Attention to Detail - Eye Catcher or Aneurysm waiting to happen?

Hi all,

today I thought i would talk about something that has been going through my mind ever since I started the hobby, something I'm sure a lot of you have thought about at 1 time or another. Its something that plagues many a painter and even a converter, and can lead to many head aches and hours of frustration.

What I'm talking about is details.

How much is too much?
Will it detract from the overall appearance of the miniature?
Will it adequately portray what i intended to achieve?

There are many ways of putting the question down to the masses, but simply its a matter of 'Where do you draw the line'. When do all the finer details take away from the miniature as a whole, and leave you looking at a mosaic that will give you an aneurysm if you look at it for more than 2 minutes.

Cool Mini or Not is an excellent site for showing both sides of this debate, where we can see how many of us either don't know when to stop or when to keep at it. The ability to leave a comment and a score on someones work on the site is a great way of getting positive and constructive feedback. The downside being its also a means of others bagging the hell out of beginners.

Personally I am still struggling to find that balance between too much and not enough, more so struggling to get out of the not enough area of things, without going into the cartoon painting style that seems to rule the competition painting seen.

This leads to another debate, NMM (non-metal metal), the 'art' of making an object look metallic or reflective through use of many many layers of blending slightly lighter/darker colours together to give the effect of light source and/reflection.

Is NMM the way to go with metals, or does this technique fuel the fire for the cartoon styled painting technique?

How do you determine what is too much or too little?
Do you believe NMM is the direction we should head towards?
Am i the only 1 out there who dislikes the cartoon style approach?

A Step Forward

Hey all,
its been way too long since my last post and I do apologise, life tends to get in the way of some good hobby work, more so in the way of blogging about it.
Unfortunately I have no pictures as yet to put up, they are all still on my girlfriends camera, but I do have updates none the less.

First off, thanks to the input from The GunGrave, the font on my blog will no longer hurt your eyes. See, chaotic symbols hurt your eyes at first, but once you give in, everything will be O.K! :)

The next piece of news is on the 25th i turned 25, and despite me telling her not to do anything, my girlfriend baked me a cake, which to my surprise she had decorated to match the basing of my Bloodpact army. She even went to the extent of taking molds from some of my works in progress to make chocolate terrain out of! I will be posting pics of this as soon as i get them.

Now into the hobby side of things. As it stands, I have a lot underway and no much to show for it in terms of completed items.

A few months back i had finished my Baneblade (and forgot to post about it completely), and entered it in a tank painting competition being held in honor of the spear head expansion release. I am very happy to say I took the win for that 1, and walked away with a GW spray gun and a propellant can.
As it stands i am yet to use it, preferring to use my Anest Iwata LPH-80 spray gun or Iwata eclipse HP-CS airbrush with my Iwata Studio Series mini compressor (I will be discussing these items in a future post) for any mass painting jobs.
Until i get some pictures up, all i can say to describe this beast is that it looks the part of a traitor tank, not a tank that was built for the service of the true gods.

Yet another vehicle, my truck transport has been finished, and is atm in GW Southland for the boxing day conversion competition, of which the name eludes me atm. This is also done up to look like a scavenged/traitor vehicle, covered in rust and gore, with a well worn paint job.

Whats on my desk being worked on atm is a whole other, much larger, kettle of fish entirely.

Harker and his boys are nearly done, I have but to convert/assemble 3 snipers for his squad, then start/finish off painting the squad and they are ready to lay down good cover fire. With the squad having 2 heavy bolters and 3 sniper rifles that shouldn't be hard to do.

My 2nd vet squad, heavily armoured in there carapace armour is coming along well. I have finished converting the remaining shotties for the squad, and assembled all the bodies. Now all that remains is to attach the shotties to the bodies, convert another melta and another squads worth of heads, then its all onto the painting table. ive painted up the main parts on 3 completed models already, and I must say im very pleased with how they will turn out.

The Primaris Psyker i believe will be the only model in the army that is not converted in 1 way or another, other than bringing it over from 1 GW gaming system to another. I wont give away any details on this project, you will have to wait to see this 1.

