Anacharis Scoria Horus Heresy 30k Project: Dark Mechanicum Legio Cybernetica Army Building and Painting Part 2

Progress on my Scoria conversion as well as some progress on my Thanatar Calix and Domitar battle automata. Continuing on my paint scheme for the rest of the army of dirty metal and worn bronze I feel it fits the early Dark Mechanicum 30k theme. Scoria's model is a real monster to paint there is just so many details on his Abeyant and himself. The Domitar and Thanatar Calix are a dream to paint on the other hand, lots of simple armor plates and cabling. Note this is just the early stages, I will bring the cables down with a wash of dark green and then build them back up with bright green highlights to make them come across and evil and spooky. 

I was thinking lava bases for these guys but might leave it until I am happy with the models once finished just in case I change my mind. 

Anacharis Scoria Horus Heresy 30k Project: Dark Mechanicum Legio Cybernetica Army Building and Painting Part 1

Anacharis Scoria is legit a face smashing army buffing monster, and as such will be leading my Dark Mechanicum Cybernetica army I am quickly trying to assemble. This article will show my conversion attempt for Scoria and which was made all the harder due to the only official art that exists is a head shot portrait of him (including cute evil spider familiar), so no body shots or real description of his appearance or his Xanathite Abeyant.

Scoria's rules and book 6 entry build him up to be the arch heretic that overthrew the Xana forge world during the heresy. He uses the warp to infuse his creations with a bestial and primal intelligence that makes them a handful in close combat. He is credited with creating one of the first hellforges and is all round a cool dude if your a heretic. My plan for converting him was a hooded head and Xana themed Abeyant. Xana's local wild life is giant scorpids and arachnids that the local Knight houses battle and use them on their heraldry. So in light of this as well as Scoria's beastial cyberthurgy buffs I want to push the arachnid look as well as some cute little spider familiars!

Models used in this conversion are: 40k GW Magos, 30k Forge world Draykavac Abeyant, several GW skull pass spider rider spider legs, tiny spiders from the GW Arachnarok giant spider kit, 40k Dark Angels mace head, and a bunch of spikes and skull from chaos marines vehicle kits. 

So there you have it, my first attempt at a Anacharis Scoria Dark Mechanicum conversion including his Xanathite Abeyant, all arachnid mechanical animaled up. I hope you enjoyed my attempt to convert a iconic character and stay tuned for more Dark Mechanicum painting and conversion as well as my usual jumping from project to project each month!

Word Bearers Horus Heresy 30k Project: Converting Tactical Squad and HQs part 1

I had a few games on the weekend with some mates starting off a slow grow 30k campaign with my Cult Militia (totally chaos crazy cult themed too) and got inspired to make an allied Traitor Legion force to go along with them. After mulling over some of the fantastic pics coming out of Adepticon and the bits and pieces I had lying around I figured I could attempt to replicate the success of a Word Bearers force that Ryan Kimmel had with his and put my own spin on it.

So I happened to have 3 sets of the 40k Dark Vengeance chaos sets lying around in a cupboard (don't ask) and heaps of left overs from a couple of Betrayal at Calth sets as well, the perfect storm! I wanted these to represent post Calth fully corrupted Word Bearers and more specifically in game terms Dark Channelling tact or veteran squads for the random buffs.

I spent allot of time cutting out helms and molded limbs from the snap fit dark vengeance models so I could include more notable B@C set weapons and helms to help the models fit into the theme and timeline better. A simple head and backpack swap along with weapons goes a long way, especially with previous static pose models.

 For the paint scheme I was aiming for very old corrupted dry blood look, I wanted the base armor colour to be very mute with highlights making the model look more 3 dimensional. This is only about 50% done but you get the idea. I have no idea what kind of base to do yet, although I do have a lava mat waiting for an army to match it.........

