Author: Joe B

Traitor Guard Veteran

Traitor Guard Veteran Squad

Published by Joe B

These have been done for a while but it has taken a bit to put the pictures and this post together. In my crazy attempt to build a full foot guard army I built up a squad of Traitor Guard Veteran Squad to provide some anti-infantry support as well as additional color to the army.   I started with three snipers to increase chances of taking out special troopers. A heavy bolter gives a multi-shot, medium strength to the unit, and I topped it with Harker with a second heavy bolter. I liked the way Santa Cruz Warhammer  took before and after pictures of each model so I’m copying the idea here. First up is the Sargent, count as Harker. The torso is from the warriors of Chaos, the Heavy Bolter is from the CSM kit, with the remaining bits are from various guard kits. I wanted the dress robes on the legs to match up to something on the bear-chested torso so I added a over-the-shoulder sash/robe. Next up is the first sniper. I wanted to give the squad …

Chaos Conscripts WIP

Traitor Conscripts: The zombie slaves start to assemble

Published by Joe B

In between painting sessions, I’ve slowly been building up the legion of conscripts for Traitor Guard. Using a mix of Zombies, Flagellents,  Cadian troopers, and various bitz I’ve picked up along the way, the unit has started to come together. Current tally is 20/50 built. Why so many conscripts? Well it seems 6th edition has turned into a troopers game and there is no cheaper trooper than a pack of conscripts with “Send in the Next Wave!” For 270 points I can field 50 models, take them off at any point, and bring them back on the next turn! Combining the various kits has been a challenge of patience and creativity. The various bodies don’t line up with the different arms, and the heads are made for completely different sockets. This has led to green stuff magic to hide defects and tie pieces together as you can see in some of the individual shots below. I particularly like the second from the right above, he is my zombified Rambo. But you can see the small amounts of green stuff to tie …

Chaos Bastion WIP

Bastion Progress: Nearly There

Published by Joe B

I have made a bit more progress on the Chaos Bastion of the few weeks. I started to regret painting the brackets supporting the horizontal trims metal as they seemed to take forever, but I like how it turned out in the end. The gun emplacements are still separated but are already painted the metallic. Still left to do is the weathering and chaos stars similar to the Russes. The stars will be interesting as they will most likely cover multiple sides so it may be a bit of a change to balance the number and size of them. The defensive walls are also in progress and I actually used the spray gun to paint the red/orange on some. I will post them up soon with notes on the air brush.   [amazonify]B002G21PC2[/amazonify]

Using an X-Acto Chisel blade to remove Aquila

Removing Aquilas – Creating a Chaos Bastion and Defense Lines

Published by Joe B

Often the first step in converting, removing Aquilas and other details can help transform your miniature into other factions. When the Bastion and Aegis Defense Lines were released, I was excited that they had a Chaos Bastion kit as well. I’m sure I was not the only one sorely disappointed, and a bit embarrassed for GW when I realized the “Chaos” bastion was just the usual one with the accessory sprue added in (at an extra cost of course). Being in product development myself, it just baffled me why GW molded the Aquilas into the kits rather than having it as a glue on piece. They could have then sold Chaos, Ork, or even Tau accessory bits to glue on instead. But alas, if you want to use these kits for non-zombie worshiping factions, here is how I removed those pesky mutant eagles. The Tools First you need the right tool: the chisel Xacto blade! (more info on X-Acto knife here) I’m not sure what the blade number is for this guy but the key is the flat blade at the …

Chaos Bastion WIP - Front

New Models for 6th Edition

Published by Joe B

I’ve been pouring over the 6th edition rules the last couple of weeks now, and overall I’m excited for the changes. I especially like the idea of over-watch giving my pour renegade guardsmen some protection against assaults. All the minor changes are going to take some time I think to settle out their benefit/cost to the game. From a hobby standpoint and someone who isn’t into the competitive side, I like the idea of the new army structure including allies and structures. Will it get abused? of course, but so will any rule set put out. I’m working on more posts about my guard and Iron Warriors in 6th but as I was reading the rulebook I remembered I had this in the closet of doom (tm mordian 7th): I had bought one of these when they had come out thinking of actually playing a planet strike game with it (anyone actually plan that expansion?). After hours of scrapping off those blasted Aquillas and gluing the upper walls together wrong, I started painting the Bastion …

