This week in Space Marines...

 ...another white 'bawks.'

Apparently I can't make a caption today without it being a link to....something. Yet another 'improvement' brought to you by the new Blogger interface. I could leave them feedback, but that has as much  positive effect as going out into my backyard and screaming into the wind...

I didn't torture myself enough with the first one so I thought I'd give it another go. Well, that and I figured that I'd do a second before I rightly changed my mind. Also, why have one woolly bear when you can have two, right?

Not too fond of the Centurion's golden face plate, I may go back and repaint that in silver. 

I've also been working on a pair of Astral Claws, a Havoc aspiring champion and a Legion Centurion (Lieutenant/Exalted Champion). Both are still very much a WIP. One of the beauties of the Astral Claws as they fought on both sides (loyalist and traitor) whilst having the same appearance. So they can be used as either/or. I have another as yet unpainted (at all) devastator sergeant to take the spot of the above aspiring champion when using them as loyalists. 

Not sure as to which squad this guy will be leading given that neither of the two I which already have are in need of a sergeant. 

Also, whilst digging for parts to 'cleanse' the above Rhino of it's former Black Templars iconography (have at it Zzzzz), I collected enough bitz to piece together another Incandescent Coyotes character of some sort. That chest plate is far too decorated to be a mere bolter grunt. Perhaps I'll make him an Lt., and promote my acting Lt. from last weekend's game to Captain. I'll likely swap that chainsword for something better if I opt for that. Edit: Yeah I think I'll swap that chainsword arm for a powerfist and some sort of backpack ornamentation to serve as a Lt.

The Incandescent Coyotes' Razorback is complete!

 o/

Whew, finally!

The following is a recap of this tank's rebuild and repaint stages taken from all of the prior WIP posts. That'll save y'all from having to wade thru them all to see the entire process from start-to-finish for yourselves. Enjoy! 

It started out as one of the two Black Templar Rhinos on the right. 

The 'cleansing' of Templar iconography was the first, crucial step.

Ready for priming.

My first ever white primed tank. 

Ack! At this point progress stopped for a good while as I contemplated my next move to correct this...mess.

Preparations were them made for another round of priming.

Better.

The commencement of detailing and touch ups.

Round 2 of applying decals (and in the TV infomercial voice) now with cat hair! Round 1 was the short lived, rage inducing episode that immediately followed the Shas'ui primer incident. I applied 10 decals with no issue, possibly assisted by the dulcet tone of Zzzz's voice whilst chatting on the phone. 

Once the decals were dry, it was resealed and then dunked in a mud puddle slathered in the sand weathering wash with a smidge of mud wash mixed in. 

Another view of the above. 

After sitting for about 24 hours, I blended in the dried wash with a paint brush, removing the excess and smoothing out the transitions.  

Screech, having recently been deployed to the Mojave desert for a few weeks gave this level of dust the thumbs up, forestalling any further layers of washing and blending. Thus it was sealed and declared almost complete pending the addition of exhaust staining.   

The markings on the tactical arrow denote this vehicle as belonging to the First Claw (squad). Whilst the icon on the front quarter panel is obviously a company marking, just which company isn't readily apparent to anyone outside of the chapter. 

The topside/aerial view markings are in danger of being totally obscured by the combination of exhaust soot and accumulated desert dust.  

Rear quarter view.

lastly to wrap things up, I have here the First Claw and their attendant transport. The tank itself has no visibly marked name, though Neverness dubbed it the 'woolly bear' in a prior post. An amusing name that I fear may eventually stick... 

So there ya have it, a Black Templars Rhino reconsecrated (or desecrated depending on your point of view) as an Incandescent Coyotes Razorback! Not sure if I'll tackle the prospect of adding anymore vehicles to the Coyotes' TO&E again, though now that I'm happy with the end result I might...

