WIP Infernus Marines

My Infernus lads gave a good account of themselves last game I played, so I've decided to "reward" them by getting them finished. Still WIP; just the base coats for the metallic and green armour currently. 

The weather was overcast but pleasant, so I painted outside to take advantage of the natural light. Very pleasant listening to the multitude of birds we get in the garden. 🐦

Infernus Marines

Quite happy with the build/kitbashing involved with these. The 10 man squad you can easily get is just a repeat of the same 5 sculpts, which is a tad boring. Therefore, I took the less sensible, more expensive option and sourced the other 5 sculpts from elsewhere.

The Sergeant (front, second from the right) is the issue 5 exclusive sculpt from the Combat Patrol partwork. I gave him a Salamander upgrade sprue helmet and replaced the dead 'nid with a mundane tactical rock.

The Corporal (front and centre) is from the Getting Started magazine. His bonce, backpack candles and fancy skull he's holding are all Black Templar bits. My vague chapter lore is that each 10 men squad has a corporal/2IC, who's usually entrusted with the squads auspex/comms etc. As I imagine Infernus squads veer a bit more toward zealotry than their comrades, I replaced the bog standard auspex with something a little more esoteric. The gucci skull is that of one of the chapters loyal but deceased Navigators, their otherworldly powers lingering upon their remains and aiding the squad against equally otherworldly incursions.

Finally, the remaining three lads are from the paint set; all I did was scrape off the shoulder pad icons. Having said that, I'm pretty sure the half-helmeted lad (back and centre) is from that kit. He's using the head of the Phobos Lt. with combi-weapon and the half helmet from the multi-part Sternguard vets.

Deadcember

 ... or a belated Spooktober.

I've finally gotten around to both making another post and finishing some minis. I intended to finish these skellies for October but that turned into November and then a post never materialised. The miniatures themselves were finished in late 2020 with my previous skellies but awaited suitable shields.

Skeleton Elite Guard afaik

These were purchased from Black Tree Designs a few years back and are now sadly OOP. I was under the impression that they're ex-Harlequin and sculpted by Kev Adams but I'm now not so sure. They're nowhere to be found on the Lost Minis Wiki and I don't fancy prising my two unpainted ones off their bases to confirm some particulars.

With regards to painting; same scheme as the previous lot with a mix of metallics and contrast. The right most one in the above picture has his scale mail painted as tarnished bronze, which happens to be close in colour to the green I've used. Oh well 🤷

The left individual in the above picture has red hair; I was inspired by the Osterby Man to do so. The shields themselves are 3D prints from ebay. Unfortunately they were covered in artefacts but seeing as they are modelled damaged anyway, I wasn't overly fussed. On another unfortunate note, the Wyldwood brown contrast I used has come had almost black and I will perhaps give them a re-touch in the future.

Doormat to Good Enough in Less Than a Day

On a whim, I recently purchased a Rogue Trader inspired Techmarine fan sculpt from ye_alchemist on ebay, sculpted by James Sheriff. The model is 32mm and is somewhere in between more recent firstborn and primaris marines in size, whilst retaining 80's design cues.

A size comparison of Astartes

Many more motivated and productive hobbyists tally what they've completed against what they've bought, so with that in mind I decided to complete the model in under a day. This plan was almost scuppered by the fact that the model doesn't come with a backpack and the modern ones I have in abundance don't fit due to the increased size of the 'jet' vents meshing with the pauldrons. 

On the excellent Rogue Heresy blog (which inspired me to buy it and furthermore has a much nicer paint job), they appear to have used a metal RT era backpack, which is a tad prohibitive for me. Luckily, I had some Spellcrow Space Knights backpacks to hand, which fit nicely.

It's a nice sculpt all in all; I particularly like his dinky hammer which is no doubt used in all manner of percussive rituals. The only details that are a little off are the lack of detail on his boots and the design of the bolt pistol, both no doubt due to 'certain' reasons. It acted as a useful model to try out a scheme for a specialist; the bare metal legs and torso of a standard marine replaced with that callings sacred colour, in this case martian red for a techmarine.

 As the title implies, I painted him to a 'good enough' standard; one of the things I like about space marines is that they can look good with even a simple paint job. Eventually I will add more details, such as finishing the dial on his watch and adding markings. On the battlefield, I may field him as a Rapier Carrier crew, if I can acquire one cheaply that is.

