The cavalry arrives

I just finished my Blood Angels Stormravens and I am quite happy with the results. I started to paint up the black Death Company Stormraven in 2011, still in 40K 5th Edition, and after that it sat around in boxes because of my "I don't play 40K anymore and Warmachine instead"-hiatus. Well, 40K 7th Edition sparked my interest again, so I finally had to paint up my Stormraven for my Blood Angels to stylishly ride to battle.

However, before I got started on my DC Stormraven again, I painted a yellow Stormraven red as a warm up exercise. Sven was so nice to gift it to me after he dropped his project of building yellow Space Marines. The red Stormraven bears no insignia other than the Imperial Eagle so I am going to use it for both my Blood Angels as well as my (still loyal) Thousand Sons.

Feeling empowered by the finish of the red Stormraven I moved on for the black one and although one'd think it takes significantly less time (it has been primed black after all), the details still take up quite some time. To my surprise the hardest part was the red crosses on the wings because on the one hand they needed several layers of red to have that lively red color, but on the other hand the paint accumulated near/under the rim of the masking tape for a very ugly border effect. :-/ Right now I just try to ignore it and be happy with the Forgeworld Death Company Rhino Doors instead, which fit perfectly. :-D

Here you can see the border effect best. Don't know how to solve it yet other than using less water in my paints so it doesn't flow as easily, yet that would leave the red stripe itself very smudgy.

This is one of the two Death Company Rhino Doors which can be easily swapped with the original Stormraven doors.

One of the reasons this Stormraven took me so long was that I wanted to paint the inside of the cockpit.

I am always painting at least one vehicle of a kind with doors that can be opened and transparent windows to prove I can paint the insides of vehicles as well.

Alas, although I took a lot of effort to fully paint the Techmarine's and the Servitor's cockpit, even the panels at the back of their heads, one can hardly see it.

With these differently angled shots you can at least see the controls in front of them.

Well, that's it for today. I look forward to playing these babies on a tabletop near you. :-D Plus I have a third Stormraven assembled and a fourth waiting in its box, so depending on my painting priorities I may more or less soon field the corresponding formation with three Stormravens and three Tactical Squads. I just don't know yet if that's suitable for a 1'500pts game.

More Thousand Sons

A box of CSM, my latest addition to my upcoming Thousand Sons army.

After taking a trip to Seetroll in Konstanz, I have some more miniatures assembled for my upcoming Thousand Sons army. As usual, the rules were "no spikes, no horns, loyalist parts" to give them a clean yet slowly disintegrating look.

My new 2nd platoon looks a little bit more chaosy despite the above mentioned rule simply because the CSM legs and torsos have a tad more skulls. The Sorcerer (Sergeant) openly displays a Tzeentch standard from which I cut off the horns to make it look just like any other artsy standard.

On the other hand, the Company Champion still displays proudly an Imperial Eagle on his chest armor. His Powersword is from a loyalist Assault Squad Sergeant, his shield from Scibor's Egyptian series.
The Apothecary has a loyalist Apothecary's backpack and an Auspex simply because I lack another Narthecium. I figure it's still good enough to scan the battlefield à la Leonard McCoy.
In the back you can see the Command Squad's Standard Bearer which I have shown in more detail earlier already.

Last but not least I built a second Librarian. All his bits are from the CSM box except for his Egyptian helmet, his pre-heresy Jump Pack, and his Purity Seal (taken from a Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard box). Once again, the goal here was to create a rather chaotic yet clean look that would easily let him pass also as a feral Space Wolf or a somber Iron Hand. Unlike the Company Champion's sword out of a loyalist box, this sword here also is from the CSM box and serves just as another powerful hint about the corruption of this Librarian.

One day, everyone is supposed to be painted to this standard.

Heresy Thousand Sons Test Model

After I have had monochrome Heresy Thousand Sons for years now, I finally painted my first test model. As usual, the eyes took quite some patience and several attempts and I obviously suck at freehands, but I think for tabletop quality it can pass. What do you think?

This is how this guy previously looked (I'll add the Bolter later again):

5 minutes till Heresy Ahriman and Standard Bearer

A new Thousand Sons Tactical Marine to make my first Pesedjet complete. This guy is made entirely of loyalist Space Marine parts except for the Bolter and his head. This gives him a clean look, yet especially his mouth piece gives him a slightly creepy and tainted look.

Don't know why, but my recent military service strongly triggered my desire to continue on my heresy era Thousand Sons. After the creation of my first Tactical Squad I now wanted to do Ahzec Ahriman plus a Standard Bearer for the Command Squad.

Ahzek Ahriman bits rundown:

• the main cast is Incantator Daniael from Hitech Miniatures.
• the blade is from Kromlech.
• the scarab (on the belly, right underneath the book) is from a GW Khemri kit.

Standard Bearer Bits rundown:

• the main body is from loyalist Space Marine body parts.
• the Bolt Pistol and the backpack are from the Chaos Space Marines Tactical Squad.
• the face is from the Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard kit.
• the Egyptian ornament on his head is from Scibor's Egyptian Parts kit.
• the pole is from a Khemri or Lizardmen kit, forgot which.
• the top of the standard is from Incantator Daniael from Hitech Miniatures.

Christmas Loot

God bless my girlfriend.

Today I went to the Tactica and got my Christmas Loot after my girlfriend was so nice to get me gift certificates for the holiday. I really appreciate it big time because she absolutely can't understand why I like these miniatures no matter how hard she tries.

My first grab was a box with the new Blood Angels Terminators, despite I already have around 40 Terminators laying around. However, they don't have the nice BA iconography yet except for the Forgeworld parts I threw in on some. Plus Sven gave me the BA half of his Shield of Baal box (thank you Sven) you I'll effectively make 10 Terminators out of this box in full BA regalia.

My second grab was the Dystopian Wars 2.0 rulebook. Ever since it appeared on the market, I wanted a copy, but didn't have the money for it. Right now I am so deep into 40K again that I am not sure when I'll play my next DW game, but I have a fully painted fleet in a small bag that can be easily carried anywhere, so who knows.

Last but not least, I restocked on some GW glazes and inks, an Army Painter Dragon Red spraycan, and then I took the dip and purchased Vallejo colors for the first time. I have been eyeing them since 2011, but as the Tactica didn't carry them back then, I didn't want to order them online, and I found the Army Painter dropper bottles in Texas, I went for AP instead. Now the Tactica carries the full Vallejo range and planning to gradually make the switch to Vallejo products. For me, the unique highlights I purchased from this range are:

• the very light turquoise color which will be great to add airy light shadows to (Blood Angels) wings.
• White Wash. Honestly, in all those years I found myself several times desperately wishing for a white wash/ink and now I got it. I'll try it immediately on the Inquisitor I am currently doing.
• Vallejo pigments. I got the ones for desert sand and rust, perfect for my BA tanks.

I am really looking forward to dabble with all these new paints and colors.

Last but not least I got myself Incantator Daniel from Hitech Miniatures. He will be the perfect centerpiece/HQ for my secret pre-heresy Thousand Sons side project.

Pre-heresy Thousand Sons (concept)

Although I am proud Blood Angels player and a strong loyalist, I have felt the need to build a Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons army to honor their once proud and noble legion. I wanted to create clean looking models that reveal the corruption at a second closer look. Well, here’s the first squad. What do you think?

From Thousand Sons

From Thousand Sons

From Thousand Sons

From Thousand Sons

From Thousand Sons