Sons of Horus are coming!!!

Well it has been well over a month since my last post.  It has been crazy around here but I have been busy after dark.  I have not posted my progress but I will start catching up on my posting. 

I had to take a break from painting my Nids the Yellow is killing me.  I love the look as I think it really pops against the grey skin tones but it takes 3-4 times longer to paint than anything else.

I needed a fresh project and with my inability to focus on one thing, I started three projects at the same time over the last three weeks.  I have always wanted to have a Sons of Horus army as they are THE Legion in the fluff.  No other Legion could compare against their battle honors.

So I have finally begun to build them from the models I got a while back.  I have never played the Horus Heresy game and I know nothing of the rules I am building models based on the narrative I want to run and think look cool so keep that in mind.  I will eventually read and play but I am a modeler and painter first and gamer second.

These two Sons of Horus are in Cataphracti Terminator armor.  Korsal has  a Reaper Autocannon, Chainfist and a nasty attitude.  Borias has a heavy flamer and power sword ready for the loyalist dogs. 

I want to note that these forgeworld models are absolutely worth every dime as they are gorgeous when finished.  They are difficult to build as super glue and pinning is a must.  You have to pin the hands to the arms and arms to the torsos and the torsos to the legs.

Sethba is firing into the oncoming enemy with what looks like a double barreled plasma gun, and the lightning claw is flickering and ready for blood. 

Callibus is the Sergeant for the squad and is a dual lighting claw beast.  Callibus will be staring at a loyalist head in his outstretched claw.  This pose will be very similar to the 13th Black Crusade artwork with Abaddon His out stretched claw will be holding a loyalist head with the spine hanging down. 

Zakiel had some minor conversion with the Hammer arm as the terminator armor does not allow you to be flexible with the poses.  In order to raise the arm I had to do a little green stuff work and reposition the hand as well to demonstrate the downward thrust of the power axe coming down.  Zakiel has a combi-flamer ready to roast some loyalist scum.

Thanks for looking and may your paint brush never be dry.

The Motor Pool

Here's the motor pool for the list I've come up with. 

3 Rhino's with havoc launchers, dirge casters and dozer blades. I'll be honest I don't care for the dozer blade look on a standard Rhino. For now I'll leave the Rhino's without them. 

The Vindicator is a fun model to build. I love how sturdy the armour looks. It's equipped with a havoc launcher and a dirge caster. Paint to come after the rest of the army is built.

This Rhino is a stock model with one exception. I added a top hatch from an old Rouge Trader Rhino.   It changes the profile a bit by leaving off the outer ring on the top hatches. (Just noticed it's missing a headlight)

You can notice on this Rhino I went for the traditional havoc launcher. For the riveted look along the top hatch I glued on the chaos spikes from the accessory sprue. The next step was simple, I just broke the spikes off and Boom! The top hatches were applied to the Rhino again without the outer rings. (These will be repainted).

This Rhino was already 85% built when I received it from my Dad. I used the second Rouge Trader too hatch for this Rhino. My Dad placed the aquila and banner on the front both of which I usually avoid. For this one will leave it as is. It's one of his last projects before he died.  

Here is the first predator with the new lascannon turret. I may have to trim it down at the base to lower it's overall profile. It's different and I feel aggressive.

The latest predator has the other predators turret. This was built a long time ago, notice the dust. It had some old and broken up lascannon side sponsors which had to be replaced. Luckily I had them from a Land Raider upgrade sprue I'd bought a while ago. There were several spikes and a dozer blade on the front end. I removed them filed and sanded it down. To help add some flavor and cover up anything I may have missed (which appears during paint) I added the cables to the front. It's a nice touch.

That's all for now. Next up will be a couple of spawn (I have 8 more to make) and a heldrake. Until next time 

Iron Warriors: Predator Part 3

I've started building up my model count for a tournament in 2 months. I'll focus on building them,

applying  a basic paint job on them, then coming back to tidy things up. 

Here is a Rhino I had painted a couple of years ago. I need to touch it up and it will be ready to go. The predator is at a stopping point for now. Once all the models are built I can play a few games of 40k. Throughout the week I'll revisit them.

I'll be switching out this turret for another one I got from Hivemind a while back. This is mostly to fit with the second "standard" predator.

