Aarik's WIPs - Word Bearers and other heresy goodness

[Aarik]

Greetings fraters!

 

I've decided to start a thread for my WIP projects.  I'm hoping that posting here will help motivate me to paint and take pictures more, and hopefully some others will enjoy it tool.  It also feels a bit less intimidating to post here rather than on Instagram, and this medium will let me ramble into the void a bit more about my thoughts on painting and hobbying. 

 

As a bit of background, I've been lurking and posting here on and off in some form or another for it's gotta be at least 20 years.  Jeez that makes me feel old.  I remember lurking here as a kid back when the old Portent forums were still a thing.  I rarely get a chance to actually play, so 99% of my hobby is just painting, but I still like to cling to the delusion that I'm building towards playable forces.  

 

I've got a number of projects in the works and on the agenda, but my main focus the last couple years has been building a Word Bearers force that can do double duty in 30k and 40k.  The initial idea was to use a core of models that I already had: two of the CSM halves of the old Shadowspear box, a resin Leviathan, the old Betrayal at Calth Contemptor, a resin Scorpius, a bunch of Tortuga cataphractii, and some Gal Vorbak.  I figured I could use the at-the-time greater possessed (now just okay possessed) as Gal Vorbak, and vice versa, and the terminators, and bog standard marines could work in both systems too. 

 

I'm coming up on 3,000 heresy points worth of Word Bearers now (haven't totaled it up in 40k points recently, but it would be less due to fewer of my units working in 40k), and have thus started branching off into some side projects semi-recently.  I've been very taken by the Siege of Terra series, and have the idea of using the Siege as an excuse to collect smaller forces of Blood Angels, Imperial Fists, White Scars, and Solar Auxiliary that can ally with each other and represent the defenders at Terra.  I love the idea of a rag-tag force of survivors, and I'm aiming to lean into a very grimy, battered look for them to represent how grueling the defense has been.  I think of this as more of a long-term painting and modeling project, and an opportunity to paint a variety of color schemes to keep things interesting and put a bit more effort into converting and painting to try and push myself a bit.  My initial goal is to work up to 1,000 points of each of them, and then probably pick either the Imperial Fists or White Scars (or both! ) to expand on after that.  And being the ever-so-focused hobbyist that I am, I also picked up the recent Mechanicum battle group and have started painting that up as a long-contemplated Xana II/House Malinax force.  Once I get that finished (most likely minus the Triaros as it takes up a lot of shelf space and I'm hoping we'll get a plastic Karacnos kit soon-ish so I can try to grab the extra sprues and magnetize the model to pull double duty...sensing a theme with me?), I want to add the new plastic Arch-Magos and a Thanatar to get to roughly 1,000 points too.  

 

But enough words, onto what everyone really came here for: sweet, sweet pictures!

 

Here are some shots of some despoilers that I recently finished: 

 

 

 

The idea was to use the Shadowspear easy-build legionaries as the base for despoilers. I've got 15 finished so far.  I figured the more chaotic look of the CSM bodies would fit zealous marines looking to get stuck into close combat.  I filed off most of the little spikes from their armor trim, and replaced their arms, heads, and backpacks with heresy-era gear.  The two axes on the left are from the FW SoH upgrades, the right ax is from the semi-new FW despoiler arms kit, and the banner is from the old SoH command kit (just used as a vexilla).  I think they have a nice late-Heresy vibe to them with the mix of armor marks, and I'm happy with how they've turned out.  It's interesting to me how much changing the shoulderpads, helmet, and backpack can change the silhouette of the model. I like the green tone I got on the power axes, and the decal work on the banner was fun.  I feel like I have limited actual painting skill but a lot of patience for fiddly things, so I find decal work very enjoyable haha.  I even tried a little airbrush dusting on the bottom of the banner which was a bit scary but worked well enough.  And you can't see it very well in the pics, but I did eyes with pupils on the bare headed guy, and his skin was 100% airbrush which I think turned out very well for how little time it took.  These guys still need armor highlights and weathering, but I have a devil of a time getting myself to do that on my models.  I seem to always get my models to like 90% completion, but can't get over the mental hurdle to finish them, and there are always more models calling my name.  I've also since painted the eye on the sergeant's knee   

 

Here's a larger pic of the sergeant:

Lastly, here is an Ashen Circle that I painted up as a "thank you" for the lovely gentleman who 3D printed a bunch of stuff for me and was generally super helpful.  I've got a squad of ten of these for myself that still need edge highlights and pictures taken.  This was my first time playing with weathering powder to get the ember effect, and I like it for a first effort.  I thought having the Ashen Circle striding through burning rubble would be very fitting for them.

 

 

I would love to hear what everyone thinks so far!  If people would like to see them (and probably even if you don't haha), I can get more pictures taken of the Word Bearers I've finished so far.  They're mostly still missing edge highlights on the armor, so technically they're WIP and still fit for this forum   I will also try to get some pics up of the Mechanicum stuff that is currently on the painting desk.  Slogging through 20 tech thralls may require some motivation from kind internet strangers..

