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And what are the achievements of your fragile Imperium? It is a corpse rotting slowly from within while maggots writhe in its belly. It was built with the toil of heroes and giants, and now it is inhabited by frightened weaklings to whom the glories of those times are half-forgotten legends. I have forgotten nothing and my wisdom has expanded far beyond mere mortal frailties. - Ahzek Ahriman, Legionary, Sorcerer, massive bookworm.


Ahem, enough of that.


It's been a fair while since I posted any of my work on here, even longer if you consider anything of worth. After several years of Imperial armies (5k Custodes, 4k Marines, 8k Knights/Titans, 2k AdMec and 4k Guard), I've decided to branch out a bit and try something completely new. My birthday last week provided an excellent opportunity, and so I was blessed with a Start Collecting Thousand Sons box, which I then expanded with some additional purchases. I thought "sod it, let's make a Dakka blog and see how I get on". The only experience I've had with Chaos was a Night Lords army I used back in 5th, so I'm essentially starting from scratch.

This could go one of many ways; Ideally I'd get some followers and share ideas/tips, or it could go tits-up and end up with digital equivalent of a tumbleweed in an old Western. Nonetheless let's see how I get on.



Concepts and Creations

This is a rough outline of the list I'm aiming for. I've never been an uber-competitive player and want to keep the balance. Additionally my FLGS is hoping to start an Escalation campaign after COVID, which I feel would tie-in nicely as I develop this army.

HQ
Ahriman - Disk of Tzeench
Exalted Sorcerer - Disk of Tzeench
Exalted Sorcerer

Elites
10x Scarab Terminators - 2x Soulreaper Cannons, 2x Hellfires
Hellbrute - Twin Las
Hellbrute - Twin Las

Troops
10x Rubric Marines - Soulreaper Cannon
10x Rubric Marines - Soulreaper Cannon
5x Rubric Marines - Soulreaper Cannon
5x Rubric Marines - Warpflamers
20x Tzaangors - Blades

Heavy Support
Defiler - Twin Las, Scourge (I just think it's a bloody awesome model, always loved the Defiler).



Beginnings

This is what I have to start with.



Received the SC box for my birthday on Monday, other goods arrived on Thursday. At the moment I'm working from home, there are times in my job where I can glue a few pieces together during a quiet period, so until I'm back commuting I hope to make good progress, and here's what I have so far.



First three Rubrics. I've left the Bolters unglued for ease of painting, realised with my Marines how difficult it can be. After dryfitting a Soulreaper to the completed ones however I may have to just glue the cannon in when building that figure, as the overhang on the vambraces make it near impossible to fit.

I've also been able to build my first of many Sorcerors (is Sorceror correct? Saying Sorcerer just looks a bit wrong in my eyes).



I wanted to make each one a bit more unique than just the standard figure on the box repeated multiple times. For this one I kept it simple for the time being and just gave him an alternate staff from the Exalted kit, makes him a bit more dynamic. A quick peruse through the Exalted kit shows a great many staff heads which will look nice scattered throughout the army.

Small progress for the time being but it'll pick up soon I hope.


Next Steps

Before I commit to painting there are a few obstacles I need to consider, the main ones being "What colours do I go for?" and "How am I going to paint them?", small triffling concerns in this hobby...

The first question might be straight forward, I kinda want to stay with the standard blue/yellow, but would like to incorporate some purple into the mix, as it's mine and my fiancee's favourite colours. I'm thinking purple robes and the odd bit of OSL from the staffs, etc.

For the second question it'll be a great opportunity to use my new toy...


I've heard nothing but praise for Harder & Steenbeck, and even opening the box you can just tell that it's a decent piece of kit. It just feels solid and well-built. I kinda don't want to use it to avoid it getting dirty!

If anyone does have any decent guides as to how to care for your airbrush, please feel free to link them below.

Setting this up might take a while as I'm still sourcing a decent compressor. My previous one was a £40 piece of Chinese-built crap from Amazon; if you're going to get into airbrushing, a cheap piece of kit is a good place to start, but expect it to break down. If you decide you want to develop this skill further it's worth spending the extra money for a decent brand. In the meantime I hope to learn more about how to really take care of your airbrush and to ensure it'll last a lifetime.


If you're still reading then congratulations, you're almost at the end!


My final thought is on bases. Ideally I'd like to have at least the bases started so I have something to show, but I'm a little stuck on what to go for:

- Grey with small lava channels. I did this for a rather old GK army I have kicking around somewhere and it looked pretty convincing. Only issue is that it was rather time and resource consuming, requiring applying basing material with PVA, scraping out channels, spraying varnish and then painting the channels in red/orange/yellow/gloss varnish.

- More simple approach with GW texture, I'm thinking a layer of Armageddon Dust, washed and drybrushed to suit with small tufts of dried/yellowish grass. It'd be simpler and would contrast the blue nicely.

I'm leaning towards the first option but would welcome any other ideas. If anyone has any examples to show (doesn't have to be TS), I would appreciate it.


There we are, the end of a long and winding post that I wrote at midnight after finishing off a bottle of wine that I used in tonight's dinner. I hope to keep this updated rather regularly but as with everything in 2020 this may change.

Thanks for reading, hope to hear your comments below.

So...close to 150 views and not a single comment. At least I was correct on the tumbleweeds.

A nice quiet Monday at work today has allowed me to finish assembling the first squad of Rubrics. As before I've omitted the weapons to aid panting later on.



