Happy Festag, everyone!

Obviously a short one today – I wish you all happy holidays! A few bits and pieces got painted nonetheless: my human Blitz Bowl Team and a few bits of sci-fi scatter terrain.

Pict 1253: Blitz Bowl Humans

Pict 1254: Blitz Bowl Humans

First up the Blitz Bowl Team – I really like the bright and classic colours. And the painting did not take that long because I did not go with as may highlights as I might usually do. The only thing missing from the Blitz Bowl box is a set of transfers with player numbers. I might have to have a lookout online... I'm also quite pleased with how the bases turned out. Really simple but still characteristic.

Pict 1255: Blitz Bowl Dwarves (WIP)

The other team in the second edition Blitz Bowl box are the dwarves and I have made a good start on them as well. I had a hard time of choosing a colour scheme but thanks to a comment left by Sachiel, I went with orange as the main colour and went from there. With a bit of luck, I might just be able to finish them this year!

Pict 1256: Inquisition Crate and Barrels

I also painted up some quick pieces of sci-fi scatter terrain. The crate with the inquision logo is technically a 40k bit but I think you could get away with using it in 30k or even Infinity. It was painted the usual way while the barrels were highlighted with sponged on layers after the wash for a grimy, textured look.

So this will probably be it for this year, the next post will be my end of the year summary and look ahead at 2023!

A Blood Angels Leviathan Dreadnought

Just a quick update this week since I only finished one miniature in the past two weeks: the Blood Angels Leviathan. I also started work, however, on a big squad of Assault Marines for the Blood Angels as well.

Pict 1248: Blood Angels Leviathan

Pict 1249: Blood Angels Leviathan

Pict 1250: Blood Angels Leviathan

Pict 1251: Blood Angels Leviathan

The Leviathan really is an impressive kit. I had trouble handling him while painting – he's just that big! Even with all the addional bling provided by the Blood Angel specific miniature, I had quite a lot of fun using decals to put on additional heraldry.

Pict 1252: Blood Angels Assault Marines (WIP)

The next big project for the Blood Angels will be these 15 Assault Marines. You really can't do Blood Angels without some Jumppack Troops. And of course I have the Apothecary and the Preator with Jumppacks painted to go with this squad.
Even with the diffenent steps pretty much locked in, I will probably have to break the big group up into three smaller ones. I fear to go insane batchpainting to many at once...

Blood Angels ready for the Zone Mortalis

Once again, two weeks were firmly in the grip of the Horus Heresy with a bunch more work on my Blood Angels – fnishing the Breacher squad and adding another Apothecary and five Support Marines with Heavy Flamers.

Pict 1240: Blood Angels Zone Mortalis Reinforcements

Pict 1241: Blood Angels Breachers

Pict 1242: Blood Angels Breachers

After my last post, I really concentrated on these five Breachers and now have an officially legal army. I'm really happy with how they came out and following them, I on a roll and rode that Blood Angels wave even further!

Pict 1243: Blood Angels Heavy Support Flamers and Apothecary

Pict 1244: Blood Angels Heavy Support Flamers and Apothecary

And here are the next few miniatures for the Blood Angels: five Heavy Support Marines with Heavy Flamers and an Apothecary on foot to round out a 1000 points list themed to Zone Mortalis games. I did not expect to finish them so quickly. But it really seems like I have the different steps of the colours down and of course it's only six Marines after all. Nevertheless this bodes well for my progress!

Pict 1245: Blood Angels Leviathan (WIP)

And of course I also started to work on a Leviathan Dreadnought. This one had to get painted, because the model is so chunky it does not fit into my Heresy project box!
I managed to put down the base colours and oil wash rather fast and the wash has now dried for about a week. Now he's ready for the highlighting and should also done by the next update.

Pict 1246: Crashed Aquila Lander

Pict 1247: Crashed Aquila Lander

Lastly I also updated the paintjob on this crashed Aquila Lander to tie it in with my current Heresy miniatures. I can't quite pinpoint when I first painted this terrain set, but it might be about 10 years ago!
To update it, I removed some very green patches of static grass, gave all the ship parts a black oilwash and repainted the ground to match the Blood Angel's bases. And of course I gave it all a liberal coating of weathering pigments.
If I painted the Lander today, I would probably go lighter on the sponged on rust but I'm pretty happy to have some addional backgrounds for my Heresy miniatures.

Blood Angels Breachers and Blitz Bowl Humans

I used the past two weeks to continue my Blood Angels Legion in the form of some Breachers. I then was distracted by a box of Blitz Bowl as a quick side project.

Pict 1235: Blood Angels Breachers

Pict 1236: Blood Angels Breachers

Pict 1237: Blood Angels Breachers

I finished the first half of my Blood Angels Breachers that had been in the making for about a month. Among them are of course the Segeant and the Vexilla but also on of the weapons specialist with a Graviton Gun. The next five should take about one or two more evenings, but of course I was distraced...

