Ssssssssssnipers

Filthy sub-humans with incredible aim and stealth abilities, the Ratlings are welcomed with open arms and aiming guns in to my Cadian 501st battle group. The commissars are not too happy and the ammo depot have new improved locks... Hey, how did you get that? That's an officer only item!

Now the models I got is second hand and by initial inspection it was clear the first layer of paint were just covered up with another layer of spray. I lack the chemicals to strip them down entirely so there is some loss of detail due to the thick layers, especially some of the faces. The first owner obviously did not know about the secret of watering down the paint.

The 2 models with most facial details, got to love them expressions!

I've never really graded skin tones before to any degree beyond washing so this was a first attempt at the 3-step method of the Citadel painting system for skin tones. Looks a lot better than just a basing layer and wash.

I also tried experimenting with a glass illusion for the sniper scopes.

Ready for battle... just keep the commissars close by. Petty crime rate is already way up in the 501st since they joined.

Painting the knight

Been a lazy summer so far with not much 40K so here comes a post about my knight!

Scroll down for pics of the result :) 

I've been working on it for 5 days now and put at least a good 20 hours in to it. The project started out somewhat problematic as I was out of priming and with strike in France GW was not re-stocking any time soon. The solution, though somewhat experimental turned out good. I had about half a box of GW purity seal at hand as I don't like the result it provide. The stuff matte down the colour and remove all shine from metallic/gold/bronze paints so I have not used much of it.

So here we go, purity seal as primer!

 

 

Notice how the plastic drastic change character when it is matted down.

For the basing I use coarse putty with sand in it called Sandplast. Along with it I "bake" in pieces from the Citadel basing kit to get a smooth seam from the putty to the resin pieces. The gravel is also from the kit.

To get a smooth base to work on I air brushed the entire model with abaddon black. With the purity seal in place the matte surface picks up the paint pretty quick.

For the metal parts I loosly used the Citadel Painting System as illustrated in White Dwarf issue 5 2014.


All the metal parts were based with leadbleacher, then layered with Ironbreaker. This was followed up by washing with Reikland Flesh to get a more worn look. I then tried to get the highlights right by dry brushing Ironbreaker but the result ended up too bright. The solution: A thin layer of abaddon black air brushed on the metal parts.

First layer of metallic paint

After the darkening layer.

With the metal in place I moved on to the carapace. Wazdakka red was first air brushed 2 layers and then brushed one additional time to get a smooth red colour.

The white parts were tricky and I got to say I have not quite mastered working with pure white surfaces yet. I know most don't paint up to pure white instead leaving it on off-white or egg shell but with the paint at hand this was not an option. What feels like 40 layers later (ok, just 9) the colour was in place. The black on the other hand was in place with 2 layers.

The next step was getting the carapace edges in order. As they are more ornamental than the super structure I wanted them to have a brighter shine to them. To achieve this, the edges were based with leadblecher, layered with ironbreaker and finnished up with a thin layer of badab black wash.

With the carapace in place and all the mess touched up, the detail painting resumed. After the detailing, the base was painted and at last the transfers were added.

The knight in all its glory. The Mars aligned house of Taranis will fit great with the Mars themed battle group. My warhound titan of house Legio Ignatum is based on Mars as well and so will my Skitarii when I get to paint them.

Personal honour banner.

Reaper chain sword, destroyer CC attacks and a lot of stomping here we come!

Love how the purity seals turned out.

The black/white cog skulls caused a lot of pain wile painting but I think they turned out pretty good.

Gritty battle field basing just the way I like it!

Gears and bits from the Citadel basing kit.

New super heavy walker in the house! :D

Step by Step Painting: Necromudia Gang

This will be my first step by step painting post so we'll see how it goes. I do not claim to be a pro-painter in any way, so this is more for documentation purpose than a "how to".

A friend of mine got me on the hype train for Necromudia a little wile ago. I have assembled a starting gang with 7 members from random models and parts lying about, but have not gotten to paint them until now. Some of the models are old 40K collectors models I have not gotten to use any place else. The only original Necromudia model in my gang is "Amy", model by same name, that I got from my friend Rick on the agreement that I'd paint her and put her to use. I do so now! :D

Step 1 through 5 is all airbrush. My airbrush is entry level at best  and siphon fed so not the best choice for detailed work. However it speeds up the process somewhat when applying bases. It is also worth noticing this is all done in one painting session lasting for 8 hours. Yes, you can get exhausted hands from painting, I can confirm that!


My gang, "Birds of Prey" is of the House Escher and thereby all female. Here goes!

Step 1

With the basecoat in place, I applied mechanicum standard grey to the areas of fabric and flesh, aka most of the models.

Step 1

Step 2

Working my way up the tones, I applied a mix of slaanesh gray and dawnstone to the areas where the brighter colours would be located.

