Eeeeeviiiiiiiiil

You've already seen the Archon of the Last Intermission Kabal. Here is the rest of them.

Beginner warriors. The models come from the 3d edition base box.

Veterans get a shiny golden spauldron. Can you see I hate painting faces?

Yes, I took Raiders to carry 10 harlequins at a time. But damn, the models are gorgeous.

The trueborn models come from the Raider's crew. Blasters are converted from harlequin's kisses and modern splinter rifles.

The full kabal, just about 1000 points.

Full feature

So the Masque of Joyful Lament is finally done. It took me about six months, including re-learning everything about painting, but the whole 2,5k points of them are here. Please enjoy.

The full masque, ready to be torn apart by the nearest flashlight.

Scorn's Revenge, Voidweaver squadron and just about the only firepower I've got.

Wind's Wing Stage Right

Wind's Wing Stage Left

From left to right: Day Troupe, Twilight Troupe, Night Troupe. Obviously.

The loyal soldiers stand fast

Well, it's not going too badly. I've finally managed to finish my first batch of Mk IV Maximus armor SMs, and to take pics of them with a more natural lightning (though it's quite cloudy today here). This is the end result:

In case anyone is interested in the "recipe", this is what I'm doing:

- Armor: Prime using Army Painter's Plate Mail Metal spray. Wash the whole mini with Citadel's Nuln Oil Shade. Clean up the armor with Army Painter's Plate Mail Metal Warpaint. First highlight of the armor/guns/stuff with Citadel's Runefang Steel Layer paint. Final highlights for the armor/etc with Citadel's Stormhost Silver Layer paint.
- Guns, knees and shoulders: Citadel's Abaddon Black Base paint, highlight mixing it with a bit of whatever white you have at hand (the shoulders are just black, no highlights)
- Pouches/gun holsters/straps: I've used Citadel's Mournfang Brown because it was the one I had at hand, but I'd use a variety, to keep them from getting too similar. Shade with Army Painter's Strong tone ink, clean up with base color again and highlight with a lighter brown with the same hue.
- Gold Highlights: Paint the shoulder borders and the CC weapons' handles with Citadel's Basthasar Gold Base paint, wash with Army Painter's Strong Tone Ink, and highlight with Citadel's Liberator Gold.
- Danger stripes: This is much easier than it looks: over a black base, just put the gun/chainblade at 45º and paint straight lines upwards using Citadel's Averland Sunset Base paint (two thin layers) and after that with Citadel's Yriel Yellow Layer paint (again, two thin layers to build up a rich yellow), trying to leave as much black as you're painting yellow. If you fuck up, just paint a bit of black again to clean up, and done.
- Glowy green visors: that's dead easy. Two thin layers of Citadel's Waywatcher Green Glaze paint over the metal you've already painted and highlighted. That's it.
- Weathering for guns/knees: Really easy again. Using the "sponge" method (in case you don't know how it works, there's a very good tutorial on it at Warhammer TV, look it up :P), just appli two layers, one with Citadel's Mournfang Brown Base paint and another using Citadel's Runefang Steel Layer paint. Apply with caution ;).

And that's it, folks. It's dead easy, TBH, mainly because that was my motto when choosing the scheme: "as fast and easy to apply on batches as humanly possible" :D

The Fourth and Terra!!!

After a whole lot of procrastination, I've finally decided to actually get started painting my 30k force. I finished assembling and priming my loyalist Iron Warriors infantry force (one each of a Calth and Prospero boxes, plus a lot of old metal SM minis, repurposed), and the whole lot looks like this:

Before that I did a single test model to see how the scheme would look:

Decent enough IMHO, and it has the perk of being a relatively fast scheme to paint.

Now, this is what my painting table currently looks like:

I decided to paint loyalist Iron Warriors for multiple reasons, actually. For starters... well, they are kind of easy to paint, which is certainly a plus :D. I also happen to like the no-nonsense attitude of the Fourth, and the fact that they approach war as a job they have to do, instead of some kind of art or any other nonsense like that.

Why loyalists, though? Well, I like the narrative: a reliable unit, known to to their job but not showy like other legions, that get scattered to the winds as time goes by because they do their job and don't complain. That ends up breeding resentment in their primarch, which makes him turn to Chaos along with his legion. But of course, with the legion so dispersed through the galaxy on garrisons and isolated warzones, a sizable amount of the legion did not turn and instead kept loyal to the Crusade and the Emperor. And that's what I'm going for here: a detachment of underdogs, shunned, isolated and decimanted by their own father, eyed with mistrust by their loyalist comrades, but still unbowed, still unbroken, and still with a job to do. And with a brand new war cry, to boot, albeit one as simple and workmanlike as they themselves:

THE FOURTH AND TERRA!!!

let's tease a little

Coming up soon, pictures of the whole Masque of Joyful Lament.

Also:

Driving forward

I was able to do a little building this week-end, and I now have the better part of a US tank company operational.
Who knows, the new tanks might even get some paint before this saturday's FoW meeting !

... It's amazing just how more aggressive Shermans look, with the hedgerow cutters installed.