Genestealer Cult Patriarch

A few months ago, a member of my local gaming group declared he was abandoning his short-lived interest in Deathwatch minis in favor of a Genestealer Cultists army. He had a few things to trade, namely a Codex, & a few minis, and the new conversion sprue that I'd been drooling over.

I'd recently bought a Patriarch & a Primus for cheap off ebay, but they were pretty low on my painting priority, so I offered them in trade. He gladly accepted & offered me all but a single Deathwatch mini in exchange (about $65 worth of swag) for the two HQ minis.

Like I said, I'd gotten a pretty good deal for the pair, & it didn't feel like a fair trade, so I offered to paint one of them to help even the score. He picked the Patriarch.

He wanted the color scheme to match fairly close to the one on the website & I did my best. I tell you what though. There are some minis that are an outright pain to paint. I disliked this guy for 85% of the time I was painting him. It only came together for me during the last few washes, but after that I was happy with him. The gamer was too, & he was happy to report it's the centerpiece for his army & has been doing a good job of wrecking opponents at the local tourneys as well.

~Muninn

Slaughterpriest Conversion

I picked up a White Dwarf containing a nifty Slaughterpriest a few months back, but didn't have any particular plans for him until last month.

For a few years now the Corvallis wargaming club has done a Secret Santa mini exchange, where participants draw a name, and paint a mini for that person's army (usually an HQ or similar). I drew a buddy who played renegade IG who uses AOS Chaos marauders as troopers, so I decided to turn the White Dwarf mini into a commander.   (sorry for the image quality, I didn't have time to take a proper picture before I wrapped him up)

I didn't change too terribly much about the original mini.
* Head swap with a Blood Angel (trimmed away the hair & modeled on a mohawk-ish haircut)
* Weapon swap with plasma pistol
* Left off the loincloth, so I added a Khorne bit from Khorne Bloodcrushers to cover some divets in the armor.
* Replaced a skull-totem thing in his back with a Chaos Icon (from a chaos vehicle sprue, I think)
* Modeled a daemonic face onto his flail

The hardest part was probably finding the right head. The mini is a lot bigger than you'd expect (at least a head bigger than an AOS Eternal), so scale was an issue. Fortunately I've been collecting various heads for Deathwatch minis & one of them fit the bill nicely. Hope you enjoy.

~Muninn

Secret Santa Mini Exchange

Back in about 2004 when I was living in Japan, a friend of mine invited me to participate in a Christmas mini exchange. There were a bunch of bases nearby with a surprising number of fellow gamers, so the idea was that we would exchange addresses with someone on an online forum, & we would exchange painted minis with some of the other soldiers, sailors (and some civilians) around the Pacific. I ended up exchanging a Thousand Sons rubric marine for a Dark Elf shade painted by a guy in Australia. 

Fast forward to 2013. I decided to bring that little tradition to my hometown in Oregon. I proposed the idea to our local gaming group, & some jumped at it. We had about a half-dozen participants, and we made sure that each of the miniatures that were exchanged were ones that could be used in the recipient's army. I ended up painting Ulrick the Slayer for a friend of mine who played Space Wolves, and I received a Raven Guard assault sergeant from another friend.

This year a buddy suggested we do it again, and we had a lot more participants. I ended up with a friend that I'd already painted a mini for in the past. You may remember the Mega Nob from this year's Mini Madness. This time I decided to paint up a Killer Kan for him. 

I managed to snag a Kan from Yorrick and started right away. Yorrick had already started painting it, but I didn't have time to strip it, so I used the Krylon Zenith painting technique that I used on my Khador warjacks a while back. 

It worked pretty well, and I was rather pleased with the results. I know I have a rather "clean" painting style, so it was nice to practice Orks again. I think I've gotten better over the years,and I've been able to use more weathering and shading techniques that give a dirtier, oily look. Here's the result.

