AoS - Defenders of Ancestor's Fyrd, part 2.

The Stormcast Liberators of Prime Galerius.

Aside from Lord Casellant Jaresh, Liberator Prime Galerius and his unit have the distinction of being the longest lived members of The Celestial Legion stationed to Ancestor's Fyrd, having gone fifty years without being reborn in Azyr.

They have defended the town against numerous incursions from hostile forces, earning particular renown against the Black Axe Brayherd.

With more forces being drawn to Acenstor's Fyrd in recent years, the Stormcast have made the decision to move from defence of the walls to active patrols beyond the city limits in an effort to counter potential threats before they can cause a serious danger.

 I have been painting this unit in my (not much) spare time recently. Switching between these and other projects to keep momentum rolling.

Not wanting the traditional "In yo'face" Gold of the standard GW colours, but wanting to try an army of mainly metallic colours, I opted for a Bronze scheme tied with red to keep the colours warm. Additionally, I wanted to try drybrushing as a main technique rather then just for weathering which I have always used it for. I also used a Crimson wash over the basecoat o Screaming Bell, before drybrushing up through bronze colours with a final drybrush of silver. This I feel gives a very rich and warm saturation to the metallic, as opposed to using something like Earthshade which would have given harsher shadows int he armour plates.

I am happy with how the unit turned out, they felt very Romanesque as I was painting them so the idea of the "Legion" was born, I see these guys as being the Sledgehammers to the other Order units Anvils when they are all ready for battle.

As these Stormcast have been based in Ghur for their entire career so far, I decided to convert a few bare heads using Space Wolf spares from the bitz box. These have a more wild look to them and do give the impression of the Liberators starting to "go native" as it were. It also breaks up the endless masks of the force as well.



So with two units for the Defenders, the Chaos forces need some serious bolstering for their side. I may focus on those a little more until the new year, when I have a new project in mind!


Until next time...


 - Lewis

40k - Thoughts about 40k and introducing kids.

Earlier this morning I noticed a post on Facebook about introducing a child to 40k. The universe is quite nasty and brutal at times as you would expect with a central theme of warfare and sci-fi.

I posted about a personal experience I had with my youngest niece. I'll paste my comment below:

"One important thing for when she gets a bit older is to try to "kiddify" some of the more mature stuff. Back in 5th edition my youngest niece (who is a giant fantasy fan of LotR and HP) picked up my shiny new Grey Knights codex which I had just bought and left on the side when I got home.

Straight away she is sat. Ext to me asking about who the guys with the horns are in the art and why the good Knights are killing them. Then came the question :

"What's an exorcism?"

So there I am having to explain what a Daemon is (it's a bad thing created by a person's thoughts in this game) and an exorcism (is them getting rid of the daemons by a ritual). Which satisfied her curiosity and didn't go too far down the rabbit hole.

The problem came when the next Monday at school to answer the question "what did you do this weekend?" She wrote down that she had learnt about daemons and exorcisms from her uncle...

I ended up being called into the school to talk to her teacher who tried to scold me for telling her about it.
"My niece is a smart girl" I replied, "she can use Google better then her mother... imagine what she would have found if she had typed 'exorcism' into the search engine. By me telling her the cliff note version I saved a lot of problems so why wouldn't I explain it to her?"

The point is that kids are smarter then we think and given some of the bits of fluff which will be uncovered by inquisitor little ones, don't shy away from a basic version, as they will understand and you can head off problems which may come in the future".

I stand by this advice as imagine a seven year old (as she was at the time) googling "The Exorcist" movie or getting some historical references, if I hadn't tried to explain things simply...

Likewise she asked about the Blood Angels when they were released in 5th as well. "Well they are Angels who fight to defend normal people against everytbing, blood is part of their theme and to represent the blood they defend".
I decided to avoid the whole vampire, psychic backlash, etc.
Which she understands now she is older.

As I said on FB, children are far smarter then we give them credit for, they will understand and ask questions.

I look forward to when my son asks about my hobby, if he does great, if he isn't interested (like at the minute) then that's fine as well.

Until next time...

 - Lewis

40k - Aearion, Protector of the Solar Priest.

Another character model I have finished recently was Aearion.

When 8th edition came out and the Dark Imperium box set, one of my friends bought two boxes for the Death Guard and gave me one of the Primaris Captain models from it. I will admit to not being the biggest fan of the Primaris themselves, as I feel that GW could have made their release an awful lot better by simply looking at their fluff and giving Chaos something badass which caused the Imperium to HAVE to react and make the Primaris, but I'm not a writer for GW.

So here was this model, which I wasn't really a fan of, but my friend was expecting me to do something with as we were taking part in a painting competition at our local GW store.

Here is the result:

He is a standard Primaris Captain in Gravis armour, but the head and backpack come= from one of the Ravenwing sprues. His arms and shoulder pads are from the Tactical Marines box and the icon on his backpack is from the Mk.4 marines box. The Ravenwing and Mk.4 Icon I got from my friend as well.
I wanted to do a pale gold colour scheme as I felt that would contrast well with the red of the cape I was planning, with a little white as a spot colour, limiting your pallet of colours like this makes the miniature a lot easier to paint, but also much more interesting to the eye.
For an added feature, I added some classic chequerboard patterning around the hem of his cloak, most of which got drybrushed over with dust as I messed bit of it up and the deadline was looming.

