Tag Archives: Warhammer 40K

WiPs! WiPs! WiPs!

Greetifications Upon Ye!

So I haven’t updated this blog in a few weeks but I have been busy. I managed to finish all the models we needed for Adepticon and we went and had a blast. I think I’ll making that an annual event from now on. I may go to the NOVA Open this year but I’ve yet to make up my mind. If I do it will be for the Narrative. I’m done with the GT events.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been picking at lately:

Forgeworld Tomb Stalker

Necron Tomb Stalker


I built this model back in 2012 and never finished it. Now that I’m in the process of rebasing my army (up to 32mm), I’ve pulled it out of cold storage and will be slapping some paint on it. I think it will go really quickly as I’ve incorporated my airbrush into my paint scheme and it’s cut my completion time down by a considerable margin. I have a few things up in the air at the moment but I’ll be finishing this model soon. I just wish the rules for it weren’t so terrible…

Necron Obelisk

Necron Obelisk   Necron Obelisk Base


I’ve wanted one of these for years and the wife gave me the go to buy one a few weeks back and I was cheesing pretty dam hard. It wasn’t too hard to build (80% done), and once things settle down this will get painted. After the stalker I believe. I gave it a 120mm round base in my new Frozen Wasteland theme. It just needs snow to polish it off.

New Frozen Bases

Frozen Wasteland Base   Frozen Wasteland Base   Canoptek Spyder Rebased

Frozen Wasteland Base   Frozen Wasteland Base   Frozen Wasteland Base



I’ve been continuing to create new bases for my units and I cranked out 3 new bases for my Canoptek Spyders. One of them snapped off his base a few weeks back so I can see how the Thokt theme goes with this new style. I kind of like them, but I believe this whole style/theme will come together once the models are done and the army display is designed for it.

I’ve also found the perfect base in which to mount Necron Arks. The oval base that comes with the Imperial Knight is perfect. Here’s my prototype:

Necron Ghost Ark Base



That’s all for now but stay tuned, I’ve got a BIG project lined up! More on that shortly!

New base design – Frozen Wasteland

So I’ve admitted several times that I’m terrible at basing. I just never got the knack for having my bases match my paint schemes in look or design. My techniques just don’t translate to terrain. I have only one style I know how to do well because it’s kind of brainless. Snow.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of rebasing this army to a snow theme and while it would be a little time consuming, it really wouldn’t be hard. Cold soulless robots marching across a frozen lifeless wasteland? Sign me up!

Here’s the style I’m looking at so far:

Snow Base Test   Snow Base Test


Here’s it next to one of my new destoyers. I’ll have the unit finished this week and I’ll post and go over the revision of my paint scheme.

Snow Base Test   Snow Base Test


Shawn G. (Soul)

Necron Ghost Ark

So, last year I promised my friend Mark I’d join his team and go to Adepticon. Mark has been instrumental in keeping my interest in this hobby alive and if it weren’t for his constant badgering, prodding, and teasing, it’s very likely I would have shut down for the duration. I’ll never say this to his face, his head is big enough. XD

Anyway back in 2012,I built and painted a Doomsday Ark. I’m unsure if you are aware, but hat kit is a NIGHTMARE to assemble. It has a mind-numbing amount of parts and I swore I would never build another, but they are so good now. Like scary good. And the Adepticon list we are building calls for 4. Here’s the first:

Ghost Ark   Ghost Ark   Ghost Ark


This thing took hours to build and longer to paint, I’m rusty and I’ve been trying some new things to cut completion time. I opted do not include the ‘crew’for two reasons. Firstly, the 10 mounted warriors are 50+ parts to assemble. 50. Seriosuly. 50+. Second, I didn’t think the paint scheme I designed for my warriors would lend enough visual interest to warrant such suffering in assembly. I was worried I would not like it when it was complete, but I do. I like the ‘openness’ of it.

I built a cool base for it to float over. I used some pine bark for the rocks, but I suck at base design. I’ve never been happy in any base scheme I’ve created save for snow bases. A base redesign may be in order. I’ll try a few things and post my results to get your opinions.

Shawn G. (Soul)

Dark Angel Commission – Ravenwing Template

Ravenwing Attack BikeRavenwing Attack Bike

This bike came out really well. I love the way black looks glossed, but I think this is a little too much. I intended to only place a satin varnish on it and used the gloss accidentally. I’ll touch it up with a 2/1 matt/satin varnish via airbrush here once the original coat is dried (I can still smell it).

