Painting up my first talos. Getting 'ardcoating right

I've been trying to catch up with all the Dark eldar modells i bought on the cheap towards the end of last year. With the release of their 7'th ed Codex, a lot of ads went up regarding sales of unpainted, and even unbuilt modells started to flourish. Now this is not all that uncommon, but it tends to happen a lot less with the release of codexes that are considered immediately powerful (Eldar, Tau, Necron) but it does keep happening with some of the releases for codexes that are a bit more niched (Ork,Dark Eldar,Tyranids) one immediate assumption is that all of the codexes that are not immediately considered powerfull is that people are jumping ship, but i rather think that it has to do with the fact that a lot of people on the fence have a "one day" project. 

You know, the kind most miniature painters have, "oh one day i will paint up that Forge world model" or "one day i will start a new mini-force of 750 pts" and then a new codex is relased, and the final stress of buying another codex for something you have not even started with gets to be to much, and the ads go up. And when it comes to immediately powerful armies, you do not have to look too far to sell your armies, so even getting an ad up might not be needed. You just ask around in your immediate circle of friends/players.

Still, needless speculation aside.One of the models i bought was a Talos, now as a rule i had the ambition of keeping a straight Kabal army, with the exception of a Haemonculus with Wrack assistents (the pull of victorian horror beeing to strong a notion to ignore), but i got the Talos at about 1/3 the price, so i have played it twice. Both times against Tau. And let me tell you. The look on somebodys face when they don't know what a Talos is. Priceless! 

So, at T7/S7 and MC status, you generally laugh at tanks, you move through cover, you strike at AP2, and with a 10 point upgrade you get the chance to reroll all "To wound" rolls. Mix this with six attacks on the charge, and a HoW strike, and you have a GREAT line breaker.

Downsides then, you are slow. Very slow. You might move trough cover. But you still have a 6" move, and no fleet for you, oh my no. I have given my Talos a TL heat lance, and a Stinger pod(two blast templates, S5AP5) the stinger pod means you are pretty much shooting at infantry, and charging infantry on that turn, so if you have a TEQ to get at? Good for you. If not, it is something of a waste to spend you 120+ points on. So the Twin linked heatlance is pretty good, it has let me take down riptides, suits, and vehicles. You talos also rolls with a 3+ and a FnP base. So i am VERY happy with what it has done so far. I guess D-weapons would mess up it's day, but whose day wouldn't it mess up?

When it came to the painting i had a few ideas to try, i wanted to get the blank masks on the Wracks i had done, and i wanted to get a pale pinkish hue on the skin, beyond that i wanted to do a lot of Varnishing (for which i had gone full consumer ho' and bought GW's own) so as to give it a shine that was reminiscent of the glistening carapace of a beetle. 

Now i had never used 'ardcoat on this big a surface before (this was before i finished up my Venom)

This will not be fast, but i am gentle on the brushes. 

So i assumed that i would take maybe two, three coats? I ended up doing about seven. Now this may be because i am "a shit" and not in the know on what i am doing. But seven seems to be about right. I also made sure that the Heat lance comes off real easy loike so that i can swap it for a Pod or even a Haywire blaster. But the end result ended up being 

To my actual satisfaction, it is difficult to get a good detailed picture with my cell-camera. But i did some "blood splatter" with drybrush korne red on the blades, and with the pleasure of doing a big base i could add-on an old marine backpack, and did two "smaller" terrain pieces from the basing kit for skull piles. The "spine" tail that runs the length of the body to the weapon option was done with "druchii" shading on bleached bone, to make sure it was visually distinct from the body. 

The "blank mask" is pretty iconic of the talos, so was wondering if i was going to draw some flashes or similar, but in the end i settled for a nice blank look. 

All in all, i was pretty happy with this modell. 

Basing done easy, done right.

I got some positive feedback on the basing of my Talos and Venom (the HQ one) and i really cannot claim any credit for it, i started experimenting in buying bases and the best one so far are probably the skull bases that i have for my wannabe succubus and the "wrack" i built from spares to get nine.

