Dark Angels Kratos Heavy Tank Squadron for Legions Imperialis - TO DONE

 

Greetings and welcome back.  I have a handful of Kratos tanks to share today to add to my growing Dark Angels force for Legions Imperialis. These tiny models are just too fun to paint.  I fear I may not get back to my 28mm collection for some time yet.

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I built these tanks with two melta bast guns and autocannon and two with battle cannons and lascannons. They divide up into squadrons of two, or could be fielded as a single large squadron (I think? I honestly forget how large a Kratos squadron can be...).  The vehicles are numbered 1-4 and I put unique squadron iconography on the right front fenders to divide the tanks into two squadrons (skulls for the melta, and keys for the battle cannon).

Otherwise, they painted up pretty much exactly like the Spartans and Land Raiders.  I splashed the red around to make each tank unique, while keeping the same red panels on all the turrets (to show the belong to the same battle group). I didn't go heavy with Legion iconography form the 28mm transfer sheet this time.  There's aren't many large panels and the tanks don't need the extra anyway I think. I like that the transports call out who may be traveling inside.

So that's another four tanks done for the force, bringing me to a total of 24 painted models; I think? Not too shabby by my standards. I guess these little guys are something like 75% of what I'd consider a full and proper paint job.  But I love them all the same. At this scale, the extra 25% would hardly be noticed anyway and with the large number of models to paint, I need something quick and effective.

There's the big ol' stamp of DONE for this project.  I have some building to do on the latest release of Legions Imperialis models.  So I guess we'll have a workbench post next.  Then I'm likely going back to tiny tanks...or maybe it's time for a titan? I dunno yet, we'll see. If you like the tiny tanks, I have a few closeups to share after the break.

 

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Dark Angels Land Raider Proteus Explorator Squadron for Legions Imperialis - TO DONE

 

Greetings and welcome back!  Today have have a handful of Land Raider Proteus Explorator tanks to share.  Once again, the process of painting these little models went more quickly than my will to photograph the process could keep up. So without ceremony, we skip the WIP posts and move right to the TO DONE.

With the big stamp o' DONE for the project out of the way, let's have a look at the models themselves.

I am finding these tiny tanks unexpectedly fun and rewarding to work on.  I especially enjoy planning out the various imagery on the tanks with my collection of transfers. For these Land Raiders, I actually used mostly transfers from the kit itself.  We have the expected Legion symbol, of course, and a vehicle number.  Not a lot of surface area to work on here, so I kept things simple.

On the left side, we have some extra Legion iconography denoting Terran and Calabanite veterans, elite squads, etc.  These I take from the 28mm Horus Heresy transfer sheet for the Dark Angels. Just that little bit of flavor to add some interest and uniqueness to each vehicle. I splashed some Legion red about on each tank as well.  The large vehicles deserve the honor of unique heraldry within the First Legion and so I have not duplicated the color scheme there, as I did on the Rhinos. 

I love how the weathering powders change the vehicles and match them to my tiny titans. At some point I'll share some photos of the models together for fun. Oh, and I have been applying the powders to the tanks AFTER sealing them with spray lacquer to avoid the frosting that was happening with the titans. The pigment fixer seems durable enough on its own that I won't lose to much of the powders over time to handling, I hope.

 

And that's another set of LI models complete.  I'm already into the Kratos heavy tank squadron from the launch box. With the transports complete, I figured it was time to get some of the other armor done.  I'm sort of dancing around the little Predator and Sicaran tanks.  I have six of each with optional turrets so it's going to take more time and attention to complete those. And yes, I'm totally avoiding the infantry and other smaller models.  All in good time as I get used to more painting at this scale.

Who else is working on Legions Imperialis out there?

Cheers and Happy Gaming!!

Dark Angels Spartan Assault Tanks for Legions Imperialis - TO DONE

 

Greetings and welcome to another Legions Imperialis post.  Normally I have some WIP shots to share before ending with a TO DONE post.  Coming hot off the heels of the Dark Angels Rhino Transports, these Spartans painted themselves!  I was having so much fun, I missed taking any in progress shots all together. However, i have to state that I'm seriously unhappy with my iPhone 14's ability to take miniature photos - whether it's operator error or not, the phone just won't focus where I want, and insists on soft focusing everything else, it seems. I blame the current TikTok age...

Like the Rhinos, I used 30K 28mm infantry transfers to add lots of Legion flavor to these tanks. The tank w/the checkered stripes will transport and support command staff, I imagine. One tank is assigned to the Deathwing, another mysteriously ancient and ambiguous, and the last for the rank and file.

I once again assigned vehicle numbers to make identifying the tanks easier in games. It's been a lot of fun working on these tiny cousins to the 28mm Spartan kits. It's amazing to see the detail maintained at this scale when compared to the Epic tanks of old. So that's another big seal o' DONE for this project.

I'm already into a batch of Land Raider Proteus tanks. So I'll have more to share on that soon.  Maybe I'll manage a WIP post this time before revealing the finished product. We'll see.  It's refreshing how quick it is to paint these tanks to the level I've settled on.

So until next time...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!
 

