TOEMP #7 - All Hail The Omnissiah! Part 3 (finally complete!)

Better late than never, as they say - With the extended Thanksgiving holiday I had time to finish off the models I had on deck for the 7th Tale of Even More Painter's challenge. I just wasn't happy with the initial paint scheme I'd chosen for the Archmagos Veneratus, and ended up re-primering it and starting anew.

Overall it turned out more or less like what I had envisioned - This model is by far the most heavily-converted thing I've made, and I was worried that it was going to end up just looking like a pile of random bits based on what it looked like before I primered it. I did notice while painting it however that somewhere along the assembly stage I managed to get one of the banner poles facing the wrong way - I ended up just trying to make do as best I could in the painting stage, as trying to remove the banner pole and reposition it would undoubtedly result in the complete destruction of the model... Doh.

Part of the previous challenge was to finish up a piece of terrain as well (lord knows I have enough unpainted terrain lurking in the Closet of Doom), so I dragged out the Shrine of the Aquila, assembled it and gave it a dash of paint.

I went with a concrete grey scheme but it ended up looking pretty bland, so to spice it up a bit I ran off a couple banners on the ol' color printer, distressed them a bit and made a set of mounting brackets. The splash of red and white definitely makes the piece pop a bit more than it did before. Only a half dozen more buildings to go... Ugh.

Last but not least my FLGS let me know they got in a Fortress of Redemption, and as I don't have nearly enough terrain (hah!) I figured what the heck. It's really quite huge once it's all assembled, so I built it to come apart into two sections for storage. The two sections fit together quite snugly on the tabletop, so I don't foresee much of an issue during gameplay. I'm still pondering how I want to paint it however... With big wide brushes regardless of color, I suppose!

TOEMP #8 - A (Strength 10) Blast from the Past... And some other random nonsense.

Well, after a couple rather non-productive weeks and a failed challenge, deadline-wise on #7, I wanted to get back in form. The challenge this go-round is fairly open as far as unit types to paint, so I decided that I'd crank out one of the final Heavy Support choices for the Mordian 7th - It had been too long since I'd painted any guard, after all!

Although no longer available in the current Guard codex, the Rapier Laser Destroyer is a quad-barreled lascannon mounted on a tracked unit. In the original RT-ere rule set it was rather deadly, and the fine folks over at the Tempus Fugitives website have created a set of rules for it that my local opponents don't seem to mind playing against. I decided on a more red-dominated scheme on this, to represent it being provided to the army and maintained by the Adeptus Mechanicus forces that are part of the 7th.

Speaking of the Adeptus Mechanicus, I ended up re-primering the Archmagos Veneratus after a disappointing initial paint scheme, and I have gotten the base reds back on to the model. I'm hoping to get it finished off over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, if all goes according to plan. Of course, as is my modus operandi, over the last week or so I did hare off on another small side project as well...

Now before anyone goes into shock about the non-GW models, rest assured that they will be put to use in the 40k universe. These models are the next batch of adversaries for my upcoming Rogue Trader campaign, which I'm planning on kicking off over the new year. These six will represent the group's main villains - Haderach Fel and his group of cronies. I did finish up one model so far, as the fluffy bustled dress and sniper rifle combo was just too much fun to resist! The models are from Fantasy Flight Games Anima Tactics range, with a few 40k-stule weapon swaps here and there. Scale-wise they're all a touch taller than the standard 40k model, but not egregiously so. Well, the one guy in the back on the 40mm base is about 7.5' tall apparently, but I'm going to work that into the story, so it'll work out just fine.

This model will represent Lady Irina Demephon, a mad noblewoman with a penchant for dashing ship's captains. ...Dashing ship's captains brains out with high-calibre rounds, to be more specific!

Lastly is the first of several Battlefleet Gothic miniatures in the works - One can't play Rogue Trader without a selection of spacecraft, after all! This will be the player's initial vessel, the Eclipse Du Normandie - a Dauntless-class light cruiser.

I'm looking forward to running the game of Rogue Trader, as I think there's going to be a lot of good crossover opportunity for modeling and painting between that game and 40k. For example, the Eldar Corsairs that I'd built will be pulling double duty - As a Troops choice for the Eldar army, and as members of the Stygian Reavers, a group of Eldar pirates that will be a thorn in the side of the players in the RPG!

TOEMP #7 - All Hail The Omnissiah! Part 2

I managed to finish off the Tech Magos Cabal over the weekend, but haven't made much forward progress on the Archmagos Veneratus - I'm not entirely sure I like where the paint scheme is going on it and may start over. However, I'm fairly pleased with how these five turned out:

On the other hand, after painting up three sets of these over the years, I just now figured out that what I took to be an odd little aspergils in the right hand of the Magos Prime is actually supposed to be connected to the little port on the back of his cherub. Of course, I didn't come to this realization until after I'd finished painting them. Argh.

I've had the Magos Biologis and the two servitors that are part of the set painted for several years, so it's nice to finally have the whole set painted up and ready to use!

It looks to be a relatively quiet weekend coming up, so I'm hoping I can get some brush time and finish off the Archmagos Veneratus. After that I really need to get back to painting the guard...

TOEMP #7 - All Hail The Ommnissiah! Part 1

Well we're coming up on the deadline for the 7th TOEMP challenge, and unfortunately it looks like I'm going to fall short on this one by a day or two. The last couple weeks have been chock full of long hours at work, houseguests, band shenanigans and other distractions and I haven't had a lot of time to put brush to model. However, I wanted to post what I have gotten done thus far! After building and painting the Knight Paladin I was all enthused about the burgeoning Adeptus Mechanicus army that's been lurking on my shelves for years. Using the codex from the Tempus Fugitives website I figured the old Skullz-era models would work well for a Tech Magos Cabal, and I started work on the faces, armor and robes:

I still need to do the metallics, power cables and the yellow/black hazard stripes on them, but they're approaching completion. These have always been hands down my favorite tech priest models, and over the years I've gone through three sets of them. Once I get these five done I'll take a picture of the whole set (several of which have been painted for years).

