Spotlight On: Tyranid Flying Hive Tyrant & Toxicrene!

Say hello to my flying Hive Tyrant. 

He's a very friendly chap. 

And here's my ever-friendly Toxicrene!

I painted them using a blend of yellows starting with something dark and almost orange - a series of paints I picked up from B&Q in tester pots made to my specifications.

Spotlight On: Chaos Space Marine Daemon Prince

I was desperate to get this dude when he came out.

He was a very exciting miniature when he was first released and remains the best Chaos Space Marine Daemon Prince model so far. What is going on with the Nurgle one's eye? And the newer one is one of the worst miniatures I've ever seen with it's weird blocky muscles and odd expression.

I used the wings off the Orc Wyvern, blending them in with multi-purpose filler so as to maximise his close combat potential. There's nothing worse than a powerful model getting shot as it shambles slowly across the board.

Originally I painted the daemonic parts purple to go with the crappy Tzeentchian look I was going for but gave him an overhaul recently. Khorne red is a much bolder and more violent colour and ties in with his combat orientation as well.

Obviously the hand with the weird long fingers had to go.

It amazes me that GW though the first freaky long-fingered hand was so good they just had to copy the style for the latest one. I went with some writhing tentacles made from milliput with clawed neds made from little slices of blister pack plastic.

My finest hour? Maybe not. But they do the job. And they're okay.

And they sure beat those crazy fingers!

Spotlight On: The Squat Walking Ancient

This beautiful thing is the Iron Ancestor from Mantic.

Which I'm purloining to be part of my Squat/Adedptus Mechanicus force: Initiative 0999XXB#14-12.In my force He'll be a Dreadnought with twin-linked Autocannons and a close combat weapon.

For colours I went for the same scheme I've been using for my Squat infantry: Khorne Red | 2 coats of Nuln Oil A Khorne Red | Wazdakka Red and then Ianden Darksun and Sunburst Yellow. The metals were black inked down then highlighted back up.

I'm going to have to be careful as my Mechanicus/Squat force is becoming a little vehicle heavy. Which makes sense background-wise I guess, but may not be so fun for my opponents.

But the look of the army is really coming together to my satisfaction. It does pay to delay painting an army until the perfect colour scheme is discovered. 

On the Painting Table: Squats!

The Squats are here!

I had no intention of buying these little guys at first but they niggled away at me and I subconsciously started trying to come up with reasons to fit them into my campaign.

Then it hit me.

These little dudes are going to be the militant arm of my Adeptus Mechanicus force!

More on that in future but for now, let's look at the models.

Obviously these aren't Squats from Games Workshop (sigh). They're Mantic Forge Fathers!

I love Mantic Chaos Dwarfs as you may know and I've also grown to love these little blighters.

The poses and options are a little bit limited but they are cool and they're nicely sized compared to a "normal" 40k human.

The weapon options are a tad limited for me because I bought a lot of the earlier sets that didn't have the tactical upgrades. As a result I have loads of basic troopers and only a few upgrades. I may have to get very sneaky when it comes to that... in time.

For now I'm happy. I'm liking the colour scheme I deliberated over for weeks and I'm building towards my first small game battling over my soon-to-be fully furnished Zone Mortalis.

I'll reveal more as I paint them but we haven't seen the back of the Squats.

Heh heh.

See what I did there?

Return of the Crimson Blades!

The Crimson Blades have returned!!!!

With a lovely new colour scheme...

For years my Space Marines have been a slightly amateurish bright red with gloss varnish and little shading. I have never been happy with them but have experimented with LOADS of different colours and never been happy either.

But on the other hand I wanted to keep the name and background of my home-grown Crimson Blades. How to remedy this was something I pondered for bloody years.

Until now.

This new look feels more realistic to me and certainly looks better. Also it uses proper shading techniques rather than the dodgy gloss varnish method of yesteryear.

I am very pleased overall and am really looking forward to their first game (which is going to be a majot turning point in my storyline).

Army Showcase: Epic Space Marines!

I love Epic.

I really do.

And I own more epic models than I will ever need. Seriously. When I heard Epic Armageddon was coming out I bought up LOADS of the models before they hiked the prices.

However I have one big problem.

For years and years and YEARS, no one would play with me!!!

But no more! Utilising the the techniques I revealed in my Warhammer as an Aphrodisiac post, I have lured my wife into having a mini campaign! My plan is to start small with an easy to understand 2,000 point game, then work up to massive mega battles!!! 

And what better way to get me in the mood than to dust off the little blighters with a celebratory showcase!

We'll start with my Aeronautica Imperialis Thuderhawk Gunship. 

Cute little Assault Marines with jetpacks... 

A couple of homemade (but I think rather nice) Space Marine Objectives representing drop bastion command posts. 

Note that the colours  all match the livery of my Crimson Blade chapter.

My Battle Company (the tactical marines at least).

When I was painting these guys I did a squad of full size marines along side each one, planning to create a battle company at both scales simultaneously.

You can imagine how long that lasted.

(Two squads) 

Bikers... 

 A Command Squad...

The Devastators from my Battle Company.

Actually ONE of my Battle Companies. 

Some Dreadnoughts.

And hey, aren't they the REALLY old style Dreadnoughts from when 40k first came out???? 

Man I used to have a normal scale one of these. I just could NOT glue him together and in the end I lost one of the legs!

Landraiders... 

Heh heh. I got this from a car boot sale. I use it as a Space Marine Landing Craft. And I really like it actually. The scale is just right! 

Some devo old style Landspeeders... 

And the Battle Company's transport. Rhinos and lots of them! 

Getting to the end now... Terminators! 

Aren't they cute????

And my pride and joy...

More whirlwinds than you could ever want or need, ready to pound my enemies into oblivion! 

On the Painting Table: Grey Knight Dreadnought

I originally painted this guy some time ago but I decided to give him a bit of a revamp. Using Grey Knight spare parts! 

He does look cool with the Dreadknight hammer I whacked on there. Nobody is going to mess with this guy.

I went for the banner from the Terminator box but MAN I hated painting it!!!!! I bodged it in the end just to get it done. It looks alright I suppose but needs redoing someday.

(A.K.A. never) 

Putting the Dreadknight hammer on involved a bit of masking. I stuck a shield and an icon on to cover up what I couldn’t file off.

(Shrugs)

Looks alright!