Truddenia

Painted Deimos Rhino

2012-02-26T21:54:00.000-08:00

Finishing the Deimos was pretty easy. A couple of brass etched Ultramarines symbols were added to the kit for detail. Then on to painting. I did make a few messy mistakes with the white, but I think that was easy to fix. Overall, I decided to avoid gold in the color scheme, and stick with blue, white, silver and black.

The blue was done with a base coat of GW Regal Blue, followed by a coat of Ultramarine Blue. Then a 50:50 mix of Ultramarine Blue and Ice Blue was done with a sort of controlled dry brush technique to add highlights. Finally I applied an extreme highlight of Ice Blue.

The white was just a couple coats of straight up P3 Morrow White, and the black was done with just GW Chaos Black. The silver was done with a coat of Boltgun Metal, then Devlan Mud and finally Chainmail. The lights were done with coats of P3 Sulfuric Yellow, then GW Golden Yellow and lastly P3 Cygnus Yellow. Finally, the red was done with P3 Sanguine Highlight, Khador Base and a dot of Khador Highlight.

Vulkan He'stan

2012-02-21T20:40:00.000-08:00

Finecast has spoiled me. It had been so long since I had to work with pewter, I actually had some problems with glueing this model. When the glue didn't bond quickly enough, I whipped out the Insta-Set and spritzed away. For those who don't know what Insta-Set is, it is a catalyzing agent that hardens cyanoacrylate within ten to fifteen seconds. Sounds great right? It also causes heat during this reactions, and could possibly give a person a minor chemical burn (or startle you enough to drop the fig).

The first thing I noticed after priming, was that my Vulkan's face was a bit more blotchy than the GW pic, and upon some careful chipping, I realized I must have over glued the model while building it. Then his arm broke off again - another aspect of Insta-Set is it can occasionally create weaker bonds. Bitch fest ended, I hope.

On to the actual painting. Vulkan is probably as blinged out as Calgar, so I started with base coats of P3 Sanguine Base on the cloak and the flame areas, Hammerfeld Khaki on the white areas, Gnarls Green on the greens, and GW Darven Bronze on the gold and Boltgun Metal on the silver. I then gave the whole model a Devlan Mud wash to darken the cloak a bit more and add some depth. The Golds were finished with GW Shining Gold and and Burnished Gold. The Silver with Chainmail and the bone with P3 Menoth White Base. The green is finished with P3 Iosan Green and Wurm Green, and the Black with layers of GW Chaos Black, P3 Coal black and an extreme highlight of GW Codex Grey.

I built up the color on the cloak with P3 Sanguine Highlight and then a highlight of Khador Base, these same layers were used for the purity seals and flames, with a highlight of Sanguine Highlight on the purity seals, and the same color made the orange layer on the flames. I finished the flames with layers of GW Golden yellow and P3 Cygnus Yellow.

Dan Abnett's Know No Fear

2012-02-18T20:28:00.001-08:00

This is the novel I have been waiting for since the Horus Heresy series began. What surprises me most, Dan Abnett is the author, and not Graham McNiell. I remember asking McNiell at a Gamesday, back when the Horus Heresy series was just starting if he planned to write the Battle of Calth, and he had said he had drawn a ring around it, and it was his. I guess time, or more pressing projects changed that. Know No Fear is a great novel in the best tradition of Abnett. It especially resonates with me as I'm a big Ultramarines fan, and the horror of the Word Bearers' betrayal and the subsequent carnage fleshed out in all its horrid detail helped this novel fly by. I pretty much read it in a twenty four hour period. The end is nothing but sublime. It's a great read, great buy. STop reading this blog, go get it and read it!

Salamanders Land Speeder

2012-02-12T21:23:00.000-08:00

Sticking with the theme of Melta and Flame, the Salamanders are reinforced this installment with a Land Speeder Tornado equipped with Heavy Flamer and Multimelta. This was a straight build, with the pilot and gunner of the Land Speeder built separately from the speeder itself. This would allow for ease of painting, but also ease of application of the water slide transfers.

There wasn't any real experimentation with the Land Speeder, the main addition to the scheme is the spot light on the front. This was done with layers of P3 Sulfuric yellow, GW Golden Yellow and P3 Cygnus Yellow. The greens were done with P3 Gnarls Green, Iosan green and Wurm Green.

Typically, I leave the flying stands of my models clear. Probably because they can match whatever terrain they are put on that way. The only thing this model definitely needs (as the pics show) is some touch up over the carrier film of the transfers. It is a step I need to go back and do on the Tactical Squad as well. Next time, I have a special character to show off.

Blood Ravens Dreadnought

2012-02-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

My final Blood Ravens unit is a dreadnought built from the Space Marine Dreadnought kit. I used bitz from a Venerable Dreadnought kit to add a bit of customization to the model, so that even though it is basically a Lascannon, Missile Launcher dreadnought, it still has a higher level of detail than the basic kit. I also used the Iron Halo, a few purity seals and one of the leg armor bitz as well.

The dreadnought was kept predominantly red, using P3 Sanguine Base, Sanguine Highlight and an extreme highlight of Khador Base. I kept the majority of the other areas silver using GW Boltgun Metal, Devlan Mud and Chainmail in respective layers. Then the engine cowling was painted Chaos Black with the Mechanicus symbol painted in the traditional half black (Chaos Black) and half white (P3 Morrow White) colors.

While this is the last Blood Ravens model I will be working on for a while, I did enjoy the army. With the exception of the two Librarians, I think it works pretty well as a balanced Codex Space Marine army. I won't be purposely revisiting any of the "finished" armies until I have a representative of the loyalist First Founding legions done, but I have a feeling I will be coming back to the Blood Ravens eventually.

Deimos Rhino

2012-02-05T20:01:00.000-08:00

Along with my copy of IA:11, I also ordered a Deimos Rhino kit. I was interested to see how the kit pieced together, and excited when I got my hands on it. The exterior sides are replaced with resin ones, as are the side doors and the front of the rhino. The turrets and hatches are also swapped out with a single bolter mounted on each. Topped off with four exhaust vents and a shiny )and pointy) dozer blade, and the kit is complete. I'm looking forward to building the kit, as it looks pretty darned cool.

IA:11 The Doom of Mymeara

2012-01-31T21:36:00.000-08:00

I was gratified, when my copy of IA:11 The Doom of Mymeara finally arrived. It was nice to see the free upgrade to UPS delivery after having to wait a month to get it as well. In terms of the actually story, I think this was the most artwork intensive IA's to date. Much of the story is wrapped up in classified briefings for Inquisition eyes only, making for an interesting read. The principle players are the Eldar of craftworlds Alaitoc and Mymeara along with their corsair allies. These are pitted against the Imperium of Belatis III principally in the form of the Cadian VIth, as well as a maniple from Legio Gryphonicus and the Space Wolves of Bran Redmaw's company.

The narrative is well written, and provides quite a bit more information for Eldar and Space Wolf players; and while this looks like an Imperium victory on the surface, is it? One would have to read it for themselves to know for sure. All of the current Eldar goodies are featured in this book, as well as a Corsairs list that looks interesting, but I think I am not the Eldar fan that is needed to be qualified to properly assess it. There is a small amount of Imperial stuff as well, mostly the Crassus, Malcador Infernus and Bran Redmaw's rules. As I am planning to do a small Space Wolf force far down the line, I was happy with the purchase. Hobbysists on a budget should be careful when considering this IA, while it is good, I think it is more for the Eldar, Space Wolf and collector more than a general release or must have.

Salamanders Tactical Squad

2012-01-29T21:49:00.000-08:00

I read on Bolter & Chainsword, a while back, a discussion about what a Space Marine army should have in terms of points efficiency. One thing that was suggested is that Tactical Squads are not really good at shooting or assault, and by using additional points to magnify one of those aspects of the unit to be better at one of those aspects of the game is inefficient points wise.

With that concept in mind, I built this tactical squad to use only the base points required for a full squad. Since the Multimelta is free, I decided to use that over the Missile Launcher, with an eye to the squad either being in a Land Raider, or eventually if I scale the army above 1000 points, inside a Rhino. I also kept the Flamer, and gave the sergeant a Bolt Pistol and Chainsword.

The squad was kept to a basic build, though every model has Frag grenades and some kind of pouch. To keep with the concept of the Salamanders being master craftsmen and having the resources to build the finest quality equipment, every model in the squad has an MkVIII Errant armour chest plate. I used the same color palette as I did for the Land Raider and Captain.

Imperial Armour Apocalypse Second Edition

2012-01-24T20:13:00.000-08:00

I spent a lot of time going to the three Games Workshops stores in my area (I live in MD so they are everywhere) trying to find Imperial Armour Apocalypse Second Edition with no luck. Eventually I decided to just order it from Games Workshop's website, and was able to get it within the week. I mainly wanted to pick it up for the Contemptor rules. Having one, I was interested in the rules, but I was more interested in seeing how available the Mortis pattern Contemptor was. I was definitely happy to see that it was now available as a Heavy Support choice for all Space Marine armies. Since I wanted to build one with two Kheres Assault Cannons and the Cyclone Missile Launcher - look for it in the future.

I was pleasantly surprised by the scenarios at the back of the book as well, one is for an imbalanced apocalypse game where the defender mainly has ground power, and the attacker mainly has air power. I'm hoping to convince someone to play it with me (if I do, I'll definitely take pics and post).

Blood Ravens Devestator Squad

2012-01-22T20:52:00.000-08:00

The second to last unit I am building for my Blood Ravens is a Devastator Squad. This was always my favorite unit in Dawn of War II, and probably in the 40k game as a whole. I decided that missile launchers would be good to model, as they are the most versatile heavy weapon in the game.

I kept the modelling simple otherwise, adding in the pouches and grenades that the marines come with. I also wanted to keep the chest plates simple, using the skull or hosed one for the missile launcher marines, and the double headed eagle for the sergeant. Finally, I only had one of the Devastator backpacks, and I've come to prefer them for kit bashing techmarines, so I used the flat backpack with the tiny skull in order to model the missile ammo.

I stuck with the same color pallets that I used on the previous models, and have been trying to focus on cleaning up the Blood Ravens symbols to make them just look better. The last unit I'm going to build for the Blood Ravens is a dreadnought, inspired by Davian Thule's. Look for that sometime soon.

Salamanders Land Raider

2012-01-18T21:02:00.000-08:00

I had a somewhat twisted plan when I decided to buy the Land Raider Achilles. I figured that it would come with a Land Raider kit, and that I would be able to take a Land Raider Redeemer kit and build a regular Land Raider. Then, I would have the coveted Assault Cannon turret to finally make an Assault Cannon Razorback.

The results in this blog post show that it is possible. However, the Redeemer's side sponsons have a shallower plate, making it impossible to keep the 180 degree swivel on the side sponsons. The other item that I wasn't happy with when building this tank was how front weighted the Multimelta turret is, which is why I glued it, alone of all the turrets, to the chassis.

Since this was going to be a Salamander's Land Raider, I decided to bling it out, and give it both the Multimelta turret and the Storm Bolter turret. I also added the smoke launchers and search light as a matter of course. Finally, I decided not to model and tank crew, and close up the interior to make things easier on me. The Land Raider was painted exactly like the Salamnder's Captain.

One thing I like about the Salamanders, is it gives me the opportunity to slack off a bit and use water slide transfers. The most effective way to do this is to seal the model when it is done being painted. Then, use Testors Decal Solvent and apply a coat to the area where you want to place a transfer. Next, apply your transfer, being careful to place it exactly how you want it. Then, apply another coat of Decal Solvent over top of the transfer. Finally seal the model again.

James Swallow's Hammer and Anvil

2012-01-15T21:45:00.000-08:00

James Swallow's Hammer and Anvil is the continuation of Sister Miriya's story (from Faith and Flame and Red and Black). After the events of Faith and Fire, Miriya has been demoted from her rank of Celestian,and has joined an expedition that is returning back to Sanctuary 101. Faced with both the plotting of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the machinations of Inquisitor Hoth of the Ordos Xenos, Sister Miriya and the Order of Out Martyred Lady must deal with threats from within and without. Overall, this was a good continuation of the series, fairly depicting the Sisters of Battle, as well as being a great depiction of the ways in which the Necrons are currently being imagined. Fans of both should pick up this book. Readers looking for an entertaining way to pass the time should too.

