Pledge - March 2022
What a month!
Wow that was hard…
Due to rota escalations, de-escalations and a few minor cock-ups Der H has just finished 18 consecutive days working. (Brother Handro: “What’s my excuse!?”)
Hobby has occurred, but less than usual.
What have we been up to?
The ZM campaign progress continues, Brother Handro has pushed on with his Imperial Fists:
Whilst Der H has broken the back of the building for his Breacher Bonanza of Iron Warriors:
A little 3D printing later has a squad of Heavy Destroyers from the Mournival Events book magnetised to be regular terminators:
Zone Mortalis doors, a long coveted item, have also been sourced - HB-3D skills FTW:
The prints need tidying up, but they work!
Changes to Astartes
Previously, Der H made some 3D parts for the Retributors from the independent animation “Astartes”. For those that haven’t seen it, (Der H: “…and why not!”) please go and check it out. This is a great move toward GW embracing the fans who flesh out the world, and potentially a move away from “mobilise the legal team” (Brother Handro: “give em hell!”). Also that Iron Warrior looks awesome!
Since the change from Independent to being part of the Warhammer Communtiy page here Der H received a message on thingiverse asking for some new parts:
Do you have any other Retributors models from the Astartes shorts?
I'm planning a Retributors Kill Team/Combat Patrol squad and there are still a few parts that I can find for it. Like the Knife, Helmet variant, Backpack and the Storage Pack that the spikes that are stabbed into the orb are stored in.
Guess we’ll have to wait and see…
World Eaters! - Brother Handro's Work Bench - February 2021
What new, seemingly unconnected projects have we been working on this week?…
That’s right, apropos of nothing, World Eaters!
Well, not entirely from nothing. These boys have been kicking around for the best part of 2 years, until the majority of the stuff I had squirrelled away for some bright day where I’d magically start the project was actually folded in my first full, proper army, the Sons of Horus. (Lots of infantry, Assault squads, chainaxes…makes sense!) But that army did bring some indirect benefit - it was the first time I committed to airbrushing the whole army, infantry included, which is an obvious stumbling block when it come to painting the white armour of the World Eaters….
Fast forward a year or so and the #returntoisstvan campaign spearheaded on Instagram seemed as good a spur as any to finally start the XII Legion…
Gotta Go Fast!…
Another inadvertent benefit of delaying the project was getting used to the concept of painting in subassemblies, something we’d picked up from Adeptus Titanicus. This brings pretty obvious benefits when it comes to airbrushing models that are white and blue and never the twain shall meet.
Quick Mock-up time!
The final unintentional bonus came from my dabbling in oil washes on my Militia/Solar Auxilia tanks. Using oils as a recess wash (something I’ve already done with my first few Imperial Fists units) is a huge boon to armies that are painted in light colours, and airbrushed in general. The thought of trying to use washes and layers on Fists and World Eaters….(shudders)….they are equally useful for streaking and rust effects, which also looks extra nice on pale armour.
So that’s it for this month. Wonder what I’ll start next week?…. (Der H: I don’t want to even guess…)
Brother Handro's Work Bench - January 2021
In which Handro briefly describes the random assortment of bits and pieces he’s been not quite finishing for the last six months…
I actually finished a titan…
Y’know, flitting from one project to another on an almost daily basis goes without saying on this blog, but honestly I’m not sure I’d have it any other way. Some people have thousands of points worth of stuff for one faction or system all painted and ready to go and the luxury of being able to pick and choose your force from a pool of finished stuff is one I’m not overly familiar with (Der H ‘I’ll say….)’, but to me it will always be about keeping the hobby mojo going by knowing there’ll always be something lurking in the Hobby Cupboard of Doom (tm) to grab my attention…so without further ado, I give you….Handro’s stuff and things….
Not this one though…
So I’ve been mainly working on Adeptus Titanicus in the last few months. I cannot get enough of the models, and the New Year’s teaser images of a potentially new chassis give me impetus to continue the charge. It doesn’t hurt that my efforts spur on Der H to finally get on his Legio Fureans stuff either. (Der H ‘Alright, alright!…)
Or this one…
Aside from big stompy death machines, I’ve been airbrushing my 30k scale Knights (Der H ‘Errr….still big stompy death machines?’), building and starting to paint a Star Wars Legion clone army, and building a World Eater assault force. My newly-airbrushed Imperial Fists Zone Mortalis stuff is looking at me disapprovingly…
Looking after the new guy…
I’ve recently built some Ork vehicles for that Gorkamorka thing Der H always bangs on about…gives me a reason to dust off (literally) the piles of Ork stuff I’ve got lying about…
Orky 8-wheeler!
Seeing the awesome stuff Der H has got lined up, I’ll have to pull out all the stops for my Orky vehicle konvershuns….
