The Sydonian Dragoon - Done

My favourite model to be released in 2015 by far and now I've finally come around to paint him. Wile the model is not really [that] big for a walker, there are a lot of surfaces and details sticking out making this a long lasting painting project. Also, be especially careful not to break the antenna and various cables hanging out, I might have done that. (Ooops)

Too bad they are not characters, I would easily nominate a dragoon my warlord when fielding Skitarii alone.

Scratched paint detail on all the bone coloured chassis. I tried following the instructions from WD 61 to some degree of success, but with more practice I hope to improve my brushwork with the detail brush.

He got a cool cockpit with a lot of instruments boosting Ld of nearby troops.

The ever growing forces of the Red Planet. Omnissiah be praised!

Kit bashing 30K + 40K

First time in ages I do some proper kit bashing. Today I'm assembling my custom Kataphron Breachers and Destroyers from the original GW kit and FW Vorax Battle-Automatas.

 I really can't find myself to take the tracked servitor models seriously, and no way I am going to field them looking like that. The search for proxy models landed on the Vorax which looks beyond awesome. Too bad battle-automatas is a lost technology from the years of 30K to 40K, so

[DISCLAIMER]: 

My custom Kataphron are in reality servitors hard wired in to to robot bodies, not automatons. Like the original Kataphron, they living and breathing in agonizing pain just like Omnissiah intended.  

 Now with that out of the way, here are the result:

Kataphron Breachers with heavy arc rifle and arc claw. Om nom nom vehicles. Added a few bits and pieces to try make the look more armoured than the Destroyers given the difference in armour save.

Kataphron Destroyers with plasma culverin and phosphor blaster. Less armoured, but more ranged damage output. Heavy infantry beware!

The entire happy family together. Looking forward to painting them.

Also, picked up this little bundle today. More Skitarii incoming! :D

Milestone - playable AdMech

Like the title says, I've finally panted up enough Skitarii to field the basic detachment for them. More to come as I still got a lot of models to paint and I'm picking up the "Start Collecting" box tomorrow for the formation and a even longer backlog of unpainted miniatures. :D 

The painting scheme is based upon the Mars scheme presented in White Dwarf  #61 but with a tad darked red tones to match the rest of my Imperial forces.

 The plan is to field Vanguards and Rangers at a ratio 2:1. Got to love the rad poisoning rule. Also, did I mention the Skitarii infantry is the most detailed models I've ever painted? Feels like an eternity just to paint 5 of them.

 The rangers are cheap for a precise 30" "sniper", but offer little more than the precision shot rule, Hence why I'll focus more on the vanguards.

Wasp stripe pattern on the cables are fun, but wish I was able to get them thinner. More practice needed!

Corruption spreading

I've been painting my Slaanesh daemons lately and at last the basing is done as well! With 10 daemonettes and a daemon princess, I am still 10 daemonettes short of a playable army but I'm getting there. This first batch was a test run of the colour scheme and basing technique, both of which I think works pretty well. The "corruption spreading-basing" got potential for improvement, but as a fist try I'm satisfied. More to come, next on the list is Skitarii.

Daemon princess with daemonic flight and daemonic weapon

Daemonettes with instrument of chaos

Spreading corruption on stone

Spreading corruption on the ground

Hades

Hades is a ageing Malcador 'Infernus' of the 501st recently pulled out of retirement in a dusty storage bunker on the home planet. Though the paint is old and faded, the newly painted slogans are bright and encourages nearby guardsmen safe in the knowledge that wherever the mutant, the heretic or the alien is hiding, Hades' cleansing flames will find them, reducing them to pious ash in a matter of seconds.

Hades is, due to the old and faulty engine of the Malcador class tanks, known for showing up late wile in reserve, and for turning in early wile finally on the table. It is almost like the enemy don't like its presence. Emperor preserves!

UPDATE!
Hades was recently featured on Faeit 212, thanks Natfka!
http://natfka.blogspot.de/2016/01/whats-on-your-table-malcador-tank.html

A Prison for Gods - Part 4 - New Commander

As things are not going well for the Imperial faction, a new commander have been brought in to oversee and lead the 501st Foreign Legion. To make sure the force stay on the righteous path, true to the Emperor, the Commissariat found it necessary to oversee the campaign personally.

Introducing Lord Commissar Maxine Fabii

Following the Mothballed crisis mission (of which we lost badly), each warlord taking part (I was using a proxy for Maxine as she was not painted up yet) got to choose one fixed warlord trait that stick to the character. As the imperial seam to lack any strategic plan to date, it was fitting choosing the Grand Strategist trait from the AM codex. Let's turn this ship around!

Skulls! Friend or foe, she shoots both if the Emperor demand it.

Why yes, of corse she does cause fear! 

Chimera rush

Playing a armoured fist army list have been a long goal of mine, and with the recent completion of 3 more chimeras that day is dragging ever closer! :)

I've had these 3 standing on the shelve for an eternity and it was about time they got some proper colours. They are all second hand so not the best of assembly jobs all over but good enough for a cheap tank you aim at having lots of.

I focused quite a bit on weathered camouflage and got to say I like the result a lot better than factory crisp colour. Ought have to re-paint all my tanks now using this technique.

New and old, the old looks like it is screaming in comparison. 

Finding the balance of what is realistic and what is too much is hard when it comes to mud and dirt. I got a large picture book of WWI pictures I use as a reference, imagining my regiment fight on a distant planet with similar climate as the wet winter months of 1916/1917 France. I also tried to simulate sot forming around the exhaust vents but I guess I'm not right "there" yet with that effect.

