Dreadtober 2018 - House Vyronii Armigers complete!

More Dreadtober goodness this morning! It's been kind of nice having two projects going at the same time - When I get tired of the red and black of the Word Bearers I've been able to bounce over to the green and white of House Vyronii. ...But not any longer, as my pledge for Dreadtober 2018 is now complete!

First up are the Armiger Warglaves, all set for close-in work with their Melta weapons and close combat weapons.

And second are the Armiger Helverins, which are probably my favorite of the two varieties. Really dig the twin autocannon look!

All in all I'm really happy with them, they were a blast to build and a joy to paint. Now we'll see if I can actually get them on the tabletop at some point!

Head on over to http://dreadtober.blogspot.com/ for more Dreadtober goodness!

Heresy Era Mechanicum - Knight Warden painting continues!

Got a fair bit of brush time in over the weekend and Khenti-Amentiu is starting to come together! I knew up front that I didn't want to go with the crimson, gold and bone that I've been doing (to death) on the Thousand Sons and their Mechanicum allies, so decided that whatever happened, there would be no red on the Knight!

After much hemming and hawing I settled on trying my hand at doing a lapis lazuli effect on the armour plating, as that's often associated with Egyptian artistry. I spent a fair bit of time checking out images and did some practicing on a couple pieces of cardstock until I started feeling confident. While it's blown out a little in the pictures, there's actually three different blues and teals sponged on in stripes, then some gold was added as striations. I'm thinking it needs a little more pop, so will likely add in a little white streaking and another pass of a shinier gold here and there. Overall I'm fairly happy with the result but the pictures aren't really doing it justice. Perhaps once it's sealed it'll pop a little more.

As spot colors I decided to go with white and yellow - The blue/yellow combo is always nice and Tzeentch-y, and the white should allow any transfers laid onto it to really pop. Went with the 'sunray' theme on one shoulder pad and tried to go for a charcoal/onyx look on the faceplate. Still a lot of little cleanup and detailing to do - I do like to take a couple pictures towards the end of a project as it helps me really see the various things that remain to be done that oddly can be hard to see in-hand. Nevertheless, it's coming along nicely, and think it'll look pretty sharp once I get the initial sealant pass on and start adding transfers and weathering to it!

Heresy Era Mechanicum - Knight Warden painting begins!

Managed to get the knight warden built and primered over the last couple days and broke out the big brushes to start laying in the metallics on the endoskeleton. All the various parts are separate to facilitate the painting process but reassembled it as much as possible for some photos.

Fairly straightforward recipe - Started by blocking in everything with a very heavy drybrush of boltgun metal, then a medium drybrush of silver on the upper surfaces. Once that was done the whole thing was mopped down with Agrax Earthshade which gives it a nice oily greasy look. The next morning once the wash had thoroughly dried it got a light re-drybrushing of silver to brighten it back up and bring up the edges a bit.

Added in a few more armor plates and it's starting to look pretty cool. It's a little top-heavy without any of the leg plates on, but I'm liking how it's turning out. The next painting stages should start adding in some color - plenty of blues, yellows and golds!

Heresy Era Mechanicum - Khenti-Amentiu, Freeblade Knight build continues

Just a quick hit this morning - Managed to get a little more build time in on the Knight, and have been fiddling around with potential posing options. Also put a name to the beast, Khenti-Amentiu, Freeblade Knight and Guardian of the Tombs of Cynopolis on the Forge World of Zhao Arkkad.

Added magnets at the torso and neck, and have been twisting the various pieces this way and that to see what works. I think I'm leaning towards the pose shown above, gazing over the top of the blade in a taciturn guardian look. Still quite a ways to go on the build of course but rather digging the jackal head and khopesh blade add-ons!

40k Objective Markers Complete, and the start of something big!

Finished off the objective markers this past weekend, and got a nice little package from shapeways containing the next batch of bits for the next project. It's Christmas in July (but only just)!