Dan Abentt's Thorn and Talon

2012-01-11T21:29:00.000-08:00

Catching up on my Black Library reading, I finally picked up Dan Abnett's Thorn and Talon. This audio book, actually has three short stories on it, recorded on two cd's. The first CD has two new stories, "Master Imus's Transgression" which is the story of an accountant that feels he has committed a "transgression." This tale is set while Eisenhorn is still an interrogator. The story is amusing and well written, and worth the price of the CD by itself. The second story, "Regia Occulta" is another well written offering. This time, Eisenhorn is a newly minted Inquisitor on a routine investigatory circuit through the Helican Sub. Stranded on a world racked by storms, he takes part in a murder investigation out of boredom more than anything else. Finally, the third story, "Thorn Wishes Talon" has been previously published, it is the prequel short story to the Ravenor series. One thing that stands out in these stories though, is the increasing quality of the black Library audio dramas. Well worth the price, and a must by for Eisnhorn or Abnett fans.

Age of Legend edited by Christian Dunn

2012-01-08T20:34:00.000-08:00

Age of Legend, edited by Christian Dunn, is a compilation of short stories set in Warhammer's Time of Legends. As any one who knows me is aware, I'm not a huge fan of the Warhmammer fluff-verse. I feel like it is very boring and predictable for the most part. Which is a big part of why I usually avoid those novels. However I have been enjoying the Time of Legends novels, almost as much as I do the Horus Heresy novels. However, this compilation is definitely not for me. Most of it is low fantasy (if you aren't sure what i mean, in brief high fantasy is world changing, and epic, low fantasy is very small scale and nowhere near epic) and not very interesting to me. There is one in particular I enjoyed set in Kislev, but to give any more details would ruin the surprises within it. That being said, and knowing that i am naturally biased, this has well written stories, I thought this was an okay read. Worth it for fantasy fans, but that's about it.

Salamanders Captain

2012-01-04T21:33:00.000-08:00

While I am still in the final stages of my current project, the Blood Ravens, I wanted to do a quick sneak peak for my next one, the Salamanders. One of the great elements of the Devastator boxed set, is one can build six space marines out of it. Especially if one has a pretty extensive bitz box. I chose one of those leg pairs for my Salamanders Captain.

To emphasize the skill and craftsmanship that the Salamanders posses, I decided that every model will have unique armor, and that as many as possible will have Mark VIII power armour. I filed off the skull at the top of the Mark VIII chest plate, and then proceeded to build the model, leaving off the backpack. I add all of my bitz, and the thunder hammer and arms from the Death Company boxed set, being careful to remove any blood drops in evidence.

Next i sculpted a cloak for the model, by rolling out a wedge of green stuff flat, and cutting it roughly rectangular. I then added some curves to simulate motion. I used my standard pallet for most of the model. However I painted the armor in layers of P3 Gnarls Green, Iosan Green and an extreme highlight of Wurm Green. I added a layer of Ordic Olive to the cloak in between the Gnarls and Iosan Greens as well. For the cloak, I tried to paint U's in order to simulate scales. I'm not one hundred percent sold on this, but I think it is a good start at the technique.

Gav Thorpe's Deliverance Lost

2012-01-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

I was pleasantly surprised when i went into my local GW after Christmas and saw Deliverance Lost for sale. I was under the impression that it wouldn't be out until January. So quite naturally, I greedily scooped it up and added it to my purchases. Gav Thorpe is the author, and the story picks up immediately after Raven's Flight. This novel gives the reader the back story for Corax, how he liberated Lycaeus and brought Khiavar into the fold of the Imperium, and how Corax met the Emperor. At the same time, this is the story of how the Raven Guard attempts to rebuild after Istvaan and the problems they have. For Raven Guard fans, this is a must read. Ditto for Horus Heresy fans. Even as a stand alone novel, this is a great read.

Disciples of Caliban Librarian

2011-12-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

This model is a great example of re purposing a model. For a while, I had the mangled remains of a Deathwatch Librarian sitting on my painting desk. A drought of models while I am on vacation left me scraping the bottom for projects. So I dusted the model off, literally, and then added a backpack and bolt pistol arm with a plain shoulder pad.

Then I gave the model a coat of Chaos Black to prime it and retouch a lot of the chipped areas. Next, I painted the blue areas with Regal Blue, Ultramarines Blue, a 50:50 mix of Ultramarines Blue and Ice Blue and an extreme highlight of Ice Blue. A wash of Devlan Mud was applied to the silver and bone areas, and then I painted a coat of Chainmail on the silver, and a coat of P3 Menoth Base on the bone areas. The loin cloth got coats of P3 Sulfuric Yellow, Golden Yellow and Sunburst yellow. Finally the shoulder pads got a coat of Gnarloc Green and then Dark Angels Green.

I shaved the green flock turf off of the base, and then add ballast. I coated the base in Chaos Black, then layers of Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown and Snakebite Leather. Finally, I used a Micron pen to free hand the Disciples of Caliban symbol. Then used P3 Morrow White to paint the symbol. I cleaned it up with Dark Angels Green and finished up the model.

Finished Javelin Jetbike

2011-12-25T21:48:00.000-08:00

Keeping to the Pre-Heresy theme for this jet bike, I ended up using the chest plate and helmet from the Death Company boxed set. I also used the reinforced shoulder pad from the tactical squad boxed set. Then I filed down the rims on the Ultramarine shoulder pad to complete the build.

This model painted up pretty easily. I gave it base coats of Regal Blue, P3 Hammerfeld Khaki and GW Boltgun. Then I washed the metallic and khaki in Devlan Mud. Next I applied Chainmail and P3 Menoth Base to the model. Then I painted the blue with Ultramarine Blue. Then I added a layer of 50:50 Ultramarines Blue and Ice Blue. Finally I gave the model a highlight of Ice Blue.

Ultimately, I liked this model, and will probably add another two and the attack bike version when it is released. My only concern would be for those trying to make the scout bike variant. For one thing, which variant is which isn't really labeled. For another, you would have to spend another $15 or so dollars just to have a rider. Unless you were lucky enough to find someone who had a rider for trade or sale.

Blood Raven's Tactical Squad

2011-12-20T21:56:00.000-08:00

The latest unit for my Blood Ravens force is a tactical squad. This unit pretty much fills up the mandatory slots for the army, and leaves me with a lot of choices for the future. While, I kind of want to build a force similar to that featured in Dawn of War II, I'm also interested in building something that typifies the army. That's why I built two librarians.

I did a pretty straight forward build for the tactical squad. I made sure every model had grenades and those with bolters had ammo pouches. The sergeant has a bolt pistol and close combat weapon, with an empty pistol holster. The flamer and missile launcher marines just have the small belt pouches.

I painted the tactical squad in the same way as I have the other Blood Raven units. They are primed red with Duplicolor primer, and then get coats of P3 Sanguine Base, Sanguine Highlight, Khador Base and Khador Highlight. The black is GW Chaos Black, with a highlight of P3 Coal Black. The bone is P3 Hammerfeld Khaki with a highlight of Menoth Base. I painted the eyes with layers of P3 Ordic Olive, Wurm Green and then a highlight of GW Scorpion Green.

I painted the Blood Ravens symbol and the tactical symbols free hand, using a micron pen to draw an outline. I then filled in the outline with the requisite colors. Next I cut in with P3 Menoth Base to clean up the symbols.

Sarah Cawkwell's The Gildar Rift

2011-12-18T20:59:00.000-08:00

The Gildar Rift, by Sarah Cawkwell is the latest installment of the Battles of the Space Marines series. This novel features the Silver Skulls Space Marine Chapter in battle against Huron Blackheart and his Red Corsairs. The battle is set in the Gildar Rift system, one of the protectorates of the Silver Skulls, and a system littered with debris and asteroid belts. The world of Gildar Secondus was primarily a promethium producing world, and thus vital to the Imperium. We also learn that the Silver Skulls are a chapter on the decline, and are seeking an advantage through the Resurgent Project. What follows is a well written novel, replete with action and, well developed plot and great characters. Cawkwell has built on the work of the Badab War Forge World books, and even gives a few nods toward Dembski-Bowden's Blood Reaver. However, her biggest departure is her depiction of Huron Blackheart. He is shown as insane, powerful, cunning and at times childlike in his desires. While I feel some might disagree with this, I think the complexity of his character becomes far more interesting than staid portrayals of archetypal villains that we have seen in the past with Abaddon or even Huron himself. Further, Huron is shown to be much more of the skilled tactician and less the buffoon that Dembski-Bowden shows him to be. Overall, this is a great novel and well worth the read.

Chapterhouse Minatures Javelin Imperial Jetbike

2011-12-14T20:19:00.000-08:00

I decided to order the Javelin from Chapterhouse on the chance that the model was good enough that i could add a jetbike squad to my preheresy Ultramarines army. I wasn't really sure about the quality of it, the size or the look, but I figured the price was worth the chance. My first Impressions of the Javelin Imperial Jetbike were pretty good. It is an intricately detailed model, on par with something Forge World could put out. It has two sprues and the main body, which look to assemble pretty easily. The clear flying stand that comes with it looks like it will require modification to fit on the model though. In the end, it looks like I will be adding at least two more, and probably picking up a Pilum when it is released as well.

Blood Ravens Assault Squad

2011-12-11T21:10:00.000-08:00

My next Blood Ravens project was an assault squad. I wanted to use a pair of bitz from the Death Company boxed set for another project, so I used that as the base for this squad. For the most part I did some filing and xacto excising in order to remove overly blatant Blood Angels symbology. For items that were pretty innocuous but looked cool, I just kept them.

I kept the add on bitz to a minimum, using the odd purity seal to hide blank spots where necessary. I also used one of the chest plates with the skull from the Tactical boxed set for one model, removing the skull for a nice, flat surface. I used my normal mixed coarseness ballast for basing.

The painting was done with the same colors as the scouts. I feel like I made a good bit of progress on the Blood Ravens symbols, and there are one or two of the shoulder pads that I am actually pretty proud of. They are still decent table top quality.

Blood Ravens Scout Squad

2011-12-06T21:21:00.001-08:00

This installment, I continue to get my feet wet with project Blood Ravens. I kind of wanted to follow the force structure of the Blood Ravens in Dawn of War 2, while using some unit choices that add more of a Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons feel (or maybe just emphasize the psyker nature of the chapter). Therefore, i chose to build a sniper scout squad next.

In game, I always liked the Cyrus the sniper build best, so I wanted to pick up that theme. This unit is meant to infiltrate and hold objectives while harrying enemy i infantry. There is a possibility I will eventually do a Cyrus conversion using Telion (and the Telion rules) but right now I don't feel up to the task.

Once again they are all primed red with Dupicolor primer. The red is painted using P3 colors, with layers of Sanguine Base, Sanguine Highlight and Khador Base. The black is GW Chaos Black with a P3 Coal black highlight. The bone is done with P3 Hammerfield Khaki, GW Devlan Mud and P3 Menoth Base.The scope was done with GW Shadow Grey and a highlight of GW Codex Grey.

I used a Micron pen for the eyes, as well as to free hand the Chapter symbol and squad number. I then used Chaos black to fill in the symbol.

2011-12-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

I started out by priming the Achilles black. I then painted it with a base coat of Regal Blue. Following that up with a base coat of Boltgun Metal on the silver areas, Dwarven Bronze on the gold areas and then P3 Hammerfeld Khaki on the bone areas. These spots then got a wash of Devlan Mud.

After the wash had dried, I painted the silver areas with Chainmail. The bone areas got a coat of P3 Menoth Base coat. The gold areas got coats of Shining Gold and then Burnished Gold.

The yellow areas were given coats of P3 Rucksack Tan, GW Golden Yellow, and P3 Cygnus Yellow. The red areas were painted with P3 Sanguine Base, Sanguine Highlight Khador Base and Khador Highlight. The white areas were all painted with multiple layers of P3 Morrow White.

Finally, I filled in the blue areas with Ultramarine Blue, then a layer of 50:50 Ultramarine Blue and Ice Blue, and finally an extreme highlight of Ice Blue. My last act was to add some writing on the scrolls with a .005 Micron pen.

Last Two Librarians

2011-11-30T16:33:00.000-08:00

For the last two Librarians, I had already decided one would be a Blood Raven. The second took me a while to settle on, but in the end I went with an Executioner. In the end, it was because I like the Executioners so much as an army that i made that choice.