Pict 1238: Blitz Bowl Humans (WIP)

... I was distracted by a box of second edition Blitz Bowl. I started with the human team and wanted to go for a very colourful and easy scheme. I hope to finish them quickly with only one layer of highlights after the wash to get them done. We'll see, if I can manage to dial down my expectations and just call them done by then. The aim is to get them to the pitch and play games with them as soon as possible!

Pict 1239: Blitz Bowl Balls and Markers

Along with the players for any game of Blood Bowl you need some markes such as the balls. These were simple enough and painted up very fast. The balls are magnetised so they clip onto the base of the player who currently has one.
While I was at it, I also painted the balls and coin for the Dwarf Team but stopped short of the marker because I have not yet decided on a colour scheme – that should be up next!

DreadTober 2022 is over – Finishing the Contemptor

I just about managed to finish the Blood Angels Contemptor for my DreadTober project. And while waiting for the oil paint to dry, I also got in some more progress on my Breacher squad.

Pict 1231: Blood Angels Contemptor

Pict 1232: Blood Angels Contemptor

Pict 1233: Blood Angels Contemptor

The oils took longer to dry than I expected and so I could not immediatly continue painting. Since I was in a bit of a hurry to finish him up for the end of the month, I sadly forgot to take a picture of the Contemptor before adding the weathering. (I'll have to do this with next bigger model – it's really quite the transformation!)
Anyways, I just about managed to finish him in time for the end of DreadTober. And I even snuck in a little reference to the event on the scroll. He's now got the following number: X·MMXXII

Pict 1234: Blood Angels Breachers (WIP)

With my waiting for the oils on the Contemptor to dry, I managed quite a bit of progress on my MK IV Breachers. They are now at the stage right befor highlighting with the oilwash applied and still drying.
It took me some time to decide what I wanted to do with the flat space of the Breacher Shields. Of course this is prime real estate for decals / heraldry. The problem was the laurel wreath I kept in the center of the shield. In the end it's  somewhat simple: just the small Legion icon inside the wreath with an additional blood drop in the bottom left corner as a unit marker. This leaves me with plenty of space for weathering and scratches!

Two more Blood Angel HQs and more Progress on the Dreadnought

Once again a quick post to keep everyone up to date with my DreadTober Contemptor Dreadnought. I also managed to finish the two HQs for the Blood Angels that I started about a month ago.

Pict 1227: Blood Angels Apothecary and Preator

Pict 1228: Blood Angels Praetor and Apothecary

Pict 1229: Blood Angels Praetor and Apothecary

Two more leaders for the Blood Angels finished: both the Apothecary and the Praetor are converted with apropriate Jump packs to make them ready for any coming jump troops. With both of these, I felt a real hurdle during the highlighting stage. I feel like I get to this stage where there is not that much more to do but the miniature just does not look right and I get disheartened. But with only a few specks of paint on the right areas, the miniature starts to come together, really a magical transition!

Pict 1230: Blood Angels Contemptor (WIP)

And here is the current progess on my Contemptor. I finished putting on the basecolours, slapped on some choice decals and then more or less drowned the thing in oilpaint. I'm still waiting for one more night for the oil to dry before giving it a coat of varnish and then it's onto the highlights!

Dreadtober Update and Blood Angel Heroes

Just a quick update for today, to show the progress on my DreadTober entry as well as to show the first few finished heroes of my Blood Angels.

Pict 1222: Dominion Zephon, Blood Angels Cataphrictii Praetor and Chaplain

Pict 1223: Dominion Zephon, Blood Angels Cataphrictii Praetor and Chaplain

Pict 1224: Dominion Zephon, Blood Angels Cataphrictii Praetor and Chaplain

Completed miniatures first, here are the first three Blood Angels I showed of almost done last week. Dominion Zephon was only missing the pigment on the base while the Preator and the Chaplain needed some more highlights. I went with the same textured look on the black cloaks that I first used on my Dol Guldur Nazgûl, I really like the effect! Other that that, they use the same recipe as before, only with more bling already on the models.

Pict 1225: Blood Angels Contemptor (WIP)

Now, here is how far I have gotten with the next Contemptor. The base colours are almost done and he is waiting for some decals and then the oil wash. All in all Contemptors are not to complicated, but I expect to take quite some time with the weathering – it takes surprisingly long even on normal infantry!

Pict 1226: Blood Angels Breachers (WIP)

And lastly here is what I'm working next for the Blood Angels: a squad of Breachers. While I plan to have a versatile collection with many of the fast signature units the Blood Angels can field, I also really like the Boarding Assault / Space Hulk theme. Especially for smaller games of Zone Mortalis this seems fitting and so my second troops choice will be these Breachers instead of the customary Assault Marines – but feat not, they are coming as well!

But since I will have an officially playable list after finishing these, I might want to pivot and paint some terrain suitable to 30k. I need something for the background of those nice photos...