Knight Progress

Progress is visible on the Knight and that is very nice. This first picture is taken right after the pictures of it in pieces in the previous post as I just wanted to put it together to see how it all looked as I though about what colors to use. It is not glued yet, pieces are just placed where they will go in the end.

Quite early on I knew I wanted to have red as the main color, so I decided to use Mephiston Red for the main color. Then I went several rounds with myself trying to figure out what to do and what the second color should be, but I eventually ended up with black. There are several Knightly houses using these colors so I checked a lot of pictures to make sure I didn't go for an exact match with them. That is why I have the lower leg armor with black on the outside and red on the inside, as all the other houses I found had it the other way. I also decided to make the panel with the entry/exit hatch black.
All the trims will be gold, and that is the last color I will add for all the panels before they get glued on to the model. At this stage I have two panels glued on. That is the one between the legs and the one on the "chest" with the field to write a name.

I have not decided on all the stickers I want to put on the Knight, but I went through all my sheets yesterday and found lot of Imperial Tank sheets and I think I will use quite lot of those stickers on my Knights as many of the ones on the Knight sheets are associated with established Knightly Houses.
As my army of Knights are Freeblades, I am thinking that I can get away with less stickers as some of them have left heir Houses or their Houses are extinct. I will see what I end up with doing when I decide what stickers to use. Being Freeblades I might have different stickers for each one, or I can use some of the same and say that since they fight together they have also bonded when it comes to heraldry.

I think I will do heraldry/stickers for my Knights after I have built a few more, but I need to think of what I want to do because I need to have colors that can bring the stickers to the front.

Imperial Knight progress

I have finally managed to assemble my first Imperial Knight. This is going to be a Freeblade, and one in a quite solid army of Freeblades.
This knight is still in many parts as this makes painting so much easier. The plan is to wash all the visible metal parts of the body, and then start putting on the other parts piece by piece. I have tried to separate the parts in left and right but it seems like most of them are interchangeable.
I am still figuring out what colors to use on the armor-plates. At the moment I am leaning towards red and black with gold trim.

Here is the body of the knight, and most of this is going to be metal, so it is primed black and then sprayed Leadbelcher. The idea is to wash everything twice with Nuln Oil and then some details will need to get other metal colors like the smoke pipes that need to look a little grimy.
I used masking tape to cover up the shield and also managed to cover up almost all of the banner between its legs.

I am very happy with this Knight as it stands now, and I hope I will be just as happy when I am done painting and assembling.

I already have started to plan for the two Knights that came in the Renegade boxed set where one Imperial and one Renegade knight face off in a battle. 

I have a back story for my Knights telling about the Four Knights of the Apocalypse where one of the original four Knights got turned to Chaos, so I plan to build that knight with a regular Knight chassis but maybe add one or two things from the Chaos Knight sprues and other Chaos things I might find. He will then be known as Pestilence. I'll give him the Chaos claw arm and one of the guns, maybe the Gatling gun.

The other knight has not gotten a name yet, but I would like to make the one knight I have in my army that is close combat only with a chainsword and a fist. I need the thermal lance for my new Ork Stompa and it helps make some difference to the knight army. 

While visiting the Games Workshop store in Oslo I picked up one of the Chaos Knighs, and I plan to build that and paint it like my Chaos Space Marines with dark green and silver. I will also try to do some chipping on this Knight as it has some very visible marks where it has been damage in battle.

I think I will try and assemble these three Knights together so that I can get the parts I need and swap between them. We'll see how it works...

General update on Warhammer 40K

In the last post I talked about my Age of Sigmar armies and the status of those. So as a natural follow-up, here is the same sort of status update for my 40K armies.

Adepta Sororitas (Sisters of Battle) has now been released as plastic models, and I have always said that I would have a small Sisters army when that happened. So far I have a few special characters, and two boxes of basic units, and I look forward to painting these up to look like they com for m my own invented order. They will all have blonde hair instead of the white they usually have. Why, you ask? Just because I can, and also because I really suck at painting white. I will work out a backstory that explains why they don't have the white hair.
I don't know how big the army will be yet, but I aim to get an army that can be used by themselves on the tabletop. I have some old metal minis and I will buy more of the plastic models when the ones I have now are built and painted. I will look into the new rule book and then I'll decide what units to get. There are a few I really want...

Adeptus Custodes are the Emperors own guardians, and I have some of these golden warriors. I think one or two are almost done, but I have several units that are primed black and then sprayed gold, and more of them still in the boxes waiting for assembly. I do not have a big Custodes army, but I plan to field them alongside other armies like the Sisters of Battle, Sisters of Silence or Space Marines so I don't need the biggest army. They might also show up backing an Inquisitor, that would probably raise some eyebrows. I have made up my color scheme, and I'm currently working on their back story.

