[Xmas Village] His Angels

After my wife completed her Xmas village this year, I took the liberty to add some of His angels to her colorful display.

BLOOD ANGELS THAT IS!!!

Then every couple of days, I would add one of two more until she discovered them.

She only found the terminators, and forced me to remove them. The rest snuck through the Holidays. The Emperor Protects! Not pictured, but I even have an old dreadnaught, yes, the metal ones that weigh about 15 pounds...

As I write this, they are still protecting the good villagers from the eight-pointed star...

Tau Stealth Suits

These tau stealth suits I got from a miniature trading event at the Game Keep. They were printed using a transparent resin, perfect for these guys. However, leaving them unpainted is not something I can do...

So I used a number of ink-like techniques to make one unit in blue and one in green and painted the based to match the color.

The result is unique among the minis I painted. I have no use for them so they will likely end up on Ebay.

All-Girl Space Regiment

A regiment of female soldiers with Cadian-adjacent colors. I painted these girls for SpaceFOE or One-Page Rules (I don't have enough characters for another Imperial Guard 40k Army).

All of them are 3d-printed models.

Hormagaunts/ Gnashers

These are hormagaunts, the melee troops of the tyranids.

For SpaceFOE, they are called gnashers part of the Ticks. The ticks are creatures who are insect-like and spread out into the cosmos. They fight by swarming targets mindlessly. I have some Small (CR 1/8), Large (CR 1), and Huge (CR 2) versions.

Tyranid Hive Tyrant/ TIck Queen

A classic Tyranid Hive Tyrant to lead an army.

In SpaceFOE, the Tick Queens are the generals who lead their brethren into battle. They evolved from the greatest of the Tick warriors. This thing is massive and it lords over all other creatures of the range. The third photo shows how the Queen lords over the huge gnashers

[SpaceFOE NPCs] Black Cohort and a Commissar

This Praetorian soldier belong to the Black Cohort. I hate painting large sections of black and used a little highlights not to hide the shiny black color.

This Commissar is ready to take command of an army of Local Defense Force (LDF). She could also be used as a boss for the Red Gang.

Tyranid/ Tick Warriors

I built my tyranid warriors to carry a variety of weapons and use them in Grimdark Future. I like the ecclectic armament.

In SpaceFOE, they are elite Tick warriors who serve a local commanders. Unlike the gnashers and spitters, warriors are rather intelligent and have a sense of self-preservation.

Poxwalkers/ Rot Zombies

In 40k, poxwalkers are the mindless hordes of creatures infected by Nurgle.

In SpaceFOE, they are the vessels of the Rot simply called Rot Zombies. Their bodies become ever more deformed as the disease advances until nothing is left of them. When their bodies become so deformed that they can not longer move, they collapse and eventually die. And the Rot become dormant.

[SpaceFOE NPCs] Two Mages/ Psykers

I really like this sculpt for a number of things: the staff and that its eyes are covered. Makes for a mysterious stranger.

This character is an uncontrolled psyker or someone who is being possessed. It is rare to find a sculpt with this type of pose. I went for a simple job with him.

Termagaunts/ Spitters and larvae swarms

These termagaunts are low-powered tyranids creatures armed with a variety of shooting weapons.

In SpaceFOE, they are called spitters and they carry venom weapons dealing poison damage.

And my always-loved larvae swarms. These larvae evolve into gnashers or spitters.

Plague Marines/ Plague Brothers

These plague marines are vile, plague-infected creatures. The last two pictures show all my plague marines together in a group shot (the ones that took part in this battle report)

In SpaceFOE, the Rot is a disease that affects everything, from living creatures to metallic structures. The Rot seeks to spread across the galaxy.

[Tau] Objectives for Will

With the new 3d printer, I was looking for a number of things to do that were not actually miniatures that I could print. When my feed on Cult3d showed me these Tau-generators and immediately I knew I had to make those. I printed them in two sizes, large (40mm wide) and small (25mm wide).

Those would be a Christmas gift for Will whose Tau I painted back in 2021. If there is one thing I learned is that having a few objectives that go with your army makes it really come together. I used a color scheme based the one I used for his drones. Did some fake-writing on the viewscreens, but kept the whole thing in line with the rest of the army.

It was a fun little side project and I was able to practice and learn how to use my printer better, so wins all around.

[Commission] Will's Grey Knight Army

Finally, I thought should share pics of the whole army together, for the group photo. This is one nice-looking army!

Here is the army in details:

Characters | Dreadnaught | Halberdiers | Swordsmen |

[Commission] Will's Grey Knight Swordsmen

More about these swords... These guys are BRIMMING with swords. Whatever pattern I had to come up for the weapons had to look good on these guys. And the first work I did, well it did not look good. The white and pink just popped too bright and it just did not look right. I will admit that I left the miniatures in that state a week or two, unsure of what to do.

Will called me out on it, asking me how long it would take to get the minis done... I sat at the painting table and spent a good hour just looking at the models.

In the end, I resolved to start over. I would go back to the foundation color and redo them. All of them. What choice did I have? I did not like what I did.

REDO!

So to avoid putting big glops of paint, I put diluted blue paint (the original base color I used). After I applied the first layer, the bright colors of the weapon muted and gave it the effect I wanted . They looked good! Sometimes genius happens by accident and this is one of those times! I put a second layer on some of the weapons to play with the effect. The result is what I was envisioning from the start. The muted blue looks good.

[Commission] Will's Grey Knight Characters

Continuing Will's GK.

These guys are his characters, the Techmarine/librarian, a commander, and the standard bearer.

The techmarine was given a red-based scheme to differentiate him from the rest. The red stands out quite a lot and is a highlight of the army.

The Commander has a thunder hammer. This one I added an explosion effect at the end, to make it stand out. It came out good, but the problem is that the model does not see to be hitting anything with it. I also hand to fix the hammer because the handle broke during transport. The result is a skinnier but sturdier weapon shaft.

Finally, the standard bearer... The design on it is nice because it is embossed, with a knight fighting a demon. For my own banners, I much prefer to do them by hand, but this one came out pretty good.

What about the weapons I promised? That will have to wait for another post...