I've also taken the time to have a look at the Exalted Sorcerer kit, which I'm really, really impressed by. Part of me wasn't too keen on the box-models; I wanted to stay a bit more grounded in reality (ironic) and avoid the mutated or avian look, which the kit easily allows you to do with one exception; the talons on the floating one. After some umm'ing and ahh'ing about the right parts here's the result.






For some reason I absolutely love how he's turned out. He looks Chaotic, but not as comically over the top as some of the new Chaos lot look IMO. To me, he looks more like the darker 3rd-5th Edition classic Chaos models which I'm happy with.

You might have to excuse the crappy photos as I don't have a decent setup at the moment. Does anyone know how to get a decent phone photo? It's an S20 Ultra if that matters.

Cheers,
Valk

 Stevefamine wrote:
When in doubt, put the model in a fridge and take a phot.

Otherwise any of the iPhones that are from iPhone 5 and later should be great at taking photos. Most of my professional/commission photos are taken with an iPhone before I bought a mirrorless/camera and got a lightbox

Solid list to start. What was your plans for basing/planet?

A fridge? Would never have thought of that. Thanks for that Do you have any recommendations for camera settings in addition?

I've been thinking about the bases. Until I can get a decent compressor I almost certainly won't be airbrushing anything, but for the bases I think I might go with the desert planet idea; while I do like the lava option, the grey would be too similar to the bases of my Marines whereas I'm hoping to try something completely different.

Small update today...

Have decided to try out the new airbrush. Fixed up a decent compressor and it completely blows the previous one out of the water. If this blog fails (which seems likely at the moment), or if anyone reading this takes just one piece of advice away with them, it's that it's always worth spending more on these pieces of kit. A cheap Chinese airbrush/compressor is useful at learning this technique, but a decent setup can cost a good couple hundred pounds, and it's definitely worth it. .

Anyway. I've applied a couple layers onto my next Sorceror. Started with Vallejo French Blue with an overcoat of Light Sea Blue. This looked too bright and flat for what I was going for, so I finished it off with a light coat of Nuln Oil to add depth.



I'm not so sure on it to be honest. I think the Nuln Oil has helped, but it still looks too flat for what I'm hoping for. I suspect the shades used are too different, might try a different combo to get a more subtle effect.

On the plus side I've also started the bases, which is actually quite therapeutic at times:



From left to right:

- Armageddon Dust
- Earthshade
- Ushabti Bone
- Army Painter Mountain Tufts.

I'm pretty happy with it. I may have preferred a more "cracked, dry lakebed" texture but this one works just fine, I just need to decide what to paint the rims.


So overall I have the following things to decide:
- Should I carry on with the current blue scheme or try something more subtle? Anyone have any experience airbrushing Thousand Sons and could share their recipes?
- Should I keep the base rims black, or go for the brown/bone as per the base itself?
- What to add to the force next? I'm torn between either the Hellbrute or getting a Defiler second-hand. Problem is, I'd much rather go for the classic TS Dreadnought, not a fan of the fleshy Hellbrute, so sourcing it is going to be difficult.

Thanks for reading. Any comments or feedback is appreciated.

With the weekend drawing to a close I've made some progress in determining the final colours of the force.

I've decided to stay with the standard blue/yellow, and despite my prior concerns the airbrushed finish has actually turned out pretty well.



After the blue had dried I used GW White and Flash Gits Yellow for the yellow banding. I'm leaning more towards Vallejo paints rather than GW but I think their white is still pretty good at getting a solid coat. The gold areas were a nice even coat of Scale75 Dwarven Gold, before the whole model was given a coat of Agrax Earthshade, moreso on the banding and gold parts.

Might be a bit odd using brown wash on blue but this seems to work really well. It creates a nice shading effect between the gold and blue and mutes the yellow a bit, gives it a slightly earthier, richer tone. Controlling the wash and letting it pool slightly in the crevices also masks where the gold has slightly crossed into the blue.

Overall I'm really happy with this. I have one of the Exalted Sorcerers in progress, as well as Ahriman and 5x Rubrics undercoated ready to go. With Ahriman I'm planning something a bit ambitious; I'm hoping to get hold of the victim from the Szeras kit and place him on the base, with his soul/essence flying into Ahriman's hand instead of Szeras' wrist-gubbins. Haven't seen any examples of this so far, my main wonder is the height of this particular part, and wherever it could align with Ahriman's hand with some minor mods.

So today I've been playing about with the new airbrush more, looking at some new techniques.

I wanted a nebula effect on the cloaks of my Sorcerers. Decided to just dive in with the airbrush and 20 mins later I came up with this:



It's simply a layer of Matt Black with varying smears of Vallejo Scarlet Red, Warlock Purple and Electric Blue, with additional smears of white mixed with each shade. The stars are then simply painted in, with a couple crossed to give the impression of twinkling.

I decided to take this a bit further when it came to Ahriman.



To create the eclipse I made a mask out of tape, using a US dime I had lying around from a trip to Vegas. The dime was slightly smaller than a UK 10p and had a smooth edge compared to the ridges on UK coins. Once the mask was applied I painted the nebula shades as before, then added a haze of white to represent the solar corona. Since the picture was taken I've filled out the top-right in black again; I was aiming for the effect where the sun begins to emerge from the eclipse, but I wasn't 100% happy with it so decided to scrap that bit.

Someone has suggested I grab a bottle of Culture Hustle's Black 2.0 for the centre of the eclipse. If you've heard of Vantablack, it's now available in a paint. I'm very tempted to grab a bottle, but I'm not sure if I need 150mls of the stuff.

