Heraclite's WIP log - Bladeguard Veterans

[Heraclite]

Hi there people of the BnC!

 

I've been lurking for quite a few years and have mostly enjoyed the WIP section of the Forge.

 

I subscribed to Conquest as it launched in France last year and have started painting after finally coming up with a color scheme and name for my diy Chapter the Void Cuirassiers.

 

Time permitting I may write a little backstory for the chapter, but first a little backstory on me !

 

I started Warhammer 40k in 3rd edition and remember the transition to 4th and the introduction of the new plastic terminators and plastic space marine multipart captain, which were the last miniatures I bought.

 

I sort of dropped out of the hobby and moved on with my life but my collection was waiting for me at my parents house and I thought I'd return to the hobby when my kids would be older. Unfortunately, my parents house burned down in 2013, and as the fire started in my old room... almost all my collection was lost. My father and uncle somehow managed to salvage a few minis though (I may post pictures of those later).

 

Now my eldest is 10yo and Conquest was a great opportunity to get back to the hobby. The idea is to stick with what is included in the conquest series, so miniatures may take some time to get finished as I don't have all the paints necessary.

 

Aaaaaanyway, (sorry for the long read), here's my first test model, a sergeant based on the easy to build intercessor sergeant from Conquest, with weapon and head swap (salvaged from my old burned down minis)

 

 

a focus on the chapter emblem, representing a cuirass (may need some highlights but as I already said, I don't have all necessary paints yet

 

and the terrain from conquest at this point (I never had this much terrain when I was young!)

 

 

those were sprayed with a cheap silver paint  followed by a black spray and a wash of nuln oil

 

a few experiments with barrels from left to right : silver spray and nuln oil followed by agrax earthshad, red spray + nuln oil and agrax with details in retributor gold + agrax, same as the first three, abaddon black + leadbelcher drybrush

 

ammo boxes following the conquest painting guide

 

Feel free to comment and point me in the right directions if you see room for improvement (and there is plenty!)

Edited October 7 by Heraclite

[hushrong]

Welcome back to the fold and it looks like you are off to a good restart! I hope you and your young ones have fun with the hobby!

[Heraclite]

I'm having the most fun actually

 

my eldest is more into the lore and the articles, but his younger sister shows more promise at painting!

 

so as to keep the pictures coming, I found some old pictures of models that didn't survive the fire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine works.

[hushrong]

Very nice to hear everyone’s on board and finding what they like. The minis look great, shame they were lost to the fire. At least now you got a team with you rebuild the collection!

[Heraclite]

Hi there, long time no post!

 

Looks like the good resolutions didn't last too long...

 

Yet even though I haven't posted much, I haven't been idle either.

 

The conquest magazines keep on coming, I have built almost everything for both Space Marines and Death Guard and continued painting the first minis I got

 

Here are some finished intercessors :

 

A slightly converted reiver sergeant :

 

The redemptor dread with a minor leg repose as I thought it was far too static :

 

I have also started on the death guard part, here are the first poxwalkers, basecoated by my kids as per the instructions in the magazines, I finished them later :

 

I have another 6 finished, but the camera didn't save the picture, so it will have to wait for the next update, they are in a completely different style (washes over a white basecoat rather than the death guard green basecoat prescribed in the magazines)

 

And I also sort of finished the myphitic blight hauler (I guess that's its name?) :

 

And I also took a global picture of all the painted terrain so far :

 

Next in line are the rest of the reiver squad who are for now in various stages of advancement. And I guess a character (the Apothecary) to paint another colour for a change!

 

I would also like to know if you have any tips on how to resize pictures, my camera takes 3mb pictures and the only trick i found is to use the windows screenshot tool, but the pictures appear tiny in the thread...

 

C&C appreciated

 

Cheers

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2020 by Heraclite

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine works.

[Heraclite]

And here's to another completed mini !

 

A second etb reiver :

 

And the promised second squad of poxwalkers I was unable to post due to camera shenanigans :

 

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Reiver.

[BadgersinHills]

Lovely stuff! Sad that so much was lost to the fire, but your new miniatures look great. Hope you and family have a wonderful time in the hobby. :) 

[Heraclite]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

 

I didn't work this week so I took the opportunity to finish the squad of reivers :

 

painted the apothecary :

 

It was really fun to paint and not as difficult as painting white used to be ! Thank celestra grey for that, though he will require some white highlights when the "true" white paint finally drops with the conquest magazines

 

And painted one of the intercessors from the dark imperium sprues :

 

This squad will be slightly converted to represent stalker bolt rifles instead of the regular ones, I just cut off the magazine, shortened it to make it look as straight as possible and glued it back

Edited December 14, 2020 by Heraclite

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine works.

