Death Jester (Art Mondays!)

 Greetings. Today we feature a piece I thought had been printed in Inquisitor, but after looking through the two issues I did some art in, I can't find it. Regardless it's one I still like and I am happy to share it with you lot.  

The Death Jesters were absolute beasts in the Rogue Trader days (WD 105-106?) and I still fearfully recall them from that time. Many an ork was turned into goo by the fearsome bio-shurikans that they shot all over the battlefields old. Ah, good times...

Death Watch: Kill Team Neverness (Part 2)

Still watching...and waiting. 

Still. 

....well, they were for many years anyway. About 5 years since I last messed with them actually. I was recently inspired to work on them again and the first thing I did was a Chaplain. There is a few reasons for this: one reason is that they are part of the paint queue I resolved to tackle back in the New Year, and the other is that next month is Inquisitional Conclave month and I want my Inquisitor to arrive with a group of Death Company in tow. 

One of the reasons I didn't finish these guys was my indecisiveness regarding their weapon load out. I overcame this by deciding to build the two squads from the Death Masque boxed set that I've been holding onto for the last 5 years. I decided to build them exactly as presented in the Death Masque scenario booklet. The Veterans are Squad Crull and the Vanguard are Squad Galatalel. The left over bits will be used to equip 'Klll Team Neverness' (yeah, expect that name to change). 

Squad Crull, mostly assembled. 

Squad Galatael, mostly assembled.

Now I am still building these guys but I want to prime them and basecoat them prior to assembly. But before I got to them, I noticed that the guy with the heavy bolter was mostly done. He's also the trickiest to assemble. These hybrid metal/plastic kits could be a pain to put together and I suppose I procrastinated ever doing it for that reason.

The unassembled parts.

I have recently discovered superglue gel, which is really good at not only getting these bits to adhere but it forms a secure and strong bond when dry. 

Heavy bolter arm is attached.

Weirdly when I bought this model it's blister  pack was missing the left metal arm. I hadn't realized this until it was way to late to do anything about it, so I constructed my own replacement; It's crude but effective. The crude bits will be covered up by the Death Watch shoulder pad. 

The new arm.

Once that was attached I slapped on the pauldron and the model was complete. I did a few paint touchups as I went along but all-in-all I am fairly happy with the finished model.

Fully assembled.

This marine originally came from the White Consuls  chapter. Back in the '90s I was going to make a generic (or is the term 'vanilla' the preferred expression these days?) space marine chapter and it was going to be White Consuls. But painting an entire army where I had to hand paint the chapter icon soon lost it's appeal to me. I did feature the White Consuls in a comic that did in the late '90s however...maybe you'll see that in a future Art Monday post? 

The White Consul gunner. 

When the weather allows I will spray some sealant on him to reduce chipping on the metal components. But despite that step, he is done.

Death Watch shoulder pad side. 

That's one down! What a weird feeling it is to finally finish one of the oldest miniatures in my queue. I look forward to completing all these Death Watch Marines! 

Wounded Guardian (Art Monday)

 Greetings, today's art Monday is basically a scene from a battle where these Eldar Guardians haven't really fared so well. This was back in the 2nd edition era when Eldar Guardians were often seen with las weapons, so it's understandable that they would get their butts kicked a bit more often. Actually, most Eldar players from that time did everything they could to not take las weapons as the shurikan catapults were a lot more effective (even with the jams). 

"You bastards!!!"

This is another unpublished piece that was submitted to some of the 40k fanzines in the mid-'90s but was never published. 

Deathwatch Chaplain

  

Xenos hunt on deathworld Crootsburg VIII.

Deathwatch time. Quite truly overdue actually. The last time I dealt with my Deathwatch was back in 2016. At the time I wanted to build a small force of these guys to support either my Imperial Guard or one of my other Space Marine armies. This was during 7th edition and when the Codex for that edition arrived I found myself overwhelmed by it and the new unit options available to it, so I backburnered these guys. Until now. 

We have been playing some smaller point sized games lately which allows me to bring out some of these smaller forces and let them hit the table. My Deathwatch are greatly unprepared for battle but with a little bit of hobby focus I should be able to get them ready for battle. 