Thanks for reading. Next time I hope to have a few more Rubrics ready to go, as well as some more work on Ahriman.

Bit of a late update I'm afraid, too many work packages coming in, not enough time to paint!

Anyway, thanks for the comments on the capes. I admit I did surprise myself with how good they've turned out. Over the past few days I've been further working on the Sorcerers and Rubrics to really get confident with the colours, and I've learned two things:

1: Agrax Earthshade is a surprisingly good tone to use with blue.
2: I'm bloody sick of painting gold trim.



Here's the latest work on the first Aspiring Sorcerer. He's pretty glossy at the moment ready for decals, before I realised I ran out of decal softener. Did try a shoulder decal without the softener and it was just...awful. I do plan to have the standard TS snake symbol on the pauldron, with various runes/etc on the tabards.



3 of the Rubrics. Out of the 20 I have built I have around 9 undercoated with these 3 being the most completed. Anyone who read my earlier comment about leaving the Bolters off until after painting, don't bother. There's a small lip on the right arm that makes it a bugger to actually get the gun on once the arms are attached.

At the moment I'm just wondering how to paint the actual Boltguns. As you can see I've painted a bit of gold trim on them, but as for the actual weapon body I'm still looking for ideas.




And finally the WiP Sorcerer. I've left the backpack unattached for the time being so I can sort out the braziers. Still undecided wherever to go with traditional fire or green/white ethereal flames, although I'm leaning towards the latter.

The tabards I'm still choosing a colour for. I'd rather avoid white to be honest, even though it's a nice contrast to the purple. I just don't really have the patience to try to get a decent shading on white robes. Any other colour suggestions would be appreciated.

Once again, thanks for reading.

Update 21/12/2020:

Apologies for the lack of an update. Unfortunately work hasn't calmed down as much as I hoped, but I've managed to make some progress nonetheless.

As mentioned previously I was considering getting a bottle of "Black 2.0", said to be one of the most blackest paints commercially available. At only £10ish for a large bottle I thought I'd give it a go, as the results on the website look quite promising.



So you can see you do get a decent amount for your money. As mentioned on the website it's a standard acrylic paint, and overall it goes just as well as standard Citadel paint, if a little prone to drying too quickly.

I gave it a go on Ahriman's cloak in the eclipse and overall, I'm rather disappointed with the result. I couldn't get a decent photo of the cloak so here's my best attempt with some spare Marine backpacks.



From left to right we have
- Standard GW black primer spray
- Primer and Army Painter Matt Black
- Primer and Black 2.0

I think the photos hide the true extent of the finish. In reality the Black 2.0 backpack is much less of the "void" effect that the website promotes, and just looks very matt, not even enough to really justify the effort. The texture is rather odd too, similar to that of a chalkboard. Personally, I wouldn't recommend this product, I think the website images are rather misleading and you'll almost certainly not get the void effect they advertise. [/color]

Anyway, I've also taken the time to start another Exalted Sorcerer. I do rather like the parts used for this one. While I didn't want to go too avian in terms of mutations and such, I think avian-themed armour adornments are rather fitting, and this works pretty well.



So while I still have his tabards to work on, I've been able to do another nebula-effect cloak:



Thanks for the positive feedback on the other cloaks, here's a group shot.



Initially I was a bit worried that it'd be a bit "samey" but it really seems to be working well.

In the meantime I've also been working on the Tzaangors. I've always been a bit dubious about these guys, as IMO they seem a bit shoehorned into the 40k universe. I'm also surprised by the kit, as all we get are options for Tzaangor Blades or Autopistols, yet the kit contains options for Great Weapons, Swords/Shields and odd twin-headed mutants. To me, this is really weird as it's the opposite of GW's "No model, no rules" policy, and would it have killed for them to include rules for these upgrades?

Still, thought I'd include them somehow. I decided to go with the Tzaangor Blades, with a couple of Great Weapons thrown in for variety, and the two-headed mutant will be a good representation of the Twisbray leader.

These guys are disposable cannon fodder essentially, so I'm not going to go all out painting them. I've just gone with Contrast Blue over a sprayed grey basecoat, with additional details painted by brush where necessary. Here's the current work on the Twistbray.



I think the photo is a bit oversaturated but the Contrast paints are a really nice way to paint the musculature easily. The head is just a mix of red and whites to look fleshy (unlike a Lord of Change's heads, this is literally one head split down the middle), and the weapons are just Contrast green.

I think I cocked up a bit with the grey spray, and it hasn't settled as thin as it should, but I think I managed to save it. Like I said these guys will probably die pretty quickly in battle, so I'm not going to waste hours blending and highlighting 20 of these.


And to finish off this pre-Christmas update, I exchanged presents over a substantial meal and more substantial drinking last night, and got a set of Flamers of Tzeench.I think the last time I had a set of these was back in 4th when they were metal, and one of the most fiddly and annoying kits ever produced IMO.

Decided to paint these up in a similar palette to the main TS force. The body is airbrushed Vallejo Electric Blue, with Warlock Purple and White at the top and bottom respectively. The whole thing is then given a decent wash of GW purple. The flames are then redone in white before a generous coat of Contrast green. Overall I'm pretty happy with how this has turned out.



Well that's it for tonight. For anyone who's reading this, have a very happy and safe Christmas, and thanks for taking your time to read this, any feedback is appreciated.

Another update, the last of this weird, weird year.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas season. Between the turkey and socks I've made a decent bit of progress expanding the army.