[Heraclite]

Hi there, I've been busy this week end stripping some old metal minis, 2 scouts, the 3d ed space marine captain, the ancient that came with him in the 3d ed command squad (minus the banner pole that broke when I was still a kid, but with the eagle banner top - more later on that) and a 1994 apothecary (all missing plastic parts like arms and back packs)  I also had an old khorne berzerker on a juggernaut that my father had found on a flea market, this one got an acetone bath as well and might get painted some time in the future. I did'nt take any pictures yet but they might appear at some point!

 

I' ve also been busy assembling scouts to go with the 2 metal survivors (did'nt get a pic either but those will be posted when they are painted.

 

First I wanted to share the minor alterations I did to the duplicate easy to build plague marines, I guess they'll also be divided among squads as the army gets bigger to mitigate the fact that they are basically the same minis repeated 3 times...

 

first the plague champion :

regular plague marine with boltgun and plague knife/plague marine with flail of corruption/ unconverted plague champion

 

Then the gunner :

plague marine with double plague knives and icon of despair/ plague marine with plasma gun (champion's backpack) and an attempt at turning old sprue to tentacle/spikes/ regular gunner with the blight launcher (I think?)

 

And finally the regular plague marine, only his head got tempered with.

 

having cleaned the ancient banner top, I decided to use it as a replacement head for the primaris chaplain's crozius, The original small skull was way too tiny for my taste!, I also tweaked the gun arm to make him aim it and made the chaplain look in the direction of the shot

 

 

I was also lucky enough to get a second lieutenant calsius when they forgot one of the issues in the first deliveries of conquest (I asked them for a second issue 5 as a compensation and they went throug with it!)

 

I built the first one normally (just replacing the pauldrons and filing the Ultramarine symbols on his knee cap and back pack), The Ultramarine sword will have to remain, and will be considered a gracious donation during the indomitus crusade (I guess I'll have to write some fluff for the army at some point, maybe when it's all painted, maybe before... We'll see when inspiration strikes!)

 

The second one will be made an assault intercessor, and will be joined by the first mini of this thread. For the moment, it's just a marine holding a pistol, without a head or a left arm, but I've ordered a few choice bits online, the conversion will continue when these finally drop. I think he's turning out fine for the moment and wanted to share the progress!

 

 

[Heraclite]

Hi there!

 

I haven't been too idle this past month, so here's a look at what I've been up to :

 

Soon after my last post, I finished painting the stalker intercessors made from the first delivery of the Dark Imperium sprues from conquest, + their sergeant :

 

 

I'm pretty pleased with the iron skull design and gothic numeral on the sergeant's pauldron.

 

I haven't taken any pics, but I also built, and magnetized (half succesfully... the sponson weapons being a bit wobly) a plagueburst crawler.

 

While I was at it, I also built the DG Rhino, this one also got painted and I managed to finish it yesterday afternoon, I may come back to it to add a bit more painted on ornaments on the hatches to break the monotony of the DG Green :

 

 

Speaking of Death Guard, I also painted a test plague marine last week :

 

 

This is due to the fact that I finally received the conquest issue with ogryn camo to highlight the DG Green.

 

I also indulged a little and bought myself an army painter paint set to get a few colours that were missing from the issues of Conquest and would not be arriving before long (namely White! and yellow that would never come over the course of the subscription) and was very pleased with the other colours, those give me a bit more to work with, especially the browns and blues.

 

With those added colours, I went back on my apothecary to highlight him a bit :

 

 

Painted the lieutenant calsius model :

 

 

Painting this mini I decided on a way to colour code the different ranks : Sergeants will get red helms, lieutenants red with a gold visor, the captains will have a full gold helm, and veterans a black helm with gold visor (the in progress assault intercessors will be blinged up and become veterans, more on them later when the minis arrive and get built - in 2 or three months I think)

 

I even tried my hand at painting a power effect on the half drawn sword, I kinda like it for a first try and look forward to trying it on larger, more exposed swords :

 

 

I also tried sponge weathering for the first time when painting the chaplain, I hope it conveys the leather texture I was hoping to achieve, but even thought it's not perfect, I quite like the effect :

 

 

I think it's my finest mini so far and am very proud of it!

 

I also went back on the redemptor dread to weather it a little, I tried to not go too overboard and keep it subtle :

 

 

I also started on a scout squad, including two of my old metal scouts (I think they were the second kit I ever got, and only two of them survived) They should be finished tonight. I'll post pics of them when they are.

 

Sorry for the long post!

 

 

 

 

 

[Heraclite]

Hi there,

 

It's been a month since my last post but I haven't been idle (that is before the crhistmas holidays, because after that... not much was done!)

 

I'll start with the true WIPs and then post some finished minis

 

The parts I ordered finally arrived and I managed to build this assault intercessor sergeant (back pack and head are only blue tacked for the moment :

 

I also decided to magnetize a scout "gunner" so that I can use him with either a shotgun or heavy bolter, when I finally get the sniper scouts issue of conquest, the missile launcher will be done in the same way so i can swap the weapons on the gunner :

 

with some left over bits from my old minis and the chaos vehicle sprue, I managed to build two servo skulls, one of the pics is a bit blurry though...