I continued to stick with the codex color scheme for the last two Librarians, painting their armor predominantly blue using my Ultramarines color scheme. The Blood Raven already had the chapter insignia sculpted onto the pad, so I just had to free hand a blood drop on it to finish the insignia. For the Executioner, I outlined it with a Micron Pen, and then filled it in the P3 paints as I have been doing for red.

I've kept the paint schemes pretty much the way I have been doing things, but I have been using new brushes. AC Moore had some on clearance a couple weeks ago, and I was able to get a fine point brush and a flat brush that's in between a tank brush and a base coat brush, but has a nice flat edge to it. For $1 each they've worked out quite well so far.

James Swallow's Red and Black

2011-11-27T20:52:00.000-08:00

Today, while painting I listened to James Swallow's Red & Black. This is an audio drama about a Sister of Battle, Celestian Miriya, who is charged with deciding whether a world recently emerged from a warp storm is worthy of rejoining the Imperium. But it isn't just a question of Chaos infestation, for the world has replicai on it, vat grown clones created with human DNA to be powerful warriors, or something else? I enjoyed the story, it has a lot of moral dilemma elements which 40k novels typically don't and underlines the harshness of the 40k universe as a whole. If you are looking for an entertaining listen, give this a try, whether it be for a long drive, work commute or painting music, it is a good audio book.

Blood Ravens Vindicator

2011-11-23T20:58:00.000-08:00

My second attempt at a Blood Ravens model is a vindicator tank. One thing that makes it a bit difficult to paint, is the lack of the dozer blade. Why, well now everything is open to be seen, and for some reason, the turret for the demolisher cannon isn't sitting right, or at least not how I imagined it should from memory.

I mainly used P3 colors for this model, painting a layer of Sanguine Base, then two layers of Sanguine highlight, and a extreme highlight of Khador base. This gave the tank a nice dark red color that I wanted. For the silver, I did layers of GW Boltgun Metal, Devlan Mud and Chainmail. For the bone, I did layers of P3 Hammerfell Khaki, GW Devlan Mud and P3 Menoth White Base.

Finally, I used a Micron Pen to draw the Blood Ravens insignia on the tank. While I usually do this to create a rough approximation on the model, I wasn't really happy with the initial efforts. I then used GW Chaos Black to paint the ravens, filling in any attempt at feathers as they looked to sloppy. I used the same red colors as above for the blood drop, bu the final main color was a coat of Khador Base, with a dot of Khador Highlight in the center. Overall, I'm happy with the model, though I am more seriously considering picking up the Blood Ravens transfers from Forge World. I'll have to wait and see, as I do have a tactical squad and a Scout Squad waiting to be built and painted.

Land Raider Achilles

2011-11-20T20:42:00.000-08:00

I finally got my Land Raider Achilles in the mail the other day. All of the crazy hours I had to work during October paid off - literally - and allowed me to get the one model I've been jonesing for for over a year. There are only eight resin pieces for this model, and using them essentially seals the land raider so that any interior detail cannot be displayed. I'm still debating whether or not to bump some other models back in the queue so that I can build this and prime it. But I haven't made a firm decision yet. It looks like a great build, and I can't wait to get to it.

Blood Ravens Librarian

2011-11-16T20:33:00.000-08:00

The first librarian I decided to work on was the Blood Raven Librarian with the storm shield. I wanted to see how the blood raven insignias that I sculpted came out. Plus I thought it fitting that the first Blood Raven I painted would be a librarian.

For the paint scheme, I stuck with Regal Blue, Ultramarine Blue, a 50:50 mix of Ultramarine Blue and Ice Blue, and then an extreme highlight of Ice Blue as the main colors. I also used this layering for the purity seal wax. For the red, I used P3 Sanguine Base, then Sanguine highlight, with an extreme highlight of Khador Base. I chose to make the eyes green, and used Snot Green, Goblin Green and a dot of Scorpion Green.

I chose to stick with a muddy basing scheme, using Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown and Snakebite Leather as the colors. This is painted over a mixture of varius coarseness of ballast.

The New Necron Codex

2011-11-14T08:04:00.000-08:00

I've had the new Necron Codex since it was released last week. I was highly disappointed that the October was just a sneak peak and not the actual release, so I spent the next week just wondering if I should by the thing. After all, I still don;t own the Dark Eldar Codex. In the end I picked it up, the fluff changes that were teased on the web were enough for me to buy it. I was never a big adherent to the original fluff, and I feel like this new retcon/fluff advancement is a much better fit for the army. It fleshes out the changes that Fall of Damnos showed us, and makes the Necrons both a more powerful, but more flawed race as well. What I liked about the codex was the more egyptian theme coupled with the idea of levels of intellect throughout the Necron hierarchy. I also like the downgrading of the C'tan from all powerful beings, to fragmented beings who have unique perspectives, making themselves the only limits they have - well that and the fact that most of the shards are imprisoned by the Necrons. I also liked the addition of yet another flyer to the army, though I'm sure I will have to wait for the second wave to see a model. What i didn't like about the book's fluff is the unending parade of Necron victories, even the Space Marines dex has them losing in some of their battles - Damnos and the World Engine for one. Overall, it is a good codex - in terms of fluff - and worth picking up. I'm sure the army is good too, but having hardly ever played in the last year, I'll leave that for others to talk about.

Nick Khyme's Nocturne

2011-11-09T20:18:00.000-08:00

Nick Khyme's Nocturne is the conclusion of the Fireborn trilogy. In this novel, the final fate of Da'kir and the Salamanders is decided in their showdown with Nihilin. Overall, this is a good end to the trilogy, though the ending is - not so much surprising - as different from what I expected. Salamander's fans will get another dose of Salamander fluff and fury to digest, and Space Marine fans will also get a healthy dose of power armoured mayhem. Overall, a good effort.

The Outcast Dead

2011-11-06T21:28:00.000-08:00

It feels good to have Halloween behind me once again. I picked up The Outcast Dead by Graham McNiell, on Saturday and was able to finish it early on Sunday morning. Thank you Daylight Savings Time. There isn't much new in terms of plot movement in this novel. But it is an interesting look at astropaths during the Great Crusade and beyond. It has some interesting background about the Wars for Unification, and a little bit more about the Adeptus Custodes as well. In terms of plot, there is a broken astropath who survived the destruction of the Argo, and blames himself. During the course of his rehabilitation he learns a dire truth, and the novel is about the pursuit of that truth, both by the Imperium and Horus' proponents. Overall, it was a good addition to the series, though in the same category as Nemesis in my mind for relevance.

On the Painting Table

2011-10-30T19:28:00.000-07:00

For my anniversary, my wife gave me a gift card to Games Workshop, so after a long drought of buying any GW product, I was able to do some hobby restocking. The local manager was pretty surprised to see me, and I think a bit glad I was there to spend, even if it was with a gift card. With that in mind, I decided to build something I had been thinking about ever since the Grey Knights came out - space marine librarians.

I used the legs, back torso, and nemesis swords and warding staves - both from the kit and from my left over bitz -as well as the back packs, non storm bolter weapon arms, and one or two of the bare heads from the Grey Knight troop sprues. Then I used some Space Marine heads, some pistol arms and one combat shield arm to build five librarians.

With the models built, I used the grey two part epoxy that I use for sculpting to give the four without loin cloths, loin cloths. Then, choosing to make two of the Librarians Blood Ravens, I add sculpted ravens to the right shoulder pad of both models, and a raven to the combat shield. I figure I can free hand the blood drop. I also added brass etched Ultramarines symbols to one of the librarians. For the final two I am uncertain as to their chapter, though i am leaning toward one Sons of Guilliman, and the other could either be a Disciple of Caliban or a Flesh Tearer. But then again, I'm not sold on either.

Salvation's Reach

2011-10-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

When I was waiting to be able to afford Salvation's Reach by Dan Abnett, I perused a couple of reviews of the book. Most of the them were fairly negative, expecting Mr. Abnett to be amazing and feeling he fell short. I liked this book though, even with the negative reviews ahead of time. For the first time in this lengthy series, a story arc is well and truly developing. It doesn't have the sense of completeness that other Ghosts novels had when finished, but is more of an actual series novel. Whether the end phase of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade is coming, or just the end of the Tanith, I do not know. What I do know, is that this novel starts out slower, it has a gradual build up that leads to a pretty brutal battle at the end. Fans of the Ghosts will enjoy this novel, and it even has a few space marines sprinkled in for the power armour crowd as well. Overall it is a good novel that continues an interesting new story arc

Long Term Plans

2011-10-18T16:54:00.001-07:00

It may seem like I am stalling, likely I am on some level, but then again this time of year is the busiest for my company, as Halloween is our Christmas in terms of sales. Suffice to say, I have little free time right now. However, I am working on a vindicator, though what normally takes me two hours to build is stretching out over two weeks right now. This has left me a lot of time to lament my lack of physical hobby activity lately, while thinking about my long term goals. I suppose there are a couple different types of gamers or hobbyists. There are those on a budget, who have to carefully plan out there exact army so they can play and have fun. There are those, like me, who want to have one of everything (hey, I only have one Chapter), and there are those who jump on the flavor/codex of the month. Okay, I'm sure there are more that those types, but lets be honest, some types of hobbyists have longer term goals than others.

My current goal is to build 1000 point armies for each of the loyalist legions. I decided that these can be first founding, or later founding armies. Which is a good reason to show off the new cover for the HH series on the BL blog. They should typify the fighting style of the legion, or at least contain a theme or unit make up that is exemplary of this. For example, my Flesh Tearers (which have grown to about 2000 points) have a Storm Raven, Librarian Dreadnought, Death Company, Sanguinary Guard and assault squads to make up their composition. My Executioners are an Imperial Fist founding, and while they are not a siege army, they do have a heavy emphasis on mid to close range fighting and were designed to be a space ship fighting scenario army.

So far I have done Flesh Tearers, Sons of Guilliman, Hawk Lords, Black Consuls (not quite finished though), Executioners and Disciples of Caliban (about half way to 1000) - representing Blood Angels, Ultramarines (twice), Raven Guard, Imperial Fists and Dark Angels respectively. Leaving the White Scars, Iron Hands, Space Wolves and Salamanders to be done. However, I can also do the Blood Ravens as they are a loyalist Thousand Sons chapter, and since I am quite partial to the Thousand Sons, I probably will. In fact my dilemma right now is whether I build the Vindicator I am working on as a Blood Ravens, Disciples of Caliban or some other chapter's tank. I'm leaning toward the Blood Ravens but still undecided. I need to figure it out soon though, as the tank should be built shortly.

Space Marine - Part 2

2011-10-11T12:03:00.001-07:00

So I just finished beating the campaign for Space Marine, and not really having any models to show off this week (I'm in a modelling slump due to a huge increase of time that work is taking up), I figured I would share some thoughts. First off, for those who like to jump right into online play, play out the campaign. The story is great, and the graphics are awesome. The end cinematics are well worth slogging through the campaign to see. And the promise of a sequel is definitely there. My favorite part, was actually the small appearance of the Blood Ravens, I was glad to see them in the game. Hopefully next week I'll have something more interesting, like a review of Salvation's Reach at least.

2nd Pink Horror's Squad

2011-10-02T18:28:00.000-07:00

Having spent a lot of time on space marines the past few months, I took the opportunity for a change and built a second squad of Horrors. I used the same kind of aesthetic for this squad as well, avoiding the bird beak heads as much as I could. Though I did use fewer flaming arms (I think).

One big difference between this squad and the last was the paints I used. I primed red using Duplicote. Then I based them in Lich Purple. I then used Vallejo Tentacle pink the main coat. Finally, I did an extreme highlight of P3 Carnal Pink.

The rest of the painting followed my old stand bys in terms of paint layers. The base uses a mix of ballasts in order to create a varied texture. Finally the models are sealed with Dullcote.

