Heresy Era World Eaters - Adepticon Force 90% done!

Now that the bases have arrived I'm in the home stretch with the World Eaters force for Adepticon - All that remains is a trio of Contemptors of which I'm awaiting delivery! Had some time yesterday to break out the photo tent, brace yourselves for a tidal wave of pics!

Kharn and Khargos Bloodspitter

Command Squad

Skane's Destroyer Squad

Tactical Squad

Assault Squad #1

Assault Squad #2

Dreeadclaw Drop Pods

Heavy Support Squad

Rhino

Sicaran Arcus

Proteus  Land Raid

The all-important painting chart!

Starting to get a  little anxious about the contemptors arriving (they're from a garage casster in the UK, so it's understood that they're being done in his spare time), so I'm scheming on someme alternate plans just in case they don't arrive in time for the con. Fingers crossed!

Heresy Era Sons of Horus - Rhino variants complete!

While I awaited the next batch of kits to arrive for the Exodite project, I rooted around in the Closet of Doom for various half-completed projects to polish off and my eye fell upon the trio of Rhino variants that had gotten up to the "off the factory floor" stage and were just awaiting the waterslide and weathering treatment. Easy peasy!

Broke out the Microset and Microsol and got some gold iconography laid in and sealed down, nothing too outrageous required as the SoH doors on either side were garish enough I figured! Once that was done it was a simple matter to get some sponge weathering and chipping on here and there, and then get some mud and dust splashed up the sides of the hulls.

By default the chassis will be used as Rhinos to ferry the various infantry around, but to give them a little more punch, they have an additional Multi-melta (from Wargame Exclusive). Technically pintle-mounted, the servitor-controlled turret looks a bit more brutalist to me which I felt suits the Sons of Horus!

Alternately, they may also be fitted with some alternate Whirlwind turrets (or Scorpius launchers if you squint), to give the force some anti-horde capability. These turrets are also from Wargame Exclusive and I rather like 'em, though I think they may be better suited to a Word Bearers army what with the cathedral-like design aesthetic. Just means I should start a Word Bearers force, right?

Finally I managed to dig up a single radar dish suitable to run one of the Rhinos as a Damocles command tank, which dovetails nicely with the deep striking/teleporting nature of the Sons of Horus, as well as offering up some interesting Reserves manipulation shenanigans and a once-a-game pie plate lance strike from orbit. Hard to go wrong there!

Overall I'm pretty pleased with them, though looking over the pics I might give the mud and dust another going over with some sponged-on stippling. Still, they're table ready and I'm looking forward to getting some game time in with 'em!

Heresy Era Sons of Horus - Rhino chassis "Off the factory floor"

Just a quick hit this morning - Realized I hadn't posted up the recent in-progress shots of the Sons of Horus Rhino-based vehicles I've been working on. Sadly it's been really cold of late (what with it being winter and all) so I haven't had a change to get anything spray sealed for fear of mucking it up due to temperature. Nonetheless I have gotten the trio of Rhinos to the point where they're ready to receive waterslides and weathering!

A quick pic of the three variant turrets, allowing the tanks to be used as a trio of regular Rhinos with a pintle-mounted Multimeltas, Whirlwinds, and/or a Damocles command tank (or a mix thereof). Really rather happy with how they're coming along so far, and am looking forward to adding some legion symbols and some muck and scrapes to give 'em a bit more personality. So far, so good!

Heresy Era Imperial Fists - Adepticon Army 99% complete!

Made a big push over the last few days to get the Imperial Fists army for Adepticon complete, and took them down to the local GW shop for some army shots on their tables!

Very much a points-dense force mostly built for compact air travel than any on-the-table tactical reason. Very pleased with how they look all lined up, though - I was worried about the colors but I think it strikes a nice balance between the black and the yellow, as befits their veteran status.

For characters and theme the army is based around Sigismund and the various veterans of the 1st company. The big S will be joining the unit of Templar Brethren, and a vanilla Consul leads the Tartaros terminator contingent (very much there to make up the points).

The biggest point sink in the force but one that I just had to include, the Templar Brethren and their transport clock in at 605 points. Are they worth that many points when the resin hits the table? Probably not, but I really dig how they look and the Rule of Cool wins out for me every time!

Carrying on with the veteran theme, it's hard to go wrong with a mess of terminators! The ten-man Tartaros squad is a character-killer unit, intended to deep strike in, plasma the heck out of everything nearby, then pile in the following turn to mop up. At least that's the plan! The Cataphractii are intended to be an honor guard for the Contemptor and provide him backfield support. The Contemptor is there for light anti-air and horde coverage, plus it just looks darn cool!

Finally are the two units of Veterans. They each have a pair of Heavy Bolters, and between them they'll be throwing ~40 shots a turn that hit on 2's, and Rend on 6's which is pretty darn nasty! Dakka dakka dakka!