Sooo many troops! As it stands i have 3 basic troop squads under way, as well as a heavy weapons squad, platoon command, and some of the company command squads additional members... So I have about 40 foot slogers on the go atm.

The Rough Riders i have done very little to atm, as these boys will take a lot of prior planning of the bases prior to assembly, so i get the look just right. The inspiration for these miniatures came to me from reading Dan Abnetts "Traitor General" a few years back, and the images are still vivid in my mind.

Back into the vehicles, I am half way through the first of my Urdeshi produced AT-70 Reavers. Being faster, lighter armoured and lower tech versions of Leman Russ Battle Tanks, they are heavily converted, and loosely based on images of the WWII German Panzer IV. Seeing as these tanks were produced by the captured Urdesh Forgeworld, these tanks will be in full Bloodpact livery.

The Locust fighter (counts as a Valkyrie) has not progressed further than being chromed atm. I hit a mental block with this 1, so am taking some time away before coming back to it with a fresh mind. In terms of basing, rather than a huge styrene ball painted as a rock, i have begun the construction of a open portal. Made to look like fire hovering in mid-air, with daemonic faves and arms reaching and leering out of it. I am also sculpting a Bloodpact trooper walking out through the flames, to make it clear its a portal.


Well i think that about wraps it up. All projects are accounted for outside of terrain (which i will leave for another day, my hands are tired from all this typing, editing, etc etc...), and anything else i have missed can wait for the next post.

Til then :)

Paint and You

When it comes down to it, it doesnt matter how good a painter you are if the materials you are working with wont co-operate with you, you wont be happy with the final piece.
In my time i have read many blogs on the topics of 'how to blend' and 'paint smoothly' and all those such topics, and so thought id do my own based on my own experiences.

So to begin with lets take a step back from the painting step, and delve into the preparation of the material you will be applying to your pre-cleaned/treated and assembled miniature.
For many people starting out with miniatures of the Games Workshop range, and even some veterans out there, they will be using Citadel paints. As most have or will find out, Citadel paints as a whole (Foundation paints being a prime example) and very binder-heavy, so the paint is very thick and has little flow to it "NOTE: this DOES NOT mean that the paint has good coverage/pigmentation". Using these paints straight out of the pot and onto your miniature is highly unrecommended for many reasons that i really dont need to go into, just dont do it. Prior to using any citadel paints, i will use this:

- FLOW MEDIUM - one of the best things you can go out and purchase for yourself for a good few solid reasons:
1. Longevity - adding this stuff to your paint, as well as making it easier to paint with, actually increases the shelf life of your paint.
2. Flow - as the name suggests, this product aids in the ability to evenly spread the paint out on the miniature, with the benefit of keeping coverage AND it also prevents the paint from beading up on you.
3. Cost - lets face it, paints in general are expensive, maybe not individually, but over time they add up. Using this product reduces the amount of paint i use each time i paint my miniatures, so while i did have to fork out for the product in the first place (roughly the same cost as 4 pots of Citadel paint), it increases the amount of workable paint i have by almost double.

When i first started out using this product i would top up the remaining space of a new pot of paint til it was almost completely full, close the top and give it a good shake for a minute or 2 to mix it, and then the paint is set for use.
After experimentation with the product and various colours, i have found that, depending on the opacity of the colour, you can pretty much add equal amount Flow Medium to paint, and get the same coverage. As I said though, this is colour specific, so some experimentation on your own part will give you the amount you need to add. Also for this reason, as well as for convenience, I have begun to transfer all my paints to dropper bottles, as this helps reduce waste and helps increase shelf life of the paint itself.

Now my paints are ready to use, its time to start painting!