Ultramarine Land Raiders

2011-09-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

Ever since the current Land Raider kit was released, I've been a big fan. While the first wasn't as successful as I would have liked, I would like to believe I've gotten a lot better as modeler since then. So far I have fourteen, and since I've been basing my Ultramarines chapter on the 3rd ed Space Marine codex listing at the back of the book, I've got about 6 to go. Included in the fourteen are a Land Raider Helios, Land Raider Redeemer, Land Raider Prometheus, 2 Land Raider Crusaders and a MKII Land Raider. I also converted a Techmarine Land Raider using spare bitz from my Warhound titan, some modeling chain, a sentinel leg and multilaser power pack, and a leg set from a Necron Tomb Spyder. Finally, the all black Land Raider was built by my friend HuronBH at Blood and Blades. He built it using a bunch of bitz from the city fight kit, and I painted it.

Unfortunately, in my neck of the 100 Acre Woods it has been raining a ridiculous amount. This made it pretty impossible to prime during a long stretch of time. Couple that with a small bit of "spoiled baby" since I haven't been able to get a Land Raider Achilles yet, and there you go. But the Horrors are almost done, so I'll have something new next time.

Ultramarines 1st Company

2011-09-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

I think I've delayed the longest in showing off my First Company because of the changes I would like to make to it. Mainly the two vanguard squads without jump packs - I would like to add jump packs to them. Anyways, some of the non Ultramarines special characters ended up here, my version of Kantor can act as a non-Calgar chapter master, or as a power armour company captain. I also chose to use Lysander as the veteran sergeant in charge of the command squad of terminators. There is a terminator squad with two of each type of terminator heavy weapon, and then one terminator assault squad of all lightning claws and one of all Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield. The command squad is made up of Assault on Black Reach terminators. There are two Sternguard squads, one made up of Tyranid Hunter models, with some minimal conversions to add a flamer, heavy bolter and a power sword to the sergeant. The second squad is made up of two Sternguard boxed sets. There are three vanguard squads, two made from the pewter veteran boxed sets (with a Games Day power fist marine added in to one). The last squad is made up of one Vanguard boxed set and one of the Red Scorpions Vanguard kits from Forge World.

Next time, I'll be showing off all of my Ultramarine Land Raiders.

Ulatramarines Damocles Rhino

2011-09-13T19:10:00.001-07:00

One of my first Forge World models was the Damocles rhino back in 2002 or 2003 maybe? Honestly, Its been so long I can't remember. I love this model, though I regret that it was sealed with the GW Purity Seal and not Testors Dullcote. I'll have to try spraying it and see if the gloss goes away.

I used a Tamiya tank accessory kit in order to add the baggage and tools to the rhino chassis. I was inspired by a Land Raider someone in Australia had entered into Golden Daemon that year, with a weathered look and a lot of baggage on the exterior.

I used fine sand paper and grey chalk as a home made weathering powder to add some wear to the tank. Unfortunately, the gloss seal washed out a lot of the weathering, perhaps in the future I'll touch that up and add in my current style of highlights.

I really love the interior detail of this kit, it really makes the rhino into a command and control node. The detail alone makes it worthwhile, with the two techmarines seated at the console, and the console itself. It could also be used to make for a really cool detailed interior for a land raider, though I'm not sure if I would waste the money on a second kit.

The paint scheme for this model is an earlier iteration of my current scheme. It lacks the layering, and is pretty much Ultramarine Blue on black primer. The other colors are all similarly done.

My only regret with this model, is that Apocalypse kind of took away the effectiveness of this tank in terms of being able to use IN aircraft, and only giving the owning player an orbital barrage.

Inspiration

2011-09-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

I'll be honest, lately my post count has fallen off for a number of reasons. For one thing, I've been lucky enough to spend more time with my family. But more than that, I haven't had too many projects that inspire me to paint and model. The Forge World models I've gotten have been great, however the regular 40k line and the paltry re-releases from Games Workshop have left me unmotivated to finish any of the small 1000 point army projects I need to finish to start something new. So those are the reasons I haven't been as productive of late.

What does motivate me, art like the picture above for one thing. I love the Ultramarines (could you tell?) and art that involves them, or Black Library fiction about them helps to feed the fires. Sadly, I'm so far along with the Ultramarines, that I have only vehicles left to build, and even then not many. Definitely the Black Library books, video games and White Dwarf help to inspire me, as do the various blogs that I visit. Having just bought Space Marine, the video game, I'm hoping it will reinvigorate my desire to do some modeling.

Space Marine Review

2011-09-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

I bought the new THQ game, Space Marine today after work, and brought it home and started playing as soon as possible. First impressions, the opening cinematics are great - along the line of Dawn of War. The main character, Captain Titus, drops through the upper atmosphere by jump pack, dodging through falling ship wreckage to land on an ork kruzer. The game mechanics themselves are easy to pick up, however having played Call of Duty games previously, I found myself wanting to use the melee attack button from that in the beginning. However, after the twentieth ork killed in melee, it becomes pretty easy to melee kill without getting the wrong buttons pushed. I have yet to try the online play, due to some Internet issues and the fact that it takes forever to update the PS3 every time I buy a new game. However, I do think this is a fun game, good for blowing off steam and enjoying the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Mark II Assault Marines Part II

2011-08-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

Having rinsed and cleaned the resin, I assembled the MKII marines in a pretty straightforward manner. I used some Armorcast bases I had lying around to continue the urban warfare theme that my first group of MKII marines had. I did misjudge the weighting of one of them, the marine on the buried barrel. Consequently I had to add some ballast chunks and a pewter skull from Reaper to the base to add some weight. It works, most of the time. I also decided to add the scabbarded sword from the Sevrin Loth and Honor Guard kit to my sergeant to distinguish him from the rest of the squad.

Building on the work I did with the Sternguard squad, each marine is painted in my standard Ultramarine color scheme. I used a Micron Pen and a very fine brush to free hand the Ultramarine Agemo, Chapter and Company Numbers (they are still in the 91st company, but as they are regular assault marines, they are part of the 904Th company), squad designation and squad number. I opted to give them green shoulder pad rims, as they are the fourth company in the 91st chapter.

Overall, I really liked these models, though my frustration lies with the simplicity Forge World has built into their series of Mark kits. You are really forced into the given arm poses each kit offers, and while the assault squad kit has separate hands from weapons, their isn't enough similarity in the arm styling to let you mix ad match with the MKII tactical suit kits. Truthfully, the MKII Assault Marine kit is worth it for the jump packs alone.

Gav Thorpe's Path of the Seer

2011-08-28T21:24:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Gav Thorpe's Path of the Seer. This is the journey of Thirianna, from Path of the Warrior, as she moves along the Eldar paths from poet, to Warlock and beyond. Overlapping the same events from Path of the Warrior, but from Thirianna's view point. This was a great second part of the trilogy, and I can't wait for the third and final installment. For those who haven't read the first novel, you should, as it is a great depiction of the Eldar way of life, and Path of the Seer, is an excellent follow up.

6th Company Dreadnought

2011-08-23T21:16:00.000-07:00

I'm closing in on the last few dreadnoughts I need to build for my Ultramarines. With this model being done, I should only have two more to go, leaving only a smattering of various tanks to build. This is the third time I have built a dread using the venerable dreadnought kit, and while I like a lot of the chassis elements of the kit, I just wish it was a lot more inclusive.

I really wanted to do a lascannon missile launcher build here, but to my surprise, I didn't actually have the missile launcher arm to use. SO I settled for a dread CCW and lascannon build. I prefer the helmet chassis to the sarcophagus plates, and have so far only used the helmets with the venerable dread kit. This is also the first time I have used the twin linked lascannon arm as well.

I went with a simple basing scheme, and stuck to my standard color palette. The only exception is that the base is painted with P3 Cryx Base and the Cryx Highlight. I thought this gave a nice aged, concrete effect rather than a gray stone or red brick look. Next time, If I don't do another Contemptor build, it will probably be a venerable build using one of the sarcophagus plate fronts. I will have to wait and see though.

Forge World Contemptor Part 2

2011-08-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

I really wish I could have written this post sooner, however, I had a slight snag with my Contemptor - it was missing one of the shoulders. A quick email to Forge World rectified the situation. A week later my Contemptor was finished being built.

I opted for a running pose, and positioned the Contemptor at the front of the base. I positioned the power fist extended forward, with the hands spread as if it were spraying promethium at its foes. The head is following the line of the power fist arm. The lascannon arm is aimed low and to the left, targeting another foe. Behind the Contemptor, are the mangled bitz of an Iron Warrior who the Contemptor plowed through, dismembering in a gory spray.

I kept the paint scheme in line with all of my other Ultramarines. I painted Boltgun and Dwarven Bronze on the Iron Warrior bitz. I then did a wash of Devlan Mud and final highlights of Shining Gold and Chainmail. I then splattered Baal Red on the Iron Warrior bitz to add some kind of blood effect.

Steve Lyons' The Madness Within

2011-08-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

Steve Lyons' The Madness Within is the latest 40k audio book. It is the story of a squad of Crimson Fists who are besieged by a deamon on one of their recruiting worlds. With only two battle brothers alive, they have to turn to the maddened lexicanium who was assigned to their squad. Desperate for victory, the mutant hating Cordoban and the more pragmatic sergeant Estaban release lexicanium Suarez in order to defeat the deamon. What follows is an entertaining hunt full of action and twists. I enjoyed listening to this as I worked on building a my Contemptor. For the audio book fans, this is a must have.

Richard William's Imperial Glory

2011-08-09T21:54:00.000-07:00

Richard William's Imperial Glory is the story of the Brimlock 11th regiment. Part of a massive founding of guardsmen from the planet Brimlock, the Brimlock 11th has slowly become an amalgamation of survivors from other Brimlock regiments as the Ellinor Crusade has worn on. Dispatched to the planet Voorheid in order to purge an infestation of Orks, the Brimlock 11th must carry out its mission in spite of a general war weariness that has pervaded the regiment. This is an extremely well written BL novel, it left me wanting more - which is always a good thing. The mysteries surrounding two of the principal characters, Private Stone and Major Stanhope carry through the length of the novel and aren't easily guessed at either. For a first offering, this is a must read, and is good enough to stand with Abnett, McNiell and Dembski-Bowden.

Mike Lee's Nagash Immortal

2011-08-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

Nagash Immortal, by Mike Lee is the final novel in the Nagash trilogy. This novel recounts Nagash's war with the Skaven and the fall of Lhamia at Alcaddizar's hands. Like the other two before it, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. If you haven't read any of these books, you definitely should. Of course, being a big Nagash fan - a model and or army list for him is probably the only thing that would get me into Warhammer Fantasy - I feel biased. SO pick up this novel and enjoy it, I know I did.

Forge World MKII Assault Squad

2011-08-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

It took me a while, but I managed to pick up an MK II assault squad from Forge World. My biggest problem with the MK II tactical squad was that the arms were static, however the assault squad arms are all two pieces, allowing for much more dynamic poses. I'm looking forward to coming back from vacation and building these models.

FW Contemptor Dreadnought

2011-07-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

As soon as I saw the Contemptor, like many others, I had to have it. The model is nicely sculpted as well. My only problem with it is the limited range of arm weapons available. However, the rumor mill does posit that "forbidden" weapons will be forth coming. So I will probably pick up another after I see what becomes available. This model is destined to join my pre-heresy Ultramarines.

Grey Knight Dreadnought

2011-07-26T19:32:00.001-07:00

The last model I planned to work on for the foreseeable future for my Grey Knights was a venerable dreadnought. I used the furioso dreadnought kit as a base for the model, with the librarian dread sarcophagus, but I replaced the death mask with a Grey Knight helmet. I then added some purity seals and the reliquary piece, a book and sword bit and the heraldry shield bit from the dread knight kit.

I kept to the same painting schemes for the dreadnought as I did for the other Grey Knights. Using a black primer base, I then gave it a base coat of Boltgun, a wash of Asurmen Blue and a final coat of Chainmail. I then did base coats of P3 Kommando Khaki and Brazen Brass, with a wash of Devlan Mud, and then a top coat of P3 Menoth Base Coat and the gold was finished with a coat of Shining Gold and an extreme highlight of Burnished Gold. The red was done with layers of P3 Sanguine Base, Sanguine Highlight, Khador Base and Khador Highlight.

To continue the Arthurian theme, the dreadnought is named Uther. I kept the heraldry simple, with just a white field and a diagonal red bar across it. I then added faux writing with a micron pen to finish the model.

Black Consuls Command Squad

2011-07-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

One of the specialists most valued in a doomed chapter would be the apothecary. Only through careful cultivation of geneseed and selective recruitment would a chapter be able to replenish its ranks, especially if they were decimated to the point the Black Consuls were. A command squad would then become the bodyguard for the apothecary, more than the body guard for a captain.

