Paint scheme test

Seeing as the last post had no pictures, I thought i'd better do something to redress that, thus, a paint test for the IST's.

I wanted a scheme that says "black ships" but keeps the gritty feel I'm aiming for with the army, so I went with black and red predominantly with some green accents. technically the scheme is one that's easy to do because i've a fair few of these guys to paint, but it's also a scheme I could spend a lot of time on if I wanted, this guy took about 2 hours, including drying time. If i paint 3-4 at a time that'll be about 2.5-3 hours for 4 guys. I can live with that.

Characters will obviously get more attention that this, but at the end of the day I am going to play with these guys, not display them.

Enough preamble, here he is.

Your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

A trail by Ork

I was fortunate last night that a freaind of mine offered to give my new, grey-primed =][= Boys thier first outing. I played against my own Ork army, 870 points of as yet unbeaten green fury. these guys have taken out marines, tau, and now Daemonhunters.

I mean, I wasn't expecting to win, this army wasn't built to win, it was built because I like the background and wanted to make an army I could add my own flair too, and I find marines etc too restrictive If i'm Honest.

I wont give you a full batrep mainly because I was drinking and didnt bring my camera :) but let's just say these guys performed better than expected. I did get all 3 of my chimeras poped, but I also made mistakes, I didnt use my smoke for one. My Lord managed to hold a huge number of boyz at bay thanks to his shiny new TH and his 2+ save, but his retinue were creamed. I lost 1 platoon entirely and other were sting badly. losses on the Ork side include a trukk and it's full compliment of shoota boys, a large nymber of Boys and 5 deffkoptas, the latter pleasing me enourmously, but the last 1 held out.

In hindsight, If I wanted to guild these guys to win i'd swap out the plasma, it's terribly unreliable, but for flavour I like having a squad of nutters who will use plasma and assault anything even when they havent a chance.

What did I leanr? that over time, and with more points to play with this list could be sucessful for me, that i need to stay mobile and avoid large groups of CC :) Also that i think a CC lord could be a viable option, which is quite scary.

What's next for the army? well paint obviously, and I think lots of options, to keep playtesting different things. I want to see what happens when I drop a Daemonhost next to a group of Boyz, I want to see if i can build a CC Lord's retinue, I want to try some Valk mounted PAGK's and I want to know what happens if i take the list I played yesterday and give it Guard armour, like maybe an eradicator.

Start simple and build from there.

So I sat down and started Greenstuffing the last few guys before I start both the mass priming exercise, and the experiments with the Daemonhosts.

I started out with a plain, actually quite dull cloak. This acolyte hasnt been treated well tonight, I'll call him my "warm-up guy" and put some more detail on that cloak tomorrow (it hasnt photgraphed well tbh, its more contoured than that, but my new photo rig has eliminated most of the shadow!)



The next guy to recieve my careful ministration came off slightly better, and photgraphs better too, thus-


I can live with that one.

The last of the acolytes saw me "trying something" this happens a lot and isn't always sucessful. I usually have to at least sleep on it before i can decide wether to reach for the scalpel and start again.

so what am i unsure about? the whole split cloak/coat robe thing, that and the slightly square bulge on his back. after Karl's hunchback incident i've been careful to reduce the mass there, but not to eradicate it as while i dont want the reactor an astartes carries, i do want some sense that the power armour has a powerplant.. herm.

Lastly i gave my Lord some love.

I kept the front view farily clean, as I really liked the result of the last photographs in his WiP state. I kept most of my work this evening to his rear


I started with just a hanging robe and while that looked okay the powerplant stump was irritating, so i took to a sort of "walking shrine" motif, to echo the torso detail, i then added the scroll cases and book, but the book was just floating, looked odd, so i tried to add straps and chains. not sure how sucessful that was, but as always i'm sleeping on it.

the last thing was the larger unfurled scroll, which obscures some GS work, but i think ties the back together. theres a purity seal getting glued on the front to hold his robe in place to his chest, but apart from basing (and of course the right reserved to change my mind tommorrow) I think that's him done. a far cry from the large, furry cloak I had in my mind when I sat down though.

funny how these things happen, eh?

Squad build phase complete!

That's the bulk of the boys done.

I might at a later date add 1 more box of scouts to take me to a nice even 10 men in each squad, but right now the two squads getting elite =][= assistance bring it to 8 mean in each chimera.

before i go on to show you these guys i want to quickly run down what's left to do.

I have the GS on the Lord and the three new acolytes to do, I have a Daemonhost to build, two chimeras to buy and build then i'm done.

the rest as we escalate is inducted guard, some vetrans, a couple of russ' and a command squad. that's the plan to 1.5k so far.

anyway enough deliberation, here are the squads.

Squad 1, my tank hunters.

sergeant and specials, melta guns, what else!

the rest of the boys


this squad is all soft head coverings if any, a mix of beret, headband and kepi/forage hat.

squad 2, my versatile unit

sergeant and specials, grenades launchers provide anti horde, or anti vehicle in a pinch

rest of the boys

all helmeted and bearded here, even the one without has one on his belt :)

squad 3, the speartip

the sergeant and specials, plasma for these lunatics

The rest of the boys

And here is the finished elite =][= with psycannon.


Lastly, while he still needs both his powercables and cloak GSing i thought i'd share with you the current state of my Lord.

the Hammer i think looks better, it is after all a Malleus :)

more than that it lets me vary his points, and with the other acolytes i have and servo skulls etc, i can rig him for CC if i ever feel suicidal in a game, the hammer being able to be a TH, CC weapon or Daemonhammer as i choose.

Thanks for tuning in, next time i hope i'll have him and his acolytes finished, after that, priming and Daemonhost building fill my week, lots to try out on my little pet infernus.

A full Squad plus transport

Well I finally built the two Chimeras I've had sat here for a while. odd model, lots of components you'll never see and seem to do nothing, so the second one I built has a lot less of them. now, what to do with some road wheels and track hrm...

anyway pictures only for the sake of completeness, I expect everyone has seen these before.



now, the Squad, here's thier sergeant with a combi-melta

and now in pairs, two troopers, one with melta



and the two I'm less sure of, one in a kepi/forage hat and one in beret. the latter looks a little GI joe for my tastes,. I might scrap him or at least his head in favour of another forage cap or Helmet.

and now bonus material, with ponderances.

here are the three new acolytes, I'm fairly happy with them so far, but not sure which of the recent plasticard shoulder pad styles I've experimented with to employ (or even the deathwath =][= pads, as I have some) and what cloak/coat/thing to use. anyway procratination got Hamlet's family killed, so here they are -

The first guy is a bit pointy. but I've had that head for ages and love the half chrome "terminator" thing he has going on.



I suppose this guy is my "Gears of war" Homage, I had to use up some of the chainsword blades I've had kicking around.
Lastly the guy "presenting the bill" not sure what's going on here, but hey, I went with it :)
That's it for this update. I'm happy with the way these guys are coming together so I've got some more scouts on horder and a few new heads coming, a mix of interesting bitz heads and my feeble GS additions should keep each guy fresh.

just need to let my fevered brain work out what it's doing with those three acolytes now.