Painting Progress

Ah, the lean mean grey machines

So after a dogs age... that Rogue Psyker Coven is finished.  Ok, 99.99% finished, I still need to put some static grass on the bases.  All the painting is finished though!  All I have now is the picture I cobbled together with my iPhone, it's not the best picture though.  My apologies.  I did shoot a batch of pictures earlier today with my DSLR and a photo-cube, but I'm having trouble with manual focusing and depth-of-field issues.  So those pictures were pretty terrible.  Most likely due to older eyes.  However, it did make me realize that I need a new camera with a nice autofocus that won't break the bank.  If anyone has any suggestions, let me know, I appreciate the input.

So here's the unit...

Have a turn will you?

A little bloody, but seeing how they are being used to be conduits for the Warp that my Black Legionnaires exploit... it seemed fitting.  In my mind, they were rounded up; festooned with Warp condensers and amplifiers with the resulting power surges melting their faces off when cursing/blasting what their masters point at.  Speaking of coruscating Warp energies... when these guys get possessed in game, I'll attach a sigil in the base to mark which ones are possessed.  Because last game was confusing trying to keep track of who was, or wasn't, possessed.  If you're familiar with the illustrator Wayne Douglas Barlow's work Inferno you'll have an idea of how it will look.  A demonic sigil as a halo right behind, or above, the head.  Now I just need to get some white base paint, and I'll be all set to do the rogue-witch flesh.  But before that guy, who is the big bad of my R&H, the Renegade Ogryns and their Hounds are ready to be finished.  Ogryns are past the black out stage, Hounds still need it, but all the flash is done.

One of Mr. Barlow's illustrations... I love his work.

There was a lot of good little discoveries for this batch of minis.  Namely... a good "leather", exposed bone, and unhealthy skin tone color recipes.  Sometimes I just paint, other times I'm really trying to make sure that I can repeat a certain result so I document the entire process to make sure of that.  Since these minis are the first lot of my R&H, I want to be able to repeat most of these results over the rest of the force.  If anyone wants to know how a certain area was done, just ask.  I don't mind sharing at all.  

I have to admit in all my years of painting minis, I never thought that white primer would be so nice to work with.  Prime white, do all the flesh tones with washes, black out everything else, and block in base colors.  It's been a little labor intensive, but it's been an enjoyable process for me.  I'm a very slow painter remember, but I really want to try that Spartan conversion... and I'm holding on to getting some painting done before I buy anything else.  The back log has been big for a bit, I'd like to knock some units out for a change.  

Something is stirring...

These were taken shortly before communication was lost with the scouts sent in to investigate rumors of cult activity in a abandoned hab-block.  There were no traces of the team left whatsoever.  One building had sustained damage that was previously unrecorded prior to this incident, and small amounts of blood were found at the scene.  

One thing to especially note is the angle of the pictslates, these were taken from a second story window... so the subjects are rather large.  It is speculated that they are some type of unknown Knight, possibly even a Warhound variant not seen since the Heresy.  The corruption is evident, and any resemblance to the machines of the God-Emperor they had, has long been tainted and twisted into something far worse than the nightmares of man.

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Astartes and Inquisitorial support requested

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-Priority Alpha-

Seek, assess, and more than likely destroy with extreme prejudice

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Knight Madness

I'm a university adjunct professor, and as such my posting is erratic... but damn... you'd have to be dead to not know about the impending gaming Viagra called Imperial Knights.

The best Knight ever.

Ok, sooooooo... Imperial Knights seem to have won over the Internet, and not in a small way either.  This seems to be a kit that GW has nailed for it's collecting AND gaming bases.  A huge kit, loads of detail, what looks like not over the top rules... now lets just see about the Freeblade option.  That's what has me curious.  Can I take the Obsidian Knight, haha GW I see what you did there, and use it for my Black Legion?  Now that, that right there would make me be a happy little warmonger.  There is a catch though...

I don't really like the model personally.  Like a lot of projects I get into, this will be a conversion and it will be extensive.

I love this thing.

So onto the madness.  So yeah, I don't really care for the GW Knight.  Sue me.  What I do like, is Dreamforge's Leviathan.  The 28mm scale version of the Leviathan is 8.5 inches (~22 cm) tall, that puts it at just over a 1/2 inch (~1.25 cm) taller than the official GW Knight.  Usually, the Leviathan goes for $120 US, only $20 less than the GW kit.  HOWEVER, Dreamforge is running a sale until the 28th of February... that $120 Leviathan is now $75... $75... OMG it's ONLY $75 RIGHT NOW!

