DreadTober 2019 Week 4 - To Done!

Got all the little final detailing done on the Contemptor Achillus over the weekend, just in time to hit the finish line for DreadTober! Without further ado, some pics!

  

All in all a rather fun dreadnought to paint up, and has me rather excited to get back to the rest of the Custodes in the force as a change of pace from all the Necromunda going on behind the scenes. Reminds me, I gotta get all the pics from last session sorted out and posted...

Looking forward to seeing all the other awesome entries for this year's DreadTober? Head on over and check 'em out at https://dreadtober.blogspot.com/ - The final post for this year goes up on the 31st!

DreadTober 2019 Week 3 - Nearing the finish line!

DreadTober stomps ever onward, with big metal feet! Tons of great progress from the various participants to be seen at the main DreadTober blog - Go check 'em out!

While I've been beavering away on more Necromunda behind the scenes, I have gotten quite a bit of work done on the Contemptor Achillus, and it's almost complete (and essentially table ready now)!

Did some more targeted shading and highlights on the gold, cleaned up the greaves and shoulders, and laid in the iron/steel. Starting to look good now!

There's still some more work to be done here and there - Taking photos of your models always shows things that the naked eye misses. That said, it should be done in plenty of time for the end of the month!

DreadTober Week 1 - Legio Custodes Contemptor-Achillus Built!

It is now October 1st, which means it's time for...

DreadTober! As usual it's time to dive in and build out some big stompy death machines - If you're interested in participating, click the banner above to be taken to the DreadTober blog and sign up for the fun!

I am slowly working towards a Legio Custodes force for a Burning of Prospero game being organized for Adepticon 2020 (so I have some time), so I figured now was a good time to get cracking on the Contemptor-Achillus that is part of the force!

  

Like all of Forge World's contemptors, the model has a metric ton of articulation points, and was a joy to build! Rather happy with how the arms holding the glaive turned out, though there was more than a little swearing while attempting to line everything up in a realistic manner. Rather looking forward to getting some paint on it over the next few weeks!

Heresy Era Adeptus Custodes - Custodian Guard Squad (almost) Complete!

Just a quick hit today - it's been ridiculously cold over the last couple days (-12°F last night) so no spray sealing going on. That said, barring that final step the Custodian Guard squad is more or less complete!

Rather enjoyed painting them up, though there's not a whole lot to 'em beyond the gold stage so the last few steps went really quickly. Red on the horsehair plumes and gemstones and blue for the power blades, and a few areas in silver and white. Matched up the bases to the ones for the Imperial Fists and job's a good 'un!

Heresy Era Adeptus Custodes - Custodian Guard squad begins

Wait! Put down the pitchforks and torches, it's not technically another project, honest! Hah!

The main reason I chose the Imperial Fists for the Prospero plastics was primarily to give me the ability to run an allied force of Custodes - How exactly that's going to work remains to be seen within the upcoming Inferno book from Forge World, but there are some preliminary rules available to allow for test games. I started off just building a basic Custodian Guard squad, as I'm assuming they'll be the 'basic' troop type for the force - hard to go wrong with the basics!

I was pleased to see they were given a size boost over the basic marines, they are appropriately imposing! They were fun to assemble - The first five were built right out of the book, and I'm looking forward to trying some mix-and-match parts on the next five to see what sorts of alternate posing may be possible.

On to the painting! First things first the models were given a basecoat of Vallajo's Brassy Brass. This is a nice, rather opaque metallic that covers well and prevents the blotchy look a more translucent lighter gold can get painted over a black basecoat.

Next the models were given a heavy drybrush of Glorious Gold, then given an all-over wash of Reikland Fleshshade (still wet in this pic) then left to thoroughly dry overnight..

Taking the day off (Star Wars day, baby!) so this morning I was able to put in a quick session and gave the now-dried models a couple light drybrush passes with Shining Gold to bring the luster back up a bit. Next up will be a few silver highlights on the uppermost surfaces to really push the shine! Planning on getting some more work done on them today - Queuing up the Original Trilogy to run in the background, and looking forward to seeing Rogue One in the theater later on!

Adeptus Custodes Terminators

Not a huge amount of forward progress on the Dark Eldar of late, I've been working on batch painting four Raiders and a Venom all at the same time. That's been more than a little tedious, so I decided to take a break from the red and gold paint scheme and instead paint something... gold... and red. Argh.

I'd picked up these Custodes Terminators years and years ago and they have patiently waited in the Closet of Doom until the recent release of the new Grey Knights. After reading through the codex, I figured that they would be well-represented on the tabletop as a unit of Paladins, and set about building them accordingly utilizing a mix of the GK Terminator arms, and the arms that came with the Custodes originally.

 

As there isn't really a 'Sergeant' for the unit, I went with a slightly-more-ornate Nemesis Force Halberd for one of the models.

Though it's not nearly as powerful as the almighty Psycannon, the artwork for the Custodes clearly shows them carrying a flame lance, so I've included one in the unit as a counts-as Incinerator.

  

Rounding out the unit are three more NFH-armed terminators. Unfortunately all of the main bodies for the Custodes are identical, so I tried to utilize the varied arm poses to try and get them to look a bit more individual. As I have no plans to run a GK army, these models will be going on eBay this coming weekend...

As mentioned earlier, I'm in the midst of batch painting all the transports for the Dark Eldar, and snapped a quick picture of them while I was about it. Still a ways to go, but at least all the main colors have been blocked in!

More messing about with Heresy-Era models

Still plugging away at the Hypaspists, but in between batches of color I took a little time to do some building and some cleanup on an existing model.

First up I went back and repainted the base for good ol' Sanguinius. I wasn't happy with the sandstone base I'd originally done, so I went back through and attempted a greenish marbled look. Better, but not perfect - I like the overall effect, but I think I was a little heavy handed with the white marbling. Practice makes perfect I suppose! Of course, as I'll never actually use this model, it's gone up on eBay.

With the release of the new Grey Knight plastics, I rummaged around in the Closet of Doom and pulled out the 5 Custodes Terminator bodies I'd picked up years and years ago. I decided that I'd kit them out as counts-as Paladins and armed them accordingly. While the Incinerator may not be the 'best' weapon upgrade available, it is the one that shows up in the artwork and therefore is the one I went with. Style before Purpose, I say!

In addition, I reclaimed an old, old Mk. IIb Land Raider for use as the Custodes Terminator Transport. It was very dusty so I gave it a bit of a wash and brush down, though it still looks fairly dirty. Another bath may be in order...