Adeptus Mechanicus is an army that will have quite a nice size. I love all the weird vehicles they have, and plan to use this as one of my main armies but also as a support army for other armies. I don't like all the units from this army, so I am making a back story to explain why my units deviate from the standard and why the units I don't like is not part of the army. 

The main reason for this is that my army is part of the vast Mechanicus Exploration Fleet. The army is designated Cohort 9-1 Alpha and is under the command of Magos Explorator de Orellana, and the Cohort is serving aboard the ship The Gloria Inveneris that is under the command of Arch Magos de Sousa.
I love the Kastelan robots, so my army have a lot of those. They are part of the Legio Cybernetica, and the leader of the Legio is Magos Dominus de Vaca.
I also plan to have some of my Imperial Knights army made up with marks showing allegiance to the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Astra Militarum (who used to be the Imperial Guard and are tagged as such in this blog) is one of my three main armies for Warhammer 40K.  I have made up my own planet called Walpurgia (named after St. Walpurga who is a real Catholic saint) and my army is the Walpurgian 3rd and they have everything from the tiniest Ratling snipers to Super Heavy tanks. They are built up mostly by Cadians and Catachans, with some special forces made from Militarum Tempestus and some modified models from the Genestealer Cult range.
I have some of the units done, and lots of units both soldiers and tanks that I am working on at all times and they are in all stages of the building process from in the box to almost done painting. Most of the stuff is quite standard out of the box, but I also do some conversions and among the things I have made is a recovery vehicle for recovering damaged tanks from the battlefield as I feel this is a must have. Also I wanted the Earthshaker cannon to use as a bellygun for an Ork Stompa.
I hope I can post several units on the blog in the near future as many vehicles are only missing small details before I can call them done.

Deathwatch was not supposed to be a big army but then something happened and I now have a lot of them. I have all the troops that serve from the Watch Fortress Alamo Bexar. They are all primed except for two Corvus Blackstar ships that are still in their boxes. This army has a lot of different chapters as the Deathwatch are supposed to, but some chapters are represented more often than others. 

They all have the etched shoulderguards that came in the Deathwatch boxes, and I plan to try and paint several different successor chapters to put as much variety in the army as possible. I have only one figure that is truly done and that is Watch Master Barret Travis. I had one regular marine as well, but he was sent off to Games Workshop to be a part of the Deathwatch army of the Northern Europe Store Managers and was supposed to come back to me when they were done with it but he is still out there.
I have an extensive back story for this army and some of the characters, but still working on more as every one of these Marines is some sort of character or hero. I have these Marines standing in boxes on my shelves with one unit in each box, so hopefully I will be able to get some progress on them in the near future. I recently watched a video that gave me tips for their eyes, so I am quite interested in seeing how that will look, and if it works then I might use the same color for other eye lenses.

Grey Knights is something I bought because I loved how the figures looked. I don't intend to ever play a Grey Knight army, but I would like to use them as support for my Space Marines or Inquisition forces. I painted my first unit dark blue as I wanted them to mix with my Space Marines, but I might go back and strip them and paint them again unless I can think of a real good reason why they are blue. It seemed smart at the time, but now I am not so sure...

Imperial Knights was an interesting supplement as support for Imperial armies, but all of a sudden they got their completely own codex and rules to field them as a separate army if you would like and I was lost. I wanted to make my own Knightly House and have quite an extensive army, but then I got cold feet along with an idea to build four of them as the Knights of the Apocalypse (inspired by the Riders of the Apocalypse from the Holy Bible and perhaps even more in Good Omens) and that idea led to me scrapping the plans of my own House and instead planing to make a vast army of Freeblade knights fighting together. Some will have markings that say they are Imperial, and some will have the markings to say they swear allegiance to the Mechanicum. I plan to use some Knights as reinforcements for other armies when called upon, but I will also like to field them as a Knight army.
I have one Knight that is done, but it is not built or painted by me. However I will keep it just as it is, as it is a masterpiece made by one of the kind former staff members of Games Workshop in Oslo who has given me lots of support and good advice over the years. I will not be able to replicate his work, but his Knight (I will always think of it as his even though I own it officially) will be a guide and inspiration for me when I make my own Knights and hopefully I can make it look that they fight on the same battlefield. I will have to make some sacrifices though as I also would like them to fit with my other armies.