Dark Angels Rhino Transports for Legions Imperialis - TO DONE

 

 

Greetings and welcome back.  I have the completed Rhinos to share today and I'm pretty happy with how the came out.  One can certainly get carried away by all the small details on these models. Here, I chose to carry the Legion and the general look of the Rhinos in broad strokes.  At this small scale, the extra tiny details are easily missed and appreciated only by the painter

As I laid out my plan to add transfers to the models, it occurred to me that I had a bunch of the Horus Heresy 28mm transfer sheets with lots of infantry sized transfers that would work great as vehicle scale here.  I put a checkered strip down the hatch of the command rhino and used a gold Deathwing icon over that.  The second command rhino also got a Deathwing icon.  Then I chose two rhinos to carry elite members and used a heketonista icon for those. For the gunners, I carefully painted the shoulder trim steel to match the color scheme of the 28mm scale models. I may one day try my hand at using freehand to paint legion iconography on the shoulder pads...but not today.

Hmmm...looks like I forgot to paint the havoc launcher rockets...

Next, I chose two Rhinos to carry plasma squads and decided that these would be members of the Dreadwing.  So Dreadwing icons are on top of their rides. It's fun telling a story in this way with the transfers, in my opinion.  At this scale, these models are otherwise basically just black with some red here and there.  The Legion icons mark them out as Dark Angels for sure, but I wanted to show the eclectic nature of the First Legion's iconography, even though it has no rules significance in this game.

The last four Rhinos I gave to the Stormwing.  These will carry the Legion tactical squads.  Unseen in the pics, there are a couple Terran icons on the back hatches to indicate Rhinos carrying Terran veterans.  And there are a couple lion heads for those carrying Calabanite veterans. Each vehicle also has a unique vehicle number which I can use if necessary during games to better keep track of whose in which transport. There are SO many transport options for the Astartes.  I currently have twenty four rides I think across drop pods, Spartans, Land raiders and these Rhino transports - and that's just with one box of each.

After sealing the models with lacquer, I used weathering powders according to my Titanicus paint scheme to add Martian mud/dust to the tracks, plows, and running boards.  My goal there was to tie all the epic scale models together, for fun. 

And I had so much fun painting these Rhinos, that I immediately set to priming the rest of the Astartes armor I have in the collection so far. Poster tac/putty is used to keep paint out of the turret mounts.  The tolerances are such that a coat of primer is going to make it hard to get the turrets back on and the paint is simply going to scrape/flake off anyway.

A length of ferrous metal, like this hack saw blade, makes a perfect spray stick for all those little magnetized turrets!  The other models are stuck down using double-sided tape. I found that I picked up a brand that is particularly sticky, though.  It's going to be fun removing those once the primer is dry, without breaking off any delicate bits. I already snapped off a plow on one of the predators just trying to reposition the models. 😠

So that's a big stamp o' DONE for the Rhinos.  And I'm in position to knock out a bunch more armor.  I'm not sure what I'm going to paint first. And I'm also not sure how deep I'm going to go into this collection before returning to their 28mm cousins...or more Titans..or more tiny planes? Lot's of fun stuff on the horizon regardless!

I wish you all the best for your own projects.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Legion Imperialis Dark Angel Rhinos WIP

 

Tiny Transports!

Greetings and welcome back. Today, I'm sharing my first Legions Imperialis painting WIP - Dark Angels Rhino transports. It's hard to showcase these tiny models but if you click through the pictures to the larger photo, you might pick up a detail to two.

 

I started with a base coat/primer of Vallejo Surface Primer Black. Then I dry brushed over that with Proacryl Dark Warm Grey. This picked out the detail a bit without making things too flashy or cartoonish. Then I used Proacryl Bold Pyrrole Red to put a splash of Legion red on the front and rear inset panels, wrapping over the track guards as shown. Then it was a simple matter to apply Proacryl Dark Silver to the tracks, weapons and exhaust pipes.  I dry brushed some of that silver on the front plows as well.

Then it was time for a tiny transfer session!  Boy was that fun.  Fortunately, I enjoy applying decals/transfers so this wasn't too much of a hassle.  They are small though...be prepared with your best precision tweezers...you have been warned!

I liked the size of these legion icons for the doors and so, stuck them on regardless of the fact the door has to split down the middle to open. I'm using lots of decal softener and hoping I get enough of the decal to sink into the grooves so I can get some shade or black paint in there to show the image split where the doors open.  We'll see...not a critical detail. Rule of cool all the way here. I'm considering going through the transfer collection to see what I have for red/black or white/black checks that might be appropriate to this scale.  Might be nice to put a checker stripe down one of the top hatch doors or something.

Taken in all, and not including assembly time, this was a two session project so far, which isn't bad for 10 models, I guess.  I have another session to go where I'll look at the gunners and pintle weapons and finish shading things, like the tracks.

Bear with the photos, please.  My iPhone 14 has NOT been an upgrade for photos in my opinion.  With all of its improvements, I could take better pics with my iPhone SE, may it rest in peace. Getting the damn thing to focus on these models was a long and tiring experience - and the pics are still not good.

It was a bit of a slog painting the same thing on ten tiny models, but it wasn't awful and I'm truly looking forward to carrying on with more of the collection. So probably Spartans or Land Raiders next?  We'll see...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!