WIP
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Caught up in the #New40k Hype Train

Yes, I got swept into the massive hype of #New40k (can you blame me?). Between building the minis from the Dark Imperium box and a whole pile of Sector Imperialis buildings have kept me busy.

I think I have built more miniatures in the last few weeks than the previous six months. While it has affected my posting schedule here, and my writing goals for the next book, it has been a ton of fun getting caught up in the thrill of 8th Edition.

Gaming Table

I think I bought a set of Secret Weapon’s TableScapes two  years ago and they have been sitting in the box, languishing ever since. But with excitement of the new edition of 40k being easier than ever to get into, I decided to break them back out as well as the box of GW building kits.

While it is only a 4×4 set, it will be plenty big enough to get some games in at the house and I can expand upon it later.

Eight of the tiles are roadways, leaving the other eight to be filled in with the buildings and line-of-sight blocking features. I had two buildings made from the Pegasus Gothic set and a pile of sprues of GW’s buildings needing to be built.

I wanted to build up a set of tall buildings to allow for some vertical gaming and large line-of-sight blocking features. This is extra important in 8th edition as cover is overly simplified and shooting through ruins no longer provides cover.

Much of this height was provided by the Shine of the Aquila walls that came in the Relicos Militarum box I picked up a few years back. While a great deal in terms of the massive pile of plastic, I didn’t realize most of it is the Shrine set – which doesn’t go with the normal ruin kits very well.

Games Workshop Shrine of Aquila Building 1 WIP

The first ruin was mostly square to fill up most of the square tile as possible. The back half was mostly ruins though to allow access to the interior for gaming.

Games Workshop Shrine of Aquila Building 2 WIP

The second started off as a desire to add a recessed door, so two columns of the regular city walls were built on either side of the Aquila wall. Turns out, the kits aren’t really meant for this as the floor tiles won’t fit. For each floor, I needed to cut off about 1/8 inch to squeeze between the walls.

Games Workshop Shrine of Aquila Bell Tower WIP

The last building started off as a narrower building made just from the Aquila pieces and a separate box made from the remaining walls I had. Somewhere the idea to turn it into a bell tower popped into my mind. I had picked up the Skaven Doom Bell for bits.

It took some creative use of random bits to lift the bell high enough not to hit the flooring. Four sets of dozer blade pistons were cut up and then mounted on blocks of cork. I then added a thick layer of texture paint over the cork to make it look like concrete.

While I removed the main Skaven icon from the bell, I left all the smaller ones. I figured it would add an interesting backstory, especially games with the Inquisitor or Deathwatch squads.

The final piece as the shattered Aquila icon which I turned into a sort of park. Setting it an angle not only allowed it to fit, but it also broke the square flow of the tiles and buildings.

Two more tiles will hold the two Pegasus sets I already had built, leaving two empty tiles. I may leave these empty for more open playing areas, or build up more Pegasus kits (I still have a ton).

Pox Walkers

I didn’t plan to pick up the new Dark Imperium box as I really don’t need more models to build and paint. But between seeing all the beautiful work online and not having the rule book available at my FLGS, I rationalized the box by the great deal all those models are above the book that comes inside it… Yes, I have a plastic crack addiction.

I spent a few evenings building up the models while watching movies with the family. And I must say, these are some of the best single-pose kits I have ever built. There is so much variety and character in the minis, especially the chaos side, that it is easy to overlook the duplicates.

The first to undergo the brush were the Pox Walkers. I wanted to paint them quickly with washes and have an excuse to play with colors.

Dark Imperium Pox Walkers Painted with Washes

I’ll do another post focused on painting them later, but I did finish all 20 of them in fairly quick order. And since most of it was washes, I was able to sit on the couch with the family while doing them.

Pox Walker with Cyber Arm painted with washes

I still need to do their bases, but I am happy with how colorful, and yet zombie-like they came out.

Nurgle Iron Warriors

The next unit to get some paint was the Chaos Marines. The kit is supposed to be Death Guard vs. Ultramarines, but I really don’t want to start another army. So I figured these will be Nurgle-loving Iron Warriors instead.

Nurgle Iron Warrior WIP Step 5: Brown Wash

And for anyone painting gold trim: my new found favorite is Vallejo Game Color Glorious Gold. This went on super smooth and covered so well. I wish I had this went I painted my previous Iron Warriors as it would have saved so many headaches.

Work in progress on Nurgle Iron Warriors

At this point, the base colors are all finished and the Dark Brown Wash has been applied. This gets them to about 80% completed already. As they are Nurgley, I will go back and add more rust and verdigris to their armor and then highlight all the colors.

Rainbow Warriors

While progress has been slow on my part of the Rainbow Warriors Project, I have completed the first three tactical marines. For some reason, edge highlighting blue has been killing my motivation on them. So I took only three of the marines and brought them over the finish line.

Rainbow Warriors Tactical Marines

Painting that rainbow though! I can see why no one has done a full army of them. I didn’t do any blending for the colors, but it still took forever to get all the lines looking good and each band wide enough to be seen.

Rainbow Warriors Tac Marines - Back

Once I finish the squad, they will be shipped to Dan (@TheLonelyHavocs) who is doing the bases and decals. At some point there will be an announcement on how to buy tickets for the raffle, with proceeds going to a group championing diversity in gaming conventions.

Up Next

Once I finish the bases for the Pox Walkers, I will write up their painting guide with all the various, vibrant colors I used. I’ll do the same for the Nurgle Iron Warriors as it is slightly different than my normal process.

I also need to finish the other seven Rainbow Warriors this month and get them out, so they will probably happen before any of the other DI box. Though I did start the base colors for one of the Primarus Marines to be part of my Mentor Legion.

Traitor Guard 2k Tank List

Finally, I started writing some lists for each of my armies with the new index books. I really like the flexibility the new structure provides, like building an all tank Guard army. More on that to come.