Inquisition was never intended to be a big army, but more of an addition to other forces. Imagine a Space Marine Army with an Inquisitor and a band of Grey Knights fighting alongside them. I have several Inquisitor models, and I like making small warbands to work as their aids. Also they are able to call on the help from any army when needed, so they can fight alongside any of my Imperial forces.
If the Inquisitors join forces they will be lead by Lord Inquisitor Van Dorn.
So far the only thing finished is a Landraider that was painted up as a masterclass in learning how to add battle damage and how to paint white vehicles. I don't know how many more specific vehicles they will get, maybe the rest will be requisitioned from other armies as needed.

Sisters of Silence is also just a small thing. I got some when I bought a collection box of Custodes and sisters way back when they were first released, and have not started to assemble the sisters yet. My plan is to have them fight alongside other armies, and I am working on a back story for them. I just build and paint the units I like as they will never be a stand alone army.

My Space Marines chapter, The Gatekeepers, was originally supposed to be my main 40K army.
At the moment they are second, behind Astra Militarum, but I still have a dream of building an entire chapter over a long time.Now that the regular Marines are slowly disappearing from the stores to be replaced by Primaris Marines, I might revisit this idea. I've already designated two of my companies to Primaris due to heavy losses in a well known campaign where The Gatekeepers fought hard.
The Gatekeepers is an Ultramarine successor chapter, but they do have some other elements within their ranks because I have a lot of different Marine models, but that is all explained in the lore. 

The chapter has their home in the distant stars on a planet named Luminus Prime, and the Chaptermaster is a former Ultramarines Champion by the name of Otho Vitellius.

Chaos Space Marines is not supposed to be a main army for me. I do love the name I came up with for them, The Knights of Oblivion, and I would love to get them built up to an army I can bring to the battlefields. The chapter master is Arch-Commodore Falstaff.
My original idea when I started this army many many years ago was that they would be all infantry because they were stranded on a planet far from their home in the Eye of Terror. One idea was that they were a small warband left behind when the rest of their chapter left the planet for some reason, and another was that their ship was shot down in a big battle above the planet, and that they crash landed here. But after the Death Guard miniature was re-released some years ago I ended up with them too, and they do not look anything like my original Chaos Marines. This can be explained with the fact that the Death Guard Marines have been on an expedition farther in to the Eye of Terror and have been exposed and warped or mutated much more than their comrades. Being away from the others for so long has also opened their eyes to the Chaos God Nurgle, maybe they have fought alongside other Chaos Marines who worship him on their mission. I guess the lore will give a hint if not an exact answer to this question. They might get some vehicles in the future, but for now they are infantry. Sometimes they fight alongside a Chaos Knight that has fallen from grace. His name is Plague and he used to be one of the Four Knights of the Apocalypse, but he got seduced by the powers of Nurgle.

Genestealer Cults is an army very much still in the making and planning. The main reason I started with them was that I wanted to make some Planetary Defense Forces (known as PDF-forces) for the planet where I think most of my armies clash, and that led to using some Genestealer and small Tyranid models I got in a boxed game, and so the Genestealer Cult was born. I do like a lot of the models that Games Workshop has released for this range, and especially the ones looking like miners or Imperial Guard soldiers, and as of now I just have a few ideas of where I will take the army. I have a color scheme that I will follow, and I have started to paint several types of units both characters and vehicles.

Necrons is my newest army. They got to be an army because I bought a boxed set with Mechanicus and Necrons in it. For a long time the Necrons were just left as pieces, but I got a good idea with the new Contranst paints from Citadel and decided to give it a try. I use the Contrast colors over metal, so I get colored metallic look, and I liked the result so much I decided to make a small Necron army. I have no idea how big or small this army will be in the end though as it seems to grow from time to time. The regular Necron warriors are a pain in the butt to assemble as the two-handed weapons and the wobbly shoulder joints are hard to keep together when gluing, but I do like the models, so I guess time will tell... No matter how big the army will be, it will have its own lore and I am quite sure the Necrons will come form some unknown dynasty.

Orks is the final army, and one of the big armies I have for 40K. One of the main reasons for having this army is that it is a crazy army. I can do lots of funny or cool conversions and generally just have fun with it.
The leader of this army is Hazza Hoff (sometimes known just as The Hoff) and he has his Big Mek Mek Gyvver who creates lots of crazy stuff for the army. He has a lot of tech Grots that work for him, and they are dressed in red robes, just like the Mechanicus and Techpriests of The Astra Militarum (and also Space Marines even though they don't wear robes as such but have red armor instead). They build everything from weird weapons to Stompas. This army contain the figures I won 3rd place for in the Armies on Parade in 2018, and the main "vehicle" there was the Stompa Da Punisha! There is another Stompa in the making now, with a big (or at least long) bellygun and a plan to replace the big chainsword with some sort of flamer, and the big guns on its shoulder will among other things be replaced with a big Deathstrike Missile. But I will rant more about that in a later post...

