Horus the Warmaster

Hi everyone, back from the dead again.

So recently I have moved house and as any gamer or modeler who's goes through this ordeal knows it involves packing and unpacking that most sacred space, the hobby table.

This can be painful, there's a lot of stuff, some of it get broken and things get lost, and it can take a while to get setup again.

Once you do though, it's like a blank slate, none of those half finished projects sitting there staring at you accusingly, no bits of offcuts and chucks of sprue lying around. It can be invigorating to tackle something new.

So with the constant heckling of Rictus I managed to finish the first of my Primarch miniatures, and I started with the big cheese himself, Horus.

This is the first miniature I have painted in a long time that didn't require the use of an airbrush, every step was done using standard brushes, and man am I rusty, it took along time to get back into the swing of blending highlighting and not weathering.

The cloak was shaded with purple inks, to give it a depth, but not be so dark as to be all black, I found that when I tried to use straight black to shade the cloak lost a lot of its regal appearance.

I hope the pictures are a lot better, as I finally invested in a photo booth setup, I bought a Foldio 2, which is a really nice product, easy to use and set up, though not exactly cheap.

I hope to do some experimentation with photo backgrounds, and might reshoot some of my old minis that I've done to test them out.

I also have 4 more Primarchs to paint (and another I just ordered) so expect some more painting progress in the not too distant future.

Like everyone else involved in HH I have bought a couple of sets of Battle for Calth and will be using them to start my third legion force, so watch that for developments when I finally get them in my hands.

Thanks for sticking around and reading this wall of text if you have, and thanks for stopping by, I hope to increase the tempo and consistency of posts to the blog, but we've all heard me say that before.

Cheers

Sheep

Sons of Horus Reinforcements

G'day everyone, sorry for the lack of updates, but I am updating now, so get off my back Matt.

As seems to be my MO, a tournament provided the impetus to get the latest batch of models completed for this army.

I required 1850 points (40k) to play, and only had 1000 points painted at the time, and being generous, and organised as I am, I only gave myself 21 days to paint the remaining points. . . .

But I did it!

So presented here are the finished pics, because in the made rush I didn't take any WIP pics worth posting (also tried a new background/new way of photgrapghing the minis, I'm not sold on it though, I think the sun was causing too many shadows)

First up we have a repaint of the drop pods from my Khorne angels force. I didn't even re prime them, just sprayed them in SoH green mix and went from there.

These were used by one of my Dreadnoughts and the veterans squad.

Speaking of veterans

I used the breacher marines to represent DA veterans with combat shields, not the most cost effective choice, but they were fun, and never failed to blow up something big. If I were to paint them again, I would cut the 6mm tape I used to the hazard stripes in half, they just look slightly too big for infantry.

Next we have the second completed tactical squad, the lascannon is singly overpriced and ineffective in my hands, I think it took 2 hull points off the entire tournament.

Finally, one of my favourite tanks in all of 40k, and a staple of every SM list I have ever run.

Vindicator!

S10 pie plates just scare the pants off of the enemy, and I'm not scared to call in danger close fire missions either.

The list for anyone who was interested was:

HQ:

Azreal *(Ravenwing and Deathwing as troops)

= 215

ELITES:

Dreadnought – 100 -          Multimelta -0 -          Powerfist - 0 -          Venerable  - 15 Drop pod – 35 = 150 Dreadnought – 100 -          2x Autocannons - 20 -          Venerable  - 15 = 135

Veterans x7 – 126 -          Combat shields x7 -35 -          Meltagun – 10 -          Combi-melta x3 – 30 -          Power weapon – 15 Drop pod – 35 = 246

TROOPS:

*Deathwing terminators x5 – 220 -          Chainfist – 5 -          Assault cannon – 20 = 245	Dedicated transport – Landraider - 250 -          Deathwing upgrade – 30 -          Hunterkiller Missile – 10 -          Multimelta – 10 =300
Tactical Squad #1 x9 - 126 -          Vet Sgt – 5 -          Power sword – 15 -          Plasmagun – 15 -          Missile Launcher + Flakk – 25 Rhino – 35 -          Hunterkiller Missile – 10 =229	Tactical Squad #2 x10 – 140 -          Vet Sgt – 5 -          Power sword – 15 -          Plasmagun – 15 -          Lascannon – 25 = 195 “Strange, is it not, that so many I wish beside me stand against me, while at my back are only the flawed and damaged. I am a master of broken monsters."

