Legions Imperialis Support Dreadnoughts and Land Raiders

These past two weeks, I once again did not have that much time to paint. But the time I spent, was really quite effective. I finished up the Leviathans and Deredeos for my Legions Imperialis Blood Angels and even got to the box of Land Raiders from the same collection.

Pict 1494: Legions Imperials Blood Angels Leviathans and Deredeos

The first thing I finished this time around were these Legions Imperialis Support Dreadnoughts – four Leviathans and four Deredeos. I had started them to fit in with DreadTober and I'm quite happy to have finished them in good time! Again, lovely models - its really quite impressive, what the scupltors and mold engineers manage with these miniscule figures. I really should get a second support box, to round out the detachments.

Pict 1495: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Land Raider Explorators

Again, seeing finished models is an amazing boost of dopamine. And I went right ahead and started putting the base colours on a box of Land Raider Explorators. I intentionally went for a squad that I thought should paint up rather fast. And as you can see, I managed to finish the six Land Raiders as well! Really quite fun to decide on two distinct squad markings as well as individual bits of heraldry with the decals. (This time around I remebered the correct order of operations here and put them on before the wash...)

Blood Angels Dreadnoughts big and small

Only a quick update today to tie a bow on my DreadTober activities: I had hoped to finish at least one of my Blood Angels Dreadnoughts as a stretch goal. Real Life™, however, interferred and I had only very little time to paint.

Pict 1491: DreadTober Blood Angels Dreadnoughts (WIP)

I did only a bit of work on these two – mainly on the gold parts. It should not take to long to finish them, but we'll have to see how much I can get done in the coming weeks... Still, I'm very happy with the progress I managed during this October!

Pict 1492: Legions Imperialis Leviathan and Deredeo Dreadnoughts (WIP)

But I did spent the time to put the remaining base colours and washes on these Legions Imperials Dreadnoughts from the support box. Annoyingly I forgot to add the decals to the models before the wash, which would be my usual work flow. I'll try and do them just before the weathering and hope it will come out similar enough.

Pict 1493: Raven Guard Delegatus (WIP)

Whilst doing the base coats on the little Dreadnoughts, I also put some colours on the Raven Guard Delegatus. At least, I did not just slap on the oilwash since the model is also missing the decals. I might try and do them when I do them on the Legions miniatures as well.

DreadTober Week Three: Armand Titus, Howling Griffons Chaplain Dreadnough

This week, I managed to finish the first DreadTober miniature: Armand Titus, the Howling Griffon Champlain Dreadnought, that will lead my small contingent of the chapter set during the Badab War. I also made some more headway on the Dreadnoughts for my Blood Angels.

Pict 1486: Armand Titus leading a squad of Howling Griffons

Pict 1487: Armand Titus, Howling Griffons Chaplain Dreadnought

Pict 1488: Armand Titus, Howling Griffons Chaplain Dreadnought

Pict 1489: Armand Titus, Howling Griffons Chaplain Dreadnought

Putting the finishing touches on Titus really only took one evening – completing my (initial) DreadTober pledge and readying him up to lead my growing Howling Griffons collection! After highlighting the important details I also put on some free-hand writing: the nubers on the skulls and most importantly his name on the left shoulder pad to mirror the one artwork he appears in. His right shoulder only has a decal of the number four since he is part of the chapter's fourth company. I also could not help myself and dated him on the exhaust to remind myself that he is this year's DreadTober miniature. I'm really quite pleased with the miniature – reviving my Chaplain Dreadnought of yore after quite some time collecting the correct OOP ForgeWorld pieces.

Pict 1490: DreadTober Blood Angels Dreadnoughts (WIP)

The two Blood Angels Dreadnoughts had the last remaining base colours done – especially cleaning up the red armour around the gold trim took some time. The decals as well as the oilwash are on them now and I can see myself finish at least the Boxnought until the end of the month. But I also recently saw a great Conversion of a 30k Castraferrum that sported the Havoc launcher from the vehicle sprue, so I might just go ahead and add that on this one as well...

The Dreadnought Drop Pod might have to be sidelined for now. Even so, I'm glad to have started painting it. If I can muster the motivation, I'd like to paint the thing next month alongside my Kharybids... We'll see how it goes!

DreadTober Week Two: Blood Angels Flyers and a whole host of Dreadnoughts

This week was quite effective: I finally finished some Aeronautica / Legions Imperialis flyers for my small scale Blood Angels and got some good work done on the next few dreadnoughts (big and small)!

