First Word Bearer Chaos Cultist ... and a lady in waiting

Well, I am off the starting blocks. Just recently finished my first Word Bearer chaos cultist. Previously I would have been really proud of my achievement. But after seeing the Iron Painters finish 30 over models each over a 24-hour period during MaGaCon 2012, I am setting the bar higher i.e. I hope to finish between 5 to 9 cultists over this week. It will my little mini-Iron Painter. ^^

My ongoing experiment with painting flesh tones

Papa Nurgle seems to have taken a liking to this guy's back

This time round I completely changed the way I take pictures of my miniatures. I mounted a DSLR on a tripod; used only lighting from lamps i.e. no flashes; and set the shutter speed to a slow 1/60 which meant I couldn't hold the camera while taking it without getting blurry pics hence the tripod.

Lady in waiting ... Cyrene Valantion (Work-In-Progress)
I also managed to get some work done on the Kingdom Death model that I am using to represent the reincarnation of Cyrene Valantion of the Word Bearers. Nothing too fancy as I just managed to finish the basecoats. Next will be the washes followed by the midtones and then the highlights.

Front View - Reincarnation of Cyrene Valantion WIP (aka Kisya of Kingdom Death)

Back View - Reincarnation of Cyrene Valantion WIP (aka Kisya of Kingdom Death)

Word Bearer Inspired Books
Obviously Cyrene was inspired by Aaron Dembski-Bowden's The First Heretic. Meanwhile, I just finished reading Dark Apostle and have started on Dark Disciple by Anthony Reynolds. The former book gives some insight into Chaos Cultists while the series as a whole will make good background reading and inspiration before I attempt work on the Dark Apostle miniature.

Ahhh ... religious fanatics ... you can't help but love 'em. Heh heh.  

Loot from MaGaCon 2012

MaGaCon 2012 was a cool family experience though more so for the missus and son who had an eventful weekend. I was there mainly to help out at the Hobby Forge booth, together with other more regular gamers at Alvin's shop i.e. Yip, Hakim and Billy. It was great to see so many people really get into miniature painting but as Hakim can attest to, the relentless horde of participants at the painting table was overwhelming at times. Both our backs were hurting like mad by end of MaGaCon.

Tags for MaGaCon 2012

Cheaper early bird tickets I got hold of for the family

Unexpectedly, MaGaCon 2012 also provided some cool loot for the family. The missus got a prize in the first lucky draw i.e. a PS3 Game - F1 2012. Nice! Though I wouldn't have minded getting my hands on Assasin Creed III or Rocksmith, which were also on offer.

This is a great addition to my racing collection (GranTurismo5, Dirt3 and Shift2)

My son also managed to complete all the quests in MaGaCon 2012 and was one of the eight finalist for the final challenge which was a a console game dance off. Though he didn't win the main prizes i.e. a PS3 Slim, he did manage to score a bean bag. Ultra Nice!

Quests to complete, including Hobby Forge's painting own painting task

King of the Hill was the most difficult to complete; it took my son 2-days up until the last hour to complete it

Finally, a bean bag for the family

Nothing says jump on me like a bean bag ... well almost nothing but lets keep it PG13

Was too busy to take any pictures of MaGaCon 2012, but two things did stick out and make me wanna take some pictures. One was an awesome sculpture on display, a figurine which I believe would not be out of place in the Games Workshop Chaos mythology. The other thing was the armies painted by the Iron Painters of MaGaCon 2012. While all the armies painted looked awesome, I particulary loved all the Chaos stuff i.e. the Iron Warriors, Black Legion and Nurgle army.

How cool is that!

A Nurgle army painted by Iqbal of Stealthy Blades

MaGaCon 2012 also saw the missus paint her first miniature while my son did a simple three-coloured space marine - dry brush of the basecoat, metal paint for the guns and a wash.

Finally, the missus takes a stab at miniature painting

Simple paint job for a space marine of the false emperor

Well, it was certainly an interesting experience and overall, a fun weekend for the family. Had a game of FIFA 13 with my son before I left, and as always Liverpool drew yet another game. Bummer! Finally, I leave you with a picture of an army of space marines I had assembled for MaGaCon 2012. It was the most minis I had ever assembled in one go - 30 soldiers of that corpse emperor. Oh well ^^ and as always ... thanks for reading!

More targets for the Chaos Chosen I suppose

Sect of the Blessed Lady ... and Ork Lootas progress

Cyrene Valantion ... Confessor of the Word ... also known as 'The Blessed Lady'. There were no candidates in Game Workshop's vast array of miniatures that were worthy of this Horus Heresy First Heretic character so I had to turn to a Kingdom Death model i.e. White Speaker Kisya. So Kisya will now be a proxy for the reincarnation of Cyrene Valantion. As she plays no part in the gaming universe that is W40K, Cyrene will be just fluff for display with my Word Bearer army.

