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Heresy Era Imperial Army - Geno Five-Two infantry squad painting begins!

November 28, 2015, 11:56 am
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Could it be? After what seems like ages, I've finally had a couple hours to put paint to miniature again. Huzzah! Not a particularly exciting bit of progress to show, but progress nonetheless:


The dark grey/black uniform with the yellow capes which turns out to be pretty striking, but until the rest of the detail gets picked out (belts, boots, glareshields, etc) they look a little drab at the moment. The red of the bases should set off nicely against the yellow capes to give the models a bit more pop, and the color wheel suggests that they ought to get a little blue spot color somewhere as well. Easy enough on the bashaws and their power swords, so I'm leaning towards making the glareshields blue as well, should help draw the eye.

So far so good, hoping to get another couple hours in over the weekend!
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Heresy Era Imperial Army - Geno Five-Two infantry squad almost done!

November 29, 2015, 4:11 am
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There's always a point when painting a model where I think "this looks like garbage, ugh", which is where I'd more or less left off on the models yesterday. Intellectually I know that pushing on and adding the next couple steps generally absolves that feeling and I was able to sneak a couple more hours of brush time last night and this morning and got the models up to a point where they're really coming into focus and I'm starting to be quite happy with 'em!


Still a bit of clean-up and detailing to go - there's always one or two models that missed a step here or there in the batch painting passes. Once that's done they'll get some static grass and a sealant pass, but seeing as the high is supposed to be about 20F today that's not going to be happening. Argh!

Sadly it's seemed that the second wave of heads I ordered from Meridian Miniatures has been lost in the warp, it's now been six weeks since the order was placed. I've been in contact with 'em and they've assured me that they'll make it right, but that does mean the rest of the Geno are headless and on hold. Guess that means it's time to start getting some of the associated Alpha Legion models painted up! Sort of a fun aspect to this project, the two disparate paint schemes of the two halves of the army means that if I get tired of painting one set of colors I can switch over to the other. I think the purple/green of the Alphas should set off nicely against the yellow/black of the Geno when all is said and done!
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Heresy Era Imperial Army - Geno Five-Two Autocannon teams painted

December 3, 2015, 4:42 pm
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Cracking along with the Geno Five-Two, feeling like I have the paint scheme dialed in pretty well at this point, and was able to bang out the Autocannon heavy weapon teams over the last couple nights. Really been nice getting back into the swing of painting once again!


Still waiting for it to warm up enough to do the initial sealant pass and get the static grass on. Up to 45F tomorrow they say, but that's still well into what I consider the danger zone for spray sealant. Better to wait for warmer days than risk 'em frosting over, I think... In other news, the long-awaited heads finally arrived after being lost in the warp for weeks. Time to crack out the greenstuff and get the rest of the infantry re-capitated! Once that's done, all the infantry will be built, which means at this point the only thing I'm still missing are the three Leman Russ tanks I have planned for the army. 


In Legion, while they mention the Geno had tank support, other than the Centaur there isn't a specific name/variant mentioned, so just to be a little different I'm thinking about going with the MaxMini Gothic KV-2, as I quite dig the quasi-Ragnarok look which I think suits the Heresy vibe of the army. I'll likely leave off the side sponsons and swap out the hull weapon for a proper lascannon. Gotta wait to rebuild the hobby fund a bit first - too much coming in and not enough going out of late!
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Heresy Era Alpha Legion - Batch painting gets out of hand!

December 5, 2015, 10:28 am
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Got the heads on the Geno Five-Two, but the weather is chilly enough that I can't warrant primering 'em yet. That means it's time to switch gears and get stuck in with the Alpha Legion, and it was time to fire up the batch painting machine! Started off with the 20-man tactical squad, and suddenly got the idea that I may as well knock out the base purple on all of the models at once. I've often wondered how many models is too many. It turns out 46 is too many. Hah!


I started off with a basecoat of Vallejo Night Blue, which is a very dark blue/violet. Almost indistinguishable from the black basecoat in the pics.


Next up was a drybrush pass of Vallejo Dark Blue, which to me is much more of a dark violet/purple than blue in my eye. Definitely on the cooler end of the spectrum.


The next step was a much lighter drybrush of Hexed Lichen just on the upper surfaces of the models, leaving the naturally shadowed areas far darker.


