Gangland Killings

So, after the grand plans of the Sons Of Gorgax, I needed a break from large-scale projects (although, as I mentioned at the end of my last post, I have started to reappraise my position in that regard). Luckily, Games workshop saw fit to start releasing loads of options for smaller-scale games for me to sink my teeth into, as they relaunched their Specialist Games division.

Blood Bowl was relaunched (and I did take the bait on that one - more to come!), but the box set that really caught my eye was the re-release of Necromunda. Playing the game will be a bit of an issue for me, as time is a precious commodity, and that will prevent me from diving into any campaigns, but painting up a Gang shouldn't be beyond my abilities. Or so you would think...

The Starter Set came with two fantastic Gangs - Escher and Goliath - and I decided that I would paint them both up, with my priority being the Eschers.

Whilst my Sons Of Gorgax had been muted and grubby, I wanted to try for something brighter with my necromunda gangs. Given that there were only about ten models or so in the gang as well, I wanted to try my best to make them into something I could be proud of.

I watched tutorials and read through painting guides, and it gave me lots of ideas as to how to paint these models up. The key takeaway was to abandon the final all-over wash that I had been used to daubing over my models for the past decade. A final coat of Agrax Earthshade was usually the finishing line for my model painting, but my intent here was to follow the GW mantra: basecoat; wash; highlight.

I expanded my colour palette to include multiple different tones and hues of the same base colour (three different blues were used, and three different flesh tones, for instance), and I used focused, carefully-placed washes, rather than splashing everything all over. it meant that everything went pretty slowly, but it seemed to work pretty well.

I wanted to achieve a 90s comic book effect (and the Kubert-era X-Men titles certainly influenced my choice of colour scheme), and so I went for bright colours to the hair which would lead to a wild variety of instantly-identifiable characters. These girls - the Tox-Town Venoms - were all going to be individual characters in their own right. All killer, no filler!

In addition to using different techniques to paint these guys up, this was also my first time using GW scenic bases. The Necromunda kits from the starter box come with Sector Mechanicus bases, and I decided to use them as they were intended. I have a Zone Mortalis board - oh! More on that in the next post! - and these bases or tailor-made to fit in with them. I also opted to - wait for it - PAINT THE RIMS BLACK! I have always previously painted my base rims in the same colour as the rest of the base, whether that was Baneblade Brown, Vallejo Medium Grey or good old Goblin Green (waaaaaaay back when). I had heard comments from some painters saying that the black bases helped to frame the model, and I have found that I agree.

Of course, eventually I ran out of patience with the Tox-Town Venoms, and the project stalled with my Gang half-finished. I do have every intention of continuing it, though, and the girls are just awaiting the next gap in my busy hobby schedule to be resumed (although that list of half-finished projects is now growing and growing...)

I think my primary issue with these Necromunda gangs is the fact that I am unlikely to engage in a campaign anytime soon. Kill Team can scratch the skirmish combat itch, whilst it will also allow me to dabble around with new armies (oh, more on THAT as well, later!), and Blood Bowl allows me to work on similarly-sized armies without having to worry quite so much about attention to detail and the like.

Still, though: I have enjoyed painting the girls so far, and I'm sure that I will be happy to have them finished off eventually. Wacey Wace was even kind enough to donate an extra sprue to me so that I can build up any extra Gang Members, should I wish to, at a later date.

For now they lie dormant, but be certain: the Tox-Town Venoms will see the light of day! Oh yes, they will...

The Sons Of Gorgax

As a part of this brief series of recaps - what I have been up to in the past three years, basically - it is my pleasure to present to you, the imaginary reader, my SONS OF GORGAX! Now, these chaps started life as The Sons Of Entropy (and will become so, once again), but they were a hotch-potch of different Chaos Space Marine kits and were painted in a wildly disparate range of painting abilities. Some of the models were among my first proper attempts at unit painting, whilst others were more proficient and involved weathering and the like... And so I decided - just like with my Blood Angels - to restart them from scratch. I used a couple of Burning Of Prospero box sets to equip myself with a good old pile of MkIII Power Armour and set to re-imagining my army. This time with far less of a Chaos-y influence...

Here, for starters, is my Chaos Knight! This chap was acquired back when the Chaos Knight kit was only available through Forge World. I really like this model, although I don't get to use him very often. The base has weirdly warped now, though, so I will need to sort that out before he sees the light of day once again...

Similar things apply to this: my Spartan Assault Tank! It's great! And ENORMOUSLY heavy, seeing as how it is pretty much a solid block of resin. I don't get to use it very often though, unfortunately, as it is so expensive in terms of points.

