Tuesday 30 December 2014

The Tormentor: Part 3, Finished

Well, after a nice little holiday in Fiji, soaking up the blue water, white sands, and most important of all, cocktails, I am finally back home in Australia and able to complete my vision of Perturabo's personal transport, the Tormentor. This project was a labour of love, and took a month and a half from conception to completion. Once again, my thanks to my mate Deke, he supplied me with the kit last minute from his Games Workshop's stock when everywhere else was sold out of them, and also took the extra effort of getting it to me. Deke, if you're reading this, my thanks.


The rust and markings were the big concern for me. While the inner hobbyist is saying, nay, screaming "More. MORE!" I was telling myself that it isn't true to Perturabo. He would have some damage, some surface rust here or there, a few markings, but he isn't Fulgrim. He doesn't do gilded, he does down-to-earth. So, I restrained myself and just kept it to a little rust around the bolts and a few areas to accentuate the look.


The rear hatch is of course the defining feature. I added a little rust here, as it would be slammed into the muddy ground all the time, and I felt it could be a little more weathered.


The Void Shield generator is a bizarre mix of hues. I wanted it to seem a bit other-worldly, and up close, it looks almost like a nebula. The crewman up top is just for the rule of cool.


In Greek mythology, King Minos had a Labyrinth which held the minotaur. Funny enough, Perturabo does too, and his minotaurs are upon the hull. If I had a David Bowie decal, I would have him on there too. (Labyrinth nerd reference)



The custom Iron Warrior icons I sculpted came up a treat too.


There are patterns above the letters on the gun and along the top of the drivers visor slit.


Lastly, the upgraded communication arrays, Void Shields and the exhaust in its new position. These are of course the little things that needed attention to help bring this tank to life.


Well, that's all for now. It's been a blast, I wish everyone who reads this a happy new year, and all the best with your hobby endeavors,

Macca

Sunday 21 December 2014

The Tormentor: Part 2, painting the legend

The Tormentor, personal transport of the Primarch Perturabo himself. This was the first unit painted for this army, and boy did it become a testing ground for ideas.

To start with, I applied a basecoat of Tamiya Grey Primer. This primer is fantastic, and it seamlessly covered the miniature.

Next, I painted in the panel lines. I used Miniataire Raven Black to do this. The reason I did this is that it allows a slight darkening of the silver in the areas which are black. This adds depth and some pre-shading to the silver.


Once I had finished with the black, I applied the silver, Tamiya X-32 Titanium Silver. I also added about 1:50 of Raven Black to this to make it a tad darker. As you can see, only a small amount of the black showed through the silver, but this is what I want.


Next, I used some of my 'Special Metallic Mix', a custom concoction of mine using Tamiya Clear Red, Clear Blue, Smoke, and a few metallics. I then applied this around some of the panel lines and the barrel to add some more definition to the silver.

After this, I gloss varnished the entire miniature, followed by taping off the areas I would be painting with Hazard Stripes. The Hazards are a VERY over used paint-scheme, namely because they are pretty cool. With this in mind, I kept the scheme very limited. They are after all Iron Warriors, not Hazard Warriors.

Once the yellow (a custom mix) was dry, another varnish, some more tape, and I did the black. Here ended the airbrushing. 

Next, I started the detail work. From this point on, it's all old fashioned hand-painting. I painted in the Aquillas and the stowage, as well as the void generators.

Lastly, I applied some decals, from the Minotaurs, Death Guard, Iron Hands and Super Heavy decal sheets. At this point, I am pretty happy, however I still have a quite a lot of minor details to pick out, so I will leave this here until I get back from Fiji.

Merry Christmas all,

~Macca

The Emperor's Children - Some support

Hey all, Wadey here!

Well the weekend is upon us and I'm sitting here drinking coffee and watching Thomas with my 4 year old (reckless I know) and I thought why not use the time to bang up another post for everyone!

For today I decided to show you guys one of my Mortis Contemptors and my Anvillus Pattern Dreadclaw..

I'll start with my Mortis. I took a single Mortis to a 2k tourney recently. I kitted it with dual twin linked Lascannons, though I magnetized the weapons so I can change it in the future for different load outs. I went with the Mortis for some anti flyer, although it turned out I didn't need anti flyer as no body took flyers LOL!



The colours I used are outlined in the following post http://agalaxyinflames.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/iii-legion-emperor-children-part-1.html though this time before I applied the Gehenna gold I firstly put a coat of Balthasar gold down which made the Gehenna nicer to work with and  better look afterwards.


I have continued to use the 'Ruined Temple" bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures. For the base I added a little bit of extra rubble but not to much as I didn't want to take away from the good job SWM have done on the base.





I really enjoyed building and painting this model and am looking forward to painting the other two I have waiting to be finished! So that was my Mortis, now for the mighty Anvillus pattern Dreadclaw.


Now, as much as I would love to say this was a joy to build and paint I can't... I hated working with this model. It was a bitch to put together, it was awkward to paint and many times it nearly ate wall at high speed... BUT the end result, for mine, was totally worth it. Now as you will see I didn't put any Emperor's Children etched brass or decals on this model. I was going to but due to the shape there really aren't many places to put markings without having WAY to many or having them uneven..



So, I know people think this model is shit and a waste of time, Macca being one of them.. It not only served its purpose but it served it extremely well during the last tourney. As a delivery method for my Deathstar it as amazing, and it's various flame abilities are super handy! On the turn it arrives via Deep strike it deals a flame attack that spreads out D3+3" from the hull and does S6 AP5 damage and vehicles are hit on their weakest Armour value (did glance a Sicaran).. on top of that during the movement phase any unit it flies over cops D6 S5 AP5 hits!