Lastly the models were all given a wash of GW's Druchii Violet to tone down the purple and blend them all together. Bit of a slog plowing through all the models at once, so will likely break the units out for the detailing stages - trying to do all of them to completion in this batch size? That way lies madness!
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Heresy Era Alpha Legion - Lernaean Terminators painting continues

December 7, 2015, 6:54 pm
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As mentioned previously, slogging through all 46 models to completion at once is just not feasible - I like to batch paint as much as the next guy, but let's be reasonable here! I figured I'd start off by cracking on with the terminators, then do the 20-man tac squad in a batch, and finally the Headhunters and scouts to finish it all up. All the power armoured marines were set back into the queue and away we go...


First things first, picking out all of the weapons, armour trim, cabling, joint ribbing and whatnot in boltgun metal, which helps clean up a ton of the slop from the earlier purple drybrushing paint-spatter-o-thon.


Then to help the various metallics stand out against each other, the trim got a blue wash to start a silvered-steel look, while the weapons and joint ribbing got a black wash, dulling them down and making them much more stark.


Next up I started blocking in the various contrast colors - initial earthtones and washes for the leather pturges, and the reddish-orange tones on the power cabling (on the back), the Volkite heat vanes, and the power fists, so they'll eventually match the earlier Contemptor dread. Still another whole session of further highlights to go - another pass of silver on the trim to brighten it up a step, the leather will get another khaki highlight, and the red/orange sections will get some minor yellow edge highlighting to help 'em pop. It's supposed to be gorgeous the next few days (hopefully allowing me to flock and seal the recent Geno Five-Two models), then another couple weeks of cold on the horizon. Gotta paint quickly if I want to take advantage in the break in the chilly weather we've had of late!
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Heresy Era Alpha Legion - Lernaean Terminators painted

December 9, 2015, 4:04 pm
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Just a quick hit this afternoon - Took advantage of the nice warm day to flock and seal the Lernaean terminators after finishing up the last highlighting stages. Also managed to flock and seal the Geno Five-Two as well, pics to follow.


I'm awaiting a small package of joy from Forge World that includes the recently-released Alpha Legion transfer sheets, after application the models will be getting some weathering as well - happy that I was able to get 'em sealed in preparation!
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Heresy Era Imperial Army - Geno Five-Two Command and Recon squad painting (almost) complete!

December 12, 2015, 9:48 am
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Had a relatively quiet Friday evening and Saturday morning, and managed to crank out a fair chunk of 'the fun stuff' from the Geno Five-Two! Naturally, the penultimate step in virtually all of my painting projects involves taking a picture of 'em and then realizing all the little things here and there that I've missed when reviewing the pics for publication. Doh! Nevertheless, here's some pics of the recent batch of not-quite-finished minis to (very nearly) roll off the painting line:


Leading things off is Hetman Peto Soneka (generously donated to the cause by the always-awesome Dai of The Lost and the Damned and the Stunted) and his command squad with a Voxcaster and (what will eventually be) the Company standard. The other three members of the squad are armed with Heavy Stubbers, which I've always liked as a support weapon.

 

Next up is the recon squad, all armed with sniper rifles. Tried to come up with a camo pattern that matched the bases for the cameoline cloaks, and decided to go with yellow interior lining to tie them in with the rest of the force. They performed admirably on the table recently, as well - very nearly taking down a Bloodthirster all by themselves!


Lastly are the Gene-whips, Franco Boone and his prods Roke and Pharon - with the leadership of the auxilia lists being on the low side, the addition of the proto-commissars is a welcome addition!

I missed the weather window on these and woke up to snowfall this morning, so there's still plenty of time to go in and fix up all the little misses and errors. After that's done, it may be time for a brief Inq28 break, as a fun little package arrived on my doorstep earlier in the week...
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Heresy Era Alpha Legion - Tactical squad nearly complete!

December 15, 2015, 5:21 pm
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I've been enjoying the dual nature of the current project, allowing me to bounce back and forth between the two paint schemes which has kept my interest on the boil! After working on the Geno characters it was time to buckle down and work on another Troops choice, the Alpha Legion tactical squad this time around...


