Thursday, 30 April 2020

Chaos Knights and Terrain



I've changed my approach to painting for the lockdown, as I was concerned that although I was knocking models out of the park left right and centre there was a danger I was going to get to the other side and still have loads of unfinished projects, so to that end I drew up a new priority list.

Chaos Knights - The Brotherhood of the Scorpion

I started a proper Chaos Knight army around my Renegade Knight I built a while ago, when the rules first came out for them, when the new Codex came out. These are now at 1450 points, or 2000 points when joined by the Greater Brass Scorpion, which is most underwhelming compared to the Knights. These are effectively finished, although I will be washing the metalwork on all the models except the Rampager with black ink when I get hold of some more - the rampager was washed when I painted it.

The bases are made using a roller from Green Stuff World, although I'm tight so I used air drying clay, same as the Splintered Fang I painted earlier in the year.


This is the Bloodsoaked Baron, which was my original Renegade Knight. Painted to match my old Chaos Marines in Liche Purple and Runefang Silver he is much brighter than the others, but hopefully a wash of the metal will hide it - if not I might go over the purple with Naggaroth Night. The model was mixed with bits of a plastic Bloodthirster I had built recently, spikes from the Chaos Vehicle Sprue, and some etched brass khorne symbols. 

The Saint Slayer is a standard Knight Rampager built out of the box. I do think that the kit is a lot more dynamic than the Imperial kit, and it is a pity it doesn't come with the weapon sprue so more of them in the same style can be used. I also like the subtle mirroring in that the pose has the other leg forwards and the Thunderstrike Gauntlet is for the right hand rather than the left.

Kingbreaker is again built using the Imperial Knight kit and the Chaos Vehicle Sprue, with the addition of a leftover Maulerfiend Head, some skulls from the skull accessory box and some Space Marine Helmets. It does carry the Chaos-only loadout of twin Avenger Cannons, and it was due to have a missile pod on its back, but I can't find it anymore. If it doesn't turn up, I did consider adding few Havoc Launchers for the same effect but I don't have any of those either.

Finally there is a pair of Wardogs, one with each armanent. These came from my friend Will, who hoards half built models like other people hoard old newspapers. There was originally 3 but only 2 survived the salvage process. These have again had a mix with the chaos vehicle sprue for extra spikes.

Urban Conquest Terrain

This is more of a teaser shot - on my next break in the shift pattern at work I will do a bit more on these as I am still working on some terrain, but I have finally found the time to paint the terrain that came with Urban Conquest, which as we never did the campaign means I have at least got something out of the box. These were mainly painted Steel Legion Drab and coated in Agrax Earthshade with a few bits of colour. I used green sawdust as flock on them, as it adds a bit of green to match my mat whist adding grass which models can stand on.

New Priorities

Apart from the Knights above, I have picked out 3 projects I want to finish in the short term, to draw a line under them and give e something solid to show progress.

Necrons: I'm getting the Necrons up to 2500 points. I'm close, with the Monolith painted recently, so I need to build and paint another Lord (using the Nemessor Zandrekh model), 3 Tomb Blades and possible a Tomb Spider, both of which are still hanging around from the 2018 Necron Megaforce.

Seraphon: I'm finishing the 2000 point Seraphon army. I have converted a Skink Starpriest, which needs sticking to a base and painting, and I need to finish the 3 Endless Spells I am using.

40k Industrial Terrain Together with the terrain above I am busy putting bases on the Zone Mortallis terrain I built at Christmas and adding some extra details. I also have the Sector Mechanicus terrain from the Renegade set to go with it, which is built but not painted.

When the above list is done I'll be happy to go back to painting odd units, or may have picked something else to focus on. I've got Romans still to build, Chaos units that could be repainted to Night Lords, Imperial Guard that need repairs, and I even found 3 Eldar Jetbikers Aeldari Windriders in the loft. The Space Elves call me again...

Monday, 20 April 2020

Night Lords. Bases, Scenery

AN update to show how I'm getting on:

I got the sand out, and based what was ready to be based - the Temple Guard, the Carnosaur, and the Night Lords mentioned but not shown in the last update. I also finished my squad of Night Lords, painted (and then sat on) the Forgeworld Night Lords Praetor with Jump Pack, painted the Noctilith Crown, the Realmshaper Engine and made a good start on the 3rd Renegade Knight.

Carnosaur:



Temple Guard


Night Lords




Jump Pack Lord



Leviathan Dreadnought - just the base, I painted this a while ago.

Noctilith Crown


Realmshaper Engine



I've got 6 days coming up, I'm going to have to regroup and think of a priorities list - I've hot all my immediate targets now and with the situation I need to think about which of my stretch goals becomes a new immediate target and which ones I need to change.

Monday, 6 April 2020

Haven't I been busy?

The UK is in lockdown. People stay off the streets, stand 2 meters apart outside shops, and everyone is working through their backlog of unpainted models.

Everyone is doing that, aren't they?

In actual fact it turns out I'm a key worker in an essential industry, and as I am using electricity myself that is fair enough. I've changed shift pattern to 12 hour days so I still do have a lot of time at home. I have still powered on through painting though.

First off, I built these:


That's 10 Saurus Guard and a Realmshaper Engine, which I still haven't figured how to deploy. I'm going for a Coalesced army, so I've built it covered in vines. It's very clever how it is double sided. The Saurus Guard models were an absolute arse to build and I won't be building any more. To be fair, mine are WHFB holdeovers and they might have been recut since then. I expect the design worked quite well on 25mm slottabases, but not on 32mm round.

I still painted them though.

The purple is Nagaroth Night, washed with leviathan purple and Xerxes Purple.
The bone is Steel Legion Drab with Screaming Skull. This is low-tech and I don't do bone like this often now, but I did when I did the rest of the army and I wanted them to match.
I haven't done the Realmshaper Engine yet, still to do.

NEXT.

A few months ago I was kindly given a biscuit tin full of necron models, most of which were beyond immediate saving (although see how long lockdown goes on) and a Monolith, which looked like this:
It now looks like this for my Mephrit army.

It still needs a base. as it wobbles a lot on a skimmer flying base (and if it supposed to have one that part is missing meaning I had to drill a hole for it) I'm thinking a big circle base and something sturdy tucked away to hold it up. When the shops are open.

I painted this using the same colour combo as the lychguard, except the flat surfaces did not cope well with being inked and it looked awful, so the dark grey is a flat cover of an old Vallejo colour Had lying around from an old Guard army - German Grey. Same effect, and I might try and get a fresher pot of this for flat surfaces and vehicles in future. This takes my Necrons to 2275 points, which means by the time I've painted another Lord I have in a blister I will be one unit away from 2500. Good times.

NEXT.

I have done 10 of the 15 Night Lords, with the exception of some details. I'm going to start the remaining 5 Wednesday, and do the Forgeworld Jump Pack Preator (Lord) at the same time.

Then I will try and do some proper photoshoots of the Night Lords and the Necrons as seen as they are missing from here.

We also have a Bitsbox Inquisitor Challenge on the go, which you might have seen on the Youtube channel but I will do a written article about.

It's all go.