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Thanks fellas!

She's finished.

Vex, Her Love Egg Unrelenting

In her silence, we heard the screaming of stars.
In her light, we saw our flesh flayed into radiance.

In her motion, halos turned, slicing soul from mortal coil.
In her stillness, we beheld the promise of eternity.

In her silver shell, desire was made divine.
In her pulse, we felt the undoing of reason.

In her gift, we were remade.
In her wound, we found the sweetest ecstasy.

In her worship, we became worthy.
In her love, we found our doom.
And we rejoiced.













I'm also working on some terrain for this months' painting competition - Weathered. I've thrown some gubbins on those cheapo storage crates I showed a while back, given them some colour and a wash with craft acrylics. They're darker in real life; I think the next step is to sponge on some highlights and then re-wash and see how we're looking.





Thanks for looking and happy painting everyone 8-)

Oh yes that is spot on. Reminds me of a lot of the Daemonic entities in Dan Abnetts books. Very otherworldly and alien.

Really like the colour scheme.

Thanks Olthannon!

Otherworldy and alien is pretty much the brief. A departure from the very Moorcockian Chaos of the model range towards a more Lovecraftian view - in the "eldritch and unknowable" sense rather than a tentacley one.

I've never really settled on a headcanon of whether these are the true forms of the daemons underneath or instead of all the "responsive to human emotion" stuff, or the end result of a mortal mind trying to comprehend something truly incomprehensible - translating it into something mundane to avoid going mad from the revelation. I'm sure I've had other thoughts along the way but these are the two competing theories in my head at the moment.

Anyway, it had been a few years since I'd done anything new for the army so it feels nice to add her to the shelf!

Copy pasted below update from the painting contest thread because I'm really happy with how its turning out:

Been playing around with the best way to get photos of the terrain, and I've gone from too light to too dark, but this captures where we're at with the weathering much better. I'll show them off together and spoiler the rest for cause there's quite a few massive pics.

Just some detail work to do now - pipes and lenses and so on. Though I've also got half a jar of Vallejo Thick Mud that I'm tempted to use to crust up the bottom sections and cake around the greebling...we'll probably see how we're going for time at the back end of the month.





Thanks for looking and happy painting everyone 8-)

The demonic horrors look so bloomin good in that latest group shot! Truly scary, makes me think of a line in Lovecraft where someone was lost to 'an impossible angle of geometry'.

Thanks Ragsta! Glad you like them. It's always fun to get a few of them together for a group pic.

Terrain's all done - still undecided if I want to give it some mud.
















Have also finished off the Ascended Sleeper and the second-last farseer for my Seer Council. Just have the Sotha Sil lookalike to go.

Gonna take a moment and congratulate myself for being so productive lately! Hoping to continue that moving forward.







Thanks for looking and happy painting everyone 8-)

Yay! More weird alien beings to terrorize the battlefield.

I love the terrain scratchbuilding there. Half the battle is finding a suitable shape that isn't quite identifiable. The use of bits is excellent.

Thanks blockade! I'm happy to hear the effect comes off because I honestly was just trying to create a general steampunky vibe in broad strokes and wasn't trying to hard with these ones to create anything that held up to particular scrutiny.

Got my last seer finished, and with him the seer council - so took some group pics. The white cloth nearly killed me - eventually gave up trying to fix it. Parts of the robes look nicer than others and that's life!





Gang's all here.



Farseers/cephalopod helmet crew



Warlocks - posted these already but felt weird to leave them out



Extras - spiritseer/Eldrad/back-up whatever



Where to next? More Exodites, probably - I've primed all the models I've built now to slowly work my way through them. Maybe some leaders, maybe some CHAFF for the next monthly painting contest.

Thanks for looking and happy painting everyone 8-)

These are amazing. Like the cuthulu one

Excellent progress mate. Those seers look amazing, especially the glowing green bits. I thought one of them was actually LEDs!
The packing crate building turned out great as well, lots of cool details added.
As for the geo-daemons, I’ll skip over them as I don’t want nightmares :’(

What brilliant pictures! The Seers look really nice all grouped up like that, some truly alien visages in there and the painting is so much fun!