He was such fun to work on that he's inspired me to carry on work with the rest of my marines and I shall hopefully have a whopping 20 more done by months end. 🤞

Skitarii Advent

 At long last I have completed a squad of dubious legality for my Forgeworld Velchans Prime. They've been sitting around at a nigh finished state for months and I've finally completed them, barring unit markings/transfers and highlighting.

Skitarii Rangers

For the scheme I was inspired somewhat by the German M1910 uniform as depicted in Youjo Senki. It doesn't quite translate onto skitarii uniforms but I hope to replicate the dark green with red trim elsewhere across the force. I'm using Lupercal Green as I had a pot to spare, which is a happy coincidence 😏.

I say the squad is of dubious legality as the weapon loadout is no longer doable in 9th edition as well as the fact that there are a few third party heads in there. They're cultist gas mask heads from Anvil Industry. In the lore, or at least my interpretation of it, skitarii are furnished with a hodge-podge of whatever bionics and equipment the techpriests have to hand. I therefore wanted to try and add a bit of variety and alas, these heads were the only ones that I could find that looked similar. Not sure I entirely like them with hindsight but they add interest nonetheless. 

On a side tangent, my plans for the skitarii vanguard were even more grandiose; different heads, bodies and legs entirely! I'm not really a fan of the two squads from one kit design ethos GW have developed, especially when it came to my latent idea of what skitarii should look like. Ultimately, I couldn't find anything to my liking and it was yet another form of procrastination so I eventually settled for the bog standard look, which I do like in fairness. In an ideal world, I'd 3D sculpt compatible parts to give variety but that's a bit of a pipe dream.

Back on topic, this is my first time using Valhallan Blizzard and I must say I'm quite impressed. It's consistency somewhat reminds me of marshmallow Fluff spread and it can be applied quite realistically. I also used some old school flock rather than faff around with tufts and such. Hopefully it will go some way towards tying my army together visually with those of my Imperial allies.

With regards to the photo, I've seen something similar where people use book spreads as backdrops, in this case the creepy inside cover of a 9th edition codex. I have skimped out by using painting newspaper though rather than a faux ground surface. The photo is unfocussed and requires a bit more jiggery-pokery.

SPHESS MAHREENS!

Unsurprisingly, I have some space marines in my collection. My homebrew chapter is an Imperial Fists successor called the Abominators. I shall have to do a lore dump at some point, once I've condensed all my various ideas into something cogent. 

Space marines comprise a sizeable part of my plastic pile of shame; mostly firstborn as I want to go wild kitbashing them out of the various armour marks. I probably have enough to field a nearly full strength company but won't paint them as such. In reality, companies are rarely fielded en masse but are usually deployed across different warzones, aided by contingents from the support companies. The primaris that I do have will mostly be from said support companies, placed their when Cawl's reinforcements made contact, their firstborn colleagues rotated to the battleline companies.

Intercessors with a Lieutenant

Most of my primaris marines are from Dark Imperium and Shadowspear sets, with the above from the former. There is some kitbashing on the lieutenant and the sergeants but I wished I'd waited and combined the push fit intercessors with the multi-part kit, just for a tad more variety.

Lieutenant in the centre, Sergeants on the left & right

The two on the left were painted with a white undercoat, which led to a washed out finish. I tried out two washes, Athonian Camoshade and Biel-Tan Green respectively.  I think the Camoshade came out best so I might look into washing the other models armour the same.

Intercessors

They're enjoyable to paint and thus made a good test bed for my scheme. It came into being due to two factors: I like green and I like painting metallics. I was partly inspired by Darren Latham's Silver Skulls as well, from which I took the Leadbelcher and Nuln oil for the armour, as well as some ideas for markings. The green is Skarsnik Green and I think the paleness contrasts well with the metalics. Weapon casings are naturally the classic red from older editions.

Intercessor

I've painted them to my Good Enough™ standard but will eventually paint on the company markings, which will be on one of the knee pads and for primaris, the circular detail on their backpack. I should also really drill the barrels, although this feels me with dread as lining the drill up perfectly is finicky. I have also just realised, as I write, that I forgot to add snow. My friends have standardised their basing schemes to tie our disparate armies together and that includes snow. Curses! A task for another day.

