Heresy Era Imperial Fists - Veterans and Contemptor "off the factory floor"

As of this morning I'm officially on vacation for four days. Glorious! That said, I got a jump on the weekend yesterday evening and got the Vets and Contemptor up to the "Off the factory floor" stage where they await the first spray sealant pass in preparation for waterslides and weathering.

It's always amazing to me how much of a difference painting the bases helps the models pop! Pretty happy with how the cooler tones of the bases contrast against the rather 'hot' tones of the yellows and reds. All the black got another highlight pass, and I added in the various spot colors and metallics that really help snap the models into focus. Going to be applying further details to the right shoulder pads, though whether that's to be transfers or freehand remains to be seen - While I'm pretty confident using transfers in general, the complex curve of the marine shoulder pad still gives me trouble!

The Contemptor Mortis got the same treatment, and I'm rather looking forward to adding some chips and scratches to him - they should stand out nicely against the yellow!

It's supposed to be pushing 60°F this afternoon so I'm hoping to get them sealed so I can finish off the next steps! In the interim it's back to building - The final pieces arrived for the hammer-and-shield Cataphractii terminators, and I have those and the bits to make a 10-man Templar Brethren squad soaking this morning. Should be a weekend full of Heresy Goodness!

Heresy Era Imperial Fists - Veteran Squads and Contemptor get some brush time!

Hope the holidays were safe and fun for everyone, it was a whirlwind of activity for me though sadly not as much of it was actual painting time. Even a painting servitor deserves time off to celebrate the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, right? Now that it's passed I have managed to rekindle some painting mojo and set to on some Imperial Fists with renewed gusto!

To begin with I figured the painting servitor had had enough time off thank you very much, and it was high time it got plugged back in to the duty station. Turned the settings over to batch paint and started slinging the yellow around! Started off with a basecoat of Vallejo Scrofulous Brown, followed by a heavy drybrush of Golden Yellow, and then a light drybrush of GW Flash Gitz Yellow, concentrating on the uppermost surfaces. Once that was done the whole model was given a Seraphim Sepia wash and left to dry overnight.

The next session was the tedious one - going back in and re-blacking in everything that's intended to be metal or, well, black. I've been tempted to just bypass this step and just paint the metallics over the yellow, but I've found that it tends to end up looking sort of spotty and unfinished. Boring, but necessary!

Next up I could actually start doing some interesting stuff with the models. The black areas were given a bit of a highlight (which will likely get one further highlight, based on how I'm feeling about them at the moment), the icons on the shoulder pads were roughed in and just to paint something besides black and yellow for a bit the red veteran stripes were added to the helmets, and the sergeants got the full red helmet with white stripe look. They're starting to come into focus now!

While I was about it I'd been working on the Contemptor as well, and it's more or less keeping pace with the two veteran squads. Gives me a nice little break in the batch painting process, and helps ensure that it'll match up with the infantry!

I have a couple days off coming up around new years, and am hoping I can get these lads finished over the upcoming long weekend. Hope you all have a safe and happy New Years!

Heresy Era Adeptus Custodes - Custodian Guard Squad (almost) Complete!

Just a quick hit today - it's been ridiculously cold over the last couple days (-12°F last night) so no spray sealing going on. That said, barring that final step the Custodian Guard squad is more or less complete!

Rather enjoyed painting them up, though there's not a whole lot to 'em beyond the gold stage so the last few steps went really quickly. Red on the horsehair plumes and gemstones and blue for the power blades, and a few areas in silver and white. Matched up the bases to the ones for the Imperial Fists and job's a good 'un!

Heresy Era Adeptus Custodes - Custodian Guard squad begins

Wait! Put down the pitchforks and torches, it's not technically another project, honest! Hah!

The main reason I chose the Imperial Fists for the Prospero plastics was primarily to give me the ability to run an allied force of Custodes - How exactly that's going to work remains to be seen within the upcoming Inferno book from Forge World, but there are some preliminary rules available to allow for test games. I started off just building a basic Custodian Guard squad, as I'm assuming they'll be the 'basic' troop type for the force - hard to go wrong with the basics!

I was pleased to see they were given a size boost over the basic marines, they are appropriately imposing! They were fun to assemble - The first five were built right out of the book, and I'm looking forward to trying some mix-and-match parts on the next five to see what sorts of alternate posing may be possible.

On to the painting! First things first the models were given a basecoat of Vallajo's Brassy Brass. This is a nice, rather opaque metallic that covers well and prevents the blotchy look a more translucent lighter gold can get painted over a black basecoat.

Next the models were given a heavy drybrush of Glorious Gold, then given an all-over wash of Reikland Fleshshade (still wet in this pic) then left to thoroughly dry overnight..

Taking the day off (Star Wars day, baby!) so this morning I was able to put in a quick session and gave the now-dried models a couple light drybrush passes with Shining Gold to bring the luster back up a bit. Next up will be a few silver highlights on the uppermost surfaces to really push the shine! Planning on getting some more work done on them today - Queuing up the Original Trilogy to run in the background, and looking forward to seeing Rogue One in the theater later on!

