Monday, May 30, 2011

Saturday, May 28, 2011

The Dreadknight


My oldest son got me a suprise early Father's Day gift: The Grey Knight Dreadknight box kit! Score! I'll probably start putting this together in the near future and of course will share the experience and the painting photos as I go.

My Work Area


Messy and unorganized at the moment, but works for light work. I am planning on making some adjustments to this area, to include wall mounted shelves for paint and figurines and the obvious accessories like a work/cutting mat.



A little shelf I am using for now to hold and display paint. My wife has some ideas for a shelf that will hold these and more to come. I'm a lucky man!


I have two lamps on the desk. The right one has holders in it that I use for brushes and this one on the left acts as a great display base for my current project.

This can be considered the "before" pictures and hopefully before long I'll have the "after" pictures to show off.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Awesome Dreadknight Paint Work


In the same vein as my last post, here is a video highlighting someones Grey Knight Dreadknight. Very cool looking and again, jealous of the person's skill. Who knows, one day?



Stay tuned for an update on my very own grey Knights paint work! Coming soon...

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Awesome Death Company Paint Work


I was looking through some video tutorials on painting Blood Angel Death Company and came across the following video. THIS is some awesome work and something I'd aspire to get good enough - or close enough would work too!



Incredible work. Plan on buying either a Grey Knight Dreadknight or Stormraven (for my Grey Knights) and a squad of Death Company next time I purchase some 40K figurines. This has me hooked on how rich and detailed you can truly make a Death Company look like. Great stuff!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

WIP: Grey Knight Terminators/Paladins


I'm very, very new to painting miniatures. I've only painted about 5 previous to these ones and only 1 was a Space Marine (painted like a Grey Knight). These are photos of my first box of Terminators and the various points they are done to - which means none of them are complete yet.


The photo above is my "most done" figurine, with the weapon and small details yet to be finished, will probably only take another couple of painting sessions to complete.




I'm pretty thrilled with how some of the details on this one is coming along. The skull on the knee pad and the gold lettering on this Grey Knight Paladin have gone very well IMO.


That's it for now! I'll post some more photos when they are complete and by then perhaps some pics of the Purifier Squad my wife and I are working on as well. Until later!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Grey Knights vs Blood Angels


It is a good thing that I have a new job that pays so well. See, I'm having a moment of crisis. Do I go with the bright shiny new Grey Knights or the Blood Angels? Both are superb armies, but with a definite and different feel to each of them. The Grey Knights are pretty much a short range shooty army with some serious melee abilities and counter-charge. The Blood Angels on the other hand bring a lot of hurt to the melee aspect of the game and has some serious firepower to back it up with.

My decision? Going to go for both! It means that I'll have to stick with casual games for a bit longer and proxy each army as I build both, but in the end I'll have 2 distinct armies built and painted and since I look at armies as stocks - diversify, it means in the end I'll be able to field a couple different GK and BA army lists. In the meantime, it looks like I will need more paint. Darn! :p

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Painting Grey Knights


Just a fuzzy photo of my Grey Knight Paladin squad. I'm currently painting this squad - my first ever and it is in various stages, none of which are complete. Having never painted miniatures except a couple of practice ones before this, I'm proud of how they are looking actually. For the most part, I'm on the highlighting of the armor (except 1, which still needs Mithril Chain added - it's the darker one on the right) in both Mithril Silver for armor edges and dry-brushing, and for the lettering, Burnished Gold.

I still have a lot to do, including the purity seals, tabbards, books, weapons and banner. Half the fun has just been watching these slowly coming together. Defiantly an exercise in patience, but I am sure worth it in the end. Still trying to figure out what my ultimate list will be. I keep playing around with Purifier lists and Henchmen lists. Not 100% happy with either, but I have plenty of time as I still have a lot more Grey Knights to assemble and paint.

Until later!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Blood Angels Omnibus


I finished reading James Swallow’s Blood Angels Omnibus last night and was astounded by what I had read. I am a fan of Space Opera and it usually fits into 1 of 3 categories: Good, Bad, Ok. The Blood Angels Omnibus (2 novels and a back story short story) created a new category that has previously not existed in my mind: Great.
“The road to hell is paved with Good Intentions” has always struck a chord with me. In my own personal life, there have been many a thing that I have done with the best of intentions and thought were “good”, only to have horrendous consequences. This story focuses on that type of good intentions and while we are aware almost from the outset that this can not end well, I found myself drawn so into the story that I found myself at times thinking that, no the best can come out of this. In a way it does, but in the aftermath of tragedy, both on a personal and on a community level.

The story is of two brothers related by birth, who are also brothers in arms of a Space Marine chapter called the Blood Angels. Though the word is ever only used once in the entirety of the series, they are Vampires. The entire chapter. Colliding with this mythos, is the fact that these Blood Angels are mankind’s protectors in the far off future and the greatest of them, the Primarch (long dead) is in essence, an angel. Thus the whole Blood Angels name. One brother becomes Sanguinus reborn, while the other remains true to his heritage, the Blood Angels. In the end amongst demons, traitors, lies and deceit, paved in good intentions, the Blood Angels splinter amongst themselves and the brothers Akiro and Raven find themselves locked in not only personal mortal combat with each other, but the hopes and dreams of the future for the Blood Angels.

James Swallow has done an excellent job in creating an epic Space Opera, that I totally fell in love with. The like, which I have not read before and hope that I can find again.

** reposted from my Exploring Uncertainty blog.


Friday, May 6, 2011

Going Grey Knights


For the longest time, I expected that I would go with Blood Angels and dabble in Space Marines on occassion. Indeed, I probably still will in the future, as I really like the Blood Angels lore and since most of the models can be used as Space Marines as well... just makes sense to me.

However, to get started, I decided to go with the Grey Knights. I like their look, elite units, the Dreadknight, etc. So my first army will be Grey Knights. Still finalizing the Army list I will use and I have started painting a Paladin squad and putting together a Purifier squad. Still a ways to go but will keep you updated on the blog here.