An Open Mind Is Like A Fortress With Its Gates Unbarred

With that charmingly cheerful title out the way (it's all these Black Templars that I've been painting, I tells you!) I have come to share a blog post that is full of Extremely Useful Information, from a fascinating and particularly joyous blog, the Realm of Chaos 80s by Orlygg.

I have lots of Space Marines to paint strip. My preferred strip medium, Fairy Power Spray, was watered down and rendered useless last year, so I turned to the internet, and now, thanks to Orlygg, I know that what I need is DETTOL. Specifically, antiseptic brown Dettol.

I'll ask my artist partner Sarah to get me some next time she's in town.

Now, it's back to the painting table - I want to see if I can get the Emperor's Champion finished today. Imperator Dei Vult!

PS: The Imperium's Thought For The Day is probably my very favourite thing about the 40K universe.

Black Templars - ATTACK!

Well, I was going to post some Tau, but then I spent the day painting Black Templars, so instead...

Castellan al-Rahman, Amalthean Crusade, Black Templars Chapter

Initiates, Crusader Squad Barabas, Amalthean Crusade, Black Templars Chapter. Maltese Crosses are an absolute pain to freehand. Also of note is that the senior Initiate has parts in him from 1st edition (RTB01 powerfist), 2nd Edition (Cypher's left arm and a Valhallan bolt pistol), 3rd Edition (body and upper right arm), 4/5th Edition (legs, right shoulder pad, and head) and 6/7th Edition (back banner).

Next up is the Emperor's Champion and some more Initiates. I then need to paintstrip 9 Assault Marines and and 10 metal Scouts. Anyone got any advice for a replacement chemical instead of Fairy Power Spray? I hear good things about Dettol, but I don't know what type of Dettol...

Also, if anyone fancies giving away a NiB Land Raider Crusader, do please let me know.

And finally...

Retrospective Day 6 - More Varingr (and more Black Templars)!

I have another squad of Varingr, this time armed with boltguns, a heavy stubber, and a grenade launcher, to provide a bit of mid-range fire support for the rest of the auxiliaries. I really really like the grenadier, which is a fantastic example of Kev White's sculpting genius.

Excuse the glare, I couldn't be bothered to open the display case...!

And in terms of new stuff, I got home from work, wrote some poems, and then finished my Black Templars' Sword Brethren Assault Terminator squad:

I like the way the freehand Maltese crosses turned out; they're a right pain in the bum to paint. Next up is going to be the Castellan, then the Emperor's Champion, before I start doing the basic Initiates.

Retrospective Day 5 - Varingr Mercenary Infantry... (and some Black Templars!)

Many moons ago, the good folk of Warseer.com decided to revitalise the concept of the Squats - basically, space dwarves - and this gave rise to the Varingr. The Varingr, it was argued, was the name that the Squats had for themselves, and that they were not all destroyed by the Tyranids. For one thing, there would have been many Varingr in the wider Imperium, and many more on board mining ships, transport vessels, and so on and so forth. So what was their place now? With their wider society wrecked by monstrous alien super-predators, Orks, and other opportunistic raiders and aliens, not to mention the ultra-xenophobic Imperium of Humanity, what would the survivors do? Well, the most likely option is that some would carry on working for the IoH, and most would become nomadic traders and mercenaries.

I liked this idea, of nomad miner-mercenaries, trading and fighting across the galaxy, and so I came up with some rules for them which can be found in this thread here and then... did nothing.

That was in 2009.

So, six years later, I finally got off my bum, and did something about it - et voila:

A squad of Varingr mercenaries carrying bolt carbines, supported by a flamer, in Tau service! Figures from the inimitable Kev White of Hasslefree Miniatures.

Oh, and just to prove I have in fact been painting other things...

Black Templars! AMEN AND ATTACK!

Retrospective Day 4 - Tau Human Auxiliaries

Over the last couple of days I have been working on some Black Templars. You'll see them soon enough, but for now I want to show you a squad of renegade Imperial troopers who started out as a Chaos-aligned Imperial Guard Veteran Squad Kill Team waaaaay back in the dawn of 4th Edition, and then moved on to become a Traitor Guard Veteran Squad, before finally actually getting re-equipped and painted up as Tau Gue'vesa'la (lit. human helpers).