Still waiting on the transfer sheets to see what I might use on the blank shoulder pads. Still have some errant static grass on the models, usually I'll let 'em dry overnight and then give them a good brushing before they get the initial sealant pass. However that's going to have to wait a bit, as this is what I woke up to this morning:


We ended up getting another couple inches after that. Gonna be a little while before I'm able to spray seal anything it seems! Colorado being what it is however, we're supposed to be in the mid-50s by the weekend. Gotta love wintertime in the Rockies!
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Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2015, 6:05 pm
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...Or based on the minis should that be Merry Fishmas? It's been hellacious in Real Life(tm) of late, but I have been puttering away at the rest of the Tau Hunter Cadre for the Inq28/Rogue Trader RPG minis when I could steal a little time behind a brush, and after a couple hours this afternoon I got 'em more or less finished up!


When all is said and done it ended up being a nice 10-strong unit, that breaks down into essentially 2 mirrored teams. The miniatures all came from Wargame Exclusive and they all really have a ton of character. albeit a little on the cheesecake side.

 

For leaders there's the cigar-chomping Big Shas, and a jet-pack equipped fusion gun-toting Little Shas.

 

A pair of techs/trackers - the more cheesecake-y of the two got the 'buns out' treatment, while I went with a bodysuit for the other.

 

Similarly on the snipers, one is quite risque while the other is a bit more modest.

 

The pair of gunsliners were quite dynamic, went with the red cloak on the male to tie him in with the red hair on the rest of the unit.

 

Lastly are a pair of swordmistresses, went with the jade green swords to tie the spot colors back to the other models here and there. Was pretty fun working with the muted/limited palette!

Definitely a fun little artistic palate cleanser, now it's time to dive back into painting more of the Geno Five-Two. Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season, and a wonderful new year in 2016!
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Hobby Retrospective: A reflection on 2015 and plans for 2016

December 27, 2015, 10:31 am
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As we approach the end of the year, I thought I'd take a look back over 2015 and see how things went hobby-wise and take a look at the plans for 2016. Buckle up, it's gonna be a long one! I have a gallery page on my website where I organize all my pics and have started keeping track of dates on the armies, makes a post like this easy to do, I suppose. Turns out it was a pretty productive year!

FINISHED PROJECTS:

(links go to the relevant blog posts about the various projects)


Heresy-era Thousand Sons - At the beginning of the year I was in a race to finish off the Thousand Sons and get them battle-ready for the Las Vegas Open. They performed admirably, and then they went on the auction block. Definitely dialed in the paint scheme, and learned a few things that I'll be doing differently in the next incarnation (see below)!

  

Knight Household Krast - I had wanted a group of Knights to accompany the Thousand Sons, and thought the original heraldry of House Krast (boo to GW for making all the mechanicum-aligned schemes red in the reboot) would be fitting, a not-so-subtle nod to the yellow-and-blue scheme usually associated with Tzeentch. Sadly, they too went on the auction block to cover some unexpected expenses but over the past year I've picked up a couple of the new expanded knight kits so House Krast will walk again!

  

Heresy-era Mechanicum - This project never really coalesced into an actual army, and ended up being sold off piecemeal to help fund the Imperial Fists. Really enjoyed working on them, but in mid-project the updated Taghmata rules dropped and invalidated a number of builds. Would likely do a small Cybernetica-only allied force at some point in the future when FW releases the next round of Robots.


Heresy-era Imperial Fists - This was a challenge project for me, wanted to see if I could pull off a yellow army. Tried about a dozen ways to paint yellow and settled on a recipe that yielded rather good results! That said, I never want to paint another Imperial Fist marine again as long as I live. Hah!

  

Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation - When GW dropped the new Adeptus Mechanicus it was enough to briefly snap me out of my all-heresy-all-the-time mode, and I have to say early on I found the models to be at once brilliant and frustrating. Loved how certain models looked, while others left me a little cold - the same can be said for the FW mechanicum line to me as well though. Once I got my hands on 'em however I found I loved the whole line - took a bit of adjustment to the aesthetic but once I came to grips with it I really like how they tie into the Knights design elements. Another small force may come into play as vassals to the House Krast redux (with the new plastics in the yellow and blue heraldry to match).

PROJECTS IN PROCESS:

 

Heresy Era Prospero Spireguard - With the Thousand Sons going up for auction earlier in the year, the associated Prospero Spireguard allied force I'd been working on was put on hold with a bunch of models assembled but few actualy painted. It too suffered from codex drift as the much-more-appropriate Imperial Army list came out in Book 5: Tempest, and certain units were invalidated. At some point I'll need to pull out all the models and see what is actually viable. Essentially the whole project was an excuse to warrant the purchase of a Stormhammer...


