15mm Blood Drinkers Space Marines!

                                         

Well I suppose I have Conscript GregB to thank for this one... I had Conscript ByronM do some 3D printing for me, and when I went to pick up the prints Byron told me that Greg had asked him to print me some 15mm Space Marines! Cool!

So somewhat on a whim and as a palate cleanser, I knocked out the 20 models Byron had printed for me. Originally I was considering painting them as Iron Warriors, but these beakies were just begging to be painted in the blood-red power armour of the Blood Drinkers. It's just a bonus that the chapter insignia is super-easy to put on the shoulder pads with a black technical pen :-)

These guys all carry boltguns of course. But once these guys were painted I had to get in touch with Byron to print me some more dudes with heavy weapons, as well as some vehicles. Escalation!!

 

For the record, the paint job was pretty straightforward. Basecoated Mephiston Red, heavily highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet, then washed with Nuln Oil, Backpacks and boltguns are Leadbelcher washed with Nuln Oil.

  

These two are the start of a command squad I reckon. We'll see what else Mr. B can come up with for me.

Here's a comparo shot of my 40K scale Blood Drinker with his tiny colleagues.

Hope you like 'em!

AHPC Submission #6 - Whirlwind Scorpius Artillery Tank

Here comes some more hope! A Whirlwind Scorpius, ready to fire in support of The Warmaster's noble Space Marines...

I've been away from the Challenge for a couple of weeks now, owing to the disruptions caused by a move to a new house. I'm thankful to report the relocation to Toronto is mostly complete - or, at least, the macro-parts of it are. I am now in Toronto, and my stuff is also in Toronto, mostly at the same location, and I am grateful for that. In many ways this move has been years in the making, and it is a relief to have the hardest part complete.

Spencer and Joey getting used to the new digs in Toronto.

All the same, it has been totally exhausting. There is a lot of unpacking etc. to go through, as well as some minor work to complete on the new home. I knew the disruption to my hobby efforts would be significant, and I thought I could adjust for it, but in fact I greatly underestimated how gruelling it would be. I have had to shirk my AHPC "minion" duties for two weeks (thankfully other volunteer "minions" stepped in to pick up my slack) and my paint brushes have barely budged (other than to be packed and unpacked) for almost a month. Given how much I like to paint, and the role painting plays in helping me just generally manage, this has been significant.

So I have been desperate to get some hobby stuff in, and this little project fit the bill. This is a Scorpius-variant Whirlwind artillery tank, a 28mm multi-part resin-and plastic model once sold by Forge World, another re-paint project for my Sons of Horus collection from GW's "Horus Heresy" setting. The paints I use for the Sons of Horus were the easiest to find in my un-packing, and it goes pretty quickly given that I have painted a fair bit of XVI Legion kit, so this was a good way to get back into the saddle, as it were.  

Assorted lenses and scanners - no doubt the turret is equipped with the latest in 5G tech - to ensure the rockets arrive on time and on target.

We all know the kind and benevolent Horus Lupercal, Warmaster, last of hope of humanity for liberation from the yoke of tyranny beneath the so-called "Emperor", is a figure of hope. But the universe of the far future is filled with evil people, and because of this sometimes "hope" needs to be backed up with "high-explosives". Whenever that combination is called for the Marines in Horus' legion can count on vehicles like this.

It would have been smart to put a decal of some kind on that rear hatch...but I have no idea where my decals are right now...

Wall-hugging tools like Rogal Dorn and his VII Legion might run around building this-and-that, but the Whirlwind Scorpius ensures none of these pointless constructs are too much of a barrier to Horus' progress, raining a steady stream of high-explosive guided munitions down on the heads of any fools who might simultaneously reject the obvious majesty of The Warmaster AND wear bright yellow to a battle. Backed by this sort of artillery, we can count on the XVI Legion Astartes to keep hope on the march through the galaxy at a brisk pace.

Ready to fire!

This vehicle is a mix of resin and plastic model components, but as with so many models in my collection, this vehicle is now available from GW as a full stand-alone plastic kit. Naturally, my response to these kits finally becoming available is... to be provoked into painting and/or re-painting my pre-existing models. Makes...no sense. But I do expect I'll paint up one of the newer all-plastic models at some point. Maybe for the lonely losers on the loyalist side of the equation? Can't have them pouting, after all...

