All posts tagged: 40k

Traitor Guard Armored Sentinel Squad

Published by Joe B

I admit it, I’m a tread head and a star wars geek, so when I was building up my Traitor Guard, not only did I fill it with a bunch of tanks, but had to add at least a couple of Sentinels. So here is my Traitor Guard Armored Sentinel squad armed with plasma cannons. I built up the bases using extra bits and sprue then filled in the bumps with plaster with a final layer of gravel on top. Conversions were fairly simple. The eagles on the front were cut off, and a chaos star was bent around the front of one and two Chaos Vehicle plates were added to the front of the other. With a bit of green stuff, I also added a bit of demonic presence to the one. With a bit of green stuff, I also added a bit of demonic presence to the one. Since sentinels are a bit taller than the tanks, the orange to red transition was a bit longer and by the time it got to the feet, they were …

Fabius Bile painted up for the Iron Warriors

Fabius Bile – a Classic in Iron Warriors Style

Published by Joe B

An oldie but a goody, Fabius Bile is a Games Workshop classic that I’ve had in my collection for over 15 years (crap that makes me sound old!). He has gone through a couple of iterations of paint schemes and his ‘enhanced’ warriors are back into bits pile in my closet, but I present the latest update to the classic. I wanted to pay some homage to his origins as a Emperor’s Children apothecary but still fit in with my Iron Warriors 14th Grand Company, so the armor was painted a dirty white and the shoulder pads black and silver. The flayed skin robe helps create the morbid color offset by the brightly colorful vials. I’ve seen Fabius Bile’s Chirurgeon used on so many crazy conversions for great reason: they are epicly gruesome. Between the chain blade, drill, butcher knife and syringe, it makes even a Ork Doc cringe. I wanted to give the backpack an old, worn look but still have it flashy as any Emperor’s Children would have it. Game wise, the newest edition of the codex …

Leman Russ Demolisher Squadron Showcase

Traitor Guard Leman Russ Demolisher Squad

Published by Joe B

Who doesn’t like a tank with a big gun? And what is better than one tank with a big gun? A whole squadron of Leman Russ Demolisher tanks with big guns! One of the reasons I wanted to build up an Imperial Guard (Astra Militarium?) army was because I have always been a bit of a tread-head, so adding some hard hitting Demolishers was a no brainer. I built all three of these tanks from the older Leman Russ kit with only one being the old, out of production, metal Demolisher cannon. The other two were built from other bits and pressed to service. To keep them uniform, all three have track guards which help signify their higher armor value and my army badge on the front. The metal Leman Russ Demolisher was my brothers from his old Catachan army from somewhere in middle school. The traitors seized it and stripped it of its honor. Leman Russ Demolisher It originally had the sponsons, but they had broken off over the years. So to hide the damage, …

Behemoth Carnifex with Barbed Strangler

Tyranid Carnifex of Hive Fleet Behemoth with Barbed Strangler

Published by Joe B

I love painting monstrous creatures almost as much as I love painting tanks, there is just so much character, and presence in the larger models. This Tyranid Carnifex is from the Shield of Baal box – the first of the big bugs and my second Carnifex. I painted him to be part of my brother-in-law’s Hive Fleet Behemoth so used deep reds for the skin and black-to-blue for the carapace. Since I armed the other Tyranid Carnifex with a venom cannon and scything talons, I gave this guy the barbed strangler and tank crushing claws – in part because they look bad ass. I decided to take the base up a notch using some of the techniques I practiced on my Ork Warboss. Using cork, I added some height. But also left bare patches in the sand to allow for water puddles. This was also the first model I’ve bought with the new oval bases and I love it. It gives a larger canvas for this guy to walk on without sticking out to the sides too much. If …

Close up of Ork Trukk Grill

Ork Death Skulls Trukk Number 1

Published by Joe B

With all those Ork Walkers mucking about, the Boyz needed some upgrades of their own to get them to the fray. Fortunately, I had two trucks (or Trukks) sitting in the closet of doom. While being a bit fiddly to assemble (I knocked the side panels off constantly!), I left the wheels, crew, and the wrecking ball separate to allow simpler painting. Following in the junkyard look of my walkers, I painted the trucks to look like they had just been cobbled together and covered in just enough blue paint to get them to the fighting. I mix of the dark Gothic rust mixed with the Ork comically bright colors. Among the blue panels, you can see segments of other Ork clans like the yellow Flash Gitz, red Speed Freaks, and checkered Goffs. Because there are so many great tidbits all over the truck, I felt the need to highlight them in different colors, patterns, and chipping. Take for instance the side panels here; you’ve got little dags bolted on the top, arrows and lighting …

Deff Skulls Ork Warboss

Death Skull Warboss

Published by Joe B

To lead my growing Ork hoard, it needed a good Warboss to knock some heads around. Enter the Death Skull Warboss from Assault on Black Reach, which is very suitable for a head-crunchin’. With a simple adjustment to the right arm, I tipped it out a bit and opened up the model. The gap was filled with green stuff, and I added an extra shoulder guard from the Nobz kit. I figured the power klaw should be suitably messy and covered in gore. The rest of the metal is suitably rusted up and worn out. I also added a nasty looking trophy head and slightly tilted the head towards the Klaw. The missing neck was also filled in with some green stuff and smoothed into place. The blues add a nice contrast to the green skin and the bloody red. Want to paint an Ork just like him? I’ve got you covered with a painting tutorial! The tutorial has the step-by-steps I used for this guy, including the skin and bloody mess. He has so …

