Justaerin WIP / The Emperor's Legions

Gday all!

I was supposed to be giving you an update on my Justaerin Terminators but a couple things have come up and they are going on the shelf for a little while. I will explain myself in a minute, but a quick look at where we are at with the Justaerin.

Not too much more progress, I have airbrushed in the red on the shoulder pads (they are supposed to have only their left shoulder red, but after Abaddon both red looks really good) and done a base coat of the Eyes of Horus with the airbrush as well, which was tedious work. The one on the right was a test model for colours and needs some touching up, and I have 4x sets of lighting claws that swap out with the power weapon, a powerfist guy and the two TH/SS. They are up to the battle damage and detail stage and that is where they will sit until the next project is done.

So what is this next project you ask? Well my good friend John at The Painting Bunker is running his first tournament in Brisbane in mid March, called "The Emperor's Legions". It is a 1000pt tournament with only 10 positions available, 5 Loyalist and 5 Traitor. Tickets were pricey but the prize pool is enormous (with things like Spartan Assault Tanks and Legion Fellblades as prizes) so well worth it, and John has some amazing terrain so this event is all about looking good and running smooth. Naturally I bought a Traitor ticket to cleanse a few loyalist scum.

John even made some special objective markers for his event, and those participating get a set each, I got mine in the mail today! He even included a personalised note giving it a nice touch. You can find out more about the objective marker here and the tournament here.

 

 

 

I was planning on using the Justaerin led by Abaddon in the tournament, but both units are very overcosted in my opinion. The Justaerin are a whopping 225pts for three models in stock equipment and don't bring a lot to the table apart from looking cool. Abaddon is a bit of a beast in combat but when you compare him to the likes of Calus Typhon, point for point you really lose out. With such a small army that doesn't have a lot of punch I would be lucky to survive turn two. I had a back up plan, and it arrived in the mail earlier this week in the form of a small Mechanicum army. They have some great units (especially in book two) and love to spoil a loyalist Astarte's day out.

 

 

So that's the plan in a nutshell. I am really looking forward to this tournament, win or lose it looks like it is going to be heaps of fun. Did I mention it was being held in a pub? Oh yeah! Knowing a couple of the players going, I reckon they will be hard pressed standing up by the afternoon. Stand by for Mechanicum WIPs!

 

 

Cheers

 

Keepy

White Scars Apothecary Part 2

Well, here he is.

After allowing 24 hours for the oil wash to dry, I quickly blasted a little ashy dust onto his robe and the edges of his boots. I built the base with just a bit of sand flock and the small step that comes with the model. I simply drybrushed it, and applied a small amount of soot and rust powder around the 'step'.

This model is nothing special, in fact, I know it's not the level I am aiming for with the army. However, as a test piece for the colour palette and the theme, I think it's a great start.

Catch you next time, Macca.

White Scars Apothecary

G'day all, Macca here with a quick one.

I decided to paint up an Apothecary I had sitting around for my White Scars. I am still awaiting the MK II power armour for the Legion, so, with this guy being the only MK II chap around, (and the fact I need him to escort a Tac squad) he straight away popped up.

I decided to place his pack onto a toothpick for the initial undercoating, as I decided it would be all red and I didn't want to miss any areas by rushing to assemble the model.

This is what I ended up with after about a half an hour of painting. It's pretty clean, and very glossy, the paint isn't ultra crisp, but that's because I know that certain areas will be filled in by the oil wash at a later stage, which will dilute the white and blend the red. The decal has been applied, and the next stage is weathering/battle damage and the oil wash.

 

Now this is the model with gentle weathering and a reasonably heavy oil wash applied.

 So, that's all for now, tune in tomorrow for the complete chap.

Destroyed Contemptor

I was talking with Keepy about casting up some of my sculpts for gaming. I decided that as I have a few Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts, I should cast up some wrecked ones. I used a very simple casting of part of the hull, and put it on a base I previously sculpted. I then set about sculpting more rocks onto the base using green stuff, followed by adding grit and rock to the surface from a GW basing kit.

The Pinkysil I have used is just a 1:1 mix, and it is a viscous silicon liquid. I poured it into an old McDonalds container lid as it was the desired size, you don't want to waste this stuff as it isn't cheap. The model to be cast was then coated in a release agent and placed into the pinky. Once dried, I gently peeled it out. I then mixed my resin, and poured, time had to be taken with a toothpick to pick out air bubbles, as I am casting this on my kitchen bench where the photos have more light.

So, there it is, nothing too crash hot, I am not trying to recreate perfect contemptors, I just want something to use for a destroyed dread instead of making a circle of dice.

Well, that's all for now, I will have another fiddle and drop some paint on it sometime soon, for now, tata!

Justaerin / Cataphractii Terminator Bases - Finished

G'day again!

This post we pick up where we left off with the Justaerin Terminator bases. Veteran hobbyists need not apply, but for those who are new this will show you the fine (read: messy) art of using weathering techniques.

Here is a sneaky shot I forgot to put in the last post with all the assembled models and bases:

After undercoating I started with five test bases, just in case I stuffed the whole lot. Working with only the airbrush (you can also use a watered down coat applied by hand), a base coat of GW Mechanicum Grey (yes, I really like that colour) was applied to the whole base. The concrete sections then had a coat of GW Codex applied, again with the airbrush. Dial the pressure right down, but the over spray will play into things when the pigments are used. Then the metal parts like the mesh, steel sheets and cables were all painted with GW Leadbelcher, and the timber parts done with GW Bestial Brown. Any bones or skeletons are airbrushed with GW Rotting Flesh - I know, Green right! But it works, trust me. The light green works as an optical illusion to the greys as a bone colour will blend right into the base. We now have a base coat.


 This is where things get messy. Very messy. If you have never used pigments before I suggest you use a sheet of paper underneath your work, and wear latex gloves. This stuff will go EVERYWHERE.

Weathering pigments have a couple of different applications, but today I will just focus on its primary one - being brushed on as a powder direct to the model. Using them is really easy. Simply take an old brush, load it up with a bit of powder, then press it into the areas you want it to go. Don't get too worried about putting too much on, with this method you can layer the powder up bit by bit. The pigment will not set on the model until you have set it on with a white spirit. I use Tamiya X20A airbrush thinner - sounds silly but works a treat. The more thinner you apply the less visible the pigment will be. The first hit with the airbrush will blow off most of your excess pigment, leaving only the stuff that you applied firmly with your brush. Give it a light dusting of thinners and your done. That's it! It takes a bit of practice but once you get the hang of how much to use and how to set it onto your models, you can bang out a heap of quality product fairly quickly.

The real key to successful use of pigments is what colours you apply to where. I used the Secret Weapon pigment range of Exhaust Black, Red Brick, Ash Grey, Ancient Earth and Green Earth. I started with Exhaust black around all the shadowy areas and at the base of significant piles of debris, under metal plates etc. Red Brick was used on anything metal to give a rust effect, then another coat of Exhaust black to Darken them up again. This gives the appearance of being burnt. Ash Grey was used on the brick / concrete areas on raised edges, but used very sparingly. The skeletons / bones were given sporadic hits of Ancient Earth to give a mouldy appearance, and splotches of Green Earth had the same technique applied to the bases whole for the same effect.

Pigments are usually the last thing to be applied to a model - but I will be finishing them with a selective wash of the old GW Devilin Mud. Give a generous coat, but try not to hit the areas that have lots of weathering powder, particularly the greens or you will lose out on the effect. The last thing done was paint up the brass shells to look fresh out of a boltgun. The bases are then given a sealing coat of Testors Dull Cote, but Tamiya Clear Flat gives the same result, locking on your detail and giving it protection from the years of handling from gaming to come. Here are the first five:

Happy with that! All they need now is a bit of a clean up around the rim, which is done with another coat of Mechanicum Grey from the airbrush again. A very light drybrush of the old GW Fortress Grey will top off the bases nicely. The whole lot for the Justaerin and the Cataphractii Terminators were done in one hit, taking about an hour and a half from undercoat till clear coat. I am fairly happy with how they came out:

Lupercal! Kill for the living! Kill for the dead! This shot is a bit over exposed and they look a bit darker than they actually are.

So there you have it, how to crack out a heap of basing in a couple of hours. Hope you enjoyed it and got something out of the last couple of posts.

Cheers

Keepy

Justaerin / Catapharactii Terminators prep

Justaerin / Cataphractii Terminator Bases - WIP

Gday again,

Keepy here with the latest in my hobby instalments. This is yet another catch up post, most of these were built at the same time as the Justaerin and Abaddon build. Once again, seasoned veterans of the hobby probably wont get much out of this, but people who are new to the hobby or not used resin bases before will definitely get something out of this.

I have used a combination of Secret Weapon's Urban Rubble and Urban Streets bases and had planned on adding to them to get a real Istvann III look about them, with plenty of rubble, razor wire, shell casings etc. This seems to be a thing with 30k at the moment and I really like how they add to the model and it's environment. They can be overdone, but if you keep it simple you can't go wrong. Macca promises me a full tutorial in our new "How to" posts, so stay tuned as to how to churn out a whole armies worth of basing in just a couple of hours.

As previously mentioned the Justaerin post, the first stage of your prep before painting should be to wash your models in warm soapy water to get rid of the mould release. This is done a bit earlier on the bases as I am using wood glue to hold on rubble etc so water will dissolve all that hard work! I started by test fitting the completed models onto the bases and worked out which models best suited what bases. This is another good reason not to glue the arms or the head of your models on before basing, as these have gutters, step downs and plenty of rubble that change the angle of the model and therefore change it's pose. Once the models had been allocated a base, they were all numbered off by using permanent marker on the reverse side of the base so no mix ups would occur and basing could begin.



Holes were drilled and pins were added so each model would be pinned onto it's base to prevent them snapping off in the future. Happens more often than you would think, particularly with resin. I have used thumb tacks cut from the head to use as pins, they cost a whopping AUD$1.00 for a pack of 100 from the local bargain shop. I added the larger articles of debris from the GW basing set, things like the steel with bullet holes in it, some mesh, cogs and checker plate (aka diamond plate), these were twisted with pliers to give a destroyed look. I started by trying to add varying grades of slate / sand / rocks but it looked terrible. I mixed up an aggregate of sand, small and medium slate / rocks and added it together - and the result was much better. I added larger rocks here and there, as well as patches of dirt sporadically around the base, taking care not to do anything that would prohibit the model from having a neat fit.

Final details of spent bolter casings from Secret Weapon were added, and the pièce de résistance, I found some Verlinden barbed wire to put on as well. This stuff comes in straight runs, so you have to clip it off and twist it around a pen or something to get it to coil like real barbed wire. Now here's the thing - It is model razor wire - but it is freaking sharp and might as well be made of razors for anyone who is considering using this stuff! It didn't draw blood, but it gets caught in your skin as you try to manipulate it. Yes it is really that sharp! nothing like a bit of realism on your bases and I can safely say that most of them have bits of my fingers on them, now sealed in black primer awaiting to be re-discovered in thousands of years for scientists to clone me and stick me in a zoo.

Keeping your bases separate to your minis has a couple of boons - not only can you get a highly detailed base but you can also get to all the hard to reach places on the model as well. To hold your bases onto the spraying surface (in this case an old Leman Russ Tank box) with a couple lengths of packing tape turned upside down. Just stick your bases (or models for that matter) onto the tape and viola, no more resin parts flying around the place when you put them to the spray can.

Well, that's all I have time for now, in the next WIP we will cover weathering pigments, washing and a spot of highlighting.

Till next time!

Keepy

Justaerin / Cataphractii Bases Finished 

Storm Shields

Gday Guys!

Just a quick post today - I have had a couple of peeps ask me about the Storm Shields from the The Painting Bunker so here is some more info on them. Here you go!

To me they look like some very quickly fashioned make-shift shields from a chunk of plas-steel, and I think that is the look John was going for. A very basic shield, perfect for filling the gap for the lack of 30k ones. As I said in the previous post, these will be used for 40k games only, as the arms are magnetised with 3mm x 2mm rare earth magnets.

Here's a painted one, they have heaps of flat surfaces for etched brass and transfers.

I don't think John sells them anymore, but if you pop over to his blog and ask him nicely who knows he might just cast you up a batch. No promises though!

You can see a quick post about his Storm Shield on an Iron Hands Librarian here.

That's all for now, catch you next time

Keepy

Justaerin / Cataphractii Terminators - Prep and Assembly

G'day all!

Keepy here again with the latest instalment of my favourite traitor legion, The Sons of Horus. This post is mainly for the audience who are considering jumping over to 30k and have never worked with resin before, and focuses on the preparation stages required to assemble and paint models from Forgeworld and other manufacturers. More seasoned hobbyists who are familiar with these processes won't get much out of this, but if you want to brush up on your skills then read on.

The main unit we are going to focus on are my Justaerin Terminators, but during the build most of the my Cataphractii pattern Terminators were assembled as well so they might as well be included in this first WIP. It is also a bit of a catch up post as these were all assembled at the same time as Abaddon.

Justaerin Terminators - Yet another great kit from Forgeworld! Once again there is a lot of good detail in these, however the mould lines were no where near as good as the Abaddon vs Loken models. Lots and lots of filing and scraping with the hobby knife just the get these looking right - which is hard considering nearly every plate has metal studs or spikes on it.

 Before you judge me for the load outs, this army was conceived during the initial release of the Dark Angels codex for 40k. It was originally designed to play in both 30k and 40k to give it some sort of usability over multiple gaming systems. So for all those purists out there  - I know, they are not load outs for 30k models. They are, however, magnetised so a win if you have the parts available for multiple weapon load outs.

A quick word on safety - Inhaling resin filings or dust if very harmful to the human body - you may not experience the effects straight away but prolonged or heavy exposure to the chemicals inside airborne resin can lead to emphysema. I'm not sure about you but I don't particularly want that so make sure you wear a dust mask if filing or using a rotary tool such as a dremel to sand back the flash on resin models.

The other important thing to know about working with resin is that your glue used for plastics kits will not work. Resin models require superglue to be joined together - and some pinning may be required on parts that are vulnerable to knocking - read Thunderhammers.

Assembly is fairly straight forward after the clean up. Forgeworld stuff mostly comes marked with dots that match up to torsos so it is hard to accidentally mix up the parts. I mounted and test fitted the models onto the bases I had planned on using (see Justaerin Basing post - coming soon) and then pinned the main components and any smaller ones that would be likely to break. Bits like the thunderhammers - these come for the left hands on Heresy models but 40k ones are on the right if you want a storm shield. So  some Deathwing Knights hands were acquired and crafted to fit the resin thunderhammers. I used a very narrow gauge wire (0.38mm) to pin the parts together and then to the model. The wire was so thin I was able to pin the topknots to the Justaerin's helmets with relative ease. I managed to get some custom made Stormshields from John at The Painting Bunker to finish the TH/SS config.

I made some assault cannons by cutting up some Wolf Guard ones and replacing the Autocannon barrels on the Heresy Reaper Autocannon. The bottom shell ejection port was green stuffed up and the Eye of Horus was then shaped and glued on.

The first lot of standard Cataphractii hot off the press. A contemptor Cyclone Missile Launcher was used for the heavy weapon - once again a 40k perk, but it too is magnetised with the magnet covered up with green stuff. The Combi-bolter arm was also magnetised to allow for different heavy weapon load outs. 

Chugging away....

For each squad I knocked out I gave my work area a bit of a vacuum to counter the build up of resin.

Done! A fully assembled Cataphractii Terminator army. They are all about to be given a bath. Cleaning is a very important stage of working with resin, in particular Forgeworld resin, as the mould release will prevent paint from sticking to the model's surface properly. The get rid of the mould release, each model needs to be scrubbed with a tooth brush in warm / hot soapy water. You don't want this too hot as it will bend the resin and bring undone all your hard work, but not warm enough and you will not get rid of the release agent properly. Once scrubbed, give them a thorough rinse then off to completely dry before painting. You can choose to do this before or after assembly, If I had my time again I probably would have left all the arms separate so painting would be easier - so lesson learnt I guess.

Another post or two and we will be up to real time with these fellas. Next post we play with paint schemes for the Justaerin and start base coating.

Cheers

Keepy

Justaerin / Catapharactii WIP / Emperor's Legions

White Scars Spartan Assault Tank Part 4: Complete

Hello! Macca here with the finally finished White Scars Spartan. To say this thing was easy is a lie, for 90% of the project it was, until: the tracks. Can't say I'm a fan of this at all, the Sicarian design was far better and I hope Forge World continues making vehicles with tracks already attacked to the hull. Well, that's all I have to say on that, I'll let the photos speak for themselves, enjoy.

That's all for now, hope to hear from you, ~Macca

White Scars Spartan Assault Tank Part 3

Hello all! Macca here once again, bringing you part 3 on the Spartan Assault Tank for my White Scars.

As you can see, I have old files and drill bits which I sit the magnets on. This is done so I don't smudge the paint with my fingers (I am a clumsy clumsy oaf~ Macca). I have used the light from underneath the Land Speeder kit to replace the missing sensor from the top of the sponson, with the spare slot available for later add-ons.

Oh look! It is almost starting to resemble a tank! The guns and the sponsons are all magnetised, this aids with painting, storage and gaming. I chose to go with a red on the guns to bring them out from the rest of the white, as contrast is a big deal when you are competing in painting competitions. The red will also be sponged with a light grey and some black to give them a solid chipped and damaged look. The weapons will be done with a Citadel Leadbelcher drybrush, with gentle washes on the barrels to show the heat factor.

So here is my trick with exhausts: I use my finger, and a little Tamiya brand weathering powder, in this case 'Titanium'. I apply it by scratching the palette with a toothpick, dab it with my finger then I apply it liberally. I then take some 'Oil Stain' powder and run it around the top edges to create that soot build up. This technique stops you from going overboard, allows you to skip drybrushing and blending the soot, and it took me 30 seconds. I use this same trick on tracks, AFTER I have covered them in my desired dirt/dust. Once that is done and washed, I will give the tracks a final dusting with powders to contrast them some more.

Well, there it is, when next you see this bad boy, it should be complete, so keep an eye out for part 4 tomorrow. ~ Macca