Heresy-era Geno Five-Two - A project that has been simmering in the back of my head for years, I finally was able to start getting them down on the tabletop. Coupled with the allied Alpha Legion section it forms a tidy little boutique force. I successfully managed to avoid it blooming into a 5000 point monstrosity, wonder of wonders! The infantry side of the force is rapidly approaching completion, though the tanks that I'd ordered over a month ago have yet to ship, which is a point of frustration. The force has recently been pre-sold, so I have a fire lit under me to get them finished and out the door to help fund the upcoming Thousand Sons!

  

Heresy-era Alpha Legion - The other half of the boutique fluff project is a small allied Alpha Legion force. Very experimental inasmuch as it was my first exposure to the Betrayal at Calth plastics, as well as going with the purple scheme as described in the book. Now that I'm about 2/3rds of the way through them the verdict is I love the plastics, but I am not enjoying the paint scheme. I have a feeling that they may be mothballed/sold piecemeal before ever reaching completion.

5 projects done and out the door in 2015 and two more nearly complete - not a bad output for the year! With that out of the way it's time to look ahead...

UPCOMING PROJECTS:


More Heresy-era Thousand Sons - With the recent release of the FW bits coupled with the awesome and (comparatively) cheap plastics released with the Betrayal at Calth box, the Changer of the Ways has been whispering in my ear to go back to my first love in the heresy, the Thousand Sons. I spent some time putting some lists together based on the BaC sets and the inevitable leftover bits and kits from previous projects, and it turns out that I have nearly half of the planned 5000 point army on-hand already.

...What, you thought I'd do another boutique army? Hah! The plan is to try out some things that I didn't do in the previous incarnation, though with the rules still a year-plus out I'm trying to keep it fairly generic (as I'm forever having units/builds invalidated it seems). Every self-respecting heresy force has gotta have a couple big 20-man tac squads, and the missile launcher team performed admirably in the previous incarnation so they make a return in the new list as well. Want to try out the new Leviathan Dread so that goes in, and the Venator was absolutely the star of the Imperial Fists army for me so one of those is a must have as well. While rooting around in the Closet of Doom I uncovered a pair of Armoured Proteus Land Raiders that were initially intended for use with the Imperial Fists but completely forgot about (along with a 20-man breacher squad that I have no idea what to do with). It's like finding an extra $20 in a coat pocket from the previous season, except it's 15 pounds of resin!

 

Still in the bits-gathering stages, but plan to use a mix of kits as I have in the past. While I absolutely love the shoulder pads and torsos that FW has released, the heads leave me somewhat cold. They're neat, don't get me wrong, but I think I'll continue to use the MaxMini Steam Knight heads, the one on the far left just matches my vision of the look. I have a couple leftovers that will be used to build some test models with the BaC plastics, pics to follow on that front. There will be the usual Kromlech Khopesh-style power weapons and some Wargame Exclusive upgrades here and there as well, for the most ostentatious of the characters for the force.

DOUBLE EXTRA HERESY - For those of you with weak stomachs, look away now.


Infinity Morat Aggression Force - Occasionally I'll dip my toe into other game systems, and I have had a couple folks tell me that Infinity is worth checking out. I have to admit the overall anime vibe of the minis I saw when it first came out didn't do much for me, and I hadn't subsequently given the line much further thought. Spent some time going through the now surprisingly expanded catalog of minis and found there were a couple 'new' (well new to me) factions released in the intervening years, and I quite fancied the look of the Morat Aggression Force - crimson-faced murder apes from beyond the stars? Sure, sign me up! As the total buy-in for the game hovers somewhere around $150 and consists of less than 15 models I figure it's worth at least giving it a try. The game rules are free to download, and from what I'm reading it seems like it could be a fun little skirmish game to tide me over until Necromunda is re-released!

That's the extent of the plan for 2016 so far, no real resolutions or anything like that - other than the usual "try and get more stuff out the door than you're bringing in" plan! Hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday, and best wishes for the new year!
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And Now For Something Completely Different - Infinity Morat Aggression Force painting begins

January 4, 2016, 6:36 pm
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Happy new year everyone! Had a good time over the holiday, saw Star Wars and spent some time with some old friends visiting Colorado over the past week. Finally getting back to the painting desk after a break and I thought I'd give something else a try for a bit as a little breather. Brace yourselves for HERESY.

...Well, not Heresy, but you know what I mean. Hah!

