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Hmm, some good lookin' Knights you got there.

Knights look great, very dark and grimy looking.

 Nevelon wrote:
Imperial fists. Nothing says veteran like the fists.

Agreed. And your Fists use Anvil Industries models, right? It'll be very easy to get them to look like veterans.

Para, just how many armies have you got??? (I think the sad answer for all of us is not enough).

I love the Grey Knights, they look like they have already created piles of Xenos bodies around the Imperium and beyond.

I appear to have missed the painting challenge thing altogether, how long has this been going on?

First time I have looked in. Very impressed with the choice of colours on the Grey Knights. The understated red, with the vibrant orange and lustrous silver works so well.

Nice Grey Knights there

Thanks, all!

And now for something completely different! All this anti-Chaos with the GK and Harlies has caused a great imbalance in the Force, so for this month's painting challenge I've decided to indulge in a little bit of Heresy with some Veterans of the Long War. I've always had a love-hate relationship with the CSM line; the concept and the newer minis like the Raptors and DV are stunning, but the older kits are sadly less terrifying/chaotic and more, well, spikey.... But with this one-off selection, I've done my best to rectify that, and make a trio of badasses that would give any Guardsman nightmares.

First we have pure CC fighter, big sword and several rather nasty knives. Not much conversion work here, more of a kitbash really.




Next a HB carrier. I've up-armoured his shoulder pad, just plasticard there, and added extra ammo on his backpack. There's also a bit of chaos demon/armour fusion going on, which I may add more of before I paint him.




And lastly, an all-rounder, probably a Chaos Lord of some kind. I've actually used a spare Malifaux had on him, so it's tiny compared to normal CSM heads, but to me manages to get the look of true scale, without all the fuss of chopping and changing sizes/parts around. I don't know if anyone sells heads in this scale, but it would be a decent way of converting truescale Marines without too much bother. Somewhat ironically, this guy is on the same base as last month's entry!






Still a few mold lines and such to sort but I'm pretty pleased with these guys. Paintwise, I think I'll be going with Word Bearers, as I really like the look of them, but I could be persuaded to do World Eaters or Night Lords. I'm also considering adding a demonic portal as a fourth 'model', and doing some kind of display/diorama for them, which may or may not feature piles of dead loyalists!

 Thraxas Of Turai wrote:
Para, just how many armies have you got??? (I think the sad answer for all of us is not enough).

Good question. Let's do a head count:


So, too many, probably!
Is it bad that I want AdMech as well?

I appear to have missed the painting challenge thing altogether, how long has this been going on?

It's something I started up last month: basically, you paint 1-5 models based on a theme, everyone votes at the end of the month, hopefully people are inspired to push themselves and get motivated! It's quite fun, and this month's theme is very open, so if you were planning on painting anything remotely Veterany this month then you can sign up whenever. There's a thread in P&M for the challenge, see there for the full rules ect.

That's your lot for today, guys! As ever, thanks for reading, any thoughts welcome! Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to you too.

The Grey Knights look awesome. When I come around to painting mine I'll steal some of your ideas if you don't mind.

Totally agree with you about the old chaos marine kits, your doing a good job of rectifying it.

Steal away! I stole the overall look (red swords, dark red/maroon accents, rather bright armour) from a few I saw in the gallery here anyway. Step 1 whenever I try a new scheme is always to hit the gallery and 'borrow' any ideas I like the look of!

So many times, I'm tempted to try and do a CSM army and make something better of the older kits, and it can be done, but the amount of work and skill needed on each model is always a bit beyond me. These guys should make some nice shelf-candy at any rate!

The Chaos Lord is my favorite by far. The head looks fine on him.

Yeah head matches the art better and looks like it might actually fit in one of those helmets

Paint happened! Very fun to paint up these chaps, and I think they've come out rather nicely.

First is the HB guy. While I don't plan to dedicate any of these guys to specific gods overtly, I did want to hint at the close ties between the Word Bearers and demons, so this guy has a few Nurgley touches, rust/grime on his armour ect.