One thing I tried to convey with these models was a sense of age. Beyond being old campaigners, these were marines who had been put out to pasture in one form or another. Whether through extensive bionic replacement, or just plain being too old, they were side lined by the Black Consuls. Now they are the ones responsible for ensuring their chapter has a future.

I also wanted to create a sense of memory for these marines. Ghoddeth Hive was a colossal tragedy for the Black Consuls. One which they can never forgive or forget. To that end, I chose a limited number of letters for their purity seals. Where normally I would use G or H for glory or honor, V for vengeance is more prominent. Even being spelled out on the champion's shield.

The apothecary is probably the simplest of builds in the squad. The model is mostly stock, however I used more of the medical or containment bitz to indicate someone who is ready to acquire more than the average amount of geneseed.

The standard bearer is my least favorite of these models. For one thing, I had to improvise a standard pole by using one of the warding staves from the Grey Knights. Then the Black Consul's chapter badge and scroll work looks okay. However I'm not sure how I could make it look better, I think that might be just beyond my current skill level.

Forge World Boarding Captain

2011-07-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to have a friend go to Adepticon this year, and he was able to procure one of the show exclusive Forge World models for 2011, the Boarding Captain. I've had the model for a while now, but was stuck on what Chapter I wanted it to be. In the end, when in doubt, I go blue, so he became an Ultramarine.

The model comes with the option of the thunder hammer, storm shield, and a bolter with auxiliary grenade launcher, but I chose to go with the storm shield and thunder hammer. I then primed the model black with Duplicolor sandable primer, and that's how the model languished for quite a while.

The blue was painted with Regal blue, Ultramarine Blue, a 50:50 mix of Ultramarine Blue and Ice Blue and then an extreme highlight of Ice Blue. I did the silver Boltgun metal, Devlan Mud and Chainmail, and the gold is Dwarven Bronze, Devlan Mud, Shining Gold and Burnished gold. Originally, both shoulder pads were blue, but I decided that perhaps this Captain was the originator of the Sons of Guilliman heraldry and founded the chapter during the Second Founding, though I did reverse the colors a bit in the process.

Storm of What?

2011-07-17T21:39:00.000-07:00

As some might know, I have no real enthusiasm for Warhammer Fantasy. However, the sorcerer of Tzeentch did catch my eye. With a nice new round base, I figured it would make the perfect Herald of Tzeentch. I used a resin base that I had in my bitz box to give it a 40k battlefield feel. Otherwise it was assembled right off the sprue with no modification.

I wanted to stick to a similar palette as the other demons in my Tzeentch army, so the gold and silver were base coated with Boltgun Metal and Dwarven Bronze respectively, and then given a wash of Devlan Mud. I then gave the silver areas a coat of Chainmail, and the gold areas were given a coat of Shining Gold and then an extreme highlight of Burnished Gold.

For the blue, i did coats of Regal Blue, P3 Meridius Blue and then a final layer of Ice Blue. Finally, the eyes and cloth were painted with a layer of P3 Menoth of highlight and then a coat of Morrow White.

Grey Knights Purifiers

2011-07-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

My initial purchases for my Grey Knight's army were pretty straight forward. I bought all of the kits released. I then added a second Interceptor squad because I like the concept of the personal teleporters. Having gotten that far, and being short one troop choice, a GW employee suggested I take a squad of Purifiers since I already had Crowe. On reflection this seemed like a good idea, and eventually I plan to bring the squad to ten marines, and add a dreadnought so they can all ride in a Storm Raven.

To distinguish the Purifiers from the Interceptors a little more, I went all out with the purity seals, and used everyone that came on the sprues. I also kept to the theme of fighting Nurgle demons, and gave the justicar the plaguebearer head impaled on the sword bit.

In painting the Purifiers, I kept to the same pallet as I used on Crowe. All of them have white shoulder pads and helmets, using P3 Menoth Highlight and Morrow White. I'm not sure how apparent it is in the pictures, but all of my Grey Knights have received Arthurian names. For the Purifiers, I used the names of the most prominent Grail Knights to show their purity and devotion within the naming convention I chose.

Darius Hinks' Sigvald

2011-07-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

I started reading Darius Hinks' Sigvald over a week ago, right after I finished Atlas Infernal. I feel a bit guilty, as soon after I started it, my new Kindle arrived, and I dove into reading Conviction, by Aaron Allston (the latest Star Wars novel). Now, I must say, I don't feel that guilty, as at this point I'm about halfway through Sigvlad. I intend to finish it, however I feel quite bored by the novel. There are two story lines, one surrounding Sigvald and a baron from the Empire who wishes to make the Empire stronger and searches the chaos wastes for aid. The other, a tribe of Norsii who have fallen on hard times and seem cursed. In truth, while the novel is decently written, it lacks that certain something to draw you in and make you want to turn the page. While, it seems to have good reviews offered up by the Black Library. It just doesn't work for me. Perhaps that will change as I read on, but personally, a novel needs to grab you from the start to be good, and this one doesn't.

Completed Razorwing

2011-07-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, you come across a model that looks so simple on the surface but ends up being a huge pain in the neck. This is how I feel about the Razorwing. To start off, I assembled the model in seven different pieces. This may sound like a lot, but it really isn't. Essentially, there are four missiles, the tail fin (which is already one piece), the bottom fuselage and the top fuselage. This was done so that i could glue on the canopy with canopy glue and not have to worry about fogging from the sealant or super glue.

Next, I primed everything black. The parts that are silver were painted Boltgun, given a wash of Leviathan Purple, and then given a coat of Chainmail. The rest of the model was painted with a coat of P3 Beaten Purple, a 70:30 mix of Beaten purple and P3 Murderous Magenta, and then an extreme highlight of Murderous Magenta. For the cockpit interior, I did a coat of Chaos Black on the monitors, and then used some Scorpion Green for faux writing. The base was painted with P3 Rucksack Tan, Sulfuric Yellow, and Moldy Ochre. Then I sealed everything.

Now comes the part that took the fun out of this model, assembly. First, using canopy glue, I glued on the flying stand to the base and the canopy to the upper fuselage. After they were dry (it's best to wait 24 hours) I then attempted to glue together the top and bottom fuselage, using the tail section to put them in place properly. Here is where things turned nasty. For one, the layers of paint created such a tight fit I had to try to shave away the primer from the track on the top of the model, and then shave away the paint on the tongues as well. In the process of this, I stabbed myself with an Xacto knife. In the end, I was able to fit it on (took about twenty minutes) and then use clamps to glue the front down.

Unfortunately, the manhandling required me to go back and retouch the model with Beaten Purple. In retrospect, i suppose it would have saved me a lot of grief if I just skipped the canopy, but the final effect is worth it. However, I do not believe I will ever build one of these models again, as I was contemplating an air heavy Dark Eldar army. I think it is now safely off the table.

Rob Sander's Atlas Infernal

2011-06-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

Rob Sander's Atlas Infernal is the tale of Inquisitor Czevak. Fleshing out the famed Inquisitor's background, this novel does a great job of expanding on Czevak's role during the 13th Black Crusade, how the Harlequin's treat with him, and his time as a prisoner of Ahzek Ahriman. Czevak is one of the few humans privileged to ever enter the Black Library. His time there makes a coveted being by those seeking knowledge of chaos. But Czevak does not want to be anyone's pet. Read about his attempts to avoid Harlequins, Ahriman and Ordos Hereticus Inquisitors while combating one of the most infamous chaos lords. Fans of both the Eldar and Thousand Sons should definitely pick up this book, it is well written and well executed with the promise of more to come.

Castellan Crowe

2011-06-28T21:24:00.000-07:00

I finished Crowe recently, this model is one of the metal castings. It is fairly easy to assemble, though it had a nice bit of spiky flash. I added ballast to the base, and primed black.

The white elements on the shoulder pad, helmet and flames are painted with P3 Menoth Highlight and Morrow White. The Red is P3 Sanguinary Base, Sanguinary Highlight, Khador Base and a final highlight of Khador Highlight.

The silver is a base coat of Gunmetal, a wash of Asurmen Blue and a coat of Chainmail. The gold is a base coat of Dwarf Bronze, Devland Mud, Shining gold and a highlight of Burnished Gold.

Astorath Completed

2011-06-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

When I finally got around to painting Astorath, I stuck to my basic painting schemes. However, I did go out and get a new Windsor Newton Spectre Gold II 101 fine paint brush in order to get a nice, clean effect. When I paint, I pretty much stick to three brushes for my work, a large brush, for basing; a standard brush for doing the large armor areas and washes, and a fine detail brush for everything else. Consequently, I usually end up going through brushes on a monthly basis - and even then, the standard brush slowly becomes a fine brush as it loses bristles.

The new GW paint pots and I don't get along too well, so I have been slowly switching back to P3 as I can. For the red, I did layers of P3 Sanguine Base, Sanguine Highlight, Khador Base and a extreme highlight of Khador Highlight. I did base coats of Boltgun Metal, Dwarven Bronze and P3 Hammerfel Khaki. I then gave them a coat of Devlan Mud wash. Then I did layers of Chainmail, Menoth Basecoat and Shining Gold, with an extreme highlight of Burnished Gold.

To get the face on Astorath, I did a base coat of Tallarn Flesh, with an ink wash of Devlan Mud. Then I used P3 Khardic Flesh, I painted in dots of Morrow White for the eyes, and then added layers of Midland Flesh and Ryn Flesh to get a pale skin color with some depth. Last, I used my Micron Pen to dot the eyes and give them pupils.

Finally, I painted the wings with Chaos Black, P3 Coal Black and an extreme highlight of Codex Grey.

Grey Knight Dread Knight Part Two

2011-06-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

I decided to use the painting of the Dread Knight as a reward for finishing the rest of my Grey Knights, so I have saved it for last. I followed the same painting schemes for this model as I had for the other Grey knights, with only a couple of differences.

The sword is painted with a base coat of Regal Blue, followed by coats of P3 Meridius Blue, Arcane Blue and an extreme highlight of Underbelly. The black was done with coats of Chaos Black, P3 Coal Black and a highlight of Codex Grey.

On the base, I added some chaos bits, and left them in a bit more raw state. The armour plate was painted with coats of P3 Cryx Base, Cryx Highlight and Underbelly. The staked skulls were base coated with Boltgun Metal, Devlan Mud, Chainmail, and P3 Hammerfeld Khaki and Menoth Base coat. The silver is Boltgun Metal, Asurmen Blue and Chainmail. The gold is Dwarven Bronze, Devlan Mud, Shining Gold and Burnished Gold.

Dark Eldar Razorwing Jetfighter

2011-06-19T20:01:00.000-07:00

When I was at one of my local GW's on Father's Day (I said local, there are four within a half to an hour of me), one of the kids there showed off his Grey Knight's dreadnought to me and my friend. He said it was his first model, and asked us our opinion. To be honest, for a first time he did a great job. We both agreed and told him so. Now, you might be thinking, what does this have to do with anything the Dark Eldar Razorwing. Probably not much. But for an admitted Space Marine fan boy to buy one, it is curious. This is my first Dark Eldar model, and right now I have minimal intentions of building an army of them. However, relating back to my earlier anecdote, it is a jet fighter, and my first models were built when I was a kid. They were aircraft, the F-18 Hornet, F111-A Stealth Fighter, F-14 Tomcat and so on. To be honest I love aircraft, some may be tread heads, but I always dreamed of being a fighter pilot as a kid. So when GW puts out aircraft models, I've gone out of my way to pick up at least one of the kits. I have three Valkyries, and so far, 1 Storm Raven. With this weekends release of the Razorwing, I felt I had to add it to the collection. Maybe one day GW will finally release that flyer expansion. Enjoy the sprue pics, it looks like a sweet kit and I can't wait to build it.

Jokaero

2011-06-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

I knew, from the moment I saw the Jokaero model I would have to add it to my collection. Even though my current Inquisitorial forces comprise of only the Forge World models, I thought it would be fitting to add. It's an interesting model for its simplicity as well as its aesthetic. It is definitely not a monkey with guns.