When it comes to painting, even with the use of the Flow Medium i still will thin down my paints on a pallet prior to painting. And the way i go about it is using this:


- WINDEX - another of the 'tools of the trade' I personally recommend to up and coming painters, as well as some veterans out there too.
Now i know a lot of you will be thinking to yourself "wtf is this guy thinking" and i assure you, when I first heard about this i was of much the same opinion "that guys whacked out or something", but believe me, its a great material to add to your shelf for the following reasons:
1. unlike water, Windex dries quickly and thus helps the paint to do so, but not so quick as to affect what your working with on the pallet, so you can get more miniatures done in a shorter period of time.
2. when water is mixed with the paint, even after using fluid medium, it does affect how the paint will flow onto the miniature, resulting in poor coverage and/or visible brush strokes.
3. the layers of paint you put on become very thin, but will still have the same amount of coverage, so your using less paint again, also saving you money.

Im not sure about the range of Windex products out there, so i stick to using "Windex Glass Original", and i use it like so:
First off, instead of placing a cup of water in front of myself, I have a cup with an amount of Windex relevant to the amount of cleaning i will need to do, 2 if i am doing metallic colours. I also place a small shot glass size amount of Windex in front of myself also, for use of application.
Once I am ready to paint I will dip my brush into the Windex (either glass at this point) to moisten it ready for use, but I wont remove the excess from the bristles, and i then gently massage the tip of the brush into the colour I intend to paint. Once done with that colour, I rinse well in the larger "cleaning glass", dry it off, then dip into the "application glass" ready for the next colour.

When using paints with added Flow Medium in conjunction with windex, you will find your paint will flow out evenly across the painted surface, and dry quickly leaving a surface thats brush stroke free. You can also mix paints with added Fluid Medium with some Windex at a ratio of 1:1 for use in an airbrush, but keep in mind when using an airbrush to build up the paint coverage, not to go all out in 1 hit. You dont want to get runs or build up on your miniature.

Well, thats my tutorial on using Fluid Medium and Windex to increase productivity with your painting, as well as keeping that lil extra cash in your pocket. If I havent covered anything in enough detail, or even if you have a better way of doing this, please let me know.

CHARGE!

 Finally managed to get some pics up of my finished squad, along with the display base i made to go with them for my 40k squad entry into this years Australian Golden Daemon.
The competition closed and first round judged 2 weeks ago (thats how slow i am), and these guys made it through!
I dont know how golden daemon works in other countries, but here we enter at store level, winners then get judged at a state level, winners of that go to nationals where 1st 2nd 3rd winners and the slayer sword winner is judged. This saturday (3 away including today) is the state level judging, so fingers crossed!
So without any further delay i present my first completed squad, and a few of my favorites within it.
Please feel free to comment constructively and ask any relevant questions :)

Squad Sarge with his over-sized chain sword

Squad comms guy




The 2 shovel wielders

Review of Ronin Miniatures "Horus"

Today i recieved 1 of the highly sought after Ronin Miniatures "Horus" figures,
number 99/200 to be precise (according to the packaging anyway...),
so i figured i should probably give a review on it.

First off its easy to see the size of the model in comparrison to 1 of the current standard terminator models... Horus stands a good head and a bit higher than the terminator,
so already the scale of the miniature is pretty much correct to the art books.

After having a dry run at assembly and looking the miniature over,
the miniature is clearly designed for easy assembly,
as each piece is obvious to place and the positioning is clear through the good use of locator pins and corresponding holes on the pieces (something i must admit i find lacking in GWs miniatures, they generally require more work to assemble than should be needed),
and as for mold lines.... there pretty much arent any!
This has got to be the cleanest molding of a miniature outside of plastics,
especially for an underground company.
Very well made indeed.

The miniature is covered in all the finer details pictured too,
with next to no obstructions,
so painting up all the details will be a breeze,
and will make for a stunning finished product i must say.

The scenic resin base it comes with is unfortunately too big for a 40mm base,
but the right size for a 50mm base,
so unless used without the resin base,
or given his own "house-rules" for use in Apocalypse,
it would be best to use him to represent a daemon prince,
or just do it up for a good display/collectors piece and not much more...