At the urging of a couple friends I've taken another look at Infinity, not as a replacement for 40k/30k, but rather as an interesting skirmish level game akin to my much beloved Necromunda. As I'd alluded to previously the anime aesthetic of the models when the game first came out didn't really wow me, but in the intervening years they've come out with a several interesting new factions including several alien races - the opportunity to paint up some filthy xenos had some appeal after all the humans I've been painting of late. The crimson-faced murder apes of the Morat Aggression Forces caught my eye, so I picked up a number of boxes for a screaming deal from a fellow hobbyist, waited for a warm day and got to primering!


Anything worth doing is worth overdoing, so I ended up with way more miniatures than will ever hit the tabletop at one time. Does give me a number of options for force composition though! Started off by laying out all the models, getting the basic skin and hair colors laid in and really getting a chance to give the figures a good once-over to decide what needed to be painted what colors. At that point I figured "what the heck, may as well just batch paint the whole group, right"?


I decided to stick fairly close to the 'stock' color scheme, with the armor plating being a grey-ish hue and basic tan cloth. A number of the models are in powered armour and many models have exposed cabling, which got the electric blue treatment, which sets off nicely against the red skin tones so far. Tons and tons of line highlighting awaits, need to re-hone my fine detail brush skills - not a lot of hard edges to drybrush on these models. Definitely a different aesthetic from the angular 40k stuff I've been working on of late!


These models are what initially caught my eye in the Combined Army miniature line. Turns out this creepy fellow is the chief doctor for the force. "Dammit doc, not every medical procedure calls for 'a thorough probing'! Get away from me with whatever that is!"

So far so good - Was very interesting working with metal models again for the first time in years. Once these guys are done, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled Heresy - almost done with the remaining Geno Five-Two infantry as well, but they're in that middle stage of "these look TERRIBLE" where only the base colors have been blocked in and no detailing or highlighting has been done. Definitely not picture-worthy in their current state!
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Heresy Era Heroes of the Imperium - The Emperor of Mankind, part one

January 5, 2016, 6:59 pm
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Got frustrated trying to batch paint line highlights (madness!), so as a respite I returned briefly to the grim darkness! Another box arrived on my doorstep yesterday, a small package that I'd ordered from Kabuki Miniatures back in late November and had almost forgotten about. Just a small package...


In point of fact it was disconcerting how small the package was - that box is about 5" on a side. I hadn't purchased a Kabuki model in something like five years, as the 'Angron' model I'd purchased ended up being barely space marine sized, let alone suitable as a primarch stand-in and I was supremely disappointed in it. The measurements on the website suggested these models should be more appropriately scaled so I figured I'd roll the dice (and take advantage of a sale they were running). With some trepidation I cracked open the box and was relieved to find that the models were sized far more appropriately and so bustled everything in for a soak and scrub.



The models were virtually free of flash, though were several different colors of resin which isn't a dealbreaker but does give off that 'garage kit' vibe and makes me worry somewhat about quality control. That said, everything appeared to be crisply cast and there were almost no bubbles to worry about filling in. I'm somewhat ambivalent about the Custodes sculpts (they're neat but I'm holding out for the Forge World models which ought to be spectacular), but as it's been mentioned a few times that FW doesn't intend to do models or rules for the Emperor any time in the foreseeable future, I thought the Kabuki version of the model would be a fun little art project, and give me a large-scale model to try and really lavish some attention on.


The model comes with a two-headed cyber-eagle that I'm saving for another project, which allowed me to alter the pose somewhat. I don't have a primarch model on hand to compare sizes with, but he does seem to stand about a head taller than the ones that I've done in the past. Large enough to warrant a 60mm base at the very least, and towering over the alpha legionnaire!

I'm going to have to do a lot of research on painting gold before I ever put a brush to this model. Definitely want to do it justice, and really push myself to get beyond the "decent tabletop quality" I usually accomplish. Should be fun!

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Infinity - Morat Aggression Force (mostly) Painted

January 10, 2016, 5:58 am
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Another long week attending a training class so not much in the way of hobby time, but my plans fell through for Saturday morning so suddenly there was a flurry of painting! More or less finished up the Morat Aggression Force, though as is always the case it is when manipulating and cropping the pictures for posting that I notice all sorts of little things on the models that I've missed or forgotten. This is especially true on these models, having never worked with them before it's only in retrospect that I realize "oh, that's a pouch/ammo clip/whatnot" or more distressingly "oh, that's actually a piece of flash". In any case, on with the pictures!


