You win some, you lose some

Today, the Champions of Plufestea gained a vehicle and lost a vehicle: the one they gained is the huge Disilluminator. I constructed this machine, the personal transport of Lord Kellus, out of an old, heavily Chaos-ified Land Raider. I cut the centre section out (and this became this diorama scenery piece) and joined the front and rear back together with much bodging and green-stuffing. I then added the chassis from an old rhino, the head from a Knight Titan, two predator turrets and various other parts to create this mad machine! 

The paint isn't very smooth, because the original model had very thick and lumpy paint, and even though I used paint stripper to try and remove it, it was a long, arduous process to remove even one layer of paint, and eventually it looked smooth to the naked eye (which turned out to be an error). I actually started this project a long time ago - way back in 2016, I think - so it is a product of my old self, and I would probably make it very differently nowadays. I did make some recent modifications though, such as adding the pipes made with my green stuff roller.  

I spent a long time painting it, and save for a few touch ups, I feel I cannot make it look better, mainly due to the rough surface, but it's good enough. Sometimes you have to accept that a project is done and move onto the next thing (and I certainly have enough 'next things' to keep me going!)

The daemon engine that has been lost is the Forgefiend The Tormentor. If you see the original paint job, you can see why I repainted this model:

Oh dear, it's bad, isn't it! Look at the trim, and the flesh! Dear, O dear. So I decided to repaint it in the colours of the Black Legion and try to do this model some sort of justice! Here it is:

Much better, I hope you agree! Phew!

Today, I also finished a small terrain piece: a radar dish:

Until next week! Happy hobbying!

Why do you need so many books?

Just a short update here: Two more ye olde metal models: an Ordo Malleus Acolyte and a Librarian.

First, the Acolyte: 

 I'm quite pleased with colours on this one, and I know people appreciate my 'text squiggles', so here you go! I'm gradually painting up a few inquistorial models, with no real plan, so at some point I'll post them all together and perhaps they'll look like a unit. I quite the like the Blanche-esque idea of warbands with no unifying look other than lots of scrolls, censers and books, so fingers crossed they turn out well.

Secondly, we have a second Librarian for the Divine Exorcists. This is Avides, a veteran of many wars and slayer of daemons:

The blue is a bit more vivid in the photos - I tried to correct it, but the iPhone just has a weird thing with blue. The base colour is a ultramarine blue.
Thanks for reading, and happy hobbying!

Our number is legion...

Okay, it's not quite a legion yet, but I finally have finished some Necrons! Yes! Imean 'beep'! I have coveted an army of these shiny warriors for a while now, probably since I used them in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, and finally I can say I have completed some. First up, a mighty leader, carrier of a Staff of Light, leading the warriors of living metal to sew death among the stars...

I've had the metal model for a while (many years, in fact), having bought it second hand, already badly painted, and I just touched it up and put it my display case. But now, I have given this Lord a proper paintjob and a sturdy, minimalist base. They currently have no name, nor a dynasty, but I'll get working on that...

Next is a group of Warriors:

These were also second hand, but I repainted and rebased them. I'm not too bothered about having second hand models, since Necrons aren't the kind of army that demand you convert them. Sixteen warriors here, awakened from their long slumber...

Along with some Immortals. These are by far my favourite Necron models. I love the look of their huge gauss blasters, and the way they represent the character of the Necrons even more strongly than the Warriors, slowly stalking across the landscape, firing precisely but without mercy.

I'm very pleased with the green connecting pipes and the glow of the gauss energy. I have more models on the way -  a monolith, and the contents of a start collecting box - more Warriors, an Overlord and a Triarch Stalker. Until next week!

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!