New Recruits: Black Templars

The days of painting Salamanders for Adepticon have waned. In the immortal words of Alice C., "School's out for Summer!" And, for the moment, I'm still unemployed. Throw in a much-appreciated invitation to participate in an Apocalyptic reprisal of the 3rd Battle for Armageddon, and it's time to do some painting!

I've owned Grimaldus and Retinue since I got back into the hobby (oh, going on mid-fourth edition now). Sadly, because he's a bit cumbersome compared to much cheaper units, he's been languishing in his box all these many years.

Now, with Helsreach being so key to his fluff, and me having a bit of free time, I just had to drag him out, dust him off, and slap on some paint.

I tried some new techniques with this squad. The main difference is I used Vallejo Air grey primer, applied with my Grex airbrush, instead of Chaos Black. I wanted to see how it would work, one, and I also wanted to start experimenting with alternatives since the Chaos Black spray will be hard to come by from now on (I have no idea what the current GW Black will look like so it's best to find an alternate route to get where I need to go).

Here are some before and after pics of the models.

Grimmy sprayed with Vallejo Air grey primer mixed with VGC Black

Retinue primed with a mix of VA Grey primer and one with the Grimmy mix leftovers.

The whole gang.

Backside. Cause it's smexy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It felt good to paint some Templars after such a long time. It was strange, though. I kept blending and building the highlights on the blacks and it just kept looking wrong. It was only after about 12 hours that I realized it was the absence of color that was messing with me.

I plan to add High Marshal Helbrecht next. I've also ordered some more Assault termies and I'm building some new neophytes (although I seem to be missing their heads. Guess it's time to give Genocide a call to see what WFB junk he's got laying around).

Oh, and as an added bonus, here's an updated (and much better) picture of my TH/SS Terminator Marshal. He's been done for a while, but it's one of my favorite conversion pieces.

STOP! Hammer time! (Yeah, I went there)

Aerion's New Army

Well, maybe a LITTLE bit.

If by "new" you mean "purchased mostly when the army was released in Spring of 2011 and just now getting some love with the build and brush", that is.

Last year at Adepticon my long months of artistic guidance over the Salamander project was rewarded by a generous gift of some new models that had, just that very weekend in fact, been scattered Primarch-like across the globe by Games Workshop. As the imposing stack of Grey Knight kits was shoveled into my grateful arms I was both humbled and exhilarated. My humbleness has never waned, but my exuberance had to take a back seat to things like school, life, and various other projects.

This year another gift gave me a much needed impetus to see the Grey Knight project launched into the seas of possibility. My beloved wife, Lady Boxcars, signed me up for a Freeboota membership. For those who aren't aware (and honestly, if you're in the hobby and not, you're missing out), the lads at 40K Radio (link here) have a members only forum community collectively known as the "Freebootas". Membership has its privileges, but one big one is the friendly and supportive environment for lovers of our game.

Pursuant to that environment, the gang host an annual "Motivational Challenge". Basically they designate a goal for each month of the year for participants to accomplish. For example, January's goal was troops or "'Boota'z Choice" (i.e. whatever you want as long as it's something 40K related and you don't start it until the 1st of the month). If you complete your goal by the 15th you get a gold badge for your tracking bar. Complete it by the 30th and you get a silver. Get it done eventually and you get a bronze. As the year progresses you will ideally find that your chosen projects will be vacating your "to-do" shelf and ending up on the table.

I wanted to make my mark as a contributing member of the community so I dove in. I didn't want to start with troops (though, considering I actually had a smidgeon of free time between the holidays and the relaunch of school, I probably should have), so instead I took the "Boota'z Choice" option and got this guy out of the bitz box and prepped. On January 1 I primed him, and by the afternoon of January 4 I had this:

"Of course they have armor cleaning stations in the warp. Why do you ask?"

So that makes two complete models for my Grey Knight army. I have an HQ and I have a Heavy (Dreadknight). That gives me about 1000 points, so I'm halfway there. Woot!

I hate it when heroes die...

Another hero was called home yesterday:

Dave Arneson: 10/01/1947 - 04/07/2009

Along with last year's passing of:

Gary Gygax: 07/27/1938 - 03/04/2008

Rest in peace gentlemen. You two literally created the foundation upon which my childhood was built. There will never exist a way for me to adequately express my gratitude.

with the utmost respect and admiration,
Chad