Guardians of the Emperor - Gyrfalcon Jetbike

Its time for a little support for my Custodian squad in the form of a Gyrfalcon Jetbike! I picked up the 3 man squad of these from Forgeworld recently, so theres still 2 more in their boxes. I decided to paint one of these up as a treat for completing a whole squad of Custodes, and what a treat it was! I enjoyed every second of paint time on this model, mainly because it looks so dam cool! Very much looking forward to seeing the whole squad charging into battle!

I didn't use the flight stands that come with the models, they're just a bit to small for my liking. Instead i ordered some 3mm acrylic rod from eBay to given them a bit more height, and it also looks a bit tidier as well!As this one had a bit of height to it i gave it a downward angle, like this Custodian is about to bury his spear into a traitors face!!

The Custodian himself is a little different from his foot slogging brothers. Instead of armoured arms and legs, they sport some leather bracers and, what i like to call, 'space chaps'!

I refrained from doing any freehand on the screens, my skills just arn't there yet. Some green and blue glows break up that gold a bit.

I magnetised the weapons very easily for the jetbike, sticking some 2mm magnets to the underside of the weapons, and counter sinking one into the hull of the jetbike.

Finally the base. Another fine addition from Scibors Miniature, this is their 60mm base which comes in 3 designs. I simply love these bases; full of detail and character and fit perfectly with the Webway theme of my force!

Let me know what you think! More Custodiians comming soon!

The GunGrave

Guardians of the Emperor - First Custodes Squad Complete!

I made quite a few leaps since my last Custodes post, getting the full squad assembled and painted! These guys are quite challenging to paint, needing quite a lot of time to get each one done. I painted each one individually as batch painting these guys would've been a bit of a crushing task!! I also think painting them individually is quite 'fluffy' as each Custodian is said to have their training personally overseen by the Emperor.

In all I'm very happy with this squad! There are a few things ill change for next time. I need to make the red's pop a little more, so some more push on the contrast will be good. I also think i over cooked the final white glaze on the guardian spear, so they'll be a little less of that next time. I did use a purple wash selectively in the recesses to help deepen the shadows which i think worked quite well.

The 10,000 are well underway. Still a way off 10,000 but hey ho! more soon!

Oh, and what do you all think of the new black photo background? Better/worse than the old navy blue one??

The GunGrave

Guardians of the Emperor - Legio Custodes Test Mini Complete!

So after a quick re-supply i was able to get the Guardian Spear completed and get this guy into the light box! 

I have to say, the boy looks goooooooood!

Although the detailing does take a bit of time to complete properly (including retouches and adjustments!) it's totally worth it!

I went with a blue power blade for the guardian spear. While i am very happy with the result and look of the blade, i may try straight metallic grey for the next one just to compare.

Very happy with the base selection, perfect for my 'war in the webway' look I'm going for!

I think i may have nailed the colour scheme first time here! The only think i will try is to make the tones and shadows a bit deeper in the pre shading stages. It will just make the details pop that bit more. I may need some sunglasses to look at all this bling!

The GunGrave

Guardians of the Emperor - Legio Custodes Test Mini

Now, i don't know about you, but when the Horus Heresy range first dropped i remember thinking "Aw man, how cool would it  be if they eventually did Custodes!?" Well, that day of course did arrive, and I'm just as excited about them now as i was then! More so given the insane levels of cool that the model range has shown so far!

So true to form, as soon as Mrs Gungraves back was turned, i casually logged onto Forgeworlds website and ordered myself a....modest....selection of Custodes!! More on those in the coming weeks. First up though i had to nail down a colour scheme. 

I have to admit, GW's tutorial on these guys was pretty good, so i more or less followed their guide for this mini. I did swap out some of the paints for the Vallejo Game Air equivalent in some cases. 

I base coated the model in white, then hit it with Vallejo Game Air Glorious Gold. Once dry, i applied an zenithal highlight of Polished Gold, again using the airbrush. 

I then washed the whole model with Seraphim Sepia (or whatever its now called!)

I then started refreshing the gold with thinned down Polished Gold, being careful to leave plenty of shadow in the recesses.

