Hello again, folks. Today I'd like to show a little bit of my take on the 40k hobby, my favorite thing besides the game itself: assembling and painting HQ models.
You see, no matter how awesome your painting skills are, when it comes to Space Marines (especially Tactical Squads), there is very little that can be done to make a model stand out of the crowd. Sure, a little posing and modding goes a long way, but there is something on the power armor + boltgun crowd that strikes me as meh. Also, trying to personalize every single one of your models will end up consuming bucketloads of money spent in bits.
That is why I enjoy assembling HQ units. These guys are made to look awesome, as they usually come equipped with fun pieces of wargear, codex-wise, and you can take your time in choosing the best looking pieces, making sure that one doesn't look like the other.
So, without any further delay, here's a little account of my HQ models. Click the images for a larger version.
1) Librarian
This was the first HQ model I ever assembled and painted. It's a Grey Knights' Brother-Captain Stern, without any modding. It's painted in my Yet-To-Be-Named-Chapter's colors, although in a slightly different scheme than the usual troops.
This model taught me how metal pieces are annoying to paint, and how Shinning Gold likes to misbehave (try trimming your pauldrons with that...).
2) Chaplain with Jump Pack
Another metal piece that gave me some trouble, especially since the pieces don't fit well together. In the end, I liked how it turned out, but I gotta remind myself to paint over that nasty piece of Green Stuff in the armpit...
3) Vulkan He'Stan
This was my first piece of actual conversion. Instead of going with a dragon-scale cloak and flamer-gauntlets, I picked up some bits I had to spare and came up with this model, which has all the main features from Vulkan for a WYSIWYG purposes. Need a Relic Blade? Sure, Grey Knight Nemesis polearms work well for that. 3+ Invulnerable save? Take a look at that Storm Shield. 2+ Armor save? Believe me, this is an Artificer Armor :)
What about the Heavy Flamer. Well, for that I attached a common Flamer to the polearm's shaft, and attached to blade as a bayonet.
4) The Emperor
Well, not a real HQ choice, but I believe it deserves mentioning. The big guy Himself took all that remained of my blasted Shinning Gold paint, and unfortunately the Dwarf Bronze undercoat didn't show through. In any case, I really like this model, as it represents my favorite character in all of 40k fluff.
5) Chaplain in Terminator Armor
I really liked how this model looked once finished. This was the first time I used washes, and Ogryn Flesh over Bleached Bone worked pretty well to represent both aged scrolls, the Crozius Arcanum's leather-bound shaft and the skull helmet.
First time I managed to make those red eyes stand out... must be the lack of purple around it!
6) Pedro Kantor
This is one of the coolest models I ever assembled. One of my planned army lists will be a Pedro Kantor Sternguard force, but since I don't want to have the Crimson Fists dude himself, I made this model. By now you must have already noticed that I use plenty of Black Templars and Dark Angels iconography in my models. I feel that this adds to the "Space Knights" feel that I want for my Chapter.
One advice, though: as you can see in this guy's left arm, both the Power Fist and the pauldron have sword icons on them. This redundancy may look a little ridiculous, but, besides that, this guy is pure awesomesauce.
7) Future Model: Darnath Lysander Conversion
Since I like playing Terminator-based armies, I thought I might just as well assemble a Lysander model to team up with Vulkan.
For this guy, I'll use a Terminator Captain metal model I had sitting around for some months, a default set of Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield, a Black Templars pauldron and a Space Wolves Terminator Cloak. I'd like to find a way to paint this wolf to look more like a lion (one of the Chapter motifs I'm considering). Also, this cloak has a little spot there begging for a back-banner...
8) Future Model: Biker Captain
For this one, I know I'm in a world of trouble. Since I began to plan my biker army, I wanted to make a really bad-ass model for the commander.
For this guy, I had to order a lot of bits. For starters, I've got a Chaos Terminator Lord stone base and a Warhammer Fantasy High Elf banner. For this guy, I don't mind having a Black Templar-heavy influence, so this will be shown in his backpack, in one of the shoulder guards, in the front wheel and in a Crux Terminatus. I wanted to make this guy with a Storm Shield, but then it would look too cluttered, so I decided to go with a Crux instead. From game to game this guy will be fielded with either the Shield or Artificer Armor, but rarely both. As usual, my favorite HQ weapon, the Relic Blade, will be represented by a Nemesis polearm.
For story purposes, I wanted this guy to come from a sort of Mad Max "feral" world, in which rival biker gangs raid each other's encampments in search for promethium and ammo. Because of that, I want this guy's bike to look kustomized, almost Orky. For that, I've got an Ork Bike handlebar, a big daemonic skull and an Ork Bike exhaust pipe. I'll also use plastic tubes, creating a bike fork for the front wheel, giving it a Harley-Davidson look. Man, those Tech Priests are gonna get pissed!
Finally, I got a Dark Angels unhooded, unhelmeted head, which happens to actually have hair. Take that, canon baldness! I already know how make a beard for this guy, now I just gotta learn how to make a cowboy hat and long hair. If everything looks half as awesome as I plan them to be, I'll be happy.
And if you think this is going to take a lot of work... well, one of my Biker lists has two Captains, so I must assemble the other one in a custom jetbike, just to compete in awesomeness.