I'll let that sink in a bit.  

So for $75, plus shipping, you get a Knight sized model that has swappable weapon arms.  Add in a "battle cannon" and you just made a Knight Paladin for $100.  I normally don't do this kind of product placement but that is just to good to pass up.  I'll probably do a review and size comparison when it gets here.

Boom Boom... ya dig?

Now, like all the other conversion projects I have going on, this will eat up bits... this is good, as I have way too many bits just sitting around.  In the picture of the Leviathan there are two small barrels just under the shoulder plates in the front, some barrel extensions and there we have the heavy stubbers.  I have plenty of Chaos icons and banners from both 40k and Fantasy to banner it out proper.  Add some plasticard trim, GS the joints on the trim, and add some points to it... the armor plating is done.  How far to take the head is a good question. Keep it semi meched out or start the famous Chaos organics?  Probably looking at FW Chaos Titans will be helpful to see what they kept and what they mutated from the inferior loyalist version.

Now another  question is how far do I modify the sword?  Do I go extensive and make a chain blade?  Or go REALLY extensive and make it a more organic blade?  That's my problem with models like this, they are so awesome for being just detailed enough to stand on their own but really shine if you put some thought into them.


Hopefully this bad boy will be in my hands around spring break! (fingers crossed)

Dark Mechanicus inspired Warpsmith

The previous article dealt with what I had been working on for a while, these next few articles will detail some of projects more in concept and execution.


So, it is an established fact that I love converting.  This is a pretty safe statement.  I think I actually like it more than the painting because it's more of a challenge to me.  If it doesn't look right to begin with, no amount of paint is going to fix it.  Like any other canvas... it needs to be put together well, primed, and then finally painted upon.  Which got me thinking about some of the other choices in the Chaos 'Dex, and how I would go about incorporating them into my own force.

This all started with the Warpsmith.  It has spread to other types of models as well.  I remember the War Smiths for Iron Warriors and the Dark Apostles for Word Bearers and their rules to their respective factions.  Fast forward to today.  Now I get the design ideal that Chaos is moving toward, or has moved toward, mixed units/cults per warband.  I just don't agree with them(GW) too much in regards to some of the characters... like the Warpsmith and Dark Apostle.  These, I feel, should have been left for an appropriate Supplement/Dataslate and not shoe horned into the main book.  But here they are!  So how do I make them fit into my force?  Why convert them of course!

To be very honest I really love the idea of the Warpsmith.  Who doesn't love BS 5 on ANY gun, or the Eye of Night from the Black Legion supplement, no one that's who!  I just hate the model, and not because of it's design but because of its material.  I'd rather jam a hot poker someplace than try and work with that stuff again.  I don't like the springy nature of Finecast, the mix has sometimes been to brittle so finer pieces has snapped as well... just from cleaning before assembly.  I've had enough negative experiences to outweigh the good ones.  So there were some things that had to be in place before starting my Warpsmith...

1. Needs to be plastic.  Just because it's such a nice material to work with, it's durable, temperature resistant, did I mention it's nice to work with?  ;-)

2. How about NOT a marine?  I have seen some very cool Warpsmith conversions using several different types of Chaos Marines, but then this little memory came bubbling to the surface.  The Dark Mechanicus.  Now if you think there are a lot of Warpsmith conversion, which there are, try Googling "dark mechanicus conversions".  There is some wicked stuff out there, and people using all sorts of bits from all sorts of kits.  The community, as always, has been very inspirational.

3. Since it wasn't going to be a marine, it was sorta scary.  It was a big jump for me to go from the bulky, 2-3 ton killing machines to something more foreign.  Not only in design, but in construction as well.

