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Company Command Squad Painted ToEMP Challenge Met

Published by Joe B

I have just finished my Company Command Squad for my Traitor Guard and in doing so met the first Tale of Even More Painters challenge. I know Admiral Drax (and his troops with hand painted Aquilas) beat us all done, but I think I may have just finished second.

Equipped with power weapon, bolt pistol, metla bomb, krak grenades, plasma gun (I love plasma…), medic, regimental standard, vox. Total Points: 137

There was little conversion done on this squad, just a bit of kit bashing and work with the knife/file. The regimental banner already had a sculpted on Chaos star (well perhaps it is some silly loyalist symbol…) and the medic looked crazy enough with just the needle and chain knife (a bit of a Fabius Bile flashback).

Yes my company commander is Inquisitor model, I liked the model so much I decided he would make a perfect leader for my army, even if it is a bit ironic. I filed off the Inquisitor icons and filled in the icon on top of the head. I may go back at some point and paint a Chaos star on his chest, but for now he is considered done.

Points Earned:

Foot Sloggers x5 = 5 pnts
Icons/ Symbols/ Marks (the banner counts?) = 1 pnt
Eyes/ Lenses/ View Finders (commanders eye lens) = 1 pnt
Beating Deadline by at least 24 hours = 2 pnts
Meeting Deadline: 2 pnts

Total Painting Points: 11

I have to spend some time figuring out what is up next to paint. Options are: 2 heavy sentinels, 2 scout sentinels, missile launcher squad or a mortar squad. I haven’t tallied up the points I have painted, but I think I’m getting close to the 1k I need for the painting competition at my local GW. Because of time constraints (I’m out of town all of next week for work) I may start with the heavy sentinels to add some more character to the army. I am going to paint them like Dezartfox’s World Eater Rhinos over on the Vanus Temple. After painting so many tanks for my Iron Warriors, I want to try out a “painted” tank (aka not another silver one) and although I’m trying to stay away from the blood pact theme, bloody walkers could look so intimidating!

Painting Tip: The Eraser Brush

Published by Joe B

Although I’m trying hard to finish 1k of my traitor guard by the end of the month I thought I would also share some of the painting tips and tricks I often use.

Today’s Tip: The magic eraser brush.

The Brush Eraser

Whenever I’m painting I always have two brushes out: the one I’m using and another to erase. The need for the second brush arises because I don’t like to do touch up painting and my hands shake a bit. To solve both of these problems I have a second, clean brush always on hand that I can quickly wet and “erase” any spots of paint I put on the wrong spot.

This technique is not completely fail proof but it usually removes enough paint to make it unnoticeable. The trick is to wipe the paint away as soon as possible with a wet brush. If you wait to long or use a dry brush the paint will no longer come off easily. I prefer to use a large, stiff brush for this, such as the medium dry brush, because it both springs into the cracks a bit better and grabs the edges harder than softer brushes.

For my traitor guard I have used this technique many times to remove spots of orange on metal parts or metal on skin areas (though the metal paints often leave a touch of aluminum shavings no matter how hard you try). Because of this I have had to do nearly no touch up.

Platoon Two Done

Published by Joe B

Platoon two has been finished right on schedule. This marks the fastest I’ve ever painted this many models for 40k (Fantasy seems a bit easier to paint large groups). I also am not completely done with the platoon as a whole, as I have two heavy weapon squads that still need to be painted, but I figured I needed to at least get the core of the troop choice finished.Â As I had mentioned before, I am trying to enter this army in my local GW’s monthly painting competition. This months requirement is for a legal 1k point army. Finishing this platoon gives me my two troop choices so now all that is left to make it legal is paint the company command squad and see if I can squeeze out 1,000 points. If not, well I have 4 sentinels and 6 heavy weapon teams to paint. If all else fails I have my three Basilisk I could pull out to complete the army, but as they don’t completely fit the theme I’ve built it would fell a little cheap.

Here is the full platoon squeezing into my light box.

The platoon command Squad. I haven’t thought up any fluff like I did for the other platoon. Once my painting flurry is over I’ll have to think about some stories fitting for the Iron Army.

Platoon Squad One

Platoon Squad Two

Another thing I tried with this batch of pictures is add a water mark in the lower corner. I’ve been noticing a great deal of bloggers re-posting pictures but failing to give credit. It was a simple thing to add and if anyone is interested I may put a tutorial together on how to do it.

Next up is my company command squad which I hope to finish this week.

Painting in hot weather, any tips?