And the Lord, who I think is one of my best to date. I painted the head separately, first time I've done that, and it really did make a difference! Faces were one of the things I wanted to improve, and I'm pretty pleased with this one.






Finally, a question on the pics themselves. I did a few on a white background, which look fine on the camera but less good my screen. Then I figured they look better when I put the brightness up, as I normally have it rather low. So the question: do you guys think these pics against the white look better (without fiddling with settings) than the ones above?


As ever, thanks for reading, any thoughts welcome!

I think the pictures with the darker background look better.

Also, said it already, but I'll say it again now that its painted. Love the lord. His banner is awesome, and you used enough blood to look good but not overdone on his cloth and the base.

Nice job, the Lord looks great. I think the darker background suits these over the White one.

Is the head on the Lord from the Guild's Judgement box set? Great conversion though, looks totally Chaos and Horus heresy era.

Agreed on the darker background for these too, far more brooding which matches the paint scheme excellently.

Yep, it's the spare Death Marshal head, I think for the crouching one as he has no hat.

Thanks for the comments, guys! I'll stick to the dark background, the white was just an experiment.

Looking good. The lord especially. Banner, head, blood-splatters, down the line awesome. To the point where I think the bolter and axe get a little lost. But overall I love it.

The HB is good, and I can’t find any fault with it. But nothing about him really catches the eye. One problem with grim and grungy is that it doesn’t “pop”. I’m sure he’ll fit in nicely with a squad, but as a display piece he’s a little shy.

Looking forward to Mr. Stabby getting some paint.

Very fair point about the HB gunner; while I got the look I was going for, the layers/highlights did get lost under the grime. Any ideas on how to add some pop back in? I was thinking some very, very subtle OSL from the gun (and I could try and sculpt a muzzle flash)? But I agree, it does need something else.

I'm now working on converting some DV CSM to add to this lot, and considering adding some Cultists to the mix as well... Oh god, it's happening again!

What I might do is clean up the scrap bolted to his shoulder. It’s obviously not factory issue, so play up the point. Either use it to add a splash of color, or a bright silver, that hasn’t had time to get as weathered as the armor it’s now a part of.

IMHO, YMMV, etc, etc...

Hm, not a bad idea at all! I considered something similar while painting him, actually, so I may go back and change that. If all else fails, I'll just add another layer of highlights.

In addition to the Stabby guy from yesterday, I've put together a Dark Apostle and 2 BP/CCW guys from DV minis, giving me 6 in total. That will hit about 300 points for In The Emperor's Name, which is the ruleset they are most likely to be played in, and that's normal game size for that.

They are looking cracking Para - really nice and battle worn. Loving them. I need to get back and paint my DV Chosen soon - I'm hearing their voices mumbling and muttering to me from the box. lol

Oooo, the chaos models painted up real nice.

The lord looks great! The blood and script on the head are a nice touch.

Thanks chaps! Hopefully I'll get a couple more done tomorrow.

That's a really nice Word Bearer lord there Para. Nice work. And that head from the Malifaux kit works a treat. The black backdrop works best on there I think. White seems to drink most of the colour up for that paint scheme.

They look really good.

If I can make a few suggestions, though... I'd drill out the loyalist helmet that's on the HB guy's base. You might also want to add something a little brighter to the bases so that the figures pop a little more from the bases. You know how people make the bases dull but the figures bright? I find it also works in reverse, and allows dull/more muted figures to stand out more from their bases. Perhaps a little bit of strategically placed static flock to represent grass or moss growing between the flagstones? Or some tufts (Army painter make some good cheap ones - and they come in a variety of shades, because you obviously want to avoid the "supergreen" look regardless. Maybe their "Steppe" and "Highland" shades. For the bloodstains on the Chaos Rock, I'd invest in either some Tamiya Clear Red, or some Blood for the Blood God and add them after you varnish the figure. Add an appropriate amount of brown ink (and even a touch of matt or satin varnish) to get the shade of blood you want (the older dried blood is, the darker and browner it goes).

