The webways open...

 I swore I wasn't going to do any more 40k after painting a guard army last year where every. single. squad. was *EXACTLY THE SAME*. It *looks* great, but it was painful to paint. For 2022 my brain has decided that it'd be a *brilliant* idea to convert up a Ynnari army so I can collect/convert bits from the three Eldar armies and buy the shiny new bits when they come out. Thanks brain. Thanks a bunch... you know I don't actually play 40k so why the hell do I need/want to buy another army I'll never use?! 

Oh Kill Team you say?

So one order later I seem to be making lots of neat conversions. I'm trying not to think how much it's costing but it looks pretty so far! For those that missed them, a while back the Eldar managed to waken up their god of the dead, who now protects it's worshippers from having their souls eaten by Slaanesh when they die. This has caused a schism and now a 4th eldar faction exists (Ynnari) that can use a lot of the unit choices from all of the other eldar armies. 

The first Kabalite squad being constructed is going to be a Trueborn one, a bunch of natural born dark eldar who think they are better than everyone else... of course they need to look posher than anyone else. So what better than the bird masks from the Scourges, cloaks from the old Warhammer Shadow Warriors and a greenstuff fur collar to match the Visarch model from the very very small Ynnari range. They have been de-spiked to give them a sleeker look that sits somewhere between the smooth Craftworld armour and the spiky Dark Eldar stuff

After playing around with him a bit, I moved onto the really nice Inkubi kit, which is really nice but also too spikey for the theme. They come with massive skull helmets, which feel a bit ott in a force that is moving away from the torture/pain/slavery thing of the Dark Eldar and more towards decadence. Using the Kabalite helmets here makes them fit with the Visarch as his bodyguards. It feels like they also need to have some fur and cloaks on somewhere.

They are supposed to have big spikey back decoration. I've left this on the boss, but want to add back banners to everyone else instead. This *may* get expensive though as you only get one of these per Kabalite box... and I really don't need that many basic grunts; especially not for Kill Team! I may need to take that one off and make an alternative, but at least I can see the concept.

Then there are the Wyches. The Visarch (who I will buy/paint at some point soon) has some ornate armour with plenty of decoration on the knees, so for the wych cult it made sense to use the Idoneth Deepkin archers as they have some really nice lower armour, very dynamic poses (who thought archers bouncing all over the place was a good concept?), but have bare chests which fits with the wych/pit fighter concept. The Wych arms fit really nicely, but the heads need a bit of trimming to work, but in the end look pretty good.

Red Scoprions reinforcements!

I seem to have found a way of blitzing space marines in a way that, to me, is easy and quick. The greys on all of these were done in one 2 hour session with one of the large terrain drybrushes that GW sells. Turns out you can get some great control with one of those and churn out some nice looking armour. Next time I have to paint some Marines, which should be in a few weeks time when the next batch of Conquest arrives, I'll try and remember to do some stage by stage photos.

Some transfers have arrived for the shoulder pads, but I need to test them out as reports are not good. Apparently they are thick and don't take well to the curvature of the pads. I didn't fancy ruining these guys just in time to submit them for the AHPC. 

Starting the ball rolling in this set of reinforcements we have a Primaris captain in Gravis armour from the starter set. Another should be along at some point, so I can play around with poses and equipment later. One day I should have a read of the actual army lists to find out what they can take, rather than going with what looks nice as I have no idea how these all play!

The original batch of standard Primaris are boulstered by another 10. A number of these are the easy builds that came with Conquest. Issue one was 3 of these, plus a brush and 2 pots of paint for £2. It would have been rude not to buy extra copies to bulk out the force. You'll notice that throughout the force, all of the baseline infantry have their heads covered. Bare heads with power armour just seems like a dumb idea to me, so one in three of those figures are not being used as they have a helmet stuck to their leg. Once day I may have a go at cutting it off.

For a bit of fast attack we have 4 of the easy build Inceptors. Two more of these should turn up throughout the course of the Conquest series, eventually giving me two squads of these guys. I was tempted to try and buy some spare arms from ebay to make them a bit different, or add other weapon options, but at this point two squads with the assault bolters seems pretty good.  The OSL on these was done with some light dry brushing of the blues and was surprisingly quick and effective.

Recently the series added a squad of easy build aggressors to the army and the models are really really nice. I know a lot of people moan about these easy to build figures, but some of the monopose models are much nicer than the multipart kits as they can ensure that the pieces interlock properly and give a nice dynamic feel. These I really like as they still seem to be able to move in their chunky armour, unlike most of the old plastic Terminators (not counting the relatively recent Space Hulk ones)

5 Hellblasters will add a bit of punch to the force. Again, the OSL was all dry brushed on. 

These 5 Reavers were from the Kill Team box as the onesfrom before Christmas were the easy-builds with pistols and knives. By getting this kit, I've now got some different pistol/knife arm combos to use on the second batch of easy builds to round out that squad with some unique poses for two 5 man squads. If I ever want to bulk these out to 10 men each, I just need one retail box of Reavers

I know I said no bare heads, but the Lieutenant is my one exception to this as I really like the model.