Another properly re-painted model to sooth the screaming hobby monkey...

My hobby supplies, bits, set-up etc. remain pretty scattered post-move, and I am radically dialing back my painting target expectations for this edition of the Challenge. This has made a mockery of my pre-Challenge projections - as usual, saying you will paint something before the Painting Challenge actually starts seems to be more of a hex than a motivator, at least for me. It is extremely unlikely that the Dogs of War miniatures I had collected through last year, for example, will see any paint during this edition of the Challenge, and will have to wait for a more settled time to arrive. 

But I will continue to work away at the hobby projects that fit conveniently into a plastic tote I could keep with me...so watch this space for (hopefully) more from me, and definitely more from the other Conscripts, who continue to absolutely crush it during AHPC XIV.

More Hairy Ancient Germanic Tribesmen

                                     

Another Challenge entry - some more hairy dudes! I've painted 17 more ancient Germanic tribesmen with spears for my Warhammer Ancient Battles Germanic Tribesmen army.

This was posted in the "Travel" bonus area of the Challenge... now a bit of a word about "Travel"... the section description is "something that impressed you from your own travels." Well, my late wife Pam and I visited Germany on our second Euro-expedition back in 2012 and it was an amazing trip. We visited the Porsche and Mercedes-Benz museums in Stuttgart, drove a rented car on the Nurburgring Nordschleife, and did all kinds of other cool stuff, including visiting the ancient Roman town of Trier. Now that was such a cool visit, if you haven't been, it's awesome. Nestled in the valley of the Mosel river, Trier is reputedly Germany's oldest city, founded by the Romans in 16 BC as "Augusta Treverorum" (the city of Augustus among the Treverii). There are still heaps of Roman ruins and structures to visit in the city and the Porta Negra (Black Gate) dates back to the 4th century. So it was always gonna be some ancient Germans or Early Imperial Romans in this stack, and I've gone with the Germans. Trier is in modern Germany after all. 

Here is the gang of 17 painted for this post. The three command models in the top photo were painted for a previous Challenge entry.

Models are from Wargames Foundry with shields and decals from Warlord Games.

I particularly like the chap on the right end of the line - he reminds me of a young Conan :-)

Anyway there's 17 more done for my WAB army. I think next I might paint some more Romans. Unless 15mm Space Marines sneak into the queue first ;-)

Dallas

Tom Meier Golden (now Green) Dragon

                                     

Knocked off one here that's been primed for a few weeks - it's an ancient Golden Dragon sculpted by the legendary Tom Meier for Ral Partha back in the 1980s. I have a soft spot for these old dragons and this one is just superb isn't it! (This was originally posted on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge blog).

Such a characterful face on this magnificent beast... I just had to paint him green.

Let me tell you it was a bit of a struggle to find an appropriate base for him but Challenger ByronM came through for me with an mdf base from his Northern Lights Terrain shop. Cheers Byron!

Shown here for scale with a Citadel knight (of about the same era) from their BC1 "Adventurers Starter Set." I like the unusual pose of the dragon - sort of just checking things out rather than roaring and being all intimidating. But by the look of him you'd still think twice about trying to steal his gold - he just looks clever and sneaky.

Here he is with one of the old Metal Magic female adventurers by Josef Ochmann. Looks like they're having a nice chat.

This was a fun model to paint - mostly - the only difficulty was reaching some of his scales that are blocked by the wings, and the underside of his tail. But I think he turned out OK.

More Ancient Germans and... Ancient Citadel Aragorn and Boromir??

                                     

Back again with another post from the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, starting with some command  (C, S, M as we used to say) for my Germanic tribesmen. These are resin models from Warlord Games.

These dudes actually mix quite well with my Foundry models, after I cut off the integral bases. The models' feet are stuck straight down to the bases.

These guys seem to be quite fond of their severed heads, no??

Not to be outdone, the carynx-blower has a head hanging off his belt too. Nice models. 

To complete a mini-project I've also painted a couple of "equally ancient" Citadel models from their 1980s Lord of the Rings range. 

This is Boromir, from the ME21 "Boromir of Gondor" blister. Nice model in the old chunky Citadel style.

The other one is Aragorn, from the BME1 "Fellowship of the Ring" boxed set. Also a nice model but slightly gangly compared to Boromir.

Here's the whole crew from Citadel, with Aragorn and Boromir done that completes my old-school Citadel LotR collection. Good to have 'em done.

