All posts filed under: 40k

Decurion Detachments for All – Good or Bad?

Published by Joe B

While I don’t buy into all the rumor mill that is a constant buzz online, Faeit 212 has a post rumoring about all future codex will have decurion like formations forcing people to buy “tax” models. It may never come to pass, but it got me thinking, is this a bad thing? A Decurion? A quick catch-up for those who did not buy the Necron Codex, the Decurion Detachment is a super FOC in the sense you need one ‘core’ choice and at least one to ten ‘Auxiliary’ choices. There is also a single ‘Command’ choice that can be added. For most of these choices it is actually a formation or units that have their own formation rules and when built into a Decurion Detachment gain an additional bonus. // In the Necron case, the Core is the Reclamation Legion made up of an Overlord, Warriors, Immortals, and at least one unit of Tomb Blades. Lychguard and Monoliths can be thrown in as well, but it is ‘tax’ of the Tomb Blades that seem to get people …

Fabius Bile painted up for the Iron Warriors

Fabius Bile – a Classic in Iron Warriors Style

Published by Joe B

An oldie but a goody, Fabius Bile is a Games Workshop classic that I’ve had in my collection for over 15 years (crap that makes me sound old!). He has gone through a couple of iterations of paint schemes and his ‘enhanced’ warriors are back into bits pile in my closet, but I present the latest update to the classic. I wanted to pay some homage to his origins as a Emperor’s Children apothecary but still fit in with my Iron Warriors 14th Grand Company, so the armor was painted a dirty white and the shoulder pads black and silver. The flayed skin robe helps create the morbid color offset by the brightly colorful vials. I’ve seen Fabius Bile’s Chirurgeon used on so many crazy conversions for great reason: they are epicly gruesome. Between the chain blade, drill, butcher knife and syringe, it makes even a Ork Doc cringe. I wanted to give the backpack an old, worn look but still have it flashy as any Emperor’s Children would have it. Game wise, the newest edition of the codex …

Leman Russ Demolisher Squadron Showcase

Traitor Guard Leman Russ Demolisher Squad

Published by Joe B

Who doesn’t like a tank with a big gun? And what is better than one tank with a big gun? A whole squadron of Leman Russ Demolisher tanks with big guns! One of the reasons I wanted to build up an Imperial Guard (Astra Militarium?) army was because I have always been a bit of a tread-head, so adding some hard hitting Demolishers was a no brainer. I built all three of these tanks from the older Leman Russ kit with only one being the old, out of production, metal Demolisher cannon. The other two were built from other bits and pressed to service. To keep them uniform, all three have track guards which help signify their higher armor value and my army badge on the front. The metal Leman Russ Demolisher was my brothers from his old Catachan army from somewhere in middle school. The traitors seized it and stripped it of its honor. Leman Russ Demolisher It originally had the sponsons, but they had broken off over the years. So to hide the damage, …

Behemoth Carnifex with Barbed Strangler

Tyranid Carnifex of Hive Fleet Behemoth with Barbed Strangler

Published by Joe B

I love painting monstrous creatures almost as much as I love painting tanks, there is just so much character, and presence in the larger models. This Tyranid Carnifex is from the Shield of Baal box – the first of the big bugs and my second Carnifex. I painted him to be part of my brother-in-law’s Hive Fleet Behemoth so used deep reds for the skin and black-to-blue for the carapace. Since I armed the other Tyranid Carnifex with a venom cannon and scything talons, I gave this guy the barbed strangler and tank crushing claws – in part because they look bad ass. I decided to take the base up a notch using some of the techniques I practiced on my Ork Warboss. Using cork, I added some height. But also left bare patches in the sand to allow for water puddles. This was also the first model I’ve bought with the new oval bases and I love it. It gives a larger canvas for this guy to walk on without sticking out to the sides too much. If …

Hive Tyrant of Hive Fleet Behemoth Close up

Tyranid Hive Tyrant for Hive Fleet Behemoth

Published by Joe B

All armies need a powerful leader, and the galactic swarm of the Tyranids is no exception. So to lead my brother-in-law’s Hive Fleet Behemoth army growing on my shelf is a Tyranid Hive Tyrant – in this case, the old metal beast. Much like my other Tyranids of Behemoth, the blue carapace goes nearly white rather the GW teal and the weapons are a black to white look. This shows through on the darker background here that I made with some black/gray cloth. I tried using the basic white background, but the tips of the weapons got lost. The barbed strangler is a plastic bit from the Carnifex box to give some long range punch to the guy. It is one of the things I have always liked about GW products is that they put in that effort to make the kits inter-operable to give both the flexibility to bit swap but also keeps a uniform look between generations. Even when you look at the new Tyranid Hive Tyrant, the general look and feel are the …

tall Pegasus Gothic Buildings for 40k

Pegasus Gothic Buildings for 40k Terrain

Published by Joe B

So when I first saw people use Pegasus Gothic Buildings for 40k, I thought it was a fantastic alternative/union with the Games Workshop kits, so I ordered a whole bunch of them to add some tall terrain for my Knight Titan to hide behind. While I finished these a while ago, I’ve been waiting for a way to take pictures of them as they wouldn’t fit in my home-made light box. After buying some dark cloth and flood lights from Home Depot, I am in business! These are fantastic kits and only $25 or so on Amazon: Pegasus Gothic Building Kit. I think I ordered two of the Gothic Ruin sets, both of the Small Sets, and two of the Large sets which not only built both of these buildings, but I have pieces reserved for an extended cathedral, so they go a very long way. One of the neat little bits that come with the kits is a bunch of lamps and torches which I practiced my object source lighting on to mixed effect. One thing …

