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Ah it's been a while since posting in here... feels good to be home

So, as some will know, as a by-product of my Space Hulk: Complete project, I have been buying up and occasionally completing models or buying painted models for a BA 40k army.

I have bought a few great models online from various sources, all from painters I have a great admiration for. I definitely enjoyed being able to see their work up close and learn from it. In some cases, a bit of extra work by me went into them. The models include -

Astorath the Grimm by GD winner Pedro Rufo (extra work put in by me, including wings, base, scripting and gems)
Sanguinor by Gignak from Brush Brothers (base repaint, some small work on the wings)
Tycho by NelsonMac
Techmarine by Madfly

and of course, Dantenator designed by myself and Freakforge, painted by me with some small additional conversion work.

Also near complete or at least started
Corbulo
Lemartes

Also bought painted but awaiting a few detail and effects passes to unify
5X Devastators by NelsonMac
5X Sang Guard by WhiteRaven
5X Termies by Sigur done for SH.

Then the scary part, what is half built...
about 40-50 PH armors from FW
3X 10 Tacs
about 50 Assault troops
Command Squad
3X sang priest in PA
1X sang priest termie
jump chaplain
2X librarian
10X LC and THSS termies
1X Sang guard
15X DC
5X honor guard
4 rhinos magnetized for switching to razors or whirlies
2 dedicated razors
2 dedicated Baals
2X Redeemers
2X Crusaders
2X Droppods
1X Lucius Droppod
2X Furiosos
1X Furioso Librarian
1X DC Dread
1X Rifleman Dread (MKIV Ironclad body)
6X Contemptors
and bits enough to build a few more, and also to make stern or vanguard if I feel so inclined.

At least my trusty Storm Raven is done lol.

So, after collecting for 3 years, I have a basement full of stuff, a lot of work to do and less time than ever to do it. Not to mention I have been working on BA since I started into the hobby again in 2010.

So, what to do? Well, learning to airbrush will help get through it a bit faster than it would have been otherwise. But it doesn't really help with the paint red forever syndrome.

So, I decided to alleviate that, I will paint my army as a joint force of BA and their successors. It will be mostly BA, but there will be a few Flesh Tearers, Lamenters, Angels Sanguine and a few of my home-brewed chapter scheme the Sigma Legion. Might even be a few tributes to some inspiring DIY BA themed chapters from the likes of Yggsdrasil and HitstheSpot. This will let me add variety into my work while still keeping a theme, which I am happy to do. With the latest BL novels, it is even fluffy to show such a mixed force.

So, with all that, where to start?

Contemptors of course!

I put these guys together over the Xmas holidays -







And just today, I fixed those magazines on the AC mortis dread (which will be a Lamenter) by clipping them off and putting the drum magazines of an HB on them -







A big improvement in my eyes, if an expensive one!

The guy I spend most of my time converting though, was this one, who is far more just a display piece than anything else -















The second I saw the Contemptor models, I instantly pictured them with a sword and shield. Now the whole Dreadknight sword has been done before, and in a few cases quite well. It begged me though that I had never seen the sword modified or shortened to fit the Contemptor, and it also particularly bugged me to have one DK fist and then one PK fist on the other side. So, starting from there, I modified the sword into more of a Gladius or Broadsword, shortening the blade and handle. Of course, since this guy will be a Gold BA Contemptor, some wings on the sword are a must. A little sculpting was required to give the right hand fingers and a thumb but not too big a deal. The other side, I wanted a proper scale StormShield (could just represent extra armor) so that was made of plasticard, with rivets added from a variety of bits, and an insta-molded FW BA symbol. Since the ranges weapons normally are house in the middle of the powerclaws, they had to be re-positioned somewhere. So the solution was to mount a Stormbolter and Melta underneath the shield arm in a legitimately functional spot.

Other additions, like the rest of the relics, include a nice does of FW brass, Venerable engine housings and rivets galore and a smattering of purity seals.

