Rising, in a zombie like fashion.......

For some reason (well, after seeing my blog pop up on the small but perfectly formed blog roll of A Galaxy In Flames, cheers fellas) I decided it'd be worth a new post to show off a couple of things i've done recently that im particularly proud of.

First up is a freshly painted unit of Grave Wardens for my Heresy era Death Guard army, some of my favourite figures from Forge World's Horus Heresy range. They've been sitting in a box waiting for paint from release day but for various reasons only got a look in over the last couple of weeks.

Grave Wardens, Death Guard Legion Astartes

Chem Master

Heavy Flamer

Chain Fist wielding lunatic

Twin 1

Twin 2

Not the last of my trip back to 30K, or the Death Guard for that matter.....


The second thing I wanted to showcase was a project i've had on my mind for the last year or so, well, at least since I saw the Death Guard Legion Contemptor. I knew I needed to corrupt it to fit with my 40K Death Guard, I just needed to decide how.

Thematically I wanted to tie the Contemptor to the same look as the Death Guard Terminator kit by Forge World, primarily using the spikes on the top of the body, the broken pipe work and the boils.

I had a lot of fun putting it together, the next one will be in the white of the 30K Death Guard. I had though of keeping the weapon loadout the same on both pre and post Heresy machines but a Mortis with two assault cannons is too cool a weapon to pass up. I might have to play about with some magnets.......


Lastly today, a peek at what im working on next. Just before christmas I finished the first 5 figures for a Breacher squad, though it might be time to finish them off before moving onto something fun.

Command elements and special issue weapons, Death Guard Legion Astartes Breacher Squad

Thanks for reading, with any luck (and some appropriately placed pressure) I might try and keep the blog updated a little more regularly.

Is there a Doctor in the house?

What a great week i've had. Spent the last 2 weeks on holiday, and the day im due back to work im signed off sick for 4 weeks with Sciatica.

In other words, I can't stand up, but I can sit and paint.

Personally im quite happy with that, as I can finally catch up on the Sanguinary Guard.

Now the bulk of the army is out of the way, I turned my attention to building the 3 Priests that feature in my 1500 point list. The bulk of the parts came from the Death Company box, with the legs from the Sanguinary Guard sprue, various power weapon arms and Reductor arms from the Command Squad sprue.

I'm currently working on the rest of the first squad so I should have some more paint in progress shots early in the week.


Thanks for reading.

Retrospective - Space Wolves - Wolf Scouts

Welcome to this weeks retrospective, this week dealing with the most sneaky of sneakys, Space Wolf Scouts.

This squad was very much my baby, with some over the shoulder input by Matt. A few years ago I stumbled across a (now defunct) website ran by sculptor Matt Gubser, and found an interesting article on building scouts using marine, guard and chaos marauder parts. I showed this article to Matt who said something along the lines of ‘you can do that’. So I did.

[Ss] Lol, I remember it a little differently but will run with that version for ease of narrative. 

Each scout was built around a specific theme, those being a leader, sniper, a couple of cc scouts and a pair of support scouts.

[Ss] Sure this is something we spent much time batting around trying to nail down each guy , think one or two may have been almost scrapped and re started , I always enjoy collaborative design more than doing it by myself, hoping slowly over time me and Steve can bring you some nice new stuff at some point.

The main parts of the figure are built from Space Marines (torso, lower legs) and chaos marauders (upper legs, arms), with pieces from the Kroot sprue, Catachan sprue and various accessories. The best use of parts I think are the backpacks – these are from the original metal Space Wolf Scout sgts from the early 90’s. Matt picked up a few while you could still order bits from GW, a service im still lamenting the loss of.

[Ss] One minute of silence for  bitz service ............ 

Lest we forget.

In all seriousness , never forget ...

The basic premise of the article was the use of guard/marauder upper legs combined with marine lower legs to give the impression of a lighter armour that still had design cues from power armour. Lots of green stuff was used across the squad, mostly to fill gaps in the legs and re-sculpt areas of detail.

