Genestealer Cult Test Models

I'm finally back to posting!  I've been painting a bunch of Khorne models that I'll get up on the blog over the next few weeks but first I wanted to share my test models for the new army... the Genestealer Cult!  I was so excited when Deathwatch Overkill came out.  The models have so much character and the play style is so different than any other 40k army.

Many years ago we did a paint scheme with Tyranids.  Red flesh tones and body with khaki carapace.  As much as I love the traditional blues and purples I decided I'd incorporate the same old scheme to mesh the armies together.

Here are my first 5 acolytes from the deathwatch overkill box.  It's quite a large paint pallet.  I still need to dirty up and weather the bases.  Looks like I needed to do a better job focusing with the camera, sorry about that!

Finally here are two additional genestealers I painted.  They're painted under the same old scheme I did previously.

Next up on the painting table are the neophytes that look most like humans... then the hybrids that are somewhere in between.  I'm also working on finally getting into 30k with Imperial Fists.  Lots of hobby action!

Blood for the Blood God - Test Model

Looks like our Adepticon 2016 team tournament theme is going to be all Khorny.  So I tried out a test model to see if the colors work.  We're going with dark stone basing, I used some Dragon Forge Ancient Ruins basing to test the color scheme.  Ultimately I'm going to use some Az-tech basing (which is super awesome) once they come in.

I went with a lighter color brass and used more of it then red. 

Now that I'm using my camera, I think I screwed up the focus settings.  Not sure what I did but it's only focusing on the front of the model.  Anyone with any ideas on what settings to use?

Union Test Model - Wild West Exodus

I had some fun painting up my first Wild West Exodus model.  I figured I would take it easy and start with a line trooper to figure out the color scheme and progression. 

After a few takes, I ended up lightning up both the jacket and pants as well as changed the leather strapping from black to brown.  It looked cool dark, but ultimately the details got lost.  Hope you enjoy!

It was a nice change of pace from painting tons of 40k.  I'm really looking forward to getting my first faction done so I can try out the game.  I've been reading through the rulebook and all the background story.

Guardsman Test Model for Knights Angelus

My master plan is coming to fruition, a combined imperial force that has the same paint scheme. I finished up my test model for my guardsmen.  I figure I'll be doing 200+ of these so I better like how they turn out.  The model has the same scheme as my marines for my Knights Angelus. 

I did a bit of fat fingering on the freehand on the shoulder pads.  I really need to go with a finer brush so I can get the detail.  All of the guardsmen will have the dark angels symbol on one pad and the inquisition symbol on the other.

Here's a photo of the guardsmen next to the starter box marine and my robed "elite" troop.

Pretty happy with how it came out overall. Now it's time to lock in the chimera chassis color scheme as well as get cracking on the drop pods for Adepticon!

New Army: "Silver" Knights Angelus

Wow, it has been a long time since I've made an update to the blog.  Work has been crazy as usual, but I am making a bit of progress towards painting.  I've added some to my Necrons, but more importantly have settled in on a new paint scheme.

With the allies system in 6th edition, I want one paint scheme that can tie together a good chunk of imperial armies.  Namely: Guard, Space Marines (many flavors), and Grey Knights.

I love the look of silver and red with gold trim.  It's a regal look and with my light colored bases from Dragonforge I think it will be a beautiful contrast.  Plus this will go along with my Black Templar.  I absolutely love the new Dark Vengeance models, and the standard tactical marines have inspired me.  I will be using them as my marine base with rules for either standard marines, dark angels or blood angels.  Here's my first set of miniatures. 

With the new citadel paints, I want to make sure I limit the colors to the new ones out to keep me from running out on old colors.  I'm currently finishing up three razorbacks.  I got them from a trade from a friend, so I cleaned them up a bit and re-primed.  I'll have them finished tonight. 

Here is the 1,850 list that I'm debating for Adepticon.  It will be either this list or my Necrons.

In this list, I'm debating switching points to get a quad gun in as well as switching one of the power axes in my death company with a power fist.  Also the other swap is whether I take the stormraven or switch it out with a blood angels vindicator and a 5th razorback.  