HEAVY SUPPORT:                                                                                                         -Horus Lupercal

Vindicator – 125

-          Seige shield - 10

= 135

Thanks for looking, hope to have something more to post soon. 

Long time between pics

Hi all, sorry for the lack of content, but Uni has been kicking my ass, and I'm lazy.

Enough excuses, on to the content of this post. Alternate BFG ships!

Sons of Horus milestone!

21 months I have been painting these Sons of bitches, and I can finally say it. I have a playable force!

Only 1000 points, and not very optimised, or even fluffy, but its a start. . .

I guess I'll start with the new additions, firstly, HQ's.

This is Moritat Axander, and will pretty much ruin anyones day if he gets a turn of chainfire shooting at them. I haven't seen that many of these guys around the forums and blogs, which is surprising considering the damage potential they have with 2 plasma pistols.

I used the current 40k plasma pistols because I think the 30k ones look like a hair driers . . .

Unusually for me, he is clad entirely in Mk IV armour, although I did make a couple of modifications to it. There has been an extra armoured plate sculpted onto the left greave, and a plasticard strip and rivets added to the crown of his helmet to differentiate it from rank and file, and give him a pseudo crest/mohawk.

Next in the HQ slot is a Praetor in terminator armour, because a Moritat can't lead your force.

I took the normal Terminator Praetor and converted him to have lightning claws, just a simple matter of cutting all the relevant parts at the elbows and pinning them together. I also heated (carefully) the fingers on the left hand to give him a pointing/commanding pose. Looking at the pics, I need to add some definition eye sockets to the skull on the night lords shoulder pad.

 I've never been a fan of unhelmeted marines, something about going into battle without a lid when explosive projectiles are flying around just seems dumb to me. So I squeezed a Mk II helmet in with a bit of trimming. Unfortunately some super glue got into the eye slit and destroyed the detail, but it still works as a gaming piece.

And what is a pimp, without an entourage?

Basically just stock Cataphractii terminators from Forgeworld, its hard to improve on perfection. The only thing I added was a heraldic shield from the Grey knight terminators to the Sgt.

And thats it for the new stuff. The observant among you would have noticed that the basing has changed though. The new style matches the tyranids, and will match the Ad mech, and the table I am going to make (eventually) for my collection. This meant that the rest of the 1k needed to be rebased.

 The Sgt also had a head repose so he wasn't looking at his shoes.

Unfortunately I have to lose the stomping pose on the dread due to time constraints, but I kept the marine and the base so I can redo it at a later stage with another contemptor.

And thats 1000 points (plus a rhino), my photo set up isn't big enough to get all the models into one shot, but I'll take lots of pics at the 30k tournament being run by John from The Painting Bunker called The Emperors Legions, which is set to be epic, including a group shot.

Thanks for stopping in and reading my ramblings, what do you think of the new additions and new basing style?

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.

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.

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.

More Sons of Horus WIPs

Well its been a while. Things have slowed down due to the start of the uni year and the running around that is involved in that, I'm expecting it to be a very slow year of hobby until the holidays because of the amount of time I'll have to put into my degree.

However, I have some more progress to show:

Firstly, the model that I am most happy with so far, Bannerman "TBD":

Continuing the mixing of the Mks of armour, I also added one of the FW bionic arms from the character upgrade set they released. The banner is the standard from the SM command squad, with various purity seals which I have used to cover up an abortive attempt at damaging the standard.

 Betrayal say the Sons used to gild the skulls of worthy opponents, this is the first time I have added skulls to a model in the SoH force, though they should be making more of an appearance from now on.

Secondly, a Sgt for the new squad, armed identically to the previous one, he does however have a bionic arm.

 Next we have some troopers, one of which will have a plasma gun.

And finally we come to something different, I have been trying to figure out how to make my assault marines stand out, and didn't want to go with the named company of black armoured marines. So I decided that my assault marines will be a unit of World Eaters seconded to the Sons, or simply picked up in the heat of battle. In this way I can explain why they just get thrown out in the thick of the fighting, with no regards to casualties (I'm pretty terrible at keeping assault units alive) as the SoH commander simply doesn't care.

I need to buy some more of the FW chainaxes, and maybe one of the new sets with the pistols before I can finish this squad.

Thanks for looking.