Cadmus Tyro Xth and XXth blog: Terror Squad

[Cadmus Tyro]

Ladies and Gentlemen, after a prolonged period of absence I have decided to resurrect my WIP log (I missed your input). I needed a bit of time away from the board to spend with the family (I have a new son! Do they do alpha legion baby grows?), but also to focus on my own direction with the Hobby. I think I’ll keep to posting in the WIP forum from now on, it gives me encouragement to keep going and I hope that it provides you all with some entertainment as well as a few ideas/inspiration.

I'm following your blog, never posted before, but is amazing and does great justice to the 20th. Now, do you need someone to be flayed with excruciating pain?

Thanks Maximvs, I don’t think we need to flay anyone, probably just needed a bit more sleep at the time of my last post!

That Leviathan is wonderful, great posing and the paint looks well. I do think the decals are really what makes it stand out though, I always have a fear of putting on decals and messing them up.

Cheers mate, I needed to use Ferrus’ resin scenic base parts for something!

As promised (albeit a few months ago), here are a few shots of my XXth legion so far:

Although it has grown over the last few months! I have not been Idle in my time away…

Here’s a few close ups of each unit if you’re interested:

Veteran tactical squad (machine killers):

Veteran tactical squad (marksmen):

Volkite caliver team (needs a little work still):

BaC contemptor:

Sicaran Venator:

Cataphractii Terminator squad:

Leviathan dreadnought (slightly over exposed and unfinished):

Let me know what you think J

Cadmus

[Olis]

Can't fault it. Lovely work. Shout out to the Caliver team. :D

[Dr_Ruminahui]

The metallic blue you've gotten on your minis is absolutely gorgeous.

[lionofjudah]

Love yer Alphas and congrats on bringing another son unto the tabletop and I'm sure as a member of the XXth he looks just like his father;)

I'm interested in your terrain!! I've collected a fair amount of the FW pieces and am unsatisfied with the painting thus far. Please share the colors and techniques you've used to achieve such a clean cityscape

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work. I like how metallic and reflective the armor is.

[KrautScientist]

Looking fantastic! A collection to be proud of!

 

Your AL army also serves as another example of those AL decals really being a cut above the rest!

[Cadmus Tyro]

Can't fault it. Lovely work. Shout out to the Caliver team. :D

Thanks Olis, my caliver team wrecked two cortus contemptors via side armour shots in my last friendly game. Infiltration for the win! I'm thinking of reinforcing my iron hands with a squad of medusan immortals in a dreadclaw, all equipped with chargers (it would be rude not too). Think I might name them the myrmidons, full black armour, interlocking shields....awesome.

 

The metallic blue you've gotten on your minis is absolutely gorgeous.

Cheers mate, it's been an interesting journey trying to get uniformity in the colour across each unit, so many stages! But I think it works!

 

Love yer Alphas and congrats on bringing another son unto the tabletop and I'm sure as a member of the XXth he looks just like his father;)

I'm interested in your terrain!! I've collected a fair amount of the FW pieces and am unsatisfied with the painting thus far. Please share the colors and techniques you've used to achieve such a clean cityscape

Thanks! He does indeed look like his father, too young for the alpha legion facial tattoo though....

 

Like you I was a little frustrated with the scale of the plastic 40k buildings and the cost of producing a half decent city scape is quite ridiculous. Skull density was also a problem for me! The buildings are essentially scratch built using the GW plastic tiles to add detail. The buildings were then under coated with vajello black primer, followed by vajello grey primer. The light grey primer is a great base for using a heavy oil wash, made up of a varying mix of burnt umber and lamp black depending on the tone you want. Then use pigments to add visual interest.

 

I can add a few more pics/descriptions about the build process if you're interested?

 

Excellent work. I like how metallic and reflective the armor is.

Many thanks, I think the satin spray really makes the armour pop, the washes/glazes tone it down too much but the satin varnish lifts it just enough.

 

Looking fantastic! A collection to be proud of!

 

Your AL army also serves as another example of those AL decals really being a cut above the rest!

I just need to grow the force a little now! The decals are fantastic, the designs are great but the quality of the transfer makes them really easy to use. They usually bed down to the surface with just one coat of Microsol, even on shoulder pads!

 

Well, thanks for all the comments, I'll add some more pics of the buildings if there is interest, otherwise, I'll post up the first recon marine squad when they are fully built!

 

Cadmus

[Olis]

Can't fault it. Lovely work. Shout out to the Caliver team.

Thanks Olis, my caliver team wrecked two cortus contemptors via side armour shots in my last friendly game. Infiltration for the win! I'm thinking of reinforcing my iron hands with a squad of medusan immortals in a dreadclaw, all equipped with chargers (it would be rude not too). Think I might name them the myrmidons, full black armour, interlocking shields....awesome.

Ash for the ash throne! Good kills, brother. :tu:

Iron Hands you say? Chargers, you say? The MDRC would approve, brother. :D

[steamius]

The blue is fantastic! 

[Knight of the Raven]

 Lovely candy marines.

Alpha Legion.

 

I mean lovely Alpha Legion.

 

(it would be rude not too)

It's indeed rude to bring anything less than overkill squared against your enemies.

 

And if they complain that you're being too mean, you should eat them. They have nothing to do in the grim darkness of the far future.

[Mitsman]

I am not supposed to congratulate the enemy but... BEAUTIFUL army. Very nice colours and good decal work too!

I also love the buildings, they are a very pleasant deviation from the standard imperial buildings we are used too.

Very well done!

