What's on my Painting Table - Death Guard



Today I managed to finish of my new unit of Death Guard Plague Marines, which I use for my larger games of 40K.

I decided to use the Paint Splatter guide from White Dwarf to get the main colours for the armour and I'm happy with the final results.  I'm now tempted to use the unit as a Chaos Kill Team (Though I'd probably add another Death Guard to the squad with a  flamer or melta gun).  Here are the results.

The squad just before the bases were finished. 

The finished unit lead by their champion.

A slightly blurry close up of the finished champion.   

Da Mek's Workshop - The "Imperial" Knight Rises

Well I've finally got round to building my brand new Imperial Knight kit.  Here's how I got on.

STAGE 1: Getting started

The Imperial Knight kit, ready to be assembled



The box is opened and my tools are out.  Let's get this thing built!



STAGE 2: The Legs

Always good to have the instructions to hand!

First bit assembled

 

With the Knights leg assembled you can get a real sense of the scale of the model. This Ratskin scout has no chance!   

That's the first leg finished.  Now to leave it to dry whilst I work on the other one.
 

 

Both legs finished

Once they were dried I posed the legs into the pose I wanted and then attached them to the base. 



STAGE 3: The Body

The next stage of the build is the body. 



The head is added

 

The finished body, just some of the finer details to add.  I decided to go with the advice in White Dwarf and glue a bit of sprue over the bearing that attached the body to the legs as it allows you to move the body. 





STAGE 4: The Arms

The Reaper Chainsword is added.  What's great about this kit is the movability that it allows you in the weapons.  I've decided not to glue the arms permanently to the body as the kit allows you to slot them on and off, which should make it easier to paint.

The finished Knight.  I went with the Paladin option as who can turn down a rapid-fire battle cannon.  I've left the face mask off as I'm going to add that later when I get round to painting the miniature.



What's on my Painting Table - Basing the Helbrute

In my previous post I mentioned that I've been working on painting a new Helbrute miniature.  Well the good news is that I have now finished it.  My next task was to look at basing it. 

For this particular model I decided to try a lava effect on the base as it will be part of a deep striking unit, so I wanted to show that the energy used to teleport these monsters into battle is so great that it physically melts the earth around it when it arrive sin battle. 

I had a look on a few websites (My local GW store had a post on their Facebook page) to see how to do a lava effect and decided to give it a go. Here is the result.

STAGE 1:

The first thing I did was paint the entire base Troll Slayer Orange.


STAGE 2:

 

Once this was dry I next added some Flash Gitz Yellow patches.


STAGE 3:



Once the yellow was dry I then added some patches of Evil Sunz Scarlet.


STAGE 4:



Whilst the Evil Sunz Scarlet is still wet I re-applied some Troll Slayer Orange to the base and blended it in with the Evil Sunz Scarlet .  Try not to go over too much of the yellow when doing this.


STAGE 5:





Once the base was dry I then added a thick layer of Agrellan Earth, the technical paint that is designed to crack when it dries.  I then left it over night to fully dry.


STAGE 6:

To finish the base I added some tuffs of grass. 

Overall I'm happy with the end result, though I think a thicker layer of Agrellan Earth would have been better as it would have made bigger cracks and shown more of the lava. 




My new Helbrute next to my other one from the Dark Vengeance boxset.  I just need one more to complete my deep strike formation.



Written in Da' Rulz - Helbrute dataslate

I recently decided to download the Helbrute dataslate that was released by GW Digital at around the same time that the new Helbrute kit came out. 

Now this is the first dataslate that I've purchased so I didn't really know what to expect.  I'd read a few online reviews for it to see if it was worth purchasing and generally speaking it had good reviews, so I figured that for £2.99 I couldn't really go too wrong.

 

 

I have to say that I really like the new direction that these dataslates allow you take your 40K armies.  For those who have not seen one they effectively give you options, similar to those that exist in Apocalypse,  that is to field units as detachments that sit separately to your primary force (much like allies do) and don't use up any of your force organisation slots in your primary army list.  The Helbrute dataslate has three formations that you can field as a detachment, each of which has its own set of special rules (which are covered within the dataslate).

 

My personal favourite of these formations is the one that allows you to have three deep striking Helbrutes in your army!!!  I'm deffinitly going to be including that in my 2,000 point Chaos Space Marine force.

 

As well as new rules the dataslate also includes a background section and a figure showcase, which doesn't  feature anything new that hasn't already been shown in White Dwarf or the Space Marine Codex. 

 

Overall I think this is a definite purchase for any Chaos Space Marine player who wants to try a few new options out for their Helbrutes. 

 

 

 









What's on my painting table?

Welcome to the slightly revamped, or should that be re-formatted What's on my Painting table segment, where I share my painting projects, tips and hints. 