Nothing too crazily different from the last shot, other than some cleanup, the addition of the number markers (the 5 is on the backside of the stasis tank) and some quick color on the bases. Nothing too fancy but they'll stand out nicely on the table during a game! Overall I really enjoyed this set, and am looking forward to giving 'em a whirl.

Next up however is a nice big centerpiece model for the Zhao Arkkad force - A Knight Warden! I came across these poseable knight legs on ebay a while back and rather liked the look of 'em, but they've been sitting in a box waiting for some inspiration. They went together rather well, and allow for a nice range of motion - I was going for a 'striding forward' pose, but the way it ended up the weight of the hips actually settles on the rear leg so it may end up in a braced firing position in the end. We'll see how the upper torso and arms come along I suppose!

Speaking of arms, I intend to give it a gatling cannon and a missile pod, but wanted to do something a little more Egyptian for the close combat weapon - Found a massive chain khopesh on Shapeways that fits the bill nicely! I also picked up a rather neat Anubis/Jackal head but am saving the pic of that until I get it mounted on the torso. Suffice it to say there'll be no doubt that it's a Knight aligned to the Zhao Arkkad Mechanicum and the Thousand Sons! From a color theory standpoint I'm planning on going blue and yellow as a contrast to all the red and white of the rest of the force as well as a nod to the color scheme of the modern era Thousand Sons. Looking forward to getting some more build time in on it!

Heresy Era Mechanicum - Zhao Arkkad Cybernetica force complete!

With NOVA bearing down on me, I had to take stock of what remains to be done - As I'd been working on the Castellax recently (who are pulling double duty in both the Thousand Sons and Mechanicum forces) I figured I ought to pull out the rest of the Zhao Arkkad force and get all the waterslides, glossy faceplates and so forth complete. Once that was done it turns out the whole Cybernetica contingent is ready to go!

1500 points doesn't go very far in a Cybernetica force! This army will form half of the team game force, and will take the field alongside 1500 points of Thousand Sons. Should be good times! They're currently hanging out on a very cool gaming tray made by the inestimable Zab over at Almost Perftec.

I wanted to do something a little different for the Archmagos Dominus, and dug up an old "Telepathica Emancipator" model from the Tempus Fugitives days. I kind of like the "canopic jar" look, I'm envisioning the Magos as being a mummified husk inside (or perhaps it's just sacs of organs)...

Quite happy with how the Castellax Achea turned out - the transfer sheets from Forge World included a couple rather cool banners, and I really dug this one in particular. Added a little touch of the wyrdlight green to help tie them in to the rest of the Thousand Sons force, as they are controlled via a psychic link.

Nothing really new with the Thallax, they were pretty much done already and just needed their faceplates given a going-over with the brush-on gloss varnish.

Similarly the Vorax just got the shiny eye treatment, and the addition of a small Thousand Sons nova in white. Helps to tie them in with the rest of the force, all of whom have the white nova on one shoulder or another. Still my favorite of the new robot re-imaginings from FW, I adore these models (fiddly though they are to assemble)!

The big guy got a similar large transfer on his shoulder as a callback to the imagery on the Castellax banner, and the shiny faceplate treatment. They're all ready to be packed up for transit to the event!

While I was about it I updated the Thousand Sons painting chart. Very close to the finish line now! Trying very hard to stay focused on this project so I don't have to worry about models for NOVA, but have been entertaining thoughts of which project to pick up next - Both the Genestealer Cult and Dark Eldar/Harlequins appeal as a way to dip my toes into 8th edition (which I still haven't had a chance to play), but on the other hand I do really want to start that Sons of Horus army... Decisions, decisions!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Castellax Achea painting begins!

Happy 4th of July to our stateside readers, and I suppose a happy Tuesday to everyone else! Just a quick hit between BBQ and relaxation on the day off - I managed to squeeze in a fair bit of work on the unit of Castellax Achea this morning:

Basic gold, red and blues laid in so far, but heck, that's more than halfway to the finish line, right? Pretty happy with how they're turning out so far, hope to have them done by the end of the week!

