Back to the Steel Legion

 With the Bretonnians complete, I decided to continue on with my Steel Legion “GunSchwarm” 40k army. With Dallas chugging along on his SoB it seemed fitting to join him in some retro 40k. We made a plan to each have a sizeable army ready for a game in October. Some guard on sister action! 😳 With the new 40k 10th edition, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to play…5th edition! Sorry GW, I never played a single game of 9th and I’m not interested in following you down this 40k death spiral you're on!

To kick off the new project, here are some guardsmen.

Ogryns are next!

Thanks for visiting.

Sisters of Battle: Four Characters

The Sisters production keeps coming thick and fast - this is a project I'm really enjoying. So after painting a squad of Battle Sisters, I've turned to a few characters to keep things rolling along. Here we have (L to R) Uriah Jacobus, "Bernadette, Mother Superior" from chaostemple.cz, a Dialogus, and an Hospitaller, these last both from the old GW metal range.

Starting off with Mr. Jacobus... this is an Ecclesiarchal Missionary of the most zealous (and seasoned) variety. Ol' Uriah is known as "Protector of the Faith" and not without good reason... "as stubborn as a mule (and some say as mad), his talent for bringing lost worlds back into the fold of Imperium rule is unsurpassed" (quoth the Sisters of Battle codex). Decals from the Adepta Sororitas and Witch Hunters sheets came in very handy on the banner.

 

I picked this model up second-hand and it's entirely possible that his original backpack has been replaced (I seem to recall it would've had a chainsword attached to it) but no matter, this one works fine.

 

Next up, the Dialogus. Along with the Hospitaller, these Sisters belong to non-miltant orders, seconded to a Canoness as advisors and specialists. The Dialogus is a skilled orator whose voice (amplified through the "laud hailer" she carries) inspires her battle sisters to astounding feats. Although it's been slated by some critics, I really like this model. The scriptures are decals from the old Witch Hunters transfer sheet.

I hand-lettered the script on the back, though.

This is the Hospitaller, basically the army's equivalent of a medic. She carries "chirurgeon's tools" and has the expertise to expertly wield them - you can see a bonesaw at her right wrist (!).

The last model in this group is "Mother Superior Bernadette" from chaostemple.cz. This is a Czech concern that I've ordered lots of conversion bits from. It's a multi-part resin model with some metal parts as well, and of course (because I can't leave well enough alone) I converted it using an old RTB-01 Space Marine boltgun (I didn't like the kit bolter).

Here's a better view of that wicked boltgun. I also used some decals from the Adepta Sororitas transfer sheet on the shoulder parchment.

This was a pretty fun model to paint and as you can see, it fits the Sisters aesthetic very well indeed - in fact, with the exception of the backpack, this could've been an official GW sculpt. I especially like the face on this model - not over the top at all, but just a determined looking woman with a great hairstyle.

These four fill out the HQ slot fairly well, I'll have to consider what's up next on the painting desk. Fortunately there's still a lot to choose from! 

So till next time, be pure, be vigilant... BEHAVE!

Sisters Squad, Standard Bearer and Preacher!

Another week and another bunch of Sisters of Battle completed! This week it was a 10-Sister squad, standard bearer, and Ministorum Preacher. All old-school metal models of course.

First up, the squad of Battle Sisters, led by the best Sister Superior ever. I love this model.

I decided on a colour change for the grenades carried by these Sisters, from now on they'll be Castellan Green highlighted Deathworld Forest. A bit of contrast to all the red.

Here's another great metal model - the Celestian Standard Bearer (as it was then called). Now they call 'em "Imagifiers" which confounds me somewhat, as the generation of models after this one were called "Imagifers" (note no second "i"). This rather made sense as it hearkens back to the ancient Roman legions and their imagifers (sometimes "imaginifers") who carried the standard bearing an image of the Emperor. Nowadays of course, the Adepta Sororitas don't have banners; they have Sisters carrying holy relics - Saint on a Stick.

In any case, I went old-school with this one. The obverse of the standard appeared in the 2004-05 Games Workshop Catalog and Hobby Reference (and I think in a Sisters of Battle codex before that?); I scanned it, then put it into a Word doc and flipped the image. Voila, now we have the reverse of the banner. I glued the two together, wrapped it around the staff, and I think it looks pretty good.