Published by Joe B

This week it is in the upper 90s here in the PNW and I know there are much hotter places in the world, but it hardly ever reach the 80s here in Seattle, let-alone the upper 90s. Because of this my apartment isn’t set up with air conditioning. This means two things hobby-wise: I’m staying up much later since I can’t sleep and am able to get more painting done, and my paint dries out faster than normal. When doing the washes this is actually a benefit as I can paint the next coat not long after painting the first. The problem though is when putting some paint down on my pallet, I am adding water between each model to keep it liquid. This is causing me to struggle keeping a good paint-to-water mix so my question is this to my fellow hobbyist in the warm/dry climates: what do you add to your paint to keep it from drying out quickly?

Mmm… Chaos Sentinels…

Published by Joe B

I ordered these sentinels a couples of weeks ago from FRP Games and DogStarGames through Amazon (thanks work for that gift card!). Although I normally like to buy things from my LFGS, they don’t take Amazon points. I would recommend both of these stores if you do buy online, they both shipped within a day and were in my mail box a few days later.

Anyway, onto the pictures!

Traitor Guard Heavy Sentinels with Plasma Cannons

Two heavy sentinels armed with my favorite, non-Apocalypse weapon: plasma cannon goodness! I actually got these models because I like how the heavy sentinel looks and the fact it can mount up a plasma cannon is extra bonus points. It did take me a while to figure out how to glue the legs together. The legs are fully positional which is great to pose the model (and you can see some of the variation possible in my models here) but it makes it hard to glue it together. I found the best way was to glue the feet to the base as far to each side as possible, glue the upper leg to the hips and glue the two halves of the mid leg together (obviously connecting the upper and lower leg pieces). This allowed the model to still have some variation of movement possible to finish the pose, but made it easy to drop some glue at the ankle and each end of the mid-leg and let it dry.

Traitor Guard Scout Sentinels with Autocannons

I alsoÂ built two scout sentinels. They are currently mounting autocannons but these (as well as the plasma) are simply sticky-tacked in place so I can paint it and possibly magnetize it to enable any of the weapon options. The crew are also not glued in place and since I opted to not include the roll cage they are easy to slip in and out. Some spiky bits give a Chaos flare along with the head from the vehicle command sprue. The scout sentinels still need the rock layer glued down before priming but are ready to join the mighty ranks of the 14th Grand Company.

I do need some suggestions on a paint scheme for my vehicles. I was thinking of something similar to the Modian tank in the IG codex, but have also seen some great looking models painted red/black. The problem is that both of these color schemes clash a bit with the orange of my main troops. Any thoughts?

Traitor Guard – The 82nd Platoon Painted

Published by Joe B

I have finished painting the 82nd Platoon of the Iron Army of the 14th Grand Company. Some of you BoLS viewers may recognize the command squad as it was entered in their hobby challenge. Thanks for those who did vote for me, really I just entered the challenge to give an example of what is possible with the great plastic kits GW produces and to get any feedback from the community their.

Part of the Command Squad Hobby Challenge was to come up with a few lines of fluff for the squad. Getting a bit of inspiration from the Flagellant model heads I submitted:

This is the 82nd platoon command of the Iron Army of the 14th Grand Company led by Tiresias the Lost. Tisesias was a small boy when the 14th conquered his world and as the Warsmith strode upon the field of victory, Tisesias was brave (or foolish) enough to not look down. The Warsmith had him immediately blinded and promoted to the lead the 82nd platoon. He is accompanied by Niles the Unspoken, who is required to be gagged or else will continue to scream blasphemies until he passes out.

These are the two troop squads with a basic setup of a vox, flamer and Sargentwith a power weapon. I like the imaginary of the Sargentwhipping his subordinates into action with his flail.Â I know there are some major gaps on the Catachan models between the torso and the arms but since I’m going for the full look of the army, I’m not too worried about some of the “floating arms.” Maybe in the future I’ll go back and putty the joint and repaint it, but at this point I’d rather spend my energy painting the other platoon, company command and the many other things I need to add to this army.

Two lascannon squads as my anti-tank support, and don’t fret, the heavy weapon teams in platoon two are missiles and mortars, I just decided to paint the lascannon teams first. The heavy weapon teams are not completely done, I still need to finish the base and a few minor highlights but I had the camera out and want to get the pictures up.

My light box is not large enough to fit the full platoon so I am going to have to wait until I bring them in the FLGS to get some in-action pictures.

Next up is to build the four sentinels that came in the mail a few weeks back then paint platoon two. Repainted my Khorne Berserkers may jump in line though, as there is another 1500 pt tournament at the GW store and they were the only squad that wasn’t painted well.

~Update: So I just realized that instead of posting the second lascannon squad I posted the first one twice!

