Heresy Era Word Bearers - Contemptors and Chaplains and Venators, oh my!

With the recent release of the Adepticon events registration, I was finally able to zero in on what I would need to get completed for the Word Bearers. I've got a Zone Mortalis game at 500 points and a big 3k game vs. Xenos, which should be interesting! In both cases I've decided I was going to continue the "Assault on Armatura" theme for my force and run a very infantry-heavy army. That said, there needs to be some anti-armor punch and you can't go wrong with a talon of Contemptors to do the punching.

While poking around on the Oldhammer site, I ran across some embiggened RT-era Dreadnoughts, which tripped my nostalgia trigger hard and I absolutely had to get a few. I'll be running them as a Contemptor Cortus talon armed with twin dreadnought close combat weapons each with a twin-linked bolter. Cheap and cheerful Str 10 mayhem!

I'm really jazzed by how they turned out, however after getting them painted I realized I never ordered any 60mm bases to match the rest of the force, so they're on hold until the package shows up from Secret Weapon...

While I was about it, I also got the Sicaran Venator more or less complete as well! I always loved this model, it's just such a mean-looking tank! It's rather fearsome on the tabletop as well, though in my experience the lascannons are superfluous as the main gun is an Ordnance weapon which generally precludes the ability to fire the sponsons. As the tank will take a lot of fire, having the extra weapons to soak up the inevitable 'weapon destroyed' results isn't a bad thing though!

While going over the lists, I realized I needed a 'vanilla' chaplain to fulfill the Word Bearers FOC requirements (in addition to the warlord, the force must include either a chaplain or champion), but rather than just use the Betrayal at Calth model as-is I figured I'd chop him up and make something a bit more unique! Kept the torso, cape and backpack, but gave him some alternate legs which changed the stance dramatically. Swapped the crozius over to the left hand, and pillaged the Thousand Sons sorcerer bits to come up with a warp flask and creepy hand. Your basic skull helmet is essential for any self-respecting chaplain, and he's ready to get painted up!

Speaking of, it's been a while since I updated the painting chart and am quite pleased to see how close to the finish line the force is. Well on track to get everything completed for Adepticon, and with it being almost entirely infantry it should hopefully be easy to transport!

NOCF Fall Charity Raffles ending soon!

Howdy folks! Just a reminder that there's only two days remaining to pick up tickets for the fall session of charity raffles from the Nova Open Charitable Foundation, which includes a mess of Bark Eldar, I mean Exodite Aeldari!

 

For a mere $5 you can enter for a chance to win these pointy-eared gits, as well as all sorts of awesome other models!

The raffle launched on Monday, October 15, and runs until November 25, so there's just a few days left to get your tickets - the money goes to a number of fantastic causes! 

Here's the scoop:

• Tickets are available from novaopenfoundation.org

• We will ship to winners anywhere in the world (with a valid mailing address)

LINKS:

Home Page                 https://novaopenfoundation.org/

Links to the various raffles below!

Armies                         

·       2018 FALL ARMY: 40K Board Game, The Lost Patrol

·       2018 FALL ARMY: 40K Exodite Aeldari

·       2018 FALL ARMY: Dark Age Forsaken St. Isaac Army

·       2018 FALL ARMY: FOW Mid-War Italian Tank Company

·       2018 FALL ARMY: FOW Team Yankee – American Armored Cavalry Company

·       2018 FALL ARMY: Necromunda Underhive

Models

·       2018 FALL MODEL: 40K Nurgle Chaos Knight

·       2018 FALL MODEL: Banshee Anonymous Bust 1.0

·       2018 FALL MODEL: Banshee Anonymous Bust 2.0

·       2018 FALL MODEL: Ogre Bust

Cheers everyone!

Kill Team - Elucidian Starstriders and Gellarpox Infected painted!

As soon as I saw the initial leaked pics of the Killteam:Rogue Trader set I knew I had to get my hands on it (and I'm in a similar boat with Blackstone Fortress), and over the last couple weeks I've been working my way through the dozens of models. Finally got them to a point where I could take some pics!

While I really wanted the box set for the Rogue Trader minis, I knew that if I didn't paint up the Nurgle dudes first I might not ever actually find the motivation to paint them. Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful, characterful sculpts but if I'm honest I don't much care for the Nurgle aesthetic. I'm a Tzeentch man at heart! Nevertheless, I held my nose, pulled out all the gribbly greens and yellows I had and got to work!

The set includes a ton of insects, slugs, bugs and nurglings! I really dug that every single one is different and they are quite characterful. I tried three separate green skintones across the various models which is more evident on the nurglings. It's subtle, but I think it helps them from being too same-y.

The three corrupted servitors are probably my favorite models from the Gellarpox side. A rather cool fusion of the Plaguebearer and Servitor look!

