Starting up Legions Imperialis

One last post for 2023: December really flew by and with the holidays left little time for the hobby. Nevertheless I managed to make a good start on Legions Imperialis with a small scale version of my Blood Angels. I even managed to play a first game of LI and a first game of Heresy! These inspired me to build some more minis for these systems. But I also finished some of the Vampires and assorted undeads.

Pict 1392: Legions Imperials Blood Angels

Pict 1393: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Contemptors

These four Contemptors were the first miniatures I painted for the Legions Imperialis version of my Blood Angels. I love these miniatures! Of course, I like the Contemptor chassis. But they really did a great job to recreate them in the small scale and still give them a good range of motion and easy dynamic poses. Painting them pretty much took only an evening for all steps, so I can really see myself painting these LI miniatures quite fast.

Pict 1394: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Legion Command

Pict 1395: Legions Imperialis Blood AngelsTactical Legionaries

Pict 1396: Legions Imperialis Blood AngelsTactical Legionaries

Pict 1397: Legions Imperialis Blood AngelsTactical Legionaries

Pict 1398: Legions Imperialis Blood AngelsTactical Legionaries

The Legions Imperialis Space Marine infantry is also really nice. I did some carving to improve the undercuts, but really you do not have to do this make them look good on the table. That work will only ever really be noticed on pictures magnifying the models beyond what you would usually see.
Anyways, I decided against painting them unassembled – the power armour leaves just enough room to get the brush in and I'm quite happy with the way they came out. The hardest part really were the eyelenses - that's the first time I acually used a maginfying glass to see what I'm doing! And even now, the blown up pictures show all that went wrong. But I don't mind, you'd never see them during play.

Pict 1399: Winged Vampire, Bastet and the Werefox

In the end I only managed to finish up the winged Vampire, the two versions of Bastet and the Werefox during December. The other Vampires and the Necormancer are still waiting for the highlights. I will really have to make an effort next year to finish all of these started and abandoned projects...

Pict 1400: Blood Angels Tartaros Terminators, Moritat and Contemptor (WIP)

I also got to building some more Blood Angels in the big scale. The Contemptor is geared for anti-tank with a Lascannon and a Chainfist – same as the Moritat, who would also like to open up some cans with his two Infernopistols. The two Tartaros Terminators are the start of a big squad. I used the ForgeWorld Iliastus Assault Cannons with the Cataphractii arms and put them on the heavy weapon arms that would usually hold the Tartaros' Auto Cannons. The Tartaros Praetor only got a helmet to keep that face safe even when fighting in space!

Pict 1401: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Thunderhawk (WIP)

Pict 1402: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Thunderhawk Conversion (WIP)

Pict 1403: Legions Imperials Blood Angels Fire Raptors (WIP)

Lastly, since I planned an Aerial Assault formation to start Legions Imperialis, here some planes. I really love the Thunderhawk model – they are so big in comparison! And of course I would probably never get them for the 28mm collection. I also was inspired by Chaosbunker's Thunderhawk conversion and decided to recreate the open front hatch.
The Fire Raptors had their cupolas magnetised, even if it look like I will probably only use the Lascannons in LI. But I might play them in Aeronautica and then would want the options. Anyways it was quite fun little project using small steel ball bearings in the cupolas and a magnet inside the hull right between them.

Infinity Mercenaries: Kaplan Tactical Service

November once again provided very little hobby time, so this post will be a quick catch-up. I managed tp finish a small project for Infinity: a company of Kaplan Mercenaries. I also did a little bit more work on the Oldhammer undead miniatures I had started at the start of the month.

Pict 1389: Kaplan Mercenary Company

Pict 1390: Kaplans, Yuan Yuan, Ghulam and the Yu Jing Ambassador HVT

One of my friends is really into the Mercenaries game mode for Infinity and has been trying to get me paint up a team as well. I had an old box of the Kaplan Tactical Service and took the opportunity to paint them in different (but similar) colours to my usual Haqqislam/Dashat Company collection. Besides the Kaplans I also added in a Yuan Yuan, a Ghulam and an HVT to round out a small 100 point list. I'm really happy to have this use for the Ghulams - I already have six with this exact load out in older poses painted.

Pict 1391: Vampires, Necromancer, Werefox and Cats (WIP)

I also worked on the Undeads from last post - they are now basecoated and had a wash. Highlighting them and doing the detail work should not take to long!

Blood Angel Mortalis Destroyers and Aster Crohne

During these past two weeks I managed to finish up all the Blood Angels for my tournament list, that is the ten Destroyers and their Rhino. I also put the finishing touches on my rendition of Aster Crohne. I then converted more Blood Angels heroes and started on some more Undead miniatures.

