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To paraphrase Good Ol' J.R. - "Bah Gawd, I hope this is in the correct forum!"... I'm almost certain it is, so I shall plough ahead (but if I am wrong, apologies and please be gentle as it is my first time playing in the sandbox)...

This shall hopefully be the first of many posts on the progress of my Emperor's Children force. I chose not to title the thread 'loyalist' or 'pre-heresy' mainly because I'm working my way through the Horus Heresy novels and my perception of the loyal legions is skewing somewhat. I'm finding it increasingly difficult to call them the 'good guys'... so the fluff for my army is in constant flux... I'll get round to nailing it down at some point I guess... maybe you lot can help me out with that as the thread grows.

Progress is quite slow at the moment, so I'm hoping by creating this thread it'll be the kick I need to pick up the pace... Ummm, let's get to it, ey?

I chop and change, much to my own annoyance, and paint whatever takes my fancy at the time, so I have very few 'finished' units... Except my contemptor dread. I took a couple progress shots on my phone and managed to grab a decent DSLR just in time for finishing the model, so they're of slightly better quality. Once I get a few more units finished I'll be taking better shots of this, but for now, I think these will do... Lemme know what you guys think...

EDIT
Actually, these pictures aren't of him 'finished' finished. I did touch up a few details here and there, and gave him a matte varnish coat as well... I'll hold off posting any more of this dude until he's got some brothers to roll with...

First off, greetings fellow Northerner! I'm not usually a fan of the Emperors Children because my main exposure to them is through FW's depiction. In their paint-ups, the purple always seems to washed out and a little pallid. Your's, on the other hand, strike me as very vivid and the purple seems to be a much deeper shade, so I find myself rather admiring this model. Excellent work - keep it up!

Just out of interest, you say you find it hard to call the Loyalists good guys - how so? (I presume because they are the ones starting to implement much of the Grimdark stuff going on in 40k?)

I DEMAND YOU TELL ME HOW YOU PAINT YOUR WHITE!!!!! and whilst your at it how did you paint your purple too

I think this model looks really slick. I love the purple, perfectly highlighted imo. I'm tempted to paint my new imperial knight purple now after seing this!

I'm only on page 30 of the first book (and i've finished scars) So put any spoilers in a box please

EDIT: On the shin, is that a join line? are the shins in 2 halves?

Johnson & The Juice Crew wrote:
I DEMAND YOU TELL ME HOW YOU PAINT YOUR WHITE!!!!! and whilst your at it how did you paint your purple too

I think this model looks really slick. I love the purple, perfectly highlighted imo. I'm tempted to paint my new imperial knight purple now after seing this!

I'm only on page 30 of the first book (and i've finished scars) So put any spoilers in a box please

EDIT: On the shin, is that a join line? are the shins in 2 halves?

Thank you good sir. I'm pretty pleased at how it turned out. If I can get the rest of my army to the same standard I'll be quite satisfied!... The purple on this guy was done using a black primer undercoat > army painter alien purple spray basecoat > a quick drybrush over the larger areas with xereus purple > thin wash with druchii violet > thick wash of druchii violet, allowing it to pool in natural areas > first highlight of genestealer purple > second highlight of dechala lilac.

The drybrush of xereus serves two purposes; the army painter spray says it's a paint match to xereus, but it's ever so slightly different, so it helps it to blend in with the rest of my army that I've painted with a brush/xereus. The second is that the army painter finish doesn't take too kindly to having washes applied to it directly. If you imagine rain on a window, and how the water collects in certain areas - same sorta deal here.

The white on the shoulders was done with a skull white basecoat using gw spray and a wash of 50% lahmium medium, 25% nuln oil and 25% druchii violet. The white on the torso was just built up using a few layers of ulthuan gray with a 50/50 lahmium-nuln wash.