I decided not to start off with my long neglected Kill Team but to kick things off with a character model. I just happened to have this Deathwatch Chaplain that I bought around the time of the 7th Edition codex release. 

 

He was originally released back when 28mm was the standard base size for mostly everything in the game, but by the time the Deathwatch was released in 2016 32mm bases had become the the default size for space marines. So one was included in the clam pack, rattling around loosely. Tinkering around with the model and these bases I decided that I rather like the scenic 28mm base and that it would look better just stuck on the 32mm base. I added some rubble (i.e. pieces of chopped up sprue), skulls and grit and I had cool base for this fellow. Painting it was fairly simple, and in the following pics you. And see how it all pulls together with some color.

The modified base.

Base coats on the base. 

Mid coats.

I added the highlights to the base after I attached the main figure. Speaking of which, this is one of those rare models where after you finish with the base coats, you feel like you're almost done.

Base coats.

And after a few more steps, well, I was! 

The bone work was done a bit differently on the Chaplain's armor and helm than the actual skulls shattered about on his base. Instead of highlighting them up with Whitescar, I used Pallid Wyche Flesh. I liked how this turned out as it wasn't as intense. 

A detail I added at the last minute was the brown lines, to indicate writing, on the scroll work. This was done using a brown micron pen. Funny thing is, I usually hate the look of warriors wearing paper to battle. It seems really silly and impractical. But I think it turned out nice on this model. 

Detail added to scrolls.

And that's a wrap! I knocked this one out quick, I hope I can do that for the rest of the Deathwatch I have...

Deathworld Crootsburg VIII, post pacification.

Shokk Attack! (Art Mondays)

 This is another unpublished piece. I really like this one, but I have always adored snotlings; Such vicious little buggers. But I adored the original Shock Attack Gun results charts from the Rogue Trader era 'Ere We Go hardcover book even more! That was an absolute experience to roll up those results (especially for the victims!).

Here a bunch of them are swarming a Space Marine. This particular Space Marine is an old school Space Wolf with the original Space Wolves icon. I have always liked that design as it has more of a sci-fi vibe to me. I still use it onbmost of my original (first born) Space Wolves. Not sure why he seems to have the jump pack straps but no jump pack...maybe I thought it just looked cool? 

The Slicing Noose (Part 2)

When we left off in Part One, I was waiting until it "warmed up outside" so I could prime these models. Well, that's happened for sure, like, thrice over the years, but I got distracted along the way. The original intention for this series was to have one or two miniatures showcased in each part, more or less from start to finish, but I found myself working on them in an assembly line anyway.

I started with the flesh.

And some of the bases have metal on them, so I picked out those areas using Leadbelcher.

Next I started to apply the Khorne Red basecoats to their body armor.  And then I didn't touch these things for over two years! But something recently inspired me to do so. 

Fast forward about 28 months from when all of the above was written. My current job only has me scheduled for 1 day a week but I can be called in any day. I wake up and get ready in anticipation of work, and during that nervewracking wait time I found it to be quite a relief to jam on some miniatures. Instead of jamming on the miniatures already on my table I found myself picking at these wyches. With such a fleeting window of opportunity I just haven't been taking the work in progress shots I originally had hoped to do with this project. So I just jammed on them until they were done. 

The Slicing Noose. 

I was originally going to showcase two models at a time but with the way this turned out, I'm just going to wrap it all up here. 

WiP shot.

I wanted the rims on these bases to be different from the Terracotta color that I typically use as it doesn't work right with these industrialized scenic bases. I tried Folkart Antique Copper (666 proceeds the name on the label so I suppose that is the model number or something? It seemed appropriate regardless.) which has a new penny sheen look to it. I liked it at first but ultimately decided that it overwhelmed the models so I lightly painted over that with Leadbelcher which gave me a really interesting look.

Folk Art 666 Antique Copper.

The first of these finished models is the leader of the squad, Vylekh the Untouchable. I followed the pics of the Slicing Noose from the pamphlet that came in the Kill Team box as far as trying to figure out what is what on these models. They are insanely detailed for a base troop kit. Vylech has some extra details on whip and trophy rack that I took pains trying to reproduce. Not sure how successful it was but I feel "close enough" about it.

