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After years of playing Chaos, I decided recently to start a Grey Knights army. A few of the folks at my FLGS have been after me to share some pictures, so here they are.

The push to start this project came from the purchase of an apocalypse-sized force featuring Grey Knights, Deathwatch, Sisters of Battle, and Inquisitors, complete with vehicles, Forgeworld models, and a ton of bits. Most of the original models are unfinished, as the original owner decided to stop working on the army after 8th edition came out. There's a lot to work with, and it's going to take some time to get it all done. I decided to start with Grey Knights, since we already know what's in their Codex and because the models are actually pretty cool to work with.

When starting this force, I decided to really challenge myself to work with new paints and techniques.

Vallejo Metal Color is being used on all the silver parts of the models. There's a Steel / Silver mix for the darker parts, and Aluminum for the highlights. Produces an excellent, smooth metallic color entirely different from what I'm used to.

I'm using Badger Ghost Tint Blue for washes. It's been sitting on my shelf for years, I've never really round a reason to use it before. But the recessed areas and to large patches of silver are all being done with very light blue tones, it's taken a lot of getting used to.

The panel lines and recessed areas are all being done with oil washes. I've never touched oil paints before and am really thankful for the creation of odorless turpenoid. Pretty sure my wife would have asked me to stop work on this otherwise.

The bases are all hand-carved using Magic Sculpt and wax carving tools. The bases are all going to reflect the narrative of stomping over the ruins of a Chaos temple. Right now, I'm just doing patterns on floors and walls, but I hope to expand to more creative stuff as this goes along.

So far, it's been a learning experience. I've been using an airbrush for years, but it feels like I'm really just getting the hang of working at lower PSI and really controlling what comes out of the brush.

Here's a picture of the test models I've been working on. Getting a consistent tone for the silver parts took some practice, but I think I got it.



This photo is of one of the Land Raiders. Like I said, this is an apocalypse-sized force. There's a total of 9 Land Raiders, including several Contemptors, Redeemers, and even a Prometheus. The doors are all from Forgeworld, sadly I was not able to figure out how to remove them without damaging the model (not sure I really want 9 GK Land Raiders.)



This Dreadknight is one of the few models I needed to purchase outside the Lot that I originally picked up. The hands and guns are all magnetized and can be easily removed. The paint job is a little better than what what my meager photography skills can capture, the Metal Color came out really nice.



And finally some Terminators. These are all the older, metal Terminator bodies, and the relief on the panels is not simple to work with. I've done my best and am satisfied with how they came out.

Looks good so far, looking forward to seeing how it develops. 9 GK landraiders, whilst excessive, would look amazing on the table together

Thanks!

Yeah, 9 Land Raiders would be quite a sight. The plan is to split them up between Grey Knights and Deathwatch, with a couple variants for each. Going to wait for the Deathwatch Codex to hit before going that route.

So grey knights, death watch, and sisters, are you going for a full might of the inquisition theme? Would work well.

 JamesY wrote:
So grey knights, death watch, and sisters, are you going for a full might of the inquisition theme? Would work well.

That's the plan. I have the models for a large Inquisition force, the key is going to be staying efficient at the painting table. Life does intrude.

Tempted to list it all out here, but I think I will let pictures do the talking.

A full force as you describe would be an awesome sight on the tabletop

Made some progress on the Dreadknight, Land Raider and Paladins. None of them are complete, but I am trying out different techniques that should lead to a very nice looking army.

First up, the Dreadknight. Since I posted the original image, I painted the gunarms and some of the heraldry on the model. It's just a basecoat at the moment, the plan is to come back and do more detail work once the base is complete.

In searching for tips on cutting sheet styrene, I came across this post by Rob Hawkins for flagstone surfaces. Following the techniques outlined there, I've been laying a tiled surface on the base using thing sheets of cardboard and wood glue. That crease around the edge will become a summoning pool with something coming out of it, to sell the idea the Dreadknight just smashed up some unholy altar in the midst of a summoning ritual.



The Land Raider has come along since the first images. I've been working on the heraldry, and run into a few roadbumps along the way.

Remember that I'm using Vallejo Metal Colors for the surfaces on this project. It goes on very smooth, so smooth other paints do not always adhere to it. When I went to paint the sponsons, the white base I was using pooled and streaked worse than anything you could believe. In retrospect, what I should have done is sealed the surface with a varnish before I started painting the sponsons. Lesson learned.

