The League of Solstician Crusaders: Kahl!

[Urkh]

Hello everyone! I am returning from a year of self banishment from posting on the forum due to my inexcusable failure to complete my vow at the last call to arms. Sadly, no progress has been made on eldar since I lost motivation after a few of them broke and the pieces that broke off vanished into the warp. However, over the year I've been collecting a new Leagues of Votann army! I've always been a fan of dwarves, and I've always been bigoted against elves, so it only seemed natural to pick these guys up. As I get them painted up, I will post on here their completions. As of now, I have an Einhyr Champion completed, so here you are!

Edited Saturday at 09:15 AM by Urkh

[Urkh]

So... Change of plans, my fellow kin. I have found a tournament that is being held on my birthday in a few months, and recently I've been itching towards getting out and dipping my toes into the competitive field. I've never played in a tournament before, and want to take Votann for my maiden voyage, as I'm looking to make this my main army. As such, I'm going to be focusing on getting the army to a battle ready painted standard, as the tournament requires that. Right now I'm laying down base coats of Averland Sunset while studying up on votann strategy and tournament play. I will show pictures of the army as I progress. Until then, enjoy half a squad of hearthkin warriors who haven't be told where they're deploying to (their bases need to be done still, haha!)

[Ulfast]

I got my first army totally painted for a tournament too. I feel it really helps with motivation. So good chose :)

[Urkh]

Update: So, since I was waiting to get paid to sign up for the event, when I went to go do it, it got full up, so I won't be able to attend. However, this is not going to stop me from getting the army battle ready. As such, I've gotten the Averland Sunset base coat done on the entire army. Don't mind the other xenos armies around them...

[Urkh]

Got the tanks to what I consider battle ready standard.

 

 

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

They look awesome Urkh. I'd say that's more than Battle Ready! The yellow is really vibrant and pops. The glass canopy's look really good too, remind me of the film Aliens. 

[Urkh]

Thank you! The yellow is still just an Averland Sunset base coat. The only difference is that this picture is taken under my full spectrum lamp vs the other that wasn't.

 

I actually wanted to get the windows of the canopy 100% done because if I hadn't, the process would have covered the silver railings for when I go back to finish the tank. I didn't want that so I just finished the windows to preserve the work I've already done. The same reasoning is used for the tires. Paint rubbed off while handling the tanks, and I know it will just rub off again when I go to finish them, so I decided to not waste the paint and time.

 

Next step: infantry!

[Len Fork]

Man this is going to be an awesome army! Your color selection is on point and you've painted it beautifully so far! Any plans for some fluff around these guys??

[Urkh]

Fluff is definitely in the works. I know I want them to be right at the center of the Galaxy where the most stars are, so they can harness the vast energies most efficiently. As for a conflict to have, that's still up in the air.

[Len Fork]

10 hours ago, Urkh said:

Fluff is definitely in the works. I know I want them to be right at the center of the Galaxy where the most stars are, so they can harness the vast energies most efficiently. As for a conflict to have, that's still up in the air.

 

Yeah the galactic core is a neat place, here's to hoping we get some more literature around it in the future! As far as conflicts go, if I'm not mistaken the most common enemy for the kin to encounter in the galactic core is Orks! So thats one option, but apparently there is an influx of outsiders in the core since the maledictum opened, so you have other choices for sure! I'm excited to see what you do!

[Exius]

These looks awesome, you've really made the yellow pop!

Have you had your tournament yet?

[INKS]

those votann are looking great

[Urkh]

Hello again fellow Kyn! So, I ended up moving at the beginning of the month, so all of my time has been consumed with packing, moving, unpacking, and getting everything re-set up. My only army I am taking out of boxes right now is my Votann, and I have them set up on my desk now waiting to get some paint on them. I bought some new brushes, as the ones I were using were frustrating me to no end. However, I must continue to toil (as toil earns). I am also trying to refine the process of making a convincing Martian looking base for my guys. I last left off doing the base coating for my Hernkyn Pioneers, and I tell you what, I agree with everyone else on these forums that painting them is a PitA. I will 100% be doing them in sub-assemblies when I do my next third of the army.

 

In case I didn't mention earlier in the thread, I'm building this army 1/3 at a time. I.E., I'm collecting and painting 1/3 of the total allowable datasheets at a time before going onto purchasing and painting the next third. I'm hoping to have 2/3 of a complete army by the time we get our next wave. Seeing as we were not in the next roadmap, I SHOULD have penty of time to get this done, as long as I keep the toil going.

 

One of the frustrations I've been experiencing as well as been the new Nuln Oil. Luckily, (and luck has), my cousin got me some black panel liner that I am very much looking forward to testing out on some guys! 

