Afriel Strain Guard

Awhile back before the new IG Codex game out, AstroMag released issue #4. Inside it had a section on Abhuman doctrines from WD 304 and one in particular caught my eye. The Afriel Strain. Essentially these are some weird "clone" experiment of the IG greats such as the Lord Solar Macharius. They perform amazingly, however they attract animosity from allies and enemies alike and tend to come upon bad luck. Whether their "bad luck" is actually "bad luck" or commanders sticking them in un-winnable situations purposefully remains to be answered, however they are amazing soldiers none the less. Awesome conversions to boot as well.
AstroMag suggest SM Scout legs and heads, Catachan arms, and Cadian torsos for the conversion. I used all of those, CSM top-knot heads and SM power packs with wargear added. The powerpacks had the bottom and side exhausts trimmed off to give a more "backpac-esque" look. Worked out fairly well IMHO.

FOC and Paint Tracker

Saw this on one of the blogs I follow. Had to give it a spin myself since its so nifty.
EDIT: Admiral Drax's Blog


Image lists every model I've built in more warband, has room for expansion and shows the state every model is in not to mention the equipment. Very handy for me when writing lists while at work since I always forget what weapons my terminators have.



In other news, I got a bit distracted again this morning. Didn't quiet feel like painting since I don't know what to do with the Rhino on my table, so I instead fooled around with my Afriel Strain IG. Got a box of Cadians, Catachans and SM Scouts. Scout Legs + Cadian Torso + Catachan Arms + SM Packs + various bits. Used a top knot CSM head for the first one... looks slick. Pics to come.

Skyrar's Darkwolves, Part Two!

Finished the last man of my Darkwolves squad. Love the look and feel of them so much, I think I'm going to build another squad of them in October when the Space Wolves are released.
At the moment I'm working on the Rhino attached to my Darkwolves. Base coated it black, then followed up with a coat of Catachan Green. I'm at a loss from this point on though. Not too sure What to paint Shadow Grey and what to leave Green.


And now some pics of my workspace and army...

Alpha Legionaires Finished

After a couple mornings for painting prior to work I've managed to wrap things up on my Alpha Legion squad. The only thing they're missing is their flamers/melta guns. Fortunately those just arrived (along with my bits box and modeling tools) in the mail today from Vienna. Woohoo. Gotta love government shipping. ;)

Now without further ado, my completed squad.
Things I need to keep in mind for future works; Take Your Time!
I tend not to water down my paints enough so that I can get a thicker, albeit detail obscuring, layer of paint. This only tends to happen when I do batch painting though. When I keep to one model at a time I tend to stick to dry brushing and glazing techniques.

The chaplain model to the right is my one of my ICs, Seti Ubaid. He's not really a IC but a Slaneshi Jump Lord with Lash. Yes, I'm a cheezey bastards. According to chapter fluff he's one of the original members of the "Imperial Light" (former chapter name while still loyal) before they fell from grace. He's still devoted to the Emperor, as are many of his surviving chapter brethern, however he has sold his soul to the dark lords to appease the ruinous powers to give him and his brothers safe transport through the warp. Devoutly loyal and faithful, tragically doomed for his compassion. Love it. He's got some possessed C:SM wings somewhere, just need to find a way to magnetize them to his back.

Up next on my agenda, finish my Dark Wolves since I finally have glue to fix the last Marine again. Then on to their Rhino.

Color Deilema

Alright, here's the situation. I'm painting a squad of Alpha Legionnaires right. Well, I'm leaning towards a odd blue/green/purple hue like that on the cover of the HH book Legion. I'm pretty happy with the armour color at the moment. Looks a big greener/purplier IRL that this picture btw. However, I can't decide on what would be a suitable color for their cloaks. I tested straight purple on one and it looked horrid. Doubt even darkening it with badab black wash would help either....
Not quite sure what color to go with. Perhaps a dark green like Dark Angels green. Thats about the darkest I have anyways. Hmmm....

*UPDATE*

Tried experimenting with green and here's what I got.
One person on the BoLS forum suggested trying a blend of red, however that adds a worry of xmas tree syndrome. This however might cover the model in too many like colors.... Very difficult. I do like this green cloak though.

Painting Progress

Well, I promised pictures so here they are. Took me darn long enough. But excuses aside....

On my painting table thats so neatly wrapped in plastic wrap from the kitchen we have the rest of my Skyrar's Dark Wolves C:SM squad. For their pain scheme I went with a base coat of Catachan Green and Shadow Grey for the blue segments. Some models got a light drybrushing of SpaceWolf Grey over the Shadow Grey... but I got lazy towards the end and stopped with that.

One model broke in transit to Oman and won't be painted till I put him back together. (I'm outa glue and being lazy. :p)

Here is the rest of the squad. I really should learn to take better pictures btw. Haha.

Sgt with Power Weapon, two CCW C:SMs and a melta gunner. I'm not a fan of glueing special weapons onto the models, they fit in nicely enough on their own. If they have any problem staying set a small bit of sticky tac will help. I like to be able to switch between melta and flamers for list building.

And no, these are no exactly WYSIWYG. Stupid rule... I don't have the patience to dig up all those ammo pouches and grenades and such. "Heretic!" I know.

Now I'll leave you with some pictures of the rest of my squads I'm in the process of paint.

Say What? I Have a Blog?

It's not that I forogt I had a blog really, it's just that I've been to lazy to get around to it. Not even that really... I haven't accomplished much of anything worth blogging about. My army has steadily built up over time into a rather menacing Apoc sized force, however I've neglected to paint just about any of it. Heheh.... but that's changing as we speak.

The main reason behind me not painting or developing my blog can be directly contributed to a few things. Europe and girls. I'm young, I'm a Marine, I have enough money to live fairly well and I was living in Vienna. It was always work work work, party party party, and spending time with the girl friend. I'd spend some time building my models and converting stuff (9 converted Obliterators). And when I was lucky I'd have enough time off during the day (thanks gunny) to find my way to GW and play a game against my buddy. Typically I'd loose as I've just started playing this past year and have yet to learn the ins and outs of winning tactics. Thankfully blog reading (FTW) has changed that for me. *Insert BlackMatt shout out*

So why would things change now for me and my army's developement? Well, I moved. Where to? The middle east! Gah! *cries* No women, no girlfriend, no alcohol and sadly, no GW either. No one to play and not crap to do but work, gym, internet lurk and paint. My modeling supplies are still in transit (mail) but I do have the bulk of my army here and have started making way on painting. I've successfully painted a full squad finally! *cheers* I've been doing a lot of painting actually, and will have hopefully another couple of squads done this week.

On another note, I've changed my army up a bit. I've been busy writing fluff and what not and trying to decide on a proper background story to give my (fallen) chapter justification. While originally my entire chapter was going to feature the same basic themes (Egyptian), I've now decided to model it as a warband. Having lost so many members as casualties when breaking ties with the Imperium its only right that the chapter has turned to taking rouge Marines from other chapters into their fold. So far we have a squad of Alpha Legion (chosen space marines), a squad of Skyrar's Dark Wolves (MOK space marines) and a squad of Plauge Marines of unknown origin (read undecided).

Thats all for now. I'll post some pics when I get home from work.