I had a Contemptor dreadnought kicking around from the Horus Heresy board games, so I decided to add him to the lineup as well. As this was the plastic Contemptor, the pose was a bit naff, so a bit of hacking later and he is now striding forward and twisting at the waist to look a little bit more dynamic than the very static pose they decided to go for.

For now I only have a couple of extra figures left to complete for the army. I've not put the finishing touches to them yet as they were started before the painting challenge. I really should rectify that, even if it doesn't get me any extra points. This is the full crowd to date, including the bits from late last year. Not too shabby. 

Additional Cult reinforcements

I recently managed to get some of my Necromunda gang finished and submitted, under the guise of the Recon theme round.

Thanks to my current batch of territory, if I get to take all of my gang... or get really lucky with random draws, this is what my opponents can expect to get dropped into their backfield turn one.. with me going first ;)

I'm really looking forward to some of the new cult models and finding ways to sneak them into Necromunda. The new magus is especially nice

Painting challenge roundup 1

So far in this year's AHPC We've had a Crooked Dice Strawbear for 7TV, some buildings for Adeptus Titanicus, a Nurgle Blighthauler and the three chaos marines from Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress, for a total of 60 points.

Clearing the decks part 4

This is the last batch of Primaris before the Challenge

First we have one of the anniversary Lieutenants with a Scorpion shoulder pad.

I'm quite pleased with the OSL on these two Hellblasters. Hopefully I can remember how I achieved it when I get around to the rest of them :/

This objective marker/Teleport homer is from the Deathwatch board game. It has been sat on the table for ages and just needed the lights painting, so it made sense to finish it off at the same time.

And here they are, all together with a sneak peek at another Lieutenant that isn't quite finished yet. When I took a picture of him, the helmet didn't look great, so he's going back for a bit more work.

No painting tonight as it is our work Christmas do, featuring a private gig from the mighty Prof. This is one of his videos that some friends made and our entire team at the time are in it. I'm in it twice as two different characters :D

Clearing the decks part 3

A few more bits for the Red Scorpions to start putting some leadership onto the table

First up is a Primaris Ancient. Like all the others, I'm waiting for the transfers to arrive so I can finish the banner off

To accompany him we have some sneaky Reavers armed with pistols and knives. I need two more to flesh this out to a base squad

Clearing the decks Part 2

Following on from yesterday's Red Scorpions kickoff, the next unit finished is a second batch of 5 Intercessors. There are a few more Intercessors in the pipeline, but they are reserved for the Challenge.

Clearing the decks part 1

With this year's AHPC coming up, it is time to start finishing off all those little projects that have been filling the painting table for months, half done. Some of them feed into the challenge, some don't... but all of them need to be finished in order to safely start something new on the 20th. If I don't, they will never get finished!

This first batch are the start of a Red Scorpions Primaris force. I used to have a Forge World Red Scorpions force years ago, but sold it when my gaming buddy moved away as there wasn't really any use for it. Over the last year I seem to have picked up a number of Space Marines again, thanks to the starter box and the magazine that is currently ongoing. I figured it was about time to put paint to figures and see where it goes... even if it is straight into the sale pile once they are all painted.

The main issue with Red Scorpions is that FW stopped doing their transfer sheet, so the choice was either a third party transfer sheet, or hand paint logos on every single figure... After one or two failed attempts? I'm waiting for some transfers. On one, that's fine. On two... not a hope in hell.

The first batch finished is a squad of 5 Intercessors

Zombtober - Plague zombies

It was about time that some zombies finally appeared during Zombtober, rather than survivors or Joes (cosplay survivors?). These are about half of the plague zombies form the recent 40k starter box. The poor souls are seriously twisted and full of infection

Experimental pestilence

After painting up all that AdMech stuff, I've had a bit of a red-overload and needed a bit of a change. Taking a step across the colour wheel, I started having a play with one of the new Plague Marines from the Dark Imperium box to see what could be done with some basic colours and washes.

This was a base of the Death Guard green and bone for the main areas, highlights of a lighter green on the armour, followed by a wash of browns and blacks. Final highlights were repeated with the same base colour and some orangey/rusty streaks. The horns and tentacle still need a bit of work, but overall I'm pleased with him for such a simple set of paints.

