Second Thousand Sons Squad

I built my second thousand Sons squad back when Death From the Skies came out.  The credit that Games Workshop gave out for online purchases allowed me to buy the  Thousand Sons upgrade pack.  I then built the eight rubric marines with the kit.

 I used the new Finecast Chaos Sorcerer for the squad leader.  I swapped out the head with a Tzeentch Champion head from the Chaos Marine boxed set, and used the model as normal otherwise.

 The power armour was painted in Kantor Blue, and then the gold was done with layers of Hashut Copper, Argax Earthshade, Gehennna's Gold and Auric Armour Gold.

Illic Nightspear

 As a big fan of Eldar Rangers, I had to add Illic to my collection.  My first Eldar army was an Alaitoc one, and though I don't like to repeat army colors when I paint new armies, I do still love Alaitoc.  However, I chose to paint up Illic as if he were from Altansar.

I kept the same brown palette as I use on the mud bases, and then used P3 dark greens to paint the camouflage cloak. The red is the same as the Alatansar colors I've been using.  For the way stone Illic is standing on, I chose to just use greys, it is layers of Dawnstone and Administratum Gray.

 Illic's rifle is Abaddon Black, with a high light of P3 Coal black.  I used P3 Khardic Flesh and Midlund Flesh.  While I like this model a lot, I will probably use the Autarch I have more often.

Eldar Crimson Hunter

 I decided on building the Crimson Hunter variant for the Eldar aircraft kit.  The back story for the Hemlock made me think it was too rare or shunned for a craftworld like Altansar, that is trying to gain the trust of the other Eldar to be using unless they were desperate.

 I kept the paint scheme simple, using the same color palette as the Wraithknight.  I used the bone color as a highlight element, just like on the Guardians and the Wraithknight.  The Aspect Warrior pilot has the same paint scheme as a Guardian as well.

I kept the base simple, like the Wraithknight as well.  It uses the same textured base color, Stirland Mud, with layers of Mournfang Brown and and Balor brown (these should be Bestial brown and Snakebite Leather equivalents).

Eldar Wraith Knight

So once again there is a large gap in posts. Unfortunately, the camera I used to take pictures of my models with broke. The lens will no longer retract and telescope out. It being my wife's, I was left in a quandry. She suggested I use the camera on my phone, which is pretty good. This post is an experiment to see if the quality looks good enough for me to clear off my queue of models waiting to be blogged about.

My Eldar are painted in the colors of Altansar, using Khorne Red, Wazdakka Red and an extreme highlight of Evil Sunz Scarlet. The bone is Zandri Dust, Ushabit Bone and Screaming Skull. The black is Abaddon Black with a highlight of P3 Coal black (I cannot find this shade replicated else where and one pot has lasted forever).

In the next couple of weeks I should be able to show off the rest of the new Eldar models I've added (I still haven't picked an elite's choice). A detachment of the new Tau, some more Thousand Sons, Pre-Heresy era Ultramarines, Ultramarine flyers and some Executioners. I'm going to skip any book reviews for now, most of the 40k books are good, haven't touched fantasy. Felt IA12 was hard to plow through and am annoyed about the Iyanden supplements release.

Shadowsun by Braden Campbell

It has been a while since I have done any blog posts.  Sadly, it is not for a lack of productivity on my part, but more a lack of free time in front of the computer.  Shadowson, by Braden Campbell is one of the first Black Library books I read in April.  I t coincided with the new Tau codex release, so I got caught up in a bit of new shiny fever.  This was a quick read for me, fast paced and well executed.  The story places Shadowsun on an Imperial world, which she had hoped to annex to the Tau Empire, but instead, her flagship got obliterated.  So, she's trying to figure out some personal issues and reconnect with her forces.  The novel was a good buy and entertaining.  A great way to get excited for Tau if you are a player or thinking about being one. 

