First unit of Squats complete...

As I had hoped, I managed to complete the first unit of Squats this weekend. I'm quite happy with how they turned out, and I look forward to start my second box to bulk the unit out a bit. As the Squats are a Necromunda gang and not a complete army I will not have that many boxes of figures, but at the moment I am thinking of having three. I think that will give me enough Squats to play games with them (two would probably be enough for that, but three will give me the chance to add some variation). But there are not that much variation to add since there is only one box to choose from in the range, so more than three boxes might be an overkill. But things can change as the game evolves and if we get new boxes more units will be added for sure.

The Squats are painted with a quite simple paint scheme but I think it worked out nice. I got the idea from White Dwarf Magazine where one of the players participating in a series where different kill teams fight each other used the green and gray color scheme on his Astra Militarum Kill team and I liked it so much I wanted to try it. But where he has painted, washed and layered, I have gone for paint, wash and drybrush.

The base colors are Mechanicus Standard Grey for their suits and Deathworld Forrest for their armor. A few of the Squats are wearing coats, and they are painted Death Corps Drab to make them look heavier than the suits. This was also done partly because I wanted to see how it looked as my Krieg Guardsmen will have this color on their coats and legs. Then the coats and suits were drybrushed with Dawnstone dry paint, and the armor with Straken green layer paint. Between the base color and the drybrush I washed the models with Nuln Oil.

The skin is painted the same way I paint my Gargants for AoS now, with Bugmans Glow as the base and then a wash with Guilliman Flesh. If they showed more skin I would have tried to do some drybrushing or layering with Bugmans Glow but I think it looked ok with just the wash so I left it there and used Averland sunset on all their facialhair.

Kneepads and boots were painted with Abaddon Black, and the gloves with Thondia Brown. I used that brown for all the other leather parts as well. For the belt buckles and the big head on the front of their suits I used Runelord Brass as I felt miners wouldn't have shining gold details on their suits.

All the metallic parts on the weapons, tools and suits were painted quite traditionally with Leadbelcher, and then washed with Nuln Oil.

I used Retributor armour for the visible amunition on one magazine and for a portion of the head of the club for the leader, and also as the base color for the lenses they all wear. And while we talk about the lenses, they were afterwards given a wash with Blood Angels Red contrast paint. This was done after I got a tip from an employee at Warhammer Oslo when I aked him for advice for  lens color. I was originally thinking the lenses should be black but shiny, but decided to give the red a try and I liked it a lot. So I will use this for my Leagues of Votan as well.

The weapon casings were painted Lupercal Green and for the small screens on the arms of a few of the Squats I used a slightly darker green that I don't remember the name of. But for the next batch I plan to use a green contrast paint that makes the scereens look like they are turned on instead.

On the back of the helmets I painted a stripe of Khorne Red just to add some color, because I feel that a little color might be a smart thing when you work in a mine. But I decided to use this color as I didn't want something that took all the attention away from other parts of the model as I feel something very bright might so. Also if I end up with another Squat gang in the future, then I could use the same colors and just change the stripe on the helmet to tell them apart.

The bases were coated with Armageddon Dune and Armageddon Dust, some only with dust and some with a mix. Then I washed with Agrax Earthshade before drybrushing with Morghast Bone. Then the rims were given two thin coats of Thondia Brown.

So after all this presentation, lets have a look at the finished models...

Here are the first two. There was four figures on each sprue and two sprues in the box, so these are the same model with different heads and arms. These are the ones with heay coats.

I really like handguns, so I made two more Squats with pistols, and I plan to make some more in the next batches.

These two have the "standard" weapon for the Squats, and for the next batch I will make the maximum number I can with these. They are not the best looking weapons, but being the standard I feel there should be most of these in a gang.

I really love the big gun on the left, and I will make more of this in the next boxes. The one of the right seems like a modification of the standard weapon that also looks quite cool.

Finally I added this picture just to show off the arms on the suits a little better. I like how the drybrush really got the arm design to stand out.

I like the way these colors turned out, so I have decided to use the same colors on my Leagues of Votan army.  After all they are both "space dwarfs" and even though the Leagues don't like to be called Squats they are related and some sort of kin. So maybe sometime in the future we will get some rules allowing them to be used together on the battlefield.

More progress

I've managed to get more work done on the Squats today, so I expect they will be finished tomorrow. What remains now is to wash and drybrush the bases and then paint the rims. 

The gold with a red contrast paint over them turned out quite well.

I will post better pictures when the bases are done, but here you can see how the lenses turned out. It is Retributor Armor gold with one layer of Blood Angels red on top.

