40k Genestealer Cult - Leman Russ Exterminator painted!

Got a fair bit of painting time in today and finished off the Leman Russ Exterminator! Carried the colors through from the Acolytes with the blue, white and yellow, and it turned out pretty well I think...

 

Added in some stripes on the dozer blade to match those on the Rockgrinders, and laid in some further vehicle identifier stripes on the front of the side armour. Went with the bright blue-white halogen lamps to match the Rockgrinders as well (again, my usual yellow headlamps would get lost in all the other yellow bits).

 

The turret weapons are magnetized so it can also be run as a Vanquisher should some more anti-tank firepower be needed. Tried out the dirty white recipe used on the Acolyte's armor on the tank crew's fatigues to help tie them together. After that it got some sponge weathering on various edges to dirty it up and it's good to go!

May bounce back over to the Imperial Fists next and reward myself for all this painting with some build time!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - King Russ Vanquishers complete!

Snuck in a little brush time over the weekend and got some unit markings and the weathering onto the trio of King Russ Vanquishers for the Spireguard!

I realized once I laid 'em all out that I don't really have a photo area large enough for them all at once! Sneaky servitor in the back checking out the unsanctioned variant for possible techno-heresy, perhaps?

 

The addition of the bone-colored side doors really helped break up the expanse of red on the tanks, and provided a nice place to add in the regimental numbers and unit identifier. I stuck with the quasi-runic lettering, as it helps tie them out to the rest of the army - Once again, they don't really mean anything specific, I just went with some pleasing looking shapes.

 

The weathering still is a bit of a challenge for me - Constantly trying to refine the technique, understanding the appropriate colors to use and amount to apply. For the Thousand Sons vehicles I'm going with a scorched brown sponged on in various areas, followed by a further sponging of boltgun metal. These areas were given a little black wash and finally the extreme edges were hit with silver. I find that it's best to start out pretty reserved, it's always easier to add more later than it is to clean things up due to overzealous application!

 

The command tank has the reversed colors on the side panels which seemed to work out pretty well. Overall I'm quite pleased with how the squadron turned out!

"Unit's done, smoke if you got 'em!" ...Somewhat ironic as I quit smoking right around the time I started building this unit. So far so good!

Next up on the painting deck is a mess of Ad-mech who have been blurting angry binary at me for quite some time. On the upside it'll be a nice change from painting all the red and white and oh wait... Heh.

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - King Russ tanks nearly complete!

In between doing chores over the weekend I went back and made the side doors on the two vanilla tanks bone, which I think works pretty well. Also got all the gold on, including (with no hint of exaggeration) over 1500 rivets. Counted when I was doing the last one, 518 rivets per tank! Oof.

Now to decide what I want to do for unit markings. Providentially, the Prosperine Spireguard regiment present at the defense of Tizca were the 15th Prosperine Assault Infantry, so the "XV" also works for them (mirroring the 15th Legion markings I've done so far on the Thousand Sons). Once that's in place I can then go in and start the weathering process - I plan to do all of the Ksons and Spireguard tanks at the same time (which appeals to my batch-painterly predisposition), so that it has some consistency across the army. In the home stretch now!

In the background you can just make out the primed model I'm going to use to represent Lemuel Gaumon, one of the remembrancers mentioned in A Thousand Sons. I'm also planning on working up models for Kallista Eris, Camille Shivani and Mahavastu Kallimakus, to be used as wound markers or status markers for the army. Still sourcing interesting-looking models to use for the latter however...

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - King Russ tanks painting continues...

Got a little brush time in today - got the bone color laid in. Decided to give the command tank a reversed side panel scheme - Thinking I might do the two 'regular' tanks side doors in bone, now that I'm looking at 'em.

Got the tank commander more or less complete, pretty happy with how he turned out.

