Heresy Era Sons of Horus - Contemptor and Predators Waterslides and Weathering!

Really been enjoying working on these models and am nearing the finish line! I took advantage of a brief break in the weather yesterday afternoon to get the initial sealant pass on the models and once it had dried set to with the waterslide transfers and weathering! The initial pics of this stage against the green cutting mat I work on looked poor so I broke out a little parchment paper and made a poor man's photobooth (needs work, I know).

The contemptor got a transfer on the kneepad and top carapace, and a few chips and scratches here and there - I generally go with the "Less is More" philosophy, and try to apply the weathering to locations that would theoretically be getting bumped and bashed.

The Plasmacutioners got much the same treatment, with a couple eye motifs, and the "XVI" legion numerics, followed by some sponged-on weathering using Vallejo Beastly Brown, followed by a sponging of Gunmetal, then some highlights in Shining Silver on the hard edges. I tried to pick out the 'underside' of some of the weathering here and there with the Vallejo Tank Crew Highlight to give them a little extra depth.

Second verse, same as the first! Once the chipping was on, I thought I'd add some mud/dust along the bottom of the tank to represent the churned-up earth. Went with the same colors I'm using on the bases, and tried to do a streaky pattern to represent the grime spattering backwards along the hull as the tank rumbles forward. I think it needs a bit of sponge work to break it up a little and add a bit more texture, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along! Probably one more quick session and then just a holding pattern for a break in the rain to do the second sealant pass - after that, the water effects and grass tufts for the dreadnough base and they'll be complete!

Heresy Era Sons of Horus - Contemptor and Predators "Off the factory floor"!

A little cleanup and basing session last night brought the models up to what I call the "fresh off the factory floor" stage, where they're ready for the initial sealant pass in preparation for the waterslides and weathering steps.

Went with a muddy blasted urban scheme for the base, with the brickwork in a lighter sandstone color to give it a little pop. I'll be adding in a couple tufts of grass, and have ordered up some of the Secret Weapon water effects that I'll be adding at the verrrrry end after the final sealant pass (as it sounds like the spray sealant may mess up the look of the water).

Spent some time cleaning up the most egregious sloppy edge lining on the predators, and added in the various lights and lenses. Naturally now that they're ready for the initial sealant pass, it's forecast to be rainy and chilly for the next several days. Curse you, mother nature!

Heresy Era Sons of Horus - Contemptor and Predators painting begins!

Got a surprising amount of brush time in over the weekend and managed to get some good forward motion on the Contemptor and Predators. Huzzah!

Really quite happy with the green tone, though as usual my edge lining needs a little cleanup. On the upside this go-around the main armor color doesn't include a wash step which means I can use the mid-tone green to go in and clean up any slop in later stages. The seafoam green uses the Vallejo USMC Tank Crew Green (70.319) as the basic midtone, with a 50% mix of tank crew and black as the undercoat and the Vallejo USMC Tank Crew Highlight (70.323) as the, well, highlight. Couldn't be simpler!

The plasmacutioners got the same treatment while I was about it, and then I started laying in the secondary spot colors, with a dark grey/storm grey/black wash on the black areas, the usual ice blue/guilliman blue wash on the blue areas, and then a white undercoat/hot orange/orange fire on the plasma coils which I really think sets off nice against the green!

Still a ways to go before they're ready for the initial sealant pass prior to waterslides and weathering, but I am really digging 'em so far!

Heresy Era Sons of Horus - Project planning, and first models!

As I have alluded to recently, the next Horus Heresy project in the hopper is a Sons of Horus force. I place the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of Dave Taylor, who shared his SoH paint recipe for the recent NOVA Charitable Foundation raffle army and after painting up a helmet in that scheme being held by one of the Thallax models I'd done, and subsequently a test model, I was hooked!