Pict 1383: Blood Angels Mortalis Destroyers and Rhino

Pict 1384: Blood Angels Mortalis Destroyers and Aster Crohne

First up, here are the ten Mortalis Destroyers as well as Aster Crohne. I really like how they came out! The Destroyers use a bit of a darker red. Combined with the black panels, this really makes the gold and green details stand out! Aster Crohne is also very nice. I pushed the contrast on the gold this time around and I have to say it does pop more than with my ususal recipe. I might have to get myself some Destroyers to swap out the special weapons for flamers since Crohne gives them a boost...

Pict 1385: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour

Pict 1386: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour

I'm also very happy with the way this Rhino came out. As with Crohne, I pushed the contrast on the gold. Other than that the big panes were quite fun to weather. It has been quite a long time since I last painted a vehicle and I could see myself doing more of them. Besides the Dreadnought Drop Pod I have still on my table there are also two more for Infantry.
Anyways, this meant I managed to paint every model I neede for the tournament, only to get sick a few days out preventing me from going. Next time it is then...

Pict 1387: Blood Angels Librarian Conversion, Raldoron and Vigilator (WIP)

After finishing everything I needed for the tournament, I went back into build mode and did these three heroes for my Blood Angels. The Vigilator is pretty much stock with only a little bit of green stuff to elevate the helmet a bit. Same goes for Raldoron – here, I removed the sculted blood from the blade and of course I also gave him a helmet. I realised that the Blood Angels Preator in power armour uses a helmet that is based of an illustration of Raldoron and so I had to behead my painted Praetor... He'll be getting a new head as well. The Librarian is based on the model for Ahzek Ahriman, I still had from my Betrayal at Calth box. I used plastic Mk IV head and torso and removed a lot of the sculpted detail. I really like the clean look I've achieved and very much look forward to paiting these three!

Pict 1388: Warhammer Vampires through the Ages

Lastly I also played a short introductory session of Cursed City on Halloween which reminded me of all those beautiful miniatures I want to paint for my Undead collection. I got the project box out and selected a few miniatures to paint up next. They come from various eras – the Vampires and the Werefox are from the Night Horrors line from the late 80s/early 90s; the metal Neferata and her cat Bastet are from the 6th edition Vampires whilst the plastic Necromancer is a modern sculpt from the 8th edition. Ever since the plastic Neferata was released during the End Times, I wanted to convert her on foot. I've had the bits, including a scond hand Yvraine, for quite some time now and after fiddling with the Librian, I also started outlining this conversion – the next step will be the green stuffing and some minor details.

DreadTober: The Castra Ferrum finished

This week I got around to do quite a bit of glazing and detailwork to finish both the Castra Ferrum Dreadnought and the remaining eight Despoilers. Not much more got done though, so again, a rather quick update.

Pict 1376: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1377: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1378: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1379: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1380: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1381: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

I love the look of the Castra Ferrum. The silhouette really is iconic and this one really was a joy to paint. After last week there was not that much more to do but to glaze some highlights onto the red and of course apply chipping. As a last touch I added the date in roman numerals to the back to commemorate that this particular Dreadnought was painted during DreadTober this year.

Pict 1382: Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers

I also finished these eight Inductii Despoilers. They are the remaining bodies to fill out my squad of 15 close combat Marines. I do like how they came out, but I am ready to paint something other than Blood Angels. But there are still ten Destroyers and their Rhino to do. And of course I still want to get to that Dreadnought Drop Pod - at least building it should be doable.

Blood Angels Depoilers and Plasma on the Castra Ferrum

Another quick update this week, as I did not have that much time to paint. I did, however, finish the first half of my Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers and got some more work done on the DreadTober Castra Ferrum Dreadnought.

Pict 1373: Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers

Pict 1374: Blood Angels Consul

This is the first half of my Inductii Despoilers and the matching Consul. Highlighting the red armour with glazes does take a while, but I'm pretty happy with the results! I hope the finish the other eight during the next week, so I can get ahead with my other October projects.

Pict 1375: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought (WIP)

Speaking of, here's what I managed to do on my Castra Ferrum Dreadnought. I pretty much only worked on the lenses and the plasma coils of the gun arm. Whilst I have these colours on my wet pallet I will do the lenses on the Destroyers and the Rhino next. After I'll be onto highlighting the other parts on the Dreadnought!