Heresy Era Imperial Fists - Veteran Squad and Contemptor built!

As a bit of a reward to myself for all the painting of late I thought I'd build the next unit or two for the Imperial Fists. I'm kicking myself for getting so over-excited building all the new Genestealer Cult models that I ended up with a huge pile of unpainted miniatures which tends to be disheartening. So for the Fists I'm sticking to a "build 10 or so models, then paint them before the next group" mentality. We'll see how long that lasts. Hah!

The next ten infantry for the Fists are the first of two veteran squads. To take advantage of their legion rules the squad gets a pair of heavy bolters, the Vexilla gives them a little staying power and the Nuncio Vox will allow them to act as spotters for artillery and teleport beacons for their deep-striking terminators. While the vets are technically able to all take combi-weapons and all sorts of other gear to make a 'jack of all trades' unit, I've found it's really easy to end up with a thoroughly over-costed squad which can quite easily be wiped from the table in a single turn. Better to keep them cheap and focused on a single job (which is primarily infantry-killing).

 

For a little more dakka, the ever-popular Contemptor Mortis with a pair of Kheres assault cannons is hard to pass up. Doubling as a reasonably effective anti-aircraft and anti-infantry unit, I have found this loadout routinely performs admirably on the table top and almost always earns its points.

Lastly, I scraped together a few leftover bits I had and put together the proof of concept thunder-hammer-and-storm-shield terminator in Cataphractii armour, using some rather neat 3d-printed shoulder pads, the storm shields from the Custodes set, and some thunder hammers from Spellcrow. The perspective is a little forced on this pic, the hammer isn't really THAT big... Heh.

So far so good! Now, if only it wasn't forecast to reach a high temperature of 1°F on Saturday I could get them primered. Apparently these models will be sitting on the "prime me" shelf for the foreseeable future!

40k Genestealer Cult - Leman Russ Exterminator painted!

Got a fair bit of painting time in today and finished off the Leman Russ Exterminator! Carried the colors through from the Acolytes with the blue, white and yellow, and it turned out pretty well I think...

 

Added in some stripes on the dozer blade to match those on the Rockgrinders, and laid in some further vehicle identifier stripes on the front of the side armour. Went with the bright blue-white halogen lamps to match the Rockgrinders as well (again, my usual yellow headlamps would get lost in all the other yellow bits).

 

The turret weapons are magnetized so it can also be run as a Vanquisher should some more anti-tank firepower be needed. Tried out the dirty white recipe used on the Acolyte's armor on the tank crew's fatigues to help tie them together. After that it got some sponge weathering on various edges to dirty it up and it's good to go!

May bounce back over to the Imperial Fists next and reward myself for all this painting with some build time!

40k Genestealer Cult - Leman Russ Exterminator painting begins!

We've been having some sub-zero temperatures over the last few days so no sealant possibility for the recent terminators. So, bouncing back over to the Cult for a bit! Rather than doing yet another batch of infantry (oof) I figured it was time to have a little fun and make a start on one of the tanks for the force...

 

The intent is to have the brood brothers to be a PDF force, using older variants of the military vehicles. As a callback to the color of the carapaces on the Purestrains, I'm going with blue tanks (the guardsmen will have fatigues in the white similar to the armour of the hybrids and blue armour) which may be a bit of an unusual choice when seen on its own but hopefully it'll look cool laid out with the army as a whole. We'll see!

Heresy Era Imperial Fists - Tartaros Terminators almost done!

Another quick hit this evening, after work I had a quiet evening in and was able to put a couple more hours in on the terminators. Rather enjoying how they're coming along!

Pretty much textbook color theory here, with the blue and red contrasting well against the yellow armour plate. A little more cleanup and highlighting here and there, and they'll be ready for the first sealant stage prior to waterslides and weathering (though the incipient snowfall means it may be a week or more before that's possible).

Tried out a couple cooler, neutral colors on the bases which I'm reasonably happy with. Toying with the idea of adding the occasional bit of litter and leaves here and there to jazz them up a little and give them a sense of scale. So far, so good!

40k Genestealer Cult - Doting Throng Acolytes painted!

Down with the plague today (a blessing from Grandfather Nurgle no doubt), but managed to get the Acolytes for the Doting Throng completed and sealed, taking advantage of the brief break in the cold weather. Twenty-three more models down, meaning I've now (albeit barely) passed the halfway point with the army. Oof!

I'd built enough models to allow them to be run as two units but for the purposes of the 2500 point force they'll be run as one 20-strong unit of claws, teeth and hand flamers!

As should come as no surprise to anyone, I did pick up a few of the new Thousand Sons plastics (primarily to cannibalize for use with the Heresy models) and couldn't help but assemble Magnus the Red. Once I had him put together I think a better moniker would be Magnus the Huge! He goes on the shelf for now however, next up is some more work on the Imperial Fists terminator squad as a little break from the unending tide of Genestealer cultists...