Pre Heresy Emperor's Children: Scimitar Jetbikes Completed

It took me awhile, but managed to finish the 1st scimitar jetbike squadron during the weekend. I can say its been a labor of love thus far and I really enjoy painting the sons of Fulgrim in comparison to my Vlka Fenryka. I'm  particularly satisfied how the purple turns out and don't mind to have settled for a clean painting finishing rather the extreme weathering style for most of miniature collections.

The squad is lead by Sergeant Ilios Maros, and the white heraldry on his power armor helmet and stripes at the front portion of his jetbike, marked his veteran status among his squad members. Also, his aquila etched on his breastplate further signify his status and his artificer armor. 

I've also used decals from various sets to further signify these Emperor's Children company. The Emperor's Children symbol on their left shoulder pads were from Chaos Space Marines decal set, and the III symbols from Imperial Guard Leman Russ set. I begin with a light coat of Ard'coat on the decal's surface. After the decal is positioned and dried, a light spray of Tamiya Flat Clear to reduced the gloss of Ard'coat and the decal. To further bring out the decal effect, I lightly paint over the decals.

I'm trying to maximize my resources as much as I can because building a Pre Heresy army from my part of the world, is not cheap. Furthermore, I have tons of those decals and about high time I use them for something. To reflect this cost cutting effort, the next Tactical Squad will be a mixture of FW models with my existing CSM models and at the same time maintaining the Pre Heresy aesthetic, I will post more on that later.

Next, will be the 21st Millennial's 2nd Company Captain (Praetor) Amori Sendax. Hopefully, I can finish him by the end of the week. Have also other projects in my mind, like building another scratch built Warhound Titan specially for the 21st Millennial Titan cohorts...laters..

Praefector Alkanex- Emperor's Children

I've finished assembling and painting the Praefector last weekend. Painting him was fairly easy, similar to other Emperor's Children legionnaires. I try to distinguished him from the rest of his squad, signifying his heroic and loyal service to the III legion. Alkanex's power armor is a Mark IV pattern and equipped with the more advanced Anvilus pattern life support pack. He has the honor of carrying the sacred Aquila symbol on his breastplate and a customised shoulder pad with the legion winged symbol (also representing his artificer armor). Finally, I armed with a finely crafted power axe to further signify his veteran status among his squad.

The model was kit bashed from various sprues as per below:

1) Legs and backpack: Chaos Space Marines

2) Torso and pouch: Space Marines

3) Head, winged shoulder, power axe and bolter: Sanguinary Guard BAs

I wanted him to look regal befitting an Emperor's Children veteran legionnaire, and the Sang. Guard sprues worked perfectly. Of course I have to scrape off the Blood Angels signia and symbols but it wasn't difficult. CSM parts will help to maintain the heresy look and yes the Anvilus backpack is already in service during the great crusade.

Praefector Alkanex leading his squad

Enjoy the pics and will see you guys in the next post. Laters..

Pre-Heresy Emperor's Children

I've started a new project, pre-heresy Emperor's Children Legion. I've been wanting to do a pre-heresy army using Forge World stuffs but couldn't get around to do it plus I've been re-reading all the early Horus Heresy novels which spur further my interest. The army that fascinated me the most would be the sons of Fulgrim. The Emperor's Children before their downfall was a strong, unified and loyal army of the Emperor, strive for perfection in every aspect of their military tactics. It's just sad what happened to them in the end. I wanted to capture that moment in time when the EC were loyal thus selected them for my project.

I'm going for pure pre-heresy for this project hence the Astartes' armaments such as armor and weapons should reflect that era accordingly.  The legionnaire below is using the MK II Early Crusade pattern and armed with a Phobos pattern bolter. I've started painting a test model as per the pics below in which I used painting methods from Forge World.  

For the purple armor, I started off with a black basecoat and then proceeded with a basecoat of Xereus purple. Next a heavy wash of Druchii Violet. The next step is a bit tricky where I  used a 50/50 mix of Xereus purple and Genestealer purple for layering. You can use a syringe to get the right mixing portion. After layering, a 25/75 mix of Xereus purple and Genestealer purple for highlighting. For the gold, a basecoat of Gehenna gold, wash of Reikland Fleshade and a highlight of Gehenna gold to bring out the gold color.

Completed purple armor

I loved how the purple color turned out and for me it really depicts the EC legion with its martial perfection. I'm not too sure about shoulder pads however, still contemplating to add a bright color such as white to contrast with the purple and include the Legion's III symbol over it. I'll experiment with that later.   