Front view of assembled White Speaker

Back view of assembled White Speaker

Reincarnation of Cyrene Valantion via a Kingdom Death vessel aka Kisya, pictured above with a white undercoat

So far I have only given her a white undercoat followed by a wash of Ogryn Flesh

Based on my previous experience with Lelith, I decided to give Cyrene a wash of Ogryn Flesh before proceeding to paint the basecoats. In addition to covering up potential white spots from showing up in later painting, the wash actually gives me a better view of where the shadows should be.

Cyrene with my Chaos Cultists ... all undercoated with Chaos Black

Ork Lootas
In between preparing my Chaos army for painting, I managed to finish the first squad of Ork Lootas led by a Rokkit Mek. I plan to add another five Lootas to this squad, maybe with a Mek that has a big shoota. But before I do that, I will most likely paint up five Ork Burnaz for variety.

Below is a more detailed look at the three new additions to my Ork Lootas Squad.

Well that's it for this week. Most likely I won't get much done next week as I will be helping Alvin out at MaGaCon 2012. Should be a fun experience.

Rise of a Chaos Space Marine Alliance

It seemed as if the Gods of Chaos themselves had gotten into my head over the past few days. I started assembling one Chaos Cultist to see how it would look ... two days later, the Chaos miniatures in the GW Dark Vengeance starter set were all done and ready for priming.

Finished assembling all the Chaos minis in the Dark Vengeance set in a 2-day mind-blurring haze

Now I am usually a "paint the separate pieces and then glue them together" kinda guy but I was thinking that if I went that route for the DV minis, I would never finish painting them in a timely manner. So for the most part, the Chaos minis in this set will be painted fully assembled ... nearly all of 'em anyway. Old habits die hard so the front of the Hellbrute, the Chaos Lord's sword and the Chaos Chosen Champion's backpack will be painted separately before being glued on.

Awesome details all round ... Chosen will join Abbadon's army while the Hellbrute seems destined for a Word Bearer army

Chaos Cultists awaiting an undercoat and the teachings of a Word Bearer Dark Apostle

After a lot of thought, I decided to use Abbadon the Despoiler and a Word Bearer Dark Apostle as the first leaders of my Chaos Army Alliance. There will be other HQs down the road (Typhus and a Daemon Prince seems the more likely future projects) but for now, a Black Legion / Word Bearers alliance is one I am going with. Abbadon was one of my first HQ purchases many moons ago while the Dark Apostle was just grabbed yesterday.

Abbadon and ... err ... Urkel? Not sure what to name the Word Bearer Dark Apostle yet

Other Non-Chaos Projects
Such is the power of the Gods of Chaos that I haven't been spending much time with my other projects. The Ork Loota aka Rokkit Mek remains very much a work-in-progress ...

Early stages of the Ork Rokkit Mek

... while the Dragon in my future diorama has barely been painted. On hindsight, choosing a white undercoat for this model might not have been the wisest thing I have done because the many small nook and crannies in this Finecast model has made it very difficult to paint an undercoat without some white showing underneath. Not unlike the problem I faced with Lelith.

Initially a homage to The Hobbit but now part of a Diorama with Kingdom Death miniatures

So it has been a rather busy week hobby-wise. Pretty physced up to accelerate my painting for both the Chaos and Ork armies. It's finding the time that's hard now.

Two Ork Lootas, An Ork Trukk Driver and Other Orky Stuff

Got to thinking about the future composition of my son's Ork Army that I am building, and decided to go with maybe 10 to 15 Lootas and 5 Burnaz with the help of some Ork Boyz conversions. That means I have to pick up the pace (I am sounding like a broken record) cause I am only at 2 of 10.

And then there were two ...

Takumi-san ... Ork Trukk Drifter extraordinaire

So much more to paint

More Ork Stuff in the works
Over the weekend, I got my hands on some of Mr Chaos's old stuff which will help speed up the formation of the Ork army. Luckily he was letting 'em go cheaper than what they normally retail for, otherwise they would have been beyond my budget.

Two Ork Big Gunz semi-assembled by Mr.Chaos

Ork Killa Kans, fully-assembled by Mr.Chaos, and now ready for a black undercoat

On my part, I got some parts from my Ork Battleforce and combined them with the Ork Loota Mek to get what I term as a 'Rokkit Mek' (and yes, it's in honour of that great Elton John song).

... I'm not the ork they think I am at home, Oh no no no I'm a rockkit mek,
Rocket mek burning out his fuse up here alone ... (modified from original lyrics)

For the final piece of Orky stuff for this post, I present you with the more detailed pictures of the second Lotta. I didn't do too much highlights on the black/grey metal parts so as to keep that dirty kinda look and feel. Mini could have been improved further but I think I have already spent too much time on it. Stating the obvious I know.

Chaos Space Marine Army
Will also have to concurrently get my own Chaos army up and running. Am thinking of a Black Legion army led by Abbadon which is allied with a Word Bearer Dark Apostle with his chosen marines and cultists, at least something along that line.

Joy of Painting versus a Practical Army List
My armies are forming more from a painting perspective rather than a gaming one. So hopefully I will still manage to find fellow hobbyists willing to give me a game. Also, fingers crossed everyone won't have migrated to the ForgeWorld Horus Heresy stuff by the time I get the armies done up. ^^