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It has been soooo long since I posted anything here, on any topic, that it felt bad resurrecting the old painting threads... recently all the painting I've been doing is bulk painting WFB night goblins with contrast paints so I've not felt the desire to showcase them, or talk about them much. I really need to do something that involves more detailed painting and some conversions again... and the Eldar I started a while back just aren't scratching that itch. I strongly suspect mostly because I just went ahead and built a lot of stuff, and I now have a wall of grey staring me in the face... so I'm returning to an old love, the Inquisition . The intention behind this new blog is to approach things one or two figures at a time, and rather than aim for a full army that I'll never use... just build up some story around the individuals and have some fun! The other intent is to actually remember to write down painting recipes so I can be more consistent... the number of times I've painted up half an army and then forgotten which colours I used and can't replicate it again!

Things will range from pure plastic kit-bashing through to pure 3d printing... and anywhere in between!

As I want this to cover the full spectrum of the inquisition, I will also start touching up and rebasing some of my old inquisitors and retinue so things are consistent... so you will see some bits come past that look familiar at times to keep the blog flowing if I'm having one of those weeks!

If you don't see progress, or I start taking short cuts on things... POKE me

Tutorial bits

Quick Black armour

[Reserved for the Inquisition... I mean Character index!]
Click the image for a closer look at the diagram (latest update: 26/11/23)



- Inquisitor Travor
- Deathwatch - Rodricus Grytt - Heavy Intercessor/Frag Cannon
- Deathwatch - Vael Donatus - Intercessor
- Deathwatch - Captain Orpheo - Terminator
- Seneschal Taran
- Deathwatch - Lt Aelius

One of the first things that I'm looking at for this is the age old problem of painting black space marine armour as I want some Deathwatch to accompany my inquisitors. Years back I did paint up two marines that I was really happy with, but in the typical memory-like-a-fish manner, I can't remember how I painted them to repeat it!



There's a youtube painter that I quite like for his fairly simple videos and style, JuanHidalgo. He did a 3 step guide to painting black armour (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUM1ShfnrD0) but it's taking a few goes to work out the correct ratio of GW contrast to medium as he uses a different make of paint in the video

The first one uses a 1:2 mixture of black to medium, which feels too dark as you can't see much of the underlying highlights done to the armour


The second is a 1:3 mix, which feels too thin as it's quite grainy on the light points


Neither are quite what he has, so I suspect I need to re-undercoat and try again with something between the two over the weekend

Always excited to see more =][= stuff. Good luck with your Marines!

While looking back through the old threads for some details on the bits I have previously created (checking if there was any back story), I came to the horrible realisation that the last time I *actually* played 40k was 5th edition. That's kinda scary...

Anyway. One of the things I want to do as part of this project is to slowly recreate Kill Team Casius, after they have crossed the Rubicon Primaris. First up is Rodricus Grytt, the Imperial Fist ex-devestator with Frag Cannon. As the frag cannon arms are designed for an old-marine they are a little thinner (though not by much), but the shoulder mounts are too small to take the heavy intercessor pads. Thankfully I managed to find an stl for an adapter!



The shoulders are not yet glued on as I can't decide if I go hand painted, or wimp out and go 3d pads for the chapter symbols...

In the past I've painted a grant total of *one* chapter pad and, despite being really fiddly, looking a bit wobbly and taking 3 goes... looks nicer than the 3d one on the left



So I started to try out painting some blank pads I had kicking around. I suspect this may take some time...

Nice job freehanding those symbols!
The Fist is particularly good.

Thanks! There's still a way to go before I'm happy with the freehanding thing, but at least with the blank pads I can just 3d print a metric tonne of them to keep painting until I get a good one

I did a bit more work on Rodrycus today, so he can go for an undercoat tomorrow. The original version had a cyberskull on his pack, so it would have been weird if he'd lot it in the intervening years. The head came from the Lieutenant with storm shield, which is pretty close to the original head too.



While I was fiddling around I also managed to put the final bits onto Vael Donatus, the Ultramarine from Kill Team Cassius. Though I've just spotted the seam line down his leg... I'll clean that one up first! The legs/torso came from the Lieutenant with power sword, and the ultramarines style pteruges came from the new Lieutenant. That is one nice kit... the number of options in there is rare for a new GW kit. I suspect a few more of these will be bought over time



And just because... I started fiddling around with a Cawdor juve, Jesska Landrin, that has been hired by a particularly devout Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor on their way through the underhive...



