XBA: The Spear of Telesto

[Xenith]

So being back in the UK has given me access to some of the BA models that were a bit too bulky to bring to Switzerland, chief among them my venerable Land Raider Crusader.

Being variably known as 'Invictor' or 'Vindictor' depending on what scroll you read, I bought this on released in what, 2000 when the War for Amrageddon was on. Who doesnt love 16 man troop capacity when you could have 16 man death companies in 3rd ed.

Painting tanks was always my nightmare when younger due to lack of red spray and blood rec covering horribly.

Now we have meph red spray, and it's time for an overhaul. First I had to fix the damn sponsons, and glued everything to everything. They're a real mess, but they're hidden by the sponson guard.

My baby being repainted

I sprayed the sponsons black then masked them off with some card to spray the rest red, but then ended up with a weird black stripe that would be tough to deal with. Being super lazy, rather than try to repaint the black red, I made it into a feature. After a little more black spray, I had a cool feature that echoed my last land raider, Tyrants Bane.

I still have to neaten up the black, I think I'll trim it with gold, and it'll look ace when its weathered. I'm super happy to be able to finally give this tank the paint job it deserves.

In other news, project Primaris is officially off the ground. I basecoated 5 Infiltrators, 4 black in the normal scheme and 1 Grey Seer to have a dabble with Flesh Tearers Red contrast paint.

Oh my God-Emperor. Good looking basecoat and shade in like 4-5 minutes. It's insane, just exercise brush control and stop it pooling. The tension of the contrast smooths itself out if you catch it fast so you dont have to worry about streaks.

I dont have Black templar so smashed on some Abaddon Black, and after 15 mins or so including drying time, the model looked like this:

For me that's insane. I immediately went back and primed the other squad members grey seer. I think I'll do all the primaris like this. For reference, below is my FT test model I did ages ago in the normal layer method. Once I get highlights on the contrastmarine, I think it'll be hard to tell the difference. My only fear is using contrast on tanks, but I guess if we take it panel by panel it'll work out ok.

Edited March 19, 2020 by Xenith

[Majkhel]

Phobos armour has lots of smaller plates and panels. It will look ace with contrasts.

Nice!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Primaris Marines.

[Xenith]

Phobos armour has lots of smaller plates and panels. It will look ace with contrasts.

Nice!

 

I hope so!

 

Good job on the Primaris Marines.

 

Thanks, it's really early days, but I'm hoping they'll come out well!

[Xenith]

Got to work on the last tactical squad of the company last night, dealing with them in chunks of 5 to prevent burnout so early into the UK's lockdown. 5 guys basecoated and blocking in thebase colours. I also have another infiltrator I'm testing contrast paints out on. Black Templar this time. It's ok, but you really need to control the pooling, seems it goes on less flat than others. Multiple thin layers needed to build up the colour.

Here's the first of Squad 6:

And the fully contrasted infiltrator with 3 incursors

And a close up of the incursors:

I have to say, I'm really, really liking the look of these Incursors. The Infiltrators are kind of odd with the helmets, but the Incursors have this kind of brutal aspect.

These three guys are converted from the Shadowspear Infiltrator duplicate marines, so you can see they dont have the right boltgun sights, however I dont think anyone is going to know. They have the right helms and backpack scanners. I didnt have the confidence to do these conversions until I seen Majkhel's excellent work in his plog (check it out) and decided to go for it.

I was really on the fence about the Flesh Tearers, and I still might be, however I'm loving getting some paint on Primaris at last. It might be that my Primaris force ends up as some kind of Indomitus crusade company. I really want to paint up some Flesh Eaters and Angels Sanguine also.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Xenith

[Majkhel]

Hey Xenith, thanks for patting my back! :D
Both EtB and multi-part kits can be mixed pretty easily. I admit I did some extensive planning beforehand, which involved counting how much of each body I have, and wht can be done with it. But hands and heads can be  used quite freely with some minimal cutting and filing. You can even add some Intercessor parts, although their hands (especially outstretched) seem to be a bit shorter for some reason.