Legio Cybernetica - Brother Handro's dive into giant robots!
If there’s one thing playing games in a 30k environment has taught me, it’s that the bodies of the noble Astartes are but grist for the mill of the heresy, and no matter how superhuman they may be against humans or Xenos, the Iron Hands have the right of it…the flesh is weak!
Join me as I dive into the world of servos and plastek brain wafer-chips to bring you big stompy robots…
(Der H: So you bought a Mechanicus T-shirt and realised you should probably start all those robots you’ve been hoarding….)
The Calix-Thanatar, not as good as the standard, plasma mortar-lobbing one, but way prettier. Also I hate Salamanders.
Now I know what you’re thinking. Handro, Mechanicum are a bit…well, good, aren’t they? Yes, yes they are. You’ve grasped the practicalities of playing Mechanicum straight away! But obviously here at The Hobby Butterflies we like to think that fluff is equally if not more important and the lore behind the Mechanicum is some of the richest and most evocative of the 30/40k universe. Plus if you can think of something cooler than the line of Mechanicum models I’d like to know about it.
So we felt it was about time we had something 30K non-Astartes on the blog. We will both be churning out Mech and Imperial Militia forces over the coming months. (Der H: If we can find them in our piles of shame, that is!)
This is what the Castellax look like!
The initial plan is to complete a 1000 points Allies list for the upcoming return to Melos. So a Magos, 4 Castellax and the Thanatar need to be completed alongside a 3-strong unit of Vorax to accompany a Praevian consul. Plenty to be getting on with, but after that I fully expect to start requisitioning bigger, stompier robots from the forges of…y’know, I should actually get some fluff brewing…and from there, a long, slow descent into robotic madness…
Thought for the day: The flesh is weak, duh.
Handro.
Teaching someone how to paint...
(Brother Handro: do YOU even know how to paint?)
(Der H: Fnar fnaar fnaaar….)
So my girlfriend recently asked if she could paint something. RESULT! one might exclaim! I regularly teach people clinical knowledge/skills and the likes but painting is not something to which I profess any great skill! The opportunity, however, was too great to pass up!
Rooting around for something not too big, not too small, not to complicated, but detailed enough, and (Brother Handro: importantly…) not too expensive, was difficult! In the end my two, sorry looking purple contemptor dreadnoughts caught my eye. Lightly modified Plastic contemptors, resin weapons, a havoc launcher, and an upcoming event in which to use them, provided the perfect palate.
Simple techniques first, with drybrushing, washing and edge highlighting. All proved pretty easy for her. She has some experience in pottery painting, and found the whole process relaxing.
Names for things are a little tricky, but she soon learnt the basics. The basic steps done, we even tried some freehand marble!
It is interesting, given the range and variability in our own hobbies, how constricting a legion paint scheme can be. I was constantly met with “what colour should X be”; I suppose it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme, but if all my lascannons are black and silver, then a red one will look odd!
So far we are onto the weapons, then the havoc launcher and we’re done. I think I will go onto transfers and weathering - she seems eager to learn more!
After this I think I will give her some free rein and paint some blood and Plunder or some ArcWorlde - both games that I like but have seriously under-loved; hell, it might give me chance to use some contrast paints…
Der H
Emperors Children Siege Breaker - aka "Do I need another character?"
It is well known that I have too many HQ choices…(Brother Handro: Isnt it near 12 now…) but with the Narrative event of Purging of Melos coming up soon (July 2019) we need an ‘event character’.
This character will be discussed more closer to the event, but essentially is a stock centurion with 11 upgrade points. Other than this they cost nothing to the army list, and can progress during the event by surviving.
In my case i wanted a warlord that would fit with a Kakophoni heavy IIIrd company elite list. I also wanted him to be vaguely siege themed as (If I paint hard enough) I was going to have my Death Korps of Krieg Imperial Militia as a siege regiment with Ordo Reductor support (Der H: ….lets see how that goes eh?)
Behold my progress…
As you can tell there are a few bits from a few sources. The torso is from the Palatine blades kit. The head and left arm are from GWs own Slaaneshi upgrade kit. We have a right arm, pad and sword from the legion praetor set and a MKII Emperors Children pad on the shoulder. Some GW plastics in for the form of a chaos backpack, and a AoD dagger and Horn round him out. Phosphex bombs in hand and mag-locked to his legs complete the look!
I was going for a vaguely Joshua vibe from the battle of Jerico… double edged sword, spear (see below) Ram Horn, and suitable Slaaneshi parts to match. Leading a IIIrd company elite RoW force he fits in well, and depending on what else is in my list he may well see some action!
Because magnets are cool, I’ve equipped him to have paragon blade inter-changable with phoenix power spear - depends on my mood!
What do we think? Good? Bad? Ugly?
Der h