GK WIP: Challenge Accepted!

It's funny how history repeats itself.

Atreides: "Tolworth Mayhem, six weeks, think you can make an army in time?" 

Flashback just a shade over a year ago;

Atreides "Brighton Warlords, six weeks, reckon you'll have that army done in time?"

Well, in the words of the immortal Barney Stinson - 

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Needless to say, I did get a kick out of the circumstance. However, the thought of pumping out a good quality army in six weeks is somewhat daunting, but not impossible, but also a little bit exciting at the same time. I've done this before, albeit on a slightly smaller scale, but, to a large extent this time around actually feel much better prepared. After all, what's the worst that can happen? It gives me a very set and real target to achieve, and while I'd normally idle my time away 'chillin as it were, achieving very little. With a set and realistic target it will keep me driven to just chip away at the army. I mean at worst, in six weeks time I'll be very close to having a finished 1750 army, at best I'll be strolling over to Tolworth.

Last time around, it was the Deathwing, intended as a quick fire stop gap army while I waited for Grey Knights release. I'd grown tired of my Blood Angel army, and with the FAQ from GW rectifying the Black Templars and Dark Angels books somewhat, I went with one of my all time favourite theme's, all terminators, all the time.

The end result, in just a mere five weeks and some change, was;

Bolter and ChainFist Thread - Featuring the army and all closeup's.

Pumping out an army in a short space of time is not a huge task to everyone, some people do have more time than others. I could have most of the army done in a weekend or two, even with the short time I have available, just by using simple methods to achieve good table top quality level (metallic paints, washes, dry brushing, simpler highlights). But for me that's not the point, nor would I have any enjoyment in the process or end result.

Thus there is one goal with this project - to be at least on par or better than my Deathwing, and, as a side, for my Coteaz conversion to exceed my Belial in paint and modelling level. 

THE WIP ET AL

So obviously there will be plenty of WIP posts from me in the up coming weeks. This acts as a bonus for me, as both does it automatically generate content, but it also keeps me wanting to make sure I have said content, that is, show some form of progress.

Currently I am working on the first squad on Purifiers. These models have been a "working test" if you will. If I had more time or was doing less models, I doubt they would make the final army (and ultimately will probably be replaced or worked into a larger army) but they will work for what they are. They've let me work on the NMM formula as well as the power weapon colouration. 

The other WIP is the first squad of Death Cult's - I've been using the Dark Eldar Wych's as the base. There is not to much done here, as they are quite fantastic models for DCA's, very similar in stance, I just removed the Dark Eldar bits (spikes et al) and then made my own weapons. I love the idea of double bladed weapon's, and when I decided I wanted DCA (in both my Sisters and GK armies) this was one thing that I pictured and could not get out of my head. 

Here's what's going on;

If the Purifiers were test models I'd be happy. I've cracked the formula and application, however, typically these wouldn't feature in my final army. Given the time constraints and scale of models I need to use, I should be able to clean them up a little bit to be a bit happier with them.

One problem was on a couple of the models I had not correctly cleaned flash and that ruined the legs a little bit. Also I production lined 3 models which I do not normal do. What I lose in time by blending one model then starting again I gain in quality on each model. I learnt this with the Deathwing where 90% of the army was painted model by model. 

These were the first two DCA model's - I've since made up the other 3 for the squad (though run out of falchions for the final DCA model, which Atreides has waiting for me). Again while quite simplistic, because they are quite literally the Wych's, I think the model themselves are so very close to the metal DCA models (but nicer, I do not like the metal DCA) and the weapons are getting to what I want. Oddly enough the non-pictured DCA is near identical to what I pictured when I first started the project, very pleased with its results. This will be up in the next post!

Acolytes

I've been really stumped on these guys for days, struggling to work out what I wanted to do. I couldn't seem to picture any good way to make a good model to represent the Acolytes, and was toying with lots of different options like making mini-robots or using Mordian Iron Guard (my favourite Imperial Guard model of all time, but I dislike most of the others anyway, so not sure how much that actually says). However, I stumbled across an image of someone who is doing a ton of projects, and as fun he is making the odd Adeptus Custode model; 

This guy is an incredibly talented painter and modeller. While I've always had a dislike for metallics over nnm, I still love this model. It's exactly what I want. Its smaller than the marines (obviously) so it creates that the element of being clearly on the same theme, but also quite obviously representing a different stature of a man, that is, the difference between MEQ and GEQ. Side bonus is one of the bits sites has emailed me to apologise they cannot find the helms I ordered, and the above model is where the helms are from.

High Elf Phoenix Guard, which are absolutely stunning models. The helms I wanted to use for my Justicar's / Knights of the Flame. I only need 6 Acolytes, but having spares for expansion or change of army list is never a bad thing.

Also I might try and copy his style of Guardian Spears - opposed to attaching to the back of the weapon, create a middle point where the bolt weapon is and then a blade beyond that (which is how they are pictured).

FIN

Anyway, that's enough from me for today, coming up I have some pieces on the concept and actual realities of meta game. A small discussion about the change to Games Workshop's competitive policy and a comparison to other games (which also ties into my meta game series oddly enough), as well as some theory about the GK mirror match. And of course, more WIP photo's. 

Enjoy the rest of your bank holiday everyone!