Keeping with the format I've posted some in progress images of the fledgling chaos army over on Codex Imperialis, the blogs sister site for all things non-imperial space marine. Thought I would give it some advertising here as they will be my main project for the forseeable future and so index astartes may be a bit quiet in the interim. Please check it out and follow it if you like what you see.
I will probably post the battle reports for this up on the other blog as it is mainly Imperial guard Vs Tyranids, with a bit of Dark Angels thrown in for flavour. My good friend Commissar Bob is the Imperial guard enthusiast who has come up with the scenarios. Three of the games will be more or less standard 40k, one space hulk, one a kind of zone mortalis/kill team/starcraft mission and finally to decide the ultimate outcome an apocalypse game. Old two eye is the tyranid player, with whom I paired up with in the first game Vs Imperial Guard. Without further ado please find the scenario below and head over to Codex Imperialis soon for the report.
100 DAYS The race to save Omega
"There
is a cancer eating at the Imperium. With each decade it advances deeper,
leaving drained, dead worlds in its wake. This horror, this abomination, has
thought and purpose which functions on an unimaginable, galactic scale and all
we can do is try to stop the swarms of bio-engineered monsters it unleashes
upon us by instinct. We have given the horror a name to salve our fears; we
call it the Tyranid race, but if it is aware of us at all it must know us only
as Prey."
It is three
days since the first blood was spilled in the battle for Omega. Reports of
civilian disappearances, relayed to Planetary Command from various settlements
and industrial sites scattered across the world’s single continent, have been
largely ignored. No authority at the capital Zenica has any conception of the looming
horror, nor the threat of every wasted day to the continued existence of life
on the planet.
When a platoon
from the small military outpost at Jablanicka fails to report after routine
patrols, Captain Besic reacts with customary caution. He sends out two patrol
groups, one to investigate the disused chemical plant to the West of the
outpost, and one to search the woods to the East. The events of the next few
hours, so far beyond the most awful imaginings of the Jablanicka men, would
have knock-on effects of the most severe importance.
The race to
same Omega had begun.
Mission Length:
As per standard missions.
Deployment etc:
The Imperial Guard set up first,
deploying anywhere on the board except for the 12” within each short board edge
[note: I’ve done a preliminary set-up on an 8 by 4 board for this – I think
we’ll need that much space to make this work because of the ‘escape’ victory
conditions and because of the amount of infantry]. The Imperial Guard player
may not use any reserves.
The Tyranid player places his
entire force in reserve. Units that enter play using the outflank rule may
enter from either short board edge, as chosen by the Tyranid player.
The Tyranids take first turn.
Victory Conditions:
The aim for the Imperial player
is to have as much of his force having escaped the battlefield, as possible at
the end of the game. This will allow the greatest chance of warning Imperial
Guard Command of the impending Tyranid threat – but having one squad escape the
battlefield may not be enough, as the route back to the nearest friendly forces
is long and dangerous.
For each unit that exits the
battlefield add points as shown on the following table:
Unit type
Escaped
Company Command Squad
3
Platoon Command Squad
2
Any other unit (including tanks and dedicated
transports)
1
*If the unit escapes the
battlefield while mounted in a Chimera, add an additional 1 point to reflect
their increased speed back home (therefore a Platoon Command Squad that escapes
in a Chimera would score a total of 4 points – 2 for the squad, 1 for the
Chimera and a bonus of 1).
Units that are broken at the end of the game, or exit a table edge
while broken, score nothing.
At the end of the battle add the
total Imperial Guard score and compare it to the total number of Tyranid units
on the battlefield. This table explains who has won the battle and suggested
rules to carry forward to mission 2:
Score difference
Result
Impact on Mission 2
IG win by 10 or more
Significant IG victory
Imperials take first turn, can chose Elite units
and flyers
Level, or IG win by 1-9
Minor IG victory
Imperials
take first turn, can chose Elite units
Tyranid win by 1-4
Minor Tyranid victory
Tyranids take first turn. Imperials cannot chose
flyers
Tyranid win by 5 or more
Significant Tyranid victory
Tyranids take first turn. Imperials cannot choose
Elites or flyers.
Third and final in the series of
Dark vengeance painting tutorials is the Deathwing sergeant, which should
demonstrate how I paint both deathwing armour, green robes and DA power swords.
The format Is a little different this time in that I hope to demonstrate how to
paint a model to tabletop standard first before going for the higher finished standard
that I normally paint to. There are less step-by-step pictures as a result but
it should be apparent from the descriptions and finished pictures how to get
from A to Z.
