summary of the week

This week I've been a little all over the place.

I started last week with a Field Ordnance Barttery, and finished building and priming it this week. I had hoped I could build them with 5 troops and 1 sergeant, but there were not enough arm-options for regular troops to do this so I had to make one sergeant for each gun. That means a big unit will have 6 sergeants unless I can find some arms that I can use in the regular infantryboxes with the new guard models or with the upgrade sprue that I will have go get anyway as I would love the arms holding wrenches to field as crew for my revcovery vehicle. But even if I can make some changes in future sets so I only have one sergeant for every second gun I have come to the conclusion that I will need to make some Ensigns (2nd Lieutennants) to take command of a battery of six guns as that is how I would love to field my guns. I would love to add some kind of unit markings on these guns, especially on the Bombast gun and the heavy las-cannon as they have quite big shields in front that would look rather monotone if I just paint them in black. I am thinking of painting the front shield black and the reas of the gun Mechanicus standard gray as that will match with my tanks. Then I plan to add a vertical stripe of a brighter color as a unit marking on the guns on one side of the shield just like Games Workshop has done in many of the pictures in the rulebook. I will also bring my tanks home from storage just to add the same vertical stipes in the front on each side of the tanks.

I primed up my Lord Castellan Ursula Creed that I talked about in an earlier post. I look forward to getting her on the battlefield in the future. I managed to get her primed separately from the base, so that I can paint both to a good standard (at least for me) before I glue them together. I think I know what colors to use on most of her details, so it is just a matter of getting started.

For Age of Sigmar I primed up the unit of Ironguts and I have also started to paint them and has gotten the first layer of skin color on. Interestingly, I see that Games Workshop now has that unit marked as "Sold out - no longer available online" on their web page and this is a little weird. I am quite sure they are in the new rulebook and will continue to be a unit, so it will be interesting to see what they will do. Usually when they mark them like that it means the unit is going out of production, but it could be that they will release them again in a new packaging. I hope so, as I would love to have more of them as I love their armored heads. 

The final model I have primed this week is the Squigboss with Gnasha squig (ot the seeing-eye squig as I think it looks like with the harness) and I already know how I will paint this model as I have a planned scheme for all my Gloomspite Gitz. 

When I had painted the first layer of skin on my Ironguts I wanted to sit and work more with minis that day, but didn't really feel like painting more so I decided to start on a unit I haven't built before.
I started to build a Leviathan Dreadnought with ranged weapons. Interestingly Games Workshop lists this as both a Leviathan Dreadnought and a Leviathan Siege Dreadnought, but it looks like it is the exact same model with the exact same weapon options. I have two of this unit and one Close combat one, so I look forward to adding them to the Gatekeepers in due time. My idea is to try and weather them a bit by stipling some metal color on the blue paint so that they look their age while still looks like they are being well taken care of. Since they are relics from the Horus Heresy and I plan to have them in my 40K army I think this is only fitting. And if I should play a game of 30K then it just looks like they have been in combat and seen some action and I think these Dreads probaly would be where the fighting is most intense so it would work well there too. 

I haven't yet decided on what weapon options to give them, apart from the very cool four barreled Storm Cannon. There is a Cyclonic melta lance and a Grav-flux bombard to choose from, so I will read a little bit in the rule books to see what the different weapons do and how they seem to work on a field of battle, and either I find that one is so much better than the other that I need to take it for both, or I will make one of each. But I love the look of the Storm cannon, so both of them will field that but I think one would have it on the right arm and the other on the left just for the diversity. I might consider getting a third in the future and give it two Storm cannons just because I think it would look really scary, but I will read the rules and see if that is a legal option first. Also I nned to get the model and an extra weapons sprue first. 

The Leviathan is rather massive and big compared to a regular dreadnought, but still I though they would be even bigger looking at pictures of them. But I haven't placed them beside a Contemptor or a regualr old-style box yet so I might change my mind on them whan I do that nce they are fully assembled. I will post a picture in here for comparison when I do that. 

So far the Leviathan has the legs and most of the torso assembled, so I need to finish the top and back of the torso and add the arms and weapons an then glue it all together. I amsure it will look awesome, and I hope my painting will do it justice. 

A little Astra Militarum update

At the moment I am working on building my first Field Ordnance Battery unit for the Walpurgian 3rd. This is basically artillery pieces mounted on wheels that needs to be pulled in to battle. This is the biggestweapons the Walpurgian 3rd has that is not self propelled.

At the moment I have two sets (each set has two artillery pieces), but I know I will get more over time. This is a new set for this year for the Astra Militarum, so I don't yet know how it is best to field them but that is something I am working on finding out. They come with three different options: Bombast field guns (basically a regular cannon), Malleus rocket launcher (multiple barrels) and a heavy lascannon (looks like it is a bigger version of the lascannon you get with the heavy weapon squads). Each cannon has a crew of 3 with a loader, a spotter and a gunner. The two teams form what is called a Field Ordnance Battery. 

