Squaduary 2022 Pledge - Adeptus Custodes

 

At 262Krieg, we love a good community hobby challenge.  From 2017 - 2020 we participated in the Squaduary event hosted over at steppingbetwengames.com by Thousand Eyes.  Last year the event did not happen, but we painted on anyway completing 12 Traitor Guardmen hostiles from the original Blackstone Fortress box set.  This year the community is back at it and we are again forging on with five Adeptus Custodes models.

My Emperor, why have you forsaken me?

The first is needed to fill out a total of nine Custodian Guard so I can field three minimum size squads.  I originally built 10 models, with one being a Vexilus and one being a Shield Captain.  This left eight standard Custodian Guard, which leaves two dudes out on their own when minimum sized squads are fielded.

The next model is a Vexilus Praetor built form the Custodian Wardens kit.  This is probably my favorite of the available poses for a Vexilus Praetor. Never mind the skill this warrior must poses to wield a two handed halberd while simultaneously managing a Vexilla. He's surely a Boss.

Last up will be a standard squad of Custodian Wardens armed with castellan axes. Very choppy! I love these models and it is hard to believe I haven't put paint on them yet.  I did paint up a Shield-Captain built from the same kit a while back though. He clearly needs some more axe wielding troops to lead! 

So, that's five models to paint to a high standard, hopefully matching the Shield-Captain above. Should be fun!  I'm looking forward to something new and not Guard after just completing a Death Korps of Krieg Veteran Guardsmen kill team from the Octarius box.  I'll post up the completed pics of that project later in the week.

What will you be painting in February?

Stay Safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Kill Team Christmas Challenge - part 5

 

Greetings and welcome to part five of my WIP project to paint a Kill Team veteran guard unit for Kill Team as part of the Goonhammer Kill Team Christmas Challenge.  The project is coming to a close (as is the project deadline!) but I have some weathering and a few other bits and bobs to do.

This week, I got the transfers put on.  Above you can see the 262nd regiment number on the right shoulders. And below we have the Astra Militarum eagle on the left.

I also got some subtle highlighting on the armor and greatcoats. I also looked at individual details that hadn't been painted yet.

In the closeup above, I've painted in the ribbon bar noting this veteran's citations and accomplishments.

Here we have the pages of the Imperial Primer this veteran is reading from; another use of the Micron .005 pens (can't say enough good things about these pens for adding fine details!).

An although a minor detail, I thought the fuel tanks needed something to break up all the green.  So there is a red cylinder, likely noting a volatile chemical mixed into the promethium to enhance the Emperor's fiery wrath (and justice!).

So, I'm nearing the finish line.  I mean, I could call it quits at any point now as the models are fully painted here.  But I'd like to go the extra distance with weathering the great cloaks where they meet the ground, and to enhance highlights elsewhere.  Also, I've done basically nothing with the re-breather boxes on their chests.  Probably could add some details there.

My next post should be the last post on this project, possible a relief to some 😉.  Check back next week to see how the finished models look in the light box.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Kill Team Christmas Challenge - part 4

 

Greetings and welcome to continuing progress on my Goonhammer Kill Team Christmas Challenge project.  As you can see above, the models are all mounted on their new trench work bases now.  Prior to gluing the models down, I dry brushed a couple lighter tan colors on the bases.  This helps them be a bit muddier, particularly on the boards.  After gluing, I carefully cut and scraped off extra epoxy that pooled out around the feet.  Then I touched up the bases as needed to clean up issues left after the whole process.

The last step was to repaint the black base rims. As seen above, they we looking pretty messy after the base painting process.  I touched up the green armor that has rubbed off here and there due to handling, then painted a red strip on the team leaders helmet to match the sergeant's I'd painted previously for the Death Korps of Krieg.  I used red stripes for squad leaders and white stripes for platoon leaders.

So now it's back to the details.  I have yet to paint in the mask filter boxes on their chests; and the medic bag needs attention too.  And then all the highlighting and weathering.  Turns out to be a bit more left to do than I had hoped for by this time, but I'm still plugging ahead and hopeful to complete before Feb 1.

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Kill Team Christmas Challenge - part 3

 

Now with more plasma!  Greetings and welcome back to my WIP series on the Kill Team Christmas Challenge over on Goonhammer.  This week I pushed on with painting all the various details on these troopers.  They are starting to look really good now.  The next step in painting will be to highlight everything and clean up any remaining mistakes.  I also have a few details to complete, such as the medic's hand bag and the "chaplain's" book and rosary.  There are other details too that I want to spend time on as I move to close on the project.

For now, the team leader's power sword is painted along with the plasma effects on hist plasma pistol and the Gunner's plasma gun. The metals have been shaded and the eye lenses o the masks painted in. But before I could get more paint done I needed to take a drastic step that would no doubt end up in tears and some fix up so I didn't want things to be too 'finished' at this point.

When I assembled these models, I did not intend to put them on any special bases.  But once the challenge kicked off, I knew I had to paint these on trench work bases to match my original Death Korps of Krieg army (as seen in this blog's title pic above).  So at this stage, I decided to go a head and remove the models from their plastic bases and insert pins in preparation for mounting them on new resin bases (Now OOP from Secret Weapon Miniatures - who says hobby hoarding is bad?).

Fortunately, the surgery went very well with only one snapped off foot...and I bet you won't be able to tell which model lost a foot from the pic above.  

Here are the new bases, still drying after a round of heavy shading.  Some dry brushing and a few minor details will see these ready for mounting.  I'll likely put some water effects in the puddles once I've figured out where the models will be mounted on each.  That should finish things off nicely. Not a typical kill team base, but these well detailed models really needed to be displayed in their battlefield element. I also like the notion of being able to field them in some future hypothetical game along side their resin brethren.

So I'm gaining on the end game with the project, but there's still plenty to do.  I have to stay focused, as I'm already looking ahead to Squaduary and Monster March...

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Kill Team Christmas Challenge - part 2

 

Greetings!

The Kill Team Christmas Challenge project continues.  The lads are looking much more Krieg-like now.  There is SO much detail here though.  So things are going a bit more slowly than expected and I want to do a good job on these guys, as the Krieg are near and dear to my start in bogging here.

The bedrolls and gas masks were painted and shaded.

Then the armor and other metal bits painted green (certain canisters, the radio, shovel blades) got a base coat as shown here. I took a break to get the new bases primed so they would be ready when it comes time to paint them up.

Then it was time to get back to the veterans. The armor was shaded, and some black laid down on the weapons and tool handles.

The Sergeant's power sword got a brass hilt and his helmet a brass Aquila.  The rank and file get silver Aquila latter. He is a veteran sergeant after all! Everyone got brass buttons, though they aren't evident in this pic.

Moving to 5-man close ups to show the details better.  Aquilas are painted now, as are the metal details on the gas masks and metal areas on the various weapons.

No additional shading of these areas yet.  Some little details on the radio take shape.

The gas mask hoses are painted and the eye lenses.  Next up, all of that will get shaded.  But there are still details to get an initial base coat before I break out the shades.

I think the Flamethrower fuel tank needs a red canister in the center, so that remains unpainted as I noodle on that for a bit. Otherwise the gear is taking shape.  So much highlighting yet to do...

And here's the squad all together again as they stand currently.  Still a lot more to do,but plenty of time I feel.  They are starting to look just like my old squads, so I've managed to keep the recipe consistent even with a few little tweaks and different techniques used here and there.  I've come a long way in my painting since those first Krieg squads were painted.

Check back next week for more updates.  I've very psyched to get these guardsmen painted up!

Stay safe out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!