Armour:
1.Start
with the model basecoated in white spray
primer. If not, paint a layer of ulthuan grey on before painting several
thinned layers of ceramite white over it. (spray advised)
2.Paint
a layer or two of ushabti bone on
the armoured sections.
3.Slightly
thin some seraphim sepia with water
(or preferably lahmian medium) and wash it over the armour sections ensuring
enough reaches into the recesses. (if you are only going for a tabletop finish
then skip steps 4+5 and move on to the next section)
4.When
the wash is dry, mix some ceramite white
50:50 with ushabti bone and edge
highlight the armour.
5.For
sharp edges and corners consider using a little thinned ceramite white to add extra contrast.
Tabletop details:
1.Paint
the fang and fenrisian grey (50:50)
onto the crest feathers.
2.Paint
two layers of caliban green onto the
chest eagle, right leg bas-relief and robe.
3.Paint
the metal areas with leadbelcher
4.Paint
the gun, jewels, lenses and scabbard mephiston
red
5.Paint
the sword abaddon black
6.Paint
the cords and deathwing symbol khorne
red.
7.Paint
the crux terminates with two layers of eshin
grey
8.Paint
the iron halo motif, sword hilt and other detailing balthasar gold.
9.Paint
the feathers behind the iron halo motif ceramite
white
10.Paint
the dagger and sword handle doombull
brown
11.Paint
the purity seal and scrollwork rakarth
flesh
So there you go, eleven easy
steps to take the model from being base coated with armour to being fully
tabletop ready. This should take about 45 mins not including drying times and
just requires some small brushes and patience. The next section is for higher
standard painting and assumes that you have followed the above steps, thus the
base coat for all the colours should have been done and is not included.
Robes:
1.Paint
50:50 caliban green and warpstone glow onto the robes.
2.Paint
the raised areas warpstone glow
3.Wash
with biel-tan green
Green Deathwing iconography:
1.Wash
with nuln oil
2.When
dry, drybrush with caliban green
50:50 with ushabti bone.
Red cord:
1.Wash
with agrax earthshade
2.Highlight
with a light drybrush of khorne red and screamer pink 50:50
Crest feathers:
1.Carefully
paint the individual feathers with fenrisian
grey, leaving the basecoat in the recesses
2.Paint
the edges of the feathers with ceramite
white.
Note, this is tricky and requires
a steady hand, fine brush and patience but is worth it for the result.
Lenses/jewels:
1.Wash
with agrax earthshade
2.Paint
over with mephiston red.
3.Add a small notch to the bottom of the
object with squig orange
4.Paint
a dot of light with ceramite white towards
the top of the object.
Note, this is a brief description
– there are many better jewel painting tutorials out there.
Metal areas:
1.Wash
with nuln oil
2.Drybrush
runefang steel
Feathers
1.Wash
with thinned nuln oil
2.Drybrush
over with ceramite white
Scrolls:
1.Wash
with seraphim sepia
2.Edge
highlight with ushabti bone when dry
3.Add
abaddon black linework for text.
Deathwing company symbol:
1.Wash
agrax earthshade
2.Paint
khorne red
3.Highlight
mephiston red
Gold areas:
1.Wash
agrax earthshade
2.Paint
over auric armour gold
Gun casing:
1.Highlight
squig orange
2.Wash
carroburg crimson
Crux:
1.Wash
agrax earthsahde
2.Drybrush
eshin grey
3.Drybrush
dawnstone
Sword:
This is a complex bit of
paintwork involving wet blending. Start with a mix of abaddon black and xereus
purple 1/3 of the way up the sword and gradually increase the purple ratio
until at 2/3 of the way up it is pure purple. Then, start mixing the purple
with ushabti bone until at the very
top you have about 50:50. Then add even more ushabti bone to the mix and
highlight the edges at the top. Use pure xereus purple to highlight the edge of
the shaft. Then just do a few crackling energy arcs from the base using thinned
ceramite white. I will do a tutorial
on grey knight nemesis weapons in a few weeks which makes things clearer.
So that’s it, the end of the
tutorials. I have enjoyed making them and so may do more again in future – I will
take requests so contact me if there’s something you need help with. Hope they
have been useful and enjoyable.
A bit later than promised through illness, here is the second part of the painting tutorials; this time for the ravenwing. I have chosen to use the sergeant so that I can also add in painting tips for faces and for robes. The order below is the suggested one to paint in. Slightly different format to the previous tutorial but I think this way works better. Enjoy.
White areas:
1.Paint one or two layers of dawnstone onto the feathers and ravenwing symbols.
