The Blessed Lady Rises, On Wings Of Fire

Well, wings of skin and bone, but shush, the propaganda's important. I didn't update yesterday as there wasn't really anything to say and I spent the time playing Fortnite with my son. Today, however, not only did I finish the army leader, Katrina De'Arque, but I had a look for the army list, realised I'd lost it, and rewrote it so now I know what's left to add to the whole thing to complete it as a 2,000 point army.

But first!

She was an Inquisitor, once, and now she's much, much more...

She's been gifted wings, and hooves, and armour proof against all but the most powerful weapons

The whole army as it stands is something in the region of 1,500 points or so, but isn't quite legal as the assault squads need Chimeras to drive around in. And when you add those in you get to about 1,750 points, so to round it out I'm going to add a Leman Russ and a unit of "Big Mutants" - essentially close combat Ogryns, except one has a flamer. I might use Ogryns - if I can find any that are less than £35 a pop the old Forgeworld renegade ones would be perfect really. The current plastic Chaos Ogryn from the Kill Team: Blooded set would also be quite good for the purpose as well, and a hell of a lot cheaper to get hold of, too!

Next up on the painting block - not quite sure. Part of me wants to get stuck into my latest Imperial Guard force, the Paradisan LXIX Infantry (based on late 19th century Prussians), but I do have those Royalist Quar and a lot of other stuff to choose from in the pile of opportunity. So I'll have to have a rummage and see what strikes my fancy.

 EDIT:

After I finished this post I went and added the names to all the squad leaders in the army:

The Karaboudjani Imperial Guard regiments' command ranks are: Sub-Commander (lieutenants), Commander (captains), Over-Commander (majors), Senior Over-Commander (lieutenant colonels), High Commander (colonels). The XV Kataphraktoi commander is currently Over-Commander Räder, who was the CO of the regiment's White Battalion originally. He never bothered to give himself a field promotion after the deaths of the higher command staff, because he and the bulk of the rest of the force considers Katrina De'Arque to be, in essence, the regimental High Commander.

Anyway the only other named figure in the army is "Tank-Killer" Tomlan, a rocket launcher operator who was the first of my heavy weapons troopers to actually destroy a tank in a game - if the kill markings I painted on his shoulder armour are correct he has been responsible for destroying a Leman Russ, a Falcon, and no fewer than three Vypers. He may have other kills to his name, but those are the ones I recorded back in the day!

Painting Points: 
Today: 1
This Week: 3
2024: 159 (300!!)

A Slow Start

Despite only having the one figure left to paint for the Lost and the Damned force - that of the army's commander, the Blessed Lady - I haven't been able to do very much on her today. Blocked out some areas, picked out some details, applied some washes... but something about the mini is making me go slowly. Sometimes you get figures like that. Sometimes you get ones that seem to paint themselves, but this is not one!

It's slightly frustrating really because there isn't a lot to do - armour, skin, sword, flaming skulls... that's about it! But it's just a slog. Oh well. She'll be done soon and then I can move on to something else. Maybe those Royalist Quar, or that Casket of Souls that's been staring grimly at me for a while...

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE OF KHORNE!

I finished up the World Eater, which was a bit nerve wracking as I'd got him to a point that I was really pleased with... and then I had to slather various shades of red all over him. It looks great though, so very glad about that!

Before...

...and after!

Shakarr, once of the World Eaters, now a lone renegade who wanders and has found himself in the thrall of the Blessed Lady, leader of the Karaboudjani and her Astartes bodyguard. Ever since that fight on Skalathrax, Shakarr has walked the path of the Blood God, never quite losing himself but inexorably slipping ever closer to the endless rage that will eventually claim him. He retains enough sense of self to be useful beyond sheer uncompromising violence, and is as calm as a near-bezerker can ever be. His armour and axe are possessed, but his strength of will and single-minded focus on retaining himself despite the nails and the blood have stopped either or both of them destroying him thus far.

Right side view prior to the blood-splosion. You can see the squad marking on his pauldron here

Is that screaming face still alive? Who knows. It's 40K, make your own assumptions!

A demon! How unusual

Ghulga infests his armour, Ghorath is the axe. Note that the blood splatter has managed to find itself even on the rear of his boots

So that leaves me with just the Blessed Lady herself to do, before I need to think about procuring vehicles. The Astartes are each embedded in one of the assault squads, and I can't remember if they're in Imperial Guard Rhinos or Chimeras... I'll have to dig out the list I wrote.

The Triumverate, the Blessed Lady's bodyguard and advisors, as well as the combat stiffeners for the Kataphraktoi themselves

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 2
2024: 157 (299)

When Stealth Is No Longer A Requirement

Then you don't need your camouflage and can run about in shiny metallic turquoise powered armour with a minor daemonic entity living in it!

