Grey Knights Strike Squad - TO DONE

 

The Grey Knights squad is finally complete. Aside from some clean up and tiny details here and there, I had one major task to bring these guys to the finish line - shoulder pads.  The Grey Knights carry individual heraldry on their right shoulder pauldrons to signify various significant honors and deeds.  Fortunately there is no specific documented heraldic scheme for this so a painter has a great deal of flexibility.

I started by painting the shoulder pads white.  When this dried, I went back and painted on a design in either red or black. The sergeant and 2nd in command both have fancy pads already, so I didn't need to paint heraldry there.

Once the basic design was dry and appropriately touched up, I went back and touched up the rims and any raised detail on the shoulder pads.  After this was done, I applied decals (skulls and swords) from my collection to various areas on the shoulder pads.  I used no fixed scheme here, but did borrow from examples in the codex for inspiration. After allowing the decals to dry overnight, I brushed on some gloss varnish and allowed that to dry.  I then finished up with a coat of GW Nuln Oil, making sure to draw excess paint from the surfaces of the shoulder pads, to the recess around the raised details and rims.  I didn't take pictures of this, but the results can be seen in the final light box pictures below. 

With the personal heraldry complete, I applied matte varnish to the squad and moved the project to the TO DONE pile.  I love the results and was pleased to add this squad to the display cabinet, joining the handful of characters I have completed over the years. This is my first completed squad of grey knights. For pics of the final results, scroll on down to the photo shoot after the break.

Now on to DreadTober 2021!

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Grey Knights Strike Squad WIP - Part 4

 

Greetings!  The Grey Knights project continues to draw to a close.  There seems to be always something more to look at with these guys.

The first combat squad is shown in more detail here.  I have highlighted the armor and weapons. 

I finally got around to putting some paint on the skull on the sergeant's base.

The head was more-or-less completed with an eye and some additional shading.

Here is a more detailed look at the second combat squad. The armor is highlighted, but I still need to highlight the weapons.

This fella is carrying the head of a Daemonette of Slannesh. I have a little more to do here, primarily with the eyes.

The second in command got his skull painted as well. Might add some more shading and highlights there.

The second-in-command also got some eyes and additional shading/highlighting on the face/head.

That's where I'm at so far.  Another session, maybe two and I'll wrap these guys up.  I've been casually picking away at them rather than going all in on long intense focused painting sessions.  This is nice here and there to prevent burnout.  I don't treat every project like that; otherwise I'd get much less accomplished.  September has been a busy and distracting month, making it a challenge to really focus on the hobby, so the break in intensity has been nice.

This will change as I enter DreadTober!

Thanks for dropping by, and stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Grey Knights Strike Squad WIP - Part 3

 

Greetings!  I've been hacking away at these Grey Knights making slow but steady progress.  A couple local friends starting playing a new online co-op 1st person shooter and I allowed myself to get drawn in.  While fun to hang out online and shoot bad guys with friends, gaming can definitely be a big time sink.

Quite a bit of detail work has gone on here. I lined all the book icons in red, highlighting the purity seals in the process. The sergeants' heads got some paint and the bases are just about done.  Oh and the final highlights on the power weapons are finished.

 

 

I started with a bit of a pink shade to the skin that was just too...well...pink.  Some GW Gryphonne Sepia on top filtered the pink to a more natural pale skin tone.  These guys wear helmets...a lot...and are otherwise in ships or fortresses.  So I'm not imagining them getting too tanned. never mind whatever goes on with the plastic surgery and what not to address their horrific wounds.

A close up of the second sergeant illustrates further the hardening result of adding the sepia over the softer looking pink/magenta shading. Features are no more defined in the bargain. Time to put some eyes in and clean up the mouths, etc.

The combat squads are otherwise coming together. It was good to get the bases done. I have yet to highlight the armor or weapons. I'm playing around with white and blue shading on the hammer and staff, trying to get a bit of a power glowing effect there that compliments the swords and halberds.

Not sure if I have the effect right yet. I'll share some close ups at some point.The swords look like this.

I am using the same formula/recipe for everything now, starting with my Custodes after watching Duncan's (now old) GW YouTube video.  It will help everyone fit in when viewed as an entire force. The halberds came out looking like this.