 

 

Edited February 20 by Urkh

[Urkh]

I've been a big ol' slacker. But progress is progress. I decided I wanted to try and finish my half squad of warriors from earlier, and so did the magna rail rifle guy. Pics of him, as well as the squad ATM.

[Urkh]

So, I've managed to come up with a little bit of fluff for these guys!

 

My Kyn are part of the Solstician League, and will specifically be the Solstician Crusaders branch of the league.

 

The Solstician League is a religious league that believes as the bodies and minds of dead Kyn go back to the ancestor cores, the soul returns to the Supermassive Black Hole at the center of the galaxy. This belief is instilled into them by the Votann at "birth", and whether it is because the Votann believes it is true due to decay, or if it strategically lying to them to have them fulfill their purpose better, only it knows. Their armor represents their beliefs in the power of the suns through the bright yellow in the hard plates, and the power of the Void in the black/purple in their soft armor.

 

So. As we know, the Solstices mark both the longest day of the year, and the shortest, signifying the rising and waning power of the sun. The Solstician League locates itself deep in the galactic core, where the most suns are located, orbiting the central supermassive black hole, which they revere as the source of the entire galaxy, and their heaven. All things in the galaxy are there because of it, and the work they put into harvesting, extracting, and mining the resources in the galaxy is a gift given to them by the black hole. It is their duty, and their duty alone to excavate the innermost reaches of the core, and to protect it from would be invaders.

 

Invaders such as the perpetually pesky Orks that seem to permeate the region. Many planets in the area are tidally locked to their sun, causing the same side to always be daytime, and thus a living hell, and the other side to be always night, and completely frozen over. However, between these two extremes is a narrow band on each planet with temperatures the Orks can thrive in. So they do. Once settled, they dig elaborate cave systems for "Makin' mor Boyz to krump da little folk."

 

And therein lyes the Duty of the Solstician Crusaders. To rid the inner core of the Orkish Ring Colonies delaying the "Good Work" the Black Hole has gifted them. The specific conflict will be taking place on a high iron content planet, very similar to mars. The Orks grown on this planet likewise have high iron concentration and will have iron oxidized skin as well. The Solsticians refer to them as Ironskins. 

 

Anyways, that's what I've come up with. Let me know what you think!

Edited May 11 by Urkh
Forgot to put the bit about their armor.

[Urkh]

Finished the warrior squad! Next up, pioneers!

[Pearson73]

I really like your paint style, the models really pop in an almost cartoon-like way. Cool choice of scheme too.

[Urkh]

The promised pioneers! I don't think these are the best pictures I could have taken of them, but they are done!

[Chaplain Lucifer]

Love them! Yellow is one of my favorite colours in an Warhammer army.. difficult to pull good, but super striking!

 

Your bases are also very cool! 

 

[phandaal]

Heck yeah! These are great! The colors really shine on these guys.

 

How did you find the assembly and painting process? For me it felt like these guys dragged on just because the bikes had so many parts to assemble and then so many nooks and crannies and panels etc to paint.

[Urkh]

Thank you everyone for the replies! It really helps me keep going!

 

As for assembly and painting: assembly I thought was pretty easy, except for removing the mold lines around the mag disks. That was pretty frustrating.

 

Painting wise, base coating with them fully assembled was the real nightmare. Like you said, those nooks and crannies really make it hard to get a brush into some places, especially behind the back two mag disc chassis. Future me will definitely leave those to sub-assembly next time. Other than that, the models are quite busy  and figuring out what needed to be what color for maximum readability was a bit frustrating, and mentally draining. Once I got to the layering step, however, that all went away and I felt I made great progress.

 

My last qualm is with the fact that they all broke off of their bases. I didn't want to be handling the bikes themselves, but them on the bases the way I wanted would make painting the bases difficult if I did them after the mini like I did l with the champion and the warriors. So for them I had to complete their base first, then glue them on, then do the layering. You live and you learn! The bases are also mostly Duncan Rhodes mars base tutorial on YouTube. I just changed karak stone to the rust dry brush paint and did a final light wash of reikland flesh shade.

[Urkh]

Kahl Complete! I will say this guy was very frustrating. I started painting him a long time ago with brushes that were at the end of their life, and he ended up just looking like a mess, while not being fun to paint. After getting new brushes and coming back to him, the cleanup now was still a nightmare. The paint got super thick on him and some details were hard to restore. Eventually I got to the point where I needed to just make him "good enough" and just accept that the next kahl will be better. 

 

Next up, hammer berserks, to finish the combat patrol!

[Chaplain Lucifer]

Looks pretty cool and when you're playing the distance to the models is so big you won't notice...