After building the model, and adding a mix of fine and coarse ballast to the base, I primed it black with Duplicolor spray primer. I then gave successive coats to the fur of P3 Sanguine Base, Sanguine Highlight, Khador Base and Khador Highlight. You could easily get the same effect with GW Scab Red, Red Gore, Blood Red and Blazing Orange. I just happen to be not so much a fan of the new paint pots, and have been replacing like colors with P3 as they dry out.

I painted the gem like areas with successive colors of Regal Blue, P3 Meridius Blue, Arcane Blue and GW Ice Blue and then added a dot of P3 Morrow White. The metallic parts are Boltgun Metal, Devlan Mud and Chainmail. The base is Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown and Snakebite Leather. This is a great model, quickly assembled and quickly painted. I can't wait to put it on the table top. Which means I need to finish up some Grey knights.

Ultramarines Honour Guard

2011-06-12T21:02:00.000-07:00

It's taken a long time for me to build this Ultramarines formation. The last parts of it have played out on this blog, however I started building the formation way back when I got my first peak at Apocalypse: Reloaded at Gamesday. At first, I took the easy, though expensive route and just added more of the metal honour guard. With the Forge World and Sanguinary Guard releases, I was able to add in my own conversions as well. My only regret is that I finished the formation before the Finescale models were released.

Grey Knight Interceptor Squad II

2011-06-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here is the second squad of Interceptors I have built. In keeping with the theme I want for the army, the Justicar once again has the sword through the plague bearer's head.

I also kept the deamon hammer for the extra assault punch. This time though, instead of the twin falchions, I opted to add in the halberds for the initiative bonus.

Other than that, there isn't much to show off here, the models were painted the same as the previous squad, and based the same as well. Next up, some more Ultramarine love.

Sandy Mitchell's Dead in the Water

2011-06-05T21:30:00.000-07:00

Dead In The Water is the latest offering by Sandy Mitchell in the Ciaphas Cain series. The beloved cowardly commissar is brought to us in audio book format this outing, a format I know many have issues with. In this story, Cain is on a river world, where a squad of Vostroyans have gone missing. At the same time someone is attacking both rebel and Imperial locations, causing general havoc. Is it the missing Vostroyans, or something more sinister. On the whole, it was another enjoyable audio book for me. Hearing voices for the characters adds a new dimension to old favorite books, though I have to say that Toby Longworth can only do about three voices, and then he varies the pitch to change characters. Fans of Cain should pick this up, its definitely worth it.

Chris Wraight's Battle of the Fang

2011-06-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

One of the oldest 40k stories, the Battle of the Fang is now a novel by Chris Wraight. This novel is both an embellishment and retelling of the Battle of the Fang. Building upon both A Thousand Sons and Prospero Burns, Battle of the Fang picks up those threads and moves forward a thousand years after the Heresy. Fooled into invading the planet Gangava in a vein attempt to slay Magnus the Red, Great Wolf Ironhelm is pulled way out of position as the largest Thousand Sons battle force since the Great Crusade invades Fenris bent on destroying the Fang the way Tizca was laid waste. Wraight does a great job of weaving in the new material Abnett and McNiell have created for these two legions (one become chapter) and does a great job depicting both the characters and the action.

I think I've said before, that the measure of a 40k novel is how well it excites the imagination. For me, this usually revolves around the inspiration to build armies. This novel has actually inspired me to build three. Well, maybe not since one is an in progress force that has been slowly been developing over the course of this blog. I've already got a work in progress Thousand Sons army that I mean to go keep working on slowly. I've also been wanting to do a Blood Ravens army, small like the other space marine crusade forces I've been doing that are between 1k and 2k. Finally, I have been on the fence about a Space Wolf army for a long time. But I think I might finally add it into the cue. The only question is when (and where will I put it).

In conclusion, go buy this book. Read it, love it, maybe even hate it, but definitely pick it up.

Finescale Begins!

2011-05-31T21:21:00.000-07:00

Astorath the Grim is my first foray into the world of Citadel Finescale. I picked the model up this past saturday in the interest of seeing the quality of the new plastic resin GW is putting forth as well as finally treating myself to a model I've wanted for w while. I've worked with resin models before, as anyone who has read this blog knows, so I definitely didn't feel like a newb in that respect. However, I was under the impression that Finescale used different resin than Forgeworld, so I was definitely interested to see. Truth be told, Forgeworld uses different resins to cast different things, and the Finescale resin is one such type.

Like other resin models, I made sure to wash it in warm, soapy water to make sure the release is all off. nothing stinks more than having paint pool away from the surface because the release won't let the paint adhere. Astorath had a decent amount of flash on it, theough probably about the same amount of flash as a pewter model would have, just not a lot of pointy doodads sticking out from it. Instead, you have to inspect all of the mold lines, as weel as look for bubble and places where the flash has caused irregularities in the model. make sure you dry fit the slots into the bases before glueing, I made that mistake and ended up chopping the tab off. Of course, with the lighter resin, you don't really need the tab to keep it on the base.

Assembly of the model went quick, which is a huge advantage over pewter, as I had started using accelerant most of the time, and that usually creates a weaker bond. Still, one needs to make sure they dry fit all of the parts still, as the wings needed some extra sanding and finessing to fit onto the jump pack. This will also help make sure you aren't glueing out of order, as I originally had intended to glue Astorath to his jump pack first, and that would have made putting the wings on much more awkward.

Ultramarines 9th Company

2011-05-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

The 9th Company of the Ultramarines is probably my favorite. For one thing, it is an all devestator squad company, and sadly, I really like playing a static army that will just sit back and shoot you apart. Plus, the company banner has a big nuclear explosion depicted on it. What's not to like? Well, like the 8th company, there is a lot of work to do for this company. A couple of the squads need touching up and highlighting, and again, all of the bases need to be at least black rimmed, if not made uniform. I also have all of the rhinos for the company, just haven't had time to dig them out and photo them.

Grey Knight Terminators

2011-05-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

My first troop choice for the Grey Knights is a terminator squad. I like the idea of the inverse troops, with the Terminators being the main line force, and the fact that they teleport deep strike kind of fits the theme I want to have with the Interceptors, and the Dreadknight with personal teleporter.

I built these guys with halberds mainly, as I like the initiative bonus. I also added a psycannon to add to the shooting power of the army. To continue with the Nurgle infestation theme, I added chaosy bitz from mutation spure to the bases, and posed them as eruptions of the sort, as if the planet were attacking the Grey Knights.

I used the same palette for the terminators as I did for the Interceptors. At some point I want to add greenish yellow flock to add a blighted ground effect as well, but I haven't made the purchases yet, so look for that in the future.

Grey Knight Interceptor Squad

2011-05-22T19:24:00.000-07:00

Ever since I first read through the Grey Knight's codex, I felt drawn to the Interceptor squad. More than any other element in the army, this is what i wanted to build my force around. I knew I would fill at least two Fast Attack choices with them, and probably the third with a Storm Raven. I also liked the fact that the Dreadknight could have one as well, which would enhance the feel of the army.

To go back to my theme of the Hunt for Delgar, I made sure to use the Plague Bearer impaled head bit for my Justicar, and to stick to a muddy base color. I used P3 Traitor Green, a wash of Baal Red, P3 Cryx Bane Basecoat, a wash of Thraka Green and a final layer of P3 Cryx Bane Highlight for all my Nurgle embellishments.

For the Grey Knights themselves, I used my normal methods for painting silver, and gold. I add some P3 reds back into my collection, so that the reds were done with layers of P3 Sanguinary Base, Sanguinary Highlight, Khador Red Base and Khador Red Highlight (the last two are essentially GW Blood Red and Blazing Orange). The Nemesis Force Weapon blades were painted with layers of Regal Blue, P3 Meredius Blue and P3 Arcane Blue.

All in all, I enjoyed painting the new Grey Knights. I kept to a minimalist execution with my builds, there are so many detailed bitz that one could easily go crazy. Watch for some GK bitz to start making appearances in my other marine armies.

Black Consul's Captain

2011-05-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

With this model, I've come back to my Black Consuls army. While it is still under 500 points, I plan to finish it up soon. This army picks up on the blurb from the Space Marine codex pertaining to the supposed destruction of the Black Consuls. I decided this would be a neat way to build an army like the Crimson Fists, with lots of scouts and a small cadre of veterans training them.

This captain is only the second power armored model in my Black Consul's force. I built him using Sanguinary Guard bitz and add a cloak with green stuff. After that, the model was primed black, then I used my standard layers for all of the colors. It was an easy model to paint, because of the limited pallet choice.

The one thing I wanted to convey with this model, is that he is an experienced, older marine. Possibly before the tragedy the Black Consuls endured, he would have been relegated to non combat duties, but necessity has forced him back into action. I mainly gave him grey hair to convey this.

Ultramarines 8th Company

2011-05-16T19:58:00.000-07:00

Of all of the elements in my Ultramarines army, I feel like my 8th company is the most raw. For one thing, it contains models from my first Ultramarines army. They have been repainted a couple of times, but are still around. I also wanted to add more jump pack assault squads, so that there are six now, instead of the three I used to have. I still wanted to have non-jump pack assault squads for drop pod assault purposes. Another element that needs tweaking are the bases, not all of them have the black rims, and some are grey, some are brown. Future projects there will keep me busy with the Ultramarines for a while. In the meantime, enjoy the photostream, it has more 8th company picks of each squad.

Age of Darkness

2011-05-12T21:19:00.000-07:00

There are seven years between the Dropsite Massacre and the Battle of Terra. Age of Darkness begins offering up the first snatches of what is going on in the Imperium during that time. The Horus Heresy reader, now has only a few events to look forward to seeing in print, Signus Prime, Calth (though we have seen snatches) and the Battle of Terra itself. Every short story in this collection is worth reading, and has a baring on what comes after. Definitely a must have for the HH fan. Casuals readers who haven't read all of the books, or at least haven't read the key plot related ones may feel the gaps while reading this collection, but each short story is nicely self contained. I think in this book, we see the selected BL authors who are taking part finally hitting their stride on the series.

Stylish Blogger Award

2011-05-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

I would like to thank HuronBH from Blood and Blades for nominating me for a Stylish Blogger Award. It's nice to feel the love.

Here are the rules:
-- Thank and link back to the person giving you the award (see above)
-- Share seven things about yourself
-- Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award
-- Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

Here are seven things about me which may or may not have been shared:

1) I have a BA in English Literature and Language. I love reading, in fact I am pretty voracious about it. I prefer Science Fiction and Fantasy, though I also read some of every genre. I try to read at least one classic out of every ten or so books I do pick up.

2)I have an almost nine month old daughter, who I have plans to groom into a stupendous modeller and 40k player. My wife may or may not be aware of this, if not, cat's out of the bag.

3)U2, Peter Gabriel, James Taylor and Bruce Hornsby are my favorite musicians. Sure they are mostly laid back music, but I was deep into metal as a kid, so I guess it balances out.

4) I have aspirations of being a fictional writer, and feel like i have a lot of great ideas, I just need to develop them better and learn to discipline myself so that i can craft my work. It's a life goal. Frank McCourt is a great inspiration there, his first book was published at 65 (or so) and became a nation wide hit thanks to Oprah. Too bad I won't be able to rely on a boost from her.

5)I love all things Ultramarines. It may be noticeable, considering I have the whole chapter and all (yes, more pics are coming as I finish up some projects on my painting table).

6)I am often in too much of a rush to get a job done, which cane lead to sloppy mistakes.

7) While I have a large library (by personal standards), I have recently realized it takes up too much space. I have decided to pick up an e-reader sometime soon to counteract this. Ironic, because I was originally against it for aesthetic reasons.

I don't really know to many bloggers out in the multiverse, but of the ones I follow, these are the ones I visit most often:

Blood and Blades
Warpstone Pile
the Dead Tau Project
Mongoose Blog
White Rabbit's Legendary Blog
Ten Inch Template
Heresy Workshop
Military of Ultramar
The Storm Bolter and Power Fist
The Bridge of Khazad-Dum

If you haven't seen any of these blogs, check them out, they are enjoyable.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Blood Reaver

2011-05-08T20:32:00.000-07:00

Blood Reaver, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden is the second in the Night Lords trilogy that ADB is currently working on. This novel takes place after Soul hunter, and has the Night Lords heading to Hell's Iris, in the Maelstrom, where they need to make vital repairs on their ship. What follows is a more in depth look at the Battle of Vilamus, which fans of the Chaos Space Marine codex will remember with rare pleasure. This is a worthy sequel for ADB, and is definately an enjoyable read. While not my favorite BL novelist, he is definitely one of the better ones. If you liked Soul Hunter, you will love this novel. If you haven't read either, what are you waiting for, a new CS Goto book?

