Taurox Prime: Fire Engines of the Imperium

The Taurox, definitely one of the more controversial kits in recent times. You either loved it or totally loathed it. But like many GW kits it would eventually fit into the range as we get used to the model and accept the fluff in the wider scheme of the 40K universe. 

I honestly vomitted in my mouth the first time I saw the leaked pics. And I thought to myself that's money saved. But as I looked at the model in various colorways it slowly settled down as an "ok" model. 

Initially I contemplated painting up the Scions & Taurox the same as my main Guard army, Cadians which were blue and white. But after reading the fluff and the Militarum Tempestus codex I realized that they operated more like an external strike force from the usual Guard regiments. So I wanted to paint them up as striking and different as the rest of my Guard regiments. (Cadians were Blue, Catachans were Green/Grey and Steel Legion were Russian Green). 

I settled on a Red & White colour scheme to make them stand out from the normal grunts. And went on to do a little research on real world red/white schemes. I then came across my local Civil Defence forces Fire Engines. 

Started out with the usual Black Primer and worked straight into the airbrushing. Did a basic post shading with white and then the model was hit with a generous spray of Vallejo Model Air Italian Red. I also worked on the armour of the Scion troopers as well.

 The next highlight step was with Vallejo Model Air Orange.

 Working the details I began with the metal areas with Citadel Mithril Silver.

 Followed by the usual black wash all over to shade and dull it down. I used Army Painter Dark Tone. Which is extremely similar to the old Citadel range of washes Badab Black. So similar i suspect it's the exact same stuff. It even smells the same. Don't take my word for it go smell it for yourself.

 After all the shade was dried I applied the White colours. With my usual method of painting white, Citadel Astronomican Grey followed by a few coats of Vallejo Model Colour Foundation White.

After all the paint was dry I put on the transfers and the model was all set.

Now my own Fire Engines are ready to get into firefights of their own!

Airbrushing Imperial Knights WIP 90% complete

It's been awhile since I last painted my Adeptus Mechanicum Knight (as shown below in the centre). I took almost 15hrs (about a week worth of evening sittings) painting him up. Painted everything really slowly, exploring every nook and cranny of this amazingly detailed miniature. And after I finished him, I was officially burned out. I put him aside, along with the two other Knights that I had assembled. Not wanting to go near another knight model.

Well after almost a month since that happened I suddenly had the urge to paint up the sad knights quietly  in the corner of my display cabinet. So I dusted off the airbrush and went to work on them. And in typical fashion I rushed through them and got them up in 2 days. 

This was the part where a lot of the work was done very quickly, majority of the skeleton of the Knight was simply pure metal. I used the quick Zenithal method and went with Vallejo Model Air Aluminium (one of the best aluminium's out there!) 

Next was something that I tried for the first time. Pre-Shading. All this while I have used my airbrush spraying on layers upon layers of lighter colours to build up the highlights. But with the success of my fellow gaming mates using the pre-shading technique achieving really smooth transitions I went to do a little research (Energie posted some links in an earlier post) and I was eager to give it a try. 

One thing I could not come to grips with was how "messy" the pre-shading was done. With a white base coat then spraying in the "shades" or the blacks into the miniature. This felt like a very time consuming and tedious process all rolled into one. 

Therefore I reversed the process (not laying claim to anything here I'm sure it's already been done before maybe) and I went with my usual black base coat, however spraying on the whites as highlights instead. 

As you can see the results look similar to pre-shading the normal way but with a much neater outcome. The best part was it was done really quickly too. 

The next step was simply applying the desired colour. In this case Vallejo Model Air Yellow and French Blue. Just a few even coats and the reversed pre-shading works its magic!

I then went one step further and applied highlights the traditional way. Just spraying a little of the lighter colours onto the raised areas for even more dramatic highlights. I used Vallejo Model Air White and Sea Blue respectively. 

Once that was done I can safely say the armour work is complete! 

Another view of the models after all the airbrush highlighting.

Here is the pic of the armour done. If you compare the first completed knight in the middle I did not use the pre-shading technique, you can see the less pronounced highlights on the red as compared to the yellow and blue knight. It's too late for me to go and do it again for the red knight. But it's all a learning experience I guess.

I then rushed through the detailing for the knights (using the experience I already had painting the first one) and I was amazed how much faster I was applying paint onto them now that the model is familiar. 