Now that the command is done for a German unit I need to get on to painting the unit... that'll come shortly.

Hairy Horsemen

Hi all, back again with some more Germanic tribesmen for my new project. The models are again from Wargames Foundry. (This post originally appeared as part of Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge 14).

There are twelve of these chaps in the unit and they came with command as well! Above we see the leader (in looted Roman kit), standard bearer, and horn blower.

 

The rest of the bunch are in a variety of poses. I hand-painted the shields using ideas found on the Internet. Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware, there's no real primary sources of shield designs as none have survived in a condition that would indicate how they were painted.

Foundry also supplied a bunch of wicker shields, which are a real cheat because you just paint them... like wicker :-)

Germanic tribesmen apparently wore very little armour and almost none wore helmets. However the cavalry were supposed to be upper-class kind of peasants so may have been a bit better equipped. Their horses were slow and awful though, at least according to Tacitus and Caesar.

A shot just to prove I painted the back ends of the models too.

These were actually a real faff to assemble as the riders really didn't want to stick to the horses' backs. A little JB Weld (two-part epoxy) set that right though.

Gotta keep crankin' out these Germans! Watch this space!

AHPC Submission #5 - Fellblade Battle Tank

Here comes "Hope" - you had best be prepared for it...Fellblade for the XVI Legion.

For my fifth submission to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, my brushes remained in the same setting, but switch scale rather dramatically, moving on from very small models of light Space Marine vehicles to this one very big model of a very, very heavy piece of Space Marine armour. This is a Fellblade super-heavy tank painted (no surprise) in the colours of the XVI Legion Astartes. This is a Forge World model, and like my Contemptor Dreadnought a couple of weeks ago, it is a re-paint project, part of my ongoing OCD-brain-monkey-management efforts to ensure important parts of kit in my collection have the same shade of green.

Motivational poster for the year 30,000. My thanks to Kevin H for making this image for me many years ago...it is always fun...

Who could be against "Hope"? Why, no reasonable being could be against such a sentiment...but sadly, it seems, the universe of the year 30,000 is full of unreasonable people, and thus "Hope" must be delivered rather directly at times. One must choose to believe in the hope represented by Horus Lupercal, because those who foolishly stand against him no hope at all...

Horus for hope!

"Hope" here will deliver using a variety of tools...let's see, checking over the spec sheet we have the "Turret Mounted Fellblade Accelerator Cannon" that will help ensure a level playing field in every community. There is the "Hull Mounted Demolisher Cannon" which can help any community reach net-zero goals by eliminating the emissions of residents, particularly loyalist ones. There are two "Sponson Mounted Lascannon Arrays" providing high doses of "green energy" to assorted deserving targets. There is also a "Twin Linked Heavy Bolter" on the front to ensure community safety. 

So many big guns!

You'll need whisky if this thing comes at you...

Quad laser cannons too...because quad laser cannons!

"Drive closer, I'll finish them off personally..."

And if all of those weapons are not enough, we have the tank commander brandishing his bolt pistol. Because Space Marines. Sometime "Hope" requires a personal touch, and this crew is ready to accommodate that!

 

Not exactly low emissions for this vehicle, but just as in our time, in the future it's OK to cause emissions as long as you are a "green".

This is a fairly old model, one which I could not assemble myself and only have thanks to the resin-model-building talents of the incredible Steve B of Winnipeg.

View of the gunner, complete with targeter mounted on his helmet.

 

As you can surely surmise from this bonkers weapons assortment, the Fellblade lies at the very, very heavy end of the armoured vehicle selection for the Space Marine Legions. The weapon loadout is daunting and will dominate in any small game, so unless one is staging a rather large battle (on a rather large table to boot) it is best used in niche-scenarios. For example, we deployed it one time as a knocked-out objective...which unfortunately for the loyalists, still had working main weapons in the turret, as they learned to their hilarious disappointment... 

Another view of the turret.

Who has just ONE big gun, when you can have TWO?

 

It is great to have this re-painted now to match my preferred shade of green, as this monster has pride of place on the shelf, and the hobby-OCD-monkey will be soothed as it notes how the tank "fits" colour-wise with other pieces of the collection. 

Let's roll!!

Hold out hope for Horus! Because you have no hope if you hold out! Thanks for reading, and have a great day!