And here marches the VIIth Legion....

Hi all,

I'd like to introduce myself as the newest crew member to the AGIF blog. My name is Andrew, but more commonly referred to as 'Spraggy". I met Keepy, along with many others, many years ago during one of my forays into the wargaming circle of the Australian Defense Forces. It wasn't long before he became a gaming nemesis to me and then a good friend shortly afterwards.

I have been playing various miniature wargames, including warhammer 40k since 1989. I initally entered into the 40k world with Imperial Fist space marines due to somehow always ending up with the yellow models when my friends and i played space crusade. My hobby branched into space hulk and my first miniature collections were of Imperial Fists Terminators. A friend soon offered me a game of 40k but i offered all i had was 30 odd Terminators. Even still he agreed and my little lumpy yellow dudes stormed over the table and i was soon hooked onto warhammer 40k.

Ever since then i have been an avid collector, painter, hobbyist and player. Seeing as how the shine of 40k is somewhat diminished these days, my interest has naturally turned to 30k and my loyalty to the VIIth Legion is strong, and after persistence from Keepy and Ty Casey from 'A Traitor's Hand' blog, i have now joined the ranks of Legion players.

The vision i have for my 30k force is that of a chapter of Imperial Fists dedicated to that quintessential role for them, The vanguard. I envision a strong block of about 30 breacher marines supported by various tactical, support and heavy marine squads. (i have a plasma support, rotor cannon support and las cannon heavy squad).

The chapters elite are a squad of terminators and a squad of templars. Furthur support comes in the way of rapier platforms, tarantula platforms, a Sicarian and Landraider for infantry support and a fire raptor and storm eagle for air support.




I'm hoping this overall looks like a phalanx of yellow ceramite advancing solidly and stoicly to close ground with the foe and grind them down.




I look forward to showing off my chapter as it grows and no doubt cheering about victories as i trash Keepie's Mechanicus Bullies and put Wadey's purple gay boys to the sword!

Lorgar Aurelian: Part 3

So I finally finished Lorgar. With one big exception: his cloak. Upon starting to assemble the model, the cloak wouldn't even come close to fitting. Short of hacking away at it madly, I have decided to leave it off until I can figure out what to do. Anyway, I am very pleased overall, however I think I will slightly darken the area around Lorgar's eyes as they don't stand out enough for my tastes.

So three Primarchs (including the repainted Angron) in a week or so. Very pleased. Funny enough, Lorgar is the first Edgar Skomorowski (I think that's how you spell his name, apologies if I'm wrong Edgar!) Primarch I have worked on, and it was quite a bit different to Horus and Angron. His armour is more simplistic in regards to trim, but the textures are very organic, unlike Horus and Angron who are very smooth and mechanical sculpts by the great Simon Egan.

Smash face Warmaster, smash face.

~Macca

Lorgar Aurelian: Part 2

Two Primarchs in one week whilst working every day AND spend time with the girlfriend? I'm trying to give it a shot! So, today is part 2 on Lorgar, and the first thing I want to say is that GREY IS BORING. Thus, being a fan of Evil Lorgar (muh ha ha) I started with a nice red basecoat with the airbrush, Minitaire Angelic Blood was the go-to, followed by a top-down coat of 50-50 Angelic Blood and Hazard Orange.

Next, I cracked out my wet palette. This bad boy is still wet from working on Horus as I top it up with water to keep it moist through the day. I grabbed some Evil Sunz Scarlett and some Blazing Orange, and in a 70-30 mix, I went around and highlighted the UPPER panels around the zig-zag runes. I didn't go too orange as eventually once I wash this model, the contrast will be huge, so it only pays to highlight lots now if you're not planning on a wash.

Following all this, out came the Balthasar Gold for another hour-long session of gold trim painting. Fuck you GW, fuck you FW, 20 years of painting chaos space marines has given me an intense dislike of gold trim. But it looks shit hot, so I grudgingly do it whilst praising your foul dark gods.

Next, I painted a mix of Auric Armour Gold and Balthasar onto most of the trim. In pic one, you see just the base, in pic 2, you see the full gold mix.

Next came the steel/silver sections. I mixed up some Ironbreaker and Chaos Black to get a darker steel tone, and painted all the tubing and Illuminatum(?) This Crozius is DELICATE. I think out of all the Primarchs I have done, well, the two others, nothing can match this. If you work on this, be very wary of breakage.

I also painted the purity seals/streamers on his armour, as well as doing a soft marble on the shaft of his crozius. this was done by painting it matte black, then applying some very thin veins of pale grey, followed by a Guilliman Blue glaze. I will be coming back to the streamers later after the oil wash, so they aren't quite finished yet.

Thus began the long-ass oil wash. Lots of runes and gold, meant 45 minutes of picking out delicate details all over the place. In the end, I'm really happy with the result, and once he is dry, the matte varnish will really sell him. I will paint the face and cloak in the meanwhile, and bung up some pics of him tomorrow.

Thanks for viewing guys,

~Macca

Lorgar Aurelian, Part 1

Today I started work on Lorgar's base. I decided that as I had already hand painted one, (Angron's) and airbrushed with hand painted detailed one (Horus), that I would try my hand at oil painting one.

To start with, I prepared my resin. This involved a good clean in warm soapy water, as well as filing it. I then test fitted the parts, before I belt sanded (I am a fitter and turner by trade, I have lots of big tools floating around) the underside of the large and normal base. This gave me a nice flat surface, which comes into play when gluing the base later.

At this point, I test fitted the parts again and primed everything. As always, the prime didn't give a smooth finish to the entire base, but rather added surface texture to the material.

Taste the Rainbow.

At this point, I did a quick semi-gloss varnish, and once dried, out came my $12 oil paint set. These oils will last a LONG time, so $12 is a good investment. I then apply a little of each into my palette. Once I have all my oils out, I then dabbed them all over he base components.

Now, I smear it all together into a nice hangover-esque mixture of Kebab and Bourbon. (A sight I am all too familiar with.)

Now, as the oils take a little while to dry, you have a little work time. You simply get a clean tissue, and use it to rub away any oils you don't want. The more you press, the more oil you take off.

I repeated this 3 times in order to get the right rock tones. Check out some of the mid-process shots.

I ended up with this at the end of all this Kebab/Bourbon work.

I gave the base a very light drybrush with some light grey, about the colour of the base coat. You can compare the before and after with the above and below shots.

From here, I picked out the candles and skulls with both regular acrylics and some washes.

To top off, I think that Lorgar's base is too plain. Just a little. All the other primarchs have pipes and rubble and dead astartes, but Lorgar just has some stairs and a few candles. I thus cracked out the Secret Weapon green bits box (my terrain box of brass etch, rubble etc), and I applied some mossy patches and a couple of Gale Force Nine bushes/shrubs.

So, that's Lorgar's base. Coming after Horus, it probably won't appeal as much, but I am chucking it up anyway because someone, somewhere might enjoy it,

~Macca