Heresy Era Dark Angels - Taerrax Termites and Praetor built!

After all the painting of late I thought I'd reward myself with a little build time! Earlier in the week a box o' joy arrived from Forge World, containing a trio of Taerrax Termites (say that five times fast) - While I was initially apprehensive of building the new kit it ended up being a breeze!

While I was about it I decided to take a stab at building a Praetor for the force. While I've already painted up a few characters, I haven't been totally happy with them as they're essentially just 40k-era models with a lick of black paint and a head swap. Something a bit more bespoke was in order!

Introducing Vortigern, praetor of the Lost Lions warhost! Made from a whole mess of different bits, he definitely has more of a Heresy vibe to him and better suits the era. Fairly standard loadout with a Paragon blade and combi-plas - Hard to go wrong with the classics. Had to do a little greenstuff work to marry up the Deathwing blade to the Cataphractii plate, and swap the combi-plas over to the left hand and am pretty jazzed with how it turned out!

Wanted to bling him out a bit more than the other terminators he'll be joining, and was pleased to find a spare Custodes cape fit on the model like it belonged there. I managed to snap off some of the sensors and whatnot along the top of his armor, so need to sort out some replacements, but overall I am pretty pleased with him!

Heresy Era Dark Angels - Tactical Squads Table Ready!

Not quiiiiiite done, as I still want to add some waterslide transfers to 'em, but I can't for the life of me find the box full of sheets. Nevertheless, they're to the "off the factory floor" stage and have gotten their initial sealant pass!

Ended up digging up some bigger back banners to use as the squad vexilla, and did a simple geometric for each squad which is mirrored on their right shoulder pads. The intent is to lay some DA icons over the banners and some numerics or the like on the shoulders and then do some weathering. In the interim however, they're painted enough to warrant getting them on the tabletop!

NOVA 2018 Charity Army painting - Iron Warriors ahoy!

I was honored to be asked to participate in one of the NOVA Open charity army projects again this year, and as is my wont I took on some of the more 'boring' units and let the more talented folks do the cool stuff. That means that I'll be putting the 30 Dark Angel tac marines aside for a bit to work on er, 30 Iron Warriors tac marines. Oof. ...Well, technically 20 tac marines and 10 veterans, so that's way easier, right?

As part of the project, I was sent the raw materials to make the models - Included in the box o' joy were a mess of Mk.IV marines, some Secret Weapon urban bases (interestingly the same ones I used on my Sons of Horus recently) and a bunch of Mk.III shoulder pads. I rummaged through my bits boxes to come up with the appropriate matching Mk.III left-hand shoulder pads which gives the models a bit of a heavier look which befits the Iron Warriors. The sergeants get the usual power fist/bolt pistol combo and I made a couple little tweaks to make them a bit more dynamic.

The brief for the Veterans was to have a couple guys with power swords, including the sergeant, and while it plan was to have it be an 8-man squad without any special or heavy weapons, there were enough bits and bases that I went ahead and banged out a couple meltagunners to round the squad up to 10.

The plan is also for the vets to use the Marksmen special upgrade, and in an effort to help distinguish them from the vanilla tac marines I dug up sufficient scopes for the bolters which I think turned out pretty well! Working out the paint scheme with the project lead, and if all goes according to plan I'll get stuck in on these in the next week or so!

Heresy Era Dark Angels - Tactical Squad Batch Painting Madness!

In any army project I tend to prefer to get the requisite Troops choices out of the way early on while enthusiasm for a project is high, and save the more interesting and exciting models for later on as rewards for doing the mundane stuff. That meant I was staring down the barrel of 30 tac marines - My penchant for batch painting meant that I figured I could knock them all out at once with minimal trouble, right? ...Right?

Based on the fact that I haven't posted in a week and a half could tell you that 30 guys is probably too many to do at once. Oof. Nevertheless, I persevered and have been documenting the process as I go along. There's finally been enough forward motion to warrant a post about 'em, so here goes! Started off by doing all the fiddly edge highlighting for the paint scheme - Thin edging with GW Kabalite Green, followed by an extreme edge highlight of Sybarite Green, and the right shoulderpads got a pass with Vallejo Black Green and a highlight of Sybarite Green, to denote them as filthy traitorous Calibanites.

Once that was done, all the weapon housings and wings got a pass of Vallejo Gory Red, followed by a wash of GW Carroburg Crimson to give it some depth.

Once the wash had thoroughly dried, the red edging was picked out in Vallejo Hot Orange to bring up the colors a bit and make them pop. At this point I also laid in the fleshtones on the sergeants, starting with Vallejo Dwarf Flesh, a wash of GW Reikland Fleshshade, then highlights of Vallejo Elf Flesh and Bonewhite. Still some final cleanup to do on the faces, could stand a little more work.

Next up was all of the steel, using Vallejo Gunmetal, a Silver highlight then a wash with Army Painter Dark Tone here and there to pick out some details. The gold followed using Vallejo Brassy Brass, Glorious Gold, and a wash of GW Reikland Fleshshade to give it some depth. Can't have a unit go by without my usual blue on them somewhere, so the Calibanite Warblades got the treatment.

The final step in the process (so far) was to get some color on the bases. Especially on models that are predominately black, doing so really helps the models pop! Started off with an all-over pass of Vallejo Earth, then the rocks were highlighted up with Khaki, Bonewhite and Pale Sand, after which the whole shebang got a mopping of Army Painter Strong Tone. At this point they're left to dry overnight, and will be ready for the next dozen or so steps before they're actually finished. Oy...

Of course, can't let too many posts go by without some spreadsheet porn! The army list is coming into final focus at this point. I've settled on trying to do the Ironwing Protocol Rite of War which means the force needs to have an equal number of Tanks to other units - I was initially planning to have a mess of Rhinos, but with the recent release of the Termite I knew I had to get my hands on them. I figured with the Dark Angels predilection for using unusual weapons and vehicles they'd fit in just fine aesthetically, and I'm really looking forward to building them!

Still only three models fully complete for the force, I'm working on getting a mess of models all up to the same stage then doing a bunch of heraldry and weathering at once to keep them consistent. Time will tell if that's a good idea!