Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

First forum post so no links allowed, see post below for the first project entry.

So short bit of background I guess. Starting an army for 40k for the first time in well over a decade and the first time back in the hobby in general in about 5 or so years. Having a project thread always helped with painting motivation, and this go around I'm also being stricter on not allowing a big backlog of grey shame to build up. Just don't look in the closet at the multiple armies worth of Warmachine still in the boxes... Or think too hard about the left over metal noise marine bits I will probably be making use of now a good 15 years after original purchase...

Anyway! This started with getting moved into a new place and finally getting a hobby space setup again after over 5 years of not touching a brush. Looking at the new GW model ranges got me thinking of an idea to convert a model for a chaos corrupted sister of battle, which then grew into an idea for an entire army of similar conversions with a few normal daemonkin models mixed in to make a Word Bearers army dedicated to Slaanesh. This is also a throwback for me, my first ever army in the hobby many years ago was Sisters, followed by Chaos Marines back in early 4th edition.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The first project on the block is a troops unit of Legionaries kitbashed from a Sisters squad, Daemonettes, and the Legionaries Kill Team.


Bits selected and assembled. I didn't have a firm plan going in, just sort of played around with the bits until I got something that felt like it worked which is also why I had to switch out the heads to fit. Almost forgot to do something about the iconography on the gun and hanging from her waist. I wound up trimming the latter down and green stuffing it into a sort of crystal shard. The end result came out a bit more Mad Max than I was thinking, but I kinda like it.




Then to finally put brush to model for the first time in years. In the before times I used to do base, drybrush, and wash to do about all of my models for a good table top standard, so I just stuck to those here to knock the cobwebs off the old rusty skills. For the most part I'm pretty happy with the results, though the skin got a chalky finish I'm pretty 'meh' on so I'll have a go at glaze highlights for the skin on the next round of models I think to try and smooth that out some. I'll also say I'm rather happy with how the paint performed having been sitting on the shelf / in the closet for so many years.



Next up, I think I'm doing the other bolter girl and flamer girl for the first unit of 5. And maybe see if I can dig up my old camera that actually has macro mode from the boxes somewhere.

Very cool project, and welcome back to the hobby !
Looking forward to seeing the rest of the squad.

Welcome back! Lovely conversion and paintjob, especially after 5 years out of the hobby - Impressive!


Keep it up!


Capt. Hodgeheg

It's always a good time to start up again!

First model looks great. Cool concept and the conversion is well done.

Just a bit of green stuff building parts for now. Power is out for a few days so not much progress at the moment.

She looks great - I've done a few similar Sororitas/Daemonette mashups myself, but I love how you've used the CSM shoulder pads, gives her a very distinctive silhouette.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Been working a lot on digging out what leftover bits I could find in storage and happened across enough spare old chaos backpacks to fill out the initial roster of 20 I'm eventually aiming for as well as some leftovers from an old metal canoness I'm converting for use.

The second Daughter is built, one of the flamer-toting ones. Opted to get some needed practice on greenstuff and see if I could use the body sections from the daemonettes to build more with some success. I'll be tweaking how I do the chest mold for future tries but I think this came out good enough for the table-top I'm aiming for at least.

Looking real good!

DoC #2 is getting paint and #3 is assembled, the first icon bearer (who I'm guessing must fire her bolter by twerking in the enemy's general direction). I'm planning on 3 of them total but the kits only come with 2 of the desired icons so had to do a bit of greenstuff, much like with the shoulder pad shortage. The first attempt didn't go so well. Turns out if you forget to add some reinforcing wire during casting the icon is a bit of a limp noodle.




As I get these two painted up, I'll be working on the 4th and 5th members that will complete the first squad, a Champion Superior with daemonblade and plasma pistol, and psyker with a balefire tome.

Edit: Finished #2. I did try to do the glazed highlights for the skin, but alas my hands are just not steady enough right now, so back to drybrush and wash to finish it up, though I did tweak it a bit and I think it came out a little better this time. I also made a new flocking mix that I think works better with the color scheme.

I think they're looking great so far. Thanks for sharing these updates.