I will be away for the next three weeks without access to minis and computer both so I won't be posting anything hobby related. I might post a ramble or some photos of my time in Wales but I won't make any promises 😄

Dead but not Forgotten ...

Two whole weeks since my last post! In fairness, last week was somewhat hectic but I can't make the same excuse for this week, alas! Anyway, on to the task at hand:

Northstar Shadow Knight, Diehard Wolf Familiar & Heartbreaker Skeleton Champion

An eclectic selection of undeads this time, hopefully unified somewhat by the basing. The flowers and tufts are from Warpainter Scenics; the individual 'blobs', for want of a better term, are slightly too big for 25mm bases so I've ended up halving them and gluing 'em down as semi-circles. Not sure if it makes the base too busy but its a faff portioning them further. 

ROSD07 - Shadow Knight

Rather chuffed with this one as I followed an excellent tutorial from Gardens of Hecate on painting GW's spooky ghosts (n.b. I used all Citadel paints). This is my first real attempt at highlighting and whilst it's unrefined in many places, it's Good Enough™. I have a copy of Rangers of Shadowdeep, the range he's from, and should really get round to playing it. 

 

ROSD07 - Shadow Knight

I painted it sometime last year but have only just based it on mdf, during which I'd forgotten whether or not I wash Agrellan Badland with Agrax Earthshade. Evidently I do not as it's come out darker than usual. At least I don't use impenetrable jargon to name things, ehh 😉

Diehard Miniatures Wolf Familiar

A kickstarter miniature this one. Not much to say about this undead doggo. I slapped the Skeleton Horde on perhaps but I like my skeletons to look freshly exhumed. I've kept the integral base as it's nice and round but it has made basing interesting. He's basically sitting in the shrub I've artfully obscured in the above pic; I like to think he still has the oblivious attitude some dogs exhibit even in the next life.

Heartbreaker Skeleton Champion

A nice, classic miniature here from Phil Lewis. Look at the size of that there Claymore! I enjoyed painting up the armour (metallics have always been a favourite) and the many dinks it's taken before the occupants demise. 

Citadel Skeletons and Dodgy Light Boxes

I'd wanted to finish off more skellingtons today but was distracted from the task by watching The Last Samurai. Luckily, I have two fit (mostly) to show off:

ME 72 Dead Man of Dunharrow & C17 Armoured Swordsman

Both of these date to the mid 80's and are both therefore older than I. When I was at Uni, I went through a phase of buying old lead that took my fancy. I'd always been a little smitten with the Dead Man; one of my favourite sculpts from the original LOTR range. The C17 lad less so.

Usually when I go figure hunting on ebay, I will look at what other items the seller has to offer, to make the most out of the usually pricey P&P. I think in this case, I had my heart set on another skeleton, possible a scythe wielder if memory serves. Inevitably I lost that bid but won this fellow. Having painted him, he has grown on me.

ME 72 Dead Man of Dunharrow & C17 Armoured Swordsman

I painted both of these towards the end of 2020; sadly part of a miniscule effort on my part in what was a "perfect" year for painting, horrible though it was. I was rather chuffed with them at the time, being my biggest output in more than a decade of inactivity, but with hindsight, they're a tad messy. I applied a lot of GW technical paints: Ryza Rust, Nihilakh Oxide and Typhus Corrosion to give them an appropriate sense of decay.

C17 Armoured Swordsman

The bone is Skeleton Horde Contrast with a liberal helping of Agrax Earthshade (which is better than the overrated Nuln Oil if any one was to ask). The shields are painted Army Painter Scaly Hide. Choosing a green similar to the verdigris effect you're using was perhaps not the best move but I really like that particular shade. Back in the day it was Snot Green. Is this indicative of my maturity I wonder? 😜

The models could really do with some highlights, a technique that has filled me with dread for 20 years (well, for as long as I even knew there was more to painting than gleefully slapping it on anyway). The bases could do with more colour; I like the idea of contrasting the shambling dead with vibrant spring/summer flowers rather than the more common autumnal and winter themes. Luckily I have a bunch, which will soon decorate the bases of their compatriots when I next post.

On another note, I used a shoddy £7.99 Light Box off of eBay; I think the results speak for themselves. I like the backdrop dioramas some hobbyists use so I'll try and rustle something up, probably some nice ruins, as well as a better light.