Thousand terminators - progress as of Merdeka Day!

Now we have 5 of these painted up. I haven't based them yet because I want to make sure I match the rest of the army, and so just decided to do it later all at once (I might very well regret this later, but it shouldn't be a big deal). The other thing not done yet is the Thousand Sons decal on the right shoulder.

I've got 4 more to go, including the Champion with chainfist and Tzeentch icon. Looking forward to get this squad done. About time, really.

Finally, paint touches Thousand Sons termies

I assembled a favoured squad of these guys some 5-6 years or more ago (can't remember exactly when). The Space Marine plastic termie box set was new, Chaos Space Marines Codex 3.5 was running rampant, Thousand Sons terminators were actually Thousand Sons rubric marines in terminator armor and there was no such thing as Chaos plastic termies (and certainly no such thing as termicide squads - heresy!)... ah, the good old days.

Anyways, I took a break from my Catachans to paint these 9 termies of Tzeentch - because I'll need them in October's Ghemehaal Annihilation campaign at Legio. And I suddenly remembered that I totally forgot how to paint Thousand Sons. Anyways, using a couple of my old rubric marines as guide, I started on this test subject.

I must admit, my assembly could have been cleaner (the perils of hobbying in the darkness of Balau), but it was fun to paint anyways. I kinda stopped at this point - discovered that I don't have any Dark Angels Green left. Very important for the gems, lenses and power weapon. Tomorrow, I shall pick up a pot of this all-important and finish this dude up - and start on the rest of his cohorts.

Colonel Straken's Command Squad - kick off!

Started on Straken's command squad. It's a pretty hefty squad - the Colonel himself, his 2 rabidly loyal bodyguards (no prizes for guessing which models those 2 are), regimental standard bearer Sgt Washington, melta-gunner, flamer, medic (my favorite conversion in this squad), brother Jacobus the priest, astropath, and Lt Commander Hudson of His Divine Emperor's Navy.

I originally wanted to kit bash the navy dude from plastic IG officer bits and paint him the tan color you see in Vietnam war movies. But the naval officer model was just too nice to pass. So I figured, hey, it's 40k. The contrast will work wonders

My favorite conversion in this squad is the medic. It was fairly simple. Used one of the medic bags on his back, and converted one so that it looks like he's carrying it with his right hand. The smaller medic bag hangs from his belt. He also carries a holstered side arm and a sheathed Catachan blade. And being a medic, he's got 2 water bottles.

Vendetta 03 Reporting for Duty!

Finally! After months of moping around cursing at the stupid matt spray, I finally went back and finished the bloody Vendetta. I'm happy with the result, though I must admit it's not as pimp as when I originally painted it in January. Compared to Valkyrie 02, this Vendetta has substantially less weathering, reflecting that it's perhaps a newer vehicle shipped out to assist Colonel 'Iron Hand' Straken's crack Catachans.

After all the decals and weathering were done, I proceeded to glue on the wings and twin-linked lascannons on the front of the hull. I also went back to Valkyrie 02 to glue on the wings as well. Magnetized wings just don't cut it, and I don't want to risk wings dropping off and breaking my nice FW wing-mounted twin-linked lascannons.

It was a pleasant surprise to find that both waist gunners have already been completely painted, and all I had to do was to add some glue to the base of the heavy bolters and stick them onto the swivel mounts. I'm using the technique with all my Valkyrie and Vendetta. In the unlikely situation that I don't use my heavy bolters, I just need to swing the gunners into the hull and slide the doors shut.

Due to a nasty habit of not keeping my hands clean, I got tiny streaks of glue on the pilot's canopy. Luckily the streaks were orderly enough to look like weathering. Praise the Emperor.

The bases are actually not 100% done - I have no idea where I put the aquarium vine plant things that's supposed to adorn them. This should give a decidedly tropical feel to it once done, and should contrast nicely with the grey ruins on the ground.

So now I've got 2 veteran squads and 2 transports done. Next up will be the Colonel himself and his nasty Command Squad. After I get his squad done, I'll paint another Vendetta, and at the least I would have the minimal 2 troops and 1 HQ. AND I would then be halfway through the project.

The Emperor Protects.

AirCav Back to Life!

After a long hiatus caused by the disaster of matt spray fogging up my Vendetta, I've finally picked up the AirCav trail - by fixing the paint-work on the damaged Vendetta.

Entire portions had to be re-sprayed with the base color - Tamiya OD. This includes the top of the wings, the front half of the hull top, and the entire front section. I masked off the cockpit first because the detail on the control panels survived the disaster.

Then it was off with the tank brush to dry brush camo green over the resprayed parts. I had to redo the black block paint and related highlights on the nose section, as well as the the areas to be given the boltgun metal treatment, and the pilot's visor. Then it was the metal bits - the hose things on the engines, the fans, some bits on the helmets and the lascannon barrels. I took out my old catachan green and repainted the flight helmets. These guys were originally painted as a sub-assembly, so painting and highlighting them now when they are already fixed in the aircraft was actually quite a challenge.

That was pretty much it for the night, other than sticking on the AirCav shield on the right side of the cockpit. Next session I hope to finish it. Essentially, the steps remaining would be:

• devlan mud wash on the metal areas
• shade and highlight pilot's visor
• front lamp, and 4 lights on the front and sides
• paint in the details on the AirCav shield
• decals
• weathering
• stick on the waist gunners

I'm really happy to see this moving again. In the meantime, there are Thousand Sons terminators to paint :)