The four 'big guys' were entertaining, and you can really see the skin tone variations on them. Thoroughly disgusting models all around, and at the end I'll admit I had a pretty good time painting them.

Once the Gellarpox Infected were complete I could dig in to the models that got me interested in the box set in the first place, the Elucidian Starstriders! Thoroughly enjoyed painting each of the models in the set and I kinda wish there were more of 'em!

First up were the armsmen and I'll admit the color scheme sort of got away from me on 'em. I try to keep my colors to a three-set maximum, but after getting the red, white and blue down on the clothes and armor, I knew their weapons needed to pop, and they got yellow housings. Riotous, but perhaps befitting a Rogue Trader entourage - A group of folks not known for their restraint!

The other five models in the set are each a bit more individualist. The medicae got the contractually-obligated white labcoat and the tech-envoy got the usual -Martian red. The death cultist was done up in red and black (naturally) and the good boy got some armor to match the armsmen and a doberman color scheme. Finally the rogue trader herself got some Mardi Gras green/purple/yellow to help her stand out from the rest of the force a bit.

All in all this was a really fun bunch of models to paint up and I'm 100% looking forward to taking on the wider array of models coming out with Blackstone Fortress next week. Can't wait to get 'em in front of the painting servitor!

In other news, got my event tickets purchased for Adepticon, which mean that there's more heresy on the horizon now that I have a better idea of what I'll need to take with me to the event. In a slight change of pace I'll also be participating in the Necromunda campaign on Saturday out there, and am already scheming on what to take! Gonna be good times!

Necromunda - House Cawdor gang painted!

More Necromunda today with the Brotherhood of the Benificent Creator, a House Cawdor gang! I really dig how GW has been tweaking the background and aesthetic of the various gangs, and House Cawdor is no exception. They really changed up the rag-tag look of the models, but still maintained some design cues with the old metals which I appreciate. They're definitely more emaciated and ragged overall and while my initial gut impression was less favorable, once I had them in-hand I have to say I did a 180 and absolutely adore them!

In a callback to my old metal gang from back in the day, the new version got a blue-and-yellow paint scheme which always pops nicely. I tried to ensure that each of the repeat poses got a mirror image color scheme (one got yellow pants and blue shirt and the other got blue pants and yellow shirt, for example).

The gang leader and champion are both just dripping with character, I love all the candles and scavenged equipment!

The idea that the members of House Cawdor saw soem art of the Adeptus Custodes and atempted to build guardian spears to emulate the guardians of the Emperor is really a nice touch, and I had to add four guys swinging around these unwieldy monstrosities!

On the other end of the scale I like having a few gunfighters in my gangs so several guys got a pair of pistols, a pistol and axe combo, and one brother with a scavenged autogun and a molotov cocktail, because you can't go wrong setting the unbelievers on fire, now can you?

Rooting around in the Closet of Doom I uncovered a pair of old metal Juves (still bummed that GW hasn't done any bespoke Juve models in the new sets), and was pleased to see they fit right in to the new aesthetic. Hoping the get them running through the underhive this coming weekend!

Necromunda - Spyrers, Hired Guns, Hive Scum and Robots!

Howdy folks! Been having some issues getting new pics uploaded to my galleries, but finally got it sorted out and have a whole slew of new pics ready to go! After working on a ton of heresy stuff, I thought I'd take a breather and switch gear to do a mess of Necromunda models who have been lurking on the to-be-painted shelf for months, if not years. Buckle up for a couple weeks worth of painting!

First up is one of the oldest models that have been rattling around the Closet of Doom for decades, the Spyrer Patriarch! I essentially had to paint him in the green and yellow of the classic "Doc Ock" scheme, and I'm going to be hard-pressed not to refer to him as "Apothecary Cephalopod" now!

Figured I ought to take a quick snap of the whole hunt team. Part of me want to see if I can find the alternate poses for each of the four 'basic' spyrers and get them painted up as well!

Next up are a trio of Hired Guns from the recent Forge World releases, Grendl Grendlsen, Belladonna and Eyros Slagmyst. Really enjoyed painting them up, especially Grendl - Had to give him the classic House Mjolnir paint scheme!

As a contrast, I also painted up a trio of old hired guns from the original release back in the day - Biceps McSixpack, Frellin' Tom, and Ever-Ready Evan.

As a callback to a friend's old gang, Eats Bad Fungus the Ratskin Scout got a lick of paint. I always loved this model, it's by far my favorite of the Ratskin sculpts.

Similarly, as an homage to my dubby Dave's old Pit Slave gang, Dr. Whirlygig the Pit Slave Champion is ready to rampage through the underhive!

In other news, I love to trawl the interwebs for likeminded folks who enjoy the old Rogue Trader era minis and aesthetic, and ran across a fellow who had sculpted up some robots based on some art from the 1st edition rulebook. I had to get my mitts on a few!

