Another Banner day

Yes, another Imperial Fist.  Banner time.  The design is a compilation of previous freehand on vehicles, shoulder pads, and so on.

Since the embroidered look is all the rage now, I thought I would do a little bit of that on the opposite side of the banner.  Lots of empty space, and it can get pretty boring if you don't put something there.

However, it is always a balance between going nuts and keeping it calm, especially when the figure is all yellow.  Still very fun, though. ;-)

Osprey vs Eagle

Now this is something that I hadn't thought of.  All the while I was painting the Osprey video, I kept thinking about how different it was to paint that mini as an eagle.

So, I dug through my Lord of the Rings army box and found Gwaihir!  I set up the lights really quick so I could snap some side by side bird action.

Obviously I carved the saddle from Gwaihir, but that aside, it is very neat how all the different markings and colors play out on the wings, etc.

The eagle version was definitely easier to paint, since it was more about coloration than actual markings like the Osprey.

All those markings on the ends of the feathers on the Osprey drove me a little nuts, but it was still worth it. :-)

The view from above...

You can really see the differences in this view.  So many white feathers!

I did have a blast dropping this rather unfortunate disciple of Sauron on this base!

Warped minds

I decided to gather together a collection of my Demonhunter retinue figures for some group shots.  This first group spans about 5 years... from my first retinue minis in 4th Edition to Adepticon 2012.

The Inquisitor was a conversion I did back in '07, scratch sculpting the psycannon and adding some purity seals (the original was an extra mini in the Black Reach box set, I think).

I added these Demonhosts at Adepticon, because I never got to use them back in the day.  It was a little easier to squeeze them in with the new book.  They were quite useless, sadly.

I was not surprised by that, but it was something I had hoped could give someone a surprise!

Here's another set of Psykers.  The guy in the back was one of the originals.  You can see the basing system that I used to avoid confusion when it came to what was in the retinue.

The others were added along the way, with the guy in front joining the 2012 version.

I still have many more unpainted retinue figures that may have to be saved for the Dark Heresy RPG game... if I ever get to run that.

Next up... Servitors!!!  With guns.

Metal and plastic... and brush protectors.

One more squad of I.G., Demonhunter style.

As I mentioned, there were some metal figures splashed into the various units in the form of special weapons and sergeants, like this guy.

Then there were fun figures like this one, where I manufactured a Meltagun out of a grenade launcher and a plastic brush protector!  Yes, indeed.  I finished it off with some green stuff tubes.

The glowing conduits were a blast to paint, and I am looking forward to doing more of that when the new army is done!

Here's another one of those conversions that started out as a grenade launcher.  More green stuff, with a few purity seals as well to hide the flamer tanks a bit!

I didn't have the fluorescent paints at the time when I did these, so that is something else to look forward to!!

And for the unit as a whole.

The basing style was like the previous squads, with the sergeant getting special treatment on a marble/tile base.

Time for the girls

Another batch of Dark Eldar around the warp gate... this time the Raging Heroes Blood Vestals.

Fantastic miniatures to work with... every option you could use.

At some point, I might actually get to use these minis in a game again... heaven forbid! :-)

One last Squad of Imperial Guard coming!

Another Demonhunter gang 'o Guard

All right folks... another squad!

As I mentioned in the earlier post, these were Stormtrooper vets that I used as troops for the 4th edition Demonhunter army.

This unit was made up of various plastic pieces and parts that I could scrape together.  Just like the first unit, it is also where I learned how to create these types of sci-fi bases.

I tried to designate the Sergeants and special weapon guys by placing them on marble bases done in the style of the accompanying Grey Knights and Inquisitor retinues.

Here's the unit as a whole.  

Again, I really loved these units.  They did die very easily, but I loved how they impacted the deployment phase.  The way it worked out in 4th edition, I was able to see where all the opponent's key units were going to be long before my heavy hitters had to be plunked down!

That was a big advantage more than once. :-)

Hangin' out at the Gate

Given the Dark Eldar affinity for all things involving the webway and the warp, it was time to take some images of various units with the new gate!

This time, it was my unit of Grotesques.

It is very cool to see these guys in an all new context!

I forgot how huge these buggers were.

So, next unit up will be some Blood Vestals from Raging Heroes.