On the Workbench [May/June] - Horus Heresy

 

While poking away, and mostly stalling on completing the Dark Angel's Spartan assault tank, I've been building a few things.

In May I assembled of a squad of the new plastic MkII Breachers.  A typically good kit as we've come to expect from the plastic heresy line.

In June, I picked up the Horus Heresy Legio Custodes Battle Group box and 3.0 codex. These purchases inspired me to break out some older rein models I had in inventory. Here we have Constantin Valdor in all his Forge World resin glory.

Next up I assembled and based a box of Aquilon terminators. I left the armored tops unglued for ease of painting later. Some poster tack is currently securing the parts against loss.

Then I turned to the one model in the battle force box that I was least interested in: the Calidus Annihilator Grav-tank. But during assembly, it really grew on me. It was fun to assemble and is a great looking model. I would never had gone for the resin Forge World version. At some point I'll do something interesting with the base to match the rest of the force.

Next I assembled the Contemptor-Galatus dreadnought.  This will compete with the Saturnine dreadnought for Dreadtober this year, no doubt.  I have always liked the look of this dread and I'm psyched to include it next to my existing resin Contemptor-Achillus.

 

Last up for the month was the Shield Captain from the box. Quite a fancy dude, he is. A joy to build and will be great fun to paint. I'll get on with assembling the remaining 12 models for the two Sodalities in the box.  I definitely got sucked in by the Horus Heresy specific sculpts.  I have been considering my 40K Custodes as double duty, but the differences between the 40k/30k lines and available models have made it worth collecting both for me. 

Super fun, detailed models that will provide a lot of painting enjoyment.  I expect to get started on a few of these once I complete the damn Spartan. :)  I really don't know what's got into me, but I have definitely been struggling to find motivation to sling paint this year.

That's it for now.

Cheers and Happy Gaming! 

Horus Heresy Dark Angels Spartan - WIP

 Greetings and welcome back. I've been slowly tinkering away on this Spartan Assault Tank for my Dark Angels Age of Darkness collection. This started as a plastic Spartan from the 2.0 release box. It had been assembled and was languishing in the queue.  I really want one of the new super heavy tanks, and decided that wasn't going to happen until I painted up the big tanks I already have for Horus Heresy.

As a recap, I built this tank with the Forge World land raider add-ons for Horus Heresy Dark Angels and included Forge World MkIII shoulder pads as well. Due to the resin on the prow, I didn't bother to go in for sorting out how to get the assault ramp to open and simply glued the doors shut. I had not intended to go in for a detailed interior in any case.

 

The base colors were pretty straight forward. I thought about and that opted out of any checker patterns.

I tried out some browns and oranges to make the track section different from other metals on the tank. I wanted a sort of older weathered look. During the final stages I plan to add some dry brushed dark silver as highlights.

Here is the beast with tracks attached.  Just what I was hoping for; something that stands out as different from just another bit of silver on the tank.

Currently, the guns are not glued on, just attached via their slotted connectors. They are not tight which leaves them a bit floppy even after some paint. I figure it's still best to leave them removable for future storage; or the possibility of alternate weapons one day.

And here she is with decals applied and additional details done. I'm still working on the project a bit at a time.  My painting output has slowed WAY down this year as I spend more of my free time on other pursuits. But I'm as committed to the hobby as ever.

I just primed a plastic Breacher squad for the Dark Angels.  And I even got a game of Adeptus Titanicus in during April.

So while the blogging has been slow, I'm still active and enjoying the hobby. I hope to have the Spartan complete and up for show-and-tell soon.

 

Cheers and Happy Gaming! 

On the Workbench [March] - Heresy Era Dark Angels

 

Greetings and welcome back. I continue to fall behind on blogging, but not the hobby.  Today I'm sharing a squad of MkII armored Assault Marines for my Dark Angels collection. This squad is part of the Dreadwing and so are armed with disintegrator pistols and other nasty means to purge the enemies of the Imperium from the galaxy.

 

The squad Sergeant carries a charnable sabre and plasma pistol. 

 

 

This is one of my favorite poses. Pure HtH and ready for business. 

