Workbench Wednesday

Hello, a few weeks have passed in a blur it seems.

Life is slowly resuming as lockdowns are lifted out of the pandemic.

Shop's are reopening, passengers are returning to public transport making my job busier then it has been for the past three months, and a slew of painting projects have been finished recently, I just haven't had time to post any of them.

So without further ado...

With the announcement of 9th edition 40k and the crusade system, I took the oppourtunity on a break at work to draw up a 50 Power Level list for my Imperial Guard, meaning that the Ventrillian Nobles army will be getting some attention against this year, after languishing in their box for some time.

I started with what Uncle Atom from Tabletop Minions classes as a "Quick Win" .

This Commissar and three Wyrdvane Psykers form a part of the Guard forces I have always been fascinated with but never seem to get any love.

Now technically, I don't have to field them all at the same time, or even together, but I've always had an image of the Psykers being co-erced forwards by a Commissar. One who was always on the lookout for any signs of daemonic possession and would shoot the psyker "for his own good" before the daemon could manifest fully.

What helps is that this Commissar model is one of my favourites of all time:

I love the idea of him reading from the Imperial Creed in an effort to inhibit any daemonic activity around his charges.
Speaking of:

I was lucky enough to get one of each Sanctioned Psyker model off of eBay for a song, and they were in good nick when I got them.
They are in muted greatcoats, with the maroon sashes at their waists to tie them to the greater Ventrillian army, eventually.

For the Martian Adeptus Mechanicus army I am working on I have managed to get three Skitarii Rangers finsihed.

These accompany the Arquebus Skitarii I posted in the previous post, just one more Arquesbus to finish and that's another unit completed.

Finally for 40k, well, Blackstone Fortress, I have now completed all of the models for the Cultists of the Abyss set:

A nice dirty theme for the unit, lots of earthshade washes, but a paler skintone then normal as I wanted the waro touched models to look rather unhealthy compared to the exploration party from the wider Imperium.

The Cultist Firebrand has his flames painted in the same green shades as the previous Black Legion Terminator Sorceror to match that army.

To make the unhealthy skintone, I started with a basecoat of Ushabti Bone rather then a fleshtone. This was then washed with Serpahim Sepia in this case, or Earthshade in the main cultist units case to give some variation.

I still find it strange that the fuel for his flamer seems to come from a tube attached to his spine, but then, when you've been in the warp I guess anything is possible.

I worked with Sycorax Bronze to mix up some of the armour panels, and avoid the gold colours for the lowly cultists. This is a horrid colour if allowed to seperate into its mixture parts and really takes some work to get even coverage at all with. I think i'll use a thin coat of Retributor Armour and Earthshade in future as this makes a nice muted gold/bronze colour.

Finally, for Age of Sigmar I have finished off another leader for the Khorne Bloodbound force and some accompanying Bloodreavers bringing the unit up to twelve models strong.

The new leader this time is an Aspiring Deathbringe, a little lower in rank then the Exalthed Deathbringer from last time. Still a great older metal model. I love the pile of skulls underneath him.

Again with the more muted metal coloured armour with just some red panels for his shoulder pauldrons and icons. His head is actually from the Chaos Chariot kit as I disliked the original.

On a last note, recently here in the UK it was Father's Day, and my boy (with help from his mum) bought me this as a present:

I now have a physical copy of Dragon Rampant, no excuses for not learning the rules properly (I made some major errors in my last battle report) and more regularly.

And:

This is the original version of the book from 1996, a lovely tome of inspiration and ideas, several of which have been earmarked for projects when I get time...ah the ever enemy of the modern working hobbyist, Time...

He also got me a hardbacked copy of Double Eagle, one of my favourite Black Library novels, to replace my tired, dog-eared paperback copy.

"Something to read, Something to play and Something to craft with" was the clues to what was in the giftbag when he gave it to me.

Anyway, that wraps this update of my hobby life up, I'd love to hear from people with their projects and "Quick Wins" in these times.

Until next time...

 - Lewis