 

I also found this old wounded guardsman that I had never painted, he may be used as some sort of objective marker at some point :

 

Thats it for the WIPs, now on to finished minis :

 

first the scout squad, including my two surviving metal scouts :

 

then the first three hellblasters (the remaining two should drop next month) :

 

After painting those I treated myself with the primaris captain :

 

I had great fun painting his cape and the power effect on the sword, it's still a bit rough, but I feel I'm getting better (I hope so at least) :

 

Then I decided that I should paint all Gravis minis before tackling the gravis captain, so here's my first inceptor :

 

And that's it for now

 

Thanks for reading !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Inceptor is well-painted.

[Heraclite]

Hi there, and thanks bjorn!

Once again it's been some time since my last post.

I haven't done much lately but the last conquest drop reinvigorated my hobby spirit and I tackled the building of the 20 poxwalkers that were delivered + the last 6 ETB ones I had remaining, the idea being to not have any duplicates. I had already built as is the first ETB ones, then tweaked the other 6 by swapping bits among them.

For this lot, I built the 10 Dark Imperium poxwalkers following the instructions, and I was left with 16 (10 DI + 6 ETB) to combine together.

Here are the results first the original, then the converted alternative (I apologize in advance for all the scrolling you'll have to do) :

for this one I also took a back picture to show where his arm is!













this one was a bit hard to cut apart so I just shaved his horn























this ones duplicate might be my favorite of the bunch :

Edited October 7 by Heraclite

[Heraclite]

sorry for the double post, but I had to split the pict drop !

 

now on to the ETB ones :

first pic didn't show his left hand :







hello there !

I'll try to update soon with pictures of my primaris librarian that I finished this afternoon, so stay tuned! Edited October 7 by Heraclite

[Heraclite]

Triple posting, woohoo!

 

but I've made some progress in the last two days

 

Painted my primaris librarian, codicier Francis, named after my late grand father who passed away recently :

 

 

and an as of yet unnamed inceptor sergeant that I vowed for the 12 months of hobby challenge earlier today :

 

[Heraclite]

Just finished a squad of aggressors

 

 

 

 

 

[Dosjetka]

You're working your way through these models like a machine and with solid results, too. :tu:

 

I like the colour scheme you've picked for your Primaris Chapter and have enjoyed scrolling through your log. Looking forward to seeing more soon. :)

[Heraclite]

Thanks Dosjetka, glad you like it

 

There won't be much painted minis in the future weeks as I don't have any primed minis left! But I hope spring will bring a warmer and sunnier weather to remedy this as I have already built 6 more intercessors, 2 hellblasters, a primaris ancient and the last inceptor.

 

I also got a second issue 56 of conquest (with 5 intercessors, 2 lieutenants and ancient) that I used to convert a small squad of veteran assault intercessors (combined with some bits I had ordered a few months ago) to make a squad of five with my first test model :

 

 

sergeant, based on lieutenant Calsius (already posted but I'm posting him again for the sake of completeness) :

 

and the rest of the squad :

 

from the power sword lieutenant :

 

from the assault bolt rifle lieutenant :

 

from the intercessor sergeant drawing his bolt pistol :

 

This leaves me with another 6 intercessors to build, and the bits for the 2 lieutenants and the ancient. The ancient may be slightly converted to become a chapter ancient (maybe trying to dremel away the sculpted details on the banner to make some room for a larger freehand chapter icon, we'll see) one of the lieutenants will be converted to be wielding a stalker bolt rifle, and I don't yet know what I will do with the other one, (I already have the lieutenant Calsius mini, and will limit this army as a second company strike force so I won't need a 3rd one.

 

During the week I also painted the objectives set but forgot to take some pics, that should give me another reason to post and keep the updates coming.

 

[Custom Hero]

Nice work!

[Heraclite]

thanks

 

I took the afternoon to finish building my marines.

 

We've got :

- Assault bolt rifle intercessors :

 

 

- Intercessor sergeant with power sword (for my first intercessor squad) :

 

 

- Stalker bolt rifle lieutenant :

 

 

- chapter ancient :

 

Edited June 15, 2021 by Heraclite

[Heraclite]

Hi there, still waiting for some magnets to magnetize my bases and then prime all the minis I have built. so no painting update for now

 

Here's the stuff I've built last :

 

a simple head swap for the Space Marine Heroes Chaplain, this one won't get painted before long, he will join a small force of ultramarines when I get to strip and repaint all my surviving old minis (10 tactical marines, a few metal minis - captain, ancient without banner, apothecary), that small force will also include all firstborn minis from conquest (except scouts)

 

I built him already because I needed his head for my chapter ancient :

 

 

also built five sniper scouts :

 

 

and magnetized the last option for my scout gunner :

 

 

a death guard icon bearer was also in the last Conquest drop, so here he is :

 

 

and finally the terrain I painted last week for the 12 months of hobby challenge :