Kornak Gazarot, Superior Warrior-Officer - One of the better leader choices for the MAF, Kornak provides some extra leadership/order bonuses, and is a surprisingly effective combatant on the table. In many armies it behooves the player to 'hide' his army commander as there are penalties for losing the Lieutenant, but the MAF's special rules essentially allow them to ignore that. Pathetic cowardly humans, it is true and right that the officers should lead proudly by example!


Med-Tech Obsidon Medchanoid - Otherwise known as "Dr. Worm". The one non-Morat unit in the force, Dr. Worm and his attendant drones were must-have models just for the aesthetic, in my opinion.


Morat Vanguard Infantry - The backbone of the MAF, the Morat Vanguard are the most basic troopers, primarily there to provide Orders to the force. Treitak Anyat is a character that can join up with the Vanguard models to form a surprisingly flexible fireteam.


Morat Vanguard Specialists - The Vanguard have a wide array of equipment options, including a number of various heavy weapons as well as a functional but somewhat uninspiring hacker (not something the MAF excels at).


Raktorak, Morat Sergeant Major - The Raktorak are described as being the second-in-command/bodyguards to the MAF officers, though in-game they lack any rules that allow them to effectively do so, so unfortunately while they're some of my favorite models in the range, will likely never actually take the field.


Yaogat Strike Infantry - The Yaogat are the medium infantry of the MAF, with far heavier armour and better stats than the Vanguard. Quite a bit more expensive and lacking the heavy weapon and specialist options, they're nonetheless handy to have due to their multispectral visors which allows them to see through smoke and chaff which are common on the Infinity battlefields.


Daturazi Witch Soldiers - The Daturazi are the scary close combat units of the MAF, with a predilection for charging their opponents and carving them into little chunks. The MAF utilizes a range of different types of close combat weapons (AP, Shock, etc), so I tried to color-code them throughout the force to allow me to tell at a glance what type of weapon is cleaving into the opponent's forces.


Suryat Assault Heavy Infantry - The Suryats are the smallest of the power-armored units in the MAF, generally toting special or heavy weapons and being generally burly. Sadly there's just the one model available currently, but there's nothing wrong with a couple heavy machine guns! Generally these two will be backup up Kornak as he rampages around the table.


Sogarat Tempest Regiment - The heaviest power armour suits in the Morat Aggression Forge prior to the massive TAG suits, the Sogarat are extremely nasty. Mounted on 40mm bases and carrying heavy weapons similar to the Suryat, they are also capable of wielding scary close combat weapons as well. Very expensive however, so it is rare that I'd field all three at one time.

There's a few little details and things to clean up that have become apparent looking at the pics, but overall I'm reasonably pleased with them. It was quite interesting painting non-GW models for a chance, the aesthetic of the models provided a number of interesting challenges (not all of which I feel I was really able to rise to).

Now it's time to delve back into the Heresy! Bits have begun arriving for the upcoming Thousand Sons force and I'm itching to finish off the Geno Five-Two...
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Heresy Era Heroes of the Imperium - The Master of Mankind painting begins

January 19, 2016, 5:55 pm
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Been pretty quiet on the hobby front this past week, but I got a little time in to start laying down the gold on the Emperor. I'm rubbish at the NMM technique, and figured this is not a model to experiment on so the ordinary metallic methods it will be!


Started off my laying in a basecoat of Brassy Brass. Generally speaking I find most gold paint to be rather translucent, and laying a gold in directly over a black basecoat tends to make for a dull lifeless color. The brass is a bit more opaque so covers over the black well, and will 'shine through' the gold making for a richer, more vibrant color.


Glorious Gold was liberally drybrushed over the brass, leaving the deepest crevices to show the brass coloration.


Next up the upper surfaces were given a light drybrush of Polished Gold, making sure to only draw the brush down the model from overhead, leaving the under surfaces in the previous gold color.


Once that was done, the model was given an initial wash of Reikland Fleshshade. This helps add a rich reddish-gold tone, and helps define a lot of the details. At this point the model must be left alone for a good hour or so to properly dry (you can see it's still wet in this photograph), so further steps will have to wait until a later day. Next up comes the more painstaking part, going back in and with a fine detail brush start selectively highlighting the various details and scrollwork to brighten it back up again and help it 'pop', followed by a further selective pin washing. As far the model itself goes, still feeling the head is a little small, but overall I'm quite happy with the sculpt. Lots of neat little details that I'm catching now that I'm really looking at it up close!