A small update with the Flamers, I've added a highlight of Vallejo Yellow Green to the Warp Lightning Contrast paint. For regular highlighting I think it'd be a bit too thick and extreme but for Warpfire it seems to work quite well.



I'm also a bit acutely aware that the close-ups make the overall finish look a bit crappy. Overall it looks much better in person.

As well as turkey and socks there was also a fair bit of gin, the result of which being a deep plunge into Daemons of Tzeench.



While I've been working these last couple of days I've had plenty of time to put together the first couple of models, starting with the Screamers.



The black/white contrast on these photos is a bit haywire, but they're actually pretty nice models to put together. Next purchase would probably be another box of these to get a decent squad of 6 put together. In my opinion, a unit of 3 is more of a nuisance unit rather than actually doing any damage.

I've also put together the first stage of the Lord of Change.



This was more of a bugger to put together, the joins around the chest could be better defined in the instructions. It's at this point however I'm dealing with 2 dilemmas:

1: Obvious dilemma, do I go for the standard Lord of Change, or Kairos? Looking at the kit it may be possible to magnetise; the main difference between the two is the head situation, which attach to an upper-chest piece which attaches to the hole in the photo above. Part of me thinks it can work, the other part is being lazy and just might build it as Kairos, and can just play it as an LoC when needed. I can't imagine any decent player kicking up a fuss in a non-tournament environment.

2: How to paint the base? At the moment it's unattached and I'd like to do something special to the base first, something like this:



I want to iterate, this is not my work. I'd like to go for some sort of mystic, funky design like this but my painting skills are nowhere near as good as this. My other idea was to replicate the nebula effect from the Sorcerers' cloaks, but that may look a bit weird on the battlefield. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas?

Cheers for reading, I would appreciate anyone taking the time to give feedback or any comments, otherwise have a very Happy New Year!

Posted in Error

gobert wrote:That’s a good haul of Xmas minis, they’ll look great painted as vibrantly as the flamer! The cloaks look great, maybe the LoC’s base could use a similar theme to the cloaks, as though he/she is coming out of a black hole?

Thanks very much, I decided to keep it a bit simpler with the LoC base, as described below.

Zillian wrote:Nice work!

Cloaks look great. I undercoated mine with Retributor Gold spray, so the gold trim wasn't as annoying. I really should get back to them, one day... lol

That's a good idea, I think maybe in hindsight the gold won't actually show up against the space-effect however.


So, another year another update! Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year, and hope all you US readers are doing well despite what's all going on.

Have made some more progress with the Flamers, with 4 of the 6 now ready to use. I'm actually rather impressed with the rules for these guys; nothing like the original "Ap2 template that auto-penetrated vehicles on 4+" shenanigans but still impressive for their cost and platform.



Just two more of these to go. I am considering getting another SC Daemon box to bring the numbers up, but 9 Flamers does seem a bit excessive, may just sell that bit off and get some money back.

I've also begun the remaining Screamers. Love these models. While they're nothing special to assemble the...Chaos-ness of these things is really awesome, and once you paint the creepy eyes they really do pop. The photo has wiped out some of the vibrancy of these however, my mediocre photography skills combined with the crappy lights in my flat isn't really doing these justice.




Now onto the Lord of Change. I did try to paint a nebula effect using real NASA images as inspiration, as I hoped the larger base would give me a bigger canvas. First attempt looked like a horrible bruise, second looked like the Pepsi logo. At this point it was 1am so I decided to just go with the same base as the rest of the army but with something to make it stand out.



The crack is simply a thick layer of Green Stuff which I've allowed to harden slightly before taking a tool and just hacking at it to create the cracks. The hands are simply spare Pink Horror hands, painted in the same way. I did wonder wherever to fill the crack with Black 2.0 but decided against it as it might just look unfinished. With the earlier disappointment of Black 2.0 I might just chuck it.



Painting the underside of this guy was a real chore. Eventually I was able to use Vallejo Brown as a base and to create a border with the blue, at which point I applied a coat of Vallejo Aged White, then a highlight of White with the compressor close to the lowest realistic pressure. I again realise that the photo has kinda bleached the effect sadly.



Wings were just Vallejo Light Blue with Warlock Purple applied on the tips, after which a couple of *very* light drybrushes of White were applied.



Thought I'd do a small conversion with this little guy, with a basecoat of White and a simple layer of Yellow Contrast, which has come out very nicely.


That's it for now I'm afraid, if you read this please do take the time to comment, it really is appreciated despite the godawful photography.

tzurk wrote:Hey mate, nice update!


The colour transitions on the screamers and LoC came out really nicely - and clever (restrained!) highlighting on the wings. Love his little horror buddy too - that yellow contrast looks great!

The yellow touches on the warpflame of the flamers is cool too. Speaking of them, I regularly play with 9 flamers in 2k games - they probably are overkill but you can pretty much point them at anything you want deleted and it's gone.

The base for the big bird is just incredible. Great design, sculpting, and colour work. He's gonna be a really impressive piece all together!

I also agree that the tzaangor models don't really feel like a part of the 40k universe. I think that GW have missed an opportunity somewhere by not making a bunch of chaos-aligned human follower sprues with a bunch of mutations etc that can be mixed and matched to create cultists and gors of all flavours.

The blogs do tend to be pretty slow here; I get the frustration/disappointment that comes with getting lots of views and not many responses, though I haven't found a more active 40k forum yet. I like to remind myself that for every person that posts a response, 100+ have seen my update and thought "wow tzurk you are so talented and handsome, please don't stop sharing because I follow your progress every time I remember to stop by the P&M blogs section and am interested in your ideas and development as a painter and modeller!"

