AoBR Grey Knight Terminator Conversion

Well, "ish". I thought I'd paint him up before I posted him, It's been probarbly one of the more diffcult things I've tackled, from the point of view of being happy with the result.

I've also been quite frustrated by the slow progress due to a stinking cold, well actually two stinking colds in a row. not my year it seems for those. anyway with a little help from Ron (thanks Ron) I'm kinda happy with it.

I can list some flaws that I want to correct next time out of the gate, The border width isn't consisent on all the pads, and the supergule does some funny things to card (my first time using card, and wow, both eaier and more difficult than plasticard at the same time) and theres some flat out errors, like he has no magazine on his bolter *ahem*

for m though, the main goals were that it "reads" as a grey knihgt, and that it fits in with the rest of my army.

here he is

I'd be delighted to hear any comments, have more flaws pointed out, be disagreed with, agreeed with or, well, anything really.

oh and I know he's a bit wonky on his base. I'll fix that :)

New Banner

Well, actually a banner rather than just text.

Mate of mine who runs his own blog has spent the afternoon tinkering with some pics of my minis and made me a spiffy new banner.

thanks for that :)

Taking Stock

Now that I’ve established that I’m back after a short absence and I’ve got one of my “to do” project completed reasonably satisfactorily (the Grey Knights) I feel the need to take stock, evaluate where I am at and outline some plans.

At the moment I have the following complete armies at 1000 points –
• Imperial guard
• Orks
• Ultramarines
• Daemonhunters

I can easily bump the DH to 1500 with other figures I have. Add to that I could ally in either of the Marines or Guard I could field 2.5k points. If I use the Marines, they are all painted too. Now they won’t be tactically the greatest force ever seen by a long stretch, but I’m quite happy with that.

I do want to develop the orks further, there are only about 600 points of them painted and they are very basic units. I need to get the guard painted, I’ve 1 guy done and I don’t like him very much. He might have to be “test paint guy” and take one for the team.

My main army will always be the DH though, and I plan to add some GKT’s to the force as soon as I can get over the mental block with the GKT conversion. Oh and I’ve designs on a Land Raider.

That segues neatly on to what’s currently on my painting table.

If I look to my right I can see the 5 aobr terminators in various states of repair as they are going to become my GKT testers. I can see also the aobr dread in ultramarines colours about to be pulled apart to be converted to a GK dread. Theres a chimera half painted and in need of weathering for my Guard/DH For some reason I also have a half painted marauder horseman and a primed Games Day miniature I’m going to paint for a friend.

That’s a pretty clear table for me, but If you wanted to complicate matters we can add the unpainted guard (2 vet squads CC squad and 2Russes) and the unpainted, unconverted Orks (about 15 boys, 4 deffkopters and a bunch of aobr nobs and boss I intend to make into meganobz) Then it starts to look a whole lot scarier.

Let’s rationalise for a second, and talk painting points for the year. Here’s a quick recap of the Lone pilgrim system I came to via Admiral Drax

- Infantry miniatures on standard round bases - 1 point
- complex infantry or equipment, bikes, horses etc. - 2 points
- individual minis (e.g. characters) and easy scenery- 5 points
- Walkers and medium-sized scenery - 10 points
- Tanks* and CoD ruins - 20 points
- Superheavies - 30 points

Since returning to this hobby in early 2009 I’ve racked up 474 painting points. That’s crazy.

I started my first mini for 6 years on the 31st Jan 2009, IT wasn’t even mine, I converted and painted it for a student of mine. (it’s in one of the slideshows to the right, a soul drinkers bannerman with a slight mutation problem) I’ve learned a lot since then, and re-learned a lot too and am having a great time.

I’ve two months to go to hit the year and with the queue on my table and whatever bounties Christmas will bring I look set to top 500 points. I’m not sure if that’s an achievement or a damning indictment.

As far as the blog goes I have taken some new pictures of some of my earlier guys and intend to get some more segregated slideshows up on the side. I also fancy a bit of a posher banner at the top, though I’m unsure what.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

So that’s where I am at. I’m also astounded to see nearly 80 people interested in this blog, so I realise I must put something up that resembles a tutorial soon, by way of a “thankyou and please keep watching” as it’s been a while since I did that to, suggestions there would be very welcome too 

My Faux Grey Knights Squad painted

Brace yourselves, this will be a really pic heavy post.



So there's my 7 man Grey knight analog squad. I must say there are some things here I'm really quite proud of and some things I'm really quite ashamed of

Overall I'm happy with them as a tabletop unit. but let's break it down a bit.

I'm very happy with the bases, I pulled out some stops with them.
I'm happy with the build as these guys are essentially made from scrap.
I'm very pleased with some of the fades in the paint, and with the colours in general.
I'm happy with 50% of the faces :)

Some of the problems -

The washes aren't photographing well, some blotchiness in the black washes is visible in the photographs that cant be seen under normal light, so i'm not worried about that, except in this forum :)

I had a major problem with one product I use, To remove the vaseline I usually use a spectacle cleaning product with an isopropyl alcohol in it, we've changed products and it isnt the same, so I had some areas where I had major paint adhesion issues, even with strong primer.
The solution - dullcote the area. Worked like a charm.

I'm not happy with some of the finer work, the storm bolters while good in conception fell down in my execution a little, the paint adhesion didnt help, but more details were needed on some models. On later builds I have done this better

Some of the fades in the paint job are terrible.