In other news I'm finally getting the Rogue Trader campaign I've been working on off the ground starting in a couple weeks, so there's a good chance there may be some more 40-themed RPG minis crossing the painting desk in the near future. The Geno Five-Two are down to the last handful of colors as well, holding off on pics until I can finish 'em up and lay out pics of the whole infantry group, though!
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Heresy Era Heroes of the Imperium - Master of Mankind painting (almost) done

January 24, 2016, 4:18 pm
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Well, sometimes a hobby session just doesn't go the way you want it to. Set about working on the Emperor model a bit more and got all the way up to the end and then flubbed the face. Not super noticable until I took pictures of it but man, the eyes just didn't come out right! Nothing like a cross-eyed Emperor.

 

So, that'll need a little work to fix I think. Other than that I'm pretty happy with how the model turned out, though I think once I get the face re-done it'll go up on the auction block - I'd like to take another crack at the model, but utilizing one of the Primarch heads instead. I think if I could get my hands on a Rowboat Girlyman or Ferrus Manus head it might look a little better.


After that bit of frustration I was excited to come to grips with the Gothic KV-2 tanks that (finally!) arrived from MaxMini. Got 'em all washed and was in the process of getting things clipped off the casting blocks that it came to light that two of the kits were missing tracks. Highly irritating after I'd waited just shy of two months for them to arrive. Sent a note out to 'em to see what could be done. So that was a bust, I figured that I'd pull out the armored Proteus Land Raiders I'd uncovered for use with the upcoming Thousand Sons.


Throne of Terra! Missing a set of tracks for these kits too?! Even more annoying than the KV-2's, I'd ordered these kits back in March of 2015 prior to the FW site rebuild, and the order details that these came from have been deleted from their site. I was able to dig up the PayPal invoiced from the order but they don't have any line-item details. I sent off an email to Forge World but don't really hold out much hope that they'll be willing to send replacement tracks after such a delay. Guess we'll see how it goes.

All in all a rather frustrating bit of hobbying this weekend. On the up side I did manage to get in my first game of Infinity and had quite a lot of fun playing it!


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And now for something completely different - Arcadia Quest monsters

February 1, 2016, 6:44 pm
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Not dead, though missing in action may be a fair assessment. The recent issues with models and painting really took the wind out of my sails hobby-wise and I needed something to rekindle my enthusiasm. A friend at work asked if I'd be willing to take on a small commission job and paint up some of the villains and monsters from a board game he's been playing called Arcadia Quest. Something completely outside the norm sounded like an amusing painting exercise and he handed over a small tray of critters which I bashed out over the past weekend.


11 models in total so they went pretty quickly. Each of the models has an associated card with some matching art, and I tried to stick close to the color schemes shown on the cards, for a sense of continuity. Some liberties were taken here and there to help jazz 'em up a bit (lots of black robes and tabards which would have made them a bit too dark against the requested black bases). Chibi vampires and hulking fantasy monsters, definitely a 180 from the recent projects!



I rather enjoyed painting up the beastmen, minotaurs and ogre, the varying skin tones were fun to do - not a lot of monster-y tones (or exposed skin and hair at all, for that matter) in the recent marine-centric Heresy projects!

All in all a fun little diversion and enough to restart the ol' hobby mojo. Finished off the painting stage of the remaining Geno Five-Two this evening (only had four color passes left when I hit the wall on 'em earlier), and following an overnight "let the darn wash dry thoroughly" step they'll get flocked and photographed over the next day or two. Pics to follow!
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Heresy Era Imperial Army - Geno Five-Two Chilliad complete!

February 2, 2016, 11:35 am
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We had 14" of snow dumped on us overnight, so I'm working from home today. That allowed me a little time over lunch to get the flock on the remaining members of the Geno Five-Two, and get 'em all laid out for a family photo before they get boxed up and in the mail!


The models here represent the remnants of the Dancers company following their mauling at Tel Utan in the novel Legion. I'd designed it as a basic allied force, with a few extra HQ choices for variety and narrative reasons.


Uxor Rukhsana Saiid is joined by her support staff, and the unit's marksmen who form a sniper team. They served with distinction in the games that I've played with 'em!


Hetman Peto Soneka is similarly joined by his command squad, as well as Genewhip Boone and his prods.