They're scaled to fit on 40mm bases and I don't really have any use for them in 30k/40k, but they'll work really well as some counts-as Ambots for a planned Necromunda scenario in the near future!

More stuff to come shortly, as I work through the photo backlog!

Heresy Era World Eaters - When life hands you lemons...

...BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

The plan all along was to do a Shadow Crusade force with the Word Bearers, and as I'm working on Argel Tal, I was more or less obligated to do his battle buddy, Kharn!

Pretty jazzed with how he turned out, it makes perfect sense to use the commander of the force as the paint test model, right? ...Right?

Fairly straightforward paint scheme - Primered grey, followed by Vallejo Stonewall Grey and Ghost Grey drybrush over the armor followed by a 50/50 wash of Army Painter Dark Tone and Lahmian Medium. Once that dried I picked out some edges with Ghost Grey again, then went over the model and re-blacked in all the piping and metal in preparation for further colors. The blue is based on a 50/50 mix of Imperial Blue and Stonewall Grey (an excellent suggestion from the rockstar painter John Stiening), which turns into a great desaturated blue - Interestingly it looks much darker in the pics than it does in real live, likely a function of the white balancing. Still, I dig it!

NOCF Fall Charity Raffles are live! Featuring some familiar pointy-eared gits...

I've been a little remiss in my blogging this month (been a bit of a rough ride) but I wanted to help spread the word about another set of awesome charity raffles the folks from NOVA are putting on - Quite a few awesome armies and individual models, including a set of Exodite Aeldari that may look familiar!

 

For a mere $5 you can enter for a chance to win these pointy-eared gits, as well as all sorts of awesome other models!

The raffle launched on Monday, October 15, and run until November 25, so there's still plenty of time to get your tickets, and the money goes to a number of fantastic causes! 

Here's the scoop:

• Tickets are available from novaopenfoundation.org

• We will ship to winners anywhere in the world (with a valid mailing address)

LINKS:

Home Page                 https://novaopenfoundation.org/

Links to the various raffles below!

Armies                         

·       2018 FALL ARMY: 40K Board Game, The Lost Patrol

·       2018 FALL ARMY: 40K Exodite Aeldari

·       2018 FALL ARMY: Dark Age Forsaken St. Isaac Army

·       2018 FALL ARMY: FOW Mid-War Italian Tank Company

·       2018 FALL ARMY: FOW Team Yankee – American Armored Cavalry Company

·       2018 FALL ARMY: Necromunda Underhive

Models

·       2018 FALL MODEL: 40K Nurgle Chaos Knight

·       2018 FALL MODEL: Banshee Anonymous Bust 1.0

·       2018 FALL MODEL: Banshee Anonymous Bust 2.0

·       2018 FALL MODEL: Ogre Bust

Cheers everyone!

Dreadtober 2018 - House Vyronii Armigers complete!

More Dreadtober goodness this morning! It's been kind of nice having two projects going at the same time - When I get tired of the red and black of the Word Bearers I've been able to bounce over to the green and white of House Vyronii. ...But not any longer, as my pledge for Dreadtober 2018 is now complete!

First up are the Armiger Warglaves, all set for close-in work with their Melta weapons and close combat weapons.

And second are the Armiger Helverins, which are probably my favorite of the two varieties. Really dig the twin autocannon look!

All in all I'm really happy with them, they were a blast to build and a joy to paint. Now we'll see if I can actually get them on the tabletop at some point!

Head on over to http://dreadtober.blogspot.com/ for more Dreadtober goodness!

Heresy Era Word Bearers - Argel Tal built!

All of the various bits and kits I'd ordered to build Argel Tal finally arrived and I could get cracking on attempting to get a model that's been rattling around in my head for years out on to the tabletop!

Vargheist wings, some custodes weapons, a possessed arm and a torso from the FW Gal Vorbak kit were laid out and dry fit to get a feel for what was going to need to be trimmed away - including the head to make way for one that more closely matches the description of a bestial face in the books.

I was really jazzed by how the parts fit together - Had to trim down the wings a little and cut the two arms back from the shoulder a touch, but minimal greenstuffing was going to be required!

The wings are perhaps juuuust a touch too large, but I think it gives him a real sense of presence. I'd test-fit a set of Dark Eldar Scourge wings which definitely looked anemic compared to the bulk of the model, and Hive Tyrant wings would have been massive. These worked out about as well as I could ask for!

Tried to blend the wings into the pack and keep the organic look going, we'll see how it works out once I get some paint on him!

The intent in-game is to run him as a Praetor with a jump pack, artificer armor, iron halo, and a master-crafted paragon blade and bolter to represent the Custodes weaponry. Not a perfect fit, but I figure most heresy players wouldn't mind!