Edited October 19 by Aarik
Fixed links to pics

[Montuhotep]

Holy CRAP these are sweet; the paint and the transitions are so smooth.

 

More, I say, more!

[Rusted Boltgun]

That's a grand plan for growing your heresy-era forces (I like a plan, even if I don't stick to it). 

There's so much to like on your models, that bare head, the decal work and the ashen base stand out for me. I'll echo the cry for more, please!

 

[WAR]

Those bases are top notch! Models look amazing too

[Bouargh]

Very nice. The ashen circle is especially nice with the orange cabalitic grooved signs contrasting well with the light grey

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look great

 

Sounds like a fun idea for a project

[Brother Desultor]

More please! These are amazing.

[Tallarn Commander]

Superb models. I might want to try making a Horus Heresy Legionary by chopping off spikes like you did.

[Aarik]

Thank you so much everyone for the kind words!  It's easy to get caught in the social media trap of comparing yourself only to the cream of the crop, so I appreciate the love for my humble war dollies.

 

@Montuhotep: Thank you, the transitions are just done with the airbrush.  Highly recommend getting one to everyone who hasn't made the leap yet.  Slight learning curve, but most valuable hobby tool IMO.

 

@Tallarn Commander: Do it!  Even if you leave the armor trim alone on the bodies and legs, just replacing the helmet, shoulder pads, and backpack does a ton to "heresy" those models up.

 

On to the update!  I had a pretty productive weekend and made some good progress batch painting the tech thralls from the Mechanicum battle force.  I had built five of them first to use as testers for the paint scheme, and then I figured out a good system of sub-assemblies for the next 15 that let me airbrush different parts different colors and save me a bunch of time on the basecoating step.  Essentially, I built all the bodies, left the chest plates and heads on the sprue (but glued the faceplates to the backs of the heads), and built the guns and backpacks separately but connected to each other by the cable.  The gun/backpack combos mostly stay put on the minis, but maybe a third of them needed a little but of blue tack help.  Doing sub-assemblies like this let me hit the bodies with grey through the airbrush, and then do their belt buckles, knee armor, chest plates, heads, and backpacks/gun cables in tan.  After that, its a simple job to snip off the chest plates and glue them on.  I left the heads on the sprues to finish their base coats.  I found that it really did save me time/make it more bearable to batch paint them by being able to quickly hit similar parts of the model at once.

 

The pic below shows how it all started to come together.  I thought I had gotten a pic of the heads on the sprues, but I was unfortunately mistaken.  I made some more progress since taking this picture, and have 5 with their base coats finished, and the other 15 just need the metals and black on their guns and backpacks.  After that, it'll be time for gloss varnish, oil wash, and then some nice ultra-matte.  Highlights should follow, but realistically I'll most likely move on at that point because I don't want to sink more time into chaff right now.  Not gonna lie, I'm very happy with how quickly I've managed to get through these guys.  It's given me a lot of motivation to finish off the box set, and carry that energy through to another one... (more on that below).

 

 

I also managed to find a photo set up that gave me results I was happier with and was also easy to, well, set up on my desk.  Not being satisfied with the pictures I was getting discouraged me a bit from taking them, so it was nice to find a way to get better results.  I ended up snapping a teaser pic of my most-finished Thallax to show off the finished scheme:

 

 

He's got a not-very-impactful edge highlight on the armor, but still needs chipping and weathering.  The other five thallax are done to this level minus the armor edge highlight.  The little scorpion decal is from the Legions Imperialis House Malinax transfers, and the skull on his other shoulder pad is from the decals he comes with.  He also needs his gun arm glued in, which should connect his gun cable to his body.

 

And here's a pic of my picture setup.  Having the light straight to the front like that washed out/overexposed(?) the pictures a bit, so I ended up laying down a sheet of white paper in front of the models, putting the light at about a 45 degree angle to bounce it off the paper, and lowering the exposure on my phone a bit, which worked out well.  The light is from Red Grass Games.  It's a bit pricey, but I'm very happy with it.

 

 

As you can see, the display cases on the left are looking very empty.  I still have most of my models boxed up after a recent move, which unfortunately includes the Word Bearers.  But snapping more pics of them is good motivation to unpack them and get them back on the shelves.  I did, however, get a pic of my Solar Auxilia test models:

 

 

I had always admired the resin models, and couldn't resist when they came to plastic.  I showed admirable restraint and was very proud of myself on release though, and only bought a five-man sprue from Ebay to paint up at first, rather than getting the battle force box.  But alas, that was not to last, as I recently found a good deal on the battle force set and grabbed one.  The original plan was to sell the heavy sentinel and draconsan to end up with an even better deal on the infantry and Leman Russ, but the sentinel model is growing on me and the lack of demand for it and draconsans seems to be driving their secondary market value down to a level where I'm questioning whether the savings would be worth the hassle.  So, we'll see what I end up doing.