I am guilty of doing that a lot myself (and have done for your blog before!), or thinking that I have responded to an update when I haven't.

You can often get a more immediate response through other social media if you are looking for feedback and engagement, but I am partial myself to the idea of having all my stuff together in one place, even if it is slow and old fashioned.

I for one am looking forward to more - please do keep sharing!

Thank you very much, I appreciate the sentiments.

KidCthulhu wrote:The base (and the rest of the Lord Of Change) are coming out amazing! You make it look so easy...

Thanks. I think one thing that's made it a bit easier is the compressor I'm using is much more reliable which is surprising as it's 33 years old. Being able to change the air pressure to suit your requirements brings out a whole new area of airbrushing.

Tyranid Horde wrote:The pink horrors coming out of the base is a nice touch Valk, they really help expand the world outside of the base imo. Good work on the LOC too, you're nailing it so far

I wouldn't worry about the lack of responses thus far, I've been reading most blogs as I procrastinate but don't always comment. I have found it takes a couple of pages to get a blog off the ground and more content invites more people to read and comment. Instagram isn't in a bad spot for 40k material, you're more likely to get your work seen than posting in a sub reddit and seeing it lost to the ages.

Thanks very much, I think the overall effect is better than my attempts at a space-effect.


So, another quick update. Have had a couple of packages arrive today, namely a couple of the old OOP (I think) Thousand Sons Dreadnoughts, as well as my first ever Daemon Prince! I managed to get a good deal for the Dreads on eBay. I'm not much of a fan of the fleshy/mutated Helbrute look, and a standard Dread is more in fitting with the Thousand Sons.

I'll be honest, it's a good kit. They come with Twin-Las and Chainfists which were the loadout I had in mind, but I've decided to magnetise them for futureproofing.



He's just held together with GS at the moment before I work on the final pose. The main issue I have with these is that they're actually pretty small. I suppose this is a good example of scale-creep but I'm rather surprised at how diddy they appear. Nonetheless I'm very happy with them indeed.


Now onto the Daemon Prince...

I'll be honest I much preferred the old metal Daemon Prince, but it sees pretty hard to get and I already had a conversion idea for mine, based off this pretty awesome kitbash I found online:



From what I can gather it's the standard kit with a Morghast head and armour, the wings I'm not sure but I want to say either Tyranid Shrike or Chaos Possessed. It took me a good while to source the Morghast parts but finally managed to find a guy in France to ship them over. Now that I had those parts I splurged out on the Daemon Prince to get this off the ground.

In my opinion the Daemon Prince is a pretty crappy kit. It's one of the defining Chaos units in both AoS and 40k, yet the kit is just...dull and outdated. You're really stuck on the single pose and the overall customisation is so limited. As a testament to it's lack of updates the instructions don't even have part numbers and it includes rules for 40k 7th Edition!

So first thing I did was to convert his right hand weapon. I took the Daemonic Axe and replaced the head with a spare staff from the LoC. I may replace that odd spike at the other end but for now it seems to be ok.



I then chose to convert his left arm from his "alas, poor Yorrick" pose on the box to a more downward stroke, but this required considerable filing and shaving of the shoulder muscles, as you're really stuck in that pose otherwise. The arm was pinned on and the remaining gaps filled in with green stuff.

At this point I thought that the original model looked a bit too hunched, and bringing his head further upright would help his overall presence. This was a big gamble as my green stuff skills are worse than my photography skills (if that's even possible). I shaved away the original neck and the surrounding musculature, and added a pin extending from the top of the torso. I then built the pin up with a considerable amount of grene stuff, at which point I positioned the head to get the angle right. Tomorrow once it's all set I hope to add another thin layer to sculpt into basic musculature,etc.

While this is a rather rudimentary process due to my reluctance to use green stuff in large amounts I'm pretty happy with it so far:



The green stuff around his shoulder will be covered by the pretty large pauldrons included in the kit, and I'll add detail to the neck as described earlier, but overall I'm very happy with the result. My next decision is with the head itself: I'm wondering if it'd add to his unique-ness if I were to omit the skull inside the helm, and replace it with a rough green stuff head. It would have no detail as it'd be painted with Black 2.0, the idea being that it's some sort of void where his head should be, surrounded by his crown/helm/etc. I'm a bit sceptical but would be interested in hearing your ideas.


Thanks for reading this quick update, next one will likely be more Lords of Change, Dreads and Daemons, although I hope to move back towards Thousand Sons in the near future.

Cheers

gobert wrote:The flamers creeping out of the LoCs base is inspired! The bright colours feel very Tzentchian all round and the black 2.0 looks pretty cool if you ask me. So no surprise that I think the hollow man head you’ve described for the DP would be worth a try. Is it something that you can mock up first without damaging the original head?

@tzurk, I though i was down with the kids starting a blog on the internet, and now you tell me it’s old fashioned! Pfft! . I have now belatedly joined insta, but haven’t done anything with it. You lot are just such a friendly bunch!

@valkyrie, tzurk and TH are right, it takes a while to get going on here but the P&M blog section is populated by a good bunch on the whole.

Thanks for the positive feedback. I think the Black 2.0 looks better in photos rather than in reality, and while I'm a bit disappointed as a result I think it's a useful thing to have, and it was only £10 anyway.