Lastly we have the Ministorum Preacher. Remarkably, you can still buy this model from GW in metal (he's called "Preacher with Chainsword") for a mere $26 CAD; this one I got in a trade. But I am sorely tempted to pick up the "Missionary with Chainsword" for the same price, now that is a cool model too.

This one will be a good addition to the Sisters army, especially when considering the next unit that's on the way to me from an eBay seller in Yellowknife... more metals, this time still in the box. Stay tuned...

30k in 15mm (!?!)

30k models in 15mm size/1-100 scale - 3D prints courtesy of Byron M; decals from GW

How many scales can one employ in order to enjoy GW's Horus Heresy setting? The figures are already available in 28mm, and GW used to do it in 6mm too. But thanks to 3D printers, and the people willing to employ them, at least one more option: 15mm! Yes, here in this post we have some 30k figures in 15mm size/1-100 scale. These are all 3D prints provided by Byron (thanks Byron!).

I had no idea 15mm 30k was even "a thing" until Byron started doing some 15mm 40k and 30k figures and vehicles as entries in Curt's recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. His squad of Iron Warriors instantly got my attention, and he was kind enough to print up a selection of models for me to have a go at setting up a couple of small forces of my own.

Veteran tactical squad and Rhino APC from the VII Legion, the Imperial Fists.

Why? Why another size and scale? Well...why not? Leaving aside my fairly consistent interest in GW's 30k setting, the appeal of different scales works its magic on all of us in the hobby. The appeal of 15mm sized figures in the 30k setting is the same as those for WW2 or Team Yankee or any of the 15mm sci-fi gaming done in other settings...at that size and scale, options open up on the gaming table to involve a lot of stuff - even more stuff - without unduly crowding things. 

That is, after all, part of the appear of the original "Space Marine" game, right? A detachment of six Land Raiders, and a company of Marines in Rhinos...all fitting just fine on a 6' x 4' table, with plenty of room to spare! Of course, "Space Marine" (later "Epic") was played in 6mm/1-285 scale. 15mm stuff was not really possible unless you were some kind of ace at conversions...but that seems to have all changed now, with 3D printers - as well as canny designers of the design files - providing options for great-looking models and allowing people to set up games with a lot more "room" on the table. 

The Warmaster's Sons! XVI Legion Astartes veteran tactical squad and Rhino APC.

A further consideration is the weapon ranges...you can shorten them up in proportion to the smaller size of the figures, but it is often just as fun to leave them as-is, and get engagement ranges that have a much better "look" on the tabletop. The 24" range of bolter fire just looks better with 15mm figures.

Characters for the VII Legion, including a techmarine.

For this first tranche of 15mm 30k figures I asked Byron to provide what I considered to be two fairly basic forces. There are enough prints for three classic tactical squads (what would be considered "veteran tactical squads" in the current version of the game), a couple of Rhino APCs and one Land Raider to drive them around and support them. He also added a few character type figures. 

Assortment of characters - including a Chaplain I painted in the colours of the Word Bearers - providing faith-based consulting services, I expect...

As you can see in the pictures, for this little project I am painting Sons of Horus and Imperial Fists. In part this is because I am already using the relevant colours on 28mm figures, but there is an added advantage that the decal sheets from GW's recent "Age of Darkness" edition has decals for both of these legions AND several of them are small enough to fit on the shoulder pauldrons of the 15mm Marines! 

Watch for followup posts to profile both of the forces as they develop - and hopefully keep growing if I can manage to pester Byron to keep firing up that 3D printer! That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Bretonnians Finally Done!

I finally finished my Pegasus Knights for the Bretonnians! What a slog that was! I painted the Pegasus first then rapidly lost steam on the knights. I Didn’t do anything for about a week before finally just sitting down this weekend and getting them done. That’s six knights in total to complete the entire army. I feel it’s quite an accomplishment because for all intents and purposes it was a long dead project. I finished about half the army years ago. Late 2000’s I think. In fact, I’m pretty sure they pre-dated this blog! GW’s stubborn refusal to update the army for later editions made them unplayable and I stopped painting out of disgust. Now it seems a new generation of game designers are taking a look at Bretonnia for the Old World. That definitely helped motivate me to get them done. Hopefully this time around the army can do a bit more than just stink up the joint!

Now onto the Steel Legion!

Thanks for visiting.

