III Legion Emperor's Children Part 1

G'day fellow nerds and lovers of all things Heresy, Wadey here! Well the day has finally arrived that the mighty III Legion makes their way into AGIF history! I know many of you… well Keepy, Macca and a few of the other cretins I kick around with doubted this day would ever come but to those nay sayers I say NAY!

The arrival of the Emperor's Children on AGIF comes well timed as this coming weekend in sunny Townsville (home of AGIF and gateway to north Queensland, Australia) is the Warhammer 30,000 invitational dubbed "Like a Sir".

This 1000 point event is being hosted by AGIF and the lads over at The Traitors Hand and will be focused around fun and competitive gaming, delicious grown up beverages and subsequent jawing off and yelling at Braden for his bullshit ability to make saves… such a jerk!

Moving along, I felt what better way to introduce my Emperor's Children than to show you guys the army I am running, why I chose what I did and how I got them from zip lock bags to purple badassery!

I do not claim to be any sort of an authority when it comes to our beloved hobby, nor do I regard myself as having the same skill in painting as the other lads I blog with.. Truth be told although being an AGIF member right from the start I, along with you guys the readers, I have learnt so much from the boys as they have posted their tutes and hints and tips. I am however a VERY enthusiastic gamer and to have the opportunity to share my stuff with like minded people is why I'm here!

Here is a very basic overview of my list with details to come:

HQ

Praetor

Legion Consul - Librarian

TROOPS

Tactical Squad - Foot

Tactical Squad - Rhino

ELITES

Legion Rapier Laser Destroyers

Apothecary

HEAVY SUPPORT

Sicaran Battle Tank

I decided I wanted to theme my army around Isstvan III, that way I can run them as either Loyalist or Traitor. The following is a list of the main materials I used to get them from start to finish:

Squrits flat black spray paint

Xerxes Purple (GW)

Genesteeler Purple (GW)

Gehenna Gold (GW)

Leadbelcher (GW)

Mechanicum Grey (GW)

Fortress Grey (GW)

Abbadon Black (GW)

Runefang Steel (GW)

White (Vallejo)

Brown weathering powder (Humbrol)

Acrylic clear gloss spray (Tamiya)

Acrylic mat clear spray (Tamiya TS-80)

Black Oil based paint

Oil thinners

There are other colours I used a little here and there but I'll cover those as I talk about each unit.

I thought I'd come out swinging and thus will begin with my beloved Sicaran! These bad boys are worth every point and they hurt! They are tough as nails and smash face! I've tooled mine with a very basic load out.. This being due largely to point restrictions. I am simply running mine stock with the only upgrade being Heavy Bolter sponsons for 20 points.

For this legend I assembled the model fully and glued on some of the Emperor's Children etched brass as you can see on the front track guards, under the view port and also on the sides. I also magnetized the sponsons so that it can be run in both the Heavy Bolter and Lascannon configuration.

I undercoated black and with the trusty airbrush layed down Xerxes Purple as my basecoat. Also with the airbrush I highlighted it with Genesteeler Purple and then airbrushed the white panels on the front and sides. I used Gehenna gold to paint EVERY stinking rivet, the EC heraldry and also the trim around the view port.

The Accelerator Autocannon was painted with Leadbelcher and Gehenna gold and my Heavy Bolters were all painted with Abbadon Black and Leadbelcher with a touch of Wazdakka Red (GW) on the cables at the rear of the weapons. The tracks were painted using Runefang Steel then dry brushed with Dwarf Bronze (GW). The sensor globes were painted using Caledor Blue (GW) and Moot Green (GW) and Highlighted with white. After all the details were done I sponged on some battle damage using Mechanicum grey as a base then Fortress grey as a highlight. .

Once all the details were finished I sprayed the entire model with Tamiya clear gloss and let it fully dry. Then using the principles found in Maccas excellent oil wash tute I mixed up a black oil wash and went over the weapons, rivets, tracks, heraldry. I left the Sicaran for 24 hours (perfect time to play some Destiny!!!) then using Tamiya TS-80 mat clear coat I sprayed the whole model and got rid of that shine from the gloss. Then from there I simply gave it some weathering with the brown weathering powder and added gloss again to the sensor globes.