Terrain piece is a total win- it looks fine as is but adding mud wouldn't harm it. Ultimately up to you

I salute your productivity! Trying to grind through 60 (!!!) Flexberg Guardsmen here...

Thanks fellas!

Good luck Ragsta - after my own guard army, my batch painting days seem to be thankfully over.

Good news for terrain lovers, I've made some more.







It matches pretty well with the old stuff.



I also got some work on some basic troopers - a mix of Guardians and Dire Avengers, as part of the September painting challenge themed around "Chaff". The closest thing to batch painting I've done in a while, though they were mostly done 2 at a time across various stages of the painting process. I'm not sure that I'm sold on the green gun tubes - I might go back and repaint them tan/brown or something.






This month the painting contest is Halloween themed, so I'm going to try and get my Dark Reapers done.



Slow and steady progress here. Thanks for looking and happy painting everyone 8-)

tzurk,

Nice terrain and a totally unique army.

Cheers,

CB

Looking great. Working with older models can be a challenge with all the knowledge we've accumulated today that doesn't always quite match the not as crisp lines and flow of some of the older sculpts.

Good work tzurk. I for one like the green tubing, adds a nice pop of colour. The blue on the 4th one gets a bit lost imho. So I guess it depends what you’re after; subtle or garish

I am glad I found this.
Man your scratch builds are inspirational!
Such a cool idea well executed. Your color schemes for projects are spot on, you have the eye for it for sure.

Thanks everyone!

The green has grown on me. It helps differentiate the two units of standard troopers. One, the Buoyant Armigers, with the green tubes and glass armor, the other, standard elven ashland exodites.

I "finished" the Dark Reaper's for last month's Dakka painting challenge; though I think a few of these guys will get another go over with shading/highlights to create a bit more contrast.





And I wasn't going to enter this month's until tzurk jr started coming down with a flu last night. Smashed through most of the silt strider (Falcon/Wave Serpent proxy) while he napped it off today. It's a bit rushed, but it's done

One day I'll learn how to take a good photo.









Still in the process of moving house so not a lot getting done - hopefully that changes over the Christmas holidays. Thanks for lookin' and happy painting everyone 8-)

I love the Reapers’ style, fun combo of bits with them too.
Sorry your wee one has been poorly but the Silt Strider is looking awesome! I like that wee beastie on irs base. I feel like some tall fronds on the base would help compliment this model, like aquarium plastic ones of a complimentary colour? Or maybe some dead trees…

EDIT: Good luck with the move!!

Thanks Ragsta!

That's an absolute eureka moment - I reckon you are spot on with the base needing a bit of zhuzhing.

There are a few plants from Morrowind that spring to mind, but I think the deep crimson/purple of scathecraw will do the job here.



Will have to scour the local petstores in the next few days to hopefully get new pics before the end of the month. Thanks for the inspiration!

Wow, the conversions continue. Those forces are very unique, and well themed.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks CB! Means a lot coming from someone with an Eldar collection like yours.

Aquarium plants to the rescue for the silt strider's base. Thanks for the tip, Ragsta!

He's all wrapped up.













Thanks for looking and happy painting everyone 8-)

The geometric demons are truly disturbing.

The bug strider is great too!

No,no,no Morrowind. Not again.
Great job, Silt strider are amazing. With base and plants it's more like diorama

Amazing work Tzurk, especially the bug exodite!

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments!

better go roll up a new character, kabaakaba...

Some more sinister geometry going on in the background - a Slaaneshi daemon prince and foot herald.







They are a quick paint so will hopefully roll through them and then back to some more Exodites.

Thanks for lookin and happy painting everyone 8-)

Love the texture on the silt strider, looks truly creepy crawly. The purple fronds certainly worked great on the base.

I’ll look away for the geometric daemons since I’m sleeping on my own at the moment

The added plants look great, so pleased I could help! Personally I might have added more but I really like the current effect.

Thanks guys!

Got some paint on our Slaaneshi friends. I forgot to get a good photo of the other side, but the star swirl on the prince is blue on one side, purple on the other.

Behold - Daemonettes (ex-furies), and a Slaaneshi foot herald and daemon prince - with a bit of fluff below as is usual for finished geo-daemons.