Vylekh the Untouchable.

A detail that stuck out on all of them are their IV tubes of stimulate chemicals throughout their bodies. The damned things just kept being discovered long after I thought I was close to.being done with this unit. 

Bithanded Khaur. 

These combat drug tubes were painted using Rotting Flesh base coat with a glaze of Tesseract Glow. I think these turned out well. 

Veshrari the Cruel.

The weird skin pelts they all wear at their groins were all painted in typical Cadian Flesh through Kislev Flesh staging. I think it's the most disturbing aspect of these models...

Pelythia Berrebaal.

The hair was done by using a basecoat of Wazdakka Red, the Fire Dragon Orange which was followed by a wash of Bloodletter. This was lastly highlighted with another light dryburshing of Fiery Orange. 

Mellyx Veluxis.

Ultimately I think I preferred how the flesh turned out on my Venom Pilots so I will likely return to that method on whatever murder elves that I paint next.

Unless the Screaming Blade.

Thessa khrone.

Nyx  Bloodslyk. 

The bones and hair ties were done using Ushanti Bone, washed with Agrax Earthshade, with the bones highlighted again with Ushanti Bone. 

Xela Vexx. 

The greenish glow of the eye slots on the crome masks were done by using Rotting Flesh (or whatever it's modern equivalent is called) with Tesseract glow washed over it. This came better than I had hoped! In the pics of the Slicing Noose pamphlet these masks were painted White, but I just didn't like the way it looked so I opted for Mithereal Silver.

Shexen  the Faceless.

And that's it, they're done! Will they see battle in a Kill Team or a 40k game first? There are challenges for both, but for now I am just pleased to get them done. Having said that, while taking these pics I found myself nitpicking at some details which I may go back and correct. (Seriously, is that a fricking cat hair on Vylekh's face?!) If so there just might be a part 3... but, I am thinking I should do up a second unit, and use The Slicing Noose as coloring guides for the next batch. Either way, it's nice to have options, right?  

Nurgle Champion Bust (Art Monday)

 Here's one I forgot about. This is a Champion of Nurgle, complete with some adorable nurglings to accompany him. If I remember this one took a lot of time to do. I regret that I didn't include his backpack, but whatever...

This was done as a submission piece to Inquisitor Magazine, which was fanzine that supported Warhammer 40,000 and showcased the kits that Armorcast made to support it. Back in the '90s Armorcast was an amazing support line and it's successful showed GW that there was a future in resign support products. Unfortunately, Armorcast's was also they're undoing as GW ended their agreement a created Forgeworld. But, that's another story really, it's Inquisitor Magazine that I wanted to get art into, so I contacted Tim and he liked my stuff enough to put it into two issues (#14 and #15). This piece however is one of the ones that didn't make the cut (it was a bit too gross for that publication). In hindsight, I should have drawn more vehicles, since thats what Armorcast was mainly producing, but I was more interested at the time in exploring a bit more of the human, or personal side of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.  

The 2021 Inquisitional Conclave (August Challenge: Announcement)

 

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Hello, welcome back!  Next month (August 2021) will be the Second Annual Inquisitional Conclave. Yes, we're doing it again! Last year's went pretty good and it looked like most of you who participated had fun doing it.  

The rules (more like guidelines really); all you have to do is get yourself an Inquisitor miniature and throughout August, paint it up and send me your progress updates. You're not just limited to an Inquisitor specifically, you can paint members of their retinue to accompany the one you might have painted last year or any Imperial Agents your Inquisitor may requisition. 

You can message me directly at neverness92@gmail.com, and send me either pics or a link to your own blog. Whatever you want to do. Of course, I'll post my own updates here as well. We will kick this off on August 1st, with the Conclave itself to happen on the first week or weekend of September; I will know more as we get there. That should be plenty of time for most of us -I hope!

This kicks off August 1st! I hope to hear from you all soon! 

*Image from Dark Heresy 2nd edition, which was probably my favorite aspect of 2nd edition...