Scaling the grey mountain of shame. Heresy Dark Angels

[Dwango]

I've been into the hobby, on and off, since I was a kid. Not sure of the edition, but I was playing with metal Eldar in the late 90s. I remember I was part of a national GW campaign detailing battles held across all the stores. I think it was against the nids on Piscina and was around the time of a big metal nids release. I almost sent in a mail order form for lictor, carnifex and a biovore. Anyway, it was a long time ago and as such I have rather a large mountain of shame (I didn't paint much as a kid, didn't have the patience!).

I recently decided to start putting paint to plastic and after searching around the web I decided to join the B&C earlier this year. I have partaken in a number of painting events which has seen me knuckle down and get a fair few minis painted. Although I have found I've probably rushed a few minis to meet deadlines, I think (hope!) my painting skills are improving.

I'm always looking to improve my skill set so, instead of clogging up the event threads, I thought I should start my own WIP thread to see what you, the B&C community, thought. I have taken so much inspiration from here I thought I should put something back. You never know, there may even just be some bits I share that will be useful to someone else as I do enjoy a conversion or two.

Now, as I'm lazy, this will probably contain lots of different factions (eventually anyway!) as I have a mountains of grey plastic in various boxes and cupboards in my house. To give people an idea of what may come up. I have;

Easily a 10k plus HH era Dark Angels. 5k plus of Craftworld Eldar (aeldari) Harlequins & Exodites. Lots of Inquisition, Deathwatch & Grey Knights. A couple of boxes sets destined to be Primaris Rift Stalkers. 3 x Imperial knights House Orhlacc. 20 x The Death Deliverers, House Escher. 5k plus of Red Corsairs & the Weaping Legion & 4 x chaos Knights.

Phew, that's a lot of minis now I come to think of it and writing it down has slightly overwhelmed me lol! Not that it will stop me buying more no doubt. Nothing like a challenge.

As the Call Of Chaos is upon us, my first few posts will be the Chaos Knights I have vowed. After that, well it's anybody's guess. There will be a mixture of standard and converted minis on here so I hope it will be of interest to some.

(Apologies for the long first post)

So, first up is a Knight Tyrant. I have used some very helpful advice obtained here to create a weathered effect with liquid green stuff.

Although this is a Desicrater loadout it will be a rampager (incarnate slaughter). I have just Khornifyed it a bit.

And a couple of 'slaved' war dogs that will also be suitable Khornifyed.

This is a group shot of where I am at so far

And a close up of the Tyrants armour. I have tried to create a moss effect following a GW Sylvaneth base tutorial I found. I may try and us a similar method to add lichen to the armour too. I'm trying to achieve a really worn, weathered look. One only to befit such a disciple of nurgle. Still lots to do mind.

Please let me know what you think so far. C&C welcome.

Cheers.

Edited November 28, 2022 by Dwango

[Naryn]

Looks great! Tons of lovely Nurgle-y detail on that knight. The Khornate trio work great together too.

[Dwango]

Thanks Naryn. It's been interesting adding the various bits of weathering. Good learning curve too.

So I've made progress on the tyrant. Not sure if I like the tabard. My concern is that it is too pink compared to the rest of the model.

Still got a lot to do on the frame as I need to weather it up. Also need to finish the nurglings, weapons and couple of other bits.

I've also been finishing a couple of plague marine squads. These are from the Weaping Legion. C&c welcome.

Cheers

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

They look great so far, looking forward to seeing more on that big list of yours :D

[Elzender]

Everything is looking fantastic, both conversion- and painting-wise!

 

Regarding the skin tabard, you could go for a more yellowish or brownish hue, after all the skin is only pink due to the blood in the vessels on it, and by the time the skin is used as the tabard most blood would have run out or degraded.

[Dwango]

Everything is looking fantastic, both conversion- and painting-wise!

Regarding the skin tabard, you could go for a more yellowish or brownish hue, after all the skin is only pink due to the blood in the vessels on it, and by the time the skin is used as the tabard most blood would have run out or degraded.

Thanks for this. That is a very fair point. I'll give that a go and see how it turns out.

 

Cheers Kolgrim. I have the knights and another sqd of weaping legionnaires to finish then I think I may try my hand at some harlequins.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Death Guard members and the Nurgle Knight.

[Frostbit3]

You don’t see a lot of straight up brown in 40k. Makes it really stand out. Almost like leather in the pics. Keep it up. Trying new things is the only way to evolve as a painter.

[Dwango]

You don’t see a lot of straight up brown in 40k. Makes it really stand out. Almost like leather in the pics. Keep it up. Trying new things is the only way to evolve as a painter.

Cheers Frostbit3. You don't really do you! I figure it would befit a scion of nurgle to rock the browns! I have enjoyed the process.

Quick update.

My tyrant is nearly finished. I've not had a solid block of time to work on it so it seems to be taking forever. The progress I have made is below;

I plan to use some resin to create an iced over body of water. I'll do this once I work out how I'm going to base the other knights. Other than that the base is done.

