The Green and the Red

Quick update this time around. Finished working on my two minis which were both an excuse to work on something non-blue for a while. First up is my Warhammer Fantasy/Age of Sigmar (if I ever decide to play either) Chaos Nurgle Champion.

This guy is one of the older metal OOP Champion minis with a plastic chaos warriors head from my bitz box (ebay purchase that was missing the original helmeted head). He has so many little details which were fun to paint, the rotting decapitated head was my favourite part :S

 I've mainly stuck to painting predominately 40K minis, but after looking at some of the recent releases for Age of Sigmar and the Total War Warhammer game's arrival, I had a sudden itch to paint something fantasy and came across this guy on Ebay. I've magnetised his head socket to allow me to switch in his bare head in the unlikely event that should I actually play some fantasy then I can easily switch his head out to represent him on his last wound (not sure how many he would have to begin with, but you never know). With this guy done, I'm actually tempted to try and put together a warband for the upcoming campaign event that GW is going to be hosting soon.

Next up we have something less filthy but no less armoured. A Blood Angel for my Horus Heresy Red Marked army.

 

 This guy was made from some random parts I had lying around (eg. old space marine banner top, White Dwarf subscription mini's chainsword arm, Betrayal at Calth and Tactical squad parts) and is meant to represent a volunteer from the Blood Angels Legion present at Ultramar that joins Aeonid Thiel's Red Marked. At some point he will be accompanied by either more of his Legion brethern or act as an assault squad leader for the Ultramarines. Additionally this guy was also based on my friend Myk of Little Plastic Castle.

 Having already been painting red helmets I felt that it would be just as easy to paint a marine in red armour. Using the older foundation paint Merchite Red, I think I've managed to achieve a convincing colour for this Blood Angel. The winged skull ornament on his right shoulder guard is also a little nod to the awesome Blood Quest comic series, which was my first introduction to the Blood Angels and still has a special place in my heart.

Group shot with the rest of the Red Marked completed so far.

Buddy Cop esque shot with Aeonid Thiel

As always hope you enjoy the pics.

A sign of things to come...

 Rather than dither on real life commitments getting in the way of hobby progress, I'm just gonna dive straight into what I've been working on and what I've got done recently.

 As I promised a little while ago, I present to you my finished Valhallans. The majority of them were painted 5 years ago as part of a box set I received and I have the intention of selling them off at some point.

They are not my best work I'm afraid but I do like the faces on some of them. My particular favourite amongst them is the one actually wearing his helmet featured above.

 Surprise, surprise, it's more Space Marines. I've been trying to work on a playable Horus Heresy force for some time and these Ultramarines (who I went on at length in my last post) have been slowly taking over my hobby bench, displacing my Novamarines as well as my other side projects.

 Currently they're sitting at my least favourite stage which is the basecoating stage, but once I'm past that it'll be onto washes and then the fun part, highlighting.

In addition to some Ultras, I've also managed to cobble this little Blood Angel together using some spare parts I had lying around. This little guy will be joining the Red Marked at a later point, but he's coming together quite nicely.

 Finally something that is finished other than the Valhallans, it's Master Chief! I showed this guy off in one of my previous posts after being inspired by the news that we'll finally be getting a Halo miniature tabletop game. He was a nice change of pace, as he's smaller than the usual minis I usually paint. I had alot of fun painting him to match his Halo 5 appearance and in particular his assault rifle.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Some Hobby progress to the smell of pizza and varnish.

I know I said that I'd show off the rest of the finished Valhallans in my last post, but I recently finished these new minis and I couldn't help but show them off.

 

This guy has been sitting on my to-do list for well over a year and this morning I finally sat myself down and decided to add the finishing touches to him. It wasn't as much as a chore to do as I thought he was going to be and I actually felt proud of myself when I finished off his face.

 

With this guy done I have only one other Deathwatch mini left to do and then I can consider them all complete.

 As with the other Deathwatch members this guy has his backpack and wrist magnetized so I can switch between different loadouts. I'll need to make up a jumpack for him and the other kill team members at a later date.