Night Lords Horus Heresy 30k Project: Converted Night Lords Breacher Squad and Caestus Assault Ram Part 1

Another month another project for my Night Lords 30k army. This month I am attempting to paint up a 10 man breacher squad and their spiffy punch a hole right in your ships side Caestus assault ram. As my forces theme is a loyalist faction of post Istvaan renegades with a space based raiding/corsair fleet I'm reflecting this with lots of boarding or orbital assault units and the Ram is right at the top of the list for awesome tied with the Kharybis Claw. So onto the converting!

 I started off with the basic conversions, so breacher torsos and then Night Lord terror squad helms, this is simple enough and will fit in with the rest of my infantry but I wanted to spruce up the coolest part of a breacher and that is the boarding shields. I raided my bits box for hands, feat, skulls on hooks/chains/and dangley bits. I also chopped up some smaller jewellery chains and stole a few spikes from the chaos marines kit. Chainglaive for the champion is from anvil industries this time instead of my usual custom job.

Time to prime and shade

 So priming and shading are the same airbrush recipe as before, black primer, white highlights from above and then 2 coats of Vallejo blue .004. I had a 3rd party drop pod lying around as well so used the time to give that a hit as well.

 

 Once the priming and shading is done its time to give it a quick seal with some kylon flat matt sealant, this is especially important with the Ram as I will have to handle this model extensively to be able to paint it and the coat of varnish will provide a protective layer for the paint and stop it rubbing or peeling when I handle it.  

 I use warplock bronze as the base for the metal trims and then hit it with a wash of nuln oil. you can see the difference here in this picture between the base colour and it washed. I also do the start of the base here as well as it helps me get a better feel for the scheme on the models as I am painting them and brings out the colours

 So far I have only done all the gold trims and the start of the death masks for the terror squad helmets but I think its coming together well. Hopefully I can punch the squad and maybe even the Ram as well before the end of the month, but that will have to be another update. As always any questions just leave a comment and thanks for reading!

Night Lords Horus Heresy 30k Project: Calth Terminator Lord and Chainglaives Part 2

Welcome to the next step on my loyalist Night lords 30k army built mainly from the flexible Betrayal At Calth boxed set. My previous article for the terminators and terminator Praetor was about making the chainglaives that are the signature weapon of the Night Lords, this time lets get into painting them. I have yet to finish basing this unit but I am waiting until I get my Night Lords decals from Forgeworld, then I can finish them off and seal with some matt varnish all in one hit.
Please note this is a Loyalist Night lords force so it is far more clean and bright then most of the traitor forces seen, this is a deliberate direction and theme for the army.

Step 1: Undercoated and completed the shading of the base colours with an airbrush as detailed here

Step 2:  Paint all the trims and details in a bronze gold colour

 Step 3: Paint all the weapon and chain details in silver and then wash the gold and silver parts with nuln oil wash, Also start painting the power weapons, powerfists, chainfist teeth and Chainblade/Praetor paragon blade-chainglaive with a dark green and then highlighted with a light green on the tips.

 Step 4: Drybrush leadbelcher silver onto all the gold trims too highlight it and give it a more worn look. Paint the lapels and red areas with khorne red, then hit it with a red wash and then highlighted with a lighter red. This shot also shows the custom Combi Plasma Bolters I kitbashed out of the Calth set. Let me know in the comments if you want a quick guide on how to do them.

 Step 5: Lightning and Clean up stage. Lightning is done by a 4 step process of gradually lighter shades of blue and then highlighted where the forks break or hit with a dot of bright white.

 Step 6: Almost done now just do decals and bases to your own taste!

Night Lords 30k Painting Fliers WIP Part 1

With a rapidly upcoming 3000point 30k event on the horizon I need to desperately try and finish off a large chunk of units for my Heresy army. My Night Lords 30k army is built around the theme of them being a strike force deployed to the galaxies fringes during the Istvann purge and betrayal, led by a Terran veteran Praetor from the original founding of the legion their loyalties lay more with the Emperor than with the increasingly insane Curze. Upon returning to the greater crusade space and learning of the betrayal of Horus they are turned into a marauding force shadowing the traitor fleets throughout the galaxy and preying on the isolated and vulnerable rearguard.

