Emperor's Children Rhino Paint Test

My Sons of Horus army was originally just intended to be an ally force for the Emperors Children force I have been preparing. As such it is time to finally paint some more Emperor's Children. As is standard for me these days (and I highly recommend it for everyone!) I picked up some spare parts and painted a test piece. I had a couple of goals:

• Figure out if I can remember the paint scheme (Royal Purple, and Violet Red tried here)
• See how AK Interactive dark brown oil wash and streaking grime would look.
• Try out sponge weathering to see if it would improve both armies
• See if Steel Legion Drab paint and Green Earth weathering powders would unify the model.

I am on the fence about this. I've been watching a bunch of Mig Jimenez videos and reading his books and I think I might be falling back on well known techniques rather than really pushing my painting.

There are a few things that would be different on a real and not test piece. The insets would likely be painted in the white-grey color on my SoH pieces, and there would be gold detailing as befits a vehicle from the Emperor's Children. The while would help show off the weathering, and the gold would provide the purple<->yellow contrast providing visual interest. 

Sons of Horus Army Shot

Any army shot of the force was requested, and I am happy to comply. There are a lot of unfinished models in here. Paint chipping, grime streaks, and dust have not been added to all of the units yet. The Storm Eagle and the Drop Pod will look quite different once I apply those techniques.

Fourteen ravager bodies arrived in the mail yesterday, so now get to decide if they are going to be built as ravagers, or as a large tac squad. My goal was to build this up to a playable force, then add the Emperor's Children(purple) and Imperial Army units (mint cream color of ramps and interiors of vehicles). I am eager to paint up some more EC's so the original color balance is reached, but that would push a playable force back considerably.

Sons of Horus Breacher Squad Complete For Now

I've completed my first troop choice for my Sons of Horus army, or have I? My original intent was to paint chip the shields and corrode the face plates on the models, but after adding some streaking grime to the shields my inspiration fizzled. Should I press on and add dark grey paint chipping to the shields? Should I highlight the bronze face plates. Should I edge highlight the weapons? I probably should, but for now I am just happy to have these guys in a mostly completely state.

One of the things that has become apparent with these models is that Forgeworld needs to get its mold alignment / quality control back up to snuff. My DKOK models, which have delicate parts, and clean designs are nearly perfect. I love the products that Forgeworld produces, but none of these Breacher Marines could have been painted as part of a competitive entry without significant re-sculpting of details lost due to molds being misaligned during casting. I am painting Emperor's children and Sons of Horus, and right now all of the poor casts go into the grittier Sons of Horus army. That makes the problems less visible, but me no less grumpy. Games Workshop and Forgeworld have awesome customer service. Many companies could take a lesson from them, but the inconvenience of calling the UK to have models replaced, and then waiting weeks for the replacement parts is a poor exchange.

Fortunately for GW, I have a solution for them. (see how generous I am:)

1. Repurpose the white/dwarf visions team as an online only group. Ditch the physical magazines. Paper is dead. This should save distribution costs and produce a produce people actually want. (when I say people I mean me.) As a niche product it is perfectly fine to produce technical articles, above and below the average modelers capability. The key is to do both and explain where they fit in the spectrum. Publicize local store events. (more of this on #2)
2. Use local Nottingham students as QC/apprentice casters. A low labor rate, an enthusiastic gamer workforce, and giving back to the local community sounds like a win.
3. Use this new employment pool to cast one-offs to send to local GW stores. The prize for winning a tournament or painting competition could be a special edition miniature. Provide stores with items that can only be acquired through participation.

Sons of Horus Breacher Squad

I had the limited edition forgeworld boarding marine since the last Games Day back in Chicago, but I hadn't really found a use for the model until the Warhammer 30k came out.  Now, with the Legion army list I finally have a good squad for him to lead. What makes breacher marines interesting is not the rules, but the models, which look sufficiently different than most marine kits.

After the guns are painted up, and the models based, I have to decide if it is time to finally paint the 20 man tactical squad I have been avoiding. I've got some mechanicum to paint up, so maybe a break from marines is in order.

Sons of Horus Drop Pod WIP

Saturday I had the opportunity to relax an get some modeling done. It was much needed R&R after a week of dealing with Attorneys for the company.  This is the result. One Sons of Horus drop pod ready to carry its payload of 8 multi-melta equipped troops into battle. When escalation and stronghold assault came out, I realized I needed a counter to heavy fortifications and super heavies. The ten man melts-squad is my solution. Points-wise it is an expensive unit, but it does threaten just about anything. In a legion list, the tactical support squad is a troops choice, so this unit benefits from being scoring as well. The two extra slots are saved for the apothecary and the praetor, who bring more punch. So in addition to vaporizing what they target, the squad has three sets of artificer armor and feel no pain saves.

It might look done on causal inspection, but there is still a lot of work to do on the model. I experimented with my own mixture of oil wash rather than my usual dark brown AK-Interactive wash, and the results clearly demonstrate AK as the superior product. Targeted washes, paint chipping, and edge cleanup are all on the docket.

Storm Eagle Base

I built this base to echo the emperors children dreadnought standing over a dead Sons of Horus marine. I was hoping that that green of the storm eagle would go really well with the purple on the base. Initially the dreadnought stood out too much, so I doused it in weathering powders. I am not sure what to do at this point. The pose is awkward, the painting is now covered in dirt, and all of the cool little wires and tubs spilling out from the ruined casket are hidden. I do like the way the concrete turned out. The embedded mesh is a bit sharp though.

Does this work well enough to keep? It is sufficiently off from my vision that I can't see it. That is the problem with a strong vision, it gets in the way of practical construction sometimes. The key problem which cascaded here was the support pillar for the Storm Eagle. That chunk of clear plastic just gets in the way of everything.

Sons of Horus Master of Signals and Volkite Heavy Support Squad

I had trouble with the gold Sons of Horus Transfers. They just seem to leave tiny silver patches near the gold areas. I used every technique possible on these guys, including gloss varnish and repeated micro-sol applications to no avail. This batch turned out better than the terminators, but not good enough for me to keep using the transfers. I hadn't planned on painting a volkite squad, but knowing that I will likely face swarm tyranids forces at the Nova Open Narrative Event, I knew needed something to handle crowd control.

Photos of the Storm Eagle are coming once I figure out the basing. I should probably paint up two troop units so I have a legal force points wise, but I think a predator would be more fun.