Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch's Workshop - 15 minutes is better than none

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Heeeeeey Everybody, with the advent of ETL I've decided to open my own ETL plog.

 

So, some background.

I've been collecting for several years, playing off and on as I've found time/opponents. Space marines were my first army, and my first model was a land raider redeemer. It took me a year to build and paint the bloody thing (chassis assembly, mainly), by which point I had painted at least a few other models.

Soon after, necrons followed, led by a catacomb command barge. Soon after, they expanded, then everything kind of hit a halt for a while, both marines and necrons, but my love of lore-writing certainly did not. Somewhere in here I discovered the Bolter and Chainsword, joined, accidentally...well insulted isn't right, but had a very awkward moment with a mod, attempted the Iron Gauntlet (we're still waiting on that judgement, Olis, if you see this), and then that took me to day.

 

Dark Imperium was purchased when it came out, which prompted a flurry of new lore-scribblings about my chapter and the primaris, painted up, and has mostly sat dormant for lack of games to play.

 

ETL has inspired me to majorly expand my necrons, with a possible out-of-competition marine vow to finish a half-painted unit.

 

I'll try to be documenting everything from here on out. Photos of my collection in detail will follow, for now i will post my 'forum Christmas card' for a majorly out of focus shot.

 

 

Anyway, here's my current WIP progress vow for ETL.

One single character, this is my Deathmark Vizier Rezak the Executioner. I'm rather proud of the conversion work I've been able to do on the model, despite the fact it's mostly been done on his gun XP.

 

 

I won't always think to update this in future, so some prodding from anyone who reads may be helpful.

Cheers, D-P Lenoch.

 

Edited January 12 by Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch

[Captain Semper]

Promising start! Let’s see this army expanding! :tu:

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

So, I completed my first ever ETL vow last week (yay!) but managed to forget to put it here. So, without, further ado, here is Rezak the Executioner, minor Overlord of the Crownworld of Seranon, of the Naculan Dynasty.

 

Rezak strode forth from the storm, holding his Synaptic Obliterator low by the handle. He flicked his wrist, and the weapon snapped up from its melee form, phased through the snow and his form, and slid comfortably into his shoulder. He relaxed, aimed, and fired a sniper blast that sent a trio of tyranid warriors down like ragdolls. Their Prime looked about, seeking where the blow had come from, and quickly went down as well as Rezak unleashed another shot.

That squad eliminated, he quickly phased through the outcrop to land in front of a horde of hormagaunts. A quick mental command reconfigured the choke of his weapon and he pumped two red scatterpulse shots into the tide of flesh in front of him. The light flashed and threescore fell with nary a sign of their passing, and then they were upon him.

The Obliterator was as adept at melee as it was at several kilometers distant, and in less than .32 millirotations Rezak held it like a quarterstaff, twin blades flashing in the snowy air. Before long, he had backup in the form of six of his Lychguard and two of his subordinates. Together, they made short work of the horde, and Rezak hadn't even needed to trigger his resurrection orb. Excellent.

"Phaeron, we have eliminated the tyranid's left flank on this battle. Warriors are clear to deploy."

"My thanks, Executioner. Begin backline harassment, we shall close this front shortly."

"As the phaeron commands."
 

 

The photos look better on my phone, I swear, for some reason all the quality didn't transfer over when I uploaded the pics.

The snow on the model is intentional, as I quite like the effect it has. The model and the lore are from a tyranid invasion of Seranon, the crownworld. Expect the snow on the rest of my vows from here on out.

 

 

Now, I need all yall's help on something.

 

I codified my necron hierarchal paint schemes a while back in a paper notebook. I proceeded to lose the notebook and before beginning Rezak recodified them as best I could recall in a computer file. I've now found said notebook and need to reconcile the two. They've been spoilered to avoid clutter.