Whilst I was painting him, I came up with a backstory to go along with the model:


 Aearion, Protector of the Solar Priest.

A Manifestation in real space of the Emperor's will in the Astronomicon itself, sightings of the "Solar Priest", as it has become known, were once common whilst undergoing warp travel, reported by all from lowly Imperial Guardsman all the way up to Lord Generals.

Since the coming of the great tear in space known as the Cicatrix Maledictum, sightings of this being have become rarer, lacking the frequency of reportings from before. Reports abound of a floating skeletal apparition clothed in ragged robes. There is no denying that the authoritarian power comes from the Emperor.

Aearion, was tasked with his protection orders after the Solar Priest presented itself before Primarch Robute Guilliman. Two days of tense conversation convince the Avenging Son that this WAS a manifestation of the Emperor and not some warp fiend trick.

Clad in pale gold Gravis Armour and bearing a simple power sword and plasma pistol. Once he had taken his Oath of Moment before Guilliman himself, he stoically accepted his arms and armour and has not uttered a single word since.

Aearion keeps a faithful watch over his charge, who seems to be moving with a purpose towards worlds in the grip of Chaotic Invasion.

Why this is so, remains a mystery...


In the event, I didn't make it to GW with him as I was sick on the day of the competition, but he was a good little project to do. I do have plans to convert the Solar Priest model in the future however, so I'll have the duo done at some point.

Until next time.


 - Lewis

40k - Commander Dante of the Blood Angels

Continuing my recently finished character models spree, we have Command Dante of the Blood Angels:


"For eleven hundred years, I have fought and I have seen the darkness in our galaxy. I have seen the vileness of the alien and the heresy of the mutant. I have witnessed the sin of possession. I have seen all the evil that the galaxy harbours, and I have slain all whose presence defiles the Emperor. I have seen what you will see. I have fought what you must fight, and I have slain what you must slay... so fear not and be proud, for we are the sons of Sanguinius, the protectors of Mankind. Aye, we are indeed the Angels of Death."

Dante has been one ofmy favourite characters from 40k since I started the game waaaaay back in 2nd edition.

Him along with Asodai of the Dark Angels were two of my all time favourite models.

This model was the first one my girlfriend ever bought me, and I am sorry that it has taken me nearly six years to get him finished for the cabinet, but he is done now, that is all that matters.

He is a Finecast model and was a good cast overall, apart from the haft of the Axe Mortallis was more bent then a ten bob note. With the axe and jump pack replaced by Sanguinary Guard versions he was ready to go.

His standard Gold colour scheme was easy to pull off, more difficult was the fact that I made the decision to attempt the glowing effect you can make out in the vents of his jump pack, some drybrushing of soot around it and some dust for his feet and he was ready.


Until next time.


 - Lewis

40k - Alfwar the Wolf Eye

Finishing up a few character models recently.

The first is Alfwar the Wolf Eye.

A converted Wolf Priest in Terminator armour for my long ago started (and never finished) Space Wolves army.

He uses a standard Space Wolf Terminator model, but with the addition of a Wolf Pack helmet and the arms from a regular Terminator Chaplain I had spare, along with a small icon for the top of his armour.

Other then naming him, I never came up with any backstory for this guy, I'll work on one soon as I refresh my Wolf Guard Terminators which always accompanied him into back.



Until next time



 - Lewis

Hobby - Dice Trays, part 1.

A conversation the other day sparked an idea which I have seen online several times and meant to get round to doing but never did.

Whilst gaming at our LGS, dice kept falling off of the table and rolling underneath it. Now we aren't big guys, but equally not the most athletic either, so this became a problem after a while...

 Today, whilst out with the family, I picked up some supplies to make a couple of Dice Trays.

Behold...

The core is an Ikea Ribba 23cm x 23cm picture frame. There is also some felt and some heavy duty spray glue (usually used for carpets).

To start with we have to disassemble the picture frame, flipping it over there are the usual little metal clips which simply fold out:

The black bits..

Once these are folded out, you can take the entire thing to pieces and you end up with this:

The main frame, the inner box frame, backing mdf board, two pieces of cardboard and a piece of clear plastic.
The only thing I haven't kept was the piece of cardboard with the writing on it, the square cut out carboard I have some vague notion of a plan for, maybe some sort of surround for a monument. Likewise with the clear plastic, that has been kept and put in the terrain supplies box as it would be perfect for simulating glass in windows without having to pay out for a proper modelling product, why spend when you can recycle?

The rest of the process to create these is very simple, as you simply cut the felt to the size of the mdf board and glue it on, then reassemble the picture frame, but without the plastic and such, giving you a box to roll your dice in and they wont go everywhere.

Here are the two which I made earlier tonight in about thirty minutes whilst the girlfriend was watching something on Netflix:

So for thirty minutes of my time and about £13 in total I have two dice trays to take with me when we go to the LGS.

You will note that this is "part 1" of this project, I plan on making a couple of paint masks and spraying the Imperial Aquilla in Black on the Grey Tray and the Twin-Tailed Comet of Sigmar in White on the Black tray, so I will have one for 40K and one for Age of Sigmar (and related games).

That's the plan anyway, it might take some time yet to make the masks properly.

Until next time...


 - Lewis