The only issue i have with the miniature from an aesthetic point of view is the shoulder guards...
Like a pre-heresy terminator the miniature has the rolled-out looking shoulder guard on its left shoulder,
but on the right it has a standard post-heresy terminator shoulder guard...
Its not really a major concern,
except for those who have a lil OCD in them....

Its a very well done model,
and definately worth the money spent on it if you can find 1 online,
or any of the other Ronin Miniatures primarchs.

Latest Purchase

So i was cruising the forums, and every so often i would come across the mention of the elusive and shockingly expensive unofficial primarch miniatures that have been slowly making there way around the world, and thought i would take a crack at finding 1.

Low and behold, the 1 i stumble across is 1 of the few i like of the primachs, and what a stunning miniature it is, let alone once its painted up as pictured here (not by my hand, mine is still in the post currently).

The Warmaster Horus is rather a fitting center piece for a mid-heresy themed Black Legion army, with, should i find them, Fulgrim Mortarion and Angron with a squad or 2 from there corresponding legions to go along with him.

A rather good find i must say, now i just have to get my skills up to scratch so i can paint him to a standard worthy of a Warmaster!

Distracted Again...

Been a while since had a chance to post, and i still am lacking time, so i will make this brief and to the point.
Currently on my work bench is:

Being assembled/converted to bloodpact
- Hardened Vet squad in carapace armour
- AT-70 Reaver (leman russ conversion)
- Harkers Devils squad
- Another troop transport truck
- Heavy weapons team of autocannons

Being Painted
- 1st basic squad of Bloodpact
- Locust Interceptor (valkyrie conversion)
- 1st troop transport truck
- Harker

A side project being done is also a Dark Mechanicum based 'Lord of Change'. If this conversion wins the competition im entering it in, i will gain free entry into this years Australian Golden Daemon, which would be very appealing.
The down side is i still have to complete about 5 of my 7 entries, but hey, just means more of a challenge! :D

Pics will be up as soon as i can arrange it.

Well, back to the grind stone...

BUGS!

Thought id leave my Bloodpact on the sideline for a post, mainly due to the fact i havent gotten around to taking pics of the newer developements, and a lack of MYO grotesk mask pics :S

Today i have decided to post a start-to-finish on my converted lictors, mainly focusing on the 1 that required the most amount of work.

As many Australians will remember (im not sure if the US guys got to see what im refering to), a few years back when the Laius Rift campaign was running, in the White Dwarf 3 part mini campaign, Laurie Goodridge was building a small 'nyd force, and converting it along the way. In those articles related to the campaign he showed a very basic shot of his lictors prior to paint and assembly, as well as a small bit on where he cut to reposition his lictors.

I followed a similar path as Laurie had done, changing along the wait to suit my needs. Where as Laurie had based his conversions around a 'tunnel rats' style force, with all the lictors crouched down as if crawling through tunnels, my force has been based around swamp terrain, where there is more room to move, but no completely stable surface to purch on. So while my lictor is still crouched over, it is still standing rather that crawling on its hands and needs.

When it came to positioning of the arms, i looked to my learnings from when i did Shinjitsu. I based the lictors scythe arms around the dual wielding of the short swords we learnt to use, ninjato i believe they were called (im sorry if i spelt that wrong sensai!). 1 of the stances had 1 sword in a guard position near head hight with the other held down either still in or out and next to the sheath, both swords being held blade facing down if you held your arms infront of you thumbs up. This is also a common pose used in pictures depicting ninjas with 2 swords, referance can be made to Azumi 1 and 2, Ruroni Kenshin (samurai x), and other such films and series...

The claw arms have been positioned in a ready to strike stance, with the arm thats drawn back being on the same side as the trailing foot, giving the impression the beast is about to lunge out from the right side of its body.The whole body has been angled to give that effect a solid foundation.

To tie the tyranids and theme together i painted the carapace in a dark shade of blue which shows as near black under lack of lighting, to better portray the sinister death from the shadows feeling that is given in there fluff. I also used metalic and pearl paints in painting the carapace, to emphasis the chamelionic ability of the creatures.
The main bulk of the body is done in multiple layers of green, each being lighter than the previous, but all layering done wet, with a final wash of blue to the body while the paint is still wet. this helped the paint to blend in together as well as mottle in some areas, also emphasising the chamelionic ability of lictors.