The Daemon Prince head is in two parts; the crown which dominates the whole head, and the skull which fits nicely inside. The skull is a bit equine-like so that's why I'm thinking it may be worth finding something else. As it's not glued yet there's no issue with creating a mockup, I think something simple like a mannequin head would have the best result.

tzurk wrote:Hey mate, nice update. I have also lamented the woeful DP kit - especially as a lot of players like to run them in 3s! The Morghast idea is tried and true badassery and interested to see your take on it. The staff is suitably tzeentchy (is he flipping us off??) and the other arm looks like its ready to punch your head off for calling him a bookworm.

I share a distrust in my own GS abilities but the repose looks like a success to me. Black 2.0 on the head sounds interesting; kind of gives me voidwalker vibes from World of Warcraft.

Dreadnoughts are also cool - I didn't know these 1k sons ones existed but they look like a neat kit. I am a huge fan of old box dreads and am excited to see how they turn out!

@gobert, I did too! Instant reactions across the world! Pictures right there on the page! Quotes and links and everything. maybe I am wrong/cynical about this but it does feels to me like forums are starting to slow down all over in favour of places with profiles/followers/monetised product placement

There are a few australian wargaming websites I used to visit years ago that are super uncomfortable to visit now due to lack of activity - it's like a spooky internet ghost town. Where did all the people go...

Anyway! Good stuff Valk, keep it up

Thanks again for the sentiments

The 1k Dreadnought is an older FW kit, I'm pretty sure it's OOP so it's quite difficult to get hold of one, let alone 2. I agree in that there's a good bit of potential with the old box-naughts. While the Contemptor is better in terms of looks, I don't get that sense of nostalgia with it that I got with my first box-naught.

I've admitted that I'm rather a social media hermit, despite being only in my 20's. Perhaps it's time to branch out a bit, try Instagram? I would really have no idea where to begin though in getting the ball rolling, best to do some research first.




Anyway, another quick update after a very lazy yet productive weekend. I guess lockdown does have a perk or two...


Was rummaging through the various sprues and parts I've collected for this project and came across the third head for my Lord of Change. If you want to build the standard LoC you have a single neck with a part to mount it in the centre of the chest; for Fateweaver, each neck makes up part of this mount, so I'm left with a head and no use for it...until now.






I was very dubious about converting this model so far into the painting. I asked around on Facebook and got numerous replies of "don't risk ruining it, try it on your next one". Almost decided against it until I thought "When am I likely to buy another £70 Lord of Change? Sod it, let's go for it!".

The head is mounted on using a crossbeam made from spare sprue inserted into the neck hollow. This gives me space to pin it to the chest. The neck itself has had to be crudely shaved to get the rough shape, and the head itself was rotated to the right to avoid too much similarity with the left-most head. There were substantial gaps between the new neck and chest which were filled with Green Stuff, before Vallejo Plastic Putty was applied to get a smoother look. It's not perfect, and I doubt I'd ever get it absolutely perfect, but I think it's worked very well.

Thanks for reading this quick update, next plan is to get the base colours on the Dreadnoughts and a mockup Daemon Prince head to replace the skull.

Another week in lockdown, another update.

Regarding the Daemon Prince. I did put together a blank alternate head using green stuff, but overall I just wasn't happy with it. Had the overall look of a mannequin with a couple of slits for eyes, which I envisioned to be glowing, but it just didn't look right when put together. I don't think there's enough of a void within the helmet itself to give that effect, even with the super-duper black you can clearly make out that it's a green stuff head.

With that in mind I decided to scrap the head and just go with the original idea. In the meantime I've added a couple of lengths of guitar wire to the neck to fill out that blank spot a bit and to give the impression of cables/tendons. Little messy with the putty but I think the effect works, will post photos in the next update.

I've managed to work on the Hydra-LoC a bit, and am pretty happy with how I've blended the third head into the chest.





I've used Vallejo Plastic Putty which is *much* smoother than green stuff. It's not suitable for load-bearing components IMO but is great at getting a smooth surface, and would definitely recommend it to use in conjunction with green stuff. I think the harsher lighting in this photo emphasises the putty, it's much smoother in reality.

Dreadnoughts are coming together nicely. Not much in terms of posability with these ones, as the legs are all one component which attach to the feet. With my previous Loyalist Dreads I discovered that 3 strategic cuts in the leg allow you much more posability in the legs. With these however not so much Don't judge the Loyalist Dreads too harshly, they're all salvage jobs from about 5 years ago.



I think there may have been a cockup with the primer on the left one however, as some of the detail was a bit obscured, particularly the edging on the torso stripes which I had to rescribe with a very sharp knife. An hour later and with a couple of sliced fingers, I seem to have fixed it.

Decided to give these guys a bit of character with the basing. For one I just kept it simple with a couple of cracks, similar to the LoC. For the other I used some Marine spare parts to make a crushed/buried casualty, in the colours of my own Marine army, which I think is a nice little tie-in.

To wind up this update I've finally got back round to the Rubrics, and the first batch of 5 is nearly complete. I had to redo the Sorcerer's helm after I attempted to do a glowing-eye effect and failed miserably. No matter, I'm still happy with the squad.

In the next week or so I hope to work more on the Rubrics and Scarabs, with hopefully some more progress on Ahriman and the Exalted Sorcerers. If I can muster up the courage to attempt tiny script I'll also get the LoC's staff painted up and attached at last.

