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The real downside to this is that I am now stuck deciding whether I should improve/mar this beautiful yellow with a few Yriel Yellow highlights or not. Looks like despite Contrast I still can't get an Imperial Fist painted!

Taking a first step into a better world:



I like Mk.X armor well enough, but let's face it, nothing beats Mk.III for coolness. Unfortunately the proportions of old Marines weren't good before GW released Primaris, and it only got worse afterwards.

This is the test model to see how viable the conversion is for mass production and, of course, if it looks cool.

I cut down on the sculpting work by cutting up the Mk.III torso and using the armor plates for the abdomen, but I don't think I can do anything about the extension of the chest plate. That will likely have to be individually fitted because of the bolter possibly cutting into it. Same is probably true for the upper legs. I'll see if I can make a mold of the shin armor to cut down on work further.

I don't play 40k at the moment, so there's no pressure to get an army of these done, but now that i have a good yellow and the means to equip everyone with good looking Mk.III armor the idea of making at least enough of them to use as allies appeals. I hope I don't run out of steam.

I like it! that's my favorite of the armors by far, the helmet is the best.

Thanks.

Yeah, the Mk.III helmet is the best, so much so that I based the chapter badge of my homebrew chapter back in 4th ed on it.

And now for something completely different!

OK, I'm not dropping work on the Marine, but he's got bumped back in the queue because I need a warband for Warcry and that can't wait. I want to be ready on release next week.

So I assembled some Witch Elves. NSFW warning because they don't wear pants:



Putting the warband together is a bit happy-go-lucky because I don't really have any rules to go on, or points cost to figure out how many models I need. I had a couple of sprues of these guys laying around, and I have a box of winged witches as well. I figure these five will give me a solid enough core without any duplication and the rest of the points for a standard game will be filled with a leader converted from the Dark Elf Sorceress and a couple of winged ones. I'm tempted to get a couple of snake ones as well, but since I don't own any yet they're not a fixed part of the plan. I do like those models, though, so Warcry gives me a good excuse to buy a box.

I'm pretty happy with how the conversions went, getting those five models done in only four days. I usually think of that level of conversion work as tedious when it has to be done on squad level. No idea when they will see paint as it's way too hot for that at the moment. I plan on putting cracked earth and a couple of skulls on the bases, much like can be see on the Sigmarine a on the previous page.

And just so the poor Marine doesn't feel neglected, I added the armor plates to the other leg and started the long process of riveting. Boy, are there lots of rivets! It's needed and will be totally worth it in the end, I just don't particularly care to be the guy who has to put them on the model.

Following on the heels of the infantry, here's the one winged one I'm going to start out with.

Spoilered for being NSFW.



Just one? Yep. Points costs are known now, and since I want two snaky ones and that will bring my merry band close to 1000 points I don't currently need more than one. It honestly suits me fine since these guys are more work to convert than Witch Elves. And they take up a lot of real estate. And I'll have to worry that any number of thin bits break off during transportation. This is not to say I won't make any more if need be, but I'm certainly not in a hurry.

More good news is, because the heat wave pretty abruptly ended I had the opportunity to paint the Witch Elves. Pictures tomorrow if all goes well.

While no pants+boots will always be baffling to my mind, they are impressive conversions!

Thank you.

It's certainly not a conventional fashion choice. The look isn't without issues for me either, although it's not the principle of it and just down to the style of boots the elves wear. In retrospect, now that they're painted, I think I should have trimmed them down to the knee or added something to them like a belt or strap across the thigh portion. I think the boots are just too long and sleek for my liking. The armor portions are fine but after going through a couple of ideas I ended up going out of my way to paint a pattern on them to give them some definition.

Painted Witch Elves, still NSFW but now in color:



I couldn't decide whether I liked gold or verdigris better, so I went with both. Bonus is that I can tell them apart for gameplay purposes now.

The snake girls will obviously not have any issues with boots and I'll keep bat girl as is because she has the kind of boot design were there are straps on the side of the thigh to tie the boot, and I'll see how that ends up looking. The leader, however, is currently on hold until I figure out what to do with her. She's supposed to stand out anyway, so it's not a problem if she has a visibly different design. The skin and metal parts will tie her in well enough with the rest of the warband. I'm thinking maybe I should give her bone armor since she also got the skull mask from an Executioner to double down on the death theme. And maybe some belts to break up all that empty space on the boot without armor.

The MK.III Primaris may or may not be done:



I'm very happy with how he turned out, but I'm not sure he has enough rivets yet.

I want the focus to be on the thick armor on the front, but I'm not sure if I shouldn't add a couple of smaller rivets on the back of the legs to give them a more balanced look. Possibly the boots, too.

Positively loving the Witch Elves and the upsized Mk III is amazing. More rivets!

Thank you.

New version:



Now with a total of 72 sculpted rivets, I think this is it.

