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.

Brutes and Bronze Beasts.....

Firstly, the Brutes of the title, in the shape of the wip Death Guard Cataphractii. 

This is once all of the basecoats have gone on and the chipped paintwork done before oil washing. Probably some of my favourite Forge World figures to date, and certainly some that will grace my desk again at some stage.

Death Guard Cataphractii Terminators, wip

Secondly, the Bronze Beasts, or more specifically, Space Marines from the Minotaurs chapter. I've been threatening some 'Taurs for a while now and with the new Codex on the horizon I'll be adding a few units to my current force. I'll be using the Forge World books for much of my reference moving forward, Imperial Armour's 10 (Badab War) and 12 (Fall of Orpheus). Fingers crossed that we get an update of the Siege Assault list from IA10 as that's the list I generally run with them. 

For now though, a look back at a few of the Tactical Marines that make up the army.

Minotaurs Tactical Combat Squad

Next time I should have the Cataphractii finished, potentially something Contemptor shaped and the next stage in the evolution of the Minotaurs.

Astartes Anonymous?

Been a bit quiet of late sadly, I'd been gearing up for a second round of spinal surgery for a while only to be told that the op had been cancelled and moved to a different hospital. Shame they told me that while I'd already been sat in a waiting room for 4 hours already.

On a brighter note, I finally managed to finish up the first full 20 strong Legion Tactical Squad for my Heresy-era Death Guard army. Bit of procrastination to get there but I'm very happy with how they turned out.

Death Guard Legion Tactical Squad

The Sergeant is my favourite figure in the squad, probably as it's the only figure that isn't holding a bolter across it's chest! Still, a squad this size will make a mess when it finally gets onto a table.

Next up for the Death Guard will be a squad of Terminators, all in Cataphractii armour, probably my favourite of the Terminator armour designs. Went plasma heavy with this squad as my local meta is heavy on MEQ's.

Death Guard Cataphractii Terminators wip

Lastly, the behemoth that is a new Space Marine codex is on the horizon. Personally I can't wait, having played Marines since I got into 40k close to 20 years ago. I'm going to put my hands up and admit I was tempted to paint a new Ultramarines army with this release, but good sense over ruled, coupled with a desire to see the Centurions in a Minotaurs scheme. Speaking of which i'll come back in the week with an update on the Cataphractii and a glimpse into what i've already done with the Minotaurs.

Of Lizards And Men.....

As I mentioned in my last post I'm looking at putting together a Lizardman army, using my good lady wife's cast off figures. It was mainly down to needing an excuse to paint the new monster kits, the Carnosaur in particular, which I think is one of the best looking big kits GW have released.

I've always had a fascination with dinosaurs so I struggled to pick a scheme - should I stick with the 'traditional' blue or go with something else? I thought of using a more natural scheme on the basic troops but came to realise that they'd end up blurring into the base. Back to the blue then. It does mean I can go with a more natural scheme on the big fellas.

With the blue in mind, I set about painting a test figure. I went with the Lizardman themed blues from GW, basecoating with thinned Sotek Green, then shading the scales with thinned Stegadon Scale Blue. With the two colours I thinned them with glaze medium to keep the colour vivid but also allowing it to flow in a closer manner to a wash. Characters will get more detail but for a rank and file figure I think it does the job.

I'll knock up a tutorial in time but for now I'll leave you with the test figure.

More clutter and some scales.......

Been a little bit quieter than I'd like the last few days, had a few days away with the wife for a bit of R&R before it all gets crazy again.

I've got a few ideas for posts lined up, but for now I'll open a little window to the state of my desk -

What a mess.......

Excuse the mess if you can and I'll talk you through what's there.

More marines for my Heresy Era project
Grey Knight Terminators
Plaguebearers
and the interesting one - the brown box and tubs are the remains of my wife's Lizardmen army - she picked them up around the time the current plastic Saurus and Skinks were released, oddly enough around the time we got together - nearly 10 years ago.

I'm going to have a look at stripping a couple of the Saurus back to bare plastic and have a go at a couple of test schemes - one in the 'traditional' blue and a more natural scheme. More on those later though, for now, I've got a desk to clean......