None of this blood is mine . . . * Finished Sons of Horus and WIP World Eaters

*Quote shamelessly stolen from ADB's blog.

Hi guys, been a little while since the last update, but I have been busy.

I've managed to finish 3 more sons, and 2 WE (bar their backpacks which is why they count as WIP).

Firstly we have my home made Praetor (I have another set of the FW praetors I will be painting for myself, hopefully as well as the ones I did on commission), he was going to be used as a counts as Azreal, but will now probably be used as a sternguard SGT.

The base features a salamanders helmet, or a really dirty SoH helmet, its a pretty standard feature on my bases, and I tend to forget I'm doing PH/HH and just paint them whatever colour I have to hand.

I'm not actually that happy with the sword on this guy, but being a gaming army, and still not having played a game with it I think I can let the fact the back side is better than the front side slide. I also painted the plasma in a more subdued orange because its not actually pointed at anyone, so it makes sense for the weapon to be powered down.

Next we have some apothecaries, which given their uselessness as a buff bubble ala sang priests will probably just get used as regular Tac marines.

I haven't managed to get my hands on any of the new technical paints yet, so the blood here is done the old fashioned way using Tamiya clear red, and a second coat with a touch of black. But I'm pretty happy with the effect, even at a million times magnification.

Next we have the reason for the title of the blog post . . . WIP World Eaters. I personally see the change in coloration from white to red as a result of their blood letting. The human body has between 4-6 liters of blood, and an Astartes would have considerably more, so they would make a hell of a mess when hacked up with chain weapons.

I intend on writing a piece of fluff eventually that describes how some of the berzerkers as a symbol of there heresy decide not to wash off the blood of the slain from Istvaan, and as time went on, armour broke and was replaced, but painted red to maintain the connection to the betrayal and dropsite massacres.

Thoughts on the paint job, the fluff and the amount of blood?

Thanks for looking.

Aliens Vs Predator: The minatures game

Ok guys, so today is a bit of a departure from the norm as this is a primarily 40k-centric blog, but recently I was made aware of the Kickstarter for the official licensed AvP miniatures game by Prodos games.

I don't know about you guys, but my love of this franchise predates even my introduction to 40k, and is probably one of the  reasons for my continued return to Tyranid armies.

After convincing a bunch of mates (6 at last count I think) to commit to backing the kickstarter I have been bitten by the inspiration bug. Since I can't buy, convert or paint any of the minis for this game yet, that leaves me with terrain.

I quickly scoured ebay for AvP related things, and ended up buying some cheap predator halloween masks. Which lead to this sketch:

Very rough concept

After that I though about iconic terrain from the franchise, clearly there would be jungle, so I would set my terrain in an alien jungle environment, but there needed to be more. Pyramids:

Please ignore the complete lack of scale and perspective

A simple stepped pyramid would look great, block LOS and be useful and playable, but I needed it to reflect the universe, so I began sculpting panels to use as relief on the sides of the pyramid. The panels ended up being 45mm square.

I started with a styilised predator (or Yautja as they are apparently called in the fluff) mask, the writing is from a predator language translator I found in the comments on kickstarter and is apparently the one the Prodos guys have used.

1st go at sculpting over a drawing

Coming together

Change the left dreads and added lenses

Finished panel: or is it after this I changed the shape of the forehead and added pred text to the helmet that says "Blooded"

The border says "The hunt begins". Which I thought was apt for the predators and is the name of the game after all :)

I couldn't just have a border of all pred masks, it would look a bit repetitive, and according to the movies and the xenopedia article on yautja they like to decorate their cities with alien statues and fresco's.

This is the result, a queen chestburster, in the classic Aliens 3 poster pose.

This is actually the second round of sculpting, I forgot to take pics of the first.

Finished panel

The text on the border of this panel says "Death serpents".

And this is where I'm up to currently, once I have cast the panels a million time to get enough for a pyramid, I can begin construction and will have another update later.

Spawn more overlords - Gearing up for 6th ed Tyranids

So the rumour mill is rife with predictions of the impending drop of a new Nid codex, so I have gone on a bit of a painting binge to hopefully make use of the new codex straight off the bat.

My selection criteria for the new models was simple, what do I have that I haven't used. This is based on the philosophy that GW makes all the currently shit units good in the next codex.

Firstly Biovores. Not the worst unit currently, but the strength of 4 for a barrage doesn't really scare many things, I'd like to see a return to the bio-acid mines with rending, or something similar to make them useful for sniping, and scary.