My metal boxes continued with this: my revamped Chaos Vindicator. Previously, it was flat, dull and uninteresting, but I brightened up its paintjob, gave it some nice, bright hazard striping to the dozer blade, and I gave it plenty of weathering (oh, and some transfers, too!) It was fun! Still haven't used it since the repainting, though...

And ditto to this Land Raider! You may notice a growing trend, here... To be honest, most of my games of regular 40K are around the 50-75PL (which I guess equates to 1000-1500pts or thereabouts), so a Land Raider is too expensive to use in these kind of scenarios.

This chap HAS seen the light of day, and he was good fun. In fact, I have another two of these lurking in my Box Of Shame, and why I haven't gotten around to constructing them yet, I don't know. They're fun to build, paint and play with - what's not to love?

But THIS is where things became a lot more useful. My key colour scheme for the Sons of Gorgax is the triad of green, purple and brass. Specifically, Vallejo Heavy Khaki, Xereus Purple and Vallejo Rust. At the time, I thought I was spending ages painting these line infantry guys, but in hindsight I managed to whizz through them pretty quickly. The MkIII armour lends itself well to simple schemes, and it works pretty effectively, I think.

As I mentioned, these guys are trying to resist the more extreme aspects of their descent into Chaos, and are trying to master the forces of the Empyrean, rather than be manipulated by them themselves. We all know how that goes, mind... Still, this is reflected in the fact that these guys are a bit more orthodox in their appearance.

The Cultists, on the other hand... well, they're weak-minded mortals, and are starting to feel the effects of  Nurgle more keenly. Some mutations have begun to appear, and they are all generally a ragtag bunch of ne'er-do-wells. With Cultists it was ever thus.

And so, onto more interesting models! Here I have a Hellforged Leviathan Dreadnought, which I realised - not long after putting him together - was positioned atop an inappropriately small base. Hnnnnntz. That's something to work on in the future, I guess! This guy is a monster, though - and loads of fun to paint and play with.

This project was also great fun because I was able to paint up a load of different characters as part of the journey. This army was particularly good for that, as I was pursuing a particular theme: bridled Chaos. So there were hints of degradation, but the characters and commanders could still display their own original traits. A good example of this would be my Warpsmith - he's a Forge World MkIII Techmarine, and I kitbashed him a little to make him 40K-compatible. I think this dude works pretty well for an army that is essentially uses Iron Warriors rules.

This guy was originally a Primus Medicae - an event-only 30k model that I acquired from eBay. I loved the aesthetic of him, even though he didn't really fit into any of the traditional 40K Chaos Space Marine roles. His build just seemed so well-suited to a Nurgle army, though. I have used him as a Sorcerer, but to be honest I will mostly use him as a non-combatant character, simply to support the Chapter's backstory.

Whilst I polished off some of the new units, I also revisited some of the older ones, such as this Hellbrute. I needed to update the colour scheme to make it conform with the Sons of Gorgax, wwhilst his base needed to be updated to match the new troops. I was pretty pleased with the end results, if truth be told.

It was also a great chance for me to work through some of my older, unopened boxes in my pile of shame. These Chaos Bikers had been untouched for years before I decided I needed something to pop into my Fast Attack slots! I Plasma-ed them up so they have some punch on the tabletop, but in all honesty my main driving (geddit?) factor here was adding an extra splash of purple to the models - something the plasma coils on their guns gave me the opportunity to add.

And so, there you go. Not all of the army has been showcased here - that would take far too long - but here is something of a family photograph...

It's not everything, but it gives you an idea of the scale of things in this project. This, combined with my Blood Angels army, gives me about 10,000pts of painted 40K goodness, and that should be enough by anybody's standards...

...except I am a glutton for punishment! Earlier this year, I succumbed to my own internalised pressure and bought some Death Guard. I had received a handful of models for Christmas 2018, and once I painted them up, I was hooked. I set about having a hobby purge, and have amassed another wince list of embarrassing riches, made up of lovely new Death Guard models which will see me REVISITING the revisiting of the Sons of Entropy! The army above shall represent the army in their early stages, as the Sons Of Gorgax, in the latter years of M.41, but my new Death Guard army (and it is an army) shows them post-Dark Imperium and the emergence of the Cicatrix Maledictum. You will have to wait to see what I have been up to with them, though, as there was a lot that went on in the interim.... Watch this space...

A Long Absence...

