Horus Heresy - Tactical Marines

First, I'd like to say I hope everyone who celebrated it had a Happy Thanksgiving yesterday. I know mine was very good, lots of cooking, eating, drinking, and spending time with family (both near and abroad).

But now, on to the next set of minis. Here are the first four from a group of eight Tactical Marines I'm painting up for this Killzone project. Back in 2005/6 when I was working on my original batch of Death Guard, I painted up a Tactical Squad that won me a Staff Golden Demon trophy. I was torn this time, because I knew I wanted to include some new models and I also loved my old squad. What should I do paint-wise? (particularly as GW had stopped production of all the old paints I had used.)

In the end I decided to repaint my old models, so that everything would match my new scheme (painted using P3 Bastion Grey as the base). I hope you like them.

Cheers
Dave

Horus Heresy - More Breachers

Finally got a bit of time to shoot some of my latest paint jobs in front of the lights. I've almost completed my little Killzone project, just four more Tactical Marines to go.

I'm still undecided on the final basing, and therefore weathering, treatment for my models. It'll be either dark grey and rusted metal, or much darker and sootier. Let me know what you guys think.

And now, on to the Breachers. I hope you like them.

Cheers
Dave

Remember, remember, it's another Movember!

I promised you all a Movember post, and here it is : )

Last year, a bunch of us from the Guns Of April crew signed on for the Movember effort. This year, a few returned (Brien, Jamie, and myself) and we were joined by my friend Chris. You can check out our team page here, or my Mo page here.

Please take a little time to check out the work being done by the Movember team to combat various mens' health issues, including testicular and prostate cancer, and mental health.

And donate if you can : )

Cheers
Dave

Horus Heresy - Death Guard Breacher

Hopefully I'll be able to set up my lights this week and get some more shots of the latest Death Guard goodness, but until then, here's a Death Guard Breacher ready to storm forward into action!

And be warned, get your wallets out, a Movember post is coming very soon!

Cheers
Dave

The Flight - Part Five

I'm back with another update of work on my Inquisitor warband diorama "The Flight". Click on the link here to take you back to the last four updates.

Well, this update shows the work so far on Sister Aaliyah, the Repentia soul-bonded to my inquisitor. Above you can see the initial take on her. Using Dark Elf Corsair legs and Daemonette torso and head, I'd got quite a ways down the track to having her done...

Then GW released the new Dark Elf models. I went halves in the Cauldron of blood model with a friend who really wanted the Medusa. Below you can see my second version of Aaliyah underway. Still a bit more work to be done, but I'm enjoying the slenderness of her frame, particularly when compared to the bulk of Urgo-Wrath.

Anyway, I'll leave these images here. Feel free to tear them apart ; )

Cheers
Dave

Horus Heresy - The Death Guard begin

Some time in 2006 I started working on a Pre-Heresy Death Guard army (or I guess you could call it a Great Crusade Death Guard army). I painted up a few squads (two of which picked up Staff Golden demons for me), and built roughly 1,000 points to play in the AdeptiCon 2007 team tournament.

Since that time they've really just sat back and watched a lot of other folks work their magic on the aesthetics of the Horus Heresy period, and they've certainly been waiting for me to bolster their ranks with some Forge World goodies. Well, now is that time. A few friends have started talking about doing some 30K gaming at Adepticon 2014, so I guess it's time to pull my finger out and get painting.

First on deck is this seriously cool Contemptor Dreadnought with twin Kheres-pattern assault cannons. Two Heavy 6, S6, Rending guns on an AV13 body? Sign me up.

Anyway, this guy was my first model base painted with my Badger Khrome airbrush. It was an interesting experience trying to get the highlights in the right place, and there's certainly a lot of room for improvement, but I'm very happy with how it gave me some nice indications of where to enhance shades and highlights with a brush, and some of the lovely smooth transitions.

Since these photos were taken, I've repainted the left knee-pad to match the color of the shoulders (helping to move the eye around the model (thanks Chris and the others for your insistence on this).
Of course, the firestorm-ravaged base of Istvaan III still needs to be completed, followed by plenty of ash and soot being added to the lower legs.

Until next time!

Cheers
Dave

More Mechanicum Menials

What a busy week. I haven't had as much time to blog as I would have liked, but most nights I've been crashing on the couch as soon as the girls are in bed. So, expect a few more posts over the next week (if I can stay awake).

First up are three more Mechanicum menials. Two are converted from Forgeworld
Vraksian priests, the third is a Night Goblin conversion I did back with the others, but somehow misplaced on my incredibly clean painting table ; )

There were some fairly extensive conversions done to the guy on the left, extra cables added, resin cables replaced, a cool "Tentacle Maker" arm (including a connector to interface with communications arrays), and other elemtns from an Imperial Guard voxcaster. The guy on the right is almost completely untouched, just a few areas where some bubbles needed to be filled. The little guy in the middle was built much like these were.

I'll be putting them on Dragon Forge Tech Deck bases as soon as my package arrives tomorrow : )

Also on my painting table is this brute - Frank Hyde. I've had him for a little while now, but was never sure what to do with him. When I saw the cool new plinths from Secret Weapon Miniatures I new I finally had a setting for him. I'm going to be trying out a few new techniques (for me at least) on Frank, so don't expect to see him finished anytime soon. If you are interested in seeing Frank with an excellent paintjob, head to the Infamy Miniatures website and check out all the goodness there.

Cheers
Dave

The Flight - Part Four

Another update on my Inquisition-themed diorama. Click these links to see Parts One, Two, and Three.

The first model to check out is Areta, Inquisitor Bartok's Assassinatrix. Areta actually started out as a potential part of my Mechanicum army (after being inspired by the assassin in the story of the same name), but once I'd read Anthony's story for my diorama, I knew I could repurpose her.

Built from Dark Eldar Wyche parts, I think she has a great, coiled menace about her. Following on from the idea of having all the henchmen with shrouded or augmented sight, I think I'll be adding some bionic eyes to Areta.

And then there's Saskia, Bartok's telekine. I'm thinking that  should either put up a veil over her face, or simply paint her eyes without pupils. Still a lot more work to go, and lots of fiddly details on the bodice and skirts of her dress.

Cheers
Dave