The other part, and something I am really proud of, is the base. It is my first real try at a display base built completely from scratch. Ben Komets Miniature mentor tutorial was completely awesome and a very obvious inspiration as this base is quite similar to the one he created for his Nurgle Lord.

Anyhoo, I am about to go undercoat a whole bunch of stuff, but I figured I would get the blog started now as it is always a motivating factor for me in getting things done! I will not be able to update all that often, but I'm gonna try to stick to it, cheers guys







Automatically Appended Next Post:
p.s the bit under the left foot is just to hold it up for now, the Dread will be painted separately to the base -

Wow! look awesome *implodes*


T-M

Holy cow

Looking forward to seeing this - is it wrong that the Contemptor at the bottom made me think of the yellow brick road from Oz? Sure, this particular tin man may be after someone else's heart, but still...

Lol, I don't know if it is wrong, but it is unexpected lol!

Don't worry, once it is painted up, I don't think that particular association should be as strong

Wow my brain just imploded with your sheer awesomeness

Seeing so many contemptors together is awe inspiring on it's own... but the one with the sword.. wow. Can't wait to see him painted up!

Great start look very promising, defantly subscribing to this

By the nines Tom. You don't do things by halves do you... A new thread to sub to...

So... many... dreads....

How the heck do you afford this stuff? Armed robbery?

Great sword and board conversion as well. Looks very natural.

lol, quietly buying stuff up for the past 2 years... It wasn't in one pop I assure you! That, and ebay for a lot of the other stuff, including the vehicles and a lot of the non-FW troops.

Ok, so I just went through 3 cans of primer, 3 drop pods, 6 contemptors, 5 dreads and 100+ resin bases for the troops primed. 1 MajorTom11 slightly high.

MajorTom11 wrote:. 1 MajorTom11 slightly high.

Winning!

I hope you weren't priming all that inside

The Contemptors look awesome! You don't have an NIB FW collection, they're all storming across the desk, now

Can't wait to see them painted! So you'll be doing different schemes for them? (You mentioned the autocannon one as a Lamenters... and the drums are a great mod to it, too)

The total force will be about half BA, with Lamenters, Flesh Tearers, Angels Sanguine, and my own Sigma Marines mixed in... (My Sigma scheme was originally a tribute to the old theory that Sigmar was a Primarch, back when it was still obscure and not outright counteracted by the fluff. But, the symbol and scheme would fit with BA so what the hell.)

I also plan to pay tribute to Yggs BA succesor (the white/grey with the 3 blue blood drop symbol) and also possibly HitstheSpots Marines Exemplar too. I will see how the lamenters go though, they may get more than the others, as I love Imperial fists and the look is pretty close.

Sprayed in the basement with the windows open... can't go outside up here in Canuckland. Also wore a respirator so don't worry too much


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So a friend was asking me about priming them, and I figured I would share the answer here, as it is interesting (to me anyways lol) -

Question - my models will be black and red, I primed gray, do you know of a good way to get a decent looking black quickly?

Answer - Personally I find the 2 hardest colors to paint are white and black, and with both, I will prime accordingly. White is a bitch as you usually need to paint on 3 very thin coats if you have any hope of getting a smooth consistent finish. Black likewise usually takes 2 coats to guarantee strong coverage over white or grey, but usually you don't have to worry about being as thin with the layers. Most blacks dry glossy though, which presents it's own issues when you are trying to judge a blend. When you are trying to paint your grey or blue highlights it is super easy to go too bright and boom, you have very very obvious paintstrokes and you lose any kind of convincing effect. Even if you get it right, it is still very hard to judge the blend as the black is shiny and your grey highlight usually isn't, making the reflections confusing.

If you are worried about spraying them again, twice, then you can just prime black and do a 4:6 Shadow grey to black edge highlight... may take a while, but it is a way to do something reasonably good looking without risking the frustration of trying a blend.

For the red, it doesn't really matter. Generally speaking, even with Mechrite, you have to put on multiple coats to get a smooth red (by brush anyways, AB or spraycan works well).