New gal looks good, too. Your press-molding skills are impressive.

Those look amazing!

Thanks! And for the press molding, that's the thermoplastic saving my bacon. That stuff is fantastic for little molds like these.

Finished up the Icon bearer. Still playing around with skin tones but I think it's getting close.




Just waiting for a bit of greenstuff to finish curing then on to building the last two for the first squad.

Finished building the Aspiring Champ / Superior for the first squad. Only took me 15-ish years to get that backpack out of my pile of shame, but it's finally in use!





Painting this one and building the last member of the 1st squad next. After that it's a toss up between converting some Reaper minis I had in the pile of shame into my Dark Apostle, or working on the actual daemonettes. But that's still a little bit away.

Icon bearer turned out nice, and the Champ looks good, too. That backpack rocks. Good to see it put to use!

Thanks! I finished up the Champ's paint. Did more of the colors in one go this time to see if I could cut down on painting time without hurting the paint job too much, and I think it worked out. A few of the edges on the trim are slightly less crisp if you look close, but for a troop unit I'm ok with that when it cuts painting time in half The last member of the initial squad is still under construction.




*edit* Aaand assembly of #5 is done. Just waiting for the greenstuff to finish curing now before painting.


And while some of the paint and greenstuff has been curing I went digging through the pile of shame. More specifically, the drawers of random Reaper minis I used to buy to help support the FLGS when I'd go for a game on the basis I thought they'd be fun to paint someday. Found some candidates to convert for my Dark Apostle and 2 acolytes so I guess "someday" finally came for a few of them. I had been planning to kitbash a Sisters Dialogus and the CSM Dark Apostle, but I think I like these better for the army theme and certainly for my wallet

Wrapped up #5, the psyker, this morning.




So got my first unit ready to go, which feels good First step to the new army is truly done.


Had to use some infinity terrain for the photo. I did actually find a couple "gothic building" kits in the pile of shame but they're still in the box. So guess there's another future project

Also got the models built for the Dark Apostle unit. Pretty simple conversion this time, just a few tweaks to the models to fit into the army better.

Hey mate,

The girls are looking great. I haven't seen a mashup of bits like this before, the juxtaposition of the chonky pauldrons and weapons with the slender limbs is suitably unnerving and just feels very 40k to me.

Congrats on the first unit done! I'm looking forward to seeing where the new minis go, I am also guilty of having a box full of Reaper minis that I've bought on a whim and dig through every now and then in search of inspiration or the right bit.

Thanks for sharing!

Got the Acolytes / backup dancers done. Think I need to try thinning the wash some more on the skin for bigger areas like this though. Still, not too bad for a pretty quick paint job.


Also got a WIP shot of the Apostle and little preview of the next models on the project list. NSFW warning: Booba


Those models remind me a lot of my favorite daemonette metal models from around 4th edition and frankly I think they look a lot better than the current GW ones. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I have some of those old OOP models somewhere still kind of buried in the packed box backlog, but not enough to make a unit.

Oooh...looking forward to those Raging Heroes gals. Old daemonettes would be cool, too.

Yeah, I have a few of the Raging Heroes gals to do for this project. This is my first time working with this type of resin too. I'm used to the harder resins that act closer to plastic or even metal. While assembling these though I found them to be quite "springy", almost rubbery in how they bend and pop back into place. Given how thin the limbs are I suppose that's better than snapping by a long shot, though I think it will be interesting to paint when the blade tips are flexing under a light drybrushing. It did take to the CA glue extremely well though, better than most other materials I've worked with, so assembly was exceptionally easy. I also liked how they designed them with ball-and-socket joints at the waist, shoulders, and neck so there was a greater degree of posability than the modern GW kits. Could have gone without the mold lines running across the faces though.

Anyway, here's the first 5 of them assembled and ready for priming. NSFW still.


I also finished painting my first character for the army with the Dark Apostle now completed.



And the unit picture, making 2 finished force org slots for the army.


Tried the extra thinned wash for the skin on the apostle herself and I think it came out a lot better so I'll keep that going. I'm pretty happy with how she came out overall, even if I spotted a thing or two I overlooked after I'd put the varnish on, naturally.