What I am trying to find out is how many sergeants you have in a unit. Is it one for each gun, or is it one for each battery? And do you usually field two similar artillery pieces in a battery, or do you field two different set-ups? I am leaning towards fielding two artillery pieces with the same set-up as one unit, and put one sergeant in charge of that unit. Then I will eventually (as I get more guns) put up to 3 batteries together as one bigger unit with a Veteran sergeant (or any other sergent rank) in charge of 6 artillery pieces and their 3 regular sergeants. But I will see as I build the crew for the first unit if I find out something more about this. I might also ask my friendly Warhammer store staff if they know.

So far I have built the two cannons of the first battery and their gunners. I have made one Bombast and one Malleus and I plan to build the same setup for the second batch. Then when I get a third box I will make two heavy lascannons. Next time I get to sit down and work on my minis will be on Friday, and then I will build the rest of the crew. 

I mentioned earlier that I have built Usula Creed, and I am also trying to find out how I will field her in the army. My highest ranking officer is the figure for Usaker E. Creeed and I plan to keep it that way, but I would like to have Ursula in a regular sot as a high ranking officer, then if I shuld happen to play an official tournament or something (not very likely) then she can be the general. I might make her as Major Belle Boyd, the commander for the 2nd Armored artillery units, if not I will have to think up a higher ranking officer position where I can put her.

Ogor progress

I have worked more on my ogor amy. 

Here we see the Leadbelchers and Bragg, and they are starting to get some paint on them. So far i have painted the skin and hair as I had to redo that for the unit of Gluttons that was already painted, and I have also painted their cannons. I still need to paint the scrap sticking out of two of the cannons, their pants and shoes and also some details but they are comming along.

And speaking of the Gluttons, here are two of them. They are almost done now, but I need to repaint their teeth and I think I will use a lighter brown on their lips and maybe some other facial details that I want to make stand out. If I do that I will do it for the entire army.

Then the bases will get the green rim and I think I have a new technical paint that looks even more like patches of snow, so I will try to add some of that on top of what I already have on the bases.

When I was at my storage room on Saturday I brought home some more units to build, and I just had to make this unit of Ironguts. They are about 95% done, but I need to add some small details like some shields and knives. I have decided that the one with the big club and the one with the sword raised above his head will have a gnoblar on the base, but I discoverd when adding a gnoblar to one of the Ledbelchers that they would sort of get in the way of the painting, so I plan to prime them and paint them separately and then just glue them to the base before I add the basing to them.

The symbol on the banner pole is just amazing so I had to take a picture to show that off. I look forward to work more with this unit, hopefully I can prime them tomorrow or the next day.

But this is not all, I found a couple more boxes in the storage unit and I look forward to showing them as they are assembled. One of the boxes is quite big...

update on the first Steam Tank

For a litte while I have been trying to decide if I want to paint all the details of the Steam tank separatey and then glue it on or if I should glue it on an then paint it. I decided on the last option. 

I did not look too closely on the instructions before I chose what pieces to glue on, I just chose what I felt looked good and placed it on. When I checked the instructions later I saw that the scrolls hanging on the back row was supposed to hang on the shields, but I think hanging like they do now they look more like they belong to the tank itself.

I have started to paint the details and I think the gold really make the difference. 

I had to add a picture from the front as well.

I look forward to keep painting this as well as the Duardn who is going to stand in the turret.

New models assembled

This is a new model for the Gloomspite Gitz that was released alongside the new codex resently. Being both a big fan of goblins in general, but also of squigs I just had to get this. GW call him Squigboss with Gnasha-squig, and he has some sort of a facemask on the lower part of his face and a squig on a leash . The leash looks a lot like the one we use in the real world for seeing-eye-dogs to help blind people get along, but I don't think this squig is trained for that. 

This boss is going to be one of the many leaders in my army, and I look forward to priming him and painting him up. I have started the process of thinking up a name for him as well, but I am not there yet. But hopefully by the time he is painted up and ready for the table top both he and his squig will have a name.

Next up is also a quite new model. The reason she is placed like this is that she is supposed to stand on the base, but in order to do that she needs to be glued down and I don't want to do that until painting both her and the base is mostly done. 

This is the new Lord Castellan of Cadia, and her name is Ursula Creed. If you think the name sounds familiar, it is becaue she is the daughter of Ursaker E. Creed that has been the Lord Castellan for many years. Ursaker E. Creed is oficially MIA (Missing In Action) and presumed dead after the fall of Cadia.

 

I have not yet decided how I will field Ursula in the Walpurgian 3rd, but she needs to be a high ranking officer. I will see where I can put her and what name I can give her, but I look forward to adding her in to the army.