 

I see you're getting a hang of those contrasts paints. The leather effect is fantastic and for this alone I would consider contrasts, knowing how much effort I have to put with standard paints to get close to this type of results. One thing I noticed is the shade on the upper part of the knee protector plate, which looks a bit out of place. 

And really good job on those slimmer FT icons! 

[Xenith]

Hey Xenith, thanks for patting my back!

Both EtB and multi-part kits can be mixed pretty easily. I admit I did some extensive planning beforehand, which involved counting how much of each body I have, and wht can be done with it. But hands and heads can be  used quite freely with some minimal cutting and filing. You can even add some Intercessor parts, although their hands (especially outstretched) seem to be a bit shorter for some reason.

 

I see you're getting a hang of those contrasts paints. The leather effect is fantastic and for this alone I would consider contrasts, knowing how much effort I have to put with standard paints to get close to this type of results. One thing I noticed is the shade on the upper part of the knee protector plate, which looks a bit out of place. 

And really good job on those slimmer FT icons! 

 

Yea man, I really wasnt sure how to tackle these, whether I should replace the guns etc. In the end I just went for head and backpack swaps to get the incursor vide, I didnt go all out like you did with arm/weapon swaps, etc. I wasn't sure I could cover up all the chest details etc. I think these guys could do with some knives from the kit to cement their role.

Edited March 25, 2020 by Xenith

[Majkhel]

Totally agree that backpacks and heads are enough to show the type of unit. I'd even say that backpacks alone would do the trick. Initially I wanted to keep Infiltrator's guns for Incursors as well as I like them better and I will still have some of those mixed up among squads. As you say - nobody will really notice or care.
If you manage to add knives, it would be definitely good, although it's not so straightforward with the Shadowspear bodies - they often already have pouches and grenades on their belts and those interfere in some cases with knives placed on the right hips. But there are ways around this up to cutting off said pouches altogether.
My Haywire mine carrier for example is based on the EtB body and he had enough place for both knives at the back

I'm planning also to build some with a single knife on each hip (don't know yet where I will put the pistol :P ) and one knife on the hip, one on the back of the belt.

[Xenith]

Totally agree that backpacks and heads are enough to show the type of unit. I'd even say that backpacks alone would do the trick. Initially I wanted to keep Infiltrator's guns for Incursors as well as I like them better and I will still have some of those mixed up among squads. As you say - nobody will really notice or care.

If you manage to add knives, it would be definitely good, although it's not so straightforward with the Shadowspear bodies - they often already have pouches and grenades on their belts and those interfere in some cases with knives placed on the right hips. But there are ways around this up to cutting off said pouches altogether.

My Haywire mine carrier for example is based on the EtB body and he had enough place for both knives at the back

I'm planning also to build some with a single knife on each hip (don't know yet where I will put the pistol ) and one knife on the hip, one on the back of the belt.

That's definitely a good idea - I havent examined the incursor sprues too closely, but I'm hoping I can sit the knives on the opposite side to the holster without too much issue - but your back mounted solution is great also - I assume you had to cut them up to make them point in opposite directions?

[Majkhel]

The lower knife is from another set. I think it's some type of Space Wolf bit. Not sure, cause I got with a mixture of various bits from many different kits.

Incursors' knives can be cut apart without issue, however only one side has details. 

[Xenith]

Noted! I'll have a play around with the kit.

 

In other news the first combat squad of Squad Santurini is pretty much done to tabletop standard bar the highlights anf basing, which I don't have with me in lock down. I'm pretty happy with how these guys turned out - will post some pics tomorrow. I've also finished my first 100% contrast infiltrator, and am pretty happy with how he turned out. My flesh Tearers will be on sector Imperialis bases, so I need to get those made up too.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Xenith

[Xenith]

Tactical Demi-Squad done


Sergeant Santurini


Brother Cautio Asher



I need a name for this guy. He has two name scrolls on his shoulder pads, so can accomodate a lot of text. I'm thinking Bob or Dave.


Brother Bionic Head. I've been hoarding these (original Iron Hands) bits for so long that they are rereleasing all space marines. I thought I might as well use them. They look great and are super characterful.