Terrain Building: Ruined Temple

Hi all, I got side tracked a bit from my Legio Throwdown project by building a simple ruined temple. As mentioned in the previous post I'm kinda interested in building terrains again after reading the old but invaluable "How to make wargames terrain" book by Nigel Stillman. I've already started with the foundation in the last post and the end result as per the pics below. I laid in some ameoba shape tiles by using cardboards within the ruin and  flocked sands in the outer perimeter of the ruin with PVA glue. That's it! And the paint job did the rest.

It was easy to build, cost me almost nothing and yet the end result is amazing. All you need is some corrugated cardboards, slightly thick cardboards for the tiles, ready mixed filler, pva glue and sands for flocking. Most households have these items or you could just go and buy them, its dirt cheap.

I will post more on my terrain projects as I'm planning to build more soon. For now this will accompany my Crypt Ghouls in the Throwdown event this Friday. That's it for now, laters..

Ave Dominus Nox!

This past 3 weeks has been hell for me so apologies for my lack of updates. But I've hobbying and finally finished up my Night Lords project. Frankly its a relieve since I'm tired of painting blue and can't wait to move on to my pre-heresy Space Wolves. Anyways, now I have a fully painted 1750pts Night Lords 1oth Company and they're more than ready to cause mayhem on the battlefield. I'm quite happy with the turnout since I'm only targeting table top quality and not in the run for Golden Daemon or Golden Kris award. For those of you who don't know, this army was solely based on the Blood Angels codex and was also inspired by Aaron Dembski-Bowden Night Lords novels; Soul Hunter and Blood Reaver. Ok enough talking, feast on the pictures below.


HQ: From left; Talos the Prophet (Sanguinary Priest), The Exalted (Reclusiarch) and Sorcerer Ruven (Librarian)
Atramentar (Assault Terminators)

First Claw (Death Company)

Seventh Claw (Tactical Squad)

'Bleeding Eyes' Raptors (Jump Assault Squad. You can see some of the Raptors are in Blood Angels and Red Corsair armor.

10th Company Armory: From left; Nostraman Fury (Baal Pred), Storm's Eye (Land Raider) and Carpe Noctum (Rhino)

'Night Stalker' (Stormraven)

So that concludes my 2nd project this year. Now the fully painted Night Lords can instill fear and terror on the tabletop with pride. Ave Dominus Nox!!

Some Night Lords Update

Well, I don't know what happened to my last post, it just simply vanished. We can forget about that and move on. I wasn't really hobbying this past one week, basically taking care of my wife needs since we having triplets. I can't imagine when the babies comes, I don't think I can hobby at all if I don't manage my time properly. Got to do some serious organization change!

Enough of that, here's some of my Night Lords updates. I finished with the pre-heresy Land Raider. Not so thrill on the paint job, but considering it's a scratch built, I think it looks great on the table. Take a peek below.






Also I did finished on some of the First Claw squad. Noticed one Night Lord in a Blood Angels plate. It just to show that this rag tag rabble of the previous Night Lords 10th company, was reduced to scavenging other loyal Chapters or traitor legions for equipments, long after the heresy. I've decided to treat them as the Death Company in this Blood Angel based army. I had a try run game 2 weeks ago, imagine six DC with a Chaplain, charged and wiped out a squad of 10 Nurgle Terminators in single assault phase! Stuff of legends right there!

I'm currently working on the Night Lord's Sorcerer/Librarian. I'm halfway done and will post some pictures soon. Laters..

Scratch Built MK 1 Land Raider (Pre-Heresy)

For my Night Lords project, I want to spice up the army by adding something special and rare nowadays in the 41st millennium. And my thought immediately focused on a Space Marine vehicle; a MK 1 Pre-Heresy Land Raider. I found a scratch built template in a Yahoo! group and started to work on it right after. Unfortunately, unlike the previous scratch built titan, this template provides no instruction on how to build the LR. You have to use your wits and a bit of creative touch to finish it. But overall its not that difficult; hey if I can do it, most of you most definitely can! Feast on the pictures below.

I got these LR doors from Forge World, solely for this project. A bit pricey for a scratch built but I want that Night Lords look to it, so what the hell!


Below is the LR construction, phase by phase.














So what do you guys think? This will work great for those building a pre-heresy army. I will post more pictures once I finish painting it. I've posted the template on the Download section (upper right side) Laters..