2.Paint ulthuan
grey atop the dawnstone, but leave the dawnstone visible in the recesses
between feathers. For areas such as the chainsword wing motif you can make life
easier by brushing at 90 degrees to the direction of the feathers to coat the
body of them but leave the recesses. This is hard to do on the banner pole and
bike fairings though so best to take your time.
3.Paint a thin line of ceramite white onto the edges of the white areas as a highlight.
Note, some may prefer to paint
the entire area ceramite white, wash with nuln oil then brush a highlight on. I
personally don’t like the effect as much but it presents less of a challenge
than the above method.
Robes:
1.Mix
a 50:50 of dheneb stone and calthan brown (rakarth flesh and
mournfang brown) and give the robes an even coverage which may require 2 coats.
Note, mournfang brown is not a very good match for calthan brown regardless of
the conversion chart so a slightly darker brown may be needed. Somewhere
between mournfang brown and rhinox hide?
2.Paint
the raised areas dheneb stone.
3.Paint
the recesses with calthan brown.
4.Wash
the whole area with seraphim sepia
to tie the colours together.
Metal areas:
1.Paint
leadbelcher onto the areas such as
the wheel rims, engine, exhaust, chainblade etc.
2.Wash
the areas with nuln oil.
3.Highlight
with runefang steel.
Pouches:
1.Paint
the pouches rhinox hide.
2.Wash
with agrax earthshade
3.Highlight
edges with mournfang brown.
Face:
1.Paint
cadian fleshtone onto the head
2.Wash
the head with reikland fleshshade, ensuring
that the recessed areas have the wash in for definition.
3.Mix
in some kislev flesh to the cadian fleshtone and paint all areas
but the recesses.
4.Add
in more cadian flehtone to the above
mix and highlight the cheekbones and brows.
5.One
last time, add some more cadian
fleshtone (so it’s about 50:50) and highlight the extreme edges.
6.For
the eyes, take a very fine detail brush and put a sliver of ceramite white on the eyes either side,
leaving the wash from earlier for definition.
7.Lastly,
dot a pupil of abbadon black in the
same place on each eye.
Painting faces is really tricky
and requires a lot of practice. Best advice I can give is to take some time
looking at tutorials and the pictures in WD trying to figure out how it’s done
and where to put the highlights. Eyes just require a fine brush and steady
hand.
Purity seals:
1.Paint rakarth
flesh onto the seals – several coats may be needed for a smooth finish.
2.Wash the seals with seraphim sepia.
3.Paint some ushabti
bone on the edges of the seals when the wash dries.
4.With a fine brush, paint lines of abaddon black onto the seals to
resemble lines of text.
5.Paint mephiston
red on the wax areas and highlight with
squig orange before washing them with carroburg
crimson, OR
6.Paint caliban
green on the wax areas and highlight with warpstone glow before washing them with agrax earthshade.
Note, the same
methods can be used for the buttons on the control panel and handles as for the
wax seals.
Red weapons:
1.Paint
the boltguns and chainsword mephiston
red, several layers for a smooth finish.
2.Edge
highlight the areas with squig orange.
3.Wash
with carroburg crimson.
Gold detailing:
1.Paint
balthasar gold onto the areas such
as the skull halo crest on the handlebars, fairing trim and crux symbols.
2.Wash
with agrax earthshade
3.Highlight
with auric armour gold.
Headlight:
1.Paint
the light Yriel yellow.
2.Wash with Seraphim sepia.
3.Add another layer of Yriel yellow.
4.Paint ceramite white highlights on the individual light panes.
Control panel:
1.Paint
the panel sotek green.
2.Mix
some fenrisian grey into the sotek green to highlight the raised
areas.
3.Use
thinned fenrisian grey to paint thin
lines of radar onto the screen.
4.Optionally,
add a few dots of mephiston red for
blips on the screen.
Inside Robes:
1.Paint
khorne red in several layers.
2.Highlight
raised areas with mephiston red.
3.Wash
with agrax earthshade.
Black:
1.Last
but not least the black areas. Tidy up any mistakes from earlier on using abaddon black.
2.Use
dawnstone to apply thin edge highlights
to the bike/armour.
3.Leave
the tyres. Wait until the entire model is finished (and spray varnished if you
choose) and then paint on a layer of ardcoat
to the tyres to make them a different, glossy shade to the armour.
Note, the finished model is shown below as is another model demonstrating an alternative robe colouring using Rakarth flesh, ushabti bone, seraphim sepia and ushabti bone in that order.