 

Notebook Scheme: 

Phaeron (currently Sarnakh the Sunderer): blue deathmask, black warscythe blade, black resorb, green cape, blue pauldrons, chrome chassis

Heir Apparent (currently Kani the Sentry, Phaeron's Daughter): one gold, one blue shoulderpas, gold deathmask, red blade and resorb, chrome chassis

Overlord: silver pauldrons, silver deathmask, red blade and resorb, chrome chassis

Lord: bronze pauldrons and deathmask, red blade and resorb, chrome chassis

Cryptek: black and while pauldrons, white deathmask, black spine, black staff of light, white chronometron

Units: squads have blue pauldrons, squad leaders ('primes' have red pauldrons)

All: red oculars

 

New scheme:

Chrome silver chassis
-regular squad members have blue shoulder pads
-squad primes have red shoulder pads

all energy weapons and tools use red highlighting

Nobility
-Phaeron: blue and red headress, blue skull, blue pauldrons, green and leadbelcher cloak, red torso
-Major Overlords: Red Headress and Chrome faceplate, Gold pauldrons and cloak (e.g. Kani, Chronozak)
-Minor Overlords: Red headress and chrome faceplate, leadbelcher pauldrons and cloak (e.g. Rezak)
-Lords: Chrome headress and faceplate, bronze pauldrons and cloak (Lady Zetak, other minor nobility)
-Lychguard: Colors in concordance with thier lord, pauldrons on left denote their lord, right pauldron denotes rank within squad (e.g. Kani's lychguard would have red headress, chrome faceplate, golden left paulron, but have a blue right pauldron). No cloaks.

-Cryptek: TBD

Canoptek constructs:
-fenrisian grey carapace over a chrome chassis, red eyes and power
​

 

Now, neither of these are inclusive. They don't include the triarch, nor non-Canoptek vehicles (i.e. a ghost ark). What are your thoughts?

 

Also, I am currently working on stripping stuff for my next vow. I'll post some pics here when that's done, esp. as a couple warriors are getting chassis upgrades to represent their exalted statuses.

Edited June 18, 2018 by Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

I've finished stripping my second vow down, and have a picture of it, along with the two aforementioned exalted warriors. The vow consists of my Phaeron, his annihilation barge, a trio of scarab swarm bases, and eighteen plus two warriors. The two warriors on 32 mm bases without their rods are not part of the 'sqaud' as it happens, and are just tagging along to make a nice even twenty. They will be joining their brethern in another phalanx; the rest of the warriors are members of the 'Sarnakh's Favored' Phalanx. Lore will follow with the completion of the vow, or August 2nd, depending on which comes first, because I like suspense sometimes :D.

 

Vow as a whole. 

 

 

This model is Ruleen'okah, bastard son of one of the Phaeron's lychgaurd. After having part of his memory restored, he was given a blade from his father's armory, as well as chassis upgrades to mark his status as minor nobility and Warrior Prime of Sarnakh's Favored.

 

Meet Mekethist, assistant to the Cryptek Nakon. Heavy equipment has been granted to her to better serve the dynasty. 

This model is really top-heavy, I must say. I'm loathe to sacrifice a coin, though, so I am either going to have to find/make something suitable or accept that she's just gonna tip over sometimes.

 

Their phalanx will likely receive some work today, and I'll be sure to post progress pics.

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Progress! My scarabs are almost done, guys. However, I'm curious as to what you guys think of this. I washed these guys with Drakenhof Nightshade, but I'm not sure how it turned out. WHat are you guys thoughts on this?

The scarab base on the far left is one I painted before ETL.

 

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

With the official announcement and impending arrival of the new Horus Heresy boxset, I am finding myself renewed with vigor to clear through some of my projects. (Even if this blog hasn't been updated in ... a little less than four years?)

 

Currently on my table are a Drop Pod, and some 10th company reinforcements. Right now I'm in color-blocking-mode, which isn't very exciting but my last scouts were painted years ago so I'm trying to take things a bit more slowly (also I picked an absolutely torturous scheme to paint of bright red and bright white way back when, so).