There's just a few things remaining, like I forgot to pack a blue wen going into lockdown, so I cannot paint the squad insignia for the 6th squad yet, and I want to do the bionic brain in a blue colour to stand out.

Flesh Tearer Infiltrator

Aplogies for the blur:






This guy was really rough and ready, but pretty much done. I'm still not sold on contrasts for power armour, though its amazing for textured surfaces like the ribbed sections, boltgun, pouches etc.

I hope to finish off the rest of the infiltrator squad, then go back and do the other half of that tactical squad - lascannon and 4 bolter chumps.

Edited March 30, 2020 by Xenith

[Majkhel]

Love the tactical squad and the colors you've chosen (especially the yellow muzzles of the plasma guns)!

The bionic head piece is really cool too!

 

For the FT - the lighting is pretty harsh (white I believe?) and it does not do any good to the highlighted edges of the armour. I would consider mixing in some classic techniques, like a dark wash for chosen places of armour to enhance the effect of the contrasts. The black parts look good really though. Especially all the soft parts between the amour plates.

 

Keep it up! :)

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the models.

[SnorriSnorrison]

Nice work on those tactical marines, Xenith! Some flavourful additions to the squad!

 

How do you like contrast colours for power armour? I’m mostly using Blood Angels Red as a glaze and haven’t really used it to paint the armour itself. What’s your take on it?

[Xenith]

Love the tactical squad and the colors you've chosen (especially the yellow muzzles of the plasma guns)!

The bionic head piece is really cool too!

 

For the FT - the lighting is pretty harsh (white I believe?) and it does not do any good to the highlighted edges of the armour. I would consider mixing in some classic techniques, like a dark wash for chosen places of armour to enhance the effect of the contrasts. The black parts look good really though. Especially all the soft parts between the amour plates.

 

Keep it up!

 

Thanks! The soft armour, and all the black is really: black templar base for leadbelcher, then basilicanum grey over the top. a final drybrush of silver would finish them off. Agree on the lighting, the shade on the armour tends to white so doesnt really stand out on that background. I dont want to go over things with another shade, maybe for characters, as that defeats the purpose of contrast, however I'll be highlighting them as normal, broad meph red, then fine wazdakka/evil sunz highlight. Characters/extreme highlight will go up to wild rider. 

 

Good job on the models.

 

Thanks Bjorn!

 

Nice work on those tactical marines, Xenith! Some flavourful additions to the squad!

 

How do you like contrast colours for power armour? I’m mostly using Blood Angels Red as a glaze and haven’t really used it to paint the armour itself. What’s your take on it?

 

I really swing between liking it and hating it - most of my problems are relatin to unever converage, so I've taken to adding a second coat, which has the problem of then making the main surface closer to the recesses in colour. I've done one of the infiltrators in the standard method with Khorne Red, so can hopefully compare them. Overall I dont like the 'highlights' provided by the contrast, but the shading is ok. The marines looked a little 'off' to me, then I got the first layer of highlights on an infiltrator and he came alive - then I realised this is pretty much the same as my experience with other marines in the standard methods, they look a bit flat until that shade and highlight. 

 

Overall it's been a faster method, and I'll probably stick with it. That's just for power armour. For anything else, like bolters, pouches, grenades, etc, its amazing and I won't be going back. I've tested using it as a shade on mephiston red painted marines and it works a treat if you wanted to get a deep red recess shade. I've already gone too far down the agrax road, but I'll switch up to skeleton horde, which already has the flow consistency of the Agrax/Lahmian mix I shade with, and pretty much the same colour. 

[appiah4]

I need a name for this guy. He has two name scrolls on his shoulder pads, so can accomodate a lot of text. I'm thinking Bob or Dave.

Haha amazing figure, what kit is the head from?

He certainly needs a more funny sailory name than Bob or Dave, check this out: https://monkeyisland.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Characters

My vote goes to Horatio Torquemada Marley

Edited April 1, 2020 by appiah5

[Xenith]

I need a name for this guy. He has two name scrolls on his shoulder pads, so can accomodate a lot of text. I'm thinking Bob or Dave.

Haha amazing figure, what kit is the head from?

