Heresy Transmissions (HH Word Bearer plog)

[Endtransmission]

What's this? Two plogs? I have two very different projects running at the moment that I don't really want to cross the streams on as I'll just lose track of one... so please stick with me here! :D

This one follows me finally caving in and starting a 30k force. I've been a fan of the FW heresy books since the first one, but always managed to stay out of it, even when the plastic MK III and IV armour came out in the board games (though it was a very close thing). Wind forward to the 2nd edition starter and it became a lot harder to ignore as the MK VI armour is where I started, way back with the original beakies in RTB01. The saving grace was that I could never settle on which of the 18 to collect as the intersting options all had black armour... which is far too close to the Deathwatch project for comfort... until last week when I finally fell to the Word. And fell quite hard it would seem!

One AoD starter set, 4 books and 2 Mechanicus battle force boxes later... plus a bunch of 40K chaos bits that have been kicking around waiting for something to be done with them. Seems I have a new project to contend with folks! There *will* be questions as I've not played against anyone in years and don't really know what I'm dealing with in the army creation... but hopefully this will all start to make some semblance of sense as we go, and in the new year I'd like to find a local gaming group to try out a game or three.

 

Timeline wise the Word Bearers and their allies are going to be post-Calth when the Gal Vorbak make an appearance, but trending more towards the end of the era so armour and equipment has started to evolve into what we know of now, some marines have started to mutate, and everything is starting to become battle damaged. The Admech will be Dark Mechanicus that have been allied to the Word Bearers since before Horus fell, so they are already starting to play with the fusion of demon to mechanical, and I have a pile of cultists and demons in the backlog that can join the uprising at some point down the line, but we'll worry about those later!

Anyway, onto the painting that you came here to look at. Given that said MK III marines were still kicking around unpainted, I'm using them as a testbed to sort out a quick colour scheme that I can churn through that still looks ok on the tabletop. I'll leave the detailed painting to special inquisition characters in the other blog! 

As a reminder to myself of the process the middle one has gone through so far, and the others are in the middle of:
- Black undercoat
- Heavy drybrush with a dark metallic silver (this can vary to give some different shades to the armour)
- Flesh Tearers Red contrast neat over the silver

- Black contrast over the shoulders, bolter and random other bits of armour
- add transfers
- Chipping and scratches with silver or gunmetal

- (paint any mutations... likely blue for mutated flesh)

- multiple brown washes. This can vary a bit for grime's sake and could be watered down contrast as well
- green eyes

- Weathering powders over the feet to tie into the bases

 

The first guy took about an hour end to end, so batch painting in groups of 5 should be achievable without me losing interest. Main challenge now is working out why my 3d printer won't print the MK VI heads that I want... that's something for the weekend!

Edited November 15, 2024 by Endtransmission

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Those look very nice - the yellow sand of the base and the weathering is a good choice against the red/burgundy of the armour.

 

Not a fan of the all silver shoulder pads, though - hopefully you fill in the "panel" portion black like you did on some of them.

[Endtransmission]

These are all work on progress, the only one nearly done is the middle one. Most have just reached the red phase of the process

[Firedrake Cordova]

The finished one looks good - a whole force of them will look great!

 

I really like the base you've given him

[Rusted Boltgun]

Very nice. I used a very similar scheme for my Word Bearers Kill Team and enjoyed painting them.

The First Heretic novel set the 30k scene for me and made me want a Word Bearers force. 

I'll be following with interest!

[Endtransmission]

Thanks all!

The bases are pretty easy to do, they are a layer of AK Interactive Sandy Desert paste, with some real sand and tiny stones drizzled on top of the paste while it is still wet so that it all sticks. Once it is dry, a little bit of watered down Aggaros Dunes to add some extra shadows. Once the figures are on, some desert looking tufts get added somewhere to add a bit of extra dimension.

 

The first five tacticals are (I think...) completed. Next time around I need to lessen the dust a bit as it looks like they have been walking through some deep mud rather than walking through a dusty city wasteland. There are a few Chaos marine bits dotted across these, hinting at what they will become. The one with the growth is certainly not lookig healthy! Someone should look into that for him! At some point I'll try de-chaosing some of the new Chaos Marines for later stage corruption. I do need to use a less intense background image though as I had to fade it out for this image, and it's seriously messing with colour balance in the photos.

 

They were pretty quick to paint, so it shouldn't be too bad to start working my way through the rest of the squads once the printer actually completes a print properly... that's Sunday's job to try and work out.
 