I'm really pleased with the look of the model. 

Here's a peak at what I'm building next. 

Close Combat Terminators

I've created a use for my old metal terminators. Over the past few months I've wanted to put these older models to use. Dual lightning claw chaos terminator kits don't exist either. Two problems for the list I'm building. The solution is chaos raptor lightning claws on my classic terminators. I've assembled them and put some paint on them. Thoughts?

The Beast is ready to stomp!

The Beast is ready to stomp!

The Scythed Hierodule is finally finished after a few months being out of country and family and 40K withdrawal.  Finally some shots of the finished model.  This was actually one of the easiest forgeworld models I have ever put together.  I only had to pin the for scything talon arms and the lower jaw and head.  no gap filling was necessary. 

 

Front view of the slavering maw of rotted teeth.  A Space Marine stabbed through the chest and pinned to the ground bleeding out.

 

Here is a side view of the beast.  I was torn on this large of  a model where I should tie in the fleshy colors with the greyed tough skin of my Tyranids.  I opted to stick with the flesh colors on the joints, vents and any guns. 

Here is a better shot of the pinned Marine.  I struggle with the blending of guts and blood how to distinguish the two some times when doing the conversion work.  When I green stuff it there is not much difference until I paint it.  I use the pinkish flesh tones for the guts and splatter a little blood over it and it works for me now.  I need to take some more advance modeling and painting classes.  That will be forth coming whenever I have time that is.

Final side picture.  Here you can see the Marine was trying to throw a melta bomb but just couldn't get activated in time.  Here you can see a little bit of the guts picked out of all the blood.  After viewing the photos again I need to add a little blood splatter to the talon that is pinning down the Marine.

I have started painting my first Hive Crone and Man I really like these models but yellow is such a painful color on such a large model.  The wing span is ginormous on this thing.  To think I have at least two more of these to build and paint in the future.

Hive Crone work in progress.  I may have mentioned that I absolutely hate the plastic flying stand for Monstrous creatures.  I will use carbon fiber rod for my stands.  The GW stands are nice for flying machines/aircraft but way too bulky for creatures.

I haven't decided where I want to glue the tentaclids yet.  GW displays under the wing but I think on top of the wing will look better and break up the huge fields of yellow on top.

Ruined corner of building as the display base.

 

Laying down the base color more of a baby poop brown, but it works well as a base for yellow.

 

Below are some pictures from last night which are much closer to completion.  I have about 15% more to complete which is mainly the highlights of the grey skin tone, teeth, eyes and some metal details on the building.

 

I have the Hive Crone angled slightly down and dipping to the left as you look at it.  I wanted to give the impression it was swooping down to vomit its acid onto some Space Marines in the ruins below that will be in a separate diorama forth coming when I start painting Space Marines again.  This may be sooner rather than later as I am getting burnt out on yellow and the new Space Marine Codex is out.

I may have to move to my Emperor's Shadows after this model.  Then again I want to knock out the Barbed Hierodule and the mucolid spores and spore mine army I have been wanting to play.

This angle show the swooping a little better.

The under side showing the fleshy acid sacs of the Hive Crone.

 

Another close up of the base.  I still need to pick out some more metal details and touch up the side of the base with black.

 

Thanks for looking and may your paint brush never be dry.

 

 

Iron Warriors Predator Tank Part 2

I felt the tank needed more to it and had an idea. I used the old Rouge trader Rhino front faceplate to add a more aggressive front end. All I have left to add now is a havoc missile launcher and it's time to paint. My dilemma is where to place the havoc launcher.

Iron Warriors Predator Tank Part 1

I have now built my own version of  a Predator tank for my Iron Warriors. I wanted to keep the rugged and strong feel of the Iron Warriors, while following closely to the original design. I opted for a turret with a twin-linked lascannon and a combi-bolter on top. I like the look of guns brimming from the hull. I changed things up with the original predator by using Leman Russ side sponsons. The conversion from an old predator attempt Hivemind had purchased from another owner and gave to me. There was a metric ton of glue all over the hull of the old predator. So I "delicately" tore it apart and started anew. You'll see the torn up rhino hull on the bases of my models to come. Here she is built up and ready for priming.