My personal favourite is the scout we nicknames Knives, a shouty head and some extreme posing gives him a massive amount of movement which combined with the direction of the arms and knives creates a really dynamic figure.

[Ss] Yeah, its between him and the squad leader for me , he's a great model for MoTW these days , still struggling to come to terms with the decision to sell them ....

[Ss]But, wait , there's more , and we have been saving the best til last *wink wink* coming soon.

Once again, you can find Matt's blog at Rant in E Minor.


Thanks for reading.

Retrospective - Space Wolves - Grey Hunters & Blood Claws

Been quiet on the hobby front the last few days, the wife has had me sorting out the post christmas DIY. Normal service should resume as from now.

Onto the task at hand for todays post, which is the second of the Space Wolves Retrospectives, this week on the troops choices – Grey Hunters and Blood Claws.

Both of these units were built by Sorrowshard, with a few additional conversions and sculpting by myself. One of my favourite miniatures in this group is the lead Blood Claw, based on the 3^rd edition Wolf Codex cover, which is one of a small selection of miniatures that didn’t have any work done by myself.

A large amount of WFB Dwarf parts were used on the army, mostly weapons to add some Nordic flare to the force. Makes more sense for a Wolf to be swinging an axe than a chainsword if you ask me. Another thing to note is the bases. Figure if I mention it on the blog someone might email him and annoy him enough to finish them.

I'll leave you with Sorrowshard to waffle on about how much he hates painting now, see you at the bottom.

[Ss] Christmas and my shiny copy of new vegas have taken a huge poop on my hobby mojo, just working my way back up now. This was, I recall, a massive bits order to GW , I think everything is technically converted, which was fun, I tried tried hard to not repeat heads if possible and ransacked the entire GW range for anything suitable, just ask kal.... I hate painting rank and file and this lot killed me, I still have the second unit of converted hunters unpainted sat in a box on the side some years later .....

The Codex cover conversion was a bit of fun and I was pleased with how it came out. Its good looking back now, as these days I would paint this lot very differently , Looking at these Im pleased with the way my painting has since matured.

Up next is Steve's very pimpola wolf scouts, treat of treats !!

If you a fan of Eldar of either variety, Matts blog, Rant in E Minor is a veritable treasure trove of pointy eared delights, even more so when he actually paints something. Well worth a visit.

As Matt has said, Wolf Scouts next, one of the units that I built from the ground up, but you'll have to wait a few days for those.

In the meantime next up should be the first finished Sanguinary Guard, in the next couple of days if the white doesn't take forever to finish.

Thanks for reading.

Some actual progress?

Yes, the title doesn't lie, i've actually made some progress with the Orks.

Firstly, the second Big Mek has been assembled. I would of had him finished about a week ago but it took me that long to get scratch build the Kuston Force Field. Very pleased with him though, the pose in particular im quite proud of, almost like hes stomping over to a downed vehicle, ready to carve it up with his trusty burna.....

Next up today is the first ten of forty grots in the force, im aiming to paint these alternately with the Kans so I don't get too bored.

Lastly tonight, i've made a start on the first Kan. Going for a simple Goff scheme for the force, using lots of weathered black with red details and lots of black and white checks. Since this was taken i've basecoated the horns and given the whole thing a generous wash of Devlan Mud. After some quick highlights and details it should be done.

If all goes to plan over the next day or so I should have an update friday with the first of the finished Kan.

Thanks for reading.

Fiddling with sheet styrene......

Quick update for the evening, with a wip shot of the 2nd Big Mek's Kustom Force Field.

I wanted to get it looking similar to the stock metal piece as im not a fan of the usual style of throwing as many 'techy' looking parts onto the back of an Ork and calling it quits. Still need to decide what im going to add on top of the main vane, some more detail and finally the burna fuel tanks. Hopefully i'll be able to get him finished in the next couple of days.