Finishing six Xiphons and a first DreadTober Update

This week, I finished the six Aeronautica Xiphons to make a start on my Legiones Imperialis collection. I'm also making pretty good time with my DreadTober Castra Ferrum and am concurrenty batch painting several Marines in sevor armour. The Dreadnought Drop Pod is also coming together, but will take some more work.

Pict 1365: Aeronautica Imperialis Xiphons

Pict 1366: Aeronautica Imperialis Xiphons

Pict 1367: Aeronautica Imperialis Xiphons

First up though, to get back into the finer highlighting, I finished up these six Xiphons I started a few weeks back. They are my first foray into the 8mm scale. Since I used pretty much my usual Blood Angels recipe, it really did not feel that different and I quite enjoyed it. While I could use them in games of Aeronautica Imperialis, I am really looking forward to Legiones Imperialis and plan to get into the game using the same Siege of Terra themed Blood Angels and allies fitting into that era. While not that much, these six planes are somewhat of a head start.

Pict 1368: Blood Angels MK IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnougth (WIP)

The Boxnought I'm painting for DreadTober is really starting to look like something: After last week's update, I added a bunch of decals and then putting an oil wash over the whole model. After a layer of matt varnish, the dreadnought is now ready for highlights and further weathering.

Pict 1369: Dreadnought Drop Pod (WIP)

The Drop Pod is also shaping up. However, SincaiN reported in the comments of last week's post, that he had used magnets on the doors. After looking up the relevant posts on his blog, I saw that he had not used them to hold the doors closed like I wanted to do, but used them to replace the hinges. Since my solution of using putty to rebuild the hinge has not worked out the best (the hinge is already breaking again), I will replicate his solution.

Pict 1370: Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers and Consul (WIP)

Here's a quick shot of some of my Inductii Despoilers. Not the whole batch, but they are all pretty much at the same stage. I have gone through quite a lot of highlighting on the details. What's left to do is to put highlights and weathering such as scratches onto the black and the red areas. I'm slowly getting there, but painting them in a batch of sixteen marines is quite a lot of them at once; I might reduce that down for those last stages to a more manageble number.

Pict 1371: Blood Angels Mortalis Destroyers and Aster Crohne (WIP)

Pict 1372: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour (WIP)

Lastly here is the current state of the Destroyers and their Rhino. In comparison to last week, I put on the black panels and then they had the decals and oils done alongside the Dreadnought. Since the Blood Angels decal sheet does not come with classic Destroyer markings, I used some from the World Eaters sheet. Since they are only the outlines and not solid, they don't show up that well on the black shoulder pads and I might add the colour in myself.

Starting DreadTober 2023: A Castra Ferrum for the Blood Angels

It's the start of October and that does mean, among other things, it's the start of DreadTober, one of the fun community challanges of the hobby year. This time around I will paint up a boxy Castra Ferrum Dreadnought for my Blood Angels. A stretch goal will be a Dreadnought Drop Pod as a delivery system. But I do also want to finish some squads for my Blood Angels Legion to play them in an upcoming tournament.

Pict 1359: Blood Angels MK IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought (WIP)

So, onto the juicy bits: After showing the Castra Ferrum conversion last post, I primed him up and started to put some paint on him. I really love the boxnought's silhouette and I'm very happy with the conversion. The painting process really just flows along. The basecolours are almost done. After that I will put on decals and an oilwash. This sould all go rather fast. It's super enjoyable!

Pict 1360: Deadnought Drop Pod (WIP)

To keep things interesting, I want to add this Dreadnought Drop Pod as a stretch goal to this years Dreadtober. Once again, I got this miniature for rather cheap on the second hand market. It was, however, in a really sorry state. One of the hinges was broken so the previous owner glued the doors shut and covered all of the hinges in a layer of milliput.
I have by now managed to disasseble the whole thing and have gotten rid of the paintjob as well as the putty. There will probably be some residual super glue on the doors but I can live with that. The next steps will be to finish repairing the broken hinge, installing some magnets and metal pieces to keep the doors shut and then reassembling the miniature.

Pict 1361: Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers and Consul (WIP)

The Inductii Despoilers and the Consul sat somewhat idely during the last two weeks. They have had their oilwash done and had a first layer of varnish to seal the oils in. After that, however, they collected dust. I find myself in the mode to basecoat, being less careful and not using the wet palette I'd use for highlighting.