Grey Knights (primary)

HQ: Corteaz
Troop: Henchmen; 3 servitors with plasma cannons and 5 acolytes
Troop: Henchmen; 3 acolytes (ride in the stormraven)
Troop: Henchmen; 3 acolytes in Razorback with psybolt ammo
Troop: Henchmen; 3 acolytes in Razorback with psybolt ammo
Troop: Henchmen; 3 acolytes in Razorback with psybolt ammo
Troop: Henchmen; 3 acolytes in Razorback with psybolt ammo
Heavy: Dreadnought with two twin autocannons with psybolt ammo
Heavy: Dreadnought with two twin autocannons with psybolt ammo
Heavy: Dreadnought with two twin autocannons with psybolt ammo 
Fast: Stormraven (mindstrike helps me assassinate psykers)
Fortifications: Aegis Defense Lines

Blood Angels (secondary)

HQ: Librarian with Blood Lance & Shield of Sanguinius (goes with death company)
Troop: Death Company 7 with bolters, 2 with power axe and pistol in drop pod
Troop: Tactical Squad (10), Multi-melta, meltagun, Sgt with power axe and melta-bombs in drop pod
Elite: Furioso Dread with Frag Cannon and power fist with heavy flamer in drop pod

The idea is that I put two drop pods in my opponents face immediately.  They act as a distraction while I pew-pew with my more fragile shooting and scoring MSU. 

Allies: Paint to Theme

I have now gotten 5 games of 6th edition in and I'm having a pretty good time.  The flyer wing of my necrons is taking me a little to get used to it, but it has been enjoyable.  I've found that allies really compliment a force and make it stronger.  For instance, for my necrons I've allied in orks with two squads of slugga boyz and a big mek. It's the stable troop choice (and bodies) I needed

I did figure since I'm such a hobby addict I'd design a force from the ground up that took advantage of all the new facets of 6th edition and paint it as one. 

- Allies: Marines & Guard
- Flyers: Going to start with a Stormtalon
- Fortifications: I'll start with an Aegis Defense Line, although I really like the idea of doing a bastion)

The necron paint scheme has been well received and I think it would be cool to bring that across Imperial Guard, Space Marines (any flavor) and Chaos Space Marines.

Here's my attempt of taking the same theme from the necron color scheme and pulling it over.  The heads are from Pig Iron.  I loved the visor, it gives it a creepy inducted guard look. 

My new theme will be the "Cult of the Machine".  My back-story is a forge world that has a cult worship of the woken necrons.  I'll be using chaos marines as the core of my marine force but keeping away from too many chaos stars or chaos icons.  Instead I'll use as many skulls as possible.

This week I'll try to work on a test model for the marines. 

Necrons are going very well though, I'm still going to use them for NOVA.  I think I've settled in on a list that works for me.  Now it's just time to keep play testing it.

Grey Knight Test Model

Yes, I'm sure I'll get a bunch of crap for joining the bandwagon and painting Grey Knights.  I thought it would be fun to give them a shot and it will either be these guys or Necrons that will be going to NOVA.  Here's the test model I painted up, let me know what you think.

Note, I did not do the right shoulder pad since that will be the squad specific coloring.  Additionally I did not do any finishing effects.  I'll do a satin finish on the armor, a higher gloss on the blade and matt finish on any "cloth" or seals. 

This falls in my faster paint style, so I'm not going for ultra detail. If I put my mind to it, I should be able to get 10 done in an average work week. Here are the basic lists I'm debating on for NOVA.  I don't have my army builder up so I don't have the exact wargear.

Grey Knights 2k
HQ: Grand Master with "fun" extras
Elite: 10 purifiers, 2 hammers, 4 halbreds, 3 psycannons, 1 incinerator (would potentially outflank with grand master skill point and combat squad)
Troop: 5 terminators, 1 hammer, 3 halbreds, 1 psycannon
Troop: 10 strike squad, sgt with hammer, 2 psycannons
Troop: 10 strike squad, sgt with hammer, 2 psycannons
Troop: 10 strike squad, sgt with hammer, 2 psycannons
Fast: 10 interceptors, sgt with hammer, 2 psycanons, psybolt ammo (would potentially get "scoring" from grand master skill point and combat squad)
Heavy: Dread with 2 autocannons and psybolt ammo
Heavy: Dread with 2 autocannons and psybolt ammo

It's a foot list with lots of bodies, and a fair amount of threats.   I like the grand master and his ability to help with reserves and give out scoring / scouts.  Nova only has a "main" objective so in KP missions I castle up, others I combat squad out.