Pict 1477: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Air Support

Pict 1478: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Thunderhawk

Pict 1479: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Thunderhawk

Pict 1480: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Fire Raptors

Pict 1481: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Storm Eagles

First up: I managed to finish this collection of Aeronautica planes that form the backbone of my aerial assault formation in Legions Imperialis. They were half painted on my desk for quite a while (I last showed them in June but I started painting them last December...) and I'm really happy now that they are done. I'm really looking forward to using them in the next game and then painting the last three Xiphons that are still missing to complete my flyers.

Pict 1482: DreadTober Blood Angels Dreadnoughts (WIP)

As promised in last week's post, I got to work on the Blood Angel Dreadnought. Whilst working on the Castra Ferrum's basecolours, I also did the same colours on one more Contemptor and the Dreadnought Drop Pod I had wanted to paint as a strech goal last year. It would be great to get them done during October as well, but I'm not holding my breath. As long as I can get some progress on them, I'm happy!

Pict 1483: Howling Griffons Chaplain Dreadnought (WIP)

The Howling Griffons Chaplain Dreadnought meanwhile has been oiled up and is already looking quite goot. I'm confident this one will be done quite fast!

Pict 1484: Rados Cults Scourgers (WIP)

I also got a first wave of additional miniatures for my Rados Cults. These three Scourgers are pretty basic troops and now have the first few colours on them. Since I plan to play a lot more Alkemy, I'm sure they will get done sooner rather than later. As long as I don't get to distracted...

Pict 1485: Legions Imperialis Leviathan and Deredeo Dreadnoughts (WIP)

Lastly I also started on some small scale Dreadnoughts to keep in the spirit of DreadTober whilst still cashing in on the motivation from finishing the Aeronautica/Imperialis flyers.

Raven Guard Recons and DreadTober begins!

Sometimes you just really get into a project – this happened to me these past two weeks and I quickly finished the Raven Guard Recon Marines, I had converted and shown of in the last post and built a Centurion to lead them. I also got a start on my DreadTober Dreadnoughts!

Pict 1472: Ravan Guard Recons securinh a communications shrine

Pict 1473: Raven Guard Recon Squad

Pict 1474: Raven Guard Recon Squad

These really painted up quite fast! I managed to put on the base colours more neatly after a black prime and the grey zenithal. This left me with only a few touch ups and detailwork to do after an oil wash. As always, I documented the steps of painting in a recipe to remember them for later. They are a bit simpler than my Blood Angels but since I kept the bases the same, they should fit right in nonetheless.

Pict 1475: Chaplain Dreadnoughts (WIP)

I also put the base colours and transfers on my Howling Griffons Chaplain - these went on really quickly! The next step will be the oilwash. But I also might get moving with the Blood Angel Dreadnought I want to paint as a strech goal. With the good progess so far, the additional goal seems not that far off!

Pict 1476: Raven Guard Delegatus Centorion (WIP)

After painting the Recons, I had to also think about a HQ unit to lead them as an allied detachement. While a Vigilator sure would make sense to put with them, I also would like to be able to run them as an actual Recon Company with the Rite of War. This means either using a Praetor or the Centurion Delegatus as the budget version. I liked the idea of the latter and looked for inspiration to show the Centurion's station. As far as I can see the only miniature released as a Delegatus is the 2015 event-exclusive Alpha Legion Autilon Skorr. He is sporting a baton which I liked and repeated on my conversion. Other than that the base model is the venerable ForgeWorld production MkV with some added green stuff at the hips and neck for additional hight. I also kept the option to run him as a Vigilator open and gave him a Nemesis bolter converted in the same manner to ones on my Recon Marines. I'm pretty happy with the way he's looking and can't wait to paint him up and more importantly run him in a game!

Converting Recon Marines and Chaplain Dreadnoughts

Just a quick post to show some building / converting I have done over the past two weeks: A small squad of Recon Marines with Nemesis Bolters, ready to be painted as a part of a small Raven Guard allied detachment for my Horus Heresy Blood Angels. And two Castra Ferrum Dreadnought, both of them the venerable Chaplain Dreadnought sculpt from ForgeWorld.