Long awaited update

A long time has passed since my last update. I will once again try to get better to use this blog for what it was intended.

I thought I would use this update to give you  little update on all my armies, and next time I do the same then hopefully things will show that I have achieved something...


We'll start with Age of Sigmar (Warhammer FB in the labels in this blog), and what they call The Grand Alliance of Order

The Sylvaneth army has been primed again, this time with a light primer, and I will paint almost everything but the leaves with the new Contrast paints. I have a dark brown and a dark yellowish brown that I will use for the wood parts and then I will see how I will paint the occasional weapons they have that is not wood. I will use autumn colors like orange and browns for the leaves with an occasional green leaf in the mix. I have quite a lot left to build, but I also have some of the models painted with the contrast paints. I have an idea on how I will make the bases look like Forrest, and I will try it out on a few of the smaller trees. I name all the characters in this army for the Latin names for different trees,

Duardin (Dwarfs) this army is an old one, and I have several painted units of Dwarfs that are ready for games. Some of them are not legal units in the game anymore as the Duardins have been robbed of most of their units in the latest years. Most of the painted Dwarfs were painted up for my Armies on Parade entry a few years back (2017) and this is an army I would love to revisit and finish more of. I have a big box of old metal Dwarfs that are painted  but that I would like to repaint to get them in my own colors and style, and I also have lots of boxes with units still on sprues. I even have several units that are partially built or partially painted. When I started this army they were called Dwarfs, then they became Duardin, and now the army is included in Cities of Sigmar where they work together with former Empire troops. I don't think I have much Empire stuff, but I have several Bretonnian Knights that I can paint up and use instead. 

The latest addition to this army are the old metal Slayer figures, they are in the mail from different sellers in Europe.
I have an old fortress that I could build and with a few modifications use as a home town for this army. I just need some plasticard or something similar so that I can have some cannon emplacements along the walls. The leader of my dwarfs are The Low King Thorir Thorgrimsson, and I will eventually also make a human General for the human elements.

An army that is sort of a steampunk spin-off from the Duardin are the Kharadron Overlords.
I plan to have a little army of them, but it might grow big over time. I have several boxes of these short dudes to assemble and paint. So far I have started to paint some characters to try and find the look for my army, and I have also painted up one of their smallest sky vessels that I just have to add the two parts together and do the base to call it done. But I will wait a little bit with the base until I have decided on how my army will look overall.

Another duardin race is the Fyreslayers, and they were something I had planned to build a lot of, but now I am thinking of selling what I have as I don't think I have the time or the interest to make this in to an army. For now the boxes of unbuilt minis is in a big cardboard box in my basement. Instead of having a Fyreslayer army, I will have a unit of old Slayers in my Duardin army.

From The Grand Aliance of Destruction I have two armies.

Ogor Mawtribes is what was called Ogres when I started with the army. I have not planned for a huge army here, but I do have quite a lot of units still. So far I have only finished one unit of Ogor Gluttons (they too had a completely different name when I stated) and I have a unit of Leadbelchers that are assembled and awaiting priming and painting. I look forward to working more with this army as they really appeal to me.

The second army I have from this alliance is my Gloomspite Gitz. The idea for this army was to make a fun-to-play Greenskin army without the Orcs as I tried making a Black Orc unit that ended up looking like they all had chronic back-pain. Like all my armies it has taken me many years to not finish, and in the meantime Games Workshop came out with rules for just such an army that I wanted to play, called the Gloomspite Gitz.
This army do have some finished units, but still most of the units needed are in boxes. I have lots of Night Goblins that are assembled but not primed, but I also have several of the newer units that are primed and just waiting to be painted. The army will consist of lots of Goblins (and most of them Night Goblins) at least one Giant (Aleguzzer Gargant as they call them now) and this one is fully painted and based. I also think I have one more still in his box, but I might make that one to fit with my chaos army but I have to see what happens. Might be cool to do some conversion stuff and use him in this army.
I also have different kinds of Trolls (or Trogoths) that will fight along side the Gloomspite Gitz.
The leader of the army is the old figure Skarsnik with his giant pet squig. In my army he is called Turnip instead, and his squig is named Blabla.

Finally I have what could be used for several armies from The Grand Alliance of Chaos.
Personally I would love to use everything as one big undivided army, but they can also be used as smaller armies worshiping one specific Chaos God.
I have several of the newer stuff for Khorne and Nurgle, and they are made to look like they worship their specific god. But I also have regular Chaos warriors painted up that worship these Gods.
I have a small following of Slaanesh, and they can either fight with followers of other chaos gods or alongside Deamonettes. I even have quite a big fortress for the Chaos forces.