Again, I used a "Ruined Temple" base but added nothing this time as I love this base the way it is. I pinned the base to the stand as the model itself has a little bit of weight to it.





Well there you go, my Mortis and Anvillus. Cheers for dropping in for a look there is much more to come! For any avid EC fans I've got a FB page dedicated to III Legion so jump on and give me a like and share your EC stuff for everyone to see! https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Pride-of-the-Emperor/207046882799363 Is the link for the page.

Cheers guys,

Wadey.

Saturday 20 December 2014

The Emperor's Children - Stuff you have missed!

Hey everyone it's Wadey!

Well it has certainly been a while between beers! Sorry it's been so long since i last posted, I've had a lot going on including a loss of internet for a while. Rather than continuing on from where I left off last post I figured I'd just show you all what I've been working on lately.

I thought for today I'd kick off with something I had a shit tin of fun creating, building and painting.... I present to you, a man chosen for his role by the Phoenician himself, Lord Commander Eidolon.


My inspiration for the build actually came from Eidolons special rule "Thunderous charge". For those playing at home the "Thunderous charge" special rule means that on the turn Eidolon charges he ignores the effects of 'Unwieldy" on his Thunderhammer... ergo, he strikes at Initiative on the turn he charges. Now of course that on its own is bullshit awesome! I mean, who wouldn't get all nerdgasm over Initiative TH attacks right? Even better when he's rolling with his boss and man crush, Fulgrim! I ran an Anvillus with Fulgrim, Eidolon, Primus Med, Libby (not fluffy I know shut up) and 5 heavy flamers last weekend and the combo of the two is fucking brutal!



But I digress.. How exactly did the rule inspire me? Well I was at work doing not much and looking on the FW website when I stopped to have a very good look at the Abaddon and Loken sculpt. As you all know Keepy did an amazing job on Abaddon and I wanted to see how FW did theirs when it dawned on me... Loken looks like he is ready to smash face and suits exactly what I have been looking for to fit into that "Thunderous charge" pose!



Now thanks to AGIF good mate Eamon, I acquired Loken and made some minor alterations.. I started by removing the Eyes of Horus from the model. I added a MKII shoulder pad and Praetor left arm including Archaeotech pistol (it made sense seeing as though he is geared with one) then retaining Lokens right arm I added a Thunder Hammer and giant Eagle shoulder pad (not sure where I got it) including a roman numeral 3 from the Red Scorpions kit.


To finish the build off I simply re-positioned Eidolon on a new base, putting him at the back to give him less of an "able to leap tall buildings" feel and attached a Palatine Prefector head. I kept the cape because I like the contrast between Eidolon and Fulgrim when they are next to each other.








Well that's it for now, stayed tuned for lots more III Legion goodness!

Cheers,

Wadey

Friday 19 December 2014

Iron Warriors: Command and Specialist Units

G'day, Macca here, with a rather picture heavy update. Today, I will cover the Iron Havoks, Destroyers, Command Squad and 3 HQ's for my Iron Warriors.

Iron Havoks:


My Iron Havoks had to stand out from the regular space marine devastator units, (in case I ever use them as well), so in order to do this, I used Iron Hands MK III Legionaries. Although a slightly more expensive option, it was well worthit, as these squads look great to me.


The heavy bolters use shrapnel rounds, so they aren't as effective as regular ones thanks to the lower AP, but I wanted to take them anyway because fluff.

The Autocannons here are must-have weapons on these guys. They compliment their special rules nicely. The only modification I made was to use the spare drum magazines off the heavy bolters to replace the large (and a little annoying to model) belt feeds.



Destroyers and Moriat:


I have 20 Destroyers in my Raven Guard. I decided I am a bit over the MK IV, so I chose to arm these guys with MK III. Why? Rule of cool, and there is some vague fluff to allow it. I just imagine these guys running through the breach, first into the fight.


The twin-volkites for the Moriat are a must-have. Thanks to the massive (and a little bit silly) changes to the Moriat, these are essentially the best option available now. This is ok however, as I love volkites and I always wanted them over plasma in this army.



Command Squad:

The Dirty Not-Quite-Half-Dozen. I started playing Warhammer 40,000 back in 2nd ed, but one of the first kits I loved (but could never afford) was the original metal space-marine command squad. The idea of half a dozen different individuals (in those days, techmarines, apothecaries, etc were all in a command squad, not their own entries, and they were WAY less effective thanks to the apothecary and his awesome 'ignore 1 wound only per turn' rule). So yes, cool visual, terrible rules.

Cue the Legion Command Squad. I started by using Medusan Immortals from the Iron Hands (again), and then some clever scalpel work and some upgrade bits later, I came up with a unique squad. These guys are ruthless, each one wants to be elevated to command, and I can jsut see them stabbing their commander in the back.


Here's 'Eric Banner' (pre-hulk)

There's "Buzzsaw"

This guy is wannabe "Hellboy", but his face is less weird then Ron Pearlman. Come at me Ron.

"Tickle-me Elmo"

"The Lumberjack"

Siege Breaker and The Warsmith of the 77th Grand Battalion:

Yes, 77th Grand Battalion, the Siege of Paramar. These are loyalists, they will take the fight to the other loyalists, I mean, the Alpha Legion. Simple builds, I used a Sons of Horus commander, with parts from the Titan Tech Priest and the loading arm off a marine missile launcher to create his servo arm. I decided to keep it small and delicate, as he is a battlefield commander, and I think he would be a little less 'large-scale' or 'industrial' than a Techmarine.




So that's it, a little variety is the spice of life, and I converted a lot here to get what I feel is a very Iron Warrior feeling force. Like it? Dislike it? Feel free to comment below!

~Macca