Sunday the various painters met at a local pizza place to exchange minis. Some folks weren't able to make it due to the holiday weekend, but the bulk of us were able to get there. 

After a little pizza we exchanged our miniatures. We'd pass each one around the table after it was opened so we could get a good look at the gift. There were a number of impressive paint jobs. Yorrick your received a Red Corsair miniature from a Betrayal at Cath mini, there were a few Daemon minis, a Dark Eldar, a few Orks, & a host of Inquisition minis (all painted by Yorrick). I made out like a bandit, since I received a Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch on Flaming chariot, plus it came with the extra Herald, both magnetized so they could be switched easily. This are the minis that were opened at the exchange.

If you've got a good group of gamers I'd recommend you do an exchange of your own. I imagine we'll do this again next year too.

~Muninn

Leaked Images: New Tau vs Raven Guard

This morning brought news of a particularly exciting supplement for me. Tau vs Raven Guard: My original army against one that I've been building for some time now. It looks like a Stormclaw style "Space Marines vs" box. If it is, I'm almost certainly going to get it. Looking at the minis, there's a bit of redundancy in the things I already own (like the pathfinders & stealth team), but I still need the Piranha, & all the Space Marine side.

The new Tau include a great looking new Ethereal. It looks like an updated version of Aun Shi. I like it.

The Breachers are also neat looking. Sure It's basically just a new helmet & weapons, but I still like the angular design

There appears to be a new fortification called the Tidewall Rampart. Maybe a heavy duty Aegis?

The Raven Guard side has only one new model, a captain with a grav pistol. Not super Raven Guardy, but not a bad design. I haven't been buying minis for a while, but I'll 

I'm currently in high school classrooms & at college, working on my Masters in Teaching so life's been a bit hectic, which is why I've been away from the blog for a while, but I'm updating where I can. I have a few things that I'm working on slowly, & I'll post those when I get the chance.

Take care all.

~Muninn

Days 30 & 31: Necron Lord & Autarch

Here are the last two minis I intended to complete in July.

The first is a limited edition Necron Lord that was only available by buying the original large army box from Games Workshop. I've had it for years, and I know it originally belonged to my old Navy roommate, but I don't really know how it ended up in my bits box. We often bought minis off one another, or swapped minis, or painted for one another, so I don't know if my current ownership of this guy is an accident, or he result of a trade.

Oh well. as long as I have him, he might as well be painted.

I painted him in the same scheme as the Pariah above, which is my take on the Nekthyst Dynasty. I was a lot less generous with the gold this time around. I wanted to the shroud to look like a faded old garment that it was buried with, but it looks a bit more like an old rag to me.

 Finally, a Saim-Hann Autarch. I've had this mini since the 2006 codex came out, but I never had a plan for him. A while back another Navy friend & I decided to do a mini exchange. I was originally going to paint up a Phoenix Lord for him, but it turned out he already had one. I knew he played Saim-Hann, and they're a fast army, so I slapped Swooping Hawks wings on this guy & got to painting. 

It's overall a nice figure, but there are a few spots I'm not thrilled about. You can't tell from the photo, but there are a few lumpy white area of the helmet. I had to replace my white paint as I was completing this guy & the new one wasn't really smooth. It's not too bad though, and still a good way to finish the project.

So there it is, the end of my Month-o-Minis challenge. I didn't quite finish in time this year, but there's always next year. I hope you enjoyed the result.

~Muninn

Days 27-29: Mega Nob, Warp Spider, and Vespid

So July is over, and I didn't make my goal of completing 31 minis in 31 days. I did manage to finish 30 minis, if you include the extra SoB & Seeker, but it wasn't what I was trying to do.

So what happened?

There were a few things I hadn't anticipated. My wife went to a teaching conference in another state for 5 days, leaving me with the kids. That wasn't an insurmountable challenge, but it did mean I had to be a lot more active at night, during my usual painting time. Then, when she was home, she was home. In May our work hours line up in such a way that we have relatively few waking hours together, so I use that time to paint as well. With her home I spent a lot less of my daytime painting as well. Add to that the fact I was taking a few surprisingly tough 5-week classes, & 5 days of family vacation, and you lose a ton of hobby time.