The style and theme is a bit more clean and fresh then most of the other traitor Night Lords that are floating around. Force layout wise I wanted a highly mobile air/space based army, with lots of units that can be used in boarding actions and quick insertion on ground targets while maintaining air superiority, so lots of fliers, infiltrating terror squads and the odd Caestus Assault Ram because I love that hulking monster of a model and the thought of smashing into ships and tanks like a madman is awesome.

So painting! I followed the same recipe I used for my infantry units on these vehicles. Airbrushed Black undercoat/base, then a highlight with airbrush white on raised areas or parts you want to outline or make pop and then 2 coats of Vallejo Model Air Blue 71.004.

I only got 1 coat of blue done on these 3 fliers because I ran out of paint! more has been ordered and once it arrives I will do the 2nd coat and touch ups. I cant stress how important it is to do the 1st coat and let it dry overnight and come back the next day to do the 2nd coat of blue. You always pick up all the mistakes and parts missed in the 1st coat and once the paint fully dries you can give it a hit of matt varnish to protect the base coat.

Dark Angels Horus Heresy 30k starter force Calth set WIP Part 3

The 30k Dark Angels force I am currently converting and painting for an upcoming doubles torny has had some progress this weekend. I have started work on the 2nd squad and the Delegatus HQ model in the painting department, and have started applying some Legion icons and suitable Dark Angels bits and bobs from the 40k range onto a couple of vehicles.

I am attempting winter/partial snow themed bases, currently waiting on some winter themed grass tufts to fill out the bases. Snow effect is achieved by globbing on some PVA craft glue and dusting the base with GW snow effect, please note you will need 2 or 3 passes on an area or blob to fill it out and make it look proper snowy, a single pass will leave the snow looking very thin, and allow time for the PVA to dry between each pass.

The Delegatus HQ is coming along. Having real trouble with the power weapon as I still can't decided if I should go the lazy road and tape it and do the force weapon airbrush trick or try and up my game and manual do wet blending by hand. Can't wait to have a crack at doing up the vehicles, I have a Sicaran, Rhino and potential a Whirlwind to do before the end of February!

Dark Angels Horus Heresy 30k starter force Calth Set WIP Part 2

Time to get painting on my 30k Dark Angels force I converted last update. Long weekends are conducive to getting painting done, So I got about half way through 2 tactical squads. Please note these are not finished, still heaps of work and details to go, including way to much edge highlighting!

Started some work on the Delegatus as well and the second squad still has a ways to go, hopefully this scheme comes out well on the table top. My biggest concern is there are heaps of other legions in 30k with black armor with white or red details so I went with the green shoulders to really make it obvious they are the 1st legion. I am really keen for my forgeworld upgrade kits to arrive so I can have a crack at some veterans and command squad, robes for everyone!

Dark Angels Horus Heresy 30k starter force from the Calth Set WIP

When I think heresy and I think loyalists, I think Dark Angels! from the very fist old school art pieces to the cool old style heresy armor the Dark Angels have always been at the top of my list of cool dudes fighting for the Emperor. I have a quickly approaching doubles tournament looming and one of the rules in the player pack is yes you can run traitors and loyalist as allies but as per the allies chart it will mess up your ability to work with your opponent and even affect what troops are scoring! With this in mind and my partner running loyalist Salamanders I needed to finally branch out from the traitors and take my first steps into loyalty to the big E.

The force I need to put together is only 850points, small and hopefully easy to get painted asap. One of the big problems with Dark Angels is that there really is no rule set for them yet and probably won't be for some time until the lads at Forge World get around to including them into a book and that will be aaaaaaaaaaaages away. So in light of this I am just going to run them with the vanilla Age of Darkness right of war but try and get the Dark Angel feel from the paint job and then modeling options. 

