So it has been a while since I’ve updated but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy on my Grand Company, I guess it means I’ve just been lazy with my blog posting (well that and a trip to Hawaii!). After frantically finishing (well kinda finishing) 4 CSM and 2 Berzerker squads for the Golden Throne Challenge, I’ve been able to focus on some projects that are more fun than army building.

The idea for this squad has been bouncing around in my mind for a long while and I’ve just now got around to building my Chosen armed with daemon blades and storm shields. Although there is unfortunately no way to accurately equip them in the Chaos Codex, I did recently play with them in a Space Wolf list. Counting these as Wolf Guard armed with Frost Blades and Storm Shields worked out really well and tore apart the Blood Angles that assaulted them.

Both arms of the three blade-wielders are from the Chaos Knight kit for fantasy while the shield arm for the fist-armed model is from the lord on juggernaut that I used for my Warsmith. The parts fit very well with the CSM torsos and shoulder pads with only minor hacking of the arms. most of the misalignment are covered by the shoulder pads but I did need to pull out the green stuff and re-create the soft armor between the torso and upper arm on a few models.

Each of the shields have great decorations that really adds character to the models which is what really made me want to create this unit to begin with. The Chaos Knight kit is packed with so many awesome bits, I just have to figure out what to do with the horses and knight bodies! (look forward to rough riders at some point…)

I also wanted to reinforce them into the 40k age a bit so i added some perverted purity seals made from green stuff. Rather than the loyalist superstition of hoping the Corpse will help them, the warriors of Perturabo declare their own power and worth ontheir seals.

I also was playing around with a new (for me at least) technique for power swords. It is similar to how I paint my traitor guard tanks but with green. I was also inspired by Mordian 7th’s Inquistor Rex’s power sword

I have two more models for this squad to paint but am waiting on more shoulder pads to be shipped. When I paint these last two models I plan on taking step-by-step pictures similar to what I did for Fabius and my sorcerer. After that I have a few more fun things in store but may be interrupted by moving apartments yet again…

Related posts:

1. Troop Squad Two Pictures Up
2. How I Paint Iron Warriors, Part 4: The Daemon Blade
3. Some quick updates

Tzeentch has always been my favorite of the Chaos powers so naturally I did this sorcerer in the colors of the master of change.  The challenge is to have him still fit in with the rest of my army. I’m not sure how well this comes off in the end though.

As with Fabius, I took step-by-step pictures:

Stage1: White robe: Graveyard Earth -> Codex Grey -> Skull White

I wasn’t sure what colors I was going to paint where so I “blocked” out the main colors to get an idea of how it would fit together.

Stage 2: Mordian Blue, Shinning Gold, Mithril Silver, Hormaguant Purple

Stage 3: Mordian Blue -> Ice Blue -> Space Wolves Grey, armour washed with purple

Stage 4: Metallic washes: Devlan Mud then black

Stage 5: Purple: Hormagaunt Purple -> Liche Purple -> Ice Blue, Red: Mechrite Red -> Blood Red -> Blazing Orange -> Golden Yellow

Stage 6: Bone: Khemri Brown -> Bleached Bone -> Skull White

Final Stage: Base: Graveyard Earth -> Bleached Bone

Next up is 3 squads of bikers for my fast attack. I’m hoping to do this much quicker than the models to date, the Golden Throne Challenge is half over and I have 2/3s of the models left to paint.

Related posts:

1. Fabius Bile
2. How I Paint Iron Warriors, Part 5: Daemon Face
3. Obliterators

One of my goals for this Golden Throne challenge (other than actually paint all the force org slots) is to try some different painting techniques.  For my terminators and obliterators I focused on the faces and tusks. For Fabius I wanted to try white power armor and even more practice on his face and fleshy robe. I know he is painted with a dark purple armor in the codex but I figured that since Fabius used to be the chaplain of the Emperor’s Children the traditional white armor would be fitting as well. Other than the armor and darker robe I tried to follow how the original GW Fabius looks.

