Armageddon Steel Legion Stormtroopers

A few photos to share today of the Stormtrooper squad I recently finished. I've never really been a fan of when they became "Scions" in later editions, and for Steel Legion, I always think of Stormtroopers like they used to be. The original metal models they made are long out of print, and although I hope to get hold of some one day,  I'm rather happy with this unit.

These guys are actually 3D prints. I'm not much into 3D printing and don't have the equipment myself, so I can't comment on how or why these came out so nicely - I just picked what I wanted, stuck them together and painted them. I really like the old style masks though. Design wise, they take quite a lot in terms of heads and guns from the old metals, but the armour is quite different and falls somewhere between the older models and the more recent Scions. 

I tried to emulate the older scheme which was quite heavy on the yellow - in the end, I had to pick out the trousers with black though as too much yellow didn't really seem to be working! Either way, it's pretty much a reversal of my original Steel Legion scheme where the yellow of the jackets is used for the armour and other colours remain pretty much unchanged. I used some additional Scion parts for the build and the arms of the sergeant and vox trooper are both just the Scion plastic bits. 

I've been working on a lot of other units recently, so may post some more if I find the time. I've been away for so long, there's probably more painted models in my collection now that should have been posted to the blog years ago than I ever got around to posting in the first place! 

 

Dark Elf Army - 500 Point Showcase

(Above) Lizardmen burst from the jungle to repel a marauding dark elf force

Continuing with me fantasy theme, here's another small army that I've been working on recently. Unlike the other projects, the dark elf force uses mostly modern models although I have been using a metal executioner champion as the general. I'm working on some cold one knights and a mounted general to go with them for when I next expand the force. 

The army is shown below as it stands so far:

I found it really hard to find good painted examples of dark elves on the internet. Nobody seemed to be doing what I was thinking, and to be honest, I got the impression from looking around that they weren't that popular and got rather shafted in the switch to Age of Sigmar. That said, the Daughters of Khaine range is rather nice.

Probably the stand-out parts of the scheme are the metallic red armour which was achieved with Vallejo Mecha Red. The other thing that's a bit different is the dark blue skin tone. I've always liked drow and thought it might be interesting to do something similar with my dark elves. I didn't want to go pure black with the skin as it wouldn't have combined as well with the other colours I had envisaged for the scheme. As often happens these days, I had a look through my paints and found a pot of Kantor Blue which looked perfect as a base colour for the job. 

As with my other armies, I've been preparing these for 5th Edition. I did play against Dark Elves a few times back then, but I never really knew anything about their background. I got hold of an old Armies book, and I've been enjoying reading about them and especially their seafaring background. There was also this whole bit about a big underground sea that I'd never heard of that I thought was very cool. It's also funny how they didn't seem to pull their punches in terms of what was deemed acceptable back then. There's whole passages in that book basically describing how the dark elves like nothing better than taking as meany slaves as they can, tearing out their still beating hearts, eating their flesh and then stripping off and getting busy amongst their bloody remains. It's a little weird that most of them are now "Cities of Sigmar" armies.

In keeping with their seafaring background here's a sea sickness-inducing tilt shot... 

Repeater crossbows (above) are pretty cool weapons too. I did a bit of conversion with a few of the poses as they come posed to lock into ranks and don't aim by default. I also did a little sculpting and added an eyepatch to their leader for the pirate factor - "argghhh!" 

Also, a repeater bolt thrower was definitely necessary. Despite playing fantasy for many years in my youth, it's actually my first ever war machine! I played Lizardmen and Vampire Counts back in the day so never had access to a cannon or anything of that type. Alongside the modern plastics, I've been gathering a few metal 6th edition models for the force and this Bolt Thrower is one of them. It's a cool design and is by far my favourite both thrower model for fantasy. 

 Well, that's about it on this army for now. I do have a lot more models to add and have started on their dragon for Monster March. I don't really need a dragon as there's no way to even fit it into a force until you hit about 2000 points, but the models is just really cool and I couldn't resist! To be honest, I bought way too much stuff for them, but what do you do with yourself when you basically haven't left home for a whole year?

Dark Eldar Wracks (Drukhari) Painted

After my latest Steel Legion push, I knew it was time to shift gears to something less batch-tastic, and a bit more artistic. While searching through the cupboard of doom and having a bit of a clearout, I came across my half-finished Dark Eldar project and thought it was high time to get some of them done. Long-term readers may remember the "week of evil" a few years ago where I started them, but somewhere in the mists of time and the first ever Squaduary, progress halted; only to be resumed in the last week or so.