 

Bashaws Lon and Shah lead a 20-man squad each, providing the backbone of the force. The Gene-Bred regimental upgrade means they prove to be tough to shift of any objectives they take!


Lastly, the army is backed by a heavy weapons squad, bringing some light anti-tank punch to the party. Overall a rather enjoyable project to work on - it was really fun to kitbash up the models like I envisioned them in my head while reading the novel!

Sort of in between projects at this point, still in the bits-and-kits gathering phase for the KSons and there's a couple projects on the horizon but nothing concrete. May be time to do a few more Inq28 models to keep the mojo workin'!
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Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Test terminators built

February 4, 2016, 5:46 pm
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Still in the bits-gathering phase for the upcoming Thousand Sons, but following some rummaging around in the Closet of Doom I came up with a few bits from the previous incarnation of them and hacked together a test terminator using the new Betrayal at Calth Cataphractii bits.


Pretty happy with how the resin head, torso and tabard work with the plastic bits, think the unit will look pretty slick! Last go around I'd done the terminators up with power weapons and combi-bolters to keep the points down and utilize the khopesh-style blades, but they just were completely ineffective on the tabletop. This time I'm going to be using power- and chain-fists, with lightning claws for the unit sergeants.

 

While I was about it I pulled out one of the several terminator captain models to make a Centurion - nothing too fancy, swapped out the chainfist for a lightning claw (mostly just to see if I could), and broke out the greenstuff to take a whack at some scarabs on the belt and shoulders, and fill in the palm where the chainfist had been cut away. Pretty crude work but okay for a first try I suppose. Going to let them dry overnight, then attempt to add some legs and the little dot for a head, hopefully that'll help them look a little better.

...Or possibly worse, in which case I still have two more of the terminator captain on sprues to try again!

In other news, I've pulled the trigger on tickets to the NOVA Open at the beginning of September, and will be taking part in the "Asymmetrical Warfare" and "Escalation Campaign" events, and have been penciling together the forces to see what I'll need to purchase and paint between now and then. It's still about seven months out, but with the challenges I've had getting the bits together, I might need that much time!
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Heresy Era Thousand Sons - More terminator and character builds!

February 7, 2016, 12:32 pm
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With the exciting news coming out of the Heresy Weekender, I was all fired up to do some more building of the Thousand Sons! Ran out of bases unfortunately, but I was undeterred!


First up the rest of the first squad of terminators, using up the last of the bases and finding out whether the resin Reaper Autocannon would work with the plastic shoulder pads - with a little trimming I was happy to find that it does!


The second squad is armed identically, though I attempted to ensure they weren't mirror images pose-wise. At this point I also ran out of the MaxMini heads so the second sergeant goes helm-less. Overall, quite pleased with how the builds turned out.


I then took a whack at building a character out of the chaplain model from the Betrayal at Calth set, and whipped up the first of what will undoubtedly be quite a few sorcerers. Will be adding some books and scarabs to KSons it up a bit further, I think.

Really getting excited about the army, especially hearing that the Spireguard will be making an appearance in the upcoming Prospero book as well as an aligned Forge World providing robots to the force (which is something I quite liked in the book A Thousand Sons). Might have to put together a couple Knights to ally with the force now too!
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Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Cataphractii Centurion (almost) painted!

February 14, 2016, 5:24 pm
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Pretty busy week, but I did manage to squeeze in a little painting time and whipped up a test model using the Cataphractii Praetor.

 

I'm really digging the metallic red scheme that Forge World has been showing off for their upcoming Thousand Sons line, but as there's still a fair number of models left over from the previous project  this army will continue to utilize the recipe I've used in the past. Just means that when I'm done with this army, I'll just have to sell it and immediately start a brand new one with the airbrushed metallic scheme, right?


Speaking of metallics, in retrospect I do feel I sort of phoned in the gold on the last army of Thousand Sons, so I'm going to be spending a bit more time on it in the new iteration. Pretty happy with the added depth it gives the gold on the terminator here. ...And I didn't totally botch a face for a change!

Going to try out the black-rimmed bases on this army instead of my usual reddish-brown, as it had been commented that it blended in with the reds of the models too much. It definitely does seem to make the model 'pop' a bit more than the previous efforts, which is nice. Still have some further detailing to do, as well as flocking and possibly adding some water effects as an experiment (never have tried it before), but overall I'm reasonably pleased with it so far!
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