For both my own records and since I have been asked before how I paint different aspects of my army I also kept notes and took stage-by-stage pictures of Fabius.

Stage 1: white power armor: Graveyard earth -> Codex Gray -> skull white

I added a 'handle' by glueing the model to a large washer and taping a magnet to an old paint bolttle

Stage 2: Skin Cloak: Dark Flesh -> Vomit Brown -> Bleached Bone, Lev. Purple Wash. Face: Vomit Brown -> Bleached Bone, Ogren Fleash and Lev. Purple washes

Stage 3: Leather: Vermin Brown -> Snakebite Leather -> Bleached Bone

Stage 4: Metals: Mithril Silver and Shining Gold. Both washed with Develan Mud then Badab Black

Stage 5: Hair: Tausept Ochre -> Bleached Bone -> Skull White, Red Vials: Scab Red -> Blood Red -> Blazing Orange -> Sunburst Yellow, Green Vials: Orkshade Green -> Goblin Green -> Scorpion Green -> Sunburst Yellow

Stage 5 From the Back

Final Stage: Blood: Dark Flesh -> Red Gore, Base: Graveyard Earth -> Bleached Bone

Next up is a Sorcerer to finish my HQ slots and I hope to be able to post a similar step-by-step for him.  Let me know what you guys think of how I did the steps and photos.

Related posts:

1. Chaos Sorcerer Done
2. How I Paint My Iron Warriors: Bringing it All Together
3. How I Paint Iron Warriors, Part 5: Daemon Face

That’s right, these guys are so awesome they have guns out of their eyes, mouth and chest! They are smaller than the current models (they used to be on the smaller bases) but how could I pass up repainting these guys and putting them on the battlefield?

One thing I did do with both of these and my terminators I just finished is a slightly different base colors. I had been doing grays for gravel for city besieging but it seemed to make the whole model more dull and blur with the silver. Instead I tried a more organic look with browner gravel and grass.

I used graveyard earth for the base and highlighted with bleached bone added to it.  The grass is a mixture of GW’s scorched grass and used tea (I cut open the pouches and let them dry out).  It may not be as fluffy as the city rubble look but I think it helps the overall presentation of the model. What do you guys think?

Related posts:

1. How I Paint Iron Warriors, Part 6: The Base
2. Fabius Bile
3. Chaos Sorcerer Done

The first selection filled, my Elites with three 3 man squads.

Squad 1 is armed with three combi-weapons for maximum flexibility. These are all the old metal terminators but still look very nice next to the new plastic ones. I think the longest part to paint were all the skulls and tusks, but I think they ended up looking ok.

Squad 2 has the first Reaper Autocannon (which is actually the plastic one) and another combi-weapon and two chain fists for ripping tanks open.

And squad three is a copy of squad two (but with the metal Reaper).  The ‘power fist’ on the right is one of the dreadnought close combat weapons I had added to the original guy and kept it on as a token of my previous work.

This project also completes the Final ToEMPs. Fallen73rd has decided that the time for ending the project is over and I fully understand, I know I have been neglectful to the group with updates and support so I makes sense to end it and start anew.

ToEMP points:

• 1 pnt per foot troop: 9 pnts
• 1 pnt for details: 9 pnts
• Total for challenge 11: 18 points

Thanks again to Fallen73rd for starting the ToEMP and getting us all motivated to get things done. I would highly recommend keeping an eye out for his second ToEMP challenge and join in!

Next up are some old school obliterators that fill the heavy support slots followed by my HQ choices, it should be a action packed couple of weeks if I want to get everything done by March 16th!

Related posts:

1. Scout Sentinels Finished – ToEMP Challenge 3 Meet
2. Terminators Almost Done
3. Armour Sentinels Finished

Two models that were last to be finished also completed (though very late) ToEMP #10: officer of the fleet and the company command’s chimera.

The officer of the fleet is a real help against reserved based armies such as drop pod marines. During the tournament he wasn’t a game changer as none of my opponents relied on reserves, but then again maybe they just changed their tactics in response to him?