Gav Thorpe's Caledor

2011-05-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

Gav Thorpe's Caledor is the final book in the Sundering Trilogy, which tells the story of the fall of Malekith and the civil war which tears the Elves of Ulthuan apart. This is a fitting end for the trilogy, while it is not mind blowing, it tells the final chapter well, and brings together the view points of all three protagonists, Malekith, Alith Anar, and Caledor. The final chapters are really where Thorpe's story really shines, adding depth to those final moments. A good book, worth buying for anyone who has started the series. If you haven't give it a read, it is quite entertaining.

Flesh Tearers Captain

2011-05-02T21:24:00.001-07:00

I once read someone saying "Guard armies are never finished, they just get reinforcements." I feel the same way about any army. For one thing, GW is always making new models, and more and more they have really awesome, detailed bitz. They new Grey Knights are a great example of this. I wish they had been around when I built my Ultramarines chapter. At any rate, I decided that, with the Executioners done to a 1500 point level, I would go back and add something new to my Flesh Tearers, thus the Captain I am showing off today.

I built the model using regular power armor legs, a Sanguinary guard torso, power weapon, shoulder pad and head, and a fusion pistol and back pack from the Death Company boxed set. He also has a Flesh Tearers shoulder pad. I then sculpted a cloak for him using green stuff. The base has a blend of fine and coarse ballast and a piece of brass etched from the 40k basing kit.

Finally, I painted him with a base coat of P3 Sanguinary Base, followed by P3 Sanguinary highlight, Scab Red and an extreme highlight of Blood Red. I painted the black areas with Chaos Black, P3 Coal Black and an extreme highlight of Codex Grey. The gold is Dwarven Bronze, Devlan Mud, Shining Gold, and Burnished Gold. Finally, the silver is Boltgun Metal, Devlan Mud and Chainmail.

Finished Executioners (?)

2011-04-20T22:44:00.000-07:00

I spent the last eek putting the finishing touches on my Executioners. The second tactical squad and Sternguard squads are now both ten man squads. I also built a five man Vanguard squad to act as a third assault unit.

I finally got to play some more Boarding Action games with my friend HuronBH last Sunday. We played two, one against his Chaos Marines, and one against some Howling Griffons. It was nice to see the army on the table, and get a feel for how it would work in games. One thing I learned, I need to shave off the melta bombs everywhere and add a captain. One character (especially one who is I4) just is not enough.

I lost the first game against Chaos. This one was a Sabotage mission and had three objectives. My biggest problem in this game, I shot myself in the foot, and started the tac squad and sternguard with the chaplain on the board, and kept the vanguard, terminators and Ironclad in reserves. Not a smart move, as it left my terminators bottle necked and ineffective. Which in turn allowed his greater deamon to assault an objective and win him the game.

Executioner's Second Tactical Squad

2011-04-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today I have the first half of my second Executioner's tactical squad done. I used the same painting schemes for the grey, silver and gold. One thing I feel like I need to play with though, is an ink wash for the grey, either a black or blue wash, so I will probably try that with my next group.

I opted to build a multimelta in this squad, though great for anti-tank, and in boaring situations, anti-bulkhead duties, I really went with it for those reasons and a lack of plasma cannon bitz in my personal bitz horde.

AFter the fact I realised that i need to repaint the sergeant's head gold to indicate his veteran status. I also needed to go back with a micron pen and add some writing on another models purity seals.

Grey Knight's Nemesis Dreadknight

2011-04-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

One of my first purchases for my new Grey Knight's force was the Dreadknight. While it is very Aliens in its look (tempting me to name the driver Ripley), I do feel it is pretty cool. Here are sprue picks, since White Dwarf didn't feel the need to show them off.

The trend toward allowing for all of the options being offered on a sprue is pretty cool. It is great to see the development of GW's sprues over time and how much the detail has evolved on them.

Here are some WIP pics of the dreadknight. It is a pretty neat kit, that requires a bit of paying attention to the instructions in order to get it right. For one thing, the legs have extra hosing bitz that need to be inserted before gluing, and on the first leg I didn't realise this before gluing, so I had to pry the two pieces apart for the proper assembly.

When complete, there are two sub assemblies that are built, torso and arms; and legs and waste. There is also a flyer sized base that at the time of this post I haven't built. The Each piece has a peg that gives a slight bit of posability to the model in terms of turning to right or left. This can be glued (I eventually chose to do so) or can remain unglued for ease of transport.

The final choices for the modeller are what weapons to equip the Dreadknight with. I chose to use the Nemesis Great Sword and gatling Psilencer, however there is also the basic build of two Dread ccw's, or a Nemesis Deamon Hammer, heavy incinerator or heavy psycannon. One option that isn't really available to model is the personal teleporter.

My next step is to build a base that coincides with my Hunt for Delar theme, I intend to use chaos bitz to add to the base, in conjunction with ballast and some turf to make a rotting, Nurgley looking scene.

The Hunt For Delgar

2011-04-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

Deep within the halls of the Augurium on Titan, a prognosticator lays out his Emperor's Tarot for the fifth consecutive time. He shakes his head, seeing the same results. Rebirth, Darkness Resurgent, Imminent Peril, The Azure Warrior and Hope Inverted. All of these images coalesced around a single name, that of Delgar, a Plague Lord of the Death Guard thought to be long vanquished almost a decade ago. "Prognosticator Majoris" called the frustrated Prognosticator. "I request you verify my reading."
Coming to view the cards, the Prognosticator Majoris observed them, then taking the deck he shuffled slowly, deliberately, then dealt. Seeing the same cards come upi yet again. He gathered them up and handed them to the waiting prognosticator. Revealing his own tarot, the Majoris then dealt again. Again the same reading followed. "I do not understand, I was but a prognosticator myself when this reading first was seen" spoke the Majoris. "The Ultramarines defeated Delgar, his ascendance to deamonhood was halted. His vile form was last seen mutating uncontrollably into some vile hell spawn."
"Somehow the Beast returns" replied the prognosticator. "The Brotherhoods must be warned."

When I came back to Warhammer 40,000 after a break during college, my arch nemesis became HuronBH of Blood & Blades and Gamer's Lounge notoriety. Lately our fued has cooled, much like the Redskins and Cowboys, owing in large part to my recent embarkation into the realm of fatherhood (and living a crazy drive away). However, the new Grey Knights codex has me longing for the days when HuronBH's Death Guard were throwing down against my Ultramarines. In fact one of the last battles we played where his Death Guard threw down against my Ultramarines was alluded to in the bit of fan fiction above. Though the game was a tie, my main objective was to kill Delgar and stop his ascension to deamonhood. Lately HuronBH has made mumblings of bringing Delgar back as some kind of uber spawn cum Deamon Prince. Hopefully, this little bit of fan fiction, and some work in progress pics of my new Grey Knights slaying chaos (most definitely going to be Nurge-esque at that) will inspire him to go back to his true love.

Flesh tearers Librarian Dreadnought

2011-04-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

The Librarian Dreadnought is the final piece of my Flesh Tearer's army, bringing it up to 2000 points. I'm a little disappointed that the codex takes away upgrades for the dread once it goes into Librarian mode, making it a very specific build, but I enjoyed making the model, especially the force weapon arm.

I used the same painting scheme as I have for my other Flesh Tearers, and modelled the dreadnought as a scaled up marine, so that the black spots are placed where they would be on a space marine model. I used layers of Mordian Blue, Ultramarines Blue, a 50:50 mix of Ultramarines Blue and Ice Blue, and an extreme highlight of Ice Blue for the blue on the psychic hood.

Finally, I used the standard base for the dreadnought, figuring that it matched the grey ballast that the rest of the army has.

Victories of the Space Marines

2011-04-07T20:58:00.000-07:00

The latest anthology from the Black Library is called Victories of the Space Marines. This is probably not the best offering from them to date. Pretty much all of the stories are fairly mediocre, though there are a few that are worth mentioning. There is a second story from Gave Thorpe called "The Rewards of Tolerance" which picks up the thread of the rogue Avenging Sons from the last anthology. They are continuing there journey toward the Eye of Terror in this story and have to solve problems of navigation and supply. "Exhumed" by Steve Parker also picks up the thread of a Deathwatch Kill Team under the command of an Inquisitor code named Sigma who are tasked to retrieve something the Adeptus Mechanicus has discovered. There is also a reprint of the short story "Primal Instinct" from the first edition of Hammer and Bolter. All in all, if you aren't a die hard BL reader, I would skip this one.

Executioners Stern Guard

2011-04-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

I built these Stern Guard marines from a tactical squad boxed set. Four of them have combi meltaguns from the Space Marine Commander kit. I used a the terminator honors shoulder pads to denote their veteran status, and unlike the tactical squads, these marines have the standard rimmed shoulder pads.

A variety of purity seals and honor scrolls were used to add veteran touches to the models. The sergeant was modelled with a power axe a metal bolter combi meltagun from one of the veteran kits. Finally they were given industrial bases to continue the boarding action theme.

I used the same painting scheme as I have for the other Executioners for these models as well.

Ultramarines 10th Company

2011-04-03T20:59:00.000-07:00

Here are pics of my 10th company Ultramarines. The scout company has some ad hoc aspects to it, since I built it over about five years. Unlike the rest of my companies, this one was built along side the others. When the plastic scouts and Land Speeder Storm came out, I filled out the company as part of a drive to finish the chapter. The bases still need to be unified to some degree, and some of the camo cloaks need to be brought into some kind of order to make each squad more easily identifiable. I also want to add some more Land Speeder Storms as well, but for now, this is a work in progress that is at a good state of completeness.

James Swallow's Garro Legion of One

2011-03-31T20:59:00.000-07:00

The latest installment in the Garro audio books is Garro Legion of One. In this audio drama, Garro has picked up a second recruit, a World Eater named Lazlo Varren (I am unsure of the spelling) and they have headed to the planet that will see the culmination of their mission and, if successful, a return to Terra. What is known, is that it is a world that Horus has devastated, and they seek someone here. At the same time, a madman named Cerberus is roving the area slaughtering all in his path. I could tell you what happens when they meet, but it would ruin the surprise! This was another great story of Garro, one which I enjoyed listening to while painting my Executioners. If you are have listened to the last Garro audio book, definately pick this one up. Next book up, Victories of the Space Marines.

Nick Khyme's Fall of Damnos

2011-03-29T20:59:00.000-07:00

The much anticipated, by me, release of the Fall of Damnos by Nick Khyme came this past saturday, and unlike some of the previous Black Library releases lately, I was eager to read this book. Sadly, real life being what it is, I couldn't devour this book in one sitting like I would have wanted, but I have read it all now. This novel is excellent, for one, Khyme is a writer on the same level as Abnett, McNiell and Dembski-Bowden in terms of skill and the weaving of his story.

For those familiar with the Space Marines codex, you may know the outcome of Damnos, it is one of the stories listed within that codex. If not, here is the synopsis: The mining world of Damnos, has found some odd alien technology. Turns out to be a Necron tomb world. The Necrons awake, death ensues. The Ultramarines, recieving their distress call, arrive and attempt to save the planet.

This novel is a great read for two reasons. The first is Khyme's ability to weave a great narrative. Picking up on threads from the Assault on Black Reach novella (available through Games Workshop only, sadly it is some what mediocre despite being written by Khyme)the Fall of Damnos is centered on the viewpoints of three Ultramarines sergeants who each view Sicarius in different ways, ways which are echoed throughout the Ultramarines chapter. There is Sergeant Praxor, who longs to be a Lion of Macragge and believes Sicarius should succeed Calgar. Sergeant Scipio, who has lost his spiritual mentor Chaplain Orad and has turned grim because of it, he takes a pragmatic; what will be, will be approach. Finally, Sergeant Iulus, who is tasked with defending the lone human settlement on Damnos. His beliefis that Agemman is Captain of the First, Sicarius Captain of the Second, and the chain of command, and thus succession is clear. How these viewpoints shift and develop through the course of the war makes for compelling reading.