I imagine it didn't help that I also had more large minis, and HQ/Lord characters than I've had in past years, and those are a lot more detailed/time consuming.

Oh well, there's always next year.

In the meantime I slowed my pace a bit, and I've been completing the minis I'd been intending to paint in July. The "27th's" mini was a commission I took on a while back as part of a deal from splitting the Stormclaw box. We couldn't decide who would get the rulebook, and I offered to paint a mini of his choice in exchange for the book. He gave me this Meganob and asked that I paint him red & orange.

This guy is really scratch-built. I don't know where the bits come from, what the weapons are, or how it should look at the end of the day, so I figured I'd just ork it up, then add battle damage. I think it turned out pretty well, but I haven't gotten any feedback from the owner yet.

A long long time ago when I first learned about 40k, I wanted to build an Eldar army. One my my friends, Abusepuppy (who now writes for Frontline), was keen to help me, and I was immediately drawn to Warp Spiders. For me, they were like the poster-boys of the Eldar. I bought a few blisters, but it never went far past that. They have a sleek look, but I've never had a lot of luck painting them. I always try to paint them using a real spider as inspiration, but it never really worked out. To date though, this is probably my most successful stab at it.

Warp Spiders can get really busy really fast, so I wanted to keep it as uncomplicated as possible. All the cloth/underarmor was light grey, all body armor was green (except for the shins where I felt it needed a little black to balance it out), metal was silver, gun/shell black, & energy/gems were purple. Ideally, this kept it simpler, and cohesive. I feel like the green & light grey work well together, so it's pretty successful. I never know what to do with the gun barrel, so I was pretty content with my purple energy dots solution as well. 

While trying to find another Xeno race I remembered the oft-maligned Vespid. I had a plan for this guy, but I really didn't have the time. I intended to paint it up like a wasp. Yellow armor with black sections where the plates meet to give it a really insectoid vibe, but that was going to take way too long, so I played around with grey with a few organic speckles. It wasn't my original vision, but it was awfully fast.

I'm going to have to revisit this guy in the next few days, since I noticed the Tau symbol in incomplete. I might fix that next time I bring my paints down.

I have the last two finished as well. but I thought I'd do it in two posts to keep it from getting too wordy.

Day 26: Necron Pariah

This is another mini that has been in my bits box for ages. I have no idea why it was there or where it came from. They don't even exist in the codex any more. Either way, I managed to collect all the bits for this mini just before the start of my challenge. I modified a Necron scheme I'd tried a while back, although it ended up a bit too gold for my liking. I might strip him & start from scratch at a later date. We'll see.

Looking at it now, I think the entire chest, and groin-plate should be black with gold trim. Maybe the shoulder portion of the arms as well. Eh, you live & you learn.

~Muninn

Days 24 & 25: Bloodletter & Bloodcrusher

Alright. I'm in the home stretch. I'd better be at least. At this point I've completed 28 minis: 26 "day" minis, and 2 extras (the SoB & the extra Seeker). For me to feel satisfied in completing my challenge I need to complete 3 more minis today. It'll be close, but I think I'll make it.

The minis for last Friday and Saturday are a pair of Khorne daemons. A Bloodletter & Bloodcrusher. I didn't mean for it to happen this way, but that means for Daemon week I painted up two minis for each Chaos power. Not too shabby. Either way here they are.

The 'Letters & Crusher use the same basic technique, although I used Krylon to basecoat the letter. After the base coat (Red Gore for the Crusher), I layered up to Blood Red, gave it a wash of Baal Red, then mixed highlight layers with "Leprous Brown." My old Leprous Brown dried up years ago, but I've been able to recrete it with a mix of Fiery Orange & Balor Brown. The dark crest & shoulders are just a wash of Leviathan Purple with the spikes picked out in Bleached Bone. The crusher is the biggest minis I've completed in the last 4 years of this challenge, so I'm pretty happy with that, but it did take a bit longer than I'd hoped.