Distractions aplenty...

o/

In amidst the work on the last three Incandescent Coyotes I was distracted many a time which slowed progress considerably. Be it waiting for an ink, or the contrast paint, or a weathering wash to dry, or simply 'I don't fucking want to today' my hobby area is as littered with distraction as much as my mind is prone to looking for it. As such, here are a few of the other things I was dabbling with during that little project.

First up, my Razorback: 

A few scars still remain from the removal of the original iconography.

Okay so yeah, I've already posted about this previously. Now however it has been cleansed of its Black Templar heritage and is now ready for priming. I took these pics prior to that as primed white models photograph so well...

Originally it was to have a twin-heavy bolter, but I grabbed the wrong drill bit (apparently) and broke/wrecked one of the gun barrels when drilling it out. So a twin-lascannon it is! I guess this will function as a tank destroyer as much as it will an AFV.

Next up, the scout snipers:

Yes, it seems that the Incandescent Coyotes will be cursed with this unit...

More commonly known as the Bane of MY existence due not to the damage they've ever inflicted on my armies, but rather the almost complete lack of damage they've inflicted on other forces whilst in my armies. Seriously, Ever since the debacle of my old Aurora Chapter 10th company army, scout snipers just seem to materialize around here and my dumbass keeps working on them for some stupid reason. They still need to have battlefield debris added to the non-sculpted bases before they get primed. Bleh.

...and then there are the Silver Drakes:

Raptors we are not.

I ordered an easy-build Intercessor 3-pack and got 'em built and primed to hide the Smurfy shade of their bare plastic. Originally I was going to just fill out my lone Intercessor squad, but instead i think i'll just split that instead into two 5-man squads. Telling one squad from the other was going to be an issue as I've dispensed with the squad number decals (being both annoying to apply and practically illegible once the minis are done), and instead have opted for their bolt rifles having scopes in one squad, and none in the other. Easy peasy.

Of course technically those scopes change them into stalker bolt rifles. So were these to actually make it into a game, then I might even consider using them as such since my Drakes lack any heavy weaponry. Currently however, they're all just plain ol' bolt rifles to me.

Finally, let's not forget the Children of Torment:

Obviously still a work-in-progress...

Jesus, never has an army been so aptly named! These fuckers have so much frickin' detail on them that they're a nightmare to work on!! 'Chaos' by definition does not equal conformity, so this guy's trim is in leadbelcher rather than gold. Hell, I have several metallic colors, so this army will one day be painted in a rainbow of colors (assuming I don't rage-quit the project).

So there you have it, my version of short attention span theater. The razorback has since been primed a snowy white and it...or one rather (maybe?) one of the above will get worked on next. Who knows, could be something else entirely.

The first combat squad is completed!

o/

And so a new chapter starts to coalesce...

Indeed my Incandescent Coyotes need to bolster their numbers quickly as they've already roused the ire of the Black Templars. Luckily that particular crusade is waging war in another segmentum, with the vast gulf of the Atlantic space between the two chapters.

I just clear coated and left these as is...though I'm keen to see how much of this layer of rust wash will show thru from under a layer of sand.

First up I had another go with the rust wash that I added to the track links on the meltagunner's base. I really slathered it on and whilst it's a bit more subtle in normal light, under the camera's flash it looks fantastic!

Whoa! That was one hellova sand storm! 

Above the sand wash is dry but not yet blended. Good coverage again after a minimal dry brushing of Vallejo light Ivory. I see a few spots that it looks like I missed when applying the wash (the tail was not washed intentionally), but I've found that it all ought to work out fine during the blending process.

Following this I then painted the bases and hit 'em with a quick matte coat in hopes that when I apply the agrellan earth you won't see the white and orange poking thru the cracks this time (not that the inking won't cover that up). In hindsight, there will be yet another varnish layer as I went ahead and added the sand wash too, and once blended that will come off to the touch unless it is also sealed. 

The latest completed three.

I'm pretty pleased with how these are turning out just a few models in from the initial disasters. I especially like the weathered look of their armor. 

At that point, It was just a little bit of dry brushing on the agrellan and tail, a few final touchups, a final matte varnish coat and they're done!

