Legion Praetor in Terminator Armor

Before starting another model, I figured I should finish painting the other Praetor in the FW pack. I think a tank is up next. I am deciding on whether to paint up a rhino or a predator. I think I may go the rhino route so I can practice weathering. The more I look at the terminator squad the more rushed they appear. More work needs to go into painting and shading their weapons.

Sons of Horus Legion Praetor

My SoN force now has an HQ unit! I've decided to name him Quintus, so my games have some flavor.  At Nova and again at BFS, it was a lot of fun being able to tell my opponents they had killed Octavius, or Espandor. The terminator Praetor is next, though I am itching to do a legion tank.

Sons of Horus Cataphractii Finished Almost Possibly Maybe

I am starting to be happy with how these guys are turning out. Here they are out with a stroll in front of what was supposed to be a crashed thunderhawk.

Lessons Learned:

1. I added oil washes too early. Once I had done that I could not get any other paint to stick. Then I added transfers. It turns out oil and water do not mix so well. I got the worst silvering I've ever seen on a model before duplicated 5 times! Now the question is if I just battle damage them up and hide the poor decal work, of if I repaint and reapply.

2. Purple and Green look awesome together, but I can't figure out an army list that works.

3. Mint green is the new black.


So what is up next? I don't know. I was thinking of painting a SoH predator, or possibly finishing the two HQ choices. On the other hand, I just finished making 10 more bases, so maybe it is time to add a legion support squad. I really like the idea of a squad with rotor cannons gunning down world eaters and death guard. (I know DG were not present at Istavaan III, but there were companies scattered everywhere during the heresy)

Sons Of Horus Cataphractii Terminator Squad

On my painting table right now is a squad of Sons of Horus Cataphractii Terminators. These guys are loyalists of course, and are painted in regular legion colors. I had a lot of trouble with oils on these guys. In the end when the gloss varnish runs out, just buy more. Trying to make due with acrylic gloss varnish does not work well. The transfers also went on poorly, but I think I can cover up all of the bad areas with battle damage. It may even look better in the end. I don't mean to make this a grip post, but I found the poses possible with these guys really limiting. I struggled to get any motion into them. I know they are suppose to be heavy and slow, but I would have like it if the torsos would rotate more than they do at the waist.

I'm finding that I like painting the Sons a bit more than the children, but only because the SoH have a great scheme to weather on top off. Once these squad is done I have a two legion Praetors to paint. One will become the SGT of this squad. the other will be my HQ. These guys will make a nice allied contingent for the ECS.

Now I see Dave Taylor is painting up some Death Guard. This makes me think a Pre-Heresy battle could be in order in our neck of the woods.

Istavaan III Ruined Concrete Bases

After a long stressful week, I decided it was time to put some more love into my Pre-Heresy Emperors Children. The thing is, after painting up a dreadnought for the Sons of Horus, I kind of want to do a squad of SoH. All of the basing will be similar across the SoH and ECs, so the bases could be used for either. They were to be used for my Phoenix Guard terminators. The relative lack of ornamentation will not draw the eye too much from those overly fancy models. The recipe for these bases is pretty simple.

1. Take a sheet of plaster and crack it over the top of a base. 
2. Texture paint the cracks and crevices so the slabs are sitting on something
3. Cover base in a couple thin coats of diluted white glue
4. Prime Black, airbrush on grays followed by graveyard earth around the edges. 
5. Wash of SecreteWeapon miniatures concrete wash (forgotten here but used on Fulgrim's base)
6. Wash of Secret Weapon miniatures green earth weathering powder. 

The browns can be toned down substantially, but I like the dirty look.

Sons of Horus Loyalist Contemptor Survivor WIP

This dreadnought is meant to look like he survived the bombing of istavaan III. These are essentially the base colors, from which rust, battle damage (highlighted since a lot is sculpted in), and grim streaks will be added. This guy should look like he has been to hell and back. I haven't decided if the power claw needs blood and gore. It is a strong possibility since that will add a contrasting color and finish.

Sons Of Horus Thunderhawk WIP

*EDIT* added the photo above with matte varnish applied.

I thought it would be nice to take some photos of my Sons of Horus thunderhawk. I've given this model heavy battle  damage, including huge chunks blown out of the back exposing pipes and other sub-structure items. As seen in these shots, the model is coated in gloss varnish for oil washes. My original intent was to just paint this up so I could enjoy the painting, and then embed the hawk into a ruined building. My Emperor's children look especially good when they are paired with this color green.

A few hours for the pin washed to dry and then I can dull coat this guy and start the next step.

Battle For Salvation 2013

My wife and I drove up to New York for the Battle for Salvation tournament this year. Ed, Bobby and the entire BFS crew, put on a fantastic event. It was welcoming, approachable, and a tremendous amount of fun. It was a wonderful weekend.  I can't say enough good things about the tournament. Everyone was friendly, the terrain was great, and the event was really well run. I am so happy we made the trip.

While I threw down with some dice in possibly the largest mall I have ever been in,my wife and her girl friend explored New York one day, and went hiking the next.

My wife had a lot of fun as well and we've decided to make a yearly event out of it, though next year we'll stay an extra day so we can both go hiking around one of the nearby lakes.

In terms of games, well there were many, and once again Telion lead Ultramarine scouts to their doom.  Rather ironically I played a lot of NOVA players. I learned a great deal about my army while repeatedly being tabled. I think I may need a few tutorials to really get it down. My two wins awoke the desire to at least play competently, so more games are in order. One of the things that would be nice is having time to watch better players play. I would have really liked to be able to wander around during the last round to see how the top bracket players were playing. That might not be practical from a tournament perspective, but it would be really interesting. It would also allow each of the top tables to have a tournament judge, and make the game more of a spectator sport.

So now that my ultras have two painting awards, I feel like I have to switch armies. I really want to keep painting them, and upgrade the quality of the work on the storm ravens and the tanks, but I also don't want to keep brining the same display/force to events.  I feel like every event needs a new army, even though I want to keep pushing the ultras. Grrrr....choices.. What do other people do? Do you keep refining or do you create a new tournament force every time?

Another great BFS side effect is that I've learned that I like creating display boards. This is both really cool, and impractical at the same time. Boards are hard to store.