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 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.

Legion of Everblight Gargantuan! Archangel.

I've managed to get a couple of commissions recently, I was approached to paint something for a system that I wouldn't normally look at because the models just don't interest me, Warmachine. However there has been one model I just loved from the moment I saw the WIP sculpts. The legion everblight Archangel.

Who's a pretty boy then?

It is a monster, gargantuan in every sense, and so cool I would have eventually gotten one for myself if I wasn't commissioned to do it.

WIP scale shot. Don't mind the mess.

The casting is big, the components are big, the stupidity is big. The only complaint (though it s big one) I have about this model is the way the components have been cast and the materials selection. There are 3 materials, resin, pewter/whitemetal, and restic. The breackdown of how the parts have been chosen for each piece baffles me. If you have the technology for resin, do it all in resin.

Big vents, with the detail cast into them.

All the extremities are metal (the hooks on the wings, the face/head, the spines on the back, and the tail. This is madness. The last 4 inches of the tail are metal, and are supposed to hang unsupported from the base of the resin tail section.

Apart from that annoyance, the model was almost flawlessly cast, with only one minor and one major mold slip, and both easily corrected, less then 10 total airbubbles, again easily fixed.

After washing the resin and greenstuffing the areas where the components mated I commenced with painting, using vallejo airbrush primer for the first time, it goes on like a dream, so smooth, good adhesion, and can even be done at night in the cold and damp with no threat of bubbling or roughness.

The scheme was not chosen by me being a commission, but I'm still reasonably happy with how the sons of horus green translated to the everblight.

I added some red glazes to the wings for interest, and blended them back into the flesh with highlights and a pass or two of the airbrush. The wings are also magnetised for ease of transport and storage, which is why they don't quite marry up to the shoulders.

Shoddy photoshop of the edges, didn't all fit in the booth.

As a last point of interest I added some OSL from the soul fire the Everblight dragon spawn breathe. It added a nice spot colour too and stopped the scheme from being too boring.

The base was left plain so the client can add his recipe for snow to keep it consistent with the rest of his collection.

Finally an almost identical shot, but showing the scale of the finished beast.

Thanks for looking. Hope you like it and found my ramblings entertaining.

Please let me know what you think.

It's alive!!

Hi everyone, sorry for the scarcity of posts recently, but uni has been brutal!

That aside i have managed to pick up a brush in my mid semester break. Many moons ago I was given a Tyranid heirophant at a song. it was a little worse for wear, and a bit bandy legged from being left in a car during an Australian summer, but after a Jesus like resurrection I can show you a PIP.

Not much of a pic, but as a proof of life I think it will suffice.

During my attempt at dis-assembly, the shoulders of both right arms, one for claw, and a couple of spikes snapped off. Most were minor fixes, though I had to get alittle bit creative with the basing to make the claw work (and even then I'm not 100% on it). Rumors of Apoc II has set me painting this guy, and I hope to crush Johns Imperial guard with him at the soonest opportunity.

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. 

SPARTAN!

I promised some pics of the WIP Sons of Horus, and I'm delivering.

Recently I was hanging out at my mate Johns place, and seeing the amazing work hes put into his FW city fight tiles (seen here @ The Painting Bunker) has spurred me on to start the sons again.

Now I've always been one of those people that eats desert before the main meal, and I tend to get carried away. So when the opportunity came up to buy a spartan I didn't even blink.

This thing is a beast. However the instructions, unlike most FW products, are lacking in the details. This lead to a colossal fuck up on my part and I glued two section of track on the wrong way round. The lesson here people is to always dry fit you expensive FW models before committing glue to resin.

One thing I cant stand about the design of these Pre heresy heavy tank models is the tracks. There is no conceivable way that those things generate enough traction to move something that is supposed to weigh in excess of 100 tonnes. 240 pieces and 2.5 feet of 1.5x1.5mm plastic stripe later I had tracks that even if they might not actually work, at least look to me like they would.

After several choice words, a walk around the house to calm down, and a failed attempt to break the bonded pieces off (resulting only in snapped track sections), I came up with idea of adding track guards and assault launchers to cover up my mistake.

Now I've done it I wouldn't have it any other way. I think it just looks so tough. Like a M1A2 Abrams with the full TUSK upgrade. In that vein, I scratched up one of the command frames from apoc that came with my emperors fist tank company, and stole the SM sensor suite to make a remote weapons unit. I mounted the Hunter killer and a multimelta from the FW Pre-heresy heavy weapons pack onto it.
This was then magnetised into the top plate for the heavy bolters.