Cheers,
Valk

 tzurk wrote:
Three headed LOC came out top shelf mate, well done on a wonderful centerpiece for the army. It seems like such a natural conversion I'm surprised I haven't seen a bunch of them before - inspired stuff!

Nice progress on the box dreads too - the bases are a great way to spice them up. I tried to find your cleanup work on the chestplate but couldn't pinpoint it!

Purple robes are a nice contrast to the rubriks. Everything looking good so far, keep it up!

Thanks very much I admit the LoC was a bit of a bugger to add the extra head, as there was a fair bit of carving and shaping on the third neck to minimise the gaps as much as possible but overall I will blow my own trumpet and say I've done a good job

With the Dreads I think the brown washes have covered up the cleanup work well, I'm more confused as to why the primer suddenly decided to mess it up. Same model, same primer, same circumstances, yet the other one turned out absolutely fine. Weird.

Something big is coming...

Nope, it's something 40k.

So, another week gone, some more updates. How the bloody hell is it February already?

Anyone look at the recent update and try to guess what's within? Probably not the most competitive option but I decided to treat myself to a Defiler! I've always loved the Defiler since I saw it for the first time in 4th Edition. It's just an awesome concept and the model appears to have aged well compared to a lot of the sculpts from the same period.

Putting this thing together is a bit weird however. Starting with the 4 legs they appear to be 2 pairs of slightly different legs, and while the legs are a fixed angle, a dry run of fitting them to the chassis is proving difficult to get them aligned and level.

Moving onto the claws, there appears to be an annoying void in the claw inner face. While this would be barely noticeable on the final model I thought I'd fill it up to make the claw look a bit more substantial.



As you can see it's quite extensive. To save on putty I first filled the void as much as possible with scrap sprue and shavings. A very generous application of plastic glue caused the mass to go a bit rubbery and helped with keeping it below the surface of the final product.



Once this had dried a layer of green stuff was applied and smoothed out as much as possible. It doesn't have to be dead-flat, but it's filled the void up and given a bit of mass to the claw itself.




As well as the Defiler I've been doing the odd bits on the remaining Exalted Sorcerers. I was getting a bit sick of painting the space effect, taking some time away from that aspect has renewed my energy to carry on and here is the next cape to show off.



Pretty happy with this one. IIRC, there's two more to go.


Daemon Princes

I decided to take a step back from the Daemon Prince, particularly as I was stuck in a massive rut as to what colours to go with. Did lots of Googling and I couldn't really find anything I fancied; the vast majority of TS or Tzeench Princes were almost entirely blue, which for some reason I found a bit too comical.

I also had plans to add some extra character to the model when playing about with some Vallejo plastic putty. I applied a very generous amount to a length of wire and after a short drying period, was able to manipulate and pull it about to resemble lightning or warpfire. I took this a step further and created a warp-ball-lightning/blast effect using a large green stuff ball, mounting it as if the Prince is summoning from his staff.



I'll be honest, I wasn't happy with the result. Something just didn't sit right with it. I think it didn't convey the lightning effect as much as I wanted. I have since scrapped it, although I may return to it in the future should I find a better alternative.

Silver linings however, as the delay to putting this guy together found me the *perfect* head replacement. I've mentioned that the Morghast skull itself was a bit too equine for my liking, and I've found an excellent replacement from the Defiler. It's a very Iron Warrior-esque helmet that after some carving fits very nicely in the Morghast helmet.



I admit the metallics haven't come out as planned, perhaps a bit too thick. Not that this is before any significant layers of wash have gone down so I may be able to save it yet.

The silver armour doesn't really tie the model into TS a lot, so I've extended the nebula motif to his wings. I've then gone back over the wing spars(?) with a lighter blue to distinguish them from the blue nebulas, and a blue wash will hopefully make the difference less stark.



For some reason I did have the major shakes trying to paint the wing spars, will go back over them another time to neaten them up.


Well that it for now. If you do read this, please do comment. Any comments and critiques really are appreciated.

 MobileSuitRandom wrote:
Very pretty in a cosmic horror way, so, very Tzeench I actually like the bright wing spars (fingers? that's apparently what they're called with bats), they look like something spidery encroaching upon the stars.

Thanks very much. I do like the metaphor, and I've also learned the proper terminology, so everything's going well

Thanks very much everyone. It was certainly daunting to try putting the third head on the LoC, but as I said, I would almost certainly not be buying another so thought "sod it" and just went for it.

All the units are a bit of a mish-mash at the moment but will definitely try to get an army shot when I can.

Thanks for all the recent comments everyone.

Quick update today, have spent some time putting together the Defiler. The overall chassis is now completed. As I said previously getting the legs in an even and level position is pretty difficult, made worse by the fact that this is an old kit (possibly 3rd Edition era?) and the ball joints are just slightly too loose to get a proper tight fit.

The abundance of useless Zoom meetings for work however gave me plenty of time to get it set. at which point I noticed a couple of key issues:

1. While the 4 legs look identical there's actually 2 pairs, one of which are extended a bit more and as a result slightly longer than the other. While the slightly longer pair is expected to go at the back of the chassis I decided to reverse this as it'd be overall steadier, particularly in regards to my next point.

2. It's quite easy to build this without considering the balance. Once the turret and extra parts are added it does have a pretty unequal weight distribution towards the front, meaning you'll have to position one of the claws to prevent this happening. I was planning on gluing some lead sheet leftover from renovating the roof inside the chassis to act as a counterweight, but in my haste I had glued this pretty firmly before I realised.