I've spent alot of my weekend working on these guys and I couldn't be any happier with them. I wanted to just post pics of these guys up without anything to say, so I wrote some fluff based on the characters from the audio book that they're based on. The only exception to this was the test mini below.

I managed to paint up a new arm for this guy and added a combat knife to him. I'm pleased with how he's turned out and will definitely be using the same techniques for the rest of the Red Marked. 

"We know you too well my pugnacious brother. Patience is not a virtue for you is it?"

 Dubbed as a marksmen, Venator hailed from the planet of Konor where he was recruited to join the XIII Legion. Often ranging ahead and marking targets for destruction, Venator proved invaluable in the Red Mark's quest to purge the traitor elements leftover in the wake of Lorgar's Shadow Crusade.

 

 "You sound concerned brother. There's no shame in adversity."

 Bracius was the assault weapon specialist that fought alongside Thiel during the purging of the 500 worlds and was often seen as a stalwart and inspiring warrior amongst the ranks of the Red Marked. While viewed as a harsh taskmaster during training exercises, Bracius was also a cheerful soul seeing adversity as a welcome challenge to be overcome.

 

 "At least those b*****ds are dead."

 A stern and uncompromising individual, Envelio was Thiel's vox specialist and was often at odds with the intrepid warrior's decisions during the early days of the purging of the 500 worlds. Though often dour in the face of uncertainty, Envelio proved himself to be adaptable and resolute in the face of ever-changing situations.

 

"Now we fight. For Primarch and Emperor. For the lost sons of Calth and for those yet to be born on Macragge. This is your hour brothers. Banish shame, banish doubt, banish anger. Show these traitors what it is to be an Ultramarine!"

 The intrepid leader of the Red Marked, Thiel was instrumental not only in the cleansing of the 500 worlds but in the opening hours of the Battle of Calth and several engagements of the Underworld War. His tactical approach to warfare inspired his Primarch, Roboute Guilleman to rewrite the operational tenets of the legions into the chapters which would hold the Imperium together not only through the rest of the Horus Heresy but centuries after its conclusion.

 Lastly a look at one of my upcoming minis to join the rest of the Red Marked. A banner bearer I made using parts from the Betrayal at Calth Chaplain, tactical marine parts, some forgeworld parts, an anvil industries drum mag and a Venerable Dreadnought banner.

 I'm looking forward to painting this guy up and I've already got a design sorted for the banner that will hopefully represent the Red Marked, Imperium Secundus and the XIII Legion.

Some side projects and more

 Well I've been busy with alot of side projects as of late and thought I'd share them.

 With the announcement that Spartan Games would be releasing a tabletop miniatures game based on Halo and the recent coverage at Salute 2016, I decided I would take my mini Master Chief from the Halo 4 Cortana action figure and base him in preparation for the release of Halo: Ground Command.

 I bought myself one of the old metal Chaos Warrior champion models. This one is the Nurgle champion. I've already decided on naming him Morris Nigarack or as he's now known as "Black Death", so I'll be painting him in a dark greenish almost black colour for his armour. Also because I just can't help but make things more interesting for myself, I've magnetized his head so I can switch out an alternate one to represent whether he's wounded (if I ever play AOS at some point).

 This was another little side project for my friend Myk Pilgrim, it's from a Cthulhu based card game and he wanted it to be painted up as a form of rock statue.

 Not contempt with making the heads removable for my Horus Heresy marines, I decided to give my Iron Warrior mini and alternate mutated arm. Part of me would like to be able to use him as a character for Black Crusade (Fantasy Flight's Chaos Marine RPG).

 I've decided to dive into making a playable force for 30k based on Black Libarary's audio drama "Red Marked". This marine is the test bed for the colour scheme and techniques I'll be using across the whole force. At this moment in time, his left arm has gone missing and I can't find it meaning I'll need to make him a new one :(

 Just to show it's not all Space Marines all the time from me, I present to you my recently finished Valhallan Sgt and Flamer trooper. I've had these guys lying around for a while and wanted to get them finished so I could throw them in with the rest of their squadmates (will try get a picture of all them together next time)