 

I have about 7 other scouts with rifles or bikes that are still in need of some primer, as well as a LSS and a pair of 3d printed Tarantulas, but these six will make for a nice start 

 

And here's the drop pod, of which I've so far painted the weapons, and the eagles, plus work on a single door, and a quick mockup in GIMP.

 

I'm hoping to upload this much more frequently, now that I can reliably do Discord image linking instead of fighting a more convoluted 3rd party image upload program.

 

Cheers!

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Did the edge highlighting on one of the doors tonight, really like how it turned out. (Gonna wait on doing the chapter symbol til I can get something to function relatively well as a pattern slash glue-on thing--I do not want to freehand that five times in a row).

 

 

I also seem to have ID'ed the number of coats of Evil Sunz I need for proper coverage, as well as a better brush technique for a less streak-y sort of look. Should be good for some mindless work over the next week or so before I go and do the edge highlighting all at once.

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Finished a Scout Sergeant today, partly as a test for an updated paint scheme and partly just to have a mini I could call done. Sorry for the pic quality, desk ain't exactly the best thing to take pictures on/with.

 

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

 

Managed to finish Outrider Alexios Windburner (images under the spoiler) of the Dawn Blades eighth company today (he didn't have much left to my standards, just some white and shading plus a chapter symbol that I think actually turned out quite well!). I started him for a local painting comp last year and then ran out of time because I forgot how long it took me to paint white.

 

 

 

Alexios appears as part of Samurai Qualification Mission Kamauji in my story Divine Wrath Restrained, which I wrote several months ago but never posted here. 

 

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Time, huh? Wild how i just… forget to update this. Anyway! Brief bit of catchup (and i do mean BRIEF).

 

Finished my drop pod! EXTREMELY happy with it, hmm-hmm-hmm months after i bought it. Turns out I did NOT in fact want to do all that mindless panel painting for a while, and also didn’t have the chapter symbols designed, printed, and in hand until last fall, and then i dragged my feet some more working on other stuff. But i powered through over Christmas, and am QUITE happy with the result 

 

Also pictured is the most expensive tactical squad I own, my finally-complete Space Marine Heroes squad. Averaging things out, it was probably 10-15 dollars a pop between tax, shipping, blind draw, ebay bids, etc etc… closer to 15 honestly, if i had to guess, but amortized over at LEAST four years, thats not too bad, and I had a TON of fun painting all of them. 

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Also hopefully new/back this year is at least 15 minutes of hobby a day, just to sit down and so SOME work. Ive done this before but it didn’t quite stick, so here’s hoping it yields some results!

 

tonight, Eradicators, with another layer of red and some brown and leadbelcher touchups. Before and after pictured. 

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Tonight, some leadbelcher touchups and a singular layer of white on one eradicator (

 

I would have Words with whoever decided to put those cables on the legs. Getting a brush in some of these places is ridiculous. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Sometimes I think GW adds some details to models just to make you practice your brush control  

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Quite possibly, Cordova—and of course to sell you ever smaller brushes!

 

 Thankfully, didnt have quite that issue on tonight’s model—the gun being off helped immensely. Unfortunately, I’m starting to suspect there’s something off with my Ulthuan grey, but not sure WHAT.

 

 

[Brother Argent]

Ulthuan Grey is one of those paints mate.  Same as most of the whites GW sell.  I think its the high pigment content in them that make them separate so much quicker.  Makes them great at coverage but unless you water them down heaps you end up with grainey lumpy paint.

 

Eradicators are looking good.  They are quite chunky boys and always come out well but the addition of the real marine helmets makes them look even better.

 

Keep up the good work mate.

[Grotsmasha]

17 hours ago, Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch said:

I’m starting to suspect there’s something off with my Ulthuan grey, but not sure WHAT.

 

Add some Lahmian Medium in there, and an agitator/mixing ball and shake the ABSOLUTE HELL out of it prior to each use.