She came with two head options, one with a helmet and one without. I chose the one without the helmet as I think that looked the best. She could also be fielded with a scepter in her left hand, but I felt the binoculars looked a lot more like a soldier.  

Ogors - Trying something new...

Up until now I have only used light skintones to paint skin on my models, unless they have been Greenskins or Genestealer cults that is.

This week I have tried to change that, and I have done so with models that show a lot of skin...

The pictures are a little dark I think, but they do show what is about to happen. I built four Leadbelchers, and they are the ones standing in the second row on the second pic. They were all primed with Gray Seer as that is my standard primer these days. The good thing with that is that I have the option to use both contrast paints and the regular Base/Layer paints from GW and get a good result when I paint them. 
In the front row and far right on the second is a unit of what is now called Ogor Gluttons.They were originally painted to a good standard that I was happy with, but I took the models home to work a bit on their bases to make them up to date with my current way of painting bases. But before I started on the beses I got the idea that I would like this army to have a darker skintone, so I decided to repaint their skin and leave the rest as it is. I like their look now, but I think it would look  too weird with one unit that sticks out with a totally different skintone from the rest. Hopefully I can manage to just change the skin and maybe their facial hair if that looks very weird with the new skintone. 

In the third row, back beside the Steam Tank, is a model that has now been reduced to an un-named Maneater. He used to be Bragg the Gutsman and was a character. He is missing the hook on his staff right now, but I decided to prime that by hand and paint it up separately as it will get in the way of the details of the model when I paint the main parts.

I have seen several recipies for painting dark skintones, and I plan to do it by applying this base color that I have applied now (after the pics were taken, the final two also got their skin re-painted), then drybrush all over with a lighter tone, and then either layer or do a fine drybrush on the highest areas with an even lighter tone. My hope is that this method will get them to a good standard that I can be proud of with my level of painting.

For the bases for this army I have decided I will have snow like the Gluttons have now, but not all bases will be completely covered in that. Some will have Stirland Mud and snow mixed on the base while others will have a base all covered in snow. I might also try to make some ice details on some of them as GW has made some contrast paints that work well for this. Then the rims of the bases will get the same green as the reminder of my AoS figures. 

I have also decided that my Duardins will have some bases with Stirland Mud or Stirland Battlemire and some with Astrogranite and if there are some bigger bases I might combine it. I made a lot of Duardins for my Armies on Parade board some years ago, and I have now brought them home to the workbench so that I can fix their bases to the standard I use for all my armies now (mostly repainting the rims). 

If this darker skintone works out well, I will also introduce it to some of my Imperial Guard soldiers, as the Walpurgian 3rd often integrates units from other planets that has grown too small to be effective fighting units by themselves. I will start with some commisars first, as they are supposed to be from other planets as they shall not have an emotional bond to the troops they are serving with. But If the skintone works on the Ogors with lots of skin, I am sure it will work on Commisars and Guardsmen with only heads and maybe some hands or in some cases arms that is skin colored.

works in progress

This week I have finished my Mangler Squigs, and I have readied the parts to make the remaining fourteen Dwarfs of the Rat-pack unit with crossbows and with axes on their backs. So now I can sit down and clean the parts and glue them together. I have sorted the parts in to different boxes, so if I choose one part from each box I get legs and back, head and chest, arms with the frame of the crossbow, the bow string and a bolt, and finally the axe they can hav on their backs. Because of the axe on the back, I made sure that none of the Dwarfs have capes in this unit. I am also, because of their description of being specialists in catacomb and sewer fighting, rethinking having a banner and instead finding something cool that they can have on a pole instead of the banner that will get unspeakably dirty in no time.

For my Imperial Guard army I have built a store anniversary fgure called Sergeant "Ripper" Jackson, a tough female Catachan Sergeant with a metal leg. She will be one of my veteran infantry sergeants for the Walpurgian 3rd. It is a great mini and I look forward to painting her up. I hope i can prime her tomorrow.

I have also built a unit of four Ogor Leadbelchers with their big cannons. I was originally hoping I could have some fun with the cannons, mixing them up with the cannons for the Steam Tank, but it turns out that would be really hard because of the way they are assembled So I will have to use the cannons for the sets they came with.

Speaking about the Steam Tank... I have started to paint it up, and I plan to paint the armorplates and then add the details that goes outside them and paint that as it is glued on. I have no idea if this is the best way to do it, but I have already found that there are so many fiddly bits to paint that I think it is worth trying.

I am quite happy with the wooden parts, and I need to see how the armorplates turn out. But I have planned to drybrush them with Necron Compound dry paint anyway so I think they will turn out well in the end.

Since I didn't use the commander for the tank, I assembled him on a base, and I plan to use him for some position or other in the army. He has a special pistol and a looking glass, so I am thinking either crew for one of the guns, or as some sort of officer. Maybe he is an engineer or something, I'll see what I can come up with.