Weekly War Report #7

This week I didn't have a chance to set up the gaming table and the scenery so its back to models floating in the void of time and space which does horible things to the focus of my camera at times, so apologies.

Anyway, this week has been all about the test models for Forgebane and much everything else has stayed in the work in progress case. First up we have the Necron Overlord...

… he needs a lot of highlighting and some drybrushing but I'm happy with the general effects. The cape and scythe in particular, which are Stegadon Scale Green washed black and drybrushed with Thunderhawk Blue Dry Compound, is a nice effect that I think I'll try to replicate on vehicles and Canoptek units. I'm less happy with the brass effect on the backplate but since its another drybrush method it should improve with practice.

On the side, since I was doing repeated coats of Rakarth Flesh on the Overlord, I decided to do the same to some Dark Vengeance Deathwing Terminators I've had lying around for a while. As you can see they're only bone on one half, this is because the eventual plan is to do a small Angels of Redemption Deathwing army.

On the Mechanicus side I have rather more models lying around because I bought a bunch when they first came out and, being me, did very little with them after that. 

The Tech-Priest Dominus is the most complete, of course, since I'm testing out methods on him and then extending them to the other units. The silvers are the only block colour yet to do and then I can get to more shading and detail work. As you can see, I gave up on the Voss Prime colour scheme early on and switched to Stygies VIII. It wasn't even that Voss Prime's quartered red and yellow looked bad on the this model its just I couldn't work out how to extend the colour scheme to vehicles and servitor units.

Next we the Sicarian Ruststalkers who are a much, much better colour test for the Stygies VIII colour scheme because they have the blue undershirts on them that the Dominus lacks. They're coming along nicely though the Dominus taught me to hold off on the shading until all the block colours are done which is why it all looks so much brighter.

Showcase: Flesh Tearers Vanguard kitbash

Before I undercoat them, I just wanted to post some pictures of my Flesh Tearers Vanguard made with the Horus Heresy Mark IV armour set and a big old pile of spare melee weapons. I didn't have much of a plan going in, I just slapped things together however they best seemed to fit but I'm quite pleased with the results:

Okay, I'm not too sure what the chap with the power sword is meant to be doing. Exhorting his brothers to advance, perhaps? Regardless, I think they'll look fantastic as a unit (or two, depending on my needs), though that's probably more down to Maximus armour looking amazing than any of my input.

I also slapped together this little fellow out of spares...

… and some day he'll act as a colour test to see if I can apply the Angels Of Redemption colour scheme to power armour, which is a bit more complicated to halve than than Cataphractii Terminator plate that was my first experiment. 

What to do with my Betrayal At Calth models?

I bought the set in a moment of enthusiasm. I have pretty much zero interest in Horus Heresy as a game system. It had Maximus armour in, though, plastic Maximus armour! My issues with Forge World resin are well-documented (another reason the game doesn't appeal to me, too much FW resin) and Maximus armour is my favourite Space Marine armour mark. Hell, I committed to a Black Templars army back in the day just because the upgrade sprue came with a Maximus chest plate.

Aesthetic reasons are the best reasons to do things, shut up!

So, yeah, I didn't have anything to do with those models once I had them. The only reason I painted the Contemptor Dreadnought for my Flesh Tearers was because it was the first opportunity that presented itself. And, of course, the other dsay a sudden craze made me decide to paint the Legion Praetor as an Angel Of Redemption.

So what else have we got to work with?

Cataphractii Terminators

For a start, the Cataphractii Terminators are getting painted as Angels Of Redemption. I really like the way the Praetor came out and I want to have a whole squad like that. This also has a double benefit of giving me something to do with the Dark Angels from my Dark Vengeance set some time down the line (I bought it for the Chaos stuff).

Dark Apostle

He's getting a head swap. Loathe as I am to damage a perfectly good set of Maximus, he needs either a skull helm or a bare head to become a Flesh Tearers Chaplain. I love the plastic Death Company Chaplain but he has a jet pack and the Death Company I'm painting right now are on foot so this will make a good addition to the squad.

Tactical Squad #1

I have been hoarding pistols and melee weapons ever since I started my Flesh Tearers army and here is where I get to use them: a ten man Vanguard Squad with all sorts of cool poses. I have a bunch of pistols, chainswords and various power weapons from different kits so no two models should look the same. Plus, being armed for close combat they won't have boltguns obscuring their lovely armour.

Tactical Squad #2

Right, so this squad of ten models is going to contribute to twenty figures. Here's how its going to work...

For a start, the ten torsos and heads will be used to augment a Blood Angels Tactical Squad. This will leave me with ten spare Blood Angels torsos and plenty of heads to augment vanilla Space Marine kits later on.

Of the remaining parts, five sets of legs, backpacks and weapon arms will be used to build a unit of Alpha Legion Headhunter Kill Team for my Chaos forces.

The other five sets of legs and such will be hybridised with some MkIII torsos and heads I have left over from making some Forge World Plague Marines (never... again... I don't care how much I spent on those kits, they are tantamount to unbuildable and I will just wait for the plastics) and a Dark Angel Veterans box set to make a squad of ten Fallen.

Tactical Squad #3

And here I run out of ideas. There's not really anything else I want to do for my Flesh Tearers and I absolutely do not want to paint Maximus armour with its basically bare chestplate in the Angels Of Redemption's halved colour scheme. So, with nothing functional to do with them, I have a few possibilities for more decorative, challenge myself sort of projects.

I could build them as Black Templars. I have plenty of the upgrade parts sitting around. I could paint them as Alpha Legion if the Headhunters come out well. I've also always loved the Sons Of Horus colour scheme so I might try my hand at that, there being an excellent WarhammerTV tutorial on YouTube. 

Bone armour, a hobby milestone

Away this weekend doing Easter things so instead of Death Company progress and this week's hobby goal here's a picture of something that has eluded me for years and I finally got right by accident:

Bone armour. I've been trying to crack this for years and I finally do it by being overzealous withmy base coating. That bone is just three or four layers of Rakarth Flesh that was meant to be a base for Ushabti Bone but it came out so well I just did a recess wash of Seraphim Sepia and called it a day.

He's an Angel Of Redemption because I had a sudden craze to paint a halved colour scheme just to push my skills a little and I had no plans for this Praetor. Actually, I need to find a use for most of my Betrayal At Calth models, I've still only painted the Dreadnought. I bought it because I love Maximus armour, it is my favourite mark, and yet I haven't found any use for it yet at all.

I have a set of Forge World Alpha Legion Headhunters conversion parts but that's five guys out of thirty. I definitely want to do some of them as Flesh Tearers because that that colour scheme looks so sweet on Maximus plate.