Whenever I start a new project I pencil together a quick painting chart to get a feel for what the army structure may look like and figure out what I have on-hand and what needs to be ordered. In this case I thought I'd do an Armoured Spearhead force as a counterpoint to the recent Orbital Assault Thousand Sons list. The RoW requires all infantry models to be mounted in a dedicated transport, and gives the option for any unit that could take a Rhino to instead be deployed in a Land Raider. As the Sons of Horus are known for their brutal assaults, I knew that I needed to run the Phobos variants to take advantage of the assault ramps, and while the Mk.IIb Land Raider from Forge World has a little Heresy flavor, what really sealed the deal was the unveiling of a new set of track kits from Blood and Skulls industries, providing wrap-around track sections akin to my beloved Proteus models!

I have a trio of these kits winging their way to me as we speak, and picked up a pair of the Mk.IIb Land Raider kits from the FW booth at NOVA a few weeks back, can't wait to get 'em combined! I'd placed a FW order a week or so ago for the majority of the infantry bits and kits that I'll need to get rolling (and have gottend a shipping notification that they're on the way, woo!), and will have to place one more order in the upcoming weeks to pick up the last of the requisite models including the big man himself, the Abbadon/Loken set, a Spartan and the third Mk.IIb raider. Not a lot of models, but it's going to be a pricey order!

The force is also going to have a strong plasma element to it - I'm envisioning using a hot red/orange on the plasma coils to set off against the cooler seafoam green of the armor, and as such I dug out a couple tanks that have been lurking in the Closet of Doom for years. A pair of Predator Plasma Executioners! I'd run a pair of them in one of the earlier iterations of the Thousand Sons and they were pretty fierce - I'd picked up a few more intending to use them on the recent Thousand Sons force but when I switched gears to go Orbital Assault with 'em they ended up languishing in a box instead. Happy to have a chance to use them in the new SoH force! Still gotta get the tracks on them, but other than that they went together like a dream - only had to break out the heat gun for one side panel, everything else lined up really well. Hoping to get the builds finished over the next few evenings and get 'em primered over the weekend. Maybe get some paint on 'em too!

Imperial Guard - Macharius Omega painting in progress

It's been a crazy week full of catching up on work after vacation, and getting ready for a gig this past Saturday so I've had no hobby time whatsoever. However, today was quiet enough to get some brush time in!

  

Got the basic colors on the Macharius Omega, with the standard black, red and yellow. I also tried to do a 'plasma pulse' effect on the coils which I think worked out fairly well. Still a ways to go with the crewmen, and the fine detail yet to be done.

 

Snapped a quick comparison shot with the Leman Russ Executioner, and I'm pretty pleased how they tie together so far!

Imperial Guard - Leman Russ Executioner Painted

Got a lot of hobby stuff done over this past weekend, with the the build-out of a whole mess of Dark Angels goodies making up the Lion's share (hah!) of the effort. However, before I jump onto the DA bandwagon with both feet, I wanted to finish up and get a few pics taken of the Leman Russ Executioner that has been sitting on the painting desk in a half painted state for far too long!

In order to distinguish this tank from the Leman Russ Vanquisher squadron, I reversed the red and black on the sides of the tank and the turret. This brightens up the tank overall, and coupled with the yellow spot colors on the weapon housings, it's almost festive! ...In a unstoppable, plasma-spewing juggernaut sort of way. I tried my hand at doing a sort of "plasma pulse" look on the executioner cannon with mixed success. I'm not totally sold on it, but I'm unsure how to better convey the look.

I added a bit of decoration in the form of unit numbering and waterside transfers, and have just about got all the tanks done up to the point where I can begin the weathering process - I've been waiting to get them all done before I do that, in order to keep the weathering looking 'uniform' across all of the vehicles. They definitely need a little something extra, while the black and red is fairly striking, getting some dirt, grime and paint scraped back to bare metal should help to give them all a little more personality.

In other news, the army I'm scheming on for Adepticon was built over the weekend, expect to see a mess of Dark Angel posts over the next month or two. Get on that bandwagon and ride! Woo!