The squad originally carried three plasma guns and the sergeant type had a boltgun. Nowadays he totes a standard issue Tau pulse rifle, and the squad has swapped its plasma guns for more rifles and a grenade launcher, because frankly I think the grenade launcher is a brilliant weapon oft-overlooked. I like the way they turned out - a grizzled bunch of survivors and pragmatists, mixed in with a couple of idealists, and all of them fighting for the Tau because the Tau, for all their faults, are slightly better at hearts and minds than the Imperium.

Which is, of course, heresy.

Retrospective Day 3 - Tau Firewarrior Squad

Missed a day - I got all caught up in assembling my second IKEA 'Detolf' display cabinet and putting toy soldiers into it (my Tau, and the painted bits of my Iron Warriors, Necromunda and Inquisitor stuff, and my Warhammer Empire army).

Anyway, here's the first of my Tau army's troops choices - a simple squad of 12 Firewarriors with pulse rifles, led by a Shas'ui with bonding knife.

I do eventually want a second squad of these chaps, along with a nice big fat squad of Kroot with all the trimmings (Shaper, Krootox, Kroot hounds, all that palava). The general theme for my Tau is that it's a defence/garrison force from a Third Sphere expansion world, so there's a lot of auxiliaries - humans, squats (Varingr), Vespid, kroot - to bulk out the Tau presence.

Retrospective Day 2 - Tau Stealth Team

I quite like these little fellows in their drab all-over-brown stealth field. I've seen lots of these painted up as though they're in the middle of turning their fields on or off, but I thought I'd just do them in a flat brown to mimic the desert they're standing on (and in).

Nothing special really - two burst cannons and a fusion blaster with markerlight and hardwired multi-tracker. I decided against putting any markings on them because, frankly, the Tau are advanced enough to have automatic IFF systems and such details on HUDs.

In other news, apart from an Emperor's Champion, I have enough figures in my bits box to make a 1,500 point Black Templars force to support my Sisters of Battle... so that's what I'm working on at the moment.

Tau Army - HQ - Retrospective Day 1

I thought, seeing as I have just finished the XV-88 'Broadsides', that I may as well start my retrospective look at 2015 with the rest of my Tau.

So here's the HQ; a Shas'O and his two XV-8 Shas'Ui bodyguards (and his drones: a shield drone and a marker drone).

The camouflage is Zandri Dust with Graveyard Earth and (I think) Waaaagh Flesh, details in red and green with gloss varnish. The paint scheme is nice and simple and easy to do, if a bit time-consuming.

I will, I think, eventually add an Ethereal with Firewarrior bodyguard, just because it'd be rude not to I suppose. Tomorrow I'll show you the Stealth Team.

Further Proof of Life

I painted myself a Tau army last year.

Yes, a whole army. Well, a good core force anyway, for 4th/5th Edition 40K. I didn't, however, have any of the XV-88 'Broadside' battlesuits...

...until now:

Bask in their awesome firepower! Pray that their notoriously weak ankles don't snap, forcing me to pin them!

(And, yes, that is Arch-Confessor Kyrinov behind the Sister of Battle on the right.)

Painting Points: God knows anymore. I'll call these chaps 6 points? Or something.

It Liiiives!

Igor - quickly - the electricity! To maximum power!

Ahhh! YES! Yeeeessss! It liiiives!!

*ahem*

So it's been a while, eh?

Well. Sorry about that. Life got a bit strange. I'm doing better now. And I haven't been idle. Since I last wrote on here I have finished a Sisters of Battle army, almost completed my Imperial Guard army, and done a load of other stuff.

Which I'm going to showcase over the next few weeks, a unit a day, starting tomorrow. Just thought I'd build the expectation really. I know, I know, I'm evil. Mwahahahahaa and all that.

Here, have some links to keep you going!

The Molgravian Gazette - my 18th Century Imagi-Nations Project
Patrick MacLeod Cullen - my poetry corner

And a music video that I really like:



I listened to that one a lot when I was painting my Sisters of Battle.