Starting off with Craftworlds I knew I wanted some rangers. I was put off by the single sculpt squad, especially since its only available in finecast, so needed to work out an alternative that would fit my idea of rangers better. I’ve always felt that Rangers should be a bit more exodite like, with a more exotic and less uniform look.
What I came up with came from a combination of Shadow Warriors from the AoS range, Guardians and some Drukhari weapons…
As you can see I used the guardian legs, arms, heads and Shuriken base, the Shadow Warrior torso and Dark Lance barrels.
The other five worked with the same base combo but I used unhelmeted heads and Heat Lance barrels.
I plan on working on some more using something other than the Shadow Warriors, likely the Wildwood Rangers and yet more different gun barrels.
No it’s not a Britney Spears themed gang, but it is yet another one! How did this happen? I wasn’t planning an Escher force! Damn models just lying about waiting to be built!
Inspiration struck again and I couldn’t stop building until they were finished, and as such the Hive Angels were born…
This lovely leader will serve as my Leader, the Prophet of the Angels, she who preaches the true path.
I’m counting the Drukhari blade as duel stiletto swords and still need to figure out a way to model a shotgun on there.
She’ll be backed up by her champions, the icon bearer…
And the Crusader…
Then there are all these lovely ladies to help out…
As you can see I’ve gone heavy on the wych weapons. I have a hefty amount of Druhkari bits, and I really love all thier weapons. It also fits the aesthetic I was going for perfectly.
The wings are from a few different sources, but mainly the aquilla icons from the Imperial vehicle upgrade sprue.
I’m going to pop these to the side for a bit though, lots of projects to be working on and nothing left lying about to build!
Things took a bit of a turn with my Necromunda projects. The Van Saar hangers-on are under coated and ready for paint, I even got a couple of bounty hunters prepped. But then the Underhive box arrived.
I ordered it mainly for the Zone Mortalis tiles, for playing this version of the game but also to use for backdrops for some photos. I was going to sell the rest off to recoup a bit, but a seed had been planted. ‘Why not just build a new gang? It will be good to have two.’ Said that voice in my head. All it took was a quick look at their options to cement the idea…and thus the Vatforged were born…
This is Arn, the leader, and his pet croc, alongside his twin brother Vito.
Both birthed from the same gene-vat, they were born into the Goliath way of life. Arn took to it like a fish to water, rising swiftly. Vito struggled to begin but with the help of his brother, he has fought a hard and bloody path to earn his place.
Still a bit of green stuff work to do on these to polish them off but what you see here is pretty much how they’ll look.
Next up is the rest of the gangers…
I went for a bit of a mix with these and still want to add a bit more, especially the tank tread armour as I’m especially pleased with how that looks. I’m thinking of continuing that theme to Arn, and replacing the crotch chains with treads.
But then that voice spoke up again, ‘Why not do an Escher gang as well?’. Well, I might as well…
Cyber Arachnids, Grapple Guns, Heavy Stubbers and more for these elite gangers. A new leader ushers in a new high-tech killteam, equipped to the nines and ready to take on the underhive. As with all my Van Saar I’m going for an energy weapon based force, no solid slugs or gun that fires them, no cc weapons other than energy shields and power weapons. This has offered up the oppertunity for some cool conversions, particularly the ‘heavy stubber’ for this force. But first lets take a look at the creepy pets that have appeared…
A combination of an Eldar component, not actually certain from which kit(let me know if you recognise it), some Forge World servo skulls and Sicarian Ruststalker hands, with each finger cut into a single peice, for legs. Thanks Hendybadger for the idea.
These were quite an easy simple conversion, just with hard to find components. Just making these 2 took up all the hands in the Sicarian kit, luckily I’ve got plenty of uses for the other bits.
Next up is a new leader for the gang, Tor Gellion now demoted to a Champion. This new leader is outfitted a little differently but still sticking to the Las/Plas theme I’m going for with the gang. Introducing Ortrex Gellion…
Featuring a Combi Plas, Power Sword and Energy Shield in the weapons department and a grav shute and scope for gear. This guy is an ideal build for me, no idea if it will work but I’m sticking to it.
The Combi-plas is from one of the Forge World weapons packs, I cut it off the hand it was supplied with to create the pose I wanted with an arm from the plastic kit. The sword is from the Admech Sicarian kit, cut off and attached to a close combat arm. The back back is made up of the top half of an Admech Skirtarii back pack, also where the ‘scope’ drone came from, and the grav chuite vanes from the Primaris Reiver kit.
I’ve made up a group of similarly outfitted gangers to go alongside him, each equipped with a selection of gear. Let’s take a look at the grapple guns…
At a glance they look like a very good option for Van Saar to make up for thier movement shortfall. I made these from the Van Saar combi melta, with the melta and las barrels removed, and the hooks from the Primaris Reiver grapple guns. I was planning on just swapping in the whole of the Reiver grapple gun, but the scale was way off…
Next up was a couple of gangers similarly outfitted…
Another long las for the squad, which I’ve gone for over the long rifle mainly because it is las, but also plentiful on a sniper is nothing to be shirked at. This was made from a thin peice of brass rod, I think about 1mm although it could have been smaller. This was drilled into the gun and the barrel. I’m still searching for a good scope to be added to these, as the ones I’ve pulled from my bits box just don’t look right.
I also threw together a melta gunner as the melta ability is crazy, especially combined with it’s high strength of 8, mega AP of -4, and 3 damage!