Daemonettes are up next on the painting block, at least the first half of the unit.

Finished up with the first 5 of the "Mantis Warriors" I'm using as daemonettes.

NSFW: topless


I'll probably get the rest of the unit built next.

After that... not sure. I have more legionaries to build, a couple daemon HQ units, and I did dig up an old 4th edition metal dark eldar succubus model from the pile of shame I'm going to convert for a Master of Possession.

Nice work on the apostle. Digging how the daemonettes turned out, as well.

Got the rest of the daemonettes built from the "command" unit, so Leader, Musician, Banner, and 2 more troops.

NSFW: topless


And while I've yet to unearth the case with the actual models in it, I did find a picture of my old metal daemonettes from 4th edition. Kinda nice looking back at old work and being able to see some progress despite the years away from the hobby between them.


Fun fact, I'm still using two of the same brushes, both cheap generic hobby store brushes. One has like... 3 bristles for putting a tiny dot of paint on something, the other sort of had 2/3rds of the bristles cut off sometime so it's naturally shaped like a tiny blade and is great for applying washes and inks with more control.

Work is coming along on the rest of the daemonettes.

NSFW


Batch painting these in small groups has been working well with the rather simple paint scheme. Though I'll be giving free-handing a try on the banner to what may be questionable results. I've never done much with that before so it'll be good to give it a go.

Armoured Daemonettes are always cool. Love it so far.

Finished up the command group:
NSFW


The banner... well it started as just a free-hand symbol of slaanesh, but didn't come out very clean at all so I opted to embrace my inner Bob Ross and use the Happy Accident to go for a splattered blood painted symbol instead. Halfway through I realised I did not actually have any remaining red ink or other blood effects. It was at this point I knew, I goofed up. Still, tried to get a bloodied look and added some gloss at the end to keep a wet look. I think it came out... alright. Not enough contrast. Learning experience.

And yes, the daemon has a fiddle made of gold. Seemed appropriate.

This group of 5 was made from a stiffer resin than the first 5 were, which mostly seemed like a good thing, right up until a slight bump while cleaning some base edges snapped one girl clean off and I had to get her fixed up. Ahhh the joys of models with teeny tiny connection points to the base.

Never the less, the squad is finished, and on the whole I like it. I've got a herald and greater to do in the future so it was good to get some practice with these girls.
NSFW


Going to see which strikes me next, a toss up between converting the herald or fleshing out the first legionary squad to a full 10 most likely.

Nice progress mate. The banner reads bloody to me - almost like the hotel sheets they've used to wrap up their latest sacrifice... a very happy accident!

Deciding what to do next is all part of the fun. I always seem to know that I "should" slog through another unit of troops but end up treating myself with a character or a monster to break it up.

Thanks for sharing!

Glad you're all enjoying the army project so far, got to say I've been having a blast.

I kind of opted to do a bit of both and get the bits together and start working on building the herald and the extra 5 to make a 10-legionary squad.


Lots of greenstuff, pins, and waiting for things to cure along the way so just going to cycle through as I work. Most of the girls are getting press-mold work for the body at the moment, but I did get some serious progress converting the harp for my Infernal Enrapturess out of an old reaper mini. I've got Lady Shaah from Raging Heroes for the daemon herself who will get some minor tweaks.

NSFW

I'm going to try building up some warped fleshy growth around the base of the harp and a bit where the wires connect at the top too. Not sure if I'll do anything else to the harp itself. I do have some violet grass tufts coming that I can put around the base too.

The Herald herself is coming together, but the last bits need to wait on the harp to finish up.


As for the harp, I found a couple sprues of untouched skeleton warriors in the Pile of Shame and thought they'd make a nice addition, so with a bit of work and some greenstuffing I've almost got the harp finished. I added a register pin in the front and magnets underneath so it can be set on the Herald's base or removed to have easy painting access now and easier display later.




Once greenstuff finishes curing I can get the secondary arms on the herald and the greenstuff touch-ups and I should be almost done building her.