Old warriors still can fight

When I started this project I went and drafted most of the metal old SM armor mark minis I  had to help pad up the numbers of the units. These are about half of them:

The paint quality is a bit rougher, and the reasons are threefold: firstly, I did those in two painting sessions, and I had to stop the second one midway to run with my father to the hospital (it ended up being nothing serious, but we got a fright). Secondly, turns out I seem to have lost a lot of the training to paint metal minis, which are rougher than plastic, and it shows. And thirdly... well, I didn't want to spend too much time with these guys, truth be told ^_^. Even so, I think they look the part and they will do the job of padding numbers well enough.

The final few

And that's the last lot. When the Faranwë Craftworld fell to a Tyranid hive, its Avatar was away with a small strikeforce. For some reason it did not shut down and although hurt and cooled down in places, it is still active. The rest of the army follows him on its strange errands. From the webway, the Masque of Joyful Lament sometimes comes to provide help and hope, but right now they are all that remains of the once proud Craftworld.

The meager forces left.

Guardians, with a missile launcher for these goddamn flying Hive Tyrants.

The Avatar, painted by Manu in (I believe) 1997.

Have I told you I loved airbrushing?

Audys the Swift on his jetbike.

Eldrad is a dick, but he pops up from time to time.

Still not convinced of the rifle colour, but I like how the cloaks turned out.

Anyway, that's all folks! 4500 points and I'm done. Beyond some decals and a few touch-ups, I don't plan to paint for the coming years, and I probably won't post here. Thanks for reading :)

Big Brother comes to the fore

To mix things up a bit, this week I decided to change pace a bit and do one of the two Contemptor Dreadnoughts I have. This is the end result:

Nothing really spectacular, but good enough to play with, which is the objective after all.

More bodies for the meat grinder

Well, another week, another batch. This time it's the first batch of Mk III armors:

They look way more brutal than the sleeker Mk IVs, that's for certain. It's a good look for the IWs, truth be told ^_^

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