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?

Painting a second Contemptor

While I have not posted in a while, the Heresy bug really got to me and I have finished a second Contemptor for the Blood Angles while also making some headway on main troops to get them playable sometime in the foreseeable future.

Pict 1199: Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought

Pict 1200: Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought

Pict 1201: Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought

Pict 1202: Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought

I had originally planned to build and paint this second plastic Contemptor for my Luna Wolves. But after the great results with the first one, I had to use him for the IX Legion as well. The main part comes from the Betrayal at Calth Contemptor with the new plastic head and close combat arm to allow for a bit mor poseability. I also twisted the torso to make the forward striding pose a bit more dynamic. The kit is alright, but it really pales in comparison to the new one!

Pict 1203: Blood Angels Tactical Squad (WIP)

Pict 1204: Blood Angels Tactical Squad (WIP)

The first Tactical Squad was the next thing on the painting table to get my collection to a playable state. For now, five of them have had the base colours and transfers done and the oilwash is just drying. Highlighting should not take to much time I hope. The other five are still awaiting some glazing on the red armour before the transfers.

Starting Heresy Blood Angels

These past two weeks were spent mainly on building parts of the Age of Darkness box as well as some additional models to get a Heresy Blood Angels army of the ground. I started with a Contemptor Dreadnought and built some more Marines. I also painted a Númenor Bannerbearer as a competition piece a few weeks ago, that I can now share.

Pict 1192: Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought

Pict 1193: Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought

Pict 1194: Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought

The new plastic Contemptor really is beatifully posable. This flavor mine with the Blood Angels in mind, I gave him the Kheres Assault Cannon from the first plastic Contemptor as well as a Forge World one. The Havoc Launcher and the head also come from Forge World – not complicated to retrofit the new plastic body, I only had to use a little ball of Green Stuff to get the head to the correct hight.
Painting wise, the Dreadnought was the proof of concept for the army: The large surfaces let me work with the reds as well as the weathering. To give myself a speed boost while painting, I started from a black primer with zenithal red spray. The complete recipe can be found as usual as a separate page.

Pict 1195: Blood Angels (WIP)

Now this is where I stand with the rest of the army so far. I'm aiming to have about 1000 points painted before building more. So far there is a second Contemptor (a Betrayal at Calth repose), half of a Tactical Squad, a Chaplain and Domnion Zephon to lead the merry band. They are primed and ready to recieve the base colours before a oilwash. I am, however, also waiting on some fitting decals as they go on before the wash. So it seems, I might get to build the rest of Tactical Sqaud one and a second one before that step – we will see!

Pict 1196: Númenor Banner Bearer (Conversion)

Pict 1197: Númenor Banner Bearer (Conversion)

Pict 1198: Númenor Banner Bearer (Conversion)

Last, but by no means least, is this Númenor Warrior, converted to be carrying a banner. I painted him to enter him into the Middle-earth Painting Competition on Instagram run by @1stBornPainting. And while he did not go very far in the competition, he was an amazing opportunity to push my painting techniques. Especially the freehand is something I don't have that much experience with and I'm pretty happy with how it came out. Now, there are a few areas where I could have pushed the highlights even more to get better definion such as the metals – all the more to keep getting inspired and push even further!