I'd seen someone, I think it was on the WarCom site, suggesting putting some colchis rune transfers onto the silver undercoat before putting the glaze over the top. This was a neat idea, but I don't have anywhere near enough transfers to do that... or the willpower to cut the transfers to shape... so I ordered some gundam micron pens and decided to see what it was like to just scribble some runes onto the figures before painting them. Enter test model number 6!

 

Ignore the fluff! :D The runes don't look too bad underneath the contrast paint, and should be something I can scribble on while in meetings or in front of the tv in the evenings.

Edited November 15, 2024 by Endtransmission

[Firedrake Cordova]

Ah, "simple and effective" - probably the modeller's greatest friend!  

 

The squad of 5 look great together

[Endtransmission]

Thanks! I am interested to see how it all comes together. In my head it looks awesome already ;)

 

Next target for tomorrow is to work out an initial army list, otherwise I will just go make interesting bits and pieces that don't form a cohesive, useful army on the tabletop.

[Endtransmission]

Life has been hectic recently, but I finally managed to add another 10 marines to the first 5 Word Bearers (seen in the back of this group)

 

I just noticed that I've forgotten the eyes on some of them... oops!
The micron pens are great for doing the markings on them; it's a nice distraction in loooooong conference calls :D

 

[Pearson73]

They look ace. I'll echo the others' comments on the bases, they complement the armour well. The runes look solid, that's a technique I'll have to remember. I like the additional silver plate of the sergeant.

[Endtransmission]

Thanks! There are some silver plates on the others as well, so there's a bit of variety to show that some of them are still transitioning to the full Word Bearers crimson; much like others are starting to show signs of mutation or chaos marine armour adornments

 

[Endtransmission]

Bit of a delay on this update, but it's December, so festivities are already starting... plus I needed to actually stick some bits together! We're now starting to venture into the tainted infantry, moving towards some of the armour that we know from 40k. These are a combination of the MKVI and the newest Legionaries, with the armour tidied up, removing all of those pesky arrows and spiky bits! The MKVI are starting to use the 40k arms and bolters and more spiky shoulder pads... Almost all of them are using printed Word Bearer heads for continuation

[Endtransmission]

A bit of progress has been made on these, and some other marines. I ran out of the transfers from the Calth game and didn't realise how hard it is to find a bulk replacement for the pad logo without having to buy lots of the FW sheets and wasting most of it! I eventually found a 3rd party one that includes loads of the book, flame *and* skull. Now to contend with the Christmas post... so this batch are all ready for some eyes adding, and weathering while the post catches up.

The first few are in MKVI armour with WB helmets and some new left shoulder pads to show the beginning of the transition

 

Then we step into one who has started to show signs of mutation, with a growth through the shoulder

 

Then we have a few that are now using bits of chaos marine armour mixed with MKIV elements as well. The MKVI arms look a little weedy on the chaos torsos, but fit none the less. The armour has had all of the chaos arrows and spikes carved off to make things a bit more early-days . I can see a few bits in here that need touching up before the weathering/eyes as well, like the lenses on the pack and the flat area top of the banner...

 

All together they look like the start of a ragged fighting force that is showing the strains of war, and the shift from loyalist uniformity towards the mish-mash of chaos

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look great, and the basing works really well, too!

[Endtransmission]

Thanks!

Today's interesting challenge... when the hell did the Flesh Tearers Red contrast change colour? I have been happily painting the Word Bearers with the left hand pot, and like the dark burgandy tone to it. I ordered some new pots to allow me to carry on over christmas only to find that it's now an orange-red tone instead? It's a nice tone... but it's not what I've been using, and isn't right for what I need. Heck... it's even brighter than Blood Angels Red... :/

 

Does anyone know of a good replacement for the old Flesh Tearers Red?

[UPDATE] - Seems the colour never was updated, I just seem to have a bad batch with the new pots! Lesson here kids is to check your paint colours before throwing away receipts! New pots are on the way *phew*

Edited December 17, 2024 by Endtransmission

[Firedrake Cordova]

Oof! That must have been annoying for a good few moments! Kinda surprising, given that GW have pretty good QC on their paints (the manufacturer said they were stricter than Rolls-Royce were).

[Bouargh]

One way to unify the potential variability effect that works for me is to put the Contrsat paint tone on tone: Flesh tearer Contrast over Wazzdakka Red for example. It smooths batch differences a lot.

Anyway, I do recommend buying paints in stores, as the number of issues that may happen are multiple: bacth colour variation, filling level, partially dry paint, warehouse error sending you a dry instead of a base (before full rebranding/rename of ranges)... This is my short list of (bad) experiences.