She is made up of some Cawdor bits and a Repentia. I think there's a bit more work to do on her, but she's a fun low level character that can also be used in a Redemptionist or Cawdor gang

I like the hive ganger. No inquisitorial retinue is complete without a few psychopaths running around in rags and a homemade weapon.

Thanks! She's not *quite* there, but it's a good start to something interesting

I've started to play around with the blacks. The photos are not doing it justice... so hopefully it'll look better in the final photos when they are finished! These are still very much WIP, but it shows that there's some progress!




For my record, they are still being done using the method linked in the opening post:

- Black undercoat
- Heavy drybrush of Thunderhawk Blue
- Light drybrush of Fenrisian Grey
- Edge highlights with Fenrisian Grey
- Coat of Black Legion/Contrast medium 1:2 mix
- Final edge highlights of Fenrisian Grey

I think I might try it with Black Templar contrast instead to see if that makes any difference on future models.

While I was playing around with the blacks on the Deathwatch marines I took one of my older figures that got painted *really* quickly and was a bit sloppy as an early experiment with contrasts (first image) and have started to improve things a bit (second image). There's still a lot more work to do on him, but already I think he's looking better



Photography seems to be a bit terrible tonight... just as well these are quick WIP updates!

On the plus side, today I got a rather nice delivery from Europe that contained a full box of the new Primaris Space Marine Heroes set (Full set!) and the Lieutenant Titus model from the Space Marine board game. All of these are going to be Deathwatch-ed at some point. A quick look at the sprues and they are all really nice. Shame some of the feet are on the bases though... it's going to make it harder to match them up to any other bases that I do

I really like the process you have for painting black armor, it has a very crisp feel to it. The contrasting yellow and red on the knee pads help break it up well (not to mention the tabard on the Ultramarine).

Great thread you have going here!

Thanks! The colours pop more irl, those photos are really weirdly coloured

Sadly due to a nasty case of covid this week there has been no progress on anything... not even planning!

As such, it is time to dredge up the first of the original Crusade that some of you may remember from the dim, distant past of Dakka... way back, when the early plastic magic users first came out, before the destruction of the Old World (yes, that long ago kids), there was a meeting of minds and skills... a gauntlet thrown down. Take one of those wizards and make them 40k! This, dear friends, was my entry:

+++ BEGIN TRANSMISSION : INQUISITOR TRAVOR, ORDO SEPULTURUM +++

It began in the Malfian region... the mining moons were slowly going silent. No more minerals, no more daily reports... just deathly silence and static. News of this reached me via my contacts that this might be more than the pirates that the local governor assured us was the cause. His claims to have it in hand, just before another fell quiet were too placating.

I drafted the services of a near-by Rogue Trader that I (somewhat) trusted and, using the guise of enterprise, we managed to enter the mining belt to analyse the quality of the ores across the different moons. During our investigation of the third moon, if you can call something the size of a small asteroid a moon, it became clear that it was no pirates; but the work of heretics. The local governor had become enthralled by the powers of Nurgle and was slowly turning each mine into a festering nursery for Plague Zombies.

Full details of the action will follow, but we managed to extract ourselves, along with a portion of the local Guard and uninfected population that have since accompanied me in my harassment of the fleeing filth. The Grey Knights were called in to purge the site shortly before the Terminus Est arrived... no doubt expecting a restock of zombies.

We still pursue the former Governor, decades later... we fear what he is up to now... the experiments that we have found over the recent years have included heresies of all kinds, including Xenos interactions, cult uprisings and even time anomalies. While these are all highly disturbing, it has also brought us into contact with allies of all kinds; some of whom would have me terminated for heresies of my own...

--- TRANSMISSION END ---



The original work on him and the original Malfian concept can be seen in the old old old thread, though that army is long gone and the background has likely changed. Also please don't resurrect that thread with comments

Oh, also. He won the competition against some *very* good models!

This week I've managed to get a bit more done on Brother Rodrycus and the updates to the wise old sage...