NOVA Open Charitable Foundation Army - Thallax painting begins!

With the days slipping by toward NOVA, it is high time I got off my duff and start painting up the two Thallax cohorts intended for inclusion in the NOVA 2017 charitable auctions!

Nothing too fancy just yet, just laid in the underpinning metals and got the red armor plates on. We've been provided a painting guide for paint recipes but otherwise have been given fairly free rein on the details. A goodly chunk of the metallics will be getting some further verdigris bronze sections, and we'll get some greens and blues in there as well on various cables and coils!

As a bit of a nod to the Heresy Sons of Horus charity army also up for grabs, I thought it could be amusing to have one of the Thallaxi be holding up a trophy helmet. Rather liked how the sea green turned out, which is dangerous.

...I think it may be a foregone conclusion that I'll have to do a Sons of Horus army of my own once I get done with the Thousand Sons. I have always wanted to build and paint Horus, Abbadon and Loken after all!

Heresy Era Mechanicum - Thanatar and Vorax almost complete!

I was going through the pictures I've taken over the last couple weeks and realized I'd never posted the shots of the Thanatar and Vorax fresh off the paint line! They were spray sealed before I left for Adepticon and are awaiting the addition of some waterslide transfers and weathering, but are table ready otherwise!

 

Rather happy with how the Thanatar turned out, the red ended up a little mottled but in the end I sort of like it! Carried on with the black weapon housings and the usual electric blue gives it some nice spot color.

The Vorax are by far my favorite of the robot range, they just exude menace. Haven't glossed up the eyes yet (or the faceplate on the Thanatar), as they'll be getting another matte pass following the addition of the transfers and weathering.

  

FW recently put up another preview of the Achean Castellax and the Osiron dreadnought, and the force will be getting at least three of each weapon loadout! Going to be an expensive day once those go up for pre-order...

Heresy Era Mechanicum - Robots rolling through the manufactorum...

Real Life(tm) has been kicking my butt recently, but there was time to put brush to model here and there as a way to unwind, so I fired up the painting servitor and got cracking!

The Thallax got painted up to the "Off the factory floor" stage prior to waterslides and weathering, thinking some hieroglyphics on the offhand shoulder would be a good way to go! Went with the brush-on gloss on the faceplates to give them a nice shine, though the lighting is a little poor to get the full effect in these in-progress shots.

Quite enjoyed painting the Thallax, so the Vorax were the next on deck - keep that momentum going! Just the antiqued gold/brass and laid in the basecoat for the red so far, but already liking how they're shaping up!

Since three models don't really make for much of a batch, the Thanatar got the same treatment. He's a beast - definitely glad I left him separated at the waist to facilitate painting! Got a whole mess of Thousand Sons basecoated in red, so expect a tidal wave of the Sons of Magnus in short order - Really excited to get stuck in with 'em, something a little different in store for the army this time around...

Heresy Era Mechanicum - The Flesh Is Weak!

The fallible flesh components of the painting servitor succumbed to the touch of Nurgle so I did a half day today - Between sneezing fits managed to get several nearly-built models constructed and even start laying in a little paint on a few models!

First up is the heavy hitter of the Cybernetica force, the Thanatar. Armed with a fearsome Hellex Plasma Wave mortar and Mauler Bolt Cannons, it's just a beast! I expect it to take a ton of fire, so it gets the Paragon of Metal special rule, granting it some much needed extra survivability!

Next were some of the most challenging models in the Mechanicum line to build in my opinion, but also the one whose look I enjoy most of all - The Vorax! A worthy re-imagining of the old Crusader robot, I love the insectile look and think they'll tie in nicely with the scarab motif of the Thousand Sons they'll be fighting alongside!

Finally, a bit of paint! As a departure from the normal gunmetal skeletal structure, the various bots of the Zhao Arkkad Cybernetica will be getting an antiqued gold/bronze color, which when tied together with the red armor plates and black weapon housings should give them a nice complimentary color scheme to the Thousand Sons as well. Just laying in the basecoats for the reds to get a feel for what panels I want to do, and of course at some point they're all going to get a hit of my usual blue as a spot color - should really make 'em pop!