Step 2

Step 3

House Escher gangs often got a lot of yellow on them. The only paint in that part of the spectrum I got at hand was yriel yellow which is a tad too bright to start working with without a yellow base. I tried a few different mixed and landed on the pupkin-ish colour for the first main colour. Works great on grey and kinda makes them look like the rebel pilots in Star Wars. <.<

Step 3

Step 4

Skin is applied. I use a toned down version of Kislev Flesh which I'll add a second unmodified layer of later on.

Step 4

Step 5

Paint it pink! The second main colour is quite a mix that it took serveral attempts to find.

Step 5

Step 6

Black, like a moonless night. Weapons and details are based black again after the airbrush rampage is over.

Step 6

Step 7

First round of detailing. How I love using purple colours so strictly forbidden to the forces of the Imperium.

Step 7

Step 8

Second layer to the skin, more details and general clean-up.

Step 8

Step 9

To add 10 points of grimdark to the models, remember to apply a lot of washes and shades. Also got their names on the bases! :)

Step 9

Step 10

Based and fixated, done and done! Even gave the eyes a try this time. Still struggling getting them right, but at least this is a step in the right direction.

Step 10

Edit - About the models and where they are from: I got one of the last chancers (Liara), one is from the Gaunts Ghosts pack (Hannette), one is a official Necromudia model (Amy), 2 are made from Victorian Miniature parts (Sessilie and Liri), one is a Raging Heroes limited edition figure (Ash) and lastly Flavia is a Bob Ridolfi sculpt at Reaper Miniatures.

Aaaaand some scenic pictures of the gang.

Onwards to infamy!

Fortifications

Managed to pick up the paint brush at last, it's been a wile.

With the bastion done I'll finally be able to field the minimum requirement for a Imperial Strongpoint! The strongpoint is for what is is worth the cheapest way to include several fortifications for a single slot and hence fielding a single detachment. No more fielding additional redundant detachments to get that 2nd quad gun. :)

Really satisfied with the concrete paint job, too bad I get to paint that so rarely.

Ze Imperial Strongpoint

Yeeees, there might be a little knight loitering around in the background, I'll get to that eventually... after the Skitarii.... and the Slaanesh daemons... and the sisters, and guardsmen ect. Got quite a backlog at the moment. <.<

Skiiiiiitariiiiiii ++

All the Skittarii stuff I ordered is finally here and assembled, woop!

I went with the collectors edition codex as it included both a full tactical objective deck with the Skitarii-only cards as well as doctrine cards and some awesome objective markers in metal.

My total force consisting of 10 rangers and 10 vanguards forming 2 or 4 troops depending on squad size, 5 Sicarian Ruststalkers and the Dragoon I've shown earlier.

Vanguard with Radium carbines. With 3 shots from each gun the chance for rolling a few 6es per round is high triggering Rad poisoning delivering 2 wounds regardless of toughness.

Rangers with galvanic rifles and AT special weapons. The rangers are a sniper squad with 30" range and all of them armed with the basic weapon, galvanic rifle, got precise shot!

I went with Runestalkers for my first elite choice. They can't infiltrate like the Sicarian Infiltrators, but I plan on keeping them close at hand guarding my more squishy rangers and Imperial guardsmen in general. They are also cheaper than the infiltrators and is a pure close combat squad. Armed with 2 transonic blades these guys hit with strength 5 and 4 attacks on the charge. Being transonic weapons, from turn 2 of close combat and on turn 1 when rolling 6es they hit with AP2 as well. Sweet!

Also, got a techpriest engineseer body from my friend Rick (http://boltcatchers.blogspot.no/) that needed some improvising to complete the miniature. The power axe looks a little shabby, hopefully I can fix that when painting. Made out of spare parts from the Sicarian kit and tempestus parts.

Also, got a match tomorrow, 6K per team, 2K per player. Too bad my Skitarii forces are not done yet, would love to bring them as allies to guard the titan (like fluff say they do).

Hopefully none from the other teams sees this post until tomorrow. :P

If you do, no list changing!

The Sydonian Dragoons

Got my first batch of the Adeptus Mechanicus force the other day so just starting assembling them. First up was the Sydonian Dragoon, of which I got one model. Quite steep cost for a 45 pts model, but I be damned it's a cool kit. Here are some pictures!

The walker looks quite similar to a motor cycle... with legs. :D I've seen pictures of the model earlier on, but it wasn't until I got to build it that the resemblance struck me.

There's a  guy implanted like a part of the walker, whether he is a mindless servitor or a conscious being is not known. Poor guy.

Fully kitted out with dashboard and control panel, a magnificent way to ride in to battle. The rough riders hate him. 

Onwards, to glory!