I went to my storage facility today with two big bags of models that I haven't gotten around to assemble yet, some big boxed sets and all of my boxes of Horus Heresy sets. I like the 30K sets a lot and would love to build and paint them, but for the moment I think I should focus on what I have started. That means the Sons of Behemat first, but also my Cities of Sigmar and my Imperial Guard units. 

I have also kept my Knightkits here, as I would like to finish my Chaos Knights and maybe even build some Imperials.  At the moment I have started to put the base for my partially finished Chaos Knight together. I glued some cork to the base with Gorilla grlue today, but it seem to take a long time to dry so I will look at it tomorrow. 

While at the Storage facility I also brought back my Stompa that I plan to build with a bellygun and the two finished gargants that I finished earlier. 

Here is a pic of the Mancrushers that I have assembled and started to paint so far, the finished one is in the back. And on the right is the finished Gatebreaker. I plan to make him a new base, so that I can put King Brood on that base. I also have two more Mancrushers that are assembled but I haven't gotten around to painting them yet. 

Update on the Squats

I have gotten some work done on my first unit of Squats, and hope I can manage to finish them or t least nearly finish them this weekend.

What is left now is to drybrush them, and then glue their helmets to the bodies. and after that I might need to freshen up the red on the back of the helmet. I also need to paint the lenses on their helmets with a red contrast paint ovr the gold I have painted on now.  I was very unsure what coor to use on the lenses, so I asked Mathias at Warhammer Oslo for some advice, and when he heared what colors I had used on the mini he thought that the combo of gold and red could look good. Having an open mind I trust the judgement and advice of good painters so I look forward to seeing how it will turn out as I think it might look quite good. 

When the figures are done I will base them the same way I do with my 40K armies. 

Next plan is to clean up my workspace a bit, as I have so many unbuit kits around that I need to take some of them to my storage facility for a while. Then my plan is to build the last two Mega-Gargants for my Sons of Behemat army, and then six Mancrushers. I got the new rulebook for the army, and it seems they have taken the Aleguzzlers out of the rules but it might just be that they have that as a sub-species of the Mancrushers. I will find out that as I read the rules to update myself.

I will paint up all the ones I have, and find the ones that is already painted that is stored in my Storage area so I can have the entire army togther. I will check if the Mega-Gargant that I have painted already is loose on its base because then I can use that base for King Brood and make a new one for the Mega-Gargant I have already finished. I don't think I would want to build another tall base, and it is important that the King, the General of the army, is on the tallest base. 

Space Dwarfs in the making

I have started to paint my Necromunda Squats and really like the colors I have used so far. And because I like them, I plan to try and use the same colors on my Leagues of Votann. 

It is a quite simple colorscheme, based on gray and green. It will look a little different on the two armies, as their armor is a little different but the basics are the same.

The suits are dark gray and the armor is green.. Then they have black boots and protectors and brown leather gloves and leather details. Their weapon will be metal with dark green gun casings.

I decided I wanted their helmets to be the same color as their armor, but I gave them all a khorne red stripe down the middle. 

The skin on their faces I plan to paint as I have found to work with my Giants for Age of Sigmar, and I hope that will work even on those small faces. That means Bugmans Glow followed by a layer of Guilliman Flesh.Then they will have yellow beards (all of them) and I need to find a color to paint the eye protection/sunglases that they seem to wear. I might just go black on them, but I will try and see what other people have done and see if I get some tips.

For the Leagues of Votann there will be a little more difference in the units, as they wear more varied clothing. But still I plan to stick with the colors I have for my Squats for those parts that are the same, and then I'll need to find new colors for the special gear they have. Like I have some of them wearing bomber jackets of leather lined with fur, and they have a priest wearing some sort of robes. The great variation in kits have not been released yet, so I have a lot of time to think out how I want to do the more special things, and also how I want to paint up their vehicles when they are released. But I think I will see how the guncasings on the Squats turn out, and if it looks good then I might use that same dark green for my vehicles.

Also today I orded the new battletome for the Sons of Behemat, and I look forward to finding out how that army will work with the new rules and the point values for the different units. I figure the army I have is between 3500 and 4000 points with 4 Mega gargants (one of them the king) and 12 Mancrusher or Aleguzzler gargants (the ones who used to be caled Giants back in the days). I will decide jut what kind of Gargants the diffrent ones are when I see the new rules. 

I am also considering adding more of the smaller gargants to the army sometime in the future, but it won't be for a while as there are so many nice models out there and I need to spend a little less money then I have done in the past on models so I need to see what comes out when. 

As for painting things goes well. I have one Mega gargant all finished and one primes, the remaining two needs to be built. The smaller giants I have one that is all finished, three I need to build, ttwo tht is primed, and the rest have gotten both their skin and their pants painted. Some of them also have more details done, like woden parts like cages, clubs, ale barrels and so on. When my first unit of Squats are painted, I will keep working on the Gargnts.