Chaos Deamons Codex

I waited about a week to pick up the Chaos Deamons Codex.  For one thing, I wasn't sure how necessary it would be for me to own, for another I was still digesting the Death from the Skies book.  On the whole, I think it is a nice improvement from the last, though i am not happy about the move of Deamon Princes from heavy support to HQ.  Then again, that was really a filler choice that didn't make much sense.  Still my Tzeentch Deamons are now kind of HQ heavy.  The chariots are not that impressive either, though now I feel like I need to pick up the Tzeentch one at some point and thrown an exalted flamer on it.  I'm also disappointed that they didn't make a flyer.  A single kit with four different builds (heads or whatever) could have made a flying beastie for the army.  Of course, they could have thrown the Helldrake into the list too, but that doesn't make too much sense considering the allies rules.  On the whole, it's okay, I'll be interested to try it with my Thousand Sons some day soon.

Disciples of Caliban Terminator Command Squad

For the Dark Angels Terminator boxed set, I had to look at the fact that I already had two squads.  So the real choice was between a command squad and a knight squad.

 

 The deciding factor for me was the ability to equip one of the models with a plasma cannon.    That was the first model I built and painted.  The sergeant, champion and standard bearer all followed from that choice.

 I painted the terminators using the same palette as the rest of the army, though I opted not to free hand any Disciples of Caliban insignia at this time.

Ultramarines Librarian

 This model took me quite a while to build.  I started out using bitz from the Grey Knight's terminator boxed set.  Building the majority of the model and leaving off the shield arm.  At the time, I had a Grey Knight head on the model. 

 When i got my hands on the Dark Angels Terminator boxed set, I added the shield arm.  Then after some deliberations, swapped out the head for the hooded Dark Angels head.

 I painted the model using my regular Ultramarine's palette.  Then applied a water slide transfer using  Testors Decal Set.  I can see now, I need to go back and paint over the carrier film for a better finish.  More work to backlog.

Disciples of Caliban Land Speeder Vengeance

 
I know there has been a lot of debate about the aesthetics of this model on forums, personally the in game effects of a model have to be balanced against their design if you play regularly.  I have become an infrequent player at best, so it's all about aesthetics and what's cool for me.

 I chose to build my Land Speeder kit as a Vengeance for one reason - plasma weaponry.  The heavy plasma cannon on the Land Speeder Vengeance was a no brainer for me.

To keep the same color pallete throughout the army, I kept the weapons gold, and  made the broad surfaces dark green, and the Exterior surfaces  black. 

The silver was paintd with Ironhull, Argax Earthshade and Chainmail.  The window was painted with Fenris grey.  I opted not to free hand any Disciples of Caliban symbols for now. 

Neferata

Neferata, by Josh Reynolds is the latest in the Time of Legends series.  This is the story of Neferata after she has fled Lahmia.  There are two story lines ongoing in this novel, one is the story of Neferata immediately after she fled Lahmia, and the other is further along in the timeline, and what she does upon re-encountering many of the original vampires who served her in Lahmia in the mountains of Strigoi.  The story moves along pretty well, though I felt like the plot line revolving around Strigoi was far more interesting.  All in all, a good read, though more for Warhammer than 40k fans.

Ultramarines Fellblade

This was one of the most fun projects I have worked on in a while.  For one thing, the Fellbalde was something I wanted from the moment I saw it, much like the Thunderhawk. For another, it actually came with the tank crew, so I didn't need to add any extra kits to complete it.

I kept to my standard paint style here, using Ceramite White and White Scar for the white.  I applied base coats of Kantor Blue and Leadbelcher, then a wash of Argax Earthshade.  After that, I painted a layer of Chainmail on the silver.  Then layers of Macraage Blue and an extreme highlight of Calgar Blue.   The red is made up of layers of Mephiston Red, Wild Rider Red and  Fire Dragon Bright.

The black is just a layer of Abaddon Black with a highlight of P3 Coal Black.  Finally, the Gold is layers of Hashut Copper, Gehennas Gold and Shining Gold.