The pooling and streaking was too much to bear, and I did not want to strip the entire model. What I did to correct the issue was sand down the paint using a Dremel. It worked, but it did screw up the surfaces a little. It's hard to see with the naked eye, but it's going to be hard to complete the edge highlighting as some of the edges are gone. I'm unhappy with what I did, it feels dirty, but it looks much better than what was there.

To do the heraldry, I created a stencil using painter's tape, cut at 0.5 cm x 0.25 cm. It looks good, but not as good as some other patterns I have seen. I am going to take the checkers down to 0.25 cm sq for the Land Raider Vortimer and apply them diagonally. The paint is Miniitaire Scorching Red, which I really like on these long, flat panels. The fact it's just a little brighter than the colors GW uses makes it stand out a little more by comparison.

Like the Dreadknight, the details are being left to the end, there will be some swords and skulls in the white areas.

Pictures follow.





I've also been working on the Paladins, which have been coming along nicely. I've been working on them in batches of 3, but that's probably going to change.



Each Paladin is being mounted on a unique base, in keeping with the theme of raiding a Chaos Temple. Most of the ones in the picture are not yet on their final bases, you can see some of the WIPs off to the right.

These models are base coated with a 50 / 50 mix of Vallejo Metal Color Steel / Silver, then washed with Minitaire Ghost Tint Blue. Then they are highlighted with VMC Aluminum, which creates a sharp contrast between the light and dark areas of the model. While this photo makes it look like there are some black areas on the armor, there's not. The paints are just very reflective and capture the light in a way that makes it hard to process mid-tones. I will get better pics in my next post to show off this effect.

Can't stress this enough, the VMC requires a very low PSI. Anything above 5 is spraying too much paint on the model and it's easy to lose control. While this paint doesn't really pool, what does happen is the surface takes on a gritty appearance that needs to be covered up with another layer. The Ghost Tint Blue is the same, I am blowing 90% air each time I work with it. One of the challenges I run into is paint freezing on the needle, which turns the Ghost Tint into dots. While it's actually a nice effect in some ways, it is something to watch out for.

For the cut outs in the greaves / armor, I've been using Vallejo Model Air Copper and a dark brown oil wash. Very impressed with this paint, it doesn't require a lot of thought and it's very forgiving. The VMA Copper can be wiped away easily from the base when I make a mistake, and the wash goes on with the touch of a brush. The models in the front rank are just Copper and a wash, the ones in the second rank have been drybrushed with gold. Trying to decide which I like better.

For extreme highlights, I've been using VMA Aluminum. It's brighter than VMC Aluminum and looks almost white by comparison. I'm using it around the edges of the helmet and on edges of the shoulder pads.

Like I said, these are test models, and I am trying to get a process down to produce a uniform, attractive appearance for all units in the army. The 6 Paladins closest to the camera took about 1.5 hours to get to this stage and they already look ready for a tabletop. I still need to make the gun housings red, do the purity seals, highlight the eyes / force weapons, etc, and will provide some details on each.

This is what the next batch looks like. I'm going to finish the Paladins first, then try the same techniques on a Strike Squad. Unfortunately, everything in this batch is modeled with halberds / great swords, so the army might not be WYSIWYG on the table. But it will look good.

I've been making progress on my Grey Knights army.

The models are starting to come along, but they are very hard to photograph. Apologies for the problems with the pics in this post, I'm still working on getting the lighting right.



This is the base for the first Dreadknight. It's magnetized, so I can remove the model. Note the Bloodletter crawling out of the pool in the back.



This is what the whole model looks like assembled. Still lots to do on the Dreadknight himself, but all the basic colors are there.



This is the Venerable Dreadnought. He's coming along, unfortunately the lights for my photo booth are a little much for the paint job.I've really been working the metallics, the eagle on the left exhaust is something to see.



Most of my photos of Terminators / Paladins have been coming out a little hazy on the edges. One of the problems with my models is the eyes, they never seem to be quite done. Going back to this guy when I get a chance.



I've done about 10 Terminators at this point (including an Apothecary and an Ancient) and they're all on scenic bases. I'm enjoying the way they are coming along, but it's hard to catch all the details. Looking at this, I can see some skulls that need to be bronze and other details.

Will be posting a few more WIP pics in the next few days. Hope you enjoy!