Armies on Parade 2015 part VIII: Kastelan Robots

Today I have another Unit from my Armies on Parade 2015 army that I want to show you, the Mechanicus Kastelan Robots. When GW released these models, I was quite surprised. When I first heard of them I was expecting boxes with legs, like Space Marine Dreadnoughts, as GW usually do. But these guys don't have any sharp edges at all. The first time I saw them, I didn't like them very much. Probably because of their wired looking round heads. But I did however buy a box. And after switching out their heads, with the ones from FWs Thallax Cohort, they looked a lot more fitting in the 40k universe.

The Robots were painted in the same way as the Imperial Knight I posted last week. A layer of black was chipped off showing the red underneath by using the hairspray technique. I didn't have much time left before the competition when I did these, and I think they turned out a bit boring. I should have painted some plates in a different colour, or given them a chess-pattern on some of the plates like I did with the Knight. But there weren't any time left. I am however quite pleased with the result, and they fit nicely in with the rest of the army. 

WIP: Painting the Hybrids

The two first members of the Genestealer Cult is nearing completion! I've decided to go with a bright orange and sepia colour scheme. The Cult is made up from prisoners/slaves on a mining planet. The orange jumpsuits they wear under the space suit are supposed to give a classic prison look. I also based the scheme on the colours of Soviet space suits (like the one worn by Yuri Gagarin) from the 60s. 

WIP: Forrest Terrain

I started building a gaming board sometime during the summer last year with a friend. We both agreed that having the terrain stuck to the board, like a display-board, looks a lot cooler than terrain on individual bases. Later we discovered that this was a terrible idea. It was hard to add more terrain without making it look out of place, it was not too great to play on it, and it was hard to store. So I decided that we should try again, but this time have a flat board with individual based terrain. 

I have started to remove the trees from the board, and mount them on round GW bases. The trees were made from a skeleton of wire, covered in greenstuff. I stippled crackle paint on them in some spots, to give the impression of bark. 

Land Raider and Malcador featured in Warhammer Visions issue 26

I entered two categories in Golden Daemon: Tanks last summer. They are both featured in this months Watrhammer Visions. They're not perfect, since I didn't put enough time in the projects. I did both in just over three weeks. Building the diorama base for the Land Raider and the diorama for the Malcador took way too much time, leaving me with too little when I finally started painting. 

I am however quite pleased with the models, even if they're not in a painting competition standard in my opinion. I am also very happy to be featured in Warhammer Visions!

Armies on Parade 2015 part VII: Imperial Knight

It has been more than a month since the last time i posted a unit from my Armies on Parade 2015 entry. But I still have a couple of units left. The first model i want to show you is the biggest model of the army, the Imperial Knight. 

This is probably the least converted model in the army. I only added a couple of additional details, and gave it a new pose. The paint job is however quite interesting. To make the model fit in with the rest of the army, I thought about painting it red. As this is the colour of the Space Marines. But I felt that this would make the Space Marines stand out less than I wanted. The tech priest of the army, The Reaper, is black, which would be a fitting colour. But black is quite hard to paint on large plates. Instead I decided to go with both colours. Using hair-spray weathering, I tried to make it look like the Knight was originally red, and painted black by its new owners. Through many years serving its new master, the black paint has started to peel off, showing the red underneath. The original Mechanicus symbol is also starting to show through the black on the Knights left shoulder plate.

WIP: 3rd and 4th generation Genestealer Hybrids.

The models of the 3rd and 4th generation hybrids of the Genestealer Cult look fantastic. But I always look for ways to convert my miniatures, no matter how great they look. The only thing that bothers me about these models are the ridiculously oversized autoguns they carry. Therefore I did a couple of weapon swaps, to make them more realistic. 

I just primed the models, and promise that the next Genestealer Cult post will have some painted models in it!

WIP: Genestealer Cult

Recently I discovered that Bigbossredskullz (check out his blog here!) also live in Norway. He contacted me and asked if I was interested in a game. We live quite far away from each other, but he's travelling to Oslo sometime during the fall, and we thought it would be a good idea to combine the trip with a game. We suddenly had a lot of time before the game, and decided to make something special out of it. Inspired by Iron Sleets Pilgrym-project, we decided to do something similar. It's of course not going to have the same scale as the Pilgrym-project, but I can promise you all that it's still going to be a project worth following.

We decided to go with a Genestealer Cult vs. Deathwatch Killteam theme. If you don't want to miss anything on this project, you should check out our joint topic on the Ammobunker: INQ28 painting & Modelling. 

I've done some more work on the Genestealer Beast, but still have a long way to go. Still not sure about the arms..

The Genestealer Magus received a quick head-swap. I love the head with the Riddick style glasses.

The Genestealer Primus got a new pose. I thought the original looked a bit flat. I also exchanged his sword arm with one of the tiny hands from one of the Familars. Even though I like hybrids with three arms, I think it looks a bit of when every model have it. It also looks more like a mutation when the arms are different sizes. 

The first and second generation hybrids originally all have three arms. I want to make my hybrids appear more random, and have made a couple with only two arms.

The Abberants with hammers are amazing models, so I made them straight out of the box. The ones with the pickaxes on the other hand, have really awkward poses, so I did some adjustments on the first one. 

Lastly I've made a bodyguard servitor for my future radical Ordo Xenos Inquisitor. I gave it the Genestealer sword from the Primus. One of many gifts from the Cult for their allegiance with the Inquisitor. 

WIP: Genestealer Beast

During the weekend I got my hands on the newest box from GW, Deathwatch: Overkill. The Genestealer Cult models look fantastic! When I first saw the models, I decided to make my own cult. In the last couple of days I've been converting a new kind of genestealer hybrid for the cult. The theme of the Cult in the box is a mining colony infected by genestealers. I really like this idea, and want to do something similar. The first conversion for my new project is some kind of humanoid beast, used for heavy lifting in the mines before the genestealer infection came to the planet. After several generations the beast has turned into a genestealer hybrid. I still have a lot of work left to do on this one, but the model is starting to take shape!

Blightking Terminators

I managed to finish the Blightking based Nurgle Terminators in time for the painting competition tomorrow morning. I'm quite pleased with the final resolute, but there are a couple of things I wish I did differently. Most of the grey details are done in the exact same colours, which makes the modes look a bit flat. I also wish I did a couple of more highlights and glazes on the flesh, to make it look more interesting.

I am however quite pleased with the armour. The main colour was built up using a spray paint highlight. I based the model in chaos black spray. The basecoat was followed by gradually building up brown, green, beige and finally pure white sprayed from the top. I then lightly sponged the armour with dark brown and white, to give it a quick battle damage effect. The whole armour was then glazed with GWs sepia shade, Followed by GWs camo-green shade applied in the recesses.

Note the crackle effect on some of the armour plates. This was easily achieved by randomly applying GWs crackle-paint before priming the model.