I got a bit sloppy, but I've astinking cold, so I've an excuse ready for that.

I think the single best thing about these models is just how much they have taught me. I've tried new things, and pushed myself (though the results might not show it) in direction I've wanted to go for a while. I need to work on my patience, but in general I think this was a very worthwhile run of minis.

For those interested, here are turnaround shots of each model.

This guy is possibly my favourite, I like the pose and the robed look sets him apart

You can see some of the blotches Ii mentioned on this fellow. He also has one of the poorer storm bolters.

I had to improvise the shoulder pads for some of them, as I didnt have enough of those nifty plastic =][= pads.

It fits the fluff though, if after the time these guys have been "out there" they have had to bodge and reapir gear, it wont all match anymore, now will it? :)

I'm quite pleased with the dynamic posing these assault legs gave me, Though it was by accident, having only those legs in the scrap bin, I might deliberately use this in the future.

This guy was my test build, and he's one of the stronger poses imo, I like the spear he's lugging around, made before I bought the GK arm pack from GW (my only purchase in building these guys)

This one you've seen, I'm calling his single barreled weapon a psycannon. If I decide I dont like it later i may do something a bit more radical.

Last guy, and the face I'm happy with.

my rather unique approach to the posing and gear has left me with one issue. I know, when I build them, who I intended to use as Justicar, but looking at them now, I could use any one of a few.

So in addition to the usual general plea for comments I ask this of you.

Which one of these looks like the Justicar to you?

Thanks for reading.

Grey Knight Bodge paint test

I decided it was time to try slinging some paint around these Grey Knight analogs I'd bodged together, Starting from grey primer, not white as would be my preference for these guys I simply layered on a mix of vallejo greys and punctuated with some metallics.

He's not silver.

Nor is he perfect by any stretch, some of the work is very rough, But i'm aiming for tabletop here, I'll have a good number of these to do.

The paint also showed up a few areas where I was slap dash with my GS, that's something I'm not proud of and will look to rectify with the rest of the unit.

The base is a bit more elaborate than I would normally do for a tabletop mini, but I like it, I liked it so much I've done one for each of the guys I've kitbashed so far.


Also today I decided to "finish" and mount the two DKOK i had been working on, Mainly because I had lost interest in the and If i didnt do it, it would never happen.

They arent finihsed to the degree i wanted, because i simply havent put in the time as I said, I lost interest. but they are "done" :)

Next is either more paint on the other PAGK's or raiding the cupboard for cereal packets to give the termies another go.

Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear anytihng you have to say.

Shoulder the dissapointment

I wasnt happy with last nights shoulder pad attempts.

Both of them were too large in my eyes, and so today i set to to have a fettle.
I only did 1 pad, In an attempt to work quickly and make some descisions.

this first one apes one of my earlier Power Armoured =][=. Its rough and not entirely pleasing, but the size is a little better.

This, I dont know, this just dosent work for me, something , I dont think the original plastic has enough bend in it.

This is a slightly better proportioned take on Ron's pads. I'm leaning more in this direction.

I tried a "lobstered" look, but the results were too bulky to be worth photographing.

Maybe I need to pad out the greaves to balance the additional "weight" up top.

man, the thought of doing upwards of 15 of these guys if I eventually use Ron's method.

ouch.

I wonder if Card is easier to work with.

AOBR Grey Knight?

The fevered brain that I posess has kicked into a strange place.

A place where it seems to be daring me to make my own Grey knight analogs from whatever I have lying around unused.

It is a sickness.

However, with the usual caveat about these guys representing Grey Knights who have been out in the field a Loooong time, in the company of an increasingyl radical Inquisitor and without the benefit of proper repairs etc etc.

I present a couple of attempts at something grey knigtish.

In this first instance, the plastic used for the shoulder has been cut too wide. and there is NO gs at all on him yet, which will be used to smooth some areas and tie things in better. he also need a small sand becuase i had a superglucident and left half my thumb on him. grr.

This second attempt is much more effort, and still needs a tidy up once the glue is set, but may well be a better option, the template is stolen from Ron's pre-heresy tutorial and is remarkably easy to use, I'd appreicate the thoughts of the blogshpere on which is preferable, and in general on the heretical Idea of making GK analogs from aobr termies :)

So very WiP

So You'll have to be gentle with me, In the interests of getting updates out there, I'm posting things in states I wouldnt normally share with the world.

These guys need tons of work, lots of GS and detailing, but I think most of the poses are "done". that said you must bear in mind these are working bases not final, you'll see why :)

I know, GK with a sword, I personally like the idea that they will use different weapon forms, so brace yourselves :)

This is the roughest GS, it's structural rather than finished, and this fellow is likely to be the justicar for the first squad.

Yeah, hes not actually going to lean that far back when he's mounted on rubble :)

this guy also got the first investment, I bought the weapon pack - so thus far these fellahs have cost me six quid. I did originally want to keep it to a totally bitz box build, but i weakened.

This guy has an old old old bolt pistol, which is going to become a wrist mounted psycannon with a little more fettling.

they al need chest work and GS work, detailing, seals skulls etc, and maybe some script, I'm not sure.

The thing to remember is that they aren't really grey knights anymore, I mean, they were but they've been away form home a looong time, and this Inquisitor they follow has a lot of influence. they havent fallen to chaos or anything but thier gear is a bit more ad hoc and "self-serviced" and thier outlook is a little more radical.

oh and they won't be silver.

comments always welcome :)