The Grey Hunter Srgt

WIP on the Infiltratators. I'm liking how the primer looks on this sergeant. I'm going to try and replicate it so it looks intentional

He's at rough and ready base coat stage right now but he's shaping up nicely.

 Wish they didn't have so many NCOs looking at their wrist lo-jacko-naters. Isn't that a Rupert thing to do?

The Vanguard Look

With the Start Collecting Vanguard edition now in my dirty clutches I needed to paint up my infiltrators eliminators and suppressors.

I wanted the infiltrators to have a more cammo look than the red of the third company.

 In the codex astartes each company is marked by the trim on its armour. White for the first, gold for the second, red for the third, etc. My head  cannon for the Death Tempters is that each company is a separate unit very similar to the lore of the Iron Hands themselves . All companies are Death Tempters and will fight alongside their brothers and move between companies if necessary. Their scouts are inducted and moved through the company structure rather than moving around the whole chapter as they progress.  Each non battle line company (1st, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th) are represented in each battle line Company's "battle group" and embarked upon a single strike cruiser or battle barge. 

 The Vanguard are not junior marines though and have a decree that 100 are included in the 10th company. So in effect they are the 10th company.

 10th company has a blank trim. In that they are the same colour as their armour. For my chapter that means black. I didn't like that look and I liked the idea of a dark green. I therefore tried it out on my first suppressor on the basis I could change it again if needed. 

 It came out really nice. So I did the Reavers too. 

The one with the red arm is for camparison. I've now changed all ten. 

This got me thinking about what the other companies would do. 

 It's unlikely I will get enough marines to clear 100 and get through the reserve companies added to the 3rd. They could have been subsumed into 3rds colours. Giving me 200 odd marines not including 10th and the 1st company squads this is therefore a theoretical question. 

I rooted around and found some old models that were in test colours from when I was starting my 4th Ed space marine force. They have been painted many times but this was a quick and dirty version to see what the colours looked like. 

 2nd Company is gold (at the back) 4th company is green (kabalite green centre) 5th proved a problem as its trim should have been bronze the same as the chapter colours which I don't think would have looked right. I swapped it with dark blue which was my original colour scheme for the Tempters back in the day. 

 All of them don't really carry the look of my chapter. The big block of colour on the shoulder patch is too different. I tried blocking in the red bits between the armour to try and bring it back but then I have the problem of 4 colours on a single miniature. 

 If you get more than 3 different colours on a scheme it looks very hodge podge. The Vanguard are working cos the dark green is in very close to black so doesn't stand out and the red is very background accent. 

 I have had these models in front of me for a while now and the red against the company trim is starting to grow on me. 

 Thinking about the reserve companies I could have them just have their red pauldron be "blank" (black) and have trim colours as per the codex. 

 I might try this out on the Outriders and see how they look. Haven't decided if these should be 6th (yellow) or 7th (purple) yet

Any how the suppressors are looking good and I have my Vanguard colour scheme picked out

 I have highlighted in a lighter green which gives them a more green feel but if you take a good look they are in chapter colours. I can picture these guys drifting in and out of cover like ghosts. 

Can't wait to field a whole force of these guys. 

The Eldar restoration project

 My old 2000 point Eldar army was the army of my dreams in that it mostly existed in my head. Looking at it now its very much out of shape lacking the basic necessities of a complete army. it does provide a very handy core of miniatures that can be  built upon to build that new force.

image from mgartworks.myportfolio.com

 I was really inspired by the artwork of Mark Gibbons link to cool stuff I even wanted to draw like him so took Art at school to learn to draw like him (I sucked and had to quit to make sure I didn't fail my other classes by spending too much time with oil paint stains on my clothes). 

Being a good lad I used to earn cash by doing well in school and I could have £2 a week and earn a bit more by going to relatives and was too lazy to get a post round. Fortunately the old blister pack would be £3-£5 each so I could buy a couple a month. I therefore built up a small set  of aspect warriors of every colour at the time. Well, apart from Banshees. But only one squad of each. 

Fire Dragons, 

Dark Reapers,

These boys are classically painted by me with too much primer obscuring all the detail and then not covering all the white as I try and fill in all the detail. At least I copied the paint scheme correctly. 

 Swooping Hawks, The Exarch on these guys is new and purchased from ebay. most of my aspect warriors are one short of a full squad (Xenos be crazy) so its something I could fill in by purchasing the needed boss model in the same fashion.

 Dire Avengers, these guys I had a go at repairing when i had my last call back to 40k in 4th ed. Never got as far as the bases or finishing them or getting their Exarch but at least they haven't got horrible primer all over them. Just not enough and the wrong type for the colour scheme, 

 and my favourite, the Striking Scorpions.

 To go with them I had the Phoenix Lord Karandas the Shadow master. 

This was always my favourite model and so expensive points wise and never did anything good but he was 40k for me. He shall arise again.

Jain Sar was also purchased as she looked awesome in the photos and drawings but I stupidly cut her support from her raised leg as it wasn’t in the eavy metal picture and she struggled to stand ever since. Why I got her over Morgan Ra or Fuegan is lost in the mists of time. 