Crikey! It has been several years since I have touched this blog at all. The demise of Google+ and the rise of easier-to-access and easier-to-be-noticed social media platforms has somewhat put the kibosh upon this particular blog. Until now, I suppose. I'm hoping that perhaps I will just chronicle my ongoing painting ventures here, for posterity, and if anybody sees and/or enjoys it, then well bully for them!

So, what have I been up to since I finished that Razorback? Hmmmm... Well, I re-re-did my Blood Angels, I suppose! Insomuch as I re-based a fair amount of them to 32mm bases. I also added a load of characters to their ranks and even, latterly (because, of course, the previous post PRE-DATES Dark Imperium!) some Primaris Marines! GASP! So let's start with those guys in red...

Dreadnoughts, Troops, Elites, Characters and Vehicles all received some love as a part of my big push to get these guys finished off. My big aim was to get the army generally finished, so that I could pick up units here and there to play with as mini-projects. And I achieved that, I think.

I had a lot of fun with the Blood Angels as a whole. Previously, I had avoided models with overwhelming amounts of detail on them (which is hard with a Blood Angel army), but when I got stuck in it was lots of fun! This, however, was the beginning of my journey into the realms of taking-too-long-with-models land.

I am pretty envious of painters and hobbyists who are able to say "Right! I'm just gonna paint these dudes to a tabletop standard and just razz through them all." My backlog of models is such that I would dearly love to be able to be able to do this - even just to get them to basecoat stage.

I did end up selling off a large portion of the old army that I had. I came to the conclusion that I would never field the army in full, and thus I would never feel the benefit of them. In turn, I used these monies to fund new projects (more on them in posts to come!) and I relieved myself of the burden of an ENORMOUS to-do list.

I ticked off a number of boxes in terms of characters - Librarians, Chaplains, Apothecaries and Captains - so hopefully that will give me a whole range of different options whenever I decide to dust them off and get them onto the tabletop.

Vehicles, as well: my Land Raider, here; some Rhinos/Razorbacks and even my Stormraven and  Drop Pods got shiny new paintjobs! Hurray!

By the end of it, I was able to assemble a whole range of different detachments. A regular Battalion Detachment using the whole Troops and HQ combo, but also a couple of Vanguard Detachments - one to represent my Sternguard and Vanguard Veterans, and another to shine the spotlight on my Death Company.

Speaking of which, I then had the opportunity to paint up this Land Raider Achilles - an item I acquired in a Facebook trade many years ago, and which previously had been painted up as a Thousand Sons tank. Still haven't used it, mind, and this was a couple of years ago, now....

But great fun was had. Conversions were made, experiments were partaken of with painting techniques, new backgrounds were established... It was lots of fun. And this army is probably my finest 40K achievement to date.

For now, though, it lies dormant within the confines of a generously-sized KR Case. All 5000pts of it. Just waiting to be woken from stasis to fight on in the name of the Emperor.

THE EMPEROR PROTECTS!

Blood Angels: Rhino/Razorback & Squad

Hurray! I have not only finished my 5-man Tactical Squad, but I have also built and painted their lovely car Dedicated Transport - a Razorback! This one has been kitted out with a twin-linked Lascannon for a bit of extra 'oomph'.

I have tried to use the correct markings where possible, showing company designation and vehicle numbering.

I opted for blue for the lenses on the Lascannon turret as a contrasting spot colour. I think it stands out quite well.

Whilst the basis for the Chapter iconography is the traditional black winged blood drop, I have added a little splash of colour to the drop itself to tie it in with the detailing on the Marines.

Etc etc.

For a bit of added flexibility, I built the Razorback so that it could be retro-fitted to turn it into a Rhino. Whilst a Razorback is currently ideal, my ultimate aim is to build (if not run) ten-man squads, so they need some bigger wheels.

Here they all are, showing off their new ride.

Blood Angels: Tactical Marines #2

Here are some more Blood Angels Tactical Marines for you, pilfered from the Betrayal At Calth box. As with their predecessors, these chaps are well-weathered and battle-damaged.

The glazed blood drop is the recurring motif for my army, and will be the motif of my Successor Chapter, the Scions Of Sanguinius.

For the Plasma Gun, I used a different technique to usual, and used layers of grey with a Biel-Tan Green wash over them for the power coil. it works pretty well, I think, and complements the lenses on the helmet.

Ditto below with the blood drop motif...

I have taken the time whilst doing up my Tactical Squad to revisit my kitbashed Captain that I did a while ago. I repainted his angel wings black, and made the gold colours bolder and less brassy. Once again, I think it works pretty well, and it ties him in with the grunts.

Previously, the blood drops were purple, as well, so revisiting him allowed me to bring that in line with everything else, as well.