Sanai's 40k Paintlog- Hydra Dominatus

[Sanai]

I have decided to do a bit of a clean out (namely getting rid of all of the redunant 40k paintlogs I have). To keep it neat I shall have just one paintlog for all of my 40kness.

For the moment however, this will be mostly about Alpha Legion, as I am trying to focus on actually getting one army painted up in spite of my ADD/Aspergers & horrible attention span.

I have almost finished painting up my Alpha Legion Helbrute, which has basically served as a test model for working out how to paint Alpha Legion armour. I just have one problem... I seem to have misplaced the armour plate that goes over the front of the model.

I have also started paint stripping all of my other Chaos models, to give them a fresh start in being painted. This is largely because I was very indecisive as how to paint them and painted them many times... followed by a failed experiment with re-basecoating them with Army Painter's Blue Primer Spray. I would not recommend Army Painter's Blue Primer it applies too... rough for my tastes. Contrary to usual tradition, Citadels Maccrage Blue seems to work better, as long as you don't press down the nozzle too hard (it comes out very fast).

On top of that, I have finally realized my ambition to kitbash up a Chaos Sorcerer (I don't really like the existing model options for Chaos Sorcerers).

Pictures of the Helbrute & Sorcerer will follow in the next post (though you won't be able to discern much about the Sorcerer except for his general pose as he is primed blue at the moment)

 

[Sanai]

Helbrute (WIP)

Not really happy with the plasma coils on the Helbrute, but apart from that and maybe some washing/highlighting on the metal & a bit of clean up here and there... and the obviously missing sarcophagus armour plate, he is basically done.

Chaos Sorcerer (WIP)

Here is a brief list of parts used in the Chaos Sorcerer kitbash;
-Dark Angels Robed Legs/body (with insignia shaved off)
-Space Marine arm & open hand (not sure which kits they come from)
-Chaos Vehicle armour plate (basing detail)
-Chaos Raptor Sword Arm, Shoulder Plates & Head
-Dark Vengeance Backpack
-Dark Elf Open Spellbook (not sure which kit)
-Scrolls, Key & Chaos necklace from Tzeentch knows what kits.
-Chaos Space Marine Loincloth

Overall I am really happy with the result- I will probably end up using him more than the Dark Vengeance Chaos Lord. I have yet to think up a name for him.... I feel he deserves something unique to him rather than just calling him Alpharius. It was really tricky finding basing detail that I was happy with- the way the end of the loincloth sits he needed something sloping to stand on. The only other real difficulty was the fact I couldn't find a pistol for him that could sit at his waist without looking too bulky, so in the end I just left him without a pistol.

I doubt anyone will call me out on not having a bolt pistol as why would I ever shoot with his bolt pistol when he can shoot bolts of psychic lightning?

 

[Sanai]

So, I have made good progress on the Chaos Sorcerer (as he is the only Alpha Legion thing I can paint until I find the missing part for the Helbrute & finish stripping the rest of the models).

He is still far from finished- the armour needs highlighting, the yellow stuff needs layering & washing (or maybe glazing) to make it all glowy/sickly/evil looking, and I am not 100% happy with the colour of the robes yet. But this picture at least allows you to get a better idea of what he looks like.
His loadout in game will be (you can see most of this on the model)
-Force Sword, Bolt Pistol & Power Armour
-Mastery Level 3
-Mark of Tzeentch
-Sigil of Corruption
-Scrolls of Magnus or Dimensional Key, depending on points/what mood I am in.
-1 Tzeentch Power
-2 Telepathy Powers

He will generally go into battle via rhino with a squad of 9 Chaos marines- leading my Close Combat Chosen is reserved for my Chaos Lord.

I like the model so much I will probably create an identical copy, except use those dark eldar wings to convert the backpack into a daemonic jump pack.... because flying around the battlefield shooting psychic powers at things is a very fun way to use psykers (as I have learnt from using Daemon Princes)


edit: I am thinking of doing some kind of purple or green glow effect on his outstretched fingers, to make it look like he is blasting someone with a psychic power.....

 

[The Sun King]

Nice kitbash. Could you get higher resolution on the pics?

 

[Sanai]

I probably could (I did resize the pictures to make them smaller which squished down the resolution, but that was mostly to avoid them being too big/taking a long time to load).

I will experiment with the camera and resizing and stuff to try and get better pics- photography is not my strong point.

I had been puzzling over how to do the yellow force weapon, until I saw the painting guides for imperial knights in white dwarf- the section on painting yellow eyes is pretty close to the tone/shade I want, by leaving the edges black and applying seraphim sepia to the yellow. Now I just need to figure out how to layer things in the right way on the large surface of a sword.....

