas. They will have the same type of recess colouring as the Falcon, but done from dark blue to light blue. Tomorrow's job will be to wash the whole thing in soft tone, or the old GW sepia tone.

Made some progress. I've got the blue blended in. I have not done it anywhere near as carefully nor used layers anywhere near as diluted as I did the lava Falcon, as I simply don't have the time.

I now need to go over lots of the bone. I knew I would need to, but I was more careless than I should have been.





I also finally got around to hanging something on my wall. This is a genuine page from my spare, falling-apart Slaves to Darkness that I framed. I plan to do this with lots of pages.

Those tanks are gonna look sweet! And big respect for framing a page from one of the greatest books GW ever made.

Great progress on those tanks! Love the panel lining you've done on both and the bone colour is looking good!

Beaky goodness!

Fifty,

Some decent progress on the vehicles.

Cheers,

CB

Cheers everyone.

Tiny bit of progress. I just tidied up the mucky blue paint and rewashed. It looks messy as hell, but there are at least two layers before it counts as finished anyway, so it won't be a problem.

I love the lighting effects Fifty. Nice!