The armour really works - it looks a lot like the art which is good. The bolt pistol's eyes are looking forwards which is nice (who needs to aim when the gun can do it) and the green markings really pop against the blue of the plate. I haven't thought of a name for the demon infesting Alpharius' armour though (but I am tempted by Orcus).

So after finishing Alpharius up I made a start on blocking out the rest of the details of the World Eater:

Astartes from 8th Tactical Squad, unknown Company, unknown Chapter, Legiones Astartes World Eaters.

I need to touch up the brass edging and work out a nice contrasting colour for the loincloth. The end state is planned to be a nicely done World Eater (with a Bloodthirster in the armour!) absolutely covered in Blood For The Blood God and various other paints to have a nice build up of dried and wet blood...

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 1
2024: 156 (298)

I Am Alpharius

I slept on it and decided to repaint the second Word Bearer as an Alpha Legionnaire, called (what else) Alpharius. I haven't done very much today, just a little bit of work on the armour of the World Eater and trying out a fun new method for the Alpha Legionnaire. I painted all the red armour panels in Stormhost Silver and then washed it with a mix of Biel-Tan Green and Contrast Asurmen Blue to make a funky sort of metallic blue-green. I'm in two minds as to whether or not to paint some green scales on some parts of the armour, or just to do some Alpha Legion iconography on the blank right shoulder pad. After all, the Legion icon would go on the left, but... there's a daemonic head on that pad.

There's debate as to where the Alpha Legion stand in the 41st Millenium, but this Legionnaire certainly looks like a full on agent of the Ruinous Powers. On the other hand, this is the Alpha Legion, and everything they say is a lie of some kind... just what this particular Marine is doing in the retinue of the Blessed Lady, who can say. Perhaps not even the Marine themselves!

The Kataphraktoi March Again

Well, I ended up not going to Siege of Tarris for family reasons, but I did manage to use today to paint the last few human troopers for my Karaboudjani XV Kataphraktoi Lost and the Damned army:

Autocannon heavy weapon team - unlike the original Kataphraktoi heavy weapons, this has been camouflaged rather than remaining in a polished bare metal like the lasrifles

Chaos star markings on the shoulder armour of the gunner, but not on the number two

Specialists - vox-operator, meltagunner, sergeant, and sniper

Note the winged skull that survives on the water bottle of the meltagunner

Troopers - the one on the far left is a heavy bolter team number two, while the one next to him wears a classic Rogue Trader Imperial Army helmet in the original 1980s scheme for an Imperial Army Tactical Squad trooper

A variety of uniform elements unified by the leather webbing and reflec-coated armour

Then I went and put the remnants of the XV Kataphraktoi Regiment on parade:

Front to back: Regimental Command staff with Regimental Standard, Colonel in the centre front with plumed headgear; three assault "platoons"; five infantry "platoons". Note the missile launcher tube at rear right in its original bare metal

The survivors and replacements of the XV Regiment number a paltry 88, which is not even enough for a single infantry company at full strength (three platoons of 35 plus a command element that includes a mortar squad and anti-tank squad for a total of 122 personnel before any additional attached staff such as psykers) but they have nowhere else to go and nothing to lose

So now all that remains for this little force - apart from acquiring and painting the various armoured vehicles the list requires - is the "command and advisory" staff...

Geryon Chalcid, Word Bearer commander and life ward of the ex-Inquisitor (seen with wings directly behind Chalcid) whose personal army the XV have become, and two other Astartes who advise and provide stiffening to the renegades. Also some mysterious cloaked Marine in black armour...

I'm not convinced about the Word Bearer - my original idea was to paint him up in the original white and blue and then absolutely soak him in blood effects, but I think now I either make all three Word Bearers or I repaint the second Word Bearer as another, different, Legionnaire - I'm just not sure which one. Alpha Legion might be a good shout, or possibly a Night Lord? I shall ruminate on this while I paint the semi-demonic ex-Inquisitor and Cypher.

Painting Points:
Today: 12
This Week: 40
2024: 155 (297)

Retrospective V (2017)

Back in the dim and distant past of oh god almighty seven years ago what I started documenting what I was painting (and working on) over on the Book of Faces; turning that place into a blog of sorts. I suppose most social media is a variation on the web log concept, really. Anyway, this weekend I'm off to freeze to death in a hut at an airsoft site while engaging in a 40K LARP - Guardsmen: The Siege of Tarris. I'll be playing an Imperial Preacher, Katyna Nurhayne, attached to the 404th Arcadian Infantry Regiment. It should be a ton of fun, but it does mean my ability to get any painting and modelling done will be somewhat stymied by not being anywhere near my stuff. So it's Retrospective Time!