I painted the last of the assembled Daughters of Khaine.

NSFW warning as usual, for all three spoilers.

Bat girl:



Snake girls:



And a group shot, because I love group shots but don't often get to do them because I finish so few coherent forces:



The leader is still unfinished, but I'm feeling the motivation slip away. I'm not really in a fantasy mood anymore, so I doubt I'll get her done anytime soon. Got to add her some time down the line,

After a barely noticeable lull of only eight months I felt like painting the Imperial Fist:



I revised (or I guess refined) my method of painting yellow as when all is said and done I'm not the biggest fan of neatly layering colors as the result is too uniform and dull for my taste. So instead I gave this one a good drybrush of a brown, two oranges and a yellow before applying Contrast yellow to tint it and tie it all together. I like the overall effect, even though I could be more deliberate in building up certain areas over others. This model is more proof of concept than final iteration. Still, at the miniature's real size it's an effect I really like and that I'd use to paint further Imperial Fists, if I were so inclined.

I also opted against finishing everything with bright highlights and went with a dark finish instead to go with the darker yellow.

I'm really happy with how this model turned out.

Mk X/III mash-up looks truly fantastic painted. Has been a joy to watch develop, and really glad the finished result looks so good. Any plans for more?

Nice little Dark Elf force also and I like how they all tie in.

Thanks for sharing

They look great! Really rough and experienced looking with the metal and the worn look to the yellow like that

Thanks, guys!

 IGtR= wrote:
Mk X/III mash-up looks truly fantastic painted. Has been a joy to watch develop, and really glad the finished result looks so good. Any plans for more?

I'd like to add more Marines to form a squad. I don't currently play 40k, but I'd like to keep playability in mind in case that changes down the line. Plus, a lone Marine doesn't feel right. He should have his squad around him.

I also bought a Redemptor that frankly I don't like the look of that much. I want to convert it to look closer to the classic washing machine. I love that thing so much I lost count of how many of those Dreadnoughts I bought over the years. Now that I'm doing Mk.III, though, the revised Redemptor may end up with more rivets and trims to match his power armored brothers.

Finally I want a Chaplain. Not sure what to do there exactly, but I've long considered making a Terminator with actual human anatomy based on a Primaris converted with suitable Terminator bits. Possibly based on an Aggressor specifically. I love my Terminator Chaplains and have a long history of using them. No point stopping now.

That would give me a patrol detachment, all the fun stuff I had plans for and, realistically, plenty of work to keep me busy for a good bit before I have to worry about adding anything else.

No idea when all that will happen as I have lots of unfinished projects on my desk at the moment that I'd like to wrap up at some point. When it comes to GW stuff alone I also have those shiny new Battle Sisters that deserve attention and that I've waited for for so long. Odds and ends, too, but plastic Sisters are pretty high on my list right now.

I painted my first plastic Sister!



I was going to write a treatise on the long history of my attempts to paint Sisters and how much it sucks to see their new paint job chip the first time they see the tabletop, but you know, metal Sisters are in the past and I'm just so happy to have them in plastic now. GW did a great job translating basic Sisters to plastic and I'm lucky that by now my painting skills have improved to the point where I think I can do these fine new models justice. Also, let's not forget the bottled magic that is Contrast paints.

So, after twenty years of not painting my Sisters, the Order of Pale Dusk is finally getting painted. Yay!

Battle Sisters Imagifier:



I chose to paint this model next to see how I was going to paint some of the ornaments the army has. Gold, white and silver works for me since it kind of blends into the armor color at a distance. Which I like because I don't want another bright color that competes with the red.

Yeah, i like that color scheme for the... big old staff statue, or whatever it might be called. It looks appropriate and doesn't take away from anything else. The gold as an accent works nicely there i think.

Thanks.

To my surprise my test Repentia is well on her way already, so the next update will likely not take too long (there's a first...). On that note, it would have been nice for GW to include hooded heads for all the models in the Repentia kit. I'm cool with shaved heads, too, but it would have made it easier to have two easily distinguishable squads. Oh well.

Nice work on the Superior and the Imagifier, excited to see your test repentia. I'm a little at odds with those minis, I think they are visually more fitting to the background than the old models, but their attire could have been a little more tattered to give a more berzerker like look.

Thank you. The Repentia is finished, though I think it's safe to say I don't exactly share your view on their attire.

NSFW warning because my Repentia is part of the campaign "I'd rather go naked than wear a tennis outfit".



Happy thoughts first. I tried to tie her in with the regular Sisters as well as not wearing armor and robes allowed and I'm happy that the eviscerator and purity seals let me mirror the reds on normal Sisters. That helps a great deal. I was tempted to paint the hood red as well, but thought something more muted was in order because not all models are going to have one. That I used the same brown as for the robes is more a side effect than an effort to tie them together.