Then finally i applied a tiny highlight to the apex's using Vallejo Game air Silver. I called the gold areas done at this stage, so i blocked out the other areas in their base colours before doing any more. I was still happy with the gold afterwards, so left it at that!

As the Custodes are going to be quite a special army for me, i wanted to make sure i got some sweet bases for them. I always wanted the theme of this army to be the Webway, where they spent so much time fighting daemonic incursions with the Emperor! No i haven't read Master of  Mankind yet, so no spoilers please!

Scibor's do a great range of bases, so i was confident I'd find some there. These are some of their SF Elven bases in 30mm (2mm off the standard size for some reason, but i don't think anyone will notice!) As the Webway was build by the ancient Eldar, i think these fit my theme perfectly!

I basecoated them in Army Painters Desert Yellow.

I then dry brushed them with Ushabti Bone.

Then lightly dry brushed them with White Scar.

Finally i added some shadows to the bases. I did this using an airbrush with Vallejo Beasty Brown and then Dark Fleshtone for the deepest recesses. I then edged the bases in Abbadon Black. Suitably ancient Eldar-y i think!

Here's the (nearly) finished test model on a finished base. I completed the shading and highlights on the other base colours, but ran out of thinner before i could get onto the power blade!! I will go for a blue glow effect on the blade initially, but i may do it in silver metallics. We'll see.

I'll get this guy in the light box once I've done the blade. In the meantime please let me know what you think!

The GunGrave

Armoured Regiment: Vulture Gunship Scenic Bases

Last night i got the Vulture Bases completed. I tried hard make the atmosphere dark and gritty, as is befitting for the Krieg! So i kept the colours dark and bleak, with the exception of the Kriegsmen themselves, as i wanted a little attention drawn to them.

Here are the Vultures on the bases - not a great picture but they don't fit into the light box!!

So with another two units complete, its on to the final four! I picked up two of them yesterday from Games Workshop in Carmarthen, and will probably get them built tonight in front of the TV (provided i dont start playing Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, which i also bought yesterday!)! Yes, its the humble Chimera!

I'll need another two of them after these guys for the Armoured Fist Squads, as well as two Autocannon turrets from Forgeworld. When i place that order I'll also be getting a Taros as well! Reason being that for Blog Wars in June your list needs to include one Special Character. I wont give away anything else just yet, but my Special Character rolls around in a Taros!

Finally this came the other day:

Its the character model for my Custodians that i mentioned a few posts ago. The cast is excellent, and I'm really looking forward to painting this guy! He'll have to wait until I've done the Armoured Regiment though, as its so close to completion! More busy modeling days ahead i think!

The GunGrave

Legio Custodes: 2 More Custodians Complete: Death Korps Heavy Bolter Teams

So those WIP Custodians that your saw in the last post are now done! I am pleased with them, but there are a couple of 'buts....' though - See for yourselves!

Custodian Number 2

Custodian Number 3

I am really pleased with them, mainly because I've managed to streamline the process quite a bit while still achieving a great look. With these two models I've tried to make a sharper contrast between the areas of shade and the 'reflective' bits of the armour. I was hoping that this would create a better NNM effect. BUT despite this, i still think that I'm a bit off, and have yet to achieve NNM.

They're also a bit more orange than the original test mini! Not that much, but you can notice it. I'll be using the same base coat for all the future Custodians, simply because I've mixed a whole pot of this base coat and don't want to waste it!!!

Finally i think the definition of the detail is a little off. I used Gryphonne Sepia selectively around areas of detail, which at the time, looked fine. Looking back at the test mini i think i may have used Devlan Mud for this stage, making the detail stand out a bit more. As I've run out of Devlan Mud I'll have to go back and correct this at a later date.

So another learning curve for the quest to achieve NNM, but i will persevere and i will (eventually) succeed!! There plenty more models to experiment on, as i''ve got a few more of these Scibors Custodian models to paint, including a Sergant figure. Also, as of 5 minuites ago, i'll also have this AWESOME model to paint for the Custodians as well! Its from Scibors again, and will probably be my HQ choice for the Custodian army:

(picture used without permission, but im sure they won't mind!)

I think you'll agree that its a great looking mini, so i'm very much looking forward to painting this guy! I may make some ajustments to the sword (or replace it with some sort of Uber Guardian Spear!) but i'll see once it gets here.