Heresy Era Mechanicum - Zhao Arkkad Legio Cybernetica begins!

Wait! Put down the pitchforks and torches, it's technically part of the Thousand Sons project, I swear!

One of the things that I rather liked in the book A Thousand Sons were the Legio Cybernetica robots embedded with psycho-reactive crystal matrices, allowing Khalophis to direct them on the battlefield. Turns out the folks at FW liked that idea as well and worked that aspect into the rules, and showed off some rather cool Castellax variants at the recent Heresy Weekender. They are going to be a must-buy as soon as they're released!

Of course, that just means I am going to have to do an entire army of allied Mechanicum, right? There is a method to the madness - At NOVA 2017 there's a 1500 point-per-person team event, and a friend of mine who is attending and I are doing a bit of a collaboration. He'll been helping me out with the airbrushing of the metallics, and I'll be doing all the traditional brushwork and modelling. On the up side, with the recent sale of the previous incarnation of the Thousand Sons I was able to add in pretty much all of the models for the force in the recent order - all that remains are the yet-to-be-released Castellax, which I sincerely hope will be made available in time for the event...

I did spend a little time assembling the two Thallax cohorts, I really dig these models and was looking forward to building 'em. Next up on deck is the Belisarius Cawl model, who I think will make for an excellent Archmagos Dominus. He's about half built at this point, but is all in sections to facilitate painting - managed to restrain myself from building it all only to find it becomes nigh-impossible to paint fully assembled!

When all is said and done the whole force will be 15 models, which should hopefully make it reasonably easy to build, paint and (above all) transport to the event!

40k Genestealer Cult - The First Curse complete!

Been a rather busy week but I have managed to sneak in a little brush time here and there and the First Curse rears its chitinous head!

There's actually a few more than 20 'stealers in the bunch, but figured I may as well paint 'em all up at once, for those times when I may want to run a couple smaller packs. Went with some yellow accents on the eyes and bases to help tie them in with the yellow to come on the hybrids, and went with the Space Hulk standard Blood Angels terminators, as the red gives a nice contrasting pop to the models. One detachment done!

In other news I sold off the Deathwatch almost immediately after the previous weekend's Armies on Parade event (must get those pics uploaded) and with the British Pound exchange being so favorable I couldn't help but place a good sized Forge World order to take advantage of both the exchange rate and the free shipping. For the most part the box of joy contained several (albeit non-photoworthy) special- and heavy weapon squad upgrade kits, a couple sheets of the lovely new Thousand Sons transfers, and or course I had to pad out the order with something big, right? A Knight Lancer it is! It'll be part of the Forge World Zhao-Arkkad force that will be accompanying the Thousand Sons once the Inferno book is released, but for now the bits got a good scrub & soak and are now drying on the counter. Looking forward to building it!

Heresy Era Mechanicum - Vorax Maniple Painted

Well unfortunately Real Life(tm) has been taking up far more of my time than I like, but I did manage to get a little hobby time in over the last few days and knocked out the Vorax maniple I'd ordered ages ago!

I absolutely love the update to the old Crusader pattern robot design FW has done, though the kits proved to be a major pain in the tuchus to assemble - tons of hot water bending for the various cables and ammo feeds, and even with what I thought was gentle manipulation, I still managed to snap one of them (and fixing that was a joy let me tell you).

Same basic paint scheme as the rest of the force - blue power weapons/cables, roman numerals on the right and a little cog-tooth decoration on the left, glossy black eyes and we're good to go! From what I'm reading they're apparently a little underwhelming on the tabletop, but it's Rule of Cool all the way for me so they'll definitely show up in my lists in the future!