The joint line on the front of the shin is just detailing. The shin section is all one piece, thankfully...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Warpig1815 wrote:
First off, greetings fellow Northerner! I'm not usually a fan of the Emperors Children because my main exposure to them is through FW's depiction. In their paint-ups, the purple always seems to washed out and a little pallid. Your's, on the other hand, strike me as very vivid and the purple seems to be a much deeper shade, so I find myself rather admiring this model. Excellent work - keep it up!

Just out of interest, you say you find it hard to call the Loyalists good guys - how so? (I presume because they are the ones starting to implement much of the Grimdark stuff going on in 40k?)

Thanks bud, save a few tweaks I would have made here and there, I'm pretty pleased with it!...

As far as the loyalists not being particularly good, there's been a couple examples in the books I've read recently (as well as many more in previous ones). The first example being from The First Heretic...


The second was from the Tales of Heresy short, Wolf at the Door.


So while I'm certain that I don't want to do slaanesh EC, I'm also pretty sure I don't want a loyal army either? I guess I have to find some middle ground for the fluff!...

So a couple more older (read: crappy) photos from some of my earlier models... Originally I bought the Emperor's Champion because I thought it was a cool model. Having played a few games with him, and changing ideas for my army seemingly by the day, he's been relegated to display purposes only. I doubt he'll ever get a run out on the battlefield again...

I scored a free stash of some of the older 5th edition box set marines, and among them, the commander seemed like a good proxy for my chapter master. This picture is of him 90% done. He's now got some more detailing on his cape and the oaths of moment have been filled in etc... Again, I think he's been relegated now too... I'm looking at a Lysander conversion for my new chapter master... Maybe.

Finally for today, here's some early shots of a terminator sergeant that I was toying around with. When the models get to around 90% done I get trigger happy and start taking photos, so again, he's missing some details that are now filled in. But this gives a fairly good idea of how the finished squad will look...

Very nice purple. Your Contemptor looks excellent, very nice posing and painting.

Some really appalling mold lines left on your minis though, which is a shame.

Definitely sympathise with the 30k/40k indecision, especially if you're a gamer as well.

 plastictrees wrote:


...Some really appalling mold lines left on your minis though...

Yeah, I must admit, I could have removed the mold lines... But in my defence, I'm horribly lazy... It's not a good defence, I know. I actually bought my first filing set last week, so I'll hopefully be taking more care with the mould lines going forward...

Ok, time for an update... So it's taken me almost 18 months to get this squad 100% finished... I say 100%, I've already seen some really obvious bits I've missed, but stuff it, they can wait until tomorrow. It's been through 2 different special weapons marines, 3 different heavy weapons and 2 sergeants, but I can finally present to you; 1st Tactical Squad Renato... Yes, those are printed name plates (read: stickers) on their bases, because apparently I had nothing better to do that day?

The bad lighting (and my inability to correctly use my camera) darken the gold trim quite considerably. It really is much more of a white gold when looking at it with your looking eyes...

matchesco wrote:

This shall hopefully be the first of many posts on the progress of my Emperor's Children force. I chose not to title the thread 'loyalist' or 'pre-heresy' mainly because I'm working my way through the Horus Heresy novels

I really like your purple

But if this is the first of many posts it seems more akkin to a Pm Blog

Aaaaaand some close ups...

Finally for today, I have been proxying a DA squad I painted for my housemate until I get round to painting my second squad... Fluff wise, these two legions might actually be pretty well suited to being secret allies? Something to think about maybe, when I get round to writing it...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Desubot wrote:

But if this is the first of many posts it seems more akkin to a Pm Blog

This is where I must plead ignorance I'm afraid... I have no idea what Pm means!?

Much awesome. I like purple and I like these guys. The commander especially looks sweet. This makes me consider switching my brass to gold. Look forward to seeing more.