Moving right along now! Have a free day tomorrow, hoping to get them finished up this weekend!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - King Russ scale shots

Pressed on with the tanks a bit more yesterday - got up early in the morning and got the reds all finished, which involved a thorough wash that I'd left to dry while I was at work. When I got home it was cool enough in the hobby loft to get the boltgun metal sections painted and washed as well:

I also dragged out some of the Mordian 7th's tanks to take some scale shots. It's quite a bit bigger than a Leman Russ:

  

 

...But significantly smaller than a Macharius:

  

 

While it's not as long as a Malcador, it's a bit wider and taller. That one actually surprised me when I laid them out next to each other. In my mind the Malcador was quite a bit bigger than the King Russ.

  

 

So far, so good! The heavy lifting phase is out of the way, now it's time to start the detailing. ...And the rivets.

Oh god, the rivets...

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - King Russ painting begins!

Got the tanks all kitted out last night, and since It was a beautiful day out while I was home over lunch yesterday I got the Vanquishers primed. After work I got the very first red basecoat on as well! ...There is also now red basecoat all over my hands, the desk and what has suddenly become exclusively a painting shirt (covered in liiiiiitle red spots). Whoops!

Easy peasy, Vallejo Dark Flesh scrumbled on with a gnarly old tank brush. Next up will be the red gore/blood red highlighting and wash stages, which I'm sure are also going to prove to be very, very messy procedures!

I wanted to go with a somewhat whimsical tank commander for such a squadron of solid, destructive machinery, so I used some arms and head from the Victoria Miniatures heavy weapons team set. Going to be interesting to paint, that zippo is TINY!

The squadron weighs in at 552 points using the current Astra Militarum ruleset (or 622 if I'm feeling dirty and field them as Pask and an HQ squadron). To justify this heavy variant of the vehicle I'm calling it 'mandatory' that they take Extra Armour (of course) and pay the points for the Dozer Blade upgrade (re-roll difficult terrain) to represent their sheer weight smashing through the battlefield rubble. Even leaving off the side sponsons, once I add on the hull Lascannon and the hunter killer missile (because I love 'em), the 'base' King Russ is 200 points (a bit more for the commander's Augur array and some searchlights). Seems about right, I think. I need to snap a scale shot, let's just say I won't be accused of modeling for advantage when it comes to declaring cover saves!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Prospero Spireguard King Russ Vanquishers Assembly begins!

After a good couple hours with a Dremel sanding down all the casting gates and resin blocks, creating drifting piles of resin dust and undoubtedly reducing my life expectancy by a good few months (a respirator is a must for this sort of work), it was finally time to set to work building them! These tanks have always been a bit of a bear to assemble, as is generally the case with garage-quality kits, but with the purchase of an electric kettle a while back this time around it was (reasonably) simple to get everything straightened and bent into shape!

The front track guards ended up a little wonky on two of them, but all in all I'm reasonably happy with 'em. Now it's just a matter of rooting through the Closet of Doom for all the appropriate detail bits, hatches and whatnot to finish them off! In game they will be treated as Leman Russ Vanquishers, with extra armour (natch) and the Massive custom rule - due to their size they re-roll failed difficult terrain checks (essentially paying the points for a dozer blade, though they don't have one modeled). I'm planning on building a tank commander to match the rest of the Spireguard aesthetic for one of them - I'm really looking forward to getting some paint on 'em soon!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Terminator Squad Phosis painted

Pressed on with the Terminators this weekend and managed to get them finished off!

Looks like it makes the most sense to run the weapons as power axes, it'll make them unwieldy but the 18 (27 on the charge) S5 AP2 attacks is nice. Not bad at 305 points for the 9 of 'em, too! I am thinking that I'll add a few grass tufts to the bases, they need just a liiiiitle extra something I think...

Went spelunking in the Closet of Doom for something from the mists of history. The plan for the Prosperine Spireguard side of the army is to include a number of heavy tanks, such as a trio of King Russ pattern Vanquishers. Time to break out the Dremel!

Imperial Guard - Pask's Vanquisher and Medusa painted

As they were 90% done as of the last post, it was a simple matter to finish off the Vanquisher and Medusa!

