Custodes - Wrapping up final details

While at NOVA Open I picked up a Custodes Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought which I've been eying since it's release. I may be picking up a Coronus Grav Carrier soon as well, so I'm pretty excited to get some Custodes infantry on the table top. I had done the majority of the work on these guys several months ago but I'm finally just getting to the last couple details and since I'm on a hobby-high from the recent trip, it's time to get these guys done. They're intentionally only painted to a tabletop standard but I'll probably put a little extra work into the Dread when it's time.

I'm also using this project as a jumping off point to try a new textural blending style I learned while taking a class with Roman from Massive Voodoo. The red shoulder pads is a good place to start this but I'll be doing this on the Dread and Vehicles to come on all the red and gold areas. I think k it's going to make them all look like the ancient advanced soldiers they are.

Clawed Fiend in one week - part 1

My local GW store has monthly paint competitions and this month's was monsters and mounts. Basically any monster or mounted bike/beast (cavalry?) model, space marine rhino size or smaller. Initially I didn't feel like bothering with it but after going through a few models I found a Finecast Dark Eldar Clawed Friend I had bought a few years back. It doesn't fit into any of my armies but it's such a great model I really wanted to paint it. Unfortunately my current armies always seem to take precedence over fun projects so I forgot about it until I was doing a little cleaning this weekend. In an effort to get more minis painted I figured why not just power through it and get it done for next weekend.

As Finecast goes the model was in pretty good shape, only a handful of small bubbles needed filling and minimal greenstuff work on the arm and leg. I also opted to paint the tail separately, I wanted to use the airbrush as much as possible and I think it would have been in the way a little bit during zenithal highlights.

I built up the base using a single cork and some old GW basing slate then added a layer of Vallejo brown earth to fill gaps and add texture. I finished by sticking a few extra bits of slate into the brown earth to make the base as dynamic as possible. 

I painted the fiend himself using Thunderhawk Blue as a base color, then Incubi Darkness for shadows on the underside and finally Vallejo Light Green Blue for the highlights. The only additional colors were Screamer Pink for the stripes, and Coelia Greenshade over the fur areas of the model.

For his base I painted a foundation of Steel Legion Drab, then a shade of Rhinox Hide on recesses and undersides of rocks, and finally Tau Light Ochre on the top in a mottled pattern, hopefully to keep things looking natural.

Here's the result after day one.

If all goes as planned I'll have a finished model by Friday.

My new army: D-99 Elysian Drop Troops

I recently got a pretty good deal on about 25 Forge World Elysian infantry models and 4 Tauros so I've decided to go all in with an elysian army. I played IG through most of 5th edition 40k and dabbled here and there in 6th edition, but mostly moved on to Grey Knights and Space Marines for 6th and 7th edition. I've had the itch to get back to IG/Astra Militarum for a while but I don't love horde style armies so I've had a little trouble picking how I'd want to play them.

With my recent Elysian windfall, I've got a great start to an elite fast IG force that plays in a way that will be exciting for me. I've got 2 Valkyries from my existing IG force that are painted to a pretty nice standard, and I think I'll pick up another 2. In addition I've recently placed and order for a Forge World Vulture armed with Punisher cannons and I'm in the process of converting 3 sentinels to look a little more Elysian in design. Overall I'll probably spend a fair bit of cash on the army but I'm excited to try out the D-99 rules and get an Inquisitorial IG force on the board.

Here's the spread I picked up on the cheap(ish)...

I did quite a bit of blog and forum scouring to find paint schemes I like that also match my Valkyries and here are my 3 test paints I came up with...

The model on the far right is just too dark for me, there's not enough contrast between the armor and the fatigues and it's not an interesting enough scheme to work. The model in the middle is the color I wanted to work (Vallejo Sand yellow or something like that), but it just looked way too yellow once I saw a model fully painted. The model on the left is my final decision, it's just enough contrast to look interesting to me but not to heavy handed with the yellow color. Now just the small matter of painting about 40 of these guys. I'll need to purchase about 25 more to have all the special weapons I need. I'm just gonna crank through this project at a fevered pace and try to get them done and really make an effort to not overdo the details on these models. I want to get an army done so I'll be airbrushing base colors and using washes for depth. Let's hope it comes together the way I have it organized in my head...who am I kidding it never does.

Getting Ready for NOVA Open's Capital Palette

In a little over a week we'll be trekking from New England to the DC area for the 2015 Nova Open. I won't be playing in any events, except possibly some Age Of Sigmar games, but I'll trying to bring my A-game (or at least my B-game) to this years years Capital Palette.  Last year I completely dropped the ball with my prep work and ended up not submitting any entries, I really regret being so damn lazy after winning a Silver medal the previous year. I'm trying to make up for things this year so if you end up down there keep an eye for some of these models in the display cases.