 It was nice to revisit my roots again, and while I am slowly working on a Pre-Heresy Ultramarines army, I feel like I don't get to work on any where near as many Ultramarine models as I would like.

Thousand Sons Warpsmith

After a sad lazy lapse, I've finally gotten around to doing some photography. I've decided to start chronologically, so here is the Christmas present from my loving wife. I decided to paint my Warpsmith as a Thousand Sons Warpsmith, figuring that any techmarines the legion might have had would become Warpsmiths.
 
 The model is a bit tricky to build, as the mechadendrites are fastened at awkward parts on the model, however, once built, it was easy enough to handle and fairly durable - having dropped it a couple of times while painting.
 
 The majority of the model was painting with Leadbelcher, then Argax Earthshade, then Chainmail. The gold was Hashut Copper, Argax Earthshade, Gehennas Gold and then Burnished Gold. For the blue I used layers of Kantor Blue and Macragge Blue. Finally the eyes were painted with layers of Caliban Green, Warpstone Green, P3 Wurm green and GW Moot Green.
 
 More to come in the next couple days, including my finished Fellblade and some of the new DA stuff painted up as Disciples of Caliban.

The Greater Good

Sandy Mitchell's The Greater Good is the latest installment of the Ciaphas Cain series. Just like all of the others, this is a great read, humorous and action packed at the same time. In this novel, Cain starts out facing off in a doomed battle with the Tau. At the zero hour, when all hope is lost, the Tau pause and want peace. Why, well the cover is a good clue, the Tyranids are coming. It turns out the Tau have found a Tyranid splinter fleet and it is headed straight for the Damocles Gulf. What ensues is a lot of humor, politicking and action as Cain tries to save the day, and himself at the same time. Again, a great read, well worth picking up in any format. In other news, while I have been a sluggard on the blogging front, my modelling has been going pretty well, I should have a nice backlog of figures to display in the coming weeks, including the finished Fellblade and some Disciples of Caliban.

Fellblade!

From the moment I first saw the Fellblade, I knew I wanted to add one to my burgeoning Legion army. Shortly after New Years it arrived, and I was eager to get started. However, first it got a nice soak in soapy water to remove any mold release from the resin pieces.

My previous experience with the Baneblade kit, as well as the Armored Proteus left a little trepidation with this one. My main concern was that the tracks and the hull sections would not fit together properly.

Fortunately that was not my experience this time, once I got started on the Fellblade, it went together smoothly. It was only with reluctance that I paused in the building for a nights sleep (I know, sleep is for the weak) but was able to finish the sponson building pretty quickly. I just need to pay better attention to the fact that each side's sponson is built differently, as I had to take one apart and reverse it.

The last flourishes on the model were a couple of brass etched details to make the Fellblade more Ultramarines. I did, however, shy away from using many of the Ultramarine pieces that also had Imperial Aquillas on them. Although one the Courage and Honour placard does have a small Aquilla on it. Next up, painting!

Cataphract Terminators

Along with the Cataphractii terminator set, I also picked up one of the Cataphractii Speacial Weapon sets and one of the Cataphractii Power Fist sets. Between these two, I had more than enough choices to equip my new terminators. I opted to use the power sword, autocannon, two combi-bolters, two combi-melta and two chain fists.

I used the new GW paints for these models, with layers of Kantor Blue, Altdorf Guard Blue and Calgar Blue as an edge highlight. The silver is layers of Leadbelcher, Argax Earthshade and then old GW Chainmail. The black is Abaddon Black and the brown is layers of Dryad Bark, Skrag Brown and Zamesi Desert.

After sealing the models, I used Decal Set from Testors to add Ultramarines Agemos to the models. Then gave them a second coat of Dullcote. It took me a while to get this blog post done, honestly these models were done before Christmas, unfortunately I had to redo the pictures as the first go came out far too dark.