Pict 1362: Blood Angels Mortalis Destryers and Aster Crohne (WIP)

Pict 1363: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour (WIP)

As I mentioned in my last post, I have signed up for a Heresy tournament. I easily have the required 2000 points painted, but why not use that opportunity to finish some more of the backlog. After the Inductii Despoilers, I also want to finish these ten Destryoers and their Rhino. And of course I also added in the appropriate character in the form of Aster Crohne, even if he will probably not be part of my tournament list. So while putting the base colours on the Dreadnought, I did the same to them. The tournament is at the start of November – we'll see how far I can get until then!

Pict 1364: Howling Griffons Veterans and Captain (WIP)

Lastly, since I'm clearly not working on enough Space Marines, I also put the base colours and an oil wash on some more Howling Griffons. I had started the black armour quite a while ago and they should be done rather quickly now as well.

Blood Angels Scouts

These past two weeks, the Heresy bug bit me really hard once again. I finished the Scouts for my Blood Angels Legion and got paint on quite a few more Space Marines.

Pict 1355: Blood Angels Scouts

Pict 1356: Blood Angels Scouts

I really like how these Scouts came out. Converting them to fit in more with the Heresy aesthetic and now painting them up in the Blood Angels Legion scheme ties these aging sculpts into with the newer Marines of the collection. I could see myself doing a second squad – I bet they would look great with shotguns...

Pict 1357: Blood Angels Castra Ferrum Dreadnought (Conversion)

In preparation for Dreadtober, I converted a Castra Ferrum Dreadnought for my Blood Angels. This one was originally a poor and unloved Space Wolf Venerable Dreadnought by ForgeWorld that I picked up for cheap. I started by removing all of the sculpted wolf detail and filled in the remaining holes. The band that was inscriped with runes was simply plastered over with Vallejo's plastic putty. I plan to do these as gold trim – we'll see how it turnes out.

Pict 1358: Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers and Consul (WIP)

I also signed up for a 2000 point tournament with my Blood Angels and plan to use this deadline to finish some more units. First of these are the Inductii Despoilers I recently built. Whilst putting down the base colours I also added in a Consul with Heavy chainsword. He will probably be a Warmonger or a Champion – harkening back to my old (and sadly sold) Luna Wolves Champion.

Finishing up a few projects and starting new ones

These past two weeks I managed to finish up a few more small projects for a variety of game systems: painting a squad of Blood Angels Seekers, refurbishing some Hormagaunts and finally highlighting my remaining Sepulchral Guard models and a Wight King for my collection of undead models.

Pict 1348: Blood Angels Seekers

Pict 1349: Blood Angels Seekers

The first few miniatures I finished this week were these Seekers for my Heresy Blood Angels. Usually I like my units to be in a consistend armour mark, but I can imagine the Seekers using the cobbled together MK V whilst scouting ahead of the main army. I might build some more of them to fill out the squad with more of the special ammunition Bolter or Combi-weapons. But for now, they are done and there a q lot more Marines built and ready for a lick of paint.

Pict 1350: Tyranid Hormagaunts

Pict 1351: Tyranid Hormagaunts

Last weekend I played my first game of tenth edition 40k. It was great fun, to take the Tyranids out of their box again. I think my last game of 40k was right at the start of 8th edition, so it must have been sometime six years ago. My opponent hadn't played even longer. So it took us some time to figure out what we were doing, but in the end it was quite fun and did feel appropriately 40k.

Anyways, my bugs sustained some dings and scratches during their slumber. So I set out to refurbish them somewhat and started with these Hormagaunts. Whilst I was ironing out the dings and scratches I also updated the markings on the carapace to bring them up to speed a bit. If I find myself playing more 40k I will have to get eight more models to fill out the squad. And of course, they still suffer from the falling disease of all Hormagaunts so I might have to get myself some fitting washers to put under the base.

Pict 1352: Wight King and Sepulchral Guard

Pict 1353: Wight King and Sepulchral Guard

I also finished up this selection of skeletons. These poor miniatures sat in my box of current projects for over a year. And of course they were only missing the highlights! In the mean time the Wight King recieved some rules to use him in games of Cursed City, so after finishing the Vampires a few weeks back got him and the remaining four skeletons from the Sepulchral Guard higher up the queue. Still, nineteen more miniatures to paint to finish that second Cursed City expansion!

Pict 1354: Aeronautica Imperialis Xiphons

Lastly I started to prepare for Legiones Imperialis in the hopes that this new edition will be released soon. I managed to buy these Aeronautica Xiphons second-hand for a good price. They were already built quite nicely – only a few mold lines that had to be removed. The basecolours went on rather quickly after priming them. The 8mm scale is new to me, but I could get used to it! Next up will be an oil wash and some highlights to finish them up.