Now as for the outfit on the stock model, I said it when the design was revealed, but I cannot fathom what the designers were thinking. Between Fantasy and 40k (including Necromunda) GW has a large number of zealots and religious fanatics that look the part and that simply work. I can see why they wouldn't want to put the largely naked Repentia from the artworks in the Witchhunters codex in model form, but there were a number of other ways they could have gone that does not involve tennis outfits. Even something as simple as not giving them shoes would have gotten the penitent feel across better, something they certainly did with Arco-Flagellants (and Empire Flagellants in old Fantasy, too). Instead we got tennis outfits. I haven't read the codex yet. Maybe they retconned the Repentia background, too? To make it better fit the new models? I don't know, nor do I care to be honest. I'm just going to go with Repentia as I remember them.

"Just" being a bit of a funny thing to say in that regard since converting the models is a whole lot of work. Luckily the arms and legs are largely usable as they are so shaving and resculpting the body gets most of the work done. As far as details go, this is a Repentia from the starter box so she had no extra bits whatsoever. As a consequence went with a pretty simple look for her to get a feeling for the design. The Repentia box is marginally less sparse and I may experiment a little with piercings and stuff like the ring on her leg to add a metal bit or two for a bit of variety and contrast. I'll also see about the number and placement of purity seals. I think they're important to the look, but the ones on this Repentia are a bit one-sided. Maybe too focused on the top.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how the model turned out. The next one will be from the Repentia box with a standing pose (I'm not big on dynamic poses, really) and without the hood to see how that looks. On that note I'll have to paint a Sister without a helmet, too. I think I'm going to have to assemble one just to see how it looks. And then, ultimately, there's still the question of whether I can make a Rhino based model work with this color scheme. Time to get an Exorcist.

I've been out if it. I had to go look at what the repentia look like now. Not especially offensive to me, but far from evocative either! I'd say you've done a good job reskinning that mini. Definitely more like ye 40K of olde.

Thank you.

It's time for a little heresy. UI'V'Xa, Inquisitorial Henchtau.



I had her sitting unpainted for two years and felt like doing something different during the current heatwave, so I got her out and fixed that.The biggest issue with the model was that I didn't have much of an idea how I wanted to paint her. The skin is well established on previous Tau, but without much of a current Inquisition force I had no clue which direction I wanted to go with the armor. So I figured the safest bet is to go with the classic Inquistorial Stormtrooper colors as I would use those again if GW ever even tried to do the Inquisition justice again.

I think it would be good to get more of my Inquisitor's zoo done in between painted Sisters, and for that matter also convert the Inquisitor herself. Could be fun to have the occasional individualistic conversion project between all the regimented Sisters and Marines and Necrons I like. Inquisition's always been a good home for that as I can't get away from my like for a largely uniform look for regular armies. Maybe I need a Rogue Trader as well.

So I am painting Sisters but it just occurred to me that I have a primed Primaris Psyker from Combat Arena on my desk (in fact primed in such an inconspicuous color that I usually don't even notice her...). I had much the same problem deciding on the colors for her uniform, but I think giving her a red and black paintjob might look good and give me a model to put next to the Tau so she's not so lonely. Hmm, yeah, maybe I'm going to do that next.Maybe mess around with Contrast a little more and see what effects I can get out of the red.

Very nice conversion and paintjob! I love the idea of some inquisitors being a little more lenient on xenos and hiring them as mercenaries.
I still have a conversion made of Seraphon, Genestealer Cults and Kharadron Overlords parts lying around, but with the state of the inquisition rules not the motivation to paint him (her? it?).

Thank you.

Sounds cool, and yeah, I can totally understand where you're coming from. The state of the rules was a major deterrent for me, too.

Sister with Simulacrum Imperialis:



One more Sister done. At this rate I'm going to have a painted army in 2023.

While the next Sister is already under way and I'm currently converting the third Repentia, I got my starter sets and may well fiddle around with the odd Marine or Necron in the near future. I think it would be cool to have a painted squad of Assault Intercessors. I need to sculpt some iconography on their shoulder pads first. Also, I think a bit more decoration won't go amiss. Never a bad thing to have a purity seal on your armor, right? Also, there's that lovely new Captain who's going to look so good in yellow. I also fancy painting a test Necron in the classic silver and green, just way better than I used to be able to do back in the day. I've done my share of experimenting with Necron color schemes, but I think nothing beats that one for mood.

The next Sister Repentia is done.

NSFW warning:



I tried a new way of painting skin with drybrushed orange base x2, drybrushed skin color x2, a layer of Contrast skin color and then two layers of watered down skin color to tie it together and add final highlights. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I don't like high contrast on skin, but neither do I like lack of depth. This seems to be the way forward.

I also had a bit of fun with a tattoo.

Another Repentia. As with the others, NSFW warning:



Slow progress is slow, but it's progress nonetheless.