Imperial Warhost - yearly update

I've decided that it would be good to do yearly updates of how my armies look, as it makes me feel proud to see the progress I've made each year, and it looks really epic to see my apocalypse-sized armies mustered in full!

This is my Imperial Warhost, with a contingent each of Divine Exorcist Space Marines, Dark Angels Space Marines and Ordo Malleus, with accompanying Knight Titan.

This is what it looked like a year ago:

And this is what it looks like this year:

As you can see, there have been a few additions! The biggest change was the expansion of the Dark Angels from a dreadnought and some Deathwing terminators to a full force of around 1300 pts. I added two tactical squads, a rhino, another Deathwing squad, a command squad and three characters. I also added a rhino, two dreadnoughts, a command squad, Librarian Israfil and a terminator assault squad to the Divine Exorcists. I took away a couple of models that didn't fit the theme (such as the captain - the Divine Exorcists are only supposed to be led by librarians). I also kitbashed a Grey Knight Brotherhood Champion and painted Inquisitor Lord Torquemada Coteaz. There will be further additions this year, such as a Stormhawk Interceptor and some more Ordo Malleus models, although that will probably be it, since I plan to focus on other armies this year.

Here are further pictures of the force:

 

Dark Angels up to scratch

This is the latest addition to my Dark Angels force - a command squad. Command squads and other elite, customisable units, are my favourite thing to build, because their options mean you can really create whatever you like. This squad therefore have a mixture of Dark Angel, Blood Angel and other parts to create something that hopefully has a lot of dynamism.I particularly like the posing of most of the models. It's not easy to get that right, actually, when you are mixing and matching parts from various models. I usually cut and rotate arm portions to get the poses right. It's quite easy to do that with plastic models and a sharp knife. 

This squad was also the first in which I used my new magnifier. This goes over my head and has magnifying lenses in front of my face. This just makes it a little easier to paint details and to be neat. I think the neatness on these is a step up from many of my previous infantry. I say infantry, because comparing infantry to monsters or vehicles is not a fair comparison, since I paint them in different ways.

I'll be painting some more Dark Angels soon, since my friend Steve just gave me a box of models, including many Dark Vengeance models, and I plan to add these to the force. However, I have many other models to paint before that!

More soon, and here's a sneak peak of something coming soon!

Brief insurgency of Chaos

Time for a brief update of what I've been up to lately! I have a lot of stuff on my desk, but I'll try and post them as they get completed.

First is Helbrute Purigax (many thanks to fantasynamegenerators.com for the endless supply of names!). This is just the basic Dark Vengeance Helbrute without conversion. I just wanted to paint this model up as it is a lovely model, and sometimes models don't really need any conversion to look good. I told myself this would be the last DV Helbrute I'd paint (having done two in the past, both converted), but then my friend went and gave me most of a Dark Vengeance box yesterday, so looks like I'll be doing another!

The second unit to show you today is a heavy support squad for the Bohemar Infantry. I combined the Imperial Guard heavy support squad, using three lascannons, combined with the head/torso kit from Forge World. I think they look rather cool! Part of me is itching at the thought that one more team would mean there are eight cultists in the squad. Considering all other squads have eight, it would make sense! I'll probably do it, if I can find a single heavy weapon team somewhere - I'm not buying another box just to make one team!
I'm not really happy with the lascannon coils - I tried to do a red glow, but I don't think it came out right. I might have to practice that! Anyway, I hope you like them. 

And yes, one of them is about to blow a horn. As if anyone will hear them over the din of battle...

Some daemonic stuff...

First up, some bloodletters. The models are unconverted and painted quickly, but I tried some new Vallejo wash on the banner, and it worked really well. I'm going to be making more Khorne daemons, so I can field a pure daemon force.

Then some warp talons! I like the warp talon / raptor kit, but I wasn't keen on the overly ornate look of the warp talons. I therefore build these more like raptors with lightning claws. I added the heads from the AoS range to make them look Khornate. I think of these as berzerkers with jump packs and lightning claws. They were an absolute pain to paint! Whereas the bloodletters took less than ten hours to paint, the warp talons took weeks. I'm so glad they are finally finished!

Space Marine Rhino and Dreadnoughts

I love space marine dreadnoughts. I have always loved space marine dreadnoughts, so why did I have so few up until now? Who knows. Maybe it was fear of those fists. I decided to start remedying this problem by picking up a couple of Black Reach dreadnoughts and painting them up for the Divine Exorcists. I now have a trio of them when they are added to the existing dread, Damascinos.

I also decided that the space marines in the force needed some transportation (they currently have zero transports!), so I have quickly painted up a rhino, and I will probably add a second. I'm pleased with the icon on the rear door. I have no idea where it came from, but it looks like part of some Empire kit (icon of Sigmar?) from Warhammer Fantasy / Age of Sigmar - I got it in a random selection of bitz from a bitz website.

An'ggrath the Unbound

The FW Bloodthirster model has long been one of my favourite Citadel miniatures. I've coveted it as long as I can remember, so I'm extremely pleased to be able to now make this post. I finally picked one up and have built and painted it, and damn, am I pleased with it!

I wasn't really feeling the whip in the model's left hand, for a couple of reasons. 1) things like that are a real hassle to build and paint, and 2) Any sort of dangly bit on a model is fairly likely to break off (as I have experienced in the past). The last thing I want is to spend a week fixing the whip on, only to have it snap off during a battle. So I sought something to put in the left hand. I thought about another axe, but the right-hand axe has quite a unique style, and unless I found another identical one, it would always look weird. I didn't fancy a sword, so I thought of making some kind of clubbing weapon - perhaps a maul or other similar weapon. Then I found the piece you see in the picture, from the Ogre Thundertusk model. The top 'prong' was taken from another part of the kit and glued on top. I also changed the left shoulder guard for another part from the Thundertusk kit.

Building the rest of the model wasn't easy - the torso wouldn't seat well in the legs and needed a lot of work, the wings needed heating to fit into place and I had to pin every single talon on the wings! But after many months, it was finally finished and ready to paint. Painting was fun. As I said on the hive tyrant post, I love painting big models, and washing and drybrushing bloodthirster skin is particularly enjoyable. 

I kept the base quite simple. I didn't want to make a huge scenic base as the model is very heavy and felt better when pinned directly to the MDF base. So a couple of dead space wolves seems just enough to represent the carnage that would litter the battlefield around An'ggrath the Unbound.

 And here he is with the Cohort of Blood - six other bloodthirsters, with one more on its way!

Tyranid Hive Tyrant

Although I'm continuing to worth through the big box of Tyranids for Peter's swarm, I thought for Christmas, I'd get and paint him something a bit more special. Thus I picked up a Hive Tyrant. I wanted it to tower over everything else in the swarm, so I created a scenic base for it to stand on. I also added an element of diorama, with a soldier, sitting, holding his lasgun and peering up at the monster looming overhead.

Painting the green skin and black carapace is fairly quick, so I spent most of my time painting the glorious purple wings. It came out quite well, and Peter was really pleased with it.

I really do enjoy painting massive models, so I guess it's a good thing that I have a few sitting around waiting to be built!