Next up is the other HQ choice - the Archmagos Veneratus. As described in the codex: "One of the original Tech Priests who codified the Mysteries and Warnings of the Cult Mechanicus over ten millenia ago. As age and technological enhancement stripped them of their humanity, so they became more detached from the day-to-day affairs of the Mechanicus and spent longer periods of time in solitude musing on the destiny of humanity. Occasionally, an Archmagos Veneratus will arrive without warning to take command of a Skitarii Legio. They are answerable to no one, not even the Fabricator General. Their word is Lore and their reasons for involving themselves are unfathomable, much like the exotic battlesuits they pilot into battle."

The model was based on the work of a friend of mine who sent me a box full of Ad-Mech goodies. I ended up rendering it down for parts, but kept to the spirit of the original build - a half-machine torso attached to a massive four-legged walker and armed with a mix of archeotech weaponry. In this case, a Conversion Beamer and a Multi-Melta.

I took advantage of a warm day to primer it and started thinking about how I wanted to paint it - though I only got the basest touch of paint on it before I had to do something else.

Definitely a fun model to build, the Ad-Mech are second only to the Orks in conversion potential, which is one of the main things that draws my interest in the army. Many a bits box delve goes into making the models, that's for sure!

It appears that I have a relatively free weekend coming up, so I hope to be able to finish these off in the next few days. A little short of the deadline, but when push comes to shove, Real Life(tm) must take precedence over the hobby (much as I'd wish otherwise at times)...

Imperial Knight Paladin - Complete!

I'm a big fan of the larger war machines available to the Imperium, Leviathans, Hellebores, and the various Titans - Over the course of my hobby carreer I've owned a number of super heavy vehicles and titans, though for the most part they rarely take to the field. It's hard to justify a 600+ point model in a 1500pt-2000pt game. I think this stems from cutting my teeth on the 6mm systems back in the day, and at the time there were a number war machines that have yet to make their appearance either in the new Epic system or from Forge World. One group in particular I really enjoyed, the Imperial Knights - one-man versions of the mighty Titans, though much smaller and more lightly armed. Back in the Epicast/Armorcast days, there was a prototype knight though I never had the opportunity to purchase one.

I ran across a resin knight analoge on ebay that I had to have as soon as I laid eyes on it. The package arrived and I quickly sorted and washed all the pieces. It came with a number of arm weapon options, though for now I'm just building it out as a Knight Paladin, armed with a closr combat weapon and a battle cannon. I also decided that for storage and weapon swap options I'd magetize the Knight.

I added a little extra cabling here and there, and used a leftover banner for the 'loincloth'. I decided that the Knight would be predominantly red to go along with the rest of the Adeptus Mechanicus. However I also wanted to hearken back to the fluff in adding some quartered 'heraldry' to the model as well.

 

I still need to go in and finish the banners and scrollwork, as well as add some waterslide transfers, but I'm not 100% sure what I want to add.

All in all a very fun model to build and paint. Eventually I'd like to build two more and do a Knight Household, with another Paladin and a Lord of some variety (either a Knight Errant or Lancer). The spare arms that came in the package means I can create a Knight Errant already, though making a Lancer will require a bit of scratch building.

Yo ho, yo ho, a Corsair's life for me...

It's been too cold to primer anything recently, so I broke out the bits and started fiddling around with some Eldar. The fluff for Craftworld Alaitoc suggests they work closely with the various Eldar corsair fleets, and I thought rather than building another squad of Guardians, I'd try my hand at making a squad of Corsairs as a proxy unit instead. I had a number of leftover Shuriken Pistols, so I settled on making them into a squad of proxy Storm Guardians.

I utilized the capes and arms from the Dark Elf Black Ark Corsairs, as I wanted them to look fairly pirate-y without going full blown Dark Eldar. Getting the capes to fit took a bit of cutting and trimming, but they ended up working fairly well.

The unit is armed with Shuriken Pistols and Close Combat weapons, and two of the Corsairs are carrying fusion guns. The banner will have no effect in-game, I just thought it would be a nice-looking addition to the unit. Building them as Storm Guardians also means I'll have two weapons platforms, which I'll build out with a different weapons to provide flexibility for the vanilla Guardian squad when it comes to army list design.

TOEMP #6 - Back to Basics. ...Well, Elites.

Back during challenge #4 for the Tale of Even More Painters, I'd finished building a squad of Storm Troopers utilizing bits from the Marine Scout and Storm models, various Cadian bits, some Forge World heads and the odd length of guitar string. Following my brief foray into the Eldar, I figured that I'd swing back over to the guard for a unit and painted them up:

I enjoyed using the Scouts from the Land Speeder Storm kit - they afforded some interesting poses, I particularly liked building the trooper who's vaulting over a section of wall. I'm not 100% happy with the hellguns however, in retrospect I think I should have utilized the shotguns that come with the scouts as the basis for the weapon as they would have turned out a bit beefier. To make up for it, I added chainswords to various models to remind me that they do in fact carry both a pistol and a CCW.

Part of the current challenge is to utilize a technique that you don't ordinarily try. Since I need the guard to look as uniform as possible, I figured I'd try something new on a Dire Avengers squad instead. First off I primered the models white, which is something that I haven't done in the better part of 20 years! I decided that I'd also go with an ink wash base which is rather atypical as well - I don't use a lot of washes, mostly just on metallics.

It should be interesting to see how they turn out, nonetheless!