Black cat bases in demonstration. If interested, check it out

I've bought a couple of bases from black cat, and they probably have the best bases for skulls, there are different sizes, randomization and as far as i have experienced no mold slips.

It is realy easy to make them look good too, black base colour, drybrush, and nuln oil. If desired, flock. All the allure of doing Undead skeletons, but for a higher purpose, or rather.....a BASE purpose :D


*ehum* I was pretty happy with my Grey knight terminators from a way back. As you are sometimes, but when i picked them up from their foamed suspension, i started finding faults, missed highlights, large areas that were not shaded, and so forth. I doubt i am the only one who has that issue, you focus on painting something, get at it, feel finished and when you look at it the next day it is not as good as you remember it. it might the fatigue meaning that you start missing details but i prefer to think of it as your sense of self preservation lulling you into a false sense of completion so as to get you do less meaningfull stuff, like eating or sleeping.

On to the pudding.

The base foundation for is Devlan mud, you could probably get the same material cheaper if you mixed dark mud colour with fine grained sand, but i have to say that as far as the GW technical range goes, this has been a real treat to work with. In the video you are advised to not use a brush, it will obviously wear down the brush, but it also means that you get less "whorls" that give a better visual impact. So using a cut up piece of sprue to spread it out really is better.

The dawnstone is what(in my opinion) really ties it together, and if you wanted more of a winter wonderland look, then simply using dawnstone, and white scar might work better, i tried the Praxeti white (again, because i simply had it available) and it worked out prety great, if you want a more "sandy" touch, then skip it.

The new Talos i recently painted, the basing scales pretty well for larger bases, and i will definetly use it for "dreadnight" sized modells.


I followed the Walkthrough from winters SEO. It really is a great channel with good batreps, and the walkthrough is in five easy steps and with a great return on your work investment.

The link for his scheme is below.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWOpNPZES1Y&list=WL&index=4

Angels of vengeance conversions

So the fun thing with painting my Dark angels as the angels of vengeance was me talking to a friend asking what the deal was with etched brass.

Now, he has played for decades, and painted for decades. So he just did NOT understand the question.

me: But seriously mang, what is the deal, why is everybody in love with etched brass?
him: what, but, what is even the point of not using it, there are no options really. 
M:but transfers, what about using simple transfers?
what followed was a hallowed silence that made him look like a veteran suffering from PTS, he just...stared into oblivion and let his being become one with nothingness. When he spoke it was with the weight of ages. 
H:transfers are to modelling what gourmet cooking is to camping. A good idea,but hell on executing.
M:Ok, so you don't  think i should get some?
H: if you do, you will understand what i mean, and appreciate that the options to transfers are forged with the blood of exper modellers.

Shit, that was dramatic as hell. And here is the thing. I got this

Which is, in my opinion, A WONDERFULL way to differentiate "your dudes" i was surprised that Geedubs had it. And was glad to throw money at them.

I have always had black DA, as i preferred it to the ordinary dark green one, you know, 'cause i'm unique, and you can't DEFINE me, MAAAAN. Also, the robes are dope.


Now, in the different codexes the old Angels had red robes, and then grey, and then black. And now they are black again, but as far as i am concerned a lynchpin of my painting DA is
Black, red, and silver. The black and silver just marries beautifully.

So this is what i wound up on.

 I still need to clean up the dramatic base for the veteran sergeant with the power fist, and brother ignacio is working his way with the emperors blessed promethium, so as to bring salvation to those who have not enjoyed the emperors warmth.

The picture is not great, but it is the old sort of rhino ( what FW lovingly calls mark III) that you can pickup cheaply on your Ebay. Hilariously it is a bit smaller than the new boxier one, and the size means that i can get better cover.