The weapons are done, apart from the nurgling and a small nurgle detail. Didn't want to make them too busy so kept them pretty simple to fit with the body of the knight.

C&C welcome.

Cheers.

[Custom Hero]

Very nice so far. I like how you’ve incorporated the nurglings in without making them over the top or the center if attention.

[Dwango]

Cheers @customhero. I don't think it would be the same without a few of the little critters about!

Although I'm not fully happy with some of the detailing, mainly the glass elements and the eyes (man I hate painting eyes!), my tyrant is finished.

I've also managed to start back on the Incarnate Slaughter by doing my first ever free hand design. Well I say it's free hand but I drew it out with a micron pen first, still counts right! Not overly happy with the arrows on the pauldrons so may go back over these to neaten them up. As the Incarnate Slaughter fell to chaos during a bloody battle with the nids, the arrows are meant to be formed from the remains of defeated foes. As such I thought I'd add in a bit of liquid greenstuff to simulate icor and flesh. I'm toying with adding skulls and bones to but we shall see.

If anyone has any ideas for a suitable khornate base, one that fits into the rest of the bases in my army (they are a mix of astrogranit & stirland) then I'm open to suggestions!

C&C welcome.

Cheers.

[Frostbit3]

I would keep the Astrogranite and stirland, so they all go together but what might look pretty awesome is if you had a few Khorne hounds running around his legs like hunting dogs.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work.

 

As for a Khornate Knight's base, the obvious answer is dead warriors' crushed remains floating in a pool of blood. Don't forget to add copious bloodstains on the Knight's arms (to show he engaged in "honorable" melee combat, including using his cannons as clubs to whack his enemies) and legs (to show he crushed his enemies underfoot).

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Holy cow that thing is cool looking, the green flames really pop! Excellent job so far!

[Dwango]

@frostbit3 that is an interesting idea. I don't have any hounds but I will have a look on Ebay to see if I can get a couple.

 

@Bjorn you're right, it does need plenty of blood stains. I may well attempt to do a blood dripping effect from its gauntlet. Need to research it. It would be rude not to include a dead smurf or two on there too! Maybe one being mauled by a hound. Scraps for the pack!

 

@kolgrim cheers buddy. I was unsure of the back flames but they seem to frame it well. I'm hoping for a similar result with my rampager but more bloody obviously lol!

[Sgt. Blank]

Awesome looking knights and quick progress too! The conversions on the Tyrant are nice and the paint work really solidifies its allegiance.

[Dwango]

@Sgt.Blank cheers buddy. I took loads of inspiration from the internet and felt a brown/red weathered look really would typify a worshipper of nurgle. Ha, it does not feel like quick progress!

[Dwango]

My rampager is coming along. I have shaded the whole thing in nuln oil and have highlighted the white back up. Still needs a final highlight. Then I need to highlight the brass trim, the silver areas and the red. Once done its picking out some details, adding transfers then weathering/effects. Then the base. Sooo.....nearly done then, lol!

C&C welcome.

Cheers.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Coming along pretty well looks amazing so far! I really dig the chains on the top of it.

[Dwango]

So I've been missing for a while on here. Papa nurgle visited my household so we've been laid up for a bit. I've also had a fair bit of work on too so my hobby time was limited. I have, however, finished my chaos knight. Just in time for the call of chaos deadline too!

First up. Decima and incarnate slaughter.

I've tried to follow GWs paint scheme as much as I can. I've never really done weathering such as paint chips before or any free hand work. It's taken me a long time but I've eventually completed it. I didn't have the models to do some of the basing ideas given to me sadly. I spent a while thinking about what to do whilst poorly. I realised it rises out of blood and gore of a particularly savage battle so I've tried to represent that. Not overly happy with it but it's not terrible at least.

Wardogs next. These were pretty straightforward to do. Just added spikes and spare bloodcrusher shields.

Final one of the tyrant as I've finished the base.

C&C welcome.

Cheers

[Doghouse]

Fantastic stuff! I love the attention to detail on these guys they look great! :tu:

[+Chaplain Matthias+]

Very inspiring!

[Dwango]

@Doghouse. Thanks buddy. I wanted to make sure they stood out so put a lot more time into getting them done.

 

@Chaplain Matthias. Thanks very much. I'm glad you like them!

[KrautScientist]

Brilliant work on the Knights, mate! For me, it's a tossup between the very cool conversion work on the Tyrant and the kick-ass paintjob on the Khornate Knight -- that model just looks sooo spiky and evil (if a little reluctant to let its feet get wet ;) ).

 

Fantastic job all around!

[Dwango]

@Kraut. Hey thanks for the comments! The tyrant was heavily inspired from your blog on converting chaos knight, so thanks again for that. I laughed out loud in the office when I read the comment about the rampager. Yeah, I'm not quite sure it's worked out that it'll need dip a toe in or two to get to its prey yet!