Also, attempt at glass! Mud mud mud~

Chimeras summoning chaos... or waiting for the wash to dry.

A Prison for Gods - Part 3 - First blood

The air field control tower, main objective

The battle was relentless, the marines came hammering down, having brought with them more artillery than you usually see in a whole battle sector to this one battle. The engagement started with drop pods raining from the skies, releasing squadrons armed with flamer weaponry taking out about a third of the sentinels manpower before they could fire a single shot. The drop pods was also accompanied by land speeders on the flank engaging on the single chimera. The drop infantry was eventually driven off, but at terrible expense. Both the drop pods, still loaded with fuel and ammunition blew up with maximum effect taking out even more of the defenders. The sentries had held the line for the initial assault, but there were more to come.

Reserves finally made it on to the battle field, but to little avail. The marines' anti air weaponry picked the loyalist birds out of the skies one by one before they could do any real damage. The valkyrie managed to disembark the grenadiers before going down, reinforcing the breaking flank. The grenadiers were then in turn countered by yet another drop pod with 2 tactical squads, taking out the grenadiers and most of the remaining forces on the flank. With the artillery pounding again and again the air field strong point, ignoring the covers saves guardsmen cling on to stay alive, the garrisoning forces of once 90 strong, only remnants were left. Even the mighty knight fell victim to the pounding artillery and was finished off by a rouge gunship. The Adeptus Mechanicus will not take this lightly. Emilia Faust too were severely wounded to the continuous shelling and only barely made it off the field with the help of a platoon commander, the only living member left of the platoon. In the end the enemy forces did not manage to take out the control tower, but having sustained severe losses and failed to prevent the enemy in taking tactical important objectives, there was nothing left to do but to fall back and regroup in the adjacent sector.

The battle ended 17 - 8 in favour of the Blood Angles.

A Prison for Gods - Part 2 - Army show-off

As part of the preparations leading up to the campaign, all the players were asked to provide a "scenic" image presenting their main force. Lacking in game board and scenery (tiny apartment is tiny) I had to make the best of it with photoshop. Spent quite some time highlighting and shaddowing the Marauder as is dominates the image. Not sure if I went overboard with the engine trails, but this is how I imagine they would look like in action. Incredible powerful engines spewing out ashes and death as they roam the skies.

Click on it to make it even bigger! :)

Ref 2-5-XIV.

Picture taken during the parade celebrating the arrival of the Astra Militarum at Nolan XVII.Amidst the thick morning mist, about half the 7th company is present marching through the street accompanied by close formation flybys of the 1305th tactical wing. About 200 soldier are taking part in the parade.

Behind the scenes: Temporary makeshift photo studio.

A Prison for Gods - Part 1 - Background

Luck has never been a friend of mine. Anything left to chance will fail. You do not win or lose a gamble, you lose the moment you take the gamble. Plan, calculate and plan again. No one but the Emperor got your back.

The unofficial recognized nickname of the 7th company is somewhat a inside joke of the 501st. While the rest of the army is usually deployed in cohesion, be it at home training or when being called upon to take part in the never ending grind, the 7th company are the unlucky ones being sent away on separate minor, often less glorious assignments requiring only minor manpower. Hence the name “Foreign Legion”. The assignments in question tend to either end up being incredibly long, boring and uneventful, or a complete loss of the company. Often with no details of what happened. This is why the company operate with a timeout protocol. If they miss their scheduled check dates for a set number of times, the company will be assumed lost and a new 7th drafted from the other companies of the 501st.

With assignments rating from bad to terrible, manny a officer pass on the chance of leading the 7th if they have the chance to say no. This is why the responsibility often falls upon younger officers with little choice but accepting. As is the case of Emilia Faust, commander of the 7th company at the current time. Losing both her parents only months after birth to unexplainable events, Emilia grew up being told her family carries a curse. Haunted by bad luck her entire career (accounting for her entire life, being a army orphant), Emilia have been bypassed by younger, less experienced officers times and times again. The time finally came where the brass would look bad for holding her back, so with great reluctance, the officer of bad luck finally got promoted to her first company command… and sent as far away from the main force as possible within the strict assignment regulations of the Militarum.

Sitting amid a nebula of various gasses, the planet Nolan XVII suffer decay quickly to anything not routinely maintained. The once great infrastructure network of highways, train lines and conveyor belts now lie in rusty ruins, bits and pieces, next to non-existing. The remaining population live in communities somewhat isolated from one another, relying on airborne and off-planet means for communication. But as it is with isolated communities, lack of contact and control easily end up out of hand. The population on the planet generally suffers a higher unrest ratio than most imperial worlds, and uprisings are common. With the PDF lacking the means of keeping things under control, the system sent a plea to the Militarum for help. So was it the “Foreign Legion” ended up being deployed to the decommissioned forgeworld of Nolan XVII.

My cousin's out fighting tyranids, and what do I get? Guard duty. Artwork by EmotionCat

In a joint effort with the mixed-aircraft 1305th tactical wing, the responsibility of the task force is twofold: To launch airborne assaults on revolting settlements and garrison strategic sites across the planet. With the absence of ground infrastructure, the wilderness have reclaimed the lands in between the scattered settlements. The task force therefore rely heavily on airborne troops and air superiority to fulfil its duty rather than lumbering tanks and vehicles.

Recently, for no apparent reason given, the task force was transferred under inquisitorial control. Strangely, no order was given to move off planet nor change of objectives. Could it be that something triggering the inquisitions interest is happening or about to happen in this very system? Tomorrow is going to be a routine day. The force is to engage a group of unidentified targets crossing a restricted area north-east of the generatorum. Probably just another group of looters.