I should also mention that I magnetised Quad lasers, and their mounts for ease of transport and pose ability. An interesting thing to note is that 2x 3mm/1mm magnets fit perfectly in the holes the lascannons are supposed to mount too. I had to get alittle more creative with the sponson mounts.

All in all I cant wait to paint this beast, and expect to have it finished soon.

I should also post this, because it boggles the mind.

Almost 3/4 of a kilo, or a pound and a half to my American friends. Heavy support indeed!

Til next time.

Kheres Mortis complete

Hello again. Welcome to another update of my rambling towards completing a Sons of Horus army, Today I present the completed Kheres pattern Mortis contemptor.

This guy came together quickly in the end, probably because I rushed him, and because I fell into the trap of over weathering him. I'm not unhappy with the results until I put the two completed dreads together and compare them, the first has a much more controlled application of chipping which I prefer the finish of.

Anyway, here's the pics:

More after the jump.

Tac squad and Rhino done!

I apologise for the lack of recent updates, I'd like to say its been because I've been busy, but I've just been lazy.

But putting that behind me, I found my mojo, and its been a busy couple of days here at Casa de Sheep, the results of which I present to you now.

Here's the finished Tactical squad #3

As you can see they are armed with a missile launcher and plasma gun, for general duties, I think this load out is pretty straightforward and can threaten most things on the table.

More after the jump.

Sons of Horus Tactical demi-squad done

The pics of UK games day have gotten my creative juices bubbling. And I managed for finish the first 5 infantry figures for the Sons. As you can see I am continuing with the battle warn beaten to hell look of the marines,and persevering with the sea green scheme because I think the official FW scheme looks like shit.

FW have also changed the eye of horus they are using, these guys sport the updated one, and the original contemptor will be the odd one out with the old style. I am considering whether or not to pick up some of the decal, or continue with the freehanding of the symbols.

Each of the marines also has a chaos star of some type free handed onto their armour somewhere, though most of them got so battle damaged its hard to make them out.

It was my first attempt at using the airbrush to do this style of power weapon, and I must say I really like the effect. I would have preferred a purple, but I didn't have the right colours, and impatience won out.

Next is assembling the rest of the squad, and deciding what out of all the awesome FW goodies I want next!

Contemptor #2 - Kheres Mortis

Managed to get a day of modelling in as a reward for finishing all my assignments, and this is what I knocked out.

Kheres Contemptor 

Being the poor uni student that I am now I was forced to make the arms myself. I had previously cast the multimelta for a failed autocannon conversion, so I used it as a base. The ammo hopper is from the front mount of a Leman Russ MBT, the assault cannon barrels are from the stormravens I built for the khorne wing. Cyclone is from the termi box, again because I'm cheap.

The groin had to be cast as well, because I didn't receive one in the package whan I bought him, and seeing as I could, and it would take weeks and alot of hassle to get a replacement I thought this was easier.

I tried really hard to make the cowering fist look like he was actually afraid. It wasnt actually working til i remembered I had a fine cast termi Librarian left over from my conversion for the GK's I never finished.

In the eventual list #2 will play flyer defence, Bs 5 skyfire and 12 assault cannon shots, and 2 krak missiles will ruin most flyers days.

Contemptor PIP

Updates are coming thick and fast these days, going to stop soon though. Anyway, got some work done on the contemptor for the Sons.

They had been put on ice for a while due to the nids getting some love, but I put paint to model today in a fit of procrastination.

As you can see, hes not as clean as DPA's SoH, I just couldn't get excited by that style of painting, hes in the middle of the seige of terra, there isn;t going to be time to reapply paint to chipping.

This is obviously still PIP.

Let me know what you think, and any suggestions you may have will be greatly appreciated.

Group shot

So all the completely assembled models before primer.

I hadn't realised until I took this pic that the contemptor and Sgt model were in such a similar pose, guess I'll have to add some more variety to the future models.

The basing was done with a mix of cork, crushed slate, glued down with superglue, before adding some secret weapons razor wire.

So more assembly of the rest of the squad to follow, and waiting for paint to arrive. . .

Sons bolter boys

Progress has been slow, but steady, getting into the meat and veg of any SM army now, the bolter carriers, or ablative wounds for you heavy and special weapons if you'd prefer.

Guy on the end is dropping his bolter.

Sgt something

Finished assembling the first infantry figure for the Sons, took alot more time and fiddling around then I anticipated, the combination of various Mks of armour give a nice feel I think, and is something I can see happening during a protracted siege like the siege of Terra.

SGT something

The arms are from the plastic CSM set, and are a nice analogue for Mk2 once your file off the extraneous detail.

I hope to have the first 5-10 men finished by the end of next week, but that may blow out due to my time being taken up by work/uni entrance course I started a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks for looking.