The Badab War - Mantis Warrior

Hey guys,

Ever since I saw the new Imperial Armour Badab War books I’ve been tempted to start a Badab War army. This is a test miniature from the Mantis Warriors, one of the four secessionist chapters who rebelled against the imperium. I really liked their fluff and the colour scheme got a nice update from the Forge World team, I didn’t really like the older colours. I want to do a couple more chapters to see which one I can paint relatively fast and see if I can paint an army of them!

Conclusion: I really dig the scheme, the fluff is also very nice as mentioned. They’re a successor chapter of the White Scars, which means they are mongolian-like in appearance which I like a lot! However, the chapter symbol takes a long time to do properly and I still feel like I could’ve done a better job on it. I’d love to do an army of them if Forge World decides to make a decal sheet for them (as they did for the Carcharodons, Astral Claws etc.), but for now it’s probably a no..

The next test model will probably be either a Lamenter or Carcharodon.

I’d love to know your thoughts!

Demon Challenge - Contemptor Dreadnought

Hi everyone,

This project is something I'm really excited about. I've been to Games Day four times now (two times Games Day UK and two times Games Day Germany). However, every time I'm at Games Day I regret that I didn't enter anything for the Golden Demons. Winning a Golden Demon is something I've been willing to do for quite some time now, but somehow I never got around to enter a miniature. So, right after Games Day Germany 2011 I came up with some plans for my entry. While I was waiting in line for the Forge World stand I saw two examples of the new Contemptor Dreadnoughts, I knew I had to have one and I knew what my entry for next year would be. I bought one with the addition of two Contemptor Pattern Kheres Assault Cannon arms, however I was thinking about ordering the Close Combat Arm (Fist) as well, I think it gives the miniature more diversity. I don't play Space Marines myself but I figured out that painting a miniature of an army I don't play would give me a lot of freedom and opportunities, it would also be something to keep myself motivated between other projects. I hope that makes sense! The idea is to enter it either at Games Day UK 2012, or Games Day Germany 2012.


I. Colour scheme and modelling opportunities

Now I had to think of a Legion or Chapter for the Contemptor Dreadnought. The miniature is an excellent Pre-Heresy Dreadnought (minus the Imperial Eagle) so I figured I had to do one of the original 20 Legions (-2 of the unknown ones, of course!). Though it would also be possible to have a Chapter from the Second Founding, as they were founded right after the Heresy. I settled for a First Founding Legion, though. These are the possibilities I'm considering, I'd like to know what your thoughts are! There are some Legion specific details I had in mind if I were to choose that specific Legion;

Pre-heresy Death Guard

I never really tried painting white armour, though I really like the look and the weathering possibilities. Barbarus was Feral World where the atmosphere was thick with virulent gases and a constant fog was spread across the planet. It makes a lot of sense that their armour would be corroded, even before the Heresy. This gives me a lot of opportunity to try different weathering techniques for the armour. Modelling-wise I was thinking about sculpting the Death Guard symbol on the front of the body, where the Imperial Eagle currently sits. I would also probably convert the head to make it subtly different from the original, although the original head already looks pretty Death Guard-ish.

Great Crusade-era Imperial Fists

While I was browsing through my Index Astartes copies I noticed a very interesting type of armour used by the Imperial Fists during the Great Crusade. I liked the mechanical and unique appearance a lot. Yellow is also a colour I haven't done much, which also gives great possibilities for weathering. The black, red and white also serve for great contrast pieces for the yellow armour. 

Pre-Heresy Iron Hands

I always liked the idea behind a bionic-heavy Chapter. This gives me some great possibilities for converting the Dreadnought, bionic scopes and lenses for the head, old-skool Devastator leg detail, etc. Black is a very difficult colour to get just right. Weathering is also hard to see on black armour, so this is why the white parts come in handy. It certainly breaks up the colour scheme and makes the weathering come out a lot better than just plain black.

Pre-Heresy Space Wolves

Space Wolves give a lot of possibilities as well, their armour is subtly different, they can have engraved runes in their armour, and of course the wolf-theme! Grey is a great colour for weathering and also compliments cold colours for the shadows and warm colours for the highlights, this is obviously harder to achieve with black or white. The red details also provide some great contrast and spot-colours.

The new Contemptor Dreadnought is highly posable, which makes the kit even more awesome!

II. The base

The base of the miniature depends entirely on what Legion/Chapter I'm picking for the project. I was thinking about giving the miniature a base themed around their homeworld. Barbarus: Death World/Desert-like for Death Guard, Terra: Industrial for the Imperial Fists, Medusa: tech-deck/industrial for Iron Hands, Fenris: Snow/ice for Space Wolves etc.

I'd love to know what your thoughts are, suggestions are especially appreciated!

Regards,

Rens

"Xeno Hybris" - Kroot Mercenary WIP

Welcome Acolytes,

This blog will be oriented towards everything I do hobby-wise. I've had several blogs in the past without much success, mainly because of the lack of updates but most likely because I tended to theme my blogs for one specific army or project. The aim for this blog is to focus it on several projects and keep it updated for once!

My first blogpost will be dedicated to a project I started more than 2 years ago. I was (and still am!) heavily inspired by the concept of =I=munda at the DakkaDakka forums, the amount of work that Migsula, Col Hammer, Northern and SickBunny were putting into their "Jade Vessel" campaign was simple mind boggling. And as a matter of fact I did caught the "=I=munda fever" right away! I had the idea of making a warband focussed around a Radical Ordo Xenos Inquisitor who is a believer of the Xeno Hybris-philosophy. He believes strongly that there is much to be learned from alien technology, and only through co-operation with Xenos species humanity will ever prevail. His henchmen are mainly Xenos who are dedicated to exterminating hostile alien threats, specifically; Genestealer Cults.

I started working on the Kroot Mercenary more than two years ago, and finally picked him up again recently. I added more detail to his armour and worked out a couple of idea's for his bionic hand. I want the bionic hand to resemble a Kroot hand, as it would be confusing for the Kroot to have different limbs than he is used to. I'm still figuring out how to make a bionic hand with two index-fingers and two thumbs, I guess it's off to the drawing board again!

Previous pictures over at DakkaDakka show that I was working on a Tau Renegade as well. He will receive some details and a different weapon soon, as I'm still searching for a XV25 Burst Cannon for him. I figured some sort gatling gun would prove a lot more useful than a Melta-type weapon when fighting Genestealer Cultists! Other idea's for the warband include a conversion of the new Jokaero Weaponsmith and of course an Inquisitor to lead the warband! I'm also awaiting my order from Dragon Forge Design for some Tech-deck bases and two resin plinths for displaying miniatures.

Until soon!

Rens