Brother Encio leads second squads advance to ensure the imperiums safety against the perverted xeno

To lead by example is to embrace the emperors sacrifice
"the Deus exemplaris XXI'th verse" 

So my second squad got the Angels of vengeance transfer on the shoulder, but it when it comes the Dark Angels veterans sprue "special" shoulderpads, you have to either trim the entire shoulder pad, OR put it a bit more on the front. I chose the latter, as i imagine myself a decent painter, but a flat out horrendous modeller. Practice may make perfect but self-loathing makes the artist.

With all the DAAAMN suffering i got from these tiny cardboard like, fragile as hell serran wrap transfer i now do indeed appreciate the self contradiction of transfers. Great as an idea, horrendous as implementation.

Next up is my Mortis pattern contemptor with Kheres assault cannons, i have been pushing it in front of me for over a year and a half, but i now feel confident in starting up on them.

A venom worthy of a leader

As i have mentioned in previous posts i have always chosen to glue shut the cockpit of my venoms, paint them black and then use 'ardcoat to make them pop a bit.

The choice was utilitarian (could not be arsed to paint cockpit) by style (GLAS? on a SPACE worthy vessel) and by look (I just wanted to).

But on this, my third Venom i felt that it was time to stretch my wings a bit, emboldened by what i deemed to be a success on the wracks, i decided to try some new things. So on the new venom i wanted to

• have a vessel that immediately identified as for a HQ
• have a green HUD 
• paint the operator and inside of cockpit. 
• use 'ardcoat and technical highlighting to make it look a bit more swish. 
• actually base a flying base for a skimmer. 

The HUD was the easiest one, i used the Waywatcher green glaze and basically soaked the glase ( i have spares so i figured i'd test it) i saw a highly instructive youtuber reccommend Tamiya clear green, but as i didn't have any, and could not seem myself using it more than once or twice, i figured i'd give waywatcher a swang.

It worked out, but i do reccommend touching up with some nuln, and highlighting with some green, to define the features.

The operator and cockpit was easy enough, as long as i had the desired Daftpunk head available. 

The basing was done to my satisfaction (praise be to mordheim turf!) 

The 'ardcoat was the real killer, for some, naive, unspoken reason i thought two layers would do. Nope. I'm at five now, and i'm decently happy now. I also decided to do the "middle" and wings with some 'ardcoat. To give it some P-zass!

and this was the result. 

The red on the nose and body corresponds to the colour i did my new succubus in, while the greener on the back part matches the overall scheme of my kabal. I tried to come up with how to do a base that denoted some movement, but i resigned myself to the wateland one you can see. 

Still, i am pretty happy overall. 

Settling on a colour scheme for the wracks.

I have had very varying results when i actually go ahead and deploy my wracks. Probably becuase i tend to use them as a "hammer" unit, the kind that you gladly take advantage of, and for granted when you play Marines in general. The problem is that the Wracks might roll with T4, which is a rarity for the Dark eldar army, but the 6+ save, S3 and the straight lack of shooting (Except for two flamers or fleshbane guns per ten bodies) means that they will have a hard time surviving overwatch. And AP5 and Instant death will laugh at your measly save and Power from pain rolls. 

Still the Wrack's as a model is probably the only unit that has gotten a lot of my Non-40k playing friends to stop for a moment, hold it up and ask what is this guy's deal. I mean the variation on the kit is amazing. You have double arms, double heads, and a spine that grows over your head like antlers and gives you the drugs you need to beat shit to death. And i guess that 10pts a pop for two 4+ poisoned CC weapons, plain FnP and T4 is pretty ok. Particularly when you start shenanigans with Coven formation. 

still looks a bit Dark Eldarish somehow.

The scalpel squadron is probably a good "minimum investment" you need two groups of wracks deployed in a Venom each. They Deep strike in on Turn one automatically. If they score first blood, you get D3 Victory points. I know i am late to the party, but if you are not playing Maelstrom, that is pretty good. The unseen point is also that, as Dark Eldar, you will probably be giving away First blood on a semi regular basis, so just denying that, while possible negating a slay the warlord that your opposite will score (if you do have a living HQ at the end of the game semi-regulary, PLEASE tell me how you do it). That is pretty wicked as far as i am concerned.

