Mike's Menagerie of Mediocre Models and Miniatures

[m_r_parker]

So it's that time of the year again....

I m_r_parker rise to the challenge of E TENEBRAE LUX on the side of the Dark Angels and vow to complete:

• 10 Intercessors with Stalker pattern Bolt Rifles
• ​10 Hellblasters with Heavy Plasma Incinerators
• 5 Reivers with Bolt Carbines
• 5 Reivers with Grav Chutes, Combat Blades and Heavy Bolt Pistols
• 3 Aggressors with Boltstorm Gauntlets and Fragstorm Grenade Launchers
• Primaris Ancient
• Primaris Lieutenant with Bolt Pistol, Plasma Pistol and Power Weapon
• Priamris Lieutenant with Bolt Pistol, Plasma Pistol and Power Weapon

of total value 1,112 points on or before August 1st, 2018. Success will bring me eternal glory and failure will doom me to wear the Badge of the Oathbreaker until the year-end

Here are my 'before' shots from today, as I got the staff from my local GW to prime and spray them in Caliban Green (except the Reivers and characters, who have been kept in black for the moment)

Intercessor Squad 1:

Hellblaster Squad 1:

Reiver Squad 1:

Reiver Squad 2:

Aggressor Squad 1:

Ancient, Chaplain and first Lieutenant:

Second Lieutenant:

I'm actually really impressed with how this guy turned out. I knew I wanted to include the robotic arm from the Hellblaster set, but the secondary pistol arm was initially going to be a quick swap out of the standard plasma pistol on the arm from this character for a bolt pistol, but it looked a bit same-y to the other lieutenant. The only other Primaris bolt pistol arm I had to hand was the one from the Intercessor squad, and despite it also being held out straight it actually looks quite good (in my eyes at least). Plus the sword hung at the back just felt really cool to do - makes him feel a bit like a Primaris Cypher...

It took a little longer to get all my models sprayed than I was originally planning, so I only really did a little work before I had to pack everything up. I decided on going with the Aggressors to begin with as it's a small squad size, and I just felt like starting with them. I'm going to give the entire range of models a bronze trim to the shoulder pads to give the models a bit more colour and also to keep them united.

Aggressor Squad 1 - WIP 03/05/2018:

[Pearson73]

Quite the vow to open with, the pose of the Lieutenant is cracking, the Aggressors are looking spot on too, the bone and green are very nice.

[m_r_parker]

Seeing as this guy is my favourite model of the vow, I couldn't resist beginning to paint him this afternoon. I'd say he's around 60% done so far, I need to tidy some of the areas where my brushwork has been a bit sloppy (oops), trim the armour, blend and shadow the robes, and then include fine details around the face and other odds and ends.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

"Two-gun Bob" looks great!

[Pearson73]

Fast work, the white cloth is shaded really well.

[Khornestar]

Came for the alliteration, stayed for the cool models. Thumbs up!

[TechType]

I'm digging the LT, nice conversion! 

 

Great taste in chapter too, I look forward to seeing your army getting painted.

[m_r_parker]

Time for some Orlock gangers, now that FW put out the Orlock Weapon Packs for pre-release at the Open Day this year.
I've been hoarding 2 boxes and the Hired Guns box since they came out at the HH Weekender in February, now that we can get the weapon packs I can crack on and get some gangers built and painted.

In all honesty, I have no idea whether the guys I've built so far are legal - I just want something fun to put together and paint. I still have another ten to go, so if I need to I can assemble them to make a legitimate gang. I haven't put together the other ten yet as I want to keep things small and achievable.

Here's the gang, pre-basecoating with Mechanicum Grey:

And here are some of the Hired Guns that I'll be doing up with them:

And after 6-7 hours of painting in my local GW store (and partaking in some Thursday Banter) here's the progress I've made thus far. I've been trying to keep to the main painting guide on Warhammer TV (I actually like that colour scheme) but it'll probably take a few days of work to get the initial gang of ten completed - but I'm somewhat happy with the progress given it's only been a relaxing day.