To finish off I needed some heavy fire support…
I really wanted a heavy stubber for my Van Saar to complete my heavy weapons choices(I’ve built a Lascannon and Plasmagun, and have a Multimelta and Radcannon on the way), but it goes against the theme, then inspiration struck, I could build a multi-laser to stand in for it! Luckily I had one in my bits box, from the Valkyrie kit, and set to modding the heavy weapon frame to accomodate it. I love how it looks and think it makes a nice proxy to keep the theme.
That’s all the building of the Van Saar done for now, next up I’m looking at some hangers-on. Rogue docs and ammo-jacks here I come!
It’s time to introduce to new additions to my Underhive collection, the new hotness on Necromunda, a pair of Luther Pattern Excavation Automata or Ambots…
I chose to make some modifications straight off the bat, to personolise them a little bit. Nothing major, just a bit of a kitbash. The first, to join my Van Saar gang, I added some antennae and some ‘fins’ to the back to enhance the bug-like look and add a technological look to it. Here’s a better look at it…
The other I wanted to create a little story for, a modified bot used by a wandering tech hunter. Used for defense but mainly for excavation, heavy lifting and of course as something of a pack horse. Now I’ll have to work on this wanderer to go with him. Here’sa closer look at this one…
It might be a while before I actually get them on the table, but they’re spurring on loads of ideas for ‘other’ models to make.
I was recently asked for some hints and tips on painting, specifically the Inquisitor Lorr model I painted over a year ago, on my Facebook page. So I thought I would gather my thoughts a bit, try and remember the colours and techniques I used and share with everybody how I achieved the paint job on this guy…
So without further ado let’s take a look at the first section, the reds…
I started these off with a straight up basecoat of Khorne Red, giving a couple of coats to ensure I had a nice flat base to work from.
This was followed by a wash of Agrax Earthshade. This wash more than anything was to show where the grooves and folds in the cloth were in order to better guide the following highlights.
The first of these highlights was with Mephiston Red, slightly watered down and applied over a couple of coats to get a nice bold colour. Make sure you leave only the recesses, shown by the previous wash, the original Khorne Red.
This was followed up with a highlight of Evil Sun Scarlet, making sure to keep some of the Mephiston Red highlight showing.
I then mixed a wee touch of White Scar into the Evil Sun Scarlet and applied a Highlight only to the very edges of the raised areas and following this just a few dabs of almost pure white.
The whole lot was then given a thin glaze of Bloodletter to help blend the colours together.
The black was started off, surprisingly, with a base of Abaddon Black.
The best way I’ve found to keep blacks looking nice and dark is to keep this basecoat as the most prominent colour, meaning any highlights applied are only on the folds and ridges. Even then only on the most prominent and keeping them to the very edges.
The first highlight was applied Mechanicus Standard Grey over a couple of watered down coats. Keep only a little of the watery paint on the brush and apply only a little to the edges at a time, and make sure the previous coat is dry before applying the next. Each successive coat should be kept a little closer to the edge than the last.
Do the same as above but this time with Dawnstone and then Celestra grey, just make sure to always keep a little of the previous colour showing through. The final highlight is a very light of touch of white, only on the very tips and points.
To finish it off give it a light wash of Nuln Oil, like the reds to blend the colours together.
The glow from the plasma pistol was by far the trickiest part to achieve, but don’t be daunted to give it a try. All it takes is a little patience. One of the most important things to keep in mind when doing this is how the light travels to try and get a realistic looking effect. It’s tricky to get right and I find the best way to get a good look at how it would work on your model is to shine a torch or small light from roughly the same area as whats going to be your light source. Keep a mental note of where the light touches and where is shadowed.
This was applied once the rest of the areas around the light source were fully painted. I started it off by applying a very watered down coat of 2:1 Sotek Green and White Scar. You want about 4 parts water added in and only a light amount of the mix on your brush. Be gentle and apply the paint sparsely, building it up over several layers, getting the colour bolder towards the centre of the light source.
The next stage was to use the same technique as above but this time using only Lothern Blue and water. As before ensure you always leave a little of the last coat showing through. From here keep adding a little White Scar to the mix, and adding a coat of each mix, until it’s pretty much pure white being applied only to the very edges.
And there you have it. That’s how I did the main colours on my Gideon Lorr mini. If you have any other questions on how I painted this or any other figures you have seen on the site just give me a holler 🙂
I’ve decided to get rid of a whole bunch of figures, in particular the nurgle stuff that I have painted. Heres a few pictures of whats on offer, just click on the image to be taken directly to the ebay listing:
Today I have been working on the sword, cloak, animal skin and face on the White Scars jetbike. I managed to finish all of them off other than the face and some final touches to the animal skin and here are the results:
White Scars Jetbike WIP
White Scars Jetbike WIP
White Scars Jetbike WIP
White Scars Jetbike WIP
White Scars Jetbike WIP
I’m particularly pleased with how the sword has turned out and chose the colours in order to match the Kor’sarro Khan I did earlier in the year for the same client. This was done by blening from blackto naggaroth purple, then to genestealer purple to white. In regards to the animal skin, I decided to do this in a semi leopard pattern, as I think this suits the White Scars more than a standard grey or brown affair you’d find on say a Space Wolf. I still think this needs a little work just to pull the colour out a little bit more. Next up is soem more work on the face. hair and beard as so far I have only laid down the base colours for these.
In other news I received a couple of MVPs as part payment for the Dreadball robots commission, so I’ll be painting these up alongside the Enforcer once the jetbike is done 😀
DeathWatch Studios 