Age of Sigmar. Blood warriors.

Age of sigmar! Ah yes this is a very segregated topic among war gamers. Some love the game and some hate it. No matter if you think that age of sigmar is a breath of fresh air or an insult to the once great Warhammer fantasy IP and all of its fans, most of us can agree that the models coming from Games workshop to age of sigmar is absolutely gorgeous. To be honest I am one of those that actually enjoy the game play as well. It is simple, quick and it is something I can enjoy with my spouse.

I must be honest I have never been a fantasy fan. Maybe it is just me but it feel like the fantasy genre have for many years been stuck in the same track. Now I am not just talking about Games workshop products but fantasy in general. There have not been a lot that have separated the different fantasy worlds apart. Now Age of sigmar is not a brand new concept. I have seen this take on fantasy before. But it is less common and I for one likes it.

However even if most new models made for the reboot have been stunning I don’t like the aesthetic of some of them. Chaos have never resonated with me for example. All the gold trimmings and ornaments and well-crafted weapons have felt too sophisticated to come from the melting pot of evil. For me chaos should rater have been more….well…chaotic. Grotesque even.  But this is my opinion and I know many do disagree with me.

When me and my “wife to be” decided to give Age of sigmar a go I let her have the first pick from the start box (after all I am a gentleman). Of course she picked the heroic and awesome looking stormcasts. And I got Chaos ….and all the trimmings…and stuff. I tried as hard as I could to be exited for the task ahead and paint up the 29 models. But after I had finished with the blood reavers I could not bear to start on any more models from the start box. For the first time in my life I settled for grey plastic. I know, that is heresy in its own right and that is something I will put a stop to right now.

Age of sigmar is getting the Generals handbook and I am very excited for this. I have been going back and forth trying to pick a new faction to paint and play but the feeling of leaving something unfinished have stopped me from taking action. So the only way I can allow myself to buy something new for age of sigmar is to paint up the stuff I already have.

Not having the inspiration or feeling exited for this little project I was thinking I would make this quick and dirty. Speed painting all of it as fast as I can. Adopting the phrase “less is more” and burn through the remaining models in blistering speed. That’s the plan any way.

Now when I finally sat down with a new color scheme and finished the first squad in I along time I must say I kind of like it. And might it be a glimpse of inspiration I feel coming? Maybe Chaos will be the faction I will stick to for a while? 

But to be honest this is not going to be the best work I have ever done but that’s not the point. The point is very simple. Put color on the models so I can break down my mental blockade and go on with my life. Despite the lesser quality I hope you will enjoy the result anyway.

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Horus heresy. Black shields. Marauder squad. Part 1.

Next step on my Black shields project, some Marauders! I only have five marines at the moment so I might need to divide this up in two episodes depending how long this will take. I have more marines coming so it might just overlap, we will see. There is some conversions to be done here so it might take longer than expected. This five will be equipped with heavy chain swords that will be made up from some ork big choppas. It looks awesome in my mind, hope it holds up all the way to my reality. Time will tell.   

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Horus heresy. Black shields. Reaver Lord. Part 1.

I had made plans to do a bunch of other projects before I started with this but why wait when you can do it now, right? This character will mark the start of my Black shield addition to my horus heresy armies. To begin with it will only be a Reaver Lord, one squad of nine Marauders and a Anvillus dreadclaw (converted) as an allied detachment for my iron warriors and/or my future Mechanicum. I don’t really need them in my armies out of necessity I will rater take them out of fun. And I also think it is a nice way to try them out and not put too much on the painting table at once. The way I envision them is very dirty, with black armor and occasional red accent colors here and there. Allot of conversions with most ork parts replacing shoulder pads and weapons. As if they have been forced to loot ork battle fields to supplies there armory. I think it fits well with some of the lore as well.

This is not a new idea from my part. I first dream up a renegade space marine chapter with heavy ork influences back in the 90s. It started with Gorka Morka. Witch basically was an expansion to Warhammer 40k. Were orks fought against ork. Battling over what god was the most power full (Mork or Gork). But there was a third race in that game. The diggaz (if I remember correctly) witch was human-techno-barbarians that embraced the orky ways and was fighting alongside of the ork war bands. It was simply humans with the same orky iconography and style of war gear as the orks. Like the metal jaws and crude slabs of metal plates serving as armor pieces.

As a kid and an ork player I saw this to be a cool way to start a space marine chapter based on the same theme as the diggaz. A renegade chapter that adopted the most violent and brutal ways of war just like the orks. But the idea was never realized. But when I started Warhammer 40k again a couple of years ago the idea came to mind quite quickly again. But I wanted to make a proper Warhammer 40k army before I started to make this (abomination) converted army. And now when Horus heresy book 6 was released with rules for Black shields. I directly started to make plans for my ork influenced renegade chapter. Forge world have now given me a perfect platform to build my dream army and I will sees this opportunity. I think this will be a cool concept and it will absolutely be a super fun project to build and paint. But as I mention at the start. I will begin with a small force. Mainly so I can ally them in with my other armies. But I guess the force will grow over time and at some point be able to stand on its own two legs.

There is something that really intrigues me with the concept of the black shields as well (or parts of the black shields any way). This “we don’t give a F#/¤ about the emperors lost cause or the war masters corrupted truth” attitude that just drags me in. This is how a renegade army should look and feel. This is the perfect army for the grime dark. This is the real truth. Everything is already lost. There is no plan, no redemption and no point to it all. No “out of this world daemons” and no fancy empire to lean beside. In the grim dark there is only war!

That’s my take on it any way and I will enjoy every little bit of it :D .

And this is the start of my first character for the black shields.            

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Horus Heresy. Mechanicum. Magos dominus. Part 5

Here are the Magos in his pride and glory. I think he turned out pretty ok. I feel that he fits in with the rest of my Mechanicum models (the 2 castellax). So now I just need to plan what to get next to my Mechanicum force. In the meantime I have some upcoming projects that I am really excited for, so I might just take a small pause with the mechanicum for now. I always pictured me building this force very slowly. Maybe one unit every other month or so, taking my time with it.

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Horus Heresy. Mechanicum. Magos dominus. Part 4

Some more progress have been made. I have started to paint up the weapons and it should not be that long before I will "call it" and put this one to the “done” section. Small changes that I have done is to remove the yellow pattern all together from the bottom of the robe. I could not make it work. The pattern looked messy after some try’s and decisions was made to remove it. I think it looks fine the way it is now. A little sad that my painting skills could not pull this one of. But hey, I can always come back to the model in the future and give it another go. 

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Perturabo. Horus Heresy. Done for now.

So here we are. Perturabo is more or less done. To be honest I don’t think he ever will be finished. This will be a model I will come back to from time to time and do small fixes on until I either die or lose him. One of the big things that I need to fix is one of the ammo feeds on his back. It have broken off and been poorly put back together by yours truly. Basically I need to clip the whole thing of. Heat it up and glue it back together. And then paint it up again. This might be something I will fix in the coming weeks but I will let it slide for now. Other than that I am happy with the end results. Awesome model and super fun to paint! 

Perturabo. Horus Heresy. Iron with in Iron without!

I need to take a detour before I can start with "Mr magos". I have a upcoming game and want to make  Perturabo, primarch of the IW legion, ready to fight. I started him in nov 2015. Never liked how I made him look. But with a lot on the painting tabel at the time and no real list to put him in, he became one of those "I finish him later" things. But now the time is right. And I am set on finishing him. Just need to come up with a list to go with the paint scheme ;) . 

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