White, Yellow, Red, Orange... these guys all require multiple thin layers. Don't worry too much about the base color for red, but go white for yellow, orange or white.

I almost always go black, the fact that it creates natural shade and is very forgiving if you miss a spot vs white, makes it the winner for me.

If I go white, I prime black first, but then I pulse the white over top. Why? because the spray doesn't get into the recesses very easily, and I get the best of both worlds... when it is done, it is like having a Zenital white pre-washed with black.


















Now, you may be looking and saying, bid deal it is just white and it is just shadowed (not paint effect shadows, but real ones). Except look at the light on my fingers. Lit completely differently than the model, once you absorb that and look back at the models, you can see just how effective this is as a way of shading and achieving fantastic results before you even touch it with a brush.

Brilliant, I do like the Contemptor with the sword and shield, Color me subscribed

Amazing Contemptors, so dynamic!

Priming looks great (and a nice effect!) can't wait to see the paint job

That priming technique looks pretty good. I'd do it, but I'm a cheaparse who only gets one can at a time.

Nice to see you back with a blog, and amazing work! Those contemptors are great, they'd almost make me start smurfs

About time you got around to painting the massive collection. Will be following your progress closely on this. Now in the mean time, how about a picture of all the primed models so we can all see how much work you'll be doing over the next few months?

Nrljm wrote:

MajorTom11 wrote:. 1 MajorTom11 slightly high.

Winning!

I think it might be the paint fumes

Good trick with the priming

Yes, just to be clear, 3 spray cans were the cause, not illicit substances lol.

@Egg, I'll take a pic when they are all built up, I haven't put together a good chunk of infantry still, mostly the FW stuff

I may take a quick moment to paint the face of the ork warboss to show how the black/white zenithal priming lends itself to very easy glazing -

Yo Dawg, I heard you like Dreadnaughts....

Anyway, I want to see how this turns out.

Knowing you, amazing. But I want it to be better than amazing! I want Massive Voodoo to be jealous!

Make me proud, Tommy Boy!

Fantastic conversions.

This is going to be Epic!

Indeed! I'm happy I stumbled across this! That display contemptor is insane! Lovin' it, Tom!

Looking forward to seeing your progress.

That's a lot of Dreads!

Ace work on the conversions.

Loving it so far. I've tried the white over black priming before and it works brilliantly. Looking forward to how the paintwork turns out (I've got plans for my own BA successor).

Cheers Laney

Thanks very much guys!

Here is a very scattered update, I did not get tons done on the Display base as I got a bit caught up sorting out a few things I forgot about...

Ok, so first, as promised, the ork face painted in after the zenithal priming. Nothing but glazing on everything but the teeth... took about 20 minutes to accomplish this. Kinda nice when everything is pre-shaded! Even the roughness of the spraypaint (speckly) actually lends itself to tiny variations that actually make the skin look less cartoonish despite being green -





Next up, finally finished my StormRaven base, which had been languishing on the table half done for months... StormRaven, at long last, 100% done! Rough shots with my 4S, will eventually take proper photos next time I set up the camera and lights -





Proof that the last 2 space hulk models, including the Dantenator are not forgotten -



5 Assault Terms, 5 Death co and 5 Sang Guard primed and assembled (mostly)



100+ secret weapon bases, a mix of desert, rubble and urban, all zenithally primed -



The done or nearly done BA's... Top shelf 100% done, bottom shelves between 70 and 90% done -



Finally, 2 layers of paint washes done on the display base. Next up with be a patchy brown and or black ink wash. Then a drybrushing, then a purple/devlan wash. Then on to the yellow brick rode and fence

So that is why you wanted to know when the Contemptor Autocannons were coming!

That is a lot of Contemptor. And the cannons really do look better with the drum mags rather than the sickle.

Guilty

The twin las cannon option wasn't cutting it for me

Been thinking about it, and I think I will just make this my whatever I am working on Blog, as finishing that Ork Warboss up is mighty tempting too... too many projects! Hoping I can keep my interest up by mixing things up -

Display Contemptor will still have priority though -