The second reason to read this novel are the evolving views of who and what the Necrons are as a race. Ideas first offered in Apocalypse: Reload are developed so that we see how the Necrons interact and act at the highest levels of control, where those nodes have remnants of personality beyond pure hate. Ideas from the Medusa V campaign are also brought in, such that Necron Lords have their own names, and personalities as well.

In conclusion, I would strongly urge 40k fans to read this novel. Ultramarine fans will love it, as it brings up questions that have long surrounded Sicarius and Agemman. Necron fans will enjoy it as it fleshes out their race and may offer insight as to what the next codex may bring.

Executioners Ironclad

2011-03-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

This is the first of two Ironclads I intend to build for my Executioners army. With a focus on boarding action scenarios, they are ideal for the close quarters fighting that would take place. Also, they fit the strong close quarters theme of the Executioners as well.

I used the same painting schemes as I did for the other Executioners, taking inspiration from the IA:10 Executioners' dreadnought depicted therein. I choose to use the dreadnought close combat weapon and seismic hammer as the weapon choice, with meltagun and heavy flamer so that it can take on an anti-infantry and anti-armor role if necessary.

Finally, the base is a tech themed base from Armorcast to add to the shipboard look of the Executioners.

Executioners part 2

2011-03-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

Finally inreciept of my copy of Imperial Armour 10, I was able to move forward with my Executioner's project. The first difficulty I had to overcome was choosing the primary color for the chapter. At first it didn't seem to be very straightforward, witha dark blue (possibly metallic) or grey as the main choices. IA:10 has a square with the chapter insignia framed in grey, when I finally realized this I ended up going with Shadow Grey as the main color. Eventually I plan to build up to 1500 points, but here is the beginning.

First I painted all of the silver sections with Boltgun Metal, then a wash of Asurmen Blue with a final coat of Chainmail. Next I painted the gold sections with Dwarf bronze, a wash of Devlan Mud, Shining gold and an extreme highlight of Shining Gold. This was mainly the Sergeant's backpack. The Broze section got a second coat of Dwarf Bronze and then a highlight of Shining Gold.

I used a .005 Micron pen to line in the Shield for the Chapter symbold, and then all of the red sections were painted Scab Red, Blood red and then given a highlight of orange. The Axes were lined in and filled with the Micron pen as well.

The grey was painted with Fenris Grey, Shadow Grey and an extreme highlight of Codex Grey.

The terminator bases were made with pieces of brass etched from the 40k basing kit and thin plasticard.

I choose to build the terminators with two Storm Shield and Thunder Hammers, and three Lightning Claws. These are to be the main spear head for boarding action games.

Although i added the stipling to simulate writing on the purity seals, I still need to go back and add names for two of the terminators who have scrolls. Unfortunately Thulsa Kane is the only name I know so I'm looking for Conan-esque names.

The Chaplain had his shoulder pad retouched with Shadow Grey and then the chapter insignia painted on with the method described above.

Next up, an Executioner's Ironclad!

Flesh Tearer's Storm Raven

2011-03-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

Today I present my Flesh Tearer's Storm Raven. I got it back in the middle of February as a birthday present from my wife. I built it in five different pieces in order to be able to paint the interior elements of the model.

I left the clear plastic windows out and primed the model red using Duplicolor spray primer. I then applied a base coat of Boltgun Metal to all of the elements that would be metallic and gave them a wash of Devlan Mud. Then a coat of Chainmail finished the silver sections.

The Interior was painted Chaos Black. I also used the panel lines to choose sections to be painted Chaos Black as well. The exterior sections were then given an extreme highlight of P3 Coal Black.

Any interior writing was done with Scorpion Green.

The exterior, as well as the techmarine pilot were painted Scab Red, Red Gore and then given a highlight of Blood Red.

The base was covered in a mix of different coarseness of ballast. I put the flying stand on the model to make sure it would fit on the base. Then primed the base black and painted it grey.

Once all of the sections had been painted, I used canopy glue to atatch all of the clear plastic sections. Then I assembled the model.

Though I haven't painted any Flesh Tearer's symbols yet, I will probably get some Forge World brass etched to put on later.

Dawn of War II: Retribution

2011-03-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

I picked up Dawn of War II: Retribution on March 1st, when it came out. For those of us who enjoyed the last two games, this is, simply put, a must buy. For starters, this is no longer just a Space Marine game with an online component. The campaign system allows players to choose any of the available races for a campaign. At this point, I'm about halfway through the Space Marine campaign with intentions of running through each race's campaign. I'm not a big online player, I enjoyed Call of Duty and Transformers: War for Cybertron, but the randomness, and the temperament of some of the people out in the world of online games is a pretty big turn off. The experience component is still intact, with wargear customizations avalable as well. Foir me though, the biggest lure is the story, which continues the plight of the Blood Ravens in the Aurelia Sub-Sector. In short, for video game players, go out and buy this. It is a stand along game, and is a great substitute for not being able to play Warhammer 40,000 on the table top.

Through a Glass but Dorkly or What is Cannon?

2011-03-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

As I have been writing book reviews and pondering what if anything else that is related to the topic that could be talked about. I know one debate is what is considered canonical in the GW universes. The debate centers around what GW considers to be the three view points extant: GW studio releases are primary sources, Black Library fiction is a secondary source and then their is (cringe) fan fiction.

For all intents and purposes, the GW studio only offers crumbs to the fluff hungry. Mostly in the form of unit descriptions, event time lines and short fiction revolving around key historical events that characterize an army. There are a few fictional excerpts or short pieces in army books and codeci as well, but they are often just snippets from novels or summarizations to whet the fluff minded's appetite. What is offered here (at least until the next edition of a codex or army book) is 100 percent canon.

The next lens is the author's writing. The text created and edited by Black Library and published for readers to drool and salivate over (at least that is what they hope for). Here, there is lots of different interpretations of the way things work, lasguns that shoot bullets for one thing comes to mind. The writing should not be confused with the author's intent, those are two different things. One should read a novel and interpret it on one's own because once it is published, what the author thinks or intended isn't necessarily true. Author interviews provide just another interpretation of events in a novel. That being said, most BL novels are fairly straight forward. I would also probably lump in the Imperial Armour books in with the Black Library books. One thing I noticed with IA 10, the short story C S Goto wrote "The trial of the Mantis Warriors" is completely ignored and most likely over written so they could present a version of the Badab War that Forge World wanted.

Finally there is fan fiction and fan interpretation. Just because it is on a website, blog or home made codex does not make it less valid (though the quality of writing could hurt the cause). Bolter & Chainsword created a great piece of alternate history fan fiction just by swapping Horus and Dorn's roles in the Heresy. It is a pretty good piece of work, and those unfamiliar with it should check it out.

In conclusion, if you have managed to make it this far, Games Workshop encourages its players to take an active part in the hobby. Don't feel that the story you might want to tell is invalid just because they don't care about reading it. The universe is vast, even in the 41st millenia, have fun, and remember that is what it is all about.

Andy Hoare's Savage Scars

2011-03-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

Andy Hoare's Savage Scars is the third book in his Damocles Crusade trilogy, though he doesn't name it as such. In truth, though this novel is billed as a White Scars novel it really isn't, merely featuring the veteran sergeant Sarik of the White Scars. That aside, this novel recounts the invasion of Dal'yth and the final stages of the Damocles Crusade. It is not well written, Hoare tends to use the same phrases over and over again. And, while those familiar with the Tau codex know what happens in broad strokes, it has a level of predictability that goes beyond knowing what happens to being able to see how everything works out for the main characters well ahead of time. That aside, if you have read the other two novels, you might as well read this one as well. It is entertaining, just don't expect to be amazed.

Blood Gorgons by Henry Zhou

2011-03-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

Has Henry Zhou redeemed himself in my eyes with Blood Gorgons? Well, maybe. First off, this novel expands on the last, which introduced the Blood Gorgons as a traitor space marine force in the Bastion Stars. Zhou basically characterizes them as traitor marines with evident mutation (in the form of coral, fungal or shell like appearance); but they are somewhat recently turned traitor. They are corsairs who prize freedom, but still have elements of their Astartes heritage in tact. The Blood Gorgons also suffered a chapter war, as each company captain carved out a fief of his own. It was only the intervention of their lord, Gammadin, who welded them back into a chapter again. This novel examines what would happen to them if Gammadin is taken out of the picture. With a greedy sorcerer in league with plague marines, and the new hotness - Dark Eldar - this novel is set to have some interesting machinations in place. In the end it was pretty good, and only the arrival of IA 10 caused me to put it down for an extended period.

Imperial Armour vol. 10 Review

2011-03-01T20:56:00.000-08:00

My copy of Imperial Armour volume 10, the Badab War part 2 finally came this past week. My main bar for the IA books, as well as the BL books in general, is do tthey inspire? Not just inspire you to go out and spend money on the latest hotness; but do they inspire you to build a new army, try out a new technique or style or paint scheme? IA 10 did so on a couple different fronts.

The main thing I was excited to see, was the section on the Executioners, and it did not disappoint. The coming weeks will be full of Executioners goodness as I paint up my boarding action force. It also gave me some insights on how to make the army a little more characterful, for instance the executioners replaced one of their devestator squads in their companies with a sternguard squad as part of their penchant for close combat. I was also delighted to learn they are an Imperial Fists founding, and so I won't need to add a different one to my crusade force.

The fluff on all of the other participating chapters are good, but that of the Star Phantoms, Exorcists and Mantis Warriors are interesting enough that I might try my hand at one of them. I also liked the Seige Breaker list, it is interesting and quite tank heavy as the rumors rightly reported.

Finally, the closing fluff for the Badab War is also good, the way the Executioners leave the war is pretty awesome, and while I thought the seige of Badab took longer, its resolution was pretty well executed. All in all this is a great book, if you have part one, you need part 2. If you haven't gotten either, I would suggest picking them up, especially if you are a power armor nut.

Ultramarines the Movie

2011-02-27T08:59:00.000-08:00

WHile I may be late to this party, I just got my copy of Ultramarines on saturday. I decided to watch it right away, and probably need to watch it a second time to take it all in. However I did like it, for a first movie it is pretty good. For those of you who may listen to the Gamer's Lounge, you may be familiar with the negative review they gave the movie. In that vein, I can say I agreed with Jay on the company banner, it was like a plastic placard more than a cloth banner. Every other piece of cloth would wave in the wind, or from movement - even the purity seals on the banner, but that banner just hung perfectly straight. The other element I wasn't such a fan of was the animation for the Thunderhawk, for some reason, I thought it could have been done better, but it seemed like a computer game animation (and not a cinematic one at that). WHile there was a bit of walking in the buidl up, I don't think it was as never ending as the GAmer's Lounge made out either.

I will say i haven't read the comic yet, so I'm not sure how that would impact my viewing of it. As an Ultramarine fanatic, the fluff elements that were changed are irksome, but I can get past that as interpretation switching from a table top game to a movie. Though mayabe McNiell should have help Abnett write the script.

I really like the detailing of the power armour, it gave me some inspiration for making some new Ultramarines - though I'm not sure if I even need to do that (I mean I don't think I need any more Ultramarine's infantry). The opening scene with the Imperial Fists in the shrine was cool, and the end certainly was as well. Overall, I thought it was a good first effort, and I hope they do more.

Executioner's Chaplain

2011-02-22T20:59:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite chaplain model that Games Workshop has made so far. Even without the jump pack it is a rockin model. Like the other Executioners, it has an industrial base.

The main elements of the model are painted with my standard painting schemes. The only changes I made were to replace the pewter bolt pistol arm with a plastic arm and studded shoulder pad.

I painted the one shoulder pad that would have the Executioner's symbol with Necron Abyss, a 50:50 mix of Necron Abyss and Regal Blue and then Regal Blue. Once I get IA:10, I will go back and add the Executioners' chapter symbol.

Ultramarines Predator Part 2

2011-02-20T20:59:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the Ultramarines predator from a couple posts ago. It was intended as a ride for Chronos, so I chose to show off my Chronos at the same time.

I chose not to do any weathering for now, as I wanted to depict the tank before Chronos has made any emergency repairs.

I used my standard palette to paint the tank.

The predator still needs to be named and a bit of script for the purity seals.

Here is the predator with its storm bolter cupola.

I chose to paint the interior silver, with layers of Boltgun, Devlan Mud and Chainmail.

The screens are painted black with Scorpion Green used for writing on them.

The lights are red and yellow, and the computer keys grey.