Rodrycus has a bunch of extra pouches stuck all over him as what self respecting Deathwatch squad goes in unprepared?!

The shoulder pad is now on and had a little bit of a touch up in places. The next step for these two is to add a bunch of weathering to them. Given they are on desert bases, I have some ash waste and sand powders that I can use to add a bit of grime to them. Rodrycus' shoulder pad needs some scratches adding to cover up some of the less good bits... but it's recognisable so I'm pleased.

I needed some bases for these two to stand on, so I made a bunch and started to paint them as it's an easy task to do while listening in to calls without losing focus. I've gone for desert basing to fit in with the Tallarns (if I decide to keep them). Plus it has the added benefit of making the black armour more visible... dark bases would just blend in



These are a base coat of Vallejo Iraqui Sand, drybrushed with Wraithbone and some shading done in places with devlan mud or other browns.

They will get weathering powders on them as well when the figures are dirtied up, so they look like they are walking through the dust.

The other good meeting task is the drybrush undercoat layers for the blacks. In the earlier photos you only got to see the after view. This is what the dreadnought looks like at the moment. I think I want to do some final bright bright edge highlights before putting the black on to see if that makes things pop a bit more.



The scrappy drybrush look that you can see on there looks bad now, but actually looks pretty cool under the black contrast layer as it adds some weathered texture to the black. The base was looking rather plain, so I cut up one of the *many* termagants that I have from the Space Marine board games I picked up from a nice man in Germany. I suspect more will appear on future bases. Very tempted to have some heads mounted on the dreadnought somewhere...

I finally got around to doing some more painting, and have finished the Primaris version of Rodricus Grytt from Kill Team Cassius. I wanted to have a pure Primaris scale Deathwatch team. I really like the character of Kill Team Cassius from the old deathwatch board game, but they look so small compared to the Primaris figures... so they need to cross the rubicon and become the equivalent version of the new infantry types.

I'm unsure about the dusty feet... it ties into the base nicely, but doesn't look quite as good as I wanted.

Rodricus Grytt

Rodricus hails from the Imperial Fists Chapter, and at time of joining was a Devastator who, surprisingly, refused becoming Captain of the 9th Company to instead serve in the Deathwatch. He has a love of heavy weaponry, his favorite being a Frag Cannon.

In M41 Rodricus Grytt took part in the purging of a Genestealer Cult on Ghosar Quintus as part of Kill Team Cassius.

When the opportunity came to return to his Chapter, he again refused and opted to cross the rubicon primaris instead and remains part of Kill Team Cassius in Heavy Intercessor armour... still carrying his beloved Frag Cannon.

Looking good!

Thanks!

This morning I managed to put the final touches on the next one of Kill Team Cassius (Primaris edition). This time it is the Ultramarine, Vael Donatus. This one was a pretty simple kit bash. The rest are all more complex, especially the Iron Hands one as there are no primaris scale bionic legs that I can find :/



And here's Kill Team Cassius so far...

Today a Terminator Captain, Orpheo of the Inceptors, joins the crusade's detachment of Deathwatch

Orpheo is part of the Inceptor's regular secondments to the Deathwatch, following the shame of their near annihilation at the hands of the Minotaurs during the Macharian Heresy. Unsurprisingly, he still holds a grudge against any Minotaurs that he may serve alongside during his secondment...




I'm slightly happier with the freehand on his shoulder pad than the one on Vael Donatus. Still not perfect, but getting better!
I tried the trick I saw online about sketching out the design with watercolours, painting over with GW paints and then using a bit of water to lift the watercolour... unfortunately it also lifted some of the paint on top of the watercolour... I need to give this another go and leave it longer, but it was annoying!

On the plus side, one of the guys in the DW group on Facebook had a neat idea for tracking progress of his Watch. I've stolen the idea and will keep this up to date as the detachment grows; hopefully this will get me to try and do different chapters rather than the same few over and over again. I'll keep the first post up to date with the latest, by the links to each finished marine, or Inquisitorial agent.

You will need to zoom in a bit to see this properly

Rather than paint yet another space marine (there are more coming!), I finished off the figure that I was originally thinking was a sage type character, but he's now going to be a seneschal for a rogue trader crew. The model is an stl from Ghamak on MyMiniFactory.