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Cheers, gents. I suppose I’ll have to add Lahmian to my next bulk paint purchase, and buy some BBs or something. 
 

Brother Argent, your comments about the helmets reminded me that the sergeant needed some kind of indication he WAS the sergeant other than just having a different mark of helmet (brief confession, that’s the only headswap I actually did, because I absolutely hate the half-face rebreather look on Marines and I don’t like bare heads anyway, and I had spare Devastator heads kicking about), so I added a red stripe to his helmet crest to make him stand out. 
 

Friday night allowed for a fair bit more work than 15 minutes, so I laid down the second coat of white on the squad and added the first pass of company trim. 
 

Tomorrow will be hopefully the home stretch, just the second trim layer, shading, chapter symbols, and cleanup to do. 
 

I also acquired an AP Super detail brush, smaller than the highlight brush I used for the trim, and Holy Throne I’m never buying another GW brush again. AP is so much cheaper and just as good. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

If you do get some ball bearings, make sure they're high-grade stainless steel (you really don't want them rusting in the pot). I've been using AK Interactive's Stainless Steel Shakers for 5+ years without a problem.  

[Grotsmasha]

I've got both glass and metal balls, and both have worked equally well

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

I've put in an inquiry as to whether my FLGS carries any steel agitators, but if they don't I'll give AK a look, Firedrake--they appear US based but I'm sure I can find them or an equivalent in the US.

 

Anyway! Got some more painting in tonight and voila:

 

Eradication commencing.

 

 

There's just. Something about a MkVIII-or-earlier helmet that just COMPLETES the look. And I really like how the chunkiness of the yellow on the shoulderpads looks--really builds into the HEFT of the model. I've got some Devastator Centurions kicking around, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the scheme translate on them!

 

Up next, I'll probably get back to work on Imotekh--for reference, here's what he looks like as of now.

 

I'm currently not happy with his carapace color, which is largely where I'm going to be focusing my attention before I move on to the green highlighting details.

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Honestly, I’m not sure what I’d say changed visually here, I did a coat of Balthazar Gold, then Canoptek alloy, to match a panel on his hand that i thought was decently matched to box paint scheme, but then I did it all over and it looked a little too bright, so I gave him an all over wash of Seraphim, but that looked too bronzed, so I gave him an all-over drybrush of Canoptek Alloy and that Maybe seems to have Done The Trick. 

‘Box’ image included for reference 

 

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Tonight was a long cycle of ‘edge highlight/detail, clean up messes, repeat’ for a couple of hours, but I am in fact reasonably happy with the result!

 

I won’t say he’s done, because I want to try and do the cloak green edge highlighting, and I’m gonna have to do that the hard way, so it’ll take a while, and overall he’s not my BEST work due to some lack of planning resulting in a LOT of layers and just him being finecast, but I think he will look just fine on the tabletop.

 

Considered following the glaze guide in the codex but ultimately decided against it, partially because I don’t have the paints but also partially because it would look VERY out of place just as a technique with the rest of my army, and contrast over metallic produced a satisfying effect anyhow. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

I like the brass tone you ended up with  

 

I think GW may have used Agrax Earthshade on the blister art? The shading looks quite hard/dark around the runes?

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Used the Agrax as you recommended for the gold, and it turned out pretty good!

 

Did a WEE bit of detail work on his face and spine, and then spent the bulk of my hobby time today on the cloak. 
 

There are so. Many. Scales.

 

I understand why they changed the scheme so drastically, goodness. Still, I expect as I put more time in I can clean it up and make it look better—someone in one of my Discord servers commented that without the green, the cloak blends in too much, and after seeing the initial steps, I quite agree—this is much better. 
 

Don’t ask how I plan to get the rest of the cloak’s inside. I don’t know either, except with LOTS of patience. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Yeah, I can imagine picking out the gaps between all of the scales is going to be such a pain!