CnC are welcome as are any questions.

A Bloody Short Blog

This blog is going to be short and sweet, as i woke up not that long ago and its already 2pm!!!
Have so much to do it isnt funny, so this is just simple basics, mainly due to 5pic max post it seems :S

First up is my commisar and vet sarge for my current WIP Bloodpact squad.

As you can see, instead of a simple grotesque mask i have given him a full face hood, something which will be used to pic out all my commisars, along with the possibility of giving them storm coats (opinions on that are most wanted).
To represent the khornate side of the army, he is carrying an extended khorne beserker axe. considering the size in comparrison to the model, i think it represents his power weapon perfectly.

Here we have my vet sarge.

I swaped his standard chain sword with a khornate 1 from the beserker sprues also. As this is also oversized, in the games where i give him a power weapon it wont need to be hacked up and changed, a sword that big should be a far compromise.
As with all my standard troopers, he has the standard grotesque mask (i will do a blog on how i make these soon).
All the Bloodpact have every single imperial logo carved off there armour and weapons.
To further define the pact from normal guardsmen i have sliced off all the protrutions from there helmets to leave them with the bowel style helmet as described in the books. it also helps to show off the mask as the head is less busy this way.

I will have more infantry up within the coming days, so to finish off today are some more WIP of the locust fighter (aka valkyrie)

I was originally goin to go with the 'giant rock/crystal warp portal' idea, but after seein it on the base... its crap. At least in the way i have done it. Either i will just create a warp rift/reality tear to hover above the base, or perhaps a tunnel entrance on the ground.
Either way theres alot more to do to satisfy me in that regard...


Here we have a view of the first armament i have assembled and magnatized for the fighter.
At first i thought the rocket pods would be too big, but after seeing it all put together, it just makes it look more threatening.
Also you can see how i have used 2 of the rather old hunter killer tubes to create my air intakes for the engine.

Off topic, 1 thing i have noticed many times is people assembling that tube and placing it on the vehicle backwards... The flap portion of the assembly is actually the front, not the rear. If you look at modern SAM and SSM batteries, that flap opens when the missile is primed after the target has been painted. The hole end of the assembly is at the rear so the jet wash from the missile has somewhere to go, as the missile itself is resting on a mount on the otherside of that hole. (I think i will post up some pictures of this)

And here we have the tail view of the locust.
On either side near the rear of the fuselage i have place 1 of the vents from the same hunter killer missile tubes. These are go go with the fact i have left the jets on the wings. While those jets would help this baby take off/land and do very sharp bank turns, these rear side jets would turn the jet while hovering.
A lil too much though, but hey, we all love our hobby dont we :)

That is for another post, next post will cover more of the WIP infantry squad, including WIP autocannons heavy weapons squad if time permits.

Delays, delays, delays

Since my last post i have been very busy,
both in and out of work hrs...
I have many new photos taken thanks to the help of my partner with her camera and laptop.
Unfortunately i have yet to get the pictures off her laptop to post here.

So far i have completed the assembly/conversion of the following:
- 1 full squad of Bloodpact troopers, complete with masks, consisting of:
-Commisar with bolt pistol and power weapon
-Vet Sarge with bolt pistol and cc weapon
-Flamer carrying guardsmen
-Vox operator with lasgun
-7 guardsmen with lasguns and cc weapons
- Truck transport (to be used as a chimera)
- The main assembly and magnetisation of my locust fighter

This squad of 11 is half of what will be a 22 man combined assault squad, with the other half being identical in armament. I have yet to decide whether or not to add a priest in there or not, as all those rerolls will come in handy.

The truck is goin to be used to transport what ever i deem required at the time, which will most likely be another squad of 11 troopers, but with a HB in there this time.

