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.

Armies on Parade from the 30k Brothers Revenge Doubles Event

So last weekend I was fortunate enough to finally have my 30k Dark Angels painted and present for the Brothers Revenge doubles event hosted by The Warriror Lodge. It was a 850 points per army doubles event with the only real prize being a FAT Mat for best painted/Best sportsman, which I feel really helps lower the crazy mean competitive streak that usually poisons many 40k events.

My partner Jacob brought along his freshly done Ad Mech Taghmata army and boy did it soak up so much of our battles shooting, so much so his valiant robot meat shields inspired me (as well as book 6) to start a Dark Mech Cybernetica force!

All up Jacob and I won 2 out of 3 matches and placed 3rd! We were pretty chuffed at that as we pretty much just pumped out some painted stuff we had on hand and played for fun. There was heaps of painted armies on heaps of wonderful tables to play on. Big shout out to Frontline Gaming for the sexy mats and also to the two Issacs for putting together and supplying so much terrain for the event.

Enough waffling on here are the pictures of the day, First up is all the armies on parade for the day during the judging and then some battle shots of our games.