Ork Deffkoptas from the Assult on Black Reach set

Ork Deffkoptas for the Death Skull Clan

Published by Joe B

So clearly from the lack of posts I have been a bit distracted from the world of 40k. It shouldn’t surprise me that it was 6 months ago almost to the day the I last posted, but it is a bit shocking! Any way, I finally got around to finishing the Ork Deffkoptas that have been sitting on my desk these many months.   I tried to make this very characterful and full of color since the Death Skulls are renown scrappers. So sections of red and of course blue make their way into different armor plating while the majority of the model is different colors of metal. The bases were a fun mix of rock, Spackle, and bits. I wanted the bases to have some character rather than the basic clear disk. One base has a dude rocket (probably from one of the koptas!), another has a fallen Iron Warrior, and the third a broken dozer blade. I’m glad I finally finished these especially since it looks like 6th edition is just around the …

Ork Boyz Squad 1 - Front

Orks for Chirstmas

Published by Joe B

Well it only took 4 weeks but I have finished my first squad of Ork Boyz! One could argue that I spent a bit too much time on simple boyz, but since I’m doing this for the enjoyment of it, and trying something new, even Boyz get a shiny paint job 🙂 Even though these are the Orks from the [amazonify]B000057SRB::text::::Assault on Black Reach[/amazonify] set, they are still detailed and entertaining to paint. From their unique sneers, dangling teef, and cobbled together weapons (there are bolts holding the choppas together!) it was fun picking out the details as I went along. A decided to paint the squad as Death Skulls for two reasons: I like the color blue, and I wanted to try a hand at war paint. So each Ork has sone form of blue face paint, painted weapons, or shoulder tatooes. I was also going for a heavily weathered look so I added rust, teal patina a lots of scratches. Even the mud was brought up the legs, knees and rear ends of …

Cypher the Fallen Angel - Front

Completed Cypher and Command Squad

Published by Joe B

As promised I completed Cypher and posting the pictures, off to a good start on my new goals! Cypher was a great character in 3rd Edition Chaos that was mysteriously phased out in the following Codex which really is a shame. Though after reading DFG’s rumor roundup it seems like he may be making a comeback! And here is the full squad together. I am quite aware that I may never be able to play with the squad (except for Apoc of course) but after sitting in my closet for years I figured that Cypher had earned himself a squad. Well the pictures capture that I haven’t really “completed” the squad as most evident by the lack of a banner. I also haven’t finished clear coating and glossing the models (see the back of the medic for a finished piece there), but it is done enough to post and put on the shelf until the day I decide to add custom banners to models. Next up will be some Ork Boyz!

Fallen Angel Command Completed

The Fallen, Command Squad Complete (Part 3)

Published by Joe B

  So I finally completed the last two members of the Fallen Angel command squad to accompany Cypher. Well when I say complete, the models are complete, I now need to create a banner or the pole bearer… I’ll be spending some time on FTW trying to get ideas for that.   First up, the standard bearer:     And the final member: the power weapon bearing dude.     And here is the squad all together waiting their mighty, if mysterious leader.As I paint Cypher up I plan to take more step-by-step pictures to post how I did each step. stay tuned!        

Fallen Angel Chaos Space Marine - 1 - Front

The Fallen, or nearly Forgotten Models (Part 1)

Published by Joe B

As promised in my last post I’ve been working on something that old timer Chaos players may remember: Fallen Angels. These are the secret that the Dark Angels do not want any one to know about. They are the followers of the mysterious Cypher which was a special character option in the 3rd edition Chaos Space Marine Codex. I’ve had these models kicking around my closet for years (Cypher since 3rd edition even) and never got around to painting them up until this last week. After priming and laying down the base coat on all the models I decided to do a test model first to see how it turned out. As there is no official Fallen models I am using normal Dark Angel models for the squad with bits from the command squad. I could not find any special markings to set them apart from the loyal brothers so I just added some blood to the wings, symbolizing them being torn off. Although this model is 90% done I still have markings left to …