Secondly, Hormogaunts. I loved these guys in 4th, and consequently I had 60 of them in my bitz box. They can be used currently, but only at their most expensive super-gaunt mode to give them poisoned and furious charge.

I'm hoping the cost of bio-morphs comes down, or their is a buff unit like the tervigon for hormogaunts too (or an upgrade that allows tervigons to buff hormogaunts).

Next are the most useless models in the tyranid lineup currently. With the ability to affect reserve roles, but only if its been on the table for a turn, and you have to roll for them to come on in turn two . . .seriously underwhelming. 

Giving them back the wound and attack they lost in the transition from 4th to 5th, and allowing the pheromone rule to work like SM drop pods (half you lictors rounding up come in turn 1) or some other mechanic would see these guys hit the table for me. Also 80 points is way too much, a centurion with 2+ save and a grav cannon costs similar, and will kill alot more. But I love the models and want to use them.

Finally, Shrikes. I used these guys in a doubles tournament on the weekend, and they were seriously impressive. Racking up a massive number of kills and generally scaring anything with more than 2 wounds. I have magnetised the arms so that I can run a different weapon if the boneswords are nerfed, or if i get around to doing lashwhips for them too.

To make shrikes seriously effective the Prime/Alpha warrior needs the option to take wings. make it a 25 point upgrade and I'll take that everyday to give them the ability to tank some wounds and give a boost of WS.

I also have the bitz to make another couple of tyrants, and another 30 Hormogaunts are in the pipeline. Plus I should really get around to painting a few more of my 180 termagants . .  . plus whatever new comes around.

Thanks for looking.

Sons of Horus WIPS, and a view to the future.

Greetings, back from the dead again with some WIP Sons of Horus.

These guys are are done up to the oils stage which will define all the armour plates alot more.

Firstly, the Azreal counts as:

Second is some apothecaries, after the oils I'll add some more blood to their armour, removing progenoids can be a messy business.

Next is my take on the Worldeaters, which I'll be using as assault marines, they'll all be getting MkIV jumppacks and butchers nails markings.

In the vein of the WE's, the Sgt for the squad, or some kind of preator if the WE section gets out of hand.

Finally . . . . .

Thanks for looking.

Finished Khorne Angels

Well it took 2 years, but I finally finished Khorne, probably because I was commissioned to do them.

Astorath/Kharn

I sold the army to a mate at the beginning of the year, and since then hes been using some of the models in his Khorne army, and playing with unfinished berzerkers. There's a tournament in 2 weeks he wants to play at with a requirement of painted model, so I got the job of finishing what I started.

 All of the models were built using the FW torso and heads, and plastic CSM legs. Each set of legs has been converted slightly to give a greater sense of motion than the stock legs have (ie none), I really think GW missed an opportunity to redo the plastic warriors.

Since they had to be painted to match an existing army I couldn't use and weathering on them, it was an interesting exercise to paint "clean" again. I prefer dirty.

The blood effects were done with tamiya clear red, then a second coat of TCR and a touch of black acrylic, the acrylic and whatever the TCR is based on react and the paint gets thicker, making it perfect for congealed blood and gore.

The backpacks are also all magnetised, to make is easy to run them as Death company with jump packs if necessary.

The whole gang

I apologise for the shonky pics, I really need a better camera then my iPhone4.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Sons of Horus Squads WIP

Just a quick one today, the Praetors got me excited to paint some Sons of Horus again, and since I had some built, I undercoated and sprayed them this afternoon.

They might take a while to get any further than this though because I have exams in 2 weeks, and i should probably study for them. 

Thanks for looking.

Sons of Horus Praetors

Hi again, more procrastination sees some more models finished in a familiar scheme. these aren't for me though, but a commission.

FW sent through some very nice casts, though I didn't realise til I painted the face that the right eye of the terminator was miscast, so I turned it into a scar, and in a first for me, the swords were all straight! No hot water required. 

The bases are from Dragon-forge, and were quite nicely cast too. 

Following my normal tradition of taking poo photos though the bases and gold lack depth in the shots, I really need to set up a proper photo booth.

What do you think of the base colour? Should I change mine from the urban to this? I kind of like how the sea green pops off the base.

Thanks for looking.

Gun servitor WIP 2

Had it pointed out on a forum the mechanical inadequacies of the design of the mount for the autocannon. Usually its just a case of "because 40k" but I came up with a quick fix I hope you like.

I suppose you could call it a hydraulic lock, opposite to the direction of the recoil. I imagine the barrel assembly slides backwards within the body of the weapon like a howitzer. and it has a slow rate of fire.

Also added more mechanicus bling, and tiny rivets to appease Matt.