Pict 1469: Raven Guard Recon Marines (Conversion)

Pict 1470: Raven Guard Recon Marines (Conversion)

I had quite a few ideas floating around in my head after last month's campaign day. But one that just had to be done was to convert some Recon Marines with Nemesis Bolters. They do seem quite useful in the game and just look great! I plan to paint them as a small Raven Guard allied detachment – a small part of the shattered legion that lend their skills in forward deployment to my Blood Angels.
The models were converted using the plastic Mk VI marines. I removed some detail on the chest armour and replaced it with detailing reminicent of the Raven Guard Dark Furies. The cloaks are made with Green Stuff – at fist only the rough shape before attaching the backpack. Once that had cured I added smaller whisps of Green Stuff to the edges to make them look less uniform and lastly texturing them with a layer of Vallejo Plastic Putty roughly stippled on to hide some of the seams that I could not iron out. The Nemesis Bolters use parts of the Grey Knight's Interceptor backpacks – using the longer teleporter rods to extend the barrels and the shorter ones to create a sight on top.

Pict 1471: Mk IV Chaplain Dreadnoughts (WIP)

Whilst converting I also worked on this pair of Chaplain Dreadnoughts. Both of them are eBay rescues and one of them was in a somewhat sorry state. The one with Lascannon will be part of my Howling Griffons to represent Chaplain Dreadnought Armand Titus that was part of force that participated in the Badab War. The other one had a bit more surgery done to make it fit in more with my Heresy Blood Angels, most notably I used a Dremel to make space for one of the Forge World Mk IV Blood Angels helmets. I really enjoyed posing these two. Whilst the boxy frame can feel a bit clumsy I'm very happy with what I came up with – one of them braced on a rock to surveil the battlefield, the other leaning forward to get ready for close combat. I plan to paint at least one of them for this year's Dreadtober. Will I manage to paint both of them?

Meltas for all the Blood Angels

In the past few weeks, I was quite productive and finished up another set of Horus Heresy Blood Angels. With these under my belt, I also got around to some more Howling Griffons, that lay around for about a year.

Pict 1454: Blood Angels Melta Support Squad

Pict 1455: Blood Angels Melta Support Squad

Pict 1456: Blood Angels Melta Support Squad

I did not quite finish these Blood Angels in time for last week's Campaign day, but they were far enough to see play. After three amazing games, my mind was fired up with new ideas for my Heresy marines. And I really wanted to finish the Melta Support Squad, the Rhino and the two characters. Doing the highlighting took some time, especially glazing the red armour, but I'm very happy to have done it now. I love the way the heat bloom looks on the squad's Melta guns.

Pict 1457: Blood Angels Rhino

Pict 1458: Blood Angels Rhino

Pict 1459: Blood Angels Rhino

Pict 1460: Blood Angels Rhino

The Support Squad also got their dedicated transport of a Rhino. Again using the Mars pattern but with the ForgeWorld Icon on one side and an additional icon on the back hatch. The big flat panels of the vehicle really lend themselves to weathering such as scratches. Really god fun to paint up!

Pict 1461: Blood Angels Moritat and Boarding Marine

Pict 1462: Blood Angels Moritat and Boarding Marine

The Moritat did get to do a bit in Zone Mortalis, winning me one game by running down the enemy Warlord. They even improved over the games, since there was a character experience system in place. I was originally not perfectly happy with the pose, especially the sword is quite hidden. But theay have grown on me and I can't wait to use them in some more games.
The Boarding Marine came out great as well. I painted them up to fit into my Breacher squad but I guess they will see litte time on the gaming table. It's really a shame that there is no regular way to kit out a Breacher squad with melee weapons.

Pict 1463: Howling Griffons Veterans purging a Zone Mortalis

Pict 1464: Howling Griffons Veterans

After finishing the Blood Angels, I got right onto another set of Space Marines and finished up six more Howling Griffons that I started last October. I said back then, that the highlights should not take long. And in fact I managed to do it during the course of a morning – only about a year later... Nevertheless, I'm very happy with the way they came out. They are a bit rougher than the Blood Angels – perfectly fitting for smaller games set during the Badab War!

Pict 1465: Blood Angels Kharybdis Assault Claw (WIP)

One last thing, the campaign day inspired me to do, was to stick together this Kharybdis Assault Claw. Its a massive beast, weighing in at pretty much exactly one kilogram of ForgeWorld resin! I purchased the Kharybdis used and took it apart at the start of the year. And having now put it together and even started basecoating it, I'm super happy with it and can't wait to get it to th tabletop once more. (Of course it saw about five minutes of game time before getting shot out of the sky...)