 

Pask got the lion's share of the work - the flag got a little more color and detail, as did his skin and uniform. It turns out I'm apparently out of white 'mordian' waterslides so I went with a name for the tank on the turret instead, taken from a sisters of battle transfer sheet.

 

Went back and added some more red trim to the Medusa and re-painted the HK missile in yellow to match the rest of the weapons. I do still need to sort out some crewmen for this tank, though - that's been bugging me. In a pinch I can use a pair of gunners from the Medusa Emplacement (which I haven't taken a photo of since re-basing it), after all they're used to firing one! Heh.

While I had the paints out, I did spend half an hour painting up the 'active camo' versions of the MERCs KemVar team. "Painting them" being synonymous with "applying about five colors to the bases", it took virtually no time at all.

  

I'm planning on playing a couple games of MERCS out at GenCon, and figured I had better finish up the team! My buddy Dave and I threw down a game this past weekend and he did a great write-up about it - Definitely worth checking out!

Imperial Guard - Medusa and Pask's Vanquisher

The imperial guard is the runaway result on the poll, so I popped open the painting chart before delving into the Closet of Doom to see what there was to work on.

Not really all that much more to do with the guard. Well, at least not until they get their 6th ed. codex release, at which point I'm sure there's going to be several new additions to the army!

 

I decided I'd start by knocking out another couple tanks that have been languishing in a primered state for the better part of a year: The Medusa and the command tank for the burgeoning Vanquisher squadron, with my counts-as Pask and his infeasible banner.

 

I started off by finishing up the red sections, and started blocking in the yellow and metallic areas. After looking at the pics, I'm thinking about going back in and painting the hunter/killer missile on the Medusa in yellow to match the rest of the weapons.

 

A little more detailing work, finished up the yellow and started adding in the painted heraldry. Once they're painted and sealed, I'll be going back in to add some waterslide transfers as well.

 

Next up were the tracks, which got the usual dark flesh/leather brown drybrush to match the rest of the tanks. At this point they're about 85% done, a little more work remains before I can seal 'em and add the transfers. Once I have all the tanks in the army up to the same level of done-ness I'm planning on going over all of them and add some weathering effects using some of the sponge and wash techniques I'd experimented with on the Eldar. Looking forward to that!

In other news, the Eldar auctions I have going at the moment are going to be ending in just a few days. Check 'em out here if you're interested!

Imperial Guard - Vanquisher Squadron Command Tank

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! Hope that 2012 was a good one, and 2013 will be just as good, if not better!

I've been doing a mess of painting recently and felt it was time to reward myself with some build time. Still on the guard kick, it was only natural that I add another tank to the collection, which could only mean one thing - another Vanquisher, hands down my favorite Leman Russ variant. The intent is to have a trio eventually, and with one built and painted so far it was time to make the command tank for the squadron.

Naturally that calls for a model to represent Knight Commander Pask. BS4 with the Crack Shot rule on my beloved Vanquisher cannon? Yes please!

My version of Pask was built from a mix of bits from the Leman Russ tank commander, and the Cadian command squad sprues. I'm a big fan of banners and flags, so why not have him waving an unfeasibly large flag from the command cupola? If anything, there will be no confusion about which tank is Pask's!

I spent a little bit of time magnetizing the side sponsons so I can run the tank with or without them (points permitting). Fairly simple, a bit of sprue cut to fit with a hole drilled to accept the magnet, and a matching magnet on the inside of the track housing. Of course, my first try had the sprues flush with the inside of the sponsons, which meant it interfered with the detail and gribblies on the sides of the tank. I ended up having to knock the sprues loose and push them back into the sponsons slightly so they would sit flush with the tank. Lesson learned: Measure twice, cut once, screw it up anyway and have to re-do it. :)

I hope you all have a safe and happy New Year! My plan is to have a nice glass of scotch and be asleep by about 9:00pm. I'm an animal, I know. Hah!