Can't really see the rust thru the sand, so not sure if I'll do one atop
the other again as its largely unnecessary. 

The same goes for the Iron Warriors' helm, the sand wash
obliterated the rust layer beneath.

The finished Combat Squad. 

Another, slightly different angle showing off the chapter icon and
the sergeant's coyote tail.

My next post will feature the myriad distractions that were 'also in-progress' whilst I was working on these three. Because ya know...short attention span and all that.

Digging thru the ol' bitz box...

o/

I took a bit of a break from painting to do a bit of destruction disassembly of the vehicle complement that came in the horde that was given to me by Kushial: three Rhinos and a Landraider Redeemer. The redeemer and two of the rhinos are festooned with Black Templar iconography and that stuff just needs to go! I had briefly entertained fielding a small BT force but then had flashbacks of my old, horridly monochromatic Iron Hands army and nixed the idea.  

The central rhino is what you see in pieces above.

It seems that I don't have any plain doors for the Redeemer which pushes it to the back of the line. I do however have quite a few parts for the rhinos and I set about dismantling and rebuilding those instead. Digging thru my still, somewhat vast array of bitz, I found enough weaponry to expand from one to two rhinos with stormbolters, whilst the third will be a razorback with either a twin-heavy bolter or lascannon (not sure which yet).

I picked up some dirt cheap spellcrow replacement rhino doors as well as a rhino front plate aways back. The doors are resin with molded tactical arrows which look rather nice. Wheres the front plate looks a bit more armored than that of the stock rhino version. As such I'll probably use it on whichever Rhino turns into a Razorback. 

Basing bitz, from left-to-right: An Iron Warriors helm, probably from my 3rd ed army (replacing the awkward looking Eldar bit that was there previously), a discarded Coyote helm (recently slathered in orange contrast paint) and combat knife, and lastly a few spare track links. 

Of course any digging in the ol' bitz box for one thing invariably turns up other cool stuff as well. Lots of basing bitz, as well as enough spares to salvage a half dozen scout snipers out of Kushial's horde that needed some help (ugh, scout snipers: the bane of my existence!).

That tail color is what the gryph-hound contrast paint, followed by a light sepia wash looks like over bare plastic. It's not bad really. 

I also found three Space Wolves' wolf tails to use as coyote tails, as per Siph's suggestion. Having so few they'll be limited to squad sergeants and my Lt. Fun Fact: my first ever space marine army way back in 2nd ed was the Space Wolves. I had a 2nd, small Space wolves army since that one probably in 4th ed or thereabouts. SInce then however I've bought none making their bitz few and far between as they so often end up on the bases of my other armies if for no other reason than to taunt Screech and Neverness' armies. 

Anyways I hope to maybe finish up these three marines this week. Hopefully I'll get some white primer and then I'll be able to add a transport or two to their ranks as well. 

Rearming the Troops (Literally)

o/

Yes I know havoc champions can't use signums, but they look cool and besides, did the Astral Claws' signums really cease functioning just because they started shooting at their brethren?

In and amongst the slow crawl of progress that is my painting queue, I've been repositioning several of the characters that I got from Kushial. Mostly this is just a straight replacement/swap of the arms and weapons, but occasionally the head as well. Whereas in the case of the captain there in the center, he is an amalgamation of several minis along with some bits poached from my meagre collection of spares. 

A little battlefield debris has been added also (mostly skulls). Indeed, the last four bolter grunts needed to complete my first Astral Claws tac. squad received basing skulls/bitz as well, however as they're now primed black they don't photograph worth a shit. 

Clearly  enough for two armies...

One thing of note: the two Forgeworld Apothecaries are REALLY cool minis that I've always wanted! That being said, I'm using the Chaos codex for the Astral Claws meaning they have no place in the army. As such those two as well as that captain with be siphoned off with some other extras that didn't fit in with the claws for a second small Black Templars army. 

Come on...you didn't really think I'd paint all of these in the same colors did you?