Speaking of posing the claws, I do like how there's a real freedom here with your poses. You can for example go with the Paint Caddy




...or The Thinker...




...or the Angry Old Man.




I think overall I'll have to go with the Angry Old Man, just reversed so the Power Scourge has some clearance. As mentioned, one of the claws has to be down to stop this thing tipping forward but I think it'll work.


Have made a couple of additions to the Daemon Prince. I tried going over the fingers on the wings with a blue wash, but it just came out as an uneven stain and didn't work, so I went back over with a stark white instead.




I've also properly fixed him to the base as well as made a few more improvements, such as the warpflame on his staff as well as a wash of Citadel Violet on the skin to tone it down a bit. Next steps would be to finish the warpflame, and I also have a Blue Horror leftover from the Burning Chariot which I'll add to the base.




Thanks for reading folks, until next time.

Cheers mate, you know I did have that thought as well putting the thing together. It's such a tiny head it does look a bit of a joke, might just leave it off in that case. Thanks for the DP feedback, I'm definitely improving my airbrush skills

Thanks mate, think I'll definitely be going for the Angry Old Man, although Paint Caddy would come in handy at times

Been working on a bit of the Lord of Change today, inbetween setting up an Xbox X and getting over the godawful Six Nations loss.

I tried a couple of times to paint the staff with runes and glyphs, but wasn't happy with the result. Tried using decals from the Rubric box (some neat looking Night Lords runes that double nicely as Tzeench glyphs) but they were too regular and big. After the 4th attempt I was getting the hand shakes so decided to go with the nebula effect again:




Looks pretty stellar IMO, and is a nice bit of fluff to go with this unique Lord of Change; The book is a map of the entire galaxy, and every one of the innumerable pages contains a map of a particular site.

Cheers mate, have been thinking up a backstory for him over the last couple of weeks so watch this space!

Not Online!!! wrote:Yeah, that is one nice piece of fluff.
Stuff like that, ties together unique armies.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:If I had thought of making Spacebook, I would have made Spacebook.

Brilliant, very unique.

Dysartes wrote:Come very nice work in here, Valkyrie - how far along your initial project plan would you say you are now?

tzurk wrote:yep, beautiful work on that book mate. Nice design choice and you pulled it off. Green glowy eyes look great too!

gobert wrote:That’s a spectacular fallback plan! Much more in keeping with the theme of the force I think too. Nice one!

Thanks for all the feedback guys. As for the project as a whole I think it's coming together very nicely. My original plan was to have a unit of 20, maybe even 30 Tzaangors, but to me it seems they've dropped down in terms of competitiveness. Next step would be to maybe add another SC Daemons set, that way I have a good unit of 20 Horrors, 6 Screamers, 9 Flamers and a couple of characters to go with them.

For the TS themselves, perhaps another box of Rubrics, although as I've heard rumours that our Codex will be dropping in the next couple of months, may hold back until I hear how they're changing, or if there's any new stuff coming out.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Not yet purchased
In progress/Incomplete unit.
Completed
Not planned/extra purchase

HQ
Ahriman - Disk of Tzeench
Exalted Sorcerer - Disk of Tzeench
Exalted Sorcerer
Daemon Prince with Wings
Lord of Tzeench

Elites
10x Scarab Terminators - 2x Soulreaper Cannons, 2x Hellfires
Hellbrute - Twin Las
Hellbrute - Twin Las
Exalted Flamer

Troops
10x Rubric Marines - Soulreaper Cannon
10x Rubric Marines - Soulreaper Cannon
5x Rubric Marines - Soulreaper Cannon
5x Rubric Marines - Warpflamers
20x Tzaangors - Blades
10x Horrors

Fast Attack
3 Screamers

Heavy Support
Defiler - Twin Las, Scourge
Burning Chariot

 Don Qui Hotep wrote:

 gobert wrote:
Cool plans! I say buy the extras, we always need more minis right?

Sometimes I worry that as Dakkites we're bad influences on each other.

We're all enablers to one degree or another

Apologies for the long wait, quick update with the Defiler:

Went for a spot of magnetising, mainly to make him easier to transport. I went for 5x1mm magnets in the torso, which I had plenty leftover from my various Titanicus projects. Getting the torso flush and level was a bit tricky but eventually it came together nicely.



The Flamers/Scourge were magnetised by replacing the mounting lugs on the torso with 2x 2x2mm magnets, with additional ones placed inside the weapon housing. There's a very slight (around 0.5mm) gap overall but I doubt this can be rectified.



I admit the Flamers look rather messy, have since done some cleaning. I've also inserted a pin between the flamers, just forward of the main join, to provide a bit of strength. I doubt the standard join would hold up to regular movement.



While I do like the provided Autocannons, they're just crap in the rules. Considering a Defiler Twin-Las is now only 10 points(!), why not go for this instead. Ordered a spare Razorback Twin-Las online, replaced the muzzles with the fancy ones from the Chaos vehicle sprue. Unlike the Scourge/Flamers however, these are fully fixed and glued in place.



And here's the overall model. The leg armour has been left off for ease of painting, and the top hatch is currently unglued, debating wherever to add a Havoc Launcher or not.



Thanks for reading, have also been finishing the Exalted Sorcerers so watch this space!

One of the beauties of working from home is when it's dead quiet, as it was today, you can get a couple of hours of painting in. Hence, here's the current progress on the Defiler:




I'm currently reshaping the scourge into something a bit more manageable, and the remaining leg armour has since been attached, but overall I'm happy that I got enough blue in there, and it's not just silver/brass.