More Salamanders Painting

More progress over the weekend just gone. The squad is all up to the same stage now and is basically awaiting some final detailing (e.g., finishing off the eye lenses, adding writing to the oaths of the moment), weathering (need to make some parts look a bit more worn in addition to the battle damage already painted on), base painting (its currently blandly undercoated, but aiming to make it gritty). Hence only a bit more effort to go on this squad and it'll be done.

Salamanders Squad Painting Progress

Some painting progress on my Shattered Legions Salamanders squad today. I've done the undercoat, the base coat (using contrast paints) and a number of other details, as illustrated in the images below. 

After the base layers had been applied, I was concerned that the shading that used the contrast paints wasn't exaggerated sufficiently for my tastes. These marines are, after all, Istvaan 5 survivors on the Urgall Depression. Therefore I turned to the old favourite: Nuln Oil. A good soaking in the oil has resulted in a much dirtier, and worn look for this layer and I'm pleased with the results thus far. Obviously there's still a long way to go with the edge highlighting yet to be done, and the details on the shoulder pads - including the flame iconography - to deal with. These will be in the next few steps. Good progress so far though!

Shattered Legions: Salamanders Tactical Squad Assembled

Given the Coronavirus, I've been tremendously busy with working from home recently. However, after the video conferences and telephone calls have ended, I have managed to squeeze in some hobby time here and there. Thus, I have been making progress on my Shattered Legions project.

Today is a component of that project: a 10 man Salamanders Legion tactical squad fully assembled and ready for priming and painting!

Each of the models is a bit of a kit bash. Some have components from Forge World, plastic bits and bobs from various marks of armour, and even chaos space marines. The reason for having such a diverse set of armour marks within a single squad is straight forward: this group of marines are Istvaan survivors. They have cobbled together what parts they could and re-purposed anything that they could find to fix and append what they already had. They are being hunted down across the wastelands and black sandy remains of the Urgall Depression. Yet they live, where many thousands of others have perished.

The back left marine shows one that is already painted up -- my initial experiment with the Salamanders Legion paint scheme that I'm going to be keeping and replicating (with embellishments) on the rest of the squad.

Hope that you're all fit and well folks. Keep safe in these unusual times.

The Lion: Revealed

I've been following the news of the previews that are coming on from Games Workshop, and naturally, I'm thrilled to see a Primarch in there! Before today, I had thought that the Khan would be next since he already has rules and lots of players want to use him. Hence I was a little surprised that the Lion was the next Primarch to be released.

Regardless of the order of release, this miniature is fabulous and everything that I hoped it would be. He has dynamism, a great paint job in the preview, the pose is spot on, and his features align with what I envisioned the Lion to look like.

That said, the one concern I had with the paint scheme was that it makes him look like he has 6 digits on his left hand(!) Take a closer look at the image above that I screen shotted from the preview video and you'll see what I mean.

The base of the Lion features opposing Night Lords, all being apparently hacked down by the Lion as he rampages through their ranks in a knightly manner. Naturally, this reflects the Thramas campaign which will be one of the major foci of the new big black book when it comes along. I think the diorama is apt and one of the better bases for the Primarchs (certainly better than some of the blander ones that we've seen). I hope it isn't limited edition like Sanguinius was -- I still feel like that was a mistake to say the least.

I'm now looking forward to seeing what his rules might be. I'm not anticipating him being in the same league as Alpharius or Guilliman as a force multiplier, nor will he be like Russ or Angron in close combat. Somewhere in between, but I hesitate to speculate just what his special rules will be as there are several ways in which this could go.

Looking forward to seeing this released eventually (modulo the pandemic in the real world).

Death of Hope

The past few weeks have been very stressful, and peculiar, due to the global pandemic we are presently enduring. Although I'm fit and well at present, I have been rushed off my feet - hence the lack of posts here.

However, recently, I did stumble across the "Death of Hope" first episode from Mark Louis Spark which I gave a watch.

I honestly didn't quite know what to expect. Although I'd seen the trailers, I don't think I was quite braced for how confronting some of the scenes were. If this video were to be released in the cinemas, I suspect that not only would it readily be given an "R" rating (i.e. Restricted), but I would wager that some scenes might have to be curtailed. Yes: it is at that kind of level.

The plot features the 30k shadow crusade wars between the Ultramarines and the Word Bearers plus World Eaters. The plot is a bit confusing at first since there is a lot of stolen armour being worn. But -- it has to be said -- the armour textures are second to none. I will go as far to say that they are the best I've ever seen animated in fact. Once viewers have got past the stolen armour plot line, it all makes a lot more sense.

The horror component really got under my skin though. There's a scene where a (dead) baby has been melded to its Mother's hands. It is gross. There's another bit where a bisected Ultramarine, bereft of one eye and two eyelids, lips, and most of a cheek, is hung by hooks to the wall and tries to free himself to help his brothers. This was also a yuck moment. Whilst I get that chaos and the traitor legions are evil, and would do this kind of thing, it still is quite full on and a bit more than grim dark. I think there might have been ways to make this a 12 certificate rather than R personally. But I get that people like it. For me though, it was horrifying.

That said, I personally thought the skin textures were of lower quality than the armour.

Highlights were many though. We've talked about the armour being all kinds of awesome. But there's also the appearance of a Saturnine Terminator, a bloodletter, Elder crewman, and more. There's plenty in here to be delighted with for any 30k fan.

I'm looking forward to the second instalment, but not so much the horror component that I'm sure will be integrated there!

Ten Days of Raven Guard: 10

And finally we have the last space marine for the Raven Guard squad!

This particular marine is going to be the squad leader and he has been armed accordingly. Now, I really didn't want to go with a power fist here, and although I briefly contemplated a single claw for him, I eventually opted for a power sword. I wanted to depict a marine who has survived Istvaan 5, and is no longer the person who he used to be. Thrust in to an unwanted leadership position, the narrative behind him is that he picked up some armaments from the traitors as he pushed through their ranks, exacting bloody revenge for his former legion. I was a bit hesitant on the headdress for the marine, but what the heck. Maybe he was given it from a dying squad mate? At least, that's part of the narrative once again.