I said when I first started working on the Wracks that they were probably one of the best plastic kits ever made. A few years haven't changed my opinions there - the details are really crisp and they're a kit that basically has no bad parts and plenty of spares too. I enjoyed finishing the last 3 from the unit too, as I got to actually paint to a higher standard than I do for most armies, which feels both fulfilling and somewhat annoying all at once. It's nice to get something you're really proud of, but at the same time, I get frustrated by how long they take!

The funny thing is that I've almost painted them too well, as I can't actually capture the colours and effects on them very well with my camera. The red is actually highly reflective and there's a lot more depth to the skin tones, but the crappy phone camera can't really keep up.

I've been working on more Dark Eldar units too, but I haven't been able to take pictures of the other unit I've finished yet. Still, at some point the blog will be updated. I've pledged to work on a Talos for Dreadtober too.

Steel Legion Infantry Squad 2

Another infantry squad completed. I actually finished this one a few months ago, but as the blog is behind, and as basic squads aren't that exciting, they've been a bit delayed. In the army, I have 4 fully painted squads of basic infantry, 2 with just lasguns, and another 2 fitted with special and heavy weapons. This one has an Autocannon and Plasma Gun - a pretty time honoured armament. 

But wait, that's not a Krieg weapon team I hear you cry (insert deafening sounds of silence and images of slowly rolling tumbleweed here....). I'm too cheap for that, so this one was built out of an old leftover Cadian heavy weapon team. The sitting legs were spare Anvil parts I had. I think the arms for the guy with the binoculars were part of a tank commander. The other conversion in the squad is their sergeant.

Speaking of tank commanders, he uses bits from a plastic tank commander; either from a Baneblade or Hellhound kit - I'm not sure. Anyway, that's where I got his arms and head from. 

I could probably have taken better pictures of these guys, but it's what I've got, so it'll do. I think there are some better photos of my other squad, so look at those if you want to see them clearer!

And that's pretty much it for Steel Legion for now. I've started work on some other stuff though, so stay tuned for that. Dreadtober is on the horizon too, so I'll be plugging on with that soon enough.

Steel Legion Command Squads

More Steel Legion again. This time, I'm presenting my two command squads. Together with the sniper squad I showed last week, these guys make up the elite section of the force (well other than the Scions and probably veterans at some point!). The picture above shows the army commander Kastoph Greede (some longer term blog-viewers might remember him from my battle report a year or so ago). At that point, I hadn't finished his squad, but here they are with him:

They're really a classic set up - a banner, vox, medic and one special weapons guy with a grenade launcher. They're pretty stock, but the medic does use a few Anvil Industry bits.

I quite like the red cross on the medic and the little freehand numbers etc.

I did say command squads, and that's because I made a second one for my other commander. This time a full flamer team - sort of as a counter-assault unit, but also just for fun. In time, they'll have their own Centaur to ride around in, but for the moment, they'll have to lump it on foot.

Steel Legion Sniper Squad

I've been hard at work again on a plethora of new units for my Steel Legion army - in fact, it got to the point where I had units just lining up to be photographed for the blog, so I though I'd better get started.

This sniper team is a command squad consisting of 4 guys with sniper rifles, although with a slight adjustment, they could be a special weapons squad. They were quite a simple conversion too - just Kreig bodies with Anvil Industry arms, cloaks and guns added. The guy laying down firing his rifle was a lot more complicated though, as I had to convert a standing body, and reposition his arms around a plastic scout sniper rifle. Unlike the others, his cloak is entirely greenstuff as his pose was too far from what the resin ones were designed for. In fact, his pose was so wild that I replaced most of his right arm with a piece of wire and re-sculped over it to make things fit. It worked in the end though - and I love it when a plan comes together! (I might have been watching the A-Team lately too...)

Painting-wise, this is just my standard Steel Legion scheme. I batched these guys with 13 other models, so it was a bit of a busy one, but I made it to the end. The only thing that was a bit out of the ordinary for me was the camo cloaks. I sort of based the design on some of the recent marines from Shadowspear, and I'm quite happy with how the patterning came out. Camo is always one of those things that I'm a bit hesitant to do as it can look terrible if painted sloppily (which is generally my preferred style!). Getting these right did take a bit of time, but it was worth it as it's quite key to making them stand out.