Cleanse It With Fire! Sisters of Battle Immolator

More Sisters madness! This time it's the classic Immolator, based on the MK1 Rhino chassis.

I'd made a deal a few weeks ago to pick up a job lot of Sisters, including the full set of metal conversion parts for the MKI Immolator. Unfortunately these had all been stuck onto a MKIIb Rhino chassis. But no worries, I tore off all the metal bits, cleaned 'em up and restored the MKIIb with spare parts I had around. Now I was in need of an unbuilt MKI Rhino chassis... 

Ebay to the rescue as usual - they have everything you need, but you pay for it. A clean unbuilt MKI Rhino kit was mine for a mere $100CAD. Seems like a lot but when you think of what new GW vehicle kits cost (never mind the $320USD some dude on eBay wants for his boxed Immolator), it puts it into perspective.

Anyway, I had cleaned the paint off the metal Immolator bits and proceeded to stick them on my new MKI Rhino kit. It assembled very smoothly, with the exception of a small gap I had to fill with a slice of plasticard. It's in the pic above but not that noticeable.

The Sister gunner is just awesome, I love her goggles.

Had to add a couple purity seals from Chaostemple.cz and some leftovers from the Penitent Engines build. 

Now is that old-school GW goodness or what??

Freehanded the aerial recognition Sororitas fleur-de-lys as usual. The stowage is a metal piece from the bits box. With all the metal conversion parts and some bolts inside the chassis to balance it out, this thing weighs a ton... 

Paint was applied in a pretty clean old-school style - no extreme weathering or sponge chipping here. Panel highlights are Vallejo Dark Rubber, edge highlights Celestra Grey, exhaust shielding Brass Scorpion washed Agrax, exhaust tips Leadbelcher/Doombull/Rust Effect, metalwork Leadbelcher washed Nuln Oil, fleurs are Mechanicus Standard Grey/Celestra Grey/white. Some dirt drybrushed on the lower hull in tones lightening to Steel Legion Drab. All very standard for my Sisters vehicles. 
 

I still have two Rhinos to paint but those will be easy, and I am waiting for some conversion parts for them anyway, so next up will be more infantry - a Sisters squad I think, with a couple surprises mixed in.

So until next time, may the light of the Emperor shine upon you!

Some Raven Guard Reinforcements

More reinforcements for the XIXth Legion, the Raven Guard. Multi-part resin models from Forge World.

When you get into the rhythm blogging, it is easy to keep the posts coming. And when you take a break blogging, well, it is easy to keep taking a break. So it has been a while since I have posted - not that anyone would notice, as both Dallas and Frederick have kept things moving! That said, it is about time I got back on the blog-posting-horse once here, and to do that, we start with a little project from earlier this spring - a 10-man Space Marine tactical squad from GW's "Horus Heresy - Age of Darkness" setting, sporting the markings of the XIXth Legion Astartes, the Raven Guard. These are 28mm multi-part figures from Forge World.

Did a resin chain bayonet as an experiment...although on reflection, the Raven Guard seem more like traditional bayonet sorts...

Yes, that's right - these are resin castings. Seeing the classic "beakie" Space Marine helmets here in the pictures, you might have assumed these were plastics from GW's new and ever-expanding plastic "Age of Darkness" range. But they are not...they are, rather, extracted from my reserve hoard of Forge World stuff. After all, prior to the release of the excellent new plastics, the "beakie" Marines existed only as a difficult-to-access remnant option in the Forge World "Horus Heresy" range. 

Detail on the comms trooper's vox unit.

I certainly am not short of the new plastic Mark VI figures...so why dig these out? Well, it seemed like fun. Fun part one: I wanted to experiment a bit in terms of painting. How so? Well the Raven Guard are generally portrayed in black or "sable" armour, and most collectors try to follow this. But I first start painting them myself, I wanted a slightly different look, opting instead for a dark grey. I mean...hardly THAT different...but still different, and liked it. But there is now a hitch...that approached relied on the use of Nuln Oil, and GW's newer Nuln Oil formulation...well, it sucks. Not as bad as the new Agrax Earthshade sucks, but it still sucks - it has lost a lot of its ability to tint surfaces, and so loses the desired effect on the grey base paints I had been using for the Raven Guard in the past.

Squad sergeant and vox-unit operator.