So there was a lot of sitting there, picking up bits and holding them in place, with some "oh no way.." or "yes, that's it!"  It took 3-4 hours to build.  As always, lately, it was from the bits box with some plastic tubing and guitar string for hoses.  But as I get older, I did just turn 41, I need to have the standard gear on the model.  It is WYSIWYG but for me that's a necessity so I can remember what the damn thing does!  So you can see the meltagun nozzle, the flamer tip, the power axe, the tentacles for the mechatendrils as well.  The only thing not directly modeled is the bolt pistol.  Now, it does stand a little on the tall side as it's *almost* as tall as a stock Demon Prince.  It is also on a 40mm base, since there was no way is was going to sit on a 25mm base.  So it's a bigger target, with 2+... ok, I'll deal because of the rule of cool.  Which, seems to be driving force behind most of my conversions or armies for that matter.

Anyway, that is my Warpsmith.  This will continue with the Dark Apostle, Cypher, Be'lakor, the rest of the CSM super friends ... Typhus, Ahriman, Lucius, Fabius, Huron, and Kharn will all get the same type of treatment eventually.

The Dark Apostle will be an interesting challenge as well, I want to try and make it like the Discords from the Word Bearer Ominbus from Anthony Reynolds.  When I say "make it like", I mean inspired by to a certain extent.  A floating speaker grille with tentacles is the base.  The tricky part is in the crozius and bolt pistol, how to put them into the overall design of the model and make it look like that's how it's supposed to be.

Anyway, that will be up soon, and I'll also post the failure for the first try.

Decimator conversion

So I REALLY like converting models... love it. So much that sometimes I just get caught up in making more and more models and then all of a sudden, I have a ton of models to paint. Well, maybe not suddenly. :-) In the previous post, it was an attempt to look at the kits, most of them great, that GW produces to still use them just modified from their original purpose. This post is no different. This is one of the biggest models I have put together, it was fun, slightly scary, and ate up some bits lying around.

First off let's start with the conversion in question... Forgeworld's Decimator for Chaos.

I love this model, everything about it screams Chaos to me. A big hulking monstrosity that has to have a bigger storage tank for the bigger demon inside.  It's rules are pretty good as well, not over the top, and allows some tactical flexibility in being able to take marks.  All around it's great, and it's threat potential can be outstanding. I will order one eventually. (Ok, I MIGHT order one eventually, throwing things into a cart on FW's site was was over $225 [American] before the shipping for not a whole lot.  So I just have a new found respect for people who collect a lot of FW.) It's just too cool of a model not to. However, I didn't want to wait for a model to arrive to me, so it was time to make one and do a little research to see what I could see.  As it turns out, there isn't a whole lot of Decimator conversions out there.  At least when I was looking there wasn't.  So after looking at FW's size chart I was starting to get an idea for how big this thing needed to be and came to the conclusion of using a Dreadknight as a the starting point.  After the game last Saturday, it turns out that is actually a pretty good size comparison.  My Decimator is taller than my buddie's Contemptor on a scenic resin base, and my Decimator is flat footed on the base too.

So where to start? With the basic construction of course.  Which in this case was the torso and legs. I'll post the pictures I have during the process, which I'll apologize for now as I don't have a whole lot of those.  The first step, get rid of the baby carrier.   This involved clipping and scraping away the platform the GK sits on/is attached to, to leave a cavity for the head to sit in.  On thing I did do, which looking back on now was probably not the best idea, was to glue the torso to the legs early.  This fixed the position, and while that's not bad in itself, it does make the pose more static.  I would like to make another at some point, so things to remember for later.

Once the basic construction was done, how the hell I am supposed to chaosify this thing?! Leftover Heldrake and Forgefiend parts that's how. One you really start looking at the thing you start to see a whole lot of bits from different kits. Whenever possible I tried to use as many bits from the Dreadknight kit as possible, this involved a lot of repurposing certain bits from their original designation. For example, all the hoses that flank either side of the Decimator's head are almost exclusively from the Dreadknight kit. The real huge find in my bits box was the cowling for the battle cannon on a Defiler, it was MADE for that spot around the head. So, a real quick breakdown of kits used/broken for this conversion...

Dreadknight
Heldrake claw and neck
Forgefiend ectoplasma cannon
Chaos vehicle sprue
Imperial vehicle sprue
Defiler battle cannon cowling
Raptor flamer
Necrosphinx head
Possessed spikes
Light from a teleport homer
Demon Prince leg plates and loincloth
Flagellant tethered skulls
Assorted skulls - Vampire counts corpse cart and a ghoul head

Some spare plasticard and greenstuff

All in all I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  As of now it is primed and waiting for some proper paint to bring it to life!