Night Lords Update

I know its been 4 weeks since my last blog entry, but seriously I've been hobbying especially with my Night Lords and just don't have the time (more like lazy..) to update my blog. As mentioned in my previous blog entry, my Night Lords will be loosely based on the Blood Angels Codex since I wanted this army to fit the fluff as per the Soul Hunter novel. Here's the current army list, 1750 points strong:

Night Lords 10th Compaby (Soul Hunter) 1742 pts

HQ
The Exalted - Astorah the Grim


ELITE
Talos, the Prophet - Sanguinory Priest, Power Weapon

Atramentar - 5 Assault Terminators, 2 SH,TH

TROOPS
'Seventh Claw' Tactical Squad - 10 Tactical Marines, Flamer, Meltagun

'Sixth Claw' Assault Squad - 9 Jump Assault Marines , P.Fist, Infernus Pistol, Meltagun


FAST ATTACK
'First Claw' Elite Squad - 7 Vanguard Veterans, Sergeant with Power Weapon, 2 Power Weapon, P.Fist

HEAVY
Storm Raven Gunship

Predator - Twinlinked Lascannon , Sponson Heavy Bolter

DEDICATED TRANSPORT
Land Raider 'Storm's Eye' - Multi Melta

Rhino 'Carpe Noctum'

Well, not your everyday cheesy list, but I think its playable and can be a competitive list and most importantly I really wanted it to fit the fluff from the novel. I was thinking of fielding Baal Preds in this army but then again Night Lords don't have access to that vehicle. The Stormraven however can be utilized since it was mentioned in the novel that Septimus (the Legion serf) piloted a drop ship that was similar to the Stormraven.

Moving on, this is Talos the Prophet, former Apothecary of the 10th company. I did some conversion using a Chaos Warrior back, Space Wolves power weapon, and some bits from the Vampire Counts zombie sprues. The fur on the shoulders were sculpted using epoxy putty. I'm quite happy with the result, probably it was not the best but I think its tabletop quality.



More pictures below.

'Seventh Claw' Tactical Squad


'Atramentar' Terminators


'Carpe Noctum' Seventh Claw Rhino


Well, that's my update so far. I'm ecstatic with my current progress and can't wait to see the Night Lords in action. Oh, I'll be going back to Malaysia from 3rd April till 14th April. Hope to see you guys soon, and hopefully I can finish this army by then. Death to the False Emperor!

Updates

Some updates here.

Vampire Counts

Not much progress so far, as usual blaming on work and study. I've only managed to paint a few zombies but I'm nearly finish. That's what happen when you have like 130+ models to paint. 20 Ghouls, 10 Grave Guards and 2 Vampire Heroes, then I'm all done. My VC project should be completed by end of December 2010, hopefully. (Why I got the feeling Jeff is going to outpace me with his Beastmen project..)



Also I had few games with my VC so far and I'm loving it. I think VC is still formidable in the 8th edition environment. Had a lengthy 2000 point game with Bobby's VC last weekend , a S&D regular, and it was a blast! I only managed a draw though, but all I can say 30 Grave Guards(Great Weapon, Banner of Barrows) with a Combat Vampire(BSB) and supported by a Corpse Cart (Miasma of Pestilence)bound with a Necromancer (Vanhels Danse Macabre) and Vampire Lord with Helm of Commandment, they basically rampaged throughout the game, killing 30 Grave Guards and almost 40 Crypt Ghouls with a Vampire Hero, and yet they survived till the end of the game! That's a stuff of legends right there.

Tournaments , Bangkok

As you can see in the ad above, Slice & Dice will be hosting a 40k Tournament in December, woohoooo!! I haven't been playing 40k for awhile, more like months, and this tournament will be a great refresher! Finally my Space Wolves can see some real action. And my good friend Nicky is returning to Bangkok with his new Dark Eldar army I presumed. My Frost blade hungers for some Dark Eldar blood! I'm really looking forward to this tournament. Check out this link for the tourney gory details, Slice & Dice 40k Winter Tournament.

Till then, laters...

Cometh the Undead - Progress of House Corvinus 2

Further updates from my VC's progress. Finally I finished up with the Grave Guards plus a combat vampire using Vlad's model.

Initially I had only 10 GGs but with a bit of imagination and extra sprues, managed to get 20 in the form of freshly resurrected GGs. This is temporary while waiting my shipment from Maelstrom but I think it looked decent and playable. Also I flocked the movement trays with grass to match their bases.




My combat vampire, Carugarul Corvinus the Bloody. Spent a few hours on this bloke but I think it turned out nicely. I just love the Vlad von Carstein model and honestly I think is the best looking vampire from Citadel. Mostly Chaos Black and Boltgun Metal for the armor with a wash of 1:1 Scorched Brown and Chaos Black. The highlights of Codex Grey on the black portion and Boltgun Metal on the the metals. For the spectral cape, base of Chaos Black and wash of Warlock purple. Continued with a light layer of Warlock purple. Then highlights of 1:1 Warlock Purple and Skull White and further highlight of Skull White on the spectral faces. And finally a light Minwax treament to bring out the face portion of the model.



Enjoy the pics and will post with more updates soon. Till then laters..