So I thought, why not try a more "traditional" Raven Guard look on these models? I duly experimented and...well...the results were south of great. Black is a notoriously tricky colour to paint, requiring sharp edge highlighting on panels. This, in turn, calls for thinned out paints and a certain level of discipline and steady hand with a brush, and the results on that score were...mixed. Not awful, but far from sharp...clearly more practice will be needed if I want to try this again in the future. 

It's fun to compare! A plastic Mark IV Marine on the left, one of the Forge Mark VI Marines in the middle, and the larger plastic Mark VI Marine on the right (somewhat giving away which Legion may see new reinforcements next...).

Same comparison, from the rear showing the power packs.

The other fun part of this was just to compare the Forge World Mark VI Marines with the newer plastic "beakies". The contrast is interesting...the Forge World sculpts were, in may ways, an absolute tribute to the original RTB01 plastics, matching them almost exactly (although some notable differences are seen on the power pack), and even aping the quirky RTB01 poses to a certain extent. 

The newer plastics are bigger yes...but, to me, not much "re-scaled" as they are just standing taller, and seeing these figures reinforced that sense for me. For example, even though the new plastic Marines are taller, the plastic heads are smaller than the resin ones for the Forge World Mark VI figures. I find these contrasts interesting, and for me it reinforces how the re-scaling of the plastic Mark VI "beakies" was more of an artsy preference exercise than any commercial attempt to force a re-scale into the collector base (compared to, say, what was done with "Adeptus Titanicus", although even that is not a simple cut-and-dried issue either).

For Corvus Corax!

Anyway, my small Raven Guard contingent has another group of tactical Marines to join in various "shattered Legion" operations against The Warmaster and his oath-breaking bunch on the gaming table. The paint scheme won't match the others, but as you can see in the comparison photos, isn't so far off either, so no big worry there. Will I paint more Raven Guard in this way? Likely not, will probably still stick with the previous process, even though the outcome is not as great due to the lameness of the new Nuln Oil formulation. 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more posts soon - thanks for reading!

Sisters of Battle Repentia and Themed Scatter Terrain

Work continues on the insane Sisters of Battle project with another different unit - the infamous Sisters Repentia led by their Mistress Superior (!). These are all metal of course, from their first release.

It has to be said that Games Workshop went full-BDSM with this release (wait'll you see the Repentia themselves). The Mistress Repentia is a rather... ample woman with a suit of power armour that looks like it was designed for Madonna by Jean-Paul Gaultier but it definitely suits the vibe. Purity seals galore here as well, but doth she protest too much...?

Spiky neural powerwhips complete the look. And we can't forget the bonfire on top of her head either.

On to the main attraction, the Repentia themselves! These are Sisters of Battle who have sinned or transgressed in some way, reported themselves to their Superior, then "taken up the ceremonial eviscerator and [sought] redemption upon the field of battle." Makes you feel good about the Imperium doesn't it?? 

This one's the best of the bunch - some folks paint her with a bald head but I just gave her a headscarf.

These two are very similar sculpts. There was a really limited selection of metal Repentia - I think I read somewhere there were nine models but only four base sculpts.

From the back. I have to say that I didn't super-enjoy painting these models. I think it was because of the lack of detailed photos of painted ones on the web. For example, two of 'em have a book (I think?) strapped to their belts. But do you think I could find a detailed photo of how people painted this? No. Anyway, there's a unit done. I might paint more if I come across more metal ones at a decent price, but I'm not gonna kill myself looking for them.

 Next up, here's some scatter terrain!

I'm a big fan of medieval English tomb effigies and I wanted my Sisters of Battle to have this vibe too. So it was a no-brainer to take some excellent Hasslefree Miniatures models (on sale!), Troll Under the Bridge/Chaostemple.cz iconography, and tombs 3D-printed for me by Conscript Byron, and make some of my own! 

The models of course are "Tiriel" from Hasslefree. Easy paint jobs as they're drybrushed up in an alabaster tone. A simple project but I think they'll look cool in a ruined cloister.

This one you might have seen before - it was on top of one of the tombs, then someone quite reasonably asked "why is the coffin on TOP OF the tomb?" So I based it on a GW cavalry based with some plasticard elements, as a standalone stasis tomb for some (un?)lucky Sister. The model is made of spare parts from the plastic Penitent Engine kit, really handy.

Anyway that's it for now, stay tuned for more Sisters stuff coming soon!