Lord Halfpenny's new hobby corner

Hi All,

A quick post to start the week. I thought I'd share with you my new hobby corner. I recently bought several paint rack systems from eBay, with a view of developing a good hobby area to work in. Previously I had paints in all manner of boxes, and would really only use a small palette of colours due to space- I was also very bad in having multiple projects on at the same time filling the work bench.

I bought the items from frontierwargaming (http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/frontierwargaming) Frontierwargaming were extremely help full and have a lot of other useful bits for all war gaming.
The Racks come flat packed, and go together really well- the instructions are easy to follow.. My rack system incorporates 4, 34 spaced straight racks, a corner paint pot rack, and an accessories rack. each rack has spaces for brushes etc. The paint pot spaces are designed to house almost all model paint pots. 

The racks went together really well, and sit nicely as a unit. These can be magnetised to one another to make the racks 'one piece'

I'm really happy with the racks- although I have found I have a slight OCD in making sure the paint bots are in exactly the right position and place...

I've also added a 'spice rack' to act as a conveyor belt for models as i paint them- also there are two desk lights, one being a 'day light' light with magnifying glass. There's also an Ipod docking station in the corner so I can have some tunes busting out as I paint! 

Relictors Relic Whirlwind Scorpius - Forgeworld Goodness

I'm posting this whilst away again at sea, I completed this over Crimbo and you've seen it perform admirally against Lord Halfpenny's UM's. Here is the latest offering for the growing Relictor Armoury... A FW Relic Whirlwind Scorpius. After being on the receiving end of one of these from Lord Halfpenny's Ultramarines, I had to get one! AP3 goodness, and D3+1 shots if it doesn't move! Marine killer... I found out the hard way :)

The launcher shape is the big difference from a normal Whirlwind, very Rogue Trader Missile Launcher-esque, it also has a Deimos Rhino Hull. I love the look and feel of this Mark, a nice nod at the nostalgic past, I had several MKI Rhino's back in the day.

This variant also comes with a Stormbolter (two Bolters) as standard. Nice. The new IA Book Vol2 Edn 2 comes with all the updated rules for using these FW vehicles in normal 40K, or using escalation etc. The only limitation with this one, is it is a Relic of the Armoury, so likewise, it is rare you can only field one of a Relic classed vehicle in the army - so not OP, in my opinion, quite balanced and nice to spice it up.

I've added a number of Purity Seals and honours to reflect it's 'relic' status. The missiles are yellow to link it with the rest of the army and also to lift the model from being a rather dark one. Just like every vehicle I do, I regret my choice of boltgun metal coloured rivets - all 497 of them! lol

Here is a comparison shot with the second of my Whirlwinds, also with yellow missiles, the Relic Scorpius looks quite brutal I reckon!

And here is the simple magnet job to ensure the turret rotates but doesn't fall off. A simple bit of sprue and some powerful tiny magnets.

the6thdegree at Red Steel Preston Painting Competition 2

So around a year ago my local gaming club, Red Steel Preston had their first annual painting competition - and I did pretty well, picking up first in the large model class with my Forgefiend.


We recently held the second installment of the painting comp and I decided to submit my Helblade and a small squad of Iron Warriors in Mk3 armour (which I've not posted up yet), led by a Praetor.

As with the first competition, the club had a photo booth ready to take pics of all the entries, so here or mine (pro-photo style!).

 

You can find the Red Steel gallery here.

I am very proud to say that my Iron Warriors were able to help me pull another win - for the squad! Woot!

Relictor Daemon Prince

 A while ago I posted a few WIP shots of a project I was working on- my Relictor inspired Daemon Princes- a slight nod towards Siph's force..

The model has been slightly converted- using a spare contemptor head instead of the daemon heads to portray the 'Space Marine' feel- also added were the spiked trophy rack to his upper shoulders, and a banner taken from the bloodletters sprue- the plan was to have a banner similar to one of Siph's marines. The model has been slightly tilted backwards to appear slightly taller than a normal daemon princess- this is enforced with the raised helmet, and the addition of 'brocken sprues' to the base to add further height.

My thought process was that these marines have turned to using daemon weapons against daemonkind- with these model representing what happens if the weapon 'fights back'

The model has been painted with the Relictors grey theme, with a contrasting purple for the daemons skin- this i think worked really well. The banner matched the colours of Siphs banners, with the skull in the centre with a contrast black strip across a bleach bone- I've also had a number '5' to the banner to represent the 5th Company- unfortunately the transfer sheets didn't have a small '5'- but did have a small '2', so i simply rotated and flipped the number. The details of the armour, signs and eyes were picked out with reds oranges and yellows, to give a sense of fire- a theme I've tried to use within my daemon force.

I hope you like the conversion- and thanks for looking!  

Iron Warriors - Hell Blade

Hi all - so this is one of the latest models I have been working on - a Chaos Hell Blade.

Lets be honest, the Heldrake is pretty much an auto-include for CSMs...I wish they weren't, but if you don't want to go down the zombie-cultist route, Turkeys and Obliterators are your best choice. I have a Heldrake model (here) and whilst they are ok, they don't really fit with the aesthetic of my Iron Warrior army - so I've been eying up a Hell Blade/Talon counts-as for a while now.

I did a bit of research and the general consensus was that the Hell Blade roughly matched the size and shape of a Heldrake (if you modeled the wings forward) - which is nice seeing as the Blade is half the price of a Talon.

The model was relatively easy to put together - with the wings just needing a bit of the hairdryer treatment to get them straight and aligned.

I had already planned on making the model as dynamic as possible - with the Hell Blade swooping low over the battlefield, so I actually started work on the base first.

The chrome rod that I use to stand the model is randomly from an old printer...

I painted the model up using my normal IW techniques and colour schemes and went for some blue heat-glows from the engines to liven it up a bit.

 

Hope you like!

Iron Warriors - Legion Praetors

From the moment Forgeworld released their Legion Praetor models, I knew I had to have them - they are absolutely stunning AND come in Cataphractii and Mk3 armour (perfect for my HH Iron Warriors). Its easy to see why these are in the top selling Forgeworld products month-in month-out.

First up is the Cataphractii Praetor. Now I'm not sure where I read/hear it (maybe Horus Rising), but I was under the impression that only the Emperors Children were allowed to bear the Aquila on their armour - I may be wrong, but I still want it on my Iron Warriors, so I'm going with it... Both Praetors have the Aquila across their chest, so the first job was carefully removing this with a scalpel.

I'm not sure of the rules for the weapon, but this Praetor comes with a Volkite Charger and whilst it might be good, it doesn't really fit with the rest of my army, so for now, he's got a combi-bolter (pre-Heresy of course).

I made a small scenic base to fit with the rest of my army and it was ready for painting!

I painted him up to match the rest of my Iron Warriors - but thought I would push the boat out and try something new for the Power Sword. I had a look round some tutorials and found a good one for a lightening effect that would work in the blues that I have been using for plasma/power sources.

Next up is the Mk3 Praetor. Again, I removed the Aquila as carefully as possible (some of the ornate details are very fine). I left the load-out the same - I was tempted to swap the archaeotech pistol, but couldn't bring myself to lose something that looks that good - I guess I will play it as a Plasma Pistol in 40K or something... The only swap I made was for an Iron Warriors shoulderpad (to then find out that Forgeworld will be released Iron Warrior Mk3 shoulderpads in the near future...curses!)

This guy got a hunk of rock (or cork) to stand on and give him some presence on the battlefield - and was painted up as normal.

The sword got painted up to match the Cataphractii and I was able to add a little light sourcing coming off it (I also did this for the Cataphractii but its less noticable).

Hope you like!