Here is the artwork that more or less inspired me to use yellow instead of the more traditional purple used in chaos weaponry-

 

[Sanai]

I couldn't sleep, so instead I have been up at midnight painting cultists. Here are some WIPs- The leather/Metal/Basing needs the most work at this point, and some things need detailing (cables, eyes, etc). These guys have been reasonably quick to knock out and are way more fun than painting power armour, so I am going to get my cultists & Sorcerer done first before I move onto regular Chaos Marines & Chosen.

The shirtless guy is by far my favourite.

 

[hairyjeff]

Good stuff!

 

[Sanai]

I have finally located that sarcophagus piece for the Helbrute- now all that needs doing is his toenails (which I forgot to do) and the base..... I have decided to name him "Eyeback the Unleashed". Gold star for anyone who gets the reference.

Now that he is almost finished, I feel that he needs a friend or two. I am thinking that once my cultists, Sorcerer and Helbrute are 100% finished, I will reward myself with the new helbrute kit that is coming out.... I am thinking one with a Reaper Autocannon & Missile Launcher.

 

[Sanai]

I have finished 9 cultists, and am close to completing my two helbrutes. One more helbrute and I will be able to field a Helbrute Mayhem Pack, which is a formation from the Helbrutes Dataslate that features 3 Helbrutes that arrive by deep strike at the same time, roll on the crazed table every turn and have it will not die.

Until I get a third Helbrute however, I will field one as a regular helbrute, and the other as part of a Helcult, a formation that consists of two units of cultists and a helbrute. The cultists provide a cover save to the Helbrute and the brute confers fearless to the cultists until it dies, at which point the cultists get the zealot special rule.

 

[Sanai]

Okay, the first 10 Cultists are complete! Unfortunately, when taking the photo on my Iphone, I couldnt see that the ones in the front were out of focus, so the photo didn't turn out very well.

Anyways, just 14 more cultists and my unit of Autopistol & Close Combat Weapon cultists will be complete- after that I have 16 autogun cultists to paint up, then my cultist horde will be complete (for now).

I plan on at some point acquiring another full set of Dark Vengeance cultists, which I will kitbash with VC zombie & corpse cart zombie parts to try and round out my collection to one 35 man squad of melee cultists and two 18 man squads of autogun cultists.

Of course, for now I will be settling for getting my existing 40 cultists finished, before moving on to adding the finishing touches to my Helbrutes & Sorcerer. After that I will begin work on painting up my Dark Vengeance Chosen & Possessed, along with the two Rhinos they will ride in.

 

[Sanai]

Between applications of paint on cultists, I have been working on my Daemon Prince... mostly because every CSM army needs a daemon prince, in case you roll a Dark Ascension. I plan on having his colours mostly tie in with the rest of the army- Blue Armour with green edge highlights, green loincloth, yellow eyes, yellow daemon sword, green scales on his back, gray horns/claws, etc.

The bit I am stuck on is his skin- I tried doing gray skin, but as you can see it just doesn't seem to work for the model (at least not my attempt).

I am thinking that maybe black or purple skin will work better. Thoughts?

 

[Sanai]

For a bit of a change in pace, I have been working on some of the more modelling/assembling side of things, and on things from the other side of the divide between Chaos & the Imperium.

To my consternation, I was unable to find my limited edition chaplain, or one of the front armour plates for the dark vengeance bikes.

Regardless, I went ahead and did the basing work for my Dark Vengeance Dark Angels (Which I will be painting as Disciples of Caliban).

I havn't bothered taking pictures of the tactical squad or bikers, but here are some snaps of the Terminators and Characters, including a Company Veteran I cobbled together from spare parts.

I also decided to assemble my finecast Lord Commissar... but once again, I found I had misplaced a part- this time the bolt pistol arm. Rather than let this deter me, I scrounged through my bits for a suitable replacement, and decided to give him an upgrade. I trimmed down the shoulder of a Forgeworld Marine Bionic arm and it slotted into the space the bolter pistol arm goes into really nicely. I decided to give him a really archaic looking Plasma pistol from the same upgrade set as the Bionic arm, as guard issue weapons look too small for the bionic, and I am really pleased with the result. A spare bit of tank ladder on his base gave me a way to make him stand slightly above the rank and file.

Once my Cultists, Helbrutes & Chaos Sorcerer are all painted up, I will probably take a break from painting Alpha Legion to paint my Disciples of Caliban & this Commissar, so as to clear my work space of all of these models.