On that note - if anyone's interested, I've started to compile all my fluff in the one place on the Dakka Fiction board here - mostly so I don't have to scroll through 20 pages of blog to find the individual bits I've written: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/817961.page











The elevator hummed. Jaymak was whistling.

Inquisitor Dramb risked a glance at his timepiece.

Four minutes had passed since he'd entered the lower lobby of the hab-tower.

Forty-eight minutes had passed since he'd left Watch Home Nine.

Sixty-three minutes had passed since Watch Home Nine had received the alert - a confirmed warp spike.

Which meant that slightly less than sixty-four minutes had passed since the middle Tellor kid in Unit 4949 had summoned the daemon.

Sixty-four minutes. There would be a lot of blood.

Inquisitor Dramb, outwardly square breathing, inwardly reciting a favourite verse from the Litany of His Light, rested a hand on his pistol grip.

The humming stopped. The whistling continued as the doors slid open.

4900 on the left. 4901 on the right. Locked down, double grates.

Bootsteps rang out hollow against the aluminium floor - his own, and Jaymak's more delicately behind.

4949 was easy enough to find. It was the beginning of a trail of visceral carnage, linking door to door to the end of the hall and around the first corner.

Distantly danced silence with screams.

They found her in the hallway, leaving behind the mess of the Maher family in 4996.

Her because when she left the unit, blinding fast at first, then stopping dead to stare at Dramb and Jaymak - it was Dramb's mother.

Her brown hair was slick with blood that drew its curls straight at the ends as they splayed across her naked breasts.

Dramb felt like he'd been hit in the chest by a mortar.

Her bare feet tracked bloody footsteps down the hall - and before Dramb could finish a sharp inhale of shock she was on him and he was on the floor. Her fingernails screeched against his breastplate, rending trails in the plasteel as she squeezed him between her thighs.

The excruciating pressure on Dramb's hips was release moments before they splintered - a ball of electrified plasma skimmed barely a foot over Dramb's nose and buried itself into his mother's exposed abdomen.

She flew off him as quickly as she'd approached. For a moment she stood on her haunches, leaning against the wall, as if she was rearing for another attack - and then there was a second hiss from two steps behind, and her head snapped back as a second bolt made direct contact with her face.

For a moment, Dramb was suddenly very far away, and very long ago. He lay across a merry-go-round, at the playground near his school. His mother lay there too, her head next to his, her scent floral and comforting, her breathing slow - and square. Together they watched a spacecraft bus its way gently out of orbit.

"A freighter," said his mother.

"A star fighter," said Dramb, eyes full of stars.

He felt his mother smiling, felt her fingers reach out and stroke his arm gently.

"Neat trick, that," said Jaymak - breaking the reverie as she holstered her pistol.

Dramb glanced slowly over.

"Dressing up as Mira."

Dramb's look was blank, uncomprehending.

"Mira Lovelane? From the Return to Rolstav holodramas? And Remember Me Tender?"

Jaymak ran her fingers through her hair, flipping her fringe back over her crown.

"I almost couldn't bring myself to shoot her. She's an absolute stunner. I had posters of her all over the walls of my old place."

Dramb stared down at the corpse of his mother - charred holes burned in her face and belly.

"Yeah," he said. His mouth was bone dry. "Neat trick."

Jaymak whistled the entire fifty-one minute trip back to Watch Home Nine.

I'm a big fan of your concepts and ideas. I always lurk this thread but never post.

You have a serious level of creativity

These geometric daemons really are creepy, the new slaaneshi ones being no exception

Thank you, Stevefamine! I appreciate you taking the time to comment and I'm glad you've been enjoying the ride.

Thank you gobert, that's the brief!

A bit of a change of pace - I've managed to get my fleet of tonks painted up for this month's DakkaDakka painting challenge. It feels like years ago I built these and they've just been gathering dust on the shelf.

I've got some fluff bouncing around in my head for the world they live and battle in, the different factions etc.

My tonks setting takes a lot of inspiration from Netstorm: Islands at War - an old multiplayer game that I loved as a child and, I believe, never really got the attention and praise it deserved on a wider scale.