Heresy Era Mechanicum - Knight Castigator and Dreamforge Leviathan comparison

A bit of a filler post this week I'm afraid - Turns out my new computer may have fatally compromised its machine spirit and I've had to send it in for repair/replacement. Sadly that means it's become rather challenging to upload new pictures, so I've been forced to fall back on some older pics while I wait.

A few weeks back I was tidying up the hobby loft and ran across the Dreamforge Leviathan that I'd stalled out on. I had been disheartened by how much larger than the GW plastic Paladin it ended up being, but I'd been meaning to see how it stacks up against the far larger FW Castigator. Turns out, surprisingly close!

They're virtually the same height, but the Leviathan is far bulkier. Most of the armor plating on the arms and legs are not strictly required, I'm thinking the Mortis variant may be pretty similarly skeletal. While I love the model though the aesthetic is just too different for me to want to add it to the loyalist Mechanicum, though it may find its way into the Dark Mechanicum army I have slowly coalescing in the Closet of Doom...

It sounds like it'll be another week or more before I regain full service. Will be lighting a votive and praying to the Omnissiah for a swift resolution!

Heresy Era Mechanicum - All about that base...

Sorry, sorry. Couldn't resist.

With the holidays upon us the work year draws to a close and I actually am getting a few much-needed days off starting Wednesday. Much needed after getting emergency panic texts at 4am two days in a row, that's for certain - Ugh. On the up side, after work today while picking up some last minute gifts I did manage to find a wooden disc suitable to make a base for the Reaver, score!

Dug up an old crashed Aquila Lander from the depths of the Closet of Doom and started fiddling around with potential arrangements, definitely want to get a walking pose out of it - Still awaiting the missing thigh piece before I can really nail down the final leg positioning, but it's on the way and I hope to have it in hand by the end of the week (holiday shipping mayhem permitting). Been slowly getting all the parts cleaned up in preparation for assembly, and scheming on how best to allow for weapon swaps on the beast, hence the big ol' magnets! I'm finding that my earlier statement of it being surprisingly lightweight may have been a bit premature. Got the main carapace assembled and let's just say I don't think even those magnets are going to be sufficient...

More pics to follow soon!

Heresy Era Mechanicum - Things just got a little out of hand...

As I'd mentioned earlier I may have had a mild lapse in judgement and it appears that I ended up buying a titan!

Each of those toes is a little bigger than a marine. What on earth have I gotten myself into?

Yeah, it's a Reaver. Or more accurately, a Reaper War Walker. Completely custom sculpted by Sci-Fi-Guy Modelworks (there are some fantastic sculpting pics), it's a loving homage to the old Armorcast Reaver, with some design elements akin to the updated take on the beast from Forge World, notably the head and the overall size. Having owned an old AC Reaver back in the day, I can assure you this thing is significantly bigger, but surprisingly lightweight for its size. It's no feather, but I'd expected it to be far heavier than it is. We'll see if I maintain that position once it's all assembled, I suppose!

The kit comes with three weapons, the carapace-mounted apocalypse launcher in the earlier pic, and a choice of gatling, laser or plasma arms. I ended up going in for some extra weapons, and ordered two of each of the arm weapons for flexibility in armament. The arm mounts also can be mounted on the carapace, though it doesn't appear as though it's possible to mount the apocalypse launchers on the arm mounts.

There was unfortunately an issue with shipping and the USPS absolutely botched the process, mis-directing it from Denver to Memphis and back again before it made it to me - by no means is that a slight on the seller, he was as concerned as I was as we watched it carom across the nation for no apparent reason. The gorillas in the shipping centers managed to mangle the box something fierce and it appears that somewhere along the way one of the upper legs went missing. I spoke to the caster and he assured me he'd get a replacement part out to me straight away, he's been very helpful throughout the process, and an absolute joy to deal with. Overall I couldn't be happier with the kit, and I'm really looking forward to getting it assembled! Now to figure out what to do for a base for it - I'm scheming on trying to incorporate a somewhat beat up Battlescape terrain piece I inherited, but will need to wait for the leg piece before I can really tell if it'll be large enough for the stance of the titan!