HELBRUTE

It's been another bust week hobby wise with games of Blood Bowl and 40k under my belt but I have found some time to do some more work on my new Helbrute.

This is as far as I've currently got with painting my new Helbrute.  As you can see I've started on the highlights.

Stage 1:


The Helbrute is mainly three colours. Mephiston Red, Abaddon Black and Bugmans glow (for the flesh) which match the same colours as my Red Corsairs 

 

Stage 2:

 

 

Once the three prime colours were done I started to focus on the smaller areas such as the gold trimming around the armour, the rockets and the bone areas.  I decided to paint the head blue to show that at some time this marine use to be part of a Devastator Squad before being turned to the path of Chaos.



Stage 3:

 

 

 

At this stage I've started to highlight the flesh and apply the washes to the red areas.


IMPERIAL FISTS SCOUT SQUAD

This week also marked the completion of my first unit of Space Marine for my Imperial Fists army, namely my Scout Squad.  Here's the first photo of them.

The finished unit

 



I'll be adding some more photos of the squad in the near future, hopefully with some nice battle scenes in the background.


TIP OF THE WEEK

Whilst I' was painting my Scout Squad and Helbrute I was referring to the stage-by-stage techniques that White Dwarf publish in their Paint Splatter section.  I personally find this section invaluable as it's full of great hints on how to paint certain miniatures or achieve certain painting effects.  I used it to learn how to paint the armour and trousers of my scouts and to add a scorched effect to the melta gun on my Helbrute (more about hat next time).  I'd highly recommend checking it out in White Dwarf. 

Some of the white Dwarf issues I referred to when painting my miniatures

NEXT TIME

Chaos Vindicator & completed Helbrute

What's on my Painting Table - Ork nobz, Helbrute and Imperial Fists

It's been another busy week for me with gaming and work but I have managed to finish my 5 Ork Nobz (I just have the bases to finish).  These new miniatures are replacing 5 of the Ork Nobz that came with the 5th edition boxset that I've currently been gaming with.  As the Nobz boxset have cybork components and Big Choppas (Which better reflect the war gear of the unit) it was only a matter of time before I had to buy some.  At some point I need to get (or convert) a Nob to have a Waaagh banner as my unit also has one of these in it.  I'm really happy with the finished results as they show how far my painting has progressed since I first got back into the hobby. 

4 of the new Nobz. 

With just the bases left to finish the new Nobz will be able to re-join their unit. 



The Nobz weren't the only miniatures I had time to do some work on.  I also managed to do a bit of base coat detail on my new Helbrute miniature.  He's still a long way of being finished but I'm getting there.

The Helbrute with another new unit.



I also started painting my first unit for my Imperial Fists army, namely my Scout Squad.  I figured as there are only 5 of these miniatures to paint it was a good way to try out the colour scheme and techniques.  Like the Helbrute they're in their early basecoat phase.

A close up of the Scout Squad



Looking ahead I've still got my 2nd Ork Stompa to finish and my Storm Boyz to make a start on, however I'm tempted to get my recent Death Guard unit painted, as it will mean all of my Chaos miniatures will be painted. 

Tales from the Touchline - Back to the Blood Bowl



Tales from the Touchline is my new Blood Bowl column that will focus on (as you may have guessed) all things Blood Bowl from match reports to team modelling projects. 

As some of you may know I've currently got an Orc team named Da Axe-Grinda Chiefs (A play on the name of are local Rugby team the Exeter Chiefs) entered in the Blood Bowl tournament currently running at my local games club.  Due to work I've had to forfeit a few games recently but tonight I managed to play one of my league games as part of World Tabletop Day. 

Overall it was a good game.  Everything that could have gone wrong on the kick off table did, from sweltering heat being rolled as a change of weather to "Throw a rock" KO'ing a Khaos player for the duration of the whole game.  We even had a riot break out in the last turns of the 2nd half.

I rolled what seemed to be at least 10 skull results during the game, which cost me dearly and the dreaded "Don't roll a 1" curse struck its head for both players.  Overall the game ended as a 1 all draw, which was probably the best result to come out on World Tabletop Day as we were both winners and losers.

My stand out player during the match has to be Iggs Boson, my lone Goblin who not only scored my touchdown for the game but also caused my only injury for result.  He got a skill upgrade for his troubles. 



The pre-game photo in honour of World Tabletop Day 2014

My next game will be in a few weeks but it felt good getting back into the swing of things.   I'm not looking at placing that high in the league but I'm having fun playing it (When I can).


Looking to the future I'm thinking of playing a human team next (I already play Necromantic and Orcs, so fancy something a little less evil).  I'm thinking of making a team by converting some of the 40K Cadian miniatures.  Anyway I'll be sure to post any future Blood Bowl projects as and when they happen.  Until them remember "Keep calm and re-roll"