Well... So much for this thread being a motivator for regular updates ey? Anyways, finally some movement on my part as I have been bitten by the painting bug again recently... may I present some progress shots of the Children's glorious leader, Fulgrim. One thing I'll say off the bat, I'm glad I've actually bothered to take some pictures to upload, as this camera highlights so many areas that need touching up!... You'll also notice Fulgrim is in the process of having nose surgery as I managed to break the damn thing clean off... It makes no difference really, as I absolutely hate this head, so I'm going for a helmeted conversion, just waiting on the bits arriving from MaxMini... Couple other areas to mention; for the sword, I kinda wanted to have the 'glowing from inside' look. Not sure how it's working for me at the mo... Also, I've mentioned this in previous posts, but the gold really isn't as brassy as it looks in these photos, but it gives enough of an idea anyways... Right, enough of my babbling. Here's the progress so far...

Loving your purple and especially that green on Fulgrim's sword. It's very nicely done.

Beautiful work. I love how you named every marine.

Welcome to the great idea that GW missed. I've been playing Loyalist EC since WH40Kv3 and love the looks on people's faces when they see my boys.

I love your paintjobs. I use a more red-violet color than yours (going back to the White Dwarf IA article of many, many moons ago) but your coloring is amazing. You did make my wallet groan however. I'd never considered a Contemptor but he does look good in those colors. Looking forward to seeing more of this thread.

*Reads thread*

*Breathing intensify*

Love it! The base really stands out too . . .

Thank you for all the kind, and sometimes creepy (looking at you Deadshot! Ha!) words, guys. Good to know I'm on the right track with these little fellas

Couple of tiny updates for tonight... I said previously that Fulgrim's head was gonna be a helmeted conversion, but I figured I may as well put the old head to some use?... So, I gave him a haircut and started to build him a decorative helmet that is very much in the style of Thor... No idea how this is gonna pan out yet, but like I said, it was sitting there doing nothing, so I may as well give it a bash... Once his nose has set, I'm gonna give the head one large, long pony tail and then add the odd strand flailing about the here and there for detail... If I can translate what's in my head to the model, then it should hopefully come out looking ok?... Photos are from my phone so they're super crappy, sorry. I'll have better ones for you when it's finished...

These pre-heresy emp children look incredible. Simply well done!

Great work on the Emperor's Children here. As others have said, it really is more of a Painting and Modelling Blog-kinda thread. I look forward to seeing what comes of Thor's Helm.

My gaming group has a campaign running at the moment, so this update to the Children relates directly to that. I can't field Fulgrim in the campaign, so he's been put to one side for the time being so I can focus on models that can help me win this damn thing... I've had my Razorback (and Predator) kits sitting around for 6 months, so thought it was about time I made use of them... My plan for this is to stick a combat squad in it, give the Sgt. a teleport homer and plough the thing up the battlefield hoping it doesn't get destroyed before a can drop my 10-man Terminator assault squad (5 LC, 5 TH) in to kick some face (yes, that's a pretty massive point-sink, but I've tested the unit 3 times now and it's murdered all before it having only lost a few guys each time)... There's still one or two accessories I need to put onto the Razorback, just to give it a bit of character, but this is one occassion where I'm ok calling it finished as-is. Particularly as this is my first proper piece of armour...

I didn't intend for it to be quite so long between posts, but considering there's soon to be an ignoramus running the free world - which will likely bring about some form of apocalypse - I figured I'd return to things I enjoy while I still can... So without further ado (but with obiligatory apologies for crummy photography, of course), let the photo dumping commence...

Lovely stuff !

Another couple of updates to this army... My first real attempt at blending layers on the apostle's cloak (thanks in part to a newly acquired wet palette). Quite pleased at how it turned it out in the end and keen to experiment more with the technique... Also added another contemptor to the ranks. Still a few little touches here and there to finish it off, but for the most part it's done. I now can't look at my first one as I think the paint job on this new one is so much better. I'll prolly end up replacing it - perhaps use the old one for scenery or something...

I love your paint scheme. Very clean and crisp. As ec should be.

Yeah man i love that chaplains cloak it really is awesome

This army is gorgeous, and I would be honoured to play against it.