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...)

Getting into Alkemy with the Rados Cults

Progress has slowed quite significantly with both the Real Life™ and the summer getting in the way of building and painting. I did, however, manage to paint up a starter set for Alkemy the Game choosing the Rados Cult faction during last year's Kickstarter for the Second Edition rules. I also started working on a few more reinforcements for my Heresy Blood Angels and I hope to field them at a campaign kick-off event later this month.

Pict 1450: The Rados Cults lead by Radamante

Pict 1451: Rados Cults Starter Set

Pict 1452: Rados Cults Starter Set

So, this is my version of the Rados starter set. The team consisting of one hero, a priestess and 4 warriors with different specialisations. Having played a few rounds I already love the game. It playes on a small board – easily doable on a kitchen table – and has interesting tactical interactions between activation points, custom dice and a bluffing mechanic with cards to resolve combats.

I did ejoy painting these six miniatures to get back into the swing of things. While the process is pretty straight forward, I also wrote it down as a guide for anyone interested or to remind myself should I need it later. I am particularly happy with the bases. While they are similar to the ones I do for my Infinity miniatures, I managed to put a bit more details and other textures in as well.

I'm really looking forward to expanding my collcetion here – even with a newer faction such as the Rados, there is a really good selection of other heroes, warriors and even monsters to choose from and to change up the game play!

Pict 1453: Heresy Blood Angels Melta Support Squad, Moritat and Rhino (WIP)

One of the best motivations to finish miniatures is an upcoming event. I plan to get to a kick-off event for a campaign at one of the local stores.We will be playing games of Zone Mortalis as well as regular Heresy and for the latter I wanted some anti-armour unit to do work against tanks and elite units. Instead of going with the ubiquitous Lascannon squad I went with a Melta support squad a Rhino to get them to where they are needed most. And while I had the fitting paints out, I also stared with a Moritat to join my Mortalis Destroyers as well as a Boarding Marine. The latter was a prize at the Zone Mortalis tournament at the start of the year and I wanted to paint it up before this next event at the same location.

For now, the Rhino has the base colours as well as the decals and is ready for the oilwash. The infantry has some of the colours but will get the rest of them over the next few evenings.

More Legions Imperialis Blood Angels and a Big Terrain Feature

These past two weeks, I mainly painted some more Blood Angels for my Legions Imperialis collection, finishing up the Missile Support Marines from the last post and putting some good work into my flyers. In the bigger scale, I also worked on the base colours for a Zone Mortalis board.

Pict 1444: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels on the Defense

Pict 1445: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Missile Launcher Support Marines

First up, I finished the Missile Launcher Support Marines for Legions Imperialis. The eye lenses were a bit tricky since they are not only incredibly small but also hidden behind the arms holding up the launchers. Nevertheless I'm quite happy with them! They even got to feature in another game, in which they did less than usual, but still were a menace. I do hope to get through the remainder of the infantry at a similar rate. In batches of four they don't take that long and, what's more, they don't drive me insane by the sheer number of them!

Pict 1446: Legions Imperialis Emplacement

Pict 1447: Legions Imperialis Emplacement

I also painted up this small scrach built emplacement in the small scale to add something more to my photos of LI miniautures. Its made from some plastic scrap, a LI Sicaran turret, a 28mm Razorback Lascannon and a few random bits. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out – it is simple, but that means it wont take away from the miniatures I want to photograph along side it.

Pict 1448: Aeronautica / Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Air Force (WIP)

I also got to do some work on a bunch of flyers for my Legions Imperialis / Aeronautica Collection. The decals really do some heavy lifting to add details without having to paint them. And once the oilwash is on there, the model starts to come together. I already painted in the canopies and adding some highlights to the details as well as the bigger black and red surfaces should not take that much longer!

Pict 1449: Zone Mortalis Reactor (WIP)

Lastly I also invested a few evenings to work on some more 28mm terrain, in this case a tile for my Zone Mortalis board. While I played a few games of Heresy ZM at a club and I would really like to do that with my own collection, for now, these will probably be used in smaller skirmish style games such as Inq28 or even Necromunda. I love Mortian's reactor as a center piece - it practically paints itself. The GW board, however, does take some patience to fill in all the grey panels. As with the flyers, I'm very much looking forward to putting oils on the terrain piece and weathering it up with some pigments!

Catching up: Legions Imperialis, an Ent and more Badab Enforcers

Summer has almost begun and travels, the good weather and the Real Life™ have taken their toll on my hobby time. While I did not paint that much since my last post (Six weeks ago! I do apologize!), I was not idle but managed to build quite a lot for my Legions Imperialis Blood Angels, play a few games and work on other, smaller projects.

Pict 1440: Legions Imperialis Drop Pods and Fast Attack (WIP)

First up, I built and primed a set of Dreadnought Drop Pods as well as two sets of the Legion Fast Attack box. I will have to get another box of the former and I'm once again very impressed with the detail on these small miniatures. I also got to use some of them in a game already and I was quite impressed with the Jetbikes – they have quite the output with their bolters!

Pict 1441: Legions Imperialis Missile Launcher Support Marines (WIP)

Speaking of games - these Missile Launcher Support Marines do put in the work every time. Their ability to ignore cover makes them great at clearing out infantry out of buildings. Because of that I decided to make them the next few miniatures to finish up.

Pict 1442: Ent (Reposed)

Whilst building the Legions minis, I also reposed this plastic Ent to fill out my Fangorn collection. I think this one will be painted up as a birch. There is a bit of variety in the kit – but I feel like it does show its age and the poses you can get out of it just stock are limited. Nevertheless with a bit of wire and Green Stuff you can get them to be a bit more dynamic.

Pict 1443: Badab Enforcers Subjugators and Tauros Venator (WIP)

Lastly I found some second hand Subjugators for my Badab Enforcers and also got one of the Tauros Venators for the group. A lovely kit and I'm very much looking forward to painting them all up!