 

All of this is easier to detect with pots in hands. Even if I must confess that I once bought a dry instead of a base (was it grey seer that once existed in 2 types of paint types?)...

[Endtransmission]

Sadly the red goes over a silver to give it a metallic look, so I'm stuck with the pot colour. I did buy the paint in-store and all of that batch were the same, so I didn't think anything of it... I even  bought up two pots to make sure I had enough! At least a replacement is on it's way, and I'll pick up some more just to be sure next time I'm in the FLGS!

Speaking of postage, the transfers are still stuck in the Christmas post, so I'm slowly building up a pile of models waiting for their shoulder pads to be done. I might do a WIP shot of them tomorrow before I forget. I'm also slowly working on a Landraider for the terminators. I'm still undecided on the ramp section. I quite like it in bare metal, but it does kind of feel like it needs to be black or red... I can't quite decide. (lots of shading and weathering is still to be done... obvs)

[Firedrake Cordova]

Personally, I think leaving the frontal enclosure silver would look out of keeping with the rest of the vehicle. Maybe the ramp itself could have lots of scratches from use on it, to give some exposed metal colour?

[Rusted Boltgun]

I would agree, I would lean towards black if it were mine (I wish it were!).

[Pearson73]

New builds look nice, you've struck a good balance between the Chaos and 30k parts.

 

I also think black would look good on the assault ramp.

[Endtransmission]

Thanks for the feedback on the Spartan. I'm still pondering the colour of the front, but there's no massive rush as I'm waiting for the FW transfer sheet to turn up with vehicle markings. Today has been a mightly successful day for the XVII.

15 more tacticals (including the ones from earlier) are all finalised and based, giving me the core mandatory troops.  I should probably work on some characters soon!

 

 

These are probably my favourite 5 out of the bunch, with a good balance of MKVI and Chaos parts. My one regret with this lot are how fragile the 3d printed oath of moment scrolls. I need to look at making those a lot thicker, and maybe sticking them on after painting as the drybrushing is what caused the breakages. By the end of the silver phase there were more scrolls on the desk than there were left on the models :/

 

We also have 5 Tartaros that I built years ago, but never got around to painting as I couldn't decide on a chapter before. I have no idea if they are worth taking, but I do love the shape and had the models anyway.

 

And I think that marks the end of 2024's painting. With 6 more days of holiday left, lets see how far through the rest of the heresy models I can get. Currently the built list has another 10 tacticals to bulk the two squads up to 20 each, 5 plasma guns, 5 heavy bolters, 11 Gal Vorbak and 20 cultists...

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look great  I like the weathering on the legs tying them to the base.  

 

The fragile scrolls must be annoying.

[Endtransmission]

Yeah, fragile scrolls are annoying, but thankfully I've found what feel like much more robust ones in one of the GMS kits.

 

The joy of Christmas holidays is being able to get moving with the army. I mentioned last time that the built list included a bunch of tacticals, some plasma and heavy bolters. These have progressed a bit, with the two layer silvery drubrush undercoat and some red.

 

...and some Gal Vorbak. Two of these are Greater Posessed that I managed to pick up cheap on ebay, and a bunch of 3d printed ones from GMS, which is an awesome set with loads of variation. Is there a limit on the number of these that I should have? We'll see :D

 

After that I realised that I had none of the characters that are necessary to run a legal army, so this afternoon has been spent starting a few options

This one could be a chaplain or a diabolist; most likely a chaplain. At present I'm wondering if he needs a more corrupt head and a differet pack

 

A fairly plain Legion Praetor (or anything else plain), just a head swap and the sword changing out for a demonic blade from the Kill Team Legionaries

 

And finally a terminator librarian/diabolist. I suspect more a diabolist, given the book and the cape, but he'll pass for either. I get that he's in the wrong type of terminator armour for heretic forces... but when he comes pre-enscribed with runes... it would be rude not to. Let's just say he's raided some loyalist warehouses :D

 

Now to work out what to build with the remaining infantry kits. Brain wants to just build more small heavy/special weapon teams, but I feel like I should also have at least one Despoiler squad to help with the Cut Them Down rule (always Sweep, with rerolling 1s).

So far (including the above) we have:

 

Praetor

Chaplain

Terminator Diabolist
20 Tacticals with vox, standard and scanner

20 Tactical with standard

5 Tactical support with warpfire blasters

5 heavy bolters

6 Gal Vorbak

6 Gal Vorbak

 

Suggestions are welcome!

 

 

Edited January 2 by Endtransmission

[Bouargh]

These kit bashes are quite fine. I would not change anything to the Chaplain. He is perfect as he is.