Mentor Legion Stormtalon

Mentor Legion Stormtalon

Published by Joe B

Another model sitting on my shelf for way too long. Last year when flyers were the big hot thing, GW had a air force kit for the Space Marines with two Stormtalons and a Stormraven, I quickly built them up and started painting but got distracted with so many things in life. So here is my Mentor Legion Stormtalon. I also got a set of bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures Secret Weapon Miniatures to add interest on the large, nearly empty base. The junkyard base had a downed plane reckage that I painted up to look like a Ork flyer, a bit of internal competition. The base colors were done using an airbrush and painters tape to mask the other areas.  I then used washes to mark the panel lines and shade the green areas. The green was then highlighted and weathering done. The biggest issue I had with the original model was the nose weapon, so before building I did a search for other conversions and found Hand of Junk and Excommunicate Traitoris that both had …

Hacking Custom Decals

Published by Joe B

So on my Knight Titan I had decided to create my own house, which meant custom house insignia. Now, I’m not a great free hand painter (yet), and since the pattern would need to be repeated multiple times over the model, I needed to turn to water transfers. While I haven’t tried it yet, I have heard that Testors Decal Paper can work really well if you have a design in mind. After searching through my pile of transfers from Space Marines, Chaos, IG, tanks, the knight titan, and even the Ork and Eldar sheets that I had, I finally settled on the winged sword from the Baneblade to create my custom decal. The only problem was that the two transfers on the Baneblade sheet were only big enough for the shins and as i wasn’t confidant that I could hand paint a larger version for the shoulder, I turned back to the decals at hand. Looking at the Hawkshroud icon, it would give me a great wing once the head was removed and the wing turned 180, …

Imperial Knight Titan

Imperial Knight Titan

Published by Joe B

My first picture post of the year should be epic right? Well here is my first Imperial Knight Titan for my yet unnamed house.   My wonderful wife bought me this Knight Titan [get it at Amazon] last Father’s Day and it has been a slow process to build and paint this beast. In the end, I can’t get over how amazing this model is in person – any one that has finished one knows what I am talking about I’m sure. I decided to create my own, as yet unnamed house, and since my wife’s favorite color is yellow, it was only fitting that it would be the primary color.   The amour plates were left separate and I glued them to penny nails to act as handles to paint and I could stab them into corks to dry. The main colors were all done using an airbrush and my meager skills allowed for very little highlighting – but a good dose of painters tape allowed the pauldrons to be painted both colors. The family crest of …

Iron Warriors Helbrute Red Background

A Little Chaos to the mix: Iron Warriors Helbrute

Published by Joe B

So to break up the aliens a bit, I got a bit excited that the Helbrute kit finally came out for Chaos. I had been holding on to the Dark Vengeance model – which I think is a fantastic model (especially for a starter kit!) but I was waiting for a multi-part kit to customize it. For me the stubby Multi-Melta looked a bit off, so that’s what I fixed! To contrast the silver and yellows of my Iron Warriors, I figured purple would do just nicely so I went with purple-blue skin and red-purple red accents. The skin is worked up from Xereus Purple to Calgar blue (with some Lothern blue on the tubing). I used washes of Khorne Red, Leviathan Purple, and Earthshade to add the bruising and shadows. The red was built up over a few shades of red and purple wash used on the daemon face and tentacles. Hard coat was later added to the claws to make them blood-glossy. From the top you can see the nice contrast between purple flesh, …

Behemoth Zoanthrope

Tyranid Zoanthrope

Published by Joe B

Because what is cooler than a floating brain with iity-bitty claws? How about add a row of menacing teeth in a snear? And with that, I present the Tyranid Zoanthrope from Hive Fleet Behemoth!   This is the ‘old’ Finecast model that was at least an upgrade for the extremely top heavy metal version, but that little point between the tail and the ground spike is a point that keeps breaking. To prevent this I have added a small pin so we will see how that holds up. The biggest question for the colors on this guy was what to paint the brain. I decided to keep it blue but reverse the highlights from the carapace so the depths were the white and dark blue on the ridges. This helps give a glowing, alien look to it and contrasts to the hard plates. I love the skin stretched over the brain. If GW ever asks my opinion for the greatest sculpt, this may be among my top 10, though the new plastic version is pretty cool …

Tyranid Ripper Swarm

Tyranid Rippers for Hive Fleet Behemoth

Published by Joe B

Just because they are small, tinny, bitey things don’t make them less scary en masse. Today I add some Tyranid Ripper Swarms to the growing hive fleet. I love the fact that these guys come on the various sprues because buying a box of just rippers would be a bit lame to open and ‘assemble.’ Having them as a freebie gives a nice surprise instead! For the coloring on these guys, I purposely left the red a bit darker except for the face to help emphasize it a bit more. I left the extreme blue contrast through which helps brighten up the otherwise dark mass. While only three ripper bases may not accomplish much in a game, since they come in each gaunt box they will continue to grow as the horde expands to consume the universe!