My setting is called Sambar, aka the Blasted Lands - an ash and storm-filled continent of desperate tribes trying to survive in a world of limited resources, hyper-aggressive neighbours, and a constant need to stay on the move.

For a thousand years, there was relative peace between the two main factions of the land. Though they shared a long history as one tribe split along theological lines - differing methods in a relentless search for their god who had abandoned them - eventually the tribe split and parted ways in search of answers. The priest-scientists of Sambar controlled the ports and cities along the the eastern coastline, harnessing pure storm energy into crystallised power and weaponry. Great Houses vied for political supremacy both among themselves and against the temple hierarchy.

To the east, in sprawling cities carved underneath the great mountains above, the mage-lords of Belsambar communed with the spirits and the stars in their pursuit of the divine.

Eventually, growing tensions between the two nations led to a theological arms-race, resulting in Sambar's creation of Council - an eldritch machine-god of crawling infinity, and Belsambar's creation of the Eidolon - a six-limbed beast born in the image of God from the sacrificial flesh of a million servants; some more willing than others.

After a series of failed peace talks, Council and the Eidolon met in battle in the grey desert between the two capitals. The two colossal Gods-in-the-Shell were ultimately slain by each others' hands - the two carcasses still stand, locked in mortal combat, their essence still pouring out of their wounds.

This seemingly unending essence - known as blood - was soon discovered to be an incredibly efficient fuel source. Following this discovery, and the decay of both Sambarite and Belsambarite societiies, a third faction arose - the Blood Waste Nomads; the outcasts, underclasses, turncoats and mercenaries of both nations who were reduced to scavenging, trading, and killing their way across the Blasted Lands.

The enslaved divinity that was released by the deaths of Council and the Eidolon still craves worship - any group of people who remain in the same physical location for an extended period of time will be sought out and made to serve, one way or another. This is usually unpleasant, and very often fatal - thus, the residents of Sambar have been forced to either maintain solitary lives or remain forever on the move.

In response, a number of groups - the remnants of Houses; the clergy, the military, bands of likeminded survivors - began to form and make their way throughout the Blasted Lands. To better protect themselves, and to better win resources from others, the groups began to build/train/summon what are widely known as Sigils - massive mobile fortresses with crews of up to several hundred that stomp, trundle, or weave their way across the ash, blood and rubble on their endless search for peace, parts, and providence. Sigils can be independent, or one of many aligned to one House or another. They are the homes, farms, and battle stations of their occupants, all in one, and it is not uncommon for many residents of the Blasted Lands to have been born aboard a Sigil and never stepped foot anywhere else in their lives.

Now, like great whales in the sea, Sigils travel ever onwards across the ash and storms of what once was Sambar, salvaging what they can from the wrecks of each other and from the ruins of the cities; fighting for control of bloodwells and pre-war automated munitions factories.

Group shot of the tonks - I've tried to convey a video gamey feel through the colours - you can imagine these tonks as units that change their primary colour depending on whose team they are on.









Some terrain WIP, and then individual shots of the tonks below.



from House Vander of Sambar, Den Laarg the Grandfather Bulf - the Mountain that Walks.









Spoilered inspiration from Netstorm below:


From the military wing of House Callen, the Kitchrol Redoubt 939.









From the ashes of House Thule, and to the chagrin of many, the Viscount Basteraux - known widely as the Canary Bastard - maintains lone supremacy over the largest remaining autonomous munitions factory in Sambar through an iron fist, never-before-seen machine servants, and a great big gun.









From the scavengers of the Blood Wastes, the Smasher.









Ostensibly from House Urvon of Belsambar, though rumors abound of an unholy marriage between the machinations of their mage-priests and dangerous alien technology - Stormstriders disable other Sigils through superior mobility backed up by powerful lightning strikes from their arc cannons, making for significantly easier salvage and higher returns that those relying on traditional ammunition in the Blasted Lands.







I had a blast building these guys and they've been a lot of fun to paint - they're a bit less serious than the 28mm stuff. Looking forward to getting the terrain done over the next few days and hopefully get a game or two in over New Years.

Thanks for lookin and happy painting everyone 8-)