DKoK Heavy Weapons Squad (Stubbers) WIP - Part 1

 

Greetings and welcome back.

As promised, it's time to paint some Krieg on 262Krieg!  I decided to start with the heavy weapons squad, which as you can see above is coming along famously. But it all started with a mass priming session...

 I love using double-sided scotch tape and a piece of stiff cardboard, or a paint stirring stick for getting lots of things primed quickly now.  I used to hand hold everything with gloves but it takes MUCH longer than this. I save pieces of good cardboard and other materials from the various packaging that moves through the house from time to time. Of course, it helps that I have a dry(ish) basement and a spray booth that vents outside

Bulk priming like this helps keep me moving.  It always seems harder to get a project going if the pieces aren't even primed. But this article is about heaving weapons, and you can see some resin bases above for my gun pits.  These are originally from the Secret Weapons Miniatures trench work line, when they were operating.  I definitely miss their bases...

Next up everything was sprayed with a rattle can using Army Painter Uniform Grey.  Thank goodness I had a couple cans left from the early days to match my paint recipe.  No idea if this is still around, or if it still matches.  I have a dropper bottle or two for these new plastics that will hopefully cover enough to get the project finished.  Using a spray on base coat makes these fellas so much easier to paint in bulk. I'm also spoiling my next project here.

I set to work on the heavy stubbers first. Nothing fancy at this point. Weathering and highlights will come last after final assembly. The guns and gunners are not yet attach to make painting easier. The guns have a black wash and transfers applied.

Next I started on the bases.  These need to be almost complete before the guns and gunners are glued down into their final positions. I intend to tie everything together in the end with some weathering powders and what not.

I'm pretty happy with the results so far.  Dirty Down rust was applied to the metals backing up the sandbags. That may be visible if you click through to the larger images. The upright wooden posts are painted in a different, darker wood color to pick them out as a different material than the duck boards.

 And there we have the progress so far. I paused to build an additional five Deathriders to fill out a full squad of ten. But now I'm back on painting full time and should be starting the gunners very soon, once I'm satisfied with the bases. I'm very happy to have found these resin bases for this squad lying about. I'm quite guilty of "over-collecting" to the point of hoarding, some might say.  But it's at times like this that it pays dividends.

I hope you've found something here to inspire your own projects.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

On the Workbench [February] - Death Korps of Krieg!

 

Greetings and welcome back.  So I said to myself when the DKoK box released that I have all the resin Krieg I need and even some plastic thanks to Kill Team.  But then there was a little crack in my armor, in the form of one teensy squad of five engineers and their updated "cyclops" mobile demolition platform. Well the set only lets you build one of two options for every model (except the "cyclops") and a full squad can be ten soldiers, so yeah, a second batch of 5 were required. OK, I'm good.  It's just 12 more models.

They look real slick! I then realized I'd need the new rules and heck, this fella on eBay is offering the paper material from the box AND Lord Marshall Dreir in the bargain for a reasonable price - and of course I want the luachbox DKooK art on my codex! So yep, picked that up.

But this is the famed Death Korps of Krieg, right?  So the big guns really never do tire...so toss in an artillery piece - I mean what's the point of the rest without THAT? Yeah, you can see where this is going...

At this point you sorta HAVE to have the Death Riders too (and why didn't I just buy the damn launch box in the first place...I'm saving nothing by picking this stuff up piece meal on eBay...).  The models are pretty fantastic in plastic; never mind that I already have 9 or 10 in resin...nope, gotta have 'em. I couldn't sleep at night if I didn't pick them up.

What, only five?  Cheapskate...

Oh, and then what's that? A new DKoK themed command squad?  Seriously?! Well Lord Marshal Dreir isn't going to push this lot about by himself, now is he?! SO, yeah, put that in the cart...

OK, we're good. It's a lot, but it's Krieg and that's good stuff. Wait, no, no we're not good.  There's the new heavy weapons set and at this point we can't have all of this and leave just that one box on the shelf.  I mean I have 13 or 14 DKoK heavy weapon teams in resin, so I don't NEED three more (and a dude...?).  But at this point we all know this hobby isn't really about needs...

Wait...where's the spotter dude?

And that's how I ended up with 29ish new DKoK models in plastic, all assembled this month. I have no regrets; they really are well designed and great fun to stare at.  They might even be good in a game. But whether they are or not, this blog was inspired by the DKoK and I figured it's about time some more Krieg got painted.

The keen eyed veteran may recognize all the resin bases from the Secret Weapon Miniatures that was. I have a silly large collection of resin Krieg, and I bought many trench work bases early on to be sure I could mount the whole collection on them. So I dug out what was left to use while building these new models.  The heavy weapon bases are larger than the new bases, but the rule of cool, right? Besides, all the other teams are mounted on these bases and these new models fit like they were made for them.

As for the rest, there's a lot of scenic bits on the new models, so I'm leaving those on the plastic bases. I can add gravel and what have you to blend the plastic in to fit the rest of the look here.  And while I'm on that subject, I thought I'd share my process for building out the artillery gun base... 

