Hell Knights Sniper finished and more WIPs

 I actually finished this sniper when I finished the scouts but I forgot to photograph and post him.  I'm happy with the way he turned out.  The sculpt is a little odd in places but he will make a nice additions to my army.

Here are some reinforcements for my scouts and armoured assault squad or Catachans and Storm Troopers if you prefer. 

Hell Knights Scouts Finished

I finished the scouts for the Hell Knights.  This would actually be two squads since in the No Limits rules the maximum size of a squad with infiltration is 6.  I'll be adding a couple more troops to these so I can field full strength units.  I've got enough GW Catachans to make a whole scout platoon so I'm planning on that and a squad of commandos which will be elite units using the Catachans as the base models. 

Of couse when I'll also be using them as Imperial Guards for 40k.
 
I'm pretty happy with these.  I think they match the rest of the army quite nicely. 

Hell Knights Scouts skin and hair WIP

I got the skin tones and hair done on the scouts.  Now I just have the weapons and bases.  I'm pretty happy with the way they are turning out. 

Hell Knights Scouts and Sniper WIP

I got the drybrushing done, blocked in the skin tones and applied the wash.  Now I have to highlight the skin and finished the details.  I really like this stage because it always feels like I'm almost done. 

Hell Knights Scout Squad and Sniper

I've been working on this squad for my Hell Knights mercenary army.  We are using No Limits for our rule systems and infiltrating squads can't be any larger than 6 models but I am also making these guys up as an Imperial guard army so these guys will just be used as a veteran squad for that version of the army. 
I'll be putting more up about the background of the army for my own setting soon.  These guys will soon see action in the Station 42 setting. 

Painting my "Hell Knights" rifle squad (Cadian Imperial Guard with Pig Iron Heads)

 Just thought I would share a technique I have been using to quickly paint up squads of troopers.  It works really well for military type minis and Battlemechs and such.  Here are a selection of Games Workshop Cadian Imperial Guard minis with Pig Iron heads.  These guys took a while to put together.  I cut off all the imperial symbols from the guns, armor, and canteens because I want to use these guys for several different games.  They will be the main troops for my "Hell Knights" mercenary army for my own generic sci-fi setting.   
First thing I do is select the base color.  In this case I chose a dark brown.  I used a Rustoleum cammo spray paint as my base cote.  Krylon makes a cammo paint system as well but the local Walmart doesn't carry that line anymore.  These paints are designed for people who think painting their pickup in a cammo pattern will actually help them sneak up on Deer and Turkey and other woodland critters.  No shit they really believe that. 
Anyhow after I base cote them then started blocking in the cammo pattern I've selected for this army in a warm medium brown. 

 Next I blocked in the rest of the cammo.  I'm only painting the armor and boots on these guys cammo. 

 After I got the cammo blocked in I started on the web gear and grenades and equipment. 

 At this point I dry brushed all the models with a light sand color.  This way I highlighted the model with one color.  This works really well for drab colors and really speeds things up. 

 After the dry brushing I put in the flesh tones and brighter colors.  I painted the visors on the helmets blue and the little lights and optics green. 

 After that stage I put a wash over the entire figure.  I used dark burnt umber with a drop of dark blue.  I also added some future floor wax to the mixture.  I use this kind of wash quite often.  It really gets into the cracks and ties the mini together. 

 After the wash I added details and highlights to the skin tones and brighter colors.  I also added the metallics at this stage. 

Finally I finished their bases and clear coated them.  I'm really happy with the way they came out.  I've used this technique or variations on it quite often with good results.  They actually painted up faster than they went together.  I spent a couple hours a night on them for a week so I have perhaps 10-12 hours in the entire squad. 

Holy Gamer Pals Batman!

Apparently the gods want me to play Warhammer 40K. Or at least my friends do. Anyhow one of my gamer friends came up with a brand new 5th edition rule book that he couldn't account for. He also had a Terminator Assault Squad with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield and a spare Librarian so he just gave them to me. Over a hundred bucks worth of stuff for nothing.

So the same friends girlfriend also paints minis and she gave me a great tip for mold line removal. This is an electric manicure tool and it's like a dremmil with a very low power motor. It's perfect for removing mold lines and light flash without damaging the figure you are working on. It was about $7.00 at Walmart.

Got Fist?

Well I've done it. I've started painting Warhammer 40K figs again. Here are some Marines from the "Assault of Black Reach" boxed set I'm painting up as the Crimson Fist chapter. I'm in the process of heavily weathering them at the moment. I used a lot of drybrushing and cheap craft paints. Suck it GW! I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out.

Here's a shot of them prior to the weather and wash.

Perils of the Warp?

Way back about 14-16 years ago I was an avid Warhammer 40k player. My primary army was Space Marines and my wife's primary army was Orks although we dabbled in most of the other armies that were part of 2nd edition. I had a 500 space marines with over 150 painted and My wife probably had 500 Orks with even more painted. Then 3rd edition came out and we sold off everything after about 4 games. Well almost everything. Stuff lingers. I still had a formitable force of Battle sisters and some odds and ends. Anyway we've barely touched the stuff since we 3rd edition came out. I think I could count the number of games of 40K I've played since then on one hand. We have played fantasy off and on for year but we were done with 40K.

We picked up Assault on Black Reach when it came out before the rediculas price hike. I probably also got a discount on it from my FLGS. Anyhow I played one battle with my Sisters over a year ago and put together five of the Marines. A friend of ours who we use to play 40K with quite a bit has kept playing this entire time and ammased more figures than any 12 players need to play the game. Quite a bit of it was our old stuff. He finally convinced me to play a couple 1000 point games last night and I felt they weren't bad. The new eddition of the game is better although still not as interesting as 2nd edition. It seems to run ok and of course there are t0ns of local players for it.

For mostly social gaming reasons we've decided to give it another try. I have a pretty good Sisters army and we have enough Space Marines and Orks to get started. I've got two tactical squads of marines, a scout squad, and three terminator squads, plus two drednaughts and the captain from the boxed set. My wife has the Orks from the boxed set plus hundereds of fantasy Orks and Goblins that could be converted for 40K easily. So our plan is to build slowly and smartly on these three armies only for at least a year before we start "buying" new stuff. Almost all the OrK vehicles and a lot of troops will be scratch built or converted from toys and junk. The only thing I'm buying for the Space Marines will be vehicles and a perhaps and Assault and Devistator squad. The Sisters are only getting vehicles and in fact we may even paint up what imperial vehicles we get with a generic scheme so they can do double duty.

That's my plan for not getting bent over the barrel by GW prices. We plan to play games mostly at home with friends to avoid the asshat fanboys and tournament mentality that makes a game with a decent setting no fun to play. Basically I refuse to pay $33.00 for an Ork truck when I can convert one from a $2.00 toy and some plastic junk.