In my personal life I've been asked to come back to work at the newspaper for a month as a temp, & I notice just how poorly balanced my photos are. I might have to go back & re-edit my shots.

More later today.

~Muninn

Days 22 & 23: Nurglings & Herald of Nurgle

I've always had a soft spot for Nurgle's daemons. I was particularly excited when they got their own plastic plague bearers back in 2012. They're great looking sculpts, & paint really easily. Usually my painting style lends itself to clean lines, like Eldar, but I really like how my Nurgle minis turn out. I thank Athonian Camoshade wash for that. 

The first mini is the Herald mini I converted a few years ago using a Plague Bearer champion head and a plastic Nurgle Chaos Lord. It's half the price of the generic Herald of Nurgle and really effective.

The nurglings are just an assortment if the extra bits from the Plague Bearer box. I think they were meant as decorations, or fun extras, but I figured I could just make a base for a future unit. That way, if I buy a few more units of bearers I'd also end up with a full unit of nurglings.

I used a few different color schemes here, since I didn't want them to all blend together.

The dark ones use my usual plague bearer scheme (Catachan Green through Nurgling Green with an Athonian Camoshade wash), The light ones are Nurgling Green through White Scar with an Athonian Camoshade wash), and one in the center is Dheneb Stone through White Scar with an Athonian Camoshade wash. Like I said earlier, it's a lot of Athonian Camoshade. 

More tomorrow. I have a few more days, so we'll see what I can complete.

~Muninn

Days 20 & 21 Pink Horror & Herald of Tzeentch

I was really interested in the Khorne Daemonkin codex when it came out. It fixed a few things, added a few useful units for daemon players, & made me consider branching out a bit. As I evaluated my mini inventory it occurred to me that I have a lot more Tzeentch units then any other Chaos faction, so I decided then to start building toward a Tzeentch Daemonkin codex.

These are two more additions to that goal:

My Daemons have all been painted with a color scheme in mind. All Slaanesh are grey & pink, Khorne is red, Nurgle is green, & Tzeentch is blue. That's why all my "pink" horrors share a similar blue skintone. It fits thematically, since all pink horrors are actually two blue horrors, but honestly, I just like the look a lot better.

A few years back, in December, I remember reading a message board where folks attempted to judge the worst-looking miniature of the year. There had been a few contenders, but this miniature was consistently rated in the top 5.

Sure, he's goofy-looking, and none too intimidating, but he's got some nice detail. I've painted a lot of fire in my day, so I decided to switch it up & paint a bit of green flame for fun. The sculpt was a bit busy, especially the feathers on the back, but it's fine in my book.

Nurgle later today.

~Muninn

Day 19: Seekers of Slaanesh

Alright. I'm catching up. I have several finished & several more close to complete.

Today's mini are the start of Daemon Week, so I opted for a pair of Seekers of Slaanesh. I started painting them about this time last year for OFCC. I only needed them to be up to three-colors, so I didn't complete them to my personal standard, but now I have.

There are 3 others that need to be completed, but I'm already behind, & didn't want to push the envelope too much.

The Seekers were primed white, then the upper portions were washed with Tentacle Pink mixed with Lahmian Medium to make it more transparent & textural. The darker areas like the spines & sides were Emperor's Children. The white areas were simply primed, then lined with Tentacle Pink.

Tomorrow and the next day should have a pair of Tzeentchy minis. More then.

~Muninn

Leaked 30k Plastic Marine sprues

I just came across this & had to share. It looks like the sprues of Heresy Era marines that've been rumored. They look pretty great & should make some great armies. 

The special characters

The chests & packs

The arms & bolters

Shoulder Pads & Special Weapons

~Muninn