Warsmith on Juggernaut Nearly Done

Published by Joe B

I have nearly finished my Warsmith on a Juggernaut of Khorne (initial post here). I love the sculpt of the model, in fact that is the reason I got it (actually my wonderful wife gave it to me last Christmas!). I did very little modification to the model itself to pull it into the 40k universe, but by the very nature of Chaos, it can easy pass off as archaic MkI, a bit twisted by the warp.

Iron Warriors Warsmith on Juggernaut

I did the base coat just I did any of my normal Iron Warriors: Mithril Silver and Shining Gold, Devlan Mud and Badab Black wash. The metals were then re-dry brushed before washing with Baal Red and Ogryn Flesh.

Iron Warriors Warsmith on Juggernaut

Still left to do is the power weapon, shoulder plate XIV, pouches, and the base.

Paint a little, often

Published by Joe B

paint

So this morning I finished one more base color on 5 of my traitor guard. I was a bit intimidated by the fact that I have 50+ guardsmen to paint and I don’t often get hour stretches to paint. My solution: paint a little, often. Such as this morning, I had 10 extra minutes before having to leave for work, so I grabbed my brush and painted the boots, belts and any other dark gray part on 5 more guys. Sure I have 10 more in this platoon to paint that same gray on, but it is 5 less I have to do later.
Painting a little, often also will help keep my painting skills up. Its been a few months since I did any painting, and I can tell. I’m a little less steady, not as good at mixing the right water to paint ratio, and generally slower. I have plenty of projects to paint, so even when I get new projects in the mail (the sentinels are next) I will continue to paint a little, often.

Warsmith Built and Primed

Published by Joe B

I’ve had this model since Christmas and have been trying to figure out how to turn the WFB Khorne Lord on Juggernaut into a mighty Warsmith of the Iron Warriors. The model as sculpted is a terrific looking model but the challenge was to make it look like it could fit into the 41st millennium. In the end I replaced the arms with CSM arms, added a CSM head and backpack and re-sculpted the cloak to fit the backpack. The power weapon is a combination of a CSM banner pole and a giant axe from the WFB Chaos Knights.

The pictures are a bit hard to make out the detail due to the black primer but I am excited to start painting. Work on this will be interleaved with painting my hoard of Traitor Guard but I will continue to post pictures of the progress.

Warsmith on a Juggernaut of Khorne

Warsmith from the side

Warsmith from the rear

First Platoon Command Squad Painted

Published by Joe B

So I finally found the camera and took some pictures of the platoon command squad I’ve been painting as a test unit. I wanted to see how well an orange color scheme would look before painting 50+ models as well as the added bonus that Bell of Lost Souls is hosting a hobby challenge for command squads. I will need to take some better pictures when the squad is finished but I wanted to post some pictures as they now stand.

click on the pictures for a larger image.

Traitor Guard Platoon Command

Traitor Guard Platoon Command (rear)

The squad is currently armed with two grenade launchers, vox and a platoon banner. The commander carries a power sword and bolt pistol. As I build the army and start playing with it I may change up the squad a bit. I don’t think the banners are worth it but they are great visuals that this is a army dedicated to Chaos.

Troop Squad Three Done (with pictures!)

Published by Joe B

Finished up another troop squad of Chaos Space Marines for my Iron Warriors. This squad is wielding two melta-guns and led by a crazy, plasma gun and power fist loaded champion.

Iron Warrior Troop Squad Three

Although this makes the champion a bit on the expensive side, he is invaluable when it comes to taking out armored dudes, armored tanks, or monstered fools.

Iron Warrior Squad Three Close Up on Champion

Unlike my other troop squad, these guys are fully finished. The icon needs no extra painting and the XIVs are all done.

~created this post a few weeks back but forgot to publish it!

Troop Squad Two Pictures Up

Published by Joe B

So this squad has been done for a while now, but like some of my other projects, it hasn’t had much love on the picture side.

Iron Warrior Chaos Space Marines Troop Squad Two

The banner, a few heads and the mace arm all come from the Chaos Knights kit for fantasy, but work well from my marines. This squad is plasma heavy with a plasma pistol and power fist bearing champion and two plasma gun luggin’ fools. Although these guys do a great deal of damage throughout my games, they usually don’t survive. Inevitably I roll a one when trying to blow up the tank to win the game, and fail my armour save. Oh well, they look cool and pack a punch!

Iron Warrior Troop Squad Two (side View)

Although this squad is “done” I still need to figure out what to paint on the banner and add in the XIVs to the shoulder pads. I often field this squad in a Rhino as one of the attacking squads for any capture objectives missions. This allows me to move the tank 12″ up and still fire both plasma guns into the target while maintaining the protection of the tank.