The Sands of Istvaan 5 (2)

I made some fortified positions for the Istvaan terrain set which I'm quite pleased with

I used the same expanding foam as i did with the rocks and then built the fortification into it. I had some spare bastion bits lying around so these were ideal.

These will really jazz up the terrain set, so im keen to get them painted up and out for a playtest! 

The GunGrave

Heresy Era Death guard - Calas Typhon Complete

Its been a few weeks since a post on here, mainly due to illness, but this week I've found some time to get old Calas completed. And man, does he look the business!

Now i don't know about you guys but i hate painting faces, mainly because im not very good at it! That being said i'm quire pleased with this one.

Went with a wood-like effect on the haft of Typhon's Manreaper. Very pleased with this effect.

I didn't go to mad on the scenic base, but there was a lot of nice detail there whihc i didn't want to neglect. I also didn't want it to stand out more than Typhon!!

Typhon with his Boys! These lads will be put in the Spartan to give my opponents a real headache.

Speaking of headaches, i did manage a 2K game with the Death Guard recently. I went up against my buddy Sam's Salamanders using the HH missions from the books which was fun! Sadly i lost out by 1VP....Next time sons of Vulkan!

Contemptor Mortis posing like a Boss!

Deathshroud doing what they do best! They wen on to destroy those 2 Predators on the right as well.

A great game, to be repeated soon i hope!

The GunGrave

The Sands of Istvaan 5 (1)

Me and some buddies are planning to run through all three of the Istvasan campaigns in the Horus Heresy books, probably at the beginning of next year. Although i have a sizeable Death Guard force, the others are still building their armies. In the meantime, I've set about preparing the battlefields!

All three of the campaigns are set on the red sands of Istvaan 5; the initial assault buy the Loyalists, the ensuing massacre, and then the hunt for the loyalists survivors. This makes terrain building a fairly simple matter, with one terrain set being applied to all three campaigns. This being the case, i started with something simple: rocks!!

For these i used a plywood base cut to size. Then I used spray on cavity insulation straight onto the wood base. Now this is an expanding foam, so the amount applied was only about 2/3 of the final size. As you can see below, its not very rock-like at the moment, but this is going to provide the raw structure and shape of the rocks. This one was build over two layers to achieve the height.

Once dry (2hrs for a good set) I started carving out basic rocky shapes into the foam. I used a saw for this which was much easier than using a scalpel (the ones shown below are not the same as the one above FYI)

The shapes of the foam gives a nice texture to the rocks, making for a more natural looking formation. Adding the sand adds additional texture.

Some more examples of the natural texture of the foam.

So far i have these three rock formations done and ready for painting. The colour will require a little thought in order to achieve the right shade of red, but the HH books should help me with that.

I have a lot more formations to finish! The ones here are much larger than the ones above. I also have plans to make some formations with integrated fortifications to represent the Traitors emplacements prior to the Loyalist assault!

I'm very excited about this project - it's really going to bring 30K to life!

The GunGrave

Heresy Era Death Guard - More Deathshroud Terminators!

I just had to have more of these guys after completing the first squad. I'm glad I did! Now these guys are done i'm going the have to resist buying even more!

This gives me a nice 10 man squad to play with, and they shall be lead by Typhon in the Land Raider Spartan! Should be pretty nasty...

Combined with the support from the Grave Wardens, theres going to be a lot of 2+ armour on the table

More on Calas Typhon next post!

The GunGrave

Heresy Era Death Guard - Grave Wardens Complete

I can't say enough good things about these models, I just love them! The detail is great and they look the nuts! I wouldn't be surprised if I end up buying another 5...

I tried out GW's technical paints here, specifically Nihilakh Oxide, on the brass around the shoulder pads and exhausts. This was my first time using it, and i'm pretty pleased with the results. Theres quite a lot of brass on these models, so something to break up the brass a bit was welcome. 

Chainfist detail:

Grenade Launcher detail:

There was some 'built in' battle damage on these models, which i enhanced a bit with some weathering powders.

This unit is a welcome addition to the Death Guard army, which i'm hoping to take out for a battle very soon.

The GunGrave