The rest are now stuck together and undercoated, in the painting queue along with some nurgle demons... including a giant demonic snail!

Embarrassing silence

Well, that wasn't planned. I was going to try and actually post lots this year, showing progress on the AdMech, the gaming room and general life stuff. That failed abysmally didn't it? Must do better!

Since the last update there have been a few additions to the AdMech forces.

We have the first of two Dunecrawlers. The other install in pieces under my desk at work. I kind of wish I'd remembered to put transfers on before weathering it... now I can't add the logos and numbers without having to re-weather it all :/

To accompany this, I've added a Datasmith, two robots and a load more skitarii of both types to bulk it out to 5 rangers and 10 vanguard. There are also two officer types just in case they ever return in the new codex.

The robots (Tik and Tok) had a few modifications to the base model... mostly covering up those godawful faces with some optics from the Dunecrawler kit and leaving off some of the armoured plates.

The most recently completed addition to the force is the start of a small allied Guard detachment to act as a cheap screen to the more expensive units. In the background, the AdMech have vast hordes of slaves who do the day to day grunt work of manning the factories. There are some stories that have these slaves also going to war, so I figured the Guard conscript unit would work well for these. To stop them running away, there is also a commissar equivalent to accompany them.

There are another 11 in the painting queue along with a load of other Skitarii, two more Dominus and some forge world robots. Now to decide if these are going to be painted now, or added to the challenge queue.

Tale of 4 warlords

With the release of 8th edition 40k, I decided that it was time to revisit the world. I'd pretty  much given up by the end of 6th as it was getting a bit ridiculous with all the rulebooks coming out. 7th just made it even worse. The hope with 8th is that it will be a bit more streamlined with the datasheets being nice and self contained as this is one of the things I like about Age of Sigmar.

Rather than revisiting my Guard just yet, I thought I'd have a go at finally building some of those Adeptus Mechanicus kits that I'd been coveting for years. Taking the Tale of 4 Warlords challenge from White Dwarf, I decided to see if I could stick to this as my painting seems to benefit from having a deadline to focus on.

The first month is to paint up one of the Start Collecting boxes and the 5 months after that you add something extra to expand the army further. By the end of 6 months you'll have a complete, painted army. I'm now 24 days into the first month and it is going fairly well so far.

Last night I finished the Dominus, who leads the excursions

Earlier in the month I managed to complete some infantry of various types. I'm sure I'm supposed to create complete units, but I had some spare special weapons kicking around from a conversion and decided to create some extras instead. Next month I'll try and flesh out the partial units into full ones.

A bit more cult

Between making more bases and priming the secret santa  bits I managed to get a bit more done on the cult. Again, these don't have bases yet, but things are starting to pull together a bit. Today's batch is mostly 1st and 2nd gen hybrids (the ones with more arms and claws) plus a 3rd gen with mining laser.

Here are all of them in one batch so far. It is small, but it is a start.

There is a bit more to do on these as the skin isn't 100% complete, but two posts in two days has to be a record this year. With a day off tomorrow, can I make it three for three?

While we are on the theme of Cults...

Cult update

Halloween is nearly upon us, so as a bit of a shock surprise, you can have an update to prove that I'm not actually dead... I just feel like it. Between hunting for secret santa and santa clause gifts I've finally managed to get a bit more done on the cult. The oranges are really growing on me, expecially for the 3rd and 4th gens. I was worried that some of these would be too bright, but the darker greys of the armour and pads have toned it down a bit.

These 5 are the furthest along and are just waiting for the bases to dry before I stick them together, so there will be some better photos when there are more to show off.

The skin was an interesting experiment, mixing purples into the flesh. The aim is for that the earlier the generation, the more purple there is in the skin. When the first and second gen hybrids appear you'll see what I mean a bit more clearly. I might post a wip of the heads tomorrow if I get any further with things

Choosing Cult colours

Last weekend saw the release of the first Genestealer cult codex in nigh on 23 years. I have to laugh when those Sisters of Battle players complain about not having a new book or models yet, when our *last* codex/model (prior to Deathwatch:Overkill) is years older than their *first* model release. Awww bless em ;)

 I'd been thinking about selling off my Guard army for a while, but having now seen the Cult book I'm very glad I didn't as a vast portion of the list converts directly into the Cult Neophyte squad choice. With very little effort that, combined with two copies of Space Hulk models and Deathwatch:Overkill I have nearly 1500 points of cult that should be far more effective than my infantry horde ever was.

 The one task that remains before plotting the construction plans is a colour scheme. My guard are browns with dirty ochre helmets/pads (see right hand figure below). As the cult model range is themed around a mining colony, this works for the local pdf but I would like something a little more miner-ish. This is the first idea; all comments/criticism is gratefully received.