I have the brand new 30k Dark Angels heads, shoulders, and chests ordered but I am not confidant that they will arrive in time and I really want to get a fighting force done asap so I can start getting in some practice matches. In light of this I have just chucked a whole bunch of bits from the 40k Dark Angels sprues on the Betrayal at Calth tactical marines and try and theme them up a bit. I did not want my normal tac marines to be covered in robes and dripping in icons, these guys are the grunts. The veteran and command squads will get the whole nine yards but for line troopers they just get new shoulder pads and the odd bit of bling.



The Centurion or Delegatus is of course robed with just a quick back pack swap from the space marine commander kit and a Calth set leader helm, this will help tie him to the rest of the characters in the force

I have chucked in some hooded helms here and there and a few purity seals as this legion used to be the Emperors personal legion in the very beginning of the crusade, you know 1st legion and all that jazz. So I thought they would have a few more purity seals/oaths of the moment than you usually see on heresy marines.



So there you go, the very first baby steps to a workable Dark Angels 30k force, HQ and 2 Troops. I will be sticking with the black armor with silver, red and maybe some bronze trimmings as well as some cheeky splashes of good old Caliban Green here and there. Now all I have to do is actually set in stone my army list and decide on the vehicles!

World Eaters Horus Heresy 30k Contemptor Dreadnaught from the Calth Starter Set WIP

The Betrayal at Calth set has been a god send for a lot of us who were on the cusp of getting into 30k but just couldn't take the last step into committing a ton of cash into Forgeworld resin crack. I bought 2 sets for my Night Lords but decided half way through I could branch out into some angry lads from the World Eaters as well. Previously on this blog I converted both dreadnaughts from the sets into 1 Mortis dual Kheres dread and 1 Dual fists dread, and now after recovering from eating way to much over Xmas I found some time to put the first stages of paint on the punchy dread.



Both arms are detachable and the right fist is magnetized at the shoulder to be swapped with other weapons as needed. The chain of skulls on the front of the hull is from the Khorne Age of Sigma set, and the skull faceplate is from a spare wrist guard from the new bloodthirster greater daemon kit. This guys is about 60% complete, now I have to do all the little details and cleanup of the whites and highlights.

I also completed my Tactical squad I was working on finally from the last post apart from transfers and maybe filling out the bases with some more details.

World Eaters Horus Heresy 30k Tactical Squad WIP

What to do with the spares from Betrayal at Calth.......World Eaters! so when I originally purchased two Calth boxes it was to all go towards my Night Lords project but after receiving some assorted World Eaters pieces I am now split right in half with what armies I am building, Psychos and Sociopaths. So after experimenting on a paint scheme and method with some Red Butcher test models I needed to start to fill out some troops choices so I can play some games with the World Eaters.



I am about 50% through this 10 man squad and I can honestly say while painting white is rewarding it does take a hell of a long time to do it properly. This squad still needs all the clean up on the white done, weapons and accessories complete but defiantly seems to be pulling together. I have gone for a very clean looking World Eaters and will only be doing weathering on character and big pieces to start off with, then once I have a playable force I may go back and weather the grunts later, but there are soooooooooo many weathered 30k forces out there at the moment I like have the shiny new look in my armies.

Night Lords Horus Heresy 30k Project: Calth Terminator Lord and Chainglaives

I have had the Betrayal at Calth Terminator Lord sitting half assembled on my bench for a while now, silently judging me for not completing him while I work on other stuff. So today I decided to finish him off as well as the second lot of five Calth Terminators I had spare as well. I am upgrading all the characters/Sargeants in my force chainglaives because they look cool and are ok on the table top as well, who doesn't love the odd rending attack!



This is just before base coating and shading, I chucked on a spare Volkite charger because they are all through my terror squads and heaps of fun, and then just carved away the chainfist on his left hand and made a Chainglaive out of tooth pick, spike off a random chaos bit, and a chainsword blade from a chaos space marine. I did the same with the terminator Sergeant's weapon as well. I also chucked on some parts from the 40k Chaos termies sprues on the unit to fill them out with the weapons I wanted.



All primed and shaded and ready to be painted now! Time off over the Xmas break will be well spent I think



Got my Sevatar almost complete now as well, just the scenic base to go. Merry Xmas and happy new year!