The Chimera was used to protect my command squad with the invaluable Commander Creed. This tank was destroyed in nearly every game in the tournament but Creed was lost in only 2 of them, so I think all in all it was well worth its cost.

As for my results? I achieved my goal for my first ever GT: win 2 games. In fact I even tied a third while grabbing the secondary objective. The two I lost were both hard losses. The first was against Nidzilla and only a sole sentinel remained at turn 6. The second was the last game against a fully mechanized guard army which would have been a great deal closer if luck had been better with me.  In the end I placed 47th out of 80 some great 40k players (and cheating one who won but was later disqualified!). After spending the last few weeks getting over the hard losses and the less than I hoped painting score, I’ve started to reorganize my army composition and think hard about how I want to play this army. I may move to a more mechanized army with squads of veterans rather than the platoons, but I still want to stick to the theme I’ve started so may look at replacing the tanks altogether and build a completely foot based army. We shall see what the future holds…

Related posts:

1. 2k Traitor Guard for NW GT
2. Scout Sentinels Finished – ToEMP Challenge 3 Meet
3. Traitor Guard Army Shots

Related posts:

1. Traitor Guard Army Shots
2. A Challenge Set, A Plan Devised
3. Platoon Two Done

The demolisher cannon is a kit bash using the Banehammer cannon that I didn’t use for my Baneblade. I had 4 Leman Russ kits, a built Leman Russ and an old built Leman Russ demolisher so I decided to build my own demolisher cannons to create two full squads of tanks, one of the traditional LR and another of demolishers (the other 4 tanks are built and painting has started so watch for them!)

Every weapon on the tank is AP2, ensuring that anything that the tank hits will not get a armor save.

I tried something different with the back by adding two extra barrels and placing a smoke stack on either side.

I also wanted to pull in a theme I’ve used on my troops by adding gas cans and ready-to-light torches to the storage bin.

This also complete the 8th challenge of The Tale of Even More Painters:

• Vehicle: 10 points
• Symbol: 1 point
• Meeting deadline: 2 points
• Total for Challenge 8: 13 points

And here is a sneak peak of whats coming next:

Related posts:

1. Traitor Leman Russ Complete – ToEMP Challenge 2 Done
2. Bane Wolves – ToEMP #7b Done and Must Have Unit
3. Company Command Squad Painted ToEMP Challenge Met

Even though there are the disadvantages of running these tanks in a squadron, it does give them more survivability – I really just need one shot from the chem cannon to make that marine player cry Also my fast attack slots are all filled with my scout and armored sentinels (which are other favorite units!).

Bane Wolf 1:

And its pack mate, Bane Wolf 2:

For the ToEMP this unit gives me an additional:

• Vehicles x2: 20 pnts
• Vehicle details x2: 10 pnts
• Challenge 7b total: 30 pnts
• Challenge 7 total: 37

Whats next? Well in part it depends on what the next challenge is for ToEMP but I have 4 Leman Russes in the mail to add to the one I have finished and the Demolisher I need to strip and repaint, this will give me a full squad of Leman Russes and a full squad of Demolishes! I would like to get these all done for Tanks-giving but we’ll see how that goes!

Related posts:

1. Missile Launcher Squad – ToEMP #4 Done
2. Traitor Guard 1000 Point Initial Army List and 2000 Point Working List
3. Another Tank Swells the Ranks – ToEMP #8 Done

Armed with a plasma rifle, missile pod and shield generator this suit can either hunt tanks or MEQs at range, while sticking around for a bit.

This model is half of my submission for ToEMP #7 which earns me:

• Large model: 2 pts
• Icons/Marks: 1 pnt
• Beating deadline: 2pnts
• Meating Deadline: 2pnts
• Total: 7 points!

I am also finishing up the second entry for Challenge #7 and here is the sneak peak:

Related posts:

1. Something New: Tau – ToEMP #6
2. Company Command Squad Painted ToEMP Challenge Met
3. Missile Launcher Squad – ToEMP #4 Done