 

Mitsman

[Cadmus Tyro]

Lovely candy marines.

Alpha Legion.

 

I mean lovely Alpha Legion. :ph34r:

 

 

 

(it would be rude not too)

 

It's indeed rude to bring anything less than overkill squared against your enemies.

 

And if they complain that you're being too mean, you should eat them. They have nothing to do in the grim darkness of the far future.

Thanks? Well metallic schemes aren't to everyone's taste I suppose....I think they look... sweet?

[Cadmus Tyro]

Evening all! Another week, another post. Thanks for all your kind words and comments! I've managed to finish my first five recon marines:

I decided to try out some brass rod in place of the plastic tubing, it gives a better finish with more barrel detail and its much more stable!

The capes have had several layers of "ard coat" hence the shine!

I think my favorite is the sergeant, they will get used as recon marines or seekers depending on the RoW used, and what 8th edition brings......

I got a little tired of the generic MK6 plastic squat position, tried a bit of re-positioning which you can see on one of the marines. Here's a before and after comparison shot:

Its simple, but makes the pose a little more dynamic, what do you think?

And finally, had a great friendly game with my bro recently, I let him use the iron tenth and I took the alphas for a spin. Here's my favorite photo of the game:

The man of the match, blowing up a spartan turn two and almost the proteus (the "almost" cost me the gamein the end!):

It was all going well until this chap made an appearance:

First time on the receiving end of Ferrus, he took all the shooting from my leviathan and then proceeded to hammer to death in combat....and I got the charge off....

I'm going to work on a metallic black scheme for the recon marines, I'll be back for some opinion polls at some point. Then it's on to project almost-Typhon....

Thanks for looking.

Cadmus

[DaBoiKyknos]

Cool conversions Cadmus! You might have stated it elsewhere, but I want to ask nonetheless: What is the material of the coats?

 

Greetings,

Velype

[Brother Pheidias]

Turned out great!

[Cadmus Tyro]

Cool conversions Cadmus! You might have stated it elsewhere, but I want to ask nonetheless: What is the material of the coats?

 

Greetings,

Velype

Cheers Velype, I used BCKs tissue cape method, but instead of successive PVA layers I used gloss varnish after the second PVA layer.

Here's the link to his tutorial:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/286080-tutorial-capes-made-from-tissue/

 

Turned out great!

Thanks bud, how are your scars coming along?

[Brother Pheidias]

Thanks bud, how are your scars coming along?

Great thank, just two Javeins with Lascannons to go, then I'll land at around 3000 pts, depending on HQs and upgrades!

 

Have a look in my thread, there's some new stuff since last you looked, I believe.

[Pearson73]

Leg repose works well, as you say; simple but definitely effective.

[Cadmus Tyro]

Hi all,

I've put project "almost-typhon" on hold for a little while, I managed to get hold of some vallejo metallic black for my airbrush and I've spent my hobby time experimenting with it to develop a scheme for my recon marines. I'm trying to achieve a very dark metallic blue by using deeper base colors and shades (when compared with my standard alpha scheme).

So my recon boys are primed and base coated with Vallejo metallic black:

I'm going to put up a series of images that denote the stages I've used to create the final color using "Brother Sergeant Testor". A lot of the stages are overly gloss in finish (as I'm using Tamiya inks) but fear not, I will finish the model with Matt varnish to take the shine away. I'm interested to hear your opinions about the different tones at each stage and whether I should just stick at a certain stage, or whether the end result is reasonable.

So, Sergeant Testor in Vallejo metallic black:

Gun metal highlight:

I feel this stage may be a little too subtle? Perhaps a lighter silver applied over the top would add more visual interest to the later stages?

Tamiya Smoke layer:

Tamiya Clear blue layer:

Nuln Oil gloss (brush application)

Matt Varnish to limit the shine!:

So there you have it folks, which stage works as a tone? Or should I cut my losses and just put some nuln oil over the original base color?

As always, your input is much appreciated!

Cadmus

[GREY88]

Why does srg. Testor look more blue? I personally like it better!

[Cadmus Tyro]

Why does srg. Testor look more blue? I personally like it better!

Cheers grey88, that's the before and after, so the blue is the finished colour on the sergeant, it's the test model for the recon marines. I wanted to get an idea of people's preferences before I commit to painting the squad. The recon marine is just for comparison.

 

Is it too "night lord" like?

 

Should the tone be darker?

 

Cadmus

[Cadmus Tyro]

Hi all,

Brief update today, I finally bit the bullet and settled on a scheme, I'm happy with the results so far:

The image gives you an idea of the shade, I was goIng for a darker teal. Under high level light they look teal/blue, medium level they take on a green hue and low level, black. They are very glossy at the moment, so decent images are hard to take!

Stay tuned for more...

Cadmus

[brother tycho]

Hits the brief beautifully.  Bold move to change the armour base colour from the rest of the army

[Cadmus Tyro]

Hits the brief beautifully.  Bold move to change the armour base colour from the rest of the army

Thanks Marcusc, it's a bit of an experiment to be honest! I want to build a recon company perhaps with some primaris lightning support at some point.....I didn't feel my current scheme lent itself well to infiltration! They still need a lot of work, detailing/shading etc. When they're done I'll coat them with satin and perhaps even matt varnish, that will hopefully keep the colour but reduce the shine!

 

Thanks for the comment and for looking!

 

Cadmus

[Cadmus Tyro]

Not sure if this image is any better, an earlier WIP shot:

I'm not fully convinced red is the way to go with eye lenses, any other suggestions? Perhaps yellow?

Cadmus