Now that I have the template hammered out, I can focus on fine-tuning my method so I can replicate it efficiently. I have 12 bikes, 3 more attack bikes, and a Master of the Ravenwing to do for this phase of the commission.

Shawn G.

Daemons and Resin bases – Why do you hate me so?

Well I’m still trying to pin down what I want to do next. I wanted to do daemons. Not because they are really good ATM, I don’t bandwagon armies. In fact I have a full Tzeentch Daemon horde for fantasy that I could just use in 40K if I wanted to bandwagon. No, I wanted to paint a whole new daemon army using all the new sexy plastics. I even picked up some new resin bases from Dragon Forge to mount them on. Those plans may be dashed…

Daemonic troops, as a whole, have delicate little ankles and pinning them is difficult to say the least. If you are not careful you can end up drilling through the leg or, if using a dremel, melting the plastic from friction. Even if you get them mounted, the ever-present fear of breakages is a serious concern. When the do break, they will break above the pin section leaving the whole leg, ankle and some of the shin still attached to the resin base. So irritating!

While I try to figure out what to do with my commission payment (2000pts of Tzeentch Daemons), I dug up some of my old CSM from my Iron Warrior days and started to kick around the idea of painting CSM again with a new scheme. I have not abandoned the Tzeentch daemos, but the idea of mounting 30+ horrors that I know are going to break and piss me off just seems unwise. If this army takes root, and it looks like it will, I’ll splice the daemons in via allies and still get to paint some of the new stuff.

Dragon Forge Bases

First up, here are the bases I got from Dragon Forge. They are from Jeff’s Desecrated Lands line and they are sexy as hell. I first tried painting them black with a orange glow, but that ended up looking like crap. These are airbrushed using the same colors I used for Dave’s Vet Contemptor (Deathwing colors) and the cracks are filled with Tamiya gore. I’ll post a tutorial on this technique later. I gave the bases a black trim to accentuate the detail.

CSM Template WiPCSM Template WiP

Here’s my template model. This guy kind of painted himself on Saturday. I especially like how the eyes turned out. I’ll have to experiment more with that look. This scheme looks good but needed polish. That’s where the 2nd marine came in.

CSM ChosenCSM ChosenCSM Chosen

This is the same scheme with more bone color and red as a contrast. The red is highlighted strangely (elf flesh) and I love it! Looks good on the base as well. And easy to pin…

I’ll be working on these as well while I work on Dave’s Dark Angel commission; I think the next two will be a sorcerer and a dark apostle.

Shawn G. (SoI)

Dark Angel Commission – Vet Contemptor Dread Done

Vet ContemptorVet ContemptorVet ContemptorVet ContemptorVet Contemptor

The first major component of my Dark Angel commission for Dave is done. Since I had no experience painting DA let alone Deathwing models, I had to turn to the internet for guidance. And I have to say, I like the results.

Moving forward I’ll have to make some modifications to this method to match my visual requirements. I’m not too happy with the results of the oil-washes. I will need some more practice to get it to behave as it should.

Time to hammer out some bikers!

Shawn G. (SoI)

Dreadnought Feeva! – Dark Vengence Hellbrute

I’ve come to the realization that painting dreads is pretty damn fun. Most have just enough detail to be interesting without being excessive.

The new Dark Vengeance starter box is chocked full of amazing chaos models and I’ve been trying to hammer out a scheme. After a failed attempt using whites, I came across this masterpiece – Star Forge Smith’s Hellbrute

That thing is the best Hellbrute I’ve seen so far. It inspired me so much; I had to try to replicate it. This is my take on that brilliant piece:

Chaos HellbruteChaos HellbruteChaos Hellbrute

Back when GW had the terracotta and tanned flesh paints, I developed a flesh tone technique that I’ve grown very fond of. Those 2 colors were some of the best shades GW ever released and I was very disappointed that they were discontinued. Vallejo produces excellent replacements so I’ve been able to develop it further.

All the flesh parts have been glossed to over emphasize the tech/organic nature of the Hellbrute, and gore was used for the exposed spine. I may add more gore to the fist, like from the original work, but that will be later. I’m even sure how to base this monster.

All-in-all, it was fun to work on it. I’ll pick at the other DV models while I work on my commissions.

Shawn G. (SoI)