The gold was done as the same style I did my Sanguinary Guards many years ago. A base coat of Citadel Mithril Silver. Followed by 2 coats of Citadel Gryphone Sepia wash. Always a quick and easy way to produce a nice shaded gold. 

In the previous knight painting post I already talked about how wonderful the Knight transfers were. And here I am singing praises once more. Without them the Knights would never have looked so good. 

Once the transfer were set in place the entire model just pops!

In my painting haste ( an easter weekend worth approx 8hrs) of rushing through the 2 Knights I completely forgot to take progress pics of the yellow Knight. 

But here they are, all three Knights in their 90% painted glory.

Completed House Taranis Imperial Knight.

After rushing through the first 2 days of getting my hands on this model I finally completed painting this beast of a model. Best model put out by GW till date? Maybe, I'm definitely not gonna argue with that. The details found on every single part of the model is absolutely amazing. Even parts that is no way going to be seen after assembling has sculpted detail. 

Here you can see my first completed Knight (sans the base), the Adeptus Mechanicum aligned from House Taranis. Inspired by the colour scheme and decal placement directly from the Knight companion book, I'm glad it turned out well!

I just love taking pics with a guardsmen to emphasise it's massive bulk.

I decided to go for a bare head for several reasons. First was that this looked the most "Mechanicum-like" you know the skeletal servo skull look. And honestly I dislike the rest of the faceplates as they are simply too "war machine" for my liking. Here lies the problem, I'm going to be in a dilemma when I have to build up the remaining Knights.....

Top shot of the carapace along with the wonderful transfer decals. GW really topped themselves with this decal sheet. I've never been a fan of using decals in so many years of my hobby life, but this kit literally begs the decals to be used. And spam them I did. 

These set of decals are perfectly designed to wrap around certain armour plates, eliminating the dreaded crumpling and folds normally associated with transfers. All it required was a little design magic on the part of GW and these work like a charm. In fact I'm so sold on the set of transfers that comes in the kit that I am seriously considering buying the add on!

Most people would say to go for the battle cannon. But I just can't resist the look of a massive melta.

This kit is chokeful of details.

After I was done with the mini I turned my attention to the base. Being such a large base (and such an expensive model) I decided to give the base some extra lovin'. 

I used a pencil to draft out the position of the feet. This is to keep the surface flat when it's time to glue the model down. 

I went to dig through my bit boxes and came up with lots of remains from building the cities of death. 

And here I carefully positioned my knight to be nonchalantly striding over a fallen balcony. 

All filled with rubble and sand and stones.

One knight down. Two to go. 

Lots of Imperial Knight Size Comparison! Quick Review!

I've been waiting with much anticipation (in fact one of the most exciting releases for me in a very long time) since the rumours leaked of a Titan being released and finally when it was out I grabbed a bunch of them. 

I wanted to build one up real quick, and with the current plastic kits put out by GW these days you can tell the layout/sculptor/designer really thought out about the kits. Most of the Knight went together fairly straight forward with my first build taking me about an hour and a half. I reckon my remaining to be put out at a much quicker rate. 

I'm also pleasantly surprised by how much of the "skeleton" (i.e the main bulk of the model) being primarily "metal innards". What this means is that painting them up will be a real quick affair as 70% of the model is simply Silver. You have to make sure you leave the armour sections out to paint separately though. I'm going to attack this kit with my airbrush later and will post up my progress as soon as I can. 

 Here you can see my first built Knight towering over a Cadian Guardsman.

Before I go into the size comparison of various models here is a shot of how much larger the new Knight sized base is compared to the standard large flying base.

I lined up all the models that I wanted to use for a size comparison and took a group shot.

First up is a Dreadnought and a Centurion.

A Riptide.

The Dreadknight. Man how I thought this was huge when it first got released. Come to think about it this model was one of the first few models that began the great "GW larger and larger models" arms race.

 Finally here is a Monolith. Half the price and bigger. To be fair, half the amount of details too.

Hope this post puts some perspective into the actual size of the new Knight Titans. Personally I'm a little disappointed. With the Eldar Wraithknight being so tall and huge I expected the Imperial Knights to be at least that height or even taller and bigger. Guess it's just a matter of getting used to now.

Off to set up my Airbrush. It's time to paint up this beautiful model.

A little goes a long way. Antennas in your miniatures.

In this post I will talk about adding a little more character to your models. It may be a simple or often neglected thing to do, but once the deed is done there is no denying that it was all worth it after all.