Seneschal Taran



Taran is the man Rogue Trader Orlastan relies upon for all of the negotiations. Some underestimate him as just another paper pusher, but Taran is a shrewd man, capable of turning any situation to his benefit.

Lovely work!

Thanks! I need to get back to doing more of the inquisitorial agents.

I thought I'd finished the Reiver Lt from the latest 40k box, but looking at the picture below, the blue knee pad feels unfinished, plus it's the second Ultramarine in quite a short period of time... so back to the painting table he goes!



A bit of research shows that the Ultramarines were not the only chapter that has Tyrannic War veterans. There are about 6 different chapters that seem to also fit the bill, but the Imperius Reavers specialise in hunting xenos... so this seems to make the most sense.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
It was a quick fix on the knee pad so he has gone from Ultramarine to Imperius Reavers.

Lieutenant Aelius

Like a lot of his chapter brothers, Aelius has dedicated his life hunting xenos whenever and wherever he could. He was a member of the Imperius Reaver contingent that took part in the 3rd Tyrannic Wars fighting along side Cassius and the Ultramarine veterans. Since passing the rubicon, Aelius has spent a lot of time training and serving with the various Vanguard units, improving their expertise in fighting Tyrannids and Genestealer cults. It is this knowledge and expertise that keeps him near Chaplain Cassius



The latest Kill Team chart now includes Aelius.

Way back in the dim dim (just over 10 years ago!!?) I made a start on a very specific inquisitorial retinue, but got stuck on one key model, so the whole thing got boxed up and put away. Moving offices around a few months ago unearthed him and sparked the realisation that now I have a 3d printer... all things are possible

Back in 2012 the idea of Inquisitor Gale, from the Ordo Hereticus was introduced to the world with her retinue. Most of the retinue didn't get fleshed out much, but the dreadnought Stannum Lignarius did get started.



And at him the whole thing ground to a halt because I just couldn't make a dreadnought scale axe and it frustrated me no end. Thanks to the joys of 3d printing, and people that design computer game weapons on Thingiverse... I now have a dreadnought scale axe that may possibly be from God of War (excuse the shoddy photo, but you get the gist of shape and scale



No-one really knows which chapter Stannum Lignarius is from as he won't talk, and has scrubbed his armour of all imagery except for the sculptural axe and tree iconography that decorate his armour. None of this seems to match known chapters, and his archaic Contemptor casing means he truly is ancient.



Internet cookie for the first person that wasn't part of the original conversations to work out the references

Ahhh time, my second worst enemy! Second only to memory...

Three more marines were finished over the Christmas period. We now have representation from the Black Templars, The Sky Wardens and the Raven's Watch






I'm happy with the way the black armour is starting to come out... but less happy with the freehand on the pads (or even the shading on the Sky Warden), so I think I need to take a step back from these and work out what's going on and what the plan is for the pads going forwards as I've got about 8 other marines on the painting desk with the armour done... but I can't bring myself to do pads :/

Lovely work all around. The dreadnought looks amazing.

Thanks! I "just" need to finish the dark eldar on the dreadnought. I suspect pinning is required as the one on his back *keeps* snapping off at the wrist!

Which, looking back up the thread is missing from the photos! There's supposed to be one holding onto the back of the autocannon, about to fire a fusion pistol into the top of the dread

The Contemptor is intense! Heck of a build.

Well heck. I really need to get back to this and give it a bit more love!

With the upcoming release of Kill Team, and the dulling down of Deathwatch as a 40k force, I am trying to focus my hobby butterfly on creating a bunch of small teams to use as it lets me bounce from thing to thing. The intent (we will see how long this lasts) is to try and focus on one or two figures at a time so I don't look at the pile of undercoated things and have St00-pid-Brain(TM) go into standby.

The main thing I want to do to support this is to create Team bases that can be used to keep score of how much progress is being made towards each mini project



This is the prototype layout, with basing for a Brood Brother team with all of the potential command options. There are a few tweaks that need to be made to this as it's a little too thin. I made it the right height *before* considering the details being cut into it, so I need to make it about 1-2mm thicker. I think I can make the cut between bases and display plate smaller as well, so the bases line up more easily. The plan is to also have a variety of backdrops that can be used, so I can add team detailing and make it something that will photograph well.

