Eagle Knights command squad

This is almost the last unit that I'll be adding to my original first born Eagle Knights, I say almost the last unit as there is still an assault squad with jump packs sitting on the paint table waiting to get finished. Once they are done I don't plan on adding any more units to this army at all. The army is sitting at just over 3000 points but with some of the extra first born units that are included in the army, it's topping out at nearly 3800 points, I'm hoping to get they all put out at some point for a proper company photo. 

Anyway, here is the second command squad for the army and what will become the main command squad, thanks to the large banner that it contains. This is actually the second Eagle Knight to be responsible for a chapter banner, as the Deathwatch banner is held by an Eagle Knight as well. At this point I was going to put a picture of said Deathwatch marine, only to realise I don't actually have one on here, something I will have to rectify at some point.

Anyway, the command squad, now a Legends unit, replaced by the Company Hero's and some independent character. This squad has the classic combination of apothecary, champion, standard bearer and two veterans. 

The champion and one of the veterans are tooled up for combat. Although the vet isn't shown with a pistol, in games he'll have a hand flamer, because fire. I could have gone.for a more powerful load out, like power weapon and plasma, but I didn't fancy ripping the model apart and flamers are a large part of this army.

Talking of flamers, the other vet has a flamer, for some slightly longer range shooting. All the shooting in this army is short ranged, pistols or flamers, as they are not going to be a front line unit but at the back for moral. 

The apothecary is slightly off as he has a powerfist rather than the apothecary's Narthecium. It is still clear that he is an apothecary even though he doesn't have the same bling of the Sanguinary priest. 

Lastly we have the ancient, with the chapters banner. The other command squad has a smaller, company specific banner, but this gent has a chapter banner. In my fluff, each chapter has a large chapter banner, each identical, and a smaller company banner, individual to each company. 

This is the chapter banner, resplendent with little but an Imperial Aquila and Chapter Symbol, plus a nod towards their gene father, with the blood angels symbol at the bottom.other than that there is the usual purity seals, script and some more books angels iconography but overall I wanted to keep things simple. The chapter as a whole keeps.its decorations fairly simple, so the banner would be as well. 

 So with just five assault marines to go, the first born elements of the Eagle Knights is almost complete, just need to keep working on the Primaris models now, which there are a few additions coming soon.

Imperial Knight progress

 Last time.i posted about the knight I had the legs and a couple of other bits built. The project went in to a bit of a hiatus as I waited for the magnets that I ordered to arrive. Once they did, I was already working on another project and the knight took a bit of a back seat. Now however it's at the for front of the paint bench and after magnetising up all the various parts, I've been continuing on with the painting. Once it's all done I will lay it all out and show all the magnets that I have added, plus some pinning as the waist magnets weren't as good as I would have liked, but that was a me issue rather than a magnet issue.

The back is fairly simple, standard metal dry brush over black with some highlights picked out, such as the wires and mechanicus logos. 

The pilot, there will be more about him in another post but he is all painted up, as is his cockpit.

The standard blue and red scheme for my knightly household, with blue the primary on this knight. If I ever get another, then the red and blue will switch, giving it a more red coloured appearance. 

The legs and the body are built and magnetised as separate pieces, although I've had to add a little pin at the back as when I was setting the magnet in the top of the legs, it set (with super glue) as a slight angle and so the top can be a little wobbly when fully loaded with weapons. The pin at the back just reinforces the joint and makes it all more stable. 

I've still got to add transfers and other finishing touches and then I'll be calling this done. Hopefully I'll be able to get it up here soon!

Tyrannic War vets

 These are some old metal models that were part of the haul I brought last year. I do love the old metal models, as I still think that they are characterful and detailed, maybe not as crisply as modern plastic models but more so that the equivalent aged plastic models. 

I believe that these are old metal ultramarine stern guard models, I had thought initially that they were the Tyrannic War vets but they don't have the same chest designs. 

I did think about painting them up as a different chapter but decided not to and try and make them resplendent in blue, although if I want that to be proper ultramarine stern guard I should have painted the helmets white as well. I have thought about going back and doing this but decided that I would just leave them as they are now I've finished. 

I really like how detailed the models are, such as the various purity seals and leg details.

There are a couple of more modern power packs, as they were lacking the originals and if I was going to replace them, I wanted something a little more fancy, hence the blood angels pack with scroll work.

I'm still not sure which of these two models is my favourite but I do like the power fist equipped model and all the details on the fist and body but I think the pose is better on the pointing model, a little less flat and more dynamic.

Also, I love the bright red eyes in the lights of the camera, they look quite menacing to me.

Statue and Assassins

 So, I have quite the back log of posts to get through. As I mentioned previously, while I haven't been posting very much recently, and I certainly haven't hit my self imposed once a week target, I have been busy painting and modelling away in the background.  First up are.my assassin models and the sisters statue, which I think we're first featured back in August 2023! That's 6 months ago! They have been painted up for a while, especially the statue, but just not posted up here. 

First up however, is the Vindicare. This has always been one of my favourite assassin's, and even when separated from the rest of the diorama he still looks good. The fact that his gun is pointing downwards is irrelevant as he will always be posted to a vantage point somewhere.

His colours have been kept very muted and dull, to fit with the stealth vibe, that's everything but the tassel on the knife. I reasoned that this would be so that he could place this tassel somewhere out in front of him to act as a wind vane when necessary and so it needed to be a brighter colour but not too bright, hence the blue.

Next up is the Eversor assassin and while black is still the main colour, there is a lot more colour and shiny bits. 

While still not overly bright, the metallics as brighter and shinier, plus the various viles of venoms and a such show clearly on the model.

I do love the pose of this model, mid jump, surprising the enemy seconds before it's death, or not as is usually the case in game. 

The two assassins side by side, I hope to get all 4 some day but I'm not is a hurry.

Next up is the Sisters statue, that originally came as part of the Warhammer+ diorama. The repair job I did when I removed the assassin is barely noticeable now it's all painted up. 

In addition, you can see on the ground where the basing material has shrunk and cracked, which I really like, it add to the little diorama, showing that the statue has shifted on its foundations while it sustained damage.

This is painted up the same as my Sister's of Battle, not that you can tell, as there ended up being no purple on the statue. None of the areas on the statue should have been purple, as it's mostly just the cloth of the sisters that is purple and I didn't want to just randomly add purple, however I still really like the finished results.

As for the Vindicare, yes, he can reclaim his perch, just.

He's a little back heavy but thanks to the gun he just about balances happily up there. I doubt he every will actually use the position in a game but it's nice he still can. 

Hero Quest

This post is not about 40k or any other project that I may have on the go, which is none, but is actually about that classic RPG Hero Quest. My son received a copy for Christmas this year, after becoming obsessed with it on our Orkney. He has also set himself a challenge to get it all painted, something he is making quick progress on! 

He has painted up over half the minutes now and has been actively recruiting players from our house and his friends, some.more.willing than others! I have contributed by painting the doors, or the boring bits, as they were going to be to repetitive for his liking!

Here are a few in games from a game he played with his friends. 

The wooden structures like the bookcase (above left) were painted with contrast paints. They could probably have benefited from a darker shade of brown but they have come out quite nicely and the contrast paints have worked really well.

This is the latest batch of models to be painted and these are probably my favourite so far and with just the Orks and Goblins to go, they may remain my favourites.