Death Skull Ork Trukk

How to Paint an Ork Trukk

Published by Joe B

So after painting up my Killa Kans, Deffdread, and two trucks – I’ve put together my process on how I how to paint an Ork Trukk. My goal for painting the ork vehicles was to be quick, rusty, and characterful. To make it quick I used lots of dry brushing, and very little highlighting. They clearly won’t win any painting awards, but I like how they turned out and I was able to finish them quickly. The rusty metal look was from combinations of brown and orange beneath the metal dry brush and the characterful-ness is the various colored panels that make it orky. Step 1: Brown Spray Paint. As you can see in the photo below I left out the driver, gunner, and wrecking ball assembly. The wheels were also left of and painted separately. The model was primed with black primer to give a nice dark shadow. After drying I then hit the top side with an over-spray of white to just lighten it up a bit. The whole model was then given a …

Death Skull Ork Trukk Boyz

Second Death Skull Trukk

Published by Joe B

Here is the second Ork Trukk I painted for my Death Skulls. I built and painted this at the same time as my first trukk, which gave me a chance to not only keep the scheme similar, but also maximize the build to be as different as possible with the kit – which mostly involved switching the driver and gunner. The bed of the trukk featured the same blue paint splatters from the Boyz gearing up for the fight. I did this by splashing the blue paint about and then taking my finger to wipe off the raised areas. This gave the look of spilled paint with worn metal tread showing through. The front grill probably shows the most colorful arrangement of looted piece but still predominately blue. The challenge I was working on was using the other clan colors, but make sure that the Death Skull blue was still predominate and clear where it came from. The top view not only shows how ramshackle the kit is, but how squeezed in the crew are …

Killa Kan with big shoota - front

Little Stompies: Killa Kans

Published by Joe B

Adding some numbers to my growing ork machines are a rag-tag squad of Killa Kans from the Sanctus Reach box set. Say hello to Hickory, Dickory, and Doc! (names via my very supportive wife) These are in line with my Deffdread: lots of rusty armor, sections of ‘lucky’ blue and the odd section of stolen icons here and there. I put together a painting guide with my second squad of Killa Kans if you want to see how I did the colors. First up is Hickory with this big shoota and buzz saw. Probably the worst choice of weapons in the box and someday will need to switch it to a missile launch or something. I built all three models without their base so I could paint it separate. After finishing the Killa Kans, I found a base that matched best with each model. Hickory got a base with a large step that matched well with his gait. The bases are from Secret Weapon Miniatures‘ Iron Deck series. The Killa Kans have such great, cobbled together look, they were …

Deffskullz Ork Deffdread

Ork Deffdread

Published by Joe B

Adding some beef to my ork hoard is a nice, choppy, Deffdread with lots of buzzing, hacking, and drilling. I love the comical look of all those arms full of wacky weapons and hacked on plates. I’m keeping with the theme of the Death Skulls being scrapers that slap blue on everything and hammer it together. Throughout the model I have Evil Sunz red, and Goff black and whites. Painting Rusty Metal The rest of the model is a nice rusty metal which was done in a number of layers: Black primer with a quick white over spray Brown spray Dry brush of Lead Belcher Orange with rust pigment stippled Dry brush with silver The crazy, cobbled together look of the Deffdread made it so much fun to paint and highlight specific panels with the blues and reds. The base is another Secret Weapon Miniature from their Junk Yard line. They have a fantastic range of bases, and I have decided to move towards pre-made bases for the simplicity and time. I get so little hobby time nowadays …

Painting Death Skull Warboss

Painting the Ork Warboss

Published by Joe B

For my recently posted Ork Warboss, I took a few in progress shots to provide some how-to content. I hope this post on painting a Death Skull Warboss helps get your Wagghh! going. Step 1 – White Base Coat First up is a nice, white base coat. White is nice for creating those bright blues and gory reds. The problem with a full white undercoat is that you need to paint EVERY thing, otherwise it is very stark and apparent, black base coats are able to hide this by making ‘shadows’ Step 2 – Green Skin Next up is painting the various base coats such as the Warboss Green for the skin. All the colors are kept fairly bright at this point to allow for shades that will darken the look. Step 3 – Blue Base Coat The blues were also blocked in with Alaitoc Blue, it doesn’t need to be tidy as the shades and highlights will clean up the mess. Step 4-10: More Base Coats and Wash This is where I must apologize, I skipped …

Deff Skulls Ork Warboss

Death Skull Warboss

Published by Joe B

To lead my growing Ork hoard, it needed a good Warboss to knock some heads around. Enter the Death Skull Warboss from Assault on Black Reach, which is very suitable for a head-crunchin’. With a simple adjustment to the right arm, I tipped it out a bit and opened up the model. The gap was filled with green stuff, and I added an extra shoulder guard from the Nobz kit. I figured the power klaw should be suitably messy and covered in gore. The rest of the metal is suitably rusted up and worn out. I also added a nasty looking trophy head and slightly tilted the head towards the Klaw. The missing neck was also filled in with some green stuff and smoothed into place. The blues add a nice contrast to the green skin and the bloody red. Want to paint an Ork just like him? I’ve got you covered with a painting tutorial! The tutorial has the step-by-steps I used for this guy, including the skin and bloody mess. He has so …