I went ahead and glued down the plastic base components that came with the kit in a fairly obvious but pleasing configuration. Then I figured I'd vary the ground cover a bit.  Where the troopers stand and move about, the ground should get a bit trampled and packed down. Probably water collects there too when it rains. So I decided to use poster tac to mask off those areas when I applied my typical mix of basing gravel.

 

Then I pulled up the poster tac after the glue had dried.  Some of the putty is stuck in the glue around the edges, but this is taken care of during later stages. I chose GW Agrellan Earth texture paint to be my packed down, and now parched earth. But first, I needed some gloss coat to insure the Agrellan Earth cracked well.

 

Once that dried I went over all those areas with the Agrellan Earth. You lay this stuff on good and thick to get a good result.

 

Then I headed off to bed, so the magic could happen.  Watched earth never cracks, so they say...

And voila'! Some parched earth. I guess it's not as trampled looking as I might have liked...and I'm killing myself inside for not thinking to use a trooper boot to stamp a ton of foot prints into the earth prior to the crackling...but it's not bad at all for a homemade scenic base.  Should fit in with the resin stuff just fine once painted. You can see the fully assembled model in the title pic above.

With that, February draws to a close. I'll prime this batch and then see what I get paint on next.  With MonsterMarch looming large, I might have to go back to The Lion (cheating?  he is a beast...in combat...). Or perhaps tackle my first Tyranid since 3rd edition. I did promise a new faction before becoming obsessed with tiny troops and tanks. I dunno...but I think the Krieg probably wait for April.

Check back next week to see where the Changer of Ways points my brush. Until then...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

 

 

Dark Angels Sicaran Battle Tanks - TO DONE

 

Greetings and welcome back. I finally completed the four tiny tanks I've had on the painting table for the past month.  Whew! I'm super happy with the results, though, so the long wait was worth it.

I am continuing to use 28mm infantry transfers to add some First Legion iconography to these tanks. If you zoom in you can see the tiny Legion wings from the Legions Imperialis transfers just above the lascannon barrels.

Vehicle numbers (also from the Legions Imperialis transfers) on the right side and more Legion wings. These four bring my collection of Sicaran tanks to ten.  All of the turrets are magnetized and interchangeable across all of my hulls.  Here are the punisher cannons replacing the arcus launchers.

And that's that.  I'll take a big ol' stamp o' DONE for this project.

 

 

I'm not entirely sure where I'm going next, but there will be more to share soon. I hope your projects are going well.

 

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Legions Imperialis WIP - more Dark Angels Sicarans!

 

Greeting and welcome back!

I have four more Sicaran tanks for the Dark Angels on my painting table still. Still fun to paint these tiny tanks, but I'm going slow. Honestly, it's more in my mind than my hand if I'm being honest. Regardless, we have to just keep on keepin' on right?  I'm pretty close to putting on transfers and then final sharing and weathering.  I have to put more time in on the turrets first.

There's not much else to say about this small project. It's something to keep me in practice while I continue to sort out the nerve issues I'm working through. I've also been adding a few models here and there to the Legions Imperialis collection, like  these additional Spartans...

And I also broke most of the unpainted collection to lay down some primer...

Harder to make excuses about painting when the primer coat is down! I also primed the Solar Auxilia models in a medium standard grey, but apparently forgot to take any pics. 

So that's where I'm at. I haven't had much to post about lately, but at the same time, I have not been idle either.  Plenty more good stuff to come.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

On the Workbench [January] - Pt. 2 Inner Circle Companions

 

Greetings and welcome back!  I don't believe I ever posted the build of the three Dark Angels Inner Circle Companions that came in the launch box with Lion'el Jonson. Well, that was three models and a full squad can be six.  That's well and good, and I'd probably have stayed with the three models, except that the kit builds two variants of each model.  So, the collector in me was nonplussed that I had only half the available variants.

So I had the occasion to fix that yesterday, as I made a trip to meet a friend at a local FLGS that opened last year in the area. I did not intend to pick up anything as regular reader may have become aware that I am fully stocked on plastic soldiers - most in bad need of some paint. However, one does wish to support the local economy AND the typically struggling FLGSs.  So I HAD to pick up a box of the Inner Circle Companions to complete the collection.  The three once missing poses are shown above.

These models are just fantastic - particularly if you find yourself with a multi-decade love for the faction as I do. So, 'nuff said on that.  I will look forward to putting paint on this squad at some point. I may take that on sooner rather than later to get back into shape for painting Asmodai, Belial and the Lion. Say what you will about crossing the rubicon, but it sure is great to finally have decent sculpts and scale models for the faction.

And I haven't stopped painting.  Above are a set of the latest tiny Sicaran variants for Legions Imperialis.  I'll hopefully have something further along to share by the end of the week. It's still a pleasure to put colors on these tiny tanks.

What's on your workbench?

Cheers and Happy Gaming!