Broken Paintbrush

As promised I completed Cypher and posting the pictures, off to a good start on my new goals!

Cypher was a great character in 3rd Edition Chaos that was mysteriously phased out in the following Codex which really is a shame. Though after reading DFG’s rumor roundup it seems like he may be making a comeback!

And here is the full squad together. I am quite aware that I may never be able to play with the squad (except for Apoc of course) but after sitting in my closet for years I figured that Cypher had earned himself a squad.

Well the pictures capture that I haven’t really “completed” the squad as most evident by the lack of a banner. I also haven’t finished clear coating and glossing the models (see the back of the medic for a finished piece there), but it is done enough to post and put on the shelf until the day I decide to add custom banners to models.

Next up will be some Ork Boyz!

So I finally completed the last two members of the Fallen Angel command squad to accompany Cypher. Well when I say complete, the models are complete, I now need to create a banner or the pole bearer… I’ll be spending some time on FTW trying to get ideas for that.

First up, the standard bearer:

And the final member: the power weapon bearing dude.

And here is the squad all together waiting their mighty, if mysterious leader.As I paint Cypher up I plan to take more step-by-step pictures to post how I did each step. stay tuned!

Finished two more Fallen Angels for Cypher’s retinue. As I wanted to treat Cypher as a Space Marine Captain (or is he really the Primarch!?!) I built the retinue as a command squad including a medic. I figured that even Fallen Angels need to preserve their gene seed to continue the fight.And the third Fallen:

Something about robed marines is rather fun to paint and quite dramatic.

And the first three together.Even though I’m painting each one at a time, I’ve written down the paint colors for each step so each model stays consistent even when I leave the lid off my wet pallet and it all dries up.

As promised in my last post I’ve been working on something that old timer Chaos players may remember: Fallen Angels. These are the secret that the Dark Angels do not want any one to know about. They are the followers of the mysterious Cypher which was a special character option in the 3rd edition Chaos Space Marine Codex.

I’ve had these models kicking around my closet for years (Cypher since 3rd edition even) and never got around to painting them up until this last week. After priming and laying down the base coat on all the models I decided to do a test model first to see how it turned out.

As there is no official Fallen models I am using normal Dark Angel models for the squad with bits from the command squad. I could not find any special markings to set them apart from the loyal brothers so I just added some blood to the wings, symbolizing them being torn off.

Although this model is 90% done I still have markings left to do but I’m not sure what they will be, any suggestions? I also really wanted to play with the robes, making them look like they have been dragged through the mud a bit.

Also wanted to play with a bit of gory-painting and show they actually use those chain-saw weapons of death.

And just to prove that I really do have the whole squad and the mystery that is Cypher:So one down, five more to go and a banner to boot.

Another step to finishing the Golden Throne challenge, my Chaos Sorcerer is not finished. I’m not completely happy with how he turned out but for now he is done, perhaps I’ll come back to him and touch him up.

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.

Another classic model that I’ve had since third edition, Fabius Bile used to be a potentially amazing (or horrible) character – all his stats were D6 modified!

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.

Although I’m not sure if I will ever build up a full army, I succumbed to the desire to own a mecha army.  I like the idea and look of the Tau army so I thought I’d try out painting a few before committing.  After buying the codex and spending a few days searching Google Images I decided on the blue suits but wanted a worn and dirty look. I was inspired very much buy this guy on Advanced Tau Tactica.

Although I enjoyed painting this model, the battle suite models (I built another to escort the Shas’O) it is poorly designed and had a bunch of voids that needed filling. Even discarding the minor conversion work, I still needed to use a great deal of green stuff to smooth out the armor.

The armament was chosen more out of looks and “coolness” than perhaps competitiveness. I like the idea of the ion blaster, although (and maybe perhaps because) it is unpredictable and using the droid as the shield generator just looks cool.

Although  I was hoping to finish my bane wolves (which really are as good as they sound!) for this challenge but I haven’t got that far.  The next challenge is for fast attack and elites so I’m hoping to finish both my bane wolves and this fellow’s body guard.

Painting Points for this round:

• Large Model: 2 points
• Hard Challenge: 15 points
• Meeting Deadline: 2 points
• Total: 19 points

I have just finished my Company Command Squad for my Traitor Guard and in doing so met the first Tale of Even More Painters challenge. I know Admiral Drax (and his troops with hand painted Aquilas) beat us all done, but I think I may have just finished second.

Equipped with power weapon, bolt pistol, metla bomb, krak grenades, plasma gun (I love plasma…), medic, regimental standard, vox. Total Points: 137

There was little conversion done on this squad, just a bit of kit bashing and work with the knife/file. The regimental banner already had a sculpted on Chaos star (well perhaps it is some silly loyalist symbol…) and the medic looked crazy enough with just the needle and chain knife (a bit of a Fabius Bile flashback).

Yes my company commander is Inquisitor model, I liked the model so much I decided he would make a perfect leader for my army, even if it is a bit ironic. I filed off the Inquisitor icons and filled in the icon on top of the head. I may go back at some point and paint a Chaos star on his chest, but for now he is considered done.

Points Earned:

• Foot Sloggers x5 = 5 pnts
• Icons/ Symbols/ Marks (the banner counts?) = 1 pnt
• Eyes/ Lenses/ View Finders (commanders eye lens) = 1 pnt
• Beating Deadline by at least 24 hours = 2 pnts
• Meeting Deadline: 2 pnts

Total Painting Points: 11

I have to spend some time figuring out what is up next to paint. Options are: 2 heavy sentinels, 2 scout sentinels, missile launcher squad or a mortar squad. I haven’t tallied up the points I have painted, but I think I’m getting close to the 1k I need for the painting competition at my local GW. Because of time constraints (I’m out of town all of next week for work) I may start with the heavy sentinels to add some more character to the army. I am going to paint them like Dezartfox’s World Eater Rhinos over on the Vanus Temple. After painting so many tanks for my Iron Warriors, I want to try out a “painted” tank (aka not another silver one) and although I’m trying to stay away from the blood pact theme, bloody walkers could look so intimidating!