 

I settled on the paint scheme for these guys after a happy set of coincidences.  I was very taken with the Theta-Garmon Unbroken Cohort scheme when I saw it, and then my favorites at Cult of Paint produced a great tutorial video for it, which I ended up using.  Having a tutorial to follow does wonders for me by preventing a ton of analysis paralysis when trying to choose colors for myself.  The Unbroken fit well with the Siege of Terra theme for my force too.  They fit the loyalist requirement, and I figured it would make sense narratively that a contingent of them ended up on Terra, or retreated there, after the battle for the Beta-Garmon system, given their relative proximity.  And to put the cherry on top, I had been kicking around the idea of having my Imperial Fists contingent (at least partially) represent Sigismund's ad hoc templar force described in the Siege novels, and there was some mention of Solar Auxilia that were part of it, and the black and white Unbroken scheme fits very well with the templars!  I'm planning to add some small templar cross and imperial fists decals to the rest of them to represent the two forces fighting together.  The Deathless Cohort decals are also from the Legions Imperialis decal set, which are great for the shoulder pads here.  Oh, and I'm not a fan of little search lights on the plastic solar auxilia infantry, so I'm gonna try my next batch with them cut off. 

 

Speaking of next batches, my goal is to get the rest of the tech thralls, thallax, and castellax finished to tabletop level (for me, basically done minus armor edge highlights/battle damage).  Optimistically, that might be done this week, but hopefully within the next couple at least.  After than, I may try to quickly knock out the Triaros so I can say I finished the box.  But then, after the Mechanicum, I think I'll move on to the Solar Aux battle force.  I'm feeling inspired by my sub-assembly work on the tech thralls, and I may be able to keep this speed through some Solar Aux infantry.  It will feel really good to see the finished Mechanicum and Solar Auxilia forces on the shelf, and to get the psychic buff from getting both those battle force boxes out of the pile of shame closet of opportunity. 

 

Let me know what you think, and if there are any easy things that would help improve my models!

Edited Tuesday at 07:09 PM by Aarik
repeated words

[Firedrake Cordova]

The Thallax looks really nice

[Bouargh]

It is the first time I notice Thallax are left handed...

How is their assembly? I noticed some comments about how over complicated the thrall are in terms of cuts from the sprue. As far as I am cincerned I grabbed a pair of Castellax and their assembly was rather OK even if the number of bits is really big. A kit I doubt anyone can build without instructions.

 

The paint scheme you used is rad  . Can't wait seeing the rest of your HH mechanicum painted.

Especially the Triaros!

[Aarik]

@Firedrake Cordova: Thank you! 

 

@Bouargh: Thank you, as well!  The Malinax/Xana paint scheme is stolen from Cult of Paint too.  Just Tamiya Flat Earth and Wooden Deck Tan through the airbrush.  Super simple, but I love the tone. 

 

And I didn't find the Thallax too bad to assemble.  I'd say the trickiest bit is getting the legs glued in the right positions as the little guide pegs and holes weren't quite effective enough at locking the legs into the correct positions IMO.  The only other tricky bit was getting the arms in the correct position so that the gun cable can connect to its plug on the body whilst leaving the gun arm unglued for painting.  I thought I had them all lined up correctly, but I was apparently mistaken haha.  Other than that, I didn't think they were unnecessarily complicated, or in too many pieces.  I didn't think the Castellax was bad either.  It's got a decent number of pieces, but it goes together well and I like how the leg armor plates are separate for sub-assembly purposes.  Only complaint with the kit is the lack of a second multi-melta, darkfire cannon, and pair of saws.  And it also would have been really nice to get a second set of forearm armor for each arm, which would allow you to magnetize the forearms/close combat weapons.  But I don't know if the connection points would be the easiest to magnetize, and the saw rules apparently aren't great, so it may be a moot point.  

 

The thralls, on the other hand, lived up to the negative hype a bit more.  When I was building the first five models as testers, I got through the first three while thinking, "I don't see what everyone is complaining about, these are easy."  Then I got to the last two models, and thought, "Oh. Yeah. These are as bad as advertised."   But after building each model once though and seeing how each is supposed to go together, doing the rest wasn't bad.  It also helped that I built the last 15 in one batch, and I clipped each model off all the sprues and built them at once.  That is, clip all three remaining Model No. 1s and build them all, etc.  The only problem I ran into was building model number 3 without the chest plate on.  His chest has his little groin armor plate attached to it, and I found out later that the chest/groin plate didn't quite fit flush after assembly.  So I'd recommend dry fitting that piece whilst the glue is still wet to make sure it will fit flush later.  Going back and building some Solar Auxilia infantry afterwards also emphasized how complicated the thrall kit is.  The Solar Aux were a walk in the park in comparison, and I think GW could have done the tech thralls similarly with fewer parts (or at least simpler assembly) if they didn't redesign them from the FW resin versions.  But the plastic thralls are really nice models and look great together IMO.  Just mixing up the heads and left arms gives them a nice visual variety.  Even when I've got them lined up in columns of the same model, the group doesn't look like a bunch of duplicates.