 Two Warlocks found a place

 and two squads of 5 metal guadians. One with swords and pistols the other with shuriken.

 10 lasgun armed guadians came too but are not even legend choices anymore and I have no way of converting them back. 

 Backing up this mottly crew of guardians is a support platform with bright lance because lascannons used to be cool.

 The mighty dreadnoughts or Wraithlords as they are now known stomp across the battlefield. Needing a good hose down with agrax earthshade and some better highlighting but otherwise standing up rather well.

10 Harlequins came at great expense and the Eldar staple. The wind riders (Jetbikers!) Reclined on their Harle early 80s cool hogs these guys were a big stretch for my little budget and haven't come through storage very well with missing bits and broken pieces. At least there 5 of them.

4x Warp Spyders with two Exarchs because they were so nasty.  Only showing the painted one because the other is in bits in a box. These were some of my favorite miniatures and loved bouncing them round the table.

 Leading this band of warriors is their mighty Avatar of the War God. Kaela Mensha Khaine

his top knot needs pinning back in place and the thickness of the paints is wreaking the overall look. From a few feet away he doesn't look bad. Up close he looks terrible. 

As this was my second army and I could not paint and there was no Internet to take you by the hand back then. To really learn you had to go in the shop and sit with the nerds at the little red table and ask questions. Something that was simply terrifying to behold for me. As you may have seen therefore the army looks a bit naff. I'm not selling them so I want to fix them up to be more presentable. 

 And lo. Yje great Eldar Restoration Project was born.

 Plan is to go through each of these miniatures and either scrub the existing paint clean off. Or finish the existing paint work with a bit more time and patience.

 What I don't have for this army is a lot of money to put into it. Ideally I'd be getting the start collecting set and filling in the troop slots with some decent Guardians and more Dire Avengers. Then of course I'd need floaty tanks and aircraft, wind riders and whatever new hottness GW sends our way. 

 I have 5 Armies (Space Marines, Drukhari, Grey Knights, GSC and Necrons) all clamouring for that money and I can't afford them.

 Priorities.

 What I can do it chuck them the odd Exarch from ebay or cobbled together from the Drukhari kits. I dislike the Ynaid thing (They destroyed Bial Tan!) so I can't go for them and combine my Drukhai forces to supply the troops. If I get into them I could divert resources for the odd Guardian squad.

 Mostly this is painting exercise to transform some models. When it comes to games there might be some kill teams or a patrol or two putting the Aeldari thumb on the scales of destiny.

 

Christmas Gifts Assemble!

I know it's February and Christmas is well amd truly past but I recently received my final gift. Due to GWs production delays I had to wait for my boxy dreadnought goodness to come back in stock.

 So what did I get you ask..... 

First up is the Necrons and I got the Night scythe/Doom Sycthe that I love the rules for. So Necron. Zooms over and "invasion beam"! 40 Necrons standing in mid field. It was easy to magnatise the gun so I have the choice of which I bring to the table. 

 After that I had the choice of building a Doom ark or a ghost ark. I figured I'd get the new Doom stalkers (I'm noticing a theme here. It's worse than reaver/Reivers!) and my infantry would appreciate the lift and the buffs so I plumped for the ghost ark. 

 The Necrons need there buffs so I was also given the old technomancer. The new one unfortunately was out of stock and I thought I was being clever suggesting they get the old one so my order came for Christmas. 

Not a big fan of this model in the flesh (as it were) but a very useful addition rules wise. 

Next up were the late arrivals of the space marine vanguard start collecting set. This gave me ten infiltrators (no option to build in cursors. Boo!) 

3 eliminators  to try and take the place of my scout sniper team

along with 3 suppressors to add a fast attack slot. I don't like the hanging in the air look. I can get behimd a super soldier being able to fire a .50cal from the hip but not while in mid air. They jump land and shoot. And that's how I've modelled them. If any one gets shirty I'll make little pedestals for them to stand on. 

Then there's the Lieutenant to lead them. GW so got this the wrong way round. The Reiver Lieutenant should have had the drop wings and the Incursor LT should have been on foot. Could have corrected the model by letting player add the wings to the Reiver LT from the Reiver kit but alas no. They enshrined it in the codex that the one that can't shoot very far goes at the back and the long range shooter LT goes in with the scrappers. 

Speaking of scrappers. The Ironclad Dreadnought. The reason for my late delivery from Santa (element games) 

This bad boy is a monster in close combat with any vehicles or big nasties. Strength 12 - 4AP 5 damage sir... Yes please. I stuck the flamers on the seismic fist and the close combat weapon figuring it'd be going forwards and a bit of promethum is  always welcome when wadding into the enemies of the Emperor. If I'm facing more of a vehicle spam list I might go for the chain fist which I added the meltagun to. 2 hunter killer missiles cos why not and its a 160pts of bad news for any vehicle that gets too close. 

Just waiting for a break in the cold weather to get out there and spray them in primer.