Not sure why I started with this one, given that I have the Marine kill teams in progress... but that shows the focus already wavering

there are a bunch of new marines ready for photographing, so I'll try and do that later today


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, I said there were some WIP marines that were being worked on. When they are figure sized... they look nice and clean; nearly finished. At this size... ooof... that's messy!



These three are all still WIP, so messy is ok... for now. they still need some damage, some detailing and final highlighting done on the armour. Two of them also still need chapters deciding... the third is from the Emperor's Spears chapter

Glad to see you returning to this. I amd also quite fond of Deathwatch stuff and your models look fantastic.

Thanks! Hopefully it will stat to include other things once this batch of DW are complete as I need a change from black and more black (especially after painting up a Night's Watch starter set for ASoIaF)

I took the jump pack off the Black Templar assault intercessor as that's currently not a supported *thing* for Kill Team. The body for this one is an STL, it just seemed too cool to not use



There is one more standard AI, of an indeterminate *green* chapter. I'm open for suggestions on this one as I still need to clean him up a bit and do some detailing, so iconography can be added.



And finally, an AI sergeant made from the Lieutenant Titus figure from the Space Marine board game. I have a spare, so there will be a proper Titus in DW armour coming at some point. This one is Mentor Legion



Why do I have so many WIP figures?! (this isn't the end of it!)

I love deathwatch (Had an army once, sold it, don't really regret it as the fun was in the making). Your colors are looking vibrant and I love the non standard action poses!

Thanks! the Deathwatch are fun to pull together. I do need to find more bits to add some more chapter variety onto them, rather than just the pads though. At some point I'll do an ebay hunt for interesting little bits and bobs like the wolf tails or dark angel bits. Probably after doing some other Kill Teams first though.


Here's a WIP version of a primaris scale Cassius to join the other two at the start of the thread. Things I can see from this that need fixing is mainly the skin tone... that looks terrible!



And an Infernus from an as-yet-undecided chapter

Managed to get a bit of painting done last night and finished some of the above WIP models

The Infernus now hails from the Nemesis chapter, and the Intercessor from the Emperor's Spears.

Looks like the freehand skull isn't coming out quite as nicely on the photos than in IRL (typical). The white looks quite solid when it's small... honest!

The blue for the Intercessor is, perhaps, a bit too dark for the Spears, but it'll do for now



Chaplain Cassius got a bit of rework as well, so he's a bit tidier, and can now join the other two members of Kill Team Cassius in Primaris scale




And in a complete change of colour.... oh wait. *face/palm*

I also managed to get the basing done on a Striking Scorpion squad that can join my slow Ynnari force, and act as half of an Eldar Kill Team

Given that the marines and scorpions got finished, I wanted to do something a little less *black* before going back to the last few Deathwatch bits that are in the queue.

This was originally built as a preacher for my Cawdor/Redemptionists, but can also double as a preacher nor demagogue for an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor. I wasn't in the mood for painting red, so she's going for a much cooler blue/grey tone to hopefully help her stand out.



I tried experimenting with the Army Painter Speed Paint Metallics on the chain axe and her chest plate. Have to say so far... they cover nicely but there's no depth to them, even when presaded with slapchop. to get any depth on the chestplate I had to add some black washes.... which negates the benefits of preshaded speed/contrast paint. I think I need to practice more with them to see what is necessary to get any depth


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, the other thing that I'm doing to try and keep things moving a little bit *this* time... given that I'm using Kill Team as a reason to build and paint all these things, I'm starting to create the various teams on KTDash and using it as a planner and finished gallery

https://ktdash.app/u/endtransmission


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just been going through Dakka again, reminding myself what I've missed... and one of those is the monthly challenges. So I'm going to resurrect an old project and set a really *tight* deadline by joining the "Absolute Unit" painting challenge this month. I know I've not got much time lieft.. and that I'm in the office most of the week, and out in the evenings... but I want to see how far I can get with it anyway.

I thought I'd built this thing tail end of last year, but it seems to have been hanging around since April 2022 which is terrible!