All that is to be done on my locust fighter is to assemble the new mounting point for the HB sponsons and for its single lascannon, and then to complete the scenic base. As mentioned in an earlier post, since it is a fighter craft and not a transport, i will be using reference from the book 'His last command' to create portals on the bases as a means for troopers to embark and disembark from the fleet in orbit/where ever it is they come from.

Thats it for today,
will hopefully have pictures up by weeks end for all these developements.

As promised...

In my first post about a week ago i promised to put up some photos of my work in progress, in which i also promised to take them with a decent camera....
Failing the decent camera part, my phone will have to suffice for now.
So with out further delay here are my current WIPs of my Bloodpact.

First up is my Locust fighter (Valkyrie substitute)-

This is clearly my first time arranging pictures in a blog so please forgive the mess...

As you can see i have yet to attach the wings, armaments and landing gear.
All of which should be done by tonight for the most part.
All parts used are from the Valkyrie kit,
following the instructions from Spikey Bits Jet Instructions with a few minor adjustments-
I continued to cut out the fuselage beyond that stated so i could fit in a singular engine, which is made up of the 4 quarter pieces you get in the kit (2 per engine), and mirrored that cutout into the undercarriage.
The air intakes are from the old hunter killer missile tube, cut from 1 corner to the opposing corner lengthways.
(Im not all that good with instructions so please let me know if i failed to be clear)

This beauty will be painted up to have the same white pearl look as in the book 'Double Eagle',
as the look described in 'Sabbat Matyr' i dont think is all that fitting...
Using a similar process but with a diferent pallet, I will be using a similar process as outlined by Dave Taylor in his post The Rapid Assault Force Approaches.
While a choice selection was used in his pallet, i will be aiming for a more final colour than bone, purely for a stronger contrast.

The next in line for this post is a troop transport for 1 of my hardened vet squads-

This was made following all the instructions posted by Dave Taylor, which can both be found in part 1 and part 2 using the templates posted up here.

The only changes i made were to use florist wire to make a small 2 step ladder into the back of the truck on the rear left, used chains to hold the bench seats in place (fixed seats dont work in a work horse vehicle tray imo), and made the frame for the canopy out of florist wire too.
Extra handles and support bars are also made using florist wire.
The floor of the tray was roughly covered in contact adhesive before a cut to size piece of plastic fly screen was layed over the top. This uneven surface will be used to effect as i would expect there to be gore from the troops it transports all over the place.
There is still alot to be done before i start painting, more tidbits to attach, refining of some details, and possible battle damage/field repairs.

It will be painted up to look like an Imperial Transport, then i will attack it with my blood and gore mix to show it has been looted by the pact.

Thats it for now,
any constructive comments or extra ideas appreciated.

How the blood came to flow...

Ok,
i have yet to get any decent pictures taken,
but thought id run through the concept for the look and feel of my Bloodpact,
as well as discuss a few sources of inspiration for future and previous projects.

Like many people who have read the Gaunts Ghosts series,
i was inspired to create a Bloodpact force.
At the time i was an Imperial Guard player,
and the idea of stopping guard to start a Bloodpact army pretty much stopped any ideas eventuating into reality.

At the time of the release of Apocalypse i had stopped working on my guard for several years,
and had started a 1000pt army for $400,
and seeing as it had to be a new army i had chosen 'nyds (of which the whole army list had to be re-worked due to new codex).
It was during this time that something major caught my eye,
and so i started assembling a Baneblade (which i have still yet to complete...) for the purpose of a guard tank to get my interest back into them and finish them off (never happened).

After a new release of Gaunts Ghosts (Only in death i believe it was),
the urge for blood came back in full force.
This was when the perfect idea hit me,
why bother starting a new army when i can convert an incomplete guard army into the Blood pact army i had been wanting to do.

So,
loyalty out the window and in with the powers of chaos.

First thing i had to do,
outline what seperated the guard from Blood pact from a standard guard army,
aside from the obvious aesthetics of the infantry,
it all came down to vehicles, the powers of the warp and xenos.
So i looked through all my novels,
and through my sabbat crusades book (bought for $30 AUS at the time),
for all vehicles and creatures and such that were used by the dark powers.