With any luck, there'll be plenty more Steel Legion posts on the way, as I have a lot of units. It might even be tomorrow if I can get things written up!

A view of the cloaks

Saint Celestine, Sisters of Battle Painted

Well, here's a project I started in January 2017. Nothing like finally blowing the dust off of a miniature and getting it off of the "to do" list.

I'm not sure what inspired me to work on my Sisters of Battle, I think it might be the news that GW are working on the plastic miniatures. That and all of the Inquisitor Martyr that I've been playing has left me with a hankering to work on something Inquisitorial.

Handily, I was also looking for a new project to experiment on with some paints that I picked up at Salute this year. One of the stands was selling old Vallejo paints really cheap (I think they were old stock or something that had been gathering dust in storage). I picked up a few, but I held back because I wasn't sure if they would have survived. I was a bit cavalier about what I got as well, as I just bought them because they were cheap. Anyway, one of the colours I got was Transparent Red, which as it turns out is rather vibrant and nice to use. I also used some Vallejo Emerald which is a really nice saturated green that I used as a base for the power weapons and things.

Overall, I think that they're some of my favourite models I've painted this year. There's something about them that really captures my own personal style; from the strong contrasting colours to the mix of both non-metallic and metallic techniques. Even the weathering on the robes and the bases are some of my trademark bits, but I don't usually get the chance to do it all on one place.



As far as the paint scheme is concerned, I wanted to try a few different things. For the red armour, I actually based the models in purple and then highlighted it in purple and white before adding a coat of the Transparent Red, which gave the armour a sort of plumb kind of look that I was going for. It was fun to add the high contrast shine to it too, and I mirrored that reflectiveness almost everywhere; from the yellow to the black and even a little bit on the hair.

Playing with that Emerald paint, I also had the opportunity to try to develop my wet blending skill a bit more. I used this to get the blend on the power weapons. In the past this has been something that I've struggled with a bit as it isn't exactly my forte. I think I finally get wet blending though, and I actually got good results with the technique. The thing seems to be - basecoat the whole area and let it dry. Basecoat again and then highlight in the direction you want; blending a bit as you go, but still adding a few mixes of more white or whatever. Then, this is the part I never got -  go back with a dry brush (too much water will just remove the paint you've added, and blur all the transitions; pulling towards the brightest point. You just have to clean and dry the brush between all of the transitions and work fast enough that it doesn't dry completely. A bit hard to explain, but that dry step really makes a lot of difference and allows you to smooth things without taking the paint off.

Anyway, that about does it for now. Check back later for more updates.

Steel Legion Infantry Squad Finished

I just finished this squad for my fledgling Steel Legion force. I've been playing with the camera again too to get some dramatic and dynamic photos. I've also taken some stock shots on a black background so you can get a clearer look at them. The black seems to make the yellow of the jackets look a bit too strong. I did want them to be a bit more vibrant than usual though so they would stand out on the battlefield.

This has been quite a fast scheme to paint, and I estimate that they've taken me about an hour each. I've tried to keep the scheme fast because I'll need to paint a lot of models to get to the end of the army, and it is a force that I'm intending to use for games, so speed was an important consideration.

I remember the Third War for Armageddon Campaign that was fought in White Dwarf and all the battle reports from the time, as well as the global campaign that was fought. It has directly led to this project, as it gave me a real love for Steel Legion and there's just something awesome about how nostalgic it all feels. I've used Death Korps models, as they are a bigger range and nicer than the older (and now a little dated) Steel Legion models, but I still want to keep as much of the original feel as possible. For this reason, I'm planning to use a lot of the older units on the field, and plenty of things that were in Epic, and I have the same nostalgic feeling about. For that reason, I've started working on a Basilisk and a Colossus to back these boys up.

I also painted up a unit from Anvil Industry's Regiments range for them; giving me a total of 20 painted Infantry and the Deathstrike. Not a bad start, but I'll need at least 40 men to really get them going, and I need to finish some other vehicles as the Deathstrike is a bit lacklustre rules-wise at the moment, so it'll need some backup to get the job done!

I actually painted these 10 men in the space of a single weekend, so here's hoping I can keep up this level of enthusiasm.