Still. Moving on. I couldn't really decide on what scheme i wanted, Gw's paint channel is the pink of raw muscle tissue exposed, or the pale'd gloom of a long abused tool that has gnarled skin that has paled whilst dwelling in the forgotten laboraties neath the hellish portcity of Commorragh. 

But i wanted to try something new, to stretch my proverbial legs. So i went ahead and tested out two Schemes, that first one, the Druchii violet shading, that has been paled a tad more, is consistent with what i use on the exposed skin of my other DE. But i also chose to try using the P3 Turqoise ink, and it gave a beautiful result. 

The Wracks i  painted were probably the first set of modells that i was very happy with, a simply astronomican grey watered down for skin, with the P3 ink, and then some highlighting on the torso, some null shading, and the some more P3. The silver on the bracers and the valve his chest blends in nicely in my opinion. 

The Purple ones wound out ok, but i was pretty set on the Turqoise scheme, yes, that wrack is using a human head for an IV stand, not to weird when you remember the post gothic "skull" fetisch that the empire has on a whole 

Following my instincts yielded a pretty good result with the turqoise, so i went ahead and did the "red" scheme that geedubs has on their youtube, but it just would not take properly i think one of the reasons is that i had a grey undercoat, and not rakarth flesh (which is paler) so in the end i did the same as above, but highlighed and drybrushed some khorne red (befitting my mood a the time) but it worked out pretty ok in my opinion. 

I did a few turns of 'ardcoat on the bracers and mask, and and in my opinion that made all the difference. 

Finally, a group shot with my newly painted Haemonculus, meaning that i now have one of EACH Hq selection, except the named ones, maybe Drazhar is next? getting me some o' dat sweeeeet 2+ save that i hear is all the rave for the lesser races. 

Chaining myself back to the painting station

So yeesh, it has been a godly time since i sat down and actually documented what i have been up to.

The reason is pretty much Two-fold.

New family situation, new Job. And, to be completely honest, a new sort of absurd obession with 30K. That recently resulted in me treated myself to about 500 bucks worth of Forge world. Damn, dem sicarians don't come cheap. But still, as my spirit animal advised

The thing about playing miniatures is that there is always an unspoken assumption that, no matter what system you game, you wish there was a higher quality of merchandise, even if it does cost a bit more. I suppose that equates to 40K being the cheaper mans choice, which is such a ludicrous statement that frost is forming in Dis as i write this.

Still, carrying on, when my package arrives i assume i will be so taken with it that i'll immediately buy an airbrush to give it the lavish attention it deserves.

As i left off, i was having some issues deciding on a point efficient HQ unit, playing against my buddies Tau, and against another mates Orks, i found that a cheap-o Succubus with the armour of misery and an archite Glaive in a group of incubi does alright. Just over a hundred points for AP2 and a 4+ 6++ (with the succubus getting a 4++ in CC) with the added benefit of a FnP roll on the turn that you (usually)get into combat.

But paying for a new modell was something of an aversion of mine, so i decided to simply kitbash one.

the end result was pretty satisfactory to me.

The body,arms and legs are all from spares you get from the venom kit. I rarely modell the "angry wyches hanging on the side of your ghetto-gunship" so i had a lot of little pieces to use. The Head is the much Coveted "daft punk" helmet you get for your reavers. The only difficulty is getting ENOUGH heads, as you usually want as much head as you can get from the reaver box......sorry, i couldn't resist.
The "archite glaive" is just a spare demiklaive that you get two from the Hellions sprue. I put it together with a custom Skull base that i give my Char's when i remember to and we're off to the races.

I'm thinking of doing some small "engravings" with a babybrush to show that it is the "armour of misery" but we will see when i get around to that.

Still, waste not want not. And that's a few bucks i can spend on some other inane part of the hobby :D