Traitors! Chaos Scum!

XV LEGION: The Emperor's Automatons

The Thousand Sons fellowship of High Sorcerer Matt ready for War!

Like all armies, this one started as a pile of bits (and still has a few to go!)

 Once everything was put back together it was all given a very rough white primering! Most of these models were already primed white or blue or both. Some were painted in various manners. Sprayed right over all of it!

Then I installed the initial base-coat with airbrush, Starting with a band/swath of Warlock Purple from the knees down, but also underneath the entire model. Purple was followed by Regal Blue on the model from the knees up at a downward angle (above the model) - basically leaving the feet white, knees and under surfaces purple. Next up was Enchanted Blue over the same surfaces but carefully avoiding all recesses. Then quick highlights with Ice Blue, and finally Skull White.

 Resulting in the nice glowing blue armor! To prep for the basing effects the lower half of the model was inked with Devlan Mud. Then using the same process I used on the vehicles, dirt/glue mixture was applied liberally to the base and on the models from the knee down, and when the dirt was dry (12 hours+) I painted the bases Adeptus Battlegrey and then worked up each model with Skull White via airbrush to finish the initial basing effects.

From the basecoat and basing effect stages its all downhill, no more fancy business!

Nothing special, just foundation and metallics, then Badab Black ink wherever necessary - around and in between and underneath, careful of the nice blue armor finish! This was the reason for the Purple to Regal Blue to Enchanted and so on workup on the armor earlier, to avoid using much ink later to add shading to parts of the armor!

To lock in the army on the Tabletop, light "swooshes" of Army Builder Snow flock was applied with the same cheap glue as the earlier basing effects. 

After the Graabvelt campaign, some easy highlights will complete this army entirely!

The Rubric of Ahriman: Mudd

 As Ahriman crusades through the Warp and across the galaxy in search of knowledge and power, I am painting his Army for commission to tabletop standard. Today, we get to play in the dirt!

 Started with a few big scoops of potting soil. All over the internets you will find warnings about fertilizer and soil pests or pathogens, with instructions to wash and cook your dirt. Blah blah. Use cheap fresh stuff from the store, nothing fancy with fertilizers or moisture control. I didnt care, I get mine from a nice dry sunny spot out in the yard. You can find similar warnings and instructions on sorting the dirt, I just gave it a good shake in the big container, and scooped the stuff that looked the best into the small container.

I used the two part tupperware to mix the mud. In the small side I have about 60/40 glue to water. In the big side I added the glue and water to the dirt separately and mixed into a paste as I used it.

Basically I would roughly coat the area for dirt with the glue/water, apply the dirt paste liberally, then I would coat the dirt with glue and shape the dirt with the stiff brush, brushing off excess etc. I feel the shaping/coating step was the most important.

Once the dirt was dry (12+ hours) it was time for color. In order I applied light layers of Bleached Bone, Graveyard Earth, Bestial Brown, and Scorched Brown, and a final light coat of Bone. Eventually the finish effect will have some very carefully applied tiny swaths of White.

Ah yes, something similar for the infantry - they are next!

The student-aspirants, The Achaeminians

Painting the Thousand Sons to a tabletop standard - we wanted these guys to end up bright blue, yellow and gold - with hardcore basing effects, this force is on its way to the Gates of The Fang itself!

  I went about 'updating' the blue that was already installed on the tanks. A lot of damage had occurred during the years of transport and of course the rebuilding effort. The first coat of blue was entirely to try and get a smooth finish on the swoosh at the end of all this fun. I also hit the storm bolters, trophy racks, tank tracks, and the vindicator shields with Boltgun. Then I crafted a simple Tzeech swoosh symbol mask and quickly taped off the boltgun areas.

After the first coat of blue and the mask, I hit each tank with bands of Black, Purple, Red, and finally Yellow. After the color bands I hit the Tzeech swoosh with Black to give it a feathered outline.

At this stage I just focused on having a recognizable color band and having a smooth blended transition from and to each. Then I covered the tanks with hairspray and salt. I use a mixture of 4 different sizes of salts for effect. The salt is applied VERY HEAVY on the yellow swath, with less and less as each individual tank's color moved though to the blue.

 

After the salt/hairspray dried, I covered the fleet with Blue and updated the Black Outline on the swoosh mask. I paid close attention to getting the paint down inside the salt buildup and on the model. Once this coat of paint was dry (overnight) I then washed off the salt under the faucet with gloves, a toothbrush and VERY hot water!

 So the Armor effect installed, its time to paint these bitches!

High Sorcerer Matt's Thousand Sons

Wolfbrother Chapter member High Sorcerer Matt commissioned me to paint [AND build] his Thousand Son Chaos Space Marine Warhammer 40k Army  to a simple, "tabletop" standard:

After sorting the bits and crushing a couple rhinos I was finally ready to build and re-build the Chaos force.

With a quick Tzeech symbol mask for the fixered up vehicles, and the infantry re-organized the army was ready for some equally quick primering!

Death By A Thousand Cuts: May 21st Contest of Champions!

Great Escape Games, Sacramento hosts an extremely well run and very exciting Warhammer 40k Escalation Tournament every other month. This was our third this year and as always, the competition was brutal! The Dark Eldar Force was assembled and then... disassembled for travel Friday night.

General Oadius' Blood Legion in pre-deployment, parade formation.

General Gahner brought Salamander Drop Pods to his first CoC Event, and went 2-1...

Starting off the first mission, Dawn of War, with the usual tricks...

High Sorcerer Matt, playing the Wolfbrothers Space Wolves Army at his first CoC Event, fresh from the chase and kill Round 1...

Sirus was inspecting the air flow conditions...

Wolfbrothers finish the first round with 3 wins and 1 loss. In the second round we face the Annihilation mission...