Hopefully, I will call these guys done by the end of next week.  They are very close to complete.  I love how they are coming out and find Grey Knights a pleasure to paint in general.  It's a fun pallet of colors and all the bling makes each model stand out. If following my journey with these guys is proving tiresome, hang in there.  I have a nice big meaty dread coming for DreadTober 2021 to mix things up a bit.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Grey Knights Strike Squad WIP - Part 2

 

Greetings! I have a short post today to share the latest progress on the two Grey Knight strike squads that I began last week. Over the holiday weekend I was able to spare some time from family pursuits to get a little painting done.

I decided the sergeant would have a white shield with black sword.  It's a little plain, but he IS just a sergeant after all.I painted in all of the brass/gold details on weapons and armor.

Then, I got to work on the helmet eyes and power blades. I'm using the same blade recipe as the Custodes to keep things reasonably consistent should the forces meet on the same tabletop one day.

The I painted copper bullet jackets visible in the ammo boxes and finished the purity seal wax.  Oh, so many purity seals on these guys!  Yikes...

Last up, I hit all the tabbards, parchment, purity seals, and brass/gold details with a healthy coat of GW Agrax Earth Shade.  Now these guys are looking like Grey Knights. Next I have to finish the power weapons, paint the two squad leader heads, and highlight everything.  Last up, I'll paint the bases.  So a decent amount of work a head of me, but things should wrap up pretty soon. Certainly I'll be done in plenty of time for DreadTober 2021.  Hopefully I can even squeeze in one more project before the end of September.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Grey Knights Strike Squad WIP - Part 1

 

Greetings!  With the recent release of the 9th Edition Warhammer 40K Grey Knights Codex, I decided to paint up a Grey Knights Strike Squad.  Well, two five man squads, really.  I'm painting them so they can be played as a single squad or broken into two separate squads as needed for games (that I currently don't play 😂).

I have a decent number of Grey Knights models resting comfortably in foam trays on my hobby shelves from releases prior.  These lads were all mounted on the original 25mm bases with custom cork and all.   When marines went to 32mm, I swore I wasn't going to redo those bases.  I had just based the whole army, after all.  But time heals old wounds and it was now easier to consider re-basing.  I pulled them off the old bases and built new 32mm bases for them to stand on, using the same cork and railroad ballast method as before. The squad leaders got a skull with Sergent getting the largest skull to single him out in a 10 man unit.

I drilled holes and pushed the models into the bases so I could texture the cork with Vallejo Black Lava.  This allows the models to look like their weight settles them into the earth, rather than having them float on top of the texture.  After spreading the black lava around their feet, I pulled them back off and cleaned their feet before the texture paint dried. You can see the results above. Once the texture was thoroughly dry on the bases, I primed the bases black before gluing the models down permanently using 2-part 5-minute epoxy.

Then the individual five man units were separated and the painting began in earnest. Since I had already base coated the armor years (?!) back, I could get right into shading with 60:40 GW Nuln Oil and Lahmian Medium.  The shading mix was brushed all over starting at the top of each model and working down to the feet. Then things had to sit over night to be sure everything dried well and didn't get messed up with finger prints, etc..

When painting resumed, I started with black on the weapon shafts, grips and casings. I followed that with the parchment color on cloth, purity seals, and book icons.  The full recipe is available on the appropriate tab above, if you are interested.

The second squad was treated similarly.  I'm batch painting both squads at once as a single group of 10 models.  I have a couple characters done already, so these will add a couple troop choices for a small detachment. 

At some point I'll continue with Purifiers, Terminators, Paladins, Dreadknights, etc..  That's a far distant future though. Kill Team 2.0 gives me hope that I can put some painted models on the table for a game soon, though.  It seems very easy with the new rules to simple pluck a couple models from a collection and put them right into Kill Team games, since the rules favor building models out of a basic troops box. 

Next time I share these models there should be some color to break up all the silver and black.  The 2021/22 hobby season is under way! I had to go back and add a Grey Knights unit to the season To-Do list, though, since I was going off list first thing otherwise! 😁

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!