Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.3)

For the third part of my Step-by-Step, I am focusing on completing the basecoat colours for the remaining sections of the models. As we are getting into the finer detail on the miniatures, this starts to make sense as you want to minimize the damage done from errant brushstrokes.

The first colour to go on was VGC Heavy Red. I use this for my purity seals, as well as the main accent colour for my Strike Squad and Terminator troops. At first I was applying a 1 : 1 ratio of Heavy Red and Magic Wash. However, the Heavy Red I own is one of my least viscous paints, and diluting it further made it act more like a wash than a base paint. As such, I applied it "uncut" and it seemed to work quite well. Even so, I still needed to go over a few coats on some areas to get good coverage.

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.2)

Finally!

For part 2 of the step by step, I will be focusing on the golds and main colour (in this case red for generic Strike Squad, blue for Purifiers). As I have not touched a paintbrush in almost a year, my skills need a bit of de-rusting, and my paint times will likely be much longer for each step. Hopefully this is the last time I take such a ridiculously long break from painting.

Hive Fleet Ceryx - In the dark of Space, a Shadow stirs...

The last few weeks have seen me furiously scrambling to put the final touches of my 1500pt Tyranid force together. Of course, I chose to magnetize most of the options all for my big bugs, which has significantly added to the total time required..

That said, the end is in sight, and I now have a fully field-able force at my disposal!

The last two kits on my workbench were both from the new crop of releases - Harpy/Crone and the new Warriors box. I found both kits to be nice to work with, having minimal flash to clean up, and was very surprised to see that the Crone wings sit really tight with a just 4.75mm and 3mm pair of magnets holding them up to the body sockets. Although it was a pain to drill them out, I discovered a new method that allowed a much more accurate fit, but I feel that the square "peg" design instead of the ball-and-socket also helped. I thought I would need at least one brass rod as additional support, but it turns out I do not. The Harpy/Crone weapon arm sockets, however, gave me a bit of hassle, so I did have to drill some discrete support holes into the torso and use brass rods to keep them firmly in place.

As for my Warriors, they are meant to be counts-as Zoanthropes, so you can imagine my surprise when I realized just how small they were in comparison! To compensate, I cut out some styrofoam rocks and covered them in wood filler to make up the height. I guess I could have just bought Zoans and saved some time and effort, but a stubborn part of me still hopes for a plastic kit as part of a second wave, and I want to make sure I have the newest hotness (even though I do like the current sculpt. Besides, it seems that I will likely move to Malanthropes as my go-to synapse node unit at some point, so I can eventually un-convert the Warriors back into Warriors. All I need to do is buy some more 2mm magnets, which I am inserting into the 12 "optional" spikes from the Trygon kit (as if it needs MORE spikes to rip into my fingers...) to complete the feeble Zoan-esque arms.

Of course there is still a lot left to do, namely all the basing, my remaining Ripper bases, and some finishing touches with green-stuff (bolstering magnet arm sockets for better fit, etc). However, I have been quite delinquent on my Grey Knight painting goals, so it's time to get back to that!

As the rest of this week is shot due to work and other obligations, it won't be until next week that I will be able to crack open the paint bottles again, so I will hopefully have more to contribute on that front soon!

Initial Grey Knights Impressions - Alladin's Afternoon Pilsner Musings #1

Hello All,

I finally had a chance to pick up Codex: Grey Knights and do a quick read-through (that, and some blogs and articles from gamers much wiser than me).

Ta-Da!! ... ... ... (crickets)

Mini-Tutorial: DIY Twin-Linked Brainleech Devourers (part 2)

Well that was fast!

After playing around with some Green Stuff, I have completed the first arm!

This took a lot longer as I am still very much a novice when it comes to sculpting. However, all things considered, I am happy with the result.

As for the second arm, I decided to re-pose the claw as it was drooping down quite significantly. I clipped the claw as best as I could to avoid collateral tissue/chitin damage, then after a bit of clean-up with the hobby knife I drilled and pinned the claw back on at better angle. This was followed by a fairly successful Green Stuff fill-in.

I still have a bit of cleanup (mold lines, etc.) to do on both arms, but will wait until the Green Stuff has dried.

Pictures below. Hope this tutorial was actually useful!

(As a side-note, since I had to do sculpting anyway, I managed to finish magnetizing my Tervigon arm sockets, as well as all 3 sets of Trygon/Mawloc talon sockets, as well as the Trygon/Mawloc head carapace, jaw area and pincer sockets! I still need to drill and magnetize the talons, pincers, and remaining head carapace, but all-in-all a productive day!)

Finally, a pic of the Devourer on my Carnifex... and yes, I do realize that the radical angle I decided to place the arm magnet is a bit odd. Live and learn.