I've been trying to refine the Iron Hands Legion Praetor I started a few months back. I added some more pronounced highlights as well as a few chapter and clan markings from the Forge World decal sheet. I also played with adding some shadows to the base for the first time, I like the effect but there's no way I'd be able to put that much work into a whole army.  Now he's looking a little meaner and more fitting of his stature in "The Iron Tenth". There are a couple small details left but I think I'm about ready to call this guy complete.

I've also done quite a bit of tedious work on some Tau Pathfinders that I've been working on for two plus years now. I probably over did the paint job considering their value on the battlefield but that's sort of my problem in general, I have a tough time taking short cuts of any kind when painting. I really went to town with some weathering pigments on their bases which I think are looking pretty sharp. Now I just need to finish the rest of this Tau army to the same standard.

Iron Hands Legion Praetor - work in progress

Ever since forgeworld released their Legion Praetor set a while back, I've had my eye on it. A few months ago I finally picked the kit up with the intention of making the power armored Praetor a foot Chapter Master, and the terminator armored Praetor a kitted out Librarian. Now, having nearly wrapped up work on my Devestator Centurions, I decided to pick these two models and try to get some work done on them.

As with the rest of my Iron Hands, I went with a muted dark grey/black base color and all silver metallic components. I wanted to make them look basic and utilitarian (by Astartes standards), like a machine that's well maintained as opposed to gilded with superfluous ornamentation. To make these guys stand out as HQs I decided to add some gold to their weapons, which isn't used anywhere else in the standard troops. I think it'll be a small detail that pops out on the tabletop.

First up the power armored Praetor. I'm not even close to being done with sword, its going to take a lot more precise blending but it's off to a good start.

 The terminator armored Praetor only really has paint on his face so far, which I left separate so I could access the details a little more easily.

While I'm not planning on playing 30k at the moment I just can't resist purchasing some of Forge World's amazing Horus Heresy models, and this kit did not disappoint. I'm hoping to keep cranking away on these guys and have them done in the next week or two.

Iron Hands Centurion Devastators

It's been a while since I had any progress towards my Iron Hands force, but I'm happy to say I've finally started picking up momentum again. Following the release of the new space marines codex, I decided to celebrate by completing my Centurion Devestators. 

I had done the majority of the work on them a few months back but hobby painters bottleneck reared it's head, I stalled for weeks on the final small details. With the exception of some Forge World Clan Raukaan transfers (and maybe some small highlights I've missed) I'm happy to count this squad amongst those rare models in my 40k collection I call complete. I've only really attempted to achieve a tabletop or slightly higher level, so I acknowledge some shoddy edge-work on these guys but I'm happy to have a few more completed models. 

Just a side note, I opted to trim the side toes off the feet on these models. I appreciated the tiny dreadnought look the model designers were going for, but the inside toes seemed like they'd make walking difficult. I also think these models are bulky enough so the streamlined feet help make them look a little more nimble for my taste. I also added a spacer, roughly 2mm - 3mm, in between the torso and the legs to make them look just a little leaner.

The bases I made from the GW bases included with the kit and some flagstone plasticard and sand.

Not sure what I'll be working on next, but it really ought to be a few Capital Palette entries for the Nova Open since time is already running out for that event.

Enjoy.

First up the Squad Leader...

Followed Centurion 1... 

And Finally Centurion 2 (I know I should have 6 of them, what am I thinking)...

Iron Hands - Painting update 4 - Tactical Marines completed

After a little bit of a painting break during the holiday season I hit the ground running this new year and I'm happy to say I've finally got my first set of tactical marines painted. I bought them when the new Space Marine codex was initially released about a year and a half ago now. I'm happy to ring in the new year having finally completed painting my first 15 Iron Hands, and while I'm quite a slow painter, I'm really trying to reign myself in and not go too crazy so I can actually see this army fully assembled and painted on the tabletop.

Here are the final six Marines, they're mostly un-helmeted since I was saving the more detailed face painting for the last step but I'm really happy with how they've turned out.

I'm going to switch gears and work on something other than Tactical Marines for a while, potentially bikes since they're an important part of my army. In the meantime I'm also adding final details to a Contemptor Dreadnought and starting to paint his base. If all goes well I'll have it completed and on the base by the end of the weekend so hopefully I'll another post ASAP.

Iron Hands progress update - 2

I've been working on the vehicles for the boys from Medusa for some time now and I was hoping to finish them completely before creating this post. However, since it seems like I won't be done with them for at least a few more weeks I decided to post a progress update for now. I've added some weathering since these pics were taken and I need to add quite a but more. I'll also need to add some metallic details here and there and finish with somesource lighting on the headlights but they're real close to being done.

This first set shows the primed vehicles with just a little highlighting and the weapons and unit markings airbrushed in Celestra Grey.

And here are a few close ups of the first stages of weathering and decals.