 

We'll see how this fella paints up. The only power lance in the kit was held with the blade on the right in a position I couldn't get my head around.  So I cut the two ends of the lance off and switched them using pins and prayers.  It's...mostly straight now?  Anyway, the pose is improved and the weapon seems novel enough to have one in the army, for the rule of cool.

 

For similar reasons I had to include at least one two-handed chain axe.  It seemed fitting for a member of the Dreadwing.  This will be a Terran squad, and so they are less caught up in the Caliban knightly sword-master traditions. There are five chainswords and a standard chain axe in the squad as well. I'll include them below after the break for the curious.

 

 All-in-all this was a fun kit to build.  Lots of options, everything went together pretty well. I primed them in black and then into the case they went to wait for their turn in the queue. Joining them in the queue soon is an MkIII Breacher squad.

They need basing and priming, but assembly is complete.  I already have a squad of 15 Forge World resin Breachers; yet I found the allure of fresh plastic too much to pass up. I am more of a collector than a gamer at this point anyway. These are likely members of the Stormwing.  I'm looking forward to imagining what heraldry to use for the shields. I have loads of transfers, but some checkers would look nice too...

 Anyway, that's a choice for another day. Thanks for indulging me in my little show and tell here. I'm moving on to my next painting project: the plastic Spartan from the v2 Age of Darkness launch box. I found myself very close to clicking on a new super heavy and then decided I have plenty of armor in the queue already. And so inspiration blossomed. Check back next week to see how that project is progressing.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!!

DKoK Artillery - TO DONE

 

Greetings and welcome back for some actual painting progress, at long last. With some satisfaction, I record the completion of this Death Korps of Krieg artillery piece; 1st Gun, 206th Battery, 262nd Siege Regiment. And the big seal o'DONE:

I struggled to build enough enthusiasm and inspiration to get this one across the finish line. I enjoy the completed look of my DKoK models, but I have never truly enjoyed the process of painting them, for one reason or another. However, I stuck to my rule of not moving on to a new painting project until the one on the desk is complete.  Thus the looong pause in painting projects for the blog, including my intent to complete a squad for Squaduary 2026, boooo!

That said, I'm enjoying the completion here and the results. I like that GW made this kits a small diorama in it's own right. That's partially what took up some time. I still want to go in with some weathering powders at some point.  But I haven't done that for the rest, so for now this piece matches the rest of the force.

Seen here, a crewman is performing maintenance on this piece while another is on over-watch and the third looks down range assessing possible targets. This gun has been giving the team problems lately, as evidenced by the array of tools and other gear laying about.

I did complete the stubby mortar barrel as well, but the multi-rocket and thud gun options have not been completed; and may never be.  As I completed this piece, I recognized that the howitzer look is very much to my liking. Here's a final top down look at the rear of the piece.

 

 So, there it is at long last.  And now the real work; what to work on next?  I'm excited for several projects across LI, HH, and WH40K.  I have HH models to build, so that will likely be a palate cleanser while I wait and see where the muse strikes next.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope to keep the content flowing here from now on.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

 

On the Workbench [January] - Saturnine Armor and Araknae Weapon Platforms

 

Greetings!  As I continue catching up on hobby work to date, here are the models form the new Legions Imperialis Saturnine release. They are definitely chunky dudes. I'm not sure how many of these mark of armor may have been passed on to the First Legion, who were at the time far from the other legions.  But I imagine Vulcan did The Lion a solid and put some away somewhere the First Legion would find.

I built the terminators in two groups, one with disintegrator weapons, and one with plasma.

And again with the Dreadnoughts, two with disintegrator weapons, and two without. I'm looking forward to getting paint on these brutes.

Last up, I built the Araknae weapon platforms. Without anything for comparison, they look like tarantula batteries. But the are much larger. A mix of anti this and anti that for good measure.  Taken in all, it's a fun batch of models to put on the Astartes pile for Legions Imperialis.

At this point I paused for the most part in my hobby efforts. Next up, I'll post pics of the (hopefully?) finished Death Korps of Krieg Artillery piece.

 

Cheers and Happy Gaming!