Sunday 30 October 2022

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.

Blood Angels Contemptor
Pict 1231: Blood Angels Contemptor

Blood Angels Contemptor
Pict 1232: Blood Angels Contemptor
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

Blood Angels Breachers (WIP)
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!

Sunday 16 October 2022

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.

Blood Angels Apothecary and Preator
Pict 1227: Blood Angels Apothecary and Preator
Blood Angels Praetor and Apothecary
Pict 1228: Blood Angels Praetor and Apothecary
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!

Blood Angels Contemptor (WIP)
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!

Sunday 9 October 2022

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.

Dominion Zephon, Blood Angels Cataphrictii Praetor and Chaplain
Pict 1222: Dominion Zephon, Blood Angels Cataphrictii Praetor and Chaplain
Dominion Zephon, Blood Angels Cataphrictii Praetor and Chaplain
Pict 1223: Dominion Zephon, Blood Angels Cataphrictii Praetor and Chaplain
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.

Blood Angels Contemptor (WIP)
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!

Blood Angels Breachers (WIP)
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...

Sunday 2 October 2022

DreadTober is upon us!

October has begun. This means that the amazing community challenge DreadTober hosted by Marc from oldschoolgaming will be going into a new round. Finally I have a fitting model to participate and will be painting up a Contemptor Dreadnought for my Blood Angels!

Blood Angels Contemptor (WIP)
Pict 1216: Blood Angels Contemptor (WIP)
Blood Angels Contemptor (WIP)
Pict 1217: Blood Angels Contemptor (WIP)

And so, here is my third Blood Angels Contemptor, all converted up, primed black and with a Mephiston Red zenithal to start of the red colour. The base figure is the ForgeWorld World Eaters Contemptor (very fitting for a close combat speacialist) of which I removed the Legion iconography. I also added in the Iliastus Assault Cannons into the fists (Blood Angels and Imperial Fists can exchange Heavy Flamers for Assault Cannons). They use the Cataphractii sized set also made by ForgeWorld, but since I only used the front bit and the munitions box I made molds of these parts.

Blood Angels Heroes (WIP)
Pict 1218: Blood Angels Heroes (WIP)

These five are the first part of the HQ echelon for the Blood Angels Legion. Dominion Zephon in the middle is almost complete and only missing the pigment on the base, the other four still need some highlights before that.

Skull Crusher, Mighty Goblin Stone Throwing Trebuchet (Box)
Pict 1219: Skull Crusher, Mighty Goblin Stone Throwing Trebuchet (Box)
Skull Crusher, Mighty Goblin Stone Throwing Trebuchet (Parts)
Pict 1220: Skull Crusher, Mighty Goblin Stone Throwing Trebuchet (Parts)

But of course, October also means ORCtober and since I was given this beautiful box as a generous gift earlier this year, I wanted to do this model justice in a fitting way. I love the name: Skull Crusher, Mighty Goblin Stone Throwing Trebuchet and of course the Kev Adams goblins are supreme! While the cardboard box has sustained some damages in the years since its release in 1986, the model itself is in absolutely perfect condition.

Mystery Orc Chariot
Pict 1221: Mystery Orc Chariot

The box also contained a chariot, seemingly piloted by Orcs and drawn by saber-toothed cats. I assume they come from about the same era of miniature making, but I doubt they were made by Citadel. I ahve not yet found any more information or even pictures of the set, but maybe by putting it out here, someone on the internet knows more?