A bunch of Night Goblins - cackling green maniacs all tripping on psychedelics

Then I finished off a squad of Catachan Devils that I'd started in 2016

(Here's the whole squad - shotguns, flamers, and a melta. I ended up selling these at some point)

Nik-Nak the snotling, part of my Gorkamorka Rebel Grot warband

Mortar (metal!) for the Grand Army of Wissenland; one of the gun crew is a Southlander and the master gunner wears both Wissenland and Nuln colours

The Gargoyle (Bloodthirster, really) from HeroQuest - I painted a friend's set for her, but only managed to get this one done in 2017

The last 10 Flagellants for my big block of 30 in the Grand Army. These were fun to paint with a very limited palette

I have a plan for a Savage Orc and Forest Goblin army and this remains the only model I have for it...

Tauroxes - the leftmost two were the ones I painted in 2017. The wheels are a now-oop conversion kit from Victoria Miniatures; they have been replaced with a much better version

I have a very slowly growing Dark Eldar army - well, I actually have all the models for it, I just need to sit down and paint the damn thing at some point - and this is the first Incubi I did for it

I have a small number of 54mm Inquisitor models, and this one is a conversion of the Eisenhorn mini. It uses the bolt pistol from Inquisitor Covenant, the head of Slick Devlan and the right hand from Inquisitor Scarn

A converted plastic Lord Commissar for my Imperial Guard army. The head is a Statuesque Miniatures one with the cap from the original plastic mini

Dreadnought II, 2nd (Battle) Company, Adeptus Astartes Righteous Fists

Archon's Court minis - a counts-as Ur-Ghul (left) and a captured Iyanden Warlock who's been subjected to a horrifying transformation...

I bought the set that had Cawl, Celestine and Greyfax when it released and immediately converted Greyfax to this puritan Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor. Part of the conversion was making her high heels into flat boots! The pistol is an old Khorne Bezerker one, the helm is from a Tempestus Scion crew piece from the Taurox kit, and the back banner is from the WFB Empire range

Also released in 2017 was the resin version of John Blanche's iconic 2nd Edition Codex: Sisters of Battle art. I immediately repurposed her into a Mistress of Repentance for my Order of the Pure Blood, using a spare flail from the Flagellants set

Landspeeder Storm to transport one of my Righteous Fists' Scout Squads

Motorbike mounted Scout squad, with crash helmets made from Cadian spare parts. I wasn't going to have Scouts driving around without helmets - any crash would be much more likely to kill them otherwise!

The Geminae Superior who accompany Celestine. They have since been repainted from Order of the Pure Blood to Order of the Argent Shroud

Celestine! She hasn't been repainted at all, although I might give her Argent Shroud plate (or gold)... I did rebase her though

Mk 2b Land Raider to carry my Righteous Fists Terminator squad - I deliberately picked this version because the very first Righteous Fist army was an Epic 40,000 one which used these Land Raiders

Scatter terrain (I think from TT Scenics) with the addition of a random mini I had to make the bronze statue. The fountain has clearly been drained at some point...

Some SF fast food!

Simple detailing painted simply - works well for pretty much any SF setting honestly

I had a bunch of Termagants for some reason and painted them as Hive Fleet Kraken. These ended up going to my son

Belisarius Cawl - one of the very few miniatures I've painted in seperate parts before assembly!

Apart from three of these Repentia, the Rhino and the other six Repentia were painted in 2017 (as, of course, was the Mistress)

I picked up a Start Collecting: Deathwatch and painted them all up. The Dreadnought has lots of "stained glass" which was fun to do, even if my tiny detailed freehand skills are not as good as some peoples'

And then I got to put them in the window of my local GW!

Random Palmyrene Spear Intercessor (now rebadged as a Raptor)

Hellblasters, one with a Mk VII helmet - all now rebadged as Raptors

 

Intercessor Sergeant, now a Raptor. Head from Statuesque Miniatures

Deathwatch Librarian (a Dark Angel). Converted from a plastic Librarian with some Deathwatch parts

Some of Heresy Miniatures' Andy Foster's excellent not-Delaque, painted very deliberately with Spider Jerusalem glasses

 

Ganger with lasgun

Leader with chainsword and pistol

Ganger with autogun

 

Rogue Trader (I think) Eldar Harlequin, a birthday present from CH - the chequerboard was a nightmare but looks great

 

What's fancier than white armour and a golden gun?

 

For Christmas 2016 I'd been given essentially a complete set of all the original metal Van Saar figures, and so it was time to paint them up - these are the Gangers

Leader and Heavy

Juves

Some names

More names

Converted (sacrilege!) alternate Leader, to make a second Heavy

Really sadly I ended up having to sell these, which I do regret a lot - but I needed to pay bills and eat!

And that was it! All the stuff I painted in 2017. See you all on Sunday after the madness of Siege of Tarris!

Painting Points:
2017: 177