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...

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!

Pict 1216: 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.

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.

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

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.

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?

The Nazgûl of Dol Guldur are ready

Man, it's been some time since I had the chance to write up what I painted. But real life taking over meant I also did not have to much hobby time the last few weeks. Here's hopeing it will get better the next few.
Anyways, I managed to finish painting my Nazgûl of Dol Guldur as well as the remaining five Tactical Marines to complete the first squad for my Blood Angels Legion.

Pict 1210: The Nazgûl of Dol Guldur

Pict 1211: The Nazgûl of Dol Guldur

Pict 1212: The Nazgûl of Dol Guldur

These Nazgûl were quite a nice palette cleanser in between all the Space Marines. I used an oilwash on the metals – but I think, with all the highlighting I did afterwards, I could have probably achieved the same effect with Nuln Oil. I also experimented with painting on texture on the all the black cloth to give it some more visual interest instead of my usual method of doing the Ringwraiths. And I have to say I'm pretty happy with the result! With some more experience they would look even better, but for now I'm looking forward to getting them onto a battlefield.

Pict 1213: Blood Angels Legion Tactical Marines

Pict 1214: Blood Angels Legion Tactical Marines

Pict 2115: Blood Angels Legion Tactical Marines

Looks like I'm finally getting how this whole glazing thing works. It's really not that easy to get the right cositency of paint and the right amount of paint on the brush. These five Marines painted up rather quickly and while that might also be the fact that they only carry Bolters and are not that detailed, I also think I'm getting more confident with the scheme by now. Super happy to have finished the first proper squad!

My first Blood Angels Legion Tacticals

These past two weeks, (these past two days, if I'm being honest) I managed to squeeze in a bit of hobby time and finished up the first few Blood Angels Tactical Marines as well as getting a start on a new Middle-earth project with the Nazgûl of Dol Guldur.

Pict 1205: Blood Angels Legion Tactical Marines

Pict 1206: Blood Angels Legion Tactical Marines

Pict 1207: Blood Angels Legion Tactical Marines

Here are the first five Tactical Marines for my Heresy Blood Angels finished. Of course they include all the neat little toys: a nuncio-vox, an augury scanner, a vexilla and of course the sergeant with his shiny helmet. Afte the vexilla snaped of the second time during painting, instead of simply gluing it back on, I magnetized it to remedy that problem. Seems to be the way forward, when building more of these banners in the future.

I also experimented with a new way to apply the weathering pigments onto the bases using water to dissolve them into first instead of simply brushing them on. I still need to practise this method – I always seem to apply to much at first – but I'm happy with the way the pigment is holding on.

Finishing the remaining five to complete the squad should be next. But first...

Pict 1208: The Nazgûl of Dol Guldur (WIP)

But first, I wanted to come back to Middle-earth for a moment. And the Nazgûl of Dol Guldur seemed like a quick and managable project in between all that power armour. Next up will be some shading to the armour and then onto the highlighting.

Pict 1209: The Dark Headsman and Abyssal Knights (WIP)

I always find myself really appreciating the sculpts on a different level once I get to paint them. And while some of these Nazgûl are somewhat generic, I really like the Dark Headsman with his big axe and the helmet with the menacing nose guard and chainmail hanging from it. But the real stand out are the two Abyssal Knights (Weta listed them as the Ringwraith from Khand – very cool!). I love the armour design with the circular details on the shoulder pads and the striped details on the breastplate. It looks very unique and could almost be from the mind of HR Giger; something that would not look to much out of place as part of the Alien francise.