Just like drilling out the holes in your Boltgun, adding antennas is something I've always put off. However with the new Arab-Isreali war miniatures released late last year for Flames of War, I figured I needed to do something extra to befit their "modern" status. 

I was inspired by Tomwise (for those who do not know him just do a google search of his name, he represents FOW, not kidding) in his post in the official Battlefront forums. And this was his idea. 

Using plastic brooms as antennas. Yup, the cheap $4 broom that can double up as an actual household utility! 

Simply look for the black ones, snip it off, cut it to the correct length and you have the perfect antenna! Cheap, flexible, easily replaceable should it get lost. 

The next step is pretty straightforward, drill the part where the antenna should be sticking out. I used the P3 drill bit (the smallest one they have available) and just went in as deep as I could. The reason why I did this is because this enables the antenna to stick in really far and be held in place without glue. This is especially important as there are days when you just want to remove it due to storage constraints.

Here are the tanks in all their little pointy glory.

Although I did this with my FOW tanks, I'm pretty sure the same principles work even for your 40K tanks (might look for slightly thicker broom bristles) and of course the radio pack found on your Guardsmen and many other possibilities. 

I for one look forward to the release of the new Guard models and you can be sure I'll be adding all these pointy bits wherever I can!

Imperial Guard of the Necro-8th regiment. First goal of 2014.

So my first completed models of 2014 are the men of the Imperium. 20 Veteran guardsman. Well, I cheated a little, these models were actually almost nearing completion some 3 years ago (built up the Necro-8th during 5th Edition). But that's not gonna take away my claim for "completed models for 2014"! Because thats exactly what I did. Complete them! 

This final push I have invigorated for this army is due to the fact that I would want to play more 40K this year as well and the looming arrival of the new Guard Book for 6th edition in March. Hopefully nothing much will be too drastically changed rendering my painted army totally unplayable..... 

Below you can see all 65 models (6x Ten man Veteran Squad & 1x Five man Company Command Squad). And out of them I put the finishing touches to the first 20 Veterans.

I'll talk a little more about the models I have for my Necro-8th Army. The base of the models are from the now Generic Cadian troopers. In order to make them look different I opted for less bulky armour and overall size.

The excellent Pig-Iron Gas masked heads were a perfect fit for them. Giving them a pseudo Steel Legion/Krieg look.

As you can see in the comparison to the standard Cadian model, I took a scalpel and trimmed down the shoulder pads till it looked just like a sleeve. This not only made the model more realistic (in reference to standard army fatigues) but I feel it drastically changes the shape of the whole model.

Another step I took was trimming down the side pockets, yet another bulk reducing measure. The Guardsmen of the Necro-8th looks sleek now.

However this was a painstaking process and after cutting down 20 shoulder pads my fingers were sore. Multiply that by 65 models meant 130 shoulder pads to cut down and 130 side pockets!!!

Here are all 20 of them fully painted and based.
Yay now I have 20 models to my 2014 painted miniatures count!

A close up shot of the completed models.

One other thing which I made a habit a couple of years ago was to date the models when they were finally completed. (complete as in finished, game over, I'm never gonna paint/repaint this model ever again kind of finished)

This is really a nifty idea (can't credit it I don't recall but it's definitely from someone else's blog, sorry!) as it helps us keep track of when we painted a model (obviously). Not only that its a nice archiving system and I regret not doing this earlier with my models before I started doing this.

Wouldn't it be nice picking up that Butt-ugly Nagash model and look under to base to see 1998?

My next post will hopefully see me complete the other 45 models and then I'll move on to the Tanks of Necro-8th. Which are also abut 80% painted. Back to painting, till the next!

First to get a lick of paint in 2014. Deadzone enforcers

Well 5 days into the new year without painting and I finally picked up the brush to paint stuff! 

As I have frantically painted up the Deadzone terrain last year the moment I received the package (all $150 kickstarter worth of terrain add ons alone) I now turn my attention to my first faction in Deadzone. 

Want to get some colour on the models as the players here are hopefully starting to get some games together for Deadzone. It's always been a peeve of mine to at least get some base colours on the models before playing with them. 

I should be getting them finished up by the end of the week so that will bring my painted models up to 13! Which also means my 2014 resolution of having 1 painted model a day for the year is ahead of schedule! Let's hope I can keep this up!

I'll post pics of the terrain in another post sometime soon! In the meantime enjoy the little preview of the terrain here along with my minis.