Hope you guys enjoyed this!
You see, no matter how awesome your painting skills are, when it comes to Space Marines (especially Tactical Squads), there is very little that can be done to make a model stand out of the crowd. Sure, a little posing and modding goes a long way, but there is something on the power armor + boltgun crowd that strikes me as meh. Also, trying to personalize every single one of your models will end up consuming bucketloads of money spent in bits.
That is why I enjoy assembling HQ units. These guys are made to look awesome, as they usually come equipped with fun pieces of wargear, codex-wise, and you can take your time in choosing the best looking pieces, making sure that one doesn't look like the other.
So, without any further delay, here's a little account of my HQ models. Click the images for a larger version.
1) Librarian
This was the first HQ model I ever assembled and painted. It's a Grey Knights' Brother-Captain Stern, without any modding. It's painted in my Yet-To-Be-Named-Chapter's colors, although in a slightly different scheme than the usual troops.
This model taught me how metal pieces are annoying to paint, and how Shinning Gold likes to misbehave (try trimming your pauldrons with that...).
2) Chaplain with Jump Pack
Another metal piece that gave me some trouble, especially since the pieces don't fit well together. In the end, I liked how it turned out, but I gotta remind myself to paint over that nasty piece of Green Stuff in the armpit...
3) Vulkan He'Stan
This was my first piece of actual conversion. Instead of going with a dragon-scale cloak and flamer-gauntlets, I picked up some bits I had to spare and came up with this model, which has all the main features from Vulkan for a WYSIWYG purposes. Need a Relic Blade? Sure, Grey Knight Nemesis polearms work well for that. 3+ Invulnerable save? Take a look at that Storm Shield. 2+ Armor save? Believe me, this is an Artificer Armor :)
What about the Heavy Flamer. Well, for that I attached a common Flamer to the polearm's shaft, and attached to blade as a bayonet.
4) The Emperor
Well, not a real HQ choice, but I believe it deserves mentioning. The big guy Himself took all that remained of my blasted Shinning Gold paint, and unfortunately the Dwarf Bronze undercoat didn't show through. In any case, I really like this model, as it represents my favorite character in all of 40k fluff.
5) Chaplain in Terminator Armor
I really liked how this model looked once finished. This was the first time I used washes, and Ogryn Flesh over Bleached Bone worked pretty well to represent both aged scrolls, the Crozius Arcanum's leather-bound shaft and the skull helmet.
First time I managed to make those red eyes stand out... must be the lack of purple around it!
6) Pedro Kantor
This is one of the coolest models I ever assembled. One of my planned army lists will be a Pedro Kantor Sternguard force, but since I don't want to have the Crimson Fists dude himself, I made this model. By now you must have already noticed that I use plenty of Black Templars and Dark Angels iconography in my models. I feel that this adds to the "Space Knights" feel that I want for my Chapter.
One advice, though: as you can see in this guy's left arm, both the Power Fist and the pauldron have sword icons on them. This redundancy may look a little ridiculous, but, besides that, this guy is pure awesomesauce.
7) Future Model: Darnath Lysander Conversion
Since I like playing Terminator-based armies, I thought I might just as well assemble a Lysander model to team up with Vulkan.
For this guy, I'll use a Terminator Captain metal model I had sitting around for some months, a default set of Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield, a Black Templars pauldron and a Space Wolves Terminator Cloak. I'd like to find a way to paint this wolf to look more like a lion (one of the Chapter motifs I'm considering). Also, this cloak has a little spot there begging for a back-banner...
8) Future Model: Biker Captain
For this one, I know I'm in a world of trouble. Since I began to plan my biker army, I wanted to make a really bad-ass model for the commander.
For this guy, I had to order a lot of bits. For starters, I've got a Chaos Terminator Lord stone base and a Warhammer Fantasy High Elf banner. For this guy, I don't mind having a Black Templar-heavy influence, so this will be shown in his backpack, in one of the shoulder guards, in the front wheel and in a Crux Terminatus. I wanted to make this guy with a Storm Shield, but then it would look too cluttered, so I decided to go with a Crux instead. From game to game this guy will be fielded with either the Shield or Artificer Armor, but rarely both. As usual, my favorite HQ weapon, the Relic Blade, will be represented by a Nemesis polearm.
For story purposes, I wanted this guy to come from a sort of Mad Max "feral" world, in which rival biker gangs raid each other's encampments in search for promethium and ammo. Because of that, I want this guy's bike to look kustomized, almost Orky. For that, I've got an Ork Bike handlebar, a big daemonic skull and an Ork Bike exhaust pipe. I'll also use plastic tubes, creating a bike fork for the front wheel, giving it a Harley-Davidson look. Man, those Tech Priests are gonna get pissed!
Finally, I got a Dark Angels unhooded, unhelmeted head, which happens to actually have hair. Take that, canon baldness! I already know how make a beard for this guy, now I just gotta learn how to make a cowboy hat and long hair. If everything looks half as awesome as I plan them to be, I'll be happy.
And if you think this is going to take a lot of work... well, one of my Biker lists has two Captains, so I must assemble the other one in a custom jetbike, just to compete in awesomeness.
Hope you guys enjoyed this!
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