But yeah, they really do look great. I love the head you used on the champion as well. It (and your paint on it, particularly the inscription tattoos on the side of his head) really adds character to the unit. Not needed, but you could also add a helmet to his hip, as though he's taken it off to survey the battlefield after the current slaughter.

 Azazelx wrote:
.

If I can make a few suggestions, though... I'd drill out the loyalist helmet that's on the HB guy's base. You might also want to add something a little brighter to the bases so that the figures pop a little more from the bases. You know how people make the bases dull but the figures bright? I find it also works in reverse, and allows dull/more muted figures to stand out more from their bases. Perhaps a little bit of strategically placed static flock to represent grass or moss growing between the flagstones? Or some tufts (Army painter make some good cheap ones - and they come in a variety of shades, because you obviously want to avoid the "supergreen" look regardless. Maybe their "Steppe" and "Highland" shades. For the bloodstains on the Chaos Rock, I'd invest in either some Tamiya Clear Red, or some Blood for the Blood God and add them after you varnish the figure. Add an appropriate amount of brown ink (and even a touch of matt or satin varnish) to get the shade of blood you want (the older dried blood is, the darker and browner it goes).

Yep, I think the helmet needs brightening, and I could certainly add something else to the base; I'm getting more used to it, but I'm still in bad habit of thinking of basing as afterthought. As for the blood, it actually is BFTBG!

But yeah, they really do look great. I love the head you used on the champion as well. It (and your paint on it, particularly the inscription tattoos on the side of his head) really adds character to the unit. Not needed, but you could also add a helmet to his hip, as though he's taken it off to survey the battlefield after the current slaughter.

I considered it, as done right it can look cool, but I just felt the model was in danger of getting crowded. In that area you already have the axehead, loincloth, grenade and pouch, so I'm not sure the helmet would really fit anywhere.

Thanks for the tips, this is all helpful stuff on these and future models, as I really am trying to improve at the moment!

Oh, I think the Crimson Fists(?) helmet works fine as-is. Adding a bit of flock or tufts would add the colour as well as a touch of "softness" to what can otherwise be a rather harsh and barren-looking base. Even better if you've got detailed bases like yours as opposed to my slack-arse drybrushed sand bases, but have a look here to see what I mean.

Like on the war machines, or the ogre bases here:
https://azazelx.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/war-machines-of-minas-tirith/
https://azazelx.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/classic-c23-citadel-ogres-for-kings-of-war-unit-2-ogre-berserkers/

An update!


Not much of one, but an update nonetheless! Got the 3rd Word Bearer done, but I think that even more than the HB guy, he suffers from a lack of anything to really draw the eye. I tried to add some other colour with the collection of heads hanging from the right shoulder, but I'm tempted to remove it as I'm not sure it works.





There he is, any thoughts welcome!


Also managed to get some group shots and a couple of better individual pics of the others. I'm thinking I may just enter the Lord on his own in challenge, though.







I'm going to take a little break from these guys for a bit, as I'm still not entirely happy with that third guy, so now on deck is a new Sanguinary Priest for my BA (JP-equipped and will be paintjob to match Sanguinary Guard) and the Harlies keep glaring angrily from the back of the desk!

Thanks for reading!

Of the three I like the lord the best. It might be that he has the relatively clean banner/head/tabard to set of the muted tones of his armor. For Mr. Stabby, You might want to consider cleaning up the “purity” seal on his shoulder. I think the use of either the banner or tabard technique/colors from the lord would add a little spot of “pop” to the guy. Right now it just sorta blends in with the rest of the mini and feels like a lost opportunity.

I like the little touches on the base.

Overall good work. I always feel a little bad nit-picking nice looking models. He’s solid, and an army painted to that standard would be a joy to face off against.