He certainly needs a more funny sailory name than Bob or Dave, check this out: https://monkeyisland.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Characters

My vote goes to Horatio Torquemada Marley

Those are good names, but all I can think of when I see him is Lord Flashheart:

I miht be able to get FLASHHEART on one pauldron and WOOF! on the other.

[Quixus]

Minor nitpick, to me the head sculpt looks like it has hair below the lips as well. Unfortunately I don't know what this beard style is called.

[Xenith]

Minor nitpick, to me the head sculpt looks like it has hair below the lips as well. Unfortunately I don't know what this beard style is called.

 

Haha, indeed, the goatee/soul patch hasnt been painted - theyre still 95%.

 

Edit: Done now, thanks for the prompt!

Edited April 1, 2020 by Xenith

[Xenith]

So I've got those 5 Infiltrators finished and based, but not highlighted. I'd be happy to have them on the table, I'll get some pics later today. 

 

Still dithering over what factions to paint my models. I want a BA army in Heresy, 40k and Primaris 40k.

 

Heresy:

Blood Angels or Flesh Tearers (brighter red, Scouring Era) or Proto Flesh Eaters (BA scheme, more pink, with white helm stripe. FE's were not a second founding Chapter).

 

I think mk4 armour will look incredible in flesh tearer colours, and scouring era allows for really weathered armour, which suits FT's.

 

40k Oldmarines:

BA 4th Company. Do I paint the remaining mk7 marines as BA also? I think I might get the company done, then finally go back and rebase all my company to 32mm before adding more power armour. 

 

40k Primaris:

Flesh Tearers or Proto Flesh Eaters (BA scheme, more pink, with white helm stripe). 

 

I'm really tempted to make the Primaris an Indomitus Crusade company of sorts, and have units from all the BA successors represented until I choose what I like the most. I think this will scratch my hobby butterfly itch. I'll paint at least one intercessor up as a Flesh Eater. I dont think Primaris armour also lends itself well to heavy weathering. 

Edited April 2, 2020 by Xenith

[Majkhel]

This idea of an Indomitus Crusade Company is fantastic! Opens some really great opportunities :)

[Xenith]

Time for another pic dump!

Sergeant Santurini with plasma gunner, plasma effect and weathering:

Bolter grunts

Santurini with magnetised thunder hammer

Tybhalt Flasheart

Brother Bionic

Brother Asher, now with plasma burn. I did my best to emulate @Neonmoles amazing work with this, but came up short, it needs some more dark glaze at the top, and white glaze at the bottom, with some OSL.

The last three sergeants I painted, Terranostro, Jovor and Santurini.

I still need to detail the back of Jovor's banner. Maybe when he does something useful in-game. So far he's just died. 8th ed :shrug:


Just a close up of Sergeant Terranostro with face plate details.

Flesh Tearers

Here's the finished demi squad of Infiltrators, 90% with contrast paints. Still need to drill the barrels.

Bolters are grey seer, black templar, second coat of black templar on casing, leadbelcher on metals, basilicanum grey wash on metals. Smoke is straihgt grey seer with basilicanum grey. Other metals are Black templar, leadbelcher, basilicanum.

Shoddy highlights up close. Will touch up.


One coat of guilliman flesh over grey seer spray:


Leather holsters are a thick coat of snakebite leather over grey seer:


Purity seals are grey seer base, thick coat of warpstone green for the wax and skeleton horde for the parchment

The bases are straight sector imperialis bases, black undercoat, leadbelcher or eshin grey, basilicanum grey wash.

Thanks for looking!

Next up are either:

The other half of squad Santurini, 3rd vanguard squad of the 1st company with the power fists, or some more infiltrators.

[Father Mapple]

Those models look great. I like the flesh tearers. Skeleton horde is a real work horse. It does bone, paper, parchment, etc., Just in different concentrations.

[Majkhel]

Contrast FTs turned out really well   I do like the added highlight on the traditionally painted guy, contrasts are very consistent. 

Sarges head needs a touch-up around those studs on the top of his head to remove the genestealer vibe. Other than that, I can't really find a flaw ;) Good job!