I also took some pictures of the weapon packs and the hired guns, should anyone want to know exactly what you get in them or what parts they come in. Just ask - I've uploaded them to a gallery but haven't yet put it into this thread as there's a lot of pictures. if I do put them in I'll be sure to put the pictures in spoiler tags.

Mike

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the gangers.

[m_r_parker]

And to the other long-term project I'm going to be cracking on over the years - Xana Dark Mechanicum and House Malinax.

Not much to show on here just yet, but there will be some WIPs soon as I have actually been building things.

This is a project that has been festering in my brain for a long time, and now I'm actually getting around to doing something about it. I've been stocking up on various things, and with Forgebane and the re-release of Renegade I now have a critical mass of models to make some of my maniacal creations come to life. Ultimately I can see this coming across in three different timelines on the Xana Forge World:

• Pre-Scoria: This is traditional Mechanicum before the Heresy, where everything is very clean cut. No massive conversions or anything.
• Tech Heresy: With Scoria released and the Heresy in full flow, a lot of the Mechanicum and Malinax elements are starting to incorporate additional mechanical elements based off of xenos and animalistic elements. I've been using some Necron elements to represent this (have to use the Necrons from Forgebane somehow), but it's all still mechanical and AI rather than full Dark Mechanicum.
• Daemonic Assimilation: End-of-Heresy shenanigans looking to use Daemons as energy sources for Mechanicum constructs and Knights. This is the point where anything goes, and the further the better.

Man, do I have a lot of Knights waiting for this. I have two copies of Renegade with the contents still on the sprues, a further two which have gone through sub assembly and nearly ready for priming, a couple of Mechanicum knights assembled and ready for priming (including my old Atrapos which I still need to finish), and a Cerastus Castigator sitting in a bag waiting for a wash.

I've also been blending the Armigers and Canoptek Wraiths from the Forgebane box together for something a little more 'fun', they still have some work to get them ready for paint and it's mainly the weapon arms.

At the FW Open Day I did pick up a Scoria,and already I'm not looking forward to getting him ready. He's 30 pieces (not including the base, which is actually only one piece) and pinning is going to be a nightmare with the spindly arms and servos. I do have an Archmagos Draykavac floating about somewhere unbuilt, and a plastic Dominus which I've been subtly converting to a more Dark Mechanicum visage.

I do have some ideas for the Daemonic Assimilation of Malinax Knights, including some very expensive conversion pieces. I did this morning pick up (along with a Kill Team box) a Lord of Change model for combining with a Knight. I can see it in my head that the Lord of Change is physically trying to break free of the Knight that it's been bound to. So heads in the place of the Knight's shield and torso weapon (either side of the Knight head), the tabard in between the Knight's legs, some claws in place of the toes, and a few horrors at key points on the chassis. I think I have a burning chariot somewhere, and plan on using some of the Exalted Flamer flames to come out of the Melta cannon, and I'm debating whether to replace a Reaper Chainsword with a staff or something else. I also plan to do this with each of the main Gods, using a Bloodthirster for Khorne, a Glotkin for Nurgle (GUO is a bit big to be honest), and I have no clue what to do with Slaanesh as we don't have a KoS kit yet.

I like the idea that to begin with the Mechanicum bit off more than they could chew, and tried to bind Greater Daemons into Knights that really tried to break free and massively corrupt their vassals. Learning from that mistake they tried using lesser Daemons which could be bound more successfully.

Oh, and I also picked up a Brass Scorpion, because why not have a Malinax aligned Scorpion construct with scorpion markings...

More to come later.

Mike

[Krakendoomcool]

Really looking forward to four Renegade Chaos knights dedicated to each of the chaos gods! That would be incredible. Lots of fun representing the different gods. Looking forward to progress on this and Dark mechanicum conversions.