 

[Sanai]

As someone on another forum requested pics of my chaos cultists, I took a new photo of them because I had painted more since the old photos, so heres a picture of my first 15 completed cultists. Only 25 to go!

 

[Sanai]

Just two more melee cultists to put the finishing touches on!

Next up, shooty cultists and putting the finishing touches on my two helbrutes and the sorcerer....

What shall I work on next? Chaos Bikers? Chaos Marines? Possessed? The Chosen and Chaos Lord?

 

[Sanai]

So I finally broke down and bought some orks! Here are some wip Ork Boyz- they still need cleaning up and some gs work before I can undercoat them (not to mention some basing detail)

Because these boyz were made using a single box of boyz combined with a heap of fantasy orc bitz I won in a GW giffle, there weren't enough shootas to go around, so I had to improvise some kustom dakka by cutting apart Sluggas like so-

It was just a case of cutting the barrel of one of the sluggas that actually has a magazine, then cutting a magazine-less slugga from the hand holding it, then pinning the two together with brass rod. For shorter smg style shootas, I also cut the smaller put of the slugga body of.

With the longer "Assault Rifle" Style shootas, I am not sure yet if I am going to add something to fill in the gap underneath the middle of the weapon- maybe a grip of some kind taken from bolters?

I have found the IG Grenade Launcher barrel is also handy for creating shootas, as its just the right size barrel.

 

[Santawraith]

Nice kit bashes and conversions.

 

[Sanai]

So, as promised, here are pictures of my cultists! They were a blast to paint, but it sure took ages! Also included is the first of my objective markers. I have wrapped everything in spoiler tags to make it easier for images to load. Also included are some short fluff pieces. Enjoy!

Spoiler: Cult of the Shattered Imperium

13 Cultists with Autoguns, Shotgun, Heavy Stubber & Mark of Tzeentch
Of the heretical cults that follow the Alpha Legion from warzone to warzone, the Cult of the Shattered Imperium are perhaps the most idealistic, and the most dangerous. They believe that only chaos can save the Imperium from itself, and that it is their duty to the people of the Imperium to open their eyes to the glory and majesty of the chaos gods.

Spoiler: Cult of Chaos Ascendant

12 Cultists with Autoguns, Heavy Stubber, Shotgun & Mark of Tzeentch
The Cult of Chaos Ascendant are hardcore chaos worshippers. These dangerous zealots care only for doing the work of the chaos gods. They look on the blind people of the Imperium with utter contempt, often carrying out brutal massacres on captive or helpless populations.

Spoiler: Cult of the Bale Eye

14 Cultists with Flamer & Mark of Tzeentch
The Cult of the Bale Eye are lead by Hieronymos Vakh, a former ministorium priest & librarian who was corrupted by a forbidden tome that accidentally ended up in his possession. The Cult of the Bale Eye are constantly searching for more hidden knowledge, or debating the finer points of their lunatic philosophy, even amidst the fires of battle.

Spoiler: Cult of the Three Flames

14 Cultists with Flamer & Mark of Tzeentch
The Cult of the Three Flames are murderous fanatics, who joined the forces of chaos simply to indulge their lust for Anarchy and murder. They revel in the lack of rules and restrictions brought about by their new lifestyle, and take great pleasure in witnessing the random and fickle nature of fate.

Spoiler: Makairsson the Irascible

Objective Marker
Makairsson, known as "The Irascible" by his fellow squadmates, was grievously wounded. He dragged his useless leg, punctured in two places by enemy bolt rounds, as he struggled to remain conscious. The usual twin beats of his hearts were thrown out of sync by the ominous absence of any activity from his primary heart. Still, he had a mission to complete. Only when it was complete could he allow death to take him. His duty to the Legion demanded no less. He found a place to wait, his body unable to carry him any further. He cast aside the dead power pack of his now barely functional armor, resigned to fate. He knew better than to hope his Legion would reach him first- Tzeentch was a fickle god, and to trust in fate was madness. All that remained was to greet his brothers with the information they required, or his enemies with bolter fire.

 

[TMS]

Nicely done, I like that funky green you've got on your cultists, and the much more subtle use of it on the marine.

 

[Sanai]

@MasterSpark Thankyou! I was actually doing something a bit weird with the green on the cultists, by using waywatcher green (the green glaze) as a wash. Was very messy so had to do the green as the first thing on each model I painted.

I still need to apply a transfer to the shoulder pad of the objective marker, but that will have to wait till I get myself some Lahmian medium.