So with the completion of the two Custodians i was able to make a start on that Forgeworld order that came the other day! I decided to crack on with the Heavy Bolter Teams first, which are now built and based.

I took some time to make the bases interesting, as is my standing policy for all large bases! These will be painted over the weekend hopefully, and then its onto the Vulture Gunships with Twin Linked Punisher Cannons! Now theres a model that i never get bored of building!

On a lighter note, this came through the door the other day, which made me pause for a moment:

For a fleeting second i thought the future had caught up with me, my love for the Guard placing me amoung their ranks! Fourtunately theres another 40,000 years or so to go yet before i have to worry about that!

The GunGrave

Legio Custodes: Work in Progress; Death Korps Squad Completed

So  I've been a busy little bee since the last post, with another Death Korps Squad completed for the Armoured Regiment, and the two Custodians that i built the other day are nearly painted!

First the Death Korps. Now all the infantry for the Armoured Regiment are completed (well, repainted anyways!) I just need to mount them in Chimeras now! So here the 4th squad, much like the others really.....!

As for the Custodians. Well it was a bit of a drama painting these guys! Firstly i undercoated them in the wrong yellow, then i went to look for my notes on painting them only to find that I've thrown them out! It much have happened when i was redecorating. So i decided to mix up a pot of what i thought was the recipe for the basecoat. I put to much orange in that and sprayed to models with it anyways, only to be left with spray-tan marines! ARGH! I managed to get the basecoat mix right in the end, just before i ran out of paint to do  it! Then i began painting properly!

Believe it or not, i did most of this with an airbrush, which really cut down the painting time. So now all the armour, robes and gems are done. Its just the Guardian Spears that need painting now. The casts i did for the Spear Tips were a bit iffy this time, but I'll see how they turn out once painted. Should get that done tomorrow, right in time for that Forgeworld delivery! Then its the final push for the completion of the Armoured Regiment!

The GunGrave

On the Table: Legio Custodes

So its been a while since i worked on this project, so today i thought it was time to revisit it!

I've assembled another 2 Custodians today. You'll also notice the scenic bases that i got from Scibors as well; Ancient Ruins is what i think they're called!

I painted one of the bases up as well, as the first Custodian is currently baseless! When i selected these bases i was thinking about the war in the Webway that the Custodians were fighting during the Heresy. The Horus Heresy artbooks are packed full of great images illustrating this, and theres a few in there of ancient Eldar cities. This was the basis of my choice, and its been painted accordingly.

I've used very mute, wrathbone-like colours here, and just washed it in Gryphonne Sepia to make it look a little aged. I didnt want to go mad on the base and then distract from the model itself, so i kept it simple. Here it is with the first Custodian on it:

As i was working i was trying to decide what i was trying to achieve with these models (display, gaming, etc) Initially i wrote a list based on the vanilla Marine codex, which was fine, but now theres a Grey Knights codex coming I'm thinking about using that! It does, of course, all depend on whats in it! The thinking was that the Legio Custodes are the Emperors finest, the best-of the best-of the best, and them some! Only they can be entrusted with the protection of the Emperor. With all this in mind, a Vanilla Marine list doesn't really do them justice does it? Also i didn't want to be building and converting squad upon squad of these guys to try and make a list that works. A codex based on an Elite strike force would suit the Custodes much better i think - and cut down on lengthy modeling and painting time by needing fewer models!

Then i started thinking about the thing that got me into a Custodes army in the first place - a Legio Custodes Thunderhawk! Yeah, that'll be pretty impressive! I'm not sure why i thought of this, even before id thought about the Custodians themselves, but it really got the ball rolling on this project. With this in mind i decided that i wanted my whole force to be transported in the Thunderhawk, and it has a transport capacity of 30 models. This gives me a nice guide for the number of models I'm going to do. 30's still a lot but I'll use it as an absolute limit. Its going to be the ultimate reward for getting all the infantry done for this army! It'll only come out for Apoc games of course, but the image of a golden Thunderhawk packed with shiny Custodians swooping onto the field is great! But that's a long way off yet.....

The GunGrave