Aside from scavenged tanks and traitors,
i came up with the following-
Usurper self propelled howitzers
SteG4 armoured cars
AT 70 Reavers
AT 83 Brigand
N20 and N22 Half tracks
Stalk tanks
Locust aircraft
Loxatyl xenos mercinaries
Wirewolves
Bay Hounds

(i may have forgotten some of what i came across,
as well as some spelling).

The next step was to work out how i would include these units into my army...
-Usurpers clearly had to be a form of artillery (based around ww2 german artillery, similar to the basis of Dave Taylors 'Priest', but with a central cannon based more towards the rear with a longer barrel
-SteG 4s as sentinels (as its not mentioned that they are transports. I cant remember where i got the inspiration from for these, so once posted if anyone knows please tell me so credit can be given)
-Locust aircraft as valkyries/vendettas (the problem was how the troops would be transported, but after seeing how this issue was overcome by Dave Taylors Warp Locator , i was reminded of the huge pink crystals in 'Only in Death' that the Bloodpact were teleporting in from, as well as giant ogryn and human mutations, and so they will be placed on the bases of the craft. The concept for converting the aircraft i found thanks to Spikey Bits jet fighter)
-Loxatyl would be my Ogryns
-A lone Wirewolve would represent Sly Marbo
-AT 70 Reavers would be a form of Leman Russ, as would the AT 83 and the Stalk tanks (all will make sense once the conversions are done, but the idea did click in from seeing the Stalk tank by Dave Taylor and the AT 70 thanks to Rabidchild)
-N20 and N22 Halftracks would likely be chimeras, hellhounds, and light artillery.
-Bay Hounds... they would just be an upgrade option for the N20 and N22s, representing there search lights (idea based on events in Traitor General)

Thats about all i can remember for now,
its all written down somewhere,
will post more when i remember more.

After that,
colour scheme was next on the agenda...
Seeing as how the Bloodpact are made up from recruited units as well as traitor units,
a portion of the army would be done in loylalist guard camo and uniforms with a suitable goreish reworking done to them,
while the rest would be purely done in a scheme suiting the pure Bloodpact.
Im a spray painter by trade,
so through work i have access to a whole tinter machine as well as certain types of sealer for spraying on cars,
of which i have found a mix that once sprayed out at EXTREMELY low pressure with high fluid settings creates the look that someone choaking on there own blood just coughed all over your army.
Looks great and oh so fitting too.
Down side being you have to let certain mixtures sit for a few days prior to adding it all together or you lose the whole dried clotted blood effect.
Its also very shinny so you must either put in matting agent with the mix,
or spray over it with mat varnish.

That settled,
where should they be fighting?
After long deliberation,
and a chance watching of Behind Enemy Lines,
i decided on the look of an Eastern Europe industrial complex thats gone to ruin.
So blackened and greyed rocks and rubble,
dark coloured mud,
with scorched and dead grass and weeds.
Perhaps some pools of oil and water too.
Similar to the scene depicted in the area around the spoils outside Vervunhive in the book Necropolis,
just with more vegetation,
or at least signs it was there...

Well thats the concept behind the look and feel of my army,
once i have the photos together i will go through the basis of my army make up,
force organisation and the reasoning behind my choices.

From Humble Beginings...

Gha...
Cant think of how to start off blogging all this,
so forgive me please if this seems rather lacking.
This is the start of a series of blogs detailing the progress of my 40k armies,
and any other random happenings along the way of worth.
Soon as i get photos up of my progress i will post,
and hopefully will be able to include a step by step for those that request it.
So far i have yet to finish an army of any sizable force,
as i am very easily distracted by new ideas,
but for now i am focusing on converting my Imp Guard over to Blood pact traitors,
and a re-vamped 'nyd swarm.

So...
1 week from now i will put up some pics and info on my current progress,
as to which army will be put on show first...
Well...
Guess that will have to be seen.

Til then,
keep making your concepts into realities :)