Necrons 2k (air force)
HQ: lord with warscythe in command barge
HQ: lord with warscythe in command barge
Royal court: one cryptec with solar pulse
Royal court: one cryptec with solar pulse
Troop: 5 warriors in a night scythe 
Troop: 5 warriors in a night scythe 
Troop: 5 warriors in a night scythe  
Troop: 5 warriors in a night scythe 
Troop: 5 warriors in a night scythe  
Troop: 5 warriors in a night scythe 
Fast: 6 or 7 scarabs (can't remember)
Fast: 6 or 7 scarabs (can't remember)
Fast: 6 or 7 scarabs (can't remember) 
Heavy: annihilation barge
Heavy: annihilation barge
Heavy: annihilation barge

This list pumps out a metric ton of tesla and can control night fight.  The lords and scarabs can hunt down heavy armor while the rest of my stuff teslas light armor and infantry like crazy.  The problem someone mentioned is that I might not have enough room on the board depending on how big the flyers end up being.  It's also very spammy.  I might consider dropping one of the barges and one of the lords to bring a squad of spyders and extra scarabs.

Something to think about!

Necron Test Miniature: Couldn't help it!

I'm such a sucker for new projects... I just had to try my hand at a Necron.  Like I did with my imperial guard project, I went with a super fast paint scheme. I'm really happy with the outcome.  I went with a patina color on the armor and a simple color scheme on the gun. 

The new miniatures are just way too tempting!  Must get back to Dark Eldar!

Test Painting: Cold One Skin for my Beastmasters

I'd like to get your thought on the cold one skin in progress.  Since my army has a lot of red and purples as accents, I don't want to add another color into the mix.  The goal is not to do a rainbow pattern beast squad.  What are your thoughts on this scheme?  Pretty basic, most animals always have lighter skin underneath.  I blend from the red into brown into dneb stone with a little white accent.  Finishing it off with a purple wash.

It may be hard to see what it will look like completed, but I would hate to finish the entire squad and then want to go back and change the flesh tones.

Completed Raider & Wych

I had a blast painting the raider and the test wych model.  I didn't add any of the extra crew on the raider yet since I wanted to make sure that they'll fit in the new battlefoam trays I have coming.  I went with a different metal color for the exhaust, which helps break up all the silver.  Additionally I downloaded a bunch of Japanese Kanji translations... since my Kabaal is the "Kabaal of the Death Rune" the word on the side is "Death Dream" and I put "Poison" up in a couple places.  Figure it'd make it more fun.

For the wych, I kept with my desert / diamondplate basing scheme.  I'll post a how-to on that as soon as I'm able to prime my next set of miniatures (pouring rain here).  Here's how I did the skin tone - I wanted to keep it easy.

- Base Dneb Stone
- Heavy wash of Leviathan Purple
- Paint raised areas Dneb Stone
- 2/3 water & 1/3 Asurman Blue wash
- Raised areas 1/2 Dneb Stone 1/2 White

I'm pretty happy.  For the hair it was:

- Base Mechrite Red
- Paint Blood Red
- Wash Leviathan Purple
- Highlight Blazing Orange

I just got the first season of Sparticus Blood on the Sand, looking forward to getting some inspiration for making my abhuman wrack gladiators.  This has been some of the most fun I've had on a project yet.

Dark Eldar Test Model Done

Finished up my test model, I ended up going with the middle silver - the slightly bluish tint.  After working through the first few plates, I realized how small of an area I was working with.  Nothing like space marine armor with the large surface area!  So the thought of doing gold detailing throughout is nixed.  Instead I put a few gold designs throughout.  I think I'll do some random plates in gold too to bring out the chaotic look. 

Overall, I'm pretty happy.  The deckplate didn't come out as planned, next round I will start with that so I can get a good drybrush in then move on to the sand.  I think I need to line in some black again to create more separation the the plates as well.  The next step is to come up with the army logo / kabaal name.  I think purple and green ended up being neat accent colors. 

The raider will leave me a lot more space for freehand runes.  I'm really looking forward to the big plates and sails.