 

Couple side shots of the tanks, really happy with the big fists on the Rhino top hatches, though let's just say I'm glad I had four to work with, totally made a hash out of the first one I'd tried! The tanks and dread got a little light weathering here and there, didn't want to go overboard as I envision the Fists strive to keep their equipment looking nice but a little scuff here and there gives 'em some personality.

Definitely felt good to get the whole painting chart flipped over to green! Now with this force out of the way and packed up for the event next month it's time to turn my attention to other projects. The news coming out of the Heresy Weekender has me chomping at the bit to get back to my beloved Thousand Sons, and there's a fairly major shake up in my plan with them.

...Let's just say it includes the statement "My current Thousand Sons army is going on the auction block and I'm starting anew. Again." Hah!

Heresy Era Imperial Fists - The Motor Pool motors on...

Just a quick hit today, it's been a rather busy week so I didn't get as much brush time in as I'd initially planned. That said, the motor pool for the Imperial Fists is moving right along!

Got a bit more work done on the yellow, got some edge highlighting in place on the black and got the metallics and the blues roughed in. They're starting to come into focus now! In other good news, I've managed to get off the waitlists and into two of the events I've been hoping for at Adepticon this year, and will be participating in the 30k Friendly on Friday, and the Gomeiza Conflect, Part 3 on Saturday. Really looking forward to it!

Heresy Era Imperial Fists - Cataphractii Terminators and the Motor Pool!

After the post yesterday morning I was feeling reinvigorated and cracked on with the Fists! Eight weeks to Adepticon, so I'm feeling quite confident the force will be done by then with some wiggle room to build and paint another unit or character as the points values require - At the moment I'm on the wait list for every event I was hoping to get tickets for, but I'm holding out hope and building a force that can be broken down to satisfy any of the events that I may be able to slip in to!

Much like the Templar Brethren, the Cataphractii terminators were also almost complete. A bit of shading and washes and they're ready for the initial sealant step.

As is usually the case, right after I go about sourcing bits to do a conversion for a unit type that exists in the rules but not in the Forge World shop, they immediately go and release pics of better-looking ones that they'll be coming out with just a month or so past when I'm done with the project. Hah! Nevertheless, I like how the Custodes shields worked for the build, and when I get around to building a sword-and-board unit of Custodes proper, I'll be repeating the white wing inlays on their shields as well - Pretty happy with how they turned out!

That leaves 5 models to go, as things stand at the moment. Three vehicles, and two characters. After finishing off the terminators I grabbed the big tank brush and re-painted all the tanks in chaos black, so that any re-blacking cleanup later will match up, then started laying in the basecoats for the yellows. On the big flat surfaces, even the Scrofulous Brown I use direct on the infantry is a bit too translucent, so all the areas were first given a Leather Brown basecoat. Then the Scrofulous brown went on and I laid in the first pass of Golden Yellow. While I was about it I also grabbed Sigismund and the Tartaros champion and started laying in the base yellows for them as well. It's a bizarre mix for a batch paint session but does ensure I'm not bored! At a certain point the tanks hulls, and the characters and crew will be separated for detailing's sake, but for now it's all the same colors getting spattered on with wild abandon!

Heresy Era Imperial Fists - Rhinos and Land Raider built!

Haven't been feeling the painting mojo over the last few days, so as a bit of a distraction I spent some time gluing my fingers together instead!

To transport the Templar Brethren, I wanted some sort of assault vehicle but didn't want to go all the way up to the Spartan. In general I prefer the Proteus chassis as it feels more Heresy-y to me, but only the Phobos has an assault ramp. So a Mk.IIb it is! I approached it with some trepidation, as the last kit I'd built had tolerances to the nearest half inch. This one in contrast went together like a dream! I believe they've re-cut the molds at some point along the way, as this kit was pretty long in the tooth comparatively speaking.

The two Veteran squads each get a Rhino to roll around in, and as usual the Deimos Rhino kits went together smoothly as well. I plumped for a few of the new pintle-mounted weapon kits, in order to mount each tranport with a heavy bolter. Theme-wise, the army is chock full of heavy bolters in fact!

Of course we're having rather Colorado weather of late, so while it was in the upper 50s mid-week, it's been below freezing all weekend and forecast to continue for the next few days. No primering for the tanks in the near future, more's the pity!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Rhinos painted

More frantic painting in preparation for the event coming up at the end of the month, today it's the final two models - a pair of Rhino transports for the Veterans and Tac Marines! I quite like the Deimos Rhino kit from FW, it goes together quite easily (barring a little trimming/sanding required on the side doors) and is a rather nice nod to the old RT-era version.

Started off by laying in the reds, as it's the sloppiest part of the scheme. Figured I'd try and do a semi-reversed scheme on the two Rhinos to differentiate between the Vets and the Tac squad.

The areas intended to be bone colored got a leather brown basecoat, as I find painting the bone color directly onto black tends to look patchy and dull. The brown 'shines through' a bit and give the lighter color a bit more depth.

Next up the bone color was applied. It's interesting that the lighting really blows out the color, it's not nearly as white as it appears in the photos.

Then things start to go slightly awry. The bone color used on the infantry has a wash stage that just doesn't translate well to the large flat planes of the vehicles. Again, the photos are not kind to the Vet's tank, a lot of the streaks and whatnot aren't nearly as apparent in-hand. Curse you, photography!

Once all that was done, the models got a selection of the excellent waterslide transfers that I'd gotten from Fallout Hobbies, a light weathering pass and a final sealant coat. Changing over to the usual photo backdrop brings the colors on the bone and red back down to their more real-world tones, but still makes the ham-fisted wash stage look a lot sloppier than it is in hand. Weird!

 

Really happy with how the Tac squad's Rhino turned out!

 

Slightly less so on the Vet's Rhino, but I really do like how the top hatch transfer worked. All in all a passable effort, might try and go back over the bone panels on this one again once I get on the other side of the event next weekend, but for now I consider it table-ready.

Once I get some better light I'll snap off an army shot - it's a little overcast and gloomy today however. Good thing I got these sealed yesterday while it was nice out! With these out of the way, I'm going to get a little reward time in and work on Khayon and Gyre, then it's time to switch gears significantly and get cracking on with a slew of foul Xenos over the next few weeks for the NOVA Open Charity Raffle Army of Orky Goodness!

Heresy Era Imperial Fists - Army complete!

Made the big push over the past week to finish up the Xiphon and Sicaran Venators, with the weather being nice enough to be able to get the transfers, weathering and sealant in place. First up the pair of Venators:

 

Since they already had big Fist symbols on the sponson covers, I kept things fairly simple with some vehicle identifier symbols, and the legion number on the front glacis. I also went back in and brightened up the lightning on the barrels so it stands out a little better. I loved building and painting these tanks, and they will definitely find their way into future armies!

 

The Xiphon also got a bit more decorative trim, carrying the gold/bronze theme from the other models. Still of two minds about this model - it was a joy to build and paint, but something about it just doesn't resonate with me in the way the new Lightning model does. It just feels a little too 'modern era' 40k to me design-wise. For future projects I'll definitely be going back to the Lightning.

 

The resin base company I'd ordered from had a neat flying stand that matched the rest of the army, but rather than the standard clear stand it utilizes a ruined column to hold the flyer aloft. Sort of a neat idea, I thought!

Once they were finished I can call the army complete! A good thing too with GenCon coming up and an inevitable paroxysm of spending at the Forge World booth means it's time to get 'em up on the auction block to help pay for it. First things first, pulling out all the models for a final family photo:

That's a lot of yellow! I think it's fair to say that I've gotten pretty weary of it, but am quite happy with the recipe - will definitely be using that method on yellows in the future. Snapped a few new closeups to detail what the army contains as well:

A bunch of characters of course, from left to right: Legion Champion, Sigismund, Forge Lord, Alexis Polux, Master of Signals, Cataphractii Praetor, Apothecary and another Praetor in Artificer armour.

The veteran squad and their transport rhino - the heavy bolters coupled with the Imperial Fists bolter discipline means they lay down a surprising amount of highly accurate fire!

Gotta have a whole mess of tactical marines, and I've set them up such that they can either be run as one big 20-man squad or as two 10-man squads with rhino transports.

I'm a huge fan of the Mk.IV assault marine models, so they were a must-add for the army. ...20 of 'em may have been overkill, but there's no denying they hit like an avalanche.

You can't have an Imperial Fists army without a mess of Terminators in my opinion. I'd intended to just do a single10-man squad, but I had enough leftover bodies to create a couple extra sergeants and heavy weapons to allow for running a pair of 5-6 man squads, or swap out the heavy weapons loadout to suit the mission at hand.

A pair of Contemptor dreadnoughts, the two Venators and the Xiphon round things out nicely, and give the army some much needed anti-air and anti-vehicle punch.

Like all of my armies, the models are all secured in Battlefoam trays for storage and transport, and have some room for future expansion. The army will be going up on eBay shortly - unfortunately due to the size and weight of the two boxes they'll be packed into, it would be ruinously expensive to ship them overseas (well over $250+) so I'm afraid it's going to be US only again. I wish that it wasn't the case, but to get any sort of delivery confirmation and tracking for overseas packages the prices are just ridiculous these days.

LINK TO AUCTION

Now to ponder the next project! I have more modern-era Adeptus Mechanicus to work on, but with  the recent arrival of the Horus Heresy Book V, it might just be time to turn my eyes back to the Prosperine Spireguard and look at updating that army a bit - tons of new options, and I have a decided urge to build and paint a Stormhammer...