There you have it folks, the mighty III Legion Sicaran and the first of many posts following the journey of the proud sons of the Primarch Fulgrim. I hope you have enjoyed reading and if anyone has any questions or suggestions feel free to leave them here or PM on the AGIF Facebook page.

Cheers for stopping by,

Wadey

Flyer-Sized Urban Rubble Bases: Part 2, the paint.

In Part 1 (find it here), we looked at the construction. Here in part 2, we will cover a very simple paint job. To start, the bases are given a spray primer undercoat. The trick, shown in picture 2, is getting the spray so spatter ever so gently and to not have a single flat surface coat. This means that there is more area for paint to stick to, which will prevent paint peeling later on, as resin, even cleaned, is notorious for.

To basecoat, I used the airbrush, with a mix of Miniataire Charcoal Grey and Raven Black to create my dark grey. The GW equivalent which I tried to match, is Standard Mechanicum Grey. It's a fantastic colour, but I can get a lot more Miniataire ready to spray for the same cost.

 Blurrtastic.

Next, GW Leadbelcher was used on all the metal surfaces, and a mix of Sycorax Bronze and Auric Armour Gold was used for the shell casings.

Out come the weathering powders. I applied a fair bit of powder using a small brush. The green powder gives a moldy look which is just perfect for virus bombed Istvaan III, whilst the browns give a good mix of old and new rusts.

To seal it, I gently airbrushed a little acrylic thinners over the bases. This liquifies the pigment, which then sets in place. Do use low air if you do this, as it can blow it all away. If you don't have an airbrush, just gently touch the areas with some white spirits, and the spirits will flow into the pigments and seal them. Always remember to semi-gloss or gloss varnish the pigments after for a good seal.

After the pigments, I gently drybrushed (yes, that horrible painters curse word) the bases, just to add a little definition to the greys. This was a very subtle step.

Finally, I picked out the details such as the little skulls on the bases and the light fitting. I used this time to apply some rust effects (some Secret Weapon Rust Brown powder mixed with a little blazing orange) and applied with a sponge.

The results:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, please let me know if you did,

~Macca

Flyer-Sized Urban Rubble Bases: Part 1, the build.

G'day, Macca here with a pretty in-depth tutorial today, focusing on modifying Urban Rubble bases. The original bases are from Secret Weapon Miniatures, as are 3/4 of the components I am using. The reason I am modifying these bases is I want two identical bases to look different once I base models on them.

This Tutorial is broken up into two parts: This part deals with the construction, and the next part deals with the painting (find it here). As they are both large, I decided that people can pick whichever they are more interested in, and if they like both, then they can read them both.

To start with, I laid out all my bits. This included:
-Secret Weapon Etched brass barbed wire and mesh fencing
-Games Workshop 40k brass etch
-Secret Weapon shell casings, in various sizes
-Florists wire
-multiple cheap super glues
-Citadel clippers and pining drill
-tweezers
-hobby knife
-my trusty cutting mat.

First up, I took some of the florists wire and twisted the wire into a small loop. I then cut this off in order to get a figure '9' shape. 

Next, I drilled 3 holes into the base for the three pins to go into. These pins will act as stakes for my barbed wire. A little super glue and they were in place.

I carefully used the hobby knife (box cutter, really) to cut a segment of barbed wire from the brass etch. Once cut, I wound it around a screwdriver, in order to create a coiled shape.

After removing the coil, I wound it around the stakes, and glued it into place. The key here was not to have a neat and tidy coil, but rather a loose, mishap wire which is damaged and old.

After the wire was done, I cut a small piece of etched brass mesh fencing, and toyed around with it on the base until I found an area I liked, I then glued it down.

Out come the shell casings. I used two sizes here, representing rifle ammunition and spent grenade casings. I then put a drop of super glue on a piece or card, and dipped the casings into the glue using the tweezers, before placing them in small clusters on the base.

That's base one done.

On base two, I decided to go for a ruined mesh fence. I started by cutting up some more mesh, as well as a pair of pickets. These pickets were then measured and glued into place.

I next glued on the mesh, as well as a small GW aquilla and a little coil of wire to top it off.

I looked through my massive pile of junk and bits, and came across a lamp from the Cities of Death boxed set